The Comic Book Thread (spoilers)

[=BK=]

I should have waited till later in the month to read up to current on Batman. Now I'm hooked in but I have to wait till the 15th to see Talia and Catwoman sword fight.

[GoGo Yubari]

DC signed an exclusive deal with Brian Michael Bendis, which seems really surreal to me. Ultimate Spider-Man was basically what got me into superhero comics as a teen after a brief flirtation with them in 4th/5th grade, so there's really no current creator more synonymous with Marvel to me. I mean, I haven't especially been a fan of his work for a long time either, but still.

[JasonM]

Good move by DC, but at the same time BMB's best work has been behind him for quite a while. He's arguably synonymous with Marvel as GoGo said, but his last big project Civil War 2 wasn't very good.

It'll be interesting to see how Marvel proceeds, and who they'll find as their new 'marquee writer', I feel Marvel would do well to find something new to work with, because the past two years have been very event heavy, and they have admittedly not been memorable and earth-shaking.

On another note, Astonishing X-Men Vol. 4 has been amazing both in writing and in art. It reminds me of the more 'crazy' 90s style X-Men in terms of the story they've started out with, and the characters they have gone with (Fantomex, Gambit, Psylocke, Rogue, Bishop, Angel, Old Man Logan). And it's standalone from all the major runs, so it's easy to jump into.

One part of Astonishing is that every issue has a different artist working on it, and after 5 issues I can honestly say there hasn't been one that hasn't been striking in its own way. 

Edited November 7, 2017 by Jasonmufc

[I Don't Mind]

Within the last month at /r/MUBookClub I've read some pretty cool books.

1) Star-Lord (2016) "Grounded" - It wasn't game-changing by any means but it had some great comedy moments, particularly at the end. It's just fun for fun's sake. Almost in the same ballpark as Superior Foes of Spider-Man. A solid 4 *'s.

2) Carnage (2015) vol 1. "The One That Got Away" - really cool concept for the first few issues of it, then it sort of jumps the shark a little. But the inspiration to commonly known horror movies are pretty up-front-and-center and really feels like an ode to the genre. Another 4 *'s.

3) New X-Men (2001) #114-117 "E Is For Extinction" - Grant Morrison's starting point on the run. I feel like it probably gets a lot better, or is remembered so fondly for the dramatic upswing in quality from the issues prior. As a jumping-on point for me though it just felt okay. There were two scenes that really struck me - one very sad, one very comical and badass, but the rest didn't do much for me. 3 *'s.

4) Taskmaster (2010) by Fred Van Lente - strong recommend. It's a short mini-series detailing the character's backstory and more about him in the present, and like all good villain stories, it's full of sympathy-evoking tragedy. 5 *'s.

5) Truth: Red, White, and Black (2003) - I've seen articles call this a WTF awful mini-series, and I've seen others praise it. I'm glad I checked it out, because I would have easily dismissed it, but it was pretty good. It had it's share of flaws but it had some resoundingly huge balls being so blunt educating about treatment of blacks throughout American history. I don't know how to star-rating something that I think is vitally important to my development but still has some glaringly annoying detractions, so I'll just say 3 *'s, but an important 3 *'s.

[=BK=]

Bendis on Titans could be fun.

[The Red Reuben]

Started working at a comic book store recently, and I started ordering some new books:

Dan Dare, U.S.Avengers, Unstoppable Wasp, DuckTales, and 11 other books I fail to remember right now.

...good ol' new addiction.

[=BK=]

I wish there was a comic shop around here. If I wanted to buy physical comics I'd have to go to Booksamillion all the way in the city.

[Your Mom]

Bendis is going exclusive to DC! What's going to happen to Jessica Jones?  She is my favorite and my favorite book

[JasonM]

19 hours ago, Carparama said:

Started working at a comic book store recently, and I started ordering some new books:

Dan Dare, U.S.Avengers, Unstoppable Wasp, DuckTales, and 11 other books I fail to remember right now.

...good ol' new addiction.

Forgot about USAvengers, that's a fun book too. Sillyness and over the top, but in a good way.

American Kaijiu is the best villain of 2016...

Also still need to start on Wasp

[HailtotheYo]

21 hours ago, Jasonmufc said:

On another note, Astonishing X-Men Vol. 4 has been amazing both in writing and in art. It reminds me of the more 'crazy' 90s style X-Men in terms of the story they've started out with, and the characters they have gone with (Fantomex, Gambit, Psylocke, Rogue, Bishop, Angel, Old Man Logan). And it's standalone from all the major runs, so it's easy to jump into.

Best X-Book since Uncanny X-Force VOL 1  Only X-Book I read. 

21 hours ago, I Don't Mind said:

2) Carnage (2015) vol 1. "The One That Got Away" - really cool concept for the first few issues of it, then it sort of jumps the shark a little. But the inspiration to commonly known horror movies are pretty up-front-and-center and really feels like an ode to the genre. Another 4 *'s.

4) Taskmaster (2010) by Fred Van Lente - strong recommend. It's a short mini-series detailing the character's backstory and more about him in the present, and like all good villain stories, it's full of sympathy-evoking tragedy. 5 *'s.

Carnage started out wonderfully as you stated ... highly recommend it.

FVL is so underrated .... did some great stuff with Magnus over at Dynamite as well.  If you can find his stuff, grab it.

 

[GoGo Yubari]

I, uh... I might have to buy CM Punk's new comic.

[=BK=]

Jesus Christ, Kitty.

[=BK=]

[Your Mom]

Comics suck man. Why do I even bother? Marvel cancelled Hawkeye. Not sure why I even still give comics a chance

[Johnny Latino Heat]

Only one issue of Invincible left.

 

I don't want it to end 

[=BK=]

Just now, The Chiksrara Special said:

Comics suck man. Why do I even bother? Marvel cancelled Hawkeye. Not sure why I even still give comics a chance

Hey, I've been meaning to tell you something for like a week.

Give Detective Comics a chance. Ever since Rebirth started Batwoman has basically been the main character and it's damn good. It's got me interested in reading her solo book.

I'm not reading any Marvel right now. They shake things up and cancel books and change casts way too often. DC's far more stable at the moment.

[JasonM]

They cancelled Hawkeye?! That was a great fucking comic, I loved how they wrote and portrayed Kate in that, and give her the spotlight over Clint for a change.

I also found out that The Defenders (which is amazingly drawn) was written by BMB, so that's stopping after issue 10, which royally sucks because it was one of the best things I read all year.

I wanna get into DC, but at the same time, I have too much of a backlog going on already, so i'm unsure.

[Your Mom]

They cancelled America too 

[Benji]

Have DC got a online pay monthly library yet or are they still absurdly behind on that?

[JasonM]

Iceman, Gen-X, Gwenpool, and Luke Cage have also been cancelled.
Champions, She-Hulk, Secret Warriors are also possibly being cancelled.

Whatever is going on at Marvel, it's clear they're throwing a lot of stuff under the bus, possibly the things that aren't selling enough.

If this means they're slimming down in general, and not just replacing these books with more books, then I might be cautiously excited for all the changes. Because Marvel can use slimming down.

Losing out on Hawkeye stings the most though, as I mentioned earlier. Gen-X for me was DOA because of the atrocious artwork.