What Are You Reading?

[Dr. Insomniac]

There are rumors that Nick Spencer will be the new head writer of Amazing Spider-Man. I don't understand why, since even from a financial standpoint, Secret Empire did poorly for a crossover event comic. It's rewarding somebody for failing.

[Avaitor]

I haven't had as much time to read lately, which has me sad. I ended up getting the first volume of Golden Kamuy, and also found the next 2 Invincible volumes for $2 a pop. Not to mention that I got the latest Barks collection for Christmas. But I haven't been able to find time for any of these yet.

[gunswordfist]

Sweet. How are you liking Invincible?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

You know, I find it kind of interesting that Tom King's Batman run is so divisive among fans, but more so because a lot of people seem pissed that he replaced Scott Snyder on the main Batman series than anything else. Though, doesn't Snyder still have All-Star Batman?

What I would like to know is just what everyone else finds so damn great about Snyder's run, though. I haven't read all of it yet, but I have read all the way up through Zero Year, and either I need to read it again or I'm clearly missing something here. The Court of Owls was a neat idea for a story but absolutely nothing interesting is done with it. Batman discovers a secret society that controls Gotham from underground and behind the scenes, but nothing interesting is done besides just the premise. The Court is a group of mostly faceless, nameless villains with little to no personality. There is hardly anything explored about Bruce's character in reaction to this discovery. It's a thoroughly "meh" story if I've ever read one. Death of the Family was just a struggle to even read through. You all know I hate stories with little substance beyond blatant shock value, and well....yeah, not something I can ever really get behind. And then there's Zero Year, which I'll say is relatively better than the other two story arcs, but once again I find that it lacks any real sense of personality or tension, and The Riddler is actually kind of boring, here, IMO. It's barely mediocre for me.

Tom King's run is far from perfect, but it has a unique feel and identity to it which grabs me, but beyond that it explores Batman as a character and his surrounding mythos in new and interesting ways. Snyder's run from what I've read feels like it has the appearance of that without the actual substance to back it up (and in some cases the writing is outright stupid), yet clearly I'm in the minority on that since apparently it's so well-loved and regarded among the fan-base.

[Dr. Insomniac]

And much of Snyder's run is just Morrison's run (secret society that wants to get rid of Batman, villain who claims to be one of Bruce's relatives, someone else taking the Batman mantle while Bruce is seemingly dead, a divisive new sidekick who sounds like they came out of a fanfic) but watered down and made more accessible to casual readers. He's even using Morrison's Hypercrisis theory for that Dark Nights Metal crossover.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Just read the six issues of Moon Knight written by Warren Ellis. Now those were some pretty awesome short stories, ranging from pulp noir to dark humor to outright trippy. Not sure if the character's other stories are at all like that, but it certainly has me interested to read more.

[Avaitor]

Moon Knight's more traditional stories are an interesting mix of Batman, The Mummy, and Magnum PI. It's not for everyone, but I enjoy the character. Ellis' take is pretty cool, too.

I got around to reading the first volume of Golden Kamuy last night, and I like it so far. I especially admire the amount of research that went into it. I know little about the Ainu, so it's cool to learn more about indigenous Japanese. Sugimoto and Asirpa are good characters so far, and I'm curious to see where the story goes.

[Avaitor]

I noticed something cool while at the grocery store- it looks like Marvel has worked with Archie to make digest reprints. They had a collection that looks like has a bunch of X-Men stories in it for $7, including the first story. I picked it up, since I think it's a good idea.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I read the first issue of The Snagglepuss Chronicles. To emphasize how ridiculous this premise is, this isn't just a comic about Snagglepuss, this is a comic that overlays Hanna-Barbera characters like Quick Draw McGraw and Huckleberry Hound onto McCarthyist America and how Communist witch hunts were tearing apart and ruining lives in Hollywood. This should be the stupidest comic ever, but it all works really well. Excited for the next issue.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I finished volume 2 of Mark Waid's Flash run. While it still shows its age in a number of ways, this was a marked improvement over the first volume and it's always great to see a writer improve over the course of their series. The fake Barry Allen story-line was surprisingly resonant on an emotional level, though its held back by a plot twist that, while kind of obvious, also happens to be needlessly convoluted and stupid. If you can look past that, though, it's a good read, IMO. Also, Jay Garrick, Johnny Quick, and Max Mercury work way too damn well together for a trio of old speedsters, and they have some genuinely funny banter between them. That alone deserves its own spin-off series. I hope they come back for future stories in Waid's run. I'll get around to volume 3 for sure, though probably not for a little while as I take a break from this run to read some other stuff.

I also finished the first three volumes of Batman: Detective Comics (Rebirth) and will probably get around to the fourth tomorrow. It's a really fun run, and a genuinely good team-based series. This actually made Azrael a likable character for me, which is saying a lot given how insufferable I found him in Knightquest an Knightsend. In general I've been pretty happy with all six different Rebirth series that I've checked out (Batman, Batman DC, Batman Beyond, Nightwing, The Flash, and New Superman), albeit to varying degrees. If you want to recommend any other good runs in Rebirth, Dr. Insomniac, I'm definitely up for it.

I also bought The Demon by Jack Kirby. I still have to finish reading Mister Miracle by him as well, but I'll be sure to check this one out once I complete that book.

In terms of manga, I've read up through volume 4 of SGRS. I know I'm in the minority here, but I actually kind of prefer the manga to the first season of the anime. While the anime is incredibly well-acted and well-directed, I can't help but feel that the pacing can be rather slow at times, and I just find it easier to discern the double-meaning (both in terms of each story's message and also their larger meaning in the narrative) of the actual Rakugo performances when I read them at my own pace as opposed to the anime in which my lack of understanding of the Japanese language and intricate pronunciations and mannerisms leaves me oblivious to all of the more nuanced aspects of this series. Though, to be fair, that's not the anime's fault, but rather my own lack of understanding. Even so, that's why I said that I prefer the manga personally, as opposed to saying that one is better than the other.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I happen to have a Comixology Unlimited subscription and was able to attain the first three volumes of Ultimate Spider-Man for free. I just went through the first volume and I've got to be honest: the writing hasn't aged so well. In some regards it almost feels more dated than the Steve Ditko-era issues that I read a few years ago. While those had the cheese factor (which arguably is part of its charm) a lot of those stories are intentionally tongue-in-cheek, and while there are some more serious ones (like the issue with Betty's brother getting killed while Spider-Man fights Doctor Octopus) which can also be hokey in their execution, there is still a feeling of genuine heart to them. Nothing in Ultimate Spider-Man strikes me as outright bad so far, but it does feel like it suffers from a case of trying too hard to take itself seriously. It's nowhere near as bad as the "edgy" comics of the 90's, but it does kind of feel like it has some of their bad habits which lingered into the early 2000's in that the work feels more concerned with trying to be a more realistic take on a classic character rather than just trying to be a fun comic book with a good heart and morals that both kids and older readers who want to bring out their inner child can enjoy.

To be fair, though, it's only the first volume, so it could improve, but man is this iteration of the series slow-paced as all hell.

[Avaitor]

I just caught the end of Barnes & Noble's buy 2, get 1 free manga sale to get the first 2 VizBig's of Dragon Ball, along with volume 2 of Golden Kamuy. For a total of $30, I get 7 volumes of manga. Not bad at all.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Love those VizBig editions. Great quality of paper and ink, and the page-size is perfect. I own all of Dragon Ball in this format as well as the first two volumes of DBZ (I'll get around to collecting the rest of the series eventually). I've also been meaning to collect Vagabond in this format as well.

[Avaitor]

Yeah, I was really liking the VizBig editions of Kenshin that I have, but in light of recent events... I think that if I do ever get around to completing my collection, I'll go for used copies.

[Avaitor]

I traded in some stuff at a used book store I don't have much use for anymore, and was able to use the credit I received for volumes 3 and 4 of Akira. I'm really excited, since I've really been enjoying the series when I get to read it, but the volumes are too rich for my blood. Even here, they're $20, which shouldn't be too bad in theory, since you get a lot of material in these volumes, but I just can't drop that much for one book at a time, y'no?

But so far, it's been a really good read, and has been adding to my enjoyment of the movie, rather than removing. Like Nausicaa, while the original mange is a more full experience, the film feels more like a compliment rather than a detriment.