Sperg about comic books here

  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
Rupin said:
Have you guys heard about a comic series called Dark Ark?

It‘s based on Noah’s Ark, except that the guy leading this ark has all the dark Supernatural fantasy creatures in his ark.

I’m enjoying reading it so far and I thought some of you here might like it too.
Click to expand...
That sounds pretty interesting I might give it a rea-
Cullen Bunn
Click to expand...
Oh no, they're gonna fuck ark critters.
 
Doing a complete Swamp Thing read through and it is amazing the jump in quality from Martin Pasko to Alan Moore. First 10 issues of Swamp Thing Vol 1 by Len Wein and art by Bernie Wrightson are simple but atmospheric and effective classic horror stories. After Wrightson leaves the stories lose all atmosphere and just become a random series of weird events which lean too much into Sci Fi vs the book's horror roots. By the time you get to issue 23 and 24 it becomes a generic superhero book with Alec Holland as a human and is luckily put out of its misery. Then you get to Martin Pasko's Swamp Thing vol 2 which from issue 1-13 is a single arc (somewhat novel at this time in comics) but its just bloated crap about some mutant psychic girl trying to ressurect Hitler and Satan for a Holocaust 2 with some real generic art by Tom Yeats who does horrid hatching on faces. From issue 16-19 Bissette gets on art and for once since Wrightson the art gets creepy and atmospheric again. The plot isnt great but its atleast simple which is a step above the previous arc. Then Alan Moore gets on writing and the pace picks up so fast. I was struggling to read 2 issues a day of Pasko but am devouring dozens of issues of Alan Moore a day its just such an engaging and fast paced read.
 
Water-T said:
While Gwenpool was inspired by Gwen Stacy, she's not her or an alternate universe one. She's a different person named Gwendolyn Poole, who got the code name when the person designing her costume misheard her. She was originally a comics fan from "the real world" that ended up in the 616 universe that used her knowledge of comics and awareness of being in one to become a merc for hire since her knowing she is in a comic lets her "bend" reality around her. She had enough power to even retroactively turn herself into a mutant (kind of what Franklin Richards until Chucky called him out as using his powers to fake an X-gene).

Speaking of, Dan Slott needs to get his fat ass around to resolving that shit. After all the hubbub of the X-Men declaring war on the FF to let Franklin stay on Krakoa, and then having Reed whisper something to Chuck at the first Hellfire Gala, we've been given fuck all on this since.

My theory is that Sinister somehow altered Franklin's readings, because that will get him off Chuck's radar and make it easier for Sinister to grab Franklin. Sinister would love to be able to experiment on one of the most powerful mutants on Earth and considering that Essex started as a baseline human that gave himself an X-gene, then hiding Franklin's x-gene would be easy for him to do.
Click to expand...

I know that she's not Gwen Stacey and that's part of the joke. But she is a Gwen. There just isn't the Gwen factor anymore. The taboo got broken by Slott/Quesada to many times. It's like Batman's parents or Uncle Ben. It's been abused too many times to take it seriously.

glass_houses said:
Well, this is bullshit but I should have seen it coming.

I am buying the Eaglemoss 'Legend of Batman' partwork, and a few months ago they randomly skipped issue #94. No notice, no explanation, they just released issues #93, #95, #96 etc right up to #100 without missing a beat. Nothing on their website, no informative notes slipped into later issues. So I spent two months lurking on eBay Britain, sucking up to various people disposing of their collections, until I found someone willing to ship their copy of #94 overseas for a nice $55.

Three weeks later I walk into my newsagent, expecting #101, and instead of #101 there's fucking #94, for the traditional fee of $21.99.

Fuck's sake. If they pulled this shit with the pommies, I can see why some of them are getting rid of their collections.
Click to expand...

Eurotrash is suffering. I'll never forget being in stores in Western Europe and seeing the prices. Amazed there is still a market.

MirrorNoir said:
At least you can buy them on newstands. The pure hassle of having to import those books combined with the latecomer fees and the hassle of ordering overseas is why I've never tried to get into them. And god knows they've got a bunch of stuff in their reprint range that I'd love to get my hands on.



Slott only wrote that line with Xavier declaring Franklin a fake mutant because he was pissy that Hickman was going to fuck with his shit and try and steal Franklin for the X-Books. Supposedly the Dawn of X X-Men/FF mini was ghost written by Hickman and Hickman in particular pushed HARD with the ending where Xavier and Magneto gleefully lobotomized Reed so he could NEVER EVER AGAIN make a power suppressor/power stealing device for mutants who don't want to be mutants/deal with the Krakoa sex cult bullshit and just wanted a normal life. And for it to be a GOOD thing too.

Hickman's also never said what it was that he had Reed whisper to Xavier during the first Hellfire Gala. Hickman and Slott's feud ended abruptly when Hickman got forced off the X-Books and IIRC the new Marauder's writer has teased that Kitty going to Reed to try and rebuild the now shattered relationship between Reed and the X-Men after what Xavier did.

That said, I'd be OK with keeping Slott on Fantastic Four purely to prevent him from getting back onto Spider-Man. Which he is angling to do, since he's still fucking butt-hurt over being forced off the book against his will so it could be handed over to Nick Spencer, as part of Spencer taking the fall for Nazi Capgate.
Click to expand...

This is my problem with all parties.

Hickman is an imaginative person who has progressively lost what little moral center he had; leading to his work being unreadable after the concept is established. This is before you get to his own devolving storytelling techniques

Slott is a fanboy faggot with limited ability. He ran the Spider-man books into the ground, not just creatively but sales. After he was removed, seven years too late, he became like allot of Quesada era talent exposed for his many deficits. His series of mostly flopped sales wise and creatively. Spidey is a safe book in that there are faggy boomers who have bought the series since the first Amazing and will continued to do so until they shove off.

Nick Spencer is the most frustrating. He was an upgrade over Slott by virtue of being a fanboy who hadn't camped on the books for a decade. The last genuinely talent writer on the Spidey books driving the ship was JMS/maybe the revolving wheel of talent depending on how much input you believe they had during Brand New Day.

Tor Lugosi said:
Yeah, I remember Slott talking about plans far into the future for Spider-Man. No doubt he'd probably sacrifice a school bus full of children to get back on the book.

I'd say "hopefully Marvel's smart enough to keep him away" but they're not and honestly I just don't give a shit anymore. Spider-Man has at least three decent-ish ending points and there's more than enough comics from the '60s - 2010 to keep me preoccupied.
Click to expand...

True. Allot of characters do. Spidey gal cannon ends before Spider-verse for me. Anything Quesada forward is fanfic.

Cool kitties club said:
Doing a complete Swamp Thing read through and it is amazing the jump in quality from Martin Pasko to Alan Moore. First 10 issues of Swamp Thing Vol 1 by Len Wein and art by Bernie Wrightson are simple but atmospheric and effective classic horror stories.
Click to expand...

Wein is so fucking underrated.

Cool kitties club said:
After Wrightson leaves the stories lose all atmosphere and just become a random series of weird events which lean too much into Sci Fi vs the book's horror roots. By the time you get to issue 23 and 24 it becomes a generic superhero book with Alec Holland as a human and is luckily put out of its misery. Then you get to Martin Pasko's Swamp Thing vol 2 which from issue 1-13 is a single arc (somewhat novel at this time in comics) but its just bloated crap about some mutant psychic girl trying to ressurect Hitler and Satan for a Holocaust 2 with some real generic art by Tom Yeats who does horrid hatching on faces. From issue 16-19 Bissette gets on art and for once since Wrightson the art gets creepy and atmospheric again. The plot isnt great but its atleast simple which is a step above the previous arc. Then Alan Moore gets on writing and the pace picks up so fast. I was struggling to read 2 issues a day of Pasko but am devouring dozens of issues of Alan Moore a day its just such an engaging and fast paced read.
Click to expand...

Be interesting to see how far you go. Plan to do everything?
 
@jspit2.0
Be interesting to see how far you go. Plan to do everything?
Click to expand...
Yeah atleast every core Swamp Thing issue rather then every comic which Swamp Thing has appeared in, so I have downloaded
Swamp Thing vol 1 issue 1-24 (which ive already read)
Swamp Thing vol 2 issue 1-171
Swamp Thing vol 3 issue 1-20
Swamp Thing vol 4 issue 1-29
Swamp Thing vol 5 (New 52) issue 1-40
Swamp Thing vol 6 issue 1-6
Future State Swamp Thing 1-2 + The Swamp Thing 1-16 when thats done

Doing a complete read on a series can be fun even if you dont like every issue as you get too see everything develop in real time
 
Cool kitties club said:
@jspit2.0

Yeah atleast every core Swamp Thing issue rather then every comic which Swamp Thing has appeared in, so I have downloaded
Swamp Thing vol 1 issue 1-24 (which ive already read)
Swamp Thing vol 2 issue 1-171
Swamp Thing vol 3 issue 1-20
Swamp Thing vol 4 issue 1-29
Swamp Thing vol 5 (New 52) issue 1-40
Swamp Thing vol 6 issue 1-6
Future State Swamp Thing 1-2 + The Swamp Thing 1-16 when thats done

Doing a complete read on a series can be fun even if you dont like every issue as you get too see everything develop in real time
Click to expand...

That list is incomplete.

Between V1 and V2 is Challengers of the Unknown #80-87 which guest star Swamp Thing. These issues resolve the dangling plot from the original series where Alec becomes human again and features Swamp Thing's first meeting with Deadman, which Alan Moore namechecks in his run. There are also a couple of Brave and the Bold appearances but they are all skippable.

Also, there are like seven Swamp Thing Annuals for V2. Annual #1 is an adaption of the movie, Annual #2 is absolutely critical as it is the resolution to Moore's first year on the book and the finale of the Love and Death storyline. Annual #3 and #4 are skippable, Annual #5 is the first issue of the Nancy Collins run, and Annual #6-7 are bland with Annual #7 being part of the infamous Children's Crusade saga.

There is also Alan Moore's guest issue of DC Comics Presents (#84) where Superman and Swamp Thing fight. Not part of the main Swamp Thing storylines but is worth picking up.

Adding to this is the V3 series (which has Tefe, Swamp Thing's daughter as the main character) Secret Files special. It resets the ending from Swamp Thing V2, explaining how ST ultimately gave up his Godhood and reunited with Abby.

If you are going to skip the Challengers issues, it's best to basically stop reading Swamp Thing V1 at issue #14 (the last issue Len Wein wrote and which writes out Matt and Abby) and then go straight to V2. The post-Wein Swamp Thing issues are so reviled that Martin Plasko and his editor explicitly declared those stories and the Challengers issues non-canon, which lasted until Alan Moore came along and declared them canon again by having Swamp Thing and Deadman reference their previous meeting in Challengers.

It also leads to a huge bit of frustration: the big, expensive, long requested Swamp Thing Bronze Age omnibus infamously omitted those issues from the omnibus but restored them to the softcover Bronze Age trades (effectively fucking over the people who bought the omnibus).
 
Last edited:
MirrorNoir said:
Between V1 and V2 is Challengers of the Unknown #80-87 which guest star Swamp Thing. These issues resolve the dangling plot from the original series where Alec becomes human again and features Swamp Thing's first meeting with Deadman, which Alan Moore namechecks in his run. There are also a couple of Brave and the Bold appearances but they are all skippable.
Click to expand...


I've already read Swamp Thing 1-24 and Saga 1-19. The annuals I have included. The Challengers issues I am aware of but didn't bother with like I said I'm just focused on books named Swamp Thing same with the Brave and the Bold. For the Alan Moore Supes/Swamp Thing issue I've read it before and its not particularly compelling or important so I don't wanna reread it anytime soon. Thanks for the tip on the secret files issue that is not listed on the DC wiki page for Swamp Thing. I'm reading all of these from pirated copies.

On the Swamp Thing bronze Age reprints they have a pretty bad recolor which turns Wrightson's own moody colors into a more generic, flat and garish colors

1652479105004.png

They were so reviled that DC is putting Promethea colorist José Villarrubia on coloring duties for the Wen and Wrightson absolute
 
Cool kitties club said:
@jspit2.0

Yeah atleast every core Swamp Thing issue rather then every comic which Swamp Thing has appeared in, so I have downloaded
Swamp Thing vol 1 issue 1-24 (which ive already read)
Swamp Thing vol 2 issue 1-171
Swamp Thing vol 3 issue 1-20
Swamp Thing vol 4 issue 1-29
Swamp Thing vol 5 (New 52) issue 1-40
Swamp Thing vol 6 issue 1-6
Future State Swamp Thing 1-2 + The Swamp Thing 1-16 when thats done

Doing a complete read on a series can be fun even if you dont like every issue as you get too see everything develop in real time
Click to expand...
I admire your ability to stick to it. I've tried doing "Full runs" of characters I liked that only had solo runs for relatively short times (Robin, Deadpool, Nightwing) and usually after 100 issues I start to get sick of one character. I barely finished Chuck Dixon's run on Robin when I felt the need to bow out and it's still one of my favorites since Tim Drake is how I got into comics.
 
Cool kitties club said:
I've already read Swamp Thing 1-24 and Saga 1-19. The annuals I have included. The Challengers issues I am aware of but didn't bother with like I said I'm just focused on books named Swamp Thing same with the Brave and the Bold. For the Alan Moore Supes/Swamp Thing issue I've read it before and its not particularly compelling or important so I don't wanna reread it anytime soon. Thanks for the tip on the secret files issue that is not listed on the DC wiki page for Swamp Thing. I'm reading all of these from pirated copies.

On the Swamp Thing bronze Age reprints they have a pretty bad recolor which turns Wrightson's own moody colors into a more generic, flat and garish colors

View attachment 3278282

They were so reviled that DC is putting Promethea colorist José Villarrubia on coloring duties for the Wen and Wrightson absolute
Click to expand...
The Challenger issues are absolutely critical, in terms of Swamp Thing lore so you really should have tracked them down since that's akin to skipping critical material in a character's arc when reading all of their stuff. Skipping them is like not reading She-Hulk's run in the Fantastic Four or not reading the Avengers runs where Carol Danvers is a member or New Teen Titans if you are doing a Dick Grayson/Nightwing deep dive.

My only issue with the reproduction of the Lein/Wrightson Swamp Thing books is how all modern reprints seem to be based off of the Roots of the Swamp Thing reprint series of the late 80s, which imfamously removed the "next issue preview" panel from all of the final pages.
 
Last edited:
I have a couple of chronological character / team read throughs going, but yeah, I tend to burn myself out on them and take months breaks on them. Right now I have ones going for X-Men, F4, Daredevil, Moon Knight, and the Bat-Family.

The only one I've really completed is Spider-Man, which took me years. I read practically everything from his debut in Amazing Fantasy up to Final Chapter (and then most of the core books up to Back in Black), including crap like the various Marvel Team-Up volumes and even completely irrelevant appearances in the likes of QuestProbe and Knights of Pendragon.
 
This upcoming seasons are painting to be just painful if you are trying to follow the big 2 in any capacity. So Marvel is gonna further derail the X-men comics, just as many of them got relaunched this spring, with a crossover with the Avengers and the Eternals. The set up isn't the worst, or at least better than the last XvsA big crossover, but with so many of the X titles barely out of the gate it feels like at least another year will have to pass before anything of consequence happen with the mutants. (Inferno and the dual Wolverine series looks like it was it as far as major shakeups go). Don't even wanna speculate on Amazing Spiderman which began so annoyingly.

DC is just...I don't know man, maybe I should stick with pre-52 stuff and forget everything else. Robin and Deathstroke inc. have been enjoyable, and I somewhat kept up with Red Hood and the Outlaws even if it was pretty shitty most of the time, but have been thoroughly enjoying Task Force Z. There is no decent Teen Titans books, and this has just been made worse with the insistence of cramming Future State stuff in it, only shat up must of the Batman line with irrelevant titles set in the future and more rehashed. heroes. Now Dark Crisis is about to happen which I feel is just gonna fuck up the already Ill-defined universe after Rebirth sorta(?) ended the 52 fiasco. Point is it seems that even if I just try to follow Batman and few other comics tangentially related to it, is no good because DC is just constantly scrambling between events, crossover story lines, and reboots without enough substance in-between them. All Flash, no substance.
 
Cool kitties club said:
@jspit2.0

Yeah atleast every core Swamp Thing issue rather then every comic which Swamp Thing has appeared in, so I have downloaded
Swamp Thing vol 1 issue 1-24 (which ive already read)
Swamp Thing vol 2 issue 1-171
Swamp Thing vol 3 issue 1-20
Swamp Thing vol 4 issue 1-29
Swamp Thing vol 5 (New 52) issue 1-40
Swamp Thing vol 6 issue 1-6
Future State Swamp Thing 1-2 + The Swamp Thing 1-16 when thats done

Doing a complete read on a series can be fun even if you dont like every issue as you get too see everything develop in real time
Click to expand...

Going to leave this here for you. Rick Veitch's run ended an issue early and Neil Gaiman, who was set to take over, refused out of solidarity.

The reason was Veitch doing a passion of the Christ finale.

1652534552093.png
 
Rupin said:
Have you guys heard about a comic series called Dark Ark?

It‘s based on Noah’s Ark, except that the guy leading this ark has all the dark Supernatural fantasy creatures in his ark.

I’m enjoying reading it so far and I thought some of you here might like it too.

Click to expand...
Yes, I was reading it as it was coming out. Dark Ark is solid, but I got bored at the beginning of the sequel series.

40 Year Old Boomer said:
That sounds pretty interesting I might give it a rea-

Oh no, they're gonna fuck ark critters.
Click to expand...
Did Bunn write something nutty? I did enjoy what little of his books I have read, but it's limited to Dark Ark, some Sixth Gun, and Lucky Devil. None of these are outstanding, but decent titles better than most American comics on shelves these days. Sixth Gun is good enough to be on my reading list so that I can give it an honest try, and I have heard a lot of people raving about Harrow Country.

Registration said:
I wonder what is happening in the backstage. Did marvel's conan fail in sales?

Click to expand...
Finally some good news for a change. With a dash of luck it won't be IDW or Black Mask who gets the rights. Dark Horse is the most likely candidate as they had Conan rights for years before Marvel took over.
Marvel's Conan titles were not doing that great. Ablaze's translations of European Comics by Glenat were selling about as good as Marvel's, despite zero marketing and not being able to use Conan in the title or promos. I wrote a post about this a while back in the comicsgate thread. Hopefully, whoever gets the Conan license won't mess with Ablaze's little cash cow. The more foreign comics get translated to English the better.
 
Last edited:
MirrorNoir said:
The Challenger issues are absolutely critical, in terms of Swamp Thing lore so you really should have tracked them down since that's akin to skipping critical material in a character's arc when reading all of their stuff. Skipping them is like not reading She-Hulk's run in the Fantastic Four or not reading the Avengers runs where Carol Danvers is a member or New Teen Titans if you are doing a Dick Grayson/Nightwing deep dive.
Click to expand...
What is critical about it? I remember reading some short summaries and it didn't sound important at all.

GoPro said:
Finally some good news for a change. With some luck it won't be IDW or Black Mask who gets the rights. Dark Horse is the most likely candidate as they had Conan rights for years before Marvel took over.
Marvel's Conan titles were not doing that great. Ablaze's translations of European Comics by Glenat were selling about as good as Marvel's, despite zero marketing and not being able to use Conan in the title or promos. I wrote a post about this a while back in the comicsgate thread. Hopefully, whoever gets the Conan license won't mess with Ablaze's little cash cow. The more foreign comics get translated to English the better.
Click to expand...

Article implies that the owners want to go into publishing business and do it themselves. Wouldn't be shocked if they are aiming for "Conan Cinematic Universe".
 
HodgePodgeRogerDodger said:
Modern comics have no idea what the fuck they want to be.
Click to expand...
This is mainly why I completely stopped keeping up with anything new, I practically stopped reading comics all together, which I find to be such a shame. I've been toying with the idea to just get back into DC's pre-52 and New 52 line of comics, most notably Green Lantern. God, I loved those. Devour the Blackest Night/Brightest Day story arcs again. Sounds like a fun little project to do if I find the time. Maybe re-read the Gotham City Sirens series again. Either way, I find myself drawn to the old stuff, Infinity Gauntlet arc, maybe some Infinity Crisis. I think the only "newer" stuff I have in my collection is the East of West series, and I haven't even read that fully either. Heh, maybe I'm just getting old.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom