|
Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2014 22:04:03 GMT -5
Turns out I had read up through #5 of that Joker series. I read #6 and enjoyed it enough that I'm going to go back and read the first five again once I finish the last three.
I read the DeMatteis/Badger Martian Manhunter mini from '88 tonight and I was not expecting it to feel like a Vertigo book, but it sure did. Apparently in the most recent Justice League annual J'onn absorbed some parasite to save the world and now it's doing a real number on him. He reverts to his true form and battles hallucinations and uncertainty about his past. Mark Badger's art is pretty crazy and chaotic, and if this wasn't a MM story and I was just flipping though it I wouldn't buy it. It doesn't just work with the tone, though, I feel it adds just as much as the words on the page. There were a couple things that I didn't love. Booster and Ted, though only in a few panels, didn't really fit. And I get that this is post-DKR, but Batman implying he will torture a guy for information on J'onn's whereabouts seemed off.
Not as good as Ostrander's run (he said describing everything ever), but I really liked it.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2014 22:51:43 GMT -5
X-Factor v1 #41
writer: Louise Simonson pencils: Art Adams inks: Al Milgrom
I guess there was some contest for fans to create a new character and his name is Alchemy. He can turn things to gold (but doesn't realize it yet). A troll kidnaps him and his mom calls X-Factor. There are a bunch of young mutants on the ship I don't know, but I recognize Cannonball and Boom Boom's names and there's some black & yellow robot-looking dude I think I maybe saw on a New Mutants cover. Cyke, Jean, Beast and Archangel head off to fight the trolls (they think it's a single giant) and bring Cyke's infant son Christopher. After a brief skirmish they are subdued by the trolls who explain they are going to use Alchemy to create tons of gold to ruin the economy so trolls, elves and faeries can take over. Oh and Christopher is missing. Story continues is #42 which I don't have (got this issue as a freebie).
I'll probably try to track down some more of Simonson's run, as I enjoyed this issue.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2014 23:48:58 GMT -5
Justice League International #14
writers: Giffen & DeMatteis pencils: Steve Leialoha inks: Al Gordon
Depsite being front and center on the cover, Martian Manhunter only appears in nine panels (including those with just his back or shoulder). He tells Ice Maiden & Green Flame they can't join, and then seemingly changes his mind after a discussion with a Mr. Stuckey. There's also some aliens who find planets make an offer of exchanging goods and if denied they take what the want and wreck the planet. They've currently made such an offer to Earth. G'nort is on his way to try to save the day and the JLI is mounting an attack, but that'll take place next issue (which I don't have). Oh and Barda puts mayonnaise in her lasagna.
A decent issue that elicited a few smiles, but ultimately is marred by a lack of J'onn.
|
|
|
Post by Paste Pot Paul on Nov 19, 2014 22:41:44 GMT -5
As discussed in another thread I've just finished the first Nexus Omnibus. Baron and Rude are a machine. Great stuff. With a capital GREAT.
Avengers 189-193 which includes the battle with the Grey Gargoyle. Some good art by John Byrne though theres a couple of fill-in issues that sag a little. Perez is back next issue. Always enjoyed the Gargoyle as a foe, like his power for some reason.
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 19, 2014 22:48:53 GMT -5
X-Factor v1 #41 writer: Louise Simonson pencils: Art Adams inks: Al Milgrom I guess there was some contest for fans to create a new character and his name is Alchemy. He can turn things to gold (but doesn't realize it yet). A troll kidnaps him and his mom calls X-Factor. There are a bunch of young mutants on the ship I don't know, but I recognize Cannonball and Boom Boom's names and there's some black & yellow robot-looking dude I think I maybe saw on a New Mutants cover. Cyke, Jean, Beast and Archangel head off to fight the trolls (they think it's a single giant) and bring Cyke's infant son Christopher. After a brief skirmish they are subdued by the trolls who explain they are going to use Alchemy to create tons of gold to ruin the economy so trolls, elves and faeries can take over. Oh and Christopher is missing. Story continues is #42 which I don't have (got this issue as a freebie). I'll probably try to track down some more of Simonson's run, as I enjoyed this issue. Those are a combination of the New Mutants (pre-Cable, but after Magneto), and the Exterminators (who pretty much merged into the New Mutants, then wantered off). The black and yellow dude is Warlock... he was a longtime New Mutants Member. The other guys were probably Rictor, Rusty and Skids.. maybe Sunspot? They lived on the X-Factor ship for a while after Inferno but before Cable turned up.
|
|
|
Post by berkley on Nov 22, 2014 3:22:36 GMT -5
What's our agreed definition of a "classic", again? Ten years?
Then the latest classic for me was Doug Moench's two late-90s Moon Knight miniseries, both very enjoyable. In fact, I thought Moench really encapsulated everything he'd been trying to do with MK in these two minis, and I wish he'd been given another ongoing after the last of them one. Solid artwork in both -neither up to Sienkewicz at his best, but each better than Sienkewicz at his worst - and I think that Sienkewicz came into his own only in the last few issues of his MK run. He'd done some excellent work and shown great promise before then, in the MK back-ups in the Rampaging Hulk mag - perhaps because he had more time to complete shorter stories? But the I thought his work on the early issues of the first MK solo series was very hit and miss.
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 22, 2014 14:30:44 GMT -5
Read vol 2 of the Don Rosa Duck Library today... it amazes me the attention to detail he give in his art... it's a real treat to look at as well as read. Plus, who doesn't love rapid fire puns
|
|
|
Post by badwolf on Nov 24, 2014 10:07:48 GMT -5
I read Absolute Superman: For Tomorrow and it was a big (literally) disappointment because I normally really like Azzarello's work. First, there is absolutely no reason why this arc had to be 12 issues long. It is way padded out with boring chatter between Superman and a priest. There are random side-stories that have nothing to do with anything, like Superman fighting a group of elementals summoned by the mythical Delilah (was she a part of DC lore previously?) None of the heroes seem to like each other. The rest of the JLA is pissed at Superman for making a political faux pas, and Batman and Wonder Woman are particularly hostile. I hate this cynical, modern way of writing these characters.
Jim Lee's art is pretty mediocre, too. It looked better in Hush.
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Nov 24, 2014 16:09:28 GMT -5
I went to the library over the weekend to get some more DC Showcase Presents reprint volumes and I came home with:
The Brave and the Bold, Volume Three, reprinting #109 to #134, all by Bob Haney and Jim Aparo. I have read almost half of these before, including three or four that I bought brand-new off the spinner rack and another three or four that I picked up at used bookstores when they were two or three years old. So this era of B and B is probably my own personal Golden Age for the series. There are three Wildcat stories and the Joker is in four issues! (And one of the stories has Wildcat AND Joker! Not to mention the two-parter with Green Arrow and Atom and Joker and Two-Face, which I thought was one of the best stories ever when I read it in the 1970s.) Also in this volume are Kamandi, The Metal Men, Etrigan, Sgt. Rock, Wonder Woman, Flash, Spectre, Man-Bat. And the first issue of B and B I ever read (the one with Mister Miracle) is also here! I'm all ready to blast off into the Haneyverse!
The House of Mystery, Volume Two, reprinting #195 to #211. This is probably the very first time I've ever read a Showcase (or Essential from Marvel) collection where I haven't read any of the reprinted stories before. I know who Cain and Abel are only because of Gaiman's Sandman series. I've never read any of DC's horror stories. (Well, maybe one or two reprinted here and there. Like the Swamp-Thing first appearance. I have a reprint of that.) So this will be interesting. I've not read so much so far but I love the Sergio Aragones gags. (Which makes me think of a handful of issues of Plop! that I read in the 1970s. I haven't thought about Plop! for decades! Basil Wolverton covers!)
|
|
Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,090
|
Post by Confessor on Nov 24, 2014 19:30:08 GMT -5
So, having taken delivery of the Kurt Busiek/Trina Robbins' Legend of Wonder Woman mini-series a few weeks back, I've given up on it just a handful of pages into issue #2. I tried to read all four parts...I mean, I really tried. But the unsophisticated artwork and turgid, simplistic dialogue beat me in the end.
To be fair, the fault is kinda with me; the art looks suitably authentic for Golden Age comics, Busiek absolutely nails the 1940s era dialogue (utterly disguising his own writing style in the process) and the series functions superbly as an affectionate look back at the Golden Age Wonder Woman. However, I really am not a fan of Golden Age comics generally and so, for me, the pastiche was just too close to the real thing to be enjoyable. Shame...I really wanted to enjoy this series.
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Nov 24, 2014 22:13:14 GMT -5
So, having taken delivery of the Kurt Busiek/Trina Robbins' Legend of Wonder Woman mini-series a few weeks back, I've given up on it just a handful of pages into issue #2. I tried to read all four parts...I mean, I really tried. But the unsophisticated artwork and turgid, simplistic dialogue beat me in the end. To be fair, the fault is kinda with me; the art looks suitably authentic for Golden Age comics, Busiek absolutely nails the 1940s era dialogue (utterly disguising his own writing style in the process) and the series functions superbly as an affectionate look back at the Golden Age Wonder Woman. However, I really am not a fan of Golden Age comics generally and so, for me, the pastiche was just too close to the real thing to be enjoyable. Shame...I really wanted to enjoy this series. I got this series when it first came out ... and I loved it! I still pull it out and read it every two or three years. I'm probably about due. (I'm trying to remember if it's filed with my other Wonder Woman comics or with the comics I read semi-regularly.)
|
|
|
Post by Paste Pot Paul on Nov 25, 2014 6:47:03 GMT -5
I just started 100 Bullets. Holy moley. Damn its good.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2014 7:16:46 GMT -5
I finished the first GN of Cockrum's "Futurians".
I LOVED IT. It got SUPER fantastic towards the end.
|
|
Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,090
|
Post by Confessor on Nov 25, 2014 7:21:01 GMT -5
I got this series when it first came out ... and I loved it! I still pull it out and read it every two or three years. I'm probably about due. (I'm trying to remember if it's filed with my other Wonder Woman comics or with the comics I read semi-regularly.) Yeah, I'd heard good things about this series from some of the posters here (back when we were all at CBR), which is why I gave it a shot, but I think I'd failed to appreciate just how Golden Agey it would be.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 25, 2014 10:44:10 GMT -5
I just started 100 Bullets. Holy moley. Damn its good. It doesn't maintain that quality.
|
|