The Last Word

Seriously people, is there a trope anywhere that is sweeter than the Gunslinger Walk?

I think not.

I AM GROOT!

Cosmic Posters - NOVA

And really, anything I would have to say here is redundant.

Cosmic Retrospective: NOVA

Yeah, this pretty much says it all - they took the hybrid of two of the most successful Silver Age franchises (Green Lantern and Spider-Man) to make Nova to start with. A character who's had momentary successes, but never really actualized his potential.

At least not until this - and he became the biggest badass in the Marvel Cosmic line up. Really, anything I have to say is redundant at this point - just enjoy the posters.

Cosmic Ponderings

The last issue of the Thanos Imperative ships today, and with it, a likely end to the cosmic universe stories as we've known them for the past 3-4 years. I'll probably spend some time looking at the events, but only after I take a look at the last issue. Cheers.

Pick the best...Poster Macro?

Alright people, I'm going to need your help on this one - I want your opinion as to how to prioritize my poster-making macros.

Most of you already know that my default has been DIY.DISPAIR.COM. However, recent changes means that they no longer scale down long titles, so now "GUNSLINGER WALK" is too long a title to use even in landscape for most font choices. These others though? I find the image quality and size too small for my tastes, and not nearly as versatile when it comes to cropping the images. Your thoughts are appreciated.

Prediction

Seeing as Dwayne Taylor/Night Thrasher and Microbe are the only New Warriors who were killed in Stamford (and at this point, it wouldn't be that hard to retcon it so NO ONE died at Stamford, with the added bonus of pissing off Mark Millar), how long do you figure before another New Warriors title is launched?

My prediction is that it'll be by December 2011, tops.


(And as a side note - man, 90s Nova had some truly, truly GODAWFUL shirts and fashion style)

Posters of Pure Superhero Awesome

Life and Death (in comics)

It's interesting to compare and contrast the current "Thanos Imperative" at Marvel with the recent "Blackest Night", DC's best crossover in years. Both are big cosmic sagas focusing on either new characters or lesser stars of their respective universes. Both deal with the concepts of Life and Death played out on a grand scale, with symbolic avatars existing and playing big chess games with one another. Most importantly, both are the result of years of planning and detailed world and character building under a few trusted hands.

The differences however, are very interesting

First, "Thanos Imperative" is an isolated single miniseries (they actually "cancelled" the tie-in series in order to concentrate the effects!) whereas "Blackest Night" was a huge sprawling crossover that intruded on every character and corner of the DC Universe. Partly this is because "Blackest Night" concentrated the events on Earth and made Earth effectively (and literally, despite all known science and logic) the Center of the Universe. Marvel, on the other hand, tends to treat Earth as a dangerous backwater - an interstellar No-Man's Land where the natives are territorial, hostile, but isolated and self-involved and unaware of the greater dangers of the universe. DC holds humanity as a scared and precious thing; Marvel holds it as a minor danger beset in a cosmos full of greater ones.

The larger difference in cosmology is that of the value of life and death - in DC, Death (at least Nekron) was viewed as an absolute evil - something to be vanquished, whereas in Marvel, Death is viewed as part of the balance - a necessary evil that has to be respected lest the results create horrors beyond imagination. Eternal life for all is not seen as great triumph but a danger all it's own - as dangerous as Death. Two more diametrically opposed worldviews I'd find difficult to imagine.

And finally, there's scope, at least in the context of marketplace - the Thanos Imperative is a small crossover that takes place off earth and doesn't involve any real "big name" characters, whereas "Blackest Night" was DC's big summer event that DC promoted for over two years. I'm not going to make value judgements here (I leave that to you in the comments) but it's startling to see two different events that focus on the same subject matter take such divergent routes. I wonder what that says about the comics marketplace, and the distinct differences between the two corporate supercomics companies.

Which side would you REALLY want to be on?

Tonite's post is inspired by kali921. I highly suggest you go over to her blog and give her much hugs and thanks. And on with Tonite's Main Event: The Initiative Vs....the Nova Corps!

Ouch. Doesn't seem like a fair fight so far, does it? But, wait, I hear you say "Well, OK, the Initiative is a rotting corpse of failure, but hey, Tony Stark is way better than a dummy like Richard Ryder" Well, let's take a look at that a little closer, shall we?

OK, Tony seems to be doing well here with a couple of scantily clad non-descript young starlets, but some would say it's quality, not quantity that matters. Let's look at how Nova is doing...

The scanitly clad Green girl, in case you are wondering, is Gamorra, the deadliest assassin in the known universe. I think we can just move on to the final face off between these two, shall we?

That's it for tonite folks!

A Tribute to great Superpowers