Weekly Comic Book Discussion 5/6/2004

Cafe Society
1

So here we go again!

Soem decent stuff this week … full list when I get home, but of note:

Firestorm #1 - I want Ronnie Raymond back. Now. The creative revamping of Firestorm’s costume is tightening the sleeves and screwing up his face? Whee.

From the CSN booklet : I read up on Byrne’s new Doom Patrol. Which is the old Doom Patrol. Okay, I thought, they’ve resurrected these hardy DC perennials, whose history is intimately tied to the JLA, Changeling of the Titans, the last Doom Patrol book, et cetera. A fixture of DC continuity. Then I read the statement that this team is being created ‘as if they’d never existed before’ … and then there’s some typical artist snobbery about how the trappings of continuity is for small minds.

Screw you, John Byrne. I’d given you some credit all these years for making She-Hulk such an enjoyable book, but your art and writing are both sub-par. Now you’re ripping a huge whole in DC continuity and telling me if I don’t like I have a small mind? Go away. You’re irrelevant, and apparently insane. As is DC for letting you do anything of significance.

2

Okay, here’s the deal.

I’ve visited a couple comic stores in the last two weeks, and have asked a couple questions on the board. I’m looking for a book or two to buy, and am not sure what to go with.

The guy at the store the other day was very helpful. His suggestions:

Superman ** - there’s two books out that he really recommends that are being beefed up this year, and he’s excited. I’m not a huge Sups fan, though.
**
Superman/Batman - I know a couple of you recommend this as well. Is this a title that’s going to last a while, or is it a 24 issue run and that’s it? I’d kinda like something that has overreaching Universe drama, but if this title is fairly self-contained, I’ll pass.

The Avengers - The guy was also very excited about this - it’s also getting a big focus this year. That’s cool. I like The Ultimates, but don’t like it’s “maybe we’ll release this month, maybe not” inconsistency.

The new X book - Can’t remember it’s name. I used to read X-Men and X-Factor back in the late 80s (during the Clairmont run? is that right? Fall of the Mutants and all that jazz). I’ve been peeking at Ultimate X-Men, and I’m still interested, but the new characters back in the 80s kinda turned me off (Havok, Remy, Psylocke, etc.).

JSA - I don’t know what to think about the Golden Age folks. I have no idea who they are, where they fit into the DCU, what they do, etc.

I have a feeling I’m just going to end up getting all the Ultimate titles. But for some reason that just feels like a cop-out to me.

3

Some interesting things out this week, but I haven’t had much of a chance to read anything yet. However, I am very glad to have a new version of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. It ain’t perfect, but it’s pretty good.

4

Say what now? New version of the Handbook?

Well, for me, Wildguard just finished up, Girl Genius is sporadic, two Transformers series just finished… I happened to like War Within very much.
Currently, all that’s on my stack is Legion, She-Hulk, Girl Genius, PS238, and the occasional Superman.

I’m not pleased with what I’m hearing about the ‘three supermen’ and ‘Eh, kill someone in JLA’ and so on. So… what’s up?

5

The Ultimate titles are nice, if for no other reason than they’re a self-contained universe (if somewhat inconsistent) with only a small handful of titles to cover. So, economical.

JSA’s a great book … but you’d miss a lot without the sense of history.

Superman - New story arc with Azzarrello and Jim Lee, good time to jump on, unless you’re not a Supes fan. :wink:

Superman/Batman - I love this book, and while it seems mostly self-contained, it does have consequences in the larger DC universe.

Hmm… lunchtime… more later.

6

Sleeper: Out in the Cold. I’ve been hearing the raves about this book for months, but even though Brubaker is one of my favorite writers, I just hadn’t gotten around to buying it. I think the Wildstorm imprint, and presence of superheroes, was keeping me away. My mistake. Huge mistake. This tightly plotted story of a spy who is left “out in the cold” when his handler, the only person who knows he’s a spy and not truly one of the bad guys, is left comatose, is tightly plotted and crisply written. Both art (by Sean Phillips) and coloring are superb. I was a fool for not picking this up sooner.

On the other hand, I have:

JLA: Zatanna’s Search to bemoan. On the off-chance anyone on this board has been following my reading habits, you’re probably wondering why an avowed indie loving, superhero intolerant reader would pick this up. That’s a long story, but the partial answer is this: I regularly hear comic readers whine about how things were better in the Silver Age, and realized I hadn’t actually read much from that time period for comparison. If this crossover is at all representative, I wonder if those people who miss the Silver Age have read any of it lately. There’s something to be said for the snappy pacing (no decompression here!), and certainly many of the female characters fare better under the old pencilers than some of the modern ones, but the cheesy plots, overripe dialogue, and the rest left me stone cold. I’ll stick with the class of '86 and up, thanks.

7

Yup. This was The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: X-Men 2004 so they are limiting things right now. I have heard that there’s a Spider Man one on the way. Plus it’s only 24 pages. But if it sells…

Like I said, it’s pretty good. It’s got the format that includes a full History and description of Powers just like in the old version (the big one with the connected covers). Plus all that “Marital Status” and “Known Relatives” stuff. The art is variable like you’d expect what with different artists covering different characters. And there aren’t those little pictures of the characters in action (just the main portrait). On the plus side, the back has a brief section telling you what issues are important milestones for the characters.

On the whole, I’m fairly pleased.

8

Interesting.

I think what I’m going to do is buy the 4 JLA/Avengers books (they seem like an interesting little series to have anyway), and see if there’s anyone that jumps out at me. If not, I’ll continue to read the Ultimate books on the stand at the bookstore, and get the Superman/Batman book. If I like that, then I’ll look into Sups full time.

Maybe.

:wink:

9

Yup, I like that they went back to the old style of OHOTMU, even if for $3.99 you wind up getting fewer pages and characters than we used too (back in MY day, we didn’t have “glossy stock paper”, we had newsprint and we LIKED it!)

I really enjoyed Ult Spider-Man this week. I know someone complained about the dialog in it (ex. “goofy goof goofball”) but I think it’s great. He’s teasing villains with what amounts to poor schoolyard taunts. This issue had me laughing all the way though…until the last page when I said “oh $#!%”

E-Sabbath, good to see someone else besides me is picking up the new She-Hulk. I’m really loving it so far.

10

JLA/Avengers was a nice reward for me, as a longtime comic fan. I have two copies of each issue and still plan to buy the collected version.

Incidentally, the first story arc of Superman/Batman is now available in collected form.

As for your earlier musings on the Avengers and X-Books… I can’t help much in this department… I read Avengers only haphazardly, and the only X-books I read are the more tangential ones that don’t tend to get involved with the others. (X-Statix, Exiles) I used to read Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, X-Force … well, heck… all of the X-books… and have an 8 year span of uninterrupted collections of each of them… but lately… eh.

11

This week’s purchases :

Ultimate Fantastic Four #4 and #5 - I like this series. I’d like it more if it didn’t contradict Ultimate-Universe continuity, but hey, those are the breaks.

Stryke Force #2 - Still firmly in mediocreville.

Enginehead #2 - I’m going to give them another issue to show me something worthwhile in this little book. The art’s horrible.

Thessaly : Witch for Hire #4 (of 4) - This entire series has been an interesting footnote to the Sandman tales … but the ending seemed a bit p at.

Swamp Thing #3 - Hmmm… might turn into an okay book… wish they’d left poor Sargon out of it though. I’ve hated everything they’ve done to him in a Vertigo context.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang #4 - Love love love this book.

GI Joe #29 - Very nifty. Some good snippets of dialogue in this one.

BPRD #2 and #3 - the follow-up to Hellboy. Good stuff, bad art. (Bad Mignola! Learn to draw! It’s a world of lumpy, misshapen people…)

Green Lantern #175 - I think I already had #176, and wanted to back up and check this out, since I heard the distressing news about Kyle. Glad to see the Guardians, Jr are shaping up.

Firestorm #1 - Already mentioned… worst costume revision ever. If you can even call it a revision.

Invincible #11 - Best book this week. Heck, it’s the best book last week and next week too. Invincible just rocks.

Exiles #46 - Dammit, they’ve jumped into the real Marvel Universe it seems. The crappiest universe of them all, continuity-wise.

Alpha Flight #3 - Heh. Hehehehe. Bwahahaha!

12

Is The Pulse cancelled?

Alias was imo the best comic out there but the transition to The Pulse didn’t work for me. I haven’t seen a new issue out so I’m guessing, dead?

13

Are you talking about the current BPRD mini, “A Plague of Frogs”?

14

Ahhh… yup. Didn’t notice it was a mini.

15

Then the art was done by Guy Davis, one of my all-time favorite pencilers in the business. Somehow I just know you’re going to tell me they made the mistake of coloring it. Guy Davis’ pencils always, always look better in black and white no matter how good the colorist is.