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September 20, 2006
Paty Cockrum's Soapbox
Blog Newsarama tipped me off to this amazing set of message board posts by Paty Cockrum (wife of Dave Cockrum, co-creator of the 80s X-Men, Starjammers, etc). An outspoken lady, to be sure--she gives her some strong opinions on Joe Quesada, John Byrne's recent troubles at DC, Grant Morrision's X-Men run, etc. There's also an interesting speculation about Excalibur getting yanked away from Chris Claremont. Apparently, Claremont was laying the groundwork for Magneto's early mental illness, saying that Xavier himself had caused it. But forget about this stuff, what I really liked to read was Paty's memories of the 70s Marvel Bullpen:
Roy Thomas was great! He was sometimes brilliant...he was sometimes infuriating! Once I wrote a fan letter to him on a roll of toilet paper cuz I told him the story he had written was only fit for the toilet... and then I rolled it back up and mailed it off in a box and he told me he unrolled the toilet paper and read every word of it. Later we did a merchandising project in which we did a comic story or two on a roll of toilet paper for kids to read while they were on the john!!!
Huh, I think I remember seeing the Marvel toilet paper. Didn't one of them have the Hulk? Hulk Smash! when you take a big shit. Nuff said.
Posted by Adam Warlock at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)September 8, 2006
Justice 7: Aquaman's New Power
Spoiler Alert. This week's comics seem like slim pickens! Besides Uncanny X-Men, the most interestin' superhero comic is the Mighty Avengers preview in Wizard 180. So let's just talk about last week's best comic: Justice 7 by Mr. Alex Ross, Doug Braithwaite, and Jim Krueger! I got a kick out of seein' Braithwaite and Ross draw my favorite second and third tier heroes from the DC Universe. Metal Men! Metamorpho! Doom Patrol! Black Adam! If this series ever gets the Absolute treatment, sign me up. There's a great double page spread where the heroes enter the Fortress of Solitude--for the second time this year, since All Star Superman #2--and the Titanic is there to the left!
I've been wonderin' how they were ever gonna get Aquaman back after Braniac cut out his brain. Now we know: they gave him a new power! Niles Caulder explains:
His cells will regenerate. He'll grow back anything that's lost. He really is a man of untapped potential. Extraordinary.
Holy spit! Ross is on a crusade to make the classic Aquaman cool again. Nuff said.
Posted by Cousin Dick at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)Uncanny X-Men 478: Darwin and Thought Balloons
Ed Brubaker is firing on all cylinders. I'm enjoying everything this guy writes. His space-opera take on Uncanny X-Men is an enjoyable twist on a title that I had given up on reading. The new mutant called Darwin is fascinating, because he adapts to almost any situation he encounters. In this issue, the X-Spacers dock at a Shiar space station for fuel and naturally find more than they bargained for. Darwin gets blown into outer space and suddenly his body doesn't need to breath and his skin increases in density. I'm wondering if Darwin isn't too powerful? How could Darwin die? By the way, notice in this panel that thought balloons have snuck their way back!
The artwork by Billy Tan and Danny Miki is getting better with each issue. I'm a bit confused as to why the Shiar Empire has a death warrant on Charles Xavier. Anyone care to fill me in? Nuff said.
Posted by Adam Warlock at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)September 5, 2006
Nerdy Website and Podcast Discoveries
I've a couple of cool new discoveries--new to me, anyway. Comic Book Urban Legends started getting a front page link on CBR. This is part of the Comics Should Be Good blog and it investigates the truth behind long-held comic book industry rumors. It caught my attention a couple of weeks ago when they revealed that Neal Adams had contributed to the "Superman Vs. Spider-Man" treasury edition. I remember even thinking as a kid: yeah, how come Ross Andru suddenly looks like Adams here and there? It turned out that Adams inked Superman on several pages--he shared a studio with Dick Giordiano (Andru's inker) after all! This week, there are tidbits about Grant Morrison's Fantomexcharacter (from New X-Men) and his inspiration, the 1968 film Diabolik. This is the 66th entry and I've got a lot of legends to catch up on.
Alter Ego Comic Cast is a relatively new podcast site (22 episodes to date), but it's extremely well done. The guys who produce this show have a zippy format, where they discuss this week's comics, some industry news, and then launch into an interview with a comic creator. I've heard interviews with Paul Jenkins, Ed Brubaker, Robert Kirkman, etc. These guys ask very good questions, giving you a very unique perspective, and they get right to the point. I have to say that I prefer this podcast (and Word Balloon) over something like Comic Geek Speak, where they are lots of uhms-ahs-dead-silence.
Speaking of Word Balloon, John Siuntres delivers a knockout interview week after week. There is a fascinating two part interview with Ed Brubaker, where he talks in detail about his new Icon series, Criminal, Captain America, Daredevil, Iron Fist, etc. It sounds like Danny Rand will lose his ballerina slippers in the new series. I can't wait to read Criminal. Siuntres has a real coup in his latest interview with Brad Meltzer about the new Justice League of America series. Meltzer's new novel, The Book of Fate, sounds cool, too. Nuff said.
Posted by Adam Warlock at 2:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)The Wire: HBO's Finest TV Series
I just finished a 36 hour marathon: The Wire, Seasons 1, 2, and 3. I wouldn't have believe any series could trump Lost, The Shield, or even HBO's own The Sopranos, Deadwood, or Rome--but The Wire does. And the funny thing is, I wanted to give up watching after the very first episode. Now I am such a rabid fan that I will probably sign up for HBO, so I can see Season 4 that starts this Sunday, September 10th.
The Wire moves at an almost glacial pace. David Simon, the creator/head writer/producer behind the series, says it's a novelistic approach. The first season is about the drug wars in Baltimore, Maryland, where a drug lord named Avon Barksdale and his right-hand man, Stringer Bell, have a sophisticated organization of runners that constantly elude the police. While the drug pushers are highly sophisticated, the police are mired in bureaucracy. Only Detective Jimmy McNulty has the balls to talk to a judge, who instigates the need for a specialized team to be formed. The realism in this series--from the drug pushers to the bureaucrats to the police to the kids on the street--is so intense that it will ruin you for other police procedurals. But just like the best novels, once things build to a certain point, the interactions between the characters never stops boiling.
I've never seen a series that humanizes all the players in the drug trade, from the politicians on down. The first season primarily centers on Barksdale and Bell (B&B Enterprises), who make so much money that they've bought real estate in Baltimore's better neighborhoods. At the end of the first season, the police team that made up The Wire is disbanded. The second season centers on criminal activities in Baltimore's shipping docks with the stevedores union. Rather than have the entire team come together in episode one or two, it takes almost half of the episodes before the entire team comes together--and by this time, you're completely hooked into all the minutiae. While the stevedore union saga plays out, Stringer Bell is very active in the background, and takes center stage when Season 3 starts up. I can't really say what the theme of Season 3 is without ruining the surprise, but let's just say it was that kind of Swamp Thing/MiracleMan/V For Vendetta moment, where a writer takes a concept (in this case about the drug trade and police work) and totally flips it around.
You should rent The Wire at the very least--don't give up until you've at least seen episodes 1-4. If you've read James Ellroy, you'll love it--especially if you watch them for the first time on DVD and are able to connect the various events that correlate between the seasons. Nuff said.
Posted by Adam Warlock at 2:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)September 4, 2006
John Byrne's Untold Tales of Wolverine
This week's All the Rage has a particularly juicy tidbit for fans of the Claremont\Byrne X-Men. A fan discovered that a sketch pad he bought from Byrne contained plot notes for several issues of Uncanny X-Men. Future issues that extended way beyond the point when Byrne left the series! No matter what people think of Byrne today, I still think his contributions and collaboration with Claremont on X-Men, Iron Fist, Starlord, Marvel Team-Up, etc., produced some of the best superhero material ever made. Here's one event that never happened, involving Mariko, Wolverine's Japanese girlfriend:
Sabretooth attacks Mariko as a way of getting to Wolverine. He brutalizes her beyond imagining. (Nothing sexual. This is sheer animal violence.) He leaves her for dead, torn and bleeding in an alley.
Click on over to Labour Day Rage to see the what Wolverine would have done next. Nuff said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)Nasthalthia: Morrison's Nod to Adventure Comics 397
The character Nasthalthia only appears on three pages of All-Star Superman #5, but she made quite an impression on me. Maybe I just love a goth chick who wears a skin tight leather outfit, or maybe it's her role as Charon (transporting dead souls on the river Styx) in this story. Lex's introduction to Nasthalthia is charming:
Lovely Nasthalthia here will take you back to the land of the living while I await the end. She's 18, speaks 30 languages, and wants to rule the world one day, bless her.
How about this for serendipity? Last night, I start reading Back Issue #17 from TwoMorrows: it's an "All Super Girls" issue featuring articles on Tigra, Spider-Woman, Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl, and Supergirl. (Highly recommended with lots of great artwork!) The Supergirl article discusses the period of time when the character when through a period of changes in the 70s. Adventure Comics 397 was a milestone issue, because Supergirl changed her costume. She went from her original costume to a number that included a belt and thigh-high red leather boots. The back-up story, titled "Supergirl Meets Nasty" featured a new villainess: Nasthalthia! Lex Luthor shows up and we discover that she is Lex's niece...that can't be good! In her first appearance, she's not much of a threat, enlisting a female motorcycle gang to terrorize Stanhope College which Supergirl defeats easily.
Morrison's Silver Age memory is astounding. Does he remember this from decades past, did he reread his collection, or did Mark Waid remind him of Nasty? Will we see her again? I hope so. And this leads to a question: since Krypto appears in All Star Superman #6, will we see the Silver Age version of Supergirl at some point? Nuff said.
Posted by Adam Warlock at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)Adrienne Barbeau: Thanks for the Mammaries
When I was a young buck, growin' up in Corpus Christi, Texas (circa 1974), there was a TV show called Maude. I watched this show every week. There were topics on women's rights (abortion, right to work), race, politics--all of which made me a very liberated cowboy! But that ain't the real reason--I watched Maude to see Adrienne Barbeau. I was goin' through puberty after all! Whenever she turned up in one of her tight sweaters, I got that funny feelin' in my blue jeans. After one memorable show, in which Ms. Barbeau wore a particulary sheer top and leaned over toward the camera, I made a remark to a classmate in my junior high school (I think it was Paul R Hass Middle School). He said, "Yeah, Adrienne Barbeau!" with a wild look in his eyes, the kind that my dogs gets whenever he senses a member of the opposite sex.
Adrienne Barbeau recently published her memoirs, titled There Are Worse Things I Could Do
September 1, 2006
Hulk Mythos: Better Than Hulk the Movie!
Mythos: Hulk by Paul Jenkins and Paolo Rivera is another retelling of the Hulk's origin. Just like this team's previous Mythos: X-Men, it updates the classic origin story, set into today's world and giving new insights into the characters. This origin story is more plausible than Ang Lee's movie. We see that Bruce Banner has anger-management issues even before getting belt by gamma rays. General Ross doesn't make things any easier by forbidding Banner to see his daughter, Betty Ross. Rivera's fully painted artwork is quite unusual for this type of story, but I really loved it. Especially the sequence where Banner throws Rick Jones to safety and gets hit by the gamma blast. Take a look at the picture of Betty in the above panel...is it my imagination or does she look a bit like Charisma Carpenter. Nuff said.
