Nov 21
House to Astonish Episode 27
Posted on Saturday, November 21, 2009 by Al in Podcast
In which we look at conventions, movies, TV, awards and, believe it or not, some comics. We do our usual round-up of the solicitations and review S.W.O.R.D., Supergod and Victorian Undead, and bid a welcome return to the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. All this plus the Shiny Happy Marvel Universe, a doughnut half-filled with delicious jam and half-filled with poison, and the Daleks getting people to read Wednesday Comics.
The podcast is here and on iTunes as usual – let us know what you think by way of comment here, on Twitter, by email or through flashing a lamp on a Dover cliffside in the middle of the night.
(As promised in the podcast, Kate Beaton’s website is at Hark! A Vagrant! – go check her out.)
Paul, I completely agree with your comments about Wednesday Comics. I enjoyed some of the strips but thought that overall it was more miss than hit. I couldn’t understand all of the praise that was lavished on it and by the end I was beginning to wonder if there was something wrong with me.
Tadanobu Asano seems to turn up in about half the cult Japanese movies out there. His star turn is probably Kakihara in Ichi the Killer. Don’t know how the Thor casting will work out, but he’s got a track record.
Apparently Hogun isn’t of the same race as the rest of the Asgardians anyway (though I think that might be a suggestion that he’s of the Vanir rather than the Aesir like Thor et al), so him being Japanese isn’t a bit stretch. I think if they go with him being a man of oriental mythology that’s ‘crossed over’ to live the Asgard it would work quite well and hint at the idea of all the other mythological pantheons existing in the Marvel film universe.
Well, if he’s a warrior god he’s definitely not a Vanir. Generally, the Vanir in Norse mythology were fertility gods and elemental gods and, off the top of my head, Freya is the closest thing to an exception.
Does anybody happen to know why the Dark Horse’s “Groo Treasury” has disappeared from the schedules? I’ve been unable to track down any information about it.
(It was mentioned in an earlier episode, which is why I bring it up here.)
Alien Hand Syndrome – See Dr. Strangelove.
It’s a real thing, saw a documentary about it once. Had to switch it off halfway through and had to turn it off, as my innapropriate laughter made me feel like a very bad person.
I think Vertigo published the TPB of the first Demo series a while back too.
I thought that Death’s Head was recently redesigned anyway (Death’s Head 3.0), but apparently that redesign looks entirely different.
I can tolerate Steven Sanders’ design of the Beast since someone likened it to the Pink Panther, another feline character that doesn’t look much like a feline.
GUYS YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN AT THOBUBS.
Seriously. Next year: come you down and do the podcast from Leeds. Birmingham train, Cross Country operator.
Had a chat with Siryn about the pronunciation of her name(“Sigh-Ren”), and how irritating it was to be constantly mistaken for Phoenix.
Next year!
//\Oo/\\
Also: AP-PREC-I-ATE.
I can have a T-shirt design for you by tomorrow. TO-MOR-ROW.
//\Oo/\\
Personally, I don’t think “Ultimate X” will be a great seller precisely *because* Art Adams has been out of circulation for so long. Look at the Kuberts. Before their DC exclusives, they were hugely popular. They go to DC, do nothing, and now they’re not nearly as popular.
Also, I think being bi-monthly will turn a lot of people off a continuing series. I wonder if they are going to alternate this series with “New Ultimates”…
Oh, and Adams only did 3 half-issues of “Hulk” plus a story in the King Size issue plus 2 or 3 variant covers.
Nocenti’s DD was good, and while I’m not the biggest fan of soapboxing in comics, she did it in a way you could ignore it or it tied into DD (Matt would take up a case about _____ and we would learn about it through the case). There was that one issue which Bagley drew that had Captain America in it opining about the decline of America, but that was the biggest preachy issue.
And the Inferno/Blackheart stuff was good. DD just killing that demon busdriver/dentist drill, and then going to get a beer and being seduced by Mephisto, that was so out there it worked.
It stands out the most to me because she had DD on the road doing something besides having girlfriend of the month being completely screwed up or having his world being destroyed. The nice thing about Nocenti’s take was DD was so messed up after Typhoid Mary, he just gave up Hell’s Kitchen.
“Appreciate the power of the medium.”
Ha! Yeah, I do get that feeling with Wednesday Comics. You can’t just read the story you want to read, you get the whole lot, many of which just don’t seem very appealing. I’ll be a bit warmer to the collection of they decide to group the pages of each story together.
I don’t really get you guys quitting *all* Ultimate books because of one awful event. The Millar and Bendis stuff is as good as ever. It’s like quitting all 616 because of Secret Invasion.
Also, Al, I think you said last podcast you stopped reading USM before the Ultimatum “crossover”, but just a heads up – it never really went into all the Loeb nonsense. It was basically just Spider-man saving people from a tidal wave, and it was pretty good, especially the Jonah stuff.
Also also, loved SWORD, best new Marvel book in a long while!
Holmes + Zombies sounds as daft as Jane Austen + Zombies.
That said, I liked Gaiman’s Holmes + Lovecraft story.
(speaking of, did you read the War of Kings one-shot this week?)
You know, I dun a Zombie Shakespeare comic, once. Rudolph Valentino, rather than George Romero, mind.
It was, and indeed is, awesome.
That font! THAT FONT! Stopped me reading The Intimates, it did. Eye Carumba!
//\Oo/\\
“I don’t really get you guys quitting *all* Ultimate books because of one awful event.”
Say you go to a restaurant often because you like its various entrees, and then one day you go and whatever you ate makes you violently sick later that night. Are you really eager to go back? Perhaps the food will be back to its usual level of good quality, but you’ll never be able to get that awful taste out of your mouth.
I guess, but it’s not like you ordered an Ultimate Spider-man and they served you an Ultimatum in its place… It’s the Loeb that made you sick, and if you’ve read anything by him in the last few years (or just glanced in the general direction of the internet) you knew what you were getting into. If you ask for rotten meat it’s your own fault you get sick, not the restaurant’s (of course, I do get that in a perfect world it wouldn’t be on the menu!).
I guess I just don’t understand dismissing good current comics in the name of bad past comics’ sins, with Ultimatum, Brand New Day, Secret Invasion or anything. Just my POV though, obvs.
Regarding Beast’s appearance change…..maybe it will be explained in 3 to 4 months in a different series. It (sort of) worked the first time when New X-Men had the debut of Cat-Beast, but it was not explained until 3 months later in Xtreme X-Men.
Your comments about a fun action TV show with less of an ongoing plot actually reminded me of Leverage, which is made by John Rogers, who was the man behind the original Global Frequency pilot.
I don’t know how GF would work on The CW. They show Gossip Girl and Melrose Place; I don’t know what they’d do with an action sci-fi show, unless it’s being considered as a replacement for Supernatural. Which could be alright, I guess.
The thing about the Ultimates universe is though, is that Loeb did hijack the the universe.
If you go back to all the many interviews Bendis has done he would give hints as to what the upcoming arcs would be but those can’t happen now since the status quo has been changed by ultimatium. So yeah Bendis has adapted the book to still being middling okay but in the end it isn’t what the original story was going to be.
I think the main mistake of the Ultimate relaunch was making the books $3.99. (I seem to remember Bendis not being very happy at that either.)
“he would give hints as to what the upcoming arcs would be but those can’t happen now since the status quo has been changed by ultimatium.”
But aren’t the few changes in the book (Spidey being popular for now, JJJ liking him for now, being broken up with MJ for now, Johnny living there for now) all the invention of Bendis? The only “required” outside interference of Ultimatum on Bendis’ story was the tidal wave (but New York’s been rebuilt in a snap) and the mutant “ban” (and Kitty’s still there despite it) – beyond that he could have reset the status quo completely (as Millar did in his Avengers book), instead of choosing to make the changes listed above.
That’s my take on it anyway, but it sounds like you guys see Ultimatum as a kind of poison that’s infected the other books, and fair enough! Anyway, didn’t mean this to get all debate team, it was really just a question for Al and Paul on something that struck me as odd. Cheers.
[…] some podcasty malarkies. Firstly, House to Astonish talk about S.W.O.R.D.. Secondly… ifanboy have a very brief chat about PG2.5, but you should be listening to them […]
Episodic TV may not get much buzz, but it actually dominates the ratings in the US. Shows like CSI and NCIS are much more successful with viewers than the long-form serial dramas that are more critically acclaimed.
Paul and Al,
You guys said in the poodcast that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th series of the New Warriors were a waste of time because it was a) different team b) different concept or c) both and yet you lament New Mutants because it does the same thing time and time again and fails.
Personally I love the original NW’s and hope that someday they return but I am curious as to what you guys think should be done to make them as sucess?