Let's Talk Comics! Purchases and Reviews: 11/16/11

[wonderfly]

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Welcome to "Let's Talk Comics!" for 11/16/11!

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:

Godzilla Legends #1​

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

 

[suss2it]

iFanboy has the February solicits for the Spider-Man and Ultimate books. That didn't take long for Joe Mad to get replaced on Avenging Spider-Man. Haven't bought #1 because I don't care about Rulk, but this one I'll buy since Hawkeye is one my favourite characters, and i really like his new outfit (mostly because it's his Ultimate one, and wow they even took his Ultimate bow too) it's a shame that Mad won't be drawing it though. Judging by the cover, Greg Land seems like a good fill-in to me.

As for the Ultimate books, Spider-Woman vs. Spider-Man should be fun, and finally the world learns of the new Spider-Man. That only took 7 issues. Two Ultimate X-Men in one month is gonna be fun, and I'm glad that they're building off what was introduced in Hawkeye's mini, although the summary (and Ultimates #3) sadly spoil the end of the mini. And yay, Ultimate Falcon returns. He was fun Warren Ellis' Ultimate Galactus trilogy, and then kinda forgotten about, so glad that he's returning.

Onto the things I've read this week:

Birds of Prey #3 was a quick read, but I still liked it. All the characters are just kick-ass, Starling still being my favourite. Poison Ivy is cool so far, although I think I would've preferred DC keep her as a villain, and just put her on the Suicide Squad for a little while. The art was good here, but it looked kinda different from #1 and #2, according to the credits it's the same guy doing the art, but maybe there's a new inker or colourist. In other BoP news, Batgirl is officially joining as of #4. Since Babs already has her own on-going, I would've preferred it if Huntress joined instead. I don't wanna see her go back into limbo once her mini is done .

Nightwing #3 was alright. We got some good flashbacks to his time with the circus, which seems to have been most his childhood this time, since he looks like a teenager in the flashback. The mystery that's going on with the circus didn't really deepen, and Nightwing's brief time in Chicago seems like a waste since nothing was accomplished. At least we learn who hired Saiko.

Supergirl #3 was good. I like the new villain and the way he handled the president of the USA. It's also interesting to see that Supergirl can apparently heat herself up. I wonder if that will ever come in handy. The colours do seem different than previous issues, not sure why they decided to switch it up as I really liked it before. I wonder if the Fortress of Solitude exists in the New 52? If so Superman should definitely take Kara there, I think that'd help her understand what's going on.

 

[Vyse]

suss2it: Joe Mad is not kicked off of Avenging. It will be an "alternating arc" thing, so he'll be back next arc.

Also, here's the X-book solicitations for February. All I'll say is that I am glad I am getting WatXM and New Mutants because February is going to be awesome and fun with those two titles.

 

[rggkjg1]

Marvel's PUNISHERMAX to End in February with Issue #22:
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/punishermax-ending-in-february-111116.html

i'm very disappointed. i first got punishermax just because steve dillon was doing the art. ever since the beginning i was very impressed with jason aaron's writing on the title. i was really looking forward to seeing what he was going to do with the punisher. he's become a great successor to garth ennis, but that means nothing now since we hardly knew ye.

the punisher will no doubt be relaunched AGAIN for the 500 millionth time in the months following issue 22. i hope they get a punisher veteran or an established big name writer or artist to get me interested.

 

[suss2it]

suss2it: Joe Mad is not kicked off of Avenging. It will be an "alternating arc" thing, so he'll be back next arc.

Oh, sweet.

Also, here's the X-book solicitations for February. All I'll say is that I am glad I am getting WatXM and New Mutants because February is going to be awesome and fun with those two titles.

Kitty's preggers?! Who's the dad? Not sure how I feel about Tocchini on X-Force. I liked his work in Last Days of American Crime, but his work in Batman and Robin was just downright ugly. Now that Gage is writing Legacy I'll start buying that, I'm glad that it's also priced at $3. The $4 price tag on the other X-books is what's keeping me away.

In other news, Marvel cancels a slew of books. So that's Iron Man 2.0, X-23, Ghost Rider andBlack Panther. And then there's the Destroyers and Teen Doom minis which got cancelled before seeing the light of day, and Alpha Flight getting upgraded to an ongoing and then downgraded back to a mini. In addition to the recent layoffs, it looks like Marvel Comics is in bad shape right now. I'm just hoping that Avengers Academy and the Ultimate line survive.

 

[wonderfly]

Marvel's PUNISHERMAX to End in February with Issue #22:
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/punishermax-ending-in-february-111116.html

i'm very disappointed. i first got punishermax just because steve dillon was doing the art. ever since the beginning i was very impressed with jason aaron's writing on the title. i was really looking forward to seeing what he was going to do with the punisher. he's become a great successor to garth ennis, but that means nothing now since we hardly knew ye.

the punisher will no doubt be relaunched AGAIN for the 500 millionth time in the months following issue 22. i hope they get a punisher veteran or an established big name writer or artist to get me interested.

Jason Aaron, the writer, has said for months now that it was always intended to end (his volume of the Punisher was one continous story, about the Punisher fighting the Kingpin). I knew it wouldn't last till Issue #50, but I kind of thought it'd last till Issue #25.

Also, the Punisher's already been relaunched: There's a Punisher book written by Greg Rucka on the stands now. The Punisher will always be relaunched, but not this version. This isn't the main Marvel Universe Punisher, instead this is Garth Ennis and Jason Aaron's Punisher, who ages in real time (and who still fought in the Vietnam War). I still strongly suspect this Punisher MAX book is going to end with the Punisher's death.

In other news, Marvel cancels a slew of books. So that's Iron Man 2.0, X-23, Ghost Rider andBlack Panther. And then there's the Destroyers and Teen Doom minis which got cancelled before seeing the light of day, and Alpha Flight getting upgraded to an ongoing and then downgraded back to a mini. In addition to the recent layoffs, it looks like Marvel Comics is in bad shape right now. I'm just hoping that Avengers Academy and the Ultimate line survive.

Black Panther is the only one I'll mourn (though I haven't tried Ghost Rider yet).

I wouldn't say there in "bad shape". All of the books that were cancelled were not expected to be sales juggernauts. I suspect that Marvel is reorganizing their titles in preparation for a big marketing push, something to counter DC's relaunch sales.

 

[rggkjg1]

I still strongly suspect this Punisher MAX book is going to end with the Punisher's death.

i really doubt they're going to literally kill off the max punisher. i'm thinking he'll become the new kingpin, "retire" as the punisher, team up with elektra to go on further adventures (and maybe more - http://comicsforever.tumblr.com/post/10393671057/the-punisher-elektra-artwork-by-tom-mandrake ) or fake his death. we've all been there before with "speculated" deaths and it doesnt happen.

even in "death", it hasn't stopped the punisher from being relaunched. i feel confident there will be another punisher max series sometime after february no matter what. unless of course marvel is doing away with the the max imprit all together. i get the "regular universe" marvel punisher too, but punishermax is the superior title.

 

[Gregatron]

I'm glad to see Black Panther ending, but I am bummed that they canceled a good book.

Daredevil is back in Hell's Kitchen, it's about time Black Panther ends. That also means that I'll be saving more money with one less book, or I can use that money to try out another book.

 

[Jin Kazama]

In other news, Marvel cancels a slew of books. So that's Iron Man 2.0, X-23, Ghost Rider andBlack Panther. And then there's the Destroyers and Teen Doom minis which got cancelled before seeing the light of day, and Alpha Flight getting upgraded to an ongoing and then downgraded back to a mini. In addition to the recent layoffs, it looks like Marvel Comics is in bad shape right now. I'm just hoping that Avengers Academy and the Ultimate line survive.

Unless the Ultimate line is tanking in sales, I doubt they'd end it so soon after the relaunch, and the hype the new Ultimate Spider-Man brought to it.

The only ones I'll really miss are Black Panther and Punisher. Punisher I read in trades, and I stopped reading Black Panther because I had a bad case of "I-don't-have-enough-money-for-all-these-books-itis", but it was a pretty decent series. Sadly, and I'm not the first to mention it, but Marvel's getting some crap because most those books star women (X-23, Ghost Rider) and minorities (Iron Man 2.0, Black Panther)

I wouldn't say there in "bad shape". All of the books that were cancelled were not expected to be sales juggernauts. I suspect that Marvel is reorganizing their titles in preparation for a big marketing push, something to counter DC's relaunch sales.

If the teased ending to the Nova story in Point One is actually what it seems to be, you have no clue how right you are.

i get the "regular universe" marvel punisher too, but punishermax is the superior title.

In story, maybe (and that's even a bit debatable, as it's a great book but just doesn't feel like a Punisher book), but in the art, I'd argue differently. And that's from a Steve Dillon fan. But Marco Checchetto is absolutely killing it in the new series. If Daredevil wasn't so amazing in the art department as well right now, I'd possibly go on a limb that it's the best looking Marvel book at the moment.

 

[Radical Raven]

Superboy # 1: A pretty mediocre book all around, and yet, like with Teen Titans (which this is closely tied to), I find myself a little intrigued. The dialogue is horrendous and the art seems robotic, but the plot is pretty strong. Argh, I dunno. I want to find out what happens next but there are obviously better books I could be buying. Even if I do decide to cave here I'll probably just get Teen Titans instead, since these two series are so close.

SuperGirl # 1: I think there's potential here - I love the scene where the two soldiers are talking while at a stale-mate with Supergirl, we see actual believable human emotions from the DC universe's cannon fodder, and I like SuperGirl as a character - but there are a lot of problems as well. It moves too slowly and it feels like a spin-off instead of it's own book.

Justice League Dark # 1 & 2: An interesting book but maybe a little too "mature" and introspective for its own good. Xanadus narration gets really annoying and the scenes with Deadman and Dove, which by all accounts I should have loved, feel a little heavier than they should be. Also, haha, who ARE all these people man. I only know those two and Zatanna.

Batman # 3: So we finally get an issue that's just a straight-forward story with no awesome-but-pointless opener! Meh. Sorry guys, I'm just not feeling it. The art has moments where it looks really good but this evil society just isn't very interesting to me, especially since they seem way too improbable for a story that takes itself so seriously.

Justice League # 3: A good issue with a few really great moments - Darkseid OMG!, Wonder Woman likes ice cream etc. - but I'm starting to see some structural flaws here. We're spending a lot of time fighting, this issue ends in the exact same way the first one did, and while the first issue was able to introduce four leaguers at once we now seem to be going at a rate of one character per issue, which is a little slow. Green Lantern is being written as way too juvenile - we get it, comic, he's the brash and overconfident one, you can have him say other stuff now! And with Boring Flash already here and Fish-Enslaving Aquaman on the horizon it seems like I'm only going to actually like 4/7 of these guys. I still like the book a lot, but I hope it smooths this stuff out.

Demon Knights # 1 & 2: I want to like this series SO MUCH. And I DO, kinda, but it's not as good as I was hoping. There's way too much emphasis on one-liners which gives everything a really choppy rhythm, and all the characters seem overconfident and self-obsessed, which is particularly galling for Shining Knight.

 

[Bat-Fan Beyond]

Batman #3 = 5 Stars!

Justice League #3 = 5 Stars!

I love both these series and this month's issues were great!

 

[wonderfly]

Must counter DC reviews with Marvel reviews!!

Astonishing X-Men #38: The story's called "Meanwhile", showing what's going on with the other X-Men while Cyclops, Emma, and Wolverine fight giant monsters in Japan. The rest of the X-Men have their own problems fighting the Brood in outer space, so it's not like they have the day off. Best part is seeing the reunion between Kitty Pryde and Lockheed, who we know now is sentient, not just a dumb pet dragon. The two have a little spat with each other that's hilarious! Written by Christos Gage, this is better than Daniel Way's "giant monsters in Japan" arc, but it's still not stellar. Actually, this title has outlived it's usefullness. Grade: B-

Daken #9.1-12: Read all 4 of these issues back to back. I was willing to give Daken a chance when he first appeared a few years ago (so many other people were disgusted with the concept of Wolverine having an adult kid, but I figured it was worth a shot)...but then I stopped collecting "Wolverine Origins" for financial reasons, and never picked up the "Dark Avengers" title, so this was my first time reading him in a few years now. Apparently they've given up on the idea of redeeming Daken. Good, it'd be pointless to rehash Wolverine's "journey to redemption".

The story revolves around Daken trying to take over the Los Angeles criminal underworld, but inadvertently becomes hooked on a new drug which can overcome his healing factor. This is a story of a narcissist, who sometimes acts like a criminal mastermind on par with the Kingpin, but other times acts like deranged lunatic. It's the kind of thing that's been done before with the Green Goblin, but it's decent enough. Grade: B

Fantastic Four: The Last Stand: A "Marvel Must-Have" collecting Fantastic Four #574, 587 & 588. I read the first two issues of "FF", the title which replaced "Fantastic Four" but could tell immediately that I was being dropped in the middle of a massive storyline. The FF now have a giant supporting cast which includes "Dragon Man", moloids, the Power Pack and "Bentley", a young boy that's a clone of the Wizard.

I was hoping that this "Marvel Must-Have" would bring me more up to date, but it has a stand alone story about Franklin's birthday (which is funny as they go out of their way to avoid saying how old Franklin is now) and it also has the final two issues in which the Human Torch "dies". Some touching moments, but I'm still lost as to what the blazes is going on here. The writer, Jonathan Hickman, apparently has a grandiose style of plot that reminds me of Grant Morrison. We'll see what future issues of the "FF" title bring. Grade: B-

Venom #2: I just realized: the artist for this book is Tony "The Walking Dead" Moore! And his artwork looks nice in color! The story, though, eh...I'm torn, because they've got Venom facing Kraven in this issue, and I'm NOT a fan of them bringing Kraven back from the dead a year or two back. But it does make sense for Kraven to battle Venom. Kraven "died" back in the last 80's before Venom really became a character, so they never got a chance to face off till now. The plot is still sluggish though. Grade: C+

 

[Radical Raven]

I've gotten about half-way through the Casper collection and decided to give up on it. The comics themselves were getting better, but as the art improves the missing colors, which always bugged me, just becomes more and more noticeable. I'm gonna trade it in and get the Harvey Comics Treasury instead.

ALSO.

Guys.

GUYS.

Guess what came in the mail today?

EDIT: MAN I DON'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE THAT BOX GO AWAY AND I'M TOO BUSY READING DONALD DUCK TO CARE ARGAGRHAG!

 

[Spider-Man]

So lots of books at Marvel are getting cancelled. X-23, Daken, Iron Man 2.0, Black Panther, Ghost Rider and others. I wonder if this is leading to a Marvel reboot or if they're just reaching a new sales line for cancellations. This has not been a good week for Marvel and I wonder if there will be more books cancelled when they finally release their Marvel shipping list for February. I am a little bit worried about what could be happening there.

 

[suss2it]

So lots of books at Marvel are getting cancelled. X-23, Daken, Iron Man 2.0, Black Panther, Ghost Rider and others. I wonder if this is leading to a Marvel reboot or if they're just reaching a new sales line for cancellations. This has not been a good week for Marvel and I wonder if there will be more books cancelled when they finally release their Marvel shipping list for February. I am a little bit worried about what could be happening there.

I don't think it's leading to reboot. All the books that got canceled were all low-selling titles, and I think only X-23 sold consistently over 20K.

Just read Avengers Academy #22 and it was pretty good. The Magneto/Quicksilver interactions were good, as were the Quicksilver/Finesse stuff. Glad to see she's showing more emotion. Nice to see Hawkeye in his new outfit, and his few lines were pretty funny too. I think so far he's a good addition to the cast, but I still think Marvel is spreading him too thin, since he's soon gonna be 3 of the 4 Avengers books.

 

[Radical Raven]

Demon Knights # 3: Better than the second one, anyway - the characters are getting more defined and I like the direction it's taking some of them, especially Vandal Savage. I still think it's a little moodierthan a book with it's tone and themes should be, though, and I hope this opening arc doesn't run on too much longer.

X-Men # 20: OK, so Jubilee is a vampire and I am dealing with that on a personal level. ASIDE from that, this book is pretty good, I like the characters and there are some decent lines, but the plot seems pretty generic and the art is a little too action figure-ish - sometimes it look OK and sometimes it looks ugly, but it always looks shiny and lifeless. Also I'm pretty sure the bit where War Machine teams up with them is an anti-climax to whatever happened in # 19.

Disney's Four-Color Adventures Volume One: I go from reading a book with black and white versions of color comics to reading a book with color versions of black and white comics : |. Oh well, I don't think these are quite as hurt by the change as Casper was, although some do seem to have some details obscured. The comics themselves are excellent - Talliafero is almost at good at writing Donald as Barks and he draws in a very lively way - and this is as close to a Donald Duck newspaper strip collection as we have at the moment, I believe, so I'm glad I picked it up regardless.

 

[Vyse]

X-Men # 20: OK, so Jubilee is a vampire and I am dealing with that on a personal level. ASIDE from that, this book is pretty good, I like the characters and there are some decent lines, but the plot seems pretty generic and the art is a little too action figure-ish - sometimes it look OK and sometimes it looks ugly, but it always looks shiny and lifeless. Also I'm pretty sure the bit where War Machine teams up with them is an anti-climax to whatever happened in # 19.

In regards to issue 19, that was an end to a pre-Regenesis/pre-Schism arc that according to Wiki starred Cyclops, Emma, Doctor Nemesis, Wolverine, Magneto, and Pixie with guest stars the FF and Skull the Slayer. And I have no clue if you have read #19.

I'll post review of various comics I read tomorrow in the next thread, but I have read the latest issues of New Mutants, Red Hood, Supergirl, Batman: The Brave and The Bold, Batgirl, Grifter, Green Lantern, Amazing Spider-Man, and Avenging Spider-Man, plus Point One and titles like Deathstroke, Skull Kickers, Witchblade, and Spider-Island: I Love New York in digital form. (YAY COMIXOLOGY!) I also decided to resume buying the Ultimate Marvel line, picking up where I left off a decade ago after getting the first 4 volumes of Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men; this process will be slow as I also want to pick up New Mutants trades both from the original series and current revival.

 

[Spider-Man]

Is Toonzone going to host the latest Marvel solicitations for Feb 2012?

 

[Ed Liu]

Is Toonzone going to host the latest Marvel solicitations for Feb 2012?

<PHINEAS VOICE>
Yes. Yes we are.
</PHINEAS VOICE>

(Sorry for the delay!)