Amph ***OFFICIAL*** Comics Thread

Picked up the Jango Fett TPB from Dark Horse Comics for $3 at the bookstore. Looking forward to it as Zam Wesell is featured as well. I enjoyed reading her TPM from DH as as well.

 

Wow, I may be hitting @VadersLaMent comic buying levels in Dec-Jan, if I purchase all the titles that caught my eye in Marvel’s Dec solits (including SW Age of Republic, definitely picking up Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan).

Today though, Infinity Warps Soldier Supreme #1.

What a ridiculously fun tweak on Steve Rogers origin (just mash up with Stephen Strange). Basically, it is Rogers as a

Spoiler

magic using version of himself. The Doctor Strange universe (Wong, Dormammu, the Dark Dimension are all used), but Cap is definitely Steven Rogers, not Steven Strange.

Adam Kubert’s art is glorious and kinetic,

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Bucky Wong and Dormammu Red are great too. Gerry Duggan does something quite clever with MCU Black Widow’s Winter Soldier is a ghost story line (a tweak of Brubaker’s he’s a Cold War myth).

I am curious if the writing will be as good in issue 2 given the cliff hanger ending.

As I’ve been a Doctor Strange fan for a long time (and Cap for the last 13 years), I appreciated the Duggan went with the ideas he did.

While I still think the Infinity Warps idea is silly beyond belief, I am here for Kubert’s art. I’d love to see him draw this character again somewhere down the line.

A fun surprise.

 

Speaking of which:

Star Wars 54
Infinity Wars Soldier Supreme 1
The Immortal Hulk 6
Captain America Annual 1
Aphrodite V #3
X-Men Gold 36
Thor 5, looks like the Phoenix Force making an appearance.
Justice League(Legion Of Doom) 8
Doctor Strange 5
Coda 5. Are you still not getting this? Shame.
Batman 55
The Avengers 8, this is apparently where they move into a Celestial.
Seven To Eternity 11, added this to pulls.
Return Of Wolverine 1. There is something about a new ability to heat up his claws? We'll see.
Added all Vertigo comics to pulls.

 

So in Wolverine's return he has glowy claws and he has a injury made by a slash that is not healing fast.. Now I missed a couple of decades of comics but I am aware of the Muramasa blade. I know regenerators healed slower if slashed by it. Images show that it glows. So, did he get melded with a Muramasa blade then?

 

Old Man Hawkeye 9 - this issue completely redeems issues 5 - 8 in every way. Marco’s art here is the best he’s done for the series (ditto for Andres’ colors), and Ethan does a really good job with

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Songbird and the decision she makes. The epic fight shows off Clint’s desperate struggle (though nitpick, something must happen late in issue 11 to speed up his going blind) and said fight has a lot of great action.

I am glad I am riding this series out, but it probably would have been much better if it was eight issues rather than 12.

 

This Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek:

Scarlet 2
The Punisher 2
Marvel 2 in 1 The Thing and Human Torch 10
Justice League Odyssey #1. I am getting this because it's Darkseid joining a DC version of Guardians of the Galaxy.
Justice League Dark 3
Infinity Wars Iron Hammer 1
Old Man Hawkeye 9
Heroes In Crisis 1, some kind of super-quality material issue, it smells funny.
Detective Comics 989
X-Men Red 8
X-Men Blue 36, this is apparently the last issue.
Wonder Woman 55
Old Man Logan 48
Action Comics 1003
Doomsday Clock 7, looks like a fly on a Lantern Power Battery
Marvel Free previews.

 

Doctor Strange 6: If you enjoyed Mark Waid’s 2009 DS one shot The Doctor is Out, you’ll get more mileage/enjoyment from this issue

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and how two Doctor Stranges can be in the Marvel U at once.

Of course, the phony Stephen is making life VERY difficult for the real one.

Nice to see Hellstrom too.

I’ll hang in.

The art is better than the previews -which is good- as I wasn’t too pleased with what I have seen of the art since this title’s relaunch.

I do like the term Arcanologist a lot too.

 

The stand out for me last week was Punisher 2 especially with Punisher going toe to toe with iron Fist and Luke Cage. He was on the losing end until he set off a grenade and escaped.

This weekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk:

Shatterstar 1
Wonder Woman JL Dark The Witching Hour 1
X-Men Black Magneto 1, it says "Plus Apocalypse".
William The Last 1 from Guardian Knight Studios
Death Of The Inhumans 1 thru 4. I was totally passing on this until I thumbed through #4 today and say Beta Ray Bill and I just had to know.
Elric The White Wolf 1
The Curse of Brimstone 7
Asgardians of the Galaxy 2
Tony Stark Iron man 4
Taarna 3. This has been the only physical one I have read as they could not get the other 2 aside from special orders so I read them free online.
Justice League 9
Doctor Strange 6
Batman 56, cool looking gold chrome cover.
Sandman Universe/Vertigo The Dreaming 2
Dc Nation and Marvel Universe FREE.

 

Umbrella Academy returns today. Now I need to find an actual comic shop so I can buy it.

 

yayyyy it only took making a Netflix series to actually get volume 3 of Umbrella Academy but gotta love that cross promotion!

 

Maximum Carnage retrospective!

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/maximum-carnage-paved-way-tom-hardys-venom-1148899

the crossover! The game! The Haunted Halloween night!

I have every issue of this in single floppies. Somewhere. But I do! I can't believe it's 14 issues, though! Holy heck! I remember it being long but wow.

This cover is so good



Also I love how "Venom" and "Carnage" have "TM" beside their names. I miss cover blurbs in general but the TM beside the names is something that is a wee bit too corny. But still kinda fun.

 

I can buy it being 25 years ago, it was basically my first introduction to the Avengers and a lot of supporting characters via Maximum Carnage (which is a really twisted way to introduce Cap and Cloak and Dagger and all of those mainstrays to a reader hahaha, I was just a 12 year old who liked Venom and Carnage) . It did work in places, though, this splash panel definitely stirs up some braincells



DeMatteis actually has a great quote that gives the entire insanity some legit thematic resonance.

DeMatteis: I think with Venom, and even more with Carnage, the characters become symbols of the kinds of violence and depravity in our culture that’s impossible to process. We all understand that people are flawed, but there’s a level of human depravity that’s often beyond our comprehension. And perhaps that’s what Carnage represents. He’s the embodiment of that incomprehensible behavior. It’s not just superhero comics, it’s popular culture in general. The crazed, debauched serial killer has become a staple, to the point where it’s a cliche. And "bleak chic," as I call stories that seem to revel in human darkness, seems to be everywhere. It’s not my cup of tea. I think it’s important to crawl through the dark tunnel, looking our own worst impulses in the eye along the way, but we’ve got to come out into the light, into hope, or — for me, anyway — a story has no lasting value. That’s really what the goal of "Maximum Carnage" was: to look at the over-the-top darkness that had invaded comics and come out on the side of the angels.

 

FYI, there is going to be a new Conan Marvel comic this January.

 

Q: What are those 4 black things sticking out of Magik's head?

 

A new Black Widow series coming in January 2019

“Our Natasha will be true to the Natasha we all love,” Jen says. “But she is not in a good mood. You won’t see her feeling bad for putting more red on her ledger. She enjoys what she does. She’s damn good at it. She’s fearless. She’s lethal. She’s unstoppable. She’s the last person you want coming for you. Our Natasha isn’t following anyone’s rules so she’s completely unleashed.”

 

Shrugs. I’ll pass. May also hold out on the Winter Soldier series too.

There is a lot from Marvel I may be reading btw December - February, so no big deal.

 

Have just read two What if…s, here are my thoughts about them:


What if... Magneto and Professor X had formed the X-Men together?
This is a really good What if..., it begins with showing us the big difference from 616 with Erik not allowing his hate/fear rule him and killing Baron Strucker followed by flying away. Here he allowed Strucker to live and, together with Charles and Gabrielle Haller, handed him over to the Israel government. We the jumps to the comics now and are shown how this have changed history in a really good way: by a wall of newspaper clippings and photos and seeing what's on Charles' desk.
Fore once we see an AU that's a better world, there is peace in the Middle East, Ororo is the President of Kenya, Gabrielle and Erik are married, Charles is a government consultant and there is no Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Also there is no X-Men and Charles never built cerebro since there was never any obvious need for either of them in this 'verse.
The overall story of the issue is about an combination of circumstances that makes Charles and Erik create their world’s first incarnation of X-Men using the small group of mutants that the know of.
The art of the issue is overall good to great, the only downside to me is that Hank McCoys hands and feet are not portrayed as unusually large.


What if... the Fantastic Four were Cosmonauts?
This is a overall good What if... where Reed Richard was born in the USSR as Rudion Richards who was behind and lead the first manned spaceflight in 1951 together with Natalia Romanova, Piotr Rasputin and Iliana Rasputina while in space they get superpowers (Piotr and Iliana don't seem to be mutants in this 'veres or so are their natural powers mutated by the cosmic rays). Unlike 616 FF who are free adventures and action-scientists so is this Soviet FF government agents used in military and political campaigns.
My main problems with this issue are: that it suffers from what seems to be a shallow character reference pool since there are other Russian characters that would be more fitting as companions with Rudion Richards in his space flight instead of just using three of Marvel's most famous ones; and that it feels to me, as a Slavophil, that the author also have a shallow understanding of Soviet culture and political system.

 

I had this week off and intended to get caught up putting comics away but the store I go to did not have supplies this week. I could go elsewhere but I am loyal. I only need 7 short boxes.

Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis week:

Superman 4 with a variant cover showing Supes jumping over the Daily Planet.
Plastic Man 5
Infinity Wars 4, a quick flip through showed Watchers. A bunch of them.
Infinite Dark #1 from Top Cow. It's about the Universe ending and a lone space station left over with 200 occupants. And then the murders began.
The Immortal Hulk 7
Detective Comics 990
X-men Black Mojo 1
X-23 5
Wonder Woman 56
Vertigo The House Of Whispers 2
Domino 7
Catwoman 4, love these foil covers.
The Avengers 9 (Legacy 699)
Captain America 4

 

So Alex Ross pitched a Fantastic Four reboot to Marvel, before they locked down how they were going to relaunch the book. It looks and sounds like it would have been amazing. Marvel obviously said no, because they’re allergic to ideas that don’t involve giving Wolverine heated claws. I’ve spent the better part of the day angry about this.

https://13thdimension.com/inside-look-how-alex-ross-wanted-to-reboot-fantastic-four/

 

I think it may be the Muramasa Blade combined into his claws.

 

Yeah that Ross Fantastic Four sounds, well, Fantastic.

Considering the amount of 90s artists Marvel is calling in now I am stunned as to why they did not go with Ross.

Avengers 9 - yay Namor in a great redesign (.eyes and hard shell armor)! And then Jason Aaron

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employs the Namor against his now former friends plot line.

Oh c’mon! With such a great redesign (and pants that out sexy Aquaman), that’s all you could do with Namor. I’ll read anyway because the art is much better than the previous arc and cranky Namor.

 

^It's Jason "Wench" Aaron. Character assassination seems to be his thing these days. He has the Bendis touch.

Anyway...

I bought Hellboy in Hell Omnibus for my iPad when it was on sale on Comixology. I'm a huge Mike Mignola fan, I'll pick up any Hellboy which he draws himself because his art really peaked in his Hellboy years, it's just incredible. Except sadly this volume did nothing for me. The art is just uninspiring here (except for a couple of pages where he goes watercolour - now that is beautiful), and I don't know why. The story feels kind of pointless, too. I don't hate it, but I don't think it is as good as his previous Hellboy work.

 

I haven’t been a fan of Jason’s for years outside of the Obi-Wan issues he did during his SW run, so yeah, character assassination a la Bendis seems right. It saddens me that Marvel forced writers who obviously hate a specific character to write them if they cannot get past their disdain (For example, Jason - Moon Knight and Bucky, Bendis - Moon Knight and Doctor Strange).

Shame about Mignola.