Bore Comics Thread: Crisis On Infinite Megathreads

[toku]

I used to have a couple eps on VHS as a kid, loved it

[Momo]

I ordered Dark Knight Metal also, sounds batshit so why not. Decided to skip on Marvel stuff, will keep an eye on Legacy but their current stuff isnt of interest to me.

[chronovore]

I read enough to know that I absolutely DO NOT WANT this, but some of you might:
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/10/06/fully-lettered-pages-doomsday-clock-ashcan/

WE PREFER AGE-ENHANCED KIDDO

Shit, that'd make me Weapon IX or something.

[benjipwns]

METAL is great, I love it. It's like The Multiversity in that it's totally non-serious fun while being somehow such canonwank that it ties it all together. I wonder if he talked to Morrison regarding the Barbados plot or if this is just him going about fulfilling what even Morrison thought was going too far.

I like the premise of that Doomsday Clock excerpt.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The idea that the plan didn't work.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I already knew Geoff was going to involve too many of the Watchmen and especially Rorschach when he confirmed Adrian was involved.

[close]

[close]

[toku]

https://twitter.com/HansStephanie/status/920684044106510337

https://twitter.com/MinovskyArticle/status/920438546317574145

[Junpei the Tracer!]

I ordered Dark Knight Metal also, sounds batshit so why not. Decided to skip on Marvel stuff, will keep an eye on Legacy but their current stuff isnt of interest to me.

Ordered Batman White Knight #1 yesterday, should be here next week by post

Why not just download them or use comixology(inb4 it's not available in South Africa). Buying single issues and having them shipped to you must expensive.

[benjipwns]

I pick Kirby over Stan.

That said.

The thing I hate about Jack Kirby and his legions always bringing that stuff up was that Stan had long ago won the war, only the hardcore will ever care or know, people don't even know about the "Marvel Method" and all those people always praise Kirby. Plus and I hate to give credit to him but Stan literally had to write like 40 different books from everything from the heroes to war comics to everything else while serving as Marvel editorial and everything else in some shoved in the corner set of offices, it was basically just the two of them for a long time. The fact that early Marvel isn't outright terrible when you had Kirby drawing everything, and then Stan coming in after and somehow filling in all those books text-wise without fucking it up is to both their credits. Especially later when Kirby started to get creative, especially in Thor, and Stan probably had to go what in the fuck is this supposed to even be and figure out how to script it out. And Thor quickly gets pretty serialized for that era. Yet if you look at the Kirby proofs in the back of some of those collections, Stan had to have some legitimate skill to make that work at times. Especially when he's got 10 panels of dudes grabbing at some levers on a machine made of KirbyTech and laser beams firing out and characters with all the same expressions and who knows what notes Kirby left him if they weren't feuding at the time.

Really, when I was reading all those last year or whenever it was shocking how compelling and easily reproduced most of it could be as a "intro" series for kids/people coming from the movies without significant plot changes. Well... except for literally anything involving human fee-males.

Actually, considering how bad a lot of that was, it's interesting that they realized how useless Sue's original power of just turning invisible was and gave her those force fields and turned her into a fighter fairly quickly. Even if the science that Reed explained it with made zero sense like everything else back then.

[Momo]

I ordered Dark Knight Metal also, sounds batshit so why not. Decided to skip on Marvel stuff, will keep an eye on Legacy but their current stuff isnt of interest to me.

Ordered Batman White Knight #1 yesterday, should be here next week by post

Why not just download them or use comixology(inb4 it's not available in South Africa). Buying single issues and having them shipped to you must expensive.

For the longest time I did (and still do). Bought a nice tablet, get comics digitally, but it's just not the same. I've enjoyed comics less since going digital so I'm going to try these new series in print. I enjoy reading physical manga more than digital also so there's some president.

[Momo]

Kirby ethering Stan is glorious 
I've always seen Stan as a mascot more than anything and find it ridiculous what people attribute to him.

[benjipwns]

so there's some president.

Jeez, Momo always filling threads with the political jibber jabber!

spoiler (click to show/hide)

precedent 

[close]

[Momo]

precedent. fuck you i haven't slept and just typing shit

[bork]

Marvel musings:

Marvel Legacy numbering has started on some books.  For the most part, it's easy enough to follow, but I bet this is going to lead to some confusion.  There's one title change with The Totally Awesome Hulk now back to The Incredible Hulk.

X-Men: There's currently a crossover arc between X-Men Blue and X-Men Gold going on, featuring Mojo as the villain.  In the first issue of this crossover, we get the classic X-Men setup of them having a ball game before shit hits the fan.  Both teams are playing ball and something hit me reading this- I can't exactly remember, but I'm pretty sure that the Blue team left the Gold team (I.E. all of the other X-Men) to go off with Magneto and "hide" in Madripoor.  Yet they're right back in NYC being welcomed with open arms.  The other thing that stands out are the amount of similar characters/clones and the lack of any real reaction.  Jimmy Hudson meets Old Man Logan for the first time.  This gets a whopping TWO panels of "I hear you're my son from another universe."  "Hmm."  "Hmm."  Kind of expected more there.  And then in a recent issue of Blue, the team gained another member in Bloodstorm, yet-another vampire version of Storm from an alternate universe (Blue seems to slowly be turning into Exiles).  The two Storms don't interact at all and the fact that Bloodstorm is a blood-thirsty vampire who can't control her urge to drink blood is ignored.  Ditto for Jean Grey and her daughter Rachel.  Wassupwitdat?

Spider-Man: Pete has lost his company and is now universally-hated by pretty much everyone because all the web-ware tech (tablets, smart watches, etc.) is dead and/or money invested in the company is lost.  So he spends his time sitting on Mockingbird's couch all day doing nothing and finally gets some motivation when she tosses the Spider-Man gear at him to go out on patrol.  Kind of the opposite of the classic Spider-Man stories where now Peter Parker is the "menace", with even the Daily Bugle publishing headlines labeling him as such, heh.

Iron Man: Not sure if the plan here is to end the Dr. Doom Infamous Iron Man series and fold everything into a single book.  The return to the legacy numbering starts off a new storyline where Tony Stark's body (he has been in a coma for months, with an AI version of himself running around instead) suddenly disappears.  This has pretty much nothing to do with Doom, but in the middle of the book it's like someone took a page or two from Infamous Iron Man and just stuck it into this comic, so I guess there's going to be a "who will be Iron Man?!" thing happening at some point.  The big points here are Tony's board of directors trying to take over the company and then a mysterious bald man waking up from some kind of chamber and putting on Iron Man armor.  Maybe that's Tony or a swerve because Bendis.

[Purple Filth]

Marvel musings:


Iron Man: Not sure if the plan here is to end the Dr. Doom Infamous Iron Man series and fold everything into a single book.  The return to the legacy numbering starts off a new storyline where Tony Stark's body (he has been in a coma for months, with an AI version of himself running around instead) suddenly disappears.  This has pretty much nothing to do with Doom, but in the middle of the book it's like someone took a page or two from Infamous Iron Man and just stuck it into this comic, so I guess there's going to be a "who will be Iron Man?!" thing happening at some point.  The big points here are Tony's board of directors trying to take over the company and then a mysterious bald man waking up from some kind of chamber and putting on Iron Man armor.  Maybe that's Tony or a swerve because Bendis.[/i]

Wasn't there something about his brother Arno returning? maybe its him? 

[bork]

Marvel musings:


Iron Man: Not sure if the plan here is to end the Dr. Doom Infamous Iron Man series and fold everything into a single book.  The return to the legacy numbering starts off a new storyline where Tony Stark's body (he has been in a coma for months, with an AI version of himself running around instead) suddenly disappears.  This has pretty much nothing to do with Doom, but in the middle of the book it's like someone took a page or two from Infamous Iron Man and just stuck it into this comic, so I guess there's going to be a "who will be Iron Man?!" thing happening at some point.  The big points here are Tony's board of directors trying to take over the company and then a mysterious bald man waking up from some kind of chamber and putting on Iron Man armor.  Maybe that's Tony or a swerve because Bendis.[/i]

Wasn't there something about his brother Arno returning? maybe its him? 

Wouldn't surprise me.  Also won't be surprised when this story takes twice as long to finish than it should.

[Freyj]

Really enjoying Metal and the tie-ins. I’m glad I read through all the Crises and Morrison’s Bat stuff again recently because I’m not sure I remembered much from Final, Barbatos, etc.

Also Best Buy has these Hardcover and DC Animated Movie Blu Ray combos on sale for $12. I saw JLA Earth 2, Death of Supes, new 52 Batman, new 52 JL. Not a bad deal.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/superman-doomsday-includes-death-of-superman-graphic-novel-blu-ray-2007/5882116.p?skuId=5882116

[benjipwns]

  Tom King is the fucking best

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Selina is forcing Bruce to take her to Talia...this violates an international treaty, triggers a JLA crisis alert, and the Robin's go nuts when Alfred tells them and Damien realizes where they're going

[close]

[desert punk]

Not super into comics but I've been reading Marvel's Darth Vader series (2015) since yesterday and it's quite good. They do a good job in tying the prequel stuff to the old movies without it feeling forced and I like how Vader has to prove himself worthy to the emperor again after the events of ANH. They certainly managed to make Vader entertaining again after the prequels.

Kinda takes me back to the old Republic series from the early to mid-00s. Really enjoyed those issues back then.

[Momo]

Picked up my comics yesterday, Mister Miracle, Dark Knights Metal and Batman White Knight, I havent decided which ongoing books to read post rebirth so i'm doing these mini series only for now, any other suggestions?

[chronovore]

https://twitter.com/jermainedesign/status/922827482738364417/photo/1

Not super into comics but I've been reading Marvel's Darth Vader series (2015) since yesterday and it's quite good. They do a good job in tying the prequel stuff to the old movies without it feeling forced and I like how Vader has to prove himself worthy to the emperor again after the events of ANH. They certainly managed to make Vader entertaining again after the prequels.

Kinda takes me back to the old Republic series from the early to mid-00s. Really enjoyed those issues back then.

This is the Kieron Gillen run, yes? It's fantastic! I also like the "evil C3PO and R2D2" analogs. Vader's relationship with the smuggler-woman is also well-handled.

[Tasty]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eleven #12, "One Girl in All the World"

(Minor spoilers.)

And with that, Buffy Season 11, and quite possibly the entire canonical "Buffy" line of comic/show "seasons," comes to a close.

I think I like s11 the most of the comic seasons.

Season Eight was too grandiose and messy, and the finale didn't make a whole lot of sense. The sheer scope of it has to be commended though, and there were subplots and developments that I really liked.

Season Nine was thankfully scaled back and dealt with some serious issues, but it felt a bit aimless.

Season Ten was the start of the team finally "clicking" together again after 8 scattered them to the winds (for their own spinoffs, nache.) Spike, Giles and Willow being back full-time was a big step up, but the overall arc recycled too much from the show and lost some of the identity 8 and 9 had forged.

Season Eleven was the first time where the arc was fresh, the threats and issues were serious, the gang was back together and mostly harmonious, and overall it just felt like the first time we've seen these characters become adults. I can't stress how refreshing the lack of internal Scooby strife was. It also helps that this season was a scant twelve issues, giving it an absolute laser focus the other comic seasons lacked, but with that said... it was great, and it was only twelve issues.

If this is truly the end for seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I'm satisfied. This is probably the most uplifting season finale of the entire series, which is saying something. Of course, I'm also mildly tickled as an ardent Spuffy fan that after everything, Buffy finally ended up with Spike.



"There is only one thing on this earth more powerful than evil, and that's us."

[benjipwns]

i'll get around to this issue later when i check my stuff, i assumed it was going to be mostly fighting the chick anyway and then the scoobies regrouping so nothing major in scale which i'm fine with (aside from my earlier lament regarding Faith and the whole supernatural known by the world thing)

yeah the dumb drama of prior seasons within the groups was the worst part of them especially all the relationship angst that circled without any direction and always wound up back where it started...and the way they just totally paved over shit like killing Xander's new girl and like nevermind! now he likes Dawn! two issues later or some shit

i still wish i could somehow take some of the issues from one of those other season that felt like it was dragging and give them to this one to play up the camp section of the story longer, especially showing Xander, Dawn, etc. outside the camp in the real world, the issue where you got to see a little bit of Buffy's routine when she became a...moderator...and with breaking Willow in and uncovering the Orge plot was nice and tight but i wouldn't have minded just the whole scale of that time being expanded especially since so much of it was spent on pages of BUFFY BEATING UP PEOPLE...also maybe a bit more plot before they went straight to the camps

[Tasty]

I feel ya. Maybe 2-3 more issues and this season would've felt perfect. But the laser focus is super appreciated - this season didn't drag at any point, very much unlike 8-10 which had multiple points of "Okay skimming this to get to the good stuff."

[Tasty]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also I don't think Buffy's revoking is gonna last, it was a necessary powerup and I think it'd be preeeetty dumb to undo 7's big finale twist.

I think it'll last at least for a period in any potential future season. The last couple seasons have shown that most of them are just useless cannon fodder, the one they bothered with this season was just another one for Buffy to beat up.

Plus, I just remembered, they had rewritten in the book last season how Slayers can come to be.

Getting proven right against the over-confident codger benji

Now I am the master.

[close]

[benjipwns]

Read the spoiler because I don't care enough about the truly last issue of a series usually, but I admit, I was not totally taking into account that this might really be the final season and they kinda knew it.

I thought it might be part of a setup for next season's main arc.

And if it's not the last season I'm going to claim it'd be a better story than whatever they come up with until I see otherwise.

[Tasty]

Let this be a lesson boys and girls, you can challenge benji on shit even when he writes 8 paragraphs per post about it. 

[gfm793]

Holy Crap! Buffy comic discussion! That's something I haven't seen in a while. I fell off of this season, because I just didn't really dig the premise that much. I think my favorite comic season of it were actually Season 8 and Angel: After the Fall. I loved early Angel and Faith though, that first season of it was amazing.

Not gonna lie though, I was never a big Spuffy guy at all, and I felt that both he and Angel were only fun characters when taken away from Buffy (well, soulless Spike worked, souled Spike was awful until he went out on his own) and I don't think I will ever get over the Buffy/Xander troll in Season 8, fuckers played with my heart. And Xander and Dawn sucked as acouple, were consistently boring, and I felt Xander regressed AGAIN after Season 8.

Looks like the series ends with Spuffy, makes me less likely to jump in quickly, but I'll get around to it.

How's Angel and Faith been?

[gfm793]

OK catching up:

Detective Comics 967: I do love this book. A lot, probably more than it deserves. This arc has been running super fast, and while I rarely say this, it might have needed like 1 more issue for the story it was trying to tell here. It's great seeing Tim back with the team, and you can tell that Tynion loves the character. This also did get me to read the Titans of Tomorrow storyline that I never had, and I do like how this calls back to it. I can't wait for Tim and Steph to finally meet again, and I want to see what Kate did to cause the whole mess. I also love havnig a Batman who gives a fuck and shows emotion. I hear Connor is coming back soon. Can't wait.

Teen Titans 13: Still not as strong as I'd like, and Percy still isn't great at wrting Damian, (I think only Morrison, Tomasi and Bryan Miller really get him) but he's not quite as insufferable as he has been lately. It looks like Starfire will take over the team, GOOD! Damian is a horrible leader right now. He has all the skills, but none of the people skills that made the other Robins the leaders during their tenure. I dunno if I want Wally back just yet. I LOVE him on Deathstroke.

[bork]

Venomverse:

Ignored this when the issues came out, but decided to go ahead and read through it on a whim since it was a pretty short mini-series.  It initially started with some prequel "Edge Of Venomverse," aping the Spider-Man Spider-Verse crossover storyline and introducing various alternate reality Marvel characters who had a symbiote and are all sucked through a portal and into another world, where a symbiote Captain America greets them at the end. 

I really wonder why they bothered spending time on this, since the actual Venomverse series was only like five issues long and had no other crossover stuff going on.  Even the main Venom book ignored it, which I guess is good or bad depending on how much you like crossovers.

This was a pointless little story about the various heroes being summoned to a ravaged alternate reality Earth by Venom-Dr. Strange.  There's some weird little parasite aliens that are looking to bond with symbiotes, but need their human hosts for it to work.  It's very much a rip-off of DC's Blackest Night storyline in the sense that when the parasites take over, they retain the personalities of their hosts, even though the hosts are dead.  So it basically just becomes a mini Civil War type-thing with Venom heroes versus parasite heroes.  Some of the Venom characters are quickly killed right off and only a handful remain.  It also really doesn't matter who most of them are (there's Wolverine, Deadpool, Old Man Logan, Mary Jane, Ghost Rider, Spider-Man, Black Panther, and some others...but most don't do much apart from Spider-Man and Captain America getting taken over and becoming bad guys)  Venom-Deadpool lets himself get taken over by the parasites because he's LOL DEADPOOL FOURTH WALL BREAKING AND HI-JINX and ends up being kind of a double agent, helping out the Venoms.  The big secret weapon against the parasites ends up being an alternate reality Carnage (who is exactly like the regular one), for...reasons?  If it was explained why Carnage is so dangerous to the aliens but the Venoms are not, I must have missed it.  I also wonder why Dr. Strange didn't just summon more Carnages after finding this out, but lol comics I guess.  SPOILER BECAUSE NO 1 CURR- It ends with shit blowing up and the aliens getting destroyed, and a couple of the Venom heroes get back to their universes, including our "hero" Eddie Brock.  (Side note- in the regular Venom series, Eddie Brock lives in poverty, staying in a shitty little apartment no better than a jail cell.  At the end of Venomverse, he returns home to a nice, fully-furnished place.  Good job with continuity, idiots)

Final rating:   What was the point of this?  I don't understand why they didn't try to go for a longer, more fleshed-out storyline.  I would have had the main Venom book take Eddie to the other world and spend a while building up characters and telling a better story.  It's so short that you don't really care about the characters or anything that's going on.

[Tasty]

Another DC fan here.

[samfish]

The DC Halloween special, while still not worth $10 dollars, was actually really good this year. Usually these holiday anthologies they release are terrible but every single of these was entertaining. That Batman and Joker one in particular was fucking haunting.

Detective was also really on point but god damnit they need to slow down and give it some time to breathe. Tim’s supposed death never felt like it had any weight because they rushed right through the aftermath of it. His return is the same.

[benjipwns]

From Batman The Dark Prince Charming #1 (of 2)

[benjipwns]

And Batman White Knight #2


that needed to be a "pepsi" in her hands so bad

[Momo]

The Dark Knights Metal stuff is getting fucking wild

[benjipwns]

Yeah, I almost clipped out from The Devastator where he's saying to his version of Clark:
"For the first time in a long time, I felt FREE of the love you had inflicted on me.

And it felt fucking GREAT."

As he's transforming into Bat-Doomsday and straight up murdering him.

The Justice League tie-in issue was fun too.

When Snyder first was talking about how he just wanted to take things for a one-off story and make them "fucking Metal" I thought it was going to be way too self-serious about it, but it's not, it's great. And he's actually managed to make most of the DARK BATMEN interesting characters despite only getting an issue to do it with. I imagine if this was what Morrison had done for The Multiversity (as it's got a lot of similarities which I assume is why Snyder threw the map in), then DiDio would have promoted it instead of completely ignoring it and shoving Convergence out early.

The best part is that he's done it all in canon too, it didn't need to be one-offed. Though I imagine that freed him to include a lot of this stuff.

Next week we finally get THE MAN WHO LAUGHS story.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Oh shit... what if Barbados is The Empty Hand.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

For those who haven't and don't want to read The Multiversity:

The Empty Hand is effectively the ultimate evil for all comic books, as he is the destroyer of stories themselves (and possibly also the creator), he's already destroyed multiple multiverses and is now invading the DC Multiverse. His allies/lackies, The Gentry are horrors that come from a place "outside the Multiverse" which is "opposite of everything natural" and represent villain archetypes taken to their "ultimate horror" form. They have the power to rework all the aspects of stories themselves to make them into mindbending horrors which is what they're doing to the "Marvel Universe" in The Multiversity to build the counter to the Miracle Machine used in Final Crisis.

[close]

[close]

[samfish]

I’d bet money that The Batman Who Laughs is the Batman from the Killing Joke who murdered The Joker

[Purple Filth]

I'm liking how these Batmen are from negative versions of existing earths where shit just went wrong 

Next week we finally get THE MAN WHO LAUGHS story.

 

[gfm793]

I’d bet money that The Batman Who Laughs is the Batman from the Killing Joke who murdered The Joker

He did not murder the Joker. Morrison is high.

[kingv]

Yeah, I almost clipped out from The Devastator where he's saying to his version of Clark:
"For the first time in a long time, I felt FREE of the love you had inflicted on me.

And it felt fucking GREAT."

As he's transforming into Bat-Doomsday and straight up murdering him.

The Justice League tie-in issue was fun too.

When Snyder first was talking about how he just wanted to take things for a one-off story and make them "fucking Metal" I thought it was going to be way too self-serious about it, but it's not, it's great. And he's actually managed to make most of the DARK BATMEN interesting characters despite only getting an issue to do it with. I imagine if this was what Morrison had done for The Multiversity (as it's got a lot of similarities which I assume is why Snyder threw the map in), then DiDio would have promoted it instead of completely ignoring it and shoving Convergence out early.

The best part is that he's done it all in canon too, it didn't need to be one-offed. Though I imagine that freed him to include a lot of this stuff.

Next week we finally get THE MAN WHO LAUGHS story.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Oh shit... what if Barbados is The Empty Hand.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

For those who haven't and don't want to read The Multiversity:

The Empty Hand is effectively the ultimate evil for all comic books, as he is the destroyer of stories themselves (and possibly also the creator), he's already destroyed multiple multiverses and is now invading the DC Multiverse. His allies/lackies, The Gentry are horrors that come from a place "outside the Multiverse" which is "opposite of everything natural" and represent villain archetypes taken to their "ultimate horror" form. They have the power to rework all the aspects of stories themselves to make them into mindbending horrors which is what they're doing to the "Marvel Universe" in The Multiversity to build the counter to the Miracle Machine used in Final Crisis.

[close]

[close]

Yes, I’m surprised how satisfied I am with each issue with only 24 pages.

One weakness of modern comics is that there is way less text. This is good,in that it allows the art to shine, but it also doesn’t always give an issue much time to Breathe.

Somehow the Metal Tie-in’s have managed to feel like a complete story in one isssue. I don’t know when the last time I read a Marvel book that managed to do that.

[samfish]

Ah yes, the Bendis effect

[kingv]

I actually liked ultimate spider man. But I hate Bendis dialogue

[Shuri]

my Punisher: The Platoon issues 1-2 review:

 

[bork]

Bendis got signed to an exclusive, multi-year deal with DC. 

Guess that's the end of an era.  No more Bendis "crossover" storyline events at Marvel!  But I did like him on books like Spider-Man.

[Purple Filth]

Bendis got signed to an exclusive, multi-year deal with DC. 

Guess that's the end of an era.  No more Bendis "crossover" storyline events at Marvel!  But I did like him on books like Spider-Man.

Now Bendis can spread the taint elsewhere 

[kingv]

Who the fuck at DC looks at marvels sales the last year or two and says “You know, we need to be more like them!”

Edit: one thing I don’t like about Bendis is how timely his dialogue is. It’s very stuck in the time the comic was written and feels dated very quickly because of it.

[bork]

Who the fuck at DC looks at marvels sales the last year or two and says “You know, we need to be more like them!”

Edit: one thing I don’t like about Bendis is how timely his dialogue is. It’s very stuck in the time the comic was written and feels dated very quickly because of it.

My favorite "dated" writing is from Chris Claremont.  But maybe "dated" is the wrong word.  He'd constantly use stuff like "caper" to describe events in the X-Men comics in the early 80s.  I don't recall people talking like that.

[kingv]

I actually sort of prefer that writing to one that feels like it takes place  exactly in present day.

Like I can go back and read some 80s or 90s comics, and for the most part (I’m sure there are tons of exceptions) the dialogue is sort of independent from popular slang at the time.

Probably because I grew up reading those comics, it actually seems more weird to me when the characters speak like they are ona tumbler blog or speaking like they are in 2010 USA. Then when you go read said book in 2017 USA, it’s like watching an old tv show or something and immediately feels old.

Obviously there’s other things about 80s/90s comics that date them, like hair, art styles, pouches, and Xtremeness but by and large I didnt pick up an issue of Spider-Man where he and the Human Torch was saying that last fight was “off the chain”. And Bendis does this shit all the time.

For some characters it works ok, like actually spider-man, it works fine because he is a jokey everyman. But it seems like he wants all of the characters to sound like “real” people. And most comic characters are not written that way, and in my opinion shouldn’t be.

[Purple Filth]

Hopefully he doesn't get Jack Kirby'd (in the bad way) and have to return to Marvel.

.

[chronovore]

Who the fuck at DC looks at marvels sales the last year or two and says “You know, we need to be more like them!”

Edit: one thing I don’t like about Bendis is how timely his dialogue is. It’s very stuck in the time the comic was written and feels dated very quickly because of it.

My favorite "dated" writing is from Chris Claremont.  But maybe "dated" is the wrong word.  He'd constantly use stuff like "caper" to describe events in the X-Men comics in the early 80s.  I don't recall people talking like that.

"Stilted." Claremont's writing is stilted. He wrote groundbreaking story arcs which were epic in scale, but "I love you, Scott" being answered with, "And I, you, Jean Grey" is stilted as fuck.

[benjipwns]

All of Metal got hit with delays again, so the second crossover is in front of the main story again, also they aren't going to finish it before Doomsday Clock starts

And we got Batman Lost and will get Hawkman Found before The Man Who Laughs now

Though Lost was kinda fun and I wanted it longer before Bruce immediately started resisting. Would have reminded me of the multiple TNG episode where they're stuck in a loop and start noticing little errors.

Also I noticed that DC has started not referring to specific issues anymore in the little editors notes, but the TPB the issue is in. Unless it's too new for one yet.

[benjipwns]

okay, so with our metal delay

and injection (which you all should have been reading obviously) going on hiatus until 2018 so warren can both finish the wild storm and also prevent injection from having these odd delays (lol ya rite)

i looked back at batman lost again, and then at some of what The Batman Who Laughs has been saying in the crossover issues and i realized a benji coming on, i need to go back to Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne and from there, more pieces fell into place as i read past into the issue where Batman comes back to help Dick, Damien and The Joker defeat Doctor Hurt

METAL is practically a sequel to RIP and Dark Knights, Dark City

when i looked back at some of the METAL issues it was even more obvious, Thomas Wayne being present at a sacrifice to Barbatos with Thomas Jefferson (mentioned by him in Return, seen in Morrison's Batman & Robin when Bruce comes back, Jefferson and the sacrifice shown in Dark City), one of the METAL issues mentions Barbatos first having taken notice of Bruce in a "final moment of crisis" which is when Bruce founded the Bat tribe, that wound up worshiping the Bat-God which...was Bruce? That later became mythologized as Barbatos. The Waynes throughout history play a key role in Returns, and also are who Carter leaves his journal with in Metal, they're also who the Court of Owls have been manipulating for ages. Hurt's entire thing in RIP ties him to the Dark God Darkseid and his long goal of destroying the name of the Wayne family plays a part as he's the outcast of the family for you know trying to summon a dark god and everything...a family which ends in Bruce, who's also an outcast as it was revealed the Wayne's were of the Bird Tribe and he became a Bat. And The Court of Owls are the Judas Tribe of the Birds and were tied into this whole thing from the start so maybe Lincoln March was Thomas Wayne Jr. just...a different Thomas Wayne...

funny thing is the Hurt connection is even closer than intended, but you would have had to go into the first set of crossovers for Metal and then wonder wtf happened to Dick's head and why he's having visions to go back and find that Dr. Hurt recently showed up and explained the whole Barbatos plot to Dick months ago, then someone sliced him in the forehead with some special metal that's causing it lol like what

also there's even more references within the Metal issues than i imagined to all the Snyder New 52 plots that seemed like they went nowhere and he left them hanging, like he's going back and connecting them all back in as always having been part of this plot where Batman was never in control, he was always being manipulated to this point...even the Mister Bloom stuff led to it...

shame Tim was hanging out with Mr. Oz instead of figuring this all out for the entire D.C. Universe like he did the last time Bruce was being dragged along a path against his will thanks to a Dark God...

also...so The Joker was right about being the "good guy" way back in The Forge/The Casting...speaking of which, where did he get off to since then?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

also this series has been great for all the characters who have come back in some way, mr. terrific, plastic man (who batman assumes will need to be released!), the outsiders, the challengers of the unknown, that one 90s era starman (wrong one tho imo), red tornado, DREAM, most importantly the Oblivion Bar and Detective Chimp! Mister Miracle appearing before his new series kicks off!

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[Tasty]

shame Tim was hanging out with Mr. Oz instead of figuring this all out for the entire D.C. Universe like he did the last time Bruce was being dragged along a path against his will thanks to a Dark God...

 

[benjipwns]

 

[Purple Filth]

That reveal of Mr Oz makes the wait for Doomsday Clock even more intense because Dr Manhattan is just showing glimpses of his broke ass self at this point  .

[benjipwns]

actual Cyborg dialogue printed in Justice League #33:

"You all tried to win by telling me I'd already lost. But you forgot one thing. I may be wires and metal on the outside, but deep down, I'll always be a VICTOR."

"We're going to HACK the Multiverse."

[Purple Filth]

The Man who Laughs Origin 

[benjipwns]

the part where he calmly explains the entire situation to the Bat Family...

spoiler (click to show/hide)

just to suddenly gun them all down

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[Purple Filth]

the part where he calmly explains the entire situation to the Bat Family...

spoiler (click to show/hide)

just to suddenly gun them all down

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spoiler (click to show/hide)

truly something none of them expected

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[benjipwns]

Main thing I disliked about it was the part after he kills the Justice League could have been better structured, the others didn't have this problem because they all ended with him coming to get them, but they had to skip that for Barbatos. There was an Elseworlds tale years ago basically about what if the Batman decided to just straight up murder everybody he deemed as a threat. And it had him at the end more or less suicidal and driven truly insane from the lack of anybody who could stop him from this.

There's that element suggested here but I kinda wish that he ran into Barbatos as part of that because it'd add a little notion of Barbatos is distracting him with the Multiverse and probably can't trust him either.

Actually the most surprising thing of the issue was the ending:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Batman Who Laughs isn't relying on just his new Bat Family, he's decided to procure a whole bunch of Dark Multiverse versions of characters to bring through...which seems obvious but I didn't expect them to go that route and thought they'd instead keep it Batman-centric...

I liked how in the middle of all these nutty grotesque versions of DC Characters (like SPIDER-FLASH) is just a seemingly normal Martian Manhunter

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[Purple Filth]

Actually the most surprising thing of the issue was the ending:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Batman Who Laughs isn't relying on just his new Bat Family, he's decided to procure a whole bunch of Dark Multiverse versions of characters to bring through...which seems obvious but I didn't expect them to go that route and thought they'd instead keep it Batman-centric...

I liked how in the middle of all these nutty grotesque versions of DC Characters (like SPIDER-FLASH) is just a seemingly normal Martian Manhunter

[close]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

It makes sense though since he wants to bring the most chaos and that's such a Joker thing to do (get his own army that are not just versions of "Batman"). Plus that might be the joker card he plays since it's possible Barbatos is not interested in that shit and could possibly shut it down.

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I also like

spoiler (click to show/hide)

how it \continues the narrative of Bruce not letting morality hold him back being a sight to behold since he's a fucking powerhouse. Even as a chick 

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[benjipwns]

Speaking of Bruce over in the non-Metal invaded DC Universe, Selina and Talia had their...catfight....and I like how Tom King mainly suggests the result and the purpose rather than actually having it be a regular comic fight. Also Selina and Talia's attempts at psyching each other out being the focal point of it as much or more than the swordplay part.

Also, King is so great at writing the whole gang, I love the way he portrays the unique Damien and Dick relationship and how Dick takes advantage of it specifically to irritate Damien. And Bruce's entirely unsubtle annoyance with anyone in the Family doing anything for him.