Moon Knight #7

Writer: Charlie Huston

Artist: Mico Suayan



The post-Finch-blotch period of this title was supposed to be a refreshing dose of clarity and vision for the book, but boy did the trap floor trick me into falling into a pit full of poisoned barbs on that one (metaphorically.) It doesn't help that Huston's script, and his general writing style, have been pushing me dangerously close to dropping my first Moon Knight book (trust me, that's something: I have some portion of each volume, and loved them all) with the hokey, and increasingly offensive, crazy-monologue from the imagined spirit of Bushman, sans facial tissue. The first arc kind of looked good on paper (broken Spector rebuilds his body to pull his way back from the brink of over-the-hill, painkiller-chewin has-been) but this one is killing me. Jeff Wilde, former Moon Knight sidekick (after my time) and tragic figure Midnight, is jigsawing innocent victims left and right in order to get Spector's attention. Now he's a cyborg, and he hands Moon Knight's ass to him. The good: Finally, we get to see what we SHOULD be seeing when a normal human fights a cyborg. The bad: it's a boring fight, very gratuitous, and frankly, it would have been more interesting had Marc been in costume. Without the white (or silver, purists!) threads, it's kind of a boring book. Anyway, the worst thing is how ham-fisted Huston 'lovingly' treats the classic MK staples. Really, I think I'm going to vomit from the preciousness of Frenchie and the new guy "je t'aime!", "je t'aime!" Oh man.



As the book wraps, we finally see MK descending from the semi-mooncoptor, ready to kick some Midnight ass... except whoops, it's yet another final page reveal of the Punisher fucking about, post-Civil War style. Marvel's moves to push Punisher into the spotlight are driving me nuts. He made since in Civil War itself, but now, in a world where supposedly every D-list spandexed guy is getting rounded up outside the local taqueria, Punisher can cruise around rooftops emptying magazines of 7.68 NATO rounds...and no one gives a shit. At this point, I don't care if he's wearing a bastardized Captain America cowl at some point or not. I haven't seen Castle written, or drawn, on model since Civil War #7. This one was only slightly less wrong than the latest Runaways. Anyway, it irked me, especially when Punisher's on the damn cover. Feel sorry for the kids blowing $3 on this and feeling taken advantage of about it ten minutes later. There goes innocence!



3/10 Clicks

Related posts:

1. Moon Knight #2
2. Moon Knight #8
3. How to Fix: Moon Knight Gone Wrong, Briefly Right

Loners #1

Writer: CB Cebulski

Artist: Karl Moline



So, as a Runaways fan, I was pre-heated to want to like this book. Cue the bitchin' Pearson covers apeing different 80's teen films, and you know it's going to rock. Then Moline signs on and it's sealed, right? That guy can do no wrong.

But does it hold up?



Kinda.



See, I knew that they wouldn't be able to stick to the 'recovering superhero' concept much, lest there be little for us to read about, without, frankly, Vaughan and Alphona doing it, which *would* have interested me. But the way Cebulski's script flows, the gang spend half the time in therapy, then Spider-Girl sort of mocks the concept at the root of the original Loners (not the recovery part, but the idea that they'd WANT a life post-superhero) by admitting she's faking the whole thing, and...boom...costumes on and adventure begins. There's plenty of methods to get characters to do something they resist, or be someone they are trying to evolve beyond, in classic cinema. Cebulski uses a page of Sider-Girl's midriff as the transition element. I found this disappointing. It could have been a tighter plot.







That said, Moline's art really saves it. It's a little loose at times, but man, the guy knows what he's doing. His lines, particularly around the faces, are some of my favorite to study. I have a scan of a Princess Lea con sketch he did for someone that still just blows me away looking at it. And it's no different here. I have high hopes for this series, largely based on his pencils and inks, to be honest.



7/10 Clicks

Related posts:

1. Loners #02
2. Loners # 03 – 05
3. Loners: Who’s THAT Girl?

Well, I'm happy to report that the TRDL RSS Feed, promised since the TRDL 2.0 site launched last fall, is finally ready for primetime. For those of you who aren't familiar with this technology, RSS (Real Simple Syndication) employs an XML file that is updated with new content on a regular basis. The client's RSS Reader checks all RSS subscriptions on a set interval, and reports the new content directly to the client. Most major news sites and many tech and pop culture blogs are now employing this technology as a means of getting new content to the readers without requiring them to actually come to the site and look for it.

All you have to do is subscribe to the TRDL RSS Feed, which can be done by clicking the link on the TRDL Gateway page that looks like this:

And adding this subscription to your RSS Reader. I personally allow Firefox's built-in Live Bookmarks function to be my RSS Reader, but you may also use an integrated component to your email client, or a standalone RSS reader application.

Every time I post updates to the TRDL illustration site, along with posting a note in the NEWS thread ands sending out a note in the email mailing list, I update the RSS Feed. So, those of you who are busy and only come by periodically will now be able to receive an automatic update when new content has been added.

Want an RSS Reader? Here are some recommended clients:

1. Firefox's built-in Live Bookmarks: Just click an RSS Feed and it will auto-subscribe you and add the Feed's dropdown to your bookmarks and bookmarks toolbar. Easy and Greazy

2. Sage: a well-made Firefox Extension as an alternate:
http://sage.mozdev.org/

3. Safari RSS: the official plug-in for Mac Safari users.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/safari/

4. Newsfire: the premiere newsreader for Mac OSX... endorsed by our own GetATTR!
http://www.newsfirerss.com/

5. Newsgator:
http://www.newsgator.com/home.aspx

6. RSS Reader:
http://www.rssreader.com/

7. Blogbot: an integrated tool for Outlook and Outlook Express.
http://www.blogbot.com/

OK, for the 3.33 of you that use RSS, maybe this will be convenient for you!
t

Related posts:

1. TRDL and R3 Syndication Now Live!
2. TRDL v2.0 and the Finit-e Graphic Serial are Live!
3. TRDL Blog is Live

in the pages of JSA#5.... ok since it's the LSH I grew up with Glee.... the line up of the statues was very cool

No related posts.

Hm.

This is like the team kneecapping their star forward, because, you know, he makes the rest of them look slower. Well, if they all competed. OK maybe that's not the best example. But fuck you VW of America, anyway.



http://www.autoblog.com/2007/04/23/bast ... o-the-u-s/

Related posts:

1. Wrong: Worker Murdered by Carwash
2. Wrong: KFC Placates the Brothers, or DOES it?
3. Wrong: It’s Made of People!

Robop is a robot falcon.

I shit you not.

http://www.robop.co.uk/Introduction.html



Available now!

Related posts:

1. Robot Onesie
2. robot model kit from alternate ’57 : so cool i can’t breathe
3. Robot Uprising, Act 01

Not sure if this has been posted previously or not....

http://www.thesuperheroquiz.com/villain/





I AM DOOM.



I can live with that.



Dr. Doom 63%

The Joker 61%

Lex Luthor 55%

Mr. Freeze 54%

Magneto 53%

Kingpin 52%

Apocalypse 51%

Two-Face 49%

Green Goblin 49%

Venom 46%

Riddler 44%

Dark Phoenix 43%

Catwoman 43%

Poison Ivy 42%

Juggernaut 37%

Mystique 33%

Related posts:

1. Our prayers have been answered: 90s X-Men to be released
2. SUPERVILLAIN TEAM-UP!
3. Dr. Doom’s Facing Hard Economic Times

http://www.e-motionaldesign.com/blog/nazi-robot-attack/



Man, this is astounding.

Related posts:

1. The Nazi Stealth Aircrafts That Almost Were
2. Robot Posters
3. The Latest Creepy Climbing Robot

NewUniversal #3 - 5

Writer: Warren Ellis

Artist: Salvador Larocca



This series continues it's slow-burn momentum, as more and more of the White Event is revealed. The army is after Starbrand, and throw an escalating amount of ordinance at him, while the NSA, still waiting for the Spitfire weapons platforms to be ready, listen in horror. Starbrand, Kenneth Connell, is visited by himself, from the future, as well as other representatives of the multi-universal protection role, while Izanami Randall travels sidewise through the Superflow to reach him before a nuke solves the problem of his existence. Meanwhile, we see an intriguing retake on the Native american solemn vision quest thing, as we watch a really great exchange between a tribal leader and his Wakan hawk totem... only to have him come out of it and be revealed as a pretty modern, doubting dude, which is a great twist... followed by the realization that he's a CIA spook and will be doing something about what he learned regardless. I thought this was one of the most interesting little scenes Ellis has written in a long time. it's hard to explain. But it worked.



Larocca's art continues to shine here, more and more buttressed by Jason Keith's colors. They have created a color palette and style set that is very consistent and works well for the material. I could still do with a little less celebrity photo-reffing, but thankfully it grows less obvious as Larocca moves to other characters in the story.



Still loving this book!



10/10 Clicks

Related posts:

1. NewUniversal #1-2
2. NewUniversal #06
3. Desolation Jones #3

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes 2

Writer: Joe Casey

Artist: Wil Rosado



Following up on the first series' successful story-between-the-story, this second volume follows a slightly different approach. The events taking place in the set-up for this story are again pulled from classic Avengers, this time surrounding the inexplicable marriage of Janet Van Dyne and Hank Pym. However, here, the narrative instead focuses on a number of characters and their struggles throughout a single arc of events, rather than the missing 'DVD Extras' scenes surrounding several classic events, as in the first volume. I think that's part of what weakened this second go-round. There's only so much interest I can have in a Super-Adaptoid factory. That said, I do still admire Casey's rallying effort to make sense of some of the more absurd old storylines, particularly the Hank Pym business. While I think the conceit of everyone knowingly going along with Pym's fractured personality break is a bit of a stretch, especially given we're not just talking comic logic, but a comic's attempt to rationalize comic logic, Casey's re-working of the wedding to be a staged event designed to ease Pym out of his psychosis was pretty good. I know retcons aren't popular, but when done this way (inserting recontextualization behind story elements in such a way that they don't significantly alter the events of the past in our modern interpretation, but rather reinforce them,) I think they can be pretty interesting.



Part of my general sense of disappointment, however, was the fact that the entire dramatic framework surrounded the capture of the Super-Adaptoid. I like the character enough, though I found it a bit underwhelming that it would take them 8 issues to bring the android down without more rationale than Pym was keeping them pre-occupied. Additionally, the Black Panther/White Tiger/inner-city teaching business got old in about 10 pages. Lastly, Wil Rosado? He's got a classic vibe to his work, but while it's more polished than Kolins in the first volume, there's something extremely flat about these pages. He's a very competent story-teller, but I wasn't grabbed by anything. Especially given Johnson's covers, it was something I struggled with throughout this series.



On the other hand, just like the narrative, what DID work for me regarding Rosado's art was that he didn't change a thing. So often with these retcons, the artist can't help but feel compelled to update or stylistically tweak the look of classic characters and scenes for their contemporary retelling, and it irks me. I'm not a huge fan of the slippery slope of re-interpreting old periods in Marvel continuity for new audiences in an out-of-time, contemporary voice, as has been done with X-Men: First Class, where the character's speak with something approximating today's teen lingo, and the art has played fast and loose with the old styles. Had it been done with more reverence, like Earth's Mightiest Heroes, it could have been a stronger read.



I also should mention that it's been enjoyable reading some background interaction with some of the second-string Avengers, and Casey chose this era specifically because they're ALL second-stringers at this point: a pivotal time in Avengers history when none of the founders are there to steer the ship. I thought that aspect of this was fascinating. Hawkeye and Vision, particularly, made me much more interested in them than I was as a kid.



So, with a different artist, and osme more urgency to the script, this could havebeen GREAT. But as it was, it wasn't bad... especially if you struggle with the post-CW Avengers world.



7/10 Clicks

Related posts:

1. Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes
2. Review: Avengers The Origin No 1 – 2
3. Avengers #502

Less Current »