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DC Universe Surgery

 
  

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matsya
09:29 / 11.04.07
yeah it was nice and dark and had that odd moment when batman kissed doctor light (the lady one) - there was a nice sexual tension between those two for a couple of the early issues of the G/DeM JL.

Bill Willingham was the artist.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
14:17 / 11.04.07
's a good comic that I just came upon recently - there's a really good triptych of J'onn for some reason announcing the powers that the spore isn't aware of to the spore in case it was wondering, while Willingham has him bonelessly shape-shifting out of confinement.
 
 
Benny the Ball
14:22 / 11.04.07
There's that beautiful flowing moment when Mister Miricle has been over run on the balcony and knocked off, and he gets his discs out as he falls - really nicely laid-out - I'm gonna go home and read this - so much better than the other annuals from this time.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
14:33 / 11.04.07
Which follows over Miracle & Blue Beetle arguing over whether or not Miracle is a Christ Figure:

"It's not like you can walk on water or anything."

"Hey-- you should see me at the beach."

Some of Willingham's characters are a bit awkward-looking, though -- his sense of perspective leaves a bit to be desired at this point in his evolution -- but the composition is quite solid.
 
 
This Sunday
07:05 / 21.04.07
Other than the original artist and Trina Robbins, who draws Wonder Woman like she's supposed to look? I mean the classic, slightly bouncy hair, those sharp eyes, and that cute little mouth? It's not very amazony or warriory, but it's much more a clearly identifiable person than early Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent, or even those two over the decades.
 
 
The Falcon
18:32 / 21.04.07
Darwyn Cooke does.
 
 
Phex: Dorset Doom
12:49 / 26.04.07
So, looking back over some old comics from around 2004 I noticed solicitations for a DC series called 'Human Defense Corps'. The premise is that they're an army of 100,000 ordinary men and women trained to fight superhuman threats even bigger than those faced by the JLA/JSA. It, and I'm quoting the blurb here, follows a single grunt through tours of duty in outer space, Apokalips and Hell.
Now I'm pretty sure they're not in continuity any more so I don't think they made all that much of an impact, but was the series any good? What became of it? Has it been collected in a trade paperback?
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
17:55 / 26.04.07
Hey, I've just read books 1-2 of the MANHUNTER series starring Kate Spencer. Has the third book come out yet or do I need to debate between floppies and waiting?
 
 
Shiny: Well Over Thirty
18:15 / 26.04.07
Amazon says it's not out till August. Might not be a horrible idea to wait, since the books gone on hiatus after issue 30, for the second time, due to it's inexplicably low sales. The odds seem to be on issue 31 not coming out until some time after the third trade comes out. Still you might want to look for issue 24-30 now, since they won't be in the third trade.
 
 
This Sunday
18:45 / 26.04.07
I believe someone mentioned that the current 'Manhunter' is one of the most frequently read-by-torrent books at the moment.

I read the first couple issues and it didn't do much for me. Is it really worth the money? Not that I'll steal it if it's good but not good enough. I'm too mora... my current computer couldn't torrent if I wantd to. And I'd feel bad about it.
 
 
Shiny: Well Over Thirty
18:58 / 26.04.07
Hmmmm, if you read the first couple of issues and didn't read them maybe it's not worth it for you. Those who love it me included seem to have really loved it straight away. That said it depends on why you didn't really like it. The murderous vigilante element seems to have been played down a lot lately, as in fact does the whole vigilante element itself thinking about it. Later issues are definitely more the story of a hotshot lawyer, who also happens to be a single mother, and occasionally does some vigilanteing on the side. Also Andreyko's version of Todd "Obsidian" Rice really rocks to a quite unreasonable degree in the later issues. So much better than the crazy villain version we usually see.
 
 
_pin
09:25 / 03.05.07
Here's a kind of stupid question: if one had a catastrohpic urge to get in on this shit, what would be good titles to start picking up? Which are the back issues to get (things must be complete, people!)?

I also really like the ideas of: Flash, and the Green Lanterns, and Batman, as super heroes, and Blue Beetle and Atom for their logos.

Whose titles from there will disappointment me? Which will thrill?

Thank you.
 
 
Mario
09:48 / 03.05.07
I'd say the best title DC proper is putting out right now is Blue Beetle. It's really found it's rhythm.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
18:30 / 03.05.07
Blue Beetle for wacky superhero fun, somewhere in between Buffy and Spider-Man on the spectrum. The artists are still finding their feet, though, but I do like Cully Hamner and Duncan Rouleau. Green Lantern hasn't been bad, surprisingly, although I'm not picking up the current Star Sapphire storyline on principle and the art looks ridiculous. All-Star Superman will make you feel uncomfortably attracted to Superman. But in a sexy way. SHAZAM! The Monster Society of Evil is a must. The Brave & The Bold is a good deal, effortlessly bringing in old continuity without it feeling like old continuity or really blocking people out, I don't think.
 
 
_pin
12:39 / 04.05.07
Both All-Star and Shazam! and the look appealing, but I was really asking for continuity primers. Thank you, though.
 
 
Essential Dazzler
13:05 / 04.05.07
Grant Morriosn's JLA will tell you all you need to know about the major players in character/meaning sense, but not so much on the continuity. Which is nice.
 
 
_pin
13:21 / 04.05.07
On that subject, I read that World War III at the library the other day. Does it have anything to do with the this World War III?
 
 
Mario
14:30 / 04.05.07
Well... they have the same title.

I think JSofA is the book where most of the weird stuff will get explained. But it's mostly a hunch on my part.
 
 
Essential Dazzler
21:52 / 04.05.07
On that subject, I read that World War III at the library the other day. Does it have anything to do with the this World War III?

Well, that WW3 is the first superhero comic that had me weeping with pure joy.

This WW3 wasn't. Although I have the feeling it tried.
 
 
Essential Dazzler
21:54 / 04.05.07
Sorry, been drinking all day. No, they are entirely seperate.
 
 
_pin
19:36 / 07.05.07
But they have both the same ONE writter and TWO typeface.

Is there any chance, if this keeps up, that we can have a continuity patch-up called World War World War III? Can it be won by Superboy punching it?
 
 
This Sunday
19:43 / 07.05.07
Yeah, Morrison JLA is a pretty functional map of the DCUniverse. And, for bonus points, many characters are actually superior and given passable personalities in that book that's oft-cited for not-enough-character-development. It lays out what can go bad, who can fix it, who could be responsible, and delivers the really big moment at least every seven pages.
 
 
John Octave
20:56 / 07.05.07
I think the "Morrison's JLA doesn't do character development" myth is perpetuated because it isn't divided up into eight pages of fight, eight pages of talking heads sitting around the Watchtower like a lot of comics are now. You got conversations and character during the action sequences.

Just reading the JLA vs. evil hologram duplicates sequence from the first bit of "Rock of Ages" you get new Green Lantern's hesitance, but he pulls through in the end; new Green Arrow feeling over his head; Batman is all business until he shows a bit of warmth with a compliment; Superman starts learning to use his new powers; etc. etc. And an aereal dogfight and power ring battle and fun with arrows.

That's economy.
 
 
This Sunday
20:58 / 07.05.07
Just post the hologram-fight is where Superman calms that guy down in the background of panels where other stuff's happening, too, isn't it? Love that bit.
 
 
_pin
21:05 / 07.05.07
Maybe that complaint is leveled because Green Lantern (it's Rayner, right?) goes through through the precise same thing at the end of the run. It's not development if it's the same thing every time. And I know I've only read the final trade, and I'm very new, but it really came across as a little precis on each character. Which was nice, actually. I think I'm going to read more.
 
 
This Sunday
21:13 / 07.05.07
The big guns all had their own books, sometimes several of them, so they're drawn often in big strokes, but the others... Morrison summed up the failings and glories of the Huntress, especially in that last storyline. I mean, I don't even like the Helena Wayne Huntress, and Morrison got me cheering for the post-Crisis revision? But, y'know, it's easier to be the Huntress than it is to be Batman.

For that matter, Batman was recast in those issues into someone much saner, sociable, and addicted to action and full of his own wit, than he was appearing in anything else on the stands at the time. As simple of a characterization, perhaps, as seen in actual Batbooks of the time, but a better simple characterization.
 
 
John Octave
03:00 / 08.05.07
Maybe that complaint is leveled because Green Lantern (it's Rayner, right?) goes through through the precise same thing at the end of the run. It's not development if it's the same thing every time.

Well, in nearly every arc, Kyle has a moment where he says "I can't do X," and then he does it anyway, so that's pretty circular, yeah. But the things he think he can't do grow increasingly complex. At first it's just being in the JLA at all, then it's fighting an evil JLA without Wonder Woman and Flash, then it's going to the 5th dimension and containing a supernova and so on and so on.

His final hurdle is to face Mageddon's bad vibes and actually defeat his own lack of self-confidence itself, which he seems to do. The Flash doesn't take him seriously at the beginning of the run, but after Kyle shakes off Mageddon's influence, he says "I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but you actually look like Green Lantern." That's as much character development as I think can be hoped for out of JLA when it's not even Green Lantern's primary book.
 
 
John Octave
03:19 / 08.05.07
As simple of a characterization, perhaps, as seen in actual Batbooks of the time, but a better simple characterization.

It's at least a little bit more complex, I think. A driven loner Batman who doesn't trust his teammates (JLA #1 and #2 or so) is one-dimensional. But when the driven loner ALSO feels compelled to compliment Green Lantern on a job well done (JLA #10), you have to reconcile the one character aspect with the other; even that little bit of inconsistency in the character generates some complexity.
 
 
Spyder Todd 2008
04:59 / 08.05.07
That's as much character development as I think can be hoped for out of JLA when it's not even Green Lantern's primary book.

And I was very young at the time, but everything I've read suggests that the JLA Lantern had a lot more characterization going on for him than the one in the core GL book. Was anyone reading both of them when they came out?
 
 
This Sunday
05:14 / 08.05.07
Yeah, I read a few Ron Marz Kyle Lantern issues. JLA definitely had a more rounded, interesting character perspective.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
20:40 / 22.05.07
THEY READ MY MIND:

Doc Magnus’s creations are ready to take on all-new threats and some old, reimagined ones: Chemo, Doctor Yes, B.O.L.T.S., The Balloonatic and his Orphan Army, as well as the Robot Renegades led by an old Manhunter Robot!
But the greatest threat lies in Le Cabinet Noir and its bid to control the natural order using dangerous lieutenants like the Nameless, an armored being that feeds off the blood of the innocent and controls the Gogoloth, giant stone Golems made of Granite, Bizmuth, Onyx and Lime.


The Metal Men sounding like a Doom Patrol spin-off! Written and drawn by Duncan Rouleau! See? See? Wishes do comic true.

Here are be thar cover.

Coming out August 1st! It's a ways to go, but I'm excited!
 
 
Triplets
20:43 / 22.05.07
That looks fantastigreat.
 
 
Spyder Todd 2008
23:32 / 22.05.07
Oh sweet mother of jahoozephatz, yesssssss......
 
 
Evil Scientist
07:27 / 23.05.07
Magnus looks like he should have a glass of whiskey in his hand.

I think I may indulge in this'n. 52 re-ignited my metal man liking.
 
 
Rachel Evil McCall
19:18 / 23.05.07
They had me at Bizmuth Golem.
 
  

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