Ken Aldred

And, her father is Drax the Destroyer. So, dad might’ve gone around to the Baxter Building later on for ‘a word or two’. Unless it was at the time when Drax was having a ‘Marvel Rest Period’, that is, was temporarily ‘dead’.

First Marvel Studios film I’ve seen since Endgame, and a good choice. There’s probably enough darkly-toned material in the film without including classic, Starlin Warlock as well. So, in that respect, I can understand the balance Gunn went for. The second act dragged a bit, but it came back strong in the final section, and overall I quite liked it.

He was great in this film at chewing millions of dollars’ worth of scenery. Totally over-the-top hysterics.

Two out of three there.

I can see what they were going for in the film, but I hope there’s some event later on that pushes him in the direction of Starlin’s characterisation and destroys his current naivety and superficiality, creating a much deeper and more interesting character.

Probably won’t ever play it, but a lot of the gameplay footage I’ve seen suggests there’s a lot of hiking around as a cross-country courier, baiting suggestions that “there’s a lot more to it than that”. Point is, I can find exploring, heading in a random direction in an RPG relaxing and an interesting diversion, so it really only seems a variation on that. (Unless I encounter something 50 levels above me and get annihilated, of course.)

Have fun with the Valkyries, especially the leader.

Animal Man (1988 series) 1 to 26 2023 total = 174 Classic story from Grant Morrison. Starts with an inventive reimagining of the origin, dips a bit in the middle - environmental and which comes over quite preachy, and then ties up everything that’s gone before nicely with a great application of the ‘World as Simulation’ theory to the comics medium, something which is more mainstream, well-known and relevant now than it was in the early 90s. Highly recommended.

Transmetropolitan 1 to 24 2023 total = 148 Great cyberpunk comics, with lots of interesting ideas and lively dialogue. Fascinating protagonist; cynical, hedonistic, has a go at anything he despises in the world around him. Darick Robertson’s art is good, as well.

Of course! The obvious DC option. I just got thrown by the feeble comic book pseudoscience. Made it sound more like a DC science-fiction comic rather than something Kara would say.

Looks like Sue Storm, but the art and lettering style suggests something like Mystery in Space or Strange Adventures?

Yup. A PhD in drivel there.

I’m in the minority that prefers Buscema’s Conan art to that of BWS. Lots of superb work in Savage Sword.

Always been a non-sporty nerd, sadly.

Roy Thomas was a really nice, engaging guy. We had a long chat about the Justice Society, how it had always been one of my favourite teams since childhood, reading the Golden Age reprints of the team members in the Bronze Age 100 pagers, then the Conway / Wood / Levitz All-Star Comics, the later Infinity Inc stories, and through into the 90s with Strazewski / Parobeck / Johns, and so on for absolutely ages. Then, noticing my accent, he changed the subject and started talking about how much he liked visiting England, including my home city, Manchester, as he’d done the Granada Studios tour and had visited the set of his favourite British soap opera, Coronation Street. Apparently at the time I met him, mid-2000s, he had a large collection of videotapes of the show, which started back in 1960. Quite a fan of it. So, incredible conversation, which went in a completely surprising, unexpected direction. Very memorable.

I haven’t seen it yet, but the general opinion seems to be that they’ve gone the humorous route. The Starlin fans like myself would require a dark, intense psychodrama similar in tone to Joker, but that’s not commercial at all, especially when that’s complicated by using a character unknown to the majority of the general public, excluding those who’ve played the excellent PS5 GOTG game. So, soon it’ll be very interesting for me to see how he’s portrayed and how badly he’s messed up in the film. (You can just hear the positivity there.)

I haven’t seen the film yet, but I did look at the music track listing. Not a patch on Awesome Mix Vol 1, which lived up to its name.

Earth X Trilogy Earth X issues 0, 1 to 12, X (14) Universe X issues 0, 1 to 12, X, Universe X Cap, 4, Spidey, Beasts and Iron Men one-shots (19) Paradise X issues 0, 1 to 12, A, X, Universe X Heralds 1 to 3, Xen, Devils and Ragnarok (21) (54 in total) 2023 total = 124 Liked Earth X. A very good cosmic / mutant storyline under a lot of dense, comparative, heavy-going philosophy, using two narrators with polar opposite opinions about the value of humanity. Great artwork from the underrated John Paul Leon. Possibly, the entire trilogy might seem to go by at a treacle-like pace for a lot of readers, as the complexity of the story soon requires many expository double pages illustrating and discussing the history of one character or team after another, and that of the Marvel universe itself, past and future, in order for those unfamiliar with Marvel’s decades of storylines and retcons to even be able to follow what’s going on. Also, the story keeps deviating into one-shot specials, which in the original comics creates a choppy, back-and-forth reading order. Universe X likewise has some interesting ideas and nice art from Dougie Braithwaite, but its destructive conclusion leads to a third section, Paradise X, where for me it all falls apart; reconstruction, world building, literally, that seems to offer a completely unconvincing solution to what’s gone before, and it’s all about the usual conceits, that humanity and what we do is ever so important and consequential to everything else on a universal and even multiversal scale, and just descended into cliché under all the pretension.

No local comic shop, haven’t been into the city for almost a year now. There’s the problem. Several interesting books on the list, and a nice, wide selection.

Yup. Gilbert Shelton, one of the great underground creators. Forgot to mention.

Drawing attention to the quality of Archie Horror comics is a good move. They’ve been great. A pity Afterlife was never finished.

Something Carmine Infantino discovered. He seemed to start out well, some great material in the early 70s, but his decisions in the mid 70s led to what was for me the most boring, drek-filled period in DC's history, especially 75 to 76, course-corrected gradually by Jenette Kahn into the classic 80s period for the company. Lee already has quite a good track record from new 52, hardly perfect, but for me better than Infantino, so I'd give him some latitude.

New 52 might've been a bit patchy, but some very good comics were published during the event.

Welcome to the boards, Carmen. Good to see you here.

Yup. Classic mistake of getting too carried away. Exactly what I did at the first show I went to, blowing my cash on a stack of Conans within minutes. Young and impulsive.