Hanamichi Sakuragi

If Guardians opens higher than Cap 2, DOFP, and TASM2.

Comedy directors gave us this. He might end up surprising us.

Good to hear. I'm waiting for the current Cap series to end before I get back to reading it. So I guess I'll have to wait until December.

So I got to reading Winter Soldier: The Bitter March. Good stuff. I looked up Agent Ran, and found out that he's a villain in Remender's Captain America. I liked him in the series, so I'm looking forward to how good he was as a villain in the issues he appeared in, since The Bitter March was really sort of the story of what made him become a villain.

Bob's one-second appearance is better than anything from Peter, and the rest of the Family Guy cast.

This thread is a monstrosity. So why the hell did I bump it?

Well, I know at least one good thing is going to come out of this. Remender has basically said that he's retconning the stupid pimp origin Sam was given by Steve Englehart.

Neither have Miller or Loeb, for well over a decade now. But, I'd actually rank some of the work Remender and Aaron have done, higher than The Long Halloween. But again, in the case of Miller and Loeb, it wasn't like they did those stories and then put these godawful comics right after. He started going downhill in the late 90s, and then went to shit in the 00s. Same deal with Miller. These stories could be garbage, but that'll come down to how the stories are executed.

Everything I've seen of this has underwhelmed me, but Bleeding Cool praised the pilot episode quite a bit. http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/07/11/bleeding-cool-has-watched-the-pilot-episode-of-gotham-and-we-bring-screencaps/

Of course they can tell bad stories, but there's nothing to suggest that these will be bad stories. Aaron in particular is at the top of his game. And Miller/Loeb aren't good examples at all. They didn't just start telling bad stories, they just went to shit. In the case of Loeb, I don't think he was ever that great a writer, and find his Batman stories to be vastly overrated. Whether the new Captain America is company mandated, I can't say for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't. Like when Cap died in Brubaker's volume, he outright said that it was his idea to kill off Steve, and that it was something he had been working towards since he started. Could easily be the case with Remender making Sam Cap. With Jason Aaaron, he's already said that what's occurring is what he wants to do, and had it in mind when taking over Thor. Marvel will milk and promote this stuff because they know it'll make news, but that doesn't mean there isn't an artistic vision behind these decisions.

There's a huge difference in the talent involved with these stories, and the talent involved in the 90s. The 90s superheroes were shaped by the influence of guys like Liefeld. Meanwhile, Captain America is currently in the hands of Rick Remender, who's generally a good writer. And Thor is handled by Jason Aaron, one of the best superhero writers working today. Aaron's even cited the Simonson run as an influence for the direction he's going with Thor, and that's the furthest thing you can get from shit, when it comes to writing Thor.

Bucky looks to be heading to a good place. There's going to be a new Winter Soldier comic, and it sounds awesome. http://www.newsarama.com/21539-bucky-barnes-the-winter-soldier-gets-new-ongoing-series-in-october.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+newsaramapreviews+%28Newsarama.com+previews%29

I stopped after the first arc, and have been meaning to catch up. Loved the first arc though.

They should just tell the stories left to tell with Steve as Cap, and then transition him to another role in the Marvel Universe, rather than this cycle of someone else taking up the Cap mantle, only for Steve to take it up again. Brubaker made his initial run on Captain America about Bucky, and now Remender's making his run about Sam as Cap (probably, no confirmation just yet). That's the two main Cap writers of the last ten or so years, not wanting to tell same Steve Rogers stories that had been told before, and I can't really blame them. There's not much that's new that's left to explored with Steve. Even Mark Gruenwald ended his run with Steve dying, and that was in the 90s. Though that was way premature. Marvel needs to to actually let their Universe evolve, instead of just progressing, and then regressing. Old Man Steve has great potential (I actually really enjoyed that House of M issue of Cap with Steve as an old man), but not too sure about how it's going to play out.

He's lost the serum.

It'll be a new Captain America series with Sam as Cap.

Morrison's X-Men was huge progress for the X-Men and I rank it as the best X-Men run ever, even better than the original Claremont, stuff, though I do have some problems with it, but I think, while Marvel stuck with certain elements of it (Emma/Scott, Secondary mutations), they regressed from what Morrison had positioned for the X-Men franchise to keep moving forward. Not a condemnation of the quality of the X-books after his departure, but it's more like they've been moving a little bit forward, a little bit backwards, and side to side, rather than just marching right on forward. But like you said, it did have a lasting impact on certain characters.

I'm of two minds about a new Cap. Before The Winter Soldier movie came out, I started going through Cap's comics, ranging from the first series, to Escape from Dimension. As well as some Avengers comics. The thing that dawned on me was that while Steve Rogers still works in the Avengers, and could still have cool stories, there's not much left to do with the character as Captain America, he's doesn't have much to say that he hasn't said before. The conclusion of of Escape from Dimension Z was also sort of Steve coming full circle, or mirroring himself, post-hibernation. He was frozen in time, then found himself in the future. For him only seconds had passed, but the world had jumped ahead years. His biggest connection that time (Bucky), gone. The woman he loved (Peggy), also gone from his life. In Escape from Dimension Z, Steve spends over a decade away from the world, and when he returns, barely any time has passed at all. His biggest connection to that place (Ian), gone. The woman he loved (Sharon), also gone from his life. Unless the character of Steve is bastardized ( see the Chuck Austen run), I can't see many new things from the character. Even the much lauded run by Mark Gruenwald had to make some big changes to Steve, one of which I don't think really worked at all. I can see him continuing to provide cool moments, and enjoyable stories, which I'd be fine with, I guess, but if Marvel can actually get a new Captain America that's able to honor Steve, while still having his/her own thing to say as Captain America, I'd welcome it. As well having Steve enter a new phase of his life. Comic characters have gone successfully transitioned from one role to another (probably the most relevant example I can think of right now is Barbra Gordon going from Batgirl to Oracle, and becoming a superior character in the process), so there's no reason as why it couldn't work. Only problem with that though, is that I think it's a little bit premature. There are still a few unexplored areas, and we need more World War II Captain America stories, because the stories from volume 1 are too one-note.

Looks like Falcon will be taking up the mantle.

Not the last time, but two of my favorites were the return of Bucky as the Winter Soldier in the 00s, and the introduction of the Cassandra Nova in the 00s. Kid Loki in Journey into Mystery was also my favorite version of the character, and although the character returned to old habits (though it lasted longer than a year), the final issue pointed out how the character was going to regress because fans/editors wouldn't allow the change to progress or stick. Also in the 00s. More recent stuff as well, which I can get into later (Change of status quo with Daredevil, for example).

Hardly the first time a comic character has died. Thor himself is not becoming a woman, someone else is taking the mantle of Thor. Again, not the first time this has happened. Captain America's been replaced before. Nothing listed is inherently negative, it all comes down to execution. Some of the things people love about the Marvel Universe were retcons/changes from the status quo as well: Captain America in the modern age, Magneto as a well intentioned extremist, etc. Wait and see how things play out, before completely damning the company because three changes.

Watch John Carter. Also, Friday Night Lights.