TPBs Bought/Thought Thread

I've bought a lot lately, both from Marvel and DC. On the DC side, I got:

Batgirl: A Knight Alone
Arkham Asylum 15th-anniversary HC
Bruce Wayne: Murderer?
Flash: Blood Will Run
Flash: Dead Heat
Flash: The Return of Barry Allen
Flash: Race Against Time
Flash: Blitz
Flash: Terminal Velocity
Green Lantern: Baptism of Fire
Green Lantern: Circle of Fire
JLA: American Dreams
JLA: Strength in Numbers
JLA: Justice for All
JLA: The Obsidian Age Book 1

Of those, I've only read Batgirl, Arkham Asylum, GL: Baptism of Fire, and JLA: American Dreams. I'm gonna get to the rest of them, but first I'm gonna see if I can find more Batgirl trades. I read it between last night and this morning and I found I like her a lot.

 

Yes, someone else into Batgirl!

she's the most interesting to me of all the Bat lineup

There's 4 trades out, A Knight Alone is actually the second one. I've only read those 4 trades, but I heard the series started to suck after they switched writers.
Here's the four:

Silent Running
A Knight Alone
Death Wish
Fists of Fury

All are good, but I think Death Wish was my favorite.

I also highly recommend Catwoman...even more so than Batgirl, it's Ed Brubaker after all. But you should start with the graphic novel "Selina's Big Score" which was done by "DC:The New Frontier" writer/artist Darwyn Cooke.

 

I got Death Wish and Fists of Fury today. I was mostly interested in Death Wish, since A Knight Alone ends before the big rematch between Shiva and Cassandra. I'm kind of upset that Silent Running wasn't at the store because I wanted to see how Cassandra lost her ability to read body language in the first place. As for her standing in the Bat-family, Cassandra's cool but I still consider Robin to be the best of the Bat-family. I love how they emphasized the fundamental difference between Robin and Batgirl in their recent crossover.

The Leaguer got me into Batgirl. I'm using her as one of my characters in that obnoxious, space-eating DTL on the Misc. Comics board.

I'm gonna get the Catwoman trades eventually, but the fact that I'm not that interested in the character and the fact that I have a huge list of trades I want to read before I die probably mean that I won't get to her for some time.

 

Today I completed my JSA and Morrisson Era JLA trades. Still got a few Waid Flash trades to buy. Going to check out more Morrisson (I bought all three Animal Man a month ago and I'm on a Morrisson high).

Might try and find more Giffen era JLA trades (New Beginning and Gospel of Maxwell Lord).

Also going to start buying Waid Fantastic Four trades and any Inhuman trades I can find.

 

Well, I was never interested in the character either... and even less interested in Captain America, but Ed Brubaker has a way of changing that...the guy's an absolutely amazing writer.

but Selina's Big Score, I would consider a definite must-read. It was Wizard's Best Graphic Novel of 2002...that's gotta count for a little something. Plus, if you've read The New Frontier, you know Darwyne Cooke's writing and art style are a perfect fit for old-school crime noir.

 

I plan on reading New Frontier eventually too. Sadly, nothing Wizard says about anything holds any weight for me anymore. I bet they considered Disassembled to be an earth-shattering piece of Avengers history and New Avengers to be God's gift to the Avengers too. They've written nothing but meaningless fluff for years.

 

most recent DC published trades I've read...

Fables: The Mean Seasons... this story was just beautiful. My favorite of the series so far. Love the flying wolf babies and very interested in seeing what happens with them as they grow up and also what happens with their missing sibling. Wonderful start to a new era for the Fables. 10/10

SMAX by Alan Moore... definite 10/10
for those who don't know (which I think might be everyone expect me and Anubis) Jeff Smax (aka Jaafs Macksun) is the mysterious big blue guy from "TOP 10," a series about a police precinct in a city (Neopolis) where every citizen has superpowers. It's like POWERS on acid.
Anyway, Smax is the partner of the series' main character Robyn Slinger (aka ToyBox) who's new to the police force. They become somewhat friends and Smax invites her to visit his home earth which he must visit to attend his "uncle's" funeral. So we learn of Smax's origin, how he grew up, why he left home, how he got that handmark on his chest, and why he never talks about his home.
It's fun, humorous story with lots of fantasy references complete with a full-fledged quest and the slaying of a dragon.
Just makes me really sad there'll be no more Smax stories. Although, I am looking forward to The Forty-Niners, a story about the founders of Neopolis.

 

I need to get it too. But I'll get it all when it comes out. Don't want to get it in sections.

 

The last few pages of The Painting That Ate Paris contains some of the funniest, yet most perverse stuff ever. I literally laughed at what happened for like 10-15 minutes

 

Bought JLA Earth 2 today and JLA: Justice for All. Finally finishing off my Morrisson JLA run. Haven't read them yet though.

 

The fate of Crazy Jane was revealed in Morrison's final issue of Doom Patrol, which was probably one of his best. It's just too bad her name was tarnished a bit when the next writer came onboard


And you think Doom Patrol was crazy? Wait until you see Flex Mentallo and the transvestite Danny the Street.


Unless I'm mistaken and those two have already been introduced

 

I got Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? I haven't read it yet

 

It's brilliant

I've recently bought:
The Best of American Splendor
Goldfish
Love Fights Vols. 1 and 2
Scurvy Dogs: Rags to Riches
Sentry

I've only read Scurvy Dogs, Sentry, and Love Fights Vol 1 and they were all pretty good. Sentry was ****ing sweet, actually, really makes me look forward to New Avengers 7-9.

...sorry if this was supposed to be DC only

 

guess you didn't bother reading the first post

 

At least he has semi-good taste.

 

Why would I do a thing like that?

 

why only "semi"? Those are all pretty good...unless you're talking about The Sentry.

 

The Sentry was pretty good, I thought. A nice follow-up to the Inhumans series Jenkins and Lee did, at least in tone and quality.

I read Batgirl: Fists of Fury and Batgirl: Death Wish. First off, they're probably the worst-ordered TPBs I've ever seen. Fists of Fury has something like #15, 16, 21, and 26-30; Death Wish has 17-20, 22, 23, 25, and some Secret Files stuff. Weird as hell. Anyway, I read them simultaneously and, despite their numbering weirdness, they were quite good. I've never heard of Kelly Puckett before, but her writing is pretty effective. I liked the overall character arc Cassandra went through with Shiva, the beginnings of her friendship with Spoiler (which I can't view as anything but tragic since I already know Spoiler eventually dies), and the big reveal Oracle springs on Cassandra about her only kill. Fun stories with a more interesting character than I'd given her credit for 'til now.

I've begun digging into my Flash collection, which I was procrastinating on mostly because of the art. LaRocque's art on Born to Run and The Return of Barry Allen is kind of bland, which is the first thing I noticed when I flipped through them a couple weeks ago when I got all my Flash trades. I read Born to Run, however, and it was very, very good. I see now why people say that Mark Waid pretty much built Wally West from the ground up. I have a question, though: when did Wally actually get his powers? In the Year One-style Born to Run issues, it says he got them at age 10. In the last issue in the trade, it has a flashback and says he got them when he was 14. Was the latter a retcon to make Wally younger in current continuity? Anyway, I've moved on to The Return of Barry Allen and this one's shaping up to be great. I already know the ending thanks to synopses I've read online, but it's still cool to see the characters interacting. Here's another question, though: what's up with Hal Jordan being Barry Allen's "best friend"? I thought he and Wally were best friends. Or is Hal just one of those people who accumulates best friends like they're going out of style?

 

He's a Bendis fan

 

Hal and Barry were the original Brave and the Bold. Hal was always really good friends with Barry. Maybe even more than with Ollie

 

Hal, Barry and Ollie are usually written as a group of best friends, who hang out all the time. Like a secondary Trinity. This is why Green Arrow's Archers Quest makes so much sense I suppose.