Main
Search

Social

Navigation
Links
Other
Powered by Squarespace
Tuesday
13Oct2009

Blogging Bendis is on its honeymoon

DateTuesday, October 13, 2009 at 7:22AM

I'm on the east coast and in America so I only have sporadic connection to the internet. I know there was a whole shit load of comic announcements today, including more information on "The Seige" which is Brian Bendis's ending to "Dark Reign" and the world run by Norman Osborn. It looks awesome, or sounds like it will be, but I'm on my honeymoon so I won't be blogging about it until I get back. Sorry. I was in New York, and will be again this week. I wanted to stop by Marvel and give them my Alpha Flight pitch, but I figured being arrested on my honeymoon would make the wife unhappy. Take care. See you when I'm back in Vancouver. Blogging Bendis is on its honeymoon

Click to read more ...

AuthorJeffery Simpson | CommentPost a Comment |
Friday
25Sep2009

The Onion AV Club on Spider-Woman

DateFriday, September 25, 2009 at 9:09AM

3887655136_0957af9096

The Onion AV Club do a bi-weekly review of newly released comic books that I have to admit I don't read.  I listen to their film podcasts, but for some reason I just really don't care to read their brief capsule reviews of the new books on the shelves.  I suppose it's because I generally know whether or not I'm going to buy a comic before it's released whereas movie reviews are awful helpful since I no longer have the money or time to go see every movie that hits the theatres.

Their brief review of the current books [av] deals with this week's Spider-Woman#1, which I haven't been by Elfsar to pick up yet.  They mistake Alex Maleev for Michael Gaydos, believing that Maleev and Bendis collaborated on Alias rather than Daredevil.  This must secretly be Alias week, because most of the review compares the two books, and I suppose having super powered brunettes named Jessica as the lead can conflate the two but they are vastly different books.

The review does make the interesting point that the book is a better experience than the motion comic.  I've yet to read the book, but I assumed as much during my review of the first two episodes of the iTunes download [bb].

Click to read more ...

AuthorJeffery Simpson | CommentPost a Comment |
in , , , ,
Friday
25Sep2009

Wordballoon and Newsarama picks up the slack

DateFriday, September 25, 2009 at 6:19AM

UltimateSpider-Man10207

While I've slowed down in my blow-by-blow reviews of Bendis' back catalogue as I try to sort out dedicated blogging time in my real life, my Aliasreviews have been put on hold.  Newsarama however is doing a look back at the book themselves [nwr] which is worth a look at if you can't wait for me to get back on the horse or bike or whatever metaphor best fits.

Probably more significantly the Bendis Tapeshave returned to Wordballoon with the start of the fall series [wb].  The Bendis tapes are by far the most in-depth interviews I've seen with any comic creator and John Siuntres might not exactly be Mike Wallace and drilling Bendis with the hard questions but the discussion tends to be rather frank and honest.  Besides, it's comics and it's not like Bendis is lying about WMDs in Iraq or running a black site torture chamber in Eastern Europe.

Or is he?

While I'm only about halfway through the interview the discussion has mostly focused on the differences between the Spider-Woman motion comic [bb] and the print issues as well as a short talk about the Disney-Marvel deal which jives completely with my own take on the sale [bb].  Further on there is promised talk of New and Dark Avengers as well as some stuff on Marvel Comics Ultimate Spider-Man.

Click to read more ...

AuthorJeffery Simpson | CommentPost a Comment |
in , , ,
Tuesday
22Sep2009

Is it time for the "classic" Avengers?

DateTuesday, September 22, 2009 at 5:27AM

Avengers-1

Link found via Newsarama [nwr]:

This past year at the Emerald City Comic Convention during one of the Marvel panels the question came up, with the return of Thor and the impending return of Captain America to the main Marvel Universe was a reunion of the classic Avengers on the cards?  Ever since Brian Michael Bendis' "Avengers Disassembled" arc closed out the last Avengers titles a certain segment of readers have been waiting for the Avengers to return to normal.  It is, I suspect, the same segment of readers who would like comics to cost a nickle and wonder why they have a Hawaiian for a president.

I mean Hawaii isn't even a real state.

While I've always liked the teaming of Captain America and Iron Man, my favorite lineup of Bendis' run on the Avengers has been that initial New Avengers team (Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Wolverine and Luke Cage), I've never really enjoyed Thor except in Mark Millar's The Ultimates and frankly don't really think he ever really fits into the Avengers particularly well.

Which is all just my nerd talk, and your opinion is just as valued.  Maybe you think Thor is the lynch-pin of the Avengers and any book without Thor is not the Avengers at all.  However whatever our geek brains might think, it's clear that while in Seattle Bendis did hint at a reunion of the classic Avengers of sorts Marvel is not going to move away from what has been widely successful with the new way of building the team.

Click to read more ...

AuthorJeffery Simpson | CommentPost a Comment |
in , , , , ,
Saturday
05Sep2009

The mouse and the spider: on Disney buying Marvel

DateSaturday, September 5, 2009 at 8:47AM

Ultimate_comics_spiderman_1 

  • people who have never lied to me before have told me it is business as usual and business as usual has been pretty good for me, so... :)2:31 PM Sep 3rd from TweetDeck
  • the reason i have not commented on the disney thing is because unlike some of my peers i do not talk about things i know nothing about.2:31 PM Sep 3rd from TweetDeck

- Brian Michael Bendis (@brianmbendis) on Twitter

Of course we know better.  After spending four billion dollars, that's Tony Stark money there, to buy Marvel Comics it's obvious that the first thing that Disney is going to do is fire everyone, force anyone whose left  to stick Mickey Mouse into all of their ongoing story lines and also eliminate the sodomy because your average issue of a Marvel comic is a grand collection of sex, drugs and perversion.  Oh, and for sure Bendis is not going to be allowed to do that creator owned Snuff Comics book.

No wait, that was a fever dream.

The reaction to the four billion dollar buyout has been mixed.  Most people are realistic enough to understand that if Disney is putting out that kind of money for Marvel they're hardly going to set out to ruin what is clearly a winning formula.  But sadly these are comic fans we're talking about, and like rapid Canucks fans who insist every year that it's this season that the team will finally lift the Stanley Cup, reality and comic fans are not always on speaking terms.  There is a certain siege mentality that comes with being a comic fan, an attitude that believes that nobody understands us and if anyone outside our little world shows interest it's only because they're looking to exploit us in some way.

Shes_All_That Comic fans are like Rachel Leigh Cook at the start of She's All That, distrustful that the popular jock played by Freddie Prinze Jr. is interested in us, not realizing that once we put on a dress and ditch the glasses we'll be the hottest girl in the school.  In this situation I guess that means that Disney is Freddie, the popular jock that just happens to own ESPN, ABC, Pixar and a number of theme parks around the world.

Where those who are expecting the Disney buyout to mean the end of Marvel Comics as we know it are going wrong is that they're thinking like Rachel Leigh Cook did at the start of the movie, unaware of exactly what she had to offer.  They're also seeing an oddly misshapen view of Disney, one that is awful in areas where it's not and yet perfect in areas where it's not. To understand what each of these companies get out of the deal it might be useful to understand where they were before the sale.

The Jock (Disney)

 Disney started with cartoons about animals and built from there.  Though the company logo may remain Mickey Mouse, it's a million miles away from simply being an animation studio.  Generations ago they moved into live action film and now they're as much a company that holds intellectual properties than anything.  ESPN and ABC sit alongside the Disney Channel as their major television holdings and they own a number of movie studios like Miramax as well as online properties like Club Penguin which actually was founded and still operates from my home town of Kelowna, British Columbia.

Click to read more ...

AuthorJeffery Simpson | CommentPost a Comment |
in , ,
Page 1 2 3 4 5 ... 6 Next 5 Entries ยป