What Geek Media Do You Refuse To Partake In?

[GrimCo]

Adding to already long list of things i won't partake in.

Superhero comics, mainly DC/Marvel. Punisher and Nick Fury i like, specially in more self contained stories, like The Punisher: Born and Furry: My war gone by ( and Punisher/Fury MAX). Part of it is, besides short Marvel run, they weren't that big here when i was growing up. I grew up on italian (Bonelli comics mostly) and french-belgium comics (like Lucky Luke, Asterix & Obelix, Prince Valliant etc). By extension, Supers TTRPG, won't play, won't run, period. I did run couple of times short street level heroes games, it was ok.

 

[Reynard]

Adding to already long list of things i won't partake in.

Superhero comics, mainly DC/Marvel. Punisher and Nick Fury i like, specially in more self contained stories, like The Punisher: Born and Furry: My war gone by ( and Punisher/Fury MAX). Part of it is, besides short Marvel run, they weren't that big here when i was growing up. I grew up on italian (Bonelli comics mostly) and french-belgium comics (like Lucky Luke, Asterix & Obelix, Prince Valliant etc). By extension, Supers TTRPG, won't play, won't run, period. I did run couple of times short street level heroes games, it was ok.

Do you just not like superhero comics, or is there something specific about Marvel and DC books?

 

[payn]

Adding to already long list of things i won't partake in.

Superhero comics, mainly DC/Marvel. Punisher and Nick Fury i like, specially in more self contained stories, like The Punisher: Born and Furry: My war gone by ( and Punisher/Fury MAX). Part of it is, besides short Marvel run, they weren't that big here when i was growing up. I grew up on italian (Bonelli comics mostly) and french-belgium comics (like Lucky Luke, Asterix & Obelix, Prince Valliant etc). By extension, Supers TTRPG, won't play, won't run, period. I did run couple of times short street level heroes games, it was ok.

I read a lot of Ghost Rider and Punisher in the late 80's early 90's. When I went to the books and games stores locally, I only had so much to spend. I could get the latest x-men and/or Spider man or I could get the bargain packs that had like 6-12 copies of older lesser known sellers. More bang for my buck.

 

[GrimCo]

Do you just not like superhero comics, or is there something specific about Marvel and DC books?

Generally, not particularly interested in them. Big problem is small page count, long story arcs spanning multiple, sometimes dozens of issues, crossovers and most importantly, universe resets, reboots, alternate timelines etc. Also, no one ever stays dead.

To contrast it with Bonelli's comics, which are also monthly issues. Every issue is usually 96 page self contained story. Stories spanning 2 issues are exception, 3 issue ones are rare. My favorite is Nathan Never (hard sf/cyberpunk) which also has more continuity similar to Marvel/DC, but characters that die, stay dead, characters change, they age ( Nathan ages, his daughter starts as kid and grows up over few hundred issues), also, there are no resets, big events happen and changes are permanent in continuity of story. And even with all that, most issues are self contained stories.

Other one, and this one i would suggest highly, if you speak Italian, is Lazarus Ledd. Unlike American superheroes who are trapped in a sliding timeline where they never truly age, Lazarus exists in a persistent world where time moves forward and actions have permanent consequences. This comic follows the life of Lazarus Ledd ( real name Ronald Gordon), a former clandestine special forces unit member, who matures and evolves over time, shifting from a haunted undercover operative to a seasoned journalist while carrying the visible scars and psychological weight of his past. There is no status-quo, every death is final and every trauma shapes the hero’s future. But biggest difference is, there is end. Finale, with conclusion and narrative closure. No reset, no reboot, finished, done. 151 issues (plus some specials) and that's it.

 

[overgeeked]

Generally, not particularly interested in them. Big problem is small page count, long story arcs spanning multiple, sometimes dozens of issues, crossovers and most importantly, universe resets, reboots, alternate timelines etc. Also, no one ever stays dead.

To contrast it with Bonelli's comics, which are also monthly issues. Every issue is usually 96 page self contained story. Stories spanning 2 issues are exception, 3 issue ones are rare. My favorite is Nathan Never (hard sf/cyberpunk) which also has more continuity similar to Marvel/DC, but characters that die, stay dead, characters change, they age ( Nathan ages, his daughter starts as kid and grows up over few hundred issues), also, there are no resets, big events happen and changes are permanent in continuity of story. And even with all that, most issues are self contained stories.

Other one, and this one i would suggest highly, if you speak Italian, is Lazarus Ledd. Unlike American superheroes who are trapped in a sliding timeline where they never truly age, Lazarus exists in a persistent world where time moves forward and actions have permanent consequences. This comic follows the life of Lazarus Ledd ( real name Ronald Gordon), a former clandestine special forces unit member, who matures and evolves over time, shifting from a haunted undercover operative to a seasoned journalist while carrying the visible scars and psychological weight of his past. There is no status-quo, every death is final and every trauma shapes the hero’s future. But biggest difference is, there is end. Finale, with conclusion and narrative closure. No reset, no reboot, finished, done. 151 issues (plus some specials) and that's it.

Yeah. The DC/Marvel stuff was so much better before they started reseting the universe ever few years, before the summer blockbuster crossover events, and constantly resetting the numbering to pump out yet another Special Collector’s Issue #1 every few years.

 

[jian]

Yeah. The DC/Marvel stuff was so much better before they started reseting the universe ever few years, before the summer blockbuster crossover events, and constantly resetting the numbering to pump out yet another Special Collector’s Issue #1 every few years.

One superhero comics universe I’m sporadically enjoying at the moment is the Massive-verse (Radiant Black, Rogue Sun etc) which does skew a little pessimistic/Marvel but does quite a good job of setting up and following different superheroes who have very different adventures and issues and overlap rarely.

One genre convention they mostly share, which I quite like, is that all superhero identities automatically come with a henshin transformation and full-face mask and full-body costume, because it’s just sensible.