Any One Want To Talk About Comicbooks?

[Plane Sailing]

It's only a matter of time before the mods slide this over to Fantasy & Sci-Fi Books, Movies & TV...

Well, what do you know?

Whoosh!

 

[MadMaxim]

Well, considering that we're about half a year behind the US releases (they're getting translated into Danish), I admit that I've always been hooked on both Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk, Daredevil and Fantastic Four. There's just something about superheroes, and it really makes me want to run a Mutants & Masterminds campaign!

 

[thatdarncat]

my pull list is massive fortunately it's split between myself and a few friends, so it's manageable. I'm reading mostly DC - the majority of the mainstream books and the team books. Infinite crisis looks like it's going to be fun

Fables has never done me wrong, nor has Planetary (schedule aside). Marvel... I read Squadron Supreme and a few other books (astonishing xmen)

 

[Felon]

Comics have been the best they've ever been for most of this decade, and the latter part of the nineties. Writers like Geof Johns, Mark Waid, and Kurt Buissek have done a great job at figuring what elements makes a classic character appealing and bringing it to the forefront. We saw guys like Hawkman and Green Arrow brought back better than ever, and the JLA and Avengers were both reborn to be exactly what fans expect them to be: the dream team of superheroes.

Having said that, 2005 is shaping up to be a pretty big disappointment.

I picked up Countdown to Infinite Crisis this weekend (80 pages for only a buck), and really hated it. If you haven't read it, I don't intend to spoil anything, but it does hearken back to the popular trend of the early nineties wherein the creative teams attempt to revitalize interest in a classic character by mangling it, corrupting it, raping it, having it turn evil, and maybe killing it when they're done so that they bring in some hip little snot-nosed kid in its place to say "hey, I ain't your daddy's hero".

Recently, we got to see Sue Dibny (Elongated Man's wife) raped and murdered in the pages of Identity Crisis, and we got to find out that the Justice League were a bunch of machiavellan brainwashers. Over in Marvel, we are being treated to the godawful "Avengers Disassembled" storyline. Issue #500 had Avengers showing up on the doorsteps of Avengers' mansion, blowing it up, and killing themselves and taking other characters with them.

I don't know what these guys are thinking. Didn't they learn from the mistakes of a decade ago? Haven't they figured out by now that trying to increase readership by trashing your characters doesn't work? It doesn't bring in lots of new readers (it's not like the Avengers have never had a dramatic breakup before) rather it just pisses a lot of fans off. Most see it for what it is: a cheap trick that is a cop-out for just writing good, solid stories.

 

[Villano]

I only collect a few comics anymore. Currently, it's:

Green Arrow
Catwoman
JSA
Incredible Hulk
Conan
She-Hulk
Essential Tomb of Dracula

Occasionally, I might pick up the odd Essentials TPB (Punisher and Monster of Frankenstein are the most recent).

I considered picking up the new Legion Of Superheroes series, but changed my mind when I heard that they rebooted it. How many times has it been? Original, adult, clones, post-Zero Hour, and now again. Did I miss any? Why bother investing in a title if it's just going to be wiped clean in a couple of years?

Speaking of reboots, I wanted to pick up Doom Patrol until I heard they did it here, too. I shouldn't be surprised at that considering John Byrne is doing it (has he ever met continuity he liked?).

 

[Felon]

I only collect a few comics anymore. Currently, it's:
Essential Tomb of Dracula

Pretty damn good series revisited there! Wonder what Marv Wolfman's up to these days?

I considered picking up the new Legion Of Superheroes series, but changed my mind when I heard that they rebooted it. How many times has it been? Original, adult, clones, post-Zero Hour, and now again. Did I miss any? Why bother investing in a title if it's just going to be wiped clean in a couple of years?

Yes, that series has been lost for a while. Funny thing is, Keith Giffen was one of the guys who brought it to its height of popularity, and he singlehandedly ruined it. The series never recovered from what he did to it back in, what was it, 1988?

Speaking of reboots, I wanted to pick up Doom Patrol until I heard they did it here, too. I shouldn't be surprised at that considering John Byrne is doing it (has he ever met continuity he liked?).

Lets see, how far back does Byrne's inability to work within an established continuity go? He did that Generations series for DC, and The Lost Generation for Marvel, and X-Men: The Lost Years before that, and there have been a few one-shots like Captain American & Batman. His ego is really over the rainbow now isn't it? It's a real pity. His work on Fantastic Four and X-Men is what got me into comics. Then I attended a panel at DragonCon where he was a speaker, and I couldn't believe what a total a-hole he was.

 

[Chaldfont]

I recently got back into comics, but in a very cheap way. My local library has an awesome collection of graphic novels. Its hit or miss, but when it's free how can I complain? Here are some greats that I have read recently:

Top Ten
The Goon
Hellboy
The Red Star
Ultimate Spiderman
Barry Ween Boy Genius
Concrete
The Sandman (actually, I had read most of them previously, but I was able to fill in some gaps)
The Watchmen
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

After seeing Sin City, I'll need to put some holds on those too.

 

[Villano]

Lets see, how far back does Byrne's inability to work within an established continuity go? He did that Generations series for DC, and The Lost Generation for Marvel, and X-Men: The Lost Years before that, and there have been a few one-shots like Captain American & Batman. His ego is really over the rainbow now isn't it? It's a real pity. His work on Fantastic Four and X-Men is what got me into comics. Then I attended a panel at DragonCon where he was a speaker, and I couldn't believe what a total a-hole he was.

You forgot about the magical, time traveling Paradise Island and World War 2 Wonder Woman. And didn't he tweak Spider-Man's origin?

And, yeah, I've heard about Byrne. It's seems like other comic pros don't hesitate to slam him (one told me that he brings a "throne" to Cons so that he can "look down on his fans"). Another made a comment about how there's a reason why Byrne has so much unpublished work, he burns every bridge he crosses. He has the entire first issue finished (written, drawn, inked, and colored) of a horror-comedy series called (working title) You Go, Ghoul!, yet no one wants to publish it.

Of course, what can you say about a guy who says he doesn't want Jessica Alba as Sue Storm because, "Hispanic and Latino women with blonde hair look like hookers to me, no matter how 'clean' or 'cute' they are."?

 

[DarkOra]

Wonder what Marv Wolfman's up to these days?

His novel, Crisis on Infinite Earths, should be hitting the stores on the 19th. He's also working on a Simpson's Treehouse of Horror story with Gene Colan, and he has some other project that he can't talk about yet.

 

[Klaus]

Re: Identity Crisis and Zatanna brainwashing Dr. Light.

It makes no sense to create such a ruckus about that, since the JLA mindwiped the ENTIRE white martian race a few years back, the Guardians of Oa put mind blocks against fire on ALL martians, and even in the animated DCU there have been several episodes of villains being incarcerated in virtual reality/illusions.

The other mind-wipe would be completely void then.

And I just realizard that Judd Winnick is a bad writer. In the most recent issue of Batman, he revealed who is the new Red Hood. He said he has no interest in explaining how that person became the Red Hood, just how Batman will react. If someone else wants to explain, he's all for it.

I mean, c'mon! He's paid for this!!!