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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 18, 2015 10:19:35 GMT -5
I'm considering picking up either Busiek's original run of Thunderbolts or Ostrander's Heroes for Hire when I hit Emerald City later this month. What's the general consensus on these series? I'm a big fan of Kurt's Avengers run and of Ostrander's Suicide Squad and Spectre. Are these comparable in quality? Cei-U! I summon the information gap! I haven't read either. But Ostrander has never done anything bad that I've read. It's one of those books I keep meaning to look at. |
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Post by DE Sinclair on Mar 18, 2015 11:14:50 GMT -5
I'm slowly filling in the original Thunderbolts run and highly recommend it. I would rate it at least on par with Kurt's Avengers.
Heroes for Hire I haven't read.
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Post by fanboystranger on Mar 18, 2015 11:21:51 GMT -5
I'm considering picking up either Busiek's original run of Thunderbolts or Ostrander's Heroes for Hire when I hit Emerald City later this month. What's the general consensus on these series? I'm a big fan of Kurt's Avengers run and of Ostrander's Suicide Squad and Spectre. Are these comparable in quality? Cei-U! I summon the information gap! I like both a lot, but I like H4H slightly more than Thunderbolts. I'd say both really come down to the artists as the writing for both is top-notch classic superhero stuff. Pasqual Ferry's art on H4H was a bit rough to take for me when I first encountered it, but it definitely grew on me over the course of the series. I was more into Mark Bagley's work on Thunderbolts at the time, but when I re-read the series recently, I found it very generic looking. Still very much worth a read, though.
Oh, and if you do go after H4H, I'd recommend checking out Ostrander's run on Quicksilver as it ties into H4H. In fact, the two series would have a crossover around the end of their first year called "The Siege of Wundergore" that brings the Quicksilver series to a conclusion.
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Post by Cei-U! on Mar 18, 2015 11:25:29 GMT -5
Thanks for the tip on Quicksilver. I'll keep an eye peeled for those too. Are any of the three titles collected as trades?
Cei-U!
I summon the lengthening list!
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Post by DE Sinclair on Mar 18, 2015 11:36:28 GMT -5
Thanks for the tip on Quicksilver. I'll keep an eye peeled for those too. Are any of the three titles collected as trades? Cei-U! I summon the lengthening list! Looks like there are at least 3 volumes of the original Thunderbolts according to Amazon, covering out to issue #22 plus some addition issues (annuals, cross-overs, etc). |
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Post by fanboystranger on Mar 18, 2015 11:38:54 GMT -5
Thanks for the tip on Quicksilver. I'll keep an eye peeled for those too. Are any of the three titles collected as trades? Cei-U! I summon the lengthening list! The first 20 or so issues of Busiek's Thunderbolts are collected as Thunderbolts Classic vol. 1-3. (I think there are plans to release vol 4 later this year.) The entire Quicksilver series is being collected soon with the H4H crossover issues and split annual in an Epic Collection. Outside of those Quicksilver issues, H4H has not been collected. |
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Post by Dizzy D on Mar 18, 2015 12:11:41 GMT -5
Personally, I think Thunderbolts is by far the better work. Ostrander's Heroes for Hire is not bad, but compared to his other works it is below average.
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Post by spoon on Mar 28, 2015 11:27:03 GMT -5
What do folks think about the JSA title that launched in 1999?
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Post by fanboystranger on Mar 28, 2015 14:31:57 GMT -5
What do folks think about the JSA title that launched in 1999? Great until issue 51 (when Geoff Johns was co-writing with David Goyer, plus James Robinson for the first five issues), then tapers off. There's still some great stories afterwards like Black Reign, but it's more hit and mess after that. Honestly, this is when I thought Geoff Johns was the heir to John Ostrander as far as quality writing, but it didn't turn out like that. Definitely recommend JSA 1-51, "Black Reign", and the "Our Worlds at War" Special. |
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Post by Pharozonk on Mar 28, 2015 14:54:43 GMT -5
Thoughts on Camelot 3000? I'm a sucker for anything with Bolland art, but does the story hold up too?  |
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Post by fanboystranger on Mar 28, 2015 15:25:51 GMT -5
Thoughts on Camelot 3000? I'm a sucker for anything with Bolland art, but does the story hold up too? I think we have a thread about it somewhere, but my thoughts are that the Bolland art is spectacular but the story reads very melodramatic and dated. It's an important series in the evolution of comic, but unlike most of the seminal work from that period, it really feels trapped between writing styles. I like Mike Barr's work in general, but here it feels like he could have toned down the melodrama and let the art do more of the heavy lifting as far as the story, especially considering the artist in question is Brian Bolland.
It is worth a read, though. I think you'll be impressed on one read, but the flaws become more apparent on re-reads. If you can get it from a library or for cheap, go for it. Otherwise, it depends on your love for Bolland.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Mar 28, 2015 17:32:01 GMT -5
What do folks think about the JSA title that launched in 1999? Great until issue 51 (when Geoff Johns was co-writing with David Goyer, plus James Robinson for the first five issues), then tapers off. There's still some great stories afterwards like Black Reign, but it's more hit and mess after that. Honestly, this is when I thought Geoff Johns was the heir to John Ostrander as far as quality writing, but it didn't turn out like that. Definitely recommend JSA 1-51, "Black Reign", and the "Our Worlds at War" Special. Counterpoint: It was really, really, really bad. I think I've read... eh, about 75% of all the JSA/All Star Squad/Squadron stories published, and my "Ten Worst" list would all be from this series. Trite characterization, predictable plotting, the same boring structure with a "surprise shock ending" at the end of every issue... plus the tone is just boring. The writers just didn't seem to be able to do anything but "standard superhero" very little humor, the secret identity stuff was treated with the exact same narrative tone and pace as the superhero stuff. The creative team could only do one thing - Traditional superhero stories splattered with slasher movie violence. I just loathe the whole thing. Addendum A: A lot of people really liked it. Addendum B: I actually thought it got better as it went - There was a cool Gentelman Ghost arc towards the end of the series, then it relaunched from # 1 and picked up immensely. Addendum C: Their was a standalone JLA/JSA graphic novel in the middle of the series, which I thought was great fun. Get that. Addendum D: Also the Hawkman series that spun out of it was pretty great, at least for the first dozen issues. While JSA was overly serious, predictable, and so rooted in the past that it was vigorously anti-creative , Hawkman had six armed elephant men rampaging across the country! Yay Comics! Edit: Addendum E: I did like the Star Spangled Kid - It seemed like she was beamed over from another, competently written, mainstream comic, and the stories picked up immeasurably whenever she was featured. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 28, 2015 21:04:04 GMT -5
I think the JSA series I liked with the James Robinson one... before Johns. I only read the 1st bit of Johns' series, and wasn't impressed, but I like him only slightly more than I like Hickman, so I'm biased.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2015 21:40:54 GMT -5
I think the JSA series I liked with the James Robinson one... before Johns. I only read the 1st bit of Johns' series, and wasn't impressed, but I like him only slightly more than I like Hickman, so I'm biased. JSA 1-5 were co-written by James Robinson and David Goyer, from #6-25 it was co-written by David Goyer and Geoff Johns, and with #26 it became Johns writing solo (though Goyer comes back as co-writer for a bit and leaves again with 51-the cutoff Fanboy Stranger mentioned), so it's the same series. Johns continues to write it up until 81 when Paul Evitz taes over for the last 6 issues (I think Johns was writing an event). The 2007 follow up series Justice Society of America was also written by Johns (with Alex Ross and Jerry Ordway as co-writers at various parts) for the first 25 issues then Ordway, James Robinson, Matthew Sturges, Bill Willingham and Marc Guggenheim all have short to middling runs. I quite liked the first 40 or so issues of the 2003 series, but I stopped reading during one of my hiatus from comics and have never gone back to read what I missed, so I can't comment on the drop off others have mentioned. -M |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 28, 2015 22:17:32 GMT -5
Yeah, I think that's right.. I remember Goyer taking over.. I thought Robinson wrote more than 5 issues, though.
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