What comics I'm reading.

Television, Movies Games and Books Comics
#41

Picked up Spawn Origins Collection Book 1, big ass hardbound book. Stumbled upon it in Borders, yeah there is one still left near me. Nice presentation, it made me kinda nostalgic so I bought it. Wow, I had forgotten it has almost been 20 years since Spawn originally was released.

It was fun revisiting that Title, don’t know if I would purchase anymore of them though. Thinking of getting some Deadpool trades, I needa little more humor in my life right now. The books (real ones) I have been reading are a little dark, urban fantasy can get that way…

#42

You got it, though Warren Ellis wrote it. And yeah, Spider Jerusalem is not a happy man, but is a highly principled one. IMO, it gets better as it goes, eventually becoming some pretty smart political satire.

#43

Right. My local comic book shopkeep handed me a stack of Alan Moore issue #1 freebies to see what I wanted to start reading. In amongst the Alan Moores was Transmetropolitan, thus the confusion. I could see it turning into something, but I could also see it becoming really repetitive and hateful without meaning, so I didn’t persue it. Might revisit it at some point, once I finish up with all the series’ I’m currently in.

Deadpool can be a fun read. Don’t forget Spiderman as well. He’s always a snarky fun time. Marvel Runaways is also pretty enjoyable, if you can stand how teenage angsty it is at times.

Marvel Universe versus The Punisher is a good pick for a miniseries as well. All the Marvel heroes have turned into cannibal zombies and The Punisher is left to kill them all. Deadpool is featured heavily and is crazy as ever.

#44

Deadpool is a real blast, puts a smile on my face every week. Im no expert, but ive been reading his post dark reign stuff and they’re hilarious in places (his fight with Hawkeye being a highlight)

Edit: Gah, its Bullseye not Hawkeye. I can never get those two straight in my head, had the same problem watching Thor…

#45

x-men: Age of apocolypse volume 3 (chunky trade paperback)

Preacher : volume 2

That’s ab out all comic book wise, I’m also reading some random sci fi stuff on my ebook I got off the gutenburg project, don’t recall totle though, mostly shorts fomr the 50s.
Phaze
on the “type tapping noises coming of the skype line, the sweet sounds of someone commmenting on bsg season one finalé” ID

#46

Holy hell, im going on holidays for a week and i bought two graphic novels to read. Freakangels volume 1 and… Preacher Volume 2. Freaky world.

#47

Preacher is such an awesome book. I’m on vol. 5 and I can’t wait to dig into it.

LCS gave me a deal on HC books so I bought Spiderman: Kraven’s First Hunt and Xmen: Sins of the Father. Kraven’s First hunt is a really fun read. Typical Spidey humour, with some great action. It goes to some dark places to contrast the light heartedness of Spidey’s humour. The Daredevil element was a riot as well.

Haven’t finished Sins of the Father but after leafing through a few pages I can say that the art looks amazing. Can’t wait to dive into this one.

#48

I finished Preacher volume 2, and damn it just gets better and better. Loved all the insight into Jessies messed up past, and I particularly loved his little rants against psychology.

I had read most of Freakangels volume 1 on the site before, and even though im not sure ill get another of the trades with so many other awesome things on my to buy list, it was great reading it again.

Read issue 50 of Bendis’s Captain America, and even for someone ignorant of most of Cap, it was awesome. Gorgeous art and a neat little story of Bucky looking back on previous birthdays. Good enough to convince me to shell out for the first omnibus when I have the money, can’t wait to jump into it.

#49

Captain America is something I’ve been meaning to get into. The Bendis run is on my list for sure. I’m addicted to Bendis in general I think.

This week I’ve read vol. 6 of Bomb Queen. If you’re not familiar with it, Bomb Queen is an Image book about the world’s greatest anti hero. It’s an explicit title, so brace yourself before reading it, but if you can stomach the content, it’s worth it. In vol. 6 she takes on Barack Obama, the President of the free world, as he tries to shut down New Port City, and Bomb Queens reign of terror.

I also had my order of Runaways vol. 7 arrive this week so I went through vol. 7 through 10 as well. If you haven’t started reading Marvel Runaways check it out. Very fun read, a little teen agnsty, but fun. I’ve been preachin’ the Runaways word on here quite a bit I think, probably too much.

Also on the list this week was A Shepards Tale. Book 3 of the Serenity books. If you’re a Firefly fan, you owe it to yourself to grab the 3 Serenity Books. Too me, Shepard Book was the second most curious character, next to River Tam. This book, just like the Serenity movie did for River, asks a new question of the character for every answer it gives. A great, quick, read and I highly recommend anything Whedon has written when it comes to comic books. Angel and Buffy were both good reads, as well as his Xmen run which I thoroughly enjoyed.

#50

Nice, huge Firefly fan and I read one of the Serenity books, been meaning to get the rest. It really captured the feel of the show well, the first Angel book I read did the same. Glad to hear the rest of his work is good, the omnibus of his X work tempts me on a regular basis.

I’ve got through most of my holiday reading, aside from an issue of Uncanny X men. Ill probably order the first Cap omnibus when I get home, and perhaps if I can afford it, the first issue of this. Seems pretty cool and i’ve heard good things about it.

#51

There’s a new Moon Knight run that’s on issue #2. First issue was great, and I’m sitting down to the second tonight. I’ve heard there’s some really cool plans for it so I’m going to make it a regular read, at least to see how the first 6 play out.

#52

Just read the first issue of Underground. If you haven’t read it already, I highly reccomend it, wonderfully illustrated (love the surprisingly varied cave scenes in particular) with great characters and already a few nailbiting moments. Its available to read for free http://www.undergroundthecomic.com/download-it-free/ here. I plan to buy the trade to read the rest soon; partially to support this awesome release and perhaps mainly because I hate reading things on a computer screen xD

Also reading the start of Deadpools ‘Want you to want me’ arc (the one where he tries to join the X Men).

#53

This week’s buys :

Kick-Ass TPB. Excited for this one. Never looked at the books, but I could tell from the movie that this is going to be an awesome read. Glancing through at the art had me excited to get into it.

Locke & Key vol 3 TPB. I already read it last night before going to bed (it caused nightmares, I don’t recommend this as a bedtime book). I had already read the free comic book day release, so there was a chunk in here that I’d seen, but it didn’t dimish the story as a whole at all. One of my favorite series’ ever.

The Nightly News TPB. Finished the first book of the trade. It has a V for Vendetta vibe to it, but it presents itself in a completely different way. Can’t wait to continue with this story. The artwork is awesome, and the layout impresses you in a different way with every page turn.

Marvel Universe vs Wolverine #1. This is a great series. The story is fairly basic; world wide infection turns everyone into crazed cannibals, including superheroes and villians. No one is safe from becoming infected and now Wolverine is left to fight them all off. It’s a fun “what if” tangent, and I recommend Marvel Universe vs The Punisher as well.

Who are the Mystery Men #1 and #2. Heard a couple good things about this 5 issue story being released. It’s a total throwback to the noir genre and heroes. The protagonist is a coat and fedora wearing private eye type who has to go against the law to find out the truth. There’s also a healthy injection of magic amulets and jetpacks to round out this classicly styled story set in the 1930s.

Zombie Christmas Carol #1 and #2. It’s the classic Dickens story retold with the inclusion of zombies. I’m a sucker for these types of books. They rarely knock it out of the park, but are always fun to read. I like taking a classic story everyone’s seen a thousand times, and turning upside down with something crazy like zombies, or aliens. Only read a couple pages, but the artwork is great and it looks like it’s going to be a fun read. This is also a 5 issue run, currently at issue #2.

#54

I finally got my Cap omnibus from Amazon (first 25 issues of the Brubaker run) and its pretty awesome so far, loving the pulpy action and intrigue.

I started the second volume of Thor The Mighty Avenger (which I finally got after praising the first relentlessly to anyone who’d listen). Im reading slow just to delay the end of this awesome series, so bummed there is only 8 issues. The art has gotten even more great, a few of the panels (Heimdall and the Rainbow bridge/Thor on his goat carridge) I kept flipping back to stare at. The story is keeping to the forumla of ‘Thor meets a character from the Marvel U and learns something’ but it works great, and they already seemed to be setting up threads that will tragically never get resolved.

I also started reading the Batman is a Caveman issue, which seems weird as hell so far and I haven’t figured out if I like it yet.

#55

What would you recommend for beginner Thor readers. I’m pretty well aquainted with the Marvel Universe, but I’ve never been into Thor. Are there some particular series that are easier reads, and lighten up a bit on the faux Shakespear stuff? The dialogue was always a stumbling block for me. All the names seemed to blur together, and the words had wierd consonant combinations. Haven’t tried reading Thor in a few years, so I’m sure it’s a bit easier to comprehend for me now.

#56

Afraid I havent read much Thor, besides this and a bit of the newer stuff by the B5 guy (not even going to try and spell that name since I will butcher it). Although I have heard great stuff about the new Mighty Thor run which is around its 3rd issue (planning on getting the trade when it comes out in December).

But at the risk of sounding like a broken record THOR THE MIGHTY AVENGER! : )
Although mostly out of continuity (I think) its a great intro to Thor and some of his core cast. They go very very easy on the Elizabethan lite dialouge stuff, the humour never lets up and the action is always thrilling. It made me really like Thor anyway, enough to make me want to read more of him which is what you want I think.

#57

I read a few of the Straczynski trades to reacquaint myself with Thor after watching the movie, I had heard good things about his handling of the character. And I really enjoyed it. I had not really followed Thor since the classic Beta Ray Bill arc written by Walt Simonson (showing my age here).

Just read three Deadpool trades, the Daniel Way ones; the writing was great and the art was good except for one story (the pirate one) where it was awful.

Stumbled across some DC animated shorts on Netflix, they were pretty good. There were four of them bundled together, each was about 15 minutes and there were even some heavy duty actors doing the voices (like Linda Hamilton for instance). It was called The Return of Black Adam, it also included a Green Arrow, The Spectre and a Jonah Hex story (probably better than the movie :D).

#58

Went all in this week. Busted out all my remaining comics, which is only about 150, and resorted them. They’re all alphabetized and I gotta go get some boards before I box them up. I catalogued them using the collectorz.com databasing program. Super handy program. I still have to enter all my trades, but after doing all this sorting I put together a list so I can fill in the gaps left from either lending stuff out, giving stuff away, or losing stuff while moving. Spent about $200 this weekend, which is way too much to spend on picture books.

One of my favorite picks from the last couple weeks has beenThe Mighty Avengers: Venom Bomb, By Brian Michael Bendis. This book is pure comics fun. It’s not a thinker of a book, it’s not going to change your world, but damn if it isn’t the most fun book I’ve read in a while. The Mighty Avengers, are faced with a biological attack originating from Latveria. They have to take the fight straight to Doctor Doom himself, but he’s not going down easy.

Spoilers

What makes this book so fun is it ratchets everything up to 11. The biological attack isn’t just your standard plague, it’s a viral symbiote outbreak. The Avengers have to fight off hordes of Venom like creatures, but since they’re all civilians, they have to fight back without killing. Civilian aren’t the only ones who fall victim to the attack, in one panel you get to see a Wolverine, symbiote hybrid, who hasn’t wanted to see that? There are splash pages galore, and when the team takes it to Latveria, you get 3 consecutive double splash pages of DOOM BOT ANNIHILATION! as The Mighty Avengers wreak wholesale destruction on their foes. When I finished reading, I couldn’t believe there had been so much action, for such a short book, especially considering how much story and dialogue go with it.

A large part of the story involves time travel as well, but they wrap up the loose ends nicely with some tricky use of the existing continuity. It’s not flawless, and time travel stories never are, but it does work out nicely and makes for a couple good jokes. To accent the time travel, the artists actually completely changed their style depending on the era. When Doom travels back hundreds of years to conduct affairs (business and other) with a sexy witch the art takes on a painted style, which would be how pictures of that era were rendered. When they get stuck in the 60s, the art takes on a silver age style, with simplified artwork and that dot matrix style of printing. There’s also a hero/villian teamup which just smacks of silver age comics.

/spoilers

Overall, this book is full of action, has some great story and dialogue, the art is fun and engaging, and there’s some great laughs to keep the mood light. This book has everything great about the superhero comic tradition, and amps it up to maximise the experience.

#59

I managed a rare visit to my LCBS (hope to make it out there more often) and picked up the first issue of Captain America Corps, the 4th issue of Moon Knight (They didn’t have any back issues to i’ll catch up by cough cough illegitamate means), both of which i’ve been wanting to read. On the impulse buy front, I picked up the first 3 issues of Spidergirl and some Marvel Holiday Special One Shot.

I’ve also been reading Hawkeye and Mockingbird. Haven’t got that far, but what i’ve read so far has been a joy; great art, witty dialouge, kick ass action and Hawkeye is plain loveable.

#60

I think you’ll really enjoy the Moon Knight. It’s pretty dark but I’m really enjoying the take on Moon Knight as the Avengers. I haven’t read, but apparently the new Daredevil is decent. The last 3 writers, Brubaker, Smith, and who was the other? had a really dark, suicidal take on Matt Murdoch, but this time around it’s a bit more light which is a welcome change for the character I think. I’m interested and might check it out.