What did you read 3/2007

[torippu]

I didn't read much this weekend, but the quality sure makes up for the lack of quantity.

52 Week 43~45 - All decent reads. Noticed the ads in the back of the books that said something like "Have you figured out the mystery yet?" or something like that. In all honesty, I have no idea what the mystery of 52 is anymore. I've just been enjoying the weekly read. Anyone else getting Countdown? I'm on the fence. Would love to read it, but with all of the Marvel stuff that I am really looking forward to, not sure I can justify 4~5 more books per month.

Pride of Baghdad - Borrowed from my local library. Wow, what a great story! There's really not much that I can say about this OGN that hasn't already been said elsewhere? This is graphic literature at its finest if you asked me. There are very few comic books that have me holding back the tears at the conclusion of a story.

300 - Borrowed from a friend. Wow - another great read. I can't believe that it took me this long to read it. When the book was released in pamphlet form, was it oversized like the HC? I actually have interest in seeing the movie now - although I'll have to re-read before I do that.

[dancj]

When 300 was release originally it was normal sized, but what you get as a single page in the HC was a double page spread in the comic.

Dan

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Read the second issue of Jeff Smith's SHAZAM over the weekend. There's so much to like in the book with so many great character moments and bits of awe and splendor and then -- well, aren't the Homeland Security jokes kinda old and lame? Can't we get something new? ::sigh::

-Augie

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

And, as mentioned elsewhere, I also read CRIMINAL #1-5. 2000 words about THAT comic are coming up tomorrow.

-Augie

[goman]

I didn't read much this weekend, but the quality sure makes up for the lack of quantity.

52 Week 43~45 - All decent reads. Noticed the ads in the back of the books that said something like "Have you figured out the mystery yet?" or something like that. In all honesty, I have no idea what the mystery of 52 is anymore. I've just been enjoying the weekly read. Anyone else getting Countdown? I'm on the fence. Would love to read it, but with all of the Marvel stuff that I am really looking forward to, not sure I can justify 4~5 more books per month.

I haven't decided on Countdown yet either. I've enjoyed the hell out of 52, but I'm getting burned out on events, so I may sit Countdown and World War Hulk out, so I can be refreshed for the next events. The price isn't that big a deal for me, but it would be nice to cut a few more books from my list and make the trips to the LCS a little cheaper.

Read the second issue of Jeff Smith's SHAZAM over the weekend. There's so much to like in the book with so many great character moments and bits of awe and splendor and then -- well, aren't the Homeland Security jokes kinda old and lame? Can't we get something new? ::sigh::

-Augie

I don't know if they're old, Homeland Security is still a fairly hot topic, plus when these were written many moon ago, it would have been pretty new. I will agree that maybe they were a little out of place, bringing in real world concepts to a magical world. I still found the delivery of it funny, playing Dr. Sivana almost as a Phoney Bone type comic relief. And I can't wait for your Criminal review.

As for me, just finished my books from last week, nothing really stands out, although Ghost Rider was decent. Finished the 5th vampire Hunter D novel, only took me about six months. Mostly spent time messing with my new laptop.

[torippu]

I haven't decided on Countdown yet either. I've enjoyed the hell out of 52, but I'm getting burned out on events, so I may sit Countdown and World War Hulk out,

I'm right with ya brutha (spoken out loud in my best Desmond from LOST accent). When I saw all of the tie-in titles for World War Hulk, the announcement of Annihilation: Conquest and then heard that Didio keeps on saying that Countdown is leading up to the next big DC event, I decided that I was suffering from "event fatigue" and that it was time for a break. I'm already in for most of the Avengers Initiative stuff, so I'm going to pass on the other. Countdown is really hard to pass up - Dini as the mastermind with a bunch of writers (Gray & Palmiotti, McKeever & Bedard) I like helping out. I may take either the wait for trade approach or see if I can't grab bunches (say 7~10 at a time) of issues off of eBay after everything starts.

[goman]

Yeah, I may just wait till my LCS has a sale on older issues to pick up Countdown, or juts pass on the whole thing. Maybe DC will put out trades for it before it's over, as opposed to the trade program for 52. I've scaled back my monthly DC books, to pretty much just Green Lantern and Checkmate, so I don't think I'll be missing too much. And while I am a Jonh Romita JR fan, I'm not much of a Hulk fan, so I don't mind missing WWH.

[Citizen V]

Showcase Jonah Hex It was suggested to me,and i wanted to read something different.Its better than i had thought,and im very impressed with the artwork and stories.

Essential Uncanny X-Men Volume 1 and 6 Even though i have 2-5 i was only able to get Vol.1 recently,these paperbacks tell what the X-Men once was,fantastic.

Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 4 Its interesting to see this re-make of Spider-Man,im getting more volumes..but Bendis`s diolauge can be a bit..studder like.

[DWEarhart]

March Monthlies:
Detective Comics
Punisher War Journal
Aquaman
52's
Daredevil
Ion

Others (some new, some re-reads):
Alan Moore's Exit Interview
Boston Blackie
The Mask Tpb
All the Wrong Places by Tom Galambos

[dancj]

Catch-up time....

Tank Girl: Apocalypse -I didn't find this nearly as funny as the other Tank Girl stuff I've read, but TBH I'm not sure I'd find the other stuff that funny any more. Andy Pritchet was quite a good fill-in for Jamie Hewlett though.
Jonah Hex v1: Face Full of Violence - I liked that this book was all one-issue stories - and half of those seemed to start with little mini-stories of their own. It seemed a little cheesy at times though. The art looked smart, but didn't have the rough edge it needed - by contrast the issue drawn by Hex's co-creator (can't remember the name) looked great! I'd still be interested to read more of this though - and it stood head and shoulders above Two Gun Mojo which I thought was rubbish.
Birds of Prey (Simone v1): Of Like Minds - I'd put of reading Simone's Birds of Prey stories because of the terrible art from Ed Benes, but to my surprise I really enjoyed this book. Luckily I have about the next 3 volumes in my read pile waiting for me.
Perhapanauts v1: First Blood - I think I mostly got this from recommendations from Augie and other people on this board. I enjoyed the story well enough and the art was nice, but for some reason they only reprinted four issues and a couple of short strips, and it left me a bit unsatisfied - especially at the price. Really if the collections continue to be this short I'll have to hold out until I see them really cheap on eBay

[Trusty Mutsi]

dancj just let me know about this thread, so I've posted here (where I should have in the first place):

As I've posted recently, I'm getting back into TPBs, but I'm pretty far behind current stuff. I asked you fine folks for some recommendations, and got some great feedback, so I'm going to update what I'm reading in this here thread.

To start that off, here's what I've picked up and read over the last few months:

Astonishing X-Men TPB 2 (already read single issues of the first arc)

I love Joss Whedon's Firefly stuff, so I was looking forward to this. I was a little let down. There's some really nice character moments, and funny dialogue, but the overall plot isn't as interesting, if not a little confusing to me. Might still give the 3rd TPB a chance, but not the highest on my list at the moment.

Human Torch/Spider Man: I'm With Stupid

Dan Slott's stuff isn't as laugh out loud as I expected, but they are good quality stories that I feel good about when I'm finished reading, rather than the grit taking over most books lately. I certainly find funny moments, but not quite as good as it's been hyped, IMHO.

Superman: Secret Identity

Probably one of the best TPBs I've read all year. When Busiek writes a mainstream superhero book, it's like a pretty good vanilla, but when he writes a more personal book, like Astro City, or Secret Identity, it's an emotional powerhouse book. Stuart Immomen helped a lot too (sorry if I butchered the name)! Astro City is my favorite book, hands down, and Superman: SI is pretty high up there too.

Legion of Superheroes

Mark Waid and Barry Kitson at their best. Very enjoyable. And knowing Tony Bedard is coming on board shows me the book is in good hands. That reminds me, I need to catch up on Exiles. I left off on Vol 2! :(

Supreme Power Vol 2

I love the book, the the F-Bombs and nudity are getting to be too much, so I'm dropping the book. I can still get my JMS fix in Amazing Spidey and Maybe Midnight Nation and Falling Stars.

I also have these unread TPBs waiting for me:

New Thunderbolts Vol 1-3
Ultimate Spider-Man HC Vol 3
Identity Crisis (I've already read the sinlge issues, but I got the TPB as part of an eBay lot, and sold the single issues on eBay, so I'll read it again just to refresh myself and set the mood for the rest of the IC books)
Adam Strange: The Planet Heist
The Omac Project
Superman: Sacrifice
Rann-Thanagar War
Day of Vengeance
Villains United
JLA: Crisis of Conscience
Infinite Crisis
Infnite Crisis Companion
Battle for Bludhaven

I also hope plan to get the Power Girl TPB and Amazing Spider-Man Vol 6. I think JMS's Spidey is one of the best books I've read in a long time. I was away from comics for a while, and reading the first issue free online brought me back in. It was that good.

I'm currently catching up on my old Thunderbolts, Amazing Spider-Man, and Ultimate Spider-Man issues (have a LOT to read still with T-Bolts. On issue 34 or so) and then move onto the New T-Bolt and Ult Spidey trades I have.

So as you can see, I have lots of reading ahead of me, so I don't know WHEN I'll ever catch up to current books. It makes it frustrating to see spoilers on Newsarama and CBR, but I also feel that if I don't check out the news, I won't know what books to check out. Maybe I should just ask here for spoiler free updates.

So that's where I'm at:)

[Trusty Mutsi]

I'm right with ya brutha (spoken out loud in my best Desmond from LOST accent). When I saw all of the tie-in titles for World War Hulk, the announcement of Annihilation: Conquest and then heard that Didio keeps on saying that Countdown is leading up to the next big DC event, I decided that I was suffering from "event fatigue" and that it was time for a break. I'm already in for most of the Avengers Initiative stuff, so I'm going to pass on the other. Countdown is really hard to pass up - Dini as the mastermind with a bunch of writers (Gray & Palmiotti, McKeever & Bedard) I like helping out. I may take either the wait for trade approach or see if I can't grab bunches (say 7~10 at a time) of issues off of eBay after everything starts.

Man, I think big events are what made me almost give up completely on the mainstream DC and Marvel books. Sadly I still check them out anyway, but at least I can pick and choose with TPBs.

[goman]

Well, from yesterday's books so far:

52 continued it's awesomeness, with the mad scientists making they're best showing ever. It's weird how as we've gotten to the end of the series, most of the issues focus on one story, and then maybe give a few pages to another story, rather than the scattershot approach to earlier issues. And the Batman origin, was a bit dissapointing, nice art though. Not much real info.

JSA #4 was a nice wrap up to the first story, and 4 issues kept it at a good pace. I see that pumpknface hasn't read issue three so I won't spoil anything, but word of advise, try to avoid looking at the cover to 4 before reading 3. I'm looking forward to the crossover, but if we have to wait for issue 7 and 8 of JLA to come out before JSA #5, how long are we waiting for a new issue?

Spirit #4 was awesome as well. Maybe not as good as #3, but that issue is in the running for best of the year.

I also started reading Empowered last night. Does Dark Horse have some policy against swearing in thier books? Because even though it's got a Mature Readers sticker on the front, and it was shrink wrapped, and there's a lot of sex and dirty situations, all the curse words are blacked out. It was just weird to me. If you're going to be a mature book, just go all the way. Other than that, so far it's great. The pencil work is amazing, and it's just cool to see something taken direct from the pencils. It's also very funny, but has a nice sweetness to it as well. can't wait to read the rest of it tonight.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

EMPOWERED started out as something Adam Warren was doing on his own and e-mailing around to friends whenever he finished a page. Dark Horse came along later and offered to publish it.

I have a feeling that the blacked-out curse words were probably an artistic choice made pre-publishing plan.

-Augie

[torippu]

I also read all of the books that I picked up yestereday:
Amazing Spider-Man #539 - How awesome was that Ron Garney cover? Looked even better than the previews. I loved the added touches with the webbing inside of the title font on the cover. The last page splash was a tad anti-climatic after already seeing the black costume in 14 other Marvel books over the past couple of months. It would have been nice if this had been the first book for the costume to appear. I sure hope we don't see Spidey killing someone at the end of this storyline.
Birds of Prey #104 - Best issue of the new status quo. Strange cover though. I didn't quite get it - was I supposed to get two covers (one BOP & one Secret Six) depending on how I held the book? Can't go wrong with the introduction of a new supporting operative and a surprising last page splash!
The Walking Dead #36 - A little disappointed to see that the cliffhanger from the last issue wasn't a swerve with a bit of a surprise to the conclusion of that plot point.
52 Week 46 - It was nice to see some of the other characters after 3+ issues of mainly Black Adam. Where has Batwoman been this whole time and when was the last time that we saw her - Christmas?

Trip