Yeah it’s on my get around to reading sooner or later list lol! Heard nothing but good things about it.
Avoid ‘X-Men The End’ and ‘Wolverine The End’ like the plague…
zephy - starman omnibus comes out next week - thoughts on the series?
Very good. Pick up the first hardcover (30 bucks for 12 issues) and you’ll be hooked for sure.
It’s payday so i’m going to go blow some cash on comics after work. I’ve been grabbing mostly Batman trades the past month or so, and I feel like switching it up. Has any one read God Save the Queen? The premise seems interesting, but I wouldn’t mind getting some input befor i go waste money.
just bought ultimate spiderman v2. read the first two issues. good shit. looking forward to reading the rest
tpb or hardcover?
Hc. I loved the fight between ultimate doc ock vs spidey. Then I loled hard when he fought kraven. The green goblin arc was my favorite though. Osborn vs spidey on the bridge was epic shit.
Starman is one of those series I have on my shelf that I’ve barely read. I’m missing a few issues of it (because they weren’t collected in the TPBs, but hopefully will be included in the HCs) and the last pair of TPBs. I’ve read the first couple issues and a few other random issues, and know that it’s probably one of the best DCs of the past decade. It’s gonna be a good buy in HC. The only reason I haven’t read all my TPBs yet is 'cause I’m still hunting down the issues/TPBs I ain’t got yet. Then I will call in sick for work and just go on a Starman binge. In the meantime, I have a crapload of other good junk queued up in my reading list.
There’s some Sandman Mystery Theatre stuff in Starman, too, because the original Starman was buddies with Wesley Dodds. Wesley and Dian even show up in a few issues, and Guy Davis draws some flashbacks. It’s a good read, man. James Robinson is definitely capable of writing some great stuff. The Golden Age is something that may sort of be in line with Starman. Also, you can really see how Tony Harris’ art improves. There’s a noticeable improvement even between the first issue of Starman and the sixth issue of it. You can totally see how much better he got from working on Starman, and then his JSA books, and then Ex MAAAAAAACHINA!!!11.
The Walking Dead is one my favorite current series. It’s just a soap opera, but with better art. Plenty of melodrama but also genuine heart to it.
And last weekend, I read the first three Invincible HCs. (Got 'em off a player in the Trading Post forum.) I read the first three TPBs a couple years ago and thought it was only a serviceable read, but after reading 35 straight issues in a single day I must revise my opinion. Invincible’s a lot better when you can see all the different subplots come to fruition and remember what happened six months ago. I always liked the artwork but I think Kirkman does a good job on the plotting and world-building. I really enjoyed the hell out Invincible and now I gotta get the fourth HC when it comes out.
It’s no Ultimate Spider-Man (haha, rock on, Painy), but I think Invincible still beats the snot out of similar titles like Noble Causes or Dynamo 5, and probably most indie superhero universes created this decade.
I own God Save the Queen, but it’s another book I haven’t read yet. I have confidence that it’ll be good, though, despite the fact that I have no idea what it’s about. I just feel like I’ve been reading comics for so long and I’ve read so many of them that the Force just leads me to good ones. God Save the Queen is by Mike Carey and John Bolton, it’s Vertigo, and it looks great - there’s no way that comic can be bad.
I’ll try to read it sometime this week so I can offer better advice than “use the Force, Luke.”
I need more ultimate spidey. I think ima hunt down the ultimate deadpool issues. What tpb or more preferably which oversized hc is that one in?
I have every HC of USM and its number 8.
Just picked up the first 5 trades of Y the last man, the first 4 trades of the walking dead and Fables 1-9 of Fables trades. All at half price!! thank god for half price book store.
the only bad ultimate spidey is ultimate six
catching up on the reading ive been doing:
Batman and the Mad Monk (re-read): I like Monster Men slightly more than this one as it is a little funnier and has better action and finale but Wagner always delivers and Mad Monk is no different. His vampire take here is interesting in light of all the stuff he did with Vampires in Grendel. They should have re-released Dark Moon Rising as a single tpb in anticipation of Dark Knight movie since they are so thematically similar.
Planet Hulk (re-read in anticipation of WWH tpb): I really like this one. A nice long journey with a lot of good dramatic moments. Only have two complaints - that the big bad wasnt very big and his charactization was pretty thin, and that Hulk was never really challenged throughout the story.
Exterminators vol. 3 (re-read in anticipation of vol. 4) - Love it. Love love love this series. Main character’s girlfriend is the one we wish we all had. I love how his ex wife takes out her boss. Not quite as good as vol. 2 but who cares
JSA vol. 2 - interesting, a little slow moving with kingdom come superman. I need to re-read kingdom come I think.
Terminator Omnibus vol. 1 - this one was really good. A quick read. I enjoyed all of the stories and several were connected to create larger stories. Also get some good matt wagner and james robinson stuff
Coheed and Cambria: second stage turbine - truthfully ive only gotten two issues into this. I love the guy but Claudio is no Gerard Way when it comes to rockers writing comics.
X-Men vs. Apocalypse: The Twelve - this one started out strong but fell off near the end. Great art through most of it, especially with rob liefeld hilarity thrown in. Story is mostly nonsensical.
Hang on, dude - let me get this straight. You live in Compton but you’re a fan of Coheed and Cambria and My Chemical Romance?!
Also, how many issues in the Terminator Omnibus did Wagner and Robinson each write?
I like those Dark Horse Omnibus books. They’re bringing a lot of their older '90s stuff back into print. The Star Wars: Droids Omnibus just came out, and that’s actually a pretty good read for a Star Wars comic. And some of that Indiana Jones stuff is pretty good. I still have my original Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis signed and numbered TPB that I got way back when I was a kid. Reread it a couple years ago and I think it holds up as a fun read in that pulpy, old-school action serial style. That was a great computer game, too.
I love Coheed and Cambria, only have a passing liking for MCR. Wagner and Robinson only did a Terminator one-shot, it is painted artwork simialr to what Wagner did for Devil Quest.
I like the DHO books too. They are a great size to travel with and good and affordable for material not quite deserving of anything more expensive for the most part. Right now I am on Aliens vol. 2, reading the year-long “Colonial Marines” arc I remember from my childhood which has never been collected in tpb form prior to this. It’s been cool to see how many of the Aliens and Predator mini-series actually tied to eachother or picked up where the last one ended with the same characters and all. I hope they start getting more esoteric and releasing some of the weirder DHP/DHC anthology stuff. I would love to have some Dr. Giggles comics reprinted, not to mention Time Cop. Also still waiting for the holy grail Robocop omnibus too.
A Robocop Omnibus would be very sexual indeed. Do they still have the license, though? Thought Avatar picked it up. Not really sure what is up with that. I forgot if I asked you already, but did you read that Steven Grant comics adaptation of Miller’s Robocop script for Avatar?
just read ultimate spidey vol 9. i…actually liked the ultimate clone saga. dammit bendis. why did you write that so good that you made me like something called the clone saga?
I finished Aliens Omnibus vol. 2. Very enjoyable for the most part. Colonial Marines had some cool ideas in it that werent totally exploited as much as they could have been but it was still cool. Only problem is that Vasquez was killed without much thought in the last issue after basically having been the main character for most of it. I think it may be because they switched up writers for the last two chapters.
Annihilation: Conquest vol.1 - pretty good. The star lord mini was better than quasar
Batman/Grendel tpb - I have a long essay about this I may post later but suffice to say, if you like Batman at all…buy on sight.
This caught my eye, but I’ve been hesitant to buy since I don’t know anything about Grendel or Matt Wagner. Help a guy out.
I lost my DD Born Again trade in the train today, I’m sad.
The Batman/Grendel tpb comprises two limited series’ by Matt Wagner, each consisting of two 48-page issues. The first two issue series focuses on Batman matching wits against the original Grendel, Hunter Rose, while the second story takes place four years later (in Batmans time) where Batman must try and stop the destructive force that is Grendel Prime, a being from a thousand years after Hunter Rose died.
Wagner draws every issue along with his writing chores and provides the covers. The tpb also includes a sketchbook and some notes from Wagner.
What you should know about Grendel coming into the series: Grendel was a creation of Wagners that started out in very rough self-published form but gained prominence as a series of back-ups in Wagners comic book Mage: The Hero Discovered. These back-ups were later collected as Grendel: Devil by the Deed. Devil by the Deed told the story of Hunter Rose, a gifted child prodigy who, bored with a life easily conquered, masquerades at night as Grendel, the number one crime lord in NYC, while by day is a famous novelist. In his most stripped-down form, Hunter Rose can be seen as the anti-batman: a human being honed to the sharpest edge of his abilities, except in Hunters case his personal loss lead to distaste for humanity instead of Batmans embrace of heroics.
Wagner went on to write a 40-issue Grendel series for Comico which serves as the backbone and lifeblood of the Grendel mythos. As Hunter Rose was dead at the end of Devil by the Deed, the 40 issue series begins with someone new (but connected to Hunter) finding his mask and assuming the mantle of Grendel. This female Grendel had her own motivations and personality and so becoming Grendel did not mean she became a crime lord or did anything similar to Hunter. By the 12th issue of the series she too had fallen, and Grendel was on the move once more.
Wagner used the 40 issue series to show how the idea of Grendel went from being one man to becoming a movement, an army, and finally a world order. By the end of the 40 issues, hundreds of years have passed from the time of Hunter Rose and the idea of Grendel is very different.
After Comico, Wagner wrote Grendel: War Child for Dark Horse. War Child was originally going to be issues 41-50 of the old series (and the chapters are even called such inside the covers) but Comico went bankrupt. It is in War Child that Grendel Prime is introduced. Prime is a part human-part machine Grendel that was built by the greatest leader of all Grendels (the Grendel Khan) to protect his child heir. War Child revolves around Grendel Primes attempt to protect the heir and reinstate it to the throne.
After War Child, Wagner handed the reigns of the Grendel world to other writers with the succession of mini-series called Grendel Tales. Midway through Wagner revisited Grendel Prime in a series of back-ups which have been collected in a tpb called Devil Quest. Devil Quest takes place another several hundred years after the events of War Child, and it is the farthest point in the Grendel timeline (the issues came out like ten years ago at this point).
So how much of the above do you have to know to enjoy, or even understand Batman/Grendel? None of it, really. In the first series, Wagner does a masterful job of giving you all the information you need by employing one of his favorite devices, multiple concurrent narratives. Throughout the first two issues we are privy to the spoken words of Batman and Hunter Rose as well as their thoughts (in Hunters case, his journal). These are ever-present and contain much information on motivation. In addition those two, the story introduces two women who serve as their counterparts, one connected to Batman/Bruce Wayne and the other to Hunter. We are also shown THEIR running thoughts, giving us a huge four narratives in addition to the talk and action that is actually taking place. It is hard to describe how all of this works on the page but it does so very successfully to make the big picture entirely satisfying. Hunter is extremely intelligent and Batman intensely methodical and experiencing their back and forth unfold in such a way is great.
As you can probably tell, the first half of this book is DENSE. Wagner uses a large amount of panels per page that always makes you feel somewhat claustrophobic but is never cluttered. When he does eventually give the characters room to breathe it is really powerful. Seriously, the pages he creates in this book look NOTHING like anything you could pull out of a comic on the stands today. It is too meticulous, too well-planned and in depth for the monthly grind output.
The story in the first book is very simple, and I will leave it to you to experience. The first issue is comprised almost entirely of planning, talking, and investigating, and there is not even a hint of action until partway through the second issue. When the confrontation does take place, it is quick, beautiful, and you are left unsure who actually ends up with the upper hand. Wagner reveals that he isnt so much concerned with the icons he is playing with them, but rather he wants to show how their roles and actions influence those caught in their wake. In this sense there are definitely parallels to his latest Batman work, Dark Moon Rising (aka Monster Men and Mad Monk), where the father of the girl Bruce Wayne is dating is eventually driven to madness and death by his brush with the Dark Knight.
Hunter Rose is the strangest, smartest foe Batman has ever faced according to the original house ads, and the mini definitely bares this out.
The next portion of the tpb, revolving around Batmans encounter with Grendel Prime, is a complete 180 from the preceding series in terms of style, layout, and purpose. If the Hunter Rose story is an intricate film noir than the Grendel Prime yarn is straight summer Terminator (the original at least). The first issue immediately explodes with action, with really a roller-coaster of suspense and violence as a disoriented Grendel Prime is thrust into Gotham City and must find safe haven. Unlike the cunning, simple man-to-man battle between Batman and Hunter, Grendel Prime is all brute force and in the first issue at least, there is no wondering who beats who (Prime even delivers a blow to Batman exactly matching the one Batman had given to Hunter). It is in the second issue that Batman regroups and Wagner uses him to fill in the back story of what exactly is going on here. The ending of this second tale is very interesting in that it leaves Batman readers with one impression while those familiar with the Grendel mythos (and the mini Grendel Tales: Four Devils, One Hell in particular) with a very different take.
The Grendel Prime story is not the design tour de force that the first one was but it does have several very interesting things to say. One thing that is most striking is the timeline. For Batman and his readers, this story takes place four years after the encounter with Hunter Rose. For Grendel and his readers however, the events of the second tale take place hundreds and hundreds of years since then, holding a place at the very end of an incredibly long and involving tale. So many comics, so many in-world events have transpired since Hunter Rose that in some ways it is jarring to see them pushed up against each other like this. Earlier I mentioned the tpb Devil Quest as the last word on the Grendel timeline. The Grendel Prime story in Batman/Grendel actually takes place DURING what goes on in Devil Quest. In this way (and in the ending) Batman/Grendel is very closely tied to the greater Grendel mythos, much more so than the Hunter Rose section, which works more as a Lost Chapter than anything else. We see at the end of Devil Quest the events that transpire on Grendel Primes side immediately after his fight with Batman (even though Devil Quest was written and published many years prior to this crossover) and it is, through now, the last we know of the warrior.
In both of the stories that make up the Batman/Grendel tpb, I suppose it is fair to say that Grendel plays the villain of the equation, whether Hunter Rose or Grendel Prime. They both kill innocents, they both are intent to enact their greater plan for Gotham City, and yet is it so simple? In the Hunter Rose yarn, it is not that Wagner eschews the traditional hero and villain paradigm; he just isnt too concerned with the framework in the first place. Batman and Grendel are set up as two opposing unstoppable forces of will, and Gotham City is caught between them. Rose is a bad guy, and he comes across more so in the crossover because readers are not familiar with his tale and his loss as they are with Bruce Wayne and his murdered parents. Rose doesnt operate in a world (city) with superheroes, so the comparison is moot anyway. Is Hunter a villain in the face of the evil of the world? To many, maybe to others, maybe not. I said earlier how Hunter Rose can be seen as the anti-Batman. Perhaps a truer observation would be that Hunter Rose is Bruce Wayne if Bruce Wayne lived in the real world and was a real person instead of the archetype.
Grendel Prime as villain is another matter altogether. Because of the heightened action in his Batman tale, Prime comes off as even more of a bad guy than Hunter in many ways. But the reality is more complicated. Whereas Hunter Rose is basically the same in his Batman tale as he was in Devil by the Deed, as the crossover takes place during the early portion of that book, Grendel Primes Batman story takes place much later after his introduction in War Child and thus he has gone through much more by this point than had Hunter. In War Child, Grendel Prime is the unequivocal HERO of the tale. He is called Prime because he is the pinnacle of Grendels he is the embodiment of everything good, of everything they are supposed to be (which is not to say he is the leader of Grendels aka the Khan, which operates on a different level). Grendel Prime has a holy mission in War Child and we root for him at every step. However after the events of War Child this begins to change. With his mission complete, Grendel Prime is somewhat at a loss. His lifespan proves incredibly long and he witnesses the world deteriorate with each successive heir to the Khan he was programmed to protect. It needs to be made clear here that the harshness we see from Grendel Prime in Batman/Grendel is because the world that Grendel Prime comes from is very, very different than 20th century Gotham City. Primes world is a brutal, brutal place where basically the devil has fucking won and so what Prime does is really not out of step with what he knows. In fairness it must also be mentioned that the longer Prime lives, the less of his humanity he seems to retain, and so by the time we see him in Devil Quest, he is doing some pretty fucked up things to continue his quest. It is this world that at the end of Batman/Grendel Batman vows he must not let occur.
Batman/Grendel tpb is a master storyteller at the top of his game, writing the characters he loves the most (apart from Kevin Matchstick at least). Bringing them together provides the reader a remarkable contrast of styles within a single author and gives us two exhilarating Batman tales, one cerebral, one visceral, while giving the Grendel fan a glimpse of a lost favorite and an invaluable addition to the devils legacy.
Got my Green lantern/Green Arrow tpbs today. So much nostalgia but please DC stop printing on shitty paper.
Waiting on these to arrive:
Invinvible(Image) vol 1-4 tpb
Lone wolf & Cub vol 1-2 tpb
Madman(Image) vol 1 tpb
Yeah im getting tired of marvel/dc so im branching out. Always wanted to own lonewolf and cub so i will collect em.