Sperg about comic books here

[Dr J]

It should have been Dan Slott

If Slott takes care of his health about as well as Peter David did, don't worry it will be.

A lot of these comic book professionals don't live to be very old

 

[Clyde Cash's Left Teste]

If Slott takes care of his health about as well as Peter David did, don't worry it will be.

A lot of these comic book professionals don't live to be very old

Considering that Nick Lowe of all people is on of the few higher ups at Marvel who doesn't look fat. I expect Slott to pass in the next 15 years

 

[Humble Architect]

It’s just a bad time for the Hulkster, our best writer passed away, the current run sucks, no multimedia projects on the horizon, he’s regarded as a joke, his best appearance in years was in a fucking Godzilla crossover and the company has outright called him unprofitable.

He’s literally right back where he was prior to Peter taking up the reigns.

 

[Fleetwood]

I was a big fan of his X-Factor stories in the middle '90s. Great character-driven comedy, some real fun low-key satire. Like most everything that managed to be good for a little while in the X-Men franchise in those days, the editorial team ran him off the book and killed it, but it was fun while it lasted.

Those comics held up, pretty good stuff for X-Slop. I re-read some a few years ago. All the artists were running away from marvel to image back then so it's a shame Larry Stroman was only on the first few. His art is really wild on those All New All Different X-Factor and he never quite had that same style again on later work. David also wrote a shitload of Star Trek novels if you're into that. RIP

 

[Anon88]

It’s just a bad time for the Hulkster, our best writer passed away, the current run sucks, no multimedia projects on the horizon, he’s regarded as a joke, his best appearance in years was in a fucking Godzilla crossover and the company has outright called him unprofitable.

I wouldn't say that just yet. Looks like Hulk is being shown off as one of the major players in the upcoming Imperial event. Sure it might suck, but there's at least a shot at him becoming relevant in the near future. If Imperial fails, then you can start the doom posting.

 

[Clyde Cash's Left Teste]

David also wrote a shitload of Star Trek novels if you're into that

My mom has a bunch of those.

 

[Commander X]

His last issue of his twelve year run on The Incredible Hulk, issue #467 was somewhat poignant.

 

[Foltest]

Wrote the best supergirl run.
RIP PAD

 

[Tor Lugosi]

Shit, Peter David was always one of my favorite comic writers. His Spider-Man work is great and very overlooked. I remember really liking his Fallen Angel series, in which the heroine was originally meant to be Linda Danvers, but ultimately had to toss that idea once the book moved over to IDW; I never did continue reading it after the publisher transition.

 

[Stab You in the Back]

Going to throw in an indie recommendation for Peter David: Soulsearchers and Company. Its a ghostbusters-esque satire that ran for 15 years. Its a little overwritten, and some of the jokes are definitely of their time. But its a fun read, and the art is solid. I think the entire run is up on Library Genesis. There are also trades available on Amazon.

 

[Fleetwood]

Going to throw in an indie recommendation for Peter David: Soulsearchers and Company. Its a ghostbusters-esque satire that ran for 15 years. Its a little overwritten, and some of the jokes are definitely of their time. But its a fun read, and the art is solid. I think the entire run is up on Library Genesis. There are also trades available on Amazon.

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Good recommendation I remember the series Deadbeats also from the same company

 

[Stab You in the Back]

Got my first piece of European art today and I never quite appreciated the sheer size of comic book art until I held some in my hand.

Here's a size comparison image. From left to right: Manga, Modern Marvel/DC, Golden Age 2x Size, and a page from Lucky Luke on the far right.

I also threw in an actual comic, which is mind-bogglingly tiny compared to the Lucky Luke piece.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Going to throw in an indie recommendation for Peter David: Soulsearchers and Company. Its a ghostbusters-esque satire that ran for 15 years. Its a little overwritten, and some of the jokes are definitely of their time. But its a fun read, and the art is solid. I think the entire run is up on Library Genesis. There are also trades available on Amazon.

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I found a copy of a trade for the first six issues of this and it was a lot of fun. Amanda Conner hadn't quite nailed her style yet but it was a decent book.

A shame Peter had to go. Loved his Hulk and X-Factor runs, sure, but I also liked it when he did different things like Sachs and Violins or Fallen Angel and got to stretch out. I wish non-Big Two titles got more love and attention, there's some gems out there and I would have loved to have seen what else Pete would give us if there was more money in it and he didn't get his second wife pregnant in his mid-40s.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

War of the Gods was interesting. Circe makes for a good villain. The way Pérez tied actual mythology into her story by using Hecate is done well. Also she's practically one shotting other superheroes in the crossover, I love it. I do like her especially in the 2000s when she gets rejected by Lex Luthor, forms her own villain team and turns Vanessa Kapetelis into the Silver Swan, goads Diana into killing her on TV and then several years later becomes an imposter Wonder Woman herself.

She's also very good at taking Wonder Woman's magic items to use against her like the lasso.

She was fun in Justice League Dark. Her whole short hair look doesn't work for her at all though. She kind of looks like Cyndi Lauper.

 

[Old King Koaleamos]

War of the Gods was interesting. Circe makes for a good villain. The way Pérez tied actual mythology into her story by using Hecate is done well. Also she's practically one shotting other superheroes in the crossover, I love it. I do like her especially in the 2000s when she gets rejected by Lex Luthor, forms her own villain team and turns Vanessa Kapetelis into the Silver Swan, goads Diana into killing her on TV and then several years later becomes an imposter Wonder Woman herself.
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She's also very good at taking Wonder Woman's magic items to use against her like the lasso.

She was fun in Justice League Dark. Her whole short hair look doesn't work for her at all though. She kind of looks like Cyndi Lauper.
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it's a shame noone at DC really has considered using her as a major event-worthy villain. You'd think it'd be easy to just whip up something grandiose and fun based on mythologies. But the last time DC tried that, in some way, it was that odd Eternal Winter event.

 

[Stab You in the Back]

Decided to read myself some modern Spidey. Like most people, I dipped on Spider-Man during the clone saga. I never got back into because every time someone would mention Spider-Man, it was in relation to how fucking bad it was. But I was thinking, why not at least give it a shot?

Coming Home contains two big storylines. The first is Spidey's battle with Morlun. Morlun is this vampire dude who drains the life force from 'totems' in order to survive. Spidey is warned of Morlun's coming by Ezekial, a guy with spider powers who has one of the most obnoxious first appearances in comics' history.

Ezekial: "Peter, I am about to blow your mind with what I'm about to say!"
Peter: "I hear that all the time."
Ezekial: "Did the spider bite you because its a spider or did the radiation give it the power to bite you?"
Peter:

Okay, so I figured out right away that JMS is one of those writers who thinks he's a lot smarter than he actually is.

After getting his mind blown by Ezekial, Pete does a little soulsearching and winds up at his old high school. While there, he notices that its gone in the shitter and decides to become a teacher to protect the white nerd getting bullied by a bunch of black kids. Next issue, JMS pulls an UNO REVERSE CARD with a school shooter who turns out to be a white nerd!

So, anyway, Ezekial donates a bunch of money to the school on Peter's behalf, Peter turns down his offer of assistance, and Morlun attacks. JMS, in addition to being the smartest man alive, is also the funniest. Before Morlun attacks Spidey, he spends five issues dicking around New York buying clothes, eating chocolate sundaes. He cracks wise about outfits making his butt look fat and other similarly lame jokes you might see in a Cathy strip. JMS doesn't treat his villains seriously. He can't help but give his villains witty one-liners that aren't funny and undercut the seriousness of the threat they allegedly pose. Its not just Morlun, but also a villain who goes by the name of Carlyle later in the book.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm fine with a bad guy having a sense of humor. But a character's sense of humor should match the character's personality and their role in the story. Morlun quipping like Carrie from Sex and the City doesn't make sense for an ancient, mass murdering monster.

Morlun fights Spidey for about two issues. JRJR really shines here. Romita as an artist tends to half-ass the talking scenes. His action scenes, however, are next level. There's a lot of energy and power in the art which really brings the fight to life in a way that's so rare in modern comics.
Spidey eventually wins by giving himself radiation poisoning. You see, it all goes back to Ezekial's original question of whether the spider bit Peter because its a spider or because the radiation gave it.. you know what, fuck it. I still have no idea what kind of monstrously retarded point JMS was trying to make with that spider thing.

After killing Morlun, Peter goes home and passes out on his bed. Aunt May shows up and sees Peter's suit on the floor. She figures out he's Spider---OMG ITS 9/11 WE NEED TO DEVOTE AN ISSUE TO HOW MUSLIMS AREN'T AT FAULT AND HOW CHRISTIAN PREACHERS ARE JUST AS BAD AS BIN LADEN---Man and confronts him with the revelation. They then talk it out in a boring, terribly written issue. Just to be clear, I have no issue with how Aunt May and Peter are portrayed here. I just think its overwritten and needed a few more drafts. Like, imagine you're JMS and you're drafting this conversation between two characters 40 years in the making. You write down everything you want them to say to each other. Then, if you were a better writer than JMS, you would craft the dialogue so the characters would convey their point of view in their individual voice. If you're JMS, you're just going to say "fuck it" and make your notes the dialogue.

Finally, we get an arc about Peter apologizing to Mary Jane, but its so fucking boring and Peter just comes off like a huge cuck I'm not gonna talk about it.

Overall, its not great. Peter is starting to lose his edge and turn into his modern cuck self. Its not quite there yet, but its still painful to read. The Morlun fight was fun, I guess.

Rating: 7/10 (purely for JRJR's art)

 

[Steve Martin Short]

The better Peter/Aunt May conversation happened over in the Paul Jenkins Spectacular Spider-Man run around that time.

JMS was getting lauded at the time mostly because he wasn't Howard Mackie. I give him a little leeway because One More Day was apparently not his idea. That said, Sins Past (the Gwen/Norman pairing nobody wanted) was all him.

As an aside, does anyone know if Spider-Gwen has met 616 Osborn?

 

[King Metalia]

The better Peter/Aunt May conversation happened over in the Paul Jenkins Spectacular Spider-Man run around that time.

JMS was getting lauded at the time mostly because he wasn't Howard Mackie. I give him a little leeway because One More Day was apparently not his idea. That said, Sins Past (the Gwen/Norman pairing nobody wanted) was all him.

As an aside, does anyone know if Spider-Gwen has met 616 Osborn?

Spider Gwen met 616 Norman during the Chip Zedarsky's run during that Sin Eater arc.

 

[Humble Architect]

I remember reading a novel where Spidey faced Morlun’s siblings with an impromptu team.

And the author focusing really hard on Black Cat getting naked.

 

[Commander X]

Oddest tie-in comic I've seen, in that it's not the usual sort of adaption you'd expect. Back in 1992, Bob Newhart starred in another sitcom, simply titled "Bob". After playing Bob Hartley, psychiatrist in "The Bob Newhart Show" and do-it-yourself and travel book author/rustic Vermont inn owner Dick Loudon in "Newhart", he starred as graphic artist Bob McKay, currently working at a greeting card company. Back in the 1950s, he'd worked as a comic book artist and created the short-lived cult title "Mad Dog" about a veterinarian turned superhero, which became a casualty of the Comics Code Authority and a Dr. Wertheim-esque figure's crusade for comics censorship. Years later the hotshot young head of a publisher, Ace Comics, contacts him with an offer to revive "Mad Dog", the rights to which had been bought by Ace's parent corporation. Bob agrees and quits his job with the greeting card company, but is appalled when it turns out the plan is to revamp Mad Dog as an dark, edgy, violent anti-hero vigilante as opposed to the original's Silver Age do-gooder goofiness. The series ran with this concept for its first season - the two men compromising but butting heads now and then, and it was completely retooled during the second season, with most of the cast gone - Ace Comics's parent company being bought up by a ruthless businessman who like to fire people and cancel projects at his newly acquired companies to show who is boss, so he randomly chooses to cancel Mad Dog and fires the staff working on it. Also, he hates comic books....lets just say, the series wasn't a reality-based depiction of the comics world, can't really hold a candle to his previous two sitcoms and most of the supporting cast couldn't compare to those shows' casts but Newhart himself worked in his role pretty well.

Though the episode, penned by Mark Evanier, where McKay confronts the Frederic Wertheim-eque figure who helped end his career in comics is in a way poignant, as the man is feeling remorse for his actions back then...

Marvel published a short series, four flip books that presented what both versions would be like on the page. One half was the "Bob McKay" version - actually writer-penciller Ty Templeton - and the other half was the violent, homicidal version from Ace Comics head Harlan Stone - actually artist Gordon Pucell and writer Evan Dorkin.