What Are You Reading At The Moment?/What Did You Last Read?

[Wee Little Puppet Man]

Originally Posted by Jonemoongoose

IIRC the Thing was going under a mutation at the time and this story was published when comic publishers had editors that ensured there was some sort of continunity between titles.

Ah, in that case I'll let him off then.

[VALIS74]

I've been in hospital and am now laid up for a bit, so I've picked up vols 1 - 7 of the Fantastic Four Visionaries (John Byrne's run) to stop myself going mad with boredom. I got them cheap, and have been really pleased. I know that Byrne is a bit of an arse (and this is sometimes implied in the depictions of characters like Sue and T'Challa) but his FF were so cosmic yet human, it's hard to think of when they were better.

[kahless]

First time I've been in here in ages. Decided a while ago to dip back into comics and have now downloaded Progs 1740/41 of 2000AD. So I've been told its a good jumping on point as several new stories start in 1740 and the 3 part Dredd story leads into the current Chaos Day epic.

Checking online its been 27 years since I read 2000AD, like welcoming in an old friend.

[Veela Magnet]

I've just read volume 2 of Avengers Academy, as it's been sitting on my coffee table for weeks.

This may quickly be becoming one of my favourite comics out there at the moment. Ironically I only really started reading it because I knew about the (painfully brief) Runaways crossover that was about to occur, but it's actually really become its own thing for me, and I'm totally digging it. It's essentially the same premise as X-Men (Hank Pym and a group of Avengers set up a school for young, superpowered teens), but without all the baggage that usually makes me give that series a wide berth, and as a coming-of-age Marvel book, it's filling the Runaways-shaped hole very nicely indeed.

Speaking of X-Men though, I did tentatively start reading Joss Whedon's Astonishing vol. 1 (#1-12) last weekend and found it immensely accessible, not to mention ace.

Now, the last on my to-read list (my god that took a long time), is the first volume of Y: The Last Man, which I've heard nothing but good things about.

[kevinj]

Over the last month read:
The Flash: Blood will run - enjoyed 8/10
The Spirit - the Darwyn cooke version very enjoyable great artwork 8/10 (some of hte characterisation in the batman crossover felt a bit off
The twelve book 1 - would like to read part 2 7/10
JSA Mixed Signals - terrible, disjointed seemed like random issues put together to fill out a graphic novel 4/10
Batman Strange Apparitions/Tales of the Demon - classic 70s batman 9/10
Batman/Green Arrow/ Green Lantern: The Ring, The Arrow and The Bat - excellent retelling of Green Arrows Origin 8/10
Green Lantern: No Fear/Ring quest - excellent space stories 9/10

[hammard]

Reading a lot of 80s DC Crisis stuff recently. Most recently:

Crisis on Infinite Earths: 7/10 Well made but a bit clunky and the deaths kind of become undramatic and background after the big-two in the middle.
Superman: Man of Steel: 5/10- Really disappointed with this. Considering how good a lot of the other 80s retellings were (Batman: Year One, The Longbow Hunters, Gods and Mortals) and how much hype I'd heard I expecteed more. It's kind of a middle of a road comic book story, where they seemed to have drained most of Clark's personality.

Originally Posted by kevinj

Batman/Green Arrow/ Green Lantern: The Ring, The Arrow and The Bat - excellent retelling of Green Arrows Origin 8/10

Where does it go with the origin story? Just wondered how close it was to the other ones around it (Mike Grell's Wonder Year and the Secret Files and Origins). Or do you just mean the very cool sections from the Legends of the DCU with Hal Jordan?

[kevinj]

It details how he went from being a guy who put on a stupid mask and costume and fought crime for kicks and giggles andwas just having fun with it, to a serious hero who gained the respect of batman and green lantern, and gives a different take on how he ;lost his fortune, in this version he gave it all away after he was held prisoner by some rebels, made a friend in a nun and how she was killed by a mine made by his own company, as well as explaining why he grew the beard. Basically it is on hte border between the original Arrowcar version and the later versions.

[MrShears]

Finished volume 7 of Scalped, I've been powering through the series lately. Had to stop myself from getting v. 8, as I'll gobble that up in no time and number 9 isn't out yet. Then there's just one trade left in the series and it'll all be over! Haven't been this absorbed in a series since Preacher, but I've grown up a bit since then.

On a similar note, I've got 2009, the latest League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book arriving in the mail any time now, can't wait!

This week's batch of titles:

Action Comics
Batwing
Detective Comics
Animal Man
Red Lanterns
Justice League International
Smallville

All good.

[hammard]

Originally Posted by MrShears

On a similar note, I've got 2009, the latest League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book arriving in the mail any time now, can't wait!

Lucky. Preordered it ages ago off Amazon but still got an email telling me it was out of stock. Bah!

[hammard]

Picked up some of my DC comics, almost finished with the Night of the Owls now. Honestly, not all that impressed...

However, popping into my local library I found they have a graphic novels section with an okay selection so I decided to have a read of some which I'd always meant to try but never got round to:

Batman Year One: Alright but not really a big fan of the artwork and the story is necessarily basic. The focus on Jim Gordon is a good way to do it though.

Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?: A good read from Gaiman but the unreliable narrative idea grated on me after a while and the end was pure cheeseballs...

Green Lantern Rebirth: Occassional retcons aside, probably one of the best Green Lantern books I've read.

I also got through the JLA Year One from Ebay today. Excellent origin story I would highly recommend, particularly with the subtle irony and great humour.