Publisher's Site

Artist's Site

I recently stumbled across this while browsing my LCS for newer Sci-Fi series. The artwork is phenomenal, which makes up for the writing not always being my favorite.

Timeline infographic from 1974 - 2013

This is the third week in a row where there are no new releases that I'm reading, but I'll post a link anyway.

Anything coming out you're interested in this week?

So this was actually a pulp magazine as I understand it, which ran concurrent with The Shadow comics, but each one of those was like a monthly novella, so to speak. In other words, few pictures, and mainly a little book. In magazine form!

Anyway, there's a boatload to say about The Shadow, originally created as a narration device for radio as I understand it, but in terms of superhero stuff? Basically a godfather of the bubbling cauldron of creativity, from which sprung a landslide of famous DC badasses. (correct me if I'm wrong, but Marvel's (mainly Stan Lee's) creation process started a couple decades later?)

Bloody hell... these covers are absolutely STUPENDOUS: (total index right here)
https://antifandom.com/thelivingshadow/wiki/Shadow_Magazine/Covers

Couple examples:

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/thelivingshadow/images/c/c4/Shadow_Magazine_Vol_1_73.jpg

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/thelivingshadow/images/e/eb/Shadow_Magazine_Vol_1_173.jpg

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/thelivingshadow/images/a/ad/Shadow_Magazine_Vol_1_220.jpg

Oof, this silly-ass post brought to you by the makers of Ovaltine!
Or, uh... Johnny at EGN?

I'm not a big comic reader but every once in awhile, my best friend will show up with a comic he thinks I should read. He's never been wrong - last time it was Ultimate Martian Manhunter, this time it was The Sentry.

The only Marvel movie I've seen in the past decade is End Game so we both thought it was really funny that I caught this. He correctly calls him "Stephen" a few pages later.

As for the comic itself - it's an awesome self-contained story that unfolds very nicely. The artwork is amazing and diverse as you read through different hero's perspectives. I've never been a big Hulk fan but wow, his section was my favorite??

I really liked the timeframe, too. Something happens and something had to be done. But the comic isn't about the something...it's about the anticipation of doing it. Cool idea built on top of another cool idea with a really good conclusion.

!!SPOILER WARNING!!

For me this week:

• Absolute Green Arrow #4
• End of Life #7
• Uncanny X-Men #34

So, about a year ago I tried reading spiderman comics. I watched the 1994 Spiderman cartoon as a kid. I watched the movies. Technically I'm in Spiderman 3. I played the video games. Always been a spiderman fan, and then realized that for some reason I just never read the comics.

So I came here and tried to get myself straightened out. Because since issue #1 back in the 40s or whatever, he was in Action Comics, and then he got his own series. When he got his own series, all the way through today, it's supposed to be one continuous story. Stuff that was written in 1955 is still part of the continuous story today. The problem with that is, I'm not going to just read issue 1, and then catch up on a literal 80+ year old backlog of monthly issues. Nobody has time for that. But even if it's the same story, doesn't mean you're not in a new chapter.

So they started adding smaller numbers on the pages to correspond with whatever the current story is. If you understand whats going on, it makes sense. But for someone who's never picked up a comic before, that makes no sense. "Oh, this is issue 900, but it's also issue 1." WHAT????

Instead, here's what I suggest they do once they finish up their current run. Next time they shake things up, let's make a fake name. Let's say they build up to some big fight between whomever in the current run. When they have their big payoff, and everything ends, have Spiderman sitting on a grass hill. Suit tattered. Cuts. Bruises. Exhausted. He looks up, and sees Mary Jane Watson at the top of the hill above him. Closeup of Mary Jane, as she says "Hey Peter...can we talk?"

The inner back cover just shows a preview of the next months comic cover. It's simplistic. It's just a shot of spiderman against solid color background.

The Amazing Spiderman #4000 or whatever(Big font)

A new beginning: Chapter 1 (really small font. Almost like fineprint, but slightly bigger)

And from then on, the Logo/font does not change at all until we get to a new story. So lets say "A new beginning" runs for 48 issues. On issue 48, again you'd get that inner back cover showing a preview of next months issue.

The Amazing Spiderman #4049

Aunt Mae's shameful secrer: Chapter 1

Same font sizes as before, but, they'll look visually different. And each new story may or may not have a new writing or art teams. Each new story is considered like a soft reboot of the series. By that I mean it's all one continuous story, but with each new story they will take things in a different direction. But that doesn't mean it retcons anything. Nothing is hard rebooted. Uncle Ben is still dead. So they CAN still reuse characters, and have their past affect their version of the story. But the story is segmented, but continuous.

We may just not see certain characters for 10 years at a time. Do we really need Electro to constantly be around? I'm thinking each of these stories will last 2-3 years. So while they do the story about Scorpion, you may not see Venom, or Carnage, or Doctor Octopus. Or Sandman. Because they're not the story being told right now. But maybe on issue 4049 the preview cover for Chapter 1 of Aunt Mae's shameful secret, you just see Scorpion on the street level, with Aunt Mae wrapped up in his tail, as Spiderman is swinging to her rescue. So just from that preview picture alone you know that Scorpion is about to have his story told, and it involves some secret from Aunt Mae's past. Bad enough to get Scorpion to come after her.

And just from that one back cover alone, you now know that the direction is about to change, we're changing stories, we're changing characters, and based on the art style, you may see a totally different visual art style. And you should know from that back cover preview exactly what to expect for the next 2-3 years until this story is told.

And then? Another soft reboot. Another story. We do it all again.

This makes it clear which story each comic belongs to, just by the cover. Even to non-readers, it would be instantly apperent that this was issue 7 of A new Begining. It's issue 4007 of the main series. From there, you know to google A new beginning to see what that it is, and just like that, you have a new reader who knows exactly where to jump in.

Now for the best part. The fact that each soft reboot issue 1 is basically a preview of the next 2-3 years means that if you're ever looking for the Doctor Octopus story, but don't remember which one that is? All you gotta do is check wikipedia for the name of all the stories. And each wikipedia article should naturally always have the cover of issue 1.

Now you just gotta look for the cover with Doctor Octopus. Might not see him again for years, but you know exactly which arc he's in.

HOPEFULLY this will put an end to some of the stupid stuff I've heard happens in the comics. Why is there a second Doctor Octopus? Why are there Peter Parker clones? I'm not asking why in the stories. I'm asking why a writer thought that was a good idea. Doctor Octopus exists. You don't need two.

Peter Parker clones just dilute what makes Venom special. I'm all for introducing new characters. In fact, if a character doesn't work out, you don't need to kill them off. They just fade into the background noise and never get referenced again. Their story still happened, but nobody ever thinks about it.

But when you come up with new characters, the first thing that should be asked is "What is special about this character, and why will it be a challenge for spiderman to defeat them? Do not get me started with the fact that I just learned there's like a BILLION symbiots. Seriously???

Venom is special because Eddie Brock is an asshole, but he's not a villain. The Symbiot is a villain, but it needs Eddy. So it's kind of this inbetween of Spiderman's greatest enemy, but also, competitor. Because Venom is a hero too. He just hates Spiderman.

And then with Carnage, he's special because Cassidy is already a serial killer. Even without the symbiot he's ALREADY a villain that you should fear. Then make him basically into an overpowered spiderman clone. And since Carnage isn't having it's host resist the chaos, he makes the symbiot into giant axe blades, or claws. It's basically freddie kruger in a symbiot suit.

So what makes them special if theres thousands more just like them? They were yin and yang. While venom and spiderman were also yin and yang. but Carnage and Spiderman are so far separated that they are NOT anything alike. But now you got all these other symbiots so it's just diluting what makes those characters great.

Yeah, if I were the one soft rebooting this shit, all the other symbiots would be put on a rocket, sent off to space, and never mentioned again. Carnage and Venom somehow stay. So, it's kinda like retconning, without retconning. The storys still happened, but they mean nothing now, don't worry about it, moving forward.

I'm trying to think of something good to say about this series, trying to look at it as an ambitious portrayal of darkness and depravity in the Marvel universe but it's much too lightheaded and too fleeting to be taken seriously.

Essentially a "What if?" scenario featuring the protagonist Phil Sheldon, from Alex Ross's grounded Marvel comic books "Marvel's", the book shows us a world where basically everything that could have gone wrong with our heroes does go wrong.

Captain America becomes a cannibal, Iron Man incapacitated, Peter Parker never gets to be Spider-Man and is a freak with a skin disease caused by a radioactive spider. Things like these and many more often with exaggerated details of violence and ugliness are showcased page after page.

It's a really short book too, just 68 or so pages and rather than telling you a proper story it just takes you around on a tour to see the fates awaiting the different characters or groups in the Marvel universe. I really disliked it, the lack of focus and story and just the pacing of it all makes reading it have no impact which feels like it would be the opposite of what was intended.

Indeed, as you read this book it feels more absurd than horrific. Like someone was trying to be very clever and failed to be original.

The artwork on the other hand is atleast good looking. Gone are beautiful realistic portraits drawn by Alex Ross and instead we get this moody panels where everything is grey and overcast. Like you're looking at burnt paper. It does help out in accentuating and developing the horrible descriptions of these characters by drawing them in as many distorted painful positions as possible but ultimately falls short of "this looks so good I must own it and touch it" standards of Kingdom Come and Marvels. It looks best when the scenes are more brightly lit

Around the second half of the second issue, the art style changes hands to be a bit more comic book-y but I didn't mind that. I didn't care enough about it

I do like that this comic proves that just bring grimdark and "realistic" doesn't make a book good and I appreciate it for that much atleast though I still think DC's Kingdom Come is much better at reflecting that sentiment than this meaningless tale of cruelty. This is the kind of book that feels like it would be perfect for "The Boys" watching modern realistic superhero watchers of today but ends up holding nothing substantial inside, much like the later seasons of the show.

4/10 The only inspiring and worth reading part of this whole comic book is the opening poem/epigrapgh. I love how cleanly it sets up that what you're reading is just a different universe and how it name-drops the original comic book and Ruins.

PS: I wish Doctor Strange 2 had explored some of these darker multiverses instead of giving a busy and distracting cameo scene of random heroes

Ok, so imagine in the spiderman universe, if some character like Dr Strange, started casting spells on people. Except NOT Dr Strange, because he wouldn't do this. But find a character who's able to cast spells and is a villain.

So this spell is just cast on a single random ordinary guy. He had no powers before the spell, but now after the spell he brings disease everywhere he goes. 50 mile radius around this guy. Everybody gets sick. While he himself never gets this illness. He's immune to it.

So whichever villain cast this on him did so and then framed the guy for some terrorist attack. So now this carrier of disease is sent to some max security prison. The idea being that the original villain is using this guy as a trojan horse to kill Kingpin, who's also locked up. Only problem is, due to some mix-up, the guy gets taken to a regular jail instead. All the inmates, and all the guards are dead within a month.

The other part of the spell is that if this guy is killed, the entire universe explodes. So you can't just kill him. But now NYC has this massive prison complex with thousands of cells, and only 1 prisoner. And they can't put any staff or inmates in there, or they'll die. They've been feeding him via remote control drone delivery. But that's a band-aid solution. So instead they build an artificial island off the coast. with a 75 mile restricted water access. On this artificial island they create ways he can grow his own food, and be self reliant.

Problem averted, right? Because now NYC can use it's already existing jail again. But now that the character is established, you can actually develop the character.

So remember, this guy was NOT a criminal. He did NOT have powers. He's just as much a victim in this, as anyone else. But the government treats him as a terrorist because of what happened at the jail. People see him as the cause of death, because nobody is quite sure whats going on. So they just blame him, and that's it.

After so many years on the island in isolation, he finds a way back to the mainland. And why? Because HE doesn't understand how it works either. He just wants to live a normal life, and doesn't understand why everyone around him keeps dying. So he comes to the city, in search of his family.

Then yada yada spiderman somehow finds out that if he reaches the shore, thousands will die. If he gets close to the guy, he'll die. And with that, we have spiderman using help from Tony Stark to use autonomous Ironman suits to essentially swoop him up, bring him back to the island, and then talk to him via video conference. And this is where we find out that he's not a bad guy. He's just frustrated, scared, and alone. Spiderman empathizes with that, and starts being this guys friend with daily chats.

And now, you have set up for the future, a new character that can be used as a weapon against their will to kill an entire city if taken hostage somehow. He's powerful, because you can't get near him to fight him. But also, he's just a guy with the spell swirling AROUND him. All of his thoughts and motivations are NOT death. But death does follow this guy everywhere he goes.

I think it would be best if this guy when we first meet him is timid and weak, and apologetic for everything in life, whether it's his fault or not. And by the end, he can become completely deranged as a result of isolation, but still not a bad person. A tragic story of a life. And then you can use him against his will in the future.

Maybe Green Goblin's glider can go fly to him, and kidnap him. Then he's essentially used as a bomb. God dammit. I want his Super Villain name to be "Bomberman", but that's already a video game. That would get confusing.

You know how comic books are. Eventually he'll be full on evil. Or maybe mind controlled by someone else. Or maybe he has mental health issues. I hate to say it that way, but that's how comic book villains are written. Evil super villain, and then his motivations behind being evil is because he has mental health issues.

Now I wish this were a thing.