The Sword and Laser discussion

For whatever reason I didn't create a new comics thread in 2018 or 2019, but I figure we should have a new one with the new decade.

So what comics are you guys enjoying?

Im about halfway through The Boys. It started a bit slow, but I've been enjoying it more as it's gone on except The Boys, Volume 8: Highland Laddie which was kind of slow again.

Things look to pick up again in the next volume though.

So far I’ve read Kong of Skull Island Vol. 1 which doesn’t have nearly enough kaiju action. I give it 2 stars.

Also Jessica Jones, Vol. 2: The Secrets of Maria Hill, which is solid if not spectacular. 3 stars.

Those are the only two books I’ve finished this year so far.

Rob wrote: "Im about halfway through The Boys. It started a bit slow, but I've been enjoying it more as it's gone on except The Boys, Volume 8: Highland Laddie which was kind of slow again.

Thi..."

I read the first two volumes last summer and I liked them well enough. I didn’t feel the need to continue on, though, as I felt like I got the gist in order to enjoy the TV series.

I am starting the New Year with mostly Marvel.

I'll be working my way through everything graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman this year. Already enjoyed the hell out of A Study in Emerald. Next up is Snow, Glass, Apples, and Sandman will follow later in the year.

I just finished Cryptocracy, which is okay. It’s basically the Fantasy version of Lazarus, Vol. 1: Family, where nine families rule the world, Illuminati style. 3 stars.

I just finished the last two volumes of The Walking Dead. Both were masterpieces.

Phillip wrote: "I just finished the last two volumes of The Walking Dead. Both were masterpieces."

I read every issue of the except 1 Morgan special issue that wasn't included in the Compendiums & unavailable digitally.

It was excellent. I'm curious how things will play out on the show.

Ian wrote: "I read every issue of the except 1 Morgan special issue that wasn't included in the Compendiums & unavailable digitally."

How about the one-shot issue Brian K Vaughan wrote, The Walking Dead: The Alien?

Louie wrote: "Ian wrote: "I read every issue of the except 1 Morgan special issue that wasn't included in the Compendiums & unavailable digitally."

How about the one-shot issue Brian K Vaughan wrote, The Walkin..."

I didn't know about that one. I do know the story of how they got the book started by lying about aliens being the cause of the zombie apocalypse.

Ian wrote: "I didn't know about that one."

It was originally published digitally through Vaughan's digital distro, Panel Syndicate, for free. You can download it here. It finally got a physical print edition for Local Comic Book Shop Day in November of 2019.

I have Saga Volume 2 sitting on my bedside table waiting to be read. I would have read it over the holiday break, if not for an embarrassing mixup with my local library where I put Saga: Book Two on hold instead.

@Rob, I really liked the first season of The Boys on Amazon; how highly do you recommend the graphic novels?

Aaron wrote: "I really liked the first season of The Boys on Amazon; how highly do you recommend the graphic novels?"

The Boys comic series isn't for the squeamish. It goes well beyond the line in many cases. If you're asking yourself whether you should give it a try, ask yourself where you stand on a dog that is trained to rape on command (it's in there).

It just came to my attention that there is a Life Is Strange: Dust comic book - so I immediately ordered it! I loved the game (bay>bae), so I am really looking forward to this!

Jan wrote: "It just came to my attention that there is a Life Is Strange: Dust comic book - so I immediately ordered it! I loved the game (bay>bae), so I am really looking forward to this!"

That is the first Volume. There is a 2nd Volume out: Life Is Strange: Waves
With a 3rd Volume out in April: Life Is Strange: Strings

I loved Life is Strange. The 2nd game is almost as good.

I haven't read the comics yet. I might wait until they are all out.

I gave up on the Boys Graphic Novel series. I too like the Amazon series, but the Graphic Novels are unrelenting. Seriously, everything is taken to 11. But 2 volumes in and I had enough.

Stephen wrote: "I gave up on the Boys Graphic Novel series. I too like the Amazon series, but the Graphic Novels are unrelenting. Seriously, everything is taken to 11. But 2 volumes in and I had enough."

It's been a lot. I actually ended up taking a break, but I'll hopefully get back to it soon. I just have some stuff from the library to read first.

Tassie Dave wrote: "I loved Life is Strange. The 2nd game is almost as good."

Thank you for pointing out the other volumes of the comic!

I really liked the game as well, but I didn't play the second one (yet) as I didn't hear as much good about it...

Jan wrote: "I really liked the game as well, but I didn't play the second one (yet) as I didn't hear as much good about it..."

It's ok. It's not a great as the original and has a completely different cast. It's 2 boys instead of 2 girls as the main characters.

I'd give LiS2 a 3.5/5. The original is a 5/5

Rob wrote: "Im about halfway through The Boys. It started a bit slow, but I've been enjoying it more as it's gone on except The Boys, Volume 8: Highland Laddie which was kind of slow again.

Thi..."

I'm on volume 4 of the omnibus versions of The Boys, and enjoying it, but the best comic I've read recently is Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker about adults returning to the "real" RPG world they entered as children, very dark with interesting art....

Stephen wrote: "I gave up on the Boys Graphic Novel series. I too like the Amazon series, but the Graphic Novels are unrelenting. Seriously, everything is taken to 11. But 2 volumes in and I had enough."

The authors did claim that they were trying to "Out-Preacher Preacher", I think they succeeded....

Fresno Bob wrote: "I'm on volume 4 of the omnibus versions of The Boys, and enjoying it, but the best comic I've read recently is Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker about adults returning to the "real" RPG world they entered as children, very dark with interesting art...."

I usually like Gillen, but Die was a real miss for me. I didn’t hate it so much as I just didn’t get it. It felt more like in-jokes for his friends. I also had issues with things like calling cyberpunks “Neos”, when the story takes place in 1991 and Matrix didn’t come out until 1999.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Trike wrote: "Fresno Bob wrote: "I'm on volume 4 of the omnibus versions of The Boys, and enjoying it, but the best comic I've read recently is Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker about adults returning to the "re..."

Trike, I had to laugh when I read that first paragraph of your review, I could see how you'd get lost....

Fresno Bob wrote: "Rob wrote: "but the best comic I've read recently is Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker about adults returning to the "real" RPG world they entered as children, very dark with interesting art..."

That does sound interesting. However it seems to have a lot of detractors on goodreads. Most of the top shown reviews are 2 stars it seems. Looks like my library has it though so worth a shot.

Can't be any worse than Critical Failures

It only takes like 12 minutes to read, so not a huge loss if you don’t like it.

I just caught up on The Promised Neverland, been enjoying it quite a bit so far.

Actually, I'm not reading, I'm selling. I've had my old comic book collection in my attic for the last 20 years. Most of them (mostly Marvel) are from the 1970's and 1980's. I've decided it's time to part ways with it.

Comic books have changed so much over the decades, from something that was first intended for kids, to incredibly sophisticated artwork and content more suitable to teens/adults. It's quite a fascinating transformation.

Moved on from all that Marvel to catching up on some Bendis at DC...

—Young Justice, Vol. 1: Gemworld
—Naomi: Season One
—Superman: Action Comics, Vol. 2: Leviathan Rising


[click to embiggen]

I will be reading Locke & Key this weekend, among other things


[click to embiggen]

Approve.

I’ve not read many books so far this year because busy-ness, with only squeezing in 5 comics (https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...), the only one that set my hair on fire was The Tithe, Vol. 1 by Matt Hawkins. Hawkins does the Think Tank, Vol. 1 books, which I really like, and Tithe was in a similar vein.

Plus, it’s hackers taking down megachurches, so what’s not to like? My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Read Port of Earth, Vol. 1 and thought it was OK, but probably not compelling enough to get me to move on further with the series.

Seth wrote: "Read Port of Earth, Vol. 1 and thought it was OK, but probably not compelling enough to get me to move on further with the series."

I thought it was an inferior version of the movie Alien Nation, which is not a good movie. It’s not actively bad, just poorly realized.

Because I had loved the movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse so much, I sought out the original Miles Morales comics (collected in ominbus volumes as Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man: Ultimate Collection: Book 1, 2, & 3), which covers about 50 issues in all, I think.

The first collection was perfectly fine, though seemed a bit of an inspiration for the film itself, which was fine. The second got into more crossover events (ugh) and also superhero groups (turns out I'm not into that if I don't care about all the group members). The third had an even worse crossover event in that the Cataclysm issues that were included had no resolution in the 3rd collection. And the (view spoiler)[resurrection of Peter Parker (hide spoiler)] seemed pointless to me. And then I saw that this led into a new Crossover Event (Secret Wars?) and I just feel like apparently Spider-Man literally can't go 12 issues without a crossover event. I don't remember this much crap with Wilson's Ms. Marvel (just Civil War II maybe?). I'm just done with trying to keep this shit straight. I like Miles but I'm not going to try this anymore.

David H. wrote: "I like Miles but I'm not going to try this anymore."

I would suggest trying the current run that Saladin Ahmed is writing right now.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man, Vol. 1: Straight Out of Brooklyn
Miles Morales: Spider-Man, Vol. 2: Bring on the Bad Guys

Or, even the run from Bendis that immediately follows those three omnibus collections. There are still crossovers with other characters, with Champions, et al, and an event (Civil War II), but it is still a nice run for the character, joining the main 616 Universe, so he can interact with those characters.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/175171

I thought about those, Louie, and I appreciate your tips, but I'm not enough of a fan to care about him interacting with the 616 universe characters. I think at this point, I'll just stick with waiting for the next Into the Spider-Verse film (I'm not even bothering with the MCU films anymore, I'm mostly superheroed out).

David H. wrote: "I just feel like apparently Spider-Man literally can't go 12 issues without a crossover event. I don't remember this much crap with Wilson's Ms. Marvel (just Civil War II maybe?)"

It’s not Spidey, it’s Marvel and their thrice-damned crossover events. They eventually broke Ms. Marvel for me, so I bailed. (Which was a shame, because that comic is the closest parallel I’ve encountered for the Amazing Spider-Man stories of my youth.)

I felt like with Spider-Man, because he's so much more a flagship title for Marvel than Ms. Marvel is, he's forced to be involved more significantly in more crossovers. I dunno, that's how I was thinking about things last week.

I'm just going to go back to indie or completed stuff from now on, though I just realized I have Spider-Man: Life Story still on my TBR.

For quite a long time I had myself convinced I didn't like comics because of the sort of thing you're talking about David. I would pick up a book following a character I liked, get into it, and then get interrupted by a random team-up or something. Turns out my problem wasn't really with graphic story-telling, I just don't really like the team-ups, cross-overs, events, etc. I almost never pick up a superhero book anymore.

Are there any superhero comics that don’t have crossover events? Even the small publishers seem to do it.

I enjoy when characters within the same universe interact, which is something that happened all the time back in the day, but having a guest star is far different from a major event that derails storylines across the entire line.

The closest I’ve found recently is the Injustice: Gods Among Us series, which is an alternate universe in the DC franchise. Despite being based on a Mortal Kombat-style videogame, the books are almost all brilliantly written. It’s basically conceived as a giant crossover, so the characters all interact with each other, but it allows for arcs within the universe to focus on specific characters.

Since they don’t have to reset the universe to protect the IP, the deaths are permanent and no one is safe. It’s the best of both (all?) worlds, really.

Trike wrote: "So far I’ve read Kong of Skull Island Vol. 1 which doesn’t have nearly enough kaiju action. I give it 2 stars.

Interesting. I assume that series grew out of Joe DeVito's Kong: King of Skull Island, which I loved. It not a comic, but a text novel profusely illustrated by DeVito. I'll check out this newer series.

Now I’ve never read either, but heard really good things about both the Astro City, Vol. 1: Life in the Big City series, and theInvincible: Ultimate Collection Vol.2 series.

My understanding is the first has a whole lot of characters, so it may not be what you are looking for, but the latter is I believe pretty reliant on the main character and his family and friends.

John (Nevets) wrote: "Now I’ve never read either, but heard really good things about both the Astro City, Vol. 1: Life in the Big City series, and theInvincible: Ultimate Collection Vol.2 se..."

You’re responding to me, I assume.

Yeah, I’ve been reading both of those since their debuts. (Astro City for 25 years now.) You’re right about Astro City, which is basically short stories set in a world where Busiek has distilled iconic superheroes down to their basic elements. His Fantastic Four analogue is the First Family, the Spectre is the Hanged Man, Superman is Samaritan, Iron Man is N-Forcer, etc. He looks at average people and petty criminals as well as superheroes and supervillains.

Anyone who likes superhero comics should definitely read Astro City.

Invincible (soon to be an animated TV show, on Amazon I think), does have crossovers, but because that particular universe is so small and/or new, it doesn’t seem to disrupt things too much. I don’t know what the larger effects of those crossovers are when they bring in characters from the wider Image universe, since I don’t read books like Savage Dragon and Tech Jacket. Plus, Kirkman ended pretty much all of his series set in that world. I have the last few collections but haven’t gotten around to reading them yet.

Characters leave Image, as well, since everything is creator-owned. I’m blanking on the supergroup, but someone left in the middle of an event, taking all of his characters with him, requiring last-minute rewrites. I think it was Jim Lee, actually, and all of his characters ended up at DC.

Ah, Google is my friend...

Jim Lee DID leave, selling all his characters to DC, but I was thinking of Rob Liefeld, who sold the supergroup Youngblood right in the middle of a crossover event. Kind of a dick move.

Wow, so with both Lee and Liefeld gone and Kirkman shuttering his books, is there anyone left at Image besides Savage Dragon?

Lee and Liefeld haven't been involved with Image for quite awhile, like over 2 decades. – And "shuttering his books" might be an overstatement. Kirkman has several books still being published by Image, in partnership with his Skybound Entertainment, (Outcast, which is on its final arc, Oblivion Song, Die!Die!Die!, and a new one in April). I mean, he is COO, and a Partner Member.

Just last year, Liefeld even lost all control of Youngblood.
ROB LIEFELD Quits YOUNGBLOOD Over Dispute with Co-Owners

And, to answer your question, Spawn. Still going after reaching #300.

Louie wrote: "And "shuttering his books" might be an overstatement. Kirkman has several books still being published by Image, in partnership with his Skybound Entertainment"

I haven’t read those. Are they in the same superhero universe as Invincible, Tech Jacket, Guardians of the Globe and Wolf-Man? I was under the impression that the end of Invincible was also the end of that shared universe.

Nope. They are completely separate, new series. I was just pointing out that he still has other books coming out.

Louie wrote: "Nope. They are completely separate, new series. I was just pointing out that he still has other books coming out."

That’s why I specified the books set in that world.

so many comics books I could be putting in here as ive bought loads since the last thread got archived lol but ill start with the trilogy that im reading right now:

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Mirror Broken
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Through the Mirror
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Terra Incognita

also managed to pick up the Origin of Data one-shot as well Star Trek The Next Generation: Mirror Broken - Origin of Data

been on my shelf for a whileso lookinf forward to reading them :)