New Comic Book Day Megathread

[Hawkmumbler]

Perhapse an inherently unfair comparrison (PLUTO is a masterpiece) and rather a reimagining it's a sequel that ignores everything that came after Ultra Q and Ultraman '66, but over all, yes. Go in with that mindset and you'll likely read into it a lot better.

Okay, thanks, Hawkmumbler. Manga can be a little hard to navigate sometimes in terms of recommendations because there are so many different genres and tastes out there. Where seinin manga overlaps tokusatsu/superhero or classic anime-manga reboots or sequels, it's hard for me to find recommendations from people of like-minded sensibilities.

Amazingly, it was this manga that got me to watch more Ultraman and tokusatsu in general, it really does feel like what would have happened if that Ultraman/Kaman Rider crossover was canon!

[Link Prime]

Link- Conor was known around these parts as Uncle Fester if my memory serves. He's a boarder of 'very' long standing (He was around is approx 2002-3).

He's also half of Disconnected press with his good lady and has worked on a lot of stuff for FQP/Zarjaz too.

Cheers Bolt. I recognised the name from some of the Zarjaz material you published, was just curious if it was a regular boarder I may have been inadvertently unaware of.
He's an excellent artist.

[positronic]

THE ROAD TO SECRET EMPIRE TP
SECRET EMPIRE #0
SECRET EMPIRE PREVIEW EDITION

It was kind of pushed on me. It's not that the writing or artwork is so bad, it's just that there are a zillion characters and the whole thing sinks under its own weight into a quagmire of convoluted plotting and internecine strife. Almost every mainstream Marvel title requires you to read at least a half-dozen other titles (and even more back issues) to understand what's going on. Yeah, I get the main gist of it, but it's just too much work to bother with. If I was going to really care at all about the story, then I'd need to know a thousand contingent details about this character and that character, and when did this happen or when did that happen? It's just easier to pass on the whole thing and say "Wake me when it's over and let me know how it all turned out." [Prediction: When it's all over, Kobik reboots the Marvel Universe.]

Maybe Marvel sales would be better if they made their comics just a little more accessible, and didn't keep constantly changing the characters every 6 months (like, maybe they don't really need an All-New, All-Different makeover and a new #1). Maybe just cut it down to having ONE Captain America, ONE Spider-Man, ONE Thor, ONE Hulk, ONE Iron Man, and ONE Wolverine... think about it, Marvel.

[Tjm86]

That I'd have to agree with.  I gave up on the new Captain America when it went down this rabbit hole and I'm glad I did.  My 'guilty pleasure' is the X-Men which I've been reading since the Mutant Massacre (and since worked through the whole lot) which was my first and last decent crossover.  The last few years have seen me completely lose the plot with the title.  For such a major event for the marvel mutants, the Terrigen mist release completely baffled me.  I couldn't even tell you where it happened.  All I know is that all of a sudden the mansion was shifted to limbo, Cyclops was dead and the Inhumans were a major villain for them.  The last six months with uncanny has seen me coming close to giving up.

Which is why I'm glad of the latest reboot with Gold and Blue.  Sod the rest, I can't afford them with Marvel's prices these days.  The first two issues of each seem to have given the titles a grounding and stability that has been missing for me for a while.  The Gold team are an older version of the team I started out with.  The Blue team a younger version of the original team (at least from when I started with X-Factor back in the day).  The artwork is a bit inconsistent on Blue.  Jean Grey occasionally morphs into 'manga grey' whilst Magneto seems to have been traced from Land's work (bugger, quick, pick up those worms!).  Otherwise they've both been a more satisfying read than the books have been for a long while.

Kind of reminds you of how high the standards are on the tooth.

[positronic]

That's the thing with Marvel's characters -- they're little comic book companies (or universes) within a larger company universe. You've got the Avengers franchise, the X-Men franchise, the Spider-Man franchise, and some kind of "Marvel Cosmic" franchise (Guardians of the Galaxy and other science-fiction superheroes). Each of these is comprised of a group of half-a-dozen to a dozen related titles.

So if you're wanting to follow one particular title out of any of those franchises because you like the writing and artwork, eventually you are going to have to deal with the characters and continuity going on in the others. For example, I've sampled over the last few years several X-titles written by Cullen Bunn (particularly those with art by Greg Land and featuring Magneto) and enjoyed the stories in and of themselves. I never wind up sticking with a title though, because ultimately within six months it will become part of a crossover involving all the other titles in the franchise.

Then in addition to the franchise-based crossover plotlines, you've got at least one major and one minor Marvel Universe-wide crossover plot that involves ALL (or pretty nearly all) of the titles set within the current MU continuity. It's disruptive to me as a reader if my only real concern is with that one X-title being written by Cullen Bunn and drawn by Greg Land, and then scheduling due to coordination with all these crossovers usually results in having a fill-in issue or arc drawn (and occasionally even written) by different creators.

If I'm reading any Marvel titles, I tend to "take the backroads" and "stay off the highway"... which results in the titles which interest me being almost always low-sellers and short-run series. She-Hulk (Charles Soule & Javier Pulido), Howling Commandos of SHIELD (Frank Barbiere & Brent Schoonover), Astonishing Ant-Man (Nick Spenser & Ramon Rosanas), Squadron Supreme (James Robinson & Leonard Kirk), Howard the Duck (Chip Zdarksy and Joe Quinones), Patsy Walker a.k.a. Hellcat (Kate Leth & Brittany Williams) were the main Marvel titles I enjoyed in recent years, and they all had short runs and have since been cancelled. Captain America (Ed Brubaker & Steve Epting) and Daredevil (Mark Waid & Chris Samnee) had good runs but have since been All-New, All-Different-ed. The only thing remaining on my list at this point in time is Silver Surfer (Dan Slott & Mike Allred).

I read X-Men Blue #1 & 2 last week and it seemed okay in terms of art and writing (Cullen Bunn, with Magneto again), but I'm leery of getting invested in it because every Cullen Bunn X-Men title I've read has been interrupted by a crossover before 2 or 3 story arcs have passed, causing me to lose interest and drop the title. Plus Bunn is already teasing adding several new members which kind of subtracts from my initial attraction to the title as being a team composed of the original five X-Men.

[Smith]

Here is a sentence I never thought I would say: Youngblood #1 was pretty promising.Swordquest #0 was also promising.
And thank Grud,Spiderman/Deadpool is back to the actual story.

[positronic]

No time to write much of anything on these, but this was this week's crop:

BATMAN #22 (The Button, Pt. 3 of 4)
FALL & RISE OF CAPTAIN ATOM #5 (of 6)
BANE CONQUEST #1 (of 12)
RICK AND MORTY #25
UNCLE SCROOGE #26
IRON FIST #3 (of ?)
PROJECT SUPERPOWERS: HERO KILLERS #1 (of ?)
DOC SAVAGE: THE RING OF FIRE #2 (of 4)
EMPOWERED & THE SOLDIER OF LOVE #3 (of 3)
PREDATOR: HUNTERS #1 (of ?)
VALERIAN (free promo comic)
SWORDQUEST #0 - Weird but interesting, not what I was expecting. Sort of alternative-y.

Also picked up, but not yet read:
THE COMIC BOOK HISTORY OF COMICS #6
JUDGE DREDD: THE GARTH ENNIS COLLECTION TP
THE ROOK ARCHIVES HC VOL. 01
MARVEL MONSTERBUS HC VOL. 01

[Smith]

Tmnt #69 is pretty strong.As always.
Batman #22,at least we are closer to the Button resolution.Even if we have to suffer Tom King to get there.

[positronic]

Batman #22,at least we are closer to the Button resolution.Even if we have to suffer Tom King to get there.

Batman #22 was actually written by Josh Williamson (from a plot dictated by Geoff Johns, I hear).

...If there even is any resolution. None of the mysterious goings-on from DC Rebirth #1 ever seem to turn out to have any definite answers, or at least any that make sense.

I guess I can be satisfied if it's just an excuse to bring back Jay Garrick (which of course would be a teaser for a full-blown JSA comeback... that sounds like a Geoff Johns idea).

I'm still not sure what they thought (or think) they're accomplishing by replacing the New 52 Superman with the pre-Flashpoint DCU Superman. That just creates more confusion than before, because this Superman is now living in a universe that never made him [meaning that (except for Lois & Jon) his true relationships (friends and foes) and origins are still tied to the old universe]. It's an unwieldy attempt at a solution to a problem that won't go away easily and can't be fixed by buying a new pair of red underpants. That "Superman Rebirth" multiparter didn't resolve (or explain) anything.

Now "The Button" is telling us that the Flashpoint universe was never really a universe? Then how does the Flash remember it, and how could he return there? If it wasn't a universe, then what was it? (A dream, a hoax, an "imaginary story"? A Hypertime shared hallucination?)  It sure seemed to be a universe as far as that Convergence story treated it. It's like DC comics don't even try to pretend to have any internal logic to their stories any more.

[Professor Bear]

It was an alternate timeline, so it and pre-Flashpoint DCU occupy the same physical space.  Flashpoint is a "real" universe only when it exists, but when it doesn't, it isn't.  Basically the Flashpoint universe and the Pre-Flashpoint universe take turns existing, except when a writer decides they exist at the same time.  Because writing.

[positronic]

It was an alternate timeline, so it and pre-Flashpoint DCU occupy the same physical space.  Flashpoint is a "real" universe only when it exists, but when it doesn't, it isn't.  Basically the Flashpoint universe and the Pre-Flashpoint universe take turns existing, except when a writer decides they exist at the same time.  Because writing.

Why bother going through the motions of trying to baffle people with bullpoop explanations*? Convergence was the same. DC already publishes Scooby-Doo Team-Up, which manages to get by using any version of a character that seems pertinent to the story on the "because it's just a comic book" premise, and doesn't need to invoke any parallel-worlds technobabble. If it doesn't at least have any internal logic, then don't even bother. Hey, I know Marvel's Secret Wars wasn't any less incomprehensible, but you can't go by that yardstick. DC should have just stuck with the all-purpose escape clause of Hypertime.**

*[... other than the obvious excuse of "because it sells comic books"...]
**[If you read about it in a comic book, it exists somewhere out there. "Don't Ask! Just Buy It!!"]

[The Adventurer]

Some people really get hung up on alternate realities and multiple versions of characters kicking around. I really don't understand the confusion.

[positronic]

Some people really get hung up on alternate realities and multiple versions of characters kicking around. I really don't understand the confusion.

I'm just trying to get past the DC stories teasing something they have no intention of delivering on. They're not delivering on the promise of what they're trying to sell us, which is a story that purports to untangle their tangled skein of multiple continuities.

[Smith]

Decompression,mate.

[positronic]

The covers were very lenticular though. Nice usage of that technology. All Marvel had to offer in response was a giveaway lenticular Hydra backing board.