Are you thinking about what you bought? 10/14 - SPOILERS

[JewishHobbit]

You do have a point there; SHADOWLAND #4 did have some good Spider-Man moments. He was the one who, so far, put up the best fight against the beast-possessed Daredevil, even more so than Iron Fist, Shang Chi and even Wolverine (gasp). It makes sense, of course; Spidey only seems "weak" alongside heavy weights like Thor or Iron Man, but with street heroes he's damn mighty. He's also tangled with Typhoid Mary before. I think she manifested her most powerful and psycho personality, "Bloody Mary", when she was fighting against him once.

Yup... Spectacular Spider-Man just prior to the Clone Saga. Those were the days when Spider-Man was actually Spider-Man. Miss them

As for I AM AN AVENGER, I do agree that Marvel's last slew of anthology mini's have been better than their last stab at MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS or ASTONISHING TALES. I don't have any sales figures for I AM AN AVENGER #1 yet (as Sept. 2010's sales are just being hinted at; sadly, WOLVERINE #1 was the top seller of the month), but AGE OF HEROES actually sold pretty well for what it was; I think it debuted within the Top 60 or so and every issue at least sold within the Top 100, which is better than can be said for some ongoing titles.

I've just never understood this whole new appraoch to anthologies of late. Throw them together with characters that are medicre at best and stories with little relevance and expect it to sell?!

I thought their newer MCP series had promise by showcasing Weapon Omega. Yeah, not a very popular character but he was a new one that's made some influence in New Avengers and Omega Flight so that was a good start (though slightly too long of a story I think)... but if memory serves the other main story was Vanguard or some team that's not been squat in years... decades possibly. And then the smaller stories were unimportant. That's not enough to land a readership.

I felt that Astonishing had a similar thing. A decent Wolverine/Punisher (it was Punisher wasn't it) pairing but then the threats were just kinda bleh... and I don't remember skimming anything else of much importance.

The newest two are better on getting stories and characters that matter but then they throw those mini stories that are a page or two and it's just wasted material in my eyes. If anything give both story slots to one story and make something worth it. There's an occassional decent story told in a page or two but it's not often.

I think of them all I Am An Avenger has done the best job so far. I'd like to see something more though. Sure, keep the rediculous pricetag but add to it and make it a larger comics (double sized or a little less) and put in more material, characters, storeis, etc. And no more than 2 or 3 part stories between them. I think that would sell. You may not get people coming in issue after issue for those 8 issue stories (that result in about 2 issues in length give or take) but I think you'd have more people coming for certain stories here and there so you'd have more people trying it out regularly than just for the first issue or two and then ditching it.

I don't know... I'm not the best at this stuff but I think that'd work well and I'd like to see it.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The funny thing is that Fraction wrote three decent Thor one-shots about a couple years ago that I enjoyed quite a bit.

Well, he wrote a great modern Thor story in Thor God Size. The other one-shots were all other versions of Thor--coincidentally (?) all younger, more arrogant, total *****ebag versions of Thor. So now I'm wondering if he just thinks that's how Thor actually is, completely ignoring the fact that Thor's whole schtick is that he was supposed to evolve past the arrogant, obnoxious dick into a truly noble, wise warrior-leader.

 

[THANOSRULES]

Major Victory is one character i root for becuase i'm stunned he hasnt been killed off.

Really was it 2 years ago when i thought he was there for a good arc or so...yet he still lingers...now i ****ing rock for him.

 

[JewishHobbit]

I'm getting into the same boat with you on that, and the same for Jack Flag. They're so cannon fodder characters that just keep ticking. I assumed they'd both die during the War of Kings. In fact, I assumed that's why Jack was even brought in. But they lived through it and so I assumed they'd die in Thanos Imperative and so far they still live. So now I'm rooting for them both (despite the fact that Jack's been missing since the first issue).

 

[Dread]

Yup... Spectacular Spider-Man just prior to the Clone Saga. Those were the days when Spider-Man was actually Spider-Man. Miss them

I do, too. It's easy to dismiss a lot of 90's comics from Marvel, but not all of them were bad. Some of them are perfectly fine, at least before the mid 90's.

I've just never understood this whole new appraoch to anthologies of late. Throw them together with characters that are medicre at best and stories with little relevance and expect it to sell?!

I thought their newer MCP series had promise by showcasing Weapon Omega. Yeah, not a very popular character but he was a new one that's made some influence in New Avengers and Omega Flight so that was a good start (though slightly too long of a story I think)... but if memory serves the other main story was Vanguard or some team that's not been squat in years... decades possibly. And then the smaller stories were unimportant. That's not enough to land a readership.

I felt that Astonishing had a similar thing. A decent Wolverine/Punisher (it was Punisher wasn't it) pairing but then the threats were just kinda bleh... and I don't remember skimming anything else of much importance.

The newest two are better on getting stories and characters that matter but then they throw those mini stories that are a page or two and it's just wasted material in my eyes. If anything give both story slots to one story and make something worth it. There's an occassional decent story told in a page or two but it's not often.

I think of them all I Am An Avenger has done the best job so far. I'd like to see something more though. Sure, keep the rediculous pricetag but add to it and make it a larger comics (double sized or a little less) and put in more material, characters, storeis, etc. And no more than 2 or 3 part stories between them. I think that would sell. You may not get people coming in issue after issue for those 8 issue stories (that result in about 2 issues in length give or take) but I think you'd have more people coming for certain stories here and there so you'd have more people trying it out regularly than just for the first issue or two and then ditching it.

I don't know... I'm not the best at this stuff but I think that'd work well and I'd like to see it.

Yeah, the last MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS left more to be desired overall, but there were some good stories there. There was a Stingray story that was actually pretty fun. The Hellcat one was a bit madcap. The Omega Flight one had it's moments, but was mostly a misfire.

ASTONISHING TALES #1 just didn't wow me enough to commit to it at that price.

The AGE OF HEROES and I AM AN AVENGER have been stronger. Until this issue, all of the stories were done in one, so for better or worse every issue was different, and it couldn't be easily predicted. True, AGE OF HEROES was often promoting other stuff, but the stories still were occasionally vital. TASKMASTER #1 picks up right after his story in AGE OF HEROES #3 I believe. And AGE OF HEROES #2 was actually very essential for YOUNG ALLIES #1, as it sets up why Gravity has become so bitter about the Bastards Of Evil.

I haven't minded some of the 2 page stories, or the 1 page ones. The last one Dan Slott did with having Cloud 9 gasp in glee about the end of having to be registered was pretty cool. And naturally, I liked any MI-13 material Cornell got to write before he left for DC. And I don't care what anyone says; I loved D-Man in "Pie Of The Tiger" this week. But, comedy is often subjective and personal. I may not get the appeal of PET AVENGERS, but others do. Much as I imagine some people might go, "Dread liked the D-Man story? And he bashed SCOTT PILGRIM? What a hypocrite!"

I don't know...I may be weird, but I have to say that was the only D-Man story I read that I liked.

I do agree on the main point, though. AGE OF HEROES and I AM AN AVENGER all tell stories that "matter", especially if they're about characters who don't have their own series. And that's good. I've reached the point in my fandom that I actually like a lot of those often forgotten B, C, and D list characters, sometimes more than the bigger ones. I mean, a great Greg Rucka Steve Rogers story is still great, but doing a good D-Man story? That sort of wins a brownie point from me. I mean, why else am I enjoying SHADOWLAND: BLOOD ON THE STREETS? It has characters like Shroud and Paladin there, and is treating them like main characters.

Major Victory is one character i root for becuase i'm stunned he hasnt been killed off.

Really was it 2 years ago when i thought he was there for a good arc or so...yet he still lingers...now i ****ing rock for him.

I probably like Jack Flag more, but I do agree. Major Victory has hung in there when quite a few of us saw him as an "easy kill" since he was lost from time and didn't seem to do much. And he still hasn't done a whole lot. All he's done in THANOS IMPERATIVE is get captured, talk to Namorita to help establish a plot point, and eventually beam Nova into the Fault. Still, that's more than Flag, Groot, or Moondragon have done (and Moondragon was an Avenger, one of the Infinity Watch, and a Defender in her day).

He took out that head woman for the Universal Church of Truth towards the end of the GOTG run, and Gamora sort of got hot for him after that.

Abnett & Lanning probably figured they couldn't call a book GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and not have at least one member from the original team on it, so they've stuck with Maj. Victory.

 

[JewishHobbit]

I do, too. It's easy to dismiss a lot of 90's comics from Marvel, but not all of them were bad. Some of them are perfectly fine, at least before the mid 90's.

Granted, I only really read Spider-Man and X-Men thoroughly in the 90's but I loved them both through out. Spider-Man was good from previous through the end of the Clone Saga and even a tad bit after. That book didn't tank for me until May came back. Then it died until Strac came on then tanked after his run again. X-Men was great for me pretty much until somewhere around the end of Morrison's run. His run was great but it killed the genre afterwords worse than M-Day ever did in my opinion.

It's one thing to lose a lot of mutants due to M-Day, it's another to kill the family dynamic of the team, and Morrison did it so well that Marvel doesn't even feel it should be family-like anymore, which is wrong.

I haven't minded some of the 2 page stories, or the 1 page ones. The last one Dan Slott did with having Cloud 9 gasp in glee about the end of having to be registered was pretty cool. And naturally, I liked any MI-13 material Cornell got to write before he left for DC. And I don't care what anyone says; I loved D-Man in "Pie Of The Tiger" this week. But, comedy is often subjective and personal. I may not get the appeal of PET AVENGERS, but others do. Much as I imagine some people might go, "Dread liked the D-Man story? And he bashed SCOTT PILGRIM? What a hypocrite!"

I don't know...I may be weird, but I have to say that was the only D-Man story I read that I liked.

I actually liked the D-Man story and I even liked the Jarvis story but, personally, I'd have prefered those 3 or so pages to be something more important. They're likely still just throw away stories that I won't even remember a year from now. I'd rather have a 3 page story of... I don't know... Young Avenger Vision computing how to live up to the expecations of his predicessor or something.

 

[Dread]

Granted, I only really read Spider-Man and X-Men thoroughly in the 90's but I loved them both through out. Spider-Man was good from previous through the end of the Clone Saga and even a tad bit after. That book didn't tank for me until May came back. Then it died until Strac came on then tanked after his run again. X-Men was great for me pretty much until somewhere around the end of Morrison's run. His run was great but it killed the genre afterwords worse than M-Day ever did in my opinion.

It's one thing to lose a lot of mutants due to M-Day, it's another to kill the family dynamic of the team, and Morrison did it so well that Marvel doesn't even feel it should be family-like anymore, which is wrong.

Morrison's X-Men run had a lot of very good ideas. I didn't think he executed all of them well, and tended to write the X-Men as being a bit colder in combat. I didn't think every aspect of his run should have been torn up root and stem, though, as Marvel mostly did.

M-Day robbed the X-Men mythos of the central metaphor. You can't have a viable minority of you number less than a Facebook fan-page. Even with Hope finding 5 new mutants, and not counting some in AVENGERS ACADEMY who are obviously mutants in everything but name, like Veil and Mettle, quite a few of the 198 or whatever died recently, so you still have 300, which wouldn't even suffice for a major concert audience. Without that, many X-Men stories not only don't work, but can't be attempted.

The reason the X-Books are so swarmed because there is this idea that if you only have about 300 mutants left, and Cyclops wants to protect them, then you need to have them all in once place and you need a list of them and they all need to show up in mass group panels and some have to talk sometimes. Thus, the idea of just having a team of 7 X-Men out going on adventures is hampered by that. You can't do that when every story is about the real possibility of every mutant on earth being killed, because there are less of them than narwhals or pandas. Or Eternals. Or even Inhumans. The X-Men have basically replaced the Inhumans, and I don't think that works. The fact that no writer since M-Day has made things work I think I very, very telling. Not only has no writer made it work, but several high profile writers HAVE TOLD THE WORST STORIES OF THEIR CAREERS while trying to work on the X-Men. That screams of a backwards editorial landscape.

Bob Harras was EIC of the X-Men during that time, and soon the entire Marvel Universe as of about 1995-1996. If anything, he was usually a guy who focused on story. AGE OF APOCALYPSE was very much a story idea. He is, of course, the new EIC of DC Comics.

As for Spidey comics, for me they went downhill during the Clone Saga, and never really recovered.

The loss of the "family" dynamic to the X-Men and the poor writing of many characters just comes down to lax editors who don't give a spit about maintaining an overall legacy and universe. Which is nothing new of the Joe Quesada era, that favors creators above all else. The other problem is that the X-Men are given no time where they aren't all being slaughtered or tormented or being faced with certain death that any sort of character interaction can really happen. As soon as the tsunami ends, the earthquake begins, and after they survive that, in comes the tornado.

I actually liked the D-Man story and I even liked the Jarvis story but, personally, I'd have prefered those 3 or so pages to be something more important. They're likely still just throw away stories that I won't even remember a year from now. I'd rather have a 3 page story of... I don't know... Young Avenger Vision computing how to live up to the expecations of his predicessor or something.

Hey now, seeing how Jarvis handles dealing with a lot of Avengers again isn't a throwaway story.

I get your point, but that seems to be the format of the anthologies. 23 story pages; the lead story will be 10-12 pages long. The secondary story will be 7-9 pages long. Then you will have a 2 page story and a 1 page story, which is usually more comedic.

In theory, Vision Jr. is in AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE, and the Young Avengers got the lead story in I AM AN AVENGER #1. If any of the YA could use some exposure, it's Hulkling, Speed, and maybe Patriot by this point.

Although it might be cute if we had like a group session with all the current robot heroes. So you'd have Jocasta there, along with Vision II, Jim Hammond (freshly resurrected, but with some amnesia), M-11 (being silent as always), Machine Man, and maybe HERBIE and even Machine Teen if someone wanted to be fancy. And Vision II is trying to figure out how to be his own being while living up to his programming from the "Victor Shade" Vision, while Jocasta is trying to lead the session while having to give excuses to Ultron for why he can't show up and enslave everyone. Hammond can give his "the day I killed Hitler" speech and everyone can ask him where his beard went. M-11 would just sit there. Machine Man would probably make some fleshie reference, and Jocasta would ask when his circuits were damaged. And Machine Teen could be downloading the latest patch to become a robot vampire, since that's what all the teenagers are into these days - his schtick could be downloading whatever it is that teenagers like to ape that. So he would have spent a few years as a robot wizard, and now would be a robot vampire, and maybe in a few years he'll be a robot zombie. And someone could ask how he knows he is really a robot and not just a normal teenager, since they're all mindless robots anyway, and he can talk about the day he found his CPU in his chest. And everyone can drink some oil so long as M-11 is the designated driver.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Hmm... Cosmic robot Hulk can be the bouncer while Madison Jeffries can be doing something dirty watching from outside the window and be caught by the jealous Danger, who was running late.

 

[Phaedrus45]

I guess I'll be looking forward to the weekend to read my comics now. I had even planned on taking off Friday from subbing to take my son to Jackass 3D; but, a half day at an elementary school came up...and, something told me to just go in and do it. I'm glad I did. The kids said I was "the best substitute they ever had," and three even made me small posters saying I was awesome. And, my son and I just went to the last showing of the day with the movie. (It was funny...but, the second movie was much more funny...and, the 3D was a waste of extra money.)

Echo #25

One of my favorite titles; yet, I was a bit disappointed in this issue. This final confrontation with Cain felt rushed, the scene with the suit grabbing Dillion out of the air was corny, and Cain's origin didn't fit that well with the rest of this story. (Cain being the original Cain from the Bible isn't a bad idea...but, I think the idea should have been flushed out a lot more. With everything being so scientific in previous issues, this one idea doesn't fit into the story well.) I hate to do it, but I have to give this issue a .

Untold Tales Of Blackest Night One-Shot

Another $4.99 comic. Seems like more and more of these are coming back, and I really hope by next year, we rarely see one again.

The central theme for this issue is that Lyssa Drak, the Sinestro Corp.'s member who was chained to the Book Of Parallax, is now chained to the Book Of The Black. She gives us these Untold Tales.

The first two are "deleted scenes" from Blackest Night by Johns. (They're short 2-pagers...but, this would be the kind of thing I'd LOVE to see in those Director's Cut specials Marvel and DC put out occassionally.) After that, we get an Animal Man story that's probably the best of the bunch. It focuses heavily on his family versus his wanting of Starfire; and, I find myself wishing DC would give us more of his character in the future.

Next is a Donna Troy story, showing how she turned into a Black Lantern, and after that, we get to see Scarecrow being turned into a Sinestro Corps member. Finally, we get another pretty good story about a Sinestro Corps member who must fight off her three fathers. The ending to that story was pretty cool.

I guess there would be two complaints about this book. One, the price, and second, that I'm a bit over Blackest Night by now. (Combine those two, and it's hard to give a big recommendation to readers...especially those on a budget.) Still, I did enjoy the book.

New Avengers #5

Another issue I was a bit disappointed in. We go from some decent action in the previous issues to a whole lot of Bendis talk. I guess it's somewhat important, as we discover the person behind these attacks is Agamotto himself. But, 23 pages of the New Avengers coming to that conclusion and discussing their plan of attack felt a bit much. Hopefully the next issue (promising a death...I'm betting on Brother Voodoo) will give us a satisfying conclusion.

Thor #616

I still have quite a few comics left to read from this week...but, I'm betting this is the WORST comic HANDS-DOWN! I've stayed away from spoilers before I read this...but, the comic itself is the ultimate spoiler! Fraction has spoiled my enjoyment of Thor!!! What in the Holy Hell was this piece of crap??!!?? How do we go from those great Gillen issues to Marvel totally f&#^ing up this book by putting Fraction on it??!!!??? Sure, there are times I've complained loudly about how boring Invincible Iron Man is...but, I admit Fraction writes Tony pretty good. His version of Thor, frankly, sucks. How bad is it? Loeb's Hulk is much, MUCH better. For the first time, I have to give a comic TWO .

Warlord Of Mars #1

Huh. I was thinking this might be my least favorite book of the month...but, I read Thor next, and it was a whole lot worse. At least Dynamite only charged me a buck to find out I wouldn't put this book on my pull list. This book reminded me quite a bit of DC's Warlord, as we meet John Carter one year after the assassination of Lincoln...then, we get to meet Tars Tarkas, a Martian warlord, and see his struggles on a different world. Eventually, these people from two different worlds will meet; but, nothing from this first issue makes me want to stick around for that.

Dynamite likes to pick up all these old properties; but, more often than not, they lack originality or even good writing. (See Buck Rogers!)

Shadowland: Blood On The Streets #3

A good issue...but, I didn't enjoy it as much as the previous two issues. Like this week's issue of New Avengers, it's more of an explanation of the things we've seen going on previously...before we get the thrilling conclusion next issue. I wanted more Shroud...and, I'm still upset that Marvel already ruined the truth about Misty's pregnancy.

 

[Phaedrus45]

3) My favorite of all: Thor decides he misses Loki sooooooooooo much that he's gonna resurrect him! I am not kidding. Fraction actually has Thor fly up and try to resurrect Loki. Given that there's a very Loki-esque kid on the cover of the next issue, he apparently succeeds, too. I'm pretty sure everyone on here knows I'm all about the brotherly love between Thor and Loki, deep and repressed though it may be. But even I can't think of any conceivable scenario where Thor would be so colossally stupid as to resurrect Loki after he was just killed due to his own machinations that destroyed all of Asgard.

Yeah...THIS is my most hated part of the entire issue! Loki just friggin' died!!! And, by next issue, he'll be back??!!?? And, Thor can just pull this feat out of his butt so easily??!?!?!?! PLEASE! Utter, utter, UTTER CRAP!

EDIT: And, Oh Yeah....and Dread points out...the Kelda scene! Geez, she's mourning more than Bill's own parents!! This is a God who has seen people die on numerous occassions...yet, her Beloved Bill has turned her into a complete wreck who can't even get out of a mortal's bed. Again, PLEASE! I haven't been this upset with an issue since Bendis completely changed the Beyonder's origin!

 

[WOLVERINE25TH]

I'm wondering what if MCP had a different format? You know, every issue back in the day was four short stories that spanned over several issues, minus the one-offs thrown in here and there. What if MCP had presented a single story per issue format? Like the first issue could be Wolverine, next She-Hulk, next Punisher, next Cyclops... I wonder if that would have been a good format change for the book. It would certainly save on trying to have to remember four different stories at once between months.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

There wouldn't be as much incentive for people to continue buying the series, though. If you're a fan of Wolverine and the series is printing a Wolverine story, a Spider-Man story, a Captain America story, and an Iron Man story over 4 issues, you're going to keep buying each issue for that little bit of the Wolverine story each month. If Marvel switched the series to your proposed format and the Wolverine story were knocked out in one issue, that's 3 other issues of Spider-Man, Cap, and Iron Man you may not bother buying.

 

[WOLVERINE25TH]

Perhaps, but if they marketed it as a way to sample a new character without committing to their own series that might get people to check it out.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Echo #25

One of my favorite titles; yet, I was a bit disappointed in this issue. This final confrontation with Cain felt rushed, the scene with the suit grabbing Dillion out of the air was corny, and Cain's origin didn't fit that well with the rest of this story. (Cain being the original Cain from the Bible isn't a bad idea...but, I think the idea should have been flushed out a lot more. With everything being so scientific in previous issues, this one idea doesn't fit into the story well.) I hate to do it, but I have to give this issue a .

I didn't really get the impression that it was supposed to really be Cain from the Bible. I think it was a nutjob who believes he's Cain. As far as memory goes I don't think they ever gave any evidense that he really was Cain. Besides... if they DID do that it'd suck because DC already did that just a couple years ago during Final Crisis with Vandal Savage.

The suit grabbing Dillion was unexpected but I didn't mind it. The final deal with Cain did feel rushed though. It's been building most the series and suddenly it's done as if he was just a flea to be swatted away real quick. But oh well, it's been a good enough series to not worry about it.

 

[moraldeficiency]

Plus with few pages you can get writers and artist that wouldn't normally have the time.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Perhaps, but if they marketed it as a way to sample a new character without committing to their own series that might get people to check it out.

Hasn't worked for DC's The Brave and the Bold.

 

[Dread]

I am glad I wasn't the only one disappointed by THOR #616. The art is great, but for $4 an issue, it doesn't have long. I may give it one more issue, to see how Fraction hints about his Loki revival, and if that has little sign of life, I'll cut bait.

 

[TimBisley]

The Return of Bruce Wayne 5 was good. I can't wait for this storyline to be done, so I can go back over and read it all at once. I'm loving every issue of Morrison's, but I think it will be better read as a whole. I'm not sure how people can actually dislike Morrison's Batman epic, let alone hate it. Its one of those things I try a put myself in some ones place and empathize with them, but cant even begin to comprehend it. These people are either communist or the dead reanimated.

 

[JewishHobbit]

I only jumped on with Batman's death and haven't read anything prior to that but I've been loving Batman & Robin. The Return of Bruce Wayne though has been like slow torturous death!

I'm pretty sure I've already read this story about a hero who was supposedly killed but flung back in time and now is in a mini making his way back to the present that ships late and the final issue of the event comes out after all the aftermath dealing with his return.

 

[THANOSRULES]

I always dug the anthologies, especially MCP , solo avengers/spotlight, fanfare, etc..

They've always been great outlets for b and c listers to get a story. Where else are we gonna get American Eagle or Shroud Fixes (yeah I know shroud is in shadowland)

Even guys like Cyclops who had a nice few arcs back in the day of MCP, i didnt like that book when it just became another Wolverine book, but even still the Weapon X stuff was good at the time. Hawkeye was great in the old Spotlight/solo book.

 

[Texas]

Fraction basically started his Iron Man run with a different take on the Warren Ellis extremis arc from the previous series. He is basically doing that with Thor (dark gods vs these new evil gods). At the end of the day its the story telling that makes a story good even if its not original. We'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Except with Fraction, that waiting can take months....and, months...and, months...before you finally get something worth noticing.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, I haven't really enjoyed Fraction's IIM any of the numerous times I've tried it, so that's not a particularly encouraging example for me. I really hope he knows what he's doing on Thor. I'd hate to see the quality decline right before the movie hits.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Still lots to read; but, tomorrow is a new comic week. So, here are some final thoughts on ones I got to.

Batman: The Return Of Bruce Wayne #5

Well, I'm glad someone likes this book, because it all feels like worthless junk to me. The idea that Bruce is accumulating a bunch of "Omega Energy" to blow a hole in time...and, this was some brilliant final plan by Darkseid...all feels pretty friggin' lame and a sorry excuse for bringing Batman back from the dead.

There were various things I disliked about this issue...and, even the smallest thing made me groan. (Right from the beginning, seeing Wonder Woman refer to Tim as "Red Robin" made the situation seem so silly. I just pictured in my head the moment that Tim had to tell all these other heros, "No...I don't want to be called Robin any longer. You must now refer to me as RED ROBIN." I would have called him "blooming idiot.") And, really...what's the purpose of Bruce's visits to the various timelines...besides Morrison dragging out Bruce's return with nothing relevant happening in any of those times?

Bruce Wayne: The Road Home - Batman And Robin One-Shot

If Batman: The Return Of Bruce Wayne hasn't made me shake my head enough...now we get Bruce already returned BEFORE his return (ala Marvel's Captain America Reborn disaster); and, now I can care even LESS about the final issue of Return. (Luckily, I like Time Masters for the other characters, and not it's tie-in to Morrison's story.) Also, what does DC do even worse?? It appears these books are designed to be read in a certain order; but, they don't tell you that until the final page. Thankfully, I read this one first.

So, Bruce is disguised, and in each book, he's spying on the various Bat-characters. Ridiculous!!! First, all these characters should have heard he's returning soon...and, second, Bruce comes across as a total *****e. In fact, these one-shots come across more as promotional books for their main titles. Problem is, I don't enjoy Batman And Robin that much.

Batman: The Road Home - Batgirl One-Shot

I'm suppose to read, I guess, the books in this order: Batman And Robin, Red Robin, and Outsiders. This issue, Batgirl, kind of stands on it's own, I guess. Thankfully...I like Stephanie as Batgirl, and while her solo title isn't the greatest, I do enjoy it enough not to drop it...yet. Double thankfully, this is a pretty good issue. I love Stephanie's personality, and her reaction to learning Bruce is alive was pretty funny. Bruce is still a *****e, though.

Jonah Hex #60

I'm not sure why I'm still getting this book. I used to really enjoy it; now, the writers feel like their running out of good stories and steam. Each issue is just too similiar to the previous; and, I'm getting bored.

NOW, onto another rant. I finally got to see the movie, Jonah Hex, on DVD this week. I've seen PLENTY of superhero movies, and I can clearly say this might be my MOST hated!!! There might be worse ones, but this one is particularily hated because they tried to toy with Hex's character in just ridiculous ways. What??? Who thought they needed to add special powers to Hex's character, by making him able to talk to the dead??!!?? (Unless this is some old power Hex used to have. I've only been a Hex follower since issue #1 of this series..but, I've NEVER seen that happen before.) Megan Fox continues to prove she's one of the worst actresses in Hollywood...and, no matter how much I've disliked a Marvel movie (even Elektra), at least it wasn't THIS BAD!!!

for the comic.
for the movie!

Superman #703

Hated the first part of this issue, where Dick (dressed as Batman) chastises Superman for endangering civilians with his decision to walk the streets of America. Naturally, the second part of this issue proves Dick's response...but, at least things have picked up with Straczynski's story. I kind of like the idea that parts of New Krypton have landed on Earth, and they give some people strange, new powers while making things harder on Superman. There is a glimmer of an interesting storyline starting to appear here. Maybe things will pick up.

 

[TimBisley]

Sorry excuse to bring Batman back from the dead? He's never been dead. Also, he's hasn't really been in "disguise". That would require him having knowledge of his identity, in order to conceal it. From reading your little blurb about the issue, it seems that either you didn't read the issue at all, or didn't understand/bother to figure out the story.