What comics are you reading: September
 

Y: The Last Man #58.

Wow. Just...wow. I was BAWLING by the end of this issue.

Amazing Spider-man #544 "One More Day" part 1 - very underwhelmed with the story, which simply felt like a continuation of recent Spidey events involving Aunt May. No idea where this "One More Day" thing is headed (I prefer skipping review spoilers) but this was a very weak beginning IMO - I hope it picks up. And Joe Quesadea's art looked like he was trying to channel McFarland.

Hulk #110 - More World War Hulkiness - story is moving slowly: needs more smash.

Maybe someone can explain this comic to me. It features characters that look like Spider-Man and Iron Man, and Spider-Man's name is even on the cover. But Spider-Man and Iron Man are heroes, while the characters in this comic act like complete douchebags -- so they can't possibly be Spider-Man and Iron Man, right? I know the dickening of my favorite Marvel characters has been going on for a few years now, and Straczynski is not the only culprit, but really -- is it too much to ask that superheroes actually behave like heroes instead of petulant brats?

I also like how Straczynski managed to display a complete ignorance of the healthcare system ("If you don't have money, Aunt May will have to go to the loser ward! Not that it matters because she's going to die no matter what ...") and the criminal justice system ("If I help a fugitive's sick relative, then that's aiding and abetting .... unless I launder the money through my butler. Nobody will ever figure that one out!").

Also, I know decompression is all the rage and so super-cool, but was the plot advanced even a smidgen over the course of this issue? We went from "Aunt May is dying of a gunshot wound" to "Aunt May is dying of a gunshot wound, but at least Tony Stark is paying the medical bill." Perhaps of interest to the people in the hospital's accounting department, but I can't imagine anyone else cares.

So you're saying you didn't like the book Jason? -wink-

I haven't really read anything in the last few weeks. I guess it's time to get caught up on Y with it nearing its end. I stopped reading at the low 40's so I could just read the whole thing in pretty much one long shot. I should probably get on that so the end isn't spoiled for me.

You see, once upon a time superheroes weren't superPOWERED. They were simply great people with great ambitions who did great things. They had courage and bravery and they reflected the feelings of an entire generation of children, teenagers, and adults who had to go out and face a terrifying world.

Then, people started to get confused and nothing was black and white anymore. Good and evil were sometimes the same thing, and it became harder to tell which was which. Superheroes faced these same conflicts. Superheroes had to start making some tough choices, but in the end there was still a fine, clear line between good and evil, even if it was crossed from time to time.

Now, we have the modern age, and no one looks to heroes anymore because no one WANTS to be a hero anymore. There's no reason to be. There is only boredom-fueled fantasy adventures. The Dark Knight Returns, Earth X, and other modern works eschewed this attitude. That's the problem with Spider-man. When he grows up he's supposed to become someone like Superman, only he's become Batman instead. Who is probably one of the worst comic-book characters ever.

Trust me, you will want to wait until it's all done...the last 10 issues have driven me insane waiting for the next to come out. And the book has gone bi-monthly until it's finale. It's going to be at least 4 months before it's over.

What are you talking about? Batman was a great character! It's a shame they stopped publishing stories about him back in the early 80s.

:)

:(

Batman is my favorite super-hero. I do agree that his comics haven't been great in recent years. Heck, all of mainstream Marvel and DC hasn't been very good for the last decade or so. The best Batman era IMO was between the Crisis reboot in '86 until the Knightfall saga in the early '90s.

As soon as I saw the cover, I knew what was coming. Damn.

PEACE!

No way! That was the era of everybody trying to one-up Frank Miller, and Batman increasingly becoming more and more of an asshole. Give me Neal Adams-era Batman any day of the week!

I cannot stand pre-Crisis DC comics. For me personally, DC does not exist before 1986; I pretend Batman: Year One and John Byrne's Man of Steel miniseries are the first Batman and Superman stories...

I am however not a Frank Miller fan. I hated DKR. The only good Batman story he has done is Year One in my opinion.

As one of the older collectors here, I remember back when those issues were coming out and the impact that Neal Adams had on comics. His art was a style that just hadn't been seen yet and it was awesome! And Batman became cool again (having been mostly a joke ever since the TV show destroyed the character for a few years). And Adams Green Lantern/Green Arrow just blew my young mind! I don't know if Neal Adams could be given lone credit, but that time period was when comics lost their innocence.

It's a very common misconception that the Adam West Batman ruined the character. In fact the TV show's popularity revived interest in the character. Regardless, it's just another era in the character's history. When a character is 80 years old you can't expect them to be the same throughout their entire lifetime.

I do love All Star Batman and Robin. It's a post-modern Batman that really sticks it to both the creators and the fans.

Sure, the show revived the character. But turning Batman from "The Dark Knight" to "The Campy Goofball" was a sad sad thing.

Batman hate? What? Moderators, Superboy must be banned! -wink-

It's also a common misconception that Batman had the same sort of "Dark Knight" image in the Golden Age. Granted, works like DKR and Year One were definitely inspired by his Golden Age roots, Batman was concieved more in the vein of a pulp/horror hero. He had the dashing adventures of Zorro, Green Hornet, was as smart as Doc Savage and solved his problems the same way, yet had an element of horror and mystery much like Dracula. The Golden Age Batman was probably the best incarnation of the character, which is what o'Neil and Adams did with the character in the 70s. Remember, above all, Batman is a detective.

Yay, Monthly Shipment time. Man, my "pull" list is way, way down:

Alan Moore The Complete Wildcats HC: Umm... it's not a HC... I'm not sure if it's mailordercomic's fault or the solicitation was wrong. I have all these stories in one form or another, but I like Alan Moore and I miss Travis Charest.

Godland Celestial Edition HC: Can't wait to crack this open, because of the recommendations of others here

Invincible vol 3 Ultimate Collection

Justice League of America #12: Cool retro story, I guess... is this supposed to be a prelude to the new Outsiders book, or just a coincidence that these two narrators are in that book?

Justice Society of America #8: Did the whole Hourman/Liberty Bell romance happen during OYL? Anyway, an upbeat book, I like it.

New Avengers vol. 6 Premiere HC: After that Civil War stuff, I kinda like the humor in here, though I'm still ambivalent about the big reveal

New Universal Vol. 1

Supergirl #20

Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes #33: Yeah, my favorite Legionnaire is back (maybe). I'm a little confused at what the motivation for Mekt Ranzz was here, but overall enjoying this book.

Teen Titans #50: Ah, a reminder of all the incarnations of the Titans I liked better than the current version. Why is Cyborg leaving the team? I miss Young Justice (though I may be the only one). Not a huge fan of the Titans of Tomorrow, but I'm interesting in seeing where this goes.

Wonder Woman #12: Another issue where nothing happens but somehow we go back to the status quo of issue #1. What a waste of time this book has been. Sorry Gail, I'm sure you'll do wonders on this book, but I'll wait for the trade to see how good it is. Dropped.

X-men Supernovas HC: Haven't read it yet, in fact, haven't read any X titles besides X-factor since Morrison's run, figured I'd give it a try and see if it's as incomprehensible as I fear.

Fables vol 5: Still slowly going through Fables, I'll be disappointed when I finally catch up, as I've been devouring the trades.

Anyone else down on "Countdown" after 18+ issues into the run? I just don't know if I can stick around for the remaining 30+ issues.

Batman hadn't been the Dark Knight for 20 years by the time the Adam West show came along. Pick up Batman in the 50s or Batman in the 60s -- it wasn't high camp prior to the Adam West stuff, but it was a lot closer to that than to the moody stuff of the 40s or 70s and beyond either.

I liked the early part of this era, with Aparo on Batman, Breyfogle on Detective, Jim Starlin writing cool stories like "Ten Nights of the Beast", etc. I skipped out on early-and-mid '90s Batman, so I was only passingly familiar with the whole Bane thing, Jean-Paul, then Dick taking over, etc.

I really enjoyed late-90s Batman, especially Morrison's take on him in JLA, the whole No Man's Land thing, and the post-NML Rucka run. Yeah, some writers took "asshole Batman" too far, but overall, I liked him as Gotham's dickish drill sergeant.

I believe DC's original plan was for this book to be a hardcover (and there was at least one released solicitation that said HC), but changed their minds at some point shortly after.

There is no hardcover edition available.

I get that. The point is the TV Show took it to a whole new level and it wasn't a good thing.

But then 30 years later, we got BTAS which took Bats to a whole new level, and that was an awesome thing.

I loved Aparo, but hated the inking of Mike DeCarlo. I was also NOT a fan of Starlin's work on Batman. I lost interest somewhere around the Bane, Breaking the Bat storyline. I own the issues but never read them. Recently though I picked up a trade (Face the Face, I think it was) that I thought was pretty good. Batman really needs a return to glory.

Fair enough, but the influence of the TV show lasted what -- 3 years? 4? We've had 20 years of sociopath Batman and I'm sick of it.

That's kind of a funny thing to say. Having read Batman books for more than 20 years, I sometimes wonder if there's anything left to "say" about Batman. His parents were murdered, he's a bit nuts, he has issues with his Robins, Batman is the real guy and not Bruce Wayne, yadda, yadda, yaddda.

Don't get me wrong. There are still great Batman stories being told, but the character as a whole for me has grown stale. And this is from someone who will quickly admit that Batman is his favorite superhero ever.

Is the big reveal you're talking about

The only reason I ask is because these collections are coming out almost similtaneously with the monthly comic book! That issue just came out about four weeks ago.

I like it, because I accept it as part of Batman's history. It's nice when comic characters have diverse histories :)

Ok, fair enough. I liked that take on Batman as well.

It lasted a good deal longer than that. I remember back in '89-'90 when people were bitching about how Tim Burton's BATMAN movie shoulda been "fun and campy like the 60's show". Well I guess they eventually got what they wanted.... :lol:-ohbfrank-


I hear you man and please understand that I'm not putting down your thoughts on the matter. I guess I wonder what you want them to do with him? Over the last 2 years they've been trying to make Bruce/Bats less of a loner ass and more of a team player with his taking the year off and working on his relationship with Tim, Dick, and others. I'm not crazy about this, but I can see where fans like you and others need to have this sort of rebirthing of sorts to keep things fresh.

Personally, I like Batman this way but I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I'm an "on and off" comic fan. I take long stretches off so it helps to keep the characters from getting stale to me.

That's fine. But just like some hate Psyho Bats, others hate Gooffball smiley Bats. :lol:

...and hopefully everyone hates the Goddamn Batman. That is seriously the only comic I have ever put through a paper shredder. I will never read that series again.

Hope in one hand.... :p

< Enjoys the Series. It's over the top fun. :lol:

People who's only exposure to Batman was via Adam West wanted the movie to be campy. Meanwhile, the comic hadn't been campy since the late 1960s.

I want the Batman of "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" and "Strange Apparitions" and "The Batman Nobody Knows" and "Daughter of the Demon." The Batman written by David V. Reed and Denny O'Neill and drawn by Neal Adams and Irv Novick.

To me, those stories seem to strike the right balance between the happy-go-lucky hero of the fifties and sixties and the brooding maniac of the late 80s and 90s. It's a Batman that's closer to the Timm/Dini version than any other (which is why I always enjoyed the Batman comics based on the animated series).

In fairness, they've been moving back in that direction over the last few years.

True. What percent of the population reads comic books? 0.01%? For the vast majority of the people, their only knowledge of Batman prior to Batman '89 came from the Adam West show. So to them, Batman is camp.

Thus making point that the 60's show didn't help. :D

Help what? I don't care what J. Random Passerby thinks when you say "Batman." I care what I get to read about when I pick an issue up off the stand.

By the way, I got the Batman & Son hardcover in the mail, and I must say Grant Morrison's Batman is much, much closer to the Batman I enjoy. It still seems a little off, but it's very much in the right ballpark. I'm also reading Detective Comics, and that stuff is good too. It's good to see a Batman who is fit to be around other people.