The Amazing Comic Collapse!

I'll admit, I've never been much of a DC reader, except for Batman. This means that when I do get handed a non-Batman DC comic, I have a huge list of questions that are sometimes hard to explain.

During Infinite Crisis, DC announced that all of their comics set in the DCU would be set one year after the end of said Crisis, with a new zeries, 52, to be released weekly to fill in the gap in plot. I decided to use this as a good point to jump on to at least give me a fighting chance to understand all of the chaos without drowning in continuity.

Written by such comic greats as Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Grek Rucka and Mark Waid, 52 has been an interesting story. The three greatest heroes of the world, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are gone, and this means that the rest of the superheroes need to pick up the slack and take their moments in the spotlight. Focusing on the exploits of different characters such as Renee Montoya, John Henry Irons, Black Adam, Booster Gold and Ralph Dibny, the comic hapens in real-ish time. One comic is a week. A character who was very bust in week three may not be seen for two or three weeks but will be back and their lives have not been frozen in the meantime. The whole concept can feel a little overwhelming at first but once you get into the swing of things, it reades very easily.

We're roughly four months into it and I am hoping that certain questions are going to be answered. Given the progression so far, it doesn't look like many of the changes we've seen in the other DC comics "One Year Later" will be covered, but it's unreasonable to assume that they can explain it all in one comic.

For me it's been a good point to throw myself into the DCU and I reccomend it to those who want to read their comics but don't know how to break into their almost maze-like continuity.

I've been a big fan of The Ultimates so far. The first series was at least partly responsible for getting me back into comics, so I've been buying anything with The Ultimates written on the cover. The first Ultimates annual was an excercise in the awesome villainous power of Nick Fury where this one is more of a quiet, personal tale of two men trying to do what they believe is right in a chaotic world.

Written by Charlie Huston (Moon Knight and the novels Caught Stealing and Six Bad Things) and pencilled by Mike Deodato Jr. (New Avengers, Batman, Wonder Woman) and Ryan Sook (B.R.P.D., The Spectre, X-Factor), The Ultimates annual 2 is a very disjointed but interesting tale of Captain America and The Falcon on a road trip to unravel a mystery involving troubles that Captain America had considered long dead and buried. The art works well, especially in the contrast between present day and flashbacks to World War Two.


At times, I wasn't too sure of where the plot was going as the flashbacks to the war would come at odd times, leaving the plot feel a little disjointed, but overall it was an entertaining read.

Certainly worth a look.

While, as some may know, I'm not the biggest fan of massive comic events, Marvel's Civil War has grabbed me. I'm finding it to be a great storyline and brilliantly written (thankyou yet again, Mark Millar). This has prompted me to put up a poll. If you haven't read Civil War yet, I certainly do reccomend it.

Writer: Brad Meltzer
Art: Ed Benes, Sandra Hope

Of everything that's come from DC in the aftermath of the Infinite Crisis maxi-event, nothing has looked even remotely as promising as the new ongoing series of Justice League of America, written by Brad Meltzer (of Identity Crisis fame).

Issue #1 follows from last month's Issue #0, but as the numbering suggests, it's just as easy to jump in here as to get the zero issue. The first new JLA storyline, "The Tornado's Path", focuses on Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman putting together the new League, while at the same time a mysterious cadre of villains targets (of all people) Red Tornado.

Meltzer is a fantastic writer of character-driven stories. He excels at bringing out new aspects to familiar characters, such as Batman, while tying their ongoing character development in to the recent traumatic changes to the DC Universe. Simultaneously, he manages to take a D-list super-hero like Red Tornado and, much as he did for Ralph Dibny in Identity Crisis, make him a human and unique character capable of sustaining a story as important as the JLA relaunch.

On the art side, Ed Benes compliments Meltzer's humanist writing and ominous plotting with a gritty shadow-heavy art, juxtaposing iconic images of superheroism with vignettes reminding us that the heros in question are also friends.

The big question, of course, is who's in the lineup for the new JLA? Look away if you want spoilers! While the selection process certainly isn't finished in issue #1, it's looking like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are locked in, as well as Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Arsenal, and Black Canary. The League may also be featuring such other members as Power Girl, Vixen, Captain Marvel, Bart Allen (the Flash), Mr Terrific, and, if he survives the current storyline, Red Tornado himself.

In superhero comics today, Civil War is fantastic, and Teen Titans is strong, but the new Justice League of America is a cut above the rest of the competition. Pick up your copy at the earliest opportunity.

before i forget, i wanted to say a big "jo" to anyone joining us from Yunyu's site. i hope you bought Spiked Soul 'cos it's pretty damn good. and no, she doesn't pay me to say that.

while you're here, i've got a small request - a favour if you will:

since i recently got a pay-rise and now have enough cash to buy comics AND eat in the same week i'm trying to expand my collection. if there's something you think we should be reading and/or talking about, please let us know - even if it's obvious. i'm always keen to expand my library...

cheers!

R.

maybe it's just that Brian K. Vaughan had a good idea or maybe it was just that he wanted to prove Germaine Greer (the psycho LSF) wrong but either way, the first book of Y was an interesting read. i've heard reports from both Phrancq and Greg saying that it's really good and as depressing as it is, they're right. why depressing? well, i usually prefer to think that women generally have their heads screwed on a little better than guys and Y gives you a painful vision of what the world would be like if they got to run the world and were every bit as frightened, nasty and selfish as men are.

no, i'm not self-hating... or at least not disgustingly so. i generally prefer to think of myself as an "equalist", but Y shows the world flung so far out of balance that those who are left get pretty shook up trying to get things spinning again. Book 1 is pretty hectic and there's no reason to believe that it's going to get any different any time soon. will, of course, report more later.

while you're waiting, check out BKV's website. has some interesting odds and sods on it. unless you've come across the name before, he is also responsible for "Ex Machina"(Wildstorm) and "Runaways"(Marvel) - for more details check out his wikipedia entry. Ex Machina crossed my bedside table a couple of weeks ago and the first 3 trades are really quite good - the series shows some real promise. i believe i've got Runaways being flung at me shortly which should be entertaining. BKV's characters seem seem to be more "real" rather than the larger-than-live characters you'll find in the standard superhero comic. Hundred (from Ex Machina), for example, was a pretty lacklustre superhero, but as an ex-hero he makes for a really cool, interesting character with compelling depth and development.

enough about that. i think i'm going to flick through "Platinum Grit"(independant) again before i go to sleep.

R.

i was reminded of this moment in web-comic history and wanted to remind both of our readers of it.

Randy Milholland, we salute you for your unremitting violence toward CatGirls.

PS - buy the goddamn poster.

After venting spleen previously, I called in a favour, and then after squeezing books 3 and 4 of Powers into a couple of evenings i swung through the comc shop on my day off and blew an ungodly stack of cash on the rest of the series to date. Since then I've got lazy and distracted, but after reading through the list and enjoying the edgy brilliance of "Supergroup" and "Anarchy" (pictured) I've forgiven Bendis for the wishy-washiness of "Roleplay". Perhaps I wouldn't have been so irritated if books 2 and 3 had been swapped over, but I guess these things get written when they're written.

I think the biggest, most important thing I've come to enjoy about Powers is pivotal to the vignettes in "Conspiracies" and this is that all of the supers in Powers are... well, people. They're greedy, avaricious and lustful. They's pretty much who we would be if regular people started winding up with super powers, and it had become a part of every day life that there were people around who could do amazing things. sure, people would get that Superman Complex where they take the "with great power comes blah blah blah", but are you sure that a guy who's built like a Greek god wouldn't let temptation run away with him and bone any and everything that was willing?

This is the sort of thing that Powers asks and answers, and once the story started to amp up in "Supergroup", I was hooked. I'll take the time to enjoy the rest of the series which is now sitting on the bedside table and burn through some of the other material Phrancq wanted me to read through. Meanwhile I'm still waiting for Powers 3 and 4 to be reprinted, so my credit card isn't in the clear just yet...

R.

Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan, The Authority, Stormwatch), Stuart Immonen (Action Comics, Thor, Ultimate X-Men), a bunch of second or third string Marvel characters nobody really liked, a theme song and what seems to be free reign for the creative team to do whatever they like.

There is NO combination of this that doesn't work. I find that I do not have words to describe how good Nextwave is. Superhero comedy can be really quite awful when done wrong but this is just not the case here. I find myself laughing and wincing from the frequent statements which just seem so wrong (to a politically correct world) and this tends to continue all through the comic.

You should be reading this. In my opinion, this is the best new comic this year, hands down. I feel confident enough to not wait until December 31st to say that. Go and track down Nextwave. Now. It is just worth it.

When I heard that a new series was coming out from Garth Ennis (Preacher, Hellblazer, The Punisher) and Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan, Wolverine, Nightcrawler) I made some interested noises but held my breath. I've never been a huge fan of Ennis' work, but I decided to give it a try.

I'm glad I did.

As far as first issues go, this certainly ranks as one that grabs my attention and gets me excited to read more. The artwork is brilliant and the characters work well for the story. That said, it does seem to me that the story could lose a lot of steam very quickly if not handled correctly, so I'm interested to see how far this series goes.

Well worth a read in my opinion.

i love webcomics - ever since i first hit uni and Simon F first pointed me at Userfriendly way back in '98. when i started working i found myself sitting for most of the day in front of a web-enabled terminal with time on my hands, and one way i've found to make it look to the casual observer that i'm working, even when i'm just waiting for the phone to ring, was browsing the comics. this is why i thought i'd share with you the comics i read every day, in the order i open them up in (not that it's preference... just sometimes you get into a habit, you know? :

i) Something Positive - Davan and his (sometimes) disfunctional friends and the things they get into, be it role playing, theatre, running a dating-service for geeks or, occasionally, sharing a poigniant moment.

ii) Sluggy Freelance - the adventures of Riff, Torg and their various friends. the origin of the psychopathic mini-lop Bunbun. has YEARS of back-story which you can waste days and days on, otherwise Pete Abrams has published some excellent (independant) collected books.

iii) Megatokyo - manga-style written and drawn by an american artist about two friends stuck in Tokyo. started out as sheer comedy, more recently has become a rambling, but still amusing, japanese-style soap opera. beautiful artwork. has recently been picked up by Dark Horse who are publishing his collected books - each of which comes with bonus content.

iv) Little Gamers - copy/paste marshmallow gamer comic by a pair of manic Swedes Mr Madsen and Christian. origin of the "cute ninjas" and the "poking stick". great tshirts, amusing books, host of links to other comics. their books are available for free as .pdf's if you're povo, or a cheapass. some seriously raw humour that always gets a laugh.

v) Ctrl-Alt-Delete - another buddy-gamer comic like Penny Arcade, but more accessible (in as much as you don't need to read a fucking essay to understand the joke), and less surreal. Tim also writes an interesting gamers-blog which can be worth skimming through... if you're into X-Box gaming. has a light, but funny, ongoing plot.

vi) Mac Hall - started as a couple of guys joking about their time at uni. they've since graduated and rejoined the real world, which is probably why it gets updated maybe twice a month now. that, and the people who run the firewall where i work blocking the page, is why i'm not reading it as much lately which is a shame because Ian Mcconville's art is of a comparable level to Piro's (see Megatokyo).

vii) Least I Could Do - the sexual adventures and exploits of Rayne (the man-whore) and his (less promiscuous) friends. some good cheap laughs with the occasional fan-reference. has changed artists over the history, but each one has come with a new direction and style which is refreshing.

viii) Goats - home of the overclocked lemon, the Toothgnip the Goat-whore and Diablo the Satanic Chicken. this guy makes more tshirts than most of the webcomics i've seen combined, which is irritating because most of them are really really good. i'm currently waiting for my Diablo action-figure to arrive, and i'll post photos when it shows up. got kinda serious a year or so ago, but the new direction is interesting. so worth continuing with.

since i started working full time after getting out of uni i've been trying to buy the books these (and other) guys publish because... well, even a web-comic artist's gotta eat. if there's anything i'm missing please throw me a link so i can check it out - i found Least I Could Do by following a banner ad on one of the other comics i found. there's WAY too much good stuff out there...

R.

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It's about time I add the ones I read to the list. Some of the ones I read have already been listed by Raven so I'll just put up the ones he hasn't covered yet, the philistine.

8-bit Theater - I resisted the efforts of my friends when they tried to make me read this, dismissing it as just a silly webcomic made with pixels. But boy howdy is it worth it! Thanks to Brian Clevinger, anything that costs my dignity is still free.

Penny Arcade - Sure it can be obscure geek humour, but what part of that doesn't work for me? I enjoy it enough that I've been buying the collections released by Dark Horse.

Sore Thumbs - I'm not sure I can explain why I read this. It does combine video games and political humour, which I like. You will be disturbed by the proportions of the main character.

The Pet Professional - I've only started reading this but it's been enjoyable so far. Weird concept, but that's the charm.

Phrancq.

Writer: A J Lieberman
Art: Al Barrioneuvo and Bit

The new Martian Manhunter series debuted in Brave New World, the recent DC one-shot anthology special. It was, not to put too fine a point on it, unmitigated rubbish. Poorly written, characterised by an appalling departure from everything that made the Martian Manhunter an interesting character. More green martians on Earth? Captured by a secret conspiracy? Redefining everything we thought we knew (and liked) about the Martian Manhunter? WTF?

Morbidly curious, I picked up the first issue of the new miniseries starring the psychic green smurf, and discovered to my horrified pleasure that it was an act akin to cutting my own forearm with a rusty spoon. And cutting your forearm with a rusty spoon isn't fun. It's painful, and it involves the Martian Manhunter acquiring a stupid new costume and going up against the most generic shadowy conspiracy you're ever likely to lay your thoroughly appalled eyes upon.

Oh, you may have fond memories of the Grant Morrison JLA. You may even, heaven help you, have fond memories of the Giffen/DeMatio JLA. But it matters nought; your sphincters will still suffer bloody collapse in the face of the horrifyingly dull exploits of J'onn J'onnz as he shambles unapologetically through this unimaginative excuse for a comic book.

Narrative? Almost completely delivered by monotonous voice-over captions. Art? Lots of shots of the Manhunter's new costume, and believe me, seeing that once is one time too many. (He has a pointy head now.) Plot? I'm sure it's in there somewhere. Honest.

Whatever you do, people, please avoid this comic book like some sort of particularly disgusting plague which makes you vomit up your own intestines. (Not as weak a metaphor as you may hope.) Keep your money in your sweat-stained wallets and favour this title with nothing more precious than your excess bodily fluids.

It's about time I put up my top 5 comic movies, hopefully to promote some discussion about the topic and see how wildly people disagree.

5. X-Men 2
4. Spider-Man 2
3. V for Vendetta
2. Sin City
1. Batman Begins

If I had to pick a 6th, it would probably be Superman Returns. I know a lot out ther didn't like it, but I was a fan.

Now, for the bottom five. (That I have seen.)

5. The Punisher
4. X-Men 3
3. Daredevil
2. Hulk
1. League of Extroadinary Gentlemen

That's mine. What about you folks out there?

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My 2c for the bottom 5, because... well Phrancq can be a little wrongminded sometimes:

5: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Tom Sawyer. Tom "we need to add an american character to keep american audiences interested" Sawyer).
4: Elektra (because adult-teenage lesbian subplots aren't as cool as you'd think)
3: Generation X (B-acting with a C-script, D-effects and a Z-budget)
2: Superman 3 + Batman Forever + Batman & Robin (because as cool as Superman beating up himself is, even Richard Pryor couldn't save this one...)
1: X-Men 3 (because Brett "Filthy Son Of A Bitch" Ratner couldn't have butchered a cow as badly)

Hulk came a very narrow 6th because while it wasn't overly great and the father vs son battle at the end was horribly tacked on, it was a better excecution of concept than League which is one of the WORST examples of comic-to-movie translation known the humankind. the version of The Punisher from the 80's starring Dolf Lundgren was actually pretty good, especially for the time, and Lundgren made an awesomely wooden Frank Castle.

Elektra could have been... if not good, then at least better. first they pull Stick who should (by all rights) have been in Daredevil, then throw him into a tenuous plot with an Elektra who couldn't decide whether she was an icy mega-assassin or concerned older-sister figure. it would have bee nice if there had been some continuity in the character from Daredevil apart from... you know, the name and the actor. of course, Jennifer Garner is a hottie and as infeasible as it may have been, having her fight in sexy red outfits just awesome... just not enough to make it anything but an unholy abortion of a movie.

and amazingly, Daredevil had more redeeming features than any of the 5 i've got mentioned here, complete with the slim hope of redemtion in the form of a Director's Cut, which keeps it out of the Bottom 5.

R.

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Greg here!

Phrancq is full of filthy, philthy truth. Top five, DEFINITELY:

1) Spider-Man 2
2) Spider-Man 1
3) Batman Begins
4) V for Vendetta
5) X-Men 2

I'd qualify that by saying I haven't yet seen Cronenburg's version of A History of Violence. I have a feeling that I might have a little affection for that film. Cronenburg's films are often odd, disturbing, or things I wish I'd never seen, but they're never without a certain vision and genius.

On the bad side:

1) Swamp Thing
2) League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
3) X-Men 3
4) Batman and Robin
5) Batman Forever

Six would clearly be Batman Returns.

Now I have to be getting back to watching House. House appears to be fighting God; hopefully it'll end with a steel cage grudge match.

- Greg

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OMG! their searing terribleness had burned themselves from my mind - i've had to add the Val Kilmer and George Clooney Batman movies, although i choose not to attempt to split them. and no - the Adam West Batman movies were awesome... by comparison at least. i might talk about them another day.

R.

Phrancq's got something there, i think. Bendis has got to be nuts. either that or he's a comic-tease. i've been enjoying Powers, but as good as it is i'm finding that it's leaving me irritated. ok, ok, i just got through the second book and i have 3 and 4 on order from our favourite comic shop but book 1 built me up and up and up and then left me sitting there in the booth while i desperately searched my pocket for more dollar coins to feed into the machine.

here was something with a really interesting potential to do something a little different with a superhero-premise comic, a first arc full of hints and darker undertones which is illustrated in quite a pleasing saturday-morning-cartoon-noir style (thankyou Oeming) and at the end it just... drops. ever seen the juggler standing on a chair on a ball juggling 12 pins when he drops one? and he stands there looking kinda sheepish while trying to work out how to salvage his act? it didn't end as dissapointingly as all that, just... flat.

ok, ok, maybe i'm wrong. still, i picked up book 2 when i next got to the store (as well as book 2 of The Walking Dead (Image) and Global Frequency (Ellis/Wildstorm), but i'll deal with them another day) and got stuck into it when... ok, this one ended better, but i just kept looking for the meaning... trying to work out what he's getting at here. maybe i need to read more of it to get a better picture, so i'll let you know once some more come in.

ignoring my whingeing there are some excellent ideas being run with here, tho. granted, Bendis' penchance for changing from 1-page to across-pages without warning is irritating, but managing to split the storytelling so that one character gets dialogue while another one runs off in film-frame-style snapshots around the border... that's amazingly effective. the conversational dialogue is also an interesting touch. it reads far more like two actual people talking, rather than having Rogue and Iceman throwing quasi-romantic cliche's at each other until something sticks.

i have to say tho that after 2 books of Transmetropolitan (Ellis/Vertigo) i was hooked. Powers... might just take longer to warm up. will see, i guess.

Raven.

In case the matter needed clarification. Bonus points if you can make out what the hell me and Matt are saying. Blogger seems to do something wierd to the resolution of the strip when I upload it that makes it all sorts of illegible.

Writer: Judd Winick
Art: Matthew Clark and Art Thibert

I'm a big fan of the Outsiders. Next to Teen Titans it's been one of my favourite titles of the last couple of years coming out of the DC Universe. The characters are colourful yet human, the plots are intriguing, and you get the clear impression that these are real people engaged in a demanding, unpleasant job, rather than a group of costumed super-friends having fun with the fate of the cosmos.

I'd been a bit worried, though, since Infinite Crisis and One Year Later, that Outsiders had lost its way. The first post-Crisis storyline, "The Good Fight", did little to justify the new Outsiders line-up (including the new Captain Boomerang, Katana, and an apparently combined version of Metamorpho and Shift). It featured uninteresting villains, little characterisation, and a couple of very iffy plot points.

However, the second story out of the gate, "Silver and Grey", seems to be making up for all that. After the Outsiders are ambushed by a near-mindless clone of Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash, they are set on a course that brings them face to face with Monsieur Mallah and the Brain (founding members of the Brotherhood of Evil) and a small army of cloned superheroes.

I love the Doom Patrol, and one of the joys of the One Year Later stories for me has been the reformation of a new and even more dysfunctional Doom Patrol in the pages of Teen Titans and Secret Six, along with the return of their wonderful oddball nemesis, the Brotherhood of Evil (appearing in Teen Titans and Outsiders). If DC is hoping to raise interest in the DP getting their own series again, I'm there already.

Here in Outsiders, Mallah and the Brain are handled superbly, carrying all the menace of their Silver Age appearances, combined with the wonderful twisted philosophical banter of the Grant Morrison era Doom Patrol. It's really hard not to be in the Brotherhood's corner when the inevitable brawl between Outsiders and Brotherhood breaks out.

What's more, this issue is littered with hints towards upcoming revelations. Shift makes a surprise reappearance, independent of Metamorpho. Hints about various genetic legacies are tossed around. And the Brain almost offhandedly reveals that there's so much more to Grace than has previously been suggested.

This is all, of course, building to issue #40, which is apparently intended to be some kind of anniversary issue. (I thought it was #50 that you got to celebrate at, but whatever.) All in all, Outsiders is making a fine return to form, and I'm genuinely looking forward to seeing what's to come for Nightwing's team of trouble-shooters.

How do you feel about DC's habit of having a crisis event every ten odd years and changing continuity and the direction of their comics? Do you like this way of keeping comics new or does it irk you that you don't know what's going on anymore.

Please comment and things shall be discussed.

What does one say about Brian Michael Bendis? He's been a force in the comic world for some time (Jinx, Ultimate Spider-Man, Powers), but you have to wonder.

I mean, come on. The man works on a lot of comics per month. I think that's great, but perhaps it's a bit too much.

There's been a lot of talk about his work on Ultimate Spider-Man and if it's any good or not. Most of the detractors whine about Ultimate Gwen Stacy being killed off and the like. I didn't mind so much. I thought Bendis handled it well. That aside though, USM's stories have been rather lackluster of late and while this does bring up the question of whether Marvel's Ultimate line is capable of staying around or is it going to fall and die, we'll leave that discussion for another time.

When Bendis is on, he's fantastic. Powers still entertains me and Fortune and Glory was one of the best reads I've ever had, even USM in it's early days was amazing (joke intended). To balance it out though, we do get some average stuff penned by the man. House of M just failed to grab me and USM's past two years have been losing me.

Not trying to bag the man, he's still in my top ten writers today, but perhaps it's time for Bendis to hand over Ultimate Spider-Man to someone else. I still want to see him and Mark Bagley (Thunderbolts, Ultimate Spider-Man) get to a hundred.

Now that I have read issue two of Eternals, I can say that I am enjoying it, but have no clue as to why.

For those of you not in the know, Eternals is a miniseries written by Neil Gaiman (Sandman, 1602) and illustrated by John Romita Jr (Amazing Spider-Man, Uncanny X-Men) based on The Eternals series from the 70's created by Jack Kirby (Captain America, Fantastic Four and MANY others) and published by Marvel.

Now, I'm ashamed to say that I've never read any Eternals before now, but that works as the new series is well written for savages like me and fills us in on what's important to know.

Gaiman's writing is as good as always, although if you want another Sandman, you should go elsewhere. This is a new project and you can't expect someone to work on the same sort of thing forever, and it is a credit to Gaiman that he can adapt to his material well.

John Romita Jr's artword kind of irritated me for a portion of issue one but I became accustomed to it and I think it works well.

Eternals is an interesting comic well worth a look.

I decided that while I am a man who reads a lot of comics, I don't have much in the way of involvement with what's going on in the comics world.

This will hopefully remedy this. Welcome to The Amazing Comic Collapse, a place where I (and others) will discuss comics, writers and artists, related news and the like.

So enjoy, feel free to comment and let's get this show started.