[Severian]

Also, I'm not at all excited about Luke Cage. It's really gonna have to be stellar to win me over.

I wasn't excited about JJ either, but it won me over, so yeah. There's a chance.

[noisereductions]

Originally Posted by Severian

I really liked DD season 2. Better than season 1, in my opinion. Not sure why. I loved season 1 at first, but when I re-watched it, some of the Kingpin crap made me cringe. And I hate Karen. Which, you'd think, would make me hate season 2 more than 1, but she's actually less of a focal point.

Freaking secretary going to court, interviewing clients, breaking into houses. I'd fire that dumb bitch.

I'm not on season 2 yet, but I love Karen. Actually I love Deborah Ann Woll.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

I'm not on season 2 yet, but I love Karen. Actually I love Deborah Ann Woll.

You won't. Not for long anyway. She's awful. You'll see.

I don't even know who she is outside of this show. Why is that name so recognizable to people?

[noisereductions]

She was on True Blood.

[Rob Instigator]

My wife hated her on True Blod and hates her on DD. she says she gets hired only to cry wistfully on screen.

[noisereductions]

*shrug*

[Severian]

So, Hulk's dead.

Hawkeye put an arrow between the eyes of one Bruce Banner just as he was about to Hulk-out and (apparently, according to Minority Report-type future-telling) go on a massive rampage and kill a number of Avengers.

Banner hired Hawkeye to do it, in order to prevent the rampage from occurring. He'd developed an "anti-Hulk" green, gamma-radioactive powder which he gave to Hawkeye, who then smeared that shit all over his arrow. So... yeah. Hulk be dead.

[Rob Instigator]

that shit is bullshit. banner has shot himself in the mouth before and survived, he has been nuked and survived. what a crock. Hawkeye? the weakest -ass avenger ever? Hawkeye???????

[noisereductions]

I'm years away from keeping up w/ what's happening now I think haha.

I'm reading Watchmen now.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

that shit is bullshit. banner has shot himself in the mouth before and survived, he has been nuked and survived. what a crock. Hawkeye? the weakest -ass avenger ever? Hawkeye???????

Had nothing to do with strength. Banner was doing new experiments with gamma radiation in an effort to find a "cure" for the Hulk. He recruited Hawkeye because — apparently — he (Banner) knew about this potential disastrous rampage that was in his near future. A crime he had not committed, but was almost definitely going to. He chose Hawkeye because Hawkeye has a "hawk eye," and powerless or not, has the best aim in the Marvel universe.

The tip of the arrow was laced with some new "Hulk-killing" synthetic compound.

So Iron Man and his buddies went to confront Hulk about why he was being a hermit, and to attempt to bring him in or something to prevent this disaster. Some other dude was like, "naw, man, dude hasn't done anything." In the ensuing tumult, Banner started to panic, his eyes flashed green, and Banner put an arrow in his brain the moment he saw that, from some hidey hole a ridiculous distance away.

Hawkeye + brand new, Banner-made "Hulk-killing" poison tipped arrow + Banner's assistance = realistic (ish) scenario for Hulk's death.

The difference is that THIS time, Marvel WANTED Hulk to die. Get it?

Superman's death at the hands of Doomsday (who lived, actually) remains unexplained to this day. At least there's some semblance of believability here. Also, Deadpool killed Hulk by slicing a sleeping Banner into a million pieces in Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe. Yeah, that was an inflated "What If...?" but still.

Whatever. Continuity shmontigooity.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

I'm years away from keeping up w/ what's happening now I think haha.

I'm reading Watchmen now.

Watchmen is great. I haven't always liked it, but I have a new appreciation for it after recently re-reading it.

[Severian]

Hey Rob...

 

Hah!

(Actually I love the Hulk, but he's better solo than in a team setting. I hate "Hulk speak" ... they should have found write-around for that shit decades ago. Why does he maintain the ability to speak and feel, impulses and impulse control... even a conscience when "changed," but somehow -- despite being, like, a quadruple-doctorate and arguably smartest man in Marvel -- retains only a retarded toddler level of linguistic processing ability? Sucks.)

Why does Iron Man look so ass-hurt? He's a cavernous, soulless little bitch. Another Marvel answer to Batman. Only the suit makes him worth a shit, and that thing is constantly malfunctioning. Plus, he was there to (possibly) try to take Hulk down himself! Ugh.

DC is kicking Marvel's lame ass.

[Severian]

Other Marvel answers to Batman:

Moon Knight
Punisher
Spider-Man (it's true... don't pretend it's not. He's basically Marvel's Superman/Batman amalgam character. Only, you know, bright and overly talkative and a giant pussy. But the totemism and urban premise, the origin story, even bits of the outfit all came right out of the Bob Kane cook book. And the strength/power/responsibility is straight outta Krypton, yo. He's a trademark mashup. They threw in a little Ferris Beuler to set him apart, but he's Batperman for shizzle)
Black Panther (let's see... what about this character is not exactly like Batman? Costume? Nope, that's bats. Wealth? Nope. Family legacy/revenge justice motivation? All bats. Oh, wait... He's black! Never mind then. Nothing like Batman whatsoever.)
Did I already mention Iron Man? Well, fuck it... Iron Man again.
Daredevil (love him, but the ripoff attempt is flagrant. He worked out better than most though.)

I've realized that Batman is every bit as iconic as Superman. And even though Bats is tied to a powerless, human story, and had a specific totem and symbol, he still represents so much. The comic book world will try to rip him off until the end of time.

Blah

[noisereductions]

Haha yes he has been aped plenty. I still Marvel tho. Growing up Batman was the only DC I really messed with.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

Haha yes he has been aped plenty. I still Marvel tho. Growing up Batman was the only DC I really messed with.

Well, I was always the DC kid. Everyone always loved Batman (especially our generation, thanks for the Tim Burton movies), but only one of my childhood nerd brothers actually read the Batman/Detective comics. Everyone else was crazy for Spider-Man and X-Men. Spider-Man and X-Men.

Even Avengers was not a popular thing among my friends. I read that shit, but not often. It was all about fucking Spider-Man and fucking X-Men.

I have a love hate thing going with Marvel. I think they do team scenarios very well, and I loved X-Force and X-Factor growing up, and I love Cap and Daredevil, but they lack the absolute elemental iconography of the the Trinity. Even Spider-Man, their biggest character, looks a hell of a lot like a number of other characters in their universe.... Like Deadpool, not that that's Spodey's fault, having come 30 years earlier and all. And Wolverine, the other big Marvel brand, cuts the same fucking figure as latter-day Beast, not to mention Psylocke and Scarlet Witch to some extent.

There's nobody on Marvel's roster that's as singular or symbolic as Bats or Supes. I've always gone for the more character-driven comics, and that's where DC shines.

That friend — the other DC reader — was into the lamer shit actually. His all time favorite character is Hal Jordan's Green Lantern (don't get me wrong, when done properly, GL is a kickass character of *almost* Superman like magnitude, but he's almost never done properly). He wasn't into Knightfall or Death of Superman, which are, for better or worse, two of the most influential stories of my life, in or out of the comic book genre.

... I really like Superman and Batman... is basically what I'm saying.

[Severian]

By the by, are there any Dark Horse fans here?

I've read a number of titles in passing, most notably Hellboy which was once one of my favorites, but I've never really dug into any of their original characters, like X or Hunter Rose. I hear particularly good things about Hunter Rose, and I'd like to give that one a go, if anyone would like to recommend me a good starting point.

[_tunic_]

are you guys in the US familiar (or anywhere else but western-Europe) with Franquin? He's a genius. Check out his "Idees Noires" ("Dark Thoughts"), even if there's no English translation, but I assume there should be one.
And Gaston is hilarious, every single page he made of it, most of the Marsupilami series is great as well.

Especially Belgium and to some extent France and Netherlands have a very rich tradition of comic writers and designers or however you might name it.

The US writer I know is Zak Sally, formerly known as the bassist of Low, but now running his own company for a bunch of years already in writing and self-pressing his own graphic novels.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by _tunic_

are you guys in the US familiar (or anywhere else but western-Europe) with Franquin? He's a genius. Check out his "Idees Noires" ("Dark Thoughts"), even if there's no English translation, but I assume there should be one.
And Gaston is hilarious, every single page he made of it, most of the Marsupilami series is great as well.

Especially Belgium and to some extent France and Netherlands have a very rich tradition of comic writers and designers or however you might name it.

The US writer I know is Zak Sally, formerly known as the bassist of Low, but now running his own company for a bunch of years already in writing and self-pressing his own graphic novels.

Ive actually only ever read one foreign language comic, and that was Blacksad (Spanish). I ended up getting the English translation because I was apparently too cocky about how well my Spanish had held up since college, and I could quite piece together the whole story.

Never heard of any of these dudes you're taking about, but I'm open to just about anything.

[LifeDistortion]

So I finished Watchmen this morning. It was a pretty damn great read. I liked the ending as well. Pretty funny, and scary that I'd be finishing up this fucked up story during the week of Trump's RNC. Talk about timing.

[Rob Instigator]

excellent