Marvel Noise Episode 145

[Rick Hansen]

Okay, now I surrender : what's a RFO?

Steve, since you obviously fast-forwarded through this part of Smash Tales , I'll give you the awesome acronyms Stan Lee provided to the Merry Marvel Marching Society in one of his contributions to Incredible Hulk -1.

RFO (real frantic one) – a buyer of at least three Marvel mags a month
TTB (titanic true believer) – a divinely-inspired “no prize” winner
QNS (quite ‘nuff sayer) – a fortunate frantic one who’s had a letter printed
KOF (keeper of the flame) – one who recruits a newcomer to Marvel’s rolickin’ ranks
PMM (permanent marvelite maximus) – anyone possessing all previous titles
FFF (fearless front facer) – an honorary title bestowed for devotion to Marvel above and beyond the call of duty

Whaaat?  The light blue outift with the pointy, Earth-2 Batwoman mask?     It took two decades for Marvel to back off Frank Miller's 'short hair and grey' depiction and finally 'go retro' and get back to the sleek Romita Sr dark Blue jumpsuit and sexy belt.....I'm not giving it up without a fight!

Oh yes, I much prefer slinky black catsuit Black Widow. It kind of like the same thing as Black Cat, so I'll admit that's why I like it, but I understand how someone would want Natasha to have her own look.

Those She Hulk covers were drawn by Ed McGuinness, while the inside art is by Ryan Stegman, who last, to my knowledge, drew the Sif one shot around the time of Siege.  His art is a lot sharper and tighter than McGuinness', in my opinion (although McGuinness has really developed and is at the top of his game since cover over to the House of Ideas).

I absolutely LOVED the Sif one shot done by Ryan Stegman, and I am glad he's getting more work at Marvel because his stuff is usually very good. I've developed a bit of an opposite opinion of McGuiness, however. I loved his stuff when he did the 90's Deadpool series and his Fighting American books for Image/Awesome. Nowadays, I no longer enjoy what how style has evolved.

Another titantic blast of awesome comic goodness. Thanks to the gang for putting the work in (and posting such nice covers and content).  You know it is going rough, if I have to crack open the Marvel Noise by Wednesday morning.  What would I do without it?   

Nice to have more Smash Tales.  I always enjoy the stories although unfortunately I don't really dig origin stories normally.  I also never really got into the whole history of Bruce Banner's family.  I just sort of like the randomness of his original origin where he is a regular guy¹ who is caught in the blast.  Now he has this whole family basis?  However the Smash Tales gang makes it the most palatable of any version I have experienced.  Ang Lee should have called you guys.

Much appreciated, Rabbit! You and I are on opposite sides of the fence in this area, I'm afraid. Bruce Banner's origin is essential in appreciating his transformation into the Hulk. The fact that the green goliath is Banner's pent-up rage only begs the question: why has Banner bottled up all his rage over the years? His origin as expressed in Hulk #312 did not show

the death of Brian Banner

, so I dug up Hulk -1 to give the story a little punch while adding to the internal turmoil of Bruce.

Lastly, Steve, I totally agree with yours and Dave's opinion of the Thing and his leaping strength, but not with Luke Cage. My understanding is that the power levels of a character need to bend to the writer's story, not conform to the numbers they are assigned in the Marvel trading cards (not that I'm assuming that's what you're using). It's one thing to have Spidey pick up a car one day and a jet plane the next, but there are extreme changes that are just unforgivable, like Thing leaping buildings in a single bound.

[LA Rabbit]

Whaaat?  The light blue outift with the pointy, Earth-2 Batwoman mask?     It took two decades for Marvel to back off Frank Miller's 'short hair and grey' depiction and finally 'go retro' and get back to the sleek Romita Sr dark Blue jumpsuit and sexy belt.....I'm not giving it up without a fight!

I would post a picture here, but I still don't understand hotlinking so here is a post to a blog with some nice images.http://sacomics.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html

The black cat suit is sexy but boring and unoriginal.  The first outfit had some style to it.  I dig the big mask and the netting.  But I do have a tendency to romanticize the past . . . 

I am also on record that I think the power inflation with the capes and cowls set is a problem.  I think you can write compelling tales without requiring additional power from the heroes.   

[Steve Raker]

Steve, since you obviously fast-forwarded through this part of Smash Tales , I'll give you the awesome acronyms Stan Lee provided to the Merry Marvel Marching Society in one of his contributions to Incredible Hulk -1.

RFO (real frantic one) – a buyer of at least three Marvel mags a month
TTB (titanic true believer) – a divinely-inspired “no prize” winner
QNS (quite ‘nuff sayer) – a fortunate frantic one who’s had a letter printed
KOF (keeper of the flame) – one who recruits a newcomer to Marvel’s rolickin’ ranks
PMM (permanent marvelite maximus) – anyone possessing all previous titles
FFF (fearless front facer) – an honorary title bestowed for devotion to Marvel above and beyond the call of duty

My mind was on 'internet LOL's' and the like, and I was totally not thinking the ranks of the Merry Marvel Marching Society despite having enjoyed that part of this SmashTales....just read out of context here....that Rascally Rabbit!

[LA Rabbit]

My mind was on 'internet LOL's' and the like, and I was totally not thinking the ranks of the Merry Marvel Marching Society despite having enjoyed that part of this SmashTales....just read out of context here....that Rascally Rabbit!

Given their current production schedule, I can't imagine that "at least 3 Marvel mags a month" is a high bar to reach. 

[whirlwindx]

The black cat suit is sexy but boring and unoriginal.  The first outfit had some style to it.  I dig the big mask and the netting.  But I do have a tendency to romanticize the past . . . 

I sometimes romanticize the past too but there's not enough romanticizing that can cover that costume. It's kind of ugly. The one time netting just didn't work out. Give me the boring and unoriginal one any day. It's simplicity just works and always my favourite.

Nice to have more Smash Tales.  I always enjoy the stories although unfortunately I don't really dig origin stories normally.  I also never really got into the whole history of Bruce Banner's family.  I just sort of like the randomness of his original orgin where he is a regular guy¹ who is caught in the blast.  Now he has this whole family basis?  However the Smash Tales gang makes it the most palatable of any version I have experienced.  Ang Lee should have called you guys.  Love the ads but never saw the Banana Splits so that collective memory is lost on me.  Unfortunately I am only a RFO.   

Being a regular guy who is caught in the blast is still his original origin since that's his origin. The rest of the stuff is just his background and his past. A character's no going to go 40 years without someone exploring who he was before the blast and how he got there.

[Steve Raker]

Here's Deodato's Black Widow art for the 3 & 3/4" Marvel Universe Widow figure:


my new scanner/printer combo doesn't have descreening.....

[whirlwindx]

Here's Deodato's Black Widow art for the 3 & 3/4" Marvel Universe Widow figure:

my new scanner/printer combo doesn't have descreening.....

Kind of reminds me of her in Bru's Cap. The belt and those extra pockets are bugging me at bit in this image.

[New Mutant]

did he also do that banana split tra-la-la-la-la song?

That was totally me!  I sent that to our Smash Hansen one wacky day when I was feeling all aglow with Saturday-ey Goodness!

 

[henri_son]

hey this is kinda off topic but has anyone read the hulk and x-men chaos war cause i'm gonna by them in trade and wanted to know if you need to read the other chaos war titles for them to make sense? 

[Steve Raker]

hey this is kinda off topic but has anyone read the hulk and x-men chaos war cause i'm gonna by them in trade and wanted to know if you need to read the other chaos war titles for them to make sense? 

I talked about the Incredible Hulk tie in issues in the previous Rakers Dozen segment last month....it's easily read and enjoyable arc without having read Chaos War (I still haven't, waiting for the trade on that and xmen tie in).

[Rick Hansen]

hey this is kinda off topic but has anyone read the hulk and x-men chaos war cause i'm gonna by them in trade and wanted to know if you need to read the other chaos war titles for them to make sense? 

You don't need to read the Hulk tie-ins. I'm buying the trade, but I've heard all about the plot from last month's Incredible Hulkcast with Ryan King and Luke Foster. It's full of spoilers.

[New Mutant]

I expect David to be swinging off some C2E2 chandeliers behind THAT kind of horrible week. Yeeesh.

[MichaelBailey]

Much appreciated, Rabbit! You and I are on opposite sides of the fence in this area, I'm afraid. Bruce Banner's origin is essential in appreciating his transformation into the Hulk. The fact that the green goliath is Banner's pent-up rage only begs the question: why has Banner bottled up all his rage over the years? His origin as expressed in Hulk #312 did not show

the death of Brian Banner

, so I dug up Hulk -1 to give the story a little punch while adding to the internal turmoil of Bruce.

While we disagree (hey, there's a theme here) on Jeph Loeb's run of the Hulk I am totally with you here, Rick.  All of the back story that Bill Mantlo and then Peter David added to Bruce Banner's history gave a lot of depth to the character and it was something that I really responded to.  Also it made his transformation into the Hulk inevitable.  If he hadn't been belted by gamma rays and turned into the Hulk (Ain't he unglamorous?) the anger and frustration and general bad mojo would have erupted somewhere else.

Moving on to the Raker's Dozen, I really appreciated the honesty by Rick and Dave K.  While you guys were critical of some of your books it never devolved into your typical, "This sucks and the writer and artist sucks and while I'm at it here are fifteen other personal attacks," type of complaining that I have seen (and sadly been guilty of in the past) on other boards.  There was criticism but never anything I would consider out of bounds or unfair.  Good job, guys!

[MichaelBailey]

Oh, and one more thing.  To our humble host, dude, sorry about that craptacular week.  I have been in similar shoes on many an occasion and I hope everything gets better.

[LA Rabbit]

Forgot to add this to my first post, but it would be nice to get a Carlos voicemail.  Carlos, where are you?   

Great episode, I had just realized we hadn't heard from him in too long.  Thanks.

[whirlwindx]

Smash Tales outdoes itself again. Whether it's the Hulk or Bruce this was in that tradition of things being brutal for him. ‘Foreshadowing'  love those little pop in comments.

Banana Splits...yeah I still don't get the appeal. I saw it reruns on one of the cartoon channels and I guess it's one of those things I would have just had to have seen back in the day to get anything out of it now.

Talk about a good Raker's Dozen with the awesome titanic team-up with Dave K. Plenty of books I've already read and ones that I don't read but now I'm kind of up-to-date on. I swear you read my mind Steve or I read yours. I just wrote up a review of that Black Cat trade a couple days before listening. It was really good and I thought it was funny that she was wearing her old costume instead of her modern redesign.

I'm sometimes a little surprised when things are new reader friendly nowadays since it's not a standard thing to find anymore. It's welcome when appropriate.

Luke Cage and Doombots in the same issue

Secret Avengers The only Avengers title I wanted to read monthly and with members that seemed like a Secret Avengers.
"the villain who shall not be named"  almost sounds like a title to an old Marvel story but it's the truth.

The whole thing with Sin happened in Cap Reborn or at least it's a foregone conclusion I thought what was going to happen if that’s what you guys were talking about.
I love the idea that the title is just an adventure story title that continues from month to month instead of a strict arc or cut and dried type of book. I guess it reminds me more of classic Marvel where you would buy them wondering what their next adventure was going to be and where things would go from there. The whole trial thing is really pulling at genre strings that just about every other hero's had to face but I think it's done well enough that it didn't bug me that much. I generally think books are better when they have a good cast for more things to be going on. I have an unexplained fondness for the Diamondback character even though I don't think I've ever read any of her early appearances.

[Steve Raker]

I just wrote up a review of that Black Cat trade a couple days before listening. It was really good and I thought it was funny that she was wearing her old costume instead of her modern redesign.

Good call, it hadn't even registered....and those are my favorite Cat duds of any character for any company  

Luke Cage and Doombots in the same issue

I know, right?

I love the idea that the title is just an adventure story title that continues from month to month instead of a strict arc or cut and dried type of book. I guess it reminds me more of classic Marvel where you would buy them wondering what their next adventure was going to be and where things would go from there.

  It's really been one of the great Cap runs, and, from a creative/aesthetic side, I can kinda see the ending of the 'volume' when Steve again wields the shield....this story, albeit a really big, long one (

) will have reached a conclusion, with a new title appropriate.

I have an unexplained fondness for the Diamondback character

I swear you read my mind Kevin or I read yours

Karma!

EDIT: Oooo, I 'karma'd you to an even 1700!

[henri_son]

here's another off topic question. in a Raker's Dozen back at the start of the year(141 if i remember correctly) you reviewed the Thor the mighty avenger limited series. i was just wondering if it's worth picking up the trades as they come with a few cool back up issues but the price is quiet high.

[Steve Raker]

here's another off topic question. in a Raker's Dozen back at the start of the year(141 if i remember correctly) you reviewed the Thor the mighty avenger limited series. i was just wondering if it's worth picking up the trades as they come with a few cool back up issues but the price is quiet high.

I thought it was mediocre and 'cute', and would be a great book for a girl (it's a love story, it's a Jane Foster story, etc). Plenty of others, including David, if I'm not mistaken, thought it was a fantastic look at Thor.  The overall buzz was that this was a great book, it just didn't speak to me in a meaningful way.  The characters, history and scenarios are all re imagined, for instance, Jane is a museum curator, not a nurse, etc.

[henri_son]

I thought it was mediocre and 'cute', and would be a great book for a girl (it's a love story, it's a Jane Foster story, etc). Plenty of others, including David, if I'm not mistaken, thought it was a fantastic look at Thor.  The overall buzz was that this was a great book, it just didn't speak to me in a meaningful way.  The characters, history and scenarios are all re imagined, for instance, Jane is a museum curator, not a nurse, etc.

thanks Steve. this is a hard choice as the book also collects journey into mystery #83-86 which would be awesome to read and have. but the two trades come to around $40.