Monthly (Comic) Book Club - March - Secret Wars19217
 If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
|
xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Let's do some Friday lunchtime reading. #7 introduces a new Spider-Woman right off the bat. And the Wasp does seem pretty dead, and callously thrown away by Wrecker. Cap's crew isn't willing to go after the villains, but the X-Men take the opportunity to try grabbing some bad guys while they're separated. The X-Men come off a bit better than previous fights, essentially getting a draw against stronger opponents. Wolverine does Wolverine things, cutting off Absorbing Man's arm, but I think the cake goes to She-Hulk. She goes alone to Doom's base and takes out the Wrecking Crew but can't hold out when Titania joins the fight. Cap won't go to save her while on Galactus duty, but things change when the X-Men offer to keep watch. Looks like we're up for another big fight next issue. |
||
| Post 26 • IP flag post | ||
|
If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
|
xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
| #8 gives us Cap's team taking it to the bad guys at Doombase. Spider-Man shows off again and the good guys take the day. And Wasp isn't dead, so it's good times all around. Of course, the issue has perhaps the most famous moment in the series, which is when Spidey gets his new suit. ASM 300 wouldn't come out for another 3-4 years, so I wonder if they had anything in particular in mind when this came out. It also seems a little less dramatic since they introduced Spider-Woman the issue before in essentially the same suit. But none of that is important right now, because Galactus seems ready to eat the planet. |
||
| Post 27 • IP flag post | ||
|
If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
|
xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I think my favorite part of #9 is when Thor thinks Hulk might be feeling down because chairs are so small. Big man problems. Otherwise the big question is what to do with Galactus. Reed originally figures that they should actually leave him alone, because either he'll get what he wishes from the Beyonder and stop eating planets, or the Beyonder will destroy him and Galactus won't be around to keep eating planets. But the other heroes don't agree, and Reed joins in on the fight anyway. Unfortunately, Galactus gets away and starts eating his own world while Doom plans on syphoning off the energy. |
||
| Post 28 • IP flag post | ||
 COLLECTOR
|
dielinfinite private msg quote post Address this user | |
| So, I’m starting to think maybe I focused too much on Iron Man not being plainly shown to be Rhody simply because I know he’s not the “real” Iron Man. I think the observations I made were still correct but they also apply to every other character. No character has really unmasked themselves and everyone refers to everyone else by their codenames if they have one. Again, it feels like the book was written with non-regular readers in mind. In this story it isn’t so much about the people under the masks, the masks ARE the characters. One thing that I think helped me focus on Iron Man is the fact that his costume isn’t just a change of clothes but a full-on shell of armor so it feels a little stranger not to see him take it off. In issue 4 the heroes still feel pretty dysfunctional. Sure Kang tried to kill Doom but that’s what you expect from his type of character. meanwhile, it feels like there’s a lot of duplicity going on with the heroes. X-Men going behind everyone’s back to ally with Magneto, Xavier manipulating Spider-Man’s mind, Wasp seducing Magneto to find out his plan…you could swap all the heroes with villains and it would probably fee more natural. |
||
| Post 29 • IP flag post | ||
|
COLLECTOR
|
dielinfinite private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I did enjoy the plot movement in issue 5 with Galactus summoning his ship which gave more solid direction to the various factions. Galactus wants to eat the planet (probably). The Avengers (to generalize Captain America’s group) want to stop Galactus from eating the planet. The X-Men also want to stop Galactus but acting independently of Cap’s team.The villains want to kill the heroes and win the prize. Dooom wants to use Galactus’s technology as a stepping stone to overcoming the Beyonder. I did like the idea that Galactus doesn’t even notice any of the heroes or villains because they are so far beneath him and when he does, it’s little more than a glance just long enough to decide that he should not be concerned. One thing that I noticed in this issue though is, what the heck happened to Lockheed? He’s not with the X-Men, and given how he’s pining for Kitty you’d thibk Colossus would be keeping him close, and not with the Avengers. I se going to be his own faction like Doom and Galactus? I guess we’ll have to see. |
||
| Post 30 • IP flag post | ||
|
COLLECTOR
|
dielinfinite private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Issue 6 begins with Wasp and Lizard running into each other. Lizard was apparently injured in the first battle but I went back to check and you only really see him leaping into battle but don’t see him at all after that. Maybe the writers will remember about Lockheed and give him some time in the spotlight, too! I agree that the whole X-Men camp just feels very messy. According to you there was some internal conflict in the regular X-Men titles but did rise to this level? Rogue is daydreaming during battle and gets laid out in one hit because of it. I can understand Wolverine being hot-headed and having that bite him back almost immediately. I still have no idea what Cyclops’ thought process was in unleashing the volcanoes. He doesn’t say why just that he hopes he’s doing the right thing. Then of course the conflict between Storm and Xavier. I’ve said it before but the villains seem far more cohesive as a unit than the heroes and it just feels unnatural. |
||
| Post 31 • IP flag post | ||
|
COLLECTOR
|
dielinfinite private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Issue 7 continues the tradition of introducing characters then doing nothing with them. Spider-Woman appears in the very first panel but you don’t see her at all for the remainder of the issue. Xavier seems to pat himself on the back awfully hard after his team intercepts the bad guys and fail to actually stop them. Xavier feels as much a liability in combat as he is a help, if not more. I did find it funny how Storm’s still skeptical and given that Xavier’s been mentally connected to everyone during the battle, he might have heard what she thought. This issue highlights a major frustration I’ve had with the hero team and that’s their very reactionary approach. The villains, particularly Doom, are trying to DO something. They are launching attacks and missions in furtherance of some goal. Meanwhile the heroes are just waiting around to see what happens next. Hell, Galactus is up on a nearby hill building a literal doomsday device and their big plan is to wait around and maybe talk to him about it tomorrow. It felt refreshing that She-Hulk actually went rogue and attacked the villains, even if it did go sideways. |
||
| Post 32 • IP flag post | ||
|
If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
|
xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by dielinfinite I have to admit to not having a great comparison because I'm not as familiar with Avengers or other team books, but Claremont was always as interested in the characters and drama as the action. I mentioned the leadership history, and Rogue (as briefly mentioned in her monologues) was new to the team as well after just being a bad guy. Secret Wars was running in 1984/1985, and Wolverine's miniseries was late 70s, so he was still very much in his hothead/loose cannon stage. There was also generally more team turn-over going on, although all the X-Men here aside from Rogue are pretty established. I think when you couple all that with the writing-to-the-casual-fan that you've mentioned (and are spot-on about), you get these The Real Mutants of Westchester vibes. |
||
| Post 33 • IP flag post | ||
|
If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
|
xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Let's find out if they ever let us in on the secret. #10 has Doom steal Galactus' energy and fly off to fight the Beyonder. It doesn't go well, but Doom is able to trigger some kind of device in his armor and seemingly defeat/absorb the Beyonder in the end. The other characters don't get much to do besides try to avoid being caught in the rubble of the base falling apart. Magneto catches more grief, especially when he makes a move to help Doom, but otherwise the main draw is Wolverine and Captain America. Wolverine, making a point that comes up quite a bit in the various Avengers-X-Men crossovers, asks where Cap is all the times that mutants are being persecuted. Later, things take a turn back toward the friendly when Cap and Wolverine independently go to free the bad guys from being crushed when the base is demolished. Fitting with the general writing level of the book, it's a quick resolution to a tough question. |
||
| Post 34 • IP flag post | ||
|
If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
|
xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
| #11 reminds me of the most critical question in this series - what's the deal with 'Owie'? I assume it's pronounced owe - e, but why is that better than Owen? It isn't even shorter. And it looks like it should be pronounced ow-wee. I get cutesy talk but this is too far for me. More seriously, Doom seems content with being the most powerful being in the universe. He lets Owen in on the secret of controlling molecules (he can basically control everything), and disappears. Doom later uses Hulk and Spider-Woman to retrieve Klaw (although I don't know why he needed them) and invites the heroes to come meet him. The bad guys, in the meantime, went back to the chunk of Denver in Battleworld and then flew off. Doom has invited the heroes to make up for bad things he did before he was all-powerful, which is quite the turn. He restores Kang and then sends him back to his time, and tells us that Galactus has been retrieved by Nova. In the previous issue, he restored Captain Marvel to normal after turning her into a hologram. So things seem on the up and up. But Cap is worried that Doom's initial plans are a little too human. And when the heroes all agree to fight back, they're struck by a giant blast. |
||
| Post 35 • IP flag post | ||
|
If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
|
xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
| #12, the finale. As one might have guessed, the Beyonder isn't dead. He's the light that floated around Hulk, Spider-Woman, and finally Klaw. Doom is having trouble keeping all his power in check, and Klaw/Beyonder uses that uncertainty to trick him into handing over some power. We get a last big battle between some alien constructs, and Ultron, that Klaw makes and the good guys. But it's background to Beyonder getting his power back from Doom and ending the war. Spider-Man finds out that everyone else is using a different costume machine than he did. It certainly looks like the writers had something up their sleeves when they were writing the story, although I don't know if it was Venom specifically. With the help of some magically wish-fulfillment energy left in the planet, the heroes find a way to send themselves home, pretty much in the same shape they came in. The exception is Thing, who wants to stay on the planet since he has some ability to switch between his Thing and Ben forms. On the whole, I think it was an entertaining enough series. @dielinfinite is certainly right that the story is written to casual fans (or non-fans who were only interested because of the toys), and I wouldn't say it hits the highest highs. But there was some ok stuff in there. |
||
| Post 36 • IP flag post | ||
|
COLLECTOR
|
dielinfinite private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I’m going out of town this weekend but it’s a 5-week month so give me through next week to finish Secret Wars and we’ll Start New Gods the week of April 3rd | ||
| Post 37 • IP flag post | ||