Recent Developments

Back again with more comic talk. Since classes begin next week, this may be the last regular update for a while. I'll try to keep posting but we'll see. So I'll just talk about a bunch of books and junk.

First up, and maybe most "noteworthy" is Part 6 of DC's "Trinity War" event that takes place in Justice League #23. Geoff Johns wraps this up (and I use that word lightly) by directly paving the way for the event that DC really gives half a shit about, "Forever Evil", which will take place in the 7-part limited series named the same. The various heroes of Earth have been fighting over Pandora's Box because of how it can seal all of mankind's sins back into it. Turns out that the Secret Society of Super Villains wants them to open it back up. The Outsider, the leader of the Secret Society, is a being from a parallel Earth and Pandora's Box is actually a gateway to it. The "Trinity" in the title is actually referring to Earth-3, the very same Earth that The Outsider is from (so they explain almost verbatim in the issue, still kind of a jump). And the box opens, and a portal is created. Who should step out of the portal? Why, none other than the rulers of Earth-3, the Crime Syndicate; alternate, evil versions of the Justice League. I guess the final splash page was supposed to be a shocker, but with DC's intended audience of 45 year olds (that is what they actually said), they already read solicits for future books and could have guessed this. Nothing is a surprise. I'm just glad this is done so the actual event can begin, and it still doesn't seem like an event so much as just "the next thing". Geoff Johns already did something similar in his Green Lantern books; his "event" called "Rise of the Third Army" wasn't so much an event as it was a collection of GL stories where "oh shit look out Third Army for no reason" and it was just a prologue to the actual event called "Wrath of the First Lantern" which wasn't all that much better.

On to something better. Marvel released issue 10 of Captain America, written by Rick Remender and penciled by John Romita Jr. This is the end of Remender's 10-part opening arc "Escape From Dimension Z", a sci-fi romp where classic Cap villain Arnim Zola captures Steve Rogers and imprisons him in his alternate dimension inhabited by mutated beasts. Steve is trapped in this world for a decade (but only a few hours or so in our time back on Marvel Earth). In this adventure, Steve tries to survive in a hostile alien world while being hunted by Zola's soldiers, robots, and mutates. He befriends a village of mutates that have been oppressed by Zola's rule, he has adopted Zola's test tube baby and named him Ian, he has fought so very long in this new world all while holding on to hope that he will make it out or at least see the next day alive with his new "son" Ian. This is a fantastic story by Remender, and a stark contrast to Ed Brubaker's long but also fantastic run on the character that focused more on his soldier background and gave him a sort of super-spy feel at times. Romita Jr., artist of Kick-Ass, among other books, does good work here illustrating an alien world with some Jack Kirby influences. Remender recently wrote Uncanny X-Force, an excellent run on a black-ops team of mutants. His stories span multiple arcs and show deep connections without getting too obtuse. So with the end of this first arc, Steve has been scarred and has suffered many setbacks and metaphorical kicks to the balls, and he is definitely a changed man. I highly recommend picking up this title because it is going to good places, and for sure be sure to read the first ten issues. It is amazing, and a heart breaker.

I recently decided to give Red Hood and the Outlaws from DC another shot. I read it when it first came out with the New52 reboot, but couldn't get behind it. But the team of formerly-deceased former-Robin Jason Todd (Red Hood), ex-Green Arrow sidekick Roy Harper (Arsenal), and self-exiled Tamaranian Princess Koriand'r (Starfire) demanded my renewed attention. The first 19 issues were written by Scott Lobdell, who was big in the 90's, and the first 12 or so issues were illustrated by Kenneth Rocafort. The initial story is about a team of outcasts that deal with evil in their own "extreme" fashion. There is a lot of background to these characters and it actually makes for an interesting story when I read it again. The first arc takes some missteps, among them being pacing issues and sudden cuts to a page of seemingly irrelevant events, but around issue 11 the story picks up. At this point the story takes the Outlaws to space to help Starfire with some of that pesky backstory. It's a pretty fun sci-fi space opera type story and Rocafort's art really lends itself well to that sort of story, with his unique designs and details along with his dynamic panel layouts (just look at the Star Wars-inspired cover he did to the right, that is pretty par for the course for the first handful of issues).

The main underlying story revolves around Jason Todd and his training after being resurrected by Batman villain Talia al Ghul. He is taken in by the other-worldly monks and warriors of the All-Caste and he is trained to fight the ancient evil of the Untitled, demonic immortals who have been trying to upset the balance of the world since its creation. It's and interesting story, but what makes this book, I think, are the interactions between the teammates. Out of the many Lobdell-penned books of the New52, I think this is his strongest. He keeps the endless dialogue he is known for to a (relative) minimum and seems to really make this a blockbuster-styled 90's book. He has written other properties that have had established changes and evolutions through the ages (such as Teen Titans), and his style doesn't always fit. He is a very 90's kind of writer, with tell-not-show exposition, flashy characters, and gritty action, and with a brand new team without established canon, it works. It's like a Michael Bay movie, leave your brain at the door and have a good time. It starts off rocky but gets pretty enjoyable, if not without a few hiccups.

Around issue 20 the book gets a new creative team. James Tynion IV writes while Julius Gopez does art duty. This is a trade-off in my opinion from the last creative team. Rocafort's art was the highlight over Lobdell's writing last time, but now it's switched. Tynion takes the characters and runs with them, streamlining dialogue a little but keeping the feel of them intact, but Gopez's art just doesn't do it for me. It's chock full of odd poses, faces with too many lines, and some Rob Liefeld-esque designs (as you can see in the panels shown, where Arsenal takes on the League of Assassins single-handedly with a literal arsenal of weaponry, with an oversized cannon with multiple barrels and questionable perspective, but I'm kind of hoping it's a tongue-in-cheek jab at Liefeld characters of the 90's). I just miss Rocafort's art. That would make this book top notch with him and Tynion making it their own. Although, like the rest of the New52, it relies too much on continuity (a lot from before the reboot, which really irks me) instead of the already established stories, further showing this whole thing isn't all that great of a "reboot".

So with that my hands are tired. So good night, internet tumbleweeds.

"Life Events"

So, THINGS!

I haven't made a post about me in a while. Just on comics but not on stuff I've been up to or other things. I guess the first thing to talk about is the next convention I will be going to. In about a month and a half, I'll be going to the third annual Ramencon in Merrilville, IN. I went the past two years, in fact you can read my impressions of it in an earlier (MUCH earlier, like two years ago) post on this blog for the very first Ramencon. This con is very special to me since it was my first convention and really expanded my group of friends and began my journey into con-going fandom.

I have two cosplays in mind for it. Sanji from One Piece (above), and Castiel from Supernatural. Cass will be easy because I've done him before, and I'll let my 5 o'clock shadow get all good for him Friday of the con. Saturday will be Sanji (freshly shaved of course, with "sharpie" goatee marks and eyebrow curl). I just don't know which version of him to do yet. It'll depend on what kind of shirt I find at thrift stores I guess. Kinda want to do either the middle or right version, but if I can't find striped shirts for cheap I'll have to go with the one on the left. BUT! What I really wanna do is fashion a heart-shaped prop that I can easily affix to my face for photos and remove as easily (because One Piece fans will know that Sanji falls in love every five minutes, like below).

I am very excited for Ramencon if I can pull that off. I just need a good double-breasted suit jacket, a good shirt, and his wig. Tie, shoes, and pants are all already owned.

Otherwise my life has been eventfully uneventful. I recently began rekindling my love of Star Wars, so I got my hands on some expanded universe comics like Knight Errant and Legacy (to re-read/catch up on). I dived into Valiant's new catalog of books, including Harbinger, X-O Manowar, and Bloodshot. Those three, along with Shadowman, are solid titles. "X-O" in particular is quite interesting, starring a Visigoth warrior who is captured by an alien race called The Vine and hijacks a sacred armor called the Manowar and travels through time to fight against his captors. Whacky 90's plots re-done for a new generation with hot new writers is Valiant's new bread-and-butter and it's doing pretty well.

To catch up with the rest of the world, and some rad friends, I have also started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender. I've seen bits and pieces of it on TV but my brother had the DVDs so I have no excuse anymore not to watch it. I wanna get caught up and watch the first season of The Legend of Korra, its sequel, as well by September when its second season airs. It's just as good as I remember from what I've seen already and I look forward to powering through it at a blinding speed.

And finally, in the past few weeks, I've discovered my taste for real German beer. Danke, Bierstube.

_________________

With eyes so dilated I become your pupil.

Trinity War and More

This week I'll be taking a look at DC's Justice League #22, the first part of the big crossover "Trinity War". Part 1 is written by Geoff Johns, the creative head honcho of the New52, and illustrated by Ivan Reis. DC has been forcing its many books into crossovers since the beginning of the reboot, allowing a 5 or 6 issue arc to establish the various titles, then shoehorning in an event or crossover between many titles. Some were good, some were not. For example, the forerunner seemed to be the "Night of the Owls" event that ran through the core Batman title with tie-ins throughout the other Bat-family books like Nightwing, Batman and Robin, and the rest. This event was well done by Scott Snyder with minimal intrusion into other titles by the tie in issues. Then you've got "The Culling", and event throughout the majority of issues of Teen Titans and Superboy. These two books were supposed to overlap but were just one big ham-fisted headache penned by Scott Lobdell, a guy who forgets that it's not the 90's anymore.

"Trinity War" could turn out to follow either of those. It has a structure similar to "The Culling" and Justice League's previous crossover "Throne of Atlantis" (which I actually enjoyed and was pretty simply executed thanks to both JL and Aquaman being written by Mr. Johns), where you start with JL #22 as Part 1, then pick up Part 2 in Justice League of America #6, and Part 3 in Justice League Dark, etc etc. This is a simple structure that allows the story to move on quick, as opposed to the "Court of Owls" story which only took place in Batman which, like every other title, is a monthly book. This allows Johns to get Trinity War out of the way quickly so he can then move on to his 7-part "Forever Evil" (pfhahaha) story and DC's latest mistake, Villains Month. But anyway, on to the book itself.

In the New52 universe, there are three mysterious entities that may or may not have something to do with why the DC 'verse was rebooted in the first place, if they decide to even address that. They are Pandora, The Phantom Stranger, and The Question. We don't know much about them, since Pandora only just had her first issue released last week, while Phantom Stranger has had a short and as I hear it mediocre run of around 10 issues. While we don't know much about them, other than Pandora releasing the 7 Deadly Sins on humanity, there have been tensions among the world's superhuman crowd. America's secret organization ARGUS has formed a team of heroes and anti-heroes to take down the Justice League if they should go bad. This is their "Justice League of America". There's also the magic-using Justice League Dark which didn't do much in this issue but they have been burned by ARGUS in the past. This first part focuses on the hero Shazam traveling to the nation of Kahndaq which has banned any superhuman fly-bys. Both the Justice League and the JLA want to keep this from happening but for different reasons, which brings them both into a conflict.

As the first issue of this event, we get the deft writing of Geoff Johns. He establishes a little bit of needed info if you've just been reading JL. Otherwise he flies right into the two teams and their various concerns. Johns and JL are basically the core of the new DC universe as far as I can see, and he definitely wants this to be their first BIG event. You know, besides all the other ones editorial wants their writers to interrupt their individual stories for. Johns has been writing for DC for a while. You love him or you don't. I loved his run on Green Lantern, and what other stuff I've read (such as old DC's Justice Society) has been pretty good. He does good team books as well as decently-focused individual character books like Aquaman. Ivan Reis draws this book as well as his other work from earlier Green Lantern and the previous issues of JL. As you can see from the spread above, this event will allow him to make some dynamic pieces, of which this first issue has a few.

This first issue establishes what the main problem is without getting too much into it. It could have been a stronger hook, but with comics how they are, we had a bunch of titles serving as a "prelude" to it and comic solicits saying "read this pleasepleaseplease". Some of the dialogue is iffy, as you can see The Question to the right talking about EEEEVVVVIIILLL, which there is a lot of in this issue. But maybe that's just how The Question talks in the New52, and I'm kinda looking forward cautiously to how Johns treats the character. Since the JL books keep their fingers on the pulse of the new DC universe, this is really their first "big" event, so I want to see where it goes. If you've been reading Justice League since the beginning of the reboot, this should shape up to be bigger than "Throne of Atlantis" and worth following. The only wild card is how Justice League Dark, the one of the three titles not written by Johns (instead by Animal Man's Jeff Lemire), fits into his story. Luckily we've got two weeks (I think) to find out instead of two months.

Some other comic highlights:
 - Superman Unchained #2 by Scott Snyder looks to be interesting, introducing a new character from Supes' past into the mix of hidden terrorist plots by the group Ascension. Snyder is known for his writing in Batman focusing on Bruce Wayne's inner thoughts and is very personal and kinda dark. He brings that to Unchained with some good insight into Supes' mind and that he doesn't ALWAYS know what to do. I haven't read a lot of Superman books, so maybe this isn't all that great a job, but I'm liking it so far. At least, it's better than the core Superman book launched for the New52.

 - I recently picked up the first trade of Irredeemable by Mark Waid. It is about a Superman-esque superhero who "goes bad". But not like sudden mind control or evil clone, but a slow erosion of his principles and personality over time. Waid poses the possibility that not all heroes are emotionally equipped to deal with the praise and criticism of being a hero, and shows what could happen if a god-like being just can't take the pressure and stress anymore. The first volume brings in some classic hero tropes and makes them go wrong, such as revealing his secret identity costs him a possible marriage. It's an interesting idea that I think I'll keep going on with for its run of 37 issues.

 - Having seen some of their books pop up in my Amazon recommendations, I looked into Valiant and their heroes like Shadowman, X-O Manowar, and Bloodshot, some popular comics from the 90's that weren't from the big two publishers. They recently did their own little reboot by launching four (I believe, more have been added) titles that have all received relative praise. So I picked up the bargain-priced first volume of their rebooted Shadowman ($9.99 for a trade with 4 issues, an incentive to give the first story a shot, something more publishers are doing now it seems). Having only read the first issue of it, it seems it's right up my alley. It's got themes of family and powers passed down through generations with a horror vibe. Sounds like Animal Man. I'll be looking into the other reboots too because I already like this book.

So that's it for now. Back next week with another comic review.

Everybody Read Animal Man

...and Swamp Thing.

I mentioned them a few days ago and how great they were. It's been a busy week with the 4th of July and working at a grocery store, it's a big week for people who eat food. I've not had time to read all the floppies this week, but so far DC's stuff was pretty good. Batman Inc, is winding down to the final issue (at least of Grant Morrison's years-long story arc), Detective Comics is re-introducing Wrath into the Batman corner of the New52, and Green Lantern is still showing some promise two issues into the new writer's run.

But I did manage to finish the second volume of DC's Animal Man of the New52. I can't recommend it enough. Swamp Thing is very much related to the concepts of Animal Man, as I wrote a few days ago, but if I HAD to pick which of the two is the better book, it would be Animal Man, but by just a hair. If you don't read it for the art (gruesome as it may often be), or the story of primordial forces destroying the balance of the world, read it for the following:

At it's core, Animal Man is about a family where the father has abilities beyond imagination. The book shows the effect of Buddy Baker's place in the world on the family. And it gets better from there.

So yeah.

Anywho, tomorrow morning I head out for Anime Midwest in Rosemont, IL. I'm quite excited but also anxious as always because people. But I won't have anything more for here until Monday at the earliest with details of the con experience.

That is all.

_______________________

(Read Animal Man)

Stuff and Things

Just gonna talk about things I've been doing the past few days. Not much.

Picked up a copy of Okage: Shadow King, an old JRPG for the Playstation 2 by Zener Works. $8 at Half-Price Books. I love that store. I remember playing it years ago as a kid and being really excited for it, but I never got anywhere in it. Now I'm older and can appreciate its cleverness and tongue-in-cheek humor. The battles are repetitive and arbitrary, but the story is unique with some witty dialogue. The story centers around a young boy named Ari whose father finds a mysterious jar. When Ari's sister gets attacked by a ghost and cursed to speak only pig latin, Father decides that the jar must be some sort of mystic artifact that can cure her. It does, but the ritual releases a demon by the name of Evil King Stan. Stan wants to reclaim his former glory as the Great Evil King, but he can't because his essence was spread over the years to many lesser Evil Kings. Stan merges with Ari's shadow and commands him to find these impostor Kings and slay them. It's all very interesting in a "WTF" sort of way. I'm really digging it.

I also got into the Final Fantasy XIV beta. It's pretty cool, but so far boils down to yet another WoW clone. Which isn't BAD per se, just that besides the setting of being an FF, it's nothing special. Yet. But I dunno if I'll stick around. I know I'll get addicted and be tempted to shill out the money for a subscription. Nope. Also my video card is either on its last legs or I just need to clean the fans. It crapped out on me once yesterday. And good GOD my computer chair is squeaking like mad.

I went and watched DC's animated film "Batman: Under the Red Hood" and I liked it. I want to read the comics it's lifted from, and I'm also digging around for the other pre-reboot Batman arcs that aren't written by Grant Morrison. I've got my fill of him for a while, since I'm almost caught up with Batman, Inc. I've also gone back to re-read the New52 Swamp Thing and Animal Man, since I wanna catch up with those, as they are both amazing books. Swamp Thing is written by Scott Snyder, who's been having a great run on Batman stories the past few years, and has done American Vampire, so he's no stranger to dark stories. Yanick Paquette is the illustrator for the first chunk of issues, and the arts is gorgeous. Vibrant colors, thick lines, creative panel placement makes everything flow. Animal Man is also great, with a story by Jeff Lemire (also no stranger to the horror genre), and art duties by Travel Foreman. This is a much more, um, visceral book. It's quite explicit with the imagery, where Swamp Thing is more tame. Both books deal with the world of the Green (plants, Swamp Thing) and of the Red (animals, flesh, Animal Man). They individually tackle the hidden third world of the Black, aka the Rot (dead stuff, naturally). You can imagine the kinds of things the Rot would be. Both books illustrate the Rot as macabre and gruesome, but Animal Man's Travel Foreman draws some truly disturbing imagery. Both books are creatively and visually gripping, and I'm waiting on the second collection of Animal Man to reach my doorstep so I can catch up. They are both books that people need to read if they haven't already.

Finally, next week I'll be hitting up an anime convention in Rosemon, IL called Anime Midwest. Last year was really fun, even though I really didn't do much except hang out. This year I plan on actually attending some panels, as there are a bunch about webcomics and voice actors. I plan on having a write up of my experience next week.

That's about it for now. Just stretching my typing hands tonight.

__________________
I become the distance.
I am the sober and irrelevant.
I don't feel part in this,
What is there to believe?

*Clever Title Here*: Comic Review

Every Wednesday, new comics hit the newsstands and comic stores. Every Wednesday I have a pile of new comics to read either physically or digitally. So every week, maybe on Wednesday, or maybe the next day, I'll try to pick out one issue to go over and talk about. Ideally, this would be a 1st issue, a last issue, the start of a major arc or crossover event, or something other than just "the next issue". But today, since it's my first installment of this, and that I couldn't get said comics yesterday in a timely manner, I've got two issues to really go over. Otherwise, I'll give my brief thoughts on the many other issues I've read this week. So let's get to it.

The first proper review is for DC Comics' 1st issue of "Larfleeze", written by Keith Giffen and J.M. Dematteis, and illustrated by Scott Kolins. Larfleeze is a character created by Geoff Johns during his acclaimed run on Green Lantern. In his expansion of the GL mythos, Johns created more colors of the Emotional Spectrum, such as Red Lanterns stand for Rage, Blue Lanterns stand for Hope, etc. Larfleeze was the single holder of the Orange part of the Emotional Spectrum, Avarice. His whole thing was that, unlike the other colored Lantern Corps., he was the only wielder of the Orange light. His Power Ring could increase its power seemingly without limit and his ring's "constructs" were the bodies of those he has killed with his Orange power, effectively creating and controlling an army of constructs. The flip side of this was that Larfleeze was perpetually greedy and a bit dim. After the events of "Wrath of the First Lantern" (Johns' big finale of his GL run), Larfleeze was basically sent to the edge of the universe nearly powerless with only his alien butler for companionship. This story picks up after that, much like the other titles in the New52 Green Lantern group of books.

This first issue reestablishes Larfleeze's character with a (possibly inaccurate) life story reiterated by the sleaze himself to his butler, since at the end of the universe there isn't much better to do than tell stories. However, at the end of the issue his story gets interrupted by something that calls this part of the universe home. It's not a very eventful first issue, but it sets up the character of Larfleeze for anyone who doesn't already know about him (and let's be honest, if you don't know, then you don't care about the GL part of the DC Universe too much and this book on the shelf won't attract someone who isn't already terribly familiar with its continuity). What we get from it is the setup for what would make a decent mini series of maybe 5 issues instead of the ongoing series it's supposed to be. I really don't see how they can make this character into something readers will come back for each month. But I've been wrong before. So far we've got the makings of a clever romp through the outer reaches of space with a greedy little monster and his companion/slave.

Keith Giffen is a writer I've not read much of, but I have heard good things about. His issue of Green Lantern: New Guardians was not what I expected, but it was setting up a new series called Threshold which has since been cancelled, I believe. With Giffen on the plot and Dematteis writing the scripts, however, we get some clever dialog and an interesting set up for the rest of this particular story. Giffen also wrties Larfleeze like he was depicted in New Guardians; as a conniving, greasy, and sometimes amusing ball of greed as opposed to the more sinister version that Johns wrote before the reboot. Scott Kolins' art is actually pretty good too. It leans ever so slightly towards the cartoony than many more realistic approaches the Green Lantern books have had over the years. The colorist makes good use of the various colors and glows of the Orange light, and the whole thing has a unity in its orange gutters and dialog boxes.

All in all, for the Green Lantern fan this offers a more focused look at one of the lesser known Lantern colors with not much to offer right away. But, with good back-and-forth between the two main characters, some well timed gags, and a sudden appearance of conflict near the end, this COULD be an interesting title. But with all of the problems DC has been having, trying to make this a continuing story could prove difficult. Even if Giffen manages to get a huge arc out of this I have little faith in DC keeping this around for long.

The second book I picked up to review was Marvel's "All New X-Men" #13, written by Brian Michael Bendis and art by Stuart Immonen. The main idea behind this book is that, after the events of the Avengers vs. X-Men crossover, Hank McCoy (Beast) traveled back to the past to recruit the original team of X-Men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman, and Angel) to come to the future with him to shame the main timeline's Cyclops into... I dunno, undoing all his actions from the aforementioned conflict? It's confusing to explain, and silly when you ask why is this a good idea. But the status quo is that the young, original team of X-Men are now living in the current X-Men continuity. Meaning some amusing or depressing conversations between a young Bobby Drake and his older self, or a young Angel asking his future self why he suddenly has metal wings. Bendis writes these conversations amazingly, since his forte has always seemed to be dialog between confused teenagers (great for Ultimate Spider-Man, silly and grating for Avengers). Bendis is basically in control of the X-Men corner of the Marvel universe for now, and ANX-Men, along with his also ongoing run on Uncanny X-Men, show that it is actually in capable hands. The past team getting timey-wimey'd off to the present is hard to get over for the first few issues, but it actually works out.

Anywho, the story right now is that Mystique is up to her old (or new) tricks, using her shape-shifting ability along with Lady Mastermind's illusion abilities to make it seem like this old team of X-Men have been robbing banks and dealing with HYDRA. This issue focuses on Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, and the original X-Men finding their hideout to bust some heads, without spoiling too much. Stuart Immonen has been on art duty for all 13 issues, and it has been really good. Just good design, layout, and action in the whole package, as you can see from this spread near the end of the issue (forgive my poor scanning abilities).

There's not much else to say on this. It's continuing Bendis' plot and developing how these younger X-Men interact with a confusing modern world. It is an interesting status quo for the X-Men, but all the time travel antics in this and many other books are setting up for something big in the Marvel U.

So this is roughly what I'll be doing each week, hopefully. With my work schedule never being totally set in stone, I don't know if I'll be able to make this every Wednesday, as this post clearly illustrates on account of it being Thursday. But at some point each week I will try to pick out an issue to review in such a way. Since I'm sure I'm boring anybody reading this by now, I'll leave it at that.

Yay, comics!

On comics

Hey again everybody (all... zero of you probably).

One of the big things I wanna do on this blog is talk about comics. I want to offer my opinions on various titles, books, authors, illustrators, etc. I'd like to review them occasionally and talk about what's going on with them. But first a little about comics and I.

As a kid I read comics a lot, mostly collections of funny pages strips like Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, and Foxtrot. I'd find my way to reading through Star Wars and X-Men comics on and off as I grew up, but I've always read comics in some capacity. But a few years ago, my sophomore year of college I believe, I really dug into them. I had stopped reading comics for a while, and just read books about the various Marvel and DC heroes such as the DK collection of guidebooks so I'd know about the increasing amount of comic-to-film adaptations I was interested in. But on a whim I decided to get back into X-Men. I knew about some of the big events at Marvel such as the Civil War and House of M but I didn't know what they were. So I managed to dig back into X-Men by reading the second volume of "New X-Men" by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost. Reading through that got me to read through House of M, and reading that got me branch out to other X-titles, as well as going back to read through Grant Morrison's run on "New X-Men", the re-naming of the core X-Men title that was launched in the 90's.

And from there, well, I read a fuckton of other comics. I made my way to DC comics and read though Geoff John's run on Green Lantern (having just finished this past month with his final issue of, what, ten years?). Likewise, I found my way to other DC comics like Batman, the Flash, etc, etc. Now I have a decent collection of comic trade paperbacks.

As you can see, I've got three almost-full shelves taken up with just my Marvel and DC stuff. Top shelf is DC (52, Animal Man, Batman, Doom Patrol, Green Lantern, Seven Soldiers, among others), middle shelf is assorted Marvel (Annihilation, Captain America, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Spider-Man, etc), and the bottom shelf is JUST X-Men related material, in (mostly) chronological order instead of alphabetically.

 

This shelf is dedicated to comics of other publishers like Dark Horse, Image, and whathaveyou. I've got stuff like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Maus, Penny Arcade, Scott Pilgrim, Sin City, Star Wars, and The Walking Dead. Along side that are two cardboard boxes of single comics I have been buying for a few years. That is just my physical collection. I've also got about 18 gigs of comics on my computer, some of which I haven't even read through yet.

So I've crammed a lot of comics into these past few years. I hope to post my thoughts on various comics in the future, and I'm going to kick myself to really keep this going and maybe make something of it. Like many comic readers, I've had my share of thoughts for my own comics, but I haven't done much with them besides what's in my head, since my writing and drawing skills lack on account of my spending five years on a college major in the natural sciences. Hrm.

But in the future expect a lot of comic discussion. For example, next week Wednesday the new comic issues hit the stands. One of the handful I'll be picking up is the first issue of DC Comics' "Larfleeze", a major character spinning out of Geoff Johns' "Green Lantern" run, and I'll be talking about it a little either that day or the next, along with the rest of my haul that day (All New X-Men #13, Uncanny X-Men #7, and Wolverine and the X-Men #32 (my gosh, that is a lot of X-titles)). I hope to do this sort of thing every week by picking my favorite issue of the week and talking about it.

But that's not all this blog will have. It won't all be about comics, but also video games, news, whatever the heck I feel like posting, reasons why I say "heck" and "gosh" when in this same post I use the word "fuckton", as well as other junk.

I guess stay tuned for more things???

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I am Iron Man