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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2015 20:36:07 GMT -5
This is such an interesting question. You should have made a poll with it. Done! Thanks for the great suggestion! |
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Post by Honeystinger on Sept 26, 2015 21:16:07 GMT -5
I find the two aren't that different. Solo books often have an extensive supporting cast that functions very much like a team. Good point. The Silver and Bronze Age Flash solo titles were favorites of mine because of their strong supporting casts. In fact, several of my favorite characters play supporting roles. I've also especially liked team books when the story focused on one or two characters. On the whole, how well I like a comic depends on how well I like a particular character, whether main or supporting. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2015 22:04:03 GMT -5
I really liked X-Men as a kid, and there are team books that work better than others. I think Fantastic Four is a good team book. But solo books work better more often to me. Seems like the larger cast of main characters doesn't allow as much focus on any character. It also seems like in a team book the superheroes only know other superheroes, as if mortals didn't exist. Just superheroes and supervillains.
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Post by tingramretro on Sept 27, 2015 1:44:32 GMT -5
This is such an interesting question. You should have made a poll with it. To me it's all about the cast. I enjoyed the Avengers best when the characters interacted with each other and it included parts of their personal lives. I liked Iron Man and Spider-man when their supporting casts were strong as well. This is why I really don't like the Avengers of today, it seems like a cattle call of costumes and no personal stuff. It's just " lets beat up on the villains". Very much in agreement! I loved tthe Avengers as a kid (the Englehart run in particular) but even as a seven year old it was the personal interaction between characters like Vision,Wanda, Mantis, Swordsman and Hawkeye that really kept me reading. I couldn't even tell you whose been in the Avengers most of the time these lasst few years, despite having continued to read the books out of habit. Too many characters, too often just there to make up numbers. |
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Post by Paste Pot Paul on Sept 27, 2015 16:37:37 GMT -5
Even with the best team books there was never really any room for real character development, unless it was a character like Vision who for most part only appeared in Avengers. However what appealed to me was the character interactions, look at Beast and Wonder Man in Avengers as a great example.
I voted for team books because my most beloved titles are Avengers and Legion (is this the only team book that developed characters over an extended period of time?...mainly under Levitz).
I do agree with the comments about more modern team books though, who isn't an Avenger is a more relevant question these days. That bugs the hell out of me, it used to be a measure of a characters stature to finally be worthy, but now...hmmm.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Sept 27, 2015 22:15:28 GMT -5
Whoever else voted for Team-Up books, you are a true gentleman/woman and a scholar. I salute you.
Note that my SECOND favorite format is an anthology with multiple continuing features, ala the original Detective Comics or Marvel Comics Presents in the '90s.
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Post by berkley on Sept 27, 2015 22:25:08 GMT -5
This is such an interesting question. You should have made a poll with it. To me it's all about the cast. I enjoyed the Avengers best when the characters interacted with each other and it included parts of their personal lives. I liked Iron Man and Spider-man when their supporting casts were strong as well. This is why I really don't like the Avengers of today, it seems like a cattle call of costumes and no personal stuff. It's just " lets beat up on the villains". Very much in agreement! I loved tthe Avengers as a kid (the Englehart run in particular) but even as a seven year old it was the personal interaction between characters like Vision,Wanda, Mantis, Swordsman and Hawkeye that really kept me reading. I couldn't even tell you whose been in the Avengers most of the time these lasst few years, despite having continued to read the books out of habit. Too many characters, too often just there to make up numbers. And so many different Avengers teams that the term "Avengers" starts to lose any well-defined meaning within the MU and just become a generic equivalent of "superhero team". |
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Post by tingramretro on Sept 28, 2015 1:03:23 GMT -5
Very much in agreement! I loved tthe Avengers as a kid (the Englehart run in particular) but even as a seven year old it was the personal interaction between characters like Vision,Wanda, Mantis, Swordsman and Hawkeye that really kept me reading. I couldn't even tell you whose been in the Avengers most of the time these lasst few years, despite having continued to read the books out of habit. Too many characters, too often just there to make up numbers. And so many different Avengers teams that the term "Avengers" starts to lose any well-defined meaning within the MU and just become a generic equivalent of "superhero team". There was one line a while back that I really loved. Luke Cage and Jessica Jones are interviewing prospective candidates to look after their baby and one of them is Nighthawk. At the time, the New Avengers include Cge, Dr Strange and various others, and Nighthawk demands "why are you calling this team the Avengers when it's clearly the Defenders?" He had a point, I feel. |
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Post by tingramretro on Sept 28, 2015 1:08:44 GMT -5
Even with the best team books there was never really any room for real character development, unless it was a character like Vision who for most part only appeared in Avengers. However what appealed to me was the character interactions, look at Beast and Wonder Man in Avengers as a great example. That's why my favourite Avengers runs tend to be those not dominated by the big solo characters. The Englehart run included Thor and Iron Man throughout, but it focused mainly on the two couples I mentioned earlier. Then there was that great Silver Age run with Hank, Jan, Hawkeye, the Vision and the Panther, with none of the big three in evidence. |
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Post by Cei-U! on Sept 28, 2015 8:26:18 GMT -5
Whoever else voted for Team-Up books, you are a true gentleman/woman and a scholar. I salute you. That was me, and aw shucks, thanks! Cei-U! I summon the peerless pairings! |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Sept 28, 2015 11:19:16 GMT -5
Whoever else voted for Team-Up books, you are a true gentleman/woman and a scholar. I salute you. That was me, and aw shucks, thanks! Cei-U! I summon the peerless pairings! Awesome! (Ha! Cei-U agrees with me! I summon the scholarly knowledge!) |
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Post by dbutler69 on Sept 28, 2015 13:56:54 GMT -5
I'm all about team books! I used to collect pretty much every team book by both Marvel and DC, and was never really a regular collector of any solo title. I'd but solo titles if the cover looked good, or there was a good guest star. However, I did regularly collect Thor for a while and was perhaps a semi-regular purchaser of Amazing Spider-Man early on in my collecting days. I guess I follow the "more superheroes is better" philosophy. Plus, I like the interactions between the various team members that you really don't get in a solo book. Having said all that, in picking up Bronze Age titles lately, I've been getting more into the solo titles, but they'll always take a back seat to the team books for me.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2015 15:34:41 GMT -5
I prefer solo titles. I like to read about the main character's private life and interaction with the supporting characters.
I do enjoy team books, but these days the roster seems to change every other issue and the team turns out to focus on 2 or 3 characters and the others are mostly background. I do like the old team books such as Teen Titans, Justice League of America, pre mid 80s X-Men, and some of the others. A recent team book I did enjoy was All New X-Factor. Before the new 52, I enjoyed the solo Superman titles.
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Post by Paste Pot Paul on Sept 28, 2015 15:43:23 GMT -5
I know its not a popular view here, but I really enjoyed the character interaction in the Avengers under Bendis. Its also the reason(over the majority of its life, not just his run)why I've always liked the Avengers more than the Justice League. The League has always seemed to be a monthly fight-fest, while Avengers seemed to be ,ore a family gathering. They seemed to be as much about catching up with each other, rather than JUST who they were beating up this month.
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Post by Randle-El on Sept 29, 2015 9:59:59 GMT -5
I have always preferred solo books, but the X-Men are an exception. I think I draw the line between team books that are comprised of A-list characters who already have their own solo series vs. team books comprised of B and C-list characters that don't appear anywhere else. I find the latter to be more interesting than the former.
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