Oct 1
House To Astonish Episode 69
Posted on Saturday, October 1, 2011 by Al in Podcast
A pretty full episode this time round, with a look at December’s solicitations, DC on the Kindle Fire, George Perez leaving Superman, the CBLDF’s ironic purchases, Marvel’s Point One promos and Albert Uderzo retiring from Asterix. We’ve also got reviews of Aquaman, Near Death and Brilliant, and The Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe feels pretty, oh so pretty. All this plus characters made out of Gummi Bears, join-the-dots puzzles and the link between Jeph Loeb and Michael Vick.
The podcast is here, here on Mixcloud or accessible via the player below. Let us know what you think, either in the comments, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
Al I think you might be right RE the New Universe. It was not too long after the first issue of X-factor that the house ads for New Universe started. Despite everything I really love those ads and the concept of the New Universe. Shame it and the Ellis thing never worked out.
Chris Giarusso did Bullpen Bits, not Chris Elipolous.
And Resurection Man ran for 27 issues, so this is probably the first of two trades.
The letterbox panels are probably Frank Quitely’s fault, although to be fair he did do them well back in the Authority days.
Bugger, too many Chrises.
John Cassady got a lot of good press doing Planetary in (I think) entirely letterbox panels. Which some think is cinematic.
I love the idea of Spider-Man Against Verbal Abuse. “It’s never funny to make hurtful jokes at someone else’s expense. Except when they’re supervillains, obviously. Remember kids: only make fun of someone’s weight if he’s wearing a rhino costume.”
ISTR reading somewhere that “Skip” was originally good old Uncle Ben, before Marvel realised that, even if it wasn’t in continuity, this was an idea that should be killed with fire.
Resurrection Man ran a bit longer than 14 issues: It was 28. So there may be a second 14-issue trade planned.
I had to look up who Michael Vick is, but yes, it’s exactly like that.
Aquaman was one of the books my retailer didn’t have, and I didn’t notice until I got home. I was going to chase it up, but now I’m not sure I’ll bother.
Interesting that Johns’ take on “command of sea life” is the exact opposite of Peter David’s: in David’s Aquaman a villain steals Aquaman’s powers and finds that he can’t control fish, he can just communicate with them, and they’re less inclined to listen than they are to Arthur. (You can take that interpretation too far, of course, especially if you’re Peter David and named your daughter after The Little Mermaid. I think he eventually introduced a crab with a Jamaican accent…)
Wasn’t Byrne’s run on FF also the time Sue Storm became a mind-controlled psycho? The guy always had issues.
According to Wikipedia, the Mandrill is the subject of a creator controversy: Steve Gerber denied any responsibility.
Wasn’t Byrne’s run on FF also the time Sue Storm became a mind-controlled psycho? The guy always had issues.
Yes, a wonderful Secret Wars II tie-in in which Sue becomes the villain Malice, an embodiment of all her internal rage over Reed’s incredibly patronising attitude towards her.
Reed solves the problem by being incredibly patronising towards her, thus causing her rage to “overload” until she became weak and submissive once more.
So yes, issues.
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I’m astounded by your negative review of Aquaman. I loved this comic! In fact, it’s easily my favorite of all the new DC #1s. It’s funnier than anything I’ve read in recent memory, and it’s such a refreshing take on the character. You say there’s no plot, but there really is. It’s a character study, about a guy trying to find himself. That’s the plot.
Plus I love the simple, matter-of-fact pragmatism of these undersea creatures: “It’s true, there IS an above,” and “There’s food up here,” and so forth. That’s just good stuff.
If you really want to show people rubbish by Alan Moore, direct them to ROSCOE MOSCOW and THE STARS MY DEGRADATION, which he wrote and drew in Sounds around the turn of the Eighties.
“Al I think you might be right RE the New Universe.”
I’m pretty sure he is too. I remember Marvel announcing the cancellation of New Defenders along with five other titles. If memory serves, they were Power Man/Iron Fist, Dazzler, The Thing, Micronauts: The New Voyages, and Rom.
The first house ads for the New Universe appeared in Marvel books cover dated May 1986, just as the above titles were wrapping up.
I am sick of issues with no plots and Geoff Johns seems to keep producing them. It’s a shame, because I do like when he does a single-issue story like the Rogues’ portraits in Flash: he has good character skills and is able to build up motivations. But the last two years of his work is just decompressed padding! It’s not unusual to find in an issue of Green Lantern 3 splash pages and 2 (!) double-splash pages. With minimum dialogue, you finish the comic in 5 minutes. I stopped ordering the GL titles when the new 52 started and I’m staying clear of Aquaman. But I did buy JL #1 and boy, was I not surprised.
And that’s why I really liked Superman #1. George Pérez’s writing is not too far from Kurt Busiek’s. There is action, character building, an emotional setback for the main hero AND a underlying theme about quality of journalism in growing media conglomerates . A single issue with a plot, an end and plenty of potential for further stories. Reviewers say that it’s an old-fashioned comic? Well, in my opinion, that’s not a bad thing at all.
loved this episodes ‘official handbook’! this may be the one and only way to make ‘comic relief rape characters’ work.
on a somewhat related note, ive been rewatching episodes of the x-files lately, and coincidentally, ive just seen two eps that are disturbingly cavalier about rape. ‘small potatoes’ and ‘post-modern prometheus’, in case youre wondering. seriously, what makes people think rape is funny?
As george carlin, antthing can be funny in the right context. Imagine porky pig raping elmer fudd.
Glad you guys didnt bother with the catwoman/starfire stuff in the pod.
To be fair, the Ultron threat was the big point of the Avengers .1 issue
RE: Paul’s comments about anyone being an Avenger now. There was a funny moment during New Avengers in a battle or team up where other people kept referring to the New Avengers as the Defenders.
I find it odd that Fraction is writing Defenders when all the set up work for the series seems to have been done by Spencer in IM 2.0.
Now that I think on it the first arc of New Avengers Vol 2 may have started the Defenders story.
Somehow I never got around to reading Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow.
Resurrection Man also had a 1,000,000 issue and you could also include a Body Double 1-shot if you wanted to.
@Robert
Even if you accept that a) there is a plot to Aquaman #1 and b) that it’s about a man finding himself, it’s still awful.
In the comic, Aquaman stops a robbery and gets mocked and insulted by humans. He goes to get lunch and gets mocked and insulted by humans. He then goes home to his loving mermaid girlfriend for A Very Important Scene and tells her that he’s fed up of all those Atlanteans (of whom we’ve seen bugger all in this issue) using him so he’s going to make a proper go of it up on the surface world with the humans.
It makes him look like he’s either delusional, an idiot or a masochist.
I was surprised you made no mention of the Starfire controversy, but then again, maybe another round of condemnation is kinda boring? You mentioned Catwoman in passing and focused on Amanda Waller last episode, so to be honest I was looking forward to your reaction to everyone’s favorite nympho-amnesiac.
There was a lot of other stuff to talk about, and there didn’t seem to be a lot we could add that hadn’t been said by others, so decided to skip it rather than add to the chorus.
Well, if you were amphibious, where would you rather live: at the bottom of the ocean with a bunch of people who hate you for being a half-breed and tried to kill you the first time you met them, or on dry land, with people who just think you’re lame?
I don’t see the problem here.
You know, the best version of Aquaman I’ve ever read was Peter David’s version, and even then I would have said “He really shouldn’t be in the Justice League.”
So what if you demonstrate that Aquaman can be an effective superhero on land? Johns makes that demonstration, but where the Justice League is concerned, all this means is that he’s a generic strong guy in the company of Superman who is much, much stronger. The presence of the other Leaguers like Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, etc. is easily justified by the fact that these characters can do things that Superman can’t do (Wonder Woman not so much, but she’s the iconic female superhero and gets by on that alone).
The only things Aquaman can do that Superman can’t is breathe underwater and control fish. Who cares? That’s always been the problem with Aquaman-as-a-Leaguer and that always will be the problem. I don’t see any way of getting around that. Unless you take both Superman and Wonder Woman out of the group and declare Aquaman the team’s “strong guy.” The strong guy who also happens to control fish.
But is it a prerequisite for membership in a team that you have to be able to do things no other member can, in every situation? I could understand it if all you do is teleport, and there’s already a teleporter in the group. But you can never have too much superstrength, or too many guys who know how to kick ass. Don’t the New Avengers have Luke Cage AND the Thing?
@Robert
The problem is that it makes Aquaman’s decision completely undramatic and unrelatable. If we’d actually got to see some interaction between him and Atlanteans it would make much more sense, but we don’t.
“Don’t the New Avengers have Luke Cage AND the Thing?”
Yeah, but those guys don’t do anything else and they’re therefore not wasted. They’re physical powerhouses, and that’s it. Aquaman may be a physical powerhouse too, but the “Aqua” part is his main bit. You can’t ignore that part, nor can you really do much with it, unfortunately.
You either keep coming up with contrived ways of involving the oceans in Justice League stories, or you don’t worry about it, keep the stories inland, and just have him be Strong Member #3, which is a waste of an “Aquaman.”
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Morrison on JLA did a good job with Aquaman (and also used the idea that he actually talked to sea life, since he has a conversation with dolphins in an early issue), where he had a little bit of everything. He was an outsider like Martian Manhunter, nobility like Wonder Woman, arrogant like Batman, etc. He played off of everyone else very well.
Not feeling the negativity toward Aquaman, I’m afraid, guys – really enjoyed it, and thought it was one of the best “first issues” I read out of the New 52.
“Yeah, but those guys don’t do anything else and they’re therefore not wasted. They’re physical powerhouses, and that’s it. Aquaman may be a physical powerhouse too, but the “Aqua” part is his main bit. You can’t ignore that part, nor can you really do much with it, unfortunately.”
Well, you said that his presence on the team would work if you took out Superman and Wonder Woman. So is it bad because he’s being wasted, or because he’s redundant?
“You either keep coming up with contrived ways of involving the oceans in Justice League stories, or you don’t worry about it, keep the stories inland, and just have him be Strong Member #3, which is a waste of an “Aquaman.””
But it’s more realistic for him to be in the Justice League, than it is for the Justice League to say to him, “Sorry, we can’t use you. We just don’t go to the beach that often.”
I mean, I get what you’re saying, that it’s a bad idea from a dramatic writing standpoint rather than from an in-story standpoint, but I just don’t think I agree. I don’t really see an inability to use his full powers at all times as a “waste.” Especially if he has his own series to go along with his JL appearances.
Regarding e-ink Kindles: no, they don’t have backlights. Since the image works by reflected light, they can be seen better the stronger the light shining on them, just like paper. What you can get is a cover with a miniature torch attached, though I don’t feel the need.
For the record, the US doesn’t have the same “anti-hood” stuff that Britain does – I’ve never seen or heard of any “no wearing hoods” policies here in the US.