What I Bought: Comics Week January 30, 2008

You know, just about every week I drive to the comic shop and I think, “Man, I should cut back on the number of new books I buy every week. I could use that money to buy more back issues/trades/something more meaningful.” I do this and then end up leaving the store, money willing, with more than I intended to buy.

In a way it’s kind of liberating. Keep a small pull list and then check out the rack and see what catches the eye. Don’t worry about keeping up with a run. Don’t worry about finishing the story because frankly you weren’t enjoying it anyway. Just fly free and easy and if those issues of Captain Marvel look kind of neat go ahead and grab them. If you like the various books then that’s great; if not, hey it was worth a shot. I’ve skirted around this with the other blogs and podcasts and such that I do but in all honesty one of my goals this year when it comes to comics is to kind of go back to the way I used to collect back in my younger days.

So here’s the list, Blue, Red and Green first, though sadly no green this week.

Oh, you’re going to notice a lot of trades this week. Rachel and I did our Valentine’s Day shopping early and if you want to know why then read THIS. Anyway, on with the show…

Action Comics #861
Ultimate Spider-Man #118
Amazing Spider-Man Swing Shift Director’s Cut #1
Spider-Man: With Great Power… #1
Ultimate Spider-Man Vols. 3-5 TPB
Mighty Avengers #8
Avengers: The Initiative #9
New Avengers Annual #2
Young Avengers Presents #1
Avengers Disassembled Oversized Hardcover
New Avengers Oversized Hardcover Vol. 1
Wolverine: Evolutions Premiere Hardcover
Captain America #34
Captain America: The Chosen #6
Captain Marvel #s 1 and 2
Green Lantern #27
Death of the New Gods #5
Black Adam #6
Project Superpowers #0

Amazing Spider-Man Swing Shift Director’s Cut was a solid read. I have the Free Comic Book Day edition, but it is buried, so it was nice to get this version because I wanted to re-read the story. Frankly I liked it and I think that book is probably responsible for me starting my Spider-Man kick. Avengers: The Initiative #9 was enjoyable as hell and I am glad I started picking this book up.

Yeah I bought Captain America #34. I figured why fight it. Guess I have to get the issues I’ve missed.

Outside of Action Comics, Green Lantern, Death of the New Gods, Black Adam and Captain America: The Chosen (I wanted to see how it ended) the rest of my purchases were complete larks. Stuff I just wanted to read. I’ve been curious about Avengers Disassembled and the early New Avengers for some time, but never had the real desire to pick it up or track the issues down, but between my recent Marvel thing and the upcoming Secret Invasion I thought it was time. I’m looking forward to reading those hardcovers too.

And they will look awesome.

The Ultimate Spider-Man trades are my preparation for a solid run of the book that I am going to be buying in the next few weeks. I bought the first oversized hardcover years ago, so I figured I would buy the trades up until the starting point of the run I will be getting and that would be a good way to get caught up.

Man, this is a great time to have the off handed desire to read something because it’s probably in a trade, especially if it’s a Marvel book from the past nine years.

Kick ass.

I Am Fat With Essentials

I don't think I mentioned this when I wanted to on Saturday, but thanks to my bonus finally coming through at work (long story there, don't feel like getting into right now) I was finally able to buy the Marvel Essentials that a buddy of mine was willing to sell me at a really good price.

Here's the stack:
























So despite having a few extras (they came as a set and I figured that I could donate the others to a library or use them as prizes on my show) I am fat with Essentials. They are:

Essential Spider-Man Vols. 1-6
Essential Fantastic Four Vols. 1-4
Essential Avengers Vols. 1-3
Essential Silver Surfer Vol. 1
Essential Hulk Vols. 1 and 2
Essential Iron Man Vol. 1
Essential Captain America Vol. 1

The book shelf is going to look very nice. I am fat with reprints. Soon they will have their own representation in Congress like my comic collection does.

Hey, An E-Mail From Marvel

So in my last thrilling installment I detailed how my copy of Hulk Visionaries: Peter David Vol. 5 was missing a few pages from the final issue in the collection and how that made me sad.

:-(

Anyway, not knowing why really I e-mailed Peter David thinking maybe he had heard something about this. Maybe it was a widespread problem, I reasoned, and others had contacted him as well. Turns out they hadn't, which I had pretty much figured on but it was worth a shot right?

In the reply e-mail Peter asked me who the collected editions editor was and I e-mailed him back with a list of the people I thought fit the description. Tonight when I got home from the gym I found this e-mail in my inbox.

Michael,

I just check our office sample against a printed copy of issue #372, and all the pages are there. I think you must just have purchased a defective copy of the book, which unfortunately happens from time to time; your best bet is to return it to the store where you bought it and exchange it for a new one.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you, and I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying the line!

Jeff Youngquist
Senior Editor, Special Projects
Marvel Entertainment, Inc.

So that was pretty cool. Sure I have to take the book back, but it's good to know that mine is an isolated incident.

And getting an e-mail from someone at Marvel has some coolness attached to it as well.

Oh well, tragedy averted. All is well here at the Fortress of Baileytude.

For now...

Well That's Kind of Annoying

One of my comic book purchases this week was Hulk Visionaries Peter David Volume 5. I am really happy that this series of trades continues to be published. My all-time favorite Hulk writer (and one of my all-time favorite writers for that matter) is Peter David and while I do have his complete run on the title in addition to the specials, novel and other Hulk stories he produced around that time (except for that pesky Hulk/Venom thing) I like a wall full of trades and I like the fact that I don't have to dig through my books to read those stories.

I'm a bit distressed though because upon looking the book over I discovered that for some reason the last issue in the volume (372) is missing the last four or five pages. Those that are familiar with the issue in question will remember that the Green Hulk made his return after a vehicle from the Pantheon prevents Bruce from chasing after Betty. So you have that beautiful splash page of the Green Hulk's return and then the next page of the Hulk getting slammed by the cannon from Promethus' vehicle and then...nothing.

The ending? Missing.

Grrrr...

I need to look into this. The book was only twenty bucks but at the same time I expect that the entire issue be there. Maybe it was done on purpose, but that seems doubtful.

Updates as they occur.

What I Bought: Comic Week January 23, 2008

A good mix of trades and comics this week. As usual the list with the Blue, Red and Green listed first.

Superman/Batman #45
Superman Confidential #11
JLA Classified #51
Superman: Redemption TPB
Amazing Spider-Man #548
Spider-Man: Birth of Venom TPB
World War Hulk: Damage Control #1
She-Hulk # 25
Hulk Visionaries: Peter David Vol. 5 TPB
Ultimates 3 #2
Marvel Zombies 2 #4
Fifty-Two Aftermath- Crime Bible: Five Lessons of Blood #4
X-Men: Onslaught The Complete Epic Vol. 1 TPB

Thanks to some extra cash from my first ever manager bonus (yay big sales) I also picked up the following Showcases which have been sitting in my box for a few weeks now:

Brave and the Bold Vol. 2
Justice League of America Vol. 3
Robin The Boy Wonder Vol. 1
Supergirl Vol. 1

Unless it is Superman related those may be my last Showcases for a while. I like the concept and the format, but my interests have been more Marvel-centric lately, so the money goes where the fannish heart is willing. Still, neat to have.

So far I have read JLA Classified, Superman/Batman, Amazing Spider-Man, and Ultimates 3. The first two I will be reviewing for the Superman Homepage this week. Amazing wrapped up Brand New Day nicely and now that the story is over I'll get that review done. I'm looking forward to the rest of the books as well. Birth of Venom is a fat trade paperback for only thirty bucks. The much slimmer Onslaught book also has me interested, so I'll probably read those pretty quick.

Ultimates 3 #2 was FREAKING AWESOME. There's no other way to describe it.

So another week gone and I only bought the comics I actually wanted to read. It has worked out pretty good so far. Look for reviews and links to reviews over the next week.

Start Freaking Out...Now

According to the Superman Homepage (which I write reviews for) there might be a chance that sometime within the next few months Film Score Magazine's record label may...may release all the scores to Superman I thru IV.

Head on over to the Superman Homepage for the full details.

And to this I say...


HOLYCRAPTHATISSOFREAKINGAWESOMEICAN'TFREAKINGBELIEVEITIHAVEBEENWAITINGFOREVERFORTHESCORESTOII
THRUIVTOBERELEASEDHOLYCRAP!

Yeah, that about covers it.

What A Weird Week

So I haven't been posting here in the past few days. Once again real life intrudes.

On Tuesday I was sickish. I woke up that morning with the world swimming around me. I had a dizzy spell a few months ago and this was a really nice repeat of the nausea, the room spinning and the throwing up, so even though I went to work I still didn't feel like doing much of anything else.

On Wednesday I spent the day with my wife doing...a whole lot of nothing. I slept in. I worked out a problem I had with the bank. I made a late breakfast; sausage, eggs, French toast made with raisin bread, an orange. Good stuff, I tell you. Good stuff. Then we watched TV and I took a shower and that was pretty much the extent of my moving around for the day.

Today I went back to work and Rachel is feeling ill, so again I haven't done much of anything.

I will hopefully be back on track in a few days. I still want to write a review of Hulk #1 and I have a few other things up my sleeve.

Until then I am off to bed. It's supposed to be a cold one tonight, which I love and everyone else thinks is terrible.

I am a man living in the south yet raised in the north. I take my cold, winter days and night when I can.

Marvel Saga #2 or One of the First

The cover date on the comic was January and if you took a peek inside you would find that it was January 1986. Before 1988 or so comic books had a cover date that was roughly four months ahead of real time, which meant if the cover date read January 1986 it probably came out in September or October of 1985, so that's roughly the time period where this story takes place.

My family and I lived in a little town called Mountain Top, PA. It was nestled in the northeastern portion of the state near the often mispronounced Wilkes Barre. It was the sort of town where just about anything that had to do with living there (food, medicine, places to eat, etc.) was all on one street with a few side streets here and there. I don't know if it is still that way. I haven't been there in over ten years. Anyway, on one of those side streets was Triangle Pharmacy and for a drug store it was a pretty cool place for a kid to go. There was a basement that served as a sort of mini-toy store and in 1984 even started carrying Transformers toys, which was awesome.

It also had a spinner rack just chock full of comics. Sometimes it was upstairs and sometimes it was downstairs but very soon it was something that I would always check out when my Mom and/or Dad had to go there. I didn't always get a comic. I wasn't an addict then, but I always looked.

One of the books I did buy was Marvel Saga: The Official History of the Marvel Universe #2.

This was one of those impulse buys (or impulse "Hey, Dad, I want this comic") solely based on that cover. It had the Hulk and in my pre-obsessive fan days I based most of my comic book acquisitions on characters I had seen on television and that included movies since I didn't go to many films on that as a kid. I was big into the Incredible Hulk television series as a kid so I was more attracted to comics featuring the character. This cover was also where I learned how to pronounce the word "origin". Instead of saying "gin" like the drink I used the other sound for the letter g and was quickly corrected by my father.

When we got home I set about reading the book and at the time I didn't notice that this comic was very different. Marvel Saga was a kind of "clip show" as a comic book. Writer Peter Sanderson (after a five page flashback that kind of glazed over the major events up until the creation of the Fantastic Four) detailed the history of the Marvel in chronological order with a combination of text and panels from the various comic books. Now here's the neat part; when I wrote chronological I meant chronological, not print order. So if a piece of the history was put in later, like John Byrne did with the Fantastic Four, Sanderson would put that in the narrative where it belonged in the continuity. In the first issue there was a lot of John Byrne panels from his Fantastic Four and Alpha Flight from the eighties work mixed in with the Jack Kirby, Don Heck, etc. panels from the sixties and it looked kind of odd but once you got used to that it was a really neat way to learn about Marvel history.

Not that I noticed any of that at the time. I was just jazzed about seeing the origin of the Hulk. That was actually the very first time I ever saw the comic book origin of the character. I had seen the origin on the live action series and on the Saturday morning early eighties but never the original comic book version, so that was cool for the nine year old version of me. I read the heck out of that book as I did with all of the comic books I had at the time. One of the things I miss about reading comics as a kid is how reading a comic used to take hours to read, or at least it seemed that way. In the here and now I read so many freaking comics that I don't seem to take the time to enjoy them like I used to.

Sigh.

Unfortunately Marvel Saga #2 did not survive my pre-serious collecting years. I lost a bunch of books when we moved from Mountain Top, PA to Wescosville, PA and that was one of them. I own it now. I bought the first twelve issues a while back and recently purchased Essential Marvel Saga Vol. 1, so I have them, but part of me wishes I still had the first copy I got back in 1985. It would probably be in pieces, but still. That was one of the first comics I ever had.

Oh well, life goes on.

By the way, the Barre in Wilkes Barre is pronounced Berry. Just in case it comes up in conversation.

What I Bought: Comic Week January 16, 2008

I only bought a few books this week but I think they were choice. I also bought something that I was really looking forward to, so I'll get right to the list with the Superman, Spider-Man and Hulk related books first as always.

Amazing Spider-Man #547
Amazing Spider-Girl #16
Hulk #1 (Ed McGuinness Variant Cover)
Incredible Hercules #113
World War Hulk: Aftersmash- Warbound #2
Justice League of America #17
Booster Gold #6
Robin #170

I've already read Amazing Spider-Man and it was freaking awesome. I am totally digging this story. I know that I promised a review of the previous issue, but I figured it would probably be better to allow for all three issues to come out and then review them all at once. I figure it might be better to let the whole story unfold and then give my opinion so I can avoid jumping the gun and with the book coming out three times a month it makes it easier to do such a thing.

The Hulk #1 was a complete impulse buy. Chuck at Titan Games and Comics got some in this week and cut me a deal on the second McGuinness cover. Apparently it is one of the rarer covers but that really didn't factor into my decision. I like the fact that it is an homage to the original Incredible Hulk #1.

And you couldn't beat the price with a stick.

The other books look promising. This is my first outing with Amazing Spider-Girl, but I am willing to give it a shot. I enjoyed the first part of the Incredible Hercules storyline, so this was an easy buy. Warbound didn't thrill me last month but I am willing to give it another chance. I'll be reviewing Justice League for the Superman Homepage this week, so I'll pimp that when it hits. Booster Gold has been fantastic from the start so I expect more of that this issue. Finally, as far as standard comic purchases go, Chuck Dixon makes his return to Robin this month, so I just had to get that.

I did buy one more thing this week. I just had to. It is part of Marvel's Essential line and contains one of the first comics I ever bought (or rather had my parents buy) off the rack.

The book? Essential Marvel Saga: The Official History of the Marvel Universe.

The comic it contains that I bought back in the day? Marvel Saga #2.

Oh yeah, this is going to be all about the awesome I kid you not.

More on that Marvel Saga later. Now I am off to bed as I worked a fifteen hour shift with an hour lunch so it was really like fourteen hour shift but why quibble?

Superman: From 50 to 70- The Prologue

I mentioned yesterday that I kind of felt bad that the Superman element of this Superman/Spider-Man/Hulk blog was kind of getting ignored. I mean Superman is my favorite character and as much as I like the Hulk and as much as I am getting into Spider-Man there is no doubt which one of the trio is top dog for me. I mean when I chose the name The Blue, The Red and The Green I put the blue first for a reason.

As Bibbo would say, Superman's my fav'rit.

Well I figured out a way to rectify the situation.

We are a few weeks into 2008.

Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1, which came out in 1938.

Superman is 70 this year.

Sure it's not as exciting as 50 or 75, but as a fan of the character it is pretty important.

So this is the introductory installment of a series of posts called Superman: From 50 to 70. Over the next twelve months you can expect a series of posts chronicling my twenty years of being Superman a Superman fan and by chronicling I mean I'm just going to ramble on a couple of times a weak and bore you with stories of my misspent youth.

The name of this section is a bit misleading because technically I started officially collecting Superman in 1987 but hey, I liked the name. At some point within the next week or so I will be creating a graphic for this series and I'll get the ball rolling.

Should be fun.

Or it might be about as exciting as watching paint dry. We'll see how this goes.

Superman

I need to post more about Superman. I've been leaving him out of these posts and frankly that's not fair.

I mean he's my favorite. How could I ignore him like that?

More to follow.

PS: The Comic Images Spider-Man cards I got on eBay arrived today. They are the awesome. Pictures and comments soon.

Review: Spider-Man: The Mutant Menace DVD

I have to admit up front that before watching this three-episode DVD I had only seen one episode of the totally CGI Spider-Man: The New Animated Series that originally ran on MTV and really I didn't even watch the full episode because at the time the animation...bothered me. It's hard to explain. I felt like I was watching the cut scenes from a Spider-Man video game. I just didn't care for it.

Now, several years later, I decided to give the series another shot. I'm more of a Spider-Man fan now, so maybe I would enjoy the series more because of that. Instead of tracking down the DVD box set of the entire series I thought it might be prudent to pick up one of the three episode stand alone DVD's that Sony released some time ago. I actually bought it at work, which was weird because I work for Office Depot and you wouldn't think that a big box office supply store would carry DVDs at all much less a Spider-Man DVD but they put in this rack a few months ago and this particular DVD has been staring at me for weeks now.

It was also less than ten bucks, so I didn't feel like I was losing much by buying it.

Overall I enjoyed the DVD. The animation was a lot better than I remembered, though there were a few times when a character ran by that I thought the scene would go black and a little LOADING icon would appear at the bottom of the screen. The more of the animation I saw, however, and the more I saw Spider-Man move the more I liked it. It was a bold experiment, though, and I have to give the creators credit for trying something new.

The voice cast was very interesting. I barely recognized Neal Patrick Harris as Peter Parker and Spider-Man but it still sounded right. Lisa Loeb was decent as Mary Jane. I really don't have much of an opinion of her one way or another. The best casting had to be Ian Ziering as Harry Osbourne. As much as I liked James Franco in the role Ziering captures the character for this series. In all honesty the voice work was very strong for the show. It's not quite Justice League Unlimited level, but at the same time it was very appropriate for this particular series.

"Tight Squeeze" was the first episode on the disc (and from what I gather the sixth episode of the series) and it had a pretty basic plot to it; high tech thieves have a run in with Spider-Man and then take hostages demanding Spider-Man show up by a certain time and guess who is among those hostages? Yes, Peter Parker. As cliched as it may sound I liked this episode quite a lot. The twist that Pterodax was using Spider-Man as a distraction was great and made the episode more enjoyable. It also had a lot of classic Spider-Man elements to it; a great scene with J. Jonah Jameson, Peter and M.J. having romantic problems, Spider-Man cracking wise while fighting the bad guys and some good old fashioned romantic problems right there at the end. James Marsters voiced the leader of Pterodax and did a solid Russian accent. I kind of dug Indira Daimonji, who may have been designed to provide conflict in the Peter/M.J. relationship but to me was also an endearing character.

"Law of the Jungle" was the second episode on the disc, the third episode of the series and my favorite out of the three I've seen. I loved this take on the Lizard. Curt Conners was introduced as a very serious and driven individual, which makes his becoming the Lizard all the more dramatic. The sub-plot of Harry dealing with the first anniversary of his father's death was brought into the main plot rather organically, though Conners losing his arm in an accident connected to Oscorp was the one weak part of the episode. Despite that I thought that while the Lizard looked kind of funky it was a fantastic update of the character. And Rob Zombie provided the voice for Conners and the Lizard, which is just freaking awesome to me.

"Sword of Shikata" the final episode and I believe the fourth of the series, was...odd. I like the concept of some freaky movie producer wanting to capture Spider-Man for his "collection" and I like him hiring some quasi-mystical martial artist and swords woman to do the job. After Shikata, voiced by Gina Gershon, realizes how noble Spider-Man she tells her employer that she must fight him to the death, which prompts the producer to want her eliminated. So the plot is solid but there's something about the end of this episode being a fight scene between Spider-Man and Shikata that's a bit off. The only thing that saved it is that Spider-Man's reason for fighting was a kidnapped Mary Jane. Still, I liked the episode overall and can't find too many bad things to say about it.

All in all I liked what I saw. The strength of the series is the fact that the creators focused as much on the characters and how they relate as they did on the action. After seeing these episodes I really want to track down the box set to watch the rest of them. If I had one problem with this disc as a whole is that the episodes were shown out of order, which made the continuity a little confusing at times. I think seeing them in the proper order will make the series as a whole more enjoyable.

Final Analysis: Looked a bit funky but I liked it.

Final Rating: 4 Web Cartridges Out Of 5

Random Thought For January 11, 2008

What if that picture of Edward Norton in the obviously Incredible Hulk television series picture was released as part of a disinformation campaign and is just there to snow us?

I mean I'm not saying it was released just to snow us, but looking at it I have this odd little voice in the back of my head that screams, "This is too spot on. Don't believe it! Don't believe it!"

Consider this random thought butt coverage on my part in case it turns out to be a clever ploy to get the fanboys buzzing.

Pimp My Stuff- January 11, 2008 Edition

Here are a couple of things I would like to pimp involving other things I do on the web.

First up is my podcast, Views From The Longbox.

Views From The Longbox Episode 24: The Mike and Shag Show 4 Episode

This week I once again team up with my sometimes co-host Shag Matthews and we talk about comic book films. Some of the movies discussed are Spider-Man, X2: X-Men United, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Daredevil, Superman: The Movie, Hulk and a bunch of others. Just click on the link above to download the episode or head over to the Official Blog Page and subscribe through iTunes.

Next is my weekly column at Comixtreme, also called Views From The Longbox.

Views From The Longbox #18- The Runner-Ups

In this thirlling installment of Views From The Longbox serves as epilogue for the five part series I did a few weeks back going through my Top Five All-Time Favorite Super-Heroes. Here I go through the characters that make up the rest of the Top Ten and yes a certain web slinger is mentioned.

So both of my efforts this week had to do with Superman, Spider-Man and the Hulk.

I hope you enjoy them and as always leave feedback if you like what you hear and read.

Thoughts on Amazing Fantasy #15

Full disclosure: I actually wrote this and posted it in several other places a few weeks ago, but it got some good feedback and I've run out of time to post something today, so here it is. I hope you like it.




I've been reading a lot of Spider-Man books recently. I'll get into why at some other point but for whatever reasons the character has just grabbed me lately. Grabbed me as a reader in a way he never did before.

One of the stories I've read lately (or re-read as I have probably gone through it about a dozen times in my life) is the origin story from Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962). Many people have written about what a groundbreaking origin story this was for a super-hero and frankly I agree with them. Looking at that story in the context of the times it was published it is an amazing leap forward for what can be described somewhat pretentiously as the super-hero genre. It was the next step after the Fantastic Four. The FF got their powers through an accident and immediately set about helping people with them. The fact that they bickered and that Sue Storm was actually a viable member of the team is what set them apart but in their first issue they all put their hands in and declared their intention to help mankind.

Spider-Man was different. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko took two pages to establish what a bookwork and outcast Peter Parker is, which may not sound like a lot of space but in the early sixties in an anthology book in an eleven page story that was a lot of time to devote to character development. He received his powers from an accident involving radiation (standard for the day and pretty much the next decade or so) and the first thing he did was test his powers out at a wrestling match, which went well enough for him to grab the attention of a TV producer. From there Peter designed and sewed the costume, developed the web fluid and shooters and went on television. Through the dialog you get the sense that Peter is kind of a bitter and angry young man and with the comments made by his classmates at the beginning of the story it is little wonder he felt this way.

Then it happens.

The thief runs by him after robbing...something. Peter doesn't stop him. The same thief ends up robbing the Parker household and killing his Uncle Ben. With great power comes great responsibility.

The origin has been re-told over and over again so many times in variety of mediums. If you read enough Spider-Man comics you see it again and again and again. So much so that after a while it kind of loses its power as an origin. You forget Peter being mocked by his classmates and the resentment he feels and the love Ben and May Parker had for their nephew. It's almost like Batman and the death of the Waynes. You see that enough and the concept that a little boy watched his parents die violently in front him gets forgotten. After awhile both origins are a means to an end.

That was one of the thoughts that ran through my head as I re-read Amazing Fantasy #15.

Here's the other:

The origin of Spider-Man wasn't a super-hero story.

It was a science fiction story.

If you've ever read any of the horror and science fiction books put out by EC Comics in the fifties then you know that they follow a certain pattern. Establishing character development followed by something weird or horrific happening followed by twist ending. This is not to diminish those stories. I love them with the best being the ones in my opinion being the horror books, but the science fiction tales were great as well, but they did have a formula like most comics of the time had some kind of story engine. After the formation of the Comics Code EC was forced to find a new direction, which didn't work out and with the exception of *Mad*, which eventually shifted to magazine format, all of it's titles were canceled.

This didn't stop other publishers from copying the formula albeit in a watered down, code approved version. In 1961 the company that would become the Marvel Comics as we know it today put out a comic called Amazing Adventures, which was an anthology book that told monster and science fiction stories including an adventure character who dealt with the weird and wacky named Doctor Droom, who would be brought back later in the seventies as Doctor Druid. With the seventh issue the titled was changed to Amazing Adult Fantasy, that was supposed to be a more mature title brought home by the little caption on the cover that read, "The Magazine That Respects Your Intelligence."

Number fifteen was the title's last issue with yet another name change, this time to the simpler Amazing Fantasy. It was here that Stan published a concept that from all accounts was a bone of contention between Lee and his publisher, Martin Goodman. Goodman hated this concept of a super-hero who was not only a nerd but a teenager with problems and hang-ups. I don't know how apocryphal that story is. It's hard to tell what really happened and what made for a better story later, but in any case the concept was apparently looked down upon so Lee stuck it in this little anthology book that was going to be canceled anyway and thus a legend was born.

The thing is that if you read the story...I mean really read the story it fits perfectly within the format of the science fiction story with the twist ending. Ordinary kid who is mocked and ridiculed. Loving family. Suddenly he is involved in an accident that gives him the powers of a spider. He takes advantage of those abilities and tries to make money but doesn't step up to help when that help was needed because he was looking out for no one but himself. Then his Uncle Ben, a man he loved and who loved him, is killed by a robber and after cornering the man Peter discovers to his horror that it was the very same man who he failed to stop when he had the chance. The only thing that really separates it is the super-hero style costume, which is mocked at the beginning of the story with the little blurb that read, "Like costumed heroes?Confidentially we in the comic mag business refer to them as 'long underwear characters'!" Without that caption at the beginning this story would have been right at home in a science fiction anthology title.

And honestly if the strip hadn't proved successful it would have been just another story with a snap ending. Instead with retelling after retelling and over forty years of comic book stories, movies, television series and the rest it has become an archetypal origin story.

In any case it's still a solid little story. Sure times and sensibilities have changed but it still holds up surprisingly well.

Weird aside; two months before Amazing Fantasy #15 was published a Stan Lee/Steve Ditko story titled Goodbye to Linda Brown could be found in Strange Tales #97 (June 1962). The story concerned a young, wheelchair bound girl who lived with her uncle and aunt in a beach front setting. I won't give away the details of the story (though it was kind of neat) but there was one strange bit of business thrown in. The uncle and aunt were named Ben and May Parker. And they looked just like Peter's Aunt May and Uncle Ben.

What I Bought: Comic Week January 9, 2008

Holy crap did I buy a lot of comics this week.

As I mentioned in the last installment of What I Bought I mentioned that I was playing catch up from the week I couldn't buy comics, which sounds like a bad Hallmark movie. "The Week There Was No Comics" starring John Schneider and Glenn Close. Anyway, I ended up picking up the rest of the comics I didn't buy last week, the books I had in my box this week and a few Marvel titles just to give them a look-see.

So here's the list, Blue, Red and Green books first.

Superman #672
Amazing Spider-Man #546 (both covers)

Hulk #1 (Cover 1A according to MyComicShop.Com)

Death of the New Gods #4

Fifty-Two Aftermath: Crime Bible (Five Lessons of Blood) #3

Fifty Two Aftermath: Four Horsemen #s 5 and 6

Flash #235

JLA Classified #50

JSA Classified #33

Legion of Super-Heroes #37

Salvation Run #3

Suicide Squad #5

Teen Titans #54

Avengers: The Initiative #8

Giant-Size Avengers #1

Marvel Zombies 2 #3

Mighty Avengers #s 6 and 7

New Avengers #37

Youngblood #1 (both covers)

Yeah I bought Youngblood #1. I make no bones about it. That team is one of my few comic book vices.

So it would seem that I am the only one at the comic shop I call home (Titan Games and Comics, located in College Park, GA) that is looking forward to Brand New Day. I missed the usual collection of sketchy characters that descend on Titans every Wednesday but from what Chuck told me the general consensus was, "Drop Amazing-Spider-Man". I don't know. I can't explain it but this new direction, no matter how ill conceived the process that got us here was, has me excited and considering how un-enthused I have been concerning comics lately (at least the new ones) it's nice to look forward to something.

We'll see how it works out. I'm sure you'll see posts on it over the weeks and months to come.

I bought all of the Avengers books because I am trying to get into Marvel again. I do this every few years and since my first love, DC Comics, is going into directions that produce emotional responses that range from apathetic to barely able to speak angry. I just don't like what they're doing and because I am an addict I need to find a new drug to give me my fix. So I'm going to give the Avengers stuff and the Secret Invasion a shot, though I am not getting my hopes up. Civil War was kind of a let down and while I enjoyed World War Hulk I felt that the ending didn't match up to the hype.

Again, we'll see how this goes. I probably won't post about the Avengers books here, but check out my Views From The Longbox blog (home of my podcast) where I may write something about my thoughts on the various Avengers books I bought today.

I will be reviewing JLA Classified for the Superman Homepage though I am thinking of giving the book up after the current arc, maybe sooner. This title is so hit and miss that I can't support it anymore. I actually dropped a few books today but picked up Amazing Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Girl and Spider-Man Family, so it kind of evens out. One of my goals for the year when it comes to comics is to only buy new titles that I really enjoy so that when I go to read my books every week I will look forward to all of them and actually have trouble putting them in reading order because I can't decide which one to read first. It's a simple and attainable goal; I just have to be more vicious in cutting off books that just aren't doing it for me anymore.

I mean these things are $2.99 a pop on average. I can't keep on buying books that I'm not all that interested in anymore.

Over the next week or so I'll be doing reviews of Superman, Amazing Spider-Man and Hulk. I wanted to get all of the books I bought last week reviewed for this blog, but they came out on Friday so time was kind of tight between the podcast and everything else going on. So look for that in the next few days.

Looking at the releases for next week my load won't be as heavy. Too bad I have all of those trades and action figures sitting in my box.

Sigh. Sometimes it's hard to be a comic fan.

Pimp My Stuff

My review of JLA Classified #49 is up over at the Superman Homepage.

Click Here To Read My Thoughts On This Lousy Book

More tomorrow.

Superman Review: Action Comics #860

Action Comics #860 (February 2008)

"Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes Chapter 3: Lightning and Shadows" -22 pages

Writer: Geoff Johns

Pencils: Gary Frank

Inks: John Sibal

Colors: Dave McCaig

Letters: Rob Leigh

Associate Editor: Nache Castro

Editor: Matt Idelson

You know, I really wasn't all that impressed with the first chapter of this story. It was good. As a Superman fan I was satisfied and there were some neat little moments, but on the whole it didn't make me sit up and say, "Yeah, this is what the character needed."

With the second and now third chapter out my opinion has changed. I am digging this story.

Geoff Johns is one of those rare writers who work on the big name characters these days that can deliver a chapter of a bigger story and still make you feel like you got your three bucks worth. He also has the ability to introduce a large cast of characters into a story without really bogging it down, though I will admit that the little boxes that tell you who the character is certainly help. Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes plays to these strengths and manages to up the ante with each issue and still having what has become another hallmark of Johns' work; the shock ending.

Lighting and Shadows introduced more of the Legion, had more of the future Justice League and reinforced why I like the concept behind this story. There is something really neat about a sect of humanity that is spreading the lie that Superman was human to gain some level of power. The fact that they were able to do it so well makes the plan all the more insideous and considering it is a thousand years in the future it is more believable that the general public would buy into the lie. I like that. I like that a lot actually and that twist is what sucked me in last issue. It is such a novel concept, or at least novel to me and I will confess to the fact that I am no scholar when it comes to the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Johns threw in some great character bits as well. I liked Polar Boy. The pacing of the scene where he is freed, right down to the temperature plummeting, made for a dramatic and kick ass moment where you know that for Polar Boy it's on. Polar Boy was also used to reinforce why Earth-Man and his Justice League are the bad guys. They wanted the same acclaim that the Legion had but didn't want to work for it like Polar Boy and the other substitutes did. I mean that's a criminal right? The type of person that wants the reward but none of the sacrifice. So they abandon trying to work within the system create this myth that Superman was human and use that to force the Legion and all other alien races of the planet. It played nicely and brought the point home without beating the reader over the head with it, which I liked. The action was intense as well, but then again this is a Geoff Johns book and after reading several months worth of Green Lantern and Sinestros killing each other I shouldn't be surprised. The fighting is relatively restrained though and the build up to the final fight of the issue played beautifully with Earth-Man taunting the group telepathically before the assault began. It allowed for more exposition and didn't slow the pacing down at all, which again is kind of rare in today's comics.

My only pet peeve with this story is the art. I know that a lot of people are happy beyond belief that Gary Frank is on this book and normally I would agree. And it's not that I don't like the art because in all honesty it has been nice to have as long a run of consistantly good art on the Superman books as we've had. There is just something about the way Frank's style has changed. I know this is fannish to say but I prefered his style on the Incredibe Hulk. A little slicker. A little cleaner. Here just about everyone looks as if they haven't slept for days. I don't know if it is Sibal's inking or just the natural progression of Gary's style. It's just a little off for me.

Not that I want him off the book. Frankly if we get a regular creative team on this book that can bring it in on time month after month I'll take some "I just spent the last drinking coffee by the metric ton to stay awake" looking characters.

So overall I was very happy with this latest issue. It furthered the story along, added to the tapestry and had that good cliffhanger ending I mentioned before.

Now if only I could feel the same way about Busiek on Superman.

Spider-Man Review: Tangled Web #4

Tangled Web #4 (September 2001)

"Severance Package" - 22 pages

Writer: Greg Rucka

Artist: Eduardo Risso

Colors: Steve Buccellato

Letters: Richard Starkings and Comicraft's Wes Abbott

Assistant Editor: John Miesegaes

Editor: Axel Alonso

This is one of those books that someone literally put in my hands and told me I needed to read.

A good friend of mine and I were at the comic shop last Friday and he told me that it was something of an imperative that I buy or at least read Tangled Web #4 immediately. The price was decent and I've been on a Spider-Man kick, so it was a pretty easy sell. I've come to trust this friend when it pertains to comic book recommendation so I purchased the comic and read it right there.

I'm glad I did. My friend was absolutely right. This was an incredible comic book.

From what I can gather Tangled Webs was a book designed to tell off-beat and usually out of continuity stories related to Spider-Man and his world. The title began publication in 2001 and this was the era of Bill Jemas and Joe Quesada trying to bring attention to Marvel with sideshow type marketing and a "throw everything against the wall and see if it sticks and if it doesn't stick and isn't in development as a property somewhere then for God's sake cancel halfway throught the fourth issue" publishing mandate. It was an interesting time. I wish I had been more of a Marvel fan then so I could remember more of it not because it was good but because it would probably make an interesting book someday.

This issue, labeled in the publishing mumbo jumbo on the splash page as Tangled Web: The Thousand, related the story of Tom Cochrane, a member of Wilson Fisk's criminal organization who at the beginning of the story receives news that an operation he was repsonsible for went bad because of Spider-man resulting in arrests and the seizure of millions of dollars worth of weapons. Tom knows what this means and so does his wife Shelly and soon he gets "the call." The rest of the issue deals with Tom saying goodbye to his family and meeting his ultimate fate for failing the Kingpin.

Greg Rucka is one of my favorite writers and he did not disappoint with this issue. I've read several of his novels and dozens and dozens of his comic books and I have rarely, if ever, been disappointed. His stories always have a heart and when I write heart I don't mean they are heart warming or the feel good story of the year. They have a core. A center. Something you can hang a hat on so to speak. The plot of the story is how a mid-level enforcer for the Kingpin would react to getting that call that he knew may come from the day he started in the organization. The heart comes from seeing how Tom deals with knowing he is about to die.

Rucka deals with this on two levels; obvious and subtle and he mixes the two well. When Tom is getting ready after receiving the call there is the obvious emotional heartbreak of him saying good-bye to his wife and sleeping kids and then the subtle moments, such as the panel where he momentarily picks up a pack of razor blades, which to me means he was contemplating suicide. There are other small moments like this that make the story richer and gave it greater emotional weight. Rucka could have taken this in any number of directions but here we get to see a man who takes responsibility for what has happened and doesn't put up a fight. There are a few times, like the panel with the razor blades, where you think it is going in one direction but in the end Tom still mans up and reports to the Kingpin. Even though I knew what was going to happen I still got a bit of a surprise right at the end with a twist I did not see coming.

This story was also an interesting look into the Kingpin's world. I am by no means an expert on organized crime this story felt right, like this is what would happen if you worked for the Kingpin and messed up. In one issue Rucka gave me the sense that there was a structure to Fisk's empire and that everyone who worked as "middle managers" so to speak knew what the game was and knew the risks involved. The dramatic angle was the phone call, which was built up nicely and paid off in a beautiful splash page. Eduardo Risso's art sold the terror and sadness that surrounded that call and for the rest of the issue paid off all of Rucka's emotional beats.

I am relatively sure that Tangled Web as a title was probably hit and miss. Such titles are. It's the nature of a rotating creative team combined with off beat stories. Legends of the Dark Knight suffered from this for most of its existence. But for every five lousy stories there is usually one that is memorable and holds up well even after six to seven years have passed.

But it's Rucka, so I shouldn't be surprised.

On a completely unrelated note the cover date of this particular issue made me a little sad. I know that covers dates usually run about two months behind so this book probably came out in July of 2001 but seeing September 2001 still gets to me. This had no bearing on how I felt about the story, I just thought it was worth a sentence or two.

What I Bought: Comic Week of January 4, 2008

Played a bit of catch up this week because for the first time in well over a year I didn't hit the comic shop last week. I usually make a weekly pilgrimage to Titan Games and Comics, but the holidays and a recent mini-vacation took a lot out of the old bank account so I went without.

Despite the fact that the money situation is much better this week and will continue to (hopefully) get better I feel another culling coming on. There are some books on the hold list that I just don't care for anymore. Conversely, since I started this blog I thought it might be fun to start picking up all of the Spider-Man and Hulk related books, even Amazing Spider-Girl and the Marvel Adventures stuff. So there will be a lot of give, but some take.

Anyway, here's the list with the Blue, Red and Green stuff first.

Action Comics #860 (both covers naturally)

Supergirl #25

Amazing Spider-Man #545 (Joe Q cover)

Spider-Man Family #6

Spider-Man Tangled Web #s 4 and 13 (Hey, kids, back issues!)

Hulk vs. Fin Fang Foom One Shot

Green Lantern #26

Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps Secret Files and Origins

JLA Classified #49

I also bought the latest issues of Jack of Fables and Anita Blake, but those were for the wife.

The two issues of Tangled Web were recommended by my buddy Marrow, who pretty much made me read issue 4 right there in the store. Not that he really needed to twist my arm. It's Greg Rucka. I love Rucka's writing and that was one solid story. I'm looking forward to the issue 13.

Over the next week I'll post reviews of Action Comics, Amazing Spider-Man, the two Tangled Webs, the Spider-Man Family and Hulk vs. Fin Fang Foom.

At least that's the plan.

Favorite cover of the week:

So what would you do if you only had One More Frog?

Spectacular Spider-Man Preview Online

I have to admit that after listening to the interview the Spider-Man Crawlspace Podcast did with producer Greg Weisman I am pretty stoked for the new Spectacular Spider-Man animated series scheduled to hit the Kids WB in March. Weisman certainly seemed to know what he was talking about when it came to the character and if you haven't listened to that episode of the Spider-Man Crawlspace Podcast (or any other episode for that matter) head on over to the Podomatic Spider-Man Crawlspace page and check it (and them) out. It's a great podcast and perfect for the somewhat newbie Spider-Man fan such as myself.

Thanks to Superhero Hype I caught a link the Kids WB preview page, which has three short clips that made me even more excited about the project.

Go Here To Check It Out

Looks good. The animation style is going to take some getting used to but I really like the underarm webbing that Spider-Man has. Don't know why I like that look, but I do. The villains preview is promising and I was really surprised at the one hint considering how Weisman played up the fact that it was going to be mainly Ditko/Romita villains.

So far I like what I see. Usually I am terrible about remembering to watch or at least tape (because I am one of the five people in the United States that does not have a DVR) but I am going to make an extra effort to check this out.

Because it has to be better than The Batman, right?

Right?

Incredible Hulk Teaser Pictures

I'm a bit behind on this but I finally got around to checking out two of the teaser pictures that have come out of this summer's Incredible Hulk film. The first one didn't give me much to go on.

Looking at this I see the Bruce Jones run on Incredible Hulk, which I recently read. It's Norton staring at...something, but it gives enough to make me think of the several comments that Norton made at last year's Comi-Con regarding the influence the Bruce Jones comics had on the film were on the level.

It also makes me curious about where this scene fits into the overall film. Then again I'm like that. It's like how I look at movie trailers. I see the trailer and create a mental checklist that I go through as I watch the film, which is annoying when they put a scene in the trailer that ultimately gets cut.

But that's beside the point.

Well, I guess any question of how influential the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno series will be on the film are somewhat answered. I am simultaneously excited and put off by this picture. I mean I love the late seventies/early eighties series. Love it to death. I am waiting anxiously for the rest of the series to finally get released on DVD, which, you know, should have been done in 2003. So seeing this makes me go all fanboy.

At the same time I wonder how balanced the film will be between the comic book and television series? Will one outweigh the other and will it be as good if the comic influences overshadow the television influences and vice versa?

Or maybe I'm over thinking this. Always a possibility with me.

In any case I am psyched for the film. Outside of Dark Knight it is the comic book film I am most looking forward to. I have such mixed feelings about the 2003 film and hope that this one kind of keeps the parts of that movie that I liked and does away with the parts that did nothing for me.

Still, need to keep an open mind and walk in without a whole lot of preconceived notions and judge the film based on it's own merits.

And if I say that enough it might actually happen.

The First Post

Welcome to what is quite possibly the strangest comic blog on the Internet.

I don’t say that out of any sense of egotism or hype or any of that. That’s not the type of person I am and I don’t want the overall personality of this blog to be akin to car commercials from the radio. That’s annoying. I hate those commercials so I won’t subject you to that sort of thing.

No I say that this is quite possibly the strangest comic book related blog on the Internet because there is a chance that it is the first blog to focus not on the author’s thoughts regarding the industry as a whole or one particular company, character, team or franchise but on three very different super-heroes and their worlds. It might seem a bit odd to do such a thing because it seems like focusing on one would be enough but there is a perfectly logical and reasonable explanation for me having this little corner of the Internet devoted to the Man of Steel, Ol’ Webhead and the Jade Giant all at once.

Indecision.

I could not decide which one to produce a hopefully daily blog about. I really couldn’t. It started as a Superman blog but then I got into Spider-Man in a big way and thought, “Well, I could do one about the two characters and call it The Blue and The Red. Yeah, that would be cool. I mean they’re both icons of not only the genre but their respective companies and have a lot in common with each other (more on that in a future post) and they’re both red and blue (mostly) so that made sense color wise too. Also they’re both on my Top Ten Favorite Super-Heroes of All Time list, so that makes it even better.”

Everything was going along swimmingly when another hero from that list knocked on my proverbial door.

(And now for a dramatic recreation of that moment).

*knock knock*

ME: (opens door) Yes.

HULK: Are you, Michael Bailey?

ME: (hesitant since the Incredible Hulk is standing in my doorway) Yes?

HULK: Good. May I come in?

ME: (still hesitant since, you know, the Incredible Hulk is standing in my doorway) Sure.

HULK: (sits down on couch, breaks it) Sorry about that.

ME: (pulls up chair and wonders how I’m going to explain this to the wife) That’s fine. So, what brings you by, Hulk?

HULK: Well, Mike…I can call you Mike right...Thanks. Mike, I came by because frankly I’m a bit hurt.

ME: You? Hurt? I thought the madder the Hulk got the stronger the Hulk got and all that. I’ve seen you brush off everything from bullets to being ground zero at a gamma bomb blast.

HULK: I’m talking a different kind of hurt, Mike. I’m talking on the inside. Word on the street is you want to do some kind of Superman and Spider-Man blog.

ME: I was thinking about it.

HULK: Well I have to ask, Mike; what about me? I mean we’ve been tight ever since you were a kid. You watched my show. You watched my cartoon. You’ve read hundreds of my comics. You even had that home made Cabbage Patch Kid your grandmother did for you not mention the Mego figure when you were younger and that wonderful Gray Hulk statue where he’s reading Jekyll and Hyde that Rachel got you for a wedding present.

ME: That’s true. Mama Gertie did make me that Hulk Cabbage Patch doll. And I do love that statue.

HULK: So what’s the deal? Why do I get left out? It’s just not right, I tell you. Not right at all.

ME: (thinks for a moment) I see your point. I mean the whole Spider-Man thing is relatively recent. It seems rather unfair to not have thought of you as well.

HULK: That’s what I’m saying.

ME: So what do you think I should do?

HULK: Well, Mike, I’ll be honest with you. Either find some way to include me in this whole mad cap scheme of yours or I’ll level your house. I’ll let you get your wife and the dog out first, but after that this place is going to go from nice, ranch style dwelling to pile of rubble.

ME: Are you threatening me?

HULK: Pretty much, yeah.

ME: Bit of a temper you have there.

HULK: (stares for a moment)

ME: Right. Kind of obvious I guess. Look, threats of ruining my home aside I think I can do the blog about Superman, Spider-Man and you. Would that make you happy?

HULK: Like a kid in a candy store. (Gets up and begins to walk towards the front door) I knew you would see it my way.

ME: (under breath) Not that I had much of a choice.

HULK: What was that?

ME: Nothing. Go. Have fun. Get back to whatever it is you were doing. You’re in the blog.

HULK: Thanks!

(End dramatic recreation)

And so because of that hallucinogenic visit the Hulk became part of this blog and what was once The Blue and The Red became The Blue, The Red and The Green, which is kind of nice anyway because the former title sounded like a political blog and while I have nothing against such things that’s just not my thing to write about.

So what can you expect from this blog? Well, commentary mainly. The plan is to write reviews for the latest Superman, Spider-Man and Hulk books in addition to their related titles. Actually I don’t know if I will get to all of the related titles but I’ll give it a shot. I mean I don’t know if reviews of the Marvel Adventures titles will pop up but hey, you never know. The only Superman book you won’t see reviewed here is Superman/Batman, but that’s because I review that monthly over at the Superman Homepage, but I’ll post a link to it once it goes live. Expect the reviews the Monday or so after the book comes out in case you are the type of person that likes to read the book before reading the review.

I also plan to write articles/editorials about past Superman, Spider-Man and Hulk stories. Some may be short and some may have multiple parts. Some may have to do with the comics and some might be reviews of past prose, film and television efforts. I’m also going to make an effort to keep up with the latest hype surrounding the characters and throw in my two cents about what I think. I’m not the biggest person on judging something before seeing or reading the final product, but sometimes I have a problem controlling the raging fan that dwells within me.

Aside from that I thought it would be kind of fun to sometimes post pictures of the various collectibles I have lying around the house. I just took some stuff out of the storage shed today as a matter of fact, so I should be getting out the old digital camera and snapping some pictures in the next week or so.

I have a few other plans that I don’t want to reveal as of yet because they are either not fully formed or I haven’t gotten all of my ducks in a row yet. Until then check back every day as I hope to post that often unless real life intrudes.

One more thing before I depart; I am a big fan of people leaving comments or e-mailing their thoughts and feelings about the things I write about, so feel free to do this. While I do this mainly for my own amusement if you enjoy what you see and read or disagree with me or whatever I’d like to know.

Until then with great power there must also come great responsibility so the never ending battle to contain the fury that dwells within me continues.

Yeah, that was a bit much, but kind of amusing, at least to me.