Flashback Friday!

Over at a Facebook group I'm admin for (UK & IE Comic Collectors Club) we just started up a new thing called "Flashback Friday's" in which we recount memories from our years of comic collecting/buying, or classic comics we particularly enjoyed. So, without further a do, let's start with Captain America #367

This issue is part of both Mark Gruenwald's mostly epic long run on Captain America (one I am a particularly huge fan of), and the "Acts Of Vengeance" crossover. In short, A.O.V featured a mystery villain bringing most of the major supervillains together to team up and take down The Avengers, by mixing it up a bit, and having random villains take on heroes they wouldn't normally tackle. Some issues were good, some terrible, and some (like this one) were brilliant.
The Red Skull is a despicable character. He is a Nazi of whom was one of Hitler's elite. Magneto is a Mutant Jewish survivor of the holocaust. The way the Nazi's treated him and his family has left him bitter towards the human race in general, and couple with humanity's persecution of the Mutant race, he became a pro-active "hero" for his people, striking fear into the hearts of the those who would persecute his race for being nothing more than alive whilst enacting violent retribution upon the Nazi regime; in using such methods, certain parallels can be drawn between Magneto and the Nazi's that imprisoned him (this level of moral ambiguity makes him an engaging character, and easily Marvel's top "villain")

So, as can be imagined, when Magneto and The Red Skull are being to made to work with each other, Magneto is none too pleased. That's pretty much what this issue is about, Magneto is pissed at the Red Skull, and he beats on him, enacting vengeance. Sure Captain America is featured in the issue, and he even does stuff, but that's not why you're reading. This is probably the best use of Magneto I've ever read, and it solidifies his place as not only my favourite villain, but one of my favourite characters period. This issue is true to his character, yet also shows him to be better than the Nazi regime, suggesting that he could have been a hero, had he not fallen victim to hideous repression.

Maybe this isn't the best comic book ever, and maybe there are other ones that deal with morals better, but I honestly can't think of one that does so whilst being this damn enjoyable. They simply don't make comics like they use to, a full blown 10/10

So that was initially what I planned to post here on Flashback Friday, but then I stumbled across this gem

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D6sKSPY050AE%26feature%3Dshare&h=JAQHomosSAQHEyyUuQS0cgLMYmK_ZWKLo_vpUfUGPJFKiPw

I had some great toys when I was younger, and I have fond memories of the Apocalypse one of these projector things. I would have only just been born when these were released, but I picked him up from a car-boot sale. Oh sure they're stupid toys and all, but they were great fun, and this advert made me laugh at the stupidity of chunks of my childhood.

So then I thought, that'll conclude my Flashback Friday post quite nicely, and then I saw a news story about the "new" DC cartoon. Yes, Teen Titans Go! is returning to our screens!!

So what if they're now in their deformed chibi style? It was an overly cutesy show anyway, and it was always fun when they were chibified, and that's how they've been reintroduced via the shorts. I loved the stupidity of this show, right down to the ridiculously catchy theme tune. When they announced the cancellation of Batman: The Brave And The Bold (a show I ended up enjoying far more than I expected to),   I thought Ultimate Spider-Man was the only place to go for my ridiculous superhero laughs. Whilst I had high hopes for USM as it initially started off as a cross between Spider-Man, Teen Titans Go! and Scrubs, it got real boring, real fast, and I felt like there was no place to go for stupid campy fun. This news has made my day.

Yes I know, most of this post has made it pretty clear how sad a person I am, but honestly? Being sad makes me happy.

Nerd power!

Quick experiments with the tablet.

So November last year I got a graphics tablet to plug into my laptop, and lately I've been trying out some more experiments on it. Here are the ones from the past month or 2



First up, my take on Mark Ruffalo's Hulk. I absolutely LOVED The Avengers movie, and Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/ The Hulk absolutely blew me away, and I had to take a crack at drawing him. I sketched out the outline first using the "pen" tool, and then used the "airbrush" tool to colour it. This is still a work in progress, and has a long way to go, but I'm pretty pleased with it so far, and there's a definite sense of realism to the face. Good likeness when compared to the reference too.

Next up, Raphael of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fame. With the comic reboot, and the upcoming tv and movie reboots, the Turtles have a pretty high profile at the moment, and have piqued my interest, and I've fancied having a go at drawing one. No reference at all here, and I have to say, I'm reasonably pleased. This is my first attempt at drawing one of the Turtles, and it's not bad at all. In certain areas the tone looks a bit unfinished, but there are some real areas of strength here, particular the torso.

Finally, today's effort, Jake The Dog from the cartoon Adventure Time. A friend of my described the show to me as "Spongebob on crack", so I had to take a look at it, and needless to say he was right. Saying that, I absolutely love how stupid it is, and Jake The Dog cracks me up, so I wanted to have a go at doing a piece of him. This was a pretty quick piece, and initially started out as just a joke, and an experimentation with the brush tool, but I wound up really enjoying it. Once I'd finished with the brush tool (which made me realise I don't have such a steady hand) it looked a bit flat, so I decided to add some tone in using the airbrush tool. The shine on the mouth has come out real nice, as has the nose. I may think about experimenting with the brush tool (and airbrushing at the end) in some more in later pieces.

What I bought this week (A return to form for Brubaker)

As far as my regular comic buying goes, this was a big week for me (and yes I caved to the hype of Before Watchmen and bought 2 copies of Minutemen). Not a single issue here proved disappointing, and I'll review them all before the week is over, but the real highlights from this pile for me were Captain America #12, and Winter Soldier #6, both of which are written by Ed Brubaker.

The characters of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes make it into my top 5 Marvel Characters (alongside Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Wolverine). Whilst I've always been a Cap fan, my continual interest in the character is the quality of Brubaker's run writing the Captain America series (Spider-Man always use to be my number 1, but recently I've gone off of the character due to certain stories, but that's another post for another time) that has made him still interesting, be it whether Steve or Bucky is in the costume.

So with that out the way, let's take a quick look at Captain America #12. To tie in with the recent Captain America movie out last summer (which is fantastic fun), Marvel decided to relaunch their Captain America title, with Steve Rogers back in costume. I wasn't against this, as I enjoy Steve as a character, but I was slightly bitter about not having any more adventures of Bucky taking up the mantle. This new relaunched title was more reminiscent of the classic Captain America stories of old. Whilst I enjoyed the classic Cap tales (in particular Mark Gruenwald's run),  the reason Brubaker's initial run on the character was so well received is because of it's gritty espionage flair, something that this relaunched title obviously didn't have. Classic Cap is great and all, but of all the choices Ed could have made for the series, he made the wrong ones (honestly, the Ameridroid and some ballsed up topsy turvy dream world? Pathetic). The second arc faired a little better, but it wasn't until this issue that I started feeling the magic again.

The latest issue features Cap on the trail of a leak within the Witness Protection Program, which has resulted in a new Scourge going on a killing spree of all the super-villains who had been given new identities. The whole Scourge story has been done in Cap before, true, but Brubaker crafts a new tale featuring a new Scourge, with all the espionage flair one can expect from his work. Brubaker also brings back several familiar faces, including particular favourites of mine, such as Diamondback and Dum Dum Dugan. Patrick Zircher's art compliments the story really well in the same way that previous Brubaker collaborators such as Steve Epting were able to. The last page reveal of the new Scourge's identity was a genuine shock, and was a reveal I never saw coming. Some newer readers may scratch their heads, but for long term fans (e.g, myself), this will be a huge payoff. Despite that identity though (a quick visit to Wikipedia should fix any confusion), this arc is probably the ideal place for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (The Avengers related films), to jump straight in and read. Such a great issue.

Which then moves us on to Winter Soldier #6. With Steve back as Captain America, Brubaker decided he wanted to have his cake and eat it too, returning Bucky Barnes to his identity of the Winter Soldier and giving us a REALLY gritty dark espionage spy thriller, the sort of thing we fans had been clamoring for. The first 5 issues of the series were great fun, and featured gorgeous artwork from Butch Guice, but were also pretty out there, featuring Dr.Doom, Doombots....and talking apes (these issues were published around the same time as the wacky Captain America ones, so it's not beyond reasonable doubt to guess that Ed Brubaker was tripping on some new drug at the time, but I digress). With this issue, Brubaker gives us what we REALLY were after, a full blown espionage thriller grounded in harsh reality. I was sad to hear that Butch Guice wasn't going to be on this arc, but the addition of Michael Lark (a collaborator of Brubaker's on titles such as Daredevil) more than makes up for it. Lark's work here perfectly fits the tone of the story, and has never looked better. I would actually go as far as to say that Lark is even better than Guice here. Whilst the latest Captain America starts to return back towards the more espionage type stories whilst throwing in some classic elements, Winter Soldier goes in the completely opposite and dives head first into the dark and seedy spy thriller genre.

For a while I was worried that Brubaker was off his game, but today I realised I was wrong. I would keep buying Captain America and Winter Soldier regardless (just out of sheer love and loyalty for the characters), but as long as Brubaker is producing work of such a high caliber? I will thoroughly enjoy doing so too.

Consider it a reboot...

Decided to give the whole blogging thing another go. The previous entry's were pretty crap so I deleted them (though the USM one was okay so I kept it)


Oh, and the introduction was pretty crap. I'm Joe, the English comic book nerd without fear (huge Daredevil fan) studying Physics, Chemistry, Maths, and Art (an intellectual with artistic flair). I'll post about comics, films, and occasionally other stuff.

Don't expect me to hold back!

To start off though, here's a quick Chemistry/Comic Book joke that made my day

( if you don't know you're chemistry, I apologise. The rings show the simplified electron configuration of the element Sodium, of which has the chemical symbol "Na" )

Introducing the *NEW* Spider-Man: Lets talk about race!

So here's my first proper entry on the blog, and where better to start than with the new replacement Spider-Man? This new web-head has been topic of discussion amongst numerous Spider-Man fans, and has been victim to media hype by Marvel. In case you've been lucky enough to avoid the hype, this should catch you up to speed.

In an alternate Marvel universe and imprint, Peter Parker is dead. Dead, dead. He's long gone. To keep with the times, Marvel have killed off Peter Parker, to pave way for this new webslinger more relevant to today. The new Spider-Man features a snazzy new costume, with the red of the previous costume toned down to a bare minimum, and he is of hispanic descent. Ladies and Gentlemen (okay, "Gentlemen" then. I know my audience!), I give you Miguel O' Hara, the Spider-Man of the year 2099

What? Oh! You thought I meant Miles Morales? You though I meant this guy?

Well that's exactly the point I'm making.

In this day and age, it could be argued, that political correctness has gone wild. To some point, I agree with that. Plenty of fans out there, have been complaining about killing off the original Spider-Man to replace him with a mixed race, half black, half hispanic new character, and how it is gaining the headlines. Lots of these fans have been branded racists for daring to say such things. And you know something? I'm in agreement, with these fans, and let me, for a moment or two, explain their outrage, and why I'm backing them.

Before you ask, it is to do with the race. The outrage isn't that they killed Peter Parker, and dared to replace him, it's how the race thing, is playing such a massive part in hyping up the character.
Question: WHY?!

People complain about a lack of diversity in comics, particularly in races and genders of superheroes, and occasionally even due to their sexual orientation. This is what winds me up! Marvel are introducing a new Spider-Man, after killing off Peter Parker. If you're going to hype it up in the media, to non-comic book readers, on the off-chance you can get them to start reading comics or pick them up due to them being a "collectors item", then that should be hype enough! So what if it's only the Ultimate Universe? Joe Bloggs on the street doesn't know about Marvel's different imprints, but he does know who Peter Parker/Spider-Man is, and he could pretty much appreciate the "major" scope of this story.

So why, for the love of whatever it is the reader of this post believes in, do you need to advertise the fact he is half black, and half hispanic? Shouldn't you just let us discover his identity, his ethnic backgrounds, and such, as the his series progresses? This is why I re-introduced you all to Miguel O' Hara at the beginning of this wonderful rant. Spider-Man 2099 was a good comic book, it had a decent fan base, and it still has fans clamoring for the return of the character, and a new series, to this day. Don't believe me? Following the Timestorm 2099 mini, Spider-Man 2099 has since appeared in the Shattered Dimensions video game, and now the upcoming Edge Of Time video game. In case you don't know, the Spider-Man 2099 comic book series was set in the year 2099 (initially a possible future for the Marvel Universe, but instead became the future of an alternate one I believe), long after the Marvel Heroes we know have passed, and featured new heroes and villains taking up the namesake of those of old, in a world where the economy has boomed, everything is industrialised, and the big companies oppress the average man on the street, and have the power to control the governments and such like. In a way, whilst set in the future, it did reflect the fears, feelings, and attitudes of the audience at the time ( the series began publication onwards from 1992), and was a way of making the character more "relevant". What's the point I'm trying to make here? Miguel O' Hara was Marvel's   first Spider-Man of a different ethnic background, and it was never a marketing ploy. People like Spider-Man 2099, regardless of his nationality. He was a cool character. In fact, until this media hype for Miles Morales, it never even crossed my mind that Miguel was hispanic! Miguel O' Hara did well, even by 90's standards, with no media help.

& this was in the 90's, the days of everything being hyped. It's shameful publishers are doing it now.

Maybe this new Ultimate Spider-Man has potential to be a really good character. Maybe he could be as great as Peter Parker. Who knows? But I simply don't care. When you try and market a character, because of his or her race, I stop caring. Not because I'm a white supremacist or any kind of racist, but because it cheapens everything about the character, and makes them nothing more than a publicity stunt. Were Marvel to have let me discover Miles Morales in story, without spilling everything about his ethnic background, I would have given him a shot. I don't want to read a story about a black/hispanic Spider-Man, I want to read good Spider-Man stories, and the nationality of the character behind the mask shouldn't even warrant thinking about (people don't read the Black Panther and support him because he's black, but simply because he's a total badass. Same goes for The Falcon, and John Stewart as a Green Lantern)

One more thing that really winds me up about the new Ultimate Spider-Man? This here quote from Ultimate Editor Axel Alonso

"What you have is a Spider-Man for the 21st century who's reflective of our culture and diversity. We think that readers will fall in love with Miles Morales the same way they fell in love with Peter Parker."

Bollocks. Peter Parker is STILL relevant today. He doesn't need to be mixed race to be relatable to today's audience, making this whole thing pointless.