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Eternals & Asimov: A Robot, An Eternal, and a Philosopher Walk Into a Trolley

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The Principles:

Protect Celestials

Protect The Machine

Correct Excess Deviation

It would be an exaggeration to call the great Jack Kirby’s The Eternals an inarguable classic. To most, it’s a curiosity: an abandoned story that introduces some genuinely brilliant concepts into the Marvel Universe (not the least of which is the Celestials). But ultimately the series pales in comparison to its sister story, the DC-published Fourth World saga.

The Eternals have returned numerous times, perhaps most notably in 2006, when Neil Gaiman and John Romita, Jr. relaunched The Eternals with a miniseries which, while much praised, did little to position the Eternals as consistent members of the Marvel Universe. Even as recently as 2018, Jason Aaron, Paco Medina and Ed McGuinness‘ Avengers #4 made the Eternals the ultimate footnote to their more successful Celestial counterparts, when a change in the status quo of the Celestials caused the Eternals to commit mass suicide, taking them entirely off the board for Aaron’s Celestial-centric story. [Read more…] about Eternals & Asimov: A Robot, An Eternal, and a Philosopher Walk Into a Trolley

(Re)Read Hickman’s X-Men: “Games Without Frontiers, War Without Tears” Pt 1 of 3

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X-Force #7-8 (& #9’s debut of the Green Lagoon)

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[*From the classic Peter Gabriel hit. Also, note that Part 2 of this run of articles will cover X-Force #6, 9, and 10; Part 3 will cover issues #11-12. Lastly, all X-Force cover images displayed were created by Dustin Weaver and Edgar Delgado.]

Reading back through the Dawn of X, I’ve maybe been a little surprised to find my overall favorite series among the initial ongoings has been Percy’s X-Force by a considerable margin. Now, there are certainly moments in Excalibur that, for me, have outshone almost everything else across the line; elsewhere, the best short, nonevent story arc is, in my view, undoubtedly X-Men #18-19. As for Duggan’s Marauders, that title has been an enjoyable slow-burn, but it’s also been consistently inconsistent in quality and focus—except that it serves with surprising success as Kate and Emma’s impeccably charming and well-deserved showboat. (And New Mutants didn’t even land on its feet until Vita Ayala’s recent takeover.)

Related:

Hickman X-Men Reading Order

Krakin’ Krakoa!

More in this series!

[Read more…] about (Re)Read Hickman’s X-Men: “Games Without Frontiers, War Without Tears” Pt 1 of 3

Death Is Never The End in The Immortal Hulk

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Immortal Hulk is easily one of the most talked-about Hulk comics in some time, though the idea of a shockingly powerful, intrinsically misanthropic Hulk certainly isn’t without precedent. Indeed, much of what made the run so successful for all fifty issues was its willingness to move slightly away from standard Marvel Comics hijinks in order to embrace the weird sci-fi and horror concepts that were baked into the concept from the jump.

Yet, taking it all one step further to address heavy subjects such as immortality in the Marvel Universe, as well as dealing with long-term trauma caused by childhood abuse, is what made this book something significantly more than a retread of the Hulk’s weirdest moments. Though this builds on what came before, there has never been a comic quite like The Immortal Hulk. [Read more…] about Death Is Never The End in The Immortal Hulk

Better Than Stranger Things: Proctor Valley Road Review!

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Horror Cinema is rarely kind to the people who make it.

The genre is often seen as a lower artform of ill repute where those who make it, at best, get a reputation for three films while their larger work is ignored as garbage. The best case scenario for many a horror filmmaker is to remake the same film over and over again for a quickly dwindling audience. Even filmmakers like John Carpenter or George Romero are left scrambling for budgets because no one wants to support their endeavors.

But perhaps the filmmaker most hurt by this reputation and systemic failure is Tobe Hooper. For many people, Hooper is the madman who did The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and then nothing else because he was too much of a wild card to actually make a real movie. Some might see him as the guy credited for Steven Spielberg’s Poltergeist. Both of these are largely inaccurate claims to make about Hooper that only limit his range as a filmmaker. [Read more…] about Better Than Stranger Things: Proctor Valley Road Review!

Creannotators #65: “Catwoman: Lonely City” with creator Cliff Chiang

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This week on Creannotators, I talk Catwoman Lonely City with creator Cliff Chiang. We talk why this version of Gotham City, the storytelling potential of Catwoman, making a DC Black Label book, and the upcoming Paper Girls series on Amazon. Plus a bunch more!

Some spoilers for Catwoman: Lonely City #1 follow!

On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics!

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