Running With the Devil

Not much of a surprise, but the Devils are officially in now. Fuck off, Pittsburgh.

I found this on the Ween forum...

Dr John IX wrote:

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I thought Antipop was pretty good...

No Foetus Can Beat Us

So, I think I'm going to be interviewing Jim Thirlwell sometime. If anyone has any questions, send them in.

Check the Title

Marvel released some of their June solicitations, and I couldn't be happier than to see that Punisher has been renamed to Franken-Castle. Not just the arc; the book's title. This not only implies that Franken-Castle will stick around after the current arc, but maybe for a little while.

I know a lot of people don't like the change in their character, but I've said for a long time that The Punisher is a totally one-note character. His family's dead. He shoots people. That's about it for about forty years

I know he did spend brief time as a brother (which doesn't really change anything except appearance) and an angel. This time Rick Remender did the obvious thing by taking a crap character (Punisher) and turning him into an awesome character (Frankenstein).

Warner Bros. did something similar about eighty years back when the took a lame character (Frankenstein) and made him into a kick-ass character (Frankenstein). The character was later evolved in the early seventies when General Mills turned him pink and gave him a lisp. Maybe the next arc will be called Frankenberrycastle. We can only hope.

Also: if anyone is bored and wants to Photoshop a Frankenberrycastle, you should send it in.

Better Call Saul

Book of the Week

3-3-10

Even though it had a pretty decent finale, I have some mixed feelings about this Stark: Disassembled arc. First off, I think that five issues is a little long to to spend with a main character in a coma. It seems like Marvel just wanted this character in stasis until The Siege was over.

I really liked the surreal scenes in Tony's subconscious, which is a storytelling technique that I normally find kind of annoying. I credit this to Salvador Larocca's gorgeous artwork and designs. I guess also that usually in these situations are usually just characters walking around in heaven or something talking to dead people and not getting chased around in the desert by giant robots, which is infinitely cooler.

What I really feel mixed about are the scenes outside of Tony's mind. While there were really good touching scenes with the supporting cast dealing with the fact that Tony might die, there was also the subplot of an assassination attempt by Ghost, a third tier character that I'm not really sure what he does or even his relation to Tony. I guess you need some action in a superhero comic, but this just seemed silly and posed no threat. Not that I really think Dr. Doom or Mandarin or anyone would ever kill Iron Man, but as a reader I could suspend my disbelief a little easier.

The other thing I find awkward is the end. We've spent almost a year and a half with Tony trying to redeem himself for the Registration Act, the death of Captain America, and all around generally being an asshole. So when they implant Tony's downloaded memories, it turns out that they were downloaded prior to all this which seems to relieve him of all of these responsibilities. I know that you would want the care-free Iron Man around the time of Iron Man 2's release, but it just seems like an easy reboot. Like Spider-Man's deal with Mephisto; it could work out. I guess we'll have to wait to see where Fraction goes with this.