Every comic you've read in 2013


Missy

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Obviously I didn't read all of these in January, some of them got done sometime in December and some I started in December but didn't finsih till after the new year.

One of the things I wanted to do this year was do a read on the famous cosmic stuff in Marvel:

Life and Death of Captain Marvel, Rebirth of Thanos - I prefereed Captain Marvel's story because it felt more complete, showing one of his climactic battles with Thanos for the cosmic cube and his eventual death. It felt suitably epic and important. Rebirth of Thanos was more of a set up for Infinity Gauntlet and feels like it, focused on Silver Surfer's first meeting with him and his realization that this is a bad man with bad intentions, but it seems kind of derivative, more like introducing Surfer to the lore of Thanos, including his allies (Death) and enemies (Destroyer). 8/10, and 7/10

Next up:

Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, Infinity Crusade

Read some Avengers stuff as well, I should have been done with this crap a long while ago.

Avengers: Children's Crusade: I enjoyed the young avengers, but this is a young avengers steeped heavily in the marvel continuity. It seems more focused on tying up loose ends and setting up tensions for the next book than it does of exploring the teenage youth in a very grown up situations that I liked so much. It's fun comics, but not nearly as fun as the previous 12-issue run by Heinberg. 7/10

Avengers vs. X-men HC: Absolute crap, seriously crap, I was so bored with it after about two issues and there's 12 or so fucking issues. Everybody is just kind of there and everything feels like an excuse for heroes to punch the crap out of each other. 2/10

For a while I hated the X-men, Fraction's run was so wrapped up in geo-politics and dramatic that it sucked all the fun out of it and had such a huge cast that I was constantly lost from arc to arc, Legacy while started off promising with the Professor X history focus (a fantastic series of issues) it devolved once the cast expanded to an off shoot of Fraction's run, Gillien doesn't seem to be doing anything new with the main book but there is one X-book reading (besides X-factor, of course, poor Peter David).

That's Jason Aaron's Wolverine and the X-men, happy to report that vol. 2 is just as fun with it's madcap stories and great cast as vol. 1. Some great X-stories here and pretty newbie friendly as well. 8.5/10

Odds and Ends:

Secret Avengers by Warren Ellis: Fucking great comics! Made better by the fact that it showed how good it could be after that abysmal Brubaker run. 10/10

Heroes for Hire, Dan Abnett's run: Solidly entertaining, the first trade is pretty bombastic mix of secret avengers (Warren Ellis) and Charlie's Angels with Marvel Knights street level feel. The series gets bogged down in fear itself and falls off the tracks. But I enjoyed Misty's story who is the anchor in this story. Very fun. 7.5/10

Moon Knight, Brian Michael Bendis run: I love Bendis' Daredevil, it's really what got me back into comics along with Whedon's Astonishing X-men. This wasn't that, no matter how hard it tried to be. It's a pretty enjoyable book but fails to reach the highs of his greatest stuff. It's got fun dialogue, but the concept is gimmicky and the conclusion is kind of sucky. It's never really the analysis of Moon Knight that his run on Daredevil was for that character. Instead it's just fun, inconsequential, superhero comics but with so many of those out there, it doesn't stand out enough. 7.5/10

Joe Hill's The Cape: Not actually written by Joe Hill apparently but the story is his. This is good, really good, it's kind of like Chronicle but in comic book form and with adults instead of teens. It's more mature with itself, even if the character is the most immature self-loathing idiot ever. And I actually didn't like Chronicle much, but I really enjoyed this. 8.5/10

Currently Reading:

Remender's run on Venom (on issue 11, very close to dropping, especially during that spider-island crap, but this new arc Road Trip has got my attention),

Infinity Gauntlet (these are long wordy issues, it's hard to read older stuff sometimes),

Scarlett by Bendis (really enjoying it),

Coming up: More Marvel Cosmic, and

Something, I don't know (Avengers Forever or All Star Superman or Top Ten or Global Frequency, something to balance out the longer stuff I'm reading, any reccomendations?, looking at runs or minis 12 issues or shorter)

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The Incredibles - Not as much fun as I was expecting. I was looking to revisit these characters, and for the most part, this failed to deliver. Everyone is boiled down to one note and they stick to that. And an uninspired story which it looks like will never be finished. There are some cool retro covers tho.

Graphic Novels - 1

Trades - 5 (20)

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I been a busy boy the past six days. Got two DCBS shipments and some comics for Christmas. Here goes:

Realm of Kings part 2: the last 12 issues of this arc. Really did not like where it was going. A lot of the stuff seems to be prelude to Thanos Imperative. Which I"m interested in, but it's the first time I've seen the usual Marvel Way of spinning one event right into another on the cosmic end of things. I did enjoy the Kree/Inhuman v Shi'ar politics a lot though. I will be reading the Thanos Imperative for sure though. The Son of Hulk series tie-in for this event was fucking A.B.Y.S.M.A.L.

Batman Inc. #0, 4, 5: I'm not giving this up for the sole fact that there's only seven issues left in Morrison's entire Batman run, but this is easily the worst stuff of his that I have ever read. If I am supposed to be interested in Leviathan, that stopped working before the first DCnU issue of Batman Inc. The art is the fucking WORST. Issue 5 is a 22 page dream sequence. So unimpressed.

Dial H #5-7: On the other hand, this is a fucking delight. The only DC book I see myself reading at all in the coming months. It's one of the only comic books out there doing something new. The whole issue based on how boring it is waiting for something to happen so our hero can save someone all the while waiting in the apartment because his Dialed hero is a stereotypical Native American is my vote for best single comics issue of the year. Genius, even!

Cyber Force #1, 2: To say that I've been let down by the year's theme of 90s resurgence is an understatement. Valiant is a wash of mediocrity. The first issue of Supreme, a disappointment. Prophet's first two issues an exercise in tedium that has become the most overrated book of the year. Bob fucking Harras in charge of DC Comics? Good lord. Then there's Cyber Force! I Kickstarted this. I did enjoy reading my name in the back of each issue (which you could have gotten for free at your local comic store), but not as much as I enjoyed reading the books themselves. A total reboot of what I consider the unsung quality hero of early Image, Silvestri and Hawkins are having a blast on the story and Khoi Pham's art is stunning. Another thing that reminds me why I like comics.

Masks #1: The Shadow, The Spider, Green Hornet and Kato versus martial law in New York? Okay, I'm in. Oh yeah, it's written by Chris Roberson, who I love lately, and painted by Alex Fucking Ross. I only bought the first issue of this to test for the trade as I'm doing with all these Dynamite pulp reboots, but I'm quite disappointed that I am waiting for the trade on this. Super-fun!

The Black Beetle #0: Francesco Francavilla's oneshot introduction to his own new pulp hero. Tons of fun. Not a lot to it. But I will be buying the trade for the miniseries that's currently coming out and any further work by this guy. Damn, he's good!

Rotten Apple Oneshot: originally serialized in the latest DHP, this is a weird post-apocalyptic monster-assassin story that was difficult to follow, ridiculously silly and all over the place. I liked the art at times, but not enough to seek out further work from this creative team.

JSA Liberty Files: The Whistling Skull #1-Talk about disappointments! I have been waiting for this for almost two years when I heard a B. Clay Moore interview about it. Then it got sidelined during the whole Wildstorm shuffle/dump. Then, finally, it was announced as part of a reboot of the Elseworlds line and it it into a DC continuity. And it's awful. The sad part is, I think I pre-bought the next two issues as well.

Savage Dragon #181-183: I've officially been reading this comic for 20 years. And it's never been better. There is, quite literally, a trade paperback worth of plot for a normal comic series in every issue.

Supreme #63-66: So I mentioned issue 63 up there as I read it last year and was utterly confused. I reread it before reading the following three issues that I finally got my hands on and I still hated it. Easily one of Alan Moore's worst scripts. Easily. Fortunately, Erik Larsen took over writing the following issues and making it super fun. Too bad there's only two more issues to go.

Ghost #1: The Comics Greatest World reboot is another 90s thing I'm excited about, but this was pretty terrible too. I've never liked Ghost though. So, I'm not too worried.

Comics: 32

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Batman: Heart of Hush: I read this originally as it came out in issues, and enjoyed it, then I read it now, and it's not as good as it once was. The main issue is the story is both long and short. Long in the sense that it's 5 issues, when it could have likely been three, and short in that Hush's plan is only revealed at the end of issue 4, and it falls apart by the end of issue 5, with most of the series being a sort of origin for Hush. The other issue is, the ending was not actually collected in this trade, the final issues were a part of "Faces of evil" event in DC back in 08-09, which were the final chapters of the heart of hush told by Tommy Elliot and Catwoman. In the end this story just sort of ends suddenly, and just really sucks. Which is a shame, because if I remember, those FOE issues were a good ending to the story, and a nice introduction to the mediocre Streets of Gotham, series.

The art was good by Nguyen, but I just didn't enjoy his stylised look as much as I did when the book was coming out, the art just seems sort of muddled b a story that's more about Batman standing about talking, then Paul Dini showing he knows, or can google a lot of Aristotle quotes.

Trades: 1

Comics: 0

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Flinch #1-16: A truly great modern horror anthology comic.

Weird Western Tales #1-4: Read this at the perfect time. Clicking in things for two different stories tonight and I think I was inspired by this mini series of weird west anthology stories. Not that I'm actually taking something, but I'm working on two things right now - one's a weird west comic and another is a modern pulp with somewhat western elements - and I think the mindset opened to allow the final piece to drop in both of them. Crazy.

Comics: 52

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Superior Spiderman #1: First spider title I've read in... wow, 10-15 years? Longer? I was interested in the whole idea of what's going on with who's in the body and what that means, so I picked up the first issue. And its interested me enough to keep going for the next few issues. I doubt I'll continue when the current status quo changes back, but who knows.

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I'm using libraries to try and read a different variety of comics for the next few weeks.

Spider-Man: Death and Dating: This was alright, mostly filler issues. Mark Waid has a great idea of Spider-Man, in one issue, he showed that the little things matter to Peter, like finding a subway token, and how he has to deal with death every day, and how he has to carry on, for the sake of New York. This trade also explains how Harry Osborne came back from the dead, which was alright. An ok trade, but definitely filler more than anything else.

Nemesis: I disliked this, the art was fine, but the story was just Mark Millar doing his usual mean spirited, strange thing. The story is just stupid, and to sum up the series, and twist in one sentence:

It's Hostel meets superheroes. Rich people around the world pay an unknown source so's that they can be set up as superheroes.

Good art, and a bad story make this level out to average at best.

Trades: 3

Comics: 0

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The irredeemable Ant-Man: The first issue, is pretty bad, it takes place on the SHIELD helicarrier, and everyone looks and acts the same, you aren't even properly introduced to the main character in the first issue. However, from the second issue on, this series is just great fun, everything outside of SHIELD is great, and he really has a life, and even the World War Hulk tie-in issue is fun. My favourite part of the book was when Ant-Man finds out he can talk to ants, so what does he do with this information? He bets on the ants and sets them off to complete races. The art, again apart from the first issue is good, so a fun series.

Sleeper: Season 1: Good book, the first issue of this is also a bit to slow for my taste, but after that, I wasn't able to put it down. A fun story, if a little bit dark at times, and it was fun that they actually said this takes place in the same world as The Authority.

Trades: 5

Comics: 0

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Walking Dead #92-104: Finally caught up on the last year of TWD after getting them for Christmas. This chunk of the series took a real upswing. Negan is the best villain since the Governor. Very different guy too. I'm really enjoying the post-apocalyptic society that's coming along in this world. Kind of wish I had 105 though.

Comics: 69 (Heh, 69 bro!)

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Saga Volume 1 - Chapters 1-4: This was recommended to me by Amazon. I checked on the leisurely comics thread and was told to give it a shot, so I picked up the first Trade with chapters 1-6. I was sold by the end of chapter 3. This one is going on my pull list.

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Revival Vol 1 - You're Among Friends (Issues 1-5): A variation on 'the dead come back to life' theme. In this case, the dead do get up and start walking around, but they are also in possession of all the faculties they had at the point of death and if damaged, they heal up again. Unless the damage is too severe, in which case they 'die' for good. It's all contained by the Federal Authorities to a town in rural Wisconsin. The sheriff assigns an officer to head the 'Revitalized Citizen Arbitration Team'; his elder daughter, Dana. But Dana soon finds herself trying to solve a murder; that of her younger sister, Martha. The trouble is, no one except Dana knows Martha was murdered and Martha doesn't remember who killed her. And she doesn't want Dana telling anyone, especially their overprotective father.

Meanwhile, other things - older things - are out and about...

It's an interesting take and an absorbing one. There are a lot of questions and no answers at present. I think I will add this to my pull list for a couple more issues.

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Spider-Man: Gauntlet: Mysterio and Rhino: A book of two halves, literally, one half dedicated to Rhino including an origin story, and the other for Mysterio, also featuring an origin story. The Rhino origin is interesting, but the story featuring him is pretty bland, we're introduced to a new Rhino, and then he just leaves, the end. Mysterio's story was a lot better, in which we saw how great a villain Mysterio could be. The art was alright, but nothing spectacular. Overall, this was just ok, at best. Oh, and Mr Negative is a crap villain.

Spider-Man: Died in your arms tonight: Spider-Man 600, was, well, boring. Dr Octopus's plot was alright, and it's great to read the set up for 700 start here, but this felt like an overly long comic, than a special anniversary issue. John Romita Junior's art for 600 was good, but nothing special. The other issues were ok, but this just felt like a sort of fill in trade, where apart from Aunt May's marriage, nothing really happens.

JLA: Trial by fire: Art wise, a good book, story wise, pretty mediocre. I don't really care for the Martian Manhunter at the best of times, and felt he was at his best when he was dead in Blackest Night, so a JLA story about him, was never going to be my thing.

JSA 50-54: I enjoyed these, I always like reading about the JSA, even though 50 was the end of a big storyline, was still an interesting thing to read.

Trades: 8

Comics: 5

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Section Zero #1-3: Ugh. I'm only mildly antagonized when I see a book that has my ideas in it now. I get really angry when my implementation would be far better.

Lobster Johnson: Iron Prometheus: Fucking amazing. I can take or leave Mignola as a writer, but the simple pulpy story he crafted here is right up my alley for the novel I'm working on. It's Jason Armstrong's art that's the hero here. Holy shit. Amazing.

Comics: 72

Trades: 1

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Coming up: More Marvel Cosmic, and

Something, I don't know (Avengers Forever or All Star Superman or Top Ten or Global Frequency, something to balance out the longer stuff I'm reading, any reccomendations?, looking at runs or minis 12 issues or shorter)

I'm two issues into Top Ten and I'm liking it so far, so that might be worth a shot. My thoughts on All-Star Superman are no secret; all I'll say is look at the art and make your mind up about it before you decide to read it. As for 12-issue or less story arcs, I highly recommend Formerly Known as the Justice League and Nextwave: Agents of HATE if you want something funny as a change of pace. If you're looking for a great, emotional story, I'd say go for JLA: The Nail and Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?.

Siege: Started strong but petered out towards the end as Bendis wrote himself into a corner and made it go from being Norman Osborn vs. all the heroes in the Marvel Universe to everybody vs. Sentry. It disappointed me as a conclusion to both what was going on in JMS' Thor And Bendis' Dark Avengers, but Coipel's art was mostly strong and at least it was only four issues rather than eight like Bendis' previous two Marvel events.

Daredevil #7-12 (including #10.1): More gripping Mark Waid goodness. Issue 12 might be the best issue of the run I've read so far, though 10.1 is also a good one-and-done story. The other issues were okay, though I was lost with #8 because it continues from an issue in Amazing Spider-Man with Daredevil that I didn't read.

The Man of Steel #1-6: The very first time I've ever read the series and I was pleasantly surprised by it. It's not without some flaws (Lois Lane's stupidity, Ma and Pa's vernacular, and some dated dialogue), but the Batman issue is awesome (Magpie notwithstanding) and Byrne's Superman (at least here) is one of the best looking I've ever seen in comics.

Collections: 1

Issues: 13

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The Man of Steel #1-6: The very first time I've ever read the series and I was pleasantly surprised by it. It's not without some flaws (Lois Lane's stupidity, Ma and Pa's vernacular, and some dated dialogue), but the Batman issue is awesome (Magpie notwithstanding) and Byrne's Superman (at least here) is one of the best looking I've ever seen in comics.

Byrne's art in this miniseries was terrific, and probably among the last time he really turned in truly iconic artwork. (It's also among the last time he had someone else inking him. Coincidence?)

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The Clique - Requested this from the library without paying much attention to the details. Apparently, this is a comic version of a popular series of books aimed at twelve year old girls. Since I am not a part of this demo, it really wasn't for me. However, it wasn't bad and was a fast read. Meh.

Spider-Woman: Agent of SWORD - Bad. I get the idea behind this book, but the execution is way off. The Maleev art is not my cup of tea and made things hard for me at times. My main gripe, after seven issues, I have ZERO ideas on what her powers are. None. I cannot recall reading anything with Spider-Woman in it. And since this was a new series, I feel it should have helped me along. She has a glowy hand, maybe. She cannot fly. That is all I got. Not a good introduction to a character on any level.

Heart Transplant - Nice quite story that takes a while to get going. The first 10-15 pages are really disjointed from the rest of the book. Only real gripe is the awkward size of the thing. The book is bigger than my laptop and just looks weird on a bookshelf. Odd thing to notice, but it just strikes me as an odd choice to make. Granted, I have seen this thing at my LCS for years and wondered what the heck it was. Meh.

Graphic Novels - 3

Trades - 7 (32)

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Batman 16: This was kind of a filler issue, in a way, I think Snyder went a bit to overboard with his "Batman is the King, and Joker is his Jester!" Theme here. Still, it was nice to see why the other rogues were involved in the story. The back up was a lot better than the main feature, but both were still pretty good.

Ultimate Spider-Man: Ultimatum: For a while I've been thinking about reading USM, but after reading Ultimatum, and seeing how mean-spirited parts of the Ultimate Universe are, I keep losing interest, so I picked this up. The annual issue with art by David LaFuente is pretty bad, his heads all look wonky and unrealistic, and change in every panel, also the introduction of Ultimate Mysterio, kind of sucked. The next issue has Johnny Storm show an interest in Spider-Girl, who's a clone of Peter, and is going to ask Peter to introduce them, but then Ultimatum kicks in. Ultimatum fucking sucked. This wasn't as bad as the main series, but is damn near unreadable if you don't read the main series, and if this was truly them killing off USM, then it was a terrible end for the character. Also, the last issue has Aunt May returning home after Ultimatum, to find her house all fine, and not a single car on the street out of place, even though millions died in New York alone, it's a stupid thing to be annoyed about, but at least be consistent with your terrible storyline. After this, I doubt I'll bother reading anything else in the Ultimate Universe.

Batman: Widening Gyre: I'm going to start off with what was good about this. Apart from the first issue, the art in the book was actually not bad. The only thing the artist can't do, is draw facial expressions that don't like they come from an over the top porno, my issue with the first issue, and the last is, there are several pages that have two regular sized panels, and the rest of the page in full black or white, leaving dead space. That just felt lazy.

What I didn't like about the book is a long list. First the graphic violence, there's a full page splash where we have a dead person with branches bursting through them, it didn't look cool, and wasn't nice to see, as the reveal of who done it, made it make no sense. then there's the shots of blown out brains on the ground, it was just to graphic for a Batman comic, for me.

The use of Etrigan in the book just came out of nowhere, he was never properly explained in the book, and how he was taken down, and by whom just sort of felt convenient for the plot. The goat faced hero gaining Batman's trust felt extremely forced, and a bit stupid. So, overall, this just felt like badly written fan-fiction.

My main gripe comes from Kevin Smith's afterword, which he spends at least half the time saying "Ah-ha! You never saw that ending coming! And if you say you did, you're a fucking liar" It feels more like he's patting himself on the back, for being so smart, rather than just saying "Thanks for reading the book, one day we'll have volume 2...maybe." I used to like Kevin Smith, before it became clear what a massive tool he is, and that afterword is just more proof that he really is still, just an arrogant tool.

Trades: 10

Comics: 6

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and if this was truly them killing off USM, then it was a terrible end for the character.

It's not.

As for USM, I have read the next two trades (The World According to Peter Parker & Chameleons) and think it heads back to USM proper. I treated Ultimatum like every other crossover event: pointless and relatively unimportant.

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Peaceful Warrior - Way too 'bad Karate Kid' for me. The double-speaking wise old man is annoying. The ending either went completely over my head or is just as lame and unoriginal as I think it is. AND the fact that it ends in what amounts to a montage. This is based off a book, or off the movie that was based off a book that was semi-autobiographical of the author? Either way, fuck this book.

Graphic Novels - 4

Trades - 7 (32)

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and if this was truly them killing off USM, then it was a terrible end for the character.

It's not.

As for USM, I have read the next two trades (The World According to Peter Parker & Chameleons) and think it heads back to USM proper. I treated Ultimatum like every other crossover event: pointless and relatively unimportant.

It seems like, from the trade, that was the idea, as they have an interview at the end, with Bendis talking about his run in USM. Do they ever come back to the Johnny Storm/Spider-Girl or Aunt May/Spider-Girl thing?

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The Flash: Emergency Stop: Maybe I'm an idiot, but I had no clue what was going on half the time in this. The first story focuses on a suit that seems to drain the life of the people who wear it, because the former owner may or may not be a spirit still inside, or maybe the suit has grown sentient, it's never properly explained. I still don't truly understand how Wally beat the suit, it seemed like a take on how Spider-Man first beat Venom, just trying to be smarter and more confusing.

The second story focuses on Mirror Master, which is fine, it's the Scottish one Morrison himself created, and his dialogue was funny. But the actual stuff that he does to Flash in the issue isn't really explained, one page Flash is in a reverse world, the next he's a giant, it's nice idea, and you'd only get one of these ideas in an issue usually, but it just felt like to much flash without substance.

The third features Jay Garrick trying to help an old JSA super-villain that he became friends with. It's a nice simple story, without trying to be to smart, so it's the best thing in this book.

The final story is part three of a crossover with Green Arrow and Green Lantern, where the majority of the issue is a court case. This shouldn't have been in here, and felt like the issue was just thrown in to fill some page count.

The art in the issues was pretty good, but I read and started to realise why I dislike so much of Morrison's superhero work. He has so many ideas, and then doesn't bother explaining them in the story, and just expects the reader to read every issue that he's read and referencing over the years, and at no point do you have an editor caption box helpfully saying "Grant is using The Flash issue 242 as a reference point here" so, you're just sort of lost in his web of crazy ideas.

Trades: 11

Comics: 6

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