|
Endless Mike posted:When I remember things, I also remember them in third person. I actually do. I thought most people did.
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 07:26
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 08:47 |
|
|
davidspackage posted:In his one eye?! *this advice is from lowtax and the somethingawful corporation of savannah georgia and no other persons
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 07:46
|
|
|
To get this thread out of Identity Crisis hell--although it's a welcome change from back in 2004 when BSS was divided and half the sub sucked that book's dick relentlessly--here's something that's been making the rounds. It's tried, it's true, it's vintage Marvel merchandise:  I want every single one of these and I want them now.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 08:35
|
|
|
mind the walrus posted:To get this thread out of Identity Crisis hell--although it's a welcome change from back in 2004 when BSS was divided and half the sub sucked that book's dick relentlessly--here's something that's been making the rounds. Hell it was the Bush era though, guess it make sense
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 08:55
|
|
|
I recall that Identity Crisis drew in quite a few new readers into comics when it was first coming out. It's strange to think about now, but considering I imagine most of those people were probably 12-15 year old boys, I suppose it's not too surprising.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 08:58
|
|
|
Didn't BSS get created because of Identity Crisis?
|
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 09:03
|
|
|
TheFallenEvincar posted:I can only hope you're kidding about 2004 bss considering how unerringly hilarious such a hyper mediocre comic book that ends with an Arthur Miller quote is There was a time when those Deathstroke fight pages would incite 10 straight pages of discussion on why it wasn't that dumb that he beat the Flash by standing still and sticking a knife out. "Why no it wasn't stupid that Jean Loring was behind it without any real clues, it was great misdirection. Oh the whole mindwiping/Dr. Light retcon? Yeah that wasn't a cheap exploitation of a bygone and innocent age, it was gritty realistic depth." I'm not going to pretend I was much better, I'm really not, but yeah Identity Crisis/Green Lantern: Rebirth were the true schisms that marked the real start of the Johns/Didio-era of DC Comics that led to such juggernaut company highs like Infinite Crisis, Countdown to Final Crisis, Flashpoint, and the New 52. "Because nothing says 'we're in control' more than constantly mashing the reset button!" And well, yeah there was contention at the time because a lot of people were at least open to the possibility of what Identity Crisis was bringing and Green Lantern: Rebirth was well-done, so those of us who claimed that this was a very bad direction for the company to take (hi) were seen as wet blankets and overtly involved whiners (true) even though in this case the cynics were ultimately correct-- DC did grow septic, they flushed away almost all the cool poo poo they built in the 00s for no real reason, and despite periodic spikes in sales are still playing to mixed critical reception and poor retention while Marvel is at once more consistent and more exploratory of new creative avenues than it has been in decades.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 09:03
|
|
|
Jerusalem posted:I actually really enjoyed it but I think it's because it's so outside of how things usually go in the game where you're fighting a dozen dudes at once or stalking them and picking them of one-by-one to the point they start making GBS threads their pants in terror. Boss-fights were never those games' strong-point. Except Mr. Freeze, who was probably the best part of City.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 09:08
|
|
|
Roth posted:I recall that Identity Crisis drew in quite a few new readers into comics when it was first coming out. It's strange to think about now, but considering I imagine most of those people were probably 12-15 year old boys, I suppose it's not too surprising. I was around that age, and I do get what it's like to have a "starter" comic. For all the poo poo I give them Jeph Loeb's "Cameo Parade" comics are phenomenal for first-timers because they've got exceptional artwork, are dirt simple, and give walking tours of all the cool corners comics can offer. It doesn't give a particularly good tour, but if you're new how can you expect otherwise? I mean for god's sake I liked Mark Millar's Ultimate X-Men, I'm no saint. The difference is eventually I went back and realized how utterly poo poo a lot of those books are (and some aren't; Marvels holds up, for example). So I get really annoyed when people who have barely read any comics outside of Identity Crisis, nor revisited it since their first read, say I'm being too harsh. Even so, yeah there were a lot of us in that age range who were crying foul at Identity Crisis, especially because it seemed to pop up apropos of nothing. DC seemed to be chugging along well-enough, if not in a downward slump where the Spider-Man, X-Men, Daredevil, Hulk, Punisher, and Fantastic Four movies were all making some form of money while their big ticket was Halle Berry's Catwoman while Nolan's Batman Begins got underway... yeah I guess in hindsight it's not hard to see how and why Geoff Johns could effectively change the entire company's course from "awkward but promising new Milennium" to "BRONZE AGE 2.0 BRONZE AGE 2.0 BRONZE AGE 2.0 BRONZE AGE 2.0" Lurdiak posted:Didn't BSS get created because of Identity Crisis? Not to my recollection. There was a giant "catch all" comics discussion thread in GBS that grew to be so ridiculously large that the mod crew said "Here, now gently caress off." Identity Crisis started a few months afterwards. Cleretic posted:Except Mr. Freeze, who was probably the best part of City. And while really really annoying by the end, I did like how the Ra's fight managed to evoke what a massive marathon pain in the rear end adversary he is through gameplay. mind the walrus fucked around with this message at 09:13 on Aug 21, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 09:09
|
|
|
Granted, I came in like, 2013, but I always heard the Identity Crisis origin story for BSS.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 09:13
|
|
|
I think we're both kind-of right. Or at least I'm mostly wrong and you're mostly right. I'm dead certain that the GBS megathread was started ages before Identity Crisis was even a thing, and it's very probable that by the end was when Identity Crisis was ramping up discussion to a degree the GBS mods didn't want to deal with.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 09:15
|
|
|
mind the walrus posted:I was around that age, and I do get what it's like to have a "starter" comic. For all the poo poo I give them Jeph Loeb's "Cameo Parade" comics are phenomenal for first-timers because they've got exceptional artwork, are dirt simple, and give walking tours of all the cool corners comics can offer. It doesn't give a particularly good tour, but if you're new how can you expect otherwise? I mean for god's sake I liked Mark Millar's Ultimate X-Men, I'm no saint. The difference is eventually I went back and realized how utterly poo poo a lot of those books are (and some aren't; Marvels holds up, for example). So I get really annoyed when people who have barely read any comics outside of Identity Crisis, nor revisited it since their first read, say I'm being too harsh. I believe when Johns seemed to be writing half of DC's ongoings and every major event was around the point I was looking into comics as more than just "Buy an issue every so often" and started looking into buying trades so I can read an entire story, and really got into it through stuff like Sinestro Corps War, the Batman comics at the time, and Johns' run on Teen Titans since I loved the cartoon so much, so I don't mean to come across as some old man yelling about dumb kids buying lovely comics. In hindsight, that whole era seemed to flip flop between highs and lows every other month or something. It does remind me that it would be somewhat interesting to see what time period of comics people around here got into them at. I feel like there's probably at least a few major things from each era people would point to.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 09:23
|
|
|
That's the cruel tragedy of Johns. He's a really good writer. I say that with real humility. I loved his JSA and his Wally-Flash run, and everything about Teen Titans until he decided to murder Bart and have Wally wear his skin (under the rationale of "growing up" no less! Seriously Johns, gently caress you). It really hurt to see him work so very hard to retrofit major corners of the DC Universe to look like they did when he was a kid despite the actual universe having moved well-past that and used that era as a major foundation block. To be so cyclical didn't feel fresh, it felt septic. I'm a guy who got into comics thanks to Marvel's early 00s output-- Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man, Millar's Ultimates (ugh), Morrison's New X-Men, Bendis' Daredevil, and a grab-bag of the usual notable works like TDKR, Marvels, etc. Marvel definitely had the better high-profile at the time, I think DC had just wrapped up "Our Worlds at War" and wasn't newcomer-friendly even by comics standards.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 09:34
|
|
|
Cleretic posted:Except Mr. Freeze, who was probably the best part of City. Yeah that's the exception, others have their moments but that's a wonderful look at two incredibly stubborn dudes who are so hell-bent on having things their own way that they're fighting pointlessly and missing the actual problem right under both their noses (so perfect for comicbook fight logic, basically!)
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 10:20
|
|
|
I feel your pain, Kull.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 10:28
|
|
|
TheFallenEvincar posted:You know what's funny/weird about Light getting triggered? I swear he adds Batman in for some reason. It is. The first image is like a dramatic re-enactment of the story Green Arrow is telling to someone. The second is (obviously) an actual memory. It later comes out that Green Arrow purposely omitted the fact that Batman was present because they....took...his...mind...too! None of these people should be able to trust each other at all, much less function effectively as a team in dangerous situations.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 11:01
|
|
|
Doc Hawkins posted:It is. The first image is like a dramatic re-enactment of the story Green Arrow is telling to someone. The second is (obviously) an actual memory. It later comes out that Green Arrow purposely omitted the fact that Batman was present because they....took...his...mind...too! Despite like, you know, Everything Else About Identity Crisis, that's actually a clever reveal.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 11:11
|
|
|
I don't think I can really agree with that. To me, a clever reveal like that would be something that when I'm reading those old stories, the knowledge of that reveal would make me think of the character interaction's in a different way that is believable. But, like the Maxwell Lord reveal from Countdown to Infinite Crisis, it just makes me think "There's no way these characters could have done that and still act like this." Anyway, here's my favorite little gag from Sex Criminals so far: 
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 11:34
|
|
|
Doc Hawkins posted:None of these people should be able to trust each other at all, much less function effectively as a team in dangerous situations. With all the multiverse, body-swapping, transforming villain, sci-fi disguise, robot double, magical clone, non-magical clone, etc. bullshit that both DC and Marvel put out, it's kind of a wonder that anyone can trust anyone in a comic book. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 11:36
|
|
|
Has that been deconstructed in some sort of indie comic or something yet?
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 11:38
|
|
|
A lot of people have been pushing back against "Superheroes BUT IN THE REAL WORLD" lately but that sort of weird specific poo poo is why I'd love to see more good stories exploring the concepts. Like, how does a society deal with knowing something like Galactus exists? How do you handle confirming the multiverse on a theological level? Just have someone other than Ennis or Millar write it and you can get some amazing stories out of that.
|
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 11:41
|
|
|
Roth posted:Has that been deconstructed in some sort of indie comic or something yet? I believe it was Astro City that had someone avoid a conviction by pointing out all the ways he could have been impersonated or mind controlled.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 11:43
|
|
|
Lurdiak posted:A lot of people have been pushing back against "Superheroes BUT IN THE REAL WORLD" lately but that sort of weird specific poo poo is why I'd love to see more good stories exploring the concepts. Like, how does a society deal with knowing something like Galactus exists? How do you handle confirming the multiverse on a theological level? Get really annoyed that while nothing is willing to share the credit on what actually created existence or humanity, but people still have to deal with the apocalyptic scenarios of every religion both mainstream and fictional? "Oh joy, the Norse and Egyptian pantheon are willing to set aside their differences as soon as it means sitting back and letting the end of the world happen on schedule. great." Section Z fucked around with this message at 11:47 on Aug 21, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 11:45
|
|
|
I'm trying to remember how City of Heroes handled some stuff like that. There was a massive disaster in one zone that was revealed to have been the cause of a really lovely attempt by a villain to pull a Scarlet Witch-style reality warp retcon, and a major villain group using psychics and time travel to deduce the things they have to do to take over the world, but I don't remember any civilian-level exploration of that kind of thing. I know it was there, I just don't remember it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 11:56
|
|
|
Lurdiak posted:A lot of people have been pushing back against "Superheroes BUT IN THE REAL WORLD" lately but that sort of weird specific poo poo is why I'd love to see more good stories exploring the concepts. Like, how does a society deal with knowing something like Galactus exists? How do you handle confirming the multiverse on a theological level? The only time I can think of was in Dan Jurgen's Thor sometime after issue 25 (when the series somehow went from one of the best comics I was reading at the time to really loving dreadful) when some little girl walks up to Thor and says,"If you're a God what about Jesus?" and Thor replies,"Oh it's cool, Jesus is like the God that the Gods worship too!" or something really loving awful like that. So.... yeah. I kinda hope I'm just completely misremembering it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 11:58
|
|
|
Faith by definition is unconfirmable. Also, Galactus never happened. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 12:41
|
|
|
Cleretic posted:I'm trying to remember how City of Heroes handled some stuff like that. There was a massive disaster in one zone that was revealed to have been the cause of a really lovely attempt by a villain to pull a Scarlet Witch-style reality warp retcon, and a major villain group using psychics and time travel to deduce the things they have to do to take over the world, but I don't remember any civilian-level exploration of that kind of thing. I know it was there, I just don't remember it. I think I can actually answer this. All of the story arcs in City of Heroes were based around the idea that you were the main character, because MMO-style mission chain. The lower level stuff would involve your contact - usually a civilian or retired/low-powered metahuman - sending you to investigate stuff and then slowly piecing things together in the mission debriefing(s). I can't say there was really an in-depth exploration because it was centered entirely on you and/or your contact. More 'in this issue his SHOCKING SECRET is revealed... ANEW!' more than anything else, I suppose. The second part (major villain group using psychics and time travel) was basically the overarching plot for City of Villains. You get hints of weird stuff that Arachnos has their fingers in - setting up a literal army of psychics, time travel shenanigans that may have involved faking a mad scientist's death - which is all a leadup to the end level story arcs, but is mainly there just for setting fluff and to keep you interested in continuing to play more than anything else.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 14:06
|
|
|
SynthOrange posted:Okay just for the sake of the followup panels for that comic, where would Batman get Stephen Hawking's fighting skills from? He didn't program in Hawking's fighting skills, he programmed in his entire neuromuscular profile. He probably didn't get it straight from Hawking; he just wrote up a basic "advanced Lou Gherig's Disease" program.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 15:50
|
|
|
Ghostlight posted:Faith by definition is unconfirmable.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 16:52
|
|
|
Is that Stan Lee or Phil Sheldon?
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 17:21
|
|
|
mind the walrus posted:To get this thread out of Identity Crisis hell--although it's a welcome change from back in 2004 when BSS was divided and half the sub sucked that book's dick relentlessly--here's something that's been making the rounds. I wish we still did the avatar change chains because these are pure gold.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 17:32
|
|
|
Ghostlight posted:Faith by definition is unconfirmable. Oh, what a surprise. The guy with a Hitler mustache is a Galcticaust denier.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 17:53
|
|
|
Lurdiak posted:A lot of people have been pushing back against "Superheroes BUT IN THE REAL WORLD" lately but that sort of weird specific poo poo is why I'd love to see more good stories exploring the concepts. Like, how does a society deal with knowing something like Galactus exists? How do you handle confirming the multiverse on a theological level? I'd post Astro City #1/2 "The Nearness of You" but I'd have to post the entire issue and everyone's probably already seen it and it really belongs in the Touching and Inspiring thread and it's free on comixology so go read it there.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 19:24
|
|
|
Those stickers are ALL amazing. Re: JL's dogpile stratagem, I don't have the panels, but it worked pretty well in that one Red Tornado story where they were in-between League rosters and had to fight a fully equipped Amazo whose identity was half messed up with RT's. GL and Bats proceed to cut off his legs to take away Flash related threats.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 19:41
|
|
|
Everyone should read the gently caress out of Astro City
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 19:46
|
|
|
Avulsion posted:I'd post Astro City #1/2 "The Nearness of You" but I'd have to post the entire issue and everyone's probably already seen it and it really belongs in the Touching and Inspiring thread and it's free on comixology so go read it there. I apologize for the off-topic, but I went to go pick it up and now I'm sad as hell. This is a funny thread, how dare you?
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 20:01
|
|
|
Ignite Memories posted:Everyone should read the gently caress out of Astro City This.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 20:14
|
|
|
mind the walrus posted:To get this thread out of Identity Crisis hell--although it's a welcome change from back in 2004 when BSS was divided and half the sub sucked that book's dick relentlessly--here's something that's been making the rounds.  I had this one on my binder in like second or third grade. Imagine what I could get for it if I'd kept it mint. The pains of being a Gen-Xer, I guess. Don't even get me started on what I did with my Star Wars figures.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 20:44
|
|
|
Ignite Memories posted:Everyone should read the gently caress out of Astro City
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 21:53
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 08:47 |
|
|
Selachian posted:Don't even get me started on what I did with my Star Wars figures. My mom has some of those, little inch-high figures. She's forbidden me from looking them up because she feels better off NOT knowing if they're worth anything. Doesn't want to sell them, doesn't want the temptation.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2016 22:46
|
|