Comic Reviews and discussions

[Disco Pickle]

Every so often I post about the comics I'm reading and while we've had the odd thread about Grant Morrison and Alan Moores stuff
most other comic book threads have fizzled out.

Shade, The changing man by Peter Milligan

I'm Just after finishing the seventy issue arc by Peter Milligan and I've found commentary/reviews online to be lacking, I can only assume this was a series that has either been forgotten about or didn't have huge numbers in its later years, which is a damn shame, It's excellent.

Vertigo is a line that prides itself on publishing books with unusual themes, concepts or morality, and I haven't read a title that better encapsulates this.

From the very start we are never fully sure where we stand with Shade, wether we can trust him or not from from his first incarnation as the possessed death row convict and psychopath Troy Grenzer, travelling with the daughter of his victims.

A recurring theme of shade is shifting identities and an endless growth, death reinvention cycle of all of the main characters persona's, something that if you get immersed in the story can be often painful or melancholy to experience.  As soon as you think you have shade figured out he changes again and you are never fully sure if it is for the better.

This is one of the strongest titles Vertigo has completed, my only complaint is I wish there was more. I'm really pleased to see that shade is being used in the DCU and hopefully people take an interest in where the character has come from like I did.

Well now I'm curious as to how that might tie into Jason Aaron's "Heaven's on Fire" run on Ghost Rider that I picked up this weekend.  All very Apocalypse oriented.  Damien Hellstrom, BlackHeart, the "True Heaven/Hell" (not Mephisto's realm) I have been neglectful of the series since they declined to publish the last issue of the second run way back in the 90's, but the Ghost Riders have always been my favorite Marvel characters. 

I did have a long talk with my local store guys about the fact that Marvel introduced a female Ghost Rider and the series died. 

I'd like to think it's because they divorced it from the Blaze/Ketch story line but kept DarkHeart as a main antagonist.  That's only speculation though.  I'll have to grab the first issues and see what I think about the writing. 

[Faust]

I must confess I don't know a lot about Ghost Rider, other than him beating Galactus with the memories of all those he has killed. It's a character I've always wanted to read but is very hard to find a good start point on.

[BadBeast]

I've been into Hellblazer on and off since Original Sin, so I downloaded my gap chunks, so I've been immersed in them all week. Just finished "Sectioned".   

Milligan slings Constantine into crossovers with other DCU characters with consumnate skill at the best of times, and this one is a little gem. John's back in the Nuthouse, so who does he call up to bust him out of the cataleptic ward? (and stop big chunks of London disappearing) Fucking Shade!  Hmmm. .  . . . Shade's all O.C.D Uber~Emo, pouty, flouncy, as per, but darker. Like a cross between Morissey and Manson. On that special acid that you never come down from.
Then it struck me that Shade, is Hewligan 20 years on, with a better haircut and jacket.   

[Faust]

I've been into Hellblazer on and off since Original Sin, so I downloaded my gap chunks, so I've been immersed in them all week. Just finished "Sectioned".   

Milligan slings Constantine into crossovers with other DCU characters with consumnate skill at the best of times, and this one is a little gem. John's back in the Nuthouse, so who does he call up to bust him out of the cataleptic ward? (and stop big chunks of London disappearing) Fucking Shade!  Hmmm. .  . . . Shade's all O.C.D Uber~Emo, pouty, flouncy, as per, but darker. Like a cross between Morissey and Manson. On that special acid that you never come down from.
Then it struck me that Shade, is Hewligan 20 years on, with a better haircut and jacket.   

That was actually the arc that inspired me to read Shade: The changing man. I had no idea what was going on for a lot of the arc. I reread it recently and it is really good but is unfair to readers who haven't encountered shade before.
Then again, the same could be said about it and swamp thing, at least for the early run.

Over the last few days I've been reading The Boys. It's dark, disgusting, very funny and possibly the most anti superhero comic that has ever been written. It is very far fetched with the sheer amount of sex and violence but I'm twenty something issues in and still enjoying the hell out of it.

[Faust]

Forget anything good I said about The Boys, the next arc was about a pedophile version of prof x and the x-men.
Not only is it the most obvious way to reimagine the x-men into something horrible but it drags on for seven issues.
The first three volumes are good, this was lame, I'm going to keep going to see if it picks up.

[kingyak]

I've only read the first three The Boys TPBs, but really enjoyed those. There was also a spin-off mini-series a couple years ago called "Herogasm," which was basically Ennis taking (yet another) shot at big crossover events. The basic premise was that every year when the all the heroes claim they're going off into space or to the end of time or whatever to fight some cosmic menace, they're really going to a secret island retreat where they have a big drug-fueled orgy. Great premise and a fun if predictable read.

[Faust]

I've read up to about issue 50 now. The series follows that horrible pedo story with Herogasm which is actually really funny and not too violent. After that story the comics focus is back on building the characters background and developing them further so It really perks up again.

[Faust]

In keeping with my rediscovery of marvel I read the 5 issue series Osborn Kelly Sue DeConnick.

After years of misuse by Bendis it was refreshing to see a new take on Norman Osborn (Formerly Green Goblin).
It plays up his mania and complete assertion that everything he does is right, after nearly starting a war while representing the US government he is now in Jail, asserting without compromise that he is a political prisoner, despite having had a breakdown, painting his face green and bombing the city.

The majority of the story is a prison break and the new characters created as Osborn's escapees are all interesting in their own right. It's also nice to see a marvel comic with no superheros in it.

[E.O.T.]

HEY FAUST!

          so you're reading quite a bit of back catalog stuff. The new JL Dark series, which is changing writers soon already, is the most "shade" stuff I've read, not sure if it's the kind of character I can be interested in. That JLDark series is really floundering around in my opinion. I was excited to see the use of those characters in a story but it's just going nowhere. I am hugely NOT a fan of Jeff Lemire (the new writer) so I don't think I'll be able to follow it much longer.

THANKS

          for commenting on "the boys", I think Ennis can be a really fun writer. His beginning story arch on "Jennifer Blood" is hilarious (do no bother grabbing that rag after like, issue 6 or 7 though). His "Crossed" is just ridiculously unbelievable, every page had me going, WTF?!!

          I never picked up anything by Brian K. Vaughn before this new "Saga" series started, but I'm now almost finished (75%) with "Y: the last guy" and I'm really liking it. Vaughn is able to bring a lot of topics into play without moralizing over the issues and his characters have real identities, they're not just delivering dialogue.

          I'm not familiar with what is on the shelves over in Britannia, but there are at least a couple of things I'm enjoying that are out right now.

          terry Moore is also a writer/ artist who I've never checked out, but his new "Rachel Rising" title is pretty cool. It's B&W, he writes and does the art, which I really like.

          Any comments on the "new 52"?

          my friend Brian Churilla has a new, fantastic title on ONI Press called the "Secret life of D.B. Cooper" that everyone needs to be reading.

          I'm finding that I really like this Jonathan Hickman guy, he can really pull off a super complex story line and make it very readable and he manages to balance like, fifty characters, even if the reader can't. I'm not always up for that kinda challenge in reading his stuff however, like his "ultimates" stuff just gets waaay too labyrinthy for me, I like nick fury, but not THAT much.

ANY

          new stuff you're enjoying?

[Doktor Howl]

Jonathan Hickman:

The Nightly News - excellent
The Manhattan Project - beyond excellent

Pax Romana - not so much

[E.O.T.]

Jonathan Hickman:

The Nightly News - excellent
The Manhattan Project - beyond excellent

Pax Romana - not so much

THAT

          nightly news looks boring, what's it about?

HA, YEAH

          his manhattan projects is totally cool, he's the perfect writer for alternate history stuff.

[Doktor Howl]

Jonathan Hickman:

The Nightly News - excellent
The Manhattan Project - beyond excellent

Pax Romana - not so much

THAT

          nightly news looks boring, what's it about?

HA, YEAH

          his manhattan projects is totally cool, he's the perfect writer for alternate history stuff.

Nightly News is a horror story about a cult that's dedicated to killing news media personnel.

There are no good guys, incidentally.  It's grim as hell.  To get the full effect, you have to read all the sidebars and comments.  Also, the color of the panels is important.  He explains it in the back of the trade paperback, but try to figure it out yourself.

[Doktor Howl]

so: yeah i fished it out with My | fish it out
hook,

Hirley0 has a fish it out hook.

I am oddly terrified.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

so: yeah i fished it out with My | fish it out
hook,

Hirley0 has a fish it out hook.

I am oddly terrified.

I suspect hirley0 has ALL SORTS of things.

[hirley0]

YEAH I MOVED  the JokE'$ to FF#11
& yes of course i have more Junk than i know /-/oW to USe for example
tha counter fit dime? what to do? I will no doubt try to load 98 1st then xp
the firefox in the mean time its wash day. by by CR&Lf

so: yeah i fished it out with My | fish it out
hook,

Hirley0 has a fish it out hook.

I am oddly terrified.

I suspect hirley0 has ALL SORTS of things.