What comics I'm reading.

Television, Movies Games and Books Comics
#81

I’ve been reading my way through the Iron Man history, which has been really awesome so far, both in terms of picking up some of the old IP that’s been incorporated into newer Iron Man works as well as getting a feel for different phases in Marvel’s history. A question, though:

I see the 52 comics at the shop/online, and it makes me really tempted to jump into the DC universe. Such a big change seems like a great time to join. But I really have no idea where to start, and I just know absolutely dick-all about DC. Any thoughts/advice?

#82

The 52 “reboot” was sort of a gimmick title (duh!), a more appropriate word would be, “relaunch.” Of the 11 books I follow of the new 52, there has been 1 book which has done an origin story arch, and that’s Superman, and it’s basically the same story we’ve all seen a zillion times. Most of the titles, at least from my reading, are just restarts. Everything has a new story, and all the cross references are in parallel, for instance, Suicide Squad has Harley Quinn’s story line intertwined with The Joker’s from Detective Comics. You may have heard many fans curse DC because they’ve essentially erased all the history and started anew, destroying the decades of dedication to the history these fans have invested. This is not so at all, take for example Batgirl, which follows Barbara Gordon becoming Batgirl once again after a horrific shooting at the hands of the Joker, which took place in Batman: The Killing Joke, from 1988. There have been a few seeds planted about what the whole relaunch is about, but just think of it as a new starting point, rather than a reboot of all the characters.

Having said that, some books are more new reader friendly than others, but I feel all the books are easy enough to just jump into at #1 and go. I have next to no experience with the DCU, so I started with mostly big name heroes. Here’s my reading list.

Action Comics (relaunch)
Batgirl (relaunch)
Batman (relaunch)
Batman, The Dark Knight (relaunch)
Green Arrow (relaunch)
Green Lantern (relaunch)
The Huntress (6 issue mini “relaunch”)
Justice League (relaunch)
Justice League International (New)
Superman (“reboot”)
Teen Titans (“reboot”)
Suicide Squad (relaunch)

All the big name superhero books are basically relaunches. It’s assumed you’ll know enough about the characters to just jump into a new story and go, with little bits given here and there to fill in some back story. Green Lantern is probably the worst offender in this case, however, if you’ve seen the movie you’ll know enough about the Green Lantern’s world and characters to get up to speed. Superman seems to be the only book so far to have a retelling of the origin story, which I find strange because it’s almost completely the same, and his story is the most well known.

All this is just a really long winded way of saying, the best place to start with the new 52, is with whatever characters have you interested. The big name books aren’t true reboots, and having a bit of knowledge of their existing stories is helpful, but you’ll be surprised at how much you already know just through pop culture (do you really need a Batman origin story…again?). The lesser known titles are apparently some of the best, though I can’t vouche for them since I haven’t been reading any. I’ve been hearing great things about Animal Man, and Swamp Thing, for example, and plan to buy at least the first volume in trade so if you’re interested in some of the “non-superhero” books those two are probably the best place to start.

My favorites, of what I’m reading, are Action Comics, Justice League International, Teen Titans, and Suicide Squad. I really enjoy all the other books on my list, but those 4 stand out for me. Action Comics is action packed, and I’m thouroughly surprised that Grant Morrison is writing something that I like since my previous experience with his writing hasn’t agreed with me. Justice League International stood out on my list right from #1, it felt like the best “reboot” at launch time, with a great character introduction and tease to the coming story line. Teen Titans took a couple issues to get rolling, but like JLI, introduces the characters well and has a story line that’s kept me excited. Suicide Squad is just pure action. There’s not much given about each character, but it doesn’t matter because they’ll likely be dead by the end of the issue.

#83

I am currently reading The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 2. I enjoy seeing all these mismatch characters thrown together. And my Crom are they much better than that movie mess up was.

#84

The latest Star Trek: Ongoing : Operation Annihilate

#85

Scariest part of that book is the forest creatures.

Is there a volume three or something being released? I’ve heard talk of a volume three but there doesn’t seem to be any new releases at my store at least.

I never see this on the shelf because it’s always sold out. This is what has prevented me from impulsively buying all current issues. Can’t wait to get a TPB of this since I’ve only heard good stuff about it and it’s rare that Star Trek stuff doesn’t get dumped on in some way.

#86

I came into this knowing similiarly dick all bout DC as well, and i’m really enjoying the comics i’ve stuck with.

Wonder Woman: Full of deceitful gods and Diana curb stomping monsters, pure awesome.
Batwing: Probably my biggest surprise of the reboot, this follows an African Batman in the Democratic Republic Of Congo. First arc has been about someone attempting to kill all the members of an African superhero team, ‘The Kingdom’
Animal Man/Swamp Thing: These both read well on their own, but have tied in so far and are set to crossover directly next issue. They are probably tied for my favourite art of the reboot and have great horror/supernatural stories, Animal Man in particular has genuinely terrified me at points.
Demon Knights: The best way to describe this is that the first issue ends with robot dinosaurs bursting into a tavern. Its set during DC Medievil times and following a group of mystical warriors coming together.
Also following JL/Action Comics/Green Lantern in this reprint magazine they’re publishing here, so i’m a few issues behind.

Also, currently about 20 issues into Invincible (got the compendium for Christmas) and am loving it more and more.

#87

Just read Batman #5 and WOW! This was a heavy issue. The way the team chose to print this issue adds a new layer to how the story is perceived, unless I just got a really messed up printing. Those last couple pages hit hard as well. I can’t wait to see how #6 continues from here.

If you plan on reading this Batman ongoing in trade I suggest you grab an issue #5 an tuck it away into your collection because this is going to be a pain in the ass issue to read in a paperback or hardcover format.

I snagged the first trade. Great start. I love the fresh take on the superhero identity dilemma and some of my favorite stuff is when the father and son are flying together, the father disappears for two panels, then reappears with some quip like, “just had to save a school bus from going over a cliff, what were you saying?”

#88

As it goes along I’m starting to enjoy the New 52 more and more. By relaunching their entire catalogue DC has allowed themselves to bring a lot of charm back to the books, most notable to me are the cheezy one line sub texts added to the covers like, “terror of the Scarecrow!” on this week’s Dark Knight. David Finch did a 5 issue Batman: The Dark Knight mini leading into the relaunch and of those 5 covers, not a single one has a sub title or caption whereas the current Dark Knight run, up to issue 5 as part of the new 52, has had 3 of these titles. These cheezy little lines of text were nearly mandatory on comics before the modern age but mostly went away as the medium took itself more seriously.

Another really great thing about relaunching is the return of editor’s notes. After hundreds of issues in a series, it becomes nearly impossible to notate the happenings of all the heroes. Now that everything is back to the start, mostly back to the start, there are quite a few notes to help you along with cross referencing. Personally, I don’t have the money, or desire to read all 52 ongoing series’ to stay on top of things, but I can still look at an editor’s note, go online, and get an overview of what’s happened in the parallel story lines to fill in the blanks. Sometimes the notes just poke fun like in Teen Titans #5 there’s a note regarding Superboy’s involvement, “* See Superboy #5 for details-buy-them-all Bobbie!”

Reading the new 52, to me, is truly like being a kid again and reading comics for the first time. Everything is new and exciting. The question is, “what’s going to happen next?” not, “when the heck did that happen?”

#89

There’s a new employee at my LCS and so I’ve been picking her brain about what to read since I’ve gotten some good recommendations off everyone else at the store. Since I was buying a stack of new DC books she said I should round out my Justice League reading with the Wonder Woman books. They had all the issues in stock (counting their issue #1 reprints) so I grabbed the current 6. Now, I’m not the biggest mythology fan but I find DC has done better at crafting the Amazonian mythos into their expanded universe. This is in contrast to Marvel’s work with Thor being integrated into the Marvel, or even just Avengers universe, which I find pretty half assed and really out of place. Based on this I went ahead and dove into Wonder Woman.

Damn! Of all the New 52 books I’ve been reading, this is one of the most brutal. It’s really as close to the Spartacus TV show as DC would care to venture. It’s all about which God impregnated which Godess, and who has to be brutally slain in order to cover up everyone’s secret liasons. At one point there was a multi-panel page showing a horse being decapitated, revealing it’s true identity as a centaur when the human part emerged from the gaping neck wound. This book is absolutely awesome and it’s a take on Wonder Woman that I’ve never even imagined. There’s tonnes of action and drama that draws you into its story and there’s all the sex and violence you’d expect when Gods begin to meddle in the affairs of their human underlings. Highly recommend grabbing a couple issues and giving it a shot.

#90

Got around to Batgirl #6 at lunch today. Great first arc and it ends with a tease for a revisit to the Killing Joke story, which is the basis for the new Batgirl relaunch. Can’t wait.

#91

Apparently I’m in an emotionally fragile state because Justice League #6 almost made me cry. Great issue.

#92

I stayed up late last night and read, in one sitting, Green River Killer: A True Detective Story. Jeff Jensen, the author, is an entertainment writer for such magazines as Entertainment Weekly, but he’s also the son of Tom Jensen, a lead detective of the Green River Task Force. Tom Jensen spent almost 20 years tracking the Green River Killer, and the book chronicles the events that lead to his final capture and subsequent sentencing. It’s an awful, but compelling story that utilizes the real transcripts, word for word in most cases, to paint the picture of both how disturbed Gary Ridgeway is, and how dedicated Tom Jensen is. Dispite the disturbing subject matter I highly recommend it as a valuable insight into both sides of this harrowing part of history.

#93

The best things I’m reading right now include Scalped, Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Academy, and Wolverine and the X-Men. And Walking Dead, but that is in hardcovers that come out once a year.

#94

I found some CBRs of American Flagg (look it up, kids.) Good stuff, at least for the first year.

#95

Avengers Academy has a 2 parter with The Runaways. First one dropped this week and was fun. If you haven’t read the Runaways from earlier in the 2000s then definitely get that.

#96

Fell behind a couple weeks with my reading but I found a bit of time this week. Justice league #7 is awesome. They skip ahead a bit in time to when the Justice League is well established, #6 ended with the team having just wrapped up their coming together in a catastrophic event. The League has developed this arrogance about their standing in society and the governments now live in fear of being overthrown by the superheroes so just throw money at them to keep them happy. It plays very close to how Garth Ennis portrays superheroes in his series, The Boys. There is a bit of irony in this because, as I understand it, The Boys was originally going to be published under Vertigo, which is DC’s adult content name, but they were unhappy with how Ennis portrayed his obvious Justice League stand in as self centered deviants. Now DC is doing a very similar take with their flagship title. I can’t wait to see where they’re going with this.

#97

I got Volume 2 of the Batman No Man’s Land collection and War of the Green Lanterns this week.

In a few places, it was a bit tough to keep track of the territories/loyalties in No Man’s Land, but it’s still interesting. I think the third part of this re-release comes out in August. From what I understand, the original TPBs missed a few of the comics that were part of the overall story that are included in this.

War of the Green Lanterns was pretty cool, even though

[spoiler]they had John Stewart kill Mogo. Don’t get why they expelled Hal but not him.[/spoiler]

#98

Planetary, by Warren Ellis, took over my life a couple of weeks ago. I plan to do a more in depth write up at some point but suffice to say I think it should be at the top of everyone’s list of comics to read.

I finally got around to reading Action #7. #6 went a little weird and lost me a bit, and #7 isn’t at all my cup of tea. I think this is the point where Morrison lost me. Normally this happens a lot sooner with Morrison books. I try out a couple more issues to see what he’s building but I may be dropping it from my pull list.

Avengers Vs Xmen is quite fun so far. Round 2 starts with a “Magnetic fastball special,” with Magneto tossing Colossus through a SHIELD helicarrier. The action ramps up from there.

#99

I just finished reading Batman #4 from the new 52. I’m a bit behinde with this series. I’m also reading Nightwing from the new 52. Also been reading Locke & Key vol. 1

Sent from my MZ604 using Tapatalk 2

#100

Batman gets amazing, and I haven’t read Nightwing but apparently it’s also one of the best books from the new lineup. Locke and Key is one of the best comics ever and should be on everyone’s reading list.