Random Comic Book Crap

It's funny, but a lot of his re-vamped Batman concept sounds a lot like The Punisher (except for the "no killing" part). And it still baffles to me to this day why cops adopted a symbol of a character who...doesn't support them and thinks they're corrupt and incompetent? Is it really just "Hurr hurr...skulls are cool. Pew pew bad guys!"? I guess there's a reason it's not "Back the Brains".
 
It's funny, but a lot of his re-vamped Batman concept sounds a lot like The Punisher (except for the "no killing" part). And it still baffles to me to this day why cops adopted a symbol of a character who...doesn't support them and thinks they're corrupt and incompetent? Is it really just "Hurr hurr...skulls are cool. Pew pew bad guys!"? I guess there's a reason it's not "Back the Brains".
I used to work with guys who called their shift The Shield and all took nicknames after characters from that show. Unironic in their love of how badass it was. Hell, you can probably find posts from me parroting it from those days here if you look far enough back. Introspection and policing do not go hand in hand.
 
I used to work with guys who called their shift The Shield and all took nicknames after characters from that show. Unironic in their love of how badass it was. Hell, you can probably find posts from me parroting it from those days here if you look far enough back. Introspection and policing do not go hand in hand.


It's not like they end up killing one of their own, not even one that was Internal Affairs, on the show... and it ends with one of them screwing the guy that was the one left alive that wasn't as guilty of stuff (like not being an accomplice to the original killing of the IA guy) in order to not be punished.

But i'm sure they all think of themselves as a Mackey instead of a Shane, Lem or Ronnie....
 
One of the greatest Justice League stories - nay, one of the greatest comics, PERIOD - is finally getting a collection. I am so here for it.

(Well, okay, it's not GREAT, but it's a lot of fun.)

 
Gonna be honest, the more reviews of the Boys comic I've read, the more glad I am to know to just stick to the shows.

ALSO, is Butcher really a PARODY of the Punisher or just... literally just the Punisher?
 
Gonna be honest, the more reviews of the Boys comic I've read, the more glad I am to know to just stick to the shows.

ALSO, is Butcher really a PARODY of the Punisher or just... literally just the Punisher?
Garth Ennis has the same problem that Mark Millar has, in that a lot of the adaptions of their work are just... leaps and bounds better than the original work itself.
 
*Looks at Preacher*

I guess there's exceptions to everything...
I feel the main difference between Preacher and the Boys, is the former has a lot more love in it (as well as a protagonist who doesn't become a monster) whereas the Boys just got more mean spirited as it went along.

THAT and Jesse is an original protagonist, whereas Butcher is just the Punisher with powers.
 
I feel the main difference between Preacher and the Boys, is the former has a lot more love in it (as well as a protagonist who doesn't become a monster) whereas the Boys just got more mean spirited as it went along.

THAT and Jesse is an original protagonist, whereas Butcher is just the Punisher with powers.
I thought Poe was directly referencing that the live-action adaptation of Preacher was pretty lack-luster, compared to, say The Boys or Kick-Ass, which I sadly have to agree. The books ended up being so much stronger than the series. ...well, to a point, anyway. I feel like all these comics suffered from the same problem, which is their cornerstone is shock-value graphic violence, and the longer they ran, the more they started spinning their wheels. You can only let a story coast on shock for so long before it becomes bland since you desensitize your audience. Preacher definitely suffered from this for the second half of it's run, although I do agree with your assessment of Jesse and his character.
 

Zappit

Staff member
I’m raffling off my copy of Avengers/JLA on Twitter and Bluesky to help a disabled mom.

@zapdraws on Twitter
@zappit.bsky.social on Bluesky

Anyone who enters has a pretty good chance of winning.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
I can't think of a single benefit to doing this, someone help meView attachment 48979
It makes pirated copies that much more appealing.

I bet collectors just love having incomplete copies all bagged and sealed.

EDIT: Reading this article, it seems that Marvel views this as a way to control "early spoilers". They don't like that physical copies of books have their contents leaked online before the street date, so they're keeping the final page digital so that they can try to keep something to reveal when the comic officially goes on sale.
 
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To me, this just sounds like a way to collect data correlating unique IP addresses with comic book sales, which can then be mined for "relevant trends."

EDIT: To go a bit further, this is no different from a software activation code for a game, and it would be but a single, easy step for this to essentially become the same, where the "comic" you buy is merely a physical vehicle for giving you a printed, redeemable download code for the DRM-laden e-book version of the entire comic that you would then not be able to trade/sell/hand down, and I legitimately wonder if this isn't the "testing" to suss whether the comic-buying public is willing to tolerate that model.

Do not want.

--Patrick
 
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I THINK I posted about this before, but I can't remember.

I've been thinking of an old list from Wizard Magazine. They once did an article called "100 Geatest Graphic Novels." Here's a list challenge, if you're curious how you score. I got 80%.

The list was like my personal Bible growing up. It helped me expand my comic reading way beyond superheroes.

Looking back, though, it's an odd list. No Will Eisner, not even A Contract with God, is inexcusable. No Scott McLeod. No Harvey Pekat. It skews WAY too favorably towards Brian Michael Bendis.

So, I decided to whip up my own list. I'm mostly basing it on what I have in my own collection. To avoid oversaturation of a single creator, I'm trying not to do too many repeats of creators.

But I'm also recognizing my bias towards white, straight, cis male creators. The original list isn't very diverse, so I'm trying to include some good diversity in there, too. It's tricky. I'm realizing I don't really have a lot from, say, black creators or indigenous. I have the Milestone Compendiums, at least, which covers a lot of black creators.

I'm also grateful for Marvel's Epic Collections because I can include a good chunk of a rush in one volume as representation (like Kirby & Lee's Fantastic Four). Epic Collections didn't exist during these lists. But I also realized I don't know what to put for X-Men, who deserve one spot.

So far, I'm about 7 away from compiling a list. I might make an article out of it for my blog.
 
a great many of these came out after I was caught up in the new-parent and military service thing...I've only read Watchmen. But admittedly, it's because I was interested in the controversy about Alan Moore's hatred of the movie and the ending changes.

Though, honestly, I preferred the movie ending. It just tied in really well, fit with Veidt's MO, and wasn't as dumb as a

a giant telepathic space squid genetically engineered from scratch in secret and teleported to New York.
 
a great many of these came out after I was caught up in the new-parent and military service thing...I've only read Watchmen. But admittedly, it's because I was interested in the controversy about Alan Moore's hatred of the movie and the ending changes.

Though, honestly, I preferred the movie ending. It just tied in really well, fit with Veidt's MO, and wasn't as dumb as a

a giant telepathic space squid genetically engineered from scratch in secret and teleported to New York.
I'm probably opening up a can of worms, but I HATE the movie ending of Watchmen. The giant squid ending is vastly superior because it fits with the themes of the book. Making Dr Manhattan the target instead not only doesn't make sense upon any scrutiny, it completely misses the point of the one of the book's core themes: xenophobia.

I'd go into greater default but I'm still waking up. I'm not saying you're not allowed to like the movie ending more. I just politely and vehemently disagree.
 
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I've read the novel, but unsurprisingly haven't seen the movie yet. I knew the ending was changed (I assume to make it "more entertaining" for movie audiences), but now I'm wondering just how much of the message was changed/lost.

--Patrick
 
I've read the novel, but unsurprisingly haven't seen the movie yet. I knew the ending was changed (I assume to make it "more entertaining" for movie audiences), but now I'm wondering just how much of the message was changed/lost.

--Patrick
Okay, I'm a bit more awake now. I thought I had discussed this before on here, but I think I'm mixing memories with hating the movie on here and hating the movie on Twitter. Gonna tag @Tinwhistler in case he misses my diatribe.

So, one of Watchmen's major themes is xenophobia, the fear of the other. Rorschach at several points seems to have a distaste for minorities or gay people, for example. There's also an underseeded homophobia around the relationship between Hooded Justice and Captain Metropolis, but it's subtle, so a lot of readers miss it. There's the fear of how inhuman Dr Manhattan has become, not just for his god-like power, but in how he's slowly becoming more detached from humanity (including his own).

Most notably, there's xenophobia around foreigners. Non-white characters is often dehumanized, like how The Comedian treats people during his time in Vietnam. The cars in the comic are all American made, by Veidt Industries (and Dr Manhattan was planning on introducing electric cars).

And then there's the pending Russian invasion.

Throughout the whole book, Russia is like a pendulum slowly swinging its way towards an invasion of the U.S. The book came out in the 80s, at the height of the cold war, when Russia invading or attacking the U.S. was a constant and viable threat. Propaganda against Russia was constant, much like it is in the comic. What better way to show xenophobia than with literal outsides at the gate. The only thing that stops their is world peace, by way of the giant squid.

Here's the thing with the squid. Yes, it's ludicrous. But here's the thing: it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be most ludicrous, unbelievably thing imaginable...because that's what makes it so alien. There is absolutely nothing about it that the average human being can relate to. It's impossible. It's literally a giant, alien, psychic squid. It's literally inhuman.

Which is exactly why it's the ultimate sign of xenophobia. It's so foreign, so alien, that no one on the planet can relate to it. It's beyond borders. It's beyond skin tone. There is literally nothing to relate to it. So, when you have a world filled to the brim with xenophobia, of course we're going to unite against this thing that looks absolutely nothing like ANY of us in any conceivable way.

Which is exactly why Dr. Manhattan as the fall guy instead, thematically or logically, does not work.

He's an American, with an American upbringing, and an American education. He worked for an American company. His accident is the result of an American science experiment. Everything about him traces back to the same problem: America. Sure, he's blue and has god-like powers, but he was still originally human. He still appears human, for all intents and purposes. He's still relatable to the average human in multiple ways. Is he the only blue human on the planet? Sure, but that blue human still has an identifiable penis. Outside of the blue skin, he still shares most traits commonly associated with a human (cis) male.

But the world peace would be even more unstable when it's learned that he's a product of an American upbringing and American science. Russia would likely be quick to scrutinize this and point blame directly at Dr. Manhattan. With the squid, there is nothing to directly tie with American science. Plus, many people forget that upon the squid's arrival, it also let out a psychic whiplash that embedded images in survivor's minds to further back up the believability that it came from somewhere else.

Also, completely unrelated, but it always bugged me that the movie decided to make the explosion "bigger" by having multiple cities attacked all at once, instead just New York. But that's just Snyder feeling like things has to be "bigger" for cinema.
 
I've read the novel, but unsurprisingly haven't seen the movie yet. I knew the ending was changed (I assume to make it "more entertaining" for movie audiences), but now I'm wondering just how much of the message was changed/lost.

--Patrick
I like the movie, I think it's probably as good as adaptation as could be made of the notoriously hard to adapt source material, but it's also pretty clear that Zack Snyder doesn't understand the source material and focuses on the wrong thing.

I'm not against the movie ending for what it is and how it fits with that version, but I do think the original is superior, and it fits very well for the time period it was written for.
 
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