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The "Let's Bitch about Comics thread!"

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May 7, 2016#1

Yoshimickster

Where we rant about the idiocy that comes with modern comics!

FOR INSTANCE-Superman is so bad they had to bring in a version from an alternate universe to pick up the slack....and then replace him with a new guy. JUST WRITE HIM BETTER YOU MOOKS!

May 7, 2016#2

phil

I just want some fun ass comics again. Give me a batman story where he solves a normal mystery and maybe beats a few goons up. I don't need a new earth shattering thing to happen to him where things will never be the same except for when we undo it in like a year.

I want to see a super powered person fight like a giant robot and the drama comes from the question of if he'll save the city in time. I don't want to see a powered individual fight a giant robot and the drama comes from watching his son get decapitated or whatever grim ass shit comics are all about these days.

Did Ms. marvel stay fun? I swear to christ if Kamala is not as fun loving as she was at the start imma have to slap some folk.

May 7, 2016#3

Hailey Knight

phil said:
Did Ms. marvel stay fun? I swear to christ if Kamala is not as fun loving as she was at the start imma have to slap some folk.

I really hope so. I just ordered the first trade for that since it looked like a fun comic, so it'll be a while before I get caught up. But I saw promotional art of Ms. Marvel ripping apart a picture of Captain Marvel for her Civil War II cover, so I'm a little worried. But maybe it's just a cover and the comic won't get wrapped up in this shit?

I hate these summer events. Who knows what will get rebooted by the end of the year this time.

May 7, 2016#4

Yoshimickster

Zero Esc said:
I really hope so. I just ordered the first trade for that since it looked like a fun comic, so it'll be a while before I get caught up. But I saw promotional art of Ms. Marvel ripping apart a picture of Captain Marvel for her Civil War II cover, so I'm a little worried. But maybe it's just a cover and the comic won't get wrapped up in this shit?

I hate these summer events. Who knows what will get rebooted by the end of the year this time.

UGH-I've only read one issue of Ms.Marvel, and that's enough to know that that pisses me off.

May 8, 2016#5

Hailey Knight

And Captain's Marvel's variant cover for Civil War II is her crushing Iron Man's helmet. This is just six issues into the new run. Barely had time to establish itself and already, interrupted by summer event.

Also, Civil War II sounds really stupid.

May 8, 2016#6

sixpackshaker

phil said:
I just want some fun ass comics again. Give me a batman story where he solves a normal mystery and maybe beats a few goons up. I don't need a new earth shattering thing to happen to him where things will never be the same except for when we undo it in like a year.

I should loan you all the late 80's early 90's Batman comics that I had. It was almost all street level crime. And for half that time he did not have a Robin.

May 8, 2016#7

Frank

Yearly mega crossovers drove me away from Marvel. The only Marvel stuff I've read lately is Star Wars. Image is my boss.

May 8, 2016#8

Yoshimickster

Zero Esc said:
And Captain's Marvel's variant cover for Civil War II is her crushing Iron Man's helmet. This is just six issues into the new run. Barely had time to establish itself and already, interrupted by summer event.

Also, Civil War II sounds really stupid.

Its the sequel to the original Civil War, it kind-of has to. This ain't the fun Marvel version with a plot that makes SENSE, this comics!

SO-anyone know what stupid reason Marvel heroes are fighting for this time?

May 8, 2016#9

Ravenpoe

Yoshimickster said:
Its the sequel to the original Civil War, it kind-of has to. This ain't the fun Marvel version with a plot that makes SENSE, this comics!

SO-anyone know what stupid reason Marvel heroes are fighting for this time?

Comic sales are down while the movies are printing money, that's why.

May 8, 2016#10

Hailey Knight

Yoshimickster said:
Its the sequel to the original Civil War, it kind-of has to. This ain't the fun Marvel version with a plot that makes SENSE, this comics!

SO-anyone know what stupid reason Marvel heroes are fighting for this time?

A new hero appears who can see the future, and the Marvel heroes are split between whether someone should be arrested for a crime they're committing/have committed or whether they should turn into Minority Report. Very specifically, this new character sees that a specific superhero will cause a great disaster in three days, and Marvel management says the kickoff to this story will be one of the superheroes becoming a murderer. Originally they toyed with the idea of Spider-man being the cause of the trouble, but they've leaned away from that and are keeping the character's identity a secret.

It sounds dumb. This sounds like the kind of thing a villain would do to pit the heroes against each other.

On top of that are the faction divisions. Iron Man is leading the "innocent until proven guilty" group, joining with Captain America (Sam--is Steve still dead in the comics? Because it's been a few years now and that seems unlike them) and the Guardians of the Galaxy (solely because they're popular now), which is opposite how Tony Stark was for the first Civil War, but that was a character deviation. Leading the Pre-Crime Bureau is Captain Marvel. I don't know enough about her to know if this is in-character or not, but I know it's bizarre that Spider-man and She-Hulk are behind her. She-Hulk is a friggin defense attorney; it makes no sense. It's like they lumped her in there just because she and Captain Marvel do A-Force together.

Let's say I get caught up on Ms. Marvel; I wonder how fucking "middle of the story" it's going to feel when I get to this summer's issues. I've stayed away from these big event crossovers, so I don't know if they expect everyone to buy all the books, or if each book is just telling parts of the story from the perspective of its character and will carry on its way once the shitstorm ends.

May 8, 2016#11

phil

I can get behind the idea. I mean if they have the chance to stop a crime before it happens I could see certain heroes in favor of that. Punisher, for sure. Maybe Daredevil if it means getting them help before they make a mistake etc. Hell, you could sell it easily.

The problem is going to be like in the last civil war in that those running it are going to go too far and arrest a hero for failing to use his turn signals or something. Or punisher gets his hands on this and starts pre-killing people.

Ok I just sold myself on this.

May 8, 2016#12

Hailey Knight

phil said:
I can get behind the idea. I mean if they have the chance to stop a crime before it happens I could see certain heroes in favor of that. Punisher, for sure. Maybe Daredevil if it means getting them help before they make a mistake etc. Hell, you could sell it easily.

The problem is going to be like in the last civil war in that those running it are going to go too far and arrest a hero for failing to use his turn signals or something. Or punisher gets his hands on this and starts pre-killing people.

Ok I just sold myself on this.

You have more faith in it than I do. I understand the Marvel powers that be really do want to tell a good story, just from reading their comments, but they're also forcing this shit around to make use of what's hot right now.

May 8, 2016#13

Sparhawk

Zero Esc said:
Iron Man is leading the "innocent until proven guilty" group, joining with Captain America (Sam--is Steve still dead in the comics?

Steve Rogers is old, currently, in the comics, that is changing in the next month or so, but Falcon will continue as Cap with Steve donning a different alias. Rogers is actually the person behind getting Deadpool into one of the Avengers teams too.

May 8, 2016#14

Yoshimickster

Let's just hope if he goes "Nomad" again, he ditches the stupid fucking cape that was stupid.

May 8, 2016#15

klew

I remember Bishop v Gambit

May 8, 2016#16

Sparhawk

klew said:
I remember Bishop v Gambit

I SOLD copies of Bishop vs Gambit, and Spider-Clone, and Rob Liefeld comics.

May 8, 2016#17

Hailey Knight

Sparhawk said:
and Spider-Clone

BLEGH! Fuck that shit!

May 8, 2016#18

Yoshimickster

Its sad knowing the original draft for that story was actually pretty good I hear. CURSE YOU NINETIES MARVEL...and current Marvel.

May 10, 2016#19

CynicismKills

They used the OMG THIS MUTANT IS TOO POWERFUL thing a couple years back for Avengers v X-Men, too. Girl with powers greater than even Jean Grey shows up and I think the Phoenix decides he needs in on that. Avengers wanted her in custody, Cyclops and the other Mutants say "nothx."

May 14, 2016#20

PatrThom

I want there to be more Slapstick comics.

--Patrick

May 14, 2016#21

CynicismKills

PatrThom said:
I want there to be more Slapstick comics.

--Patrick

I have the first issue of his comic somewhere around here. He actually came back in (I think) the new Deadpool series.

May 14, 2016#22

PatrThom

CynicismKills said:
I have the first issue of his comic somewhere around here. He actually came back in (I think) the new Deadpool series.

[EDIT: ok something is eating my text before it gets posted, this is the second time]

I have the entire miniseries. I know he has shown up in a handful of other comics, but I still want to see something done with him with a feeling like 50's era Plastic Man, or maybe Howard the Duck.

--Patrick

May 14, 2016#23

Sparhawk

CynicismKills said:
I have the first issue of his comic somewhere around here. He actually came back in (I think) the new Deadpool series.

Yes, is one of the "Deadpools" in Mercs for Money that Deadpool is running.

May 14, 2016#24

Yoshimickster

And here's what he looks like now!

...whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat the hell am I looking at here?

May 14, 2016#25

Yoshimickster

One Google Search on Slapstick Deadpool later

Oh...oh god they Cerebus Syndromed Slapstick, they Syndromed him HARD!

May 15, 2016#26

Hailey Knight

Time to go back to 90s comics.

May 15, 2016#27

PatrThom

They made him gritty aaaaaaahhhhh noooooooooooooo...

--Patrick

May 15, 2016#28

Yoshimickster

That is pretty much my only reservation about "Mercs for Money", its such a needless change.

May 15, 2016#29

Yoshimickster

I am very confused why the...lack of genitals in his Slapstick form is a problem. Can't he change back? I read he could change back.

May 15, 2016#30

PatrThom

Yoshimickster said:
I am very confused why the...lack of genitals in his Slapstick form is a problem. Can't he change back? I read he could change back.

According to the wiki, he lost the ability to change back (like She-Hulk did), or at least he says he did (who really knows).
But the idea of making him into a grimdark character just runs counter to his entire character. I mean, there's a reason The Magnificent Seven starred people like Yul Brenner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, etc. Turning Slapstick into a gritdank character would be like casting Magnificent Seven with Laurel & Hardy, Abbott and Costello, and the Three Stooges. It's just not right! And don't anyone say, "I'd go see it," because you wouldn't. You'd hate that movie just as much as if you went to see everyone's favorite lovable tramp, Charlie Chaplin, cast in a Batman movie. No.

--Patrick

May 15, 2016#31

Yoshimickster

Cerebus syndrome at its very worst. ALSO...couldn't he get the glove fixed? Is Reed Richards still a thing? Get him to fix it.

May 15, 2016#32

CynicismKills

Did She Hulk lose the ability to change back? I had thought she could, but never wanted to because she wasn't famous/popular/etc as Jennifer.

May 15, 2016#33

Yoshimickster

Why do I get the feeling this was all an elaborate set-up so they didn't have to draw them in different forms?

May 15, 2016#34

CynicismKills

Nah the storyline about Shulkie not wanting to be Jennifer anymore was actually pretty good.

May 15, 2016#35

AshburnerX

PatrThom said:
According to the wiki, he lost the ability to change back (like She-Hulk did), or at least he says he did (who really knows).
But the idea of making him into a grimdark character just runs counter to his entire character. I mean, there's a reason The Magnificent Seven starred people like Yul Brenner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, etc. Turning Slapstick into a gritdank character would be like casting Magnificent Seven with Laurel & Hardy, Abbott and Costello, and the Three Stooges. It's just not right! And don't anyone say, "I'd go see it," because you wouldn't. You'd hate that movie just as much as if you went to see everyone's favorite lovable tramp, Charlie Chaplin, cast in a Batman movie. No.

--Patrick

Wouldn't The Magnificent Seven but as a Comedy basically be The Three Amigos? Which is actually a very charming, very funny western?

May 15, 2016#36

PatrThom

CynicismKills said:
Did She Hulk lose the ability to change back? I had thought she could, but never wanted to because she wasn't famous/popular/etc as Jennifer.

It's ok, she got better.

AshburnerX said:
Wouldn't The Magnificent Seven but as a Comedy basically be The Three Amigos? Which is actually a very charming, very funny western?

It might be, but that's not what I said. I said "Take 7 actors famous for physical comedy, give them all flaws, put them in a serious Western, and tell them to play it serious and wrestle with their conscience a lot."
It would suck sooooo baaaad.

--Patrick

May 15, 2016#37

Covar

PatrThom said:
View attachment 21099
It's ok, she got better.

It might be, but that's not what I said. I said "Take 7 actors famous for physical comedy, give them all flaws, put them in a serious Western, and tell them to play it serious and wrestle with their conscience a lot."
It would suck sooooo baaaad.

--Patrick

Like Chris Pratt? :troll:

May 15, 2016#38

Covar

PatrThom

May 15, 2016#39

PatrThom

Covar said:
Like Chris Pratt?

No idea, I haven't seen it to know how it goes.
For that matter, I still haven't seen the original.
...but I've seen Battle Beyond the Stars, does that count?

--Patrick

May 15, 2016#40

Covar

PatrThom said:
No idea, I haven't seen it to know how it goes.
For that matter, I still haven't seen the original.
...but I've seen Battle Beyond the Stars, does that count?

--Patrick

I guess. It's no Galaxy Quest though.

May 15, 2016#41

PatrThom

Covar said:
I guess. It's no Galaxy Quest though.

Well, Galaxy Quest is really just The Three Amigos...but in Space.

--Patrick

May 15, 2016#42

phil

CynicismKills said:
Did She Hulk lose the ability to change back? I had thought she could, but never wanted to because she wasn't famous/popular/etc as Jennifer.

In last year's run she only did it once for a plane trip I think.

May 15, 2016#43

Yoshimickster

Why DOES She-Hulk have only one personality while Hulk classic has...how many is he up to?

May 15, 2016#44

CynicismKills

She got her powers through a blood transfusion, I think, so she's not a full-on Hulk. She retains total control, but has issues with how weak and powerless she feels as a human. Generally you rarely, if ever, see her as Jennifer as opposed to She Hulk.

May 15, 2016#45

Covar

Yoshimickster said:
Why DOES She-Hulk have only one personality while Hulk classic has...how many is he up to?

Bruce Banner suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder. It's why there's so many different versions of the Hulk, and everyone else who is Gamma irradiated just gets an amplified personality based on their desires.

May 15, 2016#46

Yoshimickster

Did he have that, like, before the gamma blast or was it always there? If the latter, I wanna see an elseworld comic to see what he'd be like with alt-personas without superpowers.

May 15, 2016#47

Covar

Yoshimickster said:
Did he have that, like, before the gamma blast or was it always there? If the latter, I wanna see an elseworld comic to see what he'd be like with alt-personas without superpowers.

It was always there, we first see it when he's a young child, Hulk shows up as a sort of coping mechanism against his dad's abuse. Hulk is all the pain, frustration, and rage finally getting the strength he needs to keep anyone from ever hurting him again, or at least a child's idea of it.

May 15, 2016#48

Yoshimickster

Covar said:
It was always there, we first see it when he's a young child, Hulk shows up as a sort of coping mechanism against his dad's abuse. Hulk is all the pain, frustration, and rage finally getting the strength he needs to keep anyone from ever hurting him again, or at least a child's idea of it.

Part of me feels he would've ended up like "Moon Knight" if he didn't get the Gamma treatment.

Superheroes and dissociative personality disorder, running theme it seems.

May 16, 2016#49

Hailey Knight

Back to bitching!

Looking over trades for stuff I'm interested in, it's clear how dumb Marvel is with the numbering. Ms. Marvel goes back to issue 1 in volume 4 or 5. Continuing the same story despite Secret Wars (thankfully) but the whole reset seems like something you do with bigger-numbered comics, not new stuff. It's pretty bad when stuff like Spider-Gwen or Squirrel Girl have two issues 1's in the same year. From what I've read, Squirrel Girl even makes a 4th wall joke about it.

If they wanted everything to be All New, All Different, they should've just had different titles to start the new run. I'm still confused as to whether the new run of Captain Marvel is in continuity with the previous 18 issues from before Secret Wars. Thankfully with Ms. Marvel, the writers decided that after the reset, Kamala is exactly where she was before the reset, and the only messing around is that one of the trades has to include a couple Spider-man issues that are significant to Kamala's story.

On the downside, as I mentioned earlier, Civil War II is coming. And Kamala's apparently going to not be fun anymore, because vol. 6 of her trade is title Ms. Marvel vol. 6: Civil War II. -_- I'm going to keep going with this one because it's worth it, and hopefully just reading it isn't awful. Guess I should grab A-Force as well since it's by the same writer (yay!) and at least a couple of its characters will be wrapped up in Civil War II (boo!)

May 16, 2016#50

filmfanatic

Zero Esc said:
On the downside, as I mentioned earlier, Civil War II is coming. And Kamala's apparently going to not be fun anymore, because vol. 6 of her trade is title Ms. Marvel vol. 6: Civil War II. -_- I'm going to keep going with this one because it's worth it, and hopefully just reading it isn't awful. Guess I should grab A-Force as well since it's by the same writer (yay!) and at least a couple of its characters will be wrapped up in Civil War II (boo!)

If it's any consolation, I've found out that the Civil War II stuff for Kamala Khan is just really in two issues. I haven't read them, but at least it doesn't sound like a lengthy connection.

May 16, 2016#51

Hailey Knight

filmfanatic said:
If it's any consolation, I've found out that the Civil War II stuff for Kamala Khan is just really in two issues. I haven't read them, but at least it doesn't sound like a lengthy connection.

Weird then that they'd title the sixth volume with Civil War II. I guess it's also road to Civil War II. The trade isn't due out until December, long after Civil War II will be over, so who knows.

May 17, 2016#52

Sparhawk

So far they have only solicited 4 issues of Civil War II, I think that it's a 6 issue series. So that means we have one to two more months of CWII that have to be solicited, and whatever tie-ins they may have.

May 17, 2016#53

Yoshimickster

I know this isn't very relevant, hell I know it barely qualifies as bitching but...wouldn't it have made more sense if Falcon was called "Eagle"? I mean, wasn't he ALWAYS intended to be Cap's partner? Just saying, symbolically Eagle would've made more sense.

May 20, 2016#54

Hailey Knight

I went to a comic book store and bought comics--probably been two decades since I did that; any other times it's been for D&D dice--and picked up random issues of a couple things to sort of sample what I might like to get into rather than plunk down much more on a trade blindly.

Comics are much thinner nowadays. Almost all the ads are for the company's own stuff, it seems. I remember when I was a kid there'd be ads for snacks, video games, anti-smoking, all sorts of stuff. I guess that says a lot about the industry now; the ad space is pretty much worthless. I checked out a comic sales chart just out of curiosity. Black Panther's reboot was the best selling comic for April 2016, with nearly 250,000 copies sold. The next comic after couldn't match half that, and most on the list are far, far below. Critically acclaimed stuff like Squirrel Girl can't even cross the 20,000 mark. Of course a big part of that is that people like buying trades instead. I wonder if the big two keep track of that in deciding whether stuff gets renewed.

May 20, 2016#55

ThatNickGuy

So the DC Rebirth issue has been leaked.

And...wow. Just fucking WOW. Most of it isn't surprising since it's been leaked or theorized. But one thing? Jesus Christ, the audacity of them.

Not only is Watchmen now part of the DC universe (because THAT was totally necessary), but Dr. Manhattan was the one that created the nu52.

May 20, 2016#56

Yoshimickster

ThatNickGuy said:
So the DC Rebirth issue has been leaked.

And...wow. Just fucking WOW. Most of it isn't surprising since it's been leaked or theorized. But one thing? Jesus Christ, the audacity of them.

Not only is Watchmen now part of the DC universe (because THAT was totally necessary), but Dr. Manhattan was the one that created the nu52.

....*SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAMS!*

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO FUCKING NO! Just-UGH!

May 20, 2016#57

ThatNickGuy

Yoshimickster said:
....*SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAMS!*

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO FUCKING NO! Just-UGH!

"Hey, you guys liked Watchmen, right? You guys want MORE of it, right?"

May 20, 2016#58

Yoshimickster

I mean of all the idiotic retcons, THIS is one of the fucking worst! Well...probably not THE worst, I've been told how bad Savage Dragon was, but this is STILL pretty bad.

I'm just gonna wait this bull-shit event over, and read reviews of what's good or not in this idiotic Rebirth universe that only exists because DC is run by idiots. I hope good things with that "Super Sons" series, but its fucking DC so who knows?

May 20, 2016#59

Hailey Knight

That is insanely stupid and doesn't really make sense in the context of that particular comic. That comic only works insulated from everything else.

May 20, 2016#60

Celt Z

ThatNickGuy said:
So the DC Rebirth issue has been leaked.

And...wow. Just fucking WOW. Most of it isn't surprising since it's been leaked or theorized. But one thing? Jesus Christ, the audacity of them.

Not only is Watchmen now part of the DC universe (because THAT was totally necessary), but Dr. Manhattan was the one that created the nu52.

Stop, DC. Just stop.

This was Zack Snyder's idea, wasn't it? That way he can just cut and paste his movies together and claim ~~it's the MCU~~ that he planned them to be one universe the whooooooooole time.

May 20, 2016#61

Ravenpoe

Alan Moore is spinning in his grave, and he's not even dead.

May 20, 2016#62

ThatNickGuy

Ravenpoe said:
Alan Moore is spinning in his grave, and he's not even dead.

The funny thing is, he probably doesn't even give a shit. He's too busy making weird-as-hell films and about to launch his first novel.

May 20, 2016#63

CynicismKills

To be fair, Alan Moore hates everything and everyone that has any remote relation to comics. And movies. And probably any living thing in general.

May 21, 2016#64

Bubble181

CynicismKills said:
To be fair, Alan Moore hates everything and everyone that has any remote relation to comics. And movies. And probably any living thing in general.

OMG GUYS! Alan Moore is @fade! We have a celebrity on board!

May 21, 2016#65

Hailey Knight

Wow, Hellboy graphic novels aren't worth crap anymore. I bought a bunch of them and BPRD for reasonable prices a couple years back, and now that I'm ready to clear some shelf space I'm seeing that the prices aren't exactly great. Some people selling trades for only 1 cent.

May 21, 2016#66

Yoshimickster

Zero Esc said:
Wow, Hellboy graphic novels aren't worth crap anymore. I bought a bunch of them and BPRD for reasonable prices a couple years back, and now that I'm ready to clear some shelf space I'm seeing that the prices aren't exactly great. Some people selling trades for only 1 cent.

Either because the series ain't as popular as it once was, the continuity of them sucks, or a combination of the two.

May 21, 2016#67

AshburnerX

Yoshimickster said:
Either because the series ain't as popular as it once was, the continuity of them sucks, or a combination of the two.

Hellboy always played like an anthology book, where you would often have events taking part over many years, both backwards and forwards. But I think the bigger issue was that you had to follow... what, three books to get the complete story?

May 21, 2016#68

filmfanatic

Another development that's been revealed as part of DC Rebirth:

There are now, or have been, three Jokers running around. The Golden Age Joker, the Killing Joke Joker, and the New 52 Joker.

May 21, 2016#69

AshburnerX

More than one Joker running around ACTUALLY makes sense, even if I think it's dumb. It certainly explains the major tone shifts in his characterization over the years and A LOT of stuff with Harley.

I think it kind of undermines him as a character though. Instead of being one guy you can't predict and who will do anything to ruin your day, it's now three guys of varying means and style? That's dumb.

May 21, 2016#70

Sparhawk

AshburnerX said:
That's DC! ~~dumb~~.

FTFY.

May 21, 2016#71

Hailey Knight

AshburnerX said:
Hellboy always played like an anthology book, where you would often have events taking part over many years, both backwards and forwards. But I think the bigger issue was that you had to follow... what, three books to get the complete story?

Sort of? Hellboy spawned BPRD so they were running concurrently. Then each of those series ended and each has a sequel, Hellboy in Hell and BPRD: Hell on Earth. Recently they've rebranded a new print of the BPRD trades as BPRD: Plague of Frogs, which is confusing because that was the name of one particular volume of the previous BPRD trade print.

But really the chief problem is that for all the books you have to follow and the meshing that Yoshi is talking about, ultimately the story isn't very good and not worth the effort. Though the art is fun and there's a lot of imagination, the writing is weak. Many characters sound the same, some stories go nowhere, and often conflicts are resolved by some deus ex machina that is not explained in text, just cool imagery that the reader is probably supposed to figure out, but I think it's less that Mignola had an answer and more expected people to come up with their own so he wouldn't have to. I base this on because when he does want you to understand something, it gets explained in detail.

So, who wants to buy 24 trade paperbacks?

May 21, 2016#72

ThatNickGuy

Huh. I thought I was the only one that felt that way about the Hellboy comics. Honestly, I wish Dark Horse would re-collect Hellboy into the nice, bigger trades like they've been doing with BPRD. Or even the smaller omnibuses they do with almost everything else, like Aliens and Predator.

I've recently considered selling what I have of Hellboy, myself. In my case, it'd be bringing them into my local comic shop and trading them in for credit. I'd already sold my BPRD volumes. I think I will add them to the pile to bring Monday. So far, my stack includes the 8 volumes of Peter David's Hulk, since Marvel seems to have stopped collecting his run. I'm sure they'll get around to it some day and they'll be in nicer, big, complete collection editions. I'm also selling my Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths with the intention of buying the much more manageable omnibus that came out recently.

I...do that a lot. I'll sell or trade in older editions of collected editions in favour of newer and nicer ones. For example, I used to have the first collected run of Grant Morrison's JLA, as well as the first collected run of Gotham Central. I sold them both when new hardcover editions started coming out (especially for GC, since it included content that hadn't been collected before). And...then they announced softcover editions of those same things. So I sold the hardcovers and gradually got the softcovers. I've done this process far more times than I'm willing to admit (Preacher was another I did that with).[DOUBLEPOST=1463877810,1463877221][/DOUBLEPOST]Oddly enough, aside from the movies, you know where I enjoyed Hellboy the most? The novels. Christopher Golden did a couple and I found I really enjoyed them. They felt like self-contained pulp adventures.

May 21, 2016#73

Sparhawk

Nick, do you have volume 5 of that Peter David run? Dale Keown did most of the art and it features Doc Samson and the merge into the one Hulk. If so, would you be willing to sell that to me?

May 21, 2016#74

ThatNickGuy

Sparhawk said:
Nick, do you have volume 5 of that Peter David run? Dale Keown did most of the art and it features Doc Samson and the merge into the one Hulk. If so, would you be willing to sell that to me?

I do, but why would you want just Volume 5?

May 21, 2016#75

Sparhawk

Only one that I'm missing.

May 21, 2016#76

ThatNickGuy

Sparhawk said:
Only one that I'm missing.

I'm not sure if I want to break up the set. Knowing Strange Adventures, they'll want to sell the whole thing as a pack.

May 21, 2016#77

Sparhawk

Ok.

May 21, 2016#78

ThatNickGuy

Holy Hell. So in my clearing of comics, I've actually cleared so many I plan on selling that I filled a longbox.

So my entire collection is now 3 longboxes and two bookcases.

May 21, 2016#79

PatrThom

"Only."

--Patrick

May 21, 2016#80

ThatNickGuy

PatrThom said:
"Only."

--Patrick

It used to be much worse. I've been widdling down my collection here and there. A few years ago, I cleared away all of my single issues. Just trades left now.

May 21, 2016#81

phil

So DC only does reboots, right? Like I feel like every 3rd year is a new reboot and they just immediately start on the next one.

Like Dr. Manhattan created the universe and it'll immediately go something something Darksied, something something Flash, something something reboot.

May 21, 2016#82

Yoshimickster

phil said:
So DC only does reboots, right? Like I feel like every 3rd year is a new reboot and they just immediately start on the next one.

Like Dr. Manhattan created the universe and it'll immediately go something something Darksied, something something Flash, something something reboot.

Then something something Superboy Prime then something something Grant Morrison then something something I don't fucking care anymore. The worst Marvel event series hurts INFINITELY less to my intelligence than these reboots.

May 22, 2016#83

DarkAudit

Yoshimickster said:
Then something something Superboy Prime then something something Grant Morrison then something something I don't fucking care anymore. The worst Marvel event series hurts INFINITELY less to my intelligence than these reboots.

I missed Secret Wars I. My big comics phase was during Secret Wars II when everything was something something Beyonder. To the point where I cringe every time I see Secret Wars mentioned.

May 22, 2016#84

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
Huh. I thought I was the only one that felt that way about the Hellboy comics. Honestly, I wish Dark Horse would re-collect Hellboy into the nice, bigger trades like they've been doing with BPRD. Or even the smaller omnibuses they do with almost everything else, like Aliens and Predator.

They actually have been doing so, putting them into big Deluxe ones with four of the small volumes in each big book. Which makes more sense for slimmer trades like Hellboy, as opposed to The Sandman where several of the books are already pretty chunky.

But yeah, you're not alone in thinking the Hellboy comics are mediocre. I haven't read any of the novels, but I feel like the movies, both live action and animated, did more with the characters than the comics. And that's the weird thing, because they are great characters, but they're not written well in the comics.

I've recently considered selling what I have of Hellboy, myself. In my case, it'd be bringing them into my local comic shop and trading them in for credit. I'd already sold my BPRD volumes.

I feel like my local comic shop has been struggling too much to be taking in people's own content. When I moved to this area, they had three locations and usually multiple employees working at a time. Now they're down to one, though surprisingly I did see other customers in there when I went in on Friday. I guess there's no harm in asking.

May 22, 2016#85

Cog

phil said:
So DC only does reboots, right? Like I feel like every 3rd year is a new reboot and they just immediately start on the next one.

Like Dr. Manhattan created the universe and it'll immediately go something something Darksied, something something Flash, something something reboot.

I actually like when the inevitable reboot happens. It give me the chance to start reading a new series and if I don't like it, I just have to wait for the next reboot. Same with marvel with their events. Having no previous attachment to the characters also helps to enjoy a comic.

May 22, 2016#86

Hailey Knight

I don't mind old series dying and new series coming out, but resetting the numbers repeatedly, only to bring back the old numbers when hitting a milestone, gets tiring.

But it gets really bad when the cover of Squirrel Girl's reboot says "Only our second issue #1 this year!" Spider-Gwen, hit 5 issues, reset. Ms. Marvel I think hit 14 issues and then reset. Not because their stories necessitated it, but because of Secret Wars. Just no reason for that nonsense.

But I am glad Marvel's putting out new stuff. I'm liking a lot of it and it won't take too long to get caught up on the things I'm interested in.

May 22, 2016#87

ThatNickGuy

Cog said:
I actually like when the inevitable reboot happens. It give me the chance to start reading a new series and if I don't like it, I just have to wait for the next reboot. Same with marvel with their events. Having no previous attachment to the characters also helps to enjoy a comic.

This is where I usually follow creative teams rather than characters. Especially if it's a team that's allowed to do their own thing without too much interference from crossovers.

May 23, 2016#88

Hailey Knight

I wanted to subscribe to Gwenpool through Marvel's website, but didn't see it on there, so I sent them an email. Got a response this afternoon:

"We don't offer that title for subscription."

Um ... it's your own fucking publication, ya bums. You don't offer subscription for something you create and print? Why the hell not? It's a new comic, it was one of the higher sellers for April.

No wonder this industry's dying if the company itself can't be arsed to support their own products.

May 23, 2016#89

Covar

Who the fuck still gets mail order subscriptions to comics in this day and age?

May 23, 2016#90

AshburnerX

Covar said:
Who the fuck still gets mail order subscriptions to comics in this day and age?

People who don't have a local comic shop? Or the ones who don't have a tablet to get get digital issues?

May 23, 2016#91

Hailey Knight

Covar said:
Who the fuck still gets mail order subscriptions to comics in this day and age?

Yeah, who the fuck orders things online and gets them in the mail? That whole Amazon gig is gonna flop hard.

May 25, 2016#92

phil

Steve Rogers captain America #1

What the actual fuck?! Steve Rogers has been a Hydra agent the whole time? That seriously doesn't make even the least amount of sense. But apparently there are hints to it so fuck me I guess!

This just might be the worst thing ever. It's so stupid. They'll do a brainwashing or triple agent reveal in a year or so and it's just going to end up being hilariously dumb. Kinda fuck comics.

May 25, 2016#93

AshburnerX

phil said:
Steve Rogers captain America #1

What the actual fuck?! Steve Rogers has been a Hydra agent the whole time? That seriously doesn't make even the least amount of sense. But apparently there are hints to it so fuck me I guess!

This just might be the worst thing ever. It's so stupid. They'll do a brainwashing or triple agent reveal in a year or so and it's just going to end up being hilariously dumb. Kinda fuck comics.

Yes... let's make the Hitler punching, all American Hero created by two Jewish Kids be a Nazi all along. That SURELY does justice to their memories.

May 25, 2016#94

CynicismKills

phil said:
Steve Rogers captain America #1

What the actual fuck?! Steve Rogers has been a Hydra agent the whole time? That seriously doesn't make even the least amount of sense. But apparently there are hints to it so fuck me I guess!

This just might be the worst thing ever. It's so stupid. They'll do a brainwashing or triple agent reveal in a year or so and it's just going to end up being hilariously dumb. Kinda fuck comics.

Yeah I mentioned this in the Comic News thread. It's a stupid HEY LOOK AT WHAT WE'RE DOING TO A BELOVED ICON move, just like Superior Spider-Man was.

Difference is, this time the most white-bread, fascist-punching hero of all is now a fascist lackey himself. It's dumb.

May 25, 2016#95

Yoshimickster

I'm with y'all in hoping its a Red-Skull brain-washing...or more expecting it, dear LORD can we just stop with these stories?!

May 25, 2016#96

Hailey Knight

Other shit tying into Civil War II, the deaths of two characters kick it off

James Rhodes and She-Hulk

And as is the usual, their deaths don't mean anything for their own stories; it's just to motivate their good buddies who will be leaders of the Civil War II factions.

I'm particularly pissed about the latter, partly because she's a character I'm fond of, but also because of what this means for her comic.

A-Force JUST FUCKING STARTED. They're just finishing the first story arc in June. And then in July, they're killing She-Hulk, the team leader. I guess that means Captain Marvel is in charge? BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE STUPID TO COME. In the August issue, turns out another team member is a murderer, so now the whole team is at each other's throats.

It's like, why do I fucking bother? I was all excited to be finding cool new titles I wanted to get into, and Marvel can't give them room to breathe before dragging them into the summer shithole.

May 25, 2016#97

ThatNickGuy

Zero Esc said:
Other shit tying into Civil War II, the deaths of two characters kick it off

James Rhodes and She-Hulk

And as is the usual, their deaths don't mean anything for their own stories; it's just to motivate their good buddies who will be leaders of the Civil War II factions.

I'm particularly pissed about the latter, partly because she's a character I'm fond of, but also because of what this means for her comic.

A-Force JUST FUCKING STARTED. They're just finishing the first story arc in June. And then in July, they're killing She-Hulk, the team leader. I guess that means Captain Marvel is in charge? BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE STUPID TO COME. In the August issue, turns out another team member is a murderer, so now the whole team is at each other's throats.

It's like, why do I fucking bother? I was all excited to be finding cool new titles I wanted to get into, and Marvel can't give them room to breathe before dragging them into the summer shithole.

This is why - except for some VERY rare exceptions - I've given up on Marvel and DC. Besides, Image is putting out too many quality books for me to give a shit about superhero continuity that'll be undone or ignored in a year or two. If that.

May 25, 2016#98

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
This is why - except for some VERY rare exceptions - I've given up on Marvel and DC. Besides, Image is putting out too many quality books for me to give a shit about superhero continuity that'll be undone or ignored in a year or two. If that.

Some predict that they'll just start doing reboots every year.

Some books are spared by fact of be irreverent, but I bet people who are fans of Guardians of the Galaxy figured that out in the cosmos, they'd be spared from this crap. Nope, they're on Cap and Iron Man's side. Why? Solely because they're popular right now, so throwing them into the muck is supposed to increase event sales.

I get ditching the big too, but it's difficult when they have stuff I genuinely am interested in. It just sucks when they dick around with that stuff. End up getting punished for liking things in the first place.

May 25, 2016#99

ThatNickGuy

Zero Esc said:
Some predict that they'll just start doing reboots every year.

Some books are spared by fact of be irreverent, but I bet people who are fans of Guardians of the Galaxy figured that out in the cosmos, they'd be spared from this crap. Nope, they're on Cap and Iron Man's side. Why? Solely because they're popular right now, so throwing them into the muck is supposed to increase event sales.

I get ditching the big too, but it's difficult when they have stuff I genuinely am interested in. It just sucks when they dick around with that stuff. End up getting punished for liking things in the first place.

So go the other route: collect collections of older stuff that you may have heard were great. I could, of course, provide a laundry list of stuff there if you want.

I mean, you look at the stuff I got yesterday for myself. A lot of it was DC, but it was all older stuff being reprinted, like Chuck Dixon's run on Nightwing, Batman Adventures, or Secret Six. They're all mostly self-contained with not a lot of event interference.

But yeah, I get what you mean by being interested in stuff that's going on right now. You can't help but be curious to see what they'll pull off. Hell, I actually bought DC Rebirth today. I figure, if I'm going to criticize it, I should at least read it and be informed.

May 25, 2016#100

CynicismKills

WOAH

WOAH WOAH FUCKING WOAH

They're killing She Hulk? I like She Hulk. Goddamnit Marvel, come on. I'm sure it's yet another fucking temporary thing but ugh.

May 25, 2016#101

Celt Z

CynicismKills said:
WOAH

WOAH WOAH FUCKING WOAH

They're killing She Hulk? I like She Hulk. Goddamnit Marvel, come on. I'm sure it's yet another fucking temporary thing but ugh.

WTF?! Dislike!

May 25, 2016#102

Hailey Knight

CynicismKills said:
WOAH

WOAH WOAH FUCKING WOAH

They're killing She Hulk? I like She Hulk. Goddamnit Marvel, come on. I'm sure it's yet another fucking temporary thing but ugh.

That's the pain in the ass of it. If it's going to be temporary anyway, why not just go with a coma? Or something. There are more interesting ways to change things up than death. Maybe if comics stop grabbing for death and undoing it so much, it might start to have meaning again.

Honestly, if she's back by summer's end, I'll even give A-Force a shot. As it is, I was going to pick up the trade, but now why bother seeing how the team begins if within eight issues they're being split up? The title might even be gone, because guess what's coming after summer?

MARVEL NOW!, ROUND TWO. New titles! New status quo! New etc!

ThatNickGuy said:
So go the other route: collect collections of older stuff that you may have heard were great. I could, of course, provide a laundry list of stuff there if you want.

I mean, you look at the stuff I got yesterday for myself. A lot of it was DC, but it was all older stuff being reprinted, like Chuck Dixon's run on Nightwing, Batman Adventures, or Secret Six. They're all mostly self-contained with not a lot of event interference.

But yeah, I get what you mean by being interested in stuff that's going on right now. You can't help but be curious to see what they'll pull off. Hell, I actually bought DC Rebirth today. I figure, if I'm going to criticize it, I should at least read it and be informed.

It's not purely curiosity; I mean new titles came out with the "All New All Different" thing that had me going "I'd actually want to read that." Interesting, weird comics that drew me in again after so many years of absence. Only for a month to go by and Marvel remind me why I got out in the first place, because they can't leave well enough alone. Marvel's been taking chance with strange books lately--maybe they could try an even stranger concept of not fucking with everything.

This particular shitlery pisses me off because I didn't expect one of the characters who was drawing me back to be one of the primary victims.

May 25, 2016#103

ThatNickGuy

CynicismKills said:
WOAH

WOAH WOAH FUCKING WOAH

They're killing She Hulk? I like She Hulk. Goddamnit Marvel, come on. I'm sure it's yet another fucking temporary thing but ugh.

Give it a year or two. They'll be back.

May 25, 2016#104

CynicismKills

I mean in most cases it's not even a year, I'm just disappointed that they keep going back to this kind of thing for the crux of a big event.

May 26, 2016#105

figmentPez

Zero Esc said:
Other shit tying into Civil War II, the deaths of two characters kick it off

James Rhodes and She-Hulk

And as is the usual, their deaths don't mean anything for their own stories; it's just to motivate their good buddies who will be leaders of the Civil War II factions.

I'm particularly pissed about the latter, partly because she's a character I'm fond of, but also because of what this means for her comic.

A-Force JUST FUCKING STARTED. They're just finishing the first story arc in June. And then in July, they're killing She-Hulk, the team leader. I guess that means Captain Marvel is in charge? BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE STUPID TO COME. In the August issue, turns out another team member is a murderer, so now the whole team is at each other's throats.

It's like, why do I fucking bother? I was all excited to be finding cool new titles I wanted to get into, and Marvel can't give them room to breathe before dragging them into the summer shithole.

This is just rumors thus far, isn't it? I can't find any confirmation that those deaths are official yet.

May 26, 2016#106

Covar

figmentPez said:
This is just rumors thus far, isn't it? I can't find any confirmation that those deaths are official yet.

The FCBD issue that showed it was very ambiguous as to if it was something that happens or something foreseen. You can find out easily enough for yourself next Wednesday though when Civil War II #1 comes out though.

May 26, 2016#107

Hailey Knight

figmentPez said:
This is just rumors thus far, isn't it? I can't find any confirmation that those deaths are official yet.

I did some digging to substantiate at least one of the rumors.

She-Hulk is mentioned as "barely breathing" in FCBD Civil War II comic.
The rumor is that with her dying breath she tells Captain Marvel to keep using the prophetic Inhuman.
If you look at Marvel's site and the comics ahead, A-Force #7 is absent. A-Force #8 has no She-Hulk on the cover while the rest of the team is fighting.
A-Force #8's description is that this in-fighting is the result of a "personal tragedy" for the team.

Looks like a done deal for her. Probably for Iron Man's friend too, but I haven't looked into that.

May 27, 2016#108

DarkAudit

I haven't seen Civil War yet, and thanks to the mothership's stepping in it repeatedly this week, I don't think I will. They don't deserve to make one cent off of me. Sure, they'll still rake in the millions, but not outta my pocket.

May 27, 2016#109

Hailey Knight

I'm not boycotting Marvel as a whole. I'm not going to buy Nick Spencer writing, that's for damn sure, but I'm not going to punish people like Ryan North or G Willow Wilson, or myself by not reading their others.

May 27, 2016#110

ThatNickGuy

Well, at least you're not taking things this far:

May 27, 2016#111

Hailey Knight

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about it yesterday, but then I'd have to buy the piece of shit.

May 27, 2016#112

Yoshimickster

...so...many emotions regarding that image.

May 27, 2016#113

DarkAudit

Zero Esc said:
I'm not boycotting Marvel as a whole. I'm not going to buy Nick Spencer writing, that's for damn sure, but I'm not going to punish people like Ryan North or G Willow Wilson, or myself by not reading their others.

I meant what I said on tumblr. They're nothing to me now. There were so many times someone could have said no and didn't. Or worse, the order could have come from higher up the chain than the writer. This was a Marvel decision to run with this angle. So I'm done with Marvel period.

#yesallmarvel

May 27, 2016#114

BananaHands

I think Nick Spencer is a fantastic writer. Superior Foes of Spider-Man was amazing and his new comic with Image called The Fix is only two issues deep and probably one of my more enjoyable pulls. Not surprised by this public outcry, however, as people who like to complain about the things happening in comics rarely read them.

Spencer headed this event called Standoff! which led to the de-aged Steve Rodgers we see wailin' and hailin' in the most recent issue of Steve Rodgers: Captain America (not to be confused with the Sam Wilson: Captain America which is pretty good too). At one point in the event Red Skull poses as a priest and accompanies ol' Stevey through the fray, which brought us to this moment:

It should be noted that in the first Uncanny Avengers run, Red Skull dug up the recently deceased Professor X and pulled out his brain. After some comic book science-mumbo-jumbo, Red Skull has been becoming a more and more powerful psychic while he fights what remains of Professor X's consciousness. At the end of the AXIS event, that part of Xavier is now gone and we've got a nazi with an omega-level psychic's abilities.

It's obvious that Red Skull has planted these memories in poor Steve Rodger's mind and that this is just going to be the focus for the first arc of his new series. Not sure why everyone is freaking out. A brainwashed hero plot has been done time and time and time again. We've had events where Tony Stark was a pawn of Kang, a whole run where Doc Ock occupied Spider-Man's body after killing Peter Parker both mentally and physically and we've even had Steve Rodgers brainwashed before. People should realize that with Marvel and DC, everything will ALWAYS return to the status quo.[DOUBLEPOST=1464405806,1464405608][/DOUBLEPOST]

Zero Esc said:
Other shit tying into Civil War II, the deaths of two characters kick it off

James Rhodes and She-Hulk

And as is the usual, their deaths don't mean anything for their own stories; it's just to motivate their good buddies who will be leaders of the Civil War II factions.

I'm particularly pissed about the latter, partly because she's a character I'm fond of, but also because of what this means for her comic.

A-Force JUST FUCKING STARTED. They're just finishing the first story arc in June. And then in July, they're killing She-Hulk, the team leader. I guess that means Captain Marvel is in charge? BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE STUPID TO COME. In the August issue, turns out another team member is a murderer, so now the whole team is at each other's throats.

It's like, why do I fucking bother? I was all excited to be finding cool new titles I wanted to get into, and Marvel can't give them room to breathe before dragging them into the summer shithole.

Man, I'm so mad about She-Hulk. She is taken out by a tiny rocket to her tit.

A hulk. Taken out by a shitty War Machine rocket.

May 27, 2016#115

CynicismKills

But does he still have those powers/is the same Skull after Secret Wars? I don't know what, if anything, happened to him during those events.

May 27, 2016#116

figmentPez

BananaHands said:
It's obvious that Red Skull has planted these memories in poor Steve Rodger's mind and that this is just going to be the focus for the first arc of his new series. Not sure why everyone is freaking out. A brainwashed hero plot has been done time and time and time again. We've had events where Tony Stark was a pawn of Kang, a whole run where Doc Ock occupied Spider-Man's body after killing Peter Parker both mentally and physically and we've even had Steve Rodgers brainwashed before. People should realize that with Marvel and DC, everything will ALWAYS return to the status quo.

Except that Spencer has stated "This is not a clone, not an imposter, not mind control, not someone else acting through Steve. This really is Steve Rogers, Captain America himself.” (source)

Altered memories/brainwashing is mind control. And that's part of why I find this so repugnant. Even if there is some twist to this, they're going out of their way to make the public impression of Captain America having always been a traitor. There may be some great twist that makes it good storytelling, but that doesn't change that the PR is a poorly handled debacle that does nothing more than make it look like Marvel doesn't give a shit about people who look to Captain America as an icon.

May 27, 2016#117

BananaHands

CynicismKills said:
But does he still have those powers/is the same Skull after Secret Wars? I don't know what, if anything, happened to him during those events.

He recently used them on Rogue to make her think she was talking to Gambit when the Unity Squad finally caught up to him.

figmentPez said:
Except that Spencer has stated "This is not a clone, not an imposter, not mind control, not someone else acting through Steve. This really is Steve Rogers, Captain America himself.” (source)

Altered memories/brainwashing is mind control. And that's part of why I find this so repugnant. Even if there is some twist to this, they're going out of their way to make the public impression of Captain America having always been a traitor. There may be some great twist that makes it good storytelling, but that doesn't change that the PR is a poorly handled debacle that does nothing more than make it look like Marvel doesn't give a shit about people who look to Captain America as an icon.

Well, they still have SamCap at least! He's fun.

May 27, 2016#118

Hailey Knight

figmentPez said:
Except that Spencer has stated "This is not a clone, not an imposter, not mind control, not someone else acting through Steve. This really is Steve Rogers, Captain America himself.” (source)

Altered memories/brainwashing is mind control. And that's part of why I find this so repugnant. Even if there is some twist to this, they're going out of their way to make the public impression of Captain America having always been a traitor. There may be some great twist that makes it good storytelling, but that doesn't change that the PR is a poorly handled debacle that does nothing more than make it look like Marvel doesn't give a shit about people who look to Captain America as an icon.

I think you hit the nail on the head. Ignoring that this is a bad way to start a new Cap series, and ignoring that this a bad time for turning Cap on his head considering the popularity of the movies and Chris Evans PR--if it was just a comic by itself, it would be fine.

It's the whole "he was ALWAYS a traitor" and the insistence you'd see on Superman covers on superdickery.com "not a trick! not a dream!" The purposeful undermining of what Captain America stands for, means to some people, and their repeated "we're looking at the issues of today and this is a reflection of that." Like they sincerely believe this is the most brilliant thing they've ever done.

BananaHands said:
Man, I'm so mad about She-Hulk. She is taken out by a tiny rocket to her tit.

A hulk. Taken out by a shitty War Machine rocket.

I'm reading the 2014 series and I'm pretty sure she's taken a few laser death beams and rockets to the chest without even being fazed. Pisses me off because there's two series that will be losing her and be poorer for it.

All for stupid Civil War II event. What'd be nice is if events didn't have to overtake the entire Marvel universe. They do this to try and get people to buy more comics, but I'm quitting Spider-Gwen because the constant crossovers are giving me 90s Spider-man flashbacks. It'd be nice if we got back to solid stories told within a title. X-Men had some amazing storylines way back, for example. They didn't need to take over the whole Marvel universe--they were just in X-Men. No need to involve EVERYONE all the time. Certainly no need to take loved characters and kill them for bullshit reasons. Brian Bendis has his place on the ash pile. I was happy to see Miles Morales getting a series again, but Bendis is writing, so fuck it.

You know it's bad when Ms Marvel's writer had to assure fans on Twitter that they wouldn't need to read main Civil War II books to follow what will be going on in Ms Marvel at the same time.[DOUBLEPOST=1464408460,1464408422][/DOUBLEPOST]

BananaHands said:
Well, they still have SamCap at least! He's fun.

Until he has to fight Hydra Cap, which is what's being hinted at in promo art on the Marvel site.

May 28, 2016#119

BananaHands

Oh, there was a point in Standoff! where Kobik did something strange to Steve, even before the part where she made him younger. Maybe this plays a part, they never really explained what she 'fixed'.

May 28, 2016#120

Hailey Knight

Current running fan explanation:

Still, as Pez pointed out, the way Marvel PR is handling it is really the problem. Nick Spencer is also being an absolute tool on Twitter.

May 28, 2016#121

ThatNickGuy

OH MY GOD, THEY TURNED AN AMERICAN ICON INTO A NAZI!

We need to boycott those Stan Lee and Jack Kirby guys!

May 28, 2016#122

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
OH MY GOD, THEY TURNED AN AMERICAN ICON INTO A NAZI!
View attachment 21171

We need to boycott those Stan Lee and Jack Kirby guys!

Look! It's a bird! It's a plane!

No, it's Didn'tReadtheWholeThreadMan! More powerful than reading others' posts! Able to leap over thread replies in a single scroll! Writes posts so fast he doesn't read the others!

Didn'tReadTheWholeThreadMan, here to save the thread!

May 28, 2016#123

Gryfter

The media hype is what pisses me off about this. I could care less if a story arc has Cap seeming to be with Hydra because it certainly wouldn't be the first time a story like that was written. It's that this is clearly a stunt.... just like every other time they have done something like this. I also feel like it's incredibly disrespectful of what other have done with the character in the past to say that he was a villain the whole time through his whole history. Those other writers were able to come up with a cool story that honored the character and didn't fundamentally change the underlying premise of the character.

If I had heard about this through a comic reviewer or from people reading the comic I would just shrug and say comics. That they creative team behind the new story are trying to push this as it's always been this way is them ignoring their own history.

May 28, 2016#124

ThatNickGuy

Zero Esc said:
Look! It's a bird! It's a plane!

No, it's Didn'tReadtheWholeThreadMan! More powerful than reading others' posts! Able to leap over thread replies in a single scroll! Writes posts so fast he doesn't read the others!

Didn'tReadTheWholeThreadMan, here to save the thread!

Oh, I know. Everyone else here knows it's just temporary or there'll be an explanation.

It's the idiots on Twitter and such that keep going on about this story and calling Nick Spencer anti-semitic that make it ridiculous.

May 28, 2016#125

Ravenpoe

figmentPez said:
Except that Spencer has stated "This is not a clone, not an imposter, not mind control, not someone else acting through Steve. This really is Steve Rogers, Captain America himself.”

Yeah, and JJ Abrams said Khan wasn't in Star Trek Into Darkness.

May 28, 2016#126

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
Oh, I know. Everyone else here knows it's just temporary or there'll be an explanation.

It's the idiots on Twitter and such that keep going on about this story and calling Nick Spencer anti-semitic that make it ridiculous.

He's a troll. I wouldn't say he's anti-semitic unless someone puts a word bubble saying "Hail Hydra" on a photo of him and Marvel claims he's anti-semitic ... and always was!

Interesting that I've seen this drive people towards picking up on the new DC stuff. They couldn't market it themselves, so it was up to Marvel to help them out. Timing worked out really well for them.

May 28, 2016#127

jwhouk

And I still say there's anti-comics guys at the heads of Marvel Entertainment and DC.

May 28, 2016#128

Sparhawk

I really don't understand this whole thing. It's like people (as a whole) are too stupid to understand that this is the "hook" for the next issue. "What happens next?"

It's just stupid with the reactions to something that is part of a story, no matter what the upper-management is trying to push in the media to boost sales. Which, honestly, doesn't help most retailers because the orders for this issue were placed back in March and there is probably very little over-run available for re-orders. So, they're hyping the issue, to get people to find SRCA#1, and it's mostly not going to be available.

May 28, 2016#129

figmentPez

Ravenpoe said:
Yeah, and JJ Abrams said Khan wasn't in Star Trek Into Darkness.

Which was stupid as well, but at least he wasn't shitting on the work of other creators in the process.

You'd think good writers would be able come up with better misdirection.

May 28, 2016#130

CynicismKills

At the end of the day, the real crime is the issue this huge reveal happens in is boring as fuck.

May 28, 2016#131

BananaHands

Hey @Dave can we change the Captain America button from "I understand that reference" to "HAIL HYDRA!"?[DOUBLEPOST=1464464996,1464464775][/DOUBLEPOST]

Zero Esc said:
He's a troll. I wouldn't say he's anti-semitic unless someone puts a word bubble saying "Hail Hydra" on a photo of him and Marvel claims he's anti-semitic ... and always was!

Interesting that I've seen this drive people towards picking up on the new DC stuff. They couldn't market it themselves, so it was up to Marvel to help them out. Timing worked out really well for them.

I have this theory that Marvel and DC sat down and were like "Hey, I'll put out terrible movies if you put out terrible comics. Then, we can RULE THE WORLD.

May 28, 2016#132

figmentPez

Zero Esc said:
Current running fan explanation:

Still, as Pez pointed out, the way Marvel PR is handling it is really the problem. Nick Spencer is also being an absolute tool on Twitter.

I like this explanation better:

May 28, 2016#133

Hailey Knight

Sparhawk said:
I really don't understand this whole thing. It's like people (as a whole) are too stupid to understand that this is the "hook" for the next issue. "What happens next?

But we weren't allowed to wonder what's next, what's going on, etc., because Marvel pulled a Superdickery cover on the whole thing. Instead of getting to go "Why would Cap do/say that? What's going to happen?" we have "He's a Hydra agent! Always was! Not a dream sequence! Not an illusion!"

I agree with you on that it makes no sense to hype something that was likely sold out anyway. Meanwhile Nick Spencer is drooling over the attention like a moron. "Derp, look how popular I am! I am beloved!" He thinks this makes him the next Alan Moore, but I think his path lies more down the road traveled by Mark Millar.

May 28, 2016#134

Hailey Knight

Another note with this: it's easy for comic book elitists to go (and I'm quoting Reddit comments here) "only the normies are upset, us comic readers know better." But that readership dwindles because of time, and fails to gain new blood because of shit like this.

Little kids read these comics, and I've seen many anecdotes about kids who looked up to Captain America asking if he's evil. Now again, elitist attitude is probably to hell with 'em, but again it fails to bring in the new blood. Kids get jaded, they walk away. I don't think Marvel considers the repercussions of this kind of thing at a time when Chris Evans, dressed as Cap, goes to visit sick kids in hospitals in his free time.

Now I know Nick mentions critically acclaimed comics you can be reading, but a lot of those aren't superhero comics, which is something that resonates with kids. I wouldn't hand Saga or The Walking Dead or The Sandman to an 8-year-old

.

I say all this because I remember being dicked around by comics. Spider-man Clone Saga vs little me. The final issue I ever read of any Spider-man comic had crazy "been a clone all along!" Peter Parker chasing pregnant Mary Jane through the NYC subway intent on murdering her. That was when I walked away.

May 28, 2016#135

figmentPez

Zero Esc said:
Little kids read these comics, and I've seen many anecdotes about kids who looked up to Captain America asking if he's evil. Now again, elitist attitude is probably to hell with 'em, but again it fails to bring in the new blood. Kids get jaded, they walk away. I don't think Marvel considers the repercussions of this kind of thing at a time when Chris Evans, dressed as Cap, goes to visit sick kids in hospitals in his free time.

A minor internet celebrity had this to say on my Tumblr dash, "Marvel owns the characters, not you. They’re in fact LEGALLY allowed to do whatever the hell they want, even if we don’t like it. You can absolutely ignore this particular story event. Lots of people ignore certain story events. This doesn’t eliminate who Steve Rogers has been in the past. And the comics have gone in so many different directions and have retold certain events so many times that you can legitimately pick and choose which parts are your “canon”."

And she's right, Marvel legally owns the characters, and can do what they please with them. Just like Spider-Man can choose to use his powers for selfish gain and ignore crime going on around him. Marvel isn't just owner of an intellectual property. It is caretaker of a role model and icon. With great power comes great responsiblity.

May 28, 2016#136

jwhouk

"With great power comes great responsibility."

That right there is the reason why Marvel has - until this whole Cap thing - been more successful than DC.

DC's people apparently DGNF when it comes to their characters. Marvel apparently has decided to DGNF with Cap.

May 28, 2016#137

Hailey Knight

Also with ... another character.

Really hoping Singularity can bring She-Hulk back soon enough.[/quote]

May 28, 2016#138

ThatNickGuy

Zero Esc said:
Now I know Nick mentions critically acclaimed comics you can be reading, but a lot of those aren't superhero comics, which is something that resonates with kids. I wouldn't hand Saga or The Walking Dead or The Sandman to an 8-year-old .

Those recommendations were never for children. Always adults. There are plenty of kid-friendly comics I could recommend and have in the past: Bone, Amulet, Mouse Guard, Lumberjanes, Battling Boy, Sentinel, anything by Doug Tennapel, anything by Raina Telgmeier. If kids want the superheroes they saw on the big screen, both companies have decades of backstock that have been collected. It's just a matter of having informed parents know which books to pick up. To be fair, there are SOME kid-friendly books, like Squirrel Girl and I believe Batgirl.

But because a younger audience was the target for decades (even as far back as the late 90s, early 2000s), there is plenty of backstock to choose from. A child wants Spider-Man? How about some of the classic stuff? Ultimate Spider-Man is pretty safe. Or, if they're still in print, the Marvel Adventures digests. I think there's a current title called Spidey that's more kid-friendly.

Neither company has, for the most part, aimed their product at a younger audience for years. DC's Dan Didio specifically said their target now are mostly adult males, around my age (give or take a decade). Marvel is close to the same. Which is mind-boggling to me, especially DC. They'll have an R-rated version of Batman v Superman primed and ready to go, yet they still sell kids clothes, bed sheets, chapter books, and toys with those same characters. Hell, there are picture books for Nolan's Batman. I believe there are picture books for Batman v Superman, which is even more mind-boggling. For the most part, though, kids have not been the target audience for a long time. Unless they're specifically branded for younger audiences, like the now defunct Marvel Adventures line or the spin-off comics from cartoons series (Batman Adventures, Superman Adventures, etc). There's no way I'd let a young kid today read a Batman title, with Joker's face ripped off and taped back on or Justice League where Aquaman gouges out Darkseid's eyes.

Hell, I cringe whenever either of my nieces (13 and 7 respectfully) look at my shelves. The 13-year old might be able to handle some stuff, but not Saga or Sex Criminals. I have a shelf specifically for all my kid books like the ones I mentioned (I basically looked at it while typing the recommendations). And the 7 year old has looked at some of those, which is fine. But even I know most of my comics wouldn't be safe for her to read, even most of my Marvel and DC stuff.

May 28, 2016#139

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
There's no way I'd let a young kid today read a Batman title, with Joker's face ripped off and taped back on or Justice League where Aquaman gouges out Darkseid's eyes.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

What the hellllll

May 28, 2016#140

CynicismKills

If it makes you feel any better Joker lost his face-flesh mask and a crazy sewer girl started wearing it and calling herself Joker's Daughter.

May 29, 2016#141

phil

CynicismKills said:
If it makes you feel any better Joker lost his face-flesh mask and a crazy sewer girl started wearing it and calling herself Joker's Daughter.

It does not

May 29, 2016#142

CynicismKills

phil said:
It does not

...about making you feel better.

May 29, 2016#143

phil

May 29, 2016#144

CynicismKills

May 29, 2016#145

BananaHands

CynicismKills said:
If it makes you feel any better Joker lost his face-flesh mask and a crazy sewer girl started wearing it and calling herself Joker's Daughter.

To be fair, that was only one of the THREE confirmed jokers in the DC universe as of Rebirth.

...ugh.

May 29, 2016#146

Yoshimickster

"Duella, Duella, daughter of the joker, Duella, Duella...I'm cool!"

May 29, 2016#147

BananaHands

"I'm edgy with undertones of feminism!!!"

May 29, 2016#148

Hailey Knight

Something I noticed, going back to what's for kids and what isn't:

On the Marvel site, each comic issue has a rating. T, T+, etc. DC comics on the DC site don't have any rating.

May 29, 2016#149

Covar

Zero Esc said:
Something I noticed, going back to what's for kids and what isn't:

On the Marvel site, each comic issue has a rating. T, T+, etc. DC comics on the DC site don't have any rating.

DC comics use the same rating system. It's on the books in the same place on the barcodes.

May 29, 2016#150

Hailey Knight

Covar said:
DC comics use the same rating system. It's on the books in the same place on the barcodes.

Got it. And it's more important to have it on the books themselves than the site.

May 29, 2016#151

Covar

Yeah, we always make sure to point them out and explain them to parents. There's no industry standard or third party board, but most publishers that rate their books use a very similar systems. I think Action Lab does the best job, they make sure it's on the front cover and color coded. They based it off Marvel and DC so they wouldn't be adding more confusion to parents.

May 29, 2016#152

Hailey Knight

Covar said:
Yeah, we always make sure to point them out and explain them to parents. There's no industry standard or third party board, but most publishers that rate their books use a very similar systems. I think Action Lab does the best job, they make sure it's on the front cover and color coded. They based it off Marvel and DC so they wouldn't be adding more confusion to parents.

View attachment 21180

Amazon should probably pay attention this. Stuff marked as T on the books is listed as being for audiences several years younger on their site for the trades.

May 29, 2016#153

ThatNickGuy

So recently, I've been contacting DC Comics through they're Contact Us section on their website. I specifically address the e-mails as "c/o Collected Editions," because I want to suggest tweaks or suggestions to solicited collections.

For example, Nightwing Vol. 5, continuing Chuck Dixon's amazing run on the book, includes issues that are smack dab in the middle of the Hunt for Oracle storyline. It crosses over with two issues of Birds of Prey. I feel it absolutely should be included because Nightwing plays a major role in that story and it affects him and his book.

I also actually sent them a long snail-mail letter, largely thanking them because they really do put out quality work in their collections. But it was mainly to point out that the solicitations for the new editions of the Death and Return of Superman books (4 books this time) doesn't list the issue of Justice League where Doomsday completely decimates the League. That was a huge part of that story and to exclude it is crazy. I was very polite in my letter to them, but I'm honestly surprised it was overlooked.

I look at it from a new reader's point of view. You go from Volume 4 to 5, expecting a full story. But if, say, a talking gorilla sudden shows up in Nightwing, talking with the head mob boss, you'd like to see where the hell he came from. Especially since it was an issue that Dixon wrote, as well, introducing the character.

May 30, 2016#154

figmentPez

Apparently Captain Canuck is having a similar scandal:

Oh my, Captain Crunch, too:

May 31, 2016#155

PatrThom

Now we just need to hear from Captain Caveman, Captain Obvious, and Captain Kangaroo.

--Patrick

May 31, 2016#156

BananaHands

Read the CW2 leak.

She-Hulk dies. From a little missle that hit her in the boob. She flatlines in the hospital telling Carol to "be strong".

I just want Bendis to leave. Slott too.

May 31, 2016#157

CynicismKills

BananaHands said:
Read the CW2 leak.

She-Hulk dies. From a little missle that hit her in the boob. She flatlines in the hospital telling Carol to "be strong".

I just want Bendis to leave. Slott too.

Bendis? You don't like Bendis? Bendis the writer? His style. It's his style? You don't like it?

May 31, 2016#158

Covar

BananaHands said:
Read the CW2 leak.

She-Hulk dies. From a little missle that hit her in the boob. She flatlines in the hospital telling Carol to "be strong".

Okay, now that it's out commence bitching about the boob death missile.

May 31, 2016#159

BananaHands

CynicismKills said:
Bendis? You don't like Bendis? Bendis the writer? His style. It's his style? You don't like it?

It's such a shame that Ultimate Spider-Man was so good, even with Bendis putting himself in the comic as Kong.[DOUBLEPOST=1464750350,1464750294][/DOUBLEPOST]

Covar said:
Okay, now that it's out commence bitching about the boob death missile.

Oh, it's coming. I'm so mad about it. The whole FCB Day issue fight was so painful as it was, with Thanos showing up with Guns and getting smacked around by C-Listers.

May 31, 2016#160

Hailey Knight

Covar said:
Okay, now that it's out commence bitching about the boob death missile.

Don't mind if I do.

Makes zero sense. The shit she's been able to withstand in the past, stuff that doesn't even faze her much ... and yet one of Warmachine's missiles puts her down. Maybe there's some other explanation to come, something else going on with her, but the weakness of how she's killed just underscores how the point is to kill her, no matter what. Give Carol Danvers more reason to push her side, presumably break Amadeus Cho, probably make the Hellcat comic no fun anymore. I'm pretty sure this month's A-Force still has She-Hulk running around with her team, while somehow Hellcat's issue has She-Hulk and Hellcat going to Coney Island (though that might have been the May issue). If only they could ignore this entirely.

As it is, She-Hulk doesn't die for some greater purpose, to a great threat, or even getting to complete some story arc of her own or where she's a prominent figure. She dies by accident, to a Rhodey missile, for a bigger event that's just using her as an excuse. Bleh.

Supposedly one of the Marvel heroes is going to be a big problem later in Civil War II. My two guesses are Cho Hulk, angered over the death of his mentor, or Vision, because it's been foreseen by Ulysses, so in trying to take him down we get a self-fulfilling prophecy, and maybe Carol Danvers will learn the dangers of this kind of shit.

EDIT: Thought I was done, but nope.

She-Hulk has often been a character of a humor comic. Something to take this nonsense down a peg. She's also a great character, but it seems pointless to take away a character like that.

Singularity is a character from Secret Wars who can mess with reality and such, so as I said in spoilers on an earlier page, I'm hoping she'll be able to bring Jennifer Walters back. She-Hulk does with her words what she could, but chooses not to do with her fists. I appreciate that. I don't appreciate her being killed by, for a Hulk, what is essentially the equivalent of a Nerf dart, for shallow storytelling reasons.

Jun 1, 2016#161

Hailey Knight

Jun 1, 2016#162

CynicismKills

Just read Civil War II #1.

Hot.

Garbage.

The team gets the jump on Thanos, and he blows a hole in Rhodes and apparently beat She Hulk down enough to kill her.

How do you beat a Hulk to death?

Tony decides that Rhodes, a soldier, shouldn't have died in combat. Because reasons. I get he's Tony's BFF but dude, you don't pull what Tony does on Marvel over it (DON'T YOU SAY HIS NAME, IT'S YOUR FAULT ETC ETC).

And of course, Bendis-speak. So much Bendis-speak.

Jun 1, 2016#163

Hailey Knight

I thought Tony's motivation would involve right or wrong of using Ulysses, but instead it's just self-absorbed shit. It's one thing to pull a Minority Report on would-be crimes; it's another to pre-empt disaster-level problems like inter-dimensional monsters or Thanos. I know the core of the problem comes later when Ulysses predicts one of the good guys will be the next big disaster, but still ... it really feels like Ulysses could be the villain in all this.

But even if the story was interesting (it's not), the writing is crap. I didn't know the term for this before today, but IGN clued me in--teamspeak. You have things that need to be said, and there's a group of characters, so you just toss out lines in fair share regardless of personality, motivation, etc. Banter is interchangeable. Blegh. I just hope this doesn't poison other titles too much.

So we get this for seven months, and sometime near the end of that we get the renewed Marvel Now, with new titles coming, maybe even reboots! Again! Who knows? I'll just drag in a thing from my blog: Interview with Tom Brevoort of Marvel discusses stuff with this. A choice quote:

Having #1s for even the key titles, it's sort of critical to the publishing, and to giving people the feeling that, here's a place they can jump on board and get into a story with one of the characters they're seeing in the cineplex. There's some place they can instantly go when they make the trek to the comic shop, or they open up whichever app they're using to buy digital comics. "Where do I start?" Particularly for an older reader who has never read comics. Just the wall of new releases in a comic shop can be daunting to know where to begin. There's so much, there's so many. People learn the lay of the land and they get it fairly quickly, but to start out, it's very difficult. Way more difficult than starting on a TV show.

And these days, you don't start on TV shows the way you used to. If you hear that, "Hey, this 'Better Call Saul' show is pretty cool," you typically don't just watch the next episode that's on. You go to Netflix and start at the beginning and binge the first season, or you go out and buy the DVDs, or you get a season pass from iTunes and you start at the beginning. You don't start this week. Or even if you do, you happen to catch one episode, and go, "That was pretty interesting, I wonder what that's about," you probably don't just start watching from that point, you go back and you binge all the stuff that's been there.

He has a point, but his analogy falters because shows like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul then move onto season 2, season 3, etc. They don't just keep doing a new season 1 each year, and that's where Marvel is headed lately with have world-shattering events each year. Beginnings are great for bringing people in, but you then need continuations to keep those people. If the new series I fall in love with this year gets cancelled after just 12 issues, why should I bother getting attached to the next new thing?

Jun 1, 2016#164

Gryfter

Man, that is a dumb way for She-Hulk to go....... I mean reallly dumb.

Jun 1, 2016#165

Covar

Zero Esc said:
He has a point, but his analogy falters because shows like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul then move onto season 2, season 3, etc. They don't just keep doing a new season 1 each year, and that's where Marvel is headed lately with have world-shattering events each year. Beginnings are great for bringing people in, but you then need continuations to keep those people. If the new series I fall in love with this year gets cancelled after just 12 issues, why should I bother getting attached to the next new thing?

Except marvel doesn't just start telling the story over either. The volumes are very much like the next season of a story.

I've gone from being amused to annoyed and amazed at the number of people who jumped on to Marvel comics because of their rolling restarts to being upset by them, and unable to see their own place in it. No one who started reading with the Heroic Age, Marvel Now, All-new Marvel Now, or All-new, All-different Marvel has been reading long enough to be a crumudgeon about it.

Jun 1, 2016#166

Hailey Knight

Covar said:
Except marvel doesn't just start telling the story over either. The volumes are very much like the next season of a story.

I've gone from being amused to annoyed and amazed at the number of people who jumped on to Marvel comics because of their rolling restarts to being upset by them, and unable to see their own place in it. No one who started reading with the Heroic Age, Marvel Now, All-new Marvel Now, or All-new, All-different Marvel has been reading long enough to be a crumudgeon about it.

Then why does it need to feel like it's just getting started in the next season? I can't speak for all titles, and I know someone warned me this particular title has been in bad hands for a bit, but going from Marvel Now Captain Marvel to ANAD Captain Marvel, it feels like the start of a new series, starring the same character, rather than a next season for that character. I doubt that's the only title like this.

Jun 1, 2016#167

Yoshimickster

Part of me wishes I could contribute more to the Civil War 2 conversation...but that would involve READING Civil War 2, so I'll just cut my losses here.

Jun 1, 2016#168

Hailey Knight

Yoshimickster said:
Part of me wishes I could contribute more to the Civil War 2 conversation...but that would involve READING Civil War 2, so I'll just cut my losses here.

They're charging $6 for this junk.

Jun 1, 2016#169

BananaHands

Yoshimickster said:
Part of me wishes I could contribute more to the Civil War 2 conversation...but that would involve READING Civil War 2, so I'll just cut my losses here.

http://boards.4chan.org/co/thread/83374697#p83374697

Just read it for free, bruh.

Jun 1, 2016#170

Yoshimickster

Zero Esc said:
They're charging $6 for this junk.

...for EACH issue? Sweet strawberry Jesus that's too expensive! Are there at least fun holographic trading cards?

Jun 1, 2016#171

Hailey Knight

Yoshimickster said:
...for EACH issue? Sweet strawberry Jesus that's too expensive! Are there at least fun holographic trading cards?

I don't know if it's each issue, but for the first one. And it's told really haphazardly too. In the middle of the comic, there's a gap where the FCBD comic would go. So big battle, aftermath, skip ahead, aftermath of a different battle that took place in a different comic. :confused:

Not sure where Civil War II #0 fits in.

Jun 1, 2016#172

BananaHands

This event is handled by Bendis. We're all just going to have to find shelter from the messy, dialogue storm and hope our beloved characters make it out unscathed. I just hope that Night Thrasher makes it through THIS Civil War considering we just got him back.

Jun 1, 2016#173

Hailey Knight

For anyone who read the first Civil War while it was happening: how much were other titles affected? Were they just an impossible to decipher mess? Did you have to read a bunch of other shit to keep up?

Ms Marvel's writer assured readers that they wouldn't have to read other books to keep up with Ms Marvel, for example. Is that a general truth for most titles or did she have to say something because Ms Marvel in this case would be going against the grain? It probably doesn't affect me much as besides A-Force (still haven't cancelled it ...) I'm mostly reading humor books. Which shouldn't matter, but the I see Hellcat #8 has a Civil War II stamp on top and pictures of Hellcat and She-Hulk hanging out, so that'll probably be a pretty miserable time.

Jun 2, 2016#174

BananaHands

Zero Esc said:
For anyone who read the first Civil War while it was happening: how much were other titles affected? Were they just an impossible to decipher mess? Did you have to read a bunch of other shit to keep up?

Aside from the 'Nextwave' series, all the tie-ins were basically characters arguing about the ongoing Civil War and/or reeling about Spider-Man's identity.

Jun 3, 2016#175

Hailey Knight

Marvel's got a nice racket going.

My wife got the FCBD Preacher comic to promote the AMC show, read through it, and said she wanted to check out the real deal. So I bought her the first volume for her birthday later this month, and figured I'd get something for me too, so I threw in Ms Marvel vol 3. The low-down:

Ms Marvel vol 3, 90 pages or so. Price: $11
Preacher vol 1, OVER 300 PAGES, Price: $12

Wow. I'm still gonna buy Ms Marvel because I love Ms Marvel, but I thought the Lucifer and Sandman books were sizable. This volume's a monster.

Jun 3, 2016#176

ThatNickGuy

Zero Esc said:
Marvel's got a nice racket going.

My wife got the FCBD Preacher comic to promote the AMC show, read through it, and said she wanted to check out the real deal. So I bought her the first volume for her birthday later this month, and figured I'd get something for me too, so I threw in Ms Marvel vol 3. The low-down:

Ms Marvel vol 3, 90 pages or so. Price: $11
Preacher vol 1, OVER 300 PAGES, Price: $12

Wow. I'm still gonna buy Ms Marvel because I love Ms Marvel, but I thought the Lucifer and Sandman books were sizable. This volume's a monster.

That must be the newer editions they released a few years ago, with about 12 issues each. They're great. Only six volumes instead of the original 9.

You must've gotten that on sale because normal cover price is $20.

Jun 3, 2016#177

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
That must be the newer editions they released a few years ago, with about 12 issues each. They're great. Only six volumes instead of the original 9.

You must've gotten that on sale because normal cover price is $20.

Amazon has lower book prices on the U.S. site.

Jun 3, 2016#178

Hailey Knight

Found the true Marvel site.

Jun 4, 2016#179

BananaHands

Is that the new Ms. Marvel series? I heard it was great.

Jun 4, 2016#180

Hailey Knight

BananaHands said:
Is that the new Ms. Marvel series? I heard it was great.

It is. Kamala Khan is that perfect mix of put-upon and forever burned in her normal life, but joyous and excited in her superhero life. I get tired of superheroes angsting about what they can do; the only one I'm okay with it from is the Hulk. As with the better incarnations of Spider-man, the best part of Ms Marvel's day is when she gets to put on the costume and be Ms Marvel.

I'm in a conundrum of trying to catch up so I can read it monthly, but also not wanting to go too fast and be out of comics to read.

Jun 4, 2016#181

Hailey Knight

I'm checking out Brian Michael Bendis's run of Guardians of the Galaxy from the Marvel Now line, and it's actually pretty good. I've seen a few things people mention him being good with.

So why is Civil War II written so poorly? I don't just mean the deaths now; I went into #1 to read some and between the poor dialogue (oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah), the poor characterization (Tony Stark and Carol Danvers, recovering alcoholics who joke about drinks tonight--classy!), and hand-waving current events of the Marvel universe (mutants are dying because of the Inhumans, but the X-Men are fine hanging out with Medusa and crew because "it's a party"), it's a shit show.

My guess, and what I'm gleaning from other Bendis stuff, is that he doesn't care. When he gives a shit, it shows, and when he doesn't, it also shows. While ALL of these properties exist to make money--even Marvel's push for the Inhumans, regardless of actual sales, is to prime them for the spotlight later when they hope to reap the profits--there's a difference between a money-maker story where the writer has a story to tell and one where it is just the money, not the soul of it, and Civil War II #1 reads like exactly what it is, a corporate decision. Everyone's a chess piece, and there are kings and queens, knights and pawns. Doesn't matter who they are as a character, just that character's connections and role. Tony blames Carol for Rhodey's death because each is the leader of a pre-determined side, despite how obvious a threat like Thanos would be for the use of the future sight power. No one listens to Tony that they shouldn't be so quick to trust Ulysses because if they did, the conflict wouldn't so immediately lead to the Inhumans storming Stark Tower later this month. And so on.

So, I won't write Bendis off entirely, which is what I thought I'd be doing after reading this dreck. But I will be careful, especially since the Marvel Now run of Guardians doesn't seem to be collected properly into trades (please correct me if I'm wrong; I'd really like to get this--the run with Venom and Kitty Pryde). (EDIT: Never mind. There was the Marvel Now run, and then the new run, but Marvel calls them both ongoing. See? This is the problem with constantly resetting to #1; it gets really difficult to figure out which volumes correspond with what you want to read since the collection numbering becomes useless.)

Maybe later on in Civil War II, Bendis will start to care and the writing will get better. Kinda doubt it, but they have seven issues of this to go, so who knows?

Jun 4, 2016#182

BananaHands

Zero Esc said:
I'm checking out Brian Michael Bendis's run of Guardians of the Galaxy from the Marvel Now line, and it's actually pretty good. I've seen a few things people mention him being good with.

So why is Civil War II written so poorly? I don't just mean the deaths now; I went into #1 to read some and between the poor dialogue (oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah), the poor characterization (Tony Stark and Carol Danvers, recovering alcoholics who joke about drinks tonight--classy!), and hand-waving current events of the Marvel universe (mutants are dying because of the Inhumans, but the X-Men are fine hanging out with Medusa and crew because "it's a party"), it's a shit show.

My guess, and what I'm gleaning from other Bendis stuff, is that he doesn't care. When he gives a shit, it shows, and when he doesn't, it also shows. While ALL of these properties exist to make money--even Marvel's push for the Inhumans, regardless of actual sales, is to prime them for the spotlight later when they hope to reap the profits--there's a difference between a money-maker story where the writer has a story to tell and one where it is just the money, not the soul of it, and Civil War II #1 reads like exactly what it is, a corporate decision. Everyone's a chess piece, and there are kings and queens, knights and pawns. Doesn't matter who they are as a character, just that character's connections and role. Tony blames Carol for Rhodey's death because each is the leader of a pre-determined side, despite how obvious a threat like Thanos would be for the use of the future sight power. No one listens to Tony that they shouldn't be so quick to trust Ulysses because if they did, the conflict wouldn't so immediately lead to the Inhumans storming Stark Tower later this month. And so on.

So, I won't write Bendis off entirely, which is what I thought I'd be doing after reading this dreck. But I will be careful, especially since the Marvel Now run of Guardians doesn't seem to be collected properly into trades (please correct me if I'm wrong; I'd really like to get this--the run with Venom and Kitty Pryde). (EDIT: Never mind. There was the Marvel Now run, and then the new run, but Marvel calls them both ongoing. See? This is the problem with constantly resetting to #1; it gets really difficult to figure out which volumes correspond with what you want to read since the collection numbering becomes useless.)

Maybe later on in Civil War II, Bendis will start to care and the writing will get better. Kinda doubt it, but they have seven issues of this to go, so who knows?

Oh man, we have opposite reactions to his Guardians of the Galaxy. It's not the worst, but it poops all over the team's old run.

Jun 4, 2016#183

Hailey Knight

BananaHands said:
Oh man, we have opposite reactions to his Guardians of the Galaxy. It's not the worst, but it poops all over the team's old run.

I never read it, so maybe I'd feel the same? I like how Bendis writes Rocket. I'm actually kind of curious about the Marvel Now part as well--at the point where Iron Man is there, it feels way more like Tony Stark than Civil War II.

But like I said, I never read the previous run, and from what I understand that's the run that the movie is based on. The main complaint I'm reading about the Bendis run is Marvel-itis, in that there's a shit-ton of cameos and crossovers.

Jun 4, 2016#184

Hailey Knight

The pricing on the Guardians volumes is ridiculous. I don't know why Marvel has a hard-on for hardcovers for these, but it's not worth the price. Maybe they'll release paperbacks later.

Jun 4, 2016#185

BananaHands

Zero Esc said:
I never read it, so maybe I'd feel the same? I like how Bendis writes Rocket. I'm actually kind of curious about the Marvel Now part as well--at the point where Iron Man is there, it feels way more like Tony Stark than Civil War II.

But like I said, I never read the previous run, and from what I understand that's the run that the movie is based on. The main complaint I'm reading about the Bendis run is Marvel-itis, in that there's a shit-ton of cameos and crossovers.

If you have the time and patience to read through all of this, it's extremely rewarding. The Guardians (with the exception of Rocket) are a lot different from what you're reading but it's super good.

I've seen some stuff I like about the Bendis run, but the Original Sin tie-in was such a slap in the face to any person who read cosmic Marvel before his run so it left a sour taste. He just didn't care to read the source material and it just came off as insulting to the writers and fans of the Thanos Imperative event.

Jun 5, 2016#186

Hailey Knight

BananaHands said:
If you have the time and patience to read through all of this, it's extremely rewarding. The Guardians (with the exception of Rocket) are a lot different from what you're reading but it's super good.

I've seen some stuff I like about the Bendis run, but the Original Sin tie-in was such a slap in the face to any person who read cosmic Marvel before his run so it left a sour taste. He just didn't care to read the source material and it just came off as insulting to the writers and fans of the Thanos Imperative event.

I don't think I'll be reading the stuff leading up to and around Original Sin, so no worries there. I'm kinda avoiding any past forced event stuff like the plague--Civil War II filtering into the books I like is already dispiriting.

I'm sure that chart follows an amazing story, but it's a daunting number of books. Would you say it's worth reading the Abnett run of Guardians (vol 1, vol 2, Thanos Imperative) on its own, or not to bother unless I'm going to read all that other stuff in the chart?

I poked in on this recent Guardians stuff because throwing in the likes of Kitty Pryde, the Thing, and Venom seemed like it'd be wacky adventure time, and having them make up half the group kinda changes what the team is. I'm not sure if it's fun anyway, but my curiosity wasn't because I'm expecting the same great cosmic story as what's in that chart. I doubt the Rocket Raccoon & Groot comic is in the same vein as all that either though. Right now it seems like each member of the Abnett run's team has their own title thanks to the movie.

Jun 5, 2016#187

ThatNickGuy

Zero Esc said:
I don't think I'll be reading the stuff leading up to and around Original Sin, so no worries there. I'm kinda avoiding any past forced event stuff like the plague--Civil War II filtering into the books I like is already dispiriting.

I'm sure that chart follows an amazing story, but it's a daunting number of books. Would you say it's worth reading the Abnett run of Guardians (vol 1, vol 2, Thanos Imperative) on its own, or not to bother unless I'm going to read all that other stuff in the chart?

I poked in on this recent Guardians stuff because throwing in the likes of Kitty Pryde, the Thing, and Venom seemed like it'd be wacky adventure time, and having them make up half the group kinda changes what the team is. I'm not sure if it's fun anyway, but my curiosity wasn't because I'm expecting the same great cosmic story as what's in that chart. I doubt the Rocket Raccoon & Groot comic is in the same vein as all that either though. Right now it seems like each member of the Abnett run's team has their own title thanks to the movie.

Abnett/Lanning wrote the majority of those books, actually. I honestly say it's all worth it because it's great, huge, cosmic fun. Plus, it's largely separate from all the crossovers going on at the time (Civil War and such). Most of the stuff is collected really well, too. I think they released a nice, big omnibus of Annihilation and maybe Conquest, too. I have them in the volumes above. They released two volumes of Guardians that collect the whole series. I also recommend the Nova series, not only because a lot of it's important, but it's a LOT of fun.

You can also skip the Silver Surfer and Annihilators stuff altogether, I think. You could easily end it on The Thanos Imperative.

The only part where I find the whole Cosmic Marvel stumbles a bit is War of Kings. It's not bad, but it's a little jumbled because it mixes in some X-Men and Inhuman stuff that I find isn't as interesting. Especially the villain in it. It gets interesting again with Realm of Kings and, as I said, finishes off great with Thanos Imperative.

Jun 5, 2016#188

BananaHands

ThatNickGuy said:
Abnett/Lanning wrote the majority of those books, actually. I honestly say it's all worth it because it's great, huge, cosmic fun. Plus, it's largely separate from all the crossovers going on at the time (Civil War and such). Most of the stuff is collected really well, too. I think they released a nice, big omnibus of Annihilation and maybe Conquest, too. I have them in the volumes above. They released two volumes of Guardians that collections the whole series. I also recommend the Nova series, not only because a lot of it's important, but it's a LOT of fun.

You can also skip the Silver Surfer and Annihilators stuff altogether, I think. You could easily end it on The Thanos Imperative.

The only part where I find the whole Cosmic Marvel stumbles a bit is War of Kings. It's not bad, but it's a little jumbled because it mixes in some X-Men and Inhuman stuff that I find isn't as interesting. Especially the villain in it. It gets interesting again with Realm of Kings and, as I said, finishes off great with Thanos Imperative.

This is all worded perfectly. You could definitely stick with Guardians of the Galaxy up to The Thanos Imperative, but you'd be cheating yourself out on a lot of great moments without Richard Rider.

Jun 5, 2016#189

CynicismKills

Once you've read a lot of Richard Rider Nova, you'll understand why nobody likes Sam Nova.

Jun 7, 2016#190

ThatNickGuy

Just think, kids. With DC's Rebirth crow-barring Watchmen into continuity, we're another step closer to this:

Jun 7, 2016#191

filmfanatic

ThatNickGuy said:
Just think, kids. With DC's Rebirth crow-barring Watchmen into continuity, we're another step closer to this:

Well, they made cartoons out of RoboCop and The Toxic Avenger. Anything's possible.

Jun 7, 2016#192

ThatNickGuy

filmfanatic said:
Well, they made cartoons out of RoboCop and The Toxic Avenger. Anything's possible.

Neither of those were self-contained stories, though.

Jun 7, 2016#193

filmfanatic

ThatNickGuy said:
Neither of those were self-contained stories, though.

My point was more in terms of them being mature-rated content turned into Saturday morning cartoons. Also, I think Before Watchmen was that first seed in expanding Watchmen beyond just that core story.

Either way, it would be terrible and I thank you for posting that video. It had been a while since I'd seen the Saturday Morning Watchmen video.

Jun 7, 2016#194

Covar

Best thing I've heard from Tom Bevroot lately was that if Marvel on the property they would have been in continuity years ago.

Using them is not going to somehow ruin or tarnish the original work, and if people are upset on Alan Moore's behalf then screw 'em.

Honestly I just can't wait for Captain Atom and Doctor Manhattan to meet.

Jun 7, 2016#195

ThatNickGuy

Covar said:
Best thing I've heard from Tom Bevroot lately was that if Marvel on the property they would have been in continuity years ago.

Using them is not going to somehow ruin or tarnish the original work, and if people are upset on Alan Moore's behalf then screw 'em.

Honestly I just can't wait for Captain Atom and Doctor Manhattan to meet.

There's absolutely zero need for the characters to be part of the DC Universe. None. Their story was told, it ended, and that should be it. It was a self-contained book that had no need for prequels, sequels, or crossovers.

Plus, the DCU is populated enough as it is. They'll be shuffled away and forgotten about, anyway, just like most of the Wildstorm characters.

Jun 7, 2016#196

BananaHands

Hayley Atwell: 'Captain America: Civil War' Actress Says Kiss in Film Was 'Disrespectful' to Character

Come on. Sharon Carter has always been Captain America's love interest.

Jun 8, 2016#197

@Li3n

ThatNickGuy said:
There's absolutely zero need for the characters to be part of the DC Universe. None. Their story was told, it ended, and that should be it. It was a self-contained book that had no need for prequels, sequels, or crossovers.

Not only that, but the DCU already has the original characters the watchmen ones where based on... and it's kind of funny that the reason why Moore didn't get to just use the originals was because DC, at the time, realised that the characters would be "unusable" after a story like that... guess current DC disagrees.

BananaHands said:
Hayley Atwell: 'Captain America: Civil War' Actress Says Kiss in Film Was 'Disrespectful' to Character

Come on. Sharon Carter has always been Captain America's love interest.

Wasn't Peggy Carter actually a retcon that came after Sharon?

EDIT: Look like Peggy came 2 issues after Sharon... and they where originally sisters... heh.

Jun 8, 2016#198

BananaHands

@Li3n said:
and they where originally sisters... heh.

Jun 8, 2016#199

Celt Z

@Li3n said:
Wasn't Peggy Carter actually a retcon that came after Sharon?

EDIT: Look like Peggy came 2 issues after Sharon... and they where originally sisters... heh.

In the comics, yeah. But in the movie universe, it feels a little out-of-character for Steve. It's not that Steve wouldn't move on with his life, but with the niece of his crush/love? I feel like he should have been a little more conflicted with that. On the other hand, the reaction of all three characters (Sam and Bucky in the car, Steve's blush) was worth it.

Jun 8, 2016#200

ThatNickGuy

While I was in my local comic shop today, a woman came in and asked one of the workers, "How much are your comics?", whipping a random comic in the worker's face. When the worker told her, she said, "Where? Where? I don't see a price?!" until finally, the worker pointed the $2.99 in big bold on the front cover.

As she was leaving, she said to her husband, "I'm surprised there aren't any people like you seen in Big Bang Theory!"

Apparently conversations like that happen often, especially during tourist season. But I mean, who would go into any other store and say something like that? No one would go into a bookstore and say, "How much are your books?!" Or ask "How much are your groceries?" in a grocery store.

Jun 8, 2016#201

Covar

ThatNickGuy said:
While I was in my local comic shop today, a woman came in and asked one of the workers, "How much are your comics?", whipping a random comic in the worker's face. When the worker told her, she said, "Where? Where? I don't see a price?!" until finally, the worker pointed the $2.99 in big bold on the front cover.

As she was leaving, she said to her husband, "I'm surprised there aren't any people like you seen in Big Bang Theory!"

Apparently conversations like that happen often, especially during tourist season. But I mean, who would go into any other store and say something like that? No one would go into a bookstore and say, "How much are your books?!" Or ask "How much are your groceries?" in a grocery store.

"I remember when comics were $1.25"

Good for you you fucking cheapskate. I remember when gas was around 90¢ a gallon, you don't see me pestering the owner of my local shell station about it every time I fill up. Said books were also on shitty newsprint paper, with a 4 color printing process that restricted what was possible for the artist. Speaking of creators, they make a lot more money now, and are treated far better now by the industry than ever before. So yeah, comics are more expensive now than they were when you were a kid. Everything is, and comics fought off price increases due to inflation for years and it had to catch up sometime.

Jun 8, 2016#202

PatrThom

Covar said:
"I remember when comics were $1.25"

I remember when they were $0.20.

--Patrick

Jun 8, 2016#203

@Li3n

Celt Z said:
In the comics, yeah. But in the movie universe, it feels a little out-of-character for Steve. It's not that Steve wouldn't move on with his life, but with the niece of his crush/love? I feel like he should have been a little more conflicted with that. On the other hand, the reaction of all three characters (Sam and Bucky in the car, Steve's blush) was worth it.

Well, they where already shown to be attracted to each other before he found out who she was...

But, yeah, doing it so soon after the funeral was a bit iffy... but, hey, movie run times and all that.

Jun 8, 2016#204

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
While I was in my local comic shop today, a woman came in and asked one of the workers, "How much are your comics?", whipping a random comic in the worker's face. When the worker told her, she said, "Where? Where? I don't see a price?!" until finally, the worker pointed the $2.99 in big bold on the front cover.

As she was leaving, she said to her husband, "I'm surprised there aren't any people like you seen in Big Bang Theory!"

Apparently conversations like that happen often, especially during tourist season. But I mean, who would go into any other store and say something like that? No one would go into a bookstore and say, "How much are your books?!" Or ask "How much are your groceries?" in a grocery store.

I assume she didn't buy anything?

Jun 8, 2016#205

ThatNickGuy

Zero Esc said:
I assume she didn't buy anything?

Heh, of course not.

Jun 8, 2016#206

Hailey Knight

Civil War II updates

The bad news: There's at least one big death left; Marvel it touting it as the fall of one of the greatest, I'm guessing in Civil War II #4. Because the only way to escalate drama is to kill a hero -_-. I partly blame Marvel, but after stuff I learned today, I also blame fans. Apparently Avengers vs X-Men was criticized by readers because despite the highs takes, there was "only" one death. Never mind that interesting things were done to expand on the Phoenix, or that relationships changed and developed. Gotta get that carnage scale going. They demanded, and Marvel is delivering.

The good news: Civil War II is NOT a monthly comic! Issues are releasing every 2-3 weeks, so it'll be over late September. I'm so relieved; I thought this would hang around all year.

Jun 10, 2016#207

Hailey Knight

Patsy Walker aka Hellcat joins the list of All New, All Different Marvel comics that will end in their first year. The writer "accidentally" leaked this yesterday on Twitter.

Why is it getting cancelled? Probably due to what I'm told are terrible sales. If anyone knows how many issues a comic needs to sell each month to continue being profitable, I'd love to know. Hellcat was around 10k to 12k a month, I think. Vision will end this year too, at issue #12.

Jun 10, 2016#208

Covar

That's definitely in the cancellation range for Marvel.

There's no hard number, sometimes a book will fill a role or audience a publisher wants and so they will keep it around despite sales, just to have some diversity in their lineup (see Jonah Hex/All-star Western from DC during the mid to late aughts). With 80+ titles the only roll Hellcat was serving was shoving independent titles off of comic racks.

Vision is ending because Tom King signed an exclusive with DC and gets to write Batman. He was able/allowed to wrap up the book, so it's going to 12 then it's finished. I think it's safe to say that the title wouldn't survived a writer change.

Jun 10, 2016#209

Hailey Knight

Covar said:
That's definitely in the cancellation range for Marvel.

There's no hard number, sometimes a book will fill a role or audience a publisher wants and so they will keep it around despite sales, just to have some diversity in their lineup (see Jonah Hex/All-star Western from DC during the mid to late aughts).

Oh yeah, I know when it suits the company's desires, a title will stick around no matter what. No other reason to have three Inhumans books

With 80+ titles the only roll Hellcat was serving was shoving independent titles off of comic racks.

I liked it as a continuation of Charles Soule's run of She-Hulk, but I don't think Marvel would ever do the kind of marketing push on it needed to get a real target audience into comic book stores to buy it. With She-Hulk dead, I was ready to drop it and A-Force anyway. This just gave me the impetus to do so.

Vision is ending because Tom King signed an exclusive with DC and gets to write Batman. He was able/allowed to wrap up the book, so it's going to 12 then it's finished. I think it's safe to say that the title wouldn't survived a writer change.

I don't think anyone would've wanted it continuing under another writer. It just would've been nice to get a long run on what was a very interesting project. But Marvel isn't the place for long runs anymore, according to an interview with Tom Brevoort. On the upshot, this should be an excellent run of Batman.

Jun 15, 2016#210

Hailey Knight

I knew it.

Jun 15, 2016#211

Yoshimickster

I knew Amadues Cho becoming the Hulk was a bad idea, but I didn't know it'd get THIS bad!

Jun 15, 2016#212

CynicismKills

Unless Banner Hulk comes back now that his cousin is dead. Dude has enough ammo on these chuckleheads already with the whole "shot me to a planet and then blew it up along with my friends and wife" so this would be the final straw for sure.

Jun 15, 2016#213

Covar

Except it was his brood that blew everything up, and Hulk's own rage that caused the ship to go off course, get sucked into a wormhole and land on a backwards gladiator planet instead of a peaceful eden-esque world. Frankly when it comes to World War Hulk, the green guy was pretty full of shit. It's largely why they had to take him out of the comics for a while and gave his book to Hercules.

Jun 15, 2016#214

Hailey Knight

Apparently She-Hulk isn't dead yet, but clinging to life. Which is stupid because her healing factor should have already solved the problem if that was the case. But if it's Banner, that won't matter as far as him flying into a rage.

OR we get a self-fulfilling prophecy, i.e. everyone heading to go deal with the Hulk results in him Hulking out and trying to kill them.

Also in this issue--Tony Stark kidnaps and tortures a teenager, then jokes about it. I swear the writing in this couldn't get lazier, but I'm sure a later issue will prove me wrong.

Jun 15, 2016#215

AshburnerX

Zero Esc said:
Apparently She-Hulk isn't dead yet, but clinging to life. Which is stupid because her healing factor should have already solved the problem if that was the case. But if it's Banner, that won't matter as far as him flying into a rage.

OR we get a self-fulfilling prophecy, i.e. everyone heading to go deal with the Hulk results in him Hulking out and trying to kill them.

Also in this issue--Tony Stark kidnaps and tortures a teenager, then jokes about it. I swear the writing in this couldn't get lazier, but I'm sure a later issue will prove me wrong.

Civil War: Tony Stark gets to be a monster! EVERY TIME.

Jun 15, 2016#216

CynicismKills

What I've read of CW2 so far, including a couple tie-ins, really paints Tony as this moustache-twirling villain. Like, Parker uses the Inhuman well, by tailing someone he had a vision about and making sure they are going to commit whatever crime instead of going all Minority Report like Stark seems to think everyone will.

Jun 15, 2016#217

Hailey Knight

CynicismKills said:
What I've read of CW2 so far, including a couple tie-ins, really paints Tony as this moustache-twirling villain. Like, Parker uses the Inhuman well, by tailing someone he had a vision about and making sure they are going to commit whatever crime instead of going all Minority Report like Stark seems to think everyone will.

I agree with Tony only in that they know nothing about this guy and shouldn't implicitly trust him, so Spider-man has the right idea. But the comic isn't going that way; they just have Tony being ridiculous. "Rhodey shouldn't have even been there!" It. Was. THANOS. What would've happened if the group hadn't been forewarned? Probably something a lot worse. For global disaster level threats, there's no Minority Report issue to even worry about. They didn't go seek out Thanos and beat him up on his space toilet (granted, I'm not caught up in The Ultimates, so maybe they did that too). He arrived on Earth and found Earth ready and waiting.

Jun 17, 2016#218

ThatNickGuy

Hey kids! Remember the Spider-Man Clone Saga? One of the worst storylines that lasted way too long and turned many fans away from comics forever?

Well, get ready for the NEW Clone Saga! The Clone Conspiracy is the new name for the Dead No More storyline. All those people apparently coming back to life? CLONES! Yay! Isn't that exciting!?

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/06...one-conspiracy-the-new-name-for-dead-no-more/

Jun 17, 2016#219

CynicismKills

Jun 17, 2016#220

Yoshimickster

Can we just fucking get Deadpool to perma-kill the Jackal so we don't have to deal with the horrible fucking stories he's usually involved in?

Jun 17, 2016#221

ThatNickGuy

Yoshimickster said:
Can we just fucking get Deadpool to perma-kill the Jackal so we don't have to deal with the horrible fucking stories he's usually involved in?

Come on, that's not fair. Jackal's a great character who has been a participant in many great Spider-Man stories.

You know, like...uh.
Well, okay, there was...
Oh, how about that time when...

You know what? Never mind.

Jun 17, 2016#222

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
Hey kids! Remember the Spider-Man Clone Saga? One of the worst storylines that lasted way too long and turned many fans away from comics forever?

Well, get ready for the NEW Clone Saga! The Clone Conspiracy is the new name for the Dead No More storyline. All those people apparently coming back to life? CLONES! Yay! Isn't that exciting!?

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/06...one-conspiracy-the-new-name-for-dead-no-more/

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Fucking hell, I'm so glad I'm not reading Spider-man ANYTHING right now. Son of a bitch.

“The Jackal has always seemed to be obsessed with cloning Spider Man and Gwen. He’s had a very narrow focus,” Slott says. “That’s led to very interesting stories in the past

Fuck this. Fuck all of this again. Five issue mini-series ... we'll see. Five issues is one issue more than each month was of the old Clone Saga.

Jun 17, 2016#223

CynicismKills

I want Slott to retire or just fuck off somewhere that's not writing comics. I want it so bad I can taste it.

Jun 17, 2016#224

ThatNickGuy

CynicismKills said:
somewhere that's not writing comics

Like the movies!

*ducks!*

Jun 17, 2016#225

Hailey Knight

I guess since they've run out of good ideas to re-hash, now we're down to re-hashing shit like Civil War and Clone Saga.

Jun 17, 2016#226

PatrThom

Zero Esc said:
I guess since they've run out of good ideas to re-hash, now we're down to re-hashing shit like Civil War and Clone Saga.

Well at least it's no Eclipso.

--Patrick

Jun 17, 2016#227

CynicismKills

ThatNickGuy said:
Like the movies!

*ducks!*

Fuck I'd almost take Bendis over Slott.

Jun 21, 2016#228

Hailey Knight

Picking up some DC Rebirth stuff tomorrow (well, post-Rebirth, not the ones labelled Rebirth). First DC comics I've ever purchased. We'll see how that goes. Credit where it's due, although stuff like putting Watchmen in and making there be three Jokers might detract from those as concepts on their own, the presence creates opportunities for new stories to be told, something DC is making possible and wants to happen, as opposed to what I'm noticing at Marvel where they want to keep regurgitating. Which is funny to say since DC is bringing in old things in order to make new things.

Jun 28, 2016#229

filmfanatic

Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso has already revealed why Captain America was recently revealed to be a Hydra agent.

He's not. His memories were tampered by Kobik, a little girl that's a sentient Cosmic Cube, at the behest of the Red Skull.

Jun 28, 2016#230

Gryfter

filmfanatic said:
Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso has already revealed why Captain America was recently revealed to be a Hydra agent.

He's not. His memories were tampered by Kobik, a little girl that's a sentient Cosmic Cube, at the behest of the Red Skull.

Wow.... that doesn't sound like mind control at all (/sarcasm)

Jun 28, 2016#231

ThatNickGuy

filmfanatic said:
Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso has already revealed why Captain America was recently revealed to be a Hydra agent.

He's not. His memories were tampered by Kobik, a little girl that's a sentient Cosmic Cube, at the behest of the Red Skull.

Jun 28, 2016#232

CynicismKills

filmfanatic said:
Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso has already revealed why Captain America was recently revealed to be a Hydra agent.

He's not. His memories were tampered by Kobik, a little girl that's a sentient Cosmic Cube, at the behest of the Red Skull.

HAHA IT'S NOT MIND CONTROL OR A CLONE THIS IS REALLY CAP GUYS pls buy comics

Jun 28, 2016#233

ThatNickGuy

I honestly never got the ire. It's like when they kill off a character. Do you REALLY think they would make CAPTAIN FRIGGING AMERICA a Nazi?

Jun 28, 2016#234

Tress

ThatNickGuy said:
I honestly never got the ire. It's like when they kill off a character. Do you REALLY think they would make CAPTAIN FRIGGING AMERICA a Nazi?

I thought the ire was because people could see a shitty plot coming a mile away with this one? No one honestly believed Cap would be a nazi, but everyone knew the explanation was going to be crap.

Jun 28, 2016#235

ThatNickGuy

Tress said:
I thought the ire was because people could see a shitty plot coming a mile away with this one? No one honestly believed Cap would be a nazi, but everyone knew the explanation was going to be crap.

No, there were people who were legitimately angry at it, that it was a huge disrespect to the character and his Jewish creators.

To which I usually replied with, "And you don't think Marvel doesn't know that? They're not stupid enough to make it anything more than a headline-grabbing shock that'll be undone soon enough."

Jun 28, 2016#236

figmentPez

ThatNickGuy said:
No, there were people who were legitimately angry at it, that it was a huge disrespect to the character and his Jewish creators.

To which I usually replied with, "And you don't think Marvel doesn't know that? They're not stupid enough to make it anything more than a headline-grabbing shock that'll be undone soon enough."

It is a huge disrespect to the character and his Jewish creators precisely because they handled the PR so horribly. Instead of saying "you'll just have to read to see why", they adamantly said "it's not mind control, it's not a clone, etc.", they wanted so desperately for people to believe that Captain America was really Hydra that they lied through their teeth. They weren't subtle, they weren't smart, and they weren't respectful, of either the character's history or their reader's intelligence. They may not be stupid enough to have actually made Cap into a traitor, but they were stupid enough to try to convince everyone that they had done such a thing.

Jun 28, 2016#237

AshburnerX

figmentPez said:
It is a huge disrespect to the character and his Jewish creators precisely because they handled the PR so horribly. Instead of saying "you'll just have to read to see why", they adamantly said "it's not mind control, it's not a clone, etc.", they wanted so desperately for people to believe that Captain America was really Hydra that they lied through their teeth. They weren't subtle, they weren't smart, and they weren't respectful, of either the character's history or their reader's intelligence. They may not be stupid enough to have actually made Cap into a traitor, but they were stupid enough to try to convince everyone that they had done such a thing.

Not to mention all the comic reading kids who had their hero exposed as a monster, with Marvel PR dashing their hopes of it not being real on the rocks. -We- might understand that it was never going to stick or possibly even be real, but Marvel comics do, in fact, have kids reading them now thanks to the success of the movies. I literally had to sit down and have "the talk" (comics version) with the child of a younger cousin of mine and explain what was happening and why he didn't need to be worried about it or even feel betrayed. If the goal of this was to get more people to buy comics, they failed because he was ready to stop reading them after this.

We need to stop treating comics as a medium for 13-35 year olds. Not when we're releasing major block buster movies about them and marketing them to kids.

Jun 28, 2016#238

Hailey Knight

Yup. The outrage would've been tiny, if at all existent, had Marvel's PR team not gone "nah-nah, look what we did with your precious Captain America!"

Obviously it's a slimy cashgrab, but that's no reason to be so transparent about it.

I actually feel bad for Nick Spencer at this point. He could've just told his story, but Marvel's PR had to go and be a bunch of bastards about it. And the Ramsay Snow kind, not the Jon Snow kind.[DOUBLEPOST=1467154345,1467153946][/DOUBLEPOST]

AshburnerX said:
Not to mention all the comic reading kids who had their hero exposed as a monster, with Marvel PR dashing their hopes of it not being real on the rocks. -We- might understand that it was never going to stick or possibly even be real, but Marvel comics do, in fact, have kids reading them now thanks to the success of the movies. I literally had to sit down and have "the talk" (comics version) with the child of a younger cousin of mine and explain what was happening and why he didn't need to be worried about it or even feel betrayed. If the goal of this was to get more people to buy comics, they failed because he was ready to stop reading them after this.

We need to stop treating comics as a medium for 13-35 year olds. Not when we're releasing major block buster movies about them and marketing them to kids.

Marvel only sees the short term nowadays. Hydra Cap got them a great deal of anger money, and record-making (these days) pre-orders for the second issue. Nevermind that those new readers are going to evaporate, while Marvel finds a smaller pool of loyal readers remaining.

I'm looking forward to whatever new, great-sounding titles are slated for this fall, and despair at whatever event in 2017 will fuck them all over. Why bother getting invested in the first place?

Jun 28, 2016#239

ThatNickGuy

figmentPez said:
It is a huge disrespect to the character and his Jewish creators precisely because they handled the PR so horribly. Instead of saying "you'll just have to read to see why", they adamantly said "it's not mind control, it's not a clone, etc.", they wanted so desperately for people to believe that Captain America was really Hydra that they lied through their teeth. They weren't subtle, they weren't smart, and they weren't respectful, of either the character's history or their reader's intelligence. They may not be stupid enough to have actually made Cap into a traitor, but they were stupid enough to try to convince everyone that they had done such a thing.

That's definitely true. The PR was horribly botched on what's just another ho-hum "it'll be changed in a month" shocker.[DOUBLEPOST=1467154848,1467154589][/DOUBLEPOST]Meanwhile, I was told by someone on the Elephantmen creative team that the Mammoth Edition Vol. 2 will release in October. Which totally makes me happy, even though I already own collected editions of the same issues. The problem is that each volume is HUGE. They're twice the size of, say, a Marvel Ultimate Collection, and yet they're only 6 issues each. They take up so much room on the shelf. I always thought it was hilarious because it's a comic about giant Elephantmen and other creatures, but yeah, they take up too much room. The first Mammoth Edition I got was the same size as one of these, but with three times the content. So I'll trade in the next few volumes for that as soon as I can.

....this has been a long, nit-picking rant from a guy who has traded in old collected editions of books for newer versions FAR more times than he's willing to admit.

Jun 29, 2016#240

CynicismKills

So I read Cap #2.

Kobik, living shards of the same Cosmic Cube Skull once had, comes back to him because she liked how he used her or something. He fills her head with ideas about how great a Skull-led world, united under HYDRA, would be and she agrees. She's also being studied by Prof. Selvig, who she's used her powers on to think he's always been a part of HYDRA. Skull sees this and decides to have her do the same to Cap. Skull had her implant the idea for the Pleasant Hill Initiative in Selvig's mind, and Skull disguised himself in order to fuck the whole thing up. Cap gets his youth/powers back from Kobik, but she also implants the HYDRA nonsense in his head, too.

So yeah, brainwashed. Marvel PR dun goofed.

Oh, and Skull is tired of having Xavier's powers, he feels like it makes things too easy.

Jun 29, 2016#241

Yoshimickster

CynicismKills said:
So I read Cap #2.

Kobik, living shards of the same Cosmic Cube Skull once had, comes back to him because she liked how he used her or something. He fills her head with ideas about how great a Skull-led world, united under HYDRA, would be and she agrees. She's also being studied by Prof. Selvig, who she's used her powers on to think he's always been a part of HYDRA. Skull sees this and decides to have her do the same to Cap. Skull had her implant the idea for the Pleasant Hill Initiative in Selvig's mind, and Skull disguised himself in order to fuck the whole thing up. Cap gets his youth/powers back from Kobik, but she also implants the HYDRA nonsense in his head, too.

So yeah, brainwashed. Marvel PR dun goofed.

Oh, and Skull is tired of having Xavier's powers, he feels like it makes things too easy.

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH-I am fucking SICK of people with superpowers complaining about how it makes things "Too easy" FUCK YOU YOU ENTITLED FUCK! I HOPE YOU DIE!

Jun 29, 2016#242

Hailey Knight

Here's my bitching for the day--DC needs to print more Rebirth stuff, because comic book stores just can't keep up with demand.

But yeah, that Cap shit ... whatever. Marvel's PR really ruined any chance of interest I would've had. Moreover I'm just looking forward to Hydra Cap getting the shit kicked out of him by Laura Kinney in August and Miles Morales in September.

Jul 12, 2016#243

Hailey Knight

Anyone want to know the big death for Civil War II #3? They couldn't have made it more obvious, but I'll spoiler it anyway. First I want to say that I really hate the budget shot of this stupid comic, with a multitude of heroes lined up, circling, like it's a fucking execution scene (which it is), but it reminds me a lot of some of the less believable crowd scenes I've glimpsed from Avengers vs X-Men. If all of you are here, who's stopping the bad guys? Who's listening to Ulysses's other prophecies? It's seriously near to every adult hero present. At the rate disasters occur in the Marvel universe, they should be returning to a hellscape after this scene.

Anyway, who dies:

Bruce Banner.

And really this is a perfect example of how poorly written this is, so Bendis can pat himself on the back or ass or whatever for it. The way Captain Marvel and Iron Man act is so, so far out of character that you might as well put goatees on both of them and say they're evil counterparts.

Based on Ulysses's prediction that the Hulk will kill everyone, Captain Marvel and Iron Man essentially drag him out of his cave lab, where all the heroes have gathered. They make accusations, disregard what he's saying while Carol and Tony argue. Banner gets agitated, but keep in mind, he has been cured by Amadeus Cho. He's starved himself, given himself illness, driven recklessly, gotten angry--all things that could trigger the Hulk, but there's no trace in him. The only thing Banner getting angry now would accomplish is that he would be an angry weak scientist.

But no, with everyone worked up in a frenzy over Ulysses, they abandon logic, drag him out, and when Banner gets angry, Hawkeye shoots him in the bed with a special anti-Hulk arrow, killing Banner on the spot. He surrenders himself and is put on trial, and Tony may have discovered something about Ulysses that won't be revealed on issue #5.

But let's not forget,THERE'S ANOTHER HULK. And he could still go nuts and kill them all, because Cho is clearly losing control over the Hulk's power, and now the man he idolized has been murdered. Self-fulfilling prophecy, assholes?

This event is garbage. I'm not giving Marvel rage money for this like they want; I'm sure some people will buy it because it's the death of an iconic character who hasn't died before. The only Marvel thing I'm buying tomorrow is Gwenpool #4. This event can fuck right off, as I've been saying for weeks.

Jul 12, 2016#244

CynicismKills

Article about the whole thing. Spoilers within, of course.

My favorite part:

"This is uncharted territory for us."

Yeah you guys have never killed an iconic character for shock sales! How will you ever recover?

Jul 12, 2016#245

Hailey Knight

CynicismKills said:
Article about the whole thing. Spoilers within, of course.

My favorite part:

"This is uncharted territory for us."

Yeah you guys have never killed an iconic character for shock sales! How will you ever recover?

Exactly. What does that even mean? Their whole game plan nowadays is anger money. They've said outright in interviews that people being mad at them is just as good as people liking their stuff. And they're right; because the more rage is spewed, the more attention, they more sales.

Jul 12, 2016#246

ThatNickGuy

I know I say this all the time, but it's shit like this that makes me glad I'm not buying anything new from either company these days.

Jul 12, 2016#247

Yoshimickster

WELL *CLAP* I just read an article saying the AMC version of Tulip is a bad-ass step-up from the comics version, as well as mentioning she's better than Skylar White for WANTING the anti-hero main character to do bad things...because being a psychotic enabler is now feminist and bad-ass. Fuck the world, fuck it so hard in the dick.

Jul 12, 2016#248

CynicismKills

Zero Esc said:
Exactly. What does that even mean? They're whole game plan nowadays is anger money. They've said outright in interviews that people being mad at them is just as good as people liking their stuff. And they're right; because the more rage is spewed, the more attention, they more sales.

Yeah, I vaguely remember Slott reveling in the whole thing back at the start of Superior Spider-Man.

Jul 13, 2016#249

Hailey Knight

As a concept, I don't have a problem with the character dying, just so long as they do it respectfully. Wolverine got a mini-series devoted to it. It wasn't "let's drag him out here and shoot him" disgusting treatment by the other heroes you have here. It wasn't one of these spread panels of "look, everyone turned out for this shit show!" I don't know why that bugs me so much, the big crowd shots from this and AvX, but they just feel wrong for some reason. There's just no reason to gather every Marvel hero together for this shit.

And then the marketing, "OH MAN this will divide the fans for years!"

... into what? Who jumps ship and who puts up with this shit? This isn't the fulcrum of Civil War where each side had a point, but Marvel painted one as evil anyway. One of their most iconic heroes was murdered. He was defenseless, pulled out of his place by people now far stronger than him, and murdered. And he's received shit treatment for years, because when he's not saving the day, it feels like they wish he'd just vanish. Never mind the times he's helped save the world. Never mind when he held up a collapsing ceiling for hours to keep his friends from dying. That he was psychologically or mentally ill despite his brilliance and his power never really mattered.

ThatNickGuy said:
I know I say this all the time, but it's shit like this that makes me glad I'm not buying anything new from either company these days.

At this point I'm down to three from Marvel--two humor comics written by webcomic authors, and then one legitimately good superhero comic by an author who has made no secret on Twitter how much she hates how Marvel operates, but she loves the character she's created and doesn't want to abandon her yet to Marvel's machine. She even promised her readers that her event tie-in would not require reading other titles. I wish I was reading whatever story arc she had planned next before Civil War II overtook her comic. I can't imagine the frustration of being in that position.

Jul 13, 2016#250

ThatNickGuy

Zero Esc said:
At this point I'm down to three from Marvel--two humor comics written by webcomic authors, and then one legitimately good superhero comic by an author who has made no secret on Twitter how much she hates how Marvel operates, but she loves the character she's created and doesn't want to abandon her yet to Marvel's machine. She even promised her readers that her event tie-in would not require reading other titles. I wish I was reading whatever story arc she had planned next before Civil War II overtook her comic. I can't imagine the frustration of being in that position.

If that was me at that point, I'd walk, go to Image, and create a similar but different enough character over there.

Jul 13, 2016#251

Hailey Knight

So at this point the core Avengers have been dismantled, or will be by October.

- Steve Rogers was dead, then old, and is now brainwashed into Hydra
- Thor Odinson has been unworthy for a while now and will be getting a solo series to explore this
- Banner RIP
- And Tony Stark will be stepping down or dying in the months to come

I think we can all see where this is going. There will be a big comeback event, probably written by Bendis even though Marvel has so many more talented writers, where the four of them will be reinstated just in time for the next Avengers movie.

Jul 13, 2016#252

PatrThom

ThatNickGuy said:
I know I say this all the time, but it's shit like this that makes me glad I'm not buying anything new from either company these days.

It used to be that the series' would just get rebooted about every 10-20 years. Earth-1/Earth-2 and that sort of thing.
Now it seems like rather than do an actual reboot, they're trying to kill off/permanently discredit/depower "the old guard" so they can all be replaced by new characters who are regarded as more topically relevant somehow.

Jul 13, 2016#253

ThatNickGuy

PatrThom said:
It used to be that the series' would just get rebooted about every 10-20 years. Earth-1/Earth-2 and that sort of thing.
Now it seems like rather than do an actual reboot, they're trying to kill off/permanently discredit/depower "the old guard" so they can all be replaced by new characters who are regarded as more topically relevant somehow.

Ah, so the DC Comics 90s approach to comics.

Jul 13, 2016#254

CynicismKills

The first issue of Unworthy Thor shows him reaching for Ultimate Thor's hammer, so I guess we're just adding Thor to the list of heroes that have multiple people with the same moniker, because fuck original characters when you can just slap the name on whoever you want.

Jul 13, 2016#255

Hailey Knight

CynicismKills said:
The first issue of Unworthy Thor shows him reaching for Ultimate Thor's hammer, so I guess we're just adding Thor to the list of heroes that have multiple people with the same moniker, because fuck original characters when you can just slap the name on whoever you want.

It's been that way for a while now thanks to Secret Wars. To be fair, some villains have considered anyone with the hammer to be a Thor. Shocker in one issue of She-Hulk is listing enemies that villains in his class shouldn't mess with. "Man Thor, Woman Thor, Horse Thor."

PatrThom said:
It used to be that the series' would just get rebooted about every 10-20 years. Earth-1/Earth-2 and that sort of thing.
Now it seems like rather than do an actual reboot, they're trying to kill off/permanently discredit/depower "the old guard" so they can all be replaced by new characters who are regarded as more topically relevant somehow.

Weird thing is, Marvel was doing that kind of reboot just last year, but then they chickened out and instead said "eight months passed," in which they could make whatever continuity changes they wanted and explain it away by saying it happened in the narrative jump. But as for any Crisis type situation, it was a war between realities and the core Marvel universe won, so no reboot.

As for Hulk in this sense, Amadeus Cho has been Hulk for a bit now instead of Banner, but they were doing interesting things with non-Hulk Banner. He was getting the chance to explore and experience emotions that had been taken over by the Hulk for years. It was really cool character stuff--now cut short because of this dumb event.

ThatNickGuy said:
Ah, so the DC Comics 90s approach to comics.

In some cases, it works. Miles Morales, Kamala Khan--but then, they didn't replace Spider-man, and Carol Danvers had abandoned the Ms. Marvel title. In other cases, people don't have a problem with it because the characters already existed. Sam Wilson is a fine Captain America, for example. I think if Rhodey had taken over for Tony Stark instead of dying, as he's done in the past, no one would have a problem with that. I don't have a problem with Riri Williams, except that her series will be Bendis-written.
The overall idea being to have new characters get popular in the old roles, then bring back the old characters, and then have even more marketability. But we can't pretend this is always bad. How many Green Lanterns have we had? And I've seen more than one person on here express Wally West as their favorite Flash.

Several series won't be continuing in October, among them Ant-Man, A-Force, ~~Uncanny~~ All-New Inhumans (EDIT: oops!), Karnak, and Agents of SHIELD. I have a feeling Hellcat will end shortly after, but I could be wrong and it's just the author leaving. Giving up on Inhumans titles surprises me considering how much Marvel is pushing them. With Death of X taking front stage, I'm wondering if they're optimistic about a deal with Fox after all.

Jul 16, 2016#256

Yoshimickster

UGH-I just want an inexpensive color collected edition of the 86-87 Booster Gold Run, print OR digital! ALSO-we need more Mindancer, she kicked ASS!

Jul 25, 2016#257

GasBandit

Oh look, they've completely redesigned Negasonic Teenage Warhead and pulled more random shit out of the hat for her powers yet again!

This time her powers are (shuffle shuffle dice roll, consult chart) precognition and tae kwon do!

Jul 25, 2016#258

filmfanatic

GasBandit said:
Oh look, they've completely redesigned Negasonic Teenage Warhead and pulled more random shit out of the hat for her powers yet again!

This time her powers are (shuffle shuffle dice roll, consult chart) precognition and tae kwon do!

To be fair, I think precognition was one of her powers originally. The rumor I've been hearing is that she might get experimented upon, causing her to get the look and powers she featured in the Deadpool movie.

Jul 25, 2016#259

Hailey Knight

filmfanatic said:
To be fair, I think precognition was one of her powers originally. The rumor I've been hearing is that she might get experimented upon, causing her to get the look and powers she featured in the Deadpool movie.

I think this is what's happening. The autumn preview cover for one of Deadpool's handful of titles shows her looking like her movie version.

Separate comics rant: Marvel's rebooting really makes hunting down back collections a pain in the ass. I wouldn't be able to figure out Jonathan Hickman's of Fantastic Four if not for info from OOP omnibus editions. But really ... Fantastic Four few some issues, then it becomes FF, until Marvel realizes they'd hit issue 600 and turns it back into Fantastic Four. FF ran for what, two years? Nobody foresaw that when they switched it to FF #1 they'd just have to switch back for Fantastic Four #600 in two short years?

So trying to buy the little trades is cumbersome. I managed to find the contents of the first omnibus for $25 on eBay, versus the actual omnibus selling at $300, but the second is more of a mess and I'll probably just buy the 800+ page version than piecemeal ... once I have money again. However long from now that is.

Jul 27, 2016#260

Hailey Knight

HAPPY CIVIL WAR II DAY!

It's issue 4, which ... is actually better written and planned out than the earlier issues, much to my surprise. Maybe Bendis had more time to work on this one. That said, editorial edict demands that Carol Danvers still be written like a total asshole.

Ulysses predicts someone's a secret Hydra agent (but not Steve Rogers, somehow). Carol and the Future Fascists of America go to arrest her, find her suitcase empty of what's supposed to be in there, get pissy with Ulysses ... SO Tony Stark gathers everyone, reveals his brain scan on Ulysses (backed up by Beast) to show that it's all just math, with a 10% rate of accuracy.

Carol gets pissy being called out on this, flies off (Bendis throws in a timely quip -_-). She implies she's going to plant evidence on the innocent woman she's detained, but then said woman is rescued by Nightcrawler. Now that Tony's side has outright undermined Carol's authority, it's time for the true WAAAAR!

Fuuuuck this event. It amazes me that Marvel is on one hand cheering for Brie Larson to portray Carol Danvers in their first female-led superhero movie in the MCU, and on the other hand have the comics building Carol into a world-conquering supervillain.

Also, this week's issue of Ms. Marvel largely sucked, with her trying to control Carol's Hitler Youth group, and the only bright spot being the first handful of pages that take place in Pakistan when Kamala was only a fetus.

Jul 27, 2016#261

CynicismKills

Yeah it was pretty bad.

Other things of note, when Carol storms out after refusing to listen to hard facts that even fucking BEAST is like "yeah Tony's right" about, she says "Rhodey would have wanted it this way" to Tony's face. When he says something back she's immediately like NO TONY FUCK OFF and flies through the roof to leave.

Also Carol breaks the news

about Banner's death by Hawkeye's hands to She-Hulk, who is on the mend. It isn't shown how Jenn takes it but what fucking kills me is Carol doesn't bother to mention that SHE FUCKING BROUGHT AN ARMY TO STOP BANNER even though he doesn't Hulk out anymore. Yeah she didn't know Hawkeye was gonna snipe Banner but she brought all those people there. Hawkeye is also acquitted and murder charges are dropped against him.

Perhaps the funniest (and dumbest) thing is the big pose-fest at the end when sides are about to clash. Tony has some of the biggest powerhouses in the world on his side at this point, including Doctor Strange, Nova, Thor and Cyclops. Carol postures and out of fucking nowehere the GotG show up (Groot, Rocket, Starlord, Kitty Pryde/Quinn, Venom, Gamora and Thing) like anyone in that group can stop fucking THOR, let alone the rest of Tony's crew.

Also, seriously, Thing would NEVER be on Carol's side for this bullshit.[DOUBLEPOST=1469668442,1469668249][/DOUBLEPOST]OH AND EVEN MORE HILARIOUS!

Jean Grey is on Carol's team at the end for some fucking reason, you know, the TELEPATH THAT COULD SOLVE ALL THESE PROBLEMS.

Jul 27, 2016#262

Hailey Knight

Jean Grey can't read Ulysses's mind ... because there isn't one! :awesome:

What pissed me off with She-Hulk ... the several things that pissed me off with She-Hulk

- Copy/paste panels. Guess they're taking notes from Kurtz. :rimshot:

- How blah Jen is, and then she hulks out, and then ... celebration for Hawkeye?
- Carol goes about it so poorly. She wanted to tell Jen herself because they're friends, but then handles the news in the most disinterested doctor of ways. A-Force in October shows the two smiling in a tropical setting with the rest of their team, so somehow in the next two months they're friends again? Probably because in A-Force and The Ultimates, Carol is written as herself.
- And as you said, Carol doesn't actually explain what the hell happened.

Aug 25, 2016#263

CynicismKills

So Riri Williams' new hero moniker is Ironheart.

Bendis and the rest should have done more research.

Yes, that is a Japanese porn.

Sep 19, 2016#264

CynicismKills

Sep 19, 2016#265

Covar

If Marvel was so confident in their shit, maybe they should try offering returnability.

Sep 19, 2016#266

ThatNickGuy

I don't understand why anyone would be interested in a glorified revitalization of the fucking Clone Saga.

Sep 19, 2016#267

Sparhawk

CynicismKills said:

"Dear Dan Slott,
No.
Thanks, Happy Spidey reader"

Sep 19, 2016#268

ThatNickGuy

Sparhawk said:
"Dear Dan Slott,
No.
Thanks, Happy Spidey reader"

I think that's an oxymoron.

There hasn't been a happy Spidey reader in years. ON SNAP. (Alternatively: Oh fwip?)

Sep 19, 2016#269

Sparhawk

ThatNickGuy said:
I think that's an oxymoron.

There hasn't been a happy Spidey reader in years. ON SNAP. (Alternatively: Oh fwip?)

I'm happy with what I read, I don't read every single title that comes out. I'm that happy reader.

Sep 19, 2016#270

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
I don't understand why anyone would be interested in a glorified revitalization of the fucking Clone Saga.

Apparently not enough people are for Slott! :awesome:

I actually came here to post about this. Gee, I wonder why people aren't interested in this. HMMM.

In other today's Marvel news, She-Hulk is getting a new series ... of angst. Spinning off the events of Civil War II, she's essentially going back to her savage days and becoming Gray She-Hulk, with her powers out of her control and fueled by rage. So Amadeus Cho becomes the new She-Hulk in the sense that he and his powers are in sync, while Jennifer Walters becomes the new uncontrollable anger behemoth in place of her now-dead cousin.

Sep 19, 2016#271

CynicismKills

Fucking booooooooooo. I liked that She-Hulk was in control and how her personality revolved around trying to decide which side of her was the real her.

Sep 19, 2016#272

Yoshimickster

You had my ire when you said "Amadeus Cho is the new She-Hulk." Dan Slott is a fucking mook.

Sep 19, 2016#273

ThatNickGuy

Sparhawk said:
I'm happy with what I read, I don't read every single title that comes out. I'm that happy reader.

*presses a finger onto your lips* Shhhhhhhh. Shhhhhhh. It's okay. It's okay.

Sep 19, 2016#274

Hailey Knight

Yoshimickster said:
You had my ire when you said "Amadeus Cho is the new She-Hulk." Dan Slott is a fucking mook.

Cho's series is written by Greg Pak, this new She-Hulk series will be written by a newcomer, Mariko Tamaki.

The Dream of the 90s is alive at Marvel

Sep 19, 2016#275

Yoshimickster

...whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?

Sep 20, 2016#276

Hailey Knight

It's not like Hulk going gray didn't lead to interesting stories, but Peter David pretty much turned him into a bad guy for that, at least until later. If they were turning Jen into a bad guy, that might be an interesting avenue to explore, especially since the solicits and covers make it look like the people responsible for Bruce's death are going to win in the end. The way they describe it right now, it sounds like angst, and it does hurt a lot of the appeal of She-Hulk as one of the very few well-adjusted, generally happy with her life heroes in the Marvel universe.

I might pick it up, just to see. I'm going to finish Dan Slott's nonsense run, I might as well give this writer a shot.

Sep 20, 2016#277

Covar

At least the art should fit the book this time.

Sep 20, 2016#278

Hailey Knight

Covar said:
At least the art should fit the book this time.

I wonder if Soule's run would've last longer than 12 issues with better art.

Sep 20, 2016#279

Hailey Knight

I'm nearing the end of Slott's run of She-Hulk. Unfortunately Tony Stark is still in Totalitarian Stark mode from the first Civil War, so he acts like a baby when She-Hulk finds out what the Illuminati did to Bruce Banner, and then

he takes her power away with these nanites, allegedly permanently. Now, we know it's not, but as a character, Jen would be horrified because she loved being She-Hulk. Instead ... Slott writes her response as "I'll sue!" to Tony.

But, these were still the repercussions of everyone acting out of character and it's a crap run anyway. It's shit like this that makes me nervous for anything Marvel does at this point. Maybe this new angry Jen comic could be great--but what difference will that make when next summer hits and it's time for Civil War III or the like?

Sep 20, 2016#280

Yoshimickster

Zero Esc said:
I'm nearing the end of Slott's run of She-Hulk. Unfortunately Tony Stark is still in Totalitarian Stark mode from the first Civil War, so he acts like a baby when She-Hulk finds out what the Illuminati did to Bruce Banner, and then

he takes her power away with these nanites, allegedly permanently. Now, we know it's not, but as a character, Jen would be horrified because she loved being She-Hulk. Instead ... Slott writes her response as "I'll sue!" to Tony.

But, these were still the repercussions of everyone acting out of character and it's a crap run anyway. It's shit like this that makes me nervous for anything Marvel does at this point. Maybe this new angry Jen comic could be great--but what difference will that make when next summer hits and it's time for Civil War III or the like?

Oh lord I remember one of the comics right after that, the in-universe news was all "One of the worst lovers spats of the century!"

Seeing Green Scar Hulk kick Tony's ass...was just TOO satisfying.

Sep 20, 2016#281

Hailey Knight

Yoshimickster said:
Oh lord I remember one of the comics right after that, the in-universe news was all "One of the worst lovers spats of the century!"

Seeing Green Scar Hulk kick Tony's ass...was just TOO satisfying.

Whoa, whoa, what the fuck. So what I described happens, and in the next issue we're picking up with the lawsuit stuff, but apparently between these two issues was the entirety of World War Hulk?!! That kinda fucking matters, for the situation you just described, among others.

Did they just not plan this or was this book small enough that nobody cared? I sure get the sense that Slott didn't care anymore by this point. He probably knew he was leaving the book within a couple issues since he was on Spider-man duties post-One More Day. But still, that's a hell of an oversight.

Sep 20, 2016#282

Yoshimickster

Zero Esc said:
Whoa, whoa, what the fuck. So what I described happens, and in the next issue we're picking up with the lawsuit stuff, but apparently between these two issues was the entirety of World War Hulk?!! That kinda fucking matters, for the situation you just described, among others.

Did they just not plan this or was this book small enough that nobody cared? I sure get the sense that Slott didn't care anymore by this point. He probably knew he was leaving the book within a couple issues since he was on Spider-man duties post-One More Day. But still, that's a hell of an oversight.

I'd go with "Not well planned" , basically they wanted Hulk to beat the shit out of everybody, they didn't think it would mess with any other stories.

Sep 20, 2016#283

Hailey Knight

Yoshimickster said:
I'd go with "Not well planned" , basically they wanted Hulk to beat the shit out of everybody, they didn't think it would mess with any other stories.

Now that I'm on the penultimate issue, I think you're right. It's essentially rushing through explanations of things as if they happen off-panel as a means of wrapping up many, many dangling threads and unused Chekhov's guns, in preparation for Slott's exit from the title.

Sep 20, 2016#284

Hailey Knight

Done.

I'm not sure which was worse, the second to last tidying up issue, or the final time-waster issue that's only good element was a minor relation to Hickman's Fantastic Four. Though by the end with various minor characters, I'm leaning back into "writer didn't care" territory. Overall, it's probably some poor planning mixed with some apathy.

Pretty sure no one's going to buy these, but I'll throw them onto eBay and cross my fingers. Hell, I was dumb enough.

Sep 21, 2016#285

Hailey Knight

Marvel announced December solicitations.

Looks like the Civil War II fallout will be:

Maria Hill takes the heat ... legally anyway. Somehow Carol Danvers gets away with only her reputation tarnished.

On the upside, U.S. Avengers will begin! Hopefully Al Ewing gets to actually do the series instead of having its characters hijacked for next summer's Big Dumb Thing. I would hope the less-than-stellar sales of Civil War II would wake Marvel the fuck up, but they'll just blame it on DC Rebirth and do the same thing they've been doing the last several years.

Ooh, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #13, Squirrel Girl vs Taskmaster? That sounds fun

Sep 21, 2016#286

filmfanatic

Zero Esc said:
Marvel announced December solicitations.

Looks like the Civil War II fallout will be:

Maria Hill takes the heat ... legally anyway. Somehow Carol Danvers gets away with only her reputation tarnished.

On the upside, U.S. Avengers will begin! Hopefully Al Ewing gets to actually do the series instead of having its characters hijacked for next summer's Big Dumb Thing. I would hope the less-than-stellar sales of Civil War II would wake Marvel the fuck up, but they'll just blame it on DC Rebirth and do the same thing they've been doing the last several years.

Ooh, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #13, Squirrel Girl vs Taskmaster? That sounds fun .

Don't forget that Squirrel Girl is getting her own graphic novel in October.

Sep 21, 2016#287

Hailey Knight

filmfanatic said:
Don't forget that Squirrel Girl is getting her own graphic novel in October.

Already pre-ordered. Just two weeks! Fucking love that comic. No other comic do I enjoy reading the "current events" page. Or footnotes. The rest don't even have footnotes! Lazy.

Sep 21, 2016#288

CynicismKills

I just can't get past the art. I hate it so much.

Sep 21, 2016#289

ThatNickGuy

CynicismKills said:
I just can't get past the art. I hate it so much.

Why? What's wrong with it?

Sep 21, 2016#290

GasBandit

For those who don't know the jingle, yes it's real :

Sep 21, 2016#291

Hailey Knight

GasBandit said:
For those who don't know the jingle, yes it's real :

Holy shit.

ThatNickGuy said:
Why? What's wrong with it?

Though I don't have a problem with the art, I can't say that Ryan doesn't push Erica a little further than her comfort zone at times:

But I personally think it's fine and the writing more than makes up for any artistic shortcomings. I look forward to the new Squirrel Girl more than any other comic each month.

Sep 21, 2016#292

Yoshimickster

Me on Twitter: OH-a link to a free "Zombie Tramp" comic. Well sure the title is awful, but I figure since its been AROUND long enough it can't be as terrible as I think!

Turns out, it was. Its a fucking shitty exploitation comic.

Sep 21, 2016#293

CynicismKills

ThatNickGuy said:
Why? What's wrong with it?

I'm not a fan of her style in general, really, but the way she draws faces is probably the biggest issue I have.

Like this one, wherein Captain Marvel looks more like a squirrel than SG does.

Or this one, which is just, what the fuck.

Sep 21, 2016#294

Hailey Knight

Welp, I put those She-Hulk books on eBay.

15 minutes later, I already had a bid.

Sep 22, 2016#295

PatrThom

GasBandit said:
For those who don't know the jingle, yes it's real :

There were people who didn't know?
Do they also not know what happens when Captain America throws his mighty shield? Or how the Sub-Mariner is the prince of the sea? Have they never beheld the mighty Thor in breathless wonder?

--Patrick

Sep 22, 2016#296

GasBandit

PatrThom said:
There were people who didn't know?

Thousands of people learn Vader is Luke's father every day.

Sep 22, 2016#297

Hailey Knight

PatrThom said:
Or how the Sub-Mariner is the prince of the sea?

You don't want to know how few people even know Namor exists.

Sep 22, 2016#298

AshburnerX

Zero Esc said:
You don't want to know how few people even know Namor exists.

This is ENTIRELY Marvel's fault.

Sep 22, 2016#299

PatrThom

Zero Esc said:
You don't want to know how few people even know Namor exists.

To be fair, I think he likes it that way.

--Patrick

Sep 22, 2016#300

Tress

Namor is lame.

There, I said it.

Sep 22, 2016#301

Frank

DOC BRUCE BANNER, PELTED BY GAMMA RAYS, TURNS INTO THE HULK!

AIN'T HE UNGLAMOURACE?

Oooooon the rainbow bridge to Aaaaasgaaard!

All those 60's barely animated Marvel cartoons had AWESOME jingly openings.

Sep 22, 2016#302

AshburnerX

Still my favorite old theme song. WARNING: Catchy as hell.

Sep 22, 2016#303

Sparhawk

Frank said:
DOC BRUCE BANNER, PELTED BY GAMMA RAYS, TURNS INTO THE HULK!

AIN'T HE UNGLAMOURACE?

Oooooon the rainbow bridge to Aaaaasgaaard!

All those 60's barely animated Marvel cartoons had AWESOME jingly openings.

Belted by Gamma Rays, not pelted.

Sep 22, 2016#304

Frank

I was remembering the lyrics off the top of my head before I actually posted the intros.

I also got the opening line of the Thor song completely wrong.

Sep 22, 2016#305

PatrThom

Frank said:

Dear Lord, I'd never heard that one.
It's horrible.

--Patrick

Sep 22, 2016#306

Hailey Knight

Civil War II continues to be horrible. This month's issue's special mentions:

- Though we're at the point of "the stakes have never been higher" everyone's still quipping (thanks Bendis)
- Characters with one POV in their own titles have a different point of view in the main book (thanks Brevoort, that's some solid editing)
- Someone in Miles's Spidey costume might be seen with a dead Captain America and might have killed him, but that means Miles will do it in, like, a week (thanks Captain ~~Moron~~ Marvel)
- And this is the last of the main series before the post-Civil War II comics begin, and the comics will proceed without its mattering

Will Marvel learn next year? Probably fucking not.

Sep 23, 2016#307

Covar

Miles won't do anything, not a single prediction by Ulysses has come to pass.

Sep 23, 2016#308

CynicismKills

Covar said:
Miles won't do anything, not a single prediction by Ulysses has come to pass.

I dunno, Miles and his Deus Ex Venom Stab are Bendis' baby, so who knows.

Sep 23, 2016#309

Covar

Its a good thing no one knows Steve is a nazi.

Sep 23, 2016#310

fade

CynicismKills said:
I just can't get past the art. I hate it so much.

Yeah, I can't say I hate it, but I'm not a huge fan. Same reason--not of fan of the goofy faces.

Sep 24, 2016#311

Hailey Knight

I don't understand DC with some New 52 trades.

Batman: Death of the Family is the five Batman issues of that story arc. Joker: Death of the Family is all the tie-ins. Why not throw in the main story and make it a complete/extended version of the story?

You might argue that would mean less money for DC, even if they could just up the price of the big volume. Fine ...

Except with a later arc. Batman: Endgame is the six issues of that arc, while Joker: Endgame is the tie-ins plus the six main issues, so it's everything. I do not understand.

Sep 24, 2016#312

ThatNickGuy

Zero Esc said:
I don't understand DC with some New 52 trades.

Batman: Death of the Family is the five Batman issues of that story arc. Joker: Death of the Family is all the tie-ins. Why not throw in the main story and make it a complete/extended version of the story?

You might argue that would mean less money for DC, even if they could just up the price of the big volume. Fine ...

Except with a later arc. Batman: Endgame is the six issues of that arc, while Joker: Endgame is the tie-ins plus the six main issues, so it's everything. I do not understand.

There are times I've actually considered what it would take to work for DC's collected editions department, if only so I could influence how books come out the way they should come out. But I have no idea what skills or credentials one would need.

Sep 24, 2016#313

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
There are times I've actually considered what it would take to work for DC's collected editions department, if only so I could influence how books come out the way they should come out. But I have no idea what skills or credentials one would need.

I'm not convinced there's even a person doing that. It's so haphazard that it feels like the product of miscommunications and blind luck between many people who are already busy with a ton of different things. Swing that issue over to Marvel, and why does the Daredevil by Brubaker omnibus only include two-thirds of the run? I don't know. Probably neither does Marvel. But they're sure willing to be put time and effort into a worthless Secret Wars prequel book that's just various single issues from across thirty years.

But if you ever get that job, make them put out an omnibus for Lemire's Animal Man

.

Not that I don't appreciate that there are so many collections. I've reduced my current floppies down to four titles, with that only increasing by two Marvel Now titles, because I really only read Vertigo stuff before, so there's loads and loads of great stories that I've never touched. My Amazon wishlist has never been so stuffed.

On that note, Nick, what is your opinion on Geoff Johns's Green Lantern run? It seems there's a massive amount of work there to add up to three 52-length omnibuses and I was wondering if you thought it was worth reading (though it'll be a while before I could afford that).

Sep 24, 2016#314

ThatNickGuy

Zero Esc said:
I'm not convinced there's even a person doing that. It's so haphazard that it feels like the product of miscommunications and blind luck between many people who are already busy with a ton of different things. Swing that issue over to Marvel, and why does the Daredevil by Brubaker omnibus only include two-thirds of the run? I don't know. Probably neither does Marvel. But they're sure willing to be put time and effort into a worthless Secret Wars prequel book that's just various single issues from across thirty years.

But if you ever get that job, make them put out an omnibus for Lemire's Animal Man .

Not that I don't appreciate that there are so many collections. I've reduced my current floppies down to four titles, with that only increasing by two Marvel Now titles, because I really only read Vertigo stuff before, so there's loads and loads of great stories that I've never touched. My Amazon wishlist has never been so stuffed.

On that note, Nick, what is your opinion on Geoff Johns's Green Lantern run? It seems there's a massive amount of work there to add up to three 52-length omnibuses and I was wondering if you thought it was worth reading (though it'll be a while before I could afford that).

To be fair to Marvel, they DID at least collect all of Brubaker's run in the Complete Collection softcovers, which I have.

You're definitely right that it's haphazard sometimes. Some collections make no sense the way they're put together. For example, they recently republished The Death of Superman, which was my first trade ever and what got me back into comics. Except this new edition doesn't include the Justice League fight with Doomsday, which was a pretty goddamn important issue. I WANT to get the new editions, especially since the later ones include the Bloodlines annuals. I never expected that. And I imagine these new editions would include the covers, something my current Return of Superman trade doesn't.

But then you have upcoming editions of Nightwing and Birds of Prey, respectively. Both of them collect The Hunt for Oracle storyline. It was a 4-issue crossover, two issues from each series. Except from all solicitations I've seen, the Nightwing trade doesn't include both of the necessary BoP issues. And yet, Birds of Prey includes both Nightwing issues. It doesn't make sense at all to me.

And yeah, I'm with you there as far as trades go. I got rid of the rest of my floppies sometime last year. Now I only have trades. I don't even have enough bookcase room for all of them. The rest are relegated to long boxes. But it's so much easier flipping through storylines.

As for Geoff Johns' Green Lantern? I honestly don't know. I dropped out around the midpoint with Blackest Night. Largely because I hated how it was collected: the mini-series was collected separately from the GL issues. So Hal disappears halfway through the mini-series only to suddenly return with half a dozen new friends who weren't introduced before. I also don't know how well the transition into New 52 works. I also ALSO don't know how well it reads without including Green Lantern Corps and other spin-off series, because I feel like much of that would be required reading. At least it was early on, like with the Sinestro War.

Sep 24, 2016#315

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
To be fair to Marvel, they DID at least collect all of Brubaker's run in the Complete Collection softcovers, which I have.

The stuff encompassing what's missing from the upcoming omnibus is OOP, while the softcovers that have the same material as the omnibus remain in print. So ... yay? I still think they could do better or just put it all in one. It implies that they don't think the last third is that good; having never read it, I don't know.

But then you have upcoming editions of Nightwing and Birds of Prey, respectively. Both of them collect The Hunt for Oracle storyline. It was a 4-issue crossover, two issues from each series. Except from all solicitations I've seen, the Nightwing trade doesn't include both of the necessary BoP issues. And yet, Birds of Prey includes both Nightwing issues. It doesn't make sense at all to me.

That's exactly what I mean. It's just senseless. Then you'll have areas where they do it right, like the New 52 Swamp Thing Omnibus includes necessary crossover issues of Animal Man, and the Animal Man trades include necessary issues of Swamp Thing.

As for Geoff Johns' Green Lantern? I honestly don't know. I dropped out around the midpoint with Blackest Night. Largely because I hated how it was collected: the mini-series was collected separately from the GL issues. So Hal disappears halfway through the mini-series only to suddenly return with half a dozen new friends who weren't introduced before. I also don't know how well the transition into New 52 works. I also ALSO don't know how well it reads without including Green Lantern Corps and other spin-off series, because I feel like much of that would be required reading. At least it was early on, like with the Sinestro War.

Okay, fair enough. The second omnibus includes everything essential to Blackest Night, i.e. the main event, the Green Lantern stuff, the Green Lantern Corps stuff--it's pretty all-encompassing from the Amazon description and I'm gonna guess is a better way to read it than even when it was coming out monthly.

The transition to New 52 is weirder because there's such a huge tonal shift in other titles, but from the way people talk, it sounds like Johns just ignored that a reboot had even occurred. The fact that a writer could conceivably do that because New 52 wasn't as hard a reboot as DC pretended says a bit about how poorly handled New 52 was even in its inception from an editorial standpoint.

Sep 30, 2016#316

ThatNickGuy

There's a guy on Twitter ranting against Gail Simone over Wonder Woman being bisexual (recently revealed in Rucka's run). He's one of those "social justice is bad and SJWs are a blight on society!)" while citing that he only reads comics from the 70s to the 90s.

I wonder if he forgets that the 70s were a time of major social justice upheaval, especially in comics. John Stewart and Jim Rhodes replaced Hal Jordan and Tony Stark. Drug use stories in Spider-Man and Green Arrow. Hell, DC de-powered Wonder Woman and had her go on a mishandled feminist romp in the 70s.

As for her bisexuality, anyone would see it if they paid attention to her comics at ALL in the last 70 years, including her original comics by William Moulton Marston.

Sep 30, 2016#317

Ravenpoe

ThatNickGuy said:
There's a guy on Twitter ranting against Gail Simone over Wonder Woman being bisexual (recently revealed in Rucka's run). He's one of those "social justice is bad and SJWs are a blight on society!)" while citing that he only reads comics from the 70s to the 90s.

I wonder if he forgets that the 70s were a time of major social justice upheaval, especially in comics. John Stewart and Jim Rhodes replaced Hal Jordan and Tony Stark. Drug use stories in Spider-Man and Green Arrow. Hell, DC de-powered Wonder Woman and had her go on a mishandled feminist romp in the 70s.

As for her bisexuality, anyone would see it if they paid attention to her comics at ALL in the last 70 years, including her original comics by William Moulton Marston.

Didn't she spend most of her life on an island that was all women?

Sep 30, 2016#318

Bubble181

Ravenpoe said:
Didn't she spend most of her life on an island that was all women?

Also, hogtying and whipping her girls. :unibrow:

Sep 30, 2016#319

Yoshimickster

The dark aftermath of SJWs, ANTI-SJWS! Who can be equally annoying and equally stupid.

Sep 30, 2016#320

Celt Z

I saw that rant a few other places. If he was reading comics since the 70's, they weren't Wonder Woman.

Sep 30, 2016#321

Zappit

I'm not digging the IDW Revolution event going on right now. I've been reading their Transformers books since they started they acquired the rights, and the work has been phenomenal. The characterizations and personalities are terrific, and the art has been great, too. But now they're going to do a shared universe with GI.Joe, M.A.S.K. and Rom the Spaceknight. The last couple issues of the two main books has crossed into that, and eeeehhh...It hasn't had a big impact on the stories, but in don't want that to eventually happen.

However, the obvious Sentinel Prime/Donald Trump parallels are friggin' great.

Sep 30, 2016#322

Hailey Knight

My wife finally started reading volume 1 of Preacher that she asked for and I got her for her birthday in June.

She's ... kinda hating it.

Oct 2, 2016#323

Ravenpoe

Zero Esc said:
My wife finally started reading volume 1 of Preacher that she asked for and I got her for her birthday in June.

She's ... kinda hating it.

People either love it or go "the fucking fuck?!" and there's no middle ground.

Oct 2, 2016#324

Hailey Knight

Ravenpoe said:
People either love it or go "the fucking fuck?!" and there's no middle ground.

I'd heard zero criticism of it and assumed it was universally loved. Even on Amazon, I'm not seeing much in the way of negative reviews. The most prominent negative review is about the crappy binding of an overpriced former edition of the first volume.

Kinda wish I hadn't also bought her volume 2. But at least it's not like when I bought her the entirety of Hellsing Ultimate only for her to not even finish the first set. I need to have more reservations when buying her things she asks for, because while I'm sure she knows what she wants, it's impossible to know if you're going to like something before you experience it.

Unless you're a DCEU fan. :awesome:

Then you've already decided to love it the moment it's announced and nothing can change that.

Oct 2, 2016#325

Covar

Ennis tends to come across as to hateful for my taste.There's a lot of disdain for things he doesn't like and the people who do.

Oct 4, 2016#326

AshburnerX

Oct 8, 2016#327

Sparhawk

Why wouldn't he have been a Kansas City Royals fan?

Oct 8, 2016#328

Hailey Knight

Right now in the comics, under the helm of Bendis, Tony’s lost his fortune, has learned he’s adopted, trying to find his birth parents, dealing with the death of his best friend, dealing with the death of another friend and founding Avenger, losing touch with the teenage superheroes he mentors, is making deals with Doctor Doom, is waging war with and against fellow heroes, and is considering abandoning everything he has and everyone he knows.

… meanwhile, in Squirrel Girl, he’s messing around on Twitter. It’s like a window into a better Marvel universe.

Oct 8, 2016#329

Dave

Zero Esc said:
I'd heard zero criticism of it and assumed it was universally loved. Even on Amazon, I'm not seeing much in the way of negative reviews. The most prominent negative review is about the crappy binding of an overpriced former edition of the first volume.

Kinda wish I hadn't also bought her volume 2. But at least it's not like when I bought her the entirety of Hellsing Ultimate only for her to not even finish the first set. I need to have more reservations when buying her things she asks for, because while I'm sure she knows what she wants, it's impossible to know if you're going to like something before you experience it.

Unless you're a DCEU fan. Then you've already decided to love it the moment it's announced and nothing can change that.

Here's my review of the series.

https://www.halforums.com/threads/w...tly-reading-thread.29783/page-22#post-1293554

Oct 8, 2016#330

Hailey Knight

Dave said:
Here's my review of the series.

https://www.halforums.com/threads/w...tly-reading-thread.29783/page-22#post-1293554

I can see why she isn't liking it, and I probably wouldn't care for it either. Thanks.

Oct 8, 2016#331

figmentPez

DarkAudit said:
I just realized something horrible.

If Smallville is in Kansas, then in all likelihood Clark Kent would have grown up...

a St. Louis Cardinals fan.

Keystone Cardinals?

Oct 8, 2016#332

Sparhawk

DarkAudit said:
Until 1969, the Royals didn't exist, so Golden Age and Silver Age Clark would have grown up listening to KMOX, Harry Caray, and Jack Buck.

Not a baseball fan, actually dislike the game, so I didn't know that.

Oct 13, 2016#333

Hailey Knight

Dammit, I might be dropping Superman soon enough after all. By December they're going to be shifting focus away from Superman and his son to more general Superman adventures and relegating Jon Kent to Super Sons. Which is cool and I'm totally on board for Super Sons, at least conceptually, but the Superman family dynamic was the real reason I got into the current Superman run.

Oct 27, 2016#334

Hailey Knight

I'm reading in different places that comic book stores are looking at a rougher winter than usual despite having high sales increases during the summer. Why? Well, DC books are still selling strong, but Marvel sales have plummeted post-Civil War II. I'm not surprised; the non-readers are gone even without the event's conclusion because they don't care, so now Marvel just has us, and apparently even their new #1's aren't doing so hot. And I can see why--even if stuff is good like Champions, how can one trust Marvel not to fuck it all up next year? I don't blame the people who are just bailing entirely.

But it sucks for comic book stores that have zero control over Marvel's content, whereas Marvel can continue to exist no matter how badly they fuck up thanks to be owned by Disney.

Oct 27, 2016#335

CynicismKills

Problem is all the big changes aren't bringing in new people, and old readers don't want the changes to begin with.

They try to say "oh well people getting mad sells books!" but you can do that only so many times before the ones getting mad give up and tell you to fuck off.

Oct 27, 2016#336

Hailey Knight

CynicismKills said:
Problem is all the big changes aren't bringing in new people, and old readers don't want the changes to begin with.

They try to say "oh well people getting mad sells books!" but you can do that only so many times before the ones getting mad give up and tell you to fuck off.

And that's where it's gotten. This "u mad bro?" bullshit has gotten to "yes, we are" and people can spend their money elsewhere. The new readers are only temporary. Inhumans vs X-Men will have begun before the final issue of Civil War II.

DC is having an event this winter too, Suicide Squad vs Justice League, but it'll wrap up in those two months and only affect two titles outside the event's series. Everything else gets to keep moving instead of being sucked into a line-wide black hole. As I've said before, I'm actually looking forward to the next big event, partly because Scott Snyder is writing it, but also because they're taking the time to build toward it.

However, for comic book stores it isn't enough. Since each DC book sells $1 less than Marvel (even equal sized event books), the Marvel drops still hurt. It just sucks because there's zero the stores can do about it; they can't really tell Marvel to knock it off any more than the readers can.

Reminds me, I gotta pre-order the DC Holiday Special.

Oct 28, 2016#337

CynicismKills

The first solicit screams HELLO FELLOW TEENS, the third is describing a Romeo and Juliet parallel where one character is literally named Romeo.

The second is just kind of there, I guess, but it'll be Bendis writing YA romance so I'm sure it'll be stuttered dialogue topped with stupid colloquialisms people stopped using in 2002.

Just

Just stop Marvel, before you can't come back.

Oct 28, 2016#338

Hailey Knight

CynicismKills said:
The first solicit screams HELLO FELLOW TEENS, the third is describing a Romeo and Juliet parallel where one character is literally named Romeo.

The second is just kind of there, I guess, but it'll be Bendis writing YA romance so I'm sure it'll be stuttered dialogue topped with stupid colloquialisms people stopped using in 2002.

Just

Just stop Marvel, before you can't come back.

Oh yeah, let's try to make Captain Marvel relatable again. Hah!

Oct 28, 2016#339

Yoshimickster

I stopped reading after "Yaas Queen".

ON-the topic though, what are some good Carol Danvers stories out there?

Oct 29, 2016#340

Hailey Knight

Yoshimickster said:
I stopped reading after "Yaas Queen".

ON-the topic though, what are some good Carol Danvers stories out there?

From how others talk, pre-Captain status.

Doesn't seem like much of anything happened in Civil War II #6, which explains why there's going to be eight issues.

Nov 13, 2016#341

Hailey Knight

Word is that Morrison's Animal Man omnibus is going out of print. In case anyone was stalling on picking it up, you should probably get on it before it becomes expensive.

Nov 13, 2016#342

ThatNickGuy

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/11/13/the-comic-book-industry-and-the-battle-of-donald-trump/

Comic book Humberto Ramos and George Perez plan on not attending any conventions in red states. Some people - both fans and those in the industry like Tony Harris - are dogpiling on them. They're saying it's spitting in fans' faces. Well, no. It's because they're of Latino or Hispanic descent and thus are afraid they wouldn't feel safe or welcome there by some people.

Nov 13, 2016#343

fade

Worth noting that 30% of Hispanic and Latino voters voted for Trump

Nov 13, 2016#344

ThatNickGuy

fade said:
Worth noting that 30% of Hispanic and Latino voters voted for Trump

Which I don't get at all, but wasn't necessarily my point in the first place.

Nov 13, 2016#345

GasBandit

I mean, Trump also got 33% of the vote in california, compared to, say, 53% in Texas. Is the latter really that much more "unsafe" than the former?

Nov 13, 2016#346

CynicismKills

Ramos' art is garbage anyway, why would anyone want to meet him?

Nov 13, 2016#347

ThatNickGuy

CynicismKills said:
Ramos' art is garbage anyway, why would anyone want to meet him?

Because not everyone hates his work? I'm not a fan, either, but I wouldn't call it garbage.

Nov 13, 2016#348

CynicismKills

Yeah garbage was a bit too strong of a word, I suppose. I find that he has huge issues with perspective, anatomy and facial expressions (the last one's not always an issue), though, and his art always makes it harder for me to enjoy a story.

Nov 13, 2016#349

Cog

His art is the kind of art I like to see in a poster or in a cover but not in the comic itself.

Nov 15, 2016#350

@Li3n

ThatNickGuy said:
Which I don't get at all, but wasn't necessarily my point in the first place.

Well not all of them are mexicans, and you really think people from different countries stop hating each other because they're in a 3rd country where the locals can't tell the difference? More likely it just makes them hate the other guys more for making the locals think they too are "insert racist stereotype".

Nov 15, 2016#351

Celt Z

But this is how boycotts work. Yes, it sucks for the people there that didn't support the new regime, but these are areas that voted on the premise that people like Perez and Ramos aren't welcome here. It's like the performers who refused to play in NC after they passed the anti-transgender laws, or back to the 60's when African Americans boycotted segregated establishments. Besides, we've already talked in other threads that there has been a rise in bigoted attacks since the election.

People said with this election they wanted to change the status quo, and then start wondering why we can't go on with business as usual. You can't have it both ways.

Nov 15, 2016#352

Celt Z

fade said:
Worth noting that 30% of Hispanic and Latino voters voted for Trump

It's also worth nothing that not all African Americans were anti-slavery or anti-segregation. "Uncle Tom" wasn't just made up for the book.

Dec 7, 2016#353

Yoshimickster

When the fuck is DC going to do something with Plastic Man? I miss him. B'wana Beast to, he's alive and what-not again.

Dec 7, 2016#354

Covar

Yoshimickster said:
When the fuck is DC going to do something with Plastic Man? I miss him. B'wana Beast to, he's alive and what-not again.

He gets something every time trademark renewal comes up. That's about it. Plastic-man hasn't really been a big character since...well he hasn't been consistently used since his Golden Age series. He's one of the many, many characters DC has who's on the mini-series and guest star level, like Adam Strange and ~~Captain Marvel~~Shazam. Could be worse though, he could be in permanent guest star/team member territory, like Martian Manhunter, Zatanna, or the Phantom Stranger.

Dec 7, 2016#355

ThatNickGuy

Covar said:
He gets something every time trademark renewal comes up. That's about it. Plastic-man hasn't really been a big character since...well he hasn't been consistently used since his Golden Age series. He's one of the many, many characters DC has who's on the mini-series and guest star level, like Adam Strange and ~~Captain Marvel~~Shazam. Could be worse though, he could be in permanent guest star/team member territory, like Martian Manhunter, Zatanna, or the Phantom Stranger.

The last time he was prominent is when he was on Morrison's JLA (and then Waid's follow up).

Dec 7, 2016#356

AshburnerX

Yoshimickster said:
When the fuck is DC going to do something with Plastic Man? I miss him. B'wana Beast to, he's alive and what-not again.

I know he's planned to get some play in the JLA Action cartoon series. He's in the intro and everything. But a comic? *shrug*

Dec 7, 2016#357

filmfanatic

AshburnerX said:
I know he's planned to get some play in the JLA Action cartoon series. He's in the intro and everything. But a comic? *shrug*

Honestly, it seems like animation is where DC is more willing to use Plastic Man these days. He had the series of DC Nation shorts, he was pretty prominent on Brave and the Bold, and now there is Justice League Action.

Dec 7, 2016#358

Covar

ThatNickGuy said:
The last time he was prominent is when he was on Morrison's JLA (and then Waid's follow up).

Yeah. He had that 2004 Kyle Baker series too, but that could hardly be considered prominent. DC is loaded with great characters, even if most of them can't be supported by the market. One of the things I'm liking about DC Rebirth is that it's creating an environment where these "lost" characters can be featured and utilized.

Dec 7, 2016#359

ThatNickGuy

Covar said:
Yeah. He had that 2004 Kyle Baker series too, but that could hardly be considered prominent. DC is loaded with great characters, even if most of them can't be supported by the market. One of the things I'm liking about DC Rebirth is that it's creating an environment where these "lost" characters can be featured and utilized.

I was always more a fan of Elongated Man, but that's the mystery reader/writer in me.

I HATE that we never got a Ralph & Sue: Ghost Detectives series like was teased at the end of 52. Apparently, all that was Mark Waid's idea and he was game for a series or mini-series that never happened.

Dec 7, 2016#360

Covar

ThatNickGuy said:
I was always more a fan of Elongated Man, but that's the mystery reader/writer in me.

I HATE that we never got a Ralph & Sue: Ghost Detectives series like was teased at the end of 52. Apparently, all that was Mark Waid's idea and he was game for a series or mini-series that never happened.

Closest you'll get is in Chuck Dixon's short lived Batman & the Outsiders series. Batman recruits them for a mission, and they're basically detective versions of Deadman. That last set of Outsiders was pretty good, it ran into issues with the Dan Didio/Chuck Dixon blowup and Batman R.I.P., but it and the Peter J. Tomasi Outsiders series that followed were fun.

Dec 7, 2016#361

BananaHands

Yoshimickster said:
When the fuck is DC going to do something with Plastic Man? I miss him. B'wana Beast to, he's alive and what-not again.

He had a one-shot in the Injustice universe that was pretty great.

Dec 7, 2016#362

Yoshimickster

Once again, the Injustice comic is proven to be a better version of the DC universe than the MAIN DC universe.

Covar said:
He gets something every time trademark renewal comes up. That's about it. Plastic-man hasn't really been a big character since...well he hasn't been consistently used since his Golden Age series. He's one of the many, many characters DC has who's on the mini-series and guest star level, like Adam Strange and ~~Captain Marvel~~Shazam. Could be worse though, he could be in permanent guest star/team member territory, like Martian Manhunter, Zatanna, or the Phantom Stranger.

Should I assume its the same thing with Dr.Fate? I read he JUST had a relaunch last year after a two year break. So weird, he's basically DC's Dr.Strange, you'd think they'd do more with him.

Dec 7, 2016#363

fade

Yoshimickster said:
Once again, the Injustice comic is proven to be a better version of the DC universe than the MAIN DC universe.

Should I assume its the same thing with Dr.Fate? I read he JUST had a relaunch last year after a two year break. So weird, he's basically DC's Dr.Strange, you'd think they'd do more with him.

For real. Better writing and art than a lot of the main universe stuff out there. In the writers' defenses, it's probably got a lot to do with the freedom of a "fictional" story.[DOUBLEPOST=1481143622,1481143416][/DOUBLEPOST]Also why is it that every time there's an alternate universe, Ollie dies? He's like the JLA butt-monkey.

Dec 7, 2016#364

Yoshimickster

Either that or Flash in the DCAU, poor old Jiminy.

Dec 7, 2016#365

BananaHands

And here we see the current state of Marvel Comics:

Civil War II #5, #6, #7 and Spider-Man 9 all have the exact same two page spread. Each of these books are $4.99.

Dec 7, 2016#366

Yoshimickster

...I hate those pages for two reasons. ONE-it almost looks like Spider-man ripped out Captain America's heart. TWO-why the fuck couldn't they just make that one big splash page? Making it four panels just makes it look tacky.

Dec 7, 2016#367

BananaHands

Yoshimickster said:
...I hate those pages for two reasons. ONE-it almost looks like Spider-man ripped out Captain America's heart. TWO-why the fuck couldn't they just make that one big splash page? Making it four panels just makes it look tacky.

It is one big splash page. It's four different books.

Dec 7, 2016#368

Yoshimickster

BananaHands said:
It is one big splash page. It's four different books.

SWEET SATAN-that's even worse! DAMMIT MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT'S COMIC DIVISION A SUBISIDIARY OF THE WALT DISNEY CORPORATION-stop being dumb asses!

Dec 7, 2016#369

BananaHands

Yoshimickster said:
SWEET SATAN-that's even worse! DAMMIT MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT'S COMIC DIVISION A SUBISIDIARY OF THE WALT DISNEY CORPORATION-stop being dumb asses!

All written by Bendis - he loves to copy panels, now he's just doing it across multiple books.

Dec 7, 2016#370

GasBandit

Solution: stop buying it. That's the only way to fix it. Pirate until it unfucks itself.

Dec 7, 2016#371

ThatNickGuy

GasBandit said:
Solution: stop buying it. That's the only way to fix it. Pirate until it unfucks itself.

Or even better, don't waste time reading them at all. Rather, spend time reading books you'd enjoy and support said books.

Like, for example, a lot of books Image puts out.

Dec 7, 2016#372

BananaHands

GasBandit said:
Solution: stop buying it. That's the only way to fix it. Pirate until it unfucks itself.

Basically what I've been doing. The image is from someone else, I only have one marvel pull since they've given that hack Bendis so much power there.

Dec 8, 2016#373

Hailey Knight

I'm not even pirating; I just see the highlights. Reading Bendis is not going to do my brain any favors.[DOUBLEPOST=1481200207,1481200116][/DOUBLEPOST]

ThatNickGuy said:
Or even better, don't waste time reading them at all. Rather, spend time reading books you'd enjoy and support said books.

Like, for example, a lot of books Image puts out.

I end up waiting for the trades because Image puts out the kind of stuff I want to keep on the shelf and reread. Maybe if I ever get caught up on an Image series I'll change that.

Dec 21, 2016#374

CynicismKills

Holy shit the new Venom comic is dumb as hell.

New host is a flat, edgy caricature and the symbiote is losing any decent development as its own entity because of this awful, awful writing.

Also, more shitty villain-because-muh-rep Black Cat.

Ugh.

Dec 21, 2016#375

Yoshimickster

CynicismKills said:
Holy shit the new Venom comic is dumb as hell.

New host is a flat, edgy caricature and the symbiote is losing any decent development as its own entity because of this awful, awful writing.

Also, more shitty villain-because-muh-rep Black Cat.

Ugh.

GRAH-just stick with one freakin' damn host! VENOM IS NOT THE MASK!

Dec 21, 2016#376

CynicismKills

And now that I've finished the second issue of this fucking trainwreck, spoilered commentary.

Venom is apparently weak from being without a host, so he's stuck with Edgy McDarksoul for awhile. Can't control his higher brain like it used to do with others because HE HAS ARMY TRAINING. The new host (Lee) meets up with Black Cat after killing everyone else he was doing some back-alley deal with, tries to get in on her new crime empire as a goon (alongside her bodyguard, Mac Gargan). Venom doesn't want Lee to fall in with these people and tries to screw it up by making Lee puke in front of them. Doesn't work.

Some guy shows up claiming to be Firebug as Lee heads home. Burns the place to the ground and VENOM STANDS THERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BLAZE LIKE NOTHING'S WRONG. Some FBI agent that's been following Lee shows up saying "I have no idea who you are" to fucking Venom like the agent must have been living under a rock for the last few decades.

It's bad. The only redeeming bit right now is the Symbiote has its own personality and goals, making it by far the most interesting character in the book.

Dec 21, 2016#377

BananaHands

CynicismKills said:
And now that I've finished the second issue of this fucking trainwreck, spoilered commentary.

Venom is apparently weak from being without a host, so he's stuck with Edgy McDarksoul for awhile. Can't control his higher brain like it used to do with others because HE HAS ARMY TRAINING. The new host (Lee) meets up with Black Cat after killing everyone else he was doing some back-alley deal with, tries to get in on her new crime empire as a goon (alongside her bodyguard, Mac Gargan). Venom doesn't want Lee to fall in with these people and tries to screw it up by making Lee puke in front of them. Doesn't work.

Some guy shows up claiming to be Firebug as Lee heads home. Burns the place to the ground and VENOM STANDS THERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BLAZE LIKE NOTHING'S WRONG. Some FBI agent that's been following Lee shows up saying "I have no idea who you are" to fucking Venom like the agent must have been living under a rock for the last few decades.

It's bad. The only redeeming bit right now is the Symbiote has its own personality and goals, making it by far the most interesting character in the book.

That issue was garbage. This series is garbage. Bring back Brock. This edgy ordeal should have ended by the end of issue 1 like this:

Dec 21, 2016#378

Hailey Knight

I can't believe Civil War II still hasn't ended yet.

Dec 21, 2016#379

CynicismKills

Zero Esc said:
I can't believe Civil War II still hasn't ended yet.

But don't worry, the new issues of post-CW2 events are already coming out!

Dec 21, 2016#380

Hailey Knight

CynicismKills said:
But don't worry, the new issues of post-CW2 events are already coming out!

I know, everything's moved on, and yet we still have another fucking Civil War II comic coming out next week.

Dec 21, 2016#381

Yoshimickster

BananaHands said:
That issue was garbage. This series is garbage. Bring back Brock. This edgy ordeal should have ended by the end of issue 1 like this:

You know a comic is bad, when "Marvel Knights Spider-Man" is a better story...seriously fuck that comic for making Scorpion Venom-THAT MADE NO SENSE!

Dec 21, 2016#382

BananaHands

Yoshimickster said:
You know a comic is bad, when "Marvel Knights Spider-Man" is a better story...seriously fuck that comic for making Scorpion Venom-THAT MADE NO SENSE!

What world do I live in where the Venom comic is garbage yet the Carnage comic has been pretty solid.

I miss Agent Venom too. He had a fun story and a cute lil Venom sidekick.

Dec 22, 2016#383

Yoshimickster

I will admit to liking Agent Venom more than I thought, as that whole 24 hour time limit gave a neat espionage feel, also while it meant Eddie BROCK wouldn't be Venom, at least we got a Scorpion back semi-balancing out the universe....despite, the symbiote apparently weakening Scorpion despite that his mutated DNA should've been able to handle it like Spider-man could-GRAH-I don't understand the world no more.

Dec 22, 2016#384

Yoshimickster

Okay seriously-WHO THE FUCK IS IN CHARGE OF THESE BULL-SHIT TITLE NAMES?! Batman Rebirth: 1 is the REAL start, and then what follows is DC Universe Rebirth Batman number 1-FUCKING WHY?! Also while I like the Lark costume....it kind of makes him look like a Pikachu. Now I'm wandering who Bluebird is going to be. Hope its not Damian, he does NOT look like a Bluebird.

Dec 22, 2016#385

Covar

The book is just Batman. The DC Rebirth is just a line wide identifier, like "The New 52" or "Marvel NOW" (both of them).

Blue bird is a character named Harper Row, introduced in Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's run on Batman. She's a self taught expert of Gotham's electric grid, and a talent for engineering.

Dec 22, 2016#386

Yoshimickster

Covar said:
The book is just Batman. The DC Rebirth is just a line wide identifier, like "The New 52" or "Marvel NOW" (both of them).

Blue bird is a character named Harper Row, introduced in Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's run on Batman. She's a self taught expert of Gotham's electric grid, and a talent for engineering.

*Looks up character immediately after this* Oooooooooooooh noooooooooooo that's a bad costume. It's like they meshed Sombra, Nightwing, and Red Hood all together. I'm just mocking the costume by the way, TOTAL confidence that the character could be good.

Dec 22, 2016#387

BananaHands

Yoshimickster said:
*Looks up character immediately after this* Oooooooooooooh noooooooooooo that's a bad costume. It's like they meshed Sombra, Nightwing, and Red Hood all together. I'm just mocking the costume by the way, TOTAL confidence that the character could be good.

Not a fan of Harper in the slightest, but that's just me. Not sure why she rubs me the wrong way.

Cassandra Cain, on the other hand? Best Batgirl.

Dec 22, 2016#388

Yoshimickster

BananaHands said:
Not a fan of Harper in the slightest, but that's just me. Not sure why she rubs me the wrong way.

Awful costume maybe? Seriously it looks like something that would come out of a fan-character creator site.

Dec 22, 2016#389

BananaHands

Yoshimickster said:
Awful costume maybe? Seriously it looks like something that would come out of a fan-character creator site.

That AND she's written like some fan-fiction self-insert.

Dec 23, 2016#390

Yoshimickster

BananaHands said:
That AND she's written like some fan-fiction self-insert.

Felt like I half-predicted that knowledge about the character, good to know. OH-DC, you may have improved but you are FAR from perfect...seriously, ENOUGH Batman sidekicks, even tier 2 sidekicks its just superfluous!

Dec 23, 2016#391

Hailey Knight

Yoshimickster said:
Felt like I half-predicted that knowledge about the character, good to know. OH-DC, you may have improved but you are FAR from perfect...seriously, ENOUGH Batman sidekicks, even tier 2 sidekicks its just superfluous!

But how else will they get more Bat-books? Batman's already in Batman, Detective Comics, All-Star Batman, Justice League, and the upcoming Justice League of America. Guy's stretched pretty thin these days. Maybe he could send of one of the dozen kids he's taken under his wing to fill in for a bit.

Dec 23, 2016#392

Yoshimickster

TRUE, if Detective Comics focuses on someone OTHER than Batman for several story-archs that would be a step in the right direction. Seriously, its been mostly Batman's second title for decades where origininally it was a legit detective anthology that would sometimes feature Batman. Like how Action comics wasn't JUST Superman's thing, it also had Zatara, the most forgotten hero with a legacy character-EVER!

Jan 2, 2017#393

ThatNickGuy

I really wish there was a GOOD comic book news site out there. I usually rely on Bleeding Cool since they tend to break the news first. But their articles are usually lazily edited, cheap click-bait about spoilers (where they'll go "neener neener, we know something but can't tell you, but we'll make a news post about it, anyway!"), regularly attack creators for something they said on Twitter, post Twitter feuds, and have recently gotten into the business of fake, "funny" articles.

But the site itself is clean and well-formatted and the news they DO break is usually the first compared to other sites.

Meanwhile, I keep looking for other sites, but I run into the same problems:

1) Horribly formatted: Either they'll have that sliding top articles thing or you have to scroll for just 1 or 2 articles rather than seeing a bunch all at once like Bleeding Cool. I have a LOT of problems with Bleeding Cool, but their site formatting isn't one of them.
2) Even worse click-bait articles, as if they're imitating Buzzfeed (Top 10 things of this!)
3) Too much focus on comic book RELATED news, like movies and TV shows.
4) Barely any mention of work outside of the Big 2.
5) No decent insightful articles that dig deeper into just news or something eventful.
6) Fake, "funny" news that's mixed in with the legitimate articles.

There's really a lack of two things I miss from some comic sites (and magazines like Wizard): good criticism of a book or series and interviews with creators. The criticism isn't necessarily bad, but picking apart the comic and talking about what works and doesn't work, or finding more meaning behind it. As for interviews, my favourite was when a site interviewed Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker about Gotham Central. They said at one point, "These guys aren't part of the Bat-family. If they found Robin dead in an alley, they wouldn't know if it was actually Robin or just some kid dressed up as him." Then they suddenly looked at each other and said, "Huh," and excused themselves because they just created the opening for the Dead Robin story.

Jan 5, 2017#394

ThatNickGuy

This isn't so much bitching, but we don't have (or need) a Random Comics thread:

I bought Mark Waid's Flash Volume One yesterday with my Christmas money. Definitely can't wait for the rest of his run to be collected because previously published trades missed so much of his run, especially the later half of it.

Anyway, I think I'll sell or trade in my Geoff Johns Flash omnibuses and get the trades instead. The Mark Waid volume uses the same spine design as the Johns' books, so they'd all look really great together on the shelf.

Jan 5, 2017#395

BananaHands

Marvel Overships Titles to Retailers by 10% in January

What the fuck is going on with Marvel? They're so lackluster and in response they're just going to artificially inflate their sales numbers this way? Even though a Marvel spokesman said that it wouldn't influence it, it's absurd that these comics are so bad that they can't even give them away for free:

Also, I find it hard to believe that this shit doesn't affect their numbers when in November they won the marketshare even though their comics under-performed.

Jan 5, 2017#396

Hailey Knight

BananaHands said:
Marvel Overships Titles to Retailers by 10% in January

What the fuck is going on with Marvel? They're so lackluster and in response they're just going to artificially inflate their sales numbers this way? Even though a Marvel spokesman said that it wouldn't influence it, it's absurd that these comics are so bad that they can't even give them away for free:

Also, I find it hard to believe that this shit doesn't affect their numbers when in November they won the marketshare even though their comics under-performed.

Unbelievable. What a load of shit, and apathetic to the added shipping costs. Fucking hell.

And it sounds like they know these are garbage, because it's not like they don't have any good comics, but those aren't the ones they overship. It's just the new stuff they're desperate to move, meanwhile DC soaks up more readers by giving them cool stuff. Superman began an arc this week, Multiplicity, a sequel to Morrison's Multiversity. Pre-Flashpoint Superman meets up with Red Son Superman, dammit. That's the kinda shit that's worth a read. Not every Guardians character getting a solo, not shoving Inhumans down X-Men fans throats and hoping they'll swallow.

Jan 6, 2017#397

Sparhawk

Former comic retailer here....

We tended to order what we thought would sell of #1, and then slash orders on #2 issues, it was a very predictable pattern, unless it was a "big name" creator or major title reboot. We ordered up to 3 issues completely blind, with the possibility of starting some feedback before final orders were due for #3. I can understand them wanting to try to push the new titles (when numbers declined so drastically), but not covering at least part of the shipping is completely bogus. Sometimes were were burned and got stuck in re-order hell, but most of the time I still had #2 sitting even with reduced orders numbers on untested or unknowns.

Jan 6, 2017#398

Covar

Some good reporting by Rich Johnston (I know, I'm as surprised as everyone else).

There are a couple things wrong with Marvel's practice. It's unhealthy for the comic market, and actively harms retailers, and if they really had confidence in the books they're forcing on retailers they would be offering returnability which is good for retailers and more healthy to the industry. It's also them just flat out lying to their advertisers.

Jan 7, 2017#399

Yoshimickster

If I ever work for DC, I want to make a story where Wonder Woman gets her DNA spliced with Doomsday's, and the main character will try to stop her by throwing a candy bar at her, failing miserably.

Jan 7, 2017#400

PatrThom

Yoshimickster said:
If I ever work for DC, I want to make a story where Wonder Woman gets her DNA spliced with Doomsday's, and the main character will try to stop her by throwing a Hostess snack cake at her, failing miserably.

FTFY

--Patrick

Jan 8, 2017#401

CynicismKills

Everyone: "Marvel seriously can we just give events a break and like, build up all these new characters you can't seem to stop shitting out?"

Marvel: "We totally hear you, and in honor of that SECRET EMPIRE NEW EVENT COMING IN 2017!"

Jan 8, 2017#402

Hailey Knight

CynicismKills said:
Everyone: "Marvel seriously can we just give events a break and like, build up all these new characters you can't seem to stop shitting out?"

Marvel: "We totally hear you, and in honor of that SECRET EMPIRE NEW EVENT COMING IN 2017!"

If Kamala Khan's solo gets hijacked for another fucking event, I'm reporting Marvel to CPS.

Mar 9, 2017#403

Yoshimickster

So...apparently....Nick Spencer made Magneto...the holocaust survivor...a nazi....*MASSIVE INTERNAL SCREAMING* WHY IS HE STILL AROUND?! HIS IDEAS ARE SHIT!

Mar 9, 2017#404

DarkAudit

Yoshimickster said:
So...apparently....Nick Spencer made Magneto...the holocaust survivor...a nazi....*MASSIVE INTERNAL SCREAMING* WHY IS HE STILL AROUND?! HIS IDEAS ARE SHIT!

Not just Nick. A whole bunch of others has to take part for this to see print. As in multiple people were okay with making Magneto join the Nazis.

As I said in the MCU thread: FUCK MARVEL.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Mar 9, 2017#405

fade

From what I read, it's just a variant cover. He doesn't actually join Hydra in the pages of the book.

Mar 9, 2017#406

Yoshimickster

Yeah that doesn't make it better, Nick Spencer is pulling the same sensationalist crap Superman artists did in the Silver Age where they made Superman look like a DICK on the cover-BUT IT TURNS OUT-it was just his secret plan.

Mar 9, 2017#407

ThatNickGuy

Yoshimickster said:
Yeah that doesn't make it better, Nick Spencer is pulling the same sensationalist crap Superman artists did in the Silver Age where they made Superman look like a DICK on the cover-BUT IT TURNS OUT-it was just his secret plan.

If it's a variant cover, he likely didn't have a say in it at all.

Mar 9, 2017#408

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
If it's a variant cover, he likely didn't have a say in it at all.

Yeah, I don't expect a situation like at DC with Greg Pak overriding Frank Cho's Wonder Woman variants.

Still, like DA said, there were others who pushed it through.

Mar 14, 2017#409

BananaHands

Man, I actually kind of enjoy this Captain Hydra. It's tie-ins with Civil War 2 actually made the event's bullshit story make some sense as it was Captain America's master keikaku.

Mar 14, 2017#410

Yoshimickster

Anyone here know if Highwater is a real Indian sur-name? You know like, James Highwater from Animal Man? I have yet to find proof that it is, closest I could find is "Jamake Highwater", and he was famed for RAKING his heritage.

Mar 14, 2017#411

Tinwhistler

Yoshimickster said:
Anyone here know if Highwater is a real Indian sur-name? You know like, James Highwater from Animal Man? I have yet to find proof that it is, closest I could find is "Jamake Highwater", and he was famed for RAKING his heritage.

Native American surnames are not traditional. But that ship has long sailed. Which means, really, Native Americans could have any surname--including Smith.

The following is a list of the most common surnames for people who self-identified as "American Indians and Alaskan Natives" in America during the 2000 Census. The data is derived from the U.S. Bureau of the Census.

http://names.mongabay.com/data/indians.html

Mar 14, 2017#412

Yoshimickster

Point taken, and all ready looked through that one.

Mar 15, 2017#413

Yoshimickster

On the one hand I want to buy Superman 19, and Green Lanterns 20/19(I forget which one is newest) tomorrow, in Philly, but on the other hand the weather will be shitty...and it'll be St.Patricks day weekend...in Philly...which is horrifying. Not so much a complaint about comics perse, more about weather and the horror that is St.Patrick's day Weekend affecting me buying comics.

Mar 15, 2017#414

Celt Z

Yoshimickster said:
On the one hand I want to buy Superman 19, and Green Lanterns 20/19(I forget which one is newest) tomorrow, in Philly, but on the other hand the weather will be shitty...and it'll be St.Patricks day weekend...in Philly...which is horrifying. Not so much a complaint about comics perse, more about weather and the horror that is St.Patrick's day Weekend affecting me buying comics.

Where do you usually go, Atomic City Comics on South or... the other one, which I can't remember the name. I want to say it's off of South, like around 4th?

Mar 15, 2017#415

Yoshimickster

Celt Z said:
Where do you usually go, Atomic City Comics on South or... the other one, which I can't remember the name. I want to say it's off of South, like around 4th?

Yeah its primarily Atomic City, or Fat Jacks for me. Usually Fat Jacks first, they have have a better selection of back issues, Atomic City of course has the best trade and tankoban selection. Need to stop by Brave New Worlds again some time, they have some nice Indie books-INCLUDING MINE!

Mar 15, 2017#416

Celt Z

Yoshimickster said:
Yeah its primarily Atomic City, or Fat Jacks for me. Usually Fat Jacks first, they have have a better selection of back issues, Atomic City of course has the best trade and tankoban selection. Need to stop by Brave New Worlds again some time, they have some nice Indie books-INCLUDING MINE!

Brave New Worlds, that's who I was thinking of. There also used to be a good place on Chestnut between Broad and 15th, but they closed.

How did I never run across Fat Jack's?! It was way closer to my old apartment than Atomic. Grrrr...

Mar 15, 2017#417

Yoshimickster

Yeah its just so convenient when I'm coming from 30th streeth, nice bike ride to 20th, and if I got 10 bucks to spare I'll stop by the Gyro nazi and get a nice platter. Seriously, near 20th and Market-AMAZING truck, he never makes the same thing every day. Last time there was a nice plum in my meal-A FREAKING PLUM-it was delicious. ONLY DOWNSIDE-guy does not provide plastic utensils.

Mar 31, 2017#418

BananaHands

Man, I think the main thing I miss about the current state of Marvel is the relationship between Logan and Peter.

Let's reflect.

Apr 1, 2017#419

Frank

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/0...-want-diversity-didnt-want-female-characters/

So apparently during and after Civil War 2, sales are down.

Their take away? No one wants women or minorities in their comics.

Gee, it couldn't have anything to do with Civil War 2 being a part of nearly every series, taking forever, oh, and sucking complete ass.

Nope, wimmens and blacks.

Apr 1, 2017#420

DarkAudit

Frank said:
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/0...-want-diversity-didnt-want-female-characters/

So apparently during and after Civil War 2, sales are down.

Their take away? No one wants women or minorities in their comics.

Gee, it couldn't have anything to do with Civil War 2 being a part of nearly every series, taking forever, oh, and sucking complete ass.

Nope, wimmens and blacks.

Commence damage control.

Apr 1, 2017#421

Hailey Knight

DarkAudit said:
Commence damage control.

"Wait, before you get the wrong idea, here's the opposite of what I said earlier!"

Apr 1, 2017#422

BananaHands

I'm convinced Marvel is just an intern running back and forth between fellating Dan Slott and Brian Michael Bendis.

Apr 1, 2017#423

DarkAudit

BananaHands said:
I'm convinced Marvel is just an intern running back and forth between fellating Dan Slott and Brian Michael Bendis.

Where does Nick Spencer fall in all this?

And by fall, I mean into a running wood chipper.

Apr 2, 2017#424

Hailey Knight

Gee, I wonder why sales are down.

Hmm

Hmmmmmmmm

Apr 2, 2017#425

DarkAudit

Hmm...

Apr 2, 2017#426

Tress

Zero Esc said:
Gee, I wonder why sales are down.

Hmm

Hmmmmmmmm

Are those all real? Is that a joke?

Apr 2, 2017#427

Hailey Knight

Tress said:
Are those all real? Is that a joke?

All real. All of those were comics that got taken over by Civil War II for entire arcs last year, so their trades all got the Civil War II winning brand. That's not counting the single issue tie-ins for other comics, the mini-series that branched off of Civil War II, the main event, or the extra one-shots.

Marvel went all-in for an unpopular, dismal event. But no, it's the women that have cost them.

And this is all before IvX and Monsters Unleashed--we've already had two more events since Civil War II. Then there's the flagging new series that, despite Marvel's addage "Because you demanded it!" were entirely unasked for, and how Marvel is making comic book stores suffer by overshipping on underselling books and making the stores pay for the freight, and how they look to be making the same mistakes again this summer by roping new series into this next event ...

But no, it's diversity that's killing Marvel. For fucking real.

Apr 2, 2017#428

ThatNickGuy

Jesus Christ, my head hurts just skimming through that list. It's any wonder why I've basically sworn off DC & Marvel. Except for the odd outlier largely unaffected by this nonsense (Omega Men, Hawkeye, Daredevil, Squirrel Girl, Ms Marvel (until Secret Wars)). I used to follow this stuff religiously. Since I stepped away from it for a number of years, it's just confusing as hell and I can't imagine how anyone could follow it and retain any sanity.

Apr 2, 2017#429

Hailey Knight

I think at this point it comes down to following writers > characters and keeping tabs on industry shit so you don't get blindsided. At this point I'll pretty much read any comic that Dan Abnett writes.

But for the casual reader? No idea. Small wonder that Squirrel Girl gets a load of its sales more in trade form at school book fairs. It's pretty disconnected from the nonsense except to occasionally poke fun at it.

Ms. Marvel has gotten back on track after the election issue. Didn't get involved in IvX and the solicits look like it's staying out of Secret Empire. I'd skip volume 6 if not for the Pakistan stuff. Otherwise that book is safe, even if Kamala herself is off being poorly-written in other books.

Apr 2, 2017#430

ThatNickGuy

I just did a long, rambling series of tweets about the events and diversity issue. I don't even know it makes any sense or if I tie the two points together all that well.

Apr 2, 2017#431

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
I just did a long, rambling series of tweets about the events and diversity issue. I don't even know it makes any sense or if I tie the two points together all that well.

So, just like Marvel comics?

Apr 2, 2017#432

ThatNickGuy

Zero Esc said:
So, just like Marvel comics?

Apr 2, 2017#433

Bubble181

I think you have a double negative in surplus in one of your last tweets - "you can't throw a dart without hitting a comic that didn't tie in" seems the opposite of what you intended.
Otherwise I do agree.

Apr 2, 2017#434

ThatNickGuy

Bubble181 said:
I think you have a double negative in surplus in one of your last tweets - "you can't throw a dart without hitting a comic that didn't tie in" seems the opposite of what you intended.
Otherwise I do agree.

ARRRRRGH.

I'm seriously tempted to delete the whole damn thing to save myself from further embarrassment.[DOUBLEPOST=1491149542,1491149189][/DOUBLEPOST]

ThatNickGuy said:
ARRRRRGH.

I'm seriously tempted to delete the whole damn thing to save myself from further embarrassment.

I deleted the whole thing. The more I re-read it, the less I liked it.

Apr 2, 2017#435

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
ARRRRRGH.

I'm seriously tempted to delete the whole damn thing to save myself from further embarrassment.[DOUBLEPOST=1491149542,1491149189][/DOUBLEPOST]

I deleted the whole thing. The more I re-read it, the less I liked it.

If it makes you feel better, 29 tweets is only, like, two paragraphs in normal formatting.

Apr 28, 2017#436

Hailey Knight

I'm now caught up on Hydra Cap. I'm both reminded why I dropped Marvel titles a year ago and kicking myself for falling for this again.

And not because of Hydra Cap itself; that's another post entirely. It's because Marvel can't fucking calm down. At least when DC does a crossover now, they just say it's a crossover. Part 1, part 2, etc. Marvel just figures "you should read ALL our stuff!"

So I read Captain America Steve Rogers #14 and Red Skull has taken over Sokovia, and he's demanding to be accepted as a sovereign nation or he'll nuke seven cities.

Next I read #15, and apparently off in some other comic, Red Skull was beaten by a hero team, taken to Hank McCoy, who surgically removes Professor X's brain from Red Skull's, Skull is out in custody, is broken out by his daughter, and returns to Germany.

And I'm reminded of a year ago when I thought it'd be safe to read Spider-Gwen, only for entire mini-events to take place between pages. And even before modern Marvel. Peter David's Hulk vol 3 is almost nonsense because it keeps having to fill the reader in on other comics between issues.

And now I see the wisdom in dropping Marvel as a whole. Because continuing to read comics like Squirrel Girl and Ms. Marvel, where eberything is just in that one title, can trick you into thinking things have gotten better for the rest of Marvel.

But they haven't, and they never will because Marvel thinks the real problem is whether or not Thor has a dorky helmet or Hawkeye has that stupid mask. And now I'm invested and want to see how the story ends, but so many characters have died that I'm pretty sure a cosmic cube is going to completely retcon everything in September, so it might as well have all been a dream. I hope I'm wrong, but like I said, that part is another post in itself.

Apr 28, 2017#437

DarkAudit

Next thing you know they'll have entire mini-series happen between *panels*.

Apr 28, 2017#438

Hailey Knight

DarkAudit said:
Next thing you know they'll have entire mini-series happen between *panels*.

Half of Civil War II takes place between panels in either Hydra Cap #5 or #6. But I didn't mind that because Civil War II sucks.

But maybe everything sucks. :/

May 19, 2017#439

Hailey Knight

I see two things killing Duggan's Guardians of the Galaxy in the near future. One, all the other Guardians books. Two, double shipping $4 title. Marvel says this will be THE cosmic book going forward, but Marvel says a lot of things.

Jun 18, 2017#440

Yoshimickster

I'm really hoping the writer of Slapstick Infinite doesn't get a sequel, those six issues were torture to my brain as a fan of the original series AND comics in general. SIX ISSUES-of clown bitching about not having a dick, and enough outdated pop-culture jokes to make you puke. Also they kept screwing with his original powers, originally his gloves allowed him to pull stuff from a pocket dimension and change back from human to toon, NOW he pulls stuff from where the fuck ever and can't turn back just because! He was a whacky cartoon hero with a neat sci-fi gimmick, it was fun. Basically its fucking terrible, and I'm glad I didn't pay to read it.

Jun 19, 2017#441

Hailey Knight

Wish I could get excited about Zdarsky's Spider-man book that starts this week. I'm sure it'll be the best Spider-man has been in many years. My apprehension comes from 1. Marvel being Marvel, and 2. it getting soaked up in a crossover next time Slott decides that's something he wants. Nothing will ever be as bad as the four titles a month for two years crossover of the Clone Saga, but I think I'll always have that wariness about Spider-man comics ... despite that I'm willingly and happily reading a comic that's solely focused on the clones now. *cough*

Okay, something I can bitch about right and proper:

http://www.comicsbeat.com/new-wonder-woman-team-will-focus-on-a-new-man-in-dianas-life/

Was really hoping it'd be Gail Simone after the five issue thing over the summer, but instead it's ... this. James Robinson, dredging up shit from the New 52 while every other series is gleefully retconning away from New 52, often without a story excuse. This is a poor decision and I'm not interested. Guess I'll be dropping Wonder Woman from my pull after #25 next week, which sucks because I'm on such a good kick from the movie right now. Guess that's all the more reason to read the older good stuff I never read before.

I'll still pick up Simone's Wonder Woman/Conan crossover later this year, collaboration between DC and Dark Horse. That sounds like fun.

Jun 19, 2017#442

Yoshimickster

"Reads Title" SATAN DAMMIT-another fucking love interest?! "Reads Article"...did they have to fucking word it that way? Especially since its her brother.

Jun 20, 2017#443

Hailey Knight

Yoshimickster said:
"Reads Title" SATAN DAMMIT-another fucking love interest?! "Reads Article"...did they have to fucking word it that way? Especially since its her brother.

The article doesn't make it much better. Not caring for who's writing it either.

Apparently DC isn't super thrilled with him either, because he's being hired for six months. That's two stop-gap writers in a row, which tells me they have people they want in mind, but haven't gotten them. It just sucks to have a decision like this, it feels like completely missing the point of Rucka's first two arcs in Rebirth.

I look forward to December when we learn about the March solicits and see who's taking over at #43. I might still read the summer arc just to see how that goes, but after #30, I'm out from Wondy until at least March.

Jun 20, 2017#444

Yoshimickster

WELL-here's hoping no-one important gets killed off in this clearly limited series.

Jun 20, 2017#445

Hailey Knight

Yoshimickster said:
WELL-here's hoping no-one important gets killed off in this clearly limited series.

This writer comes across as someone who's just going to introduce his own cast, so probably a lot of the Wonder Woman mainstays will be safe by not being in the comic for a while.

Jul 4, 2017#446

Hailey Knight

I haven't kept up with Secret Empire since early May, so any info about it has been coming on whatever waves of reaction cross the internet. The last issue's reverberations focused mainly on Mockingbird's being a Hydra agent, so I guess each issue has to reveal someone is. But that wasn't the end stinger; I didn't hear about that one until today.

Remember a year ago, when Hawkeye killed Bruce Banner?

Well, apparently he's alive now, under lock and key by Hydra Cap. No explanation. So now I feel compelled to keep at least a finger to the pulse of what's happening so I can learn how Marvel fucks over one of my favorites this summer.

Jul 4, 2017#447

Yoshimickster

I got a headache just reading all of that...not even a complicated paragraph, just the stupidity of it alone assaulting my mental faculties.

Jul 5, 2017#448

Hailey Knight

Yoshimickster said:
I got a headache just reading all of that...not even a complicated paragraph, just the stupidity of it alone assaulting my mental faculties.

They refer to him as "the weapon" so I don't know if this is the real Bruce revived or that Weapon X Thing Marvel teased about, or if it'll even matter.

Aug 31, 2017#449

Hailey Knight

Almost two months without using this thread, but of course I'm gonna bitch about Marvel again.

They really gotta stop putting only four issues of a run in a book, padding the back end with vaguely related crap, and then selling it as a normal trade. That's some bullshit

Aug 31, 2017#450

ThatNickGuy

Zero Esc said:
Almost two months without using this thread, but of course I'm gonna bitch about Marvel again.

They really gotta stop putting only four issues of a run in a book, padding the back end with vaguely related crap, and then selling it as a normal trade. That's some bullshit

Yep. Which is why, even though I'd very much like to buy Ms Marvel, Squirrel Girl, Jason Aaron's Thor, etc, I'll wait until the inevitable Ultimate or Complete Collections.

Aug 31, 2017#451

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
Yep. Which is why, even though I'd very much like to buy Ms Marvel, Squirrel Girl, Jason Aaron's Thor, etc, I'll wait until the inevitable Ultimate or Complete Collections.

I think the equivalent is the deluxe editions and omnibuses, but for some reason they still stuff the padding material in those, as if they think people will feel ripped off if the paperbacks have something they don't.

Aaron's Thor is a pain in the ass and I hope they figure out how to collect it together someday. While the deluxe hardcovers are nice and my go-to for getting the series, there's side-stories like the Original Sin tie-in, the Secret Wars tie-in, the Unworthy Thor mini-series, each being part of Aaron's bigger Thor story, but not technically being part of the main series. My shelf currently goes hardcover, hardcover, paperback, hardcover, paperback, hardcover, paperback. So I'm not even sure an omnibus or complete collection will be truly complete just because Aaron seems to want most of his Marvel work to be tied to his grand Thor epic. Which is really cool to read, but not so cool to collect.

Aug 31, 2017#452

ThatNickGuy

Zero Esc said:
I think the equivalent is the deluxe editions and omnibuses, but for some reason they still stuff the padding material in those, as if they think people will feel ripped off if the paperbacks have something they don't.

Aaron's Thor is a pain in the ass and I hope they figure out how to collect it together someday. While the deluxe hardcovers are nice and my go-to for getting the series, there's side-stories like the Original Sin tie-in, the Secret Wars tie-in, the Unworthy Thor mini-series, each being part of Aaron's bigger Thor story, but not technically being part of the main series. My shelf currently goes hardcover, hardcover, paperback, hardcover, paperback, hardcover, paperback. So I'm not even sure an omnibus or complete collection will be truly complete just because Aaron seems to want most of his Marvel work to be tied to his grand Thor epic. Which is really cool to read, but not so cool to collect.

To be honest, having read Original Sin recently (it was at the library), Thor's only in it twice. One is "I have a sister!?" and flies off for his mini-series about Angela. The other is the "Nick Fury whispers something" and he loses the hammer. Which IS important, of course, but it's recapped well enough in Jane-Thor's series. Probably Unworthy, too. So it's possible enough to leave that out.

As far as Unworthy Thor, though, they could do like the Brubaker Captain America omnibuses: include both Cap's run when he returned and the Winter Soldier monthly comic that published about the same time. So just publish it in the same volumes as Jane-Thor.

Marvel's pretty good with their Ultimate or Complete collections. I'll hold faith they do it right. I think it'll be a great read from start to finish like that.

Aug 31, 2017#453

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
To be honest, having read Original Sin recently (it was at the library), Thor's only in it twice. One is "I have a sister!?" and flies off for his mini-series about Angela. The other is the "Nick Fury whispers something" and he loses the hammer. Which IS important, of course, but it's recapped well enough in Jane-Thor's series. Probably Unworthy, too. So it's possible enough to leave that out.

As far as Unworthy Thor, though, they could do like the Brubaker Captain America omnibuses: include both Cap's run when he returned and the Winter Soldier monthly comic that published about the same time. So just publish it in the same volumes as Jane-Thor.

Marvel's pretty good with their Ultimate or Complete collections. I'll hold faith they do it right. I think it'll be a great read from start to finish like that.

I just meant the Original Sin tie-in. I thought all that Angela stuff was going to be pointless fluff, but bringing in the tenth realm is important, and the return of a certain character is HUGE for Jane's time with the hammer. I haven't actually read Original Sin because, like you said, the important stuff gets recapped almost immediately.

I hope you're right about the eventual collections. For now, this is what Thor looks like for me:

Just imagine The Mighty Thor deluxe hardcover (which will have a big 2 on it) wedged between Thors and Unworthy Thor and that's what it'll look like by December.

Aug 31, 2017#454

ThatNickGuy

Zero Esc said:
I just meant the Original Sin tie-in. I thought all that Angela stuff was going to be pointless fluff, but bringing in the tenth realm is important, and the return of a certain character is HUGE for Jane's time with the hammer. I haven't actually read Original Sin because, like you said, the important stuff gets recapped almost immediately.

I hope you're right about the eventual collections. For now, this is what Thor looks like for me:

Just imagine The Mighty Thor deluxe hardcover (which will have a big 2 on it) wedged between Thors and Unworthy Thor and that's what it'll look like by December.

THAT LOOKS SO WRONG AND I'M SERIOUSLY TEMPTED TO GET HIRED AT MARVEL JUST SO I CAN FIX IT FOR YOU.

Aug 31, 2017#455

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
THAT LOOKS SO WRONG AND I'M SERIOUSLY TEMPTED TO GET HIRED AT MARVEL JUST SO I CAN FIX IT FOR YOU.

You watch Marvel Legacy is part of this and so I'll have to jam a bag and board past whenever deluxe vol 3 comes out in ... I don't know, maybe 2019.

Dec 19, 2017#456

Hailey Knight

Looks like Marvel is cancelling three of my books, so ... Guess they don't want money.

I'm most annoyed over Gwenpool because it got so much more interesting this past year and while I could take it or leave it at times, it's my wife's favorite comic right now.

Dec 19, 2017#457

Yoshimickster

...GWENPOOL?! REALLY?! Uh...okay I am not that series' biggest fan( kinda felt the meta-fiction was done better in other series but I only read the first few issues), but I know for a fact that series is one of their most popular runs right now. Fucking dammit Marvel Entertainment's comic division is dumb.

Dec 19, 2017#458

AshburnerX

Aren't they moving Gwenpool to a team book?

Dec 19, 2017#459

Covar

The last issue of gwenpool did 15k. It might have been popular on Tumblr, but as Marvel has been stubbornly refusing to accept that means shit for comic sales.

Dec 19, 2017#460

Hailey Knight

AshburnerX said:
Aren't they moving Gwenpool to a team book?

The only one I could think would be Champions and it sounds like that's ending not long after.

Yoshimickster said:
...GWENPOOL?! REALLY?! Uh...okay I am not that series' biggest fan( kinda felt the meta-fiction was done better in other series but I only read the first few issues), but I know for a fact that series is one of their most popular runs right now. Fucking dammit Marvel Entertainment's comic division is dumb.

Some books are safe because digital and trade sales despite abysmal monthly sales, like Squirrel Girl at 10k (I can't believe I'm one in only 10,000 people that pick up this hilarious comic) but Gwenpool wasn't one of them.

Dec 19, 2017#461

Yoshimickster

Covar said:
The last issue of gwenpool did 15k. It might have been popular on Tumblr, but as Marvel has been stubbornly refusing to accept that means shit for comic sales.

Okay see-THIS-should've been what they made a digital comic then! Not that piece of shit "Slapstick" series that came out recently. Seriously, at least Gwenpool is SOMEWHAT relevant and original, Slapstick infinite was just a bunch of outdated pop-culture/dick jokes.

Dec 19, 2017#462

Hailey Knight

Missed one, so four Marvel books I read. Which is most of them.

Dec 27, 2017#463

Hailey Knight

She-Hulk cancellation confirmed by writer. So the total titles being cancelled at once are

Royals
Iceman
Generation X
Luke Cage
The Defenders
Guardians of the Galaxy
Gwenpool
She-Hulk
Hawkeye
U.S. Avengers
America
Uncanny Avengers
Secret Warriors
Jean Grey

Bunch of these writers say they have some secret project coming, so get ready for yet another Marvel relaunch.

Dec 27, 2017#464

Covar

Well we know Bendis has a secret project coming for sure.

Maybe everyone else will get books that have a shot, or should have just been limited series to begin with.

I look at the list and see little of value lost.

Dec 27, 2017#465

Hailey Knight

Covar said:
Well we know Bendis has a secret project coming for sure.

Maybe everyone else will get books that have a shot, or should have just been limited series to begin with.

I look at the list and see little of value lost.

The only pariah on the list AFAIK is America. I look at the list and see 5 books I was reading going poof before April 2018. I understand cancelling low sellers, but it's a lot at once, especially when many of Marvel's flagship titles aren't exactly high quality right now.

I'm really surprised with Guardians. With how popular the characters are right now, and Duggan drawing from the Abnett/Lanning run, there's no reason for this book to fail.

Dec 29, 2017#466

Yoshimickster

In OTHER NEWS-Marvel Entertainment's comics division is...run by idiots.

Dec 29, 2017#467

ThatNickGuy

That's it. I need an artist to co-create a comic about farting aliens who die when they gossip about each other's social issues.

Dec 29, 2017#468

PatrThom

ThatNickGuy said:
That's it. I need an artist to co-create a comic about farting aliens who die when they gossip about each other's social issues.

Also, bees.

--Patrick

Dec 29, 2017#469

Simfers

The farts could release bees!!!

Dec 29, 2017#470

Covar

ThatNickGuy said:
That's it. I need an artist to co-create a comic about farting aliens who die when they gossip about each other's social issues.

Marvel will gladly hire you. It will fit right in with their other sub 20k books, and be hailed as a huge success (just don’t ask why the available numbers don’t reflect that). Anyone who dares suggest that it’s not good will be promptly dismissed as a bigoted shitlord, regardless of their actual criticism.

Now will you be needing an editor? I kid, Marvel doesn’t have any editors. It’s why art & spelling mistakes constantly slip through.

Dec 29, 2017#471

Hailey Knight

Covar said:
Marvel will gladly hire you. It will fit right in with their other sub 20k books, and be hailed as a huge success (just don’t ask why the available numbers don’t reflect that). Anyone who dares suggest that it’s not good will be promptly dismissed as a bigoted shitlord, regardless of their actual criticism.

You badmouthed MacGyver, didn't you?

Dec 30, 2017#472

Covar

Who?

Dec 30, 2017#473

Hailey Knight

Covar said:
Who?

Dammit, man, you make me look old.

Although I clearly did not remember the context for this reference. :/

Dec 30, 2017#474

Covar

Ah. For some reason I wasn’t thinking fictional MacGyver.

Jan 1, 2018#475

Yoshimickster

UGH-a new "Kick-Ass" series is coming out in February! WHY?! WHY CAN'T THIS STAY DEAD?!

Jan 1, 2018#476

Hailey Knight

Spider-Gwen is rumored next on the Marvel chopping block, but it's possibly just being relaunched with a new title to match her animated name in Marvel Uprising, Ghost Spider.

Covar said:
Maybe everyone else will get books that have a shot

The writer shuffling also seems like it's heading this way, if books with a shot = books that already have a movie or TV show. Which isn't a bad thing inherently, but it's sad that those in charge keep thinking they have to match up with the MCU, when the MCU is already adapting past material.

Also, I noticed large sales spikes for Legacy issues, but then an immediate drop, and I'm going to guess those were inflated orders so stores could get the lenticulars and not because people loved the poorly-done lenticulars just that much.

Jan 1, 2018#477

Covar

We didn’t order the lenticulars, but from talking to other stores and looking around cons they weren’t that successful with readers. Some stores did bundle deals where they gave the regular cover with the lenticular at a steep discount to try and not lose money.

Jan 1, 2018#478

DarkAudit

@Zero Esc, Ghost Spider, eh? Would that be dangerously close to infringing on Ghost Widow from CoV?

Assuming any IP rights from the game are still valid.

Jan 1, 2018#479

Hailey Knight

DarkAudit said:
@Zero Esc, Ghost Spider, eh? Would that be dangerously close to infringing on Ghost Widow from CoV?

Assuming any IP rights from the game are still valid.

Against Disney lawyers? Probably not an issue.

I think they were more going for something that sounded like Ghost Rider, Ghost Spider.

Jan 19, 2018#480

ThatNickGuy

So not only is DC introducing Alan Moore & J.H. Williams III's Promethea into their continuity, but Williams III only found out through social media when someone shared a Bleeding Cool article about it.

I should thank DC, honestly.

With this bullshit combined with the Watchmen crap, they're saving me a lot of money.

Jan 19, 2018#481

Hailey Knight

ThatNickGuy said:
So not only is DC introducing Alan Moore & J.H. Williams III's Promethea into their continuity, but Williams III only found out through social media when someone shared a Bleeding Cool article about it.

I should thank DC, honestly.

With this bullshit combined with the Watchmen crap, they're saving me a lot of money.

I suppose it was inevitable with Tom Strong being in there, but it doesn't really make any sense unless it's a separate arm of the multiverse.

Jan 22, 2018#482

Frank

I'll take Worst Takes By Marvel Artists for 800 Alex.

BEEBOOO BEEBOOO BEEBOOOOO!!

Jan 22, 2018#483

Celt Z

Frank said:
I'll take Worst Takes By Marvel Artists for 800 Alex.

BEEBOOO BEEBOOO BEEBOOOOO!!

I'm very confused by this. Does he think it stands for "Social Jewish Warriors"?

Jan 22, 2018#484

@Li3n

Frank said:
I'll take Worst Takes By Marvel Artists for 800 Alex.

BEEBOOO BEEBOOO BEEBOOOOO!!

SWJ Hitler... who's also a socialist.

See, this is what happens when you don't have proper education...

Also, anyone else think the X-Men are totally silencing both Magneto and the FoH, by stopping them from preaching (and practising) their ideologies?

Jan 22, 2018#485

Frank

I'd never heard of the guy before today so I looked at some of his art.

Second rate Liefeld, Jesus. I could have a job in comics if that's the standard.

Jan 22, 2018#486

Hailey Knight

Frank said:
I'd never heard of the guy before today so I looked at some of his art.

Second rate Liefeld, Jesus. I could have a job in comics if that's the standard.

Marvel standard is "how fast can you go?"

Jan 22, 2018#487

drifter

Ha ha holy cow you weren't exaggerating about the Liefeld thing. Well, I've been told before you don't need to be the best artist, but you need to be a dependable artist.

Jan 22, 2018#488

ThatNickGuy

Frank said:
I'll take Worst Takes By Marvel Artists for 800 Alex.

BEEBOOO BEEBOOO BEEBOOOOO!!

I would be very surprised if he's still employed by the end of the week.

Jan 22, 2018#489

Covar

ThatNickGuy said:
I would be very surprised if he's still employed by the end of the week.

Which would be kind of ironic.

Jan 22, 2018#490

Frank

Covar said:
Which would be kind of ironic.

As someone who could lose their job at the drop of a hat based on my conduct online, I'm not the biggest fan of that. As someone who likes non-shitty comic art, he fucking should lose his God damn job.

Jan 22, 2018#491

Hailey Knight

It kinda maybe crosses a line when he's talking about company property and could be considered to be representing the company as an employee.

Jan 22, 2018#492

Frank

Zero Esc said:
It kinda maybe crosses a line when he's talking about company property and could be considered to be representing the company as an employee.

Yeah, it's DREADFULLY incorrect. It's so incorrect that the cosmic shift in balance of right and wrong was enough to resurrect Jack Kirby long enough for him to spin like a top in his grave.

Jan 23, 2018#493

@Li3n

Frank said:
As someone who could lose their job at the drop of a hat based on my conduct online, I'm not the biggest fan of that.

Have you tried not being racist online?

/Iceman's parents

May 6, 2018#494

Yoshimickster

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH....I just read "Nightwing 44" by Green Arrow and Teen Titans writer...Ben Percy...UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH! UGH! UGH! UGH! UGH! It is almost LITERALLY the same story as "Its not easy being Green" from his Teen Titans run! A superhero finds crazy mind altering tech, gets it injected inside him, he goes nuts-BAM! Not to mention its all the same "We're all slaves to technology" story we've been reading since the 90s.

Jun 20, 2018#495

Hailey Knight

I'm getting tired of the random double shipping from Marvel. I'd like to follow The Immortal Hulk, but it's double shipping in both July and September. Then Spectacular Spider-man, a must-buy for me, is double shipping this month and in September. Marvel Two-in-One double shipped this month and had an annual. Shit starts to add up.

Then I see X-Men Gold #30 released today. This series launched in April 2017. Maybe my math is off, but even with double-shipping, that's more issues than should be possible without triple shipping, right?

I'm berating Marvel over DC because with DC it's consistent, every month, if something was double shipping. That allows me to budget appropriately. Maybe in Marvel's eyes the sudden boosts help the comic book store, but instead it tells me "I need to drop this because it's costing me two or three of my comics when I've only slotted it to cost one." I'm not hitting my cost ceiling yet, but only because I have some slots left open for future Kelly Thompson books.

Speaking of slots, Marvel Two-in-One might be ending in September so that Slott's Fantastic Four can have the monopoly on the group. Which sucks for all the reason I've illustrated in the past, chiefly Zdarsky > Slott. I was hoping Zdarsky would be able to maintain an also-ran at least, but the September solicit seems like it could be the end. I really wish he'd been given the main Fantastic Four book. He's taken what Bendis started with Victor Von Doom and then made it sound like Doom while developing Doom's character. I feel like there's a lot more he could do with this and my guess is Slott will want to bring Doom back to his classic status. What a waste.

I guess that'll be a slot open.

Jun 20, 2018#496

Sparhawk

April 2017 to March 2018, 12 months, 24 issues. April 2018 2 issues, May 2018 2 issues, June 2018 2 issues. Total 30 issues. 15 months total.

Jul 15, 2018#497

BananaHands

Hailey Zero Mission said:
Speaking of slots, Marvel Two-in-One might be ending in September so that Slott's Fantastic Four can have the monopoly on the group. Which sucks for all the reason I've illustrated in the past, chiefly Zdarsky > Slott. I was hoping Zdarsky would be able to maintain an also-ran at least, but the September solicit seems like it could be the end. I really wish he'd been given the main Fantastic Four book. He's taken what Bendis started with Victor Von Doom and then made it sound like Doom while developing Doom's character. I feel like there's a lot more he could do with this and my guess is Slott will want to bring Doom back to his classic status. What a waste.

Marvel Two-in-One is amazing. We don't deserve such a perfect Fantastic Four book. It's a shame Slott is going to come in and wreck everything about the Fantastic Four.

Jun 18, 2019#498

Yoshimickster

*CRICKET* *CRICKE*

NECRO-I hate the first arc of Nick Spencer's Spider-man with a passion. Its just...SO FUCKING DUMB-Spider-man hijacks a damn Tri-Sentinel, causes MASSIVE property damage throughout New York...and NO other superhero is stopping him?! No-one in the news is LOGICALLY calling him a menace, as for the first time they'd ACTUALLY be right in calling him such?! THIS! IS! FUCKING! DUMB! Uuuuuuuuuugh I'm told "The Hunted" is better, but dear GOD is this dumb! ALSO-its that stupid "Hero splits in two, things seem good at first, but then its bad and they have to merge back" story we've all read a BILLION times! GRAH!

Jul 17, 2020#499

Yoshimickster

I just...I just want Brian Michael Bendis to go away. Like...forever. You can kvetch about Tom King all ya want, but HIS shit is at least easily reversible, Bendis's shit will need a full on RETCON! WHY ARE THEY PAIRING OFF JON KENT AND SATURN GIRL-it makes no fucking SENSE!

Jul 18, 2020#500

mikerc

Yoshimickster said:
WHY ARE THEY PAIRING OFF JON KENT AND SATURN GIRL-it makes no fucking SENSE!

Uh, has Bendis been messing with the age of one or both of those characters as well? Because isn't Jon about 10 & Saturn Girl a full grown adult. That doesn't just not make sense, that's skeezy as hell.

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