Just read Sins Past, its definitely up there with my favorite Spidey stories from this decade. Its a well-crafted, emotional story with fantastic artwork and strong characterization.
Did some comic book hunting at various stores in my city this weekend and came out with a couple decent books, especially considering their prices. Here’s what I found:
Aliens Omnibus Volume 1 - $3
JSA volumes 7 and 8 - $4 each (volume 8 is the Black Reign storyarc that I read years ago and remembered liking)
JLA: Heaven’s Ladder -$4 (been looking for a copy of this for years now… I guess I can finally return the copy I “borrowed” from my friend)
Thunderbolts: Caged Angels - $4 (great read)
On The Road to Perdition - $3 (the semi-sequel/side stories to the original Road to Perdition)
Livewires - $4 (one of Marvel’s sweetest and most underrated miniseries of the past several years)
Redwall - $1 (comic adaptation of the Brian Jacques novel; for only a buck, I figured why the hell not take a chance)
I got bored half way through but I have the first 3 books.
I now also have Watchmen (finally found it being sold) and Mouse Guard Winter 11xx, forgot what the year was ^_^;
Livewires…where’ve I heard of that before?
Somehow, I’m not surprised you found 100 Bullets boring.
This is unfortunate.
(Although technically, since there’s like 11 trades out, “half way” would really mean you would have to get to the fifth or sixth trade.)
I’ve actually heard that complaint from a lot of people, that 100 Bullets is “too slow” for them. And that nothing happens and that it’s too boring.
Which is just absolutely insane to me, since that’s the reason I can’t even stand most big name Marvel and DC books these days. They stretch out four issue stories into like 70 issue megacrossover events that spill into 40 different titles.
It just makes me angry that in a world which DC can release pure shitfests like 52 and then Countdown to 52 and then Count Back Up to 52 and then Hey Here’s 52 More Issues To Buy - like 200 weekly issues of pure watered down garbage comic books, and it sells like hot cakes…comics like 100 Bullets are dismissed out of hand because, well…“nothing happens.”
Admittedly though, it’s a hard story to follow, overall. That is a definitely legitimate gripe about 100 Bullets. And there’s so much time between trades and the story is getting so complicated now that every time a new trade comes out, I seriously have to reread like the past five trades just to get all caught up again. And even then, it still takes me a few read throughs to completely get.
But I don’t mind rereading these stories at all. I think some of the absolute best story telling in comic books is in 100 Bullets. Most of them are just stories that are fun to read, like one-shot or three part arcs that you enjoy just for the sake of enjoying a good story. I don’t think that every comic book story necessarily needs to tie into a larger crossover, universe-wide event.
I rather enjoyed 52 when I first read it, I plan to reread it again someday though.
I didn’t read Countdown nor the weekly Trinity comic series as I was not interested in them.
I may consider reading Trinity though.
Are we seriously comparing 100 Bullets to 52? Really? 100 Bullets and 52? Why?
Tell me it’s just because they both have numbers in their titles.
I liked 52
Hey boys, it’s been a minute.
Picked up a bunch of stuff over the summer (I opted to stay at home for half a year and build up a library of books/comics instead of moving out. My friends think I’m an idiot but I’m getting to the point where I’m actually pretty satisfied with my collection). Bout to head out but i just read 2 comics i had to big up.
Sleeper- season 1 and 2: I’m sure the Bru heads are all ready all over this, but what ever. Brubaker +Noir is all ways win, but toss in some superhero shit and it’s guaranteed to be gold. I think I like this run more than any of his Criminal stuff.
I Kill Giants: I kind of cried, that is all.
Ah, yes, SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEPER!!!11!!1 is one of the best comics of the decade.
…and let’s not compare it to 52.
Fear Agent is the truth. Picked up the first trade, and its pretty darn good read, even though its only four issues(with the next arc/trade being six, but whatever). Heath Huston is instantly likeable; he’s a southern John McClane in perma-hangover. Its the fun kind of sci-fi adventure, the ones where mind-controlled monkeys swing giant wrenches and our hero flies around with a Buck Rogers jetpack and fancy ray guns(you can almost hear the 1950s B-movie sound effects). Also, he TOTALLY punt kicked a brain in the jar. Hell of a cliffhanger with the hero being KILLED in the first arc(although I read ahead on Wiki just to see how he came back). Definitely looking forward to the other trades, and the supposed movie that might have a 100+ million dollar budget, some say.
I had time to kill at the bookstore last night and I ended up reading Ultimatum and Ultimate Spidey: Ultimatum.
Somehow it was even worse than everyone said.
If Ultimate Spidey and New X-Men got me back into reading comics, Ultimatum came very close to pushing me back out. Never have I read such an abhorrent series from a major publisher. Never have I seen a book shit on so much continuity and fan goodwill for the sake of nothing. The worst part about Ultimatum isnt that it’s another Jeph Loeb crapfest (which is to be expected) but that it totally derailed Ultimate Spiderman, turned its world ugly and for what purpose?
I wasnt reading comics during the Chuck Austin days but he couldnt be as bad as Loeb.
Loeb’s worse than Austin IMHO. Austin’s so bad it’s hysterical. Loeb just makes you wanna cry.
Loeb’s alright whenever he works with Sale for some reason. His non Marvel stuff is better than his Marvel stuff too. I’m still shocked at how good his Buffy Season Eight issue was… I wish he’d stay at DC or just leave Marvel. He doesn’t get Marvel characters or their universes at all IMHO.
…I liked Austin’s War Machine mini from a few years back…
do yourself a favor and read “scalped” that shit is amazing…its up there with top tier shit like 100 bullets, y the last man, etc…
and it has one of the best written bubbles in the history of bubbles that made me laugh and im sure you guys would get a kick out of it…
im outi
Roberth
Ok, so I’m currently re-reading the Messiah Complex OHC and I do admit I like a lot of it: the story is very cohesive from issue to issue and works in a whole messload of X-characters without them feeling shoehorned in or glossed over. Also, the artwork throughout is really, really strong. Perhaps the coloring is a bit too mark and muddled at times (which seems to be a line-wide problem for Marvel) but these issues collect artists at the top of their game and each chapter looks great.
But there’s one major thing that gets me so I can’t recommend the book and I zero’ed in on it during my second reading last night. Everything is going pretty fine story-wise, events are building on top of eachother and the mystery is thickening, and then we get to the third to last page of chapter 6 (Uncanny 493). The mansion has just been decimated by sentinels who wolverine and cyclops find out were piloted by people infected with nano-sentinels. All of a sudden out of the blue, Wolverine says “you really think Cable’d go that far?” Wha-wha-whaat? Since when were they talking about Cable? When was Cable even mentioned in this or prior issues? Why would Wolverine immediately pin this on Cable? Cyclops follows up that Cable had access to nano-sentinel samples (big deal), he’s a scientist (who isnt in the MU?) and “we have no idea what his agenda is here…we have to assume the worst.” WTF? I dont know an ally’s agenda this time so I assume he wants to kill us all? Really? And the hilarious part is to underscore this, the writer has wolverine say in the next panel “I guess so.” and that ends the debate! “I guess so.” = Let’s go out and hunt Cable down like a dog…it’s not like we have a long history with him and he was recently an x-men member and all…
And this is CYCLOPS saying all of this. CYCLOPS aka Cable’s freaking FATHER! He puts a hit out on his son! And all because “he’s a capable scientist…we have no idea of his agenda…we have to assume the worst”. Cable carries a gun around too…does that mean Cyclops should link him to the Kennedy assassination? I mean, I just recently read through a bunch of late 90s x-men trades (x-men vs apocalypse etc) and they are chock full of cyclops/jean with Cable scenes where they show love and respect and talk a bunch about sending baby nathan to the future and the ramifications etc. Hell, it’s Cyclops who sacrificies his life to save Cable at the end of The Twelve…but this is the guy who now, with only the flimsiest of circumstantial evidence is going to put a hit out on Nathan? Really?
So this is where the book loses me. It made no sense the first time I read it, and it really doesnt make sense this time. I mean, how many hundreds of times has one of the x-men been mind controlled or similarly made to betray the team against their control, and the rest of the x-men recognize it and fight the real culprit instead? But no, this time it’s “let’s kill Cable” when they don’t have any evidence or even motive he had any involvement. They might as well have picked a random team member’s name out of a hat and said “wolverine - go kill.”
Today I got, for around a total of $70-
Showcase presents Jonah Hex Vol. 1
Y the Last Man Vol. 10 (completing my collection!)
Gotham Central Vol. 4
Cairo
While I was looking thru the TPBs in the shop I noticed an Ultimates HC; turns out it was Ultimates 3, I sighed then put it back in the shelf.
Today I bought-
Spiderman: Back in black
Civil War: Wolverine
If I go to the mall again I may pick up-
Spiderman: One More Day HC
Spiderman: Reign
Savage Dragon Black and White omnibus Vol. 1 (collecting the first 20-ish issues)
did not like spiderman reign at all
just started reading Moore’s Swamp Thing Volume 2.
holy shit is this some good readin’.