Bought/Thought 12/24

[Darthphere]

Well by review I meant 12 paragraphs of *****ing about bird and insect related names.

 

[Dread]

Which is amazing, considering it was only about 8 pages worth of something to review.

I connected it to the reprinted material that was used to frame the scene.

Well by review I meant 12 paragraphs of *****ing about bird and insect related names.

Bird?

 

[Darthphere]

You went into a mini-rant about Clint never calling himself Mockingbird blah blah blah.

 

[Dread]

You went into a mini-rant about Clint never calling himself Mockingbird blah blah blah.

I was making a point. But, yeah, that's where the "bird" thing came in. Alright.

 

[fifthfiend]

Hulk

So I like how they're calling him Rulk in-book now? Oh crassness, thy name is Loeb.

Once again Rukkles gets to chump a bunch of characters all of which are about a million times better and more interesting than he could ever conceivably hope to be, with the addition this time that they're all women, adding a tinge of misogyny to the whole affair. And for some reason Thundra's all buddy-buddy now with ol' TerribleCharacter.

Patsy Walker: Hellcat

I liked this comic up until it became "Let's go find some girl with justifiable emotional issues, punch her in the face, and drag her back to her eight crazy-ass aunts because hey, **** teenagers."

Iron Fist

What the **** is this ****?

What If: Spider-Man Back in Black

Didn't really work for me in that it's what-iffing Aunt May's coma into MJ's outright death which just seems... eh.

 

[Sloth7d]

Bought? NA#38
Thought? Wolverine was the one to torture information out of Electro? And easily at that? Really, huh? Instead of something actually believable like MS.Marvel, who was there? That little cameo ass-whipping aside, a good issue.

 

[fifthfiend]

Thought? Wolverine was the one to torture information out of Electro? And easily at that?

I'd be surprised at Bendis stooping to the Torture Fallacy to advance plot except then I remembered that I've read any issue of Powers ever written.

The fists of Good Guys just contain magic powers that force Bad Guys to reveal everything they know, didn't you know that?

I'd hate on Bendis in particular for it except so much other entertainment resorts to the same ******ed ********, to the extent that I'll end up liking pretty much any show, no matter how otherwise flawed, if at any point it chooses to portray violent thuggery as - as it actually is in reality - an incredibly stupid way to go about extracting information.

 

[RockSP]

Bought

Vigilante #1
Iron Fist #21
Proof #14
Unknown Soldier #3
Daredevil #114
Rest #0, #1
Umbrella Academy: Dallas #2
Hellcat #4
Conan the Cimmerian #6
Ultimatum #2
Hulk #9
Wildcats #6
Invincible #57
Nova #20
Skaar: Son of Hulk #6
Air #5
Thor #12
Secret Invasion: Requiem

Thought

Vigilante - An okay read. Art was just alright. I'll probably pick up a couple more issues at least.

Wildcats - I think people are sleeping on this book. Gage seems to be having lots of fun in the Wildstorm sandbox. There are some gaps in my knowledge of that particular universe, but it doesn't take away from this solid monthly.

Proof - my shop somehow skipped an issue so I can't read it yet

Unknown Soldier - my shop somehow skipped an issue so I can't read it yet

Rest - Picked this up on the recommendation of one the guys that works at my shop. Simple enough concept --a pill that eliminates the need for sleep--and the mystery surrounding the "suppliers" is enough for me to check out the rest of the mini (I think it's a mini).

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Thor #12
Sweet Christ, what an unbelievably f***ing fantastic issue. There are few things greater for me, as a fan of comics in general and Thor in particular, than the pure, sweet joy of reveling in Loki simply being Loki. This issue gave me that in spades (plus half-naked Hela, which ain't bad). While I'm disappointed that JMS and Coipel have combined their forces into an unstoppable juggernaut of tardiness, I can't say I'm disappointed at all in the fruits of their labor. For those who complained that there's not enough action, we've got Tales of Asgard-style battles and patricide aplenty; for those who complain the plot's moving too slow, we saw tons of layers peeled back in this one issue that makes a lot of Loki's plan come into focus. If this issue came out 7 or 8 months ago, as it would have if Thor's comic were on its original schedule, I don't think anyone would be complaining about any of those things in the first place. Absolute joy to read, and Loki's redesign looks awesome, and the fact that he lit a f***ing giant on fire by snapping his fingers is easily one of the coolest things I've ever seen, and the subtlety and deviousness of his time-looping plan is delightfully wicked, and dear Bog, everything about this issue ruled. Who knew a Thor comic could be this good without even having Thor appear in it?

Secret Invasion: Requiem
Not much more than 2 reprints sandwiched within a framing story--scratch that, it's literally nothing more than 2 reprints sandwiched within a framing story. But at least it's a good framing story that weaves the reprints' stories into a cohesive narrative well.

Anyway, regarding the big reveal(-that-we-already-knew) at the end: I don't care what anyone ("anyone" being Dread) says, Hank taking "the Wasp" as his new heroic identity to honor Jan is about as lovely and moving a gesture as I could ask for. I don't see any kind of gender problems since there are male wasps out there, and I don't think it in any way diminishes Hank to have him set aside his own mass of superhero identities for a while and pay tribute to his own "greatest hero." Since the final narration box seems to indicate that the Mighty Avengers are drawn together by Jan's death, it seems only fitting that her death be given a recurring tribute in the form of Hank taking her name. A costume that doesn't look like Hank is wearing something between a tuxedo with coattails and a movie usher's uniform would've been nice, but nothing's perfect.

My only bit of apprehension with the upcoming Mighty Avengers run is this Jocasta-replacing-Jan thing that's going on in this one-shot. She says herself that she's disconnected from Jan's memories and that she's her own person, just as the Young Avengers' Vision has the original Vision's memories as raw data but doesn't consider himself the same person. And, just as I wouldn't expect Vision, Jr. to start hitting on the Scarlet Witch the moment they meet up, I don't really need to see Jocasta having weird, maybe-romantic-until-she-forces-herself-to-stop feelings for Hank. But we'll see where it goes.

Oh, and the art was kind of... not good? All right, that's too charitable--it sucked. The lines were all wobbly and inconsistent and it generally didn't look very professional. I don't know if it's the inker's fault, since Pham did fine work on Incredible Herc, but that's gotta be fixed. I'd hate to have what should be every classic Avengers fan's dream run in this post-Disassembled era marred by crappy art.

 

[GNR]

Busiek's Conan was brilliant,just got thru the first trade and remaining issues.

Is Truman's stuff any good?I heard the quality dipped bigtime.

 

[Dread]

THOR #12 wasn't a bad comic by any means (I did like it, and said so earlier) and I suppose I will concede it was a better issue than the last few. I did like the focus on Loki and to see some more of his direct wheeling and dealing. But I do think the pace is moving a bit slowly. It has been 12 issues and I don't feel like the story is moving anywhere at all anytime soon. Loki is doing cunning manipulations? He's been doing that for about 7 issues, at least. Planning to destroy Asgard? Again, that's a given. Expecting some climax via Balder and a plan to kill Thor? Again, this has been stated and expected for ages now. I saw nothing in this issue, not a damned thing, that even hinted at any of this coming to a conclusion anytime soon. THOR is a good comic and JMS has done some good things, but after a year of almost nothing happening besides, "Thor rises from dead, rebuilds Asgard, sits on chair", I am growing impatient. And I am getting tired of Thor barely being a supporting character in his own book.

Some writers can have a slow and steady pace yet have every installment not feel like it is merely leading you on and killing time. Brubaker on CAPTAIN AMERICA comes to mind. JMS is not as skilled. While it was nice seeing Loki focused on, I learned nothing about him that I didn't already know, beyond some bizarre time travel paradox. I did like Coipel's redesign of him, though. I liked Loki icing Bor and the Frost Giant. And I did like the idea of his female vessel basically being Sif, which is why he is holding her hostage. The only downside is that Thor has to be a complete ****** to not know Loki is using his girlfriend's body as a form, since he supposedly still has Odin's power in him. Granted, this is the same Thor who genuinely thinks Loki will change and lets him wander about Asgard and manipulate his relatives. That's like Batman not only believing Joker can change, but allowing him into the Batcave and Wayne Manor unmolested to chat with Alfred and Robin, and then not noticing that Joker was wearing Talia's skin as a mask. It will depend on how it ends; if Thor reveals he was aware of a bit of this and was just waiting for Loki to play his hand and out himself, THAT I could buy.

I will say that a Loki who is teamed with Hela and is willing to go back in time to assure his own creation is a very nasty adversary, who probably is too high up to bother dealing with a mere peon like Norman Osborn. Dr. Doom, from earlier issues? That I can buy. I am interested in seeing if JMS does anything along that angle. I could seriously buy and enjoy a Loki/Dr. Doom team up.

As for SI: REQUIEM, without repeating myself too much, I just think that Hank Pym calling himself "The Wasp" doesn't work mostly because it is the exact opposite of what Janet would have wanted. She wanted him to accept and respect himself as who he was. Hank made the biggest mistakes of his life when he was consumed with grief or self-loathing; Jocasta even hinted at that. Remember when Kulan Gath split Hank into two forms back during the 90's? Janet was there and helped merge them into a complete being to try to represent Hank accepting himself and not being buried in repressed envy or self loathing. The moment she dies, and what does Hank do? Consider himself a hopeless loser and take on another name, this time her's. He's learned nothing. Janet spent most of her heroic life trying to drill that point into Pym's head, and he hasn't learned it at all. It's downright tragic.

Mourning someone is fine; mourning someone to the point where you completely abandon your own individuality to "honor" them is borderline psychotic.

That said, based on Jocasta's facial reaction and some of Slott's words in a Newsarama interview, I think it's intentional as a stage of grief; Slott sees Pym as a flawed hero. I can buy that. He has a long term plan and I honestly don't expect this to last beyond a year with Hank.

I agree, Pham's art wasn't the best; it is possible he or the inker were rushed a bit, as he is also working on those MA issues, and extra pages are extra work. Granted, I am used to having to squint at some of Yu's rushed issues of NEW AVENGERS, and compared to that, Pham is fine. Newsarama had some previews of MA #21 and they looked fine.

I didn't mind the bits with Jocasta; frankly I was expecting some awkward stifled romance with her considering Jan is dead and Pym is going to be a major figure on the team. I thought Jocasta was cool. But then again I always had a minor soft spot for her. The Avengers seemed to brush her aside rather quickly in the past considering their automatic embracing of Vision earlier.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I don't think we can fault Thor for not recognizing Sif. Hela had to sit there and study Sif's body to actually recognize it, and that was after Loki freely admitted that it was someone else's rather than just a strange and unexpected transformation brought on by the restoration process.

Besides, it gave us that great, ominous line from Hela: "You must know that when he learns what you have done he will kill you."

As for the time travel, my only issue with it is the same one that CaptainCanada had: Loki going back in time to ensure his own younger self falls under Odin's care sort of undermines the tragic villainy of Loki as the shunned bastard child who can't compete with his better, prettier, stronger brother. But I suppose it's still possible that Loki withheld the important bits from himself and only got him into Odin's care without influencing his actual development in said care too much. He could still have come to be the terrible, resentful man he is out of his experiences growing up, as we've seen in the Loki mini-series and Thor: Son of Asgard. I think there's still a way to fit the two together without losing any of the psychological fun previous writers have had with Loki.

 

[Dread]

That is usually why time travel retcons like that are usually not the best idea. I got the impression that Loki only told his younger self enough to get him accepted into Odin's care. The rest would come later. Those other stories can exist, they just never mentioned that young Loki met this weird horned guy who told him how to get in with the Asgardians.

As for Thor, well, I already think he's a bit daft for expecting Loki to change, but he has to for plot convenience. I doubt he'll actually kill Loki, because that's his best villain, but I do expect a hell of a throw-down. I just may be 45 years old by the time JMS actually gets to it.

 

[Blader5489]

Thor #12 was good, but I don't understand the point of Loki creating a predestination paradox for himself, unless his plan for Thor involves some kind of time travel craziness that could have otherwise risked erasing Loki from existence.

 

[CaptainCanada]

This isn't related to Loki's plan, it's just something he has to do, because JMS thought this would be a good origin for him.

 

[Dread]

Thor #12 was good, but I don't understand the point of Loki creating a predestination paradox for himself, unless his plan for Thor involves some kind of time travel craziness that could have otherwise risked erasing Loki from existence.

This isn't related to Loki's plan, it's just something he has to do, because JMS thought this would be a good origin for him.

Exactly. The issue was meant as a bit of a focus issue for Loki, and JMS thought adding time travel to the origin would make him stronger. In execution, Loki came off well, but we learn little about him or his plot that was not evident before (aside for him wearing Sif's body).

The Manhattan comic book store COSMIC COMICS said it best: "No one can take 12 issues to tell a 4 issue story quite like JMS".

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Well, the bit with Bor is obviously related to Loki's plan. His interaction with his younger self was just to get him to a position where he could have the power and long life he wanted--he needed to be with the Asgardians for that because the giants tend not to live very long.

 

[Dread]

The only question is what does being the guy who killed Bor have to do with his current plan? I think it seemed as if Loki had lived long enough to realize that the heretofore unmentioned "guardian" who aided him in being accepted by Loki as a boy was actually his future self, and he decided it was time to ensure that event happened to satisfy the timeline.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Bor clearly ties into Loki's plan, since he's plastered all over the cover of #600. I'm not sure how, since it seems like Loki just killed Bor in this issue, but maybe he did something to preserve Bor's spirit to restore him in the present or something like that.

 

[Dread]

I hadn't seen the cover of #600 in a bit so I forgot.

It is possible that Loki somehow has access to Bor's spirit since he vanquished him, but I wonder how that would play into his plan since he already has installed Balder as his puppet leader of Asgard (and Thor let him, because being fair is more important than being safe, apparently). I suppose Bor might want to reassert his position as leader of the clan or could somehow "absorb" some of Thor's Odin power for all we know. I don't know. I just am tired of "THOR SOPRANOS" and just want to see something get hit with a hammer before I collect social security.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

It could just confirm my suspicion that Balder wouldn't actually turn against Thor in the end. Bor might be Loki's failsafe if Balder won't go along with his plans. Or maybe Bor was the plan all along and Balder was just a red herring, since Balder doesn't have the physical might to topple Thor in a battle for the throne, whereas Bor very well might.

 

[Dread]

That's true; Balder might not be a complete tool when the moment is right for Loki, or he could be a distraction. Either way, the only caveat to the whole scheme, besides the fact that THOR has run behind and JMS's pace has all the speed of a dead turtle, is that Thor has asked for this. He's pretty much painted himself into a corner and all but begged Loki to exploit the system, which he has.

It's like General Zod being revived as part of New Krypton or something and selling to Superman how "this is a new planet and technically he has done nothing illegal on it and it would be HORRIBLY unfair to unilaterally assume he would and banish him from the new opportunity" and because Superman is the World's Biggest Lawful Good chump, says, "Sure, Zod, anyone is worthy of a second chance" and of course Zod does some horrible thing to destroy everyone or take over and Superman kind of has to go, "How did I not see this coming!?"

I mean I get Thor is trying to be a just ruler and whatnot. But the problem with that is that Loki will always exploit that, and Thor should know better. Again, at the very least it is possible that JMS could negate all this by having Thor been more than aware of some of Loki's schemes via his own revelations. That could be great. Thor, who is more than a hammer carrying viking, but a tactician to boot!

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Well, Thor could still have an ace up his sleeve. I'm sure he suspects Loki's up to something, at least. But beyond being a just ruler, Loki's Thor's brother, so there's a familial aspect involved as well. In all their time together, Loki and Thor have been everything from friends to allies to mortal enemies, but Thor has only ever gotten to the point of killing Loki once. Once. This is the guy who's been a warrior for millennia and doesn't hesitate to put his hammer through a frost giant's skull. Clearly, leniency with Loki has always been a weak point for Thor, and it's just magnified now that he doesn't have Odin to report Loki to and instead has to deal with Loki himself.

 

[Dread]

Is that "once" the time Thor grabbed Loki by the head and gave the "nothing shall stop my hammer from returning to my hand, even your face" line (paraphrased, of course). Or was that the last Ragnorok?

I get there is a familiar heritage between them, just after all this time, Thor has had to have figured that Loki's his enemy now.

I expect an epic showdown, but Loki is really Thor's only well known enemy and I doubt JMS would let him be axed off. Hopefully, thought, it is worth the crap-ton of build up. A good beginning is nothing without a good ending.

 

[DBM]

Busiek's Conan was brilliant,just got thru the first trade and remaining issues.

Is Truman's stuff any good?I heard the quality dipped bigtime.

I was buying it monthly and buying the trades all through the Busiek run. But I dropped the series after the first two Truman issues because I thought the quality had dropped way too much to keep going.