Viva Spider-Man!!

Again With The Comics takes a look at El Sorprendente Hombre-Araña (or the Surprising Spider-Man), the Mexican 60's/70's reprint series, which features some of the most out-right brilliant comic covers ever produced - and introduced the world to Go-Go Gwen Stacey!


She always was a popular girl, was Gwen...

And it's not hard to see why with all that extra junk in her trunk...

A Look At Ultimates 3 #2...

I loved The Ultimates. I really did. I waxed lyrical about it to a lot of people, and even tried to get a couple of non-comic readers to take a look at it (with a little success, I have to say). I was hesitant about Ultimates 3 when it was announced, but I waited and hoped.

But when Ultimates 3 #1 came out, I realised none of my prayers had been answered.

Everything about that comic sucked: the writing, the art and especially the colouring. It was just a God-awful book and I loathed it. In fact, I would argue it was the single best reason to download comics illegally - I mean, if I'd known how awful it was, I wouldn't have paid for it.

So, of course, I bought Ultimates 3 #2.

Don't ask me why, I just did. I think a small part of me hoped that it would somehow improve greatly over #1.

To be fair, it did improve.

Kind of.

It felt like something was happening, although what was happening wasn't very interesting. Some brief fights, some whining from Quicksilver and Wolverine turns up at the end. Still no sign of Black Panther, or any reason why Venom attacked The Avengers - sorry, The Ultimates.

Speaking of The Ultimates, let's just get this out of the way now, shall we? It's painfully obvious that Jeph Loeb hasn't read any of the Ultimate line, never mind the previous two series of The Ultimates. For instance, Thor: what happened to his supporters and followers? He was an eco-warrior with a huge cult following. Where are they? And he was never concerned with convincing people that he was the Norse god of thunder! He believed it and that was enough!

Tony Stark a pathetic drunk? Come on! It's already been established countless times in the Ultimate universe - most recently in Ultimate Human - that Stark is charm personified, even when he's drunk, which is all of the time. That's explained in Ultimate Iron Man, which Loeb obviously hasn't read.

Oh, and Ultimate Sabretooth has adamantium claws, too. In case anyone's forgotten.

As for Madureira's artwork...

Has he been given free reign to draw whatever the hell he likes on this book? Is that why Iron Man has his 1970's armour on? Is that why The Wasp is Caucasian all of a sudden? The only consolation seems to be that Ultimate Spider-Man looks like Ultimate Spider-Man.

Please, Marvel, make it stop!

Western Trailer

Found this trailer for Western from Accent UK, due later this year...

It's a good reminder for me to get my finger out and get my strip written for it...

One More Day Keeps On Rolling...

This One More Day stuff just keeps rolling...

Marvel and Dan Slott have been pointing out that Avengers: The Initiative #7 is an important One More Day-related story over at Blog@Newsarama.

Slott says:

"The way I was telling people about it is this: One More day is going to shake up Spider-Man’s world. There’s no way around it. What happens in One More Day is jaw-dropping. It’s huge. When it’s over, you’re going to want to have your copy of Avengers: The Initiative #7 tucked away that you can come back to. You’re just gonna want it – when you start arguing with people on the internet, you’re going to want your copy just so you can say, “Aha – but in Avengers: The Initiative #7….!” Study it, memorize it. You’re going to want it in your arsenal when you start arguing with everybody. Truuuuuust me."

Slot gave a possible explanation in Initiative #7 for how Peter Parker might not actually be Spider-Man, by pointing out that the Iron-Spidey suit that had all the big fuss made about it can make the user look like someone else. To me, it looks like it's a set up to explain away how no one knows Peter Parker is Spider-Man anymore... Someone could point all this stuff out about the suit (probably Sally Floyd), and then accuse Tony Stark of fooling people into believing Spider-Man had unmasked to help grease the wheels regarding the Superhero Registration Act... This way, if Marvel decide to undo the undoing of Spidey's marriage, they've got the whole 'Spider-Man Unmasked' genie back in the bottle.

Either that, or he's going to turn out to be a Skrull.

"One More F****** Day!!"

Everywhere you go on the Internet these last couple of weeks (or Internet comic sites, anyway), people are talking about the One More Day story in Spider-Man and what a big pile of poo it was - and it was, there's no denying that. I've never been particularly wowed by Straczynski's work on Spider-Man, I have to say, and that final story was probably not the best one to go out on.

I only started to flick through Spider-Man again after the second film came out, and I found myself totally lost with it. I knew all the basics (who Peter Parker was, and who his supporting cast were, the villains etc.), but so much had changed. Peter Parker married, I could handle - it seemed logical that he and MJ should tie the knot, because they've been together for so long, but then I found out he was no longer a photographer for The Daily Bugle, but a science teacher at a school... To me, that kind of made the character seem a hell of a lot older and out of touch with the readership than just being married. But, hey, that's my personal view. I also prefer Ultimate Spidey over mainstream Spidey. Sue me.

Anyway, the powers that be at Marvel wanted the status quo reset, so they did One More Day. And now you can't go anywhere on the Internet without someone talking about it. Actually, most people seem to be hurling personal abuse at Joe Quesada regarding it, but hey.

If you look closely at all the criticism, though, there's one thing that keeps coming back up: Mephisto. Or, more specifically, how he's never displayed the kind of power to change reality before.

Marvel's been keeping quiet about that, but to me, there does appear to be a very simple answer.

Remember? The big Marvel event where The Scarlet Witch went nuts, changed reality and gave everyone in the Marvel U what they wanted.

Everyone in the Marvel U.

What's to say Mephisto didn't get what he wanted out of that? Like, you know, more power so he could do what he did in One More Day. Hawkeye came back from the dead, most of the mutant population were un-mutated - reality changed in the wake of that storyline. What's to say Mephisto didn't gain more power?

That, to me, seems like the most simple explanation for that aspect of the story.

Maybe then they could use Mephisto's new powers to explain how the end of Silent War doesn't appear to fit in with current Marvel continuity...

So did I...

moar funny pictures

All Hail Warren Ellis!

Hail him, dammit!

With the first issue of Ultimate Human, he's shown Jeph Loeb how to write Ultimate Tony Stark!

Hell, he's shown Loeb how to write comics! Why, oh why, Marvel, didn't you hire Mr Ellis to write Ultimates 3?