oh snap....

Morrison will ruin Batman. If he hasn't already

That actually doesn't sound too bad. I've babbled before about digging up the old cheese and making it relevant. It can actually work out okay, if done right.

As opposed to creating 8 new Batman rip-offs, completely unconnected to the original losers in an attempt to "re-create" (copy) the old story. Or having the JLA dress-up as those guys in a "cute" continuity wink.

I'd rather see this than another "re-examination" of Joker, Two-Face, Penguin, etc.

Here's the thing. Everything Morrison does, on paper, sounds awful, or the best thing he's ever done. It then turns out to be the opposite. His Batman run has been nothing short of a disaster, methinks.


It sounds fun. We'll see.

I'd say after his Joker issue it would be hard for him to drag the series any lower.

Can someone give me a quick rundown of the World War Hulk storyline?

Hulk's Pissed off and bringing an alien planet's population with him to Earth so he can smash Tony Stark into the dirt. Amadeus Cho runs around with Hercules, Angel and Black Widow, trying to convince everyone he's a nice guy.


I'm tradewaiting, as it happens, but that's the jist

Many, Stark's quite the ass as of late. He's making a TON of enemies

Ironically, making the character more interesting than he has been in years

Iron Man's involvement in Planet Hulk was retconned in. It was originally Reed and Fury that set up the whole thing.

Basically they planned to send him to a planet with no intelligent life. The ship got knocked off course. Hulk makes friends and helps the planet overthrow the evil emperor. Hulk becomes king, gets queen and knocks up said queen. Someone fiddles with the warp engines on the ship he came in and unknowingly causes them to explode which in turn destroys the planet. Hulk of course blames everyone back on Earth. So Hulk and his warrior friends are headed towards Earth on a ship and the Hulk is fucking pissed. His companions are a single Brood alien, a bug man called Miek, one of the rock creatures that Thor fought in like his first appearance ever in comics, a robot, a governor's daughter and an assassin/bodyguard guy.

Pretty sure it was the whole "Illuminati" in the "New Avengers: Illuminati" one-shot. Dr. Strange, Iron Man, Black Bolt and Reed (Professor X was absent, presumed "dead"). It happened last year, before Civil War began. The group voted to trap Hulk and send him into space. Iron Man even mentioned that he had designed the satellite/probe.

Their decision caused Namor to split from the "illuminati". Even though he's had his differences with Hulk, Namor was completely opposed to the idea and got into a scuffle with Iron Man.

Marvel editor Jen Grunwald's desk at Marvel HQ

Right as I was turning off the tube last night, I saw on "Inside Edition" a story about a new Mary Jane statue. They were playing it up as sleazy and an attack on MJ's "wholesome" image.

So I saw the statue-- it's your typical comic fanboy spank-piece. MJ's washing Spidey's costume, with her ta-ta's hanging out and a thong sticking out of her britches.

"Inside Edition" is a sensationalist tabloid show, but to talk about MJ's "wholesome" image and that this whole thing is slander, like she's never been a sex symbol? It ain't Aunt Bea in lingerie. When MJ was introduced in the 60's, she was a frickin' go-go dancer. She was the subject of numerous cheesecake shots in the McFucker Spidey era. I remember when the Spidey movie was announced, a buddy said to me: "wow, I can't wait to see Kirsten Dunst all sexed up as MJ!"

Wait, wait... a comic book redhead was portrayed as slutty?! Get da' fuck outta' here!

Looks like Marvel has animated Dr. Strange

Offered Without Comment.

Actually, my LCS guy kep t calling me sperm bank, and I couldn't for the life of think why

Yes!!! Just what DC needed to complete the Judd Winnick masterplan. A man-hating rug munching Wonder Woman.

JOY!!!

Bought a bunch of crappy comics at Wal-Mart. You know, the "5 old comics for $4.97" stuff. Included, but not everything I got in the packs from hell...

Daredevil Vol. 1 #309
X-Men Vol. 1, #1 (OCT 1991)
X-Force #44
The New Mutants #31
Guardians of the Galaxy Annual Vol. 1 #2
Speedball #3
Krull #2
Excalibur #52
Peter Parker: Spider Man Annual 2001
Ultimate Marvel Team Up #5: Spider Man & Iron Man
Ultimate X-Men #7
Ultimate X-Men #10
Ultimate Spider-Man #27
The Adventures of Superman #501
Catwoman #6 (JAN 94)
Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #2
The Omega Men #1



Not a great crop, but the best part is the old advertisements, like for the old saturday morning cartoon blocks, nintendo and genesis video games, and a bunch of candy companies no longer in business.

That doesn't sound like that bad of a deal.

You've now officially joined the comic book club. One of the rules is that you can't join until you have one of THE most over-produced books in history: X-men #1 from 1991.

You also dodged a bullet by not getting Legends of the Dark Night #1. Up until X-men came out, LOTDK had the over-produced record for about two years, with its four different colored covers.

But frickin' KRULL??! As in, that campy sci-fi movie from 1983? Awesome. That's back when Marvel used to make Limited Series for every sci-fi/fantasy movie that came out. I think I bought most of 'em. Even Buckaroo Banzai.

Anything and everything had a comic in the 80's, it seemed. There was probably a comic for The A-Team or CHiPS.

A-Team? Yes. Three issue mini-series from Marvel in 1984.

http://www.comics.org/series.lasso?SeriesID=2857

But you're right. From about 1976 to 1988, there were a lot of licensed comic tie-ins.

There was even a two issue "regular series" of "Sledge Hammer!" I think Spidey guest-starred in the second issue. Or maybe it was a guy dressed up as Spidey.

In one of the comics I bought from you, there was ana dvertisement for a mini-series of LITTLE MONSTERS for christ's sake. Ugh.

Ugh... a frickin' SIX ISSUE mini-series for Little Monsters, no less!

The licensed tie-ins were usually a guaranteed payday for the comic companies. They usually sold more, because they'd be packaged up and sent to retail stores. Not your typical 20 copies of one issue to an independent newsstand, but 200 copies to a nationwide retailer.

A lot of comic shop guys hated GI Joe for this reason. GI Joe #1 was supposed to sell for 5-10 bucks during its heyday, but the book was available everywhere outside of comic shops. I remember buying mine for 1.50 (cover price) at Target, about 10 months after it came out. So comic shop guys had this supposedly "hot" issue that was overvalued and not selling (for them at least). Retailers also sold 3 packs of issues 3, 4 & 5. But some comic shop guys got their revenge when the rare, under-ordered GI Joe #2 was soon selling for 20-50 bucks.

In 1986, no less than the Overstreet Price Guide (the guys who did a good job of monitoring true back issue value, price and demand) determined that Thundercats #1 was THE can't miss investment of the decade.

Also adding to the payday: in the 70's and early 80's, Whitman/Gold Key did a ton of reprints of the licensed tie-ins. You might see a weird diamond on the issue number and cover price of an old issue of Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek or Micronauts. There are even some Spider-Man, Captain America, Batman and Brave & the Bold comics with the Whitman treatment. Comic companies got a good paycheck, up-front, by selling their reprint rights to Whitman. Making a reprint is cheaper than producing a new comic.

Marvel and DC sorta' took advantage of Whitman/Gold Key, who was going out of business and trying to stop the bleeding. Essentially, Whitman was out there marketing DC and Marvel properties. Almost the equivalent of a mass pamphlet drop.

So..FWIW, I'm officially going to the big San Diego show this year (end of July). Bought my pass today. But I passed on the "exclusive" $15 Buggs Bunny action figure. Sheesh.

I shouldn't poke fun. I saw some of the crap they'll be selling at the show and I wouldn't be opposed to buying the exclusive leopard-skinned Destro figure, or the Ray/Shayera/John Stewart JLU 3-pack.

Right now, I'm only planning on going one day; Friday. From what I heard, Saturday was so packed last year, that they had to cut off admission and fire wardens were guarding the doors, letting single people in and out.

Besides, I have to head up to LA and take a dump in Angels Stadium on Saturday. Padres are out of town that weekend. I really don't think I could stomach more than one day of Comic-Con, though.

You lucky mother fucker.

I went crazy and bought comics of Beavis & Butt-Head, the Scooby-Doo Laff-a-Lympics, and Police Academy on eBay.

Did you still want that lot I set aside for ya?! (Real) Ghostbusters, Muppet Babies, TMNT and other stuff.

Yes! I get to poop in Angels Stadium! Only 18 more stadiums to go!

Oh yeah... sure. Just PM your address again so I can send the mooney.

I finally read the IDW Transformer Comics, and they've done a great job re-starting the franchise. The re-designs and everything

You guys probably know that I'm not big on creator name-dropping. But did I just read that Mark Waid is coming back to "Flash" and that Dwayne McDuffie is taking over "Justice League of America"? Those two books were huge disappointments for DC, so I'd be willing to give them another shot.

So I have a birthday coming up, and I always ask for subscriptions, right? I looked at DC to see if I wanted any subscriptions, and I don't. Not even Batman. That's sad

If you're looking for some Marvel subscriptions, I found THESE GUYS on eBay.

They offer Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, Ultimate X-men and a few others for 15.94 a year. I signed up for Spider-Man back in March and I've been 100% satisfied.

It takes about 2-3 months from date of purchase for your first book to arrive.

As good as they may be, my wife got me a subscription to Detective Comics a few years back through Amazon and I never saw an issue. They wouldn't refund me, either. So I'd rather go direct.

According to LITG - Wid is in for just for issues before taking some undefined pseudo editor job at DC. Bear in mind if Waid was on Flash permanently I'd be on it like shit on velcro - but four issues before he hands it over to one of DiDio's pet muppets, doesn't appeal.


And as for JLA - yeah McDuffie is great, but I was kinda hoping the book would have been a little different from the TV show.


Also, McDuffie didn't write the truly great episodes of JLU, so, whatever

I've heard rumblings that Waid might be some sort of editor-in-chief, with more hands-on interaction with the creators. Meaning DiDildo moves over to some other position that, while still important in DC's ranks, gives him less interaction with the creative process.

Probably fanoy wanking/speculation, but that would be an improvement.

There were very few bad episodes of JL/JLU, so even if they had a writer who wrote just one episode, it'd be an improvement over Meltzer. McDuffie has really improved since he was doing Deathlok and Damage Control back in the early 90's. With what I've seen of his work (and admittedly, I don't have Encyclopedia McDuffie in front of me), he "gets" it and understands how to handle superhero characters. I don't think he'd be photocopying his animated JLU scrips and applying them to the comics.

Regardless, it's a good move that DC is actually cutting bait with their two big flops and changing the personnel.

I've been reading up on Endangered Species and what's been going on in X-Men lately, and I really like it. It's given Mutants a common enemy again, and it limited the amount of mutants after a time where it felt like everyone was a mutant.

Again, Marvel proves that they can commit to a change while DC is constantly retconning every story they write

I think you can look at two things that have made the X-Men relevant and readable again

-Mike Marts running for DC. Constant shitty solo miniseries? The wrong creators on the wrong books? Peter Milligan writing X-Men? Blame Marts.

-I'll probably get hell for this, but the ousting of Claremont in favour of Brubaker and Carey saved the line...

I don't think you'll get any crap at all. The more I look at it, the more I see that Claremont's been writing self-indulgent shlop since about 1987.

I'll second Stragand. To me, Brubaker and Carey are emerging as two amazing writers for their work at Marvel. I like Carey somewhat already, as I like the Lucifer books, but he's really shown a talent for getting into the characters. Brubaker has shown the ability to really attack the foundations of the characters without looking like he's pulling a stunt

New Astonishing X-Men creative team.


Internet Jesus and Simone Bianchi.


Let us celebrate this new arranage ment with the adding of chocolate to milk. And vodka.

Claremont's been surprisingly solid on New Excalibur and Exiles. I'd dare say New Excalibur is probably some of the best work he's done since the 80s.

Yeah, I'm not offended by the Dave's statement on Claremont either. I'm a huge fan of his initial run on the series, but it seems that he did indeed lose his touch.

I'm still a bit shaky on Brubaker, as the 12 month Shi'ar story ultimately fell flat to me, but I'm liking his new arc with the Morlocks a lot more. And Mike Carey has been outstanding on X-Men. After enjoying X-Men #200 more than I've enjoyed any single comic book in a long time, I went back and read every issue in his run leading up to it, and I found it much more enjoyable the second time around (thanks to appreciating where everything was heading). I hope Mike Carey sticks around for a long time.