[Abyss]

ANNIHILATION in tpbs.

At times awesome, at times cheesy and padded, but overall good Marvel cosmic sf fun in space with lots of 'sploddy and alien stabby.

Thanos steals every scene he's in.

- Abyss, ...never quite got over that childhood crush on Gamora...

[wolf_2099]

Does anyone know a good Bone (Jeff Smith) trade to pick up as a gift?

I've never read the stuff but my girlyfriend wants to get one for her cousin, and this is one comic I know nothing about.

Will give virtual high five in thanks.

[polishgenius]

If she doesn't mind the uncoloured version (I prefer it that way, the way it was originally published, the colours have been added later and look a bit odd) you could go with the One Volume Collection.

Can't really help with the coloured trades, though. Sorry.

[stone monkey]

Jsut be aware that the One Volume collection is a monster, 1300 pages or so... But it is all of Bone in one place, so it's very handy have.

Speaking of one volume colections; has anyone here read the collected Zot! by Scott McCloud? They're from before he did Undertsanding Comics (which any serious comic reader should read btw It's very, very interesting)

[RodeoRanch]

I've been diving through "AstroCity."

Wow. Good stuff. They had "Secret Invasion" before Marvel did!

[polishgenius]

Yeah, that was my thought when SI came out- it's pretty much exactly the same plot, so close that I'm almost certain that Quesada 'came up' with the idea after reading that arc of AC.

[stone monkey]

So, issue #1 of Supergod is out And it's very, very good...

You should also be reading Invincible Iron Man too... I believe the truly excellent "World's Most Wanted" arc is due out as a trade soon.

[Abyss]

Y THE LAST MAN - just read the complete run. Brilliant story. Excellent complete work from beginning to end.


If i was going to be critical it's that for a book where 98% of the cast are female there is some difficulty making female characters look different aside from hair colour/style, but that's a nitpick with a work that is probab;y one of the best complete stories told in comic form since SANDMAN.


- Abyss, impressed.

[polishgenius]

I've got the first two trades of Y - very good but my money ran out at just the wrong time and since then, for some reason, I've never carried on. It's definitely on the list though.

[mxlm]

Battlefields hardcover: Remember those War Stories Ennis did for Vertigo? Remember how they were pretty powerful? Yeah, these are more like that. Christ, what a depressing read. Also very good. But also very depressing. But also you should buy and read this stuff ASAP (the hardcover collection is actually cheaper than the three tpbs separately, so...). Here we've got a bit about a squadron of Russian bombers crewed by women, a bit about a British nurse in SE Asia, and the darkly humorous Tankies, dealing with a Churchill crew in Normandy (think Punisher MAX, not...I dunno, Adventures in the Rifle Brigade).

Freakangles v3: When Ellis said the ending would fuck with people who read the trades, he wasn't lying, the scum. Oh, it's quite good, but I can't decide if it's a cliffhanger or simply stopping midstream.

Gotham Central HC v2: Oh, man. Brubaker, Rucka, noir, grim, gritty, Gotham homicide detectives. What more do you need to know? Oh, how about this: it contains the arc that The Dark Knight pretty plainly borrowed heavily from. And it's great.

The Sword v3: Still the best goretastic superviolence since Ellis' Authority, although I think the pacing isn't perfect--the flashbacks and so on throw me off (and there was an issue-long info dump in the first trade that bored me to tears). So, basically, if you really want to see some superhuman (though not, I should note, superheroic) carnage, check this out.

Northlanders v2: Vikings meet The Fugitive. Fun, though I think somewhat weaker than the first volume (which I highly recommend). I should note that it's standalone.

The War at Ellsmere: Good, though not as good as I'd heard. Any interest in figurative knives in the dark at a girl's boarding school? Then this is for you.

Angel: After the Fall v4&5: I really liked the resolution to the story arc. Wasn't quite so enamored of the 'Aftermath' arc, and think I'll be getting any further collections in softcover. Still, recommended to anyone who liked the TV show (which is all of you, right?)

Oh, Abyss, fyi: Annihilation: Conquest isn't as good as Annihilation. So try to get a decent discount or just get 'em from the library.

[stone monkey]

The Sword is very good. I have these in floppies. I can see they'd probably read well in TPB, but the cliffhangers are good fun...It is pretty brutal stuff; the cartoony style lulls you into a false sense of security and then bam! blood, gore and severed limbs flying all over the place...

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 15 November 2009 - 05:03 PM

[RodeoRanch]

I love love love AstroCity.

[wolf_2099]

Anyone picking up Stumptown?

It's the new Oni Press book by Greg Rucka. The first issue is out and it was a great start to a detective book, very much in the style of Raymond Chandler.

Worth taking a look. The other stuff he has done for Oni Press is the Queen & country series (awesome) and Whiteout.

[mxlm]

Q&C and Whiteout were both quite good. I'll pick up Stumptown when it's collected.

[Abyss]

mxlm, on 15 November 2009 - 09:51 AM, said:

...Freakangles v3: When Ellis said the ending would fuck with people who read the trades, he wasn't lying, the scum. Oh, it's quite good, but I can't decide if it's a cliffhanger or simply stopping midstream.

Ellis is a god and you should thank Him for whatever He gifts our worthless lives with and trust in Him.

Quote

The Sword v3: Still the best goretastic superviolence since Ellis' Authority, although I think the pacing isn't perfect--the flashbacks and so on throw me off (and there was an issue-long info dump in the first trade that bored me to tears). So, basically, if you really want to see some superhuman (though not, I should note, superheroic) carnage, check this out.

I've read a few issues and i rather enjoyed them. Figuring i'll acquire the lot eventually.

Quote

Oh, Abyss, fyi: Annihilation: Conquest isn't as good as Annihilation. So try to get a decent discount or just get 'em from the library.

Actually borrowed the lot, but A:C, while not as good as the first series, does lead into some excellent Nova and Guardians for the Galaxy stories, so i forgive it its shortcomings.

RodeoRanch, on 15 November 2009 - 06:56 PM, said:

I love love love AstroCity.

Must needs check this out some day.

wolf_2099, on 15 November 2009 - 08:06 PM, said:

...and Whiteout.

mxlm, on 16 November 2009 - 02:37 AM, said:

... Whiteout were both quite good. ...

Is it my imagination or did the movie version of this come and go in like a week?

- Abyss, may have blinked and missed it.

[wolf_2099]

Whiteout did, it blew, and was one of the 3 worst performing movies of the year. Maybe the worst.

The comic however was pretty darn entertaining.

[stone monkey]

This could be fun
Although, given how it turned out last time, I won't be holding my breath...

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 18 November 2009 - 01:01 PM

[polishgenius]

I do hope that this time they'll have the good sense not to nuke a project because people liked it. Even including the fact that it was leaked (because people lost patience waiting for them to air it), that was a daft decision even by TV exec standards.

[polishgenius]

So I finally got round to reading the full Final Crisis. Fucking hell Grant Morrison annoys me so so much.
I wanted to like it, I really did, and aspects of it worked- but when it came right down to it it was an inferior remake of his own two-issue story waaaaaaaay back in the JLA Rock of Ages story. Not only does his habit of having crucial major DC events link in to his pet projects wind me up (I have read Seven Soldiers, so I managed to get what the fuck was going on with Mr. Miracle more or less, and the Dark Side stuff- don't know if that was foreshadowed in Countdown or owt- and Superman Beyond was included in my trade so Mandrakk showing up at the end didn't come out of nowhere), but he's now got to the stage where he's cramming so much story into the space that he forgets to actually tell it. Like a bit which should have been epically awesome and really major,

Spoiler

Luthor teaming up with Superman

was effectively lost in a crush of panels in the bottom corner somewhere.
Ambition can be taken to a fault and Morrison does that massively.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 04 December 2009 - 05:41 AM

[wolf_2099]

So, I just finished reading Alan Moores Miracleman, I read watchmen a while back, and I'll re-read V for Vendetta soon. I tried reading these all years ago and couldn't follow them, I guess I wasn't mature enough yet.

I can't decide whether I like them.

Miracleman's story on a whole was phenomenal, one of my favorites Great political story about beings with supreme power, and what would actually happen when they fought, how they'd shape the world, and so on. Kid Miracleman was a great character. Getting raped then destroying the other boys was a very good scene. Same with Miracleman just shoving his finger through someones chest.

But Moore just gets so damn weird it just shocks me out of the story. The Warpsmiths were interesting, the body-swapping Qys were even an understandable weird, as they were aliens, but still, it was just off. The birth scene? Bizarre.

Some of the dream sequences and dialogue heavy chapters are very hard to follow, as it isn't quite clear what's going on. Great story, but holy crap, Moore kicks Morrison's ass for the weird shit in comics. At least when Moore gets really weird the comics are still readable.

Great story though.
No way in hell can I see Marvel ever publishing it, or continuing where the story left off.

(kind of spoilers on graphic scenes, but the series is 20 years old)...

A boy being murdered in cold blood. (Several others here and there too)
Various nudity and sex.
There is a graphic depiction of a birth. And I do mean graphic. It was disturbing.
A boy being anally raped by other boys.

Anyone see Marvel publishing that?

It's a shame these are in re-print hell, as I found them to be far better than Watchmen.

Your thoughts on Moore's writing or Miracleman?

I also started Gaimans Miracleman, pretty underwhelmed so far.