Superman/Action Comics

rwe1138 wrote:J. Michael Straczynski takes over Superman with #701.

Thoughts?

I loved his Spider-Man run, so I'm intrigued.

Foreigner_Man wrote:The Superman 2000 proposal had Brainiac destroying Lois' mind after a huge Luthor/Brainiac team-up that was thwarted by Mxyzptlk and Superman together, making Lois slowly dying. Mxyzptlk repairs her mind, but--because he's a mischief make--destroys Lois' memories of Superman's ID and the whole marriage in the process. Other than that, IMO the proposal was quite good and set the standard for what the current titles are trying to achieve.

That would have been interesting.

Mnemosis wrote:

LordD3r3k wrote:

Bigtymin504 wrote:He's the god of Mischief so he's pretty damn good at what he does. The way it was executed wasn't "cliched" at all if you ask me. Loki basically set things up to where people would do things that led to their own downfall, and kept his hand clean throughout the process. I thought it was masterful execution really.

Well, I say thee NAY!

It seemed like writing by the numbers to me.

To me, for a God of Mischief to successfully exist among an eternal race, you have to assume a certain naivete amongst said race. Yes, they know Loki's the god of mischief. Yes, from time to time they "get" it. But you have to assume that they're of such good and noble nature that 9 times out of 10, they completely accept Loki at his word, because... why would ANYBODY lie.

I also assume that a God of Mischief has a certain mystical ability to mask his intentions. Maybe you know he's going to lie to you, but then when he does, you can't HELP but believe what he says. To me, that would be a very interesting take on his powers. And, heroes knowing this, would then have to find a way to prepare for the lies.

That would have been an interesting thing. As a trickster god, some preternatural ability (less of a power and more of an innate understanding) of how to say certain things and how to use body language to deceive people. Oneof the things with Loki that I think is easily forgotten is that lying itself is a dynamic thing that takes body language and facial expression and so forth into consideration. To weave a tale and make it believable, it is something hard to show on paper since we see the words only, see one facial expression at a given point in time, hear the words without the various inflections, and as readers are privy to the lying character's inner thoughts or intentions (even if it is in general). So it's one of those things I tend to chalk up to a undesirable but unavoidable limitation of the medium.

Bigtymin504 wrote:

LordD3r3k wrote:

Mnemosis wrote:To me, for a God of Mischief to successfully exist among an eternal race, you have to assume a certain naivete amongst said race. Yes, they know Loki's the god of mischief. Yes, from time to time they "get" it. But you have to assume that they're of such good and noble nature that 9 times out of 10, they completely accept Loki at his word, because... why would ANYBODY lie.

I also assume that a God of Mischief has a certain mystical ability to mask his intentions. Maybe you know he's going to lie to you, but then when he does, you can't HELP but believe what he says. To me, that would be a very interesting take on his powers. And, heroes knowing this, would then have to find a way to prepare for the lies.

These are all things that could make the story work, but since this isn't the case, it doesn't.

Last time Thor saw Loki he brought on Ragnarok. Suddenly that's all water under the bridge because he now has a nice rack? Utter bullshit.

JMS's run wasn't badly written, just badly conceived.

The problem here is that Loki was shown as a master of mischief by portraying the Asgardians as dumb as rocks. That's not "materpiece" writing to me. A good writer would have found a more clever way for Loki to trick his people without making them look like dolts.

I literally feel like we read different stories lol. Loki was constantly shown doing behind-the-scenes manipulation throughout this run by slyly setting things in places and steering clear of the blow back. Nobody is portrayed as "dumb"...the only reason the Asgardians leave him around is because they have no other choice. He is an Asgardian Prince no matter what and rightfully resides in Asgard. And Thor has always been shown to be a softy when it comes to his half-brother, he's always held out hope that he can be redeemed. But that's not to say he was an idiot to Loki's actions, just that Loki was that damn good and before Thor knew it, he was banished from Asgard by his best friend Balder for killing his own grandfather Bor. Thor did that all himself and knew he had to accept the consequences, Loki just pulled the right strings to make it happen. JMS did an amazing job of showing how manipulative Loki can be while still keeping his mischief off the radar.

I thought it was a good story. I think the fact that Loki was a woman played into it as well. I think the Asgardians did not take Loki seriously due to him being turned into a woman. It seemed as if the fates got one over on Loki, so I assumed they saw him as less of a threat with that in mind as well. As for Thor and Balder, they had more to worry about, since Loki seemed to spend his time strutting about his ample bosom rather than doing anything. And wasn't his form that of Sif's, masked by magic from conscious recognition? I think that played into things as well.

Bigty, JMS absolutely showed loki's behind the scenes plotting, I'm not arguing that. My point is that it just felt cliched and somewhat forced. It's a tired story that just could have been done better. IMO of course

I don't eyeroll at many things, but that story got one from me

Dr. Wade Fucking McNasty wrote:That would have been an interesting thing. As a trickster god, some preternatural ability (less of a power and more of an innate understanding) of how to say certain things and how to use body language to deceive people. Oneof the things with Loki that I think is easily forgotten is that lying itself is a dynamic thing that takes body language and facial expression and so forth into consideration. To weave a tale and make it believable, it is something hard to show on paper since we see the words only, see one facial expression at a given point in time, hear the words without the various inflections, and as readers are privy to the lying character's inner thoughts or intentions (even if it is in general). So it's one of those things I tend to chalk up to a undesirable but unavoidable limitation of the medium.

Yeah I think its understood that Loki has this sort of body language, facial expression, word choice skill when it comes to deceit. And another thing I would add is, Loki is even great at manipulating the truth to his advantage. If you look back at JMS's run, a lot of the mischievous things he had to say were often just inconvenient truths that he used to cause mischief. Like revealing to Balder that he's an Asgardian Prince, something Thor knew but never told him. He used that inconvenient truth to put that slight bit of doubt in Balder's mind about his friend Thor. He also just stated the facts to Balder about Thor's required banishment after the Bor fight. This is what I loved about this run, Loki used a mix of deceit and scheming with a healthy dose of inconvenient truth to accomplish his goals. Just some of the best storytelling I've seen in that regard.

Dr. Wade Fucking McNasty wrote:I thought it was a good story. I think the fact that Loki was a woman played into it as well. I think the Asgardians did not take Loki seriously due to him being turned into a woman. It seemed as if the fates got one over on Loki, so I assumed they saw him as less of a threat with that in mind as well. As for Thor and Balder, they had more to worry about, since Loki seemed to spend his time strutting about his ample bosom rather than doing anything. And wasn't his form that of Sif's, masked by magic from conscious recognition? I think that played into things as well.

Good point. Loki never really made any sort of overt action or obvious power play move. Everything he did was calculated and below the radar. Plus he's an Asgardian Prince so they have to honor his right to be there. And like I said, he used a healthy dose of truth a few times to manipulate people into ultimately doing the work for him.

Well, at any rate, let's hope JMS is bringing his A-game. Big names don't always equal quality..

rwe1138 wrote:J. Michael Straczynski takes over Superman with #701.

Thoughts?

I'm looking forward to it. I haven't read all of JMS' Spider-Man run, but I do like what I've read.

I think Superman needs a new writer. I think that Robinson's run has been kinda meh. There have been some awful issues and some good issues, but honestly, I don't think there's been a fantastic issue.

superdoug wrote:

LordD3r3k wrote:I was fearing this. Well, lets hope he doesn't shit all over him like he did Spiderman

Every time I see Spider-Man spelled like this, it reminds me of a Friends interchange:

Phoebe: Hey. Why isn't it Spiderman? You know, like Goldman, Silverman.
Chandler: Because, it... it's not his last name.
Phoebe: It isn't?
Chandler: No. It's not like Phil Spiderman. He's a spider *man*. You know, like Goldman is a last name but there's no Gold Man.
Phoebe: Oh, oh okay...
Phoebe: There should *be* a Gold Man!

I think of the same thing every time I see it written as Spiderman. God I LOVE Friends.

As someone who has a hyphenated first name it actually bugs the hell out of me when people write Spider-Man without the hyphen.

LordD3r3k wrote:Well, at any rate, let's hope JMS is bringing his A-game. Big names don't always equal quality..

I'll see your Trinity sir, and raise you an Ultimatum.

Bigtymin504 wrote:I'll see your Trinity sir, and raise you an Ultimatum.

Oooo, now that's just playing dirty..

Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #1

This was a good read. Good blend of action and finally moving the story forward. Zod's actions make me wonder, did he do it for the sake of his ego, or is there a deeper plot he's keeping hidden?

3.5 out of 5 sacrificed Kryptonians

Action Comics #887

After reading the title above and feeling like the story is finally getting back on it's feet, this one slows it right back down. This wasn't a bad read perse', I just feel like the spirit-god mytho's storyline needs to be wrapped up already.

2.5 out of 5 half-nekkid Kyptonian gods

I passed on the LSONK...Derek, what made this issue stand out from horrendous ending of WONK? I need some evidence as to why this is good before investing myself into it lol...

LOOSECANNON wrote:I passed on the LSONK...Derek, what made this issue stand out from horrendous ending of WONK? I need some evidence as to why this is good before investing myself into it lol...

Well, without spoiling anything, overall it just felt like some pieces are coming together and the story is finally moving somewhere again

I was hoping it would suck so I could save the $, haha...um...so if I start seeing good reviews for this and decide to pick it up, should I get last week's Adventure Comics, since it was a prologue to this book?

LOOSECANNON wrote:I was hoping it would suck so I could save the $, haha...um...so if I start seeing good reviews for this and decide to pick it up, should I get last week's Adventure Comics, since it was a prologue to this book?

In a nutshell, the Legion of Superheroes have been secretly infiltrating our time period. They convince Mon-el and Superboy to help them stop some tragedy that happens during LSoNK. There, saved you the $4

In the first issue of LSoNK, you find out what their plan is.

or you could just wait till a con and pick up all the books for cheap... thats what I did as I am not reading the new Krypton part of this story... Ill catch up in about 2 years lol

Superman: World of New Krypton #10-12

I actually kind of liked these issues. This series started off great, and then it sorta fell apart in the middle, but it started to recover in the end. These issues weren't fantastic, but they were entertaining. I love a good murder mystery (even though I figured out who early on). Also, I liked Adam Strange here. The only previous exposure to him that I've had was him on Batman: The Brave and the Bold. I liked him there, and I liked him here. I may have to check out some other stuff with him in it.


Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #1

I liked this. It wasn't great, but it as interesting. The moment of Clark ripping his shirt open and declaring it was a job for Superman got a "hell yeah" out of me.

I look forward to the rest of the series.

I wonder if New Krypton will be destroyed, and that'll cause the Kryptonians to try to concur Earth.

Batman25JM wrote:I wonder if New Krypton will be destroyed, and that'll cause the Kryptonians to try to concur Earth.

I was wondering this, especially with Lex rearing his ugly head. This might lead to "the death of Lex Luthor" that was forshadowed earlier on. I hope they don't though. Seems like a harsh move, even for DC (yes, I know they've killed whole universes but still, this is fairly different).

^I believe there's a David Finch cover on ign.com for Mark Guggenheim's upcoming Action Comics run that has Lex Luthor on it. But then again, it could always be a clone..

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Eddy Barrows will be the artist on JMS's run.
http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2010/03/19/unveiling-jms%E2%80%99-superman-artist/

I don't really pay attention much anymore but I just found out about JMS taking over Superman and Wonder Woman.

Bigtymin504 wrote:Eddy Barrows will be the artist on JMS's run.
http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2010/03/19/unveiling-jms%E2%80%99-superman-artist/

Looks pretty good

LordD3r3k wrote:Looks pretty good

Yeah if I remember right, I think he did the art for Blackest Night: Superman and I remember really liking the art in that.

Bigtymin504 wrote:Yeah if I remember right, I think he did the art for Blackest Night: Superman and I remember really liking the art in that.

I was going to say it looked familiar, but I just couldn't place it.

Superman #698

This wasn't horrible, but it was kind of boring. I feel like this crossover started out kind of good, and has sort of gotten stuck. This issue was just Mon-El breaking into Brainiac's ship and Lex blathering on. We saw Superman break in when the event started, I don't need to see the journey of someone else doing the same thing, and how many times have we seen Lex go on and on like this? I want something a little different.

Paul Cornell taking over Action Comics!

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2010/04/12/paul-cornell-steps-in-as-new-action-comics-writer/

I loved Cornell's work on Dark X-Men and Captain Britain and MI: 13. I will definitely be checking out JMS's Superman...but now this may make me want to get Action Comics too.

Oh and check it out...