Category: Comic Musings

All general posts relating to the comic book industry.

Random Thoughts On… “Truth”

Thoughts on the current Superman: Truth storyline where Superman is exposed and depowered and etc. etc. etc?

I haven’t been following it all that much, to be honest. But I do give it about a year or two before they reset the status quo to whatever stupid thing they had before.

Comics these days, especially from the big two, have become so much of a clusterfuck that they make it very easy to drive interest away from their product except for those loyal to the brand and for those interested in that speculator market. Nowadays, most of my comic readings is from IDW with the Star Trek stuff and sometimes a Turtles book or two. That stuff’s actually well done, but for the rest of it, I’m like… no thanks. Marvel’s constant need for a mega-event every other month as well as DC’s dreadfully depressing New 52 reboot or whatever pretty much killed it for me. And if it wasn’t for the Marvel Cinematic stuff and the DC Animated movies, I probably wouldn’t have cared about either company.

And you know what? That whole premise with getting rid of the secret ID and turning him into generic jabroni man or whatever? Stupid, lame, lazy… I get that it’s hard to make Superman interesting given the wide range of stories told, but pretty much scrapping everything that made Superman Superman… no, complete clusterfuck that will be gone in all of a year or two. Just… no.

Here’s the thing; I get the idea they’re trying to go for here; break Superman down to his most basic levels and build him up again from the ground up. And I get that. I can applaud that idea… when it’s done right. The problem is that we already saw this idea in play when Grant Morrison did Action Comics back in 2011 and I thought that first storyline was fantastic in setting the backstory for this new Superman and basically crafting a modern take on the original 1938 incarnation of the character, which was probably the closest thing to a “fresh take” on the character as there could’ve been without outright killing the essence of the character. And I was really looking forward to seeing him evolve into the Superman we all know.

Except that never happened. I think that whole idea lasted about a year or so before the series jumped ahead to the continuity of the other Superman book… the one I didn’t care for. The one which featured a totally generic Image Comics-esque brute in Kryptonian clothing. The one which feels like it was written by people who have no flipping clue on how to write a Superman story… let alone a good one.

Random Thoughts On… The Original TMNT Comics

How much of the original Mirage TMNT comics have you read?

In all honesty, not a whole lot… but I wouldn’t say I’m completely oblivious to them and I am catching up in some form or another. I’ve read a fair share of Volume 1 stuff (mostly oddball issues and the first and final few of that) and I thought there was some good stuff there when it stuck with continuity and didn’t stray too far from that path. I don’t believe I ever sampled the short-lived color series Volume 2 beyond maybe one or two chance issues. Dwelled a bit into the Image-published Volume 3 and the less said about that, the better. The only Mirage TMNT I followed with any regularity was TMNT Volume 4 and the second series of Tales of the TMNT. And I can honestly tell you that I enjoyed Tales a hell of a lot more than Volume 4. Too each his own, I suppose.

Back during my younger years, I probably only had a handful of Volume 1 comics (including some from the concluding City At War storyline) and only got around to read the earliest comics thanks to some of the recent IDW published collections. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy them, but it was just a matter of money being something of a premium and now it’s the comics themselves that are something of a premium.

Well then…

“What we’re really trying to do is get to the core of who Superman is. So we’re taking away a lot of his iconic visuals – we took away the spit curl, the cape. We left him with just the “S” and even that’s not the same, it’s more of the Fleischer “S” from the old animation.”

Gene Luen Yang, Superman writer
Well… I guess I need to go back and watch the old Fleischer cartoons and see if they’re as dull and uninspired as the tripe being written now.

A Teaser Thing For That Electro Woman and Dyna Girl Remake Thing

Basically a teaser video for a reboot/remake of an old television show from the 1970s… that I have never seen. Seriously, the only semblance of Electra Woman/Dyna Girl I’ve seen was that unaired pilot from the early 2000s that’s floating around YouTube, so I’m probably not the ideal person to gauge a proper opinion on this… of which I have none since my only thought on the matter was an unassuming and rather disinterested meh.

I guess this might be worthwhile for fans of the old show, so that’s something…

"Punch Ben Affleck's Batman In The Face, You're Done," Says Deadite-Slaying Idiot

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-bruce-campbell-lucy-lawless-ash-vs-evil-dead-20150715-story.html

From the LA Times, this interview with Bruce Campbell and Lucy Lawless promoting the upcoming Ash Vs. Evil Dead series… which sounds a hell of a lot more compelling than that other thing that gets brought up here. Seriously, the above quote just ruined the movie for me.

But in all seriousness… I’m looking forward to this show. Wonder if I can catch it somewhere.

Marvel Plans To Temporary Sabbaticalize Deadpool

Source: https://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3327631/marvel-killing-deadpool-2015/

So wait, he has a movie coming out and they’re going to kill him off temporarily sabbaticalize Deadpool? Am I missing something here?
Oh wait, it’s Deadpool. It probably won’t last long, anyway. Maybe when he has a new series out soon or something.
Never mind.

COMIC REVIEW – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (Mirage Studios – Volume 1)

the one that started it all… and after reading it, I’m amazed they were able to continue the series for as long as they did.

The very first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pretty much lays the groundworks for the various aspects that people would become familiar with as this became a massive multimedia empire. We are introduced to our four Ninja Turtles, their rodent sensei Master Splinter, their arch-nemesis Shredder and his Foot Clan, and the origins of all these characters as well as their bloodfeud. It leans hard into its parody and homage to the Frank Miller works, particularly Daredevil, while also crafting a compelling story with lots of bloody, violent action depicted in glorious black and white.

The artwork is truly exceptional stuff; lots of gritty detail and some beautifully rough line art of the various battles between the Turtles and their foes; whether they’d be rugged hoodlums, lethal Foot ninjas, or the Shredder himself. The decision to go black and white as opposed to color might’ve been a money thing – I honestly don’t recall – but it pretty much defined the look of the comic going forward. To the point where I would later come across a color version of this issue and it didn’t quite look as good.

For those whose first exposure to TMNT was the cartoon, reading this comic and realizing how violent it was had to be a bit of a shock and you get why the cartoon is what it is to appeal to kids. But more than anything, the bigger shock was how self-contained the story is. I’m not going to spoil things, but the ending leaves little room for further adventures, presumably because Eastman and Laird figured this was their one and only shot at getting something published. Fortunately, not only did they manage to produce a second issue and continue the story, but… well, it got big.

It’s funny to go back and revisit this issue, like, what? Decades after the fact. It’s been reprinted several times, it’s even been posted on the official Ninja Turtles site for all to see before the big change in ownership. The original printings command high prices, but you could probably find reprints easily enough. The book holds up after all these years and is worth checking out if you bare any fandom to TMNT. And if you’ve already read it, read it again. It’s fantastic.