Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

Batman: Hush

Loved the artwork but wasn't really impressed with the story.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

Yeah, that's the general consensus. It was such a novelty to see Jim Lee not only draw a book (kind of) monthly, but to have him draw Batman, but that's kind of passe now.

re: Thunderbolts. I liked it when it originally came out, though I think Wizard spoiled it for me (not sure if this also includes the Hulk issue where they debuted). Still, I love superhero teams. But a few years ago I went back and re-read it, and just couldn't get into it, I think I stopped around where they crossed over with the Busiek Avengers. There are some fantastic runs with the characters, though I wish Songbird would have stayed on the trajectory that Avengers Forever had her on.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

It's a good read from that era.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 17: Desperate Measures
(Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #66-70)

This book just keeps plugging along. It's easy to kind of take it for granted, and it's not like it's doing anything revolutionary, but month after month it continues to be a solid read. This particular arc focuses on shadowy forces within the government's beginning to take an interest in mutant affairs. It is kind of funny in retrospect that until now, with a couple of exceptions, the Turtles and their various allies and adversaries have sort of stayed below the radar of the authorities.

If you haven't read any of this series, then it'd be silly to start here. However, if you have any interest in TMNT, I heartily recommend diving in.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

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S.H.I.E.L.D. By Steranko: The Complete Collection
(Strange Tales 151-168, Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. 1-3, 5)

Jim Steranko's a legend and that legendary status is more or less based on the contents of this book. He did a handful of other things, but for the most part, this is it. Considering how revered he is, I knew this book had to be something special. The stories are fun and almost all action, but not all that different from what came before. The real difference is in the visuals. Steranko was clearly influenced by Kirby in the dynamism of the action and the detail of all the crazy tech. His layouts and design sense, however, are on a different level altogether. The use of color, in particular, is revelatory. (Steranko colored the book himself.) I were ever to hang a print of a comic book page on my wall as decoration, a Steranko SHIELD page woud definitely be one of my first choices.

As his style develops over the course of the book, the visuals do begin to overwhelm the storytelling a bit. Nick Fury #3, the next to last issue in the book, ends with a lengthy block of text seemingly because Steranko ran out of pages. It does the story no favors that it is a lame retread of the Sherlock Holmes classic "The Hound of the Baskervilles," an odd fit for Nick Fury to be sure. Nick Fury #5 also ends on somewhat of a cliff-hanger. I know the story doesn't end there just because Steranko left the book, but it feels like a bit of a letdown. All in all though, this lived up to the hype. It's a classic for a reason.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

Late to the party, but I've been reading through Walter Simonson's Orion Omnibus.


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Besides being a ton of fun, the art is exactly what it should be, with Simonson acknowledging Kirby in almost every panel. It's worth getting for the re-coloring alone, which makes the art pop even more so. I wish every Omnibus that collected floppies that were initially printed on newsprint would get this treatment, as the paper really changes the look of the colors, and the older material needs to be readjusted with the new brighter paper taken into account.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

Some reading I did over the holidays:

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Batman: Illustrated by Neal Adams Vol. 2 & 3

Volume 1 was filled with fun Bob Haney Brave and the Bold stuff, but it's these two volumes that people think of when they think of Adams Batman. Volume 2 contains most of the Man-Bat issues, and is surprisingly horror-centric even beyond those particular issues. Was this a Denny O'Neil thing, or just a 70's thing? Volume 3 has some horror stuff as well, but the meat of it is are the Ra's al Ghul stories, not to mention the classic "Joker's Five Way Revenge." It feels like almost all of these O'Neil/Adams stories were adapted for the 90's animated show, and the ones that weren't probably could/should have been. Gripes about the revised art aside, this stuff is essential.

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Batman and Son

This is the first volume of Grant Morrison's Batman run and I'm not a Morrison devotee or anything, but this was a ton of fun. I was skeptical of Damian when he first hit the scene a decade ago (I think the last monthly Batman book I bought off the stands was Morrison's 2nd or 3rd issue), but reading through these stories now, I see why he's so popular with some people. I enjoyed the second half with the Club of Heroes as well, and I thought this was a perfect example of Morrison referencing old continuity (more on that below) without making it impenetrable.

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The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul

I was told this only partially Morrison written crossover was skippable in the grand sceme of things, and after reading it I can confirm that it is in fact totally skippable. It's not horrible or anything, but it's the classic crossover where the story probably could have been told in half the number of issues and really the only thing that matters in the long run is that Damian is freaked out by Ra's and decides to go live with Batman.

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Batman R.I.P.

This is where things kind of start to go off the rails if you're not really buying into what Morrison's doing. Thankfully, I read the "Black Case Book," which was a collection of Silver Age Batman stories that were referenced throughout his run, before hand. I also had a general understanding that Morrison was trying to write a Batman story under the assumption that every Batman story ever written, including the goofy silver age stuff, was in continuity. That helped a lot. I think if I had read this as it was published back in 2007-2008 without that background, I would have been completely lost. As it stands, I enjoyed this, but not as much as Batman and Son. The fact that the ending is completely undercut by Final Crisis makes it a little less fulfilling. Speaking of Final Crisis...

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Final Crisis

So yeah, this was a tough one. I'm by no means a DC expert, but I have read Morrison's JLA and Seven Soldiers, and the time period leading up to this (Infinite Crisis/One Year Later/52) is far and away the period of DC I'm most familiar with. Even with that, there's no way I could have gotten through this without online annotations. My knowledge of DC history (especially Fourth World) is just not up to snuff. By the time I got two thirds of the way through it (Specifically, once I got through Superman: Beyond. Still not sure what to make of that section.), it started to come together for me and I really began enjoying it. However, I can't help but feel like this is the wrong approach to take with mainstream superhero event comics. The sort of navel gazing Morrison is doing here can be a lot of fun if you're willing to put in the work, but I don't see how this sort of thing helps grow new reader interest. I don't want to make it sound like I'm in favor of dumbing down comics, but at times it feels like Morrison is being purposefully obtuse. Morrison himself has demonstrated many times over that he's capable of writing smart and accessible comics. All that said, I did kind of enjoy this on balance and think it will improve on re-read. I remember all of the uproar at the time surrounding Batman's "death" and the fact that he used a gun (gasp!), but I didn't find it to be terribly controversial. If anything, I thought the confusion regarding the ending to R.I.P. and how it fit with Final Crisis was the far bigger annoyance. The fact that Morrison wrote both and couldn't make the pieces fit is extra weird.

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Time and the Batman

This is a bit of a mishmash volume. First up is the big milestone #700. It's a fun little story showing a case which spans multiple generation of Batmen. It's a standalone that I don't think meant anything in the grand scheme of Morrison's run, but it's fine for what it is. The next two issues are billed as R.I.P. "missing chapters" and fill in the gaps between R.I.P. and Final Crisis. These were enjoyable, and they nicely summarize the events of R.I.P. and Final Crisis in a far more coherent manner than the the actual stories in question, but it still seems odd to me that there was such a disconnect between those two events that two years down the road these issues were needed to fill in the story. The last issue in the collection is a Fabian Nicieza written story with Dick and Damian as Batman and Robin. It's fine, but I'm not sure why it's here other than that it needed to be collected somewhere.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

Yeah, Morrison's Batman and Final Crisis were both pretty impenetrable to general audiences and even to hardcore audiences. I still don't fully understand why RIP and Final Crisis diverge so much. To add to the confusion you have books like Countdown to Final Crisis and Death of the New Gods which basically directly contradict what happens in Final Crisis. What a mess.

I'm also still not sure how the original Legion of Super Heroes came back, how or why they diverged from the Giffen/Bierbaum stories, and what in the world was going on in Superman Beyond (and even though SB is confusing, Final Crisis is even more confusing not having read it).

I feel like Batman's the one that kind of needed the reset and he's the only one that didn't officially get it when New 52 rolled around, though I understand the sales aspect of it.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

Maybe the confusion is intended as Morrison's meta-statement that there is no definite DC continuity and pick whatever you prefer. Morrison is obsessed with making meta-statements in his comics. Sometimes he makes it overt, but occasionally he goes wild.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

The Darkseid War Part I, Special and Part II

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

I blind-bought this on good buzz. Honestly I'm not a huge Dennis fan, and his shenanigans can get annoying, but the book itself is beautifully put together, with a ton of archival material plus interviews with the creators and such. So I probably won't re-read this very often, but it's a really impressive package, and I'm tempted to get the first two volumes in the series just to support the release.

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Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

Don Rosa UNCLE SCROOGE & DONALD DUCK Library vols. 3 and 4.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

I really need to move those Rosa collections to the top of my reading piles.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

I went through a huge Rosa phase a few years ago when the stories were only available in random paperbacks. Now that I have most of the Fantagraphics volumes, I should go through them to see what I've missed.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

I was browsing a used book store over the weekend and ran into something called Tex the Lonesome Rider, written by Claudio Nizzi and illustrated by Joe Kubert. So essentially a spaghetti Western with Kubert art! Turns out it's only $5.99 on Kindle so I read it this week. I'm a sucker for anything Kubert, but I thought the story was really interesting too, and over 200 pages. I guess the character has appeared in a number of stories but this is the only Kubert comic. It was also released under the title The Four Killers.

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I just started Resident Alien Volume 1: Welcome to Earth! I'm about thirty pages in and I'm really enjoying it so far.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

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Annihilation Books 1, 2 & 3
(Drax the Destroyer 1-4, Annihilation: Prologue, Annihilation: Nova 1-4, Annihilation: Silver Surfer 1-4, Annihilation: Super-Skrull 1-4, Annihilation: Ronan 1-4, Annihilation 1-6, Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus 1-2)

I really love the Jim Starlin cosmic corner of the Marvel Universe and was eager to finally read Annihilation knowing that it's pretty popular and basically restarted Marvel's entire cosmic line. Unfortunately I was a bit underwhelmed. It's not a bad story by any means, although some of the lead up mini-series probably could have been skipped (Super-Skrull and Ronan I'm looking at you). My biggest problem with it all was just a generic war story and you could have swapped in just about any other characters and it would have felt the same. Missing was the cosmic wonder and mysticism of Starlin's stuff. Those stories felt larger than life. The characters were operating on a plane above and beyond human understanding. I've also always thought Annihilus was one of the stupider looking characters, which kind of diminishes his threat level for me, but that's nitpicking. It did hold my interest long enough to keep going into Annihilation Conquest and Guardians of the Galaxy and all that. Hopefully I'll enjoy it more now that I understand and accept it's not Starlin.

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The Avengers: The Trial of Yellow Jacket
(Avengers 212-230)

This book is the bridge between the end of Jim Shooter's run and the beginning of Roger Stern's. The bulk of it revolves around the infamous story where Hank Pym hits the Wasp and is kicked out of the Avengers. I had never read this before but certainly was aware of its reputation. After reading it, I don't think it's quite the hit piece that so many people make it out to be. The story itself makes perfect sense given Pym's history and brings a dose of adult reality not previously present in the book (whether or not that's a good thing I guess is up to the individual readers). Honestly, I think Shooter's biggest mistake was a lack of subtlety in Avengers #213. Instead of making it clear that Pym had been under a ton of stress and just sort of snapped in the moment, he comes off like the jerkiest jerk-off who ever did jerk in that one issue. I think the rest of the story plays out fine and adds good depth to both him and the Wasp. Some of that may be thanks to Stern who is the one who actually finished the story. Shooter was struggling to keep up on writing duties after becoming EiC, which is obvious due to the number of fill-in issues sprinkled throughout this volume, and had to leave. The quality of the book noticeably jumps up a notch when Stern takes over. The rest of the stuff included is more or less middling, with average, at best, art. Of note is Tigra's brief run as a member (thankfully she goes away quickly) during which the big 3 (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor) learn each other's secret identities for the first time in surprisingly unceremonious fashion.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

I have a lot of those "events" to catch up on. I've started both the Infinity Gauntlet and War of Kings omniboo, but not finished them, due in no small part to the difficult reading size. I probably have Annihilation too.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

I started reading Blackest Night a few days ago. Up to Part 3 right now.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

To me the beauty of the Annihilation books was that it brought all the Marvel cosmic characters together in the face of, well, annihilation. True, it's a war story, but one where the good guys are losing and even the cosmic big guns are kind of helpless. I liked the format of the minis, each featuring a different cast of characters. Also the cosmic universe was sort of a haven from the civil war shenanigans happening in the rest of the books at the time...

As for Pym, Shooter swears the way he scripted the panel was very different:

http://jimshooter.com/2011/03/hank-p...e-beater.html/

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

I actually don't have a problem with how that panel is drawn. It's more the way he out of nowhere just starts acting like a giant dick in the lead up to that panel. Had the progression of his breakdown been slower and more organic, I honestly think it would have played fine. Of course doesn't it all get retconned in secret invasion? I haven't read that yet, but I think I heard Pym is revealed to be one of the Skrulls.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

I wish Marvel would put the Annihilation omnibus back into print. The original goes for serious money on the secondary market.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

Really? I had no idea (if have something, I don't keep tabs on if it's oop or not). So now I'm weary of reading it in case I damage it or something.

The War of the Kings storyline (that's collected across 3 huge omnibuses) is a pretty good "cosmic" Marvel story as well.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

I finished Resident Alien Vol. 1 and I really enjoyed it. I bought the other three volumes. I signed up for a free month of Comixology unlimited today. There's a lot of trades on there that I wanted to read, but was hesistant in buying them. I just started Chew Vol. 1 on Comixology.

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Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

Iirc, he was a skrull but he was replaced long after the wife beating part of it (and the Skrull Pym was the one who had the fling with Tigra resulting in a baby).

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

What? Was everyone married to a skrull? I remember when Alicia was revealed to be a skrull.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

Yeah that, to me, will always be one of the lowest points of theFF, the whole Lyra the laser fist and future franklin stuff.

The Secret Invasion storyline basically revolved around a lot of characters having been replaced or manipulated by skrulls for some time.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

Hawkeye, Vol. 2: Little Hits

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Really enjoying this Hawkeye series so far. I think it would make a good movie or tv series.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

After almost 20 years of not regularly reading comics, I got a Comixology Unlimited trial a few days ago. Last night I finished Planet Hulk. I’ve also read Locke & Key volumes 1-3 and the original Old Man Logan story within the last few days. Next up is World War Hulk, then maybe Invincible.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

I just finished Hellboy, Vol. 1: Seed of Destruction
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I really enjoyed it. I'm starting Hellboy, Vol. 2: Wake The Devil now.

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Recently re-read Stray Bullets Hardcovers Volumes 1-3...Love this comic...I still feel this would make an amazing HBO series...Can't remember if this has still been optioned, but I know it was at some point back in the day...David Lapham remains one of my favorite comic book writers/artists...A TV series would be amazing...

Starting to re-read all of Rucka's Queen and Country graphic novels...Very diverse series and I love the rotating series of artists that they use...Would probably tie Transmetropitan as my favorite all-time comic series...

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

I just started Hellboy Vol. 3 The Chained Coffin and Others

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Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

I just finished reading Hellboy Vol. 4 and will be taking a break from Hellboy since comixology unlimited doesn't have Vol. 5 or 6.
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I just started The Sixth Gun Vol. 1
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Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

I've always wanted to check out The Sixth Gun but never gotten around to it. Someone optioned it for a movie, though I believe that stalled.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

I read a volume of Sixth Gun and liked it but didn't pursue more. I was also reading a zombie Western at the time called Rotten (RIP) so I might have wanted a break.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

SyFy was originally going to make a six part miniseries based on the comic in 2011, but it was never made. NBC shot a tv pilot in 2013, but they passed on ordering it to series.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

I just finished The Sixth Gun Vol. 2 and started Vol. 3.

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Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

Immortal Hulk is surprisingly good. Takes what I guess is a new spin on the basic origin of Hulk. The first trade is on Comixology Unlimited.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

Yeah, Immortal Hulk has been getting very good buzz.

Re: What's the last TPB/Graphic Novel you read?
 

Thunderstrike: Youth In Revolt

I actually bought this one by mistake, just looking at the issues it collected (Thunderstrike 1-5), and didn't realize that it was the rebooted Thunderstrike. I was bummed.

Until I read it. Good stuff! It really captures the feel of the original Thunderstrike comic, and the art (still by Ron Frenz) gives it the same look. I'm glad I got it!

And, honestly, I liked Thunderstrike more than Thor from the time that TS first came out.