Tags: Video of the day
In our last episode of this retrospective of the greatest long-running comic book of all time, The Amazing Spider-Man, we looked at Marv Wolfman’s fun-but-fluffy contributions to the character. After that, Denny O’Neil came on board for roughly 18 dispensable issues, mostly with John Romita, Jr. The only lasting impression of this run was Madame Web. It rates about a C+: Nothing terrible, but you’d like (and expect) a kid with a previous track record of As and Bs to do better.
Which brings us to . . . (Hit the break, True Believers!)
Tags: Comic books, Spider-Man
It’s that time again: A post about news, views, and upcoming mooo-vies. See how I made that rhyme?
This week, lots of deaths and pictures of the new Spider-Man movie.
Y’know, I wanna see a movie this weekend and there’s not a single thing to see. Very sad. All the good stuff is crammed in between March and August, and I’ll be very busy during those months: X-Men First Class, Thor, Captain America, Battle: LA, Sucker Punch, Hangover 2, Priest, Transformers 3, Limitless, Scream 4, Super 8, and probably a half-dozen smaller films I don’t even know about yet.
Aaaah. It’s good to be American.
Hit the break.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Comic books, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Superman, The Caped Crusader
In Part One of this examination of my favorite ongoing comic book of all time, The Amazing Spider-Man, we looked at how Stan Lee crafted and created the character for the first 100+ issues. Now, we turn to those who came after.
Hit the break for episode two!
Tags: Comic books, Spider-Man
I couldnt wait to hear this EP, based solely on the band name. Green River Ordinance may be one of the best rock band names I’ve ever heard. Love it. Then I come to find out the band has been around for ten years and even hit cracked the top 40 a couple times. They even had a major record deal during that decade-long career. How have I never heard of them?
The Morning Passengers is a DIY release of six acoustic tunes in the spirit of Counting Crows, Soul Coughing, Goo Goo Dolls. Apparently, it’s a warm-up for a proper album. Should be good.
There’s a taste below, and you can cop the whole plate at Amazon for under six bucks.
Tags: Extended Player (EP), Indie rock
J. Michael Straczynski, author of the mildly cultish mediocre sci fi series Babylon 5 writes comic books. Or at least he used to. (He also wrote some He-Man cartoons and a few bad movies like Changeling and Ninja Assassin.
But for the purposes of this blog, he’s a comic-book writer.
And, at times, at a damn good one. But at others and inconsistent one. And, at his worse, he’s an ass.
I say this because he’s a quitter. Either that, or he’s got an attention-span shorter than Mr. Mxyzlptlk.
Recently, he did two dramatic things to two of DC’s most important characters: He grounded Superman and put Wonder Woman in long pants. And then, just a few issues in, he dumped out of both. Now, you could say that this was DC’s fault because they contracted him to continue to write his phenomenally successful Superman original graphic novels. But this wasn’t the first time. JMS had an amazing–and I do mean amazing–run on Thor, but when Marvel told him that Thor would have to play a part in Siege, JMS quit rather than fold his story in. He tacked on an ending to the complex narrative he’d been weaving for the prior two years and moved along. When his brilliant Supreme Power series reached it’s apex–the Marvel JLA had finally formed and the heroes were ready to function as a team–he quit again, leaving us hanging. He dropped “The Twelve” at around issue #9, leaving Marvel to scramble with a bunch of one-shots to keep the concept alive while JMS pulled his thumb out of his ass and wrapped it up. And that recent exit from two of DC’s flagship titles? They represent his departure altogether from serialized comics–he has no intention to keep writing single-issue forms of the medium. I get the sense he’s hard to work with–I know lots of folks hated the idea of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but I think it’s hard to argue now with the results. JMS quit the company, for good, based on what he says is Joe Quesada’s reaction to JMS’ critique of that storyline. Come on. We all know Joe Q has opinions, but if there’s ever been a corporate leader who was creator-friendly, it’s Joe.
And as for the Superman: Earth One novel? Meh. There’s lots of seeds of good JMS stuff that’s come before, particularly from his work on Supreme Power, and he weaves in a lot of the Smallville mythology (is that really where we want our “new” Supermythos to come from?), but there’s nothing really new there.
Still, there’s no denying JMS’ abilities when he’s focused and running on all fours with his subject matter. For those interested in reading some of the best superhero work comic books have to offer, here’s a list . . .
5. Silver Surfer: Requiem. This 4-issue mini is that rarest of creatures: A story about Silver Surfer that’s actually good. It’s hard to write Surfer because he travels alone and he’s into all that cosmic stuff that usually is dull as dry paint. But JMS gave heart to Norrin Radd.
4. Batman: The Brave and the Bold. No, not all of the issues in this D.C. team-up comic are genius, but when JMS got it right here, he got it very right. If you can only afford a couple books, pick up the two Legion of Super Heroes/Legion of Substitute Heroes books. This is what out-of-continuity one-offs are supposed to be: Quick, fun superstories about cool characters you don’t know as much about as the dudes with their own titles. His work harkens back to the hay days of Marvel Team Up, DC Comics Presents, and Marvel Two-In-One. Those books were uneven in the extreme, but again, when they popped, there was nothing out there that was more fun to read.
3. Supreme Power 1-12. In the first twelve issues of this series, JMS reimagined the Justice League (under the guise of rebooting the alt-Earth Squadron Supreme, last seen in a pretty good miniseries and before that in The Avengers) in the Marvel pseudo-realistic way. At times chilling and at others brilliant, we can see here the inspiration for books like Irredeemable, which reexamine the “hero” part of the superhero genre while folding in politics and philosophy. JMS continued with the series for another six issues, but the first twelve are pure genius. The rest kind of fades out–like he lost interest. (See above.)
2. The Amazing Spider-Man. The whole thing. No once before him, except maybe Roger Stern, ever got the mixture of pain, humor and responsibility that make Peter Parker a “whole person,” and no one since has been able to write Spidey’s supporting cast (particularly Aunt May) with such depth. And check out issue #500, which celebrates every major battle that Spidey’s ever fought in his 20+ year history as a character. It’s as loving a tribute to superheroism as you’ll ever find. Then there’s the September 11 issue, which could easily have been treacle, maudlin, or silly, but instead it worked. And the Peter and Mary Jane reunion actually made me cry. (Just a little, I’m no pussy!) It’s hard to get that kind of an emotional connection to a comic book, but JMS made it work. Plus, the run had John Romita, Jr., on the art chores. I know there are folks who think he’s fallen off lately, and I have to admit that his work on Avengers is not his best stuff, but if you pick up this book you’ll understand how he earned his reputation as the best Spider-Man artist in the business.
I understood, when I finally read this, why people were so upset with Brand New Day: It was because this run had reinvented Spider-Man and the book was far from broken. I still like One More Day, but after having recently gone and read this run back-to-back, I finally, finally get it.
Yes, there’s many reasons why this run is so celebrated.
1. Thor 1-12. JMS took a character that only a few people ever really were able to make interesting and made him extraordinary. And he did it by putting Asgard in Oklahoma. No. By putting it a few feet over Oklahoma, to avoid the whole State jurisdiction thing. And by turning focus on some of the colorful characters in Asgard, and exploring the relationship of a small town to a Heavenly city. JMS’ greatest talent is in side characters and little personal vignetttes, and this run is full of them. It recently got the (much deserved) omnibus treatment, and all of you should go buy it. Seriously. It’s one of my favorite Marvel runs ever. Even if it ended far too soon and far too abruptly.
Tags: Comic books, Spider-Man, Superman, Thor
So, here’s a blogicle several weeks in the making. Actually, since it’s about every issue of The Amazing Spider-Man I ever read, let’s say it’s a lifetime in the making. If I had to list the comic books that have had the most lasting impacts on my throughout my life, they’d have to include, in some sort of order, The New Teen Titans, Punisher Max, Cerebus the Aardvark, Twisted Tales (a very short run), The Avengers, Daredevil, The Dark Knight, and maybe (maybe) Moon Knight . . . But The Amazing Spider-Man would have to be #1. Issue in and issue out, it drew me in and brought me back, even when it went through low periods.
Sure, the first comic book I ever read in my entire life was Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man #1, and PPTSS wasn’t a bad book. But it was the sideshow for the main event. Always was. And it’s been cancelled. Along with dozens of other Spidey books. But Amazing has stuck around. It’s the flagship book for the most interesting character ever to wear tights. I got to thinking one day whether I’ve read every single issue of Amazing. I bet I have, just about. I don’t own them all—sadly, many are available only as black and white reprints rather than in handsome, glossy color volume—but I’ve read them. So why let this expertise go to waste? It is in that spirit that I offer a week’s worth of posts on my favorite title.
So, here’s the first of five posts reviewing every major run on Amazing Spider-Man. Hit the break for the early years.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Comic books, Spider-Man
Wait! Don’t go! I know the name of Stereoflower’s 2010 indie-psychedelia release makes it sound like an obnoxious mouthful, but don’t go! It’s actually really good Stone Roses-ish indie psych-rock from Australia. It feels a little like jam rock but without the extended jams, and with better hooks. Plus, it’s got that wicked cool album cover. Not many bands put effort into record covers anymore, and the fact that Stereoflower does is telling: They’re old school, making a record not a collection of singles and filler.
This is their debut and personally, I can’t wait for the next one.
Tags: Indie space rock
