Back issue bins can turn up interesting items, but why not trade collections?

CTV News wrote about what people find in back issue bins, at conventions like FCBD and the Calgary Expo:

If you’re the right kind of geek, there’s a good chance you’ve spent some time lately rooting through comic book back issue bins.

Calgary Expo and Free Comic Book Day are just freshly behind us.

Maybe you were hoping the next flip would bring you a particular something on your list for a mere dollar or two.

Maybe a successful dive through the cheap reads means getting exactly issues 520 and 521 of Journey Into Mystery.

Or maybe you were flipping aimlessly, and it was by the Comic Book Gods’ good grace you hit on the “fear-filled final issues” of that specific Marvel Comics series that someone else either didn’t want anymore or couldn’t sell at face value.

It was a rescue mission, regardless.

How comic book collectors approach it is what can vary, says Bill Bateman from Alpha Comics in Calgary.

“While some are looking for anything to fill in the blanks in their collections, others are looking for that elusive rare book that may have been missed by the store,” Bateman told CTV News.

“Some people show up with a binder of notes showing what they’re missing, (while) some have apps on their phones that do the job a lot faster, and some just know all of the books well enough.”

Sure, there can be gems to find in back issue bins, but if the same issues have been reprinted in trade collections, why must we hear about would-be collectors zeroing in almost entirely on said bins and not searching for paperback/hardcovers reprinting the very same issues? Why not even whether anybody wants specific issues reprinted, if they haven't yet been? That's what I never seem to see these news outlets bring up, nor do they interview people who do. But trade collections or paperback/hardcovers are what comprise the bulk of my collection now, and I think it's working a lot better that way, because thanks to the Marvel Epic Collections and the more recently launched DC Finest archives, I now own hundreds, perhaps thousands of old issues reprinted through these forms of collections for older comics. And these news companies don't want to talk about how great those can be for everybody who hopes to acquire a complete run of various classic series? That's just the problem here.

Rhiannon Mesler says comic book bin diving “runs on the same machinery that powers a slot machine.”

Likewise, the University of Lethbridge marketing professor and expert in consumer behaviour and decision-making says, “the same machinery social media platforms have spent fifteen years optimizing.”

“What makes it irresistible isn’t the find. It’s the unpredictability,” she says.

“Neuroscientists have shown that the brain’s dopamine system fires hardest not when reward arrives, but when reward arrives unexpectedly.

“And that the dopamine signal actually peaks when the odds are roughly 50-50, when you genuinely don’t know whether the next comic in the box is going to be ‘The One.’”

They make it sound more like a game of hide-and-seek than searching for the best reading material. Another clue the speculator mentality plays a part in this whole affair, which effectively ruins any attempt to sound convincing in their fandom.

In addition to the above, ComicBook also told about a guy who, with aid from his dad, managed to purchase at least 400 of the Amazing Spider-Man issues printed up till around the mid-90s:

Many times, comic book collectors are only interested in building a collection for bragging rights or to hopefully one day make money off of the collectibles. However, there are other times when a collector has a more personal reason for collecting memorabilia, and it has a purer meaning than just looking for the big bucks. In some cases, the idea of collecting comics or other items of memorabilia is passed down through the generations. In those cases, it is more about the relationship between a person and their parents, and that makes completing a collection something that means so much more.

This was the case for a Redditor known as joeltheconner, who just revealed that he finally completed his Amazing Spider-Man run of the first 400 issues. He then added that he has his father to thank for this fact.

In his post, joeltheconner wrote that his dad was a comic book collector and would take him to comic shops when he was a kid. However, he said that he was never as interested in comics until he was nine years old. “At the age of 9. My dad gave me a copy of ASM 300 to read. I was hooked instantly,” he wrote. “From then, we started collecting together. For two years we took our vacations to Chicago so we could go to the big convention up there.”

Around 1998, he said he lost interest and stopped collecting, and then moved on. However, he admitted there was something his dad had said to him before that he thought was cool. They discussed having the full run of a specific comic book title. He chose Amazing Spider-Man and decided he would collect the run of the first 400 issues. That led to a few years ago, when his dad asked if he was still interested in completing that collection. His dad then did something that meant the world to him.

His dad had his “prized” Silver Surfer comics, and he offered to sell those to the local shop to get credit so that his son could work on finishing his Amazing Spider-Man run. “I honestly tried to talk him out of it, but it sounded like a really fun thing for him and I to do together again,” he wrote. “From the first time I stepped back into a shop, it took me right back and I was hooked again. 2 years later, today I bought the last book that I needed to complete the run.”

That book was Amazing Spider-Man #2, which was the first appearance of the Vulture and which was the first book where Spider-Man fought a superpowered villain (Chameleon was the first villain in the debut issue). This man’s dad gave up a prized possession to work with his son to help fulfill a dream. It was obvious that it meant the world to this man. “It’s so hard sometimes for sons to tell their fathers what they mean to them, and I’m going to figure out a way to really tell him,” he wrote. “But thank you, Dad. I owe more to you in this life than I could never repay.”

While it's great for dads and sons to do all sorts of things together, it's simply ludicrous how somebody would like to get as much of Spidey when it mattered in pamphlets, but not in trade collections, which at this point is precisely what I own. As of now, I own, for example, the first 12 ASM Epic archives, and have plenty more coming after that, and hope the ASM run will be more or less completed eventually, so that then, I can try to buy complete sets myself, though admittedly, at this point I'm hesitant to buy those collecting the Clone Saga, which, while it may not be as awful as some other artistic humiliations to come down the pike later, was still very damaging to the Spidey legacy, and certainly the part where Peter assaulted Ben Reilly in frustration and accidentally injured Mary Jane when she tried to get him to stop, after which Peter just ran out of the laboratory in horror instead of doing what he could to mend the damage to MJ. That kind of scene is far more reprehensible than claiming Ben was the protagonist all along between 1975-95 (and it was soon confirmed by writers that Peter was the protagonist within that time frame, not Ben, in their efforts to apologize to Spider-fans they alienated).

And I have plenty more Epic Collection and Finest archives I've bought, including a few dedicated to Superman's series and spinoffs, all 3 for Black Panther, several for Daredevil, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Dr. Strange, Justice Society/League, Punisher, Luke Cage, X-Men, Capt. America, Thor, Hawkman, Defenders, Moon Knight and even Excalibur. I also have several omnibuses to boot. And I hope other Spidey spinoffs like the 1976-98 Spectacular will see some Epic archives eventually too. That's what serious "collectors" should really be buying, and considering the back issues are highly likely to become increasingly expensive over time, if they really want to read this stuff, that's why they'll buy the trade collections.

So again, why are we still seeing this otherwise absurd news about people searching for back issues instead of paperbacks/hardcovers? That's another huge letdown with modern news coverage of comidom. Because in the end, it only hints they still don't take the medium seriously, otherwise, they would talk about all these reprint collections and how they can introduce new generations to older classics as a great reading pastime. And this demonstrates how the MSM continues to belittle the medium, by not highlighting a far more convenient approach to collecting notable stories of the past decades by today's standards. Unless something is done to dissuade speculators and collectors from back issues and try trade collections instead, the problem's going to continue for at least another decade or three.

What Tom Brevoort says about the JLA/Avengers crossover

Popverse relays what the galling Marvel editor told a podcast interview about the making of the JLA/Avengers crossover, and how fans reacted to Superman besting Thor:

Marvel's longest-serving editor, Tom Brevoort, has a pretty thick skin when it comes to fan outrage. Having overseen decades of big narrative swings come out of the House of Ideas, he'd have to. And yet, there's still one moment of reader blowback that stands out to him, even decades after the choice in question went down. The reason?

Fans asked for it before it happened.

Brevoort was talking about his witness to unpopular decisions at Marvel (which comes with, we should note, absolute libraries worth of popular ones) on the Word Balloon Comics Podcast with host John Siuntres.

"I still hear from people that are angry about Superman [vs.] Thor," Brevoort told him.

Specifically, Brevoort is referring to the confrontation between the Man of Steel and God of Thunder that happened in 2003's JLA/Avengers #3. Krypton's favorite son ended up soundly defeating Asgard's, much to the dismay of Thor fans everywhere, but while people were grumpy about it after it happened, they were foaming at the mouth for it beforehand.

"The funny part for me," the current X-Men editor explained, "Is when we announced the project, Kurt [Busiek, writer] set up a dedicated email address that was like, 'If people have suggestions for what they want to see, email them there. We'll read through stuff and we'll look and see if there's anything.' One of the things that came in by the pound was fans on both sides of the equation saying, 'We want real fights with a real winner and a real loser. No mealy-mouthing about it.'"

I think a better complaint the audience could've raised is whether this represented one of the biggest problems with Brevoort's resume since the early 2000s - heroes clashing with each other instead of uniting against villains. Well okay, I realize that some of the leading villains in the story were Giganto, Fin Fang Foom and Krona, who IIRC, originally appeared in the Silver Age in Green Lantern. Of course, there's other problems with the story too, like retaining the mandate that put Kyle Rayner in the GL role, and Hal Jordan in the Spectre role?!? Based on that, this is why the tale doesn't age well.

That said, if we look at this story as a legitimate match between superheroes and their powers, skills and strategies, why does it matter so much whether Thor or Superman wins a duel against either? That's not what should count as a triumph. What matters far more if if there's a story where two or more superheroes from different universes and publishers can win a battle against formidable villains from either/both universes. But most importantly of all, what matters is the story merit. I think it's been unhealthy for mainstream comicdom in the long run to concoct these crossovers for the sake of pitting heroes vs each other. Why, this kind of event may have been what later led to 2007's Civil War, where fans reportedly told the MSM they were rooting for say, either Captain America or Iron Man, but no word was ever given as to the entertainment value of the overall story (and there wasn't). What's the use of these events if they're built on turning fandom against itself? That's what these crossovers feel like now, and it probably never occurred to anyone before.

All that told, something that needs to be made clear about Brevoort is that he's shameless, considering he's been party to many of the most unpopular decisions at Marvel, including erasure of the Spider-marriage, not to mention "narrative swings". And they have the gall to sugarcoat even that. If all a crossover tale like JLA vs. Avengers can do is present a divisive premise that has the effect of encouraging fans to choose a side as though one hero's less valuable than the other, that's what makes these kind of crossovers tasteless. Which was the case when it came to Avengers vs X-Men. In a time where there was more quality, it would've been far better if there'd been a team-up rather than a versus match, even if it was the villains who were pulling the strings. Now, both publishers have collapsed.

A biography of inker Vince Colletta

Apollo Magazine (archive link) spoke about a new biography for the late inker Vince Colletta:

The first comic strip with a recurring character appeared in 19th-century London: Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday (1884), a then-unusual combination of words and images. Yet while comic books were traditionally dismissed as a debased form of entertainment for American and Japanese adolescent boys (as well as the sources for a multi-billion-dollar film empire), a new book shows how they come with their own traditions and virtuosos. Drawn to Beauty: The Life and Art of Vince Colletta (Black Spring Press) explores the work of an illustrator best known for his work ‘inking’ Jack Kirby’s drawings in Marvel’s Thor and Fantastic Four comics. Colletta (1923–91) is regarded as one of the finest inkers – the artists who translate the sketches into the image that is printed on the page. He was renowned for his delicacy and for giving the final shape to some of Marvel’s most popular characters, before leaving to eventually become the art director of rival company DC. But it’s what he did in between the two roles that might have become most influential.

Kirby may be one famous figure who's never gotten enough wide recognition, but Colletta's another who could use some more too. So it's great to know he's also received a biography of his work, long after he passed away. And there's plenty more figures from better eras who could use some biographies too, and hopefully will see them in time.

"Comics accurate" costumes don't guarantee a movie will be successful

Or that they're based on the traditional designs of decades past. The Inquirer wrote about the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday film, which appears to add the X-Men to the Marvel film machine:

When I read comic books, I prefer issues drawn and written by proven artists with an excellent track record. I approach the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) with the same level of scrutiny. Let’s be honest: after some recent experimental phases, we’ve all been longing for that “all-time great story” feeling to return. On January 6, 2026, Marvel Studios didn’t just release a trailer; they delivered a seismic shift with the third teaser for ‘Avengers: Doomsday.’ This teaser alone blows out of the water every other teaser that came before it. This hits hard!

Once I saw this specific teaser, I felt goosebumps because I knew when things were about to change for the better. And if only they had done this long ago, but who are we to bring that point up or even complain? What matters is that finally, and I will be using that adverb a few more times throughout my newest pop culture piece because it is about damn time, they showcase what a true (Jim Lee era) X-Man looks like (the classic blue and yellow costume) and embrace their comic book origins from that specific timeline (early ’90s) in Marvel Comics. It is a sight to behold no matter how fleeting it was for me to see it.

If the earlier teasers featuring the returns of Chris Evans as “Captain America” and Chris Hemsworth as “Thor” were just the appetizers, this X-Men-centric reveal is the main course we’ve been craving since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019. Finally, they are pulling the trigger, incorporating the best of the X-Men into the fold, and are giving what the longtime fans have been clamoring for, which is to have the X-Men as part of the MCU, because, let us all be honest here with the situation, to have no mutants in the MCU is as dumb as a box of rocks. It is silly, illogical, and senseless because the X-Men are one of the biggest reasons why Marvel Comics became the titans they are in the comic book industry, and why adapting comic book characters from Marvel Comics to the big screen became a thing in the first place.

Umm, even Spider-Man is one of the reasons why Marvel once became a titan...but the columnist is oblivious to how they fell since the turn of the century, dragging their creations into increasingly pointless directions that only served as political statements with no entertainment value involved. He's also oblivious to how Lee watered down his art style in the past decade for the sake of woke points. And the part about the blue and yellow outfits is confusing, because wasn't that the original outfits the first 5 X-Men had in the Silver Age? Within a few years, the artists were drawing them distinctive outfits instead, so I'm not sure what the columnist is lecturing us about here.

And I for one am not clamoring for the X-Men to be incorporated into the Marvel movieverse proper after all the wokeness that ensued in the past several years. Unfortunately, they're awfully late, and the X-Men's addition alone does not a talented movie make. Whether the costumes are verbatim to what was seen in comics in any era is moot. And, how isn't it silly and illogical to force political correctness upon the films that only proves divisive, as the 4th Thor movie did?

Some would-be entertainment writers sure know how to obscure the crucial issues of merit. This puff piece from the Inquirer is no different.

A columnist who was convinced to try modern comics because of woke Jason Aaron

A writer at Popverse claims he was encouraged to read more modern mainstream because of Marvel's "War of the Realms" crossover that Jason Aaron, one of the wokest writers in modern comicdom, was involved in producing. And, he belittles the complaints of the traditional fanbase that was driven away:

Today, the spectral form hovering above every conversation about the current state of the comic book industry is the amorphous group called 'new readers.' These 'new readers' are used to drive a wedge between Western comic book readership (which, in many conversations I've observed, tends to get flattened down to superhero books from Marvel and DC) and the popularity of manga, manhua, and manhwa from East Asia. The cynical narrative goes that the history of in-universe continuity reboots in both Marvel and DC Comics has driven away 'new readers,' who are reportedly too intimidated to take the plunge.

Ahem. It's not just that now routine reboots are dispiriting. It's also that moral and common sense were thrown away, and only so many characters from both universes had their personalities turned inside out for no good reason. All this, along with the very events the writer is sugarcoating, are what discouraged fandom from continuing, and he has the gall to call it "cynical", but not the writing of woke scribes like Aaron.

Suffice to say, I've never really agreed with this narrative, and I have writer Jason Aaron to thank for that. At Fan Expo Canada 2025, Aaron talked about the approach he takes as a writer to ensure that his books remain both exciting to returning comic book fans while "accessible" to newbies.

"I want every book I write to be accessible to somebody who's never read this character before, whether that's when I was doing Thor, doing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," says Aaron. "For me as a writer, you always have to show your work. I can't expect that any of you kind of show up to the party already invested in these characters... When I'm writing the book, I have to think of it as you've been stuck in a bunker for 40 years, and you've never heard of these characters before, and you just came out and the first thing that happens is for some reason somebody hands you this first issue of this comic, you need to get everything to get you excited about these characters in the pages of that book."

When I heard Jason Aaron say this, my hackles were raised, because I have him to thank for how I got into present-day Marvel Comics. Without getting too bogged down in my origin story as a comic book reader, I was that reader who was stuck in a bunker for 40 years - and that bunker was Walt Simonson's run on Thor (as far as bunkers go, it was luxurious). It wasn't until I was a college student that I finally had the money to get into comics, so I bought an omnibus of Simonson's Thor with funds from a research fellowship I was in. I later branched out and got into G. Willow Wilson's Ms. Marvel and then Greg Pak and Frank Cho's Totally Awesome Hulk, but I didn't go much further than that. I was overwhelmed by the state of contemporary Marvel Comics and the endless aisles of the white and red trade paperback dress that lined the shelves of Forbidden Planet - until I picked up War of the Realms by Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman in 2019.

Wow, one of the biggest advocates of social justice pandering is who convinced him to read Marvel's modern output? Well, it's really no shock at all. These modern news writers don't have what it takes to appreciate older stories, let alone encourage audiences to buy and read them to see what stands or falls on its own merits, and figure out how to develop stories in a modern context that can actually resonate. Interesting he also considered other social justice advocates like Wilson and Pak scribes whose works were worth reading, but not figures like Mike Baron or Chuck Dixon, or even liberals who were blacklisted by the Big Two because they weren't considered PC enough, like Larry Hama. I'm sure the citation of such writers and artists as Aaron, Wilson and Pak was no accident. It's insulting to say Simonson's Thor run is the equivalent of being "stuck in a bunker" if it's entertaining, and how is sticking with leftist PC nonsense of modern times not being "stuck in a bunker"?

Another odd thing about this puff piece is that it almost sounds like Thor was the only Marvel comic he ever read years ago. It's enough to wonder if he really is a Marvel fan, or he'd be chatting about how even early Golden Age output was far better than what we see today. He continues:

Marvel's War of the Realms was a perfect introduction for me to the larger Marvel Universe

At the time, War of the Realms was Marvel's most recent company-wide event, and I had been following Marvel's promotion of the event on social media closely because I could tell that it was a Thor-centric event. I saw the cover for War of th[e] Realms #3 and noticed that Spider-Man was wearing what appeared to be a winter hat while hiding from Frost Giants with Luke Cage, Captain America, Iron Fist, and Wolverine, and that won me over. Why did Spider-Man have a hat on his head? Is Thor going to be okay? Can he let Luke Cage keep Mjolnir, please?

Oh for heaven's sake, this is just so dumb, right down to how every other character is depicted lifting the Uru hammer as much as Thor himself. And despite any attempt the columnist might make to sound like the contrary, it doesn't actually focus convincingly on story merit.

War of the Realms was my ticket back to present-day Marvel, and I devoured the trade paperback in one sitting on the bus in Los Angeles. Obviously, I was a big fan of Thor, and the fact that War of the Realms featured Malekith as the villain was a perfect jumping-on point for me from Simonson's Thor. Dauterman drew Malekith with the type of enthusiasm that the character deserves (is Malekith the reason why I always play as a drow in Dungeons & Dragons? More on this at 10). I didn't know all the characters in the story, but that was okay - the action was so exciting that I was motivated to learn more about who they were.

Please, do tell us about it. Somehow, it's hard to believe one could actually read a whole trade collection that easily on a bus too without getting carsick. In any case, if he only got into the crossover because Malekith the Dark Elf was featured, I'm sorry, but that's not a reason. Yet at the same time, I think he's exaggerating the action factor deliberately, and again, he's given clues this is about anything but merit.

Even though I hadn't yet read Aaron's run on Thor that led up to War of the Realms, it was easy for me to immerse myself in the story because the premise is simple: Malekith wants to make everything cold. He always does! Then there were jaw-dropping moments peppered in the event, like Daredevil wielding Heimdall's sword and becoming the God Without Fear, that had me hooked. I got the sense that if War of the Realms was only the tip of the iceberg for this era of Marvel Comics, then there was plenty of stuff for me to enjoy.

This too is hopelessly silly. If all he really cared about was seeing other heroes besides Thor brandish weapons belonging to the Norse deities, then it sounds awfully superficial, and any discussion of merit becomes all the more ambiguous. Most of what he brings up are just cheap attempts to have every possible character take on certain "characteristics" of other Marvel cast members, and these alone don't add up to anything meaningful. Even Spider-Man's black symbiote costume during Secret Wars had more meaning than this.

And then the rest is history. I jumped into the Krakoan era of X-Men comics, ascended into a realm of my own from Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto's Daredevil run, and became obsessed with this character called Swordmaster while fully knowing that I was probably the only Swordmaster fan in America. And look where we are now: Lin Lie is the face of Iron Fist for a new generation of Marvel fans.

Thank you, Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman, for freeing me from my bunker.

I guess he has no thanks to offer to independent creators by contrast. There's a lot of these phonies who can only seem to get as far as the mainstream, and never give the independents any love. And how about that, he even considers a diversity pandering replacement for Danny Rand a big deal. That says all you need to know right there what he really thinks of the creations of more talented veterans like Roy Thomas. Though Rand may still be around, the way they're handling him now is no improvement. It's also laughable how the writers keep resorting to alliterative names for new characters. Just because Stan Lee made use of the idea doesn't make their employment of it as good. Mainly because Lee made his stories more entertaining than theirs will ever be. And I've got a feeling the columnist wouldn't be interested or impressed if there were romantic tales explored in these stories, old or new.

In the end, it only sounds like another attempt to sugarcoat how awful mainstream superhero fare become in the past 2 decades, and the continued fluff-coating of modern comicdom is all that's gone wrong with how it's spoken about. The obsession with forced politics in these stories is another awful mistake that was made. If they're not willing to write nice long essays about older items and why they matter more, they definitely fail to convince they're actually Marvel/DC fans.

Marvel Rivals game contains LGBT propaganda

Warner Todd Huston at Breitbart reveals the Marvel Rivals computer game turns out to have LGBT ideology in its script and content, something that may not have been mentioned before, but it's hardly a shock if it does:

Marvel Rivals video game is ramping up the LGBTQ+ representation with its fourth game release this month by featuring the sister of Thor, the Asgardian God of Thunder, who is a lesbian with a transgender husband.

The storyline for the game, put out by NetEase Games in collaboration with Marvel Games, follows villain character Doctor Doom who meets his alternate reality self — who is a hero — and that causes a “timestream entanglement” in which heroes and corresponding villains come to fight each other for domination over the universe. It is a first person shooter-styled game first released last year and already has several gay characters introduced.

The new release is reportedly set to add the character Vanguard Angela (Aldrif Odinsdottir), who is the daughter of Asgard’s God King, Odin. That makes her the sister of popular Marvel comic book hero, Thor, God of Thunder.

In the comics, the character, Angela, is married to a male character named Sera who was later written as having “transitioned” to female in the comics.

Since the name of the character is Angela, it reminded me that years ago, the disgraced Neil Gaiman created a character called Angela who originally appeared in Image comics like Spawn, and was later taken over to Marvel. This wouldn't be the same character, would it? Maybe not, but if it is, then based on Gaiman's ideological track record, it would hardly be a surprise if this was more faithful to his visions than some might think, along with how the Sera character is scripted. What's certainly possible for now is that this character could draw from stories of the past decade, which were becoming plenty woke by that time (so I wish Huston would give more specific examples like issue number and volume, which would make it easier to do research).

Needless to say, if this is how they're going about producing Marvel Rivals, then there was no point in buying and playing it in the first place. That the recent, revived Marvel Swimsuit Special was used as a means of promoting this makes the whole affair additionally embarrassing. Rivals is decidedly another form of merchandize that's not giving the whole concept of merchandize a good name, and all concerned families would do well to avoid the video game as much as they're surely avoiding the live action Marvel movies at this point.

Even in Britain, there's specialty auctions

The BBC reports there's an auctioneering company that's selling tons of old pamphlets on the speculator market, just like in the USA:

Hundreds of 1960s comic books are set to be auctioned later this month, with an estimated total value of up to £7,000.

The line-up is made up mostly of Marvel comics and is due to go under the hammer in Lichfield, Staffordshire, on 29 September.

Superheroes featured include Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer, X-Men, the Avengers, the Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Sub-Mariner, Doctor Strange, Daredevil and Thor.

There are more than 50 lots - with highlights including the Fantastic Four #48, #49 and #50, which feature the first appearances of the Silver Surfer and Galactus, valued at between £400 and £600.

And they're going to be sold to the highest bidder and locked away in vaults till they're sold round and round again, huh? Unfortunately, even in the UK, that's likely to end up being the case, when here, they have a chance to donate them to a local arts museum instead, and everyone can see these famous old treasures of the 20th century for themselves. This continues to do a disfavor for Stan Lee's resume, and it's tiring decades ago how auctions keep making headlines like these, when the buyers have no interest in purchasing these so they can build up a history display for museums.

New Marvel Swimsuit special's interior (and insufficient) pages, unsurprisingly, feature very dull artwork

Bounding Into Comics says the interior pages of the new Marvel Swimsuit special for 2025, most unsurprisingly, suffer from sexless art, proving PC wokeness is still a severe problem to a certain extent at Marvel, and even the cover variants by J. Scott Campbell obviously don't provide enough alleviation:

In a disappointing but ultimately unsurprising result, Marvel Comics has fumbled its latest Marvel Swimsuit Special by filling its pages not with titillating beachwear artwork of various Marvel superheroes, but instead what is perhaps the most aggressively sexless collection of ‘pin-ups’ ever put to paper.

The first such special in 30 years, the newly-released Marvel Swimsuit Special: Friends, Foes & Rivals one-shot was touted by its eponymous publisher as “continuing the tradition” of their early 90s swimsuit specials, which ran across the early 90s and were known for presenting readers with page after page of gratuitous Marvel-themed cheesecake, all wrapped in a very loose but fun narrative that served solely to give a passing excuse as to why the featured heroes and villains were hitting the beach instead of each other.

And while the narrative of the latest special, as presented by writers Tim Seeley and Tony Fleecs with art from Nick Bradshaw and Rachelle Rosenberg, is admittedly enjoyable, the same cannot be said for a vast majority of its collected pin-ups.

Now, to be clear, this appraisal is not based on an vague idea of some generally accepted ‘sexiness threshold’. After all, as the old adage goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Nor is it rooted in a desire for said pin-ups to be more explicit, as Marvel Comics is still an all-ages publisher and thus it is understood that the content must err on the side of caution when it comes to such risqué materials.

Rather, it stems from the fact that while said pin-ups are all expertly illustrated, most of them are not only less enticing than any of the issue’s covers, but completely devoid of any energy, sexual or otherwise – which is the absolute last thing anyone wants from a swimsuit special.

On the subject of "all ages", I'm sorry, but this misses how, since the turn of the century, Marvel's become far less family friendly than before, if you take any jarringly violent content that's turned up since as an example. Why, even before that, were Daredevil and the Punisher "all ages" by that time? Nope. Things began to incrementally change in the Bronze Age when the CCA was modified.

That said, I've been able to look over more of the 2025 special myself, and while the examples BIC presents are uninspired - especially the page with Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman - there are at least a few more that're somewhat better (such as one by Josuha Cassara and Marte Gracia), yet one can validly argue that what sinks the special is how it keeps getting interrupted with action style pages and panels (at least 16 of those) that we'd expect in a regular title, but have no business being here. Now that I recall, the original 5 specials from 1991-95, in addition to being something like almost 50 pages, also began with something like splash pages and caption narratives to explain the self-contained premises. It wasn't like this new special at all, where the art quality of even the more comic-style panels is very mediocre and muted. Also, the whole 2025 special is probably less than 40 pages, and the aforementioned action-panels take up room that could've been dedicated to more artwork if the editors wanted to. It doesn't help that some of the color palettes and backgrounds in 2025's special look muted, in contrast to the more vibrant colors of the original specials, and some of the art isn't as detailed as the originals were. Also, unlike the originals, there's no narrative caption boxes here, humorous or otherwise.

And yes, 3 or 4 of the 2025 illustrations are reprints of stuff that was already previously published, so again, that's hardly accomplishing much. After this, I think what I'd really like to see is a paperback/hardcover reprint of the original 5 specials, at least a handful of whose pages have seen reprints over the years in other compilations, but not as part of a dedicated reprint project for the 5 Swimsuit Specials. So, perhaps what everybody should really ask for is that the originals see their own reprint, and let's hope they don't price it too high for a paperback/hardcover. As for the new one, truly the only good thing is the variant covers by artists like Campbell, yet that just gives a new meaning to judging a book by its cover. And if in the end, only the covers are worthy, then what's the use wasting money buying a special that in contrast to the original 5, could end up being forgotten soon enough? Time will tell if anybody's excited enough about this 2025 swimsuit special to cherish more like it.

Filmmaker who directed Thor: Ragnarok will direct a 3rd Judge Dredd adaptation

The Hollywood Reporter says Taika Waititi, who previously directed comics adaptations like Thor: Ragnarok will now take up what may be the 3rd live action adaptation so far of British comic Judge Dredd:

Judge Dredd. Taika Waititi.

Those two names have studio heads and executives sitting up this week as one of the hottest packages of the year hits the Hollywood marketplace.

Waititi, the Thor: Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit filmmaker, is attached to direct a new feature film take on Dredd, the popular and violent British comic book character.

Drew Pearce, the scribe known for his action movie-filled resume thanks to titles such as Fall Guy and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, is attached to write the script. [...]

Sources say Pearce and Waititi both grew up with the books and are friends who have been trying to find a project to work on together for years. [...]

The logline is being kept under the visor, but the pitch is said to take inspiration more from the comics than the previous screen iterations, leaning into the world-building and dark humor. It is also meant to be a fun sci-fi blockbuster that nonetheless speaks to this moment in culture. The desire is to see the movie launch a Dredd universe that could be explored with additional movies and shows across various platforms.

When they say it "speaks to this moment", that's a thinly-veiled hint this is bound to be another excuse for conservative-bashing, and Trump-bashing, considering the original Dredd premise was supposed to be a futuristic dystopia where the USA is made to look like a whole big police state. And if they think defending this as a satire is going to convince otherwise, forget it. "Satire" as we know it has long gotten way out of hand.

And it's just like Hollywood to consider a violence-laden comic like this the perfect example for building a whole franchise out of. Something so bleak, and not something optimistic or less reliant on jarring violence as Dredd is. That's exactly why the talk of dark humor doesn't impress.

Jack Kirby exhibition at LA's Skirball Center in California

The Los Angeles Daily News reports there's a new exhibition spotlighting Jack Kirby's artwork at the Skirball Center. And wouldn't you know it, something awkward comes up:

“He then, with Stan Lee, created the Marvel revolution of the ’60s,” he says. “And created the Hulk and the Fantastic Four and Iron Man and Thor. Then he did work at DC through the ’70s, creating a whole other universe of characters. So there’s the creative story we need to tell.

As far as I know, Don Heck is the artist credited with Shell-Head's introduction, and while Kirby may have done artwork for IM, he wasn't the co-creating artist as Heck was. It makes me think, when is Heck going to get an exhibition like this? It's always great for Kirby to see attention drawn to his art, but there's plenty of lesser-known artists who deserve the same regard.

Reed, Saunders and Skirball curator Michele Urton agreed early on that Kirby’s art had to lead the way.

“We would allow that to illuminate the story of Jack’s life and his impact on popular culture,” Reed says. “And likewise, how popular culture influenced and informed his work.”

The rooms of the exhibition are full of vibrant color and include all manner of treasures, including a variety of original artwork; a wall of comics featuring the first appearances of Kirby-created characters; a room depicting the evolution of his explosive style and much more.

“The title ‘Heroes and Humanity’ is incredibly apt,” Reed says. “We lead with the art, not only the comic art but the private works, the things that Jack did purely for his own artistic satisfaction, his collages and fine art, his work for animation as a character designer.

Once, Kirby doubtless had an impact on pop culture, but today, much of that influence disappeared, as more PC writers/artists came about, and if you don't see him in discussion much in modern times, that's because too much wokeness has led to a sad situation.

“Captain America Comics No. 1” came out in December 1940, a year into World War II for many countries. In it, Captain America punches Adolf Hitler in the nose, a sign of how concerned its co-creators Jack Kirby and Joe Simon were about the European theater a full year before Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war.

Which reminds me that years ago, when Simon was still alive, he told that he drew an illustration of Cap smashing Osama bin Laden, something mainstream comicdom has gotten to the point where they would vehemently refuse to publish it, and if it hasn't been published, who knows if we'll ever see it on public display at all? And all because long ago, after September 11, 2001, the industry cowed from the subject of Islamic terrorism.

In the exhibit, the curators walked a fine line not to link Kirby’s personal life too directly to the comics he created, Reed says. But some facts are clear.

“We know from speaking to his family and his loved ones and his friends that he was a lifelong liberal,” Reed says. “He personally fought in World War II. He was a first-generation Jewish American who dealt directly with the threat of Nazism and fascism.

“He famously did stories in the ’60s and ’70s that were quite socially progressive, and he actively opposed Richard Nixon,” he says. “Certain things we can say as matters of historical record. What we can’t do is say what Jack would think or do on any given topic.”

Interesting how they acknowledge that yes, Kirby was a liberal, but it's not like he ever literally supported the kind of narrow visions today's leftism does. Unsurprisingly, they don't make clear that "nazism" was an abbreviation of National Socialism, and socialism is a concept that modern leftism's become more accepting of, which could explain why the newspaper doesn't have the courage to get into that topic. That said, there were valid issues to make against Nixon, who offensively thought abortions were acceptable based on interracial affairs. That was absolutely disgusting of him, and it wasn't the only wrong he'd ever done. So if Kirby ever took issue with Nixon, he had every right to be concerned. Nixon was nothing more than a shoddy example of a so-called "conservative" who really made himself look as bad as the leftists of the 19th century USA.

“You can see, after he got back from World War II, his work shifts,” Reed adds. “Even when you’re looking at the Thor comics or the New Gods comics, you can see that he was directly conscious of the reality and horror of conflict and war when he’s telling these stories.”

Yes, but what they may not make clear in the interview is that totalitarian tyranny is what makes wars against civilized communities, and without better education instead of indoctrination, how are we to mend all the damage and prevent such badness from occurring in the future?

Here's another report from Variety:

According to co-curator Patrick A. Reed, assembling all of the materials needed for such a retrospective was often a tough challenge. “Comic books were a disposable media, so none of this work was preserved by the publishers. None of it was archived,” Reed told Variety. “Original comic art from the 20th century largely exists in the hands of private collectors, and those are because those people collected it. So the difficult thing is finding specific pieces of original artwork.”

And none of those collectors, private or otherwise, ever donated or sold it to museums, private or otherwise? See, this again makes clear what's surely gone wrong with the whole speculator business - do these collectors want the art to be seen and known about or not? So long as they keep hogging it and shutting it all away in vaults, it'll be impossible to escape the feeling that deep down, they're actually embarrassed by the medium instead of impressed.

As a fan of Kirby's work, I think it's wonderful he's getting an exhibition devoted to his contributions as artist and writer. But it's uncertain if in the long run, he's made an impact on pop culture, and lest we forget that, less than a decade after he passed away, Captain America as a storytelling vehicle was largely destroyed by political correctness at the time Quesada/Jemas/Alonso were running Marvel. And that influence of theirs is doubtless still hurting Steve Rogers as a comics creation even today. How can one celebrate Kirby's arts when modern comicdom's contributors let it down?

Thor undergoes the same direction taken in the mid-2000s

Comic Book Movie says Marvel's repeating the same momentary demise premise that was written up in the mid-2000s, when Thor and several other pagan deities were put in the grave briefly as Dan Jurgens was concluding his 1998-2004 run, and then they were resurrected when J. Michael Straczynski began his short but quite dreadful run:

Next month, Immortal Thor #23 by writer Al Ewing and artist Jan Bazaldua marks the beginning of Thor Odinson's last stand. A saga that's been building since Ewing started his acclaimed run on the series, this new arc finds Thor alone against the fury of the malevolent Gods of Utgard.

The omens can no longer be denied. The prophecy can no longer be delayed. The hour has come for the God of Thunder's demise!

The story concludes in Immortal Thor #25, on sale in July, featuring Justin Greenwood's art in his Marvel Comics debut. However, death means very little in the world of comic books, and the Marvel Comics press release confirms that we should "stay tuned on the months ahead" to learn about the next chapter of Ewing's run.

Whether Thor is revived or not, woke writer Ewing's helming is reason enough to avoid it. Why should we even be told a premise like this, which has long been little more than tabloid trash? They're just irritating purist fans with another example of desecrating Stan Lee's legacy for the sake of profiteering at the expense of all that was once great about Lee's writings in his time.

College writer thinks Jason Aaron-penned comic is actually worth the effort

A writer at the Daily Californian, publication of Berkeley university, tells about a comic a friend considers "just a comic book":

“See, I get what you’re saying, but at the end of the day, I’m just looking at a comic book.”

Amidst catching up with a hometown friend, I showed off my newest and most current obsession: A Thor graphic novel: “Gorr the God Butcher.” As a classic bookworm and aspiring know-it-all, I am forever on the quest to find the greatest story of all time. Honestly, some comics have come pretty close. Flipping through the smooth pages of ink, I explained themes of morality, immortality and free-will; in my hands was one of the most iconic Marvel runs of all time.

Well this is definitely a groaner, and it apparently doesn't matter the most recent live action movie, which draws from Aaron's story, was such a flop, surely at least in part because some moviegoers know better than to let the wool be pulled over their eyes, as some would-be comic fans have let happen to them. By the way, isn't it rather unwise to describe oneself as a "know it all"? That's considered a negative description, and is meant to describe people who think they know everything, but actually don't.

My friend saw “just” a comic book.

When deciding on whether or not a piece of art is good, I’ve always wondered as to whether or not the medium itself has any weight on the quality of its art. Could the way that the message is being presented diminish or enhance the message itself? This isn’t just about comic books and novels; is it possible for something as lighthearted as a TikTok to be better than a full-length feature film?

Umm, considering what a bad influence TikTok happens to be, that's why the answer to that query is "no". And why doesn't the writer consider whether the leftist messages in modern mainstream are hurting more than helping? All those political allegories of recent have diminished the art considerably. There was a time when even leftist creators at least kept their politics more subtle. But no longer, and even some veterans have since gone overboard with the ideologies they're taking up.

When I was first recommended to read a comic book, I was hesitant. But upon questioning my assumptions and taking the time to read Frank Miller’s “Daredevil” and “Winter Soldier,” I realized that there are fewer words that best discuss justice and religion while also being accessible in all means. I mean, is there a better way to metaphorize and test the strength of religious power than a literal battle between the God of Thunder and a multi-billionaire tech genius? Through the intertwining of topical, nuanced contentions and larger-than-life action, stories of superheroes often make for an enjoyable and thought-provoking experience.

Not with the kind of leftists running the asylum today. Some of them even belittle Judeo/Christianity, yet never have anything critical to say about Islam. And what's so great about "Winter Soldier" that earlier Capt. America tales didn't do better? Miller's DD is fine for its time. But many comics published since the turn of the century, including more recent DD stories, have only brought down the quality of the medium terribly. And they're far from "accessible" for new customers.

Yet, graphic novels are often seen as geeky, frivolous and unfit for true artistic credibility of expression.

It is interesting how quickly people prejudice a piece of art simply because of its medium. Art in its most bare, natural form is simply the conveyance of emotion between an artist and its audience; why does the how have to matter so match? As long as some sort of interesting feeling or theme is there, the medium shouldn’t matter.

But they never take issue with whatever political angles today's writers force into the scripts? Even if today's mainstream comics are ostensibly aimed more at adults - all at the expense of what children could be reading - that doesn't excuse the horrible influences they've fallen victim to, and still are. And these college writers sadly won't consider that woke writers like Aaron have done more harm than good to the medium, and still are, regrettably enough.

Daniel Clowes appalled with the situation in the USA, but from a leftist viewpoint

Cartoonist Daniel Clowes, who penned GNs like Ghost World, was interviewed by El Pais, and indicated he may move to Spain, because he's mad at what things are like in the USA now, but as could surely be expected, it's from a left-wing viewpoint:

Gritty, populated by downtrodden losers, pathetic and surreal, yet also full of humor and color. No one has drawn the American experience quite like Daniel Clowes, 63, who captured teen rebelliousness in Ghost World and is also the author of the traumatic biography Monica. One of the most relevant cartoonists in the United States, he seems exhausted and frustrated by the current state of his country: “We are looking at the possibility of moving to Europe, just in case. You never know. You just think of Jews in Berlin in 1932. You have to think ahead,” he said in Madrid in early November, before giving a talk at the Reina Sofía Museum that was not coincidentally called Make America Weird Again: “Nobody wants Americans for good reasons. But my wife always tells me: ‘In Europe they value artists, so maybe some country will adopt you.’”

Now that he is presenting Bola Ocho Integral, the Spanish edition of his first comic book Eight Ball, where he published Ghost World, Clowes almost looks back with nostalgia at 1989, when he began publishing comics. That lonely outcast in his twenties saw then that the underground comic scene was the thing that could get him out of his confinement: “The late 80s were really one of the calmest, least crazy eras in American history. It was very boring. I remember at most of the elections back then, the complaint was that both parties were just the same. There was no real choice between voting. And the scandals were nothing compared to today. But you could sense underneath it that there was a madness in America, and that it had always been there. And I was very interested in that madness. I wanted to explore it. Then the madness came up to the top and now it’s released. It has been like a Pandora’s box,” he explains to EL PAÍS.

So we have here yet another left-wing artist who only thinks conservatives like Donald Trump are a problem, not any liberal ideologues, not Islamic jihadism, not illegal immigration, not domestic extremists, and Clowes likely has no courage to question whether his own fellow leftists are turning against him. And the 80s the least insane era? What about Betty Mahmoody and daughter's terrifying ordeal in Iran? What about the time when Salman Rushdie was threatened by ayatollah Khomeini? I guess most foreign issues don't interest Clowes, selectively or otherwise.

Clowes has always tried to understand his characters, no matter how complicated and insufferable, and even despite the bad decisions they make. “I tried to depict characters that were sort of oppressive to me, or ones that I related to. My wife and friends, whenever we’re walking around somewhere, they’ll look at somebody and say, ‘That’s one of your characters!’ They’re really out there in the world. The goal is always to inhabit them in a way that you try to see the world through their perspective and try to understand why they make whatever decisions they make. Sometimes I think: what are characters I could never fully write? I couldn’t write like a Nazi prison guard, like someone who’s so evil in a way that’s almost without thought. I can’t get in the head of somebody like that. But a lot of other very antisocial types, I can imagine how they would feel.”

Clowes adds that it would be very difficult to find empathy in an Elon Musk or Silicon Valley. “I couldn’t do it without utter contempt. It would be very hard to find empathy for that. But if it were a developed story, I’m sure I could find some way into it. I mean, they have to have some kind of frailty. Although it seems useless, and maybe they don’t deserve it, I try to understand them,” he reflects.

Well here's another clue for now just how pathetic Clowes is being in his world view. Does that mean that, if Clowes is willing to buy electric cars, he won't buy from Tesla but will buy from Volkswagen? If that turns out to be the case, it'll be a classic mind-boggler. And why does he cite Nazis as an example, but not Islamic jihadists? Clowes appears to be the kind of ideologue who sticks with obvious citations, and won't step off the leftist plantation of thought. And what's this about "understanding" his characters? This is supremely silly, because he created them, ditto the personalities he applied. Maybe it should all be understanding the people he might've drawn inspiration from? I'm tired of hearing these press sources, along with the artist himself, make it sound like the comics characters are real life people, which they most definitely are not. Based on how they put it, it's galling they would even bring up the issue of surrealism when they don't even bother to distinguish between fiction and reality.

Over time, Clowes left behind the cynicism of youth to embrace a tenderness that he still feels (“you come to realize that there are people and things and principles that are absolutely worthy of all your affection and attention and all the things that you get angry about are just worthy of being ignored”), he finds it difficult to express it at this moment: “I’m a bit too [...] angry and appalled to answer right now,” he replied by email days after his visit to Europe, with Trump now elected president, in response to questions about the election outcome.

“The people in Spain are so much more supportive of the arts and artists than in the U.S., and the culture, as in most of Europe, is far less stressful,” he noted. During his visit he had already spoken about his fascination with the Spanish capital, since he sees in its gritty reality something that reminds him of the dark Chicago of his adolescence where he built his fictional world, although he has been living in progressive Oakland (California) for more than 30 years.

Wow, this guy sure doesn't pay any attention to the crisis of Islamofascism that's eating away at Europe today. One can only wonder if he'll continue to travel around with blinders no matter how things turn out in Europe in the forseeable future. If he's not willing to fight for Europe's better interests any more than the USA's, he shouldn't be surprised if there'll come a day when even in Spain, they won't appreciate his art any more than north American liberals of recent. And then, a most eyebrow raising revelation comes up:

He recalls that the lonely 12-year-old boy wished that he could share his love for Thor comics with a friend at school, but these were not popular at the time. “And now you see a 50-year-old guy wearing a Thor T-shirt on the street. It’s disturbing. In Europe at least you see adults dressed like adults,” he says, and admits that he stopped collecting and reading Marvel comics when he was 14: “I never looked at them again.”

It sounds like Clowes is the kind of person who, despite working in comicdom as he did for 35 years, never appreciated mainstream superhero fare when it mattered. This does offer a clue there are certain would-be creators out there who didn't appreciate the hard work of Stan Lee any more than any other creators of the times, and it's obviously a shame. Because as a result, we can't expect them to even take an objective view of the dire situation Marvel/DC are in now. And then, a certain problem alluded to before comes up:

Clowes is particularly critical of society’s emotional drift, and the “frustrating” Gen Z message of only wanting to see characters they can identify with: “It’s just devastating to fiction and to developing critical thinking. The only way to develop perspective and understand characters is to read fiction and the classics, and young people don’t do that anymore. There are people who now read Ghost World and think the characters are mean and horrible. Nobody said that in the first 30 years after it was published; you related to them, they were human. But now people say that ‘the ideals the characters represent don’t relate to my values so how dare you produce them.’ Now you have to censor yourself, so I admire young artists who don’t do that. They’re the ones who in 20 years people will still care about. But all of this self-censored stuff will be completely ignored and it will be looked back on like a huge mistake.”

So much like, say, Robert Crumb, Clowes is also discovering the age bracket he once wrote and drew for is turning against him, and I think it's actually because, depending on how his comic's characters are structured, they despise seeing a mirror held up to see themselves in. Is that it? Could be. The problem here, of course, is that Clowes predictably won't utter an iota of complaint over how modern leftists may be the ones shunning his work now. So what was that about developing critical thinking? I'm afraid Clowes has fallen way short of proving the point, nor does he show courage to take issue with modern leftist thinking. Isn't courage also an important trait? Well he lacks it. And at the end:

Although he is now presenting his work in a museum, Clowes still believes that “comics are not made for museums. They should be read in solitude, in a comfortable chair and in silence. That’s how you get the emotional connection.” That and the film he watches every night constitute his refuge from a world that today terrifies him a little more than yesterday. “And it’s going to get worse, with artificial intelligence, all public spaces are going to be polluted. We will end up not knowing if we are talking to our friends anymore. Whoever claims that an AI will produce better art than a human makes it clear that they have no idea what good art is, but it’s like arguing with a Trump supporter. It’s useless,” he concedes.

Yup, that's Clowes' way of thinking, regrettably. There's only so many things his own political side could do, and he won't utter a whisper of complaint about what they do. Leftists like him only seem capable of railing against right-wingers no matter where they are in the world, and it's cheap. And now, he may be among a certain segment of leftists in the USA who've said they'll bolt for abroad if Trump wins the election, as he did earlier this month. But even Europe shouldn't be too hasty to welcome such ideologues if they aren't realists. Unfortunately, that appears to be just what Spain for one is doing, and despite what Clowes claims, it's possible that in time, he'll discover even Europe doesn't live up to the standards he assumes they do, mainly because he won't push for better values no matter where he resides. And of course that's a shame.

Is he right about comics not being made for museums though? It'd make more sense if he said they're not made for the speculator market, and complain about all the artists who're feeding this farce back in the USA, and make a point that artwork for comics, if anything, should be for people at large to actually see, and not sold all over the place at auctions, and then padlocked in a trunk for centuries where it may never be seen by anybody at all. The artists who're going along with variant covers for the speculator market have to address this issue too, and whether they're comfortable with it.

J. Michael Straczynski scripts Spider-Man again in the pages of Captain America

Marvel continues its degradation of the Star-Spangled Avenger, along with Spidey and even Thor, using one of the worst writers of modern times to get to that point, as announced in this fluff-coated Newsarama article:

Writer J. Michael Straczynski is well-known for his work on some of Marvel's most popular characters, with the fan-favorite writer currently helming the Captain America ongoing title. Now, in Captain America #14, Straczynski brings in two of the Marvel characters for which he's best known, with Spider-Man and Thor teaming up with Cap for a wild adventure.

Drawing on a bit of the Thor mythos, the trio become an "impromptu Warriors Three" as they team up (so much for Hogun, Fandral, and Volstagg it seems!). But whatever they're up against, it seems it could take them places they never expected, as their very minds and sanity may be on the line.

[...] Straczynski is well known for his work on Thor, which restored and altered the mythos of Asgard in the Marvel Universe by having the godly realm manifest on Earth. Likewise, he is perhaps best known for his long Spider-Man run, which culminated in the infamous story 'One More Day,' in which Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson trade their marriage to Mephisto to save Aunt May.

He's also known for at least a few stories that belittled the female casts, including Sins Past, which made both Gwen Stacy and MJ look bad. That Gwen was made to look like she'd still been conscious before the Green Goblin knocked her off the George Washington Bridge in NYC was just one of quite a few discrepencies with past continuity to boot. And all this is curiously told without any objectivity or opinions on whether JMS made serious mistakes that may never be mended.

And "fan-favorite"? Why make us laugh for the wrong reasons? I recall his Thor run stuck Sif in the body of an old lady for a number of issues (via the meddlings of Loki), and most women in that run were pretty much on the sidelines too. How odd that the modern wokesters don't seem to see that as troubling.

It's bad enough JMS was allowed to write Cap, since no chance he'll do any better than many of the worst writers who've gotten their mitts on the Star-Spangled Avenger's title in the past decade. Now, he's even being permitted by C.B. Cebulski to do more writing on Spider-Man and Thor, 2 characters whose titles he also succeeded in bringing down horribly in quality in the 2000s, and have never recovered as a result. Of course, even if JMS hadn't been given the green light to script those two anew, I still wouldn't want to waste time on his Cap rendition. Jack Kirby and Joe Simon's famous creation may never recover from the damage first done by Joe Quesada.

Don't be fooled by this supposed satire of corporate-owned comics

Newsarama is fawning over an alleged satire of corporatism titled Roxxon Presents: Thor #1, that's written by a certain SJW:

April 17's Roxxon Presents: Thor #1 is a tongue-in-cheek satire that offers up an exacting look at what the absolute worst case scenario of corporate comics can be, with the evil Roxxon Corporation, led by the vicious minotaur Dario Agger and powered by the Asgardian villain the Enchantress, having bought and warped all of Thor's adventures into the corporate synergy comic to end all corporate synergy comics.

In other words, it's exactly what was promised when the frankly hilarious initial announcement of Thor's reinvention as Chad Hammer went out a few months ago. But does the satire have teeth when the call is coming from inside the house?

First off, this comic is funny as hell. Writer Al Ewing, artist Greg Land, inker Jay Leisten, colorist Frank D'Armata, and letterer Joe Sabino, who are all credited as "Roxxon's Al Ewing, Roxxon's Greg Land," etc, all understand the assignment, as the kids say.

Sorry to say, but when a writer as woke as Ewing is doing the scripting, it'd be ill-advised to purchase this item. Besides, if Marvel's owned by Disney, the chances they'll say anything objective even in terms of satire are very minimal.

I'm sure there's independent creators who could develop the satire far better outside the confines of the Big Two, but anybody who thinks somebody like Ewing, who already produced some of their wokest writing of the past several years, will actually take issue with the downsides of corporatism directly within a corporate-owned product would definitely be expecting too much.

Adding Marvel movie originals to the comics universe is no longer an event

Superhero Hype talks about a character from the Marvel movies making her debut in the Marvel comics as well, though here, it appears to be an issue from a modern volume of the What If? anthology, combined with Venom:

From Agent Colson to Darcy Lewis, there are many MCU creations who were later officially introduced into the comics. Madisynn, the party-girl who befriended Wong in She-Hulk: Attorney At Law just made her first appearance in a Marvel comic… but not where you think!

Rather than appearing in a Doctor Strange or She-Hulk comic, Madisynn’s cameo came in What If…? Venom #3. Written by Jeremy Holt, with art by Manuel Garcia, the comic explores an alternate timeline where the Venom symbiote bonded with other people besides Eddie Brock after separating from Peter Parker. In this issue, the symbiote bonds with Doctor Strange, after he confronts it Chinatown shop.

Even if this had taken place in the 616 universe proper, the time's long past where it could matter. Back in the mid-1980s, Marvel's writers decided to introduce a counterpart for Firestar from the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon of the time into the MCU proper, and it did lead later to a significant role for Angelica Jones in the New Warriors. But today, when bad and woke writing's long trashed continuity and character integrity, that's why it no longer matters.

Also worth pondering is that, as John Nolte at Breitbart notes, with the movie sales waning, Marvel studios is scaling back their output:

No matter how you spin it, these layoffs stem from one primary problem… This “reduction in Marvel’s slate of film and TV titles” was caused by lousy products. Almost all of those “film and TV titles” stunk, so Disney chief Bob Iger has called for a slowdown of The Fail.

Marvel movies have started flopping at the box office. Marvel’s streaming shows were always so terrible and did nothing to boost Disney+ subscribers—quite the opposite. Disney+ is losing millions of subscribers and billions of dollars.

[...] Marvel lost the real Black Panther, emasculated Thor, showed us two hairy guys necking in Eternals, and who knows what they were thinking with that Ant-Man movie… But The Marvels is where audience disgust with all this gay/woke/feminist/anti-fun finally had itself heard. Enough! Can we get back to Iron Man’s private jet and stripper pole, please? You know, some fun, some sexiness…? How about going back to making Marvel movies for Normal People?

Sadly, it's doubtful they'll reevaluate how their woke directions have wrecked their prospects. But what's really sad is how Marvel wound up becoming victimized by political correctness as a publisher, and a shame they didn't stop publication in the early 2000s, if that's what could've minimized the damage. Publication of the comics had to continue for this?

The kind of people who're invited to events at Kansas City specialty stores and conventions

NPR's KCUR did a report on comics stores in the Kansas City area, along with local conventions, and some of the guests invited to their local events include:

Held March 8-10 at the Kansas City Convention Center, this year marks Planet Comicon's silver anniversary. Meet Jason Aaron who has worked on Wolverine, PunisherMax, Thor, and The Avengers. Get an autograph from the Vision, Paul Bettany or Hellboy Ron Pearlman.

What is so special about one of the wokest writers of the past decade like Aaron that they have to invite him? Even Perlman, from what I recall, is quite a leftist himself, and hardly the greatest choice for inviting to entertainment conventions any more than a lot of other Hollywooders. The reporters didn't see fit to bring up any of Aaron's wokest writing either. Although they do bring up the history of story censorship:

Step back in time to the Golden Age and browse some of those masterpieces that have been collected and republished in book form for today’s audience. “Shock SuspensStories” was published by Entertaining Comics in 1952. That was before the Comics Code of Conduct in 1954, which limited the content that comics could publish — including banning “smut” and vulgarity, forbidding the words “horror” or “terror” in titles, and stopping the use of vampires, zombies, and many other creatures. Steven Spielberg, who grew up as a “nerdy kid who loved the escapism,” wrote the forward for this republished collection.

Maybe most notably, Mangiaracina founded the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund all the way back in 1986, to defend the First Amendment rights of “comics art form and its community of retailers, creators, publishers, librarians, and readers.” Neil Gaiman, known for his comic "The Sandman" (which was recently adapted by Netflix) and book “American Gods” (now on Amazon Prime), is on their advisory board.

Say, would that be the same CBLDF that vehemently refused to take up the case of Mike Baron against the Daily KOS, and even goes out of their way to defend LGBTQ propaganda? Gee, I wonder what the point is here? Gaiman's a pretty bad leftist lot himself too, and if he - and even Frank Miller - refused to give Baron any backing, that sure speaks volumes. Interesting though, that veteran filmmaker Spielberg, who's another ultra-leftist, penned the forward for the EC collection. As I recall, he recently stated he regretted producing a censored edition of E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial, because he did exactly what's become a sad staple of modern entertainment in the USA. But who knows if he's really being altruistic in his venture here? That is to say, is he willing to defend conservative writers against censorship? Alas, based on this news, there's no telling if that's the case. Now, here's some news about a specialty store:

On the walls of their Overland Park shop is much of their personal collection, and you can almost track their friendship through the titles. Currently, one of their rare comics is the "Amazing Spider-Man" featuring the villain Kraven the Hunter.

Published in 1966, that issue at Nerdstalgia is rated a 9.2. That number may mean nothing to non-collectors, but it reflects how the comic is scored based on page condition and color. You’ll find expensive items like this inside a plastic case called a slab – like the “Mona Lisa” being kept behind a plate of glass so it doesn’t get damaged.

Nerdstalgia also carries a rack of pulp fiction books, a throwback to the days of novels that were mass-produced and meant to be read quickly. Easy on plot but high on action, it’s a trip down memory lane.

But some of their real treasures of Nerdstalgia are back in the boxes of back issues. Carefully placed inside plastic bags with a cardboard backing, many comics have notations on top — showing you, for example, the first appearance of Gamora of the Guardians of the Galaxy, or the first appearance of The Living Tribunal that appeared in “Strange Tales Doctor Strange.”

Reading this, I began to wonder why we hear about back issues all the time in these news reports, but not the reprint archives carrying the same in paperback/hardcover formats. Also note the emphasis on "slabbing", which prevents the issue from being read, unless the buyers want to pull apart the casing to open it up. And many surely know speculators aren't interested in doing that. Why do they keep talking all the time about these individual back issues but not the archives where they can be read instead, along with plenty of other stuff? As a result, it's unclear they're really dedicated to the medium's better interests. And here's one more topic from a specialty store:

Over the years, comic book shops have evolved into a place where people combine passions. Collectibles and action figures dot many of the walls, shelves are filled with card games like Magic the Gathering and role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer 40K. (Check out our Adventure! guide to playing D&D and other RPGs around Kansas City.)

It should be noted that franchises like MTG and D&D have fallen victim over the past decade to wokeness/political correctness, and for an article discussing issues of censorship, they sure don't see fit to raise the issue of how that's the same thing that occurred in the 1950s. Once again, they hollow out their own perspectives.

And if conservatives like the aforementioned Baron aren't invited to these kind of conventions and stores, that just goes to show how farcical these conventions for pop culture really are.

Jason Aaron gets the Ninja Turtles assignment

Not only is woke writer Aaron - who already made a mess of Thor during his time at Marvel - getting a writing assignment on Superman at DC, now ComicBook reports he's going to take charge of writing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, soon after it was announced IDW had retained the license for storytelling:

The Eisner-award-winning writer Jason Aaron is taking over as writer of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for IDW Publishing. ComicBook.com can exclusively reveal that Aaron, a former Marvel architect and current writer of Batman and Superman, will helm the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles relaunch, beginning with a 10-page prelude story in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Alpha #1 one-shot on sale in June. IDW's ongoing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series will return with a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 in July, written by Aaron with creative collaborators to be named in the coming weeks. The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series is notably a relaunch and not a reboot, existing in the same universe as IDW's previously published Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic books.

It makes shudder to think Aaron's won awards, no matter how corrupted the Eisner committee's become for years already. That's a disgrace too. And even if this isn't a reboot, that's irrelevant; what matters is Aaron's bound to inject as much wokeness into TMNT as he did into Thor, and now likely Superman, making TMNT as bad as a recent cartoon turned out to be. This is nothing to celebrate, any more than the time an awfully masculine-looking woman was turned into another turtle 5 years ago in IDW's takes. Plus, relaunching the series volumes is no different from Marvel/DC's own sales stunts that relied on the same tactics, which don't avail in the long run.

And according to this Popverse item, Aaron's still doing projects for Marvel:

As to what those things are, he’s teased some details as part of his newsletter recently. He wrote that he’s doing two projects for the company, adding, “one of them [is] a mini-series that is stylistically and tonally a combination of my Punisher: King of Killers book and my work on Thor: God of Thunder,” although he added that “it’s neither a Punisher story or a Thor one.” The second, he teased, “I can’t really say anything about his one at all, other than… it’ll be a surprise, just like it was to me when I got the phone call.”

It’s worth bearing in mind that Marvel continues to hold a number of licensed titles, and that Aaron has done licensed work with the company in the past, launching its Star Wars title in 2015, and its Conan the Barbarian relaunch in 2019. Could we be about to see an unexpected licensed book from Aaron at Marvel in the near future…? (My fingers are crossed for him to take on Planet of the Apes, I’ll be honest.)

Naturally, the columnist has no reservations or objectivity to provide regarding Aaron's projects, and can only gush and fawn. No reminder given that when Aaron was writing Conan, he not only caved to SJWs, Marvel lost the license pretty quickly after that whole flap.

This is exactly why it's a terrible shame IDW was able to resecure the license for TMNT. They'd been going bananas over wokeness in the past several years, causing serious damage to GI Joe and Transformers, subsequently lost the license for those, and unfortunately, as Aaron's recruitment makes clear, they refuse to learn any lessons. That aside, anybody who's going to rely almost entirely on licensed merchandise is making a joke of themselves.

Thor movie director admits he knew hardly anything about the comics

According to the Daily Caller, movie director Taika Waititi has admitted he wasn't very familiar with Thor comics in his youth, despite overseeing the cinematic adaptations of the Norse thunder god:

Writer-director Taika Waititi gave away the game in an interview with Variety Magazine published at the end of November. While his arthouse hit “Jojo Rabbit” took home an Oscar, Waititi is perhaps best known as the director of two films in the “Thor” franchise.

But, as he explained to Variety, his desire to work on the film didn’t come from his love of the comic books.

“You know what? I had no interest in doing one of those films,” Waititi said. “It wasn’t on my plan for my career as an auteur. But I was poor and I’d just had a second child, and I thought, ‘You know what, this would be a great opportunity to feed these children.’”

“And ‘Thor,’ let’s face it — it was probably the least popular franchise,” he continued. “I never read ‘Thor’ comics as a kid. That was the comic I’d pick up and be like ‘Ugh.’ And then I did some research on it, and I read one ‘Thor’ comic or 18 pages, or however long they are. I was still baffled by this character.”

When asked why Marvel executives brought him on given his unfamiliarity, Waititi answered: “I think there was no place left for them to go with that. I thought, ‘Well, they’ve called me in, this is really the bottom of the barrel.’”

The utter indifference toward the source material — from both the director and executives — would be shocking if it wasn’t so commonplace. But an at-best-B-lister like Waititi likely only felt comfortable speaking in such blunt terms because all of Hollywood royalty seems to feel the same way.

Indie star Oscar Isaac swore to Vanity Fair that the Star Wars franchise could only get him back if “I need another house or something.”

Hollywood icon Glenn Close admitted to joining the Marvel Universe “because it will then afford me to go do the other kind of movies that I really love.”

This particularly baffles me. Close is a veteran, has appeared in plenty of movies for nearly 4 decades, and she's having a hard time finding work and getting paid? Or retaining riches? I just don't get it. As for Isaac, isn't he the leftist ideologue who appeared in the Moon Knight adaptation? In that case, we're not missing anything as far as the now waterlogged SW franchise is concerned. As for Waititi, I think it's good he cares about his family. But even so, that doesn't make his Marvel entries any better, and it's head-shaking how somebody can care so little about these creations just because it isn't Spider-Man in focus. What kind of comics did Waititi read anyway? Was it the pre-2000 series, which is far better, or was it any of the stuff coming after the early 2000s, which is awful? That's not clear here. But what's additionally fascinating in this article is what they say about The Marvels:

The latest intersectional feminist Marvel abomination (in theatres now) is virtually identical to the critically acclaimed films that dominate awards season. They both preach shallow progressive values with perceived transgression as the only guiding light, and in the end, sacrifice all substance on the altar of politics.

It wouldn't be shocking if the Oscar academy wanted to supply a busload of awards to such a dreadful movie, no matter how badly it tanked. But this is surely telling something that won't reflect well on the Marvel movies in hindsight. The studio management in charge never cared for the properties any more than Joe Quesada, Bill Jemas and Axel Alonso ever did. So, it's clear the Marvel movies won't age well in the future.

Why is Spider-Man punching the strongest hero of the MCU into space a big deal?

Giant Freakin' Robot wrote some history of a storyline that took place in the Acts of Vengeance crossover of 1989-90, in Amazing Spider-Man #328, where the famous web-slinger slammed the Hulk into the galaxy before getting him back to earth again:

It’s an age-old question—or at least an 84-year-old question anyway—ever since Marvel was created, fans of the comic book company have wondered, who is Marvel’s strongest hero? With the likes of Captain America, Wolverine, the Hulk, and Thor running around, the competition is high, and it’s kind of a complicated question to figure out—especially with comic book rules constantly changing.

While Spider-Man isn’t always Marvel’s strongest hero, there have been times when he has been, like in Amazing Spider-Man #328, during the “Acts of Vengeance” when Spidey was strong enough to punch Hulk straight out of Earth’s atmosphere and into space.

But why is it such a big deal if Spidey bashes the green goliath onto the spaceways? The Hulk may have the most questionable personality in the MCU, but he's still far more anti-hero than villain, so the whole notion this is something to love and celebrate is honestly ludicrous. Wouldn't it be better to highlight if and whenever Spidey does the same to an actual villain, like maybe the Abomination or the Bi-Beast? Even the time Peter Parker struck down a few X-Men in the 1st Secret Wars is hardly cause for celebration. It's when he can give the crooks a run for their money that's far more impressive, even if it should be in comical terms. This storyline, however, may be significant for one of the most surreal moments in Marvel history, since from a real life viewpoint, if the Hulk got knocked out of the Earth's atmosphere, he'd be in danger of quick asphyxiation.

In the vast Marvel Universe, where gods walk among mortals and monsters possess unparalleled strength, Spider-Man often finds himself overshadowed by his super-powered peers. Peter Parker might be able to lift 10 tons of weight, which, sure, allows him to swing a car over his head, but it’s not much compared to Thor’s godly might or the Hulk’s unfathomable strength.

However, while his strength might be mediocre in the superhero world, it’s Spider-Man’s determination and unwavering willpower that sets him apart from the rest and ensures he wins out against his enemies time and time again.

Well now we're getting somewhere. Superhuman strength isn't what should matter, but how well a hero's dedication, intelligence and courage can be written up. Same goes for Superman, in any story where his strength is nullified and he has to rely more on brainpower and determination to save the day.

All that aside, while Acts of Vengeance was not the worst crossover to come out of the Big Two in its day and time, it's nevertheless a shame this news site is going out of its way to fluff-coat a concept that brought down mainstream superhero comics in the long run, while the press just sat back and largely accepted it, without any questions whether it's helping, or serving to destroy self-contained storytelling along with continuity. Now, look where it's all at.