Comics Books!

[Cuestionador]

I've actually in fact read a single comic book this week, which is an improvement from my usual zero. I started flipping through my Essential Moon Knight trade backs trying to see if one had the original issue where he calls Dracula a fucking nerd (it did not, the original panel was from '88), and the next thing I knew I finished the first volume. Why is Moon Knight so cool, even before the modern thing with him being a weird schizophrenic?

Classic Moon Knight it's a blast! Doug Moench was a truly great writer, capable of making all types of stories. And to think that DC hired him to do Batman in two different decades thanks to his work on Moon Knight it's something extremely remarkable.

 

[Octopus]

Classic Moon Knight it's a blast! Doug Moench was a truly great writer, capable of making all types of stories. And to think that DC hired him to do Batman in two different decades thanks to his work on Moon Knight it's something extremely remarkable.

Oh yeah for sure, I'm fan of his Master of Kung-Fu series too. I highly doubt I still have my issues of it, but I had a decent number of Moench's early run issues with Paul Gulacy I'd find oddly frequently in the loose back-issue bins.

 

[RiskyAsh]

Welp, I've been a little out of it, but no time like the present!

---

Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum​

Written by W. Maxwell Prince, art by Martin Morazzo, colors by Chris O'Halloran.



Here's a pretty odd one that's got me by the throat; a meteor crashes with new varietals of Kryptonite, and Superman - out of an abundance of caution - convinces Batman to help him test the effects of each. In a sense, the World's Finest are going on a drug trip, with Bruce as the designated driver to pull back Clark's hair while he hovers over the toilet.

There's such a weird sense of fun, mixed with a love of Morrison's All Star Superman and the Silver-age stories that inspired him. The first issue's Purple-K distorts Kal-El's sense of time (nothing out of the ordinary for getting wasted, there), resulting in a non-linear story that he stumbles to put together in the right order, shown here:



Playful, thoughtful stuff.

---

Captain America​

Written by Chip Zdarsky, art by Valerio Schiti, colors by Frank Martin.

Time is a goofy thing in comic books. There's over eight decades of stories for existing characters that all "count" in DC and Marvel Comics, but their respective worlds are all in step with ours; if you buy a Batman book that isn't explicitly a flashback or period piece, then the date in Gotham City is *Today*. At some point, the phrase "sliding timescale" was coined to denote that EVERYTHING canon happens within roughly the last 12-15 years of real time, and characters histories are presumed to update accordingly in the background.

Here then, is a new Captain America series that's *sort-of* a reboot - an update to reflect that nowadays, Cap was thawed out of the ice after WWII around the year 2010. (Maybe 2011, right at the same time his first MCU movie was released!) Technically, the U.S. military kept working on super-soldiers after Steve Rogers was MIA, and there was a 50's Cap who carried water for propaganda against the Soviets during the Cold War. This new volume presumes that kept happening, alllll the way up to the Global War on Terror.

So, alongside a story of Cap learning about the modern world, we have a running side-plot involving the a post 9/11 Cap, who's been shaped by his experience in the Middle East. Steve Rogers turns to the Army to find himself in this new world, and is quickly assigned a mission to Latveria, where an armored madman named Victor Von Doom has recently overthrown and conquered the country. New Cap - technically a major, Major America I guess? - is assigned to his team, and the clash between their respective experience is the meat of the story. It's interesting so far, basically a better version of what the tried to do with The Falcon and The Winter Soldier's John Walker storyline, and Valerio Schiti can draw like a sonuvabitch. It's only a few issues, but I'm sticking with it.

---

Love Everlasting​

Written by Tom King, art by Elsa Charretier, colors by Matt Hollingworth.

So, this series is on hiatus as of last year, I think, but Vol. 3 with the most recent issues just came out a couple weeks ago so I'm counting it.

Anyhow, Joan Peterson is having some romantic difficulties - She meets a man. She falls in love. He proposes. She says yes. She wakes up in a different time and place and does it all over again.

Or! She meets a man. He falls in love; she doesn't. He proposes. She runs away. Some cowboy tracks her down, tells her "Love is Everlasting", and then shoots her in the head. She wakes up in a different time and place and does it all over again.

Why is this happening? Who knows! You should read the book. It's an avalanche of different scenarios cribbed from romance media, all geared towards driving this one woman to....somebody's idea of a Happily Ever After. (Whether she wants it or not!) It's been about a year since the last issue - after a pretty major twist in the story - and I'm dying to see this one continued and finished.

---

....annnd there's some other interesting bits from last week, but Marvel in particular was pretty boring. Most of the X-Books, for example, left off on an awkward ending to funnel into the latest line-wide event, X-Men of Apocalypse. (Not very interested in the setup thus far, but I've also never liked, uh, any of these Age of Apocalypse stories). Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

EDIT: Actually, I've been reading Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olson lately, the Kirby issues from the 70's. Like so!

​

....annnnd the series reboot by Matt Fraction!

​

...to be clear, the whole book isn't just the Jimmy Olson/Batman Prank War. (It's great though, more comics should be funny!)

 

[trickybus]

So, alongside a story of Cap learning about the modern world, we have a running side-plot involving the a post 9/11 Cap, who's been shaped by his experience in the Middle East.

This sounds like an amazing setup for a clash of morals. I hope that's where the narrative is headed.

Or! She meets a man. He falls in love; she doesn't. He proposes. She runs away. Some cowboy tracks her down, tells her "Love is Everlasting", and then shoots her in the head.

So many rom-coms could have been saved with consequences like these whenever the lady protag runs off to drag shit out.


I love when Bruce tries to conjure an emotion other than 'moody'

 

[RiskyAsh]

So many rom-coms could have been saved with consequences like these whenever the lady protag runs off to drag shit out.

It's a fantastic shortcut for all kinds of narrative speed bumps! "Damn, Simon's refusing the call again, get the shotty."

View attachment 2270
I love when Bruce tries to conjure an emotion other than 'moody'

It is SUCH A GOOD BOOK for that, there's a whole page of Superman doing "Super" close-up magic tricks.

 

[Octopus]

Well I'm definitely checking out Love Everlasting and Fraction Jimmy Olsen after that.

 

[RiskyAsh]

"Yo, this is Duncan over at We've Got Issues, and you haven't come to collect *any* of the pulls in your box in nigh on two months. We order these, this is money out of my kids mouths. That gets me miffed, somethin' fierce. You know you gave us your address when you set this up, right?"

....s-s-so anyways, I've been reading comics as usual!

---

This week felt a bit sparse, and I wound up reading a book I probably wouldn't have bothered with anyways, namely...

Deadpool/Batman​

(Written by Zeb Wells, pencils by Greg Capullo, with Tim Townsend as inker).




It's a little better than your standard promotional cross-over, at least! Normally these are boring affairs, like watching Fast and Furious where multiple actors with "I can't lose fights" scribbled all over their contracts. Here though, with Deadpool being the goofy doorknob that he is, they're allowed to take things less seriously. Anyways who cares, the actual highlights are the extra cross-over short stories packed in the magazine.

For instance, Steve Rogers replacing Steve Trevor in a combined universe.



Krypto and Jeff the Land Shark being generally delightful.



Rocket Raccoon gets deputized as a Green Lantern, and immediately shoots Sinestro in the face.



All's well in cheeky fun. (Still wouldn't pay 6.99 for it though!)

 

[Yousef]

Deadpool/Batman

Shit you’ve finally checked this out! I’m an incredibly vocal Deadpool so this was a rather enjoyable ride for moi. Batman is enough of a blank slate that he works here, he’s practically the writer’s self insert. Feels slightly weird to juxtaposition him with DP’s slightly odd deconstructive elements (that never feel intentionally placed) but this story still works. I liked it.

 

[Yousef]

Rocket Raccoon gets deputized as a Green Lantern, and immediately shoots Sinestro in the face.

But this…. Sounds incredibly stupid in concept. I haven’t read it so maybe I’m being overtly harsh but you have to understand my pov here, the green lantern curse is real where they only look good if they’re the star of the comic with no one else hogging their spot. Hence why they’re always getting their ass handed to them in crossover events. They immediately became fodder which sucks cuz they’re cool.
Maybe this one breaks the curse.

 

[RiskyAsh]

But this…. Sounds incredibly stupid in concept. I haven’t read it so maybe I’m being overtly harsh but you have to understand my pov here, the green lantern curse is real where they only look good if they’re the star of the comic with no one else hogging their spot. Hence why they’re always getting their ass handed to them in crossover events. They immediately became fodder which sucks cuz they’re cool.
Maybe this one breaks the curse.

It's like two pages, pure comedy skit.

 

[Yousef]

It's like two pages, pure comedy skit.

AHHHH, feel free to call me a dingus then. Holy cow.
Me and a few other comic nerds (losers) were discussing Batman/DP for weeks that this slipped our minds.

 

[AncientBoi]

The comics I got to read were on the Local News Paper. Especially on Sundays where they were in COLOR.

Garfield, Dick Tracy, Bringing up Father, Blondie, Popeye, Looney Tunes, etc. When I was able to buy an actual one, It was Batman [which I think would have been a collecter's item now]

 

[Yousef]

The comics I got to read were on the Local News Paper. Especially on sundays where they were in COLOR.

Garfield, Dick Tracy, Bringing up Father, Blondie, Popeye, Looney Tunes, etc. When I was able to buy an actual one, It was Batman [which I think would have been a collecter's item now]

All great stuff

 

[Cuestionador]

"Yo, this is Duncan over at We've Got Issues, and you haven't come to collect *any* of the pulls in your box in nigh on two months. We order these, this is money out of my kids mouths. That gets me miffed, somethin' fierce. You know you gave us your address when you set this up, right?"

....s-s-so anyways, I've been reading comics as usual!

---

This week felt a bit sparse, and I wound up reading a book I probably wouldn't have bothered with anyways, namely...

Deadpool/Batman​

(Written by Zeb Wells, pencils by Greg Capullo, with Tim Townsend as inker).


View attachment 2395

It's a little better than your standard promotional cross-over, at least! Normally these are boring affairs, like watching Fast and Furious where multiple actors with "I can't lose fights" scribbled all over their contracts. Here though, with Deadpool being the goofy doorknob that he is, they're allowed to take things less seriously. Anyways who cares, the actual highlights are the extra cross-over short stories packed in the magazine.

For instance, Steve Rogers replacing Steve Trevor in a combined universe.

View attachment 2423

Krypto and Jeff the Land Shark being generally delightful.

View attachment 2426

Rocket Raccoon gets deputized as a Green Lantern, and immediately shoots Sinestro in the face.

View attachment 2427View attachment 2428

All's well in cheeky fun. (Still wouldn't pay 6.99 for it though!)

I try to read it and was very boring to me, except for the pages of Frank Miller, the author that was my entry-point to the world of comics. It was hilarious to see they bring back Kultron and even more hilarious was that my brain remembered Kultron as the Amalgam comics villain from Magneto and the Magnetic Men.

The comics I got to read were on the Local News Paper. Especially on Sundays where they were in COLOR.

Garfield, Dick Tracy, Bringing up Father, Blondie, Popeye, Looney Tunes, etc. When I was able to buy an actual one, It was Batman [which I think would have been a collecter's item now]

I'm reading the third volume of the Max Alan Collins/Rick Fletcher Dick Tracy, it's a blast. I have many stand alone strips published in different anthologies, ranging for the thirthies to the sixties, and a volume published in my country many years ago who includes many classics like the adventures against The Brow, Flattop and the last story Chester Gould ever wrote and draw before retiring: The Governor, a perfect comic mixing drama, thriller and social commentary. I hope to get this volume of the Collins Casefiles someday, i only have the first and third volume:

Here's a couple of good videos regarding the character:

 

[Jayonnaise6105]

I'm just an old man hipster who hates Venom since he's so popular, basically. I'm so tired of every piece of Spider-Man media needing Venom to be in it, I'm tired of people constantly asking "whens Venom" about every piece of Spider-Man media. It's the same storyline every single time, and I'm tired of seeing it.

I think you feel about Venom how I've started to feel about the Joker in most DC stuff the last few years

 

[Jayonnaise6105]

I took a break from them, but the most recent comics I've been reading are the My Little Pony comics from IDW. I love the art quite a bit, especially in the Transformers crossover miniseries.


They do a pretty good job of making most stories feel like they could have been episodes from the show, which makes it a little bit disappointing that they never animated some of the better comic book storylines.