I have to admit, I did not see that coming.
Mainly because I thought they'd kill a Spider-Man character in a Spider-Man comic.
Like, I figured it was going to be MJ.
Like, I figured it was going to be MJ.
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Face Front, True Believers! A Marvel Comics Thread
- Thread starter Octopus Prime
- Start date
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- Tags
- comics marvel no-prize snikt-thwip
I figured it wasn't because they were teasing it too much, but it would have made more sense than this
Been working my way through Denys Cowan's work and I'm now on his Deathlok run.
Man, McFarlane really ripped this off for Spawn didn't he? He just swapped the technological theme for a supernatural one. POC betrayed, killed and revived by insidious forces, forced to fight parallel enemies and his creators, strange relationship with his conscious powers, stalking his ex-wife and kid, etc. Google suggests I'm not the first person to think this, but I'd never really heard it before
More than anything I'm surprised by how exciting and readable these are- supremely paced and executed for what it is, with fantastic panel composition and illustration from Cowan. Love the snappy relationship between Deathlok and his onboard computer- it's never too much or corny (somehow)
Man, McFarlane really ripped this off for Spawn didn't he? He just swapped the technological theme for a supernatural one. POC betrayed, killed and revived by insidious forces, forced to fight parallel enemies and his creators, strange relationship with his conscious powers, stalking his ex-wife and kid, etc. Google suggests I'm not the first person to think this, but I'd never really heard it before
More than anything I'm surprised by how exciting and readable these are- supremely paced and executed for what it is, with fantastic panel composition and illustration from Cowan. Love the snappy relationship between Deathlok and his onboard computer- it's never too much or corny (somehow)
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Marvel recently announced omnibus releases of the full runs of both Rom: Spaceknight and Micronauts. Neither has ever been reprinted before, and have been famously off-limits for such ventures thanks to tangled rights issues. I'm very glad Bill Mantlo's body of work will be seeing wider exposure and availability.
That high pitched excited squeal you all might have heard was me when I heard that ROM was getting reprinted
I'm eager for those, but also hopeful this might lead to reprints of their Transformers books, too, since mine were thrown out years ago.
I know IDW did some, but I didn't end up getting those for various reasons.
I know IDW did some, but I didn't end up getting those for various reasons.
Been reading through Dr. Strange, starting with the Aaron run.
Working pretty well for me so far
Working pretty well for me so far
Becksworth
Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
Hey, what's going in comics these days? Looks online...
slow clap
Bullshit! GLORIOUS, MAGNIFICENT, Bullshit!
Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant
slow clap
Bullshit! GLORIOUS, MAGNIFICENT, Bullshit!
I was unaware how much the late 90s Fanastic Four run Claremont did while Marvel was preparing for him to come back to X-Men was basically Excalibur vol 1.5.
Technet, Margalia Szvardos, the Warwolves, and Opal Luna Saturnyne all show up. An alternate reality version of Alysande Staurt of all characters is a core cast member, serving as Franklin Richards' nanny/protector. There's an annual featuring Selene and the Hellfire Club. My guess is that FF readers probably don't like this run this very much, but as someone who picked it up for X-Men reasons and to track Claremont's career, it's honestly very interesting.
It does sadly share something else about many late 90s Marvel books, though, which is that every time an interesting new character is introduced and I look up their Marvel wiki entry, they turn out to either (1) have never been used again or (2) have one more appearance in a Warren Ellis comic, where they are killed. Basically no one draws on this era. It's understandable because it's a pretty bad time (it's taken me more over a year to get through X- and X-adjacent books from 1999 because there's a lot of inertia involved in jumping into any given run), but there are some diamonds in the rough. Maybe someday a continuity obsessive in the vein of Kurt Busiek or Al Ewing will excavate some of the more interesting abandoned groups and characters from the late 90s with story hooks that were never followed up on, like the New Hellions from John Francis Moore's X-Force or Mechamage from Claremont's Fantastic Four.
Technet, Margalia Szvardos, the Warwolves, and Opal Luna Saturnyne all show up. An alternate reality version of Alysande Staurt of all characters is a core cast member, serving as Franklin Richards' nanny/protector. There's an annual featuring Selene and the Hellfire Club. My guess is that FF readers probably don't like this run this very much, but as someone who picked it up for X-Men reasons and to track Claremont's career, it's honestly very interesting.
It does sadly share something else about many late 90s Marvel books, though, which is that every time an interesting new character is introduced and I look up their Marvel wiki entry, they turn out to either (1) have never been used again or (2) have one more appearance in a Warren Ellis comic, where they are killed. Basically no one draws on this era. It's understandable because it's a pretty bad time (it's taken me more over a year to get through X- and X-adjacent books from 1999 because there's a lot of inertia involved in jumping into any given run), but there are some diamonds in the rough. Maybe someday a continuity obsessive in the vein of Kurt Busiek or Al Ewing will excavate some of the more interesting abandoned groups and characters from the late 90s with story hooks that were never followed up on, like the New Hellions from John Francis Moore's X-Force or Mechamage from Claremont's Fantastic Four.
Becksworth
Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
So what are the essential core Krakoa age X-Men books? I really liked House of X/Powers of X, but it seemed to deviate into a bunch of different side stories after that and I really only have time to read the main plotline arc if I'm going to read any further honestly.
I’d say you can largely just stick with X-Men for now, maybe Excalibur since it leads into the X of Swords pretty heavily
After that, X-Men, SWORD (and later, X-Men Red) and Immortal X-Men are the tent poles .
While it’s not essential, I Cant recommend X-Men Unlimited enoug; I love that book
After that, X-Men, SWORD (and later, X-Men Red) and Immortal X-Men are the tent poles .
While it’s not essential, I Cant recommend X-Men Unlimited enoug; I love that book
yeah read it if it has X-Men in the title
Or is named after a sword
Pajaro Pete
(He/Himbo)
boy i sure hope the hellfire gala went off without a hitch, let me take a big sip of coffee and crack open X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023
Can Marvel please decide what this character looks like?
If I forget who he is when someone isn’t addressing him directly, I doubt Marvel has any easier of a time
In contrast to many late 90s minis and/or quickly cancelled series (hard to tell the difference at times, as the still ongoing practice of "maybe it's an ongoing if you all buy it" is definitely in place by '99) I've slogged through, Galactus the Devourer was a delightful surprise. I read it in the first place because Louise Simonson's Warlock run (about the former New Mutant alien technarch, not the other Warlock) fit into my expansive X-book readthrough, and it had a bunch of footnotes doing cross promotion for Galactus the Devourer, which was also written by Simonson. Warlock was alright but not amazing, but I thought I'd give Galactus the Devourer a chance to see what Simonson's other return to Marvel writing was like, and my expectations were definitely exceeded.
A big part of this is that it has pencils by Sal Buscema and (very significantly) inks by Bill Sienkiewicz!!! In this era, it's typical to only see Sienkiewicz on a book for maybe one particularly moody fill-in, or a cover, but here they got him for all 6 issues and he's doing amazing work. Louise Simonson has often been asked to do a lot of Marvel books targetting audiences on the younger end of the spectrum of comics readers, but here she's being allowed to operate on less explicitly juvenile register. This isn't to slight her other work. I think Simonson/Brigman Power Pack is probably one of the best Marvel books of all time. But this is a great opportunity for her to show off her ability to write outside of what she's been asked to do so often (and what she was doing in Warlock) at Marvel, and she nails it.
It reads like the ideal version of an Event Series, but without the burden of actually having to support a line-wide crossover. It's just a self-contained story with enormous stakes operating on a huge scale. Galactus is the title character, but in practice the protagonists are Silver Surfer and Alicia Masters (during an era where she can transform into a super her) as they work with a broad cast of Marvel characters to deal with a Galactus who has developed an addiction to consuming only the life force of planets, creating a kind of vicious cycle where he never feels sated. Just a really strong bread and butter superhero story at time when a lot of books were floundering.
A big part of this is that it has pencils by Sal Buscema and (very significantly) inks by Bill Sienkiewicz!!! In this era, it's typical to only see Sienkiewicz on a book for maybe one particularly moody fill-in, or a cover, but here they got him for all 6 issues and he's doing amazing work. Louise Simonson has often been asked to do a lot of Marvel books targetting audiences on the younger end of the spectrum of comics readers, but here she's being allowed to operate on less explicitly juvenile register. This isn't to slight her other work. I think Simonson/Brigman Power Pack is probably one of the best Marvel books of all time. But this is a great opportunity for her to show off her ability to write outside of what she's been asked to do so often (and what she was doing in Warlock) at Marvel, and she nails it.
It reads like the ideal version of an Event Series, but without the burden of actually having to support a line-wide crossover. It's just a self-contained story with enormous stakes operating on a huge scale. Galactus is the title character, but in practice the protagonists are Silver Surfer and Alicia Masters (during an era where she can transform into a super her) as they work with a broad cast of Marvel characters to deal with a Galactus who has developed an addiction to consuming only the life force of planets, creating a kind of vicious cycle where he never feels sated. Just a really strong bread and butter superhero story at time when a lot of books were floundering.
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JRJR's getting lazy in his autumn years
Becksworth
Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
Can Marvel please decide what this character looks like?
I can at least get why MJ might like the Jason Mamoa looking version...
Last horse across the finish line, but I finally started reading Exiles. I’m really liking it!
X-Men as Quantum Leap is a flawless concept.
Not smitten with the art, and also Thunderbird looks really stupid.
This ends my evaluation of the first few issues
X-Men as Quantum Leap is a flawless concept.
Not smitten with the art, and also Thunderbird looks really stupid.
This ends my evaluation of the first few issues
If he's "Throg," would a canine wielder just be "Thog"?
Well, there’s Thori, but he’s not… Mjolnir ready
I read Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) #1. It's a whole lot of setup, but it's interesting setup, the art is good, and it's nice to read a Spider-Man book written by a guy who seems to actually like the characters.
