MOTW 3/23/11: Impurity Restored

TexiKen

War of the Green Lanterns starts off pretty good in GL #64:

And Parallax returned to the battery, and is infecting all the GLs outside of Hal so far.

And then in GLC #58:

The cover is misleading, no real fight between the two. Ganthet saves them by removing their rings but they explode in his right hand, so he loses a limb (real gruesome splash page too)

BlankZoe

Captain America and Batroc was fantastic. It showed the behind the scenes preparation that goes into planning a heist in a world where guys like Captain America try to stop you while delving into the head of Batroc. He is easily one of ny favorite "villains" and this issue nails him right on the head, particularly during his run in with a couple of parkourers.

FF was a pretty solid first issue, nice set-up and the final reveal is going to lead to some great stories. Hickman seems to be having fun with Peter and is going to use his big brain, which is nice.

Hulk was great, but that should be a given at this point.

Power Man and Iron Fist continues to be a fun old school romp, and FVL has created not one, not two but three interesting villains in just as many issues.

TexiKen

New Mutants #23, more pieces falling together:

Looks like it might be Revenant after all.

Hats off to Carey for making me care about an X-storyline for the first time in a long time.

Golden Yak

Yeah, GL #64 was great, although I wished they'd foreshadowed Krona's shenanigans a bit more LAST ish - would've heightened anticipation for what went down this issue.

On the flipside, profoundly underwhelmed by Death of (Ultimate) Spider-Man #156:

Great to see Bagley's art come back, but the whole premise is completely rehashed from Ultimate Six and the last Green Goblin storyarc - Osborn, inexplicably alive and locked up in the Triskellion, powers up and breaks loose (for the umpteenth time - why would you put him in the same cell that has failed to hold him last time?), despite the fact that his powers should all be gone (again, just like the last time he was locked up), and frees various sinister characters.

Bit with Ultimate Cap was almost good, at least.

The Luggage

Bat-family.

Witch_Hunter_84

The Ultimate Doom wrap up was pretty cool:

I'm really liking the concept of Reed Richards as the bad guy here. Just a guy who has snapped because he just can't stand humanity's continuing use of science as a weapon. You can sympathize with the point of view, but revel in the irony that he's essentially become the new foil for the Ultimate FF team. That and Jessica Drew is now Agent Drew.

But I'm still really digging JLA: Generation Lost

Power Girl brought Batman into the loop regarding Max Lord. It is revealed that Bruce's brief run as a White Lantern gave him all his memories of Lord back and the team tracks down Wonder Woman, who the majority of the DCU still has no memory of. Lord then proceeds to launch his main plan of attacking the JLI and Wonder Woman with a shit-ton of hastily converted Omacs because he is still apparently scared shitless of Diana. Looks like the next issue is gonna comprise of a massive beat down.

I wish I had scans of these though, too bad mine doesn't work currently.

SatanIsMyMotor

Witch_Hunter_84 wrote: »

The Ultimate Doom wrap up was pretty cool:

I'm really liking the concept of Reed Richards as the bad guy here. Just a guy who has snapped because he just can't stand humanity's continuing use of science as a weapon. You can sympathize with the point of view, but revel in the irony that he's essentially become the new foil for the Ultimate FF team. That and Jessica Drew is now Agent Drew.

But I'm still really digging JLA: Generation Lost

Power Girl brought Batman into the loop regarding Max Lord. It is revealed that Bruce's brief run as a White Lantern gave him all his memories of Lord back and the team tracks down Wonder Woman, who the majority of the DCU still has no memory of. Lord then proceeds to launch his main plan of attacking the JLI and Wonder Woman with a shit-ton of hastily converted Omacs because he is still apparently scared shitless of Diana. Looks like the next issue is gonna comprise of a massive beat down.

I wish I had scans of these though, too bad mine doesn't work currently.

Re Ultimate Doom I think you're misreading the motivation -

Reed is essentially pissed about humanity constantly getting in the way of the progression of science.

Witch_Hunter_84

Oh, I understand, but humanity using science to create weapons can be seen as one of the main ways they are blocking its progression.

Tairu

The new arc of Superman/Batman was written to be an RPG, I swear
I guess thats just indicative of the times, which is neat

Golden Yak

What the f-okay.

Did he limit break Lex Luthor for 9999 damage?

lsukalel

Tairu wrote: »

The new arc of Superman/Batman was written to be an RPG, I swear
I guess thats just indicative of the times, which is neat

Does he have the power!?

Crimsondude

lsukalel wrote: »

Does he have the power!?

And The Touch.

FCD

I hear the Zelda "you got an X!" music when I look at that panel.

Wildcat

lsukalel wrote: »

Tairu wrote: »

The new arc of Superman/Batman was written to be an RPG, I swear
I guess thats just indicative of the times, which is neat

Does he have the power!?

The item even has a similar shape!

Hensler

My moment of the week was finally getting the last issue of Neonomcon, and being able to sit down with all 4 issues and put everything together. Read through it all twice. Alan Moore can still write a damn great comic.

Tairu

The scene in the New Green Lantern where

Larfleeze's lantern spits out of the book of black

reminded me of this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvXyV4L4wSk#t=04m31s

BlankZoe

Man did no one read Captain America and Batroc?

Delduwath

I haven't read it yet. I will when I get home! I'm fully expecting to love it, because Gillen hasn't done wrong by me yet.

BlankZoe

Having loved his Thor and SWORD and the Loki Siege one-shot

this is better than all of them

Delduwath

Wo-hoa, now. That's a pretty bold claim. Pretty bold. The Loki one-shot was probably my favorite comic of last year. You are setting up some expectations, my man.

P.S. Did I mention that I got a sketch of Loki from Jamie McKelvie at last year's NYCC?

BlankZoe

I am jealous, I also loved the Loki one-shot a ton.

I am super excited for Journey into Mystery

Wildcat

Would love a McKelvie sketch I did get one of the pages from Phonogram, mind you.

Delduwath

I was looking at the Loki sketch with a friend of mine the day after I got it, and at one point he said "I just realized: You know that facial expression, that look he's giving?" - and as he was saying this, I immediately knew what he was about to say - "That's totally a David Kohl look."

I'm so glad he's getting more work and more exposure. The art in those Pepper Potts back-up stories in IIM was awesome.

Blank, you and I can be Journey Into Mystery bros. I am jazzed. I thought that Gillen's run on Thor was one of the best runs of anything I've read in a long time, so I'm super-excited that he's getting to play in that sandbox again. Although I actually really hate the idea of kid-Loki (I've gone off on this rant before), I'm confident that Gillen can make me like the character and concept.

Munch

Blankzilla wrote: »

Man did no one read Captain America and Batroc?

I did. It was super awesome.

That page where he's wrestling with himself over whether or not he should take a shot at Bucky, was pretty fantastic.

BlankZoe

I loved that so much.

The best parts were him shooting the shit with the parkour guys and the final page

God I love that frenchman

Munch

Also, I really love that Batroc only has a pencil moustache when he's in costume, and otherwise just has a beard.

Haunt #14 was okay, but not much happened. Still, it's basically leading up to Spider-Spawn v.s. The Maxx, and as a child of the nineties, I can't help but be pumped for that.

Deadpool #34 was again okay, but not much happened. Id the Selfish Moon still makes me laugh, though.

I also grabbed Image's Lorna the Relic Wrangler, mainly because it had a Darwyn Cooke cover, and interior art to match. The lead story was okay, but the tone of the thing overall was really scattershot. I couldn't figure out whether the writer meant to portray the lead as capable, or a naive country girl. Still, it wasn't a terrible waste of $3.99.

By far the best thing I bought, was a copy of The Demon #1, in really good condition, for five bucks. I may write a big, sprawling blog piece about it later, but damn that was a good comic. It really showed Kirby's ability to set up a whole world, filled with heroes, villains, love interests, supporting characters, and an interesting setting, all in a single issue.

I'd put up some scans of this stuff, but my graphics card suddenly stopped working, so I'm currently using a crappy old CRT monitor, and the colors on it are all screwy, so I can't do the usual thing where I scan an image and then adjust it.

BlankZoe

Mail it to me, I can scan it and then keep it forev- I mean return it as soon as possible

Hensler

Has there ever been a US Agent vs Batroc fight? Because there really should be, wheelchair or no.

TexiKen

Batroc was the best in Marvel Adventures Avengers with his french sound effects.

edit: this scene from Marineman #4 is something I wish Aquaman would pull off more, because it's just cool:

oh hey 'sup just gonna shoot myself out of the water like a salmon, no big deal.

love that art.

Munch

The Demon #1; Kirby knew how to do a splash page.

The last two pages..



I really kind of miss those half-pages of text.

Deadpool #34; Deadpool evacuates a planet, and then taunts Id the Selfish Moon.

Haunt #14; Spider-Spawn v.s. Venom-Maxx.

I really just love Capullo's art. It's like a gritty Ryan Ottley. Add in Kirkman and McFarlane's influence, and you have a book that really just speaks to the kid in me.

Captain America and Batroc #1; Batroc's dueling internal monologues.

Delduwath

Yeah, Captain America and Batroc #1 was awesome. This is exactly the sort of thing I love to see: nuanced looks into minor characters that we only had two-dimensional views of before.

Munch

I like that Marvel put an old Lee/Kirby Batroc appearance in the back. It showed that the character's always really had motivations extending beyond evil for evil's sake.

Delduwath

This is true. Also, man, Kirby could draw a dynamic page.

(Your Demon scans had me salivating.)

I'll be honest: I really didn't care for the writing in the old Lee/Kirby Batroc comic. The need to verbalize every single action, no matter how slight, grates on my nerves. "Look how magnificently I clap my hands over your ears!"