Board 8 > ITT I read recommended Marvel & DC comics

(+) Yeah! (+)

Haha, I forgot the proposal and wedding were practically the same week

Such a huge contrast to the slog of planet camping.

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PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

and the detective chimp friend I can't remember the name of.

It's actually literally Detective Chimp!

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Oh, well I guess that's probably why I thought to call him a detective chimp. lol

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52 Issue 19

So Skeets ends up finding Daniel Carter again who was an ex-football star and Booster's ancestor. He wants to join Lex's super kids club but Skeets convinces him to go and access Rip Hunter's safe base with the information in it. And Daniel dresses like Booster and........... WHAT THE HELL SKEETS!? WHAT IS HAPPENING!? NO SKEETS! NO! WHY!? How could Skeets turn!? He has to be malfunctioning or someone has to be tampering with him or something.

The other story they touch on is Pope Lobo which... you know, it's funny for a gag but doesn't do a whole lot for me. I like reading Lobo's dialogue but it's not a terribly compelling story. I feel like Starfire/Animal Man/Adam Strange needs someone else in that crew to kind of liven up the group a little bit. Also, Lobo straight up took Starfire's top and murdered Devilance while the three are debating if he's changed or not. How is this a debate? He's obviously not changed. You can see it with your own eyes. Come on guys.

Oh, and Supernova stops Weather Wizard who has a very awful outfit with Wonder Girl's help. She thinks he's Superboy though. Hmm. She's also batshit crazy though.

52 Issue 20

Supernova is creeping around the Batcave and he sees... the Infinity Gauntlet? Idk.

Steel is being a hero and embracing his steel skin, but Kala finds out that Lex can take away powers as easily as he gives them.

And then we focus on Lobo's space adventures. And Lobo doesn't want to use an eye when they're under attack, but Starfire does, and then yadda yadda some big evil death skull thing is coming to kill them all after using it. I'm losing my patience with this story I think.

52 Issue 21

Natasha talks to Luthor and gets speed girl's super hero gig back. Then Lex is leading them to take out the new Blockbuster, and they're called Infinity Inc. Kind of a good name, actually. They treat this mission like it's a show and Lex is talking about editing in post and stuff. Love it. Oh, and the real Teen Titans are there and, uh......... this is kind of a rough team. Beast Boy and Raven, alright. Power Boy? Little Barda? Zachary Zatara? Hot Spot? Jesus. lol Anyway, Lex was highly entertaining and then he becomes a FUCKING MONSTER at the drop of a hat. This is why he's one of the best villains. He can keep sucking you in as an entertaining dude before being the literal worst human on the planet. The Titans and Infinity argue and then Lex has Blockbuster break free and then when the speed girl goes after him, Lex cuts off his powers and then Blockbuster proceeds to snap her neck. Fuck.

After that, the Teen Titans break up at her funeral. What the fuck. lmao Time and place guys. And then Natasha freaks out when Steel wants to talk with her and Beast Boy offers to help him with his three man team of Titans.

While that's happening, Ralph Dibny is tying up monsters after sneaking them with elastic potions to get information.

And at the end some dude is making Red Tornado a new body out of scraps.

52 Issue 22

Holy shit Lex Luthor is peak Lex here. He's chewing out a scientist for having overheard Wonder Girl calling Supernova Kon-El and Luthor is basically calling the guy a fucking idiot for the best evidence he has being some idiot girl pining for her dead boyfriend. He's kind of in the right here honestly. lol And Supernova is just watching and Lex, in typical Lex fashion, claims he's SUPERMAN of course. But Lex wants to give himself powers now! But I guess Lex is not compatible with the procedure which he does not love. Later some dude just says Lex is a liar and gets thrown out of an opening and Steel talks with him.

And then some Native American dude throws a creep out a bus. And he is not a great person. He gets offered a costume but I guess he needs to kill his grandfather for it? What's happening here?

And we get back to Dr. Magnus and Mercury! They're chatting it up and Magnus only wants to have Mercury around...... until he gets attacked by the other Metal Men. He cleverly deals with them while Mercury gets fucking wrecked and then his home is blown the hell up. Maybe with him in it! But it appears only mad scientists are allowed, not reasonably sane ones.

52 Issue 23

So apparently Dr. Morrow created a mad scientist island for everyone as part of his big scheme to escape. God I hope they explain how he pulled this off. Magnus is being forced to work with them too.

But in Yemen, Montoya, Question, Black Adam, and Isis find Intergang doing some weird crime religion thing and beating the hell out of Isis' brother. After beating him nearly to death, Black Adam makes him say his name to heal and become... Osiris! Hah. Anyway, everyone is happy at least. Question wins though.

"Isis! Osiris! Black Adam!" "What are you doing?" "Seeing if it's contagious."

Question the best. Anyway, Black Adam and Iris plan to go to China to fix it. Oh no. Glad they didn't forget about the alliance.

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52 Issue 24

We open with Green Arrow taking a call from the new Firestorm who assembled an utter garbage team of Justice League members. Wtf. lol They ask where Martian Manhunter is and he's been infiltrating governments and getting shit done. He gets Checkmate (whatever that is) shut down entirely to avenge Ted Kord, who died for it and apparently nobody listened to him when he tried to get them to do something. And he says he accomplished it to the Booster Gold statue with the rest of the fallen JLA members. Awwww.

Anyway, the new crappy JLA is fighting ghost pirates. Real talk: I know Ambush Bug is supposed to be annoying and quirky and funny, but I kinda don't like him. Should I like him? But a really really shittier team comes to help save the day, including "Immortal Bald-Man-In-Armor". I feel like Grant Morrison wrote literally all of the new Justice League stuff in this issue. Apparently these losers are from the Lex Luthor project and Skeets is here! And blasts the hell out of Firestorm. He's trying to get someone's attention. Why Skeets whyyyyyy!? Skeets murders the everloving fuck out of the Super Chief buffalo head guy and then his grandfather uses him as an example to say to Ralph Dibny to be careful. Oh.

While that's going on, Black Adam is shutting down the plan with China and calling for not murdering every metahuman now while they diss on him. And... Osiris doesn't seem quite right. Like the kid seems kind of blood thirsty.

Amanda Waller hates that Black Adam is doing Black Adam things and then gets... Atom Smasher of all people to form a new team to take him out, apparently. Uh oh.

52 Issue 15

Aight. Has Bruno Mannheim always been this fucked up? Like he's straight murdering people left and right (including Kite Man, hell no!) and eating them? What? I don't remember him ever being like this.

Meanwhile, the Black Marvel family saves Halloween from a hell demon and steals Mary Marvel and Marvel Jr.'s thunder.

And then in like hell or something, Doctor Fate shows Ralph Felix Faust, a down on his luck asshole who bargained with his soul so much that he is trapped in hell for all eternity.

And even more and then, we have Alan Scott talking to a Michael who I'm not sure who that is about the goings-on after Infinity Inc. stops Tigress and Icicle.

And back on the Mad Scientist Island, Magnus refuses to create a Plutonium Robot and.... uh... Bruno Mannheim.... has.... a giant egg creature... named Chang Tzu... having his back. What the fuck.

52 Issue 26

So the Black Marvel family drops Question and Montoya on a frigid mountain with I guess Richard Dragon there?

Then the Black Marvel family go to have dinner with Sivana's ex-wife and commit to finding Sivana for her? And there's a giant big gag of all the mad scientists being nerds who fawn over a woman? And then Osiris runs off and a lizard man wants to be his friend?

Not a tremendous issue. Also didn't we leave off on a giant cliffhanger with the space folks? Oh well.

That's it for volume 2! I think I'll actually follow Volume 2 of Immortal Hulk, actually. Unless someone guesses my favorite Marvel villain, that is!

The hints were, and I'll add a third one too:

1) Has been a member on a team, but has never led a team before.
2) Has never been adapted into an animated series.
3) Has been adapted in live action before.

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Jasper Sitwell

That's a tough but exciting clue. Like, there have been a myriad of different animated series, and as most are monster-of-the-week kind of things, they run through a lot of villains. So someone who is in live-action but not in cartoon is tough, especially thinking about super powers. And though they've been adapted into live action, that may not necessarily mean the MCU. Could be Netflix Marvel, could be Sony/Fox movies, hell could be Incredible Hulk from the 70s/80s.

But who isn't animated???

I feel like I've got something, on the tip of my tongue, but I'm not getting past an Agents of SHIELD rolodex.

Perhaps... Purple Man? I don't recall any animation with him.

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My first thought is Batroc but he's been animated.

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Mr. Hyde? Mr. Hyde's been on teams, but I don't think he was animated.

I'm sure Graviton's been animated.

Hive is a thing that happened.

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You guys will kick yourselves when someone gets it. Hahaha.

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Crossbones?

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Ward?

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I'll go ahead and say nobody has gotten it yet. I swear it's not some obscure pick where you guys will be like "Why the hell is THAT his favorite?"

Another hint: This character has not only had their own miniseries, they've had multiple ones.

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The....Red Skull?

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Akinator got it in 25 questions!

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Oh, and just because I know it would piss me off if this was the case, I'll remove all doubt.

There is absolutely no way that this character could be construed as a hero. Like, it's not a hero who has been good in the past or currently or is known as a hero in any way. In fact, I'll just say that this character has never been heroic at all.

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Final bump for guesses before I either start Immortal Hulk Vol. 2 or someone gets it and I change it!

Hints for my favorite Marvel villain:

1) Has been a member on a team, but has never led a team before.
2) Has never been adapted into an animated series.
3) Has been adapted in live action before.
4) Has had multiple miniseries.
5) Is absolutely an evil villain and has never been heroic ever.

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So Immortal Hulk Volume 2 isn't out yet. Whoops. I would think it would be considering how long ago these issues were out!

So I checked out House of X/Powers of X and it's on a huge discount this week. So I'll be reading that! @SwiftyDC I'll start reading tonight. I'm not sure what format this will be since the collection I have includes both.

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Everyone I can think of has been animated.

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PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

So Immortal Hulk Volume 2 isn't out yet. Whoops. I would think it would be considering how long ago these issues were out!

So I checked out House of X/Powers of X and it's on a huge discount this week. So I'll be reading that! @SwiftyDC I'll start reading tonight. I'm not sure what format this will be since the collection I have includes both.

Nice! There is an order to read them. Start off with House of X #1 and at the end of it there should be an order list.

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House of X Issue 1

Weird open. Someone's coming out of a plant pod it looks like, and then we learn that the X-Men are making their own plant building? There's an Esme and Sophie and I don't know either. I know Magneto, who is going to speak on Xavier's behalf to these government folk who want to use miracle flowers.

Oh, wow. They really went with Jean Grey's old campy outfit, didn't they? ...Don't love it. I don't know anything about Krakoa, which apparently has eyes everywhere here? And there's a Sage? I am lost. lol Anyway, Wolverine is here hanging out with children and Xavier.

And then we cut to a bunch of people trying to board a space station called Forge with a giant head there. Aight, I like Hickman's writing a lot, but I feel like sometimes he isn't as clear as he ought to be sometimes, because there are multiple times I've paused and wonder if I need to know more before reading this.

But hey! Familiar stuff! Mystique, Toad, and Sabretooth are trying to hack into things--SINCE WHEN CAN TOAD HACK!? That's funny to me for some reason. Anyway, they try to escape and Human Torch and Thing go to stop them. Whoops.

And we learn that the mutants have made their own language...? That's a strange idea. They explore the area and it's honestly super trippy and is honestly not doing much to give people reasons not to fear mutants!

But hey, the new Fantastic Four outfits are awesome. And when Invisible Woman stops Sabretooth from escaping, Cyclops comes out. Does the entire Marvel universe not hate Cyclops now? I remember they did for a long while. Good though! And Thing is married? What are these revelations I'm getting now. lol Apparently you can get amnesty as a mutant if you go into the Krakoan building. And then Cyclops seems like he's going to fight with the Fantastic Four over this........... and then says they can keep Sabretooth and they'll deal with it later. Hahaha, good stuff. Invisible Woman has an issue with this and honestly I can see why, but Cyclops has a compelling case honestly.

Oh, hey. There's a list of Omega Level mutants on this next page. Neat.

Apparently all the Ambassadors have no intention of really working with the mutants all too well judging by the one psychic girl's assessment and Magneto strips a double agent of his weapons and then tells everyone they have new gods now and that agreements will be on their terms. ...Am I supposed to not feel very good at all about the mutant arrangement here? It may just be Magneto being Magneto, but it doesn't paint this in a tremendous light.

Powers of X Issue 1

So back in the day Xavier is at a fair and then I think Moira McTaggert is saying she was looking for him?

Meanwhile, Mystique and Toad enter Krakoa and give up their USB information and Mystique has a funny exchange with Xavier.

We jump to 100 years in the future and mutants are having a rough time. Real talk: time travel is my least favorite part of X-Men stuff. There's a Rasputin there, who can turn to metal and also uses a magic sword? That's... kind of unlikely she'd have the same abilities as the two Rasputins. Anyway, Rasputin is trying to save a mutant in a damned future and she refuses to leave without her. Oh... wait. The next page shows a bunch of information about this. Apparently they are products of Mister Sinister's work? Unsurprisingly, Mister Sinister betrayed all mutants. Sounds about right. But that makes sense why the Rasputin has those powers at least.

They take the black brain psychic girl to... Nimrod? Holy crap that's a name I haven't thought of for a while. He tries to apologize to the black brain girl about this and says he's ashamed for breeding them as mutants and them not being subservient and that he's going to kill them all. Cold, dude. But Nimrod also puts the black brain mutant in a pod and promises to strip her down to only data and information... yikes.

So then we have Rasputin and red Nightcrawler who meet with..... Old Man Logan, Magneto, some floating skull face person, and not-Groot. I can't tell if I should know them or not.

Then we jump to 1000 years in the future where Nimrod is a small floating computer and there's... maybe a mutant who absorbs information of mutants like black brain. And we learn that the human-machine-mutant war ended and apparently the mutants are all rounded up in a dome.

House of X Issue 2

...Sorry, Moira MacTaggert is a mutant? Who resurrects and maintains her memory? I don't know how much I love this. It feels like it kind of cheapens the character to me, since I've always liked her as a human ally. But apparently she relives a new life constantly in the same time frame? She lives an uneventful life at first, then one where she discovers Xavier and then dies in a plane crash, and then she uses her third one to find a mutant cure, but the Brotherhood of Mutants mess the place up? Destiny (hey, there's a character I haven't seen in forever) understands Moira is a mutant and tells her that the cure will destroy them all, which she's probably not wrong, and then proceeds to threaten to end her if she revives and tries to get rid of her first. And then she has Pyro burn her alive so she remembers what death feels like. God damn. That's rough.

Her fourth life included her falling in love with Xavier and then being murdered to death by Sentinels, which motivates her in her next life to fight back harder. They skilled Moira's sixth life for some reason and jumped to her seventh one where she killed all of the Trask family to try stopping the Sentinels from being created but fails. Eighth life, she tries with Magneto and fails. But then ninth life, she tries with Apocalypse and fails.

And the tenth and current life is the current timeline where Xavier knows all of this beforehand. It's kind of interesting, but I think I need to see how all of this plays out with her.

Powers of X Issue 2

So Moira and Xavier decide the only way for mutants to not be murdered dead is for Xavier and Magneto to just fuck already work together, which makes sense. Hence why we have what we do here now. We learn that Mystique found plans for a Mother Mold who can create Master Molds. That's the space station thing from issue 1. Now I'm catching up, Hickman. Magneto and Xavier tell Cyclops they need to stop this because this is where their Nimrod is created and Cyclops is all in on that.

Back 100 years in the future, apparently Apocalypse is hanging out with the other mutants too. And Nimrod murders some humans dead because they talked back. Nimrod is a cold MFer and I like him a lot. He even mimes talking with one of their skulls. You can tell Hickman is having a ball writing for him. Wait, flamehead is Xorn? What?

House of X Is

SwiftyDC posted...

Nice! There is an order to read them. Start off with House of X #1 and at the end of it there should be an order list.

Oh, it seems to be leap frogging House of X and then Powers of X every other issue. So I'm going in the order of this collection.

Edit: Wait it doesn't leap frog. I just assumed it did. I messed up the entire order. I'm just going to do House of X/Powers of X Issue #. lol

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House of X/Powers of X Issue 6

Alright, so we begin with Cyclops forming a team to go and destroy Mother Mold. We have Archangel, Wolverine, Marvel Girl, Mystique, Nightcrawler, and... two women I don't know. One is Monet.

We go to the trial of Sabretooth and he seems to not care that he's about to go to jail. "You think chains will stop me from turning your insides to your outsides?" See, I like this Sabretooth a lot. But Emma Frost comes to set him free with two of the Cuckoos? There's three, right? I know something happened with one of them but I can't remember. Also, Emma Frost is awesome in this scene. She's legitimately great and I always enjoy seeing her. She gets Sabretooth let free even though he's a fucking horrific monster and he brags about it. She gets a gun put on her and she just says she could make her stick that gun where her last boyfriend left her. Ouch.

Back with the other X-Men, Nightcrawler bamfs onto the station and apparently Karima is someone that we know? No idea who this character is actually. And I'm not often stumped. One of them tries to blow himself up and the X-Men's ship to take them out and... that's the issue!

House of X/Powers of X Issue 7

So the Cuckoos manage to use tech to make a mind link with Jean and... wait, they killed Archangel just like that? And Husk (who I now know was the blonde in that group). Then whoever Monet is kinda turns into Lady Deathstrike and tells Jean that she needs to work better because Jean says she needs her to do it. Badass last stand. The wife of the man who blew himself up is out for blood and sucks Mystique through an air duct and then starts the Mother Mold. Nightcrawler then teleports Wolverine to the Mother Mold and he blows it up as they both die. Cyclops attempts to escape with Jean but gets attacked by Karina and blown the eff up. And then they all come and presumably kill Jean too.

I'm expecting some crazy shenanigans from all of this and I have no idea what they may be.

House of X/Powers of X Issue 8

Holy shit Mister Sinister. lmao "I. Love. That. Cape. Why do I not have that cape?" "It's a crime, sir. An outrage. I've always felt you should wear one." "Well if you really thought that, why didn't you say something?" "...It slipped my mind." "EXECUTE THIS MAN!"

So Xavier and Magneto want Sinister's database of mutant DNA. Makes sense. This is all starting to come together. Sinister seems to oppose it before another Sinister--apparently the real one--murders the other one and says he'll help. It looks like Xavier did some mind mojo on him because you don't trust freaking Mister Sinister.

We jump to Xavier in Krakoa with... somebody. Hickman, I'm begging you man, give names to these people in dialogue or something so I know who the hell some of them are. I'm starting to sense a trend where he just does that. Anyway, Xavier uses this other mutant guy to translate a giant tree's speech. Apparently Apocalypse shut down all access to Krakoa. THIS IS CYPHER, OKAY! Why do I need to learn this from an infographic after all of the important stuff is said?

We jump to 1000 years in the future and the Celestials want important technology. They seem like they want the technology that they have to offer. Okay.

House of X/Powers of X Issue 9

Back in the present, Polaris and Magneto are hanging out while he talks about humans. But wait, Golden Balls Mutant Guy actually shot eggs? Fucking what? But him and some other mutants--the only other one I recognize is Eva Bell whose mutant name I don't remember--all are creating life? Anyway, it takes us to the opening of the series with mutants hatching out--I figured it was going to head here after everyone died. Xavier can now use Cerebro to give mutants back their souls which... I dunno, it feels cheap and easy even if there is this whole weird process. All the mutants that died are now back again as they were before they died.

It's a giant weird propaganda thing where Storm declares she knows each person who was resurrected. And then we learn that during a UN meeting, Emma Frost changes the minds on an important vote to support Krakoa... and Xavier is cool with it. Okay, this feels... wronger and wronger? Is it supposed to start feeling wrong?

They then bring literally all of the evil mutants to their place. Like all of them. Apocalypse and Mister Sinister and even Gorgon are there. Apocalypse says this is what he hoped for all mutants and agrees to work with everyone.

Alright, I'm done for the night! Hoping to wrap up tomorrow!

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Planning on maaaaybe finishing up this afternoon with House of X/Powers of X.

And I'll pop back over to 52 after this unless someone guesses my favorite Marvel villain. I'll add one more hint.

1) Has been a member on a team, but has never led a team before.
2) Has never been adapted into an animated series.
3) Has been adapted in live action before.
4) Has had multiple miniseries.
5) Is absolutely an evil villain and has never been heroic ever.
6) Is THE definitive archvillain for a hero.

I'm trying not to make it too obvious but I may if nobody gets it after this hint.

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Is it Carnage? My Marvel knowledge is weak but I feel like you could meet all this criteria if you only consider a specific host or something?

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Nope, Carnage and I think almost all Spider-Man villains have been adapted in an animated series I think!

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Is it Bullseye?

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SNAKE GOT IT!

My favorite Marvel villain is absolutely Bullseye.

He's been on the Thunderbolts and Dark Avengers and, if you count it, The Hand.

He's never been adapted into an animated series probably because he's such an unrepentant psychopath they can't tone him down enough.

He's been in the Daredevil movie and the Daredevil series (RIP Season 4).

He's had, by my count, three miniseries.

He has never been even remotely heroic in his life. He's just the worst, even when he pretended to be Hawkeye.

And there is nobody who has ever been a bigger archvillain to Daredevil than him. I would place him above Kingpin.

Bullseye is my favorite villain because he is legitimately evil and there is no redemption for him. He's efficient and obsessed and is willing to commit heinous acts just to give himself a laugh. His dark humor always gets me, every single time. And he's just such an utter psychopath who only cares about mayhem and murder, and that's always why I gravitated to him is because it's honestly that simple and that terrifying. I seriously believe there is no villain in the Marvel universe who would be more terrifying to run into than Bullseye, because he would have no qualms with straight murdering you just for a chuckle.

And as an antagonist to Daredevil, he's just a perfect foil. Matthew Murdock, pushed by his beliefs in balance of law and order and Bullseye with zero regard for any rules or sensibilities. Bullseye makes it intensely personal with him and it started by the man with perfect aim not being able to hit Daredevil, and it's just escalated so out of control that Bullseye takes absolute joy in ruining Daredevil's life in any way he can.

He's a menace, a monster, and I believe he's more of a rarity in the Marvel universe in that he is just among the most evil villains imaginable. And all in all, he's just a man who has perfect aim. No super powers aside from that. But he still manages to be a more terrifying presence than most villains with abilities.

So @Snake5555555555 , let me know what you want me to pick up after House of X/Powers of X!

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Oh sweet! Bullseye is a fantastic choice as a fave.

So as much as Rucka's Punisher is my fave comic series ever I do kind of want to see what your reaction to Dark Nights: Metal will be so I choose that one!

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Just picked up Dark Nights: Metal! So I'll be taking a break from 52 to read that! But for now, I am about to read the rest of House of X/Powers of X!

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House of X/Powers of X Issue 10

So we open up this issue with Forge talking with Xavier about making his Cerebro copy mutant minds as well. Hickman, dude, put a little graphic with "Forge: Intuitive inventor" or something. If I didn't know that bandanna and mustache, I wouldn't have known who the hell this was until the last line of the conversation.

Then we cut to Xavier and Magneto talking to Emma Frost about their big idea and she rejects it at first and claims it's not heroic, but they want her to be the distributor of the mutant drugs they were making using her Hellfire Club connections. And she even gets convinced to bring back Sebastian Shaw.

We jump to Xavier contacting all the bad mutants around until he gets to Namor, who commends him for realizing that they are better than humans, but that Xavier won't acknowledge that Namor is better than them and that he shouldn't come back until he does. Oh Namor, such a dick.

And then back in 1000 years in the future, the Celestials plan to absorb the intelligence of the planet and also devour the planet entirely. ...Not a tremendous trade off.

House of X/Powers of X Issue 11

Xavier gives a big speech to the world about how mutants are getting a seat at the UN and they're done letting humans dictate them. It's honestly a really good speech. Hickman has a way with words!

We come to the present where we have the trial of Sabretooth, wherein they decide no mutant can murder a human and it was pointed out by Magneto he told Sabretooth not to kill anyone but Sabretooth be Sabretooth. Everyone there agrees Sabretooth is a horrible murdering asshole and he needs to be punished. And so he gets sent to the middle of Krakoa for all eternity, or when a writer feels like using him again he is offered a chance at redemption.

There's a montage of mutants partying and my favorite one that stood out was Jean Grey offering Emma Frost a beer of all things. Hah, nice.

House of X/Powers of X Issue 12

So we get another recap of Moira MacTaggert meeting Xavier again for some reason, and then we go to 1000 years in the future to the mutant dome where Wolverine is there and tells the Librarian that he's been teaching the mutants there about freedom and an uprising every day. Nice, Logan. Oh, and Moira is there too. Hi Moira. Guessing this is life six. The Librarian rambles on about how s/he is going to send Moira away so she can't go back and stop things. The plan is for them to be a part of a time/space hivemind deal and live on at all times and then Logan murders the hell out of the Librarian, now that they know what the plan is. And then he kills Moira too.

We flash to when Moira and Xavier met and Moira says that she needs to break the part of Xavier that is good and sees the good in people in order for the mutants to not be completely eradicated. Moira seems put off that they promised to bring Destiny back to get Mystique on board, because the mutants can't know that the mutants always lose, but Xavier and Magneto say it's no big deal and they'll put it off. Oh, and Emma has a mystery seat still. But they seem to just kind of blow Moira off now, and they don't seem particularly... I don't know, great as this point? Anyway, we end with Xavier and Magneto talking about how they won't lose this time and they're willing to do whatever it takes to win.

House of X/Powers of X Final Thoughts

So I like a ton about this story. I think it has a really nice premise and set up for the future of mutants, and it sets up what I assume is Hickman's run here in a unique way. The literal future was interesting too, but some of it feels, I dunno, unnecessary? Like why focus on a lot of the 100 years in the future stuff when not a ton of it actually matters much. I found the most interesting parts the present day stuff, but I also found the resurrection thing to be a cop-out. Like this is the time where a literal suicide mission ends with all of the X-Men on that team dying? And now they just have the means of bringing them back? I dunno. It's not my favorite plot.

I'm also on the fence about this giant retcon of Moira. I know why they did it, but it feels like it might have been better with a totally different character. With a new character, nothing honestly changes in this story. It seems like it was Moira just to make a shocking change to an existing character. If it were just some random woman eventually finding Xavier, showing him all that, and telling him "YOU NEED TO CHANGE DAMNIT!" then I think it would work just as well.

Nimrod and Sinister are my standouts of this story, oddly enough. I liked their little parts in the story and found them entertaining to read most of all.

This setting for the X-Men is pretty great though, and Hickman has done a great job bringing a whole new landscape for the mutants. I have my complaints, but as a stand alone story it's pretty outstanding. I feel like some trimming of the fat could've been done to focus on what I feel is most important: the present day stuff.

Hickman is great at thinking outside the box, and I'm glad he's getting a chance to do that with X-Men. I'm actually pretty curious to see where X-Men has gone after he's set them up like this.

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PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

SNAKE GOT IT!

My favorite Marvel villain is absolutely Bullseye.

He's been on the Thunderbolts and Dark Avengers and, if you count it, The Hand.

He's never been adapted into an animated series probably because he's such an unrepentant psychopath they can't tone him down enough.

He's been in the Daredevil movie and the Daredevil series (RIP Season 4).

He's had, by my count, three miniseries.

He has never been even remotely heroic in his life. He's just the worst, even when he pretended to be Hawkeye.

And there is nobody who has ever been a bigger archvillain to Daredevil than him. I would place him above Kingpin.

Bullseye is my favorite villain because he is legitimately evil and there is no redemption for him. He's efficient and obsessed and is willing to commit heinous acts just to give himself a laugh. His dark humor always gets me, every single time. And he's just such an utter psychopath who only cares about mayhem and murder, and that's always why I gravitated to him is because it's honestly that simple and that terrifying. I seriously believe there is no villain in the Marvel universe who would be more terrifying to run into than Bullseye, because he would have no qualms with straight murdering you just for a chuckle.

And as an antagonist to Daredevil, he's just a perfect foil. Matthew Murdock, pushed by his beliefs in balance of law and order and Bullseye with zero regard for any rules or sensibilities. Bullseye makes it intensely personal with him and it started by the man with perfect aim not being able to hit Daredevil, and it's just escalated so out of control that Bullseye takes absolute joy in ruining Daredevil's life in any way he can.

He's a menace, a monster, and I believe he's more of a rarity in the Marvel universe in that he is just among the most evil villains imaginable. And all in all, he's just a man who has perfect aim. No super powers aside from that. But he still manages to be a more terrifying presence than most villains with abilities.

So @Snake5555555555 , let me know what you want me to pick up after House of X/Powers of X!

Holy crap... he passed my mind once or twice, but I could've sworn...

...yeah, nope, never animated. Even with the Spider-Man: The Animated Series having Kingpin as a main villain, and Daredevil showing up a number of times, yep. No Bullseye.

Bullseye has always felt to me like a Batman villain personality in a Flash villain suit & powers. I KNOW he's a Daredevil villain and has many run-ins with other heroes and mercs and is just the worst, but every time I look at him in his costume, my first second is trying to remember which Rogue he is.

I don't really have much experience with Bullseye outside of Thunderbolts/Deadpool and vague remembrance of the Frank Miller run.

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Ahh no, I was considering Kingpin as the Daredevil archvillain. But that's fair, since Kingpin dabbles around.

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The Frank Miller run still holds up so well with Bullseye. It's soooo good. I always felt like Bullseye fits the more grim style of Daredevil really well, but it's always such a refreshing change when he's thrust out of it like in Thunderbolts, Deadpool, or Dark Avengers. In those elements, you can see just how much of a monster he really is (or, alternatively, just how much he really doesn't care about any collateral damage and wants a good laugh a la with Deadpool). I really don't like a lot of Daniel Way's Deadpool, but I thought he did a perfect job with the Bullseye storyline.

And I would say with the sheer obsessive nature Bullseye has towards Daredevil and the fact that so many absolutely horrendous things that have happened in Daredevil's life as a result of Bullseye, he is the definitive Daredevil archvillain though.

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Gonna read METAL tonight.

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Don't forget the tie-ins if you're reading Metal! A lot of them are pretty fun. IIRC a lot of the tie-ins from ongoing series can be skipped safely but the one-shots are where the best stuff is.

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Aight.

I'm not doing research for tie-ins or anything. lol So if I'm reading tie-ins, someone needs to spoon feed it to me like I'm a moron or recommend some of the best ones.

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There's these preludes:
Dark Days: The Forge
Dark Days: The Casting

One Shots:
Batman: The Red Death
Batman: The Murder Machine
Batman: The Dawnbreaker
Batman: The Drowned
Batman: The Merciless
Batman: The Devastator
The Batman Who Laughs

then there's interludes:
Batman Lost (between Metal 3 & 4)
Hawkman Found (between Metal 4 & 5)
Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt (between Metal 5 & 6)

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I'd say the interludes are required reading, the preludes are probably good for event context, and those one-shots can be read to taste for the ones that grab your attention.

Special shoutouts to The Red Death, I think that's my personal favorite concept of that tie-in series

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Also worth keeping in mind: I'm actually paying for these. lol I think I saw the one shots in a cheap collection though, so I may read that. The others I couldn't find in a collection at first glance.

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Forge and Casting are in a collection with a bunch of other books leading up to it, and the individual issues are actually $4.50 each so fuck that. I found the one shots here:

https://rb.gy/lkoluw

And there's another collection with Batman Lost and Hawkman Found but it has a bunch of other stuff in it too.

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Dark Nights: Metal Issue 1

Hey, we start out with MONGUL! Oh, and the Justice League. But MONGUL! I love that guy! And he has little Toyman as a slave? Weird. They're in a coliseum fighting random shit that Mongul throws at them. Batman does a pretty outrageous Batman thing and hacks the robots they're fighting to make a weird Voltron to escape. That is among one of the more ridiculous things Batman has done. lol

Anyway, they go back to Earth and apparently Gotham has a giant mountain in it now. When they go inside it's a weird place with a bunch of pods inside when Lady Blackhawk comes up with her Blackhawk team and she's... Kendra Saunders? That's Hawkgirl, right? Weird. They go to her fancy island where she talks about how they've been looking into the Nth metal that bound them to repeat lives and such and how Carter Hall had worked with a lot of scientists to find it. So wait, what's been going on with Hawkman and Hawkgirl before this exactly?

Anyway, there's a dark multiverse or something where they've been looking for Batman who swipes the Nth metal while Red Tornado attacks the Justice League. Hawkgirl destroyed her wings and vowed to destroy Nth metal? I need context. lol Oh, and we got five divine metals that they want.

Carter Hall has been narrating everything in his journal and it's been true, and then some Dream of the Endless dude sneaks up on Batman and says "Hey buddy."

Dark Nights: Metal Issue 2

So we open up and everyone's looking for Batman all over the world. Turns out he's in the Amazon marsh! The Bat Family is helping him out and they have a bunch of flowers that piss Swamp Thing off who goes after the League. And then Batman get swiped up in his getaway caravan by Superman who has kind of a homoerotic moment with Bats by talking about his heart beat. lol

Apparently Batman has interacted with the four Divine Metals. Huh. Batman died against Joker? I missed that one. But hey, it's actually Clayface, not Batman! And Batman had something transmitting his heartbeat. Haha, you almost made out with Clayface Superman, not Batman!

Anyway, Kendra goes to... the Legion of Doom? And hey! the guys in the last issue with the visions were Doctor Fate (obviously) and Steel, apparently! And Plastic Man is a key to this too? Really? Anyway, Batman gets conned into going to the wrong tomb to destroy everything with... Baby Darkseid? Fucking excuse me? I need someone to explain this. And the Court of Owls are involved? Hmmmmm. And the final metal is BATMANIUM? OKAY. YOU'RE LOSING ME, BOOK. SUMMONING THE BAT GOD?

Batman gets sucked up by the BATMANIUM and then the portal opens up and a bunch of twisted Robins come out to murder the Court of Owls? And then... a bunch of Batman Justice League amalgams show up...? It looks like Aquaman, Doomsday, Cyborg, Joker, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern and then some gigantic mofo behind them.

Aight. This seems silly as fuck. lol Also, I need to know what's going on with Krona too. It seems like they changed a lot with him which is sad to me. Oh, and Superman and Wonder Woman get their asses beat. Whew.

Dark Nights: Metal Issue 3

So we get a dream sequence of the Super Kids rocking out with Bruce, Clark, Lois, and Diana. And apparently Superman has been dreaming it for months as the Barbatos took over the world by infecting people and turning them into monsters or something...?

Superman is rescued by Wonder Woman, but Superman just tries to fight Barbatos but Doomsday Bat intercepts and Joker Bat trashes on Supes. And before Superman can get his shit pushed in too hard, Flash grabs him and takes him through a Doctor Fate portal. They're in Oblivion Bar, apparently, hiding out. They tried to take back Gotham, but it was taken over by NANO-ALFREDS. What the fuck is going on here? Oh, and Jon Snow Nightwing. I forgot about that dumb story. But he was involved in trying to stop them and apparently they lost the Teen Titans.

Wait, the egg thing was Plastic Man? Come the fuck on now. Anyway, they're going to get the last of the Nth metals because they're weak to it. Oh and Deathstroke is there and kills a random evil Robin that's there for some reason. Oh and I guess when the others leave Nightmaster and Detective Chimp just decide to get murdered to death there. Alright.

Steel uses the Anti-Monitor's antennae to open up a portal to the Dark Multiverse and a rough looking Bruce was there trying to tell him to stay away using the fucking 70's Batman song. lmao Guuuuuys. Anyway, Superman gets swallowed up and now him and Batman are trapped.

I am tapped out for the night. lol

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PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

And then we learn that during a UN meeting, Emma Frost changes the minds on an important vote to support Krakoa... and Xavier is cool with it. Okay, this feels... wronger and wronger? Is it supposed to start feeling wrong?

It's supposed to feel very weird. The whole idea of House/Powers of X (and really, the idea behind all of the X-Men stories since then) is that mutants have realized they've spent decades (or centuries, or millennia) playing by mankind's rules, and all it's ever gotten them is closer to extinction. So they're done pretending they're human and they're done playing by humanity's rules. They're the next step in evolution, and they're damn well going to act like it. So you occasionally get moments like this where mutants behave in a way that seems pretty alien to human sensibilities, and that's very intentional - because these aren't humans with human sensibilities, they're mutants with mutant sensibilities. They seem alien because they are alien, and it's honestly the most interesting take on mutants I've ever seen.

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the unbelievable gwenpool

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I'll pick back up tomorrow!

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Not_an_Owl posted...

It's supposed to feel very weird. The whole idea of House/Powers of X (and really, the idea behind all of the X-Men stories since then) is that mutants have realized they've spent decades (or centuries, or millennia) playing by mankind's rules, and all it's ever gotten them is closer to extinction. So they're done pretending they're human and they're done playing by humanity's rules. They're the next step in evolution, and they're damn well going to act like it. So you occasionally get moments like this where mutants behave in a way that seems pretty alien to human sensibilities, and that's very intentional - because these aren't humans with human sensibilities, they're mutants with mutant sensibilities. They seem alien because they are alien, and it's honestly the most interesting take on mutants I've ever seen.

Okay, it's definitely a unique take and I'm into it. It still doesn't seem, I don't know, particularly heroic. But I am intrigued by that intent and curious where it can actually lead.

Anyway, gonna finish off Metal.

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Dark Nights: Metal Issue 4

Alright, so Bruce is seeing fake Supermen and he's been in this hellscape for 30 years? Duuuuude. And Superman is being used as a battery too. Bruce fights back with CREATIVITY though.

Team A is Wonder Woman, Doctor Fate, and Kendra. They're fighting personifications of sin. Isn't that Shazam's deal?

Team B is Aquaman and Deathstroke who are just looking down a portal in Atlantis.

Team C is Green Lantern, Mr. Terrific, and Egg Plastic Man who are in Thanagar and they find their ruler, Synn, and... Starro? Is Starro normally like, uh, this? He wants to use the Plastic Man egg to shoot a cannon to destroy Earth. Dude, we have enough going on. And Starro keeps Green Lantern from using his ring.

Back with Batman and Superman, they talk to the Sandman...? Uh, is this the Sandman from Neil Gaiman's stuff? Aaaaaand then he gives us a giant info dump. Jeesh. He basically tells them they need to find the Nth metal in The Forge. And Batman has a new goal and just... fucking gives up? Wasn't it him who decided to push on and find Superman and shit? Why does Batman need a motivational speech of all things, especially when it's his idea? Wtf.

And then Kendra pulls out... Anti-Matter's brain? Where the fuck is this coming from? She goes to use it to destroy the darkness but it could also destroy everything, apparently. And then all of a sudden she turns into Lady Blackhawk? What? And Black Adam is here and vaporizes Doctor Fate? ...Okay...? He demands the brain from Wonder Woman. This is a mess.

We end with the Forge consumed by darkness and then Carter Hall is there as a dragon hawkman. Okay.

Dark Nights: Metal Issue 5

Barbatos and Joker Batman babble on with the words "Anti-Music" and that's all I need to see there. Batman and Superman have to deal with a crazy hellscape at the Forge with stuff from Batman lore there. Aquaman and Deathstroke make it to the center of the Earth where the Nth metal is.

Green Lantern and Mr. Terrific talk about how Plastic Man can absorb dark matter cosmic energy and that's why he's an egg to fight them off. And then Martian Manhunter appears out of fucking nowhere to help now. He helps Hal and Mr. Terrific out of jail.

GL: I'm going to kick that starfish's ass.
Terrific: Technically he doesn't have an ass.
GL: Don't worry, I'll find one.

That was pretty good. Anyway, Batman taunts Dragon Hawkman which is doing something. Wonder Woman finds the mace and smacks the shit out of Black Adam. "What you meant to say was 'Oh sh.......... SHAZAM!'" Sigh. Joker Batman was also unamused because he shoots Wonder Woman in the head and takes the mace. Gj.

Why is Deathstroke making puns in this series? Anyway, Black Manta takes him out and then attacks Aquaman. And I need to ask: why the fuck are they making alliances with people like Black Adam and Black Manta? The rest of the Batman Justice League is there ready to murder Aquaman. They literally don't even need them. And this is even more salient when the rest of the evil Justice League is on top of Green Lantern, Mr. Terrific, and Martian Manhunter.

Then we get the EPIC FIGHT between Wonder Woman and Death Blackhawk or whatever her name is and it ends in one punch after Wonder Woman wraps her fist in her lasso and she snaps out of it. Then they go into a Metal portal and a bunch of dark versions of the characters are there and Wonder Woman tells Lady Blackhawk to scream a war cry.

Dark Nights: Metal Issue 6

So Wonder Woman and Death Hawkgirl are fighting and they bang her bracelet and the mace together to contact the Justice League. Plastic Man emerges and grows giant and then summons goofy stuff to kill more dark metal characters. Wonder Woman gets a pep talk from Black Hawkgirl and then descends into the Forge portal to retrieve Batman and Superman. Because Wonder Woman can see through the darkness and show love and truth and whatnot. It's actually a solid speech. I approve.

Wonder Woman finds them, Hawkgirl yells out to Carter Hall to get him to cool it, and then Detective Chimp comes out of nowhere with a bunch of other world Batmans for all of one panel.

Then the Trinity all have silver Tenth metal armor now which is super strong apparently and then there's flying Joker monsters now and the heroes had a ship that gets shot down and then the Trinity gives Aquaman and Green Lantern the armor too. Oh and Doctor Fate is alright now. Oh and Carter fights back against Barbatos.

Batman goes to fight the Joker Batman who has.... the Over-Monitor. Yup. They fight and then Joker Batman has the gun that killed Bruce's parents and... Jesus Christ. Joker saves Batman out of nowhere. Why is Joker here? How? Who the fuck knows anymore. They team up because of course Batman would never team with Joker and he couldn't plan for that and Joker teams up with Batman because who the fuck knows.

Not-Hawkgirl basically impales herself into Barbados and then the heroes in armor have to all hold hands and sing kumbaya to fix the world.

Everyone wakes up at Wayne Manor where they party and then Kendra explains that Hawkman wrote a bunch of stuff down but he'll be around. There's a bunch of stuff he wrote down about the future where everything is messed up now. They add Hawkgirl and Martian Manhunter to the Justice League and it looks like they're all partying and Bruce has plans to make the Hall of Justice.

End.

Dark Nights: Metal Thoughts

So you can probably guess, I didn't like it.

First of all, I love Scott Snyder. I love the stuff he did with Batman. I think he's a great writer. But what the fuck was this story? So many times I was absolutely lost. There was so much wasted time with meandering monologues from dark Joker Batman or Barbatos or Maybe-Sandman. So many things are introduced out of nowhere and never touched upon again. Overall, this book at its best is when it takes its time to set up everything in the first two issues. Issue 3 it gets messy. Issues 4-6 are just a travesty, with 6 being the worst among them.

This book feels like it needed at least three more issues to flesh out everything. Cool ideas, but ultimately unrealized or dedicated to like one or two panels. I found the entire concept to be absurd to a dumb degree, and the obsession with Batman to be just a ridiculous focus that probably would've ended up better if they focused on a dark metal version of all the characters instead. Like where is the satisfying conclusion for beating the Batman Justice League? They just appear occasionally and there's fighting off panel with them mostly.

In fact, here's a bunch of things introduced and not fleshed out at all:

• Court of

Hey no problem, thanks for checking it out anyway! I think maybe just reading the miniseries isn't totally the best way to fully experience the whole event since I just really loved the build-up, and one-shots & spin-offs and follow-ups to it as well so it might just be more of a context thing.

The Sandman in this series is Daniel Hall, the successor to Morpheus, the original Dream. But it was the first appearance of any of Gaiman's Sandman characters in the post New 52 world.

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Yeah and it's extremely easy to find.

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Snake5555555555 posted...

Hey no problem, thanks for checking it out anyway! I think maybe just reading the miniseries isn't totally the best way to fully experience the whole event since I just really loved the build-up, and one-shots & spin-offs and follow-ups to it as well so it might just be more of a context thing.

The Sandman in this series is Daniel Hall, the successor to Morpheus, the original Dream. But it was the first appearance of any of Gaiman's Sandman characters in the post New 52 world.

Yeah I'll be honest even as a fan who bought a lot of the Metal books I never shook the idea that I was missing major pieces of the narrative.

It was really cool but far far too decompressed

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Yeah, I do think this could have been much more special if they 1) stopped focusing on Batman so much because if you strip away the Batman focus, you can still more or less have the same story; 2) extended the length of the series to dedicate more time to explaining things; and 4) find a way to reduce on the monologue heavy stuff.

I probably really would have enjoyed this more if it was more cohesive, honestly.

Next up for me will be @MegamanX 's suggestion of Runaways Volume 1! I never read the whole thing but I know it's very good.

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