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Weekend Reading: Iron Man, Geek Chic, Chip and Dale and I Love Lucey
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,
Lots of good stuff going on as we slide into the weekend. We’ve got Iron Man, Archie Comics, Douglas Adams’ Monty Python connection, Chip and Dale and tons more.
Let’s start with my pal Bob Greenberger, the noted comic book writer, novelist, tie-in writer, and a guy who actually knows how to make a physical comic book/graphic novel (all that production/printing/binding/press run/distribution stuff). He has a new book out. Iron Man: Femme Fatales has just been published by Del Rey and it should keep fans happy post-Iron Man I movie and pre-Iron Man II movie. Bob happily blogs about it at his website where he reposts this nice review. I haven’t read the book yet, but I snapped up a copy off the rack at Wal-Mart to feed a little royalty money Bob’s way. I also reshelved the remaining copies to give Bob a better display. That’s how I roll, people.
Harry Lucey: The animator John Kricfalusi has a nice gallery of great Lucey covers from assorted Archie titles at his blog. The covers are absolutely stunning in their simplicity. There’s a “Get Off My Lawn!” part of my brain that wishes the books still looked like this.
Geek Chic Daily: Nikki Finke has a few details about the Hollywood playas lining up behind Gareb Shamus’ new online presence.
George Tuska: Marvel and DC artist George Tuska, so prominent in the comics of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s has passed away at 93. Mark Evanier has a nice look at Tuska’s career. Here’s a real nice original art page by Tuska—no superheroes, just guns, gangsters, street scenes and a hot girl in a bikini. He was from the generation of comic artists who all knew how to draw people, horses, cars, the folds of clothing, and characters in hats who could still make a guy in an iron suit seem believable.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Iron Man, Geek Chic, Chip and Dale and I Love Lucey
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Marvel Comics Review: Web of Spider-Man #1
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,
Rating: *** 1/2
I began collecting comics in the mid-80s. I remember that my first issue of Uncanny X-Men was #188 and that my first issue of the Avengers was #250. My first Spider-Man comic was Amazing Spider-Man #264, but I also received around that time, the premiere issue of the new monthly Spider-Man comic book, Web of Spider-Man. This all took place during the hype of Spider-Man’s black costume which was featured prominently in this first issue. The suit was a symbiote, meaning that it was alive and it wanted to fully take over Peter Parker. In this issue, Peter fights back and we see the famous bell ringing scene that had Peter ripping the costume off of himself. An homage was made in Spider-Man 3.
Click to continue reading Marvel Comics Review: Web of Spider-Man #1
I love comics that stand out from the rack, and I particularly love them when they make me laugh. Out. Loud. M.O.D.O.K. Reign Delay #1 is one of those comics and Ryan Dunlavey is my new favorite Marvel creator. Pitched as a tie-in to Marvel’s Dark Reign event, this one-shot is only tangentially but humorously connected through an opening sequence of phone messages from MODOK to Norman Osborn. I suspect someone in marketing needed a reason to slap a Dark Reign logo on the cover to boost sales. Well, I’m all in favor of anything that’ll sell more copies of things I like.
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby over 40 years ago, MODOK is a great choice for this kind of comic. He combines two great comic book archetypes: the character with the big head (like Steve Ditko’s The Leader), and the chair based being (like Kirby’s Metron).
And here he’s used for great comic effect in a story that has Osborn sending him to Erie, Pennsylvania to get him out of the way although MODOK thinks that “surely, Erie is the linchpin in the path of total world domination!” It’s also where his family lives and he’s just in time for his high school reunion. Dunlavey also manages to weave in MODOK’s high school backstory, a giant robot fight and abused minions who long for a better life.
Click to continue reading M.O.D.O.K. Reign Delay #1: Ryan Dunlavey
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| Ryan Dunlavey Blog
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Marvel Comics Review: Amazing Spider-Man #608
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,
Rating: ***
Since I read the amazing (no pun intended) Amazing Spider-Man Annual #36, I’ve been looking forward to more Spider-Man stories focusing on the Spider-Man story the Clone Saga. In Amazing Spider-Man Annual #36, we saw the premiere of the character called Raptor who has a grudge against Ben Reilly. He blames Ben for the death of his family and he’s out for revenge. Since Peter obviously looks like Ben, Raptor has set his sights on Peter.
Our story begins with Spidey battling it out with the relatively new super-villain Screwball. I wasn’t reading Spider-Man back then so this was my first introduction to the character. I like this character. A perfect modern character that uses the Internet in order to get that “celebrity” status that comes with it if you can get people to watch your videos. Peter tries to use his photos of the fight to try and sell them to Ben Urich at Front Line. Raptor whose name is Damon Ryder shows up to the offices of Front Line to confront Peter. Ryder calls Ben and hands Urich an old newspaper clipping of the fire that occurred at his house that resulted in the deaths of his family. A sketch of the suspect matches that of Peter’s face.
Click to continue reading Marvel Comics Review: Amazing Spider-Man #608
Marvel Comics Review: Spider-Man: The Clone Saga #1
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,
Rating: ***
Finally, Marvel will be returning to the infamous Clone Saga storyline with a mini-series that is set to tell the story of the Clone Saga as it was meant to have been told. As I’ve mentioned before in previous posts, I was a big fan of the Clone Saga when it first began and have always liked the character of Ben Reilly. So this week, issue one of the revisited Clone Saga storyline hit the stands, and while it did not blow me away, I was entertained. Two of the writers working on Spider-Man back in those days have come on board to tell the tale: Tom Defalco and Howard Mackie.
Before I go into my review for this issue, I must profess my love for the Spider-Girl title in which Defalco worked on. Defalco’s Spider-Girl/M2 universe sprang from the stories that were created during the Clone Saga, and he was able to make a grown up Spider-baby May Parker work well along with continuity of those storylines. Marvel completely abandoned the characters for years in the regular 616 universe until the upcoming Who was Ben Reilly? storyline that we’ll see next month in Amazing Spider-Man.
Click to continue reading Marvel Comics Review: Spider-Man: The Clone Saga #1
Jack is Back: Jack Kirby Vs. Disney/Marvel
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Marvel Comics,
Of course, you knew it was coming. I didn’t, because sometimes I can’t see either the forest or the trees, but someone knew it was coming once it was announced that Disney was buying Marvel. Jack Kirby’s children have banded together, not unlike the countless groups their father created, to file motions of copyright termination to 45 of Kirby’s Marvel creations and co-creations.
Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily and Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool, weigh in with the details and analysis. Over at The Beat, Heidi McDonald also notes the news and has a very lively comments section (pay particular attention to the calm and rational ones by Nat Gertler and Kurt Busiek). Elsewhere, countless bloggers and message board attendees are posting about the shock and awe they feel. Their wild theories of how this is the end of everything—the equivalent of a comic book rapture—has them typing faster than they can down a box of Milk Duds.
Before everyone gets all Defcon Fanboy about it, I recommend reading up on the history—the continuity, if you will—of relations between Marvel and Jack Kirby.
Click to continue reading Jack is Back: Jack Kirby Vs. Disney/Marvel
Leave it to Marvel to branch out into yet another pop culture obsession (I mean, they had me hooked with Marvel Zombies): fashion. This time, they’ve actually appointed a nontraditional, real life hero, Project Runway‘s Tim Gunn.
Ridding the world of fashion crimes in real life, Gunn lends his likeness to Marvel‘s limited series Models, Inc. in the first issue of the series, “Loaded Gunn.”
And boy is he thrilled:
“Isn’t it just utterly and totally surreal? This is one of those make-a-wish things that could never happen… There are lots of debates about how much it looks like me. I said, ‘Gentleman, this is your business. This is not what I do. I do not even want to remotely weigh in on it or micromanage it.’”
With a little help from Iron Man, Gunn comes to the rescue when a special superhero museum is attacked.
Click to continue reading Marvel Turns Tim Gunn Into Superhero
Read More | USA Today
Marvel Comics Review: Captain America: Reborn #3
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,
Rating: ****
Another great issue for this series. In our last issue, Bucky and the Black Widow were captured by Norman and Obsborn. Norman has released to the media that Sharon Carter was the second shooter in the assassination of Captain America. He released the Black Widow and said that unless she returns with Sharon Carter, Bucky is dead.
Our story opens with Cap continuing to jump through time to different points in his life. Cap has now jumped to the time when he was frozen in ice. During this period, Cap was worshiped by local tribe as some sort of ice god. Namor arrives and is angry at the natives and picks up the block of ice and launches back into the ocean. Steve narrates the scene and it seems this isn’t the first time he’s visited this point in time. He says that he tries to cry out for help every time, but it never works. We then flash to the present where Reed Richards and the present Namor are at the same spot. Namor brings up Steve’s glass coffin, only to see his body disappear!
Click to continue reading Marvel Comics Review: Captain America: Reborn #3
Ultimate Comics Avengers 1: Mark Millar & Carlos Pacheco
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,
This issue was a test for me. I’m not up on my current Marvel continuity and even if this was a Double Jeopardy round I don’t think I could tell Ultimate Avengers from Dark Avengers or even The Avengers with Patrick McNee and Diana Rigg. I prefer Marvel’s weirder mini-series and one-shots these days, whether it’s Marvel Apes, Marvel Zombies or the new Strange Tales.
So when this first issue came out, I thought I’d pick it up as a test. Will this issue seem like so much super-hero hieroglyphics that I’d need a Rosetta Stone of Continuity to keep up? Or will I be able to just leap into it and be entertained? In other words, how quickly will I have to go to the Wikipedia to figure out what’s going on?
The answer: I didn’t need Wikipedia at all. Yeah, Fury now looks a lot like Samuel L. Jackson (that’s the power of a multi-picture movie deal in the Marvel Universe), Carol Danvers (the one-time Ms. Marvel back when Mark Millar was in diapers) is now the director if S.H.I.E.L.D. Hawkeye is not only carrying a gun (yup), he’s now looking like some kind of ninja warrior in an outfit from a bad 1980s-era comic, wearing a mask that looks like he stole it from Bug’s Fourth World Kirby closet. Oh, and Tony Stark now looks like the current Robert Downey, Jr. and drinks and parties like the old Robert Downey, Jr.
Click to continue reading Ultimate Comics Avengers 1: Mark Millar & Carlos Pacheco
Almost instantly after Warner Bros. announced a restructuring of DC comics, head of the task at hand, Diane Nelson, was the most hounded woman around these comic book parts. She took time out to defend Warner Bros. and her being a girl as well as her guess at how many DC characters exist.
Of the age-old Marvel vs. DC war, Nelson was quick to point out that DC was planning to call for the restructuring before Marvel was eaten up by Disney: “It’s something we’ve been discussing and planning for nearly a year. We wanted it before Labor Day – but then Marvel and Disney announced and thought—It is good. One, my hat is off to them. Bob Iger is great. I have nothing but respect for them. I’m glad we were thinking along the same lines without having to pay $4 billion. I think it’s good for the whole industry.”
Click to continue reading Diane Nelson Talks DC
Read More | The Wrap
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