May 7
House To Astonish Episode 59
Posted on Saturday, May 7, 2011 by Al in Podcast
We’re back on schedule with a brand new podcast, with talk about Free Comic Book Day, the release of the Thor movie and Marvel’s future filmic plans, Rise of Arsenal‘s surprising PRISM award win, Mike Cotton leaving Wizard, Tokyopop’s rights issues and the Ultimate line relaunch. We’ve also got reviews of Moon Knight, Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors and Spontaneous, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe hits a high note. All this plus The Fastest and the Furiousestest, Kate Moss’s crimefighting career and the power of a turban.
The episode is here, or here on Mixcloud – let us know what you think, either in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
A friend of mine was putting on some Free Comic Book Day stuff in Edinburgh, inc. a Drop in and Draw session. Have a look here http://edinburghleagueofcomics.wordpress.com/
Oh gosh, the 3D in Thor was terrible. There were whole sections of the film that weren’t even in 3D, so it all seemed more pointless than usual.
The Ultimate imprint is also struggling to set itself apart from the Astonishing titles, which are also doing the continuity-light approach, but are using the original, recognisable characters.
Finesse is mentally ill? What?
As someone who used to play the trumpet, I can confirm that there’s a self-hypnotic note. Quite handy preparation for boring geography lessons.
Also seems to have blanked reading Drago’s original appearance from my mind completely though, as I’ve got the first Ant-Man Masterwork volume and couldn’t remember him at all.
If Drago or an equivalent had been around in the 80s, he totally would have used a synthesiser keytar, like Soundwave did in Transformers Animated a couple of years back.
The worst thing about the Ultimate relaunch is not only that they kept the Ultimate Comics banner, something that no one really uses to identify the brand and never reached group memory, but the constant renumbering doesn’t help either. Look at the sales numbers right after the Ultimatum relaunch, everything kind of went right back down to previous levels. On top of that, as seen in Paul’s sales columns, diminishing returns kicked in pretty bad on Millar’s Ultimate Avengers with each volumed arc. And New Ultimates and Ultimate X have sold well below the “top level talent” they have been prescribed to have had.
The creative teams for the relaunch seem fine enough, but they are going out of their way to say things will change here, that makes me wonder if they really will, or last beyond the initial 6 months of the new line. It feels more like Bendis remembered for a minute that the Ultimate line still exists, so he’s putting his gaze back on USM for a few weeks before ultimately turning all his focus to Avengers or Moon Knight.
And finally, the books will probably stay $4, which is just too much to enjoy in monthly form and really hurts the idea that this is the new reader friendly springboard for comics.
Be prepared for Ultimate flowcharts if Kirkman is writing the book. :>
Without having listened to the podcast, may I ask what the bit about marvel’s films was? I don’t know when I’ll get the chance to listen in the near future….
Matt, from memory, that their immediate plan, post-Avengers, is to produce (standalone) Doctor Strange and Iron Fist films.
Hmmm… I bought some Moon Knight from 82/83 with early Sienkiewicz artwork and I never NEVER got that Moon Knight had multiple personality disorder. I always thought that Marc Spector was the main character with all the others just disguises like Bruce Wayne’s Matches Malone. But that was a lot time ago and my English was so-so then (well, worse than now.) I have to re-read those!
@Niall: As I think I said on the show, it depends on how loosely you’re defining “mental illness”. As written, Finesse has an inability to develop social skills or to fully understand the behaviour of those around her. That’s not a mental illness so much as a developmental disorder.
Well, she herself has wondered aloud whether she has some weird autism-spectrum disorder or is legitimately sociopathic. I wish they’d hit that point a little more; she’s an interesting and unique character as it stands, but I was expecting more of the “Am I weird, or crazy? Do I care?” angle from #2.
Didn’t Ultimate Spidey just revert to its original numbering a few months ago? The back-and-forth renumbering at Marvel just makes them look clueless.
To me, the Ultimate Universe ended at X-Men #65 and Ultimates 2 #13. Ultimate Spidey died with Ultimatum.
I think when the Ultimates universe started out, the X-Men and Ultimates side of things was written to be massively epic, and the Spider-Man stuff was like a deck-clearing exercise of all the crap that built up Peter Parker during the 90s.
USM has basically maintined its high quality from start to finish (say what you will about Bendis, but USM has been a pretty incredible run).
But everything else went to hell when a) UXM passed from Vaughan to generic writer of the week, and b) Jeph Loeb took over Ultimates.
They can relaunch all they want, but as long as the books are crap (Loeb), or a hollow shell of the epic awesomeness of the old days (Millar), they’re just the same hodge-podge of so-so comic books as everything else on the shelves. Go back and read volume 1 of Millar’s Ultimates and tell me that any of the new 6-issue arcs come remotely close to being as interesting either artwise of storywise.
Its always going to be a futile effort for Marvel until they’re willing to get the high end talant bringing their A-games to the table, which hasn’t happened since 2007
My local comic shop always does Free Comic Book Day. This surprises me, but I’m worried that if I ever question how economically viable a comic shop in a wee Highland town actually is, it’ll disappear in a puff of logic.
I intended to pick up something I wouldn’t normally read, but by the time I got there, that meant Betty & Veronica and I decided there were limits…
I usually pop into Edinburgh’s Forbidden Planet when I’m in the city, more out of nostalgia than anything else, and can assure you it hasn’t changed. If anything, it seems to get less interested in comics every time I visit.
Ironically, my immediate reactions to the PRISM awards were “Are they mad?” and “What are they on?” Hawkeye & Mockingbird, as I recall, was at one point jokingly being sold on the strength of not being about drug addiction: “Guaranteed to have 100% less heroin use and impotence than the average comic starring an archer”.
I bought a couple of issues of post-Ultimatum USM (having skipped Ultimatum) mostly out of habit. It was still okay, but I found I just didn’t care any more. I also picked up first issue of Ultimate Avengers out of curiosity. I read it, thought “Ah, Millar reckons his Ultimates run just wasn’t cynical enough” and that was the end of that.
In your list of hypnotic entertainers you missed what I suspect was the original: the Golden Age Flash foe The Fiddler, who, er, learnt the secret of hypnotic music from a mystic in India…
I never followed Moon Knight after the Moench run, but he had no personality disorder at the time. Or had he? I always thought his identities were just roles he played.
I watched Thor in 3D, I thought the 3D took away from my enjoyment if anything. Really liked the film though.
I was in Edinburgh this week (I’m London based) and popped into FP. Totally see what you mean about toys, and the “sale” didn’t really seem that much of a reduction.
It’s a shame how quickly the Ultimate universe fell from quality. I dropped after reading Ultimates 3 #1. I’d like to hear a frank explanation of what happened behind the scenes one day, but I doubt Marvel editorial will be forthcoming.
I was always amused that one of Moon Knight’s identities was Steven Grant, since the comics writer of the same name was already working at Marvel by then.
I’m about 20 minutes in, but just thought I’d step in with a quick word of defence for FP Edinburgh comics. Yep, it’s still full of toys but the lights have been switched on these days and the staff are all charming and helpful. One of ’em came in off her own back an hour early last Wednesday to ensure the bank Holiday late delivery didn’t delay getting the comics on sale.
You did say you’ve not been in the shop for years, Paul … I think it’s unfair that they’re saddled with a rep that no longer applies.
I’d tried the other comic shop – I love the idea of supporting the little guy – but last time I went in there the assistant was having a massive row with someone on the phone and it just felt uncomfortable. As Gary: Tank Commander woudld say, ‘Ah jest walked oot’.
Plus, the comic selection is always poor – say what you want about FP’s toy obsession, they always have the comics you’d want.
Oh, and count me in as another Eighties Moon Knight reader who thought Spector was sane, but just liked to dress up. I remember being shocked when Marvel began saying he was Prism-tastic.
Yeah, the FP Edinburgh staff seem to be decent sorts. The guy that runs the independent shop’s a nice chap too, but I find the place really, really intimidating and always also feel a bit guilty when I don’t purchase anything from it (how does it stay afloat?), which is often.
The FP ‘sale’ section is awful, though this is lessened by the fact they sometimes have good records on (Marnie stern springs to mind).
I’m surprised there’s only 2 comic shops in Edinburgh,.
It’s actually a small city. Tiny compared to yours.
Down here in Brighton, we used to have three comic shops, all within two hundred metres of each other. Predictably, only one has emerged from the mêlée, but it really has been a survival of the fittest thing, as it’s an excellent shop.
Never did manage to find Forbidden Planet when I was in Edinburgh. Much less of an issue in Boston though. Harvard Square alone has a couple good ones.
There is (or was) a third Edinburgh comic shop buried down a sidestreet in Newington.
Oh, and yes, I should add that the staff in FP are usually great, they just seem to be fighting against what the FP “brand” wants to be about.
Fair enough Paul. They seem to have an odd interpretation of “mentally ill”. No doubt that if they accept demonic possession as a realistic depiction, then they’d have no problem lumping people with intellectual disabilities or neurotypicals in there as well.
I can’t imagine Marvel having any high hopes for this Ultimate relaunch. Given the recent-ish renumbering of Ult Spidey, it comes across more of a gambler’s last role of the dice to try to turn it into something meaningful, otherwise it could just turn into a MAX type thing where it sits off to the side that nobody really pays that much attention to.
Using a death as the main selling point is a bit of wishful thinking considering that Ultimatum had so many deaths it greatly cheapened the idea. Furthermore it is generally accepted these days that ‘dead does not mean dead’ so there is no real reason to feel any emotional attachment (though in fairness I don’t think there has been any resurrections in the Ultimate Universe [or at least from what I remember when I still cared]).
Interesting to see if any faith has been lost in Loeb ever since he left that imprint a pile of scorched earth. Maybe some second doubts about giving him the job as head of their new TV department? And whether it is his fault and/or Frank Cho & Art Adams and/or editorial, but the output of Ult New Ultimes/Ult X has been absolutely pathetic. Especially given they were two of the cornerstones of the relaunch.
I want the relaunch to succeed as the Ultimate books were some of my first American comics, and also because it’s great to see the likes of Hickman & Spencer get more work. But I’m not so sure with Marvel these days.
On another note, it’s ridiculous that Wolverine & Spider-Man have become so over-exposed that they star in books they aren’t even in.
Sorry Paul C, I don’t get what you’re saying in the final par there.
Erm, actually, disregard that, I’ve made a bit of a tit of myself.
I haven’t read the Moon Knight issue itself, but from listening to the review, I had it in my head that Moon Knight was channelling his inner Spider-Man, Wolverine & Captain America as he looks up to & has great respect for all them in some way, without them directly speaking/appearing to him. But from a quick look at the previews, those folks actually do appear in the issue and give him his orders.
I thought they were trying to turn Moon Knight into some bizarre hybrid of those popular characters without giving any previous foundation to it. (Which I think Paul alluded to as possibly being Marvel’s long-term project for the character.)
@Paul C: As I understand it, the deal is that they’re all in his head, so yeah, what you said first makes sense.
Well, I must have missed all the preamble for Moon Knight’s new series, because I didn’t know about the “Avengers are all in his head” slant it was taking, and indeed, I am SO Bendis-ed out, the issue rolled off my back to such an extent that I DIDN’T EVEN REALISE THAT’S WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SEEING. I got to the last page, thought, “That’s very empty. What am I supposed to be seeing?”, couldn’t come up with an answer, and just went on about my day. Someone had to point out to me later than it’s what I WASN’T seeing that was the point, that Cap, Spidey and Wolvie had disappeared. I’m a bit more interested to read the next issue now.