Sperg about comic books here

[KingGeedorah]

Just started Hellblazer back up. Only have a few volumes with Jamie Delano at the helm so im bummed about that but damn has it been a fun ride.

Also working through the Endgame Arc of Scott Synder's Batman.

 

[Hummingbird]

My Batman omnibus was canceled because the company I ordered from ran out of them. Oh well. Hopefully, the other comics will come in.

 

[Lensherr]

For Christmas, I got:

- Southern Bastards Volume 1 by Jason Aaron

A vigilante justice story about a man named Earl Tubb who comes back to his hometown in regards to some unfinished business, only to discover it has gone to shit. He then proceedes to pick up his father's old stick and wage a one man war against crime.

- Manifest Destiny Volume 1 by Chris Dingess

A revisionist history take on the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the west; this time they have an entire menagerie of mythical beasts to contend with on their trek.

- Daredevil: Yellow by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
- Captain America: Red Menace Ultimate Collection by Ed
Brubaker

Haven't read the latter two yet.

 

[[Insert Meme Here]]

- Manifest Destiny Volume 1 by Chris Dingess

A revisionist history take on the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the west; this time they have an entire menagerie of mythical beasts to contend with on their trek.

I've heard mixed things about this, would you recommend it?

 

[Lensherr]

I've heard mixed things about this, would you recommend it?

Yeah. It's quite fun, especially if you're into history.

 

[breadandcircuses]

So I'll mention this here, since I don't want to necro any of the Ghostbusters threads. Next year, IDW is going to introduce the 2016 Ghostbusters team into their long running Ghostbusters series. The event, called Ghostbusters 101, is started when an event causes the two universes to combine and the two teams join forces to investigate the cause.

Of note, the series is a continuation of the current ongoing storyline and features the same writers, who thus far have written several really good stories. Considering the massive work they've done with Winston's character they stand a good chance of making the 2016 team likable and well written.

Let's be honest, no one was actually against a Ghostbusters movie with broads, they were against the whole Ghostbusters movie with broads and it's BAD.

 

[Broseph Stalin]

So, the whole Marvel going SJW thing. I found this page of Red Skull addressing a bunch of Trump supporters. The only thing is...he's kinda actually making sense in his speech. I thought his was some kind of edit or a parody at first, but it's actually a page from one of the comics. Are the writers trying to secretly say they're fed up with all this SJW pandering, or did they not want to paint a blatant caricature?

Spoiler: The page in question (Courtesy of the Gamergate Life webcomic)

 

[friedshrimp]

tfw the nazi-esque villain points out how Europe is fucked with this nonsense of the refugees and the folks in power refuse to address the problem.

What do you bet next week Miss Marvel will address this issue with a "they're peaceful people those women who got harassed were just ugly unreligious sluts who had it coming anyway!!!"

 

[Hummingbird]

tfw the nazi-esque villain points out how Europe is fucked with this nonsense of the refugees and the folks in power refuse to address the problem.

What do you bet next week Miss Marvel will address this issue with a "they're peaceful people those women who got harassed were just ugly unreligious sluts who had it coming anyway!!!"

Ms Marvel seems more like the "no true Scotsman" type. Even The Mary Sue would probably rail on them if they used that line of reasoning.

 

[GabeRegan]

tfw the nazi-esque villain points out how Europe is fucked with this nonsense of the refugees and the folks in power refuse to address the problem.

What do you bet next week Miss Marvel will address this issue with a "they're peaceful people those women who got harassed were just ugly unreligious sluts who had it coming anyway!!!"

Actually the last issue of Champions (#3 if you want to look it up) dealt with an ISIS-type group killing woman and girls trying to educate themselves in one of the made up middle eastern countries in the Marvel universe. Ms. Marvel was having absolutely none of their shit.

Honestly, anytime comics address any real world issue it's a coin flip on if it's going to be somewhat thoughtful or pants-on-head retarded. Although if you guys want more SJW nonsense, DC is actually publishing a Deadman miniseries right now with a "non-binary" supporting character.

 

[friedshrimp]

Actually the last issue of Champions (#3 if you want to look it up) dealt with an ISIS-type group killing woman and girls trying to educate themselves in one of the made up middle eastern countries in the Marvel universe. Ms. Marvel was having absolutely none of their shit.

Tell me more. Was she supporting the girls or being all virtue-signaling "not all muslims we're peaceful we just prefer to not address those killers" like most people act whenever ISIS goes and does an attack.

 

[GabeRegan]

Basically, the Champions show up and fuck the ISIS group's shit up. The team then talks with the girls about what is the best way to deal with the situation, since the girls want to be able to stand up for themselves without needing American/foreign aid to do so. The team creates a scenario where they can help the girls fight without being seen, and release the footage on social media where it looks like team wasn't involved. Other things of note, the ISIS group is explicitly stated to be outsiders, and the local population is supportive of the girls but has no way to fight back.

Overall I actually recommend the book, since while it has some flaws (too much social media focus and flanderizing Amadeus Cho's character) it's basically a book about heroes trying to be heroes and inspiring people.

 

[That Chris Guy]

So for anyone who may not be up-to-date on just how shit Marvel has become, I'll bring you up to speed on noticeable elements of Civil War II:

Spoiler: Abandon All Hope

- Captain Marvel and Iron Man are leading opposing sides on how to arrest people. An Inhuman (X-Men knockoffs created so Marvel doesn't have to give Fox free advertising for their movies) called Ulysses has the ability to see into the future Minority-Report style and predict murders before they happen. Carol Danvers is on the thoughtcrime bus, and Tony opposes it. They argue like kids in kindergarten for the majority of this event when just being professional would have solved 99% of it.

- Danvers stages an ambush on Thanos attacking a facility after Ulysses predicts it. War Machine gets killed in the fight and She-Hulk gets put into a coma after taking an anti-Thanos missile to the tits.

- War Machine's funeral is about as dull and lifeless (pun intended) as you can possibly imagine, with Stark being absent for "reasons" and Rhodey's family getting little to no coverage. Instead you get a Black Lives Matter push where Marvel picks a bunch of random black superheroes from its repertoire - some with no relation to Rhodes at all - to do the mourning.

- Danvers visits Bruce Banner with a bunch of her superhero buddies and says Ulysses predicted he was going to go on a rampage as the Hulk and kill people. He gets defensive about it and Hawkeye kills him with an arrow to the head which was given to him by Bruce Banner as a final resort (though seriously, he wasn't going green until they looked through his shit and accused him of things he hadn't done yet, and he'd been treating himself so as not to turn into Hulk).

- She-Hulk wakes up from her coma and is given maybe one page of being pissed at Captain Marvel for getting her cousin killed, and is more-or-less written out of the event from there under grounds of still being injured.

- While readying herself to face Stark, Danvers calls for her Guardians of the Galaxy friends to come help her, and nearly kills them upon their arrival out of stupidity.

- Captain Marvel and Iron Man start their final battle because Tony put a protective device on a teenager (Miles Morales) to keep him safe, since Captain Marvel wanted to get rid of Miles as Ulysses had a vision of him killing Captain America, and both Miles and Steve were already there agreeing on not killing each other. Thus the only solution was to FIGHT!

- Captain Marvel launches an attack that completely obliterates Tony's armour yet leaves him visibly unscathed but in a coma (it's pretty bullshit) and nearly kills Captain America in the blast. Beast tells her, "LOL Tony secretly agreed with you anyway but he didn't want other people exploiting the system". I don't need to tell you how fucking stupid this plot point is.

- Ulysses - for whatever absurd reason - is chosen to be a god by the powers-that-be because being a precog serving as the foundation for a plot that completely fucks up the Marvel universe is God material. So he pisses off, thereby rendering Captain Marvel's entire thoughtcrime platform pointless, along with the whole story.

END RESULT: Tony was the punching bag of this event. Despite Carol Danvers being a completely unlikeable and incompetent bitch who was directly responsible for two main Marvel characters getting killed and putting two others into a coma (one a founding Avenger), nobody involved calls her out on her shit (except Beast, and his is just passive-aggressive), and she gets rewarded for it. Queue the dumbest part:

- She's asked by the President of the United States to become President, and she's apparently the most popular superhero in-universe right now.

WHAT A FUCKING TRAIN WRECK.

Marvel's been getting shittier for a while now, but HOLY SHIT that has to be the worst comic book event I've read in a while.

And let's not even talk about "The Unstoppable Wasp"...

 

[[Insert Meme Here]]

Marvel's been getting shittier for a while now, but that has to be the worst comic book event I've read in a while.

And let's not even talk about "The Unstoppable Wasp"...

TBH the only Marvel stuff I've read lately is Radioactive Spider-Gwen and the solo-Silk run. People keep trying to get me to read shit like Gwenpoole and Squirrel Girl but they both look so awful. I really like Gambit's powers but apparently he never really had a notable run on his own and I really don't care about X-men stuff. Nobody I've talked to has liked Civil War II, though.

Do tell us more about The Unstoppable Wasp, though. I sure as hell don't wanna bother reading it.

UPSIDE: I finally found my copy of Anya's Ghost, aka the graphic novel that got me into non-superhero comic books. I love one off stories. Memories...

 

[That Chris Guy]

TBH the only Marvel stuff I've read lately is Radioactive Spider-Gwen and the solo-Silk run. People keep trying to get me to read shit like Gwenpoole and Squirrel Girl but they both look so awful. I really like Gambit's powers but apparently he never really had a notable run on his own and I really don't care about X-men stuff. Nobody I've talked to has liked Civil War II, though.

Squirrel Girl has always been a shit-tier character, so I wouldn't ever recommend reading her stuff unless you enjoy the same kind of world-breaking rubbish as Starkiller from the Star Wars Expanded Universe was. Or if you like watching her fight Galactus of all villains and argue about the use of gender pronouns throughout:

Spoiler

Gwenpool is Marvel's way of saying they really don't like how Fox owns the movie rights to Deadpool, so making a lame imitation of him is what you should really be clamouring for (although I've never really cared for Deadpool much either).

Do tell us more about The Unstoppable Wasp, though. I sure as hell don't wanna bother reading it.

It's written by the same guy who wrote Princeless, so I think that gives an idea of how bad the story plays out.

Essentially, Hank Pym's daughter was given the Black Widow treatment, yet has no trace of a Russian accent and talks like the same verbal diarrhoea you'd expect from a writer like Whitley:

Spoiler: Dat Pig Face

She's also a teenage super-scientist who's best pals with Mockingbird and Ms. Marvel. One moment in which they flaunt their obvious intelligence is where they fight a giant robot. Wasp initially sperges off about the joints of the robot as if that's an important plot point and maybe a weakness, but NOPE! They don't even touch them. Mockingbird is apparently also a genius-level scientific intellect, yet she decides to fight this robot exclusively with her metal sticks.

The overall narrative of the comic is meant to encourage women to adopt roles in the science field, and they even have a secret women's club in the editorial, complete with fumbled acronym:

Genius in Action Research Labs (G.I.R.L.)

They interview a couple of real-life female scientists (both relating to archaeology), which would be a better thing if the whole comic wasn't presented like it was ripped out of the kind of magazine that idolises One Direction or Justin Bieber.

Next issue's reputedly introducing the "diversity crew", which is your standard four shades of black people dressed like they're from San Francisco.

P.S: I should also mention that Whitley's a vain cunt who Google searches himself to find out if you're badmouthing his work, and will tell you how not-butthurt he is about it:

 

[[Insert Meme Here]]

Gwenpool is Marvel's way of saying they really don't like how Fox owns the movie rights to Deadpool, so making a lame imitation of him is what you should really be clamouring for (although I've never really cared for Deadpool much either).

The thing about Gwenpool is that I actually do like the Spider-Gwen thing (though it's obviously not perfect), so I had these high hopes. Then I read a copy of the first issue and it was just... meh. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't interesting, which I think is even worse than being bad. At least it being bad would have made me feel something towards it.

I've also heard of a Gwenom (Gwen + Venom) comic but I haven't been able to find it, sad.

When it comes to Deadpool, he's hit or miss and really depends on the writer. Good Deadpool is freaking awesome. Shit Deadpool is the most brainless thing to ever exist. And there is no "okay" Deadpool, it's either great or awful. The movie, however, was awesome, and that's because the writers and the actors really cared about it. Marvel doesn't really seem to care about anything but pushing politically correct agendas anymore. That Wasp thing is a perfect example.

 

[That Chris Guy]

The thing about Gwenpool is that I actually do like the Spider-Gwen thing (though it's obviously not perfect), so I had these high hopes. Then I read a copy of the first issue and it was just... meh. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't interesting, which I think is even worse than being bad. At least it being bad would have made me feel something towards it.

I haven't personally read it yet (deciding whether I should stomach it or not), but I gather that Spider-Gwen's most glaring issue is that she's simply a Peter Parker stand-in. Where other characters such as Morales display some abilities that are different from the standard fare and thus can be set apart, Spider-Gwen's a mere character swap and little else.

I've also heard of a Gwenom (Gwen + Venom) comic but I haven't been able to find it, sad.

Honestly? This overuse of Gwen-shit is making me like the character less and less. I know Gwenpool is not Gwen Stacey, but you know they chose the first name and look for that reason. Couldn't have come up with a more original character for once? Why do they always push for these female swaps of male superheroes when they could be building up their already-established female superheroes with better stories instead?

When it comes to Deadpool, he's hit or miss and really depends on the writer. Good Deadpool is freaking awesome. Shit Deadpool is the most brainless thing to ever exist. And there is no "okay" Deadpool, it's either great or awful. The movie, however, was awesome, and that's because the writers and the actors really cared about it. Marvel doesn't really seem to care about anything but pushing politically correct agendas anymore. That Wasp thing is a perfect example.

I agree: the movie was excellent, particularly thanks to the R rating that Deadpool needs, and the contrast it gave to Disney's by-the-numbers slate of Marvel films. Deadpool in large amounts tends to feel obnoxious though, so hopefully the sequel it will be getting won't mark a shift in attitude from amusing badass to downright annoying.

From what I've heard, Marvel's been tanking hard in comic book sales lately, and has been giving out free comics to comic book shops in order to pad out their numbers for the Disney overlords to view. I gather that we won't see many changes made to the current lineup for at least the next six months regardless of their popularity, but it would be nice to see them take the kick in the ass that DC received before they listened to their actual fans and brought out Rebirth. I've always been more of a DC fan, but it's sad to see how Marvel's thrown away all the awesome stuff they built over these bullshit agendas and Tumblr artists.

 

[Patrick Buttman]

Another shitty aspect of CWII is that HydraCap was worried that Ulysses' visions would reveal that his secret plot to kill Red Skull and install Baron Zemo as the leader of Hydra, so he manipulated things behind the scenes in order to throw Foresight Lad off Cap's plans. He originally infiltrated the Inhumans base to kill Ulysses, but Iron Man got there first and abducted him. Cap also was the one that sent the gamma research to Banner, so it would give Captain Marvel a reason to go after Hulk, since they were worried that tinkering with gamma radiation is what set him on the rampage in the vision.

Of course, NONE OF THIS IS MENTIONED IN THE MAIN SERIES and is only brought up in Cap's own book.

But yeah - you're dead-on all about those points, @That Chris Guy. It's apt that this is a sequel to Civil War, because just like the first one, the story required the main heroes to act like morons and/or out of character, and it all built up to the equivalent of a giant wet fart.

LOL. Look at this douche. "I'm totes not bothered about what this guy said, so i'm just going to ask everyone about him so I can locate him and stal....I mean, sic my fans on...I mean do nothing creepy or illegal!"

 

[GabeRegan]

So for anyone who may not be up-to-date on just how shit Marvel has become, I'll bring you up to speed on noticeable elements of Civil War II:

Spoiler: Abandon All Hope

- Captain Marvel and Iron Man are leading opposing sides on how to arrest people. An Inhuman (X-Men knockoffs created so Marvel doesn't have to give Fox free advertising for their movies) called Ulysses has the ability to see into the future Minority-Report style and predict murders before they happen. Carol Danvers is on the thoughtcrime bus, and Tony opposes it. They argue like kids in kindergarten for the majority of this event when just being professional would have solved 99% of it.

- Danvers stages an ambush on Thanos attacking a facility after Ulysses predicts it. War Machine gets killed in the fight and She-Hulk gets put into a coma after taking an anti-Thanos missile to the tits.

- War Machine's funeral is about as dull and lifeless (pun intended) as you can possibly imagine, with Stark being absent for "reasons" and Rhodey's family getting little to no coverage. Instead you get a Black Lives Matter push where Marvel picks a bunch of random black superheroes from its repertoire - some with no relation to Rhodes at all - to do the mourning.

- Danvers visits Bruce Banner with a bunch of her superhero buddies and says Ulysses predicted he was going to go on a rampage as the Hulk and kill people. He gets defensive about it and Hawkeye kills him with an arrow to the head which was given to him by Bruce Banner as a final resort (though seriously, he wasn't going green until they looked through his shit and accused him of things he hadn't done yet, and he'd been treating himself so as not to turn into Hulk).

- She-Hulk wakes up from her coma and is given maybe one page of being pissed at Captain Marvel for getting her cousin killed, and is more-or-less written out of the event from there under grounds of still being injured.

- While readying herself to face Stark, Danvers calls for her Guardians of the Galaxy friends to come help her, and nearly kills them upon their arrival out of stupidity.

- Captain Marvel and Iron Man start their final battle because Tony put a protective device on a teenager (Miles Morales) to keep him safe, since Captain Marvel wanted to get rid of Miles as Ulysses had a vision of him killing Captain America, and both Miles and Steve were already there agreeing on not killing each other. Thus the only solution was to FIGHT!

- Captain Marvel launches an attack that completely obliterates Tony's armour yet leaves him visibly unscathed but in a coma (it's pretty bullshit) and nearly kills Captain America in the blast. Beast tells her, "LOL Tony secretly agreed with you anyway but he didn't want other people exploiting the system". I don't need to tell you how fucking stupid this plot point is.

- Ulysses - for whatever absurd reason - is chosen to be a god by the powers-that-be because being a precog serving as the foundation for a plot that completely fucks up the Marvel universe is God material. So he pisses off, thereby rendering Captain Marvel's entire thoughtcrime platform pointless, along with the whole story.

END RESULT: Tony was the punching bag of this event. Despite Carol Danvers being a completely unlikeable and incompetent bitch who was directly responsible for two main Marvel characters getting killed and putting two others into a coma (one a founding Avenger), nobody involved calls her out on her shit (except Beast, and his is just passive-aggressive), and she gets rewarded for it. Queue the dumbest part:

- She's asked by the President of the United States to become President, and she's apparently the most popular superhero in-universe right now.

WHAT A FUCKING TRAIN WRECK.

Marvel's been getting shittier for a while now, but HOLY SHIT that has to be the worst comic book event I've read in a while.

And let's not even talk about "The Unstoppable Wasp"...

Civil War II was pretty "meh" overall, it's by no means the worst event Bendis has written. The main problem with it is that most of the interesting stuff happens in the tie-in books. (The Kingpin tie-in mini is really good btw). There was also no reason for the Guardians of the Galaxy to show up other than the fact that Bendis was writing them too. Overall I thought the series was fine up until the last two issues, they really feel like something happened behind the scenes that made them change stuff at the last minute.

 

[[Insert Meme Here]]

I agree: the movie was excellent, particularly thanks to the R rating that Deadpool needs, and the contrast it gave to Disney's by-the-numbers slate of Marvel films. Deadpool in large amounts tends to feel obnoxious though, so hopefully the sequel it will be getting won't mark a shift in attitude from amusing badass to downright annoying.

From what I've heard, Marvel's been tanking hard in comic book sales lately, and has been giving out free comics to comic book shops in order to pad out their numbers for the Disney overlords to view. I gather that we won't see many changes made to the current lineup for at least the next six months regardless of their popularity, but it would be nice to see them take the kick in the ass that DC received before they listened to their actual fans and brought out Rebirth. I've always been more of a DC fan, but it's sad to see how Marvel's thrown away all the awesome stuff they built over these bullshit agendas and Tumblr artists.

Agree 100%. I also understand your issues with Gwen just being a stand in for Peter Parker, but I still enjoyed it; recent Spiderman stuff just hasn't been my bag, that's probably why I'm enjoying it so much.

LOL. Look at this douche. "I'm totes not bothered about what this guy said, so i'm just going to ask everyone about him so I can locate him and stal....I mean, sic my fans on...I mean do nothing creepy or illegal!"

Is that really the writer of Unstoppable Wasp? That's a really unprofessional way of dealing with some guy on the internet. I never understood why people got so up in arms when a handful of people didn't like X thing, be it something they created or something they enjoy (hi SU fandom). People like different things. Get over it. It wasn't an attack against you.

Of course, NONE OF THIS IS MENTIONED IN THE MAIN SERIES and is only brought up in Cap's own book.

This is why I hate events. I just want to read a story about X character doing Y things. I don't want to have to seek out 10 other books to get a complete story, so I just always skip event stuff for both Marvel and DC. I also generally dislike ensemble stuff because I don't want to have to pick up another book to get motivation or backstory.

Civil War II was pretty "meh" overall, it's by no means the worst event Bendis has written. The main problem with it is that most of the interesting stuff happens in the tie-in books.

From what I can tell, the only important things that happened are:

1. Cap is Hydra
2. Banner died
3. She-Hulk is dead/coma?
4. Tony Stark has been replaced with a new, black character because diversity
5. Marvel is shilling Capt. Marvel because she's female and not to further her character

Oh well.

I haven't picked up any DC Rebirth stuff because I'm poor, has the change thus far been positive?