The Comic Book Thread

[marurun]

Noise, seriously, you NEED to read Fraction's run on the Fantastic Four and, even more than that, his Future Foundation.

Let me elucidate on Pluto a little more, as I'm still reading it. It's by Urasawa, the creator of Monster and 20th Century Boys, and it takes place in Tezuka's Astro Boy universe. Uruzawa's art is realistic and meticulous and gorgeous. The story is sort of a dramatic mystery. Someone's killing advanced robots, and detective Gesicht is on the case. I haven't read Tezuka's Greatest Robot in the World arc, but this is apparently a kind of retelling of it. This realistic, more grim representation of Tezuka's world is actually really awesome, and it just shows Tezuka and Urasawa's talents. And I'm not even done with vol. 3 of 6, and I'm already this sold.

I also read Kaijumax, by Zander Cannon. It was an Eisner nominee this year. It is crazy colorful and yet loaded with dark humor. Imagine a mashup of Orange is the New Black or Oz with Ultraman, where the monsters are just as much the main characters as the "heroes". Basically, a bunch of Ultraman-types run a prison island to house kaiju after they are captured. Now, infuse this with all the typical prison drama, like gang affiliations, rape, depression, kaiju with family on the outside, trade in illicit goods, improper activity on the part of the jailers, etc... It is hella entertaining, and I cannot wait for Season 2, which will hopefully be in TPB by spring next year.

Additionally, I just finished Year 2 of Injustice, Gods Among Us, a DC alt universe comic run to help promo and dovetail with the fighting game. It's actually well-done. It explores what it would take to push Superman over the edge from benign protector to righteous crusader/dictator, and how the other DC universe characters would split over supporting his cause and opposing his over-reach. The writing is great, in that there are lots of good lines and interactions. Though it is very dark and some important characters do die, there's still a good sense of humor permeating the work, and I even like Harley Quinn's development as a character, despite how DC has twisted her from her origins in the cartoon series where she started. It's kind of exciting to see how the thought experiment hashes out, and it's very good at balancing action, drama, humor, and personal-scale politics. It also explores the kinds of personality flaws the heroes have in a way a canon universe comic might not. See, you can hint at hubris, ego, and other flaws, but if you open the door too much with these archetypes and they can take over (as they likely would were the characters more real). But an alt-universe is somewhere you can really dig in and not worry about doing permanent damage. Even some of the subtle foreshadowing is great. Much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Can't wait to read Year 3.

[noiseredux]

found some comics in the wild today:

Adventures of Superman #500
Ectokid #1 (Clive Barker)
The Punisher 2099 #1
The Walking Dead Volume 1

[noiseredux]

1. Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe
2. Fantastic Four Season One
3. Batman The Long Halloween
4. The Amazing Spider-Man "Spider-Man No More!"
5. The Batman Adventures Mad Love
6. Hulk Season One
7. Batman The Killing Joke
8. Fantastic Four Lost Adventures
9. Harley Quinn's Greatest Hits
10. Spider-Man Vs. Dracula



this was a one-shot from 1994. Ultimately, the title is a letdown. There's no real battle between Spidey and Drac. But it was a well told and dark story. I enjoyed it.

[Nemoide]

Too bad they didn't fight. As a fun aside, Dracula *has* fought the X-Men before in their own title back in the 80s. He even made Storm one of his vampiric servants!

I wish I had more of Marvel's Dracula comics. The couple issues I have of Tomb of Dracula are surprisingly high quality.

[noiseredux]

I really lucked out finding this one on Summer vacation in NH for a couple of bucks!

[samsonlonghair]

I read a few more issues of Brian K. Vaughan's Saga last night. Still fantastic. This needs to come out faster.

[isiolia]

I've been reading The Red Star. Also have been trying to play the PS2 game based on it, but redoing the entire stage if I die gets old fast.

[Ack]

Hey noise, see if you can track down the issue where Howard the Duck has to fight Dracula.

[noiseredux]

Hey noise, see if you can track down the issue where Howard the Duck has to fight Dracula.

is that a real thing? Hahaha. I would read that if I could find it.

[Ack]

Hey noise, see if you can track down the issue where Howard the Duck has to fight Dracula.

is that a real thing? Hahaha. I would read that if I could find it.