What Are You Reading?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Togashi is a very peculiar character among mangaka. I recall reading in an interview with him that seeing the artwork in a series like Bastard made him realize that he would flat-out never be that good, and thus it sort of demotivated him from even trying to improve the quality of his art. Instead he opted to try and stand out with his writing, and the further along he has come in his career, the more unique it has gotten. Even then, he's the type to flat-out stop trying when he he's not into it. Yu Yu Hakusho ended, according to him, because he grew tired of writing it the way that he had been up through the Chapter Black arc and his editor denied him the opportunity to experiment with the series and characters in ways that he wanted to since it could upset the then current readers. So then Togashi just lost interest which is why the last arc is so badly rushed in the manga and the anime staff had to make their best effort to salvage what they could (Togashi has actually since apologized for ending YYH the way that he did, though).

While I don't necessarily agree with his philosophy on making manga, I can't deny that it also may be what makes his so interesting. He strikes me as a guy who decides to go all out in some aspects and only works when he really feels up to it, whereas he has a "don't-give-a-shit" attitude about aspects of his manga that he doesn't believe that he can excel at, or simply doesn't work when he's just not feeling like he's in the right mindset for it.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I found a recent comic where Doctor Doom and Doctor Strange team up to fight Mephisto. And he talks like this. Bravo, Bendis.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I always seem to hear mixed things about Bendis. Some people seem to either love his work or hate it with a passion. It's why I've been cautious to pick up any comics with his name on it. I really don't know what I'd be in for.

On another note, I picked up New Super-Man volume 1 based on Dr. Insomniac's recommendation. I also picked up Batman Beyond volume 1 simply because BAM was having a deal for DC comics going on so I ended up getting it for half off with my membership card.

I also picked up SGRS volume 3 which just came in stock.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Consensus is that Bendis used to be good when he did street-level heroes (Ultimate Spider-Man, Alias, Daredevil), but then Marvel hired him to mainline bigger comics and eventually event ones like House of M, Secret Invasion, and Civil War II. Now he's just known for dialogue that goes in circles, pissing off X-Men fans, and self-inserting his daughter as the new Iron Man.

[Foggle]

I stand by my opinion that the original run of Ultimate Spider-Man is one of the best things Marvel has ever published. I think Bendis is (was?) a talented writer but he eventually started believing his own hype and hasn't written anything worthwhile in a long time.

I started reading Hack/Slash last night (first comic I've picked up in maybe half a year) and it's really fun B-horror schlock, something I can rarely resist. Would make a great film or TV show IMO.

[Avaitor]

I'll never forgive Bendis (or Sam Raimi, for that matter) for confusing Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy as characters.

[Foggle]

Still your tongue, knave; the Raimi films have aged like fine wine!

Spoiler

I agree, though. SSM continues to be the best Spider-Man story.

[close]

[Dr. Insomniac]

Still your tongue, knave; the Raimi films have aged like fine wine!

I don't know about that. Some of the political messages in those films are pretty racy even for their time.

Oh yeah, Bendis killed off Rhodey because he saw the Civil War trailer and assumed War Machine died in that movie.

[Avaitor]

I have my issues, but I do agree that Bendis can be a good writer, and I even do like a decent chunk of USM. But he's definitely gotten a little too big for his britches as the years have gone by.

Also, I finished the manga of Phantom Blood, and I think that I prefer it to the anime. Araki certainly improved as a writer in the years to come, but I always felt that Part 1's anime felt rushed. This confirms my belief that it should have been adapted into 13 episodes- the pacing works better here all around. And I always forget how much I like Baron Zeppeli- the guy's a hoot, as well as a unique mentor for Jonathan.

Now I've decided to do a change of pace and go back to comics. I've wanted to read something Hulk related for a while, since I have a surprising gap on the character. I thought about getting some of Peter Davidson's run, which my local comic book shop has for fairly decent prices, until I remembered that I won a free copy of the first Essential collection for the Rampaging Hulk from them a while ago. I've only read the first 2 issues so far, but it's pretty cool, if a little uneven. This is a combination of the more mature magazine format that Marvel did back in the day, mixed in with pulpy sci-fi stories and traditional Marvel crossovers. It shouldn't work, but I've been enjoying it all so far.

[VLordGTZ]

Since I was planning to see the Tokyo Ghoul live-action movie this week, I decided to finally read through the entire manga.  Overall, I really enjoyed it.  The gore was a bit much at times, but the core narrative is quite well done imo.  Kaneki's gradually progression into depravity and questioning of his own humanity was especially interesting.  It felt reminiscent of Shinichi from Parasyte at first, but Kaneki's character went in a much more morally grey and somber direction.  Amon's development was probably the other major highlight for me, and seeing his perception of ghouls and humans shift throughout the course of the series was cool too see.  I think my biggest complaint with the series would be that Touka is basically shafted in the final arc in favor of focusing on Kaneki and his gang.  They're interesting characters and all, but it's disappointing to see Touka being thrown away after having such a large role in the previous arcs and being well developed to boot.  In any case, I just bought volume 1 of Tokyo Ghoul Re and I'll probably be keeping up with Viz's releases moving forward.  LumRanmaYasha wants to do a discussion about it on Manga Mavericks, so I'll probably go more in-depth on my thoughts on there.

I also started reading Kuroko's Basketball, and as of volume 4, I'm enjoying it.  It doesn't do anything particularly special as far as sports manga go, but it still manages to keep the games entertaining by focusing on "highlights" of the matches rather than depicting the entire course of the games like series such as Haikyu.  I know the manga falls apart near the end but I think I'll stick with it, especially since sports manga are fairly quick reads.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So... Bendis is now a DC exclusive, and he's planning on writing Legion of Superheroes. I don't know what to make of this news. I've strongly disliked his writing as of recently, but it's going to be hard to imagine the current Marvel comics without him.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Alonso's finally leaving from his editor position at Marvel. Good riddance. He made Quesada's worst actions look palatable by comparison.

[Dr. Insomniac]

The new Marvel editor-in-chief pretended to be a Japanese guy named Akira Yoshida when writing comics years ago. Not just as a pen name, but he cultivated an identity for this persona, and even convinced some Marvel staff members that this was a real person. Hilarious.

[Avaitor]

A local comic shop here had a half-off graphic novels deal today. Surprisingly, this also included manga, but at the same time, it wasn't too surprising, since their manga section is pretty slim and outdated. Seriously, they have old single volumes of Dragon Ball, Ranma, and even Monster.

I got the second and third volumes of Invincible, and the third of Animal Land. The latter was perfect, since I got volume 2 a good while ago and have been wanting to read more for a bit. And I've been interested in reading more of Invincible for a while. I read the first volume or so back in high school, during this period I had where instead of eating lunch and hanging out, I'd spend my break in the library and reading whatever comics they had. I remember enjoying it, but it's been a long time. I'll look for volume 1 again soon.

I have plenty of time anyway, since I'm currently reading Leviathan Wakes. I also have a couple of other things to read, and I plan to order the next Carl Barks volume from Fantagraphics soon, so I'm in no major rush.

[gunswordfist]

The new Marvel editor-in-chief pretended to be a Japanese guy named Akira Yoshida when writing comics years ago. Not just as a pen name, but he cultivated an identity for this persona, and even convinced some Marvel staff members that this was a real person. Hilarious.

Did I mention that Marvel is dead to me?