Marvel Comics blabbery

are ppl really complaining about the use of photo references? or just greg land being terrible at using photo references

credit where credit's kinda almost due: he's managed to couple his basic competence at drawing with his ability to trace the top results of any given google image search and a deep swipe file of pinups and porn into a successful career in funnybooks xp

greg land being terrible at using photo references

this one

When he started drawing Sojourn I thought he was really impressive but I rarely saw his interiors. Now I think he's actually capable of competent work if he really goes for it but I just don't like the style.

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 18 January 2017 18:16

I should note I was 15 when I thought those Sojourn covers were impressive and that he is capable of drawing well but just usually doesn't seem to but I'm not a fan either way.

Οὖτις - it does look like some people complain about Land using photo reference at all but I think it's mainly that he uses it badly.

that and there's some appeal to what he's doing -- it's not anything i'd pick up for the art alone, but it's semi-competent. it's like a really hackish bryan hitch thing

there's also a different between using a photo reference, which he seems to do sometimes, and just finding a photo that sort of fits what you need and literally tracing over it

Yeah, it's poor use and recycling he deserves ire for.

that one with a woman in a sprawled sitting pose with her arm at an awkward angle where it's obviously a rip of porn imagery where he just moved her hand from her groin to the side is mind-numbingly bad

I'm guessing he's excellent with deadlines

Yes, that was my guess too. Plus - comic book fans have terrible taste!

https://bitchmedia.org/article/marvel-new-hulk-gender-ptsd

What you guys reading these days? I switched my All-New Wolverine sub to Gwenpool, cuz just can't get with where "ANW" has been going (I don't like my heroes to be killers, even if "i'ts complicated"). I feel like Dennis Hopeless's Spider-Woman (a longtime fave) has also kind of squandered its initial potential... the first "reboot" ish (http://marvel.com/comics/issue/49517/spider-woman_2014_5) is one of my fave single issues of anything, but the series has kept getting derailed by crossovers and tie-ins, and never really hit its stride.

"The Unworthy Thor" is great, if you're into Jason Aaron and his Thor schtick.

I enjoy both current versions of the Thor shtick

Did you read the one-shot issue with the "history" of Mjolnir? That was so awesome... it was my first encounter with Aaron (I've since gone back and read more of the recent Thor stuff). I love the blend of sci-fi & fantasy, and the way he cuts the Asgardian diction with slangy/informal bits and punchlines. It's Good Stuff

Mariko Tamaki's "Hulk" is off to a strong start, "Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat" and "Unbeatable Squirrel Girl" are low-stakes but charming, "Black Widow" and "All-New Wolverine" have been consistently enjoyable, and the Hydra-Cap series has been more compelling than I expected, although it's getting demoralizing to follow that character arc under the current political conditions. I've been meaning to catch up on the present Thors, although I've only really read a few issues of the Simonson "Thor" and Ewing's "Loki, Agent of Asgard," so I'm not sure where to start.

I read "PWAH!" for a while, and I agree it's super-cute. I've been meaning to get back into it -- maybe I'll catch up with the next TPB collection. The "low-stakes" side of nu-Marvel (represented by Hellcat, Gwenpool, Charles Soule's She-Hulk run from a few years back, etc.) tends to be the sweet spot for me.

("Unstoppable Wasp" seems like another potentially good new one along those lines; I've only read #1 so far tho.)

I've been meaning to catch up on the present Thors, although I've only really read a few issues of the Simonson "Thor" and Ewing's "Loki, Agent of Asgard," so I'm not sure where to start.

Maybe start with Straczynski's Thor (although I recall the arc fizzles out near the end, when Kieron Gillen takes over briefly), the onto Jason Aaron's. Aaron's run is widely praised and brings you up pretty much to current day, I think.

Kieron Gillen's run on Journey into Mystery is worth trying after that. It might make Agent of Asgard make more sense.

I'd agree that's a good start, if only to give the excellent Gillen run context. Aaron's run which later turns into Goddess of Thunder is also pretty dang good. I've been reading the Aaron run over the last year and haven't been disappointed. Need to catch up on all things Loki.
An unnecessary (though good) detour might be the pre-"Avengers Assembled" Thor "Ragnarok" run setting him up to die prior to Civil War, I liked that story. The JMS run takes place on his return following Civil War. But ultimately, everyone forgets that it happened.

Aaron's run and Journey Into Mystery are contained enough that you shouldn't have to read anything before them. Is the Straczynski run any good? He sounds like a berk, which has put me off reading it, although I guess I've read enough Comics By Berks by now that it really shouldn't matter.

I'm reading less Marvel stuff than I have in years - just Black Widow and the Thors - and Black Widow is ending soon I think. Wish Dr Strange had a different artist. Wish Waid was capable of writing more than one good book at a time - his other books right now are *awful*. I think they need to steal Tom King from DC and get him on some Hickman-style epic Avengers run for the next 5 years.

I think Daredevil is bringing back Waid's cast next month, presumably to shit over/retcon it.

Straczynski's Thor run is pretty good, certainly better than any other comic by him that I've read... It sorta fizzles towards the end, as for whatever he quit in the middle of a story arc, but the Gillen took the reins and made the book even better during his short run, which set the stage for his incredible Journey into Mystery run, which is pretty much the best Marvel run of the last 5 or so years. So yeah, it's all worth reading.

Unfortunately the main Thor book wasn't very good during Gillen's JiM run, as Matt Fraction had no idea how to write these characters... But thankfully JiM's crossovers with the main book don't really require you to know what's going on there to get what Gillen's doing. He pretty much took the liberty he had with writing such a fringe book, and made it into the Animal Man of the '10s. And Ewing's Agent of Asgard, which is almost as good, continues those themes with Loki.

"as for whatever reason he quit in the middle of a story arc, but then Gillen took the reins"

Agreed that Thor was the best mainstream Marvel book Straczynski did (never read his Supreme Power stuff).

!

http://marvel.com/games/play/34/create_your_own_comic

The Straczynski Thor seemed almost as good as could be when it started, a great mesh of Thor finding his new place in the Marvel universe - having Asgård hover over Oklahoma was a pretty great idea - and Loki plotting to nefarious means. But once the plotting all became clear, it didn't really add up to anything... Gillen couldn't really save the ending, but JiM is as good as everyone says it is.

i feel like i woulda killed whole weeks with that "make your own comic" thing as a kid.

Here's some random blabbery -- what do y'all think of the way Marvel uses S.H.I.E.L.D. these days? I feel like they get too "deus ex machina" with it -- S.H.I.E.L.D. can see anything, go anywhere, pop up at the climax of any issue to "tie things down," etc. I sort of roll my eyes at the scenes where Nick Fury Jr. and Agent Hill stand there looming sternly above our heroes, their arms crossed, talking about "protocol" and "need-to-know basis". I also feel like once you've seen one (anti-)hero fight her way out of the Helicarrier and jump into thin air, it's been done (yet even that, I've seen twice).

I know S.H.I.E.L.D. has always been around, but they didn't figure much into the comics I read in the '80s... now they seem to loom so large. I'm sure the popularity of the movies and TV show has something to do with it.

i feel like i woulda killed whole weeks with that "make your own comic" thing as a kid.

― A big shout out goes to the lamb chops, thos lamb chops (ulysses)

when i was a kid those were called "colorforms"

well yeah!

or presto magix really

what do y'all think of the way Marvel uses S.H.I.E.L.D. these days?

idk about their role in terms of storylines since I tend not to read/watch much with direct SHIELD involvement, but more generally: I find SHIELD irritating because its arrangement/set-up doesn't fit contemporary global politics. It seems to go back and forth (or is entirely vague) about whether it's a body of/related to the American government or the UN. If the former: it's a completely outdated cold-war concept that an American organisation would be responsible for global affairs, and that other countries would be happy with that arrangement. If the latter: it's highly unbelievable that so many SHIELD agents would be American and its heroes would be dominated by Americans. Different cultural perspectives would be nice. It's not like Marvel doesn't have markets outside the US.

I think Daredevil is bringing back Waid's cast next month, presumably to shit over/retcon it.

― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, February 8, 2017 7:46 AM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I only read the first part of Waid's run, but got back on Daredevil with the current volume. It's a pretty good read I think, much more 'classic' Marvel than the other stuff I see on the shelves. Charles Soule is writing the book right now and Ron Garney has done some nice artwork on the book.

The only other Marvel books I have been reading is The Punisher, Star Wars and now Doctor Aphra since Dr. Doom ended. Gillen's Star Wars comics are really good. He's paired up with Kev Walker on the Doctor Aphra book and he is really good.

<i>It seems to go back and forth (or is entirely vague) about whether it's a body of/related to the American government or the UN.</i>

I thought SHIELD reported to some shadowy cabal of world leaders (and not necessarily "elected" ones), with no other oversight -- which may account for why the org has had to be reformed and rebuilt "from the ground up" so many times, due to corruption/infiltration/etc -- but I'm not too familiar with the whole deal. My impression was that SHIELD originally functioned as sort of a stand-in for the CIA, but later grew beyond that (and the CIA now even "exists" in the Marvel Universe?). I recently read the "Mockingbird: Bobbi Morse, Agent of SHIELD" TPB -- highly recommended, btw -- and in one of the stories from the '70s, SHIELD was funneling $$ appropriated by Congress to a Latin American strongman who went rogue... so yeah, basically the CIA.

(sorry, forgot to do the "convert HTML" thang)

SHIELD has been retconned significantly over recent years to have a greater historical depth, but in a way that links it to past organizations without making them essential to the American-focused, post-WW2 SHIELD.

In its original incarnation it basically cast Nick Fury as the american James Bond, complete with other field agents, a love interest, one-off costumed villains like Scorpio, and Hydra as a Spectre-esque villainous organization. There's not a real analogue because it's a take off of the Bond movies, not the Bond books, so it's all too fantastic and larger than life to be an analogue of real American organization

Interesting... Well, James Bond has ended up faring better than his American counterpart, seeing as Nick Fury is now an all-seeing wraith chained to the moon. (The worst indignity that Bond has suffered is being played by Pierce Brosnan.)

And having his testicles battered with a carpet-beater

http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/galleries/x701/74426.jpg

Oh cool, they finally made an Obnoxio the Clown movie

https://uncannyxmen.net/sites/default/files/images/covers/oneshots/obnoxiovsxmen1.jpg

three month marvel unlimited code if anyone wants it:
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ooh thanks

I like the Sfar and Trondheim ones:

http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/jean-samuel-kriegk/8-auteurs-de-bd-francais-se-reapproprient-lunivers-marvel/

i would read an entire marvel universe drawn from trondheim

tbf, i would read anything by trondheim

Tarot the Black Witch by Lewis Trondheim

another three months of marvel unlimited for anyone who wants it - gotta be used today tho

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looks like it's too late :(

wait, i think i misread the email - try this: FFHPYPI1YHJ1

nope

:(

I'm currently making my way thru ESSENTIAL SPIDER-WOMAN, VOL. 1. Jessica Drew's origin/background are pretty weird and funky, even by the standards of the typical "superhero with a tortured past." FUN FACT: Jess originally had short, light-brown hair; and her famed long dark locks were a wig that she sewed into the costume(!)