dadaluholla

A bit late, but I figured I would go ahead and start this quarter's thread for general comic book discussion. Enjoy!

davidh777

I was just wondering at lunch if Invincible Ultimate Collection 5 was ever going to ship, then came back to a notice saying that the title was canceled. So what now, pick up the TPBs?

ytrez

Hadn't heard this. Do you mean that the hardcover collection was cancelled or the series itself. Or both? Regardless, that sucks.

dadaluholla

Jeez I was just wondering that myself....I'm not buying the trades so they had better get the damn HC finished at some point before i die.

davidh777

This particular collection was supposed to come out in the fall, then got bumped to Jan, then into limbo. I sure hope that doesn't mean the end of the HC series.

boredsilly

The Invincible HC collections have been notorious for shipping delays. I don't get why that is? I'm sure the interest is there.

fujishig

I know I gripe about this all the time, but I was compiling my preorder list for Previews, and just saw the newest Marvel Premiere HC prices... basically four issues for 20 bucks a pop. Five bucks an issue. Then I noticed my last X-Factor premiere hardcover was 25 bucks for five issues and a one-shot (issues 46-50 plus the Layla Miller one shot). The previous one collected 7 issues (39 to 45) for 20 bucks. I guess there goes my obsession with getting all the premiere Hardcovers for X-Factor and New Avengers. That's gotta be more expensive than the actual monthly comic, right?

mlister

Yeah, the MPE pricing just went ridiculous. I switched over to the PE of X-Factor with the two volumes you mentioned as DCBS had them for 50% off.

I picked up the first MPE of Hickman's Fantastic Four (5 issues, $20), but won't get the second for that price (4 issues, $20). Hopefully it will eventually be collected as an Oversized HC, which for some reason are priced much better per comic, which hardly makes sense when the OHC is a superior format.

The new PE of X-Factor (Invisble Girl Has Vanished, issues 200-203) at least has a double sized issue in it, which had cover price of $5. Not sure why it they didn't include the Nation X X-Factor one shot though, as that isn't listed in the solicit for the Nation X OHC.

Superboy

The title isn't cancelled, it couldn't be. It's one of Image's top sellers, and it's still being solicited nearly 6 months in advance. Although I jumped back on because the book became fun again. I love fun comics.

boredsilly

It was only a matter of time before they started trying to charge more for the HCs now that they've got people used to buying them. I'm actually ok with the HCs costing more, as long as the paperbacks are reasonably priced.

fujishig

Seems like the paperbacks will probably be 15 bucks for 4 issues, which is still not all that great. I actually like reading a bunch of comics at once, I don't really want a ton of thin tpbs.

dx23

Got Blackest Night #8 today and that comic has everything that has driven the comic book industry to the toilet:

fujishig

Both of your complaints have been around for decades now, even during the boom years. How many of the big crossovers have really had any lasting effects? Invasion? Millennium? War of the Gods? Zero Hour? Sure, there are a few things that persist, but we don't really have wide scale changes like they always seem to advertise. Same with deaths. I've said it before, but die hard comic fans just don't want change (and I'm not much better... as much as I've enjoyed the Zero Hour and Waid/Kitson legion of superheroes, I want the Giffen/Bierbaums ones back) And because this is all work for hire, if someone really likes a character who was killed off by another writer, they just find any excuse to bring them back.

Although I love Geoff Johns, and I haven't read Flash yet, I just see no reason for Barry Allen to come back after all this time... Wally was perhaps the one replacement of an iconic DC character since the silver age to finally stick with fans, mainly because they allowed Barry to stay dead (the only other one I can think of, Tim Drake, is no longer Robin as well).

I find it funny that one of the main complaints about the tv show Heroes is that nobody stays dead, but that's one thing they do, intentionally or unintentionally, that stays true to their comic roots...

Adam Tyner

If anyone's going to Wondercon, I'll be your best friend if you can get me one of those limited edition Scott Pilgrim shirts. Lemme know...

fujishig

So I avoid most comics sites due to rampant spoilers (plus I collect mostly in tpb, so I'm behind anyway). But I do collect some comics monthly, and I'm a little confused:

a) Batman and Robin: is Quitely off the title except for covers, or is he coming back some time? Doesn't matter much, since the most recent artist is good, I'm just a bit surprised he hasn't come back yet.

b) JLA: Is it just me, or is this title a mess? I was looking forward to the lineup change, but in the last issue I got, everyone left and we have a team of Grayson Batman, Troia, Mikhal Starman, and a gorilla. At least they kind of explained where everyone went, but is this just a case of editorial decisions in other books killing the roster, or is this part of some master plan? It seemed like most of the issue was just jumping around, summarizing what was going on in other titles. Not what I expected at all.

c) JSA: The main title by Willingham has a decent story, but I can't see how this doesn't hit the magic reset button soon, and I didn't appreciate the deus ex machina that gave the baddies the win. The All Stars title is ok. But my real beef is with the Annual, which was more of an All Stars annual and didn't make any sense because I don't read Magog and don't plan to. Why did they split up this team again?

dx23

fujishig

See, Mon-El supes (despite the horrid costume) was what I was looking forward to, and he disappeared in the last issue I read (#43).

They basically set up a lineup in#42 of:
Grayson Batman (still there)
Damien Robin (not sure where he went)
Troia (still there)
Mon-el Supes (they say in text that he went off with Superboy somewhere, but I don't think he's coming back to the team, is he?)
Hal Green Lantern (Barry came and took him away on some other mission)
Ollie Green Arrow (AWOL to go get revenge for Arsenal)
Black Canary (Went off to Birds of Prey)
Red Tornado (currently in pieces)
female Dr. Light (too busy with her son)
The Guardian (too busy)
Starfire (left heartbroken to go join REBELs?)
Cyborg (went to help Arsenal)

Last issue, they went on a mission and rescued Congorilla and Mikhal Starman. This issue, the team that goes out are these two guys plus Batman and Troia, since everyone else is busy. Ridiculous. They made a big deal of setting up the team last issue, and an even bigger deal that Dick is the one forming it, so he got the old Teen Titans together, and then this issue they're already disassembled. That's why I was asking if editorial was forcing Robinson to give up some of his roster. You'd think they would plan this kind of thing in advance, but then this is the same company that can't even complete storyarcs in a single title.

Speaking of rosters... what the heck is going on with "We are the X-men?"

boredsilly

Man, I was all about DC for awhile, but they've all but lost me entirely. I just do not care about anything they're doing right now, at all. I don't read anything monthly, and I'm only interested in reading stuff that is from the early 2000s right now. I hope they can do something to bring me back, but as it stands, it's just all blah to me.

Now, I'm not saying they're making bad comics. I wouldn't know, I'm not reading them, but I know they've lost my interest.

Marvel has me by the balls though. I'm chilling now, but I'm diving all the way back in when all the Avengers books relaunch.

Patman

I was trying to figure out a way to quit the Superman titles last year, and DC did me a favor by coming out with "A Year Without Superman" storylines in both Action Comics and Superman, so thanks, DC! Dropped Supergirl while I was at it. Now I just need to figure out a way to quit the Batbooks, but I'm still getting those for the time being with the return of Bruce Wayne underway.

The Valeyard

Justice League is a mess. I really wanted to like the title given who the creators are but it seems like it'll never find it's place because it's constantly sandwiched between events (Blackest Night, Rise & Fall, Brightest Day and now a JLA/JSA crossover). I think that's the reason why the last writer got fired because he complained that editorial was constantly messing with the title.

boredsilly

Justice League, to me, is an inherently cooler concept than the Avengers. I like the Avengers a lot, but the JL is just badass. Even though that's the case, that book has been pretty pointless since the end of Waid's run, or somewhere therebouts. This whole current volume has been a mess in my eyes, and I think DC were fools for letting Brad Meltzer, popular as he is, restart the team when he only planned to stay on for 12 issues.

One reason why the Avengers are so popular right now is that that book has had consistency ever since Bendis took it over. Sure, the team changes, but the thru-line remains the same. I know people don't like Bendis, but I think he's a great writer. Everything he writes might not be a homerun, but I enjoy most all of it. And you cannot deny that he's worked wonders on the Avengers over the last few years, completely shjifting the focus of Marvel away from mutants and onto Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

What DC needs is another Grant Morrison type writer who is going to take over the JL, and not just bring back random characters like Geo Force only to bounce right after, but instead create a new team, and stick around and show us why we should care. The JL and JLU cartoons show how this concept can work. Morrison has showed how this concept can work. Waid has shown how this concept can work. So do it again. They need to go back and reread Waid's Heaven's Ladder storyline, and try and reproduce that kind of excitement.

It's funny. The Justice League is DC's premiere team, but over the last decade they've been easily outclassed by both the JSA vol 1 and vol 2 runs, John's Teen Titan run, and Simone's Birds of Prey and Secret Six teams.

fujishig

I think part of the issue is that JLA is made up of the big guns, and the big guns have always had something or other going on that take them away from the title or otherwise screw them up. Even Morrison's run had electric supes in the middle of it. But I expect the editorial team to look far enough in advance to let the writers know who's going to be around, and who's going to change. The constant changes issue to issue are just grating to me, and I stuck it out through the Vixen round 2 issues to get to this crap.

boredsilly

I feel like JLA should just sort of happen in it's own bubble. If you take into account what's happening in all of the heroes solo books, it will get weighed down. They should take the Astonishing X-men approach. Understand that these characters have other lives, but they won't be reflected in this book. Sort of the way Superman/Batman used to be.

Sessa17

I just read a recent issue of House of Mystery (great book by the way) that had Sam Keith doing the back-up story in it. Damn I miss that guy's art.

. . . thats all I got.

Patman

Didn't Sam Keith do some Batman Confidential issues?