Hey, it’s Super Bowl Sunday! I don’t care either! But I’ll force in some sort of related analogies about it just to fit in for Super Bowl Sunday!
You might remember that I talked about reading a couple of comic books that I pick up at my shop for a friend at work who’s getting back into comics. So rather than read my own stuff, I’m reading Infamous Iron Man and He-Man/Thundercats. I’ll tell you some about the third and fourth issues of each!
Infamous Iron Man #3
Credits for the two issues: written by Brian Michael Bendis, art and cover by Alex Maleev, color by Matt Hollingsworth, letters and production by VC’s Clayton Cowles, edits by Alanna Smith and Tom Brevoort.
This series is pretty dull overall. Like a Super Bowl game is for me (cha-ching!). Doctor Doom is trying to be a good guy, but the thing is, he’s so advanced that there’s no tension with the battles. He’s going to win. He fights the Thing (and that’s not really a fight) and it’s over very quickly. Amara Perera, the doctor that Doom kinda has a thing for (not a Thing, though. That would be weird) is really just there to sanctimoniously yell at Doom for trying to be better. The Thing is annoying as fuck. And not only do we get talking heads, but we get two page spreads of pinups that are sketchily penciled. I did like the one where the Doom mask reflects all the different Thors from Secret Wars, but overall, this series is just too dull.
And #4
The opening of this makes Maria Hill look stupid, and the SHIELD agents look less organized than the Keystone Kops. (Or maybe like one of the teams that did not make the Super Bowl! HA!) You get boring talking heads. The reason to have a conversation in comics is the ebb and flow of the rhythm and back and forth, and the changing of expressions, but Maleev reuses so many faces that there’s no real variation. I did like Maria’s reaction when the one SHIELD agent reveals to Doom where the Thing is, though. Then we get Doom go to a crapped out Latveria, where everyone thinks he’s Iron Man even though his armor looks exactly like a Doom costume. He almost literally defeats the Doombots he encounters with a hand wave. That’s where the inverse of interest really shows. I don’t really care that Doom wants to be a better man, that’s established. And established. We don’t need ANOTHER conversation about it. But it wouldn’t hurt to have a fight scene with more than one panel to it. The things I (and probably most readers) am interested in are taken care of very quickly, with “fight” scenes over before they start, but the dull stuff that’s established on the recap page is belabored over pages and pages of copied faces filled with word balloons. So dull.
If you don’t believe me, or want to try it anyway, the first trade is offered for preorder from Amazon. Make clicky and I get a cut, per usual. Thank you!
Hey, like the Super Bowl halftime show, it’s Lady Gaga! I love this song and video! Don’t judge me!
He-Man Thundercats #3
Credits for these 2: written by Rob David and Lloyd Goldfine, art and cover by Freddie E. Williams II, colors by Jeremy Colwell, letters by Deron Bennett, edits by Jessica Chen, Kristy Quinn, and Jim Chadwick.
This is big dumb fun, with two teams that are similar but people have irrational favorites between the two, like the Super Bowl. Sure! I don’t think it’s GOOD comics, but it’s at least entertaining. Skeletor fights against the Thundercats, as well as against the Mumm-ra inside him. Skeletor is owning the TCats pretty handily, though. If he can clone himself, why can’t he beat He-Man?
The sound effects are particularly amusing. When Skeletor kicks Lion-O in the nuts (yes, this happened), the SFX is “PUD”. How can you not like that? And Mumm-ra makes Skeletor do a Three Stooges routine on himself. This certainly isn’t great art, but it’s amusing and well done.
And #4
Mumm-ra and Skeletor have teamed up to unleash Mumm-ra’s gods upon the He-Man world, and Lion-O has to team up with He-Man, after fighting him first, of course, for reasons I won’t get into for spoilery stuff. It’s decent, though. We see a Thundercats-empowered Cringer (He-Man’s Battle Cat), some more fun SFX, and Snarf’s head on a stake (unfortunately, just in a vision of the future).
It’s big and dumb, but at least it’s fun. So, like, two out of three for a Super Bowl game, right?
And hey, the trade is already available for pre-order on Amazon. Make clicky and I get a cut, as usual. Thanks!
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And this has nothing to do with the previous, but if you didn’t catch the SNL sketch with Melissa McCarthy as White House spokesman Sean Spicer, it’s very friggin’ funny. Forget the Super Bowl, watch this. Here you go:
“I’ll get back to you!”…at some point in the next week! With Flippin’ and other stuff!
