What Are You Reading?

[gunswordfist]

Invincible is pretty damn good!

[Dr. Insomniac]

I read the DC Holiday Special, and it was a wild ride. A Sgt Rock Hannukah Special with Nazis, Slade threatening to beat his children on Christmas, Swamp Thing giving astronauts a Christmas tree while they wait for impending nuclear war, and Clark inviting John Constantine for Christmas dinner. The tone was all over the place, but it was the most fun comic I've read since that Batman/Elmer Fudd crossover.

Oh, and I read through Grant Morrison's X-Men run. It starts off really good and introduces all these new characters and themes regarding mutants and how they're becoming the norm in society, but then it all crashes with the Magneto reveal. Even though I already knew about it for years, it comes out with no foreshadowing or clues. In fact, it contradicts huge parts of the run. And the epilogue is so stupid. But overall, it's probably the most ambitious storytelling that X-Men comics have had to offer in the past two decades.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

While I generally like most of what I read of Morrison's work, I do come across some duds from time to time. Like, his Batman run. On the one hand I kind of respect how experimental and different it feels from what any other Batman writers have produced, but on the other hand it feels like a chore to read at best and like a comic for crazy people at worst. I'm still trying to struggle through RIP. I have heard that some of Morrison's other Batman material is a marked improvement over this, like Inc. or Batman & Robin, but I'm left a bit weary of reading any more of his Batman stories after this.

[Avaitor]

I used a Barnes & Noble coupon to order volume 1 of Invincible, which just arrived today. Since I finished Leviathan Wakes, and can't get around to the other Expanse books right now, I might jump straight into these.

Now I'm trying to fight myself into not using another one of their coupons to order the first Golden Kamuy volume.

[Dr. Insomniac]

While I generally like most of what I read of Morrison's work, I do come across some duds from time to time. Like, his Batman run. On the one hand I kind of respect how experimental and different it feels from what any other Batman writers have produced, but on the other hand it feels like a chore to read at best and like a comic for crazy people at worst. I'm still trying to struggle through RIP. I have heard that some of Morrison's other Batman material is a marked improvement over this, like Inc. or Batman & Robin, but I'm left a bit weary of reading any more of his Batman stories after this.

RIP made no sense to me whatsoever when I read it years ago, but rereading this year was easier to digest. I was reading in an interview that Morrison's X-Men was supposed to be an answer to the X-Men movies that were coming out at the time, and I think that's what he was doing with Batman here. Where the Nolan movies were made to be grounded and have little to no otherworldly elements, and the DCAU Batman fed into the "Bat-God" idea too much that it was hard to give him a challenge, Morrison does the exact opposite and makes Batman go on hallucinogenic adventures while fighting and repeatedly losing to larger-than-life mirrors of himself.

But then again, there's a reason why so little of Morrison's books have been adapted for TV and film compared to the other big British writers. Ennis has Preacher and parts of the Punisher show. Ellis has both Red movies and Iron Man 3. Gaiman has Lucifer, American Gods, and Coraline. Moore begrudgingly has Watchmen, From Hell, V For Vendetta, and LXG. Whereas up until Happy's premiere a few days ago, all Morrison had was a couple DTV DC animated films and Angel Salvadore and Negasonic Teenage Warhead showing up in the X-Men movies.

[Dr. Insomniac]

The Dan Slott era of Spider-Man is finally ending.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Quick question for anyone who uses Comixology via the app: is it just harder to search out titles this way or do they simply lack certain issues of certain series?

The other day I was searching for Thor comics and found Masterworks collections going from volume four onwards, but couldn't manage to pull up the first three volumes. I also found the Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Daredevil collection first volume but couldn't find anything past that. There's an option to select "see all" but it never does anything when I click on it (using a Samsung device, in this case).

Also, is DC Rebirth: Batman Vol. 4 out yet? Because it looks like I can only find single issues for anything going past what Vol. 3 covers.

Oh, and if anyone wants to recommend me some story arcs that don't require an extensive amount of background knowledge on one or several comic book series/characters to understand and enjoy, I'm all ears.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, nevermind the stuff about the volumes. Apparently I just have to type in the specific comic I'm looking for in the search bar. Still kind of dumb that it gives me some difficulty simply trying to display a list of all of the comics for one particular series, though.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Oh, and if anyone wants to recommend me some story arcs that don't require an extensive amount of background knowledge on one or several comic book series/characters to understand and enjoy, I'm all ears.

Those 6-issue gigs Warren Ellis does for comics like Moon Knight and Karnak are usually fun to read without any previous knowledge of the characters.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I do remember reading Extremis several years ago and liking it. Granted I did feel that the characters could be a tad flat in serving a tone that took itself just a bit too seriously. That said, it did work out as a genuinely good science fiction story. If Ellis's work is generally like that then I'll probably enjoy reading other stuff by him.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I have to say that my absolute favorite thing about Frank Miller's Daredevil run (from what I've read so far) is how good of a villain he can write in Wilson Fisk. Of course he's the best part of Daredevil on Netflix as well, albeit for different reasons. Whereas on the show he's more compelling because of how interesting his character and backstory are, comic Kingpin (at least in Miller's run) really lives up to his namesake, keeping the entire criminal underground of New York under his control and completely outwitting all parties, DD included, with strategic and well-planned power moves. It really feels like his mind is what makes him so dangerous and formidable. My favorite scene is when he has DD cornered but offers him his life and even throws in Bullseye to sweeten the deal only because it's convenient for him to have DD turn in his competition for him. Of course he could easily just kill DD right there, but the fact that he actually gets him to admit defeat and just suck it up and take what he can get is something that you don't often see supervillains accomplish. He effectively wins that scenario and DD can't do jack shit about it. That's how an intimidating and effective Marvel villain should be.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Picked up Descending Stories (SGRS) Volume 4 today with some of my Christmas money.

I also bought a bunch of DC Rebirth comics, including The Flash volume 4, Batman volume 4, Batman: Detective Comics volumes 1-4, and the second volume of New Super-Man.

I was looking for Nightwing volume 4 as well, but couldn't find it in stock.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I read through all of the collected volumes of the Rebirth Batman run over Christmas weekend and I really enjoyed it, especially volume 4. The War of Jokes and Riddles was incredibly engrossing and one of the best Joker and Riddler stories I've experienced. And my god, what Tom King did with Kite Man...Hell Yeah. Definitely going to be keeping up with this run, and I plan to check up on some other Rebirth comics when I get time.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Speaking of The War of Jokes and Riddles, it manages to be a better Joker story AND a better Riddler story than either Death of the Family or Zero Year from Snyder's run, IMO, the former of which I personally can't stand and the latter of which I find to be a mediocre story arc that's vastly overrated by the fanbase (as is Court of Owls, IMO). The Flash/Batman Rebirth crossover story, The Button, was also quite fun. Night of the Monster Men was disappointingly underwhelming, though, given how exciting the set-up for it was.

In addition to reading Flash rebirth, I'm almost done with the second volume of Mark Waid's Flash run. I'll admit that I was wondering what the big deal was with the first volume, but I can really see Waid hitting his stride here and improving as a writer with the material from the second volume, adding layers to Wally West's character and managing to show a good sense of how to create compelling drama without it feeling forced. I'll definitely be continuing with this run to see where it goes from here until Grant Morrison and Mark Millar take over.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Also just snagged myself a digital copy of Moon Knight by Warren Ellis on Comixology since it was on sale for $3 until New Year's Day.