Marvel Comics blabbery

spidey discovers the contemporary pro life conservative agenda
http://i.imgur.com/IL7Moz0.png

Just read Millar's Civil War for the first time - the digital version was on sale. What an incredible piece of garbage! I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. But still -- baffled why anyone would choose to film it -- the story just turns all your faves into gigantic murdering arseholes. (I assume the movie is much better.)

This guy is like the Todd Van Der Werff of awful comics writing:

clicked through just long enough to check it was Abraham Riesman

tbf, he's an even worse television writer

Just read Millar's Civil War for the first time - the digital version was on sale. What an incredible piece of garbage! I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. But still -- baffled why anyone would choose to film it -- the story just turns all your faves into gigantic murdering arseholes. (I assume the movie is much better.)

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, May 13, 2016 4:45 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's Millar's shtick all over, isn't it. Everyone's either a psychotic arsehole or a victim of needless cruelty.

The film is nothing like that, thankfully.

to be fair to millar, sometimes they're a psychotic arsehole AND a victim of needless cruelty

I think my perspective on Civil War is salvaged somewhat by having read the entire crossover, of which Millar's contribution was just a small piece.

It's a solid concept, and the art is pretty decent at humanising Millar's childish dialogue, but so much of it - Robot Thor killing Goliath, for example, is proper "what were they fucking thinking?!?" without the saving grace of being at least interestingly batshit.

ugh, I just remembered speedball's s&m makeover :(

that was actually the character Voldo from the SoulCalibur video game series

lol

It's kinda weird that they chose Millar to write the central book in a huge crossover, given that his contributions to the Marvel Universe proper at that point consisted of his Marvel Knights Spider-Man book and a brief run on Wolverine.

Ostrander had written nothing for DC before Legends, and Byrne had drawn one issue of a Batman miniseries in 1980. Mantlo had written nothing for DC, Sears had drawn nothing for DC, and McFarlane had done a few months on Infinity Inc before Invasion!. It works fine if the people are any good at what they do.

As further illustration of this principle, Brad Meltzer had written one six-month run on Green Arrow before Identity Crisis.

Yeah, but there's no accounting for the stuff those weirdos at DC do.

Old Lunch sums up what I was thinking, succinctly

This is such a fugly cover. Luke Cage looks like Rick Ross and WTF is up with Iron Fist's eye.

http://nerdist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Power-Man-and-Iron-Fist-Cover.jpg

0_o

I like it! Luke has a weird forehead tumour tho

I like it too. There's some cartoonish exaggeration, but the artist clearly knows what he'd doing, it's not like the exaggeration comes from Liefeldian ineptitude. IMO it's cool that in recent years Marvel has allowed more cartoonish/non-realistic art styles to be used with their characters instead of just sticking to a realistic house style.

OTM, I was just thinking the same yesterday. Except when the artist in question mixes a cartoonish/non-realistic art style with Liefeldian ineptitude and has been effing ubiquitous for the past decade (*coughhumbertoramoscough*).

sometimes I love Ramos, sometimes I think he is the worst thing in the world

I think the thing of his I enjoyed most was DV8

Ramos and Chris Bachalo are both kind of indistinguishably annoying to read - both dreadful at panel layouts, and everyone has a pointy head

I will not allow bad things to be said about Chris Bachalo!

Bachalo's layouts are sometimes incoherent, though

bachalo is a terrible storyteller but i've always liked his style

hmm ok you guys get a pass for this reasonable criticism

Yes, agree 100%. I've always loved Bachalo's art but he couldn't storytell his way out of a potato sack.

it's nice in the potato sack

now we've put that to rest i'd like to say that I really like humberto ramos and i've never had a problem with his layouts

that power man and iron fist cover isn't ramos tho is it? looks more like paul pope to me but i don't think it's him either

Sanford Greene, apparently.

http://marvel.com/comics/issue/57948/power_man_and_iron_fist_2016_1

ah glad someone else thought it looked like Paul Pope (albeit kinda shittier and uglier than he generally is)

looking up sanford greene just led me to the news that darwyn cooke has died at 53. fuck :(

Yeah, I like Bachalo too, although much prefer his old Shade style. Felt more human. Right now I can't imagine him drawing a character like Kathy, say, who feels like they could exist as a real person. Maybe he should stick to Giffen-style nine and six panels or something.

(I meant Lenny not Kathy)

bg - some more news here: Rolling SERIOUS GRAPHIC LITERATURE Thread for Comics in 2016

Bachalo still had decent storytelling skills in his older works, like Shade or Death the High Cost of Living. But it seems that as his artwork got more stylized, his layouts and pacing became less and less coherent. It's too bad, I actually like his more cartoonish style a lot, but it's true that a lot of his later comics are practically unreadable because the plot is so hard to follow. I guess he should stick to doing cover art.

omg
http://pbfcomics.com/archive_b/PBF275-The_Offenders.png
xpost to every thread everywhere obviously

Put storytelling first or GTFO and do covers/portfolios, is my basic stance

I think there can be great comics without great storytelling, tho - comics where narrative, clearly delineated action, seamless transitions between panels etc take second place to sensation, pyrotechnics, mystery, psychedelic excess (I'm thinking of someone like Druillet)

prob not nearly in the ballpark you are talking about Ward but now I want to reread We3

love We3

Yeah, I'm sad that the proposed film of that lost momentum.

How on earth would that work? Most of the best things about We3 are specifically about the medium.

Ang Lee's We3

I'm afraid I'm a sucker for cleanly delineated action. I couldn't even handle Prophet! I'm a much more impatient comic-book reader than book-book reader - I get bored if there's too few words, or too many.

(xpost)

fuck... i can't even think about We3 without getting choked up inside. not sure i can bring myself to reread it.

also i'm not exactly carving out new or savvy ground but quitely is pretty much the best imo

I just finished reading Remender's Uncanny X-Force for the first time (as a prelude to his Uncanny Avengers) and it really is as good as I'd heard. I think I'd put it up there with Morrison's New X-Men (its obvious predecessor and inspiration).

I'm still sloowwwwly making my way through Marvel Now! (I've read almost everything prior to Original Sin and Axis thus far, hope to get to Secret Wars before the end of President Trump's second term). There are a few garbage series or series that eventually turned to garbage but the hit rate is surprisingly high, and some of it really is top tier Marvel.

Although: I've been a fan of almost all of the earlier Bendis Marvel stuff but his Marvel Now! work is doing pretty much nothing for me.

Prophet is a fun read. It's reads to me like a nature documentary or at least I hear the captions in that way.

Read the last Punisher run by Nathan Edmondson picking up the set cheap at my local shop. It gets off to a good start with battle with Elektro. The run kinda falls flat in the second part, partially as you can tell they got the "wrap this up" everything is rebooting that led the conclusion to condense. Parts are just as awkward and kinda loony as The Punisher written by anyone ends up being. Don't think this version of the Howlin' Commandos will really catch on. Oh yeah, Frank gets a pet coyote.