Comics: The Weekly Rundown (was Heroes Con 2006) (1 Viewer)

[Andy Sheets]

The Comicon Pulse put up a release today that said a new line of EC Archives is being released this fall (it's been known about for awhile but not the release date). I guess there's another expensive line I'll be trying to collect, since my EC collection is pretty spotty
Oh, and the forewords for the first two books (Weird Science and Shock Suspenstories) will be by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Speaking of prices: I can understad a hot issue going up in price a few weeks after relea because of demand, but I call bull shit on the price of a book being $15 on day of release. I'm seeing it more and more, particularly with Civil War books. this is one of the other reasons I'm not collecting them, I'll wait for the TPB.

Fortunately, I haven't seen anything like that with the CW books yet. The only $15 books I've seen lately--and there were two this week that I know about--were the incentive variants. And when I say I've seen them, I mean that figuratively. My comic shop doesn't get them in. I ended up getting the UFF 30 variant cover for $9 on eBay. The value went down pretty quickly since the seller neglected to put any kind of protective cardboard in the envelope, and it was bent up. I wish Marvel would just put out both covers in roughly equal quantities.
Speaking of alt covers, I'll easily pass up the CW second-print covers. I thought I'd have to have the Spider-Man unmask alt cover, until I found out that it simply features the panel from inside the comic, reproduced on the cover. I can do without that. All of their CW reprints will use that technique, except She-Hulk 8 and Thunderbolts 103. They'll get new, original covers. I still won't buy them, though.

 

[Ruz-El]

Russell, I don't really have inflated back-issue blues,

I didn't meen it as a knock, I know I've paid some high prices before the proliferation of TPBs just to finish a story, and it always burned me. The whole multi cover, chromium cover stuff was pretty much lost on me Except:
that superman issue (might of been Man Of Steel, I'd have to look it up), that featured static clings of Lobo and Superman so you could design your own fight cover. That was pretty sweet.
As far as dark Knight Strikes Back : I loved it. I thought it was on par with DKR in many regards. The art was a little strange, but I dug that it was as much an un-romanticized Superman story as it was a Batman story. Lot's of neat stuff to about how the heroes have basically been held hostage, while commenting about the sexualization of our culture. Very different than DKR, but in a good way.
Frank Millers Spaw/Batman that he wrote with Todd McFarlane was pretty good too.

 

[Ruz-El]

The Comicon Pulse put up a release today that said a new line of EC Archives is being released this fall (it's been known about for awhile but not the release date). I guess there's another expensive line I'll be trying to collect, since my EC collection is pretty spotty

I would probably bite on these if they are full color. I own most of the Annuals that they put out, but I'm missing both Weird Science and Weird Fantasy. The annuals were a good value, but they are a little cheap as far as the paper and that goes. Good for when they came out 10 years ago, but deffinately room for improvement.
Only issue with these EC volumes well be the $100 plus price tag they most likely well have. EC books are worth it though.

 

[BrettGallman]

Yeah, I liked the plot in Dark Knight Returns about using the heroes, and it was a satire on the genre itself, with Miller even taking jabs at the "dark" trend in comics he helped create. Superman's characterization just seemed jarring to me though (however, it might have been the logical progression from DK2). That said, I loved what Miller did with Hal Jordan/GL in this. Like I said, disappointed isn't really the word. It was just so...different, I guess. I'll have to give it another read sometime soon.

I never was a big fan of variant covers in the sense that I felt like I had to have them all. I get mad when the cover I prefer is the rarer of the two. I like how Wolverine: Origins ships with a 50/50 split, so I can get the one I want.

 

[Patrick Sun]

DKSA was a mess, not a good followup to DKR.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Pretty big week this week. I got all the Civil War titles, most of the Marvel Universe titles, and the Marvel western title. Justice League of America #0 was my only DC. Flash #2 came out, but I didn't really care for the premiere issue, so I think I'll drop it. Comics are too expensive to buy titles that have to grow on me.
I am glad that X-Factor is only tied into the Civil War with two issues. Last month's was the only Civil War tie-in I have not liked. I would think if you're hooking into the major crossover event, you'd try to put your best foot forward for new readers, but I didn't know what the hell was going on. I bought the follow-up in the interest of being complete, but I don't think I'll be continuing with the title. If it were more than two issues, I probably wouldn't even continue with the tie-ins.
An example in the other direction is Cable and Deadpool. I would never have picked up this book on its own, but it was pretty amusing.

 

[BrettGallman]

Greg, I would suggest checking out the back-issues of X-Factor. It's one of the more intriguing X-titles out right now, in my opinion.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I have actually collected the new X-Factor...but haven't read any of it. But I have fond memories of Peter David and X-Factor. Remember the one stand-alone issue he did with a mystery guest where he psychologically deconstructed the entire team...flawlessly??? But I'll give them a read soon.
I did see a 25 cent Dark Horse special with a lovely Mignola cover that I bought on a whim.
Shaolin Cowboy is incomprehensible, but there is real joy in Darrow's art. #6 hit this week.
I think next week starts Morrison's Batman

 

[Greg_S_H]

Greg, I would suggest checking out the back-issues of X-Factor. It's one of the more intriguing X-titles out right now, in my opinion.

This month's was better than last's, but I'm not sure I'd invest in it. I don't know that I'm a big Peter David fan. I used to read his Hulk, and his Spider-Man: The Other issues were good, but I haven't really liked the second two arcs in Friendly Neighborhood.

 

[Patrick Sun]

This week's haul:

Civil War - art so pretty, story was a bit on the fluffy side, but loved the final page.

Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters - lukewarm on this 8-issue miniseries, but liked the quick intro to the team members.

Supergirl and the Legion - felt like a Strangers in Paradise issue in tone, but in danger of showing little momentum in storylines.

JLA 0 - the menegerie of artists in this issue made for jarring page turns as the past history of the JLA through the decades gets some coverage in preparation for the new relaunch.

52 - Batwoman finally gets in on the action. Donny Troy's history lessons finally concludes. As a weekly, it's still okay, the writing/plotting isn't quite up to engrossing levels of a torrid page-turner yet.

Also picked up Runaways (will blow through the entire second volume soon), She-Hulk (also will be reading the second season in one or two chunks), and Superman/Batman (a few months behind for now).

 

[BrettGallman]

Yeah, X-Factor is way different now than it used to be, seeing as how it centers more around investigation rather than straight up action. I enjoy it, and the art is really good. It's good to have an X-Title that doesn't really revolve around the X-Men, too.

I haven't read anything I bought today, yet, but I'll be getting to it shortly. I'm mostly looking forward to Civil War: X-Men and Eternals.

 

[Greg_S_H]

This month's She-Hulk was good and funny. It's nice to still have comics like this, but I'm sure it won't be around long. Isn't it perpetually in danger of being cancelled, like The Thing was? JLA, I didn't quite understand. I don't know much of anything about the DC Universe, so the chosen format was confusing. The last page of Civil War was great, though expected due to recent events in another Marvel book.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Speaking of Civil War...I did enjoy #3. McNiven's a fantastic artist, so he's the real draw. Some gorgeous panels in the book. I've made my CW beef elsewhere regarding the inadequacy of the comic book suspension of disbelief to handle the material, as well as the continued inability of the writers to not allow significant bias, but what I've heard (because I am not reading everything CW related...JUST the main title) has the potential to make the premise even cheaper.

CW speculation based on existing evidence...BIG RANT!!!

Supposedly, the evil government has supported and caused the accident by bumping up Nitro and protecting his power, in order to force this political turn of events. So of course, this totally stacks the deck morally, and cheapens the entire validity of the event, IF TRUE. Just another conspiracy storyline, except it's been done better dozens of times, without illuminating the lunacy of someone who wears a masks and breaks the law hourly complaing about his "legal and moral" rights being taken away by elected officials. I hope I'm wrong, as that would simply heighten my distaste of this storyline into untold regions, thus causing me to subject you fine folks to rant after rant about the creative bankrupty and idiocy of Marvel comics. But I don't think I'm wrong. Evil government will be the magic Deus Ex Machine that will allow the status quo to be mostly back in place, the heroes all on one side, and the evil of the registration side shown with no real consequences. That would be less compelling than actually facing the reality that there are dozens of lives lost and billions in collateral damage that would have predicated this exact political debate years ago in comicland.

But enough on that. Pretty art.

 

[Greg_S_H]

There was a sequence in the second Wolverine tie-in that seems to lend support to that. I'm probably going to wind up regretting following the series. Sounds like it'll put the lie to Millar's proclamation that the series would be fair to every side of the debate.

 

[Andy Sheets]

Sounds like it'll put the lie to Millar's proclamation that the series would be fair to every side of the debate.

Heh. We're talking about a guy whose idea of being fair to right-wingers is citing his Captain America line: "Surrender?! You think this 'A' stands for France?!"

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Any Marvel series with Wolverine and Captain America on the same side is NOT fair. One is their most popular character and the other is their Superman/Batman/Moral Proxy. I am enjoying the comic for the eye candy, but it's contortions of major characters (Reed Richards, etc) and their relationships in order to create their desired situation is, well, ridiculously biased. I'm sure it'll be quite fair in Millar's eyes, because he's proxying real world events (or his version of them) using SUPERHEROS, which don't represent real world realities. Trust me...I can go on and on and on and on But I won't. The less Marvel pretends this story is fair and "relevant", the happier I'll be.

 

[Ruz-El]

all this Cival War talk is making me think I'm missing out on something special, and that maybe 52 is kind of crap for not sparking such debate.
Hopefully it all makes sense in the collected editions.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Minor Civil War 3 spoiler:
I can't claim to know all there is to know about FF comics, but it seemed out of character for Reed to be so completely unconcerned about Johnny. I don't think he needs the Black Panther to lecture him about the importance of family.
There was a poll on marvelcomics.com about whose reaction to Spider-Man's unmasking you were looking forward to the most. My choice wasn't listed, but I'm still hoping for a scene between Johnny and Peter. I have no idea why Peter never trusted him with his identity, but it's something worth exploring. I'd like to see Johnny be the only guy on Earth who hasn't seen the news footage so he can get the word directly from Peter. "Wait. You were the guy making time with Doris Evans!"

 

[Jason Seaver]

Johnny found out a year or two ago in Spider-Man/Human Torch: I'm With Stupid (I think the subtitle was added for the collection). Great little mini-series, and I think the main reaction was that few people had realized that Johnny didn't know.