I don't think so.

DC owning Marvel?

Yes, Identity Crisis kicked major ass. I thought Identity Disk was ok. War Games, despite the fact that I read them all, did NOT kick any form of ass. New Avengers is awesome as hell. Secret War would be better if they came out with it bi-monthly as opposed to this quarterly bullshit.

JMS & BMB are both writing books at Marvel, and they're both the best writers in the business right now. This re-vamped Superman with Jim Lee and Azzarello completely blows. WHO THE FUCK CARES? A ten-part mystery that isn't intriguing at all. Rebirth, so far, is cool.

I used to love Grant Morrison. Until he fucked the X-Men. Don't even lie: You KNOW that shit he did completely sucked. Secondary mutations, Xorn, uniforms, and Xavier's fraternal twin.....how much I'd give for all of these things to be wiped from my memory. Sigh. I will read 7 soldiers, but I thought I heard Origin 2 will be coming out next year. If so, that will be much better than a thirty-part maxi-series.

Just my two cents to say that DC isn't that far ahead, if at all. I know it isn't that organized, but there's a lot to say.

Actually, I'm glad we have the kind of DC vs. Marvel battles we're currently having. Quality of writing and writers seems to be increasing over the last few years by bringing in outside names and the fans are the ones who benefit from it.

I could care less who's "owning" the other, let the grudgematch continue!

I'm sorry but Morrison did wonders with the X-Men. He took a battered concept to new heights.

It's too bad Marvel had to revert the series back to the status quo. At this rate, they'll never leave the Silver Age (which is the biggest problem with the Comic Industry).

And New Avengers? Please! As impossible as it is to believe, it sucked harder than Avengers Disesembled! Bendis has really lost his ability to write within the past 2 years. Maybe Marvel is giving him too much to write.

Andrew

Oh man, don't get me started on New Avengers. They are pretty much giving The Avengers the JLA treatment. Get the top players of the 616 and then toss them into one book. I hate wolverine and his over use in the 616. Fuck'n unforgiveble.

Don't get me started on Spider-man. What the fuck is going on in ALL of the Spidey books? Peter Parker would have killed himself by now if he was a real person. Aunt dies... no she doesn't, wife dies... she was never on the plane. Turns into a giant spider to get organic webs, ex girlfriend gets raped and has super ageing kids who will be a potential love interest. is in a dream state. PETER PARKER NEEDS TO COMMIT SUICIDE!

Ultimates is alright, but that is part of one thing I hate about Marvel. To many worlds. Ultimate line seems like the light version of the Marvel Universe.

DC has a lot of good creative teams working together and they are cranking out a lot of good books that are epic. I may not have liked the end result of IC, but I loved the ride and I am loving the fact that they have the best art talent and writing talent around. Countdown looks to be a great title that will lead into Hypertime Crisis or whatever the hell the year end crisis will be next year.

With Lee and Loeb jumping back on for a Batman & Robin comic next year and Frank Quitely and writer Grant Morrison taking on Superman next year during that time and Austen out. DC has a line up that will fuck'n kick some major ass.

Batman: War Games may not have been the epic of the year, but it set up batman and the DCU back to what we needed and all wanted for a while. Batman working on his own. He was really getting to dependant on the Bat crew and Oracle to much and everyone I know was bitching about it. Unsolved death? Just call up babs and the mystery was solved. Bruce got little to no detective skills going for a long time now and since he is now back to that, I'm loving it.

Also, I'll admit that it was very slow at the start. But if you like New Avengers, you have to like this new superman. Why? Because both will actually be decent reads when they are in a TPB format. Superman read together so far seems better then one issue at a time. New Avengers first issue was the ultimate in blue balls. Talk about cheap ways to end it and sucker everyone to buy the 5-6 issues to introduce everyone. Fuck that shit. You should have put it out there to be readable in one comic on how they come together.

And don't get me started on Geoff Johns. His books are just beyond great. Flash has never been better, Teen Titans takes everything I liked out of Young Justice and actually makes it more adult readable. JSA is actually something that is enjoyable even though it is older heros who aren't really all that marketable to the young reading crowd and Green Lantern Rebirth is beyond amazing. Fuck Bendis, it's all about Geoff Johns.

Also, my understanding is that Morrison was just rolling with what Marvel wanted in the story. Austen carried that shit on and made up lame crap like Mutants not being able to get aids.

Add to the fact that Marvel actually lets Liefeld keep his job and work on X-force are reasons why I dislike Marvel right now and bearly touch a few titles.

Is marvel winning in sales? Yes. they are. I wont doubt that. But that is because Marvel has mass amount of publicity. With new crappy marvel movies all around it's hard to not sell these books. DC really just needs to crank out some films and shit, I'm surprised we dont have a green lantern, Green Arrow, Flash and Wonder Women movie already in development. WB really does pimp out the books with THE OC, but they need to toss them out more.

You wait till Batman Begins is released and you will see DC sales spike up. Add to it that around that time there will be the whole COUNTDOWN talk you will see DC sales finally hitting critical mass.

I'm going to re-defend Batman: War Games. While it wasn't the epic event of the year, it did tell a story quickly. Getting a weekly fix of the titles was great. It brought all the Bat titles together and headed them to the direction they are today taking apart the batcrew in a way that dissembled wanted to but failed doing.

You see why Robin jumped back into the cape business and you see the realization that jack drake needed to accept that. You see Dick's torment on his choice and puts him where he is now leading into year one of his story arc. Now batgirl and robin are in a different city because gotham is unsafe for capes. Oracle is on her own making it so batman has to do his own work and go back to a noir style of crime fighting.

We all bitched about how batman was to dependant on others and even after murder: fug, Batman had to learn trust in others, but now he has to trust himself since he pretty much has no one to fall onto defending a city that gets worse and worse.

It may not have been the most enjoyable batman arcs in a while, but it worked in telling the story well and putting the pieces were they needed to be in the DCU now a days leading to other events that will be enjoyable.

Avengers Disesembled was Marvels attempt to combat a few of DC's events and it really fell short and took its sweet ass time to finish up. Atleast war games was quick enough.

More proof that New Avengers is going to be Bendis fucking around:
http://www.popcultureshock.com/viewe...ws&id=3708&p=1

first five pages of issue 2

To me, this is one of Marvel's biggest problems.They're too worried about marketing characters to Hollywood. It seems they don't want to dirty Mystique's appeal to the toy market or whatever, so they won't let her be the bad guy she really is.

I honestly enjoy most of what Bendis writes now and has in the past - I did enjoy New Avengers #1, though I don't like the concept of this team as the 'Avengers.' It was exciting to see the Sentry appear, though, and I'll get the next few issues to see how it plays out.

In looking over what I read, I do read most of the Vertigo line, all the Ultimate stuff, and some of 'mainstream' Marvel (Supreme Power, ASM, Ast. X-Men, Capt. America, Daredevil, Runaways, others), with some independents and Image books thrown in (Street Fighter, Invincible, Walking Dead, PvP, Queen & Country). I read very little of the mainstream DC universe, however, after I dropped Flash and Teen Titans (Flash really went downhill after Kolins left, imo) - just Birds of Prey and Gotham Central, really.

In reading over the text solicit, I'm looking forward to Seven Soldiers - I didn't know Origin 2 had been announced, but honestly, the first one kind of sucked (if you take away the hype, its interesting, but hardly an 'event').

sigh.

I had this long ass response typed out last night, but my f'n browser crashed so I lost it all. Lemme give it a shot again.
I'd have to disagree with this. But not at first. As his run neared the end, it was pretty terrible.
Amen. I like JMS, but I think he's suffering from Morrison-itis. It's time to leave. I thought it was funny that in a recent Wizard interview someone [i'm pretty sure it was Bendis] was saying that Marvel characters are more "accessable" since they have "real-life" problems that people can relate to. While DC had more fantastical characters [Bruce Wayne aside]. Yeah, EVERYONE can relate to turning into a giant spider so you can shoot organic webs from your wrists to coincide with the motion picture.
Let's just hope Quitely is more consistent than he was on X-Men.
I had no problem with War Games. In fact, though I didn't have a problem with the Bat-"Family", this was a pretty good story. The only thing that annoyed me was the fact that you had to buy every.single.bat book to follow the story. Especially since Bob Greenberger told me you wouldn't when I asked him.
Johns rocks! Been a fan of his since Stars And S.T.R.I.P.E.. In fact, I keep bugging Greenberger to let him do a Captain Carrot And the Amazing Zoo Crew [mini] series.
Considering Marvel's attitude towards its "zombies", Liefeld fits right in. Sessa proved it with the list of Marvel's late books.
Regarding your spoiler:

Now, I don't follow Iron Man anymore, but how exactly did Tony get back his secret identity? That was supposedly one of the "positive" things that came out of Disassembled [according to Tony].
While I do like Kolins [and i'm enjoying him on MTU and Avengers], Johns is still writing it. So, it could be a four year old drawing it as stick figures and i'd still read it.

Um, is it okay to come in here?

I just finished the first two Goon TPB's and I was stunned by the sheer genius of the writing and art. I am now offically a fan. Late, I know, but better late than never.

I clicked on this thread to see what other people are reading and get some ideas as to what to try next. Didn't think I'd be reading a discussion about who's best Marvel, or, DC.

I did also finish the Sins Of The Past arc in ASM and was somewhat disappointed. Maybe it was because I was in a bad mood when I read 'em, but I was strangely detached. I didn't really care. And, I gotta tell ya, the original ASM where Gwen is killed is probably one of the most pivitol moments in my whole comic reading life. It had an emotional impact on me when I first read it.I just could not believe Gwen was dead and I could not believe that The Green Goblin was dead. Jesus, characters die? Dead? Gone forever? As a teen reading that I was blown away. Until the cloning thing that is, and, the return of the Phoenix (X-Men). Completely dirtied my view on comics. Went away for a while, then began to go back via independents ( anyone remember DEADWORLD from Arrow Comics?), then I heard about the Vertigo line from DC.Read just about everything from Vertigo. Then, my local comic shop closed so there went my comic reading. Of course, now I have the internet. I can shop online. I don't need to have a store near me. It's just difficult to know what's good and what's garbage. Which is why I read threads like these.To give me the heads up.

Not that I am not enjoying the Marvel/DC discussion, I am. But, I am hoping someone else will join in with a list of what they bought with maybe a small capsule review so I can get some more ideas.

Thanks

While the art certainly went downhill, imo, when Kolins left, I didn't mean to imply that I dropped the book for that reason (in fact, I only stopped reading a few issues ago) - I meant, the quality of the writing seemed to drop with the 'Ignition' arc that followed Kolins departure.

Yes, the Deadpool run with Simone and Udon (the reasons I read Birds of Prey and Street Fighter, resp) kicked much ass. The Taskmaster series, around the same time, was also very good. I wish the run hadn't ended, honestly - the Agent X stuff was ok, though once Simone departed, there wasn't much reason to read it.

Batman: Year One is getting the Deluxe HC treatment in April and its only $20:

BATMAN: YEAR ONE DELUXE EDITION HC - New Edition
Written by Frank Miller
Art and cover by David Mazzuchelli
One of the most important and critically acclaimed Batman adventures ever - written by Frank Miller (BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS) with art by David Mazzuchelli (Daredevil) - returns as a deluxe hardcover designed by Chip Kidd. In addition to telling the entire dramatic story of Batman's first year fighting crime, this collection includes new introductions by Miller and Mazzucchelli, loads of reproductions of original pencils, promotional art, unseen Mazzucchelli Batman art, Richmond Lewis's color samples, script pages and other surprises. This will be the must-have hardcover of the season!
Advance-solicited; on sale April 6 o 144 pg, FC, $19.99 US

even less than $20 probably, with some searching.

Hopefully, DCBS will run a 50% off deal

I usually pick up my trades at the cons where the deals are rampant. Usually around half of cover. That's the best bet even with no sales tax.

D'oh! Perhaps I get the current SC edition of Batman Year One for Xmas. Well, I hope it will be somthing other...

BTW I've read my first Sin City novel ("dame to kill for") over the weekend. Very nice style indeed. More thoughts and two pictures in my blog (in German ).

I just picked up DC's "TOETAGS" but I haven't read it yet.

Here is a preview of the first few pages of GREEN LANTERN REBIRTH #3!!!
http://www.popcultureshock.com/reviews.php?id=3716

Holy fuck!

also preview of Ultimates #2
http://www.newsarama.com/pages/Marvel/ULtimates2_2.htm

The Green Lantern preview is very interesting Jack.

and Age Of Apocolypse is back

http://newsarama.com/forums/showthre...threadid=23816

I just might pick up the new Age of Apocalypse mini-series. I really enjoyed the first event back in 95 (it was the first time I EVER enjoyed the X-Men).

Green Lantern: Rebirth has been great so far.

Anyone else hear the latest from the latest Wizard?


Morrison on Superman? I'm in HEAVEN!!!

Andrew

Man, ashame that all the DC vs Marvel talk clouded that news since it was posted on this very page in post #54.

here is some Marvel Writing changes:

Mark Millar is writing the new Thor Book
JMS is the new writer of Fantastic Four.
Mark Waid is writing a new Spider-Man book, probably starting after Spectacular wraps up (following the ending of the upcoming arc, which ties into Sins Past).

I'm sad about the Millar news. There was rumors that Gaimen would have taken over it and that would have been pretty good in my book.

JMS on FF is going to be strange. I still can't forgive for the whole Gwen stacy kids shit. I can imagine Nomar/Sue history would be a good way he fucks around with that.

I don't know about a JMS FF. I might give his first issue a whirl. Too bad Waid left. He was a natural for the FF. It's the best the book has been in a while.

Millar on Thor. Eh. I guess we'll see. Why is Marvel giving all their titles to JMS, Bendis and Millar? I know, for the most part, they're good writers in their own way but they're practically writing ALL the Marvel titles. My personal opinion is that's why Bendis' writing has started to suck hard. They're stretching him too thin.

I really thought Oeming's run on Thor was fantastic. A whole hell of a lot more entertaining than I thought it would be.

As for Waid on a NEW Spider-Man title....how many Spidey titles do we really need? I'm sure Marvel has a Spider-Man/Wolverine title in the works.

Andrew