This sub-forum is risking becoming as dead as the Book Forum! So let's get back to discussing comic books, shall we?

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man #24 - One More Day part 2 - I was warned by my friendly neighborhood comic store employee that spoilers abound concerning how this ends, and I don't want to know so I thanked him for the warning. That said, I'm not enjoying this "event" at all so far. Besides the extreme delays between issues, the story isn't going anywhere that wasn't already gone over in the past few issues of Amazing Spider-man - although I'm guessing where it will end. And Joe Quesadea's art is all over the place - it's like he's channeling different artists, from McFarland to Gene Colon. At this point, I wish someone had taken one more day to get this right.

I am reading Showcase Presents: Batman & the Outsiders, and loving it. I wish they would release more volumes of 80's era DC like this.

That's on my pile of stuff to read next too... I skimmed through it first, though. I originally thought I wouldn't like the art in black and white, but now I wish I bought some of the other ones, like Captain Carrot...

I just caught up on New Avengers, Walking Dead, and Wonder Woman today.

I've made no secret about my love of Bendis' writing, but this title feels very iffy to me. It could be that I don't love the art (though I've come around on it a lot) or the story is too drawn out, but whatever the reason I'm just not digging this book all that much. I love Mighty Avengers, so I'm going to stick aroung a while and see if this one picks up too. I'm curious to see how the two books work together when they're both coming out on time. Bendis said there would be some play off of both of the titles, so I want to see how he does that. Could be fun.

Allan Heinberg's Wonder Woman? Fucking awesome. I stopped reading it after two issues because of the delays, and decided it would be better to just wait until the whole story is out. This story was every bit as good as Up, Up, and Away and Face the Face in my book. I don't think Allan has Diana's voice down entirely (he wrote her to be a little to spunky, and not enough with the majestic quality she usually has), but the story and the art were just a joy to read. Being new to Wonder Woman, I liked how this arc introduced me to Diana's rogues. Now I'm really excited to see what Gail Simone does with this title spinning out of this arc.

Walking Dead was as good as usual. That is kind of selling the book short, but it's to the point were you don't expect to be let down by an issue of Walking Dead. My only complaint with this series, still, is that I have a hell of a time telling people apart. The art just isn't that good. Serviceable, but not much else. At the rate the cast is getting injured though, it won't be too long before the whole cast has an identifiable injury. So that's good.

Green Lantern comics are what are holding me strong these days. I'm loving the sinestro corps war.

They have postponed the release of the Captain Carrot collection for some reason. Looks like they may have also postponed the Suicide Squad that was supposed to come out as well. They replaced them with Sgt. Rock and World's Finest I think. Which may get more sales for DC I suppose, but is pretty disappointing for those of use who were wanting more 80's stuff.

I'm just finishing


also reading


and I'm re-reading the New Gods comics that I have & am up to #11

This is by far one of the best "big events" since...well, I can't really remember the last time I enjoyed an event of this magnitude. The art and story is just coming together so well. It's epic. It's heartfelt. It's action packed. It draws on both the history of these characters and paves the way for future storytelling without violating continuity. It's created a legitimate enemy in the DCU, something that has really been missing outside of Batman's rogue's gallery.

You know what this story is? it's Geoff Johns keeping up with making good on his promise to bring back the Silver Age. That age of high heroics but with characters you could relate to. Where lines between good and evil were still very clear, although tough times call for tough solutions.

Most importantly, this story is actually entertaining to read

I'm still picking up comics every week & reading a ton lately, the posts here are just mostly about stuff I'm either not reading or not diggin' so I haven't been posting much. While I've been getting caught up on a lot of stuff, I'm also been getting very bored with almost everything Marvel & DC is putting out lately. However, A TON of great stuff has come out the past 2 weeks.

Most recently I've picked up & been reading the hell out of . . .

I Killed Adolf Hitler



I worship the Norwegian cartoonist Jason. Yeah, his books are pricey but there is more content & foward-thinking Anthropomorphic brilliance in 48 pages of his books than a years worth of anything I can get at Marvel or DC. This came out last week & I can't recommend it enough.

Mome Vol. 9

I've really been into anthologies lately & especially the more free-thinking new wave cartoonists out there. Mome from Fantagraphics is one of my favorite on-going series being published, although the newest issue is actually the weakest compilation they've put out so far, it still has a lot of really phenomenal talent in it especially Tom Kaczynski's work.



Booster Gold #3 - I miss good ole' fun comics like these. Reading this book is just a breath of fresh air. I mean, this issue had a freakin' Cosmic Treadmill in it. That is awesome.



Omega The Unknown #1 - I'm a big fan of Jonathan Lethem, Gun, With Occasional Music is one of my favorite books, so he is the only reason I picked this up. While I do think the whole bizarro superhero deconstructionism thing is done to death, & the dialogue was very stilted, there was still a lot I enjoyed about this enough where I want to see where it is going.



Simon Dark #1 - I think Steve Niles is one of the most overrated writers in comics, but I'm always interested with any creator that has the balls to introduce a completely new character into maintream DC continuity. A lot of set-up but definitely a solid first issue, had the feel of Tim Burton movie. I'm definitely along for the 9 or so issues this book will see before it gets shit-canned.



Houdini: The Handcuff King - Two master catoonists like Lutes and Bertozzi collaborating on one book is just a must have book. Although this isn't new, I randomly picked up this hardcover off of one of my massive "needs-to-be-read" piles late last night & enjoyed the shit out of it. It tells the story of a single day in the life of Houdini.

The story not going anywhere is my main issue with a lot of new Marvel comics these days. It's like they take two issues to tell what would take half an issue in the past. Such as with the whole two issues it took to go through the impostor Skrull storyline in the recent issues of New Avengers. It took TWO issues for the Avengers to blame each other for being Skrulls filled with slow boring filler crap. In the end, Dr. Strange performs a magic trick that proves none of them are Skrulls. They could have done that in just a few pages instead of stretching things out for two issues.

It's an annoying trend that's not all that appealing.

And in Friendly Neighborhood Spider Man 24 we get more Dr. Strange filler. It's slow, but it did have some decent dialog. But yeah...it went nowhere fast.

Well, I'm a bit ticked at DC now ...

Superman 668 came out Wednesday. Awesome. As has become my habit, I sit back in my big comfy chair and re-read issue 667 (partially because I can't remember what the heck happened yesterday, much less a month ago, and I also feel I want to get the most out of the 3 bucks I spent). The end of issue 667 teases the epic conclusion in the next exciting issue of Superman Comics!! w00t. I open 668 and it begins in a place nowhere near where last issue left off - No problem; lots of writers use that gimmick. But then I turn the page and see a note apologizing for a delay in the scheduled story which will now be continued "later in the year" in Annual #13. What?? I'm still waiting for the Action Annual to come out to complete the story about the Kryptonian villains, or whatever was going on 5 months ago when they simply dropped that story, promising to complete in the annual, which hasn't come out!

I know deadlines occasionally get missed, and I can be forgiving of that (as long as it's rare enough) but this type scheduling is very irritating! I wouldn't mind if I knew the annual would be out in a few weeks so I could finish the story, but months later? I am irked.

And just to add to my frustration, I re-read the New Avenger issue that Calhoun07 mentioned above, to follow with the new issue - and the story skips over everything to give a "few days ago" back story to something (mostly) unrelated. Not the same situation as with Superman and Action, but damn, whatever happened to telling a story?

And all this is happening as I've been slowly dropping titles. Uh oh.

I had to special order Green Lantern Corps #15 because my LCBS screwed me on my pull list, well...that or someone stole it from my stack before I could pick it up. So now I can continue reading the Sinestro Corps storyline.

I also finally found the Dynamo 5 trade. I've heard such good things I had to pick it up.


Is anyone reading "XOMBIE" based on Flash web series by James Farr? I haven't read it yet because I can't find issue #2 but I see # 4 is out. I've been following the episodes for some time now.

I have absolutely no clue what's going on with DC's editorial. Even though i'm a huge nitpicker, I honestly don't care as long as self-contained stories have cohesion. Which is certainly not the case with DC right now:

Superman/Batman: this book has had the fastest, steepest drop-off in quality i've ever seen. Shame since it was like the Jerry Bruckheimer Movie of comics.

52/Countdown: I have no clue what this series is even for, other than to crowd the weekly publishing schedule

The Superman Books: These have gone off the deep end. The Johns/Donner storyline really re-ignited interest but the constant delays and interruptions in the story as well as major art quality issues hamper it. Strange since Superman was doing so well during OYL.

The Batman Books: Creative energy, properly channeled, generates a great story; that's what editors are for, to manage that creativity to ensure that the artist doesn't get too big for his own britches. Which is what has happened here. Detective Comics is great but they feel like storylines that are much longer, crammed down to fit into single issues. They start and stop abruptly, with too many blank panels in the middle. Morrison's storytelling is a little too obscure for the mainstream, something that i've observed without err for many years. But if anything, these two have actually made the core Batman monthlies readable again.

The only reason to be reading DC right now is for the Green Lantern books.

Man, I couldn't disagree more. While the GL books are the best they have ever been, DC is putting out soooooo many quality comics that deserve to be read. There is actually a world of great comic books out there besides Superman & Batman books.

Shadowpact & Checkmate - In a medium where all anyone seems to want is Spider-man comics & X-crossovers, these are 2 superhero books that actually try to be different. I know that sounds scary & a lot of comic book fans simply can't get into a comic unless it has an A-list character with lots of movies & merchandise spun out of him, but these are comics with talented writers actually making lesser known superheroes interesting.

Fables. Jack of Fables, DMZ, 100 Bullets, Crossing Midnight, Y The Last Man, Ex Machina - All comics, all DC, & all unlike anything else being published & miles ahead of anything Marvel would even attempt to do.

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis - This comic has quietly over the past year, done the exact same thing that Hulk has been doing, only it is well. . . Aquaman, & doesn't have the mighty Marvel hype-machine behind it, so nobody knows about it. A seemingly stale character has been completely re-imagined, with one long, epic story that has given Aquaman a whole new cast of supporting characters & made King Shark one of the coolest C-listers around. Great story telling.

Jonah Hex - Another quality comic with one of the coolest DC characters ever with some truly wonderful sequntial-craft in each issue.

And I just don't get how anyone can not just enjoy the shit out of Powell's Superman rendition. He makes me enjoy comics the way I did as a kid.

Just picked up the first Whiteout tpb, and will probably read that this weekend. Still haven't gotten around to reading my Godland hardcover.

cheers,

-the Jesus

I was away from comics for 10+ years and started again casually with Astonishing X-Men. After moving my comics from my parents to my house and entering them online, I read afew and my love was rekindled. Here's what I'm reading this month...


Y: the last man TPB 1 & 2 - I heard nothing but great things about this book and since I heard it was coming to an end, I figured I start reading the trades...I liked TPB #1, it was interesting as a set up, but I thought it went really fast, like it skipped big chunks that could be interesting in order to get Y to his mother and start the story moving along. That said, I thought TPB #2 was paced perfectly and really hooked me. I can't wait to pick up the next 2 TPBs this comig week. I thought the art was very unremarkable and enjoyable at the same time.

GL books - I think Im on part 4 of the Sin corps, but i am really enjoying this title. I never been a big fan of GL, but I am becoming one quickly with this title.

Avengers - I have been getting caught up on 3-4 months of these titles this month and really enjoyed the Mighty Avengers, somewhat enjoyed the Avengers: Initiative books, but i have to agree with calhoun07 on the New Avengers. I thought they started intersting right after Civil War and went nowhere slowly.

New X-Men - I read the Quest for magik Arc and enjoyed it. I was a big fan of X-books in the 80s and early 90s and I have recently come back to them and I may be inthe minority, but I really enjoy this book. I don't know any of the characters or their powers, but I find I like them and Im intrigued to find out more about them. I plan to pick up the TPBs from earlier in this series does anyone else recommend them?

I have been trying to read the other x-books and I can't get into them, I have been trying to save them and read the arcs at once, hoping it will help me get into them, but I've noticed the general consenus is they suck at this point.


--Nick

I finally broke down and picked up the first Fourth World Omnibus. No, the paper's not great, but I don't think it's that bad, and I like the more compact size. It's also significantly better than the B&W trade I got a few years ago.

Picked up my last 3 weeks worth of books yesterday.

Countdown - Yep. I'm the one person still reading this. I wasn't the biggest fan of "52". I thought that some of the stories (the Booster Gold and Black Adam stuff) was quite good, but the rest were mediocre to awful. I decided to stay with "Countdown" after the first couple months because I had high hopes for the Flash and New Gods stories. But Wally came back in JLA and the New Gods stuff has all but disappeared. Now that we're near the halfway point, I'm wondering if I should stick with it in the hopes that it will get better or just drop it and save my money.

BPRD and Lobster Johnson - We've got three Hellboy or Hellboy-related series going on right now and I couldn't be happier. Each one has been great so far.

JLA #13 - I didn't like this book under Meltzer and Benes, but it's actually gotten worse with this new creative team. This will be my last issue.

One More Day - A $3.99 cover price for about 5 pages worth of story and some really awful art. Spider-Man has always been one of my favorite characters, but Marvel just has no idea what to do with him. I'm done until they get their act together. (Hint: Stop the drwn out storylines and give Robert Kirkman and a Spidey book.And speaking of Kirkman...)

Astounding Wolf-Man #3 - I think Kirkman's one of the best writers out there, but this book just isn't doing anything for me. I'm going to have faith and stick around for a bit, but I can't wait around too long.

Superman #668 and Action Comics #856 - "Camelots Falls" has been great, but the constant interruptions have really slowed it down. As far as "Action comics is concerned, me hate Bizarro and me think Eric Powell is worst artist for this story.

Tales Of The Sinestro Corps: Cyborg Superman - Sinestro Corps has been brilliant. These Sinestro Corps one-shots? Not so much.

Jack Of Fables #15 - There was a time when I actually thought of dropping this title in order to cut down on my monthly comic budget. So glad that I didn't, as it just keeps getting better.

Still have to read the new issues of The Spirit, Green Lantern, and Green Lantern Corps, and Booster Gold. Those first three titles have been excellent, and Booster Gold is off to a great start.

I also just finished reading "Tales To Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and the American Comic Book Revolution" by Ronin Ro. Pretty interesting stuff, even if it is very one-sided with regards to the Kirby vs. Lee situation.

I just caught myself up on the last four issues of Green Lantern, containing the Sinestro Corps storyline. Despite the fact that the story is just damned good, I'm very appreciative of the fact that I don't need to read other books to keep up with what's going on. The story is running both here and in Green Lantern Corps, but I don't collect the latter, yet I still don't feel like I'm missing much of the story.

Also, I can't speak highly enough of Suicide Squad: Raise the Flag. The book feels like the eighties series never ended. It's got solid story, well-defined characters, and an appealing art style, a combination which many titles can't manage. I have high hopes for the rest of the mini-series and hope it will sell well enough to warrant a continuation.

i just picked up the rest of walking dead to catch up on and marvel zombies vs. army of darkness

52 and Countdown were all hype. Very little story that could have been told in a less rushed monthly.

I really don't like Meltzer. His writing is probably the most pretentious comic writing i've ever seen. They need to give this book an edge, by giving it a great writer. Like Grant Morrison.

Spidey hasn't been good since...I can't even remember. I wasn't even buying comics when Spidey was good.

I agree. I thought it was going to a nice, light, fun-filled book like Invincible but the writing seems really forced.

You can't blame them for trying though. It's sort of necessary to flesh out these characters that are rather obscure, and they're not necessary to understand what's going on with the main storyline. I like how you can even just read Green Lantern and skip the Corps crossover issues and there's nothing lost with the storyline.

Don't say 52 and Countdown in the same sentence.. God Countdown is awful. They set up an issue for the jokester and then what happens in the next issue? They fuck'n kill him. Paul Dini really has dropped the ball as editor on this series. It's a total mess. A cluster fuck of a mess. They can't even keep the 52 worlds straight and already overlapped two different supermen as being from the same world even though they aren't suppose to be. Earth 15's Zod Superman and the Arena earth 15 superman are described as two different people.

Forerunner is a waste of a character who they already screwed up the origin of a lot of times by mixing up what world she's actually from.

52 was well written and a great book. Countdown is total shit.

Yeah "Countdown" has been a long drawn out boring cocktease. I go several issues not reading it then I remember to read it when I'm reading other books and there's a 'Countdown tie-in' message splashed across the page. But it's almost like I have to in order to fill in missing bits of info but not because I want to.

The only way Countdown redeems itself is if it's trying counts down the number of worlds that exists in the DCU from 52 to something like 2 or 3. There was so many worlds, so many characters you don't care about, so reading Countdown is simply a chore, and I'm very very close to dropping it, but I'll giving it until issue 27-26 (the half-way point to see if it gets any better, but I'm not optimistic).

As far as that Superman story concluding in the annuals... I agree, DC editorial on the superhero comics are messing up big time. They did the same thing with the initial Wonder Woman story, it's just amazing to me that it seems to have happened 3 times now. Explain to me again why collecting a title monthly is so great? Geez.

I finished reading the X-men Supernovas HC, collecting the first Mike Carey and Chris Bachalo + other artists storyarc. I've been away from everything X-related besides collections of X-factor and Astonishing, so this was the testing ground to see if I should come back... I've always loved the X-men, I love big hardcovers with a lot of story, and hey, Aurora and Northstar are on the cover. I've also heard that this is much better than Brubaker's first Shiar arc in Uncanny.

First off, I love Bachalo's art, I thought he was perfect in his Vertigo Death series, and I liked his Gen X stuff. His Steampunk book was largely incomprehensible. This is a mix of both... at times, great stuff comes through, and at other times it's a strain to figure out what's going on. It doesn't help that they introduce a dozen new characters in the first arc.

So we have Rogue leading a group including Cannonball, Cable, Iceman, Mystique, Lady Mastermind, some Omega Sentinel, and I guess Sabretooth. Since for some reason the other X-men have to babysit the school, this is more like a strikeforce team to deal with threats... of course, with Cable and Cannonball here (but for some reason not interacting with each other as much as I thought they would) this brings to mind X-force with grownups (and a lot of villains). They deal with some new race of superior beings (could've sworn they had a similar arc about super mutants before), then some psychologist that used to be a good guy back in the day but has secretly been stealing mutant powers all this time, then some otherworldly menace. I read it all, and I can't really say I'm hooked.

Anyone reading this book monthly? I know the Marauder storyline is coming up, does it get any better? Are any of the other X-books any good?