[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 28 January 2015 - 08:24 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 28 January 2015 - 08:08 PM, said:

I'll just be happy the 616 not only will survive but will once again *for the first time in how many years?) become the defacto Marvel Universe again!

When was it not, other than about 20min back in the 90s when the original Ultimate books came and went and the comics press was all 'oh noes it's replacing continuity heavy 616!!!!'?

I've always felt that the Ultimate line unfairly impinges on the status quo as it presents an Alternate possible version. Maybe it's just me.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 28 January 2015 - 08:51 PM, said:

Abyss, on 28 January 2015 - 08:24 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 28 January 2015 - 08:08 PM, said:

I'll just be happy the 616 not only will survive but will once again *for the first time in how many years?) become the defacto Marvel Universe again!

When was it not, other than about 20min back in the 90s when the original Ultimate books came and went and the comics press was all 'oh noes it's replacing continuity heavy 616!!!!'?

I've always felt that the Ultimate line unfairly impinges on the status quo as it presents an Alternate possible version. Maybe it's just me.

It never came close except for those 20min or so.

I suspect that it did accomplish bringing in some new readers, and prompted Marvel to up their game on a lot of the parallel books. We might even give the original ULTIMATES series (1 and 2... there was no 3) some credit for THE AVENGERS film, but ultimately (hee), i don't think it was ever close.

[amphibian]

I was given a huge stack of the Superman/Batman comics from maybe 2002 to 2010 by a friend.

Some of these are ok or even great. But most of these are terrible in a bewildering amount of ways - even accounting for the goofy team-up dynamic.

I think there's something genuinely wrong with the monthly or weekly mode of comics delivery and/or how DC handled that particular title for something like 6.5 years out of 8. Most of the villains have abysmal schemes or are badly written to the point of breaking their characters and this is a stage of comics where they're better on the average than what went before in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

The same friend gave me his library of DC animated movies (all of them because he's a huuuuge DC nerd in a good way). I've been watching them.

I think the movies are mostly better than any of the comics the movies are based on and that's due in part to Bruce Timm's work. He assembles crews that seem to hit on the best sensibilities of the characters just about every time and it's surprisingly cool to watch the driving force behind Batman: The Animated Series continue to do well in the DC universe.


Batman: The Mask of The Phantasm - Amazingly good. This is the best kind of villain/anti-hero - one with a genuine story and real threat.
Batman & Mr. Freeze: Absolute Zero - Fairly good. Kind of a weird scheme by Freeze.
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker - This visual representation/Mark Hamill's voice is the definitive Joker. Batman Beyond is also my favorite because it brings forwards all the good things about the Batmans of the past, gives the young hero great fallibility, keeps Bruce Wayne and his money/access around and the tech/future allows for really cool villains.
Batman: The Mystery of the Batwoman - Above average. Bane was kind of wasted in this though. Should have given the menace to the mobsters themselves instead of jamming a cool Batman villain in there. The Batwoman was a good idea, but perhaps a little too much time was given to establishing romance. Who falls in love in 15 minutes while on a quest for revenge?
Batman vs. Dracula - Goofy good time.
Superman: Brainiac Attacks - It gets superhero combat pretty ok, but this was a flat story. Brainiac doesn't have any real bite to him. This might be because I don't know squat about Brainiac in the comics or previous history between the two. He seems like a more subtle villain not quite suited to a movie though.
Teen Titans: Mission Tokyo - Other than the pastiches of art and references, I mostly hated this movie. Just not well done.
Death of Superman - I'm actually familiar with this storyline due to a novelization of the comics storyline I read long ago. I'm ok with the cutting out of just about everyone not intrinsically linked to the story. But they still blanked on the important thing - how did Superman come back? Superhero combat was pretty excellent in this.
Justice League: A New Frontier - Read the comics, which is mostly trash storyline after trash storyline. The movie is slightly better, but ugggh. Just a waste of space.
Batman: Gotham Knight - I very much liked the multiple short stories mode of this. The animation was usually excellent and the creativity was high. Probably higher than the adaptations of the longer comic book stories themselves.
Wonder Woman - Mostly ok. Ares is a good antagonist. Wonder Woman was written well. The storming of the White House was idiotic. Why'd they have to center this on the US? Just make it a storming of a carrier group or some giant base. Why do any of the stupidly fast travel that they do?
Watchmen: Black Freighter - Ok. Not much more than a "what we see may not necessarily be what actually is" story. This is sorta the problem with just porting a small comic to the screen, although I'm sure it made money due to the connect to Watchmen.
Green Lantern: First Flight - Sinistro's fall is absurdly quick. So too is the rise of Jordan. Not my cup of tea. GL might be best suited to a TV series, where the writers can do a slow build to really get us empathizing with the characters rather than them being presented to us a priori in a ho-hum way (which they tend to do with GL).
Superman & Batman: Public Enemies - Ok. Not great. I read the comic storyline it's based on and that seemed to handle it slightly better, even if the base story is kinda ehhhh.
Justice League: Crisis of Two Earths - I really liked this. My only quibbles were that Batman seemed oddly unprepared for dimensional kickback after the others left and they should have shown how Luthor got ahold of the blue kryptonite. Otherwise, it was very solid to me. Probably the best explanation of multiple-worlds within the storyline that I've seen. Good villains and good combat.

[Abyss]

Worked through some Marvel Meth on vacation... basically all the xbooks leading into BATTLE OF THE ATOM and then after up to just before ORIGINAL SIN.

I stand by my view that Bendis is a genius for bringing the original five X-Men forward in time, and making beautiful music with them. NEW X-MEN and UNCANNY were far far better than they had any right to be with that plus a depowered main cast and a bunch of new and not particularly interesting (nitially) mutants. FFS.... he took a fat guy, codenamed him 'Goldballs' and made it work. Genius.

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN... the original run was surprisingly strong. I like the idea of (a depowered... yes, apparently this was a thing in early 2014) Logan trying to run a school and he's always played well off younger/newer characters. The book did surprisingly good work with Quentin Quire in particular. Unfortunately a reboot and a new writing team weren't nearly as good and things fell apart on a Phoenix-centric storyline. Will be interesting to see whether they recover.

AMAZING X-MEN... bringing Nightcrawler back was inevitable, but a heaven vs hell vs demon pirates adventure was probably the bestest way to do it. Great start of a run that horribly goes to crap with 'World War Wendigo'.

X-MEN... nice steady run with an all female cast that was well written and an interesting overarching plotline of a conflict between two mutant superviruses. Good fun.

CYCLOPS... sending teenage Cyke into space with Corsair and the Starjammers is perfect and awesome.

BATTLE OF THE ATOM itself... meh... futureverse storylines are always fun in the sens of giving us a look at a possible future and neat takes on established characters, but the actual story was unoriginal, predictable and at times borderline silly. A sad example of why mega-crossovers aren't always a good idea. Saved somewhat by introducing a handful of new story elements across various x-books, even if they are time-travel based. Again.

[Abyss]

CABLE AND X-FORCE... Cable has visions, assembles new gritty team to deal with crisis. Boring.
Cable shoots an entire Avengers team in the face, Domino and Colossus making mutant-power tequila sex, Forge and Doc Nemisis doing robot battles, Hope Summers giving Cable shit for cutting her out of all the shooty exsplody stuff... GREAT!

[Stormcat]

I got the new Hawkeye for my birthday and I am really enjoying it. What else is new out there right now?

[Salt-Man Z]

If you have any intention of checking out the Transformers: More Than the Meets the Eye comic (AKA The Best Comic You're Not Reading) the entire series is up for digital download on Humble Bundle, and you can pay whatever you want! As of the time I post this, it will be available for only the next 2 days and 2 hours. If you want to throw some more money out, you can get the companion series Robots in Disguise (recently retitled to just Transformers), as well as the MTMTE/RID crossover event, Dark Cybertron (which includes issue #s 23-27 of each series.)

I can't sing this comic's praises enough, and I'm not the only one. Check it out!

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 09 March 2015 - 03:51 PM

[Primateus]

New Avengers #31. Mother of zombie jesus did I not see that coming!

If you're not reading the Everything Dies story, you should really consider getting it. It's really, really bloody awesome!

[QuickTidal]

So Jason Aaron and john Cassaday have been absolutely nailing the OT vibe in their Marvel STAR WARS comic...first official new canon story that takes place in between ANH and TESB (literally following right on the first films heels). The story and art have been completely stellar and I've been rather enjoying it.

Now, Cassaday is leaving the art position as of #6...and today they announced that none other than Stuart Immonen is taking over.

I could NOT be happier. I love Cassaday's work (PLANETARY thank you muchly)...but for me Immonen is simply the cream of the artist crop. To have him work on a STAR WARS book is a dream.

Anyways, all SW fans ought to be reading what Marvel is doing with their Star Wars universe, so far it's solid stuff.

[McLovin]

Good to know. I await the trades.

[QuickTidal]

No worries. I'll update this thread if the first arc stays that way and if the trade will be worth purchase.

[McLovin]

On a related note, I see Marvel has begun re-releasing the original comic series in HB omnibus format. The first one covers ANH through TESB, the first 44 issues. Sooooo tempting....

And hey, isn't Marvel also doing solo comics series Leia and Vader? Tried those yet?

[QuickTidal]

McLovin, on 18 March 2015 - 04:45 PM, said:

On a related note, I see Marvel has begun re-releasing the original comic series in HB omnibus format. The first one covers ANH through TESB, the first 44 issues. Sooooo tempting....

And hey, isn't Marvel also doing solo comics series Leia and Vader? Tried those yet?

They have released both first issues of the Vader and Leia comics...The Vader one is apparently worth the ride so far...but the Leia one doesn't allow her to be the star as much as it should, and as a result is not really worth the ride so far. Both those things could change as we're only at issue 1.

My only complaint so far is that the variant covers of the main line (and there have been a LOT) have a line that are strictly the Toy Blister Packs from the original toys for each figure (First issue was Luke, Second Leia, Third Obi-Wan ect. - see below) as the cover. It hits my nostalgia button, but the price scheme for the variants (due to low print runs) is astronomical and just not worth the cost. The main covers are great though...but something about those toy pack covers just makes me want them.

spoilered for size.

Spoiler

 wpid-wp-1417879053773.jpg (263.51K)
Number of downloads: 0

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 18 March 2015 - 05:03 PM

[Abyss]

Some childhood things should be left alone and not revisited.

STRIKEFORCE MORITURI was, in theory, a neat series in the late 80s early 90s from Marvel... Earth is invaded by aliens, science makes certain people who fit the profile into superheroes with max one year to live. I read the first year of it a while ago but didn't have the rest of the run.

Ffwd to a few years ago, and in response to this mess...

http://www.bleedingc...d-peter-gillis/

(TL;DR - Syfy wants to make a tv series, original creator and Marvel fight over ownership, no tv series)

....Marvel releases new collection, which i bought and finally got around to reading.

Mistake.

The first 20 issues are pretty great. The writing and art team get the characters, write interesting plots, and really take advantage of the core concept that all of the main cast can/will die, usually at really really bad times because the more they use their powers, the faster (and more spectacularly/messily/gloriously) it happens. They get into the Morituri as tragic celebrities publicly dying to save their world. It's a great concept, one that would work just fine today... i see why Syfy wanted it.

Then with issue 21 the writing team changed.

And wow that fell apart quickly. .... awful dialogue, character personalities all over the place, plot twists verging on idiotic. Awful, just awful. They still kill off characters and introduce new Morituri, and even have some great designs (at one point they create a cadre of black-ops assassin Morituri called the Tiger, the Ghost and the Wind... i wish it had been as cool as it sounds...), but the writing is so bad that doesn't save it. The big answer to the alien invasion... they turn on a device that calls in new aliens who wipe out the old aliens. Way to neuter the concept. But WAIT, the new aliens are evil too! But way less interesting. They use clones and politics and yes if you happened to watch the old WAR OF THE WORLDS tv show from the late 80s/early 90s you're right that is suspiciously similarly lame. And so are the surviving Morituri, but i blame the writing for that.

I pushed through to the bitter end so you don't have to.

[QuickTidal]

I've made a big switch in how I consume comics. As the comics I have on my pull list have been finishing up recent arcs, I've gone to tradewaiting on them all. It's less costly than floppies, allows arcs to be read in one go as opposed to month by month...and it's also a space saver. Cost was my main reason though. 6-8 issue arcs in floppies cost me between $24 and $32 over time....the same arcs in trade are normally between $12 and $18.

Sidebar: picked up Remender and Tocchini's first trade for LOW from IMAGE and it's damned fine stuff!

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 30 April 2015 - 01:11 PM, said:

I've made a big switch in how I consume comics. As the comics I have on my pull list have been finishing up recent arcs, I've gone to tradewaiting on them all. It's less costly than floppies, allows arcs to be read in one go as opposed to month by month...and it's also a space saver. Cost was my main reason though. 6-8 issue arcs in floppies cost me between $24 and $32 over time....the same arcs in trade are normally between $12 and $18.

Sidebar: picked up Remender and Tocchini's first trade for LOW from IMAGE and it's damned fine stuff!

Welcome to the dark side. It's nicer here... we have more money to spend on the pie and the scotch.

Once i outgrew any need to read/discuss comics the instant they are available, i actually found i enjoyed the medium much much more reading whole, complete stories without random delays, filler issues and sometimes writer/artist changes that wreck a story halfway through making me feel like an idiot to keep paying for it month after month because despite the hate, i wanted to see how it ended.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 30 April 2015 - 03:35 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 30 April 2015 - 01:11 PM, said:

I've made a big switch in how I consume comics. As the comics I have on my pull list have been finishing up recent arcs, I've gone to tradewaiting on them all. It's less costly than floppies, allows arcs to be read in one go as opposed to month by month...and it's also a space saver. Cost was my main reason though. 6-8 issue arcs in floppies cost me between $24 and $32 over time....the same arcs in trade are normally between $12 and $18.

Sidebar: picked up Remender and Tocchini's first trade for LOW from IMAGE and it's damned fine stuff!

Welcome to the dark side. It's nicer here... we have more money to spend on the pie and the scotch.

Once i outgrew any need to read/discuss comics the instant they are available, i actually found i enjoyed the medium much much more reading whole, complete stories without random delays, filler issues and sometimes writer/artist changes that wreck a story halfway through making me feel like an idiot to keep paying for it month after month because despite the hate, i wanted to see how it ended.

Yeah, I've totally reached that point. It's nice here.

[QuickTidal]

If anyone wants to get down on Hickman's NEW AVENGERS run (including stuff that's not yet on Marvel Meth)....Comixology is having a bundle sale..the first 33 issues for $30

https://www.comixolo...ries/bundle/925

[QuickTidal]

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. What with Pepper Potts PROBABLY the Iron Man that is featured in the new Avengers lineup....that's TWO former female love interest characters of superheroes who have become those heroes themselves. I think that's a great way to re purpose old tropes while doing the old "someone else dons the mantle of *insert hero here* narrative (which always feels like a nice progression to me....See: Dick Grayson as Batman).

[Nicodimas]

Starting reading Comic books again..well with more vigor..

Caught up on Walking dead.

*Black Science
*East of West
Invisible Republic
Wytches

Saga
Manifest Destiny.
Lazarus


* Favorites

This post has been edited by Nicodimas: 20 July 2015 - 12:42 AM