Marvel Comics blabbery

How is the new Nightcrawler run from Chris Claremont?

I would love to give him the benefit of the doubt given that he is 90% of the reason why I read comic books today but, after the 90s, I'll be damned if I'm ever reading another new Claremont book.

The new Nightcrawler is readable. It's not good by any means, but compared to DC, readable counts as a win.

what, you don't like reading captions with paragraphs of exposition and character description draped over soap operas? xp

djp otm

I thought Claremont came across quite menschy in the Howe book so I'll give him a shot

I haven't read comics for years, Marvel or otherwise, but I came across the Howe book at the library and have been blowing through it over the past few days. I just finished the Shooter years- which were the years I in which I discovered Marvel comics. Boy he did not come across well. I was cringing imagining working for him as depicted in his later tenure.

Dreaded Deadline Doom notwithstanding, I loved the auteur years between Stan and Shooter as E-I-C. Shooter's ascension = the day the music died.

It's certainly seeming that way to me. The Gerber/Englehart/Starlin stuff sounds great - I've not seen much of it other than the odd issue or reference here or there. I'm thinking of getting a Marvel Unlimited subscription in the hopes that some of that material is represented.

I really dug the Howe book too! So many pros are pissed about it.

I haven't read these yet, but I thought I'd pass them on, two-part Shooter defense:
http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2013/01/jim-shooter-a-second-opinion-part-one-the-best-job-he-can/
http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2013/10/jim-shooter-a-second-opinion-part-two-romper-room-on-crystal-meth-installment-1/

omg lolz @ that Ghost Rider + Jesus storyline, never heard of that before

no kidding! if your main gripe about Jim Shooter is that he didn't want to publish your story where Jesus helps Ghost Rider, then you really have no ammo whatsoever, really

Those Shooter defense articles have been linked to here before - they're still mostly bullshit. Creators had other, bigger gripes abt Shooter than that he wouldn't publish their Jesus/Ghost Rider story (but i mean, why not - this is a company that published Son of Satan, after all.)

I love the Sean Howe bk, gobbled it up, but I think there are other histories of Marvel and American comics still to be told - it's not, by any means, definitive.

yeah idk if Shooter was in the right there (it's conceivable) I just find the whole prospect v v 70s and v v funny

If I were to do a radio-button poll of Marvel 70s "auteur" series, what should I include?

Starlin's Warlock
Moench/Gulacy Master of Kung Fu
McGregor/Graham Black Panther
McGregor/Russell Killraven
Wolfman/Colan Dracula
Wolfman/Perlin Werewolf by Night
Rich Buckler Deathlok
Steve Gerber, Howard the Duck
Gerber, Man-Thing

What else would fit in there? Any of the superhero titles?

surely claremont's xmen, no?

Gerber's Defenders is the only obvious omission. Maybe Starlin's Captain Marvel. Claremont might be outside the purview of that particular endeavor.

xpost

Is Wolfman's Werewolf by Night run really thought of as 'auteur' comics? Moreso than the Gerry Conway issues, or the Doug Moench issues?

Would also include

Englehart/Brunner/Colan's Doctor Strange
Englehart/Starlin's Captain Marvel
Gerber's Defenders
Gerber/Skrenes' Omega the Unknown
McGregor's Power Man

the Claremont/Cockrum issues of X-Men are sort've the Marvel Comics equivalent of Jaws - recognisably the work of 70s auteurs, but also a harbinger of a new, less personally expressive/more commercially-minded way of creating comics

well put

Is Wolfman's Werewolf by Night run really thought of as 'auteur' comics? Moreso than the Gerry Conway issues, or the Doug Moench issues?

My error on that one -- I meant to type Moench instead of Wolfman. The only issues I ever read were Moench/Perlin.

xp, yes, that's a great description of the X-Men revival

Isn't Englehart's run on Cap A supposed to be pretty distinctive? I still need to order that essentials volume...

it's gd solid superhero comics w/ the odd bit of political 'relevance', but also slightly more 'straight'/mainstream than most of the titles william nominated (see also englehart's avengers) - i think in part that's because it was drawn by sal buscema (and often inked by vince colletta), so the storytelling and general look isn't so 'out' as say w/starlin (tho' sal b inked by klaus janson on gerber's defenders is a v. pleasing combo imho). the few issues of cap that gerber wrote later on are more bizarre than the englehart stuff (but then you could say the same abt kirby's seventies cap run)

All of his 70s Marvel work was pretty distinctive, but yeah, I would argue the Cap and Avengers runs could belong in this theoretical poll. Also, Don McGregor's wiki page says "He and artist P. Craig Russell engineered color comic books' first known interracial kiss, between the "Killraven" characters M'Shulla and Carmilla Frost, in Amazing Adventures #31 (July 1975)." But I just checked, and Gabe Jones' and Peggy Carter's kiss in Cap was a month earlier. (#186, June '75)

xp

What would be a good corresponding radio-button list of 80s "auteurs selling out in style" blockbuster stories - Kraven's Last Hunt, Ground Zero (in Hulk), that sort of thing?

I've often thought how great it would be to have a Mad Men-style period drama set within the offices of a Marvel-esque publisher. Names changed obviously, but using real events as inspiration. The history of the industry being what it is, there are so many potential story avenues it could go down.

Great idea. There was a great episode of Deep Space 9 where all the principals were staffers at a 1950s SF Pulp mag...

Didn't Will Eisner or somebody do a barely-fictionalized book about working in the Harry 'A' Chesler shop? An account of 65-77 Marvel from the POVs of Sol Brodsky, Flo Steinberg, John Verpoorten and (especially) Marie Severin would be cool.

Kavalier and Klay's strongest parts are basically this.

Eisner's book is The Dreamer (all I can remember about it was that George Tuska was called 'Gar Tooth' in it!)

There's also this:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aOwTPlkDAmM/T5a3YlkQFQI/AAAAAAAAQlQ/WTaYH4Z8X7o/s1600/What-If-v1-11_00fc.jpg

Wholly tangentially, I was reminded recently after pulling my copy out of storage that The Maximortal is basically the bloated, pustulant ancestor of Kavalier & Klay. Now that is an adaptation I'd pay good money to see.

xpost thanking u for new dn

http://namtab.com/phantomstranger/doompatrol53.gif

lol @ "original bullpen" with lantern-jawed, hair-headed Stan

I'm glad we have this thread -- I didn't want to throw a digression into the interesting discussion on the other thread. Just wanted to say that two issues in, Brian Wood's Moon Knight is just as awesome as Warren Ellis' was.

really? I run hot and cold on BW in that I was really into a lot of his work for years until I decided a lot of it falls kind of emotionally flat.

bit sad that Hawkeye and Superior Foes Of Spiderman are both ending in an issue or two - two of the best Marvel runs of the moment...

I just looked at his wiki page and realized that he's the guy who'd been accused of sexual harassment by Tess Fowler last year, a story I didn't follow beyond the headlines. I don't think I'd read anything by him before, but I like these two MK issues. Seamless transition from Ellis, not a jarring "MY WAY NOW!" reboot.

I jumped off of Moon Knight after Ellis but it's still on my pull list. It's a little sad putting that issue back on the shelf instead of removing it from the list but part of me perversely enjoys actively rejecting Wood based off of the Fowler allegations.

On a different note, everything Al Ewing has touched to date has ruled.

do you guys all buy new issues off the racks? Or off digital racks?
I am solely limiting my marvel intake to the unlimited app so i dunno how far behind all of you i am.

I'm a rack man.

(Repost to the out of context thread in 5, 4, 3...)

otm about Al Ewing, Loki and Mighty Avengers are pretty much awesome every time

I was a voracious floppy hog (yet another out of context gift) until about three years ago when I stopped cold turkey. I'm slowly filling in gaps now but I mostly don't know anything that's happened from Fear Itself to present day.

dan/lunch: i quit buying floppies about five years ago when i bought my ninth bookshelf solely for comics... do you bag/board/box? Why do you guys still buy physical capes and tights books? they take about two minutes to read and a year to form a complete storyline that, nine times out of ten, is worth nowhere near that amount of effort and collected editions are cheaper and more manageable. What's the appeal for you?

I box my stuff out of necessity but I'm generally not precious enough about it to bag it (lotsa beat up comics). Back when I did buy floppies regularly, it was honestly in large part because of the addictive ritual of going to the shop every Wednesday. But also because it was easier to keep on top of the stuff I read than buying it after the fact would've been (especially given Marvel's horrendous reprint policy). Nowadays, I generally buy older stuff in trades, with the exception of anything crossover-y (I can't stand jumping all over the place within a trade/between multiple trades when I'm trying to read what's ostensibly a single story).

Also, while I find good value in digital (it's lovely to have hundreds of comics at the ready when I'm on the train), I vastly prefer to read physical copies of comics/books/etc. E-readers were much more favorable to my ADD when they were single-purpose devices.

The new Bucky Barnes: Winter Soldier is pure ilx-fodder. Trippy water-color imagery that takes place on the planets Syro, Exai and Mer-z-bow and involves aliens Ventolin and Rossz Csillag. The story, though, is a bit meh, and most of it is imcomprehensible. But I can't help but think it's cool that Marvel publishes this kind of thing. Hope it succeeds.

i do miss the ritual of comic book stores. sometimes i'll walk into one and kill an hour walking up and down the aisles but i generally leave with either a graphic novel i've long wanted or nothing.
ipad comic reading does just fine for me honestly; any issues i have with lack of haptics pales in comparison to portability, accessibility and space issues.

I have longboxes in basement storage and I like having physical, tangible objects

i'd like having basement storage!