Thursday, January 10, 2008

It's a Random Note Kinda Day

No theme today, just a lazy bullet point kinda thing.

*Now that we're well past it, and get some sense of what the aftermath might be, I've a couple of Deep Thoughts on World War Hulk.

World=one city, apparentlyFirst, it was really kind of mis-named, wasn't it? It wasn't actually a World war at all, as essentially just New York was involved. No other countries, even! The most blatant case of false advertising since The Neverending Story!!

Secondly, it's nice to see that the complete devastation of the nation's largest city has had ZERO impact on the rest of the Marvel Universe, including the mags set in NYC. Spider-Man, FF, Daredevil, Red and Blue Avengers...nary a damaged building, not even a stray mention of evacuation or devastation or rebuilding. Nada. For all the impact this "must-read" event had on the rest of the Marvel Universe, it might as well have taken place in Exiles or What If?? Maybe that was part of Mephisto's continuity revamp, too...

Finally, don't you think that maybe we'd see Stark, Richards, et al hauled in front of Congress for hearings into how they caused this mess? I mean, if one mildly damaged city block was enough to make the public turn on Captain America in Civil War, you'd think the destruction of the entire city would have some repercussions, too, like Stark being removed from S.H.I.E.L.D. command or something...

Secondly finally, Red Hulk #1 was a massive waste of time. Oh, and Amadeus Cho is still a colossal tool.

Nothing says WTF like Haney*OK, how do I say this? There aren't enough drugs in the world to cause my head to trip out like the "Lost" Teen Titans Annual did. And do you know why there aren't enough drugs for that? Because Bob Haney must have consumed them ALL when writing this...ahhhhhhhh!!!!!

*"Brand New Day?" Let's see...Peter's broke, can't get a decent job, Aunt May is sweet but clueless, J. Jonah Jameson is an asshole. Yup, this was a brand new day, alright--in 1974, maybe...

*Hey, look, now Mighty Avengers is only 17 issues behind New Avenger's continuity! Pro-tip for colorist Justin Ponsor and letterer Dave Lanphear: dudes, Stark's "armor captions" are impossible to read when you make them light green lettering on a bright yellow background. Seriously. Fix this.

And I used to like Mark Bagley's art. Wha happened? Maybe it's the 14 different inkers they used this issue...but that doesn't explain why you can't understand what the frak is going on in that page set in space...

Oh, and by the way: is there ANY reason for this book to exist? Just askin'.

*I've been a good boy, not complaining about Countdown, and about how the explanations for the Monitors' behaviors not only make no sense but also directly contradict everything shown so far; about how the characterizations on Monarch (Captain Atom!!) or Ray Palmer seem like the writers have never even heard of these characters before before; or about how the series is still just treading water, but disguising it better by not even mentioning certain plot lines for issues at a time so we don't realize how slooooooowly everything is moving as we kill time for 16 more weeks. And how am I rewarded?

Obviously, Mephisto made OUR Bruce Wayne forget Jason ToddThe Batman from Earth-51 cares more about the resurrection of Jason Todd than our Batman does. Kudos, DC, kudos.

*My co-worker Robert didn't think I would post his picture in my blog.

Don't tell me who dies!!I like to tease him because he waits for the trades on the Walking Dead. So I taunt with with my knowledge gleaned from the floppies. That's what kind of guy I am.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re: Mighty Avengers

"Oh, and by the way: is there ANY reason for this book to exist? Just askin'."

As I recall, this was supposed to be the title that proved to the world that, yes, Brian Bendis could write slam-bank, high action stories, which would serve as a ying-yang balance with all the talky-talk in New Avengers. While giving it my "I'm 90% sure I'm not going to buy this" leaf-through on Wednesday, I noted that Bendis couldn't resist making Mighty Avengers another talkity-talk book and that Bagley's artwork looked awful (although, I certainly don't envy ANYone following an act like Frank Cho).

So, to answer your question of "Why does Mighty Avengers" exist? Because Brian Bendis loves the talkity-talk.

snell said...

I was going to say that it existed only to serve as a base series for Skrullapalooza (aka Silent Invasion). But I like your answer, Mark.

And what's the idea with all those thought balloons during conversations? It might have sounded cool, but on paper it's odd and off-putting. And talk about telling instead of showing...