The General Comic Discussion Thread - Part 2

[Mani-Man]

Comics Week

Action Comics #1064

Oh that was a fantastic Start to this Arc.
And it already makes me hate Brainiac because the first part of the Issue was so great in terms of showing Metropolis and the peace and all that.
So when Chaos hit, you already want Superman to beat Brainiac so hard.
This was well done.
The Writing and its pacing, the art…all very fun.

As for the Cover, the regular one is awesome.

The Bat-Man: First Knight #2

A fun second issue.
I like the vibe, the visuals and the general arc of this a lot.
Especially the world it creates is interesting, feels very old school and all.

Regular cover is so cool.

Batman and Robin #8

This keeps hitting the right notes on all accounts for me.
I like the main arc so far, but even more is the relationships building and all that.
That is a ton of fun.

There are a few Covers that are neat, especially since I think the Regular cover is a bit overdesigned…but for the sake of fitting the story, regular cover is the best.

Green Lantern #10

As usual, a good issue.
Im getting really into Green Lantern with this, like I never did before.
Or maybe its me just having changed enough so that I can appreciate the Green Lantern Universe more.
But either way, it gets me more interested…so that’s a win.
Fun read.

Regular cover I like the most here.


Yeah, nice week.

 

[Slick]

This is pretty interesting if true.

Scott Snyder's Ultimate Line For DC Is To Be Called Absolute Comics

Bleeding Cool gets the word that Scott Snyder's Ultimate Comics-style line for DC is to be called Absolute Comics, part of DC's "All-In"

bleedingcool.com

I hope it is

 

[Babillygunn]

This is pretty interesting if true.

Scott Snyder's Ultimate Line For DC Is To Be Called Absolute Comics

Bleeding Cool gets the word that Scott Snyder's Ultimate Comics-style line for DC is to be called Absolute Comics, part of DC's "All-In"

bleedingcool.com

I hope it is

I typically feel like everything that Scott Snyder writes (outside of Swamp Thing and Dick Grayson, both of whom he writes very well) is outside of main continuity.

By the way, I love your avatar and your tagline.

 

[Slick]

I typically feel like everything that Scott Snyder writes (outside of Swamp Thing and Dick Grayson, both of whom he writes very well) is outside of main continuity.

By the way, I love your avatar and your tagline.

Thanks. I love “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka” lol such a funny movie.

Like the article states with Marvel’s new Ultimate Universe and Images/Skybound Engergon Universe selling like hot cakes DC could use something like Absolute Comics.

 

[Babillygunn]

Thanks. I love “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka” lol such a funny movie.

 

[Primal Slayer]

DC is unfortunately gracing us with another 3 month event where ALL of our current storylines get put on hold just so the DCU can fight Amazo again along with Waller.

 

[Babillygunn]

I suppose we should’ve seen this coming given the fact that Amanda Waller and Peacemaker have been popping up in a bunch of the books. Somehow I think they bring back the JL with this even though the current status quo has been really good.

 

[flickchick85]

And this is why I'm glad I don't keep up-to-date with current runs. I read them 6 months late at the earliest (and honestly, I usually wait 'til they're done or have collected volumes or have an endpoint in sight). As such, I never feel these hiatuses on the ongoing plots at all, as I just skip right over 'em.

 

[Mani-Man]

I suppose we should’ve seen this coming given the fact that Amanda Waller and Peacemaker have been popping up in a bunch of the books. Somehow I think they bring back the JL with this even though the current status quo has been really good.

I still thought the Waller story would come later, but yeah...it was just a matter of time.
I would love a Justice League return, i miss them.
But at the moment its not fitting.
You gotta Diana fighting her own fight, Superman has a lot on the plate currently, Flash has stuff to do, Batman is currently fighting Zur...they all are busy on their own.

Still, im not looking forward to stories getting derailed again.
They all have good stories going that will be hurt by a few months of being stopped for a crossover arc.


Anyway, comics week.

Another Comics Week

Batman / Superman: World's Finest #26

What a fun issue…its such a incredible Book for 26 issues.
Mora and Waid bring their A Game constantly and that makes for a lot of fun.

The Regular Cover is as fun as the whole issue…absolutely fantastic.

Nightwing #113

Fun issue.
Nothing Groundbreaking, a simple Issue that is just fun to read and to look at.
Basic Nightwing Issue and that is not something bad.
But the following Arc can be really really interesting, im super hyped.

As for Covers, I find the Regular a bit bloated and weird…Dan Moras I prefer more.

Superman #13

Oh that could be a Arc for the Ages if done right.
Brainiac always works, but this can be a huge arc.
So far so good.
Im liking this arc and that issue was fun.
We will see, at the very least it could be a fun Brainiac arc.

Regular Cover for me, it’s a neat cover.

Wonder Woman #8

I was expecting a bit more for once Diana and the Sovereign meet, but it was okay.
It was a bit too simple built for my taste, even though you could see it coming.
Like, we started the arc pretty much with the most basic idea of this guy seeing Diana as lesser for being a Woman.
But I still thought we get more depth into this than that.
Especially with the idea of Sovereign.
Still, it is fun and I do like how King writes Diana.
The Art does a lot of heavy lifting here however…its just stunning.
I don’t wanna sound too negative because it’s a fun Arc…I was just expecting a bit more from it.

All the Covers are neat, so you cant wrong there.

Yeah, it was a fun week.

 

[Babillygunn]

would love a Justice League return, i miss them.
But at the moment its not fitting.

I’m actually finding the Titans taking the place of the JL to be very satisfying. I like that they show the inherent differences between the teams. I also like that most of the writers are not showing the Titans as an inferior team at all.
Truth be told, I’ve never been a huge fan of the JL. It’s typically more an all star team with role players thrown in who should just be happy to be there. Whereas the Titans are a team with identity and chemistry. They gel better.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

And this is why I'm glad I don't keep up-to-date with current runs. I read them 6 months late at the earliest (and honestly, I usually wait 'til they're done or have collected volumes or have an endpoint in sight).

Absolutely this!

 

[blueharvest]

DC Comics Pulls And Replaces Covers Accused Of Being Generated By AI

In an article looking at concerns about the use of AI in recent comic books, Daxiong, was accused by some people over his DC covers.

bleedingcool.com

 

[CrimsonMist]

Wonder Woman #8.

"...And I do not believe you!"

This book is astounding. It's startling how hard King leaned into the rather sexist interpretations of the Bible here, weaponizing it against Diana. Use of the Bible here is so brazenly subversive. And I just absolutely love how repugnantly snug The Sovereign is in his sexism and how it just ALWAYS blows up in his face. It's once again another incredibly powerful issue of Wonder Woman. That splash page by Sempere is another banger, replete with massive reverberations and power rippling off the page.

It is a downer that Wonder Woman, along with several other books, are getting derailed for 3 MONTHS for this silly Absolute Power event. I know that this book is doing well sales-wise but Wonder Woman has always been a volatile title so I have no idea why DC thinks deviating from the main narrative for this long is a good idea.

Hellblazer #4.
As per the July solicits, this series got bumped from a 9 issue series to an 11 issue series. And if you're curious as to why, this issue stands as proof. This particular issue is about the lengths parents go to protect their children at the expense of any kind of morality. And the very human horrors it can wrought. Like the previous issue, it feels like the thesis of this book is that all the horrors that are uniquely American are ripped from a prejudiced and reactive collective subconcious. It really leans into the idea of American Horror as a reaction to being a melting pot country and the bizarre cultures and philosophies born from that. It's quite brilliant. This issue goes for the throat and I had to sit in silence with it for a few minutes.

Batman/Dylan Dog #2.
This is what comics are all about. We get the wonderfully obvious team-up of Dylan Dog and John Constantine as they venture into what appears to be the DCU version of Hell with some help from Etrigan The Demon as they try to determine if a dead serial killer's soul is in the afterlife or if he has been resurrected by an admirer: The Joker.

I absolutely love this book. It's a technicolor psychedelic trip. It's a Mario Bava superhero horror movie. It's just missing some sort of insane Les Baxter score playing over it. The colors are great. The layouts are imaginative and fun. The pencils are great. Still not sure who's doing what as far as the pencils go, as the book credits two artists as "Artist". But it's a great book. I know there's a lot of Batman content out there and much of it feels like just that: content. But this is not one of them.

Also of note. This book is 64 pages and costs 5 bucks. Helluva deal (the first issue was 88 pages for 5 bucks).

Batman: Dark Age #1
Noticed no one here has mentioned this book yet. The word is still out for me. I'm a little puzzled by why DC released this as a 6 issue floppy series instead of the 3 issue prestige format in which they released Superman: Space Age. As it is, we get hints of what's to come but because of the shorter page count, it ends before it really gets going. If it's even half as interesting as Space Age, Russell might be delivering yet another definitive take on one of DC's best characters though I admit that Space Age will be hard to match and harder to beat. The next 2 issues I think will determine whether this book is on the level or not.

Helen of Wyndhorn #2.
Another great issue but as with a mini series of this kind, I think it's better to wait after a few issues are in the can before commenting any deeper. I will say that Bilquis Evelyn is officially one of the greatest comic book artists in the game and next to Mitch Gerards, is now my favorite Tom King collabortmator. I can't wait to see how far she pushes her abilities as she grows.

Animal Pound #3.
I need to sit with this series as a whole before really commenting on it. But this had a pretty intense ending that makes me incredibly anxious for issue 4, coming out in June. I believe this was announced as a 4 issue series but I think it needs way more space to breath. We'll see.

 

[Snow Queen]

Three months for Absolute Power? Jesus. I'm tired already.

 

[Babillygunn]

I finally got around to reading Robert Venditti’s Sandman comic. I’m usually impressed with Venditti’s work. His World of Krypton was excellent and he did a good job with Superman 78. But this really was pretty generic. It was completely predictable and was just one cliche after another. I was very excited for it, but ended up extremely disappointed.

 

[flickchick85]

“Enjoyable but generic” is pretty much how I feel about Vendetti’s Superman work, tbh. I really like the way he writes Brainiac in ‘78, but beyond that, while they’re not bad reads, nothing really stands out for me.

 

[Babillygunn]

“Enjoyable but generic” is pretty much how I feel about Vendetti’s Superman work, tbh. I really like the way he writes Brainiac in ‘78, but beyond that, while they’re not bad reads, nothing really stands out for me.

Did you read World of Krypton?

I thought that it was a notch above “enjoyable but generic” and even went into the “good” category. I mostly found its description of the Phantom Zone to be fascinating and utterly terrifying.

 

[flickchick85]

Did you read World of Krypton?

I thought that it was a notch above “enjoyable but generic” and even went into the “good” category. I mostly found its description of the Phantom Zone to be fascinating and utterly terrifying.

I have not yet, just Superman ‘78 and Man of Tomorrow. Will have to check it out.

 

[Gee]

My FCBD haul (one LCS offered -30% on paperbacks/hardcovers):

 

[CrimsonMist]

I'll get to comic reviews later this week I think but just wanted to chime in with these thoughts.

I binge read all of Morrison's New52 Action Comics run after having originally dropped the book about 3 issues in. In typical Morrison fashion, I make it about 2/3s of the way through and get the sensation that I've missed something. It's a lot of really good ideas that seem far to rushed to be developed properly. I liked how it started but I quickly found myself wanting to finish it as quickly as possible. It's a mindless blockbuster comic that really lacked in character development (though Sholly Fisch's back ups were largely wonderful).

Speaking of Morrison, I read Joe Kelly's JLA story The Obsidian Age. I never really jumped in past Morrison's run (Tower of Babel excluded) but man, this story was GREAT. Probably better than Waid and definitely better than Morrison, who's run (once again) I couldnt even finish. The Obsidian Age has so much great character dynamics and seeing a newly assembled B-Team lead by Nightwing was awesome. Etrigan gets a great character beat here too. The whole thing reminded of an awesome episode of the Justice League cartoon. I'm looking forward to read more of Casey's run.

 

[Babillygunn]

I binge read all of Morrison's New52 Action Comics run after having originally dropped the book about 3 issues in. In typical Morrison fashion, I make it about 2/3s of the way through and get the sensation that I've missed something. It's a lot of really good ideas that seem far to rushed to be developed properly. I liked how it started but I quickly found myself wanting to finish it as quickly as possible.

This sums up my frustration with most of the Morrison works that I read. I always feel like his pacing is strange and it always feels like there must be an additional 20 tie ins that would need to be read in order for the story to make sense. His writing is very confusing and usually about 2/3 of the way in he starts throwing story points at you where the details have been left out. I always feel like I must’ve gotten ahold of a faulty printing that left multiple critical pages out.
I’m generally not a Morrison fan.

I read Joe Kelly's JLA story The Obsidian Age. I never really jumped in past Morrison's run (Tower of Babel excluded) but man, this story was GREAT. Probably better than Waid and definitely better than Morrison, who's run (once again) I couldnt even finish. The Obsidian Age has so much great character dynamics and seeing a newly assembled B-Team lead by Nightwing was awesome. Etrigan gets a great character beat here too.

I actually just read Divided We Fall, which was Waid’s follow-up to Tower of Babel after his fables storyline, (the fables storyline is criminally underrated and also has some elements that are surprisingly dark for Waid.). I definitely enjoyed Divided We Fall, even if I thought Waid failed to stick the landing. The setup was so fascinating, but it seemed that Waid copped out on addressing some interesting questions about the differentiations between the heroes and their secret identities/alter egos. Admittedly I probably had higher expectations just because it was Mark Waid and expectations are always high with him.

As to the “B list Justice League” you mention, I just went in and queued up Joe Kelly’s Obsidian Age on Infinite based on your review!
I’ll also recommend the vastly underrated run that James Robinson did on JLA where his lineup was Dick Grayson’s Batman, Donna Troy, Jesse Quick, Supergirl, Jade, Starman and Congorilla. It’s an absolute blast! And for what many considered a “b-list” team, they face some huge threats such as the Crime Syndicate and Eclipso.
It may be my favorite JLA run outside of Tower of Babel. (It’s definitely a guilty pleasure.)

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

This sums up my frustration with most of the Morrison works that I read. I always feel like his pacing is strange and it always feels like there must be an additional 20 tie ins that would need to be read in order for the story to make sense. His writing is very confusing and usually about 2/3 of the way in he starts throwing story points at you where the details have been left out. I always feel like I must’ve gotten ahold of a faulty printing that left multiple critical pages out.
I’m generally not a Morrison fan.

I'm so glad someone else feels that way! I don't find a lot of Morrison's stuff 'accessible'. Morrison, Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman all include a ton of references and nods to all sorts of things in their work and I like to think I catch most of them, but I'm sure there are plenty I don't catch. The difference is that with Moore and Gaiman I find that even though I might be pretty sure I missed something the stories still make sense; with Morrison they don't.

 

[Babillygunn]

I'm so glad someone else feels that way! I don't find a lot of Morrison's stuff 'accessible'. Morrison, Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman all include a ton of references and nods to all sorts of things in their work and I like to think I catch most of them, but I'm sure there are plenty I don't catch. The difference is that with Moore and Gaiman I find that even though I might be pretty sure I missed something the stories still make sense; with Gaiman they don't.

My son says that Final Crisis is his favorite Crisis story. (He places Metal second.)
He tries to convince me that it is great, and my response is always that I can agree with him for the first 60% of the story, but then I just can’t keep up and I always find myself asking “now why is this happening?” Or “why is this character in that situation?” I don’t know where those details come from.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

My son says that Final Crisis is his favorite Crisis story. (He places Metal second.)
He tries to convince me that it is great, and my response is always that I can agree with him for the first 60% of the story, but then I just can’t keep up and I always find myself asking “now why is this happening?” Or “why is this character in that situation?” I don’t know where those details come from.

Absolutely. Oh, the last few words of my last post should of course have been 'with Morrison they don't' [now edited], but I know you know what I meant!

 

[Babillygunn]

Absolutely. Oh, the last few words of my last post should of course have been 'with Morrison they don't' [now edited], but I know you know what I meant!

Based on this discussion I decided to create a thread in the DC comics section for favorite Crisis stories.
There isn’t a ton of traffic in those forums but I’m interested in seeing what people say. (I think I know that yours is CoiE)