Marvel Comics blabbery

yeah that was revealed during the "magneto reappears and he's aaaangry" storyline. fatal attractions, maybe?

He came back aaaaaaangry in Fatal Attractions because of the revelations from that final Claremont story, IIRC.

I did the preorder for whatever related thing gave you a copy of "Magneto #0" (zero issues were still an amazing novelty) that was a reprint of an old Magneto story plus some more info from whatever agency was tracking him -- I think it was the first time they revealed his name was Eric Lensherr and everything else was an alias

(sorry, I mean the first time they revealed THAT alias)

He'l always be Xorn to me.

He'll, even.

so he went through a ton of comics and years as Magneto with "Magnus" as a supposed given name
then eventually we find out he's "Erik Magnus Lehnsherr" but it turns out that's what he was calling himself when he met Xavier and Gabrielle Haller
then they finally revealed post-2000 that his name is Max

I miss Mr. Xorn

Magneto the tweaker who is so jacked up on mutant meth he keeps hearing Xorn was great

wait how did I miss that Magneto is now named Max

How did you not know he was the kid in Where The Wild Things Are?

His name is actually Max Neato.

Magneto becoming a 'good guy' was around when the X-Men kinda moved into the background for me. It's kind of the beginning of the loss of moral center for the whole title and like when I came back you got Professor X being really pretty damn evil when you add it up and then Cyclops finally losing his mind and becoming pretty much Magneto Jr. Of course, at this point after that last Marvel Crisis on infinite red worlds whatever - there is no moral center to about ANY of the characters. They are all pretty much jerks and just as terrible as whatever is on our Earth 2761 or whatever it actually might be called.

I had forgot about the whole Stern thing on that title, that must have been about the time DeFalco also gave him the boot on ASM and he eventually migrated to DC. Roger Stern is one of the better Marvel writers of that era, although all of them even the dudes like Mantlo who did WAY too many comics did some cools issues at one point or another.

Mantlo micronauts was frequently cool as shit.

<i>Of course, at this point after that last Marvel Crisis on infinite red worlds whatever - there is no moral center to about ANY of the characters. They are all pretty much jerks and just as terrible as whatever is on our Earth 2761 or whatever it actually might be called.</i>

This is one of my big problems with the whole Civil War business. Marvel heroes have always been "flawed" and complex (that's part of why they're so compelling), but they're supposed to remain heroes. In fact, their struggles and achievements in the face of their "flawed" humanity make them all the more heroic. (It's "easy" to be a hero when you're Superman; less so when you're Peter Parker.) But the characters in CWII crossovers that I read aren't heroic; they have no (as you say) moral center. And I'm talking about heavy-hitters like Steve Rogers and ("Old Man") Logan. The whole thing feels like a series of cynical plot devices to sell comics.

someday I will remember to convert those html tags

xpost

I think Roger Stern was a much better Marvel Comics writer than Bill Mantlo, Micronauts maybe excepted (and it sure didn't hurt having the first twelve issues of that drawn by Michael Golden). Just for starters, Stern's Captain America run with John Byrne and his run on Avengers with Buscema/Palmer are excellent, and far less slapdash than Mantlo in superhero hack mode.

Made the mistake of buying "X23: The Complete Collection" during that recent digital sale (I know & enjoy the current incarnation of the character in "All-New Wolverine," but not the backstory). It is so, so bad. Totally cliched writing; bad (and inappropriately "sexy" art); graphic violence and tons of gore; child abuse used as a cheap plot device. Marvel in the 2000s was so bad! I'm sure there are exceptions (and I've come across a few), but geez. Seeing how low they sunk, when I was largely looking the other way, makes the "renaissance"/turnaround that started with Marvel Now! look all the more remarkable.

i wouldn't defend nyx and the x-23 series as great comics, but i liked them, especially the sadness of the runaway stories
actually i just looked up the collection and realized nyx 1/2 aren't even in there so :(

They recently put out three of those collections, one for the complete NYX and two for the remainder of the solo X-23 stuff.

Yeah the NYX material isn't in the one I bought -- it's a few "origin" miniseries (which are what I'm primarily referring to in my rant above), and then some random stuff from way later, after she's been hanging with the X-Men a while.

Al E has a great list of comics up on the "Discover" tab on MU right now

LOL @ these pics: http://ew.com/movies/thor-ragnarok-exclusive-first-look-photos/thor-chris-hemsworth/

(Both current "Thor" series are so good, btw. "THE UNWORTHY THOR" wraps up next ish... supposedly it will be revealed what was whispered to Odinson that made him unworthy!)

from all the way back in Original Sin? geez that's a long payoff that will inevitably disappoint

Definitely a long tail on that mystery. (The whispered secret: "MOST COMICS WILL NOT INCREASE IN VALUE")

"No more mutants."

Probably something shameful about how he could have saved lives, or secret Asgard shame

"You caused Jane's cancer."

why is hemsworth doing thor as god of war now?

nah it's thor as maximus

IIRC, the next Thor movie is supposed to be a gloss on Planet Hulk. He probably got a style upgrade against his will.

I took Fury's whisper to Thor in Original Sin as some sort of Asgardian cheat code. So it was probably just something like 'up down up down left right right left A B start, and poof you can no longer lift your hammer but now you have infinite health and ammo, you're welcome.'

It reminds me of "Hitchhiker's Guide" -- that machine which reveals the true scope and complexity of the universe, and each individual's utterly insignificant place within it; and anyone who goes in emerges a crumpled, gibbering heap... except Zaphod, who walks out whistling and asks, "When's lunch?" [b/c he was in a replica/pocket universe created just for him]. ...Anyway, whatever this "secret" that caused Odinson to lose his mojo, probably shouldn't have had that effect on a *true* Thunder God. I bet Odin would have just laughed in Fury's face!

WmC on to something

Missed this story a while back:

http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/3/11853862/marvel-thanos-infinity-gauntlet-oven-mitt-recall

I would've totally burned the shit out of my own hand if I'd known that existed.

fuckin' lootcrate

I don't understand the point of it. Hey, here's a box of completely random garbage with maybe one thing in it you think is maybe kinda okay but wouldn't actually purchase on its own, give us your money, thank you.

it's for dorks who have too much disposable income and a fetish for getting surprises in the mail i guess

Ohhhh, right, that dude at the comic shop who presumably already has a spot on a shelf in a dedicated room for the Rogue bust that he's buying.

I think I have some nerdy coworkers who don't usually buy comic/video game/movie merchandise but were looking for an excuse to do so and they were getting them. I think their small children were into the whole surprise aspect

it's basically a slightly-more-adult happy meal package afaict

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like Charles Soule's Marvel work is somewhat serviceable but complete hack work?

I'm disappointed he's picking up a new Darth Vader series, but it fits the pattern of work he's had so far. I might be giving him too little credit, but everything he's done for them has felt like an editorial meeting put together the basic outline of a comics event (Death of Wolverine, Inhumans/X-Men stuff) and he's scripted the most pat stories that hit all the required points.

Yep, him and Jeff Lemire. Both seem super boring but get a lot of work.

I don't mind Lemire -- his characters seem more relatable, but he's got a lot on his plate

haven't really read much by Soule but definitely agree that most of what I've read from Lemire is just okay, sad because I definitely dug Trillian

He's not very well-suited to writing ensemble books like his take on X-Men, I think; Essex County works because he's able to sympathetically inhabit his protagonists while also suggesting the ways in which their perspectives are naive or self-serving, but he hasn't been able to translate that tension into compelling comics with more complicated character systems.

His Moon Knight is interesting.

I guess Chelsea Cain doesn't need more work from Marvel as she writes proper books, but I wish they'd given her more to do after the trolly awfulness around Mockingbird (which was overstuffed but pretty good! and had a distinctive voice, like charles soule doesn't)

That said i've dipped back into Daredevil to find out how Soule retcons his way out of the Waid status quo. Not looking good so far. Retconning female characters is basically just a kinder, gentler fridging.