Amph ***OFFICIAL*** Comics Thread

Captain Marvel, I did not know the Enchantress had a child with Namor. Said child has grown and is now a wannabe tyrant who appears to be about to sacrifice his mother for power.

Savage Avengers, banter between Conan and Deadpool is good, Conan gets infected with Knull.

Conan, oh this evil sword. It was forged and consumed souls, growing power, and going from vessel to vessel.

Strange Academy has been good, but make no mistake this issue ruled with Strange neglecting the child of Dormammu to save another, that other falling in love with said son. He is dead, until a show of affection lights him back up. A good grown up issue.

X-Men, this artwork by Booth reminds me of Arthur Adams. And you can go to marvel.com/xmenvote and vote on new team members.

Wolverine, goes from Bond to Conan, and what a splash page.

New Mutants, so was it already a known thing that Amahl Farouk was a vessel for an entity called Shadow King? Because that is what is shown here, and Amahl may be an innocent fooled by an evil tyrant looking to control the world from the shadows.

Shang Chi. I guess they are throwing super martial arts his way, sort of like Kill Bill. There is a moment where she slashes 3 villains and then strikes her sword at the hilt and they fall down. Shang does something similar, dowsing a torch with a clap of his hands. And he catches a bullet with two fingers.

 

Amahl Farouk was originally the first 'evil mutant' that Xavier encountered, in a flashback in Claremont's run - he was trying to use his powers to capture Storm as a child in Cairo, Xavier intervened, and Farouk apparently 'died'. He later returned as a 'psychic entity' in New Mutants and then became the major villain of the Muir Island Saga crossover.
He grew from being just a powerful mutant to being some sort of 'ancient entity' - the new story blends these backgrounds.

 

Klaus: The Life and Times of Santa Claus aka OHC3

This remains Morrison's best work of recent years by far. There's none of the stuff that they became known for in previous works, reality warps, conspiracy bollocks, instead Morrison focuses on telling a damn good story that riffs on the ideas around Santa Claus.

Morrison is helped greatly by Mora's wonderful art that brings each story to life, with the second, The Life and Times of Joe Christmas, relying on it entirely - as it's told by a series of double page spreads that rely the story in reverse.

That's not to suggest the other story here, Klaus and the Crying Snowman, is lacking though, far from it. This sees a smart reworking of a mythological tale into a new form that fits perfectly.

If you are going to issue a two story OHC volume, the stories have to merit it - and these do.

I, Rene Tardi – Prisoner of Stalag IIB Volume 3: After the War

Concluding Tardi's biography of his father, this volume looks at a period rarely talked about, especially in comparison to the period that preceded it - post World War Two.

At the same time Tardi's sharp account sets fire to numerous sacred cows - like the idea of World War Two being any kind of "good" war; of there being any kind of virtue demonstrated by anyone, to invoke two examples there is the puncturing of the Dambusters by showing what that actually entailed in full; along with the casual use of rape by just about every military going. There is the denial of the Holocaust in the face of all evidence to the contrary, along with all manner of escape for individuals of dubious natures, be they ex-Nazi or collaborator or just plain vengeance seeking on soft targets.

So no, it's not an easy read, but it is a very worthwhile and necessary one, particularly as the generation that lived it start to pass from living memory.

Tardi's regular page structure of three long, horizontal panels allows far more visual variety than you might expect and all manner of visuals.

This is not a "glorious" war story, but it is a very well-told account of the era, of the war yes, but also before and after.

 

@Jedi Ben I’ve read some of Klaus and agree with you.

 

Anybody else here reading Lavender Jack?

To you who don't know about it do I recommend it. It is a very well drawn masked avenger/detective story that takes place in an alternative early 1900s where discrimination based on gender/skin color/sexuality does not seem to exist but where class is a strong part of society. In the city state Gallery a masked man, known as Lavender Jack, has threatened several of the kingdom's richest/most powerful inhabitants and revealed their shady dealings, when the police can't stop him, the mayor calls for an elderly master detective, Madame Ferrier, to get grab him. Now a game of cat and mouse begins between Lavender Jack, Madame Ferrier and the real villains who are willing to kill to keep their secrets. And that's just the first storyline.

 

Saw a spolier regarding Avengers #42

Spoiler

Seems Aaron retcon Thor's mother into being the stoneage Phoenix from Avengers 10.000 BC. I'm just shaking my head to this but a comment pointed out that this retcon actually make him and Rachel Summers siblings, and now I want to see Thor as part of X-Men becouse of this.

 

Aaron is throwing any old idea out there. He's pretty much hated by a lot of Thor fans, and he does seem to be returning the favour.

 

Jason Aaron is up there with Brian Azzarello for me on the "big names I don't understand the appeal of in the slightest" chart, just an automatic avoid because of that. Although I was not aware his Thor run was so controversial.

 

Both Aaron and Azzarello can be good on superheroes but they're far better on other genres.

As to Aaron's Thor being controversial, is that referring to a 6 year old storyline long since undone?

 

This week the snow has delayed Marvel titles.

The Dreaming 7
Future States: Wonder Woman 2, The Next Batman 3, Swamp Thing 2, Superman of metropolis 2.
Far Sector 10, this has been so good.
Man-Bat 1, he has been in a hero mode in Justice League Dark but now this is titled "His Murderous meltdown Begins Here!"

 

See, that's the problem, I don't like their work in other genres, so given the common argument that that's their better stuff? I'm good, actually.

 

100 Bullets is a glorious incomprehensible mess. Moonshine's fun too but Azzarello is always better with Risso.

Scalped was good but the same team are taking the mick on The Goddamned and Southern Bastards is a farce of a book in terms of frequency of output.

But there's always going to be 'great' writers you don't care for. Tom King is another one who shouldn't be writing superheroes, but can be hit and miss for me.

 

Don't even get me ****ing started on Tom King.

 

Reading Marvels War hammer 40k Marneus Calgar comic.Kieron Gillen who did some of the Doctor Aphra and Darth Vader comics is the writer.

Calgar the main character is one of the oldest named characters in Warhammer 40k, all the way back to First edition of the tabletop game(1987). Its fleshing out his back story which is really cool. He is the Chapter Master of the Ultramarines. One of the 1000 chapters of loyal Space Marines in the Imperium of Man. The Ultramarines have always been depicted as ancient Roman/Greek themed. In a nice twist we learn Calgar was born a helot(a agricultural slave) whose real name was Tactian. As a boy he the family that owned his, the Calgars basically made him the personal companion slave of the real Marneus Calgarq, the families young heir, who wished to become a Space Marine. His master grew to see him more as a brother than a slave and when they where tweens used his own inheritance to pay the trainer who was to prepare him for the physical and mental tests required to be accepted for Space Marine training, to also train Tacitian. During the training on their home worlds moon they come under attack by Traitor Space Marines and Chaos cultists and all of the boys except Tactian are killed. The Real Calgar dieing to save his friend. After being rescued by a squad of Ultramarines and passing the inflation tests, he endure thes physical alterations that a space marine must undergo16 additional organs are implanted between ages 11-18 whole serving in the Scout company between surgery, you end up witn an 8+ foot tall warrior who can survive in some.of the worst conditioms imaginable , can spit acid, learn by eating, has eidetic memory(aka photographic memory), is more durable(bones laced with harder substance) and extended lifespan and youth

The comics flip back and forth between the Adult Calgar and hundreds.of year before with a younger Tacitian. The flashbacks come because he is leading some of his Marines on a mission on his home world

Also apparently 8 foot tall, 100 year old space marines sometimes like to pretend they are cats.

 

Raven Guard are not the only Space Marines that know how to be sneaky

 

Guardians of the Galaxy – Cates OHC

This works quite well as an in-between events run but suffers due to that.

The effect of it following up on what happened in Infinity Wars, while also setting the stage for Empyre, and weaving in stuff from other series like the character slaughter of Death of the Inhumans (and I’m going purely by the info in this OHC), means it never really has a chance to breath or establish its own identity. Oh and it namedrops Knull, currently taking centre stage in King In Black.

Apart from looking for a cosmic jumping off point, I’m not a fan of Marvel sticking 6-7 mini-issue events into $125 RRP supersize Omnibuses. They’ve done that on War of the Realms and Empyre is next.

That said, the 12-13 issues collected here are a fun read, albeit one with a high bodycount.

 

New details on DC's revival of Milestone comics.

 

Legend Of Shang Chi 31. In his new series he is working for MI-6, where he is sent after a soul sucking sword but so is newly sexy drawn Lady Deathstrike. Personally I prefer her rough cyborg look. I do like Shang Chi's new red and gold tank top tunic.

Eternals #2, that's a hell of a back and forth ass beating between Icarus and Thanos. With a little trickery of Sprite it's a draw.

Low 26. So that is the end of a truly great comic series. if you are not into going back to get back issues I highly recommend the trade paperbacks. Just a wonderful story of optimism and tragedy and sacrifice. The art is both great and messy and yes sometimes it's hard to make out what you are seeing, but mostly it's cool.

X-Force 17, well, all of a sudden I am not as annoyed with Kid Omega. It starts with a montage as the team is shown taking on missions that wind up killing him much of the time, from cyber bears to eaten by spiders to getting sucked into a jet engine. he also gets a montage of new suits and does end up with something cool.

DD 27, I think Elektra as DD would be fun to read if these issues were not so wrapped up in this King in Black crossover.

Rorschach 5, we get a look at the politician they tried to kill. In public of course he's epic, in private he is obviously epically bad. they borrow from real life as there is a scene where he talks to an investigator while reading the paper on the toilet which comes via Lyndon Johnson.

 

Re: Low

Remender likes issuing his series in big Absolute-style hardbacks. I've the first one and it's a bargain. The second is due September.

 

Marvel question: is it just me or is there a tendency in the last 10-15 years to portray Reed Richards as more arrogant and unlikable than before?

 

Well, Civil War was about 15 years ago so... yes.

Actually what I’m really liking with Dan Slott’s run is he seems to be trying to push back on that interpretation of the character and get him back to being more of an absent-minded professor and family man.

 

He certainly was portrayed as such in X-Men + Fantastic Four.
... then again, Marvel immediately nullified that miniseries, so I guess it doesn't matter....

 

Well, given that for the longest time Marvel didn't have the rights to the FF 4 movies (similar to how X-Men was marginalized in the recent past in favor of the Inhumans in the comics), yes.

 

I feel that there has been a growing tendency to portray most of the male authority figures as arrogant and unlikeable to contrast against Captain America, who has been increasingly revered. I suspect this is not a complete coincidence.

 

(Saying this to Jason Aaron not you).

@VadersLaMent what little I’ve read of Elektra Devil, I agree. Avoiding the KIB event.