dadaluholla

Instead of the previous quarterly threads for general comic discussion, I thought we could just do one for the year. Unless some major arguments break out I can't see these getting to any type of overwhelming size.

So who wants to kick things off?

boredsilly

I will.

GI Joe Cobra? Is the shit. Ok, I don't love it as much as the books biggest fans do (I saw it picked as book of the year a few places), but it's really cool. It's nice to have some really cool Joe media to consume. GI Joe Cobra, and the new cartoon, are making me pleased as punch. Cobra is the uber serious take on something completely ridiculous (something I love), and the cartoon is giving me the cartoon the way I have remembered it in my head, but know good and damn well the classic show wasn't this well written or awesome. It was to my 8 year old self though. Happy about that.

28 Days Later. I read the second volume, and this book is just great. It should be mandatory reading for anyone who enjoyed the movies. These comics have the best sense of frenetic motion I've encountered in a while. It's like you can see the people running for their lives, and the infected popping out and attacking them. Anyone else reading this?

I'm still pretty cold on mainstream books right now. Something will come around that will reinvigorate me, but right now I'm sticking to the fringes with Batgirl. I tried Batwoman, but I didn't like that too much. The art was nice, but a bit too intricate for my tastes, and I didn't care for the superhero part of the story. The stuff with Kathy Kane out of the suit was really good, though.

I do want to give Gail Simone's DC stuff a try. I really dug her original Birds or Prey run, but there are only so many hours in the day.

OH! And I just got the Complete Calvin and Hobbes in the mail. So I'm going to be reading that too, but I want to do it slow. I've only ever read the strips here and there, or chunks of some of the books from the library, but never straight through.

Patman

Nemesis had a sucky 4th/final issue (for volume 1). Millar was really reaching there in the end.

fujishig

I can't really recommend the current run of Birds of Prey... it seems a little all over the place (though admittedly the last arc was heavily dependent on reading the previous series, which I did not). In addition, the art has been all over the place (with single issues having multiple artists). I hear Secret Six is good, though.

Teen Titans has had gorgeous art and a new direction, so I'm digging that, though I'm of course still a month or so behind. In addition to Batgirl, I'm also really liking Superboy.

Navinabob

How is the GI Joe book written by Max Brooks (World War Z)? I've been meaning to give it a try... maybe if a trade comes out.

davidh777

After about two trades, I thought Birds of Prey was the best thing around. Sadly it went quickly downhill (someone on this board seemed to have some insider info). I gave up on the trades but did pick up Oracle: The Cure, which I started but don't think I finished.

sinned

I just read one of the worst comic books I've come across in a long time: Wolverine: The Best There Is #1

This was part of my DCBS shipment I just received. The storytelling by Charlie Huston was incomprehensible. Wolverine is a hairdresser and suddenly wants to dance because he likes the song (I'm not kidding). Some vague comment about Simon Cowell. All the curse words are censored by ####. Hated the at by Juan Jose Ryp.

Here is the IGN review:
http://comics.ign.com/articles/113/1138148p1.html

ytrez

I just got the Superman: Secret Origin hardcover by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank and I'm about half way through. Against my better judgment, I bought it because of the favorable reviews I saw online. I haven't enjoyed a Superman book in quite a while and how many times to I need to read his origin? Once should be enough. As far as retellings go, I'm content with Byrne's Man of Steel series. I should have left well enough alone. Just a couple of weeks ago I read Superman: Earth One and hated it. One would think that would have deterred me from picking up another Superman book so soon afterward, but I'm a glutton for punishment I guess.

The first thing that struck me was the slavish devotion to Superman: The Motion Picture. I love that movie too, guys. I really do. But modern comic book writers need to stop trying to be Hollywood screenwriters. Or (since some of them actually are Hollywood screenwriters) at least recognize that you're working in another medium and make adjustments. When did that movie come out, 1978? We can move on from the characterizations presented in that film and make a different product entirely in the comics. While not at bad as Superman Returns in terms of slavish devotion, Johns and Frank give Clark Kent not only Christopher Reeve's bumbling mannerisms, but Frank also draws Clark/Superman to look like Reeve. I don't follow the regular Superman titles but I hope they haven't retconned this characterization into those books. When the adult Luthor is introduced his face is hidden in the panel. I fully expected to turn the page to see that he looked like Gene Hackman. Luckily he did not.

I hope it gets better but I'm up to the introduction of the Parasite and I the prospects don't look good. I think I'll go back and read some of Johns' work on the JSA to wash away the bad taste.

fujishig

It's because Johns is a Donner disciple. I also think only Gary Frank draws him like Reeves.

I picked it up, even though, like you, I've read enough Superman origin stories, only because this is supposed to be the current version of his origin, and I'm still very confused by all the changes made in recent years. They basically nullified Byrne's single-Kryptonian, depowered, no Superboy version and seemed to bring it back to pre-Crisis state. In fact, the whole DC Universe seems like it's back to pre-Crisis: Barry Allen is back, the Multiple Earths are back (though Earth 1 and Earth 2 are basically merged), Superman was Superboy and part of the LoSH, HawkWorld was pretty much nullified long ago, and I wouldn't be surprised if Batman: Year One and Perez's origin for WW are not canon anymore either.

Haven't gotten around to reading it yet, though I'm hoping it makes the early LoSH stories in Adventure Comics make a little more sense.

Patman

For current DCU continuity, which earth are we reading stories about in the DC comics published nowadays? If JMS has launched Superman: Earth One in the collected hardback format, then that explains why I'm confused.

majorjoe23

Current DCU is still Earth One, as far as I know. They just named the graphic novels Earth One for some confusing reason, since it will only throw off longtime readers and mean nothing to new ones.

The Bus

Just finished King of the Flies Vol. 1, a French book released in the US by Fantagraphics. Reminds me of Black Hole a lot. Great, great read.

boredsilly

I'm not reading it, but I've heard only so-so things about it.

I liked BOP longer than you did, but I did feel like it started to dip when it got close to issue 100. The first 20 to 30 so issues of Simone's run were really fun, and ranged from solid to great comics. It's an odd run, though, as I have little desire to reread those issues. Once really felt like enough. However, maybe I'll get nostalgic for this run in a few years time.

Johns is great at what he does, but I haven't really had the desire to read a lot of his recent output, including Secret Origin. However, don't let that put you off of his other Superman stuff. It does adhere to the mythos of the Donner films, but I found Johns' and Frank's Superman stuff to be really satisfying. It's on the better side of Superman tales that we've gotten in a while.

Superman works best in the one off stuff, though. All Star Superman, Superman: Red Son, and Superman: Secret Identity are the best modern Superman stories for my money. Secret Identity gets overlooked a lot, but seriously, that is one special book.

Bob_Bobbson

I thought currently the books follow the events of New Earth, which is a blending of some elements of both Earth-One and Earth-Two

Man all these Earths are confusing.

The Valeyard

The Current DCU takes place on New Earth which is an amalgamation of Earth-One & Two with characters from Earth-Four, Earth-S & Earth-X. After Infinite Crisis & 52, a lot of DC's Silver Age history was restored (Superman's Superboy past, the Legion, Wonder Woman being a founding member of the Justice League, etc). It's still the DC Earth we've been reading since 1986 (Post Crisis) with fanboy touches of the Pre-Crisis.

New Earth is essentially Earth-1 without the name.

The next Earth in line is Earth-2 which updates the Pre-Crisis Earth-Two with the Justice Society and Infinity, Inc merging into one team.

Earth One is only a DC imprint for their new graphic novel series. They haven't made any official statements that this Earth One universe actually takes place on Earth-1 of the DC multiverse.

fujishig

I completely forgot about the "new" Earth 2 and the second Power Girl...

JLA: not getting any better. Oh goody, "evil" Supergirl. I hate to say it, but it really does seem like Bagley is mailing it in at this point... plus the majority of the team in this issue are women, and he doesn't really draw attractive women all that well. I swear he did better work when he was doing a biweekly comic, I have no idea what's going on with him.

Batman and Robin: The transition from Morrison's run to this one was jarring in both storytelling and art, and I'm out.

Flash: two issues in a month, both done by Scott Kolins, and neither of which features the Flash at all; one on Captain Boomerang and one on Professor Zoom. Not that it wasn't enjoyable, but there's already a large supporting cast (including Wally) in this book that we've seen little to nothing of, and I can't shake the feeling that these were one-shots instead of part of the series.

Adventure Comics: This changed from being the history of the Legion to being a second Legion monthly (and soon to be Legion Academy). I guess the price drop meant they had to drop the backup feature, but I'm not buying yet another one-shot to see how the Atom shorts pan out. That turned out to be a waste.

JL Generation Lost: This is the better of the two JL books, but that's not saying much. I was actually enjoying the run until the Ice retcon and the all-powerful-Max-Lord stuff that's been used a little too often. It also seems like the book has repeated itself in it's short run: two captain atom time travel stories, two "Max Lord making the world see something that makes a hero a villain" times, etc. It's like Winick just wants any excuse to put in stuff like Alloy and the Creature Commandos, which hey, I'm all for, but it seems gratuitous at times. Hate to drop something that I've invested in so heavily, but as a biweekly it's pretty expensive...

Patman

Bagley's returned to Marvel, so we won't need to worry about him on JLA anymore for a few years, and you're right, his women aren't all that attractive to look at in the comics he draws.

The Valeyard

I was absolutely disappointed with the Robinson/Bagley run on Justice League. The writing was (is) terrible and Bagley's art just wasn't popping. I really had high hopes for the book but Robinson.... Robinson! What happened?

davidh777

Invincible HC 6 coming March 8!

Of course I gave up and bought the equivalent TPBs a while ago, but I'm almost tempted to get this as well because it'd look so good with the others.

brayzie

Bagley is back at Marvel already? He had an impressive run with Bendis on Ultimate Spider-man. I feel bad that DC gave him a booty version of the Justice League to work on.

Man, I was a big DC fan when Jim Lee was drawing Batman, but they fell the F off. I understand the need to clean up continuity, but why do all these Earth-1, New Earth, Pre-Crisis Earth, etc changes if every modern story requires a fanboy manual to know what's going on?

I don't have a problem with DC trying to make things less confusing by going back to basics but they do it in a weird way.

fujishig

The weird thing is, that was the whole impetus behind Crisis on Infinite Earths... to streamline the DC Universe and make it easier to understand. Now it's like they've reversed course and are going after the fanboy, with a bunch of obscure characters and trivia and stuff. That may be just the books I'm reading, but I really think if I were a new reader, I'd be very, very confused. I mean, what title can you really pick up as a new reader? JLA is a mess; Batman is undergoing huge changes; all but one of the books Superman is usually in don't feature him; Wonder Woman is apparently in some parallel universe; Brightest Day almost requires a degree in DC continuity. JSA and Teen Titans are starting with new creative teams, so I guess there is that.

Bagley got hosed drawing that awful Trinity weekly book right off the bat, but I think maybe he's just not suited to DC. Robinson's writing leaves a lot to be desired, but the art is also lacking, and my hope is that he's just burned out at DC and will get back to his usual self at Marvel.

Going through the first HC of American Vampire right now...

dadaluholla

So I was checking out Marvel's solicitations for April...is it me, or are they releasing more titles per month now than they were during the glut of the 90's?

brayzie

I liked the simplicity of what the All-Star line was initially about; bringing these characters back to their classic status. Too bad the artists couldn't meet deadlines even with an extra month between issues, and one writer turned in a bad parody.

I forgot about Trinity. I couldn't see the appeal of that title. It's like JLA minus everybody else.

PhantomStranger

I think the only fans left at this point willing to go out and buy weekly comics are continuity fans, so DC Comics is just catering to the remaining customer base. It is not a recipe for growth, but selling some books to a limited audience is better than the hope you will get new fans.

Personally I never saw the point of "streamlining" continuity, as the big push by DC to kill off major portions of their iconic history really hurt them in my eyes. The move to eliminate the real Superboy from DC history after Crisis might be the dumbest decision any comics company ever stuck with for a long period of time.

sinned

So Thor is being relaunched again with a new #1. It was relaunched with a new #1 about 2.5 years ago which lasted 12 issues, then became #600, which lasted about 19 issues (I think the latest issue was #619), and now back to #1. They'll continue the current series and rename it Journey into Mystery.

Does Marvel really think that Thor can carry 2 books (even with the upcoming movie)? Wasn't there a time in the late 90's to early 2000's that the Thor title wasn;t published for years? I'm guessing that Thor carrying 2 books will last maybe 1.5 years.... just in time for the Thor book to be cancelled and folded back to the Journey into Mystery book for the... wait for it... Landmark 650th issue!!