House to Astonish Episode 195
A relatively quiet few weeks of news means a compact and bijou episode, but we still find time to talk about Amazon’s postponed assimilation of Comixology, Gina Gagliano leaving Random House Graphic, the launch of Zestworld, Oni signing with Lunar for distribution and Marvel’s announcement of Secret X-Men. We’ve also got reviews of King of Spies and Justice League Dark Annual, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is an absolute unit. All this plus a cross between luge and Cluedo, a shop selling lemons and the gentrification of Neopets.
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The Amazon thing is a mess.
FYI, Kindle Unlimited isn’t included in Amazon Prime (it’s an extra £7.99 a month); what is included is “Prime Reading,” which is just a preview of Unlimited (a few dozen comics rather than a few thousand).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?i=digital-text&bbn=362230031&rh=n%3A341677031%2Cn%3A341689031%2Cn%3A362230031%2Cn%3A362232031%2Cp_n_feature_thirty-three_browse-bin%3A15718863031%2Cp_n_special_merchandising_browse-bin%3A12713393031%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A400530011&s=date-desc-rank&dc&qid=1638638006&rnid=362230031&ref=sr_st_date-desc-rank
There’s about 150 non-Comixology Original comics and 200 manga volumes included in Prime Reading, but it’s impossible to keep up to date with what’s been added. They currently have Vol. 1 of Gillen’s Eternals series, but little else that’s recent.
All of the Comixology Originals seem to be there, but it’s impossible to navigate them. Sorting by date doesn’t work, and it doesn’t distinguish collections from single issues.
Amazon have owned Audible for almost fifteen years while allowing it to be its own sites; I hope Comixology is allowed to continue on too.
As Al got deeper into his Mark Millar impression I had to wonder if he’s been spending too much time with Silence!
Part of me still wonders what Wanted would have been like if he had gotten to do it at DC with the SSOSV, as originally pitched.
I read the demise of the original Big Man recently and I liked how Kingpin nicks his idea (of uniting the mobs) but more successfully. So Foswell goes over to Kingpin, accuses him of stealing his idea and demands a cut. He’s kinda like the super-villain equivalent of a nuisance lawsuit happy screenwriter/film director.
King of Spies sounds like an illustrated pitch Netflix is about to make to Pierce Brosnan.
My immediate raction to King of Spies was “isn’t there already something called that?” but it turns out I was thinking of Reilly: Ace of Spies.
There is currently a third Big Man; the previously unmentioned Freddie Foswell Jr, who took the name ironically, because he sincerely believed his dad had been framed by Spider-Man, since that’s what it said in the Daily Bugle. He’s not interested in being a criminal, just revenge on Spidey for killing Freddie Sr and JJJ for switching sides. But he does wear the outfit.
I don’t know how he fits into the Drag Race version, maybe he’s just hanging around in the background complaining that his sister is both encouraging the entirely false belief that their dad was a criminal, and not letting him use the costume to kill Jonah, because that’s diluting the brand.
(Obviously attempting to kill Spidey and Jonah does make Freddie a criminal; I meant he’s not interested in being a mob boss or similar.)
So I’ve been searching and finding nothing on Brooklyn Bizarro by Palmiotti and Quesada. Are we sure it wasn’t a fever dream?
Nevermind, found passing mention of it, but it’s mostly entirely gone.
It was a .com site and you can find it on archive.org. Looks like Buddy Scalera was the key person, though you can find references to “Jimmy.”
Yeah, I misremembered Quesada being involved – there’s a fair amount on it in this BC article from 2000 https://bleedingcool.com/comics/all-rage-human-rights-men-tights/