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Has Marvel found its way again?
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131 posts in this topic

Disappointingly, no.

I've still yet to read Immortal Hulk, despite most seem to say it's great, but all of their other titles are missing good art and/or good writing. I have yet to find a compliment of both in one of their rebooted titles. ASM got stale for me after a dozen issues. Iron Man and Thor are garbage. Captain America is mediocre in artwork and writing, which doesn't put them on a :censored: list, but doesn't overall set itself in front of the pack.

still haven't read the Black Order and Uncanny X-Men issues I have, though. When I skimmed though the new X-Men it had good art and the writing seemed palatable.

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12 hours ago, exitmusicblue said:

Curious what folks think -- has Marvel found its way again with respect to overall quality?

I can't even imagine that. It's been so long.

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9 minutes ago, Lazyboy said:

I can't even imagine that. It's been so long.

I only know about their, IMO, reboot struggles with regards to combining both great art and writing.

Prior to the reboot, I couldn't say whether or not this was a problem. Not sure if I've read any/much material circa 2008-2018.

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Some of the Star Wars titles I've read were fairly engaging.  I liked the Punisher series that had started in 2014 or so, but was then derailed by Secret Wars.

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Wait, Marvel is still publishing comics?  Learn something new every day. 

In all seriousness, I quit buying new Marvels over 10 years ago. I have picked up stuff off the rack and looked through it but the artwork :sick:

 

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I haven't bought a regular Marvel comic in years, but about once a year or so I'll sign up to Marvel Unlimited for a month and blast through a bunch of stuff, all the reading I can cram into 30 days for $10. I usually get caught up on the Star Wars books, which I casually enjoy (particularly the first Darth Vader series, that was pretty great.) and then just scan around for other stuff to read.

So, last weekend I was at a show, and everyone and their mother was raving about Immortal Hulk. Everybody's reading it, everybody's looking for it, everybody's buying it. SO, knowing that i was going to be heading out of town this weekend, I loaded up the app with the Avengers storyline that introduced the character, and the first 6 or 7 issues of Immortal Hulk, and went on my way.

I read them all over the weekend and was pretty underwhelmed. I mean, it was FINE, there was nothing really wrong with it, but I didn't see anything special about it, and compared to the hype, I was fairly disappointed.After the raves I was expecting something pretty special. I...didn't get that from reading them.And I was excited going into it, so that was a bit of a bummer.

SO...what else is worth reading from Marvel right now? I've got about three weeks left on my Unlimited sub, what should I check out? People keep talking about new Venom and Thanos series. Are they worth checking out? I don't care about either character, but that hasn't stopped me from reading books with them in it before. What is worth reading from Marvel that I can jump in and out of fairly easily? Talking about books published in the last couple of years. I'm well versed in the classic Marvel books.

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29 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

I haven't bought a regular Marvel comic in years, but about once a year or so I'll sign up to Marvel Unlimited for a month and blast through a bunch of stuff, all the reading I can cram into 30 days for $10. I usually get caught up on the Star Wars books, which I casually enjoy (particularly the first Darth Vader series, that was pretty great.) and then just scan around for other stuff to read.

So, last weekend I was at a show, and everyone and their mother was raving about Immortal Hulk. Everybody's reading it, everybody's looking for it, everybody's buying it. SO, knowing that i was going to be heading out of town this weekend, I loaded up the app with the Avengers storyline that introduced the character, and the first 6 or 7 issues of Immortal Hulk, and went on my way.

I read them all over the weekend and was pretty underwhelmed. I mean, it was FINE, there was nothing really wrong with it, but I didn't see anything special about it, and compared to the hype, I was fairly disappointed.After the raves I was expecting something pretty special. I...didn't get that from reading them.And I was excited going into it, so that was a bit of a bummer.

SO...what else is worth reading from Marvel right now? I've got about three weeks left on my Unlimited sub, what should I check out? People keep talking about new Venom and Thanos series. Are they worth checking out? I don't care about either character, but that hasn't stopped me from reading books with them in it before. What is worth reading from Marvel that I can jump in and out of fairly easily? Talking about books published in the last couple of years. I'm well versed in the classic Marvel books.

Well it started in avengers 684.. when hulk got powers to become immortal hulk, maybe that affected the reading...?

Not sure about anything else...i hear Donny Cates venom is good, not sure the issue numbers...

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11 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

Well it started in avengers 684.. when hulk got powers to become immortal hulk, maybe that affected the reading...?

Not sure about anything else...i hear Donny Cates venom is good, not sure the issue numbers...

yeah, I read that whole Avengers storyline first, "No Surrender" in Avengers 675-690 or something like that. And I thought that was pretty good, a story we've seen time and again but I still enjoyed it well enough. So I read all of that and then Immortal Hulk. And like I said, I wouldn't say I DISLIKED Immortal Hulk. It was fine. I just didn't get out of it what so many people seem to be loving about it.

Donny Cates is a name I keep hearing but don't know his work. I will check out Venom. Looking for more recs!

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1 hour ago, F For Fake said:

People keep talking about new Venom and Thanos series. Are they worth checking out?

I haven't read Cates' Venom yet, but Thanos was very good, and I'd read it from the start when Jeff Lemire was writing.  There's also some nice artwork by Deodato and Shaw.

Edited by Ken Aldred
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Read the first 5 or 6 issues of Venom by Cates and was also underwhelmed.  Have found Image and other Indie publishers to produce better stories and interior artwork for quite some time now.  Marvel should put a little bit more into the interior artwork instead of putting all of their money into excellent covers with dull interiors.  I haven't bought a new comic since 2018 and don't plan on going back.  The hypetrain and current spec market is a big turn off while paying 4-6 bucks for nothing more than average isn't worth it week after week.

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8 hours ago, TwoPiece said:

still haven't read the Black Order and Uncanny X-Men issues I have, though.

Black Order was bad.  Don't waste your time or money on that.

 

Marvel hit a bump in the road back when Hickman, King, and Bendis left.  I wasn't a huge Bendis fan, but he had a following and wrote a lot of big titles and events for Marvel.  They limped along with a few good writers like Ewing (though, I never really enjoyed his Ultimates2 to the same extent as others), Ta-Nehisi Coates (whose work was more socially relevant than maybe as comic stories), and Aaron whose Thor has been good, but perhaps has run too long.  With Hickman making his return (I make no bones about how excited I am to have him back with the Marvel family) and Cates writing one of the most memorable stories in recent memory (Thanos Wins), the writing talent swings back from DC towards Marvel.  Art-wise though, Marvel has this almost cartoonish aesthetic (whereas DC goes for the hyper-masculine realism...dunno how else to put it).  I just compare the likes of Humberto Ramos (I'm not sure how he even has a job as a comic artist) to a Jim Lee.  Or Mike del Mundo to Jason Fabok.  The only Marvel artist I really REALLY like is Ed McGuinness (for whatever reason, i'm okay with his big rounded cartoon chin's and big dough eyed characters).

So yeah, from a writing standpoint, Marvel has found its way again.  But if you're looking for a combination of writing/art, there aren't a lot of duo's at Marvel that currently fit the bill.  But for me, I've come to realize a good story means more than some pretty pictures.

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9 hours ago, F For Fake said:

yeah, I read that whole Avengers storyline first, "No Surrender" in Avengers 675-690 or something like that. And I thought that was pretty good, a story we've seen time and again but I still enjoyed it well enough. So I read all of that and then Immortal Hulk. And like I said, I wouldn't say I DISLIKED Immortal Hulk. It was fine. I just didn't get out of it what so many people seem to be loving about it.

Donny Cates is a name I keep hearing but don't know his work. I will check out Venom. Looking for more recs!

I am also underwhelmed by Immortal Hulk, not sure what the fuss is about!

Donny Cates run on Thanos was awesome! like a giant What if story! 

Just picked up Savage avengers 1!  great fight between wolverine & conan. may stick around for issue 2

also enjoyed the 1st issue of Dceased! may stick around for that as well

I hate MA books for the most part except to flip em! 

Edited by comics4all
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6 hours ago, comics4all said:

I am also underwhelmed by Imortal Hulk not sure what the fuss is about!

Donny Cates run on Thanos was awesome! like a giant What if story! 

Just picked up Savage avengers 1!  great fight between wolverine & conan. may stick around for issue 2

also enjoyed the 1st issue of Dceased! may stick around for that as well

I hate MA books for the most part except to flip em! 

Conan vs. Wolvie, huh?  Good to see the barbarian around town.

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5 minutes ago, exitmusicblue said:

Conan vs. Wolvie, huh?  Good to see the barbarian around town.

Yeah! Savage avengers is going to unite Punisher. Elektra. Brother Voodoo,Venom,Wolvie, & Conan as a team

I enjoyed the Conan/Wolvie scrap, let's see what next issue brings...

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7 minutes ago, batman_fan said:

That line-up gets my vote for most bizarre team-ups ever.

 

26 minutes ago, comics4all said:

Yeah! Savage avengers is going to unite Punisher. Elektra. Brother Voodoo,Venom,Wolvie, & Conan as a team

I enjoyed the Conan/Wolvie scrap, let's see what next issue brings...

 

Bizarre and amazing... not a squad you wanna mess with.  They should just be called "The Badasses."

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