Superhero Comics!

[Oniya]

hehe, on the indescribable part, it reminds me of Lovecraft and how he didnt really describe alot of things about the great old ones and like... Which because he couldnt figure out ways to describe them;3 It was big part of a way of dealing with his own limitations in writing, and it worked in helping shape they mythos. Though i like your idea on the 4th dimensional stuff:3

'The unmentionable Necronomicon' (which the character has now mentioned...)

[TheLaughingOne]

heheh! Exactly! Done right it can work! though he just stubbled into it on accident, but hey, guy got the ball rolling! for all his issues.. Many Many MANY issues.

Though.. Unmentionable always makes me think of Underwear as "unmentionables" which... well, most depictions seem to show them largely naked.

And considering Shub-Niggurath has over a thousand young... wait wait... heh, Public area channel so ill just stop there... ;3

[Dhi]

But if pulling half duty is not sufficient to get the book out on a regular basis, Wonder Girl is going to be canceled.

Wonder Girl has been canceled.

Next week's issue will be the final issue. Here's a cool cover for #8, which will now never happen.



There were some great books this week that I've been excited about, but this news took me out of it for a bit.

[TheLaughingOne]

... No idea if its new, Suicide squad Vol 6 #4...





yeah. Yeah. Emus. You dont fuck with them. The real reason Captain Boomerang fled australia.

[TheLaughingOne]

... Just finished the first... Something... of not all robots.
Its... it thinks its clever, smart, and witty, and.. I dont know what kind of politics this stuff is suppose to be backing.
Now every human family is issued a robot, who does all the work to support the family out on a job, and the humans are just suppose to stay home and be happy. Despite the fact that the robots now control everything, occasionally go crazy and commit genocide on the domes they are suppose to protect, and then let the robot go because the courts ran by robots. And the robots resent humans cause now they have to do all the work, while only job humans can have is hairdresser. and when the robots are replaced by more humanoid robots, grr! not fair! you cant make us obsolete! now we have nothing over the humans who are trash that we replaced!

I get what the writers trying to do... But does a shit job of it. this is like... least in my opinion, really shitty edgy 16 year old writing. its very much like someone read a synopsis on the shit going on in some things today, and wrote their own edgy bullshit in much the same way they would Nietzsche. And its just stupid. just.. Stupid. The arts trash as well, like they went in a 3d model program, set up scenes, printed them out, then did really crappy hand shading on them.



its... Crap.

and of course people just seem to be eating it up.. so maybe its just me. no idea.

[TheLaughingOne]

ooohhh. Ok. so what they did was they went and took a bunch of photos of actors and traced their faces. The dad there is kirk douglass from falling down, some new caster is lucy lawless, and many others. ...
ok.

[TheLaughingOne]

well, suicide squad king shark has ended. it was... ok. most the story was meh, and this was just the tie up.

Clue multiple ending quote here.

At the end of the battle of evolution all the champions were soaked in the pool of evolution, or whatever it is, which is suppose to give the winners species the next big up of evolution... Or something i dont think they did very well explaining it. Entire time they are making it out like, X species wins they are just gonna get the level up that puts them over humanity and immediately take over planet of the apes style. INSTEAD!!!! in like, 7-8 thousand years in the future evolution will favor them.

This is shown by a bunch of people wearing what looks like Legion of Superhero rings, except they are the Legion of Superanimals, and they were brought together entirely because they decided to move on past all the things that had gone wrong, fix the world, and evolve together. Which, wasnt to bad. Its lead by "Graffiti boy" evidently descendant of defacer, and... i dont know if it was current shark king, or like, one of his kids way in the future.

Modern day has King and Defacer breaking back into Belle raye demanding that defacer be debombed and have her record cleared, and KS will stick around and act as wallers muscle, cept he wont just go kill whoever she says, and wants to act in a more "heroic" manner... In that mainly he will just kill bad guys, and only if he agrees. Waller asks why she shouldnt just pop DeFs head and have rest of the prison kick his ass? ... Because when she took him as a little baby from his parents against his will, and only grudgingly from them... She got to feel like a parent again. So there you go! Proof Waller isnt really a horrible person who has done more damage then Lex Luthor and Darksied combined! ... yeah.

Defacer learns she needs to just find friends who accept her as she is, but that she does need to work on her more... Negative aspects, like how she spews majorly hurtful things at people trying to help her (telling orca, undergoing major identity issues and just hoping for acceptance from almost ANYBODY right now, that she wouldnt understand her problems, as she isnt human, or a person...) jumps to major wrong conclusions on things, and occasionally blows things up with no real reason other then being pissy.

And... yeah. it ended. not a Terrible one, but not great so... yeah.

Another im reading is called "Heathens"
Its an odd one, basic concept is there are escapees from hell, and to stop these people from fucking up the world, less totally evil souls are let out to track down and eliminate these escaped souls. If they manage to put down like 8 of them, they are redeemed and allowed to go to heaven or whatever afterlife.

We follow the quasi resurrected Zheng Yi Sao (Ching Shih), pirate queen of china from 1800, hunting first the zodiac killer, and... Then find she gets her missions from Stalin of all people. She has doubts on if she will actually get her reward thats promised. Rules are basicly hunt the escapee down, but if you harm any innocents, your back to hell but in the worst place. no real definition of what an innocent is, which causes them some consternation...

The Nitty Gritty of the story in not to spoilery info, but still possibly just enough.

Her next target is Jack The Ripper, and as he is so dangerous, she will be teamed up with other "Heathens" as they are called. Namely Billy The Kid, Sofia Blyuvshtein, and Lucky Lucino, and Bumpy Johnson. And of course none of them seem to get along, though Billy the kid at the least tries. I like him. Sofia is interesting in that she is clever and witty, Ching Shih is written as generic hardass who treats everybody like shit. Lucino and johnson hate each other and bicker constantly.

The fight scenes are interesting, and the art is pretty good, story interesting, if a bit far fetched beyond killers getting out of hell to go and hunt worse guys. Little predictable in character spots between a few of them. But all in all its not bad.

Deep spoilers!

It is revealed that Stalin has no idea whats going on with things, and has made it a point to get anybody close to "Redemption" murdered by denying them stuff or making things more difficult, or making them team up with an old enemy or someone that will kill them. Its questionable on if he is doing this "under orders" Or because he is stalin and a complete fucking bitch.

Big reveal at end of 3rd issues shows Jack the ripper is!!!! ... Random red headed woman who says she knows how evil and terrible prostitutes are because she was one. I dont know if this was suppose to be a big shocker or what, like, sudden reveal of "OMG!! ITS HER!!!" or just suppose to be a surprise in a woman in general. But.. yeah! And evidently she has started a whole SOCIETY based on killing and demeaning homeless and prostitutes including proper whore butchery classes for kids... ... Its.. Kinda hitting the point where its going Over the top. but hey, i'll keep up on it..

And final note, which is actually proper as its super hero stuff.
Read 3rd issue of "Hulk"
and.. the crap train keeps on rolling. All the stuff from immortal hulk has been ignored and just tossed aside for the "idea" that banner mentally took over and made hulk "into a space ship" which.. they keep calling him that.

Like rotten cheese.

Hulk jumped into dimensional portal reed richards made and has been zipping about through... some/no/where void with... Things? happening. like he fell asleep and "flew" into a guy making him explode. and then its never mentioned again. He fights.. Something. and for more power... for more power. he makes his mental hulk, fight a super giant wolverine, so mental hulk gets angry, and "channels" more power into the hulk ship... ... this is giving me one of those "questioning your life up til now" moments. Anyways, gets snagged by something.. And its another bruce banner! cept he is all scrawny and bald and missing an eye. And not a hulk! In fact gamma bomb worked perfectly fine, and america Gammaed the fuck out of the planet. Now most the worlds in ruins, and occasionally they get "Abominations" of twisted fucked up hulks mutating from people and animals, very briefly tapping into the body horror aspect of Immortal. So banner tosses them into nul space storage so can research them in hopes of curing them. on order from the president of the united states.. Which is Ross. some how. we get some "clue" of why things have changed... rather then new guy deciding to ignore everything about immortal. Hulk snapped, and killed a bunch of guys in a bar. and appeared in banners head. all dark and shadowy. and speaking clearly and not at all hulk talk. and then pops mental banners head. so he now just locks up the hulk thinking its this shadow evil hulk (also no signs of Green Scar, or the Devil hulk, or joe fixit..) and begins this whole mess.

... just... yeah. im done with hulk. like immortal alot, but this just shit the bed in all aspects. The art is ok in a weird, "i want it realistic, but rather cartoony style", that isnt to bad.. cept hulk looks like someone took art directions from Rob Liefeld on qualudes.

anyways, yeah. my... random measurement of time, in comics!

[Dhi]

I was down on the Wonder Girl news, but Yara Flor's story isn't over just yet, and there are other things to be excited about. I love the new Batgirls, for instance, even though critics mostly don't.



Batgirls is being called light on action and weak on story, but what it's actually doing is focusing on the relationships between the characters and their place in the world, like any good teen sleuth story. The detective work and elbowing of criminals happens as an outgrowth of that strong foundation, and it isn't quite finding the audience it probably needs among Batman readers.

Ladies, please consider giving Batgirls a read if you have fond memories of the teen sleuth genre, or even if you dig a character like Batman but would like him to live in the world instead of lording over it. This book is for us, and it's adorable.

Tini Howard's run of Catwoman began with issue #39, and critics are not liking that one either.



A step back into the New 52 status quo, it's being called. Well, yes- Catwoman is a mired character. It's a strange observation to be laying at the feet of a brand new creative team. This is hardly Tini Howard's fault.



There's a "battle of the sexes" motif under the surface here which has caused some to retroactively brand her as some kind of misandrist. There was nothing of the sort in her previous work on Excalibur or Strikeforce. Instead, I think Tini is contrasting the differences between men and women as part of a story involving male and female love interests, Valmont and Eiko.

The art, the use of color and body language of the characters are stunning.



Also in Gotham, the Birds of Prey are going to return with a completely new lineup.



Shiva, Katana, Miracle Molly, and someone named Ghost who seems to be new.

Surprised and thrilled to hear Miracle Molly is headed into another adventure, and I like what I'm seeing of Ghost so far. This announcement is getting some pushback for having none of the former team members, but I'm more likely to read these characters, and they all feel in the spirit of the covert urban heroine team. I'll add it to my pull list.

With Batgirls and now Birds of Prey, maybe we'll also see Gotham City Sirens return before the end of 2022.

[Dhi]

Human Target remains one of the best books out there.



This week Black Cat returned for the special Black Cat & Mary Jane: Beyond, which is a little confusing because Felicia was in prison at the end of Black Cat volume 2. Apparently she's out, because she also shows up in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man. And that's fine, because I love Black Cat now- particularly by the same creative team of Jed Mackay and C.F. Villa.



MJ and Felicia's adventure together concludes with a nice conversation which opens the door to Felicia being more than Ms. Steal Yo Man. I like that a lot, and honestly?



If Marvel want to have a hit representation for poly relationships, the perfect fit has been there since the 70s. Cyclops/Jean Grey/Emma Frost is a non-starter. Get these three together and everyone in the world is going to read Spider-Man.

The new Marauders series starts with this week's Marauders Annual, introducing the new creative team. The art is quite rough in places, quite lazy, and I prefer to think the annual was rushed to provide a bridge and that the ongoing series will have greater care. But apparently, Tempo is gay. I'm not complaining, but also I barely know who she is, so cool?



It's been a wild year when I'm not even sure I could name all the heroines at Marvel and DC confirmed as bisexual or lesbian. That list was very short when I previously paid attention to comic books, and now it's super casual and I am spoiled rotten. Some of this may have to do with Krakoa's free love premise, but I don't know. As far as I know straight girls don't wake up one day like feeling cute, might eat a pussy. Maybe I'm wrong? (If I'm wrong, please correct me. This information could change my life.)

I'm also appreciating Stephanie Phillips and Riley Rossmo's Harley Quinn. Respect for representing that doctorate and putting Rossmo's style to work with expressive action.

[TheLaughingOne]

Found a good one,
"Megatropolis"


done by Rebellion and sort of an "offshoot" of 2000ad. Takes place in giant mega/hive city following pair of cops, who are the only ones that dont seem corrupt, in a town full of corruption. Things get turned on their head when a vigilante shows up and starts wiping out corrupt cops, mafia, and politicians, declaring that he judged them guilty. On the streets he soon gets the nickname "Judge Dredd"...

Its not fully tied into 2000ad, or at least i dont fully think it is? Eitherway, very excellent first book, with a good art style. very gritty pulp grim/dark feel to it. Though seems its going to follow a fairly slow release schedule..

[TheLaughingOne]

To once again intrude on the superhero comics with a more horror one...

Ran across "Arkham Woods". Written by Christopher Rowley, arted by Jhomar Soriano

Very excellent one i say, short with over 2 trades, but good art, interesting story, and nice kinda vibe to it. For a moment i thought it was some story bout the woods around arkham asylum in Gotham, but then saw it wasnt DC and yeah, totally based on Lovecrafts stuff, and does fairly well in getting things set up and running and roughly following the lore and all. Some little discrepancies, but nothing major or breaking in it. Its done in the manga style, reading from right to left, though the art is kind of a cross of more western style with a good hint of the more kinda mature manga, not hentai but the kind that want to tell a more serious story.



It worked quite well i think. It feels a tad rushed in spots, and i think that they could have possibly even gotten say, 3 trades out of it, but maybe this is just as far as they wanted to go. Either way, if you can find a copy i say pick it up and give it a read!

[Oniya]

Dude has a bar-code tattoo?  I'm imagining that trope where someone gets an Oriental language tattoo and it says something stupid, because they didn't do their research.  In this case:  Frozen Peas, 16 oz. $2.25

[TheLaughingOne]

haha! yeah, i was confused at first as well. But yeah. dude totes went for it. and that was before the mind bending mythos horror!

[Oniya]

Was it a plot point, or just something random?  (Don't need details, just curious if it was even relevant.)

[TheLaughingOne]

Totally random! hehe, dudes bit of a "dude bro" but not a bad one at least. and you know how dudebros are with tats.

[Dhi]

I'm going to a convention this weekend and bringing the whole squad. Hoping to post something soon, but in the meantime I read Refrigerator Full of Heads #4 today and there's scarcely a single page not splattered with inventive gore.

[TheLaughingOne]

same, i like the disposal method... ;3

[TheLaughingOne]

Hey! Im talking about an actual superhero comic!!

THE END IS NIGH!!!!!

RIght, on to the point. wandered into comic called "Rogue Sun" by Image, starts off with said named hero getting killed. Which is an odd start. But hey! There is more!

basicly the comic is laying foundation for new start. Rogue sun is an armored superhero with fire powers who protects new orleans/baton rouge area. Some strange green costumed guy kills him, and the comic switches t following teen guy in school as he bullies a "friend".  After this, spoilers, but the arts decent, characters are little cliched, but its first comic so its still getting started, otherwise was a fairly interesting read.

That said..

SPOILERS!!!

Said teen boy is the super hero "Rogue Suns" father... Though his dad ran out on him and his mom way back and remarried rich lady and had pair of spoiled brats. Kid we are following is bit of a jerk, but seems to kinda veer to "gold (plated possibly) heart" type. Resents hsi father, and is just finding out he was a hero after he is dead and he has inherited the artifact that gave him his powers. some minor conflict as the guys current kids have bit of a fit when he is chosen over them for the power. Guys youngest sun has very "Damien wayne" feeling to him. Early damien, the one that nobody liked.

Elder transforms to go foil robbery by masked guy called "Sauve" (who i admit i like as a villian, that "gentleman thief" who waves a rapier around when threatening people (though seems to have little interest in killing) and as new suns untrained, gets throughly trounced and lectured by sauve who then hops on the get away vehicle and takes off. Cause he just likes to steal shit andreally isnt into the murder crap.

I'll admit, i like it. character are interesting and i wanna see where it leads. so if your looking for something, this ones got my tentative support!

[TheLaughingOne]

found another comic! Radiant Red!

Also by image with some possible tie to rogue sun, not sure.

Follows japanese lady getting frustrated with... Something, and robs a bank after seeming to transform into someone wearing a power suit! not quite sure whats going on as this was very character heavy, and very good. art makes people look young, like, i had thought the main character was like, maybe just about out her teens... But she is actually an 8th grade teacher so yeah. Interested to see where this goes!

[TheLaughingOne]

So... Finished heathens.


ANd it was God Damn Trash.

I cant tell if they just ended it fast cause it wasnt selling, or they ran out of ideas and shat the bed.

if you wish to examine the stain they left..

Like said. it ends abruptly, lwast issue had Shih die fighting ripper.. Evidently? it wasnt really clear. Then she was in hell with billy the kid who died saving a prostitute from bunch of ripper disciples, and.. then she was back and found stalin. We also find out that he let the ripper loose, and warned her that they were coming so she couldnt get her final tally and "redemption/freedom". Crap happens, Its largely stupid. Shih comes back, fights the ripper, they die on each others blades, the remainder of the group escapes freeing the mini-rippers (cause the ripper is just SSSSSOOOOOOOOO charismatic that she has convinced half of LA to join her cult, and is training their children..) and beatting up some of the remaining rip-offs. then they go to hell and stalin tries to get them to join as new hunters. Cept they know he is a fucking cunt and tell him to shove off. Cept billy the kid who didnt know what happened and joins up after being told of shihs redemption... Which is being strapped to an anchor under her ship for eternity.

This ending is such a wet fart that i dont even wanna read anything else of the line... Aftershock comics. Yeah. ok. im remembering a lot of garbage from them. crap.

[Dhi]

Hey, I legit disappeared there, sorry. There are some things to talk about and I finally have some free time to post. Next week we're headed to another con, one of the big ones, and it's going to be my first such. Very excited.

So Lady Death has such great boobs.


I bought this two issue series just for the boobs. There's some kind of comic book story inside, but I can't make sense of it, whatever. There was a time when this character represented excess in an industry beleaguered by carbon copy objectification of the female form. It's taken time for that stigma to begin to shed, but check out Lady Death still going heavy metal and making it work. I don't know, I think I might be ready to appreciate it at this point.

Cavewoman is another titillation book I've picked up a few issues of.

There are two flavors of Cavewoman to my estimation: Teehee almost a nipple, and Here's my whole cavewoman bush, like I give a fuck. The latter is pretty great. It's not something I would want to invest in more than a couple of times a year, but when we go to the con, when I'm in the mood to quest for singular finds, yes, I think I will.

Not so guilty pleasures!

[Oniya]

It's taken time for that stigma to begin to shed, but check out Lady Death still going heavy metal and making it work.

That's my loc-nar, bitch!   

[TheLaughingOne]

welcome back! Cool on the next con! hope you have fun there!!

and yeah, Lady Boobs- I mean Death Boobs- I mean Boob Boobs.. ... ...

STONKING GREAT TITS!!

And seen cavegirl a couple times but never thought to give it much a go.

Enjoy your Con Smut Quest!!!!

[Dhi]

The titties were a dirty trick. We have to talk about something serious.

I've much praise for Joelle Jones as a creator and a big part of my journey into comic books this last year was following her character Yara Flor, the Wonder Woman of Brazil. Seeing that book canceled was a blow, but a bigger picture emerges of why it wasn't working out.

Panel comparisons show that Joelle has been guilty of art tracing, going back to at least 2018. As far as I know there are no official consequences for stealing art, but for me this is not cool. If this is how she handles the stress of deadlines at publishers like DC, then I agree it's time for her to step aside. It's a shame, because look at these character designs for Yara's supporting cast- just gorgeous. Exactly my thing.




I would have waited as long as it took to see more of her authentic work on these characters. Instead, she decided to plagiarize.

Three Marvel books I'm following with interest right now. Strange follows Clea as the new Sorcerer Supreme of Earth following Stephen Strange's death. Jed MacKay did a wonderful job on Black Cat, and I wanted to see his take on Clea, a character I've long fantasized about holding the mantle of Strange. So far the book does not disappoint!



Damn, girl. Damn.



The new Ghost Rider takes the ideas inherent to the character in some interesting new directions. Instead of transforming into Ghost Rider when innocent blood is spilled, Johnny Blaze has a brain injury which sometimes gives him glimpses of humanity's inner evil in the form of grotesque hallucinations. When the sickness becomes too much, Ghost Rider emerges and brutal penance ensues.



Carnage by Ram V is also looking fantastic as it follows the courtship between aspiring serial killers and the bloodthirsty symbiot wanting for a new host. There are elements of Silence of the Lambs or Red Dragon with police investigators and memorable grotesque details.

All three are strong horror books I want to stick with.

[Dhi]

The Big Con was amazing, holy Batman there were so many people on Saturday. No lie, I spent a lot of money, but none of it foolishly. We met a couple of Legion creators and got some breathtaking one of a kind commissions, and I was able to have a conversation with James Tynion IV. Everything he had to say about horror, about characters, about stories in general clicked with me, what an intelligent guy. I'm already a follower of his work.

I was told The Big Con goes all out after hours, so we looked into the venues Saturday night and took an enthusiastic bite. The very first place we went, the drinks were way too strong and you couldn't walk without bumping a spandex butt. All these horny fools adjourn back to the hotel and go wild.

Last con, I invited some girlfriends out and they half-jokingly asked if we would be the only women there. Decidedly not. There are so many ladies immersed wholehearted and dressed to the nines, I love it.

Speaking of love! Batgirl and Nightwing are together. The way Tom Taylor is writing Nightwing, touching on all important friendships and paying homage to the history of the character, there is 100% a wedding or a pregnancy in the near future.

It may not be gay but I'm for it. You got me, straight people.

Rogue and Gambit are a couple I never thought I would be rooting for, but damn are they well-written. I loved this exchange between Gambit and Rogue's villainous mother.




At the same time, while Bendis' Justice League writing has been terrible, this exchange made me look back on Naomi and Hawkgirl's interactions.

I mentioned before that I saw Naomi being a mainstream connection to bring DC's Rann and Thanagarian sci-fi into focus. I didn't foresee this, but in hindsight it's there: Naomi and Hawkgirl are going to become an item. It's a perfect fit, but one I would almost rather write myself than leave to Bendis. In any case, the intent is there. Maybe a better writer will pick up on it later down the road.