BOUGHT/THOUGHT Thread for 6/21/06: SPOILERS Inside!

[Anubis]

Yeah, that happens from time to time.

 

[deemar325]

What ever happened to Muze?

 

[Anubis]

I don't know. He said he was gonna stop reading comics. You know, because of that whole Antman thing he had. Guess he just stopped coming. I was just thinking about the guy a couple of weeks ago. I was going through the How would you do it thread looking for something I did awhile back and was reading some of his stuff. He had some damn good ideas. Kinda miss the guy. He got on a lot of peoples nerves with his Bendis Bashing, but, he was always cool with me.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Yeah, my nerves

 

[Anubis]

Well, I never really had an opinion on Bendis one way or the other, so I guess that helped. And in a way, I kinda respected his devotion to Antman, even though I didn't really understand it. Never been a character driven kinda guy. Apathy can make you a pretty understanding individual as it turns out.

 

[Darthphere]

Deemar, im still here. I always wondered what happened with Bat-Mantis and Mr. X.

 

[Darthphere]

Is that supposed to mean something other than you lack the desire to discuss the issue in a mature and logical manner?

No, it just didnt surprise me to hear you say that considering the books you read.

 

[Dwarf lord]

Deemar, im still here. I always wondered what happened with Bat-Mantis and Mr. X.

I really miss those guys...

It's like displacement from Biology. Water goes in, therefore salt must leave to make saturated. It's like that on the hype. Well resepected posters must leave to make room for idiots... It's a sad sad cycle.

 

[Dwarf lord]

I don't know. He said he was gonna stop reading comics. You know, because of that whole Antman thing he had. Guess he just stopped coming. I was just thinking about the guy a couple of weeks ago. I was going through the How would you do it thread looking for something I did awhile back and was reading some of his stuff. He had some damn good ideas. Kinda miss the guy. He got on a lot of peoples nerves with his Bendis Bashing, but, he was always cool with me.

Heh... I remember him. And renaudman. The guy obsessed with Hardcovers. See the great thing about them is they were more funny in their opinions. The noobs today are just annoying and most of them won't make it as long as Muze and renaud did.

 

[Darthphere]

Ha-ha, I always bring up Renaud from time to time and most people have no clue what im talking about. Its great, the guy snapped and was following me around saying stupid stuff, damn those were the days.

 

[Not Jake]

geez you guys are reminiscing like you're old

I guess 2003 is old, actually. Just realizing that now must make me really old

 

[Darthphere]

geez you guys are reminiscing like you're old

I guess 2003 is old, actually. Just realizing that now must make me really old

It is. Imagine people like TMOB whove been here 6 years.

 

[SpideyInATree]

SIAT returns to the bought and thought thread!

SIAT's funkalicious week of comics! 6/21/06

What a week it was. I had a lot of catching up to do in some places. Lets get started!!!

52 Week 5 - 7

Easier to read this series in chunks, in my opinion. But, man, this is probably the best thing DC has ever done. They've got me into pretty much every single character in this book. But my favorite plot line is Ralph Dibney freakin' getting Booster Gold OWNED like the punk that he is. You get him Elongated Man! And we haven't been getting too much of The Question, he's probably the most intriguing part of the series so far. And the History of the DCU is a beautiful touch and something I let friends borrow to make sense of Infinite Crisis for them, haha.

9/10 overall

The Eternals # 1

Never knew these characters existed until I heard Gaiman and Romita Jr. were doing this. I would be half ******ed not to get this book simply because of the creative team. But this definitely has captured me quickly, as if that's a big surprise with Gaiman helming the writing duties. The way that Ikaris is really the only one who seems to have a recollection of what he really is, he's become my favorite character. But, damn...see Romita Jr's art only makes me miss him more and more on Spider-Man. 9.5/10

The Flash # 1

Disappointed at the lack of Wally West. I have really only familiarized myself with Johns' Flash run, so I'm not really an expert. But this issue helped put things better to me when it comes to the legacy of The Flash. It was a nice opening issue that's laying the seeds for Bart to pick up the mantle of The Flash, well...that's what it looks like at least. But, I have to say I'll be disappointed if Wally isn't Flash, but at least show what happened to him and it should work out for me. So far so good with this title, though the art is a little shaky. 7.5/10

Iron Man # 9

I'm really digging this story arc, but it'd be nice if, you know, the continuity would make sense. I'm just mind boggled as to what Nick Fury is doing running around and everybody talking to him. You can't tell me that this is before Secret War because Spider-Man was wearing the Iron Spidey costume. So, someone is SERIOUSLY screwing up or they don't care. But besides the continuity error I'm enjoying the story which is dealing with the Extremis virus thoroughly. The art is pretty good and fits the book. 7/10

Robin # 150/# 151

A lot of fans are upset over the turn of Batgirl. I was never interested in Batgirl and don't really mind this, actually she seems like a pretty good villain now if you ask me. The art is kind of slipping as the story goes on, or maybe it's just me. But the development between the new Captain Boomerang and Robin is DEFINITELY interesting and is what is keeping me coming back. 7/10

All Star Superman # 4

This was a fun issue. Don't know what was up with Jimmy Olsen in a bikini and daisy dukes, but I laughed. Frank Quitely's artwork is fantastic and he draws a GREAT Supes and Clark Kent. And the Black K turning Supes into a bizzaro version and Olsen turning into Doomsday was a really interesting touch by Mr. Morrison. However, I wish this book would come out more often much like it's counterpart, All Star Batman. 8/10

Last Planet Standing # 4

I love the MC2 universe. This has just been a really fun big event in that universe. Straight forward big event stuff with some nice character moments in between, especially with Mainframe and The Vision. Silver Surfer's appearance was just completely bad ass. However, it gets a little cheesy in parts but it's fun at least. Can't wait to see how this concludes. 7.5/10

Astonishing X-Men # 15

If you did not laugh at Wolverine turning all girly in this issue, then it's safe to say that your sense of humor is non-existant. That is easily the funniest moment in comics this year, hands down. Cassaday is on target as usual, I hope Marvel has this guy locked down. The Hellfire Club is looking very brutal here and I love it. Whedon knows how to write the X-Men and that's all I have to say about that. 9.5/10

Justice # 6

The art is just beautiful and worth the price of admission alone. The story is very good but this issue was kind of flat to me. It was really picking up some steam but we kind of were just hanging there this issue as the Justice League is trying to get everyone out of harms way and back on the same page. The Wonder Woman/Batman sequences were cool. Though this issue seemed to drag to me, maybe it was just me though. 8/10

Ultimates # 11

Now we're getting into the nitty gritty. The Hulk returning was a kick ass moment. Though the best moment is going to be when Thor brings his hammer down. This book is guilty of it's usual crime of not coming out on a regular basis, which makes it hard to keep myself into the title. It was definitely intense and a nice build up to the Ultimates sort of reuniting once again after being broken apart earlier in the series. I hope that Hank has something sabotaged. 9/10

Captain America # 19

The Winter Soldier just keeps becoming more and more bad ass everytime. Brubaker has really been making the return of Bucky worth it. Cap and Union Jack make a pretty good team, I dig it. I have a feeling that Lukin may betray the Skull, Lukin seems to be getting pretty fed up with him. Epting's pencils, as usual, are spot on...this guy deserves an award of some kind, like an Eisner. 8.5/10

New Avengers # 20

I was really into this up until the point of the helicopter blowing up at the end. Was it really necessary for the helicopter to explode? Isn't that a SHIELD helicopter? Wouldn't it have some type of fail safes? Well, considering that they documented that they haven't found ANY signs of Magneto's body...well, he's not dead. But I may be dropping this book in the coming months as my soul reason reading this is for Spider-Man, and I don't think he's going to be a member for much longer. Though Deodato was really doing a bang up job with the art duties. Man does Bendis love taking out characters. Sheesh. 7.5/10

 

[Dread]

Glad that the consensus from the few people who've read ETERNALS #1 was that its good, because I enjoyed it. The MU in general has usually turned away from many "fantastical", non-street level characters for the past 1-3 years now, and only this year is some of that returning with the space-guys from ANNIHILATION and now the complicated Eternals. Gaiman's a lock for this book, although I hope Marvel catches a clue from JUSTICE and lowers the price to $3.50 instead of $3.99 for future issues; I mean, CW is essentially a 70 chapter crossover, give the fanbase a break, eh? Some of us have bills.

As for NEW AVENGERS #20, as I said before, I really don't have a big problem with yet another "death of Magneto" bit, only every time it happens now, it seems like a parody. That bits been done to death and while its nice that Bendis doesn't even pretend that Magneto's really dead, it just shows us that Magneto, much like countless overexposed, overused arch-foes, has now become a parody of himself, much like Norman Osborn has in the Spider-books (and Magneto wasn't conviently dead for 20 years in real time). That said, Bendis' tactic of "having some character from nowhere effortlessly defeat the threat" is getting very, very old. It brought the ending of SECRET WAR down a peg and he insists on using it constantly. Its like the frustration I have with USM; its a good book, but Bendis INSISTS that the same damned flaws that he repeats over and over and over and over and over and over again are not flaws but "formula", so despite how good or bad the stories are, they can only improve so much because Bendy insists on repeating himself, even the stuff that doesn't work. Having said that, THE COLLECTIVE has probably been the peak of NA, which may not be saying much.

 

[Anubis]

You know, Annihilation has been really good. The whole thing really. I freakin loved that Nova ish.

 

[Dread]

You know, Annihilation has been really good. The whole thing really. I freakin loved that Nova ish.

NOVA's the only mini I've been reading, and its been fine.

Sadly, like with everything else, ANNIHILATION is being left to sell itself, and as history shows, and sales prove, that means each mini loses readers with every issue, because there's no "hype machine" to keep it chugging. Marvel will claim, "Oh, that's because space books don't sell", and then you can show them the sales figures for RANN/THANAGARIAN WAR, a DC space opera that was fully supported by DC's hype machine, and retort, "Of course they don't sell if you don't try to sell them".

I mean, take two kids selling lemonade, side by side. One kid sits there, has a sign, and does nothing else. The other kid gets off his arse, starts to shout, actively advertising himself every few minutes, chatting up passers by, basically putting forth the effort to sell. Who's going to get more money? If Marvel wants to spend money publishing new books, then they need to get serious about advertising them, rather than just "seeing what sticks". Hence, release fewer new titles, but hype the hell out of them.

 

[Anubis]

I agree.

 

[gildea]

Its an odd thing. Intially I supported marvels (well joeQs) reasoning behind advertising the bigger books as it will reap a larger reward. But IMO opinion that only really works if:
a) You keep a trim comic line
&
b) You're willing to let the lower selling (unadvertised) books run due to percieved quality. Which is a good approach as the trade market theoretically should eventually show this.

Marvel doesn't.
It releases book after book (some of which are really good) and allows them to fend for themselves. It then cancels them after the standard 8-12 issues and wonders why, despite good word of mouth, they aren't selling.

Oh forgot to include my standard gripe about hyping good titles. Howling commandos got so much attention with the preview which would have been better served with something, you know, good.

 

[supermarvelman]

How much can you really advertise, If your a comic fan you know whats out there and you know whats going on.

 

[Anubis]

Not true. Not everyone has access to the Internet, buys wizard or other comic publications, or even goes to comic shops for they're stuff. A couple of pages at the end of some of the higher selling books previewing some of the critically acclaimed but low selling books would work wonders.

 

[gildea]

How much can you really advertise, If your a comic fan you know whats out there and you know whats going on.

I disagree. I've bought many comics largely on the strength of hype Moon knight, young avengers, Infinite Crisis etc.

These are books I had no particular interest in the creative teams and in some cases characters yet because of strong promotion I felt compelled to give them a try.

I concede though this is largely anecdotal evidence.

but I would ask how will a comic fan know if know one tells them?

 

[BrianWilly]

i thought Shadowpact was a fun read

I didn't hate it either. They need a new artist NOW though. Very childish art.

Perhaps I just read the Bizarro World version of this, I dunno.

 

[yenaled]

I'm absolutly loving Annihilation, from what I'm buying anyway (Silver Surfer & Nova). I havn't really seen why I should pick up Scrull and Rohan. So decided to save a bit of money (no-one seems to care for those books; the public and Marvel itself). Nova has been so much fun and I'm having a blast reading some good Silver Sufer.

With that and Eternals (Which was just an amazing first issue - save for a few weird faces on the women) I have almost literally doubled the amount of Marvel books I buy. In my books they are finally starting to do things correct - Civil War is a good read so far as well (far from perfect but not a bad book).

 

[supermarvelman]

I go to the comic store, I see something interesting I flip through it, If it interests me I buy it.

 

[Anubis]

I'm absolutly loving Annihilation, from what I'm buying anyway (Silver Surfer & Nova). I havn't really seen why I should pick up Scrull and Rohan. So decided to save a bit of money (no-one seems to care for those books; the public and Marvel itself). Nova has been so much fun and I'm having a blast reading some good Silver Sufer.

With that and Eternals (Which was just an amazing first issue - save for a few weird faces on the women) I have almost literally doubled the amount of Marvel books I buy. In my books they are finally starting to do things correct - Civil War is a good read so far as well (far from perfect but not a bad book).

I've been really enjoying the Super Skrull mini. The arts a bit off, but dude, last issue was sick. Super Skrull taking a rag tag bunch of convicts and turning them into a fierce army. And the betrayl. Oh man, actually made me feel for the guy. Trust me, it's been good. Rohnan, well, I haven't been enjoying it as much as the others, but it's still pretty good.