Messages

Honestly, Busiek Avengers are good comics, but he's another 'homework' writer for me. He's a little TOO good at tying everything to gether with olden days continuity, and making sure you can follow the references in the margins. I did like it when he brought WonderMan and the Beast back together for a bantz epsiode though.

For me, Marvel comics peaked with Mark Gruenwald's deeply earnest moralizing on his insanely long Captain America run. That sort of thing is my bag, baby. CapWolf has nothing on DreddWolf, though. But now I'm wondeirng if we can get Al Ewing to write that as a team-up book somewhere...

What can I say, I'm a Krull man.

Yaaaay!

Beastmaster could take them both. With one ferret tied behind his back.

Tron all the way - drive circles around these pretenders

Hey look, if we're going to champion 1980s fantasy films, I'm going to bat for Starchaser: the Legend of Orin.

Have to agree that reading the Kree-Skrull War (first publihsed a decade before I was born!) feels more than a little like homework. I guess it's the good kind of homework where you're glad the teacher forced you to read it because there are some really good bits, and it helps put a lot of newer stuff in context, but I sure don't reach for it very often.

My heyday of Avengers reading fandom was the sort-of follow-up story, the Kree-Shi'ar war (aka Operation: Galactic Storm!). Not sure this is as well regarded... ...but I re-read it not too long ago and still had plenty of fun.

[Tyranny Rex]

Two amazing characters with all-time great names, both in search of actual stories to tell. John Smith tried at least three different genres with Tyranny Rex, somewhere between art-heists and existential horror and just plain comedy, but I don't know that any single version was a total success, depsite the stellar art. Visbile Man, too, was blessed with superb artists but never got as far as having any sort of plot beyond 'going on the run, then suddenly turning into an avenging angel'.
I'd be excited to see either character back in the Prog but perhaps with all-new creative teams.
Gonna go with Tyranny Rex as the slightly more satisfying read.

[Anderson, Psi Division]

There have to be some one-sided affairs when you let all the thrills in to play... and this is surely one of them.
Anderson, Psi Division has been home to some of the single best stories of all time, even if there have been some duds in there as well. And my gosh, the art. Gargarax and Vernon D'Arque are the stuff of joyous nightmares. And that Tula Lotay cover is a whole other kind of dream.

Hunted is not terrible but it's the least of the Rogue Trooper spin-offs.

Anderson, Psi Division.

I'm one of those people who would 100% NOT have bought a standalone Hawk the Slayer comic. And, despite Ennis and Flint's best effrots, I can confidently say that I still have little to no interest in watching the movie, and although I will happily read the free comic, I'm not piqued enough to become a Hawk fan.

What can I say, I'm a Krull man.

Agree with the general opinion that the political shenanigans of this month's Dredd are top notch, very intrigued to see where this story goes!

I know exactly what you mean. There's something in the buddy-biker aspect though, and something in Pericval's super-dayglo art, that always makes me think fondly of the strip Totallly agree, as soon as I actually READ the thing it's almost entirely awful.

Link P, have you tried much of Milligan's American comics stuff? It's not all good, but I REALLY liked his X-Force/X-Statix, and his Human Target. You know, in case you want to try un-breaking that heart.

[Sancho Panzer]

Like, Venus Bluegenes as a character is way more fun than the tank team - but the actual stories that ran under the banner 'Venus Bluegenes'? Some good puns, but they're basically like mid-level Fr1day stories in quality. Even if we include Rogue TrooperS, which was about Fr1day and Venus together, I'm still voting

Sancho Panzer

-A thrill that never quite got off the ground but if Abnett/Flint tried it now I can imagine it running and running. Flint draws tank mayhem real good.

[MACH Zero]

I always think Valkyries is going to be better than I remember on a re-read... and it never is.
Nice to get some sex-positivity in the Prog, but without a story to match it's just silly. MACH Zero, on the other hand, manages ot be both silly and moving in equal measure.

MACH Zero to go all the way! Wuuuurgh!

[Danzig's Inferno]

Anyone here seen Frozen 2? That song Olaf sings about "It'll all make sense when I'm older?" That's how I felt about Danzig's Inferno when I was 12, and I'm still waiting. Perhaps 'The Order' will all turn out to be part of Danzig's magical super-consciousness.

That said, it sure does linger in the mind, while ALien Invsaions dont, really. Some seriously great ideas and images in there, but somehow the stories never quite came together. A bit like when you have a great punchline but can never find the joke set-up to match. Oh well.

Danzig's Inferno, please.

[Counterfeit Girl]

LOVE Counterfeit Girl. Very much don't love Brit Cit Babes, a thrill that just happens to have an all-time sexy cover to introduce it. John Wagner clearly wnats to write a story about pyrokensis but can't quite seem to find a good fit.

Sadly, I believe Lilly M has disappeared into that drawer where things go when an artist really wants to work on it but nobody is paying 'um to do it

Getting wildily off-topic, but I believe it's specifically James Ferman, long-time head of the BBFC, who had a problem with the word 'ninja' (automatica 18 rating for including that word in the title!). He also hated chainsaws, nunchuks and, I think, flick knives.

To his credit, there is soemthing about the appeal of certain weapons. I have a very vivid memory of seeing Face/Off while on holiday in Greece in 199whatever year it came out, and there's a scene that was definintely NOT in the UK version where evil John T shows his daughter a butterfly knife opening up - and it was just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I immediately wanted to buy one and stab all my friends.

(All of which is less funny than an epsiode of Low Life, but more interesting than an episode of Nemesis and Snoozelock)

[Chiaroscuro]

There's a lot of good in Leatherjack, but it suffers from rather bland colours, and just not being as lush as Firekind (which I shouldn't compare it to but I can't help it, not least as they're collected in the same Hachette volume now). Chiaroscuro on the other hand, is exactly my cup of tea, and just brilliantly written and eerily drawn. I don't find comics scary, as a rule, but Chairoscuro is one of the few that has come closest to scaring me.