Ixnay by Night

Even worse, when the Punisher became a black guy, those issues are ones I always happily skip over when I'm doing re-reads of that series.  I'm guilty of picking up the Austen X-Men issues, though even I gave up halfway through the run.  That was what broke my Uncanny X-Men completist run, in fact, fuck it was awful.  

I'd have to disagree about Punisher Armory, though.  I'm far from being a "gun guy", but the pages all had narrative captions written by Eliot Brown that captured the Punisher's voice perfectly.  It wasn't just "hey, here's this gun, it kills people", each entry had a story behind it.  I remember one that had a little snub-nose pistol that had belonged to Frank's wife, a purse gun, and the narration was all about how he wished she'd had it with them the day they were killed in the park.  Another one had a little cowboy cap gun that was his son's, and how it was the one gun Frank would never part with.  Surprisingly well-written stuff. 

23 hours ago, JohnMcMahon said:

Haven't read any of it yet but my understanding is that the series is set in an alternative DCU where Cray is tasked with killing various familiar characters like Green Arrow & The Flash so the cover's probably depicting the John Constantine from that setting. 

I can't remember if the Planetary John ended up with tats or not, I seem to recall it basically depicted Constantine morphing into Spider Jerusalem but it's been years since I read the series.

While I loved Planetary, I always gave that Vertigo/Constantine issue the side-eye, as it fell right after Ellis left Hellblazer over "Shoot".  It was like he wasn't just wanting to give his own little swan song to Constantine with that nice middle flashback bit (which I heard once was originally going to be part of his Hellblazer run, the issue that was to be drawn by David Lloyd), he also had to talk shit about the character and Vertigo as a whole.  According to that story, Constantine and all of the old guard Vertigo characters needed to be put to pasture because they were silly taken out of context of the late 1980s and they should all just be the much cooler Spider Jerusalem instead.  It came off as incredibly pissy to me, which I would have been okay with if Ellis hadn't been talking out his ass about a DC comic when he's still writing multiple other DC Comics.  Always stuck me as childish.

That's really interesting.  I've not been digging Michael Cray as much as The Wildstorm, but this piques my curiosity quite a bit.

On 2/7/2018 at 12:32 PM, dogpoet said:

Mister Miracle continues to improve: there's a very nice cliffhanger indeed on the end of issue six, a lovely neologism (that stunningly, nobody seems to have thought of before) introduced in passing, and a whole issue's worth of banter between Scott and Barda that could well be a deliberate tip of the hat to the domestic stuff in the '80s Dematteis run. A lovely comic of a series that's likely going to make the best collection to be issued this year as well.

The Wildstorm is more Ellis-y, but still a fun read. The fact that this is Ellis setting up his late '90s revisions of the original Wildstorm universe as the new baseline for the current set up is still being aggressively flaunted, but it feels a lot more natural and less retconny-y this time. The Doctor and Jenny Sparks hit it off (Vertigo style) and discuss finding a few other free agents to stop the brewing war between Stormwatch and IO trashing the planet and most of its population. I'm assuming that as Jenny is now an Asian babe of Chinese descent, Swift will be revamped as Tamara Beckwith with wings for this version...

It makes me wonder if Ellis is going to be allowed to use Midnighter and Apollo in The Wildstorm, since they've been making DCU appearances as recently as last year.  None of the other Wildstorm characters have made a peep in the DCU since Ellis' book began, other than those two, so will they be off-limits?  I mean, surely not since Ellis fucking created those two characters, but who knows with DC?

Well, looks like that Ghost Rider/Punisher conversation from a week or so ago became weirdly relevant.  I don't want to spoil anything, but this week's comics that does indeed tie those two characters together was fantastic and you should totally be reading Donny Cate's Thanos because it is pretty fucking awesome.  Up there with Moon Knight for best Marvel title right now.

Really great article.  Who needs socially challenging dark fiction these days, though, when we have Djinn and the Huntress to read about? 

On 1/24/2018 at 3:01 AM, JohnMcMahon said:

That is a most excellent cover, makes me want to fire up the intro from the Monkees on Youtube.

In fact, I just did, 49 seconds very well spent.

Anyway, I'm rereading the Age Of Apocalypse crossover at the moment - it's very, very stupid and dumb but also exactly what I want from a big superhero event.

Age of Apocalypse is brilliant, it's like this sprawling apex of comic book crossovers, where things still fit together really damn well and each series is engaging on its own terms while still being part of a whole.  Compared to detritus like Secret Invasion and Secret Empire, AoA is rad.  It may be depressing as fuck, but it's still fun to read at the same time.  That Generation Next tie-in remains one of my favorite superhero comic endings just due to how damn bleak it was.

13 hours ago, Christian said:

Dog-Look at Spider Man. His fashion sense remained intact after his deal with the Devil.

If you're using Son of Satan and Satanna as examples, they're both the progeny of Satan, not of making deals with demons.

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Exactly, Lou. I think that's what Ennis might have been getting at, that Castle won't ever be able to die so long as his war is on-going, which will last until the end of time.

It could also explain the fact that Frank Castle is still in-continuity a veteran of the Vietnam War, even though that was 50 years ago now. Castle should be somewhere in his 70s, yet he's still looking the same age as when he started.

Sure, you can argue about "Marvel's time-line", but they recently ret-conned it so that Tony Stark's origin took place in Afghanistan, not Vietnam. It would be a simple matter to say that Castle was a soldier in the most recent war in Iraq, but Marvel has kept the Vietnam War back-story.

Otherwise, the Punisher is just a really in-shape guy with a big gun who runs around never having to worry about getting shot and killed. It's basically The Rock getting a bunch of guns and declaring a "war on crime", and running around amidst all these bullets, being perfectly fine. Eventually, the guy is going to get shot and killed, having no powers.

I think Ennis just kept it ambiguous enough that fans who would complain about supernatural elements popping up in a Punisher story could think that it was all part of his break-down, and that either explanation is acceptable.

No, they have retconned Frank as being a veteran of the Iraq war, back during Greg Rucka's run circa 2012 or so.  It's only in the MAX comic that he's still a 60+ Vietnam veteran, and that's a totally separate continuity than the regular Marvel Universe Punisher (considering, y'know, MAX Frank is dead now).  

I can't believe there's never been a "What If...?" story that featured Frank Castle becoming Ghost Rider.  It almost writes itself: Castle loses his family, becomes possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance after making a deal with the Devil.  That's almost exactly what he did at the end of "Born" actually, it was just another (possible) entity, if not just Frank's own crazed mental state.  

I've been reading the new arc on Punisher, written by Mathew Rosenberg.  Despite having a pretty ludicrous premise (Frank Castle becomes War Machine), it's actually been a LOT better than I expected.  The artwork's pretty nice, provided you can get past Castle suddenly looking just like Jon Bernthal, but the story has been surprisingly solid.  Better than Becky Cloonan's poor-man's retread of Garth Ennis, definitely.  

Finally got around to reading it, still think it's terrible.  And that art, god damn does it suck.  Kadrey's arc can't end soon enough.

I quite liked a lot of Milligan's run, but when it got bad it got REALLY bad, particularly near the end.  The personality assassination of every female character not named "Epiphany" was appalling on every level and his Constantine read like an overly-simplistic caricature of himself.  That all said, the plots driving a lot of the run were enjoyable, stuff like "Suicide Bridge", "The Cottage", and "India" were all pretty topnotch.  

For all Milligan's problems, it was still better than Denise Mina's run.

Then maybe I'm mistaken on Occupy being included.  Was there a fourth Avengers title that I'm forgetting about going into Legacy?

Speaking of the X-Men books, I think it's hilarious that Marvel's big plan for those titles are "X-Men Blue", "X-Men Gold", the forthcoming "X-Men Red" and..."Astonishing X-Men"?  I guess "X-Men Purple" was off the table for some reason?

Yeah, they folded together Avengers, USAvengers, Uncanny Avengers, and (I think) Occupy Avengers into a weekly AVENGERS series by Waid, Zub, Ewing, and whoever was writing Occupy for the next 4-6 months.  It's a crossover event, can't remember the name of it to save my life, "World's Collide" maybe?  I'm pretty sure I heard that the books would be separating back into individual titles again in time for the new movie.

I read the book years ago in college (and read Anansi Boys more recently, a year two back), but haven't check out the show yet.  It's on my eventual "to watch" list.

I stopped following the DCTV shows ages ago, though my wife still watches Flash regularly.  I tuned in for the crossover, though I missed the first half of Supergirl and Flash both nights since I was putting our son in bed.  I thought it was all handled very well, it was a pretty faithful translation of a comic event series.  Like you, though, I had no idea who half of the Legends characters were supposed to be (or who half of the Arrow side characters were either, to be honest, other than Mr. Terrific and his awesome comics-accurate costume).

Ewing's Avengers series didn't get cancelled, it just got folded into the 4-times weekly AVENGERS series through the crossover, right?  I thought all of the titles were coming out the other side with relaunches in time for the new movie.

I don't think it would even flag up as references if you're not familiar with the past material.  It's not like you have to know all the Spartan/Hadrian 7/Jack Marlowe backstory to understand The Wild Storm's version of John Colt, same with Jenny Sparks and the Doctor.  It's all there for the old school WS fans to say "hey yeah, I remember that!", but I can't imagine an unfamiliar reader noticing at all.

As much as I'm enjoying The Wild Storm, the Michael Cray spin-off is totally leaving me cold.  This isn't a reinvention or reboot of the Cray/Deathblow concept, it's a totally new character with a bunch of DC analogues tacked on to try and make it relevant.  The third issue came out today, and I can't see how Bryan Hill thinks the "Barry Allen" in this comic is in any way an inversion or legitimate take on the Flash other than the super speed angle.  Having this version of Michael Cray as a small part of the Wild Storm ensemble was fine, but it's failing badly for me as a spin-off series.

I've mentioned here in different threads that I'm a big fan of James Robinson.  While not everything he writes is good (or even readable, looking at you "Cry For Justice"), he's a writer that I always make time for even if I'm not a fan of the characters he's writing, like with his current Wonder Woman run.  His work on Grendel, Scarlet Witch, Batman, the JSA...all solid to really great work.  Starman, though, holds a place in my heart that's unmatched by any other comic series, it's easily my favorite completed comic work.

I used to make it a point every 2 or so years to go back and re-read Starman from start to finish, a task that was made a whole lot easier when DC released the six Omnibus volumes.  While I was always drawn in by the way Robinson tied everything in the series together during the epic "Grand Guignol", and I certainly recognized the dramatic beats he was hitting as the series wrapped up, it's only been in recent years that I've truly felt and understood the emotional impact of that last year plus of the series.  My last read-through of the series was back in 2013, and as I was making my way through the volumes my father was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer.  A prognosis of 6 months turned into death after 6 weeks, and my dad passed away while I was smack-dab in the middle of "Grand Guignol".  I wasn't able to finish reading the series, I don't want to spoil anything for people who haven't read it, but it hit me so hard emotionally and the wound of my dad's death was so raw that it colored my opinion on the series.  It wasn't just an expertly and intricately plotted superhero series, it was now one of the saddest and most bittersweet conclusions I'd ever read.

It was only a few months ago that I decided to read the series through again, for the first time in 4 years.  Now, though, the way I'm relating to Starman has changed once again.   Instead of looking at it as a son dealing with the death of my father, I'm now a father myself.  Starman was ultimately about the relationship between father and son, and while the end of "Grand Guignol" (and the final issue) is still bittersweet and brings up tons of depressing memories it also reminds me that it wasn't long after losing my father that I gained my son.  In that way, Jack Knight became my avatar, and the series itself is a testament to how comics as a medium can touch someone deep in their soul. 

And god damn could Tony Harris draw the hell out of that comic. 

20 hours ago, Christian said:

Man, I can't imagine anyone not loving this story from Simonson's run....It was what Grant Morrison on FF should have been like, instead of the middling and dull Fantastic Four: 1,2,3,4.

 

Is that the issue where Richards and Doom are skipping through time, and there's a counter letting you know which panels to read sequentially?  I did dig the hell out of that issue, simply for Simonson's fantastic storytelling gimmick.  Simonson probably came the closest to making me care about the FF, now that I think about it, because I liked his "Acts of Vengeance" 3-part tie-in arc as well.  And that "New FF" story with Wolverine, Spider-Man, Hulk, and Ghost Rider was flat-out brilliant.

The Fantastic Four is just one of those concepts that has never managed to interest me, no matter how many times I've attempted to get into it.  I was a kid when Byrne was doing the FF, and though I read it off and on it wasn't something like Claremont's X-Men or Stern's Avengers that I was always excited to read; I tried Simonson's run, and outside of the "New FF" arc with Art Adams it couldn't hold my interest either.  I have the same feelings about the FF that I do about Superman and Wonder Woman: I get why people like them, sure, but they're just not for me.  

On 12/8/2017 at 3:12 PM, Christian said:

I find he's actually quite good at writing science fiction.

By the way, I would hardly call this "hard sci-fi". It's "soft social sci-fi", with the intent being to question religious fundamentalism and patriarchy in a satirical context....the point was certainly not to tell us about how space travel works, or what exactly would be involved in a surgical procedure as described being done to the citizens of that planet.

Anyway, yeah, his run on Ultimate Fantastic Four was amazing, and even his Ultimate Vision mini-series was worth a read, both books which focused heavily on sci-fi over fantasy/horror. I was surprised by how well Carey did in that genre, myself, as I thought of him as a fantasy-type writer and didn't expect his writing style would do well with sci-fi (see: Neil Gaiman).

Fair point about "hard sci-fi", I stand corrected.  I was just using it as a blanket term for science fiction in general, but there definitely IS a difference as you pointed out, and I agree that Barbarella definitely fits into the "soft" category.  

I think my feelings regarding Carey's science fiction work is that I simply haven't read anything by him from that genre.  Stuff like Lucifer, Hellblazer, and the Unwritten are my main points of exposure to his writing.  I guess the closest he's come to sci-fi for me would be his X-Men work, but even that was twinged more in dark drama and horror than anything else.  I knew he had a run on Ultimate Fantastic Four, but as I'm as likely to read a FF book as I am to light myself on fire for the fun of it, I've not read it.

I don't know if anyone bothered watching it, I sure didn't since LoT isn't a regular watch for me, but Constantine showed up at the end of last week's mid-season finale as the lead-in to his appearances when the show comes back in February.  I'll probably go back and watch it on the CW app sometime over the holiday, just to catch up.  I watched LoT as part of the Earth X crossover event, and I had no idea who half of the heroes are on that show anymore.  I bailed on the show halfway through season 1, guess they dumped Hawkgirl and Rip Hunter since then and added Star Spangled Colossus, Vixen, and some other lady I couldn't place?

I have no vested interest in Barbarella, the movie is such a distant memory for me that Jane Fonda in a catsuit having orgasms is about the sum total of my take-away from it.  I read the first issue for Carey's writing, and eh, it was certainly well-written but not really my cup of tea.  I don't know how well Carey tackles hard Sci-Fi, even with the satire bent, maybe I'm just too used to him as a fantasy/horror writer.