A little while back there was a thread about comics that folks followed outside of the big two. I admit I was sort of hoping that someone would have mentioned Next Man by Comico. It had a old Astonishing Tales Deathlok sort of feel and pseudo-Kirby art. It only ran for a handful of issues, which now sell for about a buck because no one is interested. No fan sites, no real mentions of authors or artists or history. No one here mentioned it either. So I guess I'm a fandom of one, and this book continues to reside in my No-one-likes-this-but-me file.
So my question today is : what's in your No-one-likes-this-but-me file? What are those comics, bands or little bits of miscellanea from the Bronze Age that you seem to be the only one to appreciate? What are you a fandom of one of?
I've mentioned this recently, but I'll put it forth again-- for comics: The MC2 Universe. I didn't manage to keep up with all of the titles-- but I thought Tom DeFalco found his true sweet-spot w/ that venture. It was PAINFULLY obvious that there was no way Marvel would be able to sustain it on top of the other off-shoot U's it had introduced (the dregs of the New U were still wrapping up, I believe; and wasn't the Ultimate Universe introduced at about the same time?). Also mentioned recently-- John Byrne's DOOM PATROL re-boot. Oh! And the. . . third?. . . re-boot of Alpha Flight (not the goof-ball one), had TREMENDOUS potential-- the first two issues did a great job of setting up a number of long-game storylines and character arcs--- and then it was canceled w/out a backward glance. . .
Bands: I like KLAATU so much in junior high/early high school that I bough their HOPE album twice. . . (kinda embarrassing now, really. . . )
TV: I was a little young for it when it aired, and it did not last long at all-- but HOT L BALTIMORE was adapted into a sort of ahead-of-its time sitcom in the 70's-- and I remember being utterly engaged with it at the time.
More recently: HBGirl and I binge-watched the first season of WAREHOUSE 13. . .at which point she abandoned ship (it's not actually great TV, okay--), but--- I find myself kinda wanting to get back to it again, y'know?
I can't really think of anything off-hand ... even the more obscure stuff I like has some kind of fanbase.
HB: Funny you should mention Warehouse 13; I've been reviewing episodes every Wednesday on my blog. I agree the first season was a bit shaky ... I think everyone was trying to find their feet. But I'm four episodes into the second season and I'd say it's better; Myka and Pete have a better rapport, and Claudia (who's my favourite character) gets to do more. They also get a cool new antagonist, about whom I will say no more. If you're on the fence, I'd say check it out ... you (and even HBGirl) might be pleasantly surprised.
(Or you could read my reviews and see if anything catches your fancy, but I have a buffer built up so the second season reviews won't go live until Sept. 26.) So, I guess Warehouse 13 counts as something obscure that I like, which isn't shared with a lot of people.
In the 1980s, there was some good stuff being published by the independents like First, Eclipse, Apple, and Kitchen Sink. Jon Sable, Badger, Vietnam Journal. But the Big Two flooded the market with high-priced deluxe edition reprints (Steranko's Nick Fury and Captain America runs, X-Men by Adams), and crowded them out.
In the 1960s, I felt like a rebel and an iconoclast for liking Gold Key (Tarzan, Turok, Doctor Solar) and King Features (Flash Gordon, The Phantom).
And, in the Silver & Bronze ages, I liked DC's tongue-in-cheek approach with Plastic Man, Shazam, and Inferior Five. But most comic book fans back then were kids who wanted their superheroes played straight. And adults would watch tongue-in-cheek action-adventure in movies and TV (James Bond, Our Man Flint, Dean Martin as Matt Helm, Adam West as Batman, Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman), but they did not read comics.
I like Warehouse 13, at least what episodes I've actually watched - mainly from the first 3 seasons, I think. I like that it doesn't take itself too seriously.
HB you are not alone, DOOM PATROL by Byrne is fantastic!
In the Bronze age I had a crush on Hellcat and would make sure to pick up any mag she appeared in. It seemed like my friends deemed her a "throw away" hero. Of course I would defend her honor.
TC- like you, I enjoyed the 80's Indies. Among my 'limited audience favorites were Journey, Neil the Horse and Cutey Bunny. I actually have a Neil the Horse tie pin; don't remember where I got it but I've never seen another.
As for other obscure faves, I like historical oddities, promotional comics , and really most anything.
Oh, and Killraven- Patsy Walker ROCKED! I get a kick out of seeing her on Netflix show Jessica Jones. Still waiting for the yellow catsuit, though.
I know only one thing about Klaatu - they recorded the original version of "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft", made famous by the Carpenters (their version was a UK top 10 hit in 1977). I'd never heard the Klaatu original...until now, because I just listened to it on YouTube. It was interesting but I prefer the Carpenters' cover :)
Truly, fellas--- I don't know if I could, in good conscience, actually recommend KLAATU to anyone. . . but they do remain a dear, dear musical memory from my sorta-silly youth. The Beatles-connection rumors were a brief blip back then-- mostly 'cause the group played up its anonymity. . . but nah, there wasn't any true connection that I ever heard of. There was just a sort of Beatle-esque sound to some of their songs on that first album. That second album (HOPE) was just perfect for blossoming YA Sci-Fi fan at the time, and the cover art was quite lovely. The music itself was, if anything, more like QUEEN-lite. . . and similarly ear-catching- really engaging melodies that invited ya to jump in with easy harmonies.
And by golly-- I'm going back to the library and pickin' up season 2 of WAREHOUSE 13-! HBGirl's just gonna have to miss out-!! (Thanks for the recommendation, teammates!)
HB
(PS-- seeing that I've been a fountain' o' typos today--- many apologies!)
Since a few of you mentioned a fondness for Patsy Walker/Hellcat, I have to say I've always liked the original owner of the Cat costume, Greer Nelson/Tigra. I thought she was an interesting albeit underused and underappreciated character back in the '70s and early '80s. (I absolutely *loathe* the way she was treated by Shooter in the Avengers and then Byrne in West Coast Avengers...)
This question mostly pertains to me in the area of movies. There are a ton of movies that I seem to be alone (or nearly alone) in liking. And if I say that I like them on certain message boards on the web, I get attacked by rabid fan-boys who tell me I'm crazy or an idiot, or some such. And sometimes they even get plain angry for some reason.
Here are a few movies that I enjoy, and have watched multiple times, that are pretty much universally panned by the collective hive-mind of the internet. (And woe be it to anyone who challenges this notion).
1. "Superman Returns" - Aside from a couple a things, like Superman and Lois having a kid, I thought SR was a really good Superman movie. Much better than the borderline depressing "Man of Steel".
2. "Godzilla" (the 1990's one with Matthew Broderick) - OK, so maybe it wasn't a great "Godzilla" movie, but I thought it was a really good giant monster movie. I have watched it multiple (in fact I saw it again about month ago), and I find it more fun than the most recent Godzilla movie.
3. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" - While far from being my favorite Indiana Jones movie, it was still a lot of fun and worth watching. I just love Harrison Ford as Indy so much that I can't help but enjoy it.
4. The Star Wars prequels - Again, not the movies that I would have made, but they still have enough good stuff in them to make them worthy of several viewings. And again, I like them better than the most recent movies. At least the prequels still have that Star Warsy feel to them.
5. "The Justice League" - This was probably my favorite movie that came out last year. I thought it was a lot of fun, and loved the way Batman was portrayed, (and the rest of the JL was done surprisingly well too). I thought it was a good popcorn superhero movie, with lots of fun action and some pretty cool scenes.
Now as comics go I really liked the old Steve Ditko Captain Atom books from the 60's. Especially when he changed his costume to the silver arms look. I first picked them up when I was a kid as reprints at a K-Mart (when they used to sell 3 comics in a plastic bag near the check-out). I just really loved them, and ended up buying a couple of original issues from my LCS years later. I also have the "Action Heroes 2" DC Archives edition which also features Ditko's Blue Beetle, and The Question.
I even did an action figure comic as a tribute to those old stories on my website.
William, those are some very bold choices; very bold.
One of the comics I felt I was "an audience of one" with was "Quantum And Woody". It was a fun read, some good characters and a goat. A goat with a mask. The book was cancelled when Acclaim went out of business.
Another thing was "Marvel Overpower". The card game!!! I loved it. I bought boxes, expansion packs, starter kits, you name it!!! The game is set up in four person teams and I had some many teams. And the game never caught on down here. It was all Magik all the time.
One other comic I liked was Dark Horse's Ghost. Don't know if the end of the line was as strong as the beginning but I enjoyed it.
I don't like how Marvel had Patsy Walker go insane and commit suicide. Poor story line.
(Little girl, little one He gave his heart to you In this world you'll never know A love that is more true
I will all my days That's how it's got to be I believe in true love ways Maria Elena
Little girl, now don't you cry You'll meet again someday Why he left, still wonder why There's nothing left to say
I will love you all my days You're still a part of me I believe in true love ways Maria Elena
Our love will live on through eternity In your life you'll never find Another man who means as much to you as he does
I will love you all my days That's how it's got to be I believe in true love ways Maria Elena
Little girl, little one He gave his heart to you In this world you'll never know A love that is more true).
William, I'm gonna jump on your train of thought, here-- and even go along with some of the films you cite (not SUPERMAN RETURNS or the Star Wars prequels, tho, I'm afraid. Ohhh did I NOT like those movies. . . !). And I'll just put it out there again that I liked IRON MAN 3 quite a lot-- much better film than 2, in fact! And while I thought SPIDER-MAN 3 was flawed, I still enjoyed the bulk of it w/out question-- I swear that 90% of the folks out there simply missed the point completely with Pete's symbiote-controlled aberrant behavior. I'll stick by that film. And as I've said many times, Little HBGirl and I saw GREEN LANTERN together, and left the theater going, "That was a pretty good movie! Hope they don't wait too long to make the sequel!" Maybe it's 'cause I've always kinda liked GL, but wasn't as invested in him as his fan-base was, but just couldn't fathom the many, many accounts of hardened, to-the-bone GL fans leaving the theater literally in tears. (Oo-- and my apologies if anyone here falls into that category!). The movie really had me with the scene with the dying Abin Sur-- that brought it completely to life for me.
And Prowl, your mention of gaming put me in mind of the HEROSCAPE franchise that pretty much absorbed every bit of HBSon's and my free time for, like, two years-! One part "Magic"-type card-gaming, one part D&D, and about 2.5 parts chess, with an extra part of creative tile&block terrain building (hands-on design/fabrication)-- geeze, it just breaks your heart when your kids grow up and don't have time to play with you anymore. . . man. But the game company itself had SO MUCH TROUBLE staying productive and solvent. . . and its price point tended to discourage casual purchases, I think. I'd be curious if anyone else here ever fell under the HEROSCAPE spell? (The did put out a HOOT of a Marvel edition late in their run-- which we immediately merged right into their "regular" HScape Universe. SO MUCH fun-!)
William, I'm with you ... at least part of the way. I didn't much care for Superman Returns, but I thought the first two prequels weren't as bad as everyone says (Revenge of the Sith was ... not good; I can't believe Padme was the same character from the first two movies).
And HB, I agree on Green Lantern; I didn't think it was nearly as bad as most people did, but maybe that's because I was never a big fan of Lantern in the comics, so I watched it without any particular expectations.
William, count me among the fans of 'Crystal Skull'. I find it amusing that fans of the earlier Indy movies rolled their eyes about space aliens being introduced to the franchise.
And I'm with HB on 'Iron Man 3', in fact I sung it's praises in this review: https://holidayfilmreviews.blogspot.com/2013/10/iron-man-3.html
The 'Burbs, starring Tom Hanks. I thought it had a lot of hilarious parts, especially with Rick Ducommon and Bruce Dern. Most reviewers have not been so kind.
Like several others here, I liked some of the indie stuff from the 1980s, particularly Chaykin’s American Flagg! and Starlin’s Dreadstar. I also liked some of the stuff coming out of Pacific Comics at the time, such as Alien Worlds and Neal Adams’ Ms. Mystic.
More recently, I totally loved Crossgen’s “Sojourn” by Ron Marz and Greg Land (circa 2001-2004). There seems to be some sicko smear campaign against Land on the internet, which I totally do not get….
Another underappreciated title was the JSA versus Kobra miniseries from 2009. That one completely fell under the radar for most comics fans at the time.
From the Bronze Age, was I the only one who liked Rima the Jungle Girl? All seven issues were written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Nestor Redondo. Nice stuff.
The feeling that I’m alone in my tastes sometimes extends to other media. In music, I really liked some of the “Space/New Age” electronic stuff coming out of Europe in the 1970s. Jean Michelle Jarre’s Oxygen was something of a hit, but has anyone even heard of the brilliant work of Popul Vuh? They did the soundtracks for some Herzog movies.
Finally, I have to agree with William about Justice League. I love that movie. I also really liked Man of Steel. And while Batman v Superman is an admited disaster, I still liked every scene in it. The only problem was none of those scenes ever fit into a sensible, overriding plot. But Justice League only had a couple of flaws and was largely a dream-come true for this lifelong JLA fan. They really nailed it (for the most part).
I only partially agree with William about Superman Returns. I thought it LOOKED good --- and they took it somewhat seriously. Those were its positives. Unfortunately, it was also incredibly boring, and having yet another campy interpretation of Lex Luthor was too much to bear.
Terry, I've not only heard of Popul Vuh, but rather like it - I have a bunch of their music in mp3s. Same goes for a few other Krautrock groups, like Ash Ra Tempel, and the music produced by the Amon Düül projects. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of prog rock, and back when I was elementary and high school, I certainly felt like one of the few people in the world who liked, say, Yes and King Crimson.
As for some of the movies mentioned: 1. While I don't really like Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I think it did one thing right by bringing back Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood. I think she's pretty much what's missing from every single movie or Indiana Jones project in general after Raiders of the Lost Ark (basically, I think the series should have focused on the adventures of Indy and Marion, rather than just Indy going it alone).
2. I thought Green Lantern, while not spectacular, was a perfectly fine movie - it's enjoyable enough and rewatchable.
3. On Iron Man 3, I have to say I don't quite understand why this is singled out as one of the worst of the Marvel movies. To me, all three of the Iron Mans are about the same, that is, equally enjoyable. Also IM 3 has one of the best scenes in any superhero movie ever: when he rescues all of those people who got blown out of that hole in the airplane. That's what superheroing is supposed to be.
Hi Guys, I forgot to mention in my earlier post that when using terms like "rabid internet fan-boys", I am not referring to anyone on here. That is why I felt OK to voice my somewhat unpopular opinion on BITBA. I knew that I wouldn't get totally crucified because the fine folks here have some class, and understand that someone can have a different opinion than your own and still deserve to be treated with civility. And that is why this is one of the the very few message boards I post on.
And also to clarify my opinion further. Of the movies I mentioned, I don't necessarily think that they are totally great movies (especially the Star Wars prequels), but I also don't hate them like a lot of people seem to. Unless a movie is total garbage, I can usually find something to like about it, if it's a property that I love (like superheroes or Star Wars). Take the much maligned Prequels. Despite the fact that the overall story was deeply flawed and broken, I still thought the Jedi stuff was cool, and the action and special effects were all top notch. So I still have fun watching those movies from time to time. The same with Crystal Skull, and 1990's Godzilla.
As for Superman Returns, I am still surprised that movie gets so much hate. I thought Brandon Routh did a great job as Supes, and the rest of the cast was really good as well. And unlike the recent movies, he actually looked and acted like Superman. Also, the plane rescue scene is still one of my Top 5 favorite scenes in an superhero movie (DC or Marvel).
The same goes for the recent Justice League movie. I see a lot of hate for that movie, and people talk about it like it was total carp. I disagree. (And this is from someone who hated Man of Steel, and was underwhelmed by Batman vs. Superman). The biggest criticism I hear is that DC didn't make solo movies for each member of the team first, (like Marvel did). Who says they needed to? Just because Marvel successfully did that doesn't mean it's the only way to do it. I personally would not have wanted to wait six years and watch solo movies for Aquaman and Flash, etc. before getting to see a JL movie. In fact, now that I've seen them in Justice League, I am much more interested to check out the team solo flicks. Aquaman especially looks like it's going to be pretty cool.
23 comments:
A little while back there was a thread about comics that folks followed outside of the big two. I admit I was sort of hoping that someone would have mentioned Next Man by Comico. It had a old Astonishing Tales Deathlok sort of feel and pseudo-Kirby art. It only ran for a handful of issues, which now sell for about a buck because no one is interested. No fan sites, no real mentions of authors or artists or history. No one here mentioned it either. So I guess I'm a fandom of one, and this book continues to reside in my No-one-likes-this-but-me file.
So my question today is : what's in your No-one-likes-this-but-me file? What are those comics, bands or little bits of miscellanea from the Bronze Age that you seem to be the only one to appreciate? What are you a fandom of one of?
Cheers!
Very interesting...,!
Perhaps Airboy by Eclipse?
Perhaps Luke Cage Hero for Hire? It always struggled initially?
Not sure if anybody like Mr. Monster. I thought that was a fun, pulpy book
I've mentioned this recently, but I'll put it forth again-- for comics: The MC2 Universe. I didn't manage to keep up with all of the titles-- but I thought Tom DeFalco found his true sweet-spot w/ that venture. It was PAINFULLY obvious that there was no way Marvel would be able to sustain it on top of the other off-shoot U's it had introduced (the dregs of the New U were still wrapping up, I believe; and wasn't the Ultimate Universe introduced at about the same time?). Also mentioned recently-- John Byrne's DOOM PATROL re-boot. Oh! And the. . . third?. . . re-boot of Alpha Flight (not the goof-ball one), had TREMENDOUS potential-- the first two issues did a great job of setting up a number of long-game storylines and character arcs--- and then it was canceled w/out a backward glance. . .
Bands: I like KLAATU so much in junior high/early high school that I bough their HOPE album twice. . . (kinda embarrassing now, really. . . )
TV: I was a little young for it when it aired, and it did not last long at all-- but HOT L BALTIMORE was adapted into a sort of ahead-of-its time sitcom in the 70's-- and I remember being utterly engaged with it at the time.
More recently: HBGirl and I binge-watched the first season of WAREHOUSE 13. . .at which point she abandoned ship (it's not actually great TV, okay--), but--- I find myself kinda wanting to get back to it again, y'know?
HB
Klaatu! Oh man... HB you are off the beaten path LOL! Wasn’t there rumors of John Lennon being involved with them?
I can't really think of anything off-hand ... even the more obscure stuff I like has some kind of fanbase.
HB: Funny you should mention Warehouse 13; I've been reviewing episodes every Wednesday on my blog. I agree the first season was a bit shaky ... I think everyone was trying to find their feet. But I'm four episodes into the second season and I'd say it's better; Myka and Pete have a better rapport, and Claudia (who's my favourite character) gets to do more. They also get a cool new antagonist, about whom I will say no more. If you're on the fence, I'd say check it out ... you (and even HBGirl) might be pleasantly surprised.
(Or you could read my reviews and see if anything catches your fancy, but I have a buffer built up so the second season reviews won't go live until Sept. 26.) So, I guess Warehouse 13 counts as something obscure that I like, which isn't shared with a lot of people.
In the 1980s, there was some good stuff being published by the independents like First, Eclipse, Apple, and Kitchen Sink. Jon Sable, Badger, Vietnam Journal. But the Big Two flooded the market with high-priced deluxe edition reprints (Steranko's Nick Fury and Captain America runs, X-Men by Adams), and crowded them out.
In the 1960s, I felt like a rebel and an iconoclast for liking Gold Key (Tarzan, Turok, Doctor Solar) and King Features (Flash Gordon, The Phantom).
And, in the Silver & Bronze ages, I liked DC's tongue-in-cheek approach with Plastic Man, Shazam, and Inferior Five. But most comic book fans back then were kids who wanted their superheroes played straight. And adults would watch tongue-in-cheek action-adventure in movies and TV (James Bond, Our Man Flint, Dean Martin as Matt Helm, Adam West as Batman, Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman), but they did not read comics.
I like Warehouse 13, at least what episodes I've actually watched - mainly from the first 3 seasons, I think. I like that it doesn't take itself too seriously.
HB you are not alone, DOOM PATROL by Byrne is fantastic!
In the Bronze age I had a crush on Hellcat and would make sure to pick up any mag she appeared in. It seemed like my friends deemed her a "throw away" hero. Of course I would defend her honor.
TC- like you, I enjoyed the 80's Indies. Among my 'limited audience favorites were Journey, Neil the Horse and Cutey Bunny. I actually have a Neil the Horse tie pin; don't remember where I got it but I've never seen another.
As for other obscure faves, I like historical oddities, promotional comics , and really most anything.
Oh, and Killraven- Patsy Walker ROCKED! I get a kick out of seeing her on Netflix show Jessica Jones. Still waiting for the yellow catsuit, though.
I know only one thing about Klaatu - they recorded the original version of "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft", made famous by the Carpenters (their version was a UK top 10 hit in 1977). I'd never heard the Klaatu original...until now, because I just listened to it on YouTube. It was interesting but I prefer the Carpenters' cover :)
Truly, fellas--- I don't know if I could, in good conscience, actually recommend KLAATU to anyone. . . but they do remain a dear, dear musical memory from my sorta-silly youth. The Beatles-connection rumors were a brief blip back then-- mostly 'cause the group played up its anonymity. . . but nah, there wasn't any true connection that I ever heard of. There was just a sort of Beatle-esque sound to some of their songs on that first album. That second album (HOPE) was just perfect for blossoming YA Sci-Fi fan at the time, and the cover art was quite lovely. The music itself was, if anything, more like QUEEN-lite. . . and similarly ear-catching- really engaging melodies that invited ya to jump in with easy harmonies.
And by golly-- I'm going back to the library and pickin' up season 2 of WAREHOUSE 13-! HBGirl's just gonna have to miss out-!! (Thanks for the recommendation, teammates!)
HB
(PS-- seeing that I've been a fountain' o' typos today--- many apologies!)
Since a few of you mentioned a fondness for Patsy Walker/Hellcat, I have to say I've always liked the original owner of the Cat costume, Greer Nelson/Tigra. I thought she was an interesting albeit underused and underappreciated character back in the '70s and early '80s. (I absolutely *loathe* the way she was treated by Shooter in the Avengers and then Byrne in West Coast Avengers...)
Edo, Red - as Archie fans you might enjoy Back Issue! # 107 this month. It's all about Archie and has a Dan DeCarlo cover. It's a good read!
This question mostly pertains to me in the area of movies. There are a ton of movies that I seem to be alone (or nearly alone) in liking. And if I say that I like them on certain message boards on the web, I get attacked by rabid fan-boys who tell me I'm crazy or an idiot, or some such. And sometimes they even get plain angry for some reason.
Here are a few movies that I enjoy, and have watched multiple times, that are pretty much universally panned by the collective hive-mind of the internet. (And woe be it to anyone who challenges this notion).
1. "Superman Returns" - Aside from a couple a things, like Superman and Lois having a kid, I thought SR was a really good Superman movie. Much better than the borderline depressing "Man of Steel".
2. "Godzilla" (the 1990's one with Matthew Broderick) - OK, so maybe it wasn't a great "Godzilla" movie, but I thought it was a really good giant monster movie. I have watched it multiple (in fact I saw it again about month ago), and I find it more fun than the most recent Godzilla movie.
3. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" - While far from being my favorite Indiana Jones movie, it was still a lot of fun and worth watching. I just love Harrison Ford as Indy so much that I can't help but enjoy it.
4. The Star Wars prequels - Again, not the movies that I would have made, but they still have enough good stuff in them to make them worthy of several viewings. And again, I like them better than the most recent movies. At least the prequels still have that Star Warsy feel to them.
5. "The Justice League" - This was probably my favorite movie that came out last year. I thought it was a lot of fun, and loved the way Batman was portrayed, (and the rest of the JL was done surprisingly well too). I thought it was a good popcorn superhero movie, with lots of fun action and some pretty cool scenes.
Now as comics go I really liked the old Steve Ditko Captain Atom books from the 60's. Especially when he changed his costume to the silver arms look. I first picked them up when I was a kid as reprints at a K-Mart (when they used to sell 3 comics in a plastic bag near the check-out). I just really loved them, and ended up buying a couple of original issues from my LCS years later. I also have the "Action Heroes 2" DC Archives edition which also features Ditko's Blue Beetle, and The Question.
I even did an action figure comic as a tribute to those old stories on my website.
William, those are some very bold choices; very bold.
One of the comics I felt I was "an audience of one" with was "Quantum And Woody". It was a fun read, some good characters and a goat. A goat with a mask. The book was cancelled when Acclaim went out of business.
Another thing was "Marvel Overpower". The card game!!! I loved it. I bought boxes, expansion packs, starter kits, you name it!!! The game is set up in four person teams and I had some many teams. And the game never caught on down here. It was all Magik all the time.
One other comic I liked was Dark Horse's Ghost. Don't know if the end of the line was as strong as the beginning but I enjoyed it.
I don't like how Marvel had Patsy Walker go insane and commit suicide. Poor story line.
(Little girl, little one
He gave his heart to you
In this world you'll never know
A love that is more true
I will all my days
That's how it's got to be
I believe in true love ways
Maria Elena
Little girl, now don't you cry
You'll meet again someday
Why he left, still wonder why
There's nothing left to say
I will love you all my days
You're still a part of me
I believe in true love ways
Maria Elena
Our love will live on through eternity
In your life you'll never find
Another man who means as much to you as he does
I will love you all my days
That's how it's got to be
I believe in true love ways
Maria Elena
Little girl, little one
He gave his heart to you
In this world you'll never know
A love that is more true).
William, I'm gonna jump on your train of thought, here-- and even go along with some of the films you cite (not SUPERMAN RETURNS or the Star Wars prequels, tho, I'm afraid. Ohhh did I NOT like those movies. . . !). And I'll just put it out there again that I liked IRON MAN 3 quite a lot-- much better film than 2, in fact! And while I thought SPIDER-MAN 3 was flawed, I still enjoyed the bulk of it w/out question-- I swear that 90% of the folks out there simply missed the point completely with Pete's symbiote-controlled aberrant behavior. I'll stick by that film. And as I've said many times, Little HBGirl and I saw GREEN LANTERN together, and left the theater going, "That was a pretty good movie! Hope they don't wait too long to make the sequel!" Maybe it's 'cause I've always kinda liked GL, but wasn't as invested in him as his fan-base was, but just couldn't fathom the many, many accounts of hardened, to-the-bone GL fans leaving the theater literally in tears. (Oo-- and my apologies if anyone here falls into that category!). The movie really had me with the scene with the dying Abin Sur-- that brought it completely to life for me.
And Prowl, your mention of gaming put me in mind of the HEROSCAPE franchise that pretty much absorbed every bit of HBSon's and my free time for, like, two years-! One part "Magic"-type card-gaming, one part D&D, and about 2.5 parts chess, with an extra part of creative tile&block terrain building (hands-on design/fabrication)-- geeze, it just breaks your heart when your kids grow up and don't have time to play with you anymore. . . man. But the game company itself had SO MUCH TROUBLE staying productive and solvent. . . and its price point tended to discourage casual purchases, I think. I'd be curious if anyone else here ever fell under the HEROSCAPE spell? (The did put out a HOOT of a Marvel edition late in their run-- which we immediately merged right into their "regular" HScape Universe. SO MUCH fun-!)
HB
William, I'm with you ... at least part of the way. I didn't much care for Superman Returns, but I thought the first two prequels weren't as bad as everyone says (Revenge of the Sith was ... not good; I can't believe Padme was the same character from the first two movies).
And HB, I agree on Green Lantern; I didn't think it was nearly as bad as most people did, but maybe that's because I was never a big fan of Lantern in the comics, so I watched it without any particular expectations.
William, count me among the fans of 'Crystal Skull'. I find it amusing that fans of the earlier Indy movies rolled their eyes about space aliens being introduced to the franchise.
And I'm with HB on 'Iron Man 3', in fact I sung it's praises in this review:
https://holidayfilmreviews.blogspot.com/2013/10/iron-man-3.html
The 'Burbs, starring Tom Hanks. I thought it had a lot of hilarious parts, especially with Rick Ducommon and Bruce Dern.
Most reviewers have not been so kind.
-david p.
From Terry in Virginia:
Like several others here, I liked some of the indie stuff from the 1980s, particularly Chaykin’s American Flagg! and Starlin’s Dreadstar. I also liked some of the stuff coming out of Pacific Comics at the time, such as Alien Worlds and Neal Adams’ Ms. Mystic.
More recently, I totally loved Crossgen’s “Sojourn” by Ron Marz and Greg Land (circa 2001-2004). There seems to be some sicko smear campaign against Land on the internet, which I totally do not get….
Another underappreciated title was the JSA versus Kobra miniseries from 2009. That one completely fell under the radar for most comics fans at the time.
From the Bronze Age, was I the only one who liked Rima the Jungle Girl? All seven issues were written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Nestor Redondo. Nice stuff.
The feeling that I’m alone in my tastes sometimes extends to other media. In music, I really liked some of the “Space/New Age” electronic stuff coming out of Europe in the 1970s. Jean Michelle Jarre’s Oxygen was something of a hit, but has anyone even heard of the brilliant work of Popul Vuh? They did the soundtracks for some Herzog movies.
Finally, I have to agree with William about Justice League. I love that movie. I also really liked Man of Steel. And while Batman v Superman is an admited disaster, I still liked every scene in it. The only problem was none of those scenes ever fit into a sensible, overriding plot. But Justice League only had a couple of flaws and was largely a dream-come true for this lifelong JLA fan. They really nailed it (for the most part).
I only partially agree with William about Superman Returns. I thought it LOOKED good --- and they took it somewhat seriously. Those were its positives. Unfortunately, it was also incredibly boring, and having yet another campy interpretation of Lex Luthor was too much to bear.
Terry, I've not only heard of Popul Vuh, but rather like it - I have a bunch of their music in mp3s. Same goes for a few other Krautrock groups, like Ash Ra Tempel, and the music produced by the Amon Düül projects. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of prog rock, and back when I was elementary and high school, I certainly felt like one of the few people in the world who liked, say, Yes and King Crimson.
As for some of the movies mentioned:
1. While I don't really like Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I think it did one thing right by bringing back Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood. I think she's pretty much what's missing from every single movie or Indiana Jones project in general after Raiders of the Lost Ark (basically, I think the series should have focused on the adventures of Indy and Marion, rather than just Indy going it alone).
2. I thought Green Lantern, while not spectacular, was a perfectly fine movie - it's enjoyable enough and rewatchable.
3. On Iron Man 3, I have to say I don't quite understand why this is singled out as one of the worst of the Marvel movies. To me, all three of the Iron Mans are about the same, that is, equally enjoyable. Also IM 3 has one of the best scenes in any superhero movie ever: when he rescues all of those people who got blown out of that hole in the airplane. That's what superheroing is supposed to be.
Hi Guys, I forgot to mention in my earlier post that when using terms like "rabid internet fan-boys", I am not referring to anyone on here. That is why I felt OK to voice my somewhat unpopular opinion on BITBA. I knew that I wouldn't get totally crucified because the fine folks here have some class, and understand that someone can have a different opinion than your own and still deserve to be treated with civility. And that is why this is one of the the very few message boards I post on.
And also to clarify my opinion further. Of the movies I mentioned, I don't necessarily think that they are totally great movies (especially the Star Wars prequels), but I also don't hate them like a lot of people seem to. Unless a movie is total garbage, I can usually find something to like about it, if it's a property that I love (like superheroes or Star Wars). Take the much maligned Prequels. Despite the fact that the overall story was deeply flawed and broken, I still thought the Jedi stuff was cool, and the action and special effects were all top notch. So I still have fun watching those movies from time to time. The same with Crystal Skull, and 1990's Godzilla.
As for Superman Returns, I am still surprised that movie gets so much hate. I thought Brandon Routh did a great job as Supes, and the rest of the cast was really good as well. And unlike the recent movies, he actually looked and acted like Superman. Also, the plane rescue scene is still one of my Top 5 favorite scenes in an superhero movie (DC or Marvel).
The same goes for the recent Justice League movie. I see a lot of hate for that movie, and people talk about it like it was total carp. I disagree. (And this is from someone who hated Man of Steel, and was underwhelmed by Batman vs. Superman). The biggest criticism I hear is that DC didn't make solo movies for each member of the team first, (like Marvel did). Who says they needed to? Just because Marvel successfully did that doesn't mean it's the only way to do it. I personally would not have wanted to wait six years and watch solo movies for Aquaman and Flash, etc. before getting to see a JL movie. In fact, now that I've seen them in Justice League, I am much more interested to check out the team solo flicks. Aquaman especially looks like it's going to be pretty cool.
That's my two cents.
Post a Comment