TPBs Bought/Thought Thread

[Elijya]

anyone get "the boys" trade yet? if you have the issues is it worth getting or is it pretty much the same?

It's got an intro by Simon Pegg and a few pages of sketches. I don't know if they "changed" anything.

[Arkady Rossovich]

I got the 52 volume 1 paperback today,ive been looking foreward to this for months.

[Anubis]

Bought: Y The last Man Volume 6 and Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall

Thought:

Nubis Rating system
S**t
Meh
Sweet!
Freakin' Sweet!
Bee P***y!

Y vol 6 - Another great volume. Truly one of the best series ever produced in comics. We get another look at how the women are dealing with the new problems created by the loss of all the Males of the world. Many have turned to drugs, and can you really blame them? As far as they know, that's it for the human race. They've lost their sons, their husbands, their fathers and brothers. What else is there to do but smoke your life away? Good stuff man. Good to see some she pirates, and an all chick navy, and just wtf Beth is up to in the outback. Love this book. Rating on the Nubis system: Freakin' Sweet

Fables 1001 nights - It has come to my attention that this is the book you should give to people to get them to read the series. I didn't bother and went straight to the main books, so I figured I should at least own it if i'm gonna collect the series. Good stuff. All kinds of great art, and insights into some of the characters origins. How Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs wasn't all s**ts and giggles like you'd find in the Disney cartoons. And the life of one of Fable towns most powerful spell casters, the witch from Hansel and Gretel, Beauty and the Beast, and tons of other stories. That poor frog guy Prince probably had it worst story of all. I thought he was sad before I knew what happened to his family. Jesus. Anyway, great book, and I definatly think it's perfect for getting people into Fables. So if you haven't started yet, get this. It's fantastic. Rating: Freakin' Sweet

[CaptainCanada]

I really have never agreed with the idea that 1001 Nights is a good introduction to the series. Certainly, you get a sense of the breadth of stories that can be told in the series, but, frankly, the actual stories are mostly just filling in backstory for established characters. Most don't have much in the way of plot, and a lot of them just stop after the relevant backstory has been explained. For a devoted fan, it's all extremely interesting, but for someone who had never read an issue of the series before I'm not sure it would have any impact. Take the Flycatcher reveal; it works so well because readers have known him as the goofy janitor; if you read 1001 Nights first, and then start the main series, this marvelously tragic character is treated for about eight trades as, well, a goofy janitor.

[Elijya]

Agreed with CC on this one, Anubis

[GNR]

Rising Stars Vol.1 Born In Fire & Rising Stars Vol.2 Power

Finally got around to picking these up after quite some time of store browsing.Very satisfied with this purchase and one of the better reads I've had with capes.

-First of all,the artist changes surprisingly didn't bother me at all,as different as the styles are (Cha,Immonen,Zanier,Anderson) the transitions weren't at all distracting,looking forward to more great Anderson work in Vol.3

-all the big events in the story happen for a reason,the action scenes had real depth and purpose and ALWAYS have serious repercussions and effect on the characters,Sanctuary's sacrifice was jaw dropping

-the popping up of characters throughout the story who were last seen as kids was great,loved the scene with Willie and John as kids,the closing "Selah" chapter with the telekinetic was pretty moving and relevant

-the funeral scene and the realization made there to "change" the world was well done,I was glad to see JMS take a chance by redirecting the story and really place these characters in a world without a Hydra,super-villains or cosmic threats
--therefore combating real world threats which humanity created on its own,Jason's redemption looks to be taking a tragic turn,but what a great path to redemption he's taken

-JMS doesn't define the powers,he defines the characters and that's one of the best things about this book,the stories about the overweight indestructible victim and the deceased dreamwalker were perfect stand alone stories

Overall,this is exactly the type of book I was looking for.After reading some online reviews,it's clear that alot of fans weren't too happy about the turn in the story with John's mission to "change the world".Personally,I loved it and admired everyone trying to make their mark before they are gone.Tragic and heroic at the same time.Great series which I highly recommend to any cape fan looking to try something new.

And if you enjoyed that small production NBC currently debuted this season,you might be interested in this.

[Anubis]

Agreed with CC on this one, Anubis


I don't know. I already got 3 people into Fables through this book. Seems to be working.

[Anubis]

Still haven't gotten around to finishing Invisibles Volume 1, but it's been enjoyable to say the least.

Got Mouse Guard, Conan: The Book of Toth, and Thor Visionaries: Walt Simonson vol. 1.

[Prognosticator]

Recently reading vol. 1 of Animal Man. Not that I need to sell it or anything, but a GREAT read! Doesn't come off like something from 1990 by any means. Could easily fall in line with today's work, which bodes well for Morison's craft as a writer. Check it out if you haven't yet :up:

[Spike_x1]

I'm thinking about getting the "30 Days of Night" TPB in light of the upcoming movie. Any thoughts on the book; is it recommended; etc?

[Anubis]

Somebody did a write up on it awhile back. Couldn't tell you what page. They Gave it a pretty positive review.

[Elijya]

I'm thinking about getting the "30 Days of Night" TPB in light of the upcoming movie. Any thoughts on the book; is it recommended; etc?

yes, it's very good. Ben Templesmith's art is not very traditional, though

[Prognosticator]

I got the 52 volume 1 paperback today,ive been looking foreward to this for months.

Lucky Dog, you save a lot of money with the trades, AND gets tons of extras! :( Not to mention you get to read the best book published in 06'.

[Elijya]

he's lucky because he purchased a book that's readily available for any of us to purchase for 30% off on Amazon.com?

[PWN3R]

Just finished Vol 2 & 3 of Morrison's Animal Man.

I have a newfound respect for this nut. Vol 2 was good superhero fun with hints of something more. Vol 3 is where the fun is at. Morrison threw in many subtle panels all through his run here and there that all are resolved in Vol 3. To say it was amazing is an understatement.

I had to read the last issue, #26, again right after I finished. So awesome. Grant Morrison meets Buddy. Holy crap. Not only that, he thanks all the people involved in making the comic. Its beautiful.

I couldn't recommend this more, great stuff.

[deathshead2]

Bought Cap america Red menice(spelling) vol 1, and invincible 4,5 at heros con.

[GNR]

I read thru Grant's Animal Man at Borders,didn't feel compelled to buy it though.Not my cup of tea.

Bought Rising Stars Books 1 to 3 and it literally changed my life. :D

[PWN3R]

I read thru Grant's Animal Man at Borders,didn't feel compelled to buy it though.Not my cup of tea.

Bought Rising Stars Books 1 to 3 and it literally changed my life. :D

Which Volume was it? It starts off as a superhero tale. One shots that all tie in together, then it becomes more. Twisted trippy stuff.

Totally agree though, its not for everyone.

[GNR]

I think it was Deux.I like Grant,but this wasn't my thing.

[Anubis]

Finished Conan: The Book of Toth

Awesome read. Awesome Read. I wanted to grab the next volume of Buesiek's run on Conan, but it doesn't come out until July, so I went ahead and bought this one. Great stuff. You really get into what makes this sick f**k tick. All the usual stuff. Rough childhood, abusive parent, endless ambition. All that good stuff. Really cool to see how he was able to weasl his way into power. He has a Dr. Doom sorta charm to him. At anyrate, I'd give this a Rating of Bee P***y

[Anubis]

Finished Volume One of the Invisibles

As expected, f**king weird. Bum Sorcerers, Transvestite Summoners, Faceless demon child killers, The Marquis Desade, John the Baptists talking head, and much much more. Morrison musta hid his crazy pills good when he was writing this one. Still, entertaining none the less. I give it a rating of: Sweet

[The Hero]

I just got Box Office Poison and (at last) Sandman vol. 7.

Life is good. :o

[Ikaris-Eternal]

"And if you're a fan of Fables, Neil Gaiman, or just things that are good, your life is incomplete if you haven't picked up American Gods."

American Gods was a great read - reminded me a little of Tom Robbins

[deathshead2]

I bought Y the last man vol 9 this week. It was sort of disappointing. Its just wasn't as good as the first few vols.

[Anubis]

Recently Bought: We3, Fables volume 7: Wolves, and Mouse Guard.

Thought: Morrison and Quietly's We3 was pretty good. Reads like a f**ked up version of the movie Homeward Bound. Quietly's art is beutiful. I don't care what anybody says. He kicked ass in this one. It was lite on the dialog, which I suppose is okay. This really seemed to work based souly upon the art really. I give it a rating of: Freakin' Sweet

Fables Volume 7: Wolves was also pretty awesome. Great to see Snow and Bigby and the kids (all the kids) finally get their happily everafter. We also got to see secret agent Bigby, Bean stalks as a military weapon, and sweet, sweet, Cinderella. Awesome. Rating : Bee P***y

Mouse Guard was also very good. This was the tale about of treason within the Guard. I saw a mouse totally pwn a serpent, battaling an army of crabs, swords and sorcery (via Bee warefare) on a rodent scale. Great stuff. Great stuff. If you've heard of it but haven't gotten around to checking it out yet, do so. It's totally worth it. Rating: Freakin' Sweet

[TheCorpulent1]

I bought the Planet Hulk hardcover last week. I'm only about halfway through it because I spent the last few days reading all of the comics I bought for last week, but I can already tell why people have been hailing it as possibly the best Hulk story ever. First off, it ditches the retard Hulk and gives us a smarter, craftier, but no less angry Fixit-like Hulk, only he's still green. Second, it actually challenges the Hulk, and it does so in the way I love to see; rather than bringing the Hulk down to make him seem less impressive than he has been in the past, it simply scales his surroundings and opponents up. The Hulk is still weakened, but it doesn't seem to be by much, and the characters on Sakaar all seem to be pretty credible threats in their own right. For those (like me) who love seeing some cohesion in their comic universes, Pak even throws in some references to past Marvel tales in the form of the Hulk's Warbound allies. Korg and Brood's stories made the influence of Earth's heroes and Marvel's history really stand out for me. But I mentioned earlier that I can see why some have called this the Hulk's best story ever--surely I couldn't have said that if all there were to it were great action, an epic plot, and a few continuity references. That's true, and the final component--and, for me, the lynchpin--of the story is the fact that, at its heart, Planet Hulk is one giant character arc. The rest of that stuff is just the context through which we see the Hulk grow from little more than a childish blunt object into a more of a whole, well-rounded character in his own right, entirely separate from Banner. He goes from the consummately cynical loner to a friend and even a family man by the end. Given how interesting the Hulk's life was on Sakaar, it's almost kind of sad that it ultimately had to end in tragedy to pave the way for World War Hulk.

[hippy fascist]

I read thru Grant's Animal Man at Borders,didn't feel compelled to buy it though.Not my cup of tea.

Bought Rising Stars Books 1 to 3 and it literally changed my life. :D

:trans::up:

[Elijya]

Bought Rising Stars Books 1 to 3 and it literally changed my life. :D

Literally? What happened?

[TheCorpulent1]

He now knows what happens in Rising Stars books 1 through 3, whereas before he did not.

[Anubis]

He's become a new man.

[GNR]

I bought the Planet Hulk hardcover last week. I'm only about halfway through it because I spent the last few days reading all of the comics I bought for last week, but I can already tell why people have been hailing it as possibly the best Hulk story ever. First off, it ditches the retard Hulk and gives us a smarter, craftier, but no less angry Fixit-like Hulk, only he's still green. Second, it actually challenges the Hulk, and it does so in the way I love to see; rather than bringing the Hulk down to make him seem less impressive than he has been in the past, it simply scales his surroundings and opponents up. The Hulk is still weakened, but it doesn't seem to be by much, and the characters on Sakaar all seem to be pretty credible threats in their own right. For those (like me) who love seeing some cohesion in their comic universes, Pak even throws in some references to past Marvel tales in the form of the Hulk's Warbound allies. Korg and Brood's stories made the influence of Earth's heroes and Marvel's history really stand out for me. But I mentioned earlier that I can see why some have called this the Hulk's best story ever--surely I couldn't have said that if all there were to it were great action, an epic plot, and a few continuity references. That's true, and the final component--and, for me, the lynchpin--of the story is the fact that, at its heart, Planet Hulk is one giant character arc. The rest of that stuff is just the context through which we see the Hulk grow from little more than a childish blunt object into a more of a whole, well-rounded character in his own right, entirely separate from Banner. He goes from the consummately cynical loner to a friend and even a family man by the end. Given how interesting the Hulk's life was on Sakaar, it's almost kind of sad that it ultimately had to end in tragedy to pave the way for World War Hulk.

Nice review.

As for the Rising Stars comment,I was just being stupid.But it's a book that honestly made me think alot about the world and all the madness that's going on right now.

[The Hero]

Finished Brief Lives the other day. Awesome as always.

I'm really loving Box Office Poison. :up:

[KingOfDreams]

Planet Hulk - I got way behind so I decided just to wait for the hardcover. Of course, it's pure badassery. I like reading the whole thing in one sitting I have to say. Gives the story a more epic, cinematic feel.

Iron Man: Extremis - I don't think I've reviewed this one yet. I found a used copy. This is probably the only arc from the relaunch that I've liked. The art's fantastic. It's unfortunate this creative team couldn't keep to a schedule.

Archenemies - This is a good, darkly comic tale of two roommates who also happen to be archenemies, in thier civilian lives and in thier superhuman lives. This was just a miniseries but I'd really like to see more of these characters.

Star Wars: Dark Empire - My favorite part of this is the coloring. The watercolor aspect creates a very moody look. Fits the tone of the story well. Pretty good penciling too, if a little scattered in places. The story, meh, it's perfectly decent but I've seen more original Star Wars tales.

[TheCorpulent1]

Spider-Man: Reign
I liked it. It's all one big love letter to Frank Miller (I liked the fact that the reporter was even named "Miller Janson") and the Dark Knight Returns, but it's also a good story on top of that. I sure as hell don't want it to be the official, canon future for Spider-Man, but as a more elaborate What If? or The End scenario, it's good stuff. Kaare Andrews can do just about every style under the sun, and the Miller homage he chose here was nice. My one complaint about the art is the CG backgrounds. Entirely CG art in comics--not just computer-colored, but built from the ground up in 3D modeling programs--is always tacky.

[Sun_Down]

Wanted

Honestly, I was a bit disappointed in this book, mostly because of its length. I got to the end and was like "Is that it?". But I suppose I was expecting too much. I'd heard this book described as "Watchmen for villains" and that's obviously a tall order to fill. I did, however, like the characters and the nihilistic attitude of the book. It was refreshing to see so many unabashed bastards as the main characters of a comic book.

[Anubis]

Who said "Watchmen for Villains"? That's pretty stupid. It was good, yeah, in a summer block buster sorta way.

[Erzengel]

Spider-Man: Reign
I liked it. It's all one big love letter to Frank Miller (I liked the fact that the reporter was even named "Miller Janson") and the Dark Knight Returns, but it's also a good story on top of that. I sure as hell don't want it to be the official, canon future for Spider-Man, but as a more elaborate What If? or The End scenario, it's good stuff. Kaare Andrews can do just about every style under the sun, and the Miller homage he chose here was nice. My one complaint about the art is the CG backgrounds. Entirely CG art in comics--not just computer-colored, but built from the ground up in 3D modeling programs--is always tacky.
Heh. I read that too a couple of days ago and it has to be one of the better stories I have read in a while. I found it very touching and sad, and I thought I was going to have trouble with comparisons to DKR but I felt it stands on it's on and is an excellent story and very engaging. I highly recommend it.

[Sun_Down]

Who said "Watchmen for Villains"? That's pretty stupid. It was good, yeah, in a summer block buster sorta way.

I wanna say it was Elijya. But the man's turned me on to more great readings that anyone, so I can let this one slide ;)

[TheCorpulent1]

Heh. I read that too a couple of days ago and it has to be one of the better stories I have read in a while. I found it very touching and sad, and I thought I was going to have trouble with comparisons to DKR but I felt it stands on it's on and is an excellent story and very engaging. I highly recommend it.
I got a little choked up with the scene about the Sandman and his daughter. It was a really clumsily executed plot point, but damn if Andrews didn't sell it in the art. I don't know why he's not doing more big-name stuff at the big two.

[Anubis]

Got Planet Hulk today. Read in one sitting. Freakin' awesome. Best Hulk story i've ever read. Had passion, had romance, had heart ache. Everything. The pacing was off in some portions, but a minor setback at best. Rating: Bee P***Y

[Elijya]

I wanna say it was Elijya. But the man's turned me on to more great readings that anyone, so I can let this one slide ;)

I can't be certain, but I don't think it was me.

I'm on vacation, and the only comic I happened to bring with me was Superman: Secret Identity again, which is an INCREDIBLE book by the never disappointing Kurt Busiek. My highest recommendation on that one.

[GNR]

Hmm...last trades I bought were the Rising Stars series and Johns' Hawkman series.Pondering what to get into next.

The footage of Iron Man makes me want to pick up Ellis' Extremis.Was it any good?

[TheCorpulent1]

I can't be certain, but I don't think it was me.

I'm on vacation, and the only comic I happened to bring with me was Superman: Secret Identity again, which is an INCREDIBLE book by the never disappointing Kurt Busiek. My highest recommendation on that one.
You should read Shockrockets and Arrowsmith by Busiek if you haven't already. Fantastic books.

[KingOfDreams]

Spider-Man: Reign - I really enjoyed this. Good storytelling. Good, unique art. Nice and bleak...but with hope for the future. Reminded me a bit of Dark City actually. More anguish from Peter Parker, as we've grown occustomed to over the years. But it was nice to see a Peter that was always the Peter I liked...i.e. sans Avengers. In this world it didn't seem like he was ever an Avenger. Just a "normal" guy trying to hold down a job. I certainly didn't expect the man behind it all to be Venom. And then there's Jonah. He's actually somebody you can respect in this, especially for me...as a future journalist. I liked finding out that the little girl was Sandman's daughter. The expressions on the newscaster's faces were funny too. They looked like robots, which was the point I'm sure. The only problem I had was the ages. Seems to me if Peter's really as old as he looks than Jonah should be dead, and a few other characters should definitely be older than they were.

[KingOfDreams]

Asylum - This edition appears to be an import because the guys at the shop had to look up the exchange rate or something. No dollar price on the back. Anyway, this is a pretty interesting, if fairly straightforward tale/allegory/what have you about religious corruption and racism. The art and character designs (the alien Belly may be the most interesting) are really what attracts me the most to this project. The story is told in two parts. The first part has pretty bright, sharp and colorful art, whereas the second part is a bit more dream-like and realistic at the same time. Softer I guess I'd say. The story does kind of end on a cliffhanger but actually, I think if the story were to end with a finite ending, the climax would not have been as powerful.

[Anubis]

Finished Volume 4 or Conan: The Hall of the Dead. Another great story. Beautiful art from Nord. At first, I didn't care for the Conan Thief of Thieves saga, but it's really grown on me. Good stuff. Rating: Freakin' Sweet!

Question though, has anybody been reading Conan after Busiek left the book? Is it still as good?

[Sparta*]

What is a good site to check out all upcoming DC/Marvel graphic novel releases for the month?

[Tron Bonne]

I just recently read Fables Volume 1: Legend In Exile, I'm very interested in it so far and plan to check out other Fable trades in the future

All Star Superman Volume 1 was great, too, I was really sucked in, been the first time I have been really into a Superman story in awhile

I just got into Ultimate Spider-Man, so I plan to grab some of the earlier trades and catch up on past events, plus, at high recommendation I'll probably look into the Hellblazer trades

[Anubis]

I gotta tell you, USM went into the toilet around the Venom Arc, so, I don't know. Maybe you'd like it, I dropped it after Carnage and never looked back.

[The Hero]

Even though I was being very careful not to, I somehow broke the spine to my copy of Box Office Poison and one of the pages fell out. :(

By the way, everyone who has the ability to should buy it. Jesus H. Christ with a side of bacon, is it good. :up:

[CaptainCanada]

JLA: Rock of Ages

I decided to try some of Grant Morrison's JLA run, and picked this volume, since it involves Darkseid. There are basically two plots here, which intertwine, sort of (really, one plot cuts out midway through to be replaced by the second one, and then is brought up again at the end). The first one, that bookends the story, is a fairly standard Justice League vs. Injustice League story; but the real core of the story is the mid-section, which is the JLA version of the X-Men's "Days of Future Past"/"Age of Apocalypse", where we visit a future where Darkseid rules the world, and everything hinges on an event happening in the first plot (the destruction of the Philosopher's Stone). The JLA lineup here is pretty "period", between Electric Superman, non-living Wonder Woman (although, in a cute joke, she's alive again in the hellish future with no explanation given), crab-mask Green Lantern, and hook-hand Aquaman. One thing that really stands out in these stories is Morrison's innovative uses of all of his characters' powers (or, almost all; some members of Luthor's Injustice League, especially Circe and Ocean Master, don't really do anything); in particular, Electric Superman's powers are put to a number of really virtuoso uses, and Green Arrow (lame version) and the Atom's defeat of Darkseid is very imaginative (and plausible). There's a lot of imagination evident in these stories. At the same time, I find the plotting rather slipshod at times; in particular, there's never any explanation (that I could find) for why the destruction of the Philosopher's Stone causes Darkseid to take over Earth (which you'd think would be an important story point; the hinge was well-explained in both of the analogous X-Men stories), and all the time-travel gets rather convoluted.

[Tron Bonne]

I gotta tell you, USM went into the toilet around the Venom Arc, so, I don't know. Maybe you'd like it, I dropped it after Carnage and never looked back.

From what I've read about the Ultimate Venom and Carnage stuff, it sounded pretty bad, plus I enjoyed Venom and Carnage in the original universe a lot and would most likely not care too much for their totally new origins. I may check it out up to that point, but I don't see myself liking it

[Anubis]

I thought Venom's Origin was good. If you wanna do Venom's Origin Minus the Secret Wars stuff, this would be the way. (They shoulda done this one in the movie if you asked me.) It was just long, drawn out, and ultimately ended with little pay off. Carnage just sucked period.

[Prognosticator]

Over the weekend I read Y: The Last Man, vol. 4. I don't think I can really say anything unexpected. It continues down the road of brilliance with it's sharp wit, action, and originality.

Also, I read volume 1 of ION: The Torchbearer. It was an okay read. The art was interesting at times. Fit the mood. I basically read it to get ready for The Sinestro Corps.

[Kevin Roegele]

How about this....from eBay, I've just picked up the four original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trade paperbacks! Very, very hard to find copies of, especially in the UK.

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/45/a3/c8484310fca05c82a7d23010._AA240_.L.jpg

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/ec/ae/96079330dca0741927fd4010._AA240_.L.jpg

[GNR]

Over the weekend I read Y: The Last Man, vol. 4. I don't think I can really say anything unexpected. It continues down the road of brilliance with it's sharp wit, action, and originality.

Also, I read volume 1 of ION: The Torchbearer. It was an okay read. The art was interesting at times. Fit the mood. I basically read it to get ready for The Sinestro Corps.

You should have read Rebirth,Wanted Hal Jordan,and Revenge of the GLs instead of ION.

[TheCorpulent1]

Fell: Feral City
I was interested in Fell when I first saw it. I thought Templesmith's style was kind of cool, and judging from Planetary, I knew Ellis could be a great writer when he wasn't busy mangling established superheroes. I just didn't come to these realizations until the time Fell had already gotten two or three issues out. I like to read stuff from the beginning, and my shop's not great at retaining back issues of comics that sell pretty well, which Fell does for them, so I decided to pass on it. Lucky for me a trade was published and I came across it at Borders while my friends were looking at some manga trash.

Fell is fan-****ing-nomenal-tast-errific. If I could've squeezed some more fragments of superlatives in there, I would have. Ellis has outdone himself on Fell. I think I may even enjoy it more than Planetary, although it's hard to tell since Planetary comes out once a century when the planets align just right and the arcane potential of John Cassaday's drawing hand is at its peak. Snowtown is probably the greatest setting for a hard-boiled, black noir comedy like Fell ever. It appears utterly irredeemable because all of its inhabitants accept it as such. All except Fell, who's a wonderfully conflicted character. On the surface, he's a hardcore cynic, as his "everyone is hiding something" motto would imply. But once you dig deeper you find that that surface cynicism is just a symptom of his job; really, the man's an optimist at heart--idealistic, even. He believes wholeheartedly that the bad guys deserve punishment and the good guys deserve justice, and he believes that he can help give those things to each of them. As such, he's in a unique position to give us such great scenes as the part in #1 where he saves a girl from a mugger and then scolds the girl for being dumb enough to walk down a dark alley alone at night.

The situations that Ellis places Fell into, contained so well in their respective issue-long vignettes, have obviously been done before, but Ellis does them in such a way that, through Fell and Snowtown, they feel fresh and interesting. Maybe it's the fact that Snowtown is literally worse than any city I've ever heard of, or maybe it's Fell's unique voice, but each issue feels new and exciting. The one with the suicide bomber on Fell's day off was particularly enjoyable--it was like one of TV's many cop procedurals gone horribly, horribly wrong, only it was so much better for it. Ellis paints one picture of a situation, then clues the reader into details along the way that show the truth to be far different.

Templesmith's art is great, too. It looked inconsistent to me at first, especially on Fell's face, but then I realized that Templesmith is just a great exaggerator. He exaggerates everything about the characters in different ways to fit the tone of the story, but they all seem internally consistent because those exaggerations always fit the personalities that Ellis has given them. Probably the best example is Mayko, who can go from looking like the adorable older sister of Lilo from Lilo & Stitch to looking as crazed and demonic as Snowtown itself seems to be.

So, anyway, if you skipped all that other stuff I wrote, the bottom line is that Fell was incredible and I look forward to more. :up:

[Anubis]

Thank you for wrapping it up at the bottom. I most definitely skipped ahead. I will be grabbing this first chance I get.

[TheCorpulent1]

I lose track of how much I'm writing when I start babbling incoherently about how good something is. And Fell is definitely that good.

[Anubis]

You had me at "fan-****ing-nomenal-tast-errific".

[TheCorpulent1]

I took special pride in that one.

[Anubis]

As you should. It's thesaurus worthy.

[TheCorpulent1]

I'll start lobbying Roget's tomorrow.

[Sparta*]

Just finished the Dark Knight Returns...and it was awesome! Definatley made me a Miller fan! I hear the Dark Knight Strikes Again isn't that good though...?

next book on my chopping block Superman: Red Son! God bless you elseworlds

[CaptainCanada]

Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 1

I just finished the first volume (the second comes out soon), which collects Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133-139, Forever People #1-3, New Gods #1-3 and Mister Miracle #1-3. The issues are arranged in chronological order, so you get one issue of a series, than one of another, and so on, as they were originally published, rather than following one series to its conclusion; the idea being you can watch as Kirby rolls out his complete story, month in and month out, as if you were reading it in the early 70s.

As a whole, the collection is a lot of fun, assuming you can accept the usual issues with old comics (terrible dialogue, most notably, although a lot of the “ethnic” or “hip” dialogue Kirby conjures here is hilarious; I’m pretty sure Superman uses the expression “dig it” at one point), and can appreciate the ideas, which outlive the dated presentation. The first Omnibus uses older-style paper, rather than the magazine-quality glossy stuff that modern comics and collections normally use; this suits the old four-colour stuff, which was meant to be presented this way.

On a series-by-series basis:

* Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen - this series is probably the emblem of Silver Age silliness and weirdness, from the numerous weird transformations its protagonist underwent (as lovingly preserved in the recent The Amazing Transformations of Jimmy Olsen (http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Transformation-Superman-Graphic-Novels/dp/1401213693/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-0617067-7216912?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187491275&sr=8-1) trade) to Jimmy’s team-up with Hitler (http://the-isb.blogspot.com/2007/04/mind-shattering-madness-of-jimmy-olsen_09.html). Now Kirby takes over (thanks to DC corporate pressure that he had to write an established title, not just the three ones in his own little world), and Darkseid has his debut here. The main plot in these issues sees Jimmy sent by the new Daily Planet owner, Morgan Edge (one of Darkseid’s minions) to investigate reports of a weird subculture called the “Hairies”. It turns out this is all cover for a secret US government project experimenting with DNA. In one of the developments that definitely marks all this as pre-Watergate, the US government has harvested the cells of numerous people without their consent and created an army of clones, and none of the hero characters mind this at all (Superman was aware of it, and volunteered his cells). Not only that, but the clones come in all sizes, including little midget paratroopers; the person whom they’re all based on is quite delighted by them. Also featured is a new iteration of the ‘Newsboy Legion’ from the 1940s, the children of the originals, who are all complete photocopies of their fathers, down to their nicknames and personalities. This title is definitely the biggest offender in using “hip” dialogue for all the young characters.

* New Gods - as previously mentioned, this series was originally supposed to be called Orion; this is par for the course for the character Orion, who was supposed to be Darkseid’s opposite number, but has more or less been replaced by Superman; you’d never know Orion is fated to kill Darkseid in final battle (I’d been extremely surprised if DC’s housecleaning Death of the New Gods (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?p=4214447) series ends with that). These issues see Orion get his marching orders from Highfather on New Genesis, and head to Earth (by way of Apokolips) to prevent Darkseid’s search for the Anti-Life Equation (which is apparently in the mind of some human); characters introduced here include Kalibak, the Black Racer (“death on skies”), and the whole of New Genesis. Orion frees a couple of humans on Apokolips, and takes them back to Earth with him, where they seem to be his future supporting cast; he adopts a secret identity as “O’Ryan”.

* Forever People - alternately titled, “The Space Hippies,” because that’s what they are. Of all the elements of the Fourth World, these guys faded faster than any other part, and you never hear them mentioned today. For all that, these first three issues have some major elements, and ends on a cliffhanger, with the protagonists captured by Darkseid and DeSaad, and handed over to the latter. The main characters all ride around on a “super-cycle”, and consist of Mark Moonrider, Serafin, Big Bear, Vykin the Black (who is, you guessed it, the only black guy), and the token female, whose name is Beautiful Dreamer (she’s also the only one with any kind of superpower, some sort of vague telepathy). By using a “Mother Box”, they can exchange places with a superbeing called the “Infinity Man”, who compensates for their lack of powers. Of the four, I’d actually have to say I enjoyed these three issues the most, although the “Forever People” are all pretty interchangeable characters at this point (another feature of many old comics). The third issue features Glorious Godfrey, one of Darkseid’s agents who is a sort of evangelist for “Anti-Life” (he doesn’t believe in the Equation, just that the doctrine can be instilled by evangelism), and is the first time that Darkseid gets to really do something notable.

* Mister Miracle - of all the Fourth World characters apart from the villains, escape artist Scott Free/Mister Miracle probably faired the best after the Fourth World was over, including a few stints on differing incarnations of the League (the JLI/JLE). This series is pretty straightforward for the first three issues, not much different from an average superhero story; Free’s origin has even been completely explained yet, and he takes no active part in the struggle against Darkseid, instead just continually stumbling into scenarios that place him in confrontation with his agents (most notably, the first appearance of Granny Goodness). This series also has the biggest dissonance between how the character started out and the status quo he’s generally known for, because there’s no sign of Big Barda, Free’s wife and partner who later becomes inseparable from him (and serves in the JLA in the Grant Morrison era, as well as, currently, the Birds of Prey).

All in all, the first volume has a lot of interesting stuff in it; I’ll be getting the second one.

Trades on the horizon:

Green Arrow: Quiver and Green Arrow: The Sound of Violence, collecting Kevin Smith's run on the title; Rudiments of Wisdom by Paul Cornell; the second Omnibus; and the third Manhunter trade.

[TheCorpulent1]

I was returning books at the library when I noticed the first two trades of DMZ in the pile. I'd heard the series was good, but I didn't really have much of an interest in picking it up. Since the trades were right there and free, however, I figured "what the hell?" and checked them out to myself. I have since finished the first trade and I'm now really into the series. I'm looking forward to starting on the second trade once I finish up reading all my comics from this week and a bunch I never got to from last week. Read DMZ. It R gud.

[Anubis]

Yeah, it's not bad.

[Shuley]

Just finished the Dark Knight Returns...and it was awesome! Definatley made me a Miller fan! I hear the Dark Knight Strikes Again isn't that good though...?

next book on my chopping block Superman: Red Son! God bless you elseworlds

DRK was awesome,Have you read The Watchman? I did,but it's such a tough read and I'm not sure if I totally understood what I was reading...I can see why it's held as the best though,it's very smart and well done and quite intelligent,alot going on though at once.I'll have to re-read it.

[The Hero]

Box Office Poison
I repeat: It doesn't matter if you have to spend your rent money on this comic, everyone needs to read this. The plot is like an onion of joy: every time you think you've see all it has to offer, you find a new layer of goodness (I know that analogy sucks, but the book is so great that it doesn't matter).

My only fear is that in a few years some studio will snatch up the rights and make a 90-minute turkey out of it.

Rating: Bee P****y (sorry, 'Noob)

[KingOfDreams]

DMZ: Body of a Journalist - I've tried for awhile to get into this series and I now finally enjoy it. I always felt I should since I'm a journalism student and I'm interested in politics and such. Anyway, DMZ tells the tale of NYC, which has become a crumbling demilitarized zone, in the midst of another American civil war between the United States of America and the so-called Free States of America. Matty Roth is a young embedded journalist who's life and career don't turn out like he thought they would as he stays in the city longer and longer. War will definitely do this. This story does seem like an allegory to our current war in many ways. His situation is complicated when a fellow journalist is kidnapped and he's pretty much made the go-between for both sides. The cast of supporting characters is good too. There's Matty's neighbor, an old Chinese-American man named Wilson, who happens to have a veritable gang of grandsons. There's his friend Zee Hernandez, a former medical student who serves as a doctor to anybody and everybody who needs help. This series would make a good movie, probably in the vein of Children of Men, but it's probably better as a comic. The book does a good job of placing the setting in history, referencing 9/11 and such. It appears like this is probably 10 years maybe a couple more since then. The book also does a great job of showing the confusion of war, especially the confusion of modern wars since Vietnam. Sides get blurred. Society begins to change. The book does paint the U.S. government as being power and control hungry, basically without morals. The F.S. aren't treated as saints but they are shown in somewhat a better light. In other words, this book was probably not written by a conservative. But it's interesting because people praise Lincoln now for being steadfast and doing what it takes to hold the union together and the same thing is happening here but the people in Lincoln's position are essentially the bad guys. It's all about perspective. Of course, I enjoyed the depictions of journalism as well. It was accurately shown how the press can and has become little more than a mouthpiece for the government and how journalists, especially TV journalists, are basically just talking heads. It's a rare anchor that actually investigates and writes. That's why I'm print and not TV. Anyway, I'm definitely going to have to find Volume 1.

Crossing Midnight: Cut Here - If you like anime, you'll probably like this. Even if you don't, it's worth checking out. Japanese horror/fantasy really is unique and interesting. The main characters are two twins. Kai was born before midnight. Toshi afterwards. At their grandmother's behest, the twins' father made an offering to the spirit world to ensure a safe birth. As they grow up, they learn Toshi can't be hurt by sharp objects. Knives and such just bend and break when they get near her. As they enter high school, they're visited by a "man" from the spirit world who claims Toshi as his servant. They try, in their own ways, to prevent this from happening. Kai has become somewhat of an introvert while Toshi is wild. There's also a subplot that involves the twins' father and the yakuza. It's semi-connected and I'm sure it'll become more connected as the series rolls on. The art is really good. It has qualities of old Japanese prints.

[Anubis]

About DMZ, Truth be told, we don't know all that much about the Free States and what their ideals are or anything. I've gotten the impression that they are possible white extremists and militia nuts.

[KingOfDreams]

^
Yeah, I can see that actually. Seeing as how the movement began in small-town American south. It still seemed to me that they were given a more human face than the U.S.A. if you know what I mean. I probably need to pick up Volume 1 before I make any definitive opinions though.

[Sparta*]

I was told by a lot of people around here to pick up Avengers: Under Siege because it was so good, so I got it...but I didn't think it was overly amazing. It was a good read, but any Avengers book that has Cap tied up for 3/4 of it can't be that amazing :o lol

[Anubis]

It's been considered by many to be one of the best Avengers stories ever, but it's old, and kinda dated at this point. You want the best, grab Avengers Forever.

[TheCorpulent1]

AF is sexy.

I got the Doctor 13: Architecture and Morality TPB this past Wednesday, even though I read most of it already in the Tales of the Unexpected backups. I read it all again at this lame-ass staff retreat my job forced me to go to. It was even better this time around. To anyone who enjoys wit, metafiction, and/or dry humor, you need this trade. Azzarello is hilarious.

[Sparta*]

I have Avengers Forever and it looks awesome. I will get around to reading it soon. Right now though, i'm reading JLA Secret Origins.

[Anubis]

AF is sexy.

I got the Doctor 13: Architecture and Morality TPB this past Wednesday, even though I read most of it already in the Tales of the Unexpected backups. I read it all again at this lame-ass staff retreat my job forced me to go to. It was even better this time around. To anyone who enjoys wit, metafiction, and/or dry humor, you need this trade. Azzarello is hilarious.


Yeah, loved they way they made fun of both Marvel and DC. Great read.

[Tron Bonne]

Fables Volume 2-Loved this volume even better then the last, quite good and can't wait to pick up Vol. 3

[Sandman138]

Fables Volume 2-Loved this volume even better then the last, quite good and can't wait to pick up Vol. 3

Viva la revolution.

[Tron Bonne]

Viva la revolution.

Power to the pigs

[Anubis]

Those poor headless pigs. :(

[Tron Bonne]

Those poor headless pigs. :(

Nah, they deserved ever cut from that axe

[Elijya]

just wait, almost every volume is better than the last

[Manic]

Picked up the first volume of 100 Bullets while I was at the shop, this week.

Addicted.

[Anubis]

I don't know, I could never really get into the series.

[Sparta*]

JLA Secret Origins was an alright read...nothing spectacular.

I just finished Hulk: Tempest Fugit as well, but I enjoyed that a lot more...great story and artwork and clever twists :up: I recommend it

[TheCorpulent1]

Picked up the first volume of 100 Bullets while I was at the shop, this week.

Addicted.
I don't know, I could never really get into the series.
I loved what I read of it, but I kind of stalled around vol. 4 of the trades because I didn't have enough money at the time to buy them all. I figure I'll probably just wait until the series finishes, reread the first few trades, and then start buying the rest of them. That way I won't risk catching up to the issues the way I have with a bunch of other series.

[Sparta*]

I'm currently reading Batman: Gotham County Line and am really enjoying it so far :up: You can't go wrong with Batman + Zombies

[Sparta*]

Just finished Batman: Gotham County Line, and what a trip that book was lol definatley a good trip though :up: Recommended to anyone who doesn't mind a disturbing and gross comic.

[Sandman138]

Nah, they deserved ever cut from that axe

They were saints compared to Goldie; commie pinko *****.

I :heart: Rose Red.

[Anubis]

Yeah, me too.

[GNR]

Big Thor fix lately.Loving the new series so I decided to pick up...

Thor Blood Oath by Oeming
Thor Disassembled by Oeming

[CaptainCanada]

I loved Avengers Disassembled: Thor (actual title: "Ragnarok"), especially the ending pages, so perfectly mirrored in the relaunch.

[TheCorpulent1]

Big Thor fix lately.Loving the new series so I decided to pick up...

Thor Blood Oath by Oeming
Thor Disassembled by Oeming
I loved Avengers Disassembled: Thor (actual title: "Ragnarok"), especially the ending pages, so perfectly mirrored in the relaunch.
:D :D :D

[GNR]

I'm picking those because the guy at my store owned a complete run of Thor,300+ issues,and said that those 2 trades were the places to go to read a solid and definitive Thor story without shelling out too much bucks on the Visionarie TPBs.I appreciate what all those books did in the 80s did,but to actually read comics from the 80s is a chore for me.

[GNR]

Corp,what episode is that in your avvy?

[TheCorpulent1]

The Simonson issues still read pretty well to me, and I've been known to have some trouble reading older stuff. I could never make it very far into Journey Into Mystery, for example.

My avatar comes from the Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker episode. The uncut version, since I think the Joker just slips and gets electrocuted off-screen in the censored version. In the uncut one, Robin shoots him in the chest.

[Sparta*]

just finished Wolverine: Weapon X, and Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn

Emerald Dawn was pretty awesome but I didn't really enjoy Weapon X too much

[Anubis]

Got ahold of Warren Ellis' Fell. It truly was "fan-****ing-nomenal-tast-errific". Great, moody artwork from Templesmith, and an awesome narrative from Ellis. Love this book. And I really can't get enough of the Nixon Nun. Is there another volume of this coming out? Or do I gotta wait another two or three years for Ellis to get around to it?

[TheCorpulent1]

It's one of those series Ellis is taking his sweet time on. The last issue that's come out so far is the last issue collected in the trade.

[Anubis]

... :(

[TheCorpulent1]

The Fell trade is basically like Ellis distracting you with a shiny object and then punching you when you turn back to him. :(

[Anubis]

Classic Ellis.

[Manic]

Frankly, I'm surprised. I expected Fell to hit a dead-end after the 12th issue. Ellis does that all the time, right? Only writing 12 really good issues before stopping abruptly? At least it keeps his stuff fresh.

[Anubis]

Finished Fables Volume 9: Sons of the Empire. Geppetto has called together his war council, which includes the Nome King, some guy whose just a head, that Ice B***h from Narnia, and.....Hansel from Hansel and Gretel, whose become a total puritan mass murdering witch hunter. (Which I gotta admit, is a pretty logical progression of the character when you really think about it. That chick did try to eat him.) This volume also included a ton of shorts about as unseen characters, as well as a cool reunion between Bigby, his Father, and his six big brothers. And by Reunion, I mean massive battle the likes of which the Fable world has rarely seen. We're talking Biblical. Frogs falling from the sky, the dead rising, dogs and cats, living together, total anarchy. God this series is awesome. It's rare that I can produce a Ghost Buster reference. Rating: Bee P***y

[Elijya]

We're talking Biblical. Frogs falling from the sky, the dead rising, dogs and cats, living together, total anarchy. God this series is awesome. It's rare that I can produce an Ghost Buster reference. Rating: Bee P***y

I smiled to myself because I got the reference, then you had to go and blurt it out so it's not an in-joke anymore :oldrazz:

[SouLeSS]

I picked up Hatter M last week, and I've read it 5 times now.

It's around 120 pages, but there isnt to much dialogue. It's beautifully illustrated, and the story is amazing. If you read The Looking Glass Wars, then you need to buy this. As if you alreayd havn't.

[GNR]

Thor Blood Oath.

Haven't finished it,but 2 books in,I'm really liking the classic premise.

[CaptainCanada]

DC: The New Frontier

In which I heretically say that this story isn't all that.

Don't get me wrong, it's a decent tale, but I think it has a lot of problems, and I certainly wouldn't call it one of DC's best stories. Firstly, Cooke's art is seriously at odds with the kind of story he's trying to tell; it's a fairly serious, dramatic tale, but told with a cast of cherubs, and it doesn't convey drama or stakes at all. The story has a cast of about three-score characters, and doesn't juggle them well at all, so that almost no one has any real story (Green Lantern (who's stuck with a bevy of annoying expressions like "sufferin' Suzie") and the Martian Manhunter coming the closest); Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and the Flash are all neglible (Aquaman isn't even in this story). Justice balanced a huge cast while still giving everyone small moments that really said a lot about the characters. And the whole "new frontier" motif doesn't really amount to a whole lot.

[Elijya]

(Aquaman isn't even in this story).

Yes he is

[CaptainCanada]

Yes he is
About three pages, and he does nothing. He's in the text, but he's not in the story.

[TheCorpulent1]

Aw, that drops my anticipation for the second half of New Frontier a bit. Cooke can give the Blackhawks and the Sea Devils some good material, but he can't find room for Aquaman to shine? I'm pretty sick of how neglected Aquaman's become. He's like the redheaded stepchild of DC's characters, even though he could be excellent if used properly. :o

[Anubis]

He could but, come on man. Good story is a good story. So Fish f**ker wasn't all that involved. When he did show up, he saved Superman's ass. Gotta count for something.

[TheCorpulent1]

I know it's a good story, and I still intend on buying the second trade and finally finishing it someday, but it's annoying that someone can write a love story to the Silver Age JLA and somehow think it's okay for Aquaman to be basically negligible. I'm not holding it against Cooke or anything; it's practically universal at this point. He's been a major part of the team since its inception. It's only since the stupid '80s Superfriends show that he's gotten this stigma that makes everyone think, "**** him, the JLA is better off without him." It was kind of mitigated when Morrison put him back on the team and he, Waid, and Kelly had him make a difference every once in a while, but after they were gone, so was Aquaman. I was actually surprised that Chaykin used him in a JLA Classified story a while ago. He's one of the big seven, ostensibly supposed to be the biggest and best group on the JLA, and I'm now surprised when writers deign to include him!

[CaptainCanada]

When he did show up, he saved Superman's ass. Gotta count for something.
He fishes him out of the water, and arrives after the fight, to which he contributes nothing.

[masteryoda]

I know it's a good story, and I still intend on buying the second trade and finally finishing it someday, but it's annoying that someone can write a love story to the Silver Age JLA and somehow think it's okay for Aquaman to be basically negligible. I'm not holding it against Cooke or anything; it's practically universal at this point. He's been a major part of the team since its inception. It's only since the stupid '80s Superfriends show that he's gotten this stigma that makes everyone think, "**** him, the JLA is better off without him." It was kind of mitigated when Morrison put him back on the team and he, Waid, and Kelly had him make a difference every once in a while, but after they were gone, so was Aquaman. I was actually surprised that Chaykin used him in a JLA Classified story a while ago. He's one of the big seven, ostensibly supposed to be the biggest and best group on the JLA, and I'm now surprised when writers deign to include him!

I might have to reread it but if I remember correctly Cooke devoted alot less time to Batman then he did Aquaman. And the time he did give Aquaman he was treated as a powerfull character where Batman was just kind of there. Cooke was presenting a world where superhero's were fairly new the world didnt' believe aliens existed except for Superman. So I think the idea of a King from a fabled world was better suited to be revealed towards the end of the story to broaden the scope the world to the public.

[Sparta*]

Has anyone read 30 days of night, or Criminal Macabre? I was wondering if they were any good

[Elijya]

Has anyone read 30 days of night, or Criminal Macabre? I was wondering if they were any good

I like the first 30DoN, but wasn't big on the sequels or Criminal Macabre

[GNR]

I know it's a good story, and I still intend on buying the second trade and finally finishing it someday, but it's annoying that someone can write a love story to the Silver Age JLA and somehow think it's okay for Aquaman to be basically negligible. I'm not holding it against Cooke or anything; it's practically universal at this point. He's been a major part of the team since its inception. It's only since the stupid '80s Superfriends show that he's gotten this stigma that makes everyone think, "**** him, the JLA is better off without him." It was kind of mitigated when Morrison put him back on the team and he, Waid, and Kelly had him make a difference every once in a while, but after they were gone, so was Aquaman. I was actually surprised that Chaykin used him in a JLA Classified story a while ago. He's one of the big seven, ostensibly supposed to be the biggest and best group on the JLA, and I'm now surprised when writers deign to include him!

Aquaman was quite the badass in Justice and JLA Year One.

[CaptainCanada]

I might have to reread it but if I remember correctly Cooke devoted alot less time to Batman then he did Aquaman. And the time he did give Aquaman he was treated as a powerfull character where Batman was just kind of there.
Batman has a lot more time than Aquaman, with a role in the plot (although he's still fairly minor, and has no character arc), and is treated pretty much like he usually is; a mysterious avenger of the night. As for Aquaman:

"'Within and without, one casts all about, for fear of what lives at the centre.' Like the surface dwellers' 'bogey man', Atlantean mothers would use that rhyme to scare their children. We were told to behave or we'd be spirited away by the centre. It's been on the move for weeks now, slowly making its way around the Americas. The centre's consciousness is so powerful, that broad horrific strokes of its intentions haunt my mind. It yearns to reach past Earth's boundaries, but there is something more..something just out of reach of my perception. At my back, the largest army in the world. Ahead of us a threat so vast it could exterminate half of my birthright. It has no quarrel with my kingdom, but there are those on which it has cast its fancy. It's after the poisoners. The murderers. It seeks to cleanse the surface."

"I am King Arthur of Atlantis. I come in peace. This one has been asking for a woman named Lois."

That's all his dialogue, delivered over five panels (on three pages); he appears on a couple of more as a background character.

[Roughneck]

Question.....Can I ween myself off of comics and only onto TPBs?

If I do this right......Can I still have around 2-4 TPBs every week waiting for me?

[Anubis]

Depends. What would you like to read?

[CaptainCanada]

Question.....Can I ween myself off of comics and only onto TPBs?

If I do this right......Can I still have around 2-4 TPBs every week waiting for me?
2-4 a week? Depends on how much you buy now, really. The average length of a TPB is six issues, so a series will average two worth of material a year.

[TheCorpulent1]

Batman has a lot more time than Aquaman, with a role in the plot (although he's still fairly minor, and has no character arc), and is treated pretty much like he usually is; a mysterious avenger of the night. As for Aquaman:

"'Within and without, one casts all about, for fear of what lives at the centre.' Like the surface dwellers' 'bogey man', Atlantean mothers would use that rhyme to scare their children. We were told to behave or we'd be spirited away by the centre. It's been on the move for weeks now, slowly making its way around the Americas. The centre's consciousness is so powerful, that broad horrific strokes of its intentions haunt my mind. It yearns to reach past Earth's boundaries, but there is something more..something just out of reach of my perception. At my back, the largest army in the world. Ahead of us a threat so vast it could exterminate half of my birthright. It has no quarrel with my kingdom, but there are those on which it has cast its fancy. It's after the poisoners. The murderers. It seeks to cleanse the surface."

"I am King Arthur of Atlantis. I come in peace. This one has been asking for a woman named Lois."

That's all his dialogue, delivered over five panels (on three pages); he appears on a couple of more as a background character.
Well, that does have a good tone to it, at least. Orin sounds majestic and regal, which is good. It's a shame Cooke didn't devote more time to him, but he at least treated him well in the time he did give him, based on that dialog. Once I buy the Absolute New Frontier and see it for myself, I'll be able to form a better opinion, obviously.

[Dread]

Technically I just got finished with the Brubaker/Epting/Perkins Captain America Omnibus, which is awesome, but figured I'd repost something from elsewhere:

CAPES: This is a recently released TPB of a superhero series Robert Kirkman & Mark Englert started in 2003 (before WALKING DEAD started but around when INVINCIBLE #6 shipped) that was intended as sort of a complimentary book to INVINCIBLE. It only lasted 3 issues, however. But in 2006-2007, the team re-united to write another 3 issues worth of material via back-up strips in INVINCIBLE, and the combined story is presented here. Englert's style is very simular to Erik Larson's; so much so that you might confuse him for a younger, less experienced Larson (with some hints of Frank Miller thrown in). It isn't a style that is everyone's cup of tea (as many times the character models are distorted and exaggerated, even for comics), but Englert definitely gets better as the story goes on; the stuff from the back-ups is his best work on the title, especially the last 35 or so pages worth (and the trade cover). The series is about a handful of superheroes who make up Capes, Inc., a superhero company that gets government funding and has heroes on payrolls, with things like overtime, hazard pay and even rules regarding resurrections and back-pay! Coming off CW, which sought to make all superheroes federal employees with "benefits", the timing was interesting as this was a more humorous take. These characters popped up now and again in INVINCIBLE, most notably during the fight with Omnipotus. It isn't deep reading but it is full of humor and Kirkman's style of over the top violence at the end. Image's website marks the retail at $14.99 but the actual trade I have says $17.99; a printing error that benefits the shops, or is the website wrong? Considering six comics at $2.99 would be $17.94, it is about a nickel overpriced, but I didn't care much. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but I enjoyed it for what it was..

[Mladen]

Question.....Can I ween myself off of comics and only onto TPBs?

If I do this right......Can I still have around 2-4 TPBs every week waiting for me?

Thats currently what I'm doing, but you'll really have to branch out to non-superhero fare (which is hardly a bad thing).

There are so many excellent stories from Vertigo in TPB that you should be able to keep buying them indefinitely. I'm having a hard time resisting buying the indiv. issues of DMZ (I'm only getting the trades at the moment). I've just finished all 9 volumes of Preacher and am now going to move onto the Hellblazer trades, and there is seriously a ridiculous number of those, so there'll always be a new one to pick up each month.
I also regularly pick up a a couple of currently running Manga titles like Dragon Head or Blame! or The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service as they come out.
If the mood strikes me, I'll buy a Tintin comic.

At the end of the month I end up buying anywhere from 2 to 10 tpbs, depending on how much free time I can spare to read them. I've hardly ever not had a tpb which I wanted to buy every month.

If you only read superhero comics I don't know if you could do it, but there's always at least 2 trade paperbacks of SOMETHING superheroey coming out each month isn't there?

[TheCorpulent1]

A good motivation for weening yourself onto only TPBs is the desire to help kill the comic book industry as a whole. :up:

[Mladen]

A good motivation for weening yourself onto only TPBs is the desire to help kill the comic book industry as a whole. :up:

so you're only buying comics out of a sense of obligation to two massive corporations which consistently dominate the comic book market? nice. :up:

I'm a consumer, and I'm buying the product which I prefer. DC and Marvel and every other small comic publisher wouldn't offer trade paperbacks if they are 'killing the comic book industry' as you claim. Frankly they're gaining more outside customers by offering these cheaper and more readable trades as a cheap and quick way for outsiders to get into comics. If sales in singles drops, they obviously aren't finding it a problem (especially since the market share in the US of single issues is 80% to tpbs' 20%).

I don't download comics online (unlike a lot of comicbook 'fans' on here), and I don't steal from my local store. So shut up.

[TheCorpulent1]

Wow, you assumed a lot about me from one statement.

[Elijya]

Wow, you assumed a lot about me from one statement.

Isn't it also alot to assume that trades are killing the industry? if that were true, why would all the companies continue to make them, at an increasing rate over the last decade no less?

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, but I was being a bit facetious. I'm just worried that if too many people start reading solely trades, the comic industry could go from having monthlies as their primary publications with trades as secondary collections of the monthlies to just trades. We've already seen the industry change itself from top to bottom to facilitate more standardized trades--creators conceiving and plotting arcs to fit convenient six- or eight- or twelve-issue trades, comics getting delayed so slow artists can get their issues out because a fill-in would ruin the flow of the story in trade form, even de facto ongoing series getting published arc-by-arc in mini-series that can then easily be collected into trades, etc. Seems like a potential danger in the future to me, but I'm paranoid in general.

[Anubis]

I think you should buy the actual comics for indie stuff and books that don't look like they'll last long from the big two. With the way the industry is going, where books don't get much of chance past the first three or four issue, you have to support em right away, otherwise there will be no second trade.

[GNR]

Any Checkmate lovers here?

I'm one chapter into the first trade,and I'm hooked.

[Anubis]

I've been picking it up since #1. It is....teh awesome.

[GNR]

I'm pondering picking it up in trade only.Is it good as a monthly read?

[Anubis]

I don't have a problem with it.

[TheCorpulent1]

Pretty much everything reads better in trade form, since you get more story in one sitting. Checkmate might actually benefit even more from that if you have trouble keeping political stuff straight, since there's a lot of changing allegiances and subterfuge and sabotage going on at any given time. But I certainly couldn't wait for six months to get the next Checkmate arc. It's one of my favorite reads every month.

[Erzengel]

My friend lent me the 1st 3 Walking Dead tpbs. I read them all within an hour. :o

[Anubis]

Devoured them like freshly scooped brain matter huh?

[TheCorpulent1]

My friend lent me the 1st 3 Walking Dead tpbs. I read them all within an hour. :o
The Walking Dead is awesome. :up:

[Erzengel]

Now I have to snag the rest. I don't know when's the next time I will see him though. :(

[TheCorpulent1]

You could just buy the hardcovers. They work out cheaper than buying the individual trades, plus, y'know, hardcovers. :wow:

[Erzengel]

Or, I could just borrow my friends' for free? :o

It was worse with me catching up with Invincible though. I became enamored with that series.

[TheCorpulent1]

Worthless freeloader. :cmad:

[Erzengel]

Frugal. :o

[TheCorpulent1]

The Walking Dead is worth your money at least twice over. :o

[Arkady Rossovich]

I may not like The Sentry,but i've decided to buy the original paperback.I heard it was extremly good..along with some Essentials.

[Anubis]

I wouldn't say extremely. Good, but not extremely good.

[TheCorpulent1]

Certainly the best of all Sentry-related material to date, though.

[Anubis]

If they really wanted him to be awesome, it wouldn't be all that hard. Take him off Mighty Avengers, give him his own ongoing, and get Kurt Busiek or Alan Moore to write it with art from Lee Weeks. Actually, that would be damn near impossible.

[The Watchman]

Dynamo 5 - Very cool new series

[Dread]

Dynamo 5 - Very cool new series

Glad you like it. The trade, at $9.99, is an absolute steal, considering the first 7 issues were $3.50.

[The Watchman]

I couldn't pass up the trade at that price, they practically paid me to read it.

[Dread]

I couldn't pass up the trade at that price, they practically paid me to read it.

Exactly.

[PhotoJones]

If they really wanted him to be awesome, it wouldn't be all that hard. Take him off Mighty Avengers, give him his own ongoing, and get Kurt Busiek or Alan Moore to write it with art from Lee Weeks. Actually, that would be damn near impossible.

Anubis gets a cookie. :up:

[TheCorpulent1]

If they really wanted him to be awesome, it wouldn't be all that hard. Take him off Mighty Avengers, give him his own ongoing, and get Kurt Busiek or Alan Moore to write it with art from Lee Weeks. Actually, that would be damn near impossible.
If they really wanted to play up the psychological angle, they could always try to woo Grant Morrison away from DC for it. Although that'd probably be impossible, too.

[Dread]

If they really wanted to play up the psychological angle, they could always try to woo Grant Morrison away from DC for it. Although that'd probably be impossible, too.

Especially since Grant Morrison probably learned from his last tenure at Marvel that anything he writes that even hints at being innovative, Marvel will run scared and twist itself in knots to undo it the moment things get tough. Aside for Marvel Boy (Noh-Varr), I guess.

[TheCorpulent1]

Marvel didn't pay any attention to Marvel Boy, either. They published the mini-series, it sold for crap, and that was it. It wasn't until the current crop of writers came in and happened to have an interest in Noh-Varr that he suddenly got revived in Young Avengers/Runaways.

[PhotoJones]

Wasn't the supposed to be the first Unverse book?

[Anubis]

That was the rumor.

Finished Y-The Last Man volume 8.

Once again, good stuff. More insight into a few more characters like Dr. Mann and that Israeli b***h. Am I the only one that finds chicks getting their brains blown out kinda disturbing? I'm just sayin'. Amp and Y are reunited. 355 and Y seem to be getting a bit closer. And Robo Man-whores. Awesome. Rating: Freakin' Sweet

[TheCorpulent1]

I never heard that rumor. That's kind of cool.

[PhotoJones]

Yeah, before and during the laucnh of the Unverse, Marvel mentioned something about there already being an Unverse book. The implication was that Marvel Boy was that book.

[TheCorpulent1]

Only it wasn't. Psych!

[GNR]

Finished Checkmate Books 1 and 2.

Juicy reads which stories range from worldwide in scope,to the quieter more character focused stuff like Fire's arc or Pawn 502.I'm familiar with most of these characters thru other incarnations and books,so it wasn't that hard to jump in.The power structure is a great touch,makes alot of sense and isn't all that confusing as people said it would be.The tight mix of politics,suspense,backstabbing and action is the main sell here,kudos to Rucka.

I already have issues 16-19 on reserve for me at my store.They had to re-order #18 so I decided to wait so I could read it all straight.

[Elijya]

Wasn't the supposed to be the first Unverse book?

Unverse? I know you mean Ultimate, but where'd "Unverse" come form?

[Dread]

Yeah, before and during the laucnh of the Unverse, Marvel mentioned something about there already being an Unverse book. The implication was that Marvel Boy was that book.

I heard that rumor. In one massive article when Wizard reviewed all of the then-current Ultimate trades/arcs, MARVEL BOY was included in that bunch. So at one time, that was considered an "Ultimate" book before some writers said "waitaminute, that wasn't in the title" and inserted him into 616 proper. Even if he is a Kree from another dimension.

Unverse? I know you mean Ultimate, but where'd "Unverse" come form?

photojones2 made it up as his term for Ultimate a while back. He thinks it is clever. But some others have started using it so maybe it is.

[TheCorpulent1]

Not particularly clever since it was originally a typo, but I found it funny.

[Sparta*]

Can anyone recommend any good horror related trades? I just finished the friday the 13th tpb by Wildstorm and I really enjoyed it :up:

[TheCorpulent1]

30 Days of Night was good enough for Hollywood to take notice. I've never read it myself.

[masteryoda]

Can anyone recommend any good horror related trades? I just finished the friday the 13th tpb by Wildstorm and I really enjoyed it :up:

Walking Dead. :up:

[TheCorpulent1]

Wow, how did I not think of that? :o

[Sparta*]

Walking Dead. :up:

Yeah.............I know i'm going to get my ass chewed out for this but I didn't really like the Walking Dead. I read Vol.1-5 and they are pretty entertaining, but I don't think it's as great as everyone says, in my humble opinion.

Anyone read possessed by Wildstorm?

[The Watchman]

You like Friday the 13th...

but didn't like Walking Dead...

it's hard to even find rec's for a 'taste' like that...

[Sparta*]

Friday the 13th was a funner read IMO and I thought the art was better.

[masteryoda]

Wow, how did I not think of that? :o

You're still young. :oldrazz:

[masteryoda]

You like Friday the 13th...

but didn't like Walking Dead...

it's hard to even find rec's for a 'taste' like that...

yeah really...maybe he'd like Werewolf by Night or some the old school Marvel ****.

[Manic]

This 'Tom Strong' comic by Alan Moore... how is it? What's it about? God knows I don't have nearly enough trades or monthlies to blow my money on.

[Anubis]

It's about this, Doc Savage meets Reed Richards like character. It's pretty good. I only read the first volume though. I like his daughter.

[masteryoda]

This 'Tom Strong' comic by Alan Moore... how is it? What's it about? God knows I don't have nearly enough trades or monthlies to blow my money on.

It's not his best work. I personly think Tom Strong sucks but some people think it's brillant.

[masteryoda]

It's about this, Doc Savage meets Reed Richards like character. It's pretty good. I only read the first volume though. I like his daughter.

She told me she just thinks of you as a friend. Sorry dude. :csad:

[Anubis]

Well, I just said that I liked her, I didn't say that I "Like" like her. I mean....well...f**k her then! I was just trying to make her day! pfft. B***h :o :(

[GNR]

Finally finished Johns/Rags run on Hawkman.I've always been a fan of the character but never owned any comics of him.I'm glad I got my hands on these meaty trades,3 in total.It's all here,old school far off adventure,brutal action.good characterization and drama.I'd recommend this run to anyone looking to get into the character.

[Sparta*]

Good stuff :up: I have Volume 1 but haven't read it yet. Hawkman is awesome though

[Prognosticator]

On the plane to & back from Hawaii I read 7 Soldiers of Victory, vol.1 and Ion: The Dying Flame.

I don't know what took me so long to finally read 7SoV?? Just waiting for the right time I guess, but I'm already into vol.2. It's highly recommendable. :up: :up:

And vol.2 of Ion is a TON better than the first half of the story, and it definitely puts Countdown in a better light in retrospect. :up:

[GNR]

Good stuff :up: I have Volume 1 but haven't read it yet. Hawkman is awesome though

Endless Flight has a ton of action.Allies and Enemies is more character focused,and Wings of Fury is a fine balance of both.You can't go wrong with all 3 trades.

[TheCorpulent1]

And vol.2 of Ion is a TON better than the first half of the story, and it definitely puts Countdown in a better light in retrospect. :up:
Yeah, the first few issues of Ion wandered, but the last half of the series made up for it. :up:

[Max J Power]

I just read books 6 and 7 of Bendis' Daredevil run. It's great and the end of book 7 is really badass. I've kind of put off starting book 8 (the fill-in story about Echo) because it was written and drawn by David Mack and I'm not a big fan of his.

[Anubis]

it did kinda suck.

[GNR]

I just read books 6 and 7 of Bendis' Daredevil run. It's great and the end of book 7 is really badass. I've kind of put off starting book 8 (the fill-in story about Echo) because it was written and drawn by David Mack and I'm not a big fan of his.

Skip it and move onto King of Hell's Kitchen and Golden Age.

[Movies205]

So Christmas is coming folks along with my b-day in the beginning of December... Now I been pretty much out of the loop on comics since around the time they brought ol'Hal Jordon back, I've read a couple of things in between but been mainly out of it so what do you chaps suggest I put on the ol'list for TPBs... I figured I'll write up a huge list and have them(various family) pick and choose what to get me...

Here some trades/hardcovers I was thinking about requesting:

-Best of Wolverine Vol. 1 (Hardcover)
-Fantastic Four Vol. 1 (Hardcover) by MARK WAID
-Green Arrow/Green Lantern Vol. 1
-Green Lantern: Road Back
-Captain America Omnibus by Ed Brubaker
-Jack Kirby’s New Gods Omnibus Vol. 1
-New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract
-52: Vol. 1
-DC Universe: Stories of Alan Moore
-Swamp Thing Vol 6: Reunion
-Peter David Hulk Vol. 3
-Daredevil Frank Miller Omnibus
---

[CaptainCanada]

-Captain America Omnibus by Ed Brubaker
-DC Universe: Stories of Alan Moore

Those are the best ones there.

The New Gods Omnibus and Waid Fantastic Four were also quality.

[Elijya]

-Fantastic Four Vol. 1 (Hardcover) by MARK WAID
-Captain America Omnibus by Ed Brubaker
-DC Universe: Stories of Alan Moore
-Daredevil Frank Miller Omnibus
---

These get my endorsement

[Movies205]

I was hoping for some suggestions of things that are good... To be honest I like pretty much everything though I have most of what's considered cannon for comics ala Marvels (Thanks Elijya :heart:), Dark Knight Returns, Year One, Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Watchmen, Green Lantern Emerald Dawn & Twilight, Kingdom Come, and various other books that adorn my shelf. Perhaps it's time for the more obscure but I'm kind of in the mood to get back into superheros and comics after the heavy college reading I been doing for the past year and a half...

[Elijya]

you're welcome, old buddy


Have you checked out Invincible yet? I haven't chatted with you in awhile so I don't remember everything you read. Invincible is my #1 rec, and Walking Dead is incredible. Fell will blow you away, and I always give a shout out to the Vertigo line, particularly Fables

[Movies205]

I really need to start reading more Vertigo... I bought the first trade of Y: THe Last Man a while ago loved it, never bought another one :( Read the first trade to Fables, loved it... Never read another one :( I haven't been around the comic section in ages... The Invisible looks good but it better be better than Kirkman's run on Marvel Team Up(I remember reading the first 3-5 issues and thinking it was lame). I'll put it on the list because the hardcover is 400 pages for like 27 bucks on Amazon.com good deal! How's 52? I love continuity perhaps I should pick up GL Corps? Is Winick still on Green Arrow? I see he finally buried the Outsiders to the point where they brought back Batman, that's disheartening :(

[Elijya]

The Invisibles is different from Invincible. Invisibles is a trippy vertigo book by Grant Morrison, Invincible is good old fashioned fun superheroics. The hardcover is definitely the way to go with it though. If you just read the first and second soft cover, you might still think it's lame, but by the time you get to the third one you'll be on the edge of your seat. (The hardcover contains the first three softcovers). Fables is the most satisfying read out there, so I definitely say pick that one back up.

52 is good if you're a big DC, it juggles alot of stories at once but there's not alot of focus on more major characters.

They canceled Green Arrow and have relaunched it as Black Canary and Green Arrow, which Winnick is still writing.

The big thing with GL right now is the Sinestro Corps story arc. That'll be together in trade in a few months and is well worth getting (I assume you read GL: Rebirth, right?)

[GNR]

The way they're collecting S Corps is annoying.There was a solicit for the first trade and it was a mess.I thought they would come out with a trade of all the Johns/Reis issues together but that's not the case.

[TheCorpulent1]

GL Corps is a highly recommendable read. It's been an excellent series, from the Recharge mini straight through the ongoing series. Its portions of the Sinestro Corps crossover have been far better than the regular GL title's portions, too. Buy it. Love it.

[Movies205]

Winnick can't sustain a comic for long before it goes to suck, it starts out good and then turns to suck :( Seriously City Walls was one of my favorite GA stories... Then it got all preachy :( So I guess I'll wait till Winnick leaves the title before I read about my favorite character again... How was GA: Year One?


Yeah I read GL: Rebirth that's about the time I stopped buying regularly. What's happen to Kyle Ratner, I really liked his GL. Also is Planet Hulk: HC worth getting as well? I was also thinking of Welcome Back Frank HC as well...

I need to pick up some Hellblazer TPBs as well as Ex Machina(Which I loved back when I was reading it). I like the Space stuff hence my interesting the New Gods Omnibus. Peter David's Run on Captain Marvel (Own both Vol. 3 and 4 by the way) was awesome though that's Marvel.

[TheCorpulent1]

If you're into space stuff, GL Corps is what you need. Kyle's in Recharge, but they took him out of the main series initially to do Ion. The Ion mini-series started off slow, but it got pretty good around the middle and stayed good to the end. Then there's the Sinestro Corps crossover which, if you're a Kyle fan, you'd probably be better off skipping. :( But he's supposed to finally rejoin the cast of GL Corps after the Sinestro Corps crossover finally ends, so that's even more incentive to pick it up. :)

Oh, and if you haven't read Adam Strange: Planet Heist or Mystery in Space, do it now.

[Movies205]

If you're into space stuff, GL Corps is what you need. Kyle's in Recharge, but they took him out of the main series initially to do Ion. The Ion mini-series started off slow, but it got pretty good around the middle and stayed good to the end. Then there's the Sinestro Corps crossover which, if you're a Kyle fan, you'd probably be better off skipping. :( But he's supposed to finally rejoin the cast of GL Corps after the Sinestro Corps crossover finally ends, so that's even more incentive to pick it up. :)

Oh, and if you haven't read Adam Strange: Planet Heist or Mystery in Space, do it now.

I'll have to this Ion series but I never read the first one(there was a previous story I assume.)

[masteryoda]

Yeah, the Sinestro Corp stuff is all gold. :up:


I just finished the Kree Skrull War trade and that was a steaming pile of poo. I couldn't believe how much of a let down that was. There wasn't even a war!!:huh: :huh:

:csad:

[TheCorpulent1]

I remember the Kree/Shi'ar War in Operation: Galactic Storm was pretty good. It also had an earlier ideological clash between Cap and Iron Man.
I'll have to this Ion series but I never read the first one(there was a previous story I assume.)
There was an arc in Kyle's GL series where he absorbed the power Hal had as Parallax and became godlike. He changed his costume and called himself Ion then. But he gave up those powers to recreate the Guardians, and then went back to regular GL status.

During Infinite Crisis, Jade died and merged her power with Kyle's. Kyle's costume changed again and he went back to calling himself Ion, only this time he wasn't nearly as godlike. This Ion is the version that's in the series called Ion. But you don't really need to know too much to read Ion. The whole thing is basically a mystery that unfolds over the course of the series.

[yenaled]

I've recently read and enjoyed;

Avengers Forever, Batman: Mad Monk, Batman: Dark Victory, Avengers Assemble Vol.1 & Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

I have Avengers Assemble Vol.2. to read next - I hear Ultron Unlimited is very good.

My new commute to work has provided a lot of reading time :D

Avengers Forever; lived up to the hype - really was one of the best stories I've read. I couldn't put it down. Looking forward to the rest of Buisek's Avengers runs in the hardbacks - I really enjoyed the Wonder Man story in the first trade and look forward to what comes next.

[Elijya]

You might enjoy the Captain Marvel series that spun out of Avengers Forever.

[yenaled]

You might enjoy the Captain Marvel series that spun out of Avengers Forever.

Yeah I've been thinking of tracking that down. I'm really interested in the Rick Jones/Genis thing.

[TheCorpulent1]

Peter David's Captain Marvel series was great. It had some ups and downs, but mostly it was up. :up:

[Prognosticator]

Well, during my lunchbreak I finished a couple of Trades I've been reading during my spare time at work.

The first was Marvel: Zombies. It was really fun & light, lots of humor mixed with attention to detail, in terms of Zombieness. The artwork really sold the story, so all-in-all it was a good-time had during this Halloween season. But in conclusion, this falls under my theory that Marvel screws readers with their prices. I paid $20 for the Hardback, and it was only a measily 5 issues. :down

In stark contrast, I finished volume 2 of 7 Soldiers of Victory. :up: It's BLOWING MY SOCKS OFF! Again, I've had these trades forever, but just never made the time to read them. I'm totally enveloped though, and it's been a joy to read! Volumes 3 & 4, ordered last week, should be arriving any day. And in comparison to Marvel Zombies costing me $20 at the local comic shop, I paid $22 for BOTH vol.3 & 4 of 7 Soldiers on Overstock.com :up: :up:

Both recommended reads, but Marvel gets a downgrade for overpricing their product just because they're the #1 company. :cmad:

[Sparta*]

Yeah Marvel Zombies was a pretty awesome read. I didn't like how they ate the Silver Surfer though. I ordered 7 Soldiers of Victory Vol.1 but it hasen't arrived yet...you got me really excited for it though!!!

[GNR]

Finally finished Johns/Rags run on Hawkman.I've always been a fan of the character but never owned any comics of him.I'm glad I got my hands on these meaty trades,3 in total.It's all here,old school far off adventure,brutal action.good characterization and drama.I'd recommend this run to anyone looking to get into the character.

-The last page of Wings of Fury is madness
-the bashing of the burglar was insane,that dude didn't have a chance
-loved the middle pieces in Germany and Kahndaq,the whole thing with the gravestones is cool,the scenes with Black Adam were very natural and within the story,doesn't really require you to pick up Black Reign
-Headhunter effing up the grave scrolls was rude

I just re-read book 3 again today,and cannot believe Johns doesn't get enough love for what he and Rags did with this book.Amazing run that has everything.

[GNR]

Green Arrow Longbow Hunters by Grell

Thor:Ragnarok by Oeming/DiVitto

thoughts later

[Addendum]

Currently reading The Compleat Moonshadow.

Trades I just bought: Fables Volumes 1-4.

Trades I ordered: The Essential Moon Knight Volumes 1 and 2.

Trades I'll pick up next week after I finish what I'm reading: Fables Volumes 5-8.

[GNR]

Green Arrow Longbow Hunters by Grell

Thor:Ragnarok by Oeming/DiVitto

thoughts later

Green Arrow - Highly recommended for any other Ollie Queen fans out there.More of a realistic/non superhero world vibe filled with fatcats and street thugs.The writing is far from dated and Grell's artwork is gorgeous in this.Love the angle he took with Ollie wanting to settle down and not being the motormouth he usually is,but we all love him for it.If you liked low key stories like Batman/Huntress:Cry For Blood,this is definitely up your alley.A shame that run the followed isn't collected,after reading this,I'm eager to see how that went.

Thor - Epic,epic,epic.I could see where some people might be a bit peeved of the lack of BIG BATTLE ending,but then you're missing the whole point of the story.Strong and bold dialog all throughout,epic battles and dire consequences,it's all here.Oeming delivers as he did with Blood Oath and Ares in writing these mythical characters.

[Arkady Rossovich]

I ordered DC Universe-The Stories Of Alan Moore.

I bought this,mostly because i don't have any of the works.I think it's worth it,especially because i got it for half price.I should get it any day now..

[JewishHobbit]

Has anyone read Cowboys and Aliens out of curiosity? I saw it at my shop and it just kinda caught my eye.

[Manic]

Does anyone happen to know when the first trade volume of Joss Whedon's run on Runaways will come out? I only keep up with that book in trades, and the wait is driving me crazy.

[TheCorpulent1]

Whedon's run is short enough to fit into just one trade, and the issues themselves have had huge delays. We're still waiting on the last issue and an annual to come out. After that, the trade will probably be released within a month.

I read the Silver Surfer OGN Judgment Day yesterday. Pretty good stuff. It's kind of experimental in that it's a series of full-page illustrations treated as normal comic panels, with dialogue and narration boxes and all that junk. Lee and Buscema pull it off really well, so it doesn't feel like some kind of precursor to Image's ****ty '90s comics. John Buscema's art is unbelievably awesome and emotive, especially with Nova (Frankie Raye, not Rich). It's kind of a cool insight into the earlier days of Galactus and the Silver Surfer's relationship, and it finally let me know why the hell Mephisto was so hot for the Surfer's soul back in the '80s. (Interesting side note: Mephisto is totally treated as THE Devil here. He tells Galactus that there's only one being who can possibly challenge his power and everything.)

[GNR]

The Ultimates 2 HC

An amazing read when read in one sitting.Epic,grand,widescreen theatrics at its finest.The politics are handled really well here.You can't help but get chills during scenes like the super soldier protest in Italy,the assault on NYC or Thor's takedown and its parallels to the fall of Christ.

Along with the first HC,these are very stand alone stories which require little to no knowledge of the UMU.

Pretty package as well.

[ampersand]

So I just finished the first two volumes and am starting on the third of The Invisibles and I honestly don't really know what to think. There have been points where I thought it was fantastic, but I haven't been reading as closely as I should so I think I'm not getting the full picture yet. I'm going to have to read some stuff over before I can give a full review.

Definitely an interesting read though.

[Addendum]

For me, it took at least 2 read throughs of the entire series to attempt to get an understanding of what the hell is going on. Even then, every time I read it I get a headache trying to wrap my mind around it.

As for my recent purchases, I received a copy of The Essential Moon Knight Vols 1 and 2 about a month ago, picked up Volumes 5-8 of Fables, and just today got a copy of Volume 9 of Fables and 1001 Nights of Snowfall.

[Elijya]

Addicting, ain't it? (Fables, I mean)

[Addendum]

Very. At least I read the first book on a day off from work, just so I could have an idea if I liked it.

When I finished reading it, I bought it and Volumes 2-4 that day. Then a week later, 5-8.

[Sparta*]

I have Fables Vol.1, are you telling me not to read it until I have enough money for volumes 2-8? lol :p

[Anubis]

Sounds like a good plan if you ask me.

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, you really can't go wrong just buying all the trades at once. :up:

[Anubis]

Of course if you're one of those hopeless lames who don't like it, then you'd have just wasted your money.

[TheCorpulent1]

But if you don't like Fables, you deserve it.

[Anubis]

That's the way I feel about it.

[TheCorpulent1]

Sort of like recommending Preacher to a devout Catholic. I'd recommend they buy all of those trades at once, too. If they like it, great. If they hate it, I get some satisfaction from knowing that the whole series is sitting there, burning its heathen hole in their bookcase. :)

[Anubis]

Yeah, there's nothing like the promotion of sacrilege to the faithful.

[TheCorpulent1]

It sometimes makes me giddy.

[Anubis]

...In the pants.

[TheCorpulent1]

It's like you're reading my mind.

[Sparta*]

Whats so sacriligious about Preacher? i've never read it

[PhotoJones]

Whats so sacriligious about Preacher?

No way. :dry:

[Sparta*]

No way. :dry:

relax. I'm asking because...i'll repeat it below


i've never read or seen it

[TheCorpulent1]

Pretty much everything about Preacher is sacreligious. Read it and find out for yourself. It's one of the best things Garth Ennis has ever written.

[PhotoJones]

relax. I'm asking because...i'll repeat it below

i've never read or seen it

I just have a hard time believing that you've never heard of it, or know nothing about it. There are obviously plenty of things that I've not read or seen, but I am aware of them and know what they are.

[Sparta*]

Knowing who they are and knowing the particular details of comic happenings are very different things. I know of Preacher, but not his sacriligious deeds inparticular that you guys are talking about.

[Sparta*]

I'm just starting to get into the Vertigo/Wildstorm/Image/Darkhorse universes, and my knowledge on those characters are mostly superficial until I actually read about them. I bought a bunch of non-comic trades to get me into the swing of things

-Sin City archive editions
-300
-Ronin
-Planetary Vol.1
-V for Vendetta
-Watchmen
-Jonah Hex: Face full of Violence
-Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol.1
-Fables Vol.1
-Astro City
-Swamp Thing vol.1
-Ninja Scroll Vol.1
-30 days of Night
-Goon Vol.1
-Hellboy Vol.1
-Invincible Vol.1
-Neverwhere Vol.1

I have a good amount more non-comic tpb's but I just can't remember now.


- edit - sorry for the double post

[TheCorpulent1]

How are those non-comic TPBs? Hellboy, 30 Days of Night, Fables, Jonah Hex, and almost all of those others are all trades of comic series.

[Sparta*]

I meant non spandex superhero stereotypical tpb's

[TheCorpulent1]

Hmm. Telling...

[Elijya]

I'm just starting to get into the Vertigo/Wildstorm/Image/Darkhorse universes, and my knowledge on those characters are mostly superficial until I actually read about them. I bought a bunch of non-comic trades to get me into the swing of things

-Sin City archive editions
-300
-Ronin
-Planetary Vol.1
-V for Vendetta
-Watchmen
-Jonah Hex: Face full of Violence
-Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol.1
-Fables Vol.1
-Astro City
-Swamp Thing vol.1
-Ninja Scroll Vol.1
-30 days of Night
-Goon Vol.1
-Hellboy Vol.1
-Invincible Vol.1
-Neverwhere Vol.1

I have a good amount more non-comic tpb's but I just can't remember now.


- edit - sorry for the double post

Glad to hear you're branching out, Sparta, that's a pretty good selection. I'd just like to add a couple of disclaimers or some info you may or may not already know.

-I Love Fables. Love it, love it, love it. But I will admit that the first trade is a little weak, so if you finish it and are like "Meh", stick with it, because it gets a WHOLE lot better.

-For the most part, there isn't much of a Vertigo or Dark Horse "Universe", nearly all of the titles they have ever published exist in there own separate worlds. The main exceptions are Vertigo's Sandman, Lucifer, Hellblazer, and Swamp Thing, which are all technically in the DC universe, although they rarely interact. Image and Wildstorm each publish some books that are in a shared universe, but also alot of others that are there own thing, like Ex Machina.

I'm also a big fan of Invincible, but I usually recommend people getting the first hardcover instead of the first softcover, which I'm betting you probably got. For one thing, it's cheaper alltogether (The HC collects the same issue the first THREE softcovers do) but it also has to do with the story. By the time you get to the end of the first softcover, you'll probably see it as a fun little superhero book, but nothing too special. Once you get to the end of the first Hardcover/third softcover, you're going to be addicted because that's where the series' actual premise comes in, and it's a doozy. Also, the artist on the book changes in the first couple of issues, so if you don't like the art ont he first book, another guy comes in in the next volume.

-On Preacher - if you find yourself a fan of, I guess I'll call them bad-ass books like Hellboy, 300, Jonah Hex or Goon, then yes, do look into Preacher. As long as you don't have easily offended sensibilities, you'll get a kick out of it.

[Addendum]

I have Fables Vol.1, are you telling me not to read it until I have enough money for volumes 2-8? lol :p

I'm just saying if you like it after you finish the first book, money will sprout wings and soar out of your wallet into the cash drawer of your local bookstore or comic book shop, while you fill out your Fables collection.

It's almost like an addict doing anything they can to get another fix. But Fables is only harmful if swallowed, or you try to smoke it.

[Anubis]

I learned my lesson with Preacher, take your time. They'll be there. I read the first three, then immediately went out and bought the next five. I think it kinda took a bit outta the story for me. Too much awesome at once. Sensory overload. Plus I had to make another trip to the blood and sperm bank to make it though the week. :o

[Sparta*]

Glad to hear you're branching out, Sparta, that's a pretty good selection. I'd just like to add a couple of disclaimers or some info you may or may not already know.

-I Love Fables. Love it, love it, love it. But I will admit that the first trade is a little weak, so if you finish it and are like "Meh", stick with it, because it gets a WHOLE lot better.

-For the most part, there isn't much of a Vertigo or Dark Horse "Universe", nearly all of the titles they have ever published exist in there own separate worlds. The main exceptions are Vertigo's Sandman, Lucifer, Hellblazer, and Swamp Thing, which are all technically in the DC universe, although they rarely interact. Image and Wildstorm each publish some books that are in a shared universe, but also alot of others that are there own thing, like Ex Machina.

I'm also a big fan of Invincible, but I usually recommend people getting the first hardcover instead of the first softcover, which I'm betting you probably got. For one thing, it's cheaper alltogether (The HC collects the same issue the first THREE softcovers do) but it also has to do with the story. By the time you get to the end of the first softcover, you'll probably see it as a fun little superhero book, but nothing too special. Once you get to the end of the first Hardcover/third softcover, you're going to be addicted because that's where the series' actual premise comes in, and it's a doozy. Also, the artist on the book changes in the first couple of issues, so if you don't like the art ont he first book, another guy comes in in the next volume.

-On Preacher - if you find yourself a fan of, I guess I'll call them bad-ass books like Hellboy, 300, Jonah Hex or Goon, then yes, do look into Preacher. As long as you don't have easily offended sensibilities, you'll get a kick out of it.

Thanks man :up: Your reccomendations are one of the main reasons I decided to give all these other books a shot and from what i've seen so far i'm definatley happy I did. Don't get me wrong, superhero trades are awesome but sometimes it's cool to read a good mystery or some horror.

I've heard to many good things about Fables to give up on it. Even if I find the first book to be a little slow or whatever i'm sure i'll end up getting the second one...the premise just seems to original and interesting to pass it up and the amount of people that like Fables is uncanny.

I was wondering which Vertigo characters actually called the DC universe their home, and you just answered that question! Sandman, Hellblazer, and I guess now Lucifer are on my list of future purchases. I didn't know Image and Wildstorm published some books with a shared universe, that's quite interesting. Can you recommend some good ones? i've heard good things about Ex Machina as well and I do plan on picking that up in the future.

Yeah, unfortunatley I got the first softcover of Invincible instead of the Hardcover. If I knew I would have got the HC! oh well, live and learn I guess. If I dig the books which i'm sure I will, i'll just get the HC instead of the second and third tpb's! I really liked the artwork in the first book, I thought it was original. How does the artwork later on in the series compare? I'm sure it's even better. I'm going to stick with each of these books until at least the second or third volume so I can fully make an opinion.

Yeah, I'm a huge fan of Miller so I guess it would be natural to say i'm a fan of 'bad-ass' books lol like you said, Sin City and 300 are pretty rough and i've thoroughly enjoyed what i've read of those books so far so i'm sure I'd like Preacher. I am a catholic but i'm not too hardcore about it and I won't go around complaining or imposing my beliefs on others so with that said i'm sure I can handle whatever Preacher throws at me.

Anyway, thanks for posting recomendations guys, I may not post here a lot but I do read what you guys think of books and base my purchases largely on that. I will let you guys know what I think of some of these books as I read them

[Sparta*]

I'm just saying if you like it after you finish the first book, money will sprout wings and soar out of your wallet into the cash drawer of your local bookstore or comic book shop, while you fill out your Fables collection.

It's almost like an addict doing anything they can to get another fix. But Fables is only harmful if swallowed, or you try to smoke it.

hahaha I know that bitter-sweet song all too well with Marvel and DC trades lol i've spent far too much on them. Now that i'm getting into other companies trades I know i've opened another black hole that will never be satisfied (oh the horrors and wonders of being an OCD geek)

Instead of the money sprouting wings and soaring out of my wallet it will be my visa sprouting wings and soaring online to cheaper comic vendors. I love my local comic shop and I do go there a lot but if I bought all my books from them i'd be bankrupt right now (considering they can be found for 1/3 the price online)

I learned my lesson with Preacher, take your time. They'll be there. I read the first three, then immediately went out and bought the next five. I think it kinda took a bit outta the story for me. Too much awesome at once. Sensory overload. Plus I had to make another trip to the blood and sperm bank to make it though the week.

hahaha you almost made me spit cappucino at my monitor with the sperm and blood comment Anubis lol I'll take your word for it though because you seem a lot more versed in Preacher then I am. I guess it'd be like reading all the sin city's from beginning to end or worse :p

[GNR]

Planetary Vol.1-3 is a must.Might want to check out the Authority by Ellis as well,which is in 2 trades.

Astro City you can't go wrong with.

[Elijya]

I was wondering which Vertigo characters actually called the DC universe their home, and you just answered that question! Sandman, Hellblazer, and I guess now Lucifer are on my list of future purchases. I didn't know Image and Wildstorm published some books with a shared universe, that's quite interesting. Can you recommend some good ones? i've heard good things about Ex Machina as well and I do plan on picking that up in the future.


I've actually read very little Hellblazer, Swamp thing or Lucifer, so I can't vouch for their quality (although obviously alot of people like them) I was just pointing out that they're in the DCU.

Here's a list of Wildstorm titles. Everything in the big column on the left is in the same universe, anything in other sections is in its own universe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wildstorm_titles

Image is alot bigger so I'd have to write out by hand what books are shared universe and which aren't