Friday Night Fights: KA-POW!! FINAL ROUND!

This is it folks! The last round of Friday Night Fights: KA-POW!! But lucky for us, Space Booger is, in the words of Sasquatch-
But IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME! is bringin' da rukus! KA-BWOK! Flying Canadian courtesy of Marvel Two-in-One issue 83, Tom DeFalco and Ron Wilson.

With Friends Like These...

Is it just me, or was Mike Wieringo one of those guys who just had a pitch-perfect comic book style? Slightly cartoony, but still slick and clean looking. Also, he did one of the best versions of Spider-Man I've ever seen.

The Weekly Thing

Ah, Alpha Flight. What can you say about Canada's premier super-team that hasn't already been said? They were never written or drawn as well as when Byrne was at the helm of their titular series. I had the first dozen or so issues, and a few one-offs like this one here. The Thing is in Canada for...some reason. The Ravager rages. Thing punches Sasquatch so hard he looks like a furry Frisbee. The Ravagers rages some more. Good, wholesome fun.
Never did really figure out what the Ravager was raging about though...

Ben Grimm-Ladies Man

That the Best Ya Got?

What Time Is It?

Friday Night Fights: KA-POW!! Round 11

Back outta the way, Space Booger!

'Cause it's HAMMER TIME! KA-WHOOM!

Sound effects and waaaaay out of date pun courtesy of Straczynski, McKone, and Lanning via Fantastic Four issue # 537. One of the few good Civil War tie-ins.

Be Afraid.

moar funny pictures

The Lovely Ladies of Marvel

Courtesy of the always amazing Bruce Timm. Lovely ain't they?

The Weekly Thing

I'm feeling a bit pulpy today, howsabout you? Hence this baby. It was sadly left out of the Essential Marvel-Two-in-One due to copyright issues, which is a shame because it wasn't bad. Marvel's version of Doc Savage wasn't exactly beans on toast, but it was pretty good. Teaming him up with everyone's favorite man-monster was just icing on the cake here. Lucky for me, I have a copy of this packed away safely for future reading pleasure.

This, However, Does Not...

Yes. That would be Dr. Doom AND Dracula on the MOON. Where they are plotting to take over the world. Dark Reign? We don't need no stinking Dark Reign...

This Disappoints Me...

Why, you may ask? Because, quite simply...DOOM BOWS BEFORE NO MAN! Really, it's on the back of his rookie card for chrissakes...

I've Been Waiting For This Comic My Entire Life...

Haven't you?

Evolution of a Spat

No, not those things Scrooge McDuck wears on his feet. What my ingenious title is referring to is the ongoing tiff between Erik Larsen (Savage Dragon) and the creative team of The Amazing Spider-Man over the recent Spider-Man/Obama comic. Go check out the whole sordid mess, then come back here. I'll wait.
...
Back? Good. Want to hear my opinion?
No?
Too bad. Here we go:
It's bull$h!t. All of it. Larsen's opinion, Wacker's response, the whole kerfluffle. Larsen has hurt feelings because he believes his story was plagiarized. Wacker maintains that since nobody reads Savage Dragon, nobody on his team committed plagiarism. Larsen responded, stating that it was highly improbable, at best that no one batting for Marvel didn't even happen to see his creative effort. In the end, both of them give the appearance of being raging dicks. And for what? Because two corporate entities took advantage of the upcoming inauguration of the President-elect to release material designed to bring in a momentary spike in sales, and only one of them got the momentary credit for it that the national media feels like giving.
My tears, they fall in glistening showers, they does.
Larsen is in competition with Marvel. They are competing corporations engaged in selling a particular form of creative content to an ever-shifting, ever-shrinking and supremely fickle fanbase.
That means dirty tricks happen. Do you have to suck it up and roll? Usually, yeah. That's Capitalism, kids. Ends and means and all that jive. That said, there are things Larsen could have done if he really felt that his creative property had been hijacked. Lawsuits. Rational discourse. That kind of thing. The stuff professionals do.
Instead, he got on a digital soapbox and had a tantrum. Then Wacker, in what was either an overly-defensive dick-move or a calculated effort to generate yet more attention, responded, prodding Larsen to further heights of anger.
It's not that I don't think the man has a case. It's that he decided to present his case to the people passing on the street, instead of to folks who might actually be able to do something about it.
Comics is a business. Ostensibly, the folks working in comics are professionals. It's nice that the creative and editorial staff interact with the fans, but to air their dirty laundry in full view of the public (or as public as CBR gets...) is unprofessional and, frankly, foolish. Amusing as well, but that's beside the point, ain't it?
...
Of course, all of that in mind, this could just be one big publicity stunt on the parts of everyone involved. I'm just paranoid, in general, to believe that. Of course, I also believed in the Hogfather until I was fifteen, so make of that what you will.

Friday Night Fights: KA-POW!! Round 10

Ten Fridays, ten fights, and no sign of Space Booger throwing in the towel yet!

Courtesy of Stan the Man and King Kirby, we have the first match-up between those two primary colored titans the Thing and the Hulk in Fantastic Four issue 12!

The Weekly Thing

They Do That.

Regrettably, yes. Yes they really do.
...
Retail is a special form of purgatory.

Monkeys Make A Party

Yeah, okay, fine, most of these are gorillas, technically. Don't nitpick. Instead, bask in the hairy glory of our four color primate brethren, and contemplate comicbookdom's obsession with said simians.

Friday Night Fights: KA-POW!! Round 9

Space Booger demands the death of one-will it be the Thing or the Brute?

From Fantastic Four issue # 177, written by rascally Roy Thomas and drawn by generous George Perez, wherein an evil Reed Richards from an evil alternate Earth joins the evil Frightful Four, beats up the Thing evilly and smokes a pipe...of EVIL.

The Greatest Single Panel of 2009 So Far

The Weekly Thing

Marvel Two-in-One Annual # 7, with the last three pages thrown in, just to emphasize my point from yesterday's post. This was followed by a hilarious issue of non-annual Marvel Two-in-One where the Thing convalesces while every villain in the Marvel universe with a mad-on for bashful Benjy decides to attack the hospital, which of course leads to brawls with every super-hero in attendance. Meanwhile, the Thing and Sandman drink some beers and smoke cigars.
That's just good comics.

Reason # 3 Why I Should Write "The Thing"-Too Ugly To Die!

The Thing is stubborn. He's the original immovable object, digging his heels in and taking whatever the bad guys unleash full on the chin.
Really, that's what makes Hulk vs. Thing match-ups so memorable...it's not because the two are anywhere near equal in strength (which they aren't, except for rare instances), but rather because the Hulk can't be stopped, and the Thing doesn't care.
Think about that.
It's not a 'never say die' attitude. That requires optimism, and the Thing, whatever else he may be, is not an optimist. He's a realist with a sense of humor, if anything.
Spider-Man refuses to surrender because responsibility propels him on past his breaking point when that building is crushing him flat. Captain America might be an optimist, but more likely it's his sense of right and wrong that moves him to crack the Infinity Gauntlet wielding Thanos across the jaw. Wolverine...Wolverine has that inflated sense of his own toughness that comes with his brand of backwoods machismo.
But the Thing fights because he's always fought. He fought as a punk kid on Yancy Street. He fought in the Air Force. And he fights now, because it's all he really knows how to do. Death is the easy way, and Benjamin J. Grimm has never taken the easy way. It makes him tougher than the average joe in tights, because short of outright killing the guy, there's very little a would-be villain can do to stop him.
However, it's also a big glaring chink in his impenetrable rocky orange hide. When a situation involves throwing punches, the Thing is your guy. But what if it requires a touch more finesse than that? True, he's shown the ability to innovate when it comes down to the wire, to fight smarter not harder, but his first instinct is always to fight.
So what happens when he runs into a situation where he can't?

Mask? Check. Ray-gun? Check. Little Black Book? Check.

(Courtesy of PS238Principal.)

Friday Night Fights: KA-POW!! Round 8

Space-Booger wants us to ring in the 2009 the right way, so here's a hit for the holidays!

You tell 'im, alternate-Earth Thing! Courtesy of John Byrne and Joe Sinnott, in the slobbernocker that was Marvel-Two-in-One issue # 50!