Since I know more about analyzing writing than I do analyzing art, I’m happy to see thoughtful pieces on how to read and dissect panels and pages.

If you want me to change my mind, why don’t *you* tell me what I’m missing in the art instead of saying that other people like it and throwing in an irrelevant reference to Bryan Hitch? That’s what I meant by “having a conversation”. Possible, totally hypothetical example: “Did you notice the subtle and effective use of panel viewpoint changes on page 6? FakeFanName goes into more detail about it at this link (FakeURL).” That’s a lot more effective than simply saying “MessageBoard loves it” when I have no reason to believe I’d agree with MessageBoard on anything else, either. Instead, it gives me specifics and tells me what additional information is out there.

“Terse and snappy”, by the way, is more entertaining to readers than “long and self-indulgent”, and I’m here to provide value to the audience. The wisecracks may not work for you, but they’re intended to keep things light-hearted. If you’re not enjoying the reading, then you’re right, it’s better to go elsewhere. I hate to lose a reader over a misunderstanding, but if you’re not going to be happy until I say “you’re right, the art is stunning and perfect”, then you’re not going to be happy.

With all due respect, you’ve not only made it clear that you see no reason to change your mind, you wont even deign to look at material that may. I certainly don’t see any way to change your mind if you won’t read or refer to material that doesn’t support your viewpoint.

So it wasn’t really my intention to prolong a ‘conversation” but I do find your responses extremely telling, and I suspect that YOU may suspect that your terse and snappy answers say something about your mindset that may not be exactly positive.

Why else would you refer to your “godlike” power as a guarantee you will “win”. I can’t even begin to get to your way of thinking. But don’t worry, I won’t bother to read you anymore or try to offer anything positive.

Since you’re not looking for any additional reading (and yet you seem to think that what YOU’RE writing is somehow worth cramming onto my list.)

My job is to have and express opinions. A bunch of message boarders disagreeing isn’t going to alter what I saw in the comic. If you want to change my mind, we need to talk about why you disagree instead of you just pointing somewhere else and saying “they think so too”.

Try comixfan.com for a start.

As I said above, though, his figure work is very nice.

This is strange since Calero is almost universely lauded, even by those who don’t care for his style, as a great storyteller, and I agree. Some comic fans seem to want everything to look like a cartoon and freak out (ala Byran Hitch) when anything looks like it was drawn from referece. I dig it.

That is, if you are taking the comic in question as a bit of pulp entertainment and not the all encompassing escapism that only a fanboy would so crave. Superhero comics (atleast the good ones) don’t require that level of consistency. If they were intended to be that literal, then the large number of genre conventions and plot contrivances (superpowers) would have already made all a failure on that count.

The sooner you forget about the ’shared world’ b.s. the sooner the publishers will dump the stupid gimmick.

For me, Spider-Man as a character has been too negatively affected by writers like JMS who didn’t understand the concept. Peter David is writing the issue of Marvel Adventures Spider-Man that’s offered in the latest Previews, though, so I think I’ll try that.

Alan, unfortunately, no one ever seems to think that they have time to create and communicate a road map.

Atlas Shrugged is a long novel, but I think that everybody should read it, because the ideas presented in it should be understood by everybody. Ayn Rand was a controversial writer and human being.

I read 4 Marvel comics. Next Wave, X-Factor, Daredevil, and Astonishing X-Men.

Paul said: “That strikes me as the sort of ultra-basic co-ordination between titles that has unfortunately been tossed out of the window as part of the backlash against excessively tight continuity.”

I think it’s also showing a lack of editorial control. Daredevil is in prison, but he is in Civil War (although, maybe he isn’t…?), Banshee is dead, but not everyone knows it, Spider-Man is unmasked, but that hasn’t happened yet in X-Factor. Continuity doesn’t have to be so tight that the story get strangled, but there should be some kind of roadmap to guide the creators along their way.

On the DC versus Marvel thing. There are a couple of DC titles I’m sort of looking at right now for various reasons. (Ion, Wonder Woman and Flash) And I did preorder the first few months of 52 because they were so cheap online.

Though the only stuff really getting me from DC are their collections of past stuff. Showcase Elongated Man out this week, and the JSA and Huntress trades they have coming. I’d love to see some reviews of American Virgin from Vertigo, since they have a collection of it solicited now.

Marvel has the series I like though, in X-Factor, She Hulk (though not as much previously) Runaways (though only in digest) and Moon Knight.

I wanted to try PAD’s Spider-man but it seems, from the outside looking in anyway, too caught up in crossover stuff.

No, not really. DEADLY GENESIS just kills the character, plain and simple. The only reason Peter David was in any doubt about it was because they hadn’t told him in advance, and the death happens halfway through the story (leaving the obvious possibility that it might be reversed later on – but it isn’t).

Greg, yeah, that would do it.

John, I don’t know that it’s all that shocking, since many readers know that that’s what informed Ditko’s work. But thank you for elaborating on that — I haven’t read Rand myself, so what I know about her theories comes from Action Philosophers.

Bronn, thanks for recommending some others, although those titles don’t work for me consistently. Squadron Supreme, in particular, seems to me to wallow in depravity too often.

Paul, it seemed to me that one of the key elements in that situation wasn’t that he was dead, but whether he was going to stay dead. Which is one of the silly things about superheroes that makes this all so confusing and fun.

JD, yep! Thank you very much. I’ve made the correction — I got confused because Marvel labeled that cover #9, even though it appeared on #8. I appreciate the help!