Comics/Manga Discussion Thread

[Daikun]

A new chapter of Berserk will be published posthumously.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Despite some rumors last week, Hickman's still doing Marvel after Inferno. He's just writing the events instead of monthlies.

Also:

[Dr. Insomniac]

God, I don't like this. Making Mephisto the chessmaster of all of Spider-Man's misery. It diminishes the rest of his villains and turns them all into pawns.

[Markness]

How did Mephisto resurrect after getting killed by Blackheart and which issue did he come back? That is something that's been in the back of my mind but I can't find an answer for it.

Current Marvel is doing a good job making me not want to give them more money.

[Daikun]

Farewell, Comixology.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Since Spencer's run is hinging entirely on "Will he retcon OMD?!? Tune in next chapter!", it leaves me to consider for all the shit OMD did to change Peter's life, why didn't it bring back Gwen if they wanted to bring him back to square one? SSM, Emma Stone, Spider-Gwen, and Gwenpool have all proven there are ways to make Gwen an interesting character instead of just Peter's girlfriend, and I've seen more criticism of "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" than praise lately.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm still on my One Piece re-read/watch (was re-reading the manga but switched to the fan-edit for the anime with the post time-skip material), and am currently back in the middle of Whole Cake Island. It's funny because this arc is still relatively recent in the grand scheme of things, only completing a few years ago, but I still forgot so many details from it which tends to happen given how dense and layered the story gets as it goes along.

I really do have to stop and kind of acknowledge just how incredible of a writer Oda is. He has really used the medium of manga and long-form storytelling to craft something that goes beyond just being another battle shounen series (it is definitely that, but only in one aspect), as it also unquestionably qualifies itself as a genuine fantasy epic. I have known how good the series is for a long time after I got over my pre-conceived biases against it well over a decade ago at this point, but it wasn't until going through so much of it once again with the foresight of the later story arcs as well as within a relatively short amount of time (as in a few months to go through nearly a thousand chapters/one hundred volumes worth of material) that I really appreciated how insanely well put together this story is. It's not an exaggeration when people compare it to the likes Tolkien's Middle Earth or Martin's ASOIAF or Jordan's Wheel of Time, among other notable series. Not so much in terms of the actual content itself but more so in regard to the scope of the world being presented and the complexity of the narrative and themes that it presents as the story continues to unfold.

I believe it works on two levels, as the early material is very much in the realm of what you expect from the genre, but with a more humorous and cartoon-style take that doesn't take itself too seriously, or so it seems, while it seeds more serious subtext and complex narratives into the mix as the story progresses (all while still never completely losing site of it's original tone). I've seen some people who are more inclined to reading novels describe One Piece as absurdism and make the analogy of this being to battle shounen manga what Terry Pratchett's Discworld is to fantasy stories. While that's a very broad generalization, it's not unfounded as One Piece does purposely take a very over-the-top tone, even for it's genre, and is unapologetically silly in it's overall presentation in a somewhat Looney Tunes-esque fashion. But even within that strange combo of style and genre, Oda manages to slowly but gradually infuse more and more layers of nuance to the themes of the story, and most impressively shows so much forethought in how the story unfolds. Regardless of whether he plans out material in advance or not (there are several cases of both in his story), it almost always works in a way that the story beats feel natural and reveals make sense like they were always meant to be there and the clues were always there. The series has gained a strong reputation for how several future characters, moments, and entire story arcs are foreshadowed years (sometimes over a decade) in advance of publication release, and it's insane how some of it is legitimately planned out that way, while in other cases Oda would come up with ideas on the fly but integrate them in so well that you couldn't tell the difference.

Most notably the post time-skip material is so much more effective for me on a re-read now that I see the big picture, and can appreciate the through-line of the story when I'm reading it all at once rather than week-to-week. I still stand by my opinion that Fishman Island and Punk Hazard make-up possibly the weakest stretch of chapters in the series so far, but even those have a lot more strong material in them than I initially gave them credit for. I also give them credit for having to do a lot of leg-work in setting up a bunch of new plot-lines from scratch after Oda cashed in his chips by wrapping up several previous story arcs and plot threads leading up to just before the time-skip. Thanks to that, the last several years of material up to the current chapters have been all the stronger for it now that they can pay-off all of that build-up.

I suppose I felt the need to make this post as my own self-acknowledgement that this series truly is one of a kind. I already liked it plenty for a long time now. It's not perfect, and I have my issues with it, but a lot of it's faults feel almost trivial in comparison to it's strengths and what it accomplishes in the grand scheme of things. Part of my enhanced perspective on it comes from everything else that I've read and watched since originally starting the series. I've read more fantasy novels, as well as quite a few manga and comic books, and it really does stand out as something that I have not seen any other author do on this level when it comes to long-form stories. It also makes me realize that when this story eventually reaches it's conclusion, while I am excited to see how it wraps up, I will also be genuinely sad to see the journey end and know that there won't be anything quite like it to experience again.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Another in the long line of "Hey, wasn't Logan a cool movie? We should do something like that."

It's funny. I was remembering the Dark Horse comics ending the other week and thinking how dumb it was. I had problems with the show ending, but that's more due to pacing problems than anything, while I look back on reading Season 12 and thinking "Wow, Joss doesn't know how to write his own characters anymore". And I haven't followed what Boom's been doing lately, so I can't comment on that, but that DH run was all over the place in quality. Some issues and arcs that stood next to the best episodes of the show, and then shit like Xander and Dawn becoming a couple and recycling the same "growing up and being an adult is hard!" metaphor the show and Angel already did but without doing a thing to freshen it up. It really shows how much the actors contributed to the show, since a lot of the best TV shows have the lead actors performing as if they're reacting against the script than flowing with it. And without them, when a TV show decides to do tie-in books or comics, these characters often come off as shadows of their real selves unless a writer can successfully drag the story into a new medium. And Buffy struggles to do that because too many of the show writers came onto the comic and forgot writing for a comic character is not the same as writing for an actor, while the writers who didn't work on the show didn't shake up the formula and often wrote traditional Buffy stories instead of breaking new ground.

[Avaitor]

I met the writer of the mainline Buffy book for Boom, and she's very cool. I haven't read her run yet, but I am hoping that some fresh blood with someone more experienced with comic writing will do something different with the characters. Because yeah, I wasn't impressed with what I've read from Dark Horse's canon run, either.

As for Old Woman Buffy, idk, it's not the worst idea. I'm more surprised that Disney hasn't tried to eat up Boom's contract and bring Buffy over to Marvel yet.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I don't think Disney cares what publisher Buffy's on. To them, it's just a show that ended 18 years ago, and all attempts to bring back the IP end up in development hell. And the comic probably makes enough money for Boom to keep making it, but not so much that Disney would notice and want the rights.

[Avaitor]

I guess, but the moment that Dark Horse's rights to Alien and Predator expired, Disney latched them up. You'd think that Buffy wouldn't be too far behind in terms of popularity as those.

But that could have been more of an incentive from Marvel, who may not be as interested in Buffy. Disney is still having other publishers take on Scrooge and their other legacy characters, after all.

[Dr. Insomniac]

And if it's Marvel's decision, then it's a strange one since they were the ones who hired Whedon to direct their Avengers movies and write some X-Men comics. Of course, that was then, and Whedon's reputation wasn't soured yet, so maybe different minds are at play there. Maybe it's the fact Alien and Predator have new shows and movies in production, while the Buffyverse's been dormant on TV for a very long time (remember when Ripper was a sure thing?).

Now I'm remembering more shit from the DH comics, like pregnant robot Buffy, Buffy and Angel having sex in the air and making a sentient universe, Xander imagining a ghost Anya haunt him, Spike's spaceship, Harmony suddenly gaining a 100 IQ points, the Scooby Gang fighting a knockoff of Sarah Huckabee Sanders wearing samurai armor. I can kind of appreciate the comics for answering "What if Buffy never ended and kept airing on the CW like it was Supernatural or something?" Because in a way, they are significant to the cultural narrative of the franchise by way of showing just how the Buffyverse struggles to adapt to the times, watching a paragon of 90s network TV rough it through the late 00s and 10s while its creator falls from grace. Similar to Star Wars' or Doctor Who's expanded universe, Buffy's EU is a roller coaster that I wish more of the show's fans talked about.

[Markness]

How did Mephisto resurrect after getting killed by Blackheart and which issue did he come back? That is something that's been in the back of my mind but I can't find an answer for it.

Could someone please answer this for me or where should I go to find an answer?

[Dr. Insomniac]

How did Mephisto resurrect after getting killed by Blackheart and which issue did he come back? That is something that's been in the back of my mind but I can't find an answer for it.

Could someone please answer this for me or where should I go to find an answer?

I had to google it myself, and according to the Marvel wiki, in Aaron's Avengers run:

Following the defeat of the moon god at the hands of the Avengers, Mephisto found he was unable to resurrect himself through his usual means, and - taking on the form of a demonic black dog - began devouring the family members of the individuals who had made deals with him in the past in order to gather enough energy to resurrect himself, assisted by Howard Stark.[17]

[Markness]

How did Mephisto resurrect after getting killed by Blackheart and which issue did he come back? That is something that's been in the back of my mind but I can't find an answer for it.

Could someone please answer this for me or where should I go to find an answer?

I had to google it myself, and according to the Marvel wiki, in Aaron's Avengers run:

Following the defeat of the moon god at the hands of the Avengers, Mephisto found he was unable to resurrect himself through his usual means, and - taking on the form of a demonic black dog - began devouring the family members of the individuals who had made deals with him in the past in order to gather enough energy to resurrect himself, assisted by Howard Stark.[17]

Good enough. I've pretty much accepted that when it comes to continuity in Marvel, it's best to just roll with it.