The Ed Brubaker (Captain America,DD,X-Men) Thread

[hector]

I think a few of us here read Captain America, so I tought to start a thread to discuss the series, that and I was inspired by the 65th Anniversary Special, which features Cap, Bucky and Fury against the Red Skull and a deadly giant Nazi-robot which, if you ask me, it's exactly what comic books need. New Avengers would actually be good if they battled a deadly giant Nazi robot every other issue.

[Gray Lensman]

I still want Bru to do a Sin/Crossbones series. He writes villains so well.

Edit: And as much as I like Nazi robots, nothing can make Nu-Avengers good. Certainly not with Bendis. ;D

[Duncan]

Giant nazi robot constructed by Doom's villainous hand, possibly.

I love Cap, but now I'm thinking Daredevil's maybe the Bru mainstay?

[Gray Lensman]

I'd agree there, Duncan. Bru excels at crime noir. DD is easily my favorite title coming out from him these days.

[hector]

I would think not even Brian Michael Bendis can make giant Nazi robots lame, but I have been amazed by his powers before.

duncan said:

I love Cap, but now I'm thinking Daredevil's maybe the Bru mainstay?

He seems to write both effortlessly. And he's not half bad with the X-Men. Though I would prefer he handled the Astonishing team and not Whedon.

[Duncan]

Hmm, I'm not so hot on Deadly Genesis. It varies from isssue to issue - I did like his X-Men 1.5 team, but not so much the latest installment. He does have a good handle on the characters, and I look forward to his Nightcrawler in Uncanny, a book I was initially very leery of, but the Billy Tan preview art is actually really quite good.

[Gray Lensman]

I'm not terribly fond of Deadly Genesis. It's really a story built upon a series of weak retcons. (Especially the third Summers brother, which I really wish had been left alone.) The mystery is also pointless because there's no way anyone could have guessed it.

I do see potential in the "missing" class of X-Men, that having been said. I'm hoping for better from Bru once he takes over Uncanny, but we'll see.

[Duncan]

Well, I pretty much guessed after #1 that there was a 'missing' team of X-Men, composed of the back up story characters. To me, that was the mystery angle. It kind of disappoints me when I get these things right. I'm also not very happy about Charles being a total bastard; I like Charles quite a lot, even though he's made a lot of really bad decisions and mistakes over time, but this is deep in the realms of utterly unconscionable.

Retitle to Brubaker thread? Or Brubaker@Marvel, something like? I think there's plenty to talk about at any rate.

[Duncan]

Ha! New av to respect my new fave supervillain. (Well, when I say respect, I mean obviously I'm not a big fan of the politics angle, but he's a cool looking mofo.)

[hector]

I do think that mystery was actually obvious. I don't know if it was since the first issue, as I read issue 1 and 2 at once, and it became clear since the second one or so. I am enjoying Deadly Genesis, and have moderate hopes for his run in Uncanny. Especially as I find Whedon dull and Carey pretty much unreadable.

And I don't see much difference in Xavier's actions in DG, it certainly seems in line with his track record.

[Gray Lensman]

Good idea with the retitle.

The thing I have with mysteries is this. If you're going to establish a mystery villain, at least introduce him before you do the big reveal. Had Bru introduced Kid Vulcan in a backup section in one of the earlier issues (say, in Deadly Genesis #2-3), that would have worked. Then you can play the game of "which one of the kids is the villain"? Instead, what we get is a villain that flies right out of left field with no actual establishment. It comes across as a cheat, honestly. Bru is normally a good mystery writer, so I expect him to know better than this.

Even so, it might be he'll do better on Uncanny. I agree that Whedon hasn't lived up to potential lately, and I'm unsure about Carey on a superhero team. Not entirely sold on Bru's cast yet, but it might still work out. I do like the idea of adding James Proudstar to the cast; he's a character with a lot of potential.

I think Bru mentioned somewhere that one of the lost class is going to join the Uncanny team. Anyone care to make any guesses?

[brett]

Darwin would be a good choice.

[Duncan]

Really? Darwin is probably my fave, but I rather thought they were dead and Kid V had all their powers (re: the big rock hand that grabbed his shuttle - Petra, the ethereal visions the team were experiencing - Sway,) unless they're in the background waiting for the big reveal...

Do like the inclusion of Proudstar, hopefully reverting to his Thunderbird codename; there seems a completion of a cycle in that.

[SilvaShado]

I really like what Bru did with Catwoman. But I didn't have the money or interest to follow him over to Marvel. Sounds like he's doing a good job, though.

[Duncan]

Yeah, his Catwoman and Sleeper were the first things I read. I think the 'No Easy Way Down' arc in the former remains an absolute standout of his tenure on any book, but I was sadly compelled to drop it when the (I'm sure he was once good, specifically on Shang-Chi, but now he's) dreadful Paul Gulacy came in on pencils.

[Gray Lensman]

Bru did some good work at DC, agreed. Mainly Catwoman, but I also liked his runs on Batman and Detective. Only read a little of Gotham Central, but that wasn't bad from what I've seen. He seems to do really well with urban vigilante and criminal types.

My first exposure to the Bru was on a Vertigo series called Scene Of The Crime. Decent stuff, IIRC, but haven't read it in an age. He's come a long way since then.

[SilvaShado]

Yeah, the art on Catwoman sucked sometimes, but then at other times they had perfect artists for the stories.

[brett]

duncan said:

Really? Darwin is probably my fave, but I rather thought they were dead and Kid V had all their powers (re: the big rock hand that grabbed his shuttle - Petra, the ethereal visions the team were experiencing - Sway,) unless they're in the background waiting for the big reveal...

Do like the inclusion of Proudstar, hopefully reverting to his Thunderbird codename; there seems a completion of a cycle in that.

Ah, forgot about them probably being dead. Although wasn't Vulcan leeching Marvel Girl's powers? Same thing could be happening with the 1.5 team I suppose. I've only read up to #4 so far, and they've been quick reads at that. Bru's good enough for me to spring for the trade.

I think it would be much better if Hairsine was able to do a decent job. This breakdowns business from him is just not on. A couple of pages look great, but there's too many generic looking ones, which is a shame because I do like his Davis/Hitch lovechild art.

[Duncan]

Yeah, he's obviously very slow - I think he's pencilled one full issue, the first one. It was the same on Ultimate Nightmare, where Epting had to draw an issue. I don't mean to come over all John Byrne, but he obviously can't do the monthly grind, so maybe don't get him to do monthly comics.

Re: Catwoman, the first 24 or so issues are great looking; Cooke, Stewart, Pulido and - eh - Rader, who I've never seen do anything else, are all my idea of very good pencillers. Possibly the first three would all make my contemporary top ten, but thereafter, well...

[SilvaShado]

Yeah, those first 24 issues of Catwoman were the strongest, both in terms of art and writing. It certainly went downhill with that cross-over mess.