The Comic Book Thread

[jms493]

calgaryballer have you read any of the stuff with Crossed? It's morbid and extremely graphic but I enjoy it

SK...I have a new Hulk statue in transit.

Did we ever find out who the Red Hulk was and is he still around? I liked him.

 

[SuperKevin]

SK...I have a new Hulk statue in transit.

Did we ever find out who the Red Hulk was and is he still around? I liked him.

No need for spoiler tags because it's ages old. Red Hulk is General Thunderbolt Ross and Betty Ross is the new Red She Hulk

 

[jms493]

No need for spoiler tags because it's ages old. Red Hulk is General Thunderbolt Ross and Betty Ross is the new Red She Hulk

oh wow! Makes sense now. Thanks. Do they say how he became the red hulk somewhere. I just remember him just showing up and wrecking everything in its path.

Sounds dumb that Betsy Ross would be red She Hulk though.:smh:

 

[calgaryballer]

oh wow! Makes sense now. Thanks. Do they say how he became the red hulk somewhere. I just remember him just showing up and wrecking everything in its path.

Sounds dumb that Betsy Ross would be red She Hulk though.:smh:

I think it was a super soldier thing. I tried read Loebs Hulk when Red Hulk first arrived and hated it. My only Red Hulk dealings since had been with him as an Avenger when everyone knew he was Ross.

 

[calgaryballer]

calgaryballer have you read any of the stuff with Crossed? It's morbid and extremely graphic but I enjoy it

Is Crossed a story arc or character? Not familiar with it

Edit - it's a creator owned Ennis book. No, I have never heard of it

 

[SuperKevin]

Red Hulk is a badass now as the leader of the Thunderbolts

 

[calgaryballer]

Red Hulk is a badass now as the leader of the Thunderbolts

I liked his parts in AvX.

 

[calgaryballer]

Punk Rock Jesus
Sean Murphy​

I mentioned Vertigo earlier, and wanted to get this in before I head to bed. Punk Rock Jesus was one of the most mind blowingly creative works of graphic fiction I've read in a long, long time. Essentially, it's the story of a fictional TV company who says they have found the shroud of Jesus. They find a virgin girl and impregnate her with what they say is a clone of Jesus. All of this is broadcast on TV as part of the J2 project, with the idea being that young Chris (Christ) will grow up and fulfill Jesus' ideals. It's equal parts Chris' story of self discovery and fate vs free will as it is Thomas McKael's. Thomas is an ex-IRA thug who left Ireland and provides security for the project. He's still a devout Catholic, but finds himself torn but the way the J2 project treats Chris and the 'Virgin Mary' of the story.

Issue 6 was the final issue of the run and I loved the way it tied it all together. From Thomas' IRA roots to Chris' future, it was a fitting end.

Throughout the whole series, I always felt like I was getting much more than the traditional comic. First, I think it typically checks in at around 30 pages, so you're already getting more than your normal 20-22 page issue. Over the course of six issues, I think the extra page count allowed Murphy to develop the key characters to a greater degree than would of been otherwise possible.

I'd give this series a very hearty recommend

 

[calgaryballer]

Read New Avengers 1 last night. An ok start, if a bit slow. Interesting set up. With Hickman writing, I am wondering if something will develop around the bond Panther and Reed have from late in his F4 run.

 

[calgaryballer]

Lets just start off by saying I fucking love this series. The art has enough 'Asian' influence to make it feel like Godzilla while sticking with a very nice colour palette. Everything has a nice sense of scale, which allows you to empathize with the central characters as they bounce from 'oh shit' moment to 'oh shit' moment. In this issue:

 

Ota has gotten older, and we're now in 1987. The 30 years he's spent fighting Godzilla has not brought any meaningful progress and he's reduced to being a glorified weather man (his words). As they watch Godzilla tear down Bombay, the monster defence team unleashes its latest weapon: MECHAGODZILLA! For the first time in the series, the humans seem to have something that could possibly even the score. That is, until bad guy Deverich shows up. For those not reading, Deverich has a device that allows him to draw Godzilla to its location. He's been selling it on the black market to those people who want cities destroyed and enemies crushed. Unfortunately for us, this time its summoned a Godzilla from space. That means we have normal Godzilla, MechaGodzilla and Spacezilla. You can imagine what happens from there.

5/5

 

[SuperKevin]

DC Comics has announced production of a new monthly Masters of The Universe series to start in April. 8 year old SuperKevin is ecstatic right now

 

[christguz]

I'll do my review and what not on "Death of the Family" tomorrow once i pick up this weeks and last weeks issues.

 

[calgaryballer]

Avengers Vol 1 Premier HC
Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita​

I've started to get further in to comics culture recently, downloading various podcasts and such, and one theme on my favorite (House to Astonish) has been a dislike of Bendis. I found this weird, as I've always enjoyed his stuff. Avengers Vol 1 continues that trend, as I found it a fun romp in the aftermath of Civil War. Steve Rogers puts the Avengers back together, but under the command of Maria Hill. Bucky Barnes wears the Cap mantle early in this series, and is joined by Tony, Spider Man, Spider Woman, Wolverine and Hawkeye (and later Noh-Varr of the Kree).

It's a time travel story, in which Kang the Conquerer has broken the time stream after watching 20 wars against a future Ultron. The Avengers future kids have done what they can with the help of the Hulk and Future Tony, but they require the help of the reformed Avengers to disrupt the timestream and set it back to the proper way. Romita's art is it's usual solid to very good and you have to think that some of Bendis' Age of Ultron starts here

 

[calgaryballer]

I started reading Hickman's Manahattan Projects. Really like it so far. Basically, the premise is that all the geniuses in New Mexico (einstein, oppenheimer, etc) are working on the Atomic Project, but that is only a cover for the rest of the fucked up shit they are doing. Love the art, especially the use of colour for Oppenheimer (he is the most fucked up so far, but I think Einstein has some shit going on too)

 

[calgaryballer]

Contains Walking Dead 100. All I have to say is - holy fuck. I've always read Walking Dead in trades, so am behind most of the message boards and such. I managed to avoid all the spoilers, but knew something big happened. When it came, it came out of nowhere and I let out a huge HOLY FUCK to my wife. Only another 6 months for Vol 18...

Spoiler for what happened

 

Glen gets brutally murdered by Negan. Fucking barbwire bat to the head.

Trying to plow through as many backlogged comics as I can tonight while sitting on the couch watching Golden Globes with the wife. Think Dr. Strange Season 1 is up next, followed by Saga

 

[calgaryballer]

Avengers Vol 2 Premiere HC​

Not a bad follow up to Vol 1. Red Hulk is introduced and if you read the story carefully (The Watcher basically gives it away), you can tell it's Thunderbolt Ross even though they never name him outright. In this volume, minor baddy The Hood discovers the location of the Infinity Gems that the Illuminatti have hidden away. Tony makes the decision to tell Steve Rogers, who is pissed that Tony is keeping such a major secret from him so soon after Civil War. From there it's a quest book as the various Avengers teams race to get the additional gems. A pretty plot heavy book in which you can guess all the major points well ahead. I like any story involving the Gems, but felt this didn't take advantage of them enough. Frankly, unless Thanos is wearing them, no one knows how to control them.Big twist at the end though.

I thought that Vol 3 was next, as I have that out of the library already. Realized that there is a Fear Itself volume in between, so should get that sometime this week.

I'd give this volume a 4/5

 

[calgaryballer]

I forgot I have Morrisons run on JLA out of the library. I love Morrison, but man i am finding it a slog. I don't think it helps that this was the period DC made some changes to superman and he is wearing a stupid blue suit with new powers

 

[calgaryballer]

Fear Itself
Matt Fraction​

Read this at the library while waiting for volunteering. Fear Itself Avengers was the next in my reading, but I figured I should read the base series first (on the first page it lists like 20 tie ins. Fucking stupid). I can't say I'm sad I didn't read this first time around. I like Fraction, and Immonen's art is real nice, but I just didn't get the sense of gravitas that I think they were going for in this series. Basically, Odin has a brother who comes back and wants to kill him. Odin says fuck off, I am going to kill all of Earth so that doesn't happen. Thor says, fuck you dad, I am going to save Earth. And he does. Whoopee.

2.5/5

I have the Avengers tie in at home so I will read that. Maybe the tie ins are better. I know my library also has Thunderbolts and Secret Avengers tie ins, but other than the first couple Thunderbolts when Norman Osborn ran it, I wouldn't know the back story of either team so I left them behind.

 

[SuperKevin]

The entire Fear Itself run isn't that bad.

My library doesn't have graphic novels

 

[calgaryballer]

The entire Fear Itself run isn't that bad.

My library doesn't have graphic novels

I will give mine mega props. They have a very good selection and seem to do their best to grow it. Almost all the New 52 series are there, including some really irrelevant ones. I'd have never picked up stuff like Batgirl without it