Open Thread - General

[filkertom]

Go wild, as long as it's not political. That's for the other Open Thread (below).

Comments

JLA-Avengers #4

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Okay, this is utterly frivolous. But I don't care. For the first time in years, I actually care about one of the Marvel/DC crossovers -- and, for the first time in years, this one has actually felt momentous.

Today, at last (it's about a month and a half late), my comic store tells me we get the last issue of the JLA/Avengers crossover. The only problem I have had with this was the panel size restrictions on George Perez's fantastic art. Kurt Busiek's writing has been crisp, the interactions have made sense, the Scarlet Witch is still the hottest femme on either team, and the "cosmic scope" thing, which so many books try for and fail at, glistens on each page -- particularly in one scene when our heroes are going through the Gamemaster's ship, and you see iconic figurines of everyone -- Thanos, The Spectre, Dream....

Give it a look.

Re: JLA-Avengers #4

[sdelmonte]

I've tried to get into this one, and at first I couldn't. It seemed too old-fashioned. Certainly not up to the standards of Kurt Busiek.

But a funny thing happened along the way to George Perez' recovery from tendonitis: I read Crisis on Infinite Earths. I saw that while Busiek was following the same kind of structure, he was clearly writing something a good deal more modern and coherent that the "old-fashioned" crossover events of my youth. Thus I am a bit more enthused.

At the same time, I really did wish that the Marvel/DC crossovers of the 90s stayed in continuity, since I liked them, and was hoping to see the kind of rapport we finally got in the third issue.

Re: JLA-Avengers #4

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Ilike the old-fashioned stuff. 'Cause, dammit, they rely on ancient, old-school things like storytelling. I'm cutting back on comics again, and not just for financial reasons. I gave Ultimate Fantastic Four four issues, and I'm dropping it, because it's a bad joke. I dropped the new Iron Fist after the first issue; it's got lame art (the settings are too clean to be the gritty alleys they portray, the men are realistic while the women are anime, and the "camera angles" just don't work), and the writing is atrocious, with inconsistent POV, crappy conflict dialogue, and two gratuitous killings in the first seven pages. I'm dropping Thanos; the first six issues, written by Starlin, were superb, but Giffen is just talky. This basically leaves me with Girl Genius, the reprints of Liberty Meadows and PVP Online, Amazing Spider-Man (for as long as JMS is involved), and Fantastic Four (for as long as Mark Waid is involved).

I'm not even buying Judd Winick books, and I know I'll like those. (Hmmm. Maybe I should give his Green Arrow another try. The writing was great, but the straight-up ugly art turned me the hell off.)

All that said, most of the crossovers were, I thought, pretty lame. My favorites include Batman/Spider-Man (not for the story, or the yeah-we-got-it interactions between Bats & Spidey, but because of the shtick between Carnage and the Joker), Batman/Hulk (one of the only early ones that had a decent plot and dialogue), and both Batman/Grendel series. (Yes, of course I notice Bats' prominence.) My worst-of-all-time is the second Superman-Spider-Man (which was one of the worst hackjobs Jim Shooter ever commited in a career of hackery).

So what's your favorite and least favorite crossover comics, gang? Since I invoked Grendel, independents count, but let's keep it as mainstream as we can (for instance, one of my favorites was when Wolverine McAlistaire met Normalman, but I think four people saw that one, tops).

Re: JLA-Avengers #4

[sdelmonte]

My favorite is Byrne's WWII-era Batman/Captain America story, mainly because he just has fun with the story. It doesn't hurt that Batman is likeable and intelligent without losing his competence, or that the Obligatory Fight Scene is short and resolved by two men who think fast.

The first Batman/Grendel story is high on my list, and I have a soft spot for the Hellboy/Batman/Starman story by Mignola and Robinson. It was not great, but it had Starman - one of my favorite heroes - and introduced me to Hellboy with a minimum of fuss.

Re: JLA-Avengers #4

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

D'OH!! How could I have forgotten the Bat/Cap!? I adored that one. And, actually, the fight scene between those two is very similar to the one in JLA/Avengers.... When you've got a decent writer and two very good characters, you tend to flow in the same direction, which is not necessarily a bad thing. :)

Re: JLA-Avengers #4

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

My faves are TMNT/Cerebus was a nice one-issue crossover back in the 80s. There was also a Munden's Bar (Grimjack) short that included the Heterodyne Boys (Girl Genius), long before Girl Genius made it into production though.

My favorite never-done crossover: Badger versus Batman.

There was a decent Green Lantern/Silver Surfer crossover done a few years back, too - only it started with the heroes from each universe hooking up with the *villains* of the other universe. I didn't like the way they scripted Hal Jorden/Parrallax - hokey!

Re: JLA-Avengers #4

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I've never liked the Hal/Parallax thing. On the other hand, having Hal atone for his sins by becoming the new Spectre is interesting as heck.

I remember the Badger/Nexus crossover, and Badger/Coyote. (Damn! Now why doesn't Marvel collect the old Epic stuff? I'd shell out for a Coyote or Dreadstar collection.)

And that Munden's one-shot w/the Heterodyne Boys is actually online at Studio Foglio:

http://www.studiofoglio.com/HBstory/HB01.html

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

I posted that link a few weeks back, actually :-)

The First comics crossovers were excellent. I really miss those characters.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that was where I got it....

Re: JLA-Avengers #4

[popefelix.livejournal.com]

ack! I never saw that until now. Must be an ish I don't have.

Re: JLA-Avengers #4

[popefelix.livejournal.com]

w00t! Someone else who's read GJ - one of my favorite books.

Re: JLA-Avengers #4

[dubheach.livejournal.com]

I'm heavy into X-men Exiles have you read them?, JLA...sorry I think Rogue is infinately "hotter" than Scarlet Wench, but then I've had the hots for Captain America since high school.

Re: JLA-Avengers #4

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Ehhh. Rogue does it for me sometimes, but for some reason it seems to me that Wanda is one of those characters like the Joker or Captain Marvel -- it brings out the best in an artist. To be blunt, my absolute favorite hotties in all comicdom are Amora the Enchantress (the sometimes-villain from Thor, good God [no pun intended] sensuality in every line that anyone ever drew of her) and Raven of the Wolfman/Perez era New Teen Titans. Mmmm... Raven. Gorgeous profile, amazing legs, not stupidly over-stacked or wasp-waisted. Sure she's dark and mysterious and potential genocidal, but she's... got... elegance, and if you ain't... got... elegance....

Re: JLA-Avengers #4

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

And I read an issue or two of Exiles. Not bad, but not for me.

Re: JLA-Avengers #4

[sdelmonte]

Addendum:

Bought #4.

Wow.

And worth the wait, as well.

Re: JLA-Avengers #4

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Oh.

Yeah.

It did indeed rock.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Kudos to the Texas City Fire Department for getting that fire at the BP refinery under control so quickly. Big difference compared to 1947.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yoiks. Just saw on a news feed that the main fuel for the fire was naptha. Coulda had half of Houston replaying Suleiman at Constantinople.

Alien Misadventures

[janet-coburn.livejournal.com]

Let me preface this by saying that:
A) you know I love you dearly
2) I have always been a dedicated foe of anything that smacks of censorship or stifling of free expression
c) I am supremely clueless on the subject of raising children
iv) I know that the source material is a cartoon theme song.
All that being said, I've been wondering why Alien Adventures qualifies as a song for a children's concert. Maybe it's just me, but i would not care to try explaining the phrase "oral rape" to anyone under the age of say, 14.

Re: Alien Misadventures

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

A) Ditto
2) Ditto ditto
c) Mostly ditto
iv) saline solution .9%

Mostly, for the same reason "Peter Lorre" ends up at kids' concerts. They, or the adults, ask for it. I'm actually of the mind that certain phrases simply go over the heads of the kids. And, now that you mention it, I don't know that I often do that one at the few kids' concerts I recall being wrangled into. I'm sure that someone will remind me if I have, but I admit that kids' concerts, for me, are Something To Survive, and my memory is blurry at best.

[poltr1]

Comics....I haven't set foot in a comics store in just over a year. When Dark Star III in Beavercreek closed, I let my "subscriptions" lapse. (All I was getting at the time was Cerebus, Usagi Yojimbo, and Too Much Coffee Man.) Dark Star I is in Yellow Springs, and is a bit far to drive to from home, even if it's only once a month. (Dark Star II, in Kettering, closed after a robbery.) Schumer's is just around the corner, but they seem to be more into the collectible cards and card games (Magic, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!) than comics.

And now Cerebus #300 is out, and that's the final issue. My collection ends at around #285, so I've got some buying and bagging to do. Then, when I can find a nice big block of time, I'll sit down and actually read the issues from #151 onward. (I survived Jaka's story, but barely.) I'm also wondering what Dave Sim is going to do next.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Drink and bitch about women, possibly. B-7 I tried to like Cerebus after, say, #80, but... my God. Self-indulgent to the point of pathology. I don't know that arrogant exclusion as a mass-market sales technique will ever really fly. That said, "High Society" is one of the funniest things ever. Period.

[poltr1]

Yup. #80 is about where I started picking up the issues, both forward and backward. I still love #85, which is in my all-time top 10 funniest issues of any comic, ever. I can still remember the guy doing a sailor dive off a high building shouting, "The President sucks wet farts out of dead pigeons!" (And someone in the crowd, saying in sotto voce, "It's true. I saw him do it.") ROTF LMAO!

Oh yeah...#1 on my all-time yukfest list is Megaton Man #3.

Action Comics #1 Online!

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Nicked from bOINGbOING:

Someone actually scanned in all of Action Comics #1 (including front and back covers, outside AND inside). Decent but not great resolution, and each page a separate jpg, but definitely cool. Interesting to use as a benchmark for comics value, too, in price per page. (Or even per STORY.)

Allez Cuisine!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. No Shatner. No B.S.

Flay.

Batali.

Puck.

Morimoto.

Sakai.

April 23-25.

Food Network.

Iron Chef America (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ia/text/0,,FOOD_16696_19048,00.html).

Re: Allez Cuisine!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

More info here: http://www.ironfans.com/episodes/specials/ftvironchef/

Re: Allez Cuisine!

[joecoustic.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this! I was just assuming Shatner again and was going to avoid it but now... Yay! :)

Re: Allez Cuisine!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Nope. Got Mark Dacascos, the guy who played The Crow on TV, as the new Chairman (I read awhile back that Kaga "died from an incorrectly-prepared blowfish" ;) and Alton Brown as the commentator, doing both Hattori and Fukui services, with the Thirsty Traveler doing the Ohta riff. Celeb judges, the works. As long as Dacascos bellows the trademark lines -- "I summon the Iron Chefs!" "We unveil the ingredient!" and "Allez Cuisine!" -- and, frankly, even if he doesn't... I'm a happy, happy man.

[jedilora.livejournal.com]

Alton Brown? Spiffy!

[(Anonymous)]

The fact that you are all here discussing such trivial items shows that you have no life. Why don't you all go out and meet people instead of believing that ppl online are your actual friends.

Too Good A Headline To Miss

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

While technically a political story, the reason I post this in this thread is the wonderful headline: Schwarzenegger Took Sex Harassment Class (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040401/ap_on_re_us/schwarzenegger_sexual_harassment)

A Little Disconnect, There

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Never say that our elected fatheads can't run with a good corporate-donor talking point, in the face of facts, reality 'n' such.

In this story from yesterday's Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40145-2004Mar31.html), we learn that the "Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2004" would slap file-swappers with up to three years in prison.

And why is such harsh punishment necessary? Because they're costing the recording and film industries gajillions of dollars! Except, wait -- this story, in the same section of the same newspaper two days earlier (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34300-2004Mar29.html), says that illegal file-sharing showed no measurable drop in album sales and actually increased the sales of hot CDs.

Just in case anyone out there thought the RIAA was, y'know, noble of motive, or not greedy, or not lying bastards.