Last Comic You Read

I just read most of that last Punisher storyline that everyone was complaining about, and it was actually a pretty fun read.   And hey, the skull logo was still there, just worn by Ares now lol!

It may seem a out of character for Frank to become the warlord of a criminal ninja organization, but they actually made it work and it was entertaining for sure.  There were some solid reasons that he did what he did in this story.

Lone Wolf and Cub

This tale of a father and son journey might be too era specific but it was interesting to me how sharp your everything was to survive in this period. Sword, mind, body and skill.

Some tactics were funny to read yet effective as it unfolds. A lot of really reckless parenting! If you see past the pacing and perhaps some difficulty understanding some cultural references, it truly is a gem of a saga.

I'm only on the 4th omni so far! 

Dept H

Neat murder mystery in a deep sea facility. Only on book 2 so far but hooked in. I think in general those who read Kindt's work, like Lemire, know that his words are stronger than his art. Many of the designs are trippy but I dug it. I feel he has a lot more freedom with his imagination here than having to be set in the world of Mind MGMT. He weaves it all tightly.

Scorched #1

I haven't touched a Spawn comic in years but saw this on the dollar bin and gave it a go. The lay out seemed typical Spawn stuff. He's more of a lead tactician now and building this team consisting of She-Spawn(strong female lead), Medieval Spawn(team powerhouse), Gunslinger Spawn(guy on the team with attitude) and Redeemer(seems to be the deus ex machina). Recruitment begins to save something good to prevent something world ending. Tons of great art. I wanted to continue but the 2nd issue was not in any bins I've visited. 

Finishing up the late 80s 12 issue Saga of the Sub Mariner Limited Series. 

Finishing the last 25 issues of IDW ARAH Hama run I started earlier in the year from issue #1

Secret Six by Gail Simone: 4/5. I read this one at Robo's behest and wasn't disappointed. I mostly knocked it a star because of the forced crossover stuff (admittedly a DC problem, not a Simone problem) and because I didn't like the last arc. The dialogue is whip-smart, the characterization is unique, and the interpersonal relationships are real. What is it about a team of losers and misfits that works so well? The X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, Doom Patrol, Suicide Squad, etc. all fit the bill.

Yeah, that Simone is a gem of a writer when she's left alone to do her thing.  I love that she made Mad Hatter into both a truly weird MFer and truly a dangerous threat.  And she made Catman cool, of all God's Loser Characters.  And Simone's handling of Deadshot is why Will Smith's handling of him sucked.  Will Smith couldn't act sleazy even if his wife's boyfriend told him to.

I've read some of Hickman's FF run and am impressed with it but I've not seen anything from it to say it beats the Byrne run.  That 5year run as writer/artist is the finest body of work yet published by Marvel Comics, imho; only beating Simonsons' w/a run on Thor due to being about twice as long.  Byrne made Sue into an actual person and the respect of finally being a grown-up Woman, as well as showing why Doom is arguably the awesomest comic character ever created.  The Waid/'Ringo FF run is my 2nd-fave run on that book as he brought it all back to them being a family of ImagiNauts.  My impression of the Hickman run is that it doesn't actually focus on the Four themselves so much as the kids and assorted other 'family' members, aside from Reed and the Cross-Time Council of Reeds.

So, aside from the obvious of 'finish reading the run', sell me on why it's the best run of all.

If those are your preferences, I don't know that I can sell you. They're two different flavors. While I'm sure some folks appreciate all FF runs, I'm only drawn to Hickman's science-fiction epic. I think he manages to stay true to the characters, maintain the elements of intimate family drama, and tell a story on a grand scale. If your vision of the FF is light-hearted explorers, I'm not sure you'd like the Hickman run as much. If you like Rick Remender's Black Science, you'll probably like Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four.

That said, to best appreciate it, you do have to finish the run. 😀 To make matters worse, you really need to read his FF, Avengers, and Secret Wars arc to get the complete picture. It's a lot to manage with alternating titles almost all the way through, but well worth it. There are individual Big Two runs that I like more than Hickman's Marvel epic (namely Uncanny X-Force, All-Star Superman, and Astonishing X-Men), but nothing comes close to Hickman on that scale.

The new Masters of the Universe comic that started.. I think two weeks ago?.. is starting out pretty fun. It's a prequel to the Netflix Revelation show, and seems to be set pretty much right after Adam becomes He-Man for the first time. Which is pretty cool.

I'm interested in seeing where it goes, because technically (according to Smith) the Filmation cartoon is the prequel to the new cartoon. So is this comic setting up a whole potential SERIES where they can re-tell the entire Filmation story through comics in the Revelation style, or are they going to dump the Filmation connection and imply that the events of Revelation took place not TOO long after He-Man first appeared in Eternia? It certainly seems to imply, even just based on the age of the characters here and in the show, that the events of the prequel and the events of Revelation can't happen more than a few years apart.

And here's something controversial - I actually think I prefer the latter to be the case. The Filmation He-Man seems far more of a 'grown up' to me than the Revelation He-Man, and from a narrative point of view, I actually think removing the connection to Filmation entirely and making this its own separate He-Man universe is better and more interesting.

Other than that, I am SO far behind on my comics. Like... so far. I think I'm 15 or 16 issues behind on Ghost Rider. I have a bunch of Thor and Moon Knight I haven't read yet. I've given up on Spawn because there's too many for me to actually read nowadays. I've given up on DC because I haven't liked anything they've put out in the last year-ish. I've given up on X-Men because ONCE AGAIN it has become an absolute clusterfuck of nonsense that's almost impossible to follow (WHY can't anyone just tell X-Men stories anymore? - why does it have to be filled with rubbish and a constant need to re-invent everything?).

Secret Six is one of my favorite comic runs overall, and possibly my favorite in DC's entire catalogue. Robo bringing it up the other day has me thinking I might go back and re-read it, but I'm already so far behind on newer stuff I doubt I'll get around to it anytime soon.

Daredevil by Ed Brubaker: 4.5/5. This was the last DD run I wanted to hit. Brubaker's run felt like a natural extension of Bendis's run, though I'd argue Brubaker's work was better. It didn't have the highs of Bendis's run, but it also didn't have the lows. If I were to rank the DD runs I've read:

1. Waid - haven't read this one since it was first published. I'd like to go back to it soon while the others are fresh in my mind.
2. Zdarsky
3. Brubaker
4. Bendis
5. Miller
6. Soule

The last few comics I've read.

1. Ditko Archives Vol 3. Just some silly 5 page horror stories I'm reading for the month of Oct. Obviously the stories are bad but Ditko's cartooning is really good at this point. You can see his style maturing story by story.

2. Tomb of Dracula (read a stack in the  20s) Also reading for October. Going thru my nearly complete original issue run (missing like 4 of the main run) Colan with Palmer inks can't be beat.

3. Daniel Clowes "Monica" A great comic by one of the great cartoonists of the modern era. Beautiful colors; more personal than his usual work.

4. Age of Bronze Book 2 by Eric Shanowwer. Don't know why I took so long to read these considering my love of comics and ancient history. Really well done. The new color editions are well executed.

5. "Jack Kirby: Epic Life of the King of Comics" by Tom Scioli. Liked Scioli a lot from his FF Grand Design book. His 2 books on Stan and Jack are essential. Just grabbed a handful of his "Godland" series the other day to give it a go.

6. "Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow" Tom King / Bilquis Evely. Fun little character study with some really nice art.

Sitting on my stack to finish or start next. The final few books of the Zdarsky Daredevil run, The final 3 trades of Immortal Hulk, "Madwoman of the Sacred Heart" Alejandro Jodorosky & Moebius.

I turned October into Batober, re-reading the major Batman works I love and loathe and hitting a few new ones along the way. I'm not someone who revisits books, movies, or games, so this has been an interesting experiment. The curse of expectations knocked some of my favorite works down a peg or two while those I didn't care for initially were elevated.

Batman: Year One by Frank Miller - 4/5. My opinion here didn't change. I like some parts of this book and dislike others.

Batman: The Man Who Laughs by Ed Brubaker - 4/5. I love almost all of Brubaker's work, so I was surprised to find that this is more of a paint-by-numbers Batman story than I'd thought.

Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb - 5/5. This was the big winner. I read Long Halloween a few years ago and didn't care for it. Upon re-read, I think it's the definitive Batman story. Batman is fallible after all, the twist is both surprising and satisfying, and Tim Sale's artwork is gorgeous.

Batman: Dark Victory by Jeph Loeb - 4.5/5. Long Halloween's sequel, which I hadn't read before. These two books together are magnificent. I'll be picking up the trades as soon as I can find them. My only knocks are that they didn't address the real killer from Long Halloween and Dark Victory borrows its formula from Long Halloween.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller - DNF. Probably my hottest comic take is that I hate this book. I gave it another chance and gave up halfway through.

Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore - 5/5. A masterpiece if you can get over Moore's need to use sexual assault in every book.

Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying by Marv Wolfman - 3/5. Another first-time read. Sacrilege to say, but this one felt dated to me.

Batman: The Black Mirror by Scott Snyder - 4/5. I thought this was a 5/5 coming in, but the art and coloring make up for a lackluster mystery.

Batman: Death of the Family, Zero Year, and Endgame by Scott Snyder - 5/5. I read Snyder's run when it first hit shelves. I was evangelical about Court of Owls and Endgame and lukewarm to negative on the rest. Death of the Family and Zero Year, two of my least favorite arcs from his run, have become my two favorites. DotF is horrifying and Zero Year is an unbelievably cool premise. I couldn't get on board with ZY the first time because I thought it was absurd. Silly me. Endgame fell a bit in my estimation but the ending is still perfect.

I'll post my November/December reads later.

I mostly read older stuff, but do read Xmen and Wildcats every month.

Some other recents reads include:

Dark Xmen #1-5: Decent read, good art, wacky Xmen spin-off strory. Read it to understand some of the Fall of X books before the impending retcon. Also I got to see Chasm for all of 10 pages, so that’s cool I guess.

Action comics #1000-1027: okay, but not super exciting. Reading to understand the War World story (which I did not know featured a version of the Authority) that takes place and get caught up to the present issues.

Monsters by Barry Windsor Smith: great self contained story, but it is dark (thematically). I really liked the Immortal Hulk, and someone on the internet recommended this as a follow up. It makes that Hulk story seem like a kid’s cartoon.

Xmen Red #1-13 (ish): bought this because I liked the old Xmen Red from 2018. This is more Arako nonsense. If youre into that sort of thing, it’s fine.

Haunt #1-28: read this because Haunt appeared in King Spawn #1 and I never finished the original Haunt book after stopping at issue 4 back in the day. This series sucks. Most people complained about the book after the original art team leaves, but honestly the entire series is like a weirdly immature and oversexed version of the Agent Venom series, and the finale leaves more questions than it answers. The women are nice to look at, but are honestly some of the most blatant displays of women as sex objects I can recall reading in a modern comic.

King Spawn #1: Decent. I’m kinda lost, but at least something happened in this book.

X-men Blue Origins #1: Nightcrawler’s true origin is the one we all expected. Glad they had the balls to do it, finally.

I'm making my way through 90's X-books--X-Men #1, Uncanny 281, X-Force 1, and X-Factor 71.  I'm starting there and working my way up.  A lot of these I've never read in sequential order as I was kind of just starting superhero comics at the time of their release and I was filling holes.

That said, the LAST comic I read was X-Force #4.  With every turn of the page I braced myself for whatever.........unique layout Liefeld had in store.  It was interesting.  And in the "aged poorly" category, this story is a crossover with Spider-Man where they fight the Juggernaut in New York.  In the battle, one of the World Trade Center towers gets the top blown off of it and then collapses completely.  This book was made 10 years before 9/11.

I think tonight I'm taking a break and reading Duke #2 which came out yesterday.  I'm into those Skybound GI Joe books so far (and I KNOW there's a potty joke suitable for a ten year old boy involving "Duke" and "number two" in there somewhere, I'm just not seeing it).

Finally got around to Hip Hop Family Tree and Tom Scioli's "I am Stan" both excellent.

Been crossing off long-time to-read items and doing some re-reads. I'll try to keep this brief because there's a lot.

Beta Ray Bill: Argent Star by Daniel Warren Johnson - 4/5. Tremendous fun. Old-school Thor fans: read this.

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V. - 4.5/5. Somewhat predictable but emotionally impactful.

The Nice House on the Lake by James Tynion IV - 3/5. Episodic storytelling at its worst. It's a great concept and has killer cliffhangers, but nothing is ever paid off satisfyingly.

Grendel: Devil by the Deed by Matt Wagner - 4/5. A solid introduction to the character.

Reckless books 1-5 by Ed Brubaker - 4.5/5. I love Brubaker and Phillips' crime fiction. This is no exception.

Night Fever by Ed Brubaker - 4/5. Not up to Brubaker and Phillips' usual standards, but memorable in its own way.

Thor Omnibus by Michael J. Straczynski - 3.5/5. Coming in, this was my favorite Thor run, but after re-reading, that's no longer the case. Outside of moving Asgard to Broxton, Oklahoma, I didn't find it fun or interesting. Not to mention the fact that there's basically no ending.

Animal Man by Grant Morrison - 5/5. This blew my fucking socks off. Honestly one of the 50 best things I've ever read, comic or novel. If you haven't read this, prioritize it.

X-Men: Inferno by Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson - 3.5/5. Most of the Claremont stuff doesn't read well anymore, but the characters and character dynamics are still among the best in superhero comics.

X-Men: X-Tinction Agenda by Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson - 4/5. The apartheid analogy works better for me than it probably should.

Once & Future by Kieron Gillen - 4/5. This is fun, but I found it to be empty calories and gave up after the first trade.

Something is Killing the Children by James Tynion IV - 5/5. Despite a lot of hype, I didn't like Tynion's Batman or Nice House on the Lake. I'm glad I gave him another shot. This series is gripping, fun, and full of wonderful occult world-building. It has surprising thematic depth for a comic book about monster hunters.

Swan Songs by Maxwell W. Prince - 5/5. YMMV here. It's a six-issue anthology series about the end of ____. A marriage, a sentence, etc. I knew where the series was going from the jump, but that didn't stop me from loving every second of it.

Nightwing by Tom Taylor - 4/5. I only read the first volume, but I may eventually return to it. It hasn't left my mind since I finished it.

X-Men: X-Cutioner's Song by Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza, and Peter David - 3.5/5. I don't know why, but I'm more forgiving of '80s silliness than '90s silliness, and that's coming from someone who grew up on '00s silliness.

Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison - 4/5. I gave up after the first two volumes. The Morrison that I love, I love. I completely understand why people love this, but it's too out there for me.

Catwoman by Ed Brubaker - 4/5. Having read almost everything Brubaker has ever written, it was funny to see the early indications of what was to come. There's a private eye. A doomed romance. Pulpy crime fiction. It's got it all.

Wonder Woman by Greg Rucka - 4/5. I haven't read a ton of Wonder Woman, but I liked this a lot. The Hiketeia was the highlight for me. Probably the single best Wonder Woman story I've ever read. I just wish she was more relatable.

The Sacrificers by Rick Remender - 5/5. Remender is easily my favorite comic writer. This one is a lot like Seven to Eternity with better characters and some on-the-nose (but satisfying) political themes thrown in. It's only volume one, so I'm excited to see where it goes.