Well it's july. Means SDCC is only two weeks away and it means that comic talk for july has begun.


Batman is brooding and untrusting

Spiderman will go through EPIC LIFE TURNING EVENTS for the 100th time

House of M vs Countdown to Crisis.

Let the discussion begin!

Well, you made your's first so...

Continuing what I said about Batman though, it's not that I'm surprised that Batman is a little nuts sometimes, even though that characterization really turn me away, it's that everyone seems shocked by it, and then quickly moves on. I agree that in many storylines recently Batman has been his typical distrusting self, but that everyone around him now still trusts him. I would think after the 90 millionth time someone that devious betrays you that you learn to stay away from them. It's really beginning to annoy me how naive some of these heroes are, especially since many of them have been operating for years and have experienced countless tragedies. They're either totally disassociated from their emotions - making them potentially sociopathic - or they have a very poor memory. I thought continuity was invented to keep stuff like this from happening.

I'm still split on Identity Crisis. I can't say it was a bad story, but I didn't enjoy reading it. It was very emotionally manipulative at times, and I felt like there wasn't a satisfactory conclusion. I don't mean that everyone flies off into the sunset smiling, but there wasn't a real sense of closure for me. I know that in the real world not everything wraps up so neatly and so quickly...but it would have been nice for the last issue to be a long epilogue as opposed to primarily focusing on revealing all the secrets behind the story. The story X-ed over into many monthlies but even then, aside from the Teen Titans issue, there wasn't a lot of emotion from the characters. The Flash tie-in was a little too long and melodramatic for my tastes, and Wally having to deal with that kind of emotional burden shouldn't be anything new, although that probably doesn't make it any easier.

To answer Rogue's question from the previous thread: if you just place the order for a trade, they'll charge you when it ships. If you place an entire month's order, they (well, dcbservice) charges you at the beginning of that month.

Just read X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong. Did anyone else read this when it came out? I enjoyed it for the most part. It felt right. Sure, we don't really need another Jean Grey back from the dead story, but I liked the way this one was handled. And I'll enjoy Land's art any day (even though he draws heads too big and not always centered).

I was a bit bummed to see at the end of OMAC issue 3 that I would need to read 4 different comics to follow the story. This is what I didn't want to see happen and I'm really of the opinion that mini-series (even when tieing into something as big as Crisis) should be totally contained. Who knows, maybe it will still make sense if one skips those books, but I dunno...

I thought DC stated you didn't need to read anything else to get enjoyment from the Invinite Crisis minis. Lame!

So this was actually pretty good? It seemed like an excuse for Land to do some pinups, so I didn't bother with it at the time. But it does continue that last Morrison story somewhat, right?

Yeah that upset me too. I have decided in fact not to read the 4 different comics and just hope it makes sense. I've loved the build to infinite crisis so far primarily because they were doing it through these minis. I have no intention of picking up books I normally don't beyond these minis.

I'm such an old man. House of M? Countdown to Crisis? It all looks like crap to me. Right now, I'm working my way through a backlog of Marvel Essentials and loving it. Hulk smash! The fight against Absorbing Man from #125 is one of the first comics I ever read and it's reprinted in Essential Hulk #3. Fantastic Four #83 and the fight against the Enclave where Him (later Adam Warlock) were introduced (other early stories in my reading experience) -- those are in Essential FF #4, which is next on the reading list.

I thought the mini was awful, largely due to why you didn't pick it up. It really doesn't continue what Morrison did & the story was ultimately pointless, like pretty much everything coming out of the X-franchise. I loved Land's art on Birds of Prey, I was raving about him & nobody had a clue who I was talking about, but over the years I think his art has becoming horriblty dull, & plain. All he does his swipe images from magazine, photos etc etc, which just doesn't impress me, all of his characters look the same, & his panels are so bland & empty.

Are you serious? Awe maaaan. I just picked up OMAC 3.

While I'm ok with these over the top universe changing events, like you I hate buying books I normally don't jsut to keep up.

Is anyone reading the "Albion" mini by Alan Moore and others? I picked up the 1st issue the other day.

http://dccomics.com/features/albion/

I got the first issue of Albion, and thought it was just OK. Mostly setup, and kind of hard to follow in some points. These are such obscure (to the U.S.) characters they're bringing back that it could've used a little more explanation. Not sure yet if I'll pick up #2 or not.

(Alan Moore only did the plot and his daughter and another guy did the writing, so it's definitely not like Moore's best work.)

Really? Well I hope I have better luck. I'm an Anglophile so learning a bit about British heroes is kinda cool.

Wow, you actually thought that a major comic publisher wasn't going to cash in on a huge sales opportunity? heh.

I'm glad I haven't started collecting the Infinite Crisis tie-ins. From what i'd heard most issues were just a waste of space and everything was still being kept very vague.

Amen brother!! Old school rocks!!!

Take care all!!

I am man enough to admit I drank that kool-aid. The IC mini's have been pretty bland so far. You know going in that they won't reveal anything major until the last issue (if at all), but still I was interested. A few issues later and I have to say I am a bit let down. I'm only reading OMAC and V's United as it stands, and OMAC is just dry and vague as you've said and United (while fun) feels like a book that could have been done whenever and is just tied to this Crisis to make the number of mini's even.

I was thinking today about all the uber crossovers from the past and I realized that I haven't been satisfied with a single one. I loved the concept of a bunch (especially No Man's Land) but the books usually vary so much in style and content that I ultimately come away feeling let down. In fact about No Man's Land, I think that whole thing works so much better in the novelization. Everything was streamlined and it was easy to see how things went from point a, to b, and finally c which I think comes from having one author. Makes me anxious to read the Crisis of Infinite Earths novel. On this same topic I found the Death of Superman novel worked really well for the same reasons.

Has anyone here read Fade From Blue? I just started this and it's rocking my socks off. Great art, cool story, and really fun characters.

I just finished The Maxx volume 1, and I'm starting on The Maxx volume 2. I'm err, kinda selective about what I read. And I don't often read new stuff because I prefer to wait until it comes out in a trade paperback.

Did you pick up the "new" Captain Britain graphic novel that came out recently? Just finished reading that, and as the original Captain Britain GN was one of my favorites, and I was probably one of the few that liked the original Excalibur, I loved this one. Love Alan Davis's early art, too.

So I'm still a month behind, but just finished reading the Ultra graphic novel by the Luna bros., and I enjoyed it. Is that an ongoing series now?

Also, for some reason I've always been fascinated with DC's Who's Who, so I've been picking up some of the pamphlet Marvel Handbooks to catch up on the characters I haven't been following monthly. Just finished reading "Teams, 2005" and it makes me wonder who picked these teams and why? Are they all related to some book that's already out, or is soon to come out? Otherwise why have entries for stuff like the "All Winners Squad"? If you're going to do that, why not have "Rom and the Spaceknights" and stuff like that? And man those things are expensive for how thin they are...

So a new Previews is out... anything new or out of the ordinary that people can recommend from the new volume?

I usually use the comments/feedback at thefourthrail.com to uncover stuff that might be below my rader in Previews, as I don't get to an actual comic shop much anymore (about once a month or so). They should post the Sept stuff soon.

Is it really a new reprint (whatever the hell that means )? I thought it was the same reprint from a few years ago but with the missing page put in place.

Although there are no superheroes here, we do have some suggestions for upcoming graphic novels....

IIRC, that Previews has a new printing of Squadron Supreme. I never seem to find a good used copy, so I'm certainly happy to see a listing for it.

Just read Street Angel vol 1 which was ok. Also read Invincible 20 to 22 which is great. I have the TPB on order. The OMAC pissed me off also with that crappy buy these books to keep up. I'm thinking of dropping all this crisis crap. Though I did like OMAC and a few of the others.

Oh I read Gotham Central vol 1 also which wasn't all that good.

Argh! I thought Street Angel was hilarious, and Gotham Central, well, that's just a damn good book.