Crowded. Anybody read this comic? It involves a woman being targeted for assassination by a lottery type of method. Whoever kills her gets a LOT of money. Thing is, it's legal. 😳 She's being protected by a hired bodyguard, who is ranked low. The money continues to increase, by the way. Several people have already tried to do the deed, but have fail. This is a pretty good book so far...

I haven't read Crowded, but I may check it out in TP eventually.


I've made a decent start on the rest of the DC books in my backlog.


Blue Beetle 11-18 - I enjoyed the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle books.  Too bad they didn't sell very well.


DC Beach Blanket Bad Guys Summer Special 1, Holiday Special 2017 1, House of Horror 1, Nuclear Winter Special 1 - These 80 page giants are a lot more expensive than the ones from the 1960s.  Overall, pretty decent collections of short stories.


Deadman 1-6 - I enjoyed this series, but I think Neal Adams is better as an artist than as a writer.


Doomsday Clock 1-7 - This has been a pretty good sequel of sorts to Watchmen.  I've enjoyed the interaction between the DC Universe and the Watchmen Universe.


Harley Quinn 25-54, Gossamer 1, Be Careful What You Wish For 1, 25th Anniversary Special 1, Harley Loves Joker 1-2 - The Harley Quinn series has quite a bit of humor, much of it slapstick, but can be a bit more serious at times.  It won't be to everyone's tastes, but I like the series quite a bit.  I wasn't sure how it would be after Connor and Palmiotti left, but it continued to be pretty good.  The specials weren't bad either.  I like the variant covers on the main series as well.


Hellblazer, Heroes in Crisis, the Justice League books and so on are next.

Yes, I like Harley Quinn as well, which is why I'm trying to understand why they're making her a killer in the Heroes in Crisis series. Harley's at the least an antihero, basically reformed. It doesn't make any sense... 🤔

Quote from: SAGG on January 07, 2019, 01:52:08 AM
Yes, I like Harley Quinn as well, which is why I'm trying to understand why they're making her a killer in the Heroes in Crisis series. Harley's at the least an antihero, basically reformed. It doesn't make any sense... 🤔

Disagree. Conspiracy to murder (or mass murder) at the very least, by virtue of her past associations with Joker and Poison Ivy. She's a habitual offender with multiple counts of felonious assault -- and I don't buy that Harley (unlike Batman) knows where the fine line between general egregious bodily mayhem and "attempted murder" (or at the very least "intent to maim/cause grave bodily injury") lies. "Antihero" encompasses guys like Deadshot and Deathstroke too, both definite unremittant killers (the Suicide Squad employs a lot of killers). For that matter, I wouldn't exactly call Amanda Waller a hero, either.

You can argue that some animated versions of Harley are slightly kinder, gentler versions... but that would usually be specific to a particular episode or film.

But nobody even blinked when they decided BOOSTER GOLD was a killer. Yeah, that's totally in character.

Good examples of why I have little use for most modern DCU comics these days.

Quote from: rusty on January 03, 2019, 09:55:06 PMBatman/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.

My take on it is that Batman's deal is that he'll always do his level best to prevent ANYONE from killing ANYONE, with the very specific exceptions of legal state executions, or policemen discharging their weapons lawfully in the line of duty. There may have been a couple of warzone scenarios, but I can't recall specifically, so I'll leave out that possibility for the moment. Batman makes no distinctions between "attempted murder" whether the perpetrator is The Shadow or Deadshot, and whether the potential victim is The Joker or Dr. Leslie Thompkins.

I disliked the first (DC) Batman/Shadow series SO much, that I completely passed on Dynamite's Shadow/Batman when I discovered that the same writer (Steve Orlando) had been employed on the latter. That's rare for me to be that put off, because The Shadow is absolutely one of my all-time favorite characters (and I've had to put up with some pretty bad Shadow comic book stories). Relatively few comic book writers really seem to "get" what The Shadow is all about. I'd assume that's because relatively few of them have actually even read any of the original Shadow novels written by Walter Gibson ("Maxwell Grant"). Then again, the radio Shadow really isn't the same character either (even apart from having occult powers), so his character has been distorted for a good long while. Is IS possible to write a passably non-offensive amalgam of the prose and radio Shadows (but it needs to lean heavily in favor of the prose Shadow), but only a bare handful of writers have succeeded in doing so.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 07, 2019, 06:13:14 AM

Quote from: SAGG on January 07, 2019, 01:52:08 AM
Yes, I like Harley Quinn as well, which is why I'm trying to understand why they're making her a killer in the Heroes in Crisis series. Harley's at the least an antihero, basically reformed. It doesn't make any sense... 🤔

Disagree. Conspiracy to murder (or mass murder) at the very least, by virtue of her past associations with Joker and Poison Ivy. She's a habitual offender with multiple counts of felonious assault -- and I don't buy that Harley (unlike Batman) knows where the fine line between general egregious bodily mayhem and "attempted murder" (or at the very least "intent to maim/cause grave bodily injury") lies. "Antihero" encompasses guys like Deadshot and Deathstroke too, both definite unremittant killers (the Suicide Squad employs a lot of killers). For that matter, I wouldn't exactly call Amanda Waller a hero, either.

You can argue that some animated versions of Harley are slightly kinder, gentler versions... but that would usually be specific to a particular episode or film.

But nobody even blinked when they decided BOOSTER GOLD was a killer. Yeah, that's totally in character.

Good examples of why I have little use for most modern DCU comics these days.

I'm not taking issue with what you're posting exactly, but in her book Harley's portrayed as WAY more benign than she is here. I think there's something else sinister going on here. Super villain mind control, perhaps? 🤔

Quote from: SAGG on January 07, 2019, 11:36:32 PM
I'm not taking issue with what you're posting exactly, but in her book Harley's portrayed as WAY more benign than she is here. I think there's something else sinister going on here. Super villain mind control, perhaps? 🤔

No, it's the same principle that applies to Archie Comics, as well as other publishers. When a character becomes popular enough to become the MAIN character, and the protagonist of her own title, her character is modified in the writing to become more sympathetic to readers (i.e. "nicer"), because sales on that title hinge on the readers LIKING the character. It happened to Veronica and Cheryl when they got their own titles at Archie, and the same applies to Harley. When you reverse that and she's no longer the main character, no longer the STAR of the comic, the character upon whom sales of the comic book hinge, you can go back in the other direction.

You're thinking too deep. Inconsistent characterization in comics is no longer an indicator of any particular plot device in action. Inconsistent characterization is just par for the course because of lazy editorial standards. The thinking seems to be "We don't want to hamper or reign in our superstar writers, so as long as their name on the comic is drawing in consumers, so just let them run with it and do what they want. (We can always reboot things later.)"

I read these books
B & V Friends Jumbo Comics Digest #265
Betty & Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #262
Husbands
Scooter Girl
Sabrina Teenage Witch - The Complete Volume #1
Jughead's Time Police

SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH #45 (May 1978)
SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH #50 (Dec 1978)
BETTY AND VERONICA #294 (June 1980) - Not much to say about these. Some random (but good) old issues. I think I'd read most of these stories in reprints somewhere in the digests before.

GIANT GRAB BAG COMICS (Dec. 1975) - Truth in advertising. What they did was, they took 5 random issues of unsold Archie Comics dated Sept. or Oct. 1975, side-stapled them together, glued on a cardboard cover, and trimmed the edges. All the interior pages (including ads and editorial pages) are just the same as the individual comics; the only thing missing are the original covers. And they (a company calling itself "Modern Promotions", with a New York City address) sold this thing (which was essentially a cheap, early example of a trade paperback) for $1.25. Or tried to, anyway. There were four different title/cover variations on this idea (all of which contained randomly-selected, unsold issues of Archie Comics), at least one of which was offered the following year with a 98c cover price. 25c would have been the cover price of the individual comics in 1975, so stapling 5 together for $1.25 amounted to no discount whatsoever as opposed to buying 5 Archie Comics individually. My particular copy of this book contained the following issues: ARCHIE'S T.V. LAUGH-OUT #34, REGGIE'S WISE-GUY JOKES #35, EVERYTHING'S ARCHIE #42, MADHOUSE #99, and ARCHIE AT RIVERDALE HIGH #28.





BETTY AND ME TP - I'll keep this short and sweet. Unless you don't particularly care for Betty as a character, or for some reason don't particularly like stories by Frank Doyle & Dan DeCarlo, you should buy this trade collection. There are 36 stories here from 1966-1972 issues of BETTY AND ME, and out of those, 27 of the stories have artwork by Dan DeCarlo (and most of those were written by Frank Doyle). Of the remaining 9 non-DeCarlo stories, 4 were drawn by Bob Bolling, and 4 were drawn by Al Hartley (with a single story drawn by Samm Schwartz). IMO this is the single best volume they've done so far in the "Archie Comics Presents ..." trade paperback series. As expected by now, this does NOT reprint ALL the stories from consecutive early issues of BETTY AND ME, it's more of a "best of" collection. Included is "Heroes Are Made" from BETTY AND ME #18, which if I'm not mistaken, is actually the first comic book appearance of Hot Dog (the issue was on sale right around the time The Archie Show premiered in 1968), notable because in this story Hot Dog is Archie's dog, not Jughead's. I think one or two other stories where Hot Dog is Archie's dog got published before they decided that HD actually belonged to Jughead.

I finished Unnatural -Volume # 1- Awakening
and I also read Banana Fish #2

Quote from: rusty on January 06, 2019, 10:31:50 PMDC Beach Blanket Bad Guys Summer Special 1, Holiday Special 2017 1, House of Horror 1, Nuclear Winter Special 1 - These 80 page giants are a lot more expensive than the ones from the 1960s.  Overall, pretty decent collections of short stories.

These things always strike me as the 'Chinese food' of comic books. As in, when next Wednesday rolls around, you won't remember a thing you read in them. I liked the Swamp Thing Winter Special, though. There was also a Walmart exclusive one-shot Swamp Thing Special, which was a good mix of classic reprints with a couple of new stories for (IIRC) $6.

Quote from: rusty on January 06, 2019, 10:31:50 PMDeadman 1-6 - I enjoyed this series, but I think Neal Adams is better as an artist than as a writer.

But it could still be argued that THIS series was better-written than the original Deadman series. At least it attempts to bring some logic and some background to a lot of the unanswered questions (or poorly-thought-out explanations) of the original series. Actually, I was surprised because I didn't know WHAT to make of Adams' BATMAN: ODYSSEY series. That was like some completely different Batman that I'd never read before. On the other hand, Neal Adams DID take over the writing of the original Deadman series from its 8th issue after Arnold Drake and Jack Miller, and wrote the last 5 issues, so my POV would be that he knows the character better than anyone at DC ever did. None of the post-Adams Deadman storylines ever amounted to anything. I thought Adams set up a very interesting premise in the miniseries, but was disappointed that the last issue ended with the storyline unresolved.

Quote from: rusty on January 06, 2019, 10:31:50 PMDoomsday Clock 1-7 - This has been a pretty good sequel of sorts to Watchmen.  I've enjoyed the interaction between the DC Universe and the Watchmen Universe.

If it were true to the original premise of Watchmen, the DC universe would end up irrevocably altered by the events of this story. But I think we all know that ISN'T going to happen, which makes me wonder if there's really any point. I'm enjoying the ride so far, but can there really ever be any sort of satisfying climax and resolution? It seems pretty doubtful.

I just finished The Best of Archie Comics - Book #3 & I also read these books for 12 minutes each Husbands & Jughead's Time Police & Sabrina The Teenage Witch - Volume #1 & Scooter Girl & B & V Friends Jumbo Comics Digest #265 & Betty & Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #262 & #268 & World Of Archie Comics Double Digest #74

I'm caught up on the mainstream DCs now, except for a few that arrived in my latest shipment.


Hellblazer 12-24 - I read the original Hellblazer series as it came out up through #65 before dropping the title.  I started collecting it again when it rebooted as Constantine with the New 52 and have been enjoying it since then.  It is cancelled again, but maybe it will be back again.  I have since picked up #66-300 of the original series and plan. to give the whole thing a read through eventually.


Heroes in Crisis 1-4 - I'm a bit conflicted on this series.  It hasn't been bad, but I don't really like some of the characterizations.  The deaths also seem kind of pointless.  We'll see where it goes and what the underlying secrets are behind the deaths.  It reminds me a bit of Sue Dibny's death way back when.


Justice League 26-43 - I liked the Legacy storyline.  The one where they are bickering all the time and lose their satellite, not quite as much.


Justice League of America 11-29 Annual 1 - I liked this series a bit more than the main JL title.  Overall, fairly entertaining.


Justice League 1-14, No Justice 1-4 - I'm not really a big fan of the Legion of Doom.  The new series has been so-so.  I wasn't a huge fan of No Justice either, though it had its moments.


Mystik U 1-3 - A younger Zatanna goes to magic school and meets John Constantine, Sargon and others.  I liked this miniseries quite a bit.


New Talent Showcase 2018 1 - This was a nice collection of stories.  I liked the original New Talent series from back in the 1980s.


Shazam 1 - A good start to the new series.  I like the new Marvel Family.


Teen Titans 10-25 Annual 1 - I've been enjoying this series, even after they changed the lineup.  Damian can be a jerk, but it looks like he is learning a bit.


Wonder Woman 25-61, Annual 2 - This series has been pretty solid.  I think the Robinson run was my favorite, but the others are good, too.  I think we'll see Diana's brother return at some point.  There is still a lot that can be explored there.


Wonder Woman Conan 1-6 - Diana has lost her memory and is fighting as a slave gladiator when Conan mistakes her for a childhood friend.  This was a pretty good adventure with time travel involved of course.


Jinxworld, Vertigo, the kids titles and other DC imprints are next.

Quote from: rusty on January 17, 2019, 12:11:20 AM
I'm caught up on the mainstream DCs now, except for a few that arrived in my latest shipment.

Heroes in Crisis 1-4 - I'm a bit conflicted on this series.  It hasn't been bad, but I don't really like some of the characterizations.  The deaths also seem kind of pointless.  We'll see where it goes and what the underlying secrets are behind the deaths.  It reminds me a bit of Sue Dibny's death way back when.

DC's been going off the rails for a while now with their pointless, brutal deaths... seemingly just to prove they can. Y'know, all so they can erase that "squeaky clean heroes" DC image that they used to have, and be taken seriously as a purveyor of grim & gritty fiction as-you-like-it. Ya know, just because something worked a few times (The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Hellblazer) doesn't mean you should keep trying to recapture that mood ad infinitum.

Quote from: rusty on January 17, 2019, 12:11:20 AM
Mystik U 1-3 - A younger Zatanna goes to magic school and meets John Constantine, Sargon and others.  I liked this miniseries quite a bit.

I didn't know what to make of it. Wait, Constantine was in this?? Are you sure? That wouldn't make much sense, even as a continuity implant or a parallel earth. I'm going to say it must have been some alternate, parallel DC earth; that's the only thing that makes any real sense. I really wanted to like it, but couldn't.

Quote from: rusty on January 17, 2019, 12:11:20 AM
Wonder Woman 25-61, Annual 2 - This series has been pretty solid.  I think the Robinson run was my favorite, but the others are good, too.  I think we'll see Diana's brother return at some point.  There is still a lot that can be explored there.

I wish. But I doubt it. I don't know if Robinson somehow burned bridges with the WW editor or if he was just the victim of a general line-wide reshuffling, but it seemed like the book took a pretty immediate change in direction following his departure. Too bad. Greg Rucka's New 52 WW had some interesting stuff, but was way too hard to follow (and it didn't help that it was essentially two different alternating storylines for its first year). Robinson's run was the first to make me feel like the character was back on track, and it was nice to see a follow-up to the whole Darkseid reborn thing in Justice League. Too bad he couldn't have stayed on WW for a few years.

Quote from: rusty on January 17, 2019, 12:11:20 AM
Jinxworld, Vertigo, the kids titles and other DC imprints are next.

Vertigo is like a whole 'nother imprint since the New 52 thing (and nowhere near as good). And now DC has a new one, Wonder Comics. Not sure what the aim is there, but it's another Bendis-spearheaded initiative that appears to be going for a slightly younger demographic (only *slightly*, mind you). Still haven't figured out if the new Young Justice is part of the regular DCU or some parallel earth.

My mistake on Mystik U.  I read it a while ago and thought that Constantine was in the first issue, but it was Sebastian Faust.  Still a good book.




I read the Jinxworld books today and liked them.


Cover 1-4 - I'm not really a fan of David Mack's art, but it worked pretty well in this series about a comic book artist who gets recruited by the CIA to be a part time asset while using trips to comic conventions as cover.  I'm enjoying it a lot so far.


Pearl 1-5 - I think this series is even better than Cover.  The art is excellent and the story deals with an albino tattoo artist with mob ties.  She is intervenes in a gang fight to protect a guy that she just met and likes only to find that this could lead to a big gang war is she doesn't take care of the hit list given to her.


Scarlet 1-5 - This story continues from the previous books.  For once, it actually came out on time.  I enjoyed it, though not as much as the other two Jinxworld books mentioned above and not as much as the earlier Scarlet books.


United States of Murder Inc. 1-4 - This is another holdover from Icon and is about the first female assassin in a particular mob family.  I like the book more than Scarlet, though not as much as the other two series.  It has potential.


The move to DC seems to have done good things for Bendis and deadlines on his indie books so far.