Every comic you've read in 2012


Missy

Recommended Posts

Green Lantern Corps #4/#5 - Both are a fairly decent read. I have a huge problem with five though, when Martian Manhunter is in the book he says straight out "you will not remember me when i leave here", yet later in the book when guy is talking to some sallak he mentions J'onzz. Why is there no consitencey in one book?

Suicide Squad #5 - Prison riot, people die. If the kill the character that they're hunting next couple of issues I'm going to be pissed. (That sounds weird but I'm just trying to avoide spoilers)

Supergirl #5 - exposition, exposition, "I'm going to conquer earth", cliffhanger.

Comics: 21

Trades: 1

Edited by bobobob_100
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 358
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

The latest round-up:

Green Lantern: New Guardians #4: zzzzzz Oh! Sorry, I was readina n attempt to make Kyle a character worth giving a shit about and fell asleep. This is shit. First of all, this series began by implying that Kyle was new. They've already thrown that one away. Stupid. Bedard is better than that. Kirkham's art I like, but I won't be buying this anymore.

Green Lantern Corps #4: Four issues in and John Stewart is still a non-entity. Add in Guy Gardner's uselessness in this issue and a lame cameo by Martian Manhunter, and you've got the most inconsequential comic of the month! Really disappointing. Done with this book too.

Red Lanterns #4: What began as the book with the most potential has dulled and bored me to tears. They have literally not moved forward form the first issue. Not one single plot point. Not one! Fuck. Decompression at its absolute worst. Done.

Green Lantern #4: here it is, the only DCnu52 that's worth reading. Mahnke's art has stepped up to the quality of the old series and Sinestro is the character to watch. I really hope they don't make a stupid mistake and put him away in favor of Jordan. That will likely be when I drop the book. But until then, more please!

Batman Inc. Leviathan Strikes #1: From a caption on page four: "The events of this book take place before Flashpoint and the New 52." Fuck you, DC. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Fuck. This is a 7 dollar book that looks to be about 100 pages long. The story could have been told very easily in one regular sized issue. The reveal of Leviathan: unimpressive. I probably won't get anymore of Morrison's bat-books after this.

Nightmare World vol 3: Demon Days: a very impressive end to Dirk Manning's long-running webseries. I loved it. The art is up and down, but it's always of a quality I enjoy. It would be interesting to see all of the mythology centric stories put into one volume. But that's just from a nerd standpoint. I loved it and would recommend the whole set.

Morning Glories Vol 2: I actually called the ending of this volume as a guess in the first volume, but it did not reduce my enjoyment of this series. This is easily the best creator-owned series of the last year. Spencer, in this volume, looks inside the history of each of the Glories and layers even more mystery into his "Lost meets prep school" concept. I LOVE this. Joe Eisma's art is superb as well. Give this a shot!

Herculian: a 48 page anthology written and drawn by Erik Larsen in Golden Age magazine size on pulpy paper. Fucking great. Love it love it love it. I've read it probably six times since I got it a few months ago. I'm counting it as a graphic novel.

Justice League Generation Lost vol. 2: Kinda makes me sad that there is no Maxwell Lord in the new DC. Since they basically established him here as a villain who can conquer the world. This was good. Not as good as the first volume, I think, but still pretty cool. I loved the art and especially the colors RHughes! The story lagged a little for me. Issue 20 which details Lord's rise to power is brilliant and 21 which has the JLI dealing with the death of

new Blue Beetle

are both wrestling for my favorite single issues of last year.

Tales of the Batman Gene Colan vol 1: I hate it when they label something volume one when there won't be a volume two, but this was a pretty great omnibus collection of his Bat-work. I can't believe that he was doing both Batman and Detective monthly for several months. Insane. Not Gene's best work, but still delightful to read.

Comics: 144

Graphic Novels: 2

Trades: 6

Omnibus: 2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Justice League Generation Lost vol. 2: Kinda makes me sad that there is no Maxwell Lord in the new DC.

He's in OMAC.

I stand by what I said. #PretendingItDoesntExist

A few more:

Creepy Presents Bernie Wrightson: Shit yeah! Required reading for horror comics fans. This is like taking an early English literature course without reading Beowulf. Wrightson is the fucking man. Even though I've read most of these and still have some of them in original magazine form, there were some nice additions. The collaborations with howard Chaykin and Carmine Infantino are lovely. Jenifer (what I consider to be the prototype for an amazing eight page horror comic story) is always nice to reread, though it must be 200 times by now for me.

Video Noire: Never even heard about this until I saw it for like 2 bucks on TFAW and thought: Risso's art is bitchin' and it's rare to see him do horror. Great stuff. Obviously an English translation of something (Spanish language maybe?). The story is right up my alley: a debauched beautiful children's TV star using her influence on the children to get them to do psychotic things. And her name's Miss Dready, even! Love it.

Comics: 144

Graphic Novels: 3

Trades: 7

Omnibus: 2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PunisherMAX #22

Jason Aaron did it. He killed Frank Castle.

This issue serves as an epilogue to Frank's life, as narrated by Nick Fury. It isn't earth-shattering, but it is a quiet, well-written story about a man who lived and suffered too long. Without spoiling it, the ending was a nice touch, but one wonders how long it will last. And it was nice to see Nick wrap up a few loose ends for Frank.

The MAX line without a Punisher comic seems wrong, but this was the only way for the character and series to end. Frank doesn't get a happy ending; he gets a cold slab in the morgue.

Comics: 80 || Collections: 17 || Graphic novels: 0

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After hearing the good things certain forumites have said about Chris Yost, I picked up Scarlet Spider #1 and... I wasn't overly impressed. It's not bad, by any means, but it's the same story we've seen every time Eddie Brock tried to go straight. Kaine isn't a particularly interesting character, and given how he was ressurected in Spider Island, I see no reason for this not to be a Ben Reiley book. Stegman's art is fun, and very engaging. I'll give this another issue or two, but it'll have to really hook me.

Winter Solider #1 was damn near perfect, Bucky and Widow kick major ass, and the story has me in deep.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Batman and Robin #6

First off, the cover outright lies. It directly states there will be a fight between Batman and Robin, yet they never appear in the same scene, nor are they heads to a fight. That's annoying.

Beyond that, the flashback story is flat. There's nothing tying us to the characters and situation; things happen just because. We're supposed to side with Bruce simply because he's Bruce, and that's that. (And the art in the flashback? Yikes!)

In the main story, the villain, Nobody, continues his mission to convert Robin to his side. But shock of all shocks, Robin doesn't turn. It's Rote Storytelling 101.

I really do enjoy this series as a whole, but this issue isn't worth the time. If you read five, skip straight to seven.

Also, "Kill you!" Sigh.

Comics: 81 || Collections: 17 || Graphic novels: 0

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Irredeemable Volume 8: If I had to read only one superhero book, this would be it. Waid is a fucking mad genius with this book. He does things here that no one else does and I love him for it.

Hellraiser Volume 2: Wow! This is the best thing Clive Barker's ever had comic-wise. Superb. I was unsure even after the first volume, but this second volume is fucking incredibly powerful.

The Complete Major Bummer Super Slacktacular: If you would have told me that a late nineties superhero satire still holds up today, I'd laugh at you. Even if I read it and liked it when it came out. But this is fucking awesome. I laughed out loud several times, and it's drawn by Doug Mahnke in a style that is sort of halfway between The Mask and Justice League Elite. Superb. And Arcudi is a great comedic comic book writer.

Comics: 144

Graphic Novels: 3

Trades: 9

Omnibus: 3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Complete Major Bummer Super Slacktacular: If you would have told me that a late nineties superhero satire still holds up today, I'd laugh at you. Even if I read it and liked it when it came out. But this is fucking awesome. I laughed out loud several times, and it's drawn by Doug Mahnke in a style that is sort of halfway between The Mask and Justice League Elite. Superb. And Arcudi is a great comedic comic book writer.

I've been slowly working my way through that collection since it was released, and you're spot on with everything you said.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Avengers Academy vol 2: No better book at Marvel than this, guaranteed. Gage has both such an amazing grasp of teenage characters as well as a great portrayal of the teachers. Speedball is amazing and so is Pym, but the best is Tigra, who is a character I've never given a shit about. She almost brought me to tears in this volume. Amazing. Also, if I was in the pitch meeting of this series and editorial turned to me and said "Name 3 artists that can capture superheroics with a young, vital style: go!" I would have likely said Mike McKone and Tom Raney. Then I would have kicked myself for not thinking of Sean Chen. Luckily all three are in this book. Wonderful stuff.

Edit: forgot to add these.

Captain Britain #1-39: I went back and read these thanks to the Gary Friedrich thing. He did the original CB run from Marvel UK (the costume with the staff and the lion on the chest) following up from Claremont. Some good stuff. Classic Herb Trimpe art (ie: Kirby ripoffs) and even some black and white John Buscema later in the series. The stories vacillate from good to downright boring, but fun overall nonetheless

Comics: 183

Graphic Novels: 3

Trades: 10

Omnibus: 3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hawkman #1 (2002)

This was a somewhat decent first issue, but I don't care enough about the characters to move forward. So far it seems like Hawkman is all like, "We're meant to be together! Don't you understand that?! </emo>" While Hawkgirl stands around saying, "I'm not who you think I am! </whine>"

Hellblazer #1-2

In a lot of ways, this is like watching William Hartnell Doctor Who: all of the elements are there, but they haven't come together just yet. At times it's very stiff and way too serious, but it's crazy magical storytelling, so that's a blast to read.

Punisher 2099 #1-11

This is exactly the book I remember it being: wacky, over-the-top Marvel action circa 1993. By no means is it great, but there's some okay storytelling here. My favorite part is that Jake is downright mental. The writers never shy away from the fact that he's beyond insane. I wish this would receive a modern update, because these issue-long stories could benefit from modern (RE: multi-issue) storytelling.

The series only ran for 34 issues, so I might finish it.

Comics: 95 || Collections: 17 || Graphic novels: 0

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Brubaker's Captain America (up to Trial of Captain America): So I read (and in terms of the first half, reread) Bru's Captain America. I had read through Man with No Face before, but never went beyond. I'll say generally that my knowledge of Captain America isn't the greatest, but Bru's run doesn't seem like the definitive Steve Rogers story, it seems like the definitive Bucky story. He doesn't do a ton of new stuff with Steve himself here, but he does a fantastic job of Steve's relationship with Bucky (the first few arcs), and that's what really let's it flow into the fantastic second act (Death of Captain America). Obviously everybody gushes about the Death of Captain America, and for good reason, it's a fantastic story about the icon of Captain America, his place in the U.S. and Red Skull's hidden stateside terrorism. The new stuff for me is the return of Steve (Road to Reborn, Reborn, Two Americas arcs) and while there were some crazy fantastical things happening in these stories (the giant robot in Red Menace and the consistent presence of the Cosmic Cube) it never got too crazy for me, it still seemed grounded, but Reborn took it to another level and kind of crossed the line of fantasticalness for me (the whole being trapped in time with no way of controlling his actions). I don't know why that was the line that crossed it but that whole Reborn story is probably my least favorite in the entire saga thus far. The continuing adventures of Bucky Cap were good, but they never reached the height that was reached during the Death arc. I really liked the Trial of Captain America and the idea that Bucky still feels responsible for his actions as Winter Soldier and is still trying to earn the redemption. Looking forward to see where he goes after the cliffhanger. Also it kind of sucks that Brubaker's stories get sucked into the main events, you could tell he's crafting his epic in spite of this, but they hinder the effect with the tie-in.

Overall:

Winter Soldier: 8.5

Red Menace: 8.5

Civil War tie in: 7.5

Death of Cap: 9.5

Man with No Face: 8.5

Road to.../Reborn: 6.5

Two Americas: 8

No Escape (Zemo): 7.5

Trial of Captain America: 8.5

Arkham City: This is a prequel to the video game (which I haven't played yet). It's sufficient and there's some interesting stuff going on, but honestly unnecessary. It's hard to craft a story that doesn't really have a clear narrative with a beginning middle and end. Sure it fills in some blanks on how Arkham got the way it is, it fills in some themes like the on-going gang wars (Peguin, Two Face, and Joker) are all vying for control. But it's got no ending and no clear purpose outside of filler plot moments that probably were explained in the game.

Mark Waid's Fantastic Four: Fantastic Four is a book that I never REALLY got into, no matter who I read. I read a bit of Stan and Jack it's imaginative, but it all seems so dated now. I read Roberto Aguierre-Sacasa's run that ran parallel to Waid's run and while enjoyable (especially that fantastic first arc), it just never compelled me and lost a ton of steam way too quickly. Waid's run is one that I hear is one of the best (I've heard Hickman's run is another one worth checking out, I have some of his run but haven't read it yet), and there's a lot of good stuff here. Compared to Roberto's kind of down to earth, family oriented, character driven stories, Waid embraces the imagination and takes his character's some great places, confronts Reed with his failures and religion, amongst other things. All the main four characters are given a lot of time and a lot of great character beats, and Doom is as ruthless as he's ever been, but none of that takes a backseat to the adventures. Really there's a great few arcs in here (the first three), but once you hit the hereafter arc things get a little bogged down, especially since it deals with Ben in human form and by the end of that arc, it's like the status quo is back to normal. Also the frightful four arc absolutely sucks. I liked it but still, in the back of my head, I don't REALLY love the Fantastic Four like I do with Madrox, Daredevil, and to a lesser extent Bucky and Iron Man, they're not characters that I absolutely run to and desire to read about even when the quality of storytelling is super strong. By the end of this run, it was still strong reading, but I had just grown bored of the adventuring and the characters.

Up Next: Red Skull Incarnate. Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine, Fantastic Four by Hickman

Total: Brubaker's Captain America (up to Trial of Captain America), Arkham City, Mark Waid's Fantastic Four

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Preacher, Vol. 1: Gone to Texas: I liked this and will read the rest of the series, but at the same time am not in any hurry to do so. Though the series has an excellent premise and some good characters (Cassidy being my favorite, thus far), this particular volume at times feels like it's trying too hard to be funny (such as what the sheriff does to himself after Jesse tells him to go fuck himself) and is excessively gorey (and this is from someone who loves dirty jokes and doesn't mind gore in movies that much). My favorite part, by far, was when Jesse basically knocked an angel off o

Daredevil by Bendis and Maleev, Vol. 2: On the whole a good, well-written read. Bendis writes an awesome Kingpin and Maleev's art is generally pretty good. However, there are number of things keeping me from calling this outstanding as opposed to merely strong: Maleev, to me, is one of those artists who's better during talky, quiet scenes than when he's asked to do fight scenes (especially when Daredevil fights the Owl, one of the most ridiculous supervillains ever conceived in my opinion). The fight between Daredevil and Kingpin that is the turning point in Bendis' run was helped by the fact that veteran artists on Daredevil drew various panels, but some of the panels were either poorly drawn or out of place (those being Janson's, Quesada's, and Oeming's; Colan's was, by far, the best). And though I enjoyed the Black Widow storyline, a super spy getting involved (let alone already having a history) with Matt Murdock felt as out of place as James Bond stepping into a show like The Wire.

Batman: The Black Mirror: The best Batman story I've read in a long time. Not only do I now understand the appeal of Dick as Batman (something I didn't quite get from early issues of Batman and Robin, even though I liked them), but now wish he had been in that role for longer than he was. Scott Snyder is the spiritual successor to Frank Miller (or at least 20th century Frank Miller) as far as Batman writers go, and need to seek out more Francavilla after reading this volume. I wasn't as high on Jock's stuff (except for the kickass cover of the third issue in the collection) but it fit the book and was never ugly, per se.

Collections: 6

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven't been to get comics since the October last year so being catch-up.

Fables #110-114: What these five issues are doing is transitioning the story. The status quo has changed so many times since #75 that it was a given that they would need some breathers. One issue is just back-up stories, mostly good.

Comics: 5

Graphic Novels: 0

Trades: 0

Omnibus: 0

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bah! There are a number of words. Stinkasuckafukababychest. Crapnation. Jeph Loeb-esque.

Wonder Woman #2: On one hand, I rather enjoyed the New version of Paradise Island. The Amazons are much more war-like than they were in Post-Crisis continuity. On the other hand, yet another origin for Wonder Woman. Fuck. Why am I also thinking the first of many?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Knights of the Pendragon #1-18: As a kid, my favorite of the Marvel UK titles. On a reread, it is still pretty good. But it meanders quite a bit. It is interesting to see Gary Erskine's art in a transitionary phase. You can see highlights of his later Morrison written stuff at the same time as him trying to abandon his complete ripoffery of Barry Windsor Smith.

Green Lantern #5: Fuck this book is good! It's also the only DC book I will read from here on out.

GL Corps #5: Nice try, but too little too late.

Red Lanterns #5: Ugh, this is no different than last issue, but even worse.

GL New Guardians #5: Fuck off.

Comics: 205

Graphic Novels: 3

Trades: 10

Omnibus: 3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Artifacts Origins

This is nothing more than a primer on the new status quo of the Top Cow Universe. As such, it's 13 double-page spreads with brief origins of all 13 Artifact-holders. For what it is, it's not bad. But by its nature, it's very surface level. Outside of the hardcore facts of the weapons, we learn next to nothing of the people holding them. That's fine, though; that's what the ongoing books are for. However, At $3.99, I wouldn't recommend it unless you're truly interested in a Top Cow crash course.

Comics: 97 || Collections: 17 || Graphic novels: 0

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ninjak #1

I went back to this series, because I have a deep fondness for it. It was the first comic to introduce me to Joe Quesada, as well as chromium covers. However, as much as I love Quesada's artwork and feel that chromium covers have their place, this book does not hold up. (I'm not sure it was ever good.) It's James Bond if Bond were a ninja, and that simply doesn't work. At least, not here.

Comics: 98 || Collections: 17 || Graphic novels: 0

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archie #630

The fourth and final part of "Archie Meets KISS" ended the series, sadly, on a whimper. KISS plays some music, then The Archies do the same, and the day is saved when the monsters are all turned into humans. Granted, that was the only way an Archie / KISS crossover could end, but the execution left a little something to be desired. And though the art had its moments, sometimes it was too loose, and there's one panel where I downright have no idea what's going on.

Still, it was really fun, and I hope Archie Comics does more silly crossovers like this.

Comics: 99 || Collections: 17 || Graphic novels: 0

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk

When I read a comic with a title of "[someone] vs. [someone]," I do not expect the book to be the greatest literary work of all time. However, I do expect a certain something from it, and that's at least one solid one-on-one fight. This book did not deliver that. Instead, we received two poorly constructed fights told within flashbacks within flashbacks within hallucinations within flashbacks.

Worse than that, character motivations are a mess. Several characters question why Wolverine accepted the assignment from Fury, but he never explains his reasoning. Fury wants The Hulk dead because, if it's revealed Banner survived his execution, his ass will be on the line; so then why does Fury let The Hulk go at the end? Jennifer becoming She-Hulk added nothing to the story, the Ultimate Universe, or the character. Wolverine has Banner exactly where he wants him, but he lets the man live because he wants to see The Hulk die -- not Banner? Huh?

On top of all that, in this story Wolverine survives being ripped in half, a nuclear explosion, being decapitated, and (though it's off screen) having his head placed in a vacuum. We're also told that the man's power is not his healing factor, but the ability to survive anything. So then how did Magneto kill Wolverine in Ultimatum?

And stop with all of the JJ Abrams, Lost, and Star Trek references. We get it!

Comics: 99 || Collections: 18 || Graphic novels: 0

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ninjak #1

Yeah...Ninja wasn't even good when it first came out. One of the lower tier Valiant titles.

Borgia 2: The Power and the Incest: Y'know, I like sleazy, a lot. But this might be too sleazy for me. I love it! If women looked like Manara drew them, the world would be a wonderful place.

Comics: 205

Graphic Novels: 4

Trades: 10

Omnibus: 3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Action Comics # 2-6: I like what Morrison is doing here. I think it is important to show that not everyone is just going to trust Superman right away, that he has to earn the trust. That said, the side adventure with the Legion felt kinda unnecessary but oh well.

Comics: 18

Graphic Novels: 0

Trades: 0

Omnibus: 0

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.