Okay, I'm back with my new books. Here's what I picked up this week. Irredeemable #30, Batman and Robin #2, Deathstroke #2, Grifter #2, Legion Lost #2, Suicide Squad #2, Superboy #2, Morning Glories #13, Amazing Spider-Man #671, Daken: Dark Wolverine #15, Fear Itself: Hulk vs Dracula #3, SHIELD #3, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #3, Ultimate Comics X-Men #2, Uncanny X-Force #16 & X-Men: Regenesis #1. So 16 comics spread across four different comic companies... That sounds about right. As I've said before, I'd rather my weekly pull was around 13 comics or so, but I can't complain too much about 16. At least it's not 20+! This week's Pick of the Litter is... Hmm... I'm not really sure... I guess I'm going to make Uncanny X-Force #16 my very lukewarm Pick this week. Deathstroke, Regenesis and Ultimate Comics X-Men were possibilities, but X-Force has been solid to great these past couple of issues, so it gets the Pick treatment. This week's Runt of the Litter was easier to pick, sadly it's going to have to be Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #3... I gave the last issue some horrible score(something like a 1 or a 2), and with this being the third issue of this series, this will be the issue that decides whether I stick with the series going forward... If it comes away with a score of 6 or less, I'll be dropping it. So Bendis? Please give us more action and less gibber-jabber. And that'll do it. I have some comics to read and some reviews to post later, so until then, X out.
The Random Scan of the Week!
Impulse is awesome.
So here's my dilemma...if I subscribe to five books at my local shop, I get a fat discount on trades, back issues, etc. Problem is, at this point in my embryonic comeback, I don't have five series that I read regularly. Any opinions on the five best ongoing Marvel series (I like Batman and a few other characters, but let's keep it Marvel for now)?
ReplyDeleteI went with (to start with):
Uncanny XForce
Journey into Mystery
Avengers Academy
the Ultimates
Uncanny Xmen
Books I also considered:
Wolverine (Jason Aaron is great, but all of the good Wolvy villains are dead!),
Wolverine and the Xmen (the art looks dubious),
Ultimate Xmen (very hard call between this, uncanny and the Ultimates),
Venom (see ultimate x-men),
Amazing Spider-man (not feeling spider-island),
Invincible Iron Man (fear itself stuff has not impressed me in this book)
I can go over five, but I'd rather keep my options as open as possible, so I can pick and choose books/arcs to avoid. Thanks!
Cool, I'm always happy to add my two cents! :D X-Force, Journey and Academy are GREAT picks, especially Academy. And it's starting a new storyarc soon, so that's a great jumping on point. Plus I absolutely love that series, so there's that too! I'm seriously considering Academy as my favorite book of 2011.
ReplyDeleteI'm not THAT keen on Uncanny X-Men, it's basically a team of villains, so I'm considering dropping that prior to issue #1(plus the cover price is daunting).
Cap and Bucky has been a great read, right now it's all WWII flashback stuff about how Bucky first became Cap's sidekick and it's been a treat, but that time period may not be for everyone.
Ultimates has great potential, but I'm not 100% sold on Jonathan Hickman yet... I'd go with Ult. X instead, but with either series it's still kind of early to say which one'll be better. That's a toss up.
Wolvie's first long storyarc was good, but I don't know where that series is going to go next, so I don't blame you for taking a pass.
Mighty Thor and Iron Man have both been quite good and are both written by Matt Fraction, they might be worth a look depending on how you feel about the characters/Fraction. But I've been enjoying the FI stuff in Iron Man, if you haven't I can understand passing on that one. As for Thor, I was never a big Thor guy but Mighty Thor has been turning me around.
Venom has been great though. It's been solid since the get go but you may want to wait until after Spider-Island if you're not into that storyline right now, because Venom is deep in Spider-Island. Same with Spidey. I swore off Spidey after the retcon of his marriage and stuff, but Dan Slott is an amazing writer who drew me right back into Spidey again.
If it was me, I'd go Avengers Academy, X-Force, Journey Into Mystery, Cap and Bucky & Venom or Spidey. Of course you should take creative teams and favorite characters into account too. Hopefully I managed to help you out a bit, and I'll be curious to find out what you actually went with, TRobb. If I think of any series I'm forgetting I'll make sure to mention them later on tonight after I post a few reviews.
Thanks X, I appreciate your input! I got Avengers Academy mainly because of your high praise for the series - it's not a coincidence.
ReplyDeleteUncanny is a very different team of mutants than what we're used to seeing, and since the first arc features Mr. Sinister, I was drawn to it more than the other regenesis books. You mentioned that it was going to be $4.99, but is that a price only for the first issue or is that going to be the monthly price? If it's the latter, the series would have to be DAMN good, or I'll be dropping it quickly.
I'm a fan of both Iron Man and Thor, and your positive reviews of Invincible Iron Man contributed a lot towards my interest in that title. I thought the Fear Itself tie-ins started strong, peaked with the confrontation in Paris, and have kind of fallen off the rails since then. Now I'm waiting to see how things shake out, I could definitely see myself picking that one up in the future.
The art in mighty thor looks sick, but I'm not a fan of galactus, so I'm going to sit that series out until they move to the next story arc at the very least.
I admit, looking at my lineup now, it definitely needs more spidey. To be clear, I don't hate spider island at all - seems like a decent, light-hearted event - but nothing has happened to really draw my interest and the art isn't compelling enough to compensate (that'll change when Joe Mad starts drawing Avenging Spiderman!).
Man, after reading what you wrote, I'm leaning towards plugging in Venom for the Ultimates. Remender might be my favorite writer right now, and off the top of my head there hasn't been a dud in the venom series yet. Venom sounds like the safer pick of the two, I'll probably make that swap.
Last, but not least, is the subject of Cap. I've tried a little bit to get into Cap (just saw "First Avenger" last week, read a few of your reviews), and I just can't seem to connect with the character. What Cap story arcs would you recommend to hook me in?
X, my love!!! I have missed you! I am back! I've been really M.I.A due to a bad cold I had. But I'm back and doing better, and haaad to make my way over to the weekly NCD post. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see you didn't leave the shop with 20+ comics, lol. And always, here to put my dibs on the reviews I'm anxious to read! ^_^
Let's see, I'll be waiting for: Deathstroke, Grifter, Suicide Squad, Superboy (JT managed to convince me to start reading this) annnd Daken. I'm sure I'll be around to read the other stuff because I just can't help myself when to comes to your blog, ;-).
Happy Reading!!!
just read Suicide Squad #2. i wrote a review about it but in a nut shell it was pretty good as long as your not a whinny bitchy fan boy who can't deal with Harley's new wardrobe and Waller's new dress size. plus you get a little more bang for you buck (3 bucks actually) with the Adam Glass Suicide Squad Q & A in the back of the book. looks like we're going to be seeing some familiar faces and organizations soon.
ReplyDeleteGlad that I was able to convince you to give Avengers Academy a shot, TRobb. That's one series I'd recommend to anybody. Agreed with Iron Man. The first couple of the Fear Itself tie-ins were great, but then suddenly Tony's getting drunk with dwarfs and battling golems... So yeah, I see your point The Galactus storyline is over now with Thor, I think the upcoming issue is a spotlight on Odin and the Serpent from back when they were kids(if I understood the next issue page correctly), which COULD be interesting... If Remender is your favorite current writer, then I'd definitely say give Venom a shot. The first issue wasn't exactly great(to me at least), but every issue since then has been really strong. Remender is one guy I often overlook, but he's had a hell of a 2011... Oh man, if you want to get into Cap, read Brubaker's Winter Soldier saga!! If you can find the trades that is, because the singles are WAY pricey now. When I first got back into Marvel one of the books I picked up was Brubaker's Cap #1, and I was hooked. And then he busted out the Winter Soldier storyline... And I was addicted! I THINK the entire saga may be collected in two trades(I'm not sure, I have the singles), but yeah, THAT'S the Cap storyline I'd most recommend, hands down. The stuff after Cap's "assassination" where Bucky takes over is pretty fantastic as well, but I'd say give Winter Soldier a shot first.
ReplyDeleteLisha! First things first, I hope you're feeling better. Let's see, I plan on reading and reviewing Deathstroke after I respond to all of my comments, so by the end of the night that should be up. Grifter and Daken are definitely going to be two of the three books I post tomorrow night, the other books are a bit further down my comic pile though... But those two will be up soon, so that's good, right? :D
Don't you worry Dave, you know it'll take more than Harley's outfit to get me pissed off about that issue. I'll prob read the Squad Friday or Saturday and post a review for it around then. I'm glad to hear you liked it though since we seemed to be on the same page on the first issue. It gives me some hope for this issue.
Awww thanks X. I am feeling much better. I'm at that stage where the last of the cold is trying to hold on for dear life, lol. Such an annoying cough going on.
ReplyDeleteI saw you posted your Deathstroke Review, so I'll be heading there right after I finish this comment. Can't wait to see what you think about Suicide Squad. :)