The Comic Book Thread (spoilers)

[GhostMachine]

Well, I will definitely be dropping Batman. I was willing to stick it out a bit if Morrison stayed on as the writer, but apparently Frank Quitely will be doing the artwork after Battle For The Cowl, and Quitely is my least favorite artist after Rob Liefeld. Bleech.

So I guess I'll drop it and add Detective, maybe. Depends on who is Batman after Battle For The Cowl (although, I suspect it's all going to be a massive swerve and it will still be Bruce).

[Boulder]

Well, I will definitely be dropping Batman. I was willing to stick it out a bit if Morrison stayed on as the writer, but apparently Frank Quitely will be doing the artwork after Battle For The Cowl, and Quitely is my least favorite artist after Rob Liefeld. Bleech.

So I guess I'll drop it and add Detective, maybe. Depends on who is Batman after Battle For The Cowl (although, I suspect it's all going to be a massive swerve and it will still be Bruce).

Though I don't understand your Quitely hate, just wanted to remind you to get the Gaiman two-parter before Battle for the Cowl.

Personally, apart from Gaiman's, I'm leaning towards not buying any Batman until Morrison gets back. Not like I have a particular affinity for the character.

[RoyWill Rumble]

So, supposedly Ultimatum has completely sucked, which makes me quite sad considering that the Ultimate editions of most series were consistently rad.

[Johnny Latino Heat]

Yeah, Ultimatum is pissing me off, and it's only on the second issue. And I loved the Ultimate universe, too.

[Maxx]

With loads of times on my hands, I've been going through my trades and wow, The Walking Dead is just spectacular. I read volumes 2 and 3 straight through, going to probably do the same with volume 4 tomorrow, and I just ordered volume 5.

Anyone else a fan?

[RoyWill Rumble]

I've been pimping the shit out of The Walking Dead ever since I started posting in this thread.

Elephant Men is fucking awesome too, and I hate all of you for not reading it.

Edited December 27, 2008 by Willasaurus Rex

[TheRaySays]

I've been pimping the shit out of The Walking Dead ever since I started posting in this thread.

Elephant Men is fucking awesome too, and I hate all of you for not reading it.

Don't be hating on me, godddammit. I've got Elephantmen shit y'all ain't even heard of.

[Herr Matzat]

Is anyone Reading Buffy Season 8? I just read the first 3 TBPs and will stick with em (so pleas don´t spoil me) but i have to say it´s realy realy well don. Feels almost like watching the TV Show, jus comicie in a good way.

The series is limited to 40 issues, so it´will end just like an normal TV Season would.

[RoyWill Rumble]

I usually despise Superman, but fuck if All-Star Superman hasn't been a good in the five issues that I've read.

[Reddaye]

So I finally got around to reading Brian Azzerello's "Joker" today. After letting it sink in and take root I decided to give this thread a little bump and post some thoughts. This book was part of my first trade paperback order since I dropped individual books in favor of the trade format. The rags are getting a bit too pricey in these rather dismal times...something had to break.

Anyways I'm not the biggest fan of Azzerello's work. I've read through a fair number of 100 Bullets issues and enjoyed them but never really raved about them, or felt a strong desire to read the entire thing. He obviously has a lot of talent, especially in working with dialog. Some of the conversations in this book (one between Joker and Penguin stands out) are quite good. Some are even chuckle worthy.

When it comes to the Joker I'm pretty fussy. Since The Killing Joke came out I've noticed that quality stories involving the Joker are becoming further and further between. Some writers like Paul Dini (who grew up reading the Joker during his "golden years" in the 70's and 80's) can do him well, but most others just make him a plain old psycho who looks a bit like a clown. He's less about the ego, showmanship, dark humor, horror, and insanity now...he's usually just insane with a bit of humor sprinkled in. Not really my favorite way of reading the Joker.

So going into this I knew it was an Elseworlds story. Knew that Azzerello isn't a super hero type guy. He's the Garth Ennis type...noir, realism, and grit. I can dig that. I knew this was going to be less comic book and more mafia drama. So I wasn't overly surprised when the Joker was portrayed more like a scarred and crazy Tony Soprano and less of a ego manic killer clown. I found myself less interested in the story and more interested in seeing how Brian was going to turn this iconic characters into people who could very well exist in real life. Killer Croc being a big black guy with acne scars was one of the more interesting ones. What the fuck was up with the Riddler though?

The art was great and really came off the page. In fact I think I liked the art more than the story itself. Visually all the characters really stood out and looked great on the pages. Good stuff in the visual department.

Anyone else thumb through this?

[Avenged Probably]

Picked up three trades yesterday; Secret Invasion, Moon Knight Vol 1:The Bottom and X-Force Vol 1: Angels and Demons

Secret Invasion

Now, this is one hell of a story which I felt I needed to read already owning all the previous events such as Civil War, House of M, World War Hulk and Disassembled. I really enjoyed this one, answered a lot of questions and asked a few new questions too. Brought a lot of unlikely characters together, some who haven't been seen for a while. The art took a couple of chapters to get used to, but its enjoyable anyhow. The final battle was feeling a little typical but, without spoiling anything for those who haven't read it, 'the shot heard around the world' was the best ending to that fight I could've asked for and it sets an awesome precedent for what comes next. My only gripe with this is that I felt like if I hadn't already read New Avengers and New Avengers Illuminati, I would've probably been a little lost. I got the impression I could've done with reading more Mighty and Initiative too before hand. So a word of advice to anyone else, read up on some, if not all that stuff before delving into this otherwise brilliant story. I can't wait for the New and Mighty Avengers tie-ins to be released as trades to so I can fill in all those gaps.

X-Force

I liked the concept of this team in Messiah CompleX, but this book is a world away from what they do in that story. While it contains many familiar faces from X-Men history, a few surprise ones too, and ties well into events that have already happened, it is like I said a very different kind of X-Book. Which is good, because who needs another book the same as the others? Its dark, gritty, violent and very bloody. If you flicked through it might look like sensless violence and bloodshed just for the hell of it. It all is pretty much pivotal to the story, it all makes sense. Its a great plot with beautiful artwork which I'd recommend to anyone (unless you don't like the sight of blood, there's a lot).

Moonknight

Now I'm only four out of five chapters into this. Like X-Force this is gritty and dark. Pretty graphic in some scenes, but the violence is always accompanied by some sort of emotion, showing how well this thing is written. I like the art style, David Finch is drawing here, and I loved his art since New Avengers started. Never have I read about a more completley and totally fucked up superhero type. Its not typical in anyway. Its kinda like Daredevil, except you don't really feel sorry for Marc Spector simply because everything thats happened to him is his own fault (or so it seems in parts). Now if I didn't know he was really MoonKnight, and that was where the story was going, I'd probably think Fuck this guy, he needs to die. Thats how convincing the writing is. Im sure the last two chapters won't dissapoint.

If the rumours of a MoonKnight TV series are true, they had better do this book some god damn justice.

[Johnny Latino Heat]

Speaking of X-Factor, anyone read the last book? I definitely was NOT expecting that. I was genuinely shocked at the events that occurred. What do you guys think?

EDIT: Crap, wrote X-Force instead of X-Factor >_<

Edited January 25, 2009 by Johnny Latino Heat

[the machine]

With loads of times on my hands, I've been going through my trades and wow, The Walking Dead is just spectacular. I read volumes 2 and 3 straight through, going to probably do the same with volume 4 tomorrow, and I just ordered volume 5.

Anyone else a fan?

Those are two of the worst trades of the most overrated comic on the shelves. Walking Dead is so aggressively mediocre that it bugs me to hear people constantly say how great it is.

Also, Secret Invasion, while maybe a cool-sounding idea, was horribly paced and plotted. The finale was completely lacking in any drama, suspense, or other emotion as the issue barely manages to have a plot before immediately shifting into "look what's coming next year from Marvel!" mode. I mean, to be fair, I hated Millar's finale to Civil War, too, but at least Millar had the common decency to be emotionally manipulative so that when America's REAL Heroes jumped on Cap it produced an emotion in the reader (even if the emotion was probably "Ugh"). Bendis just writes a boring, anti-climactic issue where a 'major' character death somehow manages to have less resonance than Black Goliath in Civil War.

What kills me is the thing is so filled with promising ideas that the story could have been good. Instead, it was significantly worse than Civil War. Bendis always does this, too. Great idea, but it's like even he's bored with it by the time we get to what should be a pay-off.

PS- Yu's art is atrocious, and he should never have to draw large-scale fights, since all of his characters are slight variations of each other. I also love how far out of his way he goes to not draw eyes.

[Maxx]

With loads of times on my hands, I've been going through my trades and wow, The Walking Dead is just spectacular. I read volumes 2 and 3 straight through, going to probably do the same with volume 4 tomorrow, and I just ordered volume 5.

Anyone else a fan?

Those are two of the worst trades of the most overrated comic on the shelves. Walking Dead is so aggressively mediocre that it bugs me to hear people constantly say how great it is.

Also, Secret Invasion, while maybe a cool-sounding idea, was horribly paced and plotted. The finale was completely lacking in any drama, suspense, or other emotion as the issue barely manages to have a plot before immediately shifting into "look what's coming next year from Marvel!" mode. I mean, to be fair, I hated Millar's finale to Civil War, too, but at least Millar had the common decency to be emotionally manipulative so that when America's REAL Heroes jumped on Cap it produced an emotion in the reader (even if the emotion was probably "Ugh"). Bendis just writes a boring, anti-climactic issue where a 'major' character death somehow manages to have less resonance than Black Goliath in Civil War.

What kills me is the thing is so filled with promising ideas that the story could have been good. Instead, it was significantly worse than Civil War. Bendis always does this, too. Great idea, but it's like even he's bored with it by the time we get to what should be a pay-off.

PS- Yu's art is atrocious, and he should never have to draw large-scale fights, since all of his characters are slight variations of each other. I also love how far out of his way he goes to not draw eyes.

Anything you do like?

[the machine]

Anything you do like?

Well, I like good books. Right now I'm reading Nova, X-Factor, Captain America, and Daredevil from Marvel and all of them range from good to excellent. Invincible Iron Man has hit the ground running, too.

There's plenty of good indy comics out there that are far better than Walking Dead. It's just that so few of them are in the survival horror genre.

Also, since I was talking things that are emotionally manipulative, did anyone else read X-Factor this week? I could not believe what happened. I felt so bad for Madrox. His life sucks so much.

[Maxx]

Well at least you didn't mention Grant Morrison, you pass.

Picked up the first Runaways trade for like $3, got a gift card to Newbury Comics, anyone want to reccomend something?

Edited January 25, 2009 by Maxx

[GhostMachine]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: If you're not reading Avengers/Invaders, put it on your must buy list when the TPB comes out.

Latest issue is #7 (of 12), and I can't wait for #8 due to the cliffhanger at the end.

And regarding machine's comments, Bendis has the ability to drag out something over six issues when it could be done in one or two. I'm convinced that's the ONLY reason he has a job, and Marvel really shouldn't let him write anything outside the Ultimate universe.

Paul Jenkins is infinitely worse than Bendis and Millar, though. I still can't figure out how he ever got a job writing in the first place.

[the machine]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: If you're not reading Avengers/Invaders, put it on your must buy list when the TPB comes out.

Latest issue is #7 (of 12), and I can't wait for #8 due to the cliffhanger at the end.

And regarding machine's comments, Bendis has the ability to drag out something over six issues when it could be done in one or two. I'm convinced that's the ONLY reason he has a job, and Marvel really shouldn't let him write anything outside the Ultimate universe.

Paul Jenkins is infinitely worse than Bendis and Millar, though. I still can't figure out how he ever got a job writing in the first place.

Hellblazer and Jae Lee's Inhumans made Jenkins seem like a bigger deal than he was. Inhumans is spectacular, though. It's slow and character-driven, but it works really well as a non-traditional comic. As a regular comics writer, he's not very good.

Good to hear Avengers/Invaders is picking up. I dropped the book after two issues, but might check it out later. My wallet can only handle one golden age homage at a time, and I'm already committed to the twelve.

[Herr Matzat]

Do you guys know this Dude? He is doing Comic reviews of bad (oldish?) Comics.

http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/video...ys/linkara/at4w

While i feel that sometimes he is trying way to hard he still is one of the better angry reviewers on the internet, a lot of people like him a great deal.

[Johnny Latino Heat]

OK, I'm reading Wanted, and... I gotta ask this at the risk of sounding stupid. Is it just me, or is it Scott Steiner there in the supervillain reunion?