Jackskeleton

I dunno about you, but I feel some comic story lines are just a waste now a days.

I'm mainly talking about Marvel really here. the x-men series for me has gone down the drain. I pretty much stopped at X-men 50, Gambit's story was great, the art was decent at the time and well.. it just started really going down hill around then and slightly before.

Now with Magneto really gone and the new writer, not to mention the many different x-men titles now a days, I really got sick of it. X-treme x-men, Ultimate X-men, and so forth, they just went to crazy with it.

the same happened with Spider man, and well with all the other titles. FF and iron man were dead to me when lee took over that and made that alternate reality crap with them starting them all over.

so whats your take on comics today?

TheBang

I'm having fun over in DC land.

The Flash is one of my favorite superhero books currently. Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins have totally blown me away the way they have completely revamped the title in the past year and a half. The have created an interesting, detailed world with real, interesting, detailed people.

Batman has been very interesting with the whole Murderer storyline.

X-Force (aka X-Statix) is the first Marvel title I've picked up in over a decade. It's a refreshingly good read without having to be bogged down with 30+ years of (dis)continuity.

Star Wars Tales (quarterly anthology) is usually a pretty good read because of the broad range of stories and talent that you get. Also, I enjoyed the first Star Wars Infinities series. It's like an Elseworlds for Star Wars. I picked up the first issue for Infinities: ESB last week, but didn't enjoy it as much as ANH.

And G.I. Joe and Transformers are great nostalgia trips.

My advice: Get out of the Marvel Universe.

Liquid Death

Back in the early 90s when I was 12-13, I absolutely loved the Spider-Man stuff...especially going backwards a bit. I would say the Spider titles started to go downhill first with the return of his parents and later the clone. The Hobgoblin stuff in the 200s and almost everything from 298 - 388 is worth reading of Amazing Spider-Man.

I never was a huge X-Men or DC Fan though. I got back into comics a few years ago, and immediately started checking out lots of different books. Besides some of the Vertigo stuff (100 Bullets & Transmet), I still read very little mainstream DC - Flash, Green Arrow, and the occasional Batman/Superman title - mostly I read Marvel, almost all the Crossgen stuff, and a few Image books. Honestly, the quality of the Crossgen stuff is much more consistent than Marvel, and I've been continually impressed with their line.

Surf Monkey

The superhero books are in the doldrums. The only really great one is Mike Allred's X-Static (nee X-Force). The real interesting stuff is in alternative and so called reality comics.

Some of the good stuff:

X-Statix (also get Allred's Red Rocket 7)

Powers

Optic Nerve

Grip (Hernandez mini)

Tom Strong

Breakfast After Noon / Slow News Day

kevin75

on a different but related note, does it seem to anyone else that it is almost pointless to buy individual titles now but instead wait for the almost inevitable TPB that is usually cheaper?

Jackskeleton

yeah, it does seem cheaper to just wait for a tpb since it is often to much to keep with one story line through 4 different books coming out weekly or even twice per week. a bit to much over load and to much to keep up with.

madcougar

I stopped buying most Marvel books about five years ago. It just seemed that there were just too many X-books and I've yet to forgive Marvel for the whole Spider-Man clone thing. Also, most of their universe is a convoluted mess. I don't begrudge Marvel for trying to make a buck, but it just seems that telling good stories is secondary to them. Making a big splash (and a bigger buck) is first and formost.

emma_harte

Archie!!!

Jackskeleton

one pisser to me is the Origins book. why was it needed? they really do screw there own characters up. look at what they did to gambit in his many crappy mini series comic books.

Sessa17

Jack, I cannot urge you enough to give New X-men & X-Force a try again. I an a die-hard Marvel & X-men fan. I stopped collecting/reading comics completely for almost 5 years, & then one of my old best friends bought a comic book store 2 years ago & gave me 2 comics to read that he garauntied would get me back into comics. They were Planetary & The Authority.

In my over 15 years of reading comics I have NEVER read a comic better that New X-men right now. I know everything about the X-men & the current writer Grant Morrison is pushing the boundaries of what can be done with these characters. He through a way the biggest problem with this book, their confusing continuity & he is doing things that never were done before. You MUST go out & get the trade E For Extinction, this is the first story arc by the new creative team. All of the other X-books are absolute garbage except for X-force which is also flat-out brilliant.

As far as the state of Marvel, any comic book fan that does not agree that Marvel is the best now they it has ever been has no clue what they are talking about. I WISH comics were this good when I was a kid.

- Captain America right now is one of the most visually stunning comics ever created, pick up an issue & look at it. And the story is almost heartbreaking.

- The Incredible Hulk is a character I never liked, & the current creative team has turned the book into a horror/X-files type conspiracy book that is absolutely gripping, again everyone must check out the trade of the current story line.

- The Ultimates - I have always hated the Avengers. This title is a different take on the orgin of the Avengers & the book will simply blow you away. It's like reading a widescreen super-epic movie the way it unfolds. I garaunty anyone to try this book & not be hooked on it.

And this is just some of the Marvel books, I'm not even getting into the amazing DC books like 100 Bullets which is the most brilliant story I have ever read.

It is the best time to be a comic book fan & I urge all of you to go out & try some new books.

kevin75

yeah i would have to agree. new x-men is really great (except for the scattershot artwork). i had long since stopped reading the x-men but when morrison and quitely took over i jumped back on and it is great. i wish that the authorityhad not gotten screwed over and cancelled. when it first started it was a really great series but towards the end it just died. quick. i am also glad to hear you say good things about planetary seeing as how i just picked up the first two hardcovers sight unseen.

darkside

I've been reading a lot of the Marvel dot comics. I've enjoyed what I've read of Spider man and the New Black Cat book was interesting. I also liked the Ultimates. I still haven't been tempted to pay $3 an issue, but as long as I can read them online for free or at least at a low cost I will.

Seeker

I've been skipping around and finding some alternatives to be more fun that Marvel/Dc.... that said, I still buy a little here a little there...

Spectre at DC with Hal Jordan as Spectre has been interesting.

I still like Bone (although it is slower going) and Akiko.

Tom Strong is always fun.

Japanese reprints (Dragonball, etc.) tend to be fun.

Hunter, Books of Magic is interesting...

As I said, it is spotty these days, but there are some gems around.

Surf Monkey

Oh! I almost forgot. The most brilliant comic on the market today:

Tony Millionaire's Sock Monkey!

Just genius. Get it now. You won't regret it.

nny

I think Marvel is the best it has ever been right now, but I'm disappointed in the independents right now. It seems like I get 1 issue a year of some of my favorite indies, like Optic Nerve or Peepshow. I'm actually reading all the X-team books and really enjoying them, but all the solo X books like Wolverine, Cable, and the Icons minis are pretty bad. The only problem I have with Marvel now is that they don't give much attention to the past. It's great for the average person since you can jump onto almost any book and catch up pretty fast, but I'm a comic book geek and I love the continuity. I realize it's impossible to write and deal with all 40 years of mangled history of a character, but I believe characters in any medium are defined by their experiences. It's no wonder my favorite mainstream comic is Ultimate Spider-Man.

benedict

I have eighteen issues of that stacked up somewhere to read. Currently not buying anything else although Comics International has previewed a few titles that look interesting. I'll have to remember to check them out (I usually forget, though!)

Fielding Mellish

With all of the recent "revival" books hitting the stands, I just don't see how DC is passing on their greatest potential opportunity:

Captain Carrot & His Amazing Zoo Crew.

AgtFox

DC making up for their biggest mistake ever, which was killing Jordan in the first place. Making him Spectre was a bit of a cop out though, but it was the easiest means to get him back into the DC world I guess.

I liked how Kevin Smith used Hal/Spectre in the Green Arrow resurrection. Now that was some quality stuff.

Other than that the only things to pick up are: Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, The Ultimates, The Hulk, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Daredevil and the Flash. Batman has gone down the tubes with it's Fugitive storyline. Are they trying to duplicate The Longest Year series with Batman? That was far better than this current run.

And finally, on July 31, we will see the supposed ending to Dark Knight Strikes Back, although I have a feeling we might be seeing a 4th book on this. Who knows though, that is just my gut feeling.

I left collecting in the mid-90s and have just recently come back because of the Ultimate lines, Origin (bad series and a set up for a sequel) and DK2. There is quality out there, you just really have to look at it. It seems in most high-profile mainstream books (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and X-Men outside of the Ultimate lines) are regurgitating old stories instead of coming up with new, original ideas...but maybe that is just me.

grunter

I'm always amazed at people that still bitch and moan about the current state of superhero comics. Who the hell are you people? I urge you, seriously, come out from under your rocks and actually read some of the spandex-clad do-gooders 'zines every once and awhile. If you stopped reading them in the early-to-mid 90's (as did I) and haven't picked up an issue in the last 2 or 3 years, then yeah, fine, you'll have a seriously outdated opinion about the quality of the work being put out there every month.

I'm not saying every superhero comic is up to snuff. But these days, it's certainly not the alternative press or non-superhero comics that are impressing me (as they were a few years ago in the heyday of "Authority," "Planetary," "Preacher," "100 Bullets", etc.).

Marvel, under the guidance of Quesada, has really turned itself around and started caring about the quality of the product they churn out. "X-Men," "X-Force" (now, "X-Statix"), "Incredible Hulk," "Amazing Spiderman" (with JMS writing), and yes, even begrudgingly the Ultimates line are all top-notch superhero comics that far surpass in story and art their counterparts from the early 90's comic melt-down. (You remember the days of the multiple, die-cut, lenticular, plastic covers, don't you?)

DC? - well, DC doesn't have a whole lot to brag about. The "DK2" project has widely been proclaimed a let-down. Golden-geek Kevin Smith is abandoning "Green Arrow." And even McGuinness is leaving the "Superman" title. I never cared for second tier DC characters like Green Lantern or Flash - so I can't say much about those titles today. Nothing, except for a few glimmers of hope in the limping Vertigo line ("Fables!"), really seems worth the trouble these days.

That being said, I do think we're only going through a "lull" in the medium. The growth and resurgence of original talent over the last 5 years, peaking as I mentioned above around the heyday of "Authority" and "Planetary," has indeed leveled off. But there are still quality books to be found out there.

Don't write off the whole superhero genre just because you got kicked in the stomach one too many times in the early 90's.

AgtFox

Just because I quit collecting does not mean I haven't kept up on what is going on. I regularily read reviews and know generally what is going on in many books as well as picking up the aforementioned books in my post.

Everyone can go out to marvel.com and get the dotComics of some of the best books Marvel has to offer. For those that have not been reading for a while, I urge you to download dotComics and look at the books and how they look today versus how they looked in the early to mid-90s.

Tuan Jim

AFAIK there have been 3 2 issue miniseries to date -- one a year from '98-'00, but there wasn't one last year and there hasn't been one since then to my knowledge.

The only Marvel book I read right now is Punisher -- thank the lord that Garth Ennis is back at the helm. Haven't read Xmen other than my old roommates TPBs from the 80s, but if you recommend it, I might check out the new tpb that you mentioned -- after reading Authority, I went back and picked up all the Stormwatch TPBs that Ellis wrote as well. Very cool.

Won't be buying any more Authority other than TPBs now -- not worth the price. Has it actually been canceled though or are they just waiting for a new writer (thought someone was scheduled).

Oh, and am I the only one still waiting for Ministry of Space #3? We should be getting 2 more issues of Planetary before the end of the year according to Cassidy as well -- finally.

Tuan Jim

Eric F

The good ones are still around, but I also only buy them in TPB/Graphic novel form.

If you haven't, I highly recommend Dark Horse's recent repring of the Akira series. Very cheap at buy.com with free shipping. I never read them before, and I have to say they're brilliant. Watchmen brilliant? More so. In fact I have a feeling Alan Moore read Akira before he wrote Watchmen...

As far as what's good now, Tom Strong, Top 10, Planetary, Astro City, etc. Plenty to choose from.

grunter

Astro City hasn't been published in almost a year. Planetary is on a similar hiatus - although 2 issues are supposedly promised before year's end. Top 10 was a mini-series - and it's now over. And Tom Strong is an anthology title and, in my opinion, the weakest of Alan Moore's ABC titles.

Like I said earlier, that talent pool that initially got me interested in comics again, after a near decade absence, has virtually dissipated. Much of the interesting talent has migrated to mainstream Marvel superheroes.

I'm hoping there's a resurgence of the interesting off-beat titles that got me back into comics in the first place. But I'm not holding my breath or anything.

Would it be too much to hope for Astro City to get back up and running?

Eric F

Well, I was mentioning those books in a TPB context. Ah hell, just buy the Akira books if you don't have them.

I did read that there will be more Tom Strong and possibly a second Top 10 mini, but it's not certain. It's also uncertain if they will be written by Moore or not.

What we will definately see more of is the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen because it has been picked up as a movie. Another mini or a regular series is sure to follow. I actually liked Alan Strong better than Gentlemen. Didn't think it was all that original.

Liquid Death

lol - I thought I missed Ministry of Space #3 - I have 1 & 2 (and there was a huge wait between those too) and I had totally forgotten about #3 until you mentioned it...maybe it will come out before I forget about it again