Topic: General Comic Book Discussion

The cinematic universe is its own thing, though. Plus...I remember looking it up a while back, and figured that it...must've started up, and ended again? I dunno, I never followed Marvel or DC closely. I just remember reading about it on Wikis when Iron Man 2 was still in theaters...

As for the Venom movie, I remember reading that they were gonna do one where Venom was an anti-hero when I was in senior year of high school...2010 I think...I was still confused/disappointed that they changed the origin story, but not by much. I grew up with the 90s cartoon, and that's still my favorite, anyways. However, I did get around to Secret Wars after watching AtopTheFourthWall review of it. Good stuff, and holy crap! That was the comic one of my favorite Dexter's Lab episodes referenced! I always wondered what they were going for, since it seemed like such a cool concept. Glad I finally got to see it play out as intended!

@FinalFrog I'm not going to "wildly" oppose you, but I do think that you're closing yourself off/limiting yourself from seeing/reading a heck of a lot of good stuff.

First off, DC: the graphic novels I mentioned earlier are second to none and are also highly regarded by both fans and comics business alike.

If you don't mind, I'm just gonna quote myself here:

All have beautiful artwork, and some even stunning, the stories are brilliantly written, and a lot of these stories are VERY memorable, so I would almost wonder what's not to like...

I like your choice of classic artists, though. I would however add Stan Lee (yeah, I know he's a writer/editor, but his stories were great), Neal Adams and John Romita, and for the eighties and nineties I'd add John Byrne, Jerry Ordway, Dave Gibbons, John Romita jr and Alex Ross.

And Miller last? Are you nuts?
(just kidding, obviously, but his Daredevil and Batman stories are legendary, and let's not forget Sin City)

And what exactly is wrong with Jim Lee? He penciled some iconic stories, and they all looked great:

Obviously, we all have our own tastes, and that is fine, but I would always stress (and add) that it IS my own taste/opinion, I don't know if I would ever go so far as to precisely tell people what (not) to read or follow. I would only recommend or caution people, and then it's ultimately up to them.

@CanisWolfred Yeah, it's a great story, and we are in agreement again, because the movies are indeed their own universe, but obviously, both the movies and the comics have some of the larger story lines and happenings in common. Like you, I haven't really followed modern Marvel or DC for quite a few years, so I wasn't really up to speed on the most recent story lines either (hence me also being surprised by the whole Venom thing).

As for what they were going for with Secret Wars: I suppose it was one of the first reboots, of sorts. New Spider-man, new Fantastic Four story line, and so forth, so perhaps that is where it ultimately all started...

Loved that 90's cartoon as well, and not just Spider-man: I also have fond memories of the X-Men cartoons. It did show that in cartoons, it is apparently much easier to stick to the stories than in motion pictures, and perhaps if you're an avid comic book reader, you go to the movie expecting certain things to appear in the movies as well, but like we already agreed upon, it is probably best to let that go and just see them as their own medium, and just enjoy them regardless.

Still a shame that Secret Wars is never going to be in the Movies, though. I think that Infinity Wars is probably the most heroes & villains they can handle in a two-part movie...

Or perhaps, much like with Venom, they just change the story line, and we might still get to see some kind of Secret Wars story, some time in the future...

@ThanosReXXX You sound like a very balanced person. Kudos to you. Hope more people could be like you.

@TheCurator Well, thank you very much. That's a really nice compliment. Much appreciated.

I'm not as much of a comic reader as I used to be due to time constraints (ugh, adulting), but I do squeeze in some graphical literature here and there.

Physical Comics
There were no nearby comic book stores in the area I grew up in as far as I know, but there was a grocery store with a dedicated revolving rack; most of these comics were geared towards kids and were easy reads, so I could finish one easily in the time it took my mom to pick up everything she needed. XD I read some kids comics back in the day, mainly from the Scooby-Doo and Sabrina: The Teenage Witch series. There was also a Batman Beyond mini-series that ran here in the US around the time the cartoon was running; I still have a couple of issues of that, actually. I would also occasionally read bits and pieces of the Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse comics to be found on that rack. I don't recall much of those other than enjoying part of a Spiderman arc involving The Lizard. I also read the Archie Digests/comics on and off.

When my grandma was moving a couple of years ago, I also inherited some Duck Tales/Donald Duck/Scrooge McDuck comics we found in her basement. I knew about the DuckTales show, but not about any comic series. I'm guessing these belonged to some older cousins. It's interesting to turn through them and find advertisements for the original NES.

While I haven't really bought any comic books recently, I did borrow and read through both the Blackest Night and Brightest Day DC story arcs a few years ago. ...Well, scratch that, I did pick up and read The Killing Joke last year since the animated movie was getting some buzz.

Web Comics
I used to read way more of these than I do today. The only web comic that I actively follow these days is Weregeek. Some others that I used to read: Looking For Group, El Goonish Shive, Pokemon-X, Black Tapestries, Alpha Luna, and The Red Gate Society. A lot of those I either dropped due to loss of interest or because the artist stopped updating (we're talking months here) or closed the site down.

Manga
I didn't start getting into Manga until I was in high school, and my history with it is kind of touch and go. I borrowed and read the first two issues of Bleach from someone at one point and at another point owned the first volume of the second Kingdom Hearts series (I think that's where it was from). I think the only true piece of manga I have in my house currently is the Minish Cap manga by Akira Toriyama.

It's not that I dislike manga, it's just that I have so many other things to presently read....

Edit: I'm not sure which section these should be in, but I do have volumes 4 and 5 of WarCraft Legends at home.

Edit 2: I also have the compilation of the Link to the Past comic that ran in Nintendo Power. Yeesh, I really need to go through my comics when I get home to see what else I have. XD

Them fighting words, especially with all the stylish stuff Marvel's put out in the last decade. Shalvey's Moon Knight and Aja's Hawkeye are two of my favorites.

Really? Wow, I always advocate freedom of speech and opinion, in the spirit of everybody being different and having a right to it, but REALLY? Both Jim Lee and Alex Ross aren't highly acclaimed artists for nothing.

Even if you personally don't like their style, you should at the very least be able to objectively acknowledge their skills to some extent. The industry and the judges have spoken and as such, they are worth all the credit that they've received over the years.

And Stan Lee is one of the fathers of modern comics, so my comment requires no fisticuffs or whatever other negative response. He is responsible for SO many positive things in the comics industry, that I don't even know where to begin, so even though he isn't an artist himself, I still think he deserves mentioning as one who's exploits are well worth following, because he wrote some great stories and co-invented some of the most memorable characters in the Marvel Universe, as well as outside of it.

As for my graphic novel recommendations: it's my opinion, you don't HAVE to agree, let alone read them based upon what I said, but some of them, are (again) quite highly regarded. If I'd have to pick the two very best out of my own list that I could easily recommend to anyone, then those would be Batman - The Killing Joke and Kingdom Come.

And I'll take you up on your challenge: both Tales to Astonish and Cerberus are as of now added to my list. I'm always open to expanding my views, knowledge and tastes. You never know what interesting stuff you may come across if you don't close yourself off from certain things...

@FinalFrog Click on the links for a sample

@FinalFrog Thanks for the rec. I have never read The Spirit and I guess it's as good a time as any to start.

I really enjoy the style of that Moon Knight run (Ellis + Shalvey), I highly recommend it to anyone that's even remotely interested.

I have a feeling he still thinks we're still in the 90s. I'll admit, there semed to have been some really weird/bad artistic trends in comics around '95, but it generally got better once people got their head out of their butts...

Right, so I'm finally home and digging through my comic collection. (Which isn't substantial, but it isn't too horrible. XD)

Things I missed earlier:

• The Flintstones #17 and #18 (pretty sure these came from my great-grandparents' place. My great-grandpa really liked Archie brand comics!)
• Ares #4 (Limited Marvel series; I got this off a teacher in high school who was trying to offload some of his collection.)
• The New Mutants #100 (same source as above; forgot I had this one)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #27: Retreat Part 2
• Simpsons Treehouse of Horror #16 and #17.

@FinalFrog: I have Donald Duck #27 and #42, some sort of large Disney comic compilation with no cover, and Uncle Scrooge #269. Carl Banks is mentioned!

@ThanosReXXX No problem. And to an extend that's the good thing with this forum. A lot of open-minded well-balanced people are lurking in here. And that's something that we owe also to Nintendo apart from our families and morals.

On topic, if I ever decided to buy a comic book series I would go with the Amazing Spider-Man, frankly because since toddler I love so much this character. That humble, life-struggling reporter who fights crime in the chill of the night. I believe also that Kingpin is a VERY underrated crime boss.

I’m just getting back into DC comics after a long hiatus. Starting where I left off with the New 52 (2011).
Got a lot of catching up to do. And, I’m reading 14 titles already which is partly why I burned out in the first place - d’oh!

@Fandabidozi I did that with DC rebirth tried to read everything from the beginning. Did that for probably 3 months before I started skipping panels. Then I just stopped reading probably 50 percent of rebirth titles. Currently have 14 weeks and about 130 issues to read. Hopefully I'll be done before Detective Comics 1000 drops

@ThanosRexx, thanks to the resources you've shown me I've started to read (what I believe is) the current Superman run (started in 2016). Figured if I'm going to start anywhere, I might as well start with Supes.

My only gripe is that they seem to hand it off to a different artist every few chapters, which can be jarring (I think it's usually done by a guy called Jimenez, but every once in awhile I notice someone else is the artist, and it shows). Not that the different artists are bad, but I'd prefer more consistency.

@RR529 You're welcome, glad I could help. And yeah, artist swaps is something that is almost impossible to escape from, especially in the longer running series with the bigger characters. If you're looking for consistency, then mini series or limited runs is where it's really at.

If you find the time, be sure to try some of those graphic novels as well. Superman Year One is really what got it all started, so without that, the current run wouldn't even have been there, and The Death of Superman is a great story in and of itself, although after that, they tried to do some different stuff that didn't all gel with the audience, me included. Some of it might even make you think of a certain Marvel character, but I won't give away any spoilers, just in case you DO decide to read them.

Luckily, all that experimenting, or whatever it was, ended up only being a temporary phase, and now they're back to normal again. Far as anyone can call super heroes normal...

@FinalFrog: Hmm, might look into those. Thanks!

@canucksfan989
Glad it’s not just me then
I’m reading New 52: Action Comics, Aquaman, Batman, Deathstroke, Detective Comics, Earth 2, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, GLC, New Guardians, Nightwing, Red Lanterns, The Flash, Teen Titans.
I could probably add Justice League and Wonder Woman and maybe Superman (though I remember the first few issues being hard work)...

I am also a comic book collector but mostly DC stuff. I have approx. 5000 - 6000 comic books. For a couple of years now, I am only buying DC superhero comics plus Dark Horse's Buffy and Angel comics. Okay, I am also trying out the new Sonic the Hedgehog book by IDW.

These are the books I am reading monthly:

ACTION COMICS
SUPERMAN
DETECTIVE COMICS
BATMAN
FLASH
HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS
SUPERGIRL (just ended)
SUPERSONS (only 1 or 2 issues left till final issue)
JUSTICE LEAGUE
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA
BATMAN BEYOND
BLUE BEETLE (unfortunately it ended)
NIGHTWING
TEEN TITANS
TITANS

and paperbacks:

INJUSTICE series
GREEN ARROW
all the EARTH ONE books (Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman and Teen Titans)

all in all, I spend 80 - 100 $ a month on comic books and the day when the comics arrive (once a month) it feel like Christmas and birthday together

I am also rereading a lot due to my son - from Superboy and Teen Titans to Young Justice and Earth 2.

There are so many great DC Comics out there, but somehow I fail to see why some books are so critically acclaimed like THE KILLING JOKE - I was really disappointed after reading it. For me, it was nothing special. Or MULTIVERS by Grant Morrison - which was unnecessary convoluted. What took me by surprise was INJUSTICE . Never thought that a comic book based on a video game could be THAT good.

Oh I'm going to love this thread. I've just finished re-reading the Walking Dead, compendium 1-3. Now working my way through The Infinity War Saga (Oooh that Lady Death eh?). Polished off The Thing From Another World set the other night. I think my absolute favourite comic of recent years (Or should I call them Graphic Novels? Hmmm) is Old Man Logan. I'd heard it was great but had no idea how great, I feel like it's the sort of comic I could read AT LEAST once a year, it's just so, so good.

I will read just about any kind of comic, I have no particular leaning any way, but really enjoy a good superhero one, especially if it diverts the norms. If you want to read something by someone who diverts like this then I can't recommend Garth Eniss enough, 'The Boys' is fantastic and fantastically gory.