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The Marvel Thread

Started by Previsionary, December 24, 2008, 11:48:35 PM

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HarryTrotter

KK,only not really,like I said,Avengers were always a weird spontanous thing.They were never a family like say X-men or a "workplace" like JLA.They were in a weird grey area.
''Even our origin stories have gone sour.''
Jon Farmer

kkhohoho

Quote from: HarryTrotter on March 09, 2018, 02:33:31 PM
KK,only not really,like I said,Avengers were always a weird spontanous thing.They were never a family like say X-men or a "workplace" like JLA.They were in a weird grey area.

...And that has to do with mostly having characters not in their own books how?
The Golden Age; 'A different look at a different era.'

http://archiveofourown.org/works/1089779/chapters/2193203

HarryTrotter

Im not sure if If I catch your drift here' your problem is with the Wolverine publicity of modern age line-ups?
''Even our origin stories have gone sour.''
Jon Farmer

kkhohoho

#3543
Quote from: HarryTrotter on March 11, 2018, 05:50:27 AM
Im not sure if If I catch your drift here' your problem is with the Wolverine publicity of modern age line-ups?

Sort of, but that's not just it. I wouldn't mind someone like Spiderman or Wolverine being Avengers if they didn't have their own books. But they do. And because of that, they can't be properly developed in Avengers itself and you need to go read their own books to see them developed instead. Whereas if you had characters like Vision or Wonder Man in their place, you could have actual, meaningful character development. Prior to Bendis, Avengers was NOT about Marvel's greatest heroes teaming up. It was about giving the spotlight to characters without their own titles that couldn't hold their own books. Which also allowed for actual character development in Avengers itself. I don't see how this is hard to understand.

Ideally, I want Avengers to be completely self-contained. To have absolutely no characters with their own titles so so the book can do whatever it wants with its' cast. And some of the classic runs came close to that. Remember Cap's Kooky Quartet?
The Golden Age; 'A different look at a different era.'

http://archiveofourown.org/works/1089779/chapters/2193203

detourne_me

I agree wholeheartedly, kkhohoho!

HarryTrotter

Quote from: kkhohoho on March 11, 2018, 05:59:10 AM
Quote from: HarryTrotter on March 11, 2018, 05:50:27 AM
Im not sure if If I catch your drift here' your problem is with the Wolverine publicity of modern age line-ups?

Sort of, but that's not just it. I wouldn't mind someone like Spiderman or Wolverine being Avengers if they didn't have their own books. But they do. And because of that, they can't be properly developed in Avengers itself and you need to go read their own books to see them developed instead. Whereas if you had characters like Vision or Wonder Man in their place, you could have actual, meaningful character development. Prior to Bendis, Avengers was NOT about Marvel's greatest heroes teaming up. It was about giving the spotlight to characters without their own titles that couldn't hold their own books. Which also allowed for actual character development in Avengers itself. I don't see how this is hard to understand.

Ideally, I want Avengers to be completely self-contained. To have absolutely no characters with their own titles so so the book can do whatever it wants with its' cast. And some of the classic runs came close to that. Remember Cap's Kooky Quartet?

Or that one time when a bunch of nobodies wore matching jackets and got involved into way too soap-operific antics.Eh,Im so depressed that I can even make fun of Bob Harras... :unsure:
But I digress...there are no bad characters,only bad writers.Who is on the team shouldn't be a problem as long as you can tell a good story.And thats the problem with this reboot and every else since Marvel Now (2012).You can switch the players around,but its still the same team.And their results have been spotty at best in this decade.
If you didn't care for Totally Awesome Hulk,you probably wont care for Immortal Hulk.
''Even our origin stories have gone sour.''
Jon Farmer

kkhohoho

Quote from: HarryTrotter on March 11, 2018, 07:19:29 PM
Quote from: kkhohoho on March 11, 2018, 05:59:10 AM
Quote from: HarryTrotter on March 11, 2018, 05:50:27 AM
Im not sure if If I catch your drift here' your problem is with the Wolverine publicity of modern age line-ups?

Sort of, but that's not just it. I wouldn't mind someone like Spiderman or Wolverine being Avengers if they didn't have their own books. But they do. And because of that, they can't be properly developed in Avengers itself and you need to go read their own books to see them developed instead. Whereas if you had characters like Vision or Wonder Man in their place, you could have actual, meaningful character development. Prior to Bendis, Avengers was NOT about Marvel's greatest heroes teaming up. It was about giving the spotlight to characters without their own titles that couldn't hold their own books. Which also allowed for actual character development in Avengers itself. I don't see how this is hard to understand.

Ideally, I want Avengers to be completely self-contained. To have absolutely no characters with their own titles so so the book can do whatever it wants with its' cast. And some of the classic runs came close to that. Remember Cap's Kooky Quartet?

Or that one time when a bunch of nobodies wore matching jackets and got involved into way too soap-operific antics.Eh,Im so depressed that I can even make fun of Bob Harras... :unsure:[/i]

Hey, I liked that run. (Up until the end of the Proctor arc anyway.) It was good stuff.
The Golden Age; 'A different look at a different era.'

http://archiveofourown.org/works/1089779/chapters/2193203

Tomato

Except... Avengers has ALWAYS been a book that's had characters from other books. It STARTED as a team up of characters with solo books that they put in one book. Yes, Stan whittled that down very early on (with the original team leaving and putting Cap in charge) but even at that point Cap had his own solo book in which he was having solo adventures and character development. That's not to even go into Iron Man and Thor, who have almost always had solo series runs running alongside their tenures in Avengers. Ideally, having a character in both can work fine in the same way that having Avengers films and Captain America films do... the solo films progress the story of the character while the team up movie allows you to deepen the relationships and explore the character from the standpoint of the team/social dynamic... how does Cap get along with IM, etc.

That having been said, the problem with Wolverine especially is that Wolverine is ALREADY in like 4 teams. We SEE Wolverine interacting with teams pretty consistently, and his character growth when it comes to leading the Xavier school was more interesting then anything he's done in any avengers book. Even Spider-Man, who I personally like having in the Avengers because I feel the character has earned A-list status on the A-list team (even if Marvel itself wants to consistently regress the character for no reason) has had a series of team up books that make him being on the Avengers prior to Bendis' run kinda pointless.

kkhohoho

Quote from: Tomato on March 12, 2018, 06:15:07 AM
Except... Avengers has ALWAYS been a book that's had characters from other books.

I know that. But for the most part, it usually only had a few of them. Often no more than 3. Most of the rest of the team was strictly contained to Avengers, and that was who the book focused on.
The Golden Age; 'A different look at a different era.'

http://archiveofourown.org/works/1089779/chapters/2193203

HarryTrotter

Do you count characters who were in other team books,like New Warriors or X-men?
''Even our origin stories have gone sour.''
Jon Farmer

Silver Shocker

#3550
Funny thing about that, I was writing a lengthy response that I ultimately didn't post because I didn't feel it said anything important that wasn't said already, but one of the things I mentioned was that Busiek's run had Firestar and Justice in it. Since New Warriors had ended and they weren't in the short-lived Jay Faerber run, Busiek was free to use them without restriction, such as have Justice spend an entire arc with his leg in a cast.
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa

Silver Shocker

I'm currently trying to get through the Spider-Man/Deadpool arc where they're both old men in retirement homes (I somehow managed to miss pt 1 when it came out, and as with the Kelly volume, they go back and forth with the different storylines) and it's really not that good. As with the non-stop string of Cullen Bunn minis, it has surprisingly little comedy that works, even with a premise that has potential.
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa

Silver Shocker

#3552
Well Wondercon just happened and comics announcements are pouring out at a steady pace. Let's do a quick Marvel comics roundup:

1. April will feature $1 reprints of Thanos and Adam Warlock stories as well as the first appearance of Carol Danvers as Ms. Marvel. These include the earliest appearances of Thanos, Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, The Starlin/Ron Lim Silver Surfer run, and Thanos Rising.

2. May will feature $1 Wolverine reprints (which they already did a little over a year ago, but now they're doing it again with different books. This is obviously to tie-in with the Hunt For Wolverine books. These include Kitty Pryde & Wolverine, the Claremont solo series, more material from Marvel Comics Presents, a 90's Venom comic that includes Wolverine, issue #50 of Loeb's Wolverine. As a bonus, they're also putting out a $1 reprint of the first issue of Exiles, to promote the new series. It will be 48 pgs, as was the original comic, but will still be $1.

3. June will feature $1 Ant-Man and Wasp comics. These include early stories featuring Hank and Jan, the issue featuring the famous, often replicated visual of Ant-Man riding on Hawkeye's arrow, the first appearance of Scott Lang, and an issue of Iron Man featuring Scott. There's also going to be a Ant-Man and the Wasp miniseries by Waid, featuring Scott Lang and Nadia, and a one-shot featuring Scott Lang and Jan by Ralph Maccio and Andrea Divito (in April, the same creative team is doing a Infinity Gauntlet Gems-themed Avengers one shot).

4. There's going to be a Quicksilver mini series spinning out of the current Avengers storyline. As a huge Quicksilver fan, I'm looking forward to it. The writer for it is the guy who wrote Black Bolt's comic. No idea if he's any good, but at least he's writing something better than Black Bolt.

5. There's going to be an immediate followup to Infinity Countdown called Infinity War. Very much looks like more of the same. I'm fine with that, because Duggan's Guardians of the Galaxy was my favourite Marvel book at the time and this book and Infinity Countdown are direct continuations of that, but I'm sure there will be (and indeed, is) much snarking about Marvel rehashing. At least this new one's set to have better art than Infinity Countdown and thank Kirby for that.

6. Fantastic Four returns....written by Dan Slott. To directly quote someone from the CBR comments:  "Oy. Not Dan Slott. Fresh Start is the same old Marvel that we've been getting, but playing musical chairs." I'll say that between Slott taking over Iron Man and Slott taking on FF, I'm of two minds. On the one hand, I don't like he's getting rewarded for his terrible Spider-Man work with primo assignments, but on the other hand, he's not ruining anything I particularly care about, yet, so it's no hair off my back. Plus after all these years, he's finally off Spidey, and hopefully Spencer or a later writer can start repairing some of the damage he caused. Fantastic Four and Iron Man fans, however, should start picking out funeral tuxes, taking bets in the Dead Pool, and get ready for Superior Iron...oh wait, they already did that...Superior Fantastic?

7. Marvel's teasing something involving Amazing Spider-Man and something else involving Uncanny X-Men...yay?
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa

HarryTrotter

Superior Four has a better ring to it.Actually,if he does pull Doctor Doom,Annihilus and/or some big name villains in there,I would check it out.  :)
Saladin Ahmed?No,hes terrible.
All in all,Marvel continues to drive itself into an early grave with the same tactics they were using for the past 5 or so years.Good Game,everyone.
''Even our origin stories have gone sour.''
Jon Farmer

Silver Shocker

I was thinking a variation on the name "Mr. Fantastic", but you're right, Superior Four does sound a lot better. And while the premise you posited does sound promising, that kind of thing, I would say, is really not in Slott's wheelhouse. In that issue where the Sinister 6 curb-stomped the Intelligentsia, he didn't come off well in terms of handling a villain team dynamic. During a serious fight, he had Mysterio slacking off playing Angry Birds because "Lol so random" + "Pop Culture Reference". I and some other Spidey fans thought it was lame comedy and went against what the tone of that story should have been.

QuoteSaladin Ahmed?No,hes terrible.

You saying that does make me tempted to do some further research. I'm tempted to say I shouldn't hold it against any writer that they wrote an Inhumans book, since modern Inhumans are cancer because Marvel has/had an agenda. Then again, I can imagine in my head the way the ways the actual writer could be terrible. I guess I've just read enough terrible and/or flawed comics by poor writers. That being said, I did read an interview about the Quicksilver miniseries and it actually does sound like he has a good handle on what the character is all about. Compare to Remender who made Quicksilver too jokey so he was just another Spider-Man (and I know I was right about that because every single writer since has written Quicksilver properly. Not that I doubted myself, mind you)

Speaking of Inhumans, Marvel just teased "Death of the Inhumans". About time. X-Men had "Death of X" so it's only fair Inhumans get their turn.

QuoteAll in all,Marvel continues to drive itself into an early grave with the same tactics they were using for the past 5 or so years.Good Game,everyone.

The funny thing is, I have no doubt comic fans were saying the same thing 5 years ago and another 5 before that. Yet, for better or worse, they're still here. Keep in mind, I'm not saying some of the books and practices aren't crap, some of them certainly are.
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa

HarryTrotter

#3555
About the last part,thats true up to a point.Fans always complained,but these days its a bit worst then usual,because,honestly Marvel is worst then ever IMO.Putting personal politics above the story and generaly being an a-hole online (Im talking about Marvel employees in general) has driven a number of fans away.
I think Marvel will be around in 5 years,but I dont think it will survive in its current form.Current owners never showed interest in publishing comics,they just want to harvest IP.Yeah,Disney ia pretty much Borg.

Anyhow,Fractions FF...aged terribly in just 4 years.Was it trying to go for a Superior Foes style humor?Was it just trying to let us know Fraction hates Doom?Was it even trying?Well,Fraction is a bit overrated anyway.
The series even pulls off a John Byrne and shows Fraction and Brevoort visiting Future Foundation.How clever.
''Even our origin stories have gone sour.''
Jon Farmer

GhostMachine

Fraction and Brevoort aren't even worthy to carry Byrne's writing and drawing tools....

HarryTrotter

John Byrne witnessing the trial of Reed Richards is dramatic,Mark Millar and Wally West sitting in a pub is charming,this case is just forced.In a "we are so meta" way.
Fraction had good runs on Iron Fist,Iron Man (up to the point Tony has to kiss Doc Ocks tentacle) and Hawkeye,but I never found him to be  "American Grant Morrison".Not to say he isnt a better writer then Marvels current batch of has-beens and never-were's,but Im going wide again...
Fraction is okay,but really overrated.And FF isnt his best work.Also,did he mention he really hates Doctor Doom?
And I might as well cave in and finish Astonishing Ant-Man at this point.
''Even our origin stories have gone sour.''
Jon Farmer

Silver Shocker

Fraction was especially poor on Uncanny X-Men. Yeah, there's the "Uncanny Curse" but he seemed especially out of his element there. Greg Land on art certainly didn't help.
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa

HarryTrotter

Honestly,Im not familiar with his X-men work.He borrowed a lot from New X-men,I think?
Anyhow,there are oddball cult books and books trying to be oddball and cult.Fraction writes the second kind.Sometimes it works to a moderate degree.In case of FF,it doesnt.
''Even our origin stories have gone sour.''
Jon Farmer

HarryTrotter

Rocket vol. 1 Classic Ewing.You got element of prison break,heist film,noir and a Deapool guest apperence.As usual,everything and the kitchen sink but all those element never come together.
Hey look,those guys from Captain Britain,and Halfworld,and Deadpool,and a Daredevil parody...and where was I going with this?
''Even our origin stories have gone sour.''
Jon Farmer

HarryTrotter

Spiderman FCBD issue leaked online.And its actually interesting.In terms os status quo it seems to be a return to Jenkins days.It might draw in some old fans,but its not all that welcoming to new readers.(ha,new readers  :lol:)
Spoiler
Boomerang
is Peters roomate,so expect some wacky situations,I guess.
''Even our origin stories have gone sour.''
Jon Farmer

Silver Shocker

#3562
So I did read that FCBD Spidey story when it came out. I quite enjoyed it. Color me intrigued for Spencer's run. I do conceive that there are some niggling flaws (as others pointed out online, such as Rhino being out of character) but none of the that matters because finally Amazing Spider-Man not written by Slott. It could only be a massive improvement graded on the biggest curve in the history of comics. Turns out that's not even necessary. It's just a fun Spidey story that, I agree, hearkens back to the Jenkins days, which was right around when I started reading comics, and so for me Spidey will always be more in that mold, a somewhat dorky, somewhat world weary adult, instead of an embarrassing pathetic manchild. Speaking of which, in the preview for Spencer's first issue we see Spidey show up to a big Super hero bruhaha and crack a joke as he showed up, only for everybody else to groan because apparently everyone in universe hates Spidey now too. Not surprisingly this got some groaning of its own from fans online and I get it, I do. But once again, someone other than Slott is writing the damn book, just roll with it.

Spoiler
LOVE the prospect of more Boomerang. That one thing made me REALLY on board for something I was already on board for. I love it when that happens. 

In less stellar news, Amazing Spidey-Man #800 just came out, the culmination of Slott's big Red Goblin arc (I haven't read it and it still feels so tedious I feel like I did). It landed with all the anticipation of a rotten gourd hitting a wall for obvious reasons. It's a microcosm of everything wrong with Slott's run, but none of the other stuff matters because there's only one thing I want to talk about, the big spoiler, the thing everyone wanted to comment on (and apparently called well in advance)

Spoiler
Dan Slott kills Flash Thompson, the former (awesome) Agent Venom-turned Agent Anti-Venom.  :thumbdown: Boo! Shame on you, Slott. He just had to find a way to make his mark and do the most damage before he left, as if he hadn't done enough. One more notch on his belt, killing a Lee-Ditko original. You know, Inferior Spider-Man made me annoyed. Spider-Verse made me angry. Now I'm just tired. I'm tired of the B.S. I'm tired of "kill characters because that's the only way we can think of to tell interesting stories". Pro tip to all writers everywhere across all mediums. If you are incapable of telling good stories without killing off pre-established characters, if that's the ONLY thing you can do to hold people's interest, you are a BAD, limited. uncreative writer.

So Danny Boy gets his way, a great character dies meaning no more stories told about him, and he won't be back for a least a few years, and I'm just thinking back to a month or two ago when I read the trades of Venom: Space Knight, starring Flash as Venom, and how enjoyable a series that was and how great it was to get closure on the Mania plots from his earlier title. Here's hoping there's more stories to be told with Mania (that don't involve her being killed off in a story not about her). And I sincerely hope Doc Ock never, ever shows up again in mainstream comics because I am so bloody sick of him (LOL, we all now he's going STRAIGHT to Slott's Iron Man and/or Fantastic Four)

In other news, a new Spider-Verse event is coming out called Spider-Geddon, complete with "Edge of" tie-ins once again. I'm already half-dreading it just from the title alone, but I don't think it could conceivably be as bad or worse than Slott's Spider-Verse. Mind you, the tie-ins to Spider-Verse were actually pretty damn good, so as long as it's not Slott it's going to be fine. I really hope Slott's not writing it.
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa

HarryTrotter

Mania and Flash showed up in the current(now rebooted again) Venom series.I havent gotten around to Venom Inc yet,so I have no clue how that ended.
''Even our origin stories have gone sour.''
Jon Farmer

Silver Shocker

Yeah, I remember, they showed up in Venom Inc, which was a crossover between Venom and Amazing. I mean to read the new Venom series at some point.
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa

HarryTrotter

Also,Slott isnt an idea man.This is the guy who turned Silver Surfer into a Doctor Who rerun and describes his upcoming Iron Man as Black Mirror meets Rick and Morty.We can probably expect Pickle Tony somewhere down the line. :rolleyes:
''Even our origin stories have gone sour.''
Jon Farmer

Silver Shocker

#3566
He's not even that good of an idea man. When he did Horizon High, everyone (myself included) just said "This already happened in Spider-Man. It was called "Tricell" and it happened in the much maligned Byrne-Mackie run." Oh and while I'm on the topic, the Byrne/Mackie run? Better than Slott's run. FACT. Spider-Island: "What if EVERYONE had Spider-Powers". Inferior Spider-Man was really just a dragged out version of part of the plot of Kraven's Last Hunt, which I haven't actually read, but I have to imagine is better than Inferior. I mean, just about everything other than Spiderverse is.

But all of this is academic, since a premise live and dies, rises and falls on its execution and the execution in Slott's Spider-Man is flawed at best. You can't build a house if the foundation is rotten. Heck, I rooted for his Mighty Avengers and honestly that wasn't even that good (and Christos Gage wrote like half of it anyway) Now, I don't know much about Black Mirror, but I loves me some Rick and Morty, and I don't see where Iron Man comes in there. Iron Man and Rick Sanchez are not the same character, and tone wise the show is closer to Deadpool than anything featuring a conventional Marvel superhero. And maybe, just maybe, an Iron Man comic should remind you of, oh I don't know, Iron Man?

[Edit] Oops, you said isn't an idea man. Well don't I feel silly. Everything I said still stands. I'll give him one thing, and this is something he gets sore about so I like to think he'd appreciate me saying this: his books are at least well paced. You get a nice meaty story when you read a Slott book. You don't get something that's over in 5 minutes. But as people said about Spidey #800, it's throwing a million ideas at the reader and none of it sticks. Also 10 bucks? Screw right off Marvel.

[Edit] You know, I meant to respond this, because you really did pique my curiosity:

QuoteAnd Marvel got Conan back.Because they are not satisfied with driving their own heroes into ground.
Also,I wont find out what was up with that guy from Busieks run.Okay,it was obvious who he was,but the plot is left unresolved.

Can you explain what was going on with who? Because I'm actually very curious, and I seem to recall I made a quick half-arsed attempt to do the research myself and failed miserably (which probably means I checked TvTropes and then gave up). My knowledge of Conan is fairly limited, so not sure if I wouldn't figured it out, but then again, I have very context to go off.

Oh, here's one I meant to do:

Avengers #2 by Aaron and McGuinness, aka "Marvel, PLEASE for the love of Rao kill off Loki forever!"

So pretty standard Avengers story, meet, fight, team up, followup to that godawful hot garbage caveman thing from the Marvel Legacy One Shot, whatever. But because someone really hates me, it's interspersed with Loki-sempei going on a Doc-Ock rant about how great he is and how much Daddy mistreated him and how he's the REAL greatest Avenger ever and why won't everybody just bow down and acknowledge his greatness and blah blah blah get a blog already! I don't think I've ever been more sick of Loki-sempei than I am after this comic, and I really really REALLY hope this arc ends with someone giving him an epic Luffy-style punch in the face. It doesn't matter who. It can be Jarvis for all I care. On the plus side, apparently Comic!Loki fans hate it too because at the moment it appears to be ignoring years of Loki development, but that requires you to start from a scene logic that posits that Loki snarking his way all over the place because movie isn't the most tedious effing thing ever.

Also, She-Hulk, has, I think, never, ever been this ripped before?! Gotta figure that's somebody's fetish....  :unsure:

Anyways, I've got a epic rant cooking right now about a certain Marvel comic I've been reading lately so look forward to that.

[Edit]: Ok, here we go:

Infinity Countdown #4. Tl;dr: Aaron Kuder's art in this issue sucks. Longer rant under the cut:

Spoiler
You know, Guggan's Guardians of the Galaxy, which got replaced with this miniseries, was my favourite book at the time. I'm still enjoying this miniseries, though not as much, but that's in spite of some truly horrendous art. One thing
that always annoys me to no end, is when a terrible artist (or previously passable-to-decent artist) degrades over time and stays at that level of poor quality in perpetuity, seemingly out of spite, spite towards me. This is one of
those examples. Aaron Kuder, I'm calling you out. Please never work in comics ever again. Because you're terrible, and you should be ashamed of your art in IC #4. Hell, everyone on the creative team on this issue should be ashamed of
your art on this issue. The collective comics industry and fandom should be ashamed for you for this issue. The collective comic art of the planet Earth, from the most inspired artistic psychedelic sequence to the most blatant fanservice
shot, is lesser because of your art in this.

So I was trying to read this damn thing, finish it and Ant-Man and the Wasp so I can check three days worth of comic news without having to worry about front page spoilers (and screw you
comics news websites for making that the norm every single week) and I was getting through the book way slower than usual because the terrible art is so distracting I can't focus on the story and character work. There isn't a single
page here (by Kuder, he's not the only artist on the book) that isn't one of the worst comic pages I've ever seen. I've seen 90's Image books that look drastically better than this dren. I've seen webcomics and fanart better than this
(which is no insult to webcomic artists and fan artists. Some of those blokes are stunningly talented)

In previous issues my big "Why aren't you better" question for Kuder was "Why does everyone look like they're made out of clay?" But that's not the problem in this one. No, I have a bunch of other questions, such as:

-When the Guardians come out of a portal, why do half of them look like cardboard cutouts? I mean, there's a decent chance it's intentional because it's supposed to be some kind of 2D fold in space but that doesn't it excuse it looking like crap.
-Why does a scene of Drax trying to pull off a very Batista-esque line look so much...crappier than it should?
-Why does Peter Quill with his stupid beard always have to look like Lame Dad?
-Why is Nova's mouth located where the brim of the nose would be on a actual human being?
-Why is Rocket's mouth open to an absurdly large degree so that he could not possibly close his mouth properly, making him look like an anaconda about to swallow an animal whole, as opposed to Kuder's Rocket simply looking like a dog or a wolf, instead of, you know, a racoon?
-Why does Rocket not have pupils?
-Why is he drawn to look like he's yelling at the top of his lungs, despite the total LACK of explanation points in his dialogue, indicating that he's speaking at normal voice (for the record, the thing he's actually saying doesn't warrant him yelling at the top his lungs anyway. It's basically just the kind of snarky comment Rocket's known for)
-Why is Rocket's index finger the size and shape of a paintbrush?
-Why does every wide shot in this scene (which is one third of the panels) have an embarrassing lack of detail in the figure work?
-Why does a different third of the panels have no backgrounds whatsoever, resulting in the colorist trying to compensate by adding a garish pink gradient, making it look like the Guardians and the Nova Corp are standing inside the galaxy's largest bottle of Pepto Bismol?
-Why is an entire sequence tinted entirely in red, for no apparent reason?
-Why does Kuder's version of Grandmaster suck so much?
-Why is Gamora's forehead huge in one panel, and her neck huge in another?
-Why does Star-Lord look like his shoulder is melting in one panel?

There's a two page sequence that includes the last two things I mentioned, with 8 panels total, where literally the only thing that is decently drawn is Gamorra's butt. That is pathetic. Jon Malin's art on Thunderbolts is better than this. Every digital promotional tie-in comic by Marvel I think I've ever read (many of which are drawn by solid, reliable, hard working artists like Tom Grummett, Ron Lim, and Andrea Divito who are stuck slumming it on lesser assignments when they deserve to be drawing this) has better art than this. Thank Rao that Kuder isn't doing the followup. Kuder's art on this issue was clearly rushed, but that's no excuse because Kuder hasn't done a single decent or even passable issue this entire run. Now compare that to this
week's Astonishing X-Men. It's drawn by Geraldo Sandoval, an artist I really like. He's also clearly rushed in this issue (I have no clue why, it's the only issue he drew of the book, as every issue is drawn by a different artist) so it
looks more blocky and low-detail than usual for him, and yet, I still enjoyed it. Kuder, when you're best effort is worse than Sandoval's worst work, that's no good.

I decided to look through a earlier book Kuder did, Death of X, in order to see if his work on that was any good. There had to be something I'm missing. Maybe he used to be good and now sucks? Nope, his art in Death of X was even worse.
After looking even through a single issue of it, there's no doubt in my mind. Aaron Kuder is one of the single worst artists in the history of the medium.

And no, I do not give a fraction of a pig's knuckle that Kuder's a Young Gun. Just cause Marvel says he's one of the best doesn't mean I have to agree with. I learned a long time ago that according to someone working at Marvel or DC,
every artist working at Marvel or DC is the best artist ever! They're never going to say an artist currently working at their publisher sucks. As for Kuder's place among the lineup of 2018 Young Guns, he isn't fit to pour cereal for Pepe
Larraz, Javier Garron, Marco Checchetto, Mike Del Mundo and Russel Dauterman. That's like comparing Jon Malin to George Perez. And again, Malin's better than Kuder.

It's abject garbage like this that's made me recently say that I was too harsh to Tom Grummett. I'd debase myself to have him draw this instead of Kuder. Heck, there are few artists I wouldn't rather have draw this.

On the story side:

Spoiler
Phyla and Moondragon are back! Except lol not really because it's an alternate reality version of them. But they take a moment to tease the upcoming villain of the sequel series, Requiem: "Scan their minds before we
leave. Let's see if we can learn who Requiem is." " I already did. They know nothing." Requiem also got randomly teased in the Daredevil tie-in. Literally the only relevant thing that happened in that book (so far, there's one issue left of this, and some more tie-ins). Is this the first time Marvel's made a meta gag about a plot point or character being teased online before they/it actually happens in the book? The fans want to know who this new character is and apparently the characters in-universe do too.

Also we have this:
Star-Lord: "Well I'm going to the bar. I never want to hear about the Infinity Stones again." I imagine more than one fan is saying the same thing.

Also, Marvel's teaser for Death of the Inhumans: "Kill the Useless. Take The Useful. Break The Unwilling." Sounds good to me!  :thumbup:

Also, after Infinity Wars (the comic) Marvel's putting out a book by Cullen Bunn and Mateo Lolli called (I kid you not) "Asgardians of the Galaxy" featuring Angela, Throg, Valkryie, Skurge (back from the dead apparently) the Destroyer armor, and Thunderstrike (Kevin Masterson). I was ready to write this whole thing off with a "why?" but actually Thunderstrike makes me happy. Could do without him looking like Strong Guy for some reason but oh well.

[Update]

More info released for the new Spider-Verse event, Spider-Geddon. Creative team is Christos Gage and Joge Molina. I can live with that. Good for Gage, he's payed his dues and he deserves a primo assignment by now. But, of course, more importantly, thank Rao Slott isn't writing it. I would have liked a better artist but maybe Molina will impress me in the time since I last saw him. All the usual Spider-people you'd expect are shown in the teaser. I may pick this up.
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa

HarryTrotter

Guardians contracted Youngblood disease?
Also,I can see Black Mirror like themes about dangers of technology working their way into Iron Man,but I can also see that going south with Slott.
Spoilers,I guess.Busieks Conan has the framing device of vizier reading Conan's chronicles to a prince (Know ,O prince,that...).Its heavily implied the vizier is Thoth-Amon,Conans old enemy.I think this was a build up for something,but nothing really came of it.Following series/writers got rid of that framing device.
I cant say anything about the Avengers,that I havent already.Franchise needed a kick in the rear,but I doubt Aaron is the man for the job.Well,I cant think of anyone who would be at this point.
''Even our origin stories have gone sour.''
Jon Farmer

kkhohoho

Quote from: HarryTrotter on June 09, 2018, 07:40:37 AM
I cant say anything about the Avengers,that I havent already.Franchise needed a kick in the rear,but I doubt Aaron is the man for the job.Well,I cant think of anyone who would be at this point.

Get Al Ewing. Probably one of the best writers Marvel's got. He already wrote a kickass Avengers book with Mighty Avengers. Bring him on and it'll be golden.
The Golden Age; 'A different look at a different era.'

http://archiveofourown.org/works/1089779/chapters/2193203

detourne_me

Speaking of Al Ewing, I just picked up The Immortal Hulk #1. It's good. Darn good!
Reminds me a lot of classic Man-Thing/Swamp-Thing. The Horror direction is really a smart new interesting way to go with the Hulk.