Lets talk about COMICS!!!!

Status
Not open for further replies.
AniHawk said:
I just finished all ten volumes of Gaiman's Sandman.

Some weren't that great (Doll's House was a little too disturbing). I really loved Preludes and Nocturnes, Season of Mists, Brief Lives, and The Kindly Ones (Wow).

Really great series.

you sir know what you're talking about.
this series knocked my socks off.
the first volume, in particular, was spectacular.
 
AniHawk said:
I just finished all ten volumes of Gaiman's Sandman.

Some weren't that great (Doll's House was a little too disturbing). I really loved Preludes and Nocturnes, Season of Mists, Brief Lives, and The Kindly Ones (Wow).

Really great series.


Re: A Doll's House:

I had started reading Sandman and stopped just before Doll's House (Sandman didn't grab me at the start). Then friends raved about Doll's House, which I picked up mid-stream and never went back. It certainly was disturbing, but it was also the arc where I knew Sandman was something different and good.

I never did finish reading the Wake.
 
preacher-01.jpg
 
A comment for the Original Poster:

Regarding DC-- if you are interested in branching out in comics, do look at DC, but check out their non-shared-universe stuff. A lot of the best comics aren't part of a big shared universe idea, and DC does a better job finding and publishing good stuff outside of the mainstream super-hero set.

Sandman and Preacher recommended above are both great, and a good place to start. Watchmen is older, but great, and also the inspiration for Civil War (which I am digging, too). V for Vendetta by the same author (Alan Moore) is another strong recommendation. The Invisibles is also a greaat read, but not as easily accessible.

More recent good non-DC universe stuff from them includes Y the Last Man.

Wildstorm (which DC now owns) is also publishing some great stuff, such as Ex Machina. If you like Civil War, you may like Ex Mahcina. Written by the same guy as Y the Last Man (and Runaways from Marvel).
 
a lot of the vertigo stuff is just great.

Sandman
Death: High Cost of Living
Preacher
Moore's Swamp Thing run (though not really vertigo)
Most of Hellblazer
The Losers
We3
Black Orchid
Fables
Y: The Last Man
Morrison's run on Doom Patrol
Transmetropolitan

just to name a few over the years... all great books.

*note 100 Bullets is not in here because honestly I have never read an issue. sorry, and you can sue me. :P
 
beelzebozo said:
you sir know what you're talking about.
this series knocked my socks off.
the first volume, in particular, was spectacular.

Oh yeah, I love Preludes and Nocturnes. It's probably my favorite volume of the ten. It had my favorite artstyle of the series (not to say all the others were bad), and in my opinion the most interesting stories. Though I ended up liking the series more when it moved away from the normal DC universe.

Re: A Doll's House:

I had started reading Sandman and stopped just before Doll's House (Sandman didn't grab me at the start). Then friends raved about Doll's House, which I picked up mid-stream and never went back. It certainly was disturbing, but it was also the arc where I knew Sandman was something different and good.

I never did finish reading the Wake.

Yeah, it wasn't bad. It just.. disturbing. Mostly the scenes with Jeb. The Corinthian was all right
but I thought he was so much better in The Kindly Ones
. I liked Fiddler's Green and Rose and the rest of the cast.

I found that most of the stories that didn't feature the siblings would tend to drag. That's why I found Fables and Recollections and Dream Country sorta weak.
 
borghe said:
you sir, are soulless... :P

Infinite Crisis is probably the best x-over series SINCE CoIE. Not just for what the mini was (which was a well written book with gobs of fan service), but for what it setup in the DCU. IMHO, Batman and Superman are seeing some of the best stories in their respective series that they have seen in years... no, decades. Was IC a requirement to see those stories? That's debatable. You could say no, but on the other hand over the past 20 years Batman has been dark, and superman has been complicated. wonder woman has been going down the amazonian path of the punisher (more or less), and Flash, well.. flash has been fairly consistent. My point is that while none of these things were bad, going back to "a hero is a hero" is actually REFRESHING in the fact of the past 20 years. And they transitioned it more than just slapping a "NEW CREATIVE TEAM!!" house ad in the books and shops.

It's funny, but as a collector/reader for over 19 years now, I couldn't disagree with you more on IC. At first I was thinking it was just a result of getting shit like Last Laugh, OWAW, Zero Hour, Armageddon, Total Eclipse, Millenium, Invasion, etc over the last 20 years and wondering where CoIE and the multiple earth x-overs went.. GL/GA, World's Finest, etc.. awesome crossover events. but after rereading it for my third time.. IC just kicks ass all over the place. And OYL has "almost" linewide been an editorial success as well.

IMHO of course.

OYL, for Batman and Superman anyway, is great, but it doesn't make up for the shit fest that came before. IC was a huge mess. As a collector/reader for close to 23 years now, I think IC was the worst x-over DC has done in generations, perhaps because it started with so much potential and hype and ended on such a weak note.

Ignatz Mouse said:
Reading comics for a "result" is always a bad idea.

I enjoyed IC, but when I look at it from any kind of distance, it was a pretty bad story. Character motivations make little sense, events happen at random, and plot holes a-plenty.


Right. That's what I meant - the story, although starting strong with OMG It's Kal-L and OMG Superboy=Prime and OMG the return of the multiverse ended up as DC taking a huge shit on Kal-L, a huge shit on Superboy-Prime, a huge shit on the story of CoIE, and just a general mess all for the sake of another reboot.
 
Fatghost28 said:
OYL, for Batman and Superman anyway, is great, but it doesn't make up for the shit fest that came before. IC was a huge mess. As a collector/reader for close to 23 years now, I think IC was the worst x-over DC has done in generations, perhaps because it started with so much potential and hype and ended on such a weak note.
sorry. I meant to say by setting up for OYL being great that that was why I was fine with there not being some big shock during the series. I still greatly enjoyed the series.. I just meant I Was fine with there not being some dramatic and line-changing shift udring the series as a result (like the batman mind-wipe in Identity Crisis).

Right. That's what I meant - the story, although starting strong with OMG It's Kal-L and OMG Superboy=Prime and OMG the return of the multiverse ended up as DC taking a huge shit on Kal-L, a huge shit on Superboy-Prime, a huge shit on the story of CoIE, and just a general mess all for the sake of another reboot.
I think it has something to do with an attachment to those characters.. I have no attachment to them.. never really read them except for back issues.. so reading their drastic character changes during the events of IC to me seemed natural simply because I had no problem dealing with them taking such a turn.. maybe that has something to do with it.. I certainly would have a problem Superman or the now-dead Superboy acting like that I suppose, but for me multiverse characters in IC acting like that I had no problem with... eh, who knows. I still stand behind that I really enjoyed IC as a series on its own.. for me it was the best crossover in decades.. the fact that it changed the DC lineup for the better IMHO is only icing on the cake.
 
borghe said:
sorry. I meant to say by setting up for OYL being great that that was why I was fine with there not being some big shock during the series. I still greatly enjoyed the series.. I just meant I Was fine with there not being some dramatic and line-changing shift udring the series as a result (like the batman mind-wipe in Identity Crisis).


I think it has something to do with an attachment to those characters.. I have no attachment to them.. never really read them except for back issues.. so reading their drastic character changes during the events of IC to me seemed natural simply because I had no problem dealing with them taking such a turn.. maybe that has something to do with it.. I certainly would have a problem Superman or the now-dead Superboy acting like that I suppose, but for me multiverse characters in IC acting like that I had no problem with... eh, who knows. I still stand behind that I really enjoyed IC as a series on its own.. for me it was the best crossover in decades.. the fact that it changed the DC lineup for the better IMHO is only icing on the cake.


I think it remains to be seen if it changed the DC line up for the better. Certainly OYL has been refreshing for Batman and Superman, but this is more to do with the quality of the new teams on their books I think. Others, like Flash and Wonder Woman, we're going to have to wait and see how their stories develop.

But IC itself was not a good story. It had plot holes and mischaracterizations galore and it did little to develop any character or even the DCU. The "good" parts of IC either came about before in Identity Crisis, or in the side series (The Spectre stuff) or after (OYL).

They could have just done Identity Crisis into OMAC into OYL and never done IC and the good stuff would still be there, and the new refreshed DCU would be unchanged. IC was pointless and it sucked.
 
heh.. we'll just have to agree to disagree then. I don't see it that way at all.. for me the "mischaracterizations" and motives were perfectly explained and justified, and for the most part I can't even think of any signficant plot holes, at least ones that would ruin the series for me. oh well... can't agree on everything.
 
borghe said:
heh.. we'll just have to agree to disagree then. I don't see it that way at all.. for me the "mischaracterizations" and motives were perfectly explained and justified, and for the most part I can't even think of any signficant plot holes, at least ones that would ruin the series for me. oh well... can't agree on everything.


I'll give you the biggest plot hole, the one which really hurt the believability for me:
Alex Luthor has an army of millions (or at least hundreds of thousands) of OMACs, even one or two of which are shown to be able to take on multiple super-heroes, and yet, he goes through all the machinations with the Society. Why? Why not just turn on the OMAC army and handle most everything directly? What was the purpose of the Society?

I love the idea of the Society, but it made no sense in context with the OMACs. In fact, most everything about the OMACs made no sense.
 
as I understood it, the purpose of the society was to take down the villains. The villains would then turn into two teams.. those with Luthor and those with mockingbird. they would essentially then kill each other (like what nearly happened at the end of Villains United).. then kill all the heroes and then merge the earths.

If I were to suspend disbelief, I would think Alexander was concerned that the OMACs wouldn't be enough, or just barely enough, for all the heroes, and he still needed a way to curb the villains who might get some ideas as everything was going down.. at least that's how I had read it once IC started.
 
borghe said:
as I understood it, the purpose of the society was to take down the villains. The villains would then turn into two teams.. those with Luthor and those with mockingbird. they would essentially then kill each other (like what nearly happened at the end of Villains United).. then kill all the heroes and then merge the earths.

If I were to suspend disbelief, I would think Alexander was concerned that the OMACs wouldn't be enough, or just barely enough, for all the heroes, and he still needed a way to curb the villains who might get some ideas as everything was going down.. at least that's how I had read it once IC started.


There were only Six villains with Mockingbird. And they didn't come anywhere close to taking out the Society. And.... the Six were the other (the real) Luthor's idea, not Alex's. Makes no sense.

The best way I can read it is that he was hedging his bets. But it's waaaay too much work/risk to make sense that way.
 
This week I picked up:

The Ultimates (Hardcover)
Ultimate Spider-Man: Volume 1 (Hardcover)
Y: The Last Man: Volume 2
Fables: Volume 2

Keeping up with so many series is tough, even when I just do the trades. Seems like there is always something great coming out around the corner. This must be a great period for comics, so much good stuff out now.

If I get anything else in the next week, it will most likely be the first trade of Young Avengers, Ultimate Iron Man (HC), and maybe Daredevil: Born Again. I also have to put down some cash on Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall at some point. I'd also like to get back into Runaways...but I don't know if my budget can take anymore this week. Grizzly need food. :lol
 
master_shake_05 said:
Do they even print The Killing Joke anymore? I've been trying to get my hands on a copy for years.... :/

I can't find it in stores. Have found it in the library though. I suppose you have to pre-order it these days, though I have no clue why. I imagine Alan Moore and Batman should have made it a popular book.

karasu said:

Love this book. How well acclaimed is this btw?

0785100466.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V1056487268_.jpg
 
J2 Cool said:
I can't find it in stores. Have found it in the library though. I suppose you have to pre-order it these days, though I have no clue why. I imagine Alan Moore and Batman should have made it a popular book.



Love this book. How well acclaimed is this btw?

0785100466.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V1056487268_.jpg

That's a pretty good/fairly great book with, I'd say, one of my very favorite last pages of any story ever. Hands down. Like, "You Will Stand Up And Cheer And Maybe Punch Your Dog And Say 'Right, Skipper?!? RIGHT????'"
 
Ignatz Mouse said:
Re: A Doll's House:

I had started reading Sandman and stopped just before Doll's House (Sandman didn't grab me at the start). Then friends raved about Doll's House, which I picked up mid-stream and never went back. It certainly was disturbing, but it was also the arc where I knew Sandman was something different and good.

I never did finish reading the Wake.

I'm a mixture of you and AniHawk, while I really enjoyed Preludes and Nocturnes, both Dream's first encounter with Lucifer and Doctor Destiny's rampage were extremely outstanding. Nevertheless, Sandman reached it's place as a personal favorite in Doll's House. By the way, I also loved the style used by those alluded disturbing scenes.

Watching back, I can say A Game of You, Preludes and Nocturnes and Seasons of Mists are my favorite long story arcs, with Dream of a Thousand Cats being my favorite self-concluding story.
 
Fatghost said:
Can I complain about what a shitty story Infinite Crisis was? Because it sucked. All that hype and build up and the only real result is that Didio and Co. managed to take a big, steaming, ripe shit all over CoIE.


SHUT UP YOU.
edit: to clarify, luthor needed the society as a cover to find the people he needed to power the anti-monitor tower. the OMACS came as a freebie when he took brother eye.
 
J2 Cool said:
How well acclaimed is this btw?

0785100466.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V1056487268_.jpg
It's very good, but I'd honestly only call it a "must read" if you're a hardcore Daredevil fan, which I am.

The book probably features my favorite Romita Jr. work to date.
 
and as for characters getting shat on, consider that alex luthor and superboy-prime had no real prior history. they came about because of the original crisis. and earth-2 superman died the way he lived, like a hero.
 
evil solrac v3.0 said:
and as for characters getting shat on, consider that alex luthor and superboy-prime had no real prior history. they came about because of the original crisis. and earth-2 superman died the way he lived, like a hero.


No, Earth-2 Superman got beaten to death by a crazy, emo, non-super powered teenager, while hundreds of Green Lanterns just watched.
 
I thought Countdown to IC and OMAC were great, but yeah IC itself was pretty boring in the end. Seemed like just an reason to try this whole one year later and 52 thing, instead of being just an event that had merit on it's own.

Whats the deal with DC anyway. They have sooo many comics. Did IC affect all of them, or just those with the One year Later tag line.
 
Fatghost said:
No, Earth-2 Superman got beaten to death by a crazy, emo, non-super powered teenager, while hundreds of Green Lanterns just watched.


if that's how you saw it.... *shrug* alls i know is is that 52 rocks right now and hasnt let anyone down and the whole DC line has been revitalized.
 
So, maybe this is a good place to ask something I've been wondering about recently.

i've been away from comics for awhile, since I used to collect stuff in jr. high in fact (mid-early 90s). I've been thinking about getting back to it recently, although most likely i'll just gradually try to get my hands on all the old series in their entirety that I used to like and catch all the graphics novels I've been missing for ages (eastern and western).

As for monthly type comics, there are couple things I'd like to maybe catch. There are a couple TMNT books running again and I keep hearing there's a Pitt/Darkness crossover on the way.

Anyway, my real question has to do with Civil War and Infinite Crisis. Looking into comics again recently has made me very aware of these two "events". I was somewhat interested in both, although I really know very little about DC anything. Pretty much everything I read before was Image/Wildstorm stuff. So I was intrigued by these things and wondered if they might be a good place to start reading some stuff again, but from what I can tell it seems like these "events" are comprised of about a billion issues of almost every major series put out by either Marvel or DC. I know there were miniseries titled both Infinite Crisis and Civil War but it seems like these are a very small part of the story. The lists I've seen of all the issues supposedly involved in at least Infinite Crisis is nuts and I would never be able to find them all even if I wanted or could afford to. So what the hell's the deal? How could anyone follow all that, or have I got the wrong idea? Is there any point in starting to read 52 if I haven't read anything else?

I have to say I'm way more interested in Civil War than the DC stuff since I've never really read much DC. Civil War and Civil War: Frontline seem like the major books for that.

Since I'm here, maybe I should ask something else. I like the X-Men. I've always thought they were pretty cool even though I never really read many of their books. I'd be super interested to go back and check out the long runs of both Xmen and Uncanny Xmen. I know Ultimate Xmen has a bunch of collected volumes, which is great, but what about the others? I'm not really much of a collector, but I like to read and enjoy the things. Are there full collections of Xmen or Uncanny Xmen?

If anyone is in Toronto, what's your usual store? 3rd Quadrant seems really cool, but there's also Silver Snail and Beguiling. I live downtown.

Any TMNT fans?
 
Sinn Fein said:
So, maybe this is a good place to ask something I've been wondering about recently.

i've been away from comics for awhile, since I used to collect stuff in jr. high in fact (mid-early 90s). I've been thinking about getting back to it recently, although most likely i'll just gradually try to get my hands on all the old series in their entirety that I used to like and catch all the graphics novels I've been missing for ages (eastern and western).

As for monthly type comics, there are couple things I'd like to maybe catch. There are a couple TMNT books running again and I keep hearing there's a Pitt/Darkness crossover on the way.

Anyway, my real question has to do with Civil War and Infinite Crisis. Looking into comics again recently has made me very aware of these two "events". I was somewhat interested in both, although I really know very little about DC anything. Pretty much everything I read before was Image/Wildstorm stuff. So I was intrigued by these things and wondered if they might be a good place to start reading some stuff again, but from what I can tell it seems like these "events" are comprised of about a billion issues of almost every major series put out by either Marvel or DC. I know there were miniseries titled both Infinite Crisis and Civil War but it seems like these are a very small part of the story. The lists I've seen of all the issues supposedly involved in at least Infinite Crisis is nuts and I would never be able to find them all even if I wanted or could afford to. So what the hell's the deal? How could anyone follow all that, or have I got the wrong idea? Is there any point in starting to read 52 if I haven't read anything else?

I have to say I'm way more interested in Civil War than the DC stuff since I've never really read much DC. Civil War and Civil War: Frontline seem like the major books for that.

Since I'm here, maybe I should ask something else. I like the X-Men. I've always thought they were pretty cool even though I never really read many of their books. I'd be super interested to go back and check out the long runs of both Xmen and Uncanny Xmen. I know Ultimate Xmen has a bunch of collected volumes, which is great, but what about the others? I'm not really much of a collector, but I like to read and enjoy the things. Are there full collections of Xmen or Uncanny Xmen?

If anyone is in Toronto, what's your usual store? 3rd Quadrant seems really cool, but there's also Silver Snail and Beguiling. I live downtown.

Any TMNT fans?


civil war has a billion books literally that have nearly nothing to do with the main story you're complaining about infinite crisis having too many books?
if you want to get into the crisis here's what you should read. identity crisis, countdown to crisis, project OMAC, rann-thanagar war, day of vengeance and villains united.
those four minis arent needed to understand the crisis ecause they are covered in infinite crisis but they help a lot and are good reading in their own right.

personally speaking, the way the characters are being portrayed in civil war is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of character. there was no build-up and everything feels disjointed. but that's just me.
 
evil solrac v3.0 said:
if that's how you saw it.... *shrug* alls i know is is that 52 rocks right now and hasnt let anyone down and the whole DC line has been revitalized.

It's not how I saw it, it's how it happened on the page. Comics aren't really a user interpreted medium dude. They're pretty clear and straight forward. Superboy-Prime was de-powered along with Kal-El and Kal-L. They crashed on Mogo, Hal Jordan and Co. close behind (certainly in range for a GL, GL's have made closer rescues in the past).

Kal-EL and the rest watch while Superboy-prime, now just a regular teenager, curb stomps poor, helpless, weak old man Kal-L.

Hardly a hero's death.
 
Fatghost said:
It's not how I saw it, it's how it happened on the page. Comics aren't really a user interpreted medium dude. They're pretty clear and straight forward. Superboy-Prime was de-powered along with Kal-El and Kal-L. They crashed on Mogo, Hal Jordan and Co. close behind (certainly in range for a GL, GL's have made closer rescues in the past).

Kal-EL and the rest watch while Superboy-prime, now just a regular teenager, curb stomps poor, helpless, weak old man Kal-L.

Hardly a hero's death.


or he was almost powerless and took one for the team while kal-el finished prime off. like i said, it's your opinion and you are in the minority.
 
Besides having incredible art, the Street Fighter comics by Udon are excellent... Dunno if there is a TPB out yet, but you should definately look for them.
 
evil solrac v3.0 said:
or he was almost powerless and took one for the team while kal-el finished prime off. like i said, it's your opinion and you are in the minority.


Took one for the team. :lol

Aunt May could have handled that fight better.
 
Fatghost said:
Took one for the team. :lol

Aunt May could have handled that fight better.


then we'll leave it that then. i'm justn glad you're not writing my comics so i dont have to see corny "saved at the last minute" by a bunch of green lanterns that were half a world away.
 
evil solrac v3.0 said:
then we'll leave it that then. i'm justn glad you're not writing my comics so i dont have to see corny "saved at the last minute" by a bunch of green lanterns that were half a world away.


I wouldn't have had Kal-L in that position to begin with. But certainly, I would have the original Superman be able to at least handle a 16 year old kid!
 
Fatghost said:
I wouldn't have had Kal-L in that position to begin with. But certainly, I would have the original Superman be able to at least handle a 16 year old kid!

Wasn't he a little older by then? I thought he had spent years in the time thing the flashes took him to.
 
Sinn Fein said:
So, maybe this is a good place to ask something I've been wondering about recently.

i've been away from comics for awhile, since I used to collect stuff in jr. high in fact (mid-early 90s). I've been thinking about getting back to it recently, although most likely i'll just gradually try to get my hands on all the old series in their entirety that I used to like and catch all the graphics novels I've been missing for ages (eastern and western).

As for monthly type comics, there are couple things I'd like to maybe catch. There are a couple TMNT books running again and I keep hearing there's a Pitt/Darkness crossover on the way.

Anyway, my real question has to do with Civil War and Infinite Crisis. Looking into comics again recently has made me very aware of these two "events". I was somewhat interested in both, although I really know very little about DC anything. Pretty much everything I read before was Image/Wildstorm stuff. So I was intrigued by these things and wondered if they might be a good place to start reading some stuff again, but from what I can tell it seems like these "events" are comprised of about a billion issues of almost every major series put out by either Marvel or DC. I know there were miniseries titled both Infinite Crisis and Civil War but it seems like these are a very small part of the story. The lists I've seen of all the issues supposedly involved in at least Infinite Crisis is nuts and I would never be able to find them all even if I wanted or could afford to. So what the hell's the deal? How could anyone follow all that, or have I got the wrong idea? Is there any point in starting to read 52 if I haven't read anything else?

I have to say I'm way more interested in Civil War than the DC stuff since I've never really read much DC. Civil War and Civil War: Frontline seem like the major books for that.

Since I'm here, maybe I should ask something else. I like the X-Men. I've always thought they were pretty cool even though I never really read many of their books. I'd be super interested to go back and check out the long runs of both Xmen and Uncanny Xmen. I know Ultimate Xmen has a bunch of collected volumes, which is great, but what about the others? I'm not really much of a collector, but I like to read and enjoy the things. Are there full collections of Xmen or Uncanny Xmen?

If anyone is in Toronto, what's your usual store? 3rd Quadrant seems really cool, but there's also Silver Snail and Beguiling. I live downtown.

Any TMNT fans?

http://tplist.millarworld.net/index.html

Oh, and if you're a new or returning reader, avoid the crossovers. You're just going to be confused out of your mind.
 
AniHawk said:
Wasn't he a little older by then? I thought he had spent years in the time thing the flashes took him to.


OK, I'd expect the original Superman to be able to hold his own against any single opponent that didn't have super powers.
 
Fatghost said:
It's not how I saw it, it's how it happened on the page. Comics aren't really a user interpreted medium dude. They're pretty clear and straight forward. Superboy-Prime was de-powered along with Kal-El and Kal-L. They crashed on Mogo, Hal Jordan and Co. close behind (certainly in range for a GL, GL's have made closer rescues in the past).

Kal-EL and the rest watch while Superboy-prime, now just a regular teenager, curb stomps poor, helpless, weak old man Kal-L.

Hardly a hero's death.

Actually, everyone was steadily losing their powers at the moment, so no one was just as strong as a 16 year old during the fight.

But these are all just dong-measuring power arguments ("Uhm, clearly, historically, Kal-L has been shown to have a bench press capacity of blahhhhhhhhhhhhh0010010111001" "SKEETS!") and that's sort of a silly reason to not like 8C if you've really got to pick one. (Rushed, uneven art; fantastic middle that doesn't build to an equally emotional payoff; there's more.) Anyone can argue back and forth as to what was going on in that end fight, make up their own No Prize explanations for their side of the argument.

For me, the real meat of the DCU is in OYL and 52, just totally free to let loose with the Morrisonian Strangeness and Silver Age Craziness. What was that villain at the end of Up, Up, And Away? The Kryptococchus? That's the kind of ish I'm talking about.

I'll admit a fondness for Civil War these days as well, even though Front Line's "Political" "Allegoricalism" at the end of every issue is borderline offensive ("Oh YAH, Japanese Internment Camps were totally JUST LIKE Spidey's Crisis Of Faith!") The series itself is tight and engaging in all the ways that House Of M was languid and uninspired. Mike Carey is actually writing an X-Book that's worth Bachalo's time again. I can sit though Uncanny these days, even though Brubes has kind of lost me on Cap and I'm kind of "just reading" Daredevil the way I just watched a Sorkinless West Wing.

For those of you like it on the other side of the tracks, here's my book of the month:
200604181644.jpg


One Half Comics As Lit Treatise, One Half 60's French Cinema Heist Caper. Really Fantasgreat.
 
BenjaminBirdie said:
Actually, everyone was steadily losing their powers at the moment, so no one was just as strong as a 16 year old during the fight.

But these are all just dong-measuring power arguments ("Uhm, clearly, historically, Kal-L has been shown to have a bench press capacity of blahhhhhhhhhhhhh0010010111001" "SKEETS!") and that's sort of a silly reason to not like 8C if you've really got to pick one. (Rushed, uneven art; fantastic middle that doesn't build to an equally emotional payoff; there's more.) Anyone can argue back and forth as to what was going on in that end fight, make up their own No Prize explanations for their side of the argument.

For me, the real meat of the DCU is in OYL and 52, just totally free to let loose with the Morrisonian Strangeness and Silver Age Craziness. What was that villain at the end of Up, Up, And Away? The Kryptococchus? That's the kind of ish I'm talking about.

I'll admit a fondness for Civil War these days as well, even though Front Line's "Political" "Allegoricalism" at the end of every issue is borderline offensive ("Oh YAH, Japanese Internment Camps were totally JUST LIKE Spidey's Crisis Of Faith!") The series itself is tight and engaging in all the ways that House Of M was languid and uninspired. Mike Carey is actually writing an X-Book that's worth Bachalo's time again. I can sit though Uncanny these days, even though Brubes has kind of lost me on Cap and I'm kind of "just reading" Daredevil the way I just watched a Sorkinless West Wing.

For those of you like it on the other side of the tracks, here's my book of the month:
200604181644.jpg


One Half Comics As Lit Treatise, One Half 60's French Cinema Heist Caper. Really Fantasgreat.


My problem with IC goes far beyond just the end, but the ending's problem isn't a case of power bench marking. It's a case of Kal-L getting the short end of the stick and given a pointless, shitty death. He didn't do anything of consequence in dying except dying. It, along with the rest of IC, was a great job of shitting on CoIE, where Wolfman had the respect and love of the character to at least give him a fitting send off instead of a pointless three panel death.
 
Thanks guys, I'd basically decided before I wouldn't really mess with either Civil War or Infinite Crisis unless I was wrong about how confusing and complex they seem to be. It would seem I'm not, so I think I'll just stick to trying to find the older stuff I used to like and maybe a couple other recent books.
 
Fatghost said:
My problem with IC goes far beyond just the end, but the ending's problem isn't a case of power bench marking. It's a case of Kal-L getting the short end of the stick and given a pointless, shitty death. He didn't do anything of consequence in dying except dying. It, along with the rest of IC, was a great job of shitting on CoIE, where Wolfman had the respect and love of the character to at least give him a fitting send off instead of a pointless three panel death.

I'm the wrong guy to ask, as I still haven't made it through CoIE. I find it pretty interminably not-at-all-timeless. Comics have evolved to a level that I'm quite happy with and more and more I find that all that classic stuff that so many people are fond of is pretty prehistoric as far as storytelling goes.

I found a lot that was thematically relevant about Kal-L's death in 8C, but that's just me. And if there was anyone alive writing comics that pathologically allergic to shitting on anything CoIE-related, it would be Johns, who dragged a story that was tacitly ignored by the mainstream for decades out of the basement of the back issue bins and made it the focus of a massive and highly-marketed crossover event. Which is just plain dumb. To wit, note in contrast the accessibility of the key themes behind Civil War. 8C basically existed to pull the DCU out of its morass of Marvel-Wannabeness and has no relevance to any kind of experience the non-comics reader might have had. Personally, I enjoyed the lead-up and execution of 8C immensely and, like Kryptonian, it was responsible for me getting heavily back into the DCU. But in terms of broadening comics as a medium, it is and was a telegraphed disaster.

Tangent. Anyway. All I know is that these days I buy about 85% of all of the DCU books these days, and their good stuff is nearly always great. They're treating their biggest franchises properly and pretty much the best creators in comics todays are working there. How they treat the last fifty years of character continuity is pretty irrelavent to me, and I had the same sentiment when Morrison launched New X-Men. Just tell a good story. For the most part, 8C was a really great story about heroism and legacy. This is why Kal-L's and Superboy's conflict was so important, and why the lynchpin of the whole series, the Flash Scene in #4, works so well, even if you'd never read an issue of the Barry Allen Flash books (which I hadn't).

Sinn Fein said:
Thanks guys, I'd basically decided before I wouldn't really mess with either Civil War or Infinite Crisis unless I was wrong about how confusing and complex they seem to be. It would seem I'm not, so I think I'll just stick to trying to find the older stuff I used to like and maybe a couple other recent books.

Don't miss out on the Morrison fun these days in the DCU. 52 isn't confusing at all. And the lynchpin books in the DCU are specially designed to address your concerns (Superman, Action Comics, Batman, and Detective Comics over the past three or four months and for the well forseeable future are completely stand-alone and perfect examples of fantastic comicking).

And if you feel daring, grab the first three Seven Soldiers trades and buckle up.
 
Haven't been in comics in a long while, but just want to mention the classic first season 12-issue run of Sleeper. One of the best series I've ever read.
 
BenjaminBirdie said:
Don't miss out on the Morrison fun these days in the DCU. 52 isn't confusing at all. And the lynchpin books in the DCU are specially designed to address your concerns (Superman, Action Comics, Batman, and Detective Comics over the past three or four months and for the well forseeable future are completely stand-alone and perfect examples of fantastic comicking).

And if you feel daring, grab the first three Seven Soldiers trades and buckle up.

Thanks, but I've got a few books in mind to start with. I don't want to overwhelm myself like I think happened before when I dropped out of reading. There just got to be too many thigns I felt I HAD to get and I just kinda didn't want to worry about it so much.

That TPB list site linked above was super helpful along with some research at mycomicshop.com. I'm happy to see so many things actually collected, but there are still many holes and things not collected -- at least not completely. That bums me out. There's still tons of stuff on my smaller list of interests, but I don't think the current DC or Marvel stuff is gonna factor much.

Aside from maybe Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine Director's Cut and Tales of Leonardo I'll likely be sticking with TPBs for some time (anything from old x-men/wolverine stuff to Astonishing Xmen and The Ultimates). I'm a bit blown away and intimidated by the sheer amount of xmen stuff there is, even just considering the "major" series. There's no rush though.

I am reminded however at just how much money some people must spend on comics. Hopefully I won't be super broke forever (an not just for comics sake).

It's probably unlikely with this crowd, but if anyone does read either of the current Mirage TMNT series (TMNT Vol. 4 and Tales of the TMNT Vol. 2) I'd be interested to hear if they're worth checking out.

One other thing that really keeps me a little grounded with the idea of starting with monthly releases again is the ads. Seems a lot, if not all, the books I glanced at the other day were absolutely packed with ads like every other page. That just sucks. I certainly remember ads in the old days, but it didn't seem anywhere near as rampant. I could be wrong though. Anyway, collected volumes are very appealing.
 
nomoment said:
It's very good, but I'd honestly only call it a "must read" if you're a hardcore Daredevil fan, which I am.

The book probably features my favorite Romita Jr. work to date.

Yeah, I read a good chunk in store and thought it was great but don't hear much of it. Romita's fantastic though. Also looking into Visionaries vol 2 and 3.
 
I have 13-14 issues of the current TMNT. Personally, I think they're alright but nothing special. The story seems fine enough, but it's dragged down by, imo, HORRENDOUS artwork. The humans look like aliens and I really find it very odd-looking. However, I have missed the last 10-12 issues, so who knows what the artstyle is like now.
 
Just wanted to mention Civil War is kicking my ass. And seriously, you don't need to read any of the tie-ins to enjoy and understand the story, and maybe Frontlines to get the full scope of the main event.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom