posted
That's a shame. It was so good. I wasn't into it at the time, either, and since there's only one out-of-print trade, I had to look for back issues. STILL haven't found the final two issues.
JSA PRESENTS: STARS AND S.T.R.I.P.E. VOLUME TWO
Collecting "Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E." #0, 8-14.
Except for #0, which now looks like a fluke, the second volume was more of the same, with the added annoyance of continuity mania. The flashback to the 7 Soldiers' legendary battle against the Nebula Man is well-written, but did it HAVE to be told? Whatever happened to leaving things to the readers imagination? And the resolution of the over-arching storyline brought out that paternalistic side to Johns that bothers me almost as much as his taste for the gross and the creepy.
And yet, as before, there are moments of well-observed humanism and sharp characterization. Maybe Johns just needs some therapy to cure the Jekyll-and-Hyde tendencies of his writing.
posted
I think maybe, perhaps that like Giffen and Byrne, perhaps Johns works nest when paired with someone else to keep him in a target range. This is not to say that I do not like his, or any of their solo efforts, jus that they seem to do better things with others.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
FL, I enjoyed the reviews of Stars & STRIPE, a series I haven't thought about in a long time! I remember enjoying the series at the time--not really overly impressed by the stories, but rather just loving Courtney and the portrayal of Stripesey. Courtney is one of the best new characters that came out of the 90's.
I think a few mistakes have been made along the way with her: making her Stargirl (kind of a useless change), and letting her get lost in the crowd in the ridiculously overfilled JSA comics.
One quick question: am I correct that Stripesy's youth (since he was born in the 1920's) is explained by his time travel / Seven Soldiers / returned in the JLA story adventure? I can't remember ever confirming that, but I've always just assumed.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Fickles, while I'll agree that Geoff worked better generally on JSA with Goyer, he has had numerous terrific solo credits that, IMO, would refute your claim. Just to name a few, I'd put Green Lantern, both Flash runs, Superman: Secret Origin and his issues of Action Comics without Richard Donner out there as examples. I know you might disagree with some of those, but the critical acclaim and success they experienced cannot be discounted. He has his flaws, but to say he's always better with another writer seems unsupported. I mean, for starters, just look at all the bile thrown at Brightest Day, which he co-writes with Peter Tomasi.
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Cobie, that explanation is indeed in S&S, issue #8 to be exact. It's the old "I spent a week in the past but it was forty years later when I returned to the present" paradox.
Chief, I do think Johns did an exceptional job solo on Green Lantern: Rebirth and the first 25 issues of the GL ongoing, but I think it's because he had a strong editor (none other than Peter Tomasi) for most of the way, and that the excellent Sinestro Corps War event was already set in stone even though Tomasi had left the book by that time. Tomasi also edited Johns' entire pre-relaunch JSA run, both with and without Goyer, BTW.
I think Johns is currently in that dangerous position where he's so powerful that editors don't dare question his more dubious tendencies. It'll be interesting to see if Johns' writing changes for the better under Bob Harras as DC EiC, as Harras has a reputation for being very tenacious.
posted
I sampled Thunderstrike #1 on a whim recently and finally got around to reading it. When Thunderstrike was first introduced, I disliked the character because I hated the “replacement of Silver Age characters” phase at Marvel. But once I read the entire run of Thor in my early teens, I actually began to love the character of Eric Masterson and he became a big favorite of mine; I absolutely saw the potential for him to be a great friend of Thor’s with Thor restored and Eric as Thunderstrike. So with that in mind, I picked up the new title, delighted to see the team of DeFalco and Frenz, who created Thunderstrike and basically wrote all of his solo stories.
First off, with Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz as the creative team (with finished by Sal Buscema, who also did some Thor work with them), this comic felt so 1980’s that it hurt—and in a GOOD way. I forgot how much I like Frenz’s style, especially when he channels Kirby, which he tends to do on Thor & Thunderstrike. Meanwhile, DeFalco hits all the classic beats of story-telling, such as providing set-up, character interaction, super-action and an easy flow to the story that I’ve missed. DeFalco was never my favorite writer when he was a high profile Marvel guy, but I realize now he was actually pretty good (or got that way over time).
The character himself is not Eric Masterson, but his son, who we knew when he was a boy. The son is now a teen and to say he is troubled is an understatement—but you can’t really blame him, given what’s happened. So what we’re seeing is an angry teenager, who surprisingly gains immense power with the Thunderstrike, and reluctantly takes on the role of superhero when all he wants to do is lash out at the world, especially the heroes who were once his father’s allies. Not the most original concept but a good one and one I can get behind.
The premise also takes on a bit of a Shazam type quality since it’s a teenager taking on the form of an adult; in fact, he looks just like his father when he was powered-up so that’s a level of weird there too (whether the creative team addresses it as weird or not we’ll see).
Honestly, I didn’t expect to enjoy this comic that much but I really did. It’s not the best comic book on the market but it was good enough to get me to buy the series. I already have an invested interest in the lead character, and more generally, the history of Thor, so that is a little bit more of a push for me to get this (people who didn’t read Thor in the 80’s might not feel the same). The comic book itself is definitely a great example of how story-telling from the 80's in superhero comics was much better at using single issues to draw in readers, whereas many creators today could learn a few things.
[ January 07, 2011, 01:40 PM: Message edited by: Cobalt Kid ]
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Cobie, the only time I liked Eric Masterson was in the few issues of the Harras Avengers that he was in. I know you're a fan of the Harras Avengers like myself, and would certainly be interested to know what you thought of his appearances there.
As for the new book, I appreciate your review, but I may or may not give it a go. I wasn't a huge fan of that Thor era, and never followed the first Thunderstrike book.
BTW, Eric, his son Kevin, and the whole Thunderstrike thing were actually the creation of Tom DeFalco, not Ralph Macchio.
posted
A couple of years ago I checked out America's Best Comics from the library, by which I mean the TPB that had the 64-Page Giant, The Many Worlds of Tesla Strong, and the ABC Sketchbook. Of course, the library's copy had some pages torn out of the Many Worlds part.
I'm really just reviewing the Many Worlds of Tesla Strong. It's a special about Tesla traveling through the Multiverse looking for a missing Solomon, and each Earth she visits she encounters a version of herself, and learns that on each parallel Earth THEIR version of Solomon has just gone missing too.
Tom Strong had previously visited the concept of a multiverse at least twice, however this one is more connected to Tom Strong #10, where most of the variants of Tesla originally appeared. We have, among my favorite...
*Tekla Strong: From an Earth where WWIII happened and led to a large, radioactive crater. All that's left is 40,000 survivors in a bunker built by Tekla's dad, who saw the thing common, some Mormons, the Swiss, and mutated, meat-eating cockroaches. Tekla wears body armor and uses curse words like "freck" and "goober". Tekla had previously appeared in Tom Strong #10, and she's one of the more fleshed out alternates. Her segment is illustrated by Michael Golden. *Tesla Terrific: A world where Tesla and her father, Tom Terrific, are more closely Superman and Supergirl analogues. Tesla's secret identity is college student Tara Stone, she has a nosy neighbor named Lily LaGuna, and Tesla's boyfriend is "a 28th Century science geek who doesn't write". This segment was illustrated by none other than Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. *Tamla: Now, this segment I hadn't earlier read because it'd been ripped out of the book. On Tamla's world, her father is black and her mother is white... and they're all naked. Tamla's world is one where human sexuality wasn't so repressed. It's the little touches in this world, such as Tamla's mother mention that her boyfriendS will be coming back to join ALL THREE OF THEM in the hot tub, along with a poster in Tamla's room that reads "Back Sync Boys". Tamla's parents are actually trying to get Tesla's clothes off, well, it's more like examining them, but the implied presence of incest without the retardation is right out there. Illustrated by known cheesecake artist J. Scott Campbell.
We also meet multiple alternate versions of Solomon, including one who's really a guy in an ape mask and jacket, an inner city Solomon, an ape woman, a Robin Solomon, and one who is really the infamous Weeping Gorilla who has appeared multiple times in Promethea.
Tesla's travels also bring her to the Earth home to the Queztlcoatl-9, the sentient serpent program/god who also earlier appeared, and finally Tiberius and Twyla Strong, the evil counterparts of Tom and Tesla. We also meet good versions of Tom's archenemy Paul Saveen (here Peter Saveen), and Ilsa and Alois Weiss, good versions of Nazi uber-bitch Ingrid and her bastard son Albrecht. The writer mentions the previous altercation between Ingrid and Tesla's mom, Dhalua.
This is a comic on the Multiverse that you don't need to have secondhand research for. And it uses a variety of artists that don't clutter the book.
-------------------- I want to be hated by lies - Bring Back Lian Harper
quote:Originally posted by Fanfic Lady: Cobie, the only time I liked Eric Masterson was in the few issues of the Harras Avengers that he was in. I know you're a fan of the Harras Avengers like myself, and would certainly be interested to know what you thought of his appearances there.
As for the new book, I appreciate your review, but I may or may not give it a go. I wasn't a huge fan of that Thor era, and never followed the first Thunderstrike book.
BTW, Eric, his son Kevin, and the whole Thunderstrike thing were actually the creation of Tom DeFalco, not Ralph Macchio.
the funny thing is I was looking at Tom DeFalco’s name on the comic book and writing out Ralph Macchio. Talk about the brain seeing what it wants! I always get them confused for some reason.
To answer your question, I thought Harras did a great job with Thunderstrike for the little time he had him. In fact, since I was a young teen when the Harras run was coming out, my intro to Eric Masterson actually works backwards: the first time I ever saw him was via Harras. I only ever went backwards to read the Masterson Thor / Thunderstrike stories afterwards. Having read the Harras run numerous times since, I can see why I liked him at first (I always recall him showing up right at the end of the Black Knight / Sersi Saga); like most Harras depictions during the run, he nailed the character completely, highlighted what made him unique and also made him very likable.
In the Avengers, Masterson always felt like an outsider since he was the “fake-Thor” and that was the right way to approach his membership. I felt bad for him but understood.
Something I forgot to mention in my above review is there is an excellent back-up with Todd Nauck artwork where Sif is speaking to the Valkrye, telling the story of Eric Masterson (as a set-up for a Valkrye supporting character who will be joining the series next issue). The back-up does a wonderful job showing how heroically Masterson saved Thor and helped Thor on numerous occasions. It highlights that he wasn’t a *replacement Thor* but rather, an ally of Thor, like Beta Ray Bill.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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I'll have to Byrne-steal it for sure, if only for the back-up. Thanks, Cobie.
Re: Eric in the Avengers, I thought his finest moment is near the end of Operation Galactic Storm, when he's the only one of the killing expedition to have second thoughts.
quote:Originally posted by Cobalt Kid: What could possibly be the very best work Mark Millar has ever done, and by far the best artwork Leinil Yu has every produced, has arrived in the form of Superior, an independent comic released by Marvel's Icon imprint. Millar is a writer many love to hate, but I've always felt he was very talented and his independent work has always been his best stuff. He is a naturally at evoking the 'teenage emotions' in his reader, but here, he does a great job evoking the sense of wonder that a kid or pre-teen would feel and it was very refreshing! Millar's recent track-record included a sub-par Fantastic Four run and a really good Nemesis miniseries (creator-owned) and I think here he turns that creator-owned success in quality into a streak (likely continued with Kick-Ass II).
Leinil Yu, who is an artist that to be honest, I find to be one of the weaker 'hot' artists in comics, is suddenly proving me wrong by providing artwork for a story that he clearly loves and is invested in. The level of detail is huge! The scope switches from tight 'small-screen' moments to scenes incredibly epic and grand, while throughout the whole thing conveying a sense of wonder.
Dave McCraig, who does the colors, also does a wonderful job bringing some 'pop' to the artwork. Superior really felt like an iconic, coloful superhero who could exist in the great eras of comics past as well as today.
The premise, in which a pre-teen with MS suddenly finds himself transformed into a grown-up superhero (similar to Captain Marvel, but with some twists including not knowing how to change back) is very solid. Millar does a great job making very clear the lead character's point of view in being shocked and then terrified at the turn of events.
Something should also be mentioned: there is no excess violence, sex, smut, gross humor or other trademarks many may think should be here. In fact, this is very clearly something you could hand an 8 year old, while incredibly entertaining to a 30 year old like myself.
I highly recommend this and I also dare those with a preconception of Millar (or Yu, like me) to try it out and be surprised...and delighted.
Today at lunch was my off-day for the gym so I caught up on one of the best kept secrets in comics (though probably not since it sells better than 80% of DC and Marvel’s comics)—namely, Superior by Mark Millar and Leinil Yu. It’s very different from many of Millar’s other projects that you almost might think it’s not him (aside from a few ‘fucks’ and ‘shits’); I can see he is harkening back to his Superman Adventures days, trying to capture what would make a young pre-teen / teen fall in love with a series.
Of all of Millar’s independent works, which by and large I feel are quite good, this one may end up being the best. It captures a sense of ‘larger than life’ that many super-heroes have lost. Rather than dismissing old tropes, it revels in secret identities, secret origins, discovering & testing of powers, media reaction to the superhero, people not believing what they are seeing and all the other facets of a superhero that were prominent for 50 years and yet nowadays are seen as old fashioned. Yet, this comic screams ‘modernity’ where you know it is clearly 2011.
A huge aspect of this is the art by Leinil Yu. In my above quoted post, I mentioned how his art never did it for me though Superior #1 was changing that. Well, Superior #2 and #3 have cemented me as a Yu fan for life. His style is so different from comic book past, yet he is able to capture a certain innocence here. Superior himself is a clean-cut superhero out of the Captain Marvel / Superman of the Golden Age mold, yet still retains that distinct Yu dynamic / slightly scratchy look.
Once again, I have to praise colorist Dave McCraig who just makes this whole issue POP. The lush colors bring out every scene, whether it’s urban New York or the a remote forest invoking a small town or whatever. The greens, the blues and everything else makes it feel like a classic superhero story. And Superior’s very simple, elegant and colorful costume just continues to work.
I thought this was a miniseries but either it’s longer than expected or ongoing. Personally, I hope ongoing. With #3, we are introduced to a Lois Lane type, yet she is clearly a 2011 snobby celebrity reporter with more flaw than good; yet the narrative makes us think she’s going to end up being more Lois (the good qualities) as time goes on; I’d like to see her get there. Considering Superior is actually a 12 year old boy, this won’t be a Clark / Lois love affair (though it wouldn’t be beyond Millar to go there); the comic does pay homage to the movie Big a lot though, so it may tackle the issue like that movie did.
#3 was splendid in how it captured the awe the public felt when Superior started doing superhero things. It makes me realize how much fun a new universe could be when there aren’t already pre-established superheroes. You’d think I’d be used to seeing this type of seen again and again after countless movies and comics but it felt refreshing and actually new.
Recommended!
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
(I'm posting this REBELS review here because the thread on the LSH board is already focusing on issue 24 and would seem out of place)
REBELS #23 concluded the story arc called "To Be a REBEL" in a manner that I feel was just a bit two tidy.
This arc was largely about the territorial/jurisdictional conflict between LEGION and the Green Lantern Corps in the Vega Sector and particularly how it involved the two rookie GL's assigned to the sector. I think that Bedard made both rookies fairly good three-dimensional characters. The backgrounds and motivations he gave the two were pretty interesting and tied in very well to how Bedard is building the sector's political and cultural setting.
So LEGION and the Corps are meeting to settle their differences, but sneaky ol' Dox has a plan set up to undermine the Corps in public opinion. With the help of son Lyrl, Dox sets up a phony terrorist plot to destroy the Vegan sun. He plans for the rookie GL's to fail and for LEGION to pull their proverbial fat from the fire. Turns out, however, that the rookies are actually up to the challenge and stop the bomb from going off without assistance.
The problem is that the solution just comes too easy. Longtime LEGION/REBELS readers know that nothing comes that simple when Dox (let alone TWO Doxes) is involved! Dox has backup plans to his backup plans, yet here it seems Dox just whiffed it. There's no "ah-ha!" moment, just a quiet scene between the two Doxes showing they simply underestimated the rookies.
John Stewart appears here, though, and is utilized pretty effectively by Bedard, particularly how his past failure in a similar situation with the planet Xanshi is brought up. Soranik and Ganthet appear as well, but are little more than cameos and not particularly resonant.
The art by Claude St. Aubin and Scott Hanna is pretty good as usual. Some issues they knock out better than this one. There are some jarring panels, like one where John's forehead looks elongated. And the Psions just look a little goofy and unrealistic and that holds for the Psion GL who is one of the featured rookies.
Another weakness is that the larger cast of REBELS seems to barely do more than cameo in recent issues. It's basically all Dox with a line or two maybe or a group shop of most of the rest. Hopefully, Bedard will get on track with this arc closed. There's just still so much to be explored with cast members like Ciji, Bounder and the Dominator just ripe for some exploration.
Lardy's rating for REBELS # 23: 2 Donuts (out of five)!
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
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![[LOL]](graemlins/lol.gif)
the funny thing is I was looking at Tom DeFalco’s name on the comic book and writing out Ralph Macchio. Talk about the brain seeing what it wants! I always get them confused for some reason.![[Drool]](graemlins/drool.gif)
