Shownotes and upcoming attractions post

It´s been a while since my last post so I thought it way past time to do a post about what I have been up to the last few weeks and to tell my readers what they can look forward to in the next days and months.

If I get to do that many posts in the future. Because as of this month my physiotherapy is officially over which means that I could still profit from more physio but according to my orthopedist I´m well enough to start working again which is good enough for the unemployment office.

So it´s back again to looking for a new job and writing applications. I still haven´t gotten the chance to talk with my old boss but I know they have a new guy in my old job ( hey, I knew going into my operation that with the time it took me to get my surgery and the rehab and then waiting for the ok from the doc that they just had to get a new guy to do the job because somebody has to keep things clean ) and my orthopedist told me that if I didn´t get another job I would have another knee operation within a year.

And since I want to avoid that I´ll have to look for a new field of work. I thought the job at the Stadionbad would be the last job I applied for and I would do that until I finally go on pension - or croak, whichever happens first. But once again life stays interesting while we make other plans.

THE EMPEROR`S NEW BLOG or SAME AS IT NEVER WAS

Speaking of change, you may have noticed that the look of the blog has changed again. Against my better judgement I changed the layout to the typical " all black " look during Halloween ( last time I did that it took me quite some work to change it back ) but I have already grown tired of it.

So in tune with the season the black is gone in favor of the autumn leaves and in a few months we will be back to the old all snow look. Which I guess will stay as long as the snow or until I feel the need to change it again. Another thing I changed was the header picture. This was the first one I made when I started TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN back in 2006 :

Now I selected the covers for that one to include all the stuff about comics I liked at that time : the Avengers, George Perez, Captain America, Ed McGuinness, Spider - Man, iconic comic covers like the " Spider - Man No More " cover, Spider - Man´s black costume, Thor, Wolverine, Mike Deodato, Carlos Pacheco, Superman and Batman, Carlos Pacheco´s timey wimey Superman / Batman story, Wonder Woman, Arthur Adams, Power Girl, Adam Hughes, Adam Hughes drawing Power Girl, Carlos Pacheco again, this time on the JSA drawing Power Girl ( have I mentioned I´m obsessed with Power Girl ? ) you know, all that stuff.

This was way before the Marvel NOW and DC´s NEW 52 fiasco when I was reading - and enjoying - a lot of the comics as they actual came out. So fast forward a few years and I had to face the fact that I was not reading the new stuff so much and less single issues in favor of the classic stuff and collected editions - favorably in hardcover. Now I could have just kept the old header which in itself would have been enough of a statement but as the topics of my posts had changed I thought that should be reflected.

This time around I also included my favorite comic stuff but also some personal key issues : Mike Grell´s stint on the Legion of Super - Heroes with the disco costumes created by Dave Cockrum which I mostly read in the SUPERMAN SUPERBAND version ( thus incorporating german comics ).

AVENGERS 81 by John Buscema which was the first original US comic of the Avengers where I saw the Vision for the first time, Gene Colan´s DOCTOR STRANGE ( which combines one of my favorite characters and one of my favorite artists ) always fighting the dread Dormammu, The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill which is one of the best stories from the definite Thor run by Walter Simonson, another favorite artist, Yaya Han - what can I say ? I wanted to bring in a hot woman, my love for asian sexbombs and cosplayers and here I got all three things in one. I know, I had to relinquish all others like Markie Post or Janet Jackson for that but I´m obsessed with Yaya Han. And here I can say that it IS comic related.

Even if it does kind of spoil the number one spot of my favorite costumes for my big Yaya Han post. But that´s still a few weeks away - IF I ever get around to do it. Speaking about women I´m obsessed with Power Girl is still very high on that list even if I´m not mentioning her as often as I used to. I guess most of my readers have already heard enough about her and it´s not like there are any new good comics with her around that would wanton another post. The picture I used is by Joe Gravel and I had to modify it a little to use it because in the original version you could see her nipples. It´s a shame that artist´s hilarious hero sketches are almost entirely not safe for work but I found a few that are still risky but safe to post here so there will be more of them popping up in the near future. 

What else did I put in the new header pic ? UNCANNY X - MEN 196 by Chris Claremont and John Romita Jr. thus giving props to one of my favorite writers and one of my favorite artists at the same time as one of my favorite crossovers SECRET WARS II. It´s one of the best issues from one of the best runs on UNCANNY X - MEN which I have buy again and again in different versions and different languages. In fact I just bought it again as part of the SECRET WARS II omnibus AND a pocket book by Panini UK.

There´s also Will Eisner´s THE SPIRIT and the cover of the first german hardcover I bought of that series and last but not least maybe Marvel´s best Bronze Age series EVER : Dough Moench and Mike Zeck´s SHANG CHI - MASTER OF KUNG FU which will probably never be reprinted even if Disney could afford it to get the rights for the Sax Rohmer characters.

Anyway, all this was in the new header picture of which I made a special " all black and creepy " version just for Halloween. But when it was time to go back to the old header pic I decided to make a few changes instead.

First off I changed the picture for Will Eisner´s THE SPIRIT. While it was the cover of the first german hardcover I bought it was not the first cover of the Spirit I saw. That was the one with Spirit on the tracks and since that is the first one I always think about when someone mentions THE SPIRIT I went with that one instead. I also made the part with the Vision and the Scarlet Witch from AVENGERS 81 bigger because that was the really important part. I also made the part with sexy Yaya Han bigger.

And after I had already posted that I decided that since I named my blog after one of my favorite horror comics I could also incorporate the logo.

I hope you like the new header and I can keep it a while. Well I guess by now most readers are bored enough so let´s get to more exciting news.

THE RETURN OF THE BIG CHRISTMAS CONTEST

Yup, once again I have decided to give away free comics on Christmas and since I did not do this last year the pile is extra big even though I did not buy as many comics online this year. But I DID order the SECRET WARS II omnibus at one online comic store where you get one free comic ( from FREE COMIC BOOK DAY or GRATIS COMIC TAG ) per every 10 EUROS spent so this got me 10 free comics with one order. I´m getting one final order this Saturday and then I can make the list of free comics I´m giving away which will be announced together with the rules on a separate blog post.

In fact this is one of the reasons why I did not write this post Yesterday. You see, in preparation for the big Christmas Contest I was looking for some pictures to post when I came upon this post where you can see most of the FREE COMIC BOOK DAY comics from 2015 ( you have to scroll down to see the others ). So instead of writing this post I spend most of the day Yesterday going over all the FREE COMIC BOOK DAY comics of 2015 which is the reason you didn´t get any new content here Yesterday - sorry - but I found a few cool ones that will without a doubt become a part of the giveaway pile. Which equals more free comics for my readers.

By the way, I read the FREE COMIC BOOK DAY issue of Disney´s ALL NEW AVENGERS and this prevented me from spending any money on this crap.

The art by Mahmud Asrar is the only good thing of the issue and he must be pissed that he doesn´t get to draw the REAL Avengers. Except for Iron Man and the Vision IF those are the real Iron Man and the real Vision. Still their costumes look all effed up man. But if they are the real ones they and the Falcon are the only veterans on the team. And the story. Okay, Mark Waid is a good writer but there are two things wrong with the story.

Even IF the Avengers would rate the life of a civilian higher than going after the bad guy ( and there are many cases in the teams history where they were willing to sacrifice a civilian or one of their own to save a lot of people ) would it not have been enough if ONE of the noobs saved the civilian ? The other two could still have gone after Radioactive Man. Does it really take all three of them to save one guy who is just falling ? He´s not even in a death trap that requires the powers of all three of them. I mean it looks like Kid Nova is faster than Ultimate Spider - Man anyway so Mike Morales is just wasting time trying to save him. And I don´t want to sound like I´m prejudiced against the new Ms. Marvel but what exactly does she do apart from uselessly standing around and yelling at the others what to do ? That´s really bad teamwork. Which gets us to the real crux.

Even if you can swallow all this crap and the feelgood message that " the life of a civilian is more important than letting the crook get away " isn´t that something that should have been covered in a training session instead of a field mission where real lives are at stake ? You really can´t have your cake and eat it. Either the lives of civilians are important or not but if they are you can´t just risk them in the hopes that three kids will make the right choice and learn a valuable lesson at the same time.

 
Yes, I know that the Avengers have always had recruits or members in training but the training and the missions were always separate things.

If you send members out on a field mission their combat training should be already finished and if that´s not the case then they don´t belong in the field. When did this crap start that new Avenger members get their training on the fly while endangering hundreds of civilians ? The Avengers have like a gazillion members now so they don´t really NEED to have three unsure, untested question marks among them ( four if you include Thora ) on important or dangerous missions. They have more members than the YMCA at this point. So unless you want to pander to the masses the lineup doesn´t make any sense. Man, does anybody remember back when new Avengers members - in - training did their actual training WHILE training and not on missions ? Because on the mission you bring your a - game.

So while I already thought that the AVENGERS franchise went down the toilet when Jonathan Hickman started his run the FREE COMIC BOOK DAY actually does a good job of showing what the new series will be all about so I can safely avoid it. We can at least thank Disney for that service.

And to wrap this whole free comic part of the post up I will be busy with the new FREE COMIC BOOK DAY comics Tomorrow and the complete list will be in the post that will go up as soon as possible so I can send the comics away until Christmas. For monetary reasons this contest is only open to german citizens except for Terry Hooper who I will send some german comics next week anyway. Send me an e - mail if you need any particular FREE COMIC BOOK DAY comics and I´ll see what I can do.

WHAT WAS THE NAME OF YOUR BLOG AGAIN ?

So there has not been much Superman related content lately on TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN which is something I intend to rectify. There is still the series about John Byrne´s run on SUPERMAN during the 80s which I have to continue ( we were just about to start on the SUPERMAN : EXILE issues ) and I have also plans to do posts on other great Superman artists from my youth like Kerry Gammill or the great Gil Kane. I remember when Gil Kane did some issues of Superman after decades of Curt Swan art.

Not to take anything away from Curt Swan ( who also did great work on the early issues of The Legion of Super - Heroes ) but Gil Kane just brought a fire and dynamism to the Superman books that was exciting.

Even in the small pocket books from Ehapa with almost no text I found these stories fascinating, especially his radical re - design of Brainiac 5 which is the look most of us Bronze Age kids are familiar with. There´s a hardcover out from DC with all that stuff ( ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN : GIL KANE ) and I will probably get that as a Christmas present if only to read all these stories with Brainiac 5 and the Forgotten Heroes in one volume without any issues or pages or any of the dialogue missing.

Am I old because I remember when Superman used to be a cool guy ?

WHO`S THAT BIKINI GIRL or ( PLEASE DO NOT ) RETOUCH MY BODY

So in my last post which was all about 80s POWER GIRL MARKIE POST I posted a picture of a well endowed bikini model with a very tiny white bikini. Now because the post was actually a re - post of my original post about CULT SIREN MARKIE POST I try to include some new stuff so that even readers who have already read the original post can get something out of the re - post while new readers might be enticed to check out the old post afterwards. It´s a win - win situation. My oold readers get new content and I get to post more pictures of hot bikini babes. So I did the same last year but because I could not find a better picture of a hot blonde in a bikini than the one I included last year - and because I had to wrap things up - I used a different picture from the same photoshoot.

But now that I have posted two pictures from the same bikini model two years in a row people are beginning to ask questions so I just want to use this opportunity to add two things : number one, that her name is Valerie Cormier, she was born on the 24th of December 1980, she´s a PLAYBOY and swimsuit model and her measurements are 36E ( !!! ) - 26 - 34.

The other thing I want to mention about bikini sexbomb Valerie Cormier is that while I was desperately looking for more pictures of the white bikini photo shoot I also found some pictures of the photo shoot above where two pictures in particular caught my eye. This is the first one.

Now this looks good to me. Okay, I´m a boobs man so my eyes are fixated on that part but to me it doesn´t look like there is anything that needs to changed or fixed. But apparently somebody else did not share my opinion.

And here I thought it´s the little imperfections that make us interesting. Yes, I know this doesn´t has anything to do with comics and I also know that pictures have been touched up in magazines for decades - especially since photoshop has been invented - but like Morpheus said to Neo : There´s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.

Time again to wrap things up for Today now that I have gotten rid of my last faithful readers with this rack attack. But not before the links of the day which include a review on the WITH GREAT POWER website on the first hardcover of Kurt Busiek and George Perez AVENGERS ASSEMBLE run for those who want to read an Avengers comic when they were cool, for more Gil Kane art from when Superman was cool go to this thread on the MARVEL MASTERWORKS FANSITE, HOW TO LOVE COMICS has a gallery of John Romita Jr in their Artist of the Week series and STEVE DOES COMICS has another top ten, this one John Romita Sr´s AMAZING SPIDER - MAN .

Speaking about MARVEL MASTERWORKS and John Romita Sr, one series that I will definitely continue is the MARVEL VISIONARY and that´s mainly because Disney doesn´t want my money. Or rather that I want to give my money to Disney but I can´t because they won´t let me. To explain this a little, as I mentioned earlier when I was rambling about the new header picture AVENGERS 81 is one of the Avengers issues with the most personal history behind it and as I also said repeatedly it´s one of the few issues for which I would pay the exorbitant prices the MARVEL MASTERWORKS demand. Which should make this an easy enough transaction because I want to spend money on this comic and Disney can´t get enough money. But here´s the catch : I can´t find this anywhere. No comic shop I know has it and because it seems to be out of print I would have to pay between 100 EUROS ( used ) and 1.750 ( used and new ) at amazon.

Now I know that since the first AVENGERS movie came out prices have been crazy but this is just ridiculous. Especially since the issues I want are split up between two different MARVEL MASTERWORK volumes.

So instead I opted for the much less expensive MARVEL VISIONARIES series once again ordering from the new and used section of amazon ( I really lucked out since all the volumes I got so far were in very good condition ) where I got the John Buscema volume for 33 EUROS, the Stan Lee volume for 23 EUROS, the Steve Ditko volume for 21 EUROS and the John Romita Sr volume for 17 EUROS. Keep in mind that these are all 30 dollar books except the John Buscema book which goes for 35 dollars.

And while AVENGERS 81 is not reprinted in any of the books they do contain some prime Avengers issues of John Buscema for a much lesser price than I would have paid for MARVEL MASTERWORK volume. And they also contain some stories I always wanted to read like Brother Take my Hand from DAREDEVIL 47 with beautiful artwork by Gene Colan or the IRON MAN issue by Steve Ditko in which Squirrel Girl defeats Doctor Doom but we will talk all about this - and more - in detail in upcoming posts.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention Today´s celebrity birthdays. The first one is Anne Hathaway who turns 33 and who oddly enough was in the last post of the SUBZERO EDITION OF CASTING THE JUSTICE LEAGUE MOVIE ( there is still the alternatives post coming up but I guess it will be a while until I can finish that one ). I don´t have anything to add to that so just check out the post. I would wish her many happy returns but I´m still cross with her for her horrible performance as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. It will take more than a few wardrobe malfunctions to put that one right.

The other two are NCSI´s Cote De Pablo who turns 36 and Valerie Leon who played in the british Carry On series and Hammer movies like Blood From the Mummy´s Tomb and who celebrates her 72nd anniversary.

I briefly mentioned them in this post and while there´s nothing to add at the moment there will be a few posts about Hammer movies coming up.

And these are another reason why there have been no posts for so long. Like I mentioned in one of my earlier posts I finally started to watch the Hammer movies I got from the internet years ago during Halloween and after seeing them I wanted to write a few comments on them. So the first thing I did was to go on the internet and look for some pictures but as always I couldn´t find the specific pictures I was looking for. Thankfully I can now make screenshots of movies so that I could at least make the necessary pictures myself. But anyone who has seen more than two Hammer movies knows that one of the staples of the movies are very attractive actresses and I soon realized that it would be a great disservice to my readers if I didn´t present said massitas in the best way possible.

Which of course meant making some animated GIFs. The good thing about that is that I could cut the pictures so that the focus was on the actresses. The bad thing is that it takes forever to do these things especially with the hot Yvonne Romain in The Curse of the Werewolf with Oliver Reed. She´s one of the highlights of the movie and her scenes alone are worth the price of admission. So while her GIFs took the longest to make and are the biggest I ever made ( over 47 MB ) and it prevented me from posting for more than two days I think it was totally worth it.

From Hammer horror movies to other black and white classics here is another slapstick comedy series from my youth, VÄTER DER KLAMOTTE ( which could be translated as something like Fathers of Comedy ) once again narrated by Hans Dieter Hüsch. This episode presents An Apple in his Eye from 1941 with Edgar Kennedy, Vivian Oakland and Charlie Hall.



I still have a lot of horror and Halloween related videos left but while I can post most of them later I should not wait too long with this documentary.



Since this post is not about anything in particular I can resolve one of the great mysteries that have plagued comic fans all over the world : what is this " la massita de behaviour " music they always play on the show ?



I only mentioned Squirrel Girl briefly but because I doubt that there is another chance to post a video related to her with the quality of her current series here is BelleChere cosplaying her bushy tail off, aw yeah.



This is my second video from a casting show and because my last one was with a girl I wanted to go with a guy this time. Originally I wanted to go with somebody who surprised the judges but I had to go with this video of Dave Vermeulen with They Call Me The Breeze because he just rocks.



New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN : top ten posts / more posts of interest / best of the best

Avengers 300 - The Revenge ( finally ) !

Because my last posts have all been DC - centric with lots of stuff about Superman and the Justice League of America I thought it´s about time to spice things up a little before my next JLA casting post goes online. So I went through all the stuff I have already lined up for upcoming posts and decided to go with something I already attempted twice : Avengers 300.

Which is the reason why you see the italian version of the Avengers 300 cover above and not the original one. I try not to post the same images again and again and since I already posted the original cover and the german version as well as the cover from the Netherlands this was the only one left. Maybe that´s too big an effort for some people but I think my readers might get a kick out of seeing all these different versions.

IN OUR PREVIOUS EPISODE OF X - MEN : INFERNO CROSSOVERS

This all started way back in March 2014 when I got the X - MEN : INFERNO CROSSOVERS HC omnibus at amazon for half price ( that´s the only way to afford these expensive doorstoppers and the only one where I paid full price because it was only available at one online comic shop was SECRET WARS II ) which reminded me of my love for this particular crossover. Now when last we talked about INFERNO I covered the excellent AVENGERS 298 which was a story mainly focused on Jarvis as the only one upholding the ideals of the Avengers. One of THE best " done in one " Avengers issues that clearly shows the opportunities such a company wide crossover event like INFERNO offers. The issue has my utmost recommendation and if you want to know more about it you can go back and check out my post on it.

So for the next post I decided to skip AVENGERS issue 299 and go directly to the big anniversary issue because I thought it deserves a post of its own. I even went so far as to dig out my physical copy of the issue even though it is contained in the omnibus. But the omnibus only has the main story and not all of the extra material which is what this post is all about.

Anyway, that was the plan but as usual I got sidetracked on two occasions. On the first one I wrote more about the fact that the biggest part of the INFERNO crossover was not published in Germany despite the fact that it´s such a big part in resolving storylines dating back 20 years and the art crimes to humanity Condor Verlag committed on the german covers. 

And the second post was more about some old comics I came across while preparing for the post which landed on my " to read " pile on my desk.

THE NEVERENDING STORY or STILL WAITING FOR MY NEW SHELF PORN

Which is one of the reasons why I´m trying to finally wrap things up with AVENGERS 300. Ever since I decided to make the post about it my copy of the issue has been lying on my desk along with the folder where I keep my scattered Avengers issues between 227 and 370. And now that there is the possibility I might get my new shelf porn ( porn shelf ? ) in the next two months I should get done with it so I can put these away. Yes, I´m saying there is a possibility because once again the gods had their fun with me. This Wednesday I was a micron away from finally getting my new shelf porn. After almost two months of sending e - mails, making phone calls and drinking lots of beer I managed to set a date for delivery and assembly of my new bookshelf ( since I can´t do this myself because of my bad knee ) and it really was delivered. I hadn´t slept much since the day before I had physio and then my brother needed me to write an e - mail very late. Now I don´t mind writing e - mails for other people but I was trying to avoid to go on the internet because every time I fire up the laptop it gets until six o´clock in the morning until I can turn it off again.

This time was no exception but it was not that bad because even though the trucking company had said they would come around two o´clock in the afternoon my experience with handymen told me that six o´clock would be a more realistic time. So I slept in late, had time to clean and wipe my room and had just finished eating dinner while watching a few episodes of the new iZOMBIE series when the handymen arrived around six - ish.

Everything was starting to look perfect so the Chaos Lords had to through a monkey wrench into it to prevent me from getting my desk sorted out.

Which they decided to do by breaking the lateral sides of my bookshelf during transportation which we only found out halfway during assembly. And since it makes no sense to assemble a bookshelf that is going to break as soon as you put a book in it I´m sitting here with a the unbroken parts of my bookshelf waiting for a new delivery date since the new parts have to be ordered while my desk keeps looking like a mess for another two to five weeks depending on how quick the hauler can get new parts.

1989 - THE EXTRA - SIZED YEAR IN WHICH ATLANTIS ATTACKED

Okay, back to AVENGERS 300, as I wrote in one of my earlier posts, it´s a 64 page spectacular ( eight pages of ads ) which you could purchase back then for the price of only 1.75 US dollars and I bet you can still get it at some comic shops for that price - or at least much less than the 4 bucks you pay for the 22 pages of comic story entertainment from the big two.

IF you can call what they publish nowadays entertainment. But this post is not about bemoaning the current state of comics. When AVENGERS 300 was printed - February 1989 - there were also CAPTAIN AMERICA 350 and THOR 400 ( both 64 pages specials ), in March there were INFERNO tie - ins NEW MUTANTS 73, UNCANNY X - MEN 242 and X - FACTOR 38 ( all three 48 page specials ), in May WEB OF SPIDER - MAN 50 came out which was another 48 page special, and then there were the ATLANTIS ATTACKS annuals : X - MEN, SILVER SURFER, IRON MAN in August, AMAZING SPIDER - MAN, SPECTACULAR SPIDER - MAN, DAREDEVIL, PUNISHER in September, AVENGERS, NEW MUTANS, X - FACTOR in October and WEB OF SPIDER - MAN, FANTASTIC FOUR, AVENGERS WEST COAST and THOR in November, clocking in at a whopping 64 pages each. What I want to show with this list is that 1989 was a good year for collectors of extra - sized issues.

Now I can´t speak for the quality of all of the ATLANTIS ATTACKS issues since I have only read some of them and those were not overwhelming.

From what I heard about the story in reviews it´s not Marvel´s most well received crossover but when you look at the pages per dollar ratio I don´t think you can complain. And I have read all the other specials from that year and they were all good. I´ll probably do another post on THOR 400 and maybe CAPTAIN AMERICA and from the looks of it also another about AVENGERS 300. I lost two hours trying to get access to the picture of my desk that was on my camera so I will have to wrap things up for Today.

FREEFALLING KANG AND THE PERKS OF BEING A GOBLIN QUEEN

First in AVENGERS 300 is a forty page story that begins with Kang drifting through the time stream on the brink of being erased from existence.

His only chance of salvation ? Ensure that a new team of the Avengers is formed. Now while issue 298 was a great standalone issue this one ( and Kang ) is mainly focused on moving the necessary players from a to b with the goal of introducing the new Avengers team at the end of the story.

So there are a few opportunities missed here and the artwork also is not consistent throughout the issue. Since John Buscema is listed with layouts and Tom Palmer with finishes it´s not hard to guess that some pages were probably done more fully by Buscema while others - especially towards the end - are mostly Palmer´s doing. Despite that there´s not much to nitpick apart from that and John Buscema gives us one of the best renditions of the best thing to come out of the INFERNO storyline : The Goblin Queen.

While Madelyne Prior was a supporting character in the x - books for quite a long time her actual stint as the Goblin Queen was rather shortlived.

She only appeared in two brink moments prior ( no pun intended ) to the INFERNO story where she met her demise at the end. Nevertheless she appeared in quite a number of stories afterwards - in alternate realities or the likes - which shows that she has become quite popular. I wager this is not in the smallest part due to the sexy outfit Marc Silvestri designed.

There also seem to be quite a few cosplayers who like the character since I found various dressed as her. Here´s one with Belle Chere and some guy ( sorry, but I could not find your name ) dressing up as Mister Sinister.

AVENGERS 300, ANOTHER TRY or WHAT`S THE MONEY OF COLOR ?

Okay, coming back to the Avengers in this story I have already mentioned that Sue and Reed Richards don´t stay very long with Sue only hanging on until issue 203 while her hubby already jumped ship with issue 202.

You have Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm guest starring in issue 203 but that´s the last we see of the Fantastic Four on that title for quite some time. Then there is Gilgamesh but I think I have already said more about that character than he deserves. If there is anything I feel like adding I will probably do that in the next INFERNO CROSSOVERS installment. Now before going to the rest of the issue I wanted to talk about the difference in quality from my original copy to the reprinted version in the omnibus edition. Here is the final page of the main story as penciled and inked.

This is how the page looks in a regular copy of AVENGERS issue 300.

And here the recolored version from the INFERNO CROSSOVERS omnibus.

Now in my book that´s a pretty good color job like most of the reprinted material I got from Marvel. There are some that prefer the original more muted and atmospheric colors to the digitally remastered brighter colors.

And I have to admit that at first I was taken aback by the coloring of the X - MEN : INFERNO PROLOGUE omnibus HC but after a few times leaving through the tome ( I´ll have to wait with reading it until I can lay it down on my desk ) it looks better and better. Now I don´t want to pimp these omnibus, especially since they are currently at ridiculous prices at amazon ( I´m really glad I bought them when I did ) but so far there are very few instances where I have encountered or heard of bad coloring concerning these new editions. Sadly the first has to do with one the best periods of Thor and it seems they just can´t get it right when the hammer dude is involved. They already did a bubble gum coloring job on the new edition of Jack Kirby´s TALES OF ASGARD that was reprinted a while back. Since I don´t have an actual copy I can´t make a qualified statement but from what I saw on RIP JAGGER`S DOJO I doubt that I will like it very much. 

I think for all the comic geek chique types who just want to hop on the comic bandwagon and want to impress others with their Thor cred or comic readers who just want to read the stories and aren´t necessarily interested that much in the art this is a good way to experience this.

But if you are a diehard fan of Jack Kirby and his art this is really not the book to buy as too much of his line work gets buried by the new coloring.

What this all leads up to is the THOR BY WALTER SIMONSON omnibus books where they also redid the color. Now I have two of the MARVEL VISIONARIES trades that reprint Simonson´s Thor and I have to say I´m not against polishing up the original colors a bit like in this example.

But I also got the first Hachette book with the WALTER Simonson THOR from the Marvel Collection that is sold at newsstands and the coloring is so heavy handed that it buries the artwork. It´s one of the reasons why I haven´t gotten any of the new THOR BY WALTER SIMONSON trades since I fear that is the coloring they used there and if that is also the coloring on the omnibus books I really can only warn you not to buy them. Especially considering the exorbitant prices at which the omnibus are currently sold.

And for more on this subject check out the highly interesting post ON MATTERS OF ( RE ) COLOR on NOT A HOAX ! NOT A DREAM ! Thanks !

RETURN TO AVENGERS 300 : REVENGE OF THE EXTRAS

Okay, time to wrap things up. After the main story we have four pages of the AVENGERS MEMBERSHIP checklist with headshot pictures by John Byrne that lists all issues the members have appeared in up to issue 300. 

This even includes one full page with the support personnel from Avengers Mansion like the butler Jarvis or Fabian Stankowicz a.k.a. the Machinist. 

Speaking of Jarvis, next we have two pages of profile on everyone´s favorite gentleman´s gentleman followed by two pages of letters which include all the different Avengers logos and finally a chart of Avengers Park. And this brings us to the final highlight of this issue : a 7 page story retelling the foundation of the Avengers thanks to the mischievious Loki´s plan to destroy Thor, beautifully rendered by Walter Simonson.

So to recapitulate here we have a 64 page comic that contains a 40 page Avengers story by one of the best art combos on the title, John Buscema and Tom Palmer, 9 pages of extras like letters pages, character profiles, checklists and such and finally a great 7 page comic by Walter Simonson.

And all this for below two bucks. So my tip for all those readers out there who are frustrated by the NEW 52 or Disney´s constant rehashing of 80s and 90s crossover events is to get to those back issue bins and dig for some 80s and 90s Marvel comics. I mean, do you rather want to spend your money on the originals ( and issues like AVENGERS 300 are cheap since there are thousands of that available, don´t let any comic shop owner tell you otherwise ) or pay twice as much for cheap knockoffs ?

And with that we finally end this part about AVENGERS 300. I will write more about the story in the next INFERNO CROSSOVERS installment that will probably continue where we left off with issue 299 but for Today I´m already several hours past my anticipated deadline so I will get me some breakfast cereals and add the usual bell and whistles to this post later.

LATER BEGINS NOW : WRAPPING UP THINGS, ONE LAST TIME

A big part of Today´s post was about Thor so here are some links for that. Matthew David Surridge over at BLACK GATE Adventures in Fantasy Literature has a post on THE KING OF ASGARD : JACK KIRBY`S THOR and Julian Darius at the SEQUART ORGANISATION explains HOW " TALES OF ASGARD " CHANGED EVERYTHING . MARS WILL SEND NO MORE has pages from Thor 339 and the complete issue of Thor 380 which is the all splash page issue of Thor vs the Midgard Serpent for which Walter Simonson returned one final time to pencils. Mike Huddleston at COMICBOOKDAILY invites us to MEET BETA RAY BILL  in a post that covers issues 337 to 340 and includes a few original black and white pages and KANDOU ERIC´S blog about Comics, Japanese Stuff and More has a retrospective about Walter Simonson´s Thor. And we finally have another Top Ten list as COMICBOOK:COM offers A RETURN TO ASGARD : 10 GREAT MOMENTS FROM WALTER SIMONSON`S THOR . And the usual thanks go out to all who helped make this post possible by posting pictures or information.

We start our video section with the first part of PRISONERS OF GRAVITY´s episode about Thor co - creator Jack Kirby. I don´t think I posted this yet.



We also continue our series of comic documentaries with the first part of ONCE UPON A TIME : THE SUPER HEROES. It´s an oldie but goodie.



The next one is about CAPITAN TRUENO, one of the most famous spanish comics. I initially wanted to wait until the right topic comes around but since I´m tired of waiting I´m posting it now. Es mi barrio, paisano.



And since this post is about the Avengers and I mentioned cosplay how about a video that combines both like ULTRON FUNK ? I still haven´t seen AGE OF ULTRON so I can´t watch it myself ( are there spoilers ? ) but the Black Widow´s awesome cleavage alone is worth the price of admission.



Talking about awesome things I´m two episodes away from finishing up the first season of iZOMBIE and I really CANNOT recommend it enough.

It is based on the comic by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred and they changed quite a few things. Which in my opinion is good because who wants to watch the exact same thing he already read as a comic on tv ?



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You guessed it : It´s Man of Steel Monday !

I still haven´t seen the MAN OF STEEL movie but since I haven´t yet prepared all the material for the SERPENT CROWN two - parter or the next post about THE PHANTOM I thought I´d use some of the material I have accumulated so far about the Man of Tomorrow.

So this will not be an in depth analysis about the new movie which I wouldn´t do even if I had seen the movie. I like it when people make up their own mind and while I´m not shy to speak my mind - since I get no review copies from either DC or Marvel or any other comic company and so am not biased in any way - I also don´t like to spoil things.

What I will be talking about is how Superman has been portrayed so far and what defines Superman - at least in my humble opinion. Having read the adventures of the most famous alien for more than three decades I think I can offer a bit more insight than some people who pretend to be experts on the subject and only know the NEW 52 Robotech version.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE COSTUME OF TOMORROW ?

As you may have guessed I´m not a big fan of the recent abomination Superman wears in the comics because I don´t think it´s a good idea to put a costume that would probably look better in a movie into a comic. As I don´t think you can take a costume directly from a comic and put it into a movie without it looking awkward or silly in most cases.

There are a few exceptions like most of the original JSA costumes which would look terrific in a movie as the SMALLVILLE episode showed ( no pun intended ) but as much as the people at Warner Bros might think comics and movies can be treated the same that´s not the case. I know that those movie guys want to get rid of the pesky comic artistes because either they think they know better how to handle the franchises or they are embarrassed to work on something connected to comics.

Yes, they like to earn the big bucks with comic movies like AVENGERS or IRON MAN 3 but they really would prefer to do superhero or comic movies that are not connected to comics. And thanks to such disasters like ZOOM or ULTRAVIOLET we all know how that usually ends.

Which nevertheless doesn´t keep those Hollywood bigshot execs from interfering with the movies. I never experienced it myself but I think it must be a really pitiful existence if the only way that you can give your miserable life some kind of value is by screwing up something completely that you don´t understand at all. But back to Superman´s costume.

While it isn´t the worst costume that ever appeared in a Superman movie ( Who still remembers the dreadful Chippendale / Stripper costume from the SUPERMAN RETURNS train wreck ? ) there have been better. I mean, even the costume of the fake Superman in that SNICKERS commercial was better than that one and they couldn´t use anything remotely resembling the original costume - they couldn´t even use the same colors.



The thing I never get is why they don´t use the original costume since it´s one of the most recognizable costumes, one of the best known costumes, hell, it´s one of the most often copied costumes.

It may very well be one of the best costumes ever but they just have to do " their own version " of it or " modernize it " or " come up with one that´s more in touch with Today´s audiences ". Sorry, but that´s not what Superman stands for. He´s not at all about change for change´s sake, always following the newest fad and pandering to the masses. Superman is about certain values that have remained the same through decades because - like Alan Moore so perfectly said in WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE MAN OF TOMORROW - there is a way things ought to be.

And  it´s not like there haven´t been instances where they have used the original costume and it worked great. The first Superman movie I ever saw had the original costume and it worked really well. It had the same costume as in the comics I was reading at that time and it was brilliant.

It really made you believe a man can fly. But more than that it also pulled off the whole thing about nobody recognizing that Clark Kent is Superman because of a pair of glasses. Christopher Reeves just was that good of an actor.

Now in the comics there have been all kinds of explanations for why the whole trick with the glasses works. Of which the worst was that Superman uses some kind of unconscious hypnosis on everybody so they see him as really scrawny and meek ( like he was drawn in the NEW 52 SUPERMAN series ) and he was always vibrating so that nobody could take a picture to see how he looks like. And the most logical was that people don´t think Superman has a secret identity. Because if you can be Superman why would you pretend to be somebody else ? And how could you have a secret identity if there are dozens of fotos of you everywhere ? That Superman fella doesn´t even hide his face behind a mask like most superhero so he just can´t have a secret identity. It´s impossible.

So the whole glasses as an effective disguise can work or not depending on the quality of the writer and how he handles it.

Now coming back to the costume in movie and tv adaptations, there was another series which I really liked that used the original costume.

Of course it didn´t hurt that Teri Hatcher played the part of Lois, making it possible for me for the first time since reading Superman comics to believe that Superman would be interested in somebody like Lois Lane.

Instead of trying to get it on with somebody like Wonder Woman which I always found more logical. I mean, the Lois in the comics was not really the best girlfriend to have as she was always trying to either trick Superman into revealing that he was Clark Kent or - even worse - to marry him. In the 80s when John Byrne revamped the Superman franchise they got rid of that but that doesn´t mean the new Lois was any better. The new version showed clear signs of alpha male syndrome, being more interested in Superman than mild mannered " Smallville " which makes it logical that she never found out they were the same. For that she would have had to look at Clark twice. And for those who don´t believe that the new Lois always went for the alpha male let me remind you that she was together with Lex Luthor before Superman became top dog in Metropolis.

Anyway, THE ADVENTURES OF LOIS AND CLARK is a really great series to watch not only for Superman fans and Teri is just brilliant in it. Although she didn´t do much after it until she moved to the Wisteria Lane as a desperate housewife where she showed that she still got it. Massita !

  
The hot Teri in action :


So far all we have been talking about is the costume but I don´t want you to think I´m the only one who goes of in that direction. Here is a great strip by Karl Heitmueller ( courtesy of tencentticker ) that he did for the excellent BACK ISSUE magazine about the various costumes of Superman. I think he really distills the essence of the question here.

WHAT`S RIGHT ABOUT TRUTH, JUSTICE AND THE AMERICAN WAY

Another comic artist who talked about what Superman is all about is Chris Sprouse who did this wonderful Superman splash ( or rather smash ) which I found on a link provided by fellow comicblog MAN OF BRONZE .

Of course a few people wanted to be clever because of the phrase " an alien, who in my mind, couldn’t conceive of why anyone would want to hurt anyone else " and opinionated that basically Superman was like a child because he doesn´t understand that there are people who want to hurt others. Which clearly is not the case. Superman knows that. He just can´t understand why they would do that. And apparently some people have problems understanding this. So here it is in my own words :

There are hundreds of people out there that buy comics drawn by Rob Liefeld although I - for the life of me - can´t conceive there really is anyone willing to spend money on that. Which doesn´t mean that I don´t understand that there are people out there who buy Rob Liefeld comics. I know for a fact that there must be people out there who do it. And lots of them because otherwise he would not get one job offer after another. I know that there are people out there who buy his stuff. I used to buy his stuff myself. But intellectually I really can´t understand why all these people spend their hard earned money on a comic artist who hasn´t improved in the last 20 years and who can´t draw knees. I can´t wrap my head around that. Or that Deadpool has five or four series at the same time while other much better books like THOR THE MIGHTY AVENGER by Roger Langride and Chris Samnee is canceled. Which I just had to mention because amazon.de is offering the new 25 bucks trade that collects the complete series for a measly 12 bucks. I recommend it.

FOR THE FANBOY WHO HAS EVERYTHING

Last but not least I wanted to post a link to a cosplayer that I came across on facebook ( Terry Hooper shared one of her pictures as Ivy, thanks mate ! ) who goes by the name of BelleChere. She was one of the unknown cosplayers on my Top Ten list of Power Girl cosplayers although she also does other costumes like Lady Death, Ms Marvel or Hepzibah.

There is an interview with her as Cosplay Babe of the Month February 2012 on THE COMICS NINJA and you can also visit her blog .

Here is the link to her facebook page where you can find dozens of pics of her in mindblowing costumes from which the following 5 ( and it was really hard to narrow it down to 5 ) are only a small selection :

HOW SUBZERO WOULD END THE POST

And sadly that´s all I have time for Today as it´s already half past three - after midnight. Once again I got a bit sidetracked so I will have to continue this discussion Tomorrow when we - gods of the internet willing - come to all the weird costumes Superman has worn in the comics.

Now with all the stuff about Superman some readers keep asking me about the better one of his two cousins - which is Power Girl. It has been some time since I mentioned her at all and the way the stuff I find about her keeps piling up when I finally catch up it will be a complete and very long post about Power Girl, more Power Girl and nothing but Power Girl. And you can be sure there will be magical cleavage windows everywhere.

Until then here is another sweet picture by Franchesco borrowing a famous cover from Janet Jackson. I really don´t know why he´s not involved in some way with the WORLD´S FINEST comic at the moment since the art on that book is sorely lacking.

 
And speaking of covers, sadly there is no time Today for the new IT`S THAT STRANGE FEELING OF DEJA VUE AGAIN section but there will be definitely one - with Superman covers - in my next post. I promise.

Now, with the videos at the end of the post I´m continuing with full movies, this time it´s a kind of pulpy sci fi flick based on a story by Harlan Ellison that was also adapted as a comic by Richard Corben.

It´s the 1975 movie A BOY AND HIS DOG starring a very young Don Johnson in the lead role.


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