The Comic Book Thread (spoilers)

[TKz]

Seems that way. Well 0 came out on FCBD too. They haven't released a PDF with all the tie-ins yet?

https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/356j8x/marvels_secret_wars_an_faq/cr1hy7g

This should do the job.

[Maxx]

[ZJ Penn]

Just reached the Days of Future, Past arc in my Marvel read through and noted the comma was left out for the film adaptation. I was so disgusted I put my foot through the iPad and sent Stan Lee the bill.

Saying that, so glad I've finally reached the early 80's. The average quality of every run seems to have shot up in every department, especially the art and the move from the standard panel layouts. Frank Millers Daredevil run has just started too, which alongside Claremonts X-Men and some hits from Spiderman/Hulk/Iron Man, makes the countless sucky Fantastic Four/Eternals/Black Panther issues almost worthwhile.

[=BK=]

The best part of DOFP is Wolverine giving a portrait of himself to Nightcrawler as a birthday gift.

[Hutch2004]

What the hell is Wolverine eating there?

[=BK=]

Turkey leg? The one I got at the renaissance festival was fucking huge like that.

[Your Mom]

You could kill someone with that thing. Aint not turkey that big!

[=BK=]

Would you put it past him to hunt Emus on the weekend?

[Hutch2004]

It's one thing for him to hunt. It's another for him to hunt it, cook it and then bring it to what looks like a birthday party. Then again, he's Wolverine, who the fuck would stop him?

[HailtotheYo]

It's one thing for him to hunt. It's another for him to hunt it, cook it and then bring it to what looks like a birthday party. Then again, he's Wolverine, who the fuck would stop him?

[ZJ Penn]

One thing that I've noticed during my Marvel read through is Odin makes Thor's counterpart on Earth the 'lame' Donald Blake, his hammer becoming a cane.

I sort of see why Thor keeps the Blake persona after he's proven worthy and all that because of the disguise and medical skills, but why does Odin still insist he has to walk with a cane? Surely he could take that away.

I can't help but imagine Odin sat on his throne slapping his thigh everytime Thor/Blake gets knocked down in a crowd/nearly fails to escape a building fire/is very nearly killed by an intergalactic super villain.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Speaking of Thor, Marvel leaked the identity of the new Thor. Her identity was meant to be revealed in Thor #8, but they let it slip in an interview with the New York Times.

Jane Foster

[apsham]

I picked up the first Secret War today (and the store didn't have the second one out yet, crap) BUT I started my first reading list, placing that on it along with Nameless. So hurrah?

[apsham]

I don't know what to do now. There are so many tie-ins and they've already started and oh god what do I do.

[TKz]

Nope, they haven't. Literally all that's come out so far is the build up, that isn't really Secret Wars. Only thing out right now is Secret Wars 1 and 2. The actual tie ins don't start for a week or two. And most of those are in the "Last Days" banner, which you probably shouldn't bother with unless you're already reading those series.

To be honest, I'd probably pick up Secret Wars 1 & 2, Battleworlds and then see what parts of it interest you. If you're super into the idea of the group of Thor's being the police, get Thors. If you want to see Iron Man fight a bunch of other Iron Man's, get Armor Wars.

Between me and Mrs. TKz, we'll be pulling the whole event, but most of those are continuations of series we already follow.

If you haven't already, you should check out Hickman's New Avengers and Avengers - it's the lead up to Secret Wars that's been some of the best comic writing in decades.

[apsham]

I did some reading and yeah - I was excited to see that a lot of the others haven't started yet. I'm going to try and see what I can do to get my hands on those New Avengers and Avengers series.

Book #1 of Secret Wars was.. really confusing. I was told that it was going to be easy to slip into as that's the way that it is being sold, but I couldn't tell what was going on. Is this the general consensus?

There is only the Ultimate world and the standard world left, and... weird Ultimate Mr. Fantastic is all evil, and some guys from world 616 led by Thanos have tricked Ultimate Nick Fury into believing that they need to go all out on fighting the 616 guys. So.. that's the battle taking place. I can understand that much. I don't know what was going on with that Manifold guy or any of the big explosion/shield orbs that popped up.. but I'm getting the idea from the ending that a select few people have been saved and they're going to end up on Battleworld?

Aside from that I have a few questions because I REALLY want to get into this but it feels really overwhelming.

1) Looking into the new series coming out, I wrote down the ones that interest me but I saw a lot of them were still stuff like Old Man Logan, Zombies and worlds that I thought had ended. Are those stories taking part on that clusterfuck Battleworld? The idea of one solid world to follow is what drew me in, but when I see titles like that exist in other continuities I'm really confused.

2) Is there a name for the style of art/writing that has a lot of frames with no dialogue? I was reading the Comic Book Day preview edition and I saw it in a couple that are in there - specifically Old Man Logan. While I like that storyline, I find stuff like that really hard to follow.

3) The guy at my local store told me something I know, follow creators and not characters, and I was wondering if any one had anything good to say about the people behind these series that I am interested in.

• Deadpool's Secret Secret War
• Uncanny Inhumans
• Inhumans: Atlian Rising
• Guardians Of Knowhere
• House of M
• Hail Hydra
• Thors

4) How is that Marvel Netflix type thing? How recent is the stuff that goes out on it? Can I catch up on that Hickman Avenger/New Avenger stuff there?

[ZJ Penn]

I think there's a 6 month delay on issues being added to Unlimited. November 19th releases were the last things added a few days ago and was about 20+ issues. It also had some more historical stuff added.

[ZJ Penn]

Just checked. They've got Avengers up to #38 and New Avengers up to #25, with the next issues probably added next week.

[Your Mom]

I read the first Secret War and it made little sense to me. If people died in that are they dead for good now? Like for example

Fuck man Marvel really hates the Fantastic Four

[TKz]

To be fair, Secret Wars isn't just a regular event that you can just "jump in". It's the culmination of Johnathon Hickman's Marvel run, that he's been building too since his run on Fantastic Four, including his brief time with The Ultimates and obviously his run of Avengers. To be more precise, this is pretty much the third act of his run of Avengers and New Avengers. So it's going to be a little confusing. I can see why some might take issue with that, because you want to just be able to jump in... but as one of the many that've been following Hickman's run of Avengers since the start, fuck all that noise, the complete story is so good and I'm so glad he's being allowed to finish his story properly in an event this big.

And as for the writers you were interested in Apsham...

Thors is written by Jason Aaron, who's one of my favorite writers at the moment. If you're interested in that, definitely check out his run of Thor: God of Thunder, some of the best Thor comics possibly ever. It's followed up by his run of Thor, which stars the lady Thor, which is also pretty fantastic. The art is gorgeous and it's a direct continuation of Thor: God of Thunder and is leading into Thors. Aaron also had a brilliant run on Punisher: Max that's worth checking out if you have any interest in Punisher.

Hail Hydra is written by another of the best writers in comics today, Rick Remender. Hail Hydra continues the story that Remender set up in his first run of Captain America, followed by what replaced it - All New Captain America. You probably won't know the character in Hail Hydra unless you read his run of Captain America. If you want to check out Remender's work, oh boy, you're in for a god damn treat. His run of Uncanny X-Force is considered one of the best runs in decades and I can't argue with it, it's gorgeous and so well written. You can then follow that up with Uncanny Avengers, which follows up on a lot of stuff from X-Force. He also wrote the crossover Axis, which isn't very good as a standalone story, but is pretty good as a finale of Uncanny Avengers. He recently started a new volume of Uncanny Avengers that's only four issues in if you want to jump on, it's pretty good. His work is slow to start, but once it gets going it's generally some of the most exciting comics out there.

Inhuman: Atilan Rising is by Charles Soule, who's off to a bit of a rocky start with Marvel. He did Death of Wolverine, which was decent? I wasn't super into it but it's okay. He then followed it up with a bunch of Wolverine based comics, including Wolverines - which was pretty blah. Marvel's attempt at doing week to week comics and it didn't really work. But he's done some fantastic work in the past with Swamp Thing, Red Lanterns and Superman/Wonder Woman at DC. He also currently runs the Inhuman side of Marvel, which I really enjoy. Check out Inhuman and Inhumanity if you want to see what he's up to. And you mentioned Uncanny Inhumans - just so you know, that's a post-Secret Wars title.

Guardians of Knowhere will probably be trash, because it's written by Bendis who's been writing Guardians of the Galaxy for a few years now. And he's awful at it, I really can't stand the current run despite loving the characters. If you want to check out some great Marvel Cosmic stuff, start with Annihilation, the crossover from a few years ago and then go from there. You won't regret it.

Deadpools Secret Secret Wars I can't really comment on, but Mrs. TKz is quite fond of Cullen Bunn's work with Deadpool previously and said he was her preferred writer for the character. Night of the Living Deadpool, Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe and Deadpool Kills Deadpool are some of her favorites from him.

And yeah, all the stories take place in Battleworld, which is every continuity now taking place on one planet. So yeah, all these comics are the same continuity, they're just set in a different part of the world. Characters will probably interact and crossover plenty.

Edited May 14, 2015 by TKzo Amore