Board 8 > What's hot at DC Comics right now?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I didn't investigate much because I've been actively avoiding mainline GL, but I Googled him yesterday when I saw the Human Target #6 cover, remembered what you said, and was so annoyed that there didn't appear to be a news story about him "dying" which implied to me that people didn't even care enough for it to be a story. It didn't even cross my mind that it was going to be IN the book in question.

You can't say "they just killed a character" when it's a dang Elseworlds, lol.

Still, at least it's something, which appears to be more than is happening with him anywhere else.

I thought it was a great story, at the least.

But yeah the actual book is pretty excellent so far, up to date obviously, I assume it will be 12 issues. Seeing some people on Reddit complain about "mischaracterization", and like...it's an Elseworlds???

More fuel for my continued love/hate with Tom King (didn't bring it up here, but his Batman just does noooooothing for me).

The Black Label line has been pretty consistently good overall.

I didn't enjoy his Adam Strange take, honestly, either. I do love Omega Men to death, and Target is great.

Oh, and I want to say that I've been using the DC Infinite app they recently released a whold lot. It's INCREDIBLY convenient, I was happy to pay for the yearly subscription.

You can search a character name and it pulls up every book they ever been in, even if it was just a one-off issue. If you want you can search by issue and narrow it down to that one issue even. You can search by an event and every tie-in for that even is right there. When you're going through an ongoing, it inserts the coordinating annuals and the like at the right time.

And best of all, comics all the way back to the Golden Age in scans about as crisp as they can get for digital, all things considered.

scarletspeed7 posted...

I didn't enjoy his Adam Strange take, honestly, either. I do love Omega Men to death, and Target is great.

Omega was a Kyle Rayner book, right? I saw it, but since it was pre-Rebirth I didn't add it to the list.

It's pre-Rebirth, but you should go out of your way to read it.

Reading Batman Urban Legends now. On issue 4, all the back content is decent (except I don't give a shit about Grifter), but I'm especially into the Red Hood header. I have never read Zdarsky, but I'm a fanm I see he's about to take over Batman so I think I'll use that as a fresh Jumping on point.

There's something that always viscerally gets me about Batman racing top speed in the Batmobile to save someone on a time limit while being notably afraid. Probably all just flashbacks to the chapter of Identity Crisis with Tim's father. Still ome of the most wrenching comic pages I can think of.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/9/2/AAeolZAADQAY.jpg

https://www.cbr.com/superboy-defeats-suicide-squad-dark-2022-round-robin-tournament-dc/

Yessssss

After reading the Zdarsky Red Hood story I looked him up and there's not a ton from him at DC yet, but I saw he wrote the Justice League: Last Ride elseworlds story so I checked that out. Loved it! Self contained but not very out there setting, good characterization and some real neat ideas. Well definitely keep my eye on him.

Yeah I read up to issue 10 and really enjoyed his writing. Bat-family bonding is always my favorite, and it's especially nice to see Jason figuring out who he is. Also Tim getting more attention is good, it said he'd be more prominent this year but I have no idea what he's appeared in recently. Need to find.

The back stories were hit or miss, I skipped the ones that didn't interest me like the Grifter stuff. Who actually cares about him I don't know. Probably won't read the rest since Zatanna isn't super appealing to me.

I get why each issue has so much since so many of them seem to be springboards for stories in other books or even new titles altogether. Does mean it's hit or miss though. There's been a lot of Outsiders stuff so far and not sure if I actually want to read that Rebirth Outsiders book, I've only ever been able to enjoy it under Winick.

I for some reason have never cared much for the Outsiders, considering they're basically Bat-cousins. And Cass has even been on the team once and it still wasn't enough to get me to read. I dunno.

In my mind they are similar to Doom Patrol, used to get them mixed up. However the latter has the benefit of there being a show which I have yet to watch. I should get around to that soon.

Doom Patrol comic for the Young Animal line is excellent!

The only Outsider I'm really interested in reading for is Metamorpho...and I know I'm going to get plenty of him when I read Jeff Lemire's The Terrifics, so also not a bug pull.

I liked the Terrifics a lot, but I think it had kind of a mixed reaction. For my money, it was excellent.

Did I hear right that it was Lemire's last book for the big two? At least under contract?

Have to catch up on his newer stuff, but for my money he's still one of my favorite writers.

Reading Arkham City: The Order of the World and Task Force Z back to back fucking me up because Ten-Eyed Man and Mr Bloom look exactly the God damn same.

Is Arkham City any good? Wasn't sure if I wanted to give it a shot or not.

It was interesting! It has nothing to do with the Arkham City game, the name is in reference to something else in the story. Art was very solid too, felt kind of like an artsy DC comic from the 90s. Hard to pin down exactly what I mean by that, just the feeling I get.

Man I am at a loss trying to figure out what happened to Man Bat between the end of Justice League Dark and here in Task Force Z. Didn't these things overlap from a publishing standpoint? How did we get here with this character??

I've seem this pop up a couple times now, and I can think of no more threatening sight imaginable.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/4/AAeolZAADQWS.jpg

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I've seem this pop up a couple times now, and I can think of no more threatening sight imaginable.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/4/AAeolZAADQWS.jpg

I have no idea what this is, but all I could think of was it has to be a setup for "bend dis dick"

The implication is that Bendis is such an incredible talent that this two page spread announcing he's coming to Superman is going to change the world.

The reality is that Bendis is a hack.

Yeah it still confuses me why DC thought they were getting such a huge writing star, when in reality he has ONE credit to his name. Creating Miles Morales. Who didn't even become that interesting until he was being written by anyone else that wasn't Bendis.

He's like a modern day Liefeld, doesn't deserve the recognition.

I mean to be fair, the credit to his name is Ultimate Spider Man in general. I haven't read it but I know it's a very important run of a comic that is extremely well regarded.

I don't think there's ANYTHING else of his I can tolerate, which is what's held me back from reading USM to begin with.

I know his old Daredevil was popular as well, but that's the same situation for me.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/3/6/AAeolZAADQbo.jpg

I've only known Tom King's Supergirl for 10 pages, but if anything happened to it I would destroy everyone on this board and then myself.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/3/6/AAeolZAADQew.jpg

So I finished Tom King's Supergirl series and it was one of my favorite things I've read since I started this topic.

So I immediately went and read Tom King's Superman series...and it's one of my favorite things I've read...in general.

Just finished literally second ago and I teared up on that last page a little.

I feel like Tom King being mostly known for middling Batman content and a terrible event comic is a tragedy, everything else I have read so far has been A tier stuff. I know Mister Miracle is absurdly critically acclaimed, but I have to imagine the actual reader count isn't that high.

I would lose it if they put him on Superman proper or Action Comics.

I just read the last issue Superman before Rebirth for some setup and WOOOOOOW were they ever phoning it in at the end there. They really couldn't wait to sweep New 52 Supes under the rug.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/2/4/AAeolZAADQmY.jpg

That's perfect, which book is it from?

The 2021 Nightwing Annual. Really makes me wish there was a real Jason book. I realize there's an Oversaturation of Batbooks in general but I think that says more about needing to slow the role on Batman titles more than anything. Task Force Z isn't bad, but it's just a knockoff Suicide Squad (which is kind of the whole joke, to be fair). I want an actual Jason ongoing but with his new status quo as a no kill member of the Batfamily. Putting him on a book with a bunch of other people to kill for him is cheapening the character arc.

I just finished catching up on Nightwing. It started pretty good with Seeley. Then it just....IMPLODED on itself, there was this whole Rick Grayson thing and it was Guy Gardner Warrior all over again. I skipped a huge chunk and pick it back up with Tom Taylor's Infinite Frontier run and it's been excellent.

Nightwing has a puppy. Bitewing.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Nightwing has a puppy. Bitewing.

Excellent

Not comic form, but I watched Catwoman: Hunted which was cool and had an anime inspired style. The female characters all looked pretty great in it and the voice work was good as well. Catwoman and Batwoman even had some sexual tension, but I have no idea if Catwoman was just playing around or if she swings both ways sometimes.

Batman: Death in the Family which had a collection of shorts with it that were all amusing enough. Didnt get to experience the interactive aspect since I just watched it on HBO Max. Apparently the interactive version has several different endings. The shorts were Sgt. Rock who I was completely unfamiliar with, Adam Strange who I know very little about, The Phantom Stranger who I also know very little about and Death who I dont really know, but her design was nice.

Also watched Deathstroke Knights & Dragons which was pretty cool. Always did like Deathstroke. Had no idea he had kids other than Rose so that was kinda neat and Id never really seen his wife before either.

swordz9 posted...

Had no idea he had kids other than Rose

Jericho has a...complicated history.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/0/6/AAeolZAADQxC.jpg

What the, Hal Jordan & The Green Lantern Corps is good!

Did Vendetti really turn it around?

Maybe it won't last though, I'm only on 8.

This Sejic art on Aquaman is gorgeous.

Trying to not let me having read the erotic comics they did like 10 years ago distract me.

Man it's just back to back killers on these AquaArt teams. To think this book's biggest weakness used to be the middling art.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/6/2/AAeolZAADRBi.jpg

(Next post due to size limit)

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Abnett had a strong run on Aquaman but it ended on a huge wet noodle with two incredibly mediocre crossovers in a row with worse books (Suicide Squad and Justice League). Not his fault I guess.

On to DeConnick's run which I hear is also good!

I'm basically all up to date on Aquaman stuff.

The post Abnett stuff isn't bad....but this isn't the same character. It's clear from the name change and the marketing and the writing itself that DC was going all in on Jason Mamoaing Aquaman, and it does suffer some for it. There's even some seasons that are basically recreations of movie scenes scattered about. They seem to be reeling it back with Aquamen, though, which is good so far.

I am basically all caught up on everything I care to read for DC. There's some Crime Syndicate mini series I want to check out I think, and some of those young adult graphic novels for Cassandra Cain and Poison Ivy because honestly I do still dig stuff like that.

But this does mean that I am going to finally check out some Marvel stuff I've missed since I fell off the wagon, and I've added all the typical teen team adjacent stuff that's always what I've dug the most. I'm way more specific and focused with Marvel, I don't care about following along with the overall Marvel universe at all, just the niches I want to hit. New Mutants, Runaways, Generation X, X-23.

I'm starting, though, with the one book that seemed to be far and away the most higjy praised of the last several years even though I've never been interested in the character, that being The IMMORTAL Hulk. Just a few issues in...and this is VERY good.

First I'm hearing about a graphic novel for Cass, I'm guessing you were referring to this Shadow of the Batgirl? Which I started reading and well sadly it's a new origin story for her which I'm much less interested in.

As for Marvel, guess I might give Immortal Hulk a chance too since I've always heard it was good as well. Like you I'm not into the character much, I prefer when he's in a team setting. And let me know if you find any good recent-ish X-23 books.

I'm finding it very tough in general to track down which Marvel series to look into, since, and I had heard about this a while back, they seem to have gone the model of relaunch almost every single book every single year with a new volume and title.

CassandraCain posted...

First I'm hearing about a graphic novel for Cass, I'm guessing you were referring to this Shadow of the Batgirl? Which I started reading and well sadly it's a new origin story for her which I'm much less interested in.

It's part of a young adult graphic novels line, it's not canon to the DCU, every book in it is it's own thing. The Cass one was fun, the Poison Ivy one was better. The Raven, Beast Boy, and the following Raven+Beast Boy ones were the best and they seem to be building towards it's own side Teen Titans universe since there's a Robin one coming out, too (he was already in the last one).

Oh that's cool then, a YA line of graphic novels is a good idea for them.

And yeah Marvel comics have given me an overall messy impression for years now, doesn't seem like they're as invested in now since they have the movies to rake in the dollars. And I haven't heard about any standout comic stories among any of the Avengers.

33 chapters into The Immortal Hulk (out of 50). Has the potential to make my top 10 runs list, honestly. I'm reminded of Johns' Green Lantern, not that there's any tangible similarity but specifically in the sense that it's drawing HEAVILY from the character's past and extended gallery, but you're still able to understand anything even without any previous knowledge of the character other than the most surface level osmosis, and it keeps you informed without relying on pages and pages of exposition to explain every reference and character's history with The Hulk. It respects the reader enough to follow along.

The art is stupendous, and it's clear Ewing and Bennet were made for each other. I've read comics with Bennet art before, but he's in best form and clearly is working with inkers and colorists that are deep in his head. The description of the book as a superhero horror story is right on the money, reminding me at times of Lemire's Animal Man. The issues almost all end on these large, single panel 2/3rds of the page shots that are sometimes just breathtaking.

It's entirely it's own thing, too. The lengths this book has gone to use the occasional single sentence throway line to handwave and ignore whatever the rest of the Marvel books are doing with the character are very clever.

Finished.

Masterpiece.

Out of curiosity I read the first issue of the new series, just "Hulk", from the new creative team that followed it. Bland and apparently just set to return the Hulk to being just another comic and return Hulk himself to the status quo. Not surprised! No way to follow that run, best to just give up and churn out.

Tried to read Azzarello's Superman: For Tomorrow, and I keep forgetting how much this guy hates Superheroes and I can never get into his stuff. It's like...the antithesis of what I want from a Superman comic.

I wholeheartedly agree that For Tomorrow is bad. BUT

I love his Wonder Woman