Every comic you've read in 2010

[SuaveStar]

Batman and Robin #12: Good issue, the art was a bit awkward in places, but overall good. I can't wait for the next issue, as things seem to be coming to a head.

Red Robin #12: The end of Chris Yost's arc, explaining everything he set up. What a waste of time, everything was just by chance and other stuff people set up. Art was good in places, but some of the 1 page splashes really needed to be 2. Alright issue, but as the end of an arc, Yost brings in another disappointment to end his run on Tim Drake's life.

Jonah Hex #1: A good self contained story, making me interested in the movie. I won't be carrying on reading Hex, but this one issue, was an enjoyable read.

Superman/Batman #63: What happens when Grodd wins, a good issue, with some awkward art, that couldn't decide if it wanted to be good or shit. Ending was flat and generic.

Batman: Streets of Gotham #3: I just remembered why I dropped this book two issues in. Waste of time comic, art was not Nguyens best. Bland comic, Manhunter back up looked shit here. All in all, waste of paper.

Vigilante #9: Crap. Don't bother.

Age of bronze #1: A look at the Trojan war. Issue is not bad, but at the same time, it wasn't very good. Not anything I will be going out of my way to see again.

Trades: 10

HC:0

Comics: 90

GN:0

[Guest]

Two books from a botch IIWY that were actually pretty good - Booster Gold #31 and BPRD: King of Fear #4.

Two books from the horrendous IIWY last week - Ultimate Avengers #6 and WWE Heroes #2.

Next IIWY - Thunderbolts #143 and Madame Xanadu #22.

Green Lantern #53 and Brightest Day #0 - Well, there goes my whole "just read trades" plan.

Blackest Night: Director's Cut - Mostly just the creators patting each other on the back. Don't know why I expected otherwise.

Crossed: Family Values - Yeah, definitely going trade on this from now on.

Wire Hangers #1 - Average story, but the art makes it.

Comic Books: 76

TPBs: 2

HCs: 0

Graphic Novels: 1

[Koete]

Avengers vs. Atlas #4 - Great end to a four issue fight and tribute to the Avengers.

Batman and Robin #11-12 - Great prelude to The Return of Bruce Wayne. A lot of detective work in this that sketches out what ROBW will likely be about. The lead up to a certain R.I.P. villain's return was great and, though I called it, the reveal of Oberon Sexton's identity had me jumping up and down. The best moment was the conversation between Damian and Talia in issue 12. Damian's really grown as a character throughout this series and issue 12 showed how much. Andy Clarke's art was good, though it was a little iffy in #12. To be fair, there was another artist involved on that issue. The splash pages of Damian asking Oberon if he's Bruce in #11 and the reveal of Oberon's identity in #12 were fantastic. Can't wait for The Return of Bruce Wayne.

Brightest Day #0 - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Holy shit, they made two references to Brightest Day and actually said Brightest Day in the second one. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Chew #1 - The story of Tony Chu, a cop who gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats, except for beets. The writing was good, though it seemed a bit full of itself at times. The art is quirky and totally fits the book, the double page spread in particular is great. Good enough that I'll check out the first trade.

Cowboy Ninja Viking #5 - After a bit of a step down in the last issue, the series is back on track. Can't wait for the next one. Line of the issue: "My grad thesis was better than this, and I wrote it in crayon 'cause I was on LSD."

Invincible #1 - This didn't do anything for me. It went step by step on the teenage superhero checklist, but it gave me no reason to care about Mark. I'm not a fan of Cory Walker's art either. This was really a set up issue, so I might pick up the first trade if I can find it cheap at a con for a bigger sample, but I wasn't impressed.

Joe The Barbarian #4 - Another great chapter of the series. I think that when this mini is collected, it will be an evergreen book for Morrison.

Marvel Must Have: Vengeance of the Moon Knight - This collected the first three issues of the latest Moon Knight series. Overall, the story was okay. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't near great either. The thing I liked most was new writer Gregg Hurwitz using The Profile, a character from the Huston run who I think has a lot of potential. The art by Jerome Opena was fantastic though. He's on my list of rising star artists. His art's so good that I'm going to pick up the other issues for it.

Proof #1 - A series about government agents investigating incidents related to cryptozoology, with one of the agents being a bigfoot. I checked this out based on enjoying Riley Rossmo's art in CNV, and it was pretty good, I'll probably pick up the trades. The one big negative though are these "cryptoid" boxes throughout that provide unnecessary information. Hopefully these disappear as the series goes on.

Savage Dragon #1 - I gotta admit, I went into this not expecting much as it was a product of the 90s Image era. I made it a couple pages into it on the first go around before putting it down and moving on to some other books. I came back to it later and, after getting through the EXTREME! 90s fight, I really enjoyed the rest of the issue. It was a set up issue, but managed to do what a lot of set up issues fail to do and remained compelling. I also haven't been the biggest fan of Larsen's art, but the emotion he put into Dragon's face during the hospital scene gave me a new respect for his skills. I'm a big fan of Essentials and Showcases, so I'm sure it won't be too long before I pick up the Savage Dragon Archives.

Spider-Man: Fever #1 - Brendan McCarthy was rocking out with his Ditko out on the art in this and I loved every page.

Total

Comic Books: 50

TPBs: 1

HCs: 1

Graphic Novels: 1

Manga:

The Authority #2, Avengers vs. Atlas #1-4, Batman and Robin #7-12, Brightest Day #0, Chew #1, Cowboy Ninja Viking #3-5, G.I. Joe European Missions #3, Hellblazer #25-26, The Indomitable Iron Man, Invincible #1, Joe The Barbarian #1-4, Marvel Boy: The Uranian #1-3, Marvel Must Haves #1, 3-4, 9, 15, Marvel Must Have: Vengeance of The Moon Knight, The Mystic Hands of Dr. Strange, Orc Stain #1-2, Pinocchio Vampire Slayer OGN, Proof #1, Sam Slade RoboHunter #27, Savage Dragon #1, Secret Origins #50, Spider-Man: Fever #1, Spider-Man/Human Torch: I'm With Stupid Digest TPB, Thor by JMS Vol. 3 HC, Time Twisters #2,8,15,17,20-21, Weird War Tales #3, WildCats #1

[Guest]

The Profile is probably in my top five favourite Marvel characters right now.

It's an absolute shame that he's not used outside of Moon Knight.

[Missy]

Thoughts in Earth-2.net: The Show 403 (or 404)

Fraggle Rock #1

The Last Unicorn #1

Magdalena #1

The Spirit #1

Ultimate Avengers 2 #1

Comic books: 44

Trade paperbacks: 34

Graphic novels: 1

[Koete]

Fraggle Rock #1

*Clap* *Clap*

[Molly]

The Last Unicorn #1

Lucy was seconds away from getting this, the last time we were at our LCS.

[SuaveStar]

Brave and the bold #29: First issue of the JMS run I've read, and it was good, he made me care about Brother Power The Geek in the space of one issue, which I never saw happening. The writing was the star of this issue, though the art wasn't bad, it just wasn't for me. Fun issue, but not enough for me to actually keep reading the series sadly.

Justice League of America #41: Mark Bagley is an artist I just can't stand. The writing here was pretty bland, but the art was just so crap. It wasn't as bad as his recent Batman run, but it was pretty mediocre.

The Incredible Hercules #137: Fun comic. Amadeus Cho is a fun annoying kid. Art was alright.

Action Comics #884: The main story is bland and sets stuff up to be paid off, which is all this comic seems to do, I don't care about Nightwing and Flamebird in the slightest. Art was alright, but nothing special. Captain Atom, looked odd, and wasn't any good.

Dark Avengers #10: Liked this a lot more than I expected. Art was enjoyable, and with the recap page, I didn't feel too lost.

Deadpool: Merc with a mouth #4: Alright, art was nothing special, but deadpool was funny.

Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam: This was fun, the art by Kunkel for the first 4/5 issues was really nice, and the story was fun, it felt like a kids book. My main issue was that the series jumps off of Jeff Smith's Shazam mini series, which I never read, and most kids/parents/other readers would know about, but this links back to that. It isn't a thing that hurt the comic too much, but it didn't help things either. Fun, but nothing spectacular.

Trades: 11

HC:0

Comics: 96

GN:0

[Molly]

The Dark Knight Returns:

I attempted to give this another shot, which was a bad idea. Can someone honestly tell me why this is iconic? It's talking heads, pedo-Batman, and terrible art. I hate this comic.

[Dread]

Ultimate Avengers #6-While I moderately enjoyed this series, this one is pretty bad. Terrible ending. 3/10

Thoughts in Earth-2.net: The Show 403 (or 404)

Fraggle Rock #1

The Last Unicorn #1

Magdalena #1

The Spirit #1

Ultimate Avengers 2 #1

That'll be a real good episode methinks.

Comic books: 129

Trade paperbacks: 23

Graphic novels: 1

Omnibuses: 3

[SuaveStar]

The Dark Knight Returns:

I attempted to give this another shot, which was a bad idea. Can someone honestly tell me why this is iconic? It's talking heads, pedo-Batman, and terrible art. I hate this comic.

Finally! Someone else who didn't like it.

[Stavros]

Really? I mean, its very unconventional as comics god in its format, and I agree that it might be unsettling in some areas but overall it deserves its praise. Plus the art is GREAT, very dynamic. I might have gone a different direction for some of the colouring (a lot of it is quite muted considering the style) but overall its still an immense piece of work. Batman is who he is now because of DKR.

[SuaveStar]

Really? I mean, its very unconventional as comics god in its format, and I agree that it might be unsettling in some areas but overall it deserves its praise. Plus the art is GREAT, very dynamic. I might have gone a different direction for some of the colouring (a lot of it is quite muted considering the style) but overall its still an immense piece of work. Batman is who he is now because of DKR.

I like to think Year 1 is the reason. I think the art was very you either love it, or hate it. And the writing was just shit. The colouring felt like it was done by a five year old, who has twenty minutes before home time, and he's at school and told that he can't leave till this job was done.

[KnightWing]

Nah; DKR was pretty revolutionary. It had the foreshadowed death of Jason Todd, a dark vision for Batman that the main comics still didn't match, and plenty of simple lines of dialogue that defined the very concept of Batman. Hell, a ton of the panels used in DKR were copied near-exactly for the DCAU. (the batmobile interior gave me chills when I first saw it)

I'll admit that I wasn't a fan of the art or storytelling style at first, but it grew on me. If you can find a way to ignore it (or, better yet, embrace it), you might like the book a bit better.

Besides, the real test of comic art is how it tells the story; that's why people love Tim Sale so much even if he draws people that look like giant midgets.

[Missy]

X-Men: Second Coming

X-Men: Second Coming one-shot

Uncanny X-Men #523

New Mutants #12

X-Men: Legacy #235

X-Force #26

Uncanny X-Men #524

I've been hearing a lot of good things about Second Coming, so I thought I'd give it a shot now that the crossover is at the midway point.

And let me tell you, this is great! All of the characters are perfectly captured, the drama is boiling over, the action is intense, major repercussions are being felt (one huge character has died, while another has lost a limb*) and will continue to be felt, and the stakes are high. If it weren't for the post-Second Coming solicitations, one could honestly believe that the X-Men might not win this battle.

Art wise: Each book has its own flavor, but it blends together nicely. The only so-so issue has been Legacy #235, by Greg Land, and that's only due to a few panels.

*As it pertains to the maiming, the reason I don't take issue with it is because it wasn't gratuitous. It actually took me two issues and a reread to notice the limb was missing.

Comic books: 50

Trade paperbacks: 34

Graphic novels: 1

[dc20willsave]

X-Men: Second Coming

X-Men: Second Coming one-shot

Uncanny X-Men #523

New Mutants #12

X-Men: Legacy #235

X-Force #26

Uncanny X-Men #524

I've been hearing a lot of good things about Second Coming, so I thought I'd give it a shot now that the crossover is at the midway point.

And let me tell you, this is great! All of the characters are perfectly captured, the drama is boiling over, the action is intense, major repercussions are being felt (one huge character has died, while another has lost a limb*) and will continue to be felt, and the stakes are high. If it weren't for the post-Second Coming solicitations, one could honestly believe that the X-Men might not win this battle.

Seconded. I'm half-thinking of staying with one of the X-Books afterward outside of my usual X-Factor. Mind you the last two issues have gone vaguely slow and are starting to feel like they could have been easily compressed but it probably has a point.

[Aaron Robinson]

I didn't really like DKR when I first read it either. I'm tempted to give it another shot to see if my opinion will change now that I've actually been reading comics for a few years.

[Dread]

SHIELD #1-The universe can be at rest. Dubs and I disagree again. Not vehemently, mind you. But this is the definition of a wait for the trade book storywise. Weaver's art, however, is a lovely thing to behold. I dug his stuff a lot. I'm intrigued by what I've read and will wait for the trade. 7/10

Batman & Robin #11-I loved this. So excited devil-worshipping Wayne is back as that's one of my favorite Batman stories from back in the day. Andy Clarke draws the best Damian of everyone I've seen thus far. Great stuff. 9/10

Joe the Barbarian #4-Still maybe the best child adventure story ever. Prince of Dwarves made me crack into total laughter twice (once into tears). "So, everyone is basically giants?" 9/10

Captain America #605-Great end to Two Americas. Not as good as it has been however. Not sure where it'll go from here. I'll giver her another arc in singles before switching to trade. 7/10

Green Lantern Corps #47-Superb. Fuck I love this. I love Guy and Kyle, and I love Arisia. The new status quo with the Guardians is great. 9/10

Green Lantern #53-Mahnke is inspiring. The story was a little lackluster this time but it promises to pick up. Also a teaser for what looks like a more chillaxed event for the summer. 8/10

Comic books: 135

Trade paperbacks: 23

Graphic novels: 1

Omnibuses: 3

[Missy]

Red Robin #12

A very strong issue, that, as Des said in his review, is very accessible to new readers. And artist Marcus To is going to be huge. Keep an eye on him.

Comic books: 51

Trade paperbacks: 34

Graphic novels: 1

[Dread]

Red Robin #12: The end of Chris Yost's arc, explaining everything he set up. What a waste of time, everything was just by chance and other stuff people set up. Art was good in places, but some of the 1 page splashes really needed to be 2. Alright issue, but as the end of an arc, Yost brings in another disappointment to end his run on Tim Drake's life.

Sorry man, but if that final issue was a disappointment for the rest of the arc then I'm psyched to read the previous eleven issues. And if he's leaving, which I did not know, I probably wouldn't have given the book a pull. You're out of your mind.

IIWY?

Red Robin #12

Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine #1

Comic books: 137

Trade paperbacks: 23

Graphic novels: 1

Omnibuses: 3

[SuaveStar]

Pilot Season: The Necromancer #1: Waste of time. Average art, story was shit. Don't bother.

The Dreamland Chronichles #6: Shit art, shit story. Felt like a tie in to a game, that I didn't give a shit about.

Fantastic four MA #48: This is a kids comic. So of course the writer writes it like the kids are idiots, and need a simple shitty story. Art was not bad.

Justice League International Volume 1: Finally a justice league book I enjoyed. The team felt more like a dysfunctional family here, and everyone got a chance to shine. I knew that the one punch thing was coming, but still found it funny. Good art, and a fun read. Will get the preceding volumes down the line.

Return of Bruce Wayne #1: Damn you Morrison! I was going to ignore this! Now I have to get it. Fun issue, great art. I was expecting this to be crap, and I was wrong, a good fun Batman story, proving why Bruce deserves the cowl.

Trades: 12

HC:0

Comics: 100

GN:0

[Missy]

Siege #1-4

This is a huge action movie crammed into four issues, which could have failed, but it works. Osborn's drive, insanity, and comeuppance are perfectly captured. The big "holy shit" moments were exciting (even though I had them spoiled beforehand). The deaths are shocking, with one of them being gross. (I mean, I get the point. They were trying to make The Sentry frightening, and it worked. But it was too much.) Loki's actions are truly repentant. Spider-Man gets a lick in on Osborn (which made me happy). The supplemental / back-up material adds a lot of depth to the storyline, but isn't required reading. And it looks great!

It's not the smartest event ever, but it wasn't trying to be. It's aim was to close the door on Osborn's reign while bringing the Avengers back together, and it did that in an awesome fashion.

Also:

Steve Rogers is the new head of SHIELD, and I can't wait to see where that goes. Especially with him leading the Secret Avengers.

The SHRA has been repealed, and I hope they follow up on that. I don't think the average American is going to openly embrace that decision, especially after Asgard and Broxton were leveled by superpowered beings.

Comic books: 55

Trade paperbacks: 34

Graphic novels: 1

[Missy]

Blackest Night #0, 1-8

Overall, I liked this. It was drawn well, and I'm glad to see DC seems to have a clear, universe-wide path coming out of it. But the writing was only okay. If you'll pardon the pun, I didn't feel emotionally connected to anyone. I was told why I should care about these people, but never shown. In fact, I hated The Atom coming out of this. "I know my ex-wife went crazy and killed my friend's wife... then burnt her body... and faked her own attempted murder, all to win me back... but she's still a good person." Oh fuck you, buddy!

Though visually appealing, I still don't see the point of the Deputy Lanterns bit. I'm sorry, I am, but it went nowhere and felt like a marketing ploy to sell more toys.

If he wants death throughout the galaxy, why did Nekron allow certain heroes to return? He kept talking about how their return was his will, but I don't know if he ever said why he willed it in the first place. (If he did, pardon me if I missed it.)

Along those same lines, the "we wanted to come back" bit? Ugh!

I will say, the little bits with Hal and Barry were nice, as I like their relationship. Which is odd, 'cause I've never been a fan of the characters.

All that said, I would hand this to someone as a good, dark, action book. But I wouldn't call it great.

Oh boy! The flames! The flames! They're nipping at my toes already.

Comic books: 64

Trade paperbacks: 34

Graphic novels: 1

[SuaveStar]

Sorry man, but if that final issue was a disappointment for the rest of the arc then I'm psyched to read the previous eleven issues. And if he's leaving, which I did not know, I probably wouldn't have given the book a pull. You're out of your mind.

Well, just so's you know, Fabian Nicenza is taking over writing the book, but Marcus To is staying with the art.

[KnightWing]

In fact, I hated The Atom coming out of this. "I know my ex-wife went crazy and killed my friend's wife... then burnt her body... and faked her own attempted murder, all to win me back... but she's still a good person." Oh fuck you, buddy!

I think the idea is that Ray wants to see the good in everyone, and he's probably still a little confused about how and why Jean would make such a dark turn. If Lois randomly turned into an axe murderer, Clark would probably act the same way. It's also kinda like how Luke Skywalker insisted that there was still good in his father, which turned out to be true. And from what we learn about Ray and his ability for compassion, it makes sense.

If he wants death throughout the galaxy, why did Nekron allow certain heroes to return? He kept talking about how their return was his will, but I don't know if he ever said why he willed it in the first place. (If he did, pardon me if I missed it.)

They were basically like sleeper agents.

Along those same lines, the "we wanted to come back" bit? Ugh!

How is that bad? They basically explained through that that the key to unlocking the white light is the choice of life over death (hence why willpower is at the center of the spectrum).