What are your guys thoughts on the Stan Lee Avengers and Kurt Buiek/Perez runs on Avengers?
For the Lee/Kirby Avengers stuff, I suppose it depends what your tolerance is for that eraās idiosyncrasies. If you have a high tolerance for the wordiness and portentous dialogue that was probably dated merely a decade after it came out, itās fine as a historical artifact. I donāt think itās Kirbyās best work, either, but Iāll never say heās not good, soā¦
I like the Busiek run. Iām personally not too big on George Perezās art, but a lot of people seem to like his stuff. One of their stories, Ultron Unlimited, is considered an Avengers classic - I like that one quite a bit. Itās one of the definitive Ultron stories, if not THE definitive Ultron story. But the overall run was fairly reminiscent of the Silver and Bronze Age style of storytelling. Plenty of melodrama, interpersonal stuff between characters, ongoing subplotsā¦ Busiekās writing style tended to be wordier and skewed toward purple prose - I think that was intentional, that Busiek was trying to channel and pay homage to the Avengers comics of his youth. And Perezās run kind of made it feel like a throwback, too. Personally, I think Iād still rather read Hickmanās run or Bendisā run, but I can understand if people prefer the Busiek/Perez stuff.
I also liked the Busiek stuff after Perez left. He did this sprawling epic called The Kang Dynasty that was pretty enjoyable for a Kang story. Busiek also did a maxi-series with Carlos Pacheco called Avengers Forever that Iād probably uphold as one the better Avengers stories out there.
*Iām saying this as a HUGE Cap 'Merica fan:
Cap Neo America is fucking dope and is one of my favorite iterations of the good captain. Currently this run is sitting behind Kirbyās Cap/Falcon run, Engleharts Cap/Falcon run and Waidās Man out of time for my favorite Cap stories of all time.
Iāve owned about 60-70 Marvel omnibuses at one point or another, currently have 44 (I try to get rid of books I read and donāt end up liking).
Fantastic Four vol. 2 for my money is hands-down the best silver age book there is (beating out Amazing Spider-man vol. 1 and FF vol. 1). Your mileage may vary depending on how you take to the style of silver age books in general. They donāt read like modern comics.
Modern day Fantastic Four I would recommendā¦Jonathan Hickmanās two omnibuses. Easily the best non-Lee/Kirby FF run.
If youāre interested in the Surfer, the Infinity Gauntlet omnibus is the way to go (although itās OOP now and going for some decent change). You could spring for the tpbās instead, starting with Rebirth of Thanos.
Iām not a big Avengers guy. Many people like the Busiek/Perez run, or the Roger Stern run. I donāt really suggest getting into the Hickman run if you arenāt super familiar with all things Marvel already. Much of its power comes from institutional knowledge of characters/events.
edit: As a 90s fan in general, I have always been fond of Avengers: Operation Galactic Storm. A sprawling 19-part story across all Avengers-related titles at the time. The ending is especially good and challenging for its time. They just released the whole thing in one Epic Collection tpb this past week.
I wholeheartedly agree. Marvel made one of their best villains in years with Cap. And it was fucking Cap!
Hate Spencers Sam Wilson Cap though.
Didnāt realize Night crawler Rogue was a thing.
This is not a bad look for her.
Spider Man agrees
Right now Iām reading:
Marvel-
Gwenpool
Deadpool
Spider-Man/Deadpool
Going to try out All-New Guardians & I Am Groot. Really disappointed in Marvel right now. Two years ago I was reading a ton of different books, but Iāve dropped them because of a lack of quality and over politicization.
DC-
Green Arrow
Superman
Flash
Deathstroke
Titans
Teen Titans
Want to try out Super Sons, Batman, Harley & Red Hood. Loving Rebirth so far. Does anyone recommend any of the GL books or Suicide Squad?
Iāve dropped all the X-Men books. Just reading Nova, Thanos, Spider-Man 2099, and Iron Man/Doom.
iām not too impressed with the new GOTG book, Rocketās solo book is a pretty fresh take on the character though imo
i concur, Marvel books kinda suck right nowā¦
Super Sons is a good choice
GL books are kinda weak sauce for me, go for suicide squad or maybe the titans books
I read Green Lanterns first two volumes. The first storyline is very slow and Jessica takes too long to find her footing. The second is much better pacing but not enough to keep me reading.
Suicide Squad OTOH has been fun since the start. Events from the first issue are still relevant to the current arc. Plus its worth it just to see the crazy things Enchantress says.
There hasnāt been a bad issue of Red Hood yet! When Lobdell stays on that book its fantastic.
Rick and Morty comics from onipress.
I stopped reading marvel and dc a long time ago. I mainly read from oni, image and dark horse now.
The fuck Dark Horse did lately to earn any respect?
They publish usagi yojimbo which happens to be my #2 favorite comic. #1 is TMNT (Amy version honestly, even the 90ās Archie run lol)
Picking up all of the Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite variant covers this week. Not sure if I will get all of them that drop the entire month, some I donāt like the artwork or feature characters I donāt care about. But Iām at least getting 5 more. The only Marvel books I read nowadays are The Amazing Spider-Man Renew Your Vows, Spider-Man / Deadpool and Venom so it will be fun to see what else Marvel is doing in other books these days.
Recently I enjoyed the Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Glory of the Losers manga. Pretty much a retelling of the TV anime using the mecha from Endless Waltz and bits and pieces from other lore in the franchise. Difficult to say if you should read this instead of watching the anime because they present the events of the first episode out of order. I think this is being done because the author expects everyone to have seen the anime already. As far as Gundam manga goes itās no Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin or Gundam Thunderbolt, but itās cool. Props to the artist being able to mimic Shuko Muraseās character designs and Hajimi Katokiās mecha designs.
And I read Berserk #38 from Dark Horse. Well at least the storyline made SOME progress. Miura is never going to finish this lol!
Yeah. Usagi Yojimbo, Black Hammer, Dept. H, the Mignolaverseā¦ They also keep tons of great stuff in print.
I still need to start reading my volumes of Usagi Yojimbo. Iāve got 1-3. Been sitting on them suckers for over a year now. The TPB of the latest TMNT crossover is coming out in a month or so. Stan Sakai wrote it.
The Flash DC U Rebirth 25-27
[details=Spoiler]I like the new origin story Reverse-Flash was given. Iāll always love what Mark Waid did with Thawne on his run but Williamson did OK by me. Thawne was still the obsessed Flash fanboy but the Flash caught his interest because his life sucked. He met his idol when Barry traveled to the 25th century, things start off well but Thawne puts others in danger by creating situations where they need to be rescued so he can play hero. He makes a genuine effort to do right and change He even becomes the curator of the Flash Museum. He choose yellow as his costume because it was the color all his partners wore.
I love how Thawne just outed Barry by pulling of his mask right in front of Iris. I knew she was gonna find out Reverse-Flash spilling the beans to her on Barryās birthday? That is another reason heās one of my favorite comic book villains.
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Finally started reading The Flash by Mark Waid vol. 2. Man, do I miss having Wally as the main Flash. Currently Iām halfway through the Flash/Green Lantern Gorilla Warefare crossover. Hal begins to mutate, Wally gets a huge brain head. This feels like it could have come from the silver age.
Scott Synderās run on New 52 Batman looks intriguing. I was far from a promoter of The New 52 (giving the entire Flash Family the boot? Not cool, man. 'Snot cool) but donāt think every single bit of it was awful. Once I finish a good chunk of the trades on my plate, Iāll start picking up Synderās Batman run.
Another solid book from New 52 was I Vampire. That first image DC released people assumed it was a twilightly experienceā¦far the fuck from it. Need to go ahead & pick up Snyderās Swamp Thing run. It coincides with the Jeff Lemire Animal Man run I picked up. Really good stuff. New 52 had some gems no one read.
The New 52 Wonder Woman by Azz and Chiang (and other artists) has got to be the best of that pathetic era of DC comics, by far. That is a perfect run of Wonder Woman, definitely one of the best Wonder Woman runs out there. Iām a big Lemire fan but his Animal Man pales in comparison to just about all of his other work. I donāt think it was bad or anything, just not something I think of when I think of Jeff Lemire.