Sperg about comic books here

[Alexander Thaut]

No Man's Land is how I got into comics. It was interesting to me, Batman needing to rely on dwindling resources instead of his usual gadgets and wealth, the city being practically lawless except for certain areas. Tim breaking in so he could help out was what made me check out his solo series and made him my Robin.

Having said that, I fucking hate that Damian Scott was the artist for that final issue when Sarah died. I just cannot take his art seriously. It's too cartoony, and not in a well done way. Everything about that scene just looks ridiculous to me. But that could just be me.

A problem with Aaron that I've always had is while I like his R rated stuff (Scalped, Punisher MAX) anything he did for mainline Marvel has just been shit to me. It's like if he can't say fuck or have a pair of tits, any writing ability he has goes out the window. So it wouldn't surprise me if his follow up where he can't push the envelope as much falls flat.

Weird thing is Aaron's Batman: Offworld is pretty good so far

No Man's Land feels like, in a more realistic scenario, we'd have had the JLA just pop in and restore things like they allegedly do.

Jason Aaron's Thor wasn't bad, but it's not amazing. Same with his Avengers.

 

[Foltest]

To keep on going about Jason Aaron, The story arch Frank in Punisher Max is among his best work and I consider one of the best Punisher story archs.
It follow up the previous arch with Bullseye and is mostly played out in flashback from when Frankie came home from nam.
It shows that even when he was home, that something was... off about him.
As previously said, Steve Dillion does the art and you can be that we see his "everyone is Frank" face.
Good stuff overall, so I don't understand his Punisher (2022) run.
As stated before, I have not read it, but if even Chuck Dixion go out and talk shit about it, something went wrong.

 

[Clyde Cash's Left Teste]

No Man's Land feels like, in a more realistic scenario, we'd have had the JLA just pop in and restore things like they allegedly do.

Honestly, stuff like that is part of the reason why I find it hard to believe that Barbara would remain paralysied for a substanable amount of time. Can't somebody just make some tech to make her walk again?

 

[Alexander Thaut]

Honestly, stuff like that is part of the reason why I find it hard to believe that Barbara would remain paralysied for a substanable amount of time. Can't somebody just make some tech to make her walk again?

which is what happened in the n52.

honestly the issue with superheroes that are associated with the A-List in DC/Marvel is that they usually don't get crippled. Barbara Gordon is like, the one exception.

And uh, I guess Aquaman too? Remember, he had a hook hand for most of the '90s.


Edit: Yeah yeah I know we have Daredevil and Dr. Mid-Nite as the blind guys that more than make up for it via other means. Echo's deaf, and we've got plenty of cyborgs.

 

[Foltest]

You forgot the villian Black Manthra, who had autism.
oh wait I forgot, Aquaman cured him!

 

[Mississippi Motorboater]

A problem with Aaron that I've always had is while I like his R rated stuff (Scalped, Punisher MAX) anything he did for mainline Marvel has just been shit to me.

His Avengers, Femme-Thor and X-Men runs were all dreadful. In fact, I'd argue that his hiring was the beginning of the end for all things X-Men, and was the impetus for the comics being unreadable for the last 13 years. His run, not Morrison's, not Austen's, not Milligan's or Kelly/Seagle or even Bendis', is the single worst era of X-Men ever committed to print--fron Schism, to Wolverine & The X-Men, to whatever the FUCK Avengers vs X-Men was supposed to be, the damage he inflicted on the characters and continuity was borderline irreversible, and the long-term damage of what he wrought can even be felt even to this day.

His exit from Marvel was arguably the single moment that shithouse company has shown any signs of starting to heal...it's just a shame he had to shit up Frank Castle on the way out.

 

[Paranoia Machine]

I deeply enjoyed Mark Millar's Big Game cross-over.
When I was a young boy and first read Civil War i was not the biggest fan, but I think I can comfortably say I really like when Millar is left alone to make his own works because he makes them very short, concise, and to the point (most times).
I think his best works however are ones where he can't go full edge. For example I actually felt some emotion with Huck, but felt absolutely numb to The Magic Order and Nemesis. That's not to say that The Magic Order and Nemesis are bad runs, but moreso to say that they get so over-the-top that I become numb to the extremes; which I will state is the point of those books.

Huck is a nice read, and it was nice to see Kick-Ass come back! I hope some of you dudes enjoyed it too, never had anyone to talk about this stuff with.

His exit from Marvel was arguably the single moment that shithouse company has shown any signs of starting to heal...it's just a shame he had to shit up Frank Castle on the way out.

Honest to god, this is how I felt when Joe Quesada fucked off.

 

[Mississippi Motorboater]

Honest to god, this is how I felt when Joe Quesada fucked off.

The difference is that things actually got worse once Quesada left, not better. Once Axel Alonso wheeled in around 2011, stinking of bad ideas and a pocket full of agenda-driven nepo hires, we got the seeds planted for what would become the "All-New, All-Different" Era of Marvel that would rear its grotesque head in the following year, and would encapsulate everything awful about Marvel for the next decade.

I know people act like Quesada is Satan Incarnate because he shat in the cornflakes of Spider-Man fans or whatever, but on the whole, the health of the comics on the whole under his tenure was nowhere near as what it is now. Jane Foster Thor, Riri Williams, Catlady Danvers, Hydra Cap, Gwenpool, Snowflake & Safe Space and the worst version of America Chavez of any era were not staples of the Quesada Era, and neither were crossovers like Civil War II or War of the Realms.

That was all the Alonso Era, which has transmorphed and changed host bodies like a parasite into the new Ceubulski Era as well, with no end in sight.

 

[Paranoia Machine]

things actually got worse once Quesada left, not better.

I would agree if Quesada wasn't the Editor-In-Chief during the time of Max and Ultimates, both of which were considered "successful" and had stories of the same quality of All New All Different because they were mostly done by Bendis and Millar, with Millar being the only one behind the two the push the envelope on anything edgy if he could.
I like Millar, but his writing is a bad fit for Marvel.
All the skeezy choices made by Marvel were all ran past Quesada. Ultimates was allowed to be as retarded as it got because Quesada thought it was legitimately good storytelling.
I am a Spider-Man fan of course, but the issue I have is that Quesada was a massive edgy man-child that pushed non-edgy characters into their worst iterations.

Jane Foster Thor, Riri Williams,

Both bad decisions; but both led to two honest-to-god good things. Unworthy Thor was an amazing run and once Bendis fucked off to DC, everyone was gunning for Riri. That's why she was gutted into a full redesign from ground up. They had Thanos humble her hard.

Catlady Danvers

I'll give you this every day of the fucking week. Carol Danvers is the character that Marvel cannot figure out what to do with. They want everyone to like her but they make her the literal worst hero there is a lot of the time. The entirety of Civil War II was frustrating because she was just flat-out wrong, while in Civil War I you at least can understand both sides Tony and Cap come from and can see the dangers of both choices; Danvers choice with Ulysses Kaine was easy: His powers were not godly accurate and could not be relied upon.

Hydra Cap

The concept of Hydra Cap was stupid initially, but I genuinely didn't see the issue with the story. Yes; creators were Jewish but this wasn't the first time Cap has been evil or something worse. And it's not like they wrote this as the "TRUEST VERSION OF CAP" or something either. And while I didn't care for the whole Kobik human-cube story I did genuinely love these panels because they went hard as fuck and were prime Cap.

Gwenpool, Snowflake & Safe Space and the worst version of America Chavez of any era were not staples of the Quesada Era, and neither were crossovers like Civil War II or War of the Realms.

Snowflake and Safe Space are going to be jokes from this generation the same way Snow Flame and all of Liefeld's 90s art went. Products of a bygone era that we laugh at.
America Chavez has never been good, Gwenpool is just meh? I won't shit on it because it's just not my genre, but I know it has its own little following.

Just as an aside though, I don't think that Marvel is in a great spot, but I don't think they are unable to put out something of decency; I think nowadays they buckle to stupid ideas and diversity way too easily that they don't see the foresight of how things look, but tons of stupid shit was done under Quesada and I see the Ultimate universe the same way I see the Star Wars Continuity, just because there is a new thing that has shit aspects to it as well, does not make the prequels any less shit than they were before.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

I would agree if Quesada wasn't the Editor-In-Chief during the time of Max and Ultimates, both of which were considered "successful" and had stories of the same quality of All New All Different because they were mostly done by Bendis and Millar, with Millar being the only one behind the two the push the envelope on anything edgy if he could.
I like Millar, but his writing is a bad fit for Marvel.
All the skeezy choices made by Marvel were all ran past Quesada. Ultimates was allowed to be as retarded as it got because Quesada thought it was legitimately good storytelling.
I am a Spider-Man fan of course, but the issue I have is that Quesada was a massive edgy man-child that pushed non-edgy characters into their worst iterations.

Quesada was memed as being bad and he kinda was, but I'd prefer him to what we have now.

Both bad decisions; but both led to two honest-to-god good things. Unworthy Thor was an amazing run and once Bendis fucked off to DC, everyone was gunning for Riri. That's why she was gutted into a full redesign from ground up. They had Thanos humble her hard.

Riri got smacked the fuck up.

I'll give you this every day of the fucking week. Carol Danvers is the character that Marvel cannot figure out what to do with. They want everyone to like her but they make her the literal worst hero there is a lot of the time. The entirety of Civil War II was frustrating because she was just flat-out wrong, while in Civil War I you at least can understand both sides Tony and Cap come from and can see the dangers of both choices; Danvers choice with Ulysses Kaine was easy: His powers were not godly accurate and could not be relied upon.

I feel like if Danvers was at least "following orders" because the precognition was allegedly worth the risk more often than not, then it'd probably have been believably better.

otherwise, we're left with Danvers acting like she's meant to have all the respect of the old guard and getting pissy when most of the old guard of heroes side with Tony.

like, I think marvel forgets that Danvers, for a while, was characterized by her trauma and that leading to downward spirals and screw ups. She's a former alcoholic. Why not lean into the characterization that she feels like she needs to be as "respected" as Mar-Vell, and the one way for this was to have the heroes not question ulysses' reliability?

they could have made it a better story. sure, she'd be wrong and she'd be suspect to hubris, but it'd be more interesting character-wise than being a superheroic military wine aunt.

The concept of Hydra Cap was stupid initially, but I genuinely didn't see the issue with the story. Yes; creators were Jewish but this wasn't the first time Cap has been evil or something worse. And it's not like they wrote this as the "TRUEST VERSION OF CAP" or something either. And while I didn't care for the whole Kobik human-cube story I did genuinely love these panels because they went hard as fuck and were prime Cap.

Secret Empire was entertaining. Hydra Cap was fun. It wasn't perfect and it was kinda stupid.

but that don't mean it wasn't goofy fun.

Snowflake and Safe Space are going to be jokes from this generation the same way Snow Flame and all of Liefeld's 90s art went. Products of a bygone era that we laugh at.
America Chavez has never been good, Gwenpool is just meh? I won't shit on it because it's just not my genre, but I know it has its own little following.

Just as an aside though, I don't think that Marvel is in a great spot, but I don't think they are unable to put out something of decency; I think nowadays they buckle to stupid ideas and diversity way too easily that they don't see the foresight of how things look, but tons of stupid shit was done under Quesada and I see the Ultimate universe the same way I see the Star Wars Continuity, just because there is a new thing that has shit aspects to it as well, does not make the prequels any less shit than they were before.

marvel has the issue of trying to push the DEI stuff now and not realizing that people aren't gonna buy it out to collect shit because even characterfag fans have to like the character.

America Chavez and Ironheart haven't done anything to be all that liked. At least Squirrel Girl was always meme material and was kinda likable.

 

[Paranoia Machine]

Quesada was memed as being bad and he kinda was, but I'd prefer him to what we have now.

I think it really depends for me. There is a lot of shit I hate right now, but there have been some things I definitely enjoyed bits and pieces of for new-age Marvel.
I am a huge Doctor Doom fan, so Doom getting his own solo run, even if it was middling and kind of undid a lot of his character progress; was still fun. I will say I hated the end because it made him puppy-kickingly evil again, but lmao Status-Quo-In-Comics...
I also really liked the Taskmaster run. I fucking love Taskmaster and having him fuck with both Doom and get his own little title was great.

like, I think marvel forgets that Danvers, for a while, was characterized by her trauma and that leading to downward spirals and screw ups. She's a former alcoholic. Why not lean into the characterization that she feels like she needs to be as "respected" as Mar-Vell, and the one way for this was to have the heroes not question ulysses' reliability?

they could have made it a better story. sure, she'd be wrong and she'd be suspect to hubris, but it'd be more interesting character-wise than being a superheroic military wine aunt.

This would have been an amazing way of handling her that would have made more sense to her massive change to her character as opposed to what they gave. What made it all worse for me is that she doubled down after War Machine's body-cork gets blown out by Thanos. She was literally dating this man and her methods of handling Thanos led to her boyfriend's literal death, followed by her putting her boyfriend's best friend into such a bad coma that he needed to clone his body and re-upload his mind into it.
Which leads absolutely into Secret Empire happening.

The worst part is that I do enjoy some designs of Danvers as Captain Marvel but she is just such an unlikeable character

Secret Empire was entertaining. Hydra Cap was fun. It wasn't perfect and it was kinda stupid.

but that don't mean it wasn't goofy fun.

It was! And that's why I liked it too! How many times has Cap gone up against some ridiculous shit that we think is cash now?
I mean come on at one point Nixon was Red Skull in disguise and Cap killed him. This bothered Cap so much he hung up the stars and stripes and my nigga looked like THIIIIIIIS

America Chavez and Ironheart haven't done anything to be all that liked. At least Squirrel Girl was always meme material and was kinda likable.

Exactly, and this is why everyone will continue to fawn over the greats, because there hasn't been an original superhero from Marvel or DC that hasn't been a ripoff of something already established. Look at Invincible and The Boys; both IPs that are basically wearing their "Dr. Thunder" to "Dr. Pepper" comparison on their shoulder with their characters so they can have original stories with them and they are doing better for it.
Personally; I like that Image and Dynamite Entertainment are getting a fair shake. If you had told me that Invincible and The Boys would become massive mainstream names, I'd have never believed you.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

Exactly, and this is why everyone will continue to fawn over the greats, because there hasn't been an original superhero from Marvel or DC that hasn't been a ripoff of something already established. Look at Invincible and The Boys; both IPs that are basically wearing their "Dr. Thunder" to "Dr. Pepper" comparison on their shoulder with their characters so they can have original stories with them and they are doing better for it.
Personally; I like that Image and Dynamite Entertainment are getting a fair shake. If you had told me that Invincible and The Boys would become massive mainstream names, I'd have never believed you.

I think it's also just Amazon realizing the time's right and the potential was there.

I think it really depends for me. There is a lot of shit I hate right now, but there have been some things I definitely enjoyed bits and pieces of for new-age Marvel.
I am a huge Doctor Doom fan, so Doom getting his own solo run, even if it was middling and kind of undid a lot of his character progress; was still fun. I will say I hated the end because it made him puppy-kickingly evil again, but lmao Status-Quo-In-Comics...
I also really liked the Taskmaster run. I fucking love Taskmaster and having him fuck with both Doom and get his own little title was great.

I think Doom's ongoing where he had Blue Marvel as the heroic antagonist ended in a beautifully "Doom" way. He fucking iced the universe of his genuinely heroic alter version just because he could.

This would have been an amazing way of handling her that would have made more sense to her massive change to her character as opposed to what they gave. What made it all worse for me is that she doubled down after War Machine's body-cork gets blown out by Thanos. She was literally dating this man and her methods of handling Thanos led to her boyfriend's literal death, followed by her putting her boyfriend's best friend into such a bad coma that he needed to clone his body and re-upload his mind into it.
Which leads absolutely into Secret Empire happening.

I think the idea that she gets a level of hubris would have been 100% easily setup. The Ultimates book made it clear that Carol could be interpreted as having a level of hubris. She didn't respect T'Challa's position as a king, the scientist's position as scientists, or America Chavez's experience as a multiversal traveller.

There's clear setup. Shame it never paid off because the idea of Carol willingly turning into something Big Brother-y that makes Post-Civil War I Tony Stark look tame sounds awesome.

The worst part is that I do enjoy some designs of Danvers as Captain Marvel but she is just such an unlikeable character

She's the hanger-on that they decided to make into Captain Marvel to maintain the trademark. She was only ever used as a side character or as a plot device beforehand.

It was! And that's why I liked it too! How many times has Cap gone up against some ridiculous shit that we think is cash now?
I mean come on at one point Nixon was Red Skull in disguise and Cap killed him. This bothered Cap so much he hung up the stars and stripes and my nigga looked like THIIIIIIIS

honestly i think the fun thing would be cap realizing that the red skull is using the modern age's preference towards social performativity to polarize people. he sets up talking heads on media to stir up both sides and etc.

shame the powers that be will never let the left look bad nowadays.

 

[Clyde Cash's Left Teste]

would be cap realizing that the red skull is using the modern age's preference towards social performativity to polarize people. he sets up talking heads on media to stir up both sides and etc.

Gruenwald era Red Skull would do that. I liked how his Red Skull was just funding every extremest group to undermine America.

Red Skull would be the one funding any fringe group you could think of. Hell, he would probally be behind the tranny movement in the US and J6. He would be behind Cancal Culture

He just wants America to fall apart and collaspe into chaos. He isn't an alt-right Nazi, he is much worst then that.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

Gruenwald era Red Skull would do that. I liked how his Red Skull was just funding every extremest group to undermine America.

Red Skull would be the one funding any fringe group you could think of. Hell, he would probally be behind the tranny movement in the US and J6. He would be behind Cancal Culture

He just wants America to fall apart and collaspe into chaos. He isn't an alt-right Nazi, he is much worst then that.

ngl the mental image of Cap and the Avengers walking into some Transgender Rights organization that's connected to too many incidents as the troon head of the org pulls the mask off and it's the red skull in women's clothes while giving a corny bit of dialogue.

Spoiler: wishful thinking dialogue.

"Isn't america great, you can champion any cause for any reason and break it all down Herr Rogers. I can stamp out the future generations by convincing young american men to cut off their penises."

"You monster!"

"No Herr Rogers, we tried to stop them. We burned their books, their research. You let them thrive. Ask Herr Stark about Doctor John Money! About Epstein Island!"

"Hey Steve, I think we should just shoot him now."

"Tony, it's all a mindgame, he~"

"Ah but Herr Rogers, I have here a little black book that mentions Herr Stark and family flying to the Island for vacation. It also mentions the Wakandan Royal Family as well. Herr Rogers, I may be many things, but even I have standards. Here's the proof that Stark Industries owns Comet Pizza if you followed the 57 shell companies. Also, Herr Rogers, there are tunnels hidden underneath Avengers Mansion that connect with the local synagogues. Curious? Do you really trust the money?"

"Steve, don't believe him. He's a Nazi."

 

[Clyde Cash's Left Teste]

ngl the mental image of Cap and the Avengers walking into some Transgender Rights organization that's connected to too many incidents as the troon head of the org pulls the mask off and it's the red skull in women's clothes while giving a corny bit of dialogue.

Spoiler: wishful thinking dialogue.

"Isn't america great, you can champion any cause for any reason and break it all down Herr Rogers. I can stamp out the future generations by convincing young american men to cut off their penises."

"You monster!"

"No Herr Rogers, we tried to stop them. We burned their books, their research. You let them thrive. Ask Herr Stark about Doctor John Money! About Epstein Island!"

"Hey Steve, I think we should just shoot him now."

"Tony, it's all a mindgame, he~"

"Ah but Herr Rogers, I have here a little black book that mentions Herr Stark and family flying to the Island for vacation. It also mentions the Wakandan Royal Family as well. Herr Rogers, I may be many things, but even I have standards. Here's the proof that Stark Industries owns Comet Pizza if you followed the 57 shell companies. Also, Herr Rogers, there are tunnels hidden underneath Avengers Mansion that connect with the local synagogues. Curious? Do you really trust the money?"

"Steve, don't believe him. He's a Nazi."

"Herr Rogers, Wakanda actually means Child-Fuckers. That's why that mutant left him"

 

[Alexander Thaut]

"Herr Rogers, Wakanda actually means Child-Fuckers. That's why that mutant left him"

"They wanted Krakoa gone because it meant competition for the adrenochrome factories Herr Rogers. Orchis was never about fighting for homo sapiens. It was all a front for Big Pharma!"

 

[Arthur Morgan]

I think his best works however are ones where he can't go full edge. For example I actually felt some emotion with Huck, but felt absolutely numb to The Magic Order and Nemesis. That's not to say that The Magic Order and Nemesis are bad runs, but moreso to say that they get so over-the-top that I become numb to the extremes; which I will state is the point of those books.

Just because it's the intent, doesn't automatically make it good. Having said that, I agree, Millar on a leash is much more interesting than when he gets to do whatever he wants, because when he can do it, he does regardless of whether or not it services the story.

He left DC because they refused to let him go as far as he wanted on The Authority and forced him to dial stuff back. Personally, I think it's some of his best work in how he dealt with what might happen if a superhero team really did try to fight the powers that be and undermine them. And part of what makes it work is that it went hard, but not edge lord. And it was a stronger book for it. That Mark hated it because it wasn't harder shows his flaws as an unconstrained writer.

Quesada was memed as being bad and he kinda was, but I'd prefer him to what we have now.

There were many problems. At first, he was too lax. He brought people in from the indies and let them have free reign on the books to try and get people excited for all these brand new ideas. In some cases it worked. The Ultimate verse was a great idea, and it did well in sales. But, as was mentioned, because Quesada let the people involved have free reign, it fell apart quickly. And then you had other shit going on, like Chuck Austen getting hired to write. After years of criticism for his lax authority, he decided to course correct in the worst way, by killing off every childless wife in the universe because he went through a divorce, but he spared the mothers (or mother figures in Aunt May's case) because he wanted his dead mom back.

I read a long time ago that he gave an interview or answered a question at a panel shortly after One More Day where he admitted that if he'd had the option, he would have killed his ex-wife if it meant his mother would be alive again. Can't find anything else about that so it was probably some dumb shit a pissed off fan boy made up but considering other things I remember him saying about childless women and marriage, it wasn't really out of character.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

There were many problems. At first, he was too lax. He brought people in from the indies and let them have free reign on the books to try and get people excited for all these brand new ideas. In some cases it worked. The Ultimate verse was a great idea, and it did well in sales. But, as was mentioned, because Quesada let the people involved have free reign, it fell apart quickly. And then you had other shit going on, like Chuck Austen getting hired to write. After years of criticism for his lax authority, he decided to course correct in the worst way, by killing off every childless wife in the universe because he went through a divorce, but he spared the mothers (or mother figures in Aunt May's case) because he wanted his dead mom back.

I read a long time ago that he gave an interview or answered a question at a panel shortly after One More Day where he admitted that if he'd had the option, he would have killed his ex-wife if it meant his mother would be alive again. Can't find anything else about that so it was probably some dumb shit a pissed off fan boy made up but considering other things I remember him saying about childless women and marriage, it wasn't really out of character.

So, it sounds like Quesada was a manchild.

Didn't particularly like the ultimate verse.

Just because it's the intent, doesn't automatically make it good. Having said that, I agree, Millar on a leash is much more interesting than when he gets to do whatever he wants, because when he can do it, he does regardless of whether or not it services the story.

He left DC because they refused to let him go as far as he wanted on The Authority and forced him to dial stuff back. Personally, I think it's some of his best work in how he dealt with what might happen if a superhero team really did try to fight the powers that be and undermine them. And part of what makes it work is that it went hard, but not edge lord. And it was a stronger book for it. That Mark hated it because it wasn't harder shows his flaws as an unconstrained writer.

Millar's work is fine when he's tard wrangled imo.

If you give him clear constraints, he's able to do pretty good work. Otherwise it's just 100% shit that a teenager would call "hardcore".

the millarverse crossover book was weird.

"Wanted" is just kinda mean-spirited.

 

[Mississippi Motorboater]

Unworthy Thor was an amazing run

Unworthy Thor blows ass and is a poor imitation of everything Dan Juurgens did, just like everything else Aaron did while he was taking a rancid shit on the Asgardian mythos. I have zero clue what you're talking about.

 

[Paranoia Machine]

Unworthy Thor blows ass and is a poor imitation of everything Dan Juurgens did, just like everything else Aaron did while he was taking a rancid shit on the Asgardian mythos. I have zero clue what you're talking about.

I guess I should clarify that it's less that it's amazing and more that it's amazing for what it was working with. Jane Foster as Thor wasn't great, but I enjoyed Unworthy Thor well enough because it was neat seeing Thor with an Uru arm and Jarnbjorn.
I can't speak to Dan Juurgens best runs because I have yet to read them. Give me a reccomendation from Juurgens that you find interesting and I'll give it a read.

Mind you; I don't like a lot of the new shit, but I don't have the heart to say it's all trash. I like some of the ideas of the new stuff, execution tends to be shit tho.

"Wanted" is just kinda mean-spirited.

Going back and reading Wanted was like an early 2000's fever dream. It's absolutely mean-spirited, but it's also the epitome of edge that screams its angst right at you. That being said, I enjoy the world he built where Villains won and made the world "Normal"

If you give him clear constraints, he's able to do pretty good work. Otherwise it's just 100% shit that a teenager would call "hardcore".

Just because it's the intent, doesn't automatically make it good. Having said that, I agree, Millar on a leash is much more interesting than when he gets to do whatever he wants, because when he can do it, he does regardless of whether or not it services the story.

What I find neat is how Nemesis is basically the evolution of Wanted in terms of its sheer edge. God, if we tallied up all the horrible shit he did in the first run, it just sounds ridiculous.
His second run which was like a reboot, Nemesis Reloaded I feel gives into exactly what you are talking about because while it had some of the clear "Hardcore" aspects it didn't feel the urge to make Nemesis a constant neverending pit of "HAH SEE THAT!?" like the first one did. I honestly think that giving him the cult-related background that ties in with The Magic Order was a rad decision as opposed to the quasi-joker "Kidding, that's not my backstory!" angle they had the first time around.