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January 07, 2008

Comments

Thomas Aylesworth

I've always been a huge fan of Green Lantern's oath too! Anyone who doesn't like it for its cornyness probably shouldn't be reading superhero comics anyway.

Mark Engblom

Amen, Thomas! For you and anyone else who's fond of it, check out this great overview of the GL oath on the always excellent Dial B for Blog site.

suedenim

This is a great list - I love *all* these things! :)

The Spider-Mobile: What's even better is, if I remember right, it's even a metatextual commentary! For some reason, I remember Stan Lee being the playful one in the story, but it was long after he stopped writing the book, and I don't even think he even had much of anything to do with day-to-day operations, but.... Apparently the Spider-Mobile was created as part of a lucrative deal with Corgi, the toy company. But part of the deal was that Marvel had to feature the Spider-Mobile in actual Spider-Man comic books. So this deal from on high was presented to the actual comic book people, and the Spider-Mobile Saga was the result! :) I especially liked its use in the Spider-Man/Human Torch miniseries.

Marvel Comics Origin Summaries: I'd love to get a collection of these all in one place. They're great, concise, snappy summaries that don't just tell you about the characters, but why they're GREAT! I try to emulate them for my City of Heroes character descriptions.

Have you noticed that DC has lately been using similar well-written character intro captions in a lot of books? Most obviously in Brave and Bold, but they're turning up in a bunch of other places too.

Greg Walter

Mark--you never fail to note the cool things. Bravo!

Another good GL Oath moment:

In DC: The New Frontier, vol 2, Hal, upon embracing the ring notes to himself that he feels like he should be saying some sort of pledge. This is before he was contacted by Oa.

Love, love the New Frontier series.

Captain Average

Wow, fun stuff in comics! I always read those capsule origins with Stan Lee's voice in my head, just like in those Marvel cartoons of the 80's. Love your blog!

Mark Engblom

This is a great list - I love *all* these things! :)

Cool! Glad to hear it.

The Spider-Mobile: What's even better is, if I remember right, it's even a metatextual commentary!

Hey, thanks for the added insight! It was already great for its satire of the cynical advertising biz, but your account of the Corgi deal makes the Spider-Mobile an even more interesting bit of comic book lore. It would follow that DC probably had a similar toy deal in place for the Supermobile that made its comic book appearance three or four years later.

" I especially liked its use in the Spider-Man/Human Torch miniseries."

You know, I've been meaning to track that mini-series down for some time (having heard only good things about it), thanks for the reminder to get on that!

Marvel Comics Origin Summaries: I'd love to get a collection of these all in one place.

Sounds like an idea for a recurring feature to me! Just kidding.

Not really (gears turning. cogs spinning)

"I try to emulate them for my City of Heroes character descriptions."

I'll have to check those out. Do you have a link?

"Have you noticed that DC has lately been using similar well-written character intro captions in a lot of books? Most obviously in Brave and Bold, but they're turning up in a bunch of other places too."

Yes! I have noticed. Mark Waid is especially adept at writing them, as is Geoff Johns on the various books he writes (such as JSA and Action). Very much noted and appreciated. The "lost art" of encapsulation, so to speak.

Mark Engblom

"Another good GL Oath moment:

In DC: The New Frontier, vol 2, Hal, upon embracing the ring notes to himself that he feels like he should be saying some sort of pledge. This is before he was contacted by Oa."

Yeah! I loved that scene, too...as I did 90% of New Frontier (I wasn't sure where Cooke was going with some of the more subversive themes of the earlier issues (violent racism, Wonder Woman embroiled in political entanglements)....which seemed to drop completely out of sight by issues five and six. Still, just a masterpiece, if not absolutely with storytelling, then visually.

I'm assuming you're as happy as I am that DC and Cooke will be publishing a "New Frontier" special early this year.

Mark Engblom

"Love your blog!"

Thanks, Cap! Glad you stopped by.

suedenim

Mark,
My City of Heroes blurbs are scattered in variant forms, some in the game itself, some elsewhere, and version control is scanty at best. But I have some here:
http://68.178.145.67/index.php/User:Suedenim#Characters

The one at the link for Ashley Porter is the snappiest and most similar to the desired effect, Major Maiden's is a bit wordy, and Cap'n Booty's is a silly first-person piratespeak variant....

Characters in the game have a goodly amount of space to use for descriptions, and I've noticed it's not necessarily wise to fill it all, or at least not up-front. Marvel knew what it was doing! If I see a big, dense block of text, I tend to move on....

On the Spider-Mobile, yeah, Superman's Super-Mobile was created around the same time for the same Corgi toy line, if I remember right. The Super-Mobile at least had some vaguely plausible purpose, in that Superman could use the otherwise superfluous vehicle in star systems with red suns, to gather up Kryptonite, etc.

For some reason they only reprinted that Spidey/Torch series in a digest edition that went out of print and is hard to find. Not sure if the originals are scarce too, but it's worth seeking out.

Hube

Mark, you've probably covered this sometime in the past, but one of the coolest old things that Marvel used to do was those hilarious credit blocks (like this one, for example). Stan Lee at his finest!

Mark Engblom

I haven't covered that wonderful aspect of Silver Age Marvel yet, but weren't those things great? So much of that era just makes me smile.

Wes C

Another great post Mark!

I too love the introduction blocks they used to use at Marvel.

There are many times that I open a new comic book up and have absolutely no idea who these people are and what they are supposed to be
doing! It's a big reason (aside from the absurd cost!) I haven't read a new ongoing series in years

As a huge Kirby fan all I can say is
"Yes, Yes Yes, Kirby tech forever"
I love the stuff. Just insane inventions and it never fails to amaze me that he could just make crazy device after crazy device and never run out of cool visuals for them.

As for the Green Lantern Oath I second what Thomas Aylesworth said: Anyone who doesn't like it for its cornyness probably shouldn't be reading superhero comics anyway.

Right on Thomas!

These are the same people who complain about ships making noises in space and the fact that no one ever recognizes the whole Clark Kent/Superman thing.

PLUS!: I used the Green Lantern Oath to pick up a hot girl in highschool! (Thank You Hal Jordan!)

Mark Engblom

"PLUS!: I used the Green Lantern Oath to pick up a hot girl in highschool! (Thank You Hal Jordan!)"

LOL!

"For girls who wear jeans so tight,
Beware my prowess, Joe Studly's might!"

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