Marvel Universe

[anarky]

At least it's not just me.

The sway Comixology has in the digital comic realm disturbs me. It's like they became the Diamond for another medium in less than five years. I'm not keen on their interface at all, nor on the whole "you have to be connected to the internet to read" aspect.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

The other part of me is thinking its premature to get into an uproar. The sales on this could be insignificant and not worth getting all a twitter over. We'll see.
Not that I'm rooting for dismal sales or anything. It's just, I'm old fashion, and the notion of "collecting" comics becomes moot in a digital medium. There's no need to "hunt" for a digital back issue, or treasure it once you "find" it. Digital comics are in perpetual mint condition, and theoretically had/have an infinite "print run". Part of the joy of cracking open a comic from 1975 is smelling the newsprint, feeling the brittleness of the paper, reading the ads, and getting this wonderful sense of time travel. You're holding history in your hands. I get giddy from that.
You don't get that with digital.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Carol Danvers is the new Captain Marvel. I know, it's hard to tell but I don't think she's a lesbian now. I'll be back in 8 issues to tell you about it's cancellation.

[anarky]

Meh. She should've stayed absorbed in Rogue.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

I was thinking about which list is longer; the number of costumes/identities Carol Danvers has had. Or the number of characters who've been called "Captain Marvel" in the Marvel U. Theyre neck and neck.

[anarky]

Y'know what'd be kinda clever?

Give Monica Rambeau the powers of the original Captain Marvel, making her sort of "Captain Marvel Squared."

[jjreason]

Did she lose her solidity, Monica Rambeau? Can't recall the end of her specifically.

I do loves me some Carol Danvers though, especially when drawn by Frank Cho.



She did creep me out a bit with the weird thought bubbles during her leadership of the Avengers when the 2nd book started up.

The first comic I read with her in it was X-Men 164, likely the 2nd X-Men comic I ever owned. She appeared as Binary and stole the show right from the cover.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Eh. The only reason they're doing this is because the ™ and © on "Captain Marvel" needs to be refreshed from time to time. Plus, they like to fuck DC over and remind them they have to call the original Captain Marvel SHAZAM!

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Digging in the unread boxes, and pulled out some Captain America books. I read Cap 242 from 1979. They were really pimping Rom Spaceknight that month. There were three different ads for it. Also a classic double page Star Wars toy ad from Kenner.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Captain America 443. Cap finds out he has 24 hours left to live and has to figure out what's important to him. He ends up spending a good portion of it with Batroc of all people. The story itself is meh. But what was significant is that it was Mark Gruenwald's 137th and final issue as writer. And, in hindsight, knowing he'd be dead only a year later, made his farewell "Marks Remark" on the letters page even more bittersweet. Mark Waid took over the next issue for his 'Man Without a Country' arc. Then the book got rebooted with Liefeld. Then a continuous series of reboots ever since.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

A bunch of random Cap books, annuals, minis, oneshots.

Cap Annual '98. Cap teams up with Citizen V(the chick version) to fight Baron Zemo.
Cap Annual '99. Cap teams up with a Woodward/Bernstein type duo at the Daily Bugle to fight Roxxon and their pet project, a new FlagSmasher.
Cap Annual 2000. The origin of Protocide. Who is yet another 'precursor' to the Super Soldier Serum.
Cap Annual 2001. Cap meets President Dubya. And reads a file about what the DOD had planned in the event of his death.
The Legend oneshot. Handbook style issue they put out for Cap, Thor, IronMan, and the FF after Onslaught but before Heroes Reborn. Lists Caps foes, friends, goofiest moments, etc.
Cap:Dead Men Running 1-3. Mini series from 2002 that came out between the end of the 50 issue Heroes Return run, and the start of the 32 issue Marvel Knights run. Cap runs into a rogue army unit stealing from coke dealers in a Central American jungle. By the end of the series, he reinvigorates their patriotism so they kill themselves while Cap gets away.
Cap:Patriot 1-4. 2010 mini about Jeff Mace, the third Captain America. Set in the late 40s and 50s and a pretty good read.
Cap: Who WON'T wield the Shield? A parody oneshot along the lines of What The--?! With Forbush Man and Golden Age Deadpool. Pretty damn hilarious.
The last two Theatre of War oneshots I had. One set in WWII, the other in the current Iraq War.
Cap/Fury:Otherworld War. A Prestige oneshot(one of the last?) from 2002. Cap, Bucky, and the Howling Commandos save the Ancient One from the Red Skull in Dormammu's dimension.
Cap: White 0. The first and ONLY issues of the next Loeb/Sale "Color" series from 2008.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

I just read Doomwar. The 6 issue mini from 2010. In it Dr. Doom infiltrates Wakanda's political infrastructure and wages a coup, then uses that to steal ALL the Vibranium and somehow 'mysticizes' it to make even stronger. Then he build a mystical Vibranium Doombot army to take over the world and Black Panther, the FF, some of the X-Men, and (ugh) Deadpool fight him. In the end, T'Challa renders ALL the Vibranium on Earth inert. So nobody gets it. But seeing as how that was Wakanda's ONLY export, I kinda think Doomy won that round in the end.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

I read two Citizen V and the V-Battalion miniseries from 2001 and 2002. The gist of the V-Battalion is that a few of the original Golden Age heroes(now in their 70s) have a secret mini army they trek around in a flying fortress called Vanguard and "fight for justice" and whatnot. Citizen V is their primary agent(it's not Baron Zemo, but rather the grandson of the original GA Citizen V wearing the Zemo version of the costume now).
The first 3 issue mini tried cramming too much history into it, and was pretty dull.
The second 4 issue mini was better, but that seems to be the last time we see them in action.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Contest of Champions II. The 5-issue sequel to the original CoC which came out way back in 1982. It was, I believe, Marvel's first Limited Series. This one came out in 1999. It's written by Chris Claremont and started out surprisingly decent, but by the last issue it had devolved into Claremontian talkiness.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Daredevil:Father. A six issue mini from 2004 written and drawn by Joe Quesada(well, Started in 2004. The last issue came out in 2007.) Anyway, I had read the first five issues awhile ago, but finally found the last issue sometime later and just read it.
Holy Shit. It was fantastic. The first five were great, but the revelation in the final issue made it damn fine reading. Highly recommend it if you find the TPB for cheap.

DD:Battlin' Jack Murdock. A 4 issue mini from 2007. Each issue takes place during a Round from Jack's final fight, that he's supposed to throw in the 4th. And interspersed, he flashes back and reminisces about Maggie bringing Matt to him as a baby, up through the accident, and his life as a goon and a boxer for The Fixer. Another great read if you can find it.