tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13604760.post112347751298668844..comments2024-01-01T05:14:46.672-05:00Comments on Double Articulation: SPOILERS ABOUND: a weekly digest of reviews, notes, and rantsJim Roeghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16381244745309535742noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13604760.post-1123976429662997362005-08-13T19:40:00.000-04:002005-08-13T19:40:00.000-04:00Thanks for reading, Richard! And thanks also for t...Thanks for reading, Richard! And thanks also for the kind words (especially hazzah!). I hope you'll stop back in and let me know what you think about this, that, or the other thing...once you've gotten some rest!Jim Roeghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16381244745309535742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13604760.post-1123947249442028962005-08-13T11:34:00.000-04:002005-08-13T11:34:00.000-04:00I really have little to comment on (A LIE: I have...I really have little to comment on (A LIE: I have plenty of which to comment, both in terms of "spot on!" and "I'd have to say I disagree with you there, and here's why..."; I'm just too tired at the moment). I just wanted to say that I now have an addiction to your blog - the intellectual analysis, exquisite writing, and consistently fair and open minded tone that I find on your page are fantastic and extraordinarily rare within comics criticism. <BR/><BR/>So pretty much all hosannahs. And maybe I'll say "huzzah!" too. "Huzzah!"'s have fallen out of fashion and that really is an incredible shame.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13604760.post-1123865238076736202005-08-12T12:47:00.000-04:002005-08-12T12:47:00.000-04:00Thanks for the tip about X-Men, Greg. I didn't ev...Thanks for the tip about X-Men, Greg. I didn't even know Milligan was on X-Men (!?) and I've really enjoyed his work in the past (esp. Enigma, Shade, and Human Target). I'll check it out. (I sampled Austen's Uncanny run for awhile, but ultimately fled as well.)<BR/><BR/>Shane--about the drift from Marvel to DC, I wonder how common that experience is and what accounts for it. As you can no doubt tell from the blog, I loved Marvel when I was very young (late 70s) but by the early 80s had become mainly a DC guy (with the exception of the mutants, Avengers, and some Spidey). Bought pretty indisciminately from both (and smaller independent) publishers throughout the 90s, had a brief fling with Crossgen, and now read mainly DC. <BR/><BR/>My problem with Marvel is their apparent lack of long-term vision. I really, really like serialized storytelling, but in order to really enjoy it, I like to feel that there's some kind of plan that is slowly unfolding (which is why I don't mind being tortured in the short term on a title like Hawkman, where the main character is apparently "killed," for instance). DC definitely makes some missteps, but in recent years, their long-term vision has been inspired. Marvel, meanwhile, seems to be making it up as they go along. House of M (which I hate myself for buying) is the most glaring recent example of why I have little confidence in Marvel as a publisher. Sure, they have a couple of stellar books, but I'm much less likely to take a chance on one of their titles if I have and extra $5 in my pocket.Jim Roeghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16381244745309535742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13604760.post-1123862136116449682005-08-12T11:55:00.000-04:002005-08-12T11:55:00.000-04:00I didn't really care for the first arc, but his se...I didn't really care for the first arc, but his second is good.Hate Filled Posterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00965492342916144479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13604760.post-1123797677184740362005-08-11T18:01:00.000-04:002005-08-11T18:01:00.000-04:00I've mentioned the lure of nostalgia before too, a...I've mentioned the lure of nostalgia before too, and I have also been an X-fiend in the past, but Chuck Austen drove me from the title. It's kind of sad, but sometimes you have to let go. Although 8 issues in, Milligan on X-Men is actually pretty interesting, in case you're wondering.Greghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13481137891542684401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13604760.post-1123779814104500152005-08-11T13:03:00.000-04:002005-08-11T13:03:00.000-04:00(Doesn't always work, but it's hitting more than i...(Doesn't always work, but it's hitting more than it misses for me right now.) <BR/><BR/>It is for me as well. Growing up I was a huge Marvel fan, now I'm mainly a DC fan, yet I still buy some Marvel books.Hate Filled Posterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00965492342916144479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13604760.post-1123697821952318372005-08-10T14:17:00.000-04:002005-08-10T14:17:00.000-04:00Yeah, so true. The fact that I don't have access ...Yeah, so true. The fact that I don't have access to much of my old fondly-remembered stuff no doubt makes it that much better. Still, I go back and read some of those old 1970s Marvels, Claremont's first Uncanny run or NTT and still think--wow. Powerful stories.<BR/><BR/>DC's current titles are a nice compromise in the sense that they aim to evoke those memories, while (hopefully) telling a story that feels at the same time completely contemporary and fresh. (Doesn't always work, but it's hitting more than it misses for me right now.)Jim Roeghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16381244745309535742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13604760.post-1123687465425507022005-08-10T11:24:00.000-04:002005-08-10T11:24:00.000-04:00G.I. Joe and X-men Classic actually started me on ...G.I. Joe and X-men Classic actually started me on comics. When the new Joe series started I dug out my old comics and read them again. Nostalgia isn't all it's cracked up to be. Most of the time the memories are better than the actual thing.Hate Filled Posterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00965492342916144479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13604760.post-1123626729278759062005-08-09T18:32:00.000-04:002005-08-09T18:32:00.000-04:00Hey guys--thanks for the nice replies! Shane: Hap...Hey guys--thanks for the nice replies! <BR/><BR/>Shane: Happy birthday! Regarding the nearly broken X-Men run--ouch. That's a hard break to make. Maybe we need to start a support group or something. I discovered the Uncanny X-Men back during the Brood saga (issue #163 with Kitty on the cover--god I'm predictable) and read the title sporadically until #201 (Storm vs. Cyclops--I was rooting for Storm; again, predictable as all hell), by which point I'd acquired a pull-list at a local shop for the first time. I hung around for awhile (a few years, in fact) after Claremont left, but the series was just so...bad. I left, and returned when Claremont came back briefly for that disastrous reboot before the current one and (if I recall correctly) before Morrison helmed the franchise. Claremont's X-Men were bad during that quickly aborted reboot, but I bought it anyway, and even got trades of X-Treme X-Men (what can I say, I was feeling weak). All this to say that I'm glad that, although I didn't take a sabbatical from comics like Mark, at least I didn't have an unbroken run of the title or I probably wouldn't be writing about jumping ship right now. A tip of the hat to you for your own breakup with weak storytelling, especially given the momentum of such a long uninterrupted run.<BR/><BR/>Mark: I'm 33, and yeah, the diverging trajectory of these two title IS weird. I can still remember going to one comic shop downtown, back in about 1981 or '82 and seeing an issue of Uncanny and an issue of NTT side-by-side in these special boxes that the store had put together to advertise the bestsellers of each company. I'm probably going to return to the topic of this pairing at some point, but wow--what a high point those books were for superhero comics. New Teen Titans went downhill for me after Perez left the Baxter series, but not entirely. Despite Wolfman's writer's block and his destruction of the team (wasn't it a self-conscious attempt to make them more like the X-Men? or was he just distracted with writing Crisis?) there were still a few good stories in there and I loved Titans Hunt (even though the book imploded after that). <BR/><BR/>Johns is taking things in a more or less good direction, but the magic hasn't quite returned for me yet. It could still happen though. I've got a good feeling. (The difference between X-Men and NTT for me is that while I CAN actually conceive of dumping the former, it would be very, very difficult for me to dump the latter, no matter how bad things got--and, good lord, have they tested my patience in the past). The Titans get a free pass from me--but that's the only book that does.<BR/><BR/>Sigh. This is all making me very nostalgic for those inaccessible boxes of comics in my parents' basement!Jim Roeghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16381244745309535742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13604760.post-1123603613018564352005-08-09T12:06:00.000-04:002005-08-09T12:06:00.000-04:00I don't know about Jim, but I just turned 28 last ...I don't know about Jim, but I just turned 28 last Friday.Hate Filled Posterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00965492342916144479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13604760.post-1123602365953735272005-08-09T11:46:00.000-04:002005-08-09T11:46:00.000-04:00Wonderful post, Jim.One thing that my sabbatical f...Wonderful post, Jim.<BR/><BR/>One thing that my sabbatical from comics did was allow me to come in with a fresh start. While I used to keep buying X-Titles and Claremont out of inertia, I have no run to keep intact anymore. I'm blissfully ignoring anything I don't like, and <BR/>Claremont's one of those writers that I'm simply avoiding.<BR/><BR/>The fact large chunks of this essay revolve around Titans and Claremont X-Men leads me to think we're of the same general age. I had the same feeling: Claremont X-Men was tops .... except for Wolfman/Perez Titans. It's still odd how the franchises diverged. The Titans devolved utterly as the X-Men were ascendant.Mark Fossenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03623615263972844957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13604760.post-1123600768615444262005-08-09T11:19:00.000-04:002005-08-09T11:19:00.000-04:00Great post. There's lots I want to comment on, but...Great post. There's lots I want to comment on, but I'm at work right now and don't have the time. <BR/><BR/>I'm right there with you on Uncanny X-men, I'm about to break my un-interrupted collection of the book since #150 or somewhere. If you count reprints like X-men Classic and such, then I have the whole X-men story all the way back to Giant Size X-men #1. It makes me sad to break the run, but I'm just not enjoying it anymore.Hate Filled Posterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00965492342916144479noreply@blogger.com