Tagged: Captain America

One More Day Too Many, by Mike Gold

One More Day Too Many, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • January 7, 2008
Damn. They blew it.
 
Pulling off those universe-shattering “everything you knew yesterday will be wrong tomorrow” budget-busting bookshelf-breaking crossovers is a bitch. Few of them prove to be worth anybody’s effort, most of them are contradicted within a few weeks of their conclusion, and there have been way, way too many such “events” for any of them to be actual events. 
 
Marvel’s Civil War was different. For one thing, it was actually about something – it took on issues and concerns that were metaphors for what has been going on in the so-called real world. For another, it had at least three really, really interesting story-threads: the devolution of Tony Stark’s humanity, the death of Steve Rogers (as opposed to the death of Captain America, which didn’t happen), and the outing of Spider-Man and the resultant impact it had on Peter Parker, his career and his family.
 
I was left with a degree of personal involvement that had been much greater than previously. Marvel had instituted real change, and while we all know change is a constant and that at some point some of it would be contradicted eventually – somebody, at some point in the future, will probably resurrect Steve Rogers, although I hope not – the “event” ended with my being more curious about what would follow than any other such mega-crossover. Silly me.
 
O.K. Now we get to the spoilers, so if you haven’t read the last few Spiders-Man, and you haven’t seen any of the covers or house ads, and you haven’t listened to the hubbub at your friendly neighborhood comics shop, and you’d temporarily gone deaf and blind after seeing Alvin and the Chipmunks, you might want to stop right here. Or you can view this as a public service. And now, back to our regularly scheduled rant.
 

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Dave Sim and Captain America!

Dave Sim and Captain America!

The concept of a "silent" or pantomime comic strip isn’t exactly new (Little King anyone?) but creator Mark Tatulli has combined the concept with the wondrous imagination of a little boy in his daily Lio. ComicMix Radio lets Mark tell the story of where Lio came from and what’s coming up.

Plus:

  • Dave Sim is back and this sure ain’t Cerebus
  • Get ready for another Lost trailer
  • 24 lives in another new comic
  • We figured out what really happened to Captain America

And you won’t find out unless you Press The Button!

Or subscribe to our podcasts via iTunes or RSS!

 

The new Captain America?

The new Captain America?

  • News
  • November 30, 2007

We hear there will be somebody in a Captain America uniform come February, but no word yet as to who. However, thanks to this sketch hiding in Matt Feazell’s website, we have conclusive proof who it will be.

Ladies and gentlemen, the new star-spangled avenger– Cynicalman.

Oh, like you’ve got a better candidate. Trust me, by Election Day next year you’ll all know I’m right.

Power!, by Dennis O’Neil

Power!, by Dennis O’Neil

  • News
  • November 13, 2007

So you wanna be a superhero. Okay, where are your powers going to come from?

For years – nay, hundreds of years; nay, thousands of years – the brief answer was: From out there. Somewhere. The first superbeings in popular culture (the only kind there was, back then) were either gods, or pals of gods, or imbued with magical abilities, the origins of which weren’t necessarily clear or important. What was important was…wow! – look at what he/she/it can do! And so much the better if it, whatever spectacular thing it is, is being done for reasons I approve of.

That’s still what’s important. But our minds seem to be wired to want reasons for what we see, which is certainly why there’s science and may be why there’s art and civilization. But, oddly, once a reason is supplied, many of seem to be satisfied and require nothing further. The great cosmic snortlefish created the oceans? Swell, now I know why there’s all that water and what’s for dinner?

By the time Jerry Siegel got around to thinking up Superman in the summer of 1934, magic wasn’t terribly fashionable and it had long since become divorced from religion. But science…ah, science was going to deliver us and besides, it was real. And Jerry was a reader of science fiction, which, in those happy days, at least claimed to be rooted in physics and chemistry and astronomy and stuff like that. So it was natural, maybe inevitable, that he would give his übermensch a science rationale. Guy comes from another planet, sure – that’d be why he could be so powerful. Makes sense. Made sense to Jerry in 1934, probably would have made sense to me when I was the age Jerry was when he created Superman, if I’d thought about it.

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Yep. We can be Heroes…again

Yep. We can be Heroes…again

Our top of the week Broadcast covers a lot of ground starting with our rundown of the newest comics and DVDs to hit the stores, including:

• A new zombie variant for Ultimate X-Men

• A second printing variant for the Green Arrow Black Canary Wedding Special

• A new Ride one-shot from Image, plus a look ahead to the future of the series from the creators

• A new DVD collection of the Angel series

Plus News Updates on:

• Captain America‘s return and costume make-over

• The American Girls jump into video gaming

• Heroes gets yet another graphic novel

And much more of the usual fun… including a trip back to what was on our pop culture on this day in 1988!

Jump right in & Press The Button!

Cap In The Saddle Again

Cap In The Saddle Again

  • News
  • October 16, 2007

O.K. By now you’re heard that "Captain America" will be returning to Captain America, in issue #34. Place your orders today, folks!

I have no problem with Cap’s return. It was inevitable. That’s fine. I don’t know if it’ll be Steve Rogers resurrected; I certainly hope not. That sort of shoddy storytelling got tiresome about 20 years ago. Like the flag and the nation for which he was named, Captain America endures and that’s fine by me.

I’m not going to join the loud chorus of nay-sayers who have been pooping all over Alex Ross’s brand-new costume design. Cap’s got a gun and a knife? Bg deal. He’s a soldier, remember? If a gun was good enough for Alex Schaumberg, it’s good enough for Ross and for me.

However, there is a storytelling problem here. If the costume is so vital that it must survive as the skin of another, as it had before in the 1950s, then why change the costume? I guess we’ll find out. I hope we’ll find out.

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ANDREW’S LINKS: One Last Ride on the Wall of Death

ANDREW’S LINKS: One Last Ride on the Wall of Death

  • News
  • September 24, 2007

It’s not often that I get to make a simultaneous Richard Thompson/Timothy Truman reference, so I’ll take it this time.

This will be my last set of links for ComicMix. I’ve loved doing it, but it’s just too, too time-consuming. I will continue reviewing various things here, and ComicMix’s philosophy is all about the original content, so a huge bunch of outside links was an odd fit to begin with. Thanks for all the comments, and please stick around for the big ComicMix original-comics launch – I certainly will be!

Comics Links

David Lloyd will be at Orlandocon from Sept 21-23 at the Caribe Royale Convention Centre, and also signing at Coliseum of Comics on Friday the 21st from 2-5.

Mark Evanier has stitched together various YouTube postings to reform the complete Jonathan Ross documentary In Search of Steve Ditko.

The Columbia Tribune visits with artist Frank Stack.

Comic Book Resources interviews Marvel editor John Barber to learn exactly how the Marvel Zombies project came to be…and, just maybe, how Marvel will work it like a rented mule until we’re all sick of it.

CBR also chatted with Jim Shooter about his plans for Legion of Super-Heroes.

Comics Reporter interviews Steven Weissman.

Wizard talks with Mark Evanier.

The Hurting wonders what’s the deal with the X-Men and space opera.

Living Between Wednesdays interviews Scottt Chantler, author of Northwest Passage.

Comics Reviews

Forbidden Planet International reviews Image’s new series Fearless.

The Written Nerd reviews a pile of graphic novels, starting with the first volume of Flight, edited by Kazuo Kibuishi.

The Joplin Independent reviews The Blue Beetle Companion. (I was going to make a joke about obscurity here, but I thought better of it.)

The Los Angeles Times reviews Adrian Tomine’s Shortcomings.

Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog reviews the week’s comics, with an extra dose of face-kicking.

Greg Burgas of Comics Should Be Good reviews this week’s comics, starting with 30 Days of Night: Beyond Barrow #1.

Living Between Wednesday reviews this week’s comics, and declares them the “sexiest ever.”

From The Savage Critics:

  • Jog reviews the new 30 Days of Night, and others
  • Abhay finishes reviewing a graphic novel called Runoff, and interviewing its creator Tom Manning
  • Diana Kingston-Gabai says two Hail Marys but still can’t take Penance: Relentless
  • Jog checks out Gutsville #2
  • and Graeme McMillan reviews a pile of comics, including the new Captain America. (And now I channel Mr. Middle-America: “Hey, isn’t he dead? How come his comics still coming out?”)

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Marvel costume contest

Marvel costume contest

  • News
  • September 18, 2007

This could be fun: Marvel wants to see you in your costume and they’re handing out prizes to the best-dressed Marvel fans.  All you have to do is head over to www.marvel.com/costumecontest right now to enter Marvel’s First Annual Costume Contest!

 

The deadline for submissions is October 22.  Then, from October 23 through October 29, fans will be able to vote on Marvel.com for their favorite entry. Then, before you go trick-or-treating, check Marvel.com on Halloween day to see if you’re one of the winners of Marvel’s First Annual Costume Contest and Marvel Costume Contest Voter Sweepstakes

 

The Grand Prize Winner will receive a personalized ‘handbook style’ page to appear in a Marvel comic book and be spotlighted in a feature article on Marvel.com along with a signed Captain America Omnibus by Ed Brubaker; plus, one randomly selected voter will win a signed Captain America Omnibus by Ed Brubaker for helping judge the competition.

Now if they’re really serious, they’ll make a cover out of the costume.

ANDREW’S LINKS: Knitted Hellboy

ANDREW’S LINKS: Knitted Hellboy

  • News
  • September 10, 2007

Comics Links

They’re sold out now, but for a brief, shining moment, the world had a chance to buy knitted Hellboy dolls. (Figures? Plushes? What do you call these things?) [via Newsarama]

This weekend, The New York Times dug through Stan Lee’s boxes of old photos for an article about the places he’s lived.

Comic Book Resources interviews Kent Williams.

The Friends of Lulu are looking for new board members, sayeth The Beat.

The Beat lists Diamond graphic novel sales charts from 2006 and 2007 (to date).

The Harlan Ellison/Fantagraphics legal matter just will not die…even after the supposedly final settlement, Ellison has now balked at posting the required-by-the-agreement 500-word rebuttal by Fantagraphics’s Gary Groth to three specific claims Ellison made about Groth. The unposted statement, and Ellison’s lawyer’s “not gonna do it” letter, are in the middle of this long post at The Beat.

Comics Reporter interviews Warren Craghead. (No, I didn’t know who he was, either. But CR likes him…)

The ComicBloc interviews Sean McKeever.

Some guy named Dan Stafford:

1)    wrote polite letters to various comics folks, like R. Crumb, Joe Matt, and James Kochalka, asking some questions.

2)    got letters back from same, with answers to those questions.

3)    Posted the results here.

The Bookseller (the UK’s magazine of bookselling) recently reported that UK manga publishers have had to beg the big chains over there to expand the space devoted to manga. Either the UK market is vastly different from the US, or Waterstone’s just isn’t that interested in making great piles of money…

Comics Reviews

The Joplin Independent reviews the Marvel comics adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.

The Globe and Mail reviews a bunch of graphic novels and comics, starting with Sara Varon’s Robot Dreams.

Hannibal Tabu of Comic Book Resources lists his “buy pile” for this week.

Brian Cronin of Comics Should Be Good reviews Nick Abadzis’s Laika.

Greg Burgas of Comics Should Be Good reviews this week’s comics, starting with Action Philosophers! #9.

Greg Hatcher of CSBG reviews a pile of stuff he got for free.

From The Savage Critics:

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MARTHA THOMASES: Death Trip

MARTHA THOMASES: Death Trip

  • News
  • August 18, 2007

At the recent Wizard World convention in Chicago, Jim Starlin was part of the DC Nation panel. Starlin created the brilliant graphic novel, The Death of Captain Marvel, which was so well done that it made me cry like a little girl even though I wasn’t that familiar with the character. A running gag throughout the hour was that, in the upcoming Final Crisis, Starlin was going to let loose and kill a bunch more characters in the DC Universe.

It’s bugged me for a few years that, in comics and sometimes in other media, death is the gag. Death is the only meaningful drama. The recent hype about the last Harry Potter book was whether or not Harry would die, and who else might join him. This misses the point.

Now, I realize that I made a lot of my reputation in this industry from the 1992 Death of Superman (and not just my extraordinary good looks and keen wit). Isn’t that what started this whole death-cult in comics?

Yes and no. I used to joke that DC had to kill Superman every seven years, whether or not he needed it. What made the 1992 event different? Some might think sold so much because the release coincided with the collector craze, but I’ve always thought it was more than that, and started even earlier. I thought it started in the fall of 1990, when Clark and Lois got engaged. The media went crazy, with stories on television news and national newspapers like USA Today. A few months later, it happened again when Clark revealed his secret identity to his beloved.

People felt like they knew the Superman family. A lot of them expected an invitation to the wedding. When they found out Doomsday was going to kill Superman, they felt like they lost a friend.

Marvel was able to evoke similarly honest feelings when Captain America died. Again, they had done their homework with the general public, explaining the central political conflict in the Marvel Universe. In this case, the increasing discontent with the Iraqi war may have also contributed to the emotional response. It’s a perfect storm of entertainment and real life.

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