The Early Art of Joe St. Pierre

Spider-Man_Super_Special_Vol_1_1

So I’m reading some Spider-Man comics from the mid 90’s and stumbled across the the 1995 mini-series “Planet of the Symbiotes”. In this story, Eddie Brock tries to separate himself from the Venom symbiote, which causes it to freak out & send a telepathic distress message into space, which brings a whole mess of symbiotes to Earth. Turns out that there’s an entire race of the things that travels the galaxy and bonds with different lifeforms, consuming their energy until they’re dead & then moving onto the next planet. The Venom symbiote we all know and love was actually exiled from their society for wanting to permanently bond with a host & actually live with it rather than just use it up as fast as possible and leave behind a dead husk. What a loser, right?! It was marooned on Battleworld until Spider-Man found it during Secret Wars. Anyway, Spider-Man, Scarlet Spider, and Venom team up to fight off the symbiotes & save the day.

The point I should be getting to here is that issue two of this series, Spider-Man Super Special #1 (it ran in “super specials” off all the Spider titles at the time; Amazing, Spectacular, Web of, etc.) was drawn buy a guy named Joe St. Pierre.  St. Pierre hadn’t been in the business that long, having gotten his start in 1992. His art style…I can only describe it like this: It’s like somebody got Todd McFarlane good & hammered drunk and had him pencil a Spider-Man book.  Take a look for yourself.

spider-man joe

Joe St. Pierre is still working today and he did go on to get a lot better. Just goes to show you that any artist would most likely be better served cultivating their own style instead of trying to mimic someone else’s.

joe new

 

Podicus Wrecks #42.5 – Claremont and Byrne X-Men run part 2

It’s time for part 2 of our discussion on Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s Uncanny X-Men run. Find out what awaits our band of fearless heroes after their ordeal on Murderwold. Will they find happiness on Muir Island, or just a crazy mutant? Find out what in world is happening with Jean Grey. All that and possibly the Wendigo is ahead.

Wonder Woman review

Wonder Woman PosterI am going to waste no time and just come right out say that Wonder Woman is a fantastic movie.  Patty Jenkins, the director, has done a phenomenal job.  If you have not seen it, then you should quit reading this review, and go see it right now.  I appreciate the view, but get lost.  Anyways, since this is a review, I might as well continue.  Of course there are people that probably did not listen to me.  Since seeing this movie, I have been thinking about what exactly made it so good.  Why has it gotten the critical praise that none of the other recent DC movies have received?

The best I can come up with is that this movie has heart.  It is sincere and earnest.  And I know those are pretty vague terms, so I will try to explain better.  In Wonder Woman, we watch Diana grow into the role of being a hero.  And yes, that is the basic premise of an origin movie, but this one differs in that there is no burden pushing her in that direction.  She did not watch her parents die.  She did not suffer some personal tragedy and have to become a hero to escape it.  She did not do this because it would make her a better person.  She started her hero’s journey because it was the right thing to do.  This is where I think the favorable comparisons to Captain America:  The First Avenger are.  Not that they are both war movies, but that they are heroes that chose to be heroes, and were not pushed into it.  The difference is that Captain America takes World War 2 fairly lightly.  Wonder Woman does not do the same with The Great War. Spoilers below.  (more…)