Random Thoughts on Previews #302

Marvel

• So after "Marvel Now" comes "All-New Marvel Now"? And they're still doing "point ones"? When will the insanity end? 
• Inhuman #1 - I'll probably get the first issue. I'm reluctant to add more Marvel books to my pull list after finally cutting it down to a reasonable size, but I can't help it. I'm weak. 
• All-New Invaders #1 - When did James Robinson switch over to Marvel? I'm always happy when people leave DC, but this book doesn't really have any appeal to me otherwise. John Cassaday covers, urgh.
• Okay, that whole "#22.now = #1" makes no fucking sense. Who dreams up these gimmicks at Marvel? 
• Avengers World #1 & 2 - Jonathan Hickman's Avengers epic is getting pretty freaking expensive to follow. Or, wait, is this replacing New Avengers? Hmm. All I know is that I'm not going to buy three Hickman Avengers books anymore after Infinity ends. Especially not $4 dollar ones that double-ship half the time. 
• Black Widow #1 & 2 - Phil Noto on art. Sold. 
• All-New X-Factor #1 & 2 - Peter David and Carmine Di Giandomenico. Tempting. But why is Gambit on this team? Blargh. 
• Mighty Avengers #5 - I'm super into this series so far, so yeah, I'm in. Despite Greg Land's art.
• There's a whole section of Inhumanity tie-ins and I don't really know what that is. I didn't realize there was some kind of event on top of the Inhuman series, and why isn't Inhuman #1 in the Inhumanity section? Confusing. Anyway, I'm probably just going to ignore all this.
• Miracleman #1 & 2 - Alan Moore is credited as "the original writer," as in, his name doesn't appear in the description because he specifically requested not to be mentioned. This whole thing makes me a little uncomfortable. Don't think I'm gonna get this. Some of those covers are really nice, though. 
• Empire of the Dead: Act One #1 - Written by George Romero with art by Alex Maleev. Meh, I don't know. I like Maleev, but do we really need this?
• New Avengers #14 - Oh no, hey, this series is still going, and for some reason it's in a completely different section than the other Hickman Avengers titles. I don't get it. Also, which one of these books will I have to drop?
• The Amazing Spider-Man: The Movie Adaptation #1 - WHY?
• Daredevil #35 - Man, Chris Samnee is still drawing this? This is the book that I most regret dropping this year. Why did I do that?!
• I kinda want that Warlock collection.

Dark Horse

• I don't really have anything to say about any of these books. Except maybe that Brian Wood's run on Conan the Barbarian better end soon because I'm like 15 issues behind and for some reason I can't stop buying it anyway and the issues are just gonna keep piling up until it ends.

DC Comics

• Everything looks awful.
• Gothtopia lolz
• Catwoman is the new Robin?!
• What's wrong with Hal Jordan's face?!

IMAGE

• Deadly Class #1 - I don't know, I'm not really feeling it, but I'll probably try the first issue.
• EGOs #1 - Same.
• Bad Dog #6 - OMG, why did it take like a million years for this last issue to come out!?
• Final issue of Prophet! Sad. Such a great book. 

OTHER

• The Midas Flesh #2 (of 8) (Boom) - That looks kinda cool. Never saw the solicits for the first issue, but I'll try to remember to pick it up if they have it in the store. 
• RASL: The Complete Edition HC - I want that.
• I don't really understand the appeal of a Twilight Zone ongoing series.
• Bad Ass #1 (Dynamite) - "If Kick-Ass and Deadpool had  a baby, it would be bad ass!" That sounds awful.
• Apparently Al Ewing's run on Jennifer Blood is pretty good. I should check that out.
• Everything that Valiant is publishing right now looks like all right. I kinda wish I hadn't dropped Harbinger.

Review: Superman/Wonder Woman #1

This post was adapted and expanded from some tweets I tweeted earlier. It is also getting cross-posted to Tumblr.

There was a guy at the comic book shop this evening when I went to pick up my comics. He's often there. He's kinda cool. I like him. We talked. He convinced me to buy a comic book that I would never in a million years have picked up otherwise. Superman/Wonder Woman #1. 

Disclaimer #1: This is the first DC book I've bought in forever. I can't even remember the last time I bought a DC book. 

Disclaimer #2: I have zero interest in Superman and Wonder Woman as a couple. The idea does nothing for me. In fact, when it was first announced, I found it kind of revolting and it left a bad taste in my mouth. 

Disclaimer #3: I hate Tony Daniel's art. 

Disclaimer #4: I expected to hate this in every way imaginable. But the dude was so enthusiastic about it. He said it was his favourite single issue of the year and he's a huge Wonder Woman fan and he was skeptical about the whole super-couple thing, too, and as far as I can tell, he's a discerning comic reader with a fine taste. So I thought, sure, why not?

Anyway, I read it. And it was... kinda meh? The art is exactly as bad as I expected it to be, but I kind of enjoyed the characters voices. Both of them. I think Charles Soule is a good writer and he has a pretty good grasp of these characters. As much as I can tell from a first issue anyway. He makes the super-couple idea work better than thought possible. I could almost buy the idea if I tried to forget that it's so completely unnecessary.

But where it fell apart for me was the panels where Superman and Wonder Woman kinda almost but not really have sex in silhouette with the red background, superimposed on the fight with Doomsday. There are at least three things wrong with just those two pages:

1. The silhouette thing is just cheesy and awful, not to mention that Tony Daniel apparently doesn't understand how silhouettes work. Like, he doesn't get the concept of characters being lit from behind? It would have been easy enough to set the scene in front of a window or by candle light or something, but no, they're actually lying on the bed and they're wearing clothes and the clothes are lit normally but their skin is pitch black for some reason? I don't even know if I'm explaining this properly but it makes NO SENSE.

2. It's just unnecessary. Like, yeah, we get it. They're a couple. They're dating. That implies that they're probably being intimate with each other in one way or another. If they had given us some gratuitous money shot, that would've been something. It would have been an awful thing, but still at thing. But this tacky softcore mildly suggestive interrupted coitus scene just adds nothing.

3. The whole cutting back and forth between violence and a (non-)sex scene... I've seen it before and I'm tired of it.

Aside from that, it was an okay issue with some decent writing and some mediocre-to-bad art. Also, Dooomsday, who is the most boring villain ever. 

Something I had forgotten about DC Comics that I really dislike: Those colour-coded captions for the interior monologues with the character logos. Like, yeah, I get it, it's Superman's thoughts. You didn't have to make it that obvious, I could've figured it out on my own. 

Also, I guess people still hate the Justice League in the New 52. Like civilians, I mean. Normal people inside the fictional universe. They hate super-heroes. Probably because super-heroes in the New 52 are jerks. That was something I really hated about the reboot but I figured it would have changed by now. Apparently not.

The more I think about this, the more I regret buying this comic. I also realize now that some part of me was genuinely (and almost secretly) hoping that this comic would surprise me and win me over. I really miss these characters. I haven't touched DC's books for ages but I wanted to read this and find out that I'd been missing something. I wanted DC to prove me wrong. But no, not reading DC comics was absolutely the right decision to make.

In a way, the fact that this comic book didn't turn out that bad in spite of everything is almost worst. If it had been a truly horrible comic with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, I'd just be like, whatever, DC sucks. But this was almost halfway decent. I could at least see that there was some potential there, but that just ends up being a total bummer because it's dragged down by the sheer DC-ness of it, by which I mean everything that I've come to associate with DC Comics since the New 52, like what a grim and depressing world it is and how awful and unhappy all the characters seem to be and the shitty Jim Lee clone art that's so dreary it makes you want to never look at a comic book again.

Ugh. Don't read the New 52, kids. It's depressing.

Journey Into Amazing Episode 001

Well, I have been busy doing things. Things like moving and working and just about anything other than writing about comics on this blog. But I warned you something was coming, and now it has arrived.

Welcome to the first episode of Journey Into Amazing, a new podcast about two dudes (myself and co-host Ariel Esteban Cayer) reading their way through all 700 issues of Amazing Spider-Man.

This week we jump right in with the first five issues, written by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and featuring the first appearances of The Chameleon, The Vulture, Dr. Octopus and The Sandman.

In the second half of the show, we talk about some more recent comics, including Trillium #3, Mara #6, some Robocop mini-series and Mighty Avengers #1 and #2.

I'm super-excited about this project and it seems like the perfect excuse for me to start posting on this blog again. Rising from the ashes, etc.

Please help spread the word by sharing, tweeting, tumblring and facebooking. And tell us what you think in the comments below. In the near-future, we'll have a dedicated page for this podcast on tumblr, where we will also be posting panels from the comic books we review, but I will continue to cross-post new episodes to this blog each week.

Enjoy!

00:00:00 - intro & theme song

ACT 1

00:01:30 - jumping right into our discussion of AMS #1-5
00:04:45 - Spidey’s first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15
00:13:55 - AMS #1: first appearance of The Chameleon, guest appearance by the Fantastic Four, Spidey and Johnny Storm BFFs
00:21:16 - ASM #2: first appearance of The Vulture, first appearance of the Tinkerer
00:22:13 - ASM #3: first appearance of Dr. Octopus, Steve Ditko’s art
00:28:39 - ASM #4: first appearance of Sandman, J. Jonah Jameson as antagonist
00:37:58 - ASM #5: guest appearances by Dr. Doom and the Fantastic Four
00:41:30 - closing words on AMS #1-5, what’s up with the spidey signal?

ACT 2

00:43:32 - moving on to weekly comic reviews
00:44:05 - Trillium #1-3, by Jeff Lemire and Jose Vilarrubia
00:52:10 - Mara #1-6, by Brian Wood, Ming Doyle, Jordie Bellaire
01:00:30 - Robocop: Last Stand #1-3, by Frank Miller, Steven Grant, Korkut Oztekin, Michael Garland, with covers by Declan Shalvey
01:04:55 - Mighty Avengers #1-2, by Al Ewing, Greg Land, Jay Leisten, Frank D’Armata

01:18:50 - closing comments