Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:04 am
i hate most superhero comics because they're dumb
well, that's inaccurate really. vertigo titles like preacher and transmetropolitan are quasi-superheroic, what with a charismatic main character who can do stuff none of the others can (in preacher, jesse custer has THE VOICE OF GOD and in transmet spider jerusalem swears a lot, beats people up and writes columns for a newspaper). as far as real actual superheroes go, i often like the idea of them more than the execution, i can't be doing with the whole soap opera element of them, or how overused some characters are (i like wolverine as a character when he's written well, but does he have to be on the cover of every marvel title?).
having said that, i enjoyed what i read of brian bendis' "ultimate spider-man" (the one where they 'rebooted' him as a high school student), grant morrison's "new x-men" (though the third book was a piece of shit, overall it was excellent) and what i've read of bruce jones' "incredible hulk" run. i think i liked those because those are good writers and the comics didn't rely on stupid crossover shit, mostly being self-contained. i hate crossovers a lot, which is why i will certainly not be reading any new superhero titles this year what with the ultra mega hyper HOUSE OF INFINITE CRISIS ONSLAUGHT DISASSEMBLED crossover or whatever it's called.
the best marvel title is peter milligan's "x-force" (later "x-statix"; as opposed to the rob liefeld comic of the same name). if you hate stuff like 'celebrity big brother' (the 'reality' tv show, not 1984's dictatorship figurehead) and pop/american idol, you should read it. of course like all the good marvel titles it got cancelled because nobody loved it, but that may not have been unwarranted given it allegedly went downhill in the last year or so (i wouldn't know, i've only read up to the name change).
oh yeah, and i'd be remiss if i didn't mention the two jeph loeb batman books, "THE LONG HALLOWEEN" and "DARK VICTORY". 800 pages in total of batman (supposedly in his early days, shortly after frank miller's "year one" which the new batman film this year is based on) fighting gangsters, with the secret (not really) origins of two-face and robin!!!!!!!!! they are both very good and have none of the SUPER DARK AND GRITTY OMG I WORK ALONE I DON'T NEED ANYONE OH NO MY BACK GOT BROKEN NOW I LEARNED HOW TO TRUST PEOPLE ;) titting around and posturing the main continuity batman comic has.
well, that's inaccurate really. vertigo titles like preacher and transmetropolitan are quasi-superheroic, what with a charismatic main character who can do stuff none of the others can (in preacher, jesse custer has THE VOICE OF GOD and in transmet spider jerusalem swears a lot, beats people up and writes columns for a newspaper). as far as real actual superheroes go, i often like the idea of them more than the execution, i can't be doing with the whole soap opera element of them, or how overused some characters are (i like wolverine as a character when he's written well, but does he have to be on the cover of every marvel title?).
having said that, i enjoyed what i read of brian bendis' "ultimate spider-man" (the one where they 'rebooted' him as a high school student), grant morrison's "new x-men" (though the third book was a piece of shit, overall it was excellent) and what i've read of bruce jones' "incredible hulk" run. i think i liked those because those are good writers and the comics didn't rely on stupid crossover shit, mostly being self-contained. i hate crossovers a lot, which is why i will certainly not be reading any new superhero titles this year what with the ultra mega hyper HOUSE OF INFINITE CRISIS ONSLAUGHT DISASSEMBLED crossover or whatever it's called.
the best marvel title is peter milligan's "x-force" (later "x-statix"; as opposed to the rob liefeld comic of the same name). if you hate stuff like 'celebrity big brother' (the 'reality' tv show, not 1984's dictatorship figurehead) and pop/american idol, you should read it. of course like all the good marvel titles it got cancelled because nobody loved it, but that may not have been unwarranted given it allegedly went downhill in the last year or so (i wouldn't know, i've only read up to the name change).
oh yeah, and i'd be remiss if i didn't mention the two jeph loeb batman books, "THE LONG HALLOWEEN" and "DARK VICTORY". 800 pages in total of batman (supposedly in his early days, shortly after frank miller's "year one" which the new batman film this year is based on) fighting gangsters, with the secret (not really) origins of two-face and robin!!!!!!!!! they are both very good and have none of the SUPER DARK AND GRITTY OMG I WORK ALONE I DON'T NEED ANYONE OH NO MY BACK GOT BROKEN NOW I LEARNED HOW TO TRUST PEOPLE ;) titting around and posturing the main continuity batman comic has.
