What comic books/graphic novels are you reading at the moment?

[Cole Milne]

This black friday I picked up a bunch of comics, I got the Superman Man of Steel 1986 6-Issue mini-series for $3
htt p://dc.wikia.com/wiki/ Man_of_Steel_Vol_1 (link is broken because I need 15 posts to post link)

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

Wytches by Scott Snyder

https://imagecomics.com/creators/view/scott-snyder

Reminds me of American Vampire combined with Locke and Key. It's an excellent horror comic, more horror than American Vampire

 

[willwallace]

I just ordered a reprint of New Gods No. 1, I always thought Jack Kirby was an awesome illustrator. Haven't read the comic for years, then I saw a show about the last 75 years of Marvel on TV the other day. They showed a lot of Kirby material, and I remembered how much I used to like New Gods as a kid, so I have a reprint coming(soon, I hope).

 

[JunkMonkey]

How did you get on with it, WillWallace? I have fond memories of the whole Fourth World thing as a kid - I too have just rediscovered my love of comics after many years (Sandman & Watchmen notwithstanding). I've been driven to rediscover them by my kids who are just at an age to start to enjoy them - Number One Daughter (12) IS Harley Quinn and Number One Son (5) is totally Batman obsessed. I'd forgotten how much fun comics were - though I do find the new stuff I've seen suffers far too much from too much computer drawn art and not enough words.

Kirby was a genius.

Reading wise I have just read the Vertigo 1993- Black Orchid series from start to finish after binding them all together and making four volumes out of them.

 

[willwallace]

I really didn't like it as much as I thought I would. I think part of the reason is, at the time, it was so new and exciting, but now it feels somewhat dated. The story is a bit simplistic, but the artwork is gorgeous. Not sure if I'm going to get any more of the series, have to think that one over.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I really didn't like it as much as I thought I would. I think part of the reason is, at the time, it was so new and exciting, but now it feels somewhat dated. The story is a bit simplistic, but the artwork is gorgeous. Not sure if I'm going to get any more of the series, have to think that one over.

Ouch!

I just bought - in a bundle of other stuff on eBay - the 1984 reprint combining issues one and two of New Gods. I hadn't realised before but is has been completely recoloured - and dreadfully too. The colours in four colour comics of the 70s weren't exactly subtle but the reprint is a garish mess. For one thing many of the colours have been changed, so what were once shadowy background figures leap out of the page like pantomime dames, and, even worse, they changed the colour of Orion's helmet and gloves. In the original they are a pale purple in the recoloured they're blue. The original pale purple is - by an amazing coincidence - the same colour as Darkseid's skin. As it turns out later that Orion is Darkseid's son this is a neat piece of foreshadowing that is completely thrown away. If you are going to buy the whole series go for the originals, I have most of the series now and, frail and battered after forty years, they still look better than this lurid mush.

Dammit! I miss benday dots.

 

[willwallace]

You're so right about the coloring. In the left, which is the comic, his helmet is bright blue, and all the coloring is very garish, as you say. On the right, is an original colored image, which looks soo much better.

 

[ratsy]

I got The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller for Christmas. I'm on the third comic of the compilation and really enjoying the classic, dark tale. It is not for the faint of heart.

I also got the huge Walking Dead collection (1000+ pages) part 1 and have the TMNT Change is Constant book coming

 

[ratsy]

I finished the Dark Knight Frank Miller book this week. It was cool, but really odd and dark at times. It felt like there were a little bit of drugs involved in the making of that comic but I did enjoy it.

I read the first in the Eastman revamp of TMNT Change is Constant and it was really good. I can see myself spending too much money getting this collections in the near future.

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

Who Needs The Moon #7 - loved the first few episodes of this comic but it's seriously gone off the boil in my opinion. One more episode to go........

 

[Culhwch]

Moving away from the more mature comics, the one I have followed longer than any other is the X-Men. I even tried to stop for a while but changing creative teams and the fact one of the top writers (Brian Michael Bendis) was moving in on the title was enough to draw me back.

I'm now up to date with the core X-Titles having just finished the crossover event Battle of the Atom.

The new status quo for the merry mutants, is that there is a split between them, having a more pro-active in your face team - The Uncanny X-Men, a young team All New X-Men, and then the traditional school Wolverine and the X-Men, with far too many titles orbiting around these.

The central concept is that Cyclops has gone down the Magneto road and has his own team, Wolverine disagrees and is trying to educate humans and mutants.

But the big plot twist sees the Beast worried about what they have become, uses a time machine to bring the five original X-Men into the future hoping to shock them into changing their ways so things don't play out as they have.

Needless to say it all goes wrong, culminating in the battle, as future X-Men come back (confused yet) to send the originals back to where they belong, only the future lot are not really the X-Men, and the real future X-Men are drawn in as well.

Lots of twists and very entertaining, setting up the launch of a new X-book.

It's fun, the best the X-Men have been in a long time, but it is till not quite at it's best, and Bendis is not quite at his best.

(That being said the first issue of Amazing X-Men has potential of hitting all the right notes...)

Just finished reading this event in my slow catch-up via Marvel Universe. I must say, although it was entertaining (for some reason I always love seeing future X-Men), it was also kind of frustrating. The whole time I found I agreed with original Angel - they shouldn't be there, it was dangerous to be there, and they should go back as soon as possible. But that wouldn't have been dramatic, so he was the only one who showed any sense. So I felt a lot of characters acted against their usual personality (Beast, primarily, but also Kitty). And at the end, when Kitty decided to go over to Scott's team - I felt that was very out of character for her, especially the way she'd been dealt with throughout the schism. I don't know, the whole thing was a little off. Hopefully the quality picks up again as I keep going forward...

 

[Perpetual Man]

Obviously it's going to be hard to respond to this in any great detail without dropping spoilers left, right and centre.

I have to agree with you Cul, I was on the side of Angel in thinking the youngsters should have gone straight back home, but I can understand why they would stay. Jean has seen what will or happened to her and might do anything to avoid that, Cyclops has seen what he has become and would want to try and change that, while Young Beast could be shocked at what his older self has done in pulling them forward un time. So perhaps only Iceman might be clear minded enough to agree with Angel.

Of course there is a lot more to come, part of which touches on the time travel issue.

I felt that Kitty's decision was not necessarily one that said she sided with Old Cyclops, but rather that she could not reconcile with Wolverine, so she chose the lesser of two personal evils. At the same time she would be able to keep an eye on the kids.

I feel that in some ways Bendis has reinvigorated the X-Men, but it is still short of its absolute best. That being said it is some of the titles that have come from the two core titles that have shone. Most notable of these is Magneto, but Cyclops has been fun.

The impact of Wolverine's current state is fun too.

In all you have some good, perhaps even great stories coming up, but nothing truly outstanding.

 

[Culhwch]

When did Wolverine lose his healing ability? I obviously missed that (it was mentioned in passing a couple of times, and once directly) - did it happen in the Wolverine stand-alone title? If so, that's why I missed it...

 

[Perpetual Man]

Yeah, he lost it in the ongoing Wolverine title. It then continued into a second Wolverine title (in which he was powerless) culminating in a certain limited series that saw well the title was Death of Wolverine (Blanked there just in case anyone did not know) which does pretty much the title says.

However all these things, from Wolverine to the convoluted time travels of the X-Men, to Cyclops going bad, to a female Thor, to a decrepit Steve Rogers and a new Captain America and countless other things in the Marvel Universe suddenly make a lot more sense with the press release made by the company yesterday:

http://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/551176/

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

Just finished Saga Vol 2 - wow! Read it from cover to cover without a break, excellent stuff!

 

[Culhwch]

I started in on Saga and was really enjoying it, but I got distracted and didn't keep it up. Must go back and catch up!

 

[ratsy]

I finished the second TMNT volume, which was really cool. It threw a reincarnation piece in for the origin story, which was interesting. Splinter is Hamato Yoshi's reincarnation, and the turtles are his sons. The art work is beautiful in these books, and the story is how I would want to see the turtles as an adult. Very good stuff.

I've moved on to the Walking Dead Compendium volume 1. The art is cool, and the story is moving along quickly. I'm enjoying it so far.

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

1. Vol 1: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/07851438...UTF8&colid=CBZCCAQIL2TI&coliid=I3BVV9N9J4I95R
2. Vol 2: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/07851495...UTF8&colid=CBZCCAQIL2TI&coliid=I1HX0F0O523M06
3. Vol 3: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/07851495...=UTF8&colid=CBZCCAQIL2TI&coliid=IL94X0FR7DPXZ

Had the above delivered yesterday and started last night.

For anyone who's a fan of Daredevil then I'd definitely recommend them. The artwork is fabulous - I'm astounded at the level of detail. The storyline so far is quite dark - definitely adult in nature and very engrossing.

 

[HareBrain]

Having just read a biog of Alan Moore, I've gone back to read his Swamp Thing run. Much, much more interesting than most of the later ST, in my opinion. And I didn't realise before that Moore invented (rather than just made use of) John Constantine.

I've now ordered The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen from the library to see what that's like.

Also recently re-read Nausicaa of the Valley of Winds. Brilliant.

 

[HareBrain]

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was imaginative and amusing. Brilliant mashing up of seemingly all literature of the period (and other periods) -- a scene on Mars combines War of the Worlds, John Carter and Out of the Silent Planet. Lovely to see Dr Moreau creating a monstrous Rupert the Bear. I might get the Century follow-ups from the library.

Also reread my Promethea collection -- a nice reminder of hermetic theory and the Hermetic Qabalah, but not much good as an actual story.

Unlike Grant Morrison's The Invisibles. I'm halfway through my third reread, and it gets better every time. Easily the most interesting graphic novels out there, if you're of an esoteric frame of mind, and maybe even if you just care about the direction the world is going in.