Just finished the second issue, it was unreal. Had a bit of trouble figuring out the multiple personalities thing, but it is an awesome idea. Can’t wait to read the rest.
Yeah, if you read 1 and 2 back to back it’s easier to pick up on. I went back and reread issue 1 because I had forgot exactly what happened. The only indication is the change in the last 2 panels, and then the recap paragraph in #2 says he has the split personalities. I was like, wait, when did that happen?
Wait till you see him go into fights as the Avengers. It’s awesome!
Haven’t come back to this thread in a while. Outside the new 52 stuff I’ve been into, there’s a couple other notable series’ I’ve read. I’ve tracked down all 5 issues of Comic Book Comics by Evil Twin. It’s a series that chronicles the history of comics. It’s been in production since 2008 and issue six, the last in the series, is due some time around the end of this year. The first issue deals with the inception and rise of the comic book industry during the depression, and I’m half way through the second book, which details the golden age of comics. In the second issue the author details how comics were used during WW2 for instructional purposes. It was shown that soldiers absorbed more information if they read about how to clean and maintain their rifles in a comic book, rather than a standard field manual. I find this quite interesting since these comics are very dense, and it’s much easier to get through the history of comics and absorb the information in this format, rather than reading a text book on the subject. I highly recommend tracking down this series and giving it a read. There’s lots of mind blowing information about comics that you’ve probably never known and is revealed in these books.
I’ve been really enjoying the new run of Moon Knight, and happened to see the first 3 trades of the last series on sale at a local shop. I’m really into this character now. This series is so intense. The current run by Bendis has Marc Spector’s (Moon Knight’s alte ego) psycosis manifest itself as Moon Knight’s Avenger allies. In this previous series, it’s a manifestation of Konshu and takes the appearance of Moon Knight’s now dead and defaced (literally! Moon Knight cut his face off) Nemesis. The story follows how Moon Knight has to deal with the hero registration act. The real story, as always, is how the character strugles with his inner demons. He’s split personalities, his hallucinations, his past mistakes. This is one of the darkest, bloodiest, and most intense Marvel books I’ve read. I’ve never read any Moon Knight until recently, and Now I want to go back to the beginning and read it all. I’ll probably at least go back and get the 2 volumes of Essentials Moon Knight, since collecting all the original books is probably way out of my price range.
Hi folks. I am picking up more regular books than ever before thanks to the New 52 
I was always a Marvel guy, mainly X Men but in the last few years the splintering got rediculous so I just gave up. DC came along with the whole reboot thing and it seemed the perfect place to dive in, especiallly as my knowledge of DCU is very shaky.
I am picking up :
DC
Justice League
Batman
Nightwing
Suicide Squad
DCU Presents
Image
Shinku
Justice League and Batman were no brainers really, they are the cornerstones of the DCU as far as I can tell. I like the first issues, and will definitely carry on. I like how they have gone ‘slow burner’ with Justice League, whilst at the same time throwing in quite a bit of exposition with regards what they are rebooting about peoples relationships.
Suicide Squad has come in for quite a lot of flack, but I have to say I liked it. Maybe it’s because I am coming at it as a new reader (Something I am going to start a blog on, will pulicise it here once it’s running ) and so don’t have the baggage, but it sems quite fresh and interesting to me. I will be completely honest, there were only two things that made me pick it up 1) I love anti-heroes (I am collecting Spawn from issue #1 for example) and 2) Harley Quinn 
Nightwing is a character I have always been interested in but again, know precious little about. The first issue was miles better than I expected, so I am really stoked about seeing where it goes. DCU Presents (Deadman) is an odd one, but I like odd it’s another slow burner, with the first issue being entirely exposition on the character of Deadman and what his ‘mission’ is, but that has never put me off, so again, I will carry on.
Shinku is a Ron Marz comic out of Image. The premise sounds tired (Ancient samurai vampires, and a vampire hunter doing her thing) but it’s got just enough of a different angle to be interesting. I highly recommend picking up the first issue (If you can find it,I think they are repirinting though) and seeing what you think, I think it could be great. It is suffering from Images main problem, which has always been irregularity, the inker has family or health issues and Ron won’t carry on without him, which is a nice thing to do so I don’t mind so much
Whoah I can talk…
Anyway, that’s where I am with current comics. I am also slowly building up a collection of Spawn (1 to 20 sorted, and I have about 20 from the late 100’s so plenty to go at )
speaking of Justice League being a ‘slow burner,’ they’re already late on their second issue.
I’ve been an Xmen fan for a long time, but haven’t been keeping up with the whole universe. As it is right now, there’s ten or so different Xmen books to keep up with and I just can’t afford to do that. I read a few series’ as they come out in trades, Astonishing Xmen, for example, but I’m very excited about Schism. I just got my copy of Xmen Regenesis today, and I’m going to keep going with the two new series’. If you’re not familiar with what’s happened, the Xmen have split into two parties. Cyclops is trying to keep the remaining mutants (all but 200 mutants were killed off in an event a little while ago) together on a defended island called Utopia. Wolverine has taken issue with Cyclops trying use the young mutants to fill the ranks of their squads and so has recruited whoever will come with him to restart the school which had been destroyed. Tere will be two ongoing series’ that start later this month, a renumbering of Uncanny Xmen, which will follow Cyclops in Utopia, and Wolverine and the Xmen, which will follow Wolverine and the kids as they rebuild the school and Charles Xavier’s original vision.
A Jim Lee comic is late? SAY IT AIN’T SO!
Just started reading Nextwave. Awesomely bad ass funny series, love the Nick Fury stand in “Dirk Anger”. Plus, it has its own officially endorsed theme song.
If you haven’t read them, get both “The Nightly News” and “Pax Romana” both by Jonathan Hickman. His art style is completely different than almost anything else in print. The Nightly News follows a team of assassins recruited because they have been wrongly accused, and then ruined, by journalists trying to get a good story rather than good information. They’re now part of the biggest news story in history, the systematic assassination of every news anchor on TV. The artwork is going to completely blow you away. I don’t have the vocabulary to explain his style, other than it’s heavily stylized and is as much art as it is part of the narrative.
Pax Romana is a similar in it’s artistic presentation, using Hickman’s trademark style, but it’s a complete one-eighty in content. The Vatican has invented a time machine and they plan to send an entire army with all the modern resources they’ll need to take control of Rome over two thousand years in the past, fight off all future invasions, and conquer the entire world in the name of Catholicism. This book is pretty heavy. Lots of information, lots of characters, and multiple timelines. It’s very text heavy, sometimes there’s entire pages with just scripts rather than pictures, but it’s very well written and you’ll get lost in the story and not even notice. The story might be a little heavy for some, but the art is so stuning that I think it’s worth a look.
Jst an update on my DC New 52 reading, my current list of books is:
Action Comics
Batgirl
Batman
Batman, The Dark Knight
Green Arrow
Green Lantern
The Huntress
Justice League
Justice League International
Superman
Teen Titans
I’m liking all the books I have. There’s more out of the 52 that I want to read, but I’ll wait for trades. I’m surprised at how much I like Action Comics, considering I don’t normally like Morrison’s writing. He’s definitely put a priority on “action,” and it’s one ofthe more excitin books I’ve got on the list. Green Lantern #3 really surprised me as well. That last couple of pages took me by surprise and I can’t wait or #4. The Huntress is awesome. It’s going to be a small run of 6 books, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt the wallet too much to get in monthly issues. Lots of action and the character is fighting against human traffickers so you really get behind her fight.
I read both the new Wolverine and the Xmen, and Uncanny Xmen. I think it’s pretty funny how these two books opened. Cyclops is on Utopia fighting Mr. Sinister and a giant Sinister powered sentinel, possibly facing total destruction. Meanwhile on the east coast Wolverine and Kitty Pride spend the entire first issue worrying about building permits and other legal mumbo jumbo. Really looks like Scott made the wrong choice, but there’s no way he wouldn’t be Scott.
Just finished the second volume of Gotham Central. Damn, I love this series so much, the arc involving the Mad Hatter was amazing. I kinda wish the New 52 had some kind of police procedural book set in the DC Universe now, with different arcs taking place in different cities and going in to both how the police deal with super villians and their relationships with their resident vigilanties (would love to see how Bats and Supes relate differently to cops).
If Bendis did Powers for the DCU it’d be nearly perfect, though I would love to get multiple perspectives as you say. The detectives of Batman would have a completely different job from the detectives in Metropolis.
About two months ago I ordered issue #3 of Comic Book Comics from Evil Twin Comics. It was the last issues I was looking for. Last week, I still hadn’t recieved the issue so I sent an email inquiring about the order’s status. The next day I received a paypal shipping notification and this week a priority package arrived with not only the issue I had ordered, but the new 6th and final issues in the series. I’m not sure what went wrong on their end, but it all worked out and I got a freebie for my patients. Can’t wait to get through these. I’ve read #1 and was very impressed with it. I recommend that it goes on everyone’s reading list.
In the past week or so, I bought and read 6 of the 7 Blackest Night TPBs
Just read Crossed from Garth Ennis. Definitely a book for the older readers. I’m not sure what it says about me as a human that I enjoyed reading this book but I did.
Anyone reading Daredevil? Issue 6 was great, and set up a really assuming sounding arc.
[SPOILER]Hydra, Aim and a chunk of the other major crime organisations in the Marvel universe are all gunning for Daredevil and the billion dollar info he has on their trade plans. Can’t wait to see where they go with this.[/SPOILER]
Skyrim has taken up the bulk of my free time so while I’ve kept up with puchasing (it’s a sickness!), I haven’t been keeping up with my reading. Of what I’ve read in the past couple of weeks I really dig the new TMNT run. There was a Raphael one shot this week that was really good as well. I recommend that anyone who likes the Turtles give these books a try.
Action Comics #4 also hit shelves this week. As I’ve sayed before, Morrison had me hesitant to read Action Comics, but he’s proved me wrong. There’s a Q&A with Morrison in one of the issues in which he states that Action Comics should have a mandate on Action, per the title. He’s certainly stuck to this mentality. The book moves quick and there’s tonnes of action, but Morrison has done a good job of weaving a story into it.
I have a bunch of books on order so either next week or the week after it’s going to be Christmas for me at the LCS. Going to have the last two volums of The Preacher come in. That’s going to be bitter sweet since I can’t wait to finish it up and find out how it all ends, but at the same time Preacher has been a highlight in my reading over the past year and it’s going to be all done soon.
Picked up the first 4 issues of Hickmans Ultimates today. Holy crap, I only got through the first two on the train, but its unreal, loving the whole aesthetic and political climate of the Ultimate Universe (despite understanding almost nothing about it).
I’ve been wanting to read some more in the Ultimates universe as well. It was fairly early in it’s run when I started reading comics, but now it’s just as in depth as any other Universe. You really can’t go wrong with anything written and/or drawn by Hickman. I highly recommend getting Pax Romana and The Nightly News. Both are highlights of the comic book format, and Hickman’s abilities as a writer and artist.
There’s a new run of The Defenders which started a couple weeks ago. The first issue is pretty nifty. I’m not a big fan Dr. Strange crossing over with other characters. On his own I enjoy the stories about magic and moving between dimensions to fight demons, but I always find it a little goofy when he crosses over with characters who are all science based, like Pym, Stark, or Banner. Still, I liked the new Defenders #1, which brings together Iron Fist, Namor, Silver Surfer, She Hulk (the red one if it makes a difference, I’m not up to speed on Hulk colours) and Dr. Strange.
Also got a kick out of Uncanny X-Men #3. The introduction story arc with Mr. Sinister has wrapped up with a bang, and the dynamic of human/muntant relations is getting tense. Meanwhile, Wolverine and the X-Men #3 has their introduction arc with the New (new, new, new) Hellfire Club wrap up with the school in pieces (already? of course!), but a new ally for the school. I like how the schism has split up these two factions, and I like the feel of both books opposite eachother. Uncanny has a very serious tone, while Wolverine is a little more hopeful, and much more lighthearted with a layer of slapstick humour. This is a good reflection of the ideals of both leaders, and why they split from eachother in the first place.
I had been hearing some good things about Suicide Squad, from DC, and noticed on Friday that my LCS had issues #1 through 5, so I grabbed them all. Love it. It’s a mile a minute, since they’ve already been through 3 missions and had multiple deaths and it’s only been 5 issues. I highly recommend it. It’s sexy (you know, if homocidal clown women are your thing), it’s full of action, and the pace has yet to let up.
What’s it all about? There’s jobs in the DC universe, dirty jobs. The type of jobs that needs to get done but no one is willing to do. That’s why you need, “The Suicide Squad,” a team of supevillians assembled from the ranks of the super-max prison population. Implanted with nano explosives so they have to do whatever is asked of them, the only way to earn their freedom is to survive. If the mission fails, it’s just another terrible tragedy perpetrated at the hands of an escaped villian, rather than the top secret government agency that pulls the strings of the convict puppets.
Volume 11 of Powers arrived this week so I set aside a bunch of reading time to blast through the last three books. Bendis is probably tied with Ennis as my favorite comic writers. Reading this book is like reading an episode of House MD. if House was a cop, his patients were dead superheroes, and he had to solve the case. Really, the only similarity it has to House MD is that it’s one of the best procedurals ever written, and it’s dark humor.
Moon Knight #9 also dropped this week. Moon Knight has fast moved up the list of my favorite characters, and I’m sure Bendis has something to do with it. What’s not to love about a vigilante who’s so clinically insane he’s fighting as an entire Avengers team, all by himself? Is the power of Khonshu even real, or is that another fabrication of Marc Spector’s damaged psyche?
Rounding out this week’s Bendis love is my purchase of Goldfish. I can’t wait to dig into this one. I have no clue what it’s about, other than it’s reviews are favourable so everything should be a surprise as I go along.