Alex and Joe talk about crowd funded toys, evolving collecting habits, food storage, wrestling, and… generally forget they should have planned the show better.
You can reach Alex and Joe can be found on Twitter respectively @karcossa and @FirstRonin4 if you feel the need to tell them they’re wrong individually, or by email at ItsThose2Geeks@gmail.com.
This is a column that focuses on something or some things from the comic book sphere of influence that may not get the credit and recognition it deserves. Whether that’s a list of comic book movies, ongoing comics, or a set of stories featuring a certain character. The columns may take the form of a bullet pointed list, or a slightly longer thinkpiece – there’s really no formula for this other than whether the things being covered are Underrated in some way. This week: Captain Canuck: Aleph
I picked this trade up recently, and finally got around to reading it today, and I remember wondering once I was done why I hadn’t heard about it before. Published by Chapterhouse Captain Canuck: Aleph collects the first six issues of Kalman Andrasofszky and Leonard Kirk‘s 2016 run on the character.
If you’re wondering who the character is, and what the series is about, then wonder no longer!
“Born of the True North and tested in the field of war, Tom Evans is Captain Canuck, Canada’s greatest superhero. After an encounter with an alien artifact granted him superhuman strength and speed, Captain Canuck joined the global crisis intervention agency Equilibrium to take on the greatest threats that the world has ever known.
Captain Canuck needs all his grit and strength to stand up to the machinations of the deadly Mr. Gold and his sinister minions, but his most serious challenge lies much closer to home. What dark family secrets will he discover at the mysterious Site: ALEPH?”
Although Captain Canuck has a rich history, originally debuting back in July 1975, you don’t need to be aware of any of it. Oh, it’s well worth looking up if you’re curious, but to enjoy Aleph it isn’t required reading. What you get with this book is a story about team work, family, and the steely determination of a man who looks like a superhero, and has all the characteristics of superhero, but feels distinctly more human than superhuman. There are moments where other characters call out the traditional traits of a superhero that Captain Canuck exhibits, but only enough to make you wonder why a hero does what they do. And Canuck gives you his answer in this book; through his actions, not his words.
I paid $10 for this, and it was worth every penny.
Join us next week when we look at something else that is, for whatever reason, Underrated.
Alex and Joe talk about crowd funded toys, evolving collecting habits, food storage wrestling, and… generally forget they should have planned the show better.
You can reach Alex and Joe can be found on Twitter respectively @karcossa and @FirstRonin4 if you feel the need to tell them they’re wrong individually, or by email at ItsThose2Geeks@gmail.com.
This is a column that focuses on something or some things from the comic book sphere of influence that may not get the credit and recognition it deserves. Whether that’s a list of comic book movies, ongoing comics, or a set of stories featuring a certain character. The columns may take the form of a bullet pointed list, or a slightly longer thinkpiece – there’s really no formula for this other than whether the things being covered are Underrated in some way. This week: Marvel Epic Collections.
I noticed that my reading habits changed a little during the pandemic; rather than individual issues, I was drawn toward complete stories that were typically collected in some form of trade paperback or graphic novel. I say typically because my comic shop began selling sets of various kinds (full runs, miniseries, etc.) and I have picked up a few of those over the last year or two. But more often than not I’ve been reading tpbs. Over the past couple of months I’ve been reading Marvel’s Epic Collections – a series of books with between 3-500 pages that will focus on a particular series told in chronological order. There’s a chance that you may get more than the main series included if there’s a crossover story, but never more than the issues that pertain to the story.
My interest in these was piqued because I found the first volume of Wolverine’s Epic Collection that contained the early issues of Wolverine and around ten parts of a story from Marvel Comics Presents featuring the clawed mutant as the story led directly into the solo series. I didn’t have those issues of MCP, and reading the single issues of the main series in trade was far more convenient than digging out the individual issues. Yes, I paid for convenience, no I am not ashamed. But it did get me looking at other characters, teams and series that were featured in the Epic Collections. Spider-Man, Moonknight and Daredevil all now sit on my shelf (some in the “to read” category), and while they’re solid books, the opportunity they afford a person to be able to read comics from fifty, sixty years ago is fantastic.
I’d never be able to read a bulk amount of early Amazing Spider-Man comics in full colour, in print, unless I had a ton of disposable income or was lucky in finding a great deal, or had picked up an omnibus or two. Yes, there are doubtless trades featuring the odd collected story, Marvel Masterworks, for example, and there have been reprint mags in the UK (but those issues are long out of print), but the volume of the comics in the Epic Collection combined with the retail price makes them the best value for money out there.
Interestingly, because the Epic Collections focus more on collecting stories that either haven’t been published in trade form before they’re not published sequentially. So while the first eight volumes of The Amazing Spider-Man have been released, volumes nine through 14 have yet to have even been given a release date. While this can prove irritating for those looking to read a series in full from start to finish, for me it’s a relief because I’m able to get a complete story with each Epic Collection (minus the odd loose end because the books are collecting full runs for the most part).
There are Epic volumes with more than just the named series, though; Wolverine Volume 13 has nine issues plus an annual of Wolverine, but also the six issue Origin miniseries. I’m sure that this isn’t unique, and that other volumes will feature odds and ends apart from the main series, but for the most part in my (limited) experience the volumes focus on the named series plus crossovers more often than not.
I had thought of buying a Marvel Unlimited subscription to read these early Spider-Man comics, and while that would likely have been cheaper initially, eventually I’d have cancelled it and been unable to read the comics. Plus I tend to prefer print over digital for reading comics, books and graphic novels. Now, excuse me while I crack open the next volume in my pile.
In the meantime, Underrated will return to highlight more comic book related stuff that either gets ignored despite it’s high quality, or maybe isn’t quite as bad as we tend to think it is.
Alex and Joe talk about crowd funded Hasbro toys, wrestling, and… not much else, honestly.
You can reach Alex and Joe can be found on Twitter respectively @karcossa and @FirstRonin4 if you feel the need to tell them they’re wrong individually, or by email at ItsThose2Geeks@gmail.com.
This is a column that focuses on something or some things from the comic book sphere of influence that may not get the credit and recognition it deserves. Whether that’s a list of comic book movies, ongoing comics, or a set of stories featuring a certain character. The columns may take the form of a bullet pointed list, or a slightly longer thinkpiece – there’s really no formula for this other than whether the things being covered are Underrated in some way. This week: X-O Manowar: Birth
The Vine are replaced with the Spider-Aliens, although aside from the name there is little that distinguishes them from the first few comics in the 2012 run. Where as the Vine become one of the more interesting and complex plot points in the VEI stories, the Spider-Aliens show little of the same qualities at this point (yes, there are signs that there is more to the Vine within the first three issues of the VEI run), but then that really just makes it easier to enjoy the battle carnage as Aric tears his way through the soldiers and corporate representatives of the Spider-Aliens.
Although you can enjoy the book without any prior knowledge, for a Valiant fan of the old or new school (or both) this beautifully presented book is a must read. And most of us will seek the story out if we can, but for those not entrenched in Valiant lore, this standalone story here represents an Underrated gem from comics history.
Join us next week when we look at something else that is, for whatever reason, Underrated.
Alex and Joe talk about toys, wrestling, and movies.
You can reach Alex and Joe can be found on Twitter respectively @karcossa and @FirstRonin4 if you feel the need to tell them they’re wrong individually, or by email at ItsThose2Geeks@gmail.com.
This is a column that focuses on something or some things from the comic book sphere of influence that may not get the credit and recognition it deserves. Whether that’s a list of comic book movies, ongoing comics, or a set of stories featuring a certain character. The columns may take the form of a bullet pointed list, or a slightly longer thinkpiece – there’s really no formula for this other than whether the things being covered are Underrated in some way. This week: Lake Of Fire
It is 1220 AD, and the gears of the Albigensian Crusade grind on. When an alien spacecraft infested with a horde of bloodthirsty predators crash-lands in the remote wilderness of the French Pyrenees, a small band of crusaders and a Cathar heretic are all that stand between God’s Kingdom and Hell on Earth.
When the owner of my LCS not so subtly recommended this to me by putting it in my pull box, I figured that she’s never steered me wrong yet, so why not give it a go? A few hours ago I opened the cover to the five issue collection, unsure of what I’d be getting beyond the notion that it was essentially aliens verses knights, and I didn’t stop reading until the story was done.
I devoured the entire tpb in one sitting and immediately wondered why I hadn’t read about this somewhere before. Why had nobody told me about this before the owner of my LCS told me to read it?
Published by Image, Lake Of Fire was written, coloured and lettered by Nathan Fairbairn with art by Matt Smith (no, not the guy who played Doctor Who), the comic does have a fairly straight forward knights verses aliens feel to it – not that that is a bad thing as it allows the characters, action and art to really pop.
Yes, there are the fairly standard typical characters within the story, but while Fairbairn does tread familiar ground with the characters, the major players all feel as though they have a weight about them. You have the grizzled old warrior, the naive young knights and the dark priest all present and accounted for, and yes they are popular fantasy archetypes, but they’re well written archetypes which goes a long way in my book. I’d rather a well written archetype than a shallow character for the sake of originality.
That being said, rather than having the characters face off against a supernatural threat Fairbairn instead pits them against a horde of alien predators. I’ve always been partial to seeing how our ancestors would fair against an extraterrestrial threat, and the collected edition of Lake Of Fire scratches that itch remarkably well.
Matt Smith‘s art couldn’t be better suited to the past-meets-future story; the action sequences are easy to follow and once the comic reaches the midpoint the atmospheric art really amps up the threatening feel of the story itself in a case where Fairbairn’s colouring melds so well with Smith’s line art that it’s hard to believe that two people were involved in creating the visuals for the story.
It may seem as if I’m being a little harsh on the story for being relatively straight forward, and that’s not my intent. Lake Of Fire is a fairly easy tale to follow from start to finish, but there are a more layers to the characters than you’d initially expect from the story – such as the relationships between some of the characters – and there’s an underlying theme about acceptance and tolerance in a time when neither of these were encouraged or widely practiced.
As far as recommendations from my LCS go, this is one of the more surprising ones; I didn’t expect much more out of this story than to be able to just pop my feet up with a cup of tea and just relax with a half the story before moving on to something else. Instead I ended up finishing the entire trade in one go and immediately start writing this column. Lake Of Fire is a really enjoyable story that surpasses a lot of the comics currently on the racks – and it’s also entirely self contained.
There are a lot of reasons why I wanted to spotlight the comic this week, but chief among them is that I haven’t heard anything about it anywhere – and that’s why it’s Underrated.
That’s all for this week folks. Join us next week when we talk about something else that falls under the Underrated banner in the comic book world.
Alex and Joe talk about Joe’s visit to Terror Con.
You can reach Alex and Joe can be found on Twitter respectively @karcossa and @FirstRonin4 if you feel the need to tell them they’re wrong individually, or by email at ItsThose2Geeks@gmail.com.
Alex and Joe talk about toys, specifically some of the reveals from Hasbro’s Pulsecon.
You can reach Alex and Joe can be found on Twitter respectively @karcossa and @FirstRonin4 if you feel the need to tell them they’re wrong individually, or by email at ItsThose2Geeks@gmail.com.
