Saturday 14 October 2017

Prophet Book 5: Earth War (#1-6)

"Now follow me, brothers.  We are nearly there" - FreeJohn

And so finally we come to the end of the acclaimed Prophet reboot, which took a bunch of uninspired Rob Liefeld characters created in the 90's and spun them into a wildly imaginative sci-fi storyline.  I've covered the four preceeding volumes and it's too complicated  a plotline with many different branches to fully rehash in this intro but basically the war in space had finished with the conclusion on the main series and the Earth War miniseries we're looking at here ties up various loose ends on well, Earth.  A huge army of aliens opposed to the Empire Brain Mothers and their reawakening of the millions of clone Prophets that they telepathically control seeded across thousands of worlds, has gathered on Earth for the final battle.  Our main characters are Old Man Prophet the man who commanded the army who beat the Empire first time around and his comrades the techno-organic robot Jaxson, immortal android Diehard, the tree-like being Hiyonhoiagn and the female reptilian assassin Rein-East.  They hooked up with several other Johns who had found their own ways to resist the mind control of the Brain Mothers at the end of the series thanks to some alien spores they were beneficially infected by, this included the gay male assassin John-Greenknife, the female scout John-Ka and a warrior FreeJohn grown on a world that required him to have a tail.  At the end of the main series the Empire stole the nucleus egg of something called "The Red Pain" which will also be making an appearance in this miniseries.  So time to wrap up Prophet for good it seems.

We start with "Jung Brother Hiyonhoiagn" flying across the remains of an Imperial Fortress which has been laid waste by an unknown foe. He communicates telepathically with Old Man Prophet saying whatever it was it has come and gone.  Inside a bubble of "shipskin" Old Man Prophet tells him that his mind is open if he finds anything. As he floats the skin shields his mind as he links his thoughts to his "crew-brothers".
Old Man Prophet.
He reaches out mentally across the vast homeworld of mankind, he wants to locate the nucleus egg of the Red Pain that an Empire Prophet seized a month ago.  The power would be disastrous in the hands of the enemy Empire, "a power capable of enslaving the myriad intelligent races that now call this system home."

He senses a chill and the distant sound of cracking like ice.  He feels minds, strong and alien, pushing through his defences. Through all his shields they speak to him, "human. We can help in what you seek.  Expect us. Soon".  Old Man Prophet pulls himself back and leaves the shipskin.

He returns to his parked ship, it was taken from the Pirate Lords of The Body City and "flown to the green hills of Earth".   He walks crouched through corridors made for shorter beings.  He sees "new friends in a new home."  It's the first time he has lived with other Prophets since the last war and he is having to learn not to see them as just the enemy.
FreeJohn contemplates Earth.
He climbs to the top of the ship and sitting on the roof is FreeJohn, who says "strange. To know this world and yet be so unsure if it is new to my eyes."  FreeJohn asks why Old Man Prophet is still wearing his helmet aren't the "Basidian spores" enough to guard his mind?  Old Man Prophet says he has little trust and the last time he unmasked he thought the war was over.

FreeJohn: " I see those around, this world and all I've seen of space corrupted by the Empire that grew us. If war is the only tool we are given to turn the tides. Then war we must."

Old Man Prophet sees his own ideals reflected back at him with clarity.  He looks down and sees John-Ka sparring with Rein-East.  He mentions that they should expect the visitors he made contact with soon. "Friend or foe?" asks FreeJohn. Old Man Prophet says it remains to be seen.

He says he doesn't like the idea of putting more faith in God-beings "but what other choices are mortals given?"  The armies are counting on them to lead so lead they must. The armies have gathered in a huge tent city, today there is going to be a competition between champions for the honour of their clans and entertainment of their comrades.

John-Greenknife gathers wood to feed their living starship.  He feels more at home in the tent city than amongst his own clones. Suddenly he comes across a strange scene, "blind monks chanting to a poly crystalline child".  John-Greenknife runs to alert Old Man Prophet and FreeJohn. It seems their allies have arrived, "crystal priests from the far west".  They have come to talk of war but have found revelry and have their own champion for the arena competition the mass group of waiting aliens have decided to have..
The Crystal beings prove their strength.
So the contest begins and the Crystal Priest's champion defeats all, there are no deaths as it did not need to spill blood to show its power.  Afterwards they have a summit with the Crystal-Blessed inside a "Qid-Pid" Starship.   To defeat the Man-Empire they must take the communication towers, but the Priest-King notes they have too few in their army to achieve that.  They want to get rid of the Man-Empire too and they also know where it keeps its secrets, the Red Nucleus.

FreeJohn asks what they want in trade? The Priest-King says their goals are one.  But they need the King's brother "High Kumandan Osmeka" killing as his hatred for humans has blinded him.  In order for their armies to join theirs he needs to be got rid of to clear the way. They put all the information in a crystal ring.  Old Man Prophet says Diehard will go, but the King says a human is needed for a mission so delicate.  So John-Ka volunteers.  She is handed the crystal ring and asks if she will kill him with this or her blade which delights the King.
John Ka accepts the misson.
She climbs aboard Hiyanhoiagn and they fly off. Waiting outside the camp are the "pilgrim-cities of the Crystal-Blessed" marching to the crystal's call.  The King watches them. They seek the freedom of the tower to better commune with the All-Crystal, the Empire is enemy to all.

We then see inside one of the towers.  A lone Star Prophet carries a precious cargo.  It is "the nucleus-heart of the Red pain's living nebula."  The Brain Mothers there say it must be kept secret.   Elsewhere the four-armed "World Raper, High Arc Lord Multi-Muitox" is finishing off some resistance to the Imperial Sword.  He appeared briefly in an earlier episode, Old Man Prophet cut off one of his arms which he replaced with a steel one to remind himself who did it.

John-Strykhnos arrives, his most trusted eye.  They go inside Muitox's ship to be safe from prying minds.  The John tells him that something passed through the towers that the All-Mother's would keep for themselves.  Muitox shows him repurposed clone tanks, growing Prophets of his own that will be free of Brain Mother control.

Moitox asks where the item is now?  John tells him they have taken it to "Mentis-Keep".  He consults with his tank grown psychics which are strong enough to hide his ships lower rooms from Imperial minds.  They tell him to strike now, "on your word we will open the way".  Muitox tells them to do so and their minds push out as one.  He finds a lone Brain Mother and kills her and takes her crown shield and puts it on.  Hours later his ship reaches Mentis-Keep, a sanctuary for Earthbound Brain-Mothers.
World Raper, High Arc Lord Multi-Muitox
He gets out of his ship along with his own Prophets.  He is greeted by a Brain Mother's projection of her young girl self and he tells her she has no power here.  The Wolf-Rayet traitor (Old Man Prophet) was the only one who grew his own soldiers he says.  He is taking control of the Empire:

Muitox: "Our Empire.  You parasites will no longer be needed."

Then a fight breaks out between Johns who are on the Brain Mother's side and Moitox's FreeJohns.  Muitox's clones cut a swathe through the Empire Johns, "the Brain Mothers are no match for cold steel." He is drawn to the nucleus and he alone reaches the room it is in, "calling him to it.  It is a pain that hurts to not be part of. With a touch.  It consumes him".
We then return to Exmere, the psychic self of a long gone Brain Mother who has been cut off from the communal mind and has been journeying through the system alone.  But suddenly she feels something, Imperial minds united in pain, "a cry from Earth".  As she gets closer she sees a red mass made up of a "multitude of torn minds, screaming in unison.  Screaming with unfocused red rage".

It sees her and she blasts her way through it to find one mind in the middle stronger than the others, which interests her. She travels deeper and finds Muitox lost within the nucleus' power.   Her mind form touches his and pulls it into focus, "it is an all consuming focus that devours the weaker minds surrounding it.  The red rage quiets into a calm."  And the thing that was once Multi-Moitox opens his thoughts to the Red Mother Exmere.
Muitox and Exmere meet in the Red Pain.
Hiyonhoiagn flies west through the cool midday air, then drops his cargo, John-Ka in a cocoon of pink shipskin. Her destination is "Yuinaika" the stronghold of the southern anti-human armies.  Behind the walls is the target High Kumandan Osmeka.  There is an unguarded entry point just as the Crystal Priest promised.  The shipskin can't go further with her and she climbs into the tunnel alone.

Inside she finds Diehard, and Rein-East too.  They flew in before sunrise and Rein is asleep right now.  John-Ka asks is Old Man Prophet didn't trust her? Diehard says "you he trusts.  You wouldn't be here otherwise.  It's the Crystal Priest he has far less faith in."  John-Ka takes out a brand new "brainfly" she grew for this, they act as scouts for her.  They then check the crystal ring and see that in a day's time the target will be out in the open.
Checking the plan.
He sits back and tells her the whole mission stinks as bad as John suspected.  The place they are in now was emptied out for them, he can see blood on the floor.  He nibbles some food and when John-Ka says she didn't think he ate, he says he took on some new parts, "long ago I had my own tongue".  He notes that the Prophets' taste things differently from how old humans do.  She says the rations taste fine to her.

Later Rein-East wakes up.  She looks around for Diehard who she has a bit of a crush on, John-Ka says he went out a few hours ago.   He is walking the streets leaving bits of him behind as sentries.  He sees some Crystal-Blessed walking past towing a huge crystal.  The air becomes heavy with the psychic weight of the shard, "this mission is a spark in an already combustible situation".

He returns to John-Ka and Rein now somewhat skinny of body, his body parts will stay in contact with him and he hands them each a body part to hear through.  John-Ka gets into position as a crowd gather for the High Kumandan Osmeka.  Diehard through his bodyparts watches the armed Crystal-Blessed move towards the tower.   His arm tells John-Ka to pull off his finger, she does so and his hand goes walking off on its fingers.  She sees through her drone-fly's eyes. Finally the target comes into view.
Diehard uses his body to link them up.
He has a line of captured Prophets and a being armed with an executioner's axe.  His voice is just gutteral screams to her vat-grown ears.  She says she can end this now, it's "no way for Prophets to die."  Diehard tells her to wait.  Through th drone-fly's eyes she sees the first John get his head cut off.   Then Diehard's finger says she must get out of the tunnel now.  She brings the drone-fly back but also sees Kumandan Osmeka's head explode in gore. "That wasn't me!" she shouts.

She clambers onto the tunnel's outside roof with not a moment to spare as armed guards arrive.  Diehard against his better judgement frees the Empire clones.  He asks if they are ready to fight their way out and they say yes.  He tells Rein to get out quietly too, they'll all meet up at sundown.  John-Ka drops some gas bombs and Diehard and the Prophets battle their way through.

He sees Rein fighting too and joins her along with John-Ka who jumps down to where they both are.  A crystal warrior appears and slices up the Prophets.  Diehard, Rein and John-Ka manage to escape though.  They re-enter a tunnel underground and travel out of the city.  They sit and wait for all of Diehard's body parts to make their way back to him. He says to Rein as soon as he is whole they will travel back and warn John, "the priest's betrayal bodes ill for this war."  John-Ka sits apart with her brain-fly examining the crystal ring she was given.
Old Man Prophet chats with the treacherous Crystal-Priest.
We return to Old Man Prophet and the army, bolstered by the Crystal-Blessed, is on the march to war at "Thailli Vah".  Old Man Prophet is wearing a blue gelatinous thing round his neck called a "dolmantle".  It belonged to John-Greenknife's lover, the John Prophet who was first awakened on Earth and who activated the revival of all the Prophets everywhere, but who was killed at the end of the previous book after gaining self will.  John-Greenknife has given it to his "new father".

The towers come into view. The Crystal-Priest says that before the Man-Empire returned, generations of the Crystal-Blessed devoted their lives to rebuilding these towers.  Repairing centuries of damage and preparing the world for the All-Crystal. But the Empire slayed many, only some survived in the southern mountains. There is a loud humming sound the Crystal-Priests chant round the Crystal-Beasts until suddenly they metamorphosise into Crystal Titans.

Elsewhere far from the caravan, great hives of creatures are being upset and they are devouring one another.  They are being overridden by an outside mind.  The Red Pain nucleus with Exmere and Muitox is responsible, he says these animal minds are not enough to dull the pain.  Then he feels something calling and it must be heeded.  "Lead on Muitox" says Exmere.

The army assaults the towers.  Beneath the combined might of the Crystal-Blessed and the Free Armies, "the defences of the Earth Empire crumble."  Muitox and Exmere pass unconcerned over the battle, but they don't go unnoticed as Old Man Prophet senses a familiar Red Pain. The pain draws Muitox towards the towers focus, the entry to "bleed space".   His physical body is consumed to fuel the massive telekinetic output that drives them on, "only the power of Multi-Muitox and Red Exmere's will keeps their physical forms intact."
Ur-space.
They reach the tower's apex and break into bleed-space.  The Red Egg pushes farther, farther than living flesh can survive.  In a final desperate act they reach out with their minds to retain their link to the Red Shard and pass beyond the bleed.  The Red Egg returns to its birth dimension, "an ur-space beyond reality.  Where physical forms cannot follow".  Muitox and Exmere's psychic selves float in the both with their hands on the Red Shard.

Back on Earth, Diehard, John-Ka and Rein-East have made the rendezvous with Hiyonhoiagn but he's been injured by the Crystal-Blessed.  He tells Diehard to fly back and warn Old Man Prophet of the deceit.  So he leaves.  Hiyonhoiagn then says more are coming, they are tracking them via the crystal ring they gave John-Ka.  So he uses some shipskin to attach to the ring and float it away to divert those following it.

They will have to take the long way back to avoid their pursuers and John-Ka's brainfly shows her the Crystal-Blessed have found their trail.  The only option is to cross what looks like a sandy expanse but which is actually a creature grown by the Hoxiplotl as feeding temples for their cult.  John-Ka and Rein must lie on his back and make no noise while they quietly cross.
A stressful crossing for two of them.
Hiyonhoiagn makes his way silently across while John-Ka and Rein relax and enjoy the ride.  Suddenly John-Ka's stomach makes a loud rumble. And Hiyonhoiagn has to quietly side-step an appendage that shoots out to feel around for them.  Thankfully it doesn't find them.  The pursuing Crystal beings are not as subtle and the tentacles rip them apart.  Finally they make it across safely, "I would wish to never do that again" says Hiyonhoiagn.  But now they should keep moving.

We return to Muitox and Exmere suspended in blackness holding onto the Red Pain nucleus.  They discover form which appears around them and a giant female figure appears and says "few transcend Earth space" to them. She is Glory, another one of Rob Liefeld's creations.  She is a half demon demi-God who was conceived as a Wonder Woman rip-off and got a reinvention of her own a few year ago which I covered here and here.
Glory.
She holds out her hand to them, taking the Red Pain shard back. She says that here "I create new universes of my own". 

Narration: "Atop Glory's true titanic form, minds open.  They perceive beyond Glory into the vastness of ur-space.  They see the All-Crystal.  Vast, filling the void between universes.  Its power - and hunger - is overhwelming."

Back with Hiyonhoiagn, he is air-bourne again with Rein and John-Ka sleeping on him.  But they come under attack from a Xoan Vercia which launches missles at them.  John-Ka's brainfly deal with it but it was just a scout.

Down below the Xoan Krliah are feeding their Empire prisoners to Pit Larva.   John-Ka is angered at this sight and has to fight her anger to recall her brain fly.   Rein says to her that change is hard.  John-Ka says in the past she would have gone to war for those Empire lives.  Rein says she was prepared to die for revenge when she met this new family, "I think this life is better." They fly on.

In ur-space Exmere says she senses the crystals hunger for something.  Glory says they are massing where the membrane between ur-space and their world is thinnest.  Soon they wil break through and remake the world in their own image.   Muitox says "Bah! They will fail! The Earth is timeless!"

Exmere pleads with Glory says she knows she has left the Earth behind but she should consider what would be lost to the crystals now.  Glory tells her the Earth once meant much to her, "I would allow it if only for nostalgia."  She and Exmere open their minds to each other.  We see Glory's arrival on Earth a very long time ago.  Exmere born with the love of Earth "imbued through the song of her sisters." And we a montage of panels covering both their histories with Earth as Exmere takes over Glory's mind.
Red Exmere takes over.
Meanwhile on Earth now, the army have carved their way up to Thailli Vah. Old Man Prophet leads the assault on the tower and at the top they find the tether holding the "G.O.D satellite" in place.  But suddenly it transforms into "The Eye of All - gatekeeper to the Imperial afterlife". A legend now real and deadly. FreeJohn says if it can kill it can die.

But the Crystal-Priests start up a chant and the apparition ends up trapped and it's vessel destroyed as the "chant shakes the air like hammer against steel."   Old Man Prophet says it was just a psychic projection of a war-mother that he was too superstitious to see through.  FreeJohn says they all were and now it is time to attack the satellite itself, the shipskin surrounding them allowing them to fly up to it.

FreeJohn and Old Man Prophet reach the inside and fight off the Prophets in there.  Old Man Prophet honouring his side of the bargain as the crystal worshippers honoured theirs teleports the Crystal Host inside.  The Crystal Host walks with them to the war room and tells them that finally they will cut open the Bleed and welcome the All-Crystal into this universe.
FreeJohn saves Old Man Prophet.
Old Man Prophet says this was not what they agreed.  So the Crystal Host stabs him through the arm telling him "do not struggle against the inevitable".  FreeJohn grabs the sword hanging close by that was believed to belong to the original Prophet and cuts off Old Man Prophet's arm which was turning to crystal.  Elsewhere Diehard is racing back to them.

FreeJohn attacks the Crystal Host but it sends out a wave of projectiles.  Old Man Prophet manages to deflect them but FreeJohn isn't so fast and he dies, stabbed through the throat.  Old Man Prophet says he deserved better.  The Crystal Host says his matter like Old Man Prophet's will be transmuted as it can feel the All-Crystal passing into this space.
Glory SMASH!
Diehard cuts his way inside and blasts the Crystal Host. Hiyonhoiagn also speeds back with Rein-East and John Ka as the Bleed opens to ur-space and the All-Crystal within.  But something else comes through.

Narrator: "After thousands of years, the Amazon and demon-born super-being Glory returns to Earth, slave to Red Exmere's control. As the towers shatter, so too breaks the All-Crystal's portal to Earth-Space."

Diehard grabs Old Man Prophet and flies him to safety, they feel the Red Pain as they fly down.  Glory gains control of her mind again, catching the Red Pain shard that gave Exmere her power of control.  And with that, the Pain is and she is gone.

Afew days later everyone has gathered on the starship "Insulam Reverti".  Old Man Prophet and Diehard sit together and Old Man Prophet asks Diehard if he thinks of Earth as his home.  Diehard says the place he knew hasn't existed for a long time, "and where I felt most at home was not even that."

They invite Rein-East to come sit with them because they are talking like "old men" and Old Man Prophet begins to talk of what he remembers of the Scale homeworld. And with that the story comes to an end.  There are several pages of flashbacks and flashfowards but otherwise we have finished this series off.
Time to reminisce, it's an ending for now.
I'm truly sad this series has come to an end.  It was a slice of truly original and imginative hard SF pulp science-fiction and there was and is nothing quite like it in the rest of comicdom.  The main writer Brandon Graham and the team of artists have created a story where it doesn't matter if you don't follow it 100% you just get carried along anyway as the weird and wonderful unfurls before you.  I could have read about the exploits of Old Man Prophet, Diehard, Rein-East, Hiyonhoiagn and John-Ka for a long time.  As it is we do get a slight Deus Ex Machina with Glory's intervention destroying the Crystal threat, but it was nice to see her again and I am happy that she took the form of her reboot self, not the awful Rob Liefeld look.  I'm not sure why this exists as a seperate miniseries and not as the culmination of the main series, but there we are. I've spoken of the art and I'll say again that I love it for it's unusual look and it suits the content of the series completely, kudos to the art team of Brandon Graham, Simon Roy, Giannis Milogannis Ron Atkins, Grim Wilkins and Sandra Lanz.  Overall I'll say this is a series you'll want to keep coming back to, it is a densely written story that never talks down to the reader and expects you to accept everything it throws at you as it world builds even as the series comes to an end.  This was truly an object lesson in how to take a lot of embarrassing characters created during Image's first few years and reimagine them to show how Image has moved on in the years since.  Wonderful stuff and I am sorry to say goodbye to it and all the characters as they are now.

44 comments:

  1. "I'm not sure why this exists as a seperate miniseries and not as the culmination of the main series"

    I might be a cynical asshole. Whenever this happens my mind goes immediately to "we wanted the new #1 sales boost". :/

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  2. I did wonder. But if that was the case why didn't they start the reboot series at Number one. The Liefeld run is loooong out of print so I could never figure out why they didn't do what they did with Glory and start out at one rather than have book one start in the mid-twenties. I've been trying to dig up info as to if this was a planned ending or a forced one. It does tie up fairly neatly, but who knows, this series was weird enough that even a Giant Space Baby would seem hum drum in comparison.

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  3. "But if that was the case why didn't they start the reboot series at Number one."

    That's weird too... I mean if the issue numbers were up to hundreds I could see it, but just in twenties is weird. (Paradoxically the US comicbook industry also loves big numbered milestone issues which also provide speculation based sales boost. *Malitia looks very angrily at Marvel right now*)

    "Giant Space Baby"

    This will never not conjure up the image of baby Galactus in my head.

    https://comicnewbies.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/baby-galactus.jpg

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  4. I'm going to blame Rob Liefeld. *shakes fist* Lieeeeeefeld!

    Oh my word that baby Galactus is an adorable little planet eater.

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  5. When in doubt blaming Liefeld (or some choice others) is generally the right thing to do. :3

    That picture of baby Galactus comes from the "A-Babies vs. X-Babies" one-shot by Skottie Young and Gurihiru. (Skottie Young did baby (*cough*young) Marvels covers and comics solo too, but this was in collaboration.)

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  6. And to think, all it took for this series give us Liefeld creations worth reading about was changing every single thing about them. He actually contributed a single page of art to the "Strikefile" that closed out Book 4. It's shamefully bad. And I bet he was late delivering it too. >:(

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  7. Wow, that took a bit of processing. See what you mean though about just being able to enjoy some of the ideas. And they certainly threw a few in here. In writing class they always say to limit the number of ideas in one work and spread them over separate works. But sometimes a smorgasbord is fun. I'm reading the stars my destination and that's nothing but ideas stuck into a rehash of the count of montecristo to act as a framing device. And speaking of classics, quite a few little references in here to the works of the golden age people like Heinlein and Bradbury.

    I like the artwork too. Reminds me of when 2000AD was settling in to the use of colour and more innovative panel layouts.

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  9. Glad you liked it, it's a real little unjustly neglected gem of a series. Writing about it as the trades were being released made me feel like I was sharing a secret awesome thing only I knew about.

    It's a series I find hard to find comparable stuff with. But it's definitely closer in spirit to stuff you'd find in 2000AD than any US comics I've read. When it comes to world building actually I find it most like Halo Jones. It just flings ideas and concepts at you and you just hang on, enjoy the ride and have plenty to ruminate over when you've finished reading.

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  10. "all it took for this series give us Liefeld creations worth reading about was changing every single thing about them"

    That's pretty much true about all Liefeld creations. I mean he's most famous for Deadpool, but what made that character popular came almost exclusively from Fabian Nicieza (the cruelly ironic backstory, the humor etc.) and Joe Kelly (the fourth wall molesting mostly).

    "And I bet he was late delivering it too"

    Yeah. Probably. XD To be fair that's not just him. My general thought process about this is:

    Is this an Image series? Yes. Then it'll be late.

    There are some creators at Image who can keep the deadlines (for example Kieron Gillen) but they're the minority.

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  11. Ugh, I was watching the Deadpool film with my mum when I spotted the Rob Liefeld cameo and had such a visceral reaction I had to pause the film and explain using some art of his I had on hand from his team-up with Alan Moore (covered on this blog) why I was so upset. Oh well, good film despite that.

    Gail Simone made her name writing a run on Deadpool, I keep meaning to pick up the Classic collection that has her issues in but I never have cash on hand when it's in stock.

    As for this series, look at how it depicts Diehard. As stupid a name as the 90's would give us, this picks up on Alan Moore's writing of Dieheard as this tragic immortal slowly losing his humanity as each organic part is replaced over the years.

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  12. Rob Liefeld -> Biggest mystery of the 90s.

    How and why did this guy become popular and influential again? O.o

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  13. Because teenage boys looked at his art and found it easy to copy. Unlike proper artists who had done proper anatomic studying and knew how to frame and block panels, which were much harder for a kid who wanted to take shortcuts to reproduce. Also the culture at Marvel and Image and the speculator boom also had a lot of blame too. Note DC actually had a pretty good 1990's art and storywise, let's not forget the 90's at DC gave us the Vertigo imprint and all the acclaimed series that moved from the mainstream DCU into the realm of more mature comics. By mature I mean story and concepts were adult, not the weird view of mature that equates it with gunz, blood and booby ladies. Which unfortunately spilled over into UK comics in the 90's when the politically challenging comics launched in the late 80's folded and 2000AD took a turn for the Liefeld.

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  14. I mean I could kinda see what was the draw of McFarlane and the other "superstar artists" (no matter how juvenile in the "teenager's understanding of adult" way; and despite how much of an asshole McFarlane turned out to be)... Liefeld on the other hand was just baaaad and somehow still popular.

    90s was the teenage years of US comics, and some publishers matured more gracefully than others. (Then the new 52 happened... does that count as a mid-life crisis? O.o)

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  15. I knew the New 52 was going down in flames when they handed liefeeeeeeld control of three - THREE - titles after cancelling his first one. It didn't last, he had a hissy fit and walked after they fired him but uh... and then DC have the NERVE to turn around and blame Doctor Manhattan for the New 52. Fuck YOU DC, you did it, it was YOUR fault it sucked, own it. Soured me on Rebirth right from the start and it's taking me a while to get past that revelation.

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  16. Marvel only gave a graphic novel and one-shot or two to Liefeld in the previous decade... and they still found ways to f~ up royally many times in that time (mostly by doing shitty events and/or the meta-plot being stupid). :/

    "Liefeld isn't required to crappy decisions but he helps."

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  17. Unfortunately he seems to attract the fandom's equivalent of hipsters who like him because he's so awful. :(

    As someone who sees so many amazing artists go unappreciated this pains me. That's why I like having a blog that allows easy posting of images so I can (usually) squee about the art using the best examples.

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  18. I feel strongly about fandom hipsters as a genuine hipster (as in hindsight everything I ever liked got truly popular approx 5 years after I switched to something else). "I liked before it was cool" shouldn't apply to shitty stuff that shouldn't be cool ever.

    Like Liefeld.

    Also he was cool when his comics were new, only hindsight made them an old shame... and that's where it should have stayed. :P

    Also the "I like it ironically" thing "if you do X out of irony, you still did X!" :P

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  19. I totally agree. Like something because you actually like it dammit! I mean all art is subjective but I hope to never be deluded enough to look at Liefeld's shitty, shitty art and genuinely believe it to be of merit. I got quite cross about it when I wrote my post on "Judgement Day". Also SF Debris has done a huge multi-episode look at Marvel in the 90's which should be required viewing if you haven't already watched it that is :)

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  20. "The Rise and Fall of the Comic Empire"? Yeah. I saw it at least twice (when it was originally released on Blip and when he put it up on YouTube not so long ago). XD

    It's also invaluable as a look at early Image and Valiant.

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  21. Cool, only discovered SF Debris relatively recently and probably would have missed it if not for Linkara giving it a shout out a couple of times. I did kinda, sorta know most of it from reading various accounts of the time but it was good to see it all put together in one fascinating history.

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  22. You two know a lot about comics.

    It's funny how that Liefeld art almost existed as parody before it became mainstream. I think you're familiar with Marshal Law. That seems very similar (unless of course that is him).

    For me the cult of the artist started with Simon Bisley. I know loads of people love his stuff (I think you like it if I remember) but I just can't see it myself. It's ok as maybe poster art but I never really liked it in the strips. Just seemed like someone doing Frazzetta fan art. Prior to that the only artist people seemed to rave about was Brian Bolland. But that was very much in terms of what he brought to the stories, rather than art for art's sake. Still, what do I know?

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  23. Ah but you know more about UK comics.

    Yes Bisley was definitely our Liefeld in terms of deleterious influence on UK comics, but for me his art is worthy of praise. Unlike Liefeld he has a full grasp of anatomy and knows how to exaggerate it without losing the underlying structure and knows how to pace and frame a story. That said I prefer his inked stuff over the painted stuff, but that's just because I have an irrational dislike of painted comicbook art.

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  24. "You two know a lot about comics."

    Apparently I'm destined to loop back to my first fandom loves. ^^; (Happened with Labyrinth (the 80's fantasy movie) too... that oddly branched off to both old school fairy tales, and non-traditional (read: not toss; so not what people might think when hearing this word) juggling*. In the case of comics... I'm scared what this'll evolve into.)


    * I could kill for spinnable juggling fans... unfortunately the closest shop selling those is in the Ukraine. :/

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  25. Oh hi! I'm prone to get into stuff that kills conversation instantly!... I'm so used to that happening for some odd reason. ^_^;

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  26. lol, you have to excuse me. I'm on an epic Mass Effect series replay where I seem to be spending more effort keeping my FemShep in her lesbian relationship than I ever expended on my own. So if I don't reply quickly I'm cursing and reloading because I accidentally insulted her or managed to accidentally get into a relationship with someone else. Both of which have been issues with me in real life relationships past. Alas no reset buttons in real life. /sadface.

    I love the movie Labyrinth! Watched it again earlier this year oddly, I have the boxset which pairs it with The Dark Crystal, great films.

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  27. (although that boxset is annoying because I never know whether to file it under D or L. Which matters when your dvd collection numbers in the several hundreds).

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  28. Ha don't worry Malitia, it's all interesting stuff. Just had the horror of actually doing some work.

    Labyrinth, heh, those pants. I still remember the guy using insecticide, then you see it's fairies. Dark Crystal is amazing too. Some great fantasy films from that time. I've got a soft spot for Krull. Massively underrated film. There's also something about matte paintings and practical sets that CGI just can't capture, even though the end result may be more 'realistic'. Like how the Ray Harrihausen stop motion work still looks so great. I think it's because your brain knows it's looking at something that's actually there, even if it's a model or a rough looking set.

    Yeah, yah boo sucks to painted comic art. If it ain't got a black outline I don't want to know. Except maybe the Arkham Asylum book.

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  29. Not actual work?! You poor thing.

    Man I saw Krull at the cinema when I was a kid. We had a cinema right at the bottom of our street so we went about once or twice a week and saw pretty much every big family film and sci-fi/fantasy one of the 1980's. I was gutted when they closed it down and turned it into a bingo hall. Mind you you'd always be praying you weren't in screen 2 because the sound system didn't work properly there. But that added to the charm.

    I won't say all painted art is horrible. And I have seen some beautiful "mixed media" stuff that incorporates it along with inked stuff (David McKean would be one such person, see his gorgeous Sandman covers that also used photographs and 3D objects as well). But my feeling is that it takes a different sort of talent to pull off painted than inked and a lot of bad 90's UK comic art resulted from perfectly decent ink artists trying to copy Simon Bisley's Slaine artwork.

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  30. "I never know whether to file it under D or L."

    ... I would file it under H (for Jim Henson). But that's probably my (ex-)librarian experience showing. ^^;

    "Yeah, yah boo sucks to painted comic art."

    Note to self: Never Ever Recommend the Angela "mini"s here.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/082a7b8f9e0dbf1ddba0c0d53eeeda9381edb3aa5db6b2102c885bc69fb10293.jpg
    -- Gasp! The Horror!

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  31. A cinema I used to frequent as a kid had that senseround sound system. The one they used for films like Earthquake. Basically it's just a load of 36" bass speakers. When it closed down the local blues/reggae club bought them.

    Wub Wub Wub

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  32. No that is nice artwork? Is it JH Williams? That guy is like ridiculously talented as an artist, as a writer? Not so much.

    Me and Alan just have a kneejerk response because of our 90's experiences. And I do admit to having a harder lean towards "cartoony" stuff too over realism. Probably why I enjoy the manga art tropes so much. Plus black and white art is the future!

    Our cinema was only a tiny little two screen thing so often we drive to an even smaller one to see stuff. But it had a somewhat eccentric approach to scheduling films, you might get what you came for or the owner had decided to bang something on from the 70's, which is how I, at the tender age of ten, saw Monty Python and The Holy Grail instead of Tron. And was hooked on the Python's forever. Still haven't seen Tron either.

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  33. The issue (Angela: Queen of Hel #5) had two artists credited (they apparently also inked their own work) Kim Jacinto and Stephanie Hans. My guess is that that page is probably Hans. Jacinto had a less painted/more traditional style (and some problems with hands).

    I kinda liked the Angela "mini"s (two minis and a failed ongoing really) even if the writing could be hit-or-miss (Kieron Gillen and/or Marguerite Bennett) but the art was gorgeous for the most part, and the ideas very interesting.

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  34. I might also feel compelled to stand by stuff that gets dudebros to yell "misandry". :D

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  35. Ah is anything sweeter than hearing dudebros yelling misandry? Music to my virtual ears.

    I must say all I know of Angela is that she's the character that showed up at the end of Age of Ultron which made me go "huh who is she?" I'd been expecting the Moore reboot Miracleman myself. After I googled her I was... not much wiser tbh. Most of the articles seemed to revolve around Gaimen and McFarlane fighting over the rights to her, which shows what a poisonous hypocrite mcFarlane turned into when money was on the table. Yuck.

    Still that looks nice, might have to track it down.

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  36. Yes, the Marvel version of Angela arrived in the end of Age of Ultron, and gets a basic backstory* in the Original Sin tie-in of Thor and Loki (Original Sin: Thor & Loki: The Tenth Realm). Everything gets fleshed out in her first mini.

    * Very short version: She is Odin and Freyja/Frigga's daughter (half sister of Thor, adopted sister of Loki), who was stolen and apparently killed by the magical race Asgard was at war back then (the Angels of Heven).

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  37. See you have concisely told me what googling it failed to. I thank you. So she's not the same as the Spawn Angela then? I assumed her coming from a different universe after time and space threw a shitfit at the end of Age of Ultron (I actually really like AoU, will be doing it on here next year as I start tackling Event Comics) after Logan and Sue's time-travelling fiascos hit home was symbolizing her coming from the Spawnverse to the MU. Or is she both? Ah comics.

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  38. The first mini was "Angela: Asgard's Assassin" (I think the trade was subtitled "Priceless")

    The second mini was a Secret Wars 2015 addition to Gaiman's Marvel 1602 so not strictly relevant (but some English majors had loads of fun with literature while writing it). "1602 - Witch Hunter Angela"

    The failed ongoing "Angela Queen of Hel" (trade subtitled: "Journey to the FUNderworld") finished up the biggest plotlines left dangling... and the last issue teased what the writer planned but never got the chance to do while leaving the whole thing with a happy ending.

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  39. She isn't the same as the version from Spawn as far I can tell but my Spawn knowledge is rudimentary.

    The "coming from a different universe" thing turned out to be a reference to Odin reacting to his heir*'s death as proportionately as one might expect and severed Heven off the Marvel Universe (there is some life outside, but not much) entirely.

    * Balder was out of wedlock, all his other kids aren't with Freyja/Frigga because Odin is... not the paragon of fidelity.

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  40. This is why I get nervous following new series, the cancel hammer seems to fall so readily if your a Marvel or DC niche title. That's why things seem easier to commit to if your say a Vertigo or Image series, easier to notch up a smaller number of more devoted readers. That said now with Prophet gone I am only following Lazarus and Saga as the trades come out. BUT! Insipred by you, I bought the first Doom Patrol trade of the Young Animal DC imprint and it arrived today. A quick thumb-through has already got me pleased with it due to the wonderful art. I'm saving it for a couple of train journey's later this week to actually settle down with.

    Please don't tell me it's already been cancelled.

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  41. The worst thing I heard about the current Doom Patrol were some delays, so no it's not cancelled to my knowledge. :)

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  42. Well I can cope with delays, I'm someone who prefers delayed and good rather than on-time and slapdash. Very few people have Jack Kirby's ability to pencil four books a month, and do it awesomely.

    I would hope it being on a imprint rather than the main DCU is that a) sales figures will hopefully be measured against the indies and 2) it won't get snarled in a Crisis Crossover every other month which was what made covering New 52 comics such a pain.

    It'd be brilliant if the China Mieville "Dial H" was resurrected as well. That was a wonderful slice of complete mental that somehow managed to survive a short but glorious year as part of the New 52.

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  43. It came from twitter (and the solicit):

    https://twitter.com/BenjaminBirdie/status/920343189516685313

    I'm so out of all evens.

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  44. Hahahahaha! Now that's decompression for you.

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