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What comics have you been reading?

Started by irishmoxie, March 30, 2016, 10:49:35 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

rusty

I'm all caught up with Marvel now:


Daredevil 23-28, 595-612, Annual 1, Infinity Countdown 1 - I've really been enjoying the Daredevil series.  We've seen Matt Murdock in action in the courtroom.  He travels to China to try and aid Blindspot.  He deals with Kingpin becoming Mayor of New York. Mike Murdock magically reappears.  Lots of fun.


Defenders 2-10 - Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Daredevil and Iron Fist make a pretty good team. This was a good book, though Bendis has since moved on to DC.


Fantastic Four 1-4 - The long awaited return has been okay so far.  It will be interesting seeing an older Franklin and Valeria and how they fit into the stories now.  Valeria in particular can be pretty entertaining with her super intelligence.


Jessica Jones 10-18 - I loved the original Alias series and this book has a lot of that flavor.  Jessica deals with a kill order on Maria Hill and also the return of the Purple Man, though this encounter is a bit different.


Marvel Team-Up 1-12, Annual 1 - I liked the stories with Ben and Johnny before the FF's return, though not as much as the original series.  It is another FF book now that they are book and has been okay.


Runaways 1-15 - I loved the original Runaways series, though it became less entertaining with each iteration.  This series has been a lot of fun, except that I'm not a big fan of the return of Alex in the last couple of issues.  We'll see where that goes.  The gang gets back together, but things aren't the same in the two years since they went their separate ways.  I liked the inclusion of Julie Power.


She-Hulk 159-163 - I loved the various She-Hulk series over the past decade or so, but these issues didn't really capture that feel.  They weren't nearly as good as I was hoping.




Now on to DC, though that will take a while since there are so many series.

BettyReggie

I read
Banana Fish #3
Betty & Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #266
World Of Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #82
Jughead Volume #2
Unnatural Volume #1- Awakening

DeCarlo Rules

#1577
Skipping over a ton of stuff, because I haven't posted anything here in a while and I don't have time to write much now.  I'll catch up (on 3 weeks or so of comics reading) later.

Right now, I'll just mention a couple of recent (this week's) Archie Comics.



B & V FRIENDS DOUBLE DIGEST #266 - See if you can recognize this plot from some prior story. Mr. Lodge is angry with Veronica for charging up a storm in credit card bills, so he clamps down and forbids her from using her cards until she can find a way to contribute some money (like getting a job) to help pay for what she's already bought. Veronica's solution to this particular problem causes Mr. Lodge's well-intended attempt to teach her some responsibility to boomerang and he throws in the towel in frustration and gives Veronica her credit cards back, because ultimately that winds up costing him far less money. That's the lead story in a nutshell. The only problem with the 5-page shorts is that you can't get plots or situations too complex, and that limits the possibilities for uniqueness, or even the more interesting twists or variations on old standards. That, and the fact that Dan P. has to generate 48 of these 5-pagers a year, means that they can't all be absolute gems. Well, the artwork was nice, up to Dan's usual high standards. The usual good reprints, especially JOSIE.





ARCHIE'S BIG BOOK VOLUME 5: ACTION ADVENTURE TP - Basically this is a 2-in-1 collection of ARCHIE'S CYBER ADVENTURES (under its longer, interior story title "Adventures in the Wonder Realm") and ARCHIE'S EXPLORERS OF THE UNKNOWN. Both series are reprinted complete, respectively, from ARCHIE & FRIENDS DOUBLE DIGEST #1-5 (Feb-Jul 2011) [and later released in December of that year as a TPB collection], and ARCHIE GIANT SERIES #587 & EXPLORERS OF THE UNKNOWN! #1-6. There are two undistiguished shorter adventure-ish stories filling out the rest of the page count. Personally, I already owned the CYBER ADVENTURES TP, so I'd have rather had just the complete ARCHIE'S EXPLORERS OF THE UNKNOWN in the "Archie Comics Presents ..." format, just like they did with JUGHEAD'S TIME POLICE. At least now I have all the stories (I only had about half of the original issues), so that's nice I guess.

ARCHIE & FRIENDS DOUBLE DIGEST #1-5 (Feb-Jul 2011)

ARCHIE CYBER ADVENTURES TPB (Dec. 2011)


ARCHIE GIANT SERIES #587

ARCHIE'S EXPLORERS OF THE UNKNOWN! #1-6



rusty

I am all caught up with the Superman family of titles now.  I wasn't as far behind with them as with most other books.


Action Comics 998-1005, Special 1
Superman 42-45, 1-5, Special 1
Man of Steel 1-6 - Bendis took over these books with the Man of Steel miniseries.  I didn't think that mini was all that great, but it was okay.  The series since the switch have been decent, though not any better than the pre-Bendis books.


Trinity 19-22 - This series mainly wanted to capitalize on DC's big 3 and was okay, though it seemed a bit of an odd fit sometimes.  This story dealt with Deimos, the Warlord and Skartaris.


New Superman 21-24 - I enjoyed this series featuring the Chinese Superman and the Justice League of China.  Too bad it ended.


Supergirl 19-24 - I didn't like it when they switched the Supergirl continuity to match the tv show.  I like the stories a lot more when they don't take place in National City with that cast of characters.  The latest story has her going into space looking for clues to the destruction of Krypton and it has been good so far.


Super Sons 14-16, Adventures 1-4 - Damian and Jon make a nice team and these stories have been fun.  I hope they continue beyond the maxiseries.


Super Sons/Dynomutt 1, Lex Luthor/Porky Pig 1, Superman/Top Cat 1 - These DC/Hanna Barbera crossovers have been good for the most part.  I liked the Super Sons crossover the most out of these three.




The Bat books are next.


DeCarlo Rules

#1579
Quote from: rusty on December 20, 2018, 08:23:11 PM
I am all caught up with the Superman family of titles now.  I wasn't as far behind with them as with most other books.

I used to love the Superman comics. I'm not sure what happened exactly... I guess "reboot-itis". So many aspects of Superman's history and associated cast (and villains) have been rebooted, partially rebooted, and partially UNrebooted (or 'blenderized' with some pre-reboot version),  that I feel like I can never be sure of any particular character's status or the details of his or her backstory (Supergirl is probably the most problematic of all). Obviously, that was happening as far back as 1986 with the John Byrne reboot, and various "re-adjustments" that took place even before Flashpoint, but the worst of all was that thing a couple years back where somehow it's the old, pre-New52 Superman in the post-Flashpoint DCU, but then... they're actually one and the same, or the universes become (or somehow always were) one and the same? Or something like that... can't say I understood it. Something to do with Mxyzptlk? Or maybe it's Dr. Manhattan who's to blame, a possibility that seems to have been hinted at. It makes my brain hurt. Whatever; it's stuff that just won't go away magically by giving Supes back his red underpants and handing him over to Marvel's formerly biggest architect. I miss the Legion of Super-Heroes. Not really a fan of Jon Kent (or Damian Wayne), either. (Hard to say why exactly, since I was a big fan of the original, Pre-Crisis version of the Super-Sons.) Oh well, it's someone else's Superman now. The only one I'm currently buying is the hardcover newspaper strip reprints from IDW's Library of American Comics, and an occasional trade collection of older material from DC here and there.

The thing that makes me laugh is that DC's stated reasoning for the original Crisis on Infinite Earths was something like "the DC multiverse is too confusing". It was NEVER confusing. It was simplicity itself -- if you wanted to create a new variant DC Universe within the old multiverse, you could do it with a snap of your fingers (or if you were DC editor Murray Boltinoff, have your stories retroactively assigned to an alternate universe). It's everything else SINCE then that has grown increasingly, compoundedly confusing. And that includes Marvel, too -- everything since at least Heroes Reborn, but especially since Secret War.

My point here is that all this "wiggly continuity" undermines any suspension of disbelief I can mount to allow me to care about the characters or "get into" the story. The constant pulling out of rugs from beneath my feet destroys any sense that stories are building upon anything that came before; it's like being dumped on with a bucket of cold water, or a constant slap in the face, reminding you "it's not real, it's just a story, none of this matters, whether you like it or not -- it'll change again".

rusty

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on December 21, 2018, 01:16:51 AM
The thing that makes me laugh is that DC's stated reasoning for the original Crisis on Infinite Earths was something like "the DC multiverse is too confusing". It was NEVER confusing. It was simplicity itself -- if you wanted to create a new variant DC Universe within the old multiverse, you could do it with a snap of your fingers (or if you were DC editor Murray Boltinoff, have your stories retroactively assigned to an alternate universe). It's everything else SINCE then that has grown increasingly, compoundedly confusing. And that includes Marvel, too -- everything since at least Heroes Reborn, but especially since Secret War.
I agree.  While Crisis on Infinite Earths was a pretty good story, I had no trouble undertanding the pre-Crisis DC Universe and wish that they had left it intact.  The John Byrne reboot could have been taking place on Earth 86 or whatever.   They've constantly been trying to 'fix' things ever since.

This isn't to say that I haven't enjoyed many of the stories since Crisis, but the simplification premise was kind of dumb.

DeCarlo Rules

Quote from: rusty on December 21, 2018, 02:37:11 PM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on December 21, 2018, 01:16:51 AM
The thing that makes me laugh is that DC's stated reasoning for the original Crisis on Infinite Earths was something like "the DC multiverse is too confusing". It was NEVER confusing. It was simplicity itself -- if you wanted to create a new variant DC Universe within the old multiverse, you could do it with a snap of your fingers (or if you were DC editor Murray Boltinoff, have your stories retroactively assigned to an alternate universe). It's everything else SINCE then that has grown increasingly, compoundedly confusing. And that includes Marvel, too -- everything since at least Heroes Reborn, but especially since Secret War.
I agree.  While Crisis on Infinite Earths was a pretty good story, I had no trouble undertanding the pre-Crisis DC Universe and wish that they had left it intact.  The John Byrne reboot could have been taking place on Earth 86 or whatever.   They've constantly been trying to 'fix' things ever since.

This isn't to say that I haven't enjoyed many of the stories since Crisis, but the simplification premise was kind of dumb.

Y'know, I think it was Mark Waid (although it might possibly have been Grant Morrison) who came up with the back-pedalling concept of Hypertime -- which is a nutshell, can be described as "Was it printed in a comic book somewhere once? Then it really happened, and still exists, somewhere." Apparently, a subsequent DC editorial fiat deemed that as too apologist and wishy-washy, and by someone's mandated decree, it was ruled that "We shall never speak of this again."

And while I can't now recall if the ugly H-word ever reared its head again within the confines of Grant Morrison's MULTIVERSITY, that's certainly what I had in the back of my mind as I was reading it. A multiplicity of multiverses that come into existence, unfolding kaleidoscope-like, but can never really be erased or merged with any others... it only seems that way if you stop looking at them.

BettyReggie

I finished reading Archie & Friends All Star -Christmas Stocking
And I also read
Betty & Veronica Prom Princesses
Archie Giant Comics Surprise
The Nameless City Volume #1
Menage A 3 - Volume #1

DeCarlo Rules

ARCHIE #701 - Well, surprise. A surprise to me, too. Here I am reading a second issue (or third, if you count that 'Readers' Digest' cut-and-pasted issue #699) in a row of ARCHIE. And it dawns on me that time has finally begun moving forward in some sort of definite progression in Archie Comics. The renumbered ARCHIE series which began its first issue in 2015 (which was the beginning of a new school year for Archie and his friends) ran 32 issues, ending with the END of the school year (the prom), so the 32 issues of that series (of which the series continuing from issue #700 is a direct sequel) covered exactly one year in Archie's high school education. Between ARCHIE (2015) #32 and ARCHIE #700, they skipped over the events of the summer vacation, and with #701 here we are back again at the beginning of the new school year again.

But unlike the classic Archie comic books, for once it isn't the SAME school year (Junior year) starting all over again. I know this due to the fact that both ARCHIE and the new BETTY & VERONICA miniseries have cover banners saying "Archie Forever" (which I presume means that they're both part of a shared continuity), and BETTY & VERONICA #1's cover proclaims "SENIOR YEAR BEGINS HERE". So they're finally Seniors, at long last! Again, presuming that this new numbering sequence which began with #700 is successful enough, in another 30 issues or so, we should be seeing Senior Year come to its conclusion (which means... graduation ceremonies).

What comes after that (in a few years of "real time" for you and me) is anyone's guess. Will they proceed on to college? Or... another reboot?? (It's been just long enough that I've disabused myself of any fond and romantically-unrealistic notions that they might ever return to "classic Archie".)

So, without getting too spoiler-y here, I guess I'll admit to enough interest to at least finish out Nick Spencer's initial story arc to see where he's going with it. I will say it does appear that something (if on a rather modest scale compared to most modern comic books) is indeed at least happening in between pages 1 and 20 of the comic (which was not a feeling I'd gotten from Mark Waid's first two issues)... not a WHOLE lot, but now that I have some sense of scale (32 issues = 9 months of school), I guess the leisurely pacing seems to fit about right. Not that I was interested enough to give Jaime Rotante's B&V miniseries a try. I flipped through a copy of #1, but the artwork wasn't compelling me to ignore my instincts. Rotante's (IMO) badly-mischaracterized interpretations of B&V in the VIXENS series was enough to put me off anything she'd write forever.

rusty

I don't think we'll see the Archie gang progress into their college years, though that would be interesting to explore before the inevitable reboot or return to high school years.


I am almost halfway through the bat books now.  I haven't made as much progress as I'd hoped, but I'm getting there.




Batman 28-59, Annual 2 - Tom King does a really nice job on this series.  I enjoyed the flashback War of Jokes and Riddles story, the proposal and run up to the wedding and the aftermath.  The latest stories with a slightly less arrogant Batman willing to work with Gordon instead of dictating terms is a nice change of pace.


Detective Comics 961-993, Annual 1 - I also enjoyed Tynion IV's run on Detective where we see the return of Tim Drake, his mania for control the Fall of the Batmen and so on.  James Robinson seems to have things well in hand now, but I didn't like the fill in issues between Tynion and Robinson quite as much.


Batgirl 13-29, Annual 2 - This series has been pretty consistently entertaining.  I like that the action mostly stays in Burnside.  I like that she is shown interacting with her father here as well and not just as a Batgirl/Commissioner sort of thing.


Batgirl and the Birds of Prey 13-22 - These stories weren't bad, but I won't particularly miss the title.  It wasn't as good as the main Batgirl book and seems a bit superfluous.


Batwoman 6-18 - This series wasn't bad, but I haven't really enjoyed Batwoman's solo book as much as some of the other series for some reason.  Her appearances in Detective and elsewhere have been more interesting.  I did like the look at the future Kate Kane that tied in with the future Tim Drake returning to the past.  The series was canceled, but I think it likely that she'll get another series if the tv show does well.  I liked the tv portrayal of Kate Kane in the Elseworlds crossover on the CW.




DeCarlo Rules

#1585
Quote from: rusty on December 29, 2018, 04:43:46 PM
I don't think we'll see the Archie gang progress into their college years, though that would be interesting to explore before the inevitable reboot or return to high school years.

Never say never. It occurs to me that they're breaking MOST of the "old rules" of classic Archie comics, so you never know. I wouldn't discount the hoopla to be gained from a "Graduation Day" story arc. Whether that would be followed by a new collegiate take on Archie and his friends, or another "new direction" in stylistic terms (meaning: reboot) is a matter of conjecture, but it seems almost 100% likely it will be ONE of those two. The average audience demographic now has to be such that exploring the college years is now a definite viability.

Quote from: rusty on December 29, 2018, 04:43:46 PM
Detective Comics 961-993, Annual 1 - I also enjoyed Tynion IV's run on Detective where we see the return of Tim Drake, his mania for control the Fall of the Batmen and so on.  James Robinson seems to have things well in hand now, but I didn't like the fill in issues between Tynion and Robinson quite as much.

Detective Comics (the Bat-family team as written by James Tynion IV) had been the highlight of the entire Rebirth phase of DC's publishing for me. That was following up on a period when (after the phase which began with the New 52 reboot, through the Convergence event, which also coincided with a physical move of DC's editorial offices from NY City to LA California, and consequent managerial reorganization) DC had cancelled virtually ALL of the post-Flashpoint titles which I had been reading, which mainly involved -- after the end of Jimmy Palmiotti's All-Star Western/Jonah Hex, Paul Levitz' Legion of Super-Heroes, Geoff Johns' and Peter Tomasi's Green Lantern titles, and Grant Morrison & Peter Tomasi's Batman Incorporated and Batman & Robin, all of which carried over continuity from the old, pre-Flashpoint DCU  --  the subset of titles falling into "The Dark" corner of the DCU (i.e. the supernatural characters, many reabsorbed into the DCU from their prior careers as Vertigo characters). The latter group was mainly composed of characters like The Phantom Stranger, The Spectre, Deadman, Zatanna, John Constantine, Swamp Thing, and Frankenstein, that for the most part hadn't been spotlighted in any ongoing DC Universe series in many years, plus a few new ones like Pandora and G.I. Zombie. As an aside, while I enjoyed revisiting about half of the 2-issue microseries published as part of Convergence itself, the overall framing storyline made exactly NO sense whatsoever. After Convergence and before Rebirth, I was left with ZERO titles to read which were considered part of the DCU proper (since I don't think things like Before Watchmen and Multiversity counted as 'mainstream DCU').

I guess the irony of the Rebirth phase for me was that the only other DCU title I can say I enjoyed was James Robinson's run on Wonder Woman (which itself followed up on some continuity from the New 52, Geoff Johns-written Justice League -- a title I followed relatively briefly during its Crime Syndicate storyline, plus a followup arc where Lex Luthor joined the Justice League as a member and developed an interesting dynamic tension with Batman (and Bruce Wayne, since Luthor had discovered his secret ID) -- regarding the status of Darkseid in the post-Flashpoint DCU (which also tied into a story arc featuring Damian in Batman & Robin). I dropped Detective Comics like a hot potato once Tynion IV left as writer (never having warmed up to anything Steve Orlando has written), and only noticed that after Orlando's story arc in Detective, James Robinson took over for an arc. I guess you just never know, because the same James Robinson (his older JSA and Starman series for DC were big favorites of mine) whom I liked as a writer for Wonder Woman did absolutely nothing for me with his story arc in Detective featuring Two-Face. I've started reading the new Peter Tomasi run of Detective (artist Doug Mahnke is an older favorite as well), but so far have been underwhelmed by both the storyline (exceptionally contrived, it seems to me, so far) and the artwork (here Mahnke's pencils -- formerly inked by people like Christian Alamy and Patrick Gleason -- are inked by a newer inker, Jaime Mendoza, whose style I don't particularly care for).

BettyReggie

I read
Unnatural - Volume #1- Awakening
B & V Friends Jumbo Comics Digest #264

BettyReggie

I read each of these books for 12 minutes
Betty & Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #262
Jughead's Time Police
Sabrina The Teenage Witch - The Complete Collection Volume #1
Scooter Girl

BettyReggie

I read each of books for 12 minutes each
Jughead's Time Police
B & V Friends Jumbo Comics Digest #262
Sabrina Teenage Witch - The Complete Volume #1
Husbands

rusty

I'm caught up with the Batman titles now:


Catwoman 1-5, Tweety & Sylvester - The new Catwoman series has been okay with Selina moving on to a new city.  I enjoyed her previous series more, but we'll see where this goes.  I liked the Tweety & Sylvester crossover.


Nightwing 26-53, Annual 1, Magilla Gorilla, New Order 1-6 - The Nightwing comic has been pretty good overall, though I didn't care for the Judge storyline.  I like the new direction that they have taken after he got shot in the head.  We'll see how long that lasts.  The Magilla Gorilla crossover was good and the New Order series which takes place in a potential future was entertaining.


Batman Prelude to the Wedding 1-5 - These were good, though seemed a bit unnecessary.  I did like the Joker getting upset about not being invited to the wedding.


Joker/Daffy Duck 1 - Another good crossover with the Hanna-Barbera characters.


Bane Conquest 1-12 - I didn't really care for this series all that much.  Bane isn't my favorite character and this could have been a lot better.


Brave and the Bold Batman and Wonder Woman 1-6 - The art was very good while the story was not quite as good.


Batman Creature of the Night 1-3 - A boy named Bruce who is a big Batman fan in the late 1960s has to deal with the murder of his parents.  He is educated in a boarding school and eventually joins a company set up by his great uncle.  He eventually realizes that there is a Bat Creature that he is connected with psychically who tries to protect and help him and he gets it to track down criminals.  This is a very nice series and I am looking forward to the final issue later this year.


Batman Kings of Fear 1-4 - I thought this series was good.  It features the Scarecrow of course.


Batman/Shadow 1-6 and Shadow/Batman 1-6 - I thought the second series was better than the first.  The biggest problem that I had with the first series is that Batman goes out of his way to keep Shadow from killing Joker.  This isn't the first time that Batman has saved Joker's life.  I can see not killing Joker himself, but think of how many people Joker has killed over the years and I think Batman bears responsibility for a lot of these deaths along with Joker as a result.


Batman Sins of the Father 1-6 - This series is based on a videogame where Thomas Wayne is exposed as a criminal who drugged some of his enemies to the point of insanity and was partnered with the Falcones.  It was a good series, though.


Batman/TMNT II 1-6 - Another good crossover between the two worlds.


Batman White Knight 1-8 - Batman has been increasingly out of control and Nightwing and Batgirl are unable to curb his violence.  Joker leads him on a merry chase at the beginning, but after being forced to ingest some unknown drugs, regains his sanity.  As Jack Napier, he gains his freedom and runs for city council.  Batman is unconvinced of his good intentions.  This was a very good series which makes sense since Sean Murphy wrote it.


Metal 1-6 plus one shots - I didn't really care for the miniseries, though a few of the one shots were decent.


Batman Beyond 10-26 - I have been enjoying this series a lot.  They have been going for longer arcs and the latest features the return of Joker.




The regular DC titles are next.  I may or may not finish them before my latest comic shipment arrives.  My new estimate of being caught up on new comics is the end of January.

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