Right now, PAD is only writing Fallen Angel and Captain Marvel (which is cancelled). He's got a new X series for Marvel coming in September (I think)....Madrox.

Here's a good article on some guy named Robert Kirkman.

So anybody have some non-spoiler impressions of Identity Crisis? I can't decide if I want to buy it or not.

Picked it up for $3.00 need to get into it.

this week is a lot of nice pick ups. Got the Halo cover of Street fighter (SAKURA YAY!!) for $10 and then Walking Dead new issue. Good stuff.

One thing of interest in the latest street fighter comic.... udon doing rival school and dark stalkers comics.. enjoyed the story. Liked the side sakura story though the art was a little to manga-ish.

Wow, kinda hard to say much about it without a spoiler. The first issue is just pretty intense. It gets into it rather quickly and sets up what looks to be a very big DC story line.

Is Identity Crisis going to be a self-contained story, or is it going to cross over to the monthly titles?

I quite enjoyed Id Crisis, especially as a big "satellite era" Justice League fan. Definitely looks to be the best crossover in a long time. Well written and moving fast. The "major character" killed isn't a household name but his/her/its death is handled very well and struck a chord to me.

There was an article recently (can't remember if USAToday or Entertainment Weekly?) saying reporters have to sign an agreement not to give away story details on Identity Crisis. Sounds like it'll be big.

Feh, that's just the hype machine in action. Like I said above and in a review on my blog, I liked the comic a lot, but the hype is rather ridiculous. The next "Watchmen"? Come on. You have to tune it out just to enjoy the actual book. 99.9% of the American public won't even know who the character who dies is.

I didn't even buy the thing. The cast is too huge and I don't know much about the DC characters. Plus, since it's a mini series, most of the events won't mean much in the overall scheme of things.

Jack, is this your first DC or non-Walking Dead/Street Fighter comic you've picked up in a while? Are you getting back into comics?

I haven't read Identity Crisis yet, but I can't wait to.

Also for those thinking of getting into Fallen Angel, the first trade paper back of it comes out next Wed, if you are already reading Fallen Angle buy it anyway. If TPB sales do not do good on the book, it will be getting cancelled, that's from Peter David himself.

Identity Crisis is a highly enjoyable read, whether or not you know much about the characters. By all accounts, the identity of the first victim is secondary to the fact that it's a catalyst for a much larger story in the DC universe.

But, don't you think the comics industry needs all the hype it can get these days?

Yeah, but I think new readers can be better achieved through innovative, must-readwork than rather cheap hype tactics like "look who dies!" It's like the death of Superman 10 years ago, it drew all these non-comics readers in to the stores and most of them were probably pretty underwhelmed by an extremely insular, rather terrible issue that was nothing but splash panels and some creepy dude beating the crap out of Superman. I'd really be surprised if the death of Superman saved the industry or if Id Crisis would now.

I think IC is quite good, but it's not going to drag new readers in by the boatloads. I think as an example the awesome new monumental all-alternative comics issue of McSweeney's should get just as much mainstream press coverage. The coverage of IC is too close to the "biff! bang! pow!" school of covering comics for me. Frankly, I'd rather see no coverage than that.

Did Rex Mundi #10 and Walking Dead #8 come out this week? I saw them listed at Midtown Comics but my LCS didn't have either and they are not listed on the release list on their website. I was going to ask about them while I was there but they were busy and I was in a hurry.

I've been playing catch-up after neglecting my comics for many months. Getting back into Runaways which I adore. Also looking to see if Jim Mahfood has done anything else. I have all his Grrl Scouts books and really like his style.

Yup, both came out. I picked up both but haven't read them yet.

damnit

I used to be a major comic book fan growing up but I eventually fell out of it. I'm not sure why, it just sort of happened. And it happened pretty quick. Like overnight quick. So I packed my issues away and wondered if I ever would return.

I lost interest for almost a decade. I never did turn my back completely on comics. Every so often I would pick an issue of X-Men (my favorite mainstream superhero book) or ask a more dedicated fan a few questions just to see what was happening. I would often be awestruck at some of the developments ("Magneto sucked out Wolverine's adamantium skeleton and now his claws are bone!"); other times I would just be amazed at the sheer ridiculeness ("Spiderman is now a clone?").

So it was a surprise then when about two months ago I clicked on a thread in the Books Forum dealing with comic books. Now I've looked at similar threads before. I've read reviews here and there to see where the medium was headed. For some reason though, I bit. A few days later I decided to check out Midtown Comics. Now I'm there every Wednesday afternoon.

So I just want to say thanks to everyone for turning me on to some great books. Because of DVDTalk I am now an avid Robert Kirkman fan. I also have checked out Y: The Last Man and Gotham Central because of what some people have written here (and on Broken Frontier).

I do have a couple of questions: can someone explain to me the differences between the different X-Men books? Are the Ultimate books a "What If?" sort of setting?

Also are 100 Bullets and Bite Club any good?

Thanks in adavance!

100 Bullets is awesome! One of my favorites. I really like Bite Club as well as I tend to like Vampire stories. Bite Club is just a mini series, #3 of 7 came out yesterday.

I pick up Batman/superman but that's been pretty much it for the last couple of months. I hate where the X titles are now a days.

Basically as I understand it the Ultimates are a kind of "alternate universe," not so much a "What If" as a "reimagining." What's surprising to me is that although the idea sounded terrible at first the Ultimate books have been pretty decent for the most part although they run the risk of overdoing it. "Ultimate X-Men" is decent, not as good as "Ultimate Spider-Man" IMHO but has some nice stuff.

All the other "X-books" I know of take place in the "real" Marvel universe, X-Men, New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, X-Statix, X-Etcetera, what have you -- and there's about a million of them, although for my money most of them aren't any good. The "main" X-books these days are Uncanny, X-Men and Joss Whedon's "Astonishing X-Men" I guess.

I hear ya on the X books. They are what got me into comics as a kid & were my favorite growning up, but I haven't liked them in years. In fact I think they are some of the worste comics being published. The first issue of Astonishing X-men has potential though.

I'm a sucker for X books. I have no idea why. I don't always like the books, but I always think the next one will be the one that reminds me of the X books I loved as a kid.


Did anyone read IT'S A BIRD? Amazing stuff. Simply amazing.