The Comic Book Thread (spoilers)

[Timmoru Suzuki]

Anyone know what Batman: Cacophony's like? Admittedly I am intrigued by it, and I've generally liked Kevin Smith's runs on comic books.

I liked it. It's simply a good, well written Batman story. Features Joker, Maxie Zeus, Deadshot and Onomatopoeia. That's about all I can say, it's just a GOOD Batman story with some nice Batman/Joker exchanges, especially in the final part.

[NobBe Nobbs]

Fuck Onomatopoeia. The others I'm cool with. I bought some Blackest Night stuff yesterday and I feel like commenting on bits of it. Look away now if you don't want it spoiled.

Looking away? Good

Still looking away? Better

Still looking away? HAH HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT I WAS GOING TO SAY IF YOU WERE LOOKING AWAY

Bitch.

But seriously, there are huge spoilers here for people who haven't kept up.

Now, I love the Green Lantern mythos. I'm contractually obliged to think Kyle Rayner is a faggot because I like Hal Jordan, but I'm cool with most of it. I don't like Sodam Yat being "Superman + Green Lantern = WIN LOLZ", not at all, but he appears sparingly in the series so I can learn to ignore him, but what I'm really starting to dislike is the suckfest laid down on the Blue Lanterns whenever they appear or are mentioned that seems to be spilling over to the Indigo Lanterns as well. For the uninitiated - the Blue Lanterns are the most virtuous cunts on the face of the galaxy. Period. Their power rings are based off the emotion of hope, and while they can't do a lot themselves, when teamed with another ring they can do wondrous shit like destroy a red power ring that normally kills its holder if it's removed or destroyed but shock horror doesn't. The Indigo Lanterns, who run off compassion, do the same but with the black power rings instead.

It did not make for entertaining reading.

I think part of why this annoys me so much is that it's been implied that not all of the Corps on the "good" side are always good - the Star Sapphires waver between enemy and friend, but they appear now to be an exception. The Red Lanterns are bad. The Sinestro Corps are bad. Larfleeze is bad. The Blue Lanterns are good. The Indigo Lanterns are good. In a universe full of superheroes, with plenty of antiheroes out there, why is this still the case? I accept that, of the "bad" Corps, members of the Red Lanterns can't - Atrocitus is the only one who maintains control over himself, and he's a ruthless bastard anyway - and Larfleeze could but doesn't want to, but why not Batman?

Think about it for a second. He's somebody who, as everybody knows, uses fear as his weapon and once upon a time, a yellow power ring targeted him as the newest member of the Sinestro Corps. He fought back and threw off the ring because...well, I don't know. For some reason, presumably. I'm wondering why, though? Without exaggeration, Batman is the perfect person to buck the trend mentioned above - he can be a Yellow Lantern, his ring would run off the fear he causes in nearly everybody who thinks he's after them, but he can be heroic at the same time. Having a yellow power ring does not wipe your brain clean, as the red ring does, so what's the problem?

Anyway. Returning to Blackest Night, the sucking off of the IndiBlue Lanterns is the only flaw thus far (although you could argue Black Hand not only digging up Bruce Wayne's skull, but keeping it around and LICKING it is going a tad overboard on making us know we're supposed to hate him. He is raising heroes from the dead, after all) in a comic that's turning out to be pretty damn awesome. Black Lantern Ralph Dibny is a thing to behold, Black Lantern J'onn J'onnz could probably take on Captain Marvel and beat him senseless and the news Booster Gold has to fight Black Lantern Blue Beetle makes me happy in my pants. It's all good, but I do have a horrible feeling it's all going to go sour somehow - not in terms of the plot, but doing something like making Hank Henshaw or Larfleeze or Atrocitus go good, which wouldn't work with canon period.

[Johnny Latino Heat]

Wolverine Old Man Logan Giant-Size spoilers:

Am I the only one who thinks this was a bit... underwhelming for the story's big finish? I mean, the Hulk Gang was killed just like that, quite easily, making it seem like they were just a bunch of thugs without powers. The Red Skull put up more of a fight than all the Hulk gang together, except for the original Hulk himself. And the part with Wolverine regenerating inside the Hulk was too predictable, although it was a nice image, in a "Awwww, Hulk gave birth to a widdle wolvie" sick kind of way.

Yeah, I thought it was really underwhelming. For a 50-something page book, the story wrapping up in about 30 pages and the rest being sketches and covers... Meh. I really was expecting more.

[CadeSydal]

So, I haven't really kept up with comic books in the last several years. I like Marvel, primarily. So here's what I'm asking...what's some good stuff for me to jump into?

I'm an X-Men mark of sorts, with my favorites being Nightcrawler and Gambit for what that's worth...I also liked, back in the day, a lot of the X-Factor and whatnots.

Anyway, someone, please, recommend me some good stuff to spend my money on >_>

[TGC]

So, I haven't really kept up with comic books in the last several years. I like Marvel, primarily. So here's what I'm asking...what's some good stuff for me to jump into?

I'm an X-Men mark of sorts, with my favorites being Nightcrawler and Gambit for what that's worth...I also liked, back in the day, a lot of the X-Factor and whatnots.

Anyway, someone, please, recommend me some good stuff to spend my money on >_>

If you had any love for X-Factor when it was written by Peter David or featured Jamie Madrox and Strong Guy then I recommend you start with the Madrox collection from a few years back and then start reading the X-Factor collections. It's a great book and while it is mutants and the like, it's much different and much smaller. That's my two cents on what truly rocks in the world of Marvel nowadays.

[CadeSydal]

Thank you. That's a good suggestion and I'll give that a shot.

[GhostMachine]

I'd also recommend Captain America right now. You might be put off by the fact that the current Captain America is Bucky (long story, but it doesn't involve time travel or anything like that - Bucky wasn't really dead), but Ed Brubaker is doing some mighty fine writing. Captain America (Steve) is my favorite Marvel hero, and the fact that I'm fine with it should tell you something. And Marvel is currently doing the Captain America Reborn mini-series, which will bring Steve Rogers back.

[TKz]

What comics would I start with if I wanted to read Dark Reign from start to finish (or however far it is now)?

[RoyWill Rumble]

Fuck Onomatopoeia. The others I'm cool with. I bought some Blackest Night stuff yesterday and I feel like commenting on bits of it. Look away now if you don't want it spoiled.

Looking away? Good

Still looking away? Better

Still looking away? HAH HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT I WAS GOING TO SAY IF YOU WERE LOOKING AWAY

Bitch.

But seriously, there are huge spoilers here for people who haven't kept up.

Now, I love the Green Lantern mythos. I'm contractually obliged to think Kyle Rayner is a faggot because I like Hal Jordan, but I'm cool with most of it. I don't like Sodam Yat being "Superman + Green Lantern = WIN LOLZ", not at all, but he appears sparingly in the series so I can learn to ignore him, but what I'm really starting to dislike is the suckfest laid down on the Blue Lanterns whenever they appear or are mentioned that seems to be spilling over to the Indigo Lanterns as well. For the uninitiated - the Blue Lanterns are the most virtuous cunts on the face of the galaxy. Period. Their power rings are based off the emotion of hope, and while they can't do a lot themselves, when teamed with another ring they can do wondrous shit like destroy a red power ring that normally kills its holder if it's removed or destroyed but shock horror doesn't. The Indigo Lanterns, who run off compassion, do the same but with the black power rings instead.

It did not make for entertaining reading.

I think part of why this annoys me so much is that it's been implied that not all of the Corps on the "good" side are always good - the Star Sapphires waver between enemy and friend, but they appear now to be an exception. The Red Lanterns are bad. The Sinestro Corps are bad. Larfleeze is bad. The Blue Lanterns are good. The Indigo Lanterns are good. In a universe full of superheroes, with plenty of antiheroes out there, why is this still the case? I accept that, of the "bad" Corps, members of the Red Lanterns can't - Atrocitus is the only one who maintains control over himself, and he's a ruthless bastard anyway - and Larfleeze could but doesn't want to, but why not Batman?

Think about it for a second. He's somebody who, as everybody knows, uses fear as his weapon and once upon a time, a yellow power ring targeted him as the newest member of the Sinestro Corps. He fought back and threw off the ring because...well, I don't know. For some reason, presumably. I'm wondering why, though? Without exaggeration, Batman is the perfect person to buck the trend mentioned above - he can be a Yellow Lantern, his ring would run off the fear he causes in nearly everybody who thinks he's after them, but he can be heroic at the same time. Having a yellow power ring does not wipe your brain clean, as the red ring does, so what's the problem?

Anyway. Returning to Blackest Night, the sucking off of the IndiBlue Lanterns is the only flaw thus far (although you could argue Black Hand not only digging up Bruce Wayne's skull, but keeping it around and LICKING it is going a tad overboard on making us know we're supposed to hate him. He is raising heroes from the dead, after all) in a comic that's turning out to be pretty damn awesome. Black Lantern Ralph Dibny is a thing to behold, Black Lantern J'onn J'onnz could probably take on Captain Marvel and beat him senseless and the news Booster Gold has to fight Black Lantern Blue Beetle makes me happy in my pants. It's all good, but I do have a horrible feeling it's all going to go sour somehow - not in terms of the plot, but doing something like making Hank Henshaw or Larfleeze or Atrocitus go good, which wouldn't work with canon period.

Fuck off. Onomatopoeia was hilarious. In all honesty, I was marginally impressed but not much more. It was good, but the characterization of Batman was really odd at times. There were some nice, poignant lines from Joker, Batman, Alfred, and Lt. Gordon here and there, though. All in all, as said, it was good and that was basically it. I was thoroughly amused by Onotmatopoeia. I absolutely fucking hated the art, though. Hatehatehated, especially in the first and second issue.

[GRIFT]

Cade, definitely follow TGC's advice on Peter David's X-Factor.

It is a great little corner of the Marvel Universe and while it does overlap with the major storylines (WWH, Civil War, Messiah Complex) from time to time, it never really lets them highjack the series' driving force: gritty character based drama. TGC covered a lot of what make the series so great. Personally, I think two of Peter David's greatest talents are, one, his ability to take B-list characters and getting you to care about them as if they were A-lister's, and two, having a tremendous imagination in terms of ways to use his character's abilities. I mean, Maddrox has one of the least defined powers of any Marvel character and for David really explores them.

I have fallen a little behind in the series but I am told that Darwin and Longshot have recently joined the team and that really excites me in that both of the aforementioned characters could flourish under his penning. Again both have fairly undefined powers and, especially in Darwin's case, aren't particularly established characters.

Edit: Also, I think that this would make a great show if Marvel ever wanted to venture into live action television again. Heck, maybe when Dollhouse is inevitably canceled they can even get Joss Whedon to write the project!

Edit:

Also, I can't believe some people don't like Daniel Way's current run on Deadpool! I love his characterization of Wade's madness and the art is the best Wilson has ever had on a solo book.

Edited September 30, 2009 by GRIFT

[Timmoru Suzuki]

The writing and the art are both quite shit, and the only reason I still buy it every month is that I'm a whore for Deadpool. Hopefully his newest and third on-going series (Deadpool team-up I think it's going to be called) will be good.

[GRIFT]

Different strokes I guess, and I am aware that I am in the minority in my opinion of Way but I've enjoyed most everything he has done from the Weapon X family.

[RoyWill Rumble]

Read Cacophony again today, just to see if I really liked it. I didn't. I think I just liked Onomatopoeia too much upon first reading it. Once again, I absolutely fucking DESPISE the art style. I appreciate the Jack Kirby-influenced 'comic book style' of art where it's just got a comic book feel as opposed to hyper-realism, but this doesn't even have that going for it. It's not hyper-realism, it's not comic-booky, and it's not even at a sort of in-between where it still looks okay. I dunno what to make of it other than just not liking the art at all. It's very... amateur-ish, really. I think that really took me out of the story.

And, again, there's moments here and there, but Batman just... Batman's dialogue is weird. It's not Batman. Joker is oversexualized and not much else, aside from one exchange with Batman. I dunno, I already saw oversexualized Joker in Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. He was okay, but... eh. Maxie Zeus I honestly couldn't care about. He was written well when he went all crazy and talked like Maxie Zeus, but again, fuck if I could actually care about him,

even when his kid dies

. The over-arching story was kinda lame, too. I think if this was longer than three issues, things could have been fleshed out, but it really wasn't much better than average, and that might even be pushing it.

Again, fucking HATED HATED HATED the art style. It just... I honestly can't think of how else to sum it up other than it just wasn't that good. There's a loottt better artists out there. The colouring was unique at times in the sense that it wasn't all dark like we're used to in Batman comics and supposedly it's only gotten more vibrant in The Widening Gyre (Smith and Flanagan's new Batman series), but Batman looks like shit all of the damned time and I hated how The Joker was drawn too. Too many pop culture references, Batman's dialogue was awkward at best, and there were only one or two things in terms of dialogue that I can remember standing out. Only good thing was Onomatopoeia, really, but he's admittedly one-dimensional as shit.

[RoyWill Rumble]

I read Spider-Man Noir yesterday. It's by no means absolutely mind-blowing, but I liked it enough. I loved the premise of it, and I liked the art, too. Albeit a bit short for my liking, thus throwing off the pacing a bit, I still enjoyed it. Spider-Man in the 1930s is cool stuff.

[Johnny Latino Heat]

Just finished reading Spider-Man 608, and there's something bothering me.

Wasn't common knowledge that Ben Reilly was Peter Parker's "cousin"? I mean, wasn't that the story they made up while Ben was Spider-Man? Didn't Ben Urich watch Ben die, or at least get hit with some pumpkin bombs in the stomach? Didn't Ben Urich go to Ben Reilly's funeral?

If so, why doesn't he know who Ben Reilly is? And why does Peter say that, too? Did the freakin' Brand New Day thing also erase the Clone Saga? I don't think so, I mean, if it did, Ben Reilly wouldn't have existed and neither would Kaine, who shows up on the last page.

This thing is giving me a headache.

Edited October 8, 2009 by Johnny Latino Heat

[RoyWill Rumble]

I'm glad someone else noticed that. Selective continuity FTL.

[Johnny Latino Heat]

Another thing that crossed my mind, still regarding Spider-Man 608...

Supposedly, Brand New Day erased Spider-Man's identity from everybody's mind, except for Spider-Man himself and Mary Jane. Where does that leave Kaine? Does Kaine remember he himself is Peter Parker's clone? Does he remember he's Spider-Man's clone, but doesn't remember anything else?

I guess this will probably be addressed in the next few issues, but I really have no clue as to how they'll do this.

[Herr Matzat]

I just finished "The Walking Dead" Book 4. It´s pritty darn awesome. Now i need to pull myself together not to buy Softcover 9 and 10 because i´ed like to stick with the Hardcover releases...

[Draevyn]

Not sure if this is the place to put it, but I'm looking to read a good Punisher Story arc. Any reccomendations on what I should read?

[Captain Eo]

I like this.