Comics and Movies

[DandyDon52]

I loved it when they did stuff like this with the logo!
about the price, when they went with the new paper, prices shot up, quality went down.
Prices are really a joke now.
Marvel killed their own business with greed, and put most comic shops out of business.

they should go back to the early 80's type comic and lower prices, with same # of pages, and panels as in the 80's.
make all the books bi monthly.

 

[DandyDon52]

2022 MCU Phase 4 Schedule

Movies -- not interested in any of these

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, May 6, 2022
Thor: Love and Thunder, July 8, 2022
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, November 11, 2022

Television

Moon Knight
Ms. Marvel
She-Hulk
I Am Groot (described as a series of shorts instead of regular episodes)

TV Special

Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

Movies -- not interested in any of these

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, May 6, 2022 - just dont like their whole version of the Dr
Thor: Love and Thunder, July 8, 2022 - saw trailer and it looked awful
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, November 11, 2022 - didnt like the first one, so no interest in this one. curious if this one makes same amount of $

Television

Moon Knight - was awful
Ms. Marvel - watching now, different and kinda cute
She-Hulk - not interested, but dont know about it.
I Am Groot (described as a series of shorts instead of regular episodes) sounds silly, dont think he is good stand alone character.

 

[DallasEast]

Ms. Marvel - watching now, different and kinda cute

I'll ask that you post your opinion after you have finished the sixth episode. Just curious if the show stays different and kinda cute to you or changes to similar and really ugly.

 

[DallasEast]

I loved it when they did stuff like this with the logo!
about the price, when they went with the new paper, prices shot up, quality went down.
Prices are really a joke now.
Marvel killed their own business with greed, and put most comic shops out of business.

they should go back to the early 80's type comic and lower prices, with same # of pages, and panels as in the 80's.
make all the books bi monthly.

Very much agree about pricing. Cover prices were the primary reason I stopped buying comics full-time in the mid-1990s. Nowadays I buy a comic or two every so often. Or renew my Marvel Unlimited/DC Universe Infinite memberships, read what I want and cancel again.

Besides the membership costs, digital comics just do not do it for me personally. I like the feel of paper and turning pages.

That said, I only feel bad for comics shops that were around in the 1960s and 1970s, which was rare. Those shop owners had the real love of comics. Their competition were supermarket and drug store newsstands back then, which were the main sources of my weekly purchases when I was a kid.

In reality, the glut of comics shops that started popping up like weeds into the mid-90s were capitalizing on the collector market. Marvel going public did not help things before that bubble collapsed but most comics shops (along with monopolistic distributers) were co-victims of greed themselves. No industry can simply flood the market often and erratically driven mainly by seller unsecured demand and not due to end-customer demand. That trainwreck was destined to happen quickly.

Here is a link to a very good article on the 1990's market collapse: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/the-crash-of-1993

Any business must provide product to meet demand. Good luck hoping page counts and panel distribution will go retro anytime soon. Much greater luck wanting the bulk of book distribution going bi-monthly.

 

[Roadtrip635]

Very much agree about pricing. Cover prices were the primary reason I stopped buying comics full-time in the mid-1990s. Nowadays I buy a comic or two every so often. Or renew my Marvel Unlimited/DC Universe Infinite memberships, read what I want and cancel again.

Besides the membership costs, digital comics just do not do it for me personally. I like the feel of paper and turning pages.

That said, I only feel bad for comics shops that were around in the 1960s and 1970s, which was rare. Those shop owners had the real love of comics. Their competition were supermarket and drug store newsstands back then, which were the main sources of my weekly purchases when I was a kid.

In reality, the glut of comics shops that started popping up like weeds into the mid-90s were capitalizing on the collector market. Marvel going public did not help things before that bubble collapsed but most comics shops (along with monopolistic distributers) were co-victims of greed themselves. No industry can simply flood the market often and erratically driven mainly by seller unsecured demand and not due to end-customer demand. That trainwreck was destined to happen quickly.

Here is a link to a very good article on the 1990's market collapse: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/the-crash-of-1993

Any business must provide product to meet demand. Good luck hoping page counts and panel distribution will go retro anytime soon. Much greater luck wanting the bulk of book distribution going bi-monthly.

That's about when I stopped buying comics as well. A combination of things kinda lead to it, prices, just kinda got busier with life and seemed most of the titles I did follow, the quality dropped art/stories. There was such a glut of titles and it seemed like maybe the talent pool wasn't there to support quality products.

 

[Roadtrip635]

Movies -- not interested in any of these

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, May 6, 2022 - just dont like their whole version of the Dr
Thor: Love and Thunder, July 8, 2022 - saw trailer and it looked awful
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, November 11, 2022 - didnt like the first one, so no interest in this one. curious if this one makes same amount of $

Television

Moon Knight - was awful
Ms. Marvel - watching now, different and kinda cute
She-Hulk - not interested, but dont know about it.
I Am Groot (described as a series of shorts instead of regular episodes) sounds silly, dont think he is good stand alone character.

I can honestly say, I'm more excited with what DC has coming out this year than Marvel, especially with the last few disappointing Marvel efforts. I was looking forward to Black Panther but with, the latest Marvel movies, I've set my expectations low.

I'm looking forward to She-Hulk, but it was zero to do with the character and everything to do with Tatiana Maslany, she was amazing in Orphan Black.


The Batman was good, Peacemaker was great, looking forward to Black Adam, new seasons of Titans and Doom Patrol, a new season of Pennyworth and then there's The Sandman . Then as for non-DC/Marvel, I can't wait for "Grendel" on Netflix.

 

[DallasEast]

I'm looking forward to She-Hulk, but it was zero to do with the character and everything to do with Tatiana Maslany, she was amazing in Orphan Black.

 

[quickccc]

0

Very much agree about pricing. Cover prices were the primary reason I stopped buying comics full-time in the mid-1990s. Nowadays I buy a comic or two every so often. Or renew my Marvel Unlimited/DC Universe Infinite memberships, read what I want and cancel again.

Besides the membership costs, digital comics just do not do it for me personally. I like the feel of paper and turning pages..

at that time, i didn't have a problem with the increasing pricing, so long as i still got the delightful action going on in the comics .
But it seems Marvel wanted to start subbing Action work for more Art work
so that caused me to really limited down 90s' Marvel comics issues era, and I fell waaay behind after that ...

Thus i did not know who the heck was characters such as Onslaught

 

[Stash]

0

at that time, i didn't have a problem with the increasing pricing, so long as i still got the delightful action going on in the comics .
But it seems Marvel wanted to start subbing Action work for more Art work
so that caused me to really limited down 90s' Marvel comics issues era, and I fell waaay behind after that ...

Thus i did not know who the heck was characters such as Onslaught

Onslaught was right about the time I stopped collecting as well, at least for many titles. I came back to catch up on Avengers a few years later but never as enthusiastically as before.

 

[DandyDon52]

I can honestly say, I'm more excited with what DC has coming out this year than Marvel, especially with the last few disappointing Marvel efforts. I was looking forward to Black Panther but with, the latest Marvel movies, I've set my expectations low.

I'm looking forward to She-Hulk, but it was zero to do with the character and everything to do with Tatiana Maslany, she was amazing in Orphan Black.


The Batman was good, Peacemaker was great, looking forward to Black Adam, new seasons of Titans and Doom Patrol, a new season of Pennyworth and then there's The Sandman . Then as for non-DC/Marvel, I can't wait for "Grendel" on Netflix.

Oh so Tatiana Maslany, is going to be she hulk?
If so I too would have to try that.
you said The Sandman, is that marvels sandman?

I am on the last ep of MS Marvel, and it has been fairly good, very different, but the main girl did a good job making her character likable.
the writing was fairly good too, gets better each ep. A bit of history of india circa 1947 too.
I saw the trailer, and thought no way I like this lol, but as usual the trailers suck, and the show was ok.

 

[Stash]

Oh so Tatiana Maslany, is going to be she hulk?
If so I too would have to try that.
you said The Sandman, is that marvels sandman?

I am on the last ep of MS Marvel, and it has been fairly good, very different, but the main girl did a good job making her character likable.
the writing was fairly good too, gets better each ep. A bit of history of india circa 1947 too.
I saw the trailer, and thought no way I like this lol, but as usual the trailers suck, and the show was ok.

I just started the series last night and have only watched the first two episodes. I agree with you that the lead character does a good job and is very easy to root for.

 

[Roadtrip635]

Oh so Tatiana Maslany, is going to be she hulk?
If so I too would have to try that.
you said The Sandman, is that marvels sandman?

I am on the last ep of MS Marvel, and it has been fairly good, very different, but the main girl did a good job making her character likable.
the writing was fairly good too, gets better each ep. A bit of history of india circa 1947 too.
I saw the trailer, and thought no way I like this lol, but as usual the trailers suck, and the show was ok.

No DC's The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman is one of the Exec Producers as well and the teaser looks pretty good.

 

[DallasEast]

Marvel's Fantastic Four Borrows A Key Mystery From The DC Universe
By Joshua Isaak | Screen Rant
July 17, 2022

Warning: contains spoilers for Fantastic Four #45!

The Fantastic Four's most recent event is finally over - and the conclusion draws a major parallel between the Marvel and DC Universes. The entire universe is at stake during the Reckoning War, in which a new enemy that previously lost a universe-wide war against the Watchers reemerges to threaten all reality. In Fantastic Four #45, writer Dan Slott introduces a DC concept to the Marvel Universe: the Source Wall.

In the Reckoning War, a fifteen-year plan finally comes to fruition when the Prosilicans, now calling themselves the Reckoning, emerge from an unknown corner of the universe to see revenge against the Watchers. The war between the Watchers and the Reckoning ended when the Watcher Enmu fired the Ultimate Nullifier, rendering nine-tenths of the universe uninhabitable. The Watchers believed they were victorious, and vowed from that point forward never to interfere in the affairs of other beings - instead, they would use their powers to observe and record history.

Read more

 

[DallasEast]

The Dark Knight Rises Ended Superhero Cinema’s Era of Isolation
By Justin Carter | Gizmodo
July 18, 2022

Several of the retrospectives we’ve done this month have been focused on Marvel or other Disney IP. It’s just the nature of the beast, but Marvel’s Distinguished Competition — aka DC — has a pretty big landmark of its own to celebrate in the year of 2022. That’s right, it’s time to talk about our old pal, Batman.

Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises released in New York on July 16 back in 2012, followed by a wider release on July 20, and was the final instalment of the director’s critically and commercially acclaimed grounded reboot of Batman. Set about a decade after the end of 2008’s The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne (a returning Christian Bale) has retired from being Batman and lived in his mansion as a recluse, with Gotham’s crime rate gone severely down after Harvey Dent’s death was used as the catalyst for Gotham’s police department to expand their power. But when Anne Hathaway’s Selina Kyle pops into his life and Wayne Enterprises is taken from right under his nose, Bruce gets pulled back into the lifestyle he’s spent the last eight years avoiding. And just as gets back into the swing of things as Batman, Bane (Tom Hardy) shows up in Gotham. After Bane does what he must always do, Bruce has to get his groove back and fix his back if he has any hope of saving Gotham from Bane and the remnants of the League of Shadows under the masked mercenary’s command.

Read more

 

[DallasEast]

How Doom Patrol Makes Faceless Characters Feel Alive
By Ernesto Valenzuela | Slash Film
July 17, 2022

"Doom Patrol" is an unconventional superhero show (if you can call it that) on so many levels. With a lot less punching than what's expected from a typical DC or Marvel comics adaptation, "Doom Patrol" is more about introspection than it is about defeating the next bad guy or saving the world. Sure, that introspection is done via werewolf butts and living streets, but that only helps to move the characters forward and bring incredibly emotional moments to the show.

The most surprising aspect of "Doom Patrol" is its ability to convey such powerful character moments and emotions with characters who don't have the most expressive faces, which is putting it lightly.

Robotman and Negative Man, two of the main characters of "Doom Patrol," are both characters that have their faces covered. Robotman is a robot suit, and Negative Man is a character covered in bandages. Moreover, both characters are voiced by different actors than the ones that portray them physically on set. Brendan Fraser voices Robotman while the character is brought to life on set by Riley Shanahan. Negative Man is voiced by Matt Bomer and portrayed on set by Matthew Zuk. The faces of these two characters are never expressive but somehow are still at the center of some of the most emotional moments of the series.

Read more

 

[DallasEast]

10 Major Marvel Characters Still Not in the MCU
By J.R. Waugh | Attack Of The Fanboy
July 17, 2022

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is growing ever bigger in Phase 4, with iconic and obscure characters alike being introduced and embraced by fans who otherwise might not have seen them if they didn’t read the comics. It’s proving to be a potent gateway for casual moviegoers and long-standing Marvel fans to see great characters rendered on the screen, although there are certainly still tons of key and interesting figures yet to be introduced or even mentioned. Here’s our list of 10 Major Marvel Characters Still Not in the MCU!

10 Major Marvel Characters Still Not in the MCU

For the sake of clarification, this list will not include characters who are confirmed to have an upcoming movie release, as readers will likely know, for instance, that the Human Torch will appear in the recently confirmed Fantastic Four film, or Kang the Conquerer in the next Ant-Man film. This list strictly highlights well-known Marvel heroes who, despite perhaps not being known by the mainstream, are important figures in the comics who have not had any confirmation to appear in the MCU yet. Here’s the list as follows:

Captain Britain

Read more

 

[DallasEast]

10 Years Later, Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel Is A Masterpiece
By Staff Writer | Fortress of Solitude
July 18, 2022

Released in 2013, it’s hard to believe Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel is nearly 10 years old. But rewatching the film today, I’m mesmerised by just how far ahead of its time this Superman film was. With breathtaking visuals, epic battles and a revolutionary reimagining of the character and his universe, Man of Steel is nothing short of a masterpiece.

2012 was a turning point for superhero flicks as we know them. By then, Iron Man had been around for four years, but everything changed when Marvel released The Avengers. A tremendous achievement in marketing and pop culture, it’s safe to say that the release of Marvel’s first team-up film set the bar high for any possible competition in the superhero genre.

It was clear that, whoever wanted to compete against the titans at Marvel, would have to do so in a completely unique way. Perhaps that’s why so many comic book fans saw Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel as a breath of fresh air for the comedy-heavy superhero genre.

Read more

 

[DallasEast]

LOL! I do not remember this story from last month. My apologies if anyone had already posted it before.

George, George, George Spidey Spidey Spidey of the jungle neighborhood!
Strong as he can be!
AHHH! Watch out for that tree beam!

 

[nobody]

Marvel's Fantastic Four Borrows A Key Mystery From The DC Universe
By Joshua Isaak | Screen Rant
July 17, 2022



Warning: contains spoilers for Fantastic Four #45!

The Fantastic Four's most recent event is finally over - and the conclusion draws a major parallel between the Marvel and DC Universes. The entire universe is at stake during the Reckoning War, in which a new enemy that previously lost a universe-wide war against the Watchers reemerges to threaten all reality. In Fantastic Four #45, writer Dan Slott introduces a DC concept to the Marvel Universe: the Source Wall.

In the Reckoning War, a fifteen-year plan finally comes to fruition when the Prosilicans, now calling themselves the Reckoning, emerge from an unknown corner of the universe to see revenge against the Watchers. The war between the Watchers and the Reckoning ended when the Watcher Enmu fired the Ultimate Nullifier, rendering nine-tenths of the universe uninhabitable. The Watchers believed they were victorious, and vowed from that point forward never to interfere in the affairs of other beings - instead, they would use their powers to observe and record history.

Read more

That's part of what killed my interest in comics was all the major "events" that were for all of the marbles. It just happened way too often and for no real stakes.

There were too many crossovers in those events as they tried to get you to get all of the different titles connected to it. It just happened more and more frequently and they had to always try to up the stakes each time. It got boring. You can have smaller stakes but make it still meaningful and interesting by having good writing.

 

[Stash]

10 Years Later, Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel Is A Masterpiece
By Staff Writer | Fortress of Solitude
July 18, 2022

Released in 2013, it’s hard to believe Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel is nearly 10 years old. But rewatching the film today, I’m mesmerised by just how far ahead of its time this Superman film was. With breathtaking visuals, epic battles and a revolutionary reimagining of the character and his universe, Man of Steel is nothing short of a masterpiece.

2012 was a turning point for superhero flicks as we know them. By then, Iron Man had been around for four years, but everything changed when Marvel released The Avengers. A tremendous achievement in marketing and pop culture, it’s safe to say that the release of Marvel’s first team-up film set the bar high for any possible competition in the superhero genre.

It was clear that, whoever wanted to compete against the titans at Marvel, would have to do so in a completely unique way. Perhaps that’s why so many comic book fans saw Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel as a breath of fresh air for the comedy-heavy superhero genre.

Read more

Clearly there’s no accounting for tastes.