Comic Babbles…

Time to babble about some of the books that I have read as of late…

UNCANNY X-MEN 510 – If I remember right this book was pushed as the return of Psylocke???? Well for a return of a character you couldn’t have had much more of a lame story. I dont think the story moved forward more then a centimeter in the whole book, and well if a character is coming back I guess I would like a little more then a few action panels and a handful of lines of dialogue.

War of Kings – I have to admit that I had no plans to read this. I thought that it was just another one of the follow ups to House of M–>Civil War–>Secret Invasion–>etc. I did not realize that it was a) It was by DNA and b) That it was part of the whole marvel cosmic universe. It wasn’t until I caught up with my reading of NOVA and Guardians of the Galaxy (two of my top five favorite comics being done today.) that I realized what it was. Having read issue one thru three in one sitting I have to tell you that this story is looking to be right on par with Annihilation and Annihilation : Conquest. Once again DNA are setting us up for a major blow up in space, this time between the Shiaar and the Kree, with all my favorite Cosmic characters and some of my favorite XMEN thrown in for extra fun. I can not say enough positive about this series… Now I just have to hunt down the Tie-ins.

Wolverine 73 – Haven’t read this one yet. I am really really annoyed with this whole we are going to delay releasing the end of a story line so we can release an issue that will fit with the movie release better first game they are doing. I will wait until after issue 72 is released and then read 73.

Secret Warriors #4- Another one of my current top five. I am really loving having a book that features Nick Fury in a major role. The return of DumDum and Gabe in this issue really added to that. I am looking forward to seeing the boys pull their little army together and start kicking some serious osborn and HYDRA butt.

Books – MPC#8 Hulk : The End

Writer :
Peter David
Artist:
Future Imperfect – George Perez
The End – Dale Keown

This Volume of Marvel Premiere Classics is made up of two Hulk Prestige Comics (do they even still make Prestige format comics? Cant remember the last time I saw one…). The book contains The comics Future Imperfect and Hulk : The End, both of which were written by Peter David.

I never really cared for Peter David’s work with the Hulk on the regular comic. In these two stories he does right by the big green guy.

FUTURE IMPERFECT :

Future Imperfect is a alternate time line of the Hulk’s. Many years after the humans have destroyed themselves via war, the Hulk survives. Not just surviving he has thrived. The fallout radiation from the war has given him new strength, the bad thing is that it has also driven him insane.

The Hulk, now referred to as the Maestro, has rebuilt a society ruled over by himself. A rebel group led by the great grand-daughter of Rick Jones go back in time and bring the modern Hulk with them to fight the Hulk. A battle of course follows soon after his arrival in his future that ends with the Hulk wounded and the prisoner of the Maestro.

Even though I think Spoilers would not apply in a book this old I still will refrain from talking about the ending. I will just say that I thought that they did a really good job of bringing the whole story to a close in a nice round about manner.

The story seems a little rushed at times, but it is still a good story. It presents a good picture what could become of the Hulk. I think by far my favorite part of the whole book is the various images of Rick Jones’ Relic Room. It was a trip sitting there trying to pick out what all the various relics were.

Click picture to see a labeled version on Flickr.

THE END :

Again a story of a possible future for the Hulk. In this one the Hulk and Banner are alone in a world destroyed by Nuclear War. I kind of see this one as a story of what Banner who had seen the Maestro would have done to insure that that future would not come to pass.

While I do not like this story as much as the story in Future Imperfect, I do prefer the art a lot more. I think that Keown has a better grasp of who the Hulk is then Perez did.

This story is the story of the struggle of life and death. Banner, broken lonely and old wanting to die and The Hulk, strong as ever wanting to never die. While it is an interesting tale, it just doesn’t have much of the action and fighting that one normally associates with the Hulk. Instead it is mostly words which leaves me, and I think most other Hulk fans feeling somehow cheated. We didn’t want to see the Hulk sitting in the sunset at the end of time, we wanted to see him go out with a bang in a blaze of glory…

Books – MPC#5 Wolverine : Weapon X

This is a day early. I am going to be really busy tomorrow, so instead of setting it up to publish itself tomorrow morning i figured I would just post it now…

Who knows, maybe I will make another post that will show up tomorrow instead… if I have sometime.

Wolverine has never been a favorite of mine. I have always thought that he was an over used and a very flat character.

When I found a couple volumes of the Marvel Premiere Classic series of the Hard Covers (#5 Wolverine – Weapon X and #8 The Hulk – The End) for cheap at Half Price Books I figured I really didnt have much to lose so I picked them up.

I have to tell you, I liked Weapon X. I really did not expect to like it, but I did. I thought that the story was well done and the art was amazing. Then again, how could the art not be amazing with BWS on the book. I have always been a fan of Barry Windsor-Smith since his days on the Conan the Barbarian book for Marvel.

The story tells how Logan is abducted by a government group who then use him for experiments as they try to create the ultimate killing machine. Needless to say, it does not go the way that they plan it to and Logan gets away one step closer to being the wolverine that we know today.

I did find it very interesting seeing what Hollywood choose to take and leave out of this story in the X-Men Origins : Wolverine movie.

The one fault I had with the story was the rhythm. When it was originally released it was in short pieces in the Marvel Comics Presents comic book series (issues #72 thru #84). The story seems to be filled with tons of little acts instead of one overall story arc.

As far as the Marvel Premiere Classic series goes, I really like the look of these books. I will soon have some more additions to my collection of these books (#6 Avengers : The Defenders War, #14 XMEN : Longshot and #22 Avengers : Hawkeye) I like how this series of hardcovers features a selection of Key Marvel stories as well as some that are off the beaten path. I also really like the look of the dust jackets for the Comic Store version of these books. I like having books on my shelf that the publishers use a consistent theme to the book design and these fit that bill.

Jim Lee Draws Gambit…

I really dont have anything to say TV wise right now that I can think of… So I will just post this, itis a really cool video of Jim Lee kicking out a 8 minute drawing of Gambit. He had done a contest for his followers on Twitter and this is what the winner got!

TOMD – Superhero Squad Fantastic Four

I have been in love with this line of toys since it started… (and all of it’s cousins GIJOE, Star Wars and Dr.Who)

Image wise the Fantastic Four have always been one of my favorites. Having said that I have to admit that I don’t think that I have read more then 20 of their comics in my whole Comic reading life…

You can expect to be seeing a whole lot more of these guys show up here. I have tons of these… Of course most of them are in the toy box and are played with by littleduck and I… but there are some that just live on the desk.

TOMD – Howard the Duck

Howard the Duck…

I know I could probably get in trouble for saying this, But I really liked the Howard the Duck movie. Which makes me one of maybe ten people who admit that… altough in secret I think that the number is much higher.

I was also a big fan of the Steve Gerber comic as well. Howard was just plain cool, and well come on… He is a DUCK. So I thought it was really cool that they where releasing him as a figure in the Marvel Legends line. The problem was that he was going to be a pack in with the Silver Surfer and I just couldnt bring myself to pay that much for another Silver Surfer figure at Marvel Legends prices.

A while later a friend, Bills, who had bought one was getting ready to get rid of some stuff at a con and Howard was one of the items. So he was nice enough to let Howard come and live on my desk…

The Reading Pile – 3/3/09

A little behind on posting about comics I have read… Going to try to do some catch up here.

Zombie Tales #10

I don’t normally read this one, but I picked it up this time because one of the stories (and the only one I am going to really write about.) was done by an internet friend. Pittsburgh’s own Pat Lewis. I always think it is fitting when some one from the birthplace of the modern zombie tells a zombie tale.

I have to say that Patrick has done his hometown proud. In his own style he has told a tale of a small town zombie outbreak in 1912. I found his story of a flim flam artist who is caught in the middle of the outbreak to be not only a good zombie tale, but a good laugh at the same time. All to often in zombie comics it is all about the body count and gore. They tend to forget what Romero showed us about being able to laugh at the undead as well.

This book is worth picking up if for no other reason then this story.

Secret Warriors #1

What can I say… I am a sucker for Nick Fury. The whole cloak and dagger spy thing just works for me. So of course Secret Warriors had to be on my read list. I really enjoyed this book. It gave Fury a chance to be a major player again and really used him well. If this is what Dark Reign is going to be about then I have to tell you that I might actually be looking forward to a crossover event for the first time since the XMEN had the XTINCTION AGENDA.

I have some other books that I would like to talk about, but I really need some rest… Maybe I will post some more tomorrow…

TOMD – Mighty Muggs Thanos

Thanos Mighty Mugg
By Hasbro Toys

Hasbro created the Thanos Mighty Mugg as a comic shop exclusive available thru the Previews catalog from Diamond Distributers. Thanos was shipped along with another exclusive Mighty Mugg of the Red Skull.

I know a lot of people dont like the Mighty Muggs. They think that they are just trying to cash in on the vinyl toy craze, but man that is why I do like them! They are producing characters that I love at a price point that I can afford.

I have never been a really big fan of the Marvel Cosmic books. Until this past summer when I was so bored with everything else in comics at the moment that I decided to read The full Annihilation saga start to finish. I quickly found myself totally caught up in the story and really getting into the character of Thanos.

Some of the Mighty Muggs do lack in production value, like say the Silver Surfer, but Thanos is not one of them. Hasbro did a good job of capturing the image of Thanos on to the Figure.

And 12 I just love!

And here are the 12 covers that are just big favorites of mine…

Here they are:

Howard the Duck #12
Hulk #1
Fantastic Four #49
Fantastic Four #72
Kamandi #1
Star Wars #15
Uncanny X-Men #141
Uncanny X-Men #264
Uncanny X-Men #268
Uncanny X-Men #274
Uncanny X-Men #277
X-Factor #1

12 Covers that made a geek…

When I was young… A long time ago. I had a handful of comics. Some of them where bought for me by my father on his way home from work. Some of them my step brother gave to me when on home on leave from the army, and some of them where given to me as a gift when I was in the hospital getting my tonsils out…

Here they are:

Batman #190
Captain America #211
Defenders #100
Eternals #12
Hulk #224
Hulk #254
Hulk #270
Hulk #273
Marvel Team Up #55
Marvel Two in One #26
Star Wars #1
Star Wars #2

So what is this post about? My goal is to recreate all twelve of those covers along with 12 covers that are just big favorites of mine in a series of cartoonish drawings that are 5 x 7 that I will then use as art around my studio space… Here is the first sample: