Comic Books!

[NemZ]

Frank Miller draws ugly shit because living in New York City (culminating in a very close view of 9/11) melted his brain

...but he was drawing like that long before 9/11.

[Blue Monday]

The classified new character that Valiant have been teasing spinning out of 4001 AD has finally been revealed; War Mother:

Mother War  SPOILER: Show

Unlike Valiant’s other heroes, War Mother’s home is in the future of the fifth millennium, where much of Earth is an apocalyptic wasteland under the watchful gaze of New Japan, a highly advanced and powerful civilization floating around in orbit. But while War Mother protects what’s left of the settlers in her home on Earth, bleak events aboard the station of New Japan send her on a new mission, with a wild new ally in the form of a living sniper rifle, to salvage what’s crashing down to Earth in the crossfire.

Ana’s sniper rifle is nicknamed Flaco, and he is fully sentient—but he’s literally born as her mission starts. She has to guide him a lot of ways even as he’s running mission intel for her, and sighting her targets, and all that good stuff. He has the mind of a child, really, at least in the beginning—a really, really lethal child!—and much of the maternal aspect of the War Mother title is her having to “raise” this sentient weapon, even as she’s raising her own, human kid. Fittingly, the title of the one-shot is “A Girl and Her Gun”.

Sounds awesome! The design reminds me of Quiet from MGSV and, as mentioned in the Bleeding Cool article, mixed in with Rogue Trooper from 2001 AD. Seeing that FVL is writing and it's set in my favourite Valiant setting; this can't go wrong.

[Bagheera]

I don't get a Quiet vibe from her, but that's probably because she's dressed! But seriously, that does sound like a really cool title. I might have to check that out.

[NemZ]

Some weird combination of Alita and Furiosa?

[IronEvangelion]

I don't get Quiet vibes from her either, but I do get a lot of Fallout New Vegas/Mad Max vibes.

[Blue Monday]

Quiet, insofar as stoic woman with a massive sniper rifle; the Mad Max/Furiosa suggestions are more accurate I reckon. I'm actually quite taken back by this announcement as I had it pegged the new character coming out of this event was going to be the Turok analogue, which I speculate is going to be something along the lines of "Savage, Dragon Hunter". See this article and you'll catch my drift.

Savage will probably still be a new female character, but instead of the future setting with Rai et al, maybe it will spin out of this 'Stalinverse' thing in Divinty II, as a reality-and-time displaced dragon hunter would be pretty gnarly for the main/modern day setting, even by Valiant standards. Also, not sure what to make of the coat-of-arms type shield other than maybe anachronistic Prehistoric Britain or Europe as opposed to American Indian...

#Savage  SPOILER: Show

But then that kind of rubs against the Britannia teaser, too...

#Britannia  SPOILER: Show

Here's the Psi-Lords one for shits and gigs...

#Psi-Lords  SPOILER: Show

But seriously, that does sound like a really cool title. I might have to check that out.

If you ever read any Valiant comic, Bags, make it Divinity. To be honest, any of the stuff from the Valiant Next initiative is gold. That's where I got hooked.

VALIANT NEXT  SPOILER: Show

Anyway, that's enough of my Valiant hat for the time being. Oh wait, that's Divinity II #1 on my desk waiting to be read...

[Blue Monday]

DKIII #4: Even thought it's slow coming out, I'm still massively enjoying this one. Really liked this scene; some of that token Miller "tough love" for Superman.

DKIII #4  SPOILER: Show

Only thing that bothers me is the colourist's mistake on the page where Superman succumbs to the black matter: The S-shield is supposed to have black instead of yellow in this continuity, as it's a tribute in memoriam of great loss.

Wow, no idea how they get out of this situation now. I thought this would be the old Justice League teaming up against the Kandorian Cult, but it's just Bruce, Carrie and perhaps Aquaman against hundreds of suicidally power mad Kryptonians.

Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing, although keep in mind that Wonder Woman and the Atom are still in-play as well. In fact, going by the last page in #4, I'd say the latter is going to have a crucial part and be something off a deus ex machina almost.

[Rosenakahara]

^ That seems unnecessarily cruel for a man who dedicated years of his life to the defence of a planet and its people, but then again this is frank miller, he hates everything superman stands for.

[Blue Monday]

Ultimates #6: I love how weird this series is. Sometimes it's a bit too clever and smarmy for its own good (on the nose, perhaps), but it's obviously the most important book in the post-Secret Wars Marvel universe so far. Not important in that it features the big blockbuster or "crucial" events, but in that it's doing all the serious heavy-lifting and on the down-low; world-building and laying out all the rules of the new cosmos. In fact, it's in this very issue Molecule Man flat out states that this universe is the eighth iteration of the omniverse, something they've been alluding to since #1, i.e. Galactus/Galan of Taa's universe was the sixth, Earth-616 stuff/pre-Secret Wars 2015 was the seventh.

Oh, and Galactus gets raw on Master Order.

Galactus punches first.  SPOILER: Show

That seems unnecessarily cruel for a man who dedicated years of his life to the defence of a planet and its people...

He's Superman; he can take it.

[Chuckman]

It would be meta as fuck if the fourth iteration was actually the Fourth World.

[Ray]

I can dream Marvel will FINALLY Retcon ONE MORE DAY right?

http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/05/11/ ... sial-story

[Rosenakahara]

"relationships are gross" is essentially what the spider-man writers think so no, he will never get back with MJ.

[Blue Monday]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/05/11/is-spider-man-dead-no-more-a-sequel-to-this-controversial-story

Just read adjectiveless Spider-Man (with Miles Morales) or Spider-Gwen instead; both of those are actually good Spider-Man comics.

[Bagheera]

"relationships are gross" is essentially what the spider-man writers think so no, he will never get back with MJ.

Well, yeah. This is what happens when a company buys into the mindset that their audience is and always will be 14-year-old boys rather than adults with taste. Ever notice how none of the characters in the MCU even have SOs? How most don't even have the barest hint of a love life? How the ones who ever did at any point have had it thoroughly wrecked because . . . reasons? Yeah.

[Rosenakahara]

To be fair it's not just marvel that does this, my favourite example of this is when kate and renee went from a asskicking crimefighting couple to........one being a alcoholic in the N52 universe and the other being with someone else, also I think batwoman got raped at one point in her new series I dont know I didn't read it because the former knowledge pissed me the fuck off just heard about that second hand.
(I am aware that Renee slipped into an alcohol based depression in the main series once before but last I checked that was before she became the question and I dont think she was dating Kate at the time whereas the N52 implied they had already broken up)

[Chuckman]

When I was 14 (and younger) I thought it was cool that Spider-Man was married and had an adult relationship. It made him seem more like a role model and more grounded.

I mean the idea is that he's a "loser" and has "Parker luck" etc etc but he's running around with model-quality college age women falling on his dick and Felicia "Tits McGee" Hardy giving him stripper slides in her rubber suit. Parker luck my ass.

[Bagheera]

When I was 14 (and younger) I thought it was cool that Spider-Man was married and had an adult relationship. It made him seem more like a role model and more grounded.

That's because you're a man of quality, Chuck. Most 14-year-old males aren't.

I mean the idea is that he's a "loser" and has "Parker luck" etc etc but he's running around with model-quality college age women falling on his dick and Felicia "Tits McGee" Hardy giving him stripper slides in her rubber suit. Parker luck my ass.

Well, yes, everyone knows that anyone with any sense would have given their left nut for Felicia, but that's just stating the obvious over and over. In reality Marvel's MO is to wave Felicia in front of our faces and pretend she'll get to amount to something when they know full well they're just teasing us until their next big thing comes along. She's an unfortunate tool, same as anything else, and "Parker luck" is a crock of shit. But this is news to no one, so.

[Chuckman]

Eh, the original take on Felicia was a pretty good one, IMHO. It was interesting how they made it so she was attracted to the costume and not the man. That's Parker Luck right there. That's how it's supposed to work.

The comic they did a few years ago where she was all like... yeah, I fucked up, he's a great guy should have been the springboard for a bigger story.

If I was EIC at Marvel I wouldn't necessarily mandate Spider-Man marry MJ again within the year. I'd pass down a mandate that they have, say, five years to settle him down with somebody. Felicia or Carol Danvers or somebody else, he hits it off with somebody and they settle down. I like married Spider-Man. I thought becoming a teacher was a great evolution of his character.

Then again if I was EIC I'd do crazy shit like reboot the multiverse and pair Peter up with Sue Storm or something. I know they just rebooted it but you know I'd do it better.

Really what I'd like them to do is a whole self contained line where they roll 616 back to the events before Civil War and just skip that and do all the events and rolling ten years ago time and whatnot in a different universe (why not 617?)

[Ray]

Terrible news.

One of my favorite artists, Darwyn Cooke (New Frontier, Before Watchmen, Future Quest, Batman: The Animated Series) has been diagnosed with Cancer.

http://darwyncooke.blogspot.com/2016/05 ... r.html?m=1

[movieartman]

To be fair it's not just marvel that does this, my favourite example of this is when kate and renee went from a asskicking crimefighting couple to........one being a alcoholic in the N52 universe and the other being with someone else, also I think batwoman got raped at one point in her new series I dont know I didn't read it because the former knowledge pissed me the fuck off just heard about that second hand.

They dropped their relationship before the new 52 for Batwoman Elegy which is universally agreed to be superb.
And the arcs with JH Williams still on are fully great in the new 52.
It's only after he left did it go down hill.

The "rape" was a traditional vampire hypnotic seduction kinda thing that that has existed sense vampires have. And it's a female vampire at that.