Inane Discussion Five:

"Two New Old Books and The Redemption of an New Friend"

Peblee: So, which books are we talking about today?

Fumanchu: Black Panther and Shanna The She-Devil for starters.

Peblee: Sweet. You know, I had a real problem with the African tribesmen circa 1400 saying crap like “Stay cool, man.”

Fumanchu: It is really a good story, but the dialoge and the art are kind of shabby.

Peblee: In a NMM first, let me flop over to the other book and say that Shanna The She-Devil shocked the friggin’ heck out of me.

Fumanchu: No kidding.

Peblee: I never thought that this story was going to be any good, you know just drivel, but instead it rocked.

Fumanchu: You know, the penciling in Black Panther was not that good, but the colors were excellent. The colors were not good at all in Shanna The She Devil, while the penciling was excellent.

Peblee: I disagree. I think that the colors in Shanna The She-Devil were bright, with less focus on light and shadow because Frank Cho and Dave Stewart were trying to give the book a classic feel; whereas, in Black Panther the colors look ultra-modern, but the pencils don’t live up to it.

Fumanchu: There’s plain, and then there is the use of single colors only.

Peblee: Yeah, but I loved how bright and clear it was.

Fumanchu: I don’t have a problem with the colors themselves, just that everything was one color flat. It looked like cell-shading.

Peblee: No. Books like NYX look cell-shaded.

Fumanchu: I’m just saying they could have done better.

Peblee: Well, I think it was perfect. For me, I would not have asked for better colors, or even different colors.

Fumanchu: It is not a dark comic so they didn’t need so much light and shading, but I could have done with a little more.

Peblee: As for his art, John Romida Jr. in Black Panther – you have to understand that this is just his style. You know? But, on so many of the frames he must have been rushed because if you check out the scene where the bearded-racist-A-hole dude sees the Black Panther through his spyglass, you see that JR is really an excellent artist.

Fumanchu: The art in the book was well planned, but when he is drawing most of the book it looks sketchy and rushed. Anytime he draws Black Panther though it is awesome.

Peblee: The split page with Cap is just plain bad though. It is so stiff, and so old-time Golden-Age style, it just doesn’t fit even if they are trying to show him back in time. A side note, did you think Condaleeza Rice did well in this one? Did you see all of her man-grimaces?

Fumanchu: Why does everything have to be racially charged around her? And since when does America kill people simply because they refuse to allow us to fly over them.

Peblee: Yeah. Wakanda doesn’t seem like it is on an air route to an essential locale. Oh! What about the Klaw? He’s got like a city or a skyscraper on his hand which doesn’t look intimidating at all.

Fumanchu: It’s looks like some sort of satellite receiver.

Peblee: Yeah. It looks like it’s going to give me high-speed internet access.

Fumanchu: Is that supposed to be effective? Is it supposed to hurt someone?

Peblee: Maybe he is going to stick it where the sun-don’t-shine? That would really hurt.

Fumanchu: Maybe it is just heavy and he just clobbers or brains the enemy. It almost looks like it should have a place to put food in it.

Peblee: It’s like a toaster-oven slash claw.

Fumanchu: Slash blender. Why is he The Klaw? He just goes from a metal hand to an antenna-thing, but never once forms a claw.

Peblee: He goes from a metal hand to the Shinra building. He should really be called “The Spikey-Probe.” It has no resemblance to a claw. And, I don’t know how he thinks that a kitchen appliance on his hand is going to stop a guy that beat down Captain America.

Fumanchu: He’s going to kill the Black Panther with a high-colonic. He’s going to kill him with an enema.

Peblee: I tell you what he is going to do: He’s going to wait until the Black Panther is in the bathtub, then he is going to put the claw in the tub and electrocute him to death.

Fumanchu: Besides, if only his hand is a claw, can’t the Black Panther just beat up the rest of him?

Peblee: Yeah. Or he could just cut off his claw. What’s funny is in the press release Marvel stated that they want this to appeal to the hip-hop crowd, but Panther doesn’t drive an Escalade, has no bling, and wears a skirt.

Fumanchu: Before we go any further, let’s talk about Shanna The She-Devil.

Peblee: Okay.

Fumanchu: Shanna, Shanna, Shanna. I’m holding the book right now.

Peblee: Okay, let’s start at the cover: a buxom broad, yet one who lacks the non-existent waist and hips that are way too common these days. She is absolutely alternative to the modern style of, let’s say, Michael Turner.

Fumanchu: She’s old-school hottie.

Peblee: Yeah, that’s awesome, and that’s just the cover – on which, I might add, the colors are perfect. They stand out and grab your attention so well.

Fumanchu: The cover is excellent, and I’ll have you know that it is different from the book in that it is well-shaded.

Peblee: Whatever. Um, as you turn inside, you’ll notice that Frank Cho has simple backgrounds. I like it: Brings the focus to the characters. And, Frank Cho = consistency in faces.

Fumanchu: …I don’t like that.

Peblee: Yeah, I can remember you praising Majestic for the constant-changing faces.

Fumanchu: Yeah, as you know, I like a man’s face to change in every frame. That way, I don’t get too attached to a look.

Peblee: Could you believe it? Even when that guy got his face ripped off –

Fumanchu: You still knew which guy he was.

Peblee: I mean, of course, he was the only one with his face ripped off, but still he looked the same, except that he was kind of wrinkle-faced, wincing in pain for some reason – the wuss.

Fumanchu: You know, considering that the doctor is left alone at the end with the very hot scientist and the very hot Shanna, I would really like to trade places with him despite the dinosaurs.

Peblee: Yeah. It was cool that he was the guy that survived, rather than the attractive, would-be love interest lieutenant.

Fumanchu: Yeah. I also like the mustache.

Peblee: I like that the nude scenes were not “Mount Me” scenes, as Robotics would say. You know what I mean? They weren’t overly-suggestive.

Fumanchu: It was funny when she fell out of the tube. You might say it was a little suggestive when her and her boobies land on the doctor. That was cool, except wasn’t she covered in like cryo-fluid, or something?

Peblee: Well, we don’t know. It could have been orange juice.

Fumanchu: I bet it tasted great!

Peblee: That whole scene, where he asks if he’s okay, and he just gives the thumbs-up, that was genuinely hilarious.

Fumanchu: Yeah. No smart-aleck remarks, no stupid one-liners, just a thumbs-up. That’s going down in Fumanchu’s comic book history.

Peblee: I said we would mention an old friend. Of course, by that I was referring to New Avengers. I was very impressed. And, frankly, I am now hooked all because of that last page with Spider-Girl. Oh, and of course the scenes with Luke Cage and Purple Man. Too bad Cap had to step in and stop him.

Fumanchu: I think it would have been alright if he had killed him. He was a risk.

Peblee: Yeah, but comics are being read by impressionable youngsters like us, so they need a good dose of ethics. Cap doesn’t let Cage kill him because they are the good-guys. You know - good old-fashioned stuff.

Fumanchu: I thought the art was very good in this, but there are a couple things that bothered me: 1. Toney Stark, Steve Rogers, and Peter Parker are all the same guy, except they have different hair color. 2. Parker’s bruise floated around on his face. And, I’m just sayin’. They aren’t terrible things, but they’re annoying, and I’m just sayin’. But the dialogue in issue 3 was way better than the others, it was actually good.

Peblee: I wish that Spider-Girl just wore an upper-boob cover.

Fumanchu: Was wolverine in this one? Please, someone tell me where is Wolverine?