I'm sure it was well-done, but I hate that double negative mush mouth as much as Jar-Jar Binks.

I'll stop stating the obvious now.

Alien Nation Marvel Universe? That sounds... really boring.

I just got into a "favorite book" discussion two night ago... one that came about --now that I think about it-- as a result of a buddy of mine reading my copy of the Captain Trips comic... I don't claim that they're the "best" books ever written, but The Stand and Imajica are still my favorite.

As far as the comic goes, I thought it was good. Started out the way it should and even though I'm very familiar with the material it still kept my interest.

And ANYONE reading this column or TB that doesn't at least check out the trade of IDW's adaptation of TGASS is missing out. It was a pitch perfect adaptation of the source material with GORGEOUS art.

I kid. I kid.

And whatever happened to the Showtime mini-series for Weaveworld?

And for that matter, I also heard that someone is making The Damnation Game into a film. My guess is it will suck. Barker's twisted and beautiful prose has yet to be faithfully translated to film, this includes Hellraiser imho.

Tom: M-O-O-N. That spells eat lead, motherfucker!

Flagg: NOOOOOO!!!!

Tom blasts Flagg with a sawed off shotgun. Roll credits.

Pre-war candidates would be: Joyce's Ulysses, Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu, Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury, and selected works of Kafka.

Post-war candidates would include: Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Nabokov's Lolita.

And, as always, I'm sure I left a few out. You always do when playing this game.

Has it even hit the street yet?

Read Vonnegut, Chandler, Ellroy, Irving, and Tom Robbins, and then tell me the Stand is the greatest book of the 20th century.

Most people consider the next phase of his work to be the best, when he wrote Dead Zone, Stand, Shining and this period sort of ended with Christine. Those are all solid reads, but I wouldn't call any of them great. "It" was the last good book King wrote, almost but not quite ruined by an offensive and ridiculous conclusion.

Nowadays his writing is just so provincial and tiresome. And this tends to be even more apparent when limited-talented people such as Mick Garris adapt his work.

I don't think there is a need or a market to put any more of King's work onscreen, but the Stand might work very well as a long comic miniseries.

That would do it. :p

And I apologize to all the reviewers for helping turn this week's talkback into a literature focused discussion.....

I'll never begrudge the TBers their topic of choice, but this best novel crap is getting old.

Yes, you're all very smart and well read, now can we talk about comis for awhile?

I'm going with you part way on Deadpool Mike. I'm not quite as pissed as I think you are, but it was...let's say lacking.

I think it was from lack of dialogue. You can't deny that the action was definitely "brought" as the kids say. But I like Deadpool for his stream of sarcasm.

Not a bad start, but not the best effort I've read.

Hah.

This is why i should never read Previews it just ruins the whole serial surprise nature of comics for me.

CRISIS on INFINITE EARTHS changed the landscape of DC, likewise HOUSE OF M forever changed mutants in Marvel. There needs to be a point if a story is not only going to hijack my monthlies, but also expects me to shell out extra duckets for a bunch of tie-in mini-series.

Hey, as much as I love DC, I hated the fact that there were no lasting repercussions from the death of Superman. I’m sitting around right now, wondering if FINAL CRISIS is truly going to change anything. “The day evil won”, for now perhaps, but in the long term. Doubt it. Right now, I see one character change (the return of Barry Allen) and one universe change (return of the multi-verse).

It needs to having lasting effects, otherwise it just feels like so much hype. If comics want to forget the past so easily and hit the reset button, then for God’s sake just do that.

Why? becasue it keeps the medium going and at the end of the day that's what is really important.

I think most collectors will admit that if they stay with comic books long enough, they wax and wane between the two houses in their adoration.

No I don't expect anything that happens in books to be ever lasting, but good God give it a little time to stic. Hence why I respect House of M.

You've got Marvel Boy's suicide-run out of nowhere. Who is this guy? Why is he doing what he's doing? I have no idea. I reread issue #5, and he was nowhere to be found. At some point I remember him escaping from prison, but that's all I got....

Then we have two pages of what's going on in the other books, none of which I'm reading, but it's a good outlook on the rest of the world, so I'm okay with it.

Then we've got the skrulls doing skrully shit. Again, okay.

Then we jump to the New and Mighty Avengers. Great! But only for two pages. Doh!

Then life on the streets.

Then the new Howling commandos, who I think are cool, but who are they again? Haven't seen much of them, not enough to know them, or really care. Again, two pages. They are joined by what's left of the Initiative (who I don't know) and the Young Avengers (who I've never followed either).

Then we've got one panel of the Hood's Gang. What are they up to? Who gives a fuck. They only get a panel or two per issue, if that.

Then we got the return of Thor. From where? No idea. Last I heard he was either dead, or a robot.

Then we've got the return of Captain America. I thought that mother-fucker was dead too... On top of which, he (whoever he might be) hasn't been mentioned in the books for months.

Then we've got the skrull army attacking, so of course....

The Avengers (both teams, who hate each other), join Dead Thor and Dead Captain America, with the Thunderbolts (who must have teleported in), the Howling Commandos (who did teleport in), and the Hood's crew (their sworn enemies).

I just feel like their spending full issues in the Avengers books detailing how one single skrull operative got on the inside, then jam three books worth of "real-time" action into one issue of SI. I also understand why all these people are banding together, but again, it's all done in one panel, or between panels.....

Just my humble-fuck of an opinion.

I was being a bit facetious in regard to my lack of knowledge.... I know that Thor is back out there, and someone else had stepped in as Cap.... But, although it's a company wide crossover, at its heart I still see it as an Avengers story. Cap and Thor are major Avenger's players who haven't gotten any mention in the team books since thier return. AND, if the big reveal of their return to the Avengers is going to take place in SI, give it more than a single splash page. Make it the big deal it should be.

And my main complaint isn't really that I don't know the names of The Young Avengers, or even who Marvel Boy is... It's how condensed this last issue felt. Instead of committing an entire issue to how Pym got replaced by a skrull (months ago) in New Avengers, give me more of what's going on right now....

And yes, I'm probably missing this desired action in the comics that I don't follow.... but my ass has been burned by Marvel before. World War Hulk being a prime example of me picking up comics I don't normally read and getting a ton of unnecessary fluff. World War Hulk:X-men and similar crap is the reason why I'm not going out of my way to spend extra cash on SI.... maybe I'll pick up the trades and reread it all later.

I don't think any writer at this point wants to be part of a tie-in unless they are running the direction of it.

After watching Morrison get F'd over by all the pre-crap that tainted Final Crisis, I think all creators are now wary of editors.

Possible supervillain attack: poison Chinese dairy products.

I suspect Fu Manchu, Wu Fang, or even Lo Pan the Shadow Emperor.

Surely, even you clowns can see the connections here.

From a wide-eyed, utopian, child-like perspective every comic book should be accessible to a new reader walking in the first time. Whether the exposition is force fed through an intro paragraph or delicately weaved into the opening panels of the book, ideally the writer should get the reader up-to-speed so they can revel in the next 20 to 22 pages.

Well, excuse me while I remove the pixie-dust from ass and get grounded back in reality.

This is not an idealistic world and for a book to be truly epic it should transcend and touch upon almost every book within that universe. As we look at a Secret Invasion and Final Crisis it is naïve to think that we will get the full picture from merely the titles that bare those singular names.

Now, I bailed on SI, simply because I did not “get” what was going-on in the grand scheme of things. Why? Frankly, I just don’t read that many Marvel titles. This is hhardly Marvel or Bendis’ fault. I have never cared for the Avengers, the galactic titles do little to titillate me and my love affair with Spider-Man over the years runs as hot and cold as his relationship with the Osborn clan. I’m a mutant guy and quite frankly my interest in mutants just did not provide enough continuity fodder for me to become truly immersed in the pages of SI. I will say however, I loved the bleed of SI into tiltes like X-Factor and She-Hulk. David balanced the content beautifully between what I know about these stories without ever getting heavy handed on the SI tie-in. What I remembered from the first three issues of SI that I had read melded beautifully into these books.

Now, Final Crisis I can speak to. There are a scant few books in the DC universe that I have not read over the past three years. Is this a beautiful cross-over or epic event? No, far from it. Reading Final Crisis as a solitary book is enjoyable, but the cross pollination into other titles feels as though as it has been handled by a swarm of retarded bees. This is counting the lead-up books as well as the books churning out during the throes of the main-event. But at least I can say I understand what is going on…sorta.

From my unlearned opinion I will say that marvel seems to be taking the cake by keeping tight control on events no matter what your ultimate feelings are about the books. From my learned perspective DC has not accomplished this. In the end though, these books should not be viewed as solitary stand-alone titles, that’s why certain books are deemed monthlies and others get the coveted title of cross-over event.

Event fatigue? If only it were JUST that.....

In reality, my complaint is that I feel like the core-book, SI, feels over-packed with action, while what I see as the two "main" ancillary books --New and Mighty-- feel a bit on the light side.

The same plot-point they took an entire issue with, Hank Pym's defection/realization of the Skulls failings, they also made with Skull-Captain Marvell in four or five well paced pages spread out over two issues.

My other complaint is the Marvell Boy suicide attack out of nowhere. If this was set up in another comic, then it shouldn't have been the opening in the latest SI.... It's not even mentioned in the front page recap. And all I want is a little insight into character motivation. That's something I should need to read an entire other book for.

Despite all my bitching, I really am enjoying the story overall. Just wanted to vent a little.

Oops.

And that's exactly my point. Why force a story that has twelve or fifteen issues of action into eight. Either cut some plot or extend the core SI book.

And I don't think that have the "gall" to criticize a comic I love is the same as being jaded.

I have to say that pretty much any character could be a skrull, because the "real" hero could then return at the end of SI. This is why I initially expected Cap and Stark to both be skrulls. So many people dislike the portrayal of Stark as patriot/fascist that his exposure as a skrull who initiated Civil War to disrupt the Marvel Universe seemed very logical and likely. The whole New Mutants/Nitro thing, they could all have been skrulls. I was expecting lots of skrulls, and there have been very few. I know this is repetitive, but it is what really limits my enjoyment of SI, even though I do like it.

Global assaults: Dr. Sirroco

Cosmic terror: Collapstar