Western comics

I've been trying to get back into comics recently but i probably choose the wrong time to do it with my son being very, very close to being here.

Stuff I want to look into is IDW's Transformers output (being ReGeneration 1, More then Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise) Own a few of their graphic novel editions already and I was impressed with Simon Furmans run on things with his -ion series.

Also Green Lantern, read most of what my brother's been getting, apart from the New Guardians stuff. Miss Hal Jordan being the main character though...

Only Marvel stuff I've been looking at is past collections like the collected Age of Apocalypse or Maximum Carnage
 
I've always enjoyed comics, Battle and Victor, then 2000AD which I've read since issue #1 and collected associated GNs of the better series, plus other GNs by artists/writers I like. And in the past 5 or so years, I've gotten back into western comics big time - Alan Moore and Warren Ellis have been my staples, plus asosrted others. I do have the annoying habit of collecting the singles week by week, then getting the trade :roll: (so I really must get round to flogging off my redundant singles...)

Fave recent series: Joe the Barbarian, Chew, Meta4, Mind the Gap. Also a big Tank Girl fan :D

Never got into the whole Marvel/DC superhero/spandex thing though - I've tried a few times with different series and writers, but they just leave me very, very bored.
 
Back in June, I got my iPad and recently began looking into comics via the digital store (comic book stores intimidate me, okay?). Just in time to catch Avengers vs X-Men. I had a few issues of Civil War on my PSP...might rebuy that for my iPad at some point and actually finish it. I've also dibbed and dabbed into various other series' to try and get a taste for them (particularly with the Marvel NOW!). I think Iron Man in black and gold armour does look really cool, but I sure as hell hate the way Greg Land draws faces - really ruins it for me.

I saw a Dr. Strange figure in my local Forbidden Planet today that I was so tempted to pick up. Wish I had...but it was £10 and the figure was pretty tiny.

In terms of DC, I've read some of Batman following the New 52 thing and I really am enjoying it - only 9 issues in though.

ilmaestro said:
But more seriously, why aren't you buying these in individual issues? Just don't rate them enough? I lost a fair bit of my interest in AvX (not that it ever seemed like anything other than a silly/cheap idea, I would rather them just stick to the X-Men for stuff that is "supposed" to be about Hope and the Phoenix Force) when I saw a preview panel with Iron Man beating Magneto. I don't know or care how they've explained that but... no.
In AvX #1 it was explained that Iron Man defeated Magneto by linking to numerous satellites and siphoning energy from Jupiter's magnetic field to gain a better control of magnetism than Magneto. However, that only lasted for about 2 pages, so it was pretty much a desperate last minute rush thing. In AvX Consequences #1, when he and Captain Marvel were hunting for Magneto, he did say "Yes I'm twitchy. I beat Magneto once. That doesn't mean you beat him every time".

Yeah, it was absolutely absurd (I guess an overdose of "Suspension of Belief" is needed for comics? xD). At least he did later reiterate that it was pretty much dumb luck. It was a total ass pull though.
 
So, back on Boxing Day I bought a bunch of single issues from the big 2 with plans on getting back into superhero comics. I picked up series'/characters I thought I might like, would read them and then decide what I liked and actually start a subsription to it. I've just finished reading the last two and these are my thoughts:

Aquaman #15: I had stopped reading comics around the time Geoff Johns was hitting it big and was thought of as the greatest thing since sliced bread, so I'd never got to read any of his stuff to see if he really was any good (though I have since watched Smallville episodes that he wrote, which were all quite good to be fair). I liked his work here, even though I was jumping into a big story I thought it was easy to pick up what was going on and get a sense of who everyone was, the story was quite exciting too. The art is also great, quite detailed but still easy on the eye. Out of everything I read this was probably my favourite.

Avengers #2: The writing tends to jump around a bit from flashback to present and there and back again, but the story itself was interesting with a cool concept and some funny moments. The art isd good, but the colouring seems overly dark to me at times and could be quite off putting.

Batgirl #13: The art was excellent in this, everything looked so sleek and there was some nice panel layouts, can't have any complaints about the writing either (bar one use of the phrase "for the lulz", could you honestly not have used "for kicks" or something?). Yeah, otherwise strong in the writing department too. The most recent issue is #15 but this was all they had in Forbidden Planet that day, I've popped in since to pick up 14 and 15 when I've been past it, and while they now have 15 in they don't have 14 yet.

Batwoman#15: Dreadful really. Not keen on either the writing or the art, but I think the writing was the worst offender of the two. An overabundance of captions that were there to try and pad out what seemed a flimsy filler issue that really gives no sense of the situation or characters.

Daredevil #21: The art didn't really do much for me and I think something a bit more stylised might've been better, at least in terms of layouts. The writing is reasonable enough and while the specific plot that finished up in this issue wasn't overhwelming there seems to be a better and larger plot at hand that fuelled this story and will continue beyond it.

Green Arrow #15: It felt like quite a low end story, you know it's not important and none of the characters introduced for it are particularly memorable. The art was kinda up and down at times, it looked decent at points but quite silly at others.

Green Lantern #15: Johns here again and again some very interesting stuff going on, I found it a little more difficult this time though with it being a new Green Lantern, but I think that kind of reflected that the creative team, the character himself and the readers are all just getting to know him. Impeccable art one this one too.

Hawkeye #6: Upon the first couple pages I was hating this, I thought the art was woeful and the writing hit and miss. But as things go on it felt like the art kind of fitted the type of story they were telling (though the layouts were a bit frustrating/confusing on a couple of ocassions), the writing was funny but featured some odd grammatical/sentence structuring/shortening and replacement words. Again though, it sort of fitted it at times. Just a weird vibe from the whole thing.

Justice League #15: This is actually the start of the story that's in Aquaman #15...but I didn't know that until after I'd read Aquaman. However, as I mentioned earlier I thought the plot was laid out well enough in Aquaman and this just allowed to see for myself how it started (and it is still well written in this issue too...Yes, it's Johns...AGAIN!). Of course there's another fine art team surrounding Johns on this series too and I really can't fault anything about it too much. The Shazam mini-chapter in this issue too was great, a lot of fun.

Nightwing #15: A big arc involving the return of the Joker (Batgirl #13 was actually a prologue to this arc), so it's an intriguing start of a story to say the least. The art is good, with a really cool sort of flip cover thing to it, although I have to say that there was one particular panel of Nightwing, when he's told someone he knows has just been killed, and the face he's making is hilarious. It's less tragic shock and more "Duhhh, what?".

Scarlet Spider #12.1: I have no idea what the .1 is all about. I only picked this up because I always really loved the Scarlet Spider character design that I first remember seeing back in the 90s Spider-man The Animated Series. This didn't have that costume though (or Ben Reilly, whom I thought it was going to feature as Scarlet Spider), but that didn't take away from it at all. I got a really good sense of Kain's backstory and character and thought overall it was quite a decent comic.

Amazing Spider-Man #700: A big end of an era issue as a new series is starting in its place (Superior Spider-Man). It felt suitably big in terms of what was at stake. I'll admit the plot seemed a bit of an odd one, but it was there more to set up the new series rather than act as a proper end to this one I felt, there were a couple of really nice moments though. I'll be checking out Superior Spider-Man to see how that's going to go.

Superman #14: I couldn't take the villain seriously at all for some reason. For one thing his mouth is closed in such a way that it looks like he's sucking on a lemon, his dialogue isn't the best either and for some reason I hear him saying it all kind of like the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Other than that it was an all right issue and I probably will read more to get to bigger and better things.

Wonder Woman #15: Didn't care for the writing here, characters seemed to have either accents or spoke nonsense repitition without punctuation, you only ever seemed to get bits and pieces of full sentences, but not in the same quirky way that Hawkeye did it. My only prior experience to Brian Azzarello was 100 Bullets, of which I read the first 3 trades and only liked maybe 5 issues of, and this hasn't really changed my opinion on him much. I'm pretty sure I remember not caring too much for his style of dialogue at times in that series either.

All New X-Men #4: I was kind of at a loss over which X-Men title to pick up, dear God there's so many! I opted for this one and while it seems there's an interesting concept going on it's in amongst a raft of other things and seems like it's being needlessly complicated. I don't think Bendis' choice to fill as many words as possible into a page at times helps and is kind of indicitive of what's happening with the plot.

Out of all that I think I'm going to stick with Aquaman, Batgirl, maybe Daredevil, maybe Hawkeye (though I really need to see if the next issue is a bit more consistent), Green Lantern, Justice League, Scarlet Spider, Superior Spider-Man, maybe Superman and an X-Men title (still not sure if it should be "All New..." but will most likely be). And I'll be getting Batman, I didn't bother picking that up to try because it was a case of 'it's Batman'.

This has been an interesting experience for me because I'd always considered myself more of a Marvel fan, but I wasn't drawn to a lot of the series and there were quite a few of the big characters that I didn't even pick up to try, even if I liked the series before (eg. Thor).
 
Just finished reading my first batch of subscriptions which included issues of Batman, Batgirl, Knightwing, Avengers, Aquaman, Justice League, Green Lantern, Superior Spider-man and Scarlet Spider. The Bat stuff and JL/Aquaman were probably the best, both were finishing off big story arcs and so felt very important. Batman's "Death of the Family" was particularly good for how scary The Joker came across, I actually winced when he first revealed that he'd stripped the faces of the Bat family and was serving it to them...only for him to reveal it was a fake and all a big joke. Superior Spider-man is actually very good as a comedy, it's just very funny watching Peter Parker's ghost/subconscious shout at Doc Oc for all the things he's doing and the Doc's approach to things can be quite funny too.

I've also finished re-reading all of Fables/Jack of Fables that I had as try to catch back up on them. I remember thinking when I initially read them that they were good but I thought Y: The Last Man was better, I wouldn't say that now. Fables is much more consistently fantastic, it's amazing how well the quality remains throughout it. Read the first volume in my catch up attempt (Volume 13: The Great Fables Crossover) and am looking forward to continuing on to getting the rest and getting myself back up to date with this wonderful series.
 
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I have to say, I'm really enjoying Jonathan Hickman's New Avengers (2013). Although I wish Steve Epting would stop drawing faces like this:
sexy___squidward_by_dantesgrill-d4pnd9e.png


Not as bad as Greg Land mind you (I dropped Iron Man because his art is awful as hell).
 
Joshawott said:
I have to say, I'm really enjoying Jonathan Hickman's New Avengers (2013). Although I wish Steve Epting would stop drawing faces like this:
sexy___squidward_by_dantesgrill-d4pnd9e.png


Not as bad as Greg Land mind you (I dropped Iron Man because his art is awful as hell).

Man I'd read a comic with artwork like that!

reminds me of this for some reason:

 
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Just finished Jack Of Fables. For the most part it manages to be as consistently good as the main series (though not to quite the same level), it was always funny which was the main aim. After the crossover though, it dropped off quite a bit. The main story had been wrapped up and we were then thrown into a Jack of Fables with very little Jack. The adventures of Jack Frost simply weren't as entertaining or funny, although one line that stuck with me "You, sir, are a dick". The last volume managed to liven things up again, particularly with the re-appearance of Wicked John, whose insane mutterings were brilliant, and everything was finished up nicely.

It was a great companion series to Fables, but it probably should've ended a bit earlier than it did.
 
I finished Marvel Universe vs The Avengers. It maintains the grim, bleak atmosphere from the preceding titles (MU v. Punisher and MU v. Wolverine), and like tthose two it is thoroughly absorbing. Also, as a Punisher fan I am delighted that a writer has realised that he is a darker soul than any of the X-Men or Avengers, and that, unlike them, he might just be in his element amidst all the carnage and bloodshed.
 
Yakumo said:
I finished Marvel Universe vs The Avengers. It maintains the grim, bleak atmosphere from the preceding titles (MU v. Punisher and MU v. Wolverine), and like tthose two it is thoroughly absorbing. Also, as a Punisher fan I am delighted that a writer has realised that he is a darker soul than any of the X-Men or Avengers, and that, unlike them, he might just be in his element amidst all the carnage and bloodshed.

Have you read any of Garth Ennis' Punisher MAX? I got the first volume years ago and it's absolutely fantastic; dark, bloody, tragic and funny, and it apparently only got better as it went on.
 
I have all the issues of Garth Ennis's Punisher run, from his Marvel Knights days to the legendary Marvel Max run. More than anyone, this man truly understood Frank Castle. Of the other modern writers, only Greg Rucka and Jonathan Mabery come close. The other writers treated him like they were upset at not being able to write for the X-Men or Wolverine.
 
Have now completely caught up with the trades of Fables (and Fairest, which is looking a reasonable replacement for Jack).

Cubs In Toyland has to be one of the darkest things I've read. Even the little rhyming prophecy that kicks it all off is that classic dark fairytale style.

Up next I've got the first 6 volumes of the Peter David: Hulk visionaries. Should be good, as I used to have the 1st volume years ago and enjoyed it, before I decided to sell most of my comics.
 
Yakumo said:
I have all the issues of Garth Ennis's Punisher run, from his Marvel Knights days to the legendary Marvel Max run. More than anyone, this man truly understood Frank Castle. Of the other modern writers, only Greg Rucka and Jonathan Mabery come close. The other writers treated him like they were upset at not being able to write for the X-Men or Wolverine.

I think at this point it's prudent to remind ourselves of the sheer stupidity of a particular Punisher arc -

Frankencastle.png

If we don't keep the memory of this alive then someone, somewhere will decide to revisit it.
 
And yet that's not the first truly bizarre plot point in the life of Frank. Go back to the early 90's (or late 80's, I'm not too sure...) and you'll find this:




Together with some complications he wouldn't have otherwise experienced:
 
I've just finished my 6 volumes of Peter David's run on The Hulk. I quite enjoyed it, David is certainly a very good writer and I'd highlight Issue#377 "Honey, I Shrunk The Hulk" as being an absolutely outstanding piece of his work, though, I did feel the "Mr. Fixit" stuff maybe went on a little too long. I actually wasn't that keen on Todd Macfarlane as the artist early on. I much preferred Dale Keown's pencils later in the run, and having had a quick flick through when I was in Forbidden Planet the other week, I'd say that John Byrne's art during his "visionaries" run was even more to my preference. There's another 2 volumes to David's run, but I don't have them just now, I might pick them up at a later date, but I recently bought a crap load of X-men trades which I should probably start working my way through.
 
Been getting through a lot of stuff recently.

So a while back I bought a job lot off eBay which contained Exiles Vol.1 and New Exiles Vol.1-4. I read Exiles first, and really enjoyed it, though something was amiss. I felt I was missing out on something that had happened before this. Surely I was right in assuming Exiles came before New Exiles? Apparently not. Turns out I had volume 1 of Exiles (Vol.2) as the original series was Exiles (Vol.1) which was followed by New Exiles and then Exiles (Vol.2). God, why do comics have to be so confusing? Anyway, read New Exiles next and really didn't care for it at all. How was Chris Claremont ever a good writer? Seriously, the man is totally out of touch (or at least with this), it felt like his style was still stuck in the 70s/80s. But even then things just seemed to jump around a lot, and there was ridiculous dialogue, and far, far too much dialogue overall. I was totally baffled at the logic that in an alternate universe Sue Storm hooking up with a black Namor somehow spawns Gambit...Who's still Cajun?!?! Sense...making...none....of.

Have at last got round to reading Vol.1 of American Vampire to see what all the hype is about. I'm reading Snyder's Batman currently and enjoying it so thought this should be of equal quality too, and I must say that it is. Dialogue is a little iffy for me at times, but yeah, a good story and enjoyable to read. Didn't actually realise back when I bought it that Stephen King co-wrote it (despite, you know, his name being on the cover).

Yesterday blasted through Saga Vol.2. Despite not being overly keen on Vol.1 I thought this was better, not quite as "immature" feeling. I guess I still need to go back and re-read Y to see if I ever did like Brian K. Vaughan as much as I think I did.
 
Having been playing Arkham City recently, I decided to finally pick up The Killing Joke through comixology. It was good and all, but I think the funniest part was when I realised I'd paid £8.99 for 50 pages...
 
I can highly recommend THE BOYS great set of comics about the twisted side of superheroes and how they are policed by a grpup of humans (one of which looks like simon pegg, they actually used his likeness without his permission)
 
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