JD's Comic Book Thread

[Myasishchev]

I'm not sure I could without repeating myself, and besides a lot of things I dislike intensely, other folks respond to well. Also, I'm unsure which of these have been discussed here, already:

Like I said in the Reboot thread, the Loeb, Kelly, and (to a degree) Puckett Supergirl runs are awful.

I've said before I really hated Identity Crisis, but I re-read it, and even though I do still hate it, it's got a lot of weirdly well-done scenes. If you don't mind a really badly constructed mystery or the breaking of cute and beloved characters, there's a lot to recommend it, I guess, although in good conscience I can't.

Crisis on Infinite Earths is really, really bad. Despite a master on art duties, even the pages themselves aren't very pretty to look at. This is one of those things that maybe you had to be there for. I'd suggest just ignoring it.

Anything drawn by Greg Land or Ed Benes.

[byron lomax]

I've said before I really hated Identity Crisis, but I re-read it, and even though I do still hate it, it's got a lot of weirdly well-done scenes. If you don't mind a really badly constructed mystery or the breaking of cute and beloved characters, there's a lot to recommend it, I guess, although in good conscience I can't.

The thing about Identity Crisis is that it's well-written in some ways, and some scenes are effective, but the actual story is stupid and pretty sensationalistic.

[Hound of UIster]

JD wrote:

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I've been asking alot about good comics, but now I want to switch that around to the bad. I was just wondering which Marvel and DC comics from the last 20 years or so I should avoid?

The current volume of Wonder Woman.

Anything by Daniel Way.

Matt Fraction's run of Thor

Bendis's Avengers

Andy Diggle and Shadowland.

Anything done by Jeph Loeb at Marvel

Anything writing related by Tony Daniel.

[JD]

Hound of UIster wrote:

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The current volume of Wonder Woman.

Matt Fraction's run of Thor

Damn. I was really looking to those two too.

[Icemizer]

Another vote for the bad for Bendis and any Avengers books he writes. Right now I can barely even open the pages of the endless talking heads he has put in these books.

[JD]

I thought Bendis was supposed to be a really good writer?

[C_Miller]

JD wrote:

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I thought Bendis was supposed to be a really good writer?

Bendis has his strengths and weaknesses. His strengths are teenagers (Ultimate Spider-Man, Powers) and hard boiled realistic stuff (Daredevil, Alias). His weaknesses are really everything else. When you get down to it most of his characters talk like they're teenagers, it's especially jarring when it's Captain America or Iron Man.

And I think there's a decent amount of backlash from Avengers Disassembled being a classic "Body Count" event where a lot of longtime characters including several fan favorites were killed or destroyed beyond repair.

One of my problems is that they tried to make the Avengers (in New Avengers) analogous to the JLA at DC by getting together the company's greatest and most recognizeable Heroes (Wolverine and Spider-Man), yet he could never craft a story that warranted these characters.

Edit: As for Identity Crisis, yeah, I agree it's very well written. Each issue took me longer than 30 seconds to read, which is frankly how I judge a comic any more. And I will say it was one of the better events in my time of reading comics. Villains possibly learning of identities and running amuck with them is a great concept, but there was too much plot-induced stupidity and a lot of stuff was played for shock value.

[Hound of UIster]

JD wrote:

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I thought Bendis was supposed to be a really good writer?

He is, but he is really bad at writing team books or anything thats not down to earth.

Looks at the quality of his Moon Knight and DD compared to his Avengers stuff.

[Myasishchev]

The really goofy thing about Identity Crisis it never occurred to Jean Loring to, you know, just call Ray Palmer and say "I'm sorry I left you."

I mean, murdering your friends is a great plan and all, but I think that was worth a try.

Oh, also the terrible plot hole where they expect you to believe a flamethrower isn't one of the world's most forensically identifiable weapons. It's weird, since it didn't matter at all who the villain was since, afaik, Meltzer completely invented Dr. Rape; why not Heat Wave? His power is he carries a flamethrower.

[Mr Light]

I love the Bendis Avengers franchise. It does get too talky sometimes, and his particular "everyone talks the same way" style does annoy me, but he tells some really huge big event stories.

[JD]

When you guys were talking about the current Wonder Woman, were you talking about the run starting with Allen Heinberg's #1 or JMS's #600? I notice the first TBP of JMS's run was a Vol. 1, so that go me wondering which one you guys were talking about.

[C_Miller]

Most likely both. From when I recall, since it started over with a new number one it's been relatively dreadful. I have heard very little good about it. It started with Allan Heinberg who isn't a bad writer, but it suffered from event fatique and spent a lot of time with a mystery I didn't care about (and not many people did). Then you had Jodi Piccoult write an arc, which people were excited about (she's a big bestselling writer and she was the first woman to write an extended run). She ended up writing five issues and it was leading from one event to the other. Definition of filler. Then there was a bunch of guest writers until Gail Simone took over. Simone is a rather well regarded writer, but this is considered far and away her worst work. Then JMS took over at 600 (renumbered) and apparently his arc has been relatively meandering and he jumped ship leaving it to Phil Hester to finish it up to the reboot. I hear it's picking up, but is it really worth it when it will be gone next month.

If you want to read Wonder Woman, Rucka's run which closed out Volume 2 (195ish-226) or take a gamble and pick it up in September. Brian Azzarello is a fantastic writer, who usually does crime noir, so this will probably be a very unique take on the character.

[Hound of UIster]

JD wrote:

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When you guys were talking about the current Wonder Woman, were you talking about the run starting with Allen Heinberg's #1 or JMS's #600? I notice the first TBP of JMS's run was a Vol. 1, so that go me wondering which one you guys were talking about.

They are all part of v3 that follow Infinite Crisis.

The problem imo was that the Heinberg stuff was filled with delays. Simone and Picoult were hamstrung by bullshit DC editorial. And JMS got sick and had to hand if off to Hester and the art by Kramer had to have numerous fillins because he couldn't maintain a monthly pace.

[JD]

C_Miller wrote:

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Most likely both. From when I recall, since it started over with a new number one it's been relatively dreadful. I have heard very little good about it. It started with Allan Heinberg who isn't a bad writer, but it suffered from event fatique and spent a lot of time with a mystery I didn't care about (and not many people did). Then you had Jodi Piccoult write an arc, which people were excited about (she's a big bestselling writer and she was the first woman to write an extended run). She ended up writing five issues and it was leading from one event to the other. Definition of filler. Then there was a bunch of guest writers until Gail Simone took over. Simone is a rather well regarded writer, but this is considered far and away her worst work. Then JMS took over at 600 (renumbered) and apparently his arc has been relatively meandering and he jumped ship leaving it to Phil Hester to finish it up to the reboot. I hear it's picking up, but is it really worth it when it will be gone next month.

If you want to read Wonder Woman, Rucka's run which closed out Volume 2 (195ish-226) or take a gamble and pick it up in September. Brian Azzarello is a fantastic writer, who usually does crime noir, so this will probably be a very unique take on the character.

What about Perez's run? The only issue they have from V.2 are the first 24 from 87-88.

I've decided to start Fables, and I was wondering where the best place to read the spinoffs is? I know Jack of Fables starts after the storyarc with him in Hollywood, but what about the Cinderella books, 1001 Nights of Snowfall and Pete & Max?

[Hound of UIster]

Get Perez's run, it's probably the most definite modern take on WW.