I stand by that assertion.
When you let everyone have access to a keyboard, the internet gets inundated with stupidity and we end up with the worst of all possible products, meeting only the lowest common denominator. That's a pet peeve of mine, and it is on display in exceptional form right here:
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/JakeLester/news/?a=27110
I could go into an in-depth analysis of the critique that is provided by the writer, but I think we'd be better off simply acknowledging that what he was actually attempting was a very tongue-in-cheek comedy piece. There's no other excuse for completely missing the point of any and all conflicts with Batman.
Almost no Batman conflict is centered on the physical capabilities of the World's Greatest Detective. True, at most points in the story we get to see his unparalleled martial skills in action, but the real battle almost always takes place in the mental arena. From that perspective, we can hardly dismiss Penguin's value as an adversary with a simple "look at him."
I think the thing that stands out the most to me, is that even in his comedic vein, the author attempts to explore why Batman always wins physical fights, but carefully manages to avoid reflecting on any of the physically competent and dangerous villains who regularly fit into Batman's rogue's gallery. I'm not referring to fringe personalities like Amygdala either. I'm talking about Bane (the man who broke the Bat!) or R'as Al Ghul (who I consider Batman's most perfect nemesis.)
The author does admit that they did the ones they wanted to, so we know he was motivated by his ability to accomplish his comedic goals.
Still, focusing on Bruce's martial skills is a mistake that plenty of his adversaries have made. He doesn't win the fight with his body though; he wins the fight before it's even begun!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Where to start?
In early December I picked up my comics for September through November, and that's 1/2 of the reason I've been missing in action since then. As of today, I'm out of new comics to read once again, and so I'm thinking the best place to start blogging in 2011 is on the books I've just finished reading. This leaves me with one really big question:
Where to start?
I've been reading some truly fantastic comics for the last six weeks or so, and narrowing it down to a singular starting point might actually prove a little bit difficult. So I'm going to simplify the exercise. A quick spin through the box on the floor, where my most recent reads are sitting waiting to be filed, and let's see what jumps out above the rest....
Levitz on Legion has been pretty sensational.
Pak's Incredible Hulks bi-weekly run is terrific
Fantastic Four may soon be Marvel's best book once more.
Superman's long walk poses some challenging questions.
But do you know what has my attention above and beyond any of these things?
What Brubaker is doing with this Marvel title is fantastic, and while the other Avengers books are finally starting to show some life and perhaps indicating that we're going to get something more than the status quo from Bendis this time around, this is THE Avengers book to read.
Some excerpts of great interest from recent issues:
What Ed is doing with this series is remembering that greatness is in the details. We're not on a wild ride of mish-mashed characters being crammed together for the sake of selling comics like we were back in the days of Marvel Two-In-One. This is a story about a covert Avengers team lead by Steve Rogers on black ops missions that the public isn't allowed to know about. And since the last time I blogged about how great it was in comparison to the other Avengers books, its only continued to get better.
One of the things I like the most is that Brubaker is taking a lot of secondary characters, and making them relevant. I've always maintained that one of the big differences between an "A" character and everyone else was the writer on the book. Of course that rule doesn't apply when you factor in iconic characters like Superman, Captain America or Spawn.................alright, everyone who didn't vomit when they read SPAWN must leave the blog now and NEVER return. NOW!
I'm serious!
LEAVE!
......................
Okay.........back to my point......Brubaker is doing the kind of work with otherwise background characters that Robinson did on Starman, and it's that work which will make the series continue to work as these characters rotate into and out of Rogers' black ops team.
The stories are tightly written, and there is an underlying thread which is clearly building to an even larger story. They are, if you will, a mosaic of tales creating an epic story which may yet become one of the great Avengers stories; the potential is certainly there. It appears it will all revolve around a secret society known as The Shadow Council, who are at the root of each of the story arcs we've invested in thus far, indicating that a final, frightening confrontation will perhaps be the penultimate chapter of this run.
I for one am excited to see it.
Where to start?
I've been reading some truly fantastic comics for the last six weeks or so, and narrowing it down to a singular starting point might actually prove a little bit difficult. So I'm going to simplify the exercise. A quick spin through the box on the floor, where my most recent reads are sitting waiting to be filed, and let's see what jumps out above the rest....
Levitz on Legion has been pretty sensational.
Pak's Incredible Hulks bi-weekly run is terrific
Fantastic Four may soon be Marvel's best book once more.
Superman's long walk poses some challenging questions.
But do you know what has my attention above and beyond any of these things?
SECRET AVENGERS
Some excerpts of great interest from recent issues:
- Steve Rogers in possession of the power of the Nova Corps!
- Nick Fury's fully autonomous LMD duplicate Max Fury returns!
- The Prince of Orphans becomes a prime time player!
- Shang-Chi, The Master of Kung-Fu is back!
- John Steele (America's real first Super Soldier) is one of the bad guys?
What Ed is doing with this series is remembering that greatness is in the details. We're not on a wild ride of mish-mashed characters being crammed together for the sake of selling comics like we were back in the days of Marvel Two-In-One. This is a story about a covert Avengers team lead by Steve Rogers on black ops missions that the public isn't allowed to know about. And since the last time I blogged about how great it was in comparison to the other Avengers books, its only continued to get better.
One of the things I like the most is that Brubaker is taking a lot of secondary characters, and making them relevant. I've always maintained that one of the big differences between an "A" character and everyone else was the writer on the book. Of course that rule doesn't apply when you factor in iconic characters like Superman, Captain America or Spawn.................alright, everyone who didn't vomit when they read SPAWN must leave the blog now and NEVER return. NOW!
I'm serious!
LEAVE!
......................
Okay.........back to my point......Brubaker is doing the kind of work with otherwise background characters that Robinson did on Starman, and it's that work which will make the series continue to work as these characters rotate into and out of Rogers' black ops team.
The stories are tightly written, and there is an underlying thread which is clearly building to an even larger story. They are, if you will, a mosaic of tales creating an epic story which may yet become one of the great Avengers stories; the potential is certainly there. It appears it will all revolve around a secret society known as The Shadow Council, who are at the root of each of the story arcs we've invested in thus far, indicating that a final, frightening confrontation will perhaps be the penultimate chapter of this run.
I for one am excited to see it.
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Overdue
Holy crap he's blogging again!
It's true. After the holidays interrupted what little flow I had going, I've finally gotten myself out of the reading chair and into the writing chair again. One of the great things about this past holiday season was the arrival of a friend who brought with him three months worth of comic material and an opportunity for me to catch up once again on things taking place in the comic world.
I've bagged and sealed all the books I've read and as soon as I'm caught up, we're going to go back and talk about what's making an impact these days, and what's not. Thankfully, we've got a lot of really cool (and stupid) things to talk about in the comic world right now. I've stumbled across an absolute litany of topics in recent days. Here are the things at the top of the list for upcoming blogs:
Good times are just ahead...
It's true. After the holidays interrupted what little flow I had going, I've finally gotten myself out of the reading chair and into the writing chair again. One of the great things about this past holiday season was the arrival of a friend who brought with him three months worth of comic material and an opportunity for me to catch up once again on things taking place in the comic world.
I've bagged and sealed all the books I've read and as soon as I'm caught up, we're going to go back and talk about what's making an impact these days, and what's not. Thankfully, we've got a lot of really cool (and stupid) things to talk about in the comic world right now. I've stumbled across an absolute litany of topics in recent days. Here are the things at the top of the list for upcoming blogs:
- Updating the Best Story Ever review to a more defined rating and narrowing current contenders down to 10.
- reviewing what's come in and what's great (and crap) in the current stuff I'm reading
- A look at my December order from 2010
- a review of this idiotic assessment of Batman's villains: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/JakeLester/news/?a=27110
- Comic book racism will rear its head as we dissect the following article: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/12/28/racists-batman-muslim-paris/
- The issue will be carried over as we look at this debate: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/12/16/racists-thor-idris-ebla-racism/
- We're going to revive a couple of topics from over on Jordan's facebook page, namely the question of whether or not Frank Miller deserves the accolades (and the hate) he receives and whether or not the idea of Black Panther stepping in for Daredevil makes any sense (spoiler alert: it doesn't!)
- Oh, and this news just in: we will only be mentioning Spider-Man in order to mock his worthlessness
Good times are just ahead...
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