tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post5699036012687736867..comments2024-03-28T10:18:00.370-05:00Comments on Gentlemen of Leisure: X-amining Thor #427-429Austin Gortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-14588848011975392082015-10-24T20:34:18.048-05:002015-10-24T20:34:18.048-05:00@Teemu: // Even the fourth wall can't stop Jug...<br>@Teemu: <i>// Even the fourth wall can't stop Juggernaut. //</i><br /><br />Slow clap. Not sarcastically, either.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-89263388217413000082015-10-24T20:33:26.800-05:002015-10-24T20:33:26.800-05:00// #427 ends with Shadowcat phasing Thor into the ...<br><i>// #427 ends with Shadowcat phasing Thor into the ground then leaving him there, fused with the molecules of the ground //</i><br /><br />I don’t recall Kitty ever doing it before, myself, but I feel like I <i>do</i> recall her saying that if she were ever to materialize herself or someone she was carrying inside physical matter that it would kill them, similar to Nightcrawler's predicament when teleporting. (Whether it would kill Thor is, no pun intended, immaterial, since Kitty thinks he’s Juggernaut.)<br /><br /><i>// Thor is able to use his hammer to create a mystic cone, inside of which Juggernaut is denied his magic-based abilities //</i><br /><br />Although it does seem a bit convenient, Mjolnir can open dimensional portals — which in fact was my rationale for how Thor got out of the phasing situation — and it’s not a horrible stretch to have it create a barrier that filters out certain energies.<br /><br /><i>// it's nonetheless refreshing, even in a diminished role, to simply see Excalibur acting as straightforward superheroes //</i><br /><br />Yep.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-57252849730417021002015-10-17T05:27:08.287-05:002015-10-17T05:27:08.287-05:00Hmh. Comic Vine says JB first appeared in #10, whi...Hmh. Comic Vine says JB first appeared in #10, which would be Feb, so the storyline was in the works already, but mire interestingly Mephisto first appears in GR #11, also of March 1991. So whatever the relative chronology of these issues, it looks like a case of Marvel intercontinuity made right and coordinated here. From his claimed non-interference here, Mephisto will soon enough go on to hassle GR with the most 90's concept ever, "Suicide", a dude lacking guts to kill himself, who makes a deal with Mephisto and gets the guts but also total invulnerability to everything barring GR's hellfire.<br /><br />You're in good company, Peter Parker.Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-40546366390966911972015-10-16T23:11:35.601-05:002015-10-16T23:11:35.601-05:00Thor 430 was coverdated March 1991 and Blaze showe...Thor 430 was coverdated March 1991 and Blaze showed up in Ghost Rider in Ghost Rider 13, which was coverdated May 1991. So yeah, this was before Blaze showed up in Ghost Rider's book.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-15819486196148814252015-10-15T00:00:33.160-05:002015-10-15T00:00:33.160-05:00A testament to his increasing ubiquity around this...<i>A testament to his increasing ubiquity around this time, Ghost Rider somewhat randomly appears in issue #430, in an Earth-based subplot.</i><br /><br />I have to say it was an awesome use of the character still, as the plot evolves into Loki/Mephisto shenanigans effecting directly on Thor, and there was that Mephisto connection with Johnny Blaze, the original-ish GR. For a book this retro, that's some totally needed meta commentary on the character's pre-90's history. Plus it was somewhat a plot point in GR's own title that there is no Mephisto connection with this one, when Johnny Blaze shows up there. I don't know where we are chronologically, but it may be they are on to that here before his own title got to it.<br /><br />Anyway, at least it's not like he's fighting the Brood.<br /><br />The next Thor issue has a fun bit of Piledriver (?) shock-horrored after ripping off GR's leather jacket to reveal the actual skeleton. It's like a legally mandated guest star thing. Or, maybe market-departmentally, wink.Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-51851160185979393622015-10-14T23:41:51.347-05:002015-10-14T23:41:51.347-05:00And that's totally Alan Davis' Kitty on th...And that's totally Alan Davis' Kitty on the cover, but it wasn't his, right?Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-5191131555788869762015-10-14T23:39:33.791-05:002015-10-14T23:39:33.791-05:00"Who writes your dialogue -- some crummy Shak..."Who writes your dialogue -- some crummy Shakespearean wannabe?!" Even the fourth wall can't stop Juggernaut.<br /><br />Phasing "Juggs" into ground was harsh from Kitty. But HAS she really done that ever before at this time? I think I remember a scene somewhere where someone got a tiny bit of hair solidifying into wall and that was excruciating. Thor should be dead.<br /><br />Hey... the evil Nightcrawler of Belasco's, in MAGIK miniseries. The other her kilked him that way, didn't she?<br /><br />I like how Thor goes on about honor and then of course his oath to Zalaski, the Polish despot of space, doth not bind Eric Masterson. That's Loki sort of crap, Thor.<br /><br />With phrase like "Were going straight next to Cypress Hills cemetery" in 90's Marvel comic you don't really need Ghost Rider's pumpkin on the cover to tell what happens next.<br /><br />The Wrecker's were amidst some serious internal usurpation business by Thunderball during the time. I've liked them since Secret Wars, which to me equals always. My big problem with the story was that the Wreckers are like they don't know Nightcrawler from the Battleworld, though Doom must've had made them read files on their enemies during their time there. Must've.<br /><br />Lots of lost potential for social commentary, what with people's hero Juggs telling he likes to put one up with the rich folks and 3/4 of the Wreckers being soo blue collar, and Thor's a filthy rich prince of a dynasty.<br /><br />"And that's what Phoenix does best!" The folks at Marvel seem to have been early onbin the loop about Rachel' <i>real</i> father.Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-41055271685307903662015-10-14T17:51:36.871-05:002015-10-14T17:51:36.871-05:00I love lots of exclamation points in my comics. I...I love lots of exclamation points in my comics. I don't think they're necessary for general conversations, but during fights at least, nearly every line should probably have an exclamation point at the end since the characters are most likely amped up on adrenaline at the time. I hate when I read a comic where a character says something big and urgent or momentous and it ends with a period.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-52862133033486668282015-10-14T17:48:08.948-05:002015-10-14T17:48:08.948-05:00Wow, Frenz draws a pretty nice Dave Cockrum-esque ...Wow, Frenz draws a pretty nice Dave Cockrum-esque Nightcrawler up there.<br /><br />I haven't read this story, but I'm with you that Excalibur's role here seems much a much better concept than what their own series is doing at this point. I don't see why they couldn't have been the U.K.'s version of the Avengers. I like a lot of what Claremont did early on with them, and I love the Alan Davis writer/artist run, but neither of those quite hits what I think the group could/should be.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-45066228348871766152015-10-14T16:28:05.340-05:002015-10-14T16:28:05.340-05:00I will say, I really appreciate that DeFalco broug...I will say, I really appreciate that DeFalco brought back the full-fledged cod-Shakespearian Thor speak that Lee invented. In the '80s, writers toned that way down, and Simonson had him speak the way he usually does today: formally, but saying "you" and not "thee." And I totally understand why Thor-speak fell out of fashion, but I do love it and miss it whenever he talks normal. The current solution - have him talk normal but with a special font - just isn't the same. One of my favorite things about classic Thor is that Kirby takes it seriously and Lee, with that crazy dialogue, treats it as a spoof. That tension is delightful.<br /><br />(To tie this into the X-books: probably because of when he started at Marvel, Claremont kept on writing the Asgardians in full thee-and-thou mode even after most of the other writers had stopped. So in "Asgardian Wars" Loki and the Enchantress talk in Stan Lee style, rather than Simonson style.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-3017773415678480992015-10-14T16:17:54.914-05:002015-10-14T16:17:54.914-05:00The thing about the DeFalco/Frenz Thor is that it&...The thing about the DeFalco/Frenz Thor is that it's <i>so</i> retro it almost seems like a pastiche. Frenz is notorious for using stock Kirby poses (I remember one drawing of the Enchantress, a DeFalco favorite, is copied from the first story she appeared in) and DeFalco imitates Stan Lee's '60s style right down to ending every sentence with an exclamation point. <br /><br />(Many older writers hung on to the all-exclamation-point tradition even after it was no longer necessary, because they'd been trained that way; DeFalco is a younger writer who seems to have taught himself to write like that because that's how Stan did it.)<br /><br />It's still a fun read, certainly much more fun than a lot of post-Kirby, pre-Simonson Thor. But it does feel a bit like a cover band. It's interesting to me though that DeFalco's EiC tenure became famous for the gritty stories and the departure from the Shooter-era house style of art, when his own work clearly shows a preference for traditional Marvel stories and art. But then DeFalco doesn't seem to have stamped his own preferences on the line as clearly as Shooter did.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com