Forever Marvel

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=24084

First X-Men: Forever had Claremont picking up where he left off and now Louise Simonson is picking up where she left off on X-Factor.


Marvel loves to beat things into the ground don't they?

They went overboard with the Noir line of stuff. I mean, what's next? Moon Knight Noir?

Now a 2nd Forever title? Yeah, it's a limited series but come on...

X-Men Forever is just bad. It really doesn't have any redeeming qualities. What is the point of making X-Factor forever?

And what's up with the new uniform designs? Know damn well that if Simonson had continued with #65 there wouldn't have been new designs and those are some pretty modern looking designs, not like what would have been created back then.

And ditching the kids? Yeah, convienant ability to write 'em out.

UGH!!


I do like that she's doing away with the Cable/Cyclop's Kid angle, since as a co-creator of Cable (technically) she never planned that angle to begin with.


Speaking of Cable... I loved the old X-Force stuff but something always bothered me... Cable's first appearance was in trying to get Rusty from the MLF. But over in X-Force he said that he had been coming back in time to watch over Cannonball who he thought was an External (love how that storyline just up and disappeared when Liefeld left Marvel). So if he had come back to watch over Cannonball, what was he doing going after Rusty? Shouldn't Rusty have been the External then?

JSA All-Stars #1 Review

So I recently just got caught up on DC's Justice Society series. Started with the Robinson/Goyer #1 and all the way up to when Willingham/Sturges took over. I love the JSA. Love the legacy and how it's about family and then became about "making better heroes".

I love Willingham's Fables and the only Sturges thing I had read as his novel, Midwinter (good read, I recommend it). So I went into this with an open mind.

My biggest complaint about the Geoff Johns run was the sheer number of characters in the book. I didn't think we got enough into the "minds" of characters like Cyclone, Judomaster, Citizen Steel, etc.. They were mostly background characters. We got bits and pieces but none of 'em got their moment to shine.

I loved that the art conveyed alot of the family and emotion of the team. How Hourman and Liberty Belle were always in contact with each other, even if it was just holding hands at a meeting, and how Citizen Steels cousins/neices/nephews were always showing up all over the place.

So I thought the introduction of a second book, splitting the cast, would be the way to go. Give 'em all more time to shine.

Now the book itself. The idea is that the the vets (Power Girl, Stargirl, Hourman and Magog... I'll get back to him in a sec) will take the "kids" and provide them training. Help them learn the ropes, learn to function as a "better hero".

That's a good idea. The problem is that alot of those that are the "rookies" have been around for awhile. Cyclone, Citizen Steel, Judomaster, Wildcat's son, etc.. they've dealt with Gog, the Black Marvel Family and other threats. They aren't rookies by any means.

And one of the leaders, Magog, he's the newest member of the JSA except for King Chimeara, the only true rookie on the team.

So the idea of training the rookies, makes sense to enable them to split the team, but it really is kind of flimsy. I think they should have gone with the approach Marvel did and just had teams on different coasts or something like that. Would have made a tad more sense.

Especially since two of the youngest members, Jakeem Thunder and Lightning (who is also a relative rookie compared to Cyclone, Citizen Steel and Wildcat) are on the "old" team. Mr. America is a relative rookie as well.

Oh well, I can live with that because the rest of the story is good. There's training, trying to form squads to handle different parts of a threat, some inter-team conflict. All the things needed for a good story are there.

And done pretty well. I enjoyed the read alot.

It was the art that made it hard for me to get into.

I don't like Freddie Williams at all. The art was detailed. But the figures were too angular for my tastes. I just couldnt' get into it.

He draws a horrible Cyclone in flight.

As a first issue, was enough to draw people in, even those that hadn't been fans of the JSA before. They do a good job explaining why there are two squads of JSA now and the cliffhanger ending is definately enough to make me want to come back for more.

Sturges does a good enough job to make up for the art and make me look past it.

DC enters the Red Circle

So I was kind of surprised that the Red Circle properties were the big announcement on JMS' (no I'm not spelling it out) entry into working for DC. Why these properties? They had failed before (last time being the horrible Impact line). So why did JMS want to do 'em and why in god's name did DC let him?

Oh yeah.. it's JMS.

So the idea is that JMS does this 4 "stand alone" stories and then other writers will take on the ongoing and co-features that the characters will appear in.

So these other writers have to hope that JMS pulls off interesting enough stories to make people want to buy the books without JMS' name attached to them.

Does that make sense?

No, not to me either.

So I read the 4 books.

Why on earth did this "project" get approved? Those books were horrible. Bad doesn't begin to describe them.

Boring characters. There were no hooks to make people interested in them. JMS also linked all the characters together.

Also, Didio went out of his way to say the books were going to be integrated in the DC Universe. So where was the integration? Instead of the Hangman being in Inferno, why not a mainstay DC character (and why do you need the Hangman when you have the Spectre??). When the Web makes his ad, wouldn't there be reaction from other heros?

So much for integration.

I don't see these lasting long. Yet another failed attempt at these characters.

Thanks for nothing JMS.

Blackest Night#1 Review

Blackest Night #1

Spoilers galore. You have been warned.

If you aren’t familiar with the DC universe and haven’t been reading Green Lantern (or at least keeping up with it) then you’ll be pretty lost as to what is going on here. I never read Blackest Night #0 so maybe that helps out, maybe not.

For instance, I know who that weirdo Guardian is that attacks the others. That’s Scar. But there’s nothing in this issue to tell you who that is or what her (that’s a female??) issue is. But man is she vicious, biting out the throat of another Guardian.

The whole thing is kind of creepy. Ralph and Sue Dibny are especially creepy. Geoff Johns does a great job of keeping their personalities somewhat intact (considering they’re zombies and evil now) but making them incredibly creepy and scary.

They do take down the Hawks too easily though, especially Hawkgirl. Spear in the back? That was too good a character for such a crappy death. I did like Hawkman getting his skull bashed in.

What’s the deal with Bruce Wayne’s skull? And licking it? Really didn’t need to see that in such detail.

Ivan Reis’ pencils are great, but nothing spectacular. Seems like a “house” style, like what I’m used to seeing in a big DC event. The work is nice and he does an amazing job on the pages where Hal shows Barry all the heros that have died since Barry “left”.

I won’t mention how I wish they had left Barry Allen alone. The guy had probably the greatest and most heroic death of any hero ever and they bring him back. /sigh

Martian Manhunter makes his “dramatic” return. The surprise is gone because I’d already seen some of the toys and that ruined the surprise of some of the Black Lanterns (Martian Manhunter, Superman-2 and Aquaman). I’ve always liked the Manhunter. But he’s always been too powerful. Sucks that you have to read about the fight in Green Lantern’s comic.
I hate being forced to buy other comics to get the story that starts off in event comic.
I’m a little worried that they’re making too many Black Lanterns. I know the heroes are supposed to face overwhelming odds, but the pace the Black Lanterns are being made, the heroes won’t be facing just overwhelming odds they’ll be facing catasphoric odds.

Not bad for a 1st issue, sets up the greater conflict. I didn’t like that you had to know who all the players were before hand, it relies too much on us either getting other titles of Blackest Night #0. That’s not always a good thing to relay on the reader having all the pertinent information before hand.

TPF Rating: 7 out of 10

Good enough to buy the next issue. Not good enough to make me sit on the edge of my seat waiting.