Marvel comics

[Link Prime]

I would heartedly recommend 'Uncanny X-Force', the Dark Angel Saga just wrapped up and demanded an instant re-read. Only negative aspect could be how lost non-Marvel / X-Men readers could feel- it ain't exactly new reader friendly!
Still though, along with the new 'Wolverine & The X-Men' it's the only Marvel book worth picking up. The House of Ideas is generally leaving me cold these days...

[JOE SOAP]

The House of Ideas is now a House of Brain-Farts.

[Link Prime]

I hear ya Joe, but I think it's a shame really. They still have some great characters, and some brill talent working for them. Just wish they'd snap out of the vapid, greedy storytelling of recent years. Maybe a DC style reboot would do it for them, but I can't see it happening. Like I said- a shame.

[Greg M.]

Absolutely agree with the recommendations for 'Wolverine and the X-Men' and 'Uncanny X-Force': the latter has been consistently excellent (pun not intended) from the outset, and is definitely one of Marvel's top tier titles, critically-speaking. Kieron Gillen's 'Uncanny X-Men' is also very strong (I find myself much more inclined towards Cyclops's philosophy than Wolverine's recent bout of hippy nonsense), as is Gillen's 'Journey Into Mystery', the tale of Young Loki: the last issue's saga of the Hel-Wolf's pups was perfectly pitched. In my view, it's a long time since the X-titles had so many strong creative line-ups as they do right now - 'X-Men' is pointless and 'Astonishing...' is superfluous, but every other X-title varies from good to great.

On the non-X side of things, let's not forget Mark Waid's barnstorming current run on 'Daredevil'. If we're doing recommendations of Marvel stuff in general, his 'Fantastic Four' run with Mike Wieringo from a few years back, collected across 3 hardback collections, is one of greatest that series has ever seen. Rick Remender's current run on 'Venom' is also a cracker, as is Dan Slott's 'Amazing Spider-Man'.

That said, whilst I love many of the actual titles, I would struggle to say it's a good time to be a Marvel fan in general, as the company's current ultra-conservative approach to new titles / ideas seems to me to be very inward looking - everything has to be a very direct spin off from one of the core franchises and the general attitude seems to be 'milk the existing fans by publishing more issues of what already sells'.

[Link Prime]

Couldn't agree more with the 'Milk the fans' comment Greg...I'd really grinds my gears having to pick up, say, 3 issues of X-Factor in one month. They're literally unreal for that in the past coupla years. One of tne reasons I actually dropped most X-books; their own greed made it financially impossible to read them all (coupled with the fact the stories were generally forgettable tosh).

[Greg M.]

I do think the X-titles have recently turned a corner in terms of quality of individual books: 'WatXM' and 'UXM' actually have compelling reasons to exist and strong creative teams. Matt Fraction moving on from the franchise was also a major boost - the man can write good comics, but 'Uncanny...' was not one of 'em. However, the fact remains... do we really need 10 separate X-titles (11 if you count 'Ultimate...')? It's the 90s all over again. With fewer pouches and shoulder-pads.

[Link Prime]

On an aside- I was waiting for a compelling reason to drop 'X-Men Legacy' (compelling, cause it's difficult to give up a book you've literally read since day 1). When I heard Mike Carey was leaving I considered it the perfect opportunity. In passing, I mentioned this to my local comic shop owner- surprisingly (or maybe not so) he informed me that 90% of the people he knows that read it or subscribe to it are doing the same. Mark my words- Legacy will be cancelled by this time next year. Hopefully Astonishing & adjectivless do the same...

[Greg M.]

I'm sticking with 'Legacy' 'cos I like Christos Gage - I'm really enjoying 'Avengers Academy' (it's the only Avengers title I read, though that'll change when Remender takes on 'Secret Avengers'.) I'm surprised at the predicted drop-off rate - got the impression fandom was quite keen to see Gage's take - but the way the current market is, you could well be right. 'Generation Hope' will be the next X-title to go though, even if they keep it around long enough to get a boost from 'AvX', and it wouldn't surprise me if 'New Mutants' wasn't long for the chop either.

[The Legendary Shark]

Well, I got me issue 1 of the Marvel GN Collection - which turns out to be Volume 21 in the series. I'm rather impressed with the quality and enjoyed the story/artwork. As I have virtually no Marvel comics and haven't really read one since the 80s I think I'll stick with this until either Marvel runs out of enthusiasm or I do.

[SmallBlueThing]

I picked this up as well- as I don't think I have a copy of the 'Coming Home' collection... or, if I do, it's buried so deep as to be inaccessible. This particular run of Spidey is among my very favourites, so to have a nicely-presented hardback offered at £2.99 was too good to turn down. The spine can be made acceptable by the addition of a small sticker- which I'll do at some point- but I won't be getting these on a regular basis. I have no real interest in Iron Man: Extremis and already have The Ultimates... the next one, The Dark Phoenix Saga is always worth a punt, and again, I don't think I have it in a collection (at least not in colour, I'm pretty sure I have the Essential X-Men volume containing this storyline about somewhere), but at £6.99... Well, maybe.

Depending on how much Spidey they end up doing, I'll probably just use eBay to dip in and out if I can't find the trades cheaper online (which, I guess, is unlikely to be the case, so this may well be the only one I get). It would be lovely if they gave us the much-derided Howard Mackie run in this format, but such a thing isn't going to happen.

So- anyone wanting to dip into a pretty good Spidey story for a "pocket money price", presented in a lovely hardback, would be advised to hurry along and get this.

SBT

[Mardroid]

I'm tempted myself... especially as I don't have all that much Marvel stuff. At a tenner each (so £20 a month in total) I realise I could probably get these collections cheaper elsewhere, and I'm not taken by all of them. On the other hand I understand you can unsubscribe at any time and at roughly three quid for the first issue...

[Mardroid]

Oh, and I'd quite like that The Incredible Hulk DVD. Not the best superhero film, but it was pretty good and better than Hulk which I found rather pretentious.

[SmallBlueThing]

Getting this has prompted an unlikely burst of activity this afternoon, in which i rescued all the u.s trades i could find from around the house and got them all into one place- all (oh fuck me) 250+ of them. I then took all my spidey ones (60) and arranged them along the top shelf of the scifi bookcase that sits on the top landing, and in doing so consigned my original star trek dvd collection (the last partwork i bought to completion) and associated movies to the wastes of storage in our bedroom.

Looking at the spideys made me wish this was a 'complete spider-man' partwork, building up over time to a series of hardbacks printing at least all of Amazing (nearly 700 issues) and the various in-story crossovers.

Now, that i'd subscribe to.

SBT

[Colin_YNWA]

Looking at the spideys made me wish this was a 'complete spider-man' partwork, building up over time to a series of hardbacks printing at least all of Amazing (nearly 700 issues) and the various in-story crossovers.

Christ alive that'd be a delight. I love the Essential Collections to bits and with volume 11 already on the cards (well Amazon on the cards at least) we're not far from having all the issues I'd want (up to 300) but a nice affordable colour collection would be wonderful.

[Link Prime]

'Generation Hope' will be the next X-title to go though, even if they keep it around long enough to get a boost from 'AvX', and it wouldn't surprise me if 'New Mutants' wasn't long for the chop either.

Hey Greg, you sure you aint related to Destiny or Blindfold?
Just heard theres no solicitation for Generation Hope from Marvel this April.
I give New Mutants until July...