1000 books in 2020 1 1

[Raze]

366-367

Fire Power TPB Prelude

This was good. But it seems like the set has been done  over and over and over again but with fireballs. I will be reading 1-3 soon.

Batman 98 

Harley v Punchline part 2...this book was ok and I think its a bit off track of the story. I could be wrong.

[Raze]

368

MAD 9

I read it and it went over my head..again as with all the MADs I read.

But I like the cover!

[srezvan]

I just finished reading the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: the Ultimate Collection Volume 1, which includes the original TMNT series #1-7 and Raphael one-shot. I must confess, I'd never read these before. Loved the cartoon and toys as a kid. I read the IDW series that started in 2011 - had it on my pull list and kept up for 50+ issues. I just got tired of it and gave up.

I really enjoyed this compilation. It's crazy to find out all these years later that Krang wasn't even in the original comic (he played a large role in the cartoon), the Shredder story was awesome (which I won't spoil here), and how quickly the story goes crazy with interstellar travel. The commentary from Eastman and Laird was very interesting - they liked drawing robots and dinosaurs, so they integrated those into the series. I liked hearing the story of how TMNT slowly gained steam over the first 3 years it took to complete these 8 books as there is commentary after each story. I think the Mousers are still some of my favorite villains.

I don't have the next ultimate collection book, and I'm on the fence if I want to read it or not. In the meantime, I think I'll read the House of X / Powers of X hardcover - I hear it's great. I'm still reading the D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook, so my comic book reading is slowing down.

 

[Raze]

1 hour ago, srezvan said:

I just finished reading the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: the Ultimate Collection Volume 1, which includes the original TMNT series #1-7 and Raphael one-shot. I must confess, I'd never read these before. Loved the cartoon and toys as a kid. I read the IDW series that started in 2011 - had it on my pull list and kept up for 50+ issues. I just got tired of it and gave up.

I really enjoyed this compilation. It's crazy to find out all these years later that Krang wasn't even in the original comic (he played a large role in the cartoon), the Shredder story was awesome (which I won't spoil here), and how quickly the story goes crazy with interstellar travel. The commentary from Eastman and Laird was very interesting - they liked drawing robots and dinosaurs, so they integrated those into the series. I liked hearing the story of how TMNT slowly gained steam over the first 3 years it took to complete these 8 books as there is commentary after each story. I think the Mousers are still some of my favorite villains.

I don't have the next ultimate collection book, and I'm on the fence if I want to read it or not. In the meantime, I think I'll read the House of X / Powers of X hardcover - I hear it's great. I'm still reading the D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook, so my comic book reading is slowing down.

 

Ive always wanted to read this as well.

[DavidTheDavid]

I finished the DC war book. I read a four part series from Warren Ellis, a steam punk thing that I didn't like.

I read Lost #2 and Wynd #3

[DavidTheDavid]

And these

[paperheart]

21 minutes ago, DavidTheDavid said:

I finished the DC war book. I read a four part series from Warren Ellis, a steam punk thing that I didn't like.

I read Lost #2 and Wynd #3

who would peddle such trash?

[cgcsketcherz]

10 hours ago, srezvan said:

I just finished reading the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: the Ultimate Collection Volume 1, which includes the original TMNT series #1-7 and Raphael one-shot. I must confess, I'd never read these before. Loved the cartoon and toys as a kid. I read the IDW series that started in 2011 - had it on my pull list and kept up for 50+ issues. I just got tired of it and gave up.

I really enjoyed this compilation. It's crazy to find out all these years later that Krang wasn't even in the original comic (he played a large role in the cartoon), the Shredder story was awesome (which I won't spoil here), and how quickly the story goes crazy with interstellar travel. The commentary from Eastman and Laird was very interesting - they liked drawing robots and dinosaurs, so they integrated those into the series. I liked hearing the story of how TMNT slowly gained steam over the first 3 years it took to complete these 8 books as there is commentary after each story. I think the Mousers are still some of my favorite villains.

I don't have the next ultimate collection book, and I'm on the fence if I want to read it or not. In the meantime, I think I'll read the House of X / Powers of X hardcover - I hear it's great. I'm still reading the D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook, so my comic book reading is slowing down.

 

Very cool, I didn't know this existed!

[DavidTheDavid]

27 minutes ago, paperheart said:

who would peddle such trash?

 

[Raze]

369-377

Fire Power 1-3

Thus is a fun read. Im liking Kirkman again!

Catwoman 22-25

I started reading this because Jolle Jones was writing and doing art. Now that shes gone I might drop the title. Although issue 22 was a fun one shot about a sexy maid service who robs people. 
 

Nightwing 74

Joker War tie in and it ties in well...no spoilers

Batman 99

Well this had something I didnt see coming and I can’t wait to see how it ends.

[ttfitz]

Going a bit slower the last two weeks  adding the following:

Star Trek Year Five 7-12

Like the series, some good ones, and not great ones, but overall I'm enjoying the series.

Sandman 25-28, 32-34

Finished Dream Country with the family, and skipped ahead to A Game of You, because that's what the tpb collections do.

Something Is Killing the Children 1-8

One of my comic shop buddies suggested this series, so I gave it a try. Wouldn't say it's my favorite, but it's worth a read, keeping my interest up in any case.

Star Trek Assignment Earth 1-5

Year Five had a story featuring Gary Seven, so my daughter and I thought we'd check this series out to see if it gave us any clues to what he's up to. Byrne writing and art, so pretty good, but no, no clues delivered.

Defenders 69-70

Continuing where I left off, hopefully we'll find out what the deal with Lunatik is.

 

So the total for the year reaches... 624.

[F For Fake]

X-Men Revolution Omnibus

As I continue my tour through “the dark years” of the X-Men (post Jim Lee, pre Grant Morrison), this was the volume I was perhaps dreading the most. Chris Claremont’s return! I feared it because I vividly recall being excited about his coming back to the fold back in the day, buying the first couple of issues, and then dropping the book again because of how bad it was.

20 years or so later, how do I feel about it?

Despite the massive popularity and sales, 90’s/00’s X-Men seem pretty terrible to me. The art is the primary offender (aside from some bright spots provided by Joe Mad and Alan Davis) but the storylines weren’t helping anything. Cable, Bishop, Gambit, all of that junk, it always rubbed me the wrong way.

So, my trip through most of these volumes has been a bit of a chore. There’s some fun stuff here and there, but not much that I particularly enjoy. And with my own memories of Claremont’s return being a bit of a fizzle, imagine my surprise when I found this omnibus to not only be NOT awful, but actually pretty fun, on the whole? I’d had a similar response to my previous read, X-Men vs Apocalypse The Twelve.

For one, it helps that the art was improving. Leinil Francis Yu is on board for big chunks of this arc, along with others like Salvador Larroca, and even if they were relatively wobbly compared to the artists they would ultimately become, there’s no question that this is an improvement over the Kubert/Churchill/etc stuff that precedes it. (Though there are a few issues here by Booth, which I was not a fan of.)

As for the story, it’s designed to be a good “jumping on” point. Six months have passed since the end of The Twelve. Cyclops is missing/dead. Everyone got snazzy new outfits, which firmly straddle the line between dumb and awesome. Kitty Pryde gets an X-treme haircut and carries around Wolverine’s old bone claws. The X-Men are working undercover at a space station, or something? Look, there’s a lot going on here.

With these stories, Claremont makes the initial mistake of putting all of his villain eggs in The Neo basket. I don’t think I ever understood what their deal was exactly, as they weren’t particularly memorable. I can totally understand why Claremont, upon returning, wanted to do something new instead of just play the hits, but these bad guys just never jelled for me, which is a shame, because they eat up most of his run here.

That being said, there are issues here that invoke that classic Claremont vibe. And I have to admit that it was a bit of a shock to return to Claremont’s super dense scripts. Having lived in the world of “decompressed” storytelling for so long now, it’s a bit of a shock to return to those stories that “eat like a meal.” You actually have to read them, and it takes longer than 2 minutes to finish an issue. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed these kinds of comics.

The stories seem to be mostly centered around Rogue and Gambit, which seems odd at first, but again, Claremont probably didn’t want to go back to his old tricks. I understand that.

Speaking of his old tricks, his kinks are ramped up to 11. You’ve rarely seen so many fetishistic bondage traps in an X-Men comic as you will in these issues. Kitty, Storm, everyone gets a chance to be bound. It’s pretty hilarious after a while.

The “Black Sun” mini series is included here, and again, I couldn’t really make myself care that much about it. I guess Amanda Sefton becomes Magik? I didn’t remember that happening at all. Also, did anyone ever care about the “new” Thunderbird? Does he even exist anymore? I couldn’t say. This run is full of “new” ideas that didn’t really seem to stick, but I admire the old guy for trying.

All that being said, it really feels like just before Marvel yanked the rug out from under him and gave the book to Grant Morrison, Claremont was hitting his comfort zone. I wouldn’t say he was in a groove necessarily, but it did feel like the nervous jitters were more or less worked out, and he was getting back to what he did best, by which I mean overwrought and overwritten superhero soap opera.  And…I actually liked it?

I’ve never read X-Treme X-Men, but I’m assuming that would be the natural procession from this point. After reading Revolution, I’m generally curious about that title, which is something I couldn’t have said beforehand. Has anyone here read that run? If they release an Omni, I'll pick it up.

Over all I couldn’t recommend this on its own, but if you’re on a similar revisitation of the X-Men’s dark years, I can tell you that this one goes down quite a bit smoother than you might expect. Good luck!

Looks like this is 31 issues, which should bring my total up to 606  for 2020.

[Talapas1]

Wow.  Finally finished this one.  
719-780: The Fourth World Omnibus.   
This was a beast to get through.  Between the dense exposition and vintage writing style, combined my slower reading speed as I move into middle age, this book took a bit.    The art was great and I loved all the giant pages of Kirby art.   Mister Miracle has slowly become one of my favorite characters so it was a foregone conclusion that those issues would be my favorites.   Two things that really detracted from these stories for me was the Jimmy Olsen stuff, which felt interminable, and the focus on Earth.   I can’t stand Jimmy Olsen as a main character and the newsboys here were just as obnoxious.   Though I get the use of Earth as ten battleground between New Genesis and Apokolips, all of the action that took place on those two planets was usually my favorite.  All in all, I’m glad I read it, as collecting the single issues was taking too much time, but I’ll likely only revisit it for Mister Miracle and Orion.    And Big Barda.   

[srezvan]

I'm up to 165 books for the year! Just finished the House of X / Powers of X Hardcover. As a life-long fan of the X-Men, I was turned off by the constant rebooting and finally cancelled my pull list after two reboots ago or so. I pictured this up largely because of the feedback in this thread. I really didn't know anything about it, other than it was 12 issues. Nothing else, and I guess I missed a lot of stuff since I stopped reading X-Men.

This hardcover was great. I can't imagine trying to read this monthly over 6 months. I was constantly flipping back to re-read parts. A very ambitious reboot of the series with a lot of interesting threads. I won't spoil anything here, but it was great to see a fresh story that points back to past stories and characters. It was an enjoyable book.

Now the issue - this wasn't a standalone story but a reboot. There are close to 100 issues out now across all the rebooted titles, I think. Are any of them any good? Some of them sound interesting, but there's just so much to read...is it worth it to continue? I see there are hardcovers that cover one month of all the titles.

Next up: Star Wars: Kanan, 12 issue series. I'm re-watching Rebels, so the timing is right.

[ttfitz]

6 hours ago, srezvan said:

Now the issue - this wasn't a standalone story but a reboot. There are close to 100 issues out now across all the rebooted titles, I think. Are any of them any good? Some of them sound interesting, but there's just so much to read...is it worth it to continue? I see there are hardcovers that cover one month of all the titles.

I can't answer your basic questions here - I continue to buy the X-books, but haven't read one in years - but if you want to check them out without committing to them, can I suggest actually checking them out? As in, lots of libraries these days carry comic collections, and lots of them have digital services that you can check comics out from. If you've seen my posts on this thread, my family is reading Sandman together. One of my kids has the collections that I gave her for Christmas, my wife is reading the physical copies that I bought when the book came out, and my son and I are checking out the collections from Hoopla, which is offered through our library. If you have a library card you can probably check stuff out like this; if you don't have a library card, lots of libraries these days are letting you apply online. And if you live in a urban or suburban area, you probably have access to a number of adjoining library systems, too - I think I have 7 library cards at the moment (I live near DC).

[F For Fake]

13 hours ago, srezvan said:

I'm up to 165 books for the year! Just finished the House of X / Powers of X Hardcover. As a life-long fan of the X-Men, I was turned off by the constant rebooting and finally cancelled my pull list after two reboots ago or so. I pictured this up largely because of the feedback in this thread. I really didn't know anything about it, other than it was 12 issues. Nothing else, and I guess I missed a lot of stuff since I stopped reading X-Men.

This hardcover was great. I can't imagine trying to read this monthly over 6 months. I was constantly flipping back to re-read parts. A very ambitious reboot of the series with a lot of interesting threads. I won't spoil anything here, but it was great to see a fresh story that points back to past stories and characters. It was an enjoyable book.

Now the issue - this wasn't a standalone story but a reboot. There are close to 100 issues out now across all the rebooted titles, I think. Are any of them any good? Some of them sound interesting, but there's just so much to read...is it worth it to continue? I see there are hardcovers that cover one month of all the titles.

Next up: Star Wars: Kanan, 12 issue series. I'm re-watching Rebels, so the timing is right.

So glad you enjoyed the House/Powers book! I think it’s great. Hickman is so good at world building. It’s a dense read for sure, but we’ll worth it!

As for the X-titles that follow, Marvel actually has a fairly cheap option that I have been loving; every month they release a trade paperback titled Dawn of X, which collects all of the various x-titles of a single month into one volume. So, volume one has all of the number 1 issues, vol 2 has the #2’s etc. it’s a great idea as it allows you to sample all of the various books across the x-universe in one handy trade.

They’re also relatively inexpensive, a great bargain with a cover price of around $18-$20, which means you can get them for about $13 at most retailers. New volumes from IST are only around $10 when they come out.

So far they’re up to vol 7, I believe. I’d recommend picking up the first couple and seeing if you like the format. I’m loving it, and I wish DC would use a similar approach for their various families, like a monthly Batman-related trade etc.

And yes, Marvel is doing HC’s for the various titles as well. Maybe pick up the Dawn of X books and if any of the individual titles really stick for you, pick up the HC for those books for the permanent collection. That’s my plan, at least!

[Talapas1]

781-790

 

Lazarus Risen 1-4

I loved Lazarus and am a fan of these longer format books.   Rucka has created an awesome and somewhat scary world And I can’t get enough of it.   

 

Punisher: The Platoon 1-6

I’m a sucker for most anything Garth Ennis, especially his takes on American experience. I really enjoyed this story but almost wish it was longer.  Learning about Frank Castle and not the Punisher was pretty cool, but it felt like this story could’ve been stretch to ten or twelve issues.
What I really liked the most about reading this series was some memories from my childhood.  My Grandpa read novels, both fiction and nonfiction, about The Vietnam War.  I ended up reading almost every one he had as well.  I found the experiences that our conscript troops went through both fascinating and terrifying.  
This story really sent me back to those days, reading and chatting with grandpa about the books and such.     I’m sure if he was still alive, he would’ve enjoyed this series too.   

These are worth a read if you are a fan of Vietnam War movies, Garth Ennis, or the Punisher.  

 

[Talapas1]

701-826

I was going to break these up and do individual writes up on them, but the stack got away from me.   Mainly my monthly subscriptions but a few odds and ends as well.   Favorites currently are Strange Tales, DCeased, The Boys: Dear Becky, and The Cimmerian.   I’m enjoying the Superman stories, but not a huge fan of the art.  I enjoyed Empyre, and Just wrapped that up.  

Getting close the the 1k mark.   Thanks for the motivation.  

[Talapas1]

On 9/22/2020 at 5:18 PM, srezvan said:

Next up: Star Wars: Kanan, 12 issue series. I'm re-watching Rebels, so the timing is right.

 

I really enjoyed the Kanan mini.  Hope you like it too.  

[srezvan]

I finished the Kanan series. It's just 12 issues and it was a very quick read. It was ok. I liked the flashback structure of the story and it was interesting to see Kanan's early history as a Padawan. Nice tie-in with the show.