the vynsane asylum

Well, yeah, who wouldn't? My point is that everything else I read indicates that they're happy with Millar and Bendis writing everything, and an $800 "fee" to speak with an editor seems a bit, uh, elitist.

i didn't read the article, but i doubt the intention of the lunch was to make it a pitch meeting for the highest bidder. that's just what it turned into. one could say that was the secret intent all along, or at the very least an easily foreseen outcome. but regardless, the $800 went to charity, so that's cool. if someone has $800 to spend for the chance to do what anyone can at a convention simply for the price of admission, all power to them. of course, it's more 1-on-1 the $800 way.

The raping of Frank Castle continues in War Journal.

it’s time for Frank to protect those left behind in the wake of Hulk’s rage. But this is no ordinary man and this is no ordinary battle, so Frank will don something we can only call…the Venom Suit! Armed with his new costume, two chainsaws and a gun that shoots swords, it’s time for the action story you demanded!

Jesus...

As Mung The Inconceivable, a member of Hulk’s Warbound, rampages through Manhattan, the Punisher and his allies put the alien in their crosshairs.

Mung? Why does that word sound so familiar...?

In future issues of 'War Journal,' Fraction plans to follow up on the Punisher's initial declaration of his war on super crime, his assault on the super villain bar in issue #4. "Frank just blew up the bar and walked so he knew he didn't kill everybody in there," Fraction remarked. "I don't think he was necessarily trying to kill everybody in there but he was definitely trying to send a message. We're going to see what happens with the survivors of the bar."

The Punisher would not have fucked that up by leaving survivors.

Is it just me or does this look like it used to be a page from The Tick?

They killed my wife and children.

They shall pay.

SPOOOOOOONN!!!!!

I don't want to slap Fraction so much as I do the wank fanboys who are eating this drivel up monthly and encouraging this travesty to continue.

Punisher Venom?? That is GHEY, goddamn comics are going down the toilet even worse than I would have ever thought, glad this is my only exposure

Is it just me, or with only a couple of exceptions, are superhero comics geared totally toward the teenaged fanboy, with not enough substance in most for adults, and too much questionable content for kids? Whatever happened to the fun? These are guys running around in their fucking underwear, for chrissakes!

Sticking in some language and a titty shot does not make the comic more "mature." It just marginalizes it so it's only good for a small portion of the possible readership.

I'm not at all saying that true "mature" titles aren't good. But it's the Sopranos thing: sure, there's a hell of a lot of sex and language and drug use and graphic violence. But they're window dressing. Clean it up for A&E and they're still watchable (though undoubtedly a few key scenes get cut because there's too much going on to simply blur or bleep out). Remember this old show on HBO called Dream On? The worst sitcom in history, only watched by guys because there was always at least one titty shot? They tried to clean it up for CBS. There wasn't a damn thing left worth watching--and they only had to cut like ten seconds from it.

I just wish that these guys would realize that the story is what's important. "Edgy" content is pointless without a story to back it up. Without the story, all it does is keep kids from buying the book (or being allowed to buy it), which is fucking stupid, because comics as a medium already has the respect that Marvel still pretends it needs. What they need more than ever is new blood reading their comics, and that can only come from kids and from adults who want more story.

Keep in mind this doesn't apply to all Marvel comics. But I think it certainly goes for the piece of fucking trash they called Civil War.

Ah... I've never been a major fan, but this guy was an icon who stood for something. Operative word being "was." A gun? WTF?



I feel it apropos to paraphrase Diabolical:

"Fuck you, Marvel. Don't you dare fucking do this to Captain America."

Joe Q, you know you're going down, and you're just trying to take the whole fucking company with you, right?

I guess it's Bucky, then, for sure? Whomever it is, they will start as Cap in issue #34 apparently.

So I just read a press release about Tony Stark going undercover as a billionaire playboy in the new Iron Man Annual.

Forgive my ignorance, but how does someone as famous as Tony Stark--and who's now known to be Iron Man--go undercover as another billionaire playboy? Are there so many billionaire playboys running around Marvel now that no one would say, "Hey, you look an awful lot like Iron Man, you know?"

And why would a former SecDef and current HDIC of S.H.I.E.L.D. need to be the one on the undercover operation? That's like Colin Powell posing underecover. Sometimes I think Marvel is just catapulting shit at the wall to see what sticks.

And this is in an Annual no less. They still haven't figured out what an annual should be for. Right now they are using them to try out new writers/artists with stock stories that they aren't sure where else to publish.

What exactly does Stan Lee do nowadays? Is he still involved with the comics or does he stick with other things? G4TV seems to interview him every time a new Marvel movie or video game comes out, but he never seems to talk about the present comics.

he has his things like "who wants to be a superhero" but for the most part he's retired. he started up some new comic companies that went nowhere, and produced an animated series "stripperella" with pam anderson.

he's interviewed when new movies come out because he basically had a hand in creating all of the characters involved, and because he'll do any interview he's invited to.

i should get his contact info and interview him for wallcrawlersweb... hrm...

So he doesn't really have a say in any of the comic book story lines you guys complain about...like the Civil War.

no, not in the slightest. in fact, with the jabs at revealing your secret identity in "who wants to be a superhero" i'd wager that he's not too keen on spidey's revelation in civil war.