FOG! Chats With STEVE LIEBER About His New Series About Awful People, THE FIX! at FORCES OF GEEK

Hands down, one of the funniest comics from the House of Ideas to come out in this new age of Marvel NOW! was the often overlooked but still celebrated-among-thieves Superior Foes of Spider-Man. You know what? I’m not even sure his holy Web-Head even showed up for more than a few panels in the book. That’s some next level genius marketing there.

From the twisted minds of Steve Lieber (Hawkeye, Hawkman, Whiteout) and Nick Spencer (Morning Glories, Captain America, Astonishing Ant-Man) with team mates (accomplices?) Ryan Hill (colors) and Nic J Shaw (lettering and design) comes their latest Image Comics creation: The Fix. 

This creator owned book is already turning heads for it’s colorful language and comedy the toes the line between violence and the absurdity of real life. It turns out The Fix is about awful people. Who knows if these guys turned the mirror on themselves to get inspiration?

Heck, at least they were nice enough to return my emails! Artist and co-creator Steve Lieber joins us today to previewThe Fix, conveniently just in the nick of time for you to ‘convince’ your shop to order it from Diamond. 

We must warn you moms out there, Steve and I get a little blue in the interview. Earmuffs!

FOG!: You guys have gone and done it again. The question is…why? How did The Fix come about?

Steve Lieber: A collaboration this great doesn’t come around every day. Nick writes characters that I love to draw! Our tastes in what’s funny on the comics page dovetail beautifully. So after we finished Superior Foes, we were eager to work with each other again. Nick had three ideas for our next project. One of them grew into The Fix.

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

Triple Shot With a Digital Chaser: G.I. JOE: #12, SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN #7, INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK #17 plus KAMI #1

Happy New Year!  We hope you get to make your regularly scheduled trip to the comic store this week and when you do, take into consideration this Triple Shot! 

G.I. Joe gets a new writer that explores the origins of different Cobra Commanders past and present, the new Beetle’s origin starts at a birthday party years ago in The Superior Foes of Spider-Man, and Hulk gets mad when people start invading his space in Indestructible Hulk #17.

Kami is a nice quick chaser over at ComiXology.

G.I. JOE #12
WRITER: Paul Allor
ART: Alex Cal, Steve Kurth
Publication Date: December 31, 2013
Price: $3.99
Publisher: IDW Publishing
UPC: 82771400431101211
Buy it HERE

It is no surprise to anyone that I am a fanatical G.I. Joe fan, I literally wear it on my sleeve in the form of an Arashikage tattoo.

Larry Hama’s Marvel run (continuing to date over at IDW) is what got me into comics, and the reboot of the franchise at IDW has impressed and compelled me to write about the multiple IDW series from the get go.

That was because names like Chuck Dixon, Hama, Christos Gage, Mike Costa and Fred Van Lente were carrying on the legacy.


Sure, the main series has had its low points but in general, overall I have been happy.

To my surprise, a guest on my podcast, a relative unknown writer in the scheme of things, Paul Allor was tapped to take over for Fred Van Lente on Season 3 after his departure. Allor cut his teeth in Comics Experience (online classes led by former Joe Editor Andy Schmidt) and quickly got pro work on several TMNT titles.

Allor is picking up on a Gage and Costa concept from G.I. Joe: Cobra in which the Cobra organization has been around for centuries. Like an anonymous Pope, one Commander is replaced by the next, hiding his identity.

This book tells the story of at least two Commanders, not including the present day as C.C. hires a Press Agent to tell the story behind Cobra.

Taking over for one of comics hottest writers, Fred Van Lente can not be easy, and I am delighted to say Paul Allor pulls it off! I can’t wait for the next issue, and more ghosts of Cobra Commanders past!

[READ MORE AT FORCES OF GEEK]

Triple Shot With a Digital Chaser: SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #19, S.H.O.O.T. FIRST #1, BATMAN AND TWO-FACE #24 plus CODE MONKEY SAVE WORLD

Parker gets fired in Superior Spider-Man (surprise, surprise), a team of atheists are charged with facing the occult in S.H.O.O.T. First #1 from Dark Horse, and the New 52 Origin of Two-Face has just begun in the Batman and… series.

Hang out with your boss Skullcrusher on Chiron Beta Prime with Greg Pak and JoCo with Code Monkey Save World, only available on ComiXology.

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #19
WRITER: Dan Slott
ART: Ryan Stegman
Publication Date: October 16, 2013
Price: $3.99
Publisher: Marvel Comics
UPC: 75960607912401911
Buy it HERE

Slott really jacks up the action and resolves more than one hanging plotline, referencing his Amazing Spider-Man run and looking forward to2099 in the latest issue of Superior Spider-Man.  Things are looking like they are coming to a head as Octavius finds himself unemployed and Horizon Labs takes to the sea. Spoiler warning for those that want to catch up in trade, as this issue resolved some major beats!

Michael O’Mara, Spider-Man of 2099 is in the present day as a result of Tiberius Stone mucking about in the Marvel timeline — a common theme this year that we’re hoping will continue as past and future versions of heroes mix with the current day.

Horizon Labs is rigged to explode and all future time will diminish if our Superior Spidey fails to solve an equation—an equation only Peter Parker knows how to formulate! Otto fudges it, saves the day but not Horizon, which is imploded and destroyed.

In the end here are the major points: Parker’s fired from Horizon, O’Mara is now stuck in 2013, Horizon is not allowed to re-open and someone very close to Spider-Man is now on the case of a connection between Superior Spidey and Doc Ock. Can the end be near? Where’s Peter? Gone forever?

The amazing and spectacular team of Ryan Stegman and the masterful Doctor Who time bending make this issue a BIG TIME deal. How long are we with Superior? I have a feeling the payoff and the buildup will continue to impress as Slott keeps us guessing and wanting more.

[READ MORE at FORCES OF GEEK]

Costumes

80sTees.com, Inc.

DigBoston and LeaguePodcast Comic Book Picks of the Week for August 7, 2013

COMICS

Nerd prom aka Boston Comic Con is over but we’re still in our costumes! J. Michael Straczynski introduces the Cowl and his underling Flyboy—but will Flyboy get to come out of the Cowl’s shadow, or will he forever be the second fiddle in Sidekick #1 from Image. … Issue #1 was so funny and weird that even the Punisher has his sites set on The Superior Foes of Spider-Man #2 by Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber. … In G.I. Joe: Cobra Files #5 we have new Joe Clockspring listening to Tomax’s love-life advice. Never take advice from an evil twin determined to rule the world! … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com.

Pass the Daily Dig along! Your friends can sign up here!

Pass the Daily Dig along! Your friends can sign up here!

Triple Shot: THE ROCKETEER & THE SPIRIT #1, ARMY OF DARKNESS VS. HACK/SLASH #1, THE SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #14

Mark Waid continues his winning streak and takes to the skies by pairing up The Rocketeer and The Spirit;  we get our groovy on with S-Mart employee of the month—housewares, 1999—Ash as he joins the Hack/Slash universe written by Tim Seeley and witness an even more unlikely team-up of Superior Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson in this week’s Triple Shot!

THE ROCKETEER & THE SPIRIT #1
WRITER: Mark Waid
ART: Paul Smith
Publication Date: July 24, 2013
Price: $3.99
Publisher: IDW Publishing / DC Comics
UPC: 82771400477900111
Buy it HERE

Have you also been watching The Aviator on a loop, quoting “Way of the future” and “show me all the blueprints” for the past month? Me neither, that would seriously harm the close relationships in your life. “Bring in the milk”.

A perfect companion (or welcome break) from the OCD Howard Hughes biopic would be the latest in Mark Waid’s take on The Rocketeer, co-starring Will Eisner’s The Spirit, subtitled “Pulp Friction”.


Alderman Cunningham is found murdered 3000 miles away in Hollywood from his home in Central City.

After The Spirit, Denny Colt makes his way to California to investigate, The Rocketeer, Cliff Secord and mentor, Peevy grow suspicious.

The Rocketeer picks up The Spirit for an amazing round of hand to hand combat hundreds of feet in the air, unlike anything seen before!

You’ll have to tune in next month to find out more, as Cliff’s Betty starts to fall for none other than The Spirit!

Mark Waid, ladies and gentlemen, teaming up classic characters and telling the best stories in monthly comic books on the shelves this year.

[READ MORE at FORCES OF GEEK]

DigBoston and LeaguePodcast Comic Book Picks of the Week for July 3, 2013

COMICS

The Master Stan Sakai has taken a break (not really) from his rabbit samurai to team up with Dark Horse publisher Michael Richardson to tell the story of Japan’s most famous historical legend in 47 Ronin. This 40-page Giant Size Conclusion of 47 Ronin #5 (of 5) follows Lord Asano’s loyal retainers as they seek revenge. … Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Invincible Iron Man) teams up with Howard Chaykin (American Flagg!) to gives us a peek into the dark side of golden age serialized television in the 1950s with murder as the backdrop in Satellite Sam #1. … Look out, Superior Spider-Man, it is the Return of the Sinist- NO, wait it is the Debut of Superior Foes Of Spider-Man #1 starring Boomerang, Shocker, Speed Demon, Overdrive and the new Beetle. They’re one villain short of a picnic! This new ongoing caper from Nick Spencer (Secret Avengers, Morning Glories) and drawn by Steve Lieber (Whiteout). … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com.

Pass the Daily Dig along! Your friends can sign up here!

TRIPLE SHOT: TEN GRAND #1, SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #9 and IRON MAN 258.1- FORCES OF GEEK

TRIPLE SHOT: 
TEN GRAND #1, SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #1 and IRON MAN 258.1

Has JMS grounded himself to a new imprint, Doc Ock has really messed with the wrong Spider and to celebrate Iron Man 3 (we guess), Marvel takes us back to the Roaring ‘90s for a David Michelinie, Dave Ross and Bob Layton retread Armor Wars II with a flashback story arc starring Tony Stark in Iron Man #258.1.

TEN GRAND #1
WRITER: J. Michael Straczynski
ART: Ben Templesmith
Publication Date: May 2, 2013
Price: $2.99
Publisher: Image Comics
UPC: 70985301360000111
Buy it HERE

J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) is responsible for one of the best sci-fi shows on television, prior to the Battlestar Galactica reboot, Babylon 5.

He has also upset fans with controversial runs on Amazing Spider-Man and Superman. The latter got him summarily dismissed from DC Comics and he handed the Grounded storyline over to Chris Roberson. Not many people were happy with a Superman ‘walking the country’.

He stays on the character with his equally controversial series of original graphic novels for DC, a grittier two volume Superman: Earth One hardcovers with the Shane Davis on art. 

Not many books have graced the shelves since Superman: Earth One Volume Two written by JMS. This is likely because of his plan to revisit his Top Cow imprint Joe’s Comics with some creator owned series. 

The first of this rebooted imprint’s titles is Ten Grand written by JMS with art by horror spooksmith Ben Templesmith. The story is based on the noir trope of having a dame walk into a private dick’s office, with an insolvable case. Here in issue #1, at the start we realize that former mob enforcer Joe Fitzgerald has touches with an angel figure, summoned by necromancy and demonology. Joe spends most of his days awaiting freelance assignments from a neighboring watering hole.

Joe is also entered into a deal with the demons haunting his world. His woman was killed in front of him, and to reconnect with his Laura, he has become an enforcer for the dark spiritual world. 

This book is great, if a little heavy on the recurring themes. It is a successful matchup of noir, horror, gangster and necromantic genres. Though not a funny book, this draws similarities to Chew. This is also recommended for fans of Sandman, Lucifer and Death.

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #9
WRITER: Dan Slott
ART: Ryan Stegman
Publication Date: May 2, 2013
Price: $3.99
Publisher: Marvel Comics
UPC: 75960607912400911
Buy it HERE
 
Does anyone besides me remember the Prince album,Controversy?

The title track is the one to listen to on Spotify halfway through this book! Warning: this review (though not typical of me) contains spoilers! If you love Peter Parker, but have not read this book yet, please skip below to my benign Iron Man review. Seriously!

Dan Slott loves getting us all worked up, doesn’t he? The reason he does is because he likes Spider-Man more than anyone!

There is even a very obscure reference to a Spider-Man lettering blooper from Amazing Spider-Man #1, where Peter is called Peter Palmer for one panel! 

He’s killed Peter and Doc Ock has taken over Peter’s body, and making a Superior Spider-Man (hopefully you’ve caught up to that story, that’s not my spoiler). Old eight arms is swinging around, being rude to everyone, but sort of being a better — superior — Spider-Man, and one that uses lethal force. Fortunately for the 616, Doc’s intentions albeit with different motivations are in line with the whole ‘With great power comes great responsibility’ thing.

In this issue, Doc has discovered that an avatar of Peter’s memories (we’ve seen Peter as a blue ghost) exists in his head! Oh. Noes. Like a splinter, Octavius seeks to extract this menace from his brain, and has the right tools to do so. Uh-oh.

A psychic battle ensues as Peter (and an awesomely drawn by Ryan Stegman Amazing Spider-Man) happens in the brain space of Peter Parker’s memories. On Peter’s side we have J. Jonah Jameson, Captain Stacy, Gwen, Uncle Ben, you name it. Over on Ock’s side are visions of Uncle Ben’s killer, The Kingpin, The Sinister Six, Kraven and Chameleon. 

The constructs are knocked away by Superior, as his Neurolitic Scanner connected to a tablet is about to run the “Delete Peter Parker from My Brain” app. Peter’s memories fade. They fade, eventually to black. Slott has crushed everyone’s hopes that Peter will take back control of his body and be The Amazing Spider-Man once again.

Search twitter to see everyone’s mind blown after this issue. Haters are coming out of the woodwork. Thankfully, we think the death threats to Dan Slott have gone away.

Make mine Marvel NOW!, if this is what we can expect. How do you keep a 51 year old property fresh? Give it to Slott. He’ll kill it, extract it, build it up and then take your toys away. 

Is Peter still out there, somewhere? He’ll be back before Amazing Spider-Man 2 hits the theaters.

IRON MAN 258.1
WRITER: David Michelinie / Bob Layton
ART: David Ross / Bob Layton
Publication Date: May 2, 2013
Price: $3.99
Publisher: Marvel Comics
UPC: 75960607421100111
Buy it HERE

This is a shellhead scratcher if we ever saw one. We know our comics. We love our Armor Wars. We love our Marvel. We love our movies.

Marvel goes back 23 years on the Iron Man 3 box office debut weekend for a Point One initiative two-shot set in the time of Armor Wars II. We’d have loved to see M.D. Bright or John Romita Jr. on a cover but Bob Layton will do.

This is just weird enough for us to be in love with it a little bit.

Who doesn’t love a superhero with a mullet, or computers with 8-bit fonts and dial-up modem sounds?

Also, suitcase armor. The once forgotten about, impossibly heavy, but resurrected for Iron Man 2, suitcase armor. 

Tony is recovering from back surgery and paralysis. It turns out, that Justin Hammer is behind implanting him with nanites to control his body under the guise of recovery.

A drone attack on Stark Enterprises riles Rhody to the company helicopter, and Stark’s body guard, Iron Man takes flight. The autopilot takes over and is on a collision course. Iron Man saves James Rhodes from the crash and destroys the drones.

Back at his doctor’s office, Iron Man investigates the biomass removed from his spine, only to discover he is being played by a computer energy form. Will these bits and bytes spark the nextArmor Wars? Travel back in time or wait until next month to find out!

A detail that made me nostalgic for old comics was thought bubbles. Can’t have too many, in my opinion. And now in modern comics we have none! OK, back to playing Zelda 2 for me!

[READ MORE at FORCESOFGEEK]

EARTH PRIME TIME: SINISTER SIX SULLIED BY SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN – SPOILERS

Here at Earth Prime Time, we have plenty to fidget and sigh about. Books are expensive and when our heroes make it to the big screen, we’re either elated or extremely disappointed. Today, an extremely hyped up book hits the stands and tablets across the world and fans of Peter Parker are fidgeting and or sighing with relief. Writer Dan Slott promised one more trick up his sleeve after he killed Peter Parker in the last issue of Amazing Spider-Man #700 just after Christmas. We’re going to talk about that trick and pull a first for this comic book column. We’re going to spoil it so look no further if your Spider-sense is tingling!

I know what you are thinking, there’s a million blogs and tweets about this issue today, mostly from credible sources with great insight and creator access. Why turn to an unprecedented Earth Prime Time single issue review for news about Peter Parker’s fate and Doctor Octopus occupying the Spider-Suit? It’s because these comics are fun and we’re having fun with our torn-up feelings about Slott’s run.

From Big Time to Spider-Island to Marvel NOW the ideas are huge and the character of Peter Parker has felt more authentic than he has in years.

Why kill him off or replace him like oh-so-many stories of Dick Grayson filling in for Bruce Wayne after Final Crisis? To sell more issue #1 comics? Sure. To expand on a 50-year-old property with many television shows, games and movies in it’s wake? Definitely. What’s clear to me after reading this was that Slott and Marvel calculated the fan reaction and let us stew in our own fetid juices for weeks before hinting at a trap-door for Peter.

For weeks we were made to think that was THE END and there was no possible way for Parker to survive a body switch with a decrepit Doc Ock.

The transference of memories and empathy from Peter Parker to his enemy Doctor Otto Octavious in the finale of ASM #700 pointed fingers at permanence and we thought we lost our hero. But did we? Find out after we showcase the breakout stars of Dan Slott and Ryan Stegman’s Superior Spider-Man #1, the all-new Sinister Six.

[READ MORE at DIGBOSTON.com]

DigBoston and LeaguePodcast Comic Book Picks of the Week for January 9, 2013

COMICS

Today’s the day that Dan Slott and Ryan Stegman release Superior Spider-Man #1. Doc Ock is in Peter’s body and there’s nothing any of us Spider-Fans can do about it. Slott promises another trick up his sleeve for the debut of Superior Spider-Man #1 today! Preview here. It’s no trap, it’s just a new Star Wars series from Dark Horse featuring Han, Luke, Leia and the gang in Star Wars #1. … Our all-ages pick this week is Neil Gaiman and Adam Rex’s Chus Day. Chu is a cute little panda with a big sneezing problem. Keep him away from the pepper! … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com.

Pass the Daily Dig along! Your friends can sign up here!