To make up for Tuesday's strip coming from a two-week-old issue, today I have for you my first-ever preemptive strip! #584 doesn't come out for almost a month, but the cover alone tells us enough about what's coming.
I've never paid a huge amount of attention to the FF, but even I know that this is nowhere near the first time they've "cured" Thing. Hickman's run has been great on the whole, and I can't wait to see where he's going with this (and the million other balls he's juggling), but part of me feels iffy on anyone figuring out how to help Ben other than Reed. Ben's condition leads to a major intrinsic problem with the FF in my opinion - Reed is smart enough to invent magic clothing, flying cars, transdimensional bridges, and so on, but he can never successfully cure Ben, because then the team loses a member and a main source of pathos. But if he never cures Ben, that either makes him a lousy friend, or not really that smart after all. I've got nothing against Thing as a character, but I'm kind of hoping the transformation actually sticks for a while and him leaving the team is the real reason this story arc is called "Three".
And as genius as Hickman is, what's really funny is that Bendis' interpretation of Thing's form over in Ultimate Mystery actually feels much cooler to me. And allows for him to stay on the team sans rocks.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
New Mutants # 17
Despite my previous Second Coming-fueled flirtation with the series, I've actually had very little interest in the current New Mutants on the whole - the characters' heyday was before my time, and I'm far more of a fanboy for the Generation X cast as far as such things go. That said, I have to give it credit for repeatedly drawing me in - I read the first issue or two, then stopped caring. I read the Second Coming issues because they were the Second Coming issues, then stopped caring. And then something happened that almost never happens for me - the art drew me in.
I usually follow writers over pretty much everything else - even over characters a lot of the time. But the combination of a few absolutely gorgeous covers and interior art by Leonard Kirk was enough that I had to at least give the current storyline a shot. And what a surprise - they're in hell! I suppose an argument might be made that the "limbo" form of hell we're seeing here is different from the hell of Mephisto so recently featured in Thor - but is multiple concurrent versions of hell really any better?
In any event, the story has been pretty compelling so far despite my having little history with the characters and no knowledge whatsoever of the villains' backstory - I only realized they originated in Inferno after reading something online about it. Even this issue's Dani/Sam kiss was very enjoyable despite my having very little prior interest in the characters. I'll definitely follow the rest of this story arc at the very least - beyond that, it'll probably depend on when and if Kirk partners up with Paul Cornell again. Now that's good stuff.
I usually follow writers over pretty much everything else - even over characters a lot of the time. But the combination of a few absolutely gorgeous covers and interior art by Leonard Kirk was enough that I had to at least give the current storyline a shot. And what a surprise - they're in hell! I suppose an argument might be made that the "limbo" form of hell we're seeing here is different from the hell of Mephisto so recently featured in Thor - but is multiple concurrent versions of hell really any better?
In any event, the story has been pretty compelling so far despite my having little history with the characters and no knowledge whatsoever of the villains' backstory - I only realized they originated in Inferno after reading something online about it. Even this issue's Dani/Sam kiss was very enjoyable despite my having very little prior interest in the characters. I'll definitely follow the rest of this story arc at the very least - beyond that, it'll probably depend on when and if Kirk partners up with Paul Cornell again. Now that's good stuff.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Break Room Seating
So I have this really funny strip I'm working on about New Mutants #17. Unfortunately, there are like forty-six people on that team and the strip requires more drawing than I can manage on this particular evening. Therefore, for now you get more work etiquette. How better to celebrate the fiftieth comic of a series called "Half-Assed Commitment" than with filler? See ya next week!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Bed Bugs
Don't believe me about the whole fixation thing? Let me put it this way: I actually do have bed bugs.
The exterminators are scheduled to come three times in all, each visit one week apart. They've come twice so far, and each time there's a good few days where we don't see any or get any new bites. But by the end of the week, they start showing up again. We don't exactly have much confidence that it'll magically stop after the third time, but the landlord is paying for it, so we'll deal with whatever it takes, I guess. Keeping all your clothes in garbage bags is a big pain in the ass, though, and all our furniture is in a big pile in the living room so they can access the walls. Very lame, but it could be worse - at least we're not trying to run a Victoria's Secret.
Side note - I've decided to convert my mostly dormant Twitter account into an official HAC Twitter page. I'm trying to get a better sense of how many distinct readers are following me with any sense of regularity, so if you're a fan, or a committed detractor, head on over and jump on board, and you'll get official notices whenever a new strip goes up. Yay!
The exterminators are scheduled to come three times in all, each visit one week apart. They've come twice so far, and each time there's a good few days where we don't see any or get any new bites. But by the end of the week, they start showing up again. We don't exactly have much confidence that it'll magically stop after the third time, but the landlord is paying for it, so we'll deal with whatever it takes, I guess. Keeping all your clothes in garbage bags is a big pain in the ass, though, and all our furniture is in a big pile in the living room so they can access the walls. Very lame, but it could be worse - at least we're not trying to run a Victoria's Secret.
Side note - I've decided to convert my mostly dormant Twitter account into an official HAC Twitter page. I'm trying to get a better sense of how many distinct readers are following me with any sense of regularity, so if you're a fan, or a committed detractor, head on over and jump on board, and you'll get official notices whenever a new strip goes up. Yay!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Amazing Spider-Man #641
Probably subconsciously inspired by this, I have to admit.
So in retrospect - I still don't understand anything about the mindwipe. This issue actually made it worse in a way - as much of a copout as "it's magic" was for the initial explanation, it's still a lot more cut-and-dried than all this shit about digigenetic viruses (anamnesis is at the very least an actual word, whereas Googling "digigenetic" produces exactly six results, the first two being discussions of this comic) being channeled through the Extremis (which I don't really understand either, and I've read that story twice now).
But really? It's a comic book. If ever you can get away with a bullshit magic/technobabble explanation, it's here. But what still bothers me is that we got the technobabble in lieu of actually making me believe Tony, Reed, or frankly even Doc Strange, would have actually gone along with all this. When Peter went to Tony for help the first time, Tony's big heartfelt gesture (as this very story reminded us) was to not arrest him right there. But the implication here is that a day or two later, five minutes with Strange (whom he was also trying to arrest at the time) is all it takes to change his mind.
The motivation stuff is what really gets me, but getting back to the technobabble, would it have killed Quesada to toss in some kind of handwave regarding the web shooters? I guess they can be chalked up to the chaos aspect, but it was so transparently a marketing decision that to let it just sit there unaddressed is kind of insulting. I disagreed with Quesada philosophically on the need to end the marriage, but I can at least respect his argument editorially; it seems disingenuous, though, to make such a huge change to the story and then use it as an excuse to excise any random little plot threads that you don't care for. Especially one that even the big-budget movie franchise, that most cautious of enterprises, was willing to embrace.
Anyway, the story's over now, and BND as a whole is drawing to a close (whatever that means), so let this be my last word on the subject.
Probably.
So in retrospect - I still don't understand anything about the mindwipe. This issue actually made it worse in a way - as much of a copout as "it's magic" was for the initial explanation, it's still a lot more cut-and-dried than all this shit about digigenetic viruses (anamnesis is at the very least an actual word, whereas Googling "digigenetic" produces exactly six results, the first two being discussions of this comic) being channeled through the Extremis (which I don't really understand either, and I've read that story twice now).
But really? It's a comic book. If ever you can get away with a bullshit magic/technobabble explanation, it's here. But what still bothers me is that we got the technobabble in lieu of actually making me believe Tony, Reed, or frankly even Doc Strange, would have actually gone along with all this. When Peter went to Tony for help the first time, Tony's big heartfelt gesture (as this very story reminded us) was to not arrest him right there. But the implication here is that a day or two later, five minutes with Strange (whom he was also trying to arrest at the time) is all it takes to change his mind.
The motivation stuff is what really gets me, but getting back to the technobabble, would it have killed Quesada to toss in some kind of handwave regarding the web shooters? I guess they can be chalked up to the chaos aspect, but it was so transparently a marketing decision that to let it just sit there unaddressed is kind of insulting. I disagreed with Quesada philosophically on the need to end the marriage, but I can at least respect his argument editorially; it seems disingenuous, though, to make such a huge change to the story and then use it as an excuse to excise any random little plot threads that you don't care for. Especially one that even the big-budget movie franchise, that most cautious of enterprises, was willing to embrace.
Anyway, the story's over now, and BND as a whole is drawing to a close (whatever that means), so let this be my last word on the subject.
Probably.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Dark Wolverine #90
It's not a horrible costume, really - I appreciate the way they sort of kept the pattern of Wolverine's mask without giving him the flare things (what the hell are those supposed to be, anyway?). The rest of it just seems like Evil Ninja Variant #7, though of course they couldn't resist the urge to work some kind of "X" in there.
I kid, sure, but on the whole I kind of enjoy Daken as a character. His specific plans with regard to dominating the world (their terminology, not mine) are just maddeningly vague; especially now that Romulus has been dealt with. Issue #90 was alright, but all he really does is prattle on about how sheeplike everyone else is - the same thing he's been doing since the series started focusing on him (including through most of Siege). And again, I don't think that costume is helping him any. It sort of works from a design perspective, but when I really think about the character, he's more of a Luke Cage type - street clothes all the way. That's all he really wore prior to Dark Avengers, and he only started wearing the brown-and-yellow then to piss off daddy. But he doesn't go around calling himself Dark Wolverine, so there's no reason to build a visual identity off that - he's Daken, and that's what he'd want people to know and fear him as.
I kid, sure, but on the whole I kind of enjoy Daken as a character. His specific plans with regard to dominating the world (their terminology, not mine) are just maddeningly vague; especially now that Romulus has been dealt with. Issue #90 was alright, but all he really does is prattle on about how sheeplike everyone else is - the same thing he's been doing since the series started focusing on him (including through most of Siege). And again, I don't think that costume is helping him any. It sort of works from a design perspective, but when I really think about the character, he's more of a Luke Cage type - street clothes all the way. That's all he really wore prior to Dark Avengers, and he only started wearing the brown-and-yellow then to piss off daddy. But he doesn't go around calling himself Dark Wolverine, so there's no reason to build a visual identity off that - he's Daken, and that's what he'd want people to know and fear him as.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Swear to God
Not a series, necessarily, but I've done true-story strips a couple times before and I though I'd start linking them in some sense - especially the off-topic ones.
So Daredevil's becoming possessed by some kind of ancient Hand demon thing. Not exactly astonishing, but I do like that it fleshes out the Hand's motivation in wanting DD to take over in the first place. My question now is, has this always been the purpose of the Hand's existence, and they've just sucked at it for hundreds of years? Or did Snakeroot just decide recently that they wanted to help their overlord destroy humanity? Or the universe, or whatever it is?
Oh, and I love to think about all the cynics who were expecting Bullseye's death to be overwritten as soon as the story was over, when in reality it won't even make it that long. The murder (if you choose to classify it as such) was the last sympathetic thing DD did, and I would've been okay with it sticking for a while, but the notion of an even eviler Hand-resurrected Bullseye running around is kind of fun. Still don't know how I'll feel about the Daredevil line overall once this is over, though.
So Daredevil's becoming possessed by some kind of ancient Hand demon thing. Not exactly astonishing, but I do like that it fleshes out the Hand's motivation in wanting DD to take over in the first place. My question now is, has this always been the purpose of the Hand's existence, and they've just sucked at it for hundreds of years? Or did Snakeroot just decide recently that they wanted to help their overlord destroy humanity? Or the universe, or whatever it is?
Oh, and I love to think about all the cynics who were expecting Bullseye's death to be overwritten as soon as the story was over, when in reality it won't even make it that long. The murder (if you choose to classify it as such) was the last sympathetic thing DD did, and I would've been okay with it sticking for a while, but the notion of an even eviler Hand-resurrected Bullseye running around is kind of fun. Still don't know how I'll feel about the Daredevil line overall once this is over, though.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Thor #613
Hey, two hell strips in two weeks.
I have mixed feelings about Thor at the moment. The Gillen run was great for a while, but this Disir storyline hasn't really been pulling me in - and bringing hell into it, which is starting to get kind of overdone as a fantasy setting for such a literal interpretation of what Christians actually believe, hasn't helped.
The Straczynski issues were strong all on their own, and I like Kieron Gillen on the whole, but I'm starting to think the only thing that kept me interested in Thor this long was its relevance to Siege. I was 90% ready to drop it until I started seeing bits and pieces from the upcoming Fraction/Ferry run. Between redeeming the X-books and being consistently awesome on Invincible Iron Man for a couple years now, Matt Fraction's got a lot of cred with me right now, and while I'd rather see Pasqual Ferry sticking with the Ender comics, the preview pages from #615 are nudging me toward, maybe not "excited", but at least "anxious". We'll see.
I have mixed feelings about Thor at the moment. The Gillen run was great for a while, but this Disir storyline hasn't really been pulling me in - and bringing hell into it, which is starting to get kind of overdone as a fantasy setting for such a literal interpretation of what Christians actually believe, hasn't helped.
The Straczynski issues were strong all on their own, and I like Kieron Gillen on the whole, but I'm starting to think the only thing that kept me interested in Thor this long was its relevance to Siege. I was 90% ready to drop it until I started seeing bits and pieces from the upcoming Fraction/Ferry run. Between redeeming the X-books and being consistently awesome on Invincible Iron Man for a couple years now, Matt Fraction's got a lot of cred with me right now, and while I'd rather see Pasqual Ferry sticking with the Ender comics, the preview pages from #615 are nudging me toward, maybe not "excited", but at least "anxious". We'll see.
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