Bore Comics Thread: Crisis On Infinite Megathreads

[Eric P]

not yet

he was in the new Batman cartoon but i haven't seen him in 66

[Eric P]

Hulk and the Agents of SMASH cartoon has Paul Dini as a creative consultant and he wrote the first two episodes
It's got an interesting tone and structure.

Hulk is joined by Red Hulk, She Hulk (not a lawyer in this, but rather a stunt person), Skaar and Rick Jones who is exposed to gamma radiation and is A-Bomb.

The structure is that of a comedy action cartoon with elements of Reality Show confessionals interjected at random times as Rick Jones is making a web reality series about the Hulk when everything first goes down. 

I liked it.  It's a bit goofier than the Avengers but it's pretty good.

There are certainly worse ways to spend 23 minutes on your couch.

[Joe Molotov]

Thanks for the heads-up, it sounds pretty good.

[Yeti]

It sounds a little like Ultimate Spider-Man, which I'm not a big fan of.

[Eric P]

I watched about 15 minutes of one episode of Ultimate Spider-Man and it seems like it's the template for their new generation of cartoons but I couldn't connect with it at all.  These are a bit better.

I finally finished the Kieron Gillon Thor stories and they're pretty horrible.  I blame it entirely on editorial because everything is taking place in the middle of the company dictated cross overs, so i'm reading issue and issues of Siege tie-ins and it just makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.  I had to scurry off to wikipedia several times to find out what in the hell was actually happening.

it's surprising to me that Journey Into Mystery can be so good but the main Thor line so horrible especially when it's the same writer.  I snagged some of the Matt Fraction Thor trades from the library and I'll give those a spin, but Kieron was saying that Fraction had a bad time from editorial because they wanted everything to sync up with the movie so there was a ton of editorial interference.

I think I'm just over these major event books and books that tie into them so intimately.  I prefer walled gardens of creators who are free to do their own thing within the genre.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I had the same problem with Incredible Hercules which was around the same period. Reading 3 years of poorly thought out Marvel crossovers in a single tie-in only book is enough to give you severe whiplash. Still, <3 Amadeus Cho.

[Eric P]

Kid Loki is amazing.  I highly recommend Journey Into Mystery

[Eric P]

Hey, Kids Comics!

Light week for me.

Batman 66 #8- I don't think that Jeff Parker's trying to meld 66 Joker into a more modern context is working so I'm glad to see this two part storyline end here.  It just seemed a little too grimdark what with the Joker's henchmen using TDK style makeup (black eye shadow, exaggerated red lips) and the introduction of The Red Hood just fell totally flat as did the Joker's ultimate aim.  It's strange that he's gotten so much right but this just so wrong.  I'd skip issue 7 and 8 if you haven't read them yet.

Bandette - #2-5 if you haven't read this absolutely charming series about a young cat burglar in paris you are missing out.  it is a lot of fun with some very good artwork.  would make for a great kids film

Buck Rogers #1 - Howard Chaykin recasts Buck Rogers as a socialist who woke up in the 25th century and is trying to apply socialist thought to a future society he can't yet fully comprehend.  It's weird because Buck is kind of racist and the series is based on Yellow Peril, so there's bits where Buck is trying to get everyone to fight the deadly Han (who invaded and took over America).  It's interesting, far more interesting than I was prepared to give it credit for.

Dark Horse Present Creepy - #13.  I bought this because it had a story written by Josh Simmons who is one of two people to create comics that actually generate chills in me, but this anthology comic is horrible.  I'm glad Simmons got some money for this, but it's stupid and predicable and people can see the ending coming from space.  Check out The Furry Trap instead (insert your hi-larious joke about transexual furries here)  http://www.fantagraphics.com/images/stories/previews/furtra-preview.pdf

X-Men #4.  dis gud.  There's two stories here.  One is Wolverine Driving a Mini-Van with his long-time daughter-figure Jubilee and her new ward as they discuss nostalgia and the desire to raise the kid in a somewhat stable environment.  on the other it's Storm trying to save a passenger jet with the help of the rest of the X-Womyn.  That story is more about the interplay between Storm and Rachel Summers.  Rachel didn't like that STorm was ready to straight up murder someone on the suspicion that it would help them. 

[bork]

Rachel didn't like that STorm was ready to straight up murder someone on the suspicion that it would help them.

What?  Just a few years ago, they had Storm getting super-pissed off at Wolverine when the X-Force murder team was revealed to the rest of the X-Men.  Good use of continuity there, guys!   

[Eric P]

well the body was currently controlled by an alien robot intelligence whose host body death would have been the easiest and safest way to prevent hurting other people
so it wasn't like Ororo was going around X-Force style straight murdering people

[Eric P]

Currently reading Fraction's Thor run and I was prepared for an utter shit show but so far it's leagues better than Kieron's run which preceded it.
It handles the mythic far better than Kieron's and the art is more painterly and less comic book-y so it matches what he's doing far more.
it's so weird to me that Kieron can do so well w/ Journey Into Mystery but just utterly fail to do anything interesting w/ Thor at all.

last night I also read A+X vol 1 thanks to it being at my local library. Really liked it for the most part.  Less serious tales outside of any continuity that team one x-man and one avenger for 10 pages is usually pretty great.  There was a fairly amazing one where Quinten Quire was teamed with Captain America that makes me laugh still.  Some clunkers in this too like the Black Panther / Storm tale that was tonally inconsistent w/ the rest of the book.  It was a non-romantic romance with flat double entendre komedy.

i also wrapped up Tony S Daniel's Eye of the Beholder which some pre-Nu52 Batman comics.  The lead story features a chinese national w/ a japanese word as his nom de badguy and it also features a character i never heard of but liked well enough in this volume; Catgirl.  a minor young girl from the Falcone criminal family who looks to Catwoman as her inspiration.  could have been cool but it seems like she was retired at the end of this book.  the comic also featured The Riddler's "daughter" who went by the name of Enigma.  I didn't really see the point of her at all and I really didn't like the characterization of The Riddler as bum?  Just didn't seem to match the tone of what was going on in the comic.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

last night I also read A+X vol 1 thanks to it being at my local library. Really liked it for the most part.  Less serious tales outside of any continuity that team one x-man and one avenger for 10 pages is usually pretty great.  There was a fairly amazing one where Quinten Quire was teamed with Captain America that makes me laugh still.  Some clunkers in this too like the Black Panther / Storm tale that was tonally inconsistent w/ the rest of the book.  It was a non-romantic romance with flat double entendre komedy.

My vague understanding (haven't actually read that story) is that Storm and B-pups had been married and their marriage was basically removed by editorial fiat off-camera. This was an attempt to use 10 pages to give SOME sense of why they weren't together anymore and also to have it actually be referenced by the characters inside of a comic. So yeah, patch-up comix.

[Eric P]

finished the Fraction Thor book and aside from some one off or Fear Itself tie ins, I've read all the Thor / Thor associated books since JMS's relaunch.  Overall?  I liked it.  It made me care about characters I haven't thought about at all in any way for decades.  I was never a huge Thor fan even passing on the Simonson run, so I have no preconceived notions of how a Thor comic should read, so this string of Sandman like Fantasy mixed with occasional super heroics was pretty good, aside from Kieron Gilleon's superhero stories which were a total turn off.

I really really liked the Journey Into Mystery Kid Loki comics more than anything else I read from this run and I'm glad that I bought those books in physical format because I can see myself re-reading them in the future.

I think next I'm going to try to read the Dan Slott Spider-Man books which is going to be a pain in the butt because my library doesn't have all of the books to read.

[Rahxephon91]

Anyone reading Lazarus by Greg Ruka? It's been pretty good so far.

[Eric P]

Yeah.  I bought this month's issue today but haven't read it

[Verdigris Murder]

I'm dreading the day the writer of The Walking Dead has a massive stroke, and we get one issue a year.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I'm dreading the day the writer of The Walking Dead has a massive stroke, and we get one issue a year.

it's the logical next step after killing off all the characters

[Eric P]

hey kids, comics

Federal Bureau of Physics #2.  This used to be Collider but someone already had that title.  This, oddly, feels like a complete relaunch as it takes everything we saw in the first issue and essentially re-sets it and throws a whole lot of exposition technobabble at us about who the FBP is and why gravity is fucked up.  I don't know how this series will last as there doesn't seem to be a hook.  Thankfully there is no wide conspiracy that the characters will have to crack to get to the truth about why this is happening.  Or who knows maybe it will be introduced in the next issue.  It's different enough to intrigue me for now, but I may dump it quick.

Batman 66 #9.  Eggman makes his appearance.  eh.

Keeper #2. This is a digital comic from Comixology that costs $.99.  The art is horrible and the story is eh.  Serial killer goalie for a football team and the cops who chase him down.  it's different and the serial killer isn't some mad genius.  i think i'd like this more if it was just about the football club and the goalie's rivalries and inability to love.

Batman Annual #2.  I read this because it was written by a new comer and it had gotten fairly good reviews.  It's ok.  I really didn't like the art, but the story was pretty good. Batman vs the first Gotham Weirdo who has a Flash-esque origin in the 1800s.  The "with enough prep work" side of batman is basically out of control to the point where he has a canister of acid surgically implanted into a callus on his hand.  The supporting characters were far better and more interesting than Batman.

Secret #1. Issue 3 came out this week and issue #1 was free so I read it on Comixology.  Eh.  I don't think it's worth getting into if it's going to take a year for issues to come out.  Maybe in trade.

Lazarus #3.  Really liked it even if it's trope after trope after trope driving the story.  It's told well enough, even if it gets goofy at times. (the whole stand off in the garage to prove that Forever is a badass who don't take no shit from nobody, you see)

[Eric P]

someone buy me all those Dan Slott spider-man comics which are cheap on comixology

actually the sale is great because it lets me get very cheaply the handful of issues that my library didn't carry in trade format

[Rahxephon91]

X-men Battle of the Atom is off to a great start. A giant bomb has already been dropped and jesus I want to see where this goes.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm going to guess, Jean Grey never died because teen Jean has retroactively changed the timeline. And I kind of wonder if this Xorn stuff will add anything. Or most likely this is'nt actually Jean, because somethings up with her and whoever this Xavier is.

[close]

[bork]

Cool, interested in this storyline.  NOT interested in Infinity.  In fact, I think I may not bother with Avengers and New Avengers for a while.  I only read the first few issues of each, but they were just so...boring.   

On the DC side of things, I have no idea what to think of Villains United.  The JLA Trinity War storyline was garbage.

[Eric P]

I just got Kelly Sue Deconnick's first Avenger's trade and I like it.  It's quite light-hearted and mirrors the tone of the film rather than the self serious Bendis / Hickman side of things.  You don't like her Captain Marvel so you may not like this.

Trillium #2.  This comic is pretty good right now.  They dropped the flip book stylings of the first issue and the perspective will shift from panel to panel between the female from the 35th century and the male from the 20th century.  It's amazing that this is so good but his for hire stuff on DCU is pretty terrible.  I can only assume editorial interference because the quality is so different.

Sheltered #3. We start to get at the reasons why the kids did what they did and we start to see the cracks in the society.  I don't know if this is ongoing and if it is, how long it can sustain itself with this current trajectory.  I'm on board for at least the first arc though. 

Satellite Sam #3. For a comic about "live television and sex" it certainly took long enough to get to the sex, but here it is.  This issue is pure Chaykin cheesecake just the way you like it.  I actually really like this comic but I can't put my finger on why.  The drama of running a live television network doesn't sound like it would be compelling but I guess that the setting is so unique to comics that it really stands out and raises the quality of everything else about it.

Superior Foes of Spider-man #3. I love this.  Funny comic about horrible career criminals trying to plan a heist but everything going wrong.  the pure opposite of Superior Spider-man.  Bad dudes doing bad things poorly.  There is one misstep in this book surrounding the Supervillans Anonymous meeting.  One is that the group is made up of horrible villains that were originally written as actual threats except that they included Dr Bong, a satirical villain created for Howard the Duck.  The scene would have worked better if it was all just shit quality villains who were written "straight" (like paste pot pete for example) rather than characters who were created basically as jokes.  also that scene no only steals from the Fight Club movie it references the film while doing so.  It just grated.  "Hey nerds, you like this movie right? yuk yuk"

Batman '66 #10 the return of the guided motion comics by Johnathan Case who did the original arc.  After the past few lesser quality issues (egg man, joker) it's back to what made it enjoyable with this arc focusing on the Mad Hatter in London.

[Junpei the Tracer!]

Batman:Black and White was nice. There's a Neal Adams story in there where Batman is powerless to stop certain things like "Like they're foreclosing on my house and I'm being kicked out today" and he looks really skinny,outfit tattered,decaying pretty much. Then he turns back into regular when he sees Joker and the others robbing a armored truck,he even says "old friends" when he first spots them After that he turns back into decaying batman when he comes across  "I live in car with my family because I'm inbetween jobs".

[Great Rumbler]

I picked up a used copy of Frank Miller's Hard Boiled this past weekend at HPB. I haven't yet dug too deeply into it yet, but what I've seen of it from a quick scan really bowls me over. The art is incredible, some of the best I've seen in a Western comic. It all feels feel Katsuhiro Otomo-esque in the way it captures urban decay, biological horror, and violent chaos with such astounding detail. Definitely not a bad buy for $6.50.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I don't think I've seen people talk about Scottie Young's Oz books for Marvel. I picked up his Ozma (my favorite Oz story) at Half-Price for $12 hardcover, and the first one was a $2.99 Kindle special last week. They are SUPERBLY GORGEOUS. I need to pick up the rest because I love Oz and I don't want my kids to associate Oz with the movie exclusively.

[Eric P]

looks like a steampunk adventure time

[Eric P]

DC Comics says no to marriage for batwoman
creative team quits

http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/60350176589/williams-and-blackman-quit-batwoman-due-to-ban-on-kate

[Howard Alan Treesong]

it's not really steampunk, though the Tin Woodsman might look that way. all the dialogue is directly from the books and it's a good and faithful adaptation. also Baum did introduce Tik-Tok in book 3, so it was Steampunk like 90 years ahead of schedule?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

DC Comics says no to marriage for batwoman
creative team quits

http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/60350176589/williams-and-blackman-quit-batwoman-due-to-ban-on-kate

another quality editorial decision from DC comics

[Great Rumbler]

Whelp, there goes the #1 reason to read Batwoman.

[Eric P]

it's not really steampunk, though the Tin Woodsman might look that way. all the dialogue is directly from the books and it's a good and faithful adaptation. also Baum did introduce Tik-Tok in book 3, so it was Steampunk like 90 years ahead of schedule?

(Image removed from quote.)(Image removed from quote.)

this is awkward because i thought the faux troll (traux?) was obvious

[Howard Alan Treesong]

it's not really steampunk, though the Tin Woodsman might look that way. all the dialogue is directly from the books and it's a good and faithful adaptation. also Baum did introduce Tik-Tok in book 3, so it was Steampunk like 90 years ahead of schedule?

(Image removed from quote.)(Image removed from quote.)

this is awkward because i thought the faux troll (traux?) was obvious

oh.  I'm tired. sorry.

[Joe Molotov]

DC Comics says no to marriage for batwoman
creative team quits

http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/60350176589/williams-and-blackman-quit-batwoman-due-to-ban-on-kate

Pretty dumb since this Batwoman has been gay since Day 1 and DC okayed her to get engaged, but no wedding. And the way I understood it is that DC would allow Kate and Maggie to be married, they just weren't allowed to show a marriage. Dumb. 

[Yeti]

So DC Comics is running a contest where your artwork could appear in the pages of a new comic they are doing!

The contest is to draw four panels of Harley Quinn contemplating suicide. 

http://www.dailydot.com/fandom/dc-comics-kill-naked-harley-quinn-contest/

But DC's latest art contest, featuring popular villain Harley Quinn, they're offering lucky artists the chance to begin their careers in the industry—if they can effectively draw a naked woman preparing to kill herself. This seems, at the very least, tone-deaf.

The contest comes on the eve of National Suicide Prevention Week, and many comics fans are outraged.

http://www.dccomics.com/node/305151

[chronovore]

I picked up a used copy of Frank Miller's Hard Boiled this past weekend at HPB. I haven't yet dug too deeply into it yet, but what I've seen of it from a quick scan really bowls me over. The art is incredible, some of the best I've seen in a Western comic. It all feels feel Katsuhiro Otomo-esque in the way it captures urban decay, biological horror, and violent chaos with such astounding detail. Definitely not a bad buy for $6.50.

I had to wonder what kind of substances that artist was on, to get that level of detail. It's just insane.

[chronovore]

Out of the Fables TPBs I picked up, I started with #8, thinking that I'd had #1-7 read already.

Two pages in, I get a reveal on The Adversary which demonstrated succinctly that I'd missed some story.

 :'( :'( :'(

[Rahxephon91]

The Batwoman thing dosen't even make sense.  What makes Batwoman interesting to read is that she is a rather reckless and not altogether character. So having her being married would cause even more problems and reckless drama for Kate. Having to juggle both, probably leading her taking things for granted, it could make for some exciting stories.

And then why would you anger the creative team, I mean they are also a huge part of Batwoman's appeal.

[Eric P]

The contest is to draw four panels of Harley Quinn contemplating suicide. 


http://www.dccomics.com/node/305151

to be fair this kind of makes sense

they want you to draw what is obviously a dream or fantasy sequence so the art being different makes some kind of sense

PANEL 1
Harley is on top of a building, holding a large DETACHED cellphone tower in her hands as lightning is striking just about everywhere except her tower. She is looking at us like she cannot believe what she is doing. Beside herself. Not happy.

PANEL 2
Harley is sitting in an alligator pond, on a little island with a suit of raw chicken on, rolling her eyes like once again, she cannot believe where she has found herself. We see the alligators ignoring her.

PANEL 3
Harley is sitting in an open whale mouth, tickling the inside of the whale’s mouth with a feather. She is ecstatic and happy, like this is the most fun ever.

PANEL 4
Harley sitting naked in a bathtub with toasters, blow dryers, blenders, appliances all dangling above the bathtub and she has a cord that will release them all. We are watching the moment before the inevitable death. Her expression is one of “oh well, guess that’s it for me” and she has resigned herself to the moment that is going to happen.
- See more at: http://www.dccomics.com/node/305151#sthash.9QUDlz1x.dpuf

it's just unfortunate that one of the panels is her naked in a tub.

[Yeti]

Spoilers for DC's Forever Evil #1:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://kotaku.com/kryptonite-snorting-evil-superman-is-my-favorite-comic-1265755894

An alternate universe Superman snorting Kryptonite

[close]

[Joe Molotov]

[Yeti]

That middle panel would make a great avatar, if it weren't spoileriffic.

[Eric P]

hey kids, comics

let's take them in order

Batman 66 - I really wish that they'd keep this format of the DC2 almost motion comics.  I imagine that it takes far longer to do than the traditional comics, but the art by Johnathan Case is just so much better and the stories seem more fun.  This two-parter about the Mad Hatter in London trying to steal the Crown is just delightful stuff.  Absolutely love it.

Murder She Writes #1 (probably a stand alone) - Back in the day there were only a handful of webcomics that were worth a shit and John Allison's Scary Go Round was probably the best of the bunch.  This is a stand alone cozy manor mystery involving sex, betrayal, shocking reveals all in the classic early UK Murder Mystery style shot through with a humor and warmth and dripping irony as a children's book author tries to find out who murdered a colleague at an annual get away amongst her peers.

Fearless Defenders #9 - the boyfriends of the Fearless Defenders band together to try to mansplain the team into quitting for their own good.  The women kick a lot of weird ancient robot / magic sculpture / golem ass while the dudes catch feelings.  still like this book.  shame it will probably be cancelled

Ghosted #3 -  i think i'm officially done with this book after the first storyline.  This is less The Haunting and more 13 Ghosts (the new horrible one, not the old horrible one).  Concept so good.  Execution so dumb.

Sidekick #2 - nowhere near as good as the first issue.  we get a bit more history of the Sidekick and his mentor's relationship and meet a few more edge characters but it doesn't really go anywhere worthwhile. 

Red Sonja #3 - very good low fantasy comics.  Red Sonja afflicted with plague is cast out into the winter to prevent the disease from destroying the rest of the settlement she had been in, and we spend some time on her back story and history in some pretty good flashbacks.  really enjoying this.

FBP #3 - i'm onboard.  this is fucking weird.  i have no idea what's going on but in a good way.  I can follow the individual plots but each issue introduces us to a new concept of the world and it shifts what you think you know. 

I need to get Mighty Avengers at some point, but it's not like it will sell out on me.

[Joe Molotov]

Eric, have you read any Mind MGMT? Is it good?

[Eric P]

I have not.  I have heard good things about it, but I haven't tracked it down.  I just missed a comixology sale on back issues

[bork]

Red Sonja #3 - very good low fantasy comics.  Red Sonja afflicted with plague is cast out into the winter to prevent the disease from destroying the rest of the settlement she had been in, and we spend some time on her back story and history in some pretty good flashbacks.  really enjoying this.

Backstory AGAIN?  They did that already in the last series.   

I still haven't read this new series, since I need to finish Queen Sonja and She Devil With A Sword (featuring VAMPIRE SONJA from dumb inter-company crossover!) first.

I need to get Mighty Avengers at some point, but it's not like it will sell out on me.

The first issue was...OK.  I guess.  It's an Infinity tie-in, which I don't care for and is your typical "group of heroes comes together to fight bad guys at the end of the book" story.  Nothing particularly-special and is basically the Luke Cage New Avengers all over again.  With bad Greg Land art.

[Eric P]

Backstory AGAIN?  They did that already in the last series.   

all new all exciting backstory from a new creative team! (i guess.  i don't know.)

The first issue was...OK.  I guess.  It's an Infinity tie-in, which I don't care for and is your typical "group of heroes comes together to fight bad guys at the end of the book" story.  Nothing particularly-special and is basically the Luke Cage New Avengers all over again.  With bad Greg Land art.

Doc Oc getting mouthy w/ Luke Cage!

[bork]

Well, that was quick.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #700.1 & #700. 2
DAVID MORRELL (w) • KLAUS JANSON (a)
Covers by PASQUAL FERRY
Variant Covers by KLAUS JANSON
• One year after his death at the hands of the Superior Spider-Man – PETER PARKER IS BACK!
• Acclaimed novelist David Morrell (First Blood) and legendary comics icon Klaus Janson (DAREDEVIL: END OF DAYS) team up to kick off this celebration of the world’s greatest super hero!
• With a blizzard crippling New York City, Spider-Man must protect the city – but Aunt May’s life is in danger!
40 PGS. (EACH)/Rated T …$3.99 (EACH)

[Eric P]

booo

but we have a movie coming out

fuckers

edit: i'd much rather see David Morrell on Punisher or something high action like that given his books.

[Joe Molotov]

Who could have predicted this shocking turn of events!

[bork]

Actually, it's confusing- the solicits have five Spider-Man 700.# comics coming out, yet the Superior Spider-Man books are also listed, with no hint that they are ending.  Maybe these are flashback stories?

Venom, too- I guess that book was canned?  Superior lists a "Superior Venom" character as coming...yet Flash Thompson Venom is still with the Thunderbolts. 

 

I see that Scarlet Spider is also done with #25.  I wonder if my theory that they have will his mind/soul/whatever "die" and be replaced by Peter Parker may be correct.  Then the Superior Spider-Man will stick around as a villain.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I have not.  I have heard good things about it, but I haven't tracked it down.  I just missed a comixology sale on back issues

Is there a good site for tracking comixology sales? I would buy just about everything at $0.99 / issue but I don't want to load the app every day just to go through their splash pages.

[Eric P]

i just check on Monday, Tues and Fri

[Eric P]

Murder She Writes

[Rahxephon91]

I picked up East of West Vol. 1 and well I really enjoyed it.

I can't say the story is great, but boy is the world so cool and interesting. It's just a strange sci fi fantasy wild west world, just seems like a crazy combination. The one that always sounds cool in your head, the one you go like "why doesn't someone do this". Well Hickman did and it looks great. And then he added the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.

As for the story, it's cool and they has potential, but it's not exactly whats caring it. Mostly because everyone just seems so gritty and dark and there's no reason to get behind anyone other then "they look cool and they did some cool things". But really the story has just kind of started, so it may yet get awesome.

Either way, I really enjoyed it mostly because just how cool and awesome the premise and world is.

[Rufus]

(Image removed from quote.)
Murder She Writes

I want that mug.

[Eric P]

i'm not really one for comics podcasts as most of the ones I've heard have been horrible but I've recently gotten into Wait, What? which is the podcast arm of The Savage Critics, one of my favorite review sites.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wait-what/id386707974

dudes are old like me (older!) and so they have their biases but the podcast is reasonably informative and entertaining.  It's convinced me to purchase or request library books I wouldn't have otherwise considered

[Eric P]

i liked it but this is just one of two panels that feature the metal dude

Murder She Writes #1 (probably a stand alone) - Back in the day there were only a handful of webcomics that were worth a shit and John Allison's Scary Go Round was probably the best of the bunch.  This is a stand alone cozy manor mystery involving sex, betrayal, shocking reveals all in the classic early UK Murder Mystery style shot through with a humor and warmth and dripping irony as a children's book author tries to find out who murdered a colleague at an annual get away amongst her peers.

[Eric P]

from newsarama

Peter Parker Returns! …Kind of
Heroes never die – not for long at least in comics – and not without a twist. After seemingly shuffling off his mortal coil in last year’s Amazing Spider-Man #700, Peter Parker and the Amazing series are back – sort of.

In December 2013, Marvel will release five decimal pointed issues of Amazing Spider-Man #700 in what the publisher is calling “a special celebration of the original Spider-Man.” According to the solicitations, these won’t deal with Parker’s death and are instead earlier stories of Parker similar to the “Untold Tales” type of stories Marvel’s done in the past.

For #700.1 and #700.2, Rambo creator David Morrell and famed artist Klaus Janson convene together for a story pitting the wall-crawler against a torrential NYC blizzard with the beloved Aunt May’s life on the line. #700.3, #700.4 and #700.5 will have guest creators such as Joe Casey, Underworld co-creator Kevin Grievioux, Emma Rios, Jen Van Meter, Lee Weeks and others doing some timeless tales from Parker’s heyday.

This quintet of Amazing Spider-Man decimal issues marks the first appearance of Peter Parker in Marvel’s core superhero titles in over a year, but with the caveat that they are past stories and not ones chronicling his return. Despite that, this also works as a not-too-subtle foreshadowing of Parker’s actual return to the Marvel Universe in the modern day. We’ve already seen that Doctor Octopus as Superior Spider-Man is having run-ins with various future and past Spider-Man like Spider-Man 2099, Venom and even Scarlet Spider – maybe that means something. Or maybe the cancellation of the Venom and Scarlet Spider titles might be the precursor to a Spider-Man Family type title once again with those characters and some other Spider-Men. But that’s a tale for another day.

Getting back to Parker’s return, Christos Gage told us earlier that Dan Slott is working on “a secret, yet-to-be-revealed title.” Whether that title is a proper return for Amazing Spider-Man and Peter Parker, we’d bet heavy on the original Spider-Man swinging back into comics in the very near future.

Hey, isn’t Amazing Spider-Man 2 coming out in theatres in May? Hmmm….

[Eric P]

comixology is having a sale on Valiant which includes both the reboot and the originals.

i've read about 10 issues of harbinger and it's ok.  nothing great or interesting about it
Archer and Armstrong is pretty boss in a low brow pretending to be high brow satire about immortal brothers versus the 1%.  it's stupid but i like it.
bloodshot is neat but i've only read about 5 issues of it.  it's basically dethlok with the AI pretending to be his slaughtered family, so Nanopunisher.  deliriously violent but not really played for slapstick.

i don't read x-o so i can't comment on that.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I should mention I read TPB1 of The Sixth Gun and I didn't really like it at all. Not the art, the plot, the characters - just did not work for me. Ah well!