[Comics] What Comics are you Currently Reading Thread

[Hailey Knight]

Metals

Spoiler

J'ONN J'ONNZ IS BACK BITCHES!

I lost it when I turned the page. Then I was amazed that I managed to go two days without it being spoiled for me .

This really needed to be the issue with an upswing, but instead everyone continues to be manipulated. I have an unfortunate suspicion that the end will be a cop-out.

Spoiler

Every avenue of hope the heroes have had has only been another piece in the villains' machinations, so I predict Snyder will end this by making it so the villains were sewing the seeds of their own ruin all along, like when Barbatos opens up every world of the dark multiverse, it also summons the villains' nightmares that'll be helping the heroes to win.

That said, really excited Grant Morrison will be writing between-issue one-shot. I'm sure he'll have some zaniness appropriate for an event like this.

 

[Yoshimickster]

That said, really excited Grant Morrison will be writing between-issue one-shot. I'm sure he'll have some zaniness appropriate for an event like this.

Grant Morrison...plus DC Metals...WERE YOU TRYING TO MAKE A BROTHER DROOL?!

 

[Hailey Knight]

I'd been looking forward to The Defenders #9 since the cover was revealed months ago. Sadly it's a giant tease and most of those characters don't show up until literally the final page. Maybe cool stuff will happen in the final issue though.

I picked up The Silencer #1, one book of the DC New Age of Heroes set. DC is letting the artists essentially tell the story and drawing, while the writer works with them and writes the dialogue. I wasn't sure about that at first, but this book is at least pretty good. Dan Abnett is known to be a good writer, but here he works in themes as his direction for the story itself is largely dialogue. It's an interesting experiment, and I doubt every book will bear fruit, but this one worked, and that's not something you can always say about a first issue.

Such as Hungry Ghosts #1. This is a horror anthology under Dark Horse's new Berger Books imprint. Berger as in Karen Berger, who was editor for a lot of great stuff (The Sandman, Alan Moore's run of Swamp Thing, Grant Morrison's run of Animal Man, to name some notables). I wish it was good. It's not. It's pretty lame, which is too bad because I'd like to see a comeback for horror anthologies in comics. Maybe #2 will be better, but I think they'd have better luck if they just try to tell one story per issue.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Rat Queens vol 1

Does the series get better in later volumes? Because I thought this was pretty terrible.

 

[Hailey Knight]

@Yoshimickster Don't forget about Tom King's Swamp Thing special that came out today.

 

[Yoshimickster]

@Yoshimickster Don't forget about Tom King's Swamp Thing special that came out today.

GRAH-that is this week! UGH-I can't get to the city until Friday, raining all day today and Thursday is gonna be CHAOS due to the Eagles parade.

 

[Yoshimickster]

Batman

Where we learn the most SHOCKING truth...Wonder Woman's pet kangaroo Jumpa is canon again! YAY!

Superman

Wow...this...this is a definite guest story. The art looked off, Jon felt a BIT out of character, and the plot felt almost EXACTLY like the plot of Green Lanterns issue 33.

Snagglepuss Chronicles

I am still amazed this exists. HAPPILY amazed, but still.

Green Lanterns

SHIP BAIT! Geeeeeeeeeeeeet your ship bait! ALSO-this issue mentions that Snowflame is canon again and...THAT JUST GIVES ME SO MUCH HOPE!

Bane Conquest

Man B-listers just keep coming out of the WOODWORK in this comic.

Milk Wars Part 2

MAN-I gotta read me some Mother Panic.

Batman White Knight

GOTDAMN, Batman!

Swamp Thing Winter Special.

...I need a hug.

 

[Zappit]

I'm starting to really get sick of IDW's Transformers books. Ever since IDW decided to combine all their licenses into a shared universe, it's just...sucked. GIJoe made sense, and there's the historical precedent for the crossover, but they're cramming in MASK, Visionaries, ROM, and whatever other crap they fished out of the 80's wastebin.

The TF books, were, seriously, some of the best comics I've ever read. The stories were brilliantly plotted, really engaging, and even minor characters were given more personality that most main characters in other books. It FELT like a really well-developed universe.

Now, everything's an EVENT, and it's dragged down everything. The First Strike series turned everything to crap, and forced everything off its current plots. Goddamn Marvel Event Syndrome is what it is. Now they're doing Visionaries, and they up and killed off a major character for "shock value".

They also cancelled Til All Are One, which was probably one of the most underrated comics on the shelves. Starscream, who actually pulled off his ultimate scheme and ruled Cybertron, was really, really well-done as a dirty schemer that might not have wanted to be bad, but did some terrible, terrible stuff. It at least ended with his redemption, but it was hurried due to the cancellation. Now that's done, and it sucks.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I didn't realize Aaron's Avengers #1 came out today until we'd already left the comic shop, but ... screw it anyway.

It's pretty obvious he wanted Bruce Banner to be the Hulk in his line-up, but Al Ewing got Bruce for his horror comic. Now, he could've maybe swung for some other Hulk-related character, but hey, no one cares about She-Hulk, so let's just make her into a Bruce surrogate.

And I'm not purposely crapping on Jason Aaron today; he's just annoying me. I thought I'd posted this, but evidently not: The Death of Thor was disappointing. Jane's finale should've had something to do with the story that's been building with her all this time and instead this just felt like a weak way for her to bow out. I think Odinson, who will now be Thor again, will have an interesting story going forward as he has a lot of goals ahead, but this arc was a letdown.

 

[mikerc]

And I'm not purposely crapping on Jason Aaron today; he's just annoying me. I thought I'd posted this, but evidently not: The Death of Thor was disappointing. Jane's finale should've had something to do with the story that's been building with her all this time and instead this just felt like a weak way for her to bow out. I think Odinson, who will now be Thor again, will have an interesting story going forward as he has a lot of goals ahead, but this arc was a letdown.

Yeah Death of Thor should have been the capstone of Jane's arc with #1 of the new ongoing being Odinson reclaiming the Thor name and stepping back up to the plate. Instead it was about how they were sidelining Jane in favour of the original. That last issue definitely felt like it was more about him than her.

Also was it really necessary to

Spoiler

destroy Mjolnir? Particularly since we all know it's not going to stick. In fact considering the way it was guilt tripping Jane into heroing even though it was killing her I was half expecting the hammer to realise that *it* was unworthy and refuse to let *anyone* wield it.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Yeah Death of Thor should have been the capstone of Jane's arc with #1 of the new ongoing being Odinson reclaiming the Thor name and stepping back up to the plate. Instead it was about how they were sidelining Jane in favour of the original. That last issue definitely felt like it was more about him than her.

Also was it really necessary to

Spoiler

destroy Mjolnir? Particularly since we all know it's not going to stick. In fact considering the way it was guilt tripping Jane into heroing even though it was killing her I was half expecting the hammer to realise that *it* was unworthy and refuse to let *anyone* wield it.

That would've been clever. Instead we got what felt like editorial mandate.

Thor will have some direction going forward because of that, but it feels like many months since the War of Realms has been any more than lip service. I don't see it getting back on track if Aaron is making Avengers his priority.

 

[Yoshimickster]

DC nation 0

Batman:Your Big Day

DAMN-Joker, you scary!

Man of Steel: Office Space

...does this take place in the past? Because it LOOKS like it takes place in the past....specifically the nineties, when Lois looked like Terri Hatcher. Don't get me wrong, I'm intrigued but there's unexplained stuff going on here.

No justice Prelude

FINALLY-a DC comics book where Beast Boy isn't whining!

 

[Yoshimickster]

No Justice 1

Good start to the mini-series, thought it a LITTLE weird seeing Lobo and Ryan Choi act like strangers to each other given Lobo's well established low-key crush on him in JLA, but I let it go as its a cross over and they most likely didn't wanna confuse new readers.

Batman: White Knight 8

A good end to an interesting Elseworld story!

Flash 46

Hoooooooooooooo boy, Wally is remembering EVERYTHING and it is SUPER unnerving/depressing.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I know I keep praising Zdarsky on Spectacular Spider-man, but some of those posts are gone forever, so here's another!

Sometimes it takes the right writer to remind you that you still care about this silly crap. #304, instead of heading back to their own timeline, the gang ends up in the future of this parallel creation. This Spider-man quit being Spidey, so a page turn reveals

Spoiler

Here's married to Gwen Stacy, alive and well. And the excited "Gwen!" that escaped my lips was like ... oh, this still matters to me. Huh.

EDIT: Except for the pages where the comic has to be turned on its side. I hate that.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Midway through Hellboy omnibus vol 1.

Unfortunately I don't think this is helping Hellboy be all that much better, because the problems are still the same. The chronology adjust pacing, that's it. You still get stories that are imaginative, colorful exposition, interesting and fun heroes, fascinating villains from history, religion, and folklore ...

... And most of it still just comes down to Hellboy punching the monster. It's not fun when that's the solution again and again. Sometimes there's a surprise entity from the situation's mythos that saves the day while Hellboy is punching.

It's like each story builds up in interesting ways, but each ends in an unsatisfying way. This was my test book to see if I'd buy the other omnibuses. I'm going to finish it, but I have a feeling I won't be getting the others. Even vol 4, which is all stuff I've never read, seems unnecessary if each situation ends the same way. It just sucks that this series has so much going for it, but lets me down at the end of near every story. I might as well just soak up the art and lore, then skip the climaxes.

BPRD eventually got dull, but Mignola had to get creative with how he concluded arcs since Hellboy wasn't around.

I hope the rest of the book changes my mind though and I suddenly 'get it.'

 

[ThatNickGuy]

Honestly, as much as I love Hellboy, I think I like him more as a character and a concept than the actual stories. I found BPRD to be a slog eventually and dropped it around Volume 7 or 8.

The only legitimately great Hellboy stories I enjoyed (aside from the movies) were a series of adventure novels by Christopher Golden.

 

[PatrThom]

most of it still just comes down to Hellboy punching the monster. It's not fun when that's the solution again and again. Sometimes there's a surprise entity from the situation's mythos that saves the day while Hellboy is punching.

Don’t ever marathon Sailor Moon, then. 4 hours in, you’re going to yell at the television, “THROW THE DAMN TIARA ALREADY, YOU IDIOT! JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER TIME!”

—Patrick

 

[Hailey Knight]

Honestly, as much as I love Hellboy, I think I like him more as a character and a concept than the actual stories. I found BPRD to be a slog eventually and dropped it around Volume 7 or 8.

The only legitimately great Hellboy stories I enjoyed (aside from the movies) were a series of adventure novels by Christopher Golden.

I know, I know, but you and I were both hoping these omnibuses would somehow adjust things so they'd feel right.

And I hate being the bearer of bad news, because I love Hellboy too, but at least this volume isn't making those pancakes, and I'm hesitant to buy any of the other volumes now. The two short story collections are going to be the worst offenders, as the short stories distill Mignola's writing weaknesses into potato chip form, where you eat one after another in quick succession and notice how samey they are.

Volume 2 is probably a bit of Hellboy's globetrotting phase--I could be wrong, but that would likely include the origin story of the Hellboy universe and where the Right Hand of Doom comes from. It's one of my favorites. Mignola is excellent at establishing lore, from the grand scale of the universe down to a town's history. It just sucks that at the end of the day, Hellboy Fights the Monster is the best he can do for concluding those interesting lore elements.

Volume 3 will likely be the best. While it's a lot of Hellboy fighting, it revolves around his struggles against the fairy folk, and the series of grudges the two sides have against each other. Hellboy is put on enemy territory without a chance of retreat, against a formidable adversary. I didn't finish this series of stories, but it's some of the better material. And then vol 4 will be Hellboy's time in Hell, so ... I don't know.

I want to keep trying, but I have so little faith in this. I'm going to get back to reading and see how I feel about Wake the Devil when it's coming after The Chained Coffin, an interesting short about Hellboy's origins where he has nothing available to punch) and immediately followed by Almost Colossus, which I can't remember. And I will try to do some sitting yoga while I read, because I need strugs.

Fingers crossed.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I forgot that Conan the Barbarian is canon in Hellboy.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Finished the omnibus.

It did get better. Wake the Devil is stronger coming after The Chained Coffin, and Almost Colussus is better for being right after Wake the Devil. Hellboy doesn't end the situations with punching.

Seed of Destruction is just not a good entry point.

There's still weaknesses, but I'm willing to give the next volume a shot. Just not the short stories.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Batman #47

Before even reading the issue, I was just happy this miserable aside would be over with. This is the only Tom King's Batman story I've disliked outright.

X-Men Wedding Special

I bought this just for the Kelly Thompson bachelorette party story, but I did read the others. Tried to. The first isn't really a story, more a word bio on Kitty Pryde by Chris Clairemont. I think he just wrote it in a prose block and let the artist decide the rest. Guggenheim's bachelor party story for Colossus was okay, but just kinda happens without much point. The bachelorette story was fun, but Kelly Thompson knows her X-Men drama and goes way deeper than my knowledge of it.

No Justice #2 is a blast. I'm so excited for all the Justice League books branching out from this! I'm having a lot of fun with these.

 

[Yoshimickster]

Anyone else still confused if Doomsday Clock is part of the Prime-Earth continuity or not? Some parts feel like its in continuity, but other parts kind of conflict it. Like, who the hell is Beast Girl? Or was this the timeline BEFORE Doc Manhattan monkeyed with everything and its just some what similar but still different? Liking it either way, just saying its a tad confusing.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Anyone else still confused if Doomsday Clock is part of the Prime-Earth continuity or not? Some parts feel like its in continuity, but other parts kind of conflict it. Like, who the hell is Beast Girl? Or was this the timeline BEFORE Doc Manhattan monkeyed with everything and its just some what similar but still different? Liking it either way, just saying its a tad confusing.

Doomsday Clock takes place in the future, so none of the other books are caught up yet. We'll have to wait and see what some of these things are.

 

[Yoshimickster]

Gotcha. I love modern DC, but the stories being out of order can irritate a man.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Gotcha. I love modern DC, but the stories being out of order can irritate a man.

I feel like Doomsday Clock should've been an OGN. I know they're making a lot more money this way, but it'd be less confusing. And the delays mean that they're having to come up with more stories to extend current events another year until Doomsday Clock #12 comes out.

I could do with more delays. I like the current status quo, with Scott Snyder leading the charge of big fun stories. I'm not ready for the timeline to catch up with Doomsday Clock where everything's miserable.

 

[Yoshimickster]

Yeah Scott is killing it right now, got faith in ALL the new teams to come out of this.

 

[Hailey Knight]

And on that note ...

Justice League #1 feels like the beginning of an event, except it's an ongoing run. It's both a big plot and character-focused. And I don't mean like the last couple runs where the book tried to focus on the whole team all at once, so that there was no central character or plot A/B, but just a plot as the protagonist for a plot.

Set-up, team situation, J'onn is the focus, big stuff happens, some unexpected. I loved it. Granted, he primed this book with Dark Nights: Metal and No Justice, but it capitalizes on those books. I love that J'onn was elected as chairman of the Justice League in a touching scene in No Justice, and then here he isn't sure he's up for the task because the Justice League has more responsibility now, with the Source Wall broken, than they've ever had before, than they're even aware of. The villain set-up is just fantastic.

I wish I'd read this this morning instead of this evening. I would've had a slightly less crappy day.

 

[Hailey Knight]

The Immortal Hulk #1 was also really good. I got a chill at a couple points from the artwork and demeanor.

Spoiler

This is definitely a horror comic, at least for this first issue. There's something different about this Hulk. In Peter David's run, there's a point where green, gray, and Bruce all mix into one person. This is kind of an amalgamation, but as if different parts of those three got spliced together. Back then, it was green's strength, Bruce's intelligence, and Joe Fixit's sense of humor. Here, it's more like green's strength, Bruce's sense of right and wrong, and Joe Fixit's attitude.

I'm very curious to see where this one goes. I'm also surprised Marvel is even publishing a comic like this these days. I wonder how many issues Al Ewing will get before it's cancelled.

 

[Hailey Knight]

And to keep the spam train rolling, last week's Marvel Two-in-One was great too . Some really top-notch moments for Doom and Ben. I continued to be bummed that Zdarsky isn't also writing the main Fantastic Four book. I wonder if his whole Two-in-One run is gong to take place before Slott's Fantastic Four so it can be unaffected.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Batman #49

Every time I think Tom King is starting to lose me, he pulls me back. It was interesting seeing the villains reminisce about what was essentially the animated series. But that ending.

Spoiler

Selina saying she only laughs when she wins, and then laughing over bloody Joker, almost implied to me that she saw him as the "other woman" in how they were battling for Bruce/Batman and how they couldn't both have what they wanted. I don't think Joker's dead, but it was a powerful scene.

 

[fade]

Really very much enjoyed what I think was the most recent short-lived run of Howard the Duck. I might be wrong--there may have been a more recent one. The one where Howard helps stop the Abundant Glove.

 

[fade]

Also I am very much hooked on the current Red Hood and the Outlaws.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Really very much enjoyed what I think was the most recent short-lived run of Howard the Duck. I might be wrong--there may have been a more recent one. The one where Howard helps stop the Abundant Glove.

That's the Zdarsky run. I need to check that out.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Justice League #2

The first issue of Snyder's run was a J'onn issue, this one's a Luthor issue. I can understand complaints that the narration is a little verbose, but I think it adds a gravitas to the events. This almost feels like the proper start. I'm loving what Snyder is doing so far.

 

[Covar]

Justice League #2

The first issue of Snyder's run was a J'onn issue, this one's a Luthor issue. I can understand complaints that the narration is a little verbose, but I think it adds a gravitas to the events. This almost feels like the proper start. I'm loving what Snyder is doing so far.

I'm loving the return of the third party omniscient narrator. In addition to the gravitas you mention, it keeps the book from being a 5-minute chunk of movie pitch, and really plays to the strength of the medium.