Aug 14
House To Astonish Episode 44
Posted on Saturday, August 14, 2010 by Al in Podcast
We’re back with a brand-new episode, and we’re talking about Batwoman and She-Hulks, the Dark Horse solicitations, Tony Scott’s Nemesis, the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon’s new staff members and Read Comics In Public Day. There are also reviews of Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors, Captain America: Forever Allies and Morning Glories and we rock out with the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. All this plus our forays into 3D, the French for ‘tuna’ and Atrocitus’s surname.
The podcast is here – let us know what you think, in the comments below, on Twitter, via email or on the side of a blimp during the Superbowl.
Lotus Newmark was a villain in the 90s Wonder Man series and a couple of Hawkeye stories in Avengers Spotlight (or was it Solo Avengers?)
I thought I’d seen her before. Was she also the villain in the Avengers Two miniseries?
Pretty sure she was, yeah, but I think I only got 2 of the 3 issues and I haven’t read it since it was published…
I took one of those careers tests in third year. It said I should be either a cyberneticist/biophysicist or a biochemist/genetic scientist.
So Hank Pym or Hank McCoy? Naturally, as hairy as I am, and as bashful, I picked El Beast. AND LOOK HOW THAT TURNED OUT.
(it would explain my fascination with existentialist French robots, though)
Batwoman! That promo piece is quite good. Very good. The logo is, apologies for the language, flippin’ ugly. It’s going for a neo-art deco thing, I think. Gleh.
There’s a nice video of Amy Reeder Hadley inking plaits that I would recommend people YouTube up.
Her Kate Kane is excellent – that’s a flashback Kate Kane as well, I think (zero issue) – but her top lip is too shiny, like she’s been eating too much KFC. Wipe you your yap, Kate Kane!
It hasn’t been an overnight thing, but is there a single superhero who, er, actually IS a single superhero, anymore? Even boring old Bacofoil Baws has got a female counterpart now (Captain Atom and, I dunno, Atomindy? Leftenant Strangeness?). Even Oracle! “Proxy!” I wrote a song about her! It was quite mocking! And a bit of a Strong Bad riff! Jugga Jigga Wugga!
There’s entirely too much of this jazz. My Spider-Man-Sense is tingling, as well. New Spider-Girl, etc.. The DCisation and franchisation of the Marvel Universe…well, it’s too late now, I suppose. Continuity implants are as ugly as the boosomy ones, as well. AND YOU CAN ALWAYS TELL.
I’d like to take issue with the Nemesis thing, as well. The one-line pitch is quite specific/ It isn’t “What If Batman Was A Villain?” but rather “What If Batman Was A (and I’m torn between propriety and pedantry over one of my favourite swearwords) Cunt?”
Two quite different things, I think.
I keep thinking that Tony Scott directed HEAT. He didn’t, though. In my defence, I had a headache when I went to see it. Possibly Fresher’s ‘Flu.
//\Oo/\\
I hope they reprint the Serpent Crown Affair story from Marvel Two-In-One that followed the Project PEGASUS arc. Mainly because it’s got Stingray in it.
There’s a funeral parlor in my hometown called “Mourning Glory.” It’s rare that a business finds a name that can offend on so many different levels.
Lady Lotus was created in the 1970s as a sort of Marvel’s version of Dragon Lady archetype. (http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix3/ladylotusinvaders.htm)
Hey, the big Five-Oh is coming up! I don’t know if you’ve had any thoughts on the subject – it’ll be between BICS and ThoBubs, I think – but can I perhaps suggest some sort of Handbook Challenge?
The Johnson/Williams III/Fisher Batman book, “Snow,” took an interesting approach to the Early Batman arc. Batman recruits his own set of Baker Street Irregulars, and it all works out fine. I mean, they all get utterly battered.
(hee)
And I was under the impression that Williams III worked rather more symbiotically with Johnson on the cult favourite CHASE. I’ve just had a quick squizz at the Wiki entry for Chase, and I’ve found myself looking at a picture of The Justice Experience. I had no idea they were a real thing, outside of a Martian Manhunter flashback.
See, this whole continuity implant/franchisement thing, while fraught with danger (relatively speaking), offers up so many opportunities for larfs. Picture:
The Justice Society
The Just-Us Shoppe
The Justice Draft – later, The Free Justice Generation
The Justice Experience
The Justice People
Punk Justice
The New Justice Generation
The J-Team
Justicewatch
The Super-Friends
The J-Files
and finally, The Justice League. Repeat on a variant-covered ultra-toyetic direct-to-video loop.
//\Oo/\\
Regarding comics economics, I think it’s a bit of both. I imagine the actual costs of producing the comics probably necessitate something approaching $3 or $4, but I’m also fairly sure that the companies know that the completist tendencies of most US comics fans will enable them to get away with such prices. After all, it’s not like the fans can vote with their wallets and go for a cheaper option.
Aside from ripping them from the internet, of course.
Lotus Newmark was indeed the villain in Avengers Two: Wonder Man & Beast, and was arrested at the end.
Morning Glories is probably not one to take out on Read a Comic in Public Day then.
Jude, The Entropic Man joins a band (with Morbius and the Silver Surfer), then a fourteen-year-old internet geek finds his entropic energies (or lack of, as it were) takes over and sets himself up as a Runaways villain.
Paul, is there any way to access the old archive of The X-Axis now that the hosting has expired?
The news that Jason Flemyng is playing Azazel in First Class made me want to look up your review of Uncanny #433, and was disappointed to see I couldn’t.
Oh, wait, Google have it cached. http://bit.ly/dlm613
That’ll do, I guess.
It pleases me every time House to Astonish mentions that Hal Jordan is really boring. Because he is really, really bloody boring.
Hal Jordan is the superhero equivalent of Gordon from Accounts. I am baffled that there’s enough nostalgic affection for him that they brought him back.
[…] a podcast this weekend, which you’ll find a couple of posts further down. Or, hey, just click here if you can’t face the arduous scroll. This week, Al and I talk about the first issues […]
It is ingrained in the culture, he said patronisingly. From the Flash Of Two Worlds, which turned a throwaway reference in Barry Allen’s origin story into a perpetual exercise in self-congratulatory nostalgia porn for strabismic magpies, the superhero audience, from where future generations of creators are largely derived, are taught that every idea deserves immortality, no matter how obviously finite and beautiful for it the idea might be. There is no character who is “of his time,” because there is no time in the world of the paper people.
(and hey, great job on capturing all those propecia viagra ciallis links, Google Cache of that one Grant Morrison interview with CBR)
And, maybe, it’s kind of brilliant that Thunderstrike can never truly die – even if he really has no place in the world of Thor (although, having said that, I’ve just spotted a potential niche, so heck, why do I bother?) – but maybe dying and never doing anything new are the same thing.
I dunno. I’m hungry. Sandwich.
//\oo/\\
Seriously, though: it’s one bloody comic! It doesn;t make barry Allen a Flashofile! He could’ve taken it off a suspect, one of his colleagues could have left it in the office, it doesn’t mean that Barry Allen was a Flash fan, even though I know some peoplw would like to think that he’s the ultimate fantasy of the fan who becomes his hero and that would be all warm and fuzzy and now he’s truly The All-Flash, and he retroactively grants power to his childhood idol and *splode*
My head hurts.
//\oo/\\
“…every idea deserves immortality, no matter how obviously finite and beautiful for it the idea might be.”
Or how ephemeral and plain bad. Young Allies being a case in point – there’s something insane about Marvel’s inability to say “This old comic is embarrassing, let’s just forget it.”
Re Paul’s old stuff, the “Man Walks Into A Pub” article really ought to be accessible somewhere at the moment.
Maybe Jude the Entropic Man could meet up with the Tetrarchs of Entropy (early 90’s Avengers villains) in a game of entropic bridge or some malarky, to determine who controls the entropy.
At the risk of being *that* guy, let me just remind you that not *all* your non-UK listeners come from the States.
Texas Jack Muldoon! Created by Jack Kirby during his mid-’70s Cap run, currently reprinted in the latest Essential Captain America release.
That may have been the one and only appearance of Texas Jack in the MU, until this Young Allies mini.
I’m having an absolute bitch of a time downloading this. iTunes for some reason won’t dl, citing some bullshit error and the direct dl from podomatic is taking aaaaaaages. I’ll get there, but this reminds me of 56K.
Joe: Your wish is our command:
http://www.ninthart.org/display.php?article=1087
I didn’t realise that Ninth Art was back online.
Interestingly, when I try to view all the entries by any one contributor (such as Al, or KG), it always shows me Paul’s articles. Great to see it’s back up, though!
Last time I went into a pub, I asked for a lemonade.
The barman gave me eight ice cubes in a dirty glass with a spritz of soda water and lemonade syrup, then charged me £2.50 for it. And threw in a straw.
…it’s really strange reading that again after hearing Paul’s notasascottishasithought voice.
//\Oo/\\
@Matthew: Captain Atom’s female counterpart is called Bombshell. Her major role was in the Teen Titans “One Year Later” storyline, which is why no-one’s heard of her.
I feel a bit guilty that on Read Comics In Public Day, I’m going to be at the Discworld Convention. I’ll probably bring some comics with me, but even if I have time to look at them, does it count if you’re basically surrounded by fellow geeks?
Paul’s pointed out a fundemental problem with the Red Lanterns. I’m sure Winged-Woman-Whose-Name-I’ve-Forgotten has a rich and fascinating backstory, possibly outlined in a Tales of the Corps story which I’ve also forgotten, which explained why she was so angry and gave her considerable depth. But then she got posessed by a red ring and now she’s just a growling, blood-spitting psycho. The Red Lanterns, by and large, are dimensionless by definition. Exceptions: Atrocitus himself and, currently, the cat.
“One of them is scrappy, one of them is posh, one of them is fat, and one of them is black.” Ah, the Jack Kirby Kid Gang. He kept on writing them like this right up to the Dingbats of Danger Street in the seventies. (One of them is scrappy, one of them is good-looking, one of them is crazy, and one of them is probably black but no-one told the colourist.)
Incidentally, I think DC did a similar reinvention of a racist stereotype character a while back with the Blackhawks’ “comedy” Chinese sidekick
Chop-ChopWu Cheng.As continued evidence of my innocence and naivity, I’d no idea “morning glories” was a sexual euphemism. Is that what Oasis were singing about?
@Al: Hey, Ninth Art backissues! When did that happen? (Adds ninthart.org to Favourites, finally dropping ninthart.com, which still has that “History of Comics” page claiming Stan and Jack created Batman and Wonder Woman.)
I might have to pick up Young Allies after that review, I got put off by the prospect of getting yet another reprint/retelling of Steve Rogers origin at the back.
Also, there was a Young Allies One Shot last year(?). That was good.
http://i.newsarama.com/preview_images/marvelnew/june09/144_young_allies_comics_70th_anniversary_special_1.jpg
The old Article 10 columns are still a good read. Just got a bit of a jolt to see Doctor Who Magazine described as “a monthly magazine for fans of the long-defunct TV series.” That was 2002…