Yeah, Tom is great. Apparently, he does improv. They really lucked out by getting someone like him on the show, since all my favorite podcasts involve people who can be funny. You should also check out the Ed Brubaker interview from a few weeks back, since he's someone else who has a pretty good sense of humor.

I just read the latest Detective. Man, I hope Dini has a good, long run on this title because I'm loving it more and more with each issue. I love the idea that Riddler and Penguin both realized how much money they could make by staying on the "legit" side of the law.

I've actually enjoyed the latest issues of Titans a little more than the Doom Patrol arc... of course, I hate most of the current team and I'm excited that there are possible new members coming in.

It is odd that all of these new characters were introduced, some from the cartoon (unless Mas and Minos and Hotspot were lurking in DC continuity before). I'm still not even entirely up-to-speed with the real Martian manhunter (why he changed his appearance and seems not to care much about humanity), but they do provide an explanation when introducing the new characters (though some origins may be red herrings). Still don't quite buy Red Star as the premier superhero in his country, though.

So I will stay on this book. But OYL utterly destroyed JSA (though I have high hopes for the new series), JSA Unlimited, JLA (which will hopefully pick up), Supergirl (well, let's be honest, it wasn't much good in the beginning either, but at least it was somewhat readable), and Superman/Batman, most of which I've since dropped. I'll stay on Titans until they resolve this Titans East stuff, though I still don't like Daniels on this book. And I'm not sure what the whole point of Infinite Crisis was, but if it was supposed to provide an easy jumping-on point for new readers like the original Crisis, it's failing miserably, at least in my view. As a diehard DC Universe fan, I enjoy 52, but man is it heavily steeped in obscure DC continuity.

Not to derail the TT conversation, but I just bought the Absolute Sandman HC. Holy cow this thing looks fantastic. I wasn't going to buy it, but when I saw the binding and the cost ($70) I decided to buy myself a little present. Sure, that's a lot of money, but I couldn't pass it up.

Now back to your regularly scheduled conversation...

Just finished Marvel Zombies and Pride of Bahgdad.

Marvel Zombies was a fun read. Wish it was longer and deeper but are you going do. The main problem was to many zombies and you weren't told how they became zombies. I guess it is a continuation of ultimate fantastic four. I think I like the alternate zombie covers of class

Pride of Bahgdad was a surprise to me. The thing is it wasn't that good to begin with. It seemed to me that the story was being rushed along. Its a story about a group of lions that just escaped a zoo that was bombed. It is sort of like the lion king mixed with the Iraq war. This is not a book for the little ones. There is rape and death but not in a unreal type of way. It all seems very real except for the talking animals. The thing that saved the book for me and damned it at the same time was the ending. I have never heard the story of these lions so it was a surprise to me and tugged at my heart strings. However, the ending also stank of political crap. I'll just say the author probably goes around calling america the great satan. I might have missed the point though. I'll give it another read sooner or later. It is keeper regardless.

Paul Dini's work in Detective Comics is crap. The first issue was good and it has gone downhill since then. He makes Gordon look incompetent and we have stories that Batman should not be involved in. Who cares if Penguin is being cheated on, doesn't Batman have bigger things to worry about?

Plus I'm not liking this Batman being super friendly.

"Excellent"


Naturally, buying the first one requires you to buy the other volumes. You're not done with just one, my friend.

What happened to 52? It started off with some good stories, but the last 4 or 5 issues have felt like nothing but filler material.

Speaking of "what happened to"... what happened to Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk? Have they just given up on it?

I know. I'm doomed. I'm such a sucker. I just hope I at least read the first one before the second one is announced.

It keeps bringing more and more mystery and origins we already know. There's hardly any, "ohhhh thaaaat's what happened to XXX", moments.

I think I heard that the second Marvel Zombies series is going to explore why the heroes turned into Zombies. So sit tight.

OYL in general is an odd thing. It helped the Batman and Superman books, bu t the changes they made to those titles could have easily been made without a Crisis. The two issues of Wonder Woman I've read were really fun, but it's hard to really rate that book since it still has so few issues. The event didn't really reinvigorate the entire DC line like I thought it would. If anything it took a bit of the wind from out of DC's sails a bit. Birds of Prey is still perfect, so it's all gravy (speaking of, Gen13 this week!).

52 is losing me too. It's not bad, but I'm just not caring about a lot of the plot threads, but I imagine the book will start to pick back up around issue 30 if not before.

ETA: Anyone here read Hack/Slash?

This is precisely why I passed on AbSandman, I just couldn't see myself forking over $70 each for 4 volumes.

I'm not worried about forking over more money. If it's a good read, I'll get the set. If not, I'll cut my losses but still have a cool looking hardcover on my shelf.


Okay, so I just read Y: THE LAST MAN #50 and I must've missed something. I thought we were going to understand how the plague happened, not just who/what. But at the end of the issue, I felt like I got a somewhat clearer picture, but not as clear as I was expecting. Anyone read this and understand something I don't?

Sandman is definitely a good read. I already have all the TPBs, and some of the original HCs, so I'm not 100% sure if I'll pick up the Absolutes, but I've got my eye on them.

Well, yes, I also have the original issues, and hardcovers, so the AbSandmans just are not as enticing given the cash outlay for the volumes.

Re: YTLM, it's only chapter 2 in this arc, there's another 4 issues or so for things to get clearer.

All I have to say on that: clear more shelf space.


Now that we've hyped it enough, he'll hate it.

Posters on this thread have hyped up a number of books I was only so so on. But we'll see.

As for YTHM, I think I was just expecting more concrete answers in this issue, not this arc.


Oh, and a side question. If the local comic shop is LCS, what do you call a comic shop that's not local. What if you went to another state's comic shop. Is it just a CS?

I agree...Not that its bad right now, just maybe the novelty has worn off a bit and its getting a little stale. Although the brief bits about the Teen Titans has been pretty good. We at least see some of what the team was for a while.

yeah I'm starting to feel the same way. I like that batman isn't the insane steroid drill sergent frank miller has him painted as, but in this it seems like he's doing vanity cases. And he sure is teaming up with a lot of people. He should be working the cases alone, refusing to work with anyone and pissing people off along the way. It seems like no one has been able to write batman anymore. Just parodys and caricatures.

b2k is right, the AbSandman set is great. I'd have to put it as my favorite collection presentation so far, Absolute, Definitive, or otherwise.

But didn't DC fans cry about "Asshole Bats"? Isn't that why they softened him up?

I'm curious to see where this "Bat-son" story goes.

I just read the first 3 or 4 stories in the tpb of the new Jonah Hex series and I love 'em! They have an old school Clint Eastwood western feel to them and retain the morality Hex displayed in his original series. Very highly recommended.

I've been buying the issues since day one and I've yet to start it. It's funny, I've always been a Jonah Hex fan but I've never checked out any of his past series.

I do remember his appearence with Rhas Al Ghul in a flashback Western ep of Batman:TAS.

Why did they soften him up, anyway? Did they want to go back to the old school flavor of comics? I like the more gritty, detective Batman. Not the asshole, necessarily, just hard and dark. (God, that sounds awful!)

Well there's being an asshole, and then there's being an ASSHOLE. Bats had gotten to the point where he was verbally abusing everyone around him, and had become extremely paranoid.

I think I would've left him an asshole, and instead tone down the arrogance a bit. Everyone knows Bat's "power" is his brilliant Detective-one or more-steps ahead of everyone mind. But having him talking down to everyone was kinda weird. But then again, Bats talking down to Guy Gardner is comedy gold.