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Post by Dizzy D on Feb 26, 2022 14:42:35 GMT -5
that's odd.. why would they skip in issue? It's really weird, the missing issue is part of the Hellfire Gala story, so probably collected in that trade then. But the first two chapters are part of the Last Annihilation crossover and they have included those (plus an issue of Cable)
Issue 6 is the issue where the mutants, having just terraformed Mars and discovered a new type of metal, inform the rest of the galaxy that the Solar System is now a player in interplanetary politics and that Storm has become the regent of Mars/Arakko in that issue and is now the representative to the Solar system for the alien races. (the issue also includes Magneto meeting with Wanda and telling her that whether they are related by blood or not, he has accepted her as his daughter and will do everything to make things right again between the mutants and her). The rest of the series is at least half dedicated to Storm ruling Mars without losing herself in it (Arakko being the twin-island of Krakoa and the mutants living on it have been in a hell dimension for centuries. They tend to be pretty brutal. From what I've seen the upcoming X-Men: Red will be focused on Storm dealing with keeping Arakko under control.) The other half of the trade is S.W.O.R.D. dealing with Henry Peter Gyrich trying to discredit the mutants by sabotaging them in various ways.
I liked S.W.O.R.D. when it's focused on doing its own things, but in the 12 issues or so that the series lasted, it was drawn into two major crossovers (not counting Hellfire Gala as that one was not really a crossover and thematically very important to the S.W.O.R.D. series). This same thing has killed many series, Marvel and D.C. for me over the year where a new series is not allowed to stand on its own, but needs to be drawn into events all the time.
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 9, 2022 12:09:17 GMT -5
I've bought X-Men: Hellfire Sage to fill in the missing issue. It's a pretty short TPB, containg Marauders #21 (which also contains a reprint of a Classic X-Men backup story as well), X-Men #21, Planet-Size X-Men #1 and S.W.O.R.D. #6.
As a mini-crossover, I actually kinda like it: no villains, no superheroes beating each other up.
Marauders deals with Emma hosting the Hellfire Gala, a way for Krakoa to impress (and intimidate) their allies and enemies. (The backup story by Claremont and Bolton is on Shaw seizing power at the Hellfire Club back in the day)
X-Men #21 deals with Magneto and Xavier offering a sear on the Council to Namor, but he declines and Krakoa voting on who the new X-Men should be.
Planet-Size X-Men is the big change for the book. The most powerful among the mutants work together and terraform Mars into an habitable planet and move the island of Arakko to the planet, making it the primary space port for the solar system (as well as a way to keep the Arakko mutants from getting into trouble on Earth).
S.W.O.R.D. #6 deals with Abigail Brand announcing mutantkind/solar system as a major party in Galactic politics, offering the mutant's miracle metal Mysterium (discovered by the mutants in the previous issues) in exchange for recognition and Storm being appointed as Arakko's regent and representative to the rest of the Galaxy.
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Post by Ozymandias on Mar 9, 2022 13:05:29 GMT -5
What issue were you missing? Hard to imagine being more expensive than a TPB.
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 10, 2022 3:08:37 GMT -5
S.W.O.R.D. #6, but singles are hard to get and I dislike having a series in trade in my bookcaase and then a single lying around somewhere else.
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Post by Ozymandias on Mar 10, 2022 10:37:50 GMT -5
If you have the rest in TPB format, that makes more sense. They really messed up the mutants compilations, first with the x of swords ties and then with the gala. For the X-men, I have a TPB for the Giant-Size issues, a HC for House of X and had to resort to individual issues for the regular series, as they skipped issues in the TPBs.
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Post by arfetto on Mar 30, 2022 15:37:47 GMT -5
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 31, 2022 7:44:26 GMT -5
Ah, I really loved Copra. Kinda weird though that he went to Image Comics for 4? issues and then returned to self-publishing.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Apr 1, 2022 15:39:02 GMT -5
Can anyone explain the purpose of the Grand Design books?
I went blind into the latest one featuring the Hulk, and although there are a few panels that have some amazing art by Jim Rugg I can't really wrap my head around it as a book. It's both too detailed and yet too succinct to be an entry level primer to the Hulk for a new reader and at the same time it doesn't present anything new to make it worthwhile for an old fan either.
It's more like a scrapbook than an actual story as it never really has a true connecting narrative.
I just don't get the point of it, or who its supposed to appeal to.
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Post by Dizzy D on Apr 2, 2022 17:45:44 GMT -5
Can anyone explain the purpose of the Grand Design books? I went blind into the latest one featuring the Hulk, and although there are a few panels that have some amazing art by Jim Rugg I can't really wrap my head around it as a book. It's both too detailed and yet too succinct to be an entry level primer to the Hulk for a new reader and at the same time it doesn't present anything new to make it worthwhile for an old fan either. It's more like a scrapbook than an actual story as it never really has a true connecting narrative. I just don't get the point of it, or who its supposed to appeal to. Each of the 3 Grand Design (so far) books does a different thing, so it's kinda hard to some up The Purpose.
X-Men Grand Design was Ed Piskor doing Hip Hop Family Tree on the X-Men of his youth (starting with X-Men #1 and ending around the time Chris Claremont left as those were the comics he read), streamlining the overal story-arc to a singular narrative, leaving out the bits that aren't really humans/mutants related and in some cases handling things better than the original did (his fall of Madelyne Pryor in Inferno was far better than Claremont's).
Fantastic Four Grand Design is Tom Scioli writing a love letter to the Lee&Kirby Fantastic Four, but also including some jokes and references to other things and it goes into a completely different direction than the original stories went. It's also a lot shorter.
I haven't read the Hulk Grand Design yet, so it sounds that it is doing something else again.
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Post by Dizzy D on Apr 2, 2022 18:06:50 GMT -5
Anyway, I got a bunch of European comics (more in the appropriate thread once I finish them all and formulate some thoughts) and the third and final volume of Crowded.
Crowded started as the usual American mainstream comic: comics out monthly in singles, then is collected in trades. But sales of singles were losing the creators money, so for after the second trade, they anounced the final part of the story would come out in trade-only.
The premise of the book is simple: in the near future the gig-economy has taken over, many people live doing several odd-jobs where they are hired via mobile apps. Charlie makes her livelihood by working a dozen different jobs on a tight schedule. But then Charlies is targeted by the app ReapR: ReapR is a crowdfunding app for assassination. Any person can start a ReapR campaign to place a bounty on somebody's head and others can chip in. The bounty runs for a short period and the person that kills the target receives the bounty. There are some protections in place though: you can only be targeted once by a ReapR campaign so if Charlie survives the time period her campaign lasts, she is free. Charlie hires Vita, a professional bodyguard to protect her. Charlie's bounty for some reason has reached over a million dollars, even though she appears to be a regular person, making her a target for many bounty hunters, both professional and amateur.
In this trade, a new player enters the game: Circe, a professional assassin (though she already appeared many times before, she didn't get directly involved in the main story until now) and her role turned out to be very different than what I was expecting.
With a complete story in 3 trades, it's on the shorter side, but it works well. I love the very expressive cartoon artstyle on this series and the writing gives a good wrap-up for the series.
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Post by Ozymandias on May 14, 2022 14:20:05 GMT -5
Spring loot, part 1. From todocoleccion, paid on the 12th, sent on the 13th, received on the 19th via Correos: Not very interested in any of these, but I got them cheap (about 10€ each with postage). Bought on March 26, sent on the same day, received on the 29th-ish via Correos. Amazon (ES):  I got a 20% discount on these because of bad packaging, damage to the books. (What else?) 38€ for the duo. |
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Post by Ozymandias on May 14, 2022 14:21:38 GMT -5
Bought on the 12th of March, shipped on the 14th (not signed as per agreement), received on the 16th via Royal Mail 2nd Class (to UK address). UK eBay seller:  Already had the floppies, but I've accumulated TPBs for most of Sin City, and this one was at about 10€ (all in). |
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Post by Ozymandias on May 14, 2022 14:23:43 GMT -5
Bought on the 24th of March, shipped on the 29th, received on the 7th via Royal Mail Tracked & Signed + Correos. Comicana (14th order):  I actually ordered the old mini. So I was really displeased to receive these. The seller insisted I was mistaken, so before escalating, I gave them a chance and, who knows? I liked them. There was a chance out of ten I would enjoy reading a totally random comic, really, but this time all went well that ended well.
These ones were on sale. They were even cheaper from an eBay German seller, but grading seemed inconsistent looking and the pictures, and postage looked high to me. So I went with "tried and trusted". I love Immonen, one of the best storytellers out there.
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Post by Ozymandias on May 14, 2022 14:26:09 GMT -5
Bought on the 19th, shipped on the 19th, received on the 22nd via Royal Mail 2nd Class (to UK address). The 1st one had tracking (!?). Two different UK eBay sellers in sync: Not a fan of neither Deadpool nor Thompson, but the artists made it work. Bought on the 4th, shipped on the 10th, received on the 13th via UPS. 4th Walt's Comic Shop order:  Completing the Aaron run. I actually wanted the regular cover for the HC, but stock run out while I was ordering!  Some FCBD comics to help with postage. |
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Post by Ozymandias on May 14, 2022 14:28:10 GMT -5
Bought on the 30th of March, shipped on the 4th, received on the 13th via Royal Mail Tracked & Signed + Correos. Comicana (15th order):  I didn't have anything from Marcos Martin, basically because he's done little, and he lets Slott write too many of the scripts  . I could've gone with No One Dies, but that's way more expensive.   Some nice art by Alan Davis and DelMundo. Greg Pack kept the pace.
 Interesting art and script.
  Most of the Edmondson/Gerads run. A somewhat different Punisher from the norm (Ennis/Dillon).
Probably the best work I've seen from Bagley, and it was the end of the Ultimate Universe, too.
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. I could've gone with No One Dies, but that's way more expensive.