The Comic Book Thread (spoilers)

[TKz]

Oh man the Ed Brubaker run of Captain America... so so so good.

[Maxx]

I am so reading through that current, it's awesome.

Larry Stroman was the X Factor artist I was referring to a few pages back. Absolutely horrible artwork, I really wonder if he's ever seen a human being.

[probablyoliver]

Has anyone actually read Uncanny X-Men from the start? I'm three and a half issues in and it's aged hilariously bad. I mean, I was hardly expecting it to be an epic saga from the start but it's absolutely woeful and I really can't say if that's a good or a bad thing.

[Your Mom]

I like early issues of Spider-Man but yeah a lot of stuff has aged horribly. I read the first appearance of Jubilee the other day. Thats from the 80's and it was still ridiculously bad

[probablyoliver]

That does not fill me with the greatest hopes. Snowball's off for christmas break on Saturday and I'm wanting to get through all of Uncanny before she gets back next month.

It's going to kill me, isn't it?

[Your Mom]

Considering it's like 600 issues I would say yes

[TKz]

You're doing it all wrong Ollie! Just because you found a torrent with every X-Men run doesn't mean you need to start from #1!

I did that with Spider-Man and was fairly bored pretty soon, you're way better off finding a starting point with a decent writer and going from there! If you want X-Men, check out Astonishing X-Men Volume 3, from where Joss Whedon had a short run as the writer. Either that, or start from House of M, read that event and the Uncanny X-Men tie ins (462-465) and continue from there. It'll cover Ed Brubaker's and Matt Fractions runs, two of, in my opinion, the absolute best writers around today.

Also something that's been bugging me is that I have no idea of what runs of Spider-Man are any good outside of Superior! (because let's face it - Doctor Octopus is eight times the Spider-Man that Peter Parker ever was.)

And I've just realized we have our own resident Spidey-fanatic in Srar! Who did good writing for that silly young Peter what's his face, Srar? Any good starting points?

[Toe]

The Torment story Todd McFarlane did in Spider-Man #1-5 is pretty good, and worth checking out.

[probablyoliver]

You're doing it all wrong Ollie! Just because you found a torrent with every X-Men run doesn't mean you need to start from #1!

I did that with Spider-Man and was fairly bored pretty soon, you're way better off finding a starting point with a decent writer and going from there! If you want X-Men, check out Astonishing X-Men Volume 3, from where Joss Whedon had a short run as the writer. Either that, or start from House of M, read that event and the Uncanny X-Men tie ins (462-465) and continue from there. It'll cover Ed Brubaker's and Matt Fractions runs, two of, in my opinion, the absolute best writers around today.

Also something that's been bugging me is that I have no idea of what runs of Spider-Man are any good outside of Superior! (because let's face it - Doctor Octopus is eight times the Spider-Man that Peter Parker ever was.)

And I've just realized we have our own resident Spidey-fanatic in Srar! Who did good writing for that silly young Peter what's his face, Srar? Any good starting points?

Nope. All or nothing. Go hard or go home.

[Colly]

Do it. I started months ago and have got up to about 300 and something, although I did branch out and did New Mutants, X-Factor etc as they popped up. I did think about skipping a chunk early doors, but I'm a completist like you, its worth doing for the rare few highlights in the first run. It picks up with Claremont, but I actually think the months before the break are really decent, introducing Sauron and Polaris. There's highs and lows throughout (as Srar says there's a naff bit mid 80s when they're in Australia) but its filled some train journeys nicely. I'm up to the early 90s cartoon lineup that I remember now, which of course means there's crossovers all over the place and I'm now reading 8 different comics.

Just came up to an Avengers crossover and thought I might as well have a look at some of the early ones there too. Jarring isn't the word.

[probablyoliver]

Yeah, I read up to #6 last night and it's starting to dip into 'so bad it's good' territory. Everyone constantly fawning over Jean Gray, Cyclops being an absolute killjoy, Iceman being a insufferable douche and every baddie of the week being absolutely ridiculous beyond comprehension. It's wonderful. Throw in some haphazard 'science!' and some evil off-screen commies and we've got one hell of a journey.

[Colly]

It's the fact every character narrates what they're doing in exactly the way that Stan Lee talks in interviews that got me. Amazing. Plus the letters pages are actually fascinating to read knowing when they're from, I've been meaning to mention this for a while but there's a massive homophobic rant in 298...

Have they started spelling 'through' as 'thru' yet? Worst thing I've seen thruout my marathon.

[=BK=]

Harry beating the absolute shit out of Norman has been my favorite thing to happen in Dark Reign.

[Your Mom]

For people who use Comixology there is a huge Marvel Now sale going on. The first 5 issues of most of them are a buck each

[GoGo Yubari]

Has anyone actually read Uncanny X-Men from the start? I'm three and a half issues in and it's aged hilariously bad. I mean, I was hardly expecting it to be an epic saga from the start but it's absolutely woeful and I really can't say if that's a good or a bad thing.

My favorite thing is that all of the male characters spend the first couple issues all sharing the exact same character and then suddenly out of nowhere Beast becomes over-the-top articulate. Also that a character in the first issue (I believe Iceman) exclaims "YAYBO!" Stan Lee was just making shit up all over the place.

The original run on ASM was great once it got rolling, though. I will hear no ill.

[Your Mom]

This sale is going to take like all of my money! So many interesting cheap books!

[HailtotheYo]

The original run on ASM was great once it got rolling, though. I will hear no ill.

That may be the most true statement ever.

[HailtotheYo]

This was a good holiday season. Tomb of Dracula #1, Ghost Rider #1, Iron Fist #14 all added to the collection !

[tristy]

I bought the Age of Apocalypse Omnibus with an Amazon giftcard I got for Christmas. I've only read a few pages, around 85 or so I'd guess, but so far.. what the fuck, Rogue and Magneto are a couple? And they have a child? Uhhhhhhh.

[=BK=]

I've been placing DC stuff in-between my Marvel reading. As soon as I finish up Dark Reign I'm starting on All-Star Batman & Robin. I've read so many horrible things about it but I still wanna read it.