NOTE: The individual opinions of each Roundtable contributor are their own, and is not representative of anybody but that contributor.
Hey, Iain here. Before we get underway I just want to say thanks to all for checking out last week’s mega-Roundtable, which you can check out here and here. In particular, I just want to say thanks to the wonderful Rob Ruddick and the enigmatic Talowolf for their much-appreciated efforts. Cheers, guys.
Now, on with the show…
Marc Andreyko makes a plea for help with sales of MANHUNTER [Plea: Here]
CHRIS “STRUTTING AND SEXY” DELLOIACONO: Right here is one of the reasons that I’m so ticked off at DC. DC throws a handful of titles out there every year that they don’t give the slightest amount of promotion. People are so excited by the endless hype for all of the upcoming miniseries or other events, yet an utterly amazing read like MANHUNTER is languishing close enough to cancellation that the creator has to ask for help. It’s shameful!
Too many great books are left out in the cold while readers pick up every “big” event that comes down the line. Name a good recent “big” crossover event? You can’t do it.
I can name a number of great comics the past few years that didn’t make it ten or twenty issues because people were too focused everywhere else to give it a try. MANHUNTER is by far the absolute best new book DC has put out in several years. The balance of characterization, respectful treatment of the DCU’s history, courtroom dealings, and superhero action is better than any title out today.
Go out on a limb. Don’t only buy into the hype. Read MANHUNTER. You can’t possibly be disappointed!
Dave Cockrum withdraws from GIANT SIZED X-MEN #3 due to ill-health [More: Pulse]
PAUL “RELAXED AND SEXY” SEBERT: Sad, sad news. Get well soon David.
LIONS, TIGERS & BEARS will be a part of the Summer Children’s Literacy Program in Arizona [Details: Newsarama]
PAUL SEBERT: Great news… a great way to get kids excited about comics while drawing interest to the medium. This just washes that rancid COUNTDOWN taste out of my mouth.
JASON BEREK-LEWIS: Yeah! For Mike and Jack. I am really excited at the success being achieved by this book. I think the success of LTB proves once and for all that it is possible to do “kid friendly books.”
I’ve introduced this book to my wife’s younger cousins… Mike and Jack have touched a nerve here, and I hope the success is repeated for other Rune Master titles… The other thing that I hope comes from this is a realisation from parents that it’s OK to buy comics for their kids. I know of parents here in Australia who won’t buy comics because they fear that they are violent or contain adult themes… LTB is a book that truly can be enjoyed by “all ages” – what a great (and overdue) achievement!
RUMOUR: Ryan Reynolds is up for two different superhero movie lead roles [Either: The Flash or The Sub-Mariner]
CHRIS DELLOIACONO: Go Van Wilder!
I still haven’t seen Trinity. The taint that was Blade 2 really soiled the entire franchise. What I saw of Reynolds was pretty impressive, though. He’s got personality and looks the part of a hero. It’s only a million times better than the rumour of Vin Diesel that was going around a couple years ago.
IAIN “APATHETIC AND SEXY” BURNSIDE: Trinity was a perfectly acceptable bit of brainless popcorn action that probably fits somewhere above the second and below the first films. Reynolds of course got all the best lines, stole the show and looked cool as hell whilst doing it, so I’ve got no problems whatsoever with him heading up a comic book movie. I’d still rather see him do Deadpool than Flash, but they’re both cool…
JASON BEREK-LEWIS: I’ve been hanging for an underwater superhero movie. I actually have never read any Aquaman or Sub-Mariner comics, but am intrigued by both characters. I love the idea of Namor – a man between two worlds…
Ah, showing my ignorance here, but I am assuming that Namor and Sub-Mariner are the same characters?
Sorry if I have committed some grave error…
IAIN BURNSIDE: Yeah, Namor is the Sub-Mariner. I think they would be better served using him as a villain in Fantastic Four 2 instead of – or at least before – giving him his own movie, but whatever. If this one goes ahead they’ll probably make quite a few changes to his comic book character anyway since not that many people know who he is. It should be cool though. Jar Jar Binks may be the most irritating character of the whole Star Wars franchise by a quantum mile, but those underwater scenes in The Phantom Menace showed just how cool something like this could look.
And I’d love it if they gave the lead role to The Rock!
JASON BEREK-LEWIS: Iain, I agree! As bad as Jar Jar was, the first time you glimpse the underwater city – it’s spectacular!
KEVIN “QUICK AND SEXY” MAHONEY: Must have… more Flash. Must have more…
Now maybe it’s because I have no idea who Ryan Reynolds is, but seriously WTF? How can anyone be cast as both these heroes? You can’t be much more different than Namor and Barry, Wally, et al. This must be the hot actor that is getting thrown all the miscellaneous scripts.
PAUL SEBERT: Hmmm I could kind of see it working. Reynolds has the looks for the part and is a decent actor despite mostly playing wacky comedies. And he looks like Wally West which is a plus.
Hmmm, him as Namor not-so much. You need a guy with a muscular build and some bravado for the part. I’d rather see The Rock actually. He’s used to wearing Speedos in public.
RUMOUR: Michael Bay to direct the new TRANSFORMERS movie [Credit: AICN]
PAUL SEBERT: Noooooooooo!
CHRIS DELLOIACONO: Bay is wonderful at putting on huge epics with little focus on the actors work. This may be the perfect film for Bay. The Transformers wasn’t winning Best Picture anyway.
IAIN BURNSIDE: Damn right. I’m probably the biggest Transformers mark on the Nexus and I tend to really dislike Bay’s movies but I’m still stoked by this news. Make it big, loud, bright, silly and tongue-in-cheek. That’s what I want from my Transformers stories (or at least the ones not written by Simon Furman). Now if they can get Stan Bush on the soundtrack then I may very well need to go and change my underwear…
KEVIN MAHONEY: God, I hope this ain’t true. Have you seen the trailers for House of Wax? Schlock o Rama! Where’s James “Terminator 2” Cameron when you really need him?
TIM “CONFUSED AND SEXY” STEVENS: In fairness to Bay, he is not directing House of Wax, just making money off it. I think he is a producer.
Jeph Loeb to adapt THE SPIRIT for a live-action movie [More: n/ultimatebb.cgi%3Fubb%3Dget_topic%26f%3D36%26t%3D003633>Pulse]
CHRIS DELLOIACONO: The Spirit is absolutely perfect for a grand big screen treatment. He’s one of comics’ greatest characters. Jeph Loeb has shown he can get to the heart of an iconic character. I’m confident he’ll do that with The Spirit.
IAIN BURNSIDE: I really need to start reading these books at some point. Go Jeph!
THE WALKING DEAD sells out [Details: Zombierama]
CHRIS DELLOIACONO: I love zombie movies, so I started buying THE WALKING DEAD with issue #2. I personally got several people to start reading. The success of the book is extraordinary. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Yet am I the only one that’s not enjoying it anymore? I absolutely adored the title through the first arc. The second arc took a downturn in quality. The third arc has lost my interest. I’ve really been struggling to read it each month. So much so that I’m seriously considering dropping it.
Am I the only one? Are other issues getting in the way of me enjoying it?
IAIN BURNSIDE: Well, I’ve only read the first two arcs in trade format and I really enjoyed them both. Matter of fact, I thought the second one was even better than the first. Maybe it’s one of those things that you might just enjoy better in TPB form, who knows?
SIN CITY kicks ass at the box office [Details: Sinarama]
KEVIN MAHONEY: If you haven’t gone… go. The amount of violence/boobs on screen beats anything in years. The stories are fun. The world is a neat place to chill in for 2.5 hours. I watched it and came out thinking like the narrator from the Smash TV game… “Ultra Violence… I love it!”
PAUL SEBERT: Awesome, awesome movie. Quite possibly the most loyal comics-to-film transfer ever. Just one minor complaint. We never saw Miho on roller-skates.
A preview of THE O.M.A.C. PROJECT [Preview: Projectarama]
KEVIN MAHONEY: See I skipped the $1 comic, but I found this preview pretty self-explanatory. I don’t need another mini-series stretching my budget, but this looked like interesting and grounded storytelling. If Batman isn’t the One Man Army Corps, damned if I know who is.
PAUL SEBERT: Hot Cremation action! Of the Crisis-spin offs I’ll probably be reading either this or DAY OF VENGEANCE because that one has Detective Chimp in it.
See this is what the real OMAC looks like.
OMAC is supposed to be a guy in the future with a purple Mohawk with the power to throw improbably contorted women in sinks. Where is the woman in sink throwing action?! C’mon DC.
Oh, and on a completely unrelated note I’ve got a little rant up on my blog about GLA: MISASSEMBLED.
Read it and find out why every title should have a fourth-wall breaking, talking squirrel.
Keith Giffen discusses COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS [Discussion: CBR]
PAUL SEBERT: I’ll give the guy credit for being classy about it. I mean compare how well he takes this to, say Chris Claremont’s infamous “they gut it like a fish” comment in Wizard in the mid ’90s. I mean could you imagine if they did this to one of John Byrne’s characters? I mean Byrne’s still upset that Marvel cancelled X-MEN: THE HIDDEN YEARS.
Brian Michael Bendis discusses HOUSE OF M [Discussion: Housearama]
KEVIN MAHONEY: Dad-rat-it! I was so free of X-Men and huge Marvel Crossovers. I haven’t touched one in literally years. But this actually sounds really interesting. I might have to check out at least the first chapter. Marvel characters and mercy killing… that’s certainly a new one.
PAUL SEBERT: Sounds fairly interesting… I’m kind of on the fence about this event but, well just promise me that we won’t reveal that J. Jonah Jameson is the new evil head of S.H.I.E.L.D and then have him murder Moon Knight.
JAMIE “EASY AND SEXY” HATTON: I have to say, even being a fan of Bendis – I’ve been verrrrry sketchy about HOUSE OF M. If it cleans up some of the Morrison/Austin years and makes things a bit easier to grip onto then excellent. I think that really is part of the editorial motivation here.
The fact is the more the little nuances come out, the more I’m intrigued. The bit I kind of liked was Bendis discussing Magneto. The problems of his dream failing, culminating in his daughter going nutzo – that’s a neat point to address.
Given I’m an X-Fanboy and fan of Bendis as it is – I’ll be buying it. Now I’m just not as scared by it.
JESSE “BELLIGERENT AND SEXY” BAKER: it just strikes me as Bendis’ utter and complete failure on all levels as a writer that he has this big f*cking storyline about Wanda’s fall from grace and yet he treats Wanda as nothing more than an evil c**t de machina who only exists to kill other characters (with zero time spent giving us motivation and insight as to why she’s doing what she’s doing aside from being told “She’s a murderous insane c**t and has always been a murderous insane c**t!”) and for other people to talk about, like she was Terry Fucking Schiavo.
Seriously, this is why I not only hate Bendis but also wish that he would be blackballed from ever working in the comic industry again. His stories are s**t and he doesn’t give a f**k about writing good stories. A good writer would have made Wanda’s breakdown the main focus of Avengers Disassembled from start to finish, establishing Wanda’s breakdown moment by moment including the moment Wanda decides to say “f**k it, I’m going to kill my husband and friends!” and with none of this bulls**t red-herring shit Bendis did by way of spending three issues setting Hank Pym up as the killer before tossing Dr. Strange out to declare that the crazy c**t Wanda did it.
The difference between ID Crisis and AD is that Jean Loring had a history of being an insane, evil c**t who could do murder. Sure Meltzer never mentioned it but it was something that made sense if you A. knew the character and B. if told about it after the fact. With Wanda there is no f**king justification towards her being the evil insane c**t she turned out to be even with Byrne’s fake pregnancy revelation, what with Wanda making her kids by unconsciously absorbing devil energy in order to beat a bunch of evil witches out to kill her. Not to mention that Bendis’ entire story is predicated on Wanda not knowing about her kids which she does!
And for the record, I’m using the “C” word because that seems to be the watchword for comic writers writing comic book women these days, in that they are written as either stupid c**ts or evil c**ts and represent the worst aspects of the female gender, i.e. the c**ts.
IAIN BURNSIDE: That was the single funniest rant I’ve read from you yet, Jesse. I can just imagine you and Warrior sitting down for brunch… C**TING DOES NOT MAKE THE WORLD WORK!! GET A TOWEL!!
Awesome :)
Famke Janssen signs up for X-Men 3 [Details: Jeanarama]
KEVIN MAHONEY: Wasn’t this pretty much a necessity? I mean X2 ended with a bit of the old Phoenix Force, yeah? God if Jansen’s agent read any of the books, I hope she got a very fat pay check out of this.
JAMIE HATTON: To go along with her tiny skimpy outfit. I’m in.
Chuck Austen has blog “issues” [Blog: Blog]
KEVIN MAHONEY: Olav Beemer? Isn’t that one of the Norwegian X-Men?
JAMIE HATTON: Good God… his blog doesn’t even make sense!!! So let me see if this is correct. He cracked a joke at Winick/Rucka. He cracked a joke about cracking a joke about Winick/Rucka that acted as an apology. He wrote some nonsense about screwing up Superman (which I can’t tell if it’s sarcasm or what) – then he was canned for it…
Good line about John Byrne, put past that – I’m utterly confused. Much like my feeling on his X-Men run…
PAUL SEBERT: Dear Lord… what happened to Chuck? I mean I know a lot of people hated his X-Run but… for cryin’ out loud, the guy was writing the best selling book in the nation a couple of years ago. Doesn’t that count for something? I mean how many second chances has DC given Byrne now? Now the guy gets canned from his own blog…
MANOLIS “HAIRY AND SEXY” VAMVOUNIS: Check out this link for the Chuck Austen case.
April Fool’s after all!
IAIN BURNSIDE: I miss Rich :)
July solicitations: Dark Horse [Over: Here]
KEVIN MAHONEY: New HELLBOY story! Me likey!
