Comic Books

[Archan]

I'm going to start my fanboy Ash Housewares rant now--

"Groovy."
"Shop smart! Shop S-mart, YOU GOT THAT!!"
"Now I swear, the next one of you primates who even touches me . . . "
"This is my BOOMSTICK!"
"You got real ugly babe."
"Klatu! Varada! Nick-ghzffl!"

Ash rocks. EVIL DEAD 4!!!!

The only Batman I've read recently was Hush and that was pretty good, but I'm a Marvel fan through and through.

*Toasts goblet of Jolt Cola with Michael's*

AH! Truly a man that knows good stuff when he sees it.

"Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun..."
"Oh God it's getting bigger!!!!!"
"....Maybe, just maybe my boys can pull though.....Yeah, and maybe I'm a Chinnese jet pilot."
"Yeah, I could've been king, but in my own way I am King. Hail to the King baby."


Mitsuki:
Hum, I always figured Wolverine for Agnostic, being I'm sure he's recognized the existance of God, but just doesn't like Him.

Forward!
This is regarding Ultimae Nightmare/Secret. Evidentlly the next book to come out will be Ultimate Extinction where Galactus comes, and the Ultimate Silver Surfer willl make his appearence!!!!!!! From what I've seen from some teaser art, the third story arc is gonna be smokin'! Now if they would just finish Secret already.....GAH!

Attached is the teaser art of "Extinction"
God Bless,
Archan

[Gypsy]

I'm a huge X-men fan ... I don't read many others, but there's enough sub series within the X world to keep me occupied. My favorite is Rogue (actually, I just did some fan art of her for Skipping Tomorrows, I should post it soon) and then dear, gruff Logan. Scott could go away forever and I wouldn't care and Jean could be with who she belongs with. Gambit can go away too for that matter ...

This is going back a ways, but did anyone remember reading X-men Age of Apocolypse? While it was really messed up (a world with no Xavier and Magneto is the big good guy) I thought the mixing up of usual pairings and the general playing around with timelines was very cool. This is, btw, where Bishop comes from.

[Kkun]

[quote="Gypsy"]I'm a huge X-men fan ... I don't read many others, but there's enough sub series within the X world to keep me occupied. My favorite is Rogue (actually, I just did some fan art of her for Skipping Tomorrows, I should post it soon) and then dear, gruff Logan. Scott could go away forever and I wouldn't care and Jean could be with who she belongs with. ]


I saw the graphic novel of that at the comic shop and I seriously considered picking it up. That makes me want to grab it even more. That's fantastic.

[Maledicte]

age of Apocalypse ROCKS, and I haven't even read the whole thing. It's just so.....eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[Archan]

[quote="Gypsy"]I'm a huge X-men fan ... I don't read many others, but there's enough sub series within the X world to keep me occupied. My favorite is Rogue (actually, I just did some fan art of her for Skipping Tomorrows, I should post it soon) and then dear, gruff Logan. Scott could go away forever and I wouldn't care and Jean could be with who she belongs with. ]

Oh My, Age of Apocolypse, I remember when that first came out and the covers of the fist and last issues were all shiny with the Foil Chrome that was very big back in the 90's, geez that takes me back. I actually enjoyed it somewhat, but I was glad that it ended there. I hear now they're gonna bring back that timeline as another X title, uh, I mean I give AOA it's props and all, but I was very happy it ended. I think X has more then enough titles for the time being, why add more timelines and such to confuse everyone?

The last X-Men story arch I followed was "New X Men: Here comes Tomorrow", I found it a interesting read, luved how they executed Beast and how they used scripture from Revelations to play out the story, the last issue though kinda let me down, but at least it started well. BTW, evidently there's more then one Pheonix, like a green lantern core but for the Marvel universe......go fig.

Back in the 90's good ol' Logan was my fave X-Men as well, still is, and in the new Extinction story arc mentioned before some of the X-Men get into the skirmish as well, you look at the cover art that was attached and oh, whose bones are those lying on the cover, Cyclops?
God Bless,
Archan

[righteous_slave]

This is going back a ways, but did anyone remember reading X-men Age of Apocolypse? While it was really messed up (a world with no Xavier and Magneto is the big good guy) I thought the mixing up of usual pairings and the general playing around with timelines was very cool. This is, btw, where Bishop comes from.

AOA was about the last storyline I followed. It was cool, the whole alternate timeline thing, but Bishop came into play long before AOA. He was a major player in the story because he was from another possible future, and his presense at the event that changed the world messed him up royally and provided the mechanism to return everything to normal. That was one of the only problems with AOA, you knew that everything would return to normal somehow. Yes a few characters slipped into this reality (X-man, Dark Beast), and they rewrote a few touches of history (somehow Dark Beast created the Morlocks now), but in the end, it all returned to the status quo.

Somebody mentioned Alex Ross. This man is one of the greatest painters of all time IMHO. I have yet to see a bad painting out of him. Kingdom Come is beautiful, his cover for the Crisis on Infinite Earths hardcover is mindblowing, and I have noticed several posters and prints of his work that are just awesome.

I haven't followed comics in some time, paritally due to money, partialy due to not liking the general dark and/or adult direction everything seems to be taking. On occasions though, I dig out my old X-titles, Wolverines, Spiderman's and other mostly Marvel books and read thorugh them for the hundrendth time.

[Michael]

Age of Apocalypse is one of the best--if not THE BEST--X-Men story archs ever. It was so cool. I never liked Sabertooth until I read them.

Somebody mentioned Alex Ross. This man is one of the greatest painters of all time IMHO. I have yet to see a bad painting out of him. Kingdom Come is beautiful, his cover for the Crisis on Infinite Earths hardcover is mindblowing, and I have noticed several posters and prints of his work that are just awesome.

Yeah, he's really good. I hope he keeps it up.

Anybody ever read Deadpool?

[bigsleepj]

I've recently gotten into comic books again. I really loved reading Neil Gaiman's Marvel 1602 which I reviewed in this Books forum a few months ago. But I'm not here to talk about that. I also recently read "Wolverine: Origin" and "Wolverine: The End".

I liked "Origin" (which tells the story of where Wolverine came from) somewhat but I felt the ending was weakly tacked on at the last minute - it did not strike me as if the author logically introduced it into the construction of the story. Off course the ending is tragic and I expected it to be, but really it was too tacked on. In all honesty, might have been better if Wolverine's pre-Weapon X past has not been explored.

"Wolverine: The End" is more or less a companion-piece to Origin but "The End" is in my honest oppinion a complete failure. It's border-line incoherent and its plot basically too standard for what is supposed to be an "event" miniseries. The whole story seems to turn on a character expecting Wolverine to do something that would have been entirely out of character for him. Wolverine doesn't act out of character, but the fact that a character who claimed to know everything about him asked of him to do something like that only shows the desperation for its creaky plot. To say more would maybe reveal too much of the plot, but that's how I feel about it. In fact...
[spoiler]I can't help but feel the title is terribly misleading as well[/spoiler]
In the end its just much ado about nothing.

[Maledicte]

I've never heard of that title 'til now, bigsleep, but thanks for warning me.

I myself liked Origin a lot. Yeah, the ending was pretty weak, but it was the first half that really made me like it. I'll say nothing more...<.<II>.>

there's really an awesome amount of good comics out there, not all of them of the superhero-in-tights breed. Some of the autobiographical ones are some of the most touching and personal things you'll ever read...my personal favorites are Maus, Persepolis and Blankets.

[bigsleepj]

I myself liked Origin a lot. Yeah, the ending was pretty weak, but it was the first half that really made me like it. I'll say nothing more...<.<II>.>

What you don't say says enough. If the ending was better I would have consdired it a worthwhile read. I also like the art-style very much. Very similar to "Marvel 1602" (I think its the same artist - not sure).

I also read "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 1" recently. I liked the idea of the movie but I found the execution to be unsatisfactory (in short the movie sucked) but I decided to try the supposedly superior comic-book. LoEG begins rather good, then suddenly there's a scene that is very insulting to Christians in general (you can't even write it off as intellectual criticism or satire - its just insulting and lurid) then it gets interesting but unfortunately towards the end the story sags - the big climax is not so interesting as it should have been. I liked the art-style which was not really the normal style prescribed to comic books and I also liked the characterization as well as the dialogue. What is interesting is the "behind the scenes" takes on some literary characters like Sherlock Holmes (we went missing before the story started and is something of a sub-text throughout the story), his brother Mycroft (who is possible the leader of the League) and their enemy Moriarty. That said, the rather ridiculously insulting scene I mentioned above and the unsuccessful ending mars what should have been a very good alternative super-hero comic.

[Zane]

I second that bigsleep.

I've read it aswell, and i reckon they could have made the movie way better by simplely sticking more closely to the actually comic (cutting out the scence you mentioned, which was pretty crude), the movie wouldn't have sucked so much.
I liked the whole steam-punk feel to it though. The art was also kinda funny.

[Maledicte]

What you don't say says enough. If the ending was better I would have consdired it a worthwhile read. I also like the art-style very much. Very similar to "Marvel 1602" (I think its the same artist - not sure).

It's the same guy. He also does (or did) art for Ultimate Xmen.

I also read "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 1" recently. I liked the idea of the movie but I found the execution to be unsatisfactory (in short the movie sucked) but I decided to try the supposedly superior comic-book. LoEG begins rather good, then suddenly there's a scene that is very insulting to Christians in general (you can't even write it off as intellectual criticism or satire - its just insulting and lurid) then it gets interesting but unfortunately towards the end the story sags - the big climax is not so interesting as it should have been. I liked the art-style which was not really the normal style prescribed to comic books and I also liked the characterization as well as the dialogue. What is interesting is the "behind the scenes" takes on some literary characters like Sherlock Holmes (we went missing before the story started and is something of a sub-text throughout the story), his brother Mycroft (who is possible the leader of the League) and their enemy Moriarty. That said, the rather ridiculously insulting scene I mentioned above and the unsuccessful ending mars what should have been a very good alternative super-hero comic.

I'm not quite sure what scene that is you're talking about is...I must be dense. Can you PM me?

I actually thought the ending was rather spiffy. If you look at the very last page in the graphic novel, you can see him still floating upward....that was rather funny. The thing I like best about the series, oddly enough, are the little ads and games tucked away as extras in the book. The Quatermain adventures I could do without, though.

Avoid the second book if you know what's good for you. Unless the curiousity is too much to bear.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

I enjoyed the movie, because I found the comics too crude. Seemed to be written by someone who was only interested in sex. The drawing style was haphazard to me. It was interesting at times, but I was let down by the crudness of some parts. Especially book 2. Ugh! The movie I much preffered because that was left out. Its not a highly intelligent movie but I really enjoyed the steampunk setting and the stunts, characters. (one of the few movies I can enjoy without much of a storyline).

[bigsleepj]

I'm not quite sure what scene that is you're talking about is...I must be dense. Can you PM me?

I'm referring to the part where they find the Invisible Man. I just found it insulting.

I actually thought the ending was rather spiffy. If you look at the very last page in the graphic novel, you can see him still floating upward....that was rather funny. The thing I like best about the series, oddly enough, are the little ads and games tucked away as extras in the book. The Quatermain adventures I could do without, though.

I loved the "By Numbers" Picture of Dorian Gray and the mentioning of the DIY Cabinet of Caligari. I laughed out loud with those. In fact I loved all the literary allusions and references throughout the story. I also liked him floating up to the top.

Avoid the second book if you know what's good for you. Unless the curiousity is too much to bear.

Aw nuts - I was hoping it would be better (not that I bought it or anything). I heard it had Sorns in it (CS Lewis' aliens from Out of the Silent Planet) and would have loved to see it - but if it is worse than Vol 1 then I'm going to give it a looooong skip.

[Maledicte]

I'm referring to the part where they find the Invisible Man. I just found it insulting.

Ahh that part. I just remembered it after I posted.

I loved the "By Numbers" Picture of Dorian Gray and the mentioning of the DIY Cabinet of Caligari. I laughed out loud with those. In fact I loved all the literary allusions and references throughout the story. I also liked him floating up to the top.

Yeah, the Dorian Gray one got me too. Maybe I should give it a shot ]Aw nuts - I was hoping it would be better (not that I bought it or anything). I heard it had Sorns in it (CS Lewis' aliens from Out of the Silent Planet) and would have loved to see it - but if it is worse than Vol 1 then I'm going to give it a looooong skip.[/QUOTE]

It doesn't have Sorns...well maybe...on Mars? Well it does have the Martians from War of the Worlds attacking. If the Sorns are on Mars then it could be possible. It also has Dr. Moreau. The only good thing about the second book was how it played the Hyde/Mina relationship, but that was about it.

If you really must know--

[SPOILER] Hyde dies. Heroically.
Griffin dies. Unheroically.
Mina and Allan get together in scenes best left unseen.
They break up.
[/SPOILER]
The end.

[bigsleepj]

Ahh that part. I just remembered it after I posted.

I don't blame you for blocking it out. ]Yeah, the Dorian Gray one got me too. Maybe I should give it a shot
I don't know if you noticed, but there's one scene in the book where Mina looks at a picture of the first League members: Gulliver, Natty Bumpo, and others, whom I have no idea who they are.[/QUOTE]
That makes 75 of us. It is possible the author made them up on the fly. Since I own the novel I might as well try to run them through the Internet and see what pops up.

It doesn't have Sorns...well maybe...on Mars? Well it does have the Martians from War of the Worlds attacking. If the Sorns are on Mars then it could be possible. It also has Dr. Moreau. The only good thing about the second book was how it played the Hyde/Mina relationship, but that was about it.

Well, I can vividly remember in a CS Lewis forum I frequent someone posted a page from the book with the sorns (aka Seroni) on them (although the context in the story are beyond me). According to a Wiki Article....

Volume two opens on Mars, where John Carter and Gullivar Jones have assembled an alliance (including the Séroni from Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis) to defeat the aliens who have been bedeviling the native Martians. These prove to be the aliens from The War of the Worlds, who learn about Earth from the humans on Mars and launch themselves there.

If you really must know--

I read it on the Wiki-article - hmmm. It doesn't seem I've missed anything significant. Alan Moore seems to be kind of messed up.

[Chosen Raven]

Hey, cool. A comic book thread. Shoulda noticed this sooner.

Right now, I'm all about Spider-man. I'm subscribed to:

Marvel Age Spider-man
Spectacular Spider-man, which has become Spider-man: House of M, which will become Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man
Amazing Spider-man
New Avengers(has the best depiction of Spider-man I've seen in a while, not to mention it's a darn good book. Highly recommended)

I'm gonna let my subscription run out for Marvel Age and replace it with Marvel Knights Spider-man. Marvel Age just....ain't too good(too Saturday morning cartoonish).

[Michael]

League was meh. I stopped reading after Nina and Allan did it.

[mitsuki lover]

IMO the worst thing that Marvel did was to end Elektra mid-storyline.

[Kkun]

Hey, cool. A comic book thread. Shoulda noticed this sooner.

Right now, I'm all about Spider-man. I'm subscribed to:

Marvel Age Spider-man
Spectacular Spider-man, which has become Spider-man: House of M, which will become Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man
Amazing Spider-man
New Avengers(has the best depiction of Spider-man I've seen in a while, not to mention it's a darn good book. Highly recommended)

I'm gonna let my subscription run out for Marvel Age and replace it with Marvel Knights Spider-man. Marvel Age just....ain't too good(too Saturday morning cartoonish).

New Avengers is fantastic! Have you read Ultimate Spider-Man? His personality is similar to New Avengers Spidey because they're both written by Brian Michael Bendis. New Avengers is great, though, I can't wait to get #9.

[Maledicte]

Heh, I LOVE Amazing Spiderman. Especially the ones that J. Michael Stracinsky wrote, and John Romita Jr. (yes, THAT John Romita) drew. Great stuff, with all the things you want to happen happening. (Like with Aunt May...FINALLY!)

[Chosen Raven]

New Avengers is fantastic! Have you read Ultimate Spider-Man? His personality is similar to New Avengers Spidey because they're both written by Brian Michael Bendis. New Avengers is great, though, I can't wait to get #9.

I-I-I....can't read Ultimate Spider-man! I'm one of those silly comic book purists. The original Spider-man's the only one for me(even when he's written badly). But Bendis is a great writer. He seems to know exactly what the characters he uses should act like. I too am eagerly awaiting New Avengers #9. The final issue of the Sentry storyline. Should be good. After that, we finally begin to learn about the mysterious ninja character Ronin. About time he's made an appearance in the comics, considering he's been on covers since the first issue....

Heh, I LOVE Amazing Spiderman. Especially the ones that J. Michael Stracinsky wrote, and John Romita Jr. (yes, THAT John Romita) drew. Great stuff, with all the things you want to happen happening. (Like with Aunt May...FINALLY!)

JMS can be good...sometimes. I'd have to say that I thoroughly anti-enjoyed his "Sins Past" storyline. The storyline after that was pretty good, though. Right now, I'm beginning to wonder if he's slipping up again. The most recent issue had a horribly written Spider-man. But it did have a funny scene where Peter throughs Wolverine out a window. That got a laugh outa me.

So what do you guys think of the upcoming Spider-man crossover "The Other"? Sound like a good idea?

[mitsuki lover]

I just started reading my The Power Of Shazam collection last week.
Actually one of the best TPOS stories doesn't involve Billy/Captain Marvel and
isn't even part of the series,it takes place in the Supergirl Plus comic and
involves Mary running away from home and ending up getting in trouble in
Leesburg where she has a fight with S-Girl.
Really good as part of the story is a he says/she says where Mary and one of the
local police tell different sides of wheter or not he abused her after he found
her shoplifting(she said she wasn't he said she was.Also she said he abused her,
he said he was just trying to take her in).

[Maledicte]

Has anyone ever read The Goon? It's possibly the most funny comic I've ever read. It's a Dark Horse comic, by some loon named Eric Powell.

All you need to know:
Zombies+killing zombies=lotsa fun

Plus, the "It's a Wonderful Life" quotes, Monty-Python watching, Annie-singing zombies, giant squids, spanish-speaking Godzillas, weenie vampires and bad science fiction stories crammed into three pages help add to the insanity. And Hellboy shows up as a special guest! Haha!

Franky: You're all red. You have a rash or something?
Hellboy: A rash? No.
Franky: I'm going to call you Rosie.
Hellboy: I don't think I like you at all.

[Kkun]

Picked up House of M #5, Astonishing X-Men #12, and New Avengers #9.

House of M:
They're definitely positioning now for the end, and I cannot wait to see it. It's going to rock.

Astonishing:
This issue was really, really awesome. Seeing the X-Men do battle with the Sentinel that Danger summoned out of the ocean was amazing, and the end, showing who are obviously the villains in the next 12 issues? This book just keeps getting better and better, and logically, the only place it could go is down. Joss Whedon is such a great writer.

New Avengers:
Nothing spectacular, but it's still really entertaining. The Sentry's identity is being revealed more and more Good stuff. I recommend it.

[mitsuki lover]

Has anyone ever read those Classic Marvel reprints they have out now in
TPB format?
I have the one for The Fantastic Four and it has all of the early stories from the
1960s in it.

[Kkun]

This thread needs to be bumped like whoa. Nothing I really care about is coming out for a couple of weeks, but I just started buying Runaways, Justice, and House of M: Spider-Man. It's all good stuff. Runaways looks totally cool, I found a copy of issue 2 at my comic shop and decided to start there since it was the earliest I could find.

[Maledicte]

We should come up with a super list of Comics You Must Read list, with summaries and ratings. That would rock.

[Kkun]

I agree, Sir. I could put it up on the first page...I just may start compiling reviews of what I have.

[mitsuki lover]

I would have to say that must read would have to include some Superman titles.
Oh and as far as non-superhero comics go,does anyone else remember ever
reading Classic Comics,the series that redid all those classic novels,etc. in
comic book form?