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Post by G on Mar 11, 2011 20:43:45 GMT -5
The Thanos Imperative #1 (One-Shot) Marvel Comics Writer - Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning Artist - Miguel Sepulveda Cover - In a word, deceptive. I think I probably pre-ordered the book figuring somewhere inside I would see Thanos, who in the past had been somewhat one of my more favorite villains. Alas, he is nowhere to be found inside and is barely mentioned. Take away the head shot of Thanos and you have another dumbass group shot looking into nowhere. Fucking hate this with a passion! Work itself, not bad. Actual layout, uninspired. Story - The abuse of One-Shots never seems to end and this one should also be filed away under the abused heading. As previously mentioned, I probably bought this book thinking I would be treated to some Thanos action and instead I witness some Inhumans being attacked by Blastaar and his army in a coo attempt to take over Attilan, capital of the Kree Homeworld Hala. While under Siege Crystal summons a dog named Cosmo to summon the Guardians. The dog tells Crystal that there are no more Guardians, but he'll do what he can do. In a nutshell, this comic is basically about the dog going from place to place recruiting various 2nd and 3rd rate heroes to join the cause. One by one each join and they call themselves the Annihilators. As they come together, Cosmo tries to acquaint the team to their headquarters, while doing so, out of nowhere a being known as Ikon of the Spaceknights appears and asks where is this team I am supposed to lead? The story ends there. For a One-Shot, this was a pathetic excuse to put together a comic to basically be a Prelude to the Annihilators #1 comic coming out this month. To be quite honest, it could have been reduced to 3 or 4 pages and the same events could have easily taken place. Instead, we are treated to long drawn out talking sequences where basically nothing happens and too many words sounding like blah, blah, blah take place. The comic is more about Cosmo the dog than anyone. It could have easily been called Cosmo's Quest and it would have been less of a rip off than it was. The art was rather solid but lacked any wow factor at all. The layouts were lame, the colors and inks gave off a bad, seen it before appearance giving the art a copycat experience. An awful lot of the backgrounds had photoshopped pieces or effects that distracted more than it enhanced. Overall, the art was boring and second rate. With less stylization, it could have came off a lot stronger. Worse yet, the story was boring. I hate books where a lot is said and nothing happens and really that is what happens here. If a dog can go around and talk and bring a team together and be called a book, I guess that is what the Thanos Imperative is. What it isn't, is entertaining. I had absolutely no desire to run out and buy Annihilators #1. If this One-Shot was supposed to be a lead in to entice me to buy that book, it painfully failed. This book not only killed itself, it killed the next book too. An amazing feat for a One-Shot. I'd give this 1 out of 5 stars.
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Post by bigw1966 on Mar 13, 2011 9:47:31 GMT -5
Thats to bad, because Abnett and Lanning have been doing a solid job on the Marvel Cosmic books for the last couple of years.
Nice to see them bringing back the Spaceknights though. could we maybe see ROM soon?
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Post by G on Mar 13, 2011 10:36:32 GMT -5
Thats to bad, because Abnett and Lanning have been doing a solid job on the Marvel Cosmic books for the last couple of years. Nice to see them bringing back the Spaceknights though. could we maybe see ROM soon? Perhaps if you were already up on this storyline it wouldn't have been so bad. The book isn't horrible, it just disappointed me a great deal. The book is really more about Cosmo the dog than anything else. Looking at the cover, you would never get that. They could have skipped this book and went right to Annihilators #1 and would have been just as well off. There just anything special about this and that is why I blasted it.
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Post by bigw1966 on Mar 22, 2011 11:07:22 GMT -5
That just fuels my hate for modern covers. You said this title followed the cosmonaut dog, yet its not on the cover anywhere at all.
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Post by G on Mar 26, 2011 13:21:40 GMT -5
That just fuels my hate for modern covers. You said this title followed the cosmnonaut dog, yet its not on the cover anywhere at all. Yeah, the dog is not on the cover and its all about the dog. The title says Thanos and Thanos is on the cover, but he is nowhere inside the book. For those matters alone, this book was a rip off.
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Post by defiant1 on Mar 27, 2011 5:40:28 GMT -5
That just fuels my hate for modern covers. You said this title followed the cosmnonaut dog, yet its not on the cover anywhere at all. Yeah, the dog is not on the cover and its all about the dog. The title says Thanos and Thanos is on the cover, but he is nowhere inside the book. For those matters alone, this book was a rip off. That it Fuhq Dup! or as I say at work, you were F-U-Q-U-E-D. df1
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Post by G on Mar 27, 2011 9:33:51 GMT -5
Seeing "The THANOS imperative" as the title and his mug shot on the cover, you can understand if I thought he might have been in it. Just a fleeting thought that maybe he was someone to be seen in the pages inside. Maybe I didn't do enough research or something. It's probably my fault. I do tend to look at the preview sections in Previews and DCBS when I place my order. I do believe I was telling myself I was going to receive a story that had Thanos in it.
There is good news and bad news with this book. I always prefer to start with the bad news....
The bad news is I got rooked out of my dough to buy this book. Although it was only a couple bucks after discount, it still was a loss.
The good news is now I'm fully aware that I want nothing to do with the Annihilators series. If I had never bought the one-shot, I might have had a slight interest in getting it. Now that is gone.
Also, I think the fact this was a one-shot is an absolute crime. There was absolutely nothing special about it.
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Post by G on Apr 10, 2011 10:41:52 GMT -5
Caligula #1 Avatar Press Writer - David Lapham Artist - German Noble Cover - It could probably fall under the collage kind of cover which I would hate, but this has a bit of insight to it and is well done. Sometimes collages are just dumb pictures of faces and mindless poses. This one tells you just enough to open the cover. Story - If you've read and collected comics as long as I have, you've become jaded to just about every comic put out there. Every time you open a comic there is a certain level of enjoyment, but it never gets beyond that. There is just enough enjoyment to keep you in the hobby, but nothing really making you go "wow". If you're like me, you're looking for something well done both in story and art, pushing the envelope and not insulting your intelligence. Nothing half assed or rushed. No scribbles from big names being passed off as something you SHOULD like. Something that you don't have to read 10 issues before it starts to get good. Something that grabs right away and keeps delivering. Caligula delivers. From cover to cover, this is a well done product. And by time you've read page 2, you know you're ready to go the distance. This isn't a comic you'll read 2 pages of it, put down and come back to later on the toilet. No, this is a one - sitter. You'll be done shitting before you put this one down. You'll be reading with one hand and wiping your ass with toilet paper with the other. Back in the days when Rome ruled the earth. Caligula tells the story where you were either the emperor who was treated like a god and enjoying the excesses of the gift. Or you were a servant to the emperor and you did their every wish or died if you didn't. Sometimes you would do what they wanted and died anyway. Here lies the setup as a lad by the name of Junius, comes home to find his family decapitated and raped after obviously doing the bidding of Gaius Julius Ceasar Augustus Germanious - Caligula. Naturally he uncovers the gruesome deeds, buries the dead and vows revenge. Knowing they would come and take over their dwelling, he burns it to the ground to thwart their efforts and makes his way to Rome to seek his opportunity. Once their he sees the culture classes and divisions of it's people. The townspeople working for the good, while the leaders live in Hedonistic Orgies of self pleasure. Knowing he would have to gain entry to the orgies in order to attempt to kill Caligula, Junius tries to bribe a guard with their finest olive oils only to have to blow it off the guards cock to gain entry. Junius is so set on revenge that he goes through with the deed. Once inside he finds Caligula raping the women inside as though they were his to play with. It's here that Junius sees his opportunity and takes advantage of the moment. The book ends with us all realizing that Caligula may be more gifted than we imagined. The art is solid with great story telling and details. It's certainly not the best art I've ever seen, but its done in a way that doesn't make me sick of it or feels overstylized. It simply tells the story and draws you in. The colors are likewise well done. Usually when you comment on colors, it is not because it was so good, it is because it is so noticeable and it is unsightly. This is realistic coloring without being overbearing. The great thing about Avatar is Avatar never holds back. While other publishers imply what happens, Avatar delivers the deeds in horrific detail. Never putting on the kid gloves. You either handle what Avatar dishes out or you find another publisher. I really can't find anything I didn't like about this book. I'm told all the time how comics are held down by the expectations of today's comics and how we can never go back and do things the way they used to be. I prefer to look at it like comics only have the boundaries that we give them. That all things are possible with comics if one wants to look past the norms of the day and deliver without caring if it meets a specific quota or target audience. If you do solid work, it won't matter what genre, company or creator does it. Solid work is solid work. And Caligula is solid work. If others followed with the same standards of fuck it all and just do it, we'd have a lot more great comics to choose from. I'm tempted to give Caligula a 5 out of 5, but for the sake that nothing is perfect, I'll only lower it to what seems to be my ceiling of 4.5 out of 5. It's rare I say this, but well done Avatar! Well done!
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Post by defiant1 on Apr 10, 2011 13:09:15 GMT -5
That doesn't sound like anything I want to read. I could tell when I saw the title. Your review nails home how I feel about it.
df1
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Post by cyberstrike on Apr 21, 2011 8:15:16 GMT -5
Nice to see them bringing back the Spaceknights though. could we maybe see ROM soon? In one word: no. Marvel doesn't own the all of the rights to Rom they might (and the keyword here is: MIGHT) co-own it with Hasbro, or Hasbro owns all the rights to it. The sad truth is unless it can be proven to suits at Hasbro that there is huge intrest in Rom outside of comics they're not going to let Marvel do anything with the character.
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