Anyone currently reading comics?

[bigstinkie]

Look the 90's could be goofy slop, but the slop never looked better than The Darkness!

were the 90s considered a bad time for comic books in regard to their quality?

 

[Octopus]

a second-hand tablet that's about the same dimensions as a standard magazine has been a real revelation there.

You know, I never thought of that somehow...

You are 100% correct, that's the clown in question. I guess he was that dimensions Daredevil, down to genetic similarity? (Not sure why being the same person would make him undetectable to radar sense, though!)

Shhh, don't question it. I guess the same logic as why Venom was immune to Peter's Spider-Sense? Who knows.

were the 90s considered a bad time for comic books in regard to their quality?

Its usually called the 'dark ages' by most comic people. A lot of stuff changed essentially, both in the business and in pop culture and those definitely influenced the art and aesthetic. It was the rise of 'edge' and thigh pouches, and characters with huge guns and bad anatomy since that's what the kids were getting into. That stuff is mostly subjective to be fair, I didn't mind the 90s that much personally in terms of style, but the business itself also really changed due to historically low sales across the board leading into the 90s which made publishers generally chase trends rather than go with cool ideas or established norms; every character became a Cable or a Spawn because of this, and the big usual publishers got pretty one-note and derivative.

The 90s was also the critical mass of the speculator market, with holographic covers and variants becoming the norm to drive sales in the short term only to hurt the industry long term. People bought them up, but they didn't actually go up in value like older comics did. Comics from back in the day were valuable only because there were so few surviving copies available. A foil variant of Sensational Spider-Man wasn't valuable just because it had a cool cover when there was thousands of copies of it on the shelves also getting bought by other collectors, crowding the market. Spider-Man 121 (the death of Gwen Stacy just as an example) was valuable just because they were very rare, basically, and this whole speculator market hit it's mass in the 90s and killed the industry sales and business side for a pretty long time and led to a historic crash.

 

[Kamako]

Like I'm sure others have probably posted in here, I've been keeping up with D.C's new releases via Alex Jaffe's weekly D.C Action News podcast. Gives me a breezy 10 min rundown of what's been poppin'

 

[Dr.Kisaragi]

I reading the golden age of little lulu comics.

 

[goldman2786]

I just finished the Image comic Local Hero. I highly recommend it. It's a love letter to 90s era image(spawn, WildC.A.T.S) 90s comics in general(your Rob Lifeless) and 90s Bad Girl comics(Witchblade, etc.). The author is Tim Seeley who also draws the second half of the book. The first half is drawn like a modern indie comic about a member of a 90s team coming back to his hometown. Look, I know that type of story has been done before, but this was really something special. I really don't want to spoil too much, but this story acts like it was in the 90s. It's also a genuine love letter. It's not filled with ironic "humor", instead it's made by people who were 14 in the dark age and genuinely loved it but also write stuff much better. It is absolutely not for anyone under 18 though.

 

[MariaDelRosario]

Just curious if there's anything folks are reading and enjoying right now, DC's All In...initiative, I guess you call it, has been pretty decent. The standouts of course being the Absolute Batman/Wonder Woman/Superman books, and The Question: All Along the Watchtower had a really interesting debut.

Dark Horse just had a title wrap up called Helen of Wnydhorn, by the creative team from Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. The artwork is achingly gorgeous, and fits perfectly with a book telling a story that alternates between gothic and pulp fantasy.

I am surprised Vertigo does not get more love, though I reckon Dark Horse acquired some properties?

I have been re-eading V for Vendetta.

It is about a totalitarian government hellbent on censoring free expression and opposition to the positions of both government and media oligarchies, to the point of silencing through force, torturing, and murdering dissent.

It shows how power corrupts, and unbridled power corrupts completely to the point in which the fascist fancy themselves as just, and godlike in their power to control and destroy others who do not align to their whims.

A nice anti-hero is capable of destroying said corrupt power with anarchy and destruction, you could say he turns the tables, inflicting the pain the fascist submit society to, back to them.

I believe the anti-hero who uses that famous "anonymous" mask, is based loosely on some Jesuit guy who was a terrorist (Jesuits were actual Assassins like the Hasheesheen of Hassan I Sabba) trying to recover England from the Protestants or something, certainly not as justified as he was in the fictional plot of V for Vendetta.

I love everything Vertigo publishes. I can barely stand kids comics anymore, Dark Horse is cool tho, much more real with regards of the Human Condition even when it comes to "Super Heroes".

 

[Bakuma1997]

Checking the original The Boys Comics, i heard that compared to the show, those are mid-bad

 

[ATenderLad]

The stars bleed their last lights, as the dark spaces between them expand and fill the sky....I'm still posting though!

---

Okay! It has been a while, and there's too much to catch up on, lemme see what I got here. (By the way, as part of my constant need to change how posts are laid out, this time I'm gonna try spoiler tags for some things, see how that looks).

DC COMICS​

This year has been largely marked with the ALL IN line-wide initiative; there's a lot of titles under that umbrella, but in general? The Absolute character re-imaginings have been fantastic, and the rest have been real mixed, with only a few standouts.

We already talk about the Absolute books plenty on here, I'll try to summarize real quick:

• A! Superman (writer Jason Aaron, art by Rafael Sandoval/Ulisses Arreola) has *terrifying* villains, and is the only book thus far to show much of the wider world of "Omega Earth" - or whatever they're calling it - and how it differs from the norm. The new design of Superman, with an emphasis on a kind of nanotechnology suit for some of his powers, is a bit busy, but the colorist really makes it shine with cool highlights to emphasize the action, I think.

​

• A! Wonder Woman (writer Kelly Thompson, art by Hayden Stewart/Jordie Bellaire) has a tight focus on our heroine, and her new origins with her adoptive mother Circe, who raised her in Hell. It's as rad as that sounds, and consistently great. It works so well because Diana is the same amazing person as usual, and shines out the brighter for her darker situation. I also can't praise the art enough, with big expressive eyes that *don't* feel like anime, for once.

​

• A! Batman (writer Scott Snyder, art by Nick Dragotta/Frank Martin) is the action movie of the lineup, with Snyder drawing on what works from the Nolan movies and then some. The narration, typically delivered by our black ops agent Pennyworth, lends a noir tone of world-weary cynicism that I think enhances the cinematic vibe of it all. This Batman doesn't win, so much as he avoids losing; the lack of money seemed superficial at first, but the important part is a lack of any structural power. He's not a part of the establishment here, influencing it for the better, and the world is stacked against him. All that said, I was getting a bit bored till the latest issue, with a new vision of Bane that is....I mean, damn. Very excited for what happens next.

Spoiler: Bane so big

​

• A! Green Lantern (writer Al Ewing, art by Jahnoy Lindsay) ditched the giant canvas of cops for the cosmos, and puts a laser focus on a small town in Nevada with a story that's like...domestic sci-fi horror. An unknowable *thing* has come from beyond the stars, and a small community is cut off from the world and all help from the outside. While Lindsay's artwork does a lot for the atmosphere - the first issue being a real standout - this one feels like a novel to me. Ewing is definitely taking his time with it, which I don't mind at all, but in comics I'm always a little fearful of a good story being inevitably broken up by tie-ins and events; hopefully we get to see this one unfold before the inevitable cross-overs with the main line ("Alpha Earth"? I dunno) butt in and gum up the works.

​

• A! Flash (writer Jeff Lemire, art by Nick Robles/Adriano Lucas) on the other hand, feels more akin to a young adult vision of The Flash, featuring a scared young Wally West stricken with powers he doesn't understand, a father he can't relate to, and a fun animal companion to project his feelings on. Speed here plays out closer to time-dilation akin to the modern film version, with little hint of a speed force, or playing around with principles of velocity and science like Waid and Morrison used to do with the character. To tell the truth, this is the one Absolute book I'm rarely excited for, as it feels like a million other stories I've watched and read. Fingers crossed that changes soon?

​

• A! Martian Manhunter (writer Deniz Camp, art by Javier Rodriguez) is the exact opposite, and the one thing I HAVE to read every week. I don't know how to do this justice describing it, with it's retro visuals and focus on *very* modern problems, and the coolest version of telepathy ever depicted. Deniz Camp is writing drama that kills me here, and Javier Rodriguez should recieve any applicable awards for how he's bringing all of this to life visually. You know, it's the easiest thing in the world to describe something bad or mediocre, as your brain is already fixated on what doesn't work and *why* that is; when something is working for you on every level though? I struggle so much to figure out how to express that, and just want everyone to experience it for themselves. The ability to detail quality, and show other people what they're missing is probably what makes a really great critic, and I have so much respect for it.

Spoiler: I love this book.

​

Right now, DC has several books that are setting up the next big event between "Alpha" and "Omega" Earth, like Challengers of the Unknown, The Atom Project, and teases in ongoings like Superman, The Flash, and Justice League Unlimited....and, so far I have *no idea* what's supposed to be exciting about it. It's all so vague, and this week several signs point to Mark Waid just DOING Hypertime and Zero Hour again? I want to be excited, but come on, man.

Getting off the event train, Batman is still in the middle of it's Hush sequel, annnnd it's terrible. Look, I'm not usually this negative, but this isn't working. Loeb's story is nothing but references to the original, and it's not so much a mystery as it is "and then this happened, because Hush is three steps ahead". Also, nothing we haven't seen from Jim Lee so far. Bleh.

Now, if you're the kind of nerd that I am, and you loved Marvel Handbook and other nerd reference material, Mark Waid - with artists Todd Nauck and ya boi, Jerry Ordway - is penning New History of the DC Universe, and the first issue reminded me of being ten and memorizing imaginary histories and Z-list villains. Is this sorta thing still worth the price in a world with smartphones and fandom wikis? Probably not, but it is to me at least. (Just a heads up, it's not like the Handbooks with their encyclopedic entries, more of a linear re-telling of DC history from That One Time a Hand Created the Universe up to Now).

(Quick special mention to Ram V's DC titles, New Gods and the Black Label Ressurection Man, with the latter being *especially* interesting. It would be fun to write more about it, but with the non-linear and, frankly, dense nature of the story, I'll probably wait till it's finished).

​

Finally, Kelly Thompson and Sami Basri's Birds of Prey is still the most fun "superhero team" book out right now, I think. It's popcorn stuff, with charming action hero characters, banter, and cool art. I've praised it before on here, no doubt I will again. Always an easy pick for me at the shop.

---

...okay, I'm the slowest writer in the world, Marvel, Image, and the rest once I get home.

 

[Octopus]

Now, if you're the kind of nerd that I am, and you loved Marvel Handbook and other nerd reference material,

I think I understand that kind of nerd completely...


I think those were some of the first comics I ever bought with my own money as a wee lad. I also have nearly every Marvel Handbook issue kicking around somewhere, Marvel's own version of this from the very early 90s.

A! Flash

Some other people I hear comic stuff from IRL also agree, it just seems really derivative of a bunch of other Flash stories which is strange given the whole point of the line. I'm also not a fan of the costume, it seems like they're leaning too hard into some 90s style nostalgia bait a little bit with it. A bolero? Eh. Kinda comes off a little silly and almost generic to me, somehow.

A! Martian Manhunter

Of all modern comics I hear about, this is going to be my starting point for when I actually sit down and read them again. Everything I see and/or read of it looks so godamn cool.

Birds of Prey

I love the shots cutting to the usual Birds members (also, hell yeah to Vixen and Zealot!) then cuts to Constantine drunk in a bar. I somehow find the image of John Constantine being the only male member of an all-female team hilarious.

 

[Yousef]

@Octopus @ATenderLad oops.

With not nearly enough actual stories to go with 'em, thank God Absolute Martian Manhunter is *amazing*.

Certainly! Nice rec! Big agree.

 

[Octopus]

@Octopus @ATenderLad oops.
View attachment 85202

RIP ATenderLad, 2024-2025. Died from too many comic summaries.

 

[bigstinkie]

Its usually called the 'dark ages' by most comic people. A lot of stuff changed essentially, both in the business and in pop culture and those definitely influenced the art and aesthetic. It was the rise of 'edge' and thigh pouches, and characters with huge guns and bad anatomy since that's what the kids were getting into. That stuff is mostly subjective to be fair, I didn't mind the 90s that much personally in terms of style, but the business itself also really changed due to historically low sales across the board leading into the 90s which made publishers generally chase trends rather than go with cool ideas or established norms; every character became a Cable or a Spawn because of this, and the big usual publishers got pretty one-note and derivative.

what do you think contributed to the comic book industry exiting the dark ages? (i assume in how that timeframe is being referred implies the current state of the industry is improved)
wow i butchered that last sentence but i have no idea how to improve it

 

[Octopus]

what do you think contributed to the comic book industry exiting the dark ages? (i assume in how that timeframe is being referred implies the current state of the industry is improved)
wow i butchered that last sentence but i have no idea how to improve it

I think there were a few things rather than like one big reason and it's not like comics truly died in the 90s of course, just took some big hits. The first wave of modern comic movies started with Blade and the first Fox X-Men which drove sales up enough to get them back into pop culture, at least for Marvel (who I think were the most affected by the dark ages). I think ultimately many of the big publishers learned from the mistakes of the 90s and started moving toward writer driven comics again instead of chasing edgy art trends; the late 90s/early 2000s had some great new talent get their starts, like Straczynski at Marvel (though of course he was already a pretty big name as a TV writer before coming to comics) and Bendis, and Geoff Johns at DC. The Ultimate line at Marvel definitely put them back on the map, that shit was fire when it was first coming out. Some of the smaller publishers also didn't have anywhere near as bad of a time as the bigger ones in the 90s also, Dark Horse and Vertigo had some great years going into the 2000s. Marvel also changed leadership in 2000 as well, seeing Quesada who had actually worked in the creative side of the industry take over from Barras who was just a suit. There's probably more, that's just all I can think off of the top of my head.

 

[Yousef]

My plane takes off in three hours and the wait is killing me. I need something to rant about. Save me, comic book bullshit!!

Oh shoot, I know a perfect one. @Octopus hey remember when spidey claimed to be on par with Silver Surfer? Y’know, Silver “I have Dr Manhattan’s powers unironically” Surfer. I’d assume good ol peter was referring to his surfing skills and not, Y’know, rearranging reality molecule by molecule.

 

[Octopus]

My plane takes off in three hours and the wait is killing me. I need something to rant about. Save me, comic book bullshit!!
View attachment 85747
Oh shoot, I know a perfect one. @Octopus hey remember when spidey claimed to be on par with Silver Surfer? Y’know, Silver “I have Dr Manhattan’s powers unironically” Surfer. I’d assume good ol peter was referring to his surfing skills and not, Y’know, rearranging reality molecule by molecule.
View attachment 85749View attachment 85750

The Marvel power scale is such a meme, it's changed so many times over the years. As prefaced by Spidey/Stan Lee himself in that beginning blurp, this is just about pure physical strength and not actual power level. Even saying that though, what the fuck is the Surfer doing in the same category as Valkyrie man? Even outside the Power Cosmic, the dude is jacked up and could easily punch Luke Cage out while monologue-ing all existential about the weakness of violence and something about his dead wife or whatever. And I mean Wonder Man and Iron Man on Thor/Hercules tier? Come on, fuck off. Don't even get me started on Colossus being that low.

Also, I laughed something fierce at Black Bolt having an entirely empty speech bubble. Cute, even if he also I don't think is top punching strength tier equal to that of the Thing or Sasquatch (I think he's probably like one lower, he's not really depicted as being that strong physically).

 

[Yousef]

The Marvel power scale is such a meme, it's changed so many times over the years. As prefaced by Spidey/Stan Lee himself in that beginning blurp, this is just about pure physical strength and not actual power level. Even saying that though, what the fuck is the Surfer doing in the same category as Valkyrie man? Even outside the Power Cosmic, the dude is jacked up and could easily punch Luke Cage out while monologue-ing all existential about the weakness of violence and something about his dead wife or whatever. And I mean Wonder Man and Iron Man on Thor/Hercules tier? Come on, fuck off. Don't even get me started on Colossus being that low.

Also, I laughed something fierce at Black Bolt having an entirely empty speech bubble. Cute, even if he also I don't think is top punching strength tier equal to that of the Thing or Sasquatch (I think he's probably like one lower, he's not really depicted as being that strong physically).

If you squint hard enough, you’d probably be as silly as me for thinking Goliath was there. But blah blah blah, who cares, i just want an excuse to bring him up cuz Goliath remains the sole major marvel character to die in a marvel comic… and remain dead. Forever. Wasn’t he killed by a fake robot Thor too? What a bitch lmao. (Do feel free to correct me here because I go through my bi-annual ritual of deleting civil war from my conscience)

Then everyone lived happily ever after and nothing bad ever happened to any comic book char ever, especially not a freelance photojournalist.

 

[Octopus]

If you squint hard enough, you’d probably be as silly as me for thinking Goliath was there. But blah blah blah, who cares, i just want an excuse to bring him up cuz Goliath remains the sole major marvel character to die in a marvel comic… and remain dead. Forever. Wasn’t he killed by a fake robot Thor too? What a bitch lmao. (Do feel free to correct me here because I go through my bi-annual ritual of deleting civil war from my conscience) View attachment 85760
Then everyone lived happily ever after and nothing bad ever happened to any comic book char ever, especially not a freelance photojournalist.

It was in fact robo-Thor, who then went a little nuts as robots in the Marvel universe tend to inevitably do, especially when they're made by Hank Pym. I think it ended up being named Ragnarok, as there's only one 'big bad' Norse word and they couldn't possibly just call him anything else. There was actually no in-story explanation for why the real Thor wasn't there at all in the entire event, but it was clearly the writer (Millar, who I honestly expect better of) working around the fact that there'd literally be no conflict and he'd wipe the floor with either side if he was there. Of course it was then revealed retroactively that Civil War Pym was a Skrull during the Secret Invasion arc later on, just so Pym didn't look like a psychopath for creating a purposefully murderous Thor robot. Comics are silly.

I don't blame you at all for trying to forget about Civil War. They started out with some nuance and real stakes what with a mass casualty event at a high school, and the idea of the Registration Act was a really cool one to play around with, just like Stark and Cap breaking apart onto the two sides. Then they wrote themselves into a corner I think, as from there it just got so silly and heavy handed. In like 4 issues Stark and Reed became comedically evil to where they were employing literal mass murderers and the whole Negative Zone work camp thing, for no reason. 5/10 as a whole, but 10/10 for the actual idea.

 

[Yousef]

Hank Pym

Say no more. That’s the only summery I need.

on that note, before my plane takes off, I must give you, my octopus friend, the only proper farewell that a true great friend such as yourself deserves;

An insanely cursed Spider-Man panel:

Yes, This is indeed, Miles Morales, 1967 Spidey and Disney’s Ultimate Spidey cartoon spidey all in the same room, err, page.

 

[Octopus]

Say no more. That’s the only summery I need.

on that note, before my plane takes off, I must give you, my octopus friend, the only proper farewell that a true great friend such as yourself deserves;

An insanely cursed Spider-Man panel:
View attachment 85780
Yes, This is indeed, Miles Morales, 1967 Spidey and Disney’s Ultimate Spidey cartoon spidey all in the same room, err, page.

The Spider-Verse was a mistake.

 

[trickybus]

Say no more. That’s the only summery I need.

on that note, before my plane takes off, I must give you, my octopus friend, the only proper farewell that a true great friend such as yourself deserves;

An insanely cursed Spider-Man panel:
View attachment 85780
Yes, This is indeed, Miles Morales, 1967 Spidey and Disney’s Ultimate Spidey cartoon spidey all in the same room, err, page.

Even when 1967 Spider-Man isn't doing anything overtly goofy, he still looks like a meme waiting to happen. Thanks, internet.

 

[ATenderLad]

I am surprised Vertigo does not get more love, though I reckon Dark Horse acquired some properties?

Technically Vertigo was closed as a branding label some years back, and then re-opened last year. It's primarily "The Sandman Universe" at this point, and for understandable real life reasons, they've scaled those down quite a bit. That said, they do kinda live on as "DC Black Label", basically an R-rating for books. There's also The Nice House By The Lake/By The Sea though, which I need to get back to; really, really creepy story.

@Octopus @ATenderLad oops.
View attachment 85202

The temerity!

RIP ATenderLad, 2024-2025. Died from too many comic summaries.

When I gazed into the witches eye, I glimpsed this fate; guess I'll die!

what do you think contributed to the comic book industry exiting the dark ages? (i assume in how that timeframe is being referred implies the current state of the industry is improved)
wow i butchered that last sentence but i have no idea how to improve it

Octopus had great answers to your questions, I'd just add that, to some extent? They never really did recover. Comic book sales peaked in the 90's and have supposedly never come close to those numbers again. (It's genuinely hard to say how they do - no one is tracking sales like they used to - but it's safe to say Marvel and DC would happily announce major success when they find it. Most publishers don't share anything about their online numbers either). Comic book stores boomed for awhile, but nowadays you'd be hard-pressed to find many places that don't make their money through CCG's and tabletop gaming. For all the cultural proliferation of caped heroes in movies and TV, they seemingly didn't spark interest in the medium that spawned them. (Maybe a little with TPB's, but not single issues).

---

okay picking up where I left off...

Marvel​

Since we were just talking about it, let's start with Daredevil! Written by Saladin Ahmed, with art by José Luis Soares, the Man Without Fear is back in black. Not for any particular reason, they just "felt like a change". It gets at part of my issue with the book currently, how iterative it feels of the 80's and 90's heyday for the character. Ahmed isn't trying to ape Miller's writing style, but his internal dialogue for Murdock is....okay, brief tangent.

Awhile back I read a very, very popular romance novel called The Kiss Quotient, and it was pretty great! Interesting heroine, a fun concept, and HOT. My only issue was the hero, who had some angsty monologuing that would make Bruce "My parents are DEAD" Wayne roll his eyes and ask him to get over it.

Anyways, that's what Matt Murdock reads like in Daredevil right now; Overly Angsty Romantic Hero - Catholic Guilt Edition. I like it in small doses, but Lord, I wanna slap this man. The art is lovely though.

---

Okay, a lot of the other Marvel books are mediocre - Al Ewing's Immortal Thor notwithstanding, but the finale comes out this week and I'll waiting to see how it goes - and One World Under Doom and it's tie-ins are a bit delayed as well...however, there is a NEW event that just started, and I want to talk about it a little.

---

Imperial is the latest Cosmic marvel event, from the always interesting Jonathan Hickman, with art by Iban Coello, Federico Vicentini, and Federico Blee. It's only set to be four issues, but the debut is 51 pages, and DENSE. ($6.99 is, admittedly, still a big ask for a single issue, but let's not get sidetracked more!)

Hickman is doing what he does best, and sets up a cool premise with a huge array of characters, and all manner of mixed up intrigues - like Infinity, like Secret Wars, and like House of X/The Krakoan Age. I think I've said it on here before, but the guy is probably an amazing tabletop DM; I'd love to play a game he comes up with. In this case, he's set a cast of characters that all hearken to the big cosmic stories of the last twenty years, like The Hulk, Nova, Star-Lord, Kl'rt the Super-Skrull, and Gladiator (picture Planet Hulk, Annihilation and it's sequels, War of Kings, and Empyre), giving the *feeling* of continuity without sweating the details. Thank God for that, because nerd that I am, I'd still be drowning in the details of some characters like Hiro-Kala, second son of the Hulk, and the usual madness around Wiccan and Hulkling.

Quick summary, two mysterious figures are playing a kind of chess match against each other, and the pieces are the various movers and shakers of the universe. (Feels like a classic Starlin setup, one of these guys has *got* to be the Grandmaster). Several monarchs have been poisoned via the same method, suggesting a shared killer; one of newly dead being the ruler of Sakaar, the son of Hulk. We open with Banner, his cousin Jen, and Amadeus Cho arriving on the planet to mourn and find whose responsible. Cut to another victim, Star-Lords sister, daughter of the acting Spartax emperor J-Son, chewing on the same mystery while hosting an intergalactic meeting to decide policies between neighboring governments; Space Dakar, if you will. Hulk shows up representing Sakaar, while Star-Lord enlists the semi-retired Nova to investigate the recent regicides. At the meeting, in a kind of massive parlor room scene out of detective fiction, J-Son reveals his scientists' findings - one of the crowned heads of the assembly is responsible, and he points an accusing finger at Hulkling, ruler of the Kree and Skrull. While he quickly protests, one of his entourage admits that they *created* the poison, but had simply delivered said weapon to a client, a client in that very ro-

A gunshot rings out, the truth cut short. More shots are fired, one striking J-Son in the chest, a quick ascension to the throne for Peter Quill. The assassin blows open the chamber, sending the assembly spiraling out into the void of space, and before saving who he can, the Hulk gets a glimpse of the shooter; a Wakandan, dressed a little bit like the Black Panther. Security cameras confirm as much, and the first issue ends with the survivors proclaiming what happens next: War. Our mysterious players congraulate themselves, excited for the next phase of the game.

Y'all, I am so excited by this setup; I love a good mystery, I ESPECIALLY love a good murder mystery, and while most events are kinda shit, the cosmic Marvel cross-overs have the best batting average around. Bringing in the Hulk and his closest family is an unexpected choice, but such a cool one; like, he *IS* technically the Hero-King of an alien world! Also, this little slice of perfect:

"....and it was one of YOU." Classic, the stuff of Agatha Christie, against the backdrop of weird alien royalty, like the Mos Eisley Cantina if it were stuffed with heads of state.

​

I do have *some* reservations. Hickman weaves in a lot of comic book lore and continuity, but as far as characterization goes, he'll often bend an established character into whatever the story needs. Personally, I don't take much offense to that....but, I gotta say, in this issue he has the Hulk visibly murder a guy on Sakaar to assert his authority, and Jen/She-Hulk doesn't say a word. This, a couple pages after identifying her as "The Lawbringer"!? Maybe she's just thinking "It's space; that guys family aren't taking this to district court". Also, while I like some of what the coloring is doing, but man, there is a lot of attempts to mimic light bloom effects and white/yellow highlights, like J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies are the visual touchstone for the book. It looks nice in places, but kinda overused; I feel like this place would give me a constant headache!

There is one other bit I want to point out, which is how great this bit of dialogue is:

It's a great bit of in-character talk for the Hulk, but the way it compresses the weird details of Hiro-Kala and the expanded Planet Hulk stories into "The circumstances don't matter...all that does is that I failed him in some way, and now I will never be able to fix it." Eat shit, lore! We ain't got time for all that. Here's the feeling that matters, the important part. An excellent way to handle comic book bullshit, especially something as unpopular and convoluted as this is.

---

Sweet Christmas, but that took me so long to get around to writing out!

 

[JPZ]

The last time I read comics was in the mid 90's, it was around the time the Scarlet-Spider appeared in Spider-Man during the Clone Saga. A of of them had really nice covers, with holograms or fold-outs.

Back then I had to buy the comics and not all the versions were always available at stores, so it became hard to follow the full story. For instance, one chapter might be in Web of Spider-Man, another in Amazing, another in Spectacular and another in the newer Spider-Man! The comics became harder to find and I stopped after Ben Riley became Spider-Man, mostly due to the comics being less available.

I also read G.I. Joe and have the last issue.

I have a lot of older comics though because they were sold so cheaply in smaller convenience stores as excess stock, so I do have a lot from the early 90's and early to late 80's. Mostly Spider-Man, G.I. Joe and X-Men. I have the first issue where the black suited Spider-Man appears as well.

 

[Octopus]

Daredevil

I'd say the comic's going for some nostalgia baiting maybe in bringing it out again instead of just wearing a black regular outfit, but I'm just excited to see it (and at least there's a bit of rationale given on why DD would bring specifically that suit out). "I wanted...no, I NEEDED a change!" Yeah, I see what you mean by the angsty thing. Murdock, of all the Marvel leading men protagonists, would be the easiest to adapt I think into a romance novel honestly; the guy gets around.

Jen/She-Hulk doesn't say a word. This, a couple pages after identifying her as "The Lawbringer"!? Maybe she's just thinking "It's space; that guys family aren't taking this to district court".

My very first thought when I looked at that panel of the three terrestrial hulks arriving was how out of character Jen seems from that alone, that's funny. One I think is the art style of her. She's always swole obviously, but generally depicted as being more lean and svelte while in the art there she looks more bodybuilder-y, with massive shoulders and she even has that thing where her biceps are pushing her arms apart. I'm also not sure why she has a sword, but everyone seems to be dressing Sakar WW-Hulk style so I'm guessing it's just for the ceremony of the whole thing. I'm not against writers changing aspects of a character to suit a story in theory, but I think I kind of draw the line at "She-Hulks okay with casual murder" like you described there. That's a fairly severe bend in a strange direction, you know? Weird, it's like just use another character. Sounds like a great set-up though, as usual for Hickman; let's hope he sticks the landing.

Back then I had to buy the comics and not all the versions were always available at stores, so it became hard to follow the full story. For instance, one chapter might be in Web of Spider-Man, another in Amazing, another in Spectacular and another in the newer Spider-Man! The comics became harder to find and I stopped after Ben Riley became Spider-Man, mostly due to the comics being less available.

Yup, the truly worst thing about the Clone Saga right there. It's a pretty normal thing to get filtered by the Clone Saga, can't blame you on that one; it also happened to like 80% of the rest of the readerbase.

I have a lot of older comics though because they were sold so cheaply in smaller convenience stores as excess stock, so I do have a lot from the early 90's and early to late 80's. Mostly Spider-Man, G.I. Joe and X-Men. I have the first issue where the black suited Spider-Man appears as well.

Eh, I also got a lot of my back collection like that. I was a back issue guy too for quite awhile of my comic collecting days. My local comic shop (which unfortunately went under over a year ago, very sad; lots of good memories and people there) carried a pretty impressive amount of back issues back in the day so I'd search through the long boxes for hours.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Checking the original The Boys Comics, i heard that compared to the show, those are mid-bad

Update: They are in fact mid

 

[ATenderLad]

If you squint hard enough, you’d probably be as silly as me for thinking Goliath was there. But blah blah blah, who cares, i just want an excuse to bring him up cuz Goliath remains the sole major marvel character to die in a marvel comic… and remain dead. Forever. Wasn’t he killed by a fake robot Thor too? What a bitch lmao. (Do feel free to correct me here because I go through my bi-annual ritual of deleting civil war from my conscience)

I remember Reginald Hudlin wrote a whole arc of Black Panther mocking that, what with the dragging the character out of mothballs to kill him, and then the imagery of his corpse being covered with a tarp and buried as is. (Like his super-science pals couldn't just splash some Pym particles and get his body down to a reasonable size).

It was in fact robo-Thor, who then went a little nuts as robots in the Marvel universe tend to inevitably do, especially when they're made by Hank Pym. I think it ended up being named Ragnarok, as there's only one 'big bad' Norse word and they couldn't possibly just call him anything else. There was actually no in-story explanation for why the real Thor wasn't there at all in the entire event,

Please forgive me for this nerd pedantry - so Thor was still dead at the time, as he was from about....2005-2008, if I remember right. Part of the Avengers Disassembled event, he was out of the loop and the Sentry basically took his place for a time. (I don't think Bendis finds Thor very interesting, in general). That *was* a gods-awful name though, and so lazy; Norse poetry uses a ton of different names for various figures, Thor has like a dozen or so to choose from. Hloridi, for instance.

but it was clearly the writer (Millar, who I honestly expect better of) working around the fact that there'd literally be no conflict and he'd wipe the floor with either side if he was there. Of course it was then revealed retroactively that Civil War Pym was a Skrull during the Secret Invasion arc later on, just so Pym didn't look like a psychopath for creating a purposefully murderous Thor robot. Comics are silly.

Until you mentioned it, I never thought "Wait, they really put Hank Pym, the creator of Ultron, in charge of another fucking super-robot project"?

The great villain of the Marvel Universe? Pattern recognition.

I don't blame you at all for trying to forget about Civil War. They started out with some nuance and real stakes what with a mass casualty event at a high school, and the idea of the Registration Act was a really cool one to play around with, just like Stark and Cap breaking apart onto the two sides. Then they wrote themselves into a corner I think, as from there it just got so silly and heavy handed. In like 4 issues Stark and Reed became comedically evil to where they were employing literal mass murderers and the whole Negative Zone work camp thing, for no reason. 5/10 as a whole, but 10/10 for the actual idea.

I've definitely gone through periods of hating Civil War; I'll still never like it that much, but the larger status quo of forcing every book to think about how it engages with the government and society at large was, I think, an interesting change. (Always annoyed me that all the big brained inventors went Pro-Registration though; I've always liked the original Star Trek episode with the evil counterparts in a mirror dimension; "Evil Spock" still opposes fascism, because he's bound to logic and his intellect gives him no better answer than collective action for the greater good).

Update: They are in fact mid

Yeahhhhh....Garth Ennis is a cool writer, but sometimes I think he needs someone to pump the brakes on his more "shock jock" impulses, and ask what he thinks the story is about. I didn't read much of The Boys - just didn't enjoy it - but it seemed like he was running wild with that one.

(There's a decent spectrum of Ennis in his Nick Fury books, I think. Fury (2001) was a series that was so over the top, I'm still a little shocked they got it made with an existing character. The recent Get Fury series, featuring Frank Castle on a rescue mission in Vietnam, is still incredibly violent and bleak, but feels much more mature than that older book).