dadaluholla

Wow, time for the newest quarterly edition of the general comic discussion thread!



Let's talk about the "must haves" of 2009. What comics from the past year do you think were must own material for all the readers out there?

boredsilly

The obvious answer to the must reads of the year are Asterious Polyp and The Hunter.

ivelostr2

I have been geting really behind in my reading and dcbs hasn't helped, because now when they come monthly, it has been overwhelming all at once, instead of spread out...here are a few of my thought from recently...

1) I did finally read "old man logan" in hard cover...I liked it alot, but what i want to ask, as someone who hasnt been keeping up the wolverine books, did that story just come out of nowhere in the series? did a current storyline end, and then there was a future story line just added in?

2) I have also been reading all the Blackest Night stuff...I'm still behind most of the side issues, but I am getting a little tired of the repeated "random team comes home from a mission and BOOM dead members are there to great them and fuck with there heads. I am loving the BN serries and the GL and GLC issues, but most of the side issues have been worthless pretty much...it reminds me of watching my 9 year old self play with action figures...on a side note, i really did enjoy the BN Batman series.

3) I read the FC Legion of 3 worlds...I know so little about the legion, because i was never a fan of them when i was young, but FUCK, i really enjoyed that book. Superman Prime has been the bad guy a lot in recent years and i have been getting a little tired of him, but i thought this whole story was great...

fujishig

I also picked up and read the Legion of 3 Worlds. I thought they mashed up a ton of stuff in there, it reminded me of the similarly overcrowded JLA/Titans mini, where they crammed every single Titan and Justice League member imaginable in a short series (though maybe it was the Perez-inspired Jiminez stuff in that book). Overall I enjoyed it, but felt that someone coming into that series fresh would be totally lost. I'm a die hard Legion fan, and even I was a little lost at times.

I did like the interaction between the Legions, especially the Braniacs. I'm a little confused how Bart Allen was their master plan (what was the significance of that)? Similar to Sinestro War, I felt like they just through out new plotline after new plotline to bolster the efforts against the LSV and Superboy Prime, but then it's all for naught anyway. Poor Sodam Yat was used this way twice in his brief history already against Prime. I do like how we pretty much brought back the members of Young Justice, though.

Also, when did the Zero Hour Legion and the real Legion team up before?

Also, I never thought I'd say this, but the last JSA storyline was really hard to follow... I know they're setting up a separate book, and I'll give it a try for a little longer, but I'm a little saddened because I was hoping this book would keep up the quality post-Johns.

And is Quitely off Batman and Robin? I thought he took a few issues off, but even the next couple are not done by him...

Superboy

I read the last few issues of Blackest Night, but I have no interest in what's happening. I guess after the Corps War, I was expecting something a little different.

I picked up the latest issue of Walking Dead, and i'm glad to see this book heading in the right direction again. A lot happened in this issue, and it was mostly solid character stuff. We see just how far Rick has been pushed emotionally and mentally, and yet it's said with very little dialogue, and in a context that moves the story forward. So far the "to good to be true" theme of this story probably won't be the conclusion here; I think a more startling and engaging conclusion would be if it's ultimately our protagonists that bring down their little haven because of how jaded they have become.

ivelostr2

So i finally caught up with the side issues from November, the one i liked the most was R.E.B.E.L.S. and I have no idea who the fuck any of them were and where they fit into the DC Universe. I am going to read up on them...maybe it was because it felt like Blackest night was going on in the background to the story they were telling anyway, and not just taking a break to deal with blackest night and then they are going back to the regular story in 2 issues. I also thought the Outsider issue was interesting, bringing a new twist to the Black Lanterns, I don't know if Terra is fucking with them or if she in sincere...Thoughts?

John_Shil

Jason Aaron did a 4-issue story that spun out of the X-Men crossover called MESSIAH COMPLEX. That was issues #62-65. Then Millar comes in and does #66-73 and OLD MAN LOGAN GIANT-SIZE #1, all in the hardcover. The two stories are unrelated. Millar's OML story is supposed to tie into the other stories he was doing at the time: Fantastic Four and 1985. I haven't read any of it, however.

Patman

I'm sort of bummed I bought into Blackest Night, mainly because I just can't get into the stories/characters at hand. But I'll probably pick up the remaining GL and BN issues, and skip all the other BN tie-in (except for the BN: WW tie-in).

davidh777

I just read Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne, vol. 0, and it struck me as an ideal format for readability/portability. Paperback, color, nice paper, a manageable 166 pages. The $25 list price is on the steep side, but it's often available discounted. I like phone books and absolutes and all for various reasons, but this was a nice experience.

fujishig

What does volume 0 cover? This is actually much smaller than volume 1, which was something like 250 pages for around the same price. At regular price, this is like 8 issues for 25 bucks? Seems kinda steep.

On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised with the War of the Kings big hardcover. Pretty much 16 issues plus odds and ends retails for 40 bucks, in hardcover... much better than the small collections and premier hardcovers that Marvel puts out regularly (my last Nova softcover had 6 issues for 16.99).

I would actually pick up more of the older series they're collecting if they were a little cheaper, or in larger collections... stuff like New Mutants and Excalibur, for instance.

davidh777

I'm a fan of the Byrne FF run, and this isn't as good. It's issues of Marvel Team-Up (includes the Torch), Marvel Two-in-One, and FF that Byrne worked on (he drew them all; don't think he wrote any but I don't have it handy at the moment) before taking over FF. Honestly it isn't even that recognizable as Byrne. Main reason I got it was my LCS was having a sale and I had a number of the Byrne FF Visionaries volumes but knew I didn't have this one. I thought it was entertaining enough, but this conversation is making me want to go back and read the real Byrne volumes again.

bishop2knight

The best book of the year was Stitches: A Memoir by David Small. Fantastic book. Hunter and Asterios were a close second and third.

Chew was a nice surprise. It's a fun book. Well worth a look if you haven't already.

fujishig

I was a little surprised that Attack of the Show actually had Asterios as #1 in the top 5 GNs of the year. Of course, I bought it, moved, and haven't unpacked it yet to read it (though I did read Hunter).

boredsilly

I'm catching up on Hulk, and I gotta say, this book is so fun. I love it. Ian Churchill is doing a great Ed McGuinness impersonation, which is helping with the "flow" of the story.

Also, I reread Superman: Red Son last night. That book is so damn good.

Superboy

I seems like Ian Churchill only does impersonations, and doesn't really have a style of his own.

I haven't heard any good things about the new Hulk book. how is it?

Definitely Millar at his best.

davidh777

I think in the past we might have had a holiday-haul thread, but I guess I'll just post my gifts here:

boredsilly

Jeph Loeb's Hulk is just a lot of fun...if it's your thing. People hate on it all the time, but to me it's just a romp through Hulk's world. It's got a ton of great art and enjoyable moments in it. I can see that it isn't for everyone, but I love it in all of its ridiculousness.

Sessa17

I got the deluxe hardcover of that but haven't read it since it first came out. It's so much fun, the best thing Millar ever did IMO. I think most of Millar's work is overrated & generic but he has the occasional homeruns.


I recently read The Complete Essex County Hardcover which I loved. Also, got caut up with about 2 years worth of backlog on Fantastic Four. Really enjoyed Millar & Hitch's run on that book. The recent Hickman issues have been great as well, probably some of the better runs on a Marvel series I've read in a long time.

I also read the first issue of SWORD which was a great surprise. I can't think of the last good X-men related comic I read. Great quirky art, loved the way Beast was written & one of my all-time favorites Lockhead. Which all means the book will probably get cancelled within 9 issues.

dadaluholla

I didn't get much comic related for Christmas...mostly because my family has no idea what I have or don't have. However, I did manage to walk away with Scott Pilgrim Vol 1-5, Mammoth Book of Zombie Comics, and Scud the Disposable Assassin: The Whole She-Bang..

Vendetta-AKK

Add me to the list of people who loved The Hunter. I keep picking up Asterious Polyp at the comic shop, but then putting it back. The heavily stylized art in it turns me off alittle for some reason, but with all the acclaim it is getting I will have to give in at some point.

Other books I loved that have been released in 2009. I suppose I am cheating alittle however, because 2 out of 4 of these are deluxe editions of previously release material.

Criminal (Deluxe Edition). by Ed Brubaker
Fables (Deluxe Edition). by Bill Willingham
Sandman: The Dream Hunters. By Neil Gaiman
Low Moon by Jason

dadaluholla

I've read through the majority of the four Sleeper trades in the last day or so. Wow thats some great stuff! Makes me want to look into some other Wildstorm stuff...almost........

davidh777

My Invincible hardcover has been delayed again

kevin75

is that the complete collection vol. 2? crap!

davidh777

No, it's Ultimate Collection 5. I think it was an October '09 release when I pre-ordered.

ivelostr2

So, the local Barnes and Noble is going out of business so I picked up some trades at 60% off last week with a gift card, that i probably wouldnt have bought otherwise...I got Spidey and X-men Noir trades, and an Astonishing Wolfman, So far I have only read the Spiderman one and I thought the set up was great, but i thought the ending was disappointing. It seemed rushed, like they didn't know what to do with it once they got to him being Spiderman. I see that another one is ongoing, how are people liking that, I will probably check it out...

I know people are reading Captain America: reborn, so i have a question. I read the first couple Cap reborn, then i fell behind, last week I got "who will wield the shield" and issue 5 or reborn, but now it looks like reborn has 6 issues(?) so what order are these supposed to be read in, including the ones that started at 600 again...I'm just confused...i don't understand why the whole thing just couldn;t have been done in the regular Cap issues to avoid all the confusion of three titles going on at the same time.