What I've Been Reading (Comics)
Apr. 3rd, 2011 02:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteIt’s been ages since I posted anything about my current comic book reading. So here we go (with some small spoilers)…
First off, my buying habits have really changed in the past year. I am getting fewer monthlies than ever. Part of this is due to the ability to find pretty much any DC or Marvel title in collected form in the libraries in a fairly short amount of time. (In fact, my local library even carries monthly issues of about 15 titles, including Green Lantern, Action Comics, and Ultimate Spider-Man.) Unless something really feels like a Must Read, I am happy to wait.
At the same time, let’s be honest: there is less from DC that I want to read, almost nothing from Marvel, and not a lot from other imprints. I still find a lot of things in the libraries that are worth reading, but the kind of classic super-hero book I love seems to be in short supply as the Big Two lurch from event to event, and from one character death to the next, and as the other brands seem to be growing either ever more graphic and grotesque or ever less fantastic. It’s great that there is so much diversity, that comics can be anything. But I miss the kind of comics that DC (and sometimes Marvel) did so well in my relative youth.
So my Buy Pile is smaller. But there are things I can recommend. Or, in one case, not.
My current favorite comic is Justice League: Generation Lost, now reaching the end of a surprisingly strong 24 issue run. While Judd Winick still occasionally falls back on shock value and while he seems to be cavalier with alterations to character histories, he’s created a well-scripted, often witty, something thrilling saga. I am still not sure the big finale will wrap up the story well, but if DC lets Winick tell more stories with this alternate JL team, I plan to be there. (Never thought after the debacle that was Winick’s run on Green Arrow I would be saying this. Makes me wonder how much of that mess was Winick’s fault and how much was DC editorial edict.)
Red Robin has slowed down a bit the last few issues, but Fabian Nicieza continues to use Tim Drake quite effectively and has a good vision for a hero who at once is finding his place among the larger Bat-family and becoming his own man. Marcus To’s art has been quite good, though very much in the standard “shiny heroes” mode that DC prefers.
Detective Comics features Dick Grayson in his new role as Gotham’s Batman (while Bruce is going global – see below), and Jim Gordon, written by Scott Snyder. So far, Snyder has shown far more of a sense of Dick Grayson’s old Nightwing-era personality more than any other writer since he put on the bat-ears, but the high point continues to be a plotline involving Jim and his sociopathic son. I know that long-time readers are probably not thrilled that suddenly Jim Gordon Jr. is a sociopath – he wasn’t much of anything since his one major appearance as a boy hostage in Batman: Year One – but I am willing to ignore major shifts in continuity for the sake of a great story. This series also boasts art by the acclaimed Jock and by newcomer Francesco Francavilla that works perfectly for the gritty, haunted Gotham Snyder uses as a backdrop.
By contrast, Grant Morrison’s newest Batman series, Batman Incorporated, has not worked that well for me. Even though Grant isn’t doing anything he hasn’t done before with his endless Silver Age references and over the top villains and heroes, this time around the “weird for weird’s sake” is overtaking the Cool Factor. And Grant’s decision to find a way to make sure the Silver Age Batwoman is part of the Bat-backstory didn’t work for me in the least. (Never mind that Grant can’t be bothered to get little details about the current Batwoman correct.) After five years of usually loving and occasionally hating Grant’s take on Batman, I find myself a bit bored. Fact is, he was doing better writing Dick and new Robin Damian Wayne than he is with writing Bruce. As for the “Batman goes global” aspect, it’s not a bad idea and a natural extension of Bruce’s crusade, but I really prefer Batman in Gotham.
The Buffy: Season Eight comic ended two months ago, but it seems like there is always something more coming from Joss. This week, it was the Dollhouse: Epitaphs one-shot first created as an extra for the season two DVD set. And the one-shot (set after the apocalypse but before Epitaph One) will lead to an Dollhouse miniseries this summer. Given that Joss said two years there was no way to make a Dollhouse comic, it’s a surprise that he decided to return to that series. But it’s not a surprise that it’s a good single issue (written by his brother Jed and sister-in-law Maurissa Tancharoen). I find myself liking Joss’ universes in comic form more and more. Maybe I’m an easy touch when it comes to Joss. But I will be there for the Dollhouse series, for the Buffy Season Nine series and Angel and Faith spinoff, and for whatever else Joss and his people do next on paper.
There are three new comics on my current list that I am not ready to declare total successes just yet. Xombi, a revival of a cult favorite from Milestone Media written by John Rozum, had a really interesting and weird first issue, and should be stronger once it’s done with the exposition needed to bring new readers like me up to speed. Ruse, a CrossGen comic revived by Marvel, had a readable first issue written by series creator Mark Waid, but it was not up to the quality of the original series. (Waid’s work in general doesn’t seem the same these days.) And Image’s Infinite Vacation, by the up and coming Nick Spencer (recently signed to an exclusive by Marvel) had a great and totally odd first issue in January, but the second issue won’t be out for another two weeks, so it’s hard to maintain my enthusiasm.
Beyond all these, I continue to borrow the aforementioned Action, Green Lantern and Ultimate Spider-Man. Action, despite rave reviews for Paul Cornell’s take on Lex Luthor, hasn’t been as good as I had expected, and seems to spin its wheels a lot. Green Lantern has been a lot of fun, though the ongoing story arc seems to be a little schlepped out. (With any luck, the current “War of the Green Lanterns” will wrap things up, though things never do seem to end at DC now.) Ult-Spidey continues to be a much stronger Spider-Man book than the original version (a series I read sporadically in borrowed monthly form and more often collected). If Marvel were not charging $4, I would seriously consider buying it, but it’s not quite THAT good.
Coming up, I plan to sink my cash into DC’s next Geoff Johns-written Big Event, Flashpoint, wherein Barry Allen wakes up to find himself in a drastically altered timeline. While there will be far too many tie-in miniseries (many by writers I have never heard of or former DC editors), this won’t cross over into any ongoing series but Booster Gold, so it should be the kind of thing I can either read or ignore. But given how much I liked Blackest Night, this time I am actually going to buy the series rather than wait for the collection. The worst that happens is I stop after one issue and then wait. But I like alternate timelines stories. Also, two of the miniseries are by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, whose work at Marvel has been very good, so I will try those.
Lastly, I want to recommend one completed series that I found in collected form, last year’s acclaimed Vertigo ten-parter Daytripper. I bought the first issue, didn’t care for it, and then found it in the library. I am very glad I gave it a second look. I can’t really say much about it without giving away the story, but I will say it boasts great art and a gripping saga. And it’s just barely the least fantastic. It’s rare that I read a comic of this sort and like it. But the team of Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba – twin brothers despite the different last names – create a wonderful cast of characters and some amazing art. It is totally worth your time even if you don’t usually read Vertigo, or read slice of life stories.
And that’s all from here.
First off, my buying habits have really changed in the past year. I am getting fewer monthlies than ever. Part of this is due to the ability to find pretty much any DC or Marvel title in collected form in the libraries in a fairly short amount of time. (In fact, my local library even carries monthly issues of about 15 titles, including Green Lantern, Action Comics, and Ultimate Spider-Man.) Unless something really feels like a Must Read, I am happy to wait.
At the same time, let’s be honest: there is less from DC that I want to read, almost nothing from Marvel, and not a lot from other imprints. I still find a lot of things in the libraries that are worth reading, but the kind of classic super-hero book I love seems to be in short supply as the Big Two lurch from event to event, and from one character death to the next, and as the other brands seem to be growing either ever more graphic and grotesque or ever less fantastic. It’s great that there is so much diversity, that comics can be anything. But I miss the kind of comics that DC (and sometimes Marvel) did so well in my relative youth.
So my Buy Pile is smaller. But there are things I can recommend. Or, in one case, not.
My current favorite comic is Justice League: Generation Lost, now reaching the end of a surprisingly strong 24 issue run. While Judd Winick still occasionally falls back on shock value and while he seems to be cavalier with alterations to character histories, he’s created a well-scripted, often witty, something thrilling saga. I am still not sure the big finale will wrap up the story well, but if DC lets Winick tell more stories with this alternate JL team, I plan to be there. (Never thought after the debacle that was Winick’s run on Green Arrow I would be saying this. Makes me wonder how much of that mess was Winick’s fault and how much was DC editorial edict.)
Red Robin has slowed down a bit the last few issues, but Fabian Nicieza continues to use Tim Drake quite effectively and has a good vision for a hero who at once is finding his place among the larger Bat-family and becoming his own man. Marcus To’s art has been quite good, though very much in the standard “shiny heroes” mode that DC prefers.
Detective Comics features Dick Grayson in his new role as Gotham’s Batman (while Bruce is going global – see below), and Jim Gordon, written by Scott Snyder. So far, Snyder has shown far more of a sense of Dick Grayson’s old Nightwing-era personality more than any other writer since he put on the bat-ears, but the high point continues to be a plotline involving Jim and his sociopathic son. I know that long-time readers are probably not thrilled that suddenly Jim Gordon Jr. is a sociopath – he wasn’t much of anything since his one major appearance as a boy hostage in Batman: Year One – but I am willing to ignore major shifts in continuity for the sake of a great story. This series also boasts art by the acclaimed Jock and by newcomer Francesco Francavilla that works perfectly for the gritty, haunted Gotham Snyder uses as a backdrop.
By contrast, Grant Morrison’s newest Batman series, Batman Incorporated, has not worked that well for me. Even though Grant isn’t doing anything he hasn’t done before with his endless Silver Age references and over the top villains and heroes, this time around the “weird for weird’s sake” is overtaking the Cool Factor. And Grant’s decision to find a way to make sure the Silver Age Batwoman is part of the Bat-backstory didn’t work for me in the least. (Never mind that Grant can’t be bothered to get little details about the current Batwoman correct.) After five years of usually loving and occasionally hating Grant’s take on Batman, I find myself a bit bored. Fact is, he was doing better writing Dick and new Robin Damian Wayne than he is with writing Bruce. As for the “Batman goes global” aspect, it’s not a bad idea and a natural extension of Bruce’s crusade, but I really prefer Batman in Gotham.
The Buffy: Season Eight comic ended two months ago, but it seems like there is always something more coming from Joss. This week, it was the Dollhouse: Epitaphs one-shot first created as an extra for the season two DVD set. And the one-shot (set after the apocalypse but before Epitaph One) will lead to an Dollhouse miniseries this summer. Given that Joss said two years there was no way to make a Dollhouse comic, it’s a surprise that he decided to return to that series. But it’s not a surprise that it’s a good single issue (written by his brother Jed and sister-in-law Maurissa Tancharoen). I find myself liking Joss’ universes in comic form more and more. Maybe I’m an easy touch when it comes to Joss. But I will be there for the Dollhouse series, for the Buffy Season Nine series and Angel and Faith spinoff, and for whatever else Joss and his people do next on paper.
There are three new comics on my current list that I am not ready to declare total successes just yet. Xombi, a revival of a cult favorite from Milestone Media written by John Rozum, had a really interesting and weird first issue, and should be stronger once it’s done with the exposition needed to bring new readers like me up to speed. Ruse, a CrossGen comic revived by Marvel, had a readable first issue written by series creator Mark Waid, but it was not up to the quality of the original series. (Waid’s work in general doesn’t seem the same these days.) And Image’s Infinite Vacation, by the up and coming Nick Spencer (recently signed to an exclusive by Marvel) had a great and totally odd first issue in January, but the second issue won’t be out for another two weeks, so it’s hard to maintain my enthusiasm.
Beyond all these, I continue to borrow the aforementioned Action, Green Lantern and Ultimate Spider-Man. Action, despite rave reviews for Paul Cornell’s take on Lex Luthor, hasn’t been as good as I had expected, and seems to spin its wheels a lot. Green Lantern has been a lot of fun, though the ongoing story arc seems to be a little schlepped out. (With any luck, the current “War of the Green Lanterns” will wrap things up, though things never do seem to end at DC now.) Ult-Spidey continues to be a much stronger Spider-Man book than the original version (a series I read sporadically in borrowed monthly form and more often collected). If Marvel were not charging $4, I would seriously consider buying it, but it’s not quite THAT good.
Coming up, I plan to sink my cash into DC’s next Geoff Johns-written Big Event, Flashpoint, wherein Barry Allen wakes up to find himself in a drastically altered timeline. While there will be far too many tie-in miniseries (many by writers I have never heard of or former DC editors), this won’t cross over into any ongoing series but Booster Gold, so it should be the kind of thing I can either read or ignore. But given how much I liked Blackest Night, this time I am actually going to buy the series rather than wait for the collection. The worst that happens is I stop after one issue and then wait. But I like alternate timelines stories. Also, two of the miniseries are by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, whose work at Marvel has been very good, so I will try those.
Lastly, I want to recommend one completed series that I found in collected form, last year’s acclaimed Vertigo ten-parter Daytripper. I bought the first issue, didn’t care for it, and then found it in the library. I am very glad I gave it a second look. I can’t really say much about it without giving away the story, but I will say it boasts great art and a gripping saga. And it’s just barely the least fantastic. It’s rare that I read a comic of this sort and like it. But the team of Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba – twin brothers despite the different last names – create a wonderful cast of characters and some amazing art. It is totally worth your time even if you don’t usually read Vertigo, or read slice of life stories.
And that’s all from here.
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(no subject)
Date: Apr. 5th, 2011 02:12 am (UTC)I started picking up JL:GL very late and agree with you that it's enjoyable.
I wish Superman was more like the Superman I remember. Having him appear mostly in only one book while Batman is everywhere is disappointing to a Superman fan such as myself.
I am looking forward to Flashpoint. I read Booster Gold regularly and enjoy it.