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COMICS |OT| September 2016. Comics Should Be Good.

I always wonder how I can still play the KH games, but here I am. Getting all excited again.
Reading about this upcoming Deadman mini at DC, don't know much about the writer, but a gothic horror romance, set in New England no less, with a 70s horror comic aesthetic. I am waaay down for that (if the reviews are decent of course: Click for interview. 48 pages per issue, three issues, interesting stuff.



Covers by Stephanie Hans.
Absolutely will be getting
 

xptoxyz

Member
Batman/TMNT. More will probably pop up on the day itself.

While being a fan of both (turtles old cartoon at least), not sure that's a crossover I can see myself liking, hahaha. Maybe I'll check the preview pages first.

In the single issues they have the entirety of The Long Halloween and also Year One. Year One is one of the best things Frank Miller has done; shows Batman just getting started. The Long Halloween is good if you are at least familiar with Batman villains; it's a 13-part murder mystery, each issue covers a different month/holiday.

Edit: oh man, forgot Dark Knight Returns is part of the sale; that's also great (grim, old Batman comes out of retirement).

Definitely dude.

Year One man, one of the best bat stories ever, and you need no knowledge at all. Dark Knight Returns and the long halloween are very friendly in that way too.

Personal fav, the court/city of owls. One of the best modern tales by one of my favourite writers :) also the intro to the new 52 batman so again, fairly easy on new readers although it is rooted in general continuity more than the others mentioned. You'll see the various robins, nightwing etc.

Thanks both. I actually read neither Year One or DKR but have watched both adaptations. I remember really liking DKR, Year One stuck a little less in my brain I have to admit. Think there's anything to gain from both of them story wise for someone who watched those?

Court of owls I'm slightly familiar with, again in when they were used in a Batman/Robin animation, would be interested in checking out more if not threading the exact same thing. Also does it go Court>Night>City ?? You didn't seem to mention night at all, skippable?

Long Halloween I've got zero reference for, will give it a check over.

Has Hush generally had mixed reception? I remember hearing quite a bit buzz about "hush", not sure if the character or the comic.
 
Court of owls I'm slightly familiar with, again in when they were used in a Batman/Robin animation, would be interested in checking out more if not threading the exact same thing. Also does it go Court>Night>City ?? You didn't seem to mention night at all, skippable?

Long Halloween I've got zero reference for, will give it a check over.

Oh sorry night of the owls is the crossover collection so basically over the course of the owls saga there is a space there the other bat books did some tie ins, and those were collected as night of the owls. Completely skippable unless you end up really loving it and wanting to read them. It is very obvious in the story when it fits in haha I won't say more.

The death of the family volume that is in the sale there comes after the owl stuff, if you happen to be looking to spend loads haha I didn't want to over do it and recommend too much though so I didn't mention it.
Can't comment much on the animated movies vs the books sorry I haven't saw those.

Hush, a lot of people love, I just don't care much for jim Lee's art so it's not a big favourite of mine but it is well liked.
 

smisk

Member
Anyone got a comic podcast recommendation that covers a wide variety of books and usually goes into conversation about them?

Started listening to 11 O'Clock Comics about a month ago. They do a good job of covering a wide range of stuff from the big two to Image, Valiant and even the occasional indie cartoonist (Learned about the great Noah Van Sciver from them).
 

xptoxyz

Member
Oh sorry night of the owls is the crossover collection so basically over the course of the owls saga there is a space there the other bat books did some tie ins, and those were collected as night of the owls. Completely skippable unless you end up really loving it and wanting to read them. It is very obvious in the story when it fits in haha I won't say more.

The death of the family volume that is in the sale there comes after the owl stuff, if you happen to be looking to spend loads haha I didn't want to over do it and recommend too much though so I didn't mention it.
Can't comment much on the animated movies vs the books sorry I haven't saw those.

Hush, a lot of people love, I just don't care much for jim Lee's art so it's not a big favourite of mine but it is well liked.

Thanks again, and yeah, I'm not going all in on a buying spree but at least I'll have a better reference on what to get even if it's a bit more spread out. ;)
 

Brian Fellows

Pete Carroll Owns Me
Just saw this posted on the Image reddit page........

Rose City Comicon Updates from Hickman and Fraction...........


At his panel, Hickman mentioned the status of his many Image books that some may be interested to hear about:

East of West Year 2 recently finished. The comic will take a 3 month hiatus, then return for the third and final year with (hopefully, he says) no other 3 month hiatuses, perhaps a month skip somewhere.

Manhattan Projects will continue in the near future, but after Hickman and Pitarra dabble in a "superhero" comic that they are discussing.

Dead and The Dying is still alive but Hickman is waiting to get enough issues finished to ship monthly before finishing the series.

Black Monday Murders is ahead of schedule, with 4 issues practically finished.

He also mentioned interest in doing another series that he would also draw himself, like The Nightly News or Pax Romana. (I assume this is about Frontier)

Fraction Side Note:

Sex Criminals is set to continue soon. In person, he told me some other secret stuff about the Sex Criminals future that he asked not to share.. Very fun-sounding ideas!

Black Mask Studios/Rosenberg Side note:

4 Kids Walk into a Bank is also still on-track. Matthew said issue 3 will come out in about 3 weeks.
 

ElNarez

Banned
I'm totally ready for more Black Monday Murders. It's Hickman's super-nerdy take on Constantine in the way Phonogram was Gillen's super-emo take on Constantine.
 

Messi

Member
You know that entire list is bullshit because Fraction is still acting like Sex Criminals is continuing

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Moon Knight by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev

Conversation around this book on here has largely devolved to, "the book where nothing happened." Truth be told, I defended it, but I honestly couldn't say if anything happened. Nothing was memorable. I couldn't remember a single special moment even remotely close to how it occurred, save for Echo dying. I had even forgotten who the main antagonist was. How could a book that I claimed to enjoy so much be so forgettable? Impossible. So, being a bit low on the dollars, I decided now would be a perfect opportunity to go back and re-read this superhero story. And boy, was my impression largely the same: it was fun, but forgettable.

So the plot is incredibly simple: Marc Spector, as a Hollywood television show producer who is producing a show about his earlier life, is approached by Captain America, Wolverine, and Spider-Man to get back in the game as Moon Knight. This assumes he left, but was still an Avenger. This is something I can't refute, because I not only didn't pay attention to Moon Knight, but I also didn't read comics for a huge chunk of the 00's. So I have no idea what was up with our buddy Marc. Anyways, the Avengers approach Marc to ask him to look into some "big movement" in LA, as apparently he's the first Avenger that popped into his head and the only one that lives in LA. After they ask him, he then heads off, finds Mr. Hyde transporting an Ultron head, beats him, and then escapes with the Ultron head as a mysterious figure nukes everything. Marc returns back to base, talking to Cap, Wolvie, and Spidey about what to do with the head. Turns out Cap, Wolvie, and Spidey aren't there, and that he's imagining them.

So yeah. That's pretty much the story. Take down the mysterious big bad while being crazy and figuring out what the fuck to do with the Ultron head. He gains assistance from Buck Lime, an ex-SHIELD agent (wouldn't be surprised if this dude showed up in some other Bendis books close to this time), and Echo a.k.a. May Lopez, who is also an Avenger. It's pretty straightforward and, I gotta say, pretty simplistic. Even to the point of being shallow. We have this dynamic with Marc where he's pretty transparent with the fact that he's crazy and seeing things he probably shouldn't, and everyone acknowledges it, but it doesn't go anywhere. The three aforementioned Avengers (Cap, Spidey, Wolvie) represent the voices in his head, but it doesn't seem to have any depth, nor purpose. Sure, it's fun to see him use weapons similar to them, but that weird shit in the beginning where he dressed as Spider-Man and used a faux-web shooter was just that: weird. He claims it was a scare tactic, but he's clearly off his rocker, and nothing really feels like it comes out of it. Captain America is the voice that tells him it's his duty, he's an Avenger, and he should play it smart, straight, and true. Wolverine is the voice that's pure aggression that tells him to go for the kill, to get up and don't stop no matter what. Then you have Spider-Man, who is the human part that tells him to hold back when Wolvie goes to far, but to be more emotional than when Cap is too cold. Spidey's all about saving the girl.

What Bendis does with these three voices is cool. They have a good dynamic and it's interesting to see how they influence Marc. They're also a representation of his mindset. But there's a huge problem: at the end, Wolverine kills Cap and Spidey, making Marc a beast of rage. This is after Echo is killed by Nefaria, which caused Marc to almost kill Nefaria. But he didn't. Later on, Echo becomes another one of his voices, along with Tony Stark. Echo makes sense, but Stark is based off of Marc speaking with him for all of 30 seconds. This voices, along with Buck and Echo, are Marc's supporting cast. Buck is your basic tech guy + sidekick combo, who I actually came to really like. Ex-secret agent with a specialty in weapons tech. Echo is another street-level Avenger who's deaf and fights with a staff. The problem with her being deaf is that, because of the way certain scenes are drawn and paneled, she appears to be responding to lips she can't see. She doesn't have any sort of aid, except for her phone aid that she uses once. It's hard to get invested in her, which sucks because she's the next biggest character after Marc. And then she dies, which I didn't know the first time I read this book, but even then I didn't feel anything. Now, for the plot: nothing happens. A lot of talking and bouncing back and forth. Some decent to good action scenes, but for the most part, nothing happens.

This book is a fun story where nothing happens. There are fights, a lot of talking, and that's it. It contributes nothing to Moon Knight's arc, nor does it contribute to the MU as a whole in any meaningful way. The whole, "devil and angel on your shoulder" dynamic, but using Avengers instead was a cool gimmick, but one that made Marc feel like a poser more than his own hero. Seeing him use the different weapons is cool, but I wanted to see him using more of his trademark stuff, and most of his fights aren't really good until he gets his zero-point energy shield, which is late in the game. Around the same time, in fact, that Madame Masque steps in and does nothing. She kills some randoms and gets into a fight with Buck and Marc. That's it. Some good action, but that's it. It's a shame, because she's cool as fuck while she's in the story, but she's just there for padding and aesthetic. We also have this subplot with the LAPD being corrupt, as represented by a former NYPD detective who came to LA because he was tired of the superhero/villain shit. It's a cool subplot, but it kind of just flops around for awhile in the background, rarely coming to surface, and when it does it just feels like a way to buy time. Not anything with any real impact, which is pretty much the name of the game. Snapdragon is cool as fuck, but she's just a minion with no real development which is like Madame Masque, only with plot relevance.

While I do always love street-level heroics, and I'm beginning to love Moon Knight more and more over the years (Ellis book is a dope action book and I'm loving Lemire's run something fierce), but this is a pretty weak story. It carries no real weight and is very pointlessly padded out as it goes absolutely nowhere. I love Bendis and Maleev, but this story is a bit of a flop. A fun flop, but a flop none the less.
 
This teasing has been going on for way too long at this point.



DC seems to really be liking them some Tynion and Orlando lately. Either that or they're just throwing everything on them cause everyone else is busy with later stuff? I feel like everything announced lately involves them somehow, or am I crazy?
Tynion is only on 'Tec. Orlando is on Supergirl, Midnighter and Apollo, Night of the Monster Men co-writer and JLA(only Supergirl and JLA next year AFAWK) last I checked.
 
Moon Knight by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev
.

Good write up BK, I lo e to see these kind of posts. Not a story I've read but it's good hearing your thoughts. I have been following your updates the last day or so, and one thing I think where we differ as readers is,, when I read a marvel book, it definitely does not concern me whether or not it brings anything to the MU at large. I noticed that clme up a few times and personally I could car e less if a story lead to age of ultron or whether echo came back else where etc etc.

That said, and I say it for a reason, is we do seem to completely agree that in a bubble a story can be fun and pointless, but it needs SOMETHING. An idea or a moral conveyed a changing point for the characters, a memorable fight or anything. Something that once your done you go "yea, I'll come back to this" even if it's just for the one thing. If the story lacks all of these things, the yea I can see if the story at least contributed to the larger universe then that would ay least be something. Not a great something in my book but agreed, something. Reading your write up though, this book appears to have almost nothing. Having not read it, this rings true anyway because this is modern bendis all over. His dialogue can be great but his stories just lack anything outside characters quoting to bring you back or go, yea, this was worth my time. I come out of most.of his books in the last five years and go huh. Inoffensive but almost worthless, because it left no real impression. A lot of people in here are talking up current spiderman, I hope that's the case, because he really needs someone to stary pointing him in a direction otherwise, his books meander and have no backbone. And knowing it's the guy who wrote daredevil that is super frustrating.

Great post though man. Bendis is a really good talking point because so many of us keep going back to get burned haha. I'm probably going to pick up jessica jones and iron doom, despite what I wrote.
 
Tynion is only on 'Tec. Orlando is on Supergirl, Midnighter and Apollo, Night of the Monster Men co-writer and JLA(only Supergirl and JLA next year AFAWK) last I checked.

Ok, so I guess it's just Orlando. Just seems like everything announced recently has been tied to Orlando in some way.
 
Good write up BK, I lo e to see these kind of posts. Not a story I've read but it's good hearing your thoughts. I have been following your updates the last day or so, and one thing I think where we differ as readers is,, when I read a marvel book, it definitely does not concern me whether or not it brings anything to the MU at large. I noticed that clme up a few times and personally I could car e less if a story lead to age of ultron or whether echo came back else where etc etc.

That said, and I say it for a reason, is we do seem to completely agree that in a bubble a story can be fun and pointless, but it needs SOMETHING. An idea or a moral conveyed a changing point for the characters, a memorable fight or anything. Something that once your done you go "yea, I'll come back to this" even if it's just for the one thing. If the story lacks all of these things, the yea I can see if the story at least contributed to the larger universe then that would ay least be something. Not a great something in my book but agreed, something. Reading your write up though, this book appears to have almost nothing. Having not read it, this rings true anyway because this is modern bendis all over. His dialogue can be great but his stories just lack anything outside characters quoting to bring you back or go, yea, this was worth my time. I come out of most.of his books in the last five years and go huh. Inoffensive but almost worthless, because it left no real impression. A lot of people in here are talking up current spiderman, I hope that's the case, because he really needs someone to stary pointing him in a direction otherwise, his books meander and have no backbone. And knowing it's the guy who wrote daredevil that is super frustrating.

Great post though man. Bendis is a really good talking point because so many of us keep going back to get burned haha. I'm probably going to pick up jessica jones and iron doom, despite what I wrote.

I agree that stories don't need to contribute to the greater universe as a whole, but think of all the great stories. All the critically acclaimed runs. Those all did something major with those characters, either by reinventing the lore or by making major developments with the characters themselves. While it didn't need to be one of the greats, this run needed something memorable, and it doesn't have that. No memorable dialogue, scenes, plot points. Nothing. And the thing is, I have nothing against Bendis. I haven't been burned like everyone else, apparently. But I am noticing his padding problems, particularly with Invincible Iron Man and International Iron Man, though I haven't read the most recent issues of either yet. I loved his X-books, though All-New fell apart near the end. I loved Alias, Daredevil, and New Avengers: Illuminati. I'm actually quite enjoying Civil War 2. It's just a matter of the fact that this run wasn't all that great, and it sucks, but it feels like as if the teacher gave a student an assignment that they thought was cool at first and then quickly lost interest, rushing it out of frustration and then saying, "my next assignment's gonna be so cool though."

I like to feel like I've gained something by reading a book, and with this I feel like I've gained nothing.
 

MG310

Member
Marvel TV's NYCC schedule. At least I won't have to try to get into the Iron Fist panel since it's the same time as the charity auction.

Marvel Television Presents: Marvel's Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D: Ghost Rider
Friday, October 7 – 7:30 PM to 8:45 PM – Main Stage
Join Executive Producer Jeph Loeb (Marvel's Head of TV) and cast members as they share secrets from the hot new season and be the first to see an all-new episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Marvel Animation Presents
Saturday, October 8 – 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM – Room 1A06
Join Marvel Animation for an eye-popping, toe-tapping, heart-stopping Panel celebrating Marvel’s acclaimed animated series Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Sinister Six, Marvel's Avengers: Ultron Revolution, and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. Hosted by Cort Lane (SVP, Animation and Family Entertainment) and Stephen Wacker (VP, Current Series & Development), this Panel will feature exclusive sneak peeks from upcoming episodes, scoops on exciting new projects in development and a special reveal of Marvel’s biggest new animated project. You won’t want to miss this event!

The Netflix Original Series Marvel's Iron Fist
Saturday, October 8 – 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM – Main Stage
Join the cast of the new Netflix original series, Marvel's Iron Fist in their first-ever appearance, as they answer questions and debut footage from the highly-anticipated show premiering on Netflix in 2017. Moderated by Executive Producer Jeph Loeb, this Panel promises to be one you won't want to miss!

WORLD PREMIERE: Marvel’s Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell
Sunday, October 9 – 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM – Room 1A06
Join Marvel Animation for the world premiere of the new animated film, Marvel’s Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell! This spooky, action-packed, feature-length film follows Hulk, Doctor Strange and the Howling Commandos on a mission to stop Nightmare from conquering the world. Cort Lane (SVP, Animation and Family Entertainment) will join you to host this exciting, family-friendly premiere in Room 1A06 – can’t wait to see you there!

FX Networks Presents: Legion
Sunday, October 9 – 12:30pm-1:30pm – Hammerstein Ballroom
Join FX Networks and Marvel for an exclusive sneak peek at Legion, the highly-anticipated drama series from showrunner Noah Hawley, followed by a moderated discussion and audience Q&A. Inspired by the character from Marvel’s X-Men comics, Legion is the story of David Haller (Dan Stevens), a troubled young man who may be more than human. This panel is one you will not want to miss!
 

GAMEPROFF

Banned
Why? It's easy to ignore her if you don't like her
Yes, and I can think that her joking on twitter all the time is annoying. And I am fine with it that she can say whatever she want, dont get wrong here. And I have nothing against her personally.

Werent you not even the one here who said everytime her twitter habits came up here that she tends to get a little bit overboard?
 

Messi

Member
Yes, and I can think that her joking on twitter all the time is annoying. And I am fine with it that she can say whatever she want, dont get wrong here. And I have nothing against her personally.

Werent you not even the one here who said everytime her twitter habits came up here that she tends to get a little bit overboard?

Yeah and I unfollowed her and it hasn't been an issue since. When the company is ready to announce the book they will. Of you are annoyed by her joking around then unfollow the account. Easy.
 
Hey Messi, I PM'd you everything for the OT except the stuff for the Image Comics section, which I'll send over whenever I make a banner I'm happy with.
 
I like to feel like I've gained something by reading a book, and with this I feel like I've gained nothing.

This is it in a nutshell isn't it haha. So many books miss this mark. I was a big fan of Bendis up until Secret Invasion, some of his stuff since then I've enjoyed, some very cold on, a lot extremely indifferent and numb haha.

Dear god. I have played mankind divided for nearly 13 hours now and I have just arrived to check out the train station bomb site. I take too long with these games haha.
 
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