Essential The Official Comic Book Discussion Thread [Support @Neuromancer’s book!]

[23Barrettcity]

Ra's Al Ghul giving zero fukks about Forever Evil amused me

He gave the same excuse Joker gave The Black Hand... Bats will be back and he will get in that ass and I want nothing to do with it lol

The level of respect batman villains give him is bar none .

What do y'all make of this Ebony Maw fukker? Dude seems to have his own ulterior motives. And he's obviously very powerful to get the drop on Dr. Strange like that and turn him into a hypnotized puppet.

I was lurking on the CBR boards and some people were speculating that he might be a demonically-altered/augmented Starfox, who of course is Thanos brother.

You know im not they impressed with his goons they seek like cannon fodder for the illuminati eventually

Still seems too similar to mutants, it seems like Marvel tried to copy its own idea are the inhumans new? I never heard of them before.

Naw they been around , crystal was a avenger , they are kree experiment . They were big in FF back in the day too read the war of kings trade to find out their current spot in marvel . They were kind of like Atlantis back in the day chilling and ruling themselves

 

[Greenstrings]

Great critique of everything that's wrong with DC right now
http://whenwillthehurtingstop.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/sir.html

Based around a (relatively long) review of the Trinity of Sin event but these are the key paragraphs.

DC in 2013 is cribbing pretty hard from the Marvel 1998 playbook. They've succeeded in leveling out almost all tonal variance across the line, ensuring the consistency of a recognizable house style across almost every book they publish. It's difficult for individual voices to gain traction, and there is every indication that this situation, rather than being accidental, proceeds in precisely the manner the company intends. Many talented creators have either left voluntarily or been effectively blackballed, with the majority of titles given to journeyman hacks or amenable veterans. You don't hear a lot of creators working on the Nu52 talking about certain books being "passion projects" or lifelong dreams come true - individual creator motivations appear almost entirely absent from the finished product.

The problem with Trinity War, as with so much of the Nu52, is quite simply that the current incarnations of these characters and situations simply are not interesting. Few DC characters emerged from the line-wide reboot in any way improved by the ordeal. Superman, despite a handful of good stories in his solo books, remains naggingly indeterminate in a way that seems most troubling in light of the fact that Superman's personality should be the baseline around which everything else at DC must inevitably cohere. Wonder Woman appears incompetent and pugnacious in equal measure. The Flash, restored more-or-less intact to his pre-1966 status quo, remains as resolutely boring as ever. Green Lantern and Batman remain intact from their pre-Flashpoint incarnations, primarily because those two characters were and remain the company's flagship franchises.

There is a house style. There is a sustained focus on inter-title consistency at the expense of individual creator initiative. Readers have been trained by both companies over the last decade to reward titles that "matter" at the expense of those which do not: excellent and idiosyncratic titles like China Miéville's Dial H have no relevancy to the line's larger initiatives, and languish as a result.

So now we have an environment where Shazam and John Constantine can share panels in a completely straight-forward and unironic fashion. The tone of Shazam's solo adventures is now vaguely mordant and grisly (in a sanitized way), which is also not-so-coincidentally the tone of Constantine's book. Both characters can interact on the same footing. But what is most unique about both characters has also been lost: Shazam (which is the name we're stuck with) is far too dark and unpleasant to reflect the character's appealing virtue, while the Nu52 Constantine is a watered-down, juvenile mess without any of the ambiguity, intelligence, or charm of the original. In trying to create a consistent, comfortable shared universe context for both characters, they have sanded away everything important.

- the other two being the Phantom Stranger and the Question. The former has been completely revamped, given a confirmed origin as Judas Iscariot, and given a secret identity, a human family, and a talking dog sidekick; the latter has been revamped into a mysterious amnesiac ancient evildoer forced to live forever, walking the earth in search of thequestion (get it?) that will reveal his identity. It should not need to be said that both of these revamps commit unforgivable violence against the characters' original intent. Since the first cryptic announcement of the Trinity War, fans assumed that the trinity in question would be the familiar trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. I must give them some points for defying expectations, but in this instance the expectations would certainly have made more sense than what we got.

There's a part of me that feels bad for Johns. He's pretty high up in the DC food chain. He was one of the architects of the Nu52, and has been the single biggest commercial draw at DC for many years, not exclusive of Jim Lee. But he's a traditionalist. Despite his tendency to dismember these characters in gruesome ways, he's a fan first and foremost. And even though he created this new status quo, I have to believe there's a part of him, deep down, trapped in a little box and crying throughout the endless long dark night of his soul, that recognizes that these characters are just pale imitations of the real thing. This Justice League, this Superman, this Wonder Woman, this John Constantine - they are all off, every single one of them. The word came down from on high that the whole apparatus had to be rebuilt from stem to stern practically overnight, so he did the best he could to give the corporation what they said they wanted: streamlined raw materials, grist for the mill of the efficient IP farm Warner Brothers wants their comic book division to resemble. The problem is that these characters are ciphers, reflections of ghosts, with little to recommend them to readers who have access to the originals.

With two years' hindsight, it is more and more apparent that the true shift signified by the advent of the Nu52 was that individual characters no longer matter (to say nothing of creators). The most important brand is not Superman or Batman or Green Lantern and certainly not Shazam or John Constantine, but DC Comics - oops, sorry, DC Entertainment. The most important thing for them is that they have a cohesive universe that can be presented as a legible whole. The great triumphs of superhero comics have traditionally come as a result of the genre's strange, disreputable, tatterdemalion profligacy. But it's becoming harder and harder for companies to justify extending that kind of creative freedom in regards to characters who might each and every one of them (in the minds of Warner Brothers executives) end up as their next billion-dollar franchise. The cruel irony is that without being able to offer that kind of freedom and trust to individual creators, the stories become sterile and vapid, and the IP is degraded

 

[ExodusNirvana]

LOL @ Logan just kicking it in the Avengers mansion while that fight was going down with Cable's crew

 

[Mr. Negative]

What do y'all make of this Ebony Maw fukker? Dude seems to have his own ulterior motives. And he's obviously very powerful to get the drop on Dr. Strange like that and turn him into a hypnotized puppet.

I was lurking on the CBR boards and some people were speculating that he might be a demonically-altered/augmented Starfox, who of course is Thanos brother.

dayum, that's a hell of a reach.

 

[Mr. Negative]

Great critique of everything that's wrong with DC right now
http://whenwillthehurtingstop.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/sir.html

Based around a (relatively long) review of the Trinity of Sin event but these are the key paragraphs.

yep. they really need to have an event where this is revealed as earth 12 or some shyt and be done with it.

After all, why wouldn't each and every parallel earth believe it were earth PRIME, and all other Earths imposter fake earths?

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

dayum, that's a hell of a reach.

His powers appear similar though. Starfox had the ability to disorient people and put them into a state of sort of emotional paralysis. That looks kinda like what he did to Strange.

 

[Mr. Negative]

His powers appear similar though. Starfox had the ability to disorient people and put them into a state of sort of emotional paralysis. That looks like what je did to Strange.

Nah. Starfox has the ability to persuade people by making them feel good to the point of mental orgasm. He doesn't have any control over any other part of the emotional spectrum.

There was even a She-Hulk arc where she had to defend him in court cause they were saying it was like rape. Thanos even showed up in court and said it was Starfox's fault that he was so in love with Death and tried to pin his incredibly high body count on his head.

I'm sure the current Coli would have loved it.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Nah. Starfox has the ability to persuade people by making them feel good to the point of mental orgasm. He doesn't have any control over any other part of the emotional spectrum.

There was even a She-Hulk arc where she had to defend him in court cause they were saying it was like rape. Thanos even showed up in court and said it was Starfox's fault that he was so in love with Death and tried to pin his incredibly high body count on his head.

I'm sure the current Coli would have loved it.

That looks like what he's doing to Strange. Strange is cognizant of his presence and he's responding to him and everything, but he can't resist him. It's just on a level that is way more potent then Starfox has shown in the past.

That part in New Avengers where Ebony Maw was asking Strange does he take pleasure in pleasing him deserved a no homo.

 

[Mr. Negative]

That looks like what he's doing to Strange. Strange is cognizant of his presence and he's responding to him and everything, but he can't resist him. It's just on a level that is way more potent then Starfox has shown in the past.

That part in New Avengers where Ebony Maw was asking Strange does he take pleasure in pleasing him deserved a no homo.

nah, man.

if it were Eros, Dr. Strange would have been looking like he belonged in @R=G 's avatar. There's is no poker facing Eros' power. It works on pleasure centers and pleasure centers only. There's no point in the character's 30 year history where it's worked any different.

but at this point, I really can't put it past Marvel to fukk the character up.

 

[Bigbigguy]

Ebony Maw made Strange his bytch

Strange has to be the one to kill him

 

[23Barrettcity]

Great critique of everything that's wrong with DC right now
http://whenwillthehurtingstop.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/sir.html

Based around a (relatively long) review of the Trinity of Sin event but these are the key paragraphs.

Ehhh Dc giving liefield books was stupid , not giving Gail Simone's more high profile work was to me silly her books are usually good , keeping batman and green lantern continuity kind of hamstrung some storylines too. I love johns but dc does need to reward some other guys with power in DC because johns style can get kind of boring . Dc has what Snyder, johns and wasted azzarello and any other talented guy on under the radar titles ... I won't even get started on superman and how they already doing the same things that messed up the title pre52.

 

[Mic-Nificent]

All you have to do is look at some of the people who have been working for DC since the Nu52 to see that cronyism is running amuck. It's essentially a bunch of guys who were buddies at marvel back in the day making sure each other keep cushy jobs.

 

[Jello Biafra]

Spoiler

His name is Thane

Spoiler

Really? That's his name?
That is about as stupid as DC naming Mongul's sister Mongal.

 

[Jello Biafra]

Still seems too similar to mutants, it seems like Marvel tried to copy its own idea are the inhumans new? I never heard of them before.

The Inhumans been around since the early days of the Fantasitc Four comic.
And the only reason Marvel is giving them this big push is because they don't have the movie rights to the X-Men but they can basically use the same themes for the Inhumans so they are hoping they take off enough that they can start making movies about them.

 

[Jello Biafra]

Great critique of everything that's wrong with DC right now
http://whenwillthehurtingstop.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/sir.html

Based around a (relatively long) review of the Trinity of Sin event but these are the key paragraphs.

I have many issues with DC but a few of the criticisms are a bit of a reach.

The nu52 is mostly being very restrictive on the top tier character's books which has always been the way DC worked. If you are part of the Superman or Batman family of books then you are working under editorial scrutiny and can't just do whatever you want. Its been that way for decades now.

Wonder Woman's solo book is awesome and is totally Azzarello's vision with hardly any interference seemingly.

Dial H even being greenlit and given to an out there writer like Mieville is a success story in and of itself. The book also lasted much longer than its sales warranted. And the criticism seems ass backwards. the4 guy laments not enough creators having passion and freedom on their books but then says that DIal H was too separate fromt he rest of the DCU.

He also takes the same stance on how it is somehow wrong for Constantine and SHazam to be exisitng in the same comic books 9completely ignoring the fact that Constantine was a DC proper character long before he got moved to Vertigo).
And what does he mean SHazam is too dark? He has had a back-up story in Justice League and a few appearances in other books. Until the character gets his own solo comic you can;t make the case that he is too dark. And what is the author loking for? A return to the cheesy Captain Marvel days with talking tigers in bowties and Uncle Dudley Marvel?

And I liked Trinity War for what it was...a Justice League crossover book that dovetailed into a company-wide event series.