afo@pucc-k (Laurie Sefton) (09/24/84)
a little late, but what the heck...
Blue Devil #7
Proof positive that Gil Kane should not be allowed
to draw some comics. Did you ever notice that all
his characters appear to have had bad nights? He
doesn't seem to be able to get the horn/head ratio
correct across pages, either. The plot was a little
slow, I hope this isn't a bad sign.
Wonder Woman #322
Nice cover, maybe now that WW is going bi-monthly,
they can pay more attention to the story line.
Let's hope,though that they don't go back to the
'when the amazons were off the earth' nonsense back
in the late 60's/early 70's. I rather liked Eros
better than Steve Trevor, though.
New Mutants #23/
New Mutants An.
There are some story lines that Bill S(whatever) can
draw. The current line in the New Muties, I think,
is one. We're heading toward a nice #25 story.
The annual was a *little* strange. Did you that
some states have laws against that sort of thing?
(think about the supposed age of the new muties).
I hope that the Joan Jett clone is not a one-shot
deal.
Dr Who #3
This story was *much* better than the last two.
However, there is still too much space being taken
up by related-but-not-the-doctor stories. I'm glad
that the child sidekick is not being treated as a
cute little thing with sugary lines. I'm wondering
what is going to happen if they ever get to the
point of the current b&w's in the Dr Who monthly,
though. The artwork there is definitely not the type
that is easily coloured.
New Teen Titans #4
Raven bites the biggee..or does she? If you like
blood and violence, this is the one to go for. The
artwork is good, and the story (finally!) appears to
be heading towards the end. Where did Jericho skip
off to? He isn't just lying in the streets
somewhere, is he? This issue does answer the
question 'where did all the other superheroes go?',
though.
Infinity Inc #9
Well, this one will be over with soon, finally. Gee,
the Harlequin finally shows up. 'Good luck kids'? Do we see
maternity rearing it's head? I would like to see another topic
discussed, though.
Crossfire #4
Truely one of the most depressing comics on the stands today.
Hero saves young girl, and young girl goes back to same
situation...Does he still have fluorocarbons instead of his
blood ?
Flash #341
I think the Flash is the whipping boy of DC. Now he gets his
face caved in, besides all the other garbage that has happened
to him in the last few years (weeks his time). I can't wait
for issue #350. They'll probably blow up Central City, or
convict Flash of the murder, or something fun like that.
X-Men # 189
Crossover heaven. We get to see Amara, and Rachel out and
about. The 'flash-ahead' to the Rachel's future was rather
appalling. O.C. strikes again, we see. Selene makes one
heckuva Black Queen, though. We have a #200 in one year,
I hope they don't blow it (although if Shooter takes it,
it probably will be garbage).
That's it for this week!
Laurie
{allegra,harpo,ihnp4}pur-ee!pucc-k!afolmaher@uokvax.UUCP (09/28/84)
#R:pucc-k:-33000:uokvax:11900043:000:1557 uokvax!lmaher Sep 27 18:01:00 1984 My comments on Laurie's comments: > /***** uokvax:net.comics / pucc-k!afo / 12:42 am Sep 25, 1984 */ > New Mutants An. > The annual was a *little* strange. Did you that > some states have laws against that sort of thing? > (think about the supposed age of the new muties). Lila plans to steal the *entire earth*, and you think she'd worry about the Mann Act?!? > I hope that the Joan Jett clone is not a one-shot deal. Me, too. > Crossfire #4 > Truely one of the most depressing comics on the stands today. You want to see *really* depressing? Just wait until Tank uses the baby blue T-Bird as a projectile! I liked the ending, but then I appreciate the future Rachel came from (in the X-Men). > ...Does he still have fluorocarbons instead of his blood?? I think he does. Maybe they're planning to jazz him up a bit. > Flash #341 > for issue #350. They'll probably blow up Central City, or > convict Flash of the murder, or something fun like that. We can only hope. Maybe they'll blow up Flash instead. :-) > X-Men # 189 > > Crossover heaven. We get to see Amara, and Rachel out and > about.The 'flash-ahead' to the Rachel's future was rather > appalling. O.C. strikes again, we see. Selene makes one > heckuva Black Queen, though. Who's O.C. (ol' Claremont)? > We have a #200 in one year, > I hope they don't blow it (although if Shooter takes it, > it probably will be garbage). If Shooter takes it, it'll be over Claremont's dead body. Shooter already has enough X-fans mad at him over #137. Carl ..!ctvax!uokvax!lmaher
moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) (10/02/84)
>Crossfire #4 > Truely one of the most depressing comics on the stands today. > Hero saves young girl, and young girl goes back to same > situation...Does he still have fluorocarbons instead of his > blood ? Depressing? Mmmhhh... how about gritty, cynical, and jaded? I thought the young girl was played fairly realistically (though I doubt there's ANYONE that naive in Hollywood). Besides, this seemed to be the only horror movie coming out of CA today with no exploding heads/eyeballs/stomachs. I don't know... would you consider Ms. Tree depressing (it is probably has the heaviest atmosphere of any comic on the market, i.e. the whole world is a garbage can). "What kind of ANIMAL would DO a thing like this?" "Whoop Whoop Whoop..." Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. UUCP: {cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsrgv}!uw-beaver \ {allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty ARPA: fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA
chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Laurie Sefton, C/O chuqui) (05/21/85)
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***
Well let's see what is in this week's bag...
Infinity Inc #17: I'm sorry, but the helix characters look like something
out of a Brian Bolland nightmare. I mean, Kritter and
Baby Boom are just a little too much for my taste, at
least in this setting. I could handle something like
those two in E-Man, but not in something that has the
base level of reality that Infinity Inc has. Nice to
see the Thorn popping in, though.
Ambush Bug #3: Once again, worth your $0.75
All-Star
Squadron #48: Hey! We're heading for a 50th issue!! Glad to see that
DC is picking up on the period pieces (ie Blackhawks and
Wotan). I hope the writing tightens up a bit, though.
It seems to have been meandering a bit in the last few
months. I hope we aren't going to see a Shining
Knight-Firebrand-Hourman triangle. I can also live
without the "Geez, my powers just aren't as good as the
other guys" patter. If I want galloping neurosis, I can
read the Avengers.
The New Mutants #31: Well know we know who is the gross and disgusting
woman that has been haunting the past few editions.
Whoopee. Know, here is a woman who has had her
country taken over by hostile forces, had to flee in
a boat where her family was murdered, and she was
raped (I know, not all her family). And then, when
she gets to the US, her Uncle wants to take her and
her brother, and use them for his own ends. And
then, having defeated her uncle for the first time,
her brother dies, and she assumes part of his soul
(check out Fantastic Four). So, now she has to go
serve her uncle for a year, and goes completely off
the wall (besides the amount of food she would have
to have eaten in one year to get to that size....)
BTW, I think it would have been a nice idea if the
demon had left Dazzler in Limbo...
Squadron Supreme #1: Oh Boy! All of the DC JLA (old) done ala Marvel!
I was around for the first set of these characters
(Back in the Avengers, a long, long time ago), and
then the next round with the Defenders. Why is it
that Marvel seems to do better characterizations with
other people's characters than their own? Other than
a curiosity, though, I can't see much use in this
series. BTW, does anyone know of the official DC
line on this?
That's it for this week...
Laurie Sefton
--
:From the offices of Pagans for Cthulhu: Chuq Von Rospach
{cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA
Who shall forgive the unrepentant?chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Laurie Sefton, C/O chuqui) (05/28/85)
Comics to be reviewed this week:
Crisis #6 Crossfire #11 Superman #411 ToTT #57
X-Men #197 Am. Flagg #24 Amethyst #9 Flash #349
NTT An.#1
Crisis #6: Well, the new Wildcat appears by the end of this one. What
happened with the concept of "La Gara", anyway? Did it just get
dumped because of the opening occuring in Crisis, or what? The
new Doctor Light doesn't appear to be any more agreeable than
the old. The Flash is acting a bit less like a total wimp these
days, but the Psycho-Pirate seems to have picked up the slack.
And where did all those super-villians go to? I still do *not*
like Black Canary's new outfit. It makes her look like an
Olivia Newton-John clone.
Cross-
fire #11: Geez. Right after I spend 6 (and then some) hours in a comics
seminar to learn that one *never* has more than 25 words in a
word balloon (because the reader likes to look at the pictures
more than the words-if she wanted to read something, she'd read
a novel), and here comes a comic with script pages! I realize
that Evanier and Spiegle were using it as a gimmick, but that
doesn't mean I have to like it. It reminded me of the Firestorm
Annual last year (?) that had *all* those pages of script, and
very little in the way of illustrations. The story (pre-cog who
writes out his script far in advance) bordered heavily on a
cliche. I think the theme of "No one believes that I can tell
the future" has been done to a crisp in enough different media
that it really doesn't need to be done here.
Superman
#411 Okay, well I liked *this* cliche. I probably won't like it if
and when Stan Lee decides that he is 70, and Marvel does
something for him, but then again, you can get away with this
sort of thing in Superman. And besides, we won't have multiple
earth stories to play with in the near future.
ToTT #57 Whoopee. I think the problem here may be that I already know
what is going to happen (having read the Baxter version of all
this), and the filler stories that have to do with something
that we already know isn't going to come around just do not cut
it. I did like the Changeling/Terminator story, because there
weren't millions of references to it in the Baxter. And the
cover is just straight out of Marvel.
X-Men #197 Speaking of Marvel....This was as stupid as I feared. *sigh*
I'm hoping for much better things in the next few issues. I
take it from the vague references that we should expect a little
mutant forthcoming from the Summers household.
American
Flagg #24 This is one comic which needs a program to help keep the players
straight. I generally like American Flagg because Chaykin has
created his own universe, and has populated the universe with
characters that *belong* in that universe. Sometimes it isn't
pretty, but it is real. The back-up piece is pure frothy fluff,
and it's *wonderful*. Of course it's the stuff that the
anti-comics people want to use as a reason to get comics off the
shelves, but it's an excellent example that comics aren't just
for children, either.
Amethyst
#9 Well, we seem to have gotten rid of the "Amethyst can only go
to Gemworld when she is asleep" problem. Now we have the
"Amethyst is the only thing that is keeping this place
together" problem. At least the major problems don't go on
for years on end here. The artwork on this issue appeared to
be a little sketchy, though; even beyond the usual Colon quick
and dirty types artwork.
Flash #349 Gee, for a penultimate issue, it sure didn't thrill me much.
And I have been reading the Flash for a long time (like about
135 issues, or so). You know, the sad part about all this is
just that I have just stopped caring about *what* happens to
him. I'm just more interested in getting #350, and completing
my collection. I think the Flash can be held up as how a
group of writers can totally destroy a long-standing comic. A
little pathos is fine, but this guy has had *everything*
dumped on him in the last few years. At least we find out
where the man from the future came from (the same place Iris
is), and that it's probably Abra-Cadabra doing the funny
business with the Reverse Flash schtick.
An.TNTT #1 And now an editorial..... Why is it that annuals become
dumping grounds for stories that would have otherwise ended up
in the round file somewhere? The "new member punches up story
from old team" story has been done to death. I'd rather not
have an annual at all, if thats all that can be managed. The
story doesn't even have to fit into the continuity line that
well, I would just like one that isn't second rate material.
This one even reads like a Marvel team up: misunderstood group
of soon-to-be-marketed superheroes show up on scene. Cover
heroes engage in battle, realize that they shouldn't have been
fighting after all, and team up to fight greater menace.
Something dreadful happens to s-t-b-m team to provide lots of
story lines later, and combined teams beat geater menace...
*sigh* Maybe I should send in some plots of my own..
That's it for this week!
Laurie Sefton
--
:From the misfiring synapses of: Chuq Von Rospach
{cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA
This space for rent. Political, religious and racist quotes need not apply.chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Laurie Sefton, C/O chuqui) (07/29/85)
Comics to be reviewed this week:
LSH # 16 X-Men #199 Nightcrawler #1 Zot #10
Crossfire #13 COIE #8 Blue Devil annual #1
LSH #1 :This is also a tie-in to COIE, of a sorts. Braniac 5 reacts to
Kara's death, although there is a bit of a paradox with this issue that I
suppose won't be in the newsrack version-- COIE is *still* occuring as this
issue is taking place, and I would think that Kara's death wouldn't be
pre-ordained as it will be in the settled down version of the DC universe.
The new legionnaires get to strut their stuff, and my guess would be that
Sensor Girl is a close relative of Saturn Girl. Having Supergirl show up
in the future, under a mask, would just be too cruel. Quislet is patently
obnoxious, and if there is a change in writers, I see him to disappear.. I
guess Arthur C. Clarke is wrong-- christianity is still going strong a 1000
years from now.
X-Men #199: Rachel *becomes* Phoenix (*yawn*). The biggee this issue, at
least to those who aren't reading this newsgroup (or CBG, or something
equally informative) is that professor X is going to die. And he didn't
eat and sentinent planets or anything.... (exit heavy sarcasm mode).
Mystique and her little friends are up to something nasty, but whether or
not the US government manages to double-cross back us in the future.. This
is setting up for Magneto's trial in #200, which will hopefully tie up a
few loose ends...
Nightcrawler #1: Oh, the artwork is *bad* in this book. The nasty
flexographic printing didn't help, but still, the artwork is **bad**.
Kitty doesn't look like any rendition I've seen before, and Illyana is just
terrible. This series is apparently not designed to answer any questions
from any sub-plots running in the X-Men, at least not from what I have seen
from the first issue. Which will probably be the only issue I buy...
Zot #10: Go out and get this book-- not only for the fact that it may be
the last of its kind, but for the story. Reality intrudes in a lot of ways
that we don't expect, and Zot's surprise that the Sirians didn't just jump
on the bandwagon to democracy is worth the admission price. For a book not
done in a *realistic* manner, it has a lot more realism than the stuff that
Marvel puts out. How people could have bought Dazzler or Secret Wars, and
let this gem go by is beyond me..
Crossfire #13: Ever get the feeling that the government is *not* your
friend? A nice solid conclusion to the Marilyn Monroe murders story. The
crossovers to DNAgents is nice and tight (I really get annoyed at
references that are three months out of date). Another book where realism
manages to mix in with comics, and survive...
COIE #8: The Red Tornado get blown to pieces in this one, the Blue Devil
ends up with the Omega Men, and the Flash dies... After al the months of
having the Flash portrayed as much a victim as a hero, he finally gets to
go out potentially saving the universe from the Monitor. And no one in the
DC Universe is around to witness it. Somehow, I think they'll know...
Blue Devil Annual #1: More silliness than a person should be allowed to
have. My only beef with this is the treatment of Etrigan-- he is a much
nastier character (in other DC stuff) than the rest of the cast, but here
he is constantly played to be a demonic twit. I *really* liked the
Marvel-ous origins for Black Orchid. One good thing about the piece of the
universe that BD inhabits-- nothing ever goes *that* bad. Buy this book
and enjoy!!!
That's all for this week...
Laurie Sefton
--
:From the carousel of the autumn carnival: Chuq Von Rospach
{cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA
Your fifteen minutes are up. Please step aside!chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Laurie Sefton, C/O chuqui) (08/03/85)
Stuff to review this week:
JLA Annual #3 The New Teen Titans #14 DNAgents #24 BATO #27
JLA Annual #3: Well, we finally get rid of Red Tornado in this one,
although how he went from Crisis #8 to this is rather unclear. I bought
this mainly because I saw Black Canary and Green Arrow on the cover, and I
had hopes. The best part is where Green Arrow knocks Vibe to the ground
with a left cross. I wish this had been done sooner....Anyway, Red Tornado
gets free of his trappings, becomes the tornado spirit, and after trying to
"cleanse the earth of human desecration" (and isn't that an old plot
device), leaves until the next time the writers need a god-spirit-whatever
to mess with the JLA... *sigh*
The New Teen Titans #14: Koriand'r leaves earth with Nightwing and Jericho
to go get married to the rebel leader (as if we haven't seen enough ads in
the various DC books about this). Mento totally freaks out--we'll see him
in future issues, and Blackfire is back... and oh, yes.. apparently Raven
is back.. the DC people are a little nicer to heroines who make the
"ultimate" sacrifice (after nibbling a few worlds or souls) than Marvel is.
So what sort of plot device are they going to use on her now? The old "I
can't feel emotion because of my father Trigon is waiting to get me if I
do" schtick no longer applies.
DNAgents #24: Winner of the tastiest cover of the year award. Dave
Stevens has *really* outdone himself on this one. People will buy this on
the cover alone. I'd like to see what he can do with the inside of the
book...The Detonator is still blowing up Matrix buildings, Sham is still
massively neurotic, Tawny and Lucius are finally admitting that they feel
something toward each other, Crossfire finally gets some kissy-face with
Rainbow, and Rainbow decides to be a centerfold for the High Hefner clone.
That in itself raises *all* sorts of interesting questions, but this is a
family show....
BATO #27: Batman and the Outsiders do in Kobra again, Halo gets a little
kissy-face, and we see the beginnings of the origin of Looker. Why does
she look like Rachel (of the X-Men) with glasses? Alan Davis is finally
getting the feel of this book, though...
That's it for this week...
Laurie Sefton
--
:From the carousel of the autumn carnival: Chuq Von Rospach
{cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA
Your fifteen minutes are up. Please step aside!chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Laurie Sefton, C/O chuqui) (08/11/85)
Hmm... pickin's are slim this week...
Amethyst #11 All Star Squadron #51 Detective Comics # 556
New Age Comics #1 Comics Journal #100
Amethyst #11: Other than one of the better covers I've seen in the last
few months, this comic doesn't have much to recommend it. It looks like,
one way or another, Dark Opal is back (when in doubt of a story line,
revive old characters), and Amethyst has a perfectly natural reaction to
Topaz and Turquoise being in love with each other. The Topaz/Turquoise
romance keeps getting further out of character (the ones that were put
together in the maxi-series), and although I can understand the little push
they received from "Fire Jade", the sheer nastiness of Turquoise (take a
look at the cover for a graphic description) is hard to believe...
All Star Squadron #51: The Shazam universe does a little leaking into the
Earth-II universe, and vice-versa. Mr Mind makes an appearance as the
force behind the Monster Society of Evil. Not a lot about the JSA, and
their little problem of being rocketed into space, but a nice little teaser
about Johnny Quick, Liberty Belle, and Green Lantern upon arriving on
Earth-Shazam...
Detective Comics #556: Well Nocturna is back, in one of the more confusing
little stories in awhile. I think the problem here is that COIE has put a
few stories (and books) on hold, while their characters are altered (or
killed, or tranformed into who knows what). Editorial note--- Where the
#^&&*#$$#* is the Catwoman? The problem with the smaller Robin is
discussed (and Bullock appears to be slowly stumbling his way to the truth,
with perhaps a few detours along the way). The Green Arrow story is
*there*-- let's hope that Black Canary's appearance next month will liven
things up a bit (even in that dreadful outfit--UGH).
New Age Comics #1 :A plug for numerous independent comics; an interview
with Jan Strnad, one with Donald Simpson, and various short plugs and
explanations. For $0.35, it's not bad. At least it's a lot more truthful
than the Marvel equivalent...
Comics Journal #100: This is the first issue of The Comics Journal I've
bought in quite awhile. I had become tired of Gary Groth trying to explain
why "he really didn't hate comics--he just had high standards" and the
monthly libelous shot at Cat Ironwode. Things haven't changed much--too
bad. For a magazine that could be a way of showing the non-comics reading
public that comics aren't for the insipid, they seem to be bent on dragging
their opinion in the opposite direction; "if you don't like what I consider
to be an amazing piece of comics literature. you are a brain-damaged fool"
seems to be their battle cry. Too bad....
Laurie Sefton
--
Chuq Von Rospach nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA
{cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuquichuqui@nsc.UUCP (Laurie Sefton, C/O chuqui) (08/18/85)
Another slow week....
The New Mutants #34 COIE #9 DC Challenge #1
The New Mutants #34: You know, at least Sienciwicz's (whatever..) art, even
though it wasn't realistic, had the feel that he had *worked* at it.
Leialoha's art gives the feeling that he really isn't that interested, he'd
just like to get the 17 pages out and go. Some of this artwork looks like
George Tuska on a *very* bad day--wide set eyes, wide mouth, and a couple
of slashes where the cheekbones would be... We do find out that it is
Farouk that is the force behind Karma's sudden change (as in posession of
her). We also get a lead-in to the New Mutants Annual--and lets hope that
it fits into the continuity *somewhere*, and that Marvel can get it on the
shelves in the correct order (something they haven't been able to do, at
least to my satisfaction). At least there wasn't any Secret Wars trash in
this issue....
COIE #9: Hmmmm. the Earth-2 style Harlequin shows up both in the group of
villians, and the group of heroes.. is there more than one of her running
around (earth-1's harlequin is busy being retired) ? Other than that,
we'll have to wait until next issue to see who is dead, and who was merely
down for the count this issue. Oh, yes, another question-- I thought that
Wally Wood (Kid Flash) couldn't run faster than a normal human being
without being in massive pain. I realize he might have been caught up in
the moment, but i would have thought he would have felt *something*.
Brainiac's physical self has been trashed to little tiny bits, and Psimon
is turning out to be a much stronger character than when he was first
introduced. Nice crossovers into Green Lantern and Teen Titans. I see the
difference between the COIE crossovers and the SW crossovers in being that
COIE makes you *want* to find out what is going on in the title, and that
if you read the main title only (for some reason), you can go on reading
the main title without losing a lot, or suddenly coming into the middle of
the story.
DC Challenge: This is the start of a 12 issue round robin story, as created
by some current and former writers and artists. To see how Gene Colan does
Superman is worth the price of admission. This is also occuring outside of
the normal DC continuity, which gives the writers a *lot* more leeway. It
looks like a book that was done because the people behind it wanted to do
it, not because they had to do it. It shows....
That's it for this week...
Laurie Sefton
--
Chuq Von Rospach nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA {decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4}!nsc!chuqui
Son, you're mixing ponderables again