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New stuff this week: Fury, War Machine, G I Joe & The Establishment

Ellis

12:59 / 14.09.01

What'd you get?

Fury was brilliant, nice art by Robertson, interesting story by Ennis, Fury as an old war hero who is redundant with a stupid nephew. Can't wait for the trade.
"Oh Nick, no more..."
A good start, far better than I was expecting.

War Machine: Not sure about this, interesting, very interesting, but the story wasn't very engrossing, but I like the different manga style thats been taken with this title and I hope other series are made like it. Just with a bit a better art.

G I Joe: Well I enjoyed it. Hehe. It had Destro in!!!

The Establishment I just couldn't bring myself to buy.

[ 14-09-2001: Message edited by: Ellis ]

13:21 / 14.09.01

Did anyone get the Establishment? I was gonna get it but I was like ..."why?"

13:48 / 14.09.01

My roommate got it. He's my supplier. I can't afford comics, so I read all of his.

Honestly, I really liked it. On the down side, like many comics coming out these days it didn't really have the room to completely establish what was happening or who these people are. I really wish new books or new teams on established books would have a stand alone issue to start with.

On the plus side, I like Adlard's work. He reminds me in some ways of McCrea, but that may be because I met both of them at the same convention in Birmingham. He seems to pull off the real-world superheroic stuff much better than McCrea, who's better off drawing "Lad" comics.

I'll admit, I love 60's and 70's Brit iconography. So I'm biased.

All in all, it was worth every penny.

Pin

15:44 / 14.09.01

What? What's wrong with the Establishment? I'm confused...

Please note: I've never read any of it, and porbablly never will. Ho hum.

17:13 / 14.09.01

I looked at the new comic racks for about ten minutes yesterday. I flipped through GI Joe (which I loved as a kid) and Fury but I couldn't bring myself to buy them. I couldn't help but feel my money could be put to better use elsewhere and the thought of violent comics couldn't get this hollow feeling out of my stomach. Didn't the last page of Fury say something like "I want a war"? I just couldn't take it.

I've been feeling the need to escape to fantasy land though, so I went and bought the complete Emma Peel Avengers DVD box set. Did the trick rather nicely.

Jamieon

17:24 / 14.09.01

I think Wildstorm had better get off this 'Monarchy', 'Authority', 'Establishment'tip before I track their writers/editors down to their homes and beat them about the face with the "come up with an original sounding name" stick. Talk about a lack of an imagination. I imagine the writing belies the same.

05:02 / 16.09.01

Well, Authority was all Warren Ellis, and all original, going back to that great rant about Authority from the Change or Die Stormwatch storyline, the most invisible storyline of that series, and maintaining all the Ellis-created heroes, he killed or fired all the others.

I read the first issue of the monarchy, and it was so formulae-ick: Take a little Ellis brutality, mix in some morrison-y references to sickness, and taking action, and then throw in a bunch of characters who you don't care about but are supposed to know.

Examine the Warren Ellis stuff, it's all billed as reflexive, complicated, looking back stuff, but it's really clear, concise, excellent stories. And you don't really need to know much about the characters. I mean. That chick has wings, and those guys are the gay superman and bat man, and jack is like, every delusional city-trippers coolest hero...

But anyway, FURY was fun. I'm huge on Black Panther, which jumped 25 years into the future with lots of class. I thought Authority was hilarious, and Ultimate X-Men is the most fun I've ever had reading an X-book (not counting New X-Men, which is more of a religious experience, anyway)

War Machine was like another prefiguring of recent events, if you just read the pretty girl getting her head blown up and what the guy says about it as a metaphor for the whole new york nastiness... scary, poingnant stuff.

I happen to like all the MAX books I've seen sofar, but I'll support it even more because of what it represents for marvel, which is seriously in need of a lot of help these days.

12:13 / 16.09.01

quote:Fury was brilliant, nice art by Robertson, interesting story by Ennis, Fury as an old war hero who is redundant with a stupid nephew. Can't wait for the trade.
"Oh Nick, no more..."
A good start, far better than I was expecting.

War Machine: Not sure about this, interesting, very interesting, but the story wasn't very engrossing, but I like the different manga style thats been taken with this title and I hope other series are made like it. Just with a bit a better art.

G I Joe: Well I enjoyed it. Hehe. It had Destro in!!!

The Establishment I just couldn't bring myself to buy.

That pretty much sums up my exact feelings on the week.

I thought Fury was a bit too similar to Punisher and everything else Ennis has done lately but it was still fun.

Ultimate X-Men was fun. Millar's Nick Fury is the most Grant Morrison thing he's written in a while. I'm sure it freaked out a few Marvel fanboys.

deletia

20:58 / 16.09.01

I found the establishment curious. Who is it aimed at? Because, Not wishing to offend, but I really think most of the references - Get Carter, "Man in a Suitcase", Grange Hill, Mr. Bronson - are going to grate with English readers and sail majestically over the heads of Americans to shatter on the wall behind.

What's it for?

22:41 / 16.09.01

Perhaps it's for those poor unfortunates who, because of their close proximity to the United States, wish to temporarily stop the juggernaut of American pop culture by indulging in the twisted reimaginings of the touchstones of the Empire which spawned them.

But who am I to speak for a whole country, eh?

[ 17-09-2001: Message edited by: moriarty ]

deletia

06:40 / 17.09.01

A comic targetted specifically at Canadians? Bring it on! I miss Alpha Flight.

But again, does anybody on the entire North American subcontinent know of "Grange Hill"? And if so, how did they get through the Star Wars trilogy with a straight face?

14:28 / 17.09.01

Fury - Enjoyable. I'm happy that my favorite comic book character ever is finally getting some recognition outside of the insane Steranko shit of days gone past. Hey, I bought Godzilla when I was a kid, not just for Godzilla, but for SHIELD.

Authority - I pissed all over this. Utterly unenjoyable and seemingly 4 issues of fill-in bullshit until we get back to the real story. Nice, nice. $10 I could have spent in food or something good.

Seriously, not to be small minded, I really felt like I wasted money on this. I mean, in small bits I enjoyed it, but when the moral of your story is one man's homoerotic rage saves the day, it's just preaching to choirs and wasted four issues that I'd rather wait for the real team to come back.

GI Joe - I'm so small brained. I loved it. So blah blah blah.

And I barely got through Xtreme X-Men. It's like walking through mud covered in pudding with 423 pounds of flour on your back.

"Fucking ponderous, man."

The Damned Yankee

21:45 / 17.09.01

The Establishment: To be perfectly honest, I wish that more had actually happened in the first issue. Until the Daemonites washed ashore, the book was about as exciting as . . . well, as an English seashore resort town in the off-season.
I mean, c'mon, at least let us meet the whole team.

As for the Authority, all I can say in defense of the last few issues is that now I am filled with an even greater desire to see this new team dead. Not lying-on-the-ground dead, but Midnighter-on-the-rag-after-someone-pissed-in-his-Wheaties dead.

deletia

11:09 / 18.09.01

Oh, come on...

Surely it was worth it for "Chaplain Action, He-Man of the Cloth"?

11:09 / 18.09.01

oi! some of us like english sea-side resorts out of season and the vague sense of tragedy that permiate them.

Having said that, I don't feel any strong desire to buy the Establishment either

Ronald Thomas Clontle

11:10 / 18.09.01

Re: Ultimate X-Men -- does anyone happen to know what the *next* storyline was going to be about? I was trying to think of what the next obvious storyline would be, and I'm drawing a blank - Morlocks? Freedom Force? The Maruaders? The Hellfire Club?

I wonder if Millar will absorb some of the newer ideas and characters, ie Xorn...

The Damned Yankee

12:47 / 18.09.01

quote:Originally posted by The Haus of Willow:
Oh, come on...

Surely it was worth it for "Chaplain Action, He-Man of the Cloth"?

Okay, Chaplain Action was pretty cool. Even my boss, an ordained minister and no fan of comics, got a kick out of him "ministering" to the Colonel.

The REST of them, however, I want dead, dead, DEAD!

13:52 / 18.09.01

quote:Originally posted by The Haus of Willow:
Oh, come on...

Surely it was worth it for "Chaplain Action, He-Man of the Cloth"?

Yes! Chaplain Action kicks ass. You're right, he was about the only worthy thing about the fill-in issues. I wonder if Peyer's stint in the Authority wasn't but a prelude for a future "Chaplain Action, He-Man of the Cloth" mini... I know I would buy it...

About Authority #26:

...it was utterly disappointing. Never liked much the "let's pretend it didn't happen and everything's all right again" endings...

Jamieon

15:11 / 18.09.01

Because I'm not going to waste any money on it:

Do the old Authority return in the final ish?

Something to do with all that reverse dimension stuff, perhaps?

I wish I knew where Millar was gonna go after the 'Weapon X' arc. But the surprise will be nice. His Nick Fury rocks.

19:09 / 18.09.01

Millar's Nick Fury rocks but hes not really Nick Fury in anything but name is he? Hes more like the Nick Fury swipe in Planetary crossed with James Bond than anything. Not a bad thing though, just not very original. But this is an Ultimate book so I guess original isn't to be expected.

Jamieon

19:32 / 18.09.01

He's got elements of the old Nick Fury superspy in there, though. All that insane technology...... Basically, Fury's original incarnation was pretty similar to Bond in many respects.

Only a shit load more psychedelic.

The Damned Yankee

22:25 / 19.09.01

quote:Originally posted by runt:
Do the old Authority return in the final ish?

Nope, 'fraid not. HOWEVER, Apollo is definitely back next issue. Turns out Last Call has him tucked away somewhere on the Carrier and uses him as a personal punching bag whenever the Midnighter wannabe gets the urge to do some gay bashing.

I want Last Call dead. I want all of them dead, but I REEEEEEEEEALLY want Last Call dead.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

17:46 / 27.09.01

lets see---last time someone messed with apollo he got a ball and chain shoved up his arse---i want to see the midnighter take out last call, in like 5 pages of pure violence, then midnighter can take out the rest of them while the rest of the orig team look on

I see a giant sized all midnighter violence issue