A selection from the collection!

Greetings fellow comic fans!  Got the new laptop and I am amble to be creative again! Yes! And since its a Sunday and I have read all of last week's books, this time I will take a selection at random and give it a re-read and share my thoughts.  Looking through the boxes...and boxes, of books I can't really narrow it down to one to choose from...

There are so many different things and kinds of books to select from.  From the Charles Schultz Archives to the Walking Dead Omnibus to complete runs or X-Men or Thor or Fantastic Four to name a few.  What's really amazing is there are so many stories that I can recall from memory after having read them several if not dozens of years ago.  As I look through the stacks and rows of boxes its extremely difficult to decide on which box to choose from or which collected edition to possibly grab a story from.  So I finally decided on something from my elementary school years....

I decided on Captain America and the Falcon #179!  When I pulled this out of the box I was taken right back to Emerson Elementary school.  I saw the cover and remember the focus of the story.  As you can see from the cover, Cap is being challenged by the Golden Archer while in his civilian identity as Steve Rogers.  In the story Steve Rogers has been feeling disillusioned in his role as Captain America, and in issue #176 he gave up the identity of Captain America.  So while he is figuring out what his next move is, he's out with his ladyfriend Sharon Carter and they're attacked by an arrow firing man calling himself "The Golden Archer", after he and Cap/Steve went a few rounds and the Archer escaped, we are next taken to Cap's partner the Falcon, where he is letting some local crime-lord know that he was not welcome in the city and if things kept up they would come to an understanding of a physical nature.  And from there we are taken to a gang of Motorcycle hoods and one decides that he was going to be Captain America since the news had broken that no one was doing it.  The leader of the gang heard this and decided that HE was going to be the next Cap, and quickly punched the other guy out.  And from there we go to Avengers Mansion where the Falcon is training their friend "Roscoe", and Cap shows up to just hang out and all of a sudden outside there is The Golden Archer again! They get into it, but before Cap can finish him off, the Archer gets away.  Curses! Next we see the "new" Captain America (the Motorcycle hood), take on six tough street punks, who of course beat him into a stain.  The funny thing is, when after taking that beatdown he said "If I woulda had my crowbar..." before fading into unconsciousness or coma...And the last portion of the book we see the real Cap walking back to his place and once a gain gets jumped on by The Golden Archer, but this time Cap was able to get his bow away from him, but the Archer wasn't done yet! He began to throw arrows at Cap! Yeah, that didn't work. So Cap gets him down and is about to put him away when, the Archer loses his accent and takes off his mask to reveal himself as...Hawkeye!  Cap's buddy and fellow Avenger.  CAp asked essentially "Dude? What the hell...?"  Hawkeye explained to Cap that he was trying to show him that he should still be a Superhero, he doesn't have to be Captain America, but he should stay in the business.  And from there the book ends leaving us to ponder for issue #180, "What does Cap do?"

I love going back and-re-reading the old stories, some hold up, and some don't, and some make me ask myself just what the hell was I thinking when I bought a few of these books.  There are some duds in the collection, everything can't be "Watchmen"...but this was a fun read going back to the old newsprint paper, the old letters column called "Let's rap with Cap".  It was a lot of fun, next time I'll go back to selecting the standout book form my week's list of books and give you the lowdown.  So be looking for me this Wednesday!

Comics NEVER get old!

Thoughts on some of the books the week of 9/14/11

Greeting comic fans!

Gotta admit,of this week's crop of books, not a lot really stood out.  This was the second week of the DC relaunch but none of the books really hit me.  The Green Lantern book seemed more like a continuation from the last series instead of a re-launch.  And I think that is the problem with the DC relaunch, there's not a true theme. It appears for the most part that this event seems more concerned with soliciting new readers with the guise of a new #1 issue for all of their titles as opposed to really re-starting their universe.  The big launch of the Justice League book which started it all was kind of... plodding.  Not say that some of the books haven't stood out, far from it, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Stormwatch, Detective and several others were if not all outsatnding were compelling enough to warrant further reading. So while DC has achieved their desired effect, people are talking about their books and characters, my concern is that this campaign was a little short-sighted.  Hopefully it will work out for DC and the readers, time will tell....

As for Marvel, they are winding up their big event for the year, Fear Itself.  To be absolutely blunt, its just not been very good. Because of my OCD I will see this through to the end.  Instead of these line-wide events Marvel should have stopped after the Siege event and just focused on the healing of the characters and the fallout from that.  I was speaking with Brian, owner of the shop i get my comics from A-1 Comics, and he made an excellent point about Marvel.  He told me if Marvel would hold off on the "event" type of books which crossover the entire line, which causes writers of various books to bend their story to accommodate the event, regardless of what's happening in those books. He suggested that they, Marvel, shelve the company-wide crossover events, let the books remain in their natural family of books  and concentrate on developing the characters which will result in better stories, which will result in increased sales and satisfied customers! Imagine that...

Not all of the books this week were "just there" a couple did really stand out.



Punisher MAX #17 written by Jason Aaron and art by Steve Dillon.  For the uninitiated the Punisher is a former Marine named Frank Castle who returned from duty and was with his family on a picnic when they were caught in the middle of a Mob hit.  His family was killed and from that moment on Frank Castle ceased to exist and the Punisher was born.  The Punisher has declared war on the criminal element in the Marvel universe, and over the years he has conducted his war on criminals, but the fatality list was conspicously small,  at one point he was even using "Mercy Bullets" against people who got in his way.

But that was in the Marvel universe.

This is the MAX universe.

Anything goes in the MAX universe, people die, horribly and in very large numbers.  This is a line of books for adults.  Not that there is nudity, there is some, but that is what this line is about.  It's about telling a story about a vigilante told without any restrictions on the dialog.  Which is perfect for this character, he needs to be violent, and the language needs to be coarse to reflect what is really happening in this world.

At this point in the story, the Punisher has escaped from prison during a riot, he was previously arrested and locked up when an attack on crime lord The Kingpin's penthouse was unsuccessful.  While he was in custody, the police located and seized his home, leaving him with no weapons or any of his equipment.  Now that he has escaped custody, the first order of business is rebuilding the arsenal, then the second will be to deal with the Kingpin.

Now on the street the Punisher encounters three punks who are coincidentally enough discussing whether the Punisher is real or a myth, and since he fought in Viet Nam he'd be too old to do anything to them anyway.  After killing the three punks, he thinks to himself: "One gun.  Six bullets. It's a start."

On the other side of the city, the Kingpin is fortifying his defenses and training with new bodyguards when he is contacted by someone who informs him he has the bodyguard that he needs.  And in walks Elektra.  After dismissing her because she is a woman, the man who brought her said "Tell your men to kill her." She then kills the four bodyguards rapidly and very brutally.  The art by Steve Dillon captures the brutality and precision of her onslaught without being overly bloody.  In fact she killed them all, again, in brutal fashion, and didn't spill a drop of blood on the floor.  Not one.  Needless to say she is hired.

Returning back to the Punisher, having now made his way back to the Kingpin's penthouse, is on the roof and runs into one of the guards on the tower...

"Two guns. Thirteen bullets."

But as the night moves on, it appears all is not as it seems. It turns out that Elektra has the interests of another employer in mind.  We meet Vanessa who has arranged for Elektra to be placed in the Kingpin's employ. Vanessa has plans to see the Kingpin's entire empire in ruins.  The she plans to see him dead.  It turns out that Vanessa is the Kingpin's ex-wife.

This is about to get good.

The Marvel MAX line is a universe where creators can tell the stories they want to tell without any censorship limitations.  Again, the line is not for everyone, and there are MAX titles that I don't care for.  Simply adding adult dialog to any story doesn't make it good.  Just like adding cuss words to a stand-up comedy act doesn't make it funny. But this book is perfect, because the Punisher is the type of character whose nature requires the language be of a certain sort to accurately reflect the criminal element around him.  Not just the language but the violence as well. in this last issue when Elektra was dispatching the the Kingpin's former bodyguards, she ran her weapon of choice, the Sai, up one guy's nose well into his brain, and put her fingers in the eyes of another causing his eyes to pop out. Truly grisly, but needed in the sense to truly portray just how dangerous and lethal she is.  If you look at some of the panels, you can see the Kingpin is if not scared of her, he's definitely concerned.  But at the same time he is attracted to her, which will probably add to his problems...

This story to was clearly best of the week's issues, and the for next week my list, thanks to the guys at ifanboy for permission to link, can be seen here:

http://ifanboy.com/users/k5blazer/comics/

The DC relaunch continues with Batman, Wonder Woman and Birds of Prey, Fear Itself continues in the pages of Avengers and Iron Man, and the X-Men event continues in Schism, and I get my fix of Indie comics with All Nighter.  This look like to be a good week for reading and once I get these digested I'll let you know what the standout books, at least for me, were.

Until next time!

Marc

Looking at the DC reboot and Avengers old and New

I love New Comic Book day.

Can't say it any clearer than that. Because I am a man of few vices, I rarely drink, I don't smoke, I actually tried (COMMENT REMOVED) back at a party in 1984 and honestly thought "This is it? This is the big deal?" Didn't get the attraction then and still don't now.  Conversely when a musician I like releases a new cd, I can play it for hours dissecting the subtleties of the production, devouring the liner notes, going back and listening to their past catalog.  I can do that under the headphones for hours on end.....

I get that same same feeling on New Comic Book day too.  My average is about 20 titles a week, sometimes more, sometimes less, and I usually read them all the day I get them.  People who know me know that New Comic Day is not to be trifled with.  Sometimes the phone will ring, and I usually ignore it, and when I do answer my response is: "You do know it's New Comic Book day? Yes? Then why are you interrupting my program?"  The perfect New Comic Book day goes like this:  Head out to A-1 Comics, hang out and talk Sports and Comics with Brian the owner and Dwayne, get my books, head back to the house, make a Big-Ass mug of Iced Tea, sometimes some Sushi, turn off the tv, turn on some music, and get my read on! That routine never gets old for me. It is my thing and will not change anytime soon.  Now, on to the books...

Detective Comics #1

 For those who don't know and don't follow comics, DC has done a total re-start of their entire line of books.  All of them. All of their titles are being re-launched from Number 1, DC is making a huge statement and taking a big risk with this and I can see both sides of the debate here.  DC wants to make these characters accessible to new readers and not make them feel that they have to catch up on in some cases 75 years if continuity, and as part of their marketing strategy they have aired commercials on Comedy Central showing the new design of the re-launched books.  Bold move, because I can't recall the last DC commercial I have seen, so they are definitely pushing their brand out there and getting it into mainstream culture.  I can wholeheartedly applaud their efforts, but at the same time I can see the other side of the debate as well.  Re-starting the entire line can be seen to discount the long-standing readers, I have heard people say that they are being deprived of seeing Action Comics #1000 or Batman #900.  Marvel had re-started their books and faced a lot of the same criticism and later returned to the original numbering for most of their titles.  Will DC see a similar backlash?     A lot of long-time readers feels that their interests are being sacrificed in the name of catering to new readers. I don't know, but time will tell.

As for this first issue of Detective, the reader is treated to a Batman already established as a vigilante working outside the law for the most part, and still a very mysterious figure in Gotham City.  The story opens up with long time foe the Joker in a fist fight with an unnamed person who looks to have a flesh mask on.  Yes you read that right. Yuck. Batman while on the search for Joker arrives just as the Joker is repeatedly stabbing the victim in the chest.  Just when Batman is about to take Joker away he hears a voice of a young witness and in order to save that witness he had to let the Joker get away.  After returning to the Batcave and then meeting with Commissioner/Lieutenant Gordon, I phrase it that way because in the new universe that distinction hasn't been made clear yet.  But the meeting with the two look as if it came straight from the film "The Dark Knight", the artist and writer here,Tony S. Daniel, drew Gordon as if he was looking at the DVD of "The Dark Knight", he looks just like Gary Oldman did in the film. Later in the story Batman picks up the trail of the Joker and apprehends him and takes him to Arkham Asylum, where the doctor there says about the Joker, "He's sick, not evil", and honestly at this point this isn't anything that we haven't seen before, and I was really questioning the utility of the need for a relaunch if they were going to do the same thing over again.  But once he's in custody things get a little difference from the past.  The Joker is visited by a new character called the Dollmaker, and after a conversation between the two where it's clear that the Dollmaker is there on the whim of the Joker. we see on the last panel why he's there.  Yuck.  It's gross.  I won't give away the reveal on that panel, but I can say that it is something that I have NEVER seen form the Joker before.  This will warrant further reading.  DC has run both a Batman title and a Detective title since the '40s, and while the Batman title has been more Superhero based, Detective has generally focused on Batman's skill as a detective. And with what the Joker looks to have lined up....he will need them.  Yuck.

Stormwatch #1

The Stormwatch title is holdover from the Wildstorm imprint.  History lesson time: back in the 90's a group of Artists left Marvel Comics en masse to form Image Comics.  And each artist created his own universe, Jim Lee now the co-Publisher of DC Comics, created Aegis Entertainment, later Homage, and later WildstormWildstorm were Wildcats, Gen-13, and Astro City, to name a few. When Lee decided to leave Image he sold Wildstorm to DC.  DC with this re-launch is taking the opportunity to fully integrate some of those characters into DC continuity.  The premise of Stormwatch back in the Wildstorm days was the same as it is now, they are a UN sanctioned team assembled to deal with alien and earth-threatening issues.
In the original run the Stormwatch teamed morphed into The Authority, a team that was going to make change and damn the consequences.  Here they are looking for Apollo a mainstay of the original team.  The current team is led by Jack Hawksmoor, who was genetically engineered to "talk" to cites.  It's too hard too explain here, but it works. But the twist here for the number 1 issue is that he's joined on the team by J'onn J'ones, the Martian Manhunter.  That addition gives the team some real muscle.  While in the background story there is trouble on the moon. because it appears that that the moon is somehow threatening the earth,  But the teams focus here is on the search for Apollo, who in the original run was the Wildstorm equivalent to Superman, so he's no pushover.  But as mentioned earlier, this team has the Martian Manhunter and he can go toe-to-toe with Superman, so they eventually locate Apollo who initially tells them he wants nothing to do with them. After the obligatory brawl, the Martian Manhunter and his team finally subdue Apollo and tell him that he may be the most powerful person on the planet and they need his help.  But before anything else can happen all of the Stormwatch team are dropped one by one in their footsteps by a lone figure.  The figure stops and introduces himself to Apollo, he is the Midnighter.  It's all about to change now.  Back in the original run, Midnighter was the Wildstorm equivalent to Batman, meaning that he is the baddest man in the universe.  And also in the original Stormwatch Apollo and Midnighter were lovers.  Oh, do I have your attention now?  Here they have set it so the two of them are meeting for the first time here, so the question is now will DC alter their past relationship and play it safe and not have them be lovers, which would be a chicken-shit move, or will they keep to the core of the characters.  It remains to be seen.

Another interesting conundrum is the in the new CD universe, there is the Justice League, which has the heavy hitters i.e. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, flash, Green Lantern and some others.  Their jurisdiction doesn't appear to be UN sanctioned at this time, they are more or less a group that deals with major threats, but if that's the case what about Justice League International? They DO have UN sanction, and Batman rides with them on the sly, and they do have a Green Lantern as well, everybody's favorite, Guy Gardner.  But aside from those two they don't really carry the mass appeal that that the other team has, Gardner has called them the "B-List" team, and that's what it appears to be now.  And finally there is Stormwatch. They are meant to deal with the same type of Earth-threatening issues that both Justice League teams are designed to handle.  This could lead to some interesting dynamics down the line.... But they have piqued my curiosity with this so I will continue to read to see how it all comes together, or falls apart...?


New Avengers Annual #1

The final new book for this week's review is New Avengers Annual #1. I selected this book because of the way it touches on past events.  It is acknowledging past continuity which is something I love to see happen in comics.  The gist of the main portion is that Simon Williams aka Wonder Man has told the Avengers in the recent past that their totalitarian way of dealing with things, his opinion, has to be stopped at any cost.  So to that end he rounds up his own group and attacks the team at their mansion, and after his team wins the fight they next focus their aim on the Avengers team who is at Avengers Tower, and that fight will take place in Avengers Annual #1 in a few weeks.  And while the storyline with Wonder Man and his team is alright, what really stood out for me was when he was relating to his team of recruits stories of how the Avengers by their actions and inactions, have placed the Earth in jeopardy several times.  And as he recounted each incident as I read it, I could recall each book those events came from.  And as he told the story, each one got a double-page spread capturing the essence of each incident. 

The first was the creation of Ultron, a genocidal indestructible robot with constantly evolving intellect created by Hank Pym, aka Goliath/Yellowjacket/Ant-Man/Giant-Man, a founding member of the team, and this machine has been a World-level threat for decades now, but the Avengers haven't dealt with him with any finality yet and each life he endangers and ends is on their head.  the double-page spread captured a scene from Avengers #67 from in the late 60's. I remember this because I've read it, I remember collecting it way back when because that was right after Hawkeye became Goliath for awhile and Ultron had composed himself out of Adamantium in indestructible metal alloy.  I remember that story because the first time I read it I was in 8th grade and remember being shocked that there was a metal that Thor couldn't dent....that was going to lead to problems.

The next was taken from Avengers #187, and in that issue the Scarlet witch had been taken over by the demon/spirit Chthon(sp) and she had wreaked havoc form that possession.  But later she went wacky and lost control of her reality-warping powers which led to the genocide of the vast majority of the Mutant population.  And since the Scarlet witch was an Avenger and this happened on their watch, Wonder man holds the Avengers responsible for not addressing her mental instability before people got hurt.  The Scarlet Witch has a history of mental breakdowns, in fact at one time she had used her powers to artificially create children for her and her then-husband the Vision, an Android....long story. But the scene taken from #187 was reminiscent of the artist back then, John Byrne, and his work has always been some of my favorite over the years. 

The other three were taken from Civil War, Dark Avengers, and Avengers #3.  All key moments but they don't stand out like the first two do.  So it looks as if Wonder Man is holding the Avengers to task for what he feels are transgressions against humanity, it will be curious to see how it resolves in a few weeks, and hopefully they will continue to do the flashback panels. I for one love them.

Since this inaugural review wen a tad long...:) I'll save the look back from the collection for next time, but I will answer the question of why "Comics are like Jazz" is the title.

Back when Image comics was forming all of the creators there enjoyed a huge level of unprecedented popularity at the time.  At all of the conventions they were treated like Rock Stars, it was insane, but one of the creators, Erik Larsen of "Savage Dragon" said in an interview during the peak of popularity that comics were like jazz, and by that he was referring to the rise in popularity of Jazz back in the mid-80's, and eventually it ended but the hard-core, true fan still remained before and after the popularity boom.  And I thought about that and he's right, in the 90's comics went through a tremendous growth in sales and popularity, but like music of many types, once something gets so popular, what made it special begins to fade, and the producers get caught up in trying to re-create that magic instead of doing what made them great in the first place.  And that just dilutes the product making for a lot of bad books back then.  A lot.  But after the bubble burst and the casual fan was lost to the next Big Thing, the true die-hard's remained.  Just like the real Jazz fans in the mid-80's weathered the storm of Kenny G and other such nonsense. Comic fans did the same.  And will do so again once the trend of Comic-based movies has run its course too.  Comics are what we do, regardless of the pulse of whatever is popular.  So I felt that title was accurate for what I'm trying to do here, thus I co-opted it for use here.

There you have it, thoughts on a couple of the new DC books and an Annual from the Avengers.  This one went longer than expected but with time and practice it will develop into more of a streamlined read...hopefully...

Thanks for reading!

Marc Wiggins
"I'm Big Sexy...and I can do anything....."

Why a comic blog? Why not?

Greetings comic lovers!

Welcome to the "Comics are like Jazz" inaugural blog posting! And definitely thanks for looking and hopefully you will enjoy your visit and return often.

A little about me: As I mention in my "About Me" area, I have been reading comics for 35 years now, my first book I recall reading was Marvel Feature #11 which I think was published back in the early 70's from Marvel Comics.  I remember my friend Ricky who was a classmate of mine in 4th grade and during school one day he sneaked a bag filled with from Richie Rich to the Fantastic Four with comics into class, and of course instead of the day's lesson, a few of us were reading about the Hulk, Spider-Man, Batman, and several others.  I got a book from the bag with no cover and it was a team-up between the Hulk and the Rock-Covered guy from the Fantastic Four, at the time I was unaware he was called The Thing.  The story was great! The villain, later identified as The Leader had a bet with an obscure Fantastic Four villain named Kurrgo about who was stronger, the Thing or the Hulk.  So they concocted a scheme where the two had the big brawl but because villains are a sneaky lot, Kurrgo cheated and secretly increased the Things strength level to match that of the Hulk.  In the end they were exposed and the good guys teamed up to save the day.  But I was hooked at that point!

Through Elementary school, Junior High School, High School, the period after High School before College, College, Law School, the period before passing the Bar, and as a licensed California attorney.  One of the constants has been reading comics.  Growing up in the Funky 70's, Jheri Curls and New Wave and Hair Metal in the 80's, pretentious Alternative Music and long commutes in the 90's, the onslaught of Bad Reality TV and Steroids in Baseball in the 2000's, up to the present, comics have been a consistent companion for the ride.

To me comics are like a good song.  They are both like a snapshots of a particular time. When I hear "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye, it reminds me of being at a party when I was 8 and a lot of the kids there kept running in and out of the garage there, and my mother forbade me from doing likewise.  So I stood there and watched curiously, all the while in the background "What's Going On" was playing on the record player.  Similarly I recall Iron Man #152 back in High School, it was Summer during Football practice and the heat of two-a-day practices.  During the break a bunch of us walked over to 7-11 for sodas and Gatorade, I saw the book on the stands and it stood out because it was the first time that Iron Man wore his Stealth Armor.  It was all black and invisible to all electronic radar and tracking. I had to have this book! Of course I caught grief from my teammates, but that's part of the deal sometimes.  Comics are my thing and have been since 1973, it's just that simple.

What I'm planning to do is talk about three books from each week's new releases and one form the collection that stands out and holds up over time.  As the blog progresses I'm learning how to add an audio component so I can interview certain artists and writers from time to time.  I'll also try and provide a link to my week's pull list so you can see what I had to choose from in a given week.  And definitely feel free to disagree with something that you read here, my opinion is just that: an opinion. In Law School we were taught that reasonable minds can disagree.  Sometimes two people can be on opposite sides of an issue and both can be right. So it's definitely not a case of "My way or the highway" here by any stretch.  I've learned over the years that good stories are not exclusively Superhero based.  Ron over at ifanboy.com suggested slice-of-life type books like Local and  New York Four.  My buddy and podcast partner Michael Dean over at Freeedomtrainonline.com turned me onto Scalped, a book that takes a hard look at the social structures and crime influences on a Native American reservation.  And while horror isn't my thing in books or film, I never miss The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman from Image Comics on his own Skybound imprint.  Three different things, none have anything to do with the cape and cowl crowd, but all three are immensely enjoyable.