Sperg about comic books here

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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.
AWW is the best one.
AGL & ABM are tied for second for me.
I'd probably notch ABM a little higher but AGL is starting to pick up.
I have both trades of ASM but haven't read them yet.
Black Adam is coming so I'm interested now.
Read the first issues of AMM and Flash but neither clicked with me.
There are Catwoman and Green Arrow minis coming.
 
There are Catwoman and Green Arrow minis coming.
If she has the visual design of AbsBat, I might pick it up for that alone. I've not got to Catwoman in the story yet, I just love the pictures I've seen.
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I don't think it's revolutionary (despite it's revolutionary success), but it's a great ride.
I'm curious how long the core five Absolute books will run. Probably at least 50. Abs Batman will run as long as Snyder wants to it
I don't think the success is revolutionary.

You likely know all this, but comics have been shitting the bed for 15 years. All they had to do to cash in on the MCU was put out even mediocre books based on the characters, and what did they do? Captain America was a nazi. Thor was a woman. Ironman was being replaced with a black girl. Famously, a single popular manga outside the entire American comic book industry combined, and that's with America trying to pad the numbers with variant covers, crossover events, and other bullshit.

They should be choosy about which characters they bring into the absolute universe. I do wonder if the success of the main 3 Absolute books will lead to DC saturating the market, and taking the wrong lessons from the success. I know they're already doing multiple covers and crossovers, and putting out a lot of Absolute books, but I hope they'll reign it in, keep the quality up, and the barrier of entry low.

I also don't think the Absolute universe is going to end if DC sees it as an infinite money printer. I don't know how much control Snyder has, but if he finished it I imagine DC would put another writer on it to try and keep it going.


Maybe it is revolutionary, but to me this is DC finally getting a clue and putting out something people actually want to read, instead of IP management masquerading as story telling.


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.
It works as an origin story. It's no worse than "parents shot in an alley, and then somehow bat swarm". It also never states outright what the shooters motives were so he could've been an animal rights or political nut.
 
Marvel reveals new characters Sightseer and Mogul from ‘Reborn: Ultimate Impact’ series
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Oh, it's another one of those "LET'S MAKE AN EVENT to make new characters", in this case we have what looks like the bad guy from a fill-in issue of The Authority and a woman who looks like something from a discarded idea for a What If? "What if Ms. Marvel became the Sorcerer Supreme?"


I am not a fan of this sort of event because it often just ends up being a shotgun mix of ideas and only MAYBE one of the new characters takes off and the others are either dropped soon after or quietly discarded and forgotten about sometime later, or are just killed off. Who will survive, this time?


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The only characters born from these sort of events that come to mind, that actually sort of thrived and ended up semi-important were Genis-Vell (really, after Peter David got ahold of him) and Tommy Monahan.
 
Marvel reveals new characters Sightseer and Mogul from ‘Reborn: Ultimate Impact’ series
View attachment 8819213

Oh, it's another one of those "LET'S MAKE AN EVENT to make new characters", in this case we have what looks like the bad guy from a fill-in issue of The Authority and a woman who looks like something from a discarded idea for a What If? "What if Ms. Marvel became the Sorcerer Supreme?"


I am not a fan of this sort of event because it often just ends up being a shotgun mix of ideas and only MAYBE one of the new characters takes off and the others are either dropped soon after or quietly discarded and forgotten about sometime later, or are just killed off. Who will survive, this time?


View attachment 8819216View attachment 8819217View attachment 8819218View attachment 8819220

The only characters born from these sort of events that come to mind, that actually sort of thrived and ended up semi-important were Genis-Vell (really, after Peter David got ahold of him) and Tommy Monahan.
I take it you saw Exalted Speeds tweet and took the photos from it?
 
I am not a fan of this sort of event because it often just ends up being a shotgun mix of ideas and only MAYBE one of the new characters takes off and the others are either dropped soon after or quietly discarded and forgotten about sometime later, or are just killed off. Who will survive, this time?


View attachment 8819216View attachment 8819217View attachment 8819218View attachment 8819220

The only characters born from these sort of events that come to mind, that actually sort of thrived and ended up semi-important were Genis-Vell (really, after Peter David got ahold of him) and Tommy Monahan.
I have a soft spot for nonsense like this, if only because it feels like the most comic booky of comic book things one can do. These events are so "of their time" that it's hard to not have a somewhat ironic sense of nostalgia for them. Look at Hitman, for example. "BLOODLINES DEATHSTORM," for Christ's sake. Everything about it was so charmingly charmless in a 90s XXXXXXXTREME way.
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C'mon... I can't have been the only person who had a doofy smile on his face when this guy showed up in a cameo in that one Flash wrasslin' issue.
 
Marvel reveals new characters Sightseer and Mogul from ‘Reborn: Ultimate Impact’ series
View attachment 8819213

Oh, it's another one of those "LET'S MAKE AN EVENT to make new characters", in this case we have what looks like the bad guy from a fill-in issue of The Authority and a woman who looks like something from a discarded idea for a What If? "What if Ms. Marvel became the Sorcerer Supreme?"


I am not a fan of this sort of event because it often just ends up being a shotgun mix of ideas and only MAYBE one of the new characters takes off and the others are either dropped soon after or quietly discarded and forgotten about sometime later, or are just killed off. Who will survive, this time?


View attachment 8819216View attachment 8819217View attachment 8819218View attachment 8819220

The only characters born from these sort of events that come to mind, that actually sort of thrived and ended up semi-important were Genis-Vell (really, after Peter David got ahold of him) and Tommy Monahan.
Can't tell whether I'm more impressed that the Dr. Strange replacement is still white or more confused as to how it even exists in the first place (beyond the obvious "we need a hip and cool replacement for a staple character")
what, did shoving the Eye of Agamotto in an Origin Box somehow grant a random person thousands of years of magical experience and immortality? :story:
 
So to those who still keep up with DC are they doing anything with Red Hood after the troon got his solo book cancelled?
In DC KO he fought the Joker in the tournament and won the fight but was too wounded and died before Joker, so Joker won the match. (Mind you that all deaths in the tournament were undone when it ended)

Also Batman died before the tournament properly started, and was sent through fake alternate futures where each Robin became Batman after his death (DC KO KnightFight). Jason's timeline had Joker flood Gotham with radioactive gas; they evacuated it and put a dome (a giant red hood) over it to contain it, and Jason was the only one inside, dealing with poisoned survivors or people who broke in.
 
I've read snippets of Smile for the Camera, and I'm enjoying it so far. Because I like to ruminate (Bentley the Yeti voice), I next thought about how it would do as a film or live action miniseries.

And, because I like to compare things, there was a Spidey comic series that actually follows Peter throughout the early '60s, and decades afterwards. I reckon if done right, that would rock as a TV series, or film. Nerdy, scrawny, weedy, sort of Buddy Holly-looking Peter Parker? I'd like to see that, but one can dream.

Finally, though, if you compare the War Doctor in the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special, and the Titan Comics, it's mildly irritating: he actually uses a plasma rifle type weapon, and he also teams up with the Master, who has regenerated into, what appears to be, a preteen boy, who constantly takes the piss out of, and threatens War Doc's latest companion.

I APOLOGISE IN FOOKIN ADVANCE FOR ANY SPOILER DICKERY:

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Personal rec - Lastman by Bastien Vivès and Balak. First discovered this thing from the animated show that got crowdfunded and then a whole second season that act as prequels to the actual comic book series. Without spoiling too much - it starts out pretty grounded with a hint of mythic and spirals out of control faster than Aldana (MC) can throw a punch.
 
Rereading the complete Punisher MAX for the umpteenth time over the last couple of days and my God, Fernandez' pencils are just next level.
I finished my most recent re-read a couple months ago. I don't know why Marvel didn't just have Fernandez draw every issue from Volume 4 onward.

Parlov's art on the Barracuda and Long Cold Dark stories is OK at best, but at least it ain't nearly as shitty as Chaykin's one issue from the beginning of Long Cold Dark.

Bradstreet's covers are indeed cool as fuck.
 
I finished my most recent re-read a couple months ago. I don't know why Marvel didn't just have Fernandez draw every issue from Volume 4 onward.

Parlov's art on the Barracuda and Long Cold Dark stories is OK at best, but at least it ain't nearly as shitty as Chaykin's one issue from the beginning of Long Cold Dark.

Bradstreet's covers are indeed cool as fuck.
The variety of artists doesn't bother me... until we get to Long Cold Dark and Valley Forge, Valley Forge. Especially the last arc, that really should have been Fernandez. I think he'd gone back to DC by that point though. But there were plenty of better options than Parlov. Long Cold Dark, I get since it was a Barracuda story but VF should have had someone who didn't have such a cartoony style.

Oh well, at least Chaykin didn't draw a whole arc and it was just one issue.
 
Ok, just to be clear. By Sperg are we talking positive or negative? Because I have had an absolutely miserable fucking time with comics lately that's made me honestly kinda not want to read them anymore. And I could go on for pages about it. But I don't want to drop that shit in the wrong thread if it's more about deep appreciation than venting frustrations.
 
Ok, just to be clear. By Sperg are we talking positive or negative? Because I have had an absolutely miserable fucking time with comics lately that's made me honestly kinda not want to read them anymore. And I could go on for pages about it. But I don't want to drop that shit in the wrong thread if it's more about deep appreciation than venting frustrations.
Sperging is sperging. If you want to sperg all over the floor, sperg away.
 
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