Johnny Storm...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Johnny Storm...HATER

9/23/2009: Butt Kicking of the Fantastic!

So, let's take a peek at September 23rd's release list, shall we:

Fantastic Four

Guardians of the Galaxy

Incredible Hercules

Incredible Hulk

Invincible

Wow. So, we have "Fantastic Four" talking about hundreds of Reed Richards that end starvation for universes, kill Galactus during breakfast, and get party-crashed by Celestials; "Guardians of the Galaxy" with an elderly Starlord and infant Cosmo and Mantis; Amadeues Cho in "Incredible Hercules" flying solo in a tale based off of a role-playing, dice-rolling game; Skaar fighting the Juggarnaut and Bruce Banner egging them both on in "Incredible Huk"; and the revelation that there are only 50 full-blooded Viltrumites left in the universe in "Invincible", not to mention that Allen is back!! It is truly a sweet week when "Nova" and "Wolverine: Origins" are the weakest of the bunch, even though they are consistantly great reads.

This is how you fix a "head" problem

Ed Brubaker (RE: King of everything) fills in the void left in my heart from the ending of "Incognito" by giving me the third issue of "Captain America: Reborn". So, in the previous issues, Captain America has been thrown and lost throughout the time-stream of his life. Sharon Carter interrupted some type of time-warpy thing. Doctor Who calls it "Timey Whimey" stuff. Anyways, Cap is conscious for his entire trip down his memory lane, not knowing what is going on or if he is losing his mind. His consciousness jumps into the Kree-Skrull war, where he tells the Vision that he is going to give him a message to upload to the Avengers computer, then forget that he ever told him anything. Hmmmm, this is gonna be sweet.

Then, in the regular timeline, Bucky had got detained by Norman Osborn's Thunderbolts. Scourge and The Ghost begin to mock Bucky by taunting him with Cap's shield. The Falcon busts into their quinjet through the cockpit and kicks some ass. The Antman, wo is starting to question his alliance with the Thunderbolts, frees Bucky. Bucky kicks the living shit out of The Scourge.

Reed Richards and Namor go to the secret site where they left Steve Rogers's body to rest in the Arctic. Before their eyes, Steve's body disappears. Namor flips out because he had tasked himself with protecting the body.

OK, all this shit is pretty cool, I know. But, that's not even the best part.

The Red Skull has been monitoring the whole Sharon Carter situation and various other Cap related incidents on some screens. The Red Skull's kids show up and tell him that they have been looking for him. Then this happens:

Ed Brubaker, you know how to write a comic book.

iPhone Power

I wish I made this; more than I want an iPhone.

Comic of the Moment: The Incredible Hercules

"The Incredible Hercules" is one of the ongoings that I always look forward to each month. Greg Pak (dude that did Planet Hulk an World War Hulk) and Fred Van Lente (dude that did Marvel Zombies 3 and 4) both on a comic book together at the same time should be illegal. Reilly Brown's art is both gorgeous and hilarious at the same time. I had thought about creating a blog that simply displayed all of the art that he had drawn sound effects. This book is the best of the Theological(?) genre out right now. I started reading it while I was still chipping away at Captain Britain and MI-13, so I was glad that there was an ongoing that I enjoyed since Captain Britain was getting cancelled.

Read it and enjoy it. If you don't like it, then go read Archie Comics or some shit like that.

"Well, that answers that": Hitler Edition

A Kick-Ass Anticlimax

I just finished the 7th issue of Mark Millar's "Kick-Ass" and I have to admit that I am pretty much over the whole comic. When it first came out, it kind of just came out of the dark for me. I had heard no rumblings in the internet prior it to coming out so it was a pleasant surprise to read the first issue. But around issue #3 or so, Hollywood ended up scooping up rights before the story even ended. In 2003, in a time when comics were still slightly looked down upon, Hollywood did the same with "30 Days of Night", though the end of the arc wasn't released for retail purchase, it was ready to be shipped; only a contract was established, yet nothing was in production. The problem with the "Kick-Ass" movie is that they started FILMING the movie before the comic even wrapped up.

Now, I fucking LOATHE story arcs that are super sweet...then END. Many of my favorites, such as "Powers", have been stuck in limbo because writers get stuck writting a bunch of titles at the same time or end up having irregular releases. Shit, I JUST found out that "Planetary" isn't even over! Twenty-seven issues take well over eight plus years these days, I suppose. NOTE: Warren Ellis is a fucking genius and if he takes 10 years to release 12 issues, I trust that it'll give my brain a boner.

In the case of "Kick-Ass", though, what bugs me is that I don't know if I should keep reading the comic or if I should wait for the movie. This is a weird instance where the argument over which is better, the book or the movie, has no bounds. Both are being done parallel to each other. And honestly, as much as I love reading Millar's humor and looking at Romita's brilliant art (I think Red Mist's Camaro will kick the Batmobile's wang eight days out of any week), I think that I'm starting to anticipate the movie more. Reading the comics are pretty anti-climactic because the movie has been filming for quite some time and I just feel that the creators have invested creative output for the screenplay. The comic is just riding backseat.