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With “Ultimate Comics” now in full swing– new books are being added, and some have finished– I think it’s time for all of us to look back on the things that have happened in this series of comics, and see how it compares to its legacy, Ultimate Marvel. Granted, I’m still a little annoyed by the events of Ultimatum, and Ultimates 3. You may not be. You may have enjoyed the things that happened, and the upcoming books. Or you may hate it. The point here is that there are some interesting new stories– some– that I’m going to take a bit of time to talk about the ones I’ve bothered to read and my thoughts on them. If you happen to disagree with them, well, I have a comments section.

“Ultimate Comics” as I mentioned in my discussion of Ultimatum some 300 years ago, starts about six months or so after the events of that mini-series. Things have changed, we don’t entirely know why, and some things are starting to be uncovered in a way that makes it understanding. Sometimes we don’t really understand.

I’m going to talk about these in a few paragraphs, because they’re all very early books, so I can’t really talk about them at length.
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[Images and quotes taken from Marvel.com]

Okay, so, I haven’t really been keeping up with Marvel comics. I’ve been busy trying to read the Civil War, while they’re already three events ahead of me: Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, and the newest one called “Siege.” From what I can gather, Dark Reign has been about Norman Osborne fucking shit up, and Siege is about further shit being fucked up. If you’ll excuse the incredible crude, and base, description of it all. At some point during this, Tony Stark fell victim to something, and has been out of commission. Which seems kind of odd, but they always have plans for this.

So, to celebrate Tony coming back from the brink of whatever, they’ve decided to give him some new armor, which looks roughly like this

That’s not a particularly bad design. One of the designers, who happens to be involved with both the upcoming Thor and Iron Man movies, Matt Fraction, had this to say:

“The inspiration for the new design came from thinking about a sleeker, leaner, tougher Iron Man,” revealed Fraction. “If technology is increasingly getting smaller and lighter it seems like the Iron Man should do the same: ergonomic and aerodynamic. We were looking for something that felt as sleek and glossy as a sports car Tony Stark would covet. I love what we’ve come up with. It feels like the next evolutionary step in the Iron Man’s design.”

Which is a good idea, really, and shows that they aren’t complete idiots whenever it comes to character determination for things like this– costumes and so forth– it’s an interesting design, I’ll say that much. However, I’m not entirely sure how to react to it as a whole. I feel like the drawing itself that’s been given to people isn’t entire complete in its idea. There’s something about it that’s missing. While it may be true that technology, as it advances, compresses so to speak (look at the evolution of the television from the large rotary ones to the fact that you may very well be reading this on a phone about the size of your hand and thinner than a checkbook) there is still the issue of the armor. Of course, given the fact that Marvel exists in a universe where a fictional, indestructible metal called “Adamantium” exists, this isn’t really an issue so much as it is an inconvenience and an excuse for people to complain. Some of these lights look a little superfluous, but this is comic books and superfluousness is something that exists in large heaping masses.

Of course, there is still Ultimate Comics: Iron Man: Armor Wars and the, what I believe was called “iMan” if you want absurdly streamlined technology for your comic books.

For now, I’ll support the costume change, though I think Ultimate Iron Man probably has the best Iron Man suit.

Perhaps out of some sense of masochism, I’ve decided to keep following this series. It wasn’t something I intended to do, not immediately. I was curious, but also rather annoyed by the series. Especially considering just how poorly thought out a lot of it was, by comparison to some of the other things in the universe. I am a fan, on the whole of the 1602 universe, however there are quickly becoming more and more issues within the continuity of it all that are difficult to both grasp, and figure out they could be made. It’s almost as though people simply aren’t keeping the original idea of it all. In New World the prequel to this book and the follow-up to the original, we’re greeted with a new instance that is something not entirely the same book, but attempts to keep the spirit alive. People involved are strictly Silver Age and so forth. I didn’t agree with some of the changes to the characters, or the inclusions of various characters (such as Tony Stark as “Lord Irons”, a kind of Steampunk’d man in a big metal suit charged by lightening). However, they made an attempt.

I am fairly certain, from reading #3, that the person involved with this storyline has never actually read Marvel 1602, and has no idea what he’s doing. I mean that with respect, of course. I say this because Henri Le Pym, the Hank Pym analogue for this story who works for “Baron Octavius” the obvious Doc Ock analogue (who seems to have tentacles, or at least his hands bear suction cups similar in nature to an octopus) has a man in his captivity named “McCoy” who looks not unlike some kind of feral, beast like animal. McCoy describes himself as one of the greatest minds of the era, and a number of other things. However, there’s an issue here.

There was already a Beast analogue– Hal McCoy of the Witchbreeds led by Carlos Javier– and this man was not any kind of philosopher or anything of the sort. He was also Beast without any kind of major mutations. Simply the original form. This new McCoy lacks the large hands and feet and stature, and instead just looks like a rather hairy individual. So, either we’re to believe that Hal was kidnapped and believes himself to be something else entirely, or this is an instance of someone wanting to bring in a character, and couldn’t find some way to shoehorn the guy in there. It’s disappointing, really, that the person couldn’t be bothered to remember that McCoy already existed, and wanted to bring in Wasp, Ant Man and a bunch of other people who weren’t entirely Spider-Man oriented.

They’ve also brought in the Watsons– here “Watsonnes”– with Marion Jane as an actress. I understand that sometimes names need to be changed for the sake of the literature, however, “Marion”? The name “Mary” existed then, and if anything, why not call her “Miriam” or something like that? Are we channeling Maid Marion here? And furthermore, why bring in any kind of analogue to Mary Jane, but not bring in Gwen Stacey? Who was, really, a much more significant character in Parker’s life. Unless Virginia Dare, in this instance, was taking her place.

Perhaps the only thing worth looking at in this comic is the use of Kingpin and Bullseye. Specifically, these two are now pirates– The King’s Pin (I am not entirely sure what that means. I would have simply used his real name.), and Bull’s Eye– and they are probably the best translated to the new universe. Specifically Bullseye. This new incarnation is a tattooed pirate, with a white bullseye on his forehead. He keeps his knife throwings and everything, and seems to be rather focused on killing Peter Parker. Which is interesting, because he’s a Daredevil villain and Murdoch doesn’t exist in this book (though he could easily fit).

I don’t know what’s going on with this story to be perfectly honest. I’ve tried, several times, to read through these first three issues in an attempt to make sure I follow it, and I can’t. It’s just not good. There’s too many things that don’t fit the universe, and too many instances of the writer simply leading me to believe that he doesn’t care about the story. I won’t keep reading this so don’t expect anything more detailed than this in the future.

It’s just disappointing that 1602 has been reduced to this. It was rather promising.

The Justice League of America is one of the top organizations in the DC Universe. It’s contained members such as Batman, Superman, and Green Lantern as well as minor people that you may not care about. Each incarnation of the team has always had strengths and weaknesses that tend to be exacerbated by a particular author, and sometimes these work out for everyone for the best. Other times, it may not be so nice. This current run, is one of those instances where it’s not so nice.

I’ve been following the Justice League since I first got into comics in 2005. The first JLA books I read were “Year One” and the “Tower of Babel” arc from the actual series “JLA”. It was a piece of art, to say the least. The wonders that Batman had come up with in an effort to take down his teammates, and the fallout in “Divided We Fall” were all wonderful to read and I was completely engrossed with every incredibly epic (used here in the sense of “dealing with this on an epic scale” not in the sense of “EPIC WIN!”) page and story. I followed it up until the Crisis of Conscience, and the Infinite Crisis connections. The last issues of the book were disappointing to say the least, and the not the kind of thing that even really FELT like the Justice League.
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Good afternoon, readers of 21six (all… three or four of you). I am Mr. Black, the drug-addled and possibly homicidal excuse for a music blogger and the newest member of the 21six Team (it’s like Team Rocket, only without the Meowth). My time here is mostly going to be spent on album reviews, but I’ll probably make posts on a bunch of other mostly-music-related subjects…

…but all in good time. Let’s get down to business, shall we?

THE RESISTANCE
The first album up for review is the newest offering from Teignmouth, UK’s number one collection of prog/gloom rockers Muse. The long-awaited follow-up to 2006’s iconic Black Holes & Revelations, Muse’s The Resistance has arrived to a storm of hype, a viral internet game, a tour with U2, and a gnashing of teeth by those nice people at Pitchfork waiting desperately to chew Matthew Bellamy to pieces. But aside from all of that, how does The Resistance stack up as an album? Well.

The short answer is stupid, overblown and pretentious and most importantly, stupid. But if you’re a fanboy, you probably want the long answer.
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A few years ago, Neil Gaiman got together with the people in Marvel, and retold the Silver Age that Lee, Kirby, and Ditko turned into the immortal mythology that is modern comic books. What made Neil’s incarnation special was that this wasn’t a modernization of the story, that’s what the Ultimate Universe was for. Instead, this was a historical retelling of the universe.

To use the Marvel phrase “What if the heroes all first came about in 1602?” And it was a marvelous little piece of work, if you were into it. I loved seeing just how everyone had been manipulated, forced into a situation that was wholly unnatural, even for Marvel. Nick Fury as military man under Queen Elizabeth, and so on. It was a fantastic little thing that made the universe seem very real.

As it’s been known to happen, following Neil’s work, a number of spin-offs came about. One of which was like “1602: New World” and the other was “1602: Fantastick Four”. Each of them introduced a few new characters such as Namor, and Iron Man (though the 1602 incarnation of Iron Man seemed significantly more implausible than his mainstream counterpart, simply because of Marvel’s tendency to develop absurdly advanced science even in the 1960s.) as well as others that I’ve likely forgotten because the stories themselves were wholly forgettable.

However, this year, someone apparently decided to revive the franchise of 1602 by creating a Spider-Man mini series in the universe. So, the first issue is out, and I’m curious as to if it’s got any promise in this issue. I have my doubts, but it’s mostly because New World and Fantastick Four were, essentially cash-in books (I mean that as nicely as that kind of thing can be said).

And, truth be told, with the first issue down, so far that’s really all it feels like. There seems to be something lost in the transition between the writers. The writers of New World and Fantastick Four lacked the kind of whimsy that made Gaiman’s 1602 so appealing. Everything now seems to be a cross between attempting to shoehorn in various people from the Marvel universe, sometimes in unsavory ways, while other instances just seem to not make sense.

The biggest issue I’ve found so far is with costumes. Parker wears basically his regular clothes and a Spider-Man mask. There’s no attempt to make it even appear to be fitting into the era, it’s simply the same Spider-Man mask that he always wears. The covers to the comics give the impression that he has an outfit that vaguely resembles the Spider-Man costume were it placed in 1602, but he doesn’t wear that.

Ultimately, I feel like this comic is gearing up to be a disappointment. 1602 is really awkward kind of setting, since if you don’t do it right, you’re going to end up annoying everyone because you just have established something in an already decent continuity, but it’s somewhere so far removed from the original vision that you might as well make something else entirely.

However, a few of the interesting things established in this are the introduction of who I believe to be Doctor Octopus, as well as The Wasp. The Wasp being a victim of an experiment gone wrong, and in a jar. I’m curious enough about these characters, and if Spider-Man actually gets a new costume, to keep reading this series. Once it’s finished I’ll give a full write up, but at the moment it’s not something I’m really looking forward to finishing.

While browsing for things to read, I’ve come across a new comic that’s piqued my interest. The story is called “Absolution” which is by Christos Gage with Robert Viacava doing the artwork for it. This, like one of my favorite books, Doktor Sleepless, is published through Avatar Press– known more for their particularly less-than-pleasant take on various aspects of the comic book genre.

With only two issues out there, I’m already hooked on this series.

I’ve never read anything before of Christos, so I didn’t know what to expect with this book. However, I’m more than willing, after seeing this, to read more. But enough. Let’s talk about this book. This is described on the purchasing page for the comic at Comic Cavalcade as:

ABSOLUTION introduces John Dusk, a superhero in a world where they’re a sanctioned arm of law enforcement. But this veteran hero has been scarred by his exposure to man’s infinite capacity for evil, and he’s seen one too many perpetrators escape justice. One day he crosses the line…lets a murderer die…and discovers it feels good. Surrounded by sociopaths, both human and superhuman, who he knows will prey on others if they’re not stopped–permanently–how far will he go, knowing every step he takes puts him further on a collision course with his teammates Alpha and The Servant, not to mention his homicide detective girlfriend?

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a vigilante-gone-wrong comic, but there’s something about this book that just strikes me as really interesting so far. There’s just something about it that’s appealing to me, and I think part of it has to do with how the book, so far, just isn’t a generic superhero book. One of the things that’s nice, for instance, is the oddly practical look of the costume which you can see in the link I posted up there. The suit is armored, and the pants of it look kind of like jeans. The helmet is a helmet. It looks like something someone might actually wear if they needed a suit like that.

The muscle definition, then, is justified.

I can’t, given the little bit that’s been shown in issues #0 and #1 properly determine if I’m going to accurately like this book, but I think I will. The way the man seems genuinely haunted by the things he’s seen in the past, and takes it out in a brutal way while simultaneously trying to avoid being caught by his love is an interesting conflict that I’d like to see elaborated on.

He also has an interesting looking power that I’d like to see developed more. He creates something to the effect of glowing tendrils that he uses to get around, and manipulate his surroundings. It’s like a, if you’ll excuse the awkward phrasing, tangible telekinesis. Or like Doctor Octopus if it was energy instead of robot arms.

I can’t wait to see where it goes. I wholly recommend this book.

Whenever Jeph Loeb took the reigns from Mark Millar for the new “Ultimates” story, I was less apprehensive than a number of my peers. Jeph Loeb, to me, was still the man who wrote The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Hush, and Spider-Man: Blue. Great stories that I still read every chance I get. Stories that help, for me, better understand aspects of characters I wouldn’t have otherwise even considered.

But somewhere along the time something happened I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. I had, earlier, complained about how “Ultimates 3” was basically a sham, and a disgrace to the Ultimate Marvel line. Poor storytelling by means of blending 616 Marvel aspects and Ultimate into something that wholly failed to resemble anything and everything I had considered to be part of the continuity of the story. It was something that felt so unlike what I had read before that I was fairly certain (which was perpetuated by rumors on the Comic Book Resource forums among other places) that “Ultimates 3” was essentially a 616 story that Loeb had manipulated into Ultimate Marvel.

I had hoped, following that, Loeb would leave. I wanted to make sure that my image of Loeb hadn’t been tarnished. It wasn’t, completely, tainted by the story. After all I still had the stories I read first, back when I thought he had decent stories to tell. And the rest of the Ultimate Universe, barring inclusions of Greg Land and similar people, was a more or less peaceful situation with stories that were genuinely interesting, as well as surprising takes on different aspects of the 616 continuity– such as the Ultimate Clone Saga.

Loeb, of course, didn’t leave. And, in the end, I’m not surprised or disappointed or outraged or anything. I knew he was tapped to do the Ultimate Marvel event titled “Ultimatum” and, following my disappointment in the “Ultimates 3” book, I simply decided to not read the story through. I read the first issue and stopped.

Well, recently I decided to go back and actually read the story, since it has finished, and I wanted to see what happened to the characters I had grown fond of, and the actions that led to the creation of the books under the title “Ultimate Comics”.
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Whenever I last posted, we were discussing the events of Batman R.I.P. and how they were affecting mainstream Batman continuity and so forth. However, things have become a lot more interesting since I stopped posting two months ago for whatever reason, and I learned that there are a number of new books out that require my attention. So, I’ll continue what I was talking about– including the whole of Battle for the Cowl– and to make it nice, I’ll even briefly summarize a few of the new books that have been published since the end of that. Including, but not limited to, the main Batman book, Detective Comics, and Morrison’s new piece– Batman and Robin.

Where I last left was that Batman has just freed himself from Darkseid’s captivity and decides to haul ass to do what he can to be awesome stop the Crisis from going any further.
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Subtitled: Why Grant Morrison Is A Mad Scientist Disguised As A Comic Book Writer.

I have a tendency to talk about Batman a lot. It wasn’t something I intended whenever I remade this website into what it is, but I read a lot of Batman comics, so it stands to reason that Batman would be, by extension, a character I write about rather frequently. I’m also a fan of Grant Morrison, which has really only recently been cemented with things like “Final Crisis” and “Batman: R.I.P.”– as enraging to some fans as they may be.

But, then again, there are some fans who will be enraged by anything that isn’t exactly the vision they have in their minds of what the comics/movies/television show should be. I’ve been known to fall victim to that more than once, so I can’t complain too vocally about it without falling into hypocrisy. Also, that’s not what this post is about.

This is about Grant Morrison’s Batman masterpiece, his Bat-masterpiece, “Batman R.I.P.” and the event that has followed it, “Battle for the Cowl”. One of the things I’ve definitely learned, in just trying to properly get information on this event, is that you need to be at least tangentially aware of a number of things that existed within the context of the Silver Age. However, having full knowledge of them isn’t entirely necessary.
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