American Comics

[S Naught]

Hey, anyone read Spiderman: The Other? It's kinda refreshing how it's a continuity that's not spoiled by that Civil War event.

EDIT: Crap, it does lead into Civil War...but it's still a good read.

Edited April 19, 2007 by S Naught

[durendal]

Haven't read that one yet, but I did read about Spiderman:Reign. It's sort of an approach on spiderman on how Frank Miller apprached batman in Return of the Dark Knight. Set in the future and there are no more heroes around. So what's Spiderman the other is about. I'm kinda getting interested since you recommended me Y the last man, and it was a good read.

[S Naught]

Spiderman: The Other is a good literary piece. It shows Peter going through all 5 stages of grief. He gets diagnosed with something that can't be cured, and he will die soon. So he says his goodbyes, goes through denial, etc, all the while the vampire Morlun is trying to eat him.

Edited April 19, 2007 by S Naught

[Guest DarkSunLord1]

I was just at Comic-con in San Diego last Saturday, the first ever time I have been there.

I picked up a comic that suppose to be a dark version of "The Wizard of Oz". I haven't read it yet, though.

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is an fav for me.

I also want to read the Lucifer comics from DC comics.

As for which american comic company is my favorite, I say this: I read what I want to.

[Guest Mistakenness]

I used to read few comics: the avengers, spiderman ... X-men and stuff ... I abandoned them when I discovered Manga and Anime ...

[Guest proto-guybaa2]

I ve been reading spawn from the beginning.

[xtro guyver]

As far as US comics go I'm a big fan of transformer comics, at the moment IDW is doing some great things with their books, they really are worth picking up if you like transformers

Aside from transformers I buy spiderman trades every now and again, though it has been ages since I last bought one

Also buying buffy season 8 series and its proving to be pure greatness

[xfool]

I was never a fan of superhero comics so I hardly read any of them but after I seen Sin city which is pretty cool I sought out the comics to read more of Sin city stories.

[Guest Bio-Booster]

I was a a die-hard Marvel-reader from about '93-'99, but got bored by the many ret-cons (e.g. someone dying, but returning when another author takes over the series). No character-change seems steady in Superhero-comics, because the characters have to remain largely the same, so that future generations can read or write the same kind of stories again and again.

I'm sure

the death of Captain America and Spider-Man's confession to the public

will be changed back in a forced and illogical way, like

the death of Aunt May or the return of the Spider-Clone

some years ago during the Clone-Saga. In 5 years nobody will talk about Civil Wars anymore.

[durendal]

Again, the habit of reviving old threads is back.

Anybody got updates of the recent storylines? I stopped reading comics last year due to unavailability of the media. The last I've read is the middle of Dark Reign. I'm not even sure where the Marvel Universe is currently right now.

[durendal]

Started reading again. This time, I'm up to siege. Interesting turn of events. Looks like this arc has been brewing for the past 7 years, and Osborn is finally going to get what's coming for him.

[Matt Bellamy]

Started reading again. This time, I'm up to siege. Interesting turn of events. Looks like this arc has been brewing for the past 7 years, and Osborn is finally going to get what's coming for him.

We certainly shall see... He's gone quite insane by the end of Dark Reign.

Time for a rant! Woooo!

I'm a little pissed with Marvel at the moment, and DC has fallen into it's "Infinite" Universes so badly again that they will need to do another "Crisis" within a year or two ( and yes, they just did one a few years back) Granted... It's not a BAD thing what DC does... The idea behind "Crisis" is just getting old... And they don't seem to care.

The biggest difference here is that when Marvel does a large crossover story, it's main series, like The Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America etc... ALL get involved in one way or another. They all play a part of the larger storyline. What DC does when they have a large crossover, is that only specific books are involved, even though some of the effects are felt in ways after wards. Take Blackest Night for example... The two Green Lantern books shifted their focus to it, along with the 8 part Blackest Night books. But did Superman? No. Batman? Nope. Yet, the characters were involved in Blackest Night... As well as Aquaman and Martian Manhunter coming back...

Both really have their ups and downs.

When it's a good story arc, Marvel can do it right, and it's freaking awesome. But, while DC's may lack the overall "power" the Marvel crossovers do, they are able ( not often though) to do multiple good stories at once, without each effecting the other.

Rant is going into spoiler mode as it's a rant with some spoilers... Though 5-6 year old spoilers, lol...

Right now Marvel has me pissed because for the last 5 or so years, this is all they have done. With no real breather in between. I mean we've had:

Civil War

World War Hulk

Secret Invasion

Dark Reign

Siege

Pretty much all back to back with no buffer issues. I dunno what they are going to do with Heroic Age... But SO FAR it looks to be back to normal... Every book having their own plots again ( one could argue that Dark Reign was more of a "buffer", but it's wasn't a return to the usual "Status Quo"). What really bugs me the most, is the cancellation of the Marvel "Cosmic" series. Currently There is a crossover arc just starting called the "Thanos Imperative"... Except that it will all be contained in it's named book, while the normal series, Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy were outright canned. Granted, the last couple crossover arcs did kind of suck.

See, back during the time of Civil War, there was another crossover arc that happened. It was called "Annihilation". The two writers, Abnett and Lanning took some old, rarely used "Cosmic" or "Space" characters, and tried to revamp them. It turned out awesomely. Even prompting Marvel to give the character Nova his own series... Again ( this too was awesome btw) What followed over the years was a steady stream of more crossovers to try and bring more of these under appreciated characters out into the open. What they didn't realise... is that some of them were just not that interesting. What we got was:

Annihilation - Great story. Nova ended up with his own series. Re Introduced some minor characters.

Annihilation Conquest - Good story. Minor characters from first series now form a team called "The Guardians of the Galaxy" and got their own book. It was awesome.

War of Kings - Shi'ar vs Kree/Inhumans - This is where the plot started to fail... The Inhumans are boring characters. Really. Havok and the Starjammers were great, but never got their own book sadly. Turns out the Shi'Ar leader Vulcan(Another Summers child) is just stupidly insane. No real depth. Best parts about this series were the Nova and Guardians tie-ins, as well as the re-introduction of a now updated ( and badass) Darkhawk.

Realm of Kings - Aftermath of War of Kings... Again, boring stuff. Nova and Guardians again are the best part of this arc... Though Guardians is so well writen that it overshadows Nova's story. Darkhawk being added to the Nova roster. Quasar is back in a new awesome costume.

Thanos Imperative - Just staring... Both Nova and Guardians are canceled. While the characters do play a big part in the main book.

The worst part is, Nova is now scheduled to become part of the Secret Avengers as part of Heroic Age.

Damn you Marvel! It's bad enough you brought Steve Rogers back, but now you ruin the Cosmic series?

*end rant*

So yeah, I'm reading western comics. Ooooh the fanboy drama, lol.

So far I'll be picking up some of the Heroic Age stuff... Avengers, Secret Avengers, Iron Man... While with DC I'm still reading Brightest Day, Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Bruce Wayne Returns, and Red Robin ( Tim Drake/Wayne is awesome). And anytime a new issue of Atomic Robo comes out I am all over it.

[durendal]

Yeah, Annihilation was awesome. And so was Conquest. But war of kings was a bit iffy for me too. The interesting parts about War of kings was the concept of the raptors. Wasn't able to catch up with Realm of Kings so i really can't comment on that.

Civil War was awesome. Planet Hulk was awesome. But World War Hulk was somewhat of a "meh" for me. I guess it's the plot twist that killed it for me. How cool or rare is it when you get to see the Hulk kick the @$$ of every marvel super hero. I didn't quite enjoy secret invasion and Dark Reign. I actually hated Dark Reign. So Seige is a welcome story for me.

You are right about DC though. They really do make good stories. I mean the Sinestro War and the next arc prior to the Blackest Night was good story telling. Although i have yet to read Blackest Night. What really impressed me about DC is their 52 arc. Who would have thought that the idea of throwing lameass third rate characters together in a big event would be so entertaining. I think it is actually the lesser known characters that pulls the story instead of the "Trinity" (Supes, Bats and WW). I haven't been keeping up with DC lately so I was wondering how the Last Stand of Krypton story arc fares.

[Hellspawn28]

I'm pretty big Comic Book reader, I enjoy most of the older comic book stuff from the 60-early 90's though from DC and Marvel though. And I'm pretty big fan of Image Comics like Supreme, Invincible, and a few others. As you can tell from my name that I'm a big fan of Spawn, and loved the comics since I was a kid.

I still have yet read any of the recent Marvel or DC comics like Siege or The Blackest Knight yet (I'm waiting for a hard cover for both of them soon).

[durendal]

Speaking of Spawn, what's been happening to Al Simmons lately? The last story I've read so far involves the grand parents of Simmons.

[Salkafar]

Al Simmons killed himself a while ago (Yes, he died at the start of the comic, way back when, but he killed himself as Spawn to end the cycle forever).

It didn't take. In "Image United"(Which after 2 issues seems to have come to a grinding halt) he returned as Omega Spawn, the villain, who is trying to tempt the current Spawn. He looks suspiciously like Malebolgia.

Frankly, I think Spawn is beyond saving, which is of course entirely fitting, metatextually speaking. The comic should have ended with him killing Malebolgia and winning his freedom.

[durendal]

Oh I see. I guess spawn is really messed up.

On another note, I'm currently reading Marvels Real of Kings, which tie directly to the next cosmic event called the Thanos Imperative. Interesting things seems to be happening, and yet another alternate continuity can be added to Marvel's list of alternate realities.

[durendal]

I'm done reading the Thanos Imperative. Well, not quite grand scale as I'd hope. True, it involved the battles of the powers cosmic, but they didn't seem too epic like how the Annihilation was. I mean, I saw the cosmic entities, and said "oh there they are" and that's that. I swear, the pacing of the story made me think all those happened in a span of few hours. Is that it? Truth be told, I found the story to be wanting. I'm leaning very close to disappointed if not for what happened to the 2 heroes at the end, and hoping that there is something more to come.

I can see lots of plot holes but I'm giving marvel the benefit of the doubt.

[*Steel]

I'm a huge comicbook fan. I have around ten longboxes (that suposedly contain about 250 comics) and have been collecting since I was 13 (although technicaly I got a few when I was about 9).

Mianly marvel and vertigo, ranging a whole load of titles. About two years ago I stopped buying single issues and went for just collected Trade Paperbacks or Hardcovers. I prefer reading a story arc in one sitting rather than reading sevoral diffrent issues every week.

I'm a bit more of a serious collector now. I plan on getting rid of the junk titles I have and preserving the good ones. I have sevoral issues signed and I have many limited editions. Out of them all I'd say that my near mint Amazing Spider-man issue 2 is the most valuble being worth over a grand alone. Then I have things like a limited edition run of Maximum Carnage signed by all the creators, and a comic con Fathom #1 (only 1000) signed by Michael Turner (who unfortunatly passed away) That probubly about £500 and only going to increace in value. I have quite a few other valuble ones too.

Should realy evaluate my collection at some point.

[odin]

ohhh i so envy you now steel, Spider-Man is the reason why I started drawing in the first place and was the first thing i started to draw with out reference material just to practice my photographic memory (which i tend to do a lot) Making comics has been my dream every since i got into reading spider-man I don't own that many comics tho, as for preferences by company, don't have any i just go by my favorite characters which tend to go from Marvel mostly then Dc and some Dark horse too.

Continuing the conversation with Durendal, I have not read all the New Krypton story yet so i am not aware of everything that happens in that story line yet, as for the "nobody stays dead except bucky" it is actually "Nobody stays dead except Jason,Bucky and Uncle Ben" in which now is only uncle Ben since Jason Todd (the second robin) and Bucky (the new captain america) have been brought back to life.

Spider-man Comics, Love them all even tho it went a little down hill with the whole one more day mumbojumbo not very fond of Peter no longer being married to MJ since all the stuff peter has been through after this event could have happened even if he was still married, i liked the Gauntlet story arc, kept me on my toes on every issue, i got shivers when they did the Rhino section of that story, and since a lot of people have been brought back like Harry I am guessing that Ben Reilly will have to be brought back too, waiting for that to happen, also what kind of role will Kaine have with being brought back to life after being killed.

Edited November 24, 2010 by odin

[*Steel]

Continuing the conversation with Durendal, I have not read all the New Krypton story yet so i am not aware of everything that happens in that story line yet, as for the "nobody stays dead except bucky" it is actually "Nobody stays dead except Jason,Bucky and Uncle Ben" in which now is only uncle Ben since Jason Todd (the second robin) and Bucky (the new captain america) have been brought back to life.

Didn't they alternate universe Uncle Ben into existence for a few issues the same year as Bucky and Jason got "Revived". Out of them all Bucky's was handled the best considering. I think that was perhaps the only reason he was aloud to be resurected.

Would love to get into comic creating myself. Its been my ideal job ever since I was little. Just never seemed practical and I never got any suport or encouragement.

I've not read any Spidey since One More Day. I disagreed with the direction so much I quit. I may pick it up again later down the line, but I couldn't understand a move like that. Horrible move too make, and erases about twenty years of continuity. Thats just about as long as I've been reading them!

[durendal]

Bah, Quesada may have been a good Editor-in-chief, but I also find his decision to split Peter and MJ a bad decision. It just had to be Aunt May, doesn't it. I'm also not following spiderman much, but I'm somewhat aware of his current events.

I'm just a casual reader and I don't have a company preference. So far, the only physical comics I have are the ones that came out during the 90's. Mostly Jim Lee comics since he's my favorite artist, and majority of them Image from their former glory days. Nowadays, I'm just a stinking pirate. If I can't find the comic, I just rely on wiki for the info. With Dark Horse reviving some of the classic valiant heroes, I'm wondering if the value of the valiant comics that I have would go up.

I do enjoy the occasional DC elseworlds story, and those are what I'm currently hunting.

[durendal]

I find marvels current storyline to be lacking the "pull" that they had. Planet Hulk "wowed" me, House of M left me in shock, they had me symphatized in Civil War, didn't particularly liked Dark Reign, but Seige really excited me. Im not exactly sure what Shadowland is going at and my level of interest in Marvel is slowly going down.

For DC however, I'm also having a hard time shallowing at what Bruce Wyane had declared to the whole world. I'm still hesitant because whatever change they make in the status quo usually ends up right back at the start.

Superman, dead? Nope, he's just hibernating. Flash dead? Nope, he's just one with the speed force. Green Lantern dead? Nope, he just became the temporary avatar of the Spectre. Batman dead? Nope he just traveled through time. So who's not going to die next?

[jerrygoodman]

Is this a trick question?

YES!!!

Although I am starting to cut down on the more recent stuff, due to space constraints. I am hoping to go back to collecting older issues. There are a few past storylines that have caught my attention and I'm hoping to complete them.

And in case you're wondering, Marvel is the way I roll.

[durendal]

Aha, another marvel fanboy. I've just finished reading planet X and to tell you the truth, I wasn't a bit impressed on how Grant Morrison portrayed Magneto. I mean the Xorn identity was pure genius, brainwashing the students to follow Magneto. But when things gets unravelled, it went downhill. The methods he used to manage his new group isn't like Magneto at all. Magneto can inspire people, and one of his gifts is his charisma, which was lacking in the story. Good thing it was retconned later on. I'd hate to see Magneto die like that.