The Comic Book Discussion Thread

[sevenarts]

Prophet is so awesome. So much creativity and inventiveness on every page.

Agreed on Fury Max, it's great fun so far, prime Ennis. I can't get into Haunt at all though.

There's also some really great Marvel stuff right now: Punisher (Greg Rucka), Uncanny X-Force (Rick Remender), Daredevil (Mark Waid), Wolverine and the X-Men (Jason Aaron). None of those are super-long (~10 issues plus or minus a few, except for X-Force which is at 25) and should be easy enough to catch up with. There's also Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four/FF, which has lasted for years and is finally ending soon and is very, VERY much worth reading if you haven't before.

Hickman's current The Manhattan Projects series is really good too, one of his best shorter, non-FF works.

I'll never get tired of recommending Terry Moore's Rachel Rising, one of the best horror books out there - which I'm sure is no surprise, floyd, since you were the one who got me into Echo.

I also have a lot of love for a pair of Vertigo books, American Vampire and The Unwritten, both of which just keep getting better and better. I was a little ambivalent about Unwritten early on but it's really got its claws into me now.

[ledfloyd]

cool, daredevil and fantastic four were already on my list of things to catch up on, i'll look into the rest. i had completely forgotten about rachel rising. and yeah, i'm really out of the loop on vertigo these days. american vampire, sweet tooth and the unwritten all interest me but they obviously will take a bit more work to get caught up on.

[number8]

No kidding. Can't believe they put that in a .1 issue.

I think they're just labeling all one-shot stories .1 these days.

[ledfloyd]

so, despite a ridiculously busy weekend i found time to do err, a little reading:

The Manhattan Projects - another promising new series from Image. if not yet on the level of Saga, Fatale and Prophet it certainly has the potential to join their ranks in the imprints top tier. Hickman's irreverant take on one of the most defining events of the 20th century is a lot of fun, i mean you have FDR reincarnated as AI and running a shadow government? what's not to love?

Secret - a little too early to tell where this one is headed but as a first issue it's lacking that certain something that made the four series listed above seem fresh and exciting. i'll likely keep reading but it feels a bit too familiar at the moment.

Daredevil - the fact that DD is my favorite Marvel character paired with the extensive praise, boatload of eisner noms and amount of year-end lists this topped i suppose a slight disappointment was inevitable. it looks fantastic whenever rivera or martin are on art duties and while a upbeat take on the character is long overdue waid's writing, especially early on, feels a bit generic. it seemed to stumble a bit with the blind kids in the snow story (which somehow got an eisner nom for best issue) and the spidey crossover but since then it's been slowly working its way back (i'm enjoying the omega drive plotline) and i'm seeing a lot of potential for the future.

The Punisher - i was pretty dubious coming into this book as i've never been a huge fan of the character and what i read of Ennis's defining run on the book left me lukewarm at best. Rucka's runs on Gotham Central and Batwoman are ultimately what kept me from ignoring sevenarts rec. and good thing i didn't, because this is a fantastic book. i think a lot is gained from the fact that Punisher is never the narrator and except for rare exceptions is always viewed from an outside perspective. Cole is a fantastic character that Rucka is only beginning to tap the potential of and the detectives and reporter that serve to ground the series are so well written. does anyone in comics write police better than Rucka?

Wolverine and the X-Men - this is the first X-book i've read any significant amount of since Whedon left Astonishing. the school is such a rich setting and there are echoes of Morrison's New X-Men throughout. Aaron really seems to have a handle on these characters and this is just a really fun book. i just hope the AvX tie-ins don't derail it. can i just say how cool having Doop serve as receptionist is? it's little touches like this that make this book feel like something special.

next up: a brief detour with Rachel Rising and then an attempt at tackling Uncanny X-Force and Hickman's FF, perhaps after that catching up on Brubaker's cap is in order. i've been neglecting him since Reborn.

[megladon8]

I just added "Eerie Comics" to my pull list. Issue #1 is out in July and written by David Lapham.

Looking forward to that.

[sevenarts]

So glad you caught up on all those, floyd. I agree that the Daredevil blind kids issue was a pretty lame misstep, but I've seen so many people cite it as the best of the series, so I guess the Eisner isn't surprising. Mostly I just love the spirited tone and gorgeous art, it's a very fun and unselfconscious superhero book.

And yes, what makes Rucka's Punisher great is that the title character is pretty much shunted to the side, especially early on, in favor of the cops, crime victims, and reporters whose stories intersect with Castle's violent life. And I love Cole, I really hope that the fallout of the Daredevil crossover doesn't push her out of the book, she's really a perfect foil for Frank and a great character.

Everytime I see Doop in WATXM I just grin like a loon. It doesn't take much.

[Sven]

Finally slogged through the rest of JMS's Thor. Horrendous storytelling. All the characters speak the same, so there's basically no defined characters. Plot beats are contradictory, employed for convenience. The little narrative tension it builds is deflated almost immediately. Choppy. Nice groundwork lain for Gillen and Fraction to weave wonders, though. I was considering reading Siege, but now I don't know...

[ledfloyd]

update:

Rachel Rising - it's still early and Moore is being pretty deliberate in letting us know exacty what's going on but it's a fun ride. i'm not sure i see myself growing to love his take on horror as much as i did his take on sci-fi (Echo) but the art is gorgeous and the guy has a knack for getting me to develop crushes on comic book characters. definitely one of the best things going.

Uncanny X-Force - mixed feelings on this one. the way the first issue grabbed me i was sure this was going to be one of my favorite current Marvel series. i love Fantomex and Deadpool (and have really grown to love Psylocke) and Remender is quite adept at character work. unfortunately his plotting is really repetitive. in the first arc they ward off the apocalypse. in the second arc they fight evil cyborg Marvel heroes to... stop the apocalypse. in the third arc they go to AoA where there are evil versions of Marvel heroes and attempt to stop Archangel from bringing on the apocalypse. next arc? let's go to Otherworld and help them prevent an apocalypse. that said, the last two issues seem to have lowered the global stakes and emphasized personal ones (particularly in Psylocke and Fantomex.) it's probably lucky i read this one when i did because if i had caught up at issue 23 i'm not sure i would've had much motivation to continue.

and what is with these .1 issues? Uncanny X-Force 19.1 didn't have a whole lot to do with the series and i remember Daredevil 10.1 being a dud as well.

[ledfloyd]

just finished Fantastic Four #588. i went into this expecting a title-defining run that would stand alongside Morrison's X-Men, Bendis's Daredevil, Milligan's X-Statix and Brubaker's Captain America as one of the best Marvel epics of the last 20 years (am i forgetting anyone?). even with those absurd expectations, it doesn't look like Hickman has any intention of disappointing me.

[slqrick]

Batman Inc was pretty good. Looks like they're tying it into the overall new universe, too.

[D_Davis]

i just read prophet and it's right up there with saga and fatale. the art is unbelievable and the style lends it a really unique feel, being mostly silent with captions. it's incredibly different than king city yet very much a product of the same sensibility.

Yes! So freaking good. Prophet rules.

[Sven]

Looks like they're tying it into the overall new universe, too.

Trying to, anyway. The issue implies that Dick Grayson was Batman at one point, and that Bruce has done the died/resurrected bit. Both of these tidbits, not to mention all development of Talia Al Ghul and her significance as Leviathan as well as Damien's mother, are exclusive to pre-reboot continuity.

But whatevs. Good issue. Those "Pok!"s gave me chills.

Also, it must be said: this last issue of Fantastic Four was the nadir of Hickman's run. In that not only is it the weakest issue by far, but it is a legitimately awful comic in its own right. Goes to show that one's works need not always validate one's genius.

[number8]

Trying to, anyway. The issue implies that Dick Grayson was Batman at one point, and that Bruce has done the died/resurrected bit. Both of these tidbits, not to mention all development of Talia Al Ghul and her significance as Leviathan as well as Damien's mother, are exclusive to pre-reboot continuity.

There's more. There's also Batwing's supposed fake death (which is not at all happening in his own title) and the reference to Element Man from Outsiders surviving an explosion from Morrison's JLA run (which is impossible since Johns established in JL that there's never been any other League members other than the seven).

They should've kept the book put of continuity instead of awkwardly shoehorning it in.

[sevenarts]

Batman is kinda where the New 52 falls apart, continuity-wise, because they decided to pretty much keep him the same and keep most of his history intact even though the timeframe is drastically compressed - like, how does he have all these former Robins running around when he's been a hero for under a decade in the New 52? I hope Morrison pretty much ignores any attempt to fit the story into the New 52 universe and just tells his story, otherwise it's going to get headache-inducing.

I didn't think the latest Fantastic Four was THAT bad. Not a great issue by any means, especially in comparison to some of the downright amazing one-offs Hickman's been doing lately, but it wasn't awful. Just a little boring and predictable. I had to look up who Lumpkin was, though.

[number8]

That's the thing. I've got no problem if Morrison just ignores the New 52, like the way Leviathan Strikes did. But he didn't, with the reference to Damian killing Nobody.

[Sven]

I didn't think the latest Fantastic Four was THAT bad. Not a great issue by any means, especially in comparison to some of the downright amazing one-offs Hickman's been doing lately, but it wasn't awful. Just a little boring and predictable. I had to look up who Lumpkin was, though.

It was real bad. Lesson learned: the Fantastic Four gets to pick and choose who lives and dies. Apparently there are too few lovable mustachioed uncle-types to lose.

Plus, you can tell from the beginning that they're inside a person. So what's with the big scary monsters? Why do they not care about crashing their plane into the walls of Willie's insides? Why do they refer to it as a "planet"? Garney's artwork is stripped of wonder/tension, the dramatic presentation of the reveal is embarrassing, and there is no memorable dialogue to speak of. It stops and ends at its concept, which is stultifyingly obvious and narrow-minded.

[Sven]

and the reference to Element Man from Outsiders surviving an explosion from Morrison's JLA run

I believe that is actually from Batman Incorporated. Remember towards the end how Batman sends the Outsiders to space (issue 6, I wanna say)? In Leviathan Strikes, there's a page or two that show the Outsiders on a satellite where Lord Death Man, now in space as the result of issue 2, laughs maniacally and blows the place to bits.

I'm not doing anything productive this morning, so I think I'll go check my facts on this one.

[Grouchy]

Metamorpho is such a great character.

[Sven]

Issue 6, Batman recruits the Outsiders. But in Leviathan Strikes, it is mentioned that he sends them to the Leviathan "Orbital HQ." Here are the (mindblowing) pages:

[number8]

Sven, I know, but he also said they survived the space station explosion using "a move he perfected in his Justice League days." That's what I was referring to. In the New 52, he was never in the League.

[number8]

It was during Morrison's White Martian story, if you're curious. The White Martian Hyperclan blew up the JLA's watchtower satellite and Metamorpho saved the others.

[megladon8]

Is next week one of those weird weeks that occur once in a while, where the weeks add up in a different way so practically nothing comes out?

Usually I have 7-10 titles every week to pick up, but next week I only have 2 - Batman Annual, and Incredible Hulk #8.

[Sven]

Sven, I know, but he also said they survived the space station explosion using "a move he perfected in his Justice League days." That's what I was referring to. In the New 52, he was never in the League.

Duh. I don't know how I missed that that's what you were saying. Still, those are some nice pages, eh?

[Sven]

Five Wednesdays, meg. Five Wednesdays.

[number8]

Prophet 25 was ill, yo. I was wondering how all this is related to the original Prophet.

Saga 3 was very BKV.