Hulk Smash

Hulk Smash

Friday, September 23, 2011

with a whimper

Remember art ? it still happens , i have seen New Avengers, collected the book from my pull, list to empty it out , and didn't find much along the lines of what i consider great art in the books i got , two dc 52 titles , Swamp thing and Frankenstein agent of Shade, Hulk and the avengers , i found a bunch of rough blocky pencil scribbles . Some good writing in the mix but overall 4 out of 4 titles there was some sort of disappointment over the art work, thought comics were supposed to be a visual medium?
First offender , Swamp thing 1 , this books primary purpose was to reestablish , Alec Holland in the universe proper and give Swamp thing a human alter ego, the problem being that Swamp thing only appears on the last page. My Problem with the art is a little nit picking in some ways as of the 4 books was at the top of the pile in terms of the pencils, but Super-man was drawn witha jay leno chin looking very little like super-man , i have seen impressive Clarks in the early days of the Superman/ Batman comic and i think those should be the template .
Frankenstein agent of shade, the art was scribbled pencil, nothing as clearly defined as it could have been , the story, was what you might expect with the twist of the microscopic , ant farm head quarters , the new creature commandos and father time now in the body of a little girl, none the less fun.
Hulk 41 , the Art in this book has been a gripe for sometime, the story, is zero/one giving Ross a this is your life and the a rip off conclusion to the big fight when Ross turns back to human form. we'll see where parker takes the books from here , rather anti climatic arch.
Avengers 17, the art continues to be the signature big and blocky , didn't mind it as much in the incredible hulk, the new avengers sweep in , hawkeye, and ms. marvel , feel like the only ones who belong in this book, the activation of the spare armors was cool, Sin teleports away and fear itself trudges on, one of the better fear itself storys.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Comics, comics and more comics

Hold on i have really been catching up,So We are going to hit the ground running, first off Hulk 40, the art still blows, the story is so-so, i have lost my steam on this Omegax guy, the book is filled with fighting so that alone isn't half bad, Fortean is growing on me , the Ross Hulk, is what he is, hopefully the next issue gets on course because the writing is really ambitious , it's not a dull read just didn't connect with me.
Hulk vs Dracula...a Fear it's Self title, Hulk gets knocked to Romania, i guess this was due to Thor, the artwork gets the job done, the character introductions are a little heavy handed but over all a good read, will buy the other titles as ...well it's Banner Hulk.
Avengers 16, this is pretty much Captain America's response to Bucky's death, he doesn't waste time in taking the fight to Sin's door with the Howling Hussies backing him up, this should have been in the Cap book , it's not an avenger's story aside from Bendis little , behind the music interviews which have been stale now for some time and her is getting trapped in using that format.
Action Comics 1, this is the first of the Dc 52 i have bought, Swamp Thing and Frankenstein agent of Shade are in my hold book and Aqua-man will wind up there as well, i think Hawk-man is on the list too, anyways, this plays out like a Small ville episode, Grant Morrison is writing , so should be good with it though he did in my opinion drop the ball on the end of the bruce wayne returns series, it's an every man Super-man in jeans and work boots, how long do we have to endure this look is my first question, more than tend issues and i will more than likely drop the book, no secret Super-man is one of my favorite Dc Characters, if you are going to like a character he might as well be the most bad ass, and Super-man if nothing else represents the dawn of Super-heroes into my childhood, Spider-man holds a similar affinity, all the major players, Lex and Lois Lane are present of course, Lex is working for the government to bring Super-man in who is seen in a similar light as Bat-man , this Super-man is fighting against the man , kinda Robin dish, thus the jeans, the book is solid costuming and the back ward glance story line aside , i guess this different look at the SUper-man story is not unlike the Bat-man through time arch in Wayne returns.
Other dc 52's i read in store , the best of the bunch the interesting take on Suicide Squad, Bat-man and robin was ok not awesome, demon knight's felt like a comic strip from the back of a dungeons and dragons manual, though it had great artwork. Also read the fear itself New Avengers featuring Dare Devil, i have made my thoughts pretty clear on the fact if he were going to be on a team it should be heroes for hire , neither he nore luke cage, ben grimm, wolverine, or spider-man are avengers, if you want avengers , bring back, Vision, or even Star-fox for that matter .

Saturday, September 10, 2011

mean while

Last night i had the chance to read new avengers annual and detective comics number one, my first read of the new dc 52 , though i have action comics and swamp thing waiting for me in my hold box .
New Avengers annual, the title will always be approached with prejudice as it's an avengers team where the only real avenger is ms marvel, i might be able to handle one non-avenger if you wanna go for the novelty, maybe jessica jones , i think her being on the team and her husband not would be interesting you could get some luke cage in the periphery, but they need to go over to heroes for hire though i will accept him as a defender. this story is about wonder- man ..simon williams revenger team, so lets get this straight during drak reign williams cracked up and left his hollywood lifestyle to become the one man ethics committee for the avenger a man who got his start in the masters of evil? doesn't add up for me but a team of misguided super villains attacking head quarters ... the masters of evil have been there and done that , two giants on the team is uh... well the tromp the new avengers , some ben grimm a guy who holds his own with the hulk for longer than he did these b-listers phuuuuulease, if the avngers proper don't wipe the floor with these guys then we have problem in the bull pin.
Dectective comics feels like i expect the tone of the next nolan movie, with the cops at odds with the bat and gordon having to run interference . this joker is little darker especially crazed when you see what him and doll man come up with at the end , won't bomb you with spoiler's like i did with avengers up there , but the plot was the crux of the problem , ths relaunch didn't feel drastic no origin story the bat-man is who he is, little more of a vigilante feel which i think is an improvement, the art was spot on so a good first impression for my first read of the 52 , now lets see how swamp thing and super-man hold up.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Comics and Dragon-con

This is the first of a three part dragon-con review series of blogs the other two parts will in appear in the respective horror and music blogs. First off for those of you reading who do not know what dragon-con is , imagine Comic-con as fan run and less of a trade show, with an emphasis on private hotel parties and fan performance based entertainment. Where Comic-con is in a convention center Dragon-con is spread out over 5 hotels.
While Stan Lee is a featured guest , the emphasis on Comics in the panels is less than say Firefly , or Star trek, this year's comics panel seemed to be mainly academic studies , the one i attended was a study of real life super-heroes like the ones in hbo's recent documentary, if you didn't see think a more humanitarian version of kick ass. Their was a dc animation panel as well as one on the dc universe mmo, i did meet Peter David at a writing panel, and got the chance to talk to him afterwards about the DC 52 , which he thought was a roll of the dice on their part.
As far as Cosplay goes it seemed there were more dc characters than marvel, though a noted lack of Green Lantern Characters , especially from the new movie . A very busty Aqua-woman , yes you go that right it wasn't mera but a female version of the aqua -man costume, though i did see a pretty good mera, several robins and cat women and harley quinns. On the marvel front alot of dead pools, a m.o.d.o.k, a few black cats and iron-men as well.
A genre convention not just a comic -book convention , i can only hope super heroes play a larger role .. or could this be the first symptoms of a hollywood imposed spandex burnout .

Thursday, September 8, 2011

post -con comics

Ok, catching up with the books i missed pre- dragon-con, Mighty Thor 5 and Incredible Hulk 635. Thor is in typical Fraction style , the Odin Galactus throw down was about as eventful as Surfer vs Thor , which do you really think - the to me my board boomerang move is going to work twice on some one whose weapon returns to them as well? the Volstagg on earth story line is weaving back in with main story, Fraction run seems uninspired , i think Thor just isn't his thing and marvel was desperate to get some on in their. the art is much improved , the space battles have more flare from an art standpoint , but the story wanders around unsure of its direction.
Incredible Hulk 635, is the last book of the Pak run and is about par for the course for where this title has been going , continuing to lean to heavily on supporting cast as the tone for the title character seems less sure of it's self , the crux of the silly wishing well, dimensional muckity muck, builds to a climax but with all the talk of the Hulk cutting loose like never before , we never see much but him radiating gamma energy, fing fang foom, eats a bunch of nuclear war head to turn into a ogdzilla of sorts and gets stomped on my a huge Hulk and Betty, rick jones A-bomb, a character name it feel silly to type and she-hulk, who needs to replace ben grimm in the avengers , the get their powers back and go into an ultra hulk out of sorts , the whole this will change the hulk and shake you to the core is like Metallica saying this is our heaviest album yet, i guess i fell for it to an extinct to think they might kill the hulk off even after i saw the future solicits. there's a mini story meant to ties up lose ends but proves more confusing given what we know about the Hulk title to come , banner and hulk are separated Banner goes bad and Hulk has to stop him sort of thing . But first we get Hulk vs Dracula, which i am going to have to buy for better for worse.