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Post by berkley on May 19, 2015 10:12:23 GMT -5
I think it was your review thread that inspired me to finally give Tintin a try and gave me an idea of which Tintin books to look for, so I would look forward to seeing it come back.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 19, 2015 12:24:43 GMT -5
In addition to Marvel Masterworks: Thor, Volume Five, I also picked up All-Star Superman, Volume One, when I was at the library. (I had requested Showcase Presents: The Brave and the Bold, Volume One, through inter-library loan, but it is taking a looong time to be processed.)
I've read All Star-Superman before and I've been wanting to read it again. I love it! I can be very critical of Grant Morrison because, frankly, I think a lot of his work is pretty bad. I do like Flex Mentallo a lot. But I don't think much of Final Crisis or most of his Batman work and I especially don't like Supergods.
But Morrison did a great job on All-Star Superman. Morrison and I are on the same wavelength when it comes to Superman. I'm enjoying All-Star Superman as much as I did the first time and it's kind of frustrating that I'll have to wait a few weeks to read volume two.
And even thought I call it Cabbage-Patch Superman, I love the Frank Quitely art.
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Post by The Captain on May 20, 2015 8:56:02 GMT -5
In the past couple days, I read Thor #163-172 in Marvel Masterworks: Thor, Volume 8. These were pretty much the final issues of Kirby's run on the character, and based on the foreword, the King was fed-up with having his ideas for the book shot down, so while he still was putting out some really nice work, it was fairly obvious his heart wasn't completely in it. These issues were light on mythology and heavy in science fiction, which he could continue once he got to DC and started on New Gods. Not bad reads, but certainly nothing like his earlier work on the character.
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 20, 2015 20:29:25 GMT -5
I think it was your review thread that inspired me to finally give Tintin a try and gave me an idea of which Tintin books to look for, so I would look forward to seeing it come back. Same here!
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on May 21, 2015 9:12:25 GMT -5
Warlord Annual
#2 -- A story of Atlantis and it's people told to Morgan by a stranger he comes into contact with in helping him in a battle named Krystovar. It turns out this Krystovar has a lot of history with Atlantis and it's people. When attacked my men with bestial heads they get separated, Morgan, escaping and finding some futuristic weaponry of unknown origin, that he uses to help Krystovar escape his captives. Good art by Jurgens and a nice, but small twist, at the end to a fairly basic story. I still enjoyed it. Perhaps it's being unfamiliar with the characters, and there maybe being some supporting back story that I haven't read.
#4 -- Scott told me a little about this story due to having read an issue previous to it, that ended with a cliffhanger. This issue didn't do too much better in clearing that cliffhanger up. If anything it just perpetuated it. In this issue, with nice art by Pat Broderick, a evil demon is inadvertently released from it's imprisonment and occupies the body of Tinder's friend Chaaka. The only way to defeat this demon is an enchanted sword that Morgan has to retrieve, that he had earlier in the series. It causes blood lust and berserker rages, so he disposed of it. When he finds the keeper of the blade (among other enchanted weapons) he is told that the blade has chosen the bloodline of Morgan, and only him or his heirs can wield it. So in the end when, Morgan and Tara, down for the count, Tinder delivers the final blow to demon with the enchanted blade. Morgan still unconscious never saw what happened, but Tara did, but keeps it to herself. Tinder, devastated by having to kill his friend to kill the demon, wanders away, saying he might never come back to the group.
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,947
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Post by Crimebuster on May 21, 2015 9:44:52 GMT -5
I liked Krystovar a lot. As you can probably already tell, Warlord is not a series that is shy about its continuity. The tale of Warlord's sword started several years before Annual #4:
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on May 21, 2015 13:09:04 GMT -5
Warlord #105-107 Now this at least starts me where I left off with the first three Warlord issues I read, 102-104, so at least I know what's going on to some degree. All three stories were pretty good, and I am liking Ron Randall's art. The stories seem to be pretty varied and interesting. Only complaint, or maybe more accurately, observation I have about them, aside from the ongoing trek to save Jennifer, is that each story is only one issue. While some seem to fit because they're in a new town or passing through a town, the last story Bride of Yang (107), seemed cut short. A story that could been spent on two issues and been a far better story. After a pretty intricate setup and back story laid out in the first part of the story (with a nice 2 page Randall splash with ... hehe ... sand squids ... so awesome) we get 4 pages of the climax battle, leaving Morgan to resort to last minute gimmicks to defeat Yang. Of the three pages we got two and half spent showing how strong and supposedly unbeatable Yang is, and one panel to defeat him, leaving one page for escape and wrap up the issue, leaving the when, where and why out. Being that the city was destroyed by fire, I doubt my next issue is going to be anymore about this. But that Randall cover for 107, is sooooo awesome.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 24, 2015 14:40:57 GMT -5
I have been in a bit of a Legion mood lately so a week or so ago I started reading my run of 1990s LSH comics, starting with the first issue of Legionnaires. When I bought that brand new at the newsstand in 1993, I hadn't read any LSH for a while, and I wasn't reading very many super-hero comics then. But for some reason I started reading Legionnaires, and then about #18 it started crossing over into Legion of Super-Heroes every month, so I bought that too. (They also started over again with the continuity and ignored the stories in the first year and a half of Legionnaires.)
Flipping through them, I have about 100 issues total, Legionnaires from #1 to about #60 and Legion of Super-Heroes from about #60 to #100. I don't remember reading it for near that long! My memories of these issues are hazy at best and I don't think I've read any of them since the mid-1990s.
However, as I read along, I remember it a little better. That first arc (with the Fatal Five) in the early issues of Legionnaires is pretty cool. I don't remember what I thought back then when they shifted over to stories of the early days of the Legion, but now I think it was a pretty good move because Legionnaires started out well but it was floundering after a year and a half.
I'm now up to the part where Ayla has shown up (as Spark) and has taken Garth's place in the Legion. I'm OK with that. In this incarnation, Garth is kind of a douche.
So far, 1990s LSH has been a bit spotty but there's enough good material here that I'm going to keep reading. (I hope I don't get to the end and find out I quit reading in the middle of a good storyline. I hate it when that happens!)
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Post by Hoosier X on May 25, 2015 12:50:49 GMT -5
One of the fun things about flipping through the actual comics (as opposed to trades or reprint collections) is the non-comics content, the letters, the in-house announcements, the advertising.
I'm still reading 1990s Legion comics and I was just walloped by a house ad.
THE PSYBA-RATS!
Remember them? "They'll steal anything, anytime, anywhere!"
The ad is for the 1995 three-issue mini-series. Says it was written by Chuck Dixon. Nice art on the ad.
I didn't read the mini-series. I remember them - vaguely - from the tryout in Showcase. As a matter of fact, I don't remember anything except for the woman with the knife-arms (who is shown in the ads).
I'm not going to make fun of it because I don't remember it very well. Does anybody else remember the Psyba-Rats at all?
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Post by Pharozonk on May 25, 2015 13:02:06 GMT -5
I've been getting into the 1999 JSA series lately and just read the first arc which encompasses issues 1-4. I have only cursory knowledge of most of these characters except Alan Scott and Jay Garrick, but I'm loving all the history being revealed about the legacy of these characters, especially Sandy Hawkins. I look forward to reading the rest of this run.
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Post by Pharozonk on May 25, 2015 13:03:23 GMT -5
So far, 1990s LSH has been a bit spotty but there's enough good material here that I'm going to keep reading. (I hope I don't get to the end and find out I quit reading in the middle of a good storyline. I hate it when that happens!) The final arc of LSH and Legionnaires is Legion of the Damned, which is pretty awesome. It's the start of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's work with the team and it's great stuff.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 25, 2015 13:23:23 GMT -5
I've been getting into the 1999 JSA series lately and just read the first arc which encompasses issues 1-4. I have only cursory knowledge of most of these characters except Alan Scott and Jay Garrick, but I'm loving all the history being revealed about the legacy of these characters, especially Sandy Hawkins. I look forward to reading the rest of this run. That was a great series. I have about the first 20 issues and then it gets sporadic. I read the issues I have about a year ago and I was wishing I had kept collecting it. (I think I stopped buying it because I got very busy with finishing my master's degree and I just about quit getting comics entirely.)
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Post by dupersuper on May 26, 2015 1:04:31 GMT -5
One of the fun things about flipping through the actual comics (as opposed to trades or reprint collections) is the non-comics content, the letters, the in-house announcements, the advertising. I'm still reading 1990s Legion comics and I was just walloped by a house ad. THE PSYBA-RATS!Remember them? "They'll steal anything, anytime, anywhere!" The ad is for the 1995 three-issue mini-series. Says it was written by Chuck Dixon. Nice art on the ad. I didn't read the mini-series. I remember them - vaguely - from the tryout in Showcase. As a matter of fact, I don't remember anything except for the woman with the knife-arms (who is shown in the ads). I'm not going to make fun of it because I don't remember it very well. Does anybody else remember the Psyba-Rats at all? I have their debut in the Robin annual because it was part of the Bloodlines story (how Knife-arms got her knife arms), and a guest spot here and there (I wanna' say Nightwing and Young Justice? I also have the Blood Pack mini but can't recall if any of them appeared).
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2015 2:20:10 GMT -5
Let's see finished the post Ditko Dr. Strange run in Strange tales...good stuff but not up to the level of Ditko's run. I did enjoy the introduction of the Living Tribunal though.
Finished up through Master of Kung Fu 70-the series flounders a bit after Gulacyy leaves, Craig is the replacement artist and he is solid, but there are far too many fill in and inventory stories breaking up other stories making it somewhat annoying to try to read. Pat Broderick just came on board, so we will see how it holds up.
Re-read the first few years of the Dreadstar ongoing (up through #20) and have reached the point where Vanth loses the sword and gets the super-hero costume, which is where the series started to decline a bit. There is still some very good stuff on the horizon, but something was lost with the sword and hoodie.
Read the original Sabre OGN from '78 by McGregor and Gulacy, and the first handful of issues of the ongoing from '82-'83. A truly dense read, moreso than even McGregor's Marvel stuff. Interesting stuff. Not as big a fan of Billy Graham's art on the ongoing, it's solid but suffers form following Gulacy on the OGN. One thing I don't like is McGregor's tendency for abrupt and jarring transitions and scene switches that seem to come out of nowhere and break up the narrative flow. Still a worthwhile read but takes me a bit to get through.
I also reread First Issue Special #9, the Simonson drawn Dr. Fate story. Great stuff, I kind of wonder what a Simonson lead ongoing would have been like if this had sold better at the time.
Am making my way through the 1949 volume of Checker's Steve Canyon by Milton Caniff. Read the first "story" in there (about 3 months worth of strips). Again a dense read like McGregor as Caniff was certainly fond of text, but an interesting one.
I am also about halfway through the Servants of Bit Yemen (a.k.a. The Jewels of Gwalhur) another of Howard's Conan tales, the first in the third volume of Del Rey's Conan.
-M
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Post by Hoosier X on May 27, 2015 15:52:15 GMT -5
I'm still reading 1990s Legion of Super-Heroes! It's been a very long time since I read a run that was this long. (Between the two titles - Legionnaires and Legion of Super-Heroes - it's around 100 issues! It was about three years ago that I read Detective Comics from #658 (the start of Knightfall) to #800, and I haven't tackled anything nearly as long since then.)
Sometimes I read five or six issues a day. I'm up to Legionnaires #38 and Legion of Super-Heroes #82. The founders - Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Live Wire - are on a goodwill tour of Titan and Shrinking Violet has just been elected leader! They just went through a battle with the Fatal Five that was part of an elaborate conspiracy orchestrated by the U.P. president to get more planets to join the U.P. Star Boy and Element Lad have just joined.
It's pretty solid comic-book storytelling. Just before the reboot (the one that happened after Zero Hour), Legionnaires was flailing a bit, but the series has been a lot of fun ever since the two #0 issues and the beginning of the period where the continuity was very tight between the two panels.
I can see why I stuck with it for 100 issues!
I miss some of my favorites like Shadow Lass and Dream Girl and Timber Wolf. But some of the other LSH members I used to like - Brainiac 5, Shrinking Violet, Cham - are still around. And Invisible Kid is pretty cool.
My favorite of the new Legionnaires is XS!
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