What the Frak? / Emorexia / I'll never act again...this year!
We have 2 more nights, this Friday and Saturday, at 10pm, of Capitol Hill High, Episode 3! Then, the show's gone till next spring! And I won't be onstage again this year! Get your tickets here
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Yeah, I always borrowed my cousin's Who's Who. They'd have these wacky villains that I'd be like, wow, they look cool, but, oh yeah, Green Lantern killed them or whatnot. :-( I totally stopped reading comics for the entire 90s, but when I came back to them, it's like they've been bringing back and revamping characters I remember/liked. Everyone from Gypsy and Vixen to Zatanna's mind wiping fiasco to the Suicide Squad coming back in Checkmate!
with the internet, it's like, wow, other people actually read Dazzler as a kid! :-)
I give up on understanding the new backgrounds of Hawkgirl, the Dr. Fates (one was female!), and Power Girl.
Huntress, they changed how old she was when her family was massacred, whether the person was in a costume when they killed them, if and how she was attacked as a child, and so on. In the JLA she didn't seem able to do much, but other times she can take on 30 of Joker's henchmen with just her legs, and nowadays she can hold another woman's entire weight over a roof ledge. And her costume kept changing for a while there. But I love her. And the fact that she'd prefer to kill every bad guy, then go teach public grade school! Italian women are complicated!
Oh, and in catching up on back issues of various comics with Zatanna in them (she and Huntress are my 2 fave heroines who just happen to be Italian women with blue eyes and dark hair...like me!), that the storyline of the Spectre going crazy and Zee and Enchantress, Madame Xanadu, Deadman, Phantom Stranger, and all the other magic heroes coming to the rescue is done almost annually!
And the whole Crisis thing has been done! :-) The new thing is killing 80s lesser charactes like Firestorm (he's died a billion times now!), Blue Beetle and Booster Gold and having them brought back as younger versions. I also think Teen Titans is a bit silly with teen versions of EVERY super hero crammed in there. Zatanna's cousin? Eh.
See? I totally need a comic book blog! :-)
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Yeah it's intriguing the renaissance DC is sort of putting itself through. I'm glad the 90's taught them and Marvel that crappy artwork (cough cough Rob Liefeld/Todd Mcfarlane) with crappy stories and eighteen number 0 exclusive silver lined hardcover cardboard scratch and sniff till you bleed "this can be used as a flotation device" issues wasn't the way to go. The fact that they're taking good characters and giving them good writing, first and foremost, proves to me that they take their audience seriously and respectfully. The other thing DC's been doing lately that's really helping them out is reinvention without overkill. I used to think it was painful for them to continually starting, stopping and revamping series that seemingly had no issues but after seeing some books completely overhaul and come out WAY better then before (see ANYTHING about the Legion of Superheros before 2004 and then compare it to now, sooooooo much better on too many levels to count) i really have to applaud them for giving something old a fresh twist and take. I'd say Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison are the modern geniuses behind DC's character driven storylines these days and i'm glad to have them around helming the process.
I was a fan of the Huntress' pre-Crisis golden age origin when she was Batman and Catwoman's daughter Helena Wayne. I guess i'm just a dork for heroes with superhero parents. Even so, her death in Crisis was one of the better ones and since we've moved away from the gritty, dark anti-hero 90's (Punisher, RIP, you were an awful character) i'm happy to see her with depth and humor. Personally i'm not a big fan of replacing a big name character with a new person (aside from Green Lantern but i always had a thing for Kyle Rayner...) because i think it's almost a betrayal for fans. Donna Troy will never be Wonder Woman and Wally West not being the Flash is kind of insulting. Don't even get me started on Aquaman. He's one of the most interesting heroes in comics and they give him the SHITTIEST stories, artists and plotlines. Looking at their recent replacements and having read a few press releases, it's annoying and satisfying all at the same time to see that they're trying to diversify the race, sex and religion of mainstream characters. It's patronizing when done wrong but in the case of Detective Montoya and Batwoman it's refreshing, interesting and not just power lesbians getting it on. (PS. The Question is hot)
I'm curious, do you keep with anything other then DC? What books do you actually read? When i was working at the comic book store i had way too much free time and so i devoured pretty much anything i hadn't read over the course of my 8 month stint there. It gave me a pretty broad palatte comic wise and i definitely learned to embrace smaller publishers. Image is annoying for the most part but produces some great books (the Walking Dead is one of the best comics i've ever read) and even Vertigo has produced some gems. Preacher anyone? Such a great book.
We should both have a comic book blog lol.
ps. Zatanna's cousin sounds hot. I'm down with a dark haired, blue eyed, magic wielding, top hat wearing hottie.
pps. This all reminds me that i want to do a lj post about the comic characters i think are hot...
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Did Rob Liefield draw Hawk and Dove in the late 80s? With the gi-normous thigh muscles?
I liked that Huntress, Robin and Kole dying in Crisis was kind of ambigious, but at the same time, they weren't ever coming back. Although, I think I saw a Titans cover where she was a zombie, yeesh.
Suicide Squad did that, too.
I never got into Legion. Wasn't Punisher originally played by DOLPH LUNDGREN? (I need a seperate blog just for him! ha!) What happened to Kyle after he got shot in the face? I don't read all the Crisis and Civil War spin-offs, except Frontline.
Yeah, I can't believe they brought back Wonder Woman's 60s karate spy outfit! And pick an origin and costume for Donna Troy and stick to it! Her miniseries is pretty to look at, but it has more Greek mythology than the entire George Perez run of Wonder Woman! Head ache!
Oh, a friend got me into the second Flash and I really liked it, with all the new villains (Hush, that metal chick, etc.) and the politics of the Rogues Gallery. But, now he's been replaced as well? Zatanna pops up in each Flash's life: she 'spent the night talking' with the first Flash, helped the second one by punching the Top in the face, and I even have a cheesy Impulse issue w/ her in it!
I so want to draw Batwoman for the lesbian bar open mic night poster! And Montoya is awesome. I really liked the 52 ish with her and ? at the wedding ceremony and the kid-bomber. And the ? is Huntress' ex lovah, too!
Let's see I currently read: 52, Civil War and Frontline, Birds of Prey(Huntress!), Ms. Marvel(I'm a late comer to her even existing), Shadowpact (Enchantress!), Checkmate (Fire is now a lethal character! Suicide Squad's back!), Secret Six (Cat Man, mrowr!), New Avengers (Spider-Woman!), JLA, Wizard Magazine :-), and when I can afford it, I'll go online and find back issues with Zatanna in them. That's the only reason I own issues of Catwoman, Green Arrow, Spectre, Hellrazer, World's Finest, and Super Man! :-) I live in constant fear they'll cancel Birds of Prey. I love anything with Huntress, especially with random guest characters like Gypsy and Katana showing up at any moment.
I'm sticking w/ JLA for Vixen. As long as Spider-Woman is in New Avengers I'll get that, but I liked the way they started out, now it's all divided. :-( I loved the issue with them all suspended naked! heyyyyy!
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Who got shot in the face? I only kept up with a couple of the Infinite Crisis side stories (actually, come to think of it, i really only was reading Villians United on top of the actual book) so i don't really know what happened anywhere else. The Civil War spin offs are a bit more interesting but that's because i think the realistic tone of the storyline is engaging with a lot of different practical things to expand on.
Oh lord, Donna Troy...i always find myself amused when i look through old comics and she's married to that guy with the orange curly hair and curly beard. Who's idea was that? Bleh.
Yeah, that Geoff Johns run of Flash is some of the best written in the last twenty years for that character and it was ALL character driven which was why it was so good. Johns knows how to make characters pop and the Rogues are a perfect example of that. Now that Flash is the former Impulse or whatever i'm just bored and annoyed. Wally West wasn't broken.
The Question is hot. I'd do him with no face...actually maybe not...
52's been really interesting and i like the fact that they've got a lot of artists and writers handling the stories because it gives you a really wide perspective that you normally lose with comics. Civil War is a great concept and i think as long as Marvel doesn't screw up the finale of it by doing something lame it could be one of their best stories in years. Frontline is the best of the side books too. Ms. Marvel always sort of struck me as a drag queen heroine and i was always more found of her in her Binary incarnation. I've never been a huge magic in comics fan but i've heard Shadowpact is good and i liked the idea of the Spectre destroying all of the magic and starting the 10th age. Very dynamic. I've heard Checkmate and Secret Six are good too and Fire & Cat Man are fucking hot characters. Mmmm... I really don't know how i feel towards New Avengers, primarily because Bendis sort of bugs me and the fact that he's writing so many big name books right now makes me weary of the quality of each title. Plus i kind of can't handle Wolverine being in yet ANOTHER comic book. Seriously, i'm over it. JLA is looking interesting and i'm a huge fan of past incarnations (Maguire and Giffen's run in the late 80's/early 90's is one of my favorites of all time).
And that issue where they're all naked in the Savage Land is definitely awesome.
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Shadowpact's miniseries and special were better than the ongoing so far, but the writer still has clever ideas. They have a lame villain this latest issue who's powers are lunar derived. She only has powers when the moon's out and their strength is dependent on how full the moon is. Ragman couldn't absorb her into his cape because she constantly gets caught and jailed in the daylight and thus has mostly atoned for her contract killings. Stuff like that.
the new Ms. Marvel finally deals with her blind following of Iron Man's orders. She's kind of a butch character in a Miss America bathing suit w/ a Halloween masquerade mask, but I like her for some reason. I just reproduced a panel of her getting shot in the boobies with a laser, possibly a future lesbian bar open mic poster! :-) They should dig that one.
Checkmate was spawned from the OMAC mini. I liked that, but have gone with Checkmate instead of the OMAC series. It's a comic with a LOT of panels w/ words, but I like the espionage and Fire having to slit a throat, and the Suicide Squad's Amanda Waller back to her almost villainous methods of getting things done behind politicians' backs.
As a kid, I hated the whole 80s Donna Troy marraige thing. Waste of comic book space! :-) He was so not in her league!
Ooooh! 52 just ended with a potential Suicide Squad being put together, and the photos for consideration include Phobia and the metal chick from Flash! :-) See? Everything comes back around!
Secret Six is fun, coz they're not really trying to be 'good' and Deadshot actually comes off as more sane than most of his team mates, which is saying a lot.
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