The Official Collected Editions Thread (New & Improved!)

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721

Its great when you stop reading comics for a few years and come back to awesome trades.

Ultimates 1/2: Awesomesauce of the highest caliber. Its like a summer blockbuster told through comic form. You got Sam Jackson as Nick Fury, eco-friendly/possibly crazy Thor, badass Cap from back in the day, etc, all thrown together onto one hardcore team. Millar’s writing is very good throughout, giving the characters just the right amount of depth and leaving the reader guessing what could happen next. Is Thor really a Norse God or is he really fucking loco? Who is the traitor in the group? How the hell are the Avengers going to save the world/America this time? Its top-notch writing, but I also got to give due to the drawing skills of Bryan Hitch. Sometime they come off as a bit too sketchy for their own good, but MAN…the widescreen look really gives the book the cinematic feel it deserves. Its also very detailed(which is why the issues were delayed so much, but thats why TPBs are great), letting you take everything in. I do have complaints though. 1. I think Giant Man/Wasp is a really stupid idea. I don’t know, its really cartoony to me, especially for something like this that tries to be “realistic”. Also, the second story is basically a carbon copy of the first one, and the ending is kinda anticlimatic. Still…this is a series that has Sam Jackson and Captain America beating up Nazi Aliens, shouting awesome lines like “Surrender? YOU THINK THIS LETTER ON MY FOREHEAD STANDS FOR FRANCE!?” Too bad about the current Loeb story sucking dick; I look forward to Millar getting back on the show later with Ultimate versions of Red Skull/Blade/etc.

Astonishing X-men - I tried to get into the X-men comics, but for some reason I couldn’t do it. I found Claremont’s comics in the 80s to have artwork out of an Archie comic strip and overly-talky stories. The less said about the mid-to-late 90s X-men, the better. I want to get into New X-Men eventually, but besides that there just wasn’t anything I wanted to read, which is odd because I’m a fan of the movies/cartoons/video games/action figures/etc. Then I found this series, and I praised the ground it steps on. Whedon’s writing is not only funny and witty, but minimal. You don’t need half a dozen speech bubbles or unnatural exposition speeches to get the story across. The character interactions in this thing are priceless, like when Scott kills himself to save the team and Kitty tries to cheer up Emma.

Kitty: I just wondering if you wanted to talk, thats all.

Emma: Oh yes–lets TALK. And then we can have slumber parties and try on funny hats. You get me SO well.

Kitty: Oh I’m sorry, silly me for thinking you feel some kind of loss.

Emma: I’m a diamond honey; by definition I’m my own best friend.

Classic stuff. Its not only humorous, but its say a lot about the characters too. Speaking of which, great cast here. One of the reasons I disliked a lot of X-men books was because the HUGE number of characters there(and honestly, not very interesting ones), but now we a really solid group that I actually cared about. Wolverine is still channeling Clint Eastwood, Colossus comes back to life to be all kinds of badass, Kitty is very entertaining and is kinda the protagonist of the tale, Beast is great for sarcastic quips and precise exposition, hell even Cykes is a great leader in this book. The storylines aren’t terribly original, but they are done extremely well, so who’s complaining? I also have to give a lot of credit to John Cassaday, who is equally talented in drawing as Whedon is writing. His lines are sharp and precise, and its definitely very cinematic. The cliffhangers are some of the best I’ve ever seen throughout too, like when the aliens were about to destroy the battleship the X-men and Agent Brand were in.

Brand: Hopefully we can get there before the–

Random black guy: Agent Brand!

Brand:…No.

aliens start attacking

Cykes: Whats Plan B?

Brand: We wait for death

Cykes: Whats Plan C?

God I love this fucking book. If every X-men book was this good I would probably dedicate my life to them.

722

Stuff I’ve Read Lately

Watching the Watchmen - Gotta love Dave Gibbons. This is one sexy hardback. Chip Kidd designed it. It’s really nice. There’s a lot of Watchmen art that I’ve never seen before. Apparently Gibbons kept good records of most of his stuff and there are lots of sketches and stuff that he made while he was working on it. This book even contains full thumbnail layouts for every single page of every single issue. Admittedly, these layouts probably take up a good amount of the pages, and they are quite rough compared to the penciled art, but I still find them fascinating. There isn’t too much text or commentary on each individual piece of art, but Gibbons does write a lengthy and substantial essay on the production of Watchmen. It’s worth reading.

Marvel Zombies - Way back when this first came out, I only read the first three issues before I decided I would wait for the TRADE, BABY. Well, after all these years, I got around to reading the whole thing in one sitting. It’s a fun read. I don’t think there’s much really to say about this… The title sums up almost everything you need to know about it. Sean Phillips’ art is definitely what makes this comic what it is. He brings his A-game even on a project that’s clearly just meant to be pure fun entertainment.

Ghost Rider: Road to Damnation - This is another one I’d been meaning to get around to reading for a couple of years now. It’s an interesting take on the Ghost Rider character. Ennis’ approach was unusual. Ghost Rider is essentially a pawn in his own comic. Now that I think of it, the story’s sorta like how Ennis wrote Hellblazer, except that Ghost Rider doesn’t have the cunning that Constantine has. Ghost Rider’s not a bastard and master manipulator. I found this to be a really entertaining take on the character. Fast-paced action, beautiful art, suitably grotesque imagery, black humor, and some of the best-looking fire my eyes have ever beheld. And I loved that ending. It was so perfect. I’m gonna get around to the Jason Aaron Ghost Rider soon.

Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears - I read this one back-to-back with Road to Damnation. As much as I like Road to Damnation, I think Trail of Tears is even better. This story has more heart to it. It’s the Spirit of Vengeance in the post-Civil War, Reconstruction era. But this ain’t no Phantom Rider, bub. I think what really works in this story is how Ennis constructed such a believable reality the characters inhabit. Whereas Road to Damnation had a slightly more humorous tone, Trail of Tears comes off as more consistently serious. Garth Ennis writes the best war comics, and the book starts out with an intense Civil War battle. Love it! This book, too, takes an unusual approach to the title character: he doesn’t even show up until a couple issues into the story. And even when he does show up, he’s not really the protagonist. The mystique really works to make this story more exciting, more tension-filled, and more tragic.

723

chip kidd is the worst.

724

Hahaha. Your hatefulness is completely awesome. I love you, man.

725

Chip Kidd kinda designs everything the same. I have the Alex Ross book, the Dark Knight Strikes again, and the batman animated book and they are all very very similar.

Bitch gotta step his design game up.

I just got all of Hellboy and the Umbrella Academy. Amazon sent them to me in like one day. I guess I could have stole them on the internet for free but I just felt like wasting 100 dollars I guess.

726

Wanted: I didn’t read the book before I watched the film version. I didn’t think it was anything great, but it had a few cool action scenes, some pretty funny moments(F-U-C-K-Y-O-U Keyboard slap, “SHOOT THIS MOTHAFUCKER!”, etc), and was generally just 7/10 popcorn movie entertainment that you forget in a week. Now that I’ve actually read the TPB, I realize how WRONG the movie was. Bending bullets? Strands of fate? Fuck out with that shit. Wanted was actually rather awesome. The title actually means something; its all about Wesley getting his wants and needs out of life, instead of being a mindless drone who has a fat goth for a girlfriend and gets spit on by the spics outside the bus station. Its like The Matrix mixed with Fight Club, because it tries to tell you the reader to wake up from your miserable lives and do something. Its also a parody of the superhero genre, and although its not always great(calling people Shithead and Fuckwit weren’t exactly clever), other jokes were actually really great(like how the Superman character is really some old actor confined to a wheelchair ala Christopher Reeves).

The artwork throughout is fantastic, put that combined with Millar’s mostly-funny and clever writing, throw in some cool action scenes, and an epilogue that I was actually surprised me with, and you got one hell of a fun adventure. Its not perfect, no doubt about that: I think I read the work “fuck” more than I ever cared to, and the epilogue actually shits on us comic book fans for not being rock gods, sports stars, and millionaires, for better or worse. But fuck all that and fuck the movie, because this book is still great.

727

Wanted was okay, it was indeed a mix of Fight Club and the Matrix.

It had too much fucking swearing. Every other word was fuck or shit or fuckshit.

“Wesley lick my fucking shit brown pussy you fuck faggot” - The Fox

I thought it was great at first, then I read it again and was like “This isn’t all that amazing”

Best parts are the fake Batman and Superman rogue galleries.

The Umbrella Academy was surprisingly entertaining considering Gerald Way wrote it. Many Kudos to him.

The art wasn’t bad, but it just felt off a lot of the time, but overall it was good.

728

^Yeah, I much prefer Millar’s writing in the Ultimates 1/2 then this, although the dude still isn’t Alan Moore or anything.

729

I really like Wanted. I think a lot of people, for some odd reason, took the ending personally. I don’t get that. It’s not Millar mocking his fans. It’s the narrator slagging off humanity.

One of my favorite lines ever is when the Future says, “You say ‘fascist’ like it’s some kind of insult, but people love fascists, man. You ever meet a woman who fantasized about being tied up and raped by a liberal?” There’s a lot of stuff like that in Wanted that just makes me laugh.

Supposedly, this all started out as a Secret Society of Supervillains pitch to DC, but they got cold feet. Shit, I wonder why the fuck they pussied out?

Also, Umbrella Academy is soooooo damn great that Clinty and I both joined the My Chemical Romance fan club after we read that. Well, he might have already been a member since the Helena single, but I joined after I read the comic. And you didn’t like the art, V. Slashy? Enough with the heathen funny talk!

730

No I didn’t not like it, it just felt off sometimes. I am reaching for things to complain about.

QE - I just figured it out, the art is good, but in some places I felt like it could have been a lot tighter. I think because it’s a tiny bit similiar to Kevin O’Neil’s art in The LoEG I want it to look like that, but that isn’t fair because that art is super top tier.

The White Violin made me laugh. “Ping” KEEP PLAYING!

GIANT EXPLOSION

Who took the ending of wanted personally? Probably fucking shitqueers. The ending made me laugh, as did a lot of it.

I have read the first Hellboy trade as well, 7 more to go.

731

I’ve stumbled across bloggers who found the ending personally offensive. And this one time, right around the when the last issue came out, I was at a comic book store and some other customer was complaining to the guy behind the counter about the ending… Said that he’d never buy another Millar comic again, like the ending was proof Millar hated his fans or some stupid nonsense.

I find that other people’s reactions to the brilliant ending add to the humor, though. I laughed long and hard when I read it and even now, to this very moment, I continue to laugh when I think of other people.

Now I dare you to reach for something to complain about Hellboy. Just make sure you join the MCR fanclub.

732

I was already in the MCR fanclub, I like their Black Parade album and some of the old songs I don’t remember the title of.

I can complain that hellboy said “part of my brain” like 300 times in 6 issues, but that was probably because of John Byrne.

733

Hahahaha!! John Byrne. I still don’t know why Mignola thought he needed help on the dialogue.

That’s a good one.

734

Question: Do I need to read that biographic info at the end of every issue of Watchmen?

735

Yes, if you value life itself.

736

But its so much reading :sad:

737

Got Fables Vol. 1:wgrin:
By next week I will try to get Y the Last Man books 6-9.

738

Ultimate Spider-man vol.1 - I’ve been reading arcs out of order, so I finally decided to start from square one and get to it. Its only now I realize how much the first Spider-man cribbed from these first few issues. Peter is a nerdy guy who gets bit by the radioactive spider on a tour of the Osborn facilities, he beats up Flash Thompson, gets money from wrestling(the whole broken hand thing was a better plot device the trying to get a car to impress Mary Jane), doesn’t attempt to stop a burgular, chases after a burglar later into a warehouse which just so happens to be the same guy who didn’t stop and also ended up killing Uncle Ben). Its very wordy too, and although not all the dialog is great, it sets the high school tone and establishes the characters well enough so when the Goblin attacks the school you actually care about Pete/MJ/Harry/etc.

Also have to say good job to Mark Bagley. He’s created a style that still looks like Spider-man, but he has made it his own distinct universe. The fight scenes in particular are really fun, with very clear lines and a great sense of whats going on.

All and all, its a rather fun series so far.

Invinicble Iron Man: Five Nightmares - While USM was simply solid, IIM is great. I don’t want to keep going on and on about, but I really think this could work as a Iron Man film somewhere down the line. Great artwork, a original story with some cool references to the past Iron Man mythos and Akira, and some really good dialog throughout make this story arc a real trimuph.

739

Wolverine Enemy of the State/Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Mark Millar continues to be my favorite writer. This story is in full-on Dumb Action Movie mode. Wolverine is pretty fucking unstoppable when he’s angry, and Millar has him doing everything from going with a gang of zombie ninjas to attack Daredevil to using a jetpack to bum rush the shit out of an unkillable mutant assassin. The dialog is snappy, the action is constant, and the pacing is quick. Romita Jr.'s Spider-man drawing skills leads off greatly to this title. Millar gives him a lot of crazy shit to draw, but his panels are always clean and easy to understand. Wolverine really looks great, with his square jaw and square shoulders in his yellow and blue outfit. I could keep going on about why I love this book, but c’mon: Issue #29 has Wolverine riding a giant hacked Sentinel into The Hand’s hidden fortress and killing an entire army of zombie ninjas. I mean…thats like the fucking definition of awesome.

740

just bought frank miller DD omnibus. can’t wait to read it