Wow, some Marvel stuff from a few years back truly SUCKS.

[Zenlitened]

My brother gave me a box of Iron Man comic books from about 2001 onward, and I thought it would be fun to read them. Maybe even subscribe to a few titles again, for the first time since I was a kid. What a mistake!

Whole story arcs just vanish into thin air, without even an asterisk/footnote to let you know where things ended up -- if anywhere. Cryptic references are made in a dramatic, cliff-hanging way... then never alluded to again for half a year or more. If ever.

And it doesn't appear they even have the bad excuse of "it's a crossover" in many cases. It just seems to be a combination of sloppiness and a desire to manipulate the reader. I realize no one wants to tell a story in a completely linear way -- that'd be amateurish and boring. But they went so far to the other extreme that too many issues just seem disjointed, frayed and fragmented to the point of distraction.

And the artwork. Some of it is absolutely spectacular. Say-it-out-loud "wow!" fantastic. But if I never see another frame pencilled by Keron Grant again, I'll be a much happier person for it. Does this guy have even a passing familiarity with human anatomy? I realize that he's trying to accomplish something stylistically, but jeez.

Puny, mis-shapen heads. Bloated, bull-like necks. Bulges and pumped veins under the skin placed in a way that looks more like a subcutaneous parasitic infection than anything depicting power or strength. Tiny-waisted women that look more like blow-up fuck-toys than actual people. Ugh. It's so bad it actually distracts from reading the damned text. And yet the Printed Circuits pages are filled with letters raving about this guy. Blech. What alternate reality am I in?

Pant pant pant. End rant.

But what disappointment. I thought it would be a fun read, but instead I'm left fuming at the absurdity of it all.

:puke: