Friday , March 29 2024

The Superheroes Try to Take Down Galactus (It Does Not Go Well)

This is “From a Different Point of View,” a feature where I discuss a comic book series with other people. This time around, due to everyone having to self-isolate, I figured I’d do a special edition where I discuss the original Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars series with whatever readers that wanted to chat about it!

We continue with Secret Wars #9, “Assault on Galactus,” by Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck, John Beatty, Christie Scheele and Joe Rosen.

Flavio Sette: I checked ahead and John Beatty is the only inker credited from here on out. Brian, you mentioned that there were a bunch of inkers on issue #12, so were they just not credited? Who were they?

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Brian Cronin: That can be a fun game when we get to #12!

Brian Cronin: Guessing who’s who!

Brian Cronin: There’s at least one super famous artist involved.

Flavio Sette: Ooh, I’m gonna be poring over those pages these next few days!

Flavio Sette: See if I’m any good at this kinda stuff.

Flavio Sette: We’re pretty sure it was just Beatty this time around, though, right?

Flavio Sette: On this issue, I mean.

Brian Cronin: Yeah, #12 is an over-sized issue, so the deadline problems were particularly bad on that one.

Brian Cronin: It’s interesting to note, though, that Beatty isn’t inking the covers now.

Brian Cronin: Bob McLeod inked this issue’s cover and Terry Austin takes on the classic #10 cover for next issue.

Flavio Sette: Another couple of pros, right there.

Brian Cronin: Yessir.

Brian Cronin: As I guess that was a deadline issue, as well._______________________________________________

DavidJustDavid: I think this is a pretty good cover.


Brian Cronin: Yeah, this is a fine cover.

Brian Cronin: You rarely get this many characters facing away from you, but Zeck makes it work.

Avash: The cover is really dynamic, the action is free flowing, but I’d have preferred a bigger picture of Galactus on it

Brian Cronin: It also highlights how much the cape had gone out of style by the 1980s.

Brian Cronin: A couple of caped characters didn’t make the trip (Vision, Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange), but otherwise, Thor is our only caped hero here!

Flavio Sette: That might explain why Doom’s new costume doesn’t have a cape! Boo!

Avash: Marvel was always a bit less on the cape train than DC

Flavio Sette: We’re still several years away from team leather jackets. The 90s kid in me is partial to those.

Avash: And weird headgears

DavidJustDavid: Magneto’s another caped one.

DavidJustDavid: The only thing I might change is making Galactus a bit bigger.

DavidJustDavid: Maybe they should’ve fit the title on the cover to make it clear who the bad guy is.

Eric Michael: My one nitpick is that I agree with the Galactus point_______________________________________________

Brian Cronin: After all of the confusion over who the berserker was, I am glad that Shooter avoided that problem with this issue’s title.


Flavio Sette: Yeah, “Assault on Galactus!” Surely a reference to some obscure 19th century novel!

Eric Michael: Did the natives evacuate the village?

Brian Cronin: Looks that way, Eric, which is kind of messed up.

Brian Cronin: “This is your fault for collaborating with these aliens, Zsaji, so we’re leaving you behind!”

Kevin Garcia: It’s hard to read this without also thinking of stuff from Deadpool’s Super Secret Secret Wars.

Brian Cronin: Cullen Bunn certainly did a fine job on Super Secret Was, Kevin. He was all in every nook and cranny of this series.

DavidJustDavid: The little huts look a lot bigger on the inside than the outside.

DavidJustDavid: Like the Tardis.

Avash: I like that Colossus does raise the point, if Zsaji’s healing is the reason he is so enamored towards her, although he dismissed that notion almost immediately


Eric Michael: Drug addicts never suspect that the drugs are responsible for their behavior

Dean: Yeah, I feel like the very fact that the heroes affected by it keep going “are my emotions being manipulated? nah!” is proof that that is, in fact, what’s happening

Brian Cronin: But she just brought the Wasp literally back to life and she has no feelings for Zsaji.

Flavio Sette: Not that we know of, anyway.

Brian Cronin: And Spider-Man just enjoyed her rubbing his crotch.

Dean: I’m guessing that’s because Wasp is a female and this is the mid-1980s

Avash: Maybe she does?

Brian Cronin: Beyond that, we haven’t seen him show any feelings for Zsasji.

Avash: She was too distraught over her makeup to care

Brian Cronin: If Wasp had feelings for Zsasji, it would be in a monologue.

Brian Cronin: No one hides any emotions in this series.

Brian Cronin: If they’re even slightly moody, they monologue about it.

Brian Cronin: Sometimes drunkenly monologue, like the Enchantress.

Flavio Sette: Yeah, things would be super awkward if She-Hulk, Spider-Man, Wasp and Reed are all just silently hating Piotr for sleeping with Zsaji.

Flavio Sette: Piotr’s already all “Kitty who?”

Flavio Sette: Or should I say “Katya who?”

Brian Cronin: This is quite the monologue.

DavidJustDavid: Colossus has to pick up the slack because there’s no Zsaji recap smoke.

Kevin Garcia: I do love that this lead to a long storyline in Uncanny giving the fallout of Peter’s temporary obsession.

_______________________________________________

Brian Cronin: I love that even Xavier is sick of Magneto’s shit.


Brian Cronin: “Shut the hell up, Magneto.”

Flavio Sette: Has Wolverine never heard of Galactus? Is it really unbelievable that a couple lightning bolts wouldn’t take him out?

DavidJustDavid: I was thinking that, too, Flavio.

Avash: I love how awestruck Wolverine is that Storm’s attack didn’t work on Galactus

Eric Michael: And Cyke tries to explain away Prof X’s behavior

Avash: Haven’t they been taking about how godlike he is all along?

DavidJustDavid: By issue 9, people should be up on Galactus’s power levels.

Eric Michael: It is one thing to told; it is another to see firsthand

Avash: Is it the first time X Men encountered Galactus?

Brian Cronin: Yep.

Flavio Sette: But still, dude eats planets, what are lightning bolts to someone like that?

Kevin Garcia: Galactus fights were a lot less frequent before this.

Avash: Huh, then I can’t fault them really

Kevin Garcia: Lightning bolts can threaten planets… can’t they?

Dean: Do you know what happens to a Galactus when he’s struck by lightning?

Kevin Garcia: Hah!

Brian Cronin: Nightcrawler is challenging Bulldozer for least effective character in this seris.

Avash: Wolverine is awfully quick to assume the worst about Kurt

DavidJustDavid: Nightcrawler tries to make like he’s “attacking the sensors” instead of hitting a ball impotently.

Avash: Eh, he’s probably dead


Flavio Sette: Yep. Kurt kinda does nothing. It’s been all downhill since he pulled Enchantress’ hair.

Avash: I mean X Men can’t beat Spidey or Wasp

Avash: What could the do against Galactus?

Avash: Or else Wasp would one shot Galactus

Kevin Garcia: Hey, Wasp was a founding Avenger, who CAN’T she defeat?

Eric Michael: So, clearly Wasp and Spidey should be in the vanguard

Kevin Garcia: She totally should, but she wants the others to feel useful.

Eric Michael: Wasp was Squirrel Girl before there was Squirrel Girl._______________________________________________

Brian Cronin: I adore Zeck’s depiction of the Avengers’ eyes watching the fight from the village.

Brian Cronin: “Woooooooooow.”

Kevin Garcia: Zeck always does great work.

_______________________________________________

Brian Cronin: Now a couple of pages seemingly to just advance the plots of other titles

Brian Cronin: Of which months have now passed since these plots were relevant

DavidJustDavid: Poor Hulk is relegated to the floor of the ship.


Kevin Garcia: Hulk sit, so Hulk doesn’t need stairs.

Flavio Sette: Having Thor crack a joke was a nice touch on Shooter’s part.

Brian Cronin: That’s one of the odd bits about the continuity of this series.

Brian Cronin: It’s really written so that it could seamlessly be integrated between the issues of the series back in 1984.

Kevin Garcia: Gotta give credit for that level of tie-in.

Brian Cronin: But, because of that, you have Shooter tying into what is now, for the readers, old plot lines.


Brian Cronin: So it works after the fact, for us.

Brian Cronin: But at the time, it must have been curious.

Eric Michael: good idea, bad timing

Kevin Garcia: True true.

Avash: You know how that would work well? If these issues were released at the same time with the ones they are trying to tie them to

Flavio Sette: Rhodey’s got a one track mind, as per usual.

Avash: At least he’s not monologuing his insecure thoughts out loud

Kevin Garcia: You mean it’s not appropriate to judge a potential co-worker by the quality of their legs?

Brian Cronin: Yeah, Rhodey’s not had a good series.


DavidJustDavid: Does the Iron Man inner monologue tie in to his series?

Dean: Rhodey sounds like he’s about to make a heel turn, what exactly is happening there?

Eric Michael: In Iron Man, Rhodey was starting to suffer from headaches and mood swings

Eric Michael: It was revealed that armor hadn’t been re calibrated for him, so it was affecting his brainwaves

Dean: ah, that makes sense

Brian Cronin: But none of his mood swings made him super horny, did they?

Brian Cronin: Because this dude is horned up like crazy this series.

DavidJustDavid: By the time this series ended, a lot of the big reveals of the heroes’ return were starting to unravel or change…

DavidJustDavid: The costume went evil, the Thing was coming back, Hulk was losing it…

Brian Cronin: Yeah, that’s the curious thing about it all, David.

Brian Cronin: That Shooter is still tying in carefully to plots that are now 8 months old.

Avash: Was the spidey suit already revealed to symbiote?

DavidJustDavid: I think so.

Avash: Did we get Venom yet?

Eric Michael: The same month as last issue

Kevin Garcia: Not as a “symbiote” per se, but as a suit of alien origin last issue.

DavidJustDavid: No Venom yet

Kevin Garcia: Spidey doesn’t find out it’s alive for quite some time.

Eric Michael: Spidey finally went to Reed and discovered it was alien

Kevin Garcia: Yep, and became the Amazing Bag Man.

Eric Michael: Venom would be about three-four more years away

Avash: Was the suit always meant to be “alive” or “evil”?

Eric Michael: Looking back, I’m pretty sure that was DeFalco’s intention all along

Kevin Garcia: It just occurred to me, Spidey usually had to specially make fire-resistant webs or whatever, does the black suit just make that possible? He webs up Torch here.

DavidJustDavid: The suit could change shape and to civilian garb right from the beginning.

Kevin Garcia: Kind of ironic given that we later learn fire is one of its specific weaknesses.


Eric Michael: Ha! Good catch on the fire thing.

Avash: Or vibration

Avash: Funny given the next issue is full of earthquakes

Kevin Garcia: This is the first appearance of the Spider-romper.

Brian Cronin: The Spider-Romper is excellent.


Flavio Sette: Looks more like one of those turn of the century bathing suits.

DavidJustDavid: I love that Cap is reacting to Reed’s bad driving as Reed is lost in recap mode.

Brian Cronin: Someone passed Reed the exposition conch, it appears

Kevin Garcia: Well yeah, same thing. Short sleeve and short pant onesie.

Eric Michael: The Spider-Romper is clearly Spider-Woman’s costume, minus the gloves

Kevin Garcia: It totally is!_______________________________________________

Avash: We get a crash course on Beyonder addition through Reed monologue


Avash: It’s funny how little we knew about the Beyonder

Kevin Garcia: It’s beyond our understanding.

Avash: That one line of dialogue is all it was

DavidJustDavid: Reed is thinking of floating heads when he should be watching the road.

Eric Michael: Admittedly, i always thought 80s Reed would be a bad driver. Like in a station wagon, doing 40 in the left lane kinda guy.

Brian Cronin: That tracks for me, Eric.

Kevin Garcia: I think all of us have been there David. Floating heads are the second leading cause of road distractions.

Flavio Sette: Reed probably got into some of Enchantress’ Asgardian mead she left back at the base.

Eric Michael: That Cap and Reed panel is just begging to be made into a meme.


Avash: Titania, Volcana and Spider-Woman missing from the floating heads, any reason?

Kevin Garcia: I’m trying to recall, have Titania and Volcana met most of the heroes yet?

Avash: Cap’s face, hilarious

DavidJustDavid: They’re all from that Denver suburb…

Eric Michael: They weren’t a part of the original cast issue #1??

Flavio Sette: Nope.

Kevin Garcia: No, they were made by Doom between issues.

Kevin Garcia: They don’t even get a proper origin until, what, Dan Slott’s She-Hulk?

Brian Cronin: Titania and Volcana faced off against the heroes last issue.

Kevin Garcia: Right, right.

Brian Cronin: Where Spider-Man beat her badly

Eric Michael: Volcana burned Reed’s hands

Brian Cronin: And Captain Marvel threatened to murder Volcana’s boyfriend._______________________________________________

Kevin Garcia: Colossus is such a whiner.


Brian Cronin: Zsaji can bring the Wasp back to life

Brian Cronin: But apparently can’t fully heal Colossus from getting hit by a magic crowbar

Avash: Does Colossus have any dialogue in this series without mentioning Zsaji?

Brian Cronin: Yes, where he’s saying, “Please, just let Katya reach the age of consent!”

Avash: Good point

Avash: If he won the secret war, guess what his wish would be?

Brian Cronin: That seriously was what his wish was.

Avash: Ookaay

Brian Cronin: He wanted her to be old enough for him to marry.

Kevin Garcia: Are you serious Brian? Where was that revealed?

Kevin Garcia: It’s crazy enough to be real…

Eric Michael: I don’t think he specifically mentioned the age thing

Eric Michael: Shooter didn’t want to lampshade that aspect too much

Flavio Sette: He also mentioned in an issue of X-Men from before SW that if they were in Russia, they’d be married with kids on the way.

Avash: Screw world peace, why not?

Kevin Garcia: Maybe him hooking up with Kitty could lead to world peace? Somehow?

Eric Michael: He just knew he would wish for Kitty…draw your own conclusions

Avash: He mentioned it in one of the early issues

Flavio Sette: He specifically says she’s not “old enough”.

Eric Michael: You’re right. It was when he was hugging the weird alien Lego pillow

Brian Cronin: So yeah, Colossus is just creepy.

Flavio Sette: Creepy’s kind of an understatement. Between the whole Kitty thing and his obsession with Zsaji before they’ve even spent any time together…

_______________________________________________

DavidJustDavid: Why does Thor yell “Ho!” at Captain Marvel during the attack?


Avash: I have no idea

Kevin Garcia: Thor is just assuming. He’s a jerk like that.

Eric Michael: It’s an old-fashioned way of hailing a comrade in battle. very archaic.

Dean: Dodging computers are like Betamax, they never really caught on

Brian Cronin: Man, Zeck’s action sequences are astounding

Brian Cronin: So many characters

Avash: Why doesn’t Galactus just kill them

Brian Cronin: And there’s so much going on.

DavidJustDavid: He’s very good at drawing characters in motion, Kirby-style

Avash: He can just get rid of all his problems that way

Brian Cronin: This is some Dave Gibbons-esque attention to detail on the background characters

Kevin Garcia: Man, Thing’s eyes look freaky when the blue isn’t colored in.

_______________________________________________

Brian Cronin: Reed’s position here vis a vis Galactus is bizarre.


Brian Cronin: Considering it’s precisely the opposite of his position in the major Galactus storyline in the Fantastic Four a couple of years before this.


DavidJustDavid: Reed’s speech rings super hollow after he saved Galactus during the Byrne run.

Brian Cronin: Exactly, David.

Brian Cronin: It doesn’t make any sense.

Flavio Sette: Reed is weirdly ok with sacrificing himself, his brother-in-law and his best friend, not to mention the rest of the heroes… but the really fucked up part is that he just decides to let Galactus kill the villains, the Coloradans who got taken there and Zsaji’s people. I mean, Reed’s practically committing murder here by the convincing the heroes to stand down and let them all die!

Avash: I don’t know, this was a really interesting idea. That could be a really good plot point, IF IT WENT ANYWHERE

Kevin Garcia: Reed figures Galactus doesn’t remember those conversations.

Brian Cronin: And it’s particularly odd considering Shooter has to remember that storyline.

Brian Cronin: It was A. recent and B. a big deal at the time.

Brian Cronin: It was one of the first Marvel stories to be collected into a trade paperback. It was a big to do.

Kevin Garcia: I was unaware of that trade.

Brian Cronin: So it’s gotta be a bit galling for your Editor-in-Chief to then do a story arguing the opposite of your story.

DavidJustDavid: Also weird since Shooter was so insistent Phoenix had to die, he must have had some thoughts on that ‘saving Galactus’ thing.

Avash: Huh, interesting

Flavio Sette: And honestly, it doesn’t make any sense, considering he keeps talking about how much he wants to see Sue again. But now the idea of leaving his kid an orphan and his wife a widow doesn’t seem to bother him at all, or merit so much as a moment’s thought.

Avash: Technically, he wanted Galactus to be free of his hunger here, so it’s not exactly opposite

Brian Cronin: I think it’s Shooter letting an interesting idea

Brian Cronin: Get in the way of making the plot follow or the characterizations work.

Brian Cronin: Which has been consistent throughout this series.

Brian Cronin: Where interesting ideas have dominated over cohesiveness or character consistency.

Avash: I think that’s the selling point. This is supposed to be Reed’s big sacrifice

DavidJustDavid: Yeah, Galactus would have been just as free of hunger if Reed had let him die in FF.

Brian Cronin: Exactly.

Flavio Sette: Except Reed is sacrificing a bunch of innocent people too.

Avash: True

Brian Cronin: Reed’s whole point then was that the universe NEEDED Galactus.

Brian Cronin: So it would make no sense to say, “Nah, never mind, it’s better if Galactus were gone.”

Brian Cronin: It invalidates the entire point of the earlier story.

Brian Cronin: And I know there were writers who didn’t like Byrne’s point in that story.

Eric Michael: True. Englehart even built on that argument in Silver Surfer, saying the universe would collapse if Galactus died.

DavidJustDavid: Lilandra and all those people in the trial issue must be face-palming, reading this story.

Avash: Why would the universe need Galactus?

Brian Cronin: Balance

Flavio Sette: Well, Byrne and Shooter apparently had something of a grudge back then…

Eric Michael: He balanced Eternity and Death

Eric Michael: What? Shooter and byrne having difficulty working with others??

Flavio Sette: Wasn’t it Byrne who burned (pun unintended) Shooter in effigy after he was fired as EiC?

Avash: Yup

Eric Michael: Shot his own foot off in DC Legends

Brian Cronin: While I am not saying Byrne is above stuff like that.

Brian Cronin: In that one specific instance, he was just the artist.

Brian Cronin: That was Len Wein doing the Shooter bit.

Brian Cronin: Byrne just drew it. He had no say over the plot of Legends.

Eric Michael: Ah! I forgot! so used to Byrne being his own writer by that point in his career.

Dean: Byrne also nuked Shooter’s “New Universe”

Kevin Garcia: Well, he nuked his hometown anyway.

_______________________________________________

Eric Michael: So, Doom escapes, shocking no one, I trust.


Flavio Sette: I read somewhere recently that this whole “Doom records everything he says” is a reference to the second Spider-Man/Superman crossover, which was also written by Jim Shooter.

Brian Cronin: Boy, Cap called that one correctly.

Brian Cronin: Doom was totally harmless.

Avash: Once again, why doesn’t Galactus just kill everyone? Don’t give me that he doesn’t even notice the humans. He took time to have a heart to heart with Reed

Flavio Sette: Apparently Doom’s also said to record everything he says in that crossover.

Eric Michael: a point-singularity power supply??

Kevin Garcia: Asking why Galactus doesn’t kill everyone is like asking why you don’t go after all the amoeba around you.

Avash: Well, I don’t talk with a particular Amoeba either

DavidJustDavid: It’s kind of odd that one of the big draws of this series, an army of super-villains, are all sidelined for the remaining third of the series.

Dean: a point-singularity power supply is like “transistors”, but better

Kevin Garcia: Nothing can top transistor power.

Eric Michael: Outside of it would end the plot, he doesn’t need to kill them, Avash.

Eric Michael: They can’t really stop him.

Avash: Isn’t point singularity the universe before big bang?

Avash: I think Shooter was just looking for cool words

Brian Cronin: Here, it basically is just used like “Transistor.”

Avash: The marvel way!

Brian Cronin: Exactly._______________________________________________

Brian Cronin: I love that Colossus is mostly just happy about his teammates being alive so that he doesn’t have to dig anymore. “I mean, if Zsaji was with you, that’d be another thing.”


Dean: “I’m going to dissect you!” “Oh, good!” makes me so happy


Avash: How do you disect sound?

Eric Michael: That line always made me laugh

Brian Cronin: Klaw has a lot of funny lines

Brian Cronin: It doesn’t really fit the character at all.

Brian Cronin: But he DOES have a lot of funny lines.

Kevin Garcia: You slice it. Like pizza.

Avash: I love Hawkeye’s confidence

Kevin Garcia: Klaw is AMAZING in this book. Of course, the why of it by the end gets weird.

Brian Cronin: One of the best moments in the series is Hawkeye sharpening an arrow to kill Galactus.

Avash: “One arrow with Galactus’ name on it”


Avash: Sure dude, that will work

Brian Cronin: I await him walking up to Galactus, giving him a speech about the impact that arrows have

Flavio Sette: Hey, alien wood works miracles!

Kevin Garcia: Klaw in this book would have a lot in common with the Maker.

DavidJustDavid: Hawkeye’s arrows are better than Storm’s lightening.

Flavio Sette: I really feel like the two teams getting together for the first time since the X-Men left should feel like a bigger deal.

Eric Michael: Clearly Clint believes in the power of positive thinking.

Brian Cronin: “Yes, the power cosmic is good and all, but an arrow up close? That makes all the difference.”

Kevin Garcia: Maybe he’s got an Ultimate Nullifier arrow and he’s just been holding out all this time.

Dean: kind of like when Green Arrow shot Parallax

Avash: I half expected Hawkeye to take Beyonder down with an arrow later on

Kevin Garcia: Yeah, but with Green Arrow, that was an emotional shot.

Eric Michael: I also feel Jan’s resurrection is just kinda like,”Yeah, that happens.”

Kevin Garcia: Hawkeye is no Wasp.

Dean: yeah, it actually would have been great if that had worked

Brian Cronin: Speaking of the oddity of the continuity of this all, readers of this comic would have known that Sue miscarried MONTHS ago, so this is a tough bit seeing Reed talking about Sue’s pregnancy.


Avash: Reed’s heel turn makes no freaking sense. How did his conversation with Galactus make him change his mind? If anything it should make him more likely to follow through.

Flavio Sette: It really feels like Reed is bullshitting them here, right? “Universal instrument of life”, what the what?


Kevin Garcia: Oof. Brian I didn’t realize the publishing difference there.

Eric Michael: Ditto, wasn’t reading FF at that time.

DavidJustDavid:That baby was lost at around issue 3 of this series…

Brian Cronin: Yeah.

Kevin Garcia: I didn’t get to read any of these till after the fact. I’m a youngun, having started around the time the first Infinity Gauntlet came out.

Dean: it seems realistic that Galactus would give Reed vague, useless information

Avash: Reed’s entire arc in this issue guess nowhere. He makes a bold decision to sacrifice everyone, nobody listens to him, and then suddenly he charges his mind anyway.

Flavio Sette: This scene is just… bizarre. Ben bears his best friend say “let’s all kill ourselves, trust me, man, I know what I’m doing here” and he doesn’t even QUESTION it? Really?? Ben freaking Grimm, who used to second guess every other decision Reed made in the field??? The guy who, as has been established in stories like the classic Marvel-Two-in-One issue where he fights Champion or all those times he fought the Hulk has an indomitable will to live and refuses to give up???? And then he gets pissed and threatens Hawkeye because he DOESN’T want to die!

Dean: but that in turn makes it make less sense that Ben is like “yup, makes sense. I’ll lay down my life now”

Brian Cronin: I think, again, that these pages are just Shooter tossing out interesting ideas

DavidJustDavid:I love Hawkeye calls them quitters.

Brian Cronin: Without actually considering whether it fits the plot or the characters

Brian Cronin: And then he’ll forget about it himself soon enough

Flavio Sette: Characters behaving a little out of character isn’t a big deal. But this… Reed and Ben are quite simply unrecognizable here.

Eric Michael: It was a lot of pages just to have pages of the heroes disagreeing_______________________________________________

Avash: I love how Cap completely ignores what Reed says

Brian Cronin: True, but again, Shooter himself is going to forget about it soon enough.

Kevin Garcia: Reed’s characterization is kind of all over the map throughout the 80s and 90s.

Flavio Sette: Gotta shove some conflict in there somehow, I guess.

Brian Cronin: Exactly.

Brian Cronin: It’s conflict for the sake of conflict.

Brian Cronin: With a little interesting concepts thrown in there.

Avash: Except nobody but Ben agrees with Reed Anyway

DavidJustDavid: Then Hulk says what everyone is thinking, “Enough talk!”

Avash: Not much of a conflict

Brian Cronin: Exactly!

Brian Cronin: And then Zeck gets to cut loose again on some awesome action.


Brian Cronin: Before Reed, of course, inevitably changes his mind and helps out the other heroes.


Eric Michael: OK, this is so not Klaw, but I do love his scenes.

Kevin Garcia: Love the energy effect scenes.

Brian Cronin: While, also of course, monologuing the hell out of his scene.

Kevin Garcia: Doom-oom-oom-oom!

DavidJustDavid: The cut-up Klaw visual is pretty cool.

Avash: That’s “in character” I guess, for the series

Flavio Sette: I don’t think it’s that unbelievable that Galactus doesn’t just kill them all here. Seeing as the last time Galactus was this hungry, the FF, Thor, Doctor Strange, Iron Man and the Wasp alone were able to defeat him (and almost kill him, in fact), you’d think the heroes would be doing better here, right?

DavidJustDavid: He was very weak in that FF issue.

Kevin Garcia: Klaw was always a tricky one for me. I wanted him to be a great Black Panther antagonist, because of their shared past, but he’s usually just nuts, and not in the scary maniac way.

Brian Cronin: Yeah, I don’t think he is weak here.


Eric Michael: Yeah, I don’t think he’s as depleted here as he was then

Eric Michael: I think he’s just carb-loading up because he recognized that the Beyonde ris a big fight

Flavio Sette: Yeah, but he’s very weak here, Reed mentions he hasn’t eaten in forever, and he even resorts to eating his own ship.

Kevin Garcia: That’s always the catch. Galactus is as “hungry” as he needs to be for any given story.


Avash: Still, after hyping up Galactus throughout the series, he doesn’t look very menacing here

Brian Cronin: Yeah, I think Eric is correct.

Brian Cronin: It is not that he is weak.

Flavio Sette: “I’m sure he hasn’t fed for months, his power’s almost depleted”

Brian Cronin: It is that he thinks he needs to be SUPER pumped up to take on the Beyonder.

Flavio Sette: Maybe. I don’t know, honestly, Galactus can be pretty uneven, power level-wise.

Avash: Reed switches sides for … I dunno, he felt left alone?

Avash: I don’t get the ending

Eric Michael: Flavio has a point, but Galactus hasn’t been depicted as being in a weakened state. Show vs tell?

Brian Cronin: It also doesn’t make sense that he can power up by devouring the thing that he summoned from the other side of the universe.

Avash: If Galactus doesn’t need his machines to way a planet, why not, you know, eat the planet?

Kevin Garcia: The ending is just a set up for, “Doom has a big plan, and you’ll see what it is next month!”

Avash: Why was his own ship?

Flavio Sette: It could be something Shooter added in the scripting stage, yeah.

Brian Cronin: So he’s powerful enough to summon this giant thing that can power him up

Flavio Sette: Can we talk about how gorgeous that splash page is, though?

Kevin Garcia: Avash, that’s like saying, “You don’t need to cook to get nutrients, why not each raw ingredients?”

Brian Cronin: But depleted enough that he needs to devour it?

Kevin Garcia: That is a beautiful splash page.

Avash: He eats his ship anyway

Avash: Why not the plane

DavidJustDavid: By the time Reed is screaming, “He must not escape!” he’s pretty much lost all credibility.

Flavio Sette: Yeah, Brian, that’s kind of the crux here.

Kevin Garcia: Ships taste good.

Avash: Can’t argue there

Flavio Sette: The big Möbius strip thing is the ship.

Kevin Garcia: Taa II

DavidJustDavid: Zeck draws Galactus with the saddest face I’ve ever seen on him, right before the splash page.

Brian Cronin: But yes, in general, Galactus’ power levels never make any sense.

DavidJustDavid: It’s kinda heartbreaking.

Avash: Also, Doom’s plan is kinda nuts. What if Galactus ate the planet instead of the ship. Then you, and your machine would be gone before you can suck the energy out of them

Brian Cronin: I dunno, it’s kind of a last ditch plan anyways, right?

Brian Cronin: What does he have to lose?

Eric Michael: Bah! you think Doom was not prepared for such an eventuality?!?

Avash: True

Eric Michael: Peasants!_______________________________________________

Brian Cronin: That is quite the ending.

Brian Cronin: I don’t know if it really works as a cliffhanger, per se

Brian Cronin: But it’s quite a panel

Kevin Garcia: It’s not a great cliffhanger, no.

Brian Cronin: It IS striking.


Avash: Man, I feel bad for Galactus

Kevin Garcia: But the ramifications will be immense.

Avash: The poor guy was just hungry

Eric Michael: it is the best ending, so far.

Brian Cronin: I think the endings of #1 and #7 were both strong.

Eric Michael: Galactus can haz cheeseburger?

Avash: The ending panel could’ve been a bit more Visually striking imo

Brian Cronin: I think the issue is that the Klaw lenses were cool

Kevin Garcia: Yeah, that’s the thing. It’s not visually appealing.

Eric Michael: Oh, yes on #7.

Avash: Like showing Doom absorbing the power

DavidJustDavid: You hate to end an issue with the words, “Doom, oom, oom”

Avash: Yeah, exactly

Brian Cronin: But they should probably be activating at the end of the issue.

Kevin Garcia: Heck, I think ending on Klaw’s face would’ve been better. Him just staring off into space saying “Doom! Oom, oom, oom.”

Brian Cronin: Rather than Doom telling us that he’s about to activate them

Brian Cronin: Just like issue #3 should have ended with the destruction of the base

Brian Cronin: And not Doom telling Molecule Man to destroy the base

Avash: Exactly

Kevin Garcia: If they finished on a shot of Klaw’s insanity, it would’ve emphasized just how insane the next issue issue, while also emphasizing Doom’s threat.

Avash: It’s like they always are one step off

Flavio Sette: Next issue: Wolverine pulls a Green Lantern #76 on Captain America!

Kevin Garcia: Hah!

DavidJustDavid: I don’t remember that, now I’m keen to see it!

Brian Cronin: That’s right

Brian Cronin: But of course, next issue is pretty much all Doom.

Brian Cronin: And all the better for it.

Avash: I gotta confess, I love the next issue

Brian Cronin: It’s a fine issue.

Brian Cronin: Which we’ll discuss this Monday at 4:30 pm!

Brian Cronin: Okay, folks, thanks for coming out, that was fun! Hope to see y’all on Monday!


Venom 2’s Title Is Actually Worse Than The Phantom Menace



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