Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
If you have an email ending in @hotmail.com, @live.com or @outlook.com (or any other Microsoft-related domain), please consider changing it to another email provider; Microsoft decided to instantly block the server's IP, so emails can't be sent to these addresses.
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
Comments
i can live with this
I never noticed the Wolverine = Vegeta thing before but...
"That I need a beer"
Daredevil Annual #1: ...meh. I won't call it outright bad, but it's not good either. I just didn't particularly care about it. Save your money; it's definitely not worth what it costs.
Batman #12: This one gives us the backstory on that character who kept showing up and seeming to be important during the Court of Owls arc. Very interesting.
Demon Knights #12: "I will not die so a woman with no face can gain different genitalia!" On a less spoilery note, this is the one where we find out what's going on. Then some really cool stuff happens. And the next story arc looks like it'll be even more awesome.
So, apparently next month instead of issue 13s, DC is publishing issue 0s? Sounds interesting, though I have to wonder what they'll do with stuff like Batman and Superman where everyone already knows the damn origin.
Well, Superman #0 is going to be about Jor-El and the Batman #0s are going to focus on Bruce Wayne's travels. Though I imagine in Batman and Robin #0 we'll learn more about Damian.
The Spider #4 - Dynamite Comics recently launched a line of "pulp hero" revivals and they now print comics based on Green Hornet, The Shadow and The Spider. Without a doubt, "The Spider" is the best, It's a wonderfully painted series, set in the modern day. I worry that part of the decision to use the Spider is for people who confuse him with Spider-Man, for that reason I worry that Black Bat (the guy in my avatar) may be next. It can be somewhat, slow at times but The Spider is defiantly worth a read.
Stormwatch #12 - A refugee from the now defunct Wildstorm Comics imprint, Stormwatch is printed by DC. Stormwatch is a funny old book, it has a LOT of potential and a lot of the time it really utilizes it, other times...not so much. Still, if you're looking for a bit more Sci-Fi in your comics, Stormwatch is the place to go.
Swamp-Thing #13 - Swamp-Thing is brilliant. Along with it's sister title, Animal Man, it adds a whole new layer of depth to the DC Universe and I really like that other comics are referencing it. For example in recent appearances, Beast Boy has been shown as having red skin and in Earth-2, Green Lantern and Solomon Grundy are both parts of that little universe. You can't really review one book without reviewing the other and I think the two issue 0s coming out next month are the perfect jumping on point as they're moving both series to a new setting "The Rotworld".
Warlord of Mars #20 - The Warlord of Mars comics are all pretty weak if I am honest, and really they're only worth reading if you like really cheesy, pulpy comics or if you're a mega fan of the movie (and even then, Marvel's Warlord of Mars comics are better) or even the original stories.
World's Finest #4 - This book really disappoints me, when I first heard of it I thought it was going to be a revival of Superman/Batman, instead it features Power Girl (who I still think should be named Power Woman) and Huntress. Two second stringers of the Superman and Batman families. The book sits on the "Just below" average line for me. The only two things I can say it excels in is character design. Honestly, Kara's costumes (both as Supergirl and Power Girl) and Helena's Robin suit were amazing.
Honestly I like World's Finest a lot better than Earth-2 because Earth-2 is just goddamned stupid.
Oh don't get me wrong, Earth-2 sucks too. I just like that it's tying itself to the whole Green/Red/Black thing.
We honestly didn't really need to shoe-in Solomon Grundy into the stupid Black thing and strap him into bondage gear.
Besides, he's the "Man of Grey." (not that grey can't naturally occur in nature nosiree)
Okay, I just read the 'Ghost Box' arc of Astonishing X-Men by Warren Ellis and I really love this arc.
Alien spaceship scrapyard in Indonesia, jettisoned doors to parallel earths called Ghost Boxes? Hell yes.secret five-mile block in China that nobody knows about and nobody wants to go check out, false engineered mutants, floating city made from spintronic computing material that stores information on the cycle of electrons itself...hell yes.
Not to mention all the funny dialogue and lines, acts of heroism and menace, as well as Abigail Brand and Beast being creepy and glorious in their relationship.
But the joy is swung back around to Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes, a two-issue limited series that looks at how badly things could have gone "...for the want of a nail", the adventure in a different setting (where the attention to detail in the casual racism in gaslamp New Albion is delightful), and how our heroes coped with everything gone to hell. I have to say that the last story - '4' - hit me pretty hard where most apocalyptian stories wouldn't and couldn't, and in all the right ways.
EDIT: Also I think Beast is my favorite X-thing now.
American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares #3: As much as I adore Scott Snyder's work, especially American Vampire I can't help but feel that there's something really off putting about this miniseries. While it is certainly wonderfully written, I think the inclusion of Dracula to the American Vampire mythos really takes away from the kind of...realism that the series seems to be going for.
Archer and Armstrong #1: I loved Valiant Comics back in the day, so the currently revival has been a dream come true for me. What's nice about Valiant is that very few of the characters were traditional superheroes, they added a little bit of variety to an industry that really needed it. As for Archer and Armstrong? Archer is a teenage master of martial arts, he's a close minded bigot who has been sent on a mission to kill the drunken, street wise, immortal Armstrong, the two of them end up teaming up and going on mad adventures. It is quite fun.
Avengers Assemble #6: Out of all the Avengers books, Avengers Assemble is the worst. That's not to say that it's BAD, it's just...not for comic fans, basically. The comic in it's entirety is a gateway drug, aimed exclusively at movie fans who want to get into comics. Worth a read if you're curious, or looking for a good way into the Marvel Universe, but entirely missable. The only thing of note is that if you're a huge fun of the Guardians of the Galaxy, then pick up the current arc as it really focuses on them.
Batgirl #12: I generally don't like this Batgirl series. While it is capably written and has nice art, I am against the idea of Barbra Gordon becoming uncrippled, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Still, if you can look past that it's a nice book that happily sits on the "average" line, and this issue has Batwoman in it, and it's nice to see her interact more with the Batfamily.
Batman #12: Scott Snyder's run on Batman has been perfect. Just...perfect. And fans, both old and new owe it to themselves to read it. #12 is a standalone story, and it's not surprising as they need to make room for September's #0 and then October's Return of the Joker storyline, so this was a nice breather issue.
Bendis' being replaced by Kelly Sue DeConnick on Avengers Assemble.
As such, I'm a happy Juan
That's a wonderful birthday present to give me Juan.
I totally did not punch Bendis for hours in a dark alley in order to prepare a present for you.
Nope.
Not at all.
>_>
<_<
Don't forget his Daredevil, which was in the realm of "Alright" to "Cool"
Moon Knight was a terrible, incoherent mess.
Batman and Robin #12: DC's line up is far too heavily saturated with Bat-titles, especially ones that focus on Bruce Wayne himself. Because of this, I really feel that Batman and Robin would be better off becoming either a solo Robin book (with either Dark Knight or Detective Comics becoming the regular book for Batman and Robin's adventures) or a kind of "Batfamily" title, focusing on various Batman characters teaming up or ones without their own books having solo adventures. In any case, I love Batman and Robin, it's my favourite Batbook, I just think it could use a different direction.
Bloodstrike #29: If ever there was proof that there's no such thing as bad ideas, just terrible writers then it's Bloodstrike, Originally from the 90s, Bloodstrike was one of the horde of horrible characters Rob Liarfeld created. Now-a-day, the series is a poor man's X-Force, so if that's what you're into pick it up. One thing of note, is that the art kind of looks like a webcomic, with it's bright, pastel colours and blocky shading.
Captain America #16: Urgh...it's hard to really describe this book to be honest. It's...fine...I guess. I'm not really enjoying the story, I feel it's a bit incoherent and I think Captain America and... is a much more enjoyable book. Still, if you're a fan of Cap's supporting cast (Sharon Carter, Dum Dum Dugan and the Falcon) then this is the book for you, they get a LOT of spotlight here.
Captain America and...Iron Man #635: I don't want to disappoint anyone here, Captain America and... is a team up book and it changes it title every couple of months (First it was Bucky, then Hawkeye and now it's Iron Man) so there isn't 635 issues of Cap and Iron Man fun. Still, this book is really fun, although at times (especially in this story arc) it can feel somewhat imbalanced with Captain America being useless compared to Iron Man, but it's still a solid and fun book. FYI, next month is Namor.
Conan the Barbarian #7: This new Conan series has been pretty excellent and goes back to Conan's routes, expanding and adapting some of Conan's earliest adventures. As someone who has never really given a crap about Conan before, I'm really enjoying it. One thing that I really disliked in this issue was Belit, in previous issues she was a strong, powerful woman who was a rival to Conan himself. In THIS issue she's become a sniveling weakling who needs Conan to protect her from catty milk maids.
Avengers Academy #11: This probably isn't the first time I've seen this happen, but I can't help but notice that the Avengers have the amazing ability to all burst through the same door simultaneously. Do they practice that, or what? Oh, wait, no, it says they teleported in. It just looked like they were all coming through one door. Well, anyway, the end of the previous issue predictably leads to disaster, just not the specific disaster I was expecting. It kinda comes out of nowhere, actually. It's all interesting, but requires a pretty big exposition dump to bring new readers who haven't heard of these old characters who just appeared out of nowhere up to speed. Anyway, it's pretty much all an excuse to have the Avengers get defeated, and for the kids to have to take on their future potential so we can see how awesome they'll be as adults. Unfortunately, this issue is pretty much all setup, but the payoff will likely be very cool. If the next issue is good, I'll let this one's issues slide.
New Teen Titans #10: Starts off with some backstory and a B-plot involving Changeling Beast Boy, who I'm not going to call by another name. Anyway, then Deathstroke kidnaps one of Cyborg's friends to force the Titans to participate in a bomb demonstration. There are a lot of neat twists in what's going on, all of them a bit too foreshadowed. Then it ends on a cliffhanger that was probably an obvious fakeout at the time, and is even moreso decades later. Overall...not the best NTT issue, but still not bad.
Or rather a comic you should totally be reading. Published by Image last year Witch Doctor is that special mix of creative, fresh and actually smart. Not sure if I want to call it a horror story with medical thriller bits or a medical thriller set in a horror universe. In only the five issues packed into the first volume you can get a great feel for the world and the characters in it. Particularly fun is the main, Vincent Marrow a strung out mix of mad scientist, Dr. House and King Arthur.
But what makes it really fun is how it plays with the idea of monsters as a metaphor for infection. It used to be that monsters had a decidedly mythical bent. You became a vampire when you were enough of an asshole in life to come back as monster or zombies were a mystical curse or necromantic shock troops. But as time went on and medicine gave us explanations for maladies, vampires morphed into a metaphor for STDs and zombies as plague. Witch Doctor keeps this train of thought and applies it to all monsters. There is definitely magic in this comic, but there is still a biology(metaphysical or otherwise) to go along with it.
So if you like horror and medical jargon and mad science go give Witch Doctor a look.
Heh. For what is worth, the original Avengers' stuff does have the Avengers bursting through holes-on-the-walls and doors fairly often.
I had an idea for a comic book. A giant mecha kind of thing, where the whole thing is a metaphor for the console wars.
So evidently Action Comics 0 will be Superman's early years in Metropolis.... so basically what Action Comics has been already.
Batman will be about him building up his arsenal... so Batman Year 1.5
Wheee.
origins that any possible new reader is not aware about
clearly
Anyway, I sorta do want Snyder to do Batman's origin more because I'm interested in what he can do with the idea of a rich guy travelling the world and learning from different people. And as much as I love Grant, I feel that there's not much to work in his side.
I really want Snyder to do a Riddler story.
Same.
Though I kinda want the Riddler to lose the new haircut he had in #1 before that happens.
Feel like reading I Kill Giants again today. I wonder if this is going to be a sort of yearly ritual.
^^ I believed Snyder said that Riddler got that ridiculous haircut 'cause he had nothing interesting to do in Arkham, and that it wouldn't be his final look.