Hello and welcome to the 12/11/14 edition of The Comic Shop!
Since most of you know how calendars work you realize that the end of the year is rapidly approaching. That means one thing around these parts the 2nd annual "Shoppies" my year-in-review of all that is good with the two biggest comic publishers on the planet. (I'd love to do indie awards, but with my limited budget I have to be pragmatic about what I try and what I bring home). You can read last year's version here http://gothamcitycomics.blogspot.com/2013/12/big-two-comics-year-in-review-1st.html . I will try to keep with the same categories as before; however, if there are things you would like to see shoot me an email (johnnyleffler1116@gmail.com), post on my FB page (The Comic Shop), or shoot me a tweet (@johnnyboy1116). As have always said if you have something you'd like to discuss I'm willing to post guest submissions as well, and those are the best ways to reach me.
On to the news.......
First....There was a lot of huff and puff on the internet and from your humble blogger as well when Marvel announced the upcoming changes to their comic universe. Lady Thor, FalCaptain America, and Evil Tony Stark gave a lot of people pause. Recently, I had the opportunity to pick up all three of the #1's from the respective reboots and I have to say so far I have a favorable impression.
I think my favorite out of all of them at this point is the "All-New Captain America". Sam Wilson is in many ways drastically different from the previous men that have wielded the shield. Whereas the most recent Cap-lacement Bucky Barnes was not all too dissimilar from Steve Rogers himself Falcon is a stark contrast. Cap & Bucky were both World War II era soldiers that were experimented on, frozen, and then brought into the real world. While there paths diverged a bit with Bucky being a highly skilled assassin, and Cap more or less keeping his hands clean they were virtually different versions of the same character. Sam was raised in Harlem as the son of a minister. He refused religion and his parents supported him and offered him alternatives, and then sadly his father was killed trying to break up a fight. Two years later he loses his mother to a random street crime.
For this reason I have found myself rooting for Sam in his new role as Captain America. I think he embodies the things that we, as Americans, tend to idealize; second chances, overcoming adversity, picking yourself up by your bootstraps, etc & so forth. It doesn't hurt that I absolutely loved Anthony Mackie's take on Falcon in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" either.
I have to say I'm really only reading "Superior IronMan" because of how much I love Daredevil, and he is a key figure in the first part of the arch.
In all fairness I don't care "who wields the power of Thor", because quite frankly I haven't been the biggest Thor fan in my life. I read quite a bit of the run before the Marvel NOW! relaunch, and I have heard that Jason Aaron did a wonderful job, but it's something I'll have to take a look at later on down the road.
My parting thought on the current state of Marvel is that I applaud their effort to push away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It could be easy to serve their film masters, but they have made the bold choice to take the comic line in a different direction. Kudos to the editorial staff and I hope they continue to move forward with the changes even when they have "Avengers: Age of Ultron" on the horizon.
Second.... (POTENTIAL SPOILERS) It's time to discuss where we are with the three shows that I watch religiously that are based on comics "Arrow", "Flash", and "Agents of SHIELD". .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
We have reached the midseason break for all three (I believe), and we've got some answers and certainly a whole new slew of questions.
The "Flash"- "Arrow" crossover arch was some really great television in my opinion. The writers did a wonderful job capturing the juxtaposition of the two characters & their teams (for instance Barry's light happy-go-lucky nature vs. Ollie's dark-grizzled nature). I found it very entertaining, and I hope that they do it again at a proper time.
I continue to be impressed by the writing, the cast, and the direction of "The Flash". It is clear to this humble blogger that they understand that Barry is the "hope" character of the DC universe. While the Kryptonian alphabet may most assuredly state that "S" is a symbol for hope I have always felt that hope came in a Flash of lightning.
If we look back at the history of Barry Allen we will se a man that sacrificed his life during the original "Crisis", and no one even knew he did it. Then, when Wally was over his head in the "Final Crisis" event Barry emerged from the speed force to help Wally save the day. Even in "Blackest Night" Barry literally became a symbol of hope as he became a ring bearer for the blue lanterns and helped to defeat Nekron. In the interest of full disclosure my love of "The Flash" goes all the way back to the first tv series with John Wesley Shipp when I insisted on going as Flash that year for halloween, and that I get comics about him etc. and so forth.
I found it fitting that in many ways "The Flash" mid season finale mirrored the mid season finale of the first season of "Arrow". As both heroes found themselves overmatched by a similarly skilled individual (Reverse Flash & the Dark Archer).
"Arrow" has been more of a mixed bag this year because it seems as if they are trying to further define Ollie's character by pitting him against his alter ego "The Arrow". If this weren't enough they have tried to resurrect the mystery angle from the first season, and blend it with the hardcore action from the second season. So far it's been hit or miss, but certainly landing more on the hit portion. I really liked how they introduced and portrayed Captain Boomerang during the FLARROW event, and I hope to see more of the same in the second half of the season.
I follow Katie Cassidy on Instagram and it has been very cool to see her transform herself for this role and her ultimate goal of taking on the mantle of the Black Canary. She has been putting in work at the gym, and it is really awesome to see her take it as seriously as she has. I feel like this season will have a lot of surprises in store, so we will have to wait and see what happens.
Full confession mode again here; I was NOT a fan of Agents of SHIELD when it first hit my television screen. I felt that it was just a cheap, red-headed step-child, discount product of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Everything that happened on the show seemed to be in the background of bigger events and just out of line of the things that actually mattered. This season; however, the crew has used the show to drive upcoming events within the MCU. I don't want to go into too much detail, but suffice to say they have been digging the trenches so to speak for all the big things happening at Marvel. I have to give the crew credit too, for making the characters much more than 2 dimensional ambercrombie models this season. Skye, for one, has been lightyears more interesting than she was in the first go round on the show.
Third (& final for tonight)..... BUYER BEWARE WARNING.... On this very blog I shared that I was interested in the fact that "Arrow" tv writer Andrew Kreisberg was taking over the helm for the New 52's "Green Arrow". While the jury is still out on Kreisberg's contribution only a couple of issues in I have to say that the art is absolutely atrocious. Characters are not even drawn the same from panel to panel, and some even appear to have spontaneous lazy eyes. It is just some of the worst art that I have ever seen. I may give the story one more chance, but you'd be better off spending your hard earned dollars on the Jeff Lemire & Andrea Sorrentino run with the Emerald Archer. Some of there best moments are highlighted HERE ( http://www.comicvine.com/articles/the-best-moments-in-jeff-lemire-andrea-sorrentinos/1100-149723/ ) .
Thanks for reading! I tried to get through my backlogged thoughts, but I still have a lot to go so I will be back as soon as I can! Look for my letter to Dick Grayson here in a few days, and then I'll be back at the end of the month live from the back of an abandoned Ames store for the Shoppie Awards!
No comments:
Post a Comment