Comments on The Weekly Crisis - Comic Book Review Blog: Post-Crisis Comic Book Previews for 05/07/08

I don't have anything against the Flyers, but the ...

2008-05-07T22:53:00.000-03:00

I don't have anything against the Flyers, but the Caps were not a 2nd place team and it was fluke they even took the Flyers to 7 games. Caps shouldn't even be in the playoffs and it's only because of the stupid division set ups and how their division is complete garbage. They had like one more point than 8th place and went from 9th to 2nd with one win because of the rules. They should just go back to the Prince of Whales and Campbell Converences.

Montreal became a trainwreck of near-Ottawa proportions in the playoffs, as well. 1st place power play all season adn went 5-60 or some crap, if that, in the playoffs. Carey got rattled and coaches pulled him for two games, futher shattering any confidence.

Flyers are a great team that hit a rut mid-season and are probably a 3rd or 4th place team, easily, but I just feel the Habs and Pens should have / should steamroll them with the talent they have.

And yes, Fleury hasn't done that much this playoffs either. Biron is probably playing better than him, but that's more Ottawa's fault and their farmclub-like play barely even challenging him.

I suspect Flyers will take this to 6 games, though. It won't be a rout by any means and they are playing like how they started the season.

About Ross, again, I'm not saying he's bad, but he hasn't really done anything since Kingdom Come. He doesn't paint / draw anything other than covers and they consist of "man standing with face down (optional: make this group shot)", "group flying from left to right on page, usually looking up" and "group standing / posing left to right, usually standing".

There's no life to it and you (well, I) can tell it's the same reference models being used over and over for all his covers and it's just getting plain boring at this point for me.

He's still a fantastic artist and painter, but the fact is, he doesn't really do anything anymore aside from "writing", which is usually just adding Silver Age twists and story ideas to whatever his co-writer is doing.

I still adore KC and Marvels, though. Just not a fan of his writing or cover work in the slightest.

hasn't my flyer-harping had any effect on you? i'm...

2008-05-07T21:48:00.000-03:00

hasn't my flyer-harping had any effect on you? i'm disappointed kirk. fleury's performance has been more misleading than birons, anyways. now he'll get to face a team thats actually playing like they deserve to be in the playoffs.

i'm surprised to hear you say that about ross too. imho, he is still heads above 75 percent of the comic book artists and/or writers these days.

@ethreal - I think the Pens will win. Pens are th...

2008-05-07T21:12:00.000-03:00

@ethreal - I think the Pens will win. Pens are the better team, but so were the Canadiens, I suppose.

Flyers are a better team then the 6th place finish they had made them out to be, but I don't think they even stand a chance against the Red Wings and would make for a 4 game sweep if they made it to the finals.

Biron is a great goalie, but his stats for this playoffs are misleading. He got 30+ shots almost every game from the Habs, but I'd wager maybe 10 were shots that had any chance of going in. Most were from just over the blue line with no one screening him. A blind man could stop those. Did he make some fantastic saves when it counts? Damn right he did, but he hasn't put on an MVP performance that some people are making it out to be.

Add in Montreal's pussy footing around the net and not getting in front of Biron to screen or even trying to get inside his head by being in his face all the time means he got to just go out and have warm ups most of the time.

So, when he goes up against the Pens or, if they get by them, Detroit, he's not going to have nearly as much success and I think that will be the deciding factor in the end.

Either way it goes, the Pens Flyers series is going to be a lot of fun to watch. The finals? Not so much if the Flyers make it. I'm tired of the finals always being these shitty 4 or 5 game routs.

As for Iron Man, I just read the first issue of Invincible and I dont think you have anything to worry about. It's a decent first issue,b ut it's a copmletely differnt look and feel to the Knauf's book.

While Mighty and New Avengers are different but alike at the same time, these two books are on different wavelengths and I can see one person loving one and hating the other very easily.

As of right now, there's nothing linking either books other than it being about Iron Man. Think of this as the same Tony in Mighty Avengers. Ya, it has Iron Man, but no impact on what you're reading in Director of SHIELD. You'll only need to pick up one book and it's actually kind of refreshing to see them do it this way for a change.

Concerning Alex Ross, I'm not a big fan of his written work. Ya, he's a decent artist, but a lot of it is just static images and his cover work is abyssmal in my opinion. He has like 3 layouts and poses he uses over and over for every cover. Are they all good taken on their own? Ya, but as a body of work, it's generic looking. Most artists grow and evolve styles over time, but, ever since Marvels and KC, it seems like Ross has been just phoning in the same images with new coats of paint and I just don't find him that appealing anymore. I'm definitely in the minority on this one, so take it as you will.

I'm kind of upset that Iron Man is getting a secon...

2008-05-07T12:26:00.000-03:00

I'm kind of upset that Iron Man is getting a second title, I mean, after the recent run it had, adding a second title (and if you're right about Nick Fury taking over the title) seems misplaced. I don't know, I was just getting interested in Iron Man and now I have to follow two books. Frowns.

Avengers/Invaders has me excited. I'm not sure if it's because Alex Ross is involved or not, but that's what caught my attention. Stories about the original Invaders have always interested me (Remember Marvels?).

Moon Knight isn't on your list? I'm a little confused by that as it's been one of the better books (Though to be fair, Marvel has alot of good stuff lately..). What are your thoughts on the title?

Off-Topic: Pens or Flyers?

I wonder if the comic book companies might do bett...

2008-05-06T19:56:00.000-03:00

I wonder if the comic book companies might do better if they used a cheaper paper stock for the actual books.

I do too, except that's what Vertigo does and their books are still standard 3 bucks.
At least Johnny DC books are 2.25 though, right?

Marvel, not sure about DC, is at least trying to compete with digest style offerigns of Spider-Girl, Runaways and several other books that, to my knowledge, are doing quite well. . .

Ditto, Mr. Warren! I'm so glad that Marvel's making these digests, and wonder why DC hasn't caught on.

Oh yeah, I'm looking forward to Nova as well, and bringing in GALACTUS, DEVOURER OF WORLDS, should help boost its profile even further.

i'm actually surprisingly looking real forward to ...

2008-05-06T18:09:00.000-03:00

i'm actually surprisingly looking real forward to avengers/invaders. although i think pretty much everything ross touches is gold. i've heard it ties into mainstream continuity, but not toooo much, so i'm sort of looking forward to a nice isolated comic experience in the middle of SI crossovers.

@leeisl - Actually, I'm counting the original cove...

2008-05-06T17:52:00.000-03:00

@leeisl - Actually, I'm counting the original cover as a variant as well. So Logan would have 2 with the standard and the black and white, Dark Tower would have 3 including the standard one and so on. The only one I was really wrong on was Avengers Invaders and I'm not sure how I got 6 for the 3 covers it has.

These, of course, don't count the Dynamic Forces or Wizard special editions that are floating around for some of these covers.

@eric - Ya, I assume Invincible Iron Man will be the equivilent of Iron Man & The Order or, at the very least, they'll be recurring supporting cast.

@negadarkwing - I'm not sure how to fix comics. You could argue that the manga are cheaper and do not have years of back story or the stigma of comic fans (although otakus are usually neck and neck stigma wise with us) stopping people from picking it up. Add in numerous genres outside standard men with their underwear on the outside and it's a whole different beast.

Most just look at manga as Pokemon or Naruto or Bleach or whatever's currently on YTV or Cartoon Network.

Could comics work in a Shounen style 8-12 page black and white segments with digests or high quality trades released later? Probably. But I can't see DC or Marvel ever adopting such a model as long as people keep buying the same thing every month.

Marvel, not sure about DC, is at least trying to compete with digest style offerigns of Spider-Girl, Runaways and several other books that, to my knowledge, are doing quite well in that segment, or at least better thant hey would in $20 trades for the same product.

You know the rant on multiple covers reminds me of...

2008-05-06T17:11:00.000-03:00

You know the rant on multiple covers reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend in Borders last week. We talked about how he never buys american comics anymore. The first thing is they are too expensive. 4 bucks an issue? pricey. The other thing is decompresion and making stories fit into trades. He does buy a lot of Manga though. I wonder if the comic book companies might do better if they used a cheaper paper stock for the actual books. Give the trades the nice paper. And assume that if they are buying the trades, they'll buy across multiple trades for the story, cause manga readers sure do.
As for all the number ones, that's because it's the cheap easy milestone. It takes years to decades to do milestone issues like 100, 200, etc. But heck, you can do a number one every month if you want! Granted I'm going to assume something good enouth to last 246 issues has at least some quality behind it, unlike a number 1, but that's just me.

I am basically treating Fraction's new Iron Man as...

2008-05-06T16:24:00.000-03:00

I am basically treating Fraction's new Iron Man as a replacement for The Order since it launched right after The Order was canceled. I also wouldn't be surprised if the Order actually showed up in the book.

I think the reason why they are introducing new Howling Commandos is because Fury is getting his own series after SI, either a new book or taking over Iron Man, DoS.

Nova is great, one of my top 5. Hopefully Galactus and Silver Surfer can get my people into the series so it doesn't get canceled.

I think SI is going to have the same problem HoM had, too slow at the beginning and then all the action comes at the end. Hopefully Bendis proves me wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised either way.

I assume all the one-shots are a way to try and get people into the series proper. It is a sample with no need to continue so it is less of a risk to try it out. As long as it is by the same writer I don't really have a problem with it.

You variants counts are mostly off, not by much ad...

2008-05-06T15:34:00.000-03:00

You variants counts are mostly off, not by much admittedly and not that you don't have a point but still it's important to get facts right:
Secret Invasion #1: 4, 5 if including 2nd print
Invincible Iron Man #1: 5
Logan #3: 1, if you count the full black and white version as one
Avengers/Invaders: 2, a sixth of a dozen
Dark Tower LRH: 2
Secret Invasion #2: 3