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Topic: The Tom DeFalco years Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Ted Pugliese
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Joined: 05 December 2005
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Posted: 26 December 2020 at 8:06am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

I enjoyed Bob Harras' Avengers. Epting and Palmer were
a fun combination, though it was Tom Palmer that brought
the consistency from back when he was inking Buscema on
the book.
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Rebecca Jansen
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Posted: 17 January 2021 at 8:09pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

Have really enjoyed the 'Eric Masterson' as Thor stories from #433 onward. I have up to #450 cued up in the to read pile. Ron Frenz & Al Milgrom with some Pat Oliffe on the tales Of Asgard back-up (wow, talk about '60s flashback)... DeFalco seems particularly fond of having a back-up feature running. Captain America does it at this time, and later the 'M2' titles J2 (Son of Juggernaut) and Wild Thing (daughter of Wolverine) have more than one feature.

I have gotten further with this era of Iron Man as well, just finished #267, story by John Byrne, art by Paul Ryan & Bob Wiacek. Holy spit... this is almost a perfect comic right here! I love the handling of the Mandarin so far too, and the expanded Iron Man origin recap is the best I've seen; I liked what was in #122 and #144, but when in the early 2000s they went back to this it got overloaded, seemed too late somehow then also for a Wong-Chu's final ending (plus I didn't care for the artist at that point much, Alitha Martinez).

I'm assembling a complete six part story sequence for Amazing Spider-Man with Mark Bagley art, also a New Warriors three-parter (#11-13) with more Bagley, and I have a six part Captain America story waiting in the wings already that set up the later werewolves story I got started with. It'll be nice to not have to worry the Beyonder might make a corner-blurb appearance, but they sure did shove Wolverine into almost anything possible at this time.

Edited by Rebecca Jansen on 17 January 2021 at 8:10pm
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Shawn Kane
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Posted: 18 January 2021 at 5:36am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

It seemed if you didn't get a Wolverine guest appearance at the time, you'd get a Punisher or Ghost Rider guest spot.
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Daniel Gillotte
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Posted: 18 January 2021 at 9:54am | IP Logged | 4 post reply

I enjoyed New Warriors when it came out, I was in high school so it fit me age-wise. I was glad to see Speedball get a chance to be a hero in a group setting. It was not the Teen Titans knock-off that it could have been nor was it the Young Avengers which it also could have been.

I don't suspect it holds up well, but I could be wrong.
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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 18 January 2021 at 10:01am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

I liked New Warriors quite a bit, but while most of the group were pretty young and relatively new... Namorita and especially Nova weren't new or young at all. I mean, not as old as Cap or Wolverine, but they had some history.

"Kid Nova" was a dumb idea to me. I thought it was Rich Ryder's little brother, Robbie, as a "new" Nova. But Rich Ryder, in another costume, playing youngster? Eh.
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Rebecca Jansen
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Posted: 18 January 2021 at 11:54am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Well, I just have to go on to New Warriors #16 once I saw it had Terrax! I have the whole later 1999-2000 series, all ten issues.

There are sure a lot of angry letters in Thor about the new guy using the name, I actually feel good that people were mad about him and the real Thor breaking the moral code, even though I think the stories do a decent job with the issue. It was those things where some killer 'hero' would be blowing away all sorts with no reaction or laughing insanely that could make me embarrassed to be a comic book fan. The Punisher started out not as a hero, Lobo started out killing an alien caricature of Fred Hembeck for a cheap laugh, and I don't think I want to know Wolverine during some of those 'extreme' or 'dark' periods; he'd just appeared to definitely kill Rachel-Phoenix in the last X-Men I bought in the '80s, in a sewer. Oh well, at least he didn't laugh I guess. Maybe lit a cigar or popped a beer and went into Wolv-soliloquy "hated to scrag the kid like that but I'm the best at what I... yatta-yatta".

I've also decided to dip into a three part Spider-Man gets tiny with Ant-Man story across three annuals, probably the Gil Kane cover to the first one made me hopeful. I should also get some more of those quarterly 'Marvel Super-Heroes' giants with a bunch of stand-alone stories... there was Ditko and Byrne in the first four!

Edited by Rebecca Jansen on 18 January 2021 at 11:59am
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Adam Schulman
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Posted: 18 January 2021 at 1:22pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

That was the era in which I bought very, very few Marvel titles. For the most part there was very little quality writing being done at Marvel at that time, and I was annoyed by the ever-increasing number of Spider-Man and X-Men titles that one really did have to buy in order to get a complete story. (I dropped the Superman titles for the same reason -- I despised the "triangle era" despite quality writers like Roger Stern and Louise Simonson.) 

I will give DeFalco credit for doing a good job following Roger Stern on AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. Not a classic run but very solid. 
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Brian Miller
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Posted: 18 January 2021 at 1:55pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

I totally consider it a classic run. DeFalco/Frenz is one of the strongest
runs on the character.
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Wallace Sellars
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Posted: 18 January 2021 at 4:39pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

I enjoy Tom DeFalco’s writing when he’s paired with Ron Frenz.
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Shawn Kane
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Posted: 19 January 2021 at 5:59am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

DeFalco/Frenz hooked me on Amazing. I didn't read it monthly up to that point but I was also reading Marvel Tales at the time and starting to really appreciate Ditko. Frenz's art felt like Ditko's just like his art felt like Kirby during their Thor run. 
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Rebecca Jansen
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Posted: 19 January 2021 at 12:33pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Here's why I like the original comics with the letter's pages: a reader ended a letter with "Until Thor ditches Mjolnir for a screwdriver named Doris, Make Mine Marvel!" :^D
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Rebecca Jansen
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Posted: 18 February 2021 at 12:31pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Still exploring this mini-era I missed while it was happening. Very much into the various Acts Of Vengeance issues and Avengers West Coast, but I wanted to give a shout-out of sorts over three Spectacular Spider-Mans with 100% Sal Buscema art cover and interior starring the Vulture (#186-188)... just outstanding! The story by J.M. DeMatteis is pretty decent as well, but how it's told is just great 'Marvel'! The dialogue between The Vulture and Aunt May is really gripping stuff to me, about as 'real' as you want in a superhero comic, and even feels actually important.

I gave in and ordered the first couple What The..?!s as well. I used to have a complete run of Not Brand Ecch!(plus the classic Avengers Annual #2 had a NBE style back-up) so I think I'm going to really enjoy them!

Mostly I've stayed with The Avengers titles plus Cap, Iron Man, and Thor with a few sidetrips to other parts of the era. Fantastic Four seems to have really varied wildly! I just looked at #351 and had to look for info online to even understand it... the Beyonder with part of another male character fused in is now a woman? I bought the issue based on just the cover thinking it was Frankie Raye, or maybe even Binary/Carol Danvers. Whoops! Throw in a rocky She-Thing named Ms. Marvel and yikes what a mess for an older reader to try to untangle! I think the Walt Simonson writing and art is good otherwise so maybe limit myself to just his issues. The Art Adams stuff is hard for me to read, though I was a fan of his initially. Just seems really crowded with detail in almost every panel (and doesn't help to have giant guns plus Wolverine, Spider-man, Ghost Rider and The Hulk in these issues, talk about crowded out of their own title).
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