[Comics] What Comics are you Currently Reading Thread
- Thread starter Covar
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I feel like I'm slowly getting farther away from reading single issues as I gravitate towards trades; I picked up Scarlet and Superior yesterday. Haven't had a chance to read them completely, but I'm really liking what I've read so far!
Is Scarlet all about a female protagonist? I'm in. Must research.
I haven't read it, myself, but it's got a great team (Bendis and Maleev). If you want suggestions for other female-starring comics?
Queen & Country, Stumptown, Whiteout, Fatale, Lazarus, Kabuki, Batwoman. To name a few.
Ooh thank you!I haven't read it, myself, but it's got a great team (Bendis and Maleev). If you want suggestions for other female-starring comics?
Queen & Country, Stumptown, Whiteout, Fatale, Lazarus, Kabuki, Batwoman. To name a few.
I more than likely will never get to any of the DC and Marvel comics as I prefer stories with a clear beginning and end. Do the ones you mentioned come with this prerequisite? And do they come in trade?I've got trades of all of them but Fatale (still too new; only a few issues so far) on my bookshelf. And Batwoman's actually relatively self-contained, away from all the Bat-events and crap. Just be sure to stop reading it when writer JH Williams isn't on the book anymore. He left after DC nixed the character getting married. A gay marriage, I might add. But DC wants all their heroes to be swinging bachelors for whatever stupid reason.Ooh thank you!
...
Yeah, maybe just stick with the non-DC and Marvel stuff.
Oh, actually, ONE DC recommendation and it's only two books long. Ed Brubaker's run on Catwoman. Out in two volumes: Trial of the Catwoman and No Easy Way Down. It's some seriously great, self-contained noir superhero stuff.
I may check out Catwoman since it's got a start and end point. I just hate leaving things unfinished... I tried getting into a few DC and Marvel story arcs, but there was just too much backstory that I didn't want to wiki, and there's just too much difficulty in keeping up with single issues (I thought New52 would be a good opportunity to start, buuut I got 2-3 issues into a few of them and quit).
Velvet! VELVET!!!!I haven't read it, myself, but it's got a great team (Bendis and Maleev). If you want suggestions for other female-starring comics?
Queen & Country, Stumptown, Whiteout, Fatale, Lazarus, Kabuki, Batwoman. To name a few.
Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting writing a superspy thriller. Taline: "His girl friday is the most dangerous woman alive."
Shit, when I wrote Fatale, I was thinking of Velvet. My bad.
As much as I LOATHE the DC reboot, it does allow you to jump into Batwoman with little foreknowledge. Her series didn't really start that long before the reboot anyway, so even if you want to go into her back issues, it's not years and years of back catalogue. She was only reintroduced during 52, so that's only about 7 years total, which in comics terms isn't very long.
Zappit
Staff member
Wishing Invincible would come out on time. Seems like every 2-3 months lately. I bought the first two omnibuses, and got hooked hard. Got spoiled by all those pages, and new issues come out at such a trickle.
Loving what IDW is doing for the Dark Cybertron event. Each main group has its own artist, and it's giving those sub-stories a really unique feel.
Plus, Megatron just rocked in his brief appearance, not losing a bit of that badass swagger even though he was cut in half.
Loving what IDW is doing for the Dark Cybertron event. Each main group has its own artist, and it's giving those sub-stories a really unique feel.
Plus, Megatron just rocked in his brief appearance, not losing a bit of that badass swagger even though he was cut in half.
My only issue with the IDW Transformers comics is how much they love killing 'bots. I mean, they put Whedon to shame.
YEP! And she's a bad-ass, which is equally awesome.
Also, as far as female protagonists go, I was recommended 'Pretty Deadly' as well. Haven't read it yet, but I'm super interested. It's still coming out in issues, so you may want to wait for a trade, but still, just more options for you.
Oh don't get me wrong, they're both great books. I just hate watching characters I like get ripped to shreds.
Zappit
Staff member
To be fair, Wheeljack isn't technically dead. Starscream's got him on life support.Oh don't get me wrong, they're both great books. I just hate watching characters I like get ripped to shreds.
I actually need to get caught up again, too, I haven't read anything in a couple months.
Over the past week I've been reading The Mighty Thor by Walter Simonson. I currently have the first 3 volumes of the collected series, and have been enjoying it completely. Written back during a time that we (as comic readers) weren't talked down to and spoon-fed every little thing, mid-80s. Walt's art is incredible to look at (only occasional backgrounds that make me wonder if it was Walt or Terry Austin that forgot proportion) and the story really shows that you can weave several stories together in one book and not have to skimp on any of them.
Volume 1 starts with Mighty Thor #337 (Beta-Ray Bill) and works on from there, including the Baldur the Brave mini-series.
Volume 1 starts with Mighty Thor #337 (Beta-Ray Bill) and works on from there, including the Baldur the Brave mini-series.
Indestructible Hulk
When it comes to The Hulk, I find I go back and forth on my love for the character. Personally, I find Hulk works best when interacting with the rest of the Marvel universe. For example: Avengers as opposed to the solo Hulk movies, the second of which wasn't bad, but arguably the weakest of the Marvel movies. I've enjoyed certain runs of the character, like Peter David's very long run and Planet Hulk (World War Hulk...not so much; it was okay).
But I've been really curious about Mark Waid's run on the title. He's been knocking it out of the park on a regular basis on Daredevil, so I wanted to see. Unfortunately, being jobless and broke, I...well, I "legally obtained" the first dozen issues or so.
I'm digging it. I don't think Leinil Francis Yu's art fits the most romping adventure tone the book has (akin to Daredevil, which does have appropriate artists). It's not that the art is bad, but it's strange that Yu's art worked great with Waid's writing in Superman: Birthright and yet not here. One thing I do like about the art, either Yu's or the book's later artists who share a similar style, is that any time the Hulk himself appears, the panels are always huge, sometimes one or two page spreads. It really works to make Hulk's appearances special in contrast with Banner. Every time Hulk appears, he's mindless and roaring, making me verbally mimic it while reading.
Speaking of Banner, I really like his new role. The ongoing catchphrase for the series is "Hulk smashes, Banner builds." It's a great way to split the two and make Banner arguably as important - if not more important - than Hulk. It's a great, different direction for the title and the character. We're so used to Banner not wanting Hulk to come out and play. This way, he's able to work with people instead of finding contrived ways to team-up or fight against Thor, Iron Man, or Daredevil.
So yeah, recommended. Your mileage may vary on the art, but the style has grown on me. Plus, there's a GREAT 3-part story involving Thor with all the art done by longtime Marvel artist Walt Simonson, famous for an amazing run on Thor. That alone's worth checking out.
When it comes to The Hulk, I find I go back and forth on my love for the character. Personally, I find Hulk works best when interacting with the rest of the Marvel universe. For example: Avengers as opposed to the solo Hulk movies, the second of which wasn't bad, but arguably the weakest of the Marvel movies. I've enjoyed certain runs of the character, like Peter David's very long run and Planet Hulk (World War Hulk...not so much; it was okay).
But I've been really curious about Mark Waid's run on the title. He's been knocking it out of the park on a regular basis on Daredevil, so I wanted to see. Unfortunately, being jobless and broke, I...well, I "legally obtained" the first dozen issues or so.
I'm digging it. I don't think Leinil Francis Yu's art fits the most romping adventure tone the book has (akin to Daredevil, which does have appropriate artists). It's not that the art is bad, but it's strange that Yu's art worked great with Waid's writing in Superman: Birthright and yet not here. One thing I do like about the art, either Yu's or the book's later artists who share a similar style, is that any time the Hulk himself appears, the panels are always huge, sometimes one or two page spreads. It really works to make Hulk's appearances special in contrast with Banner. Every time Hulk appears, he's mindless and roaring, making me verbally mimic it while reading.
Speaking of Banner, I really like his new role. The ongoing catchphrase for the series is "Hulk smashes, Banner builds." It's a great way to split the two and make Banner arguably as important - if not more important - than Hulk. It's a great, different direction for the title and the character. We're so used to Banner not wanting Hulk to come out and play. This way, he's able to work with people instead of finding contrived ways to team-up or fight against Thor, Iron Man, or Daredevil.
So yeah, recommended. Your mileage may vary on the art, but the style has grown on me. Plus, there's a GREAT 3-part story involving Thor with all the art done by longtime Marvel artist Walt Simonson, famous for an amazing run on Thor. That alone's worth checking out.
Fun fact, that started as a cover, turned into an issue, and wound up as 3 because Simonson really loved what Waid was writing. It was a really great story, one of my favorite parts of the whole run. I don't think Yu stays on, the art makes a marked improvement anyway (could be inker change too) and becomes a better fit to the story.
Miracleman
I've been reading the first two issues that Marvel's put out. They both came out in the span of 2 weeks which is nice for something that is newly colored reprints of a 32 year old book. Now people might have gathered on here that I'm not an Alan Moore fan, it's hard to support a crazy person who blast others for daring to write a character after him, while the vast majority of his own work is just that. Being said,MarvelMiracleman is a pretty important piece of comic history, and what I've read has been enjoyable and interesting. I think because it's a complete destruction of a knockoff character that a lot of what would normally bother me in these "What if Super-heroes were real!?!" stories get a pass. It also helps that as much as I dislike him, the Original Writer (Alan Moore doesn't want any credit or royalties for a book he didn't have the rights to make) is talented. There's also extras in the back of the floppies, which again is nice since they're reprints. First issue contained an interview with Mike Angelo both feature pictures of original art, and reprints from the original Marvelman stories.
So all in all if you've never read this you should check it out if you're a fan of Alan Moore (and later Neil Gaiman) or you have an interest in comics history. There was some hubub over the recoloring when the first preview pages were coming out. I myself didn't like the more muted, gradient filled modern coloring that was shown. That said having looked at it in print, the book and coloring is gorgeous. I'm chalking it up to the difference between 4 color printing vs the 3 color rendering on a computer screen, but it looks much nicer on paper than what was shown.
http://www.uproxx.com/sports/2014/01/miracleman-going-place-hears-voices/
I've been reading the first two issues that Marvel's put out. They both came out in the span of 2 weeks which is nice for something that is newly colored reprints of a 32 year old book. Now people might have gathered on here that I'm not an Alan Moore fan, it's hard to support a crazy person who blast others for daring to write a character after him, while the vast majority of his own work is just that. Being said,
So all in all if you've never read this you should check it out if you're a fan of Alan Moore (and later Neil Gaiman) or you have an interest in comics history. There was some hubub over the recoloring when the first preview pages were coming out. I myself didn't like the more muted, gradient filled modern coloring that was shown. That said having looked at it in print, the book and coloring is gorgeous. I'm chalking it up to the difference between 4 color printing vs the 3 color rendering on a computer screen, but it looks much nicer on paper than what was shown.
http://www.uproxx.com/sports/2014/01/miracleman-going-place-hears-voices/
All I want of Miracleman is collections of various runs, not a monthly best-of anthology.
The first trade is slated for April, and the deconstructionist stuff is running in order. It's the old Mike Angelo black and white stuff that they're cherry picking. I was on the fence of getting the floppy or just waiting for a collection. The part of me that's impatient is glad I'm getting the issues.
I say that Top Ten and Smax are his best works, personally. Top Ten is basically City of Heroes if the PPD hired supers and Smax is just more that. Still haven't read Top Ten: Beyond the Farthest Precinct yet though.
Careful, both Grant Morrison and Alan Moore will get mad at you for that mistake. They can't stand each other, mainly because Moore's a twat who claims Morrison's a hack who plagiarized him.
I almost accidentally put Animal Man on there too.
Jack Kirby's 4th world omnibus volume one! I don't know what it is about black and white photos in color comics that is SO trippy, but it is!
I haven't, either, but from what I've read about it, you're not missing much. Stick with the Moore-authored stuff. My personal favourite was a separate graphic novel called the Forty Niners, that takes place far in the past.
Jack Kirby's OMAC: Okay, I don't think I'm wrong in saying Jack was the Leonardo Davinci of comics in that he was ahead of his time. Like, THREE things from this comic I think of off the top of my head actually happened and its fucking awesome. Granted not the best thing Kirby wrote(and the cliff-hanger is annoying as BALLS) but its still a good read and I recommend it.
So, I finally got around to actually reading Batwoman. I'd only previously read her appearances in 52 with the Crime Bible stuff.
Elegy was great, and so has been the run up through World's Finest. It's actually great to see the female form of the Batman/Superman pairing. Katie Kane is a really deep and interesting character. I'd say even more so than her male counterpart. Her origins are similar enough to Batman's to make sense for her to be able to relate to him, but different enough that she is her own character. It's also interesting that her "Alfred" is also her father, and the one who trained her.
I highly recommend Elegy through at least issue 16 of the New 52 run. Luckily, she's one of the few characters that was completely untouched by the reboot.
Elegy was great, and so has been the run up through World's Finest. It's actually great to see the female form of the Batman/Superman pairing. Katie Kane is a really deep and interesting character. I'd say even more so than her male counterpart. Her origins are similar enough to Batman's to make sense for her to be able to relate to him, but different enough that she is her own character. It's also interesting that her "Alfred" is also her father, and the one who trained her.
I highly recommend Elegy through at least issue 16 of the New 52 run. Luckily, she's one of the few characters that was completely untouched by the reboot.
One of the things I liked about the title is that, even though it was a Bat-title, she was completely separate from the rest of the Bat-family. As far as I know, she didn't get involved in crossovers - certainly not in her own book - and was completely hands-free.
Which is both why I love the book so much and very likely why the DC higher-ups wanted to change that and get rid of JH Williams as a result.
Which is both why I love the book so much and very likely why the DC higher-ups wanted to change that and get rid of JH Williams as a result.
Somehow I forgot Locke & Key was out soon and I was expecting it to be out in June. I went into the comic shop looking for something else, and Alpha & Omega was right there waiting for me. :3 I don't want this series to end, but I'm glad it's home with me now! Unfortunately they only have hardcover right now and they couldn't find a release date for the paperback, so it doesn't match my other books. D: