Comic Books

[Eric Cartman]

I gave Ultimate Invasion a go, because I quite liked the Ultimate Universe, and it was kind of a shame to see Marvel Editorial fuck it all up because it was doing better than the 'real' universe was, and its pretty, pretty, good.

I also generally like Hickman, even if I do have the sneaking suspicion he often has Big Ideas but then isn't sure what to do with them, and / or scares the shit out of Editorial with the repercussions so end up kind of fizzling out at the end.

The setup is pretty interesting; The Maker (Ultimate Reed Richards) is basically Tao from WildCats now, so he steals a bunch of shit from the 616 to go make his own version of the MCU with hookers, and blackjack, and fucking with various cape origin stories so things like Peter Parker being bit by a spider never even happen so there's no spider-man to worry about.
He then carves up the planet amongst various factions (like in Millars Wanted) to secretly run the show and take turns acting as the bad guy rogue nation to keep the idiot masses occupied.
Things go wrong, some people are wise to what hes up to and plan to stop him, he's trapped in his base due to another faction getting involved, and some 616 heroes are noticable by their absence in his origin-fuckery and presumably on the table for the upcoming Ultimate Universe reboot.

It was pretty good, I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes. Hopefully further than Ellis Wildstorm reboot went.

[benji]

Humble Choice this month has a month of free DC Comics access included, a bit hard to miss it's at the bottom of the keys page. Expires January 2nd, have to sign up and use the code but can cancel before the payment date which is a month out.

[benji]

Looking at some random stuff from the above free access, found this intrestingly named woman in Nathaniel Dusk from 1984:

[benji]

My review of DC Universe Infinite is two complaints:
1. No two-page spread option, you can only view a page at a time or go panel by panel. I know they're designing with mobile and tablets in mind but it doesn't seem too much to have the option? Free comic readers do better than this. (They also turn pages far faster.) Also doesn't support the scroll wheel which is what I'm so used to for going through the pages. Supports the keyboard but you have to go into the settings to find out what the keys even are and some of the options aren't and can't be bound to anything like bringing up the menu.
B. It sometimes shows the page, goes black for a second and reloads the page. I've wondered if it's loading a smaller sized image first and then loading in the HD one but haven't bothered to check or anything. The initial ones seem fine enough in resolution for me but I'm at 1080p. I can't imagine these files are big enough that it shouldn't background load surrounding pages. If you want to flip way back you have to do it on a blank screen with no page number on screen or pull up the grid of every page.

Their cheapo plan, which this free trial is for, doesn't give you new stuff (six months or older iirc) and select prestige formats you have to get PLATINUM or DIAMOND or whatever for that but if you want to look through the archives it seems pretty complete. Especially if you want to look at stuff before the New 52 which is what I've been interested in anyway. (I believe the New 52 and Rebirth have complete access as well, it's later around 2020 that stuff starts getting spotty.) Funniest part is that often you can look at the TPB's only with the higher plans, but the individual issues collected are all there and are listed on the same pages.

The poor quality of the reader makes me think the proper ethical thing would be paying for the access and then just downloading the cbz/cbr versions so you can use a good reader.

[benji]

Lex likes em young apparently:






Also if Superman comes for me, I claim fair use of posting these panels for commentary purposes:

[benji]

[Eric Cartman]

"Hey Robin, what are your parents getting you for christmas?"
"MY PARENTS ARE DEEEEEAAAAAAAAAD"

[Eric Cartman]

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/mike-mignolas-hellboy-dark-horse-books

Hey, it's a decent Hellboy bundle - don't think they've done Hellboy before...?

[benji]

DC Infinite code again this month in Humble Choice, since it's only for new accounts if somebody wants the key for the free month let me know.

[benji]

Some recent stuff I read:

Challengers of the Unknown (1997) - I liked this, though it ends somewhat abruptly because it was cancelled. It's a reimagining of the old team with new people and later the old team who survive a plane crash and solve mysteries of weird stuff.

Challengers of the Unknown (2006) - Stupid and bad but also only six issues and like half the characters die and I doubt anyone thinks this is canon for DC since it involves eugenics supporters hiding on the moon who run Fox News and also one of the anchors is a trans woman eugenics supporter so whatever lol, even worse it takes four issues before anything happens.

Madame Xanadu (2008) - I didn't intend this but it's kind of like the first series in that she solves mysteries of weird stuff. From the guy who did the awesome Sandman Mystery Theatre (Matt Wagner) and some characters from that show up at one point. Covers her across various time periods from the Fall of mythical Camelot to the 1960's as she wanders the world, when she comes to America in the early 20th Century some more known DC characters start showing up.  Pretty pretty good.

From that, okey-doke:

[benji]

[benji]

[Eric Cartman]

So I'm guessing that's Eclipso he's talking about (before they made Eclipso a former wrath of god and have him bang the Spectre) which puts the blonde dude holding a woman hostage in the background Dr Bruce Gordon, right?

[benji]

It's from the story where they're making that change to Eclipso but no that's just some very confusing art where Bruce Gordon shows up and looks exactly like that guy but is wearing a suit instead.

[benji]

Towards the end of that Eclipso crossover Bruce Gordon suddenly has a mullet:


Apparently the party in the back was not approved because it disappears by the next entry in the crossover where Gordon is back despite the same artist:


Headcanon is that when he turned into Eclipso inbetween issues Eclipso cut it off because it looked stupid before he was restored to Gordon.

[benji]

haha got em

[Eric Cartman]

Hey, he sold extra guns to iran to pay for that desk waller

[Eric Cartman]

DC being all super political in the 80s is fucking hilarious in retrospect

[benji]

The Art of the Deal by Solomon Grundy:

Spoiler: Hey, thanks, my man (click to show)(click to hide)

[benji]

Goddamn LIBERALS saying we shouldn't kill people before they attack and giving them a chance to attack us and at this time of all times when they outnumber us and the skies are red from a CRISIS.

[benji]

 at her book choice.

[Eric Cartman]

🎶Call Mr Bones, that's my name 🎶
🎶 That name again, is Mr Bones 🎶


DOOT DOOT

[Eric Cartman]

God bless Mr Bones for playing against type tho - if your power set is a fucking skull for a face and a poisonous touch youre gonna be type cast as a super villain, so to give all that up to become a government bureaucrat is

[benji]

[Eric Cartman]

ITS FINE, SHE WAS A 1000 YEAR OLD DRAGON AN ARTIFICIALLY POWER RING AGED 13 YEAR OLD ALIEN, NOTHING CREEPY AT ALL

[Eric Cartman]

[benji]

[benji]

In which Jim Lee attempts to draw matching feet:

[Eric Cartman]

Invasion gave us this.... Giffen

[benji]

This is like the female version of that infamous Captain America chest: