Sperg about comic books here

[The Feline Solution 2]

any idea where you got it from? It sounds like a good book and reading it all at once sounds like the best way to do it

Getcomics.org

 

[Commander X]

At this point, after Krakoa, etc., hating the X-Men and mutants at Marvel is the right thing to do. They've become the biggest group of self-centered violent freaks who cry victim. Maybe people aren't down with mutants because they're jerks, did any X-writer in recent years think about that?

 

[strumpets exeunt]

They've become the biggest group of self-centered violent freaks who cry victim. Maybe people aren't down with mutants because they're jerks, did any X-writer in recent years think about that?

Always relevant.

 

[Stab You in the Back]

Finished a couple Epic Collections recently.

Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch vol. 6 - Siege of Darkness

Remember when I praised the first volume of Danny Ketch Ghost Rider? I wish I could take that back, because this is dog shit. This is the worst 90s edgelord bullshit I have yet to read in the Epic Collection line. Siege of Darkness contains the Siege of Darkness storyline, a massive crossover between all the Midnight Sons characters/books in the mid-90s. All your favorites are here: Ghost Rider, Blade, Frank Drake, the, uh, Caretaker... and the rest.

Why is it bad? Let me count the ways:
1. The art is atrocious. There's a lot going on, but the art is often incoherent and the only way to follow the plot is to read the dialogue balloons which helpfully explain all the things the artist wasn't able to actually draw. "Doctor Strange just opened a portal to another dimension!" *neither doctor strange nor anything resembling a portal appear on the page*

2. The plot is so random. Things just happen. Nobody has a plan. There's no organization to it. Its all just, 'and then this happens, and then this happens, and then this happens' ad infinitum.

3. The characters are simultaneously the biggest fucking badasses to ever live and massive fucking pussies. Every other line of dialogue is a threat. They never, ever follow up on any of their threats. In fact, they spend most of the story either getting their asses kicked or running away.

4. We never know what the bad guy is doing. Siege of Darkness starts with Lilith using a magic mist to summon her evil minions to earth. Then it transitions to Zarathos being empowered and dangerous. But you never know what the fuck either Lilith or Zarathos are up to at any given time. I don't know what the stakes are or if there's a ticking clock because its never explained what's going on except for a lot of doomsaying about the end of the world.

Terrible all around.

Rating 1/10

The Punisher vol. 8 - Survival

Around the same time Ghost Rider is being a retarded little shit, Frank is running around being the ultimate badass. This volume has been described as including a lot of lesser Punisher stories. I get it. There are two annuals and two graphic novels in this collection, which are typically weaker than the monthly (annuals in particular seem to be a dumping ground for failed creators). Still, I really enjoyed most of the stories in this volume.

The title story, Survival, is a great 3-parter which has Frank get shot down over the Alaskan wilderness, where he is forced to survive and build back his strength before taking on a mercenary outfit attempting to start a civil war in Siberia.

Firefight is another solid 3-part story where the Punisher is fighting weapons smugglers at the docks when he gets sucked into a serial arsonist's plot to destroy half of Manhattan. We actually get to see Frank be treated as a hero by several firefighters he saved during one particularly hellish blaze.

You also get the graphic novel, A Man Named Frank, which reimagines the Punisher as a frontiersman in the early 20th century tracking down the banditos what kilt his family.

The only duds in my opinion are the stories in the annuals, including one where Frank goes into the employ of a slutty heiress to protect her from an evil robot programmed to kill her. It does have a great ending, though.

Frank Castle: Thot Hunter

All in all, I really enjoyed this book.

Rating: 8/10

 

[Old King Koaleamos]

At this point, after Krakoa, etc., hating the X-Men and mutants at Marvel is the right thing to do. They've become the biggest group of self-centered violent freaks who cry victim. Maybe people aren't down with mutants because they're jerks, did any X-writer in recent years think about that?

View attachment 8801132​

TBH, the whole "we're not giving this away for free" in regards to all the miracle drugs is an interesting angle and I wish it got explored more.

That also being said, I kinda wish Hickman's Krakoa era at least acknowledged that there were many individual humans who did try a lot. It's just that most of the ones that did earnestly try got outnumbered by every other group.

 

[the_real_debbil]

TBH, the whole "we're not giving this away for free" in regards to all the miracle drugs is an interesting angle and I wish it got explored more.

That also being said, I kinda wish Hickman's Krakoa era at least acknowledged that there were many individual humans who did try a lot. It's just that most of the ones that did earnestly try got outnumbered by every other group.

I'm still trying to figure out why the hell Wolverine needed to be popped out of an egg when he's effectively indestructible save atomization or nuclear destruction. Rereading the era now and Sinister is still my absolute favorite.

There were so many avenues to explore ethical complexity and moral ambiguity, and instead we got years of liberal wankery living vicariously through characters who considered themselves simultaneously "hated and feared" oppressed and seig heil superior to all non-mutant humans, without a pube's measure of self-awareness or irony. Even cracking open the messy business of nation building could have been interesting, and we got instead the most puerile, communist-fellating immaturity, again without a trace of self-reflection from 90% of mutants.

Although the era did have a handful of entertaining moments, admittedly:

Cyclops about to hose a grinder, with zero reference to anything in the plot


Sinister being sinister, kek


I know what I see, lol


Wolverine's idiot clones, "bub!" "snikt!"

 

[Nick Obre]

I'm still trying to figure out why the hell Wolverine needed to be popped out of an egg when he's effectively indestructible save atomization or nuclear destruction.

Wolverine hasn't been that level of immortal in a long time. Back when he regenerated from like one cell after getting Nitro'd, they eventually explained he was fighting an angel of death every time he died, and if he won he would come back. That was sorted out and he could properly die again. And during Krakoa, he did die a bunch of times. Sure, he'd die when falling into the fucking sun, but a lot of Wolverines died in infiltration missions to various ORCHIS stations, which is how they got a bunch of his skeletons which they use late in the run.

That said, different writers are inconsistent about it. Percy I think had him swimming in lava and emerging as just the skeleton with eyes. But, it was a magic lava river, maybe it's because of that.

About Sinister, yeah he's fun in the whole thing, but especially good in Hellions, of which you posted one page. How did that goddamn hack Zeb Wells write such a great book, top to bottom, then go onto do such a bad Spidey?

 

[Old King Koaleamos]

Wolverine hasn't been that level of immortal in a long time. Back when he regenerated from like one cell after getting Nitro'd, they eventually explained he was fighting an angel of death every time he died, and if he won he would come back. That was sorted out and he could properly die again. And during Krakoa, he did die a bunch of times. Sure, he'd die when falling into the fucking sun, but a lot of Wolverines died in infiltration missions to various ORCHIS stations, which is how they got a bunch of his skeletons which they use late in the run.

That said, different writers are inconsistent about it. Percy I think had him swimming in lava and emerging as just the skeleton with eyes. But, it was a magic lava river, maybe it's because of that.

About Sinister, yeah he's fun in the whole thing, but especially good in Hellions, of which you posted one page. How did that goddamn hack Zeb Wells write such a great book, top to bottom, then go onto do such a bad Spidey?

I have a suspicion that Spidey's books are raped by a combo of editorial, Exec-meddling, and just meddling of all sorts. Nick Spencer made us think we were opening the door to more interesting things, only to fumble it all and I'm 100% sure the Kindred arc got meddled with.

I'm still trying to figure out why the hell Wolverine needed to be popped out of an egg when he's effectively indestructible save atomization or nuclear destruction. Rereading the era now and Sinister is still my absolute favorite.

There were so many avenues to explore ethical complexity and moral ambiguity, and instead we got years of liberal wankery living vicariously through characters who considered themselves simultaneously "hated and feared" oppressed and seig heil superior to all non-mutant humans, without a pube's measure of self-awareness or irony. Even cracking open the messy business of nation building could have been interesting, and we got instead the most puerile, communist-fellating immaturity, again without a trace of self-reflection from 90% of mutants.

There was the opportunity to do so much, if the other writers were competent. Hickman's not that bad of a writer, but he could only do so much. I liked the whole idea of Onslaught running around infecting the island, along with Shadow King. Could it have gone somewhere? Nope. Moira X! What an idea. Does it get used well? Nope.

Okay, how about this. Beast has fallen into villainy at a much darker level than Cyclops ever did. How do we explore this. It's been years in the making, since the 2000s. Cyclops had only somewhat recently been revived and shoved back onto a more normal path. How do we use Hank McCoy's final fall from grace in a meaningful way? This is such a wonderful idea and since Hank is a member of so many groups, you could easily explore this. Right?

Uh. No. They made a Hank clone with the memories of a mid 1980s Hank McCoy to help fight and now we have a good Beast and an Evil Beast again. But wait, we also have the Dark Beast from Age of Apocalypse running around too.

Although the era did have a handful of entertaining moments, admittedly:

Cyclops about to hose a grinder, with zero reference to anything in the plot
View attachment 8807915

Sinister being sinister, kek
View attachment 8807917View attachment 8807920

I know what I see, lol
View attachment 8807921

Wolverine's idiot clones, "bub!" "snikt!"
View attachment 8807986

Krakoa was basically a potential goldmine, and they squandered it.

 

[DocAwe]

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/frank-cho-outrage-with-rogue-thundercats-power-girl-and-poison-ivy/

Found this pages of covers Frank Cho drew on blank variants at conventions.
I found them hilarious.

 

[Anon88]

and instead we got years of liberal wankery living vicariously through characters who considered themselves simultaneously "hated and feared" oppressed and seig heil superior to all non-mutant humans, without a pube's measure of self-awareness or irony. Even cracking open the messy business of nation building could have been interesting, and we got instead the most puerile, communist-fellating immaturity, again without a trace of self-reflection from 90% of mutants.

You know, it almost felt like Krakoa was meant to be some sort of deconstruction of the X-Men. Trying to point out the issues of the core belief of the series, but they forgot to finish the story or something. It just comes across as so weird to me by the end of Krakoa, you have Nightcrawler and Shadowcat killing people with no consequences and mutants trying to prop themselves up as better than humans instead of equals, which both break multiple ideas that used to be the core of the series. Really makes you wonder what could've been if Hickman had the ability to actually finish one of his projects.

 

[The Feline Solution 2]

Rereading the complete Punisher MAX for the umpteenth time over the last couple of days and my God, Fernandez' pencils are just next level. Up is Down, Black is White remains my favorite arc next to Long, Cold, Dark, every issue's last page is a master piece, same as in Man of Stone. Braithwhaite's artwork in Mother Russia is also stunning, his depiction of Nick Fury comes second to none apart from how Fury is drawn in Marvel Ruins. Don't need to mention the glory of the Bradstreet covers, dude is an artist's artist. I also reread "The End" for the first time and Corben's artwork is outstanding, fantastic one-shot.

Spoiler: Huge images

My favorite page in Punisher MAX's whole run:

Also wanted to reread The Walking Dead, somehow i ended up with grabbing an omnibus that's in full color. I don't dislike the colors but it takes a lot from its original, stark black and white artwork. Didn't read further than the first issue yet, i can practically remember nothing from the book.

 

[the_real_debbil]

Wolverine hasn't been that level of immortal in a long time. Back when he regenerated from like one cell after getting Nitro'd, they eventually explained he was fighting an angel of death every time he died, and if he won he would come back. That was sorted out and he could properly die again. And during Krakoa, he did die a bunch of times. Sure, he'd die when falling into the fucking sun, but a lot of Wolverines died in infiltration missions to various ORCHIS stations, which is how they got a bunch of his skeletons which they use late in the run.

That said, different writers are inconsistent about it. Percy I think had him swimming in lava and emerging as just the skeleton with eyes. But, it was a magic lava river, maybe it's because of that.

Well shit, that makes a lot more sense, I missed that entire arc completely. BRB going to look for those issues.

@Old King Koaleamos I can't agree more: my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. At least there are more than a few of us.

 

[Old King Koaleamos]

Well shit, that makes a lot more sense, I missed that entire arc completely. BRB going to look for those issues.

@Old King Koaleamos I can't agree more: my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. At least there are more than a few of us.

You know, it almost felt like Krakoa was meant to be some sort of deconstruction of the X-Men. Trying to point out the issues of the core belief of the series, but they forgot to finish the story or something. It just comes across as so weird to me by the end of Krakoa, you have Nightcrawler and Shadowcat killing people with no consequences and mutants trying to prop themselves up as better than humans instead of equals, which both break multiple ideas that used to be the core of the series. Really makes you wonder what could've been if Hickman had the ability to actually finish one of his projects.

Funnily enough, Hickman was taken off Krakoa, in part due to a lot of sped writers wanting to experiment with that status quo. IIRC.

It feels like Hickman was moving towards Shadow King/Onslaught being a bigger villain, with the Mr. Sinister stuff being a potential end of the era villain too? It was bungled.

The Tony Stark - Emma Frost marriage was a funny idea, wish they explored it more.

 

[Nick Obre]

Well shit, that makes a lot more sense, I missed that entire arc completely. BRB going to look for those issues.

The Angel of Death thing? It was a long while ago, long before Krakoa even, and obviously before the Death of Wolverine storyline. I'm thinking somewhere a few years after Civil War.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Finished Absolute Batman Vol 1. Wrote a review. Doubt anyone cares, but here's the wall of text.

Spoiler: The Review

Absolute Batman Vol 1 : The Zoo

After hearing about Absolute Batman, I bought the first trade to read on a long journey. That journey never happened, but I read it anyway. I liked it.

I wrote a review of it. I should break up the wall of text with images, but don’t want to waste more space on null’s server than I have to.

For those who read the singles. Volume 1 collects the black mask story line, ending with Joker calling in Bane.

CONTEXT
I first heard of Absolute Batman in a nerdrotic clip where DC president Jim Lee just discovered Manga, in 2026. The top 20 sales chart was dominated by Absolute Batman, and shills were declaring this to be saving the comic book industry.

As was pointed out in that clip. Selling half a million would’ve got the book cancelled in the 90s, and when big manga are selling in the millions, Absolute Batman suddenly doesn’t look like the titan the shills claim.

That said, at least for volume 1, AbsBat avoids the issue of having convoluted continuity. Where do you start? Just read volume 1. I’m told in volume 3 they started with the cross overs and sub-books and all the other fucking mess that makes modern comics hard to read without a guide, but for now it’s got no baggage.


THE STORY
AbsBat is a reimagining of Batman, and as a result changes many things about his origin and character. Some are interesting, others just seem stupid or unnecessary.

It’s revealed over several, perhaps too many flashbacks, that Bruce’s dad was killed in a mass shooting at the zoo, and Bruce only survived because he was locked in the bat enclosure. Makes sense, and his mother being alive adds some possible story telling opportunities.

Unfortunately, they also make a point of having him obsessed with bats prior to the shooting, and the zoo visit was a reward for building a bat themed model bridge for a science fair. They also manage to crowbar in him seeing Zorro some time after the shooting. That extra fluff doesn’t add to the story, and if anything detracts from it.


The other major plot follows Batman’s attempt to stop “the party animals”, people in animal masks and dressed in party clothes causing chaos across Gotham. Led by a guy called Black Mask. This is the actual interesting part and should be the focus of the story. Batman fights them to stop their attacks, while trying to figure out who's leading them and why.

The plot moves at a decent rate, and the fight scenes are good for the most part. Even Alfred as a MI6 agent sent to spy on Batman providing the narration is well done.

My biggest problem is so much of the story relies on random out of character stupidity. An example that happens multiple times is Alfred, despite knowing Batman is a master of martial arts, keeps confronting him by walking up behind him and pointing a gun at him.

Other parts of the comic are odd as well. Batman is a vigilante, but seems to have no problem stealing things. Batman stabs people, chops them with an axe, and even blows up the top of a sky scrapper full of party animals, but I’m supposed to believe that he kills no one. He stabs them, but always misses vitals. He blows them up, but always just knocks them out.

The final annoyance with the writing is the attempts at memes. Such as couple of pages of odd sounding narration just to have an excuse to have the caption “Batman AF”.


THE ART
I’m no expert, but I like the art. Buff batman looks cool, and a lot of credit goes to the art team, pencils and colours both. One issue is drawn by a guest artist (Gabriel Waltz) and Batman looks like he’s wearing an oversized knit jumper. It’s better than I could draw, but Waltz isn’t good for the material. The muted colour palette and sepia toned flashbacks works great throughout.


CONTEXT PART 2 : THE CULTURE WAR
Before I write my closing thoughts. One thing I saw repeated about AbsBats is culture war shit. “Batman vs Crypto Bros” being one example, but rarely does this volume feel like that. Batman isn’t upstaged by a girlboss. Black Mask isn’t a blatant Trump or Elon Musk stand in. The only real out of place social justice thing was Gordon being white with a black daughter, and a scene at the end where Martha Wayne stands up to a group of armed thugs and punches one of them out with no repercussions.


CLOSING THOUGHTS AND TLDR
I liked Absolute Batman. Is it a masterpiece that will single handedly save the comic industry? Not really. It has some serious flaws, but I enjoyed it enough to want to read the next chapter/issue, and now I’ve finished the book I want to pick up the next one.

I’m going to enjoy it while it’s good, but I’ll be read to bail if the old comic ways come in to shit it up. Despite seeing a lot of praise online for the absolute universe as a whole, I don’t have any interest in the other series. That said, a friend did say Absolute Wonder Woman is top tier as well. So I might grab it if I see it.

There’s some stuff I left out for sake of brevity, like some parts where what feels like a page turn reveal being on facing pages, but I think this is a result of the trade? Hard to say, and not important.

 

[Clyde Cash's Left Teste]

I’m going to enjoy it while it’s good, but I’ll be read to bail if the old comic ways come in to shit it up. Despite seeing a lot of praise online for the absolute universe as a whole, I don’t have any interest in the other series. That said, a friend did say Absolute Wonder Woman is top tier as well. So I might grab it if I see it.

I think its interesting that they are introducing Clayface to the series around the time the film comes out.

 

[Anonitolia]

Bruce’s dad was killed in a mass shooting at the zoo

The zoo? Who's stupid enough to start a mass shooting at a zoo? It's probably one of the worst places I can think of to try and do that. If you miss any of your shots, you have a decent chance of pissing off a fucking wild animal that will go after and maul you. All the possible targets save zookeepers are also more vulnerable in more easily-accessible locations, so unless you have a huge grudge against zookeepers for some reason or just like seeing people being killed by feral animals (even at the cost of your own life) I cannot fathom why anyone would decide to shoot up a goddamn zoo.

Given the existing bat obsession, the author can't even claim it's for the bat thing. He could've just had Bruce attending school during Halloween (wearing some costume or maybe giving a presentation on a Halloween-y animal) if the author wanted to make a statement or keep things relatable while connecting Bruce to bats. The way it is now, this is contrived in such a way that I almost wonder if it was an editorial mandate. Maybe actual school shootings were deemed too sensitive for the readers and not allowed?

 

[DocAwe]

View attachment 8815853

The zoo? Who's stupid enough to start a mass shooting at a zoo? It's probably one of the worst places I can think of to try and do that. If you miss any of your shots, you have a decent chance of pissing off a fucking wild animal that will go after and maul you. All the possible targets save zookeepers are also more vulnerable in more easily-accessible locations, so unless you have a huge grudge against zookeepers for some reason or just like seeing people being killed by feral animals (even at the cost of your own life) I cannot fathom why anyone would decide to shoot up a goddamn zoo.

Given the existing bat obsession, the author can't even claim it's for the bat thing. He could've just had Bruce attending school during Halloween (wearing some costume or maybe giving a presentation on a Halloween-y animal) if the author wanted to make a statement or keep things relatable while connecting Bruce to bats. The way it is now, this is contrived in such a way that I almost wonder if it was an editorial mandate. Maybe actual school shootings were deemed too sensitive for the readers and not allowed?

Lots of zoo's have tons of children in them from family outings and school field trips.
Mass shooters are terrorists cowards and will seek the most helpless, defenceless targets it can find.

 

[Anonitolia]

Lots of zoo's have tons of children in them from family outings and school field trips.
Mass shooters are terrorists cowards and will seek the most helpless, defenceless targets it can find.

Yes, but I'd imagine cowards might want to steer clear of places that risk retaliation via crazed bears and elephants. If the shooter wanted to kill kids and/or families, he could easily go to an arcade, a school, a church, a fast food restaurant, a playground-- several handfuls of "safer" places where children and families are more likely to gather. It's not like zoos are especially private or anything, so the guy has nothing to gain and a lot to lose by specifically targeting a zoo. It just doesn't make sense to me, even from a narrative standpoint.

 

[Nick Obre]

Despite seeing a lot of praise online for the absolute universe as a whole, I don’t have any interest in the other series. That said, a friend did say Absolute Wonder Woman is top tier as well

Absolute Wonder Woman is the BEST of the whole line.
Absolute Martian Manhunter is very good, very creative, excellent art. The writing is clearly trying to be a Moore/Gaiman/Morrison kind of thing and barely kind of makes it (Camp is nowhere near the level for such an attempt), but the art is strong enough to carry it.
Absolute Green Lantern starts out pretty mediocre, with a non-linear mystery box story set in a small town, but once it breaks out of that, it gets a lot more interesting. It takes the color spectrum and turns it into something philosophical and spiritual. It suffers from using Jo as the protagonist, and Hal in a weird position of half unwilling antagonist, half mystery box in himself. But again, once it breaks out of the original setup, they and other characters get more to do, the book explores their backstories and personalities, the lore starts to become legible, and it all gets a lot more interesting.
Absolute Batman you already know, it's fun, it's balls to the wall, keeps a good momentum, shuffles the toys in the toybox pretty well, and there's some excellent moments here and there. I don't think it's revolutionary (despite it's revolutionary success), but it's a great ride.

BUT
Absolute Superman is mediocre to bad. It has some very interesting concepts but it wastes it all in heavy-handed social commentary.
Absolute Flash is the worst of the bunch. Not bad but just nothing special. Doesn't do anything truly interesting with any of the elements it uses.

So check out Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter, maybe Green Lantern if you have the patience to get past the meh first arc.