JD's Comic Book Thread

[JD]

As I've been talking about alot lately I've just started reading DC and Marvel superhero comics over the last few years, and instead of starting a million new threads or hijacking others, I've decided to just start my own for anything comic related.
I just finished reading Green Lantern: Secret Origin and I loved it. I was already pretty excited for the movie, but this just made me even more excited. I do have a couple questions though, first off do the GL comics continue on with a rookie Hal or do they jump back to where they were with him already have been at it for years? Does any know if the whole Five Inversions/Sector 666/Manhunters stuff plays any kind of a role in the movie, in plans for future movies?
Next I plan on reading Batman: Year One. After that I'm thinking about either reading Superman: Secret Origin or GL: Rebirth.

[JonnyQuest037]

The regular Green Lantern book takes place in the present day, years into Hal Jordan's career. There is speculation that the rebooted DC books will feature heroes 5 years into their careers. I believe the GL movie is supposed to use Parallax from Green Lantern: Rebirth, but don't think they'll be using the Five Inversions/Sector 666/Manhunters stuff.

Batman: Year One is a really good read. You'll probably recognize a few bits from it that they used in Batman Begins. Superman: Secret Origin was okay IMO, but I prefer the John Byrne Man of Steel version.

[indianatrekker26]

i have a Superman/Batman collection from 1992 to 2002. Death of Superman and Knightfall brought me into love of comics. My collections ended with Batman: Hush and Superman: For Tomorrow. After that i was done, both stories felt like good ways to pull out at the time.
Now with the big reboot in September, I won't deny that i'm interested in jumping back into Superman and Batman.
from that 1992-02 collection, when it comes to superman and batman, stories I would recommend to read is: Knight(Fall, Quest, Ends) Doomsday, Funeral For a Friend & Reign of the Supermen. Batman: No Man's Land, Superman: Our Worlds at War, Superman:Reign of Emperor Joker, Batman: Hush.
And I cant recommend DC's Kingdom Come enough.

[indianatrekker26]

i have a Superman/Batman collection from 1992 to 2002. Death of Superman and Knightfall brought me into love of comics. My collections ended with Batman: Hush and Superman: For Tomorrow. After that i was done, both stories felt like good ways to pull out at the time.
Now with the big reboot in September, I won't deny that i'm interested in jumping back into Superman and Batman.
from that 1992-02 collection, when it comes to superman and batman, stories I would recommend to read is: Knight(Fall, Quest, Ends) Doomsday, Funeral For a Friend & Reign of the Supermen. Batman: No Man's Land, Superman: Our Worlds at War, Superman:Reign of Emperor Joker, Batman: Hush.
And I cant recommend DC's Kingdom Come enough.

[JD]

Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm reading through Comixology, so I'm somewhat limited with what I can read. Although I have been considering picking up the paperback versions of some of the older stuff though. Are the novelizations that DC has done based on some of the stories, like Greg Cox's Crisis books, or Denis O'Neill Knightfall any good?

[Mr Light]

Greg Cox is a regular poster here so we're all going to say his books are absolutely brilliant But seriously they are good adaptations.

I've enjoyed all the DC novel adaptations, I loved them back in high school when I couldn't afford the comics. I think No Man's Land is the best but I also loved Death/Return of Superman back in the day.

I'm still waiting for one of the Superman New Krypton saga. That would make a good book, it's long, but it had a very definite beginning, middle, and end to the story.

[JD]

Could someone please provide a complete list of comics in The Death of Superman? Comixology has some of them, but with all of the jumping between series, I haven't been able to tell for sure if they have them all. I tried looking on the DC Comics Database, and the list on there didn't seem to line up with the numbers for the comics on CX, what DCCB said was one was down as like part two or three on CX. All wiki has is the months that it covered.

[Mike Farley]

The Death of Superman runs through Superman The Man of Steel #18-19, Justice League America #69, Superman #74-75, Adventures of Superman #497, and Action Comics #684.

They are all on Comixolgy. This is the Death of Superman proper. The issues that Comixology are counting as the first arts of the Death tale are really not part of the main tale. They each contain a single page with (the then unknown) Doomsday pounding against the walls of his underground prison and eventually freeing himself. Asdie from that, the stories are completely unrelated to the Death storyline.

Unfortunately the Death is the only part of the storyline that's up on Comixology. None of the Funeral for a Friend, Reign of the Supermen, Return of Superman stuff is up there.

[Myasishchev]

JonnyQuest037 wrote:

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Batman: Year One is a really good read. You'll probably recognize a few bits from it that they used in Batman Begins. Superman: Secret Origin was okay IMO, but I prefer the John Byrne Man of Steel version.

Absolutely. At no point in Man of Steel do the Legion of Supeheroes show up with expressions on their faces that indicate they want to wear your skin. Also, it puts forward my personal favorite version of Krypton, the sterile, inhuman Krypton, which will probably never return as everyone else but Byrne and me seems to hate the place.

But everyone always forgets about Superman: Birthright, which was the retcon between the two, by Mark Waid and--well, somebody drew it, I assume. Superman's my vegetarian hero.

Batman: Year One is a seminal piece of comics art. David Mazzuchelli is in full force. Frank Miller writes some words, too, but these aren't terribly important.

I'll also cop to liking GL: Secret Origin to a degree. It's the absolute reverse of an ordinary Geoff Johns comic: very little superheroic works correctly (Hal's training is fine, but Atrocitus and Black Hand are shoehorned into the GL mythos very round hole-square peg style, and no one cares about Hector Hammond's best telepathic imitation of Lonely Island's The Creep), yet the human aspects of the story are actually recognizable, and even made me like Hal Jordan. This deeply confused me for a moment, but then I realized that this took place in the past, when Hal Jordan was a pretty decent character (DUIs, statutory rape, doing nothing for the brown skins--you know, recognizable flaws).

[Admiral_Young]

All of Greg's DC Comics novelizations are outstanding. There is a discussion thread that I created a while back that occasionally gets updated if you would like to contribute JD.

[Myasishchev]

Oh, and regarding the Death of Superman, it is pretty great, but if you're reading that fresh, there's some weird things in there that make no sense unless you were also reading Superman in the 1990s or have Wikipedia open.

They aren't terrible distractions, but it's very likely you will say WTF when Doomsday punches Supergirl into a pile of grape jelly. This is the Matrix Supergirl, beloved only by 90s kids like myself, who was a shapeshifter that was also Lex Luthor's girlfriend.

[coolghoul]

I personally do not like GL: Secret Origin that much. Writing character based stories is NOT Geoff Johns' forte imo. Give him sprawling space sagas with lots of characters and archetypal characterizations and that's more his game.

I do however envy you - you might have some really good stuff coming up in your future. I would strongly recommend picking up all GL comics from GL: Rebirth and read both GL and GLC comics all the way thru end of Blackest Night.

Here's an amazon checklist which lists all the collected trades and may help you find the comics in Comixology. (Haven't really used comixology - I prefer the physical comics. Trades from the friendly neighborhood library are best!!)

[JonnyQuest037]

Myasishchev wrote:

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Absolutely. At no point in Man of Steel do the Legion of Supeheroes show up with expressions on their faces that indicate they want to wear your skin.

Ha! Yeah, I guess some of the smiles that Gary Frank gave them were a bit intense at times. I rather liked the Secret Origin version of Superboy, though. He operates in costume with the Legion in the 30th Century and is an unseen "urban legend" in the 20th-21st.

Myasishchev wrote:

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Also, it puts forward my personal favorite version of Krypton, the sterile, inhuman Krypton, which will probably never return as everyone else but Byrne and me seems to hate the place.

I really liked the visual designs Byrne did for Krypton (it was way overdue for an upgrade in 1986). The sterility and the reason for it blowing up, not so much.

Myasishchev wrote:

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But everyone always forgets about Superman: Birthright, which was the retcon between the two, by Mark Waid and--well, somebody drew it, I assume. Superman's my vegetarian hero.

I only got a couple issues into that one. Hated Lenil Francis Yu's artwork. I think if DC had found a more appropriate artist to draw that series, it might not have been thrown out of continuity so quickly.

Myasishchev wrote:

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Batman: Year One is a seminal piece of comics art. David Mazzuchelli is in full force. Frank Miller writes some words, too, but these aren't terribly important.

Yeah. Too bad Miller didn't quit doing Batman while he was ahead. With Batman/Spawn, The Dark Knight Strikes Again and All-Star Batman & Robin, the bad far outweighs the good now. The only thing I really dislike about Batman: Year One is the prostitute backstory for Catwoman. But the absolute coolest thing about it is that David Mazzuchelli draws Bruce Wayne as Gregory Peck.

Myasishchev wrote:

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...but then I realized that this took place in the past, when Hal Jordan was a pretty decent character (DUIs, statutory rape, doing nothing for the brown skins--you know, recognizable flaws).

I'm pretty sure the DUI / jailtime stuff from Emerald Dawn has been retconned away (Thank God), and the Arisa thing has also been retconned so that she is now hundreds of years old in Earth years and only a "teenager" on her native planet.

Young Hal still does nothing for the black skins until John Stewart comes along, though.

[JD]

Oh, that mention of John Stewart brings up something I else I wanted to ask. If there is one Green Lantern for every Sector why does Sector 2814 have 4 from the same planet (Earth)?

[Mr Light]

Uh, cause we're awesome?!