Word: marvel
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...with such phoniness that only Barney Frank is fooled. Her latest endeavor was to support a bill that sets limits on lobbying for presidential pardon. This is absurdity in such a pure state that nobody except the New York Post has even bothered to touch it, instead choosing to marvel at such a rare gem with Bill O’Reilly-esque glee...
...Buzz Classic is a logistical marvel--25 teams playing 61 games in just three days. After five round-robin pools of five teams complete play, the top 12 teams play for the championship in a single-elimination bracket...
Back in 1991, before Marvel comics completely tanked creatively and financially, they gave Walt Simonson writing and penciling duties on "The Fantastic Four," issues #350, 352, 353, and 354. (Number 351 was a throwaway, "filler" issue.) I doubt the title has seen such a highlight since then. These four issues are some of the best mainstream comic entertainment I have read. And issue 352 stands alone as a pinnacle not just of the series, but the art form...
...called "Mighty Marvel Manner," a combination of idiot-level exposition, purple prose, absurdly contrived fight scenes and melodramatic pathos, can be done right or wrong. Mostly it gets done wrong. But when done right, as by its founders Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, and here by Simonson, it can be a delight and impossible to put down. On the first page of this four-issue series Dr. Doom hovers over a storm-swept castle as his doom-bots, "the banshees of hate," come, "skirling down through the sleet... carried on the wings of the whistling wind!" I challenge...
...Issue 350 stands out as a top example of classic superhero-genre comic making: story surprises, dynamic action scenes told in clear yet exciting layouts, and characterizations that have life while remaining iconic. But really it just sets up issue 352, as radical a comic as Marvel ever...