The Comic Book Thread (spoilers)

[TKz]

Nope, I meant Marvel NOW. There's complete runs of the Marvel NOW stuff, I don't think jumping into current comics (all-new all-different) with only 1 or 2 issues is worth it until you're already into comics. That's why I listed all the good Marvel NOW runs!

And I don't think that's true of all of Ultimate Marvel, there's plenty of great runs in there, same as 616 Marvel. Ultimate Spider-Man is arguably the best run of a Spider-Man comic in the modern era. Ultimate Fantastic Four is also one of the more interesting Fantastic Four collections for the places it takes the characters in the end. And I think when they did their first soft reboot or Ultimate Marvel with Ultimate Comics, some of the Ultimates and Ultimate Avengers comics were great. Freakin' Hickman had a run of Ultimates that was so good, it's just a shame it only lasted about 10 issues. I also thought Ultimate X-Men was fun enough for the most part.

You can't tar it all with the same brush any more than you can tar all of 616 with the same. There's good and bad in both, I'd even argue there's more bad in 616 by virtue of it existing way longer. Ultimate Marvel's shitty runs are just more noticeable because of the smaller lifespan and the "If you're dead, you're dead" rule.

I mean ultimately, Ultimate Marvel gave us The Maker, so it was totally worth it for that if nothing else. 

[JasonM]

Fair points, and maybe it gets better later on. But I just gave up on UM after a while because it just wasn't fun and their desire to be 'dark and gritty' really got on my nerves because they turned characters I liked into insufferable ones 'because they were dark and gritty'.

I do agree about X-Men and Spiderman though, those were certainly the high points of what I read. But at the same time I felt they butchered a lot of characters in The Ultimates. Hawkeye/Widow are complete sociopaths, Thor is a weird unlikeable hippy, Tony is a complete asshole and not in the 'jerk with a heart of gold' way, they even threw Cap on the fence whilst he's supposed to be the super-honourable straight shooter of the team.

Oh, and don't get me started on Pym, 'that' story still pisses me off.

Again, some might love the Ultimate Marvel stuff, some might hate it. I am not telling anyone what they must like or not, i'm just giving you my side of the experience. 

I just felt UM tried too hard in being dark, gritty, edgy, and 'realistic'. And whilst I don't mind comics to have shades of gray and aren't afraid of making heroes less... super-heroic. I felt the bads in the UM outweighed the goods.

But again, that's all subjective experiences. You liked it, and that's cool. And Raf might like it too.

[Rafael]

Thanks guys, that's been great help. I'll be looking to start the UM and when I'm finished (seems pretty long to be honest) I'll check into the Marvel NOW stuff.

[=BK=]

I think the best way to get into Marvel is through Ultimate Marvel(Spider-Man, Ultimates and X-Men specifically) and then going to reading the main universe's big events in order starting from Avengers Disassembled. By the time you're caught up on those you should be informed enough to pick what else you want to read.

 

If you're interested in DC it's much easier. Pick a New 52 book or two and go.

Edited May 6, 2016 by Kirkland

[Benji]

Ultimate Spidey was probably the best comics version of Spidey. I think only the Spectacular Spidey TV show did a better job of the character and universe.

[brenchill]

New 52 Shazam! Is so much fun. 

[brenchill]

Anyone read the Suicide Squad Vol. 1 (New 52)?

It started really slowly but by the end it was my favourite from the New 52.  I could probably do without King Shark, but El Diablo is pretty awesome in this and is easily the stand-out character.  I hope the film does him justice.

[=BK=]

It was one of my first books diving into DC. I loved it. King Shark and Harley were my favorite bits but it also made me  Deadshot fan. From what I've been shown of the next series, New Suicide Squad, it is absolute ass which is sad.

Edited May 9, 2016 by Kirkland

[HailtotheYo]

Anyone reading Aftershock's stuff?

 

[I Don't Mind]

Been burning through a bunch of comics on my vacation.

Marvel 1872 - Gerry Duggan: Freaking fun and a quick read. Very fast-paced, lots of wild west action, lots of surprises and cameos. If there's one thing that disappointed me, it was how much more the cameos could have been if it stretched to a longer series.

Gotham Central, Book 1: In the Line of Duty - Ed Brubaker: I've been watching Gotham on FOX since the pilot which lead me to this series. Complex, flawed protagonists, who aren't guaranteed a victory by the end of each story. Awesome stuff, and usually I hate cop dramas. Just the right amount of supervillain peppering in to make the situations larger than life and stories worth telling.

Hawkeye Vol. 5: All-New Hawkeye - Jeff Lemire: I've read a lot of shade thrown on Kate Bishop's character in the past; I don't know that it was regarding this run or not, but I really liked the relationship between Kate and Clint. I really wasn't a fan of the storytelling format of this run though, splitting every page between current events and a scene from Clint's past. The story was alright, but the art was pretty lazy at times.

Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows - Dan Slott: Where Peter's life should have wound up in the 616. Very rooted in the Peter I know and made me love all the supporting cast as well. Annie Parker deserved her own series. I'll have to see how she compares to "Mayday" Parker from the other universe

Edited May 11, 2016 by I Diem

[brenchill]

Captain America:  Out of Time

I loved this, I thought it was really clever and really well done, I wish the MCU would have spent a little more time exploring what it must have been like for Cap to wake up in 201x New York.  I can't wait to read the rest of this series, Mark Waid is definitely my favourite writer right now, I loved his Daredevil series too.

 

[JasonM]

7 hours ago, I Diem said:

Hawkeye Vol. 5: All-New Hawkeye - Jeff Lemire: I've read a lot of shade thrown on Kate Bishop's character in the past; I don't know that it was regarding this run or not, but I really liked the relationship between Kate and Clint. I really wasn't a fan of the storytelling format of this run though, splitting every page between current events and a scene from Clint's past. The story was alright, but the art was pretty lazy at times.

The biggest complaint I've seen thrown at Kate is that whenever she's teamed up with Clint, Clint turns into an incompetent schmuck who has his ass handed to him by everyone and everything, in which Kate is the one that has to save him from said situations.

Granted, Clint is the team buffoon in practically every sort of team he's thrown into. But combined with the generally 'depowered' Post-Fraction Hawkeye, it's basically turned him into a 'how the hell is he able to function' kind of guy. It worked in Fraction's run, because it was an ordinary joe fighting 'ordinary' villains.

I don't mind it so much as others do though, but Kate in general tends to be displayed as the better Hawkeye, which rubs many fans the wrong way.

Anyways, without spoiling anything, All-New Hawkeye Vol. 2 is a short one, and it partly wraps up a few story lines from the run that was cut off by the reboot and all. I personally felt the end was a bit disappointing though, although it's mostly because they're building for CW2...

[=BK=]

Reading New 52 Flash is weird. All the elements of the show are there but just jumbled up differently.

[Your Mom]

Darwyn Cooke died this morning  

[Benji]

Damn. I was going to read New Frontier again recently but got distracted and forgot. Think I'll give it a run through this week

[MalaCloudy Black]

Marvel's been going hip-hop variant covers (some sweet Deadpool / Bun B / Pimp C ones from last year) and the latest one is Black Panther #2, with a Run The Jewels variant cover.

http://massappeal.com/check-out-the-run-the-jewels-second-printing-cover-for-black-panther-2/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Tweet&utm_campaign=RTJBP

[GhostMachine]

The ending of the new Steve Rogers Captain America #1 can be summed up thusly:

HORSESHIT!!!

[JasonM]

Cap #1 spoiler thing, i dunno if we even have to give a shit about spoilers in here, but here they are anyways.

I personally think it's just a massive swerve with the whole convergence no doubt tossing in various Steve Rogers' into the mix, one of which being a Hydra guy.

[HailtotheYo]

No worse than the cop out on the Joker's identity that DC pulled ... with Cap, something I actually figured they'd pull at some point.

[GhostMachine]

What was the cop out on Joker's identity? The stupid ass immortal laughing man thing?

And there's a theory regarding Cap:

Apparently the flashbacks to his childhood are in black and white...and red. Meaning possible mental manipulation by the Red Skull.