The Official Collected Editions Thread (New & Improved!)

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1001

Havent posted some reviews in a while apart from Blackest Night so I thought I would try to run down what I’ve been reading recently. I still have a huge backlog even though I read some issues from a trade at least every night. Whenever I see the light at the end of the tunnel I always end up buying more stuff. Anywho:

Wolverine/Gambit: Victims - An unfortunate Jeph Loeb purchase, but at the time I was buying all the Marvel numbered mpc’s. This one is okay I guess. Sale isnt really on his game and the story is pretty weak.

Hercules: Prince of Power mpc - Collects the first two Bob Layton Herc mini’s from the 80s. These were a lot of fun, although Layton has a tendency to over-write. Art is good though.

Hercules: Full Circle mpc - the third part of the trilogy by Layton. Not quite as good as the others but still fun.

Mephisto VS. mpc - yeah this one was pretty terrible. there were a bunch of terrible books like this in the 80s

Thor: Balder the Brave - I’ve tried to get into Simonson’s Thor but I just can’t. I have an aversion to Thor the character that I just can’t get over. I enjoy his art though.

X-Men: Mutant Massacre OHC - this is a good package, sewn binding. Story is pretty good.

X-Men: Inferno OHC - An omnibus in all but name. Story has its moments, but more as an artifact of the time period when the x-titles were really, really ridiculous.

Ultimate Spider-Man vol. 11 OHC - collecting the last two ult. spidey arcs and the requiem issues. I enjoyed these issues more the second time I read them, especially the two requiem parts which are the highlight of the book. I actually read vol. 10 again before re-reading this and it confirmed that it contained two of my favorite moments in all of ultimate spider-man: When Peter stands up to talk to the class at the end of issue 117, and Kong’s reaction to Peter after Liz transforms in issue 119.

Frank Miller Daredevil Omnibus - I’d read this material in visionaries trades, but this was first time I read in omnibus form. Bad glued binding on this and the companion making for a tough read. The material is still good although it has aged due to all the bad knock-offs (including Miller himself).

Daredevil Omnibus Companion - I like Born Again a lot, and the issue where Murdoch goes to that weird town and never puts on his daredevil costume. I dont really like Man Without Fear or the Seinkowcz OGN.

Daredevil by Brubaker omnibus vol. 2 - overall felt this was weaker than vol. 1. He keeps repeating himself, and makes DD into a self-loathing wimp. Basically everything Bendis was accused of, Brubaker actually does. The ending seems like a re-hash of Bendis’ King of Hell’s Kitchen plot.

Ghost/Batgirl - This was pretty terrible. I am unfamiliar with the Cassandra Kane batgirl and the writer seems to have never read a Ghost comic in his life.

Mystery in Space vol. 1-2 - This is not Starlin’s finest writing. Way too many text boxes. The second volume includes the 80s The Weird mini which is good though.

Superman vs. Predator - This one had its moments but was pretty bad. Okay Maleev art.

Classic GI Joe (each volume collects 10 issues) -

Vol. 1 - (Re-read) - The beginning of greatness. #2 is one of the classic issues in the whole run.

Vol. 2 - (Re-read) - The first major story arc ends with #19, one of the best and most shocking issues in the run.

Vol. 3 - (Re-read) - The legendary silent issue, snake-eyes origin, and more Springfield goodness. Quality stuff.

Vol. 4 - The saga of the “Freds” is introduced, Billy tries to get revenge, and issue #34, “Showdown”, one of the classics, about a joe vs. cobra aerial dogfight with an ending that is pure Hama.

Vol. 5 - The explosive conclusion to the Springfield saga, tons of plot threads wrapped up, Serpentor is introduced, #50 is a killer

Vol. 6 - Cobra attacks and destroys GI Joe headquarters in #53, leading to casualties and Hawk and another general have to fight their way out in some great action scenes.

Vol. 7 - Issue #61 starts a great storyline where a group of Joes on a covert black ops mission gets captured in another country and the joes are allowed to try and rescue them (which doesnt stop snake-eyes and scarlett). This storyline would cross over with Special Missions and keep going for many issues.

Vol. 8 - The majority of this one deals with the Battle/Siege of Cobra Island which is quite good. The resolution is very good, especially Destro’s last minute actions.

Special Missions vol. 1 - Solid stuff, but wish they would have put them (and the yearbooks) mixed in with the regular Classic trades.

1002

That’s odd, I have no complaints with my DD by Miller omnibus or the companion. Do you own the direct market versions with the original comic covers, or the book market versions with the black/red themed design?

Also, can you elaborate on how Miller’s run has aged? What knock-offs are you referring to? I can understand Born Again, because it directly references the '80s and even mentions Kojak.

1003

I buy all of the original comic cover versions of the omnibuses. I started out doing it because I’m not a fan of Alex Ross and the original 3 omniboo (FF, ASM, and UXM) had Alex Ross covers as the variant. Not sure what you mean by black/red theme…

As far as glued binding goes: Take your DD Omnibus companion, lay it on a flat surface and turn to page 120. Now take your hand off of it. Notice how the book flips back to the beginning - it won’t stay open on its own. This is because the binding is glued. Try it on page 50, page 200, it doesn’t matter - the book doesnt lay flat. You have it fight it just to read it. Glued binding also contributes to gutter loss, which is when artwork gets lost in the cracks due to tight binding. Unfortunately the early omniboo were all glued. They rectified Amazing Spider-Man, FF vol. 1, Uncanny X-Men, and Brubaker Cap vol. 1 with later prints, and basically every omnibus that comes out now has sewn binding. Now compare your Frank Miller DD omnibus to the Brubaker DD omnibus. Lay the Bru omni down on a flat surface and turn to ANY page. Page 100, hell even page 12. Look how it lays perfectly flat, the page staying on the exact one you picked. This is because the binding is sewn, which allows the book to open properly.

As far as Miller’s run aging, I’m just referring mostly to the “grim n gritty” style prevalent in the 90s and beyond that came about due to Miller’s work on DD and Dark Knight Returns. The moody inner monologues, film noir-inspired dialogue, realistic violence, etc. So after all the knockoffs, and then all the good stuff integrated into modern comics, it just ages Miller’s run somewhat, since we have been reading the influences of it for so long.

1004

i don’t know you anymore zephy

1005

Why, what’s up?

1006

You insulted deadpool.

I recently bought siege, final crisis, secret war, and punisher max the long cold dark. Secret war was ok. Art was great though. Final crisis as better as a trade. Siege was great. Punisher was written by ennis. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.

1007

I don’t think I insulted Deadpool so much as I insulted the people who buy his stupid comics.

:badboy: :badboy: :badboy: :badboy:

1008

Oh yeah… This is kinda late notice, but Online Comic Book Store - Things From Another World has a 70% off sale going on right now. Check out their nick and dent section for awesome deals on TRADES, BABY. Tomorrow is the last day of the sale. (And their nick and dent comics aren’t really nicked nor dented, for the most part. They’re just overstock comics for the most part. Which may, occasionally, be nicked and/or dented, but are often is as good condition as any new book.)

1009

Yeah I saw that in time and ordered some trades. I was wary about ordering any nick and dent ones though, and they were all the same price so it didnt matter. I mainly got a bunch of Dark Horse omnibuses included the 4 Indiana Joneses, the 3 The Masks, and the remaining Aliens ones.

1010

got a bunch of new books in the mail due to the TFAW sale and my latest IST order. My reading backlog is pretty big now because of it and I’m still working through the books I bought at SDCC. I also ran out of shelf space for my graphic novels and my regular books so now I just have piles of stuff laying around the apartment. I really need to move to a bigger place so I can bookshelf up.

1011

So the other day I grabbed the next tpb from my “to read” pile (which is a bit large at the moment) and it was the recently released X-Men: Complete Onslaught Epic vol. 0, the prequel tpb that came out after all the others. I had read each of those tpb’s as they came out, but while I was reading vol. 0 I figured I would re-read all of them, both in order to have the story flow from the prequel tpb, and because I really couldn’t remember a bunch of what happened in those four trades (even though I’d read vol. 1-2 at least twice each at that point…I usually re-read the prior tpb when the next in a series comes out).

So at this point I am at the beginning of vol. 3 (aka the “4th” trade of 5) and I have finally put my finger on what has bugged me about Onslaught from the beginning. It’s actually a pretty rudimentary problem: Throughout the entire build up, characters keep standing around and talking about how much of a big bad guy Onslaught is, how he is more powerful than anything they have ever faced, how he could destroy the world, etc…but we never see it! The first rule of dramatic storytelling is “show, don’t tell” but the x-writers consistently break this. In Infinity Gauntlet we knew Thanos wasn’t messing around when the first thing he did was DISAPPEAR HALF THE PLANET. All Onslaught does is beat up Juggernaut (who hasn’t?)

Onslaught doesn’t do anything in the first few trades - it isn’t until the middle of the second volume (third trade) that he lets loose the sentinels on NYC, and come on…sentinels in NYC is not that big of a threat. Then the big plot point is that the sentinels are only even attacking superheroes - no civilians. That’s pretty heroic for a big bad guy, dont you think? The problem is that this also undermines the entire premise of the Avengers, Hulk, and FF teaming up with the X-Men against the greatest foe the marvel universe has ever faced. I mean, the FF inclusion makes sense because Onslaught targeted Franklin Richards, but he never did anything to really warrant the X-Men needing to call in the Avengers.

I also think that the “Onslaught is Charles Xavier” being revealed at the very beginning is problematic because that also makes him less threatening because he’s still Charles, and now we think the x-men won’t go full strength on him in an effort to save their leader.

Basically the entire event hinges on Onslaught as the pinnacle of evil, but much like manufactured “universe-altering” bad-guys like doomsday and bane, falls way short, undermining the entire storyline

1012

Wow. That’s more writing than I ever expected anyone to analyze the Onslaught story.

If it were me writing the review, it’d just be “This crossover sucked mostly because it was written and drawn by an army of hacks serving an editorialship that couldn’t identify quality storytelling if it bit 'em in the ass.”

1013

Ha…while I agree the entire thing was based on a terrible editorial mandate that permeates the titles, the actual talent involved both writing-wise and especially artistically is pretty damn good throughout. I especially liked the last issue of FF which is included in the tpb, written by Tom DeFalco with great art by Carlos Pacheco. It tied in their whole history in a fun and engaging way. Larry Hama was still writing wolverine at the time so those issues are still strong too. It’s funny looking back at how long Marvel drew out the whole bonerine thing. Still not as stupid as dakan though. But man, Scott Lobdell sucks. How was this guy ever the wunderkid at marvel?

recent stuff I’ve read:

Heroes Reborn: The Return - new trade edition that included a bunch of one shots set in the bubble universe. The main 4 issue mini is okay, I liked it better this time mainly due to the sly Peter David humor interjected throughout. The one-shots were all pretty terrible, except for Joe Casey’s.

Grendel: Behold the Devil - Solid stuff, especially on the art and design/layout side of things. Wagner should really be a professor at some famous art school. The story had some good stuff in it but at the end of the day just wasn’t quite satisfying enough. My feeling is that Hunter Rose worked best in Devil by the Deed and any of the books with him since have not been necessary, with the exception of the superb Batman vs Grendel.

1014

Dude. Scott Friggin’ Lobdell… You’re absolutely right, that guy sucked hard. I have no idea how and why he got so much work in the '90s. Lobdell and Fabian Niceza… Two guys who, in their heyday, just had so much work, and very little of it was decent.

I don’t think I’m into Tom DeFalco, either. His writing style is just too dated for me to get into. It’s like everything he writes feels like a middle of the road superhero comic from the '80s. For the longest time, I had no interest in the Fantastic Four because his work on the series back in the '90s was that bad to me. I’m bewildered that people actually have love for his Spider-Girl to the point where their passionate letter writing saved the series time and time again. I would have just put that comic out of its misery and made room on the shelf for a good comic.

I can’t hate on Larry Hama, though. His '80s GI Joe was always fun stuff and I’ve got fond memories of his Wolverine run in the '90s, which is one of the series I grew up reading.

Which Heroes Reborn one-shot did Casey write? Thunderbolts? That’s one of the handful of Casey comics I’ve never owned or read. I’ll have to track that down at some point for completion’s sake.

1015

For some reason I always thought of Scott Lobdell as Derrick Coleman, if he worked in comics.

1016

I don’t know if the Lobdell/Coleman analogy works because Coleman had the body and the physical tools to be a superstar player. I don’t think Lobdell ever displayed any potential that could make anyone think he had what it took to play in the big leagues.

I would say Lobdell was more like Joe Smith, someone who might’ve had a successful college career but clearly didn’t deserve to be drafted with the number one overall pick, only lousy management and a 13-year long curse on the franchise dictated that they would continue to cripple the team and crush the spirits of its fanbase by blowing that number one pick on him. And even though he sucked hardcore as a number one pick, he still somehow tantalized other teams with his prolific ability to, I don’t know, stand around and let guards make layups over him, to the point where another crappy team somehow tried to break the rules in a tampering scandal to acquire him and then they lost three first round picks (setting the stage for their Hall of Fame power forward to waste his prime and never win a championship until he was traded to another team). And despite even all of that, Joe Smith still somehow parlayed this all into a rather successful and lengthy career for himself. But I’m sure all the people who remember him hate him.

That’s how I feel about Scott Lobdell. He wasn’t a lazy, overweight guy like Coleman who “could have” been the best PF of all time if only he tried and cared. I think Scott Lobdell cared a lot. Just like Joe Smith. They just had really low ceilings, but for some reason they kept getting opportunity after opportunity.

Also, my favorite Joe Smith moment, if there is such a thing: A few years ago during the WE BELIEVE era, the Warriors played the Sixers and Smith was on the Sixers. We needed every win we could eke out to make the playoffs that year, and it was a really close game. We were down by one point with seconds to go, but it was our ball coming out of a time out. I think Baron was hurt so for some reason we ran the last play for Al Harrington. Who should defend him but Joe Smith? Harrington did an awkward spin move around Smith and laid the ball in as time expired. This is my favorite moment because I was listening to the game on the radio, and at the end of the recap, the Warriors’ announcer was like, “And folks… Ten years later, the defensive presence of Joe Smith finally pays off.”

I’m still waiting for the defensive presence of Scott Lobdell to pay off. This must have been the longest post comparing Scott Lobdell and Joe Smith in the history of the Internet. I should get a prize.

1017

I got some trades from Amazon, and they look like shit. I’ll be the first to admit, I’m very particular about the condition of my comics, whether they be issues or trades. That’s why I usually tend to buy things in person. But in this case, they were a gift and it was described as new, therefore one would assume they would have no fucking shelf wear. Not only that, but they were packaged in a particularly shitty fashion: three trades stacked on top of one another in a makeshift “box” with nothing to keep them from sliding around. Fuck Amazon. Has anyone else had similar experiences? Where do you guys order your comics, and how well do they package them for shipping?

1018

Hey homey, Amazon does indeed generally have terrible packaging when it comes to trades and hardcovers, leading them to getting dented and messed up in transit. As an alternative I would highly suggest either Tales of Wonder or InStockTrades - up to 42% off and no shipping on orders over $50! . Both are as cheap or cheaper than Amazon, have a greater selection, and free shipping on orders over $50 (which should be no problem when buying trades). I prefer how In Stock Trades packs their books (big foam blocks which cushion the books), but ToW’s is okay too (lots of peanuts) and much better than amazon.

1019

Any of you ever order from this place?:Fearless Readers Online

5 bones for overstock books. Seems too good to pass up. Haven’t ordered from there yet. Seems good to get some pass titles.

1020

I buy from Amazon fairly often and I’ve never had any such bad experiences with their packaging. Usually they put one of those air-filled plastic bubble things to keep the books from sliding around. I guess they might be a little dinged around some corners or edges sometimes, but it’s only noticeable if I look for it. Keep in mind I probably have a higher tolerance for my book quality. The main things I care about are the spine (everything needs to be glued/laced properly), the pages (can’t have torn or cut pages), and the covers (pet peeve: I hate it when there are thumb indentations in the covers - like fools be treating they GRAPHIC NOVELS like magazines).