Dread Posted October 13, 2012 Report Share Posted October 13, 2012 Now that I've made my pick... Phonogram #1-6: I'm kind of a Manic Street Preachers fan. So, it's pretty needless to say that I liked this quite a bit. I had issues with the art several times throughout the series, but the story was solid enough. Kind of a John Constantine who needs Britpop to perform the magic. Super-cool concept. I look forward to the other volumes. Strange Embrace #1-8: David Hine's seminal UK comics work in color form Image. Creepy as fuck. The art gets a little static at times, but the style is very cartoon-creepy that I liked a lot. This could have been one of those MTV cartoons like Maxx or Aeon Flux if the people making them took bath salts instead of mushrooms. Comics: 900 Graphic Novels: 20 Trades: 43 Omnibus: 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Posted October 13, 2012 Report Share Posted October 13, 2012 Marvel Adventure Spider-Man: Secret Indentity - Nice brain cleanse before the final clone saga trade. Simple, fast read of high school Spidey. Nothing special, but it killed my break at work, which was needed. Comics: 25 Graphic Novels: 1 Trades: 152 (869) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elnino14 Posted October 13, 2012 Report Share Posted October 13, 2012 I've read a crap ton since I was last on here. I'll do my best to just hit the highlights. First the x-universe stuff: Matt Fraction's X-men (including Lovelorn, Utopia, Nation X, Birth of Generation Hope) - Ed Brubaker's X-men left me cold (even if I though Rise and Fall of Shiar was fun), Fraction's also left me cold, mostly. There's a bunch of events scattered in between this, but they all feel meaningless. Mind you I like the focus on Cyclops in these stories and I like Cyclop's evolution from just soldier boy to this general/prime minister/dictator of the mutant race. Magneto's return into the X-fold is also pretty interesting here. But mostly every body else comes and goes, I could hardly tell you who played important roles in what books and what happened. It's mostly cannon fodder. Nothing special, kind of just there. We'll see if Kieron Gillien can handle the characters any better, well at least until everything gets eaten up by Avengers vs. X-men. I've grown to really like Hope in her appearances throughout all the books. X-men Legacy by Mike Carey (Divided He Stands, Sins of the Father, Original Sins, Salvage, Emplate, Colission, Age of X, Aftermath): I'm a tale of two halves with Carey. The stuff before Messiah Complex, I didn't care for at all, as a matter of fact, I actively disliked. But his exploration of Professor X in the three books after Messiah Complex are really good. Easily the best stuff he's done with the X-universe in his run. It plays into the earlier looks that Brubaker began to explore in Deadly Genesis and just picks apart the man, critiques the character to it's core. And it's very awesome. But after Rogue returns, it's not nearly as good. It kind of just moves from place to place and feels like the main X-book with a different core group of characters (Rogue being the main, obviously, along with Magneto, and Legion). Age of X was a fun little story that echoes classics like Days of Future Past and Age of Apocalypse but fails to be as earth-shattering. To the purpose of the story it's very confined and feels very similar to the main X-books and I think that's kind of the point. I'll try and finish out Carey's run (there's only two more trades) but generally I've grown weary. X-force vol. 3 and Sex and Violence: I REALLY liked the first half of the Kyle and Yost's X-force run, but this is the point they get pulled into all kinds of other crap and begin to tying into some crap events. Messiah War was blah, I liked seeing the Hope and Cable relationship in the one-shots that were available it gave a great idea into their bond. But everything else seemed like treading water. And while the Sex and Violence mini was fun, it was completely different in tone to what came before. X-23 gets some great moments here though that follow the threads that came before. I hardly remember what happened to Rahne and I was really enjoying her developments here. X-Necrosha: Gosh I hated this, I was just BORED by it all. And was upset that this was the climax to a lot of plot threads that were started in a book I was really enjoying and was forced to derail. It was hard to tell what was going on, it was hard to care because I didn't know most of the characters coming back from the dead and ultimately it's a shit climax that should have been confined to the stories of one book (X-force) and not brought up all the other X-books. X-men Second Coming: I actually enjoyed this. I still stand by what I said previously, but Bastion always seemed way bigger than just X-force to handle (Selene and Eli Bard story should have had a better climax). I really enjoyed this one, was it better than the last event involving Hope, no, but very enjoyable and entertaining. In the end this was a good send off for a couple of characters, and pretty well put together. I liked the building tension between Wolverine/Hope/Cyclops. That'll be great to see later. I love Namor as a supporting character in these X-books. In the end, it probably amounted to less in the large scheme of things, but that's comics always ending with "to be continued..." Schism: Prelude: Whatever. It tried to be a character study but seemed totally off balanced in the direction they were going in for Wolverine and Cyclops. I'm pretty much caught up to Schism at this point. I (regrettably) ordered an X-men vs. Avengers book. So I'll read through that, but I'm already getting X-fatigue. Secret Avengers vol. 1-2 by Ed Brubaker, and Fear itself Secret Avengers: I like Brubaker on Captain a lot, but this was severely disappointing. In the end I didn't care and it wasn't fun. I'll get one more volume just because I love Warren Ellis, but after that I'm pretty much done with Avengers books, unless Remender and Hickman can breathe some life back into the franchise. One thing consistent is that Ant Man is still fun. Secret Warriors vol 1-6 by Hickman: I enjoyed this quite a bit, it felt like a Bond story in the Marvel Universe. I liked the lessons taught to the younger characters, I like how smoothly everything flowed from one section to the next (except for the misstep on the Dark Reign crossover). But it felt logical all the way through. I loved the beginning characterization of Nick Fury as a man who doesn't have a war, as a man who is not relevant in this new world any more, and as a character who just CAN'T and WON'T accept that. The minor characters all get their time as well although it's mostly just snippets they're well-crafted snippets. I liked this one a lot Next up: Animal man vol. 1 by Lemire, Swamp Thing vol. 1 by Snyder, Young Liars vol 1-3, X-men Schism, Next year I'm planning to go through the Cosmic universe (Annihilation/Annihilation Conquest/Nova/Guardians of the Galaxy/etc.). Should be fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Posted October 13, 2012 Report Share Posted October 13, 2012 Marvel Adventures Spider-Man Vol. 1 (#1-8) - When I read Marvel Adventures books, I just want fast, easy fun. This was not quite enough fun for me. Also, I find I enjoy these better in digest format. I read this as an oversized hardcover, and I found myself wondering why would this get such a release. Digests works so much better. Comics: 25 Graphic Novels: 1 Trades: 153 (877) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted October 13, 2012 Report Share Posted October 13, 2012 Marvel seems to think that everything needs a hardcover release. They're wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koete Posted October 13, 2012 Report Share Posted October 13, 2012 Secret Wars II totally deserved that omnibus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted October 14, 2012 Report Share Posted October 14, 2012 Grendel Omnibus vol 1 Hunter Rose: Like 600 pages of it too. Great book collecting the entirety of the Hunter Rose story. Thre more omnibuses to come! The introductory graphic novel is interesting because usually these things start of amazing and then descend into terrible-hood, but the first GN of Grendel is downright awful. There is no storytelling, and a few shorter stories repeat that throughout here, but there's no denying that a young JH Williams III saw that and had his mind blown. The later stories can go from good to fucking incredible. The last book, Behold the Devil is a goddamned comics masterpiece and it's lovely to see Wagner doing the art and story ina more traditional comics way. Mage-era Wagner is a cartoonist who can only be beat by a select few in history, and that GN comes from that era too. Great shit. Comics: 900 Graphic Novels: 20 Trades: 43 Omnibus: 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Posted October 14, 2012 Report Share Posted October 14, 2012 Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga (Book 5) - Filler. This entire volume is nothing but filler. Three New Warriors issues? Because Scarlet Spider is in 13 panels? Spider-Man Team-Up? Because Peter says clone once? The only non-filler is the 3 issues 'The Greatest Responsibility' ending. Bleh. After finishing with these, I cannot help but think of wasted potential. I feel the major failing of this was the lack of forethought. If this had been shorter (with less goddamned stupid), you could have ended up with two marketable characters. Maybe my timeline is off, but at this time it seemed like every Marvel mainstay had a 'jr.' around (US Agent, War Machine, Thunderstrike) so it would not have been unheard of to have the Scarlet Spider stick around. Heck, It could have ended the same way (Peter going away to be a dad - Ben taking up the mask) if the path chosen to get there had not gone thru a big forest of shit. Comics: 25 Graphic Novels: 1 Trades: 154 (895) Up next are the Ben Riley trades. I know the first one is going to suck (the AOA style Scarlet Spider replacement titles), but I have hopes that it will get better. It has to right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted October 15, 2012 Report Share Posted October 15, 2012 Oh my God. They included those New Warrior issues in that? He has like five word balloons in his entire membership with the team! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Posted October 19, 2012 Report Share Posted October 19, 2012 Marvel Adventures Spider-Man: Fiercest Foes - Four issues. Two were fun, one was amusing, and one was alright. Perfect for my time wasted in a doctor's office. Also, thumbs up for them having this among the magazines. Comics: 25 Graphic Novels: 1 Trades: 155 (899) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuaveStar Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 I finished Batman: Under the red hood complete volume last night. It was my favourite Batman story when I first read it, and I loved the Jason character Winnick was writing. But having read it now, a few years later, and after seeing the animated film, I found a few issues: The first issue has nothing at all to do with the overall story. I get that, at the time there was something going on with Kord industries, but here, the entire issue just feels like needless padding. The Joker is shown in a circus, beaten down, and wanting to be alone, there's no narrative explanation for this (I think that this was around the time Hush kicked him out of Gotham in that awful Hush Returns storyline, it would have been nice if they included a "Joker is in this state because of Hush in Batman #600-603 or something/") so Jason finding him like this, just feels strange. The tie-in with infinite crisis goes nowhere, other than having Jason kill a villain everyone forgot about years ago in Captain Nazi. The fill in issues, the first one was by Shane Davis, who is a great artist, and seemed similar to Doug Mahnke with his take on Jason, but the final chapter was by Eric Battle, who I've never seen anything else by, and his style is completely different from Mahnke's. Finally Jason's return, it's just stupid. In the animated film, his return actually makes a bit of sense, in this, cause Superboy power punched time, he's been brought back to life. Well, my first question to that is, wouldn't Jason's body have been embalmed before being put in the coffin. I remember a horror film covering the same idea, where someone was brought back to life from a coffin state, and them screaming in pain, as there blood was replaced with embalming fluid, just something I noticed. The animated film actually made Jason's return make sense, here, it just felt like a last minute idea, that nobody cared about. And the annual explaining where Jason was dull, it picks up near the end, but by that point, I was already bored. Also, does anyone else have the original volume 1 and 2? Because I'm pretty sure the last page of the story is missing from the all in one volume as the story ends just as the explosion happens, and Bruce is in mid thought. Overall though, I still enjoy the main story, and apart from the first, last and annual issues all being a letdown, this is still a great Batman story, even if parts of it were incredibly stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Posted October 22, 2012 Report Share Posted October 22, 2012 Marvel Age Spider-Man: Spidey Strikes Back (#17-20) - Human Torch + Spider-Man. Fun times. Marvel Adventures Spider-Man: The Black Costume (#21-24) - Really bad retelling of how the symbiote and Venom. Marvel Adventures Spider-Man: Thwip! (#53-56) Spider-Man: Marvel Adventures Amazing (#1-4) Spider-Man: Marvel Adventures Spectacular (#5-8) - I enjoyed these most out of all of this line I have read. I think actually having continuity makes for a better trade. Reminds me of early Ultimate issues, in that it is a clean high school Spider-Man universe that is just fun. Dark X-Men & Siege: X-Men - I have no idea what is going on. I understand the placement in the course of events, but that does fuckall to help my understanding of these issues. Comics: 25 Graphic Novels: 1 Trades: 162 (928) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Posted October 23, 2012 Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 Civil War: X-Men & Civil War: X-Men Universe - Seems rather pointless and added nothing to the Civil War story. At least with the X-Men issues, I could follow the gist knowing little of the set-up. X-Factor I have no idea who is on the team and who the annoying future girl is. Deadpool & Cable? When the hell did Cable become Jesus? Comics: 25 Graphic Novels: 1 Trades: 164 (937) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Molly Posted October 23, 2012 Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 Right around Civil War, actually. It's handled really well in Cable and Deadpool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Molly Posted October 23, 2012 Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 Which everyone should read. Great book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Posted October 24, 2012 Report Share Posted October 24, 2012 Secret Invasion: X-Men - Pretty much follows what I have heard about Secret Invasion as a whole: not epic and over rather quickly. Still, this was nice to look at. Specially a page with Iceman/Northstar/Aurora. So pretty. House of M: Uncanny X-Men - I guess I anticipated something more important happening. Add in that I know very little about Captain Britain and crew and I was bored. Also, the art change (Davis to Bachalo) was not very smooth at all. Comics: 25 Graphic Novels: 1 Trades: 166 (945) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elnino14 Posted October 25, 2012 Report Share Posted October 25, 2012 Civil War: X-Men & Civil War: X-Men Universe - Seems rather pointless and added nothing to the Civil War story. X-Factor I have no idea who is on the team and who the annoying future girl is. 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Posted October 25, 2012 Report Share Posted October 25, 2012 Civil War: X-Men & Civil War: X-Men Universe - Seems rather pointless and added nothing to the Civil War story. X-Factor I have no idea who is on the team and who the annoying future girl is. 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. Don't get me wrong, I will most likely read this series at some point. But these issues did nothing to entice me to. I will paraphrase Mike on this: 'Every comic is someone's first.' If I had not had prior knowledge I would have been 100% completely lost. Not saying that I need a full bio, but simple introduction boxes would have been nice. Layla Miller is a perfect example. I knew who she was because I listen to the X-Cast. However, this issue itself does nothing. I think it comes down to be view of what a event tie-in should do. These should introduce new readers checking out Civil War to X-Factor and make me want to buy it. It made me regret my 'purchase'. Not good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dc20willsave Posted October 25, 2012 Report Share Posted October 25, 2012 I'll agree with you there. I love X-Factor. It's one of my favorite books currently running. The Civil War issue seems shoe-horned in, more like Peter David was told he had to do one and he tried to move some stuff around for it but mostly just kept on telling the story he wanted to tell, regardless of if someone was going to pick up the book just for the tie-in. That and, outside of the weird moment with Quicksilver and Layla that will barely ever be come back to, it doesn't even fit well into the story arc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stratofarius Posted October 26, 2012 Report Share Posted October 26, 2012 Just finished reading The Promise Part 3. And as the release of The Search comes closer, I keep worrying about what'll happen to the Avatar universe after the comics and Korra ends. Keep hoping they'll start an expanded universe, there's so much to explore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted October 26, 2012 Report Share Posted October 26, 2012 Complete War of Kings crossover (including pro/epilogues): 45 issues of the whole thing from Secret Invasion: Inhumans to Who Will Rule. Overall, very good. I loved the rise to power in the Kree Empire of the Inhumans because I've always thought they were mishandled amongst the greater Marvel U post-Kirby. The Shi'Ar politics were interesting as well once it got past the whole "Rah, I'm Vulcan and fuck you!" aspect of it. Even the Darkhawk stuff was great. The Guardians of the Galaxy tie-ins were immensely great and for how many Nova tie-ins there were only one was even good. So, a mixed bag overall, but really enjoyable. Looking forward to Realm of Kings. Manhattan Projects vol 1: A Hickman joint from Image. It's a little over the top. In fact, the true story behind the arms race would have been preferable to this intetionally quirky sci fi jumble. The characters here are real people and yet we are given these weirdly darkly comic versions that don't ring true. A disappointment. Thunderbolts: Like LIghtning: If I'm not mistaken, the final Thunderbolts proper trade before this series becomes Dark Avengers. The time-travel stuff got a little out of control in the Arthurian arc but once them come closer to the present and meet the original Zemo-led team it glides through to an incredibly tense and uber-cosmic ending. Kind of like that the last few trades of Thunderbolts were "what if the Return of Bruce Wayne miniseries was actually about the Suicide Squad?" Comics: 945 Graphic Novels: 20 Trades: 45 Omnibus: 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Posted October 27, 2012 Report Share Posted October 27, 2012 X-Men: Dream's End - This just seemed odd. Lots of talking, not a lot of action. Colossus sacrificing himself wasn't handle all that well. The Kitty 'Eulogy' issue to end was a nice touch tho. Comics: 25 Graphic Novels: 1 Trades: 167 (953) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Posted October 28, 2012 Report Share Posted October 28, 2012 X-Men: Deadly Genesis - I don't really have an opinion on this. It is just kinda there. I knew all of the twists beforehand, and without those, this seems pointless. And I don't think I like this Vulcan character. X-Men: Emperor Vulcan - I enjoyed this. Didn't really give me much in back story and was basically just an action trade. Was enjoyable and a nice, quick read. Comics: 25 Graphic Novels: 1 Trades: 169 (964) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Spider-Man: The Complete Ben Riley Epic (Book 1) - Yeah. Plus side: No Clones. Cloneless. However, the route they chose to go with the Scarlet Spider titles was poor. Virtual Reality? That is weak. Plus weak, no-name villians and I do not care. Again, why are New Warrior issues included? I read an issue about Speedball and his cat. Seriously. Scarlet says "Hi. Bye." And that is more than the other NW issue. I don't know why they did not just reprint the specific pages like the did at the beginning of the first Clone Saga book. Main gripe is that the reasoning to get Riley out of the sweatshirt and into Spider-Man proper is just plain stupid. "Oh, whoa is me. A villain impersonated me and slightly annoyed some people for 10 minutes. I can never reclaim my reputation. Guess I should put on this Spidey costume since he has a perfect image." He stayed Scarlet as to make his own way into the world, yet first time people yell at him he changes his mind. I can only guess these Scarlet issues were trying to boost sales by ripping off of the AOA interruptions of the X-Titles. Comics: 25 Graphic Novels: 1 Trades: 170 (979) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Judas Coin: A beautiful book almost throughout. Walter Simonson is a true fucking legend. A sort of Voice of the Fire-style story of one of Judas' pieces of silver throughout the history of the DC universe. Some stories stand out above the others. The final one ( a 29th Century Manhunter story) is kind of awful as he adopts a manga style. It doesn't work for me. For others, maybe. Still, worth buying for sure for the Bat Lash, Captain Fear and Two-Face stories alone. Comics: 945 Graphic Novels: 21 Trades: 45 Omnibus: 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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