December/January/February General Comic Discussion (Winter Edition)
 

Looks like it's time for a new quarter of general comic discussion fun. Hard to believe we breezed right through the autumn edition.

Just to kick things off, I'm curious how many monthly books you are currently purchasing? I'm sitting at 3 right now (Daredevil, Capt. America, and Walking Dead). Also buying Ambush Bug, but that is almost over.

My list as of right now:

Marvel

Invincible Ironman
Ironman ----- will continue to get when it turns into War Machine

Avengers/Invaders
Ironman Viva Las Vegas

DC

Green Lantern
Green Lantern Corps
JSA
Booster Gold

Final Crisis
Final Crisis Superman Beyond
Final Crisis Legion of Three Worlds
Rann Thanagar Holy War
War That Time Forgot

DarkHorse

Star Wars Legacy

IDW

Doctor Who The Forgotten

Take care all!!

Only monthlies for me:

JLA: though after the horrid Vixen arc, (It's not an Elseworlds... just an alternate reality/dream, which is, you know, kinda like an Elseworlds, because it sure didn't change anything in the "real" DC universe) I'm getting ready to bail
JSA
Legion of Super Heroes
Teen Titans (I still hope they can turn this around)
Planetary (ha!)

I would collect some Marvel, but they collect literally every single book they publish, so why bother?

In addition, I pick up every new trade of:
All Star Superman
Ex Machina
Fables (finally caught up)
Green Lantern
Green Lantern corps
Invincible
Mighty Avengers HCs
New Avengers HCs
Starman Omnibus
Ultimate FF HCs (though I'm ready to bail on this too)
Ultimate X-men HCs
X-Factor HCs

I have been losing interest unless I have a bunch of issues at a time, and If i am going to do that, i might as well just buy the trades they are cheaper. Cap is the only one I still look forward to every month...

my list:

Floppies:
Captain America
Uncanny X-men (i'm about to stop and start with the hc's)
Astonishing X-men (same here)

Hard covers Trades:
Mighty Avengers
New Avengers
X-Factor
All Star Superman
Buffy
Angel
JLA
JSA
Runaways
Action Comics

New and old Semi-Floppy trades:
Ex Machina
Star Wars Legacy
Catwoman (brubaker)


How has the GL and GL Corps been since the Sinestro Corp war, I havent picked anything up since then. Can you guys recommend it?
How about Ironman, I stopped shortly after Civil War, has it been any good since then?


Nick

I don't read that many books month to month anymore either.

Off the top of my head I read:

Hulk
JSA (so awesome!)
Johns' Superman
Buffy
Walking Dead
Superman/Batman

I'm probably forgetting 2 or 3 books.

In trades I'm catching up with Fables (which I'm not loving like i thought I would) and Green Lantern now.

Secret Invasion is over! :banana: Now Dark Reign begins. :sad: It looks like Dark Reign is more confined, but creates some new titles (permanent?). Outside of Avengers, I'm not getting any of it.

so, what is the verdict? Is it worth picking up as a trade? I had been reading the 2 avenger books before SI, but decided I'd wait until it was over, so I would be able to read it all at once...

No floppies, and not even that many trades that I get consistently (I lost interest in some like Birds of Prey and Astonishing X-Men), except maybe Essential Avengers and FF.

I enjoyed the whole mess - although I didn't get a number of the off-title series. I've never read a trade and have no idea how they're but together, but if they include the whole thing, then yeah, I recommend it.

I will add that I wish both Marvel and DC would stop with the "big event" things for a few years.

Got my ever-diminishing pile of monthlies... though this time bolstered by a JSA event. Here's what I read over the weekend:

Legion of Super Heroes 48: Lots of exposition, and I'm still not feeling this series since Shooter came aboard and changed directions here. The explanation for the aliens is just... bizarre.

Spawn 186: I ordered two issues of this thinking McFarlane was coming back to doing the art... but he's only doing the digital inking, and neither the story nor Portacio's current artwork is enough for me to really get into this after so long away from the Spawn franchise.

Teen Titans 65: Wondergirl gets a new costume that's kinda like the old one, except now she'll have problems moving her arms up and down. Otherwise, all that buildup for this???

Countdown to Final Crisis v. 4 (conclusion): Should've listened to the advice and stopped collecting this. Lotsa crap happens, and nothing really resolves to my satisfaction. The payoff to the Karate Kid storyline is in an alternate universe (sure they tie it into an old property, which is kinda cool, but that's what it built to?) The motivations of the rogue Monitor and Darkseid are not really fleshed out. The end result of Darkseid's machinations are spoiled on the cover. A bunch of random heroes become cosmic guardians for no good reason... I still have no idea why they have the power or authority to watch the monitors. They threw away Mary Marvel not once, but twice during this series. This doesn't really tie into Death of the New Gods very well, nor Final Crisis, making me wonder what the heck the editors are doing over at DC. At the very least coordinate your "big" events!

Justice Society 20
JSA Kingdom Come Special Superman
JSA Kingdom Come Special Magog
JSA Kingdom Come Special The Kingdom:
Usually, I hate specials like this... but it was like having four issues of JSA in one month, which is only a good thing, to me.

JSA wraps up the Earth 2/Justice League Infinity storyline, so they can get back to the main Gog storyline. Decent explanation of the Power Girl paradox. It's great seeing all of these old characters back, though once again this has to confuse the heck out of new readers.

The Superman Special was the only one that really felt like filler, but it was basically Alex Ross's epilogue to Kingdom Come, and it's the first time Ross actually drew a monthly comic, so it's still worth getting. I love the quick resolution to the "fight" that opens the comic.

The Magog special reveals some much needed backstory behind Magog and his motivations, his mindset as a soldier and thus why he can justify killing.

The Kingdom Come special is pretty much an issue of JSA, with the inevitable turn finally coming.

In general, I thought the whole DC OYL gimmick was terribly executed... most of the titles that I was reading lost all momentum shifting one year into the future, and spent the next year slowly catching readers up to what happened... a tricky thing at best. I think Johns handled JSA wonderfully... he took it slow at first, reintroducing his large cast of characters, then introducing even more characters, but letting us know them instead of just throwing them into battle after battle. He took the hand he was dealt with with OYL (the non-JSA roles of Terrific and GL, etc.), referenced them, but otherwise kept control over his characters. It may bother people that Gog does not really seem to impact the rest of the DC universe titles, but it doesn't really bother me. And the artwork has been amazingly consistent... not super flashy, but a great complement to the story.

Oh, how you can not resist more JSA? this book has kept me happy through all of DC's ups and downs the past 10 years.

Secret Invasion #8 was so awful, a bloody, still squirming, third trimester abortion of a story.

I only purchase trades now, I torrent comics (yeah I know...) and buy them collected in trades when they come out. I can live with that.

Stuff I'm buying:

MARVEL
New Avengers
Mighty Avengers
Avengers: The Initiative
Immoral Iron Fist
Captain America
Criminal
Ultimate Spider-Man

IMAGE
Fell (sighs sadly)
Casanova
Invincible
Noble Causes
Elephantmen
Walking Dead

DARK HORSE
Usagi Yojimbo
Fear Agent

DC
Superman
Action
Batman
JSA
JLA
Green Lantern
Teen Titans
Titans
Nightwing
Fables


I'll pretty much follow Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Ed Brubaker, and Robert Kirkman anywhere. Bendis reads much better in trades, but the only book he's on that's CONSISTENTLY good is "Ultimate Spider-Man". Can't stand anything Spider-Man or X-men related.

How is Titans? I've been curious to pick it up, since it basically has the Titans I actually care about, but the creative team dissuaded me.

A lot of people slag Judd Winick, and maybe rightfully so on occasion, but I'm an old-school Titans fan and generally like the title. It's nothing spectacular, but its solid superheroey goodness.

I also forgot to mention Punisher (MAX) and The Boys.

I agree. I haven't read the last volume yet (I plan to), but Johns run on JSA has been the best thing from mainstream DC since it started, and I have to imagine the last volume was really good too. So it sucks that Johns announced that he's leaving the book soon.

Johns will be off JSA? Doh! I guess I can drop that book when it happens.

I just bought this:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...cL._SS500_.jpg

It's one of my favorite mini-series of all time (though it hasn't held up as well as something like Watchmen). And while I have the original floppies, I never picked up a trade, until this deluxe edition. And though it's pretty nice, I wish they would've gone the "Absolute" route with it, and it could've used brand new coloring, ala Killng Joke. But still, totally worth getting - especially if you've never read it before.

I have the original floppies but for some reason I never got the last couple. Years later, I picked up a used trade just to finish the story.

I'll give it a go, if only for the Brian Bolland art. That sumbitch can draw some comics.

I haven't read Camelot 3000 since it was released but enjoyed it enough to recommend it. I also ordered the hc.

I just finished issues' 7 and 8 of Hulk and I cannot get enough of this series. I know Loeb catches a lot of shit online, but this book is pretty much Marvel's version of Superman/Batman. I loves it.

I thought it was just average but then picked up pretty fast. I can't believe how much people hated it though. It wasn't THAT bad.

I'd highly recommend this month's ExMachina (#40) to everyone- it's a stand-alone issue/story, and it's the type of meta-story where new readers won't be lost - it's mostly funny, with a priceless final page.

According to wikipedia and some amazon customer reviews, this took over two years to come out, which would explain why I lost track of it or perhaps stopped collecting in the meantime.

Rereading my trade now; thanks for raising the topic, slop101

Yeah it's pretty polarizing, but it's popularity cannot be denied. I hate to say it, but I think there might be a hint of elitism going on with this title. Because it's so dumb and fun.