Great Unified Comics Thread

[Hansmeister]

Let me add my two cents:

The only DC comics I ever thought was worth a damn was Green Lantern, and the Sinestro Corps War and The Blackest Night story lines are some of the best writing in comics today.  I've always been a Marvel fan but they've been doing their best to fuck up all their comic lines.  Brand New Day was a terribly contrived reboot for Spiderman.  X-Men havent had a decent story line in at least a decade and the X-titles should all be renamed Wolverine & Friends, since this is what they've devolved into.  They've jut destroyed the entire Ultimate line for no apparent reason.  The only decent line has been the various Avenger titles and tie-ins, but they're starting to suffer from overexposure as well.  I'm not sure they'll be able to recover from the Dark Reign mega event.  War of Kings is quite good, but I'm sure they'll manage to fuck it up before too long.

At least The Walking Dead is still superb.

[Neil]

Let me add my two cents:

The only DC comics I ever thought was worth a damn was Green Lantern, and the Sinestro Corps War and The Blackest Night story lines are some of the best writing in comics today.  I've always been a Marvel fan but they've been doing their best to fuck up all their comic lines.  Brand New Day was a terribly contrived reboot for Spiderman.  X-Men havent had a decent story line in at least a decade and the X-titles should all be renamed Wolverine & Friends, since this is what they've devolved into.  They've jut destroyed the entire Ultimate line for no apparent reason.  The only decent line has been the various Avenger titles and tie-ins, but they're starting to suffer from overexposure as well.  I'm not sure they'll be able to recover from the Dark Reign mega event.  War of Kings is quite good, but I'm sure they'll manage to fuck it up before too long.

At least The Walking Dead is still superb.

Green Lantern is good stuff, I agree.

As for Marvel, I agree with most of what you said.  I thought that Planet Hulk was the best thing that Marvel had done in a decade, and one of the best Hulk runs of all time.  And it did it without being a crossover, and only involving two existing characters.  The Ultimate line can't keep up the steam forever.  For one thing, there's a glut of 'gritty' hero comics out there.  For another, while some characters have been slightly reimagined, a lot of the Ultimate is retelling their best old stories and reintroducing characters from the mainline Marvelverse.  Ultimately, the Ultimate universe will suffer as the quality characters get used up and killed off.  Spiderman has been on the decline for over a decade now, but the reboot was easily the worst thing that Marvel has done in all that time.

The Walking Dead I don't like.  Too much killing of the characters.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

I look at the whole Brand New Day Era as "an imaginary story/alt universe Spidey, it helps me sleep at night.

War Of Kings (and all the last few "cosmic series" at both Marvel & DC) is really good. Solid comics. very little soap opera, lots of cool matchups, Galactic battles. etc.

BTW, The New "Buck Rogers" reboot from Dynamite is fun and gorgeously drawn.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

This has me thinking... Why are the more Cosmic storylines at Marvel and DC really the only decent stuff that is being done in their various Super-verses?

What is it about Adam Strange etc, The GL Corp... Nova Corp, Guardians of the Galaxy, R.E.B.E.L.S , etc are so much better than all the other mainstream of superhero-dom (with a few scattered (usually brief) exceptions. ) Why are the more cosmic storylines more interesting? Just better writing?

Or do the Earthbound heroes have too much baggage, mythos dragging them down? OR are Didio and Quesada both just assholes out to ruin our cherished childhood/adolescent/adult... memories?

Hmmmm?

[Neil]

This has me thinking... Why are the more Cosmic storylines at Marvel and DC really the only decent stuff that is being done in their various Super-verses?

What is it about Adam Strange etc, The GL Corp... Nova Corp, Guardians of the Galaxy, R.E.B.E.L.S , etc are so much better than all the other mainstream of superhero-dom (with a few scattered (usually brief) exceptions. ) Why are the more cosmic storylines more interesting? Just better writing?

Or do the Earthbound heroes have too much baggage, mythos dragging them down? OR are Didio and Quesada both just assholes out to ruin our cherished childhood/adolescent/adult... memories?

Hmmmm?

I think there's several parts to it.  For one thing, the cosmic stories have a tendency to be more innovative in creating new villains and in their usage of established ones.  Another thing is that the cosmic books tend to be shorter runs and smaller readerships than the 'money books' (Batman, Superman, X-Men, Spiderman) and so there's less pressure to be forumulaic, and less editorial bullshit.  That said, they still sell as they are expected to, and so nobody feels the need to make any '2 THE XTREME' changes, which are almost invariably bad (Hey, let's kill Ted Kord and make the Blue Beetle a Mexican!).

Also, the nature of the cosmic stories tends to be a bit different.  They're more mysterious, and can go to all sorts of crazy places where anything is possible.  Compare that to most superhero books, which usually tend to involve a fistfight in an urban area.  The cosmic books tend to have a larger scale, too.  The Cosmic Beings are unambiguously the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe and Green Lantern is the most powerful hero on DC Earth.  A sense of awe is always nice.

So basicly, the cosmic books have creativity, adventure, mystery and awe going for them, whereas regular superhero books these days run mainly on drama and angst.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Maybe then we are seeing the end of the era of 'gritty realism' the Watchmen started.  Heroes who have issues is one thing.  Banal and boring heroes is quite another, like so much else these days the stampede to build on earlier works by imitation has resulted in the poorest form of flattery.


Or something.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

Maybe then we are seeing the end of the era of 'gritty realism' the Watchmen started.  Heroes who have issues is one thing.  Banal and boring heroes is quite another, like so much else these days the stampede to build on earlier works by imitation has resulted in the poorest form of flattery.


Or something.

I think this feeds into what Neil is saying too. The "gritty" thing has been done to death and is now the only way Superhero movies (the real cash cow for comics companies) seem to get made. (somehow more "realistic"? :p )

I like the epic scale of the Cosmic stories and the fact that the Epicness has not so much of an impact on continuity... and that there isn't all the continuity constrictions that Earthbound Tights Wearers have to deal with.

I welcome an end to the gritty thing. Interestingly some of Marvel's best sales these days are the "Adventures" line which is their all ages and lacking the continuity bug comics. Just old fashioned super good guys taking down super bad guys. Now that's comics.

[Neil]

Maybe then we are seeing the end of the era of 'gritty realism' the Watchmen started.  Heroes who have issues is one thing.  Banal and boring heroes is quite another, like so much else these days the stampede to build on earlier works by imitation has resulted in the poorest form of flattery.


Or something.

One would hope so.  I mean, I wouldn't want to see them all go (the recent Batman is more interesting than the 'Uncle Batman' of the Silver Age), but when everybody has a special tortured past, then nobody does because it's not special or interesting anymore.

Mind you, gritty realism makes movies, and these days comics are mainly development tools for characters who will hopefully get a feature film, or at least a straight-to-DVD animated release.

[Syt]

They should crossbreed Max Payne and Hitman games and call it Punisher - The Videogame.

[Sophie Scholl]

I think another thing with regards to the Cosmic comics is that they tend to focus on the lesser known and more over looked heroes and villains.  It's one of the issues I have with the Star Wars Expanded Universe bullshit.  How many times do we need to be force fed the same damned characters being involved in every single important event occurring in the storyline.  How many times do Superman and the Justice League staples or Wolverine and the X-Men or Avengers have to be the most important players and on the scene for the most important events.  It's pretty much all been done before with all of these characters.  Changing the locations and the villain names does not a new and interesting concept make.

[Neil]

I think another thing with regards to the Cosmic comics is that they tend to focus on the lesser known and more over looked heroes and villains.  It's one of the issues I have with the Star Wars Expanded Universe bullshit.  How many times do we need to be force fed the same damned characters being involved in every single important event occurring in the storyline.  How many times do Superman and the Justice League staples or Wolverine and the X-Men or Avengers have to be the most important players and on the scene for the most important events.  It's pretty much all been done before with all of these characters.  Changing the locations and the villain names does not a new and interesting concept make.

I dunno.  I kinda buy Superman always being #1, since he's one of the three most powerful people on Earth, and it's a small-ass planet.  And out of the other two guys, Hal Jordan is responsible for a whole sector of space and isn't always around, and Billy Batson is extremely small-scale and provincial, despite his enormous power level.  But yeah, I definitely see where you're coming from on that.  The only time Wolverine has ever shown up in a cosmic Marvel book was to be brutally murdered by Thanos.

[Scipio]

The Umbrella Academy v. 1- Fabulous stuff.  Written, unfortunately, by that guy from My Chemical Romance.  Illustrated by that guy who pencils for Mignola.  Very reminiscent of Migs's stuff.

[jimmy olsen]

WTF?

[BuddhaRhubarb]

no context there Tim. Funny tho seeing The Hulk using a gun. How exactly did he pull the trigger on that tiny thing.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I went to a local Comic Show and got Annhilation.  See how good this cosmic stuff is. 

I also got Irredeemable.  Good, but on the short side.