In other news, Fantastic Four's new arc ended with an unsatisfying thud after some exciting build-up. It's a shame because I really felt that the concept could have held up six issues of plot.
You have either been eating to many red smarties or you have completely lost the plot on this one, i believe that you will in time regret this statement when this J. Hickman run goes down in history as a seminal run. two issues in an it already pisses all over the Miller run.
This is the most i have ever looked forward to reading the FF since the Byrne run back in the days before you were born. And i dont even like the FF that much. Its...
Absolutely FANTASTIC!!!! _________________
I'll agree with you that Hickman's run has certainly been better than Millar's FF run so far, but I was really disappointed to see this arc end after just three issues. There were a lot of ways that the entire family could have been brought into this story, but they were pretty much shoved into the background. It's such a shame.
but I was really disappointed to see this arc after just three issues
OK, i will give you that one, after reading the third part i felt a little disappointed that it was all over so soon, i was expecting more, but still the Hickman run continues next issue, so i will await it with bated breath.
one of my two most must read first comics... who would have thought. _________________
I want to start with Ultimate Avengers #3 just because it was such a fucking disappointment for me. Having already grown tired of Ultimate Spider-man (and Ultimate Armor Wars was never particularly enjoyable to begin with), I had hoped that Ultimate Avengers would keep me invested in the Marvel universe that got me into comics, and the first two issues were indeed fantastic. But this issue introduced the actual Avengers team, and Mark Millar did his absolute best to make them more unlikeable than the Ultimates under Jeph Loeb. The book has now degenerated to a dick-waving contest with horrible "bad-ass" dialogue. *sigh* And this is from the man who wrote Superman: Red Son, ladies and gentlemen. At least the art's still good, I guess.
OK, Back to the Ultimate Avengers #3 which you quite clearly panned a few posts back.
It seems that Mark Miller has been replaced by a Republican Skrull or something much worse!
The Micheal Moore reference was one thing, but the stereotype afghan rebels and the slaughter of unarmed civilians is another, the books dialogue in general came across like, and want for a better way of putting it Raiden hit the nail on the head when he called it a dick waving contest.
Maybe Mark Miller has just run his course, maybe he will go the same way as other great writers who lost it, like Loeb Byrne, and Claremont.
Reaper asked if you should drop a book because of one bad issue.
normally i would say no, but you know what, after reading this pile of poo i am not so sure, i don't think that this is just an isolated bad issue but rather a trend that Mark Miller is adopting.
And like Kick Ass and War Heroes, its a trend i can live without.
Shame though as his past tenure on the Ultimates was just so dammed brilliant.
So it seems that i find myself agreeing with Raiden on this one, which will teach me to read the comics in question first before jumping the gun and posting a reply based on what i think rather than what is _________________
I wonder if Mark Millar's present output has anything to do with our high expectations for the writer.
Ultimates 1 & 2 were outstandingly good. Millar was the perfect writer to infuse fresh blood into a variation of the Avengers theme and used the then-modern world as a very clever mirror image within his work. Quite frankly, the Avengers had never been that good!
Since then, he's enjoyed other well-received stories including Wolverine's Enemy of the State, Marvel Knights Spider-Man and, of course, a small story you may have heard of: Civil War.
He's raised the bar so high for himself now that any present work may only fall short. His Fantastic Four was littered with some outstanding concepts (Nu-Earth, Doom's Master); however, the final product fell short, not least because of his over-emphasis on depicting Reed Richards as a dynamic-scientist, James Bond type (you only have to read the first story-arc to see how his Reed worked). It was still better than some other runs I may care to mention, including Chris Claremont's and Carlos Pacheco's.
I haven't read Kick-Ass (yet) and haven't started Ultimate Comics Avengers either (again, yet) so can't comment.
I just thought the above might be worth mentioning.
Oh, and a writer should never go back to a previous body of work. It will never be as good as the previous run. Take Chris Claremont on X-Men as the definitive example of this point. _________________ With Great Power, Comes Great... Potential to ROB BANKS!!! HAHAH! THAT'S HOW TO BEAT THE RECESSION!!!
I don't think that a writer's past work affects how I view a new comic, which is what makes me partial to most writers. Sometimes they write something I enjoy, sometimes they write something I hate. I don't feel an attachment to anything beyond the material, not even if it's Alan Moore.
As for why Millar is suddenly writing dumb action movie stories, I think it's quite obvious. Millar is moving his attentions from comics to film. He's certainly pushed harder than any other comic book writer to have his independent comic series adapted to film, and he even recently announced that he was going to direct a yet unnamed film.
I can understand the appeal of adapting comics to film on all sides. For Millar, having films on his CV draws attention to his creative talents and makes him a more prominent celebrity (he hosted a Newsnight segment on comic book movies not too long ago). For the filmmakers, comics allow them to assess new ideas without the financial risk. The problem is that to make the transition easier, Millar has quite obviously dumbed down some of his stories. The political subtexts that made his earlier works so popular are being steadily dropped for the sake of a film cash-in.
As for Chris Claremont's fall as a writer, it's not so much due to a change in his writing style, but due to the increasing standards of writing leaving him behind. Subtlety has been a watchword since the turn of the century, and when older writers continue to beat you over the head with unnecessary text boxes (like Tom deFalco in his new Spider-man Clone Saga series), it can be painful.
The big release this week is of course the first issue of The Marvellous Land of Oz, and if it's any indication of the rest of this series, then Marvellous Land will be just as good as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz that came before it. Skottie Young is still my favourite comic book artist of all time thus far, and Shanower's writing is brilliant as ever.
Ultimate Spider-man #4 was a surprisingly good issue for me, because it actually explains (in hint form) why Bendis decided to break up Peter and MJ. Granted, that reason doesn't have anything to do with character motivation, because the Peter/MJ break-up was done twice in the first volume of the series and it should have been clear by then that they were true loves. No, the reason why Bendis broke up the two characters is to establish a relationship between MJ and the Ultimate Shroud/Hood, who conveniently is another school student. Normally I'd be unhappy about this, but considering that the opening scene between the two characters was very good, I'm actually intrigued by it. I want to see where Bendis takes this.
Fred Van Lente did a very good job with Deadpool Team-Up #899. I usually find him a funny writer in Amazing Spider-man, and he manages to bring that same humour to this book. I don't know if he's the sole writer or whether there's a rotating team of writers, but he's certainly the best Deadpool writer I've seen since Daniel Way.
With the third issue of Sweet Tooth, I'm getting frustrated at my conflicting feelings towards the different elements of this story. Having been convinced by the last issue that the story should focus on Gus, I no longer find that Gus to be an interesting character. I thoroughly enjoyed his POV in the first issue because his home defined his entire life and philosophy, but since he's abandoned his home, he's become the generic fish-out-of-water. A character who just submits to whatever the writer throws at him and moves on. Granted, I did like the dream sequence and the town that appeared later in the issue, but I wish scenes like this were more prominent in the comic. The interactions between Gus and Jepperd are dull in comparison.
I recently got Jeff Lemire's Essex County in trade form, so I'll give a summary on that when I finish it.
While I don't read any of the titles you mention above, Raien, I will say that Fred van Lente is quite the talented writer.
I've really enjoyed his work on Amazing Spider-Man recently and I think he may indeed be the regular writer on Deadpool Team-Up.
While I think about it, I also think it's very cool that Deadpool Team-Up is bucking the established numerical trend by sequencing their numbers in reverse order from No 900. The only foreseeable problem...? If this title ships monthly, no matter what format, and is allowed to run without cancellation or retooling, it's going to take 75 years before it counts down to No 0. I guess my great-grandchildren can find out for me! ...I'm not sure what smiley to use for that as I don't know if I should be happy or sad so...
_________________ With Great Power, Comes Great... Potential to ROB BANKS!!! HAHAH! THAT'S HOW TO BEAT THE RECESSION!!!
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