Same with the Punisher. You can't make him what he's not. Which is why I always admired Moore for what he did with Rorschach. The opposite of himself politically but he wrote him with some sympathy and nobility. The same with Millar and Ultimate Cap. So as a publisher, put the right people in charge of the right characters. If you are going to do the Spider, let him be the Spider and get a writer who gets that. Otherwise just do something else.

I always feel like I should LOVE Dynamites books but the writing always leaves me disappointed. I SHOULD love the pulp books, the public domain heroes, Lone Ranger, Jon Carter etc. It SHOULD be my favorite comic book company. But its just ehhh.

Give the Shadow a shot. I liked it, and my LCS guy (who has some pretty old school and pulp tastes) also liked it.

I will. I keep trying hoping for the best.

I just finished The Avengers 1-6 trade by Bendis and JRjr. I liked the art and the story was ok. I like time travel stories but the dialogue was awful. All the heroes had snarky retorts to everything. You guys know, in that Bendis way. I wanted to smack everyone. Oh yeah, Spider-Man, Spiderwoman, and Wolverine are NOT Avengers.

That being the case, do you read Swamp Thing?

I read Simon and Kirby's Young Romance #4 (1948), and was amazed at how relevant they are trying to be with their ground-breaking romance comics.



In the story "Fraulein Sweetheart," an American G.I. in occupied Germany falls for a beautiful blond, only to find she was a Nazi. He tells her it's important for him to know if she really believed in that stuff, or if she got caught up in it. She has to be truthful with him, that she was and is an ardent supporter of the Nazi cause. He leaves her. She ends up later helping to avert a bombing of the American headquarters out of love for him, but they do not end up together.

I will when that trade comes out in September.

This is when I and other trade readers will read the New 52:

May 14: Justice League, Animal Man

May 21: Batman

May 29: Green Lantern

June 11: Wonder Woman

June 18: Red Lanterns

July 10: Legion of Super-Heroes

July 23: Demon Knights

July 30: Batwing, Men of War

Aug 13: Action Comics

Sept. 16: Aquaman

Nov. 11: Teen Titans

Nov. 18: Flash

Been rereading the later Tom Strings and man some were awful with the fill-in writers.

Agreed.

A couple days ago I bought a TPB of "Union Jack" (still on a British superhero kick), a miniseries from 1998 by Ben Raab and John Cassaday.

Good stuff -- a sequel to the Stern/Byrne Union Jack story in Captain America (which I also just read recently). Cassaday's storytelling is so good. It's a fairly straightforward story about vampires ... not exactly any twists to speak of ... but just the movement of the artwork is so slick. Cassady just guides you through the story expertly. And Raab is a pretty solid writer, I think. I don't know what he's done lately, but this is one of a few 90s comics by him that I've read, and he's got a pretty good ear for dialogue. It's all on the level of an action movie, nothing more than that, but it's a really good action movie.

And I found my copy in a cheap-o bin at my store, so I presume that others could too. It's well worth picking up -- great value for the money, I think, even if you end up paying cover price.

I enjoyed the heck out of that series too. And Cassady rocks.

If you like Union Jack, you'd love indie series Jack Staff.

Rare moment of truth: I used to confuse and perhaps even conflate Union Jack with Captain Britain.

There is no shame in this - I used to think Captain Britain was a modern version of/successor to Union Jack (when I was really into The Invaders).

They all look alike to you, don't they.

It is weird that when they redesigned Captain Britain, they gave him such a union-jack-based costume design.

I've heard good things ... I could never get into that art style, though. I find it a bit ugly.

There's a little bit of shame in it.

Rare moment of truth: Union Jack appears in the "Captain Britain and MI-13"series I posted about. There's a scene where he's in a room with Captain Britain, and they both have their masks off and are drawn with the same face structure and hair color. And it is impossible to tell which is which without the dialogue providing context.

That baby sickens me.

I remember loving his first appearance, with that red costume and staff. I think it was in marvel Team-up.



Yeah me too. I feel like I would like it but the art has kept me away.