Every comic you've read in 2012


Missy

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Fantastic Four by JMS Vol. 1 (#527-532) - A bit too much talking for me. Even the climax is just talking, in space. And I haven't read much FF, but The Thing seems really stupid in this. Torch is non-existent and the Child Services sub-plot is really forced. I don't think I will read Vol. 2.

New Mutants: Back to School (Vol. 2 1-6) - Story was your standard team building arc. The only thing that stood out was the art, which I was not a fan off. People's faces will look different page to page, and the any female wearing pants looks like they are wear depends. I love classic New Mutants, and am somewhat saddened that this shares the name.

Ender's Game: Battle School (#1-5) - I liked this. Only real complaint is that, while the art is stunning, I did have a bit of a problem telling most of the side characters apart. Given that everyone is dressed the same, it may be a 'me' problem. But didn't really matter in the end as the side characters really are not important. Sucks that it ended on a somewhat cliffhanger tho.

A Wizards Tale - Really cliche. Nothing complex about it; you can tell the 'twist' from page two. The art is pretty tho. I good children's comic that has no higher level for adults.

Trades: 4 (20)

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Wonder Woman (V1) #600 to #605 - This is what i think Wonder woman should be, a bad ass, butt kinking machine. I am kind of sad that the costume from these stories didn't run through to the DCNU, but hey why give a woman an appropriate costume when you can stick her in a star spangled bikkini?

Green Lantern New Guardians #4 - It's interesting to say the least, but if you have no idea about any of the other lanterns you'll be lost right away

Comics: 7

Edited by bobobob_100
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First post of the year:

Defenders v. 2 #1-12: I was inspired to read the Busiek/Larsen run on this team, and fuck! It's even more fantastic than I remember. Larsen is bron to draw those characters and Busiek writes better Namor/Hulk than anyone else.

The Order #1-6: This is basically Defenders volume 3. Not as good as I remember. Valkyrie, Hellcat and Nighthawk against the original four who've gone bad. Interesting idea, too clunky and silly for 6 issues. 4 would have been better.

Moon Knight: Resurrection War #1-4: Wow! I've never read this before and Moench's return to the character is pretty good. But it's amplified by Tommy Lee Edwards' art. It makes it seem as though he was born to draw the character. Kind of a hybrid of Mignola and Sienkiewicz (did I spell that right?)

Borgia volume 1- Blood for the Pope: Alejandro Jodorowsky's real comic masterpiece begins in this first volume of his history of the Borgias. The first real mafia, a papal family completely caught up in murder, orgies and sadism. Boy, if you can find someone who draws sexier women than Milo Manara, I'll tell you you're wrong. Fucking fantastic! I want to read more GNs this year and the Borgia books are a great place to start!

Comics: 22

Graphic Novels: 1

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DC Digest: Justice League of America: It's digest-sized but a 100 page four issue reprint so I'll count it as a trade. Len Wein writes the JLA going to Earth 2 to help the JSA rescue the Seven Soldier of Victory to help save the earth. It's so packed with story that, if done today, would enompass at least 12 issues. So awesome. It's one of my favorite Silver Age stories and I come back to it every year or so.

Comics: 22

Graphic Novels: 1

Trades: 1

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Secret Defenders #1-25: Woof. Not sure I've ever read a comic so consistently bad. Written by Tom Brevoort. The art by Mike Manley on one three issue arc was kind of cool, but everything else is just pure shit.

Comics: 47

Graphic Novels: 1

Trades: 1

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Insurrection

Because Tom and Chris spoke so highly of it in Earth-2.net: The Show 492, I decided to give Insurrection a read. At just over 100 pages, one might figure it to be a quick read, but it's packed with fully rounded characters, two complete stories that come together to form a bigger one, intense action, serious drama, moral issues, and a cliffhanger that has me itching for the third and final (?) installment of the series.

What I find most compelling is Luther's predicament. At the start of the first storyline, his war is about justice for the downtrodden. He's taken a moral stance, and will never back down from it. However, by the end of the second storyline, he's contemplating an act of terrorism, one which will doom the entire human race -- and those he's standing up for. When the third series is finally published, it will be very interesting to see which path Luther takes.

The art? Freaking amazing! Even if you've never read 2000 AD and have no interest in this comic, click here for just a taste of how gorgeous this book is.

Comics: 0 || Collections: 1 || Graphic novels: 0

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Irredemable trade Vol. 1 - Pretty decent book, though it starts off confusing basicly dropping you into a story they act like you should already have knoledge of. They relyed on the people dying and turing into skeletons a bit too much. This is the first physical trade I've bought in a long time, and I'm not let down.

Comics: 7

Trades: 1

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Walking Dead volume 15. A relatively quiet trade as life in the gated community continues. Generally how it goes with Walking Dead in that odd trades act as a set up and then even trades work as the pay off. Not entirely sure how much longer the perpetual bleakness can go on but I'm sure that Kirkman will find a way.

The Boys issues 61 & 62. Things are definitely moving towards the endgame here, with Butcher giving Wee Hughie the ultimate test of his new found pacifism. As much as I've enjoyed Butcher, Baker, Candlestick maker it'll be nice to get Darick Robinson back on the series proper.

2000AD Prog 2012 and Prog 1764. The year end prog is once again a fantastic piece of work with a Judge Dredd story that doubles as a Choose Your Own adventure strip. Artwork by Higgins is fantastic, The other strips are also particularly good with the only duff one being Sinister Dexter. Nikolai Dante begins the first part of his final tale "The Wedding of Jena Makarov" and it looks like it'll be explosive. In Prog 1764 the final prelude to "Judge Dredd; Day of Chaos" ends and I'm not sure where it's going. The East Meggers have their hands on a virus that will make Block Mania look like a polite scuffle and PJ Maybe on the loose, I have no idea where this story is going, but I'm excited for it. Nikolai Dante continues apace. Not too sure about Grey Area yet, but I felt the same way about Kingdom which turned out to be one of Abnett's best stories in years.

Comics: 5 || Collections: 1 || Graphic Novels: 0

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PunisherMAX #17-20

Following directly on the footsteps of the previous storyline, a mentally and physically broken Frank Castle attempts to rebuild his arsenal for one last kill: The Kingpin. As the series comes to its conclusion, we're reminded more and more that Frank is an old man, that his war should never have lasted this long, that one day someone will bring him down. And after his fight with Elektra, it seems his day has come.

Rarely do I bounce with anticipation for the next issue of any series, but PunisherMAX #21 can't come soon enough. Jason Aaron has crafted a story that's fitting of The Punisher legacy, and I'm glad he's the one that's (seemingly) going to end the character's run over in the MAX line. Even more than Garth Ennis, Aaron seems to get the characters and their motivations. Here, Frank isn't simply driven by revenge or some dark force, but also an inner hatred that he will never escape. The recent reveals about the Castle family have been both surprising and plainly obvious. That Jason Aaron is the first person to write Frank and Maria this way is quite sad, because it means other writers only saw the surface level of The Punisher and not the broken man that is Frank Castle.

By the end of the year, I honestly hope Marvel releases a PunisherMAX by Jason Aaron Omnibus, because I'll buy it without hesitation.

Comics: 4 || Collections: 1 || Graphic novels: 0

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The Last Defenders #1-6: I was weary of this, and while the story is a little uneven and all over the place, I think Joe Casey did an amazing job between She-Hulk and Nighthawk. Muniz's was superb. One of the post Civil War series that actually worked.

X-Factor volume 2 #1-4: Like District X, a kinda cool detective story involving mutants, only there's not Bishop or other famous X-Men. Great art, solid story. Well done.

Comics: 57

Graphic Novels: 1

Trades: 1

I think I want to try Peter David's X-Factor next and then probably some Marvel UK.

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Secret Avengers #1-4

When this series was announced in 2010, I was very excited for it. Then I read the first two (three?) issues and was beyond confused. Serpent crowns, Moon Knight on Mars, Nick Fury as a bad guy, and Beast aligning himself with a covert team after telling Cyclops off because the X-Men had their own covert team? Nothing made sense, and I really didn't care enough to stick around to see the resolution.

Well, now I have, and I can say that, yup, nothing still makes sense. Worse, I have no idea where Brubaker is taking the story. Not in that "Oh my god! This is so exciting! I can't wait to see what happens next!" sort of way. But rather, in that "This is a messy mess of a mess, and I don't think it will ever make sense" sort of way.

Frankly, as much as I love Ed Brubaker's street-level writing, his cosmic works have never impressed me. In fact, they always leave me feeling hollow. And this is no different. Give the man back allies, crime scenes, and thugs and he has no peers. Give him space ships, godlike abilities, and aliens and he flounders badly.

Secret Avengers #5

This is much better! It's an epilogue to the first storyline, in that it explains who the evil Nick Fury is, and it stays grounded. No space stuff or superpowers, just a crazy Nick Fury LMD on the run doing spy stuff. When a comic is titled "Secret Avengers" and has Ed Brubaker writing it, this is what I expect.

Secret Avengers #6-10

Sadly, with this five-issue storyline we return to the mystical crap. This time, though, imagine a Ra's al Ghul story where instead of using one of his pits to lengthen his lifespan, he needs to acquire Talia's blood and two gems. Now replace Ra's with Shang-Chi's zombie father and Talia with, well, Shang-Chi.

Also, for a covert team, too many of their battles have been in public. And both stories have begun with rather disjointed timelines. It's jarring, unnecessary, and actually muddies the issues.

Secret Avengers #11-12

Another epilogue, and this one's set in World War II. So, as with issue #5, this should be in Brubaker's wheelhouse. But not so much this time. Instead of well-plotted World War II action and deep characterization, we get more crap with the Shadow Council, John Steele's origin, and a WWII tale with a demon wyrm.

Yawn.

I really hate to say it, but Ed Brubaker's time on Secret Avengers was terrible. It's great that he was breaking from his norm, but he's clearly not comfortable playing in a world of aliens and magic.

Next up, Nick Spencer tackles four issues (12.1, 13-15), then Warren Ellis has a six-issue run (16-21). Starting with 21.1, Rick Remender takes over the book. And I don't know what that means for Brubaker's storyline. The stuff with the crowns, the Fury LMD, and John Steele has not wrapped up. Normally he doesn't leave books with so many unresolved threads, so I wonder if these other writers will pick up where he left off, or forge their own paths.

Comics: 16 || Collections: 1 || Graphic novels: 0

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New X-Men- E is for Extinction: Didn't hate it, but wasn't overly impressed by it either. Morrison writes Cassandra Nova pretty well and has decent handle on the X-Men, but she was apprehended and defeated way too quickly for such a powerful villain and the destruction of Genosha didn't have the gravity that it should have on both a writing and artistic level. And as for the art, I actually didn't hate Quitely's work her like I do with most books, although his Emma Frost looks like an anvil feel on her face and Cat-Beast can suck it. Jean's line about the look suiting him reeked of Morrison congratulating both Quitely and himself.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Took a while for me to get into this one, given the sheer size of the book (the one I read from is the 13-issue trade) and the fact that I'd never read a Cap book before and this book wasn't entirely new reader-friendly. After "The Lonesome Death of Jack Monroe", however, I became fully invested in it. "The Winter Soldier" storyline was stronger than the "Out of Time" arc, but the story of Nomad's demise was the strongest part of the trade and required reading for anyone even partially invested in comic books. The art, from top to bottom, was outstanding and Epting, Lark, Leon, and Perkins were each on the book for a reason.

Trades: 2

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PunisherMAX #21

With one more issue to go before the end of PunisherMAX, it would seem that Frank Castle has finally died. However, I'm not so sure. With everything we've learned about the man -- especially when it comes to why he's so driven -- I would not be surprised at all if Frank is denied a happy ending in the way of death. Jason Aaron gets that Frank is a tortured man, and the best way to torture him is to have him live with himself another day. But we'll have to see how it all plays out next month.

What's interesting is that one panel confirms that PunisherMAX is a direct continuation of the previous MAX Punisher series. At times it seemed like it, but I wasn't sure 'til now.

Comics: 17 || Collections: 1 || Graphic novels: 0

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Secret Avengers #12.1

Nick Spencer's first issue starts with a fizzle. In a WikiLeaks sort of way, over 400 of the government's contacts (RE: terrorists-turned-informants) have been exposed to the world, and the Secret Avengers can only save one of them. While that's an interesting concept and is a good way to bring a real-world issue into Marvel continuity, there are problems with it.

Firstly, we don't know any of these informants, so, as they die, we don't care. This negates the point of the story; how can we feel sorry for these "quiet heroes" if we're never given their names, personalities, or the reasons for their sacrifice?

It's also too soon in the series for a story like this. This is the type of story you tell after two years, once the team has stopped a dozen threats thanks to all of this information. Once they start to get a little cocky, then you cut their legs off and have the terrorist organizations swarm to take advantage of a time when the government is blind to their actions. Pulling the trigger at this point makes one shrug because, frankly, it doesn't matter. Again, we've not been made to care.

Also, USAgent is not wrong. Steve says as much. But he still has his teeth knocked in because "we'd never let people die just to prove our damn point." Okay, but these people who died were not spies, they were terrorists who were selling out their comrades for money and / or to save their own asses. As for the one who did it for the right reason? Still a terrorist, so I really don't care.

Secret Avengers #13-15

Fear Itself tie-ins!

These are less Secret Avengers issues, as they are character sketches, a la Bendis' Civil War Avengers issues. Though it's a good idea, it rarely works in the middle of a world-ending battle. That said, Valkyrie's issue has some resonance and greatly informs her character and the choices she makes during this battle. It isn't a must-read, but it is worth a look. However, The Beast's issue (#13) isn't about him, and feels really forced. And Black Widow's issue (#15) is downright terrible. The entire comic is about how hard it is to be a superhero, especially when your friends and lovers die. Whine! Whine! Whine! Also, no one in issues 13 and 15 act like rational human beings. Sure, there's a war on, so people are going to be a little wacky. But come the fuck on! Widow takes her frustration out on a TMZ-like tabloid, guns-pointed at the staff and all that jazz. And what does the editor do? She tells the spy / assassin off. Uhm... what?

The only reason I keep reading this series is to get to the Warren Ellis issues. (Sure, I could have started with those, but I wanted to see what came before, so I could compare it to them and see if he picked up any loose threads.)

Comics: 21 || Collections: 1 || Graphic novels: 0

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Secret Avengers #16-21

When you want a mixture of covert ops, mystical powers, cosmic beings, and superhero action, you call Warren fuckin Ellis! Instead of one crappy six-issue storyline, he'll give you six single-issue tales that'll blow your freaking mind! Okay, his science / technobabble can be a little hard to understand and sometimes sequences are rushed, but there's more action, adventure, characterization, and depth in his single issues than in the entire runs of other writers.

Also, Moon Knight in a white suit and his mask? Pimp!

Comics: 27 || Collections: 1 || Graphic novels: 0

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Secret Wars - Having never read this, I figured why not. Not exactly what I expected. First off, way too wordy. I get that that was the style back in the day, but damn, this took me all day to read because I kept putting it down do to being so wordy. All the characters, sans Doom, were jokes. The Wrecking Crew? Really? Seems like bigger names could have been used. And this may be the 90s cartoon's fault, but I thought Spider-Man was a much bigger deal in this than he actually is. Yeah, he gets the costume, but that is about it. I was kinda shocked that we never see the Beyonder. I think that works in the story's favor, as the design they came up with in the sequel is really lame.

All in all, glad I finally read it, but I am never reading that again. Ever.

Trades: 7 (45.5)

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