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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2014 7:32:25 GMT -5
I received this cute book in the mail yesterday as part of a SS gift. I'm almost half way through it, and I love it. I'm sure it was given to me as an intro to a couple of Batman and Robin stories, and because it has Batman #251 which was a recommended read.
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Post by fanboystranger on Dec 30, 2014 9:14:28 GMT -5
Block Mania and the Apocalypse War were both excellent (I read those recent in the IDW reprints). That whole year of JD is excellent. Block Mania/Apocalypse War and Judge Death Lives get all the love, but there's also a bunch of lesser known gems like The Hot Dog Run where Dredd takes cadets into the Cursed Earth for training/testing. If you were going to buy one volume of JD, it's gotta be Case Files, vol 5. (Although I'd argue the past few years have been almost as good, especially if you focus on the comics written by John Wagner and Michael Carroll, who should become lead writer if Wagner ever retires.)
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Post by Paste Pot Paul on Dec 31, 2014 1:44:34 GMT -5
The nature artwork on that "Vagabond" series is fantastic. Kojima's artwork in "Lone Wolf and Cub" also has some stunning nature scenes. If you like that art, you should definitely check out Vinland saga... it's even better, IMO. ...writes in diary...diary overflows...shrugs are deployed...
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Post by badwolf on Dec 31, 2014 12:36:23 GMT -5
By the way, something obviously happened around issue 15 or so. I think Action Comics #600 played a big part in it, which I didn't read. Something happened with Darkseid and Mount Olympus that I'm really confused about. Apparently Wonder Woman and Superman did something to stop Darkseid who I'm guessing threatened Olympus in some capacity. Darkseid invaded Olympus and attempted to destroy it in Action #600. However, it turns out Olympus can only end when the gods will it so, and after Darkseid blows it up, it simply reforms.
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Post by BigPapaJoe on Dec 31, 2014 15:04:49 GMT -5
By the way, something obviously happened around issue 15 or so. I think Action Comics #600 played a big part in it, which I didn't read. Something happened with Darkseid and Mount Olympus that I'm really confused about. Apparently Wonder Woman and Superman did something to stop Darkseid who I'm guessing threatened Olympus in some capacity. Darkseid invaded Olympus and attempted to destroy it in Action #600. However, it turns out Olympus can only end when the gods will it so, and after Darkseid blows it up, it simply reforms. What was Darkseid's incentive for the invasion of Olympus?
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Post by badwolf on Dec 31, 2014 15:58:36 GMT -5
What was Darkseid's incentive for the invasion of Olympus? He's a JERK.
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Post by Spike-X on Dec 31, 2014 22:04:09 GMT -5
What was Darkseid's incentive for the invasion of Olympus? He's a JERK. I laughed out loud. Thank you.
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Post by berkley on Jan 1, 2015 3:35:34 GMT -5
I don't think it ever works when they mix up Darkseid and the New Gods in general with other mythologies and pantheons. One of the most basic elements to the whole premise is that the Old Gods are gone, and in my view that means all of them, from the Olympians of ancient Greece to the Judaeo-Christian pantheon (if I can apply that term to an ostensibly monotheistic religion) of today. The New Gods, for the purposes of their story, are THE Gods, not just one set amongst many.
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Post by berkley on Jan 1, 2015 3:46:55 GMT -5
Just finished Cerebus 1-10, American Flagg 1, Batman Son of the Demon (? the Bingham one), Avengers 150-153, Astro City 1-6, and the first 2 collections of Vagabond, a manga about a Ronin/Samurai/Killer which I got after reading the issues where he takes on 70 Samurai in a valley by himself, freaking amazing. Hopefully these give you some idea of the energy in the book, while this last image shows the sheer beauty of the artwork, which is a lot more detailed than other manga I've encountered. The artwork is amazing, and I will probably have to seek this out. Not a comic, but on a related note, I highly recommend the Eiji Yoshikawa novel Musashi, if you can hunt down a copy.
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Post by berkley on Jan 1, 2015 3:49:44 GMT -5
The nature artwork on that "Vagabond" series is fantastic. Kojima's artwork in "Lone Wolf and Cub" also has some stunning nature scenes. If you like that art, you should definitely check out Vinland saga... it's even better, IMO. Is Vinland drawn by Goseki Kojima as well? The style in the pic posted looks a bit different to me from the Lone Wolf and Cub volumes I've read (only the first two, so far).
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jan 1, 2015 8:53:12 GMT -5
No, it's Makoto Yukimura.. not sure if it's his only one or not.... I grabbed it based on a CBR review.
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Post by fanboystranger on Jan 1, 2015 11:25:48 GMT -5
What was Darkseid's incentive for the invasion of Olympus? He's a JERK. Hahaha. That made me laugh so hard.
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Post by pinkfloydsound17 on Jan 2, 2015 20:53:24 GMT -5
Got my first taste of Suicide Squad today, courtesy of the first two issues from the Ostrander run. Gotta say, really enjoyed it! I never thought Boomerang could be an interesting character but damn, is he ever. I am also a sucker for Deadshot (his costume has always appealed to me) and I cannot wait to start issue three as soon as I finish typing!
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Post by paulie on Jan 2, 2015 22:31:45 GMT -5
Got my first taste of Suicide Squad today, courtesy of the first two issues from the Ostrander run. Gotta say, really enjoyed it! I never thought Boomerang could be an interesting character but damn, is he ever. I am also a sucker for Deadshot (his costume has always appealed to me) and I cannot wait to start issue three as soon as I finish typing! A solid series with few bad issues.
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Post by chadwilliam on Jan 4, 2015 21:59:02 GMT -5
Superman 402 Cover Date: December 1984 "How Do You Hide a Superman?"
One of those stories that starts with an interesting premise and just builds from there. Sometimes, the writer - in this case, Cary Bates - finds that there really isn't much more that can be done with their initial idea but sticks with it for the sake of the idea itself but here, everything clicks at every turn.
A weakened, amnesiatic Superman finds himself stumbling around a Metropolis alleyway pleading for help. Daily Planet cub reporter Justin Moore (a recurring character created during the last few years of the pre-Crisis era meant, I guess, to fill the void created when DC decided to give Jimmy Olsen a bit of added years and maturity) comes across him and assumes that this can't possibly be the genuine article. That's the great thing about Curt Swan's art - it's like a punch to the gut the way it's so real when the moment needs it to be. Superman could be involved in some outrageous situation - strung out on Red Kryptonite; caught up in some surreal Mxyzptlk adventure; trying to make sense of the Bizzaro World - and an instant later his powers fail him and some crook shoots him in the back and you realize that the preceeding surreality was misdirection meant to catch you off guard when stark reality intrudes where it shouldn't. It isn't that Superman looks so disheveled when Justin Moore finds him - it's how this majestic figure has been so reduced that I find striking. Swan has done more than add a day's stubble to Superman's face to achieve this look - he's removed certain traits from Superman's features that I only recognized before on a subconscious level - I can't even tell you what exactly he's done, but there's somehow less grandeur, less hope to this character because of it and it results in a Superman who clearly doesn't feel confident that he is Superman...
...and that's because he isn't.
Although the story is set up so as to lead the reader to believe that Superman will gradually regain his memory along with his waning powers, we learn that Justin Moore's first impression was correct - this is a mentally unbalanaced individual who only thinks he's Superman. The bad guys they've been evading for much of the story normally reside in the 40th century and are here to get this Ersatz Superman from their era the help he needs. Unfortunately, this imposter Superman truly believes that he is Superman and when he's lead to believe that Justin has destroyed the inhabitants of Kandor, he promises a "slow, torturous death" for the kid. It's another of those moments where the story just turns on its head - we've been lead to believe that this is genuinely Superman and that his memory will return - so to see him with a rage in his eyes and so realistically unhinged at the point in the story where things are supposed to be getting better is unsettling. Think Christopher Reeve's drunken, evil Superman in Superman III turned up a notch. The real Superman turns up in the nick of time and everything is explained and resolved so that this Imposter will get the treatment he needs. You only get about a page of the real guy too in this story, but Swan's depiction of him is so soft yet superficially identical to the homicidal Imposter-Superman that one can understand how you were tricked, but not without a certain degree of shame.
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