[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 12 May 2015 - 05:33 PM, said:

And the female THOR who has been wearing a mask for her run so far has been revealed and is...

Spoiler

Jane Foster. Which is hella cool. ...

Surprising precisely no one tho'.

It was a logical development, but a wholy predictable one and while i applaud the whole 'Thor can be a woman' approach, i feel like they missed an opportunity to do something interesting there.

Nicodimas, on 20 July 2015 - 12:40 AM, said:

Starting reading Comic books again..well with more vigor..
...
*Black Science
...

Because i'm tempted, talk to me about this... on a scale of 1-5, 1 being EAST IS WEST or SAGA and 5 being any attempt to bring back Howard the Duck, how does BLACK SCIENCE rank and why?


Just finished Remender's CAPTAIN AMERICA run. The 25 issue run that preceeded the latest new Cap taking over ... was not impressed. Was kind of disappointed considering how much i usually enjoy Remender's work.

Spoiler

The first storyline 'Dimension Z' was predictable, dull, by the numbers... with a dead standard alternate universe evil tyrant plotline. Jet Black's face/heel switch was clunky and hamhanded, and Ian... look, i get the temtation to give Cap a 'son', but this was just lame. The one big twist.. his 'death' at Sharon Carter's hand followed by her apparent death, just felt like the writer thinking 'oh, THIS will shock them!' despite the painfully obvious comic book deaths that wouldn't stick.

The second storyline... the Iron Nail... was a ridiculously sterotypical villain... a Chinese communist with dragon powers... how novel... trying to take down SHIELD... wow... what a swerve... someone tries to take down SHIELD... that never happens. And depowering Cap with a completely random plot device power not hinted at before or even remotely explained... seriously... bad guy stabs Cap, two panel's later, Cap is old... an issue later 'oh yeah he sucked the super-sldier formula right out of him!... meh. Lame.

I read this on the Marvel Meth bcs I wanted to know why Cap was old over in the Avengers books.. so now i know. Glad i didn't spend money on it. Not reco'd.

[Studlock]

On art: a 1, on writing: a 3.5. As I've gone on with Remender's work the less and less enjoyment I get out of it--it just seems like he's writing the same story over and over (dead beat fathers, squared-jaw white men of actions). I'd recommend it for the art though--at least the first trade--its got some weird and fun visuals.

(Also the new Howard the Duck is actually amazing).

[polishgenius]

I'm not familiar with Remender at all, but today I got the first volume of his and Tocchini's Low, because the premise is intriguing and the art is amazing. I hope it's good coz I was going to finally buy the first volume of Saga but I decided to take the gamble here instead.

I also got the first volume of East is West and finished it already - it's incredible.


Other work that tempted me - ODYC by Matt Fraction. Maybe next time I'll get that and Saga. And Wytches by Snyder.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 21 July 2015 - 02:01 PM

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 21 July 2015 - 11:37 AM, said:

I'm not familiar with Remender at all, but today I got the first volume of his and Tocchini's Low, because the premise is intriguing and the art is amazing. I hope it's good coz I was going to finally buy the first volume of Saga but I decided to take the gamble here instead.

I bought that and gave up about halfway through. It was alright but really nothing special (aside from the obviously gorgeous art). It suffers from a lot of the same isms as Studlock mentioned in his work.

In all honesty, SAGA is so phenomenally written and drawn that it trumps nearly everything.

And this here is the sentiment I realized after taking a blind chance on LOW:
 he-chose-poorly.jpg (69.74K)
Number of downloads: 0

[polishgenius]

Well we'll see. I've started it, early days yet. It does look absolutely astonishing.

I'm glad that we're finally at a stage where American/British comics are in a similar state to where European comics have been for decades. It also means more of those European comics are getting translations, which is lovely. Not something I can take advantage of right now, but lovely.

I mainly didn't get Saga now because I'm pretty sure I can get it easily in Germany, whereas the others I'm more likely to be limited to buying just when I'm here. Have to say, it'll have to go some to impress me more than the first volume of East is West,

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 21 July 2015 - 01:01 PM, said:

Well we'll see. I've started it, early days yet. It does look absolutely astonishing.

I'm glad that we're finally at a stage where American/British comics are in a similar state to where European comics have been for decades. It also means more of those European comics are getting translations, which is lovely. Not something I can take advantage of right now, but lovely.

I mainly didn't get Saga now because I'm pretty sure I can get it easily in Germany, whereas the others I'm more likely to be limited to buying just when I'm here. Have to say, it'll have to go some to impress me more than the first volume of East is West,

EiW vols 1-4 are next up in the GNTRP, so i can't draw a direct comparison, but SAGA... SAGA is brilliant, and with 4 collected vols out (there's also a monster ultimate collection that's pretty nifty) you can get sunk in deep. Vol 4 perhaps 'suffers' in that it's a lot of setup for the next phase of the story, but vol 5 is due in Sept so not much of a wait if you're a wait-for-the-dead-tree-trade guy.

LOW was on my radar because Remender's X-Force and Uncanny Avengers runs were so stellar, but after that Cap run... meh.

[polishgenius]

I keep saying East is West but it's actually East of West.


Anyways, yeah, I'm defo getting into Saga soon. It's got a legendary sort of acclaim - Sandman/Transmet level of reputation. So I'll have to.

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 21 July 2015 - 02:04 PM, said:

I keep saying East is West but it's actually East of West.


Anyways, yeah, I'm defo getting into Saga soon. It's got a legendary sort of acclaim - Sandman/Transmet level of reputation. So I'll have to.

I can't quite put it at level with those because SANDMAN is transcendent in respect of art, story and dialogue (seriously, Gaiman never ever ever puts a single word to waste), and Transmet is Ellis being notoriously subversive and clever on levels few others can reach...


...SAGA is more glorious art (most of the full page panels are wall-worthy) and engaging characters who are at once very human and very exceptional, particularly in dealing with each other... the dialogue does reach Sandman levels at times, but the plots are less clever and more a way to let the characters shine.
Also, Lying Cat.

Spoiler

[QuickTidal]

Indeed. There are panels and moments of SAGA that are nothing short of transcendent for dialogue.

Also, she learns from Lying Cat.

Spoiler

 5and3_saga_18_panels_1.jpg (105.59K)
Number of downloads: 0

[Abyss]

Sophie breaks me every time.

Spoiler

which is good because Gwen annoys me with her whole 'murderously vengeful jilted girlfriend' thing,
and the Will has become way less interesting since they merged storylines, except that Sophie and Lying Cat continually keep my attention because of moments like the above.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 21 July 2015 - 04:00 PM, said:

Sophie breaks me every time.

Spoiler

which is good because Gwen annoys me with her whole 'murderously vengeful jilted girlfriend' thing,
and the Will has become way less interesting since they merged storylines, except that Sophie and Lying Cat continually keep my attention because of moments like the above.

You're not reading floppies right? Oh man, you've got some humdinger's coming your way.

[polishgenius]

QuickTidal, on 21 July 2015 - 12:49 PM, said:

I bought that and gave up about halfway through. It was alright but really nothing special (aside from the obviously gorgeous art). It suffers from a lot of the same isms as Studlock mentioned in his work.

Having finished it now, I partly agree and partly not. I like that the storytelling is pretty dense - more happens per page than it seems at first glance, somehow- I like the main heroine, and I love the art. I think some of what her son does is pretty bad-taste (but I don't think you're supposed to sympathize with that, that's why he gets a redemption arc later on) and that some of the depiction of women is a bit skeevy - but I think Studlock in his post earlier in the year oversold/misread some of it. Like for example the main character is hinted to be giving sexual favours to release her son, but it's made quite clear soon after that she allowed no such thing to happen.
My main problem, though, is that for a book supposedly about optimism, and with art as gorgeous as it has, it wastes way too much time with the characters mooching about, often in unattractive environments. To some extent it wasted the potential of the story and of the art. I want to see less boring interior and more sea/landscape/weird city! Both those things could well be being saved for later volumes, for which reason I'll probably give the next one a chance, though I won't be immediately buying it.

Overall, it was simultaneously decent and disappointing.

[Studlock]

Totally could--I was a little bit away from it at the time I wrote that--that being said it is definitely a Remender book with the same type of characters he has been writing about since Fear Agent. I think if you want a Remender book look at Deadly Class, it seems to be a more sincere project from him. Or the up coming Tokyo Ghost--but only because it has Sean Murphy on art.

[polishgenius]

Absolutely, it's my first time reading Remender so I appreciate that there might be long-running trends in his work that I've not picked up.

I won't be rushing to buy more but it's interesting enough to keep an eye out. I've been massively unable to buy many comics in the last several years, so the likes of Hickman, Lemire and Snyder are much higher on my list from the newer wave of authors.

[QuickTidal]

Studlock, on 21 July 2015 - 11:40 PM, said:

Totally could--I was a little bit away from it at the time I wrote that--that being said it is definitely a Remender book with the same type of characters he has been writing about since Fear Agent. I think if you want a Remender book look at Deadly Class, it seems to be a more sincere project from him. Or the up coming Tokyo Ghost--but only because it has Sean Murphy on art.

Speaking of Murphy. Did you read Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy's WAKE yet Studlock? Absolutely amazing 10issue miniseries.

[Studlock]

Not yet, not completely--I read up till the time jump but for some reason I stopped--got distracted (I think maybe I was waiting for it to be down?) and just haven't picked it back up. I am planning to though--I love Murphy's art to much not to.

[Abyss]

Snyder's AMERICAN VAMPIRE is very entertaining. Not mindBlowing, but solid fun, rarely disappoints.

[QuickTidal]

Snyder in general when he's doing his own IP is better than when he's having to write an existing one. His Batman is great...but it's never going to touch WAKE or his other original content.

[Abyss]

Just finished THE DIVINE .
Great art, story is a bit of a mindfuck, American demolitions guy finds himself in a Vietnam'esque country where a guerilla war is being fought by children. Magic children. Also, dragons.

It's a nice short read, beautiful to look at... if i have any critique it's that as not as much of a mindfuck as it could/should have been. Worth the look.

[Nicodimas]

Abyss, on 23 July 2015 - 05:35 PM, said:

Just finished THE DIVINE .
Great art, story is a bit of a mindfuck, American demolitions guy finds himself in a Vietnam'esque country where a guerilla war is being fought by children. Magic children. Also, dragons.

It's a nice short read, beautiful to look at... if i have any critique it's that as not as much of a mindfuck as it could/should have been. Worth the look.

Hanuka makes some of the coolest screenprinted movies posters..too!
https://www.pinteres...ka-asaf-hanuka/