Desaad

May 23, 2012 10:57 am Willie Lumpkin is their mailman. He's an old old school character from the Stan and Jack run, played by Stan Lee in the movie. He's kind of a stalwart cameo character in the MU. I agree that this issue was incredibly 'meh'. It was tedious, predictable (in every way -- I knew who it was they were in from the first page), stupid (in the sense that it was bad science), totally devoid of real character work and perhaps least surprisingly it was an example of poor craft. As mentioned, the character had never been introduced in Hickman's run. There were no emotional stakes for the average reader, nothing. Probably one of the worst things I've seen Hickman write in a while. I suspect he's funneling it all into Manhattan Projects now.

May 22, 2012 2:33 pm This crossover has completely ruined JIM. I've found every part of the crossover thus far to be borderline unreadable. So, so sad as this was absolutely the best book Marvel was publishing for a while, no exceptions.

May 22, 2012 2:27 pm The most anticipated title of the month for me, by far. Cannot wait.

May 22, 2012 2:26 pm I'm a little surprised he hasn't out and out said that Black Orchid is going to be Abby from Swamp Thing. It seems...extremely obvious to me, on a very basic level. The last issue (released) made it seem like it was a no brainer, with her new set up/powers coming from Vanilla (orchid) seeds. Anyway, very excited for this. The preview looks great ! http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/story/2012-05-21/Jeff-Lemire-Justice-League-Dark-comic-book-series/55112792/1

March 20, 2012 3:18 pm Damn, that is excellent. I see a little Paul Pope/Nathan Fox in a couple of those pieces as well, but it's really all his own. Great stuff. But...wait. Why is Becky Cloonan leaving Conan? :(

March 7, 2012 7:07 pm This book was good, but Animal Man (the best I've read all week by far), Manhattan Projects, OMAC and Action Comics were all better, I thought. Children's Crusade 9 was easily the worst book I read all week, and one of the worst, most depressingly wrong headed books I've read all month.

March 7, 2012 5:17 pm Well, I feel Fantastic Four is the best thing Hickman has ever done. While I agree that "Solve Everything" (that first three issue arc) was far and away the best of his run, I still enjoyed elements of some of the things that came immediately after. Prime Elements still did SOME character work and had some subtext there. Most of the rest did not, save for the Ben-For-A-Day issue and the Johnny Storm death aftermath issue (the Johnny Story RETURN issue didn't, though, just the typical 'rally and save the day').

March 7, 2012 4:36 pm This was the strongest thing I've read from HIckman in a while. Great big concepts -- Zen Death Buddhists (I think I've heard Morrison use that recently), Sentient Origami weapons, idea-space (a bit of an Alan Moore Supreme riff?), etc. -- but some interesting character stuff with Oppenheimer to. But he always STARTS out strong. If he develops his characters and keeps this going, then it will be one of the best things he's ever done. But I thought SHIELD started off brilliantly too, and my hopes were totally dashed against the rocks with the substanceless mess it has become. Perhaps here he will have an outlet for his ideas.

March 6, 2012 6:15 pm The placement was purposeful and, for me, made the overall story more interesting.

March 6, 2012 6:14 pm Superboy definitely had it's bright spots, but there was a lot of lackluster predictability there. It was competent and had moments of real emotional honesty, but on the whole was meh for me. I felt similarly about The Atom -- Lemire definitely knew who Ray Palmer was and did some fairly interesting things with him, but he didn't have many - if any - 'wow' moments in the whole story.