[Morgoth]

She does return again in the last volume of New X-men, and subsequently resets time so that she, among others, stay dead

[wolf_2099]

Morgoth;243044 said:

She does return again in the last volume of New X-men, and subsequently resets time so that she, among others, stay dead

I'd that is more of an elseworlds story, likes Days of Future Past, or other in the future tales of X-Men.

The art was fantastic on it, though.

[Illuyankas]

I'm going to miss the Ultimates.

[wolf_2099]

The Ultimates ended before this aborition of Jeph Leob and Joe Madawhatever started. The only Ultimates that ever were, were the awesomeness that is Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch

If you were thinking about reading it, don't. It's one of the worst things I have read, they ignored the previous two volumes, completely changed the characters, butchered continuity and seemingly forgot one of the characters was asian.

[Illuyankas]

Exactly. It started off poorly, with

Spoiler

Ultimate Hawkeye being forced to watch a video of the woman who killed his wife and kids fucking his teammate on a screen the size of a barn,

and got worse from there. Like I said, I'm going to miss the first two volumes.

[polishgenius]

I answered my own earlier question about unconventional superhero stories; bought Welcome to Tranquility, about a superhero retirement town. Gail Simone is awesome, one of my favourite comic writers. Reminds me of Joss Whedon, or possibly the other way around.

[Quick~]

my favourite comics would be Watchmen and Preacher, both of which I think are excellent.

I read a lot of manga as well.

[wolf_2099]

Joss Whedon was around long before Simone, well writing anyway, maybe not comics.

If you like Simone, go buy her Agent X/Deadpool stuff, I think it is her first real comics work, but I think it is by far her best and funniest.

[polishgenius]

wolf_2099;244184 said:

Joss Whedon was around long before Simone, well writing anyway, maybe not comics.

If you like Simone, go buy her Agent X/Deadpool stuff, I think it is her first real comics work, but I think it is by far her best and funniest.

I'm thinking quality of their comics more than anything else. It's damn close, but I think Simone's better so far. Though they both have comparatively short careers.

Neither's comics are as good as Whedon's screen work (or, more specifically, Firefly), but hey.

The Deadpool stuff's been quite hard to get hold of. Though I think it was reprinted at some point last year so I'll have another look. I'm a fan of her Secret Six stuff though. And hers was easily the best writing involved in the various IC leadins.

[stone monkey]

I love crossovers - the big Universe changing stuff (I'm old enough to remember a time when they didn't happen - I'm also old enough to have bought Crisis on Infinite Earths and Secret Wars) When they're done properly, they're huge stories on the biggest of canvasses that remind you why you do the spandex thing after all. When they're done badly, they're soul destroying.

Most of the recent ones have been appalling: Amazons Attack f'rinstance; brilliant idea, terrible execution. The rumour has it that high-level editorial meddling was responsible for that particular clusterfuck.

The new Ultimates has no redeeming features whatsover, even the art's a bit crap; it will not be propping up my reading pile again. On the other hand, the new Luna Brothers book: The Sword is outstanding (It's hot, paraplegic, martial-arts action; according to one internet wag)

[wolf_2099]

polishgenius;244195 said:

The Deadpool stuff's been quite hard to get hold of. Though I think it was reprinted at some point last year so I'll have another look. I'm a fan of her Secret Six stuff though. And hers was easily the best writing involved in the various IC leadins.

I think the only stuff of Simones that compares to Whedon is the deadpool/agent X stuff.

However, Simone is the better comic writer by far. Whedon is so bad with getting books out on time you forget about what his cliffhangers are and generally just stop giving a crap.


@stone monkey. How many comics do you collect a month? The biggest complaint I hear of late is all these bloody crossovers that require you to pick up 6 different books to understand it. It's been none stop major events after major event the last few years, they tend to loose their impact.

[polishgenius]

I read all comics in trade format, so his attitude to deadlines doesn't fuss me so.

Mind, you have to at least partly blame Cassaday. After all, it's in large part his fault that Planetary's been delayed like three years and foreshortened to get it done. Granted, from what I gather he had some pretty good reasons for his delays, but you can't just blame the writers.

Have you read Welcome to Tranquility then? Because I'd say that's pretty valid for comparison with anything Whedon's done*. Not as obviously funny but very fun. And witty nonetheless.


*Bar Firefly which Whedon doesn't tend to match either. Each to his own, though. And I've not read Whedon's comics aside from X-men and the Firefly fill-in, which was okay.

[wolf_2099]

I read Welcome to Tranquility, I don't like it as much as the other stuff, but it is amusing.

Fray was an excellent Slayer story, assuming you read it in trade.

You avoid alot of the problems with these high profile writers if you read in trade, unfortuantly, I dislike trades.

[polishgenius]

Oh, yeah, have read Fray, ages ago. T'was good.

There's all sorts of reasons why I prefer trades, but most of them are directly related to issues of mine, so I see why a lot of people prefer floppies.

[stone monkey]

@ Wolf 2099 -
I get about 10-15 or floppies each month. It really does depend on publication schedules. I also buy trades for the things I want to read but don't (or can't) get in floppy form. At this point in time I'm not buying many titles that are actually in continuity (ie Marvel or DC Universe stories). Although that's mainly because the mainstream superheroic universe stuff isn't of that much interest to me at the moment.

Generally I've found that if a crossover is done well you can pick and choose which tie-ins you read without loss of enjoyment. One of the major problems with Amazons Attack IMO was that you absolutely had to buy Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman and Teen Titans to have any kind of clue as to what was going on. Which was not good. The best example of a well handled crossover I can remember is DC One Million from about 10 years ago. It was short (5 weeks iirc), there was only one title that was vital (JLA) and it was a completely mental story (Plot points include: Green Lantern contains a supernova in the future solar system, Martian Manhunter in hiding disguised as the Martian desert and Superman living in the sun for 80 thousand years - total insanity)


As far as I was aware the Planetary delays were, as he himself has admitted, mostly Warren Ellis' fault (he did have very good reason; he was looking after his terminally ill father) and therefore, as he wasn't getting the scripts, John Cassaday went off and did other work. As far as I've seen, Cassaday is quite a speedy artist - surprisingly so given the high quality of his work. And he's nowhere near as slow as Brian Hitch, for example - who is far from the slowest worker out there (I think Travis Charest probably takes that award)

I do understand that a lot of people prefer trades so that they can get a complete story in one hit (presumably the reason why people buy a tv series in one go, even though they had the opportunity to watch it as it was transmitted) And trades are easier to get hold - especially if you're reading comics in another language (Almost all the manga I read is in the form of trades, for example) But I still prefer the episodic nature of comic book storytelling - a good cliffhanger counts for nothing if you don't have to wait for it to be resolved IMO. And there are few things as satisfying as getting the week's titles on New Comic Day...

[polishgenius]

Yeah, I got it the wrong way round. T'was Ellis who had the bloody good reasons. Then Cassaday couldn't get back to the series because of other commitments. My bad.

I think Hitch is overrated. His people look great, but his composition is sometimes lacking. The last volume of Ultimates suffered for that, I think - a few of the pages and panels got messy and disorganised. And there are better drawers of action too.
Not that I'm saying he's bad though, just not as good as he's raved about.

[stone monkey]

My main problem with Hitch is that his work sometimes comes across as an inferior version of Alan Davis' - although I suspect that has a lot to do with Paul Neary's inking both of them. Davis is the much better draughtsman IMO.

Because he has found himself typecast as the guy who draws widescreen, decompressed superheroics Hitch often ends up drawing panels that have to contain too much info (too many figures, explosions etc.). Although I think his work on The Authority was much clearer than his work on The Ultimates, so me may be that he's carefully drawing to script (implying that Mark Millar's scripts may be less clear than Warren Ellis', I guess)

[polishgenius]

Or possibly that Millar's scripts are more precise, allowing Hitch less judgement. But given that Frank Quietly does, I reckon, better (hideous people aside) on Millar's Authority, I reckon you may be right.

I agree that his Authority stuff is better, especially the first arc. Nonetheless, he just doesn't exhibit the imaginaton or clearness of some of the other big superhero artists like Perez or Jimenez, who both do similar kinds of art.

[stone monkey]

Given I've been looking at Perez art since the mid 80s, I actually find him kinda dated. I mean, it's beautiful draughtsmanship and composition and all that, but it's also the same stuff I've been seeing for the last 20 years. With Jimenez, while I'm not sure I get on with his style I do agree with you about his clarity.

Personally I like my artists to be a bit idiosyncratic - especially if they're drawing spandex-clad superhero fare. Which is why I think Quitely, while something of a misjudgement for The Authority is absolutely spot-on for All Star Superman (The first trade of which is a thing of beauty BTW)

[polishgenius]

I agree with you, I prefer more off-beat artists in general, I just named those two because they work the same ground as Hitch. Cassaday, Immonen, Nguyen, that kind of thing. I reckon Neil Googe is a name to look out for, after reading the Abnett-Lanning Majestic series he was one of the inkers on, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was him on Welcome to Tranquility. I don't know how well known he is, yet, but I like him. Very OTT and cartoony, but it's got a charm to it that some of the more over the top artists miss.

I've got the A-S Supes trade, I agree with you on that too.

That said, I do like a good Brent Anderson/Gene Ha type too.