The Ongoing Bought/Thought! 2013

[Mr. Dent]

Kaep and Boldin doing things for the fantasy league.

EDIT: oh...wrong thread

 

[Norrin Parker]

I'm a huge Kirby fan so realism never meant that much to me, I do like some artists with a more realistic approach though Jerome Opena comes to mind.

 

[StreetWarrior]

I love Romita he's a great artist.

Sure, if you like blocky lego/minecraft people with the same face, un-detailed and washed out backgrounds and character design, and technology that looks like it came from the '70s (this is my biggest pet peeve - has Romita EVER seen a computer or computer equipment? The 1950's style computers, consoles, and lighted keyboards need to go).

It's well past time for Romita to retire and quit RUINING books with his odd-looking dated art. Although these are all just opinions, I know I'm not alone in this sentiment...

EDIT: I will grant that Romita does a good Spider-Man and Hulk but some other characters are atrocious - his Venom, Iron Man, and Ultron for example, are unbelievably bad. Really, any time tech or monsters are involved, Romita becomes unbearable. Also, Marvel has a habit of pairing him with colorists that give his work a washed-out technicolor feel. This isn't 1984! Sorry if I'm so negative but I keep having flashbacks to Slott's "New Ways to Die" arc in ASM. The story was fantastic but Romita's art made it unreadable. What a waste! Chaykin, Romita, Land, and maybe Dillon are the only artists that will prevent me from picking up a book. Blagh!

EDIT 2: JRJR may have been great 20 years ago but now his work is ugly, un-polished, and extremely dated. I don't care how good he supposedly was on Captain America - a vast volume of past experience makes me highly skeptical.

 

[StreetWarrior]

Mighty Avengers #1

I told myself I wasn't going to read this title for two reasons: Greg Land on art and a team that was redundant to the point of boredom. As all issues of Hickman's Avengers arrived damaged at my local comic shop (way to go, Diamond ), I decided to give Mighty Avengers a try. I'm a little ashamed to admit it but the Infinity banner was really what changed my mind. I figured, even with a team at least 50% comprised of members I couldn't care less about, this story might be important to the overall event. So, I left the shop with a book I had previously decried as an unneccessary cash-in on the Avengers franchise that's promotion was based solely on a minority cast. To say that I had low expectations is an understatement. I'll gladly admit it - I was wrong.

The first issue of the relaunched Mighty Avengers proves that the title deserves a spot on the Marvel roster for playing a much different role than its sister titles. While Hickman's Avengers is very plot-oriented, the focus of this book is much more personal. More character-driven. On that note, the writing was fantastic. Although only six members of the team were introduced, each was given a different voice and dialogue tone. Further, while I'm largely indifferent to Luke Cage and White Tiger and HATE some of the other characters (Power Man), Ewing actually made me care for just about everyone (except Power Man ). Regarding the art, Land actually isn't bad here. The colors were bright and the lines were sharp. The story was a little weak but that's to be expected from an introductory issue, especially one that exists for little reason than to pad an event. Despite being a topic of debate regarding racial representation in comics, the book didn't feel like an after-school special or like it was pandering to minority readers. And really, that's how it should be - everything in this issue, from the formation of the team to the cast representation, felt genuine.

In the end, Mighty Avengers #1 surprised me by being much, much better than I had expected. The writing was excellent and the art was good, if not great. I don't know if I'll stick around after Infinity but, for now, I look forward to the next issue and I take back my (early) criticisms of the title. Never judge a book by its cover, I guess. Power Man still sucks though. Arbitrary score: 4/5.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Went to the shop and found out that the standard cover version of Court of Owls were all damaged (and other books like Uncanny X-Force and Frostbite didn't show up at all), so I will pick up Court of Owls next week.

I rooted through the books and picked out the four I wanted. I was cautious on the two Avenger books but got them anyway. More on that below:

Avengers 19 - I'm completely uninterested in the space aspect of Infinity (save for Gladiator being there) and honestly had zero interest in this issue. But I said I'd give the event through Infinity 3 before dropping anything (including this issue of Avengers and the next issue of New Avengers). So I picked it up and read it. Honestly, I was bored to tears.

I think my major issue with the space aspect of the story is that we have a lot of fun characters like Gladiator, Ronan, Super Skrull, etc. but all the villains are nameless, faceless nobodies. There isn't a single "name" to the threat. They're just all look alike aliens. While I'm told they're dangerous, I find that I don't really care. It's boring. The premise is honestly similar to the first Annihilation event, but at least that story had a feature villain in Annihius... or Annihilation Conquest with Ultron.

Add that to Yu's pencils, which I usually love, being very sloppy. He seems very rushed in this story and I'm having a hard time telling what's happening at times. And really, we had the yellow builder chick being near lesbian with Carol Danvers, and then again when she's randomly holding Carol's boob for no real reason.

I don't know. I just don't know if I'm enjoying this event enough to continue with it. Hopefully New Avengers and Infinity 3 will change my mind, but if not, it's dropped. I feel like I SHOULD be enjoying the story, but I find it all very bland, emotionless, and boring. While many have stated this is the best event of the decade, I can't really say I agree. To be honest, I think this is so far the second worst (just ahead of Age of Ultron). Six issues in with zero emotional impact. That's a failure of storytelling in my opinion. This even is so far a Michael Bay event, but at least Michael Bay fits SOME emotion and character progression in his KaBOOM!!! films.

Mighty Avengers 1 - I honestly didn't plan on getting this but my love of Luke Cage clouded my judgement. Fortunately, the comic was actually pretty good. Like with the few other times I've read him, SpOck brought the story down some (I mean really... what the heck is there about this guy that people like? I'm convinced it's not him but the characters that Slott surrounds him with... because he's honestly the worst character of the year for me. Annoying). Fortunately, I get the impression that he's only an Infinity tie-in guest star that's being promoted as a team member for sales purposes... and I hope that's the case.

As for the book itself, I like what Luke's doing here. He's running a smaller Heros 4 Hire so he can still help the world while being with his family, but not on a large scale like when he led the Avengers. He's pulled in two Avengers Academy graduates to work with him: Power-Man and White Tiger. The problem though is that he's had a taste of the big time and feels like he should be doing more. Then Infinity happens, SpOck and Spectrum show up (with a mysterious hero wearing a Spidey outfit), and he declares them Avengers, since the world needs an Avengers.

The story was actually pretty good for an introduction, though it'd have been better without SpOck. Greg Land's art was tolerable (though I'm pretty sure I saw a few Whitney Houston faces on Spectrum) and I might even come back for the next issue. I'm just hoping SpOck leaves soon and Luke brings Danny in.

X-Men 5 - Battle of the Atom 3. I'm a little bored of this event already. It's gone from "X-Men of the future" to hero versus hero in record time. I wish Marvel had a few original ideas in their head. We're essentially having Civil War and Annihilation again, just with different characters... Civil War being this and Annihilation being Infinity.

I really disliked Lopez's art. There are flashes of greatness in it and then flashes of severe mediocrity. I have a feeling he's one of those artists that I don't care for now but will grow to like in ten years. As for the story, it was bland. Teen Scott and Jean flee the Jean Grey Academy and drive to meet Cyclops' Uncanny X-Men team. And there's a small fight with the Jean Grey staff along the way, where Rachel and Kitty turn on Storm, Wolverine, and the rest... despite the fact that the stance of the o5 staying is ridiculous.

Sadly, 3 parts in and I'm already waiting for it to wrap up. Hopefully there'll be some twist soon that brings me back in because I've not been into this story since the start.

Aquaman 23.1: Black Manta - This was a decent issue, but nothing major happens here. The gist is that Black Manta is freed due to the events of Forever Evil, we learn that Black Manta's only goal in life is to kill Aquaman, and then he learns of Aquaman's "death". So he essentially retires until Ultraman accidentally uproots Black Manta's father's grave. And so now Black Manta wants to kill Ultraman.

The story wasn't anything WOW-worthy, but it was alright. I was a little let down by it. Hopefully the Ocean Master issue will be better.


Best and Worst of the Week

Best: Mighty Avengers 1 - This was the only issue I'd classify as good this week, and it's only mediocre good at that. This wasn't a very good week.

Worst: X-Men 5 - Honestly, I didn't care about this issue in the slightest. The only semi-interesting thing was seeing teem Scott and teen Jean maybe falling for each other. But that was only because I miss Scott and Jean. As far as the story goes, it was nothing.

 

[StreetWarrior]

Mighty Avengers 1 - I honestly didn't plan on getting this but my love of Luke Cage clouded my judgement. Fortunately, the comic was actually pretty good. Like with the few other times I've read him, SpOck brought the story down some (I mean really... what the heck is there about this guy that people like? I'm convinced it's not him but the characters that Slott surrounds him with... because he's honestly the worst character of the year for me. Annoying). Fortunately, I get the impression that he's only an Infinity tie-in guest star that's being promoted as a team member for sales purposes... and I hope that's the case.

As for the book itself, I like what Luke's doing here. He's running a smaller Heros 4 Hire so he can still help the world while being with his family, but not on a large scale like when he led the Avengers. He's pulled in two Avengers Academy graduates to work with him: Power-Man and White Tiger. The problem though is that he's had a taste of the big time and feels like he should be doing more. Then Infinity happens, SpOck and Spectrum show up (with a mysterious hero wearing a Spidey outfit), and he declares them Avengers, since the world needs an Avengers.

The story was actually pretty good for an introduction, though it'd have been better without SpOck. Greg Land's art was tolerable (though I'm pretty sure I saw a few Whitney Houston faces on Spectrum) and I might even come back for the next issue. I'm just hoping SpOck leaves soon and Luke brings Danny in.

Disagree 100% with your views. Spock might have been the BEST thing about Mighty Avengers (Luke Cage was pretty cool too this issue) and Infinity has been fantastic so far.


I know everyone has different opinions and all that stuff but I'll never understand some people.

EDIT: While it makes sense to add Iron Fist because of Cage, that's just one more character on the team whose power is martial arts, the power to hit really hard, and/or agility. If they bring in Fist, they need to dump Power Man (who already brings the least to the team and is one of the most uninspired creations of the last decade). As it stands, the team needs to diversify it's power sets. Cage and She-Hulk? White Tiger, Spock, and Power Man? The team has at least two characters filling the "strong guy" role and at least three fulfilling the mandatory "agile character" position. Spectrum and Blue Marvel are unique. Falcon is ... well, Falcon. How about some Magic users, tech guys, or energy projecting mutants? I complain abou the current roster being boring not because of the characters themselves but because the power sets are so limited and interchangable. It'd be like having Spider-Man and Daredevil on the same team - why do you need both?

 

[Norrin Parker]

I don't think people "like" SpOck he's just an interesting character, its no different than Thanos Rising or any other villain book in that sense. I love to hate SpOck and his super villainy provides for some great laughs and interesting stories. Still I would say that I like him as much as I like reading him.

 

[runawayboulder]

Here's the thing about Superior Spider-Man:

People like the concept #1, because it's working and working well. Because of that is #2, it makes people like the character.

JH just hates Doc Ock. He lets that cloud his judgement and doesn't approach things with an open mind. I was the same way with The Hood. I thought the character was stupid and I hated him. But then Rick Remender put him into a good story involving The Punisher and I loved him. So now, it makes me willing to read a story with the guy (depending on who's writing it). You gotta take chances sometimes or you're gonna miss out...

 

[JewishHobbit]

Disagree 100% with your views. Spock might have been the BEST thing about Mighty Avengers (Luke Cage was pretty cool too this issue) and Infinity has been fantastic so far.


I know everyone has different opinions and all that stuff but I'll never understand some people.

Eh, different tastes.

EDIT: While it makes sense to add Iron Fist because of Cage, that's just one more character on the team whose power is martial arts, the power to hit really hard, and/or agility. If they bring in Fist, they need to dump Power Man (who already brings the least to the team and is one of the most uninspired creations of the last decade). As it stands, the team needs to diversify it's power sets. Cage and She-Hulk? White Tiger, Spock, and Power Man? The team has at least two characters filling the "strong guy" role and at least three fulfilling the mandatory "agile character" position. Spectrum and Blue Marvel are unique. Falcon is ... well, Falcon. How about some Magic users, tech guys, or energy projecting mutants? I complain abou the current roster being boring not because of the characters themselves but because the power sets are so limited and interchangable. It'd be like having Spider-Man and Daredevil on the same team - why do you need both?

Here's another example of how we're different I suppose. I'm less interested in the dynamics of powersets and more interested in personal dynamics. Yeah, Power-Man is a combination of Luke and Danny, and having the three of them on a team might seem counter productive, but on a personal level I'd love to see them play together. We have Danny and Luke as old best friends. We have Power Man as Danny's pupil. And we have Power Man's who's father was a Luke Cage villain and he blamed Luke for his father's death for years. The three together are interesting plot-wise.

Personally, I wanted a book with Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Danny Rand, and Squirrel Girl based around Luke's family. This is what I got instead

 

[JewishHobbit]

Here's the thing about Superior Spider-Man:

People like the concept #1, because it's working and working well. Because of that is #2, it makes people like the character.

JH just hates Doc Ock. He lets that cloud his judgement and doesn't approach things with an open mind. I was the same way with The Hood. I thought the character was stupid and I hated him. But then Rick Remender put him into a good story involving The Punisher and I loved him. So now, it makes me willing to read a story with the guy (depending on who's writing it). You gotta take chances sometimes or you're gonna miss out...

The Hood was a short-time villain. I've had decades of disliking Doc Ock. In fact, I can safely say that in my 22 years of reading Spidey comics there has never once been a Doc Ock story that I liked... ever. Add that to the fact that Dan's rendition of Spider-Man does little for me. His rendition of Doc Ock isn't going to do it for me either... or obviously, will do less for me than his Spidey... which I did kinda enjoy for a few months when Big Time started.

And to be fair, I've read SpOck in at least 3 issues. I hated him in all of them. And I've skimmed nearly every issue of Superior Spider-Man. The only things that ever caught my eye as interesting were Cardiac and Spider-Man 2099.

 

[StreetWarrior]

The Hood was a short-time villain. I've had decades of disliking Doc Ock. In fact, I can safely say that in my 22 years of reading Spidey comics there has never once been a Doc Ock story that I liked... ever. Add that to the fact that Dan's rendition of Spider-Man does little for me. His rendition of Doc Ock isn't going to do it for me either... or obviously, will do less for me than his Spidey... which I did kinda enjoy for a few months when Big Time started.

And to be fair, I've read SpOck in at least 3 issues. I hated him in all of them. And I've skimmed nearly every issue of Superior Spider-Man. The only things that ever caught my eye as interesting were Cardiac and Spider-Man 2099.

Did you read "Ends of the Earth" in ASM a year or two back? It has a dying Doc Ock holding the Earth hostage with a series of Satellites capable of destroying the ozone layer. It was like 8 issues, involved the Avengers pretty heavily, and felt way more like an event than a simple arc. I didn't really care for Octavius much either until that story - maybe you'd like it.

As far as Spock goes, like another poster said: he's a character you love to hate. His unbelievable arrogance and overly violent tendencies are hilarious, especially in the context of the traditional Spider-Man. I love Peter and will welcome him back with open arms but, for now at least, I'm enjoying the Superior ride. It's a unique, fun take on the character.

 

[Norrin Parker]

wow I seriously consider Doc Ock to be one of Spider-Man's greatest foes more so than Venom or the snoozefest that is Carnage. But seeing as JewishHobbit hasn't liked Ock since his creation its no wonder he's not a fan of superior spider-man

 

[JewishHobbit]

wow I seriously consider Doc Ock to be one of Spider-Man's greatest foes more so than Venom or the snoozefest that is Carnage. But seeing as JewishHobbit hasn't liked Ock since his creation its no wonder he's not a fan of superior spider-man.

While I'd take Venom and Carnage over Ock any day, I wouldn't really label either of them one of his greatest foes either. Venom in his early days, yes, but he's a pale shadow of who he was from his creation through around Lethal Protector. And never Carnage (though I love Carnage). He was always fairly 2-dimensional. I fully accept that Ock is one of Spidey's greatest villains, I just don't like him. I like pretty much everyone else more and always have. Heck, I consider Spider-Man 2 the worst of the first 3 Spider-Man films for that reason. Just couldn't get into it, despite the fact that the actor did a fine job.

Did you read "Ends of the Earth" in ASM a year or two back? It has a dying Doc Ock holding the Earth hostage with a series of Satellites capable of destroying the ozone layer. It was like 8 issues, involved the Avengers pretty heavily, and felt way more like an event than a simple arc. I didn't really care for Octavius much either until that story - maybe you'd like it.

I can't get into that era of Ock for the primary reason of how ridiculous he looks. It's like Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze type of silly.

 

[JewishHobbit]

I can safely say that in my 22 years of reading Spidey comics there has never once been a Doc Ock story that I liked... ever.

I'm going to correct myself here. For nostalgic purposes I do sorta like Doc Ock in Revenge of the Sinister Six. I was a brand new reader when that was coming out and everything was magical in the eyes of a 10-year old. So I'll give you that one... but it's pretty much 100% nostalgia and not quality of story or character.

 

[runawayboulder]

I'm going to correct myself here. For nostalgic purposes I do sorta like Doc Ock in Revenge of the Sinister Six. I was a brand new reader when that was coming out and everything was magical in the eyes of a 10-year old. So I'll give you that one... but it's pretty much 100% nostalgia and not quality of story or character.

You know, there have not been many Doc Ock stories since that time......and the ones there were, weren't any good. Here's the ones I can think of.

Return of the Sinister Six (not sure if this is what you really meant) - An all time classic story during Marvel's era of summer bi-weekly 6 parters

Revenge of the Sinister Six - The Erik Larsen penned and penciled sequel. It had flaws but was an entertaining story nonetheless and had a lot of the wild storytelling elements that Larsen would go on to use all the time in Savage Dragon

Web of Death - When Ock was sacrificed by the writers during the Clone Saga to show how big of a threat Kaine was. A lot of people were not happy about it at the time....I was one of them.

Ock's Resurrection Story in ASM during Steve Skroce's run - Pretty lame story where Ock was brought back to life by The Hand of all people....because you know Ock and Wolverines ninja enemies have such an intertwined history

Then for about a decade there were only a handful of Ock stories and none of them were at all memorable until Slott gave him the new status quo of dying.

So my point is that Doc Ock has not been in many good stories even since I started reading in the 80's with the exception of the Sinister Six tales and the last couple of years. Some of the older Spidey guys like TMoB and Spider-Gnome would probably say that it's been going on longer. When I first started reading Spider-Man, Ock was in the middle of his Spider-phobia phase, brought on by Spidey flying into a rage after Black Cat was nearly killed and Ock was beaten to a pulp by Spider-Man. That was my first exposure to the villain and all he ever did was act like a giant p***y until he finally snapped out of it around ASM #300. I thought he was a weakling until the Sinister Six stuff and now I consider him THE Spider-Man villain.....probably just as much, if not more than Norman Osborn.

JH, I think you've been just exposed to way too much of the crap Marvel subjected to Ock over the years.

 

[JewishHobbit]

I've read every Ock story from around Amazing 300 through OMD. I've read some prior to that hit and miss but nothing stayed with me. I read the first few appearances also. Those were better than most of the other things post 300, but not by much. But if giving a character 15-20 years isn't adequate time to make a decision on a character... something's wrong.

 

[runawayboulder]

So anyway, about The Battle of the Atom storyline.....I'm not really caring too much about this story. It doesn't really interest me in the slightest. I've been on the fence for a while about dropping X-Men books and I think I may use this crossover to do just that. X-Men has not been grabbing me and I've lost all interest in Uncanny X-Force. I don't read Uncanny anymore and since I picked up All New X-Men, the quality has gone down since the first 7 issues that I was thumbing. Wolverine and the X-Men has really lost it's luster so all in all I don't think I'm going to be reading X-Men comics anymore.

It's sad considering, I've always read the flagship titles but the line is just so muddled and boring anymore. The entire line needs a major relaunch before I come back.

 

[def28]

Started losing interest in both Uncanny and All New X. Started out great! Was on the fence about dropping but I'm really digging BOTA at the moment. So I'll hang on for awhile. Bendis can always start strong but lose track imo, so hopefully this crossover ends on a high note. I know we have enough X books at the moment, but I really would like a Magik solo at some point, maybe interacting more outside of X-Men with Doc Strange or someone on that level. She's been my favorite character in Uncanny X-men, but she almost feels like she has to go on her own path to explore some of her more mystical background.

The Deadpool solo has been great. Glad they decided to go a darker route with the new arc.

Avenegr's Arena is still solid and one of the more underrated books imo. Dug the new issue.

 

[runawayboulder]

Yeah, I think I'm going to take my X-Men money and invest in Avengers Arena trades.

I'm sorry that I doubted Dennis Hopeless and bashed him when the book first was announced. I should have known better...

 

[The Squirrel]

Wow, I'm having the opposite reaction. Battle is definitely getting me invested in the X-Books. I'll finish collecting the crossover, and depending on what happens after I'll decide if I want to start picking up Uncanny and All New.

 

[chamber-music]

Personally, I wanted a book with Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Danny Rand, and Squirrel Girl based around Luke's family. This is what I got instead

Add Misty Knight as well and I would buy the hell out of that. I'm fan of the Cage family and friends.

 

[runawayboulder]

Wow, I'm having the opposite reaction. Battle is definitely getting me invested in the X-Books. I'll finish collecting the crossover, and depending on what happens after I'll decide if I want to start picking up Uncanny and All New.

I'm sick of alternate timeline future X-Men stuff. It's all been done before. It brings nothing new to the table and it bores me to no end.

 

[JewishHobbit]

I'm bored of the crossover, but I typically am when a major story starts. I'm hoping to get into it by part 4 or 5.

 

[JTStarkiller]

Great week for Marvel. My three favorite Marvel books -- Captain America, Avengers, and X-Men all came out this week, and none of them disappointed. I think my favorite was easily Cap. A great little piece of setup for the next story, and had a terrific ending with Cap letting go of his past. I for one am gonna miss Romita (I just love his style), but Pacheco's filling in nicely.

 

[Norrin Parker]

yeah cap was good and I will miss Romita but Pacheco is doing great.