MetaFilter posts tagged with marvel and comics

Marie Severin, First Lady of the Silver Age

interrobang — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:31:42 -0800

Starting her comics career as a colorist, Marie Severin was largely responsible for the distinctive color palette of EC Comics, where her brother Johnny Severin also worked. She later worked in the Marvel Bullpen, drawing just about everything, including many well loved staff caricatures. She turned 80 this year; here are a few of her Marvel covers from the 60s and 70s.

Young Mutants in Love

Artw — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:31:13 -0800

They've been rumoured to be an item for some time, but in X-Factor #45 Rictor and Shatterstar, formerly of X-Force (the most 90s comic of all time), finally kissed - giving the comics world two more confirmed gay superheroes and making the X-Men Universe Relationship Map out of date (Shatterstar creator Rob Liefeld has however vowed to undo it). Meanwhile over at DC flagship title Detective Comics is now fronted by the new lesbian Batwoman - ironically a character who was introduced to make Batman seem more hetro.

HARUKU SMASH!

Artw — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:26:51 -0800

The Incredible Hulk, as told by Koike Kazuo, of Lone Wolf and Cub fame, and Yoshihiro Morifuji. More scans here.

Fighting Crime AND Fat

mippy — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:22:27 -0800

Marvel think that not enough of their readers are female. So they decided to hook them in in a way that girls understand.

Free Online Comic Books for All!

Effigy2000 — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:34:37 -0800

Fans of both Dead Space (and comic books in general), will be happy to learn that the first issue of the new comic book mini-series based on the game has been released online, in full, for free here. Not a fan of Dead Space but like comic books? There are lots of other comic books online that can be viewed for free, like stuff from DC Comics, Marvel and Image. There's also a few Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Doctor Who comics online for your viewing pleasure (in fact you can even make your own with the latter).

"I don't kill them because they're bad people. I kill them because I hate them."

Artw — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 22:00:32 -0800

The Punisher MAX #60 hits comics stores this week, marking the end of Garth Ennis's run on the series. His earlier Punisher work on the series put the character back on track after some disastrous wrong turns, but it was the Marvel MAX series that striped the Vietnam vet turned vigilante's war on crime of all extraneous elements and turned it into something dark and brutal. The evocative covers of Tim Bradstreet (also leaving the series) matched the interior darkness, with Ennis toning down his humor to let the Frank Castle become a monomaniacal psychopath in a corrupt world. Adversaries included the resourceful and violent Barracuda, a kind of anti-Punisher based on the song Stagger Lee. It's not over for the Punisher - screenwriter Gregg Hurwitz and artist Laurence Campbell are taking over the series, and Ennis will be returning to the character with a miniseries in the lighter tone of his Marvel Knights work or The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe.

...even after five agonizing years of the Iraq War, a summer blockbuster isn't prepared to say that not only is its action hero is corrupt, he's corrupt because America has become corrupt.

gerryblog — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:53:31 -0800

Iron Man, who represents an imperial America, can only win Pyrrhic victories. Spencer Ackerman of Tapped Online has a nice history of the Iron Man comics that reads the character's alcoholism, Civil-War overzealousness, and persistent blundering "into a hell of unintended consequences" as a symbol and subtle critique of American exceptionalism and what Jonathan Schell among others has called "impotent omnipotence".

Once More the Engine of Her Thoughts Began...

robocop is bleeding — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 05:50:58 -0800

For over the past year, John Seavey has been reading through Marvel's Essentials and DC's Showcase Presents reprints in order to examine the title comic's storytelling engine. From classic characters to barely-footnotes, much of the bedrock of Silver Age heroes are represented in the column's archives. A storytelling engine is here described as the status-quo (characters, both good and bad; setting; mood and tone; etc) that helps to provide comic writers with story ideas. This was much more important in the Silver Age from where the Essentials and Showcase reprints get the bulk of their material. Back then comics were more episodic, self-contained, and often had two or three stories in a single issue, so writers really needed all the help they could get to churn the tales out! Of course, prevailing wisdom at the time suggested that the entire readership turned over every two years, so there was little need for things like continuity or logic, but there was a big need for a stable engine that could help produce new (or gently used) stories week after week. And because I find blogspots tagging hard to search through, I provide links to individual comic titles for you, dear reader! Adam Strange Ant-Man Aquaman Batman Brave and the Bold Captain America Challengers of the Unknown Classic X-Men Conan Daredevil Dazzler Doctor Strange Flash Ghost Rider Godzilla Green Arrow Green Lantern Hawkman House of Mystery Howard the Duck Hulk Iron Man Jonah Hex Killraven Man-Thing Martian Manhunter Marvel Horror Marvel Saga Marvel Super Villain Team-Up Marvel Team-Up Marvel Two In One Ms. Marvel Nova Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Phantom Stranger Power Man and Iron Fist Punisher Savage Dragon She-Hulk Silver Surfer Spider-Man (Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) Spider-Woman Supergirl Superman Family Superman Teen Titans The Atom The Avengers The Defenders The Elongated Man The Fantastic Four The Haunted Tank Thor Tomb of Dracula Uncanny X-Men (Part One) (Part Two) Werewolf By Night Wolverine Wonder Woman World's Finest X-Factor

The Hulk is on the trim side, actually

Navelgazer — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:09:12 -0800

Marvel vs. the BMI (one-link, but fun.)

The Marvel Assistant Editors' Month

GavinR — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:55:24 -0800

Back in 1983, before crossovers and limited edition covers ruined the industry, Marvel had a really great idea for a special month of comics. You see, the bigwigs were going off to the San Diego Comic Con so the junior brigade was placed in charge for the time being. It was an opportunity to try something different, something strange, something offbeat, and something by Fred Hembeck. There has never been anything quit like it since, and that is a damn shame. They don't make comic books like that any more. By the way, Amazing Spider-Man #248 is one of the best super-hero stories ever published in the history of the industry.

Marvel Comics goes digital

jbickers — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 07:25:21 -0800

"Marvel has put the power in the hands of the fans by making thousands of comics—ranging from Golden Age classics to the most recent Marvel masterpieces—available online, including the first 100 issues of FANTASTIC FOUR and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN plus so much more." If Marvel's not your thing, you can always while away untold hours here.

Who Is Steve Ditko?

Alvy Ampersand — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 13:03:21 -0800

Co-creator of Spider-Man, Steve Ditko is famous for weird, distinctive art, his 1966 departure from Marvel Comics, and granting very few interviews in the course of his decades-spanning career, preferring to let creations such as The Creeper, the Objectivism-inspired Mr. A, and Squirrel Girl speak for him.
Okay, Squirrel Girl not so much.
Jonathan Ross turns the spotlight on the artist in the BBC4 documentary, In Sea rch of Steve Dit ko. Did they find him? Well, that's The Question, isn't it?

Get yer Marvel Universe info right here!

Kattullus — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 15:50:12 -0800

The Official Marvel Character Bios will clue you in on Marvel characters from the obscure to the world famous. To find out about the really, really obscure you have to visit The Appendix to The Handbook of the Marvel Universe, where you can learn about such characters as Glowworm (a.k.a. Race Killer), Thunderhoof (part of Force Four) and human/amoeba hybrid Half-Man.

Capt. America's Command Termintated with Extreme Prejudice

sbrollins — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 09:18:24 -0800

Captain America, RIP. Marvel kills off Captain America. Obviously this is Civil War (previous post) fallout, but how long can they honestly expect this to last?

ComicsFilter- Civil War Is Over (If You Want It)

robocop is bleeding — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 06:21:46 -0800

The premise of Marvel Comic's Civil War storyline is that after a hero-related disaster, the government decides to force all superheroes to register, causing a split in the hero community. While heroes debate and decide which side to join, fans debate whether or not the cross-over series is actually any good. Clearly, Christopher Bird falls squarely on one side and has attempted to "improve" the story by starting a project to edit the dialogue of the series. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

Face Front, True Believer!

EatTheWeak — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 23:22:34 -0800

Polite Dissent rings in the new year with the best and worst in comic book medicine from 2006. While this entertaining blog's subjects are not limited to four color minutiae, it is the source of some of the most entertaining posts. Please to enjoy Flatlining, Hippocrates, Originitis, and the scourge of a generation, Metal-Eating Disease!

This man...this blockhead!

Gamblor — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 20:29:00 -0800

Peanuts Meets Marvel. Peanuts characters as Marvel Comics superheroes.

He shall be fire and life forever...

mephron — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 16:49:17 -0800

David Cockrum has passed on. The cause of death was apparently complications from diabetes; he died peacefully, in his sleep. Comics fans would know him from a number of projects, amongst them Giant Size X-Men #1 where he helped introduce Colossus, Storm and Nightcrawler to the world, his run on the Legion of Super Heroes, and possibly his self-published work The Futurians. You can find some nice retrospectives on his career and what he did for Marvel and for DC Comics.

Superhero zombies?

Kickstart70 — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 04:22:41 -0800

IGN's top 50 Marvel Comics covers including this wonderful farmgirl She-Hulk (well, she DOES have two green thumbs!), this amazing Wolverine Origins painting, and...umm...superhero zombies?

Like Snopes, But For Comics.

grabbingsand — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 11:11:36 -0800

Comic Book Urban Legends. Would you believe ... that a Marvel Comics editor became a Pet Shop Boy? that Wonder Woman's creator invented the real-life lie detector? that the first-ever Marvel / DC Comics crossover was The Wizard Of Oz? that the King of Rock & Roll found hairstyle inspiration in Captain Marvel, Jr? Three of these are true, one is false, but all of the behind-the-scenes tales compiled by Comics Should Be Good could prove blissfully detrimental to your afternoon productivity.

"As an alienated syn-man who was created by gamma rays, I find myself confused by mankind."

grabbingsand — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 11:40:43 -0800

Just Imagine Stan Lee's Watchmen! Back in 2002, DC Comics extended an olive branch of comics industry peace to Stan "Excelsior!" Lee, the founder of rival Marvel Comics. The result was the Just Imagine line, wherein we find several DCU heroes reimagined in one-shot comics as only Stan Lee could. Some titles were good. Some were okay. Most were just so. But never in a million issues would DC have let him take on Watchmen -- perhaps the most critically-acclaimed and analyzed series this side of Maus. So since Stan couldn't or wouldn't, Kevin Church has.

The Wacky World of Comic Book Propaganda

jonp72 — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 09:59:57 -0800

An official comic book adaptation of the 9/11 commission report is due to hit bookstores this month. The U.S. Army seeks an Arabic-speaking comic book creator. Meanwhile, an Israeli blogger suspects a Kuwaiti company of misusing Marvel and DC comics. These are just the latest incidents in a long-running history of using comic books for propaganda purposes, ranging from Mussolini and Hitler to Captain America vs. the Nazi-affiliated Red Skull to anticommunist comics for Catholic parochial schools to a phony Black Panther comic book created by COINTELPRO to a comic book of the American invasion of Grenada. However, my favorite site of comic book propaganda tends to focus on more innocuous domestic issues such as bicycle safety, USDA nutrition standards, and fighting crack cocaine. (OK, that last issue isn't so innocuous, but comic book propaganda about health & safety issues still generally blows.)

Girls read comic books?

FunkyHelix — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 08:34:13 -0800

Girl-Wonder.org is a new site tackling the portrayal of women in comics, written in the same vein as Women in Refrigerators and sequential tart.

Wherever there's a bang-up.

solid-one-love — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 09:21:40 -0800

Superman marries Lois Lane. Superman dies. Batman's back is broken. Robin dies. Spider-Man gets married. But one storyline taboo, revealing one's secret identity, has never been broken with a major comic book character. Until now (big-time spoiler alert).

i think this spidey evolution thing has gotten out of hand...

Doorstop — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 20:34:33 -0800

Spider-man , for many of us, has been a tried and true character which many of us have grown up with. For my fellow comic geeks, I'm sure many of you will agree at having enjoyed the stories for many years. However, the recent "The Other" storyline has harped on a series of evolutions(literally, not figuratively) that our webslinger has undergone of late. Of which an upcoming costume change is the least.