tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post7263088140950056903..comments2024-03-28T10:18:00.370-05:00Comments on Gentlemen of Leisure: X-amining "Inferno" Tie-Ins Part 1 Austin Gortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-166305530044713912014-07-30T13:20:18.931-05:002014-07-30T13:20:18.931-05:00@angmc43: At present the Human Torch and Medusa ar...@angmc43: <i>At present the Human Torch and Medusa are the only FF members who were never Avengers.</i><br /><br />For some reason, I really like the idea that Human Torch is the only one of the traditional four to never be an Avenger. Just the fact that at least one of them has never done it. Not sure why. <br /><br />@Teemu: <i><br />That would just mean responsibilities and other shit the Spidey readers would find boring.</i><br /><br />Indeed. I mean, we all know "with great power comes great opportunity to play the field with a wide variety of women". <br /><br />@Matt: <i>Funny, I'm the opposite. I think I was one of the few kids who thought Todd McFarlane's artwork was incredibly ugly. </i><br /><br />To be fair, my knowledge of <i>Amazing</i> at this time isn't real great either (I've read maybe a handful of the MacFarlane issues outside the big Venom appearances and whatnot), it's just slightly better than my knowledge of the other two titles (of which I've read even less). <br /><br /><i>As far as married Spider-Man -- well, I have mixed feelings.</i><br /><br />As one of my ancient, ranty posts on the matter that I'm sure I've linked to before can attest, my solution to the question has always been "why not both?" Marvel publishes a crap ton of Spider-Man stories across various forms of media and set at different times in the characters' life. Why do they ALL have to feature an unmarried, swinging Spidey? Why not have at least one depict a slowly growing, maturing Spider-Man who faces new responsibilities and challenges, even if only in a "alt reality" book like <i>Spider-Girl</i>? <br /><br />Also, my bigger issues with the end of the Spider-Man marriage was the means of bringing it about. REtcon away the marriage? Fine, I guess, if you have to. But to do so via a deal with the devil just seemed like the least Spider-Man way to do it, a complete mangling of the character to get to an outcome I wasn't all that jazzed about anyway. <br /><br />@Blam: <i>Nocenti's scripting on Daredevil #262 struck me as extremely Claremontian.</i><br /><br />Yeah, her work on these tie-in issues strikes me as being very much an imitation of Claremont's style (and not always for the better). Having not read much of her run outside the tie-in issues, I have no idea if it's always like that, or something she turns on when tying stories into his events. <br /><br /><i>When I got to The Amazing Spider-Man #311 and that McFarlane cover, I truly almost groaned out loud.</i><br /><br />Well then, I'm glad I didn't use that as the cover image for this post, as I briefly considered. :) <br /><br /><i>Dani's power is portrayed wrong in Avengers #299: "Maybe if I can create the embodiment of the demons' greatest fear! But what?" She doesn't have to envision anything; often, she's outright surprised at what manifests. </i><br /><br />Good catch. I completely breezed past that, but you're absolutely right. <br /><br />Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-7894817245740851542014-07-21T20:45:11.985-05:002014-07-21T20:45:11.985-05:00@Matt: // As far as married Spider-Man -- well, I ...<br>@Matt: <i>// As far as married Spider-Man -- well, I have mixed feelings. //</i><br /><br />As do I, for pretty much the reasons you mentioned. That said, I like forward progress in my serial fiction — which includes superhero comics, even though that almost inevitably leads to reboots that clear the table; for some reason, even as a little kid I was obsessed with the older characters and new generation of DC's Earth-Two continuity. So I guess it's small wonder that despite it being uneven the last "real" status quo for me in the Spider-Man saga was the possible future of <i>Spider-Girl</i>.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-17454814337206852842014-07-19T22:41:09.559-05:002014-07-19T22:41:09.559-05:00I hadn't read any of these before except for t...<br>I hadn't read any of these before except for the <i>Avengers</i> pair. To be honest, I'd forgotten they were <i>Inferno</i> crossovers because I'm pretty sure I haven't reread them since they came out — I got 'em purely because I knew they set up #300. Although I wasn't buying any Marvel regularly outside <i>Excalibur</i>, when I saw the promotional stuff for <i>Avengers</i> #300, <i>Captain America</i> #350, and <i>Thor</i> #400, being a sucker for big anniversary issues, I figured "Why not?".<br /><br />The Jarvis story in <i>Avengers</i> #298 is probably the gem of the bunch, although I thought the <i>Power Pack</i> issues were pretty solid. <br /><br /><i>// Daredevil struggles to return to life and is attacked by a demonically-possessed vacuum cleaner. //</i><br /><br />Is that what that was? The whole time, because of how it was drawn and colored, I thought we'd find out that Warlock had broken off from the fight to try to revive him.<br /><br />Nocenti's scripting on <i>Daredevil</i> #262 struck me as <i>extremely</i> Claremontian.<br /><br /><i>// A page in </i>Power Pack<i> #42 ... creates a surprisingly vivid and harrowing account of what it might have been like for the average citizen //</i><br /><br />Yeah. That was intense, very good street-level stuff. <br /><br /><i>// giving Jon Bogdanove the opportunity to draw that same scene //</i><br /><br />Again with the bottom panel borders being overrun, too. I hadn't remembered that Bogdanove wrote some <i>Power Pack</i>, but he really did a nice job setting the scene of how the whole city was affected.<br /><br /><i>// we see demons continue to capture children //</i><br /><br />Eh. Most of the demons seem dumber than pocket lint, so whatever.<br /><br /><i>// I believe Kristy ends up involved in an eating disorder storyline //</i><br /><br />That would explain why such a point was made of her eating so much and not gaining any weight. Overall I've liked David Micheline's writing fine when I read it, but certainly not enough to subject myself to McFarlane's art. When I got to <i>The Amazing Spider-Man</i> #311 and that McFarlane cover, I truly almost groaned out loud.<br /><br />Gerry Conway's work in <i>The Spectacular Spider-Man</i> #146 surprised me in terms of it not feeling dated — by which I mean not dated to earlier in his career, because all of these issues are obviously products of the time in which they were published.<br /><br /><i>// who the devil //</i><br /><br />I see what you did there.<br /><br />Dani's power is portrayed wrong in <i>Avengers</i> #299: "Maybe if I can create the embodiment of the demons' greatest fear! But what?" She doesn't have to envision anything; often, she's outright surprised at what manifests. Also, Sam's dialogue doesn't sound right.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-56517161749527806092014-07-17T20:46:11.984-05:002014-07-17T20:46:11.984-05:00I never read any of these comics.
Despite loving ...I never read any of these comics.<br /><br />Despite loving "Inferno" and actually having started collecting comics right when everything had an "Inferno" crossover going on, somehow I missed all the non-X "Inferno" stuff except for ASM 312.<br /><br />Dunno how I managed that.Jasonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13298753675007196538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-19898353235065381742014-07-17T15:32:24.967-05:002014-07-17T15:32:24.967-05:00Matt: But at the same time, I feel that marrying t...Matt: <i>But at the same time, I feel that marrying the character off robbed him of a couple of his bigger sub-plot hooks -- dating and being a loner. Love triangles and girl problems were suddenly out of the picture</i><br /><br />So like the real life. ;) Once there is all the drama, and then comes the settling up. Thematically in Peter Parker's journey that is right up his alley, if we go by Chris Sim's assessment about him being originally and foremostly a teen hero, a high school boy assuming the name of Spider-MAN. There has to be the growing up sometime, and he did go through a bunch of ladies already and there was the whole Black Cat thing with his realization that he needs to be Peter Parker and not Spider-Man to his significant other. The time was totally ripe for it and in MJ he really did hit the jackpot.<br /><br />Of course there would likely be kids coming up some time and that's a hard fit for the regular universe Spidey. They did try swapping him to Ben Reilly, but the problem is that Peter Parker and no one else is the<br />spectacular Spider-Man. Perhaps there just would not have been any good solution to the problem of him growing up, but magicing him back being a retro 60's Spidey sure wasn't one.Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-50640040947359946992014-07-17T15:12:13.487-05:002014-07-17T15:12:13.487-05:00The Captain notes that it's becoming increasin...<i>The Captain notes that it's becoming increasingly difficult to keep all the various superheroes straight.</i><br /><br />I snorted a bit, having read the same day a minor rant by a compatriot comics fan about there now being a female Thor in the comics and a black Johnny Storm in the upcoming movie.Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-85785003137629205392014-07-17T12:58:25.732-05:002014-07-17T12:58:25.732-05:00"...my knowledge of the Spidey books at this ..."...<b>my knowledge of the Spidey books at this time, particularly outside Amazing, is spotty, at best.</b>"<br /><br />Funny, I'm the opposite. I think I was one of the few kids who thought Todd McFarlane's artwork was incredibly ugly. I would not touch any of his AMAZING issues with a ten-foot pole. I still don't like his work, but I appreciate Michelinie's writing so I intend to check the run out someday.<br /><br />But on the other hand, I <b>loved</b> Gerry Conway's SPECTACULAR and WEB. Those were my Spider-Man comics of the era, and I still think it's a great run.<br /><br />As far as married Spider-Man -- well, I have mixed feelings. I grew up on married Spider-Man. I started reading regularly sometime after the wedding. So it's the Spider-Man of my childhood, and I have no real problem with that era. But at the same time, I feel that marrying the character off robbed him of a couple of his bigger sub-plot hooks -- dating and being a loner. Love triangles and girl problems were suddenly out of the picture, and he now had Mary Jane to cover for him whenever he needed to change into Spider-Man.<br /><br />My preferred "sweet spot" for Peter Parker is as a college/grad student. I don't like him as a high schooler and while I don't object to him as a twentysomething, I think he works best in the college setting.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-49961064968774875802014-07-17T02:06:55.867-05:002014-07-17T02:06:55.867-05:00who the devil would want to read about a married S...<i>who the devil would want to read about a married Spider-Man?</i><br /><br />Yeah, he's the quinessential teen hero, I don't believe anyone would buy Spidey's marriage.<br /><br />That would just mean responsibilities and other shit the Spidey readers would find boring.Teemunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-79420490454536278302014-07-16T18:13:01.049-05:002014-07-16T18:13:01.049-05:00Oops. Sharon too.Oops. Sharon too.angmc43@hotmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15379700547226493861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-83944468259403211972014-07-16T18:12:21.287-05:002014-07-16T18:12:21.287-05:00Thus begins the fall of Harry Osborn, as his inner...Thus begins the fall of Harry Osborn, as his inner mental/emotional demons from his abusive childhood- caused by his bad nutcase of a father whom he worshipped- begin to surface. That visit to his son's crib in ASM#311 is bittersweet. Definitely a contrast to Scott's present parental priorities (until this saga ends).<br /><br />At present the Human Torch and Medusa are the only FF members who were never Avengers.angmc43@hotmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15379700547226493861noreply@blogger.com