we're taking the web out of comics, and talking about weekly print releases here. marvel, dc, dark horse, image, whatever.
expect spoilers here, but try to warn ahead of time for the issues you're talking about.
comics update every wednesday. so expect us.
n-no new deniz camp issues out this week? what reason is there for me to even be alive...
well, i guess there were some new issues featuring spider-man. i'm cautiously enjoying joe kelly's run so far. most any superhero comic making liberal use of flashback sequences is a red flag for me (i don't want them turning over every corner of these characters' lives) but since clearing the first arc it seems kelly's deploying them more sparingly. the latest developments even approach real melodrama! exciting! but i don't want to get too excited... i still have a 'fell for it again' award pinned on my breast from the start of wells' run.
hi deacon!
yeah, hard agree on the joe kelly run. i think the choice of largely doing incredibly mundane flashbacks in particular is what's keeping me from being too upset about it. it's one thing to introduce, like, new melodrama into someone's past for no reason, it's another thing to say "oh, i had a teen rebellious phase."
also this scene in particular got me:
anyway, still not sure i feel about the hellgate stuff. feels like it could be slop central, but the execution so far has been pretty fine. i think i'm just a bit burnt from the last run.
hi kevin! sorry, but this reply is going to take up so much screen space.
re: incredibly mundane flashbacks, i think that helps too. i thought peter's rebellious teen phase was cute, and its not hard to imagine him over-correcting into the peter we see in the original ditko tales. probably the reason flashbacks are red flag for me is what you said, they're used to introduce cheap melodrama. (how many retcons have been delivered via flashback?) maybe that's why i'm so down with supreme, which is like 50% flashbacks.
re: that moment, i liked it too! peter was kind of a dick, but in a way you can understand, and even empathize with. he's just tired of it all... so are we, buddy.
honestly i haven't been paying attention to the hellgate stuff at all--it just makes my eyes glaze over. except for this variant cover by leo romero that totally rocks (and makes me wish comic covers still tried to sell you on the contents of that specific story). romero is a great artist, and i'm very happy they tapped him for that new spider-man cartoon
realizing i put this thread in the wrong board. my bad.
godddd that cover is so good. we need more of those. also, the hellgate fight wasn't even bad, i actually kinda liked it, but i'm so over magic in spider-man stories right now. give me some science freaks. don't care who.
in other news. read the new moon knight. i'm still really surprised by how much i love the supporting cast of this one.
the entire extended family really works for me. probably the first "found family" comics thing in a while to work on me. the one before that was probably exiles?
Maybe i'm out of the loop and cynical, but I find it very hard to find any comics worth subscribing to. Especially when it comes to superhero comics. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who hates capeshit on principle, but I find it hard to gauge the quality of an upcoming run just based on the character, or even a writer who's work I've enjoyed in the past. Frankly, I find it more reliable to judge comics based on their art, because that way I can still enjoy them regardless of whether they're well written...
It just seems easier to buy comics after the fact. Yes, I'm one of those people who almost exclusively reads omnibuses and trade paperbacks. Even when I do buy individual issues, its usually after they're already out of print. I didn't read Alan Moore's final run of league until after it concluded, and I managed to buy the whole run at more-or-less retail price. And might I add, British printed comics are so much better. The paper quality is fantastic, not glossy the way American comics are. They're also larger, both the paper size and the page count. They actually feel comfortable to read.
Anyway... I don't say all this just to complain. I would really prefer to subscribe to at least one release at any given time! I guess its a cry for help. How do you find these things, beyond just keeping your ear a bit closer to the ground? I feel like I'd go insane doing that, just because there's so many. The last thing I subscribed to was the newest I Hate Fairyland run, just because I enjoyed the original, and I was a little let down. That, and Spider-Man 2099: Dark Genesis
re: siofra
yeah, i cannot blame you. these last two-ish years of capeshit have been, uh, fucking horrible. which has been really unfortunate, because we had a good five years of genuinely fantastic and genre-changing work! so i'm kinda pissed off by marvel and dc, like, in general right now.
if you're looking for a good comic to be subscribed to right now, might i recommend assorted crisis events? it's a new, independent anthology series.
it's written by deniz camp (ultimates, absolute martian manhunter) who is quickly becoming the single best up-and-comer in the entire industry. he can be a little heavy handed at times (most of the time, to be honest), but i think it's a breath of fresh air to see someone write incredibly earnestly, and very, very uniquely. definitely the best ongoing comic right now, imo (though i do recommend those two aforementioned superhero books he's writing right now!).
I do like anthologies so I'll give it a fair try. I've heard good things about his absolute manhunter, and the art appeals to me a little more, so thats definitely on my list, though I suspect it'll be out of print by the time I get around to it.
I do suspect that DC, of the big two, are probably a safer bet at the minute, even if I hate what their mainline comics have become. I'd owe that to the fact that their comics aren't supplemental material for marvel rival skins lol
UGH I JUST ACCIDENTALLY CLOSED MY TAB WHILE I WAS WRITING A REPLY TO THE THREADDDDDDDDD
you fucked up. you fucked up. you fucked up. you fucked up.
ALRIGHT, REWRITING FROM SCRATCH HERE. real superman is back in Prince and and Morazzo's Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum. it was actually a stroke of genius for DC to nab the writer/artist duo behind my favourite ongoing horror comic (Ice Cream Man) to do a superman story, cause their silver-age revivalism also revives the odd psychology underpinning the silver-age stories. we are reminded that superman's weakness being chunks of his home planet is actually quite evocative; "Home hurts you!" says luthor, robotic hands clenched around superman's throat. i also liked the super melodrama between lois and clark! it's an idea that gets a lot of lip service, but is hardly ever explored in-depth. i hope Prince and Morazzo keep coming back to it in the following issues. how crushing was it when batman reminded superman that his dinner-date was last night?
speaking of silver-age super-revivalism, i'm also enjoying Sophie Campbell's Supergirl! ... which i didn't know she was writing and drawing, which only makes me more impressed. that's real comics right there. i like the psychological elements in this run too; lesla-lar's relationship with supergirl is just fascinating to read about. AND WE HAVE THOUGHT BALLOONS AGAIN!!!!! i didn't realize how sorely i missed thought balloons until i actually saw them in a comic... what are we even doing man, where we can't have thought balloons in our oh-so-serious comic books. get real. i also love how midvale's alt/goth scene is interpreted thru the lens of secret identities and alter-egos. in my secret identity (AKA in real life) i just discovered my town has a local alt scene, so it's fun opening a comic and seeing someone going thru the same thing.
re: sabhait AKA bahin
basically yeah you're right. the distinguished competition is totally trouncing the house of ideas this week
sorry bahin, maybe next time try wearing a pair of glasses as well as changing your name
just got through my reads and fuck yes dude Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum is superb, hearkening back to those classic silver age adventures... this was so needed. the homoerotic superbat implications in the first issue alone have me very excited to see where they go with this one. also the next one is superman gets really big? that's exactly the type of dumb as fuck shenanigans we need to see happening.
next on my read was giant size x-men #2, sometimes all you can do is laugh. internally. at a later date.
i also caught the 2 ultimates books, Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion aka around the world in 180 days. usm:i is suffering from the ultimate lines month between each book mandate both internally and out. miles has been bouncing around the 6160 for coming up on 3 months now and he has not really done much other than show us a peak at everyone else's books, nothing thaaaat special outside of the hank/jan reveal in the 2nd issue. it mostly feels like they're saying "hello spider-man fan*, you may enjoy these other books!"
*miles will probably not be involved with the conclusion of this story
idk. i guess i don't see this as being any more interesting then those Timeless books they used to promo future story beats to middling effect.
on the flip side still loving Ultimates glory to the great Deniz Camp, i hope she-hulk makes it through this, also just a cool shang chi story.
related tangentially (forgive me for discussing books that didnt actually come out this week.) but i got caught up with Assorted Crisis Events and holy fuck dude. somehow he's the only one making books that have me thinking i need to head to the comic shop and pick up some physicals.
what else was on the docket, oh the Eddie Brock: Carnage book and i can't believe i'm saying this but i like it? i'm enjoying it? on the surface it's kind of similar to the 2022 carnage book about the serial killer + detective on the edge of losing himself but it has the benefit of not being the buildup to some bullshit symbiote event (inb4 bullshit symbiote event is announced) so it can stay a more low to the ground, street level story that Charles Soule thrives in! you can definitely feel the "this guy wrote daredevil" behind this book and i'm saying that as a positive.
vf.media
re: haven
you are forgiven. deniz camp has the mandate of heaven. bit of a bummer that usm:i is a nothing book. this week's issue felt especially weak (just felt like such a flat depiction of japan compared to momoko's seething critique)