I never understood the Marvel only or DC only mentality. I go where the good stories are. I'm not saying anyone here is like this, but it seems that most people that stick to one company aren't willing to try new things, or they enjoy the same ol' story month after month.

I certainly go wherever I can to find good stories, but it seems like the titles I enjoy always end up at a company that closes shop or the quality falls off a cliff (or both). :lol:

For example, Valiant in the early days was awesome. Then it sucked once Shooter left and the company folded. I enjoyed a few Crossgen titles, same deal.

I know I can always count on Marvel and DC to be around years down the road. That's part of what makes it a bit harder for me to commit to a new company or title.

There have been some DC titles that I've wanted to read and I've picked up some TPB's but I doubt I will ever regularly purchase a DC book. It would just feel like an oddity in my collection.

Sounds like you should sell your services to one of the big boys. "Hey, DC, I'll guarantee that Marvel will go under by the end of the year if you pay me 1 million dollars. How can I promise this? I'll just start reading their books."

I understand what you're saying but it's just a matter of tastes. Also, I have no problems trying other companies including Independents and although I'm no fan of Marvel, I don't totally hate them. It's funny, much like the "Gamecube vs Other systems" debate, Marvel has always seemed like a comic company for kids compared to DC. DC has always seemd more "Mature" to me. :p Either way so far DC is what works for me. I've been into Marvel in the past but DC always worked out better. I mean I like Spider-man, Thor, X-Men, and the rest but I -LOVE- Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, JSA, JLA, and other DC heroes. Well I do hate DC's Legion of Superheroes. As far back as I can remember I never liked that comic. :lol:

I've always wondered why people don't Subscribe to comic books. How come no one does this? It makes sense to do it doesn't it? You pay up front for a year and just sit back and get your comics straight from the Comic company right? Is it a lack of trust for the Postal service?

My brother had a sub when we were kids to something, and I've gotten in on the occasional "3 for free" deal in the past couple years, but they never seem to come on time and they usually have some imperfections. My biggest thing is that they don't seem to be *that* great of a deal, compared to dcbservice or retailer discounts for having a pull bag. That, and you're locked into a title for a year, even if it starts to suck and you don't want it anymore ;)

I never subscribe because I'm so anal about condition I've spent 30 minutes comparing the spines of two modern Batman comics when 100 other copies sat there on the shelves right next to me.

Plus, there's a certain amount of joy derived from driving to the comic shop and looking over the shelves with all those new, unread comics. Mmm, mmm, good.

All those stories, so little time.

As people have said, you don't get the comic book on time, it gets crammed into your mailbox like your magazines, and so many titles cross over with each other occasionally that if you're not paying attention, you'll miss some things. For example, if you're subscribing to Batman, and there's some multiarc story with the other Batman titles, but you're just counting on your sub, you'll miss out on the rest of the story.

That being said, I do "subscribe" in a certain sense by preordering my books three months in advance and getting them through mail order.

BTW, I know someone else on this board uses mailordercomics... have they recently doubled their shipping rate ,or was that just because my last order was so large? It seems to have gone from around 7 bucks to 14...

I didn't mean that Jones' run on Hulk was the best or the worst. It started out great, and had some really great storylines and issues...but man, some of those filler stories really sucked...and the finale...talk about cheating readers.

Green Lantern #1 was just OK. It has the same problem that i've noticed in a lot of John's books - the script is too long for the book and instead of trimming it down he just inappropriately segues into the next issue. I thought pages were missing from my copy the way it so abruptly ended. There was the same problem with Rebirth as well. He had every issue end with a splash page!

Overall, I think Johns is one of the most overrated authors in comicdom today. He's right up there with Judd "fanboy" Winick and Chris Clairmont. For all his twisted fanboy manglings in Rebirth he's turning around and contributing to the gradual malefication of the DCU with the "crisis".

I agree about JLU though being a fanboy show, though that's not really it's problem. I just find most episodes very boring ordeals that boil down to two people punching each other and the heroes making really stupid mistakes when they should be kicking everyone's ass.

I had a subscription to Punisher and Captain America as a kid. I don't think I would ever get one again though, because now I have a great dealer I go to who always gets me the books on my list, bagged and in great shape (with a discount).

And yeah the way my mailman stuffs my box so full that I can barely get the mail out sometimes, I don't really trust it for condition's sake.

Can someone give me a brief synopsis of what's up with GL? I've been a fan for a long time, but quit reading comics several years ago when the habit became too expensive. And now I see that Hal Jordan is back, of all things. So, did he return and take the title from Kyle Raynor or was there some kind of re-boot? In other words, is this a post-Parallax Hal or a brand new Hal? I know there was some Crisis story recently, but I'm not sure if that has anything to do with GL.

I agree. I really wasn't planning on buying this series that I thought was probably going to just be a lame rehash of the New Mutants. But then my store stupidly put it in my box when New X-Men got renamed, and my sub to New X-Men somehow got this title thrown in my box. But I picked it up out of curiousity and really enjoyed the series. Easily my favorite X-Title out there now aside from Astonishing X-Men.

And yes, the Hellion's series is excellent as well. I read the latest issue of New X-Men and then Hellions immediately afterwards, and it was nice how the issues really blended in with each other. I've always enjoyed the Hellions, and they don't get the time they deserve in the monthly.

Can someone also explain how/why they brought John Stewart back (besides the cartoon connection?) I know Kyle got turned into some hugely powerful being or something (Ion maybe?), but I have no idea how that happened, or even before that, why he got rid of the crab mask... This is one reason why i wish DC had at least a few more trades. ;)

When Kyle went into space on a mission to find "himself" after stepping down from the power of Ion, he left John in charge with the spare power ring that was a copy of Hal's. Remember? the one from the Hal/Kyle team-up way back in GL #100. After the Emerald Knights storyline (which SUCKED IMO), Hal gave Kyle a copy of his ring to re-start the Corps. He gave a copy to Jade to cover for him while he went into space to attempt to restart the Corps in "The New Green Lantern Corps" (this also SUCKED IMO). While fighting fatality, John gave up the remaining power Parallax gave him back in "Emerald Twilight" (another story that sucked. Ohhhh a big monster booga booga run Justice League run!), and it was presumed that the power ring was destroyed. Before returning to Earth, Kyle destroyed the remaining rings since the New Corps failed. Jade's ring, however, was not lost, and was instead found by Anarky (worst Batman villain ever), who later lost it AGAIN. Fast forward several years, and apparantly Batman had the ring alll along (Batman is an asshole BTW), who finally returns it to it's rightful owner, Kyle...who should have gotten the ring back RIGHT AWAY...and apparantly the only reason he gave it back to Kyle was because HE thought it was the right time for the Corps to return. Whatever. Anyway, so Kyle gives the ring to Jade asking her to marry him...she refuses, but decides to be Green Lantern anyway. Then a bunch of stupid pointless crap happened up until the Ion storyline. Basically...when Hal Jordan died in Emeral Twilight, the energy he absorbed from the Power Battery was dispersed and was waiting for Kyle in space. After a stupid battle against a stupid villain, he became god-like beyond the power of Parallax (which, due to the retcons in Rebirth no makes no sense...). Blah blah blah he rights wrongs until he realizes that no one person should have that much power. Before giving up his power as Ion however, he makes several drastic changes. He gives John the ability to walk (for the third freaking time), re-ignites Jade's innate Starheart powers, and makes minor modifications to the ring as well as designing a new costume. Then Kyle decides to go into space after his queer teen assistant Terry gets gay bashed. Feeling like society sucks and isn't worth his time, he departs with Jade for some space faring adventures, leaving John in charge with the ring that Hal left him.

*Pant Wheeze* wow, Green Lantern sure has sucked for a while.

I'm just recently back into comics but here's what I can remember from the GL mini where Hal returns. Mind you, I did NOT read ALL the tie-ins and I didn't read the regular GL series. I am however, reading the new GL series.
So I'm sure I'm missing some things.

Anyway, we find out that an entity, a Yellow entity who feeds on FEAR, was trapped in the Main Lantern on Oa by the Guardians eons ago. This, we find out, is why Green Lanterns used to be useless against the color yellow. Sinestro was trapped in the Lantern at some point and he brought the entity back and it took over Hall. That's why Hal became Parallax. He was possessed. Kyle figured out a way to bring Hal back and Hal figures out how to defeat the being. It's through the opposite of fear, Willpower. In this "New Beginning" even Guy has been returned to his GL glory. :up: So now we have Hal, John, Guy, Kyle, and Kilowog fighting the being together. The being is back in the Lantern but without giving the Rings a yellow weakness if the user can use willpower to overcome fear. This "defeat" fires up the Lantern on Oa again. We now have the GL Corps again as a result.

Hal has no interest in taking anything from Kyle or any other Lantern. In fact, Hal seems to be trying to encourage Kyle in the best way he can. Hal's return was intimidating to the others Lanterns at first but now it seems the return is becoming a matter of trust and inspiration because Hal is the greatest Gl..

Also, Hal is now free of The Spectre. But The Spectre is fuckin' nuts now and going on a killing rampage in the "DAY OF VENGENCE" crisis mini. He needs a new human host.....

Geez, I've missed a lot, but honestly it sounds like it might be better that way.

Well, it's not that bad. If you were going to start up again now would be good since Green Lantern #1 is just out.

Hmm...don't know for sure. Looking at my recent orders, March was $244 + $8 shipping, April was $199 + $8 shipping, and May was $254 + $11.50 shipping. Hard to tell if there was an increase or the rate goes up beyond $250.

If you want to subscribe to books, I would definitley suggest just getting a pull list at your local comic shop. Usually you save more money that way and if a book starts to suck you aren't stuck with it. Also going to the shop every two weeks or so you might run into a new book you're interested in trying.

I find it funny that GiantRobo thinks of Marvel as the "kids" company. Even though if I had to place my hat some where it would be DC, I always saw Marvel as the "mature" company and not the other way around. Going back as far as I can remember. DC always seemed more innocent to me(DK returns, Vertigo titles excluded).

Does anyone else find it amazing how long Y The Last Man has remained an interesting and compelling read? I don't think there has been a single issue that has totally let me down yet. Is this a limited run book like Preacher or Sandman, or does this go as long as BK wants it too? This book coupled with Walking Dead and Ex Machina (even though I like to read this in chunks) are the most interesting books on the market if you ask me.

I already posted the reasons why I don't last month, but here it is again:

I gave up on my local shop because it sucked. I missed issues left and right (despite them being on my pull list). They weren't in the best of shape. Discounts didn't get much more than 15%, usually only 10%.

I then starting ordering from Midtowncomics. Discounts were 15%, so not much better than the shop. But, I never missed an issue. Comics were in perfect condition (plus being bagged and boarded). They post all the new comics the Saturday before they come out, complete with cover and description. And, I was able to change my pull list at will right up to the morning my shipment was sent out.

But, shipping tended to be $7-$8 biweekly. That mixed with only a 15% discount made me switch to dcbservice. Discounts there are at least 35%, with some going to 50% or 75%. I'm paying less in shipping than Midtown and getting weekly shipments.

I'd say paying $15 or so in shipping per month is well worth getting 20% more in discounts and all of my books in perfect condition over my local comic shop. :)

We will agree to disagree. I know I'm in the minority as far as my feelings on Marvel but that's how I feel.

I'd like to see Marvel do more MAX books but it seems they are slowly letting that whole imprint die off. Supreme Power is moving to Marvel knights next year right? So whats left? Just Punisher? I would be really ticked if they EVER took the "mature readers" material out of that book and made it PG again. I mean if you can't have someone peeing on freshly dug up corpses then what is the point???

I'll try to do a write-up on the books I picked up yesterday, but hands down the best one is the latest issue of Formerly Known as the Justice League. That last page was a jillion times better and had a jillion times more impact than anything I've seen in any of DC's "dramtic big events."

DC did have the more "kid friendly" type books going back to the 60's. Stan made comics more "mature" during marvels early days while DC had Superman & Batman running around as pals, having space adventures, and teaming up with animal sidekicks. It wasn't until the 80's, post crisis I guess, that DC really made a concerted effort to bring its superhero comics into a more modern age. The introduction of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing certainly helped and opened the door to the creation of the Vertigo line. If you didn't begin reading comics seriously until the late 80's I could see where you would think Marvel was more "kiddie" than DC, but historically, it has been the other way around.