House to Astonish Episode 110
We’ve got a pretty hefty slab of chat for you this time round, with discussion of Ales Kot being replaced on Suicide Squad, George Perez going exclusive at Boom, all the announcements out of the Image Expo (including DRM-free digital comics), Marvel’s new Inhumans-led direction, and a blitz through October’s solicitations. We’ve also got reviews of Trinity of Sin: Pandora, Sheltered and Superior Foes of Spider-Man, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe will not be cowed. All this plus Mark Millar’s DeathWilly, the Man-Duck and 22 pages of beautifully rendered pulleys.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or through our Facebook fan page.
Don’t forget you can now get House to Astonish t-shirts and hoodies at our Redbubble store, which helps keep our website and hosting going while helping keep your torso warm.
Congrats to Paul and Mrs. Paul.
Congratulations Paul!
Congrats on the progeny, Paul.
The second half of that early 00s Thanos series was released in trade, but they numbered the whole thing as volumes 4 and 5 as a big series with the Infinity Whatsits and Marvel Universe: The End. I’m surprised they didn’t reprint Giffen’s half of the series when Annihilation took off, as presumably Thanos’ odd status quo in that (no costume, chaos sprite hanging around) stems from the end of the solo series.
Oh and Man-Herd, surely?
I think it’s very clear that DC is completely editorially driven and is about focusing on the characters, not the writers (or artists for that matter). In their minds, writers are just hands to fulfill the editorially dictated story, so it doesn’t matter to DC what writer does it – even if it changes from issue to issue because the story is set regardless of who is actually writing the book. Granted, they are more than ready to cash in on the publicity brought because of a writer’s history of successes, but they don’t really care to actually let them create and write. They want their reputation, they just don’t care about their creative abilities.
I have to side with Paul on the Great Pandora Controversy of HtA #110. I really don’t think anything in the issue makes sense unless you accept that Pandora is introducing sin into the DC Universe via the skullbox. Otherwise she just let loose seven magic super-villains, but the story is clearly scaled a great big larger than that.
I do think they screwed up the basic idea of the Pandora myth more than Paul or Al seemed to let on, though. Pandora’s *choice* to disobey the gods–like Adam and Eve’s *choice* to disobey God in Genesis–is the crux of the story. Great drama can come from human beings consciously refusing to accept their natural place in the universe and having to face the consequences, but not much can come from their stumbling upon a skull and looking at it too closely.
I’m still unconvinced, if only for the reason that she meets Vandal Savage, whom we know has been killing people since the dawn of time. I think we might have to just chalk it up to a badly-conceived and ill-thought-out character in a not very good comic.
(I like the thought that we have great controversies, though. We should put up a memorial.)
Re: Sheltered – the idea that the kids are seeing the Apocalypse everywhere while the adults just blithely go about their business rings true to me, because of the accounts I’ve read of people brought up in Apocalyptic (particularly Rapture-believing) churches. The kids essentially lived in terror that the world was about to end any day now, while their parents were mostly there to be reassured of their moral superiority to all the “unsaved” masses.
Obviously, Survivalists don’t have the same beliefs, but I can see a similar kind of thought process.
BTN: I was raised in a Rapture-ready church. For better or for worse, the adults tended to keep up with the headlines and readily interpret news stories from the perspective of their eschatological beliefs.
Al: If you think about it, the best memorial to Pandora #1 is a recycling bin.
No Dexter review, after so many comments in the show about its delays? (I haven’t heard the episode yet though so I might be wrong)
Mancow is a shock jock based out of Chicago.
I like how almost every episode, the Image series Revival comes up, and Paul never seems to have any idea what it is.
On Pandora’s connection to the Trinity War crossover, the thing at the end with Superman and the skull is the basis for the Big Event that happens in this week’s Justice League #22.
I googled the Justice League 3000 to see what the costumes looked like. Flash seems fairly generic and GL-as-Spectre is just weird, but I was intrigued that Superman’s costume looks like an attempt to find a mid way point between the current look and DC One Million’s Kal Kent.
Strictly speaking we *don’t* know Vandal Savage has been murdering people since the dawn of time. We know he did that in previous continuity, but all we know about New 52 Savage is that he’s been murdering people since the 11th century. Certainly, Pandora seems to blame the Sins for what he’s like.
You could also interprete it that “free of sin” doesn’t necessarily mean “nice”, and Vandal was basically a wild animal up until then, rather than a moral being who’d *decided* to be a monster. I doubt that’s the intent, though. (And, again, it makes Pandora’s agonising over the sins rather meaningless.)
Actually, leafing backwards, isn’t the guy leading the stone-axe wielding tribesmen being controlled by Wrath in the panel captioned “The Levant, 7660 B.C.E.” rather familiar? If that *is* Savage, then presumably the intent is indeed that he only started murdering because Wrath told him to.
Maybe the Man Bull who’s 6 foot tall and has green hair is using the 9 foot tall brunette Man Bull’s picture for his online dating profile, which leads to a farcical escapade in a bull restaurant.
X-Corps includes the Joe Casey stuff previously collected in Poptopia. If you bought Poptopia a decade ago, you are going to have to double dip if you want a complete collection.
@Max. I noticed that. I kinda like Poptopia, but my trade is signed (by Sean Phillips, who didn’t look too thrilled to see it) so dilemma. Or not. My desire to read X-Corp has diminished considerably since the early 00s. Ten years ago I would have bought it no question.
Vertigo Resurrected already put out a collection of The Extremist a few years ago, but, as is mentioned, it’s a great comic, so it’s nice to see it out again. Maybe Milligan’s ‘Girl’ will get reprinted, as well? I’d pure love that, likesay.
Now, if they reprint Milligan’s Skreemer, ….
Why are Millar’s titles often so bland? Wanted, Nemesis, Secret Service, MPH…just one-word/phrase bleh. And then there’s the hyperbole (which you’d think would extend to the titles, too) about the new ‘big thing’ which is then forgotten about when the next one comes along.
It’s like if in the early days of Marvel Stan Lee had tried to generate excitement about FF and Spidey, then stopped doing them after the first year or two to launch Thor and Daredevil (except for this comparison I guess they’d have been called ‘Explorers’ and Spiderman, then ‘Gods’ and ‘Blind Justice’).
I think he spreads himself too thin.
Are simple titles more translatable to movie names, since it seems like Millar’s stuff is always made with an eye to a media adaptation.
The concise premises are surely done with an eye to translate into high concept movie pitches. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
I have been very down on DC in recent months but I really have to say I’m happy that they just launched a new Wonder Woman title for this romance than jettisoning Azzarello’s run.
I forgot Perez even wrote Superman at the start of the new 52. In September someone should go back to the first arcs of all the books and recap all the abandoned storylines. Remember the big horn that someone blew in Superman? The pending Daemonite invasion?
Marvel seems to have overlooked the fact that no one wants the complete Erik Larson run on Amazing. How about Conway or Stern or Stan or PAD (okay, that was technically Spectacular and Friendly, but close enough)?
I think they went for Larson’s run because a) they’re going to do all of it eventually anyway and b) they haven’t really touched much of it before in collected editions.
Unlike the first Thor Epic Collection, the back half of which was released not long ago (and I bought only a month before the Epic Collection was announced).
FWIW, according to this week’s JLA, Wonder Woman thinks that what Pandora unleashed are the actual sins, and that man was not evil beforehand.
@Tdubs: The big horn storyline got resolved, I think, although I forget where and how. It wasn’t in Superman, though. (Was it Stormwatch?)
Wow, fantastic blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you made blogging look easy. The overall look of your web site is great, as well as the content!|