Bore Comics Thread: Crisis On Infinite Megathreads

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Finally finished Starstruck. I wasn't really on-board while I read it but by the time I finished I really, really liked it. It reminded me of learning a foreign language, where your comprehension is always a few chapters behind what's currently going on. It's basically Riot Grrrl L'Incal with fantastic, Quitely-esque art. If you like British 80s comix or cosmic SF romps then I'd definitely recommend. Apparently before IKW collected it in 2009 it was fairly unavailable, so its reputation may still be re-growing.

[Eric P]

dark orko

thanks, obama

[Mr. Gundam]

(Image removed from quote.)

dark orko

thanks, obama

Why is Superman referenced on that page?

[Eric P]

it's from DCU vs the Masters of the Universe

[Joe Molotov]

It's what the new Batman/Superman movie is leading up to.

[Eric P]

If anyone wants a super cheap toehold into the madness that is Judge Dredd, you can currently get a DRM free PDF / CBZ version from 2000AD's website for 2 GBP (about $3.27 USD)

http://shop.2000adonline.com/products/digitalgn_judge_dredd_the_complete_case_files_01

These stories aren't as great as Dredd will become but they're pretty nutso on their own.

http://dreddreviews.blogspot.com/2011/06/complete-case-files-01.html

Dredd Reviews says this is a horrible place to start, but I don't know.  I started here and I was able to just accept that it wasn't going to be amazing right off the bat and it's not (it's kind of bland as hell to start) but I think it very quickly picks up speed.  Not as great as the larger epics we start to see in the second volume, but good enough for someone who wants to dip their toe into Dredd on the cheap.

OR if you have an iPAD, 2000AD is currently selling all of the odd numbered Complete Case Files books for half price throughout December.  so you can jump right into 3 which has some very good stand alone stories (and some kind of meh ones at the start detailing Mega City 1's Mafia).

[Rahxephon91]

I bought some stuff off of instockstrades.com. I hope I made some good purchases.

I got the Daredevil Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Omnibus. I like most people have enjoyed Frank Miller's Batman stuff, but I've never read any Daredevil and well I thought why not.

Got The first Uncanny X-men Omnibus since it got a reprint and the 2nd one is coming out next year. I've read a lot of those Classic X-men Reprint comics, but that was back when I was like 11. I have all the other X-men Omnibuses so again I was like "well might as well read the begining of CC's run". The 2nd Collection is going to include The Dark Phoenix story and well I haven't read that in years. Can't wait for that to come out.

I also picked up Sleeper Vol. 1 and Gotham Central Vol. . Really been enjoying Fatale and Velvet. I guess you could say I'm becoming a Brubacker fan and well I should explore his other work. These two also came highly recommended.

Other than that, stuff like Synder's Batman trades and other N52 stuff.

[chronovore]

I think you'll like Miller's DD. I've read one opinion that he was given Batman because he'd done so much with DD. In some ways, the DD stuff is better, because Miller had a character no-one cared about, and could do whatever he wanted with him. The stuff's more pure, closer to the source of what Miller wanted to tap.

[Eric P]

I haven't read Miller's DD stuff in a while.  I'm sort of eager to do so because I genuinely love that stuff, but on the other hand I'm curious how it will read with Miller's uh recent political swing.



Fearless Defenders #12 - I waited for trade for the first collection but enjoyed it so much I ended up buying the individual issues in a misguided attempt to try and help save it.  I'm somewhat sad to see this go because it was quite enjoyable.  Goofy and nonsensical like the original Defenders but with an enjoyable amount of cast interaction.  There were some weird turns here and there (like the revelation that a character was a daughter of Doom) but I ilke that the series was just a light adventure title.

Trillium 5 - I feel sorry for anyone who is reading this in trade or digital because it's so painfully obvious that the intended format is just a series of floppies.  This issue has two stories which run literally parallel (one atop the other) that loop in and out of each other like a mainstream Chris Ware book.  Last issue messed up the time stream and our character's places within it, and this issue deals with the ramifications of that as both parties are split into familiar yet very strange places.  This is the Lemire I want to read and it makes up for the mainstream DCU and disappointing Sweet Tooth series.

Hinterkind 3 - I still don't know how I feel about this but it's the most vertigo book to ever vertigo.  Post apocalyptic fantasy series were mythological (European mythological, no less) creatures roam America hunting down the remaining (uh, white only?) humans.  I'm going to give it the first story arc then decide whether to drop it or not.  I'm thinking "drop it" because let me tell you the Native American / Elf thing who cut off his pointy ears to assimilate is some played out bullshit I expect in Shadowrun novels from the 90s.

Legends of Red Sonja 2 - Not bad but not great.  Short Sonja stories written by prose authors. 

Velvet 2 - Love it much better than Lazarus, let me tell you.  That is some TV pitch crap right there.  You have an infinite budget so you give us this tiny thing? 

Burn the Orphanage 2 - Hell yeah.  Last issue was all 8Bit Double Dragon / River City Ransom homage, this issue is Mortal Kombat stuff and it features some great little set pieces including a really rather explicit fight with a Goat Headed Luchador. 

ASM 700.1 - I get why this was set up under the ASM title because It would probably far more difficult to sell another Spidey limited series than just tack this numbering on.  This reads like an out of continuity title but that's fine.  I think I prefer those stories anyway.  It's about a paralyzing snowstorm which has hit NYC and an exhausted Peter Parker taking a break from webs lining.  More than that happens, but that's the gist of it.  I liked it more than I thought I would even if it's fairly blatant with it's symbolism.

Marvel Knights Spider-Man 3 - This book is all about the art and page design.  Its' like someone said "Hey, do Batwoman stuff with spider-man" and the artist said "fuck yeah, i can do that" and just went to town.  this is also probably annoying to read in digital format but it's pretty on the page.

Indestructible Hulk Annual 1 - grabbed this because Jeff Parker.  Fun little tale that plays off the differences between modern Stark and modern Banner retconning a little shared history for the both of them to further play off the differences.  I like Banner, but I don't really like Banner as SUPER SCIENTIST because I feel that Marvel is lousy with the damn things.  Also the cover is far more exciting than what we get inside the book.

The Fox 2 - eh?  Doesn't really feel like Haspiel's best work and Waid is just going into overdrive with this writing stuff.  The script feels a bit too busy, like Waid is trying to justify his paycheck here.  Haspiel gives us plenty of visual storytelling with a very expressive line.

I am also reading the holy hell out of classic Dredd stuff.  The 2000AD iPad App currently has half of The Complete Case File books for half off.  As the scans I found were for the Eagle comics versions of the tale and were horribly printed and horribly colored, I'm fine with just paying for these very good B&W reproductions.  If only they maintained the color splash pages in this, but it's fine w/o.

[Eric P]

context for the dark orko thing above

http://everydayislikewednesday.blogspot.com/2013/12/dc-universe-vs-masters-of-universe-3-it.html

[Joe Molotov]

context for the dark orko thing above

http://everydayislikewednesday.blogspot.com/2013/12/dc-universe-vs-masters-of-universe-3-it.html

As some one who had all the He-Man action figures and watched every episode of the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon, I can't stop laughing at this.

[chronovore]

context for the dark orko thing above

http://everydayislikewednesday.blogspot.com/2013/12/dc-universe-vs-masters-of-universe-3-it.html

Which brings us to the third issue, where two more Justice Leagues join the adventure, more Masters arrive on Earth-New 52, and Skeletor's unseen ally is finally revealed to be the most hilariously dumb villain imaginable.

Bat-Mite?

[chronovore]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Rahxephon91]

I finished Season 1 of Sleeper not too long ago and man that was pretty cool. Just really fun dark storytelling. I mean at some points it feels stupidly dark and yet that's why it's so great. Its funny, Holden is just amusingly cynical.

Yeah I'm starting to become a pretty big Brubaker fan. Fatale is solid. Gotham Central seems pretty good. Velvet is great.

[Yeti]

I think I read somewhere that Animal Man got cancelled? Isn't that one of DC's better comics post Nu52?

[Eric P]

yeah Animal Man is done

[Great Rumbler]

[Eric P]

image digital is selling all of their comics for half off until the 28th
this includes comics which came out a few days ago.

i stocked up on the 8 most recent issues of Fatale for $8.46

You can grab stuff like Saga etc.  This is probably the cheapest way (outside of stealing or the library system) to check out some of the bigger recent Image comics.  The library portion isn't that deep compared to what they offer on Comixology, but it does have most of their newer, more popular titles from 2013's new series launches

[chronovore]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2014/01/09/grant-morrison-nameless-horror-comic-book-series/4386589/

[Joe Molotov]

GET EXCITE

[Yeti]

Seem's like Marvel's Ultimate line is getting boiled down to a few titles

Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man
Ultimate FF  Future Foundation consisting of Sue Storm, Tony Stark, The Falcon, and Machine Man
All-New Ultimates team consisting of Miles Spider-Man, Kitty Pryde, Cloak and Dagger, Black Widow (who was previously Spider-Woman, a female clone of Peter Parker with Peter's memories?)and someone named Bombshell (?)


http://www.newsarama.com/20005-all-new-now-invades-the-ultimate-universe-as-april-brings-new-titles-big-changes.html



What the fuck is going on in The Ultimate universe? I haven't read anything since Ultimatum.

[chronovore]

What the fuck is going on in The Ultimate universe? I haven't read anything since Ultimatum.

Well, you know; the ultimate universe was created for an easy jump on point for new readers to make it less confusing.

a female clone of Peter Parker with Peter's memories

Wait, wha...?

[bork]

Yeah, Spider-Woman in the Ultimate Universe is a clone of Spider-Man.  She's going to get a name change and will be Black Widow in the new Ultimates book.  Maybe I missed something, but I don't get why the character didn't go to Aunt May, Mary Jane, etc. after Peter was killed and become part of their "family."  Bombshell is a new character who popped up at the end of Ultimate Spider-Man.  Was a villain turned good.

Danny Ketch, who was one of the Ghost Rider hosts in the 616 Universe, is going to be Ultimate Machine Man.  Also they made him Irish because reasons.

What the fuck is going on in The Ultimate universe? I haven't read anything since Ultimatum.

That's about where I decided to start reading it.  Well, some of it anyway.  In a nutshell:

-Wolverine has a bastard child who takes over his role, because you always gotta have some dude with claws and shit.

-Miles Morales becomes the new Spider-Man after the Ultimate Universe Spider-Man is killed.  Meets the 616 Marvel Universe Spider-Man in a crossover story, too.  Venom kills his mother and he quits being Spider-Man for a year, then comes back and joins up with Ultimate Cloak And Dagger, Bombshell, and Spider-Woman to take on the Roxxon Corporation.  Basically the start of the new Ultimates Series right there.

-Nobody trusts mutants after Ultimatum and confines them to camps.  That ends and then Sentinels take over a bunch of the U.S. until they're all finally stopped. 

-Kitty Pryde leads a bunch of mutants to a plot of land in the desert and starts a new "country," Utopia.  Storm and some plant-powered mutant terraform the area.  I don't really know what happens from here because it got really boring and I stopped reading it, but they have a war with some other mutants and that's it.

-No idea what's up with the Ultimates; I didn't read the latest series.

-The big storyline now is fallout from the 616 Universe Age Of Ultron storyline, where "holes" in the space time continuum were opened.  Galactus went to the Ultimate Universe, merged with Ultimate Galactus (who is not a being, but rather a techo-organic insect-like swarm), and is now consuming and destroying Earth.  Everything is completely fucked up and more characters are getting killed off.

So I assume from this that the vast majority of super heroes/villains will get killed off except for the remaining ones in the new books.  I'm surprised they're continuing on with this; was expecting it all to end and then some of the Ultimate characters cross over to the 616 Universe, like Miles.

[Phoenix Dark]

it's from DCU vs the Masters of the Universe

...oh god

[Rufus]

Strap in, it's going to be a wild ride.

[chronovore]

Yeah, that comic isa crass bundle of fuckawesome. It does bear some portion of '90s non-Code "edgy" burden, but this is one of the works which defined it for the world, not one of the latecomers which aped those tropes.

[chronovore]

I bagged the latest three TPBs of The Walking Dead and Invincible during my USA trip.

I ended up running through TWD 17, 18, 19 (Something to Fear, What Comes After, March to War) at a faster-than-average clip. Usually I'll try to savor them, even re-read all the previous TPBs to fully catch up and be ready for what happens. I decided not to put myself through The Governor arc again because I felt numb the last time I read it. I remember feeling abject horror at Michonne's predicament and resolution there, the first time. Having read it two or three more times since then, I opted out. Turns out, this Negan arc is nearly as bad.

This whole arc with Negan and the Saviors is pretty gut-wrenching as well. I quite enjoyed all three volumes, but it does look like Rick is his own worst enemy, and has been mercurial in his decision making for a bit.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Choosing to fight Negan due to his appearance with a minimal retinue, while not being backed by the superior forces which he was already gathering was a tremendous mistake. Especially if his assumption had been that the Saviors had no weapons, the better plan would then have been to eliminate the outposts in a guerrilla fashion, then lay siege to the now-found Savior stronghold until they ran out of supplies.

[close]

Negan is a more interesting foe than The Governor, leading a stranger collection of survivors than The Gov's enclave featured. Negan is, in some ways, the worst case scenario for geeky comic book readers: a big, dumb, unpredictable and violent jock and a bully is holding an entire community in thrall. That said, it's stunning that average people who have survived this long are willing to accept his situation, rather than overthrow him. There is some minor unrest presented, but not what I'd expect overall.

I'm anxious to see where it goes in TPB 20, due March 11.

Invincible as well was pretty surprising. This started and ended the Viltrumite War, including the lovechild of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Freddie Mercury as the leader of the Viltrumite Empire. It was an engrossing read which also kept me rapt, which I blew through faster than planned. In the end, I found the resolution a little disappointing, and the sudden rationality of the enemy to go against the rash-tempered natured he'd shown in every other scene leading to that point.

[Junpei the Tracer!]

  http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Darkness-Fabien-Vehlmann/dp/1770461299/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1393271429&sr=8-2&keywords=beautiful+darkness

Buy it, it's french.

[chronovore]

Making the Facebook rounds today:
http://www.sadanduseless.com/2010/06/supermans-girlfriend-im-curious-black/

[Joe Molotov]

This and Superman vs. Muhammad Ali combined to end racism forever.

[chronovore]

You can see in the penultimate panel that they were going for the bro-shake, but probably some editor asked for it to be turned into a white-man's handshake in the last panel.   :'(

[chronovore]

http://io9.com/first-x-men-days-of-future-past-clip-unleashes-the-fut-1562958829

I should probably flonque that into the Movie News thread as well...

But while I'm here, all the Invisibles comics are just 99¢ on Comixology this week. Have a gander at Morrison's best work... period!

[chronovore]

Amazon just bought Comixology.

https://www.comixology.com/message

Not sure what it means for the app and prices; Audible was purchased by Amazon, but the audiobook company has not integrated with the iOS Kindle app, and I think it's separate on Kindle devices.

[chronovore]

I am reading The Comic Book History of Comics, in which Stan features prominently. He's given some gentle gibes, but it doesn't seem like he was the fame-grabbing terror many fans made him out to be. If anything, Kirby seems like he should have self-promoted a little better than he did; I'm not calling out a dead guy, nor do I want to second guess him -- I just don't want to dog pile on Lee as much as I used to.

Anyway, now that Disney owns Marvel, I can point my finger at a new supervillain which is controlling all the characters I cherish.

[chronovore]

Yeah, that's what I'm seeing now.

There's a section on some of these creators, back when characters were coming to the end of their copyright, in the days before Disney managed to lobby for and achieve near-infinite copyright extension.

Simon and Kirby had created Captain America together, and Simon approached Marvel to get paid to allow Marvel to continue using Captain America. Marvel told Kirby they'd pay him the same that they pay Simon, so he agreed. However, apparently most of Simon's money went to the lawyer fees, so Kirby didn't get nearly as much as he'd been expecting. Hey, jesus, Kirby... you've been screwed THIS MANY TIMES by publishers, why the hell don't you bring your own lawyer to the table, or talk with Simon's lawyer first, to see what you're agreeing to?

Sheesh.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

i don't think stan was necessarily malicious in what he did.  some people are just self-promoters by nature.  others are pretty bad at it.  lee is a very good self-promoter.  as it happens, he worked with a lot of people who were bad at/not comfortable with self-promotion, and feelings ended up hurt as a result.

Really liked Chris Sims' recent article about Stan Lee. Basically, Stan's both wildly overrated AND underrated by different sides of the comics industry.

[Eric P]

first i came to love stan lee, then i came to loathe stan lee, now i'm just sad for kirby

[chronovore]

first i came to love stan lee, then i came to loathe stan lee, now i'm just sad for kirby

That's about where I'm ending up. Despite my earlier post, I also understand that Kirby may have been unfortunately trusting, or introverted, or cynical -- and that's part of what made him what he was. If I could wish for any change, I'd just give him a kick-ass agent or manager, and let them fight for his stuff. And then hope the manager doesn't run off with Kirby's share as well.

[Rahxephon91]

While your reading about Lee, you might as well read Chris Sim's article on Bob Kane.

http://comicsalliance.com/ask-chris-164-bob-kane-is-just-the-worst/

I also recently read this which was a pretty good book about Superman and comics in general.

http://www.amazon.com/Superman-High-Flying-History-Americas-Enduring/dp/1400068665/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397784378&sr=1-1&keywords=the+high+flying+story+of+the+man+of+steel

[Eel O'Brian]

Rover Red Charlie is pretty good. Nice art, simple and sweet story about three dog buddies at the end of the world.

[chronovore]

Yeah, while I'm forgiving of Lee, I don't feel the same way about Bob Kane.  That guy deliberately cheated people out of both money and credit, and he did it to the very last.  I can't remember the last time Lee had a problem sharing a co-creator credit, even if he generally did only look out for himself.

Yeah. The Comic Book History of Comics paints a very nasty picture of Kane, including the "underage" contract, going behind other creators' backs to sabotage them, etc. And there's plenty out there about what his Batman was like, and how little it resembled what we love about Bats, and how much Bill Finger's does.

[Eric P]

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck bob kane

i can say that fairly confidently

[bork]

Superior Spider-Man ended at #31 this week.  The climax felt kind of uneventful after everything that's happened. 

The biggest changes to the cast of Spider-Man were:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

-Doc Ock, as Peter Parker, ends any chance of getting back together with Mary Jane.  He goes back to school and gets a Phd, starts dating a midget, and starts his own tech/research company after being a major cause for his old company being shut down.  As Spider-Man, he quits the Avengers, gets his own base with henchmen, and floods the city with little "Spider-Bots" that watch everyone and report crime.  He generally acts like a dickhead and makes almost everyone hate him.

-Carlie Cooper and Mary Jane, Peter's ex girlfriends, are the only ones who continue to suspect something is wrong with Spider-Man and keep investigating, even after the Avengers give up on it.

-Norman Osborn, The Green Goblin returns, mostly behind the scenes until the end of the series, builds up an army based in the sewers, and finds a way to make the Spider-Bots completely ignore anything Goblin-related.

-Miguel O'Hara, Spider-Man 2099, is brought to the present and ends up working at the newly-formed Alchemax Corporation (the mega-corp. that controls New York in the dystopian 2099 universe) with his grandfather, to watch all the dirty dealings going on.  Alchemax is also formed by Liz Allen, the daughter-in-law of Norman Osborn. 

[close]

All of this leads to a major event:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Green Goblin and his army rise up and take over New York.  He has also developed a "goblin virus" that turns people into crazy green goblin-like super villains, loyal to him, including Carlie.  He destroys Spider-Man's base and it is revealed that most of the henchman are working for the Goblin.  Meanwhile, Mayor J. Jonah Jameson is approached by Alchemax to unleash new Spider-Slayer robots, to curb the goblin problem.  He makes a deal and pays for them, only for the Goblin to hack them and have them wreck shit on his behalf.  Doc Ock tells Mary Jane to take Aunt May and her husband and get out of town, but his girlfriend gets kidnapped.  He also meets the Goblin, who reveals that he knows Spider-Man is really Doc Ock.

[close]

And then ends on a weak note:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

For the SECOND time in this series, it turns out that Peter Parker is "alive" within Doc Ock's memories.  He was already "killed" once before, but comes back, relives Doc Ock's entire life through his memories, then regains his own as Peter Parker.  Instead of fighting Doc Ock for control of his body again, however, this time Doc Ock just suddenly up and decides that he's been defeated, straps himself to a machine, and erases himself from Peter's body, leaving Peter back in control. 

This leaves Peter to clean up the mess, which he does pretty easily considering that he's been "dead" and unaware of everything that's been going on for months of continuity.  It turns out that the Green Goblin has changed his face and has been acting as a founder of Alchemax.  Spider-Man gets a cure for the goblin virus and uses it on the Green Goblin, effectively erasing his insanity and super strength.  He escapes and says he's going to change his face/identity again to keep fucking with Spider-Man, though. 

And that's pretty much it.  Maybe Amazing will cover the fallout in more depth, but with Superior, it's just Peter basically saying "sorry I was a dickhead" and people going "hmm...OK!"    Mary Jane and Carlie get the truth, but instead of sticking by Peter, they both give up on him and want nothing more to do with him.  Makes no sense after they spent months trying to figure out what was going on and didn't give up.

[close]

While there's still some big changes in Spider-Man's life from Doc Ock taking over, the way Superior ended just makes it feel like so much of it is completely irrelevant to the returning Peter Parker.  But maybe Amazing #1 will will make the fallout seem greater.  I hope so- after all this Superior stuff, I want to see stories of Spider-Man trying to put his life back together and dealing with so many changes, not swinging around like nothing happened.

[Eric P]

sounds like "look, this is all great and stuff, but we have a movie coming out next month.  fix it. now."

[chronovore]

(snip)
And then ends on a weak note:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

For the SECOND time in this series, it turns out that Peter Parker is "alive" within Doc Ock's memories.  He was already "killed" once before, but comes back, relives Doc Ock's entire life through his memories, then regains his own as Peter Parker.  Instead of fighting Doc Ock for control of his body again, however, this time Doc Ock just suddenly up and decides that he's been defeated, straps himself to a machine, and erases himself from Peter's body, leaving Peter back in control. 

This leaves Peter to clean up the mess, which he does pretty easily considering that he's been "dead" and unaware of everything that's been going on for months of continuity.  It turns out that the Green Goblin has changed his face and has been acting as a founder of Alchemax.  Spider-Man gets a cure for the goblin virus and uses it on the Green Goblin, effectively erasing his insanity and super strength.  He escapes and says he's going to change his face/identity again to keep fucking with Spider-Man, though. 

And that's pretty much it.  Maybe Amazing will cover the fallout in more depth, but with Superior, it's just Peter basically saying "sorry I was a dickhead" and people going "hmm...OK!"    Mary Jane and Carlie get the truth, but instead of sticking by Peter, they both give up on him and want nothing more to do with him.  Makes no sense after they spent months trying to figure out what was going on and didn't give up.

[close]

(snip)

Relevant section bolded; this is the explanation, isn't it?

But if you're referring to stuff outside Doc's experience, it wouldn't make sense. I'm just going off what you wrote. I wouldn't read Spider-Man these days -- there's too much going on in that continuity for anything to make any sense to me, e.g. Doc Ock? Really?

[Momo]

This old thing I stumbled across is upsetting me

http://comicsalliance.com/dc-comics-marvel-golden-age-silver-age-comics-history/

[Eric P]

it's a great article which really articulates a lot of why i love DC characters but can't read current DC comics

DC Bronze Age reprints are amazing.  If DC had a Marvel Unlimited style service I'd be absolutely set.

[Yeti]

I don't know, I think it is more sobering than upsetting.

And now the same thing is going on with their movies. For the longest time, DC was the only game in town with first their Superman, then Batman movies. Then Marvel movies started coming out and DC is playing catch up all over again.

[Tasty]

I don't know, I think it is more sobering than upsetting.

And now the same thing is going on with their movies. For the longest time, DC was the only game in town with first their Superman, then Batman movies. Then Marvel movies started coming out and DC is playing catch up all over again.

I was gonna say DC still has TV/cartoons but honestly they're both dropping the ball. Disney killed Spectacular Spidey to spite Sony and Warner/Cartoon Network strapped cement shoes to DC Nation and tossed it overboard. What a fucking joke.

I guess there's Arrow.

[Tasty]

They also ditched Google payments.

Edit- I believe you can still buy from within the Android app, you just have to have a card on file with Comixology. Apple's draconianness makes that impossible to do in the iOS app, though.

I always bought through the website so I'm not really affected but it's still a pretty nasty thing to do and makes my fear about Amazon buying them even more founded.

[Tasty]

It kinda pisses me off this could send people to other apps, though. I mean, I loved that Comixology was THE app. When I first found it I went, "Wait, both Marvel AND DC allow me to buy comics through a single service? WHOAH." I was even peeved that Dark Horse didn't agree too. I was hoping eventually it'd be a de facto standard for even manga publishers.

Now with Amazon buying it, that dream seems so much farther out...

[Eric P]

Reminds me of when Marvel decided they didn't need Diamond.

Oh well, this got me to take a closer look at Marvel Unlimited, and I've found it's better for my needs.

MU is amazing.

[chronovore]

Yeah, I don't think there's anything to worry about.  If anything, it means less chance Comixology will go tits up in some bizarre future.

I stand corrected.

http://mobile.theverge.com/2014/4/26/5656468/comixology-ios-update-removes-in-app-purchases

Right out of the Amazon playbook.

It's actually Apple's policy, IIRC. Apple doesn't want anyone selling anything through their platform which doesn't involve them. At its worst, it's so they get their cut, but I bet it also ensures they can intercede on behalf of customers, offer and enforce refunds, etc.

It /is/ a bit troublesome that I can't buy anything in my iOS Kindle or Audible apps directly, and instead have to purchase through the Safari browser.

Looks like the Android version will keep in-app purchases because The Google doesn't have such a restriction on who pays for what, and where:

In the new Android 3.6 upgrade we have a new comiXology in-app purchase system and a great new shopping cart, one of our most requested features. In the new app, customers may be prompted to update your payment information to continue purchasing books. This is a one-time action after which you can purchase inside the app."

[Tasty]

Google has the same policies, EXCEPT:

1. where payment is primarily for physical goods or services (e.g., buying movie tickets, or buying a publication where the price also includes a hard copy subscription); or
2. where payment is for digital content or goods that may be consumed outside of the app itself (e.g., buying songs that can be played on other music players).

https://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html

[bork]

AFAIK Marvel Unlimited is always a year or two behind the current print-runs.  If that doesn't bother you, go for it.

[Eric P]

6 months behind, so you get issues at about the same rate as trade paperbacks

[bork]

Amazing Spider-Man #1 

Superior went out with a whimper and this is really no better.   

[bork]

It's not the same old rut (right now), it's just that the way the fallout from everything that happened with Doc Ock-Spidey the past two years hasn't been handled as well it could have.   Peter Parker should be freaking the fuck out at having to deal with tons of changes made to his life, but instead is written more like "lol sorry 'bout that I was a dick before but I'm good now kthx!" and is taking everything way, way too well.  The book also has several back-up stories, dealing with the fallout happening to other characters, which are all handled much better....and were written by other people.


The biggest change to Spider-Man in general is only hinted at in the first issue- Slott retconned

spoiler (click to show/hide)

his origin and made it so that the radioactive spider also bit a female classmate after biting Peter.

[close]

I still think things would have been way more interesting if they kept Doc Ock as the Superior Spider-Man and had Peter come back in a clone body or something.  Let the two clash for a while.

[Rahxephon91]

Anyone on this board actually do comic book drawing?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Dan Slott was told there was a movie coming out and they needed the AMay2ing Spider-Man back