Marvel Comics blabbery

ANW starts out great – definitely check out The Four Sisters (Vol. 1). I eventually bailed b/c I didn’t like where it went after that.

All New Wolverine is a solid book, blessing the world with the character of Honey Badger. I agree it peters out a bit by the end, but it was worthwhile imo (the very last arc which is a what if?-style alternate future dig was real fun). Tom Taylor's the guy who also did the epic Injustice comic series of series.
The follow up-to ANW is X-23 by Mariko Tamaki which is OK but not probably quite as good. Tamaki's indie stuff is great, but her Marvel work has been just OK (see also her gray She-Hulk run).

There’s a new Gwenpool miniseries,(Gwenpool Strokes Back), from a new creative team, but it’s really bad... they ruined the character, she’s annoying and unlikeable (and weirdly sexed-up). The art sucks, too.

It really reinforces the uniqueness of what Christopher Hastings (and Gurihiru) achieved in the original series.

(*Typo fix, it’s “...Strikes Back” — they’ll probably make a dumb pun like that though, the “humor” is at that level.)

Marvel was so great for a minute there; it’s really a bummer to me what‘s become of most the stuff I used to be so jazzed about. (I’m sure the complex,
time-spanning mutant epic is all right, but that’s not my kind of jam.)

current marvel books i will rep as readable at worst and greatly enjoyable at best:
Avengers, Conan (and Savage Sword of Conan), Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Guardians of the Galaxy, House of X / Powers of X, Immortal Hulk, Invisible Woman, King Thor, Loki, Punisher, "Punisher Kill Krew", Savage Avengers, Silver Surfer Black, Star Wars, Squirrel Girl, Valkyrie.

I know there's like six books forthcoming next month but is this the first moment since the 1950's that (limited series aside) there are NO currently running X books? Teenage me would be agog.

also, against every prediction i would've made, the War of the Realms crossover was both great fun and well done!

I’ve heard Star Wars is good, but I’ve never read a SW comic and it seems a little late to start now.

There aren't that many of them and I'd bet most libraries have the collections

The arcs are somewhat connected but tend to be writer-centric and you won't really need much backstory because, for the most part, it's just a continuation and extrapolation of the movies. The only exceptions would be the new Doctor Aphra character, although she bounces through situations that include a number of fringe movie characters and a brief period working with Vader

kieron gillen's darth vader is really, really good

Yeah, crucially they restarted everything around the time of The Force Awakens, so there's only a few years to catch up on.

And the Vader is really good.

little reminder that v1 of squadron supreme was hella fucked up
http://www.comicosity.com/deadly-nightshade-poison-ivy-squadron-supreme-and-a-history-of-sexualized-violence/
xp to comics heroes killing people too

i should get around to reading that one of these days (and more Gruenwald in general)

Take it to the only real contribution I’ve made to this board

I remember attempting to read Squadron Supreme because I'd heard the bullshit about it being the Marvel equivalent to the "seriousness" and "maturity" of Watchmen, and man was it a load of crap.

It’s kind of a weird, brutalist, Twilight Zone version of a comic miniseries, without Watchmen’s guardrails of literary respectability (and, I guess, “good writing”). I think Squadron’s bizarre scenarios are more disturbing, because they’re presented in a way that doesn’t tell you what to think about them.

dang new house of x got me all choked up

Liefeld is going to sue Marvel over something Deadpool related, no further info at present.

But he did reveal they tried to sue him in 1996 for creating the Fighting American so he could self-publish fake Captain America stories. His lawyer turned up to court with the Marvel anthology of Fighting American, which the company brief didn't know existed, and showed the judge the Kirby and Simon ownership credit. Marvel also tried a supplementary lawsuit that FA shouldn't be allowed to have a shield, which failed also.

Are you sardonically reporting that Liefeld has a very confused misremembering of the Agent America lawsuit that was heavily reported on at the time, or are you accidentally misreporting Liefeld’s statement today, or...?

Aldo's pretty much quoting directly from Liefeld, there.

For anyone who doesn’t remember 1996, then: unsurprisingly, Mr Liefeld’s account of events is not especially accurate.

Which would mark the first occasion of Mr. Liefeld disregarding accuracy.

unsurprisingly

my mistake

I mean, i can believe Marvel legal are dumb as shit, but stupider than Liefeld???

Note that the lawsuit was filed by Marvel because:

- four years after leaving Marvel to launch the Image imprint at Malibu, and then forming Image as a publisher with others, Rob and Jim Lee returned to Marvel to do two 12-issue series each

- Rob, having had his contracts terminated due to poor quality subcontracted hackwork by teenagers mercurial refusal to respond appropriately to editorial low sales, simply formed a new company called Awesome Comics and solicited the next issues of his Captain America run, but titled Agent America, and without wings on the side of his head. (He also changed the Carrie Kelly-style sidekick that he had gifted Cap from redhead to blonde.)

During this period Rob also:

- got fired from Image, the company he had founded, because he was using company resources and infrastructure to publish competing titles drawn by a sweatshop of teenage/college-age Liefeld impersonators (AIUI he had stopped physically assaulting said employees by this time, but who knows) under Maximum Press, another publisher he had founded

- had Maximum go bankrupt (or possibly just collapse due to incompetence?) once he was no longer able to defraud Image's office structure to solicit and print the books

- teamed up with career scam artist Scott Rosenberg as his new publishing partner on Awesome, leading to the situation where in 2018 he discovered that Rosenberg had sold the rights to Youngblood and 513 other Liefeld properties to the truly unhinged gentleman who tanked Comico around the time Image launched, heisted Bill Willingham's Elementals, and spent years trying to heist Grendel from Matt Wagner

i presume the current lawsuit is gwenpool related and if so har har har

So is this Jonathan Hickman __ of X stuff good? A friend recommended it as the best X-Men in forever. Then I read a synopsis and it sounds bananas but also baroque and near-incomprehensible?

it’s pretty good and the two conjoined series wrap up today so a collection is probably forthcoming. hopefully in a format that makes it easy to read in release order

"best X-Men in forever is a mighty low bar but these are fun to read and I look forward to rereading the whole thing in one sitting.
i am SO over the whole four-pages-of-comics-and-now-three-pages-of-"dossier"-plus-one-unnecessary-chapter-heading-page schtick that Hickman does; just give me a fucking comic already

i love it! i'm one of those guys who loved Handbook of the Marvel Universe as a kid, bear in mind
(but i doubt they'll continue this now the Dawn of X is about to start proper)
HC collection is set for December, I think

looking at the x-men costume redesigns and realizing that while Jean’s looks very retro, it’s also an insanely cosplayable design (green dress, gold gloves and headpiece). seems... canny

seems to be mostly the same as her Marvel Girl costume during the '60s era (which may/may not have some relevance to the plot)

https://i.imgur.com/zI1wrc7.jpg
gives me an excuse to post this cover image

new doc doom book is very good!

Kevin Feige named Marvel Chief Creative Officer. May or may not be a great thing for the comics, but anything that takes Perlmutter further out of the loop and nudges him closer to the door is super cool. And the suggestion is that Jeph Loeb is being booted out of the tv division so double bonus imo.

Just read Immortal Hulk #25, the extra-length space apocalypse one. I don't know if this direction's gonna be <i>good</i> per se, but damn, I love that they're trying.

Love this title. Al’s done great work for ages but he’s been properly Reaganing on this run for the last year

I’m at a kids’ costume party... a girl showed up in a very authentic-looking Spider-Gwen outfit, and I was like, “OMG, that’s so cool”

Reaganing?

Al Ewing on Guardians of the Galaxy is the only writer that could make me interested in that title. Seems like a dream match, an Ultimates book that people might actually read!

Just read Immortal Hulk #25, the extra-length space apocalypse one. I don't know if this direction's gonna be <i>good</i> per se, but damn, I love that they're trying.

yeah, this ruled - i haven't enjoyed a book as much as immortal hulk in a long time

“Reaganing” = old 30 Rock joke

https://30rock.fandom.com/wiki/Reaganing

immortal #25 felt in some ways like a nod to the moore "intergalactic swamp thing" saga

Yeah, ST #60 – “Loving the Alien”

ding ding ding

Just read the Amazing Spider-Man arc, Hunted, and War of the Realms in trade - both pretty fun

hulk's turn towards apocalyptic anticapitalism in the new issue was pretty rad - this book is so good

https://people.com/human-interest/first-marvel-comic-ever-sells-record-auction/

Guys, I'm like two years late in noticing but Al totally made a Wrinklepaws reference in an issue of USAvengers. And I'm sure 99.9999999% of the readership was totally baffled.

lmao I’d completely forgotten that