- Man, people are making a stink about the new Newsarama boards. Some people are REALLY bent out of shape.
- I'm more thrown by Newsarama becoming more of an entertainment site than a comic book site and basically turning all of their articles into blogs, rather than leading into traditional message board discussion. Still, better than CBR's "hey...go find somewhere on our site to talk about it" style.
- Without giving spoilers, I'm not as sold on Trinity yet as others. Yeah, Busiek has the characters down cold. But some of the elements that they're building from scratch here (I'm being vague as possible) could backfire. Busiek was hit-or-miss on new elements he introduced in Superman (mostly miss from what I can remember). When he missed, it could only hurt an issue or an arc. Here, it looks like a majority of the series could very well hinge on how fans react to entirely new creations.
- I think Millar's Kick Ass is interesting, if not setting the world on fire for me. But I find my opinion of it is often negatively effected by the hype machine Millar rolls out for it. From quoting sycophant fans on the back of the book as if they were noteworthy critics to at least one quote whore I know reviewing the book just in hopes of being quoted.
- Secret Invasion #3: wasn't the most outlandish spoiler that Mr. Anonymous gave me, but it still qualifies as another "I told you so" moment. I'm wondering what's going on with the biggest bomb he said they'd be dropping on the readers, though.
In response to some of the stuff in the comments section:
- Yes, Bagley does, indeed, rule on Trinity. He does great work on the book. I'm just a bit of a cynic, which is why I focused on my fears for the book in the comment rather than the good stuff. I'm glad to see a strong start on the backup art with the choice of McDaniel, too.
- I've revealed the (potential) biggest bomb for Secret Invasion in the past, but it was via a vlog. I'll embed that vlog in the bottom of this blog shortly (update: rather than embed, here's the link). I haven't heard from Mr. Anonymous again since shortly after the release of the first issue. That's consistent with his stated motives, though. He made it clear to me that the reason why he was passing along the info was directly related to how much of an asshat "Marvel_b0y" was being.
- I'll not delve into a Newsarama vs. CBR pissing match, but I've always thought that articles that go directly into a forum to discuss the news was one of the things that made fans flock to the 'Rama in larger numbers than CBR. I think the change takes some of the charm away, but how much remains to be seen.
- Peter Tomasi and crew are certainly kicking ass on Nightwing. I'll say, though, that I was a little disappointed to see how irregular Rags Morales has been in his contributions to the book. I wonder if he might have still been contributing a bit to the Batman Confidential arc he did with Tony Bedard. While I'm sure Rob might still lop off an appendage to be him, the number of times other artists have had to fill-in for him is making his timeliness look more Liefeldian with every passing day. Update: Ken B. mentions below that Rags explained on a Newsarama forum that the fill-ins on Nightwing have largely been necessary due to his commitment to aforementioned Batman Confidential arc.
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has Mr. Anonymous posted any further spoilers?
ReplyDeleteWhat was the biggest bomb? Or are you keeping that a secret?
ReplyDeleteThe new Newsarama does suck.
ReplyDeleteSo much damn clicking just to see what others have to say.
God, I hate to say it, but CBR has better articles these days, even coupled with their crappy flooding of reviews by people I don't care about. 'Rama had the 10 ten FF members, while CBR had a very good Bendis talk on Secret Invasion #3.
And Bagley rules already in the DC sandbox. A lot of people are saying it, but the guy draws a damn good Flash (and his kids look like kids, too), I can't wait to see his Nightwing.
Also, Nightwing is the best book DC is publishing, can't say that enough. Tomassi is such a solid writer who adds so much stuff in each issue but it never seems cluttered like a Claremnot comic. And the plot is so, so smart. Kudos to Tomassi, Rags, and Kirk for their work.
CBR offically became the Marvel Mouthpiece when, on the day that the NY newspapers were talking about DC #0 and the return of Barry Allen (the same day, that Newsarama was able to follow-up with an interview with Johns and Morrison and a REVIEW of #0), CBR's lead story was preview pages from Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1. They ignored a story getting play in other media for pages from a book that was a) way late, and b) didn't ship for four more weeks. How on Earth is CBR the better entity?
ReplyDeleteHey, CBR still does suck, but they're striking very well since newsarama turned over to an all entertainment field. They also took Tilting at Windmills back from 'rama. And LitG is always something to look forward too.
ReplyDeleteNewsarama has Ambidexterous, a boring column with a guy that lost any shred of credibility when he defended OMD as a great work, clearly looking to get in good graces with Marvel to write another story for them.
Kevin, I had the same problems you did about Rags being the regular artist on Nightwing on the old 'rama back when you they had a dedicated "Features" thread.
And, back when people communicated in that very effective way, he did respond to my concerns, and said he had to finish his commitment on Batman Confidential. He is aware he's been spread thin (the divorce too), but he's doing his best to fix it. He didn't blow it off with a Brevoort-style lie or strawman argument, and I give him 5 respek knuckles for it.
And I think he can. The guy went 13 issues on Hawkman non stop and did Hourman no problem, so he can do it.
Thanks for the info, Ken. I'll update the blog to reflect it.
ReplyDeleteCount me in the group that hates the change at Newsarama. And no, I didn't gripe about it on the Newsarama site. Telling someone their new direction is lacking isn't going to do anyone any good when it's obvious they aren't going to change it (ASM, I'm looking at you too).
ReplyDeleteI don't think I would mind the new format if it wasn't so click through oriented. It seems designed to obfuscate the information as much as possible and make me click things constantly to try and find any content. It's a shame too, because I really felt Newsarama provided better coverage than other sites in interviews with questions that were much more than fluff (at least sometimes). As it is now Newsarama seems like CBR's awkward preteen kid brother that always wants to tag along.
The only issue I had with the old site was the lack of RSS feeds, which caused me to have to go the site on a regular basis throughout the day (which with ad views I would think was working in their favor). But when I did load the site I could see all the articles right there on the front page and pick and choose what I was interested in. And I liked checking in on the discussion associated directly with the article if it was an article I was interested in.
Having said all that, I will say there has been one good thing about the Newsarama change, my productivity at work has increased significantly.