Batman: Reptilian by Garth Ennis and Liam Sharp

[batnbreakfast]

An IRA splinter faction is the focus in an arc of Punisher Max and I think the only thing Ennis hates more than the IRA are Irish-Americans who gave money to the IRA.

Kitchen Irish. Absolutely loved the pirates.

[Metro]

Yeah, Ennis hasn't changed a bit. Hasn't even read Batman much or at all in 00s. Something ironic in this day & age about one of the best comic book writers hating superheroes.

I suppose it would be if he were, but he's not and if he didn't constantly show he barely understand the base concept of what a superhero is.

[Powertool]

Aaaargh, I'm conflicted... I'd read even a shopping list if it were penned by Ennis but I absolutely loath Liam Sharp's artwork. I thought it was completely inadequate for comic books in his old style (the utter lack of dynamism of his characters was baffling every time they weren't posing as statues) but after he changed it, probably after he recovered the first issues of Kyle, Yost & Crain's X-Force from a comic book shop's quarter bin, I can barely stand to look at it.

I suppose it would be if he were, but he's not and if he didn't constantly show he barely understand the base concept of what a superhero is.

Au contraire, he absolutely understands the concept of a superhero (and, most importantly, the idiosyncrasies of superhero comic books). He just can't in good conscience say that he likes them, because that would be a damn dirty lie. And we all know that there's nothing people hate more than somebody being utterly honest about what they do or do not like.

[hairys]

I suppose it would be if he were, but he's not and if he didn't constantly show he barely understand the base concept of what a superhero is.

Ennis understands (what's so hard?), but he just dislikes them, which is fine. i do agree with you that the previous poster likely misused "irony" since Ennis hardly ever writes superheroes anyway. It'd be ironic if he wrote them plenty but dislikes them.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Yeah, Ennis hasn't changed a bit. Hasn't even read Batman much or at all in 00s. Something ironic in this day & age about one of the best comic book writers hating superheroes.

What's ironic is someone calling Ennis one of the best

[Powertool]

What's ironic is someone calling Ennis one of the best

You're right!

THE BEST.

Period.

[The Cool Thatguy]

You're right!

THE BEST.

Period.

And now we've moved into the field of delusions

[SiegePerilous02]

I liked his Hellblazer run and what I've read of Preacher. But they also aren't anything that absolutely blew me away either, and the heroic archetypes he seems to prefer don't do anything for me, so I'm not really interested in pursuing anything else by him.

If I spend any money on this, it will be entirely down to the Liam Sharp art.

[batnbreakfast]

*nevermind*

[Metro]

Ennis understands (what's so hard?), but he just dislikes them, which is fine. i do agree with you that the previous poster likely misused "irony" since Ennis hardly ever writes superheroes anyway. It'd be ironic if he wrote them plenty but dislikes them.

Aaaargh, I'm conflicted... I'd read even a shopping list if it were penned by Ennis but I absolutely loath Liam Sharp's artwork. I thought it was completely inadequate for comic books in his old style (the utter lack of dynamism of his characters was baffling every time they weren't posing as statues) but after he changed it, probably after he recovered the first issues of Kyle, Yost & Crain's X-Force from a comic book shop's quarter bin, I can barely stand to look at it.




Au contraire, he absolutely understands the concept of a superhero (and, most importantly, the idiosyncrasies of superhero comic books). He just can't in good conscience say that he likes them, because that would be a damn dirty lie. And we all know that there's nothing people hate more than somebody being utterly honest about what they do or do not like.

Looking at what he's written, and what he's said I very much doubt the idea he understands them.
This is the same guy who believes Captain America is insulting to WW2 vets, despite Captain America being popular among them during the actual war

He seems to get they're people in costumes who beat up other people but not much other than that shallow reading

[The Cool Thatguy]

Looking at what he's written, and what he's said I very much doubt the idea he understands them.
This is some guy who believes Captain America is insulting to WW2 vets, despite Captain America being popular among them during the actual war

He seems to get they're people in costumes who beat up other people but not much other than that shallow reading

Cap was popular with the soldiers, created by a man who served and punched Nazis before everyone agreed that punching Nazis was the best thing to do.

Garth Ennis is the John Wayne of our era :P

[Powertool]

And now we've moved into the field of delusions

The current comic book industry (especially the writers) is deluded, from my point of view. Otherwise I wouldn't be bored to tears or actively pissed off by nearly every American comic book I read these days and I wouldn't be here saying that an author who, even in my biased opinion, clearly peaked in the late 2000's is still the best creative mind in the industry.

Looking at what he's written, and what he's said I very much doubt the idea he understands them.
This is the same guy who believes Captain America is insulting to WW2 vets, despite Captain America being popular among them during the actual war

He seems to get they're people in costumes who beat up other people but not much other than that shallow reading

Cap was popular with the soldiers, created by a man who served and punched Nazis before everyone agreed that punching Nazis was the best thing to do.

Garth Ennis is the John Wayne of our era :P

"As a World War II aficionado, Ennis also said he finds characters like Captain America "borderline offensive, because to me the reality of World War II was very human people, ordinary flesh-and-blood guys who slogged it out in miserable, flooded foxholes".". Think what you want about the man, but what he says about World War 2 (and war in general, to be honest) is pure gospel and there's absolutely nothing wrong if he actually finds the character of Captain America offensive to his sensibilities. In fact, in this age of easily-offended people, it's kind of refreshing to read a down-to-earth explanation of the reason why somebody finds a fictional character offensive.

Let alone that I'm really starting to loathe that childish expression, "punch a Nazi in the face". The reality is that the knuckles of very few people ever actually connected with a Nazi jaw, for the simple reason that German soldiers were usually carried very lethal rifles and pistols and even the dumbest volunteers who were shipped to the European theater knew that it was extremely unwise to get in punching range with people armed with that kind of equipment. Knowing this, are you sure Kirby ever punched a Nazi to begin with? Oh, and by the way, it was reeeeeally hard to find a character from Golden Age comic books who wasn't popular with frontline troops at the time. Not only all of them were imbued with patriotism, but... well, let's be honest, when your life might be cut short every moment from a random gunshot or hand grenade you tend to cherish every kind of escapist entertainment you can get your hands on. Bonus points if it features war as a clean affair rather than the dehumanizing experience it actually is.

[Metro]

I'm very unsure how that doesn't come off as being easily offended, when the character was created to inspire people to join the war, by someone who actually served in the war, and was liked by actual soldiers during the war, meanwhile he never experienced the war or what the world was actually like during that time, since he was born in the 70's.
I don't see it as any different than a white person getting offended for minorities over something they either didn't care about or liked, like when Speedy Gonzalez was considered offensive to the Mexican community and got banned from appearing in Looney Tunes shorts despite the character being popular among Mexicans.
I don't see the difference here

[The Cool Thatguy]

"As a World War II aficionado, Ennis also said he finds characters like Captain America "borderline offensive, because to me the reality of World War II was very human people, ordinary flesh-and-blood guys who slogged it out in miserable, flooded foxholes".". Think what you want about the man, but what he says about World War 2 (and war in general, to be honest) is pure gospel and there's absolutely nothing wrong if he actually finds the character of Captain America offensive to his sensibilities. In fact, in this age of easily-offended people, it's kind of refreshing to read a down-to-earth explanation of the reason why somebody finds a fictional character offensive.

Let alone that I'm really starting to loathe that childish expression, "punch a Nazi in the face". The reality is that the knuckles of very few people ever actually connected with a Nazi jaw, for the simple reason that German soldiers were usually carried very lethal rifles and pistols and even the dumbest volunteers who were shipped to the European theater knew that it was extremely unwise to get in punching range with people armed with that kind of equipment. Knowing this, are you sure Kirby ever punched a Nazi to begin with? Oh, and by the way, it was reeeeeally hard to find a character from Golden Age comic books who wasn't popular with frontline troops at the time. Not only all of them were imbued with patriotism, but... well, let's be honest, when your life might be cut short every moment from a random gunshot or hand grenade you tend to cherish every kind of escapist entertainment you can get your hands on. Bonus points if it features war as a clean affair rather than the dehumanizing experience it actually is.

I've read his James Bond parody, with plot elements like Gender Fluid, triggered bot and what have you.

Garth Ennis is very much an old man complaining about things he doesn't like. It's his f**king career.

As for punching Nazis in the face, I was referring to the fact that Cap was created by two Jews to punch Nazis in the face, before people really knew it was the right thing to do (also rip off The Shield)

Garth Ennis is at the end of his vaguely original ideas and is probably eying an exit towards the door before people get tired of his cliche 'Hard men doing hard things' that he does all the damn time.,

[SiegePerilous02]

Let alone that I'm really starting to loathe that childish expression, "punch a Nazi in the face". The reality is that the knuckles of very few people ever actually connected with a Nazi jaw, for the simple reason that German soldiers were usually carried very lethal rifles and pistols and even the dumbest volunteers who were shipped to the European theater knew that it was extremely unwise to get in punching range with people armed with that kind of equipment. Knowing this, are you sure Kirby ever punched a Nazi to begin with? Oh, and by the way, it was reeeeeally hard to find a character from Golden Age comic books who wasn't popular with frontline troops at the time. Not only all of them were imbued with patriotism, but... well, let's be honest, when your life might be cut short every moment from a random gunshot or hand grenade you tend to cherish every kind of escapist entertainment you can get your hands on. Bonus points if it features war as a clean affair rather than the dehumanizing experience it actually is.

Even if he didn't, he still enlisted. To my knowledge, that's one up on Ennis.

And if the escapist entertainment helped the actual soldiers who were over there get through it, I don't see any reason to get offended. At least not for the reason of Cap being a super solider (vs. something like the racist caricatures of the Japanese).

I've read his James Bond parody, with plot elements like Gender Fluid, triggered bot and what have you.

Often the people complaining about stuff like this and making fun of it are the thinnest skinned people of them all.

As for punching Nazis in the face, I was referring to the fact that Cap was created by two Jews to punch Nazis in the face, before people really knew it was the right thing to do (also rip off The Shield)

Unfortunately, some still don't. But we should probably not open that can of worms

Garth Ennis is at the end of his vaguely original ideas and is probably eying an exit towards the door before people get tired of his cliche 'Hard men doing hard things' that he does all the damn time.,

This is precisely the reason I have no desire to read the Boys, even for free.

I don't think I would be able to remotely tolerate Billy Butcher without Karl Urban playing him