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Review: The Twelve hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Ba, 31 tháng 12, 2013

[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at Hell Yeah '80s Marvel!]I don’t think I realized how much I missed JSA until all of the recent talk of the upcoming omnibus brought up old memories. It might be surprising that a Marvel [...]

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Review: Teen Titans Vol. 3: Death of the Family trade paperback (DC Comics)

Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Hai, 30 tháng 12, 2013

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Number 1499: Swinging out of 2013 with Tarzan

Người đăng: Unknown

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Number 1498: The back-ups

Người đăng: Unknown on Chủ Nhật, 29 tháng 12, 2013

These three well-drawn short stories, all from Police Comics #11 (1942), struck me for different reasons. The first, “Chic Carter,” has a swamp monster (or at least what appears to be). Something shambling out of a swamp, [...]

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PAKKINTI KURRADU

Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Bảy, 28 tháng 12, 2013

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Number 1497: It’s up to yew! Ghost-hunter and the Roman curse.

Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Sáu, 27 tháng 12, 2013

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Review: The Twelve hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at Hell Yeah '80s Marvel!]

I don’t think I realized how much I missed JSA until all of the recent talk of the upcoming omnibus brought up old memories. It might be surprising that a Marvel book was able to capture much of what made that classic title work, but J. Michael Straczynski and Chris Weston’s The Twelve hits all of the right notes. This wasn’t Marvel’s first attempt to ride the popularity of JSA; a variety of Invaders revivals over the last few years have sputtered due to a lack of fan interest. Fans love Captain America and Namor ... but as a team, there’s something lacking, especially since Marvel didn’t really have an equivalent to All-Star Squadron to map out its World War II-era adventures.

One of the core concepts of The Twelve is that the title characters really aren’t a team. Marvel likes to advertise the Defenders as a “non-team," but the Twelve go far beyond that: they’re literally a bunch of unrelated superheroes grouped together out of convenience since so many heroes came over to fight in Europe. All of them are extremely minor heroes, many with only a few classic Golden Age appearances. This obscurity actually helps move the plot along, as I’ll explain later. Perhaps the most notable is the original Black Widow; this version is more of a blonde version of DC’s Spectre than anything resembling Natasha Romanova. Many are just regular guys in capes with the courage to enter a brutal war.

As the name implies, there are a lot of characters. The cast could have been trimmed down to maybe ten with some reassignment of plot beats, but I think JMS will agree with me that The Twelve just sounds cooler than The Ten. Our narrator and lead is the Phantom Reporter; when the Twelve were put into a cryogenic freeze by a Nazi scientist and found in the modern day, he is one of the quickest to adjust upon awakening. The Reporter is a bit of a bland lead; he has no powers other than a brilliant mind. This lets the more dynamic personalities of his comrades come out over the story.

I can’t confirm this, but the story of the Twelve may have been intended to echo the fate of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. Those DC heroes were catapulted through time during a fight with the Nebula Man and ended up adjusting fairly well. On the other hand, the Twelve were knocked out and reawakened in what to them felt like a few seconds. Most of the story revolves around them adjusting to their new environs; it’s not an easy task. One of the saddest fates is that of “Mister E," whose real name is allegedly “Victor Jay." Straczynski decided to turn this obvious pseudonym into a cover for his real name -- Victor Goldstein, changed so that he could advance in an anti-Semitic business world. His reunion with the remnants of his family -- a dying wife and a son who’s now older than he is and who hates him -- becomes even more heartbreaking when it’s established that he’s the few with any family left alive. Rockman and Captain Wonder both start to lose their sanity out of grief.

Much is made of how the world is different now, but neither the 1940s nor the 2010s are made out to significantly better or worse. A significant subplot follows the proto-Punisher Laughing Mask getting caught for killing a criminal during a robbery. His guns were on file as being used in his killing of gangsters back in the 1940s. (How he gets caught and the Punisher doesn’t is something I’m willing to ignore simply by pretending the Punisher doesn’t exist.) The Blue Blade, a washed-out actor looking to cash in on his war reputation, finds himself unable to get the attention of modern audiences. Mastermind Excello, who can read minds and intercept radio signals, finds himself overwhelmed by the onslaught of modern transmissions.

Perhaps the book’s most fascinating character is Dynamic Man, a hero in the mold of the Aryan übermensch. Not only is he blonde with blue eyes, but he also expresses nationalistic doctrine while spouting racism and homophobia. It’s implied that he’s covering for his own sexual desires ... but this is actually some of the greatest misdirection I’ve seen since Thunderbolts: Justice, Like Lightning. I’m not going to spoil what his real deal is, but I will say that if you want to read The Twelve, do not look up Dynamic Man’s origin. Marvel pointedly did not reprint his origin when they did so for some of the other characters; knowing his secret will spoil the plot, although it’s still certainly readable without the surprise.

It’s a feat that The Twelve is even finished. JMS and artist Chris Weston took a hiatus after issue eight to work on other projects. It finally concluded last year, and the wait was certainly worth it, especially art-wise. Weston’s art has a perfect use of shadows; he’s also very skilled in using block colors to illustrate flashbacks without losing details. Very little of the plot was affected by the hiatus; a few lines of dialogue at the start indicate that it takes place right after Civil War, but no superheroes appear in the modern segments. Perhaps the only thing that stands out as a possible change is Black Widow’s sexual orientation. JMS clearly implies her to be a lesbian in the earlier issues; later on, she starts returning the Phantom Reporter’s affections; maybe he intends she’s bisexual instead, though this wasn't clear to me.

At the very end of the Twelve collection is Spearhead, a fun romp written and drawn by Weston showing how the heroes got together in the 1940s. With James Robinson set to start a new Invaders series next year, I hope some of the characters from The Twelve can take part. Marvel has always had to deal with the huge publishing gap between the '40s and '60s and The Twelve is a major step in defining their past.

Review: Teen Titans Vol. 3: Death of the Family trade paperback (DC Comics)

There's some things I like and some I don't about how DC Comics collects crossovers in the New 52. I don't mind, for instance, that the relevant issues of Teen Titans Vol. 3: Death of the Family are also collected in the Joker book; I read Teen Titans regularly, but if I didn't and I was interested in "Death of the Family," I'd be glad that the Joker book was there.

The flip side of this is that Teen Titans Vol. 3 collects six issues, one of which can be found in Batman Vol. 3 (and a bunch of other places) and two of which can be found in Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 3, leaving only three "original" issues for this book (Red Hood, in contrast, offers four original issues not found elsewhere). Even as DC's new collection schema helps casual fans, it sometimes punishes those who read a large part of the line, in my opinion, with repetition and smaller trades.

What writer Scott Lobdell and artists including Brett Booth offer here is enjoyable; in some ways this volume marks the start of the Titans that I've wanted to read since this book started. It's only a shame there's not more to this collection overall.

[Review contains spoilers]

Lobdell's Red Hood/Red Robin team-up at the heart of this book, issue #16, is well-done, and an especially good last issue by Booth. I remarked on that issue, however, and my enjoyment of the brotherly relationship Lodbell has created between Jason Todd and Tim Drake (to the exclusion, to an extent, of Dick Grayson) in my review of the Red Hood collection.

Second best here, and the issue that does the most for the book aside from #16, is Lobdell's Zero Month issue, presenting the new origin of Tim Drake. Lonely Place of Dying is perhaps one of my favorite Batman stories, so it takes a lot for me to accept a new origin for Tim, especially one condensed to an issue instead of a Batman/New Titans crossover. Whereas we lose a little of what I liked about Tim -- that he was not athletic in the Dick Grayson sense, but rather mainly had going for him just his detective and computer skills -- I think the gain gets to the heart of who Tim Drake is.

Lobdell said in an interview that he thought the original Tim Drake lost a step at the point in which his parents were killed, and I see the logic in that. Previously, Tim was the first Robin to take the job because he wanted it, not due to family trauma or as a virtue of being Bruce Wayne's ward, and the death of Tim's parents (while maybe academic at that point) made Tim slightly more generic -- just another Robin instead of a different Robin. Frankly, I think the drama is greater when Tim lived with his parents and had to sneak out every night to be Robin, or when school officials wondered what Tim was up to hanging out with older bachelor Bruce Wayne all the time, but the simply fact that Lobdell restores Tim's parents to life has possibilities, in my opinion.

I also get the sense that Lobdell's new iteration of Tim Drake hews a bit closer to his animated personas; maybe this shouldn't be a large consideration but I can't argue with the fact that it is. The animated Teen Titans and Go! Robin may not be Tim, but this Tim Drake is more like him now -- a perfectionist, domineering, type-A leader. The Robin nee Nightwing from Young Justice wasn't so far off from this, too. That Lodbell's Tim Drake doesn't have an overt "softer side," and that we've seen Red Robin mainly in superhero situations and not, for instance, hanging with Ives at school is a change that works for me; I'd prefer that over a New 52 with the same old characters.

Again, Lobdell's "Death of the Family" tie-in is tonally appropriate for Teen Titans and Red Hood; the Joker story is not as scary as Gail Simone's in Batgirl nor as gruesome as Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason's in Batman and Robin, but rather more superheroic, even a little funny in the antics of the Titans and Outlaws. I continue to like seeing the two groups together (a Titans reunion, as it were). The first part, Titans #15, does feel padded with banter, as if the title needed to bide some time before the issue #16 crossover with Red Hood; while the experience overall is good, this contributed to my sense that this trade's contents are thin taken as a whole.

The final chapter, issue #17, both pleased and concerned me. The Titans, now officially "the Teen Titans," gain a boat for a headquarters, with Red Robin promising technology that will take the Titans "to the next level." To me, this sounds a lot like the Titans finally becoming an actual superhero team (instead of just a bunch of kids running from NOWHERE). Maybe the days of a villain rampaging through the city and a hero flying in to stop him are passe, "so pre-New 52," but I miss them a bit, and wouldn't mind seeing the Titans back in a more re-active mode, instead of focusing solely on threats that involve their own group.

My dismay, however, is in seeing artist Eddy Barrows back on this title. I actually just got done praising Barrows's work on Nightwing, where I thought his darker tones were a perfect fit; honestly I just don't understand switching Barrows to Titans and putting Booth on Nightwing. Though there's a nostalgia factor here in that Barrows drew a run of pre-New 52 Titans, I generally think his depiction of young heroes looks wooden -- see the rictus grin on Red Robin as they tour the boat and on Solstice in the surveillance room. Red Robin, with his flat hair, resembles a Silver Age Dick Grayson, and it makes it hard to believe he seduces two of his teammates, demon-possessed or not.

At the same time, I recall the era of Titans that Barrows drew to be one where the team didn't get along at all and mostly fought throughout, and so it's refreshing that Lobdell's team is quite the opposite, almost to the extreme -- characters like Kid Flash, Solstice, and Bunker are almost perpetually upbeat, perpetually supporting one another. I'm not sure how realistic this is either, but it's a nice change.

All of this makes me still eager to pick up the fourth volume of Titans; Teen Titans Vol. 3: Death of the Family may be short and repetitive -- blame it on the crossover -- but it remains enjoyable and continues to move toward a set-up more like a traditional Titans title. That's enough for me to come back for more.

[Includes original covers, sketchbook section]

Later this week ... Batman, Inc. Vol. 2, the end of the Grant Morrison Batman saga, with all the controversies it entails.

Number 1499: Swinging out of 2013 with Tarzan

We’re celebrating the end of the year with yet another story of Tarzan in yet another lost city of the jungle.

Cathne is the City of Gold. When Tarzan says he hasn’t been there in 20 years he isn’t quite telling the truth*...the novel, Tarzan and the City of Gold, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, was originally published in Argosy in 1932. Our comic book adventure was published in Dell’s Tarzan #21 in 1951.

Tarzan, who rescues a girl, “Princess” Elaine, in the jungle, ends up with her in Cathne. He goes to tell her dad she is okay and recovering from a broken arm, only to leave her to the evil intentions of lusty Lord Tomos. Tomos has her clapped in a cell with a slave who is ordered to teach her the language, and promises, “I shall see you, Princess...very often!” Whoops. What do you think Lord Tomos has in mind for Elaine? You can almost hear his evil cackle, and see him twirling his mustache. If he had a mustache, that is.

Everything works out fine, thanks to Tarzan, Tantor and some ape buddies. Story by Gaylord Dubois and art by Jesse Marsh.

Happy New Year, and thanks for making this year a good one for Pappy's Golden Age. I’ll see you again on January 1.

*Maybe Tarzan forgot he re-visited the City of Gold again in Tarzan the Magnificent, published in 1939. Tarzan’s jungle is wall-to-wall lost cities and civilizations, even dinosaurs. No wonder he has trouble remembering.

Number 1498: The back-ups

These three well-drawn short stories, all from Police Comics #11 (1942), struck me for different reasons. The first, “Chic Carter,” has a swamp monster (or at least what appears to be). Something shambling out of a swamp, fake or not, gets my attention.

“Firebrand” was the first cover feature of Police Comics. He lost the position to Jack Cole’s Plastic Man. “The Mouthpiece” appears to be one more Spirit lookalike from the company that owned the Spirit. In addition to Spirit, who dressed in a suit and wore a mask, Quality had Midnight and the Mouthpiece. Are there any more blue-suited crimefighters with Lone Ranger masks from Quality I have missed?

Fred Guardineer, who drew the Mouthpiece, is responsible for the above head-spinning electric chair panel. Fred drew many a similar panel when he went to work for Charles Biro at Crime Does Not Pay. Lee Ames, who drew this episode of Firebrand, went on to a career which included book illustration and how-to-draw books. Vern Henkel, artist on the Chic Carter story, began his career by sending a story he wrote and drew to publisher “Busy” Arnold in the days when comic books were in the so-called Platinum Age.

PAKKINTI KURRADU

oka roju ma sndy and ma intlo vallu mrge ki vellaru pakkinti vadu suger kani vacchadu nenu ievvadaniki kichen lo ki vellanu kani vellipoyadu sarey ani nenu main door musi and bed room dr kuda musanu bath cheddham ani rdy ayyanu evaru leru gadha ani bed room loney mirrar mundhu nilchoni na cloths okkokkati thisthu na andhalni neney chusukuntu murisipoyanu na bra vippaganey andhulo nundi stiffga unna sandlu bayatagu vachayi whit clr black nipple paint and drayer hair madhya andhanga ubbi unna pussy chusthunty velutho gelakalani anpinchi gelukkunna inthalo vellipoyadanukunna kurradu beruva chatunundi vacchadu naku okkasariga gundy aagintlayindhi bayatakelu annanu vadu aappantinundi nenu chesindhi mottham mbl video thishadu na mata vinka pothey net lo pedtha ani bedhirinchey sariki nenu vadiki longaka thappaledhu vadu hny tecchi na bdy mottham pushadu na lips, sandlu, boddu, puku, thodalu mottham ruddhadu naku kopam vacchina manasulo chala hpy ga undhi vadu nannu anuvnuna kiss chesthuntey naralu zivvumannayi na sandlanu naki korukuthu vatini chapathi pindi madhiriga pisukuthunty hai ga anpisthondhi vadi naluka tho na pussy ni gelukuthunty thattukeleka vaadi thatlapi hnd vesi gattiga adhumuthu plz fuck .u.u.u..ani muliganu vadi sullini bayatiki thisi ball pi hny posi na notlo pettadu salt and sweet ga chala bavundhi ala 5mints chesha vadi sulli ni thisina puku pedhalapi thakisthu sdnga pussy lo veganga gunapala dinchadu naku hai ga summaga anpinchi thiyyaga muliganu vadu thana notitho liplock cheshadu na rendu sandlanu balanga press chesthu stroks isthuntey nenu kindha nundi opsit na pirudhulanu edhuru stroks isthunnanu vadu kuda na body ni nalipivesthu 15 mints dengadu tharvatha na puku mottha liqd tho nimpadu chala vediga hai ga undhi ieddharam out ayyamu tharvatha konchem sepu nenu kisses iesthu hug chesukunnanu tharvatha bathroomlo ki thisikelli bath chepisthu sandlu puku neet ga soap tho ruddhi thudichi body loshan sandla posi body mottham puku thodalapi mardhana chesi velladu ala veludhorikinapudalla enjy chesey vallam..

Number 1497: It’s up to yew! Ghost-hunter and the Roman curse.

This is one of those supernatural stories that resolves itself at the end by dragging in some power over ghosts of which we readers have not been apprised. In this case it’s the ghost-hunter, Christopher Fenn, who “just remembered” what will defeat the ghosts before they are about to kill him. Note to writers of supernatural stories: Introduce said spell or power early in the story, then use it later. It's storytelling 101.

Despite that glaring flaw in “The Case of the Roman Curse” I like the art. It's drawn by Jon L. Blummer and comes from Adventures Into the Unknown #7 (1949).

videofreeandimage

Review: The Twelve hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

Review: Teen Titans Vol. 3: Death of the Family trade paperback (DC Comics)

Number 1499: Swinging out of 2013 with Tarzan

Number 1498: The back-ups

PAKKINTI KURRADU

Number 1497: It’s up to yew! Ghost-hunter and the Roman curse.

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Review: The Twelve hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

Review: Teen Titans Vol. 3: Death of the Family trade paperback (DC Comics)

Number 1499: Swinging out of 2013 with Tarzan

Number 1498: The back-ups

PAKKINTI KURRADU

Number 1497: It’s up to yew! Ghost-hunter and the Roman curse.