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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2016 0:08:05 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2016 22:26:58 GMT
Batman: Zero Year is probably the worst of the Scott Snyder Batman stories I've read. At least Secret City and the beginning of Dark City. I mean, it's not bad, but definitely worse than City of Owls and Death of the Family.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2016 18:05:32 GMT
Zero Year(All three parts, Secret City, Dark City, and Savage City) ended up being a pretty good Riddler story, and a pretty poor Origin story(especially since it goes against some of the other New 52 Canon in some big and small ways(Batman is never a myth which goes against what's established in this very series, Dark City and Savage City don't match up with Batgirl's Origin story(also, for whatever reason when she shows up briefly she has really short hair and I was honestly unsure of who it was supposed to be), Gordon and Batman are never enemies, they're allies from the word go, etc.)
It was also a pretty good Red Hood/Joker origin story in Secret City. Dark City was probably the worst of the three parts, and I think Savage City didn't really manage to live up to its potential. There was a lot of potential with what they could do with Savage City and.... Eh.
One weird thing I didn't like was the decision to censor a lot of stuff.... It makes very serious scenes kind of silly when in the middle of Batman screaming in rage it goes @%$#, or actually has a big black box with the word CENSORED.
In Volume 4 they included Snyder's script for the first issue in Zero Year and he talks about wanting to make it light-hearted and fun(this being part of the decision to censor words, which is still very stupid), and I really don't think this meshed with the story they were telling. In Secret City? Yeah, a bit. Probably why that was maybe the best one. It could have worked in Savage City, but like I said, Savage City just really didn't live up to its potential. It really didn't work with Dark City though.
Basically, I don't have huge hopes for Graveyard Shift, as it's essentially a collection of random stories going on as Zero Year was being written(I think it takes place in the current timeline though as opposed to being part of the Origin Story/any sort of prequel, so that's good), so I'm just hoping that Endgame maybe manages to live up to Death of the Family, because right now, that's still the high point.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2016 16:43:44 GMT
Well, Endgame managed to one-up Death of Family. Right now for Batman, it's looking something like this for me:
Endgame > Death of the Family > City of Owls > Graveyard Shift > The Court of Owls > Zero Year - Dark City > Zero Year - Secret City
So, I'll pick up Superheavy when it comes out this month, and then I guess I'll have my uncle put Batman on his pre-order list alongside Batgirl and American Vampire.
Or, maybe just have a pre-order list of my own.... I'm still not 100% on how that works, so I'll maybe talk to my uncle about it more. It would certainly be more convenient.
I also need to find someone who can tell me how to navigate the expanded Batman universe or whatever it is as the stories get more complex. I'd love to start reading Nightwing when I can afford it, and I'd really like to find out what series it is that follows Harper/Bluebird a.k.a one of my new favorite Batman characters a little more closely. I mean, she was on her way to becoming a superhero in Graveyard shift, then in Endgame all of a sudden she's got her own name and a whole new look and a bunch of gadgets and she's part of the Family.
God, I'm getting in way too deep with this, and I really can't afford all these comics unless I get a new job/start making some money of my writing(?)
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2016 14:59:37 GMT
Alright, so I'm going to try and list the Batman and Batgirl comics I've read from my favorite to least favorite(I liked all of them a lot):
1. Superheavy - An absolutely amazing "Bruce Wayne" story that mixes things up with Batman as a character. I love the new villain, and I love how it deals with the aftermath of Endgame. 2. Endgame - One of two amazing Joker stories, this one is the one that feels like it has more weight to it. 3. Batgirl of Burnside - Possibly the most entertaining, light-hearted book I've ever read. I love all of the new characters and the whole feel to this opening to the new Batgirl series. 4. Death of the Family(Batman) - The first of Snyder's Joker stories. I liked Joker as a character more in this, but it felt.... inconsequential to some extent. 5. Family Business - Just below Batgirl of Burnside because it's a little less structured, and has clear tie-ins to Grayson, a series I haven't read yet. 6. City of Owls - The better Court of Owls book simply because the second half is more exciting. 7. Court of Owls - I love the whole Court of Owls storyline, and I love that the Court of Owls is now an established villain in the DC Universe. 8. Wanted - I liked the dynamic between Babs and Jim, and that elevates this above any of Simone's other Batgirl books. 9. Deadline - Honestly, I'm not a fan of Gail Simone writing Batgirl, probably because she treats all of the characters like capable adults when they're only supposed to be 20 or so. Still, Deadline was pretty good as a conclusion to Simone's run. 10. Graveyard Shift - As a series of short stories, often with tie-ins to other series', this just wasn't my favorite, but it was still very well-written. 11. Zero Year - Dark City - Still not a fan of the whole Zero Year origin story for some reason, maybe my opinion will still change later-on. for now, just like with city of Owls, the conclusion to this arc was better than its first half. 12. Zero Year- Secret City - That being said, I did like the whole Red Hood part of Secret City. So, there's that. 13. Knightfall Descends - I ended up liking Ricky and Knightfall as characters, but their introduction wasn't.... the best. 14. Death of the Family(Batgirl) - There's literally a part where Joker says that his plans for Batgirl have to wait because he's got more important things to attend to, and that may as well be Joker talking to the reader saying that this is the less important Death of the Family story. Which sucks, because it was honestly a good, dark Joker story up until that point. 15. The Darkest Reflection - Perhaps I like this less because I read it after reading Batgirl of Burnside and the sudden shift in the writing and style was jarring to me. I don't know. Just, simply put, I don't like how Gail Simone writes Batgirl. I mean, I loved her short story in American Vampire Anthology, but... I just never quite liked how she wrote Batgirl.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2016 3:59:08 GMT
Okay, so I watched the DC Rebirth panel today and I'm just going to write down all of my thoughts:
I almost feel bad for Tom King and the new Batman team. It really feels like they're being told to just hold down the fort until the real talent can takeover again. Especially with Snyder saying that his hiatus from the series will be short, I don't think King and the new team will get much of a chance to spread their wings. Still, excited about the cheaper bi-monthly issues for Batman, I hope that carries over into Snyder and Capullo's second run.
I like Tynion's writing and I'm interested in the Batwoman character, but I simply don't have enough money to put Detective Comics on a pull-list. :/
I'm probably most conflicted on Batgirl... On one hand, the amazing Batgirl of Burnside arc is coming to a close and all of the talent is leaving any sort of Batgirl series, which sucks, since I love Stewart's writing and Tarr's art. On the other hand, while I don't know Hope Larsen as a writer, I love the concept for the new Batgirl series, and Rafael Albuquerque is one of my favorite artists, not even just with comics, he's seriously just an amazing artist. Especially since Barbara's going to be travelling the globe now, I'm excited to see if Albuquerque will apply his American Vampire tactics on Batgirl. I mean, he always changed up his art for characters and time periods on American Vampire, and I loved that. You could always tell it was him, but it still always looked different. The 20's look significantly different from the 40's, which is different to the 50's, and among all of those, Skinner's parts look different to Pearl's, which are different to Felicia. I'm excited to see how the Asian culture that will be a part of the first new Batgirl story will influence Albuquerque's art, and I'd love to see them eventually work with different places and different cultures. I really want them to run with the whole globe-trotting Batgirl series, it could be really awesome. Sucks that Batgirl of Burnside is ending, but the new series seems cool.
Also(still on Batgirl), I'd love to see them keep Frankie as Operator. It'd be amazing to have a dynamic between her and Babs, having Frankie stay in Burnside, but still act as Babs' partner while she's half-way across the world. I really, really want that. (Aside from that though, it'd be interesting to see new characters in each place that the series goes).
Batgirl & The Birds of Prey seems cool, too. I'll probably read that because... well, Batgirl, but I'm not sure if I'll be getting the individual issues. I'll maybe just pick that up when the trade paperback comes out.
I just started reading Grayson, so I'm not sure what to think of Nightwing. Interesting that Batgirl is pretty prominent in some of the art they showed, so that could be cool. I'm hesitantly looking forward to it.... because while I really like Grayson and I'm sure I'll like the New 52 Nightwing once I start reading it, I still just.... don't have a huge amount of faith in Tim Seely(still kind of bitter about Revival(though Scott Snyder's AD: After Death looks like it can fill the hole the promise Revival held has left in me)).
Really, really looking forward to All-Star Batman(with another one of my all-time favorite artists! I really hope Jock has a big spotlight with that). I'm probably most looking forward to the Poison Ivy, Penguin, and Two-Face storylines.
I really don't care about Superman or Wonder Woman much so..... Yeah.
Not sure I care much about the Justice League either, although.... Cyborg, Green Lanterns, and The Flash all sound really cool. Honestly, this just comes down to the fact that I don't have a whole lot of money to spend on comics, and what money I do have for comics, I'm still mostly spending on Bat-Family stuff. So.... I'd love to read any one of those. Probably won't be able to afford it. Probably won't read them for a while. That sucks.
Teen Titans seems cool, I loved the original TV Series(I didn't follow the episodes in order, though I always tried to find a way to do so and was frustrated sometimes not knowing the whole story), and I recognized some of the characters from the show in the art, so that's really cool. Again, probably won't get the chance to read it.
Super Sons as a concept seems pretty cool. Probably won't read it.
I'd love to read Harley Quinn and Suicide Squad. Probably won't. Those plus Super Sons rank at the bottom of the "I'd like to read it but I can't", then Teen Titans, and then Flash, Cyborg, and Green Lanterns.
And everything else that they announced but didn't really talk about. Cool. Some of them I might read it I had more money I could spend on comics. I do not.
As a whole, I guess I'm pretty excited about Rebirth. I'm slowly(not so slowly) being drawn more and more into comics(DC, mainly).... Honestly that's both a good and bad thing.
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Post by Autobot Sonic Part II on Mar 28, 2016 18:09:32 GMT
Gonna post here so I don't feel bad about Zyphon talking to himself for almost a page and a half.
So I've decided to finally get back into the Sonic comics after their crossover with the Megaman, Megaman X, and Sonic Boom comics, and it's picking up steam quite well actually. The current Sonic Universe adaptation is alright, love the side stories Archie's doing with it like with Razor and Rotor's backgrounds. Plus the new Silver story in the Sonic Universe side series is REALLY good. Mostly though because of the new characters named Bits. They're like these really small Metal Sonics that remind me of the Plusle and Minun pokemon for some reason, but I'm really interested in them because they're made from the AI fragments of Shard, who was my favorite character in the Sonic comic before the reboot happened. Basically he was the original Metal Sonic and eventually became a part of the Freedom Fighter's black ops group with Silver and Shadow, but he ended up being killed by a new Metal Sonic, so I'm glad a part of him still lives on in this new continuity.
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Post by Autobot Sonic Part II on Mar 28, 2016 18:10:45 GMT
BTW Zyphon I've been thinking about getting into Invincible, but the thing is I'm not really a big fan of typical super hero comic stories like Batman or anything like that. You think I'd enjoy it?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2016 18:58:19 GMT
BTW Zyphon I've been thinking about getting into Invincible, but the thing is I'm not really a big fan of typical super hero comic stories like Batman or anything like that. You think I'd enjoy it? I've only recently gotten into Batman. Invincible was my first superhero comic(and it isn't really comparable to any other one that exists right now). So, I can definitely recommend it as someone who was, at the time of reading, also not into Superhero comics. I'm not really sure how to describe it without spoiling the big plot-twist early one, but I will say that if you do get it, which you definitely should, get the first three books at once. The third book is the first really amazing one. Overall, yeah, not sure there's someone I wouldn't recommend Invincible to because it's just so amazing and just unlike anything established comic book that I think it's a fair shot that anyone would like it.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2016 6:42:04 GMT
BTW Zyphon I've been thinking about getting into Invincible, but the thing is I'm not really a big fan of typical super hero comic stories like Batman or anything like that. You think I'd enjoy it? Well I just read the first few issues, enough to reach that plot twist Zyphon talked about. I can give you my thoughts on it so far. Remember, though, that I'm not too far in, and I'm actually going to continue reading it. My impression of it so far, is that it's a worse version of One Punch Man. It has basically the same world, and superheroes everywhere. All that. However, it lacks what made One Punch Man interesting. The characters are all REALLY bland so far. There's next to no complexity, or interest in them yet. There's one character who just did that plot twist Zyphon mentioned, but honestly, I saw it coming pretty early. Not in the form that it came in, but I saw it nonetheless. But other than that, you've got a bunch of generic cardboard cutout characters. I really can't relate to ANY of the characters. Villains in Invincible are always just glossed over as uninteresting, commonplace. The heroes have just no personality. You've got the chick, the protagonist, the smart guy, the best friend, and then the protagonist's dad. And nobody else matters. Meanwhile, in One Punch Man, every villain is given this big monologue, which Saitama interacts with in really funny and charming ways. Saitama himself is also just a really cool character, who you can connect with from pretty much the first episode. And the action is AMAZING. SO good. In fact, on that note, the action in Invincible. It's pretty bad. I mean, it's a comic, so you can't get too crazy with it, but half the time, it reminds me of a bad Hollywood action movie. You can't really tell what's going on, beside the fact that this guy is trying to hurt that guy. And then look at, say, the Governor's invasion of the prison in TWD. Two different planes of fucking existence there. The reason I'm gonna keep reading it is because it's clearly building up to something. Sure, the buildup is awful, but Kirkman isn't exactly known for quality buildup. Seriously, think about the Prison in TWD, ALL the way until the Governor showed up. It was awful. And it was all buildup. I'm just about at the crux, where it's supposed to kick off, I think. Maybe it'll get good from there. I dunno.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2016 17:45:32 GMT
Well... Now I'm on issue 20, and it's great.
I'd say the first 10-ish issues are bad, but past that, it's great. I'm enjoying it. Things are moving along nicely. I'd say it's worth getting into.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2016 19:43:01 GMT
Well... Now I'm on issue 20, and it's great. I'd say the first 10-ish issues are bad, but past that, it's great. I'm enjoying it. Things are moving along nicely. I'd say it's worth getting into. Yeah, I'm honestly not a fan of the first 3 books of Invincible. I mean, I've tried to re-read the whole series a few times, but I always get stuck on the first or second. Volume 3 is where the characters really start to come into their own, and the action gets a LOT better with the new artists that takes over after Volume 3. I think it starts off not so good, but just keeps building from there, with a few books that just kind of spike in quality. Specifically, I remember Volume 7 as being one of the better ones, Volume 12 was just a huge gut punch... but like, in a good way. The whole story that starts with Volume 3 and keeps building form that point kind of reaches a boiling point with Volume 14, and Volume 18 is honestly just incredible, but more from a character stand-point than anything else.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2016 19:55:14 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2016 22:15:26 GMT
Well... Now I'm on issue 20, and it's great. I'd say the first 10-ish issues are bad, but past that, it's great. I'm enjoying it. Things are moving along nicely. I'd say it's worth getting into. Yeah, I'm honestly not a fan of the first 3 books of Invincible. I mean, I've tried to re-read the whole series a few times, but I always get stuck on the first or second. Volume 3 is where the characters really start to come into their own, and the action gets a LOT better with the new artists that takes over after Volume 3. I think it starts off not so good, but just keeps building from there, with a few books that just kind of spike in quality. Specifically, I remember Volume 7 as being one of the better ones, Volume 12 was just a huge gut punch... but like, in a good way. The whole story that starts with Volume 3 and keeps building form that point kind of reaches a boiling point with Volume 14, and Volume 18 is honestly just incredible, but more from a character stand-point than anything else. I honestly know nothing about the volumes here. I'm reading issue by issue. Currently on 36.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2016 23:34:27 GMT
Yeah, I'm honestly not a fan of the first 3 books of Invincible. I mean, I've tried to re-read the whole series a few times, but I always get stuck on the first or second. Volume 3 is where the characters really start to come into their own, and the action gets a LOT better with the new artists that takes over after Volume 3. I think it starts off not so good, but just keeps building from there, with a few books that just kind of spike in quality. Specifically, I remember Volume 7 as being one of the better ones, Volume 12 was just a huge gut punch... but like, in a good way. The whole story that starts with Volume 3 and keeps building form that point kind of reaches a boiling point with Volume 14, and Volume 18 is honestly just incredible, but more from a character stand-point than anything else. I honestly know nothing about the volumes here. I'm reading issue by issue. Currently on 36. Well, it's split into 6 issue arcs(for the most part, I think Vol. 14 is like, a super-sized one). So yeah, past #18 is Vol. 4 and beyond, which is when I started really getting into the series.
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