Monday, January 11, 2010

2009 Triumph Head Shot by Nathan Stockman

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Admittedly, a heroic looking blond guy in gold armor whose unusually colored costume isn't in frame is so generic, it could just as well be Flash Gordon. Also, it's disputable whether Triumph was truly a villain, much less a worthy addition to the Vile Menagerie. I say, I spent hours on the phone with a relative who's wanting to borrow money, and discussing their likely downward spiral with my girlfriend afterward. I then chased this with other distractions, gave up on my grand plans for the evening, and need a filler post to recover some lost ground. Somehow, Triumph just doesn't inspire a more impassioned defense from me.

12 comments:

LissBirds said...

Hang in there. I hope things are looking up for you soon. :)

If you squint a little, this could almost pass for pre-bearded Aquaman.

mathematicscore said...

I almost bought Triumph number 3 for .25 the other day, but not being able to find the others in the miniseries prevented it. Ii figure with Priest it can't be all bad.

LissBirds said...

Oh, and I just found this out by way of a commenter on Sally's blog and I thought you'd like to know. (Honestly I'm so excited I want to shout this from rooftops. But I can't climb the roof at work or I'll get in trouble.)

The JLI is coming back!! With Giffen!

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/justice-league-international-returns-011012.html

A bi-weekly 26 issue run. No word yet on if J'onn is going to appear, but one sharp-eyed commentor on Nrama pointed out that the blacked-out head on the cover could be his.

Diabolu Frank said...

Ssss... yeah. I just read about that, Liss. Giffen has repeatedly expressed a cavalier attitude toward the JLI characters, especially in regard to their heinous treatment in recent years. He doesn't seem to care overly much, which helps explain why he's willing to co-write the book with Judd Winick, while DeMatteis sits this revival out. I'm following J.M.'s lead here. Plus, the silhouette looks more like Ted's, but is probably a fake-out for Jaime.

M.C., I think I own that issue, and it was pretty good, considering it starred Triumph.

LissBirds said...

Awww, Frank. While that's all probably true I'm going to go off and believe that the 80's JLI will come back and it will be awesome and the world will be populated only by marshmallows and unicorns.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss. :)

mathematicscore said...

Yeah, while I have an appreciation for Giffen as a mad genius and more than a little talent for kickass superheroics, it will be interesting to see how things turn out with out Dematteis. And it'll finally clear up who is responsible for what in the original JLI. Although there is much hate out there for him, I've liked 90% of the Winick I've read, (Outsiders, Under the Hood) so I'm guardedly optimistic. As for Jaime, I think with this "Light and Brighty" thing, it would make sense to bring back pretty much everyone. However, like the 2000's JLI sequels, I forsee J'onn being grabbed up by the "serious" league, and therefore largely absent from this reunion.

And here I got excited for 5 comments on Triumph... :p

Diabolu Frank said...

Giffen and Maguire did a swell JLI short story in one of the JLA 80-Page Giants without DeMatteis, who is in my experience painfully bad at writing comedy on his own. I figure DeMatteis brought the heart and developed the characters' relationships, while Giff handled the mad ideas and funny. Combined they were better than the sum of their parts.

Giffen on his own and especially with underwhelming scripters is a source of regular disappointment with occasional bright spots. DeMatteis is far more reliable when solo, but can be too earnest/spiritual/saccarine at times.

mathematicscore said...

I do like that 80 page giant story. I agree that Dematteis brought the finer characterizations, and that's what I'll most miss. Winick is good at bad ass superheroics though. The Amazo issue of under the hood is slam bang awesome.

LissBirds said...

What I don't get about all this is that they moved Giffen and DeMatteis to Booster Gold and kicked out Jurgens, who was doing just fine on his own and it was his character. It's all a mystery to me. Making comics is like making sausage...I really don't want to know what's going on behind the scenes...as long as I get my weekly dose of happy.

Diabolu Frank said...

Did they boot Jurgens? I haven't heard anything beyond Giffen's remarks in that one interview.

mathematicscore said...

I don't know about booting, but Giffen and Dematteis are going to be the titles writer's in the near future. Likely around shortly after the start of Generation Lost.

LissBirds said...

Of course now I can't find the original article...maybe Jurgens wasn't kicked off maybe he just decided to leave? I'd like to know what title he's going to work on.

The other bit of news that made me sad was the Metal Men backup to Doom Patrol is done with.