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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 13, 2021 22:24:51 GMT -5
Moench for me was one of the most dependable writers around - maybe THE most in the sense that he seemed to be able to take on any sort of assignment and do a better than average job with it.
Moench's early eighties run on Batman is still my favourite ever era of the Dark Knight. I was buying those off the newsstand from around Batman 345 to 410. It’s not quite my favorite era of Batman because I’ve grown to love the craziness of the late fifties and the early sixties. But Moench is second!
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Post by profh0011 on Oct 15, 2021 15:13:57 GMT -5
I was buying those off the newsstand from around Batman 345 to 410. It’s not quite my favorite era of Batman because I’ve grown to love the craziness of the late fifties and the early sixties. But Moench is second! I think my favorite BATMAN eras are probably.... Jerry Robinson, Dick Sprang, Don Newton & Paul Gulacy. (The latter is just the odd story here and there.)
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 15, 2021 18:39:04 GMT -5
Preacher #1-#5 and Transmetropolitan #1-#3
Kind of had an out of the blue itch to re-read these two yesterday, wasn't disappointed. Love both Ennis and Ellis' black sense of humor, but I've been drawn back to Transmetro more because of the cyberpunk/political angle (not to downplay Preacher's excellent melding of the supernatural, religion, and Texas sensibilities)
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Post by badwolf on Oct 15, 2021 20:26:07 GMT -5
Moench for me was one of the most dependable writers around - maybe THE most in the sense that he seemed to be able to take on any sort of assignment and do a better than average job with it.
Moench's early eighties run on Batman is still my favourite ever era of the Dark Knight. The run he did with Kelley Jones is mine.
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Post by spoon on Oct 18, 2021 17:14:13 GMT -5
I read the Aquaman: Deadly Waters hardcover reprinting Aquaman #49-56. I really enjoyed it. The Jim Aparo art is gorgeous and Steve Skeates takes some good risks with the writing. I think I may have read the first story via a reprint in Adventure Comics digest, but it doesn't remotely compare to giving Aparo the full page to work with. I'm more familiar with Aparo's work from 1980s Batman or the Outsiders or even the revival of Aquaman in the late 70s in Adventure Comics and his own series, and these stories from 1970-1971 seem like a level above. It's makes me want to buy the other HC from this run and check out the earlier portion of his B&B run.
I tend to be into ongoing plots with lots of character development. But the trippy excursions, one-off plots, and unusual resolutions in this book are a nice change of pace. For example, there are multiple stories where someone other than Aquaman is most responsible for the victory over the villains. There'a s story that takes place in a miscroscopic world that was published over a year before Harlan Ellison's Jarella story in Incredible Hulk. Coincidentally, there's also a story with an unhinged millionaire named Eliot Harlanson. There's also an interesting story that hinges on a deranged person who is willing to cause environmental catastrophe, because he only cares about reducing crime. That said, character takes a back seat. First instance, Aqualad has a rival for Tula's affection. It seems like he's a previously established character, but he only shows up in one issue late in the book, so there wasn't a big commitment on developing these threads consistently.
A few issues have a Neal Adams Deadman back-up story that ties into the Aquamn lead feature in an interesting way (which I mention in the Ask a Question thread). The book reprints an essay (I don't know if you could call in a letters page since it doesn't have fan letters) from Steve Skeates explaining how those linked stories came about.
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Post by MDG on Oct 19, 2021 8:17:16 GMT -5
I read the Aquaman: Deadly Waters hardcover reprinting Aquaman #49-56. I really enjoyed it. The Jim Aparo art is gorgeous and Steve Skeates takes some good risks with the writing. I think I may have read the first story via a reprint in Adventure Comics digest, but it doesn't remotely compare to giving Aparo the full page to work with. ... Yeah--even following Cardy's great work, Aparo is doing some great work in these books. Also seeing traces of a Williamson influence in some places which is missing in his later work. While he was consistently solid throughout his career, he seems to be experimenting with a few things in his earliest DC work. (His work on Phantom Stranger is also excellent.)
And Skeates is doing a good job on the book, using arcs and background continuity, but not getting dragged down.
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Post by dbutler69 on Oct 20, 2021 18:13:20 GMT -5
I read Sensation She-Hulk (1991) #1-3 by John Byrne. So far, I'm loving it!
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 21, 2021 8:12:50 GMT -5
Read the Apocalypse War story line from Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 5. I've had this volume for about two/three years and never touched that particular saga because I was worried that it would just be long-winded and boring like The Cursed Earth and The Judge Child had been. It was actually really good, compelling even
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Post by earl on Oct 22, 2021 11:11:07 GMT -5
Apocalypse War is a classic end of 'oh no you wouldn't - oh yes, I will'.
Pretty much any Dredd was 'this is not your regular DC or Marvel comic', but that one left an impression upon first read back when i was a teenager in the 80s.
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 22, 2021 18:41:08 GMT -5
Apocalypse War is a classic end of 'oh no you wouldn't - oh yes, I will'. Pretty much any Dredd was 'this is not your regular DC or Marvel comic', but that one left an impression upon first read back when i was a teenager in the 80s. Agreed!
And when the first TAD goes through the Apocalypse Warp and totally obliterates a parallel world that had known peace for ten thousand years had me snickering like I hadn't done since I was first reading through the series. British Black Humor will be the end of me
War Marshall Kazan reminded me a lot of Caligula from "Day The Law Died" in the sense that they're both power-crazed madmen bent on global domination
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Post by spoon on Oct 23, 2021 15:04:14 GMT -5
I read Rom #31-32 and Dazzler #22-24, 28. Since I recently binged my way through a run of Uncanny X-Men #158 (Rogue's 2nd appearance overall & 1st in UXM), I decide to read Rogue's appearance between that issue and when Rogue heads to Xavier's school in UXM #170.
I wonder if there was coordinated plan for Rogue. From Mike's Amazing World of Comics, the chronology of publication is Avengers Annual #10, several months pass, UXM #158 & Rom #31 published the same month, several months between Rom and Dazzler, then her swan song as a villain in Dazzler #28 published the same month she shows up at Xavier's mansion in UXM #171 (but the month after she's depicted running away & taking a bus to go to Xavier's. Rom #32 actually shows Rogue developing glimmers of a conscience, but most of these issues have portrayed pretty villainously. There's also inconsistency in how old she's portrayed as being. In Rom #31, Rogue impersonates a psychiatrist, but in #32, she's called a kid.
None of these issues are that great, but I liked the Rom issues better than Dazzler. The male members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants were captured during the Rom story, so a few times in Dazzler, the remaining member (Rogue, Mystique, and Destiny) are called the Sisterhood of Evil Mutants. Both and Dazzler play a little bit with the team calling themselves "Evil." It feels clumsy in post-Silver Age comics. Rom is a bit more thoughtful, whereas in Dazzler, Rogue is more of a moustache-twirling villain.
The passing reference in the pages of X-Men to the battles between Dazzler and Rogue end up being more interesting that what the actual issues of Dazzler ended up delivering. As a big an X-Men fan as I am, I haven't enjoyed the Dazzler solo comics I've read that much. Almost all my Dazzler comics come from an Ebay lot I bought for cheap that has a bunch of randomly scattered issues throughtout the series. I'm not a fan of the Springer/Colletta art and the writing is too soap opera cheesy. I have read a couple of the Paul Chadwick issues toward the end of the series. I see that between the Springer and Chadwick runs, Mark Bright and Geoff Isherwood penciled some issues. Those sound like they'd be interesing just for the art, but unfortunately I don't have any of those issues.
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Post by Cei-U! on Oct 23, 2021 16:24:26 GMT -5
Dazzler is a terrible comic that got worse after Jim Shooter got a hold of her and turned her into a brainless bimbo (much as he did with Tigra). Unless I have to professionally, I don't anticipate ever reading her series again.
Cei-U! I summon the disco dud!
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Post by earl on Oct 23, 2021 20:28:49 GMT -5
As absurd as Dredd seemed in the 80s, there are some definite themes in those stories that do seem prescient. The whole idea of the crazy game shows and the celebrity tribalism between the blocks etc. There is a story where these computer guys are in this car circling a building to break into the main computer to pull off a robbery in one story that seems amazingly prescient considering the tech of the 80s.
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Post by Batflunkie on Oct 23, 2021 20:37:16 GMT -5
As absurd as Dredd seemed in the 80s, there are some definite themes in those stories that do seem prescient. The whole idea of the crazy game shows and the celebrity tribalism between the blocks etc. There is a story where these computer guys are in this car circling a building to break into the main computer to pull off a robbery in one story that seems amazingly prescient considering the tech of the 80s. Dredd being Cyberpunk doesn't really sit well with me because at it's core, it's just a very raw dystopian sci-fi comic with a 70's style revenge movie/cop drama pastiche
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Post by earl on Oct 23, 2021 20:50:01 GMT -5
I was more tripping on the fact that it had similarities to connecting to a network via wireless and using a technique not-completely unlike spoofing into a secure network - like someone might do in reality now.
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