Comics, etc.

bighoppa wrote:

With all the talk of Iron Man here, I was wondering if there were any IM trades you guys might recommend?

If you can find them in stock, I would recommend The Power of Iron Man (this is being re-released in April under a new title Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle) & Armor Wars if you don't mind reading older stories.

New Avengers was good for about the first 15-20 issues and then it started a quick downward slide into less and less action and way too much BMB dialog. I hear it's gotten a little better, but the lead up to CW killed that title for me.

Hemidal wrote:

New Avengers was good for about the first 15-20 issues and then it started a quick downward slide into less and less action and way too much BMB dialog. I hear it's gotten a little better, but the lead up to CW killed that title for me.

And I'm only read up to Vol 3? So the next ones I've ordered are almost sure to be worse? Eeeeexcellent.

Oops, should have held off on that post until after UPS delivered. My bad.

Nah, I get the local shop guy to order them. I was hoping 4 would be good, and only got 5 out of curiosity. Maybe my new lower expectations will make them seem better in contrast.

Also, maybe they'll be printed on thin chocolate so if they suck I can just eat them on the couch while I watch Scrubs.

Fingers crossed guys.

bighoppa wrote:

So I picked up Wanted last night since some here had mentioned it was a good read. Interesting premise, but I think i have to agree with - I think it was SommerMatt? (I'm too lazy to read back through the other pages) - in that it takes things a bit too far at times. It's like Preacher but not as intelligent. I guess that may be by design since we are talking about a super-villian-ruled universe here. It was still entertaining in the end, so I guess it did what it set out to do.

God, I hated Wanted. Some of the action bits were competentely executed, but overall I found it to be a cynical, smug, juvenile crapfest that turned me off ever reading anything else by Millar.

I realise that might be a bit rash since he's generally held in pretty high regard, but considering how many great comics by other authors I still haven't read, I honestly can't feel too bothered about it.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

...overall I found it to be a cynical, smug, juvenile crapfest that turned me off ever reading anything else by Millar.

ALG, you should tell us how you really feel, not hide behind hyperbole and innuendo. Share with the group.

All kidding aside, I think you hit the nail on the head. It's a lot of angsty teen 'daddy didn't love me' crap. Again, I wonder if this title wasn't designed that way on purpose since...you know...villians. Wouldn't super-villians who had wiped out all the heroes on their Earth be cynical, smug and probably juvenile? I thought those were the core values of most comic book villians. Having not read anything else by Millar that I'm immediately cognizant of, I would be hesitant to pick up another title of his at this point. As much as I agree with you, though, I still had trouble just putting the damn thing down and going to bed without bothering to finish the book. Maybe I'm still just an angsty teen at heart. Except with beer...and hookers. In fact, forget the beer.

I've read maybe one or two issues of WANTED, so it wasn't me.

I REALLY loved PREACHER when I first started reading it... this must have been around 7? years ago... unfortunately, Ennis's style gets pretty one-note after a while. I mean, there's only so many anal rape jokes I can take

I absolutely HATED... HATEDDDDDDD... "The Boys." Utter crap.

Yeah, Jody and the "Chicken-lover" guy were my least favorite characters from the series. The Saint of Killers and Arseface were better.

SommerMatt wrote:

... unfortunately, Ennis's style gets pretty one note...

You know, I was thinking about that when I was reading that Punisher trade I picked up. Castle went off on a tangent about how he had died and gone to heaven and been offered this deal blah blah woof woof. I was thinking, "Where have I seen THAT before?" Not exactly the same but pretty damn close. Same with Just a Pilgrim now that I think about it. Fortunately I haven't seen any of that in his latest run on MAX Punisher, although... {transphobic slur}s. Barracuda seems like a good arch-nemesis for Frank, though.

So, I finally made it through the first 15 issues of Astonishing X-Men and really loved it. Whedon's writing, the art direction, just everything about those issues really rocked. I need to get the rest of the series though because I'm dying to see how it pans out.

Then, I started trying to read the New X-Men series starting at around issue #118 thru #126 I think. Chronologically, it falls before the Astonishing X-Men (oops!) but man, what a craptacular series. The writing seems flat and disjointed (Grant Morrison, who I'm not familar with), I can't stand the art style (Frank Quitely), and the new characters they introduce add nothing but angst & vitrol to the series. It almost seems like there was a bigger arc planned but there was a lot of cutting and editing to force the story along.

I think I'm going to move onto the Civil War stuff instead of trudging through the rest of New X-Men...

You mean you don't like Quitely's "gay biker on 'roids" look he came up with? Actually, that's pretty much how all his character look. Frank draws some fugly women.

...New X-Men series starting at around issue #118 thru #126...

Huh...so I guess they re-launched, since the issue I picked up last night was #40-something. The New-whatever (there's been three that I know of - The New Mutants and I guess two series now of New X-Men) have always been kinda craptacular. They seem like they're trying to market it to a younger audience, but the characters are weak and one dimensional and they never really seem to grow. Just reading Messiah Complex and seeing Wolfsbane and Cannonball again made me think back to all the characters from New Mutants that have vanished. I think those are the only two left these days. Granted it's been since '90-'91...

Speaking of Grant Morrison, I opened up We3 this morning over breakfast. Only got about half an issue in because it's been mostly silent, which has forced me to play close attention to each panel, but it's really interesting, so far.

When Morrison turned Magneto into a genocidal drug-addicted mutant Hitler, I pretty much lost interest in his writing.

LockAndLoad wrote:

Then, I started trying to read the New X-Men series starting at around issue #118 thru #126 I think. Chronologically, it falls before the Astonishing X-Men (oops!) but man, what a craptacular series. The writing seems flat and disjointed (Grant Morrison, who I'm not familar with), I can't stand the art style (Frank Quitely), and the new characters they introduce add nothing but angst & vitrol to the series. It almost seems like there was a bigger arc planned but there was a lot of cutting and editing to force the story along.

Whoa! Be carefull... the comic cognoscenti will take away your "no prize" for such a slanderous remark!

Many people think he's a genius... I'm not one of them, but I have appreciated some of his works.

Morrison's always been hit or miss with me. I didn't care for what little I read of his run on New X-Men and I didn't much get into his current Batman run. However, the work he's doing with Frank Quitely on All Star Superman is, bar none, some of the best Superman material I've ever read.
---Todd

Many people think he's a genius...

You're kidding me, right!? The overall plots have been okay but his dialog and characters jusve has no natural feel or flow. It's like reading the drafts written up by students in a Scriptwriting 101 class during their first week of class.

LockAndLoad wrote:
Many people think he's a genius...

You're kidding me, right!? The overall plots have been okay but his dialog and characters jusve has no natural feel or flow. It's like reading the drafts written up by students in a Scriptwriting 101 class during their first week of class.

No, not kidding. Not sure about New X-Men, but his most "Genius-y" works have been things like ANIMAL MAN, DOOM PATROL, and INVISIBLES. Also, his JLA run was pretty highly regarded by many people as well.

I don't know if you've ever listened to the COMIC GEEK SPEAK podcast, but every once in a while they have some guy on the show who is like an academic "Morrison expert"... I think if Morrison crapped in a bag, this kind of fan would declare it to be "rich and multi-textual."

As I said, I liked THE INVISIBLES (didn't understand much of it, though... oh, and Morrison ranted for months that the Wachowski brothers stole all his ideas). If you like silver-agey Superman stories (as Todd said) All Star Superman has been pretty solid.

Sometimes the communities at large just choose odd champions, and declare odd heretics.

I cannot tell you how many times I've heard someone that sounded personally insulted at what Judd Winnick has done with Green Arrow.

Really? You really hate it? Because it reads about like every damn comic book ever written. No it's not epic mastery of dialogue and plot, but it's entertaining and satisfying on a popcorn level and that's all I'm really looking for when I'm chilling out reading about a man in green tights that beats a giant rock crime lord with a "glue arrow."

Give the guy a break, he's writing a comic. Don't put someone down because they aren't above the bar. Just the bar is ok. It's the bar. It's supposed to be the standard.

Give the guy a break, he's writing a comic. Don't put someone down because they aren't above the bar. Just the bar is ok. It's the bar. It's supposed to be the standard.

Yeah, good points. I just, I don't know, it just didn't seem to gel with me. It might have been a case of New Coke (Morrison) vs. Old Coke (Whedon) too where my expectations were incorrectly set. Like I said, though, I thought it felt like there was material that might have been cut out.

Didn't mean to sound like I was defending Morrision if I did.

I like Morrison, but his style fits better with Vertigo and Vertigo-esque titles. Doom Patrol, Animal Man, stuff like that. When he started doing mainstream super-hero books, I thought it was a mistake. All Star Superman is good stuff, and his Batman run is supposed to be decent too, but The New X-Men was pretty bad.

Morrison is one of those people who, when I read his comics, I feel like I would "get" if I did more drugs. Maybe shrooms or LSD.

I'm not a big Eric Larsen fan, but I thought he had a pretty good column on CBR in regards to the One More Day/Brand New Day storyline - read it here if you want.

I'm trudging my way through 52 series.

I just finished CW and i have mixed feelings bout it.

When it comes to comics... I miss the 70's

ranalin wrote:

I'm trudging my way through 52 series.

I just finished CW and i have mixed feelings bout it.

When it comes to comics... I miss the 70's

Power Man and Iron Fist for the freakin' win, baby.

IMAGE(http://image.comicvine.com/uploads/vol/3000/2959/2959-18426-1-power-man-and-iron-f_400.jpg)

Especially Iron Fist.

Why does that make me think of Shaolin Soccer? When they're trying to sing at the karaokee bar?

SommerMatt wrote:

I REALLY loved PREACHER when I first started reading it... this must have been around 7? years ago... unfortunately, Ennis's style gets pretty one-note after a while. I mean, there's only so many anal rape jokes I can take

I absolutely HATED... HATEDDDDDDD... "The Boys." Utter crap.

Have you read any of his war comics? I really liked War Stories, especially the spanish civil war one in the second volume. It's a nice change of pace from his more over the top stuff.

Incidentally, if anyone's trying to decide on a series to start on next, you can read a bunch of Vertigo first issues for free here, including Preacher, 100 Bullets, Transmet, Invisibles and a bunch of other ones recommended in this thread.

link to awesomeness

Thanks ALG. Now I'm definately not getting any work down for the rest of the day.

Hey, I made a little picture of a Captain America I could really get behind. If anyone from Marvel is reading, please take this as a new suit suggestion.

IMAGE(http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f182/sfailey/captainbrave.jpg)

I've continued to trudge through The New Avengers (with the exception of Volume 4 which is on back order for some reason) and I've got to say that even though I am not a fan at large of the entire Civil War shift, I am kind of digging the "new" new avengers and their fugitive tangent.

I find it interesting because, as stated, I have become a big Iron Man fan. But, before that I was a huge Wolverine and Spider-Man fan and the Civil War has found my new favorites and my old favorites on opposite sides of a fence. Volume five was kind of rough to read and just outright confusing at times (I get really distracted when runs of books jump around on artists) but I managed to get the message. Now in Vol 6 the team has kind of re-solidified into an even more diverse group of heroes that aren't even sure what it is their end game is, while a team Tony Stark has created is doing pretty much what they've always done (hunt criminals) but I'm constantly at odds with who I think is right.

I don't agree with every decision Bendis has made but I do have to smile to myself when the only other thing I can remember where I was rooting for the chasers and the chasees at the same time was The Fugitive with Tommy Lee Jones and Harrison Ford.

So, even if it's not what I want to be happening to these characters, I'm still having a good time reading it.

I'm going to check on Wednesday to see if the local shop got Vol 4 in, but I don't imagine there is anything in there that is too profound as far as the team goes.