The Comic Book Thread

[burningdoom]

^ I've always been more fond of original 5 X-Men. Great characters (some of the best in the entire X-Universe, IMO), and they fought some of the coolest villains between Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister, Madelyne Pryor, and the Celestials themselves. Always facing big villains and complex threats head-on.

I never like the tongue-in-cheek, never-quite-serious style of Peter David's X-Factor.

I don't have the entire series of the original X-Factor, but with the acquisition of X-Factor #6, I now have every significant issue and storyline in their run. Anything I don't have are just filler issues.

[sin2beta]

^ I've always been more fond of original 5 X-Men. Great characters (some of the best in the entire X-Universe, IMO), and they fought some of the coolest villains between Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister, Madelyne Pryor, and the Celestials themselves. Always facing big villains and complex threats head-on.

I never like the tongue-in-cheek, never-quite-serious style of Peter David's X-Factor.

I don't have the entire series of the original X-Factor, but with the acquisition of X-Factor #6, I now have every significant issue and storyline in their run. Anything I don't have are just filler issues.

Yeah, after those major issues, the other issues can usually be obtained for about 50 cents a piece. X comics from the 80s and 90s are mega cheap.

I LOVE the tongue in cheek.  One of my favorite X series is X-Statix by Milligan and Allred.

[burningdoom]

I'm curious to see what everyone's thoughts are on DC's New 52 now that we're this far into it? We're at a point where all the shiny newness should have worn off.

So, what do you guys think?

[foxhack]

I'm curious to see what everyone's thoughts are on DC's New 52 now that we're this far into it? We're at a point where all the shiny newness should have worn off.

So, what do you guys think?

Can we go back to old 52 now?

Can we get Steph Brown, Cass Cain and kickass Jaime Reyes back?

[burningdoom]

I'm not happy with it just because it's not MY DC Universe. I am familiar with that world and those characters, and I liked that. I don't know these new characters. And while my favorite books, the Green Lantern books, were barely chaged at all, it seemed the stories weren't as good as they were before the change.

That said, I am still enjoying the Green Lantern books, nonetheless, even if they aren't quite as good as they were before. And I'm enjoying Earth 2. However, things seem a little slow-moving in Earth 2.

Justice League I didn't like. It didn't feel like it lived up the title. The artwork is absolutely phenomenal. But the stories just seem kind of simplistic to me. I expect bigger and badder threats with the JL. Superman is, well, average. It's not bad, but it's not particularly good.

I haven't been following Batman or Wonder Woman. But I did just start on Batman with the first issue to Batman: Year Zero, which wasn't bad.

Captain Atom and Firestorm I wish I had followed. But on the bright side, it won't be hard to track down the back-issues since those books were already cancelled. I did get the first couple issues of both books, but then cut them due to my budget and trying to limit my comic purchases.

[sin2beta]

I don't buy any of the new 52 anymore. When it first came out, I tried as many of the new comics as I could. Specifically, Swamp Thing, Animal Man (I was a huge fan of Lemire's Sweet Tooth), Snyder's Batman, and Action Comics. I enjoyed pieces of Action Comics. Snyder always does a good Batman. And most everything else lost it's luster. Justice League was a mess. I hear Wonder Woman was worth a look. Brian Azzarello is really good, so I imagine it is. ANd I've heard good things about Aquaman of all things. But haven't tried either of those.

[burningdoom]

Had some comments on a few recents going-ons in comic-dom, and wanted to hear your thoughts on them:

Batwoman Creative Walks-Out of DC Comics After Controversial Editorial Decision



http://finance.yahoo.com/news/batwoman-creative-team-quits-dc-175013574.html

How many writers have to walk out of DC Comics before they realize they're shooting themselves in the foots by being so controlling over their writer's creativity? This is far from the first instance since DC's New 52 began.

[burningdoom]

Superior Spider-Man Meets Spider-Man 2099



The first issue came out this week. What did everyone think?

I really liked it. It pulled me in from both Superior SM's and SM 2099's points-of-view. I'm also a sucker for time-travel stories. And the mention of Achemex and seeing SM 2099 swinging through his futuristic city really brought back memories of the Spider-Man 2099 series, which I followed through back-issues many years back. So I'm sure nostalgia had a lot to do with it. The art was also great looking. Both characters looked great.

And when did Liz Allen's kid go all Damien (The Omen). I also don't recall him ever having any kind of mind-reading or precognition powers.

[burningdoom]

DC Comics: Forever Evil Crossover Event

So, what did everyone think of the opening week of this event?



First of all, those 3-D covers look amazing. I know gimmick covers are like the bane of the comic collecting community, but I've always liked them. And these particular covers just look beautiful. And a pic, unfortunately, doesn't do them justice, you need to see them in person to see the eye-popping effect.

As for the issues themselves, well the origin issues are cool. It's nice to see definitive origins for these characters in the New 52 universe. And I like how most of them aren't evil just for the sake of being evil, they have some motivating factor to them.

But, the main title, Forever Evil #1, was a bit disappointing, IMO. The fight scenes between the Crime Syndicate and the Justice League were just PATHETIC. These should have been drag-down, knock fights that were full of fantastic super-hero action. I mean we're talking about the Justice League, comics' most powerful super-team, fighting their evil counterparts which are JUST AS powerful.

And then the villains just take-over the world, just like that? Just because the Justice League is down? What about the other 100 or so heroes inhabiting the DC Universe? Teen Titans? Outsiders? Justice League Dark and America? Task Force X? Hopefully this will be addressed as the series goes on.

Your thoughts?

[burningdoom]

The two best stories I'm reading that are currently running are:

Superior Spider-Man



As Dr. Octopus is on his death-bed, he executes his final plan against Spider-Man. Using technology he used to mentally control his octo-bots, he ends up transferring his consciousness into Spider-Man's body while Peter is tranferred into Doc Ock's ravaged and dying body, AND SUCCEEDS!

Peter ends up dying in Otto's body, while Doc Ock runs around in Spider-Man's body. Doc Ock is beside himself, enjoying Peter's life (having his powers and his job at Horizon Labs). Using his superior intellect (and ego) he decides he can do Spider-Man's job even better than Peter himself did. He's is indeed a more efficient hero; but also a much more brutal, demanding, and arrogant hero (which makes for some damn entertaining reading).

Despite HATING what Marvel did to poor Peter, I can't stop reading this.

All of this happens in the last few issues of Amazing Spider-Man (#697-700), and then continues with Doc Ock at the helm in Superior Spider-Man #1. We're at issue #17, I think, and he's crossing over with Spider-Man 2099 right now; which has been the best part of this ride so far!


and

X-Men: Battle of the Atom



After the events of Avengers vs. X-Men, Beast (Hank McCoy) is disillusioned and depressed, and feels that Xavier's ideals and dreams are dying before his eyes.

Using time-travel technology developed by Dr. Doom originally, he goes back in time (in his not-so-healthy mental state) and grabs the original 5 X-Men (teenage Cyclops, Iceman, Beast (pre-blue fur), Angel (later becomes Archangel), and Jean Grey) and brings them to the present; with hopes that when the present-day X-Men see them their eyes will be opened to just how far they've fallen.

When the original 5 X-Men see the state of Mutantity (and Jean Grey seeing that she's dead), they decide to stay and help and fight on for Xavier's ideals in the present.

This all happens in "The All-New X-Men" series.

Fast-forward to the actual event:

A mysterious X-Men team from the future shows up on the present-day X-Men's doorstep saying that it is vital the original 5 X-Men return to their own time or it could bring great disaster in the future. The original 5 X-Men don't take to well to being told how to live their lives and where they belong. So they run.

The original 5 X-Men end-up siding with present-day Cyclops, Magneto, and White Queen's team of rebel X-Men (who were responsible for many of the atrocities in Avengers vs. X-Men, including Xavier's death), as they end up being the only ones who agree the original 5 X-Men should have a say in their own destiny.

Very interesting story with some great looking artwork and cool looking designs on the mysterious future X-Men. And I've never even been a huge X-Men fan aside from Age of Apocalypse.

This storyline crosses all the X-Men titles, and begins and ends with "X-Men: Battle of the Atom" #1 & #2.



Other than that, Marvel and DC aren't doing all that great. The New 52 Universe DC has created and went by since 2011, has been more disappointing than new and fresh. Everyone at DC just seems like an angry anti-hero now.

And the big event at Marvel right now is Infinity. Which by all accounts should be freaking awesome since it features The Avengers and Thanos. But instead is an overly-complicated mess that just becomes too twisted in confusion. And you have to buy like every Avengers titles out there (and there's a lot, Avengers is like what the X-Men books were in the 90s) as well as the main mini-series to get every piece of the story you need to even begin to try and understand it.

[burningdoom]

How many comic book crossover events have you read?

http://www.listchallenges.com/comic-book-crossover-events

[scott]

Looks like 9 for me.

[burningdoom]

I got 61.

[dstone]

45 here.

[stethebubble]

wife got me the complete collection of Calvin and Hobbs for our 5 year anniversary