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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 22, 2019 10:37:19 GMT -5
I'm not going to do a full review as it's not a real story in the traditional sense but I did enjoy History of the Marvel Universe #2. One thing that surprised me though was that they kept Doctor Strange's origin as happening in the late 60's, I guess magic could explain why he isn't ancient in the current period but it seemed a little weird that they didn't slide him further along the time line. Likewise they moved the fantastic four and Doctor Doom out of the 50's which is needed...but they only bumped them up to the 70's. Maybe they got stuck in the phantom zone and only escaped recently as other wise it would be strange that they were so young unless you hand wave it away with cosmic rays instead? Two without plausible explanations would be Frank Castle and Rhodey being active in Vietnam, I get that the period is important to the Punisher...but he's just a regular guy so magic or cosmic rays can't explain why he doesn't look like a 60 year old man in the current day and the same goes with Rhodey. I mean if you wanted them to be older than your average hero I would think the first Gulf War would be more realistic. While I enjoyed this for what it was, I found parts of the timeline to be problematic. Destiny and Mystique are around 150 years old...okay. If you re-read they did change the ties of Castle and Rhodey from Vietnam to "Siancong." An obvious stand-in but not tied to a given timepoint. Apparently magic keeps Mordo and Strange eternally young. Is Magneto still alive? Because he has to be in his mid to late 80s. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 22, 2019 11:34:23 GMT -5
I'm not going to do a full review as it's not a real story in the traditional sense but I did enjoy History of the Marvel Universe #2. One thing that surprised me though was that they kept Doctor Strange's origin as happening in the late 60's, I guess magic could explain why he isn't ancient in the current period but it seemed a little weird that they didn't slide him further along the time line. Likewise they moved the fantastic four and Doctor Doom out of the 50's which is needed...but they only bumped them up to the 70's. Maybe they got stuck in the phantom zone and only escaped recently as other wise it would be strange that they were so young unless you hand wave it away with cosmic rays instead? Two without plausible explanations would be Frank Castle and Rhodey being active in Vietnam, I get that the period is important to the Punisher...but he's just a regular guy so magic or cosmic rays can't explain why he doesn't look like a 60 year old man in the current day and the same goes with Rhodey. I mean if you wanted them to be older than your average hero I would think the first Gulf War would be more realistic. While I enjoyed this for what it was, I found parts of the timeline to be problematic. Destiny and Mystique are around 150 years old...okay. If you re-read they did change the ties of Castle and Rhodey from Vietnam to "Siancong." An obvious stand-in but not tied to a given timepoint. Apparently magic keeps Mordo and Strange eternally young. Is Magneto still alive? Because he has to be in his mid to late 80s. Though not called the Vietnam war I think it still occupies the same basic time frame, or perhaps a little later as the end piece stated that the Vienam war did occur. Still as the issue seemed to progress in chronological order and we've yet to see the end of the cold war so then the Siancon war would then have to be before 1991 but after the 1960's as they showed Avengers 1959. Magneto is another oddity, I mean he is a mutant so maybe you can hand wave that away but who knows? The art is still top notch so I'll keep reading |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 22, 2019 13:05:21 GMT -5
While I enjoyed this for what it was, I found parts of the timeline to be problematic. Destiny and Mystique are around 150 years old...okay. If you re-read they did change the ties of Castle and Rhodey from Vietnam to "Siancong." An obvious stand-in but not tied to a given timepoint. Apparently magic keeps Mordo and Strange eternally young. Is Magneto still alive? Because he has to be in his mid to late 80s. Well there is the time Magneto was de-aged to a baby and then grew older from there to account for his being older if they choose to retain that storyline in the timeline they are forging. -M I don't know that I was aware of that. The last X-book I read was a short way into Paul Smith's run following Byrne and Cockrum II. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 22, 2019 13:19:07 GMT -5
I don't know that I was aware of that. The last X-book I read was a short way into Paul Smith's run following Byrne and Cockrum II. It happened in Defenders #15-16. -M You're right. It did. And now I vaguely remember that having Googled it. And now we talk about how damn old I am and forgetful. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 22, 2019 15:28:42 GMT -5
Though not called the Vietnam war I think it still occupies the same basic time frame, or perhaps a little later as the end piece stated that the Vienam war did occur. Still as the issue seemed to progress in chronological order and we've yet to see the end of the cold war so then the Siancon war would then have to be before 1991 but after the 1960's as they showed Avengers 1959. Magneto is another oddity, I mean he is a mutant so maybe you can hand wave that away but who knows? The art is still top notch so I'll keep reading I think the gist is that the Siancong war is meant to be an Asian conflict that happens after the timeframe of Vietnam that they can tie all the Marvel characters with ties to an Asian war to without having them tied to the timeframe of Vietnam, so they can avoid the exact types of aging issues you are bringing up. -M Mark Waid addressed it today and it looks like you're right: That's the word of god so I guess that's the way it goes, but the context in the book itself makes it weird unless we're just skipping the 70's, 80's and 90's. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 22, 2019 15:29:45 GMT -5
This was posted by Mark Waid and I found it in another forum's discussion of the issue, but it is germane to the discussion here as well so I am reposting it... -M beat me to it, I was just reading that. |
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Post by Dizzy D on Aug 25, 2019 2:47:22 GMT -5
I'm not going to do a full review as it's not a real story in the traditional sense but I did enjoy History of the Marvel Universe #2. One thing that surprised me though was that they kept Doctor Strange's origin as happening in the late 60's, I guess magic could explain why he isn't ancient in the current period but it seemed a little weird that they didn't slide him further along the time line. Likewise they moved the fantastic four and Doctor Doom out of the 50's which is needed...but they only bumped them up to the 70's. Maybe they got stuck in the phantom zone and only escaped recently as other wise it would be strange that they were so young unless you hand wave it away with cosmic rays instead? Two without plausible explanations would be Frank Castle and Rhodey being active in Vietnam, I get that the period is important to the Punisher...but he's just a regular guy so magic or cosmic rays can't explain why he doesn't look like a 60 year old man in the current day and the same goes with Rhodey. I mean if you wanted them to be older than your average hero I would think the first Gulf War would be more realistic.
I couldn't be bothered to pick up History #2 (I found #1 to have great art, but the "story" presentation was just terrible. Comparing it to similar works where we're just going through a long timeline of things happening, History was basically "This happened. This happened. This happened" without any of the connective story tissue that better works did. Very disappointing from Waid. Also some weird skips in issue #1. We see the Elder Gods and the rise of the next gods, but we're just skipping over the Demigorge killing most of the Elder Gods. We have a short mention of Mephisto, but not how he, Satannish and the major demons were once a single entity and many many more. Don't have the first issue here).
Anyway, not the thing I wanted to talk about:
- Dr. Strange, there was always the part of Strange already being active for years by the time of his first appearance and that becoming a Master of the Mystical Arts would have taken him years as well, so keeping Strange's origins at least a decade before the other heroes always worked for me.
- Castle's origin just doesn't work with the Gulf War. The kind of war Vietnam was, is integral to the character. Likewise, transposing Steve Rogers from WWII to the Korean War for instance would just end up with a completely different character.
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Post by BigPapaJoe on Aug 27, 2019 1:04:34 GMT -5
Only read two new release this session. Mega week next session though. Excited:
House of X #3
Superman #14
Absolute Carnage #2
Justice League Dark #14
Doctor Strange #18
Batman/Superman #1
Also need to catch up on Justice League and Red Hood/Outlaws since they have new releases this week as well.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2019 1:30:38 GMT -5
I couldn't be bothered to pick up History #2 (I found #1 to have great art, but the "story" presentation was just terrible. Comparing it to similar works where we're just going through a long timeline of things happening, History was basically "This happened. This happened. This happened" without any of the connective story tissue that better works did. Very disappointing from Waid. Same here - the comic book itself doesn't make any sense without reading all the explanatory stuff in the back; as you say it's a lot of "... then The Amazing Weirdo appeared (and was never head of again)..." |
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