You feel the same way about Hush since it’s almost technically a “spiritual-sequel” minus sale add lee.
What’s your take on Haunted Knight, Superman for all Seasons, Daredevil Yellow, Spider-man Blue, Hulk Gray, and Catwoman when in rome?
I enjoy them, but the more I read them the more I see plot holes in the story. I still don’t know what the hell happened in LH: I just assumed Alberto killed only one person, Dent killed one, and Dent’s wife killed the rest.
Dark Victory was odd, just a re-hash of the first with a Robin origin, which was probably better handled elsewhere. Has anyone read Robin: Year One? Want to know if it’s worth getting the trade.
Also I liked Hush, still didn’t make to much sense (As most Loeb work is) but it was pretty and had a Batman-Superman brawl and Joker getting the crap kicked out of him.
I read Batgirl Year One which I personally enjoyed a lot.
Batgirl: Year One is my favorite TPB’s that I own. It’s too bad DC ruined their relationship with Chuck Dixon though
Oh yeah a bit off topic but Loeb’s Spiderman: Blue is great IMO.
This is going to sound stupid but which Batgirl is this? I’m looking for a good Cassandra Cain book.
I watched Batman:Under the Red Hood today & I enjoyed it.It had it’s good points & bad points.The Joker appeared to modeled from the Jack Nicholson version & John DiMaggio did a very job doing the voice & the laugh but not as good as Mark Hamill. I wonder what the next DC Animated feature will be after Superman/Batman:Apocalyspe?
“Flash Animated maybe?”
Seriously drumrolls All Star Superman has been announced Blog@Newsarama Blog Archive All-Star Superman to be Made Into DC Animated Movie
[COLOR=Black]too bad it’s still in 2011
But if it’s Batman… Seriously do “The Dark Knight Returns” or/and “Year One”
If it’s JLA do Kingdom Come
Back to Under the Hood… Loved the animated movie… no retcon punch.
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Nope. Next Animated movie is… Animated shorts featuring Superman/Shazam! Dated for November 9th
Superman/Shazam! Highlight DC Showcase Animated Shorts Collection
Hush sucks. It’s worse than The Long Halloween. At least The Long Halloween tried to trick you into thinking that it had a sensible story (thanks in no small part to Sale’s very classy work). Hush doesn’t even pretend. Every issue is formulaic - Batman fights someone (while narrating in Loeb’s traditional ham-fisted, ill-conceived Frank Miller “homage”), and there’s a cliffhanger on page 22. Meanwhile, Loeb lays out “clues” to play up the mystery of who is Hush. Then at the end, you not only learn that Hush is the most obvious character of all (the guy Loeb created and introduced in the story - come on, how cheesy is that, and who didn’t see that coming?), but you’re fed these “twists” (like Harold appearing out of NOWHERE) that cheat you as a reader. Then there’s the two page denouement between Batman and the Riddler that’s just lazily-executed exposition! Finally, Batman ditches Catwoman at the end in a horrible “Asshole Batman” sequence that sadly defined him for the past decade, pretty much restoring things to the way things were before the arc began. I feel insulted just thinking of Hush. About the only value I got out of Hush was seeing Jim Lee experiment for a few pages with his “watercolor” style. And a couple of splash pages here and there (Batman punching out Superman is a highlight).
The stories collected in Haunted Knight are really bad. I’m talking bad like Loeb/Sale’s Wolverine/Gambit mini. (You forgot about that one.) No value whatsoever in them. Sale’s art in those isn’t as good as his other early stuff like Grendel. The stories are generic and if Loeb had tried to be a bit more creative in writing them, then maybe I’d try to be a bit more creative in so casually dismissing them.
Catwoman: When in Rome has gorgeous artwork all around. The story was garbage, though. It added nothing to Catwoman’s arc in The Long Halloween/Dark Victory. Again, it’s like 90% of the stuff Loeb writes is just so he can have the characters traipse around the country or planet and fight people. Just look at the Cheetah vs. Catwoman fight in this comic. That was like Loeb said to himself, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we had Catwoman fight a REAL woman who was a REAL cat? AWESOME! KICKSPLODE!” I wouldn’t be surprised if, one day, Loeb was handed the reigns to Daredevil and decided to have him fight a real devil, or if he had Moon Knight go to the moon. Plus, the whole thing in When in Rome with the Riddler felt like Loeb was just trying to justify what he did with Riddler in Hush. Catwoman’s character arc was pretty much unaffected from When in Rome so after reading it, I was just kind of like, “Okay, that was pretty… But what the frick was the point?” It didn’t help that by the time When in Rome came out, Brubaker and COOKE had made their mark on Catwoman, so When in Rome just exposed Loeb’s weaknesses even more.
Spider-Man: Blue, which I reread a few months back, follows Loeb’s favorite formula of having the main character run up against a gauntlet of his rogues gallery, who are being manipulated from the shadows by another sinister mastermind. Does it really add or say anything about Spider-Man or his world? No. It’s just Loeb’s version of the Romita Sr. era, rehashing stuff we’ve seen before without really having a point beyond “Let’s watch Tim Sale draw Spidey fight a gauntlet of his rogues gallery!” Blue is fairly harmless, I suppose, and it’s not as insulting as some of Loeb’s other work, but it isn’t particularly good, either. As part of Loeb’s body of work, however, it’s just typical of what he likes to write about, which I find to be ultimately vapid.
The same goes for Daredevil: Yellow. I really feel like so much of Loeb’s work is just an excuse for Tim Sale to pay homage to classic art. Loeb’s tendency for first-person narration also makes everything he writes feel like he’s trying too hard to be clever, as though by imitating the voice of the characters he’s offering insight into their actions, but we really learn nothing from their narration. Daredevil’s grieving over Karen’s death? Uh, no duh. We already know that. How about showing us rather than having this heavy-handed narration constantly remind us? It feels like Loeb doesn’t respect his readers’ intelligence. I’ve never actually read Hulk: Gray, so I don’t know how it compares to its Marvel brethren… I don’t think I have any interest in reading it, to be honest.
Superman For All Seasons is perhaps one of Loeb’s top three works of all time. (The other two would probably be Challengers of the Unknown and Teen Wolf.) For All Seasons, at least, didn’t try to force Superman in slugfests with a gauntlet of foes; rather, by focusing more on the difference between the small rural town and the big city, Loeb and Sale actually offer an aesthetically pleasing take on Superman’s American-ness. I also think that by writing each chapter from a different point of view character, Loeb generally avoids much of the ham-fisted first-person emptiness that plagues so much of his work.
Robin: Year One is actually quite good. That, Batgirl: Year One, and Nightwing: Year One are a troika of Dixon/Beatty stories that are pretty entertaining. Batgirl: Year One in particular is quite good. I felt that Nightwing: Year One was a slight dip in quality (perhaps because Scott McDaniel’s art is a whole different style from Marcos Martin and Javier Pulido), but it was fun nonetheless. Those are all good reads. They ain’t gonna change your world or your paradigm on superhero comics or anything, but those are great examples of well-crafted genre comics.
Rumor has it either Batman: Year One or All-Star Superman. John Dimaggio did okay, I didn’t like Joker’s dialogue at all, it seemed forced to me. That laugh was great though. Oh snap it’s Superman/Captain Marvel (I refuse to say Shazam! the wizard’s name for him, even though 90% of the world think that’s his name) I will get that day one for sure.
For DC this week I goooot: Brightest Day #7, Flash #4, and Action Comics #891.
BD finally reveals what everyone is destined to do, and it continues to amaze me and be my favorite comic. Seriously, this comic has literally done no wrong to me (Other than Hawkman/Hawkgirl’s story, but I just don’t like the angle) and I am a picky man to please. I like to finally be able to walk up to someone, flip the bird and say “Fuck you, Aquaman is the shit.” Being a fan of his for so long it’s finally nice to have proof of his badassness.
Flash was great, I am so in love with this art that the story could be complete shit and I would still buy it, but Geoff Johns is the Bru of DC (Don’t deny it) and he shits gold at least 26 times a month in the comic world. Boomer is back people, and we all rejoiced at that.
Action Comics…Wow, this is fast becoming my favorite book. I never thought a story focused on Lex doing cosmic adventures could be so downright superb, but here it is for all of us to enjoy. I wouldn’t be surprised if they gave him his own book after this run, hell, I wouldn’t be surprise if it continued to be a great seller either. Oh and the scene with Mr. Mind in a cowboy hat? Had me rolling.
Action Comics is IMO the best out there right now. Brightest Day is surprisingly Good as well.
Though with regards to your creative people comparison
Mine is
Geoff Johns = Brian Michael Bendis
James Robinson = Jeph Loeb (lol see the similarities with both their companies)
Joe Q in Spider-man only = Dan Didio
Greg Rucka (dunno if he’s still in DC though) = Ed Brubaker
Grant Morrison = Jonathan Hickman (??)
James Robinson should not be compared to Jeph Loeb. James Robinson wrote The Golden Age and Starman. Jeph Loeb can’t compare at all.
Yeah, Jonathan Hickman can’t even begin to compare to Grant Morrison.
Not yet but he is on the right track with Shield and FF
He still got a LOONG way to go but one day…
GL:Emerald Warriors tomorrow, looking forward to it
What is GL: Emerald Warriors about? Just seems like one of those “Tough cop” shows on television, where Guy Gardner and Kilowag will get the tough answers fast and stuff. Kinda feeling meh on that.
Picked up Final Crises and Time Masters #1. Time Masters was alright, the whole Bruce Wayne returning thing is a stupid idea to me, however well handled. He was only gone for a few months, we knew he wasn’t dead, and now a big deal is being made of it and Dick Grayson is being thrown aside like a has-been (According to a fair few idiots). As long as they do the whole Cap Bucky/Steve Rogers angle, I am fine.
Final Crises didn’t make one lick of sense to me, I tried to understand and I guess I need to read something else? Dunno, most of the philosophical stuff was lost on me. Superman Beyond was cool, up until that really awkward line.
GL:Emerald Warriors is about Gardner,Killawog & Arisa undertaking a secret mission for Atrocitius & investigating the Lost Sectors.What ever the mission is,it will jeopardize Guy’s friendship with Hal Jordan.
I actually posted that idea somewhere, but had it where Bruce seperated Gotham or the world in sectors, and had him and Dick in each area. So at least for a bit, Dick will remain A Batman.
@ Da Game: I didn’t know Hal and Guy had that great of a friendship that it could be so ruined, never really considered that in a sorta of Hal/Ollie or Hal/Barry sense but whatever, ruin it DC. I’d get it just to see Kilowag do what he needs to be doing, beating the shit outta Poozers.
R.E.B.E.L.S. is the best book DC is putting out atm (not counting vertigo, etc.). Don’t see a lot of love for it in here.
Action Comics is awesome for the Paul Cornell Lex story going on atm.
Loving Larfleeze in Green Lantern. Him writing a letter to Santa was f%%king hilarious.
Also, loving Zatanna. Anything else I should be looking at in the mean time?