MotW 07/01/09: Cry for Awesome

HadjiQuest · July 2009

Ohh my god, guys.

Ohh my god.

Cry for Justice is the best fucking thing ever. I haven't even read the entire thing yet; I'm only around half way. It's just so good I had to start this thread so we could all discuss how good it was.

Highlights so far:

-Hal and Ollie's big exit, which produces some great dialog.
-The two Atoms team up, which produces some more awesome dialog and proof that Ray Palmer is a bad ass.

Also, Batman and Robin #2 is pretty excellent as well, although I have trouble following Quitely's action scenes sometimes. Oddly enough though, it's already begun to have some problems running against the other bat books (things and relationships explained in Streets of Gotham and Batman last month already seem to contradict this book).

Lucascraft · July 2009

I've read 2 books so far: GLC and Batman and Robin. Both were excellent.

Batman and Robin #2

The dialog between Dick and Alfred, how Alfred suggests that Dick think of his job as Batman as a role he is playing. Alfred is so cool.

Also, the scene in the GCPD where Damien was fighting the fat chick and he cripples her with a couple batarangs to the arms. Awesome.

GLC

When Guy and Kyle stood up to the Alpha Lanterns and to the Guardians. Dear lord I almost cheered for them out loud. That was so good. So good.

Scar really has the rest of the Guardians by the nuts. They have no idea what sort of bad they are unleashing.

CoJoeTheLawyer · July 2009

Lucascraft wrote: »

GLC
When Guy and Kyle stood up to the Alpha Lanterns and to the Guardians. Dear lord I almost cheered for them out loud. That was so good. So good.

Scar really has the rest of the Guardians by the nuts. They have no idea what sort of bad they are unleashing.

The Guardians have nuts now!?!?! Man, I have to go pick that book up!

I Kid...I Kid...Actually, I agree 100% that scene with Guy and Kyle was pure win. Someoen has to post some scans.

HadjiQuest · July 2009

Ahh!

I just got to the end of the actual Cry for Justice story, and it has a backup explaining who/what congorilla is, and a ton of notes from James Robinson. And apparently these secret origins and backing notes will be in every issue.

So excellent. So happy. So excited.

TexiKen · July 2009

I'll save the day and post the GLC #38 scans. The last half of the book is so good and works so well with the buildup to Blackest Night it easily makes GLC the MOTW.

The Alpha Lanterns were killing the prisoners below Oa, and Guy and Kyle stop them and Guy seriously kicks ass during the confrontation. Kyle tells the Alpha Lanterns if they have no problem doing it, why not execute them so everyone can see? Scar hears this and moves everything to the top. So we get the second half of the confrontation:

So Guy and Kyle were kicked off to Earth just as Blackest Night begins, which seems like a happy coincidence.

And Batman & Robin #2 was good as well, as Morrison puts in three pages what it took Tony Daniel and Judd Winick 3 issues and 1 issues respectively to accomplish:

DarkWarrior · July 2009

I dont get it, why if the Guardians said they were to be spared did

they up and kill them anyway?

TexiKen · July 2009

Only the ones Guy and Kyle made promises to were spared, which is Kanjar Ro and Bolphunga. You can see they were protected form being obliterated

HadjiQuest · July 2009

I read that Greek Street book everyone was talking about in the new comics thread.

I thought it was pretty so-so, but I felt the same way about The Unwritten and everyone seems to enjoy that.

Edit:

Exiles #4 was kind of a let down, between the artist turnover and the dialog being really kitschy and constantly making popculture references.

War of Kings 5 was excellent, the best of the series so far.

Destroyer 4 was also a step up from 2 and 3.

Rans · July 2009

minor quibble about an otherwise excellent GLC #38

Alex Nero... dead? He was one of my favorite Kyle villains. With him and Effigy down Kyle's rogues gallery is, like, nil. That's really a damn shame. Nero was awesome.

KidDork · July 2009

That is some awesome Batman and Robin up there. Since this is Canada Day up here, I have to wait until tomorrow to get it my own self.

Me Too! · July 2009

This right here

DarkWarrior · July 2009

Thanks for the info Texiken. After reading its pretty good and I like the concept of the Black Lanterns. Seems Scar (if thats the one with the mangled face) has sorted himself out a good few new members.

KyleWPeterson · July 2009

Rans wrote: »

minor quibble about an otherwise excellent GLC #38
Alex Nero... dead? He was one of my favorite Kyle villains. With him and Effigy down Kyle's rogues gallery is, like, nil. That's really a damn shame. Nero was awesome.

It's really too bad that there isn't a Green Lantern storyline coming up where the dead will be coming back.

Munch · July 2009

HadjiQuest wrote: »

Ohh my god, guys.

Ohh my god.

Cry for Justice is the best fucking thing ever. I haven't even read the entire thing yet; I'm only around half way. It's just so good I had to start this thread so we could all discuss how good it was.

Man, I just could not get into it. Like, at all.

Ray Palmer came off as a faux tough guy, and did something that, after Identity Crisis, you'd really think he'd think twice about before doing. Mikaal Tomas and Congorilla had cheap introductions built around tragedies that came and went so quickly I couldn't find it in me to care about them, even when one involved a character I was interested in biting it. And Robinson did that annoying, repeat-phrases-over-and-over again, thing he did early in his Superman run. Which makes some sense, as this issue was probably written back when Robinson was just coming back to comics.

After as psyched as I was for this, I couldn't believe how much of a letdown it was. Especially after reading fantastic books like Batman and Robin and Green Lantern Corps.

Robos A Go Go · July 2009

I don't think I'll be getting Cry for Justice. Who bit it?

Munch · July 2009

Robos A Go Go wrote: »

I don't think I'll be getting Cry for Justice. Who bit it?

B'wana Beast's successor, Freedom Beast.

HadjiQuest · July 2009

Those tragedies were supposed to be mysteries to be fleshed out in following issues. Hell, all of the characters haven't even been introduced yet.

I still think there's a lot of potential here, and that it may even become a more readable, thematic alternative to Identity Crisis when all is said and done.

TexiKen · July 2009

What annoyed me about Cry for Justice is that I thought I was getting a real 30 page book, but it was 22 regular pages with 8 pages of "here's the history of these other less known people." Why not just give 30 pages of the real story and include it somehow? It sure worked for how they introduced Congorilla. They didn't even introduce the whole team this issue, what the hell.

It was ok, and it did read like a story put in the shelf for a year, and I wonder if Robinson's addition of Congorilla and Freedom Beast in Superman #689 was done to fix the timeline a bit. Best part of it was the Ray Palmer/Ryan Choi monologue between the two about how the other is good. Johns take note, that is how you do a superhero legacy circle jerk with old and new characters.

I probably won't buy the remainder of the series unless it gets better, because I'm getting an Omega Flight vibe form the book, which is lots of set up but the ending comes super fast because they're condensing something that was supposed to be longer into 6 issues.

And while I didn't buy the issue, Uncanny #513 is now a $4 book with no additional pages (unlike the last issue). Just a heads up for people.

Sinister Six #11 though, very good. I'll post some scans of it tomorrow, the whole story works in a way it really shouldn't but Simone knows what parts to hit or make refreshing.

Artemis' telling off the Captain was very good, as was the scenes with Jeanette and Artemis. And the idea of one big prison for every felon in the world, it works surprisingly well here.

Robos A Go Go · July 2009

Munch wrote: »

Robos A Go Go wrote: »

I don't think I'll be getting Cry for Justice. Who bit it?

B'wana Beast's successor, Freedom Beast.

AWWWwwwwww, he was pretty cool.

I was more worried that it was a Starman character, though.

TexiKen · July 2009

Invincible Iron Man #15 is spinning its gears now. Not only do I get the feeling the arc will be split into two trades, but the obvious plot hole in the story just gets bigger and bigger as the story goes on.

Pepper meets up with Tony, he finally remembers her, but Masque, while having two simple kill shots, decides to follow them to his secret bunker so she can torture Pepper and give the whole neglected damsel routine to Tony.

Add to it the simplest reason to end all this is for Tony to just throw himself into a lava pit or have Wolverine cut his head off, it's now two big blinders put on the series for the sake of making a dramatic arc.

We all know there are some things you can't get away with in a superhero comic made by the big two, especially with the bigger name characters, but when you keep adding up those things up and then put them in the same room so to speak, the reader can see the flaws in the story which makes you wonder why even do this particular story. It's a lot like the Bond villain tying him up and explaining the plot, then turning away and just assuming Bond will be dead, when Fraction is actually showing the simpler way to resolve the conflict but purposely ignoring it in maybe some meta "look what I can't do" logic, I don't know. Maybe my dislike of Fraction's Uncanny work is seeping into this book, but it's just spinning it's wheels now, and hasn't felt like it's been moving forward since Tony fought Rhodey.

Also, I have heard next to nothing about Reborn. And it wasn't exactly flying off the shelves at my LCS, compared to a book like B&R #2.

Rans · July 2009

KyleWPeterson wrote: »

Rans wrote: »

minor quibble about an otherwise excellent GLC #38
Alex Nero... dead? He was one of my favorite Kyle villains. With him and Effigy down Kyle's rogues gallery is, like, nil. That's really a damn shame. Nero was awesome.

It's really too bad that there isn't a Green Lantern storyline coming up where the dead will be coming back.

well, yes, but it seems unlikely that all of those risen dead will become alive again at the end of blackest night

HadjiQuest · July 2009

TexiKen wrote: »

Also, I have heard next to nothing about Reborn. And it wasn't exactly flying off the shelves at my LCS, compared to a book like B&R #2.

Ditto. And it's gotten pretty middling reviews on ifanboy. I'm really curious about it now.

Also, on a related note, did you guys see the preview for the Marvels Project? It looks pretty interesting, but at the same time the single scene they showed us was pretty much lifted by means of homage from Kingdom Come.

wirehead26 · July 2009

A correction about Uncanny Texiken, the two Utopia issues are 3.99 but the first non-Utopia issue coming out in September is listed at 2.99. Marvel could change this of course but just wanted to let everyone know.

About Reborn, I liked it. Hitch's art still isn't quite up to his Ultimates work but it's better than his FF stuff. And the story of course was well told with some surprising guest stars and one not-so-surprising one (his first name rhymes with Mormon). And I hope your LCS isn't indicative of the overall reception of this. It would be a shame if a great story doesn't sell well due to people not even giving it a chance. I get it that some don't like Cap coming back but it's still Brubaker who has a near perfect track record when it comes to Captain America.

HadjiQuest · July 2009

I know that there are a lot of people (like me!) who collect Brubaker's stuff in omnibus and trade due to how it kind of kicked off as more of a cult book.

The big problem could be the push for #600 and Reborn which really just kind of screwed stores over, and probably didn't attract as many new readers as marvel was thinking (I thought everyone knew by now that deaths are always much bigger than revivals?).

Algertman · July 2009

Captain America: Reborn.

No since All-Star Superman #10 have I read a comic so perfect.

Lucascraft · July 2009

Captain America Reborn was not a bad read. It certainly feels like Brubaker has a solid plan for bringing about the return of Cap.

Actually, to me it feels a lot like the way DC handled Batman's "death."

Apparently the gun that Sharon shot Steve with caught him in some sort of Temporal Rift and now he's being bounced around a series of events in his life and re-living those moments. Reminds me a lot of Batman getting stuck in the Omega Sanction.

Faynor · July 2009

While I think Captain America was a good read, I'm definitely not convinced that this was the way Brubaker had planned it. It just seems so, "No wait, this was how it happened". Nevertheless, it was still solid, I suppose.

Faynor · July 2009

Either way, my moment of the week was Utopia part 2.

Like I said last week, I'm still not convinced this is all just a power play by Emma and now her and Scott are suddenly enemies. This issue didn't do much to clear that up, though. Scott didn't really seemed "shocked" by the deception as I would think a lover would. I'm still hoping for either Emma's going to mindfuck Norman, or she's just agreeing with him to get him out of the X-Men's business ASAP.

Either way, I think the introduction of the Dark X-Men was pretty good, and they seem to have a good dynamic. This was probably my favorite scene in the entire book, because I'm a sucker for Mystique and Namor. I must say, I'm curious as to what Mystique gains out of the deal.

psycojester · July 2009

Emma has a really big chin.

weenus · July 2009

The portrayal of Adam X was both excessive... and excessively perfect. Although again, I feel like someone missed out on a meeting by having Roberto be involved in that little C list mutant rioter squad, especially when he's involved in the new (and awesome) new mutants.

DarkWarrior · July 2009

Faynor wrote: »

While I think Captain America was a good read, I'm definitely not convinced that this was the way Brubaker had planned it. It just seems so, "No wait, this was how it happened". Nevertheless, it was still solid, I suppose.

Its easy to see it wasnt planned because he had to retcon the gun to do it, plus what kind of gun does that and why arent all super villains using it to fuck the heroes shit up?

psycojester · July 2009

Well since it's clearly going to allow cap to come back eventually, they probably aren't using them because the mundane ones work much better.

DarkWarrior · July 2009

Theres certainly something disturbing about Pym of all people building a Cap-bot.

Or anyone going to Pym for advice/knowledge.

Lucascraft · July 2009

TexiKen wrote: »

Invincible Iron Man #15 is spinning its gears now. Not only do I get the feeling the arc will be split into two trades, but the obvious plot hole in the story just gets bigger and bigger as the story goes on.
Pepper meets up with Tony, he finally remembers her, but Masque, while having two simple kill shots, decides to follow them to his secret bunker so she can torture Pepper and give the whole neglected damsel routine to Tony.

Add to it the simplest reason to end all this is for Tony to just throw himself into a lava pit or have Wolverine cut his head off, it's now two big blinders put on the series for the sake of making a dramatic arc.

We all know there are some things you can't get away with in a superhero comic made by the big two, especially with the bigger name characters, but when you keep adding up those things up and then put them in the same room so to speak, the reader can see the flaws in the story which makes you wonder why even do this particular story. It's a lot like the Bond villain tying him up and explaining the plot, then turning away and just assuming Bond will be dead, when Fraction is actually showing the simpler way to resolve the conflict but purposely ignoring it in maybe some meta "look what I can't do" logic, I don't know. Maybe my dislike of Fraction's Uncanny work is seeping into this book, but it's just spinning it's wheels now, and hasn't felt like it's been moving forward since Tony fought Rhodey.

Also, I have heard next to nothing about Reborn. And it wasn't exactly flying off the shelves at my LCS, compared to a book like B&R #2.

I totally agree with you about Iron Man. This arc was going incredibly strong for about the first 5 issues and now it seems to have stalled out with overly dramatic moments. Fraction seems to have developed a bad habit of adding a lot of extra fluff to his issues, simply so he can draw out the length of an arc.

And one question re: Iron Man --

I didn't realize Tony and Pepper were on fucking terms. I thought he always wanted her, and she always kept a professional distance. Seemed really odd to me to see her get out of bed naked and be looking for him.

Weaver · July 2009

Especially since she had him cut Happy's life support after Spymaster dropped him off a catwalk.

Hensler · July 2009

I've never liked Hal Jordan, but The Golden Age by James Robinson is my all time favorite DC book, so I picked up Cry for Justice. Every panel was great, and I'm really excited for the rest of the series and Robinson taking over the ongoing. It's going on my pull list. Hal was good, but Ollie's comments made the book for me.

In a very close 2nd, Cap reborn was really good, too, but I'm a giant Cap fanboy. We've seen a lot of WW2 era Captain America stuff lately, and it makes me wish for a Cap ongoing from that era. A WW2 Cap or Invaders book would be the greatest thing ever.

Fencingsax · July 2009

Invaders just finished up a 12 issue mini

Hensler · July 2009

Fencingsax wrote: »

Invaders just finished up a 12 issue mini

I have it

. It's another reason I want an ongoing WW2 book.

psycojester · July 2009

DarkWarrior wrote: »

Theres certainly something disturbing about Pym of all people building a Cap-bot.

Or anyone going to Pym for advice/knowledge.

So whats the bet on the Cap-Bot, regular evil, homicidal crazy evil or Pym accidentally makes Robo-Hitler.

Robos A Go Go · July 2009

I wonder if the rule about introducing a gun in the first act also applies to Robo-Caps.

Also, is it reasonable to hope that the bad half of the Secret Six is going to reconsider its stance on slavery?

P.S. I looked at Marvel Divas, and it pretty much is just Sex and the City with random Marvel characters.

Hensler · July 2009

The Pym Cap bot seems to look something like what I remember the Cap bot from New Earth in Fantastic Four looking like. But I don't remember that storyline that well other than Mecha Gundam Reed, so I could be mistaken.

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