Sperg about comic books here

[sarna]

Just finished reading "Batman - Damned", one of these comics i picked up because of a YT video popping up in my recommends (i don't watch the videos, just deciding to pick up a comic by the artwork shown in the thumbnail usually). Neat little story, the writing is up its own ass a bit but the artwork is amazing, especially the backgrounds.

Lee Bermejo has done a really weird mixed bag of stuff over the years, but most all of it's at least interesting to look at. His book "Suiciders" was one of the only interesting things to come out of the abortive Vertigo revival.

How the fuck did Zeb Wells write something so good, when everything else he does is so shit?

It vibes to me like a situation where he did fine when he was off the leash writing a book that didn't have many demands placed on it, then fell to pieces when he was doing something like Spider-Man where all of a sudden he's in the pressure cooker. But who really knows.

 

[Anon88]

Is it Idie? She was interesting in her early days. She was one of the first few new mutants that Hope had to "awaken". If I recall correctly, she was from some tribal society and they were gonna kill her for being a "witch", so she had this built-in sense of guilt and self-deprecation. Then she had no choice but to kill a bunch of [some anti-mutant org I don't remember which] soldiers to save some innocents, and she was fully traumatized by it, descending into half suicidal abandon and half murderous psychopathic nihilism. It was her relationship with Quire of all people that helped her heal over time.

Yup, she goes by Temper now, but it’s the same character. Agreed with her being a lot more interesting in the second coming days vs now. Feels like nobody really knows what to do with her anymore. Come to think about it both her and Quire are on the same modern X-Men team, but the relationship between them hasn’t ever been brought up in any meaningful way.

How the fuck did Zeb Wells write something so good, when everything else he does is so shit?

He had to have gotten lucky, right? I mean he wrote that horrible death of Ms. Marvel comic right around the same time which is crazy to think about.

Makes me think about how incongruous Krakoa's version of Betsy Bradock is with how she was written previously, particularly during Remender's run.

Ever since she’s got her old body back I’ve felt the same about her. It might as well be a new character at this point, there’s basically nothing linking her to what she used to be. The whole captain Britain title doesn’t really feel right on a killer like her.

 

[Nick Obre]

He had to have gotten lucky, right? I mean he wrote that horrible death of Ms. Marvel comic right around the same time which is crazy to think about.

That was a couple years later at the very least, but he did start his DOGSHIT Spider-Man run not too long after Hellions, that's where the mystery of how he got so bad is.

It vibes to me like a situation where he did fine when he was off the leash writing a book that didn't have many demands placed on it, then fell to pieces when he was doing something like Spider-Man where all of a sudden he's in the pressure cooker. But who really knows.

It might just be this.

 

[sarna]

That was a couple years later at the very least, but he did start his DOGSHIT Spider-Man run not too long after Hellions, that's where the mystery of how he got so bad is.

Yeah, it was a direct transition. They closed down the X-books he was writing so he could move on to Amazing Spider.

It's a shame. The issue where they crash the Hellfire Gala is an all-timer. Something like four or five separate threads of the cast making terrible decisions and it's all hilarious.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

That was a couple years later at the very least, but he did start his DOGSHIT Spider-Man run not too long after Hellions, that's where the mystery of how he got so bad is.


It might just be this.

I am curious, what are your thoughts on Kwannon as a whole? Betsy, now that she's back in the OG body, it feels like to me that anyone writing her can't really figure out a good plan for her character. The idea of Excalibur had promise but it just turned out shit. Kwannon on the other hand I find a much better character.

 

[Nick Obre]

I am curious, what are your thoughts on Kwannon as a whole? Betsy, now that she's back in the OG body, it feels like to me that anyone writing her can't really figure out a good plan for her character. The idea of Excalibur had promise but it just turned out shit. Kwannon on the other hand I find a much better character.

I don't know, she was essentially a nothing character before the Krakoa era. Fallen Angels was terrible but it gave her a personal trauma unrelated to Betsy to deal with, and a motivation, then that followed into Hellions and she was great there, made her into a distinct character that, although stern, wasn't just a transplant of the common perception of 90's Psylocke. Then she was ok in various appearances as one of the Captains, but fucking sucked in the second Marauders run, unrecognizable from the character she was just moments ago. I think she was ok in Uncanny Avengers but beyond that, she was never written as well as in Hellions again.

I have not touched almost anything post Krakoa, so I don't know what her deal is now. I'll blindly shoot and say they've resurfaced the drama and tension with Betsy, which they had squashed during Krakoa, because it's the easiest thing to do?

 

[Registration]

I think Kirkman was running out of ideas for where to take the series. Pretty sure he wanted to keep it going because at that point, it was one of the best selling comics on the stands because of the TV show, but he didn't really know what to do with it until he saw an opportunity to do a commentary on President Hilary with the new Governor.

The idea of having people live among the dead could have worked as an earlier arc, but by this point we have a civilization re-emerging and the Whisperer's would be seeing this. Had they been the villains before Negan, or even the Governor, and only stuck around for one or two volumes, fine. But the amount of time given to them caused the arc to drag on for too long.

I dropped TWD in issue 128. I don't even remember why I dropped or what was happening at that point but I remember that so long had passed from my favorite arc (prison) that I just couldn't continue Anymore. I was there when they killed the chink and was somewhat bummed out.

Nowadays the only way I would read again was if I was going to be paid lol

 

[Arthur Morgan]

I dropped TWD in issue 128. I don't even remember why I dropped or what was happening at that point but I remember that so long had passed from my favorite arc (prison) that I just couldn't continue Anymore. I was there when they killed the chink and was somewhat bummed out.

Nowadays the only way I would read again was if I was going to be paid lol

I feel like issue 48 was the perfect ending for the book and Kirkman should have wrapped it up there. Especially that last page, you have Rick clinging onto Carl tightly, crying and losing it as he realizes he's lost everything, and the zombies approaching them in the background. It's like Rick has finally reached his limit, he's lost everything except his son and now they're surrounded without protection, so Rick tries to shield his young son from the end for as long as he can. After that it just got so repetitive.

I read to the end, and I enjoyed it, it's one of those series that works better when there's momentum. I really only kept buying it because they kept coming out. Then a couple of years ago I read it start to finish and it was more enjoyable when you weren't waiting months just to be disappointed.

 

[PrettySneakyCis]

I feel like issue 48 was the perfect ending for the book and Kirkman should have wrapped it up there.

Hell, from a narrative standpoint, you could have had Kirkman wrap it up after issue 24 when Rick announces, “WE are the walking dead.” That’s the message every single piece of zombie media since Romero is trying to hammer home.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Byrne's run on She Hulk is........not as fun as I expected it to be? He goes too far with space and shit. Boring. And the exposition is zzzzz. I enjoy every fourth wall break but it is a slog to get through. The final issue of his run where they try out different comic genres was funny.

Probably gonna reread Justice League Dark before getting the second JLD series with Wonder Woman. Personally the latter is a lot better but the original isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Had it not been constantly hampered by all those big event crossover storylines type bullshit, I'd argue its the most tolerable of the New 52.