I'm still getting:

Adventure Comics (for the Legion stories, but they aren't really all that fulfilling)
Batgirl
Batman and Robin
Birds of Prey (though the constant art changes and the very dense story make it hard to follow... but I'm a fan of Hawk and Dove)
Flash
Justice League of America (on very thin ice at this point, maybe a month or two before I finally admit James Robinson, much like Chris Claremont and John Byrne, has just lost his comic-writing abilities)
Justice League : Generation Lost
Justice Society of America
Legion of Superheroes
Teen Titans (I'm a glutton for punishment, and want to see what yet another new writer will bring. You know the book is bad when I accidentally read an issue out of order, didn't understand what was going on, and yet didn't blink an eye because the storyline didn't make much sense anyway. I'm avoiding anything else they get that Gossip Girl writer to write)

Dropped:
JSA All Stars: I was getting tired of the art, and it was 4 bucks a pop.

I don't collect any Marvel titles monthly because they put out EVERYTHING in trades. I'd pick up Green Lantern (and Corps and the third title) but I've been collecting the HCs and it's hard to switch.

Honestly, I was about to drop most of the 3.99 titles. Even the main Justice Society title has been more of a miss for me lately, and the Liberty Belle/Hourman backup story has been going on for what feels like years at this point. And I don't think I'd miss any of the titles all that much.

Oh, I forgot about Legion of Super-Heroes, still picking up that one, but not Adventure Comics. I hope to pick up Adventure Comics issues I'm missing since #4 in the cheap bins. I might end up doing the same (slumming in the cheap bins) with the Bat-titles I'm dropping too.

I left JSA once Johns was off the title, and don't miss it. Dropped JLA once Robinson/Bagley came on-board, and don't miss it either, and never got into the JSA All-stars, plus the higher cover price didn't help.

I'm dropping Fables after #100. Jack of Fables is going away at #50, so that's another 2 books I'm won't be getting on a monthly basis anymore.

I completely agrew with this, and I dropped a lot of the Bat-books also, However, I highly highly recommend Sirens of Gotham because it is a completely original Bat-title that doesn't rely or have anything to do with the return of Bruce Wayne gimmick. It has great art and written by Dini the entire series feels like as if they turned the Harley Quinn episodes of the Batman animated series into a comic book.

Red Robin is also surprisingly good.

I have heard good things for Sirens of Gotham, and almost picked up a run on Ebay, but I forgot to go back to that auction in time, perhaps I'll pick up another run soon.

The Batman stuff is getting out of hand. Now we have 2 Batmen running around, one with the yellow oval on the chest emblem, and one without it (One of Bruce Wayne, the other is Dick Grayson). Plus all the internationally-run crime-fighting outfit with Batman, Inc., it just feel too much. While I sort of like the little runt, Damian as the new Robin, Morrison bailed on "Batman and Robin" for "Batman, Inc." so I am bailing on "Batman and Robin" and bypassing "Batman, Inc.".

Speaking of bat titles... what happened to All Star Batman? Did it finish it's run or something?

Just thought I'd mention that I got the Absolute All-Star Superman in the mail today and it is a thing of beauty.

I'd have to echo this. Chris Yost did a fantastic job on the first 12 issues. It seems a little meandering at first, but everything that was built-up pays off at the end. Then Yost left, and Fabian Nicieza has done a decent job keeping it going. Probably my favorite "bat"-book at the moment.

DiDio announced (last year?) that it had gone on indefinite hiatus.

Are we ready for the December Haul-iday thread?

I totally jumped over Red Robin, but the strength of Batgirl has me interested in trying a bat-ancillary book.

Did you get the Red Robin issue that crossed over with Batgirl? That may be a decent way to sample the title.

I'm still so way behind in my reading. Back when I started getting books once a month from mailordercomics, I'd devour the monthlies as soon as I got them, going through a stack of books. Now even with my cut-back sub list, I'm a month or two behind in almost everything.

Luckily, part of that is because I've been going through trades. I started 100 Bullets a year or so back, but delayed getting the rest... recently I went through the entire series in about a month. I just went through the Red Hulk GNs again (read 1 and 2, picked up 4 and then realized I had a gap, so finally got 3) and have no idea what that book is supposed to be about. Did they reveal who the Red Hulk is yet, because I might just have to go look at a spoiler instead of continuing? Read the latest X-Factor trade, which collected only 4 issues but was still a good read; at least the art was consistent for once. And I'm currently going through the Superboy trade, collecting the stories from Adventure... I'm not sure which issues because I can't find that information anywhere in the book itself, and it has to be the thinnest hardcover I've ever bought. Have to get through it before I start on the Superboy series.

They have revealed who the Red Hulk is, but I think the book wasn't about that, at least not for me. That book was about big dumb fun, and in that regard it was great. If the mystery was the big draw, I don't see that being super satisfying. Not that it doesn't make sense, or anything, I just don't find the revelation of who the Red Hulk is as compelling of how the Red Hulk acted.

I skipped that Red Robin issue, because I tend to skip most all tie in stories. So I will see the conclusion of that story when I get to that issue in the run, now.

Justice Society of America Special (2010).

Now I know DC hates me. I love the Justice Society. I liked them when I was a little kid reading reprints in those little digests. I've always been a huge fan of team books, especially large teams, and this was one of the biggest. I followed All Star Squadron, Infinity Inc., heck, even Young All Stars. My interest waned in the Ragnarock years, and then the needless Zero Hour massacre, but then the new series started up and it was all kinds of great. James Robinson (the good one, not whatever evil doppleganger we have now) and Goyer started it off, with Geoff Johns taking it to new heights. Cool, classic heroes and newer versions of classic heroes; ooo, the new Mister Terrific from the Spectre's series, Jack Knight, etc. Great stuff.

Now Johns is gone. The JSA split up for no discernible reason other than trying to milk fans for two books... and I finally quit All Stars last month. The regular JSA book went through a bunch of creative changes; Willingham's run was a half a year of elseworlds wrapped up basically in text (!) to get ready for the JLA crossover. The JSA issues of the JLA crossover were basically JLA issues with the Justice Society showing up, with the end result of that being some kind of Starheart powered sanctuary for elves and other mystical creatures on the far side of the moon. Oh yeah, and they lost Jesse Quick to Robinson's JLA. Great.

Fine, fine. There's another new creative team on the main JSA book, and it seems intriguing at least. But then I got the Justice Society of America special. This is not a Justice Society of America Special. This is the wrap up of the Magog series that I guess has been canceled. Having never read the Magog series, I had no idea what was going on in this book, who this trucker guy is, and why I should care. I have no idea why Magog gets saved by a bunch of elves (again with the elves). Even at the end, it seemed like the JSA themselves couldn't care less what happened to Magog. And it was 5 bucks. At least the art was nice. Ugh.

On the bright side, I like the new creative team on Teen Titans (though I'm unsure of the whole "we need a battle-tested group because that's what we're about now side). They basically flushed the last story arc and characters down the toilet, which I guess is fine by me, but I would've liked to see a better resolution to that... of course, this team discards teammates like crazy, I'm not sure they even know that Kid Infinity is dead, that Blue Beetle is a fugitive, and they sure don't care about poor crippled Wendy. So just getting rid of female-captain-atom (who's as battle-tested as they come, but whatever) and aquagirl is just more of the same. I'm a little surprised that they put Miss Martian into a coma in the previous issue, though, since you'd think they'd want to align this with the new cartoon...

I'm so glad I drop JSA and JLA when Geoffs left JSA and the new writer with Bagley showed up on JLA. Sounds like a flustercuck.

Honestly, JLA has sucked since Meltzer left. McDuffie was saddled with endless crossovers and editorial pulling pretty much all of the big guns away, including the Big 7, the Hawks, etc. There were so many crossovers that the book went absolutely nowhere. At one point he was left with Vixen, Firestorm, Zatanna, a depressed Black Canary, John Stewart and Female Dr. Light. I'm not saying McDuffie was totally without fault, as his Anansi and especially the Milestone stuff wasn't very compelling, IMHO. He started posting on the DC message boards about editorial, which got compiled by Rich Johnston, and then he was apparently fired for it (see Lying in the Gutters column http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=21073).

So you'd think editorial would realize there's a problem here, and give the next writer some leeway. Len Wein did a pretty forgettable bridging arc that was just biding time for James Robinson's run. What we were initially given was Hal Jordan, Green Arrow, the Atom, Batman (Dick Grayson), Donna Troy, Mon-El, Cyborg, Doctor Light, Starfire, Congorilla, and the Guardian. Robinson had previously written Jordan, Green Arrow, Congrilla, and the Atom in Cry for Justice, and he was writing Mon-El, Doctor Light, and the Guardian in Superman. He should've known they would all be taken away from him. Just a couple of issues after this new team was announced, the Justice League consisted of Batman (Grayson), Donna Troy, Congorilla, and the alien Starman. And Robinson knows the criticism. He calls Congrilla and Starman the new "Blue and Gold" and has them saying in the book itself that they don't know what all the criticism is about, there have been far worse members in JLA history. Damning with faint praise.

But it's not just the roster. They've recently added Supergirl and Jade and Jesse Quick, continuing the trend of "if you can't get the big 7, get someone close," which is understandable, and those are characters I like. It's the writing. You know how most comics have gone past the though balloon phase? Not this one... sure, they're not bubbled up like they were in times past, but there are cute little captions with icons to let you know who's thinking what. Very distracting. They can be in the middle of a fight and Dick Grayson is thinking "I have to take the lead, I have to take the lead." Robinson also knows the criticism of the roster. He calls Congrilla and Starman the new "Blue and Gold" and has them saying in the book itself that they don't know what all the criticism is about, there have been far worse members in JLA history. Damning with faint praise, but even worse, it doesn't come across as clever.

I'm not sure if it's the deadline crunch (which would be odd, considering he's known for prolific output) or if I've just outgrown his art, but Bagley's art is not a draw on this book. I actually prefer the fill-in issues. When he was drawing both JLA and JSA issues of the crossover, it took both books to the bottom of my reading pile.

The last few issues have had the Crime Syndicate and the fake New Gods, so I'll see where it goes (and there have already been some gaps in comic logic there too... which Alexander Luthor are they looking for? because they seem to have Jr.). But I think I'm finally out if it doesn't pick up significantly. And I'm a huge fan of Golden Age, Starman, Robinson's early runo n JSA, and the Charest issues of Wildcats. But if not for Felicia Henderson's incredibly awful run on Teen Titans, Robinson's run on JLA would be my worst monthly of the year.

I've never enjoyed Bagley's art, so it's was nice time to drop JLA when he came onboard. But I don't know who they could put back on JLA for me to pick it up again...

Give me something like Buseik/Perez with all the major players. That got me back into Avengers after it went through a really dry spell.

Oh, I remember that time frame, but then I dropped that revamp of the Avengers after 9-10 issues.

I didn't really care for Meltzer's stuff either, but at least those issues felt like they had some direction. JLA hasn't really mattered to me since Waid, and that's a shame. Thankfully the cartoon existed to give me some good Justice League content.

If its ok with you guys I thought we'd just do one 2011 General Comic Discussion, since we only had 67 posts for this entire quarter. I can start it up in January.

I'm curious, why was that?

Before the Buseik/Perez relaunch of Avengers, they slogged through the Harras/Epting years with the team consisting of Sersi, Hercules, the Black Knight, Crystal, the all-white-Vision, the Black Widow, and a non-humorous Hercules; the West Coast Avengers had disbanded to allow the creation of Force Works; and then there was "Heroes Reborn."

Buseik brought the "Big 3" of Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor (I know Cap wasn't a founding member, but still) along with long standing members Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye, bringing back Warstar/Mrs. Marvel, adding two New Warriors members as reservists, and eventually bringing back Wonder Man. It was a good mix of established Avengers mainstays with new characters mixed in in a logical way. And then they fought against huge foes, largely unencumbered by crossovers. That's all I want from the JLA. No offense to the current JLA roster, or those that liked the Harras/Epting Avengers roster or JL Detroit or whatever.

I just read the last issue of JLA, and again, Robinson tries really hard in the pages of the book to validate his team... with the team trapped in an impenetrable bubble, with all these powerhouses outside trying to break in but failing, Superman gives a little speech about how they shouldn't worry, that this new JLA (with the old school logo in the word balloon) may not have been a team for long, but they're very experienced and they'll take care of it. Show me, don't tell me.

RIP Adrienne Roy

http://www.comicsbeat.com/2010/12/17/rip-adrienne-roy/

One of the credits listed was for coloring Mike Grell's Warlord, and I realized that a lot of her work will no longer be seen with Showcase-type collections.

Just ran across this. I've been waiting for a Jungle Action reprint!

http://www.collectededitions.com/mar...p/bp_mm01.html

Now I feel a little bad for bashing Robinson's JLA, hearing that he may be having some sort of midlife crisis (or had his twitter account hacked, one or the other). But Bagley is going back to Marvel (where he's done work that I enjoyed a lot more than his DC stuff).

Re: Avengers with Busiek and Perez

Had to look up the years of that collaboration, and I guess I was flittering in and out of comics in the late 1990s, but it looks like I could find another 2 years worth of Avengers comics from the Busiek/Perez team of that era.

Makes sense.

I don't know who it was here, but someone gave me the first trade of Rex Mundi. Well 34 years later, I have all the trades, so I'm reading through the first volume again, and this book is so awesome. I don't get why this series didn't get more attention. Maybe the quality fell off in later issues/volumes?

I'm really going to try to work my way through some runs in 2011. I really need to reread and finish Strangers in Paradise. Even though it's my favorite series, I haven't read it all (because I don't want it to be over). I have 3 phonebooks of Cerebus, and while I don't see me reading that whole run (I hear it gets crazy at the end), I do plan on reading the first chunk of it to see how I like it, and go where it leads.