Wolverine #304 (2012) - Return of an Alpha Flight member

[Phil]

I bought it. Other than the mind-f^$k dude keeps putting on Wolvie, there is nothing interesting about it, not in the least.

btw, I read it twice, very carefully, and i STILL haven't seen either Sasquatch or WC in it.

I'm at work, so can only get to my digital copy so the page numbers may be slightly outta whack:

Wildchild is on page 9/10(?) (the second double page spread), in a Nazi uniform with Romulus, in between the main images of Remus & Wolverine. (And I missed that one, so it's easily done)

Sasquatch is two pages later, at the far right of the images of all the feral/lupine characters just above where Remus talks about the elephant bones in Wakanda.

[Flightpath07]

Thanks, Phil.

Gotta say, the Sas pic has him looking so blow-dried, and his fangs so long, that it looks more like V2 Sas than the other one. To me, anyways.

As far as Wild Child goes, I saw the pic you point out...I'd just never be able to tell that it was him. Even with you pointing it out, and me staring at it, I STILL can't tell that it is him. Is it? All i see is a long-haired guy with a weird grin in a nazi uniform; to me, that leaves a lot open to interpretation - i could just as easily say that it is Mr. Sinister, or Dee Snider from Twisted Sister.

[Le Messor]

All i see is a long-haired guy with a weird grin in a nazi uniform;

A long-haired guy in a Nazi uniform? The artist does know that's a contradiction, right?
Never mind, probably not.

Dee Snider from Twisted Sister.

Look, we're NOT gonna take it!

~ Le Messor
"Information is the key to power and the key to prevent power abuse. In the knowledge lies the power."
~ Edward Feigenbaum

[Flightpath07]

Look, we're NOT gonna take it!

Yes you are, and you'll like it!

[Phil]

As far as Wild Child goes, I saw the pic you point out...I'd just never be able to tell that it was him. Even with you pointing it out, and me staring at it, I STILL can't tell that it is him. Is it? All i see is a long-haired guy with a weird grin in a nazi uniform; to me, that leaves a lot open to interpretation - i could just as easily say that it is Mr. Sinister, or Dee Snider from Twisted Sister.

Exactly why I missed it, but it's concurrent with the Nazi-Wildchild in the original arc, so it is him.

[EccentricSage]

Wait, now I'm double confused. I thought we were talking about the original arc! LMAO

Ugh, so there is a new issue out and they're still bringing up the Nazi connection, at least implied via flash back? Is this a lame recap issue? No new developments?

[Phil]

Both the appearances are flashbacks to the original storyline, as Remus explains that everything Romulus told Wolverine is nonsense.

[Flightpath07]

Both the appearances are flashbacks to the original storyline, as Remus explains that everything Romulus told Wolverine is nonsense.

Although what Romulus tells Wolvie at the end of issue 312 is perhaps even more nonsensical! 'Hey, I know...let's confuse things even more!'

[Phil]

Yeah... at least the first storrline was readable to a degree.
This is just... wow...

[Le Messor]

Yeah... at least the first storrline was readable to a degree.
This is just... wow...

People (insiders, mostly) keep treating Loeb like a superstar writer, one of the greats of the field.
I've never understood that.

I've found him average at best... and that includes The Long Hallowe'en.

~ Le Messor
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
~ Martin Luther King

[EccentricSage]

I never understood why they let Loeb do whatever he wants, ether. Must just be really good buddies with lots of important guys in the industry or something.

To me it looks like with the first ark Loeb was having a complete mental break down because of the death of his son, as a lot of the dialogue made no sense or would bring up issues like health care and evolution vs creationism, for no reason at all, and at times OOC. The plot seamed aimless and was full of plot devices that were barely even there. Wait, some of these guys were de-powered? Um... Romulus magically re-powered them! It's like he was just making up whatever as he went along.

I feel really bad for the guy's loss, he sounds like a nice enough person, and I wouldn't really wish that on anyone, but Marvel's editors should have reigned him in a bit and offered him leave, just promise to let him do a Wolvy story after he's had time to mourn, might not have been so bad.

Now that he's back, he's claiming he's just going to pick up where he left off and finish the story as intended, but if you ask me it sounds more like he's trying to play catch up and fix it. Which will probably just be a whole 'nother train wreck. At least tell us HOW Wildchild came back from being engulfed by molten metal, for example. I know the character didn't come back under his pen, but the character was brought back for his purposes. Does the new issue explain what Romulus's power set are? Because he really doesn't even strike me as a feral mutant, more like some sort of god given flesh ... with a Furry fetish.

You know who I REALLY don't understand being in the position they are in, even more so than Loeb? Joe Q. Keeper of continuity and protector of character integrity my ass. He jumps on every outrageous gimmick and bad piece of target market analysis that comes his way. What has he EVER done for Marvel's integrity?

[Flightpath07]

What has he EVER done for Marvel's integrity?

Probably the answer is, "made them money". Some companies don't understand that integrity and money have nothing to do with each other. But as long as Marvel makes money, they have no real reason to get rid of him.

btw, congratulations to Marvel, who have managed to suck me in to buying a whole ONE of their new Marvel NOW titles. Yup, just one. Wow, they must feel pretty successful, eh? Two more months and I'll be heading from 3 Marvel titles, briefly down to one and then back up to two (and, at that time, I will be collecting 16 monthly titles).

[EccentricSage]

Well yeah, as long as the company isn't in the red, money is being made. I don't think that should even be credited to JQ, JQ's job is supposed to be keeping the continuity from getting too screwed up and preventing damage to their intellectual property. Look at how good they are at alienating people who did want to read their comics by not even keeping their **** straight between runs? They've made precious little off me since the mid 90's. I've met plenty of people who used to read Marvel and stopped in the 90's. Doesn't seem like a great business model, to me. Then there's the ridiculous pricing. Are they only making most of their comic book revenue off of the collectors now? All the constant relaunching and variant covers plus outrageous pricing would have me think They're just milking the last of their big spenders for all they're worth. I can't even afford the few titles I'm actually interested in reading! Way to grow their audience!

[Flightpath07]

Well yeah, as long as the company isn't in the red, money is being made. I don't think that should even be credited to JQ, JQ's job is supposed to be keeping the continuity from getting too screwed up and preventing damage to their intellectual property. Look at how good they are at alienating people who did want to read their comics by not even keeping their **** straight between runs? They've made precious little off me since the mid 90's. I've met plenty of people who used to read Marvel and stopped in the 90's. Doesn't seem like a great business model, to me. Then there's the ridiculous pricing. Are they only making most of their comic book revenue off of the collectors now? All the constant relaunching and variant covers plus outrageous pricing would have me think They're just milking the last of their big spenders for all they're worth. I can't even afford the few titles I'm actually interested in reading! Way to grow their audience!

Oh, I completely agree with you.

But I am going to take a page out of Phil's book (don't worry, Phil, I'll put it back when i am done!), and say it is all about the money. Thanks to the success of Marvel on the big screen, Marvel no longer sees themselves as a comic book company; they are a corporation, an empire, a conglomerate. Take your pick of many other nasty big words. They're "the man" and they are trying to stick to you.

In all seriousness, Marvel will do whatever it can to rake in your cash, and as much of everyone's else's cash, as they possibly can. They'll reboot their entire line, every 2 years. They'll make every series restart at Issue # 1, every 3 months ("its a better jumping on point"). They'll put out 14,000 variant covers to Scooby-Doo Meets Casper # 121, all signed by various people who may or may not have ever worked for Marvel before. They'll charge you $13.00 for a comic, while they cut back and print it on cheaper, recycled paper. They'll pay their writers and artists less, and so end up with inferior ones. They'll call your mom in the middle of the night and tell her she has won a million dollars in an Indonesian lottery, and all she has to do is wire $500 to the Marvel offices in order to receive it. They'll make a comic that has a miniature robot in it, that'll sneak out of the comic at night and steal BOTH your kidneys and sell them on the black market.

The point is, Marvel doesn't care about you, or me; they're too big for that. All they care about is, how many bajillions of dollars did we make this month, and how can we make even more bajillions next month?

And, as i am sure Phil will point out, and he is mainly correct, DC isn't any different. Nor is GE, or Ford, or Sony, or Apple.

Joe Q's job is safe, because nobody cares if he does a good job at it. as long as the money continues to flow.

[EccentricSage]

My point is that they'd make more off their comics if they weren't destroying the MU, that is all.