[Abyss]

Looking at another year, probably longer, before the second DEMON SLAYER INFINITY CASTLE movie, and well, i'm impatient, so i decided to read the Manga, not the entire thing, but the Infinity Castle arc being adapted into the three movies. About 2/3rds through, past the movie, Just Finished the second major confrontation and into the finale and....

and...
and...
and...


HOLY FUCNKING DEMONFUCKS THIS IS AMAZEBALLS

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 23 September 2025 - 03:20 PM, said:

Looking at another year, probably longer, before the second DEMON SLAYER INFINITY CASTLE movie, and well, i'm impatient, so i decided to read the Manga, not the entire thing, but the Infinity Castle arc being adapted into the three movies. About 2/3rds through, past the movie, Just Finished the second major confrontation and into the finale and....

and...
and...
and...


HOLY FUCNKING DEMONFUCKS THIS IS AMAZEBALLS

the rest of this did not disappoint btw. It's not deep, but it is wide and colorful and wild.

[Abyss]

Just finished SUPERGIRL: WOMAN OF TOMORROW.
I have to agree w the majority on this one... it's exceptional.
Flawless art, beautifully constructed story, great use of comics as a medium all around.

[JPK]

On Friday I found myself a bit bored with what I've been reading and decided it was time to dip back into a graphic novel to give myself a break. Didn't quite feel like Hellboy or Turtles so I started the first TPB of another well regarded series that's been on my trp for aaaaages.

Anyways, the first 6 trades of Saga are, indeed, fucking excellent comics. I suspect I'm not coming up for air again until I'm through the other 6 as well.

[Abyss]

JPK, on 22 December 2025 - 05:28 PM, said:

On Friday I found myself a bit bored with what I've been reading and decided it was time to dip back into a graphic novel to give myself a break. Didn't quite feel like Hellboy or Turtles so I started the first TPB of another well regarded series that's been on my trp for aaaaages.

Anyways, the first 6 trades of Saga are, indeed, fucking excellent comics. I suspect I'm not coming up for air again until I'm through the other 6 as well.

It's a brilliant work, and beautiful to look at. Some of those full page panels are jaw-dropping. Some of the plot decisions are perhaps less well planned than might have been but overall it's just a stunning run by some truly talented creatives.

Also, some of the story beats are going to crush you. Enjoy! Come back w thoughts when you're done. You're doomed.

[JPK]

You know those songs that are super bright and poppy and sound super happy but lyrically are actually dark af? Like Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People...

Yeah, the opening page of TBP #8 is that. Holy fuck.

Spoiler

Welcome to Abortion Town

[Abyss]

JPK, on 23 December 2025 - 05:06 AM, said:

You know those songs that are super bright and poppy and sound super happy but lyrically are actually dark af? Like Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People...

Yeah, the opening page of TBP #8 is that. Holy fuck.

Spoiler

Welcome to Abortion Town

I won't spoil since i don't know how far along you are, but while it seems like they're initially going for a fairly straightforward pro-choice approach, some of the twists make it a whole lot more interesting.

[JPK]

Abyss, on 23 December 2025 - 04:47 PM, said:

JPK, on 23 December 2025 - 05:06 AM, said:

You know those songs that are super bright and poppy and sound super happy but lyrically are actually dark af? Like Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People...

Yeah, the opening page of TBP #8 is that. Holy fuck.

Spoiler

Welcome to Abortion Town

I won't spoil since i don't know how far along you are, but while it seems like they're initially going for a fairly straightforward pro-choice approach, some of the twists make it a whole lot more interesting.

I just finished up with Phang in TPB#7 and then took a peek at the first page of 8, which is what I shared above. I expect to get through 8 today. I own through #11 but will likely pick up #12 asap.

[polishgenius]

Went on a bit of an Absolute spree over Christmas, as my brother who I'm visiting has the first trade of Batman, I got Martian Manhunter for Christmas, and then I also bought Superman and WW.


I was amused because although 'darker DC universe' was always gonna have some commonality with what Snyder was trying to do in the Snyderverse, Superman and Batman in particular seemed pretty direct responses to those films. Batman because it had the stylised hyperviolence and very distinct artistic style but still remembered that Batman should be Batman, and what you change shouldn't be, you know, his core characteristics but the journey to how he gets there and his circumstances to bring them to bear. Superman because the part about Kal walking the Earth from place to place helping out, and Lois tracking him, seemed very inspired by the early part of Man of Steel, but makes it a core of the series, but, again had a very different idea of what makes Supes Supes and it's not THE POWER.


WW doesn't seem as directly correlated to anything in her movies, but it's got a similar vibe to both the other series. It might be my favourite of them tbqh- I mean, she's fighting demon Kaiju. But also. Batman has the big spectacle, Superman is a bit more considered and dense, but I think WW finds a good balance of both. The art in all three bangs. I coulda maybe used a bit more pop in the colours of WW, but maybe not, it might not have worked. And Hayden Sherman's JH Williams III-inspired framing really suits what the story is going for.

Martian Manhunter is a little different because there's really no resemblance to the character in the mainstream 'verse, in either persona or backstory. It's way, way more out-there than that, the kind of concept Grant Morrison would be proud of. I won't go into detail coz it's best discovered for yourself, but surreal technicolor detective noir is a starting point. Deniz Camp is a star*, as is artist Javier Rodriguez.


Have to say the art in all four books is outstanding, and I dunno if it was a deliberate consideration but all four books swerve a common complaint I've had with a lot of superhero comics in the last few years, which is that the stories get so dense the artist ends up cramming things that really should get more space. The art has time to breathe here.

*If you haven't read 20th Century Men, read that too, it's exceptional

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 28 December 2025 - 11:24 AM

[Abyss]

I've enjoyed Absolute Supes and WW, haven't tried MM, Flash, or GL yet but will eventually. Bats... i just can't get past his MASSIVE muscles/really tiny head.

[polishgenius]

MM is the must, really. I will get GL eventually but a few commentators have noted it's a slow burn that really gets going in later issues, so I'll wait for trade 2 and get the whole thing.



Anyway, did a London run that netted a couple more comics:


Power Fantasy vol. 2. Yeah, this is just really really good. Proper long-form comic storytelling. With incredible art. Combines character and political drama with some incredible specticle and multiple properly good twists. Should be a classic.


Vol. 1 of The Ultimates, by Deniz Camp (with the inclusion of the relevant Hickman Ultimate Invasion issue that sets it up). Yeah, Camp is a star. I've read three comics by him, and all are completely different, and all are really good. This version of the Ultimates is basically an issue-by-issue series of short adventures gathering members for the team to stand against the universe's big bad.

(sidebar: I haven't overall been that interested in the current Ultimates universe, but I do think the idea of making basically a temporary spinoff, where every project has a definite finite end-date and a clear end goal, is pretty cool. It is funny to me how the Absolute universe is so clearly modelled on this Ultimate Universe iteration, down to how they were created in-universe, but Absolute did a much better job of making clear why their individual lines stand out from the OGs. That's a negative initially, but reading this and more into the project it does feel like that's in part because for Absolute those differences are the raison d'etre, whereas here the actual aim is the overall thing and that controlled ending and the differences in the heroes are fitting around that. I do also like that the line was started by Hickman but is being driven and will be finished by Camp - it definitely feels like the established star giving the new guy some shine)


Vol 2 of Something Is Killing the Children. Continues not to be the sort of thing I'd normally read but is so well-drawn and slickly written that it works. I see that Netflix had started to make an adaptation but stopped and now it's with Blumhouse- which amuses me coz it's gonna draw comparisons to Stranger Things just by virtue of the setting and horror premise, but it's way too dark to really be a successor to that show. It really does look like Netflix thought that was what was gonna happen but then realised that a comic which has splash-panels of children being torn in half probably isn't what their audience is going to be looking for.

It is interesting to me that James Tynion IV, usually one of the biggest purveyors off that over-cramped, busy writing style in his DC entries, has no such problem here. Whereas Camp - who does not have that issue in Absolute MM or 20th Century Men- does somewhat fall into it in Ultimates, though not as much as some creators do. It definitely does seem to be something resulting from company expectations, especially on team books and crossovers.