What comics are you reading?
- Thread starter Vesvius
- Start date
Most of my domestic comic book reading is done in the library after work. trade stuff, not all of it is remotely up to date, but hey, I got something to read from time to time when I'm not being a slackass. Some of it is good stuff -- really liked the Birds of Prey stuff. Then nu52 happened and it got weird. But still, there's some really good stuff out there.
And then, there's stuff that just makes the suspension bridge of my disbelief snap in twain.
Batman Eternal Volume 1.
There are so many issues I have with the story... silly, convoluted, nonsensical, idiot plot device. It's like regular people with mutants in the Marvelverse. What happens to Gordon, how trusting Batman is of Gordon's replacement even when he crosses some lines right in front of him when the man doesn't even trust his own closest allies, the simplistic story that suddenly turned into an ugly, convoluted mess of plot twists and gambits that require certain things to happen at just the right time or else everything is going tits up. And of course, idiot ball, idiot plot, it's hard to tell which one is in play because a lot of people lost IQ points. The moment Gordon told Batman that he saw the guy with a gun when there wasn't one should have lead him straight to Jervis Tetch -- that was my first thought upon the story. Instead he does a blood test, finds no drugs in Gordan's system and is stumped on how could Gordan have been misled. Tetch doesn't come up until months later, and it was more or less by accident they figured out that Gordon had been on the end of an mental implant trick.
And the writers think they're so clever when they do stuff like this. "Oh, Batman got outsmarted by criminal XYZ." Not when you make him too dumb to see the obvious connections, then go stuffing a lot of noise and flash into your story like you're performing literary magic illusions to hide the real mastermind. Who was pretty damn obvious from the moment he started taking a more central role to the story.
Sigh... why writers, why?
Also X-Men: Battle of the Atom trade.
Take most of my comments from Batman Eternal, and add in a disgusting amount of negative talk about the prevalence of mutants time travel and a fervent agreement with Maria Hill wanting to shoot Hank in the face, which doesn't happen very often. Simple story turns into a colossal thirty car pileup that didn't have to be, which was actually worse because the characters actively went looking to clutter up the story for... a really stupid change of allegiance because "Oh no! Everyone in this school is a bunch of assholes that don't trust the past X-Men and want to send them back to their proper timeline (nevermind that one of then did kinda die and caused the current version to briefly not exist anymore)! Let me go join the guy that tried to end the world, killed Professor X in the process, and is allied with the heel-face revolving door!" Does "taking a third option" not ever come to mind? And the ending before the final pages... setting back everything 20-30 years again, nevermind we have future people purposely sabotaging stuff here.
Sigh.... why, Bendis, why?
And then, there's stuff that just makes the suspension bridge of my disbelief snap in twain.
Batman Eternal Volume 1.
There are so many issues I have with the story... silly, convoluted, nonsensical, idiot plot device. It's like regular people with mutants in the Marvelverse. What happens to Gordon, how trusting Batman is of Gordon's replacement even when he crosses some lines right in front of him when the man doesn't even trust his own closest allies, the simplistic story that suddenly turned into an ugly, convoluted mess of plot twists and gambits that require certain things to happen at just the right time or else everything is going tits up. And of course, idiot ball, idiot plot, it's hard to tell which one is in play because a lot of people lost IQ points. The moment Gordon told Batman that he saw the guy with a gun when there wasn't one should have lead him straight to Jervis Tetch -- that was my first thought upon the story. Instead he does a blood test, finds no drugs in Gordan's system and is stumped on how could Gordan have been misled. Tetch doesn't come up until months later, and it was more or less by accident they figured out that Gordon had been on the end of an mental implant trick.
And the writers think they're so clever when they do stuff like this. "Oh, Batman got outsmarted by criminal XYZ." Not when you make him too dumb to see the obvious connections, then go stuffing a lot of noise and flash into your story like you're performing literary magic illusions to hide the real mastermind. Who was pretty damn obvious from the moment he started taking a more central role to the story.
Sigh... why writers, why?
Also X-Men: Battle of the Atom trade.
Take most of my comments from Batman Eternal, and add in a disgusting amount of negative talk about the prevalence of mutants time travel and a fervent agreement with Maria Hill wanting to shoot Hank in the face, which doesn't happen very often. Simple story turns into a colossal thirty car pileup that didn't have to be, which was actually worse because the characters actively went looking to clutter up the story for... a really stupid change of allegiance because "Oh no! Everyone in this school is a bunch of assholes that don't trust the past X-Men and want to send them back to their proper timeline (nevermind that one of then did kinda die and caused the current version to briefly not exist anymore)! Let me go join the guy that tried to end the world, killed Professor X in the process, and is allied with the heel-face revolving door!" Does "taking a third option" not ever come to mind? And the ending before the final pages... setting back everything 20-30 years again, nevermind we have future people purposely sabotaging stuff here.
Sigh.... why, Bendis, why?
Oh just wait till you get to:
ANXM 18-41: Literally the journey of one character with a couple of character beats.
Trial of Jean Grey: Rehash of something that is completely irrelevant but manages to get one character a great spinoff solo.
Black Vortex: Made to get one character out of the franchise to another because the writer liked her and wanted to continue writing her.
ANXM 18-41: Literally the journey of one character with a couple of character beats.
Trial of Jean Grey: Rehash of something that is completely irrelevant but manages to get one character a great spinoff solo.
Black Vortex: Made to get one character out of the franchise to another because the writer liked her and wanted to continue writing her.
Because he's Bendis, that's why. As much as people complain about him, it's hard to understand why he's still employed. I've never seen any Marvel writer catch as much shit as him and that's saying a lot.
I don't personally hate him, nor do I think he's a particularly good writer. He's kind of 'meh' to me. I do get why he drives some people up the walls though.
Having a hard time making myself sit down to actually catch up with DC. I want to, I know I do, but I just can't motivate myself to go through more than two or three books before I stop and find something else to do.
Marvel I could read through a week or two worth of books in one go.
It's not that I like the writing any more, or that the art is any better. Both vary with either company from book to book. I think it's just that the books are too focused on certain franchises. One in particular stands out, and I'm sure I don't even have to name it for everyone to know exactly which one it is.
There is a certain amount of that in Marvel, but damn DC, how many 'Bat' books can you publish in a month? I just get worn down with everything being set in the same places with the same characters.
At least with Marvel I can bounce around a bit. When I get sick of Avengers, I can go over to X-Men, Hulk, Spider-Man, Gardians, FF, Deadpool, or Dr. Strange to break things up. There is a lot of characters jumping around between books, *cough* Deadpool *cough*, but things are more spread out and varied I guess.
I can do that a bit with DC as well between Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, etc... but there seems to be fewer other places to go outside Gotham and Metropolis and they don't seem to be focused in only a few books.
For example, in Marvel Avengers might be dealing with one thing, but it will be covered by three or four different books, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Avengers. Then, something could be happening out in the cosmos, and I've got Nova, GotG, Silver Surfer, and say Rocket Raccoon dealing with that area. Then, at the same time, the X-books will be in a different place with a different vibe of their own.
DC has some great characters and settings to play with, but all they seem to care about is flooding me with Bat Books. I like Bat books, I really do, but it's harder to read through one after another, after another, after another. I just get worn out with it and the other stuff doesn't distract long enough to get me through being weary of the bat people and the bat villain tie ins.
Superman and cast are also covered exhaustively, but not to the same extent as the Bat stuff. Between the two I just get burned out I guess. I like reading them, and I'm not going to stop, I just can't burn through them the same way I can with Marvel books because they blur together and focus on the Gotham and Metropolis crews a bit too much. If they aren't in a book, they're appearing in everyone else's.
As I said, there is a bit of that in Marvel, but things are more...spread out I guess. It makes it easier to keep reading for longer because I'm not staying in the same setting with the same tone all the time.
It's going to take me longer than I thought to catch up with DC because of this. I'll read through four books or so and then stop rather than going through a week's worth at once like I did with Marvel.
Also, Harley is totally a hotter Deadpool now. There's really no other way to put it. She doesn't have a healing factor, but she's pretty much the same kind of crazy, pop culture referencing, fourth wall breaking, talks too much character who shows up in other people's books when sales dip, but with tits and a clown fetish.
I don't personally hate him, nor do I think he's a particularly good writer. He's kind of 'meh' to me. I do get why he drives some people up the walls though.
Having a hard time making myself sit down to actually catch up with DC. I want to, I know I do, but I just can't motivate myself to go through more than two or three books before I stop and find something else to do.
Marvel I could read through a week or two worth of books in one go.
It's not that I like the writing any more, or that the art is any better. Both vary with either company from book to book. I think it's just that the books are too focused on certain franchises. One in particular stands out, and I'm sure I don't even have to name it for everyone to know exactly which one it is.
There is a certain amount of that in Marvel, but damn DC, how many 'Bat' books can you publish in a month? I just get worn down with everything being set in the same places with the same characters.
At least with Marvel I can bounce around a bit. When I get sick of Avengers, I can go over to X-Men, Hulk, Spider-Man, Gardians, FF, Deadpool, or Dr. Strange to break things up. There is a lot of characters jumping around between books, *cough* Deadpool *cough*, but things are more spread out and varied I guess.
I can do that a bit with DC as well between Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, etc... but there seems to be fewer other places to go outside Gotham and Metropolis and they don't seem to be focused in only a few books.
For example, in Marvel Avengers might be dealing with one thing, but it will be covered by three or four different books, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Avengers. Then, something could be happening out in the cosmos, and I've got Nova, GotG, Silver Surfer, and say Rocket Raccoon dealing with that area. Then, at the same time, the X-books will be in a different place with a different vibe of their own.
DC has some great characters and settings to play with, but all they seem to care about is flooding me with Bat Books. I like Bat books, I really do, but it's harder to read through one after another, after another, after another. I just get worn out with it and the other stuff doesn't distract long enough to get me through being weary of the bat people and the bat villain tie ins.
Superman and cast are also covered exhaustively, but not to the same extent as the Bat stuff. Between the two I just get burned out I guess. I like reading them, and I'm not going to stop, I just can't burn through them the same way I can with Marvel books because they blur together and focus on the Gotham and Metropolis crews a bit too much. If they aren't in a book, they're appearing in everyone else's.
As I said, there is a bit of that in Marvel, but things are more...spread out I guess. It makes it easier to keep reading for longer because I'm not staying in the same setting with the same tone all the time.
It's going to take me longer than I thought to catch up with DC because of this. I'll read through four books or so and then stop rather than going through a week's worth at once like I did with Marvel.
Also, Harley is totally a hotter Deadpool now. There's really no other way to put it. She doesn't have a healing factor, but she's pretty much the same kind of crazy, pop culture referencing, fourth wall breaking, talks too much character who shows up in other people's books when sales dip, but with tits and a clown fetish.
I was more that a little pissed about the trades released post-Black Vortex. With Battle of the Atom, you had the entire event in one trade, with the trades for the various tie-in books skipping the relevant issues.
Black Vortex? You get issues that show the event, in order, but without the necessary information about what happened in the other books. Marvel got lazy.
Black Vortex? You get issues that show the event, in order, but without the necessary information about what happened in the other books. Marvel got lazy.
Basically this. Batman has faced all sorts of monsters and Gotham is a bad place to begin with supernaturally speaking. It's got Vampires, zombies, and all sorts of other 'bump in the night' crap running around, shady origins, and was a Tim Burton orgasm of gothic design before Tim even was a tingly feeling in his dad's balls. It's basically always been that way, outside of the 'goofy era' that all comics went through back in the 60s-70s. One of the first enemies he fought as a comic character was a vampire and he shot him with a silver bullet along with his latest victim to get rid of them both.
And, somehow, Hub City and Bludhaven manage to be even WORST places even though they are "normal" cities.
Oh, and Gotham City is sentient and wants to fuck Tim Drake. Usually through Stephanie Brown.
It might or might not be the culprit for rebooting the DC Universe as the New52 in a fit of jealousy when Cassandra Cain stole Tim's virginity
Oh, and Gotham City is sentient and wants to fuck Tim Drake. Usually through Stephanie Brown.
It might or might not be the culprit for rebooting the DC Universe as the New52 in a fit of jealousy when Cassandra Cain stole Tim's virginity
All right, according to Hank McCoy Cyclops is alive again, and he thinks the Inhumans are trying to take the earth from mutants. Medusa want's peace because if their people come into conflict one side will go extinct. Also, when interviewed by the press and asked why she was helping protect humans from alien invaders, Medusa pointed out that her people were born amongst humans and come from all over the world, thus it's only right they protect a world they share with others.
Well, the Inhumans have my vote.
Also....Karnak #1 makes the character more badass than I have seen in some time.
Well, the Inhumans have my vote.
Also....Karnak #1 makes the character more badass than I have seen in some time.
Wait, so Psychoclops is still alive? Not cool '60s Space Pirate Cyclops? Fuck a duck, that sucks. Cause that means that Storm might be leading a team under orders from a clearly delusional asshole, and that the Terragen Mists might not be sterilizing the mutant race. I can live with the latter be a fake out, but not the first one.
That's not accidental, it's come up in the X-books and he's openly admitted that he's abandoned those ideals. He became disillusioned with the original idea behind the X-men and basically turn into a lukewarm Magneto figure with his brotherhood of slightly illegal mutants hiding out in the ruins of Weapon-X, which qualifies as an evil lair. It's symbolism that has all the subtlety of a sledge hammer.
The point of what happened to him is that he basically broke from all the shit dumped on him over the years and forgot the point of the original X-men. Killing Xavier was just the last straw on the pile.
The point of what happened to him is that he basically broke from all the shit dumped on him over the years and forgot the point of the original X-men. Killing Xavier was just the last straw on the pile.