The Comic Book Thread

[Cronozilla]

Bump for something that's been bothering me.

What would be a good comics site? As much as I love superhero comics, I have a preferance for other types. I have problems keeping up though, and was wondering if there are any sites that could help me there. I like slightly less known, more out of the ordinary comics. IE, I prefer Darkhorse, Image, and self published over the bid Dos. I like western comics, etc.

I just need a good site so I can keep up.

You might just want to keep up on the listings of what's coming out then do independent research. You can get a pretty good feel from tfaw.com and midtowncomics.com of what's coming. And it covers everything, you can also go by publisher.

[Forlorn Drifter]

There's no site that keeps up reviews? I really would like to expand my horizons, but looking all
over the place is killing me on my time.

[Gamerforlife]

I've read Nightwing # 8 and Batman # 8 and feel really excited now for the Night of Owls crossover. There's a strong synergy between those two books that I like and I am really excited for this war that will pull in all the "allies of the Bat." It's off to an epic start.

I think I finally realized one of the things that is making me love Batgirl. The book isn't flawless. I do occasionally find Gail Simone's writing awkward and the book has lacked a strong plot. We've seen one or two throw away villains too. However, I've come to realize that I love Barbara Gordon because she is so different from other females in the current DC universe. In a lot of ways, characters like Huntress, Batwoman, Wonder Woman and Black Canary are kind of cliche. There is a strong emphasis on how badass they are, their sexiness, their toughness, and their more "masculine" qualities. They are all strong, tough, independent women who can kick ass. That's all great, don't get me wrong, but I appreciate that Barbara provides an alternative to all that.

She's vulnerable, she's flawed, she's certainly not a badass, and she comes across as more traditionally feminine than other characters I've mentioned. I think I like all that because it makes her different. Batgirl beats the bad guys and saves people, but she doesn't have to always come across as too cool for school when she's doing it. In fact, take away that extremely clever mind of hers and she's sort of the weak link in the Bat family. She's not naturally gifted athletically like Nightwing. She's not physically strong like Batman. She's not quite the martial arts master that characters like Batman, Black Canary, Damian, and Nightwing are. She gets by though, and always finds a way to win.

Also, Barbara just seems to have more heart than other female characters as well as other members of the Bat family. Her book always does such a strong job of emphasizing how much she cares about the denizens of Gotham. It's not just about fighting injustice and beating up bad guys. There are those little moments in this book, like when she saves a couple on Christmas and then smiles when they show her how much they appreciate what she did. When she punches out a guy in the face and then quickly cradles the thug's head with her hand just before it hits a hard, stone surface. When she's fighting a mind controlled Bruce Wayne and trying so hard not to hurt him even to her own detriment. When you see her actually empathizing with a villain or trying to get them to move away from whatever dark path they are on. When a citizen yells at her for something that was out of her control and Barbara politely apologizes rather than get upset. There is a softness to her character that I like. She's the quintessential "nice girl". She's polite and caring almost to a fault it feels like. I like that with her. She just seems like someone you'd want to go to bat for or go out of your way to help.

Of all the girls in the DCU, she seems like the one I'd be more comfortable talking to and getting to know. She just seems more human and relatable than characters like Batwoman, Huntress, Catwoman, etc. who are just kind of cliche bad girl/tough girl types. It's that whole sort of Peter Parker thing. Barbara seems like someone I could know in real life, who just happens to be a super hero. She's just a very relatable character, or maybe that's just how Gail Simone writes her

[Gamerforlife]

After the kickass eighth issue of Batman, here's a nice preview of Issue 9 to whet your appetites.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20592253,00.html

I am SO excited, it's good to be a Bat fan right now.

[Forlorn Drifter]

Soooo, edited post so I could ask a different question.

I'm a bit confused on Invicible Iron Man. I wanted to start on the most recent volume, which is volume 5, I believe. I immediately got confused by the numbering. From what I understand, the comic is numbered 1-11 or so, and then swaps around the twelth comic to 500, to coincide with what the number of the comic would be, if they had kept the number from the original Iron Man story. Now, my main question here is if I'm correctly understanding the numbering situation?

Also, a couple more questions. Does this volume include the origin story, or not? I'm confused on Iron Man, his comics seem much more muddled up than most of the characters I've looked into. I was also interested in the Iron Man 2.0 and War Machine comics, but wasn't sure whether it'd be worth looking into there.

Any help is acceptable, because I can only learn so much from TFAW.

[indecks]

After the kickass eighth issue of Batman, here's a nice preview of Issue 9 to whet your appetites.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20592253,00.html

I am SO excited, it's good to be a Bat fan right now.

I just wanna say I was lucky enough to get in to see/meet Greg Capullo at Austin ComicCon this year, and he is one ridiculously gracious and pleasant sonofabitch. He is such a freakin' cool guy.

[Gamerforlife]

After the kickass eighth issue of Batman, here's a nice preview of Issue 9 to whet your appetites.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20592253,00.html

I am SO excited, it's good to be a Bat fan right now.

I just wanna say I was lucky enough to get in to see/meet Greg Capullo at Austin ComicCon this year, and he is one ridiculously gracious and pleasant sonofabitch. He is such a freakin' cool guy.

I would have enjoyed meeting him myself, though I know little about him other than his work on Batman. His work on that book is stellar though. Batman # 5 was visually amazing and memorable. You're very lucky. Comic book artists seem like very awesome people. I have a bit of a crush on Rebekah Isaacs, the artist on Angel & Faith, who also seems very nice from what I've seen. Would LOVE to meet her some day

[Gamerforlife]

I finished Gates of Gotham recently.

Spoilers

What a fun and interesting read. I kind of missed out a lot of stuff that happened in the Batverse prior to the New 52 reboot, and only knew of important events through word of mouth. So a few things threw me off at first. I kept trying to figure out why Batman seemed slightly different when I started reading the first issue. I just kept thinking that he seemed off somehow. I had totally forgotten that Bruce wasn't wearing the mantle at the time of this story. It was kind of cool when it finally hit me that this was Dick, not Bruce. This is the only story I've read with Dick in the Batsuit and I enjoyed seeing his approaches to being Batman. I love Gordon being the only one to know he wasn't the original Batman. That was cool. Seeing Dick play out what I've always seen as his destiny being Batman's successor was very cool.

The other thing to catch me off guard was Cassandra entrance into the story. I have always known about her, but never read a story with her in it. I have to say now I LOVE this character. Is it true that "The Black Bat" doesn't exist in the New 52 universe? That's a shame. She's easy to like and I really love that no one was calling her Batgirl. The Black Bat actually sounds kind of cool. If she's going by this different name, I don't see any reason not to bring her into the New 52 universe.

I guess the big selling point of this series is how it digs into Gotham's history. Personally though, I just loved reading a story with Dick, Tim Drake, Cassandra, and Damian all working together. I love the Bat family and it's actually really fun seeing them all come together WITHOUT Bruce's leadership. I liked seeing Dick in charge. Reading this series after reading his current adventures back in the Nightwing suit really make me see Dick Grayson as Bruce Wayne's equal. Fun read

[BurningDoom]

Seriously. I just finished this saga yesterday, and OMG, so freaking good! It's Cosmic Marvel at it's absolute best. I'd put it up there on the list alongside The Infinity Gauntlet and The Dark Phoenix Saga, it was that good, IMO. And classic Jim Starlin artwork.

It was very thought-provoking and entertaining. In addition to introduction The Magus, it also introduces Gamora and Pip The Troll, and gives some insight into what exactly Adam Warlock's Soul Gem is. Plus the appearance of a surprise villain. But the main-event here, is definetly Adam Warlock vs. The Magus. I can't explain it, really, without giving away the story, which is half the magic of reading it: Figuring out the pieces as you go along.

If you're a fan of cosmic stories and super-hero comics in general, I highly recommend picking these issues up. And you better do it while you can. I have a feeling that some of these issues are gonna start rising in value (just go see Avengers to see what I'm talking about, and stay for the end).

It runs in Strange Tales (vol. 1) #178-181, and Warlock (vol. 1) #9-11.

[Gamerforlife]

It's been long overdue, but I just finally got around to finally reading Batman Hush. I have to say, just about every damn thing I could think to want in a Batman story was in this one. I actually even think this might be perfect to give to someone a bit new to Batman comic books. It touches on every important relationship and event in his life at the time of its writing and features some of his better known villains. I felt like this story has so much fan service for Batman fans.

I'm still a bit of a newb when it comes to comic book artists, but I've heard of Jim Lee before and seen some of his work. However, I was still blown away by his art on this series. It was just damn amazing! I'm starting to feel like no one draws comic book super heroes better than he does! He makes super heroes look like goddamn super heroes! As a Batman fan, this is one of most beautiful pieces of art I've ever seen.



It's great seeing so many important Batman characters on display there. I loved this too:



Jim Lee is so freaking good!

I've read The Long Halloween before, so this adds to my appreciation of Jeph Loeb. His examination of Batman's relationships to the members of the Bat family as well as his other Gotham allies (like Jim Gordon) is one of the things I really liked about this story. Seeing him talk about the different Robins for example, you can see how different they each are through his eyes and what their strengths and weaknesses are and how much they've all meant to him. This story also really elevated a certain well known member of Batman's rogue's gallery for me, who I always viewed as kind of a B level, mid to low tier Batman villain. Oh how wrong I was after reading this story! We even see some other villains like Poison Ivy in particular, really up their game in this story

Great stuff, but not perfect. The plot does drag on and get a bit convoluted. As much as I loved the way most of the villains were used in this story, it does feel like some of them were crammed into the story just for the hell of it. Also, there are a few things I was a bit confused about at the end of the story, though I'd have to read through it again before I'd feel comfortable coming right out and calling them plot holes. This story has a lot of WTF moments and red herrings that can get a bit confusing. Honestly though, it's not that hard to turn your brain off and still enjoy this story, as its full of memorable, classic feeling moments, like a showdown between Batman and another notable and rather powerful member of the DC universe.