The Comic Book Thread
 

I know there are at least a few comic book fans floating around these boards, so I think we ought to have some discussion and stuff about our favorite monthlies and graphic novels. So have at it!

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I've recently gained a rekindled interest in the comic books that I used to read as a kid. Going back and looking at some of the stuff that I still have around in boxes, I have to say that I'm just not really all that entertained by old Spiderman and Batman books.

I have to admit that I pretty much favor the X-Universe compared to any other. I've been doing some research on Wiki and other corners of the web and I've unfortunately found that the resounding opinion of many comic-book connoisseurs is that the X-Universe is also one of the most muddled and inconsistent, which has me pretty sad.

I've read through all 21 issues that are currently available of Astonishing X-Men and I'm more than blown away with how great the storyline and artwork is. Unfortunately it seems that the run is likely to end soon, but I want to continue with the X-Men particularly (and I wouldn't mind seeing some of my other favorite X-Men, like Nightcrawler and Storm). I've come to the conclusion that I likely ought to start with the New X-Men series, which is what I intend to do ... unless anyone has a better suggestion!

I'm also willing to take any other suggestions for some good monthlies or graphic novels that I should read that don't require years of back-knowledge to understand. Some of these stories have been going on for so long that it's just tough to get back into the game.

Guru, go grab Kingdom Come by Alex Ross. What the world would be post-Super Man generation, with a slew of young superhumans who don't have the call to humanity their parents did. Great storytelling. You can jump right in. Also, if you have an eye for non super hero books, the trade paper backs of Strangers in Paradise are great, as is the massive graphic novel: "Blankets."

Agree to what Deni said. Also The Dark Knight Returns.

I've personally followed Ennis' rendition of The Punisher, yet am truly a fan of his one-shot work "Born" which narrates Castle's pre-Punisher days in the fields of the 'Nam. That, Kingdom Come and DKR are apparently my most-read and most-liked graphical novels.

Everybody knows that The Authority is some of the best stuff out there.

The Ultimate universe (Marvel) is pretty solid as well. Especially Ultimate Spider-Man.

Fables, a series by Bill Willingham published by Vertigo (a DC Comics imprint) comes highly recommended.

That's a fairly accurate statement. It's for that reason, and others, that I haven't really enjoyed the X-Men in a long time.

Well, I wasn't blown away by it. In fact, I think only the first arc was great. But perhaps if you like that, you might enjoy Whedon writing Runaways or perhaps some of Cassaday's past work, such as Planetary.

Whedon and Cassaday are leaving Astonishing X-Men after the current arc. Nightcrawler and Storm will both be appearing in a soon-to-start Morlocks-related arc in Uncanny X-Men. I hear good things about the standard X-Men title and X-Factor, but the characters and premises don't do much for me. Maybe you should check them out. As for New X-Men, it mainly focuses on teams of students at the school, like an expanded New Mutants. So, if that's what you want to read, then I'd definitely go for it. And I might also suggest Avengers: Initiative, since it's a simiar idea, but it's fairly bogged-down in Civil War fallout.

My favorite monthlies right now are Dynamo 5, Justice Society of America, and Brave and the Bold. If you want titles "that don't require years of back-knowledge", I highly suggest the first and somewhat recommend the third.

But really, it depends on what kinds of stories you like. Generally, the well-liked graphic novels and trade paperbacks are gritty or metaphysical stories.

I've picked up some CBRs of New X-Men starting arouned issue 110, and it basically is focusing on Jean Grey, Beast, Cyclops, Emma Frost and Professor X around when Genosha is destroyed, at least so far. Is it the later issues that turn focus away from the main team, or is it just focusing on these characters now because of the Genosha thing? So far really nothing about new students or anything like that.

I'm also getting back issues of Uncanny, but there's a lot of them.

Dynamo 5 looks like its pretty good. Thanks for the suggestion ^^

I'm liking the geopolitic shtick of "Checkmate" v2, but be warned that it does require some prior knowledge of the Infinite Crisis variety.

There was a time when the title "X-Men" was renamed "New X-Men" for as long as Grant Morrison was writing it. When he left, the comic returned to the name "X-Men". Soon thereafter, Marvel relaunched the series New Mutants as New X-Men: Academy X. When the current creative team came on, the "Academy X" was dropped, making it the current, ongoing New X-Men. Sorry for the confusion.

But reading Morrison's New X-Men is probably a good idea considering it involves many of the same characters as Astonishing, which is sometimes considered a continuation of New X-Men.

It's a litte more expensive than regular titles, but it's worth it.

I'm noticing that as I read through New X-Men (which is actually, just X-Men, I guess), that about every 6-9-12 issues, the art style is changing pretty drastically. Sometimes the penciler is changing, but sometimes it's not. Is this pretty typical of most comics? I can understand the actual artist changing, so therefore the art style changes. But do pencilers often explore different varieties of drawing when they're working on a long-running title?

In some ways it's cool (especially if you weren't enjoying the style of art they had been using), but it's also kind of off-balancing the continuation of the story, for the art direction to switch (sometimes drastically). I don't remember this happening a lot when I used to read comics regularly back in the late 80's and early 90's. And then I came back to comics by reading Astonishing and the penciling has been all done by Cassaday since the get-go, so I was just a little curious about this.

I going to say that that is definitely not typical. There are cases where an artist didn't quite work like normal, leaving the art incomplete or sketchy, but it's rare that an artist changes their actual drawing style in the middle of a story.

It might be the inker/colourists that change and cause such a noticeable difference.

BTW, New X-Men and X-Men are separate titles. New X-Men deals with the younger students at the Academy, while X-Men deals with the squad of mutants under Rogue's command. Both titles are excellent.

Grant Morrison was probably the best thing to happen to X-Men. It's a real shame about the circumstances surrounding his run. On the subject of the artist delays, I don't know what Quietly was up to, but I do remember that being the time period of Marvel shoehorning in several new artists. I don't think that applies to New X-Men, I'm really just stretching for an answer here. I can say that I'm glad Morrison continued on with fill-in artists, over giving us The Ultimates treatment of anti-climactic and shoddy writing, with attempted compensation via splash pages.

On the subject of X-Men, I'm torn between Carey and Brubaker's work on their respective X-Books. And god help you if you're enjoying New X-Men Academy. That book is a fucking disaster. Though Joss Whedon's pop dialog is often over the line as far as cute goes to me, I do find it the lesser of two evils. "Two evils" being what I feel are the weaker of the X-Books out right now.

I can pick up Mike Carey's X-Men for what has been a rather action packed ride (I love Chris Bachalo's pencils, though I would call his work on it his best) and Brubaker's exposition is just tops. I'm usually more of a fan of slugfests, so admittedly I have a bias toward what Carey has been working on. Unfortunately, it rolls into the whole "Endangered Species" event and I'm pretty fucking tired of that sort of thing.

The internet isn't broken in half, but I'll forgive Bendis considering he's still more than just competent, and these crossovers are probably designed with "It prints money" in mind.

Eh, moving on, Matt Fraction's Punisher and Immortal Iron Fist are highly enjoyable, check your pulse if you have been ignoring them. Especially Iron Fist. Witchblade has actually been enjoyable under the hand of Ron Marz. Though he did change the owner of the Witchblade in a move similar to the whole Hal Jordan to Kyle Rayner event, he did turn the book around.

Moving away from the big two, my favorite comics out right now are Fell (Warren Ellis apparently saves his "A-Game" for this book) and Casanova (this one was recommended by a blog, most of my current pulls save for Fell are, and I haven't been disappointed). I'm getting into the short, self-contained stories these two comics represent. Both have excellent bonus content, showcasing art or how stories were put together, the ideas behind each issue.

More importantly, they're good comics. That's what we want, right?

Iron Fist is FANTASTIC. I love that book. Almost everything Brubaker touches these days turn into solid gold. Uncanny X-Men would be my least favorite of his current titles. If I were to rank the X-Men books from best to worst, it'd go something like this: Ultimate, X-Men, Astonishing, New X-Men and Uncanny. New X-Men is a very solid title, I don't know why you dislike it so much. Uncanny started to bore me early in the Shi'ar arc, but the upcoming mega-crossover stuff looks like it's going to kick the book back into high gear.

The body count. I remember checking into X-23 and it basically revolving around "horrible things that happen to X-23." I really can't stand how a book about young X-Men can be so hopeless and contain so much death. The stories and the way they are told manage to be a turn-off to me, though I don't want to come off as a prude and blindly bash it I just can't recommend it. I can't make what I said earlier less abrasive, though I do want to say it really is hard for me to endorse or even be passive about the title. It is everything, I feel, that a comic of that nature shouldn't be. They're teenagers and I'm pretty tired of seeing this kind of stuff. I mean, Geoff Johns and Young Justice comes to mind when I think of New X-Men Academy.

And I completely forgot about Ultimate X-Men. Of all the Ultimate books, I found it to be the most inconsistent. I mean, my thoughts on Mark Millar aside, it was just hard to get seated in and read whole arcs. It just felt all over the place. I was interested in what Kirkman was going to do with Cable, though admittedly the whole "Future Wolverine" thing was a curve ball I wasn't quite able to deal with. What do you think of the book? Why so high on the list? Inquiring minds and such!

I've been reading some back issues from recent Marvel Universe storylines like House of M and and I'm just now starting in on the Civil War event, and I've gotta say that they're quite enjoyable. I loved the artwork in the House of M titles. And so far, Humberto Ramos' art in the Wolverine titles for the Civil War event is quite excellent too.

Although I imagine that I'm enjoying the titles more than a general comic book fan might just because I have a special fondness for the X-Men. Although I started reading some circa-1990s Uncanny and I really couldn't get in to them as much...I can see why people aren't really all that high on the series.

I've also been thinking about checking out Teen Titans, to get a taste of the DC world. It looks like it's one of the titles that could hold my attention better than the Justice League characters could.

Anything DC is very continuity heavy. Jumping into TT right now is going to be a VERY confusing experience. Ugh...

Rotor: Ult. X is interesting for me because it's fresh to me. A lot of the characters are very different from their 616 counterparts and some of the plot twists come out of nowhere. Sure it has had it's ups and downs, like all books, but I've enjoyed it more often than not. The current arc with future Wolverine/Cable and Bishop reforming the X-Men and what not is looking to be very, very cool. Also, unless I'm mixing books up, Nightcrawler is currently getting into big trouble with the Morlocks in the Ult. book.

Hey, comics! Howcome nobody mentioned DAREDEVIL?! Anyways, for Marvel, aside from the usual X-books (astonising, ultimate, uncanny, x-men) and Avengers stuff, I also enjoy Daredevil, Captain America, Iron Fist (hells yeah!), Hulk, Punisher MAX, and the new Iron Man looks good. DC is a bit confusing, but I'm reading Batman and Supes stuff, Wonder Woman, JLA, Green Lanter, and 52/Countdown just to get the DC feeling, the other titles are confusing sometimes.

Outside of DC/Marvel, I LOVE Hellboy/BPRD! Get that. Also, get Powers and Fell.

EDIT: Silver Surfer - Requiem is sweet.

I was out and about today and I stopped by the comics shop and picked up issues 1-4 of Dynamo 5. This is really a good book, the characters are all very interesting and it's going to be quite enjoyable seeing them grow up and evolve into their roles more. I'm also pretty curious to see where Maddie's interests lie and what her motivation is behind spearheading the group.

Plus, Scrap is totally hot.

Thanks again for the recco, acronym.

Dwayne McDuffie's going to be writing JLA. Also, Mark Waid is back on "The Flash." Great news, unless you weren't a fan of Mark Waid's previous Flash run, I heard it wasn't well received. I can't think of a reason not to like McDuffie on JLA.

I know that Uncanny has some Morlock related event coming up, I think it's a gray area at this point.

I'm just glad that you're enjoying it!:D

I just got myself caught up on Fables again after being several months out, and I'm glad I did. My comics knowledge is by no means extensive, but Fables has to be the best series I've read so far. I can't wait to see how this current arc plays out -- there's just so much potential.

Anyone else a fan of Fables or its spin-off, Jack of Fables?

Link to Vertigo's site, including complete issue #1

I love Fables. I haven't read it in a long time, but I definitely plan to catch up some time in the future. I'm either going to have to re-read most of what I've read or read a summary as I've forgotten most of the details. I can't even remember what issue I stopped on.

Saka, I recommend that you check out other comics in the Vertigo line (just look it up on Wikipedia). They're quite different from your average superhero book and I've a feeling that you would enjoy many of their titles.

What websites do you guys visit to get your comic book news? Or what websites do you trust to purchase stuff from? I'm just doing a little research on comic books and trying to see what websites are out there.

www.newsarama.com & www.comicbookresources.com

After all the hype and waiting, I was thinking Ultimates v3 will be worth it.

I was right. It sucks.

Hey comic book nerds!

I noticed this thread has been dead for almost a year now, and being a big community, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only comics fan in here. So I'm going to attempt to revive this thread and continue this awesome thread back to how it was before.

So anyways, lets talk about Secret Invasion. Since it's a very hot topic within the comic book community, I would like to hear your opinions about this event. Don't worry DC fans, we'll eventually get to Final Crisis :P.

Personally, I like how everything's unfolding in SI. Bendis is doing a so far a good job in connecting all the dots, with events spanning back from Secret War up to Civil War. What I'm really waiting for is what will Nick Fury do now that he has his own "team" and he's back in action, and what will actually happen to the Marvel U after the war.

I haven't been keeping up with Marvel much lately, but Bendis I happen to be a pretty big fan of. Especially Powers.

Psh, comics. What a nerd.

Speaking of nerds. Me and some friends are doing a comics review podcast of comics released every week. We're on our 6th episode, and you can find them here: Tres Komikeros

And you guys should check out the Watchmen motion comic. Chapter 1 is out on the internets. It's good for those who are too lazy to read the comic.

Its only recently that I've been getting into comics. I always wanted to get them ever since I was a child. I guess at the time I had other interests on my mind that I never really had any time with comics even though I use to watch any cartoon that was based on any Marvel or DC character.

Over the last year I've been really getting into Iron Man comics. I guess out of all the marvel characters this character was the one that got me interested in purchasing comic books. I mostly buy hardcover/softcover books. I don't usually buy any of the individual comics seperately. I'm not really into any of the current storylines. I just collect any books based on Iron Man even though I am interested to getting around to reading the Civil War series.

My wife on the other hand is an avid comic book collector. She collects a lot of Batman hardcover/softcover books as well as Wolverine. Her favourite Marvel character is storm and she was very excited when she got her first storm book based on a relationship with the black panther.

As you can tell I'm not a big comic book geek compared to most people but I am slowly getting into it. We've recently purchased a comic we heard from a youtube comic book critic called Black Summer and my wife is really enjoying it even though I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

WEWT! A comics fan comes out of the closet!

I heard Black Summer is awesome (it's written by Warren Ellis, so I guess it's awesome). I haven't read it yet, but I've been hearing a lot of good things about it. If it's from Avatar, I'm guessing it contains a lot of violence.

Iron Man's a pretty solid book, especially volume 4. My favorite arcs are the Extremis (Iron Man v4 #1-6) and the Haunted (Iron Man v4 #21-28), aside from that Iron Man - Enter the Mandarin is pretty sweet too. I don't know of any older Iron Man series, but maybe some of the nerds here can help.

I'd be happy to give you recommendations if you like (depends on what kind of stuff you read).

I'm waiting for the conclusion for Secret Invasion. Bendis can do mini-series, but he's writing for the trade on this one, I feel. I say we talk Final Crisis instead, because holy shit. I've currently read or have been following Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol, The Immortal Iron Fist, the big 2's current big events, All Star Superman, and Batman R.I.P. There are a few others I've read, but nothing I've been too focused on compared to the above. Genius won Pilot Season, so I'm fairly excited about that.

Genius won Pilot Season? I must have missed that. Best news I've heard in a long time. Cant wait to start picking that one up.

Honestly, I havent been one for the super hero comics, so I never got into Secret Invasion or Civil War or any of those arcs. Like Angel though, Iron Man has been my hero-of-choice. I'm collecting The Invincible Iron Man, which seems to have ended at Issue 6, unless they're serious about Iron Man and Spiderman working together in the next issue. Strikes me as an odd combination.

The most recent comic I picked up that really struck me is Avatar's No Hero: How much do you want to be a super human?. Its extremely graphic, but I'm hooked after one issue.

There were actually 2 winners for Pilot Season, Genius and Twilight Guardian.

If you're not reading Brubaker's Captain America at the moment, you're missing out. A second plug goes to Iron Fist in that regard. If you passed on Civil War, you didn't really miss much of anything, though Secret Invasion is decent payoff given the lead up with Mighty Avengers and New Avengers. Dan Slott is fixing to pick up Mighty Avengers after Bendis, but the idea of Reckoning War makes my stomach turn and Slott isn't one of my favorite writers in any case.

Things at Marvel are solid as ever, though Final Crisis is definitely one of my favorite books at the moment. I don't read much independent these days, but that's mostly due to the ol' comic store being pretty far from my location. I'm mostly doing a lot of catch up in any case.

I'm not a big DC fan, but I'm enjoying a few books from them, namely Final Crisis, Batman (hell yeah Morrison!), Detective Comics (Dini + Nguyen), Secret Six, Action Comics, and Jonah Hex. There maybe some other stuff that I read, but these titles are my mainstay DC books.

Props to Temari for mentioning No Hero. Ellis has some crazy ideas for books, and I hope he'll continue Desolation Jones :(

Meh. I don't really understand what's happening at Final Crisis, much less DC's love for anything with Crisis on it. I'm following Secret Invasion, but am not too pumped. We know the baddies are going to be defeated in the end.

There are three titles I'm anticipating nowadays - Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, and Incredible Hercules. The first two kicked into high gear with the Sinestro War, and the lead-up to Blackest Night in 2010 gave the series a streamlined focus. Some people may disdain the idea of the Rainbow Lantern Corps, but I kinda like it, torturous grade-school science notwithstanding :p

Incredible Hulk Hercules got so much better after they removed Hulk from it. Though, I can't say I'm liking the way they're ridiculing Amadeus Cho nowadays as Herc's boytoy... :3:

Haven't been following the Green Lantern books, but I heard good stuff about it. Specially now they're doing a secret origin thing on the main book. I dunno about the Corps, what's going on with them anyway?

The way they're doing Herc right now is great. Herc's a lot of fun to read, and it's opposite to the whole war theme that's going on at the Marvel U. Plus, the art's good to the eyes, compared to Punisher War Journal.. ugh. The writing's good (Fraction/Remender), but I can't stand the current art style of Howard Chaykin.

The world needs more Hellboy.

Basically, the Green Lantern Corps have won a victory against Sinestro's Yellow Lantern Corps, but there's an even bigger war on the horizon. Red, orange, blue, indigo, and violet lantern corps are going to emerge, have a battle royale, and fight against the black lanterns (dead people), powered by the Anti-Monitor's Corps.

Everything on GL and GLC now is leading up to this, including the 7-part retelling of Hal's origin story. So far, they have introduced the Red Lanterns (based on anger), the Violet Lanterns aka Star Sapphires (based on love), and the Blue Lanterns (based on hope, and powered by Ganthet.) We may see some dead DCU characters join the Black Lanterns, possibly including:

Anyone else reading Ghost Rider? I'm a big fan of Jason Aaron's writing, it's just that this book feels like every issue is a preview of some "big thing" waiting to happen. It's been like this for the past, what, 6 issues? You read through it and it's like "NEXT ISSUE SOMETHING BIG IS GONNA HAPPEN", so you read the next issue and it's still "NEXT ISSUE SOMETHING BIG IS GONNA HAPPEN". I dunno, maybe I'm getting tired of it, but I hope if it ever gets to the "big showdown" it's not going to be disappointing.

My friends have this weekly comics review podcast thing, and now we're on our 10th episode. Check it out if you have time:

Episode 10 Tres Komikeros

I've finished this week's issues, thought I'd throw my thoughts out. Bring a little more life to this thread. Four issues this week, plus finally finishing a compilation...

Stephen King's The Dark Tower: Treachery, Issue #3 - I found it unusual that it took them to the third volume of the series to break away from the books. They've introduced a character who never existed in the book series (unless I COMPLETELY missed it)... Cort's niece Aileen, with the potential to become the first female Gunslinger. There's also more on Roland's mom, and her part in his adventures. Its been really interesting to see what others have been going through while the books focus on Roland.

Stephen King's The Stand, Issue #3 - Dear god am I hooked on this one. I was a tad skeptical that I would like it, but I really cant get enough. The art is gorgeous, and although I havent read the book and cant compare it in that way, the characters and story have been shown so fully in only three issues that I'm scraping for more. My one real complaint is that it seems like half the book is taken up by interviews in the back... so I think there's more and it just hands me 'To be continued'.

Broken Trinity, Issue #3 - Whaaaaat is going on in the Witchblade universe? Old Chinese guys handing out cryptic prophecies and suddenly we're not focusing on the Darkness and Angelus being balanced by the Witchblade, but some random minion who happens to be the carrier of the 'Glacier Stone' going off in search of... something? I really enjoyed the first two issues of Broken Trinity, but now I'm not sure where this is supposed to be going.

Simon Dark, Issue #14 - Despite all the random beheadings, nothing struck me as terribly exciting about this issue. The first story arc has ended... this issue hinted at the beginning of the next.

The Walking Dead, Compilation 8 (issues #43-48) - I know I'm way behind anyone collecting the individual issues... and after what happened in this one, I think I may not be able to wait on the next compilation. Holy. Shit.

It really is a no-holds-barred, brutal story that I cant get enough of.

Temari, I have to ask. Why do you read so many godawful titles?

Forget titles, start with why you read Fathom ?

Because of boobies.

Also, if you ever get to find Green Lanter Corps: Recharge, go read it. It's awesome, and it kinda made me want to read all my Green Lantern Corps backlog issues.

Plus, Soranik Natu <3.

I myself personally confine myself to the "Big 2" publishers, plus a few guilty pleasures with Fables, The Authority, Grimm's Fairy Tales, and Star Wars Comics.

However, I think invoking the maxim "To each his own" might be appropriate in this case.

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Green Lantern series has been great, better than any other DC series right now. Though I must say I'm not a fan of the recent artwork in the Green Lantern Corps title. Pretty good how the series is moving along - the Sinestro War cross-over gave it a pretty good head of steam.

What Zerg said. I read them because i enjoy them. I know at least a few other people here read and enjoy The Walking Dead... I was warned against the gore and a few select scenes that have apparently turned readers away because they're so gruesome.

Also... boobies.

I've been looking for another super hero title to pick up that isnt too far along in issues, or will be out shortly. Green Lantern sounds good... Vemp, I'll be listening to your podcast about Terra soon. I eyed it on the shelf, but resisted because I had already picked up the first issue of Sandman (which I also enjoyed. It was extremely different.). Any other recommendations?

Finished reading the Justice series by Krueger and Ross. I thought it handled the DC Heroes and Villains perfectly. The art is marvelous too. If you're a fan of Kingdom Come, then you might find this to be worth your time.

Green Lantern is pretty stupid at the moment. Pick up Batman or Ultimate Spider-Man or Blue Beetle or something not stupid if you need a superhero book.

I recommend Detective Comics, because Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen are doing an awesome run. Action Comics too, if you like Superman stories. If you can get All Star Superman, go get it, it's nothing short of amazing. Like what rotor said, get Ultimate Spider-Man, it's constantly good. And the Amazing Spider-Man series is good too, even if a lot of people didn't like the Brand New Day thing, I think stories after that are pretty good (and it's out 3 times a month!). I'm also enjoying Fantastic Four by Millar and Hitch, Daredevil & Captain America for superhero books with a little serious tone, and if you like crime/noir, try Criminal by Brubaker and Philips because it's the best crime/noir book out there.

Yeah, the Amazing Spider-Man series is pretty good - a large improvement from what they had before, certainly. Most people will disparage the Deus ex Machina used to undo the marriage, but "Brand New Day" has certainly been a breath of fresh air. By all means you can jump in after the Mephisto story, so get Amazing-Spider Man #546 and onwards.

Outside of the big two, I dig Fables a lot. It's certainly not short by any stretch of the imagination (over 75 issues and counting), but the status quo has recently changed, and now would be a good time as any to jump in. (Still, I recommend you pick up the back issues for background).

Superhero-wise, I like the X-Men Legacy title, since it changed titles from Adjectiveless X-Men (the revamped series proper started from issue 208, and though you will benefit from reading "Messiah Complex", it is not required.

Ditto the Incredible Hercules. Don't let the high issue count fool you, the title's basically started at "Incredible Hercules #113" been out for a little less than a year, since the last issue is #123. Again, some context from "World War Hulk" and "Secret Invasion" will benefit, but it is not necessary.

Spider-Man seems to be the overwhelming choice... did either of those series start recently, or will I be digging through the boxes trying to find back-issues?

Also Zerg, I cant agree with you more on Fables. I've been reading the compilations (those have been screwing me lately as I have to wait for each new one to come out. Y: The Last Man was the most memorable... I had to wait months for the last compilation to come out. Drove me nuts.), so I've read all but the most recent issues. Fantastic modern take on the old stories.

If you were to officially request copies, I am sure we'll be able to hook you up with some ... digital samples. If you are not inclined to these digital samples, it shouldn't be too difficult to snag back-issues of "Brand New Day", since the storyline (ASM 546) has started in January 2008.

Have you given Planetary a try? It's an interesting take on the concept of superheroes.

Brand new day sucked tho..
Read ultimate spiderman instead. Or that superhero comic.. damn cant remember the name, it's pretty much a parody of all superhero comics, a teen with a yellow suit..

Or you could like read the superhero oneshots, like Batman: The longest halloween (in b4 Deni Loeb whining)

This man will only recommend you garbage.

Invincible from Image is a good superhero comic as well, that's what Zip was trying to reference while trying to tell you not to read something good.

How is brand new day good? they undid everything that happened in the last couple of years and the ending was beyond stupid.
i mean

Spidey is young again. Harp on continuity all you want (because it's meaningless), Brand New Day is fun to read. Yes, there are things that don't quite mesh with continuity, but this is the new status quo. Peter has his best friend back, is single, has a bunch of new but somehow similar problems to deal with... it's Spider-Man.

If the only thing you can throw at it is "It doesn't match up with the past few years", then you're missing the whole point of "The past few years haven't exactly been all that great." Brand New Day is worth your time, if you want to talk about how we got here, then you're not talking about Brand New Day and you want to have a discussion about continuity patch comics which is dumb.

The continuity is not the only problem, you goof. It's that they threw out a large plot element of the last twenty years just so we could have a terrible redux of '70s "single and swinging" Spidey. It's not "fun". It's just crappy repackaging with additional retarded elements (Jackpot), most of which the nonexistence of the marriage is irrelevant to.

You're still talking about continuity, though.

Trying to call the book something it isn't is also excellent comedy. To say this book reads like it's from the 70s is a nice attempt at that (and a point), but ultimately how does this read like it's from the 70s? Because the material is similar in nature? I hate to break it to you, but cries of "It could have been interesting" regarding where Spidey was previously don't mean anything, because what we were getting was anything but.

You have a new and interesting cast of characters, and a hard reboot. This is the new status quo, accept it or stop buying the book. But don't try to justify your choice by calling the book something it isn't.

I did not like most of JMS writing, it just feels so lame that they undid everything that happened in that fashion.
Althought i have to admit i only read around 7 issues of brand new day, so I shouldnt have said it was bad without doing my research.

I still like Loeb though :lol:

Long Halloween was good... it's all downhill for Loeb after that. Honestly, you can't look at his recent work and say it's been anything but painful, but we should spare Loeb the attention (unless it's gonna be hilarious jabbing like Ultimate Edit week at 4thletter).

Edit: Actually, I thought Spirit and Batman crossover was good.

Loeb's been sucking for the past few years. He writes with the same fucking formula every fucking time. Sure, he did some good Batman stuff (Catwoman: When in Rome is also passable). But like what rotor said, it's all downhill after that. His Hush only sold because Jim Lee was drawing it. Ultimates 3 sucked, Ultimate Power sucked, Onslaught Reborn sucked, he got kicked out of Heroes, I mean he can write, but he should write better stuff than the crap he's putting out lately. I haven't really met anyone who likes Loeb. Aside from Zip.

As for BND, I can't see why people are hating it. Sure it was a "lame" attempt to reboot Spidey, but the main point was to make the character last longer and to give future creators options on where they'll take Spidey. I guess this discussion's been all over the internet, and I'm not forcing people to like (or not like) BND and post-BND Spidey, but I guess people should try to lighten up and try to read the new stories and then if they don't like it, then they don't like it. Ultimate Spider-Man is great though. Solid.

I didnt like ultimates v3, he tried to hard on that one.
I dont see why everyone hates on Hush, i admit that the art was a big reason i bought the comic but it's not a bad story at all. But then you guys read shitload more comics then me so maybe it doesnt stack up too well to other stories.

Hush was mostly fluff, I'd kick it for being a mediocre story (though I did enjoy it and still could as a stand alone story). In the overall scheme of things Batman, it only introduced Hush, everything else was just so... unnecessary, all the villains appearing in this convoluted epic for no other reason than to be there for a dumb reason. You'll see the thinking and planning regarding plots just sort of dissolve for Loeb as his work goes on. I definitely recommend reading more stuff of his if you need to see how he fell off.

Has anyone read and finished Arkham Asylum? It's got a good story and really shows just how crazy Batman's rogues are. It's good, but I've never been able to finish it. If someone here has read and finished it, is it worth it?

Wasn't one of my favorite works by Morrison, to be honest. If only because of how difficult it is to finish the damn thing. But it is worth finishing.

That's not the same as the series of one-shots that I've got in my head as Joker's Asylum, is it? Every one-shot featured another Batman villain drawn by different artists... those I really enjoyed. A story focused entirely on the villain, rather than Batman. Cant be the same thing though, as they weren't at all difficult to finish, and there couldnt have been more than... five, I think.

Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

That's the book.

Get the new Joker book, really good.

Joker's Asylum had pretty good issues (like the Penguin issue), some were a bit bad. I wonder why they stopped it. The latest Joker book (by Azarrelo and Bermejo) was ok. It was sort of like the Joker in the Dark Knight movie, and everything was given a "real world" concept. It started pretty good, but as a whole it kinda lacked the "oomph" I was expecting. Maybe because it was told through another character's point of view, an introduced character with no significance at all in the Batman mythos, during and after the story. I think that's the book's downfall.

Me and my boys just did our reviews for this week's comics. We talk about Robin #180, Deadpool #4, and Amazing Spider-Man #578. Along with that, we rate some books we read on our own, and vote on random pop-culture news bits.

Tres Komikeros 12 Tres Komikeros

Hope you guys like it.

I finished up Secret Invasion 8 recently. If you dig Bendis' work as well as Marvel's current works with status quo, you'll likely enjoy what this books sets up for. However, the more important question is "Are you reading Hellcat, GFF?" If you aren't, do yourself a favor and pick it up so as to see what you've been missing out on. Books like Captain America and Immortal Iron Fist are constantly passed up for the "important tie-in" books we've been conditioned to read, so now's a good time to throw a shout out to your favorite solo character books as we transition into Dark Reign and some new single character comics such as War Machine and Deadpool.

I just can't put up with Captain America. I just don't care. Fucking Bucky.

However, Hellcat and Deadpool have both been great. As is Moon Knight and Immortal Iron Fist.

Hey guys, wondering if anyone can help me with a couple of DC comics I've been trying to find... some of them I can't even remember the names of so would appreciate it if someone can fill in the blanks...

One is a Justice League Elseworlds comic which started in a Superman annual and concluded... somewhere else. I remember the title "Super Seven" but can't find any information through just that. The story basically is about how an alien race comes to Earth and takes over. All the superheroes are either killed or go into hiding. Flash is crippled by a mob, Superman has abandoned mankind after the murder of Lois, and other heroes are missing. Only Batman has been waging a guerrilla style war against the invaders the whole time. Any ideas?

Another story is a little more recent and up until recently I thought the title was "God Fall" but the only thing that turns up in a google search is the 2004 Superman story where he wakes up back on Krypton. The story I'm searching for is the one where all of Earth's superpowered heroes find themselves powerless and unable to cope with the chaos that erupts when the criminal elements find out. Heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman fall into despair while non-meta heroes like Batman trains those who have lost their special abilities but still seek the means to fight injustice.

Another one is kind'a like "Y-The Last Man". A radiation cloud passes through our solar-system with seemingly no ill effects. However, every male human on the planet soon dies leaving only Superman alive. Now with a planet only populated by women, things are more comlplicated when Luthor shows up alive in a protective suit, claiming Superman still carries the alien spores of the killer disease and should be exiled from Earth.

Hopefully, these stories sound familiar and someone can tell me what their titles are.

Thanks in advance!

Here is a Batch torrent:
DC Elseworlds (COMPLETE) Batman, Superman, JLA and the DCU Torrent - btjunkie

Here are the titles I have ascertained based on your summaries:

1. The Super-Seven
Part 1: Adventures of Superman Annual #6
Part 2: Superboy Annual #1

2. JLA: Act of God

3. JLA: Created Equal

Source: List of Elseworlds publications - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thank you very much, Zergrinch!

Man, I need to read more of JLA. The stuff they're putting out these days aren't that good, so I tend to shy away from them. The last good JLA story I read was "Tower of Babel".

Anyway, is anyone reading Fear Itself? What do you think of the first issue?

Meh, don't like it much. If you like Captain America and Thor, I guess you'll like it (since the enemies are their villains). To be fair it WAS a Cap/Thor crossover before Marvel blew the scope up.

Can't say I'm digging any of the present storylines in comics these days. The ones I look forward to the most are:

1. Brightest Day
2. War of the Green Lanterns (GL Books)
3. Cinderella: Fables are Forever
4. ps238
5. Age of X, I guess? Though not too much!

So far Fables is the only comic title I'm reading regularly these days, though I just wait for the tpbs to come out. Gotta get volume 15 (Rose Red) in a little bit. Stopped reading mainstream DC and Marvel comics a while ago and now so many things have happened, I'm not too sure I wanna get back in. Now I just wait for trade paper backs and buy whatever seems interesting and are just self-contained stories in a single volume. For that reason I've pretty much avoided Blackest Night, all of those red, blue, yellow lantern books and now probably Brightest Day as well.

Hey guys, wondering if any of you might be able to help.

I've seen a few pics about on the web from a couple of books I'm interested in reading, now that DC has gone all "alternate universe/timeline" with the relaunch of their books... :rolleyes:

I can't find those pages anymore no matter where I search but I'm guessing they were from books published way before Flashpoint and whatnot. The books might be Elseworld titles or just dreams/hallucinations in the regular books. My memory isn't so good so some descriptions may be way off...

The first may be from either a Batman, Wonder Woman, or a Justice League title. The page showed a scene on Themyscira where Diana (looking as youthful and as beautiful as ever) is walking towards a wheelchair where sits a solitary figure looking at the sunset. The figure turns out to be a very old Bruce Wayne. From the conversation they have it is obvious that they have been married for a long time but Bruce then tells Diana that it is time for him to go. She cries and he tells her that he won't mind if she finds someone else (since she's immortal) but whatever happens, not to let her next love be Clark. He then tells her he was just joking, that Clark would take care of her. He then asks her to stay with him to watch his last sunset.

The second one is definitely a Wonder Woman title. It shows Diana fulfilling her role as Queen of Themyscira and her throne room is filled with the heads of her enemies placed on spikes like the castles of old. The heads include Mongul, Darkseid and Circe among others. Lined up on the other side of the room and kneeling are her knights that include, among others, Superman and Batman. They are wearing alternate versions of their costumes.

Anyone have any ideas to the comics I'm talking about?

:confused:

Okay, I found the images I was talking about for the first story. Apparently it's from JLA #90. I got the description a bit messed up but the general story was right.

http://img198.imagevenue.com/loc394/..._122_394lo.jpg http://img191.imagevenue.com/loc189/..._122_189lo.jpg

Unfortunately, the issue was published in 2004 and I can't find the issue anywhere. I was tempted to buy a tpb when it was available but later found that the JLA trade paperbacks do not include this particular issue at all...

Anyone know if it's available online?

Still no idea on the second query I posted though. Still coming nada with the picture searches as well.

The last comics that I read were The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One. It's kind of funny because the only reason that I read them was because I had to read them for my American Pop Culture class. Best Class ever and both were really enjoyable graphic Novel/comics. For both, I could not put them down until I finished them.