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Back when I was doing the "art swap" I put together these reference pages that anyone who was doing a DRC drawing could refer to. A few minor spoilers are buried in there. Enjoy.
Okay, I couldn't wait any longer. Here's the result of the DRC/RGA swap out. My version of RGA, and Frankie Washington's version of DRC! Eventually I'll create a better parking spot for that artwork, but in the meantime, here they are side by side. I find it interesting how every artist can have their own take on the same subject matter. While his style is very different from mine, its also a perfectly awesome fit for DRC!
This week She-Hulk dominates my comic book stack, starting with Avenging Spider-Man #7. This is your basic Spidey-Team-up comic, so I don't pick it up every month, just on the issues that grab my interest. I was excited about this issue for two reasons: One: Art by Stuart Immonen. As I've said previously, hes a great illustrator- one of my favorites. And Two: Spidey teams up with She-hulk, and I kinda have a crush on her (along with Power Girl and Super Girl- don't tell my wife, she wouldn't understand) In fact, how cool would it be if they had She Hulk in the next Avengers movie as a full CGI character, like a green, slightly more clothed version of Dr Manhattan Anyway, this comic starts out on the right note: See above pic of Shulkie and Spidey wresting a giant sewer-fish. Thats dope. Thats pretty much the high point though. The rest of the story involves an army of cats, She-Hulk growing a tail, Spider-Man wearing a cow head, and a giant Egyptian Cat Goddess. Seriously. Now I expect some goofy fun with this situation, but it was less fun than I was hoping and a lot more goofy. I still give it 7 points for the art and for She Hulk !!!!!!!
X-Men Legacy #266: The cover had She Hulk, Rogue, and some strangling and hair pulling going on. Its an Avenger vs X-Men story. Rogue does her best to keep neutral on the AvX war when a couple of avengers (including She Hulk) show up to basically loiter on the school grounds waiting for Hope to show up. Their presence is provoking the students who, like Cyclops, seem to have fantasies of persecution. Sure enough, things get out of hand and Rogue starts boxing She hulk, until another avenger shows up unexpectedly right at the end. I give this comic: 7 points too !!!!!!!
Wolverine and the X-men #10: This happens before X--men Legacy 266. Cyclops and Emma Frost show up at Wolverine's school. They discuss their differences, and resolve absolutely nothing. In the end, two members of the shool join up with Cyclops, and an alien anti-Phoenix task force show up, and the side story about Angel going bonkers becomes more interesting. This is my favorite X-book right now. Also, 7 points!!!!!!!
Invincible #91: Seriously, why does the black Invincible have to have cheating-on-his-girlfriend issues? Seems a little stereotypey to me. Last time I'll gripe about that. The Dinosaurus/Viltrumite story continues, and there is a surprise ending. You know with Invincible, that usually means blood and guts. 6 exclamation points!!!!!!
The Walking Dead #97: Rick and his Posse have their first run-in with Negan's people. Can't wait to see him lay down the law on that big meanie. 7 points !!!!!!!
The Ultimates #10: The shocking ending from last issue actually happened. This is the aftermath. Things actually get worse. For the love of God, it is time for Reed and his Children of Tomorrow to get their butts handed to them by Nick Fury. Still hasn't happened yet. 6 points!!!!!!
New Avengers 26: Unexpectedly cool. I wasn't too excited to see a flashback story about Iron Fist. Turns out its kinda cool. Back in the days of Leonardo Da Vinci, there was a female Iron First who hosted the Phoenix force, thus tying into the present day AvX story. I like the idea of DaVinci participating in Marvel Universe history. 8 exclamation points!!!!!!
I've never seen a movie that lived up to its own hype the way the "Avengers" has. There were so many pitfalls Joss Whedon could have fallen into: getting too wrapped up in a convoluted story with all those characters, or not giving certain characters their due, or being derailed by all the different egos involved, or not flowing organically from the other movies that lead up to this. Not only did it not get screwed up, Joss Whedon knocked it out of the park. In a way, the story was very simple and straight forward: bad guy gets a hold of power cube. Good guys team up to stop his evil plans. A simple story was the right way to go so you focus on the important stuff: Making sure each Avenger gets their moment to shine, and filling the movie chock-full of wouldn't-it-be-cool-if moments. Seriously, they must have sat down and just brainstormed every cool thing that could possibly happen, and then worked it into the story. I couldn'y think of anthing I wished I had seen that wasn't in the movie. I was worried that Black Widow and Hawkeye would just be in the back ground. Didn't happen. I was worried Cap America wouldn't end up the leader. No worries there. Some movies like this become just about the special effects and action. In this case, even the dialogue was spot on. By the end I realized I had been laughing and gasping through the whole thing, and so was the rest of the audience. The reason this movie turned out so well was because, a true fan made the creative decisions instead of someone with a buisiness degree. Other movie studios need to learn that from Marvel. Get out of the way of the creative people and let them make their art. They know what they're doing. This movie was pure fun. Not dark and brooding like a lot of comic book movies try to be. It doesn't apologize for it. It feels like a comic book with a lot of larger then life moments. Unless you just hate cool things, you can't possibly be disappointed with this movie. And, stay for the post-credits teaser at the end. Both of them.
Here's my latest version of my Robot God Akamatsu drawing. I went over the last version with a softer, darker lead from a mechanical pencil, rendering more detail in the process. Next step: color!
Weekly Comic Review time! Not a big stack of comics this week. I'll do this in the order I read them:
Avengers vs X-Men: Round 3:
This issue starts with Wolverine recovering from being burned alive by Hope, who used her Phoenix powers on him. Its funny how things like this (horrible burns no one else would survive) only happen to Wolverine. Spiderman was right next to him and he was unscathed. Maybe Hope knew Logan could survive with his healing factor so she only attacked him. (Also, he was about to gut her like a fish, but that doesn't help my point) My point is, things only Wolvie can survive convienently only happen to Wolvie. I wonder if the other X-men take advantage of his healing powers for practical jokes: "Ha, ha, Logan! We replaced your beer with battery acid! It's okay, you'll heal." or "Hey, lets cut off Logan's fingertips while he sleeps and watch them grow back!" Going along with that, for someone whose pirmary weapon is having lethal knives coming out of his knuckles, he doesn't do that much stabbing. Case in point, the face off between him and Captain America. In issue three, Hope is on the run and the Avengrs and X-Men each want to find her first. The high point of the issue is when Cap questions Wolvie's loyalty, tells him to sit this one out and Logan says make me. The two have a throw down inside the Quinjet. Wolverine instantly stabs Captain America in the chest and watches him bleed to death. Just kidding. Thats what we'd think would happen if it was just a cage match. But Cap chooses his environment carefully, plus he uses his ability to phone in a friend. Overall, its a fun fight. For some reason watching heroes fight each other is more fun than them fighting villians. The fight was cool, but the issue was mostly build up for the next battle. I rate it with 7 exclamation points: !!!!!!!
Invincible Iron Man #526: Kicking off the Long Way Down story, the issue is mostly set up for future issues, but Larroca's art has visibly improved. He does a good job with the mecha and giving every character a different look and not just the same face wth different hair. 6 points !!!!!!
X-O Manowar #1: I had no idea this was coming. Valiant Comics is back and they've rebooted XO Manowar. Its a story about a barbarian who stumbles into an advanced alien armored suit. Its like Conan meets Iron Man. With great art by Cary Nord, I'm hoping this comic will last. 8 exclamation points !!!!!!!!
Ultimate Spider-man #10: Spidey faces the Prowler. Its mostly them talking and setting up for him facing the Scorpion. Looking forward to that. I really liked the art by David Marquez, but it was another filler issue setting up other issues. 6 points!!!!!!
Hey. I decided to recolor page 14 (the first page of chapter three). I never liked how it looked. The improvement isn't obvious until you see them side by side. New version first, old version below it. In fact I plan to get all George Lucas and touch up a lot of the older pages I'm not satisfied with. This won't affect my progress on the next chapter. My deadline for chapter four was always May 28th. Don't look that up.
Work on my Robot god Akamatsu picture continues. Here's the latest draft I drew using a drafting pencil with dense lead so that the lines are light. Once I'm happy with the layout, I'll go back over it with a softer, darker pencil lead.
You've seen pieces of this on my Facebook. Now here's the full panel colored in.
Here's where I review the comics that came out this week- not all of them, just the ones I felt like buying.
First up, the latest installment to the Avengers vs X-Men story: Versus #1 and Uncanny X-Men #9. These issues basically zoom in on the battles we saw in AvX#2 so we can see all the details. This is actually a brilliant concept. Who cares about the story? What we're really here for is to get to see the Avengers and X-men kick the crap out of each other. These issues focus on Iron Man vs Magneto, Thing vs Namor and Red Hulk vs Colossus. I was curious about Iron Man vs Magneto since AvX#2 put out that it wouldn't go down the way you think. Turns out IM's armor isn't made of stuff that Maggie can rip apart. Otherwise it would be a very short fight, and be less entertaining. It is a close match. At one point Mags makes himself his own armored suit. I do have a bone to pick with one thing: at one point Iron Man uses his satellites/space craft to harness the magnetic field of Jupiter. It would take at least 45 min for that energy to reach earth. During that time Magneto could have had his way with Tony 5 times over. Plus, why go through all that effort and expense to bring more magnetic energy in a fight with the Master of Magnetism. But the artwork is great. Especially Stuart Immonen's art. I plan do a blog on my favorite comic artists. He's on the list. See the above page he drew from the battle between the Thing (one of Marvel's most lovable characters) and Namor (one of Marvel's biggest toolbags). I mean, seriously, whats the deal with Namor. He has wings on his feet, pointy ears, lives in the water, and has a fetish for other super heroes girlfriends, especially the blondes. (I guess I can't blame him- Susan Storm and Emma Frost are babes) Who would want this guy on their team? Hey, lets hire the guy who tries to steal our women and sees himself as the King of the Sea. Anyway, no surprises with who wins each match, but still a lot of fun and great art. I rate it with 7 exclamation points!!!!!!!
Quickie Reviews:
Ultimates #9: This story is so huge and epic I can't help but be excited with each issue. I can't wait to see the bad guy in this one get his butt kicked. Sadly, it still hasn't happened yet in this issue. This has dragged out since issue one. I'm ready for Cap America to show up and punch out the villlian and get it over with. Also 7 exclamation points: !!!!!!!
Rocketeer Adventures #2: A series of short stories by a variety of artists. I think the Rocketeer is a totally underrated and underappreciated charater. So is that cool movie about him from the 90's. He hasn't reached his full potential, and I'm not sure this comic does either. It does touch on what makes him great: 1940's action, and a guy in a jet pack. 6 points: !!!!!!
Danger Girl: Revolver #4: This is one of those comics I pick up for the artwork alone. I really like Chris Madden's loose energetic style. It was even better in his Jack Avarice series. He draws some great action scenes. A car chase is hard to make exciting in a comic book, but he pulls it off. However, there are only so many ways you can mimic Indiana Jones and James Bond before it gets a little tired. 5 points: !!!!!
