Main Menu

New Comic Book Day Megathread

Started by The Adventurer, 08 March, 2012, 09:36:36 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

The Mind of Wolfie Smith

the new taarna from heavy metal is great - i think we're 5 chapters in now ...
i wish the cool new expanse (comic) season were more than a limited series ...
the current love and rockets series is out of time perfection ...
the new mutants post hickman revamp is detachedly psychedelic and is often both funny and loving ...
but, best of all at the moment, now, from fantagraphics, is the pinnacle anthology of global cartooning. it's perfect. and i'm always thrilled to get a new volume ...
comics are still good.

CalHab

Working my way through the backlog:

Maestro: War and Pax #1-4. A continuation of last year's Maestro series from Peter David and Javier Pina. I have only read an issue or two of David's original Hulk run, so this is new to me. I'm enjoying it, though. Peter David has some real wit in the dialogue and secondary characters. I think this wraps up with issue 5.

Thor #11-14. A solid end to a long-running story arc. How to defeat undefeatable villains is a common problem for comics writers. Donny Cates does a good job here, and even adds a rather macabre end for the bad guy as a flourish.

Immortal Hulk #41-44. Al Ewing's US comic work has moments of greatness, and I see why he has taken off over there. However..... his writing has got very, very baggy. I would genuinely struggle to point to more than a few moments in these four issues where the plot actually advances. The body horror continues, and that's great, and he makes reference to obscure characters I don't know (which is no doubt great for long-term readers). I'm going to stick with this, as I think it ends with #50. This started off with a blistering pace, and I genuinely thought it was going to be a great run, but it has lost momentum.

CalHab

To go back to Immortal Hulk, this series started as a grotesque horror story. Now it largely comprises superheroes having meetings, with the occasional splash page of a body being distended and mutated.

I also forgot to add that one of these issues contains a jaw dropping use of an anti-semitic trope on the artist's part. I saw the artist apologise, and assume it's a genuine mistake? I don't understand how the editor missed it.

CalHab

Still working my way through the backlog this weekend.

Crossover #3 is a load of fun, and enlivened by the appearance of a well loved favourite at the end of issue 3. It's a bit of a love letter to comics and fandom and well worth checking out. I think this is the new series I'm most excited about at the moment.

Daredevil #26-28. This is probably the best book Marvel is putting out at the moment and Zdarsky knows how to write Elektra. Consistently excellent.

Amazing Spider-Man #55-59. I'm only halfway through the massive stack of these, but I'm quite glad to see the end of the Sins Rising/Last Remains storyline. Its dragged on too long. I'm hoping for a return to lighter Spider-fare, maybe with a load of quips and some semi-inept villains, please.

Spider's Shadow #1. Combining the two above, is a Chip Zdarsky written Spider-Man "What If?" story. This is a slow start, retracing a lot of ground that's already very well trodden. Zdarsky's "Life Story" was an interesting take on Spider-Man so I'm keen to see what he brings to this.

CalHab

#2659
Crossover #4-6 bring this book to a close and teases the next story. I'm pretty familiar with a lot of comics, but I've got to admit I had to refer to the copyright notices at the back to identify a lot of the cameos from non-"big two" characters. It was great seeing [spoiler]Madman[/spoiler] as a main character. Well worth checking out.

Colin YNWA

Given that spoiler how involved has [spoiler]Mike Allred[/spoiler] been with Crossover?

CalHab

Good question. [spoiler]He is mentioned in the copyright section as the owner of Madman. It also features panels from various Madman comics drawn by Allred and apparently he did a variant cover. [/spoiler] I suspect Donny Cates phoned various creators and asked if they'd be up for it. There's an amusing bit in #3 where a superhero-sorcerer character corrects the protagonist when they call him Dr Strange. Marvel obviously didn't want others playing with their toys.

CalHab

And thankfully Amazing Spider-Man #60 returns to the earlier storylines of Boomerang as Parker's room-mate, Kingpin searching for a magical MacGuffin (do the Daredevil and Spider-Man editors talk to each other?) and Jamieson's new venture in a social media/junk website. It's decent stuff... but I wish Nick Spencer would stop using the same opening trope of "Spidey in unrecognisable situation, flashback to how he got there". Its tired.

Colin YNWA

Arh a normal sized haul - that's more like it - and its a bloody good one too, all be it with lots of endings.

We'll start with the endingish ending as the wonderful Resident Alien finished with Your Ride's Here 6. It was a neat, sweet little ending, perfectly in keeping with the series as a whole. While the series as a whole has been one of the best things on sale while its been running the ending it needed was necessary the best ending to a comic. So again fittingly bitter sweets (and I guess a little open if the telly show demands more comics!)

The least ending, ending is Usagi Yojimbo - Wander's Road 6 which concludes this run of done in one and will continue into a new series of 6 I believe that will have another title for no real reason. Mind if it helps help this glorious series going who am I to complain. This tale of ninja thieves and woodcutter was particularly good too.

Happy Hour 6 it was always going to be difficult to end this series well. This one does what seems to be a decent job, but throwining in Irony to do that might be one idea too many. Its been a great series so I look forward to seeing how this ending really works on re-read.

Elsewhere in comics some things don't end as ever. Immortal Hulk 46 is another good un. I feel either I've revitalised and back into this series since I caught up, or the series is back in form as it heads towards its conclusion? Either way this is another fine episode with the U-foes having the tables turned and Gyrich calling in old foes, or good guys to set up an interestin conflicit.

Black Hammer - Visions 4 plays with realiities in a fun tale that I think will resonate more when I read the series again.

So book of the haul, well its a tough call between two, and that's saying something given how good almost all the rest are. Grendel - Devil's Odyssey 6 is FANTASTIC tight, dusty and a heap of fun as Prime develops me insights and virtues. But I think I have to give it to HaHa 4. A story of clowns and grandpas try to find themselves and a better way one ballon at a time. This was an incredibly powerful story that caught me out of leftfield and it was might dusty in the room as I read this end. Just brilliant.

Arh its good to have a regular haul back in my life.

CalHab

We Only Find Them When They're Dead #6. This was a pleasant surprise as I thought this was taking a break after the end of the first story arc. It continues some years later, with different characters and an extremely large mystery left over at the end of the previous story. I complained earlier in this thread that Al Ewing's US work was a bit baggy. I think I'm going to have to modify that to just his superhero work as this barrels along at a great pace, throwing off new ideas every couple of pages. It's not his 2000AD work, but this is the closest Ewing gets in theme to the stuff he did for the prog (and not just because its sci-fi).

It'll be well worth picking up when its collected, if you missed the earlier issues.

CalHab

Spider's Shadow #2. Zdarsky/Ferry/Hollingsworth/Caragmagna's "What if?" Spider-Man kept the Venom suit story continues. We're now clearly off continuity and the body count is racking up. This is a pretty simple morality tale at this point and Zdarsky isn't usually so straightforward. It needs some complexity and ambiguity, I think. I'll stick with this mini-series just to see where it goes, but at the moment its a bit of a wasted opportunity.

CalHab

#2666
The Immortal Hulk: Time of Monsters is a one-shot with two short stories. The first, by Alex Paknadel and Al Ewing, is a wonderful tale of a prehistoric Hulk. This is a bit of a masterclass in how to do a short. In a few pages a world is established with believable characters and depth. I'm not familiar with Paknadel, but I'm going to have to find some of his other work. This doesn't rely on any knowledge of the Immortal Hulk storyline, so would be worth dipping into. Think of it as Mezolith vs Hulk.

The second story is a solid but conventional bit of genre by David Vaughan and Kevin Nowlan. It's well crafted and enjoyable but pales a bit in comparison to the first story.

Amazing Spider-Man #66 rumbles on. It's a bit like Lost now. At some point Nick Spencer needs to resolve a storyline, but I think he just enjoys playing with decades old plot lines too much. The earlier part of his run was a lot "cleaner", if that makes sense.

Colin YNWA

Oh I assume my LCS has put this aside for me, as they have other Immortal Hulk Specials. Sound good but I'm most excited about Kevin Nowlan art. I love Kevin Nowlan.

CalHab

Just realised that I misread the credits on that Hulk book. I assumed Paknadel was writer/artist, but Juan Ferreyra was the artist, and did a great job.

I should have said, but Nowlan is excellent on the other story. He's got a great clean style and colouring technique. He plays with the panels a bit. Hulk is bursting out of them, which is fun.

CalHab

Daredevil #30. More Electra, which is great, more Kingpin, who is a busy man between Daredevil and Spider-Man. I'm glad he's got a good PA, as his diary must be a nightmare. Zdarsky moves his target from predatory real estate deals and gentrification to the scandal of the US for-profit prison system. This is honestly more fun than it sounds.

Checchetto, Hawthorne, Benedetto and Menyz are on the art. Kudos for Elektra's hair, which moves around with a life of its own and is probably one of the major characters in this book.