[manic41]

I'm probably the millionth and one guy to say so but this is no bad thing at all. Batman and Supes should be played by no-one else but Christian Bale and Brandon Routh while both actors are appearing in the relevant franchises.

[manic41]

I suppose shes prepared to work with people she no longer respects if it means helping out her cousin. Not a bad issue overall, but Marvel are messing around too much with their mainstream characters for my liking right now. DC don't seem to need to reinvent the wheel in order to keep their characters fresh and interesting.

[manic41]

OK, point taken there about Speedball. 😀 But come on, Speedball? Who really gives a shit what anyone does to him?

I have to disagree with you on Tony Stark though. Iron Man has become ten times a more interesting character now that he's a douchebag. Stark knows he's being a prick as well; that issue where he was bawling over Captain America revealed his inner turmoil.

[manic41]

I'm deeply ambivalent about the way Spidey's been handled in the past 8 years or so. For a start, JMS: When his first issues came out I was spellbound, I thought they were some of the best comics I'd ever read. With John Romita Jr, JMS had forged a very credible creative collaboration that the book had not seen since the seventies. Then, I don't know, I just got fed up with it. JMS has a line in corny know-it-all philosophising that makes my skin crawl, he keeps injecting dreadful syrupy sentences like 'hours pass, its what they do' into his writing. The Spider Totem stuff was pretty much universally reviled too. At first I found it intriguing to have the notion that Spider Man's powers were more than just a simple accident, but I kind of thought that the whole plot line would be revealed as a scam by some villain trying to mess with Spidey's head. When it became clear that JMS was going to take that idea and run I kind of drifted away. I dodn't even want to know about that Gwen Stacy/Norman Osborn kids stuff. Also,  I didn't like the way that many of JMS's stories were occult themed, or featured Dr Strange, or Asguardian gods.  Spider Man is weird science, not supernatural gumshoe.
That said I think it was brilliant the way he handled Aunt May and turned her into an interesting character instead of a fairly stereotypical figure. I like that he made Peter into a high school teacher too, and the way he brought Peter and Mary Jane back together. For all his faults, it felt like he was taking Spider man somewhere new and interesting! I started buying the mag again during the Civil War stuff because with all this nightmarish stuff happening in Peter's life– revealing his identity, being a fugitive from justice and so on, I was sure that there was going to be an awesome resolution to it all.
Now Joe Q comes along and just undoes all that character development and…sigh. I really don't want to bash the man too hard. He is part of the reason we still even have Marvel comics around today and I dont think people should ignore that in the face of one bad decision. But pulling retcons really just tarnishes the image of comics and sets back the cause of turning them into the respected medium us fans know it should be.  Imagine if J.K. Rowling wrote an eighth Harry Potter book in which a dark wizard casts a spell that erases what happened in every book after 'Prisoner of Azkahban'. That sounds pretty stupid right? Now imagine that the literary world, already writing her professional obituary, comes an asks JK what on earth possesed her to do it and she says 'I wanted to take Harry back to being thirteen and less complicated. I know the fans will hate it, but if they hang in there they'll see its all for the best'. That wouldn't really be a very good reason would it?
The worst thing about OMD is that I didn't entirely hate it, the artwork was lovely even if the story didn't ring true.  And the new Dan Slott/Steve McNiven stuf is…actually pretty damn good. Still,  I feel like a bit of a sucker for hanging on,and Marvel shouldn't be making their flagship title a guilty pleasure at best.

[manic41]

Another of my She Hulk works up for auction!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270201213141

[manic41]

I'd like to throw my hat in this ring!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=270200757427&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=017

[manic41]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Savage-She-Hulk-Car-TF_W0QQitemZ270169934091QQihZ017QQcategoryZ60436QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[manic41]

When are we going to see a continuation of this fantastic tale? I wish DCM would do some more Dyna artwork. I still don't understand why he junked 'Menace in Metal', it was brilliant!

[manic41]

I love the way Power Girl was drawn in this issue. This guy draws muscular women exactly the way I want to draw 'em. Seeing art like this just makes me weep– I wish I was that good.

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