Tim Callahan and Chad Nevett are blogging about Mainstream Comics Being Increasingly Lame (Or Is It Just Them). It may be just them, but if it is, then it is just me too.
Tim says "I was easily reading 25-30 comics a week in 2008, I'm down to 8-10 a week right now." Well I used to read 4-6 comics a week and now I am down to one -- Morrison's Batman -- that I am getting, not be cause I like it, but because Morrison-Stewart and Morrison-Quitely have enough capital built up with me that I sort of owe them at this point. But just barely. Oh, and I get Detective Comics because the JH Williams art is awesome, but I also have this bad habit of just forgetting to buy it, which I supposed speaks to my involvement being minimal. It is the kind of thing I would like to admire in a nice hardcover. Because I am not invested in the story, only the art, I was never really "hooked," though I will eventually get every issue.
Tim writes
Maybe it's the Morrison lull that I'm feeling -- or we're all feeling -- with the giddiness of "Final Crisis" and "Batman" being replaced in recent months with the atrocity of the most recent "Batman and Robin" arc. I'll take Tony Daniel over Philip Tan any day, if I were forced to make such a choice. Or maybe it's the kind of events we're seeing now compared to last year. I don't think "Blackest Night" is aesthetically worse than "Secret Invasion," but Bendis's event comic at least sparked plenty of discussion. With "Blackest Night," the conversation amounts to, "who's going to come back as a zombie next?" And even though you may or may not enjoy the series -- I do, and you don't -- nobody seems to care about the answer to that question. And justifiably so.
It's diminishing returns.
Monday, December 07, 2009
Friday, December 04, 2009
PERSONAL Best of the Decade Lists
In the comments to this post I would like to see your best (or worst) of the decade list in all the usual categories (Movies, TV, Music, Comics, Games, Books) and maybe some less than usual ones (single best panels? Death scenes?). The catch is I do not want you to go for any objectivity here. I want a shameless list of your personal favorites with no consideration of representing anything for anyone else -- so if your three favorite movies are the three parts of Lord of the Rings let them hold the top three slots. Let your guilty pleasures be seen with your "important cultural landmarks" -- and maybe even beat them.
Forever People #11
[Andy Bentley continues his issue by issue look at the New Gods, where he takes on the last of the Forever People. On a personal note, I wish I had a good reason for not updating the blog yesterday but the truth is I just plain forgot. Sorry about that. Also -- what is the origin of this "five guys become / summon one guy" thing as seen in The Forever People, Voltron and Captain Planet?]
“Devilance The Pursuer”
This marks the final issue of the Forever People and with it Kirby provides at least a temporary resolution for the teens from New Genesis. The story features the return of a forgotten character and even a brief appearance by Darkseid and Dessad, but the issue is one long chase scene that provides very little in new concepts or deep characterization.
The final antagonist for the Forever People is Devilance The Pursuer, who bears more that a passing resemblance to the Manhunters, the robots the Guardians of the Universe retroactively used to police the space sectors before they enacted the Green Lantern Corps.. This is no coincidence, as Kirby would go on to create these cold and unrelenting soldiers in DC Comics 1st issue Special #5 in 1975. Devilance, like the Manhunters, is clad in red, carries a staff, and has an undeniable will to capture his prey. He shows up on the Forever People’s doorstep and tracks them over many lands to a final showdown on an unknown island. The FP’s take him on one by one to varying degrees of success and it isn’t until the return of the Infinity Man that the group is able to take the Pursuer head on.
“Devilance The Pursuer”
This marks the final issue of the Forever People and with it Kirby provides at least a temporary resolution for the teens from New Genesis. The story features the return of a forgotten character and even a brief appearance by Darkseid and Dessad, but the issue is one long chase scene that provides very little in new concepts or deep characterization.
The final antagonist for the Forever People is Devilance The Pursuer, who bears more that a passing resemblance to the Manhunters, the robots the Guardians of the Universe retroactively used to police the space sectors before they enacted the Green Lantern Corps.. This is no coincidence, as Kirby would go on to create these cold and unrelenting soldiers in DC Comics 1st issue Special #5 in 1975. Devilance, like the Manhunters, is clad in red, carries a staff, and has an undeniable will to capture his prey. He shows up on the Forever People’s doorstep and tracks them over many lands to a final showdown on an unknown island. The FP’s take him on one by one to varying degrees of success and it isn’t until the return of the Infinity Man that the group is able to take the Pursuer head on.
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Free Form Comments
Say whatever you want to in the comments to this post -- random, off topic thoughts, ideas, suggestions, questions, recommendations, criticisms (which can be anonymous), surveys, introductions if you have never commented before, personal news, self-promotion, requests to be added to the blog roll and so on. If I forget, remind me. Remember these comments can be directed at all the readers, not just me.
ALSO. You can use this space to re-ask me questions you asked me before that I failed to answer because I was too busy.
AND you can use this space to comment on posts that are old enough that no one is reading the comments threads anymore.
You do not have to have a blogger account or gmail account to post a comment -- you can write a comment, write your name at the bottom of your comment like an e mail, and then post using the "anonymous" option.
WRITING FOR THIS BLOG. If I see a big free form comment that deserves more attention, I will pull it and make it its own post, with a label on the post and on the sidebar that will always link to all the posts you write for this blog. I am always looking for reviews of games, tv, movies, music, books and iPhone apps.
ALSO. You can use this space to re-ask me questions you asked me before that I failed to answer because I was too busy.
AND you can use this space to comment on posts that are old enough that no one is reading the comments threads anymore.
You do not have to have a blogger account or gmail account to post a comment -- you can write a comment, write your name at the bottom of your comment like an e mail, and then post using the "anonymous" option.
WRITING FOR THIS BLOG. If I see a big free form comment that deserves more attention, I will pull it and make it its own post, with a label on the post and on the sidebar that will always link to all the posts you write for this blog. I am always looking for reviews of games, tv, movies, music, books and iPhone apps.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Uncanny X-Men #247
[Jason Powel, not unlike Beowulf were he doing an analysis of Claremont, forges ahead undaunted by this huge task of covering every issue of Claremont's X-Men run.]
“The Light That Failed”
The previous issue was one of Claremont’s typical “characterization”-heavy issues, with just a few pages of superheroics right at the tail end. Uncanny #247 is given over entirely to full-out action, superbly rendered by penciler Marc Silvestri and inker Dan Green. Indeed, “The Light That Failed” is extraordinary for containing some of the most exhilaratingly rendered superhero violence of the Silvestri/Green era.
The central conceit has an appealing symmetry to it: Mastermold, the very first Sentinel, merges with Nimrod – which previous stories established as the “ultimate” Sentinel. The alpha/omega concept works beautifully, especially given that this would be Claremont’s last Sentinel story before quitting in two years. His resolution to Nimrod’s arc is tidy and quite satisfying, and hearkens back to the classic “robot defeated by logic” trope that also ended Roy Thomas’ and Neal Adams’ Sentinel story 20 years earlier. (In fact, it was Claremont who – as an intern at the Marvel offices in 1969 – suggested the ending to Roy Thomas back then.) Nimrod defeats both himself and Mastermold with a syllogism: Sentinels destroy mutants. Yet Nimrod and Mastermold have evolved beyond machines, to become living organisms. Therefore they have mutated, and therefore they must destroy themselves. Even the delivery – with Nimrod’s dry logic counter-pointed against Silvestri’s visual bombast, recalls the Thomas/Adams “Sentinels fly into the sun” sequence. Both as a new story and as an homage, “The Light That Failed” succeeds admirably.
“The Light That Failed”
The previous issue was one of Claremont’s typical “characterization”-heavy issues, with just a few pages of superheroics right at the tail end. Uncanny #247 is given over entirely to full-out action, superbly rendered by penciler Marc Silvestri and inker Dan Green. Indeed, “The Light That Failed” is extraordinary for containing some of the most exhilaratingly rendered superhero violence of the Silvestri/Green era.
The central conceit has an appealing symmetry to it: Mastermold, the very first Sentinel, merges with Nimrod – which previous stories established as the “ultimate” Sentinel. The alpha/omega concept works beautifully, especially given that this would be Claremont’s last Sentinel story before quitting in two years. His resolution to Nimrod’s arc is tidy and quite satisfying, and hearkens back to the classic “robot defeated by logic” trope that also ended Roy Thomas’ and Neal Adams’ Sentinel story 20 years earlier. (In fact, it was Claremont who – as an intern at the Marvel offices in 1969 – suggested the ending to Roy Thomas back then.) Nimrod defeats both himself and Mastermold with a syllogism: Sentinels destroy mutants. Yet Nimrod and Mastermold have evolved beyond machines, to become living organisms. Therefore they have mutated, and therefore they must destroy themselves. Even the delivery – with Nimrod’s dry logic counter-pointed against Silvestri’s visual bombast, recalls the Thomas/Adams “Sentinels fly into the sun” sequence. Both as a new story and as an homage, “The Light That Failed” succeeds admirably.
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