God DAMN! Punk Rock Jesus was amazing this month. Sean Murphy just may be in my top 3 favorite writers in the last decade (and an amazing artist as well, for a black and white book there is just so much life and density to the art that color couldn't add anything that wasn't already there).
Still going through the stack, but really looking forward to Chew, The Massive, Stumptown, Hoax Hunters (picked up the first two issues to try out, my shop guy said he'd put the 3rd one in my box because it'll be sold out by the time im done running back to buy it after reading the first two
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also have on deck
Batgirl #0
Marceline and the Scream Queens #3
Uncanny X-Force #31
Batman #0
Wolverine and The Xmen #16
and I just filled out the form for my next 5 months of comics...
32 books total
only 4 DC books...the bulk Marvel and about 15 or so spread across IDW/Image/Kaboom...ETC
I mean were not getting the old jean back, she'll be young from the past. Although Jean would have been an excellent leader she always seemed to let Scott define her.
I meant Hope as in she will lead the younger generation of mutants, essentially becoming the next Jean Grey. She just needs to change her last name.
Waaaaaah! But I want JEAN back! If they couldn't replace her with Rachel, how are they doing it with Hope? Is . . . Is this how people who don't like FF13's Lightning feel?
Thoughts on what I read today. Light spoilers ahead!
Avengers VS X-Men #11 - I liked it. I thought it was weird that Xavier kept making threats to stop Cyclops and then gets killed or almost killed by him though.
Wolverine and the X-Men #16 - Didn't really like this. It was all about this Hellfire kid. Needed more, you know, Wolverine and X-Men. I thought the last issue was pretty cool too. Maybe they should have followed that up with some of the actual fight?
Uncanny X-Men #18 - I thought the Emma and Cyclops part was good and I liked how it tied into AVX #11, but the Colossus and Magik part was just, OK.
X-Men Legacy #273 - I thought this whole Rogue story kind of sucked and felt like filler. The last few issues with Ms Marvel and Rogue were pretty cool too. Then they send her to this planet. What was the point of all that?
New Avengers #30 - Very good. I liked the Luke Cage developments. I look forward to seeing what happens with him.
Fantastic Four #610 - Pretty good. I didn't really care for the Dr Whittman stuff, but the interaction between the FF and Spidey makes it worth reading.
WatXM sucked really hard. Can't wait til Bachalo takes his monochrome, clusterfuck, shit art off this book. Also murderous tweens seems totally antithetical to the lighthearted, fun nature of the book. I can't wait until AvX is over so that book gets back to the school and the students which is where it has been at its best.
Actually, to anyone in the know, did anyone do anything with the shit-bomb left over from Onslaught Unleashed that Onslaught was now in semi-possession of Steve Rogers? Seems like the kind of "oh shit" twist Remender would enjoy going back to.
I feel so bad for the momentum of WatXM. It being forced into a sort of holding pattern waiting for AvsX to conclude, and so having to do great big filler issues. Theyve been okay, but still, it sucks.
Hopeless: Yeah, Arcade has spent a lot of years building Murder Worlds that yield very few actual murders. Hes decided its time to get back a little self-respect. Its time for a new kind of Murder World. AVENGERS ARENA is about the unlucky kids hes chosen to help him try it out.
I dont want to give too much away, but I can promise a lot of murder in this new Murder World.
Marvel.com: There are 16 participants fighting for their lives on this island. Any familiar faces? Any particularly unfamiliar faces?
William Rosemann: A fun mix of both. Fans of AVENGERS ACADEMY will hopefully be excited by the next chapter in the lives of Hazmat, Mettle, Reptil, Juston and his Sentinel and X-23. Speaking of schools, who are the Braddock Academy? After his last appearances in War of Kings and NOVA, Darkhawk soars again! Staying with sci-fi, just wait until you see what Dennis and Kev have planned for Annihilations Cammi, baddest girl in all the galaxy. And last but certainly not least, direct from the pages of the dearly missed RUNAWAYS, we have Chase and Nico!
Oh great, another venue for Marvel to brutally slaughter female teenage girl super heroes. I don't even know why there are men there when it is obvious that all the girls are going to die and then they'll just cancel the issue.
Also, the cover is much more Battle Royale then Hunger Games.
i dont think its specifically girls, but they like the shock value of death like most companies do. they killed off most of their depowered mutants, and anyone if they think it will make someone reel back. marvel isnt exclusive to this, but its hardly a sign of they like to kill little girls.
alex wilder died in the runaways too, when most villains never die.
How the fuck is Avengers Arena gonna be an ongoing? I mean, provided people actually start killing one another, and some probably will because otherwise what's the fucking point, there's a limited supply of people to murder. Is it one of those "it's gonna sell around 10k copies and get cancelled after 8 issues" dealios? How is this not a miniseries? Also, why are you trying to play the Battle Royale card when Battle Royale is hyperviolent and bleak as shit? I thought maybe we'd try to break away from that since it's pretty much every other comic.
This announcement is weird as shit is what I'm saying.
How the fuck is Avengers Arena gonna be an ongoing? I mean, provided people actually start killing one another, and some probably will because otherwise what's the fucking point, there's a limited supply of people to murder. Is it one of those "it's gonna sell around 10k copies and get cancelled after 8 issues" dealios? How is this not a miniseries? Also, why are you trying to play the Battle Royale card when Battle Royale is hyperviolent and bleak as shit? I thought maybe we'd try to break away from that since it's pretty much every other comic.
This announcement is weird as shit is what I'm saying.
Centering the book around killing off C-list characters is... unappealing. Hopeless at least seems to be aware of that being problematic, so I'm at least willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.
Dennis Hopeless: The important thing is to give each character a chance to shine. These kids were chosen carefully and with specific story beats in mind. We definitely plan on taking advantage of the broad personality spectrum we have in play. Even the characters [that] die off early make their mark on the story. I didn't throw anyone into the book as cannon fodder.[
Anybody pick up Demon Knights 0? What a fucking fantastic comic. Of the zero issues I've read so far, it's the probably the only one that seems like a boon to the overall story and doesn't seem like a shitty cash-in. To be fair, Frankenstein was greatas well but didn't add much to the overall story.
Eugh, I don't know how I feel about that. I liked the movie and the book (the manga not so much), but I think I had enough of Battle Royale with, well, Battle Royale.
Young heroes dying doesn't interest me, especially not in a series that looks to be designed around it, and if they don't then this is false advertising. As much as I love the Avengers Academy cast, I don't know that I want to read this.
And yet I have a suspicion I will :|
WatXM sucked really hard. Can't wait til Bachalo takes his monochrome, clusterfuck, shit art off this book. Also murderous tweens seems totally antithetical to the lighthearted, fun nature of the book. I can't wait until AvX is over so that book gets back to the school and the students which is where it has been at its best.
Avengers Arena could be decent, but the reason why new characters from the Runaways, New X-men, Young Avengers, Avengers Academy, etc never make the big leagues is that Marvel constantly uses them as cannon fodder is series such as this one. I can't help but think that most of the Giant Sized X-Men would have been killed off within 5 years if they were created today.
This series is going to produce the same sort of hate that Beyond got for killing Gravity.
WatXM sucked really hard. Can't wait til Bachalo takes his monochrome, clusterfuck, shit art off this book. Also murderous tweens seems totally antithetical to the lighthearted, fun nature of the book. I can't wait until AvX is over so that book gets back to the school and the students which is where it has been at its best.
I actually think they work better in the crazy world of WatXM than they did in the relatively serious Schism. But they don't really work that well either way. There's nothing interesting about characters who fail and then get right back up like it's nothing.
The concept sounds cool, but what sucks about it is that it's gonna be decimating characters with a lot of potential to be built up to major players in the future rather than rely on Spider-Man, Wolverine, Avengers etc, Runaways for instance could have been a lot bigger than it is now. Not a lot of chances are taken beyond what's proven to sell.
It's a shame they tend to kill of new characters rather than let them flourish like they did with the New X-Men kids after House of M.
Waiting for Hawkeye #2 to arrive in the mail and also planning to get Red Hood and the Outlaw 0 and Teen Titans 0. I hope Tim Drake's new origin story isn't terrible.
I really, really dislike the premise of Avengers Arena. Hopefully, this isn't the series that the Wiccan/Loki/Miss America story in Point One is teasing.
How the fuck is Avengers Arena gonna be an ongoing? I mean, provided people actually start killing one another, and some probably will because otherwise what's the fucking point, there's a limited supply of people to murder. Is it one of those "it's gonna sell around 10k copies and get cancelled after 8 issues" dealios? How is this not a miniseries? Also, why are you trying to play the Battle Royale card when Battle Royale is hyperviolent and bleak as shit? I thought maybe we'd try to break away from that since it's pretty much every other comic.
This announcement is weird as shit is what I'm saying.
I want that series. But they can't kill these brahs. Reptil should be huge and have his own ongoing. Runaways should be fuking Avenegers already. Anyone read season one books?
Anybody pick up Demon Knights 0? What a fucking fantastic comic. Of the zero issues I've read so far, it's the probably the only one that seems like a boon to the overall story and doesn't seem like a shitty cash-in. To be fair, Frankenstein was greatas well but didn't add much to the overall story.
Enjoyed Demon Knights a lot but for some reason my LCS didn't receive Frankenstein this week, so I'm hoping it will show up next week.
Demon Knights is always a brilliant read, but it definitely fitted into the narrative better than most other zero issues I've looked at so far.
Resurrection Man did the same, incorporating the backstory into the wrap up, but the entire thing felt a little forced - I guess that happens when you have to conclude things with haste. I wish Saiz had drawn more than the last page though. I like Bachs, but this was not his best work, by any stretch.
LL felt motionless (which considering it was meant to be a characters driving motivation, feels like a strange thing to say) although the art was very good, and Team 7 was a rather standard "getting the team together" issue that was sorely lacking in charm (I liked
Fairchild
's comments though).
Of the non-DC comics I read this week, Conan seems to switch artists at the drop of a hat, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. I've liked most of the previous artists in some way, but there was something off about how the characters were drawn in this issue that actively detracted from the story in this issue for me. Belit seemed overly pouty with some rather odd eyes and lips at points, while Conan seemed very... I don't know how to describe it really. Bland? Cleanshaven? Pretty? It just didn't seem right.
I'm never quite sure what to say about Massive, because it feels like it's moving at a glacial pace, but for some reason with this book I don't care. I love the world building and the character moments and the way the history of the world is filling itself in.
WatXM's murderous kiddies... meh. I actually enjoyed their last attack on the school just because it was so wacky, and I have nothing against comical young murderfiends... but when people try to write these kids "seriously" they annoy me far, far more. This issue was the latter, and it irritated the hell out of me. An entire issue of Kilgore backstory? WHO WANTED THAT?. Can we send these kids after them? I mean, at a push Slaver kid and Frankenstein kid are passable, but the less I see of Kade and "Little Miss Wackjob" the better.
I also picked up UXM just because I'd heard so much good about this issue. It probably would have worked better if I could bring myself to read AvX, but having seen people posting that rubbish anywhere I didn't really feel the need. I enjoyed the snowflake moment, and I continue to be impressed by how much gold Gillen can manage to make out of editorially enforced events. He seems to do far, far better with them than most other writers.
That said, my favourite issue this week was also by Gillen. Journey into Mystery continues to be fantastic, even when it's in crossover mode.
Thor is fighting, Volstagg is under pressure, Loki is snooping, Thori has grown up, Scary Lady has "returned"... I love this book. "Writers lie" indeed
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