elnino14

I just found out Peter David is ending his run on X-factor. I haven't read the last 8 trades or so, but I really like what I've read, looks like I'm doing a read of all those trades in the near future, since the run is ending. Also I read the first TPB of All new X-men, it was alright, but I think I'm burned out the X-men all together. I don't care for any of the stories that are wrapped up in this massive plot, I read Brubaker's, Fractions, and most of Kierons, run and the whole entire time I came out pretty unsatisfied. I don't expect much more from Bendis that those other writers didn't provide. And anybody know how Hickman is doing on the Avengers books? I really liked the Secret Warriors run he had, and I've loved some of his stuff that's not from Marvel.

Obviously a typo, those were movies I hadn't seen untill this year.

The first Lethal Weapon is freaking great. And DIE HARD! Until recently I hadn't seen good bad and the ugly, apocalypse now, brazil, silence of the lambs, jaws, and brazil.

Ratatouille Clockwork Orange The Fugitive Air Force One Point Break The Shining American Beauty BIg Lebowski Ten Commandments Anchorman The Exorcist There were a bunch more that people were like, "WHAT YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THAT" but I've remedied a bunch of films this year.

Last I was in here I just finished Annihilation Conquest. Now I'm almost up to starting Thanos Initiative. Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 1-4: I really enjoyed every volume of this thus far. It's been the most enjoyable part of the cosmic saga for me, I enjoy all the characters and it always keeps a fairly balanced melodramatic sci-fi to humorous sci-fi ratio. It never gets too bogged down and stays fun continuously. The worst part of the series thus far has been the 2 issue saga where Drax and Phyla go and save Moondragon, mostly because it swung too far in the way of melodrama. Another thing is the gang gets a little bloated at one point having about 12 members or so at it's peak. Overall though it never stops being fun space adventures, I have 2 more issues in the series left but I really enjoyed it. War of Kings: Overall I didn't like how this even was planned, I really liked the tie-in build up to the event method that they used so clearly in the first two Annihilation sagas. Here it's more of a traditional cross-over method, where the main story is in one mini, and if you want to find out more about certain characters adventures you read their tie-ins. It always becomes a problem because you read one series and spoil the ending of the cross over before reading the tie ins. Oh well. Also, I never understood how two complete races that almost had nothing to do with the previous sagas now come to the forefront, the Shiar and Inhumans. Overall, I thought it was okay, I didn't like the Darkhawk characters, I didn't like how heavy the X-men became involved, it's very much a you have to have read a whole bunch of other titles to get what's going on here. To understand who Vulcan is and how he's involved with the X-men. Overall, I thought it was a great showcase for Gladiator mostly, but I felt cold by the rest of it. Nova vol. 5-6: I have one more issue left in this series, and overall it's enjoyable space adventures but not nearly as enjoyable as Guardians was, it gets bogged down in it's melodrama at times, but it still remains fun. The character is fine but not nearly as emotionally connectable as I hoped. Realm of Kings: I much preferred how this was organized, you have a one shot to set off the event and then a couple of tie ins with each group dealing with the situation at hand in their own ways. Both the Inhumans tie in and the Shiar Imperium tie in left me a little cold, but they were readable and built well off of what had occured in the previous event. Gladiator continues to be one of the stars of the second half of the cosmic saga by DnA. It's very clear that the cosmic saga is distinctly split in two big parts thus far, with the Annihilation/Annihilation Conquest making up Part 1 focusing on characters that, while seen in Part 2, only play minor roles in the Of Kings Part 2, which tends to focus on Inhumans, Starjammers, and the Shiar. The one constant throughout both parts is Ronan the Accuser. Overall, I've enjoyed it but I'm getting a little fatigued by these stories, the diminishing returns every time out is hurting it, as well as what I find is a lack of deep character development, great stories, great characters, but not a ton of development with these characters. Next up: Finish off Guardians and Nova, leading directly to Thanos Imperative.

Seventh Pick: Yo Yo Rodriguez (Sling Shot) Villain: Name: Avengers: Dark Alleys

Ill pass on this round, if I think of somebody I'd like to add later ill put them up.

I'm actually at a complete loss at who I want to include after this pick.

No time this morning. Molly Hayes

Kate Bishop (Hawkeye)

Madrox

I missed the word "wise" in this on my first read. I was cracking up because of it.

Is it too late to join?

Some Reccomendations: Madrox, X-Factor - I really like this series, it sits on the fringes of the X-universe, and deals with the events from a mostly character centric point of view. There is one major status quo change after 4 trades when this book gets hit with the Messiah Complex. Book 6 sucks as it deals with Secret Invasion, but I remember liking book 7 and 8, which is where I stopped last time and I'm not sure if there's any other status changes but I know it's at like trade 17 or 18 with the same writer. Uncanny X-force - Admittedly I haven't read it yet but I think it had a 6 trade run (30 issues or so) without any status quo changes and it's pretty highly acclaimed.

The story just never grabbed me, just seemed so inconsequential. The art wasn't my favorite either. I much preferred the focus of the Professor Xavier arc, even if it painted Xavier as an asshole, I quite liked it. Didn't like the Rogue stuff afterwards either.

The last time I was on here I wrote about Annihilation, I'm gearing up to read the War of Kings saga so I thought now was a good time to catch up. Annhilation Conquest again similar to Annhilaiton was made up of a bunch of mini's before the main event. Minis: Quasar - My least favorite of the minis, it's dense, and feels like it was written in a different time. Nothing is subtle, everything is overt, and the relationships between the characters feels flighty. I like the idea of Phyla-Vell coming to terms with her new powers but I didn't like the execution here at all. Nova - I'll talk more about this series later but for some reason they only collect the first half of the tie in in the Conquest book, that presentation issue kind of bugged me. Wraith - I know a lot of people didn't like this, but having just watched the Man with No Name trilogy, I really liked that character and Wraith is very similar in his characteristics. Very solid space western story that connects to the larger world due to Ronan and Super Skrull showing up here as supporting characters. Star-Lord - My favorite of the minis and may be the stand out story in the whole entire cosmic event. This is basically a precursor to the Guardians of the Galaxy ongoing with many of the same characters and it is such an enjoyable magnificent seven, dirty dozen, ocean's 11 story, full of humor and expert pacing. Annhilation Conquest: Overall this event didn't stand out as much as the previous one did, it's still a good story with fantastic elements (Star-Lord and his crew), it's kind of odd that Nova who was pretty much the main star in the previous event is pushed to the fringes only making an appearance in the climax to save the day. The rest of it while good, falls a little flatter than the previous event. Nova vol 1-4: Nova pretty much spun off into his own series after the original Annihilation event. It's one of the most solid books I've read, but it has a hard time trying to stand on its own two feet as it keeps setting itself against the background of constant events. It deals with the following situations: Annihilation fall-out, Civil War, Annihilation Conquest, and Secret Invasion. It's identity is tied into setting itself against these events, and like usual it really excels when the writers are given a little freedom to play with madcap cosmic ideas (Nova vs. Surfer and Galactus is an absolute highlight) and zooms it's focus on the Richard Rider character. It's probably the most solid series I've read from Marvel even with all the interference by events. X-men Emperor Vulcan: As a lead in to the War of Kings event, I find it strange that the Shiar and the Inhumans played no part in the previous cosmic events and now are at the front of this new event. Anyways, I hate the Vulcan character, he's a big child and annoying as shit. He's not any less annoying here, unfortunately, and this seems like a big page-filler. It wasn't that great, and the X-team available here isn't the most interesting roster. The biggest point played with is the age-old Havok doesn't have the leadership or confidence that Scott has. Really it's just bringing you up to speed with whats going with the Shiar. Secret Invasion: Inhumans - Another one that wasn't that enjoyable, felt like a page filler, and another one that just feels like it's bring you up to speed with a character group. Felt like a typical superhero story, of course Inhumans aren't typical and that's why I like them (especially the Paul Jenkins maxi series). But this plays with that line and the typcial superheroics that you may expect. It's held with a nice balance but I prefer a more political take on the whole situation. Next up: Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 1-3 War of the Kings and all of it's tie-ins (Warriors, Darkhawk, Kingbreaker) Nova vol. 5

I've heard this before, but I really didn't enjoy those two books. All the good stuff happened after Messiah Complex when it focused on Prof X.

So I've been only reading Cosmic Marvel, I'm kind of enthralled by it all. Peter David's Captain Marvel: This is the run where Genis goes insane. It starts off really strong with a pretty serious tone about the whole thing and some really interesting philosophical questions and consequences. Unfortunately the rest of the book has an inconsistent tone switching back and forth from humorous stories to serious stories. I alwasy preferred it the way it was in the first story. Also, I didn't like how psychopathic they made Genis, in the first book he's pretty troubled, but afterwards he goes to full blown psychopathy. The main reason I read this story, besides the fact that I enjoy Peter David's writing, but in essence this is the introduction of Phyla-vell who plays a role in the Annihilation books. Overall a great story, with some great plots, but the inconsistent mood and tones bugged me slightly. The seriousness of actions often don't mix with the tone of the books. Overall, I believe I liked vol. 1 the most, then 4, 3, with 2 being my least favorite. Annihilation: A prologue, a series of miniseries, before the main book. This is actually organized quite well for an event, with everything important being captured in three easy trades paperbacks. As for the mini's they're hit and miss: Drax: I read this before and hated it originally, I'm still not a huge fan but after knowing a little bit more about Drax, it's not bad and it sets up the companionship with the little girl well. Prologue: Really awesome start to the story, introduces all the main players and catches up with Drax. Nova: Probably the best mini of the story, Nova pretty much takes center stage and is the MVP of the entire saga. This stories with Nova really show the urgency, desperation, and the dire consequences of being a hero. Silver Surfer: Another enjoyable Annihilation prologue, probably the most cosmic of the bunch, and very interesting to learn about the larger forces in the universe like Galactus and his brothers. Super Skrull: On the lower end of the scale, and a lot of that has to do with the art which is way too cartoony for such a gory story. Also Super Skrull isn't the most interesting character but the large supporting cast brings some fun into the whole situation. Ronan: Probably the least interesting of the prologues, because Ronan, like Super-Skrull, is pretty one dimensional and minded, but unlike Super-Skrull he's sooo one dimensional that it kind of makes him a bit of a badass. The story though is kind of bland and the art is gritty and a little hard to look at. Each of them have their strengths and all introduce important characters to the next bit of the saga. Also the Nova Corps files helps fill in on characters. Annihilation: A really fantastic main event and a great way to wrap up the stories of the previous prologues and minis. All the characters from those books play a big role here and Nova really steals the show as the MVP. There are other characters that don't have their own prologue that also make an impact (characters like Moondragon, Phyla-Vell, Thanos, and Starlord). But everybody has their chance to shine and none of it feels oddly paced or out of place. A really great story that never dragged and wraps up pretty conclusively. The one thing that bugged me is the jump in time that skipped showing how Ronan, Nova, and Starlord built an alliance and got together. Annilhilation Heralds: More of an epilogue, and honestly it's not really needed. Pretty weak too. X-men Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire: So a little break from the Annihilation to catch up with what's going on with everybody's favorite mutants. I've read this before and I've heard that some of the events here have an impact on the realm of kings (or is it war?) storyline which comes after Annihilation Conquest, so I figured I'd read this again to freshed my memory. I enjoyed it it the first time, this time, not as much, the characters are all kind of there to serve the plot which is okay becuase the plot is semi-interesting, but it's rare that there is any ever character development in these stories. They kind of move from place to place with their personas. Certainly there are excellent moments showcasing each character though, but overall it feels a little muted. And I still don't like that petulant man-baby Vulcan. Up next: More Marvel Cosmic (Annihilation Conquest, of which I've already read book 1, Nova, and War of Kings)

I ordered the first Fatale trade just now. The last time I followed a recommendation here was Saga, for which I am grateful. I haven't read Fatale yet, but all the rest of that shit is fantastic. And if you want a semi-prequel to Sleeper, check out Point Blank, but it's not nowhere near as good as the rest of that list.

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?. I have and Love Nextwave. I tried to do Avengers Forever and I just couldn't get into it. And Global Frequency, and Top Ten seemed both too heavy for the moment. I should be getting into All Star, Formerly Known as the Justice League, and Top Ten, but I didn't pick any of those. They're all on my list though. I ended up going with Deadpool Max to fill in. It's on the edge of complete garbage and complete insane genius. Don't know what JLA: The Nail is? I don't read much JLA at all. And Whatever Happened to Man of Tomorrow is something I've been meaning to read for a while just because Alan Moore is attached to it. Finished Remender's run on Venom: Overall I'd have to say that I didn't really like it. It was so uneven. The first arc is actually really good, and the arc where Remender focuses on Venom, Eddie Brock, and his supporting cast, it's pretty good. It's got a clear dark Spidey-feel and I liked that, with a similar theme of power and responsibility but added elements to make it a bit darker, like giving in to power, and tough predicaments where choices aren't so simple. But other times, the book kind of just sucks, it at one point just stops the story it's telling and brings in 3 other Marvel heroes (Circle of Four arc) and it's a long winded arc or it gets involved in a Spidey cross over. So really the book is good when it's doing it own thing, not great, but pretty good. But all the other crap really drags it down. In the end though, Eddie had his own supervillains to fight, his own supporting cast to deal with, and it became a real Spidey story. 6/10 Marvel Cosmic: Life and Death of Captain Marvel/Rebirth of Thanos/Infinity Trilogy (Gauntlet, War, and Crusade): I really like the first three trades in this section and they all seem to flow quite well into each other. Life and Death of Captain Marvel is a magnificent story and one where I never really felt it's age. Rebirth of Thanos is basically build up to the really good Infinity Gauntlet. The other two in the Infinity Trilogy are long winded, massive cross overs, that seemed to be padded out, and never seemed to do anything new. It's just kind of an emulation of Gauntlet but with weaker plots, more cross-overs (that I didn't read), and more padding. They're long-winded stories and in the end, the conclusion was almost always the same. The only one that really worked on all cylinders was Infinity Gauntlet. Scarlett by Bendis: I really liked this book, it's a solid story with kind of a heavy handed morality tale. I'd appreciate a little more grey in it's dealings with authority corruption, but I can undestand that since it's written from the title character's pov that it'd be a little more black and white. I just don't think it's all that clear as it paints it to be in this book. I would lie to see more from this character, but I don't know if there are any plans on continuing this book. I think exploring this character more and psychologically how she would deal with all of a sudden becoming a public figure that is also on most wanted lists would be very interesting. Good story I felt. Sin City Comics (The Hard Goodbye/A Dame to Kill For): I love Neo-Noir and I'm kind of mad that I've never read these. I liked them quite a bit, enough that I'd have to buy them for my own collection instead of renting them from the library. I'll be reading this entire series this year for sure. I'm not sure which story I liked better, they're both very good in their own way. I did like how a Dame to Kill For took a look at the main protagonist in the first book and put a different view on him. Although, I can't say I liked the plot of the second one better, felt too cliche, even though I understand that's Noir. Odds and Ends: Wolverine and the X-men vol. 2: Still a great and fun book. Deadpool Max issues 1-4: On the edge of complete garbage or complete genius. Avengers Forever: I dropped this about 3 issues in, I couldn't get into it. X-men: Deadly Genesis: I know Vulcan plays a part down the line in the Marvel Cosmic so I thought I'd go back and re-read this. Found that I still don't care for it too much. I do remember enjoying Brubaker's Rise and Fall of Shiar a bit more though. Arkham City Comic Book Prequel: It's hard to make a prequel comic to a game, because really you're kind of inconsequential, you lose out on really having a climax as well. But this was pretty good in setting the stage for the game, which I should really play soon. Up Next: More Marvel Cosmic - Captain Marvel by Peter David... then Annihilation Sin City - the Big Fat Kill, etc... I'll probably put my focus on these two series for a little while. I'm really enjoying Sin City and I'm happy to get into more modern Marvel cosmic stuff.

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)

Almost done with all the X-men stuff. Carey's run on X-men Legacy: I finished this run up and if I were completely honest, I hardly remember it now. I know they came back to the open plotlines left over from Rise and Fall of the Shiar and that was fun to see those characters that were lost in space and it was suitably sci-fi fun but in the end, I doesn't quite feel like Carey's conclusion to his run. Was it fun, readable comics? Yeah! But was it memorable, outside of the exploration of Professor X in a few trades, not really. I say that Carey's run is good, but in terms of must read X-men runs only the 4 trade saga about Professor X are awesome enough to fill that virtue. X-men: Schism - I liked this, it was suitably fun, climactic, and perfectly paced. I know Wolvie has had a problem with how Cyclops has handled some of the edgier part of the mutant race, and this felt slightly drastic in how overblown the whole situation became. In the end, when you think about what's happened with the school aspect and especially his treatment of X-23, it is kind of natural that this would happen. X-men Kieron Gillen - I read about three trades of his run (Breaking Point, Fear Itself tie in, and the Kieron Gillen vol. 1) and it kind of feels like more of the same to be honest. Sure there's a "huge shake-up" with the creation of the Extinction team, but honestly I didn't really care for much of this. I like the characters here, I like the idea of the extinction team. But I'm getting a little world weary of all the super seriousness of it all. I'm kind of tired of X-men comics. EXCEPT: Wolverine and the X-men vol. 1 - This book is such a breath of fresh air. I'm not a huge fan of the art, but the story and the writing is so enjoyable, that I can't hate on it too much. Never thought I would enjoy reading about new mutant students so much but I do, and seeing a bunch of great X-men in new teaching roles, positions a lot of them haven't been in before is great. I wouldn't say this is great comics yet, but it's definitely fun comics. Something the X-men have been missing for quite a long while. Also Secret Avengers: Fear Itself - Pretty boring to be honest. Maybe there was an issue that I sort of liked, but again it's mostly disappointing. I have Warren Ellis' 6 issue run (LOVE WARREN ELLIS) and then I'm done. Fear Itself Main Book - Another sucky event unfortunately. A couple of bad send offs here too. Swamp Thing vol. 1 and Animal Man vol. 1 - both were very good, but I don't think I'll be collecting this in trade as it goes along. I liked the Swamp Thing issues more. There feels like a larger game being played here in these runs, so I'll wait a while untill most of it's collected and then play catch up, or I collect in Hardcovers. Not sure yet. Young Avengers vol. 1 and 2, Young Avengers presents - More fun stories. I read this a while ago and I liked it just as much. After reading so much overwrought drama from the Avengers again this felt like a breath of fresh air, a throwback to old-school mega plots but with Teens. Liked this one a lot. The fight Kang in the first arc and deal with a mini Kree Skrull war in the second, how awesome is this. Very Awesome. The Young Avengers Presents were 6 one shots looking at each member, and they're all pretty enjoyable as well and were a look at why these characters do what they do. Started my run on Cosmic Marvel with Avengers Kree Skrull War - It's got too much prose and does feel dated but it's good stories as long as you space it out, because the wordy dialogue and description boxes will drive you nuts. Also reading Life and Death of Captain Marvel - it's been great thus far, better pacing, better dialogue and less of the overblown stuff (still there, but less) and the art on this thing is amazingly trippy. Really enjoying it. Will be at the Infinity Trilogy soon. Up next: Life and Death of Captain Marvel, Rebirth of Thanos, Infinity Trilogy, Avengers: Children's Crusade, Avengers vs. X-men HC, Secret Avengers by Warren Ellis

X-factor (except during Secret Invasion) is awesome and I'll hear nothing to the contrary. Annoying future girl is Layla Miller, she knows stuff.