brief pictorial interlude in lieu of actual content

Damnit, those were some really GREAT moments.

…and a complete lack of Xmen! (Damn whiny muties!)

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Rex the Wonder Dog: When saving kittens, go for extra credit.

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Random thoughts- Love that moment from Watchmen. DOOM has my loyalty. The Slavers is my favorite arc from Punisher MAX. Dr. Bong is AWESOME. Are the people that write, or ever wrote, Archie comics ever aware at how…wrong a lot of the dialog they write is? And am I mistaken or is that a young Mad Stan in that Nuke ‘Em ad?

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Yes. Absolutely yes. The LSH moments alone (Infinite Man!) are fantastic, but Deadshot, Constantine, Barry Allen’s last run (well…), Maguire’s JLA/Superbuddies, Rorschach’s last stand, and the page that finally (yes, even after We3) made me appreciate Frank Quietly.

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That’s funny… I don’t see any of Walt Simonson’s Thor.

Strangely, Ramadan was the first Sandman story I ever read and yet, I always think of it as one of more mediocre ones. Of course, I’m the weirdo who thought the Cereal Convention was the greatest goddamn thing ever, so my opinion is probably invalid.

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Great moments there. Loved seeing The Heckler too!

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I think comics today suffers from a massive lack of The Heckler.

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The Cap Vietnam memorial page came from an issue of the first Earth’s Mightiest Heroes miniseries.

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Also want to add, the Hitman issue with Superman is IMO the single greatest Superman story I’ve ever read. And it came from Garth Ennis of all people.

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Didn’t realize you liked Superman that much, he’s actually beating Brainiac 5 for appearances.

Some of my favorite comics are here. Although, does anyone know what trade the Joker story is available in? I think I’ve seen in online, but never in an actual comic.

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Justin Corwin: It’s from one of the Arkham Asylum comics. I can’t remember which one specifically.

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Appreciative as I am of the sheer awesomeness of all of those (Rorscharch, Punisher, Constantine, DOOM, and Guy Gardener: Tender Soul in particular), I have to admit a certain fondness for the Spidey/Speedball one.

That came from a 4-part New Warriors story (guest starring Spidey, the FF, and some myriad Avengers IIRC) where one of the Darkforce villains was possessing people/heroes; the more anger you had bottled up (or not bottled up), the more easily you got posessed. It wasn’t anything special as a plotline, but the dynamic between the younger heroes and Spidey, with the younger heroes almost completely overwhelmed by the scope of things (whole masses of civilians had been possessed as well, and the only things that could slow them down were near-deadly force and Firestar melting them), and Spidey playing the seen-it-all veteran was a favorite of mine.

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It’s Hawkeye. He was kind of the rebel loner rebel type back then.

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If anyone wamts to name all forty, so I can buy everything I don’t have on the list – it’d be appreciated. I know nearly everything, but it’d be great to be sure.

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Although, does anyone know what trade the Joker story is available in? I think I’ve seen in online, but never in an actual comic.

Pretty sure that’s Dan Slott’s Arkham Asylum: Living Hell.

Love the Joker’s monobrow.

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I have to check some issue numbers when I get home, but, in order:

Legionnaires Annual #2
Arkham Asylum: Living Hell #1
Uncle Scrooge # somethingsomething
Vertigo: Winter’s Edge jam issue (story appears in one of the Transmetropolitan trades)
Avengers Annual #6
Rex The Wonder Dog #32
New Frontier #2
Hellblazer #43 (?)
The Legion #14
Amazing Spider-Man #500
Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #11
Starman #51
Fantastic Four #61
Watchmen #12
Legion of Super-Heroes v3 #50
JLA: Welcome To The Working Week
JLA #22 (?)
JLA: Welcome To The Working Week (again)
The Avengers: Emperor Doom (OGN)
X-Statix # 24 (?)
Tintin And The Picaros
Crisis On Infinite Earths #8
New Warriors v1 #34
Avengers: Earth’s Greatest Heroes #2
Sandman #50
All-Star Superman #6
Amazing Spider-Man #501 (?)
Animal Man #14 (?)
What The?! #6
some old Archie comic somewhere, who knows
I Can’t Believe It’s Not The Justice League #4
Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein #2
Hitman #34
The Punisher MAX #32 (?)
Deadshot v2 #2
The Demon #41 (?)
Daredevil: The Man Without Fear #5
Legion of Super-Heroes v2 #294
The Sensational She-Hulk #5
Astro City v1 #6

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I liked a lot of these, MGK, but I’m afraid I really fucking despise Garth Ennis’ Punisher. Back when Frank Castle used to just shoot people I was able to rationalize his actions. I still wouldn’t shed any tears if he put a bullet in the Kingpin’s head, or the Hood’s (because The Hood shoots people in the balls ferchrisssake). But since Ennis took control of the character, this makes at least two people he’s burned alive to my knowledge.

Yeah, okay, it’s more interesting than just seeing him gun somebody down, but it’s still something I wouldn’t wish on anybody (with a very small number of exceptions: seriously cruel characters like Mephisto and Arnim Zola, who’ve inflicted that amount of pain and a lot more on innocent people and feel just fine about it).

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# Lister Sage Says:
September 8th, 2008 la 3:39 pm

Rick: Hawkeye didn’t always have the respect for Cap that he does now. In fact Cap had to deck him one when he was being upity. Plus, Hawkeye always liked playing to his own tune, so even if that occured after Cap kicked his ass, he wasn’t so in awe of Steve that he wouldn’t treat him as a person, recognizing both flaws and virtues.

Hawkeye never let USAgent off the hook either, which is one of the reasons I love the character. At least Cap’s heart is in the right place, like Spidey’s is most of the time. Same can’t be said of John Walker, who can be a total sociopath. He burned a couple of guys alive after they revealed his secret identity on TV, and as you know I’m not a real big fan of the “burning people alive” thing. 😉

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That should be Avengers Annual 16, not 6.

And in that, Hawkeye has just conned the Grandmaster, an Elder of the Universe, so I think he’s allowed a little ribbing toward Cap.

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“Second question – who did that Deadshot book?”

Christos Gage & Steven Cummings. Great mini.

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Has Batman ever squared off against Dr Doom?
Does this count?

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Skemono, while it is an excellent analysis and perhaps the only time I could say I found a pixel comic to be entertaining, sadly, I must conclude that this does not count.

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That one with Cap reading the names off of that wall almost made me cry. I miss Cap.

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Rob Brown: If you knew what that man did in The Slavers you’d understand why Frank lit him.

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Nevermind, Skemono. I’ve decided that Batman and Doom should not fight. Instead, I am convinced they should become intercompany homosexual lovers.

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Wow. I didn’t know any of these! That’s really pathetic. I just got into comics a few years ago, read a lot of stupid crap with a few decent titles in between, and gave up again. Now I have some guaranteed quality comics to actually get up and go look for! Thanks MGK.

Personally: I prefer Batman when he’s getting his ass handed to him, but keeps fighting anyway because he’s just a trooper like that. Things need to get done, and he’s going to do them. I don’t know if that’s ever been in a comic, but I’d like to see it. And the Joker actually being funny? Priceless. I also have a soft spot in my heart for the Marvel Inhumans and Atlantians, but that’s more because of potential for a cool story than any actually cool stories.

Ditto on Cap’n A & the Vietnam Memorial. Movie montages usually suck, but I could see a really effective montage of the Cap going through museum(s) or something and being progressively more shocked and outraged and wearied by the history of what’s happened since he’s been gone… ending with a full scene at the Memorial where he just breaks down. With a good actor and decent writing, it could be an “instant classic” moment. Not only would it be good, it would be a great opportunity to bring in a patriotic dollar; not to cheapen this, but it’s American cinema, and marketability is the ultimate goal. Good presentation could also push the movie more “mainstream” than “comic nerdy”.

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Lister Sage Says:
September 9th, 2008 la 8:47 am

Rob Brown: If you knew what that man did in The Slavers you’d understand why Frank lit him.

Maybe I would feel differently about this guy if I read the story. It’s possible. But what about Ma Gnucci?

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix3/magnucci.htm

Based on that entry, Gnucci was no better and no worse than your typical mob boss. What Frank did to her was far worse than anything she’d done to anybody else. Now sure, maybe she did something really cruel off-panel at some point. Anything’s possible. But maybe she didn’t.

# John W Says:
September 9th, 2008 la 10:39 am

Rob Brown,

As you can see in the scan, Frank is filming the guy’s burning for a reason – to send a message to some other bad dudes. Watching a video of a guy being roasted alive is far more effective than seeing someone put down with one bullet.

Is “effectiveness” all that matters to you?

If so, then maybe people should be sentenced to burn at the stake again. Because it would be an effective deterrant to…well, pretty much anything, wouldn’t it?

It would be an effective deterrant to murder, to burglary, to rape, to fraud…I mean hey, maybe it would be totally out of proportion with the actual crime committed, maybe it’s the kind of thing only the most despicable human beings would ever consider doing to anybody, but you can’t argue with results, right?

But we don’t do that. We also shouldn’t be torturing prisoners (and by “we” I don’t just mean the States, I mean anybody), and we shouldn’t be allowing prisoners to get raped either (Ezra Klein explains the reasons far better than I could hope to here ).

Why not?

Because the good guys–which I used to think was the U.S. and Canada and the citizens of those countries–are supposed to be BETTER THAN THAT!

Back to comics. Superheroes, even anti-heroes like the Punisher, also ought to be better than that. Castle’s way out of control, and as far as I’m concerned Cap should’ve beat him so badly in Civil War (or better yet, in a well-written story) that he was crippled for life.

Speaking of Cap, that Vietnam Memorial thing was one of my favourites too. So was the scan of the first issue of Mark Waid’s FF run, with Reed telling baby Valeria why he formed the team. Rex is obviously deserving, and so’s the fake video game ad. This is also the first time I saw Barry Allen’s death, and if a beloved character has to be killed off then that’s how it should be done.

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I’ll try to post the links again now.

Ma Gnucci:

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix3/magnucci.htm

Ezra Klein arguing why it matters how we treat our criminals, and why there are certain things that we should never subject them to (such as rape). He argues it more effectively than I could ever hope to, and does so here:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-klein30mar30,0,2240882

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Mr. Brown, you’re argueing about the fair treatment of criminals in regards to a character who kills criminals because he hates them. This isn’t Daredevil lighting a guy on fire. Spider-Man never threw anybody into a bear pit. This is Frank “The Punisher” Castle. He is NOT a good person. He is a vengeful bastard whose only outlet for his bottomless hate is to kill.

Do you think the Saint of Killers shouldn’t have killed an entire town to get at a pair of bandits?

Frank Castle isn’t a hero. He’s an obsessed mad man who ON OCCASION helps the “innocent”…

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Mr. Brown, you’re argueing about the fair treatment of criminals in regards to a character who kills criminals because he hates them. This isn’t Daredevil lighting a guy on fire. Spider-Man never threw anybody into a bear pit. This is Frank “The Punisher” Castle. He is NOT a good person. He is a vengeful bastard whose only outlet for his bottomless hate is to kill.

Mr. Lurker, do you think that’s how fans of the character and his current book would describe him? Or would they tell you that they enjoyed seeing him do this kind of stuff?

When I read part of Chuck Dixon’s Punisher run over fifteen years ago, he WAS sort of a good guy. He was a guy I could root for. He didn’t torture anybody in the stories I read. He wasn’t written as a bastard. He was written as a crime fighter who just happened to kill people. Since A) they were bad people and B) they were going to die sooner or later anyway, this didn’t bother me so much.

He’s changed since then, and even if it’s good for sales I’m really not a fan of it.

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So you’re fine with a someone who kills “bad” people without trial based on his own potentially faulty judgment. Just so long as he doesn’t HURT them doing it. Um. Ok then…

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Frankenstein. On Mars. Wunderbar.

Seven Soldiers doesn’t get nearly enough credit. Way to go, MGK.

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My Top 80 List. It might be overkill . . . I had trouble trying to confine it to a mere fifty.

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“Onion Says:
September 8th, 2008 la 8:04 pm

What I really want to know is. . .

Why aren’t the lanterns allowed on Earth? I’m all curious now after the Sinestro Corps stuff.”

Current DC Continuity dump of the day: All of the Earth Lanterns are allowed on Earth. Hal Jordan and John Stewart appear regularly in Justice League of America and both are involved in the proceedings of Final Crisis. Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner, however, cool their heels on Oa pursuant with their assignment to the Lantern Corps Honor Guard.

I’m Andrew, and I love answering questions about comic books.

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What Michael said. Regarding the post: AWESOME! More, please.

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Was wandering through here, and I couldn’t help but notice that two of your Spider-Man images came from J. Michael Straczynski’s run. I know that he doesn’t tend to get a whole lot of respect these days, but I genuinely loved the way he wrote the character. It’s just too bad he wound up having to take the fall for some genuinely horrible editorial decisions, culminating in Brand New Day. I rather hope he wouldn’t have planned it that way, had he been given the chance…

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