What Are You Reading?

[gunswordfist]

Read this if you've finished 100 Bulletshttp://www.comicvine.com/articles/interview-brian-azzarello-talks-100-bullets-brothe/1100-146607/ This is my most anticipated comic now, even ahead of any upcoming Deadpool comic.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

The Court of Owls ending was kind of anti-climatic, and the last issue was just a standard downtrodden-kid-saves-Batman story, but I still liked it.

Now to the next one...

[Grave]

Nothing new or special. Naruto and Bleach which has been a roller coaster. I'd still read D-Grayman, but it seems like getting new chapters of that comes every 3 months or something.

[gunswordfist]

Since May 24, I read:

Cyclops v. 1 - Just like DMZ, it's a comic book that has commentary on the war or something like that.

Daredevil V 4 - Shit got weird a third into this comic.

JLA Rock Of Ages - Another nonsensical Justice League story by Grant Morrison with mediocre art. Is Grant's writing always so random in team superhero books because New X-Men is just like this.

JLA World War III - Same as above

Spider-Man Noir - I was so impressed and surprised by this comic. They quickly established how much Parker cares about people, this is the best Spider-Man origin story I've ever read, I liked it more than any other Spider-Man story I've read so far (Mostly just Ultimate, I haven't read any classics yet) and I loved the art (how it looks when Spidey moves fast is cool and I love his Noir costume). I thought this would be some filmsy alternate reality book and even put off reading it but now this is one of my favorites.

World War Hulk - A sequel to possibly my favorite superhero comic, Planet Hulk. This was actually supposed to be one of the first comic books I'd ever read but someone suggested that I read Planet Hulk first and after that, I didn't really want to read a story that I thought would be a mindless action fest. WWH was mostly that but I did like the idea of Hulk coming back to Earth to be the strongest villain there while arriving in a cool spaceship with a well made group of aliens on his side. And the action was great. Some serious displays of power were shown

[Foggle]

So I was picking up the newest Deadpool issue yesterday (I'm slow, I know), when I noticed a stack of X-Men #1 variants next to the cash register. These special covers had the logo of my local comic shop plastered down at the bottom, and upon talking to the lady at the counter, I discovered that this Texas store is apparently now enough of a big deal to get its own exclusive covers. I attempted to find pictures of this cover online, but to no avail, which leads me to believe that it truly is exclusive to this relatively small franchise. It's signed by the artist, as well. DO I NOW HAVE AN IRREPLACEABLE COLLECTOR'S ITEM!?!?!

[Foggle]

So apparently some guy on eBay is selling unsigned copies of these for $24 apiece... and six people have actually bought them. Whoa.

Anyway, as for the comic itself, it's pretty good. I know fuck all about X-Men aside from how hilarious the 90's cartoon is, but I enjoyed this first issue. It didn't blow me away, but comic books with primarily female leads are pretty rare, so I figure I'll keep reading for a time just to support the idea behind it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Woah, looks pretty cool. I wish I lived near a comic book store. Alas, none exist anywhere near where I live, because New Jersey is the most boring (and idiotic) state in the entire country.

In other news, I finally got back into reading Excel Saga (see, I haven't forgotten about it!) and I just finished volume 2, and the series is slowly starting to develop into something more interesting than what it initially seemed like it would be. I can't wait to start volume 3!

[gunswordfist]

I read JLA Divided We Fall a few days ago. Another confusing ass JLA comic. I did come away liking Plastic Man more. I kind of imagined him in his BTATB voice and he had the best part in the book.

The Incredible Hulk vol. 1. I finished it yesterday. Jason Aaron's run looks like it'll be a lot of fun

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I just started reading Attack on Titan since apparently its one of the better shonen series to be currently running, and being that I actually like good shonen series, I finally had to get around to checking it out. Now, normally I don't like series that try to be dark and edgy just to look cool to people, but just a few chapters into this series, I think its a pretty decent read so far. Nothing about it stands out to me as being great, just yet, but its seems pretty competently written for a shonen series given the subject-material at hand, none of the characters annoy me yet (which is a good sign, of course), and although its violent, unlike in something like Hunter X Hunter, the violence in this series actually makes sense, and it doesn't seem like its trying too hard to come off as dark. It just seems like its, at least so far, a more unique type of shonen story that just happens to be a little bit darker than most. I'm certainly interested enough to continue reading this manga for now.

[Foggle]

At this point, Titan is only good for me because of the animated action scenes. I can't see the manga being nearly as enjoyable without them, though honestly, its fuck-awful pacing (which is still better than Aku no Hana's, btw) has made me lose interest almost completely.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, I haven't seen the anime yet, so I have no idea what to say about that at the moment. I'm only like 4 chapters into the manga, so I can't really say anything about the pacing problems until I get around to them. Obviously the early parts move the story along fine, but I'm assuming some stuff might be dragged out later on, or it may be like Dragon Ball where all of the pacing problems exist only in the anime. Either way, I'm too early into the series to know about any of this stuff. I'm merely saying that as it stands, I liked the first volume of the manga. Not that I think its great stuff, but its entertaining stuff, to say the least.

If I do encounter a lot of stuff that I don't like with the manga, however, I'll be sure to note it as I come to that stuff.

As for the action scenes, while its obviously going to look better in animation, I have a particular appreciation for well-done action in manga/comics if the artist does a good job of illustrating the sort of motions that these characters make, which is harder to do than a lot of people realize. Its why I can still enjoy the action scenes in something like Dragon Ball even if its not actually animated, because I still get a clear sense of the over-the-top sort of motions going on. So far, Titan has been surprisingly good about its action scenes as far as the manga goes, but its not for everyone unless you sort of have an appreciation for that sort of thing.

As for story and character problems, once again, I'm still only a volume into the series, so I'll keep note of that as they come.

[Foggle]

I also have an appreciation for good comic book action scenes, but I still like them more when they're (well) animated. Titan can be fairly ridiculous (in a good way), and I think that works better as anime than manga. Then again, I've never actually read the original work, so I'm just talking out of my ass here.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

After 5 chapters of reading the manga, I can give you a general idea of my strengths and weaknesses of the series so far.

Strengths:

-I like the art-style (subjective, I know, but its worth mentioning)
-I like the fluidity of the action scenes
-The idea of the society that the last remaining humans live in is pretty interesting
-For a shonen series, the characters are well-defined, and their personalities are understandable, even if they are a bit shallow
-The 3D motion gear is both a means to creat unique action scenes, and they are just fucking bad-ass weapons
-The story hasn't thrown in any stupid plot-twists yet, but then again I'm only 5 chapters in
-The violence and gore is just right for this kind of series, as its present to show how gritty things can get, but its not overdone
-The main characters are surprisingly clever in their ingenuity, and unlike most shonen series, they haven't made any stupid decisions yet (or ones that just flat-out make no sense), but then again, I'm still only 5 chapters in

Weaknesses:

-The Titans are just a 1-dimensional force of opposition, and I'm a guy who prefers 3-dimensional villains
-Some people act unrealistically 1-dimensional; one particular example is when Mikasa slayed a Titan, and then went to a group of people trying to take refuge in the inner district and asked them why the hell they haven't gone in yet since her comrades were dying trying to protect them. Them some rich ass-hole says he doesn't want to let them in because he's just a 1-dimensional ass-hole who only exists to stir up controversy, and tells Mikasa that her kind are supposed to die for them just to get the readers to easily hate him and side with the soldiers. I hate these 1-dimensional kind of ass-holes, not just because they are supposed to be hated, but because they are a cheap device to twist the emotions of the audience in a way that the author intends without letting them get to their own conclusions for themselves. So far, it hasn't happened too much, so its a small gripe, but it still ticks me off.

And that's my thoughts on the series so far. I'll add more stuff to both lists as I continue reading it.

[Pharass]

Got the third volumes of Scalped and Planetary today. These two series just keep getting better and better with each new volume, Planetary was especially satisfying this time around with one or more awe-inspiring moments happening on nearly every single page.

[gunswordfist]

Got the third volumes of Scalped and Planetary today. These two series just keep getting better and better with each new volume, Planetary was especially satisfying this time around with one or more awe-inspiring moments happening on nearly every single page.

I love both, especially Planetary

Did you ever finish 100 Bullets?