[QuickTidal]

stone monkey, on 24 September 2012 - 08:19 PM, said:

iirc George Perez didn't leave DC all that quietly. He had a bit of a moan about how they treated him. Greg Rucka has done the same actually, but he had a go at Marvel too

Yeah, there's been a few who left under less than decent circumstances, and there's been some creative changes as well most recently from TEEN TITANS. I think DC is more concerned about the bottom line than it is about keeping fairweather talent around which is kind of lame on their part.

[McLovin]

So, I was in the comic store, and there in front of me were the BEFORE WATCHMEN comics. On impulse, I picked up all the #1s.

And...pretty much what I feared. Meh.

[Abyss]

stone monkey, on 24 September 2012 - 08:19 PM, said:

iirc George Perez didn't leave DC all that quietly. He had a bit of a moan about how they treated him. Greg Rucka has done the same actually, but he had a go at Marvel too

Perez is a god and is entitled to all the money in the world every time he draws something. Otoh, drawing is about all he can do.
Rucka has a successful book series (Atticus Kodiak) among other things and likely could afford to tell Marvel where to go.

QuickTidal, on 24 September 2012 - 10:02 PM, said:

...I think DC is more concerned about the bottom line than it is about keeping fairweather talent around which is kind of lame on their part.

If the talent is only 'fairweather' that's likely to affect the bottom line, non?

McLovin, on 17 October 2012 - 05:17 PM, said:

So, I was in the comic store, and there in front of me were the BEFORE WATCHMEN comics. On impulse, I picked up all the #1s.

And...pretty much what I feared. Meh.

I'm sure you were warned about that upthread.

[McLovin]

Abyss, on 17 October 2012 - 05:53 PM, said:

I'm sure you were warned about that upthread.

Sadly, I didn't need to be warned. I had been avoiding this like the plague because I knew I would hate it. Then I got a wild hare and...wasted $30.

And speaking of impulse buys, also picked up UNCANNY AVENGERS #1. Haven't read AvX, but I figured I'd check out all the Marvel NOW! titles. This wasn't bad. Not great, but

Spoiler

Red Skull taking Professor X's brain

was gratifyingly WTF. Pretty obvious where they're headed (EDIT: no pun intended) with that, but still.

This post has been edited by McLovin: 17 October 2012 - 06:47 PM

[Abyss]

I don't read floppies these days and i'm far from impressed with Marvels latest attempt to reboot its numbers to compete w DC's New 52 (a debateable move considering the mixed success that effort is having), but the new THUNDERBOLTS line-up is IN.SANE.

Spoiler

[polishgenius]

Abyss, on 19 October 2012 - 04:52 PM, said:

(a debateable move considering the mixed success that effort is having)

I could be wrong because I haven't been able to really follow things for a while, but it seems to me even more debatable in light of the fact that, for all its flaws, the New 52 had at least a semblance of purpose and commitment to the idea behind it, whereas NOW!... well, it's not really a reboot, is it? Is it any more of a shakeup, in-universe, than the previous big events in the last few years left us with?

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 19 October 2012 - 08:07 PM, said:

Abyss, on 19 October 2012 - 04:52 PM, said:

(a debateable move considering the mixed success that effort is having)

I could be wrong because I haven't been able to really follow things for a while, but it seems to me even more debatable in light of the fact that, for all its flaws, the New 52 had at least a semblance of purpose and commitment to the idea behind it, whereas NOW!... well, it's not really a reboot, is it? Is it any more of a shakeup, in-universe, than the previous big events in the last few years left us with?

Marvel's always refused to do the 'reality wide reboot' thing going back to the 80s and DC's original Crisis On Infinite Earths, but they always seem to feel the pathetic need to do something, anything, in the vein of LOOK! We're issuing new #1s TOO!!!! ...so they go the shakeup route and throw in a new Avengers lineup and a new X-Men title and maybe Spidey grows a tail or something.

I actually give Marvel credit for not doing the DC thing and jettisoning their continuity every decade or so, but even so the 'BOLD NEW DIRECTION' thing is a pretty thinly veiled counter.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 24 October 2012 - 05:00 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 19 October 2012 - 08:07 PM, said:

Abyss, on 19 October 2012 - 04:52 PM, said:

(a debateable move considering the mixed success that effort is having)

I could be wrong because I haven't been able to really follow things for a while, but it seems to me even more debatable in light of the fact that, for all its flaws, the New 52 had at least a semblance of purpose and commitment to the idea behind it, whereas NOW!... well, it's not really a reboot, is it? Is it any more of a shakeup, in-universe, than the previous big events in the last few years left us with?

Marvel's always refused to do the 'reality wide reboot' thing going back to the 80s and DC's original Crisis On Infinite Earths, but they always seem to feel the pathetic need to do something, anything, in the vein of LOOK! We're issuing new #1s TOO!!!! ...so they go the shakeup route and throw in a new Avengers lineup and a new X-Men title and maybe Spidey grows a tail or something.

I actually give Marvel credit for not doing the DC thing and jettisoning their continuity every decade or so, but even so the 'BOLD NEW DIRECTION' thing is a pretty thinly veiled counter.

I agree with PG. Having been immersed in a number of titles in the NEW 52 I can' say that a large number of those titles are working better than they have since the 80's. SUPERMAN, ACTION COMICS, SWAMP THING, BATMAN, FLASH, JUSTICE LEAGUE, SUPERGIRL, BATGIRL, WONDER WOMAN, AQUAMAN...are ALL succeeding in floppies. The stories are not hackneyed and with fresh voices and talent on board in a lot of cases it feels like comics are actually NEW again for once. And I mean proper new, not just reboot new.

So I defo think that's what Marvel is attempting to ape, but they aren't really doing it for the right reasons I guess? I read UNCANNY AVENGERS #1 and while it was decent, it certainly isn't plowing any new snow and feels a bit of been there done that? Marvel had a chance to seriously reboot their whole universe with the Ultimate series back in the late 90's...but they didn't have the cojones to make it a publisher wide, all titles reboot. They left a bunch of titles in continuity and made the Ultimate Universe an Alt universe form their main one. That was a stumble I think looking back as I feel that a number of the Ultimate line titles were REALLY worthy (Ultimate X-Men, Spiderman, Iron Man, Ultimates)...so NOW just doens't seem to be doing much more than lets say HOUSE OF M or FEAR ITSELF did. It feels a little like CIVIL WAR again I guess.

Just my two cents.

Right now DC really is in a golden age. 13 issues into most of the titles runs and not only is it not stagnating, I think it's flying for the first time in a long time.

[amphibian]

I read a bunch of Sandman affiliated comics (Merv Pumpkinhead, Thessaly, Petrefax, Bast, Love Street, The Corinthian, Death's books, The Dreaming).

The Dreaming is easily the best of the ones I read. I thought it was going places that were astoundingly good before the finale got rushed up a bit. Bill Willingham and Caitlin Kiernan are very talented writers and Willingham's success with Fables is not a fluke at all. Bast was particularly good as well and I enjoyed the loosey goosey style of Merv and Thessaly. Death's books were alright, but it suffers a bit from not doing much to take the readers someplace new.

Looking forwards to getting through House of Mystery and Destiny's books.

On a semi-related note, I have all the trade paperbacks of Planetary and they are glorious. Easily the second best comics series ever written - The Sandman being the best - and it's astonishingly consistent throughout its run (more so than Gaiman's work).

[Abyss]

i'm not actively reading any of the Nu52 so my opinion is based on flipping thru some collected editions, but i'm not seeing a smashing level of originality.
Good stories and solid art, sure, but nothing i haven't seen before. It seems like the only way they could rejuvenate the line was to give writers the space to retell old stories slightly differently... the first JLA story was great, but at route it was 'heroes meet, fight, put aside difference to fight Darkseid' and we've seen that many many times before.

[Illuyankas]

(also the search engine is iffy if I have to go to the third page of results for searching 'comics' to find the thread titled 'The Comics Thread' which was posted in a week ago)

[McLovin]

Not a fan of Deadpool, but DEADPOOL #1 made me LOL.

Enjoyed A+X #1 (specifically the Cap/Cable part).

IRON MAN #1 was...OK, just OK.

[McLovin]

Another report from the Marvel NOW! front. This week the titles I was most excited about dropped.

THOR: GOD OF THUNDER #1 - I like the three-points-in-time perspective, be interesting to see what they do with it. Really there's no limit to what they could do. Exciting.

ALL-NEW X-MEN #1 - OK, I would have done it differently, and I think I see where they're going. Not sure I'm going to be sticking with this one for very long. Depends how Jean Grey is handled.

FANTASTIC FOUR #1 - OK, we'll see. Like THOR, they could really just blow things wide open, so there's potential. Not sure I'll be picking up the companion FF series, because Miss Thing makes me cringe.

Interesting thematic link this week between X-MEN and FANTASTIC FOUR

Spoiler

with both Beast and Mr. Fantastic revealed to be slowly dying.

I guess Marvel's all about the thematic links now.

Did not pick up X-MEN: LEGACY #1. Didn't seem that interesting, but I may pick it up for completion's sake when CAPTAIN AMERICA and INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK drop next week.

[Abyss]

McLovin, on 15 November 2012 - 02:08 PM, said:

...ALL-NEW X-MEN #1 - OK, I would have done it differently, and I think I see where they're going. Not sure I'm going to be sticking with this one for very long. Depends how Jean Grey is handled.

I'm on record as not buying floppies until they're collected, so this is a bit sideways, but i seriously dislike the decision to bring the original five forward in time rather than develop new characters or existing ones to tell whatever story. It's that kind of endless recycling that put me off X-comics years ago.

Now instead of resurrecting characters they just import alternate dimension/timeline versions of them, see also Nightcrawler.

Quote

Did not pick up X-MEN: LEGACY #1. Didn't seem that interesting, ...

Some little part of me was curious to see how a storyline around a semi-sane Legion might go but c-list characters rarely get written to their real potential even where there's a cool idea behind them somewhere.

[McLovin]

Abyss, on 15 November 2012 - 04:08 PM, said:

i seriously dislike the decision to bring the original five forward in time rather than develop new characters or existing ones to tell whatever story.

Semi-spoilerish-speculative, but I think in this case it's actually an introductory thing to set-up something else. I could be wrong.

[Abyss]

McLovin, on 15 November 2012 - 04:15 PM, said:

Abyss, on 15 November 2012 - 04:08 PM, said:

i seriously dislike the decision to bring the original five forward in time rather than develop new characters or existing ones to tell whatever story.

Semi-spoilerish-speculative, but I think in this case it's actually an introductory thing to set-up something else. I could be wrong.

Could be. It would be fun for them to turn out to be War-Skrulls or Sentinels or Shadow King mindwipes or something, but even that would be a recylced plotline.

[Silk]

Wolverine : The Best There Is - Contagion

While looking for more Marvel Zombie titles I came across the above title.

Anyone gone through this? From the synopsis on Forbidden planet its where the mighty one shows who the best there is realy is.....

http://www.forbidden...oducts_id=67355

[QuickTidal]

You Marvel people amuse me...you think that's air your breathing? Interesting.

DC front:

BATMAN: Snyder and Capullo chase their Court Of Owls event with Death OF The Family in which the Joker (who previously cut his own face off) has reattached his face with staples and an old leather belt...no seriously, it's fucked up...and is now systematically dismantling his Bat family beginning with....Alfred and Gordon...Issue #14 was excellent. These two guys are a dream team and I hope they write Batman forever!

SWAMP THING: Snyder again, with Paquette on pencils, the Rotworld event arc is in full swing now and Swamp Thing with Deadman and Poison Ivy in tow are in the Parliament of the Trees (the last place on earth that lives...the Rot has devoured all else) and are sending their only soldier out to combat the father of his love and the destroyer of the world Antoine Arcane. Solid, solid mystical storytelling, that actually hearkens back to Alan Moore's days on the title.

SUPERBOY: I picked up issues #14 of this because it's the first part of the crossover event Hel on Earth...and while the majority of it was quite entertaining there are a few dialogue mistakes that are jarring...mainly when Superboy's hot next door neighbor sits behind her door and calls him "cutie" out loud...seemed...weird. Thart said, the Teen Titans show up in the 3rd act and blew me away trying to fight the new villain (who is nameless yet) but he just throws them through the wall like pesky flies. However, building on her suit powers from the last TT issue, Wonder Girl is a force to be reckoned with and she's still the most impresive TT. A good beginning of the arc though.

I've got a few other issues to get with, I'll chime in after I've read them.

Oh and I think at least ONE Bat Family will die in the next issue...and think it will probably be Red Hood since there are rumours that his title is on the rocks (though I love it) so he'd be an easy choice to kill off. PERSONALLY I'd love to see this arc put Barbara Gordon back in the wheelchair...since it was the Joker who did it originally, it would make sense for him to do it again...and we would get to see Oracle built from the ground up again...and then the fanboy in me would get what he wanrs and maybe I'd get to see Stephanie Brown (my fave Batgirl) back in the cowl....ah pipe dreams.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 16 November 2012 - 02:44 PM

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 16 November 2012 - 02:40 PM, said:

You Marvel people amuse me...you think that's air your breathing? Interesting.

DC front:

...Oh and I think at least ONE Bat Family will die in the next issue...and think it will probably be Red Hood since there are rumours that his title is on the rocks (though I love it) so he'd be an easy choice to kill off. PERSONALLY I'd love to see this arc put Barbara Gordon back in the wheelchair...since it was the Joker who did it originally, it would make sense for him to do it again...and we would get to see Oracle built from the ground up again...and then the fanboy in me would get what he wanrs and maybe I'd get to see Stephanie Brown (my fave Batgirl) back in the cowl....ah pipe dreams.

QT QT QT.... you have sadly drank the Koolaid if you think there's much 'new' in New52. FFS look at your last paragraph .... kill Jason Todd... again... Babs crippled by the Joker.... again.... Babs as Oracle.... wait for it... wait for it.... A.GAIN.

I grant you there's some interesting stuff happening in Swamp Thing, but that's a striking exception that proves the rule.

[McLovin]

QuickTidal, on 16 November 2012 - 02:40 PM, said:

You Marvel people amuse me...you think that's air your breathing? Interesting.

I'm a product of my time - the 1980s. Back then, Marvel just had the more interesting stories and characters. DC really didn't get interesting till the 90s, which is my personal "lost decade".