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Post by fanboystranger on Sept 23, 2015 10:42:06 GMT -5
One Wildstorm comic I rarely if ever see mentioned that deserve attention is Brubaker's 12 issue maxi series Authority Revolution. It is actually there I was definitively sold on him as this series features some ideas you usually only see within an Alan Moore comic. The art is so so, but the story has some amazing turns.One Wildstorm book I am myself eyeing at is Stormwatch Team Achilles. The book ended abruptly after its wrter was outed as a fraud regarding his military credits, but that doesn't mean the writing wasn't solid. And indeed I remember it being highly praised by the few people who read it. Any opinions here? My problem with Authority: Revolution is that the first few issues are nothing special. It certainly got better as it progressed, but those first few issues could have been written by anyone with a cursory knowledge of The Authority. A very lazy start to a series that was pretty good in the end. I was a big fan of Stormwatch: Team Achilles, or at least once Portacio left. It was a very solid book with some very interesting takes on superpowers-- for example, the low level telepath who can only read your mind after he asks you a question-- and it went to some very crazy places, like the idea of a perpetually reincarnating spirit of America. It was certainly more wild and interesting than The Authority by numbers series that ran at the same time. (Robbie Morrison as writer made sense as Nikolai Dante was huge at the time and very inventive, but Dwayne Turner was an attempt to plunge the series back into the early Image days from an art standpoint.) I don't think that DC was wrong to drop Wright when the truth came out about his lies, but I do think his eventual blacklisting robbed the industry of a serious talent. Whoever listed the Adam Warren run on Gen13 is spot-on, too. It's the only Gen13 anyone needs to read. I wish he had been the regular artist rather than Ed Benes, who seemed oblivious that Warren was mocking all the things present in his art. |
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Post by fanboystranger on Sept 23, 2015 10:46:26 GMT -5
Christos Gage's Stormwatch PHD did not live up to Ellis' Stormwatch, but had interesting new characters and some fun concept. This is the best of the post-Eye of the Storm titles. It's not a great series, but it's solid. This was when I lost interest in Wildstorm because after the brilliant Eye of the Storm initiative, which, naturally, no one bought, they were regressing the titles to a more standard superhero universe. Unfortunately, little of what was done had any of the spirit that made Wildstorm interesting after Ellis came on. It was mostly good creators who seemed completely uninspired by the new universal direction. |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Sept 23, 2015 21:18:20 GMT -5
This thread has taught me how much stuff there is I don't like. Kind of distressing... But, yeah, I've read most of Hellblazer and not much of it connected with me. I like the character, I liked the spin-offs with Lady Constantine and John Constantine's friend who is a cab driver. I liked Jason Aaron's two issue run. But I was kind of "eh" about the other 200 issues or so that I read. And I love, love, love Sandman. I'm confused. Were you paid to read those 200 issues you didn't like? And yes, Sandman. Eh, the Iowa Library has a lot of Hellblazer and, hey, it might have gotten better at some point. Just because the last 198 issues didn't do much for me doesn't mean the NEXT one I read won't be good. |
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Post by Trevor on Sept 23, 2015 21:22:07 GMT -5
I'm confused. Were you paid to read those 200 issues you didn't like? And yes, Sandman. Eh, the Iowa Library has a lot of Hellblazer and, hey, it might have gotten better at some point. Just because the last 198 issues didn't do much for me doesn't mean the NEXT one I read won't be good.  Spoken like a true fan/collector! I shouldn't talk; I own every issue of Swamp Thing even though I haven't read it since 1990 or so. |
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Post by dupersuper on Sept 25, 2015 16:03:50 GMT -5
I read Point Blank and Sleeper by Ed Brubaker earlier this year and am a bit intrigued by some of the Wildstorm stuff (I had only read Ellis' Stormwatch/Authority and Planetary before), so what all is worth checking out in that vein of storytelling from Wildstorm? I occasionally hear good things about certain runs of WildC.A.T.S. (Casey's stuff in particular) but have no interest in the early Jim Lee stuff, so is there some worth checking out? Other Wildstorm titles (i.e. the shared Wildstom sandbox stuff I guess-I've read stuff put out by Wildstom that doesn't feature their sandbox and liked them). -M Joe Casey and Ed Mguinness Mister Majestic was my favorite 'Superman' book since Miracle Monday. Just ridiculously good fun. I've never read it, but given Caseys run on Adventures of Superman I'm not surprised. |
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Post by fanboystranger on Sept 25, 2015 19:31:20 GMT -5
Joe Casey and Ed Mguinness Mister Majestic was my favorite 'Superman' book since Miracle Monday. Just ridiculously good fun. I've never read it, but given Caseys run on Adventures of Superman I'm not surprised. You should check it out. In some ways, it was things you couldn't really get away with in a regular Superman book, but in a fun way. For example, back in the day, Maxima would come around and want to mate with Superman, but it kinda ends there. In Casey's Mr Majectic, it would be pursued in a ridiculously funny manner with three sister Maximas who wouldn't take no for an answer. (Which as I wrote didn't sound as fun as it should so much as creepy, but trust me, it's a blast.) |
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Post by Dizzy D on Sept 26, 2015 2:20:02 GMT -5
And of course, the evil alien conqueror D'ked, who manipulation of the media kinda runs into a snag due to some cultural clashes. (And while saying it's fun, there are 2 issues which are downers.)
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Post by fanboystranger on Sept 26, 2015 9:45:45 GMT -5
And of course, the evil alien conqueror D'ked, who manipulation of the media kinda runs into a snag due to some cultural clashes. (And while saying it's fun, there are 2 issues which are downers.) I forgot about D'ked. Perhaps my favorite alien name of all time. Yeah, Casey's MM could be very poignant, too. It was just a great book. "Unrestrained Superman" is how I like to think about it. Not unrestrained in the sense that Superman would do whatever he felt like as a character-- Maj still had a pretty upright moral code-- but unrestrained in the sense that any story was fair game. That's probably why it only lasted for a year. |
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Post by Ozymandias on Oct 2, 2015 2:37:50 GMT -5
Are any of the Marvel Knight series (in particular the Spidey one) worth the pick up? is in my Top 100, so that's 12% of the character's overall "greatness". |
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pmpknface
Junior Member
Let the classic fun begin!
Posts: 38 
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Post by pmpknface on Oct 2, 2015 8:35:33 GMT -5
I'm confused. Were you paid to read those 200 issues you didn't like? And yes, Sandman. Eh, the Iowa Library has a lot of Hellblazer and, hey, it might have gotten better at some point. Just because the last 198 issues didn't do much for me doesn't mean the NEXT one I read won't be good. I enjoyed Sandman a lot. Eventually picked up the old HC's. I started reading Hellblazer when they started reprinting it from the beginning a few years ago and I'm through all 11 volumes which takes me through #130 (about). I'm enjoying it a lot, although it's not the best thing ever. It certainly takes me back to a 80-90's kind of storytelling, lots of inner dialogue. You get your $'s worth on those tpb's, 10+ issues that don't read quickly. |
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Post by berkley on Oct 12, 2015 1:32:54 GMT -5
JH Williams III's Batwoman:
What do our Classics people think of this series? I remember it received some pretty high praise when it was coming out but even though I liked the look of Williams's artwork I was put off by the title character, as I always am put off by any kind of Super-girl, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, etc knock-off version of an established figure. However, I can probably force myself to overlook that if I think the writing is anywhere near as good as the artwork. Is it?
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,874
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Post by shaxper on Oct 12, 2015 8:04:02 GMT -5
JH Williams III's Batwoman: What do our Classics people think of this series? I remember it received some pretty high praise when it was coming out but even though I liked the look of Williams's artwork I was put off by the title character, as I always am put off by any kind of Super-girl, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, etc knock-off version of an established figure. However, I can probably force myself to overlook that if I think the writing is anywhere near as good as the artwork. Is it? The story was very well written, but it took a "Lost" / "X-Files" approach, where the dramatic power of each issue hinged on questions being asked that would only get answered later down the road. I stopped reading around the time Rucka stopped writing the book, so I didn't get a lot of questions answered and, therefore, didn't get much closure on the series, but that artwork truly was to die for. The characterization was okay, the action strong, but so much being left unresolved makes it hard for me to really weigh in on the overall quality of the series. I'm not an art guy, generally, but Williams' work leaves me truly glad that I read the series, even without knowing how I feel about the series as a whole. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2015 8:29:56 GMT -5
JH Williams III's Batwoman: What do our Classics people think of this series? I remember it received some pretty high praise when it was coming out but even though I liked the look of Williams's artwork I was put off by the title character, as I always am put off by any kind of Super-girl, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, etc knock-off version of an established figure. However, I can probably force myself to overlook that if I think the writing is anywhere near as good as the artwork. Is it? The story was very well written, but it took a "Lost" / "X-Files" approach, where the dramatic power of each issue hinged on questions being asked that would only get answered later down the road. I stopped reading around the time Rucka stopped writing the book, so I didn't get a lot of questions answered and, therefore, didn't get much closure on the series, but that artwork truly was to die for. The characterization was okay, the action strong, but so much being left unresolved makes it hard for me to really weigh in on the overall quality of the series. I'm not an art guy, generally, but Williams' work leaves me truly glad that I read the series, even without knowing how I feel about the series as a whole. I concur with pretty much everything you said...the artwork was definity a major draw. Unfortunately Williams stops drawing and it goes downhill after that...too many plots going on also. It definity read better in a few sittings than it did monthly when I originally read it. Nowhere near as good as Rucka's run...unfortunately Rucka left on a cliffhanger that was not resolved by Williams in a manor that was underwelming. |
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Post by fanboystranger on Oct 12, 2015 17:38:33 GMT -5
JH Williams III's Batwoman: What do our Classics people think of this series? I remember it received some pretty high praise when it was coming out but even though I liked the look of Williams's artwork I was put off by the title character, as I always am put off by any kind of Super-girl, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, etc knock-off version of an established figure. However, I can probably force myself to overlook that if I think the writing is anywhere near as good as the artwork. Is it? Great when illustrated by Williams; slightly better than average when illustrated by someone else. One thing I do like about the series is that it establishes its own world with more of a supernatural edge for Batwoman, and Kane herself is very, very different from most derivative Bat-characters with her identity as a child of privilege who chose a military career. It's not "Batman-lite" like so many other Bat-family books aspire to, like-- cough, cough-- every issue of Nightwing ever. |
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Post by dupersuper on Oct 13, 2015 1:42:32 GMT -5
JH Williams III's Batwoman: What do our Classics people think of this series? I remember it received some pretty high praise when it was coming out but even though I liked the look of Williams's artwork I was put off by the title character, as I always am put off by any kind of Super-girl, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, etc knock-off version of an established figure. So this has caused you to miss out on Batwoman? Ms Marvel? PAD Supergirl? Byrne She-Hulk? Soule She-Hulk? That makes me so sad... |
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Spoken like a true fan/collector! I shouldn't talk; I own every issue of Swamp Thing even though I haven't read it since 1990 or so. 
