Oct 24
House to Astonish Episode 25
Posted on Saturday, October 24, 2009 by Al in Podcast
This time around, Paul bravely battles a cold while we look at the NYCC vs Big Apple con war, discuss the purchase of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Nickelodeon and go through the January 2010 solicitations. We also review The Anchor, Sugar Shock and Azrael, and look at one of the most ill-advised villain gimmicks of all time in the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. All this plus known knowns and unknown unknowns, Red Bull fugues and unionised Batman allies.
Download here, and let us know what you think either in the comments threads, on Twitter, by email or by paper aeroplane through the window.
I’m looking forward to “Fall of Hulks” and “World War Hulks”, but the “Road to …” TPB featuring several random issues of Hulk comic series seems a little dodgy…
I don’t see what your problem is with (Red) Hulk. It appears to be exactly what’s advertised. A evil (or more evil) Mr. Fixit goes around smashing up the Marvel Universe.
I think it was the point where we saw him punch a Watcher in the jaw that made me think “Okay, this book isn’t to be taken seriously. It’s utter nonsense, but it’s probably a lot of fun.” Then I read a great quote from a CBR review:
“I learned to appreciate “Hulk” once I realized that it was Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness just coming up with the biggest, dumbest, craziest stories they possibly could and then exploding them across the page.”
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=user_review&id=1455
That said, Incredible Hercules does everything that Hulk does, but much better.
I think my problem with Red Hulk is that the stories aren’t, to my sensibilities, as much the “biggest, dumbest, craziest” as the most unbelievable. Rulk fighting Thor – sure, that sounds pretty good on the face of it. Rulk interrupting Uatu the Watcher to punch him out like he’s in an issue of What The…? – just daft. The main problem I have with it is that it ignores all the ground rules that the MU has set up over the decades. That’s fine if you’re in an out-of-continuity story, but if the Rulk saga is supposed to be happening in the main MU then we hit problems on the basic level of how things work in the Marvel Universe.
Also, I completely agree with your last point there – Incredible Hercules does it all better. I think that’s probably because Herc is quite possibly the best book either Marvel or DC are putting out at the moment. A really underappreciated gem.
The Ultimate Enemy structure is probably that way to make it possible for them to package the books as four-issue trades and premiereere hardbacks (before releasing a fat trade a ways down the line – c.f. Ellis’ Ultimate Galactus minis).
The new Morrison thing reminds me a little bit of Flex Mentallo – as well as that one Sandman story, Suburban Glamour, etc.. I’m sure it’ll be quite distinct from Flex, but the dying hallucination motif (which I suppose is hardly original in and of itself)…
I don’t think I enjoyed Sugarshock when I read it on the awful MySpace site, but you’ve really put me off trying it again. Spare us from that kind of twee cod-wackiness.
//\Oo/\\
Darn. The perils of listening to the show in the car means that I have forgotten what I heard specificially about which I wanted to post.
People who like Hester’s work should also go back and find the TPBs for the Wretch, which is where I first saw his work.
Thanks for taking a look at The Anchor and taking the time to review it. I’m glad you liked the first issue. The book keeps getting better and better as it progresses. Hopefully folks will stay on board.
Best regards,
BC
The idea of Red Hulk not having his identity revealed for ages is a really good one. There’s no reason why a mystery has to be solved right away … except when the character’s entire presence is “Badass kills everyone, but WHO IS HE?” If your guitar only has one string the tunes get a bit repetitive.
Also, congratulations on not making any “mock turtle” jokes.
The problem though is like what happened to Hush in that by the time the reveal happens it doesn’t make sense. The red herrings and teases that have to be used to stretch out years of comics makes it impossible for the reveal to work with everything.
Just look at what happened to The Long Halloween. It has been years and still no one knows who the hell Holiday was.
“The main problem I have with it is that it ignores all the ground rules that the MU has set up over the decades. That’s fine if you’re in an out-of-continuity story, but if the Rulk saga is supposed to be happening in the main MU then we hit problems on the basic level of how things work in the Marvel Universe.”
See, I’d only agree with that statement (which most non-comics readers would see as evidence of it being strait-jacket time), if Rulk was affecting the continuity of the other titles. But it’s as near to out-of-continuity as it can get.
The only one it’s actually affected is “Incredible Hulk”, and that actually showed the value of “Hulk”‘s “It’s just a comic book” ethos. They needed to de-Hulk Banner, and nobody cared how it was done, because that’s irrelevant to Incredible Hulk’s father-son bonding rampage. So Rulk just did it. And Pak can get straight to work on the story he wants to write.
Are you going to discuss the sale of Newsarama on the next cast, or is The Rama pretty much irrelevant at this point?
I think we’ll have to look into it and see what it might actually mean for them, but it’s definitely something that’ll be on our list.
Hi Brian, sorry, I didn’t notice your comment! Glad you liked the review; The Anchor’s an enjoyable book and I’m going to keep checking it out.
Tom – I’m not sure what “as near to out-of-continuity as it can get” actually means. Either it’s in-continuity or it isn’t, and if it is then it can’t behave as though it was making the rules up as it went along. Like Paul says about Secret Invasion, the appeal of a shared universe is the feeling that it all fits together in some way. You can’t say “it all fits together … except this bit, which is too awesome crazy to be confined by your human concept of storytelling logic”.
Regarding companies saying “You don’t need to read the tie-ins to follow the event”, ISTR that DC did aknowledge that Superman Beyond was a required part of Infinite Crisis. Then again, I don’t recall it actually helping me understand what was going on much…
I do like the “Talking With Zombie David” idea for Blackest Night Starman, although I understand Jack won’t be playing a major role, in keeping with Robinson’s insistance on keeping him retired. The focus is going to be on Opal City, which is what the ongoing was really about anyway.
I am surprised Ordway isn’t writing POS, zombies or no zombies, because his recent guest stint on JSA gave the strong indication of being halfway through a storyline with the Marvels, to be continued whenever he next got the opportunity.
One aspect of Asbestos Lady I’m surprised you didn’t mention is that her real name is Victoria Murdock. And, of course, it’s impossible for two costumed characters in the same universe to share a surname and not be related. So whoever the new Asbestos Lady is (but especially if she’s a direct descendant), she needs to encounter Daredevil, who is deeply embarrassed about Great-Aunt Vicky and her deadly-flameproof-fibre gimmick.