Let's Talk Comics! Purchases and Reviews: 10/5/11

[wonderfly]

Welcome to "Let's Talk Comics!" for 10/05/11!

Every week, in this thread, you can:

1. Discuss what you're buying this week.

2. Discuss what you've read this last week.

3. Discuss current news and rumors in the comic book industry that you've heard!

If discussing something potentially spoilerific, then use your common sense and cover the text with the spoiler code (or provide spoiler space).

Forget what's coming out this week? TFAW has weekly updated list of all new releases!

Highlights of the Week:

Avengers 1959 #1 / Penguin: Pain and Prejudice #1​

If you have any feedback/comments/suggestions... just contact your neighborhood friendly comic moderators!

 

[suss2it]

I've read quite a few stuff recently. First up was the mini by Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales Identity Crisis. I think this was an alright mini. It did a good job of explaining why villains would never remember secret identities and what not. However in Green Arrow's case I don't think it made any sense. He has no one in his family that he needs to protect since they're all crime fighters anyway. Plus he easily has the filmiest disguise of them all, as this Cracked article points out.

I already knew who the killer was before I read the story, but I still think it was a good twist. And she did have a lot more page time than one would expect, so it wasn't just out of left field.

Sue Dibny getting raped was just wow... didn't really know that was Dr. Light that type of villain, since I was used to the almost harmless version from Teen Titans the cartoon.

I did like how the villains had a club house and how Calculator was basically their agent/broker. Deathstroke taking down the League was an awesome moment for him, but the powerless Green Arrow getting the better of him was great. Oh and Deadshot getting himself shot in an attempt to escape was cool too, definitely something he'd do.

The art though was all over the place. Sometimes it was really good, other times though it seemed really sloppy. Superman never really seemed to look right.

I've also recently read #3-12 of Morning Glories by Nick Spencer. So far it's been really intriguing. Mystery on top of mystery type of thing. Though I'm hoping we start getting some revelations sometime soon. The twist with Jun and his brother is one I didn't see coming, but I guess I should've expected. The art is very expressive, and the covers are drawn amazingly. Really good creative team all around.

Of "The New 52" that don't have talkbalks, I've recently read the first issues of Birds of Prey and Nightwing. I can't help but feel what's going on in Nightwing is tying in with what's going on in Batman. Makes sense though since Higgins and Snyder did collaborate on Gates of Gotham. Barrows is bringing it with the art, and the red is actually growing on me. I guess red is now the official colour for all Robins now, both current and former.

Birda of Prey was good too. It was mostly just Black Canary kicking ass though. It also seems that Dinah and Babs are friends so I wonder how much of their old history is intact. The art was also pretty good here. I think all the The New 52 books have been bringing it in the art department.

I also just realized how truly dangerous Gotham City is, even for the DCU. Almost all the Batman titles take place in Gotham which means that there's people in skull masks blowing up apartments, Wolverine knock-offs attacking citizens, a weeping woman kidnapping kids, serial killers killing people that shoud've died, dead bodies with eery messages, Joker cutting off his face etc. It's a wonder anyone continues to live there.

 

[Bat-Fan Beyond]

Of "The New 52" that don't have talkbalks, I've recently read the first issues of Birds of Prey and Nightwing[/I]. I can't help but feel what's going on in Nightwing is tying in with what's going on in Batman. Makes sense though since Higgins and Snyder did collaborate on Gates of Gotham.

There is a connection, but not a direct crossover.

IGN: Cool. I don't know if you can answer this, but obviously issue #1 ended with quite a cliffhanger involving Dick. Is that going to be reflected at all in Nightwing?

Snyder: Yeah, it will actually. I can say that. The stories are independent – I don't want anyone to get the sense that they need to read them both. I wouldn't do that and neither would Kyle and neither would DC. They are very separate first arcs and they're totally independent of each other. So the answer to this mystery isn't in Nightwing, and the answer to the mystery in Nightwing isn't in Batman. But the events of Batman will reverberate in Nightwing and the events of Nightwing will reverberate in Batman. There will be a point later on where they cross, and you see things happen in both issues that overlap.

http://comics.ign.com/articles/119/1198527p1.html

 

[suss2it]

There is a connection, but not a direct crossover.



http://comics.ign.com/articles/119/1198527p1.html

Good to know. I think I may have read that already but forgot about it, thanks for posting it. On another note, I finally bought Ultimate Comics X-Men #1, Spider-Man #2 and Ultimates #2. Looking forward to reading them and finally getting caught up with the Ultimate verse. I'm also contemplating buying some Wolverine: Origins issues since it's on sale right now. Is the series any good?

 

[wonderfly]

I'm also contemplating buying some Wolverine: Origins issues since it's on sale right now. Is the series any good?

I read up until around Issue #30, I only stopped because that was around when I made serious cuts in my comic purchases due to financial reasons. I liked it overall. It wasn't "WOW! AWESOME!", but if you like sorting through Wolverine's history (I'm a Marvel chronology lover, so I do) and if you're fine with Wolverine having an adult son who can be more sadistic than Wolverine himself, then you might like it.

Recently read:

Punisher: In The Blood #1-5: I tried the first issue or two of Rick Remender's "Punisher War Journal" back around the time Civil War came out, and I just didn't care for it (the premise revolved around the Punisher hunting super-villains. I instead prefered to stick with the Punisher MAX title by Garth Ennis, featuring a more "realistic" - yet darker - version of the Punisher). So I figured I'd try out this last story of Remender's run (I believe he's now moved on to writing Uncanny X-Force, which I hear good things about), to see what all of his storylines were culminating towards.

And wow, this was dark. Too dark. Let me explain: I loved Garth Ennis' nihilistic and morbid take on the Punisher, but that had a grounded sensibility to it - Ennis' Punisher was a war and espoinage story. This embraces the supernatural and fantastic aspects of the Marvel Universe and it just doesn't work for me.

The background of the story revolves around supervillain "the Hood" using dark magic to resurrect Punisher's wife and family, in order to get the Punisher to stop fighting crime. Ol' Frank in turn declares them abominations (not his real family) and promptly sets them on fire, sending them back to the land of the dead. That's actually what occured in the last story arc prior to this mini-series, here it's just the backdrop for a story involving the Punisher hunting down his old ally Microchip (whom the Hood also resurrected), and getting involved in a scheme by his old nemesis Jigsaw.

I guess it would help if I'd read the issues in question involving the Hood and his family, but that just sounds horrific. Bringing back the Punisher's murdered family is like resurrecting Uncle Ben - it's just not done. Of course, this wasn't to bring them back permanently, it was meant as a way to test Frank's commitment to his war on crime, but Garth Ennis' realistic Punisher would never have to deal with this insult. That's why the use of magic and superpowers in a Punisher story usually don't make sense.

And if you ever read the late 80's Punisher stories, in his own title, Frank usually fought drug traffickers, street gangs, and serial killers. The only Marvel Universe characters he would encounter would be Daredevil and the Kingpin. His more fantastic team-ups with other Marvel characters would occur in other character's books.This type of stuff (magical resurrections and Punisher hunting super-villains) need not occur in his own book. I'm glad Remender's moved on to other titles.

Grade: C-

 

[Radical Raven]

So I picked up some of the new DC # 1s today! I got Superman and Detective Comics. They sucked! The Superman story just felt really bland. I liked the idea behind it but it just seemed to focus on all the wrong things - we get reporters asking each other "What do you think Superman's thinking?" instead of actually seeing Superman's thoughts, for example. The art is uninteresting too - I like the image on the cover, Evil Superman aside, better than anything on the inside. The colors are brighter and the face is more expressive. Also I didn't like the random page crossing-over Storm Watch - in the first issue of Superman, was that really necessary? And they throw two unnecesary references to twitter in, which, stop. And, um.... this is and odd thing to harp on maybe, but I hate Superman's new boots.

I hate them.

I don't think I'll bother with the second issue of this one.

Detective Comics was more interesting. The art was better - although the expressions are horrible, why do we have to see so much of Batman's teeth? - and it left me wanting to know what was going on. But, again, it moved too slowly and the ending was really freaking grisly. Like, almost literally a torture porn scene. I might pick up the second one just to figure out what's going to happen, but if it doesn't grab me I wont go beyond that.

I am looking online to try and decide which other series I should buy! I will be getting Justice League and Justice League International. I will definitely be getting Action Comics - Grant Morrison, and also all the negative comments I've read on it make it sound like exactly my thing. I might get that one with Morrison's Shining Knight because it has MORRISON'S SHINING KNIGHT IN IT OMG. I might be getting Frankenstein for the same reason except replace Shining Knight with Frankenstein. I'm seriously considering Animal Man, everyone seems to love it. I might pick up another Batman if Detective Comics #2 doesn't work out - probably Batman, since CA gave it a 9.0. And...maybe Wonder Woman. Nothing else really jumped out at me - Flash and Green Lantern sound too continunity heavy and the rest just sound mediocre.

I also picked up the first issue of marvel's new Oz mini-series - they're going through all the books and turning them into eight-issue series and they just got up to Dorothy and the Wizard. It's like all the others - beautiful, magnificent, nearly perfect artwork, but a story that is taken from the book literally almost word for word. That aspect of it made me have mixed feelings towards the first three series, but it's not so bad now that we're getting to the more obscure stuff that's rarely been visualized.

 

[Shawn Hopkins]

And if you ever read the last 80's Punisher stories, in his own title, Frank usually fought drug traffickers, street gangs, and serial killers. The only Marvel Universe characters he would encounter would be Daredevil and the Kingpin. His more fantastic team-ups with other Marvel characters would occur in other character's books.This type of stuff (magical resurrections and Punisher hunting super-villains) need not occur in his own book. I'm glad Remender's moved on to other titles.

Well, not always. I remember him taking part in the Acts of Vengeance crossover and farting around with Dr. Doom. Well, Kristoff and what I hope was a malfunctioning Doombot, because if it was Doom he's rarely acted stupider. Of course, the point of Acts of Vengeance was to fight people you wouldn't usually.

And then there was the first version of Punisher War Journal, which seemed to be intended to show a Punisher who fit more in the Marvel Universe and teamed him up with Wolverine, Spider-Man, even Ghost Rider pretty often.

And there was an incredible glut of Punisher crossover specials and miniseries and Marvel Comics Presents team-ups with superheroes, so Marvel was definitely pushing him in that direction. The most egregiously supernatural were probably the Hearts of Darkness specials, where Ghost Rider, Punisher and Wolverine fight Blackheart in Hell.

But this is just to illustrate that agree that it's usually a bad idea, unless the silliness can be embraced the way Ennis did in Confederacy of Dunces. I stopped reading the newer Punisher War Journal after the issue where Punisher killed all the silly b-list villians at Stiltman's wake. It just doesn't fit, you've got these colorful, not particularly serious characters and the Punisher is making them puke blood. It just seems mean-spirited and unnecessary.

 

[wonderfly]

Well, not always. I remember him taking part in the Acts of Vengeance crossover and farting around with Dr. Doom. Well, Kristoff and what I hope was a malfunctioning Doombot, because if it was Doom he's rarely acted stupider. Of course, the point of Acts of Vengeance was to fight people you wouldn't usually.

And then there was the first version of Punisher War Journal, which seemed to be intended to show a Punisher who fit more in the Marvel Universe and teamed him up with Wolverine, Spider-Man, even Ghost Rider pretty often.

And there was an incredible glut of Punisher crossover specials and miniseries and Marvel Comics Presents team-ups with superheroes, so Marvel was definitely pushing him in that direction. The most egregiously supernatural were probably the Hearts of Darkness specials, where Ghost Rider, Punisher and Wolverine fight Blackheart in Hell.

True, I think the original Punisher spin-off "Punisher War Journal" was created to let Punisher interact more with the rest of the Marvel Universe. Which led to him appearing as a guest star in every title by the early 90's (as did Ghost Rider and Wolverine). Which is fine, for a while it was fun to see the Punisher team-up with others. I own "Hearts of Darkness", though I haven't read it in probably 15 years, but it was the perfect story for those three characters (I think I recall Frank saying he doesn't believe in Hell, but he recognized Blackout as a villain and was content to work with Wolverine and Ghost Rider against him).

But in his own title, there's enough "regular" criminals in the Marvel Universe that the Punisher works fine killing them. I think I liked Punisher best when written by Mike Baron and Chuck Dixon (the early issues of Punisher and Punisher War Zone come to mind). I'm interested to see what the next Punisher series is like (it just started up, written by Greg Rucka), to see if it continues with the magical/super-powered stuff.

 

[Jin Kazama]

I'm interested to see what the next Punisher series is like (it just started up, written by Greg Rucka), to see if it continues with the magical/super-powered stuff.

So far (in the three issues that have been released), there's none of that in here. Just Punisher taking down street crime. The closest they come to a super-powered part is in the third issue, where he faces the new (I think, I don't read much current Spider-Man) Vulture. That's just a brutal multi-page brawl with the only "power" being that Vulture can fly.

It's an...odd series. I'm not sure what I feel of it. It's not bad, but it's different. I hate to make the connection because it's Rucka, but it feels like Gotham Central. It's almost entirely from the view of the people of the city, but it works because you really feel the impact that Frank has on it. Heck, Frank doesn't say a single word in the entire series until the last panel of the third issue.

It's easily the most unique of the Punisher stuff I've read, that's for sure.

 

[suss2it]

Flash and Green Lantern sound too continunity heavy and the rest just sound mediocre.

Green Lantern is definitely continuity heavy, but I didn't get that vibe from Flash at all.

I read up until around Issue #30, I only stopped because that was around when I made serious cuts in my comic purchases due to financial reasons. I liked it overall. It wasn't "WOW! AWESOME!", but if you like sorting through Wolverine's history (I'm a Marvel chronology lover, so I do) and if you're fine with Wolverine having an adult son who can be more sadistic than Wolverine himself, then you might like it.

I decided to just buy the first arc and see if I like it. I also don't have a problem with Wolverine's sadistic son showing up, which I presume is Daken.

I've recently read JLA #8-9, and it was pretty good. The Key was an interesting and legit villain, although very different from what he was like in JLU. The new Green Arrow also seems like a cool character. When he first went into the trophy room and Ollie's old stuff was there, I knew he'd end up using it by the end of the story, and lo and behold he did. I love that he struggled with the trick arrows, since I can't imagine they're easy to use, and I think it gave Ollie more credibility, even if he was dead at the time.

Also, I think I see where Grant Morrison first had the idea of Batman's "Batman Inc." outfit. Bruce's imaginary future self wears one that's strikingly similar to what we later get in Batman Inc.

DC is currently having a sale on DC Universe Online Legends a comic that ties into their online video game and is written by Marv Wolfman and Tony Bedard. So far I've read up to #9 and it's good. Even though there's rotating artists on this, the art is still consistent as the artists clearly have similar styles. It's also neat that the guy who drew JLA, is also doing art on this, Howard Porter is also drawing this since I'm reading them at the same time. I also find it kinda interesting that the "old" DC continues to live on in this book. Superman and Batman both still have their underpants on the outside, Wonder Woman has her more tradtional colouring, Power Girl is still a super hero etc. However I can imagine that this panel from #9 got a lot of complaints.

At least in Catwoman and Starfire were shown to both be capable fighters, however Wonder Woman has just been window-dressing so far, and when a battle does come up, this is all she ends up doing.

From Marvel I've recently read, Secret Avengers #17, Avengers #17 and New Avengers 16.1. I gotta say, the art in all was kinda wonky at some points. The faces in SA were kinda weird every now and then but other than that the art was solid there. Avengers was just boring. I'm glad this is gonna be the last Fear Itself tie-in since all the previous tie-ins have been just as boring. Also the cover was very misleading since nothing romantic happened at all with Hawkeye and Spider Woman. New Avengers was good though. I liked the crack about them just sitting around eating, since they appear to do that a lot. I also can't wait to see that chaos that Osbourne is gonna unleash now that he's free.

 

[wonderfly]

So far (in the three issues that have been released), there's none of that in here. Just Punisher taking down street crime. The closest they come to a super-powered part is in the third issue, where he faces the new (I think, I don't read much current Spider-Man) Vulture. That's just a brutal multi-page brawl with the only "power" being that Vulture can fly.

It's an...odd series. I'm not sure what I feel of it. It's not bad, but it's different. I hate to make the connection because it's Rucka, but it feels like Gotham Central. It's almost entirely from the view of the people of the city, but it works because you really feel the impact that Frank has on it. Heck, Frank doesn't say a single word in the entire series until the last panel of the third issue.

It's easily the most unique of the Punisher stuff I've read, that's for sure.

So it's like "Marvels": told with a "man on the street" perspective on the Punisher? I could actually enjoy that (though I'll just have to read it to be sure). There's actually not much to the Punisher's personality, it's more compelling at times to read about the characters that encounter him, and the effect he has on them.

And these are all single issue stories, I take it? That'd be another welcome change.

Recently read:

Avengers Academy #14: The "High School Prom" issue. Wow, writer Christos Gage is a continuity master, actually making the Hank Pym and Tigra relationship work. When Bendis had them hook up back during "Mighty Avengers", it just didn't feel right. But apparently the two dated back during the days of "West Coast Avengers" in the '80's, and Gage uses that material to explore their relationship. But that's just one of the "small little things" that impress, there's also the touching scenes between Spider-Girl and Reptil, between Mettle and Hazmat, and between Justice and Firestar, all of these made this stand-alone issue one of the best stories I've read this year. Grade: A+

 

[Jin Kazama]

So it's like "Marvels": told with a "man on the street" perspective on the Punisher? I could actually enjoy that (though I'll just have to read it to be sure). There's actually not much to the Punisher's personality, it's more compelling at times to read about the characters that encounter him, and the effect he has on them.

And these are all single issue stories, I take it? That'd be another welcome change.

I'd say it's a sort of Marvels-vibe. It's different perspectives, though, not just told through one person. There's the bad guys, a reporter and a couple of cops, each showing different views on Punisher.

They're not single issue stories, though. So far all three issues have been a part of one story.

 

[Radical Raven]

OK, so I really like Justice League. The art feels really mechanical, but the artist seems aware of this and we get panels that know how to emphasize it - like the close up on the soldiers or Superman's action figure pose on the last page. It moves more quickly and the characterizations are perfect. I didn't really like the uber-cliche about Cyborg's dad, but at least that was handled well. I almost didn't get this one because it was $3.99 but I'm glad I did, I'll be sticking around. So far it's the only one that really feels like a superhero story.

International, on the other hand, was just OK. Fun, but in a very small-scale, pandering sort of way - the scene at the begininning with the UN picking heroes sets the tone for most of the issue. I wanna say one reason I didn't like it as much is because of the more obscure characters, but I actually know about as much about Booster Gold as I do Green Lantern. Might check out the second one, might not.