New Comic Book Day Megathread

[Fungus]

I forgot about Batman 34 this week, have emailed my LCS to keep me one.
Didn't expect to see Scalera on art duties.

Eek. He drew this during the break in Black Science? One of my top, um, 5 comics. Don't want to imagine the art team changing there...

Odd to see the artist do other books during a hiatus??? You'd think the artist would be the bottleneck.

[Colin YNWA]

Hey, anyone else reading Grayson? It's great fun; straight continuation of Grant Morrison's Batman stuff, but by a different writer.

Hadn't picked up on the fact that Grayson was a follow up to GMozz's stuff (which I loved). That I guess leaves a question. While This lordship Grant left the end very much open and almost begging for someone to pick it up and run with it, it also left it clear there was probably little point doing so and challenging people not to?

Mind love the character too so maybe...

[Trout]

Grayson is its own thing, but has elements from the GM Batman stuff. I won't spoil it.

It's kind of a fun spy thriller.

[The Cheat]

Green Lantern Corps #34
Solid issue, with a nice twist on the John/Fatality relationship. John's tantrum at the end was a little bit over dramatic though. Liked the 'dead man's switch' tactic of sealing the hole in the hull. A clever use of the ring.
3/5

Amazing Spider-Man #5
Completely unrecognisable character pretending to be the Black Cat, check. Completely new character shoe horned clumsily into the book, check. A bit of a mess to be honest.
2/5

Spider-Man 2099 #2
Peter David doing what Peter David does. Bit light on action, but the characterisation more than makes up for it. Perspective on some of the panels was a bit weird, but art was otherwise solid.
4/5

Abe Sapien - Lost Lives
Decent enough flashback issue, always nice to see Roger again. Getting a bit bored of this series though to be honest. It's never bad, but it all feels a bit repetitive after a while.
3/5

[Colin YNWA]

My haul this weekend was fun, very good fun and full of surprises. For a start Flash Gordon 4 wasn't even comic of the haul, or demoted from such to give other titles a chance. It was still GREAT just not as great.

What was comic of the haul I hear you cry... well I'll make you wait for that... or to put it another way I don't know and kinda hope that by typing this it will become apparent.

Anyway a couple of series came to their issue 3 day of destiny, will they make the pull list permanently or not? Well Cyclops 3 I don't even know cos I got one of them there misprinted issues that is have Ultimate Spider-ham or something? Dag-nabbit now I have to wait. C.O.W.L. 3 was absolutely great and this series is throuhg. Meanwhile Mercenary Sea 6 did it again. Everytime I pick up this comic I think surely this is the one that does it and I cut the title, but then I love it. Pulp goodness and the team is really bringing it all together now.

Over at Vertigo both Hinterkind 10 and FBP 13 are on absolutely fine form, FBP in particular.

To be honest so is everything else. Does everyone LOVE the way Carl Critchlow draws Anderson in Anderson Psi Division 1 I bloody well do, just great stuff. These IDW minis are fantastic fun. Brass Sun 3 is superb and makes me miss The Duke even more alas.

After that we have conclusions, or near to a plenty. Fatale 24 make it clear why getting floppies is still the way forward. You get to experience the story two way, the issue to issue way and this was a great conclusion but mainly cos it made me really look forward to way two. I can't wait to read this in one go to put all the pieces together. Elsewhere The Victories 14 is as brutal as ever and I can't wait for the finish next issues. The Massive 25 starts the series final arc and while I am very nervous about where this is going as an issue and a set-up for the end this is great. Probably deserves issue of the haul but...

Lazarus 10 is surprisingly only the second best issue 10 of the bunch, which given how good it is is a shock. However The Maxx 10 gets that prize and really by way of being the last issue discussed also book of the bunch. Its bunny harrowing but superb.

I'm a happy comics fan.

[Link Prime]

Odd to see the artist do other books during a hiatus??? You'd think the artist would be the bottleneck.

I would have thought so.
As an aside, I recently picked up the first collected edition of Black Science- he's bloody impressive.

On to this week;

Deadpool Vs X-Force 3 (I've started so I'll finish- a light hearted 90's romp with added pouches).
Unwritten Apocalypse 8 (Resigned to a complete run read later this year).

My LCS (Big Bang Comics in Dublin) is also selling some first issues half price this week, so I'm picking up;

Dark Horse Presents 1 (Can't pass it up at that price, although I'll doubt I'll keep buying it)
Fade Out 1 (New from Brubaker & Philipps- if I like it I'll get the 1st trade)
Little Nemo 1 (For my nephew!)

[Hawkmumbler]

20/08/14

Only two this week. Even with an ever growing pull list i'm still prone to these.

Dark Horse Presents (2014) #1: Never read any Big Guy and Rusty before. What excites me about this run though is NEW Age of Reptiles!

Weekly Shonen Jump Series Spotlight: Tegami Bachi: And i'm not even reading this one. I already own it in volume one. Jolly fun little yarn though and the series has very distinctive, almost CLAMP like art.

[BPP]

Ah, the best part of the week awaits...

BPRD 122
DHP 1
Judge Dredd 22
Little Nemo 1
Stray Bullets 6
Trees 4
Supreme Blue Rose 2
The Fade Out 1
Dark Engine 2
Empty Man 3

A win for Image this week.

[Colin YNWA]

Great to see some common ground at last.

A lot of us seem to be going for Fade Out 1, Little Nemo 1 and DHP 1.

We normally have so little cross over - well except you Shonen Jump crowd!

[Hawkmumbler]

I think i'll give Little Nemo a read once it's dropped below two quid in a few weeks. I have a little fondness for the character due to the animated film, but never read any of the classic comic strips.

[The Adventurer]

Digital Pulls for 08/20/14

2000 AD 1895 - Current line-up is pretty solid. No real complaints. Looks like 1900 is going to be a hell of a jumping on point though.
DARK HORSE PRESENTS 1 - I dropped the first DHP series a few years ago. It just sort of stopped being interesting after a great first year. I might give the new volume a shot. But probably will wait for a price drop.
FABLES 143 - Oh man, the cliffhanger last issue. Things aren't looking very good for our Fables crew.
SAVAGE DRAGON 197 - One of the greatest aspects of this series is how unpredictable it is. I literally have no idea what can happen next!
SUPREME: BLUE ROSE 2 - First issue was really REALLY interesting. Definitely a better first first issue experience then TREES.
WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP TEGAMI BACHIE SPOTLIGHT SPECIAL - I've actually already read the first preview chapter of this series a while back. I didn't do much for me. So I don't expect this special will bring me on board either.

[The Cheat]

New Avengers #23
It's all kicking off now! Loved Reed's visit to Latveria, Hickman writes a great Doom. Bruce's scene was nice as well, driving out to face the end of his life the same way he's had to live it, alone.
4/5

Supergirl #34
Another by the numbers issue. Pretty much just a recap of the events of Doomed so far, with a clichéd rescue thrown in (hey, everyone's dead except for the exact two people I'm looking for who are in the first place I look). Dull.
2/5

Batman & Robin #34
Solid enough issue, there's always something satisfying about this book. Couple of plot points I'm not liking. a) The stupid mega-techno-godslayer armour. An attempt to allow Bruce to mix it up with the big power players, rather than take the hint that if you have use such silly plot devices, you're probably writing the character wrong. b) Any uses of Apokolips these days inevitably end up with me groaning at how badly it and the New Gods are handled. I anticipate similar from this storyline. Lovely last page splash though.
3/5

[The Cheat]

Robots In Disguise #32
Great issue. A good dose of plot progression, Prowl being his usual machiavellian self, and the return of Susan Journeyer and Josh Boyfriend! The resolution to the cliffhanger from last issue was a huge cop out, but the last page reveal more than compensated if we average out the bookends. Great stuff.
5/5

The Multiversity #1
Not going to comment on this too much until it's finished (was tempted to wait and read it in trade), but I thoroughly enjoyed this and it's reassured me that this series is going to live up to my high expectations. Okay, one comment: Chubby da Choona...in Monkey form!
5/5

New Guardians #34
Nothing special but a decent enough space romp. These New Guardians seem a bit brittle.
3/5

[Link Prime]

Dark Engine 2

Read a review of this yesterday on Bleedingcool of all places; http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/08/21/image-watch-on-why-you-need-to-read-dark-engine-plus-preview-of-issue-2/

Premise sounds really, really good.
I'm gonna give it a try.

[The Cheat]

Daredevil #7
Good stuff from Waid (as always) and Rodriguez, who's proved an excellent and perfectly suited fill in for Samnee. Waid deftly weaves in his usual little plot twists and manages to avoid all the clichés and pitfalls a lesser writer might have fallen into. Nice.
4/5

Batman Eternal #20
Most of the current plots seem to be resolved in this issue. Not sure if the series was designed to be told in two halves with a few overlapping threads, or if this was something to do with the writer switch that was forced upon them. Felt a bit clunky though. Seeley's scripts are proving to be my favourite of the bunch, and really enjoyed the art, glad they're starting to allow a bit more variation to the usual sterile DC mandated New52 house style.
3/5