The Comic Book Thread

[marurun]

DC will shortly introduce the Drunk 52, the Grumpy Old 52, and the Hot Trending 52.

Oh, hey, I forgot to mention my favorite just pre-New 52 title that made the transition intact - Batwoman. Love the writing and the art.

[jmbarnes101]

I gave up new Marvel during Civil War and DC with the New 52. Neither are like anything I grew up with or really enjoy reading though I thought Aquaman and the Batman/Detective books were solid.

Oh well, I have a bunch of post-Crisis to pre-New 52 titles I'm still actively looking for back issues of that I want to get bound into HC. Their are also the smattering of 70/80's DC TPB and then new old material Marvel/DC HC's and Omniboo I collect. Plus Image, Dark Horse, and IDW put out some great HC books so just more money spent on the other things.

[Sload Soap]

Both DC and Marvel main lines have obviously become too revolved around events and the fallout from events. It feels like one event comic was just there to spread seeds for another. Some interesting stuff did occur from this, I personally quite liked Dark Avengers even if it was just Thuderbolts and the Legion of 3 Worlds was more fun and better plotted than Final Crisis. But mostly it is just done to siphon money from the pockets of collectors.

What I hate most is that with Final Crisis in particular, aside from not being a very well thought out book in itself, we had two years of follow in lines with 52 and countdown leading up to a year of delayed Final Crisis issues to get to Darkseid's eventual demise(spoilers) only for Flashpoint to retcon him back into the new 52.

In other words, it took DC longer to kill a character than to actually have him stay dead. I know death is far from permanent in comics, but flippin' heck, DC just rendered almost five years of continuity and world building obsolete within the first issue of the Justice League reboot. It just seems so self-sabotaging and relegates superhero comics to using the same narrative tropes and cliches as daytime soaps.

/second geeky rant of the week. Sorry.

[marurun]

It just seems so self-sabotaging and relegates superhero comics to using the same narrative tropes and cliches as daytime soaps.

It was a model that made soaps extremely popular for a long-ass time. Let us not forget that both DC and Marvel are owned by large media conglomerates that want nothing more than to have more ideas to turn into movies.

[Sload Soap]

It was a model that made soaps extremely popular for a long-ass time. Let us not forget that both DC and Marvel are owned by large media conglomerates that want nothing more than to have more ideas to turn into movies.

Agree that is makes them popular or at least keeps peoples interest. Kind of disagree about the movie thing.

Most of DC and Marvels ongoings and events are so drenched in the continuity of either line, and in marvel's case use characters that can't legally interact on film, that they are near useless for a screenwriter to use for a reference outside of a snappy line of dialogue here or there. Age of Ultron may be the subtitle to the next Avengers movie but I highly doubt it's about Wolverine and Sue Storm travelling through time to stop the titular villain.

The recent Batman movies were most obviously influenced by a trio of comics written in the mid to late eighties. I don't know what the hell Man of Steel is based on. I heard Godfall or Birthright was used as a touchstone, maybe? What I'm saying is that it's less about generating stories than just holding onto the rights to the characters.

So superhero comics don't appeal to me much at the moment, but there is such an abundance of great comics out there I have to catch up on that levels it out for me. Kind of how I feel about music as well.

[BurningDoom]

I gave up new Marvel during Civil War

Wow, really? Civil War was one of the actual good crossover events from the past decade, I thought. It really got fans talking and debating, and there was no clear-cut "good side" or "bad side", which I thought was great writing.

[SpaceBooger]

I gave up new Marvel during Civil War

Wow, really? Civil War was one of the actual good crossover events from the past decade, I thought. It really got fans talking and debating, and there was no clear-cut "good side" or "bad side", which I thought was great writing.

Some days I love crossovers (mainly while reading them) but more often than not they annoy me in the end. I agree the premise of Civil War was cool, but to me it drug on too long. I don't mind big events, I am just not a fan of one story breaking the flow of individual books just so they can participate.
Like I said, Civil War was a great idea, it just wore me down with the sheer number of contend and how it branched out that I lost interest before it ended. I think DC is getting better at keeping most of their special series self contained. Final Crisis only really tied into Batman R.I.P. and most of Forever Evil is contained in the mini, related books (which also have Forever Evil in the title) and the Justice League books. Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman's books are all still doing their own thing without being interrupted too much by Forever Evil.

[Sload Soap]

I think DC is getting better at keeping most of their special series self contained. Final Crisis only really tied into Batman R.I.P

There were fifteen separate Final Crisis tie-ins, and that's if you don't include countdown (to final crisis), terror titans or Seven Soldiers which definitely were related to FC. That seems like quite a lot. I didn't read much of Flashpoint, but didn't it basically effect every major ongoing? You know, by completely reordering the timeline of the DC universe.

[SpaceBooger]

I think DC is getting better at keeping most of their special series self contained. Final Crisis only really tied into Batman R.I.P

There were fifteen separate Final Crisis tie-ins, and that's if you don't include countdown (to final crisis), terror titans or Seven Soldiers which definitely were related to FC. That seems like quite a lot. I didn't read much of Flashpoint, but didn't it basically effect every major ongoing? You know, by completely reordering the timeline of the DC universe.

Yes and no.
I guess what I was trying to say is that most of DC's recent crossovers have not tied into the regular monthly books as much as Marvel's has (basing this off Civil War and Secret War). There were a ton of minis related to FC, but FC did not filter into every book forcing that character and those writers to follow along with the FC story.
Flashpoint was similar, in the end everything got rebooted but during Flashpoint you could read a Batman or Superman story in their respective monthly books that had nothing to do with crossover event.
So yes there were tons of minis and related books, but I don't feel they interrupted the flow of the regular monthly books - the creation of the New 52 excluded - at lease most stories were wrapped up before the reboot.

[Sload Soap]

Ok, that's fair. I just jumped a bit because Final Crisis at the time seemed very invasive as DC geared towards the mini at the end of Countdown. Also because FC reads like a mess if you hadn't read Superman: Beyond 3D or Seven Soldiers which I hadn't/haven't and took so long to actually be published. But I blame Grant Morrison for some of that.

It might also have felt that way because the Final Crisis banner was slapped onto books that really had nothing to do with it, like Rage of the Red Lanterns and Legion of 3 Worlds, which I bought thinking, this might explain whatever the fuck is supposed to be happening in FC but didn't. Least Legion was a goofy, fun book. God damn do I hate Final Crisis.

I agree Marvel is worse though. World War Hulk had some particularly stupid tie-ins with the X-Men based on really flimsy premises, which is saying something for an event that was pretty flimsy to be begin with.