What Are You Reading?

[Markness]

I picked up Superman and Justice League America Vol. 1 earlier today. I've been wanting to get some 90's Justice League comics for a good while now and this is just what the doctor ordered! 

[Avaitor]

I'm glad to see you like My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness and the first omnibus of I Am a Hero, Lum. I've recently ordered both, and they should be here soon. I have some more Slam Dunk to read first, then I'm hoping to dig into these.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Excellent! We go even more in-depth on Lesbian Experience on our upcoming Manga Mavericks about it and My Brother's Husband (which should be out by Monday), but suffice to say I really resonated with it and it might nudge into my top 20 favorite manga. I hope you'll enjoy it and I Am a Hero when you get a chance to read them!

[Avaitor]

MLEWL came in last week, and I absolutely loved it. It's a reminder of the importance of personality and honesty, and one of the strongest page-turners I've read in a while. I agree with your review 100% and I'll definitely check out that podcast. I Am a Hero still isn't here yet, though.

But do you know which series I've recently tried that I couldn't get into? Ooku: The Inner Chambers. I really liked the concept, but I've found it very dry so far, and the use of old-timey English in the translation has done no favors for me. I don't think that I'll stick around for it. But I did also recently get the first volume of Berserk, which fared much better for me. One of these days, I'll finally finish the original anime, but I'm interested in getting through the manga first.

Also, B&N has a buy 2, get 1 deal for Yen Press manga. Which is cool... except they haven't released anything that I'm interested in. I'm hoping for Kodansha to have this sale next, or maybe Viz again.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I'm really happy with the response MLEWL has received. It's a smashing critical success and the sales have been extraordinarily high. It's breaking down barriers and opening up doors for more manga/comics like it to be published, which is why it's great so many people have been sharing and spreading the word about it.

I've liked what I read of Ooku, but it is a pretty slow story. I'd stick with the manga for Berserk, since the original anime, while well-done, cuts a lot out and doesn't even conclude the Golden Age arc (and those recent anime movies & tv seasons are garbage adaptations).

Yen Press has a few great titles. I really recommend anything by Kaoru Mori, who is one of my favorite mangaka for her thoroughly researched historical settings and intricately detailed artwork, as well as just telling great romance stories. Emma was recently re-released in five hardcover omnibuses, so I think that series would definitely be worth giving a read.

Outside of her work, Yotsuba&! is always a delight and one of the most charming slice-of-life/childhood manga out there that I think has a near-universal appeal. Yowamushi Pedal is a pretty fun sports manga, Murcielago is an awesomely trasy manga about a psychopathic lesbian serial-killer turned detective, and Thermae Romae is a fun historical-fantasy manga about bathhouses that turns into this weird time-traveling romance story as it goes along. They have a couple big shonen titles like Soul Eater and Black Butler that aren't necessarily great but are pretty fun reads overall and I have some fondness for them. There's also a few titles that I've heard good things about/seen the anime of but I haven't read yet, like Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, The Royal Tutor, Kakegurui, and Scum's Wish, as well as Sumomomo Momomo which was the series Shinobu Ohtaka did before Magi. So they have a couple of titles in their catalog that I think are worth giving a second look. They're a pretty eclectic publisher.

[Markness]

Yeah, Soul Eater and Sumomomo Momomo are the way to go when it comes to Yen Press. I also recommend Omamori Himari, Demonizer Zilch, and Akame ga Kiru! as well.

But I did also recently get the first volume of Berserk, which fared much better for me. One of these days, I'll finally finish the original anime, but I'm interested in getting through the manga first.

I actually recommend watching all of the original anime first before reading the manga. Yes, the manga is superior but the original anime will make you appreciate it more. It actually made me crave more Berserk; I know that sounds like I am saying it isn't satisfying enough but it's hard to explain. The animation also holds up well today and the music is intoxicating. The new adaptations should be avoided like the plague, though.

How often do you guys re-read your favorite series? I recently re-read my volumes of Nanatsu no Taizai and it was fun reliving the moments that made it my favorite manga as well as seeing details I had forgotten about.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Heads up that Souboutei chapters 2 and 3 were finally put up.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've recently been reading Scott Snyder's run of Batman. I finished the first seven issues and I honestly don't get why this is so well-received by many comic book fans (at least I've seen people praising it before). The writing here is pretty dumb. Like, there's a part where Bruce says that The Court of Owls doesn't exist because he couldn't prove that they existed when he was a little kid and had absolutely no real detective skills. What? So now that he's a full-grown man with a much more well-developed brain and not just the skills but also the tech needed to conduct proper investigations, he refuses to follow any compelling leads all because he already checked back when he wasn't even old enough to be a high school student? Aside from that I'm also not really a fan of how Bruce is written here, and the Court of Owls seem like a terribly underwhelming group of antagonists so far. I'll keep reading on further, but so far I'm pretty unimpressed. I mean, this is far from the worst Batman related thing that I've checked out (it's definitely no ASs-BAR), but it's easily some of the weaker Batman material that I've read so far.

I have also read two Superman comics recently, both of which I really enjoyed a lot more than I expected. One was All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison. I remember watching the DTV animated feature adaptation of this a few years back and being kind of disappointed with it, but I think that reading the story since then has changed my stance on it. Back then I didn't really appreciate how this was trying to be different from the standard Superman story and was telling a much more emotionally compelling series of vignettes, but reading it now made the material really resonate with me a lot stronger, especially with how it gets down to the core values of Superman as a character and comes up with really interesting adventures for him to partake that are interesting in that he can't just use brute force to overcome most of them. I think that the only story that didn't really work for me was the Bizarro one, but other than that it was a good read. I also read American Alien by Max Landis. And yes, I'm well aware of what a controversial screenwriter he is in that, pretty much most of what he's written is trash. But, casting my opinions of his other work aside, this series of short stories on its own were very compelling and, much like Morrison's All-Star Superman, this really does get to the core of the character, though in this case focuses a lot more on the Clark Kent persona and how he tries to be more human. It's also funny how American Alien details the beginning years of his life whereas All-Star Superman are about his last few months leading up to his death, but either way both iterations of the character have the same kind of heart behind them. Those kinds of stories really strike a cord with me.

If anyone has any more Superman stories to recommend to me, I'm definitely up for checking them out if I can acquire them easily enough.

As for manga, I had Blade of the Immortal sitting on my shelf for months now. I had been reading the first omnibus in bits and pieces, and it was fine. However when I got to the "On Silent Wings" story from Omnibus II, I instantly became hooked. Up to that point this was a pretty serviceable Samurai manga, but now I'm really engrossed with the characters and overarching plot that they are going through, and I honestly can't wait to for the next Omnibus to be released on store shelves. I'll have to check the Dark Horse Comics app to see if they are selling as of the volumes digitally since I believe the whole manga had already been fully translated years ago. My only real gripe with the releases here is that this is yet another series that DH had originally released in its flipped form and has neglected to correct for its re-release (just like with Astro Boy). The artwork is fucking amazing and I can't help but feel that I would want to view it in its originally intended right-to-left alignment, but hey, I can't complain too much since the actual quality of the book itself is top notch.

[Avaitor]

I finally finished Slam Dunk last night, and wow, what a ride. I think that it had a terrific ending, and rightfully had a massive range of emotions. It was the perfect balance between happy, spot-on, and bittersweet. But I was really impressed with all the character moments in the final game, from Sakuragi recognizing Rukawa's talents, to Akagi recognizing Sakuragi's place, to Sakuragi and Rukawa finally high-fiving. The action throughout was great, but it's a testament to Inoue's talents that he could find room for little moments like constantly in between a really intense game.

As for now, I finally found the first volume of Nausicaa that I've had for a while, and also have the second volume of Parasyte and the second and third Berserks to read, but I'll save those for later. I also finally got the newest Barks and Rosa collections, which I'm dying to crack open. The new DuckTales series has me in a duck book mood again (in fact, when I'm done with these, I'm going back to the volume with "Tralla La" in it, given that the recently released short had Scrooge and the kids escape from the place), and there's great stories in these sets. I just hope that the next ones aren't also delayed, since I wanted them for birthday gifts.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I remember liking Court of Owls when it first came out, but everything Snyder wrote after felt stupid. Especially that shit with the Joker's new face, Harper Row, or Gordon becoming Batman. I remember someone pointing out just how much Snyder ripped off from Morrison's run, except watered down and more friendly for film/show adaptations. And he was right. Snyder's run felt less like it was telling its own story, and more like he was following the Bendis/Millar model and making material in the hopes that a future Batman film will adapt it and he'll get royalties. That's why I've preferred Tom King's current run. He plays more fast and loose than Snyder ever did.

As for Superman stories, I want to recommend Final Crisis because Morrison follows up on what he did with All-Star and writes a radical take on Superman, but the comic only makes any sense if you've read quite a bit of Morrison's prior DC work like Seven Soldiers, Animal Man, 52, Batman RIP, and so on. Superman: Secret Identity by Kurt Busiek is great, with a Superman who feels both realistic and highly idealistic. And while it's not officially a Superman story, Supreme by Alan Moore. It was his love letter to Superman, especially when he had burned bridges with DC at the time.

[Dreamer2]

I have also read two Superman comics recently, both of which I really enjoyed a lot more than I expected. One was All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison. I remember watching the DTV animated feature adaptation of this a few years back and being kind of disappointed with it, but I think that reading the story since then has changed my stance on it. Back then I didn't really appreciate how this was trying to be different from the standard Superman story and was telling a much more emotionally compelling series of vignettes, but reading it now made the material really resonate with me a lot stronger, especially with how it gets down to the core values of Superman as a character and comes up with really interesting adventures for him to partake that are interesting in that he can't just use brute force to overcome most of them. I think that the only story that didn't really work for me was the Bizarro one, but other than that it was a good read. I also read American Alien by Max Landis. And yes, I'm well aware of what a controversial screenwriter he is in that, pretty much most of what he's written is trash. But, casting my opinions of his other work aside, this series of short stories on its own were very compelling and, much like Morrison's All-Star Superman, this really does get to the core of the character, though in this case focuses a lot more on the Clark Kent persona and how he tries to be more human. It's also funny how American Alien details the beginning years of his life whereas All-Star Superman are about his last few months leading up to his death, but either way both iterations of the character have the same kind of heart behind them. Those kinds of stories really strike a cord with me.

If anyone has any more Superman stories to recommend to me, I'm definitely up for checking them out if I can acquire them easily enough.

All Star Superman was a really great read. My opinions on Morrison stuff usually ends up mixed. Final Crisis and some of his Batman stuff come to mind. But, I really enjoyed this. Its been a while, but my favorite parts were probably the Pa Kent stuff and the stuff Luthor in prison. I should look into Morrison's X-Men and Batman (Grayson) and Robin (Damien) when I get a chance.

As for recommendations, if you've never read them, I'd go with Superman: Red Son. Its my favorite Superman story. Earlier this year (I think it was this year) I read a TPB of Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow. Its not a great story, but there is some decent stuff in there. The TPB also had a surprisingly good Swamp Man/Superman story plus For the Man Who Has Everything, which is really good.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I bought the first two volumes of SGRS (Descending Stories), though I don't plan to read them for a bit since I've already watched the anime and I also have other manga that I'm currently working my way through at the moment. I just wanted to pick them up to show my support for the series. As for Blade of the Immortal, sadly I just can't wait for the next omnibus to be released since these releases are far too slow for my liking, so I'm just going to have the buy the individual volumes electronically. I'm not even sure if the Takashi Miike move is out yet (kind of insane that he has both this and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable releasing in the same year). Either way, though, I don't plan to check out the film until I finish the entire manga just in case anything might get spoiled for me, since what I've seen of the trailer actually looks surprisingly faithful to the first few volumes of the original manga. I also tried watching an episode of the anime from several years ago, but the animation and direction were garbage just from the first episode alone, so yeah, definitely dropping that one.

Thanks for the recommendations, guys!

Dr. Insomniac: I actually went ahead and picked up the first two volumes of Tom King's Batman run at my local BAM (they had a buy two get one free deal going on for DC comics, with last week having that deal for Marvel comics and the week before it was for manga). I'm going to finish up through volume three of the Snyder run since that's what I have of that, and I probably won't continue past that point since I'm not too impressed by his material so far. After that I'll probably go through King's stuff, which probably won't take me more than an hour given how short these two volumes seem.

Dreamer2: Red Son has actually been on my radar for a while, now. Unfortunately, since I currently lack a personal private mailing address I don't want to order any physical copies of anything online. So when it comes to comics, I mostly just have to go by what I can find stocked at my local BAM, which is sadly kind of random and has a lot less options for comics and manga in general than most other BAMs that I have been to. It was quite a while before I happened to find ASSM stocked there. Maybe one of these days Red Son will just pop up out of nowhere, or maybe once I move out of this location that I'm temporarily living at, I'll set up a proper mailing address for which I can order stuff right to my doorstep.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I finally finished Slam Dunk last night, and wow, what a ride. I think that it had a terrific ending, and rightfully had a massive range of emotions. It was the perfect balance between happy, spot-on, and bittersweet. But I was really impressed with all the character moments in the final game, from Sakuragi recognizing Rukawa's talents, to Akagi recognizing Sakuragi's place, to Sakuragi and Rukawa finally high-fiving. The action throughout was great, but it's a testament to Inoue's talents that he could find room for little moments like constantly in between a really intense game.

I'm really glad that you liked it. The final match is my favorite match in any sports manga. I really just love how great and memorable Inoue's characters are, and especially in how they interact with each other and how their teamwork is fully realized in the final moments of the final game. Slam Dunk is easily one of my top three favorite Shonen Jump manga along with Dragon Ball and Rurouni Kenshin, and also one of my favorite sports manga of all time.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just read Scott Snyder's take on Mr. Freeze....goddammit.

Honestly, the Jarvis Pennyworth one-shot was the only thing that I've read from this run so far that I actually thought was kind of decent in its own way. The Harper Row story was kind of dumb but at least tolerable. But I haven't liked anything else that I've read from this run so far. I think one of my biggest problems (among many) is that I don't really identify with Snyder's version of Batman. Some might say that Batman is Batman and you should already know who he is going into it, but the thing is, that's not really true. There exist tons of different iterations of the character, and it's up to any individual author to clearly define to the audience their take on it. The Adam West Batman is not Miller's Batman (and I mean Miller's Batman before he turned him into a borderline psychopath). Miller's Batman is not the one from the animated series, and the one from the animated series is not the one from Nolan's movies. Each version of Batman is different depending on who's behind who's behind that interpretation of him, and I need to have a clear sense of who that Bruce Wayne and Batman is. I remember that in one of MistareFusion's Dragon Ball Dissection videos, he covered Dragon Ball minus and used a similar example with Batman to criticize how Dragon Ball Minus's Bardock was not the same character as the one from the original TV special, but was also woefully underdeveloped and undefined as a character to the point where he just felt like nothing but blatant fan-service as opposed to an actual character. That's kind of how I feel about Snyder's take on Bruce Wayne/Batman. I don't know what his personality or values really are as a character. He just seems to exist solely for the purpose of moving the plot forward, and in that regard I find this interpretation to be pretty flat and impossible to really connect with.

I have one more volume from what I have available to go through, and then I'll be dropping the run after that. I really can't wait to get to Tom King's stuff and hope that it is much better than this.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Alright, so it turns out that BOI Omnibus III actually already IS out, and was released earlier this month. My local BAM just hasn't stocked it yet because it's lame and never gets anything cool in. I may have to find a way to order it online because this is a series that is definitely worth owning in hard copy.