JD's Comic Book Thread

[JD]

I picked up The Amazing Spider-Man: Band New Day Vol. 3 and New Avengers Vol. 1: Breakout from Comixology yesterday. I really enjoyed the first two BND collections, and I've been curious about New Avengers for a while now, so I'm looking forward to reading both of them.

It's not enough to totally turn me off of the book, but I can see why I hear a lot of negativity about David Finch's art. He definitely seems to go for the exagurated bodies for his characters. There's one image of Daredevil that especially stood out to me as being ridiculously muscular. I could kind of see that for characters like Captain America or Thor, but for someone like Daredevil it's especially ridiculous. It's not enough to make me regret buying the book or not want to read it, but it does take my opinion of it down a notch or to already.

 

[kirk55555]

I guess Finch's art is kind of divisive. I personally think its ok, but I can see why some people might not be fans of it. I don't think Finch stayed on for the whole run. I'd definitely recommend the whole first volume of The New Avengers. Its still my favorite Avengers comic, and it was Bendis's Avengers run at its best in my opinion.

 

[TheSeeker]

Legendary artist Herb Trimpe has passed away.

 

[TheSeeker]

Just finished Bloodshot Reborn #1. It was a really solid issue and I will definitely be back for more. The art was fantastic too.

I read Chrononauts #2 yesterday and I think it was a big improvement over the first issue. It was a lot of fun to read.

 

[Captain Craig]

Agreed.
Bloodshot Reborn #1 - was really great. I'm curious to see where "Ray's" story goes and what these other "Bloodshots" are from. It also seems Kay's 'spirit' is going to be hanging around somehow, someway. Wonder if that means a Dr.Mirage appearance could happen? - VALIANT

Unity #17 - the solo Livewire issue was great. A day in the life of Amanda off duty was a long time coming. This issue helped humanize her even more so and feel like someone you'd like to spend social time with laughing it up doing errands and what not. - VALIANT

Fox #1 - from the Dark Circle imprint written by Mark Waid, the second title released has a noticeably different tone and lead than the first (Black Hood, also good). From the story it seems this title could be a legacy story. Possible story beats seem obvious from the first issue but it really was mostly set up. I feel like the arc isn't going to really start till issue #2.
I'm in for the first arc for sure. Hoping Waid is Waid and not the Waid we got on Dynamite's Doctor Spektor. - ARCHIE

 

[JD]

I finished up Captain America: Red Menace a couple days ago, and I really enjoyed it. This was my first time coming across Sin, who I thought was a pretty good villain. I wonder if there's any chance of her popping up in a CA MCU movie? They could always just make her Skull's grandaughter.
This was also my first experience with British Marvel heroes, with Spitfire and Union Jack, who were both really cool characters. Are either of them in MI-13 and/or Revolutionary War?
I was kind of surprised that the heroes still don't know Lukin and the Skull are in the same body, I was expecting that to come out by the end of the 21st Century Blitz, although they do at least know the Skull is still alive.
This is also starting to make me really wish we could get more Sharon Carter in the movies.

 

[Saga]

Spitfire and Union Jack are in MI-13. never read Revolutionary War, so i'm not sure if they are involved in that. they also show up in All New Invaders.

 

[JD]

Cool. I was planning on reading MI-13, so at least I'll definitely be familiar with two of the characters before I get there. I'm thinking I'll probably come across Capt. Britain somewhere along the line too, but I'm not sure.

 

[shivkala]

I just re-read "Red Menance." Sin is interesting, but we only get snippets of her and Crossbones.

On the topic of Spitfire and Union Jack, I'm not denying they might be great characters on their own (I haven't read any other appearances of theirs), but I give credit to Brubaker, since he has a way of breathing life into characters and making each one unique.

While I absolutely loved Captain America: The Winter Soldier (easily in my top 5 of Marvel movies, along with Iron Man, Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and *placeholder for Avengers: Age of Ultron), reading the original story made me realize one thing: the movie features very little of the Winter Soldier and the ending of the comic story made more sense why he changed allegiances.

 

[Hound of UIster]

I was kind of surprised that the heroes still don't know Lukin and the Skull are in the same body, I was expecting that to come out by the end of the 21st Century Blitz, although they do at least know the Skull is still alive.

No one realized that the Skull had preserved his mind in the Cosmic Cube before Bucky killed him.

 

[kirk55555]

Cool. I was planning on reading MI-13, so at least I'll definitely be familiar with two of the characters before I get there. I'm thinking I'll probably come across Capt. Britain somewhere along the line too, but I'm not sure.

MI-13 is amazing. Seriously, one of my favorite Marvel comics, and definitely the best Captain Britain comic I've read (although the original excalibur was pretty good, too). MI-13 was my first experience with Union Jack and Spitfire, and I definitely became a fan (especially of Spitfire, who gets a bit more focus than UJ in MI-13). I never read any Cap story with UJ or Spitfire in it (not counting the Invaders books), but they're definitely good characters in MI-13.

 

[Stevil2001]

Cool. I was planning on reading MI-13, so at least I'll definitely be familiar with two of the characters before I get there. I'm thinking I'll probably come across Capt. Britain somewhere along the line too, but I'm not sure.

Paul Cornell's MI-13 is amazeballs. Great superhero storytelling. Make sure you read Wisdom: Rudiments of Wisdom before you start it, too. (Not that it's strictly "necessary," it's just also good.)

 

[JD]

Is that the 2006 MAX Wisdom series by Paul Cornell? That's on Comixology, so I'll be able to check it out.
EDIT: Comixology is doing a IDW TMNT Collections sale. Pretty much all of the collected editions IDW has released, including their rereleases of Pre-IDW stuff. I picked up the first collection of the IDW series for only $2.99USD.

 

[TheSeeker]

So did anyone read The All New X-Men #40?

 

[kirk55555]

Yep. It was ok. The Iceman thing was very out of left field, but I'm not a huge Iceman fan and it doesn't really bother me. I mean, outside of some fan theories about why he has a lot of very short relationships with women the idea that Iceman is gay is basically not supported by any real evidence from the 50+ years he's been around (except possibly some Chuck Austen material I never read according to some people I've seen talking on the web, but Chuck Austen's X-Men run should never even be mentioned).

But, it could have been done worse. It was weird that Jean even brought it up, there was really no context for why she did, but the writing for the actual scene was ok. Honestly, its not even that big a part of the book. They just kind of bring it up without any build up and then move on. I really don't have a problem with Bobby being gay, I just wish it had been built up more, even if just in Bendis's books.

I suppose if someone is really opposed to Iceman being gay, the issue won't convince them that it even really makes sense. It really does feel like it comes out of nowhere, but the actual scene didn't feel super awkward or anything. All things considered I thought the actual reveal scene was done well, even if I'm not sure why they even did it, and that they could have set up the reveal much better by actually putting something in earlier issues to at least hint at it.

 

[TheSeeker]

I've gone to school with a couple of guys who later came out as gay. For one of them it was like "well d'uh!" and for another one who I hung out with quite a bit I was genuinely surprised because I never suspected. So even though it seems like it's coming out of the blue I don't think it's necessarily an unrealistic scenario.

 

[kirk55555]

I was thinking more about how, from a narrative standpoint not in-universe standpoint, it could have been handled better. It just didn't seem to flow with how the character has generally been portrayed, both the younger time traveling one and the present day version. I think if Bendis had at least done a little foreshadowing or something earlier in the run it would have worked out better. As it is, it kind of feels like a publicity stunt Bendis/Marvel thought up at the last minute to get people talking instead of something that came out of the story more naturally. I don't know if that is the case, but it kind of feels that way.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Jimmy Fallon mentioned it in his monologue accompanied by some clips of "Iceman" from Top Gun playing volleyball.

 

[JD]

Yep. It was ok. The Iceman thing was very out of left field, but I'm not a huge Iceman fan and it doesn't really bother me. I mean, outside of some fan theories about why he has a lot of very short relationships with women the idea that Iceman is gay is basically not supported by any real evidence from the 50+ years he's been around (except possibly some Chuck Austen material I never read according to some people I've seen talking on the web, but Chuck Austen's X-Men run should never even be mentioned).

But, it could have been done worse. It was weird that Jean even brought it up, there was really no context for why she did, but the writing for the actual scene was ok. Honestly, its not even that big a part of the book. They just kind of bring it up without any build up and then move on. I really don't have a problem with Bobby being gay, I just wish it had been built up more, even if just in Bendis's books.

I suppose if someone is really opposed to Iceman being gay, the issue won't convince them that it even really makes sense. It really does feel like it comes out of nowhere, but the actual scene didn't feel super awkward or anything. All things considered I thought the actual reveal scene was done well, even if I'm not sure why they even did it, and that they could have set up the reveal much better by actually putting something in earlier issues to at least hint at it.

According to this article on Tor.com, it's not really that out of nowhere of a reveal.

 

[kirk55555]

Yeah, I really don't read that interpretation for the issue. It kind of seems like the article's author is stretching. There are a bunch of reasons Bobby might not have asked Jean to go with him, like him being embarrassed to have his close friend meet his racist Dad. Plus, the racist dad thing probably goes for why he wouldn't take Storm. Rogue was an attractive woman whom Bobby's Dad wouldn't start some racist rant on just based on her looks, and Iceman wouldn't be as concerned with how Rogue would react to him, which is probably good in-universe reasons Iceman took her with him (and more reasons that make more sense than Bobby being gay are probably available, too)..

Like I said, I don't mind Iceman being gay, but that example seemed like a huge stretch. I'm also pretty sure Lobdell wouldn't put that kind of thing in a book, either, and if he did it would not be subtle. Lobdell isn't the kind of writer that can put deep meaning in his work. He has done one or two half-way decent things, but subtly trying to imply something about Iceman? I've read a decent amount of Lobdell's stuff over the years, and I really don't think he was ever capable of that.