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Post by cromagnonman on Mar 29, 2015 3:43:14 GMT -5
On with reading Spider man. I started with Amazing #186 and have stopped just before 1st Hobgoblin (#238), while I catch up with Spectacular. The only thing I havnt been reading is Marvel Team Up as I cant be bothered to find the issues in my boxes.
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Post by fanboystranger on Mar 29, 2015 13:19:29 GMT -5
I'm blazing through the second Usagi Yojimbo Saga book, which is approaching modern by the forum standards, but still classic, just barely. When I bought the big Fantagraphics set it was mostly material I had read before, having only failed to track down a couple issues of the Fantagraphics run prior to that. I found out that I had even read the anthology stuff somewhere, maybe I got my hands on a trade at some point. The first Saga book was probably about half new material and half stuff I had read. It was nice filling gaps in the story, but this second volume is all new material to me. Just read Grasscutter for the first time. I'm really enjoying the book, and can't wait for the next. By the scheduled releases I should be caught up with the series fairly quickly. I've been following in floppy for the past several years. The Fantagraphics set is one of the finest put-together collections I've come across, but I have to say that I love the Usagi Saga format. So much material at a great price, and unlike most DH omnibii, it hasn't been shrunken down.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2015 19:39:02 GMT -5
Yeah that Fantagraphics one is really nice. I like the Saga ones too though, I buy the hardcovers. They are going to look really good lined up on the shelf when they're all up to date. Too big a collection for a slipcase too I guess. Unless they did little sets like Fantagraphics does with their Disney stuff.
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Post by Spike-X on Mar 30, 2015 1:04:20 GMT -5
I'm so behind on Usagi it's ridiculous. I have all volumes up to/including 17, and I think it's on something like vol 29 now.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2015 1:58:02 GMT -5
You're more caught up than me, although I've been current for the past couple years.
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Post by dbutler69 on Mar 30, 2015 8:09:37 GMT -5
I just finished All-Star Squadron Annual #1. It was a lot of fun. Great art by Adrian Gonzalez and Jerry Ordway (though I'm not in love with the cover) and I especially like the link between Earth-2 Green Lantern's power ring and Earth-1 Green Lantern (of the Guardians, actually).
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 30, 2015 15:39:39 GMT -5
I read Catwoman Dies pretty quickly. It started off strong, but I was very disappointed with the really dumb stuff in the conclusion.
SPOILER WARNING!! (This is mostly just a formality because knowing the ending isn't any worse than the ending itself. So it really can't be spoiled by knowing because it started out that way.)
In the earlier chapters, Catwoman and her baby are subjected to some very harrowing (and very exciting!) adventures. In the last few chapters, Catwoman realizes that her baby will always be in danger because of the dangerous life of Catwoman. So she gets Batman to help her fake her own death and also the death of the baby. Then knowing the nature of the DC Universe where this won't be a secret for long, she also gets Batman to get the baby into a good home, but the identity of the family is buried under so many layers of bureaucracy that Catwoman will never be able to find her child. Then she tries to persuade Zatanna to mess with her mind and make her forget that she ever had a baby. Zatanna talks her out of it.
Yeah, that's dumb. One writer thought Selina with a baby would be a fun idea, then the editors (or the next writer) didn't like the idea, so we end up with this crapfest.
It started out so well. (And it's a heckuva lot better than When in Rome.)
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 30, 2015 15:47:23 GMT -5
Age of Apocalypse, on the other hand, has been a chore all the way through. I'm finally getting an idea of what's going on, but it's hard to care too much. In a week, I bet I've read forty or fifty pages AND THERE'S SO MUCH LEFT TO READ!!!
(After I checked it out of the library, I noticed it was "Book Two." I have absolutely no desire to read "Book One." I'm not sure I'm going to finish "Book Two"!)
But one of the upcoming chapters was written by Jeph loeb, so there's always that to look forward to. (/sarcasm)
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Mar 30, 2015 16:08:11 GMT -5
Age of Apocalypse, on the other hand, has been a chore all the way through. I'm finally getting an idea of what's going on, but it's hard to care too much. In a week, I bet I've read forty or fifty pages AND THERE'S SO MUCH LEFT TO READ!!! (After I checked it out of the library, I noticed it was "Book Two." I have absolutely no desire to read "Book One." I'm not sure I'm going to finish "Book Two"!) But one of the upcoming chapters was written by Jeph loeb, so there's always that to look forward to. (/sarcasm) And on the other hand, one of my favorite stories in comics. :-) It is long, and it was a chore getting all the issues back then when I was trying to get that and the Clone Saga. Somehow AoA was so much better to me, and seem to have less filler than Clone Saga. Now that I have a perfected reading order (not sure how it's formatted in the TPB) I enjoy reading it about once a year. I'd say it's a quarter of nostalgia that clouds my judgement. But I have read muchworse X-Men stories before and after AoA. It may also help that I think the characters that really were different in AoA (Beast, Nightcrawler, Juggernaut/Cain, Sunfire, Morph, Blink, Sabertooth) far outweighed the ones that were just ripoffs of their 616 counterparts with just different appearances, (Cyclops, Weapon X/Wolverine and Jean), which they love triangle gets tiresome no matter what universe. I'd say Havok would probably fit that mold too, but I don't know too much about him, but what little I have read didn't seem like he changed all that much. It's a lot of nostalgia talking but d--m I like that story. :-) Edit: In reference to Loeb, if it's Astonishing X-Men, which I believe he did the dialogue, while Lobdell did the script, those are four good comics, though #3 & #4 are the best two comics out of the whole story. He also did X-Man #1-4. While the concept itself of X-Man the character was a bore to me, and something written in as a "failsafe" all the supporting characters in it are great. I felt more for them, then some of the flagship X-Men characters.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 30, 2015 16:36:33 GMT -5
But I have read much worse X-Men stories before and after AoA. I wish I found that hard to believe. Here's where I'm coming from. My first issue of X-Men was #99 back in 1976. (Although I think I had already read "Son of Origins of Marvel Comics" so I had read X-Men #1 but I knew very little about the X-Men before that.) And I really loved the X-Men in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But I liked it less and less, especially after the Brood issues (around X-Men #170, I think) and I read it for a while after that, missing issues here and there before I totally gave up about #204. And I've never read any issues that I liked ever since. But I do try to give comics a chance. I go through phases where I start reading new comics again and then I look at what I missed and what are the big favorites among the storylines and I give them a chance. I loved "Heart of Hush" when I read it in 2012. I liked "All-Star Superman" when I read it last year. I got a kick out of the She-Hulk TPBs I read last year. There's some Birds of Prey and Secret Six storylines I like. But the X-Men has become an indecipherable mess to me. I know some of the comics I liked (that I still like) when I was 12 or 13 are a bit of a mess, so I'm not judging anybody who likes comics that I find terrible. But just because I understand doesn't mean I don't find them terrible. I also can't stand most of Grant Morrison's Batman run.
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Post by fanboystranger on Mar 30, 2015 16:55:30 GMT -5
Oh, yeah, if you don't like AoA, I'd definitely avoid the decade of x-comics that surrounds it. AoA, believe it or not, was a real breath of fresh air at the time. The stuff that follows it, in particular, is awful. This was around the time where they could only be one good X-book at a time, generally way off in the margins. So, post AoA, we'd have Ellis' Excalibur, then Casey's Cable, Kelly's Deadpool, but not much else worth reading until Ellis' X-Man revamp. Lots of great talent on the books, but they were so editorially hamstrung, they couldn't do anything.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 30, 2015 17:15:17 GMT -5
Oh, yeah, if you don't like AoA, I'd definitely avoid the decade of x-comics that surrounds it. AoA, believe it or not, was a real breath of fresh air at the time. The stuff that follows it, in particular, is awful. This was around the time where they could only be one good X-book at a time, generally way off in the margins. So, post AoA, we'd have Ellis' Excalibur, then Casey's Cable, Kelly's Deadpool, but not much else worth reading until Ellis' X-Man revamp. Lots of great talent on the books, but they were so editorially hamstrung, they couldn't do anything. I'm having trouble relating any of the characters to their 1970s and 1980s counterparts. There's a guy named Magneto and a woman named Jean Grey and so on, but I can't relate them to the version I know and loved. I get that it's an alternate dimension. (I think. Though I thought it was a dystopian future at first. Maybe it's both?) But I usually don't mind being thrown into the middle of a story where I don't know what's going on. (It's part of what I like about some anime.) Age of Apocalypse is just a horrific mess to me.
And the art! OMG! It's terrible! It reminds me of why I read so few comics regularly in the 1990s.
I'm trying to give it a chance. I'm going to read at minimum three more of the issues reprinted here before I decide if I want to go on.
For a reference for those who want to follow along, in the part I just read, a hooded figure whose identity I never did figure out was sneaking around the Apocalypse complex and looking at files and trying to figure out if he or she was destined to be one of Apocalypse's Chosen. So there was a bunch of pin-ups with text boxes giving Apocalypse's opinion on Magneto, Rogue, Cyclops, etc.
I skimmed a lot of it, especially at the end.
What "Age of Apocalypse" needs is beatniks at a coffee house, painting faces on somebody's feet.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 30, 2015 17:42:30 GMT -5
Last night, I read Fantastic Four #71 (in The Essential Fantastic Four, Volume 4), the last chapter in a four-part epic featuring the Mad Thinker. I've read it before but it's been a very long time and it strikes me that this may very well be the best story that the Mad Thinker ever appeared in. (Although, the Super-Villain War in Iron Man in the 1970s (app. #68 to #81) would be a very close second.)
It brings back memories of the mid- to late 1970s when I was reading the regular Fantastic Four series (my first issue was #165) at the same time I was reading the FF reprints in Marvel's Greatest Comics. I don't remember exactly what my first issue of MGC was, but between getting it at the newsstand every chance and picking up back issues at used-book stores, I had most of the issues from this very Mad Thinker multi-part story up to the storyline (from FF #90 to #92, I think) where the Thing was kidnapped by Skrulls and taken to a gangster planet based on 1920s Chicago with the added attraction of gladiatorial combat.
I had seen a few reprints of very old Fantastic Four issues before, but the MGC reprints was the first time I had ever read a long run of old FF issues, and it was great! I especially remember that issue where Crystal unleashed her power on the Wizard and clobbered him! (And I am very much looking forward to reading that issue in the Essential FF volume. It's so tempting to skip ahead!)
So, yeah, it's great to be working my way through these issues, some of them for the third time!
I was reading the Mad Thinker storyline very carefully, going very slowly. It looks familiar, as it should! But I don't remember thinking it was all that great. But this time, I'm admiring how patient the storytelling is! The villain is a mystery at first, masquerading as a scientist who is helping to cure Ben. The Thinker's plan is multi-faceted as he tries to have back-ups and to cope with the unexpected. Ben goes insane because of the Thinker's machinations and tries to kill everybody! (Not yet an overworked FF trope. Well ... not TOO overworked as yet.) And I love that bit with the Thinker's super-android! It knocks Ben, Reed and Johnny unconscious, leaving Sue - just revealed to be pregnant - to face the super-android ALONE! Gah! I can't stand it! Too suspenseful!
Yeah. Pretty awesome.
I've long considered FF #36 to #60 to be the FF's best run, but I'm now reminded how great it was past that point and I'm thinking of extending it, based on how much I like the rest of The Essential FF, Volume 4.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,085
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Post by Confessor on Mar 30, 2015 17:51:19 GMT -5
Last night, I read Fantastic Four #71 (in The Essential Fantastic Four, Volume 4), the last chapter in a four-part epic featuring the Mad Thinker. I've read it before but it's been a very long time and it strikes me that this may very well be the best story that the Mad Thinker ever appeared in. (Although, the Super-Villain War in Iron Man in the 1970s (app. #68 to #81) would be a very close second.) It brings back memories of the mid-late 1970s when I was reading the regular Fantastic Four series (my first issue was #165) at the same time I was reading the FF reprints in Marvel's Greatest Comics. I don't remember exactly what my first issue of MGC was, but between getting it at the newsstand every chance and picking up back issues at used-book stores, I had most of the issues from this very Mad Thinker multi-part story up to the storyline (from FF #90 to #92, I think) where the Thing was kidnapped by Skrulls and taken to gangster planet based on 1920s Chicago with the added attraction of gladiatorial combat. I had seen a few reprints of very old Fantastic Four issues before, but the MGC reprints was the first time I had ever read a long run of old FF issues, and it was great! I especially remember that issue where Crystal unleashed her power on the Wizard and clobbered him! (And I am very much looking forward to reading that issue in the Essential FF volume. It's so tempting to skip ahead!) So, yeah, it's great to be working my way through these issues, some of them for the third time! I was reading the Mad Thinker storyline very carefully, going very slowly. It looks familiar, as it should! But I don't remember thinking it was all that great. But this time, I'm admiring how patient the storytelling is! The villain is mystery at first, masquerading as a scientist who is helping to cure Ben. The Thinker's plan is multi-faceted as he tries to have back-ups and to cope with the unexpected. Ben goes insane because of the Thinker's machinations and tries to kill everybody! (Not yet an overworked FF trope. Well ... not TOO overworked as yet.) And I love that bit with the Thinker's super-android! It knock Ben, Reed and Johnny unconscious, leaving Sue - just revealed to be pregnant - to face the super-android ALONE! Gah! I can't stand it! Yeah. Pretty awesome. I've long considered FF #36 to #60 to be the FF's best run, but I'm now reminded how great it was past that point and I'm thinking of extending it, based on how much I like the rest of The Essential FF, Volume 4. I'm looking forward to the Fantastic Four Omnibus Volume 3 coming out this summer, which will reprint issues #61 to...ummm...90-something, I believe. I like the Silver Age Fantastic Four -- not love them, mind -- but definitely like them a lot. Issues #1 to #60 get better and better as you go through, with the Omnibus volume 2, which contains #31 to #60, being far superior to the first volume. I've never read any further than issue #60, so I'm looking forward to exploring these stories and hope that they live up to expectations.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 30, 2015 17:59:48 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #31 to #60 is a very hard act to follow. I don't think it gets better in #61 to #90, but it's still pretty darn excellent. (Most of the time. A little less Psycho-Man would have been a good idea.)
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