Marvel Comics blabbery

kings vision is not more murder-y than most of marvel's books but it takes murder a bit more seriously.

i think the unspoken mainstream superhero "comics code" wrt murder for the past two decades is that it's okay to show villains killing if it *furthers the plot* and it's okay for heroes to kill if the people they're killing REALLY deserve it. the murders in Vision are unwarranted and have grave repercussions as opposed to punisher just fucking killing people left and right.

That Cosmic Ghost Rider mini is basically a humorous gloss on What If afaict.

Shakes, Marvel puts out 457 titles a month, no way is that <50%.

cosmic ghost rider has been quite fun imo but, as far as this discussion goes, it takes killing people as seriously as deadpool does

>50% rather

the murders in Vision ... have grave repercussions

do they though? They appear to have grave repercussions *at first*, within the context of the story, but by the end he's escaped the consequences of actions by virtue of his wife's sacrifices... and he just starts building himself another wife. Also no one really cares that that Grim Reaper is dead cuz c'mon now. And the dead civilians fade into the background.

I was just going off the weekly list mh posted OL

xps

I'd need to reread but i recall the murders destroying vision's family, even though he's saved the universe 17 times yadda yadda yadda so they certainly proved impactful enough to dislodge a cyborg god's way of being

here's a fun recap of the house of ideas monthly hit ratio in 2017
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/2017-year-almost-everything-went-wrong-marvel-comics-1070616

i think marvel and DC put out about 50 to 60 single issue titles a month? maybe more? it's got to be an unprecedented glut at the moment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_Marvel_Comics_publications
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_DC_Comics_publications

I've been sorting comics lately and (as you might imagine) have quite a number of Marvel comics. I think I have roughly the same number of boxes for stuff from the past five years as I do for maybe a decade and a half that preceded it. It's kinda ridiculous.

Humblebrag here

if one were to purchase a hard copy of every new single issue marvel book solicited for release in october (excluding reprints, knick knacks, bound editions and whatnot), it would run you about $390 plus tax. add in variant covers and you're pushing $500 a month.

It's probably more 'admission of serious illness' than 'humblebrag' but potayto potahto I guess.

I'm probably the only one who cares, but a little disappointed that the current version of Marvel Comics Presents will probably end with #9. It's been a fun book - the Soule Wolverine ongoing story is fun and I like the hidden conceit of this series - throwing characters into different real life time periods (Wolverine going through every decade since the '40s, Tony Stark in 2008, Spider-Man in 1983, etc.)

*starts reading House of X #2*

----ALERT----
--giant retcon incoming--

i have enjoyed the MCP reboot but i have enduring nostalgia for that series in general as v1 was the first book i ever had pulled from my local store

heh yeah nostalgia is probably a big draw for me too

Okay, I'm going to do a bodycount check for this week of Marvel/DC releases

may take a minute.

I think the Marvel count was lower than I expected, but I maintain that many of these titles are definitely high bodycount!

limiting this to reasonably clear on-panel murders:
Punisher #17: Punisher kills between 6 to 10 people, Ghost Rider appears to kill an additional two to five. Total body count: 8 to 15
Old Man Quill #8 - Rocket kills 2 people/aliens, Gamora kills 3 people/aliens and mangles one of them after death, Drax rips 1 person/alien in half and impales another person/alien with half of them, a group of aliens/people stomps drax to death, gladiator incinerates mantis, the guardians (in a multi-panel flashback) kill around 6 to 15 people/aliens, quill (in an iron man suit) incinerates an imperial guard's head. Total body count: 16 to 25
Absolute Carnage #1 - Mass grave with dozens of bodies unearthed, about a dozen people infected and presumably killed by carnage with a burrowing symbiote. Let's call it 12 dead with an asterisk?
Aero #2 - nobody gets murdered
Star Wars #70 - nobody gets murdered
House of X #2 - 10 to 12 scientists are killed by the brotherhood of evil mutants, a character who has the ability to be reborn is burned to death "slowly, so she doesn't forget how dying like this feels", a sentinel kills a mutant in flashback, Moira assassinates four people, captain america/ms marvel/several others killed in a flash-forward sequence. Let's call that between 18 to 20
Marvel Comics #1 - This one reprints the original Marvel #1 from 1939, plus books from 1990, 1994 and 2009. 1939: torch kills two people, a thug kills three people, the Angel kills four people, two thugs kill each other, Sub Mariner kills five guys and wrecks a ship and an airplane, gun thugs kill a guy, the Masked Raider kills two guys (possibly more), two aboriginal Caribbean men are killed, aboriginal Caribbean men kill three invading guys, Ka-Zar's dad is killed, the torch kills two more people in a retelling of the same story. Total head count is 28. Golden Age!
Sensational Spider Man #1 - no one is murdered
Daredevil #9 - no one is murdered
Future Foundation #1 - no one is murdered
Savage Avengers #4 - no one is murdered (though several people really REALLY try hard to murder each other)
Major X #0 - Wolverine kills one to three people, Rob Liefeld murders perspective
there's another ten or so books but this is boring me silly

Rob Liefeld murders perspective

the biggest lol in the otherwise awkward Seth Rogen/Charlize Theron "Longshot" film I watched last week was at the end when Rogen brags that his "First Mister" portrait in the White House was painted by Rob Liefeld

Aero #2 - nobody gets murdered
Star Wars #70 - nobody gets murdered

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob1rYlCpOnM

The whole horror gore stuff in movies has pretty much trickled down to being very mainstream at this point. Big shooting splatter shots is a big thing in lots of those TV cop dramas etc for a few years now.

The mainstream comic death that caught me as gruesome from a few years ago was when Black Hand "killed" himself in Green Lantern before Blackest Night. I think Doug Mahnke was the artist and I thought it was pretty bloody for Green Lantern.

i'll concede that I generally dig Hickman's use of the Marvel toybox, but after reading House of X #2 color me very optimistic for whatever that giant retcon might look like.

esp enjoyed the cameo appearance of Chulthu Island, which was obv the most excellent tree fort of all Magneto's various tree forts

Xpost

Yeah, I’m more troubled by gore than murder (stupid but true) but that’s what growing up when Rambo and 2000AD were popular will do for you.

OTOH Superman killing Zod is prob the most shocking panel on the other thread and that’s not gruesome at all.

Loving the Hickman X books so far, especially House of X 2. Well-told, smart, longform stories are *exactly* what I love reading in superhero comics an adult — and what I’ve missed since Hickmanks Avengers and GM’s Batman runs ended. I’m actually excited to pick up a new issue on a Wednesday for the first time in forever.

At any rate, if any line was crying out for a hard reboot, it’s the X line, so I don’t have any problem with that — I just hope Hickman doesn’t get tangled up trying to reattach the books to continuity in future issues.

xpost Always important to note how Superman's execution of the Kryptonian criminals was handled, too. He did what he saw as absolutely necessary and then immediately thereafter exiled himself to outer space because he felt he'd betrayed himself and the world by resorting to murder. A memorable alternative to the usual 'oops, sorry bruh' school of post-homicidal reactions in comics.

Superman exiled in space was also when I started reading superhero comics! That seems worth the murder.

Usage Yojimbo might be a good example of a VERY murdery protagonist in a totally kid friendly comic

Also something about the way the Zod murder isn’t presented in a kickassy/artsy way (i.e. Geoff Johns-style)

You mean the thing where Superman avoids the urge to rip one of them in half and forcefeed his entrails to another before fashioning a new costume from the flayed skin of the third.

Right, or the one where he rips off Zod's head and throws it, cannonball-style, through the chests of the other two

I feel like Johns's compulsions might've been better served by like apprenticing under Tom Savini or something.

You are truly a generous man to find a positive side to Geoff Johns’s worst habits

Here’s some real blabbery... is this book worth getting? I’m intrigued by the below page, but the reviews of the collection aren’t strong...

https://i.imgur.com/xfJEFb9_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

(I love Spider-Woman, that’s my main focus here)

Hah. I overall liked Bendis' New Avengers run - you might as well start from the beginning if you're gonna dive into it

I don't know that I'd recommend a random volume of crossover-bound Bendis Avengers sight unseen (although I'm perhaps the rare voice that will rep for his run more generally), but there is actually a collected Spider-Woman: Agent of SWORD miniseries by Bendis if you're looking for more of this specific thing.

Yeah yeah no I have that, and like it a lot... and that dialogue makes this sound like a “continuation” of sorts?

What’s the very beginning of this whole Bendis Avengers saga?

They recently put out 'Complete Collections' of his entire run on New Avengers, so grab volume one and go to town.

All you really 'need' beyond that is the event collections along the way (House of M, Civil War, etc.). Also check out Secret War, which is kind of a prequel to his NA run.

megalol at last post

Go to your local library, I think you can start with Avengers Disassembled? iirc

Unpack, sic. I'm tired and my feeble brane needs help to comprehend your lulz.

tha dialogue makes it sound... like every bendis snappy patter page he’s done, imo

it’s not bad, but he has a few patterns he repeats as nauseum (male/female crime fighter or cop doing snappy patter followed by “are you flirting” is definitely in there) and the plots on the marvel junk get progressively worse on the main titles

spider-men 2 or whatever is serviceable but it’s bare-bones plotwise

My brief take: good Bendis is good, bad Bendis is baaaaaad. As to the determinant of what mode he'll be in for a given project, I haven't a clue. Like I would've said he's safely ignorable after like 2013 (his X-stuff was meh, his Guardians of the Galaxy was a slap in the face to Abnett and Lanning), but then his Miles Morales and Jessica Jones stuff remained solid.

Thanks all — to be clear, I meant plotwise that convo clearly comes after Agent of S.W.O.R.D. — and I haven’t read much Jessica Drew stuff falling in the period between that and the Dennis Hopeless reboot. I’m not interested in the whole Skrull impersonation storyline that comes before it, but I wondered if there are significant blanks to be filled in...

I vaguely remember a Spider-Woman origin mini coming out around that time about her childhood, not by Bendis though

Yeah I haven’t read that, I think it’s all “dark & gritty” or something

Actually, it is by Bendis (if we’re taking about the same thing).

get Marvel Unlimited and read all the Spider-Woman stuff you want