#waid's and hickman's runs for sure

[anditendshowyoudexpect]

[thevindicativevordan]

In your recent UFF post, you said: "UFF works better as a contrast with the mainline rather than as an entry point to the franchise for new readers". I wanted to start reading the Fantastic Four. Which runs would you recommend and in which order?

Start with Mark Waid for the best “modern” entry point. After that, Hickman for sure as the guy I expect to see the MCU draw on a lot for inspiration. After Hickman FF I recommend his Avengers run simply because it builds upon his FF and his entire epic casts Reed and Doom as the true leads. Then Ryan North’s current run for a great ongoing. Besides those, if you’re up for older runs, the Lee/Kirby run is foundational and second only to ASM in terms of Silver Age Marvel storytelling. Walter Simonson’s tenure is widely praised. Byrne’s run gets a lot of love but he bails on the book, leaving many plot threads unresolved (oh and there’s *that* Reed/Sue retcon too). McDuffie wrote an enjoyable short run.

But if you want an easy stand-alone read than I recommend Alex Ross’ recent Full Circle mini. Brilliant art and I had no problem following along despite not being familiar with the Lee/Kirby era before reading it.

[duhragonball]

Finally Finished

Tonight, I read Fantastic Four v.6 #46, which wraps up my read-through of the entire series.  When I started out, I wasn’t necessarily planning to go much further than the issues I had on hand, which would have taken me up to 2007, but once I got there I decided to keep going, which took me all the way to this month’s issue. 

I’ve been into comic books for about 30 years, but this is the first time I’ve ever gone coast-to-coast on a major series like Fantastic Four.  I’ve read through all of the Defenders comics, but those were published sporadically, and I read Uncanny X-Men from #1 all the way to like... 450, I think.  But with those I made a deliberate choice to stop well before the present day.   

The main lesson I learned from this is that my completionism wasn’t exactly rewarded.  

No one ever talks about Fantastic Four in the 70′s, because all of the FF comics from that decade are extremely forgettable.   People always skip straight from Lee/Kirby to the John Byrne run when they talk about the book’s history, and I’m here to tell you they’re correct to do so.  It’s a pity because there’s a bunch of big name talents from that era, but they all made their reputations on other books.   For some reason when they worked on FF in the 1970s it just never amounted to much. 

The Byrne run is problematic in places, and Byrne himself is kind of a shithead, but the run itself still holds up.   The important innovation was that stuff actually happened from one issue to the next, making it easy to want to start reading the next installment.   The whole “Alicia hooks up with the Human Torch” thing remains controversial to this day, but it definitely wasn’t boring.  The same holds true for a lot of Byrne’s other changes and twists. 

The Englehart run gets a bad rap, but it was surprisingly decent.   Then you had the seven-issue John Harkness run, which no one ever talks about because it’s depressingly pointless.   The big surprise for me was that I absolutely hated Walt Simson’s run, which a lot of fans point to as a “brief but memorable” period on the book, sort of an oasis of quality in the post-Byrne years.   Well, I found it tedious.  The art was great, but the story could have been a lot briefer, if you asked me.

On the other hand, the DeFalco run turned out to be better than I expected.  That was supposed to be a wasteland in the book’s history, marking time between Byrne and the 1997 reboot.   And yeah, it’s not perfect, but it managed to keep the story moving, and I found myself genuinely interested to see what happened next.  It’s also interesting to me how much of an influence DeFalco had on later runs.

Heroes Reborn sucked, the Claremont run sucked, the Pacheco run was confusing.  The Mark Waid run remains a high-water mark for the entire series, but I had already read it when it was originally published.   And the writers who followed: JMS, Dwayne McDuffie, and Mark Millar, didn’t impress me much, so it justified my decision to drop the book back in the 2000′s.  The Millar run was exceptionally stupid. 

The Hickman run was ambitious and epic, but most of the time I found it to be “pretty good” which probably isn’t the level it was aiming for.  The Fraction run was one I was looking forward to a lot, but it ended up leaving me kind of disappointed.   And the James Robinson run was predictably terrible.  Finally, I got to the Dan Slott run, which is where we are today, and that’s turned out to be a real treat.  It might end up being better than the Waid run, which will really be impressive.  

I guess what I’m trying to say here is that I read something like 691 issues of this series, along with various annuals, spin-offs, and specials, and maybe fewer than... 250 of those comics were actually good to great.  But this was the only way I could be sure.  It kind of makes me question any plans I might have to do other long series like this.   If I sit down and read a mess of Spider-Man comics, I may just draw the line at some point in the 1980s to spare myself a lot of disappointment...

[yexiu]

hey, do you still have a link for your f4 reading order? i know you used to post a lot about them but if you’re not comfortable sharing it that’s okay. thank you i love your blog.

ahh...for sure here's the order! it's super out of date (3 years old 😱) but basically i recommend starting with the waid/wieringo run (starts at f4 vol 3 60) and then jumping to hickman. after that, you can read fraction and robinson's...and maybe throw in something like marvel knights 4 or whatevers. slott's run fucking sucks so maybe don't read the current run. i don't really recommend millar's either or anything in between waid and hickman just bc it gets bogged down by annoying events.

i do still loooooove the f4 so much but all my fav marvel comics kinda suck recently so i've been burnt out :P i keep up with a few but i'm not active bc there's nothing to get excited for, y'know? thank you for the kind words!

[chaoticsoulsword]

The more I think about Avengers: Children’s Crusade, the more I hate it.

I hate the ooc Bendis’ era Avengers because they’re all a bunch of stupid fascists: Tony, Carol, Steve. They’re the WORST. Not to mention Wolverine on murder mode all the freaking time.

I hate that Wanda “lost” her memories and sought Doom’s help as if she were a naïve little Latverian girl. And let me tell you, not even the Latverians think Doom is a saint. They know he’s good to them because he cares about his people, but he also forces them to his rulership under very strict rules. So you come to me and say that Wanda doesn’t know how dangerous that man is? You’re merely calling her a stupid woman, even without her memories.

Then I also hate that Elijah is the only scapegoat and “weak link” of the group. He’s always doubting Kate’s leadership and Wiccan’s needs. Do I need to mention the fact that Elijah, a black hero, was the one who doomed the mutant race because of his ignorance and stupidity? Because, oh boy, they really went there and used a black hero to do the dumbest thing ever.

Fine, fine. Everyone in this comic run is dumb (and that’s another thing that I hate). But at least they didn’t ruin the mutants’ only chance to come back from the House of M fiasco.

And the Avengers vs. X-Men foreshadowing? Dumb. Scott really considered murdering Wanda, just like Wolverine did. Excuse me. EXCUSE ME, but you even understand Cyclops at all?

I also hate the fact that Doom was portrayed as an abuser for hiding the truth from Wanda out of fear because Wanda could go cray-cray again should she have learned the truth. Fine, fine, he’s a villain. But he’s so much deeper than that, especially when it comes to love. He doesn’t believe he deserves to be loved. He always find a reason to push people away (still ignoring what he did to Valeria in Waid’s run). So yeah, maybe he was in love with Wanda, but things wouldn’t end up with a wedding. That’s for sure.

And still about Doom... He’d never kill Cassie. Never. It was so freaking unnecessary. Remember when he got the Beyonder’s power for the first time? He was trying his best to preserve life. Ok, so he killed Stephen in Hickman’s Secret War? He spent literally hours looking at his statue after his funeral. He felt guilty and that feeling haunted him until his defeat. Cassie’s death was just a cheap plot to shock the fanbase. It was terrible. The first thing he did in Axis? He brought Cassie back to life. Because someone has to clean Heinberg’s mess, am I right?

And still on Wanda, I could say: “Well, at least she remembered what she did and tried to undo it.” But I won’t say it. I won’t say it because her depressed attitude and deathwish out of guilt is bullshit. “It’s okay if I die because I deserve it.” Excuse me but she can undo it, so no. She didn’t kill people, she erased their mutant gene. And she could undo it. In addition, and there’s tons of controversy here, she was portrayed as one of the most terrible tropes ever. She was manipulated into creating a world that wasn’t even perfect for her. It was perfect for Magneto according to Pietro’s perspective. She’s not even the second layer. She’s the third.

Lastly, the whole “Kang needs to turn into a villain so let’s make Iron Lad kill Vision because he’s jealous.” Wow. So original.

The only good thing, and I’ll give Heinberg that, is Wanda and Wiccan’s relationship and Teddy’s attitudes toward Billy. Teddy is the only one left with a brain cell in this entire mess. But that’s it.

Children’s Crusade is useless. It brought one (1) mutant back and that’s it. It never allowed Wanda to find redemption. It made Victor a flat character. It made every single character stupid. Representation? Hard to give them kudos when they failed all their Romani characters (ALL OF THEM), not to mention the only black hero on the team.

PS: according to the plot, Hawkeye is so stupid he slept with a Doombot.

I’m sorry if you love Children’s Crusade but... That’s just bad. If it’s any consolation, I blame Bendis more. It all started with his commitment to bad writing, terrible representation and problematic tropes. Yeah...

[nethandrake]

8, 11 & 12 for the comicbook questions!

8. favorite story arc?

Oooh, from the top of my head:

Ellis' Moon Knight run

Lemire's Moon Knight run

Infinity Quest in Avengers (2010) just because of how hilarious Steve was in it (his jealousy and him being a huge hypocrite will always make me laugh)

Busiek's run in Avengers (1998). I do think it starts off pretty slow but once it hits its stride, IT REALLY HITS.

Hickman's Fantastic Four run. Same reason as Busiek's Avengers.

Extremis in Iron Man (2005)

Busiek's run in Iron Man (1998) (definitely one of the best characterizations of Tony you will find)

The Name of the Rose in Black Widow (2010)

1872 (2015) because I like angst

Waid's Champions run

THE WHOLE ALL NEW ALL-DIFFERENT AVENGERS (2015), I CAN'T PICK

11. which character do you wish didn’t exist?

Every Nazi/Hydra character, H*ward St*rk, H*nk P*m. Pretty sure I'm missing someone else but that's all I can think of right now, lmao.

12. favorite villain?

To be honest, I'm not a fan of villains in general shaskjkajs. But if I have to pick, I guess Loki when he's written as a villain? I do think Kang is cool too. Superior Iron Man, too??? Maybe??? He was trash but he's a Tony so I must like him, jk.

ask me really cool questions about comic books

[sineala]

I’m not sure where/when it started, but Tony accidentally adopting other heroes sidekicks/teen spin offs is hilarious&heartwarming. I mean we’ve got Kamala, Miles, you could argue Shuri, (even funnier is those panels of him bonding with Steve’s ex teen sidekick Bucky lol). And he’s always” what I’m no good with kids” &yet he’s their fav uncle. Also a bummer that he and Riri are so at arms length (I mean yeah I was dead & the AI was there, but I want him to take her out for ice cream more often)

Tony clearly enjoys mentoring all the teen heroes -- I really enjoyed Waid’s run of All-New All-Different Avengers with Sam (Nova), Kamala, and Miles all there.

I didn’t get the impression that Shuri was that young -- or, at least, I remember her as an adult in Hickman’s Avengers run -- but it’s possible that they’ve deaged her to match MCU? That might be true; I think that’s about how old she was in Ironheart, but I’d have to check.

We know canonically that Tony “cuddles newborn babies in his spare time” Stark actually likes kids a lot; I suspect he’s just worried he’d be a terrible parent.

It’s sort of like Wolverine’s propensity to collect teen girl sidekicks, I guess.

[davidmann95]

Comics this week (11/25/2020)?

Anonymous said: This week's floppies?

Anonymous said: This week’s comics?

Anonymous said: Have you read Red Hood #51 yet? It’s one of the best stories Jason has been in since Under the Red Hood and I don’t think I can go back to his normal stories after this

Anonymous said: God damn the Other History of the DC Universe has a pretty brutal call out of Superman, yet as a Superman fan I wasn’t offended or put off by it at all. Ridley specifically narrowed in on one of the key flaws of Superman, his need for public love and approval. What did you think of the portrayal of Supes?

Anonymous said: Thoughts on "The Other History of the DC Universe" and why it's already one of the greatest comics of all time?

Anonymous said: Thoughts on "Other History"?

X-Men #15: Heck yeah, Quiet Council discussing protocol, this is what I come to Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men for, and Cyclops getting his Captain America in Hickvengers moment.

X of Swords: Destruction: Look this rules and I guess I understood the Arakko story by the end but not the Otherworld/Captain Britain stuff, and it’s the former that’s gonna matter to Hick-Men going forward. But I don’t care if it put a ‘_ of 22′ counter across the top, if a crossover is for real going to demand you buy 22 comics in 3 months for you to see the entire core story you need to be screaming that from the rooftops with every single interview that it’s genuinely the whole thing that’s essential, because editorial claiming that you should totally get everything aside that’s not how crossovers have actually worked since the 90s no matter how many checklists and reading orders may be provided. This whole thing really sorta felt like the Infinity of this run, good stuff but ultimately Hickman serving a master beyond telling his own story - in this case trying to provide a forcible on-ramp from Marvel’s hottest book to all the ancillary related stuff.

Shang-Chi #3: This continues to be a really solid little mini with some poignant bits.

Power Pack #1: Haven’t read much if anything with them in it before, but as good as I could have hoped of Ryan North’s first post-Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Marvel gig.

Fantastic Four: Antithesis #4: Fine, but it would have been so much funnier if Waid’s last Marvel work before finally returning to DC had been that cancelled Squadron Supreme two-shot.

Daredevil #24: God so goooooood. And next issue’s next week?!

The Department of Truth #3: Imagine going literally any duration back in time, handing this to someone who’d read and even enjoyed his work, and explaining “THAT’S the level James Tynion is going to end up operating on”.

BANG!: My shop got the TPB this week of the recent mini by Kindt and Torres, and this is a top-notch reimagining of assorted 80s action/pseudo-pulp archetypes into something modern and strange and delightful, that while technically concluding somewhat tidily if the sales aren’t there is set up to go on for as long as the creative team has ideas for it. It taps into that America’s Best Comics/Planetary/Adventureman energy for a slightly different branch of genre storytelling, and even if like me it’s not an iteration you grew up with it’s definitely worth your money and attention.

Dark Nights: Death Metal: The Multiverse Who Laughs: It’s fine, whatever, just a buncha little Dark Multiverse stories...except for the last story, where the Twilight Zone-esque shocker final twist is that being black in America and thereby constantly experiencing the constant low-grade terror of the background radiation of systemic racism essentially acts as a vaccine against Scarecrow’s fear toxin, which...okay??? It’s written by a black man so it’s not as if I think it’s offensive, but particularly given that given the rules of the Dark Multiverse one of the three characters in there had to have imagined this possibility, and that then The Batman Who Laughs must’ve seen it and gone “Hell yes, all about this, definitely one of the 52 scariest of all possible universe”, it’s a serious candidate for weirdest comic of the year.

Legion of Superheroes #11: This is an excellent kickoff to a 3 or 4-issue arc so I have absolutely no idea how it’s going to reach some kind of season finale next month.

Action Comics #1027: Romita Jr.’s deteriorating by the day but I did like his take on the Phantom Zone, and I feel like this while taking it a bit farther than I’d prefer still convincingly sells the idea of Superman just being absolutely fed up after a truly awful day.

Justice League Dark #28: So is this the end of the run, Future State notwithstanding? Shocking how coherently it held together through the transition in writers, and I really hope it says and so does Ram V to take it in a direction wholly his own.

Wonder Woman #767: Substantially improved now that it’s not working off the completely bizarre and increasingly uncomfortable ‘buddy-cop’ premise.

Red Hood #51: GOOD NOW?! I checked it out because of the rec above and because I was curious how someone would try and salvage the concept post-Lobdell, and while it obviously isn’t literally by him, Shawn Martinbrough and Tony Akins are for all the world doing a Christopher Priest Relaunch with this tonally and aesthetically; I think it’s even a direct sequel to Priest’s Batman: The Hill oneshot from decades ago. I sure hope this isn’t a two-issue filler run with the book either cancelled or reshuffled after Future State, because this has all the makings of an excellent crime comic.

Suicide Squad #11: I’ll probably check out Taylor’s Revolutionaries book once that happens, so I guess mission accomplished. Fine little run.

The Other History of the DC Universe #1: I heard someone on Twitter say this is the best thing that’s come out of superhero comics since HoXPoX, and I don’t know if I’m on that level with it but that is absolutely a fair conclusion. I’ll be honest, I had measured expectations here from having seen some of Ridley’s past comics work - I figured it’d be a perfectly solid book with a few standout moments, but instead it throws out all the haymakers in the world and emerges as one of my favorite comics of 2020, even given we’re only seeing the one issue this year. I can only judge so much because it feels like a lot of what we see in this debut is going to be completely reframed through the perspectives of other characters in subsequent entries, but standalone this is a brutal, intimate, brilliant character study set against the backdrop of a hazy dreamscape vision of the history of DC reformatted as needed to fit the concerns in play here (though the dates presented are so specific I wonder if aspects of this are leftovers of the original version of 5G), and probably as close as we’re going to see to a ‘trilogy capper’ to The Golden Age and New Frontier. That’s why the take on Superman here works, as much a product of the worst of his mass-consciousness image as the Superman of DKR but meshed with a profound understanding of what makes him tick as a character that makes the inherently compromised version on display here palatable, and a believable extrapolation of the Silver/Bronze Age’s version of him when that’s the era this series is thus far working as a contrast to. And god, the art. I always liked him fine enough, but even with finishes by Andrea Cucchi and colors by Jose Villarrubia I never could have imagined Giuseppe Camuncoli putting out the likes of this, and Steve Wands’s lettering is doing at least equal legwork in defining the look of the book. There have been several impressive titles out of Black Label at this point - Last Knight on Earth, Rorschach, Strange Adventures, and especially Harleen - but nothing else has come close to demonstrating the potential power of the imprint as a vehicle for creators taking this iconography and doing something radical and unrestrained and phenomenal with it.

[moontours]

Ok ty now pls tell me who the BEST Marvel writers are and why

right off the bat—marjorie liu!! she’s written two of my favourite runs ever (black widow 2010 and x-23 2010) and her characterization of characters is so insanely good. she really gets in depth with who shes writing and she has the most beautiful writing ever!! plus she gave us the jean-paul and kyle wedding as well :’) i also think right now, al ewing is probably one of marvel’s best writers, if not the best. a lot of his works are really really good and like someone said before, hes really good at taking old stories and reconceptualizing them without actually doing too much of any major retcons or anything!! mark waid is also pretty consistently good with his writing—his f4 and dd runs are very well-loved for good reason and his black widow run is fun, also im pretty sure a lot of ppl liked his cap run as well and i LOVE his champions and all-new all-different avengers runs. objectively hickman should probably be on this list as well, i love his f4 a lot, his avengers is really good for the most part and both runs are extremely well loved but im mad at him for his xmen era rn so. and im going to add kelly sue deconnick to this list solely because she wrote the best modern carol and she’s yet to be topped

[uncannycyke]

Hickman's X-Men weirdly isn't his usual style? He's always been very long-form and he has things he likes to repeat, but if you read his F4 & Ultimates & Avengers/New Avengers plus his indie stuff like East of West and Decorum there's still some sense of narrative momentum? He sets things up that don't pay off until later but he also has an immediate plot going on too (eg incursions at the same time as Infinity). X-Men just keeps randomly jumping from plot thread to plot thread by the issue and there's still no apparent connectivity or resolution to any of them

I’ve always said I liked his F4 best because it is grounded in reality and like i said, there is more character moments in that. like it felt like this was stuff the F4 could reasonably be doing. I think his F4 is the one of his works I like the best and it flows better. I think I have some criticisms with it still in that he randomly dropped the Council of Reeds plot which was odd because the idea itself was so cool. But yeah I’ve never read his indies, just his Marvel and I liked his F4 most of them. But he still did a lot “Sue is in the kitchen” type stuff and Reed treated Sue like shit and never got comeuppance which always disappointed me. It’s not Waid’s Reed that’s for sure.

His Avengers is a lot of the “wait for the shoe to drop” type writing which is why I couldn’t get into the main run until again, the 30th issue when shit hit the fan. New Avengers is a bit more consistent tbh so it was an easier read but it’s what I was saying where the premise is so cynical so I get where that appeals to some people but not for me. Again, his character work sucks imo but it’s got it’s moments in Avengers. Like Izzy and Sam came out of goddamn nowhere? But his character work with Steve and Tony and the Illuminati was good stuff, but only because of the plot where shit hit the fan. Namor and T’challa had great conflict up until they bonded over hating Doom more? like what was that???

I think he’s better in Avengers because the whole premise was morally grey stuff and he’s writing war criminals at that point like New Avengers was a book about war crimes. 

His X-Men certainly IS an outlier in many ways but there’s def some Hickman-isms in it that are never gonna gel with me and thats poor character work and plots that take forever. But imo f4 is his most consistent marvel work

[traincat]

Do the fantastic four have a long ongoing series sort of like the amazing Spider-Man's 800+ issue run?

The main Fantastic Four series currently has 650+ issues -- it just doesn’t say that on the front because the way comics number themselves currently is incredibly stupid and reboots itself every chance it gets now because they’re under the false impression that having a million issue #1s will somehow be less confusing for new readers. Up until very recently (circa post-the comics Civil War) Fantastic Four actually had more issues than Amazing Spider-Man, because Fantastic Four #1 came out in 1961 and Amazing Fantasy #15, Peter’s origin, came out in 1962, with Amazing Spider-Man #1 debuting in 1963. They haven’t had more issues than Spider-Man overall in ages, but that’s because Peter at times has had four or five different series devoted to him going at once.

Here’s how the main series numbering for Fantastic Four works:

Fantastic Four #1-416 (contains the original Lee/Kirby run, Byrne’s run, Simonson’s, etc, all the way through DeFalco’s run, so this covers 1961-1996) -> 

Fantastic Four volume 2 #1-13 (this is part of the Heroes Reborn event and essentially a bubble continuity; I don’t advise starting here at all and the whole thing is fairly skippable) ->

Fantastic Four v3 #1-70 (this contains both Claremont and Waid’s runs -- Claremont’s I love for characterization, but the plot is 75% absolute nonsense; if you want one (1) modern starting place in here, I really recommend FF v3 #60 which is the first issue of Waid’s run) ->

Fantastic Four #500-588 (our first example of reverting to the original numbering! but not our last). 

And here’s where it gets complicated.

After Fantastic Four #588, the entire series gets temporarily replaced with FF (just the initials) volume 1. It’s pretty apparent why when you hit that point, but it does make the reading order for this part messy.

FF #1-12 -> Fantastic Four #600. At this point, both the Fantastic Four and FF books are supposed to be read concurrently, alternating between issues to get the full story up until FF ends with #23 and Fantastic Four hits issue #611. This concludes Jonathan Hickman’s run. ->

Fantastic Four v4 #1-16, which in its entirety is Matt Fraction’s run. Fraction also wrote FF vol 2, an additional 16 issues that ran concurrently; the stories tie into each other. ->

Fantastic Four v5 #1-14, renumbered again, somewhat pointlessly, because right before the end of the volume, it switches back to the original numbering. Yeah. ->

Fantastic Four #542-545. 

After this point the Marvel universe blows up. I’m not being cute, that’s literally what happens. Secret Wars (2015) #1-9 covers what happens to the Fantastic Four at this point, but because Disney threw a huge fit over the fact that they didn’t have the Fantastic Four film rights, what this actually leads into is a three year ban on the Fantastic Four title, and for the first time since the book’s inception in 1961, Marvel canceled the Fantastic Four altogether. During this point in time, Reed, Sue, and their kids are “out of the main universe”, which is fancy comic speak for “banished”; Ben and Johnny flit between separate books, with Ben mostly in Guardians of the Galaxy and then Infamous Iron Man and Johnny running point between Uncanny Avengers and the Inhumans titles. They reunite for Marvel Two-In-One (2007) #1-12, the majority of which features them and Victor Von Doom searching for Reed and Sue. The majority of that book is really good -- I definitely recommend it over the current Fantastic Four run, which it leads into, albeit somewhat messily. Which brings us to:

Fantastic Four v6 #1-18, which is the current Fantastic Four run by Dan Slott, the first Fantastic Four title under its own name since the book was canceled in 2015. I am immensely frustrated with it, especially the current storyline, but the book is back on the shelves again, so... yay?

This is not counting annuals, specials, or limited series with different titles like Marvel Knights 4, Fantastic Force, Fantastic Four 2099, etc. These don’t tend to be as long running as Spider-Man’s other titles. But that’s the Fantastic Four numbering guide, in a nutshell, covering all 663 issues of the main series, minus annuals. It’s definitely a very large body of canon for sure, even if it’s not quite as big as Spider-Man currently.

[thevindicativevordan]

Comics this week?

Danger Street #1 - Enjoyable! Not sure if King can handle all these characters, he's not a writer who is the best at giving everyone their own voice, but I liked the first issue. Haven't seen anyone offer a guess who the villain that traumatized Lady Cop is, must be a deep cut.

Dark Crisis: Big Bang #1 - An entire issue devoted to Waid indulging his Silver Age fanboy, but in a manner I don't enjoy compared to World's Finest. What the hell is the point of bringing back all these obscure worlds from Pre-Crisis that no one except Waid and a few other boomers know or care about? Why do we need two official vampire worlds? Or the Justice Lords and Injustice? Or the Crime Syndicate and apparently a Pre-Crisis Earth where the names stayed the same but the moralities flipped? Yippee I guess, must make sure that every evil Superman has their own official Earth. Morrison wanted to make sure that the Multiverse was more than just "hey here's Superman and Batman but this time they're Egyptian", they wanted the Multiverse to support different characters as being equal to the usual A-Listers. This new Multiverse is regressing back to the old status quo of there being a million Earths and Superman and Batman are the stars on every one. Weird that they left off the Arkhamverse, Tomorrowverse, and YJverse but included Injustice and DCSG. No films or TV Earths besides the Reeve/Keaton one, and even that is just meant to stand in for the Superman '78/Batman '89 comics. If this aimed to get me excited about the Multiverse it failed, I just want the damn thing to go away for a while and let DC focus on Earth 0 for a bit.

WildC.A.T.S. #2 - Breezy read but fun. Didn't expect Mr. Majestic to make his return so soon. Lot of Superman analogues, and actual Supermen, running around the DCU, somebody should do something with all of them.

Superman: Son of Kal-El #18 - Well this issue encapsulated this entire run in a nutshell: some interesting ideas that are failed by terrible execution resulting in a bland book. At least I can finally hop off Taylor's ride, won't be letting sunk cost tricking me into reading the next miniseries. A recent interview by Taylor made it sound like AoS will indeed be the finale for his time with the character, he was talking about how other people will be writing Jon after him and how Jon will be a big player in what's coming up. Until Taylor finishes writing Jon I've got zero interest in Jon anymore. Let his era be over soon please, this issue was clearly not meant to be the end of the series which tells me this was a sudden change, likely caused by editorial losing faith in Taylor as Jon's caretaker.

I Am Batman #16 - Huh. Didn't see that coming but I am intrigued where it goes. Ridley also gave an interview recently where he talked about other people writing Jace after him. Maybe Jace will be getting his own follow up mini just like Jon is, but by someone else.

Batman Incorporated #3 - Ghost-Maker is a total asshole and I'm not sure how long I'll keep reading if he remains the star. Dude needs to get humbled fast.

Invincible Iron Man #1 - Fine. About the same level of quality as Duggan's X-Men for what that's worth. Should have gotten Hickman on this, it's insane that Iron Man was the breakout star of the MCU and Marvel cannot seem to get him that modern day epic run he desperately needs.

Planet Hulk: Worldbreaker #2 - Pak is sleepwalking through this it feels like. Either that or it's decompressed for the trade, because not much is actually happening issue to issue. Jen's fate reminds me of the 40k God-Emperor.

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1301

Monday, February 17, 2020

 Happy Family Day. I'm grateful for my extended family of fellow comic book aficionados. Sharing the love of our hobby keeps me young and brightens my life. I miss seeing many of you but you are in my thoughts.

 Catwoman #20 - Joelle Jones (writer) Fernando Blanco (art) FCO Plascencia (colours) Saida Temofonte (letters). Mrs. Creel poisons her party guests showing us what a nasty woman she is. Catwoman fights through a bunch of zombies to get some Lazarus Water to save a friend. Selina's final obstacle will be Mrs. Creel. I can't wait for this story to end. It's been kind of blasé.

 Thor #3 - Donny Cates (writer) Nic Klein (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). Lots of KRAKKABOOMS this issue as Thor fights Beta Ray Bill. Horseface doesn't have a chance with All-Father Thor boosted with Galactus given power cosmic. Don't build a funeral pyre for Bill yet. Someone comes to his rescue and that person is a surprise.

 The Dollhouse Family #4 - M. R. Carey (writer) Peter Gross (layouts) Vince Locke (finishes) Cris Peter (colours) Todd Klein (letters). Alice and her daughter recover from the horrible explosion from last issue but their survival cost them an arm and a leg. When Alice gets back to the dollhouse, she finds there's a new tenant and she's not nice at all. This horror title isn't horrible. You should come visit.

 Hawkeye: Freefall #3 - Matthew Rosenberg (writer) Otto Schmidt (art) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). This issue explains how Clint can be in two places at one time. It's dumb but I don't mind because this story is kind of dumb. I like it for the guest stars. The Black Widow shows up and the hero on the last page is a favourite of mine. If the new Ant-Man mini had been this much fun I'd still be reading it.

 The Batman's Grave #5 - Warren Ellis (writer) Bryan Hitch (pencils) Kevin Nowlan & Bryan Hitch (inks) Alex Sinclair (colours) Richard Starkings (letters). I don't know if it's just me, but I find that I lose interest in a Warren Ellis story somewhere and this issue might be it. I've forgotten what the mystery is that put Batman in detective mode even though he's following a lead in Arkham Asylum this issue. I like seeing Batman kick bad guy butt as much as the next fan, but 8 pages of it here seems to be padding the story. Methinks this 12-issue story could've been told in 6.

 Savage Avengers #10 - Gerry Duggan (writer) Patch Zircher (art) Java Tartaglia (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). Conan and the two Doctors, Doom and Strange, battle Kulan Gath. Guess who wins? This issue made me laugh out loud.

 Jessica Jones: Blind Spot #3 - Kelly Thompson (writer) Mattia De Iulis (art) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Now this is a much more enjoyable murder mystery than Batman's Grave. I know exactly what's happening because Kelly Thompson recaps as the investigation continues. There's even an extended 5-page fight scene where Jessica and Elsa Bloodstone fight creatures from the Black Lagoon but it isn't boring because they're bantering about the case all the while. The rest of this 6-issue mini can't come out fast enough for me.

 Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy #6 - Jody Houser (writer) Adriana Melo (pencils) Mark Morales (inks) Hi-Fi (colours) Gabriela Downie (letters). Harley and Ivy's adventure comes to an end with a battle between good and evil Ivy. I liked how they left the fate of Poison Ivy a mystery. Who knows how she'll act the next time she sees Harley?

 X-Force #7 - Benjamin Percy (writer) Oscar Bazaldua (art) Guru-eFX (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). This issue features Domino who was rescued from the bad guys recently. The bad guys managed to steal her good luck powers and have transferred them to someone else. This newly empowered individual is an assassin going around killing mutant supporters. Neena's not too happy about that. I wasn't too surprised by the reveal of the assassin's identity on the last page but I'm sure some new fans will be.

 X-Men #6 - Jonathan Hickman (writer) Matteo Buffagni (art) Sunny Gho (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). This issue features Mystique. She's my favourite shape-shifter. She's sent on a mission to infiltrate the space station designed to fight against the mutants. I liked how the flashbacks merged with this story to culminate at the ominous last page.

 The Immortal Hulk #31 - Al Ewing (writer) Joe Bennett (main story pencils) Ruy Jose, Belardino Brabo & Cam Smith (main story inks) Paul Mounts (main story colours) Javier Rodriguez (McGowan sequence pencils & colours) Alvaro Lopez (McGowan sequence inks) VC's Cory Petit (letters). We get into the heads of Scientist McGowan and the Hulk this issue. Matters of the mind shouldn't surprise fans what with Xemnu being in this story.

 The Amazing Spider-Man #39 - Nick Spencer (writer) Iban Coello (art) Brian Reber (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). This issue reminded me of the Odd Couple, Oscar and Felix. Spider-Man agrees to be a guest on Jonah's podcast and sparks fly as the two antagonists butt heads. It's all talk radio until the super villain crashes the party. Next issue should be less talk  and more action.

 Superman: Heroes #1 - Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction & Greg Rucka (writers) Kevin Maguire, Mike Perkins, Steve Lieber, Mike Norton & Scott Godlewski (art) Paul Mounts, Gabe Eltaeb, Andy Troy & Nathan Fairbairn (colours) Troy Peteri, Clayton Cowles & Simon Bowland (letters). This $5.99 US one-shot is tied-in quite closely with what's been going on in Action Comics & Superman. It looks at the consequences of Superman revealing his secret identity and it's well worth reading.

 Doctor Strange #3 - Mark Waid (writer) Kev Walker (art) Java Tartaglia (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). This is a great one issue story if you want to check this new run out. Doctor Strange fights an artistic demon to save lives.

 Gwen Stacy #1 - Christos Gage (writer) Todd Nauck (art) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I liked this better than The Amazing Mary Jane maybe because it deals with a younger high school aged Gwen. This story takes place before Gwen and Peter become friends and lovers and involves her father Captain Stacy and his investigation of New York's mob. There are a trio of bad guys that you'll recognise but the big deal super villains don't show up until the last page. If they don't get you to pick up the next issue, nothing will.

 Batman: Pennyworth R.I.P. #1 - James Tynion IV & Peter J. Tomasi (writers) Eddy Barrows & Eber Ferreira, Chris Burnham, Marcio Takara, Diogenes Neves, David Lafuente and Sumit Kumar (art) Adriano Lucas, Rex Lokus & Nathan Fairbairn (colours) Travis Lanham & Thomas Napolitano (letters). This one-shot tribute to Alfred shows us what a dysfunctional family Bruce has created. I would have preferred a more touching send off to this beloved character like the one Brian Michael Bendis wrote for Ultimate Spider-Man/Peter Parker. Damian, Tim, Jason and Barbara reminisce about the butler and then Ric Grayson chimes in with a story about Nightwing. Who the heck is Ric Grayson? I thought Alfred deserved better than this.

 Nebula #1 - Vita Ayala (writer) Claire Roe (art) Mike Spicer (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). I'm ambivalent when it comes to this cyborg killer but I wanted to see if that might change by reading this 5-issue mini. She finds a scientist who has built a device that can predict the future and has him implant it so it's integrated into her cybernetic system. The untested tech winds up screwing with her head. I didn't change my opinion of Nebula with this first issue and I can see where the rest of the story is going so I'll leave the rest on the racks.

 Superman #20 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Ivan Reis, Joe Prado & Oclair Albert (art) Alex Sinclair & Jeremiah Skipper (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). There's action: Superman dukes it out with Mongul. There's drama: The Daily Star is trying to discredit Clark, Lois and the Daily Planet. And there's a surprise appearance of an old friend. There's everything a good comic book needs to grab my attention and want to keep reading.

 Marvels X #2 - Alex Ross & Jim Krueger (writers) Well-Bee (art) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I was fooled by the truck driver who picked up the kid because of the red beard, sunglasses and No Fear baseball cap. I thought it was Matt Murdock in disguise but I was surprised by who it actually was. Daredevil does turn up later in this issue as he and Spider-Man help to keep David safe. The kid's important because he could help find a cure for what's infecting humanity.

[fyeahfantasticfour]

Hey! Recently I've wanted to get into the fantastic four comics but I'm not sure where to start, do you have any comic recommendation for the fantastic four? Have a good day!

Ooo, awesome choice! I’m sure you’ll love them. I’ve made a recommendations list for the FF before on my personal blog -- you can find the post here. Mostly, I’d recommend starting with Waid’s run on the FF (it starts at Fantastic Four Vol 3 (sometimes listed as 1998) #60)-- it’s geared toward new readers and also just very good! It’s one of my favorite contemporary FF runs, second only to Hickman’s (which is a bit too continuity-heavy to start with, I think). There are also resources/rec lists linked in the sidebar to this blog if you’re using a laptop.

I could also add that we’re getting an Invisible Woman miniseries from Waid in a few months, and we’re getting a new Future Foundation title from Whitley (who currently writes Unstoppable Wasp).

Would anyone be interested in comic recommendations for specific characters/ships? I’ve been thinking of doing one for my favorite Sue issues.

[yexiu]

So I take it you do recommend Hickman's Fantastic Four run? I've been meaning to read some more FF comics, but everything I've read so far has been pretty unimpressive.

for first time readers, hickman’s run can be a bit plotty bc it builds on a lot of what millar’s run started, but it’s by far my favorite run of fantastic four ever. if you plan on reading it, make sure to look up a reading order! if you’re just starting tho, i recommend starting with waid’s run. and i have a full reading list here!

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 9 April 2018

Quick Bits:

Animosity: Evolution #5 gets to the heart of the criminal enterprise undermining Wintermute’s authority, operating the black market, and what they’ve been trying to accomplish. This arc has definitely been interesting so far, showing that the animal organizations aren’t really all too different from their human counterparts.

| Published by AfterShock

Avengers #688 raises the stakes higher as we speed towards the conclusion of “No Surrender”. While the Challenger flips the table on the game, this issue takes its perspective from Quicksilver, setting up the next stage for his forthcoming Quicksilver: No Surrender limited series.

| Published by Marvel

Barbarella #5 tosses in some more weird science as Barbarella and Vix go prospecting for RUST.

| Published by Dynamite

Bloodshot Salvation #8 begins to marry up the timelines, such that the present is becoming the “soon” timeline that began in the first issue, as Bloodshot travels through the Deadside and we find out how he got tossed into the future. It’s interesting to see how Jeff Lemire’s non-linear threads have been playing out through the story.

| Published by Valiant

Brothers Dracul #1 reunites the team of Cullen Bunn and Mirko Colak, having recently completed the Unholy Grail series, here for an interesting take on the Vlad Tepes story and the Dracula myth. Bunn takes a different approach to the myth, rooting it in much of the recorded history of Vald, his family, and Wallachia under Ottoman rule and it results in a much more grounded story. At least for the first issue. The art from Colak, with colours by Maria Santaolalla, is also great.

| Published by AfterShock

Captain America #700 is Chris Samnee’s last issue on the series, and the last of his work at Marvel for the time being, and he sure does go out with a bang. Samnee and Mark Waid stitch up a conclusion to the Cap in the future arc, although there are some interesting ramifications of the story to unpack, including presenting an idea of the futility of hope. That’s probably bleaker than the creative team necessarily intended it to be read as.

| Published by Marvel

Champions #19 begins the next chapter in the team’s chronicles, with Jim Zub and Sean Izaakse taking over as the new creative team. The art from Izaakse and colourist Marcio Menyz is wonderful throughout, including some great character designs. It’s also interesting to see how Zub has the team approaching new recruits like Ironheart as they try to figure out how the new pieces fit.

| Published by Marvel

Cold War #3 dives into the past of two survivors this time, giving us a look into the history and personalities of LQ and Johnny. Even as the latter fights for relevance and control in the present, seemingly unable to accept the leadership of Vinh or her attempts to protect everyone remaining. Then Christopher Sebela drops another bomb on us as to the state of this future.

| Published by AfterShock

Crude #1 is an interesting beginning, setting up a bit of a mystery involving the death of the son of a former Russian agent, as he gets dragged back into a seedy, harsh existence to hunt down his son’s murderers. Steve Orlando begins this first issue mostly as set-up, flashing back through both Piotr and, his son, Kiril’s lives before getting us to the main plot and arrival at the setting, and source for the title.

| Published by Image / Skybound

The Dead Hand #1 is an impressive debut, capturing perfectly the intrigue and action of a Cold War thriller, matched with the bleakness of more modern interpretations of Russia and a twist that you’ll never see coming. Kyle Higgins’ Image outings tend to be wonderful reads, like COWL and Hadrian’s Wall, and this series seems no different so far. It’s also great to see Stephen Mooney providing the line art here, his style is perfectly suited to spy and thriller stories, especially as coloured here by Jordie Bellaire.

| Published by Image

Deadly Class #33 continues to tear everything down, blow everything up, or beat it into a bloody pulp. Nothing seems to be safe. Rick Remender and Wes Craig seem intent on putting everyone through the wringer, and Craig (with colours from Jordan Boyd) is reminding everyone why he’s one of the best artists working in comics today.

| Published by Image / Giant Generator

Doctor Strange #388 is another integral part of the Damnation event, diving into Strange’s possession and what’s going on with the other fallen heroes current plaguing Vegas at Mephisto’s behest. The story from Donny Cates is good, weird, and has Niko Henrichon at the very top of his game.

| Published by Marvel

Domino #1 is damn great. In some ways, it feels like old home week, as Gail Simone brings back some of the characters and stylistic quirks from her time writing Deadpool and Agent X, complete with the humour, action, and absurdity, but at the same time, this feels fresh. It’s not as over the top as the other two outings and it makes for what feels to me like a better story. It also makes the humour pop a bit more as it feels natural. Also, the art from David Baldeón and Jesus Aburtov is gorgeous. Baldeón surprised me with how great his art has become on Spirits of Vengeance and here he’s bringing it to an even higher level. This first issue is fun and comes very recommended.

| Published by Marvel

Dry County #2 sets up the mystery. After being embroiled in Janet’s life as a kind of sad sack saviour in the first issue, Lou gets his hopes dashed by her kidnapping this issue. If it follows traditional Miami Noir themes, I have my suspicions about it, but here Rich Tommaso plays it straight and uses it to start Lou down the path to find out what happened to her.

| Published by Image

Exiles #1 begins a gathering the team arc, as Blink is drafted back into the multiverse-saving business by the reappearance of the Tallus and the Unseen’s premonitions of the white fire of nothingness caused by the Time Eater. Saladin Ahmed does a great job of playing with Exiles history and Marvel ephemera in constructing this first issue, but the real star is the artwork. Javier Rodríguez is one of Marvel’s underrated talents who really should be heralded as a superstar. Here, he, Álvaro López, and Jordie Bellaire make this issue one of the most visually interesting on the stands, with great page layouts, interesting panel transitions, phenomenal use of page for storytelling effect, and unique character designs. This is a great start and I’m dying to see more.  

| Published by Marvel

Gideon Falls #2 continues a slow burn through the story, focusing on both Norton and Father Fred’s experiences with the black barn, and the world beyond them not believing their respective stories. It’s a common horror and mystery thread, but it’s still interesting how Jeff Lemire is framing the narrative and building the characters through the dialogue. Also, the art from Andrea Sorrentino and Dave Stewart continues to be amazing. 

| Published by Image

Ninja-K #6 plays with a number of the messes that have yet to be cleaned up across the Valiant universe. It’s interesting to see Christos Gage play with the toys, with visceral art from Juan José Ryp and Jordie Bellaire.

| Published by Valiant

No. 1 With a Bullet #6 is a brilliant end to what has been an excellent series. Jacob Semahn, Jorge Coello, and Jen Hickman have a story here that is relevant in today’s society obsessed with social media, and delves deep into what can happen when that obsession turns deadly and debilitating. There’s one last twist this issue and the art, especially as it simulates the current state of Nash’s eyesight, is amazing. I highly recommend this series.

| Published by Image

Oblivion Song #2 fleshes out a bit more what happened from Earth’s perspective on the day that parts of Philadelphia fell into Oblivion. It’s interesting to see it unfold, especially in relation to the two recent survivors who came back. It’s slow going, and there are oblique character moments, but it’s enthralling.

| Published by Image

The October Faction: Supernatural Dreams #2 sees the summoned demon wandering around, causing havoc, raising hell. Oh, and Geoff and Vivian get their butts handed to them.

| Published by IDW

Prism Stalker #2, like the first issue, is very, very strange. On the one hand, it’s presented and illustrated by Sloane Leong as this surrealist weird comic that almost defies classification. Kind of like some of the silent indie comics out there that are more experienced than “read”. On the other hand, the story Leong presents is fairly mundane, one of coming of age in what appears to be an oppressive alien society. I’m not really sure what to make of it still, but it has my attention.

| Published by Image

ROM & The Micronauts #4 gets the full band back together in our world as the final battle against Baron Karza and the Dire Wraiths looms on the horizon. Christos Gage waxes philosophical on physical and emotional change, and how love will find a way in strange cases, but what’s really pushing us towards the final battle is the promise of raising the Lovecraftian monstrosity at the heart of the Earth.

| Published by IDW

Sleepless #5 works further on the intrigue going on, revealing that some of the plots may not have been put into motion by who we may have be led to believe previously.

| Published by Image

Sword of Ages #3 has the crap hit the fan. Some of the political machinations come to a head and it’s all pretty glorious. Gabriel Rodríguez is telling an incredible story here, adapting Arthurian legend in a very unique way.

| Published by IDW

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #81 is a densely packed narrative, picking up on the threads from the recently concluded Triceratons arc, the running undercurrent of Splinter’s ideas for the Foot Clan, while also spilling out the return of the Rat King after TMNT Universe #19. There’s a lot going on, but I’d argue that Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, and Tom Waltz make it accessible and interesting. Aiding in that effort is phenomenal art from Dave Wachter and Ronda Pattison.

| Published by IDW

Thanos #18 concludes “Thanos Wins” and with it this chapter of the Mad Titan’s adventures (apart from a forthcoming annual in a couple of weeks). This issue is big and epic and has a very interesting ending. Donny Cates, Geoff Shaw, and Antonio Fabela have outdone themselves.

| Published by Marvel

Vs. #3 gets a look at the ruling class in this world, trying to figure out why Flynn’s ratings remain high despite him continuing to suffer losses. It’s a little dry, but it does set up some further conflict between Flynn and Devi, and continues to draw some beautiful art from Esad Ribić.

| Published by Image

X-Men Blue #25 gives us a main story with Magneto’s confrontation of Miss Sinister and her allies, while Polaris and the other remaining X-Men lick their wounds in Madripoor. There’s also a back-up that serves as a bridge between the “Poison X” and Venomized stories for the original five and Venom, with some really nice art by Mike Perkins and Andy Troy.

| Published by Marvel

X-Men Red #3 gives some more oblique hints at what’s really going on, as anti-mutant hysteria begins reaching critical mass and attacks, protests, and riots begin to spill over. Tom Taylor is aptly using parallels to current events across America and the world here and it makes it a bit scarier.

| Published by Marvel

Other Highlights: Algeria is Beautiful Like America, The Archies #6, Astonisher #6, The Beauty #21, Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider #17, The Despicable Deadpool #298, DuckTales #8, Eternal Empire #8, Falcon #7, Ghost Money #9, James Bond: Casino Royale, Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini #4, Old Man Logan #38, Planets of the Apes: Ursus #4, Resident Alien: An Alien in New York #1, Rick Veitch’s The One #3, Rose #10, Shock, Spider-Man vs. Deadpool #31, Star Wars: Darth Vader #14, Star Wars: Thrawn #3, Tomb Raider: Survivor’s Crusade #4, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #31, Venomized #2

Recommended Collections: Aliens/Predator/Prometheus: Fire & Stone, Cable - Volume 2: Newer Mutants, Clover Honey, Coyotes - Volume 1, Deadpool vs. Old Man Logan, DuckTales: Mysteries and Mallards, Family Trade - Volume 1, Jean Grey - Volume 2: Final Fight, Lazarus X+66, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man - Volume 2: Most Wanted, Rock Candy Mountain - Volume 2, Spider-Man/Deadpool - Volume 5: Arms Race, TMNT/Usagi Yojimbo - Expanded Edition, Transformers: Till All Are One - Volume 3, The Unbelievable Gwenpool - Volume 5: Lost in the Plot, Underwhere

d. emerson eddy tried to make a souffle a few days ago. It fell.