Bore Comics Thread: Crisis On Infinite Megathreads

[benjipwns]

Didn't the first Civil War take a while to get to the "war" too? Maybe it just felt like it because of the ten thousand tie-in issues most of the "consequences" plot got shunted off into. (Then forgotten about or made incoherent.)

Civil War II also ties into several new limited series including: Civil War II: Amazing Spider-Man, Civil War II: Choosing Sides, Civil War II: Gods of War, Civil War II: Kingpin, Civil War II: Ulysses, and Civil War II: X-Men, the one-shots: Civil War II: The Accused and Civil War II: The Fallen, and numerous ongoing series

Oh good, they're keeping up tradition then.

[benjipwns]

Wait, they're doing another "relaunch" thing?

In June 2016, Marvel announced that "Civil War II" will result in a new status quo of Marvel Universe, which will be presented in the "Divided We Stand" storyline as part of the company's 2016 Marvel NOW! relaunch.

They should just launch a new Avengers volume every other month, just issues #0 and #1 over and over again.

I was reading a thing by Marv Wolfman the other day and he was talking about how back before CRISIS the higher the number on a comic the better, people trusted an Action Comics #487 but not a #4 of something. Which is why there were so few self-contained mini-series or even maxi-series, nobody thought a 12 issue series with a decided ending would sell. Jack Kirby's New Gods was supposed to be a story that ended back in like issue #13. But DC wanted the characters and series to keep going so he wasn't allowed to write any endings that could potentially close them off. Then they cancelled it. And barely used the characters again for like 20 years.

Funniest thing is still Marvel's dual-numbering of issues.

[bork]

Didn't the first Civil War take a while to get to the "war" too? Maybe it just felt like it because of the ten thousand tie-in issues most of the "consequences" plot got shunted off into. (Then forgotten about or made incoherent.)

Civil War II also ties into several new limited series including: Civil War II: Amazing Spider-Man, Civil War II: Choosing Sides, Civil War II: Gods of War, Civil War II: Kingpin, Civil War II: Ulysses, and Civil War II: X-Men, the one-shots: Civil War II: The Accused and Civil War II: The Fallen, and numerous ongoing series

Oh good, they're keeping up tradition then.

I don't remember how long the first Civil War story took to get going.  I don't think Civil War II is anywhere near as good as it was, though, and Civil War had ramifications that resulted in the Dark Avengers/Norman Osbourne controlling shit.  Civil War II seems to be leading to...more #1s and relaunches.


And this seems to be a thing with Marvel- Hype up a big new storyline, then spoil shit before it's over and announce new comics, making the story feel almost pointless.  Nothing's gonna top that Age Of Ultron mini series, however- All that shit just introduce fucking Angela into the Marvel Universe, and at that this point she barely even matters. 

[bork]

Wait, they're doing another "relaunch" thing?

Yup.  It's the norm for them now.  I think they should just put "Season #"  or something on their books to make things easier to follow for new readers.

That picture is amazing.  So many heroes have been effectively replaced.

[fistfulofmetal]

Anyone read Gwenpoole?

Since my girlfriend gets every single Marvel comic they make she had a literal mountain in our apartment of comics and I noticed it, thought the art was neat, and decided to give it a try.

It's pretty good for the most part. The writing isn't as sharp as it could be but the hook is fun and I always like stories that poke fun at themselves.

[benjipwns]

What's funny is not all that long ago Marvel did do a "Season One" thing for people coming to the comics from the films: https://comicstore.marvel.com/Season-One/comics-series/8013

I actually liked a number of them, but the stupid thing was that I don't think any of them were written by the people writing the current comics nor were they like "new origin stories to pilfer from if you want" nor have they led to anything like DC's Earth One line with Season Two, etc. Also, like the 1960's original X-Men lineup is so totally not in the X-Men comics, and Fantastic Four barely even had a book consistently for years. So you'd have had to catch up anyway.

I wouldn't mind actually if some comics went into a "season" format with more of a clear and set release schedule. A lot of the mainstream stuff I've liked the last decade-ish has had a finale it was working towards. (52 for example.) Write and plot out the entire "season" then turn it over to editorial and the artists for production. Especially if everybody else writing stuff in-universe has to keep up with an author. (This was one of the New 52 complaints by writers on all the other Superman books, Morrison was writing in Action Comics five years in the past but neither he, nor editorial was sharing that with anyone else and he wasn't writing any further ahead of anyone. Apparently one reason Snyder stayed on Batman three times as long as originally intended is that he kept everyone in the loop so things like Zero Year and Death of the Family weren't utter editorial clusterfucks.)

The Walking Dead is actually kinda remarkable since Kirkman supposedly doesn't plot ahead for the entire book. Just certain character beats he intends to get to. (I don't know if I believe him. Or any comic writers really.)

[bork]

Fist- Not yet, but have 'em all queued up to read. 

Benji- They already kind of do have something to work towards- all the recent books start over after a big event, then lead up to a big event, and the cycle repeats itself.  Before they even used names like "Dark Reign" and "The Heroic Age" across the top of all the comics inbetween events. 

[Tasty]

Superman (2016) #3

A robot eats a dog. This is the best comic running.

Nightwing: Rebirth

Decent intro to the book. Finally finished up Grayson to get to this and it's one of my favorite series ever, if a little anticlimactic.

[bork]

Superman (2016) #3

A robot eats a dog. This is the best comic running.

What is with this comic and pets!? 

[Tasty]

Oh my god I am loving this bimonthly thing DC is doing with Rebirth. Reading issues once a month sucks, and waiting for TPBs sucks. Bimonthly issues isn't a new idea (though I don't think it's been done on this scale before), and who knows if they'll be able to keep it up, but right now it's amazing. Following a series is now like watching an ongoing TV show. Like, I *just* caught up and read Nightwing #1 three days ago, and now it's less than a week until #2! And a double-a-month dose of Tomasi's revelatory Superman run is EXACTLY what I need right now. 👊

[Bebpo]

Finished Annihilation and finally at Civil War (2006).  When I first signed up for Marvel Unlimited 2+ years ago, the first thing I tried to read was Civil War.  I made it like 10 issues into the event and bailed out because it sucked and then I went and read Nextwave and some other good runs before heading back to 1999 and reading the entire marvel universe from that point on.  Now I'm back at Civil War but I have like 1,000 comics read under my belt from 1999-2006 and I know all these characters and I've seen the world change to this point.  Will be interesting to see if I like the event more this time around with all that background.

[Bebpo]

Civil War is fucking loooooooooooooooooooooooong.  Here I thought it'd be like the past 2 events, Avengers Disassembled  & House of M, which were maybe about 20-30 issues total with main story+tie-ins.  Civil War is like 100+ issues long, damn.  I'm about 25 or so issues in and it's feeling pretty dragged out. 

It's also really stupid with the whole "at midnight all the heroes turn into criminals automatically and shield goes to take them down"; it's like beyond dumb.  Hopefully the main WAR part in the middle is good.  This is all just build up still.

[bork]

It's been so long since I read that storyline that I can't remember how it all plays out and if it was all worth reading.  But it does lead to Dark Reign which is fun for a bit.

How does that Marvel app work?  Does it give you all the related comics in a storyline in reading order?  Might have to try it out for a bit if so.

[Bebpo]

It's been so long since I read that storyline that I can't remember how it all plays out and if it was all worth reading.  But it does lead to Dark Reign which is fun for a bit.

How does that Marvel app work?  Does it give you all the related comics in a storyline in reading order?  Might have to try it out for a bit if so.

Sort of.  If you browse by event instead of series it has most of the storyline and you can sort by date order.  But whoever is putting it together always misses some, so I go by The Marvel Reading Order (http://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/) and just grab each issue in order.

[bork]

Hmm.  Well, I'm interested in trying it out, now that I have a tablet that should display pages correctly.  I usually read everything on my phone.

[chronovore]

 

[Tasty]

Detective Comics #938

Really loving this run of Detective Comics so far. James Tynion IV is living up to his statement of "Tim Drake is my favorite character." He really gets Timmy.

I've also warmed up much more to his "new" (old) costume again. It's not as good as his pre-Flashpoint ones but it's definitely better than the New 52 one. And this jab was just so good.



I'm hoping he gets his black/red costume back eventually but this one's fine for now.

[Rahxephon91]

Yeah Detective is easily my favorite super hero book right now. The team dynamic is just really well done.

[Tasty]

Yeah Detective is easily my favorite super hero book right now. The team dynamic is just really well done.

Somehow made get feels from Batwoman's dad, which I completely didn't expect. Wtf this writing is too good.

[bork]

Superwoman: I liked this one a lot more than I thought I would.  It has a swerve in it that answers a question the New 52 Superman's death had, which I am really glad that they addressed-

spoiler (click to show/hide)

It wasn't just New 52 Lois Lane who got zapped with Superman's energy when he died...Lana Lang did too.  And she ALSO has superpowers, but they are shown to be more energy based and I guess she's supposed to be a tribute to the "electric" Superman from the 90s.  Lois "dies" right at the end of the book after running into what looks like a Bizarro female Superman, although obviously she's not dead since previews have already spoiled that.  It's kind of too bad, because it would have been a way for them to get rid of the now-extra Lois and surprise everyone with a different main character.

[close]

I am really liking all the Superman books right now.  Easily the most I've liked what they're doing with these characters in...ever.

[Tasty]

What kind of bizarro version of this thread did I enter where I'm not the only one talking about DC?

[Great Rumbler]

I've heard that Chinese Superman is pretty good. Is it?

[benjipwns]

i totally forgot to read that...and superwoman

some of rebirth is really fucked up from an editorial stand point but you only notice it if you're mainlining everything as it comes out

like, i like the individual superman components going on right...but which is happening in what timeframe and order, and include his justice league stuff in this, also can we stop fighting doomsday again and explain all the interesting stuff in Action?

and i swear to god, Old Lois has become Sue Storm from the 1960's, every issue in half the books is her worrying about her husband and how she can't bear to watch TV or let Jon see it...while in another book her and Jon are beating the living shit out of the Eradicator while Supes takes a nap

something similar with batman/detective is going on, but they're going to do that crossover so that will sync them up a bit

it's not a real problem or anything, but it's the same thing that sent the new 52 spiraling in random directions with no grand editorial oversight...and now that Johns is off doing the movies...

also, in retrospect, the rebirth issues themselves are fairly garbage, especially since nearly every #1 of the series proper immediately discards them to jump right into established plot (this good, rebirth issues mostly bad)

[benjipwns]

also i lol'd at them making Amanda Waller fatter and more homely again, just as Viola Davis was doing what seems like an older and more professional version of the new 52 take

spoiler (click to show/hide)

i had started to like new 52's waller during forever evil/futures end/etc. as they had no problems putting her into the field/action, especially the story where she was like Ripley trapped in Blackgate

not that i was really bothered too much by the more fit version since she was still the epic bitch we all love, but they stumbled into retroactively justifying the makeover

[close]

[benjipwns]

some of the other stuff i plowed through recently, i think can put it into tiers

top tier:
Wool (which is an altered adaption of a self-published e-book/novel series and stuff but I only found that out after I read it)
American Vampire (First set of "volumes", first five collected editions, not Second Cycle yet)
Velvet
Sleeper (though i probably shouldn't have read this after Velvet AND Criminal AND Fatale AND The Fade Out...overdosing on Brubaker, but it was a nice coda to me having finally read through The Authority last year)
Captain America: Man Out of Time

pretty good but depends on when u ask:
Marvel 1602 (Gaiman mini-series)
Eternals (Gaiman mini-series)
Criminal
The Fade Out

decent to good:
Fatale
The Wake
Prophet (Brandon Graham), second collected "Brothers"
More old 1960's Marvel from the Masterworks collection

meh:
Prophet, first collection "Remission"

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Joe Molotov]

Alan Moore's Providence continues to be great. Two more issues until the end.

[Tasty]

i totally forgot to read that...and superwoman

some of rebirth is really fucked up from an editorial stand point but you only notice it if you're mainlining everything as it comes out

like, i like the individual superman components going on right...but which is happening in what timeframe and order, and include his justice league stuff in this, also can we stop fighting doomsday again and explain all the interesting stuff in Action?

and i swear to god, Old Lois has become Sue Storm from the 1960's, every issue in half the books is her worrying about her husband and how she can't bear to watch TV or let Jon see it...while in another book her and Jon are beating the living shit out of the Eradicator while Supes takes a nap

something similar with batman/detective is going on, but they're going to do that crossover so that will sync them up a bit

it's not a real problem or anything, but it's the same thing that sent the new 52 spiraling in random directions with no grand editorial oversight...and now that Johns is off doing the movies...

also, in retrospect, the rebirth issues themselves are fairly garbage, especially since nearly every #1 of the series proper immediately discards them to jump right into established plot (this good, rebirth issues mostly bad)

This is the way it should be IMO. I look at it like each series is its own universe basically, with occasional crossovers to sync things up.

I mean when you really think about it, there's no way Batman would be able to do all the shit he does in every book in a month and still have time to sleep, run Wayne enterprises, etc. It takes a little suspension of disbelief anyways.

Also agreed on most of the Rebirth issues, most of them are pretty worthless (except Titans Rebirth #1, I believe.) Batman Rebirth #1 was just felating Duke which has gone nowhere AFAIK.

[bork]

I've heard that Chinese Superman is pretty good. Is it?

It's still too early to tell...issue #2 just hit.  But it has been a pretty fun story so far.  Doesn't really take itself too seriously and Chinese Bat-Man is just awesome, messing with Super-Man like crazy.  They really played the rip-off/copycat angle up in #2 and made things pretty enjoyable.

[Bebpo]

Well, finished the entire Civil War event taking me from around Fall 2006 to Spring 2007 in my marvel universe read.  Was ok, my main issue is that for the most part nothing happens outside of a couple events.  It's a decent enough backdrop for authors to tell interesting stories, but they don't do a lot with it.  Like you have 50 issues of people picking sides and then maybe they're a couple of big fights and it's over.

Actually, the worst thing about it is that it wasn't just an event for 6 months and then it's done and I can get back to reading good comics in the marvel universe.  Because it screwed up things so much, the follow up year of comics are gonna be a heavily impacted by it as well.

So next up is ~June 2007 - June 2008 year of marvel before Secret Invasion.  Since everytime I do an event or year read it's basically like reading 3000 pages of Marvel, gonnna take a few month break before jumping into that.

[Shuri]

Just read Animosity #1, don't sleep on this, it's amazing. It's about what if animals suddenly could talk and turned against us. ITS AMAZING

it also features this panel:

[Great Rumbler]

I saw that while glancing through the comics section, had to buy it right away. Those opening pages are amazing.

Also, Sandor for best dog ever.

[Beezy]

Sounds interesting. I'll get it on comixology later.

I'm really disappointed that the new Nighthawk comic will be canceled after only the 6th issue.

[Tasty]

Detective Comics #939

Tim gets his Big Damn Hero moment.

[Bebpo]

Finished my Trade volumes #1 read of comics I got from the last 2 years of Image modern created-owned comics.  My thoughts:

East of West - Pretty solid Hickman apocalyptic tale.  At this point I've read enough comics that nothing feels original and everything story-wise and character-wise and even scene-wise feels like I've already seen it somewhere (4 horseman, X-men Apocalypse; Death as vengeance anti-hero, Preacher; Post-apocalyptic sci-fi western, even bits of Hickman's other running Manhatten Projects, etc...), but it's pretty enjoyable pulp.  Will continue reading this.

I think I already talked about how Warren Ellis' Injection was the shit, but I'll make another note here in case you haven't read it. 

Jupiter's Circle - Apparently this is a prequel by Mark Millar to a different Millar series.  Was ok.

Kaptara - Kind of generic sci-fi lost on another planet thing, but I do like the He-Man-esque feel of it a bit.  Still not bothering past this volume.

Low - Rick Remender's underwater Mad Max.  Gorgeous art, decently entertaining, will continue.

Nailbiter - Horror slasher film monsters True Detective mystery tale.  Entertaining.  Will continue.

No Mercy - Oh no, kids on an international trip are stuck in a dangerous area and will get killed off left & right battle royale-ish.  Zzz

Nowhere Men - Suuuuuper similar to The Manhatten Projects about scientists who went wrong, but also about mutant astronauts X-men style.  Was ok, but don't think I'll read more.

Ody-c by Matt Fraction about sci-fi Norse gods or something, idk the art and panel layouts were too psychedelic out that I thought it was miserable to read and bailed halfway.

Outcast was ok, I can see why they'd make a tv show out of it.  Very slow paced and a bit boring.  No interest in continuing.

Phonogram Kara got me into this.  Wasn't hugely sold by Volume 1 since it felt fairly elitist UK britpop blogging in philosophical form, but love volume #2 which is just a fun comic about people having a good time at a club and how music effects them.  Individual the club stories are fairly shallow, but together as a single piece the interwoven story is fantastic and the tracklist is great.  One of the best comics I've read.  Now I can't stop listening to Pull Shapes.

Satellite Sam - Noir television industry murder mystery.  Kinda interesting, kind of boring.  Probably not going to continue.

Shutter - Weird randomly super-violent w/furries action adventure?  Sorta intriguing.  Might check out volume 2+

The Fade Out - Another Noir television/movie industry murder mystery.  Fairly entertaining like most Brubaker comics.  Beyond that didn't really grab me, but might check out vol.2

The Wicked & The Divine - Enjoyed the first volume quite a bit since I like gods and mythology.  Only bummer is they got rid of the most interesting character in volume 1.  But definitely will check out 2+

Trees - Another neat Ellis' story.  Don't like it anywhere near as much as Injection, it's also depressingly bleak view of people in a world post alien tree landings.  But will grab volume 2 next image sale.

Velvet - More entertaining Brubaker action mystery thrillers.  Fairly popcorn but fun.  Surprised they haven't made a movie out of it yet.  Will check out volume 2.

Virgil - "A Queersploitation Revenge Tale" the back cover says.  Yup, that's exactly what it is.  Fairly entertaining for that kind of genre.  The setting in Jamaica was interesting.

Wolf - I had to check if this was written by the guy who wrote Fables.  It isn't, but it's the exact same concept but darker.  I like that kind of concept (personification of fable/myth characters).  Will grab volume 2 next sale.

So yeah, some good stuff in there.  Next time there's an image sale will pick up the next few volumes of a good chunk of them.  Still need to read Saga and more of Fables, but since they're both lengthy been saving until I finished all the volume 1s.  Looking forward to the next image humble bundle sale of new volume 1s to check out.

[Tasty]

Detective Comics #940

spoiler (click to show/hide)

And Tim Drake's record of being the only Robin not to die is brok-... wait, huh. Nevermind then.

[close]

[bork]

Detective Comics #940

spoiler (click to show/hide)

And Tim Drake's record of being the only Robin not to die is brok-... wait, huh. Nevermind then.

[close]

[Tasty]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Going theory is Ozymandias is doing a bunch of shit. "Dr. Oz" has apparently already captured Doomsday and now Tim.



Lol he's literally saying "we're taking you out of the comics for now BECAUSE you're such a fan favorite.

Hopefully when he comes back he has a better costume. It'd also be great if they could restore his pre-N52 memories at some point.

Pre-N52 Tim Drake

[close]

[Tasty]

I know it was a Kingdom Come thing but I never liked the "Red Robin" name. It's redundant and them name of a (pretty good) burger chain.

They should make Tim "Flamebird" to play off Nightwing.

[bork]

Ugh, I am not liking this Watchmen shit.  So they bring Tim Drake back to Batman and co. only to remove him completely? 

[Tasty]

Ugh, I am not liking this Watchmen shit.  So they bring Tim Drake back to Batman and co. only to remove him completely? 

Pretty much.

I'm fine with him being gone a few months (provided they update his costume) but if they stretch it to 6-12 then I'm gonna riot.

The actual Rebirth "plot" has been a veeeerrrrry slow trickle.

[Tasty]

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/09/14/detective-comics-robin-death-twist-james-tynion?xid=entertainment-weekly_socialflow_twitter

HOLY FUCK YES on basically all of Tynion's answers here.

Tim Drake is my favorite character in comics. This is the character that I grew up with. He was really my entry point to the Batman books in the late ‘90s/early 2000s when I started reading comic books when I was in middle school and high school. He, as a character, means a tremendous lot to me, and especially his view on the rest of the Bat-family. He is a brighter character who has a bit more of a utopian vision of being what a member of the Bat family can actually be.

In terms of the larger Rebirth story, this is the beginning of Tim Drake’s story. This is the first step toward really big, really cool stuff I am really excited for everyone to see.

The best way to describe it is having my cake and eating it too. We didn’t want to do the standard fake-out, okay the character’s dead and then three issues later reveal he’s alive. We wanted to show people right away that this isn’t something we did to shock readers, this is all part of a story. We wanted to make it clear that everything that’s happening with Tim is because we think he’s one of the most important characters in the DC Universe, not an expendable character that we’re going to toss on the fire to make all the characters cry. Now, at the same time, we get to use him to make all the characters cry.

This is all a bigger story. The fact that it is Tim, and Tim is central to all of this, that is relevant and important. You’ll be slowly discovering why over the next few months or years.

Tim’s a character who I feel like in the New 52 got brought over to the Titans side of the universe, and was sort of taken away from Gotham. Being able to root him as a crucial Gotham figure before sending him off into maybe the biggest story Tim has ever been a part of in DC comics history, that’s something that is important to me and makes me happy that we were able to do.

[Joe Molotov]

Making Watchmen part of the DC Universe. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Tasty]

Hey Alan Moore:

[Rahxephon91]

I've also read a bunch of those image books Bebpo.

I personally love East of West, great art and crazy world building. Yeah it's the definition of a Hickman book, but he's good at creating these epic stories in these fantastic worlds. One of my favorites, I have a thing personally signed by the artist.

I haven't read all of Jupiter's Circle, but yeah it's a prequel to Jupiter's Legacy which is a very Miller book, but it does feel more earnest and less cynical then most of his stuff. Thanks to the prequel series, it feels far more developed then his other series. Also that art is amazing.

I also loved Nowhere Men. So strange and off kilter. Sadly it's taken forever to even get to volume 2.

If you liked Phonogram I'd say maybe try out volume 3. It returns to some of the characters of volume 1 and is big on identity themes. Also some characters from Vol. 2 come back. The only thing is you may not like Volume because the main character from 1 and Emily(one of his friends) are the real main characters. You may not relate to Emily and find her very unlikable.

I liked The Fade Out, but haven't read volume 2. Since it's so short I'll probably get to it. It surfers from a lot of Brubaker's problems. I.E look at all the mature grittiness, but I thought it was solid.

For sure continue Wicked and The Divine. I think it only gets better as more gods are introduced. Yes Luci is gone, but the story hardly drops.

Velvet is fun, but my problem with Brubaker is that he can't keep up the momentum. I thought Fatale had the same problem in that it went on too long and Sleeper had a very by the numbers 2nd half. Still, while all of Velvet is good, it probably could have shaved off a few issues.

I've also enjoyed Tokyo Ghost if only for the art. My problem with Rick Remender is he also feels like a try hard, but Sean Murphy's art is too good to pass up. Plus the two main characters have an interesting relationship and the ending was rather decent.

Copperhead is a solid space western genre comic.

You may like Monstress because of the obvious manga influnce and dark themes. To me the overbearing world building and hush hush mystery was kind of lame.

But most importantly read Descender. The best sci-fi comic out right now.

Also while it's not image, I read the first trade of The Sheriff of Babylon and thought it was good stuff. A very shades of grey look at occupied Iraq.

[Bebpo]

Thanks for the reccomendations Rax.  I'll check out Monstress next Image sale and I'll look for Sheriff of Babylon, maybe Copperhead too.  Also yeah, I've read and love Descender.

I disagree on Rememder.  I think he's quite good, sharp and witty from what I've read of his stuff (Uncanny X-Force, Deadly Class, Low).  But then again I've heard from multiple people that Tokyo Ghost kinda sucks.  In general as a weaboo I stay away from white people trying to be anime stuff.

I was stuck at home for medical stuff yesterday and so I read some Alan Moore who I've learned over and over that I don't particularly care for even though he's well loved.  I love Lovecraft though and saw a thread about Providence being good cthulhu mythos written by Moore.  So I got a package that came with the story so far (since Providence is a prequel) and read The Courtyard which was an ok Lovecraft-ish one-off.  It was nice but it made me want more of the world he'd created and more Lovecraft. 

So then I read Neonomicon aka the RAPE RAPE book    It started off good and was overall entertaining if fairly cliche in the last 2 volumes, but jeesus all that rape.  I read Moore's justification for it, that Lovecraft himself was shy to write about sex and rape in his stories (possibly because of publication rules at the time, or because he was fairly asexual) and only implied the outcome of such things, and so Moore wanted to go the opposite and say this is all the fucked up sex and rape of Cthulhu mythos!  But despite that justification, it still comes off as kind of trashy because even if you take out all the rape it's a fairly C+ short story that's pretty by the books.

Anyhow, back to Providence, this one's supposed to be a lot better and more intellectually mature and I'm only two issues in but definitely liking it so far.  Hope it pays off and doesn't go into exploitation shit at some point.

I also need to read Morrison's Nameless next time there's an Image sale, since I fucking love Lovecraft mythos and would like to read his take even though on the surface it just looks like a rip of Junji Ito's Hellstar Remina.  My favorite Lovecraft stuff so far is still Lovecraft's Monsters, a collection of short stories I got in a humble book bundle.  The stories are really hit & miss, but there's a couple that are goddamn perfect Elder gods and shit. 

[Bebpo]

Also, now that Urasawa's Billy Bat's ended I'm reading through it these past few weeks.  Midway through volume 5 of 10 now.  Shit is so fucking crazy.  No idea if it'll be any good in the end, but like all of his stuff it reads incredibly well.  I don't really get why they never made anymore anime of his works after Monster.  They made live-action movies of 20th Century Boys, but no anime and then no anime for Pluto or Billy Bat.  It's weird because afaik his stuff is pretty popular and he's a legendary Japanese writer.  But then again, his stories are lengthy tales about middle aged men which I guess is hard to sell in today's otaku anime market of little girls loving their brothers.

[Joe Molotov]

Providence has got some rape in it too, but no one has gotten fishman pregnant (yet). It's really just one issue, but yeah...it's fairly unpleasant. It's a really good series though, and dense with Mythos references and IRL Lovecraft references.

[Rahxephon91]

Well I enjoyed Uncanny X-Force a lot and think it was probably the last good X thing. It's just it was a bit more restrained. Remender has good ideas and a good idea of what makes for good characters and story. I just think his independent stuff has been a bit too try hard and filled with "edgy" stuff for no reason.

I did'nt think Tokyo Ghost was bad and I did'nt think it was very anime either. More Japan Bushido stuff and even that that actually very light compared to all the other cyberpunk stuff happening. I think maybe it went on too long for some it's ideas, but in the end it was decent and the art carried it.

[Tasty]

It's Tokyo Ghoul you fuckin' pleb

[Joe Molotov]

It's Tokyo Ghoul you fuckin' pleb

Tokyo Ghost is the white people comic series, you fuckin weeb.

[bork]

It's Tokyo Ghoul you fuckin' pleb

Tokyo Ghost is the white people comic series, you fuckin weeb.

[Tasty]

He said it "wasn't very anime" which threw me off.

[Tasty]

Superman (2016) #6 and #7

Oh my gosh I don't think it's possible to love Gleason and Tomasi's Superman run more.

Or Jon, for that matter.

[bork]

While I'm not really digging Civil War II over on the Marvel side, Spider-Man has been fun.  The latest Amazing Spider-Man serves as both part of the "Death No More" prelude storyline and as a follow-up to the Superior Spider-Man storyline.

At the end of Superior, Doc Ock, firmly in control of Spider-Man's body, erased his consciousness and restored Peter because he realized he couldn't handle what was happening at the time. 

That wasn't the end of Doc Ock, though.  He popped up again in the Spider-Verse storyline (as Superior), but that's due to time travel stuff.  However, he recently resurfaced again in the body of the Living Brain, a robot servant that Parker Industries has been using.  But how this happened was never explained until ASM #18.  And it's a very "comic book" reason why.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

During the events of Spider-Verse, Superior spent a lot of time in 2099.  He used tech available there to create an AI assistant modeled after Anna, the woman he was in love with.  What gets revealed is that he also used tech there to create a virtual copy of his brain, which was stored in some gauntlets he created.  During the storyline events, he loses the gauntlets, which combine into this mecha-spider thing housing his back-up memory.  It follows Superior back to the present and hides.  After 100 days, the mecha reactivates and Ock scurries around, trying to find a way to take over another body.  He finds that the tech he has only works on Peter's body and decides to upload himself into the Living Brain as a "lifeboat" to use until he figures something out.

So things finally come to light and he attacks Spider-Man, trying to get his body back, fails, and then blows himself up after revealing who he is.  However, the little mecha is still around and he heads off to the corporation that is the focus of the Dead No More storyline.

[close]

So what is the Dead No More storyline about?  It's the Jackal, back for the umpteenth time, with a process available to bring dead people back to life, memories intact.  When he brings people back, they have to take a drug he has to stay alive, effectively putting them under his control. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

He brings back Electro's girlfriend, who ends up getting his powers, and also brings back the Prowler, who was working for Spidey, and was killed breaking into the corporation to figure out what's up.  So now he's basically a double agent.

[close]

This is gonna make for a fun storyline if done right.

[Tasty]

Batman (2016) #6

This issue made me tear up and that pretty much *never* happens with a comic. Damn.

[Tasty]

The Psycho-Pirate is perhaps DC's most intriguing and underused villain ever. A character driven insane by the knowledge of DC's various reboots? Amazing.

[Tasty]

Teen Titans (2014-2016) #24

The final issue of the Scott Lobdell-less (*spits*) New 52 Teen Titans was a good eulogy for Tim (spoilers.) Gar said it best:



On the eve of the Rebirth relaunch (with Damian at the helm), I'm trying to decide how I felt about this 24-issue run. This series wasn't as grossly abhorrent as the Lobdell-helmed travesty, but it didn't really stand out either. Much of it was about turning the Titans into celebrities, trying to integrate "hip" things like "Chipper" (aka DC Twitter), and bringing in generic YA tropes like "the world is out to get us." It was a bland series filled with sparse but fan-pleasing character moments and interactions.

Hopefully Damian can inject some life into the new Rebirth series, even if it contributes to the worrying Damian overload that's been building ever since his introduction years ago.

With Tim out of the Teen Titans, and the "teen-less" Titans focused squarely on pre-New 52 Wally West's era (with Nightwing, Donna Troy, et al), I have some hope that whenever Tim eventually returns, we'll see a "rebirth" of his fantastic Red Robin solo series. One can hope, anyways.

[Bebpo]

Going to a Graphic Novel Book Club on Friday since that's a lot more appealing for me (way less time required in preparation) than a normal book club.  First two graphic novels are Warren Ellis' Orbiter and Joss Whedon's Fray.

Read Orbiter.  Liked it.  Nice little sci-fi story, but I kind of feel some of these one-shot comics aren't the most satisfying because there's just not enough pages to really develop a story and run with it.  Orbiter sorta reads like the prologue to a larger sci-fi series.  Do they do stuff like this sometimes in comics to see how it sells and if it's popular then they come back and make a sequel series? 

Gonna read Fray tonight.  The art is sorta that Aeon Flux kinda bad ;_;

[benjipwns]

Do they do stuff like this sometimes in comics to see how it sells and if it's popular then they come back and make a sequel series? 

In some cases, but in the case of Warren Ellis that's often just how he writes things. Ocean is very similar.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Fray is part of the Buffyverse.

[close]

[benjipwns]

I read East of West, I really liked it. Very nice job peeling the layers of the world's onion. And then dots connect.

The United States is divided into seven nations, the Civil War lasted until 1908, and it shows you the main figures of all the nations right away for a brief bit. But then goes back to visit each nation in turn to setup the plot and characters from that one to add to the rest.

Read the rest of Saga up to current. Some of the decision making behind this story and the time skips is very odd.