Roland Boschi was the original artist on Jason Aaron's Ghost Rider run. Not sure if he'll be returning to that book or if Tan Eng Huat is on for the long haul now or what, though.
Mike Benson's writes Moon Knight.
Is it me or is Ultimatum just a rehash of Authority stories from ten years ago, only with awful dialogue and shoddy characterisation? You made a good point on the podcast (which I thoroughly enjoyed and will be back for more) - Jeph Loeb is the writing equivalent of Rob Liefeld: inexplicably popular, thoroughly shoddy and completely lacking in some of the basics.
For what it's worth, my impression of the disaster in Ultimatum is that it's the good old Magneto reverses the Earth's magnetic poles plan. Nothing to base that on in story of course, just my thinking.
Paul, have you heard anything about Jeph Loeb writing another arc of Wolverine? On a recent Word Balloon podcast Loeb was asked "is there more to the Wolverine/Sabretooth story or no?" Loeb replied "absolutely and I can't announce with who but we start in January." It's obviously not going to start in January but if the Old Man Logan arc ever finishes it looks like you will have something to look forward to.
Sgt. Rock felt like a good old 1960's WWII movie. Nothing inoffensive about it, clear cut good and bad characters, some hijinks with the soldiers, and nice art.
Storming Paradise is also a good WWII book out there right now, taking the "what if we didn't bomb Japan" route into new places I wasn't expecting.
Did anyone by chance read the DD/Captain America one shot by some European guy?
You can't ignore the whole "Magneto went mad because HIS SON DIED" super subtle Loeb.
A special mention must be made to how ultimatum wouldn't affect Ultimate Spider-Man but... they destroy his home city.
Spoilers follow.
Ultimatum isn't so much a bad idea as it is a poorly executed one. Had they tried carried out Ultimatum at the end of Brian K. Vaughan's X-Men run and after Ultimates 2, it could have been quite good. :
- Why is Xavier shocked that Magneto decided to put his doomsday plan into action when Mags already tried to carry out a similar plan back during the Return of the King storyline?
- Are we going to learn why Jean Grey just doesn't reverse everything like she did with Apocalypse?
- Why is everybody talking like a parody of themselves?
- Why bring back Beast only to kill him again? Perhaps Nightcrawler managed to save him.
- Dazzler is dead. While the character had potential, killing her wasn't necessarily a bad thing. But why oh why did Loeb have her last lines be such clap trap. As a character, she's never been the type to talk about her feelings. She's a punk. But Loeb decides that the only reason she'd choose the appearance she'd chosen was because she was insecure? What on earth made him think that was in-character for Alison?
- Nightcrawler is known to be stark, raving bonkers. He once kidnapped Dazzler and tried to keep her underground for himself. He then became leader of the Morlocks. These facts have been completely ignored by every writer. Why on earth would Warren and Alison spend time with Kurt after what he's done? What happened to the Morlocks? Perhaps, that's where Beast and Kurt are gone.
- Pyro and Toad seem to have left the X-Men. Why and when?
- Valkyrie. Why?
- Thor isn't just talking like a retard. He's acting like one. What happened to hippie Thor? Not even 616 Thor talks so ridiculously anymore - except when guest-staring in Loeb's Hulk.
- Quicksilver. Dead or Alive? He shows up in Ultimate X-Men working with the Brotherhood. Yet in Ultimates 3, he dies. At what point did he pop out to talk to Moira?
- Doom was revealed to have somehow been the Mastermind behind the events of Ultimates 3. What had he to gain from those actions? And how did he, in his armor, not notice what had happened?
The Ghost Box story (especially the first) seemed overly confusing. I'll give credit to the Manifest Destiny Colossus story for doing the kind of characterization that I'd like to see in the main series. (Any of the main series.) On the other hand, as one of the characters note, Colossus has basically been depressed for most of his existence. It seems odd that they need to cheer up the "brooding artist" when he has an actual reason to brood, especially when Wolverine, of all people, is leading the effort.
And as for Cable, I'm a little confused. Have I got this right? Bishop is planting nukes in the modern day so that in the future, Nathan will only have a few different geographical locations to hide in because everywhere else will be uninhabitable. With this accomplished he will then be able to kill the baby and prevent the horrible future he lived through. How can what he is planning be any worse than what the child did during his timeline?
I understand that he thinks the future he's chasing Cable through doesn't count, but surely the present day does?
I think the idea is that he's taking the weapons into the future timeline (which he doesn't regard as real) and THEN detonating them.
Manifest Destiny so far seems to have had the following origin:
"Hey, there's this bunch of horrible stories we can't put anywhere. What do we do?"
"Oh, I know. We'll print them all together in a series with a name that will sound as impacting as Messiah Complex."
"Cool, but we don't have enough of them to make a whole mini."
"We'll just ask a bunch of bored artists to hack some crap to fill up the rest. People always pay for crap."
"Let's do this!"
And here we are.
'I think the idea is that he's taking the weapons into the future timeline (which he doesn't regard as real) and THEN detonating them.'
Thanks Paul. That makes sense. Well it makes sense in the sense that most time-travel stories make sense.
I still haven't really figured out why Bishop doesn't just keep trying again. If an ambush on Cable and the baby doesn't work the first time, why not just go back in time and try again.
Hippy Thor was the character find of the Ultimate universe...it's sad what has happened to him under Loeb.
When Bishop said, "there's a box, you have to see it" I wanted Cyclops to say, "Nice try, asshole, but I've seen Frailty."
Loeb claims on that wordballoon podcast that the 'thee' and 'thou' - ing of Ultimate Thor was introduced by JMS in his issues of 'Ultimate Power'. Can't say I remember that myself, but then I can barely remember having read 'UP' at all. It's better that way.
You guys still reading Loeb comics? Why would you do that?
I really liked Roland Boschi's art on Ghost Rider. Hope he is back for more Marvel work.
The only one of these I've had a flip through was Manifest Destiny and it pretty much boiled down to:
- I will still forgive a story almost anything so long as Michael Ryan's on art duty, but dammit Mystique, stay dead, will you?
- Graymalkin's big reveal honestly doesn't make him any more interesting and I have my doubts that it'll ever be touched on in the main book anyway.
- I would have liked the Colossus story if the tone Yost seemed to be going for hadn't been so at odds with the emotions that should have been at stake. The bits with the kids being clueless as to how to haul Colossus out of a funk worked, I thought, but the X-Men flailing about as they did with someone they'd known for years made them look borderline brain-damaged.
Duane Swierczynski interviewed at CBR, gives some idea of what's in store for CABLE: http://comicbookresources.com/?p...rticle&
id=18690
Apparently Loeb's Wolverine story was only half the story and the remaining six issues are still forthcoming.
Wasn't Loeb on Wolverine enough of a disaster? Must he do more awful things to a book which has been reasonably good since his story ended?
Where can I find your Podcasts?
I'm half-expecting all the character/continuity inconsistencies in Ultimatum to be explained away with Ultron robots or something again.
Anonymous, the links are in the next post down.
"I still haven't really figured out why Bishop doesn't just keep trying again. If an ambush on Cable and the baby doesn't work the first time, why not just go back in time and try again."
Probably because of the Blinovitch Limitation Effect 
I find it hilarious that the way to reinvigorate the Ultimate universe is the same as the way to reinvigorate the 2099 titles - flood the world and then continue with a reduced number of titles (given that the only book that Marvel has said will survive is Ultimate Spider-Man).
I haven't been reading Young X-Men so Graymalkin is new to me. But as an origin story -
1. He was buried on the grounds of the mansion for 200 years and all the telepaths and Cerebra users never noticed?
2. I know its comics and suspension of disbelief and all, but being buried alive with no contact for centuries makes you more than have social intercation issues. You wouldn't actually be able to function at all.
As a first exposure the story and character didn't work at all.
Ken B,
I've read the DD/Cap one shot and I would definitely recommend picking it up. The plot is a fairly routine yet enjoyable team up story with the focus mainly on DD and an old obscure villain of his. The art, on the other hand, is awesome. It really elevates the story and is worth the price of admission alone.
I liked the Colossus story in Manifest Story because it brought back the characterization of the kids that is so sorely lacking in Young X-Men. Otherwise, I still can't figure out just why Mystique is hell-bent on doing whatever it is that she's doing to Bobby.
Considering how many telepaths and people with heightened senses have lived in the X-Mansion (including Caliban, whose primary power was detecting mutants), how many times we've been told that using Cerebro connects one with "every mutant mind on the planet," how many times the mansion was razed to the ground, how much excavation must have been done to intall all the various sub-basements and hangars and tunnels (including access to the Morlock tunnels), and the fact that Graymalken has super strength when not exposed to sunlight, the idea that he was buried ONLY A FEW FEET BELOW THE SURFACE on the mansion ground for 200 years is beyond absurd unless they establish pretty darn quick that he's got some kind of stealth powers.
I know people say "you read books where people fly and teleport and read minds and you're complaining about plot holes?" but, yes. Yes I am. You can fudge physics, but you can't fudge logic. Everything that happens in a comic doesn't have to be possible, but it has to make some damn sense!
My reaction to AXM:GB when I finished was "what the hell was that?!?"
I think you're right, Paul. It makes sense that it should have been a back up strip in AXM.
Mark Cook - Mark Millar is returning to write the Ultimates once Jeph Loeb has finished. That's if there's anything left to salvage from the wreckage. I'm guessing that a few more team members will be killed off in Ultimatum - probably Hawkeye, Wasp and Pym.
No, Millar's writing Ultimate Avengers - which is going to be a team-UP book, rather than a team book.
Loeb's going to write Ultimates 4.
Yeah Jeph Loeb is going to write Ultimates 4 and/or New Ultimates, which is a real lame name that Loeb claims he done to get back at Bendis. Ugh, I hate all these inside 'jokes' at Marvel.
And I laughed my head off at how Joe Quesada pushed the delays of Ultimatum off onto someone else whenever he got asked a question about it on his weekly column. There really is no excuse for it being late with all the lead-in time they have had with it.
"Elaine and Aaron
Diamond on October 22nd announced some rather big delays for "Ultimatum." Issue 2 bumped from November to December.
Issue 3 bumped from December to February(!) After more than a year of hype and teases, why does your biggest story for the Ultimate Universe have delays right off the bat? Shouldn't this book have been complete or near complete before solicitation? Is this from Jeph Loeb? David Finch? Needing more time to get the new Ultimate titles ready after Ultimatum? Something else? Will Ultimatum 4 be solicited in February with the now issue 3 or will it be solicited in March?
JQ- The honest truth E and A is that our Sales and Marketing folk were too aggressive in our release schedule of this series, so it had nothing to do with the talent. It quickly became apparent that we'd have to shift the schedule a bit to take into account some tie in titles and yes to make way for a new Ultimate Universe. It happens from time to time and for that we apologize."
http://blog.myspace.com/
index.cf...logID=447136472
That's such a damn lie. They're also talking out their ass, because they said the delays in Ultimates 3 was to buy time for Ultimatum.
Finch did practically nothing but covers the past year, save for a 8 page Spider-Man backup. Finch is basically going back to his old ways at Image, thinking he's too important to be messed with, and not being punctual like he was back when he could actually do a monthly book 4 years ago.
Thanks for the help with the podcast.
Me being from Argentina IŽll be dificult for me to understand it with your accent. But I will give it a try.
Very good idea by the way.
"Finch is basically going back to his old ways at Image, thinking he's too important to be messed with, and not being punctual like he was back when he could actually do a monthly book 4 years ago."
*Sigh!* Times like this make me miss Jim Shooter. Yeah, he could be dictatorial, and apparently he was somewhat lacking in the ability to create a comfortable work environment for his employees... but the guy knew about the importance of a deadline. I mean, these things are callled "periodicals" for a reason, darn it. They are supposed to come out on a regular schedule.
If you're the editor, and you know that your artist is slow, either make sure to give him enough lead time to get all the issues done on time, or assign him to graphic novels where it's a done-in-one and a delay won't be holding up an entire series or, worse, and entire crossover. You'd think it would be common sense.
I have asked this question time and time again with no response :
Bishops time travel abilities are coming from the mechanical arm that Forge invented right?
He broke in and stole the tech from Forge and Forge knew it was him, so why didnt he call the x-men and tell them he took it and he can then fix it or figure it out so they can go rescue Cable since he is stuck in the future?
He knows what Bishop is up too
Paul
I recently got all the Wolverine origins trades for 1/2 price, so I just got done reading them and the 5 issue story Way did in Wolverine proper. Anyway, here's my question.
In one of the flashback scenes when he is training the Black Widow, Logan says that he had arrived at the location shortly after being in Jasmine Springs with Itsu. This time ended with her death at the hands of the Winter Soldier. Logan then runs into the Widow again in 1941, and this is established as taking place after their first encounter. This makes no sense, since Bucky didn't become the Winter Solider until 1945. Is this just an error on Way's part? He is kind of a hack.
>>so why didnt he call the x-men and tell them he took it and he can then fix it or figure it out so they can go rescue Cable since he is stuck in the future?
1. He's developed an obsession with some new ideas in his head and would like no interruptions whatsoever.
2. Fix what and figure out what? Assuming it's about time travel parts Bishop has stolen all his research regarding that and he cannot recreate it.
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