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Post by The Captain on Mar 9, 2017 18:23:07 GMT -5
I started reading Crisis on Infinite Earths for the first time last night. Wow. The first time? I feel so old. I'm in my 40s, but I never got into DC, as I've always been a Marvel guy first and foremost. The first DC series that ever made my pull list was Johns' Nu52 Aquaman run, if that gives you some perspective.
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Post by coinkadink on Mar 9, 2017 20:57:00 GMT -5
I started reading Crisis on Infinite Earths for the first time last night. I read the first six issues when it first came out. And I got kind of bored and didn't finish until two or three years ago when I got the collected edition out of the library. The art's great! You get your money's worth just looking at the art. And there are some very nice little short sequences sprinkled throughout. (And I remember liking the villains' issue a lot.) But overall ... I'm not a big fan. It's so contrived, and the characters created for the series are straight from central casting, generic cosmic beings. I recently sold my whole set, all signed by Perez and Ordway on the ones he inked. Also the history of the DC universe as well. I realized the only reason I had kept them was because of the Sigs and that they might be worth something someday. I tried reading them over the years and it's just no fun, that and the fact that DC has destroyed their universe 60 times since then.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 9, 2017 21:18:01 GMT -5
Yeah, I do realize that Silver Age DC is an acquired taste and not to everyone's liking due to the extremely sillier fantasy aspects of many of their stories. Marvel seemed to have a subtler aspect of zany to their Silver Age antics and kept to more tolerable if not overly believable sensibilities It's not so much the "silliness", but rather the stories themselves that I feel have no real meat to them and often seem fairly formulaic and repetitive in nature Trust me, if I didn't like "silly", the majority of my favorite comics would rapidly shrink in number What a good time for a shameless plug... more Silver Age DC reviews than you can shake a stick at Here!
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Post by spoon on Mar 9, 2017 22:51:25 GMT -5
Yeah, I do realize that Silver Age DC is an acquired taste and not to everyone's liking due to the extremely sillier fantasy aspects of many of their stories. Marvel seemed to have a subtler aspect of zany to their Silver Age antics and kept to more tolerable if not overly believable sensibilities It's not so much the "silliness", but rather the stories themselves that I feel have no real meat to them and often seem fairly formulaic and repetitive in nature Trust me, if I didn't like "silly", the majority of my favorite comics would rapidly shrink in number Yes. I've binge-read many of the Essential Marvel TPBs over the years. But it's a hard slog when I try to do that with DC's Showcase Presents TPBs, because the formulaic stories don't work well when read back-to-back.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 9, 2017 22:53:47 GMT -5
It's not so much the "silliness", but rather the stories themselves that I feel have no real meat to them and often seem fairly formulaic and repetitive in nature Trust me, if I didn't like "silly", the majority of my favorite comics would rapidly shrink in number Yes. I've binge-read many of the Essential Marvel TPBs over the years. But it's a hard slog when I try to do that with DC's Showcase Presents TPBs, because the formulaic stories don't work well when read back-to-back. Early Marvel was just as formulaic as S.A. DC. Thor, Ant-Man/Giant-Man and Human Torch were particularly egregious.
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Post by MDG on Mar 10, 2017 6:27:35 GMT -5
I read the first six issues when it first came out. And I got kind of bored and didn't finish until two or three years ago when I got the collected edition out of the library. The art's great! You get your money's worth just looking at the art. And there are some very nice little short sequences sprinkled throughout. (And I remember liking the villains' issue a lot.) But overall ... I'm not a big fan. It's so contrived, and the characters created for the series are straight from central casting, generic cosmic beings. I recently sold my whole set, all signed by Perez and Ordway on the ones he inked. Also the history of the DC universe as well. I realized the only reason I had kept them was because of the Sigs and that they might be worth something someday. I tried reading them over the years and it's just no fun, that and the fact that DC has destroyed their universe 60 times since then. I don't know if I ever read Crisis after it came out initially--if I did, it was only a year or two after that. I think one of the problems for people coming to it after the fact is that it's less "Let's tell a great story," than "Let's do some universe maintenance." And, as you say, even that's lost at this poine.
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Polar Bear
Full Member
Married, father of six
Posts: 107
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Post by Polar Bear on Mar 10, 2017 8:05:43 GMT -5
I just finished my enormous, years-long read-through of pre-Crisis Superman (the issues I own, anyway). Wow. Thoughts will follow in the Pre-Crisis Superman review thread in a week or so.
There are certainly peaks and valleys; that's all I'll say for now.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2017 12:40:23 GMT -5
I just finished my enormous, years-long read-through of pre-Crisis Superman (the issues I own, anyway). Wow. Thoughts will follow in the Pre-Crisis Superman review thread in a week or so. There are certainly peaks and valleys; that's all I'll say for now. Roughly which issues comprise what you read?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2017 13:41:00 GMT -5
Golden Age Hawkman DC Archive It's contains all the stories from Flash Comics #1-22; and I just read the first 4-5 of them and I forgot how good they were and right now the Golden Age is the place that I want to be because they have the charm of it's own and I hope to have the whole 22 stories read in a week or two and taking my time doing so.
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Post by Rob Allen on Mar 10, 2017 14:54:04 GMT -5
Yes. I've binge-read many of the Essential Marvel TPBs over the years. But it's a hard slog when I try to do that with DC's Showcase Presents TPBs, because the formulaic stories don't work well when read back-to-back. Early Marvel was just as formulaic as S.A. DC. Thor, Ant-Man/Giant-Man and Human Torch were particularly egregious. In other words, the ones that Stan didn't script.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2017 15:54:01 GMT -5
Early Marvel was just as formulaic as S.A. DC. Thor, Ant-Man/Giant-Man and Human Torch were particularly egregious. In other words, the ones that Stan didn't script. Exactly what I was thinking.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2017 15:56:03 GMT -5
Early Marvel was just as formulaic as S.A. DC. Thor, Ant-Man/Giant-Man and Human Torch were particularly egregious. In other words, the ones that Stan didn't script. But Stan still plotted them. What was missing was the co-plotting and driving imagination of Kirby & Ditko in most of those formulaic Marvel Silver Age stuff. -M
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2017 16:07:14 GMT -5
The stories Stan only plotted aren't even in the same ball park as the stories he scripted from that time period. There's absolutely no comparison in my opinion.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2017 23:34:30 GMT -5
The stories Stan only plotted aren't even in the same ball park as the stories he scripted from that time period. There's absolutely no comparison in my opinion. And the stuff Stan did without Jack or Steve was in nowhere the same ballpark as the stuff he did with them from the same period, and with the exception of Spidey with Romita, nothing he did after his collaborations with Jack and Steve ended measures up to anything he did with them, while their work without Stan is still something to behold, Kirby more than Ditko, but both produced without Stan while Stan never did much without them or Jazzy Johnny Romita bearing a large share of the load. -M
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Post by cellardweller on Mar 12, 2017 10:33:28 GMT -5
I read the Aquaman "Death of Prince" storyline. Great reading!
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