Jul 18
House To Astonish Episode 64
Posted on Monday, July 18, 2011 by Al in Podcast
A couple of days late, but we’ve made it at last, with talk about DC’s fill-in creators, Marvel’s New Stores initiative, Diamond Digital and the end of the Xeric grant. We’ve also got reviews of All Nighter, X-Men: Schism and The Red Wing, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe meets Dale Earnhardt Jr. All this plus Roger Hargreaves’ Mr Terrific, a retailer-shaped hole and the expository sounds of the Germans.
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I liked the rationalisation “Well, what if you can’t get the digital codes *except* via retailers”
Because there’s nothing the consumer likes more than their comics being held hostage by the distributor and a set of retailers that they don’t have access to.
Pacheco did Excalibur and Universe X from the Age of Apocalypse. Plus a Starjammers mini.
Pacheco’s style shifted noticeably during his Superman run with Busiek a few years ago.
And as far as I’m concerned it’s been for the worse. He’s still has a mastery of storytelling and other fundamentals, of course, but stylistically, most of what made his work (particularly his figure work) dynamic, distinctive and interesting to me has just been drained away.
“A good premise in search of some characters” – that describes most of Hickman’s writing for me lately. Superficially speaking, an interdimensional conspiracy of evil Reed Richardses, the FF teaming up with Doctor Doom and a cabal of evil geniuses to take them down, an impending invasion of Celestials, a hidden city of super-evolved mole men, and a death cult that worships a child Annihilus should all be awesome, but Hickman somehow manages to make them all as dull as paste, spending all his time dumping out dull exposition rather than investing energy in making me care about any of the characters he’s introduced. He’s like the anti-Morrison, throwing out one idea after another and then, rather than moving on to something else, holding each idea out on a skewer, thrusting it out in front of us just long enough for us to see how shallow and stupid they are. Meanwhile, there’s no room for his characters to do anything but stand around awkwardly while rehashing old plot points. I’ve never seen anyone manage to make Doctor Doom seem boring before.
Comet Pierce only had one appearance: Red Raven Comics#1.
It was *seven pages.* They didn’t waste time back then.
I’ve never seen anyone manage to make Doctor Doom seem boring before.
Bendis.
Oh, and Pacheco’s inker on Dark Guard was Oscar Jiminez, at least on #2-3, which are the only ones I have.
I was intrigued enough to track down a acan of the Comet Pierce story. It’s even weirder than I expected. That Jack Kirby guy could go places.
And yes, Pierce was the only one in the race with FTL engines (which he got on the planet he crashed on). That’s why he had to wait around for weeks on Earth for his rival to come back.
I mean scan, not acan, obviously.
Even Bendis had Doom, y’know, do stuff. Since bringing in Doom in FF #1 – which you think would be a big deal, right – Doom has more or less stood around, alternately sulking and explaining things the reader already knows.
Paul actually got his Pauls mixed up; according to DC’s blog, Jenkins is indeed writing the Bathman: The Dark Knight issue in question. Which is a shame for DC, because if it was Cornell they’d get another guaranteed 3 bucks out at least one consumer (namely: me).
I’d probably read a Paul Cornell Bathman series.
I assume Bathman was off-panel in the pub in Knight and Squire #1. I would guess he has hot springs-related powers.
Bathman’s part of Morrison’s new project, Severn Soldiers.
Dan ‘The Beast’ Severn?
Byker Gold – Tyne Traveller
I don’t think Cam Smith has been working in comics for 40 years. The earliest thing I remember seeing Cam Smith do was Dr Who in the mid to late 80s.
By the way, Cam Smith inked the Carlos Pacheco Bishop mini that you mentioned. So it’s a reunion.
Damien: Yeah, having looked into it a bit it seems he’s been working in comics for about 20 years now. I suspect I had a bit of a brain implosion and conflated him with Commando/2000AD’s Cam Kennedy, who’s been working in comics 40+ years.
Does anyone happen to have a link to that post-Schism X-title discussion Al referenced? I’d be interested in giving it a read.
I’ve seen rumours about Cyclop’s post-schism status. Anyone know if there’s any basis to them?
Totally agree about Pacheco/Larocca similarities. I loved him on Avengers Forever.