Category Archives: Comics - Page 2

In this world there are storytellers.

Posted by on April 23, 2002 Comments Off

In this world there are storytellers.

People who utter strings of words from there minds that might be otherwise impossible, but when those particular people utter those words, there is the barest hint that it might just be true.

I’ve never been gifted enough to be a true storyteller, but I know some of the tricks. Believe what you are saying just long enough for someone to notice. Attempting to support the story with facts or evidence is not nearly as effective as being able to to support it with hearsay and coincidence. Never tell someone something that they are not prepared to hear.

It appears that J Michael Strazynski is a storyteller, and one of fairly high caliber too. Babylon 5 could have been a fluke. Some of the stories in Murder She Wrote that he worked on could have been as well. Today I read the first of the collected Rising Stars books, and I have no doubts that he is very, very, very good.

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Alias #8 – Max – Okay, let’s get this down now:

Posted by on April 5, 2002 Comments Off

Alias #8 – Max – Okay, let’s get this down now: Rick Jones is a complete headcase. Do NOT start with this issue! That is all.

Deadline #1 (of 4) – Marvel – A very good “regular people who have to deal with superheros” story so far. I’m really looking forward to the next couple of issues. The art inside may look really familiar to some of you old Sandman fans. It’s moving fast enough to keep my attention, and the dialog, what there is of it, is very well done. Good stuff.

Marvel Knights #1 – Marvel – Daredevil, Black Widow, and The Punisher team up to fight a new menace to NYC. Pretty good. Fairly moody, though maybe a notch or two over the top. I’m interested in seeing if Captain America becomes involved down the road with the relaunch of his own title under the Marvel Knights title later this month.

Icons: Tigra #1 (of 4) – Marvel – Solo character update of the orange furred Avenger. Not sure about it so far. The art is only okay IMHO, but the story is fairly good so far.

So, pretty decent stuff really. However, I do have a couple of issues with the way that Marvel is doing things right now. I’ve been a Marvel reader for a really long time and one of the things that I have really always liked about it is that there was a relatively cohesive continuity that flowed through all of the books. If something big was happening in the world and was likely to effect other characters in their own stories, it generally would. I’m not really sure when they abandoned that practice, but I really wish they’d shape the hell up and fix it. Currently, in the Avengers story line that has been going on for the last 9 months the world is entirely enslaved by Kang. Not parts of it, not isolated bits, not even just a few countries. Everyone, everywhere, and everything has been conquered.

Um, is this showing up ANYWHERE else in the Marvel Universe, including the other Avenger solo books? No.

Is this something that could be squeezed into a small time frame so there is some sort of excuse for it happening right now in the Avengers story line but NOWHERE else? No. (Case in point. There is the distinct impression that the events between the previous issue and the one before that were MONTHS. Not days, certainly not hours, and most likely not weeks, but MONTHS.)

There is certainly a point where you have to bend continuity around a little bit so you can work everyone’s pet story project into the world, but abandoning the concept wholesale is not only getting old, but it really degrades the quality and attention to detail that is one of the cornerstones of what I love about the Marvel Universe.

Grow a brain Mr. Quesada. It’s sorely needed right now.

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Quite a haul today from ye’ olde comic shoppe. I’l…

Posted by on March 14, 2002 Comments Off

Quite a haul today from ye’ olde comic shoppe. I’ll go in quality from worst to best to get the crap done first:

  • Blade #1 (Marvel Max) – Oh my goodness did this suck really large oblong rancid-dead-anemone-coated rocks. Ewww. The dialog sucked. The plot and pacing was annoying. The art was okay, but reminded me too much of the Men In Black saturday morning cartoon which I always hated the look of. Again, with feeling: Eeeewwwwww. If anybody wants my copy, they can have it, with my thanks. No “just borrowing” it to see how bad it is, I don’t want it back.
  • Fantastic Four #53 (Marvel) – Next issue this storyline will finish up and maybe we can get to something worth caring about. The Invisible Woman is going to do her first miscarriage the second time. Really, that made about as much sense as it is possible to make.
  • Origin #5 (Marvel) – You know, it occurs to me that this is a very pretty story, and has some neat stuff in it for finding out where Wolverine actually comes from, but am I the only one that finds it kind of, well, boring?
  • Taskmaster #2 (Marvel) – It’s a somewhat stilted anti-hero story, and quite enjoyable as such. Just don’t go looking too deep.
  • The Power Company #2 (DC) – The writing is as good as I’ve come to expect with Busiek and the team is developing into something to pay attention to. There are just enough little sub-plots to keep my attention but it’s not quite sucked me in totally yet. I wonder if some of the reasons that I’m not quite into it yet is that either I or Mr Busiek just aren’t quite used to the DC Universe yet.
  • Fused #1 (Image) – Saw a blurb about this a month or so ago and so far I’m glad that I picked it up. As with many things, the pace is just a bit more slow that I would like but I imagine things will pick up a bit next issue. Nice art though. From what I’ve seen of the main character, I’m trying to figure out how the heck he got as far as he did in his career though. Ah well, at least there aren’t any oversized basketba… er, breasts to be seen.
  • Dork Tower #16 (Dork Storm) – Go Kayleigh! Woooo! More than just the usual stuff, it’s one of the better issues of late. Besides, it’s worth it just to see Kayleigh drag Igor the wrong way through his own looking glass. Hehehe.
  • Transmetropolitan #54 (Vertigo) – More good stuff. Big payoff at the end.
  • Iron Man #52 (Marvel) – Some people wonder why I still read superhero comics, and Marvel comics in particular still. This issue (part 2 of a story started last issue) is a pristine example of why I stick with it. Yeah, there’s some crap, but when the gems come through, they really shine. I’m still a bit pissed that Tony Stark looks like an 18 year old again (FOR FUCK’S SAKE HE’S FUCKING 40 YEARS OLD NOW! LET HIM *AGE* DAMMIT!) but the rest of the art was not only good, but appropriate. Highly recommended.
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