( and my 129th since I started this blog ) which sums up to a quota of 1,54 posts per week or 1 post every 4,56 days.
Not too shabby if I dare say so myself. My initial goal was to have one new post up per week which I have exceeded by 28 posts and I hope to top it in the next year. But before my head gets any bigger let´s first wrap up the solicitations. And I have to apologize because I wrote in my last post that Kurt Busiek was writing BRAVE AND THE BOLD when it´s Mark Waid. Thankfully one of my readers noticed it and I have already corrected it.
Incredible Hercules 115
This is it. The big one ! God vs. Demigod. Brother against halfbrother . Herc against Jerk !
Although where the greek gods are concerned they are all halfbrothers or halfsisters or somehow related. It´s all about sibling rivalry and trying to get Daddy´s attention. If you believe the greek mythology then Zeus was the biggest player before the word was even invented leaving godly offspring all over the place. So most of the gods as a result of being descendandts from him were related. And....
....what´s that ? You didn´t know that Hercules was only a Demigod ? It´s true while Zeus is his father his mother was mortal which always made him an outcast and which also was the reason he took on the twelve labors to begin with. I think that´s one of the reasons why he bonded so strongly with Thor who always was an outcast in Asgard because of his fondness for earth. In recent stories it has never been explained but there was a storyline were it was revealed that Thor´s mother was Gaea mother earth herself. And while this story has been neglected by most writers of today the connection between Thor and Earth is still a big factor in the Thor book.
But back to Herc. Another battle between Hercules and his hated halfbrother. This time the roles are a bit reversed. Normally it´s Hercules who´s fighting on the side of the good guys and Ares with the bad guys. This time it´s Ares on the side of the registered superheroes and Hercules who is with the outlaws. On second thought : is the side of the government really the side of the good ? It is the law - but is it right ? So maybe Hercules is still one of the good guys.
Yep, one of the most interesting things this year was the CIVIL WAR fallout with THE INITIATIVE. It´s not so black and white anymore and if anything the landscape of the Marvel universe has become a whole lot more interesting. Here in Germany everybody is expecting that it´s only a temporary thing and things will be soon back to the usual status quo but I´m not so convinced. So far it doesn´t look like there will be an easy resolution for this whole mess in the near future. For as long as this last it´s one hell of an entertaining read.
Hulk 3
Speaking of slobberknockers it looks like the powers that be in the Marvel offices have decided to boil it down to the essential in this new title and to focus on what readers really like to see. Which is everyone´s favorite greenskinned goliath beating the bejeezus out of huge buttugly monsters. Except that the Hulk´s not green but red now. So we have to come up with a new nickname....something like " the red menace " or would that be to anti - communistic ? Although there are almost no communists left so I don´t know. Don´t want the rest of the world to think we are still stuck in our cold war mentality. Wait a minute....what am I talking about ? Germany was full of Nazis during the cold war and the russians were our allies. Well, until Germany decided to screw the russians and it all ended in a fiasco in Stalingrad. Aw, what the heck....Spain was busy with Franco at that time so I´m neutral on this whole capitalism - communism - american vs russian thingies.
I think I´m just going to call him " el toro rojo " from now on. I also have been thinking if we really need a second Hulk title. Hmm, let me think...a Hulk title with big fights between Hulk and gigantic monsters drawn by Ed McGuiness that´s much more interesting than the sci fi x - files espionage and sensitive soulsearching that kept away younger readers for years....of course we do !!!
Especially if we don´t get to see much of Hulk in his own mag.
Mighty Avengers 10
This month Marvel seems to have noticed that their big plan to catch up on this book with one issue a month is not going to work. Which seems logical because even though you get no further delay on a book with one issue a month you can´t make good on the delay you already amassed in the past. It´s like the " red queen priniciple " of nature ( named after Lewis Caroll´s famous children´s book ) that says that every species has to keep evolving constantly to keep up with the others.
So we get two issues of MIGHTY AVENGERS this month. Which reminds me that I should start reading the comic now that it´s going to cross over with NEW AVENGERS ( or how I like to call it SECRET DEFENDERS ) - which I AM reading. At the moment I´m waiting to see if issue 6 will be in my next comic shipment because I think it will wrap up the first storyarc.
Mighty Avengers 11
Now according to the solicitation this cover is by Frank Cho. Doesn´t look like it. Now THIS cover was done by Frank Cho. Doesn´t look like the other one at all.
My guess is they just took some Mark Bagley art from the interior for the solicitation image. Or it´s a part of the cover by Mark Bagley. But it definitely doesn´t look like Frank Cho did it.
She Hulk 27
I finally read the first two SHE HULK issues by Peter David and it´s really hard to believe.....how much better the book is with good writing and solid art. It´s not Marvel´s highest level but it also doesn´t look like it´s for SHE HULK - THE CARTOON. So that´s already a big step forward.
For the story I´m not sure what this whole " She Hulk as a bounty hunter " deal is all about but after what I had to suffer from Dan Slott I´m willing to give Peter David some leeway. What I found kind of strange was that Jen had a skrull as a partner. Now correct me if I´m wrong but isn´t Bendis busy with this whole skrull secret invasion thing ? I´m curious how that ties in to She Hulk.
Ultimates 4
Well, I guess this book didn´t take off as well as Marvel planned. At this point the second printing of the first issue should be out so at least my readers in the States know if Marvel made good on their promise to improve the printing. After so much anticipation the actual comic was really disappointing but I´m still not ready to give up on this book. Maybe the second issue will be better and maybe Marvel will finally learn that digital inking is NOT the solution to all problems. There IS a reason why comics were inked in the first place. And that´s got nothing to do with the fact that they did not have the means to do it at the time.
Be that as it may the good news is that it´s only a five - issue mini series so if you hold this issue in your hands you almost made it. Only one issue to go. Yay !
X - Men First Class 10
Okay, I´m not reading any x - book at the moment apart from ASTONISHING butI was a bit baffled by the solicitation information for this issue ( which has a nice John Romita Jr cover by the way ). Since when do they need a whole issue to " make Cyclops cool " ? Cyclops the captain of cool. The father of funk. The shizznit pimp of style. Okay, that´s a little too much. But for me Cyclops was always one of the coolest characters. Not in the way of " wolverine cool " but more a quiet kind of coolness. Because he´s really the most interesting charakter of the X - Men. Yes, Logan is also interesting but compared to Cyclops Logan always had it easy. He always gave in to his dark desires and berserk rages. And if he got hurt he has a healing factor.
Cyclops on the other hand was always the one who had to keep his emotions in check and bottle up his feelings. He always had to be in control 100 percent 24 / 7. One weak moment and his optical eye blasts can f up things pretty fast. Try to shoulder that burden for a while and you know why he´s not the wisecracking smartass like Gambit. So for me Cyclops is the real hardcore X - Men. And he got the girl. Well, actually both girls since he now has Emma. He sure gets more tail than Logan. So wait for the new series by Marvel titled CYCLOPS BIG PIMPIN.
And that´s all for today. I wanted to finish the solicitations this year but this post is already too long for my tastes so it´s time to wrap it up. I´m sure you have better things to do for the last day of the year and I don´t want to keep you from it.
I want to thank all my readers for their support and I promise to keep improving this blog. I promise COMICBABE BATTLE will return next year and maybe I can also get to a new section I like to call SEARCH FOR THE NEXT POWER GIRL in which I will discuss which real life massita is the spitting image of Power Girl. Yep, just a cheap excuse to post tons of hot pics.
So happy new year, feliz ano nuevo and guten Rutsch from TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN !
New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN :
1 comment:
she hulk is genial.
Post a Comment