What Are You Reading?

[Avaitor]

It's been a long time since I've read most of Simonson's material, but I think you should be fine. At most, you might need to do a quick wiki check, which isn't too difficult.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That's good to know. I'll need to save up my funds a bit, but I'll probably get around to reading that this summer.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I also read through all of Batman and Robin Eternal, which was a pretty mediocre story arc overall, with both some low points and occasionally good moments throughout. But seriously, what is it with The New 52 era of Batman comics trying so hard to push Harper Row as the next major Batman character? Unless I'm missing something, she has been consistently uninteresting in every appearance that she's ever made so far among what I've read.

Oh, Harper. I assumed Snyder wrote her as the new Robin, so he could have more of a fingerprint on Batman than he already has through the Court of Owls and Duke Thomas, but DC didn't want to boot Damian out of his role. So she existed in this weird limbo where she's supposedly an important member of the Bat-family but doesn't actually do anything notable. She didn't offer anything that Tim, Stephanie, or Cassandra already did.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've tried reading some of the older issues of Moon Knight from the Doug Moench run, and it's pretty boring and dated. It's also surprisingly sexist with how it treats Marlene's character (and I say this as a strong opposer of SJW's and PC culture). In this particular case it really does suffer from a lot of bad tendencies and tropes from superhero comics of that era. I'll probably just stick to the newer stuff from Ellis's take on the character and onward, since that has been a pretty excellent reinterpretation so far.

On another note, I got Walter Simonson's "The Mighty Thor" omnibus a few days ago and I'm really digging it. What's interesting is that while the stories do adhere to an episodic format standard of superhero stories of the time, Simonson also has a good grasp on how to build off of those stories to make something that also plays out well on a larger scale in the long-term. It seems like he does the episodic adventures with Thor while using supporting characters like Baldur and Odin, as well as villains like Loki, Lorelei, Malekith, and who I'm assuming is Surtur (the guy forging that big-ass sword in the background of every issue so far) to tell and interweve a more serialized narrative in the background, this setting up for (and even occasionally foreshadowing) future story-lines. It makes this run a lot easier to binge-read than most other comics from the 80's.

Strangely enough this kind of reminds me of Eichiro Oda's style of story-telling, albeit he tends to go for really long plays by setting up future arcs literal years in advance.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Still reading through Walter Simonson's run. Just finished the Surtur saga, which I remember Avaitor talking about on a list of his favorite Marvel stories quite a few years ago (boy does that bring back memories). At any rate, it's really good stuff, and it helps that Simonson really spent some time building up to it, which is a rarity for superhero stories of that era which tended to be more short-sighted and episodic. While I have been, and still am, a staunch defender of Thor: Ragnarok, I can certainly sympathize with the folk who felt cheated out of seeing the iconic fight against Surtur with Thor, Loki, and Odin working together to take him down, as that certainly is some pretty memorable material. On the other hand, though, I'd argue that it was The Dark World's fault for not utilizing Malekith properly to set up for that confrontation in the first place.

At any rate, this run has been great so far. I can't wait to read more.

[gunswordfist]

I read Invincible Ultimate Collection Volume 10. What a rollercoaster. Also the current main villain has some valid points, as much as I hate to say that. Still too dull for me to be one of my favorite baddies, IMO.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I got myself the first omnibus volume of Devilman which arrived in the mail today. I also plan on getting Captain Harlock which releases tomorrow.

[Avaitor]

Oh nice, those are already out! I need to check those out.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So those Batman #50 spoilers. The spoilers that DC's Twitter linked to for god knows what reason.

Spoiler

Selina cancelling the marriage because she thinks a happy Batman would be a detriment to his crimefighting career is such bullshit. I get it. The Big Two have a huge distaste for superheroes getting married because they think that makes them boring. And nobody was expecting this to be anything other than a short-term thing at best. But fuck that. You shouldn't lure people in for a couple dozen issues all for an excuse many comic readers and critics have disagreed with ever since One More Day. And you can't go for the "Batman having a family would stifle his abilities" argument when he has one of the largest families in his universe. I've been a fan of Tom King's work, but this is where I have to disagree with him. He did wonders giving Vision a family, and making his a loving yet complicated one. So I'm disappointed he's not going for that route with Batman.

[close]

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It's kind of nuts how similar in structure the Suicide Squad Rebirth comic is to the movie in the early issues. Were these written simultaneously to be the same general story or something? At any rate, it's a fairly average comic going by the first volume, Jim Lee's gorgeous artwork aside.

Now that I've just about finished Walt Simonson's Thor run (which absolutely lives up to its praise), I'm going to check out Ed Brubaker's Secret Avengers run, and I also picked up Marvel 1602 and Eternals (both by Neil Gaiman) for under $10 each at a clearance sale, so I'll check those out as well.

On a side note, I'm listening to the Norse Mythology audiobook narrated by Gaiman himself, and he has such a soothing voice that makes him a naturally great story-teller. I wouldn't mind him narrating some of his own motion comics if they ever made any.

On the manga side of things I'd like to note to everyone that Kimetsu no Yaiba has officially released its first volume and I highly recommend this series. While it does have an uncharacteristically slow and somber start for a Shonen Jump manga, the build-up is well worth it, IMO, and it's my favorite currently running series in the publication.

Also, To Your Eternity (from the author of A Silent Voice) is getting close to releasing its sixth volume in English and it's one of the best currently running manga period, IMO, so definitely get on that if you haven't already.

[Avaitor]

Barnes & Noble is having another buy 2/get 1 free Viz sale, so I'm trying to decide what to do- should I do what I did last time and get some more VizBigs of Dragon Ball along with Golden Kamuy volumes, or should I try to continue a collection of something I've been meaning to finish but forgot, like Nausicaa? The latter will be cheaper, and I could possibly do two separate transactions of it before the sale ends, completing my collection. But what entices me about the former is that I've been on a serious Jump kick lately (I've even found cheap editions of the first 3-in-1's of Naruto and Bleach in hopes of giving them another shot), and I like the idea of collecting more DB.

I'll try to decide soon, while the getting's still good.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

*Cough*

On the manga side of things I'd like to note to everyone that Kimetsu no Yaiba has officially released its first volume and I highly recommend this series.

*Cough*

....Oh, sorry, don't mind me. Just clearing my throat.

In all seriousness, though, I'd say go for the option that brings you the most value for your money. You can't go wrong with any VizBig or Nausicaa. I'd advise against Bleach though. That series doesn't need any more chances.

I'd say that Food Wars! is pretty decent if you like competition manga, but to be honest the whole series went massively downhill once Azami was introduced and never fully recovered, so it makes it hard to really recommend since there is little payoff to sticking with it. Also the ecchi can be obnoxiously bad at times.

Also, it's a long-shot but if you're store carries volumes of any older, less popular Jump titles, both Hikaru no Go and Psyren would be worth looking into. I doubt it, though, since both are out of print (though easy enough to find online). I only mention it because my local store occasionally stocks old obscure series like those at seemingly random chance. That said, you could easily buy either of those for digital download anyways.

Besides that, have I recommended To Your Eternity yet? If not, then I'll just say that it's my favorite currently running shonen manga period. It's not from Jump or even Viz, but it's definitely worth reading if you ever get the opportunity and have the inclination to experience something truly unique and different.

In terms of my reading, I recently read through Mark Waid's 6-issue Captain America run and I fucking loved it. I wish he could've written more. While I do enjoy Brubaker's take on the character, the more cheerful, optimistic Cap is the one that I most admire. In general I feel like Brubaker tries too hard to be gritty and serious to the point where it backfires at times (his Secret Avengers run was outright boring and devoid of any personality whatsoever, IMO). Meanwhile, what I've read of Waid's work in general seems to have a much stronger grasp of what makes superheroes so fun and endearing in the first place, though I'm not trying to say that Brubaker is incapable of writing anything good (still miles better than Scott Snyder, IMO).

[Avaitor]

I'm probably going to stick with online purchases, since the website has Amazon-like prices (at least for B&N members), as opposed to in-store MSRP. I have KnY in mind, as well as Promised Neverland and Astra in Space, so maybe I might just get the first volumes of each of those instead? But I feel like I start too many series and never finish any, so that's why I'm thinking about Nauiscaa and DB.

I've heard your thoughts about the recent decline of Food Wars, and that's partly why I'm thinking of watching the anime instead, in hopes that the series will fix some of those issues when it gets there. But we'll see how I feel when I get there.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I totally get that notion, as I have way too many half-finished manga and comics myself. That said, I don't mind so much when I'm keeping up with releases rather than starting a completed series from scratch. Like, if everything was available for a long-running series from the get-go I might hesitate to get into it due to commitment. But with something like, say, TYE or Devilman or various DC Rebirth series which have volumes newly in print being released once every few months, I don't mind keeping up with those releases since I stagger my reading pattern to contribute one to a few hours worth of reading to each of those series once every few months as their individual volume releases are spaced apart. That way I can still cover multiple series without feeling completely overwhelmed by juggling so many at once.

[Dr. Insomniac]

In terms of my reading, I recently read through Mark Waid's 6-issue Captain America run and I fucking loved it. I wish he could've written more. While I do enjoy Brubaker's take on the character, the more cheerful, optimistic Cap is the one that I most admire. In general I feel like Brubaker tries too hard to be gritty and serious to the point where it backfires at times (his Secret Avengers run was outright boring and devoid of any personality whatsoever, IMO). Meanwhile, what I've read of Waid's work in general seems to have a much stronger grasp of what makes superheroes so fun and endearing in the first place, though I'm not trying to say that Brubaker is incapable of writing anything good (still miles better than Scott Snyder, IMO).

Looking back, Brubaker's run felt like his attempt to make Captain America feel like an HBO/Showtime drama than a traditional superhero comic. That kind of grit you get from primetime TV shows and pulp novels but still fitting in the comic format. You can see something similar to that in his crime comics like Criminal and Fade Out. The problem was, Brubaker's story with Cap felt like a 3-act tale (Bring back Bucky, kill off Steve, then turn Bucky into Cap) that had tons of other acts taped to the end and the sides.