House To Astonish Episode 63
One of us hasn’t received any comics for two weeks, and there has been very little new or exciting out in the past fortnight, so for a bit of a break from the norm we’ve got our usual news round-up (looking at the sad loss of Gene Colan, the launch of Avenging Spider-Man, DC’s digital plans and the Green Lantern movie’s performance) followed by a full episode’s worth of rumination on (largely) comics-related topics suggested by our followers on Twitter. Listen! to our views on superheroes in skirts. Hear! our thoughts on this summer’s comics-related movies. Hark! at us getting the name of The DFC wrong. All this plus Fat Alfred and the Cosby Kids, a tiny little evil moustache and Captain Genocide.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page.
Any Marvel version of “Wacky Races” would have to include the Spider-Mobile.
Here’s the wonderful ComicsAlliance article on Neal Adams’ completely insane Batman: Odyssey. http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/03/08/batman-odyssey-neal-adams-insane/
I really hope they do another one once the series finishes next year.
I still read the Panini reprints of Spider-Man and X-Men. With Spider-Man especially, it’s much cheaper than keeping up to date with the US editions.
I had to bail the second you started with the River Song spoilers.
@Max: Just skip ahead to 43:40. They don’t talk about it for long.
Cheers, Paul! đ
How solid is DC’s six-issue “guarantee”? Do you see any of these titles crashing out before the six issues are up?
Age of Apocalypse Wolvie has tattoos.
I can’t see DC pulling the plug on any of these titles earlier than issue #6. It’s no worse than having a low-selling miniseries out there.
Isn’t Captain Genocide a Mark Millar character?
I seem to recall that Joe Madureira did have a problem with playing too many video games back in the day, exactly as you describe, and let his comic work slide as a result.
Regarding contemporary heroes, we should be wary of how we ended with Superman and Cyclops with mullets in the Nineties.
The original Night Flyer has a bit of a Machine Man look to him. You could work in a connection there, especially as they’re both artificial.
I canât see DC pulling the plug on any of these titles earlier than issue #6. Itâs no worse than having a low-selling miniseries out there.
The reason I ask is because it’s not uncommon nowadays for a six-issue miniseries to get chopped down to five or four issues. Could this happen here, or is it a real guarantee?
The hang-gliding mercenary guy… so did he sit down one day, objectively evaluate his strengths and weaknesses, ditch the stuff that wasn’t working well, and change his name to Fantomex? While you were describing him – at least up to the bit about the cult – I was thinking “Surely this is Fantomex”. And even the culty bit could be one interpretation of the whole World/Weapons thing.
Re: Secret Six
Simone said (on Twitter or in an interview, I forget which) that she would’ve happily kept going on S6, but DC gave her plenty of warning that #36 would be the end so she had six issues to make sure everything was wrapped up with what she considered a ‘natural’ ending.
The thing about Fate #0, and I don’t know if it’s what the OP was thinking of, is that it was only very vaguely connected to Dr Fate. Would you buy Cloak & Dagger #0 if it was a completely different duo, who had aquired vaguely similar powersets following Ty and Tandy’s deaths?
(In my case it’d depend on the characters; I bought Blue Beetle.)
Fully agree about people who guess the twist and then complain about it. Especially since if they hadn’t, the same peole would have been saying “That came out of nowhere, you can’t just pull plot twists out of your bottom like that!”
I remember last year, there was a panel at the Highland Comics Expo on the future of UK comics. And one panelist said that, even as a comics pro himself, he bought comics for his kids based on what the free gift was like, not the contents. To which another panelist replied “You can’t check the contents — it’s in a poly bag to hold the free gift!”
Mark “Tattooed Man” Richards should probably have tattoos…
I’m amused that Wonder Woman’s Jim Lee costume seems to resemble the one in TV series. Great time to try synergy, folks.
The problem I see with Superman as first superhero is, well, you mention the Kents, but what about the rest of his supporting cast? Did they exist in the Golden Age, with Lois now in her nineties, and Jimmy about to retire as the Planet‘s editor? Or are they contemporary, in which case what sort of supporting cast did Superman have in the forties? And what about his secret ID? Was he Clark Kent then, is he Clark Kent now? If the answer to both questions is “yes”, how does that work?
Come to think of it, is there currently any evidence there was a Golden Age in the New 52-verse? Maybe Superman became the first ever superhero … last year.
When talking about the coming of the digital age, you mention the start up of the direct market. What was the landscape of the market place before that?
The titles that started after Zero Hour:
Extreme Justice
REBELS
Fate
Primal Force
Xenobrood
and
Starman.
Amazing how most of those books were not that great (although I liked Primal Force) and then you also have arguably the best book of the 1990s.
(freely admit Starman bias, as I did a Starman annotation zine back in the day)
@Daibhid: As I understand it, in DCnU, Superman became the first superhero 5 years ago. One of the Superman books (I believe Action Comics) will take place around that time, with the other being set in the present. Also, I think JLA will at least start out with stories set 5 years ago as well.
How that reconciles with the notion that any story which is considered important and/or really good (or was told recently in a high profile book/event) still happened, I cannot say.
One would assume that the JSA will be shunted off to Earth-2 or go back to fighting Ragnarok in some other dimension.
Of course, I doubt Johns will get rid of Stargirl, given that it’s based on his sister.
Just listened to Podcast…
In regards to going digital and how long that would take. What if DC or Marvel released certain titles say on Monday instead of Wednesday. I bet that’d get the geeks buying digital. I mean, even if they just did it for “major” issues like the Flashpoints and Fear Itselfs of the world.
I don’t think that it would be something that DC or Marvel would do anytime soon, and it would probably be a nightmare for retailers, but eventually they wont care if the industry does indeed swing that way.
Hereâs the wonderful ComicsAlliance article on Neal Adamsâ completely insane Batman: Odyssey.
I haven’t read the comic itself, but it seems to me that they’re missing the point while skirting very close to it. They’re joking about it seeming like a near death experience and following dream logic, but perhaps that’s exactly what it is?
As I understand it, in DCnU, Superman became the first superhero 5 years ago.
A few exceptions aside — the Punisher and the Howling Commandos, for example — this has worked for Marvel. Of course, since the Fantastic Four started up ten years ago in Marvel Time, they now pre-date Superman.
Worse, now the Sentry pre-dates Superman. :/
This review of Grant Morrison’s X-Men Paul did on Usenet, is that still available to read somewhere?
I think this is the Xorn piece: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks/browse_thread/thread/10b985d3f2b33713/1323852c822d0868?#1323852c822d0868
5 years seems like an awfully short time for Batman to have gone from being a lone vigilante to recruiting Dick, replacing him with Jason, going solo for a while, recruiting Tim and then Damien becoming Robin. And that’s with being generous and assuming they’re removing Stephanie’s brief spell as Robin from continuity.
It screws up Dick’s age as well. He was meant to be 10, 12 at best when he first became Robin. Even if that was the best part of five years ago, that puts him in his late teens at most, which is far too young to have been Nightwing for a while, then Batman and then Nightwing again. The only way around that is making him older when he becomes Robin, which starts taking you into Chris O’Donnell Batman Forever territory.
I think someone involved said that Batman was operating before that, but was thought to be an urban legend. Which is a bit of a cheat.
“What if DC or Marvel released certain titles say on Monday instead of Wednesday. I bet thatâd get the geeks buying digital. I mean, even if they just did it for âmajorâ issues like the Flashpoints and Fear Itselfs of the world.”
That would be a message of intent to ditch the retailers, which as said in the podcast they’re nowhere near in a position to do yet.
On digital pricing: the only thing I’ve heard about the breakdown of who gets how much is from Mark Millar, who I think said Apple take 30%, and Comixology take 50% of what’s left, so another 30%.
That would mean for a $2.99 comic DC would get $1.20.
My personal favourite random dated reference is Peter Parker claiming that he loved Hootie & The Blowfish in the early 90s.
That Nomad story really didn’t inspire me. As a Jonah Hex fan, I’m totally up for All Star Western but hope they don’t ruin it with too many Gotham in jokes. In fact I hope the Gotham thing is just for one story.
So true about Wonder Woman/Dr Doom etc. I think Namor is the same.
Sleepwalker?
That alfred line made me chuckle!
Those Panini collections are great. they got me back into Marvel some years ago.
I would totally read Marvel Wacky Races.
As a Jonah Hex reader I have no interest whatsoever in back-up-storys with all those silly western heroes where they tried to merge western characters with superheroes. When they did crossovers in the current incarnation of Hex they were mostly mercifully short, but to spend money on Bat Leash? Never.
And the idea of a Hex in Gotham is also interest-killing. I can only hope that it is a short stay.
Now as I buy Hex only in trades I am of course more interested if the rest of the series will be collected or if they just stop. Whould be a shame.
I don´t care for the DC re-whatever either way, but in the case of Hex it annoys me. It was a nice book in its italo-western take in the characters – and its material was more Vertigo in terms of sex&violence than DCU -, and it had some very good artwork. It wasn´t broke, so why fix it? Just to hammer its characters into a new continuity status-quo?
[…] you’ve listened to this week’s podcast (just one post below), you’ll know that the last two weeks weren’t exactly replete with notable new releases. […]
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who prefers Marc Silvestri’s 80’s X-Men work! I think Dan Green’s inking had a lot to do with the finished product as well. And that Marvel actually held artists to deadlines (most of the time) in those days.
The same could be said fro John Romita Jr. too. I like his 80’s work so much more than what he’s been doing for the past 20 years. In the 90’s he seemed to integrate a Frank Miller-look to his art with blocky/chunky faces and bodies.
I absolutely loved think Silvestri’s 90’s work and I think he draws the definitive Wolverine but he’s had a bit of a problem with colourists recently. I think his stuff looks better in strong, sometimes lurid colours, but recently it’s been more realistic shades with a lot of “shiny” effects which doesn’t suit his scratchy line work.
The first female character I think of who looks better without pants (wait that sounds a bit creepy) is Zatanna. Considering she’s supposed to be an old fashioned showbiz magician I can’t imagine any design being more affective than the top hat and fishnets.
I agree with Tom about Zatanna and her appropriate lack of “trousers”. I would also give the nod to the Scarlet Witch, mainly because I loved her gypsy dress from Perez’s Avengers run in the late 90s.
I’d add She-Hulk. She basically wears an 80s workout outfit into battle, which totally works for her.
Movie-continuity Mystique also has a good reason for being trouser-free.
Re:Zatanna: I stumbled upon an ad from a 90s Zatanna book, art by Maroto, where she wears pants. It doesn´t look too good.
Those Panini UK Marvel Collector’s Editions are terrific value, if you don’t mind being around 18 months behind the US (though that allows the advantage to possibly skip stories that were terribly reviewed). The Spider-Man one reads particularly well considering it comes out fortnightly, and with the Fantastic Four one, the coloured reprints of Lee & Kirby’s classics are worth the price of admission alone.
On terrible females costumes, I thought that Dagger’s recent-ish Dark X-Men attire was atrocious. Her top pretty much had a rip down from neck to belly button and then across her chest showing part of her boobs. Then they top it off with a giant X over her crotch. It’s really annoying for characters like say Black Widow or Black Cat with leather one-pieces and artists usually draw then zipped halfway down with their large boobs falling out. Even just for normal tasks like standing chatting to other heroes. Or females characters in general walking around with thongs riding out their shorts or trousers. It just gives such a low-class impression of the product in general particularly if the girlfriend was flipping through the books.
Marvel Wacky Races would be amazing. The Wizard and his anti-grav floating discs could be a participant, and I’m sure The Red Ghost could make use of his Super Apes. In the original cartoon, Dick Dastardly always struck me as someone who viewed themself as a bit of a bottler and with low self-confidence. I mean he would always lead the race yet would stop with some zany yet ultimately flawed trap, instead of just driving to the finish line. Though I do admit to being impressed at how he could turn his head 180 degrees and talk to a dog all while keeping the car going in a straight line.
While people compare the new Wonder Woman look to the TV show, I think they are missing an important detail. Yes, Jim Lee’s new Wonder Woman outfit looks similar to the TV series, but it also looks similar to Jim Lee’s previous new Wonder Woman outfit (from the JMS run.)
I am a Green Lantern fan and even I think the movie is mediocre. With such a big build up on the Corps, I was expecting that Sinestro and co. would appear during the big fight between Parallax and Hal, but that didn’t happened. And they never build up properly Sinestro’s turn to the yellow power. And the jokes are pretty lame.
It didn’t help that the movie came after Thor. It’s a bit like James Blunt going on stage after James Brown did a full hour performance.
With regards to the “ads on CD-ROM” issue, there’s come legal chicanery going on. Basically, if they reproduce the entire contents of the original comic it gets counted as an “archive” instead of a “reprint” under US copyright law and there’s an entirely different royalty payment structure.
You will all be doubtless glad to know I’ve worked out the title for the Alfred mini-series: ‘Alfred: Re-Larded’.
Agree on a lot of your issues with Green Lantern: Johns’ producer role seems to have been telling them to do exactly what he did in the comics, because obviously that’ll work exactly the same in the cinema.
I do think – SPOILERS! – that the yellow fear cloud should have been called Sinestro, with the pink-headed guy only getting the name when he puts on the ring. Not only does ‘Sinestro’ make no sense as the name of a good guy, ‘Parallax’ makes no sense as the name of a fear monster.
In terms of the UK newstand I think we still have John Freeman’s STRIP to look forward to, although I don’t know when that launches.