David Michelinie

This graphic novel seems inspired by the old idiom about dogs who chase cars and what would they do once they caught them. In it, Doctor Doom uses the powers of an unwilling Purple Man to achieve his long-sought goal of conquering the world. Yet with the world literally bowing before him, Doom soon finds that conquering the world is a lot more stimulating than running it. And when a group of Avengers challenge his dominance, Doom finds himself facing a most unusual dilemma . . .

One of the show more limitations of most comic book plots is that the bad guy usually has to lose -- and the more audacious the goal, the more likely it is that the bad guy will fail. For this reason David Micheline's graphic novel stands out for its relatively novel exploration of what it would be like if a world-conquering super-villain actually conquered the world. Perhaps because of this it's a little more fun than might be expected, with a few "kid in the candy store" moments that no world conquest story should be without. I'm less a fan of Bob Hall's art, but it's a matter of taste; more disappointing is the absence, in person or even by way of explanation, of Reed Richards, which is disappointing but perhaps understandable given that it's ultimately an Avengers story and not a FF one. Still, it's an entertaining story, one that stands as one of the more interesting one-shots Marvel has done over the years. show less

So I enjoyed this more than I thought I would! I wasn't sure how I'd feel about earlier Daredevil stories, since I'm so used to seeing Matt inked/colored in newer styles. To be honest though, this was pretty amazing.

Frank Miller's talent for penciling is evident, from the first issue contained in this volume. He brings this gritty noir style to the story that I really ended up liking. I think my favorite part is the way that he drew Natasha, or Black Widow as you might know her. She has show more this distinctly curvy body, and I loved that she wasn't this stick figure of a character. Too often now that's more the style, and so I was completely enamored with her womanly physique. Plus, well, Natasha is a bad-ass.

Story wise, this was pretty solid too. The dialogue absolutely screams "Early 80's comic!" but it's pretty easy to sink into. It was cool to be able to see where Daredevil's roots came from, and by the time that Elektra came on the scene, I was sold.

This is pretty amazing! I haven't read a lot of older comics, so I'm greatly enjoying this journey. show less

I'm treating myself to a little Carnage. I kept seeing it around in bookstores back in the day and more recently here on GR and I even though I was insanely curious, I can't believe I never got around to it.

The good: Most of it! I really enjoyed how bats**t insane Carnage is and how he polarized past villains into helping out as heroes to stop the pure chaos he represented... or gathering them together to get the blood flowing. And it was pretty over-the-top. Shriek pulled in the insane from show more Carnage and gave it to the streets of New York, boiling blood everywhere, while Carnage did whatever Carnage wanted. Which was pretty damn random.

And all the while, Spidey teamed up with Venom and the big theme here was maybe overdone but not out-of-place. When is too much, too much? Is it sometimes valid to aim for an outright killing? We know Venom believes this, but then, there's Spidey. He's our conscience. When HE agrees with Venom, you know it's really bad.

I pretty much dug every little thing about this comic until ONE LITTLE TWIST. And then I was like... OHHH COME OOOONNNNNNNN.

Ignoring that. That one little hail-mary.

And I'm NOT talking about Captain America coming to the rescue fairly early on. Or Dagger.

That last one little thing was so outrageously meh that I wanted to tear up the funnies. But I didn't. I figure it would have taken an issue or two more to prepare THAT right, instead of as a, "oh, by the way" fix. *grrrr*

OKAY, ignoring that BAD, the rest was pretty awesome and I am very glad I read it. :) Classic Spidey. show less

My god. What was I thinking?

Totally mediocre 70's tripe, and just when I was planning on getting all hyped to watch the new movie starring Scott Lang as Ant-Man, an obviously better choice for Ant-Man than Pym who sounds like a douche. Or The irredeemable Ant-Man who was an utter ass without any quality whatever.

Scott Lang should have been my man... but I'm sorry, but I was bored to tears by these comics. We need a completely new imagining for him by some of our most excellent modern writers show more who care to make a story both intelligent and interesting. Is that too much to ask? Please don't just slap together any old piece of crossover trash. Please.

Okay, so I've been very spoiled by the last twenty years of comics, and especially by the last ten, and it isn't fair to judge a damn comic by being what the market could bear. Lots and lots of trash, obviously. But, I am.

I could have been reading something good, dammit, and now I've just become ambivalent about a movie that I was getting really psyched to see. I guess I'll just have to sleep on it and see if my ambivalence shrinks by morning. show less