Here 'tis. I got… X-Factor, and Gen 13, and Teen Titans : The Lost Annual - and other stuff, but that’s all I’ve read so far.
There’s a weekly comic thread?? Yay! Do we just get to discuss new comics, or can we discuss whatever it is we happen to be reading this week? I’m finishing up Volume 4 of The Books of Magic, which is not new by a long shot. Then I’m picking up Casanova and reading that.
If I post, I discuss (or usually just ask clarifying questions) about what I am currently reading, as I’m at least 5 weeks behind right now, and drifting further back. It’s easier than trying to find the right thread for the right week for a comic that came out 4 weeks ago and has been sitting in the to-be-read pile.
So I read Brand New Day. Since I hated the end of One More Day, I was pretty sure it would hate this.
Yep. Just awful. I feel like I’m reading a Stan Lee comic from the late 60’s. And that’s not a good thing.
“Hey, welcome back to swinging Petey Parker! He’s got money problems, but don’t we all?”
And as a friend said to me, if no one knows who Spidey is, then why did Aunt May still get shot? Did she cheat the Kingpin or something?
IT MAKES NO SENSE DAMMIT.
I unfortunately live in the middle of a virtual nowhere, and have no reliable access to new comics. Most of what I read is older stuff that I buy from eBay either on the strength of an author or artist that I know and like or a friendly recommendation. Also, I don’t do many superhero comics, so I’m unlikely to be able to add much to any conversation anyway. I did just have a friend give me the rundown on the recent Spiderman upset, but I’m even well behind the times on finding out about that.
I haven’t been to the shop yet this week; I will probably go tomorrow. Looks like this week I will have Ghost Rider, Nova, and Wolverine. I may take a loof at Hulk #1, and pick it up if it looks good.
I am really behind on a few books. In fact, I haven’t read any of Annihilation: Conquest yet. I decided to wait till the minis were all done and read them all at one time. I am way behind on Nova too, since I didn’t read any of the issues that tied in with AC, or any since. Other books though, I have been keeping up with pretty well. My complete pull list is:
Annihilation Conquest
Nova
Wolverine
Ghost Rider
Moon Knight
Ultimate X-Men
Immortal Iron Fist
Silver Surfer: In Thy Name
I will probably get that upcoming The Last Defender mini-series. I’m not currently reading any DC books, I pretty much gave up on them as a whole after the last Crisis. I’m looking forward to this week’s Wolverine and Ghost Rider books, I think they both are the final parts of their respective storylines.
Green Lantern Corps #20: Good, a little redundant with last issue, but otherwise quite good. Loved the stuff with Mongul. Looks like they’re making him into a major villain which works for me. I don’t mind it for one issue, but I hope they aren’t turning this into the Guy and Kyle show. Not that I was particularly attached to any other Lantern (except perhaps Soranik Natu), but I enjoyed seeing a variety of aliens in this book, and I’d hate to see them relegated to the background.
The Four Horsemen #6: Meh. After a good start it just kinda lurched to an end. Oh well, I did like the bit with Batman, and the characterization of all three were pretty strong throughout. So that’s something.
Suicide Squad #5: So good, it made me dislike Salvation Run all the more. *This *is how you do villain-on-villain conflict and scheming. My only complaint is that we only get three more issues of this, and many of the previous were taken up wholly by Rick Flagg, which was OK, but far from as awesome as this.
Superman #672: Nothing fancy, just Superman vs. alien bugs. Just the way I like it. I don’t like how close-knit the DCU’s superheroes have become in recent years, but I still have to wonder why Lois doesn’t have Dr. Midnight’s or Batman’s number. And I know Batman will catch some shit for the watch thing, when it was Clark’s idea.
Countdown to Final Crisis #16: Yep. There’s some good ideas here. Just not worth stretching out to 52 issues, or anything executed well.
Salvation Run #3: Here again, is some good ideas executed poorly. Nobody would *follow *the Joker. He could serve as an exemplar to the more chaotic tranportees, but only the weakest and stupidest would actually be under him. And not Grodd. The mole is bothersome too: I was fun with the premise of this story when it was Waller behind it. She’s shady enough to do this. But no way would J’onn let this happen. . I’m done here. It’s just not working.
I read the Avengers Secret Invasion book…God, that whole sequence with Jessica Drew being introduced to the Avengers was horribly written, as was everything with Wonder Man in it.
You feel free to talk about whatever you like - I’m sure some of our regulars will have read whatever you mention. I liked Books of Magic quite a bit…
I halfway feel alienated in this thread. I enjoy it but it’s rare that others have picked up what I did.
For me this week:
Lost Books of Eve
Punisher: War Journal
The Boys
My FLCS owner put it in my box…he usually has a pretty good read on my tastes, and he knows I like the Big Stories.
That one went back on the shelf unopened. I decided to finally vote with my wallet this time.
Super Excited about the Savage Sword of Conan reprint…not thrilled it’s phone-book quality, though. But, I guess it makese sense.
Heh. I can’t stand Ennis, personally… 
So… was the Teen Titans “Lost” Annual actually a lost annual? 'Cause it was trippy and weird, and absolutely impossible to squeeze into current continuity (since that would make Dick Grayson in his 40s, and hence Bruce and Clark in their 50s-60s).
It was a “lost” story of the era of the original Titans, which was the swinging 60’s. Surely you know how “sliding” timelines work in comic books…
It was written a few years back, admittedly, and decided to be too crazy to publish.
Yeah, I well understand the slippery timelines of comics, it’s just that this one was so crazy I was finding it hard to understand why they published it now. Wouldn’t be a particular boost to Teen Titans sales or storylines, so didn’t know if maybe there was an alternate continuity (like Teen Titans Go!) I was missing out on.
Foolkiller 2 and 3- Where’s the interesting writing? The last Foolkiller series had fabulous writing- one normal man’s journey to becoming a serial killer. This series is a new Foolkiller, and just plain meanness. It seems like everything violent and crass is thrown in because the creative team thought it was K007.
Nitemares And Fairytales Rue Royalle- I missed most of the issues when they came out and rather than attempt to hunt them down, I went with the trade paperback. This should be great.
Mockingthrush unless you want to start a new thread, just disuss it here. This is a thread for all your latest acquisitions, regardless of when they were published.
Dick would be in his late 50 or early 60s, if this was in continuity - he was in his teens in the Titans, and the events of this story would have taken place over the course of 1962 (since the Titans on Ullustros didn’t know about the Cuban Missile Crisis) and 1963 (since they got back after the Kennedy assassination).
Interestingly, the first Teen Titans story wasn’t until 1964, just to add to the anachronistic aspects of the story.
Grodd’s still salvageable, if he was the real brains, and using Joker as a mouthpiece/scapegoat if things turn sour. Not an incredibly LIKELY scenario, sure, but more likely than playing second banana I’m so sorry to the Joker.
There’s a lot of other stuff gone wrong with this book, sadly, so, also sadly, I’m not holding my breath for that.
My list of major issues:
1 - Chemo. Elsewhere we see Waller planning to use it. Having it transported (when we’re told that the control device she had is very short range, so she can’t even use it to control/spy on the transportees) defies comprehension.
2 - Time scale - given the volatility of a lot of the personalities there - Joker, or Carnevil especially - I can’t believe it took most of two weeks for things to come to a head.
3 - Joker’s cadre in general. Aside from Grodd, I have a hard time believing Cicada, Mammoth, or Manticore would follow him at all, and I’d have liked to have seen some explaination of why Effigy, Ragdoll, Bolt, Carmen and well…most everyone else who isn’t completely unbelievable, or Jewelly and Carnevil (both of whom actually make sense) followed him so it didn’t feel so…random.