Author Topic: Comic Book Thread  (Read 135618 times)

Offline P-Siddy

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #315 on: August 31, 2011, 11:41 AM »
It might not be a popular opinion, but I think the companies could stand to scale back the number of titles a little bit.  Much like collecting, you only have to buy what you like, but the number of titles (especially for a struggling business) is unreal these days. 

I'm quite surprised by the number of titles myself. I just got back into the comic thing again last year when GI Joe picked up where it left off with RAH. To see that there is also Cobra, Origins, each separate plots from the other. It's crazy.

Offline Brian

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #316 on: August 31, 2011, 02:20 PM »
Yeah, I'm all for supporting lesser known characters/teams - and I know that all of them have their fans and support, but the sheer number of titles these days is astounding.  Again, comparing it to my childhood - going back and looking at the subscription pages in the back of Marvel comics, and the number of titles was just so much lower.  Granted, different world and all that, but many characters (or teams) didn't have titles back then because they couldn't sustain it.  A lot of B and C list heroes get more shots these days it seems, which is good.

When I first got back into comics, I was sort of drawn to the Ultimate universe of stuff.  The first thing I wanted to start reading again was Spider-Man, and at that time, everyone suggested Ultimate Spidey (in its early days).  I read, and enjoyed it, but it always bothered me that it wasn't the "real" Spidey for some reason.  Anyways, I branched into Amazing and then into the further Marvel U (and later DC).  Something that was appealing about the Ultimate Universe was being able to basically have the whole thing covered with four books.  I realize that isn't exactly possible with the larger Marvel (or DC) universe, but I think things could go for some cutting back in some cases.

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And get the subscription option going again...I remember getting so psyched to check the mail.  A subscription could also help offset the high costs, which is really the only barrier for kids.

Actually, subscriptions do still exist - but I'm not sure if many use them.  I subscribe to some Marvel Comics, because I used to live in a more rural area without a comic book store anywhere nearby (and I was unaware of online services at that point).  Anyways, I have just maintained some of those subs since the prices are pretty good ($22 or something for a year's sub I think).  I've cut those back now to just 3 or 4 Marvel titles, and get the rest via SciFiGenre (thanks Jeff for the recommendation).  I also subscribed to a couple DC books for awhile, but they were really slow shipping back when I did that.  My Marvel books tend to come a few days after release (or sometimes before), and never later than a week.  The DC ones were always at least a month for some reason.

Offline Brian

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #317 on: September 21, 2011, 02:04 PM »
So, has anyone jumped into the DCnU - and if so, what do you think?  I've been checking out some of the titles, and have pretty much liked what I've seen so far.  I haven't gotten a chance to read them all, but hope to get to the rest this week.  I really enjoyed the first issue of Justice League.  We'll have to wait and see where it goes, but I'm just glad to see Johns on the JL book - and have that book starring the "big guns".  Jim Lee on art doesn't hurt either.  I also thought both Action and Detective Comics were good, and I'm looking forward to checking out the other Batbooks and GL this week/next.

As far as Flashpoint, which sort of set this all up, I wasn't all that thrilled.  I thought the last issue was one of the better ones, but overall I didn't like it as much as I thought I would.  I usually enjoy pretty much everything Johns writes, but I just couldn't get into this one.  Some of it may have been just the anticipation of the new "relaunch", where we sort of just had to get this story "over with" to get to the new stuff.

Offline Diddly

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #318 on: September 22, 2011, 01:08 AM »
I've been picking up a few of the new #1s but haven't gotten to read much yet. Now that Batman is out I'll probably start on my next day off. I wanted to pick up more of the comics I hadn't reserved, but they sell out quick, and I'll probably have to track down second printings somehow.

I have been reading the Spider Island storyline in Amazing Spider-Man... what a weird, jumbled mess.
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Offline Jeff

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #319 on: September 22, 2011, 10:11 AM »
I'm looking forward to checking out the other Batbooks and GL this week/next.

Have you heard about the ending to Catwoman #1 yet, Brian?   I can't wait to see how the comic world in general reacts to that...   :P

I've read a few things and I was really surprised at how much strange blood and gore there is in there (like the ending of Detective Comics #1 or all the GLs getting chopped up and dismembered in GLC).  I'm really not sure what to think.  I thought the point was to get back to the "core of the characters" and make the comics fun again.  I guess I didn't realize there was so much bloody violence at the core of all that "fun".  :-\
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Offline Brian

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #320 on: September 22, 2011, 08:50 PM »
Have you heard about the ending to Catwoman #1 yet, Brian?   I can't wait to see how the comic world in general reacts to that...   :P

I haven't read it myself, but saw some of the news online about it today.  It will be interesting to see how that plays.  I've only read a handful of the "new 52" books as well, but I've been a little surprised by all the violence/gore as well.  I understand that a lot of people like that, and I'm not saying they should all be kid books, but it was a little surprising to me as well for an initiative designed to hook in new readers.

Offline Diddly

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #321 on: October 22, 2011, 02:44 AM »
Has anybody been reading the New 52's? I've been posting my thoughts on various issues on my personal blog (linked in my sig... shameless plug) and most of them have been hit or miss to me. My favorite by far is Batman, with Action Comics being in second, I guess. Action always starts off hot but fizzles to a lame end IMO. Wonder Woman is by far the worst of what I've read.

The comic series I've really been digging though? Ultimate Spider-Man with Miles Morales. Great series. Miles is such a likeable character, and you can't hate his sidekick Ganke either. The kid builds LEGOs and wears a Howard the Duck t-shirt for crying out loud!Three issues in and it's just a great story about a kid going through changes, very WEIRD changes, despite wanting to remain shy and normal. Really don't see the hate, although I think most people just hate the idea of Peter Parker being dead.

Also I guess I'll be checking out the new split X-Men series.
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Offline JediJman

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #322 on: October 24, 2011, 05:54 PM »
I was a little tempted to jump on with the new DC books, but decided against it.  I did look up the ending to Catwoman #1 though - interesting stuff. 

I've been a bit lost trying to keep up with the Marvel books lately.  They have these grand events (the latest is the Fear Itself Storyline), but they've lost all cohesion for me across the different titles.  I can't tell what order the books should be in or what storylines are overlapping and what the sequence of books should be between Avengers, New Avengers, Avengers Annual, Secret Avengers, Thor, Journey Into Mystery, Iron Man, Iron Man 2.0, Avengers Academy. 

Is anyone else reading these titles and having the same problem?  I link it's just plain lazy that they don't number the titles or at least give you the little indicator that "This story takes place following ______."  I'm starting to think about dumping most of my Marvel titles if this keeps up.  They're just no fun to read when everything is piecemeal and overlapping and you have the same guy on like 4 super teams. 
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Offline Brian

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #323 on: January 5, 2012, 12:28 PM »
I was curious, now that we are a few months out from the DC relaunch, how many of the titles have you stuck with?  I have to admit, the relaunch did get me to try out more books than I would normally get, but these (combined with the Marvel stuff) is probably getting to be a little too much to keep up with.  Here's the books I ended up trying out, and I'll hopefully be dropping a few from this list:

Justice League
Batman
Detective Comics
Batman and Robin
Batman: The Dark Knight
Batman Inc.
Batgirl
Nightwing
Action Comics
Superman
Aquaman
Green Lantern
Flash
Wonder Woman
Teen Titans

There are a few on this list that I could probably drop, but I'm sort of giving a chance for a couple more issues, we'll see.  Honestly, much like collecting, it is probably a bit too much.  Storage starts to become an issue here as well, and honestly, I think if I had an iPad I'd switch to digital on a number of them.  Anyways, what are you reading these days?  Sadly, my Marvel list is even longer than this one.

Offline Jeff

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #324 on: January 5, 2012, 02:10 PM »
Here's the list of the ten DCnU titles I started buying with the ones I dropped after month 3 scratched off...  all are still paper comics:

Batman
Detective Comics
Nightwing - I just couldn't get into going back to a "still learning the ropes" version of Dick
Batgirl - see Nightwing reason, but change Dick to Babs
Justice League
Action Comics - like always, I just couldn't get into this version of Superman...
Superman - see Action Comics reason
Flash
Green Lantern
GL Corps - got tired of Tomasi finding new bloody ways to kill random GLs each month

So yeah.  Three months in and my list is down to 5.  To recap:
pre-relaunch = 12-16 DCU titles each month
DCnU relaunch months 1-3 = 10 DCnU titles
now = 5 titles...    but I'm pretty sure I'll drop JLA after this first arc is over (planning on dropping at #7).  Also thinking about switching to digital on the four remaining titles once the initial arcs are over...

I totally get why DC made the reboot/relaunch decision (the number of books they are selling proves it was what they needed to do), but I'm still bummed that 'my' DCU was tossed out in favor of something targeted towards all those COD/Halo kids.

Guess I just have to face facts.  I'm old.  :-[
« Last Edit: January 5, 2012, 02:15 PM by Jeff »
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Offline Brian

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #325 on: January 5, 2012, 02:28 PM »
Funny, I actually started out reading GLC as well, and dropped it for the same reason you listed Jeff.  Your list is much more manageable, and something I should probably move towards at some point.  I need to be as discerning as you.  I'm a big Grayson fan, so I do enjoy Nightwing, although I still feel like he's gotten "demoted" again after his run as Batman.  To me, he's right up there with the big guns of the DCU, and wish he would be treated as such.  I guess I understand why they want to get back to "Bruce is the only Batman", so I'm not sure what other direction they could go.  Some of the parts of their reboot I understand and enjoy, others I don't quite get.  I know it would sacrifice some really great characters in some instances, but I sometimes wonder if they were going to do this anyways if they shouldn't have just gone back to Dick Grayson as Robin and Wally West as Kid Flash or something.  Those two, to me, are the best versions of those characters and instead we get some different versions of Tim Drake and Bart Allen in the Teen Titans book (and Wally still nowhere to be found, which bugs me).

Of the books I listed, I'm thinking of dropping the following either due to quality or just the fact that I need to cut the pull list down a bit:

Batman: The Dark Knight
Superman
Teen Titans
Wonder Woman

I'm on the fence with a few others, so we'll see.  TDK and Superman definitely aren't anything to write home about.  Wonder Woman is very good, but I don't know if I care enough about the character to continue or not.  Teen Titans is just alright I guess, but I think I like the concept more than the actual current book.  I don't know why it is so hard for DC to get that book right.

Offline Jeff

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #326 on: January 5, 2012, 02:49 PM »
Oh yeah, the whole 'Barry and Iris aren't together, so Barry never met Wally" thing is lame.  Total waste of a great character.

Part of me thinks they should have at least had the courtesy to kill off Dick and Wally before Flashpoint.  At least then they could have had proper endings to their stories.  If you're rebooting anyway, then go all in - something like having Dick-Batman sacrifice himself to save Bruce-Batman and Tim in Batman Inc would have been fine.  Then Flashpoint comes along and resets the clock like Dick and Jason never existed and Tim was always the first Robin and now the current Nightwing.  That would have better fit their silly 5-year timeline, though it would have pissed off a lot of people to lose Dick/Jason and their stories completely.

Same with Wally - have him die to save his family in the last few issues of his book, then Flashpoint resets the DCU.  Barry realizes the loss of Wally and Dick cause too much pain so he "forgets" them in the reboot universe.  Opens the door for Tim as first Robin/current Nightwing (no more Red Robin!) and a new Kid Flash in the new DCnU.

There would have been many mad people... but those people are already mad about there being no Wally and a demoted Dick now.  At least this way Wally would have had a nice send off instaed of 'book cancelled, character deleted' ending he got now.
« Last Edit: January 5, 2012, 02:57 PM by Jeff »
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Offline Brian

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #327 on: January 5, 2012, 06:01 PM »
Yeah, that's one of the things that bothers me the most is cramming Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and Damian Wayne all being Robin within a 5 year span.  I always liked that Dick had a long term, trusted relationship/partnership with Bruce (and they still write it that way), but I don't see how they really could have with this new timeline.  If this is how they wanted it set up (the five year thing), they probably should have gotten rid of a Robin or two from the new continuity.

Offline Diddly

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #328 on: January 5, 2012, 07:02 PM »
Well I've been reviewing comics, including the New 52 on my blog since about October (END CHEAP, SHAMELESS PLUG) so if anyone is interested in my thoughts, head on over and take a gander.

But my pull list looks a little like this:

Justice League
Batman (my favorite of the New 52s)
Batman and Robin
Detective Comics - Haven't dropped yet, but will soon as the Batman and Batman and Robin blow it out of the water
Batman: The Dark Knight - Absolutely awful, the worst of the New 52 that I've read
Nightwing
Batgirl - Picked up Issue 1 but never any more, just no interest
Batwoman
Green Lantern
The Flash - Might drop, writing stinks but the artwork is beautiful
Wonder Woman - Second worst of the New 52, just a complete mess
Teen Titans
Catwoman - Started out awful but was picking up, dropped solely to save money; might pick it back up
Superman - might be dropping but I hear it's getting a new writer soon so I'll stick with it for now
Action Comics
Aquaman - Second favorite of the New 52

Now remember I only recently started reading comics, hence the large pull list. I'm learning to drop stuff though, and I'll most likely be dropping more DC titles in the near future.

But Batman and Aquaman own, if you aren't reading those then get on it!
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Offline Brian

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #329 on: January 6, 2012, 05:29 PM »
There would have been many mad people... but those people are already mad about there being no Wally and a demoted Dick now.  At least this way Wally would have had a nice send off instaed of 'book cancelled, character deleted' ending he got now.

Is that the story with Wally now?  He just isn't there at all in the new DCU?  That really is lame.  It is frustrating because two of the areas of the DCU I care about the most (Batman and Flash) seem to make no sense in some ways.  I understand that they largely left Batman alone, but like we discussed, the whole four Robins in five years just doesn't fit quite right.  I'd really hate to lose Dick Grayson as a character, but otherwise I sort of like Jeff's idea better.  Streamline things a bit and just have a Batman, a Robin, and a Nightwing (or even just Batman and Robin).