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Post by commond on Jan 31, 2022 21:59:35 GMT -5
I was going to ask you about Savage Avengers... I was hoping since you gave it some much of a chance that perhaps it was better than it looked... I guess not. @ Commond: If I remember correctly, I pretty much had who the Adversary was at 'March of the Wood Soldiers', though there were definitely enough red herrings to make we doubt a couple times. The TMNT trade was definitely the highlight for me. I did really enjoy the Messner-Loebs Flash books I read too... I definitely should fill that run in at some point, but trying to keep purchases to a minimum while I keep catching up on old stuff. I had the same experience with the Adversary reveal. Originally, it was supposed to be Peter Pan. I wonder how differently it would have played out if that had been the case.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jan 31, 2022 22:05:29 GMT -5
I'm not sure I can picture that, I can see the symbolism certainly, but some of the stories would have to have been very different (unless Gepetto was just a sort of a lackey)
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jan 31, 2022 22:43:53 GMT -5
It's been a really good reading month for me. For once, I'm making an effort to re-read some beloved classics in my collection and not just new stuff I've never encountered before. It's led to my re-reading the early Adam Warlock stories on my own, as well as exposing Amber to the Russell/Thomas Elric stories and starting the Pre-Crisis Doug Moench run on Batman together. We read two issues a night and are already twenty six issues in. The crazy thing is, I've held this run on such a pedestal since I first read it a decade ago that I was worried it couldn't possibly live up to the memory upon a second reading. Instead, it's turned out even better, and Amber is loving it too!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2022 23:00:21 GMT -5
I was going to ask you about Savage Avengers... I was hoping since you gave it some much of a chance that perhaps it was better than it looked... I guess not. @ Commond: If I remember correctly, I pretty much had who the Adversary was at 'March of the Wood Soldiers', though there were definitely enough red herrings to make we doubt a couple times. The TMNT trade was definitely the highlight for me. I did really enjoy the Messner-Loebs Flash books I read too... I definitely should fill that run in at some point, but trying to keep purchases to a minimum while I keep catching up on old stuff. I kept wanting it to be good, and I love Kulan Gath, but no and the take on Kulan Gath just didn't resonate with me at all. The biggest thing that just struck me as absolutely wrong was Conan trying to proselytize Crom to the heroes he met in the current era. Just something so diametrically opposed to the nature of both Conan and Crom that it may make it absolutely the worst portrayal of Conan I have seen in all of fiction. I kept reading saying it couldn't get any worse, but it just kept getting worse. I generally like some of Duggan's other stuff, but it felt like the closest he had ever come to reading a Conan story was reading Groo, and his approach to Conan was to make it Groo played straight. Now I love Groo and I love Conan, and Conan meets Groo was a fun romp, but Groo in a Conan suit isn't for me. Sadly though, I may read the last volume if our library gets it just because my morbid curiosity about how it all wraps up might compel me. Like I said, train wreck you can't turn away from. These days I really try to avoid negativity when talking about a book, and generally go the Bambi route and if I can't say something nice not to say anything at all, but this book is just...just...well it's damn difficult to find anything good to say except that its a compelling train wreck. Who knows, maybe Duggan thought the idea of Conan in the modern MU was as absurd as I did when I first heard about it and decided to write it as an absurdist comedy. That would be about the only way I might recommend the book to someone. -M PS and the moment that I absolutely knew this book was irredeemably bad-Frank Castle and Conan decide to hike across Antarctica wearing minimal gear carrying the bodies of Frank's family to return them home after Kulan Gath took them in a grave robbery rather than accepting a flight home in a qunjet or some other Marvel Magic plane because Frank needed to honor his family and Conan admired his dedication...
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Post by berkley on Feb 1, 2022 0:24:35 GMT -5
I was going to ask you about Savage Avengers... I was hoping since you gave it some much of a chance that perhaps it was better than it looked... I guess not. @ Commond: If I remember correctly, I pretty much had who the Adversary was at 'March of the Wood Soldiers', though there were definitely enough red herrings to make we doubt a couple times. The TMNT trade was definitely the highlight for me. I did really enjoy the Messner-Loebs Flash books I read too... I definitely should fill that run in at some point, but trying to keep purchases to a minimum while I keep catching up on old stuff. I kept wanting it to be good, and I love Kulan Gath, but no and the take on Kulan Gath just didn't resonate with me at all. The biggest thing that just struck me as absolutely wrong was Conan trying to proselytize Crom to the heroes he met in the current era. Just something so diametrically opposed to the nature of both Conan and Crom that it may make it absolutely the worst portrayal of Conan I have seen in all of fiction. -M
I haven't read the Savage Avengers but it's really interesting that they took that approach to the idea of Crom - and I agree, it's completely wrong-headed. I think probably one of the main sources of the writer's error, beyond possibly not being familiar with or just not understanding the characters and REH's Hyperborean world, is imputing Judaeo-Christian attitudes to Howard's pre-Christian, pagan worldview.
I've mentioned this before because it was an eye-opening monent for me as a young reader, but there's a bit in Caesar's Conquest of Gaul where he's talking about the Germans, at that time a people known to the Romans only by rumour: Caesar and his army were the Roman side of possibly the first contact between the two cultures. In describing their religion, he wrote something like, "The Germans honour Mercury above all other gods. They call him Woden."
IOW, the (so-called) pagan view of religion and the divine wasn't the Judaeo-Christian one of true gods (ours - surprise!) and false gods (theirs - what a coincidence!). To them, there was the divine, there were the gods, spirits, unseen forces, and different people saw them in different ways and named them by different names. I'm over-simplifying, but anyway, I imagine Conan's view of Crom might have been something more along those lines than our modern way of seeing things.
And of course there's the more immediate fact that Conan never worshipped Crom in the sense of bowing down to him or even speaking of him reverently: he just recognised him as a serious force that had to be acknowledged and kept in mind. If you look at the Iliad, that's pretty close to how characters like Achilles see things too, for example when, after Apollo saves a Trojan soldier from his attack, he says, "It was Apollo who foiled me. And I'd make him pay for it, if the power were in me." (again, paraphasing badly from memory).
So I find it very intriguing, that the writer of Savage Avengers would make such an obvious mistake. It says a lot to me.
But I got carried away with Crom and Conan and forgot to ask what was it about Kulan Gath you didn't like?
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Post by berkley on Feb 1, 2022 1:03:52 GMT -5
I read quite a bit, somewhere in the vicinity of 145 or so, which is huge for me. The highlight was easily the Spider-Man vs Black Cat trade paperback, which reprints the earliest Black Cat Amazing Spider-Man stories and just proves to me that I need to set aside a lot of other things and just flat out dig into Bronze Age Spider-Man. The low point was hitting the half way point of Garth Ennis's The Boys. I had read the first twenty or so issues when it came around the first time and then dropped out. I made it through 38 issues this time around and I think I am going to stop there. I wanted to enjoy it this time around and there were bits I did, but its just not what I want to spend my time reading anymore.
I have to admit, I really liked The Boys. And I'm usually down on Ennis's anti-superhero work for Marvel and DC - not that I've read much of it, but I just think it's pointless: OK, you don't like superheroes - then why write them?
But The Boys is different because I think he puts his criticisms together into a coherent whole and with his own fictional world and characters, never mind that many of them are thinly disguised versions of familiar characters. Actually, thinly disguised in't the right way to put it, because they weren't meant to be disguised at all, apart from not getting sued by Marvel or DC. I think most of his criticisms are valid, even though you might disagree with some details - personally, I think he's totally off the mark about Thor being a symbol of Aryan superiority for crypto or noncrypto neo-Nazis to salivate over.
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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 1, 2022 4:03:48 GMT -5
Ended up reading 98 comics in January. I started Hellblazer and found a sameness to the stories. Some characters are better as guest stars and not the lead in their own book. I finally read the Steve Engelhart Batman run in Detective comics. I always thought it to be much longer than the 6 quick issues. It was just " okay". Maybe I had to have been there , but I found the Roy Thomas/ Moench run with Gene Colan and others to be much more engaging. I went through the early Perez Avengers ( 141- 160) they were as good as I remembered them and the Pablo Marcos inks really complemented the Perez pencils nicely. I ended the month by reading the Johns/ Gary Frank Superman : Secret Origin mini series. Boy, was that enjoyable. Frank did such a good likeness to Christopher Reeve that I feel he's not recognized enough as a top tier artist. Also, Keven Mcguire gets so much praise as a person who draws all the amazing facial expressions, but I think Frank is better than him in that area.
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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 1, 2022 4:12:03 GMT -5
I decided to read Nexus again from the start. It's the same romp as it ever was. Brisk and easy to read, which I appreciate. After completing this series about 5 years ago I have attempted to read it from start to finish a few times , and I just am having trouble connecting to the world he lives in. The Baron and Rude combo is excellent but I can't really relate to the heads and weird characters walking around in this world.
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Post by commond on Feb 1, 2022 4:59:16 GMT -5
I decided to read Nexus again from the start. It's the same romp as it ever was. Brisk and easy to read, which I appreciate. After completing this series about 5 years ago I have attempted to read it from start to finish a few times , and I just am having trouble connecting to the world he lives in. The Baron and Rude combo is excellent but I can't really relate to the heads and weird characters walking around in this world. I always liked the supporting cast, especially Judah. I'm not far into the series so they're mostly used for comic relief at the moment. I can't remember if the relationships get deeper or not. Regarding Hellblazer, I wasn't a huge fan of the Delano run. The only storyline I really liked was the Family Man arc. I would recommend skipping ahead to the Ennis run unless you're not a fan. I started reading the post-Ennis stuff this month and it is tough going. I love Eddie Campbell but his story is a dud. We'll see how Paul Jenkins goes.
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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 1, 2022 5:54:58 GMT -5
After completing this series about 5 years ago I have attempted to read it from start to finish a few times , and I just am having trouble connecting to the world he lives in. The Baron and Rude combo is excellent but I can't really relate to the heads and weird characters walking around in this world. I always liked the supporting cast, especially Judah. I'm not far into the series so they're mostly used for comic relief at the moment. I can't remember if the relationships get deeper or not. Regarding Hellblazer, I wasn't a huge fan of the Delano run. The only storyline I really liked was the Family Man arc. I would recommend skipping ahead to the Ennis run unless you're not a fan. I started reading the post-Ennis stuff this month and it is tough going. I love Eddie Campbell but his story is a dud. We'll see how Paul Jenkins goes. I like Judah as well. I will try to skip to the ennis run to see what happens.
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Post by Trevor on Feb 1, 2022 8:33:57 GMT -5
I didn’t want to post until I knew I had accomplished at least close to my goals, as I seem to fail my reading goals every year. Notes and piles are still a mess so a detailed list is not soon coming, but I seem to have accomplished my four main goals for the year so far.
1 - read one issue/appearance of Swamp Thing a day
2 - read one recent physical single issue a day
3 - complete my usual monthly checklist of ~30 genres/publishers/formats that I collect or subscribe to and want to read monthly to try to ‘get my money’s worth’
4 - almost by default, completing the above three goals should put me at 100+ comics per month (OGNs and large issues are counted as one comic per 20 pages)
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Post by commond on Feb 28, 2022 8:26:14 GMT -5
I didn't read quite as many comics this month as I went back to work after corona, then lost my job and had to deal with that all month long. Comics were a bit of a solace, however.
I'm still going strong with Fables. I'm past the halfway mark, which is where a lot of people say the series should have ended, but the arc that followed continued to capture my imagination. Brubaker's Captain America is spoiling me in terms of how good superhero comics can be. Not only does it feel cinematic in terms of the pacing and the layouts, but he managed to bring back a character like Bucky (for f's sake) and have it feel genuinely excited and not some affront to comic book readers' sensibilities. Vinland Saga is a manga that has been heading in the opposite direction of what a lot of readers like with the central character becoming a non-violent pacifist and trying to set up a settlement in the New World, but this month's chapter resolved a long standing subplot and was one of the most beautiful and moving chapters in the entire series. I forget which issue of Savage Sword of Conan I stopped at years ago (it was some point after they ran out of Howard stories to adapt), so I went back to the beginning and read it again, which is turning out okay since I don't remember a lot of the issues. Issue #5 is the one where Conan is being crucified on the cross and kills a vulture with his teeth, which is easily the most badass thing Conan ever did.
Ms. Tree faded over the second half of the series, but it was a massive achievement for them to make it to 50 issues during that volatile period in independent publishing. I feel like the best stories were early on, but I love the character. I've almost finished Camelot 3000. Such beautiful artwork. It makes me wish Bollard did more interior work. Hepcats is an excellent series. It's a shame that it's unfinished.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 28, 2022 19:41:02 GMT -5
I bit less than January, mostly I think because I was into a couple novels instead. I'm really digging re-reading Iron Man...definitely will continue that at least up to Demon in a Bottle. I also just procured vol 2 of the IDW Turtles, so I'll be reading that soon.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 28, 2022 20:48:55 GMT -5
Clearly not getting any more tonight. Barely more than 1/3 of January. I’m suffering serious readers block with both comics and prose.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2022 21:42:46 GMT -5
Didn't read as many comics this month as I did last month (just over 100 this month at 104), and my Marvel Mania has phased out about halfway through the month, as I started reading more D&D related comics to coincide with doing a lot of rpg reading and writing.
Highlights for the month include: Usagi Yojimbo, the final volume of Berlin, the newest Black Widow series and the Ewing Immortal Hulk and Aaron Thor runs.
The lowlight of the month surprisingly for me was a return to the Sandman Universe revival DC did a couple years back. I read the earliest releases but never finished the runs. I decided to revisit it to finish, restarting at the beginning but I just couldn't get into it at this time and abandoned it after only reading the initial Special and the first 2 issues of The Dreaming. It's not bad comics, just not what I was in the mood to read it seems and didn't resonate well with me.
-M
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