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..That’s Two In One Week!!

I have to say that,having now read The Twelve #5 ,from Marvel Comics,and Project Superpowers # 3,from Dynamite,I really don’t care about either that much anymore.

The Twelve has become a typical J. Michael Straczynski comic. You can read each issue in around a minute and when you put it down you think “What was the point of that?”  In such great TV series as Babylon 5,Straczynski’s style worked well -dialogue and action being well paced [and I still say it was far superior to Star Trek:The Next Generation].  However,each issue of The Twelve seems almost repetitive as though the writer has lost his way or realised that his original concept really isn’t going to go 12 issues naturally.

We were told that a mystery killer was killing off the time-lost heroes.  We saw the Blue Blade dead at the end of #1 but that’s it. 

Where’s the mystery killer and the dead heroes?

The series has good artwork but it is being affected by the sheer repetitiveness of what has to be shown.

I don’t really care whether these characters all die or not.  If they do then I’m sure that secret Nazi clones of them,or another cosmic universe-shattering event will take place and they’ll be back.

It is sad to say that many years after Roy Thomas wrote The Invaders,Liberty Legion and more involving Golden Age characters,whether Marvel or DC,it has come down to this mess.

I really,really looked forward to The Twelve but I just think that buying food would have been better than buying these.

As for Project Superpowers,I have to say that this really is the most disappointing comic around.  The Alex Ross sketches within the comic look great. The covers aren’t that bad -but nothing to write home about. “Plot and art direction” are down to Ross and I have to say that I wish Ross had actually written and drawn this!

The story seems almost all over the place and the art is fair-to-middling at best and the colouring technique used is really a turn-off.

As with The Twelve I think that Straczynski and Ross might just as well have made up Golden Age characters.  These are,after all,not the real Golden Age characters but twisted and distorted versions.  You almost have to ask whether those working on the comics actually know or have read the original comics featuring ,what they term themselves,these “beloved characters”?

Of course,with Project Superpowers Synamite has the joy of Public Domain characters -something a lot of people now seem to want to jump on the band wagon with.  But if The Twelve and Project Superpowers are how GA characters are going to get treated I’ll stick with the original comics.

The Avengers-Invaders #1 comic was one I thought might be good because the art looked great but how soon hopes are shattered.

The first thing I noticed was that I had to read through the comic 3-4 times to sort out what was going on -Marvel lack of   continuity being what it is.  The art seemed very cluttered and at points I had trouble identifying characters because of the clutter.

In fact,it all read very much like The Twelve and Project Superpowers!  I thought it was me but then I noticed on a couple of comic group sites others noted their confusion when reading #1.

I’m going to see what #2 is like but…

Oh,it was nice seeing the WW II Steve Rogers Captain America after the modern one was killed but ib the latest issue of Captain America the WW II Steve Rogers is unfrozen.

Whether my Monday migraine was due to trying to make sense of all this I don’t know.  Didn’t help,though.

The one thing I find lacking on comic store shelves these days are those titles that made going to these shops fun. The Independents such as the late lamented Strangers In Paradise or Love & Rockets.

It’s all the same bland,dark and samey thing -The Umbrella Academy being the last really good short series.  Companies such as Ape Entertainment,Image,Archaia Studio,Orang Utan,Markosia,Dr Master,etc., should -should- be on the shelves next to Marvel and DC.

But,Diamond is the UKs only comic store distributor and it’s big money-spinner is Marvel and DC and they ensure stores know it and follow their lead.  “It’s difficult to get these independent books” my ass.

Turnaround offer many of the books from Dr Master and others that “are not available in the UK”.  However,the stores I’ve phoned this week tell me that they can only order from the distributor “head office” goes with..Diamond!

A monopoly adding to the staleness of comic stores and selections.  Eleventh Hour vol.1 “we can’t get hold of” -I have to stop referring to my ass.  There is absolutely no reason why your local store cannot get this british book which deserves to be on shelves.  No reason other than a closed monopoly.

If there is anyone out there willing to finance an Independent comic store -get in touch!

Wizard of the West Comics