NOTE: The individual opinions of each Roundtable contributor are their own, and is not representative of anybody but that contributor.
Marvel solicitations for December [List: Here]
PAUL “WHAT’S THE FREQUENCY, KENNETH?” SEBERT: ULTMATE WOLVERINE VS. HULK #1
So this is… Damon “Lost” Lindelof’s Marvel debut and to be honest I’m beggining to worry that Marvel’s got too many television writters working for them. I mean the guy that created Space Cases for Nickelodeon is writing the new Spidey book… :p
SPIDER-MAN/BLACK CAT: EVIL THAT MEN DO #4 and #5
Very funny Marvel… we all know these comics don’t exist.
ARAñA #12
Really gotta love Takashi Miyazawa’s cover on this not just because it’s a lovely peice of art, but it’s also got an important message. Don’t forget to floss your teeth kids.
SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE #1
More McKeever! More More Miyazawa! More Mary Jane! What’s not to like?
BLACK PANTHER #11
Luke Cage, Falcon, Shang-Chi and an army of Ninjas! God I love this book!!!
PUNISHER: SILENT NIGHT
God that is an awesome cover… all I have to say.
MARVEL SPOTLIGHT: JOHN CASSADAY/SEAN MCKEEVER
Wow… a magazine dedicated to interviews with top artists and writers. If only a website like that existed…
AMAZING FANTASY #16
I’m surprised Deathshead 3.0 is not a 16-year girl, yes?
FANTASTIC FOUR/IRON MAN: BIG IN JAPAN #3
Dammit Toybiz… I want a Sumo Thing action figure… pronto!
GLX-MAS SPECIAL
*gulps* Is it wrong I think Squirrel Girl looks kinda hot in her reindeer harness get-up?
MARVEL TEAM-UP #15
What happens when you mix today’s fresh crop of new characters with the B-tier characters of the ’80s and ’90s? Hilarity that’s what!
NEW WARRIORS #6
Ok… that’s the best cover of 2005. Hands down.
RUNAWAYS #11
A team-up with Spidey plus a Jamie Jeans cover. ‘Nuff Said…
SENTINEL #2
Dear god in heaven that is an awesome Udon cover. I swear if you guys don’t buy this Sentinel relaunch I’m going to have to track you down one-by-one and do something really painful to you.
WHAT IF: WOLVERINE
I love that the promotional hype for this one-shot mentions the fact this was the creative team behind “Gun Theory” the three issue mini-series that Marvel canceled after two issues. Yeah that was due to the Epic Implosion but… still *snickers.*
X-MEN AND POWER PACK #3
Nightcrawler looks completely adorable in this art style.
TIM “CRUSH WITH EYELINER” STEVENS: Can anyone explain to me what the deal is with the “they’ll make her a teenage girl” (I have heard the “they’ll make her a hispanic woman” variation too) rap against Marvel? By my count they have only done that once (Scorpion) and it was a completely different character and the “real” Scorpion is still alive and well, albeit in Venom’s skin these days. If you change it to Hispanic woman, you have White Tiger. Beyond that X-23 is kind of a teenage girl Wolvie, but Wolvie still exists and is as popular as ever and Arana is kind of a teenage girl Spider-Man but so is Spider-Girl and everyone seems okay with that. Oh, also, Spider-Man is still alive and well. So, what exactly, is the deal? Not to introduce race or sex into this, but if Scorpion ended up a white guy, would it have been fine? Would we have complained? Ditto for White Tiger?
IAIN “KING OF COMEDY” BURNSIDE: I’m not sure but I am curious about whether or not Spider-Man has met Arana yet?
PAUL SEBERT: Eh… I think this is just an example of a typical fan boy whining I’ve noticed as of late in which they exagerate amount of influence a particular trend they don’t like. I mean for starters I recall a letter that got printed in an issue of BLACK PANTHER a couple of months ago complaining that “Marvel only thought that Hollywood Screenwriters could write comics” when in fact only a small handful of Marvel’s books are written by Hollywood Screenwriters. Similarly there was a letter in the pages of YOUNG AVENGERS complaining about the influx of gay characters in comics.
A couple of years ago when Marvel was pushing it’s ill-fated, ill-named Tsunami line I recall a large number of people complaining about the number of books Marvel was pumping out with Manga-esc artwork when in fact there were only like 4 or5 books with manga-styled art. Particularly amusing was that often the people were complaing about art that wasn’t really manga-esque at all and people were using “manga” to describe just about any art style that wasn’t to their liking.
To be honest while I didn’t mean my remark to be taken at all seriously… (but yeah I did see some of the kind of thing Chris was talking about) I do feel that most attempts at introducing more female and ethnic characters into the medium will face scoffing at the hands of some fanboys. And Spidey met her in ARANA #4. Which isn’t half bad I guess considering that the first Spider-Woman didn’t meet him until issue #20 of her series.
TIM “I DON’T SLEEP, I DREAM” SHERIDAN: Honestly, I think it’s just an attempt to reach out to an audience that isn’t there.
PAUL SEBERT: Eh… it’s not that simple.
To be honest I think our medium’s been stuck in a vicious cycle for some time now where people outside of the normal fanboy loop don’t go inside of comics stores because well… there’s really nothing there for them.
Now that comics are migrating outside of traditional comic shops and claiming a growing section of bookstore sales well… Marvel and DC can finally afford to reach out to broader demographics.
“STAR 69” COREN: Because the current trend in Marvel period is to make the new heroes fit the young female category. AMAZING FANTASY’s current run has only that (to be fair, it’s only 2 arcs so far (although female Scorpion has shown up elsewhere as well)), there’s X-23, quite a bit of the supporting cast of NYX, this new mutant Bendis cooked up that’s going to save us from House of M, etc. Yeah, it’s a little overexaggeration, but it’s still a trend that does exist.
TIM STEVENS: Hmm…okay. Then I guess my next question would be: why is this a bad thing? Is it bad to have new characters or is it bad because they are teen girls? Is it just a matter of the characters being poor and, if so, why mention their age or gender at all?
COREN: It’s not necessarily bad so much as it might be seen as overkill. Use of Wolverene in itself wouldn’t be bad if not for use of Wolverine occuring in like 932 books.
PAUL SEBERT: I’ve enjoyed the first two arcs on AMAZING FANTASY quite a bit.
I think the problem isn’t with the characters, it’s with the mindset of the direct market fans. During the ’90s many fans plopped down hard-earned money for books starring the hot new character of the month and often wound up getting burned. So now even as the market is sssssslowly recovering fans tend to stick with what they know, and will gladly lay down cash for another Bat/Spidey/X-spin off before trying something new.
The fact is that many titles we take for granted now originally got off to slow starts and very gradually grew into franchises. The original X-MEN was Marvel’s lowest selling book for years, TEEN TITANS was something of a C-tier book for DC, and until Frank Miller came along DAREDEVIL had fairly lackluster sales.
I’ve noticed that fans in the bookstore market tend to be much more willing to try something new as books like HELLBOY and even AMERICAN SPLENDOR sometimes outsell X-MEN.
DC solicitations for December [List: Here]
PAUL SEBERT: BATMAN AND THE MONSTER MEN #2
Professor Hugo Strange… now there’s a highly underused member of Batman’s rogues gallery. In fact I can’t remember the last time I saw him.
GOTHAM CENTRAL #38
INFINITE CRISIS tie-in sense tingling…
INFINITE CRISIS #3
You know if I actually cared about any of the tie-in miniseries besides VILLAINS UNITED at this point… I’d be really excited right now.
BIRDS OF PREY #89
Black Tarantula and Hellhound?!
Didn’t both of these guys die durring the War Games arc within the Batman titles?! Can we keep the D-Tier Bat Villians away from the Revolving Door fo Death for at least a year? Is that too much to ask?
I remember Jesse Baker freaking out because Bendis brought back Cutthroat a guy who died durring Gruenwald’s Captain America run 10 years ago. Can’t DC remember these guys had died for 10 months? Really?
And if not can we have an alive and well Sue Dibny shaking hands with Steph Brown on the cover of next month’s BoP?
THE FLASH #229
“Run for cover! Part 3 of the explosive story “Finish Line” brings the Fastest Man Alive face-to-face with one of the deadliest mortal enemies for all generations of the Flash: the immortal killer Vandal Savage!”
Awww… forget keeping your continuity strait for 10 months… try keeping it strait for one paragraph. Is Vandal Savage Mortal or Immortal? Make up your mind!
GREEN LANTERN #7
Ah now that’s more like it. Everyone knows that Ollie and Hall go together great like peanut butter and bagels.
JSA CLASSIFIED #6
Really do you need to have Gentleman Ghost and The Shade on the same team? I mean really having two guys pulling off the Victorian look right next to each other is really too much asethtically.
JLA CLASSIFIED: COLD STEEL #1
Clearly DC could not let the challenge laid down by Marvel’s Mega Morphs go unanswered. Who has the best GIGANTO BIG BIG STOMPY-FUN MECHA ARMOR SUITS?! I Wonder if Booster Gold’s mech is a giant Skeetz? Or if there’s a Big Bad Blue Beetle Borg!
PLASTIC MAN VOL. 2: RUBBER BANDITS TP
Really everyone should read Kyle Baker’s work on this title. I’m so irked that DC canceled this excellent book.
Ok, this is turning into a monster… let’s see what Dark Horse is up to…
Dark Horse solicitations for December [List: Here]
PAUL SEBERT: PENNY ARCADE: 1 x 25¢
Sweet! Nice to see some Penny Arcade strips reprinted on paper! I just wonder if this one-shot is going to be reprints of the web comics or new material.
But really with Bacon Robots an a 25 cents cover price you can’t lose.
SPACE PINCHY: PLEASED TA MEETYA
I don’t know anything about that title… but I love the name. It’s Space and it’s Pincy.
IDW announce a BEAST WARS: THE GATHERING mini-series for their new Transformers franchise [Duh-duh-duh: Duh-duh!]
JESSE “STRANGE CURRENCIES” BAKER: If IDW had any brains, they’d launch an ongoing Beast Wars series that negates Beast Machines from canon to counterbalance the shittiness of their upcoming Gen 1 books….
IAIN BURNSIDE: Okay, Beast Machines was pretty lame, I’ll give you that one… but how do you know IDW’s G1 books will be so bad? The main series isn’t even out until 2006! The art looks good, Furman’s writing it… I’m in. Plus, IDW are planning to release collections of the Dreamwave books that never made it to TPB, which is great news for me.
Robert Kirkman & Sean Phillips to do a five-issue MARVEL ZOMBIES mini-series [More: Here]
PAUL SEBERT: Hmmm… haven’t been following the current ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR arc… but I enjoyed the little swerve they pulled on the readers. Not sure just how many stories you can wring out of Earth Z, but if anyone’s got the skills it’s Kirkman.
TIM STEVENS: On the one hand, I’d hate to see Kirkman doing WALKING DEAD 2: THE MARVEL AFFAIR. On the other, his Marvel output is fairly and consistently underwhelming so maybe this’ll be the ticket for him.
Marv Wolfman to do INFINITE CRISIS SECRET FILES in February [Details: Here]
PAUL SEBERT: Really what I want to know is when they’re going to put out a trade of these umpteen billion Secret Files 1-shots?
TIM STEVENS: They’re not. Ever. They might throw them in other trades (stories from a Titans one for example may show up in a Titans trade at some point) but they’ll never be gathered together. Please don’t cry.
Keith Giffen on the challenges of DC’s 52 project [Read: Here]
PAUL SEBERT: I’m still wondering how logistically they’re going to pull this off… it has potential to either be something rather revolutionary, or it could just be a huge mess.
ANDY “TONGUE” CAMPBELL: Judging by what Giffen has to say in his interview, I’m siding with “revolutionary” vs. “huge mess.” At least for now. I’d imagine that the 4 writers will each take a week per month, so that in essence, 52 is just another monthly book for them. I’m just hoping that the price isn’t too high, because I’m not sure people will shell out $3 every week for it.
CARNIVALE creator Daniel Knauf announced as new IRON MAN writer [Good: Evil]
KEVIN “BANG AND BLAME” MAHONEY: Carnivale guy writing IRON MAN? Does that mean that readers will finally get Iron Dwarf?
PAUL SEBERT: Warren Ellis leaving IRON MAN?! Nooooooooo-oooooo-oooooo!! His run on the book is completely awesome… who cares if we’ve gotten like 4 issues in one year?
Kirsten Dunst says it’s Venom and Sandman for Spider-Man 3 villains [Point: Click]
KEVIN MAHONEY: Dunst may or may not actually know what she’s talking about, so I’m reserving judgement on that one. I cannot imagine an easy way to plug both Sandman and Venom into any one story.
PAUL SEBERT: I’d take it with a grain of salt. I mean who knows, maybe we’ll just see Eddie Brock as a supporting character who’s just set up to become Venom in a future sequel.
TIM “I TOOK YOUR NAME” BYRNE: Its like professional wrestling…everything we hear the studio wants us to hear. Read the Ain’t It Cool thread for a fanboy chuckle… the way the kids say “Oh, Oh, they should do THIS for SM4, and then that will set up THIS for SM 5 and so forth…”
RUMOUR – Stephen King and Jae Lee to do a series of horror books for Marvel [Credit: Him]
KEVIN MAHONEY: That Stephen King non-announcement made me quite puzzled, I should have asked him what he was working on when I saw him a few weeks back.
PAUL SEBERT: If this pans out this would be a much bigger deal than Kevin Smith’s run on DAREDEVIL or Joss Whedon’s run on ASTONISHING X-MEN. This would give Marvel an even larger presence in the bookstore market, and probably get some more outsiders walking into comic stores.
Mark Waid speaks on the darkness of the current DCU [Speak: Dammit]
KEVIN MAHONEY: Cool Waid interview… but (and I hope I’m not alone here) isn’t it better that Batman be a least somewhat a dick? I mean, the whole “no superhumans in Gotham without my consent” is overplaying it, but shouldn’t he at least be harder to deal with than 85% of the other superheroes? He’s the one who was completely f’ed over as a kid. Regardless of his friendships and allies, that fact isn’t ever going to be overcome.
I think the difference between him and say Guy Gardner should be two-fold. One, people put up with more crap from Batman because they need him more, for intellectual and tactical reasons, than any other hero. Two, I think Batman (unlike Guy who does the opposite) should, out of ego or genuine concern for the big picture, be really worried about major changes to the point of estrangement from others (like say a new Supergirl appearing out of nowhere) and less of a jerk on small temporary things (think Superman flying into Gotham to retrieve a Metallo on the lam).
One of the great things about Guy Gardner (and stop me if you’ve heard this one) is that when the chips are really down, he shuts up and will play for the team, not necessarily out of fellowship, but because he recognizes the stakes are bigger than him. I don’t see Batman ever making that particular mental leap, if only because he’s been the non-metahuman arm of the law for metahumans for damn near ever.
One of the not-so-noble, but fun as hell aspects of Guy Gardner is that when almost nothing is at stake save one-upmanship, he’ll sink to any level to walk off with the biggest smirk. If Guy becomes the maverick GL in GLCR, I’d push for an ongoing series. If they kind of friendly him up (or worse make him a mentor) I will have to burn the last bridge between me and GL.
IAIN BURNSIDE: I don’t have a problem with Batman being a dick when he has to be, but being such a dick all of the time in every appearance for such a stupid reason has gone on for far too long and been driven so far into the ground that it’s nearing the centre of the Earth. Yes, he should be harder to deal with than most of the other superheroes, and yes, he should be more of a loner and not have so many “assistants” in Gotham, but most of the time he just sounds like a pouting teenager who has been grounded for scratching the car. Taking him to an Adam West level of campy good humour would be bad, but so is letting him go so far in the opposite direction.
And I’m pretty sure they are going to do a GLC ongoing, post-Crisis. Or post-post-Crisis. Or post-Crisis-Crisis. Or, as I like to call it, 2006.
MATT “LET ME IN” MORRISON: From what we’ve seen of GLCR so far, it looks like Guy hasn’t changed much. Johns gets Gardner. Much as Kilowog does when he handles Guy at the end. Of course Guy is going to be less than thrilled with being put in a teacher’s post; not cause he can’t do it, but because it might take him out of the action. So Kilowog turns it into a challenge for Guy because he knows Guy won’t back down from a challenge. He says that they need the best of them all teaching the new guys and asks Guy if he really is the best.
As for Batman not being a dick, there’s a fine line that has been crossed too many times. I agree with Waid’s comments that we can have a balance between Adam West and “Kid, are you retarded?” Justice League Unlimited, to give an example, does it right. Batman is shown to be removed from the team, but can be counted on to jump into action when needed if he’s available.
PAUL SEBERT: A very good interview and thanks to Waid I have a lot more confidence in the direction that DC’s taken creatively.
That said a part of me is worried that by this time next year we’ll all be complaining about “Midlife Crisis” in which Dick Grayson violently murders Lt. Montoya, but it’s all Batman’s fault.
DC announces additional one-shots for DAY OF VENGEANCE, VILLAINS UNITED, THE RANN/THANAGAR WAR, and THE O.M.A.C. PROJECT [Something: Else That I Will Buy Even Though It Will Not Benefit Me In Any Great Way And Oh For Crying Out Loud, Does Anybody Even Ever Click These Links?]
COREN: So what’s that put OMAC at, 11 now? Yay for giving DC my money.
It sucks that one of the more quality books doesn’t even get the run of some minis.
PAUL SEBERT: On a side note… the Villian of Infinate Crisis has been revealed.
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