The Comic Book Thread

[OCH]

So during my teenage years, wherein my love of comics was established. There was a local comic book shop in the high street. I went there whenever I had money of my own. I thought I owned loads of comics, back in the day. It's funny now to see they basically fill a small hold all bag. But at one stage, the owner was given promo posters for the big event of that summer: Onslaught. I expressed a huge interest in the main poster he received, at the time. A year or so later, the shop was closing down. The owner was moving to bigger premises in another town. On the last day, he calls me to the till and hands me the immaculately preserved, now folded, poster. For free. "As a valued customer". I was beaming. 

 

Ironically, I loved the poster too much. Mum attached it to the bedroom wall ..permanently, with glue. A bedroom redecoration or two later and it was lost forever.  Why mention this now? I recently found the artwork online and thought I would share:

 

The original piece had huge font at the bottom, which read: Onslaught is here! No one is safe.

[Maf]

 

This is so cool. I think sometimes it pays to draw Superman really small because it emphasises how big the things he does are 

[Maf]

Reading some older Batman stuff because all the new comics are boring me a bit. No one writes like Grant Morrison. Sometimes topics or viewpoints shift from bubble to bubble or panel to panel it’s like the characters aren’t even talking to each other properly. But I don’t know. It helps keep me engaged. There’s also this underlying level of fun to everything. It’s almost like the character’s smirks are them smirking at the things they say because it’s so fancy and silly. But it’s done with such style. I just love this guy’s work

 

 

 

“Man-Bats. Ninja Man-Bats. Alarming twist” 🤣
 

 

Also I don’t know who’s idea it was to use a comic art gallery as a scene so they can put onomatopoeia from that art in the background for the action. But’s it’s so clever.

[OCH]

Last year gave us Godzilla vs. the Justice League. This year the King of the monsters jumps to Marvel..

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Maf]

[Maf]

 

This comic is so beautifully done. A great mix of grand comic sci-fi and classic Marvel interpersonal drama. You can feel the frosty tension of the first panel on the second page without any context or things being said. 

[OCH]

Spoiler

Reed's characterisation (and interplay with Susan) has come a long way..

[Maf]

I think Hickman did a good job of keeping their relationship similar to that but subtracting the sexism and modernising it. He is still talking down to her. But instead of putting her down for being a woman he is saying, of course I can read your mind I’m a genius. But it’s also got more nuance because he is talking down to her, but clearly he cares he’s just struggling to balance the responsibility of his mission 

 

Which is to solve everything 

[OCH]

 

So Arty Farty time again and yes, two of my favourites: Magneto and Legion.

I was talking to someone recently who asked how Mutants could be made to standout in the MCU. As above, I think the optimal approach is to invert the previous MCU trope IE don't nerf them. Make them seem all powerful and in doing so, something to fear.

 

[Maf]

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/new-marvel-and-dc-comics-crossovers-announced-at-comicspro/
 

Official announcement. Marvel and DC are doing new crossovers this year

 

Quote

Announced at ComicsPRO, the comic book retailer summit held in Glendale, California, DC Comics Editor-In-Chief Marie Javins and Marvel Comics Editor-In-Chief CB Cebulski followed the Keynote speech to take to the floor and announce a new crossover between the two comic books, to be published later this year. Two one-shots, Marvel/DC produced by Marvel Comics and DC/Marvel produced by DC Comics.

 

 

 

 

 

Could be cool. But with the Calibur of writers and the way comic stories are done now one-shots feels a little light (unless, they’re like 80 pages each or something)

 

I’d still love a sprawling 6-12 issue epic, though, written by Hickman or Gillen

[OCH]

Arty Farty time and a classic scene from Hercules #4 (1982)..

Spoiler

 

Wherein Hercules learns the valuable lesson: There's always a bigger fish

[Maf]

That’s cool. I hate what they’ve done with Galactus in recent years where everyone can beat him. He is one of the biggest powers in the whole of everything yet he gets destroyed so many times. There needs to be a new Galactus focused story that re-establishes Galactus as - you don’t fuck with this guy 

[OCH]

Exactly. He's supposed to be a Universal entity. I mean, they went to great lengths to show how strong Hercules is:

 

So it's a good way to scale him pitted against the Devourer of Worlds.

[Maf]

First look at DC x Sonic

 

[Maryokutai]

Any recommendations for good, self-contained (ie. no crossover stuff, though I can live with short Spidey or Jen cameos) Daredevil runs? 

[Maf]

For me it’s basically all Frank Miller. Miller’s Daredevil: Man Without Fear is a short mini series and still the definitive version of Daredevil’s origin 

 

Daredevil Born Again is the Daredevil epic. One of the hardest “falls” any Marvel character has sustained and how Matt gets any kind of life back

 

It’s not as refined and in some ways is Miller finding his feet not just with Daredevil but also the style he would use for future Daredevil and Batman comics - but he’s ongoing series with Klaus Jansen is still epic in and of itself and in terms of continuity is where most of the classic Daredevil stories come from. But it is very long, sometimes wanders off in to the weird, and can be a bit silly, too. 
 

Getting away from Miller. Kevin Smith (the film guy) has a really acclaimed Daredevil run that is kind of batshit but is compelling all the same. It ends with a Spider-Man thing, but err, you’d never guess lol

 

Mark Waid’s Daredevil is a kind of modern, fresh jumping on point and is probably the most different DD comic run you could read. DD moves to San Francisco and it’s more of a light and positive book, purposefully trying to break trend with what Frank Miller made Daredevil to be. The stories are definitely more superhero, fantastical than grimy street crime as well

 

It’s not especially celebrated but I also liked Ed Brubaker’s DD from the mid-2000’s. It was a bit more like a detective TV show comic and is still ‘gritty’ but less aggressive than the classic Frank Miller books 

[Maryokutai]

Nice, thanks, I suppose I'll just start with Man Without Fear then. Maybe by the time I'm done with that I can go into Born Again, which I presume the new series is based on (would be a bit false advertising if not), so I can maybe go through these two different media versions in parallel. I'll keep the rest in mind in case I enjoy these.

[OCH]

19 hours ago, Maryokutai said:

Any recommendations for good, self-contained (ie. no crossover stuff, though I can live with short Spidey or Jen cameos) Daredevil runs? 

[Maryokutai]

That looks weird, is that a real or a joke recpmmendation?

[Maf]

In the early 2000’s Marvel did a selection of themed coloured books. Spider-Man Blue, Daredevil Yellow, Hulk Gray, etc

 

The only one I read was the Spider-Man one which was great. I don’t know how people feel about DD Yellow

 

The colour choice is quite clever though. Daredevil’s original costume was yellow, he’s the man without fear, yellow like yellow bellied is cowardice, so he’s overcoming that

 

I don’t know if the book is actually good, though