Cancelled Comics Commentary
for 2005
January 2005
H-E-R-O #22 (DC): This was
another take on an anthology series of yore that back in the day
featured teenagers using some kind of device to turn themselves into
a whole bunch of bizarre superhero-ish protagonists. But this newer
rendition took it more adult, and under editors and publishers as
bad as Dan DiDio, I wouldn't trust them to deliver anything even
remotely appealing. Seeing how short a shelf life this had, it's
clear not many others were interested.
February
2005
Emma Frost #18 (Marvel):
I'm going to have to be honest here, but, as much as I wish I could
be, I'm not much of a fan of the former(?) White Queen of the
Hellfire Club, Emma Frost, who at one point ran a school for mutants
of her own and was a rival of the X-Men before reforming and
becoming an ally to them and running the school for Generation X
along with Banshee. But really, what bothers me is the forced
pairing of her with Cyclops at the expense of Jean Grey. Sorry, I
don't buy.
Yeah, the covers for this series by Greg Horn, if you've seen them,
sure look sexy, don't they? And yet, because they were clearly meant
as some kind of shock value, that's apparently why it ultimately
failed. Obviously though, he based his character design for Emma on
Pamela Anderson, the Canadian Baywatch
babe who later starred in her own TV series called V.I.P, which ran for about 4
years, also in syndication. Of course, Anderson really made herself
look ridiculous later on, by taking on animal rights activities,
which is trivial compared to human rights.
The series here was purportedly aimed at girls, telling about Emma's
own background/childhood, but it wouldn't surprise me if, besides
the covers that may have insulted some of the female crowd, that
this series really didn't have much of a story to tell, if at all,
and the cynicism of Joe Quesada and company no doubt overshadowed
it. Hence, why must we be surprised that it turned out to be such a
failure?
Street Fighter #14 vol. 1
(Image): based on none other than the cult video games that
revolutionized one-on-one fighting in the computer world, I figure
the presence of Chun Li would be the best thing you could check out
a series like this for. Devil's Due later published another go as an
ongoing 3 years afterwards.
March
2005
City of Heroes #12 (Blue
King Studios): a comic based on a MMORPG for the internet, it was
sold mostly as a promo for the game itself.
Marvel Age Spider-Man #20
(Marvel): this was one of the now House of Awful Ideas' attempt to
put out a kid-friendly series, but, it apparently didn't go through
well. I suspect the reason why it didn't was because they were
concentrating more attention on their worthless Civil War crossover
than on better stuff like this. But who knows? All I know is that
these days, Marvel under Joe Quesada's editorial mandate is really
scraping bottom, artistically and more or less financially too.
The Monolith #12 (DC): an
abortive attempt to create a story centered around a Golem-like hero
whose guided by a recovering drug addict named Alice Cohen, who
inherits the house her grandmother left behind, where she first
meets the gentle giant whom her grandma helped build decades ago.
There was even one guest appearance featured in Hawkman at the time,
since that episode was set in New York, where the main characters in
this book reside. The worst part however, was that the book's 6th
issue may have even included apologia for Islamofascism and depicted
Muslims as victims of the usual stereotypical white antagonists,
something leftist writers really seem to enjoy banging readers over
the head with since 9-11. In that case, is it any wonder this series
was such a failure?
Interestingly enough, in 2012, Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, who
penned the title giant and some of the cast members, managed to
re-claim the rights back from DC, meaning that it's no longer
connected in any way to them (however, they could not re-use any
material featuring Batman, who turned up in a few pages, and
presumably, the issue of Hawkman and the Battle for Bludhaven story
where Monolith appeared won't be reprinted any time soon). It's just
as well, since the political viewpoints they shoved into the book
did not belong there.
Tomb
Raider: The Series #50 (Image): Of all the series you could
conceive based on licensed products, this was definitely one of the
more successful, as even some of the miniseries published during the
time it was on the market can attest.
The Tomb Raider video game, with its beautiful heroine Lara Croft,
first debuted in 1996, an adventure game with a third person
perspective, produced by a UK-based company called Eidos. Lara was a
young archaeologist from Britain who boldly traveled in search of
relics, and besides her ample bosom was also famous for arming
herself primarily with twin handguns. It quickly became popular, and
as expected, there was plenty of licensed merchandise to follow,
including this very series written up by Top Cow Productions under
the Image banner. The TR comics were first officially published in
1997, starting with miniseries and specials (which, if you ask me,
is the most ideal way to test the field for whether an ongoing is
worth it), with the first official one being a book featuring both
Lara and Witchblade.
As the TR stories Image and Top Cow put out gained momentum, it
figured they could eventually find the grounds on which to publish
the ongoing as well, which debuted at the end of 1999, and
chronicled Lara's further adventures in treasure seeking and even
matching wits with crooked explorers and other bizarre monsters.
There was even a bimonthly spinoff called Tomb Raider Journeys,
which I wrote about briefly in the 2003
files. In all, this made for a great franchise over several
years.
Top Cow wanted to revive it a few years after it ended but licensing
issues have prevented it so far. Still, they did come up with a very
good output that's a lot more solid than most of the efforts
superhero comics feature today.
April
2005
Alpha Flight #12 Vol. 3
(Marvel): When this series was revived yet again, it seems that this
time, they wanted to do write it as - are you ready for this? - satire! But alas, even there,
it did not work out. Scott Lobdell, who may not have left comics
entirely (in recent years, he's been working in movie
scriptwriting), came back to write this abortive third attempt at
the Canadian super-team, to no avail.
Speaking of Lobdell, let me note that he was the one who "outed"
Northstar, the most irritatingly characterized member of the first
group, in 1992, when he wrote about a year of the series, in a story
titled "The Walking Wounded." And that could explain also why
Jean-Paul Beubier (is his family name meant as a subtle insult?) was
written in so jaw-droppingly a forced manner in "Eve of Destruction"
in 2001. The way the earlier story in AF was written was pretty
obnoxious as well. Even earlier, it seems that John Byrne, the
launcher of the first series, had actually implied that Northstar
was homosexual, and not only was that uncalled for even then, any
more than it was for Rainmaker* of Gen13 to be a lesbian (okay, she's a bisexual, but
you get the point), but that didn't justify Lobdell's hack job in
1992 either, something that the MSM really fawned over, if an
article about it in the Boston Globe was any indication. (and
they're owned by the same company as the New York Times. Go figure.)
If that wasn't bad enough, even Obsidian, son of Alan Scott, the
first Green Lantern, was recently "outed" in the pages of the new
Manhunter series. Let us be clear here that I do not approve of the
"lifestyle" and do not consider it normal behavior either, and that
even if it was being implied for several years before that, we did
not need to find out that Todd Rice was homosexual either. (Why do I
get the feeling that he's not even bisexual?) Knowing that
Northstar's got a twin sister, just like Jade is Obsidian's twin
sister, one can only wonder if this is DC's attempt to imitate what
Marvel did in 1992.
And getting back to AF now, I can't say I'm disappointed to see this
latest effort go down the toilet. Not that Lobdell has truly
bothered me at all times as a writer, and his writing on X-Men
during 1992-97, weak as it was, was far from really off-putting
(unless we include the catastrophous "revelation" of Gambit's
indirect connection to the Morlock massacre), but it seems that when
it comes to matters involving AF and Northstar, that's where he
really goes overboard. It's actually quite alarming that he does,
and no proper attempt is made to restrain him. One has to figure
that to depict AF in satirical form is actually quite stereotypical,
knowing how iffy some depictions by US writers of Canadian figures
can be, and that's probably one more reason why this didn't work.
* One difference that Rainmaker has though, is that unlike
Northstar, she's not nasty in personality, which is a fortunate
thing.
Batman: Gotham Knights #74 (DC): this was
cancelled because, well, it was considered a superfluous entry in
the Bat-franchise, which until then had been rather bloated. But if
you ask me, this wasn't the title they should've canned back then.
Rather, it was Legends of the
Dark Knight that they should!
Because they so much wanted Detective
Comics and Batman
to be solo vehicles for the Masked Manhunter himself, that's why the
also cancelled Shadow of the Bat
(see 1999
files) and then this series was launched, as a series where
the rest of the Gotham family could appear in team-ups with Bats,
stuff like that. I once owned a pretty good 3-part storyline
guesting the Huntress in it, that was meant to serve as a lead-in to
her role in Birds of Prey
at the time.
Why do I say that LOTDK is
what should have been cancelled? Well, I guess it had what to do
with that that series was otherwise just a self-contained series
that didn't necessarily involved current happenings in the DCU.
Actually, when you have a moral debacle like Identity Crisis going
on, that's why it's actually something dreadful.
In any case, as far as I know, LOTDK
has been canned now, and in time, I'll see if I can write about that
too.
Human Target #21
(DC/Vertigo): The hero of this book, Christopher Chance, was a
special agent who specialized in disguises and passed himself off as
important people whose lives were being targeted by criminals, so
that he could then use his skills to stop the thugs and assassins
and find out just what their motive was. He first appeared in 1972
in a backup story in Action
Comics written by Len Wein and drawn by Carmine Infantino,
and since has made various appearances in suspense stories where
he's gone on daring missions to help out innocent people. In 1992,
there was even once a colossally awful, short-lived TV series based
on this character that even showed signs of being rushed into
production. That TV show is best forgotten.
This series attempted to put together an adult adventure for Chris
Chance, as he continued with what he did best, and his various
relations with the people he helped out. But, it ultimately came up
short, and left the publishing schedule.
While we're on the subject, it's strange, but, these days, it seems
to me as though the Vertigo line is slowly disappearing, as DC
suddenly seems to consider it not worthwhile anymore. Possible? Only
time will tell for sure.
Spectacular Spider-Man #27 Vol. 2
(Marvel): with the nigh-stereotypical artwork here by Humberto
Ramos, and the debacle of Paul Jenkins' propaganda story that is
"Countdown", that's why I'll shed no tears over this series'
departure. Of course, it's just one in several dozen series that
existed solely as a vanity vehicle for the writers who helmed them,
if not the artists. In any case, I'd say that both Jenkins and Ramos
are to blame for one of the weakest entries in the Spider-franchise,
period. For what I have to say about that awful, insulting five-part
arc they did, just one of quite a few padded slowpokers, I'll direct
any visitors here to
my
comics
blog
where I talk about in a pretty lengthy fashion, as well as the
letter exchange I had with Jenkins back in 2004. Other than
that, it's just too painful to elaborate upon any further.
Towards the end of this series, Jenkins left and so did Ramos, and
it became a vehicle in which to blabber ad nauseum about the
atrocious hatchet job J. Michael Straczynski did over in Amazing Spider-Man, probably
the only series in the Spider-franchise to run without an actual
cancellation, a storyline that's hopefully since been forgotten. In
fact, since then, JMS himself has left, possibly even before his own
stories related to the Civil War crossover, yet another story
motivated out of political bias, had been completed. I won't be
missing him either. Nevertheless, I'd rather feature that cover with
Spidey French-kissing that Gwen Clone than any of the awful covers
that Ramos did! Believe me, it's better that way.
In fact, I don't think that Mark Buckingham, the writer who took the
writing chores in the last few issues of this series, did any favors
for the French either: the story takes place partly in France, and
while the art may not have been stereotypical per se, the drawings
of some of the French people and depiction of their personalities,
was. If that's the case, then Marvel has added another cultural
insult to their tally.
She-Hulk #12 Vol. 3
(Marvel): it's very unfortunate a writer as awful as Dan Slott
turned out to be got the assignment to write this series, which was
cancelled after a dozen issues as part of the "shakeup" for House of
M, and the most grating thing of all is how, yes, they rebooted it
with issue #1 of yet another volume. This particular volume was
cancelled as part of their gearing up for their banal House of M
crossover, and apparently that means that even Shulkie is so bound
by editorial mandate of some sort that she can't have her own series
running at the same time. Or something like that.
Jennifer Walters first made her debut in her own series on February
1980 in The Savage She-Hulk,
which ran for about two years, and was created by Stan Lee with John
Buscema as the first artist, and she may have also been the last
star character he actually created on his resume of creations, in
one of his rare writing efforts ever since he moved more into the
role of editor-in-chief and publisher at Marvel in the early to
mid-70s. He just wrote the first issue before handing the main
writing chores over to David Anthony Kraft, who wrote the rest of
the 25 issues published around that time. One of the reasons for her
creation was so that Marvel could maintain a copyright and trademark
security over potential spinoff franchises, in her case coming from
none other than her cousin, Bruce Banner, alias the Hulk. She'd been
shot at by the mafia, and with only Bruce around to serve as the
best blood donor, he provided her with a transfusion, which turned
her from a simple brown-haired girl into a tall, green-skinned
hottie.
While in her initial series, the stories were played fairly
straight, it was decided early on to give her a more tongue-in-cheek
personality, which is what she's often known for today (large, loud
and lusty are her famous personality traits). And unlike her cousin
Bruce, Jennifer grew to enjoy her She-Hulk form, and also maintained
the same mind whenever she changed into her green-skinned form. So
when she turned completely into the She-Hulk after awhile and
couldn't change back for many years, she didn't mind a bit. A lawyer
by day, she gave up her career for awhile as she became more
inspired to be a superheroine, but eventually returned to it.
During the 1980s, she became a member of the Avengers and of the
Fantastic Four, filling in for Ben Grimm during the time he was away
on the Secret Wars planet, and even travelling across country for a
year after a fallout with Reed Richards. In 1989, she got her own
solo book again, The Sensational
She-Hulk, with John Byrne writing, and quite often it was
certainly played for laughs, what with the constant in-jokes about
Shulkie and company knowing that they were in a comic book and
Jennifer addressing the audience in various ways from within (the
premiere issue had her telling everybody out there that "If you don't buy my book this time,
I'm gonna come to your house and rip up all your X-Men.")
It ran for about 4-5 years, and then she all but faded into the
background for awhile before getting her own series again - this one
- that makes the basis for this write-up here, of course.
And it's a shame that it had to fall victim - as it intially did -
to Marvel's editorial mandates regarding House of M. Yes, it was
later taken over by Peter David, who was at least better a writer
than Slott, but it's a shame that they just had to do that reboot
from issue #1 sort of thing, which we don't need anymore. Not to
mention that we don't need any dumb, contrived, forced, and
out-of-character crossovers any more either!
And now, on that note, I rest my case.
May
2005
Nothing on this month.
June
2005
Captain America and the Falcon #14
(Marvel): with some of the things I've discovered about this spinoff
of the regular Cap series, reteaming him with Sam Wilson, who'd been
his partner for about six years during the Bronze Age, I guess
that's why (sigh) I just can't feel sorry to see this one fold. For
example, as I learned via a contributor to Front Page Magazine the
year before, it seems that there was a Bucky clone or something here
who was depicted as supporting the war on terror. And unfortunately
for the series, he was also depicted as insane. See, that's the
problem with this series: it was written with an anti-war slant, and
the writer, Christopher Priest, allowed his ultra-liberal political
biases to flood into this (or, if you prefer, the editors did).
In fact, that seems to be the problem with a lot of entertainment
these days, that the writers, many of whom are overwhelmingly
identified with the left, allow their political positons to get in
the way of their creativity considerably. Unless conservatives are
allowed an equal share of the entrance to comics and other
entertainment mediums, it could take ages to repair the damage
already done.
As I once learned elsewhere, Christopher Priest is far from having
had a real winning streak on any series he's been assigned to write
or even edit, though it may have more to do with that Marvel and
others for whom he worked wouldn't give him any genuine backing and
promotion for his books. But if he's going to go overboard with
ludicrous political leanings, I'd say that's one more reason why his
books shouldn't have to garner a real following.
Doom Patrol #11 Vol. 4
(DC): a deservedly abortive attempt at "restarting" the classic team
from the Silver Age that may have been more an excuse to give
flagging writer/artist John Byrne something to make money off of. It
really wasn't worth it, and it may have caused quite a bit of damage
to continuity at DC within its very short existence (not that
damaged continuity is such a surprise by now, that's for sure). It
spun off from a JLA story that Chris Claremont co-wrote with Byrne
in 2004, and not to hammer away with any criticism against the
former, but really, it was quite unneccesary.
As of now, this big dud, to say the least, has pretty much been
written off and hopefully forgotten, and it may be that DC has tried
to write it off as having been a TV show based on the classic old
group that was being produced for network television, probably
filmed right within the JLA's own headquarters, I'll bet.
This was a decided insult to true fans of the DCU, not to mention
fans of Gar Logan, aka Beast Boy and Changeling. Because of this,
his exact background apparently couldn't be mentioned clearly at the
time. Yes indeed, this was in some ways, if not all, a much
different scenario than at Marvel, where whether they respect
continuity and history or not, things are fairly different, even if
they're all over the place. I suspect it stemmed from the same
mentality that led to Identity Crisis, and I wouldn't be surprised
if the theory wasn't that far off.
Richard Dragon #12 Vol. 2
(DC): I hadn't paid full attention at the time to all the details
surrounding this redo of one of the best martial-arts comics DC did
in the mid-70s, but from what I can tell now, it looks like the
attempt to reboot/retcon the Doom Patrol wasn't the only attempt to
foist a history-damaging retcon upon the audience. What this book
attempted to do was to reboot the whole history of one of the most
important trainers of some of DC's most notable vigilante characters
in the DCU, such as the Question, the Huntress, and even Barbara
Gordon when she was paralyzed by the Joker in Batman: the Killing Joke.
Before I elaborate further on that, let me first turn to telling who
and what Richard Dragon was.
The title martial-artist was first created by Denny O'Neil in a
novel in 1974, and adapted to comic book form (as Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter)
a year later, with Denny editing the series. While it only ran two
years and 18 bimonthly issues, it was still one of the best of its
genre in comics, telling about a reformed thief in Japan who became
a prominent martial arts student, and went on to become an adviser
to various other people who could use some good assistance. Ben
Turner, who later became the Bronze Tiger, first appeared in this
series, as did Sandra Wu-San, better known in many places as Lady
Shiva.
As I said, Richard was an adviser and trainer for a couple of other
notable crimefighters as well, such as Vic Sage, the Question, and
also the Huntress, and even taught Babs Gordon how to stick-fight
after she was crippled by the Joker. And that's why he's one of the
most important parts of DC.
And that's also why this attempt to reboot his whole background was
decidedly a collosal insult to the intellect. Dragon was rewriteen
as a bullied school kid who enrolled in a karate dojo to better
himself (so much for the Kung Fu experience!), and not only that,
this time it's Lady Shiva who, besides being his lover, also becomes
his instructor! Which totally contradicts the initial conflict they
had when they first began in the mid-70s, when the corrupt
businessman Guano Cravat tried to frame Dragon for the murder of
Shiva's sister Carolyn, until Dragon could prove his innocence to
her and then offered his help in becoming her trainer, though she
later turned mostly to crime as a way of financing any further
studies for herself in the perfection of her skills. Much as I
respect Chuck Dixon more than some of today's other writers, this
was still pretty tacky that he went along with this foolish reboot,
and I'm not sorry if it didn't work out. It's to be hoped that since
then, this has been put on the scrap heap where it belongs.
If DC has ever tried to "Marvelize" its universe, this could show
that what they've really been trying to do is to disrespect and
disregard continuity in almost the same way that Marvel has
recently. Or, put another way, they seem to have been influenced by
recent Marvel tactics, that being the character destruction and
rendering of their casts almost completely unrecognizable. It's
something that's got to cease, and until they can be convinced to
knock it off, that's why the argument against their lack of respect
has got to continue.
July
2005
Excalibur #14 (Marvel): I
wish I could say more for this brief revival of the old series that
ran from 1988 to 1998, but as far as I can tell, it was
intentionally brief, and had something to do with the House of M
crossover that place at about that time. And on that, one would have
to say that it was otherwise an appalling affair.
Outside of HoM, this item was fairly okay, and if you ask me,
Magneto was lucky to be alive and well after what Grant Morrison did
to his character in the "New X-Men". Yeah, he was depicted as being
rather cuddly in his relations with Charles Xavier here, as the team
helped to clean up the horrific mess shown on Genosha. But it was
simply dreadful when Scarlet Witch had to be dragged into all this,
as she was in one of the issues. Since then, the matter of her
supposedly going berserk has been revealed as really the meddling of
her brother Quicksilver, and she's been depicted recently as having
lost her memory of being Scarlet Witch, yet knows that she's Wanda
Maximoff in "New Avengers #26".
But having noted that, I'm going to have to point out that there is
really little else to recommend about Brian Bendis' story in the
Avengers issue I mentioned from December 2006, which is just filler
that's intended to convince the audience to shut up and let him get
on with the show. Sure, the idea in and of itself of Wanda and Clint
Barton (Hawkeye) making love is something we'd all like to see and
enjoy, but that issue, from what I can tell, is just rock-bottom
pretentiousness. One more reason why, if the Earth's Mightiest
Heroes are ever to be repaired, then that's why we can't be taken in
by Bendis' silly little "product".
August
2005
Rogue #12
(Marvel): Well, this, to be quite honest, was a real shame to see go
down the cancellation drain. The beautiful mutant, as she came to be
in her developments since her debut in Avengers Annual #10 in 1981, did deserve a series
of her own, which is definitely more than can be said for her
onetime lover, Gambit, whose second shot at a series will be spoken
about below.
When Rogue, whose real name may not have been revealed to date (as
of this writing, I certainly don't know it), first premiered in the
aforementioned Avengers book, where she was first depicted as a
crook under the leadership/influence of Mystique. She'd assaulted
Ms. Marvel when she was living in San Francisco, where she'd moved
to shortly after having come back from Limbo after she was freed
from the influence of Immortus, who'd mind-controlled her into
becoming his love slave. Mystique and Rogue were going to use the
superpowers she'd siphoned off from Carol Danvers -- and even
Captain America and Thor -- for the purpose of breaking the rest of
the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants out of the maximum security prison
where they'd been incarcerated following their foiled attempt to
assassinate Sen. Robert Kelly in the famous Days of Future Past storyline a
year earlier in Uncanny X-Men.
This breakout attempt was also foiled by the Avengers and
Spider-Woman, who'd tripped to New York City to investigate what
happened to Carol, while Charles Xavier helped restore Carol's
memories at the hospital back in San Francisco. Rogue got away, but
along with Mystique would try to pull a few more crimes, including
some attacks on the X-Men themselves, before finally deciding to
reject the crooked path she was taking, and turned to Xavier to ask
if he would take her under his wing. He agreed, but it didn't pass
without great controversy amongst the other X-Men: Storm was ready
to quit, while Wolverine, in a nasty outburst only he could emote,
threatened to carve Rogue's heart out. Xavier was able to calm
everyone down, and about a year after Rogue joined, she proved
herself worthy and began to gain their trust.
Unfortunately, Chris Claremont then had to stumble in developments
by later creating Gambit, and when pairing her up with him, this
resulted in turning her into something like putty in Remy LeBeau's
cynical hands. It's not that pairing her up with a "bad boy"
couldn't work, but Gambit was so poorly conceived and later on had
some terrible developments added on, that this was one more reason
why the relation became otherwise implausible, his power of getting
people to "like him" notwithstanding. More recently, I think Rogue
and Gambit broke up, and if so, that's a good thing.
I think one of the best things about Rogue that's never truly been
explored is her potential as a comedic, tongue-in-cheek character. I
mean, there are so many funny things that could be done in her
career as a crimefighter/superheroine that alas, have never been
truly explored, all because the writers and editors are not giving
her proper range beyond her power-draining mutant power. For
example, she could round up baddies robbing the bank and then pepper them with kisses!
She could work as a custodian to a petty crook being held as a
material witness by the police and then he could try to escape and
she'd keep bringing him back, all the while playing super-cute with
him until he finally succumbs to her charms and they begin to boogie
and have a fun time making out in between stopping the real baddies
who are trying to menace him. And, let's not forget that, just like
a few other comic book women, she could look great taking a bath or
a shower. Those kind of hilarious things, IMO, are what could and
should be done with Rogue - explore her comedic potential. But so
far, they're not doing it.
Maybe, with the right kind of campaign, it would be possible to get
Marvel to go ahead and try out of the kind of direction I'm
proposing here, and would very much like to see, in more than just
fanfics.
September
2005
Nope, nothing for this month either.
October
2005
Gambit #12 Vol. 2 (Marvel):
Clearly, Marvel didn't learn from their previous "venture" with the
"ragin' Cajun", did they? Nope, apparently not. The previous series,
which can be found in the 2000
files, was a deserved failure, and this version was even less
successful. There really isn't much creativity to be found in
dealing with Remy LeBeau, so I have no idea exactly what the writers
and editors hoped to achieve with this. And they don't seem to have
done much to repair him as a character either.
In all the time since this volume was published, Rogue, whose own
short-lived series is spoken about above, may have broken up with
him. Not that this bothers me, what really does is the
aforementioned bad writing and characterization of the Ragin' Cajun.
Though I do wonder if Gambit and Rogue would work better when not
depicted as a couple. I once found out that it may have been because
of just 4 fan letters Marvel recieved back in the early 90s that
thought the two of them would make a great couple simply because
they're both from the deep south. Well, that might be okay, but then
good writing should have accompanied it, yet didn't. And who knows
if it ever will?
November 2005
The Darkness #24 vol. 2 (Top Cow/Image): and so endeth the
second volume of this oddball series, which did have something of a
sense of humor when it began, but probably didn't fare as well in
this rendition.
December
2005
Nothing available for this period of the year. Oh well. It's been so
wearisome thanks to all the crossovers and political correctness
involved, I just can't get too enthused about it.
Copyright Avi Green. All rights
reserved.