What comic are you reading at the moment.

old hippy

Still stuggling with Dave Sim's High Society but in the meantime thoroughly enjoyed Elephantmen Vol 1 - Wounded Animals. I nearly didn't buy it because (as pointed out in the intro - it looks silly )

Also read Cla$$ War - about a US Govt entourage of superbeings... not too bad but already feels dated.

valleyoftheunos

Have started into A vs X, not sure what to make of it so far, is it the "comics event of 2012" or a load of ridiculous old tosh where they just rejig a few old story lines?

AthAnRi

Beginner here, Just finished Batman YEar One. Thought it was very good in fairness. I've just bought two follow on novels The Long Halloween and Dark Victory.

Wanted to get the Man who laughs but local store didn't have it so will have to make do with the comic rack file I have. prefer to have the actual book as apposed to a file.

Fuzz McG

valleyoftheunos wrote: »

Have started into A vs X, not sure what to make of it so far, is it the "comics event of 2012" or a load of ridiculous old tosh where they just rejig a few old story lines?

The latter.

Marvel's events for the last few years are generally just continuous set-up for the next event.

old hippy

Fuzz McG wrote: »

The latter.

Marvel's events for the last few years are generally just continuous set-up for the next event.

I don't know if it was trumpeted at the time (I bought the single volume) but Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman was fabulous...

Fysh

old hippy wrote: »

I don't know if it was trumpeted at the time (I bought the single volume) but Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman was fabulous...

By "events" I think Fuzz McG was referring to the big in-continuity story events like Civil War or Secret Invasion - stories that get their own miniseries but which also have a substantial effect on the rest of the publishing line.

While 1602 has a sort of relation to the main continuity that Marvel publishes, it was mostly a standalone story (and a rather good one at that, with some excellent artwork). The inevitable sequels were a load of cack, as I recall, so probably best avoided.

Fuzz McG

Yup event comics for Marvel are stuff like House of M, Civil War, Secret Invasion, Siege, Fear Itself and currently Avengers Vs. X-Men.

Bar House of M (and Civil War partially), I wouldn't say any of them have any real lasting effects.

old hippy

2 "events" I recall back in the day; Crisis on Infinite Earths (DC) - this was in the mid 80s and I only bought one comic in the crossover - my monthly dose of Swamp Thing.

Way before that, Marvel (UK) were printing reruns of some Avengers/Defenders storyline where Dormamu and Loki seek to get hold of the Evil Eye (which had split into fragments) which once assembled would turn the world into monsters or something like that. Mid 70s, I think...

A Neurotic

James Howlett wrote: »

Hi, has anyone read the 100th issue of The Walking Dead? I flew through the latest two trades this past 24 hours so I could read the 100th before coming across any spoilers... it was a gruesome read but could have been a hell of a lot worse for Rick and friends...

Bistoman wrote: »

Read it the other day, Jasus it couldn't have been much worse

Poor Glen, What a fecking hammering He got

But it looks great for the continueing story. What I loved from the start was the fact that You knew that no one was safe, The 100 issue proved it true.

For all the build up they gave it, it's really just a re-tread of the Governor storyline from way back in the prison. I'm not sure if this series can keep up the quality; it seems to lack direction of late. It's a shame, as I really loved it up until recently.

Plumpynutt

Just started The Walking Dead: Days Gone Bye.

Enjoying it so far, will be interesting to see how different it is from the TV show

Fysh

Some stuff I've been reading lately:

Comix Reader #4

Let's be crystal clear here - I'm a sucker for the anthology format. As this thread testifies, I also like some of what might be called the weirder end of comics overall. Certainly I enjoy plenty of independent/small press/alternative comics, and I'm a sucker for newspaper-size comics too. So the Comix Reader, being a cheap alternative comix newspaper featuring a mix of people whose work I already like and people I've not heard of, is right up my alley.

The entire thing is bloody good, but if I had to pick a favourite half dozen bits pages I'd say Alex Potts' page "No Chance Of Escape", Ralph Kidson & Martin Meeks' "Overly Critical Cactus" (who's sort of like an alternate universe bastard version of McPedro), Noelle Barby's "High School Virgin", Mike Medaglia's butterfly page (absolutely gorgeous use of colour and layout), and Craig Burston's "Lo Res Des". In truth, though, I enjoyed at least 90% of the pages in this issue and with a cover price of £1, that's excellent value.

More info here soon (including Diamond Distribution, apparently).

Decadence #9

I'm happy any time I get to pick up a new issue of Decadence - I always know I can expect something thought-provoking and bloody weird, even if I'm not always sure I understand them. On top of which, there's a refreshing lofi/zine approach that appeals to me - there's a deliberate choice to use recycled paper and thermal binding on the spine, along with generally providing a decent slab of entertainment. Issue 9 is 50 pages of comics for £4, which works for me. There's more of an anthology feel here, because there's greater variety of art styles on display. Barring the last strip, though, they're still shot through with an undercurrent of unsettling weirdness that's a hallmark of this series.

If you want to get an idea of what Decadence Comics are like, you can read Last Drink online - it won 3rd place in the 2009 Manga Jiman Competition.

More info here.

Talk To The Scarf 'Cos The Face Ain't Listening

This is an oldie, released in 2006, but I stumbled across it and liked the look of it. It's a bit sparse on content, if I'm honest, but as a minicomic whose theme is "headscarves" it works reasonably well. It's as much a zine as a comic, I guess, but the production values are high - Talk To The Scarf... uses nice glossy cardstock and looks to have been litho-printed (I'm guessing based on the credit at the back that the SOAS Art Soc. funded the printing costs; given the nature of the project it's hard to argue that it would have been significantly diminished by being eg laserprinted onto plain 80gsm paper, but that's not entirely relevant).

It''s nice enough, but I can't help feel it would have been better to focus more on increasing the content/page count (it's only 12 pages long, and they're not exactly densely packed) rather than the production value.

Verity Fair #4

I'm sure I've written before about how much I like Verity Fair. Until I happened to go a-googling after reading this issue, I hadn't made the connection that this had to other comics (which has led me to realise I really should get a copy of Sleaze Castle Etcetera). Wiley's writing and art is done well enough that I neither felt I was missing something, nor felt I was getting a needless infodump from elsewhere - it all just flowed smoothly.

This issue is no different - some lovely cartooning on display, and some great storytelling tricks (eg in a scene where Verity recounts the events of a past issue to her shrink, we get the setup and then a panel showing the entire conversation being fast-forwarded, or a flashback page where several distinctive art styles are employed and meshed together in a way that should make the page confusing but instead works seamlessly). The issue is centred around a funeral, with some more background fleshing-out of Verity's schoolfriends and the oddness that has surrounded them.

I really can't commend this enough. It's not cheap, exactly, but your £4 gets you a 32 page comic (including covers) where 30 of those pages are story or story-related content.

Ellipsis by Tom Humberstone

It's pricey, there's no denying that. But, well, it's also bloody lovely. If you've read Solipsistic Pop, Paper Science, Nelson or How To Date A Girl In 10 Days (a very pretty comic and now available in digital format for £2.50 which is a bloody steal!) you know what I mean. I like Humberstone's use of ink and his brushwork, it feels very organic yet never out of control. Heck, even when the narrative isn't particularly impressive the quality of his artwork always brings out something extra (How To Date A Girl In 10 Days is a good example of this - it's the sort of story that, in the hands of someone whose artwork & visual storytelling weren't up to snuff, would be Yet Another Load Of Navel-Gazing Bollockery About Not Getting The Girl). And his approach to book design is undeniably lovely. I've found this slightly frustrating in the case of Solipsistic Pop (because it has pushed the price point a bit too far north of what I'd consider the sweet spot for the material) but if you have any interest whatever in the object values of your comics, you'll see something to like.

And so to this issue 1, "Pregnant Pause". The package is nice - see here for some pictures, but I'm a sucker for things like covers with holes cut through them that show the inside page. And the story? Well, it's a simple, very well told, short story about travelling and airports. It's not entirely unfamiliar material (it reminds me a bit of the introduction to Bartleby and Loki in Kevin Smith's Dogma, and it explicitly references the far-lamer handling of similar material in Love Actually) but it's handled with just the right mixture of sincerity and cynicism to work very nicely. And the visual storytelling is, as I've mentioned above, fantastic.

Now, I've mentioned that it's not cheap. That applies to the print copy. The digital edition is far more wallet-friendly, for those with constrained budgets. So your shopping links are: Digital copy for £0.99, print copy for £5 or subscription for the full series and collection for £40.

20th Century Boys Vol. 21

I'm sure I've waffled on at length about just how much I love this series. The narrative encompasses such a diversity of characters, each with their own developments and nuances, and has such a wide scope (it's a global story that unfolds over the course of about 50 years) that I find it very difficult to imagine a set of tastes which can't find something to enjoy here. Take, for example, this volume's development concerning both the Friend's future plans and the changing nature of his followers (in 2015) and the revelations about the Friend's history (in 1970). It helps that Urasawa has a much more nuanced and interesting take on the morality of his characters, and repeatedly makes it clear that the simplistic "good vs evil" ideas that the characters have in their childhood are of little use in adulthood, with empathy, community unity and compassion (or their absence) being the divisions between the characters. As with a previous volume's analysis of a character finally forced to come to terms with choices they'd made and actions they'd taken over several decades, there's a deft subtlety to Urasawa's handling of various individuals here that really is exemplary.

In one way, I don't want this series to end. In another way, part of its brilliance is that it will end, that everything has a conclusion. I look forward to a re-read of the whole thing once the last volume has been published.

Chew Volume 5: Major League - 5/5

Goddamnit, I love Chew. I love everything about it. I love that the trades come out pretty quickly after the last issue that they'll collect, and at a fair price to boot. I love that the art is fantastic, and the visual storytelling is magnificent (Layman & Guillory outdo even Jonathan Hickman in their ability to make a 1-page recap/infodump interesting to look at and fun to read). I love that the writing is inventive, varied and always, always infused with a a horrible, disgustingly funny streak of black humour. I love the inventiveness underpinning all the central storytelling conceits. If you've read any of the previous volumes, this continues the streak of excellence that Chew has established from the first issue.

DMZ Volume 11: Free States Rising

I was going to do a re-read of the entire series after ordering this, but it turned up before my copy of Five States Of New York so I've ended up reading them separately, with an entire-series re-read to come in future.

As it stands, this is a pretty good volume. I've appreciated the non-linear aspects of DMZ's storytelling before, and this volume makes good use of them as well - filling us in on certain details of how the civil war at the heart of the series started, while the political and journalistic machinations that will eventually draw it to a close continue to trundle on. Along the way we're confronted with the cost paid by both the characters involved and the city itself, and it's not pretty. As commentary on contemporary America and its place in the world, DMZ is a great read - but it also works as an angry and abrasive narrative. I'm looking forward to reading how the whole thing wraps up.

DMZ Volume 12: The Five Nations of New York

I may change my mind on this one once I've re-read the whole series, but after the events of Volume 11, this feels a bit too drawn out as an ending. The conclusion of Matty Roth's character arc works well, as he finally mans up enough to try and own his mistakes, but the "love letter to New York" aspects left me a bit cold - a bit too much like that friend from college who keeps telling you that $CITY is "The best city in the world", it just doesn't quite work for me. There were some cute bits in the epilogue, though - I particularly liked

the Day 204 Massacre Memorial

.

thegreengoblin

James Howlett wrote: »

I read "A Larger World" straight through to 100 last night and

there was a section in that book where a man returning to hilltop mentioned that Negan and his men kept the man's girlfriend after dropping off half of their supplies. With that scene fresh in my mind I expected Negan to take either Maggie or Michonne with him as he walked away from group... and this still could still happen with the opening of issue 101

.

Yeah Glenn's death was absolutely brutal, especially after he takes the first hit one of his eyes pops out... brutal.

The worst part of it for me was

when he tried to call out Maggie's name while his head was split open. I only hope that a seriously long and painful death is in the works for Negan when it eventually happens.

. They promised us something big and we certainly got it. It's compulsive reading.

Ridley

FF 1 - More of the same qualitywise without the best team member, really. Looking ahead the volumes now seem to go: Fantastic Four 1-4 > FF 1-3 > Fantastic Four 5. Just in time to start both series at #1 again for Marvel NOW! Right... okay then. Anyway, there doesn't seem to be much incentive creatively for Spider-Man to be on the team just yet. I do believe it's in-character for Spidey to replace Torch but storywise there's little impact on the dynamic and his not being there would make little difference.

Spider-Man: The Fantastic Spider-Man - Continuity's a bit over the place in Spidey's joining the FF but it's enjoyable enough. Basically it's what FF probably would have been doing if, at that point, it wasn't in the middle of a long story-arc about Reed Richards trying to solve everything. Like the back-up stories with the Avengers Academy and Magnetic Man. Love MM costume which, like the Grasshopper in GLA, is slightly annoying as the storyline

means there's a slim chance of seeing it again as it's designed as a one-shot deal.

Plus it has the Spider-Man I recognise unlike that Andrew Garfield movie I hate and that's the best kind.

Essential Spider-Man 9 - Hey, it's the first appearance of Black Cat! Oh and Madame Web... oh well. Took me forever to get through the whole thing but Spider-Man's hard to get wrong so there's nothing as offensive as that story where Deb Whitman has a nervous breakdown when she's discovers Spider-Man is Peter Parker.

Thunderbolts Classic 2 - I do love me some Thunderbolts. Can't say I'm looking forward to getting to the Marvel NOW! reimagining despite Deadpool. Not too fond of the '90s art style nor the volume ending with space stories but, like Exiles, the book's concept should be preserved.

Hulk: Return of the Monster - Good jumping on point which is what I was trying to do with World War Hulk and Loeb/McGuiness' Red Hulk shenanigans. Conveniently released around the Avengers movie and the Azzarello's storyline depicts the Banner suicide attempt mentioned in the movie. The art in that section isn't my thang but whatever. I know Bruce Jones's run is well regarded and it's kinda funny seeing a complaint on an Amazon review about the lack of Hulk himself. Story's about Banner's change not being a good thing, the Hulk accused of killing a child, and his appearances kept fleeting until it matters. 'Tis good storytelling.

Robin: Year One - Far superior to Dark Victory (and a better sequel to Long Halloween) which is the actual origin story but this one's more about the relationship between Batman and Robin and why they stuck together afterwards. Seen some complaints about the art being 'cartoony' compared to Batman: Year One/Long Halloween/Dark Victory but I'm not seeing much difference and it ain't a bad thing. My copy has a nice printing error where pages are duplicated. None are missing though so that's... interesting. Squiggly handwriting is a pain, mind.

JLA: Year One - Also good. Apparently jettisoned with the New 52. However, I'm not a DC guy so there's little impact on my reading. Gives insight into why those super heroes would play with each other and treating Aquaman as an immigrant is a nice touch. Worthwhile read and does the whole more-bang-for-your-buck thing that DC usually betters Marvel at (unlike Warner Bros. in general which hates me being able to buy their stuff).

Green Arrow: Year One - Green Arrow's origin in this ain't too far removed from Batman's but it's fine and gave me some footing for the not-Green Arrow TV series which is why I bought it. Absolutely useless in explaining why Oliver Queen dresses like he does though.

Batman/Grendel - Got it as an intro to Grendel due to the recent Omnibus release (and bought the Rex Mundi collection instead, go figure) and since it wouldn't be collected in the omnibus it seemed to make sense that way. The Hunter Rose section is enjoyable, the Grendel-Prime stuff not so much. Hunter Rose is the anti-Bruce Wayne and it's so much more refreshing to get a crossover where

one of them is convincingly beaten, decisively at that.

Grendel in this case

forced to leave Gotham with a broken arm.

Grendel-Prime's the more sci-fi aspect of Batman that I just don't read 'im for.

Batman: Death By Design - The art's great (although I know at least one guy who hates comics not being inked) but the story was a bit flat for me. Don't believe anyone in Gotham is stupid enough to build a massive glass platform straddled between skyscrapers, let alone host a private function on it.

Batman: Knightfall 1: Broken Bat
Batman: Knightfall 2: Who Rules the Night - Got the trilogy re-release way back in January or so just in time for DC to release the more comprehensive versions in time for Dark Knight Rises (there's the Warner Bros. company I know!). Still haven't got around to the third book but I don't like it and that's what's slowed my progress. The gauntlet Batman runs to set him up for the fall is good stuff but the execution is pretty meh and the aftermath of it going straight into flashback comics is both padding and a cop out. Oh, and the movie should have been called Knightfall as well.

Irredeemable 1-4 - Basically it's mentally fragile, low self-esteem Superman having one bad day after listening to people like me ripping on him and becoming the villain that only invulnerable characters should be. Would rather The Plutonian came from the same type of household as Clark Kent (at least initially) so they're of similar stock rather than a kid being bounced around children's homes but the book's worth a looksy. As is Waid's Insufferable on ThrillBent. Got Incorruptible too but haven't started it yet.

Naruto 56 - Bit flat this volume. Introducing a similar concept used in your anime's filler (blugh) but punking it out within a few panels (when it's not commentary on that) undermimes the book.

The Scorpion: The Devil's Mark
The Scorpion: The Pope's Secret - Known in France as Le Scorpion. First two volumes collected as one by Cinebook and part of a selection I said I'd get five months ago. Surprisingly similar to Assassin's Creed II, I found. Though the book came first, o' course, it seems odd the creators haven't done a double-take. Haven't really read enough (as with XIII, which is similar to the Bourne Identity... Hrm...) to be able to judge it properly since it's an ongoing story. Doesn't have me desperate for the next volume but it's not awful or anything either.

Aliens: Fast Track to Heaven - Meh. By the books, media tie-in "graphic novella" which Dark Horse are usually better at *cough*MoreThanHuman*cough*.

Avatar: The Lost Adventures - Pretty throwaway collection of vignettes from the Avatar world. The good one not James Cameron's. Almost all gathered from the Nickelodeon magazines so it's at least nice to have them preserved despite not having much meat on them. How are these desperate attempts to not keep typing 'but' in every sentence working out for ya?

Avatar: The Promise - Part 1 - This is more like it, a media tie-in which Dark Horse is usually good at. :pac: Canonical sequel to the TV series and prequel to the events of Legend of Korra. Unfortunate that the Korra series has more or less revealed the outcome (and this story's in three parts) but it rings true to the series and characters, and that's the best you can hope for from these things. Seems to have attracted the non-comic buying crowd as well even if some of them don't seem to know how comics work.

R.I.P.D. - Got it while cheap for Lucas Marangon's art along with Hellcyon and because of Ryan Reynolds' continuing mission to be in as many comic book movies as possible. Book's not great. Interesting enough idea (dead police patrolling the afterlife) but not much to it for the four issues it lasted.

Star Wars: Knight Errant 2 - Deluge - Still enjoy it, shame it's been cancelled/put on hiatus/something. Admittedly it never had quite the momentum that the first volume of Knights of the Old Republic had but it's a concept worth saving.

The Monkey King 1 - If ya wanna see an ape fingering a nun so the sound of her orgasm will trick a curious monster into opening the jar (IIRC) they're trapped in so they can escape, then boy is this the book for you! :pac:

Mal-Adjusted

Ridley, if you like the Year One stuff, you should give Huntress: YO and Black Lightening: YO a read. (Black Lightening is a film just waiting to be made!)

A Neurotic

Getting through Ultimate Spiderman. Holy sh*t the

clone arc

is amazing.

Ridley

Mal-Adjusted wrote: »

Ridley, if you like the Year One stuff, you should give Huntress: YO and Black Lightening: YO a read. (Black Lightening is a film just waiting to be made!)

Worth going out of my way to read them? I'll keep an eye out, but the Year One banner wasn't a priority. Batman was a birthday or Christmas gift; I think Robin turned up while looking for the pre-New 52 Nightwing books at a reasonable price; Green Arrow was a combination of being in a best GA comics search and having Diggle, whose Thunderbolts run I liked, as writer.

JLA was due to looking up Mark Waid's Superman - as his FF run is the best I've read and he said he wasn't a fan of them - thinking if anybody was going to make appreciate a Superman story it would be him. Got JLA, which has one of those wonderful midleading covers, and Irredeemable instead. Plus I think his name kept popping up on the DVD documentaries I was watching while, in theory, branching out into more non-Marvel/DH stuff.

To be honest, I thought the Year One books were generally considered to suck except for Batman.

Lexii

Currently reading the Walking Dead compendium (vol-1).

danielma

im reading Slaine!

(hes like Conan but darker)

Bistoman

danielma wrote: »

im reading Slaine!

(hes like Conan but darker)

Great story, But it think it gets a little up its own Ar*e in the later storys.

Turtyturd

Currently working my way through Ultimate Spider-man.

I originally picked this up when it was released and got to issue 6 or 7 before deciding to drop it and just continue with Ultimate X-men, I have gone back to it once or twice but have never got past issue 13. I am normally Bendis' biggest critic, especially his Avengers stuff but here I have actually been impressed by his writing. The hyper active talking works in the teenage setting, and some of the humour made me laugh aloud particularly the issues involving Geldof and the X-men. There are flaws though, some of the stuff the characters say just really sound like a middle aged man trying to write like a teenager, and some story lines, like the Venom one just seemed very rushed.

Thwip!

Turtyturd wrote: »

Currently working my way through Ultimate Spider-man.

I originally picked this up when it was released and got to issue 6 or 7 before deciding to drop it and just continue with Ultimate X-men, I have gone back to it once or twice but have never got past issue 13. I am normally Bendis' biggest critic, especially his Avengers stuff but here I have actually been impressed by his writing. The hyper active talking works in the teenage setting, and some of the humour made me laugh aloud particularly the issues involving Geldof and the X-men. There are flaws though, some of the stuff the characters say just really sound like a middle aged man trying to write like a teenager, and some story lines, like the Venom one just seemed very rushed.

Are you working your way through the volume one? or are you onto the current volume?

Turtyturd

Thwip! wrote: »

Are you working your way through the volume one? or are you onto the current volume?

Through volume 1, I am currently on issue 46 (I think) although I am aware of the giant spoiler.:D

Thwip!

Turtyturd wrote: »

Through volume 1, I am currently on issue 46 (I think) although I am aware of the giant spoiler.:D

Ah said i would ask so i would have it in context for what you're writing about. It's a very good series and tbh it's the best work that Bendis has done. If you get through the whole thing and onto the current series then also try to read Spider-Men, twas brilliant

Turtyturd

Thwip! wrote: »

Ah said i would ask so i would have it in context for what you're writing about. It's a very good series and tbh it's the best work that Bendis has done. If you get through the whole thing and onto the current series then also try to read Spider-Men, twas brilliant

Cheers, will give it a go when I get to it. It's the best stuff I have read by Bendis, and the later stuff seems like he hasn't moved on from this. I have also heard he actually had a decent stab at The Clone Saga so am looking forward to getting to that.

Thwip!

Turtyturd wrote: »

Cheers, will give it a go when I get to it. It's the best stuff I have read by Bendis, and the later stuff seems like he hasn't moved on from this. I have also heard he actually had a decent stab at The Clone Saga so am looking forward to getting to that.

Yeah he's still at his best writing Spidey, even now with the current run on Ultimate Spider-Man. Though it must be said his All New X-Men is pretty good so far. One of my favourite Marvel NOW titles so far

Yeah the Ultimate clone sage is better than the 616 one, but back then writers got screwed over a lot more then by the editors and editor in chief.
On the subject of the clone saga, if you wanna read about how it all went down and why it became so convoluted and drawn out you should google "Life of Reilly". It's written by Andrew Goletz and Glenn Greenberg (who's a former editor and writer on Spider-Man) It's really interesting and gives a good insight to how it should've went down

James Howlett

I enjoyed most of Ultimate Spider-Man but dropped it at the end of the first volume, as in issue 132 and the ultimatum storyline.

I picked up the new Miles Morales issues through a comixology sale a while ago and I really liked them. The point Turtyturd made about the writing and teenage setting is evident again in this arc and Bendis continues to be on top form. However I have only purchased the first 6 issues so far… I’m waiting for the inevitable Marvel Monday price drop…

CastorTroy

Currently working my way through the Knightfall Vol 2 that was released to tie in with Dark Knight Rises, having read the 3 previously released Knightfall volumes already.

Anyone else find it harder to read older comics than the new ones? Like I eventually got through The Dark Phoenix Saga that I got from the Marvel collection, but it took me a long time. Think it's just the way it's written with do many thought bubbles and side panels explaining stuff to anyone reading for the first time.

Turtyturd

Have gotten up to Issue 113 of Ultimate Spider-Man.


******SPOILERS********












The end is in sight and I am still really enjoying it. Peter as a character is just so well written and someone who you can really relate to. The relationship with MJ is still a highlight although I am unsure about Bendis' decision to move Kitty into the school, and something about his 'modern' version of Aunt May just doesn't sit right.

There are a few things that still annoy me about it though, the main one being the six issue per arc format. I know this was a company wide policy aimed at the TPB market but it just leads to a lot of padded out stories. As much as I enjoy USM not a lot has actually happened in 113 issues in comparison with 113 issues of the original Spider-man title. He also has complete disregard for certain characters treating the X-men as a joke in their initial appearances. He does the same with some Spider-man villains, who admittedly are bad concepts to begin with but he had a chance to improve them rather than turn them into jokes.....and as a result there is a reliance on the major names (Doc Ock, and Green Goblin.)

old hippy

One of the American Splendour books by Pekar & Crumb. Everyday observational stuff as recorded by the above in the 70s/80s

Thwip!

Turtyturd wrote: »

Have gotten up to Issue 113 of Ultimate Spider-Man.


******SPOILERS********












The end is in sight and I am still really enjoying it. Peter as a character is just so well written and someone who you can really relate to. The relationship with MJ is still a highlight although I am unsure about Bendis' decision to move Kitty into the school, and something about his 'modern' version of Aunt May just doesn't sit right.

There are a few things that still annoy me about it though, the main one being the six issue per arc format. I know this was a company wide policy aimed at the TPB market but it just leads to a lot of padded out stories. As much as I enjoy USM not a lot has actually happened in 113 issues in comparison with 113 issues of the original Spider-man title. He also has complete disregard for certain characters treating the X-men as a joke in their initial appearances. He does the same with some Spider-man villains, who admittedly are bad concepts to begin with but he had a chance to improve them rather than turn them into jokes.....and as a result there is a reliance on the major names (Doc Ock, and Green Goblin.)

The thing is though, when it comes to characters beyond Spidey Bendis has never been happy writing anyone other than Wolverine and Luke Cage. It's kinda why he shoves them into every team book he can. You can almost guarantee an appearance of them in his new Guardians of the Galaxy book.

Although it must be said he's kicking all kinds of ass on All New X-Men with Immomen