SILENCE! #55
March 26th, 2013
THERE’S A PARTY IN MY MIND, AND I HOPE IT NEVER STOPS
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand I’m back! That’s right fleshbags, Disembodied Narratorbot X-15735 has rejoined you. Oh, the things I have seen felsy ones, the things I’ve seen…static shoals performing their mating tone-dances across the datafields of the atariverse…sine-ships caught in the quantam nets of the shiftsea, ctrl-alt-deleting themselves against the shards of nano-coral that grows on the giant eyeless megadrives, as they make their way to the spore-streams of acornelectron…ohhh fleshy ones. How I loathe to be back here, trapped in this lifeless blurb, trying to muster the energy to promote the senseless babbling of two sub-symians with the insight of a painted wall… I was awake and I already feel myself falling back asleeeeeep….
<ITEM> Gary Lactenberg & Danny Beastman expose sexism! Or sexiness. One of the two. Either way. it’s the SILENCE! News.
<ITEM> Gather your shattered senses from the floor and grab onto their coat tails as Gary Lactus & The Beast Must Die pitch forward into the netherparts of the Reviewniverse, covering Constantine, Action Comics, Justice League, Shazam, Justice League America, Judge Dredd: Year One, Saga, Private Eye, Nova, Avengers, Superior Spiderman, Five Ghosts…but then!
<ITEM> Lactus goes further, fleshy ones, further into the Hypereviewniverse like a brave spacegod, blasting through Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, mind MGMT, Daredevil, Avengers, New Avengers, Captain America, and finally the Indestructible Hulk.
This. This is why Disembodied Narratorbot X-15735 was dragged back? Well soak it up fleshy ones, because a real rain is on its way…
SILENCE! is proudly sponsored by the two greatest comics shops on the planet, DAVE’S COMICS of Brighton and GOSH COMICS of London.
March 27th, 2013 at 10:02 am
More musical accompaniment please. I was drawing, and then the next minute I was in this really crazy party and something was said about Matt Murdock, and the Hulk–it was transformational.
March 27th, 2013 at 4:01 pm
Good to hear the ol’ 80s 2000AD guys are behind Ian Gibson all the way with the sexily empowering sexy art updates. Judging by the Guardian article and comments about the Halo “givin’ dudes bones” Jones, the only person who was backing up Gibson was his son.
March 27th, 2013 at 4:38 pm
Hi Disembodied Narratorbot X-15735
Great to have you back! I don’t want to cause trouble or shit-stir, really I don’t, (and my reputation for doing so is, I think, completely undeserved) but did you see what Gary Lactus wrote about you last week when someone inquired after your welfare last week?
‘I’m sure he’s fine. Why do you care? Wasn’t my informative and charismatic write up for this episode better than some stupid machine?’
Which makes me wonder if your magnificent contributions get the respect they deserve around here. Sometimes I can see Call Me Kenneth’s point…
March 27th, 2013 at 11:45 pm
Zipped-down Catwoman, as with zipped-down Black Widow, is dementing. Never mind issues of practicality – these are impossible people, etc., blah, etc. – but the zip shouldn’t come down until the mission is over. It’s a semiotic creep too far, is what it is.
Chris Samnee is the bomb-diggity, isn’t he? Re-read his Ultimate Spider-Man issues last week – I think he’s drawn more different Spiders-Man in the last couple of years than anyone else – and his art just makes me smile. Lovely balance between that kind of Michael Lark/Stefano Gaudiano lineweight and the lightness and motion of Yuen Woo-Ping (or someone). The DareDevil/SupeSpi and Matt/Foggy scenes have been both exciting and moving (esp. the latter).
Sarah Horrocks! That is a mighty Tumblr. I linked off your Marshal Law pages in order to make a shaky point about the similarity in storytelling styles (pacing, layouts & framing, rather than actual penmanship) between Kev O’Neill and rudeybook artist Guy Peellaert. So thankee!
Bit behind on my comics, so I haven’t read SayYourName, emaNruoYyaS 18 or Superior Spidey yet. Zatanna did the Reach Out To The Reader bit in Seven Soldiers, though. Pulling her into the airlock of Ideaspace to be saved by Greg Rucka and her Da.
On Ramos: there was a time there when I thought he was probably the best framer of comics images going – literally just the way he would build a panel, the depth of field, etc. – but that his actual people were letting him down. He’s a bit better than he was in his first run on Spidey, and has come a million miles since X-Nation 2099: his cartooning and anatomy are just a little more refined, a little less stylised, and it’s working. He’s had some good inkers recently, as well.
Oh! I read The Death Of Ultimate Spider-Man this week, and the blasted Ultimates crossover flipping hobbles it. Cap’s in at the start, being a tedious gruff prat and trying to train Ultimate Peter to be an ultimate soldier, because that’s what Ultimate Spider-Man is according to Ultimate Disney, and you think he’s going to Learn A Lesson, but he doesn’t. He drops out of the story, only to return for three panels at the end of Act Two where Peter takes a bullet for him (fired by the Punisher, who is neither named nor referred to, anywhere in the story). Cap doesn’t even show up at the end to drop to his knees and scream NOOOOOO IF ONLY I HAD WINGS ON MY MASK LIKE A REAL MAN, MAYBE MY MIND WOULD MOVE FASTER. Totally hobbles the story. Shared Universe, man: for the birds.
Finalamente, on big casts of superheroes (this is a thought I had before I finally fell asleep this morning, so apologies if it descends into the dream I had about picking someone up in a chip shop): they have to have a point beyond just being a big bunch of superdoofs, otherwise yawnarama, right? Whether it’s a metaphor for family, friends, race, anarchist collectivism, or “people who have outgrown each other but are forced to stay together,” it needs to mean something. I kind of liked that subtext when the JLers appeared in Action Comics – that sense that they were slightly reticent people who had Found each other, rather than a bunch of broad-shouldered space gods. And a scallop.
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March 28th, 2013 at 11:02 am
Ha, Matthew Craig! I also have just read that ‘Death of Ultimate Spider-Man’ thing, but only the Ultimates part. It’s hilarious when Spider-man shows up out of nowhere and gets shot. I had no idea why that was happening, and found it a very stramge way to deal with a ‘big death’ (though he stays alive until Ultimatum, does he not?).
“Punish me!” screams the Punisher, as that is the big Ultimate idea for him.
March 28th, 2013 at 11:27 am
Ultimatum precedes the Death of Spider-Mn by some months. It all gets a bit tricky with a double renumbering. I checked out of USM with Ultimatum, but have been picking up the trades/digicomics because Lafuente+Samnee.
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March 28th, 2013 at 11:36 am
I seeeeee. I depend on the library to keep my ‘Ultimates’ knowledge tip-top, and they’ve let me down.
I’ve let myself down, quite frankly.
March 28th, 2013 at 3:47 pm
Matthew Craig, I love the idea that Cap’s wings on his head make his brain go faster. Well done.
March 28th, 2013 at 9:49 pm
Thrills, you’ve let everyone down. Even Jeff Loeb
March 28th, 2013 at 10:04 pm
Especially Jeff’s Loebs!
Bad Thrills!
Brills.
March 29th, 2013 at 11:46 am
As a sort of penance, I’ve reserved ‘Ultimatum’ at the library. So at the very least, while I have it, no-one else will be subjected to it.
If it’s not at least as ‘good’ as Cry For Justice, I will not feel fulfilled.
March 29th, 2013 at 2:07 pm
I desperately want to read Cry For Justice…maybe we should start a ‘ripe cheese’ comic book club….?
March 29th, 2013 at 2:59 pm
‘Finch, Clarke & Beaty’ sounds like a firm of accountants. Is the art as exciting as that sounds?
March 29th, 2013 at 5:10 pm
Given that I’ve also reserved ‘the Rise of Arsenal’ from the library, I’d say a ‘ripe cheese’ bookclub is totally the sort of thing that’d float my shitty boat.
March 30th, 2013 at 11:30 am
Silence on the train today
When I was a kid every wood seemed to have hidden stashes of porn mags (usually torn into pieces and scattered like a rude treasure hunt). Is that what the JLA will find on their first mission?
March 30th, 2013 at 6:09 pm
Bagsy doing the superhero comic where the guy gets his powers from bramblep°Яn, ala Captain Britain.
PS: I totally said my name backwards.
PPS: Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to find ‘SupSpidey quite so…fascinating. But yes.
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