1.13.09 - Tuesday Preview
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,
Welcome to what I hope will be a series of Tuesday previews to let you know what to look forward to on comic day.
Tomorrow, Amazing Spider-Man 583 comes out with a variant cover and a five-page Obama back-up story. The variant cover is a one of fifty so, as usual, I didn’t get any. And, as usual, I have people coming out of the woodwork to buy it. Luckily Marvel is coming to my rescue by issuing a second printing variant next week and I will have plenty. Of course what this does to the resale value of the original variant is anyone’s guess.
X-men Manifest Destiny should be here tomorrow to make up for the screw up of last week. Those miscover books were up immediately on E-Bay, but they tell me the real book will be free to me to make up for it, but as they are not on my invoice I won’t know until they get here. Destiny?
Also appearing is Adam, Legend of the Blue Marvel 3 and the first two have been pretty good.
On the other hand, there is Death Defying Devil which is part of Project Super Powers. They could call it Hard to Read Devil because the entire series makes it difficult to follow this storyline, but we’ll give it another try.
Final Crisis 6. What can I say? When Final Bar Mitzvah comes out I will comment.
And last but not least is Mad Magazine. I know everyone thinks I am old and senile (Thanks Dennis; ED: No problem, buddy. Hahaha.), but compared to the past Mad this is horrible and not funny. Pick up a few Mad trades if you don’t believe me.
And to cap everything off we have Obama trading cards. Now I once asked a distributor why cards don’t come out before the movie opens? It would be great to sell cards before an anticipated hit (Iron Man) or bomb (The Spirit) comes out, but I was informed that movie cards contain scenes from the movie so they don’t want to give away spoilers. But folks only buy the cards for the inserts anyway. Bikini swatches and kiss cards from Benchwarmers and costume cards and autographs from Iron Man are big hits. They say there are inserts in these cards and I am wondering what they are.
That’s all for this preview. Tune in next Tuesday for our hopefully second installment.
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Random Thoughts
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials,
Presented for your enjoyment a series of random thoughts:
* Is it possible that they are publishing more Captain America comics now that he is dead then when he was alive?
* Is the Superman/Supergirl Maelstrom mini-series drawn by someone who had never seen the characters before he got the assignment?
* Isn’t the Secret Wars Requiem a real rip-off because it is mostly old Ant-Man stories?
* With all the different colored Lanterns showing up in the DC universe, will we get to see the Pink Lanterns? You know, the gay ones? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
* Wasn’t it cool when in Ultimate Spider-Man, Peter answers the phone with “Hall of Justice”?
* Exactly how many named characters in the Marvel universe has Tony Stark slept with? Apparently She-Hulk and the Lady Liberator’s are taking a census. And who thought up the name Lady Liberators anyway? Sounds 1940ish to me.
* If Batman 683 is picking up from 682, a miracle in itself, don’t we still want to know where the heck in continuity this story line lies?
* Didn’t we just have a year without Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman?
* Can we find out once and for all if Earthlings and Kryptonians can reproduce? All-Star Superman says no, but aren’t the All-Star books set in a different universe? Apparently Clark and Lois spent a year together without Super-powers so shouldn’t we know something by now?
* How could they send off SuperGirl in Smallville? In a Smallville filled with gorgeous women wasn’t she the tops?
Review- Amazing Spider-Man 581
Posted by Todd Matthy Categories: Editorials, Reviews, Marvel Comics,
It’s almost been a year since Mephisto took his magic pencil and erased the Spider-Marriage from the minds of the Marvel Universe. The benefit of the magical reboot was a “Brand New Day” for Peter Parker, where no one remembers he’s Spider-Man, allowing creators to retell stories from the seventies in a modern setting. A crucial element of this reboot was the resurrection of Harry Osborn.
For months we have wondered how Marvel was going to explain Harry’s sudden reappearance and in number 581 we got an explanation that made us wonder why Marvel needed Mephisto in the first place.
Click to continue reading Review- Amazing Spider-Man 581
Wood is Broadway’s Mary Jane
Posted by Todd Matthy Categories: Editorials, Reviews, Television, Marvel Comics,
It looks like Mary Jane’s dream to light up Broadway is about to come true. Newsarama reports that Evan Rachel Wood (Thirteen) has been cast as the titular redhead in the upcoming “Spider-Man: The Musical”.
Yes, Virginia you read that right, a Spider-Man musical is coming with rehearsals set to begin in the summer of 2009.
Not much is known about the musical other than Julie Taymor who did “The Lion King” with music being composed by Bono and the Edge will produce the show. Playbill reports that the musical will revolve around a female character called Arachne who is described as a “beautiful, boastful, young woman turned into a spider for her hubris and lack of respect for the gods” who will try to woo Peter Parker (and give Bond yet another forum to preach). The play will also feature Norman Osborn and J. Jonah Jameson as further thorns in the webhead’s side.
I really don’t know what to make of this. There hasn’t been a superhero musical since “It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane. It’s Superman” and if anyone doesn’t remember that play there’s a good reason - the two genres don’t mesh. Is Spidey going to sing zingers to J. Jonah Jameson? Will the final battle with the Green Goblin be a dance off? Most importantly, how are they going to do the web swinging? Questions aside, I think Evan Rachel Wood would make a good Mary Jane. From what I’ve seen of “Across the Universe,” she has an okay voice. She could play Mary Jane in the movies if Kristen Dunst decides not to return. No one has been chosen for Peter at this time. Either way I’ll be in the cheap seats for this.
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| Newsarama
JLA/Avengers
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials, Reviews, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,
This week Diamond Comics shipped the paperback version of the classic JLA/AVENGERS saga. These came out in comic book form in 2003, but was only compiled in hardcover format for $75. Now we have a softcover at $19.99 and it is time to revisit this story.
I believed at the time that the entire concept was flawed. Kurt Busiek wrote a story in which every Avenger and every Justice Leaguer that ever existed made at least a token appearance. He succeeded in his mind, but not mine. By putting too many characters in a story, you lose the ability to focus deeply on any of them. Recall the series of Marvel/DC Crossover books. These stories usually had one hero and one villain from each universe and you had a real interaction among the heroes and villains. Remember Crossover One with a full Superman/Spider-Man story, Hulk/Superman, etc. You really got into how the characters reacted to each other. In Crossover 2 we had Batman/Punisher, Silver Surfer/Superman and Batman/Captain America. The other two books weren’t as good, but it is always fun to match heroes from different universes. In my opinion, confining the epic to 7 or so stars from each universe would have made things much less cluttered and a better read. Characters kept coming and going so quickly it is difficult to keep track.
The story itself starts as one of the generic contest of champions ideas we have seen a million times before. Mystic artifacts being sought by both sides being manipulated by cosmic beings. Ho-hum.
No real detail in the battles to get an artifact and the 12 items are quickly divided up. They we get a mish-mash of heroes from diferrent universes interacting in a confusing way and then A Crisis on Infinte Earths climax against the super-duper villian with everyone throwing in a few shots. Been to the Source, done that.
It was, I suppose, a noble effort and it is certainly a better buy at $20 rather than $75. But as the pundit said about Dicken’s Great Expectations, I hoped for more.
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