Shalom, dear reader. Once again I emerge from the depths of the interhighways to give you news of great import, news with ramifications so vast and great that it will most likely raise at least one eyebrow in either awe or general amusement at this weird, yet peculiarly engrossing intro that is in dire need of a better punctuation and a more conventional syntax. Be advised that the writer does agree with these sentiments.
I have been a little out of it these last couple of days due to a prolonged clogging of various air tracts and a headache so fierce that a Metallica lover would have tapped his feet to its malicious rhythm. I have (and still am), in other words, been sick and have thusly prioritzed such activities as the digestion of painkillers and throat pastilles over keeping this blog updated. It’s been a grizzly affair filled with snot and other nasty body fluids, and while the pounding headache has moved its HQ south so that I now have the vocal capabilities of a teenage whale, I still can’t say that I’m officially on the mend. Hopefully the new meds will kick in soon, but I am not hopeful. I am quickly developing a ringing cough that has every intention of growing into a full blown case of bronchitis, upon which time my general practitioner will see fit to describe something equally nasty to kick the germs’ two-celled asses out the door, seeing as only having a puny fever, a paltry cough, no way to breath except gasping and ear drums so tight that they’re practically ready to pop obviously isn’t something that warrants antibiotics.
In the mean time I’ll try to get back to you with some comic book reviews. I’ve got the first chapter of Joe Hill’s “Locke&Key” in stock as well as Brian Wood’s (”DMZ”) first eight issues of his new Vertigo viking series, “Northlanders”. If none of those make your taste buds tingle, I can also without much trouble whip up a review of the entire run of Warren Ellis’ “Planetary” (been putting that off for a while), Ed Brubaker’s “The Death of Captain America” or Ben Templesmith’s (”Fell”, “30 Days of Night”) “Wormwood: The Gentleman Corpse”. Feel free to cry your heart out in the comment thread if want me to choose YOUR favourite. I’ve also got two book reviews on the way, though I have no idea when they’ll appear. One’s an old classic, the other’s a new sci-fi story in a familiar ‘verse.
That is all, guys. I have to leave you now because I have to once again attempt to blow my fevered brain through my nose. Or cough it out my mouth. Both seem like viable options at this point.
Posts
Why would you want to read The Death of Captain America? Doesn’t seem like your thing at all. (*I* haven’t read it, but whenever you’ve read any story-arc from a big mainstream superhero book you’re always coming back feeling half-pleased at best)
Sad to hear you’re still sick. Hope you’ll get better soon!
6. September 2008 @ 06:42 ( Permalink )
I had four more or less good reasons to pick up that book. The first one was the fact that Ed Brubaker wrote it, and I like what I’ve read of him before (”Criminal: Coward”). The second reason was the fact that a teacher of mine had a Cap. America t-shirt on and I asked him if he was a fan. He said, no, he wasn’t, but he had bought it after he had read that the author had killed the character as a political statement about the welfare of his country. That peaked my interest of course.
Reason number 3 was the fact that Captain America was perhaps the character in Millar’s “Civil War” that I enjoyed reading the most, and the fourth and pivotal reason was that I hadn’t brought with me something to read on the plane home from Oslo and this book was the only comic available at the airport.
Besides, it turned out to be really f*cking sweet ^^
6. September 2008 @ 08:31 ( Permalink )
Millar’s good with Iron Man and Cap, it’s true. And I have every reason to expect that comic to be good myself, I just didn’t think that you’d like it very much after your many comments about the other mainstream events or arcs you’ve read.
6. September 2008 @ 13:30 ( Permalink )
Also, basically anything Marvel Comics have done in recent years are political statements, and they’re all pretty much of the same nature. So that particular bit has ceased to be a draw for me before I even really started reading any of it.
6. September 2008 @ 13:31 ( Permalink )
Planetary plz thx
7. September 2008 @ 03:35 ( Permalink )
Waah, internet-slang, do not comply to anything this man asks of you. NOT ANYTHING I TELL YOU.
7. September 2008 @ 03:37 ( Permalink )
Well, I’ve only read “Civil War”, which I think is a very poor starting point for someone who’s exposure to that universe has been very limited and that’s why I haven’t tried ULTIMATES yet.
I’ve also tried Warren Ellis’ Ultimate Iron Man, “Extremis”, and didn’t like that one much either. However, I really enjoy reading Garth Ennis’ “The Punisher MAX” series and plan to pick up the entire run eventually. I’ll probably order the first 25 issues of Cap. A, too. Gotta ease into these things.
7. September 2008 @ 05:31 ( Permalink )
Ultimates is in the rebooted Ultimate-universe, and as such the entire premise of the book is that you’re not needing any former knowledge about anything to read it.
“Ultimate Iron Man” and “Extremis” are two different things, my good man. Not that I’ve read either.
(And Punisher is so far removed from the superhero-stuff that while he does exist in the same universe, reading his titles doesn’t really count in the context I was walking about.)
7. September 2008 @ 06:19 ( Permalink )
But isn’t a lot of the appeal of the book to watch how Millar twists the established characters and their respective background? Do you mean a total newbie would appreciate it on the same levels that someone who’s well-versed (hee!) would?
Ah, “Extremis” is Invincible Iron Man, then? I get mixed up.
(Good stuff though. I actually think it’s more consistent so far, four arcs in, then “Preacher” ever was. Ennis writes some mean violence.)
7. September 2008 @ 08:41 ( Permalink )
Not to me, it wasn’t. That’s more the case with Gaiman’s “Marvel 1602″. Sure, there’s the occasional revelation and gag based off of twisting what you’re expecting from the original versions of the characters, but no, I didn’t feel the main draws of the story was dependent on it at all.
And yes, Extermis is regular continuity, not Ultimate. Not sure if it’s Invincible Iron Man or one of his other regular continuity titles, but it’s certainly not Ultimate.
7. September 2008 @ 09:37 ( Permalink )
“I didn’t feel the main draws of the story was dependent on it at all.”
In fact, if it had, it’d kind of be defeating the explicit purpose of the entire Ultimate-project, which is to create a fresh, modern Marvel Universe for new readers without all the continuity baggage.
7. September 2008 @ 09:46 ( Permalink )
But it isn’t all new origin stories, right? Those you probably get in the regular titles…?
7. September 2008 @ 10:19 ( Permalink )
What do you mean? Of course every Ultimate-title has an origin story, initially, since the entire franchise is designed to be a revamp on Marvel’s characters for a modern audience.
I think you’re not following, asking me that. I’ll try to clear it up:
Marvel has _two_ continuities. There’s the big traditional Marvel universe that’s been going for something like seventy years now, which has a million titles in it. Astonishing X-men, Uncanny X-men, New X-men, Incredible Hulk, Invincible Iron Man, Iron Man: Director of SHIELD, Civil War, Amazing Spider-man, you name it, everything Marvel’s ever published goes here unless otherwise specified.
Then there’s the Ultimate Marvel Universe. All titles in the Marvel universe start with the word “Ultimate” in the title - “Ultimate X-men”, “Ultimate Spider-man”, etc, etc. No exceptions, except “The Ultimates”, which if it were to follow the system would have been called “Ultimate Avengers”. These, together, form a new continuity, completely and utterly severed from the one I talked about in the previous paragraph. Every single title within the Ultimate continuity thus has to start with an origin story, because it by definition would be just that - the first story of a character. The characters are based off of the ones in the original universe, sometimes they’re very closely based on them and sometimes they’re more innovatively done, but they have absolutely no relation whatsoever beyond that. It’s like “The Dark Knight” and “Batman & Robin”. YES, both is a take on the character of Batman. But they have no relation to one another.
7. September 2008 @ 12:03 ( Permalink )
Sorry to hear that you’re sick. Hope you get well soon.
I can’t comment too much on the comics, as I have barely read any of it. I do share your love for Ennis’ “Punisher MAX” - The Punisher being the only Marvel comic that I still read.
“Also, basically anything Marvel Comics have done in recent years are political statements, and they’re all pretty much of the same nature”
Seeing as I haven’t read too many Marvel comics the last 8 years, I am very curious about the political statements.
7. September 2008 @ 16:48 ( Permalink )
I was probably being much too shallowly rhetorical there, they aren’t that bad. I just meant that in most of their stuff, if you look, there’s a rather clear tendency towards the “hollywood liberal”-stereotype in what’s discussed and commented on through their stories. However, obviously far from every story qualifies as a political statement, and obviously I’ve only read a microscopic portion of the stuff they put out there, so my statement was very rash and polemical. Sorry.
7. September 2008 @ 17:10 ( Permalink )
Sorry you had to reiterate all that for the third or fourth time, Loki. You misunderstood me - I was asking if Mark Millar’s ULTIMATES (Avengers) was completely standalone and not co-dependent on the other single character titles at all? If it does, then I’ll wait a bit before I read it, but if it’s more like like its own continuity within the new continuity (brain… hurts…), then maybe I’ll do it sooner rather than later (to better acquire a hc edition of vol. 2).
8. September 2008 @ 06:24 ( Permalink )
Ah. The Ultimates, as far as I know, isn’t co-dependent on the other Ultimate-titles at all. I haven’t read “Ultimate Iron Man”, so I don’t know how close or far removed from “The Ultimates” that title is. “Ultimate X-men” had a long cross-over-arc with “The Ultimates” in their fifth volume, and the Ultimates also appear at other times in their series, but I never felt in either one you had to read the other to keep up in any way. Nick Fury shows up a lot in “Ultimate Spider-man”, but the other Ultimates have, as far as I’ve read, yet to do more than have cameos there. It’s a shared universe and a shared continuity, but I think The Ultimates is easily read as a standalone - as is most of the Ultimate-titles.
And be warned - Ultimtes 2 (the second run, volumes 3-4) is far better than Ultimates (volume 1-2), so you need to get through a couple of story-arcs before it really gets great.
8. September 2008 @ 07:24 ( Permalink )
Good to know, good to know. Thanks for this, Loki
8. September 2008 @ 07:43 ( Permalink )
No worries - I really love the Ultimates, but I do realise and admit that it’s for the most part not exactly the best the genre can serve up. I find it well worth the bother, though, and sometimes it’s just brilliant.
8. September 2008 @ 08:58 ( Permalink )
Oh man, as sorry I am for you beeing sick and all, I can’t help it laughing! You do have a way with words I’d wish for in my dreams. You crack me up *lol*
Oh, and “god bedring”
11. September 2008 @ 23:14 ( Permalink )
Oh, no worries. I’d be sorry if you didn’t laugh at all. Thankfully I’m a lot better now; the pills did actually take away the headache. Who knew?
Thank you for stopping by and commenting, Jigzaw
12. September 2008 @ 02:27 ( Permalink )
No pro bro. I’m here quite often actually. Just never gotten around to commenting. But I’m trying to get back into the blog-o-sphere now so
16. September 2008 @ 23:49 ( Permalink )
Aw, did wittle Wawa get his first man-flu?
24. September 2008 @ 09:48 ( Permalink )
Oh, I get two or three of these a year, more or less always resulting in the digestion of heavy antibiotics and a stop in school work. My doctor tells me it’s due to my chronic air-way infection (allergy), which has the knack of flaring up whenever it feels like it.
Good news is that I might get cured in October when I’m acting as a guinea pig for a new vaccine that’ll hopefully take away the allergy. Costs two limbs and half a heart, too. 5000 kr, sheesh!
24. September 2008 @ 10:59 ( Permalink )
I see. A man-flu with some extra perks thrown in. Doesn’t sound at all nice; I hope that vaccine works out for you.
24. September 2008 @ 11:05 ( Permalink )
Apparently, one of the more nasty and not-that-uncommon side-effects of the shot is that you get an allergy shock with complementary seizing and whatnot. This means I’ll be making a 45 minute drive to the hospital every week for a good long while so that they can be sure I don’t die from it or something.
Should be good fun.
24. September 2008 @ 11:08 ( Permalink )
I can imagine…
(Actually, I kinda can’t, but I figured that’s what one’s supposed to say in situations like this…)
24. September 2008 @ 14:12 ( Permalink )