Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Random Review Corner

IIRC, Moore has dismissed Twilight of the Superheroes as one of those unfortunate stories he wrote (or in this case, outlined) when he was "in a bad mood."

Went back an re-read Nameless last night. It certainly reads better in one sitting (especially for the art call backs, and the identification of some of the minor characters, which become important in the story's pivotal scene). My initial criticism still stands, in that the underpinning of the story is a mash-up of Event Horizon, Inception and, as it turns out .

That's not to say it's not well done for the story it aspires to be. Burnham said they were going for a straight horror vibe, which they achieve to some extent (in a heavily gross-out way). The ending is intentionally ambiguous, and the Alien presence is menacing, if somewhat derivative, but it was certainly never boring.

Comics I've enjoyed immensely lately:

- Black Widow - it really feels like this may end up the best Widow story ever.

- The Walking Dead - the revitalized TWD continues to nail it month after month. It's as good as it's been in years.

- Stray Bullets - simply mesmerizing. Contender for best series on the market.

- Saga - still living up to the hype years later.

- Silver Surfer - the amazing partnership of Slott and Allred continues to bring out the best in both and it's the best romance Marvel has had in 25 years.

- Archie - I'm still really enjoying the main Archie title by Waid & company. It can be a little geared towards a younger audience a lot of the time but there's a charm and wit to it that reminds me of Waid's Impulse.

- Manifest Destiny - it's such a unique series in so many ways that I'm always interested in where each issue goes.

There's more but those are ones I caught up on recently.

Oddly enough, those are all books I'm still getting that made my recent cut--with the exception of Black Widow. I do intend to get the eventual trades but passed on the first issue after flipping through the first issue. It looked to basically be a full-length action sequence. Nothing wrong with that, per se, but at 4 bucks, it looked a little light on story. When the trade comes out, I know it will be more satisfying. After all Waid and Samnee's run on Daredevil was pretty phenomenal.

I am, however, more severely behind on my monthlies than ever because I've got so many wonderful trades, hardcovers and omnibuses constantly beckoning to me. I haven't been to the CBS since April and my stack o'floppies dates back to about November or December!

Lardy, I also found Black Widow #1 lacking. Luckily all the other issues have been much better. But shit, if not for already following the creative team on Daredevil, I'd probably have cancelled it on the spot.

And some additional thoughts:

- caught up the Vision #7-9 and it really is a phenomenal series. It's clear this is something special, and every issue has been great. It's building to something big and I can't wait.

- I caught up on Sex Criminals and I'm glad I did. As I was really going through my recent "comic book depression", I was on the verge of dropping it but held off. And now that I'm reading in a more welcoming state of mind I've immediately found the joy in reading the series again. It's so unique and fresh, and just plain fun. And hilarious. Effing hilarious.

- the latest Astro City was also awesome. I've always been interested in Jack in the Box and we at last get a story delving into Jack's past. It's been a good one too, as Kurt continues to be on his game.

- the only disappointing comic I read is Guardians of the Galaxy. I've noticed this with GotG before, but Bendis really seems to phone it in on this title. It's all action, a few one liners where he tries to replicate the movie and then he just kind of assumes we'll love it because, well, it's GotG. Well not really. I like Bendis more than most but this isn't working. I wish they'd give another writer a shot, especially because it's got Immonen art and also features the Thing and Kitty Pryde, two of my favorites.

Nice to see I wasn't wrong about that first issue. I saw some pretty lukewarm reviews of it online. Looking forward to the trade.



Volume one is on my "get soon" list. Too much positive buzz for it not to be wort reading.



I'm glad you held off, too! I'm way behind but seriously look forward to it.



Also really behind but AC never disappoints. Even it's "so-so" stories are better than 99% of other comics out there.

Is Doc Strange still going well, btw?

That is actually at the top of my pile but I haven't gotten to it yet!

A few more random thoughts to close out the last few weeks worth of non-Rebirth titles I've been reading:

Dr. Strange remains pretty good though like most of Aaron's Marvel work, it's sometimes feels like its missing a little something on a monthly basis. I suspect it reads even better as a TPB.

Nowhere Men from Image is another series I'm glad I stuck with, as I continue to enjoy it quite a bit. The cast is huge and the story has gotten very swollen, but I don't mind it so much. At times Stephenson skirts being a little socially preachy but he never really goes there (thankfully). Overall though, the story is interesting and the various characters are fascinating.

The Goddamned by Aaron and RM Guerra is really just batshit insane right now as it continues its first arc. It's hard to get a sense of the series yet other than its interesting as hell and different than anything else or anything I expected.

Amazing Spider-Man - I'm still enjoying ASM by Slott quite a bit. The current status quo isn't my favorite but Slott is making it work and keeping it interesting. Clearly there is a long term plan here--to bring Peter 'back to Earth' and remember who he is--and you can see that peculating already. Honestly, even the issue to issue plots and larger "arc" plots don't matter as much as the fact that Slott just writes Peter better than anyone else.

War Stories by Garth Ennis & friends remains a series I enjoy, though as expected, it varies arc to arc. This latest one was not my favorite, but I may have not been in the right frame of mind to read it as it was coming out. I'll see what the next one holds.

I am waiting to read Morning Glories #50 until I have time to devote to it, though I expect to enjoy it as I've done with the entire series so far.

I dropped Cinema Purgatorio after I discovered it was $4.99 per month. I'm sure Moore and O'Neal's stories are fantastic, but I can't shell out that much each month for B&W stories from creators I'm not sure about (and some I just am not keen on at all).

I still love Archie and Afterlife with Archie. I dropped Jughead after two issues and recently droppped Sabrina.

Marvel has royally effed up Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and the Avengers, not to mention the X-Men, to the point where all of them are unreadable. So I'm not going to read them. Daredevil also just fell flat the minute Waid and Samnee left, which is a shame. In my current state of mind, all I would really need is for it to be entertaining--I don't need it to be 'best of best' material. But none of these are even remotely entertaining right now.

Unbeatable SQUIRREL GIRL is currently the only Marvel title I'm collecting...

"Point/Counterpoint", with the Madwoman and the Hippie:

I actually think Marvel's upcoming lineup is their most promising in ten years. I'm especially excited about the Kate Bishop solo Hawkeye book, written by my girl Kelly Thompson (and to anyone who hasn't checked out Kelly's Jem comic, my recommendation of it from the past still stands.)

I finally picked up the four available issues last Wednesday at my CBS. Obviously, I haven't read them yet, but I look forward to it. I'm concerned, though, about its release history. I'm not sure if they're going for 3-issue arcs followed by a break or if the fourth issues was just that late.



I finally just read the first two issues of the latest ASM volume. Issue 1's lead story was fantastic! (The back-ups amounted to teases for series I'm uninterested in.) I especially loved the inclusion of Hobie Brown as a regular cast member.

It's a little weird to see Pete with all these resources all of a sudden. Issue 2's kinda goofy underwater infiltration really underlined that. But it was helped by giving Hobie even more to do.

Sight unseen, I'd already decided to switch to trades on ASM after the first arc because of the cover price and it being more than monthly. It's probably still the right call, but I have a lot of enthusiasm for ASM after those 2 issues.



Oddly enough, my CBS only had thru issue 18 in my pull. Doing some research, maybe they forgot to order it because there have been more issues. I may use that to my advantage and convert to trades since the last collection went thru 15. There'll be some cost savings, and I won't have to struggle with recalling all the characters and circumstances during my frequent sabbaticals from floppy reading.

Still a good, satisfying series without a doubt.



I only get the horror books after sampling Archie and Jughead. Though I haven't read the latest issues, I'm surprised that you dropped Sabrina. Those first 3-4 issues were very satisfying, imo.

I will say, though, that just having read Archie #3 the other day, it was the best issue of the series thus far and really gave me a moment of regret of discontinuing and not seeing what happened next. It was the issue where Veronica hits Riverdale High and was pure comedy gold.

Yeah, I've really enjoyed Archie and feel that it's gotten better as it goes as Waid has found a nice rhythm to the characters and pacing. Even though Fiona left, the art has been consistently good too!

Sabrina just wasn't doing it for me for some reason. I hemmed and hawed and probably stuck around 2 issues longer than I'd have liked to. Hard to pinpoint why exactly. With Afterlife I'm just so hooked on the art, and I think maybe I'm just not getting that with Sabrina.

And yeah, I knew you'd love seeing Hobie too! He's such a favorite of mine that it was a literal cheer moment to see him in that role. Slott all around just continues to nail it in regards to the entire supporting cast, which is probably why ASM is just heads and tails above most the rest of Marvel.

Klaus finished up this week. What a strange little comic. Take the plot of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", blend it with Conan, throw in some demons and strange mystical beings and you get Klaus. It's a book that seems absurd, but Morrison plays it straight, which heightens the absurdity in a way. It's a unique vibe, but I liked it.

I think the superhero comics are going through a lull ...

I get All New Avengers but it is fizzling for me ... the art is usually good though.

Otherwise I like Thor and Dr Strange and Spider Man, all stories that seem to hark back to characters everyday people can relate to .. "what if i had super powers" rather than the big action movie comics that are popular now. plus the art on all three is gorgeous. Thor has new characters, an evil Minotaur and a new Silver Samurai that are cool.

Not really getting any DC comics, the last relaunch has fizzled for me already, i kinda miss getting Black Canary and Dr Fate but they weren't worth the price for me.


I get Uncanny X-Men when Greg Land draws it but even then it's not really good.

I guess Marvel is doing one character issues on its books during Civil War 2? Not feeling it.


That said some of the non superhero books are just friction spectacular now! (if a bit written for a possible tv show in the future)

Ah Also, an Alan Davis issue on Cho-Hulk has led me to try Cho-Hulk ... the past few were good!


The last one was by the designer of WeirdWorld who is a m a z i n g.

LOW is also a brilliantly drawn comic, can be a bit muddy but they are underwater. Lots of intense action.

Yep. I've ended up buying every issue. I should add it to my list.

I agree that almost all of Marvel's superhero comics have just totally shit the bed. They've all become such bitter disappointments.

On the other hand, though, DC has really impressed me so far with Rebirth. I've been as anti-DC as any the last few years because, frankly, the company has been terrible for almost a decade and a half now. But they've finally made some breakthroughs.

Outside of the big 2, the only other really good superhero comic is Astro City, which is still great, and Invincible, which I admittingly have not kept up on. I know others have tried, but it seems that "superheroes" really only equates to the Big 2.

^^I'm still looking forward to Marvel's Kate-Bishop-as-solo-Hawkeye comic book, written by Kelly ("Jem and the Holograms") Thompson.

Yeah, Marvel does have some bright spots: I really like Amazing Spider-Man, Black Widow and the Vision, and I absolutely love Silver Surfer. Dr. Strange isn't bad and hopefully Hawkeye will be good.

But what kills me is that like 92.5% of their output is awful. I know since I read them occasionally to see that Daredevil, Cap, Iron Man, Thor, the X-books, the Avengers books, Hulk, and all their even crappier spin off books are just not very good. Something else else is just very wrong at the company right now. It's hard to even find the good stuff amongst all the crap.

MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR is great... forgot that one, as I'm getting it in trades...

That something wrong can be summed up in two simple words: Axel Alonso. I never thought I'd actually end up missing Joe Quesada as EiC, but life is funny that way.

No arguments here. Everyone can say all the want about Joe Q, and I know I have, but the proof is in the pudding. When he was EiC, the product was better from an aggregate perspective of the entire line. Under Alonso, the product is just an ocean of shit, with little islands of something good struggling not to be consumed.

The new Civil War story is nonsense ... about two groups fighting over a precogs ability to prevent violence ... a lot of misuse of the term profiling .. and Tony Stark on the opposite side of the debate as he was in the first Civil War ...

what's more ... its just plain boring ... each issue is like two people talking the whole time.


AND IM A SUCKER FOR BIG SUPER HERO CROSS OVERS!

(my recommendation is no)

I'm still reading Spider Gwen .. she is charming but I might dither off soon.

A couple offbeat things I got were good .... both got under my skin.

4 KIDS WALK INTO A BANK.

I'm not sure how to describe it ... its like Freaks and Geeks with Neo Nazi looking bad guys .. and a mystery involving one of the kid's dads. But I thought it was super fun. Art is the scribbly style. I guess these young rejects, that play Dungeons and Dragons are gonna rob a bank.

STRANGE ATTRACTORS

It has a vibe like a 70s film in a university setting.

Via ComiXology:

"Writer Charles Soule (Daredevil, Civil War) crafted a mind-bending story about how chaos math kept New York City from collapsing under itself. Presented for the first time as a limited series, each oversized issue of Strange Attractors features 30 pages of content, including new, never-before-seen bonus story pages. What It Is: Dr. Brownfield believes that a series of cataclysmic events are coming to New York City, and someone has to keep the city safe after he’s gone. Enter Heller Wilson, a brilliant mathematics student, who discovers that his ailing, perhaps insane, mentor has been saving New York City from societal collapse by a series of “adjustments,” a la the Butterfly Effect. But now, all signs point toward an impending disaster. Can Wilson take what little he’s learned and save the city in time?"

they get the theory a bit wrong in my opinion ... which bugs the crap outta me ... but I'm still hooked so it must be good right.