Comic Books / Graphic Novels thread

[Rubin Farr]

Picked up both Kirby covers today

 

[Rubin Farr]

jesus, the Sandmans went quickly, I was in the line @ opening, got the last McKean variant, damn! (the TPB is out in November) WitchDoctor TPB is good gory supernatural stuff. From Under Mountains #1 is getting lots of hype but looked really boring IMO.

[ghOsty]

did anyone here like Batman RIP or Final Crisis? Its basically the last batman and superman stories before the New 52 reset. Surprisingly psychedelic and dark even for a Grant Morrison story

 

I didn't finish Final Crisis, because it started out confusing as all fuck and I wasn't sure my overall DC knowledge outside of Batman was up to par enough to follow wtf was going on. I'll attempt it at some point though. I did pretty much all the essential Morrison run though, and R.I.P. was indeed pretty cool.

 

Snyder's the Black Mirror is also a pretty good story from just before the New 52 reset, though it focuses more on Jim Gordon and Dick Grayson as Batman, while Bruce is busy off with the Batman Inc. stuff.

 

Finally getting around to reading the Preacher series, only on the 2nd book but enjoying it a lot so far. Also trying to get caught back up on Ed Brubaker's The Fade Out, hoping this series ends up somewhere better than Fatale, which kinda ended disappointingly.

Edited September 30, 2015 by ghOsty

[Rubin Farr]

does anyone keep up with the modern Batman universe? ghOsty? I know there's at least 2 different "Earths" currently in progress, but the Superman reboot is so fucking stupid, I've lost all interest in the Mech Batman.

[ghOsty]

I've been kinda keeping up with various trades, but I'm quite behind on the actual issue count. So I'm not exactly up to par with current DC events. Haven't gotten to mech-Batman yet, which is what I'm assuming happens after the "Endgame" arc, I've been meaning to pickup the trade for that and then from what it sounds like, I'll probably make that the end... I still plan to continue filling in cracks of my pre-New 52 collection though, (I own pretty much all the essential trades, already)

 

I'll admit the new 52 has been a bit lackluster and this is just speaking from the Batman fan perspective, I don't really follow the other titles or even all of the spin-off titles (There's WAY too fucking many now). As far as the main cannon Batman run goes, the Court of Owls and Death of the Family arcs were pretty decent and I did enjoy those. However,I have mixed feelings about the whole Zero Year arc, it wasn't completely terrible, and it was cool to see The Riddler as more of a prominent villain, but it also felt unnecessary overall. I don't like the way they kinda altered with the timeline of Batman's early history in ways that either negate classic arcs, or cram them all together into a timeline that seems impossible (3/4 Robins in the span of 7 years? I don't think so)... So yeah, if Bruce dies in this "Endgame" arc I'm kinda done with New 52.

 

Also with that said, I have been enjoying Batman Eternal quite a bit, as it seems to disregard what Snyder did with Zero Year and just continue on more with the classic Batman cannon. I'm behind on this as well at this point (comic budget isn't as high as it was for a while lately). But after reading Volume 1 of Eternal, I can say I enjoyed it much more than the whole Zero Year arc.

Edited October 5, 2015 by ghOsty

[Rubin Farr]

Yeah you lost me there. I bought the last issue of Endgame, to see Bats face off against the Joker, and supposedly "die" which lasted all of one issue, then a couple of the free teasers for Mecha Batman, which looked cool. Now they have this whole new lame Justice League with the Jim Gordon Batman, and angry t-shirt Superman which is just stupid IMO. Am I wrong?

[doublename]

Action Comics has been phenomenal since Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder took over. I wasn't really into Springsteen Superman either, but those two have a great rapport and understanding of the character.

 

I don't know about the other Superman book, and I haven't read any Justice League in a couple years though.

 

BTW I'm finding that I massively prefer Superman to Batman as a character these days, and my 12 year old self wants to kill me.

Edited October 5, 2015 by doublename

[awepittance]

does anyone keep up with the modern Batman universe? ghOsty? I know there's at least 2 different "Earths" currently in progress, but the Superman reboot is so fucking stupid, I've lost all interest in the Mech Batman.

pretty sure that the New 52 designates at least in part that there are at least 52 different alternate earths. The DC universe unlike the Marvel Universe from very early on has always been playing with alternate earth versions of their characters. Ultraman (the alternate 'evil' superman has been around since the 1950s). I think batman is the only big character from the new 52 reboot that remembers what happened before the reset. could be 100% wrong about that, but regardless there are definitely more than just 2 versions of earth even in the post 52 universe (if they haven't mentioned them yet, they will eventually)

Edited October 6, 2015 by John Ehrlichman

[Rubin Farr]

One of the Batmans is now Metron, the omnipotent character from The Fourth World, but I can't tell one Bruce Wayne from another. So does that mean this Bats can see all Earths and versions of himself?

 

[ghOsty]

Oh yeah, that happened in Final Crisis, when Bats sat on Metron's chair-thingy... (apparently it also told him the Joker's true identity, which as far as I know is never really revealed or touched on in later titles)

 

I did kinda skim through that part of the trade because it was somewhat relevant to Grant Morrison's Batman run, but even Morrison kinda moves beyond that event. I didn't know it had more relevance within the DC universe as a whole. It's kinda forgotten about in the overall scheme of things with Batman, but I guess it's a bigger deal with the Justice League titles, which I've never really gotten into... I try to just keep my knowledge within the main cannon Bat-verse. I can see why this would cause confusion throughout the New 52 as a whole. Why the hell are comic universes so complicated?

Edited October 6, 2015 by ghOsty

[Rubin Farr]

Really dude. I'm a huge fan of the New Gods characters, but I'm lost in this whole Darkseid War, where he's already been killed, like that will stick lol. Personally I see Hunger Dogs as the canon ending to The Fourth World, but shit that was back in the 80s and they've lived and died several times since then I think. At my age, I'll probly just wait for the inevitably disappointing movie version of Darkseid, et all.

[Guest bitroast]

read all of sandman overture over a day or so recently.

my god. i cannot imagine reading this issue by issue as it came out. even monthly/bi-monthly would've been a drag. it's not that the series is horrible but it's not exactly gripping and probably definitely has nothing going for it for anyone not already a fan of the sandman and wanting a little something to sink into. nice revisit of the series and nicely opaque but not exactly anything new or groundbreaking.

[Soloman Tump]

One of the Batmans is now Metron, the omnipotent character from The Fourth World, but I can't tell one Bruce Wayne from another. So does that mean this Bats can see all Earths and versions of himself?

 

 

 

This tells me all I need to know about the state of DC currently.

[Rubin Farr]

Blackhorse Comics has won the rights to publish several of Moebius' works in English for the first time.

[Guest bitroast]

Blackhorse Comics has won the rights to publish several of Moebius' works in English for the first time.

 

Post of the year

[ghOsty]

Blackhorse Comics has won the rights to publish several of Moebius' works in English for the first time.

 

Oh cool, that artwork posted however many pages back was pretty wicked.

[Rubin Farr]

I meant Darkhorse Comics. brainfart

[KovalainenFanBoy]

 

One of the Batmans is now Metron, the omnipotent character from The Fourth World, but I can't tell one Bruce Wayne from another. So does that mean this Bats can see all Earths and versions of himself?

 

This tells me all I need to know about the state of DC currently.

 

lol pretty much. So much for self-contained superhero stories. The lore is ridiculous at this point. Are there any good, recent The Long Halloween, Dark Knight Returns, etc. kinda stories worth reading? I'm talking self contained, classic Batman stories.

[ghOsty]

Batman Eternal has been good and definitely touches back on more of the classic Batman... The Black Mirror was a good one from right before the reset. If you pick up the trades, The Court of Owls pt. 1 & 2 (which was the first arc of the New 52) was quite good, the trades collect all the crossover titles important to the story.

[Kilgore Trout]

hey spanish, you can always wait for Dark Knight 3. with frank miller at the helm (+ brian azzerello) i'm sure it'll be a classic....

[Kilgore Trout]

[ghOsty]

Ya know, as big of a Batman fan as I am, I'm not really looking forward to TDKIII, I heard the second installment was pretty awful and it's been well agreed upon that Miller's kinda gone off the deep end in recent years. I'm not sure what to make of Brian Azarello helping co-write it either, I started reading 100 Bullets a while back but never finished it, what I read of it was interesting though, I'll probably finish it eventually. He also did do a great one off trade focusing on the Joker some years back, so perhaps his input will be a compliment to Miller.

 

[Guest bitroast]

Miller does not look well .. (Not gonna post pics but you all have google yeah?)

 

My last visit to comic shop turned into discussion of good colouring and guy pulled out dkr2 citibg example as wicked digital colouring. I'd buy it but i think i wanna get his daredevil run first

[Kilgore Trout]

yeah, i ve never read dk2 either, but i've heard it's pretty lame.

 

& dark night strikes again is a shitty example of digital coloring. whoever that was is a frank miller-superman-cock. c'mon frazer irving does everything on computa!

Edited October 8, 2015 by Kilgore Trout

[Guest bitroast]

I hate it when things look super computer-y with gradients everywhere and rich colours. Good chunk of modern comics just look so bland.