The Four Color Media Monitor

The AP/Worcester Telegram reports that the Disney Corp, having bought into Marvel, is considering even minor characters to milk for dough:

LOS ANGELES — Moviegoers have shown a willingness to be entangled by Spider-Man’s web over and over again. Now, as Disney prepares to buy the comic-book powerhouse Marvel, it faces the question of whether fans will also get attached to characters as obscure as Ant-Man and Iron Fist.

I wouldn't go so far as to call them "obscure", as I don't think that describes them well at all. Just minor would do.

This article does contain a little something that bugs me more though:

“With Marvel, it’s not just about ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Hulk,’ ” Caris & Co. analyst David Miller said. “It’s all about the other 5,000 characters that you and I don’t even know about yet.”

The deal has already spawned a bout of speculation in the comic book world about who will be the next big Thing.

Possibilities include classics such as Ant-Man, the alter-ego of mad scientist Dr. Henry Pym, and Dr. Strange, the mystical go-to guy whenever there’s an extradimensional threat. Both are connected to The Avengers line of characters that Marvel had started developing for the big screen long before Disney made the deal; Iron Man and the Hulk are among the Avengers that Marvel already has tapped.

Hey, what are they saying here? I know that Hank Pym was put through an ill-advised story in 1981 where he smacked down his ex-wife Janet VanDyne, the Winsome Wasp, but not only did he do his best to redeem himself in later years (until that too was ruined by later writers), he was hardly what you could call a "mad" scientist. That's one part I find objectionable.

Also, Doctor Strange is not connected per se to the Avengers, but rather, to the Defenders. Which shows how poor the MSM's understanding of comic book history is.

There are about 5,000 more characters, including obscure ones such as martial arts master Iron Fist from the 1970s and up-and-coming ones such as the Runaways, a street-savvy pack of teenagers that have become a recent Marvel comic-book hit.

Now wouldn't that be nice if they could bring even the more minor-ranking superheroes to the forefront, and let their own history in comicdom be known? I do hope it happens. In fact, maybe it'll prompt Time Warner, for as long as they're in charge of DC, to start giving its own minor superheroes some much needed attention of the same sort, and one can hope that'll lead to some repair jobs for the damage done to them under Dan DiDio and Joe Quesada as well.

Labels: marvel comics

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin says that 2009 was a great year for manga/anime productions. And in a manner of speaking, they're right. Because when American comics fail to deliver as they have these past several years, one can end up finding foreign comics far more engaging.

Labels: manga and anime

The Colorado Springs Gazette tells that the Siege crossover is going to bring big changes to the Marvel universe. But, as the following suggests:

“Siege” looks to bring Thor — the subject of a movie being developed by Marvel Studios — more fully onto the Marvel stage. The event also promises to bring Marvel’s varied heroes together, despite the divisions that have built up in recent years.

But that doesn’t guarantee a happier Marvel universe by the end.

And there's no garuntee it'll be worth buying either, nor that any of the "changes" will be appealing. Not with Quesada in charge, and come to think of it, not with Tom Brevoort running this part of the show either.

Labels: Avengers, bad editors, crossoverloading, marvel comics, msm propaganda

In an end of the year report, the LeHigh Valley Express-Times fluff-coats 2009:

This year's been a good one for comic book fans. Writers and artists have turned in fantastic work.

Books that I've never bothered with before such as DC's "Wonder Woman" and Marvel's "Thor" are now must-reads. Smaller companies have released amazing new series such as Boom Studios' "Irredeemable" and "Hexed" as well as Image's "Jersey Gods."

No, no, and no. This year has been no different from the past several. And with J. Michael Straczynski as the writer of Thor until recent, I don't think I can say Thor was such a great book this year either. Besides, it's now becoming part of the next crossover, one of the reason why JMS left it, surprisingly enough. But which doesn't make him any better a writer.

But here's where things really go into turbo-sugar mode:

But even with the high-quality comics released this year, there was one book that topped them all to become the best comic of 2009 -- DC's "Detective Comics."

The series is written by Greg Rucka with art by JH Williams III and a co-feature by Rucka and artist Cully Hamner.

The comic used to feature Batman, but after his death, the new star became Batwoman.

She was a little-used character who, when first introduced in the 2006 limited series "52," caused a bit of controversy when DC announced that the new Batwoman, whose real name is Kate Kane, was a lesbian.

She was used sporadically since her introduction but was never developed beyond just being gay and was largely dismissed as a publicity stunt by DC.

That changed in "Detective Comics No. 854" when she became the book's lead.

Oh, I'll bet it did! It's just like a newspaper like this to make diversity and multi-culti propaganda a pick of the year.

And if all that wasn't enough, there is the highly entertaining backup feature with the new Question Renee Montoya.

Montoya is a former Gotham City police detective and the ex-girlfriend of Batwoman.

And just like Kane, she too is a lesbian. Not a Bulgarian national, just a lesbian. What else is new?

"Detective Comics" is one of DC's longest-running comic with a lot of history and memorable creative runs.

Rucka, Williams and Hamner all live up to that history and turned the comic into this year's best.

And with some of the lowest sales to date. The audience clearly doesn't care much for it now that its true star has been taken out of his own books. And they live up to its history? Sure they do. All they've done is exploit this series for the sake of their multi-culti mishmash. And it's just like these mainstream papers to go gushy over this. And whatever female character takes up the costume and career, Batwoman as a role deserves much better than this kind of diversity tomfoolery.

Labels: Batman, dc comics, dreadful writers, marvel comics, msm propaganda

Several months ago, DC said that Wally West and Bart Allen would get their own backup stories and a new Kid Flash ongoing series, respectively, when the new Flash series with Barry Allen begins. Now, as the Speed Force blog reports (via Titans Tower Monitor), it turns out that neither will get their own starring stories after all. They say they're "on hold", but more likely they're buried before they started.

There's plenty of highly disappointed replies, and reading the topic, I think I should have a little say of my own here: I too am a fan of Barry Allen, the first story I read with him being in The Flash #230 Vol. 1 from November 1974, and I'd begun reading comics when I was about 6 years old, at which time Barry was still around. And I'll say in fairness that maybe it is possible to bring him back to the land of the living. But it would have to be done with the consideration that his demise in Crisis on Infinite Earths was done respectfully, and thus Wally taking up the mantle was legitimately and plausibly earned, in sharp contrast to Kyle Rayner, whose own inheriting of the Green Lantern role from Hal Jordan was not, that's why, if Barry is to be brought back, it should be as a fatherly figure in a secondary role, just like what Jay Garrick has embodied for many years now. By bringing Barry back as the full time star and dumping Wally wholesale, that only serves to alienate the many fans Wally earned over the years, and makes this another example of DC's backtracking for the sake of cash-grabbing.

Since I am a Barry fan, that's also why I WON'T be reading the upcoming series next year. Not only is it pretty apparent this isn't the Barry I knew from my childhood, it's already clear that no matter how the Rebirth miniseries turns out, the ongoing series will be anything but kid-friendly, family-friendly, or even new-reader-friendly. And let's not forget that Geoff Johns was the same writer who depicted Inertia obliterating an infant for nothing more than shock's sake in Rogues' Revenge. Why then should I trust him not to keep on doing things that only drown out the real fun and sense of humor? In fact, the upcoming Flash Secret Files for 2010 puts Barry into a murder mystery as his first case post-return. Whatever happened to the good old robberies and hijackings? Seems like today's writers don't have confidence in those kind of premises and plots anymore.

Even if Wally hadn't been shafted as a solo star, I think the book still stood to lose audience after a while, as Johns' writing was likely to wear out as fast as it does. Thinking back on his body of work, the main problem he has is that he may have a momentary idea of what he could do with the Rogues and other villains, but beyond that, it all becomes stale. The new Zoom, for example? After 2-3 appearances, Johns pretty much ran out of ideas, or lost interest in his own "creation", which wasn't much to begin with. That doesn't mean we won't see Hunter Zolomon again, but it does show how, if anyone thought Johns was trying to introduce a formidable foe, he didn't, really.

I hope this news will encourage Flash fans to follow the example set by many Spider-Man fans and avoid this already abortive "direction" DC is taking with the Fastest Man Alive in the slowest motion possible. And for now, that does look likely to happen, as audience dwindles for DC and Marvel thanks to their disrespect for their own properties.

Labels: bad editors, dc comics, dreadful writers, Flash, violence

As a decade is about to be filled out, the website of Comics Alliance has written a list of several of the worst from the past 10 years, and here's the second part as well.

This decade has certainly been one of the most dismal for Marvel and DC in particular, and it's going to take a lot if we're to ensure that the next decade to come will see any improvements, if there's still a comics industry at all.

Labels: crossoverloading, dc comics, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, violence

The Colorado Springs Gazette writes sugarcoatedly about more of DC's Blackest Night schedule, but what really has me shaking my head here is the news that Dan DiDio is going to be making his official writing debut on a revival of Weird Western Tales, the series where Jonah Hex first appeared, and even The Outsiders:

DiDio said he personally is excited about the return of “Weird Western Tales” — namely because he’s writing it. “I threw my hat into the ring to do it,” DiDio said. “It was so different, so quirky.”

Look for the return of a lot of DC’s Western heroes.

“We get to see the Trigger Twins Bat Lash, Super-Chief, Firehair and, of course, it wouldn’t be a weird Western tale without Jonah Hex,” DiDio said.

DiDio is also the new writer on “The Outsiders,” a DC team book whose roster includes Geo-Force, Black Lightning, Metamorpho, the Creeper and others. DiDio’s first issue hit stands in January as well.

While a new writer often means a big change, DiDio wants to keep the team intact and continue some story lines from the past year.

“You’ll see the return of some classic villains, you’ll see some new villains introduced to the mix and you’ll see some characters introduced to join the team — but later in the run.”

No I will not, because after all the insults to everyone's intelligence this disgraceful would-be editor has been putting out for the past couple years, to buy these books he's writing would only be putting money chiefly into his pockets. No one who's been offended by all the damage he's done even before Identity Crisis should reward him for his self-appointed run as writer. I don't expect much from this, any more than Bill Jemas's publicity stunt called Marville several years ago (thankfully, he's gone from Marvel, but the harm is still being inflicted there too). We can only hope the audience will avoid what is clearly another publicity stunt, and not put money into DiDio's pockets for what he's now writing.

Reading this made me think - what if he were a ghostwriter on more stories than previously thought in the past years? There was a rumor that Bob Harras may have even ghostwritten some X-Men stories at the time he was Marvel's EIC, and it's possible DiDio has done the same. Someday, maybe we'll get the answer to that.

Labels: bad editors, crossoverloading, dc comics, msm propaganda

Newsarama reported a short time ago that still more changes are being planned for Avengers:

As we look back at the five years since the Avengers were relaunched, it's apparent that drastic changes were made in order to clear way for the direction writer Brian Michael Bendis wanted to make to the franchise.

Yet according to Marvel's marketing about the upcoming Siege storyline – the four-issue, Avengers-centric mini-series by Bendis that begins in January – there are even more drastic changes to come.

Yes, and if Brian Bendis is still being kept as writer, then we can't expect those changes to be anything great, even if the Scarlet Witch is finally redeemed.

"What happens in those four issues are as big a change to the Avengers franchise as when we came on for Disassembled," Bendis told Newsarama. "The aftermath of Siege – who lives, who dies, what the teams are like, how the books are published, who's on the books – it's as big a change as it's ever had. It's a franchise changer."

Siege is being drawn by Olivier Coipel, whom Bendis collaborated with on House of M, with inks by Mark Morales and colors by Laura Martin. The event spills into a significant list of other Marvel titles.

And will bog them down to no end. Something which quite honestly is not needed.

"I'll be writing the tie-ins for both New Avengers and Dark Avengers, and like the Secret Invasion tie-ins, we'll reveal answers to questions, like who secret people are and what deals were made and what's been going on behind the scenes in a lot of books," Bendis said.

I've seen enough over the past several years to know that those "answers" will most likely not be worth reading to find out.

And if Bendis is still going to write and oversee the Earth's Mightiest Heroes in any way, and not relinquish his role to a better writer who doesn't do things the way Quesada prefers, that's why this will only keep on being discouraging.

Labels: Avengers, crossoverloading, marvel comics, violence

If the following news about Wildstorm's plans for comics they're publishing based on World of Warcraft and Star Craft is any suggestion, this is another sign of how monthly periodical format is being abandoned:

DC Comics' Wildstorm division has been handling a monthly comic book series based on Blizzard's World of Warcraft and StarCraft franchises for some time. However, word from IGN is that the publisher has decided to cancel both of these monthly comics in favor of a series of original stories in a graphic novel format. The publisher feels that such a format "will give our artists and storytellers more room to explore Blizzard's rich, varied worlds and flesh out the characters that inhabit these places."

And that could be the best way to go with superhero comics too. I won't be surprised if in time, we'll be seeing just that take effect. All that will be left then is to fix the quality of the writing.

Labels: dc comics

The Oklahoman writes up a list of the best comics of this year, and sugarcoats as well as fawns over some overrated items to boot, right down to the headline telling that "superheroes still rule", even as they're being destroyed by limp writing and especially editorial mandates. These include:

2."Irredeemable”: Mark Waid ("Fantastic Four”) and Peter Krause ("Power of Shazam”) create a story in which the world’s greatest hero goes bad. Explaining why and how superhero The Plutonian turned to the dark side has been one of 2009’s best comics.

Oh please. This was little more than a weak exercise in themes that have since grown tired, just like most of Mark Waid's own output.

5."Supergirl”: Writer Sterling Gates, a Tulsa native, and artist Jamal Igle kept the mystery cooking of who the seemingly super-powered Superwoman was for much of 2009 in the pages of "Supergirl.” Supergirl dealt with the death of her father and the seeming villainy of her mother. This, and great use of the supporting cast, including Cat Grant and Lana Lang, made "Supergirl” a must-read Superbook.

And they don't mention how Lana turned out to be the baddie here, and may soon be doomed to a further death. Sorry, but I think on that, they really blew it.

7."Detective Comics”: Greg Rucka and artist J.H. Williams created a Batwoman story of incredible artistry and beauty. Williams, who drew "Promethea” written by Alan Moore, is a master of visual storytelling.

And I think we could do without the multi-culti and diversity pandering the Batwoman story was intended for.

No, this year was sadly one of the weakest for superhero comics.

Labels: dreadful writers, misogyny and racism, msm propaganda, women of dc

That's the good news. The bad news is that he, and his mentor Ollie Queen, are heading down the highway to darkness (via Titans Tower Monitor), as told by writer J.T. Krul:

“I was super fortunate to be able to play a role in BLACKEST NIGHT, and I have to say I’m even more excited — if that’s possible — about being able to take on Roy Harper and Green Arrow as their stories spill out of Cry For Justice. James has been building to a monster climax in his book, and no two characters will be as changed as much as Roy and Ollie. And, the story isn’t even over yet. The title RISE and FALL says it all in terms of where these characters are headed. It’s going to be a dark and tragic road for both them and I’m hoping readers will be hooked by where Ollie and Roy come out in the end.”

For the zillionth time, big mistake made by citing darkness and tragedy as the direction.

IGN Comics has an interview with this writer (also via Titans Tower Monitor) where he drags things further into the mud:

IGN Comics: Will the relationship between Ollie and Roy embody that ethical rift between the Justice League members at all?

Krul: What happens with them is definitely a huge part of it. But it is a larger picture, so what happens with Roy definitely impacts the other team members. It's a little bit like what happened with Identity Crisis, where you have the people that were on board for the mind wipe of Dr. Light and the ones that weren't on board.

When they give mention to that truly despicable miniseries that started this all, you know something's wrong.

IGN Comics: The last half-year or so has seen you dive headlong into the DCU with various projects. How did you get involved with these latest projects?

Krul: I was already working with Eddie Berganza, Adam Schlagman and Brian Cunningham on Blackest Night: Titans, and I had done the Red Arrow spotlight issue for Brian on Titans. That's how the Arsenal thing came about - they knew I was a huge Roy fan and have been a fan of his forever. I jumped at the Titans spotlight issue, then when I got wind of what they had in store for Roy and they talked to me about that, I didn't have to think about it at all.

As far as the Green Arrow story goes, that just kind of happened organically. They knew I was doing the Arsenal thing and then decided I'd do a Black Lantern Green Arrow story in February. Doing the Green Arrow arc seemed a natural transition from that.

Wow, he's a fan of Arsenal and he doesn't seem to mind that they severed his arm? And he's willing to take part in yet another likely editorial mandate? Sorry, but that's yet one more writer who undermines his standings. And it's clear that this is another forced direction by the editors that nobody should have to waste their money on.

I don't expect anything good to come of Green Arrow either, nor do I approve of writing Roy with a mechanical arm, if that's what they have in store.

Labels: bad editors, dc comics, dreadful writers, Titans, violence

In a recent interview with the LA Times' Hero Complex blog, Johns continued to confirm that he plans to darken Barry Allen's world:

GB: Tell me about Barry Allen's voice compared to some of his heroic peers' -- what's his personality and mien?

GJ: Barry is a man who, despite what life throws at him, continues to step forward with a clear purpose and sense of who he is. He believes in justice, sometimes looking at it in black and white. He has no tolerance for those who victimize others. Before he became the Flash, Barry had trouble connecting with people emotionally, he was letting life pass him by. As the Flash, Barry found that excitement in life again and rejoined it with a vengeance. The most frustrating thing for Barry is related to his job as a member of Central City CSI. He investigates crimes that have already happened. Murders he can't stop. No matter how fast he is, that's the past.

Yeah, because we don't have enough murders taking place in Batman's books already, or even Superman, which Johns has been writing of recent. And because bank robberies and carjackings aren't interesting enough. Nothing new here.

The part about Barry having problems connecting emotionally also has me worried. Does that signal that the retcon of his childhood is still going to remain? I hope not, but even if it doesn't, they've already hinted that there may not be as much fun in this new rendition as there was in the Silver/Bronze Age.

Labels: dc comics, dreadful writers, Flash, moonbat writers, violence

The Brattleboro Reformer of Vermont has an article about Ed Hannigan, one of the most famous cover artists during the 1970s and 1980s.

Labels: good artists

I tried signing up for and installing a commenting system from Disqus, but I could not comprehend any of the features, nor could get their options to work on my template. Total madness. I found a page on Ask.Com that told to select "generic code" yet their was nothing like that available on the Disqus dashboard to help.

Great. So now I'll have to revert back to the standard Blogger commenting feature. I tried to save all the comments from the account Haloscan will soon be shutting down as part of their change of system (when I logged in today, it put up a wall telling to either convert to their paid options or just export everything to another system), and with any luck, maybe I can install them manually on past posts. But for now, it appears that I'm forced to return to the old commenting feature. I'll try to use something new in the near future if I can find a program that's comprehensible, and most importantly, works with the template properly.

Edit: okay, I did my best to restore some of the past comments as best as possible. I suppose I could keep trying to install Disqus software, but it was way too challenging for me. Even Intense Debate, to my astonishment, was an incomprehensible mess. Clearly, we've come a long way since Haloscan, which was pretty simple by comparison.

Labels: technical matters

It seems that Haloscan, which I've used for almost 4 years now, is going to be discontinuing its free services as JS-Kit, the company that took them over, turns them into a new pay per service called Echo. And since I cannot afford to pay almost 10 bucks for the new system - a real ripoff price IMO - that's why I'll be trying to see if I can replace Haloscan with Disqus, another free commenting service, or even Intense Debate, if they also have free accounts.

I hope I can import/export all the comments I have in Haloscan to another service I'll get, but there's no telling for now if I can. I'll try to spend time working on it tomorrow, and hope I can get the changes in gear accomplished as best as possible.

Labels: technical matters

Labels: Carnival entries

These are going to be graphic novel specials featuring Superman/Batman in Elseworlds-style stories. Unfortunately, the writers are going to be J. Michael Straczynski and Geoff Johns, whom I've long lost confidence in, and I won't be surprised if they turn out to be just another All-Star style series combined with Ultimate Marvel. The Titans Tower is also uncertain this'll work out. Considering they've already had their [very limited] alternate world line called All-Star Superman/Batman, that's one more reason why this seems pretty pointless.

Labels: Batman, dc comics, dreadful writers, Superman

Now they're not even trying to hide or surprise at the last minute. Comic Book Resources, interviewing the writer Sterling Gates, brings this up. But Super-fans have a chance to object if they find the continuing death spiral in DC Comics aggravating by now. From the article:

Speaking of Supergirl, there's a fair amount of new developments going on in her book right now. While Batman and Superman are teaming up in "World's Finest," DC's solicitations seem to hint that Lana Lang may be deceased - and her collapse in Issue #42 doesn't give fans much hope. Is she really dying in this issue?

Yes. Next question! [Laughs]

Death is no laughing matter, regardless of whether it can be reversed, and if that's how Gates is going to behave, then he shouldn't be allowed to write this book. Seems like too many writers are taking serious subjects and adding insulting expressions to them lately.

Fair enough...but you've worked so hard to re-integrate Lana back into Super-continuity. Why build up this character to the point where she's so vital in Supergirl's life and then schedule her for an untimely end?

Death pushes on a character's emotional boundaries, especially when someone close to a character dies. We've seen Kara go through the grieving process dealing with the death of her father, Zor-El, so I wanted to approach the Lana sequence a little differently.

As we get closer to that issue, Kara's going to start trying to figure out what's wrong with Lana. She's been told by Flamebird that something's "corrupt" in Lana. So now it's sort of a race against time as Kara tries to figure out just what that means.

Judging by issue 49's solicit, though, it looks a lot like Kara won't be able to save the day.

But readers could by raising their voices, voting with their wallets and telling that no, they do not approve of Lana being killed off. The question asked here alludes to something awful they've developed a track record for - bringing back old cast members only to kill them off soon after. And this kind of bankruptcy has taken the place of character development.

While we're on the subject, DC's next overabundant crossover is called War of the Supermen, scheduled to be released in May. No need to pay good money for that either.

Labels: dc comics, dreadful writers, golden calf of death, misogyny and racism, Supergirl, Superman, women of dc

The new series starring Carol Danvers is coming to an end in February, and Newsarama is interviewing its writer, Brian Reed, about it. And one of the things they say here:

Nrama: We've talked about this before, but looking back at Ms. Marvel's growth since issue #1, and there has been a lot of growth for this character through all her ordeals during Civil War and Secret Invasion and everything, do you think you grew as a writer along with her?

Reed: Oh yeah. I stumbled backwards into getting Ms. Marvel, and I thank Andy Schmidt for that to no end. And with every issue, I've learned something else about my job. I'm to the point where, when I write other series, everything I'm putting in those books, I learned from Carol Danvers. Those first half dozen to a dozen issues were just, how do you write a script and get it out the door on time every month? Then, once I got that down, it was how to make that story work better visually and structurally. It was on-the-job training, and I couldn't be more thankful that Marvel paid me for it. But yeah, it's a much better book now than it was then.

Not really. Any character growth they speak of went out the window pretty quickly once Ms. Marvel got stuck in all those crossovers since Civil War and Secret Invasion. Those crossovers are exactly what spoiled any character growth, or chance for it, as the characterization given to her at the time was just as bad as it was for Tony Stark. And if they were going to replace Carol Danvers with Karla Sofen/Moonstone, even for just a couple issues, that too makes it hard to believe they were really trying to make her grow.

What's really sad is that Ms. Marvel's newer series had to debut at a time when Joe Quesada is EIC, and boomeranged back to crossovers they said they were trying to move away from. Carol Danvers is one of those characters with potential to mine, but with people like whom they have in charge now, all that potential was wasted.

Labels: bad editors, crossoverloading, marvel comics, women of marvel

In Perugia, Italy, a five day festival is being held to celebrate the Masked Manhunter's 70th anniversary.

It's a shame it has to take place at a time when DC has made a joke out of themselves by shoving Bruce Wayne out of the picture in his own ongoing series for the sake of limp publicity stunts.

Labels: Batman, dc comics, Europe and Asia

IGN Comics writes an interview with Rick Remender, who's taken up writing Frank Castle's book, and all he's got to offer is deja vu, and worse. As told at the beginning of the article:

Writers and publishers are always promising that their books will have major, lasting implications for their respective characters. Sadly, this doesn't always turn out to be the case. So it was that even despite Rick Remender's past track record, readers weren't quite sure what to make of his claims that major changes were coming for Frank Castle in Dark Reign: The List – Punisher.

As it turned out, though, Remender wasn't exaggerating one bit. Punisher was hit by a one-two punch in November. First, he was forced to torch his recently resurrected family and send them back to the afterlife. Then he was assaulted by an elite team of HAMMER agents. In the end, Frank was cut to ribbons by Daken and his pieces were tossed into a sewer. A tragic end for a tragic character.

But that's only the beginning of Frank's odd journey. In Punisher #11, Remender resurrected his hero as a Frankenstein-like monster fittingly dubbed Franken-Castle. Punisher has awoken to a wholly new and unfamiliar world, but it's a safe bet that some bad people will need punishing. We were recently able to get Remender on the phone, so we asked him all about the decision to kill Punisher and why the character can and should evolve in the Marvel Universe. Remender provided plenty of teases for upcoming issues, and even a glimpse of things to come in his other big Marvel series, Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural.

Gee, didn't Frank already go through something like that after his original 3 series were canceled in 1995, when he "died" and was later resurrected? And yet, that's nothing compared to the disgusting idea of having his family resurrected only to be forced to terminate them yet again. I shudder to think of what'll happen when Spider-Man and Uncle Ben Parker have the misfortune of going through with something as horrific as that. Besides, the Punisher's world may be a vicious one, but it's not meant to be a horror-genre title.

A little more from the interview:

We had a couple ideas of what to do once Frank had died. Ultimately the choice we made was the one that said when you have a world full of Silver Surfers and Galactuses that eat worlds and magical crystals and Spider-Men, this needed to be something that fit into the Marvel Universe and was big and fantastic and fun. So the rabbit hole we dropped Frank down was one with a lot of the Marvel monsters.

IGN Comics: And I guess this is a clear case where there's an advantage to having a Punisher series set within he Marvel Universe, because this is something you could certainly never do in Punisher MAX.

Remender: No, and nor should you. That's the beauty of having the two titles. There are people who want the straight Punisher, who want him out there taking down the mob and doing gritty crime noir stuff with all the ultra-violence and the great things that can happen in MAX. And you've got Jason Aaron with Steve Dillon doing it. There it is. There are people who don't think Frank can fit in the 616 universe. If you think that, then you have the MAX book.

And it seems we have the Punisher book set in the 616 world as well that's now churning out material worthy of a horror movie, and is probably even worse now than the MAX title. Really, I can't see much logic in Remender's words. But what really leaves me with a bad aftertaste is that Frank was forced to wipe out his own family again, which not only cheapens the original tragedy, it also insults the character, a very sad staple in today's comic book storytelling.

Labels: dreadful writers, marvel comics, Punisher, violence

GQ presents a flash slideshow of comic book depictions of concept cars given comic book treatment by artist Paul Pope, who drew at least 3 based on real life concept cars (via The Car Connection).

Labels: technology