{"id":9307,"date":"2006-07-29T13:29:12","date_gmt":"2006-07-29T20:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06-two-tpb-blasts-from-the-past.html"},"modified":"2006-07-29T13:29:12","modified_gmt":"2006-07-29T20:29:12","slug":"bt06_two_tpb_bl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06_two_tpb_bl.html","title":{"rendered":"BT06 – Two TPB Blasts from the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?]<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n



\n  <\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Infinity War<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (Marvel) [3\/4\/2\/2<\/b>] (collects IW<\/em> #1-6, Marvel Comics Presents<\/em> #108-111, Warlock & the Infinity Watch<\/em> #7-10)
\nw. Jim Starlin; a. Ron Lim, Angel Medina, et al.<\/em>  <\/p>\n

In 1992, Starlin continued his “Infinity” series, which began with the Infinity Gauntlet<\/em>, and would continue with … lots of other stuff from Starlin, all trending downhill in an alarming fashion, punctuated by occasional nice bits, but demonstrating how it’s altogether possible to get too much of a good thing, or, in this case, the evil thing: Thanos the Mad Titan. <\/p>\n

If the Infinity Gauntlet<\/em> demonstrated how absolute power is not all it’s cracked up to be, Infinity War shows that plenty of other people will squabble over it.  In this case, Adam Warlock’s evil twin, the Magus, does a Thanos-worthy job of manipulating events to get his hands back on the power of the IG.  Hilarity ensues, as the greatest heroes of Earth get drawn into various sides of the conflict.  (Why Earth has such a relative monopoly on participants is another question altogether). <\/p>\n

The story is more complex than IG, and less satisfying, but there’s plenty of cosmic punch-outs and posturing, if you like watching Galactus arguing with the Cosmic Tribunal.  It’s still quite readable, though, in a way that makes you feel like you’ve been drinking too much soda pop afterwards. <\/p>\n

Given that the heroes were the “Who’s Who” of the Marvel Universe at the time, seeing how some of the characters have changed — mostly X-types in their costumes — which haven’t, and which have basically vanished from the MU.  To that extent, it’s sort of a useful yearbook we well as a Saturday matinee shoot-em-up. <\/p>\n



\n  <\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Hulk Visionaries – Peter David<\/strong>: Vol. 3<\/a><\/em> (Marvel) [3\/2\/3\/2<\/b>] (collects #349-354, Web of Spider-Man<\/em> #44, FF<\/em> #320)
\nw. Peter David; a. Jeff Purves, et al.<\/em> <\/p>\n

Another volume of David’s work on Hulk — this time in the Gray Las Vegas years.  Having the Hulk change back to a gray bruiser, clever and brutal, working as a leg-breaker in Vegas was a clever idea, but the the artwork is a mixed bag, and too many of the villains were throw-aways worthy of the bad old days on Spider-Man.  <\/p>\n

Still, there are some nice moments here, like the gray Hulk finally winning against the Thing, despite the fact that Hulky’s lower-powered and this was in an era of an over-cosmiced uber-powerful Thing.  Brutal cleverness wins against virtue — not a great lesson, but kind of fun to watch. <\/p>\n

Speaking of which, while I like the whole “Visionaries” concept from Marvel (nicely crafted collections of creator-specific work on a given character), they really need to decide on the titles.  The cover of this tome says, “Marvel Visionaries \/ Peter David \/ The Incredible Hulk,” while the spine says, “Hulk Visionaries \/ Peter David \/ 3.”  The spine, in this case, is the actual title — but that makes the cover more than a bit misleading. <\/p>\n



\n <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

(listening to: “The Mod Squad” from <\/i>Television’s Greatest Hits)<\/small>
\n
\n(listening to: McCurdy, Ed, “Tottingham Frolic” from <\/i>Naughty & Bawdy Songs of Olde England) <\/small>
\n
\n(listening to: Slovak Phil., “Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Min, Op. 21 – Maestoso” (Chopin) from <\/i>Great Piano Moments)<\/small>
\n
\n(listening to: Brassy, “Work It Out” from <\/i>Kim Possible)<\/small>
\n
\n(listening to: Litton, James & the American Boychoir, “I Sing of a Maiden” (Hadley) from <\/i>On Christmas Day) <\/small>
\n
\n(listening to: Joel, Billy, “Christie Lee” from <\/i>Innocent Man, An)<\/small> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?]   Infinity War (Marvel) [3\/4\/2\/2] (collects IW #1-6, Marvel Comics Presents #108-111, Warlock…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogathon","category-media-comics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4626,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/07\/27\/bt03_comfort_fo.html","url_meta":{"origin":9307,"position":0},"title":"BT03 – Comfort Food, Part 4","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 27-Jul-03 5:26am","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, between the Red Bull and the Eurythmics, I seem to be doing better. Or else I'm just typing gibberish, like Uncle Duke used to do in the middle of...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9281,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/30\/bt06_fantastic.html","url_meta":{"origin":9307,"position":1},"title":"BT06 – Fantastic Threesome","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 30-Jul-06 12:22am","format":false,"excerpt":"Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?] \u00a0 Ultimate Fantastic Four: N-Zone (Vol. 3) (Marvel) [4\/4\/3\/2] (collects #13-18) w. Warren...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9283,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06_two_more_r.html","url_meta":{"origin":9307,"position":2},"title":"BT06 – Two More Reviews","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Jul-06 11:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in the saddle again! Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?] Supreme Power: High Command (Vol. 3) (Marvel MAX)...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9282,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06_fantasy_an.html","url_meta":{"origin":9307,"position":3},"title":"BT06 – Fantasy and Science","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Jul-06 11:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?] \u00a0 Stardust (Vertigo) [5\/5\/5\/5] w. Neil Gaiman; a. Charles Vess Strictly speaking, this...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15369,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/25\/bt09-n-is-for-naughty-blogathon.html","url_meta":{"origin":9307,"position":4},"title":"BT09 – N is for Naughty (#Blogathon)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 25-Jul-09 7:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 New Avengers, Vol. 5, \"Civil War\"\u00a0(DC) [collects #21-25] w. Brian Bendis; a.\u00a0various\u00a0 Writing New reader? Art Non-comics reader? A series of stand-alone stories, each with its own artist, on Avengers choosing sides in the Registration Act Civil War, delving into both motive and the circumstances that forced their decision.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9280,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/30\/bt06_gods_warri.html","url_meta":{"origin":9307,"position":5},"title":"BT06 – Gods, Warriors, and Villains","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 30-Jul-06 12:52am","format":false,"excerpt":"Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?] \u00a0 Ultimates 2:\u00a0Gods & Monsters (Vol. 1)\u00a0 (Marvel) [4\/5\/3\/1] (collects #1-6) w....","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}