Comics Thread?

[benji]

I was going to start this back in summer, but forgot or something. illini's Preacher thread reminded me.

I completed a number of series recently, I recommend:
Powers (ongoing)
Awesome. About two police in a world where there are powers (superheroes), a series of 4-5 issues arcs, before ending with a massive one. Then somewhat rebooted into a second series with an ongoing story.

Runaways (ongoing)
Same as Powers in that there are two series. One big arc for the first, and an ongoing second. About kids with superpowers who runaway (shocking!) and have adventures. Set in Marvel Universe, Wolverine and others show up. Series is not afraid to kill off people.

Stray Bullets
Didn't technically end, but will probably never be finished. About some people, who things happen to. Do not know how else to explain it, very good.

The Walking Dead (ongoing)
Zombies. Survivors. Need more?

Checkmate (ongoing)
Pretty hott. Organization in the DC Universe, who...handles...things for the UN. Double-crossing. Politik. Again, not afraid to kill people off.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Season Eight (ongoing)
Picks up where the series left off. Still finding its feet, but setting up for something bigger.

Top Ten
Something like twelve issues, plus two five issue spin-off/follow-up series. And a special backstory issue. About a city where there are only super heroes, the police force there.

Alan Moore's Supreme (This is what you search for...on...um...Google, to find to...purchase...yeah...)
Deconstructs everything about Superman mythos.

Batman and the Outsiders (ongoing)
Reboot of an old series. Batman's new side-group in the wake of OMAC. Just started.

The Twelve (ongoing)
Just started. Twelve superheroes were frozen during World War II by Germans, and have been woken up. Set in Marvel Universe.

On Tap:
100 Bullets
Fables
Lucifer (about Lucifer getting bored and quitting Hell and opening up a night club? sign me up...)
Preacher
Transmetropolitan

[Sauru]

benji is into comics? myself i like the marvel universe. i pretty much only collect the ultimate line of comics but i also pick up some special event runs also. currently i am not up to date with my comics as i have not read any of my imcoming ones in about a year, which is good i think cause now when i go back to it i got plenty to read

[shadowgrin]

i pretty much only collect the ultimate line of comics

That's just gay.

Lucifer (about Lucifer getting bored and quitting Hell and opening up a night club? sign me up...)

Saw it but finding issues is a pain. Guess a topic about Lucifer only has a small non-profitable demographic in a mostly Catholic country. Asses.

[benji]

"Finished" 100 Bullets last night. Well, what can be finished so far, 86 issues are out, expected to be 100 total.

Amazing series, somewhat sad to see it coming to an end. Much like Stray Bullets.

[benji]

I decided to start Fables. Started off roughly, but has started to really get going around Issue 10.

Snow White vs. Goldilocks is now one of the ultimate comic battles, in my opinion:

[Fitzy]

thats just lovely

[deihatein]

Totally agree

[BIG GREEN]

Very realistic too...

[benji]

You can't kill a fable easily.

I read the series up to the latest issue, along with the spin-off about Jack. Great series, the world it creates is fantastic. The Adversary reveal was hottness. I'm glad they don't seem to be forgetting things they setup issues before.

Certainly a series to recommend. Different kind of thing than The Walking Dead or Powers, but far from being worse.

[Null17]

I love Fables. Been reading Ultimate Spider-man and the Civil War stuff but I have yet to uh....purchase...the newer issues.

Other stuff I recommend are Watchmen and of course, Sandman (though I still haven't read all of them)

[benji]

Read plenty of new things. A few good and completed series I have read:
Superman: Red Son
What if Superman landed in the U.S.S.R.? Absolutely fantastic. I would read an extended series of this one.

JLA: Tower of Babel
Awesome, even though I knew the twist beforehand. Let's just say Batman > you.

Green Arrow: Quiver (and follow-up, although not as good, Green Arrow: Sounds of Violence)
Kevin Smith's (yes, of Clerks fame) semi-reboot of Green Arrow. Absolutely fantastic.

Some more good series:
Green Arrow: Year One
Read this before Quiver actually. One single story, not like Batman: Year One, but pretty good origin story.

Exiles (ongoing as New Exiles, which I have not read yet)
Really loved this 100 issue series. A group of Marvel characters are "displaced in time" and sent to alternate timelines to correct errors that have befallen them. Mysteries are raised. Oddly was sad to see some of the characters go. Not entirely interested in New Exiles because of characters changes, but will probably look into it.

Queen and Country
Series about minders in British Intelligence who...take care of things. Realistic series. Put on extended hiatus. By Greg Rucka who did Gotham Central (also highly recommended.)

Batman: War Games, Batman: War Crimes, Batman: Under the Hood
Basically a maxi-arc broken into two large arcs and a smaller one. One of Batman's war game plans to centralize control over all of Gotham's gangs under his control is launched without his knowledge. Gotham gets its ass kicked as normal.

Gotham Underground
Self-contained nine-part story about a war between criminal powers in Gotham.

Legends of the Dark Knight
Read the entire run, lots of really good stories from Batman's early days, or alternate tales. Some incredible duds too.
Batman Confidential (ongoing)
A relaunch of Legends after it had disappeared for a few years. Focuses on stories early in Batman's career. Including a hot new origin for the Joker.

Tangent - Supermans' Reign (ongoing)
A bunch of DC characters get pulled into an alternate reality where Superman is a tyrant.

Final Crisis
Batman R.I.P.
The big DC events right now. Morrison promised to be epic. Both have only two issues so far. I haven't read Final Crisis #2 yet.

Star Trek - New Frontier (ongoing)
From Peter David (who turned Hulk from "HULK SMASH" into the modern character) based on the novels he's written with the same people.

Still haven't read:
Lucifer
Preacher
Transmetropolitan
Have added to that list:
Nextwave
Gotham Knights

Also been reading the above mentioned ongoing series' that haven't ended. Haven't liked the turns in Walking Dead and Checkmate, although the one in former was needed. Checkmate went off the rails with a short-term writer change, but will apparently be headed back to hottness with the conclusion of the current arc. Buffy and Outsiders have been solid. The Twelve continues to want to unfold really slowly for a book that is half done. As 100 Bullets winds down it's actually lost some of its hottness, hopefully the final seven issues will fire things back up. Fables had been solid, but I've actually not been reading the latest in order to read the arc as a whole.

[Its_asdf]

Pretty much the only graphic novels I'm collecting are Moon Knight (it's alright, but I tend to have man-crushes on psychotic vigilantes), New Avengers, a few X-Men arcs, Ghost Rider and a couple of Marvel crossovers. Secret Invasion is next on my shopping list, along with the new Captain America stuff and possibly some Immortal Iron Fist.

Read the first big arc for Runaways too. That's a pretty sweet story but everytime I've went shopping I always seem to forget to buy it.

[benji]

I just finished the latest Runaways arc, the final issue of which finally came out. Joss Whedon almost ran this series into the ground by not ever finishing his issues on time. It is relaunching again at #1, for a third series now.

Read Final Crisis #2. Started slow again and it is still setting stuff up, but suddenly went into epic mode at the end. This is of course, "the day evil won" and so far it looks hott.

Also read Hulk #4, Red Hulk vs. Green Hulk. It was a bunch of fighting panels, but there was a bit more addition to the mystery of who Red Hulk is, although there was a silly blatant red herring in the middle. I hope it was just a bit of poor design (or me reading it wrong) instead of them forgetting what they did at the end of the first issue.

I'm going to check out Wanted as the movie seems interesting premise-wise. In other things that just came out, I'm also going to look into Joker's Asylum and Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers issues. Going to wait on Secret Invasion as a whole when it finishes. I still haven't read Civil War or Infinite Crisis.

[Joe']

Anyone read the recently released "Chuck" comic books? I loved the TV series but there's no way to the comics over here, unless you order them online from the DC Comics store.

[benji]

I just read Wanted. I can't believe the movie completely abandoned the whole plot. Jeez, if you had adapted that and cast the right guy for primary villian, it would've been considered to be "Dark Knight" level.

Speaking of which, I reread The Killing Joke tonight. (Which kept Ledger company during his month in a motel room.) I suggest The Dark Knight (or Batman fans) read that, The Man Who Laughs and Batman Confidential #7-12. These are why I wasn't blown away with The Dark Knight's Joker.

Since I mentioned Joker's Asylum in the last post, I read those issues that have been out so far. The Penguin was really good, but the rest weren't so great. The Penguin was the only one that seemed to add anything to the character. And it was hilarious at times.

I don't get how people can't fathom that the Batman's foes are supposed to be sympathetic characters by now. The Poison Ivy and Scarecrow issues completely blew it at this concept.

[cyanide]

Speaking of which, I reread The Killing Joke tonight. (Which kept Ledger company during his month in a motel room.) I suggest The Dark Knight (or Batman fans) read that, The Man Who Laughs and Batman Confidential #7-12. These are why I wasn't blown away with The Dark Knight's Joker.

Since I don't have access to, or not willing to buy the comics, do you mind sharing what that's all about? I'm interested in why you weren't blown away by Ledger's Joker and how these comics have something to do with it. If I still gotta get the comics to get the full story, then no worries

[Its_asdf]

I'm reading the Watchmen due to all the new hype surrounding that. So far it's a pretty well done story with a lot of mystery, even though the old art sometimes strains my attention for it.

[cyanide]

^ What do you define as "old art" ?

[Its_asdf]

I meant the way that its drawn. I've only started reading the more recent stuff by Marvel and I guess the art appeals more to me I suppose.

[shadowgrin]

I just read Wanted. I can't believe the movie completely abandoned the whole plot. Jeez, if you had adapted that and cast the right guy for primary villian, it would've been considered to be "Dark Knight" level.

I would just segway to another thread to avoid going off-topic here

[cyanide]

So thanks to a couple of people, I was able to read The Man Who Laughs and The Killing Joke. I can definitely say that the comic book Joker does have an identity, a past, and an origin that the Dark Knight didn't go into, that the Dark Knight's Joker didn't mirror the Joker in the comics; however, Ledger's acting for the character he was put in I still found to be brilliant for the role he played in.

[cyanide]

7 Crappiest Super Heroes in Comic Book History It gets really hilarious on the second page

[benji]

Anyone read fucking Batman R.I.P.? And/or Morrison's entire tease run?

EDIT: Actually, I'll update on other things...

Final Crisis has been up and down. Checkmate was killed due to the new writers being crap. Buffy, meh. Nextwave was hilariously awesome. I don't think a new Twelve has come out since the last post. 100 Bullet has basically said "fuck it, EVERYONE IS GOING TO FUCKING DIE IN MEGA AWESOME ENDING." Gotham Knights was meh. Outsiders has picked up, and the Batgirl mini-series has been hott. Walking Dead and Runaways have rebooted themselves, I'm not down on them as much as some people. I read Civil War and Planet/World War Hulk. First one was very underwhelming, second one was pretty awesome.

In new things added to reading list...most of the Star Trek comics, they're so much better than when the show was on and I was a kid. Secret Six is lulzy. Enders Game comic is pretty neat. All the Final Crisis spin-offs obviously. Deadpool's new series, I love the guy.

Got such a big backlog now. Still with Transmetropolitan, the rest of Preacher (read the first book), added Seven Soldiers, The Boys, The Invisibles, Y: The Last Man, Invincible, Earth/Paradise/Universe X.

Oh, I also read the Dead Space prequel which was pretty interesting. And the entire run of Futurama comics which was pretty great. Nowhere near as funny as the show though.

[Null17]

wow. where do you find the time to read all of this?

[Its_asdf]

I have Batman RIP and Immortal Iron Fist Vol. 2 waiting for me back home when I finish these blasted finals.