MetaChat - Mike mine

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18 July 2006

Mike mine Marvel's "Ultimates" and now "Civil War" are probably the most directly political comics I've read in a long time. Erosion of civil liberties, jingoism, chauvinism, xenophobia, it's all in there.
Somebody's stepping up to the bat, and this time it wasn't musicians.
There's hope for mainstream comics yet.

post by: signal at: 23:08 | 9 comments

Did I mention secret prisons? They've got secret prisons, too.

posted by signal 18 July | 23:11

It's a documentary comic?

posted by orthogonality 18 July | 23:58

Is this something I would need a link to know about?

posted by dg 19 July | 00:02

Yeah, both these series are kicking malor ass right now, and Mark Millar is writing both of them. I've always liked his stuff before but this seems to be a new high.

posted by doctor_negative 19 July | 00:33

Did you mean to include a link, signal? I did find this NPR mention, which sounds interesting.

posted by taz 19 July | 02:12

I'll have to check these out, as I've had trouble finding comics I'm willing to spend the price on lately. I LOVE comics but feel the magic has been missing, except for a few obvious genius gems aimed at adults. Which reminds me, I missed the last Eightball.

Comics have always been able to slip in social commentary that might not be tolerated in a medium that is taken more seriously, going mostly unnoticed while they influence entire young generations (and entertain adults like you and me as well.)

SHHHH!!

Remember Howard the Duck?
;-)

posted by shane 19 July | 07:48

There's hope for mainstream comics yet.

As long as Dr. Doom isn't crying.

posted by Fuzzy Monster 19 July | 08:32

I've no patience for the Ultimates line. Far too much of it is edgy for the sake of being edgy. I tried to keep up with Nightmare for Mr Ellis's writing, but it wasn't worth it.

But Civil War is excellent and Civil War: Frontlines is even better. Between CW and DC's 52, mainstream comics stand a good chance of coming out of 2006 far better than they came in.

I've been exclusively DC for years now, but a recent weekend spent with last year's House Of M cross-over convinced me to return to my Marvel roots. Without a doubt, Marvel's art is better these days -- not the individual artists, so much as the overall color process. And with Disassembled (particularly the Avengers arc), HOM and now CW, Marvel is taking on those epic aspects that I've always admired in DC (i.e., the original Crisis, Identity Crisis, the start of Infinite Crisis and now 52).

Geek out!

posted by grabbingsand 19 July | 08:58

Nah, I didn't mean to include a link because the only way to get what I'm talking about is to actually RTComics.
grabbingsand: you should read Ultimates Volume2, which is very political and nuanced.

posted by signal 19 July | 09:41

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