Marvel Comics

[Ralph Dula]

Today I went to a comic store for the first time in six years, and said store was having a 75% off sale on non-key back issues. I had only bought Marvel five times in the last six years, and that include buying some Strange Tales to upgrade what I already own. My dips into modern Marvel hadn’t left me with a warm fuzzy feeling.

i bought modt of Punisher Kill Krew, and I have to say it was a delight. Very much a rational take of how Frank Castle would operate with the supernatural in the MU, with all the silliness that would result.

i remember hearing about Foggy Nelson being in this, and thinking how dumb that would be. I’ll freely admit I was wrong about that. The series is pure, dumb, fun, and I’m not ashamed to admit I think it’s the best thing I’ve read from Marvel in recent years.

I am confused by the Ebony Blade apparently no longer having a blood curse, though.

 

[TristramEvans]

Did they ever explain how all the vampires came back to 616?

 

[Endless Flight]

I actually think Marvel and DC put out some really good stuff despite constant editorial shenanigans. I suppose the creators themselves have always thought that way going back to when Stan and Julie were EiCs.

 

[E-Rocker]

I actually think Marvel and DC put out some really good stuff despite constant editorial shenanigans. I suppose the creators themselves have always thought that way going back to when Stan and Julie were EiCs.

Agreed.

 

[Ralph Dula]

Did they ever explain how all the vampires came back to 616?

You mean since the mid-80s when they used that formula that starts with a “M” that I’m too lazy to look up right to spell properly to get rid of them?



In that instance, several years later when they released a new Doctor Strange series with a $1.50 cover price they had a storyline that revealed Stephen had a brother. Said brother was in a terrible accident many years earlier, and Sorcerer Supreme Dumbass Stephen Strange decided he’d try to use magic to heal him. Apparently the Ancient One was unclear on how to heal people, or this happened before they met (I missed the first few issues of the storyline) and Strange ends up turning him into a vampire.



Being a good brother, Stephen puts his brother into some sort of suspended animation/stasis, stores him in a warehouse, and never mentions him again or tries to help him, like any loving brother would.



One day, power goes out in the warehouse, breaking Steve’s brother out of stasis. Turns out the stasis Doc whipped up was more powerful than the formula from the Darkhold, and kept Vamp.Bro from being affected by the formula. Him coming out of stasis somehow reversed the formula, and since this is too ling already I won’t cite another Doc Strange story that causes this “logic” to make no sense. So now vamps could exist again in 616.





Now, if you meant every dead vamp coming back en masse, that was a separate Blade story, from the arc where Hannibal King finds out Blade is half-white, and finds that hilarious.

 

[Silverlion]

For the record, Midnight Sons. Although it's interesting that Ghost Rider II (or III depending on your need for accuracy and ignoring the rename of the original human with a glowing costume.) had a cyber-vampire before the Midnight Sons plot events, and Mobius was still around (though again a science fiction form of vampire.)

 

[TristramEvans]

Yeah, Michael Morbius gets a pass.

Although you do not for suddenly reminding me Sony is making that awful film. It's way too early in the morning.

 

[Silverlion]

Yeah, Michael Morbius gets a pass.

Although you do not for suddenly reminding me Sony is making that awful film. It's way too early in the morning.

Sorry! I completely forgot it exists in order to save myself.

 

[Ralph Dula]

So when I was last in a comic shop six years ago I picked up some issues of an 80s Punisher story I’d never heard of, where he saves the entire human race and either the artist made a huge mistake in character references, or they were setting up an X-Men crossover that went nowhere.



Well, some of the comics I bought over the weekend actually pick up that same storyline, decades later. Aside from injecting modern politics, they retroactively introduce a character who Frank was a terrible person fir not saving in the 80s story...because he was too busy saving the entire human race....Yeah.



They also keep the potential character reference error/X-Men crossover.



Not really feeling the love for this Punisher run.

 

[Gabriel]

Being a good brother, Stephen puts his brother into some sort of suspended animation/stasis, stores him in a warehouse, and never mentions him again or tries to help him, like any loving brother would.

Sounds reasonable.

 

[Ralph Dula]

Sounds reasonable.

I really wish I could remember if the power was knocked out to the stasis field because of workmen not checking where lines were, or that Stephen forgot to pay the bill, because I know it was one or the other.

 

[urbwar]

New Shang Chi trailer, and we finally get to see the 10 Rings in action:

 

[Chaotic Wooster]

Abomination! Cool.

 

[Simon Hogwood]

He's the one whose father was originally Fu Manchu, right?

 

[Ralph Dula]

He's the one whose father was originally Fu Manchu, right?

Yep.

 

[Chaotic Wooster]

So now they're gonna condense Fu Manchu and the Mandarin into a single character, while deftly dodging any problematic portrayals.

Hopefully.

 

[urbwar]

I wonder if they're going to address what they did to Ben Kingsley's character after breaking him out of prison in that one short

 

[Ralph Dula]

I don’t think I’m going to see Shang-Chi after that second trailer. With the expanding rings SFX all I keep thinking about is this guy:

 

[Endless Flight]

I wonder if they're going to address what they did to Ben Kingsley's character after breaking him out of prison in that one short

I doubt it. I don’t think they thought that part of the Mandarin story out too much when working on Iron Man 3.

 

[urbwar]

I doubt it. I don’t think they thought that part of the Mandarin story out too much when working on Iron Man 3.

That's what the short was about though, linking the real Mandarin into the MCU, and him not being pleased with Kingsley's character for impersonating him

 

[Ralph Dula]

With Conan running around in modern Marvel times, has he run into Ant-Man and acknowledged they met before?

 

[Tulpa Girl]

With Conan running around in modern Marvel times, has he run into Ant-Man and acknowledged they met before?

When/where did they previously meet?

 

[Ralph Dula]

When/where did they previously meet?

Fantastic Four #405, if memory serves.

 

[Simon Hogwood]

As far as I've read into Savage Avengers, Conan's mostly been interacting with either the gritty street-level side or the mystical side of Marvel, not so much with the super-science or the more traditional heroics (though I hear he's got a face-off with Spider-man coming up). Nor have I noticed any reference to any of his adventures from previous runs with Marvel.

 

[E-Rocker]

Speaking of Shang-Chi, last weekend when my buddy and I were making our pilgrimage to a bunch of the suburban Chicagoland comic book stores, I picked up the hardcover Deadly Hands of Kung Fu Omnibus vol. 1 for 50% off! Haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I'm pretty stoked @ the find!

 

[Ralph Dula]

As far as I've read into Savage Avengers, Conan's mostly been interacting with either the gritty street-level side or the mystical side of Marvel, not so much with the super-science or the more traditional heroics (though I hear he's got a face-off with Spider-man coming up). Nor have I noticed any reference to any of his adventures from previous runs with Marvel.

Thank you! There’d been talk of an omnibus for Savage Avengers last year, and I was thinking I would wait for that, but now I can’t find a listing for it.

 

[CRKrueger]

Speaking of Shang-Chi, last weekend when my buddy and I were making our pilgrimage to a bunch of the suburban Chicagoland comic book stores, I picked up the hardcover Deadly Hands of Kung Fu Omnibus vol. 1 for 50% off! Haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I'm pretty stoked @ the find!

Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, Sons of the Tiger, I loved that comic.

 

[Voros]

I read Iron Fist and Masters of Kung Fu as a kid and loved them (I remember the Iron Fist issue where Sabertooth first appeared!) but last I looked the Masters of Kung Fu omnibus was too rich for my blood.

 

[Ralph Dula]

Speaking of Shang-Chi, last weekend when my buddy and I were making our pilgrimage to a bunch of the suburban Chicagoland comic book stores, I picked up the hardcover Deadly Hands of Kung Fu Omnibus vol. 1 for 50% off! Haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I'm pretty stoked @ the find!

This was in a Doc Savage issue that I picked up two weeks ago. It’s funny to me that Shang-Chi isn’t mentioned in an ad for his first appearance.

 

[David Johansen]

I finally managed to watch the New Mutants movie this weekend. While it presents as a schlocky teen horror movie I think they did an okay job of the characters and their powers (except Roberto who's power shouldn't burn people and who shouldn't be a coward). I laughed so hard when the girl came out of the pool on fire. I don't know if it was intended to be so funny but it sure was. Anyhow, they did a decent job of setting the villain up and it's too bad there'll never be a sequel.

 

[Ralph Dula]

So I just found out Marvel came out with the Captain America of Harrisburg a few weeks ago.



She is going to die a horrible, painful death once she has an intercompany crossover with the local supervillain.

 

[TristramEvans]

It's sad in this day and age when a girl can only afford half a leotard

 

[Chaotic Wooster]

The United States of Captain America...

What fresh hell is this?

 

[Ralph Dula]

It's sad in this day and age when a girl can only afford half a leotard

i made a comment elsewhere that she has to spend time every night shaving her exposed leg while Mister C lets his hair grow free, Danzig-style. That dynamic means he has even more time for him to commit crimes while she’s not patrolling.

 

[David Johansen]

Whelp....I went to Shang Chi and the Legend of the Five Rings tonight. It was cheesy fun and very over the top. Shang doesn't brood nearly enough to be Shang but it was good enough. Nice cameos by the Abomination and Wong. I guess hoping they'd go for the tone of the comic is asking too much. Really, Marvel hasn't had the foggiest idea what to do with Shang since the early eighties.

 

[Ralph Dula]

That moment in the Hawkeye trailer that reminds you of the kid you went to Catholic school with who threw a Molotov Cocktail into a house for revenge on a drug deal gone bad, and someone inside just tossed it right back out at him.

 

[David Johansen]

I'm so happy to see Pizza Dog is getting a tv show.

 

[Ralph Dula]

I'm so happy to see Pizza Dog is getting a tv show.

I want to know if Special Needs Cat makes an appearance. I have one, and a coworker of mine about died when I showed her the comic. I can only imagine if it makes it into the show.

 

[David Johansen]

Maybe we can get a whole episode from the dog's point of view!

 

[EmperorNorton]

I'm so happy to see Pizza Dog is getting a tv show.

I bought a Pizza Dog figure that came with a Hawkeye.

For some reason it said "Hawkeye" on the package though, not sure why they named the pack after the sidekick.