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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 29, 2014 7:18:45 GMT -5
You're right, Hoosier, about the early Bronze Age Justice League. Pretty much everything between Gardner Fox's last issue (#65) and Len Wein's first (#100) is, to say the very least, uninspired. That's when it's not dreadful. His JLA run is Denny O'Neil's worst work (you can tell he didn't feel comfortable writing a team book). Robert Kanigher's issue is the typical hackwork he produced when obviously writing for the paycheck. Then there's Mike Friedrich. Oh lord, the first half of Friedrich's run includes some of the crappiest comics I've ever read. However, things pick up with his last four issues (#96-99) with #99 being the stand-out. I'm not quite the Dillin fan you and others here are but once Joe Giella takes over the inks from Sid Greene, he produces some of the best art of his career. That balances out the bad writing somewhat. So good luck plowing through that Showcase volume. I hope you enjoy it more than I did. Cei-U! I summon the humbs down! That was about the era when I started to read comics. I enjoyed the Starbreaker storyline and it was followed by maybe the best JLA/JSA crossover(100-102). Sorry , can't agree with everyones love of Dick Dillin art. The only time I found it digestible was when Dick Giordano inked a chapter in the crossover. |
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Post by Cei-U! on Jun 29, 2014 7:18:51 GMT -5
Two-Gun Kid #60 (1962) (as reprinted in Marvel Milestones: Rawhide Kid & Two-Gun Kid (2006)) This is the first issue starring a new Two-Gun Kid as Marvel retires the original character who had been around since the 1940's. 13pp - "The Beginning of the Two-Gun Kid!" -- Lee/Kirby/Ayers . Lee or somebody had the bright idea to take all of the superhero gimmicks and transport them to the old West. So a "dude" lawyer moves out west. And being a "dude" is a real bad thing to be, apparently Old West lingo for "sissy" or "punk." He befriends an old man who trains him to become secretly hypercompetent with firearms. The man is killed and when the time comes to avenge his death, ... Go back and read this story more closely. Ben Dancer, the old gunfighter who trains Matt, isn't killed. He rides off into the sunset on the last page. Two-Gun is thus pretty much the only Marvel western hero who doesn't have to avenge a fallen friend or loved one at the start of his career. Cei-U! I summon the righteous rannie! |
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 29, 2014 7:47:46 GMT -5
Is it tedious to read all those Silver Age DCs right in a row?
I've come to appreciate the charms of Silver Age DC in my advanced age  but that is a lot of Silver Age DC to tackle all at once.
I've never had trouble reading a lot of Silver Age DC at once. On the other hand, I don't think I ever made it through an issue of my brother's Claremont written X-Men issues. There is a certain charm to the silver age stories. I could never read the overly verbose Claremont run again. Yikes, did he get paid by the word? |
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Post by Cei-U! on Jun 29, 2014 13:42:15 GMT -5
I'm in the midst of reading Justice League of America #72 and I'm kind of in awe of what a dick the Atom is being. Definitely not the Fox era anymore.
Cei-U!
I summon the bad attitude!
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Post by Jasoomian on Jun 29, 2014 13:46:41 GMT -5
Go back and read this story more closely. Ben Dancer, the old gunfighter who trains Matt, isn't killed. He rides off into the sunset on the last page. Two-Gun is thus pretty much the only Marvel western hero who doesn't have to avenge a fallen friend or loved one at the start of his career. Cei-U! I summon the righteous rannie! Ah, you got me. It's actually been a few days since I read this and I probably confused something with the Rawhide Kid reprint in the same edition. |
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Post by Jasoomian on Jun 29, 2014 13:48:57 GMT -5
Transmetropolitan is Warren Ellis' signature work. I don't think anything else he's done fully measures up.
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Post by fanboystranger on Jun 29, 2014 21:40:39 GMT -5
Transmetropolitan is Warren Ellis' signature work. I don't think anything else he's done fully measures up. I'd argue for Fell, but its incomplete nature makes it hard to really push as a signature work. Perhaps if he and Templesmith get back to it.
Although, now that I think about it, Fell has the weird urban legend stuff that Ellis loves, but not so much of forward looking sciene. Still, as pure Ellis viewpoint, I think Fell is may be his purest commentary on the world we actually live in.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 29, 2014 23:10:46 GMT -5
Read the first four issues of Simpsons Comics. Generally pretty entertaining.
Issue one has the great homage to FF #1 on the cover. The main story feels a bit more Treehouse of Horrors than general Simpsons as Homer is made giant-sized by Mr. Burns. The back cover and back-up story are nice little tributes to EC and a lil jab at collectors in general and comic collectors in particular.
Issue two finds Bart sent to a "scared straight" program at the penitentiary where of course he runs into Sideshow Bob. Some nice homages to prison movies including Cool Hand Luke. Second cover and story skewers the conventions of romance comics.
Issue three finds Lisa engaged in a whodunit to find the missing school mascot. The second cover/story is a really nice Steranko homage, Krusty, Agent of K.L.O.W.N.
Infinity cover on issue four. First story is by far the closest we've had so far too a TV episode Second story finds a buff Otto in a post-apocalyptic world fighting off zombies as Busman.
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Post by berkley on Jun 30, 2014 1:02:10 GMT -5
Transmetropolitan is Warren Ellis' signature work. I don't think anything else he's done fully measures up. I'd argue for Fell, but its incomplete nature makes it hard to really push as a signature work. Perhaps if he and Templesmith get back to it.
Although, now that I think about it, Fell has the weird urban legend stuff that Ellis loves, but not so much of forward looking sciene. Still, as pure Ellis viewpoint, I think Fell is may be his purest commentary on the world we actually live in.
I haven't read Transmetropolitan yet.
Fell read to me like a well written but fairly standard police drama, almost as if Ellis was auditioning to work on an American tv show. Templesmith's artwork was actually the most impressive aspect of the series, for me. I found Desolation Jones, which was also coming out around that time, a much more interesting piece of writing, though the artist who came on board for the second story arc wasn't able to maintain the high standard set by JH Williams, to my eyes, and the series suffered greatly because of it. I'd still like to see Ellis return to that series if he could tempt Williams back - or even, dare I suggest Templesmith, whose talents were a little wasted on what seemed to me the relatively ordinary Fell. But I think my number one Ellis series was Doktor Sleepless. Very sorry that one never continued. Has anyone read his second novel, Gun Machine? I thought the first one was pretty good, but haven't gotten around to this one yet. |
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Post by The Captain on Jun 30, 2014 5:59:06 GMT -5
Just finished reading the first Ka-Zar series. It wasn't bad, but two things bothered me about it:
1. There is a weird situation where a character is named in one issue, but when they introduce him in the next issue, he has an entirely different name. As well, there is a flashback in that same issue to the previous one, but they describe the scene entirely differently, down to the last detail as to how Klaw escaped from Ka-Zar. It wouldn't be so concerning to me, as transitions from one writer to the next sometimes caused things like that, but both issues were written by the same person (Doug Moench), so I'm not sure what was going on.
2. More troublesome was the way the series ended. Ka-Zar, Zabu, and a handful of others are trapped in an alternate dimension for a few issues, battling the inhabitants of that world in an effort to escape, but then it just ends. The cover of issue #20 shows Ka-Zar and Zabu fighting Klaw, but in the book, Ka-Zar and Zabu are separated, and no scene like the one on the cover even remotely occurs; in fact, Ka-Zar and Klaw don't share a single panel in the issue. The script at the bottom of the final page trumpets "To be continued...somewhere".
Does anyone know if they ever finished the story, because I have never come across a completion to it? Obviously, Ka-Zar, Zabu, and Klaw make it back to the 616 Universe, but I've never seen the resolution as to how they did it.
After that, I picked up District X, which is technically not a classic comic (it debuted in July 2004, so if I'd waited until tomorrow, the first issue would have). Read the first 7 issues, which were pretty good; since I got the entire series for less than $1/issue, anything better than "meh" is a bonus.
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Post by Cei-U! on Jun 30, 2014 7:25:30 GMT -5
That Ka-Zar story is wrapped up, hurriedly and unsatisfactorily, in a handful of panels of X-Men #115.
Cei-U!
I summon the hasty resolution!
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Post by The Captain on Jun 30, 2014 8:34:31 GMT -5
That Ka-Zar story is wrapped up, hurriedly and unsatisfactorily, in a handful of panels of X-Men #115. Cei-U! I summon the hasty resolution! Thanks! I read that issue last year, but I guess since I wasn't looking at it as the resolution of the Ka-Zar storyline, it didn't resonate with me as it should. |
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Post by fanboystranger on Jun 30, 2014 9:06:14 GMT -5
I'd argue for Fell, but its incomplete nature makes it hard to really push as a signature work. Perhaps if he and Templesmith get back to it.
Although, now that I think about it, Fell has the weird urban legend stuff that Ellis loves, but not so much of forward looking sciene. Still, as pure Ellis viewpoint, I think Fell is may be his purest commentary on the world we actually live in.
I haven't read Transmetropolitan yet.
Fell read to me like a well written but fairly standard police drama, almost as if Ellis was auditioning to work on an American tv show. Templesmith's artwork was actually the most impressive aspect of the series, for me. I found Desolation Jones, which was also coming out around that time, a much more interesting piece of writing, though the artist who came on board for the second story arc wasn't able to maintain the high standard set by JH Williams, to my eyes, and the series suffered greatly because of it. I'd still like to see Ellis return to that series if he could tempt Williams back - or even, dare I suggest Templesmith, whose talents were a little wasted on what seemed to me the relatively ordinary Fell. But I think my number one Ellis series was Doktor Sleepless. Very sorry that one never continued. Has anyone read his second novel, Gun Machine? I thought the first one was pretty good, but haven't gotten around to this one yet. I liked Desolation Jones, but the plot of the first arc felt a bit too much like the Don DeLillo book Running Dog to me. I mean, it shares an essential element. Obviously, JH Williams is a master and his art made it worth reading, but I felt like I had read so much of it before. I actually preferred where Ellis was going with the second arc and enjoyed Zezjel's moody art.
I had a similar problem with Doktor Sleepless. It was clearly Ellis' take on Mr X, but with technology and body modification as its preoccupation rather than architecture. Mr X always had a whimsicality to it that I enjoyed, but Ellis played DS relatively straight beyond the usual "Ellis-isms" and dialogue tics, so while I enjoyed the book, I couldn't help but enjoy it a lot less than Mr X.
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Post by Jasoomian on Jun 30, 2014 12:46:28 GMT -5
I have the entire runs of both Doktor Sleepless and Desolation Jones, but both are incomplete and as such I don't think they can be considered as a signature work. Unless you want to argue that leaving things unfinished is a key feature of Ellis' oeuvre. Which might be fair, but not something I'm going to do today.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 1, 2014 14:20:48 GMT -5
Superboy & the Legion of super-heroes #255
script by Gerry Conway, art by Joe Staton and Vince Colletta.
Ooooh, that was bad. Very, very, very bad. Not just "kind of silly" bad but "makes no freaking sense"
bad. Even as a kid I'm sure I'd have seen the gaping plot holes in that one, and the art is serviceable at best.
We start with Superboy flying around in Smallville, suddenly remembering that he has to go help Pa Kent with the store's inventory. Not wanting to be late, he decides to change his clothes in the air, turning into Clark Kent for anyone to see.
Because he couldn't, y'know, have gone home at the speed of light and changed there or anything. Or been five minutes late and do the inventory at the speed of light. Or have done the inventory right at the moment Pa Kent had asked, because he could do it at the speed of... well, you get the idea. Pa Kent chastises him (lightly) for his recklessness and in order to make amends, Clark starts piling crates one over the other to get the job done faster... and walks into the store right for Lana Lang to see him performing this incredible feat of strength. "My! Clark, you must be Superboy after all!" says she, to the surprise of absolutely no one. Clark then exclaims that no, no, no, that even she could do it, and lo and behold it's true because the crates are now empty. How did Clark do it? We learn that he quickly hit the boxes with his Superboy punch, which apparently caused all the cans to go through the bottom of each crate and through the floor, leaving only empty boxes for Lana to lift. No one mentions that the floor, which should be peppered with can-sized holes, is apparently intact, and apparently no one bothered to check the crates.
The matter of Supes' secret identity is brought up with his parents, who fear than a pair of glasses isn't much of a disguise. (Wait,wasn't it their idea? Or is that only in the Byrne era?) Anyway, Clark claims that it is more than the glasses; it is also a matter of posture, voice intonation and general behaviour. (I remember that Martin pasko also brought in super-hypnotism that was made possible by Clark's glasses, but let's let it pass). Something then happens to Clark's glasses while they're on a table: they vanish and are replaced by another, identical pair. The ominousness rises!
While at school, Clark is made aware of an impending disaster: an out of control vehicle is about to crash into innocent people. Using his heat vision, he melts the asphalt in front of the juggernaut, quietly saving the day. But his glasses melt as he does so! His secret identity in peril, he acts like a dork to escape the classroom, with Lana going through the usual "how could I have ever thought that he was Superboy" coupled with "perhaps this is all an act" spiels. (This part of the story is more endearingly goofy than silly, actually).
But then things deteriorate. The Legion appear in one of their time bubbles, and explain that the inhabitants of Tokyo have disappeared this morning. (They keep saying "our time", as if that wasn't obvious). The Tokyoites have been abducted by what the Legion suspects might have been a variation of the phantom zone projector.The abductor is an alien being in an impregnable spaceship! What does he want? 10 000 slaves that he will sell in some galactic slave market! And if Earth doesn't pay? He will not free the ten million hostages he has!
Whu??? He's already got 10 million perfectly sellable prisoners, why does he want to trade them for a thousand time fewer people? Are they in G/VG shape only and he want to trade for FI/M slaves? Well, anyway.
Now the whole crew has to hurry back to the future, to save the hapless abductees! Yes, hurry... because you've only got, what, one thousand years before those events occur. You could make all the plans you like and travel back to the exact point you left the XXXth century, y'know? You've got a freakin' time bubble!!!
Surprisingly, the technology behind the alien's might is made possible thanks to Superboy's glasses, made from Kryptonian glass. It sounds as if that glass has some really groovy quality that allows it to turn a McGuffin ray into a superduper McGuffin ray. The alien got hold of the spectacles by using one pf Luthor's old time gizmos which he stole from the Superman museum in the XXXth century. That's why Supes' glasses disappeared at the start of the story! (Why steal freaking Superboy's glasses when all the alien had to do was get hold of any old piece of Kryptonian glass??? I've no idea. He might like a challenge).
Unable to face the Kryptonian glass-powered technology (I used "Kryptonian glass" as Stan Lee used to use "transistor", here), the Legionnaires travel by time bubble to the most logical place in the universe to find some more glass and build a weapon of their own: Jor-El's laboratory on Krypton, a few days before the planet blew up. Because there's no other source of kryptonian glass anywhere in the entire history of the universe, no doubt. Not even (just to take a wild guess), Smallville, USA, one week before this whole adventure began.
Baby Kal-El is with his parents in the lab, sees the Legionnaires, and engages in a conversation with Shrinking Violet (because baby Kal-El could speak, see, as if he were a four-year old. Precocious lad, that one). Violet takes a piece of glass, bids farewell to baby Kal-El, and the heroes return to the future.
The Legion then rig their own "counter-rays" or whatever and trounce the bad alien. Superboy then reflects that he seems to remember having seen that glass before, and Violet laughingly explains that it is so and that they've been friends for far longer than she had thought. (Oddly enough, he didn't remember ever meeting her when they first met as teenagers. Oh, Kal. You have to learn remembering hot girls. Really, man).
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but that is a lot of Silver Age DC to tackle all at once. 
