Comics are Awesome III

A general discussion forum, plus hauls and silly games.
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andersonh1
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Random thought today as I bought Green Lantern #42, because the comic shop owner and another customer were discussing this very topic. First, it's not really the forty second issue of Green Lantern, and second, counting the reprint in the GL omnibus, this is the fourth issue of Green Lantern with the number 42 on the cover that I own. There's the 1960s issue #42, the Gerard Jones-written #42, the Geoff Johns-written #42, and now this current #42. It makes you realize just how complicated numbering is going to be going forward if we keep getting new #1s every few years. It's not all that bad now, but if comics go to the rumored seasons model... it's going to be very annoying, very fast.

"Go get Avengers #1!"
"Which Avengers #1?"
"Uhhh... the 18th Avengers #1."

Not counting Alan Scott's series, issues of Showcase, mini-series like Rebirth or the two years where the book became Green Lantern Corps after the crisis, I think we're pushing 500 issues of Green Lantern. About 130 of those are Kyle Rayner's solo series. Not that we'll ever see a book numbered that high again.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Dominic wrote:The Thors are omni-present, but no appearance in one book relies on any others. At most, there may be a throwaway line in "Thors" about how the lead Thor was killed in issue 2 of "Secret Wars". But, it will not be relevant. Stuff like "Ghost Racers" (which is much better than one might reasonably expect), is likely to be self-contained to the end.
It doesn't matter if one appearance doesn't rely on others, they're literally a police force of multiversal Thor's used by Doom to help him control things on the planet without being restricted to any one province. That alone gives Secret Wars a unifying force, and is not likely to be the last.
The individual zones have little enough interaction (aside from highly regulated trade, broadcasts of the Ghost Races or the obligatory smuggling). But, most of the zones have internal conflict or have been defined by some past conflict. The Thors seem to largely ignore internal conflicts. (The Thor native to a given zone might look in to something. But, the Thors generally seem to focus on regulating at a global level.)
I think it's kind of funny how you keep saying the "zones have little enough interaction", while admitting they do overlap to some degree. But still, internal conflict's is nothing new for anyone and it wouldn't explain where the name "Battleworld" came from unless there was more interaction between the provinces.
andersonh1 wrote:Random thought today as I bought Green Lantern #42, because the comic shop owner and another customer were discussing this very topic. First, it's not really the forty second issue of Green Lantern, and second, counting the reprint in the GL omnibus, this is the fourth issue of Green Lantern with the number 42 on the cover that I own. There's the 1960s issue #42, the Gerard Jones-written #42, the Geoff Johns-written #42, and now this current #42. It makes you realize just how complicated numbering is going to be going forward if we keep getting new #1s every few years. It's not all that bad now, but if comics go to the rumored seasons model... it's going to be very annoying, very fast.
Yeah, both Marvel and DC have that problem. Marvel for a while had both a new and old numbering system on the covers, and as the issues reached some landmark numbers, they abandoned the new numbering. For a while at least... Since then a few of those titles have been relaunched, again. And after Secret Wars it looks like we'll be getting a ton of new #1's all over again, again as well.
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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It doesn't matter if one appearance doesn't rely on others, they're literally a police force of multiversal Thor's used by Doom to help him control things on the planet without being restricted to any one province. That alone gives Secret Wars a unifying force, and is not likely to be the last.
The point is that the individual series are all self-contained. Nothing that happens in one is referenced in another, and "Secret Wars" as a whole is deliberately structured that way. Even the appearances by Thors are largely unrelated.

I think it's kind of funny how you keep saying the "zones have little enough interaction", while admitting they do overlap to some degree. But still, internal conflict's is nothing new for anyone and it wouldn't explain where the name "Battleworld" came from unless there was more interaction between the provinces.
Few enough of the tie=ins are predicated on travel between zones. "Thors" involves tracking a killer who crosses borders. "the Siege" is about containing trouble to three of the worst zones. "Ghost Racers" assumes broadcasts across zones. And, "Spider-Verse" has a throw-away line about (presumably heavily regulated) trade between zones.


Most of the zones are defined by a significant conflict, either past or present. If there is that much fighting at any given time, "Battleworld" would be a logical shorthand, even if the fighting is generally localized.

Yeah, both Marvel and DC have that problem. Marvel for a while had both a new and old numbering system on the covers, and as the issues reached some landmark numbers, they abandoned the new numbering. For a while at least... Since then a few of those titles have been relaunched, again. And after Secret Wars it looks like we'll be getting a ton of new #1's all over again, again as well.

"Go get Avengers #1!"
"Which Avengers #1?"
"Uhhh... the 18th Avengers #1."
It has been an issue for at least 15 years. In the 90s, when re-numbering started, it was usually possible to guess from context which "issue 1" was being discussed. But, in the last 5 years, "Iron Man" has been re-numbered (maybe with a title change that only a fan would recognize) at least 3 times. And, it is getting renumbered again this October.
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Dominic wrote:The point is that the individual series are all self-contained. Nothing that happens in one is referenced in another, and "Secret Wars" as a whole is deliberately structured that way. Even the appearances by Thors are largely unrelated.
I don't agree with that, the individual series aren't completely self contained. It doesn't matter if they've limited the references or the Thors appearances are largely unrelated, the point is, they are all still telling a story about these individual worlds as part of this one larger world with at least some over-lap even by your own admittance. Sorta like Convergence did. Secret Wars is just a much longer event, allowing them to explore the worlds as their own provinces on Battleworld more, but those barriers are bound to come down sooner or later. Where as Convergence just skipped to the part where those barriers came down with only 2 issues in which to tell the story.
Most of the zones are defined by a significant conflict, either past or present. If there is that much fighting at any given time, "Battleworld" would be a logical shorthand, even if the fighting is generally localized.
Going by that description, you could call our own Earth "Battleworld". I don't see how a few localized conflicts constitutes calling the whole planet "Batteworld". Unless every province was involved in an ongoing war with one another, it doesn't really make sense.
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Green Lantern #42
Having discovered that the Green Lanterns are missing, Gambit... I mean, Hal Jordan decides to drop off his passengers and then start looking for the Corps. But when he arrives at the alien prince's planet, everyone is dead, turned to stone. His prisoner's gang turns up to rescue their boss from Hal, but he wipes the floor with them without too much effort on his part. Interestingly, the power gauntlet he's using in place of his ring seems to have either some small degree of influence on him or some degree of self-will, and he has to actively get it under control near the end of the fight. As the ships he's just defeated start to leave, a tiny piece of stone impacts them, and soon everyone on all the ships is dead, turned to stone like the planet. With nowhere else for any of them to go, it looks like the alien prince, the slaver and Hal are all going to be the crew on the sentient spaceship Hal's piloting.

The final pages show Black Hand, and now it all falls into place. Something happened to him at the Source Wall at the end of Godhead. The Source Wall turns everything that touches it to stone, and it looks as though that property has been transferred to Black Hand, who can no longer control the dead.

Overall: despite being titled Green Lantern and despite having Hal Jordan as the main character, this book does not feel like a Green Lantern title any more. Or if it does, it just barely feels like one. I don't like Hal's look at all, and the mask seems pointless now since everyone knows who he is, and his outfit looks exactly the same whether he's wearing it or not, so it's hardly a disguise. I don't dislike the series enough to drop it, but I'm not feeling terribly enthused about the direction either.
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Yeah, I'd have to agree. While I do think there are some interesting ideas, Green Lantern right now doesn't feel much like a Green Lantern title, and because of that I'm not very enthused about the direction it's going in. I'm still not seeing how Hal as a renegade/bounty hunter is supposed to be helping the Green Lantern Corps image with the rest of the universe. And with the Corps now missing... is there a point for him to be a renegade? The way they've set this up makes it seem more like they were trying to make Hal the lone Green Lantern in the universe, only without actually being a Green Lantern. I also wish they'd stop messing with Black Hand's powers. I would have liked to see them explore his abilities as a semi-Black Lantern, only without writing him so... child-like. And while I do like that we're already seeing some follow-up after Godhead, I think Black Hand could actually use a bit of a break. He's shown up a lot in the past few years, it'd be nice if they remembered Green Lantern has other villains. Or introduce some new villains. Instead of Black Hand, why not have it be one of the aliens released from the Source Wall?

I'm also hoping Lost Army might undo some of the nonsense about there being an 'emotional reservoir' on the other side of the Source Wall, seeing as they came across a Red Central Pyramid (like the Lightsmith's used in Relic's universe) in whatever universe they've been transported to.
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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"Secret Wars" is crushing me.

The last time this much product was on my radar was 2009 (for Bayformers: Revenge of the Finances). The last time I was actually trying to keep up with something like this much product was 2007 (for Bayformers 1). The big difference is that I signed on for this stuff. With toys, it is possible to just drop something. With comics, there is a process. Of course, I am also liking "Secret Wars". The inevitable delays are eventually going to let me catch up.)
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Dominic wrote:"Secret Wars" is crushing me.

The last time this much product was on my radar was 2009 (for Bayformers: Revenge of the Finances). The last time I was actually trying to keep up with something like this much product was 2007 (for Bayformers 1). The big difference is that I signed on for this stuff. With toys, it is possible to just drop something. With comics, there is a process. Of course, I am also liking "Secret Wars". The inevitable delays are eventually going to let me catch up.)
I hear you. For the two months I was buying Convergence, I think I picked up 25 titles a month. I hadn't bought that many comics in a month since Zero Hour, twenty years ago. :lol:
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Green Lantern/Star Trek: The Spectrum War #1
The issue opens with Ganthet on the run for his life, with an unseen enemy taunting him about his defeat. He takes one of each of the different power rings and vanishes from the universe to a place where he cannot be found by his enemy. As we shortly learn when the crew of the Enterprise discover his remains, he ended up in the New Trek universe and died, though we’re not told how. Kirk and crew recover the body and the power rings, which Scotty is studying, when they’re confronted by a younger General Chang from Star Trek 6. Chang intends to capture the Enterprise and drag it and the crew back to Kronos because he feels that Kirk has wronged the Klingon Empire.

At that moment, the rings power up and each choose a bearer. Chang gets the yellow one, while Chekov, Uhura and McCoy get others, with no one quite understanding what’s happened. And it’s at that moment that the issue ends with the appearance of Hal Jordan, who infuses the Enterprise with power to defend themselves, and then demands to know why the body of his friend is on board.

So, it’s an opening chapter. Characters get introduced, mysteries are put into place (who was chasing Ganthet and how did he die?), and the basic concepts of both fictional universes are introduced. Likenesses for the Trek crew are decent, and so is the art in general. I do find the timing of this crossover interesting, considering that Chris Pine is rumored to be playing Hal Jordan in the upcoming live action DC movies.

I think the original series crew would have worked better for this crossover than New Trek, with the Guardians fitting right in with the various godlike aliens that Kirk and crew came across in their travels. Modern Trek ever since TNG has tried to maintain a veneer of sci-fi rather than fantasy with all the technobabble and constant emphasis on technical solutions to the various challenges they come across. Q aside (and he's very human and flawed in his characterization), godlike aliens don't fit modern Trek. The two recent movies ditch even that in favor of mindless action, and they don’t try all that hard to world build the way TNG, DS9 and Voyager did. All of that is a long-winded way of saying that they picked the wrong Star Trek crew to crossover with Hal Jordan and the Corps. They should have gone with Shatner and Nimoy rather than Pine and Quinto. Ganthet would be right at home among the Organians or the Metrons.
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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I am reading a bit more than that right now. And, "Secret Wars" is running through September.

Not quite caught up in terms of what I am buying. (And, it gets worse next week.) And, I am still reading stuff from last week. (And, I am going to be reading two issues of one tie-in consecutively.)

Gotta not buy any comics until August.
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