Brightest Day continues the stories of:

Firestorm
Martian Manhunter
Hawkman & Hawkwoman
Aquaman
Deadman

There's Firestorm stuff is being addressed in Brightest Day. Not that I'm recommending the book. I find it damn near incomprehensible. I've stuck with it so far because I have a unexplainable fondness for Deadman, but I don't think I can take much more.

Other books I'm reading....

Green Lantern - Perhaps they need to change the name of this book since Hal Jordan is little more than a supporting character. The book has been taken over by the orange, red, purple, etc. Lanterns, and I'm finding that I don't really care about any of them. (Nor the upcoming White Lantern, whoever that may be.)

It was a quality book for a while, and The Sinestro Wars was a high point. A great epic storyline that didn't require reading twent other crossover titles. (They were there, but they weren't necessary to enjoy the story.) But it's been downhill from there. As soon as it ended, they started introducing the entire new rainbow of Lanterns and building up towards Blackest Night, which I found to be a big disappointment.

And then Blackest Night lead directly into Brightest Day.

I wish the title would give the giant storylines a rest and just make it an enjoyable monthly read again.

No complaints about Doug Mahnke's art. though.


The Flash - I was against bringing back Barry Allen. The Flash: Rebirth mediocre, at best, and resulted in there being way too many speedsters in the DC Universe. I was so not looking forward to this book.

But three issues in and I'm really enjoying it. I look forward to each new issue. It's as if Geoff Johns took all of the fun that he sapped out of the Green Lantern lately and put it here.

But I'm still against the resurrection of Barry Allen.


Hellblazer - Has it almost been 300 issues already? There have been highs (Mike Carey) and lows (Paul Jenkins) in the history of this book. The current run by Peter Milligan is falling somewhere in between for me. His political statements are often eyerollingly forced and the recent appearance of Shade, the Changing Man (big fan!) was underwhelming. Still, Milligan has done some outstanding work in the past, and I'm hoping that his run will improve.

Not that it really matters, I guess. After collecting the title for this long, there's not much that would make me stop. (I'm even slowly picking up the gaps that I have from Jenkins run.)

Also nice to see some beautiful interior art from Simon Bisley.

The Unwritten - Got the first two trades and then picked up some single issues so noe I'm all caught up and ready to read this one on a monthly basis. I started off the title interested, but a bit uncertain. However, it really seems to be hitting it's stride now and getting better each issue.

DMZ - The best book out there right now. Hands down. I missed the series when it began, so I started picking up the trades. I got the last trade about a month ago and decided the I just couldn't wait until February for the next volume. So I picked up the single issues #50 and up and added it to my monthly pull list.

Then I developed a bad case of bronchitis. Those single issues are still waiting there to be read, but I refuse to read them when I'm not feeling well. It's a book that requires my undivided attention. They'll sit there until I feel weel enough to read them.

Brian Wood has developed some really strong characters here, and he's let them grow since the first issue. Often in unexpected ways. Sometimes in ways that make you want to throttle them. But always in ways that are believeable for the characters and situation.
It's powerful storytelling that's not afraid to take some risks. Thought-provoking. Gut-wrenching.... I'm running out of cliches here....The "Public Works" stortline left me visibly shaken and lamenting that I had no one to discuss it with since it doesn't seem to be a big seller.

And let's not leave out Riccardo Burchielli, whose artwork has continued to improve throughout the series. A really underappreciated artist.

Ex Machina - Brian K. Vaughan must have shot his wad with that brilliant final issue of "Y: The Last Man". About 2/3 of the way though its 50 issue run, the quality of this book really started to decline. Even Tony Harris's art (and I'm a fan) seemed to start getting lazy. I was hoping that they would turn things around by the end, but it started relying to heavy on supeo heroics and aliens. The final issue was a minor disaster.

That's it for my monthly titles. Still have The Goon on my pull list, but there hasn't been a new issue in quite some time. And of course I'm alwayd hoping that another issue of "Fell" will show up sometime soon. And maybe the next book of Alan Moore's "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"?

I'm still getting Hellboy and loving every minute of it, but I switched to trades. I was too annoyed by spending money for the single issues only to have the trade come out soon afterwards with bonus stories available nowhere else. Unfortunately, it seems that Dark Horse uses a special process in the binding of these books that makes them start to fall apart about halfway through the first reading.
Still one more Hellboy trade to pick up, and then I'll catch up on the BPRD trades.

Then it's finally time to read Brubaker's Captain America. Never been a Cap fan, but I've read the first two trades several times, and they're damned impressive. Does it stay this good for a long time, or does the quality start to dip after a while?

I'm right there with you on the DMZ love. I see people say the best book on the stands is Fables, Walking Dead, Scalped, or some other book often, but rarely do I see DMZ listed. I'm only on the third volume myself, but this book is STELLAR.

Good stuff I'm reading that you might not be:

Bulletproof Coffin -- A trippy story about a guy who finds a stack of Golden Nugget comics and gets sucked into the story. It's a cross between an old EC comic, Kavalier & Clay, Silver Age Marvel, and the Invisibles. Words don't do it justice. It's awesome.

The Sixth Gun -- Supernatural horror set in the Old West. The first issue is online here.

20th Century Boys -- A manga series from Naoki Urasawa. It's a great series that focuses on a group of kids in circa 1970 Japan and some events involving a cult that draw them back together 30 years later as the world prepares for the 21st century. The plot develops so rapidly that it's hard to say too much about this without giving away developments, so I'll just say that it's really good.

I just started picking up 20th Century Boys, but I'm only on the 1st volume. Also started in on his Pluto series, which is a retelling of the Tezuka's classic Tetsuwan Atom (Astroboy) story "The Greatest Robot on Earth." Man I have to dig up those Dark Horse Astroboy volumes again...

I was reading both of these, but for some reason I lost interest in both around the 3rd volume. I do not dislike manga, but I feel like there might be some disconnect with me and that form of comics. I will probably pick up Pluto again, as the characters in that rang a bit more true to me, but I think I'm done with 20th.

Bulletproof Coffin & Sixth Gun are both very good, 20th Century Boys I started a few years ago, but got bored with it, Monster is much better.

I haven't been following much comic book talk or gossip lately but there sure are some gigantic shakeups in DC. Wildstorm going under, an office movie to the West Coast, 97 Batman titles being solicited for December.

Pluto was really good. I almost feel like you could do an analogy of Watchmen is to the Charlton characters as Pluto is to the Astroboy characters.

Sessa, I definitely need to pick up Monster. How far did you get in 20th Century Boys before you got bored? I was hooked from the get go, but I know some people feel like it didn't hit its stride until the third volume or so.

I didn't realize IDW is releasing Jon Sable in Omnibus format. The old volumes are still pretty expensive so I might look into this option when they put out a second one (I recently picked up the second old volume).

My LCS had some DC war one-shots: Sgt Rock, Haunted Tank, Mlle Marie, and The Losers. I used to read this kind of stuff so I was tempted, but $3.99 each seemed a bit steep. Looks like the trade is coming out in April, which is a long time to wait but probably worth it for me. I haven't thought about Mlle Marie in many years.



Product Description: Top-name creators including Darwyn Cooke, Geoff Darrow, Joe Kubert and others revisit DC war heroes such as Sgt. Rock and The Losers in this collection of stand-alone tales.

Re-enlist with OUR ARMY AT WAR, a collection of DC’s war stories from fall 2010 featuring an eclectic list of creators and comic properties! In one story, readers are told a different kind of Sgt. Rock tale – one that follows the combat-happy joes of Easy Company decades ago and, simultaneously, a modern unit in the mountains of Afghanistan! In another set of three sensational stories, soldiers rise from the grave, horror surfaces from beneath the sea and a battle among dinosaurs proves that war has never been weirder! Others include The Haunted Tank, The Losers and French Resistance soldier Mademoiselle Marie!

I've actually wanted to read that. How is it compared to the movies? I'm sure it's more detailed and probably more entertaining. I've only seen the 1st part and haven't had a chance to see the 2nd and 3rd yet.


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1155705/

Just wanted to pop in and say I've been very disappointed in the recent JSA/JLA starheart crossover. I buy both books, I'm a huge Infinity Inc. fan, and it still makes little sense to me, and feels like the characters are just going through the motions. I'm about ready to drop both of them (and I never thought I would say that about JSA).

On the bright side I'm finally going through 100 Bullets, which is, of course, great. And Scott Pilgrim. And I have a Gold Digger Goldbrick, which is always a guilty pleasure. But man is my monthly pull list taking a dive...

Just saw this post. Haven't seen the movies so I can't compare them. There have been 11 volumes of 200-or-so pages each so far and I'm not sure how that matches up to the first movie, but that will give you a sense of the pacing.

I was collecting JLA but dropped it after the Starheart crossover. I don't know which Robinson they hired but it certainly isn't the one who wrote Starman.

Must be his evil twin, though. How else would you explain the obsession with the JLA including Mikaal, the gay alien Starman that nobody else cares about? And I finally read Robinson's "Cry for Justice" which I guess is where Congorilla and Mikaal came from, but I still have no idea why I'm reading a JLA book with those two as members, and the rest of the team filling up the pages with thought balloons. Bagley's not helping much, and I was a fan of his Thunderbolts and Amazing Spidey work, back when it seemed like he was doing an issue a week.

So glad I dropped both JSA and JLA when Geoff Johns left JSA earlier this year.

So all three Avengers titles from Age of Heroes have HCs coming out... any of them worth a look (Avengers, New Avengers, Secret Avengers)?

I can't really speak to that, Fuji, but I will say I'm a little sad that I'm pretty much through with the Avengers. I was really excited about the launching of all of the new Avengers books, but I'm not reading any of them. I know it rubbed some people the wrong way, but I really liked the Norman Osborn lead Marvel U, and without him, I'm not finding the much to latch onto. Granted, I'm not reading a lot of it, and I would probably dig more if I tried more. So take what I'm saying with a big grain of salt.

ETA: I might have spoke too soon. Red Hulk is in the current issue, and it deals with the illuminati and infinity gems? Yeah, I have to read that.

I just started reading this last weekend. Read the first 8 issues and so far it has been really good. Been impressed with Brubaker's storytelling so far (I think this is his first work that I'm reading). I'll be reading the 50 issues of the last Captain America series, then 600-614 (or whatever the latest current issue is).

Four shops in Chicago are doing a comic shop crawl in November. 20% off at each store, and if you visit all four, you get entered in a drawing for up to $500 worth of comics. Over the past few weeks, I've been visiting them and I went a little nuts with my 20% off. I picked up:

Giant Size Little Lulu #1
Queen & Country volume 1
Chew volume 1
The Blacksad collection
The Cursed Pirate Girl collection

As for that last one, Jeremy Bastian was signing at the shop, so I got to meet him, which was cool.

With the exception of a few Little Lulu stories here and there, I've never read any of these books but I heard great things about all of them, and I'm really looking forward to digging in.

I've been interested in GS Little Lulu, but I have a bunch of the smaller TPBs that I haven't read yet. Really enjoyed the one I did read, but not a huge priority right now.

i havent read since it switched over to the 600 numbering, because of being so behind, i figured i might as well just wait for trades, but I enjoyed the entire 50 issues from brubaker before that...it was the one comic i kept reading after i dropped the other marvel ones....I started back again during Civil War andd then read the Omnibus and LOVED it...

Amazon has the new Serenity GN The Shepherd's Tale for $6.99. Getting panned by the customer reviews but I'll probably pick it up. This will probably be cheaper than the eventual PB.

I applaud DC's decision to roll back prices on their 3.99 books back to 2.99. Unfortunately, it's too little, too late; I dropped a few books a month or so back, and haven't really missed them. I do appreciate the savings on the books I'm still picking up, though.

I've pretty much dropped most of the Bat-books because DC is totally milking the return of Bruce Wayne with so many off-shoot titles. So, I'll pick up Batgirl, Birds of Prey for now. Dropped Batman, Detective, and Batman and Robin. Won't be picking up Batman Inc., and whatever else they decide to put Bruce Wayne in (it's like the Deadpool over-saturation phenomena all over again). Never did pick up Red Robin or Sirens of Gotham or any other Gotham-related title. It's just too exhausting to keep up with it now. Dropped Batman Odyssey after 4 issues (didn't realize it was going to 13 issues).

Will most likely go back on a sabbatical on Superman once JMS is done (though his run was pretty uneventful, like Superman playing Forest Gump going on his walkabout across America). But I'll stick with Action Comics (Lex) for now. JMS's Wonder Wonder was also iffy, not sure if I'll hang in there for the new creative time, we'll see.

I think I'm still picking up:

Green Lantern
Flash
Secret Six
Brightest Day (on life support for me)
Justice League Generation Lost (also on life support)

Since I'm a glutton for punishment, I'll finish up with the 4 Wildstorm titles as DC folds up the Wildstorm imprint, I think their final issues will come out in January, so that's 4 books off my list as well.

Since Black Widow got canned, and I'm not sure if I'll follow her to the next miniseries (Widow Maker?), I'm down to Iron Man as my only regular Marvel title (and it's still $2.99, and I'm dropping it if it goes up to $3.99 in cover price).

Still getting Criminal.

With an end in sight, I'll hang in there with Echo, but I'm think I'm done with Buffy once season 8 is done soon. 4.5 years of Buffy in comic book form for season 8 is too much, too long.

Wow, down to about a dozen titles now, and could easily see it getting pared down to about 6-8 of them pretty easily.