Better late then never, the Moments of the I hear some obscure new movie did well this weekend. Iron something or other. I didn't get a chance to go see it, but I will be going next weekend for my birthday, so I expect good times based on all the positive word of mouth for it. I'll probably post some of my impressions for it after I've had a chance to see it.
You guys have waited long enough, so I'll let you get on to the moments. Enjoy.
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #12
"Great. We better stock up on more jars."I would have posted more Initiative moments, but the art is just so bad, I think it probably hurts some of the moments. However, despite Taskmaster's, um, I think that's his face, this scene was too funny to pass up. Although, Tasky and Ant-Man are the last two guys I'd send to deliver the bad news to anyone.
"This isn't fun for her, it's her job."Wow, this was the best image of the issue for me. If you've been following along since the beginning when War Machine first recruited Cloud 9 as she gleefully flew through the air on her cloud and compare it to now, the change is like night and day and this scene drives home what's wrong with the Initiative as a concept (not the book, the actual registration initiative in the Marvel U).
Iron Man admits he's left Camp Hammond and the actual running of the Initiative to other people and it's gone out of control, so maybe, with Gyrich ousted, the next batch of recruits won't go through the same meat grinder.
Also, all the graduates have terrible super hero costumes. Cloud 9's original appearance with the snow border / skateborder like attire was much better than this...thing she's wearing. Same for most of the other recruits.
Iron Man admits he's left Camp Hammond and the actual running of the Initiative to other people and it's gone out of control, so maybe, with Gyrich ousted, the next batch of recruits won't go through the same meat grinder.
Also, all the graduates have terrible super hero costumes. Cloud 9's original appearance with the snow border / skateborder like attire was much better than this...thing she's wearing. Same for most of the other recruits.
BLUE BEETLE #26
"Uh, did they just return from space or something?"Can anyone explain how, while flying to the family picnic, Jaime somehow managed to get turned upside down? Is that a normal flying technique? To be honest, nothing about the image makes sense. Traci's hair should be hanging down (er, up?) in the image towards the ground.
"You rock, grandma!"Jaime's grandmother is awesome and I hope we see more of her. I'd have posted the random conversations and other fun stuff from the issue, but it was in Spanish and I don't think the majority of the readers would be able to understand what's going on outside of Jaime getting smacked in the head multiple times. Anyways, grandma asks Jaime to take her flying to remind her of having the air blowing through her hair like when her husband used to take her horseback riding.
"Do I hear a hallelujah!"Who, in their right mind, would follow this guy? Libra is stark raving mad and I love all the villains' faces. They seem to mirror my thoughts. I can't see how this guy is going to be a major player or get anyone to join his cause based on this appearance, but stranger things are happening. Just refer to Countdown for examples.
"This! Is! DC's idea of a joke?"300 is so 2007. It's time to move on DC. Did we not learn our lesson with Amazons Attack? Did we really need a Manazons storyline? They could have at least tried to make them look a little less like the Spartans in the movie. I guess the white towel in the front is new.
DAREDEVIL - BLOOD OF THE TARANTULA
"Yes, that's his hand being cut off with a pocket knife."Man, Black Tarantula doesn't like having his family threatened or being lured into traps with imposter versions of them or even little things like being blown up and lit on fire. His cousin, seen being dismembered here, is learning that the hard way. Daredevil actually walks out of the building on the next page and gives Black Tarantula the okay for doing this and let's him off the hook, no questions asked, after seeing this. That was the only thing I didn't like about this issue, to be honest.
GREEN LANTER #30
"Teapot, meet kettle."Didn't Hal used to call him Pieface back in the old issues, like way back when it was "okay" to be racist? I could have sworn he did. Anyways, even if he didn't, Hal sticks up for his buddy having some racist comments thrown his way by...making racist comments towards the other guy. Brilliant. Remember, Asians are okay in Hal's book, but your a retard if you're Pollick.
IMMORTAL IRON FIST #14
"Nova, you're fired. We have a new human rocket."Poor Nova can't catch a break. Just when he has an awesome new solo title and annihilating stuff left and right, Iron Fist has to come along and steal his schtick. I couldn't find the build up page, but it explains his chi aligning and other mystic stuff for his newfound rocketman powers. It was awesome and this was only the first three or four pages.
"We will blind one of you. We will kill two of you. And three of you will never have children. Ever."It was great to see Brubaker and Fraction spare a few pages on the Heroes 4 Hire crew and give them some great moments like this one here. Makes me want to see the two of them write a H4H book in the future.
"Bastard's Black Heartcrusher..."...is my favourite technique of the bunch. Marvel needs to get Capcom on a Marvel VS Capcom style Iron Fist 2D fighter starring the Immortal Weapons, stat. That thing would do gangbusters. Well, I'd enjoy it, at least. Aside from the technique names, this is just a badass half page splash (I cropped the other half).
"Now, who's up for registering?"I want to see Iron Man just try and get these guys to register. Yes, Danny got off on a registered weapon martial arts thing, but that was before he blew up trains. Add in a woman with a body or hole in her chest full of spiders or a guy that turns into green mist and owns everything he touches and I think he'll have trouble getting off on that technicality.
Joking aside, how can Bru and Fraction leave us after teasing about an 8th city and bringing these seven badasses back to New York with Danny? It's like a pulp Seven Samurai on crack now. I can just see Fat Cobra being arrested after picking up a dozen hookers and everyone at Danny's place complaining about spiders all over the food and stuff. It'd be like the best sitcom ever.
Joking aside, how can Bru and Fraction leave us after teasing about an 8th city and bringing these seven badasses back to New York with Danny? It's like a pulp Seven Samurai on crack now. I can just see Fat Cobra being arrested after picking up a dozen hookers and everyone at Danny's place complaining about spiders all over the food and stuff. It'd be like the best sitcom ever.
"What's with that bottom left panel and the gore?"This is an amazing page and I love the breakdowns and layout, but what's up with that bottom left panel? That was a signature special effect they used in this book a lot in earlier issues, but this is literally the only time it shows up in this issue, despite the numerous broken bones and bloodied Hydra goons. Even now, it sticks out like a sore thumb to me everytime I see it.
Another odd thing about this moment is the amount of bloodshed compared to every other page in the book. One guy is getting his head blown off while others are impaled and this one splash page is the only time this level of gore is shown. I'm not complaining, but just pointing out something that stood out to me.
Another odd thing about this moment is the amount of bloodshed compared to every other page in the book. One guy is getting his head blown off while others are impaled and this one splash page is the only time this level of gore is shown. I'm not complaining, but just pointing out something that stood out to me.
NEW AVENGERS #40
"Turn the Queen into a sleeper agent and send her to Earth. Great plan!"I guess it would be safer than the amount of crap the Skrulls have gone through, what with Galactus and Annihilus messing up their shit, but, seriously, who sends their Queen on suicide missions? No wonder these guys fail all the time.
I was a bit upset with the non-answers for the undetectability of the Skrulls, as it boils down to a Quesada-esque, "It's SCIENCE, we don't have to explain it!", where science replaces his magic quote in relation to Mephisto in One More Day. However, the Spider-Woman reveal was interesting, as I had written her off compeletly as a Skrull suspect, especially after Nick Fury's spotlight in Mighty Avengers last week.
I was a bit upset with the non-answers for the undetectability of the Skrulls, as it boils down to a Quesada-esque, "It's SCIENCE, we don't have to explain it!", where science replaces his magic quote in relation to Mephisto in One More Day. However, the Spider-Woman reveal was interesting, as I had written her off compeletly as a Skrull suspect, especially after Nick Fury's spotlight in Mighty Avengers last week.
THOR - AGES OF THUNDER #1
"Owned."Yeah, this one of the more tamer, if you can call it that, Thor moments from this week's Thor - Ages of Thunder issue. A magic hammer through the brainpan usually stops Frost Giants. At least, that's what mamma used to tell me.
"Pimpin' ain't easy!"Man, Thor was such a man whore back in the old days. Are there any other women left in Asgard or does Thor have a monopoly on them?
TEEN TITANS #58
"Puppy Power!"Wow, this was hilarious. Apparently, Martian Girl 'fought' back with her future self, who is imprisoned in her head, by thinking up a bunch of slobbering puppies to lick her to death.
"Robin is such a dick."
Wow, forging documents is a crime? Who knew, Boy Wonder? The Batcave must have a freaking vending machine for this crap, what with Batman's numerous jaunts through the criminal underworld in disguise or his trips to foreign countries. Hell, Superman and his entire clan are aliens, yet magically have fake identities and all these magic documents that came from no where. Even the other Martian on Earth, J'onn, has (or had, I don't know if still uses it, don't care either) a secret identity and forged documents. They just set up Raven, who's back from the dead and de-aged, with a new life to go back to school with.
Coming from a guy that tried to illegally clone Superboy, an illegal clone as it is, I think Robin should get off his high horse. To paraphrase the goddamned Batman, is he dense? Is he retarded or something?
Coming from a guy that tried to illegally clone Superboy, an illegal clone as it is, I think Robin should get off his high horse. To paraphrase the goddamned Batman, is he dense? Is he retarded or something?
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5 comments:
Happy Birthday man!
As far as the Blue Beetle upside down splash... his girl friend's a witch. Take it from the top, "It's magic..."
My favorite moment for A:TI was the two panels with Gyrich and Sally Floyd at the press conference. That and when Iron Man "lost" the Tactigon.
I find Libra intriguing, mostly because he IS crazy, thats the fun. Also, I cringed with I saw the Manazons panel, hopefully Gail Simone can make not suck if nothing else.
Iron Fist was full of win and makes it worse that Bru and Fraction are leaving.
I still say Spider Woman is not a Skrull and this is just a bunch of misdirection. Also, how could you get a technical explanation about the Skrull's new powers and such? What kind of explanation would be acceptible?
Kids, Kirk is lying here. I got Blood Of The Tarantula, and DD didn't just turn a blind eye, so to speak; he advised Carlos that none of this could be cleared up, tried for a few seconds to argue whether the killing was his choice to make, and then told him to keep a low profile.
To be honest, I wouldn't really have pressed the point with the burning angry naked guy who just dismembered his cousin.
Regarding the Skrulls' undetectability, I don't see the issue; they refined their existing abilities with information gained from the Illuminati and others. Anything further is just pseudo-scientific babble that would not add up to anything more.
@darin - ahah, ya, I figured that's the only explanation, but it's still a pretty weird looking shot, especially for an opening page.
@eric - I also liked the Baron's 'nazi's don't get medals' part in A:TI.
@salieri - I know I wouldn't argue with Black Tarantula, especially after seeing what he just did, but DD tried to stop him for taking some drug money back in the Annual and just recently got between two heavy weights like Wrecker and Ox during the Mr Fear arc, despite them seriously outclassing him powerswise. I'm still kind of old school in thinking heroes shouldn't just stand by and watch killers go free after seeing them do their dirty work, even if it means taking an ass whooping and failing. Trying to stop him is the big thing. Letting his excessive force and giving drug money to shelters go is fine, but killing is just where I draw the line. Should have just had BT flee the scene before DD got out of the building and I would have been happy.
Concerning Skrulls science - I'm not looking for an exact scientific answer, but they went to the trouble of several pages of explanation for this and Bendis threw out a few words he's used several tiems before (see Pym back in the Ultron arc) and that's it.
Yes, it's a great explanation for maybe passing a scent test by Wolverine or basic medical tests, but I don't see how any of that equates to negating the Master of the Mystic Arts from using magic to determine if a person is a Skrull or how it stops Spider-Man's clarvoyant spider-sense from detecting danger or how they stop pyschics from picking their minds apart. I could see sleepers getting by basic scans, but if Xavier ripped into someone's mind and took a peak, I can't see how he wouldn't realize all the gaps in memory or see it's all faked.
That's where I have a problem with it. They have some blood samples and that's it. They can refine their shapeshifting a bit to make it less obvious with it, but this is supposed to explain away magic and very specific power sets that should be able to detect this stuff fairly easily and I found it more of "hey, stop bugging me, it is what it is" type of answer. I'd rather they just left it vague than to have gone into so much detail to explain nothing.
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