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...With my ongoing " Avengers pu pu platter . ", thread I may be nosing into some of the titles you're speaking of . I'll have to check . Thank you ! You may have given me an inward key to - defining - some of the titles I've read while doing this .
I'm reading She-Hulk, and have read a few issues of Hawkeye; I plan to read more after I pick up some trades on the cheap. And Superior Foes sounds wonderful; it's another book on my to-do list.
I think there's something to that, and you might want to add Silver Surfer to that list, though it's a little too soon to tell.
...BTW , speaking of " The Show About Nothing " , not only did I imagine an animated Seinfeld version titled LIL' JERRY AND THE YADDA-YADDA KIDS...I made at least a start on the lyrics for its theme song !!!!!!!!!!!
I also imagined Archies-style pop/rock song breaks in the middles of the show , such titles as " Yadda Yadda (I'm In Love With You " , mebbe " Do The Yadda "...
The first six issues of Superior Foes is on sale at Comixology right now.
I'm reading Hawkeye and She-Hulk, and I get what you mean. These are books about people who happen to have super-powers, rather than the book being about the super-powers, if you get what I'm saying. I'll second Rob about Silver Surfer, and I would add Daredevil as well.
I was planning to pick up a Superior Foes trade. Secret Avengers? I assume you're talking about the current series, which I think has been relaunched a few times. Tell us more about it.
..." Neo-indie " , then ?
"pseudo-indie"
John Dunbar (the mod of maple) said:
I'm reading Hawkeye and She-Hulk, and I get what you mean. These are books about people who happen to have super-powers, rather than the book being about the super-powers, if you get what I'm saying. I'll second Rob about Silver Surfer, and I would add Daredevil as well.
I was planning to pick up a Superior Foes trade. Secret Avengers? I assume you're talking about the current series, which I think has been relaunched a few times. Tell us more about it.
I'm not getting much from Marvel or DC either, but I am greatly enjoying She-Hulk and Daredevil. I've been singing the praises of She-Hulk over here. I keep hearing good things about Hawkeye, but I haven't tried it yet.
I might also add the new iteration of Ms. Marvel to the list of that type described above. As noted, "These are books about people who happen to have super-powers, rather than the book being about the super-powers." I get what you're saying.
With She-Hulk, for example, it's not about She-Hulk fighting supervillains; it's about lawyer Jen Walters hanging out a shingle and launching her own business, with the kind of zaniness that follows when lawyer Jen Walters is a superhero. The new Ms. Marvel is a coming-of-age tale about a teenage girl from an environment that doesn't get much attention in a venue like comics -- she's from a Muslim household in New Jersey, so there are elements of faith and culture at play as well as her exploring just how she got her powers and what they are and what she should do with them.
I love most of these titles as well, and what distinguishes them to me is a healthy dollop of humor. I love me some end-of-the-universe, hyperdramatic, clenched-teeth superhero stories a la Hickman and Bendis, but I need more to my diet to that, and Marvel is providing that with ground-level, human-interest books like Hawkeye and She-Hulk.
As an additional plus, this approach distinguishes not just the books but the characters; Clint Barton now has a specific personality/story approach that sets him apart from not only other Marvel characters like Captain America or other archers like Green Arrow, but all characters in general. Hawkeye, the book and the character, are now unique in our minds. For the first time, I can actually imagine a Hawkeye movie that I'd want to see.
As to humor in general, I don't like it when superhero stories try to be funny by making fun of the hero or the genre; I do like it when it's a genuinely funny story in superhero trappings, which is what is what I'm getting with Superior Foes and to a degree the other books in this discussion.
But I disagree with the assessment that this is different from what Stan Lee was doing. My understanding of what Stan did that was so groundbreaking is that he stopped treating superheroes as a genre and started treating superheroes as a vehicle. He told Boys Life adventure stories (Fantastic Four), soap opera (Spider-Man), grand-scale epics (Thor) and more, using the superhero as the delivery system (and to make it all larger than life). That's what Fraction & Co. are doing with Hawkeye and these other books -- they're telling human interest/humor stories in superhero drag.
And just like when Stan was doing it, I'm having a blast.
Agreed!
I absolutely agree. So far, the quirkiness has yet to become irksome.
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