Not anymore. But this was in his prime as writer, before he got too much company power. Same as his JSA run.
[Comics] What Comics are you Currently Reading Thread
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He got more company power today. I'll check out this Flash stuff too. Been curious about Justice Society too.
At least with that company power, Johns is stepping back from some of the core duties. Titans is carrying the burden of the Rebirth storyline, but friggin Dan Abnett is writing, so even if the overall arc turns out to be a bust, it'll be a solid read.
BUT enough about what DC's doing right, I'm off to the Bitching About Comics thread to talk Marvel garbage!
I'll check out Waid's Flash too.
Okay Marvel... you've finally convinced me to start reading Squirrel Girl with the most ON POINT cover ever.
Make sure you read the issue before that which sets this one up. It's hilarious and really hammers in how bad she tries to avoid all this.Okay Marvel... you've finally convinced me to start reading Squirrel Girl with the most ON POINT cover ever.
Wow, you aren't kidding about the "nice" in those nice trades! Old volume 1 has 7 issues. New volume 1 has fourteen issues, stretching farther back, yet for a lower price. Nearly 450 pages; that's amazing. Up to volume 2, with a third coming out in November.
The Mark Waid book one doesn't come out until December (probably earlier in comic stores). That seems to take place earlier, but it probably won't be a problem.
Spamming thread, woo!
Action Comics continues to be good. I didn't expect where things went, but I'm glad the characters did.
Titans #1: This is off to an excellent start. The characters really come alive for being ones I barely know, and the focus on Rebirth's storyline keeps the plot focused so the characters get to shine. Wally West has had an interesting effect on things.
Action Comics continues to be good. I didn't expect where things went, but I'm glad the characters did.
Titans #1: This is off to an excellent start. The characters really come alive for being ones I barely know, and the focus on Rebirth's storyline keeps the plot focused so the characters get to shine. Wally West has had an interesting effect on things.
So far, Wally's presence and connection has been a positive force, rekindling memories and relationships, reversing some of the ruination of the DC universe. Here we get to see the down side of that--people who used to be villains, changed to be normal people by alteration, now reverting to who they were before. Oh boy ...
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Can anybody recommend a website (not wikipedia) that summarizes all the "recent" changes to the DC universe? Last thing I really read was Brightest Day. But since then there's been One Year Later, 52, a new 52, and now rebirth? I have no idea what this stuff means really, and I don't want to go by 47 trades to catch up.
52 and One Year Later are actually years before Brightest Day, so if you've already read Brightest Day then you don't really need to worry about those.
I'm unfortunately failing to find a good site summary--maybe someone should create one--for reading. I've found Youtube videos that explain different events. The ones you'd need knowledge of for DC current events would be
Flashpoint (super-important and leads to ...)
NU52 (not really an event or storyline so much as a consequence of other stuff going on)
Convergence
The Last Days of Superman
DC Rebirth
Honestly just start checking out the Rebirth one-shot and different series coming out of it that interest you. It's a big jumping on point for new and returning readers, and I've seen it succeed on both those points.
If.you want to learn more though, I suggest asking your FLCS guy/gal when you're in to pick up stuff.
While the Rebirth line is easy to jump into, it can be nice to know what's been the DC universe's storyline over the last few years. That seems to be what he's asking about so he knows, not just for the sake of new reading.
I can try to summarize the gist of it. A lot of it has to do with mixing, creating, and ending timelines, and since various tie-ins have their own storylines, the main events don't get into everyone's details. That said, focusing on what I consider to be the characters of major import--The Flash and Superman--here's my rundown:
- Flashpoint: Barry Allen wakes up in a distorted timeline. Long story short, he's the cause of it, by going back in time to save his mother. He corrects the timeline, but the events seem to have affected the multiverse.
- NU52: Not so much an event, but part of a consequence involving Flashpoint. In the real world, this was to reset all the comics back to square one. But it didn't actually do that. All the heroes just think things are a certain way. Many of them never met each other, so we see the Justice League formed for the first time, villains met or reimagined, etc. Essentially a more simplified status quo ... or so it would seem. Important point: Wally West is a different person here than in pre-Flashpoint.
- Convergence: DC universe characters from many ruined worlds and timelines are brought to a planet to fight each other and show who is strongest, a la DC equivalent of Battleworld. The core of this involves Braniac, but essentially those who won get a free pass to live in the NU52 universe. Among those plucked out of their situation are the old universe's Superman, Lois Lane, and their son Jon Kent. NU52 Superman never went through the stuff we saw Superman deal with back in the 90s. The guy who got "killed" by Doomsday in The Death of Superman? That's this one. After Convergence, he, Lois, and Jon hide out on NU52 Earth as the Smith family.
- The Last Days of Superman: Due to various events, NU52 Superman is dying. I was never into the NU52, so I don't know much about him except he was a jerk and in a relationship with Wonder Woman, not Lois Lane. He's assisted by a man with similar powers to himself at times, and when NU52 Superman dies, it's revealed that this man is actually pre-Flashpoint Superman, the original one who's been hiding out since Convergence.
- DC Rebirth: Turns out that the Wally West of pre-Flashpoint was not erased by the NU52. He's actually been in the Speedforce. He can feel himself slipping away, so tries to break through into NU52, but no one remembers him until he meets up with Barry Allen. When they touch, Barry's memories return from before NU52. It's become clear that some malevolent entity capable of rewriting reality and memories has severely altered the DC universe in the wake of Flashpoint (i.e. an in-universe explanation for DC's 2011 reboot NU52, so any retcon can now can be explained as the result of this entity). Wally decides to link up with the Titans so they can figure out who caused all this, while Barry Allen and Bruce Wayne investigate to see what they can come up. Meanwhile, pre-Flashpoint Superman, known as Clark Smith instead of Clark Kent, takes up the proper mantle of Superman and is trying to adjust to a world that looks similar, but is actually very different from the one he knew.
I think that summarizes the important points from Brightest Day to now. There were other events, but from what I can tell those are the ones that have shaped current events.
If they were doing tie-in comics for the event anyway, why didn't they just carry on with the usual stuff while moving if they'd have to have comics out anyway? Makes no sense.
I finished my second reading of Mike Carey's run of Lucifer. I only read it before in 2009, when my wife moved in and brought it among her book collection. I shouldn't have gone so long without re-reading, because like the first time, it was entirely my pleasure. I can't imagine the people doing the new Lucifer series, which begins where The Sandman left off and ignores Carey's run, ever read it, and they probably shouldn't, because it would put bothering to do another as a futile and pointless task. It was never going to be handled on a higher note than this, its scale as absolute as one can imagine without creating a circular and meaningless nature to the story's universe.
The binding's broken off from volume 10, because my wife has read it so many times before I got the chance. I've bought book-binding glue, so I'll fix it for her when that arrives.
The binding's broken off from volume 10, because my wife has read it so many times before I got the chance. I've bought book-binding glue, so I'll fix it for her when that arrives.
I was so certain I'd be dropping Superman, but I stuck it out and good thing, too. This week's issue was excellent. My only gripe is that I'm confused over the timeline between this and Action Comics as to when Superman has been revealed to the public. But otherwise, damn. So much happened and I'm really looking forward to the next issue this month.
They shaved a good chunk of their output. It was 41 titles for those two months, compared to the 52+ (The number is usually around 70 I think) they normally put out. With each tie-in being only 2 issues it was probably a lot less effort to edit.
Just finished up the run of The Boys. I enjoyed it, all in all. The art's pretty up and down, but it's probably my favorite thing Ennis has written.
I got all but the last volume of Hickman's Fantastic Four/FF run for a steal. Two issues into Dark Reign and it's amazing. Dammit Reed, you are so wrong-headed about everything.
Also:
Also:
I really want to read my new stuff, but it means tearing myself away from Peter David's Hulk run. My wife got me some of it for my birthday. I'm two issues into the Mr. Fixit arc and the direction taken with this is just genius. Gray wants so badly to be an asshole, but he sometimes can't help being a good guy, even if he denies it, even in his own thoughts.
I love that it's written with a better understanding of psychology than I've seen elsewhere. I've seen Banner/Hulk written as two people inhabiting a single body, and this does kind of start that way, but by issue two or three of the run, it's made obvious that they're less two spheres and more of an hourglass that flips--all still connected, the core influencing each side, because really it is just one brilliant person with a severe mental illness exacerbated by his physical condition.
I love that it's written with a better understanding of psychology than I've seen elsewhere. I've seen Banner/Hulk written as two people inhabiting a single body, and this does kind of start that way, but by issue two or three of the run, it's made obvious that they're less two spheres and more of an hourglass that flips--all still connected, the core influencing each side, because really it is just one brilliant person with a severe mental illness exacerbated by his physical condition.
Oh fucking hell. That Avengers Annual, Kamala Khan fanfic special, that was supposed to be cute and funny? It's really neither. Just bland. Maybe because the fanfic isn't written by Kamala after all and so doesn't have her personality, but I have a feeling most of these would've bombed anyway. Mark Waid's was the closest to being good, but mainly because he 1. wrote it like a Silver Age comic and 2. had Kamala reaction panels at the bottom of each page. The others were just ... there.
Scott Kurtz had a story. It had a funny Hydra line, but otherwise was just "too cool for this" character who met Ms. Marvel at some point. It was dull, but still better than the She-Hulk story of "the writer doesn't know what to write, so writes a story about not knowing what to write." Bleh.
The highlight was G Willow Wilson's content, which was not a story but the wraparound, and that being revealing the identities of the two other fanfic authors Kamala is dealing with during this.
That last page reveal was the only time I laughed through the whole 40-page book.
Scott Kurtz had a story. It had a funny Hydra line, but otherwise was just "too cool for this" character who met Ms. Marvel at some point. It was dull, but still better than the She-Hulk story of "the writer doesn't know what to write, so writes a story about not knowing what to write." Bleh.
The highlight was G Willow Wilson's content, which was not a story but the wraparound, and that being revealing the identities of the two other fanfic authors Kamala is dealing with during this.
The one she's arguing with over his fanfic being bad is Miles Morales, neither of them knowing who the other is. The one trying to play peacekeeper between them turns out to be Agent Coulson, a character trait of his that does not at all surprise me.
That last page reveal was the only time I laughed through the whole 40-page book.
Bitch Planet
Now here's an interesting book. Though I admit it won't be for everyone because it wears its feminist themes on its sleeve.
Bitch Planet is a nickname for an all-women prison planet where the patriarchal society sends women for even the slightest of crimes, from disobedience to obesity, and everything else under the sun. It's very much a prison story, but the characters are incredibly well-rounded.
Now here's an interesting book. Though I admit it won't be for everyone because it wears its feminist themes on its sleeve.
Bitch Planet is a nickname for an all-women prison planet where the patriarchal society sends women for even the slightest of crimes, from disobedience to obesity, and everything else under the sun. It's very much a prison story, but the characters are incredibly well-rounded.
I've heard good things about this.
Mr. Fixit even makes Wolverine highly entertaining.
This issue is completely worth it, and I'm not just saying that because I actually have one.
EDIT: This is a Chris Claremont ish, but I stand by my original statement.
--Patrick
To be fair, Claremont's run (which I think was about 20-some issues?) was great. I used to have the Essential for his run.[DOUBLEPOST=1471052839,1471052770][/DOUBLEPOST]
They're well warranted. I'm glad I finally got around to reading it and now definitely can't wait for the next volume.
Read the escape from Bizarre World trade, damn good stuff. ....though it was REALLY convenient that New Earth Bizarro's body was a cure for Lucy Lane's blindness.
Claremont's dialogue can be a bit ... well, like PatrThom said. Claremontish.
Ironic considering "Gunslinger Spawn" was an obvious rip-off of the "Saint of Killers" one-shot.
I'd say it's more of a "Evils of small towns... and the dumb people in them" than just painting all southerners. After all, the hero of the story is Southern as well.
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Yeah, well, that doesn't help all that much, since so none of the protagonists seem so bright either.
Jesse is smarter than he looks, and double for Tulip(which was her REAL first name Seth Rogen you idiot adapter).
If you don't stop getting mad at every little difference in an adaptation, you're going to explode.
And in the adaptation retelling of the event, we'll call you Michael.
You're assuming I all ready haven't.
And jokes on you, I sometimes go by Michael! Its a schmuck who doesn't have more than five names.
The Omega Men: The End is Here. Tom King's series has been getting praise up and down the internet. I picked up the book on Wednesday when it released and finished it today.
Engaging all the way through and probably the most morally fickle story I've read in a long while. The story begins with a terrorist group executing Kyle Rayner on live broadcast ... and it only gets crazier after that.
Engaging all the way through and probably the most morally fickle story I've read in a long while. The story begins with a terrorist group executing Kyle Rayner on live broadcast ... and it only gets crazier after that.