Amph ***OFFICIAL*** Comics Thread

^That's cool.

Today I received "The New Avengers Vol. 4: The Collective" (picking up after the House of M, where Alpha Flight dies) and DC's "Kingdom Come," from Amazon. I'm looking forward to reading both of them.

 

Iron Fist would make a cool TV series. I don't think the movie will get off the ground, partly because of certain similarities with Batman Begins.

 

Hasn't Ray Park been attached to the Iron Fist movie for like 5 years?

 

Yes, and he started off a little too old. Danny is supposed to be twenty when he leaves K'un-L'un. Also, on the evidence of Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, he has no screen presence when not kicking people. But then nobody did in that movie.

 

The Iron Fist movie was canceled a long time ago.

Slimy!

 

There are many thing in the Iron Fist origin that are cliche by now, and basically cliche when it first took place though the flavor and spin were unique. i would rather have it not become a movie at all if a half assed job is done in terms of quality.

 

Iron Fist was a bunch of clichés thrown together - K'un L'un is very Shangri-La (or, for that matter, a kung fu Brigadoon), young Danny being orphaned and going on a revenge-odyssey is a staple of kung fu movies (I think), and the flashback structure of the stories was very much influenced by TV's Kung Fu.

I honestly don't quite know why I liked Iron Fist as a kid, but I did. Perhaps it was simply the mythology they were creating in Danny's past; I can't remember any one storyline that was particularly outstanding, certainly not one set in Iron Fist's super-hero present.

I think the current creative team is doing some very good work, maybe even creating a classic. It would be great if this storyline could stand next to Miller's Daredevil, or Simonson's Thor stories (DOOM!). The fact that they have given Danny an actual personality is pretty impressive in itself.

VadersLaMent, does their take on Misty Knight remind you of anyone on these boards? Maybe it's the swearing.

 

I may be wrong in saying this, but doesn't Iron Fist need a costume update? Luke Cage "Power Man" was updated to fit this century.

 

He has had a costume update. A little one, I know, but still an update. No more bare chest, no more slippers (which is sort of sad, as I had hoped for a comic with the subtitle: Savage Slippers of Kung Fu. Ah well...).

 

[image=http://www.vaultofmidnight.com/pages/uploads/dec064492.jpg]

Yeah, the open front and slippers and cuttoff at the bottom needed to go and I'm glad it changed. In the Director's Cut of issue #1 there is a concept shot of Rand doing a flying kick and the pic at the top has him in a kamino type of asian outfit. I don;t recall the style of clothing name, he looked liked Sareph from The Matrix but it was all green with a gold emroidery and the gold mask. That would be something I'd like to see more often, but I imagine it might be a pain to draw all the time.

 

I'd be interested to hear what comic/story arcs are people's favourites. Solojones was on my case about my lack of up to date knowledge of classic graphic novels back in the Amph's 100 Favorite Books list - I have never read The Long Halloween, Hush or any of the newer classics with the exception of Kingdom Come.

Walt Simonson's run on Thor was one of my favourites, especially The Casket of Ancient Winters storyline. Very cool art, good plot, and some nice dialogue. Loki turning Thor into a frog was great, as was Thor getting back at Loki after managing to lift Mjolnir and becoming Thor the Thunderfrog!

Hellboy is the only comic that I have regularly picked up these days; Mignola is one of the most talented comic book artists ever, imo. Conqueror Worm is probably my favourite Hellboy graphic novel.

 

Well, at least you read Kingdom Come. I just received my copy from Amazon a week ago and haven't found time to read it yet. I did check out hush from my local library but didn't make the time to sit down and read it.

 

Kingdom Come had such good art I couldn't pass it up. Ross' Captain Marvel looks great.

 

The art is awesome, but I can't wait to sink my teeth into the storyline.


I'm sure it's going to be much better than DC vs. Marvel book I just finished reading.

 

One thing I like about Kingdom Come, and what has been a bit of a long standing plot for Supes, is a 'Superman returns' theme. In the second and third Superman movies, and of course in Superman Returns, and in Kingdom Come Superman is gone for awhile then makes a comeback. In this case I thought it ironic that underlying KC is an idea from the original Squadron Supreme 12 issue series in which the heroes take a much larger role in society and there is a rebellion of other heroes gathered against them. DC tried to sue Marvel for the characters. Hyperion equals Superman and Nighthawk = Batman. And is is Batman who does just what Nighthawk does and gathers a group of supers to oppose the group that Superman has gathered.

 

Yes, though I didn't read the Squadron Supreme series I was aware of it, and the similarities with Kingdom Come.

Superman having retired for x number of years and then coming back to shake things up also has a nice parallel with The Dark Knight Returns.

 

Great, another interesting piece from the comic universe that I need read. . I've picked up issues of Ultimate Power, but I haven't read any of them yet because I'm waiting for the series to be completed. It seems like it's been years since the first of issue of the series was released. Hasn't anyone been following this series?

 

I have not gotten the Ultimate Power series but what bit I have read about had Hyperion handing it to Thor and a couple of the FF? You know, I have always liked Hyperion. The first time I saw the character it was a black and white pic of him in the Marvel File section of Dragon magazine waaaaaaaay back in the 80's. It looked like a throwback to some 1930's or 1940's serial. When I saw the character in color I was ok with the yellow and orange but I would have preferred the silver and gray as it appeared in the Dragon Mag pic.

Anyway, after reading Squadron Supreme and grabbing back issues featuring Hyperion and/or his evil twin the writers made it very apparent that Hyperion is friggin tough. In one old issue the evil Hype gets locked into a hand to hand contest of strength with the Thing who was always listed as being able to lift some 85 tons. Hyperion basically just gave him a good hard shove and won. This same Hype drove Wonderman through an asteroid in a one shot special where the Grandmaster gathered dead beings and pitted them against living ones in a contest with Death. Yet again in the actual Squadron Supreme series the first few pages made it clear that Hyperion can lift a bit over 100 tons. Yet every friggin time they produce his strength level in the Marvel Handbook or the online equivalent they rate him as lifting 70 tons.

That ticks me off to no end. But all of this well before cross overs with DC made all that null and void. Now the ratings might still mention "Class 100" strength for heavy hitters they tend now to be far stronger to match DC comics counterparts. If they didn't do that then pitting the Hulk against Superman would be rather fruitless since even the John Burn version of Supes could life a building and throw it.

As with all things, the characters are as strong as the writer needs them to be, but it's cool knowing they give Hyperion his ass kicking props.

 

I was talking to a friend and combining our collective knowledge we realized that we couldn't think of a single Canadian Superhero from the DCU. I can think of a whole slew of Marvel characters...most anyone can. But seriously are there any DC heroes from the great white north?

 

I have that comic. The art from John Romita JR/ Bill Sienkiewicz, and Jackson Guice/Kevin Nowlan, was fantastic.

Hyperion's strength and invulnerability varied from appearance to appearance. For that matter, Sasquatch in his first appearance picked up and threw a jumbo-jet, which in tonnage made him maybe the strongest Marvel hero at the time. Soon after, however, his strength level was more comparable to the Thing's. Consistency of strength and powers is a problem with super-characters.

 

As I recall in the Secret Wars in Marvel one of the covers features the Hulk, rather ticked off, lifting some ungodly number of billios of tons.

There is also the lifting of a building by Gladiator.

I can only guess the tonnage of the Krypton rock that Superman pushed to space in Superman Returns, but it was not afull sized continent. It may have reached a diameter of a mile or two, and might have weighed hundreds of thousands of tons if solid. That would actually equate to the strength level of the Burns Superman though I am going by the DC RPG game stat which placed Supes at 800,000 tons. perhaps I should say post-Crisis Superman. The pre-Crisis Supes could lift 33.5 trillion tons, which would be enough to lift and throw Mount Everest 1,000 feet.

 

Immortal Iron Fist #8. I will summarize with minor spoilers.

Flashbacks throughout show IF's father in Kun Lun long ago, but do not say yet why his father never became the Iron Fist after Orson. There is a neat looking panle showing Daniel sitting with the Book Of The Iron Fist open before him. Just reading through somepart of it and he learns to heal himself without even thinking about it. It apears his powers will become more efficeint at the very least. There is a construction project going on in the Kun Lun mountains, Devos is in charge, Ran's kidnapped assistant Jeryn is overseeing it, but we don't know what it's for. We find out that the cities hold their fighting tournaments because the winning city spends less time away from the Earth dimension. The winner stays away for 10 years where the loser is gone for 50. Orson ran from the last tournament, ruining the whole affair. This tournament is held once every 88 years when the 7 heaveny cities combine.

This reminded me of symbolism concerning the Crazy 88:

In Asian Culture
Eighty-eight (88) symbolizes fortune and good luck since the word 8 have the same pronouciation as Fa (wealth in Cantonese). The number 8 is considered to be the most luckiest number of all in Chinese culture and prices in Chinese supermarket can often be found containing many 8's. Chinese government have even been auctioning auto license plates containing many 8s for tens of thousands of dollars. For the upcoming Olympics in Beijin, it's due to open on 8/8/08 at 8 p.m.

It also mentions in Wiki that there are 88 official constellations in our sky.

I won't run down each of the champions of the 7 cities but one must give an exhibition by fighting 100 warriors, tiles are dropped, and a "Fat Cobra" must do combat. He is basically a sumo shaped man and displayed astounding agilti and strength as well as iron fist like abilites like slapping his hands together for what is essentially a sonic attack and what he called "Sumo Thunder Stomp" which felled many. As Iron Fist tells himself he is not sure how he could beat this man Fat Cobra is allowed to pick his opponent, and of course that opponent will be Daniel Rand.

Of the 8 issues so far this has the least amount of action but is as interesting a read as all the rest. Hmmmmmm, the tournament held every 88 years revealed in issue #8. Ain't they just clever?


I also picked up Captain America 29 but I have not read it yet.

 

I refuse to break down and buy Iron Fist comics as they come out. I shall wait until the next trade/hardback compendium arrives. It's going to be a horribly long wait, though.

Other comic book series I think are classics are:

Legion of Super Heroes - Great Darkness Saga. Cool art, cool story. The Five Years Later storyline that Giffen did in the early 90's was also great.

Captain Britain - Alan Davis and Alan Moore's run on the strip. My favourite comic strip when I was a kid. In Moore's first issue he introduced The Fury, the nastiest super-hero killing monster ever. It was reprinted in the U.S. shrunk down and coloured by a blind man with no taste; I almost cried when I saw the reprint. Why?

Warlock - Jim Starlin's run on this from the 70's is a classic. Thanos, the Magus, Pip the troll... all cool.

I was a fan of the John Romita JR X-Men years too, and the revamped Justice League from the early 90's, at leat for the first 7 or 8 issues.

Vertigo's Sandman, also cassic. Season of Mists sticks in my mind.

 

Speaking of Legion Of Superheroes, can anyone tell me about Dragonmage? All I know about the character comes via an old RPG book. The lack of info about him on the Web tells me perhaps the character is not all that important or popular.

 

As much as I would love to collect DC comics, I can't afford to spend money and time for all of it.

But I do really enjoy reading information on the internet, torrenting some key stories (though I did read all of the Infinite Crisis things), and I would really like to get in on the 52 thing.

I also have heard good things about Marvel's Civil War.

Aside from that, the only comic that I pick up every month is Star Wars Legacy.

Man, I'm lame.

-Semi