f13.net

So, in light of the CoH release, I've found myself somewhat interested in comic books again. I haven't kept up since the early 90's, when I was about 12 or 13 (about the same time I picked up a guitar, started smoking cigarettes, and got laid), so I don't know what the hell to look for these days.

Was a big Surfer fan, sometimes X-Men, and the Punisher. Any suggestions? Seems like a gazillion different X-Men versions out there. Is "Uncanny" still the main one? Or is there a good compilation of the last 10 years or so? I quit reading around the time Gambit came out.

I did pick up "Preacher" though...Man, it fuckin' rocks!

Preacher is great.  All 9 volumes of it.

Top Ten vols. 1 and 2  by Alan Moore are also very worth picking up.  Very funny, beautiful art, and a great concept of the daily goings-on at a police station in a city populated entirely by superheroes.  Every woman I've ever dated has been forced to read Top Ten and Preacher at some point, even though none of them have been into comics, and almost all of them have loved both.

Astro City, by Kurt Busiek, is another great series and in particular, the Astro City: Confession TPB.  You want inspiration to make some great CoH characters, look no further.  Kurt also did some great work on a Marvel series called Thunderbolts, which involved the Masters of Evil posing as a new superhero team as a scheme to take over the world until several of them got addicted to the fame and respect of being heroes.  Harder to track down as most of it has never been collected in TPB form.

Hellboy is also good stuff.  Better than the movie would have you believe.  Not that I didn't like the movie, but the comic is just a lot better.

Supreme Power, by JMS I already mentioned in another topic.  You can also pick up the first two volumes of Rising Stars but I'd wait for him to release the 3rd and final one.  It's about just over a hundred superhumans who have grown up together (a mysterious flash over the town of Peterson gave every child in utero superpowers), and the events set in motion when one starts killing the others off.

Non-superhero related, pick up  Johnny The Homicidal Maniac, and Squee (which is where my avatar comes from), by Jhonen Vasquez.

As far as X-men goes... never been a big fan, but I'm going to be checking out Astonishing X-Men, which I believe starts this month, as it will be written by none other than Buffy and Angel creator Joss Whedon who will be doing a 12 issue run.  Also you might want to start picking up Grant Morrison's recent run of New X-Men starting with "New X-Men Vol. 1: E is for Extinction".  I've only read a little bit of it (like I said, not an X-Men fan) but it's supposed to be the best X-Men stuff released in the last 10 years.  You can get reviews and catch up on a lot of the X related stuff you missed here http://thexaxis.com/.

Everytime you post I think about getting out my JTHM comics and re-reading them.. man I love Jhonen Vasquez..

He rocks. =)

Hrm no love for Lobo here in the comic thread? Or Judge Dread?

Great, thanks man! I'm going to the shop to check some out now. Guess I'll start out with Top Ten, Astro City, and JTHM.

BTW: The Preacher I bought was "Until the End of the World". Is that Vol. 1 of 9? There isn't a number on it.

Sandman.  Gaiman > all.

"Until the End of the World" is vol. 2.  In order they are:

1.  Gone to Texas
2.  Until the End of the World
3.  Proud Americans
4.  Ancient History (which collects the Saint of Killers mini, the Arseface oneshot, and The Good Old Boys one shot)
5.  Dixie Fried
6.  War in the Sun
7.  Salvation
8.  All Hells A-Coming
9.  Alamo

Ah OK...I happened to pick up Gone to Texas yesterday...Didn't know where Until the End fit in. Also picked up a hardcover of Astro City (Life in the Big City I think), and JTHM: Director's Cut. No Top Ten yet.

I'd suggest reading by author.  Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, and Neil Gaiman all have good stuff.

On a book title basis, I'll suggest Scud, Kingdom Come, Bone, and Mage (2).

Top Ten might be a little harder to find as it's not nearly as well known as Preacher or Astro City.  Amazon.com has both volumes, as I sure various other online sites do.  As much as I'd like to support local comic shops, there really aren't any around me any more.

Also just remembered a few other tpbs worth picking up:

"The Walking Dead:  Days Gone Bye" by Robert Kirkman just came out last month collecting the first few issues of Image's new zombie comic book.  Good stuff and worth reading if you're into zombie horror.

Any of the reprinted Roy Thomas written Conan stuff.  Essential Conan if you can find it, but it has also recently been reprinted in 4 vols. although I'm not fond of the digital color that was added.

Any of Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo, which is perhaps one of the most brilliantly crafted comics of all time.  Hard to believe I can say that about a samurai rabbit who did a guest shot on the old TMNT cartoon.  With around 18 books or so though, you might be a little reluctant to get into it .  If you do, pick up the first two books.  The first book introduces a few of the major characters but the storytelling really picks up in the second one.  If I'm not mistaken the first book mostly collects the stories from before Usagi got his own comic, which is why that book doesn't seem as cohesive as the rest.

And given Haemish's avatar I can't believe I left out "Fun With Milk & Cheese", by Evan Dorkin.

Speaking of Preacher.
I held Garth Ennis' take on Punisher  (Born) in a bookstore the other day. Unfortunately it was a bookstore in  Cannes and it was translated into French, which I don't speak at all.
I've never been a great Punisher fan but like Ennis a lot. Has anybody read it?

And I love old Dredd (sometimes by Ennis) and Lobo (which he also briefly touched).Alan Grant and Simon Bisley are also favourites of mine, so that's another reason for liking both series.

I've read #1 of the Ennis' Punisher run, and it looked good. Normal, hard-boiled take on the character.

The Preacher series was fucking awesome. One of these days I need to pick up the TPB's of the stuff I don't have of that.

Sandman was good, but it lost a bit of its shine because it became the posterchild for deconstructionist goth angst Vampire-wannabe twats. It's still incredible writing and artwork.

For X-Men, the Grant Morrison stuff is hands down the best stuff since the old days of Claremont/Byrne/Paul Smith.

Pick up any of the current run of Daredevil Vol. 2. Anything by Frank Miller, especially the Sin City, Martha Washington, or Daredevil things. Another good one that may be in TPB is 300, a historical series set in Ancient Greece.

If you have never read it, Alan Moore's Watchmen and Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns are musts.

I've recently gotten into downloading BitTorrent's of entire comic runs, to the point of having filled up about 10-15 GB's worth of stuff I'd never buy or can't find in TPB.

Born is okay, it's an interesting take on the true birth of the Punisher in Vietnam.  Ennis' first mini series run on the Punisher, which starts with Welcome Back, Frank, is awesome.  Then there were thirty something books of the regular series, with some really good books and some awfully shitty ones as well.  Wolverine getting a shotgun blast to be balls and run over by Frank in a steamroller was quite amusing.
Recently, they started the Max version of the series, where Ennis can say fuck and cunt, and believe me, he does.  Actually, it seems like every other word is the F-bomb, which isn't necessarily bad, but I find it almost overused.  The current storyline involves the return of Micro, and it's not too bad.  Overall, I enjoy Ennis' take on the Punisher.  
I am also reading Supreme Power, Batman, and a few of the Xbooks.  The Xbooks have been pretty shitty of late, with Morrison's run being about the only bright spot.  But I am hoping the revamp, including Whedon on the Astonishing X-men, will bring things back around.
But the best book out there, for my money, has to be Y-The Last Man.  A strange illness or virus has basically killed every single being on the planet with the Y chromosome with the exception of a man and his male monkey.  It's under DC's Vertigo line and three trade paperbacks are available for about 15 bucks a pop.  Definitely worth a read.

Talk about a classic. I would put that in the category of literature. On a related note, rumor has it that Batman Begins (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372784/) is at least loosely based on Miller's Year One, so hope springs eternal. At least Joel Schumacher is nowhere near the project...

That's an understatement.  Although I'd avoid the sequel to Dark Knight Returns.  It wasn't good.

Batman begins also has Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman. On the other hand it has Michael Caine as Alfred. I've seen a pic of Christian in costume and a few comments:

Doesn't look like rubber
No nipples
Sort of a slate gray and black...

The set he was in also had a very dark look to it. It looked almost like a setpiece out of a noir movie rather than a super hero movie. Of course, we're talking one shot, so don't get too excited. However, as long as Joel Schumacher is nowhere nearby it might be alright.

Clive Owen is the closest I can think of. But he doesn't look like Bale, and he's not quite as good as Bill Murray.

I'm speaking specifically of his work in Croupier. If someone responds to this post and mentions his other movies I get a group of dogs to gangrape their great grandmother.

Batman was always more about the noir than the hero. Gotham City is the noir version of Superman's Metropolis. Batman's women are the femme fatale variants of Superman's Lois Lane. Batman's connections are all private underground connections rather than Clark Kent's more open relationship. Bruce Wayne had a horribly noirish past while Superman had a wonderful childhood.

Considering who's directing it, I wouldn't be surprised if that's exactly how it turns out. I like Noir, so I have no problems with that, but Bale doesn't really impress me. I liked Burton's choice in not casting a leading man type. Otherwise, you just get "Batman", and then "Bruce Wayne" kinda takes a backseat. Then again, a good script changes everything.

Too bad there isn't an actor around that looks like Christian Bale, but behaves like Bill Murray.

Oops..Was doing an edit of my post, and now you're replying above me.

Actually Clive Owen is a pretty good choice. The only other person I can think of who could pull it off is Johnny Depp, but he'd never do it. Lol, the guy could probably play Batman, the Joker, Superman, Lex Luthor, and Lois Lane all in the same movie...and be convincing.

I'd pay to see that.  It would be a comedy, but a good one.

I think Burton chose Keaton because he'd seen the dark side to him during their previous movie together. As for Christian Bale, I've been a fan of his ever since Equilibrium, a low budget sci-fi movie with a not-so-subtle message that I still found enjoyable enough to buy on DvD. (It's basically a modern take on Farenheit 451, with action.)

American Psyhco told me all I needed to know about Bale's ability to play both Bruce Wayne AND Batman. Look at his portrayal in Shaft 2000. He looks good and comfortable in an Armani suit, and he can shift from flighty to hard as a rock in an instant.

I had heard that Gotham was NYC on a miserable winter night, while Metropolis was NYC during a bright summer day.

The Batman/Superman dynamic is another reason why Dark Knight Returns rocks.

Superman will forever be the 'big blue schoolboy' to me.

For comics:

Alan Moore's been mentioned, but I'll thow another vote in for him.

Wildstorm Studios (DC imprint) does some good work. Stormwatch: Team Achilles and Sleeper are both great. Planetary (whenever Warren Ellis deigns to release an issue) is fantastic. Haven't read any of Wildcats 3.0, but it's on my list to check out. The Authority has its moments, but the original run (Warren Ellis again) was great but may have dated.

If you've got the inclination, collecting all 28 volumes of Lone Wolf and Cub is something worth doing imo. A great japanese series re-released recently by Dark Horse Comics, it tracks a disgraced executioner (with three-year-old son) on his path to revenge.

Shit, I've spent over 200 bucks on comics in the past 2 weeks.

Just bought Dark Knight Returns and Year One..These came out around the time I lost interest too, but I figure it's necessary readin' now, huh? Also bought Marvels, because I liked Astro City so much...And a Ghost Rider compilation today.

Gotta be honest though: I didn't really like JTHM much...Not because I was offended or anything. It's intelligent, but a little too juvenile and one-dimensional to be funny or entertaining. Tess was a pretty cool character though. I think I'd rather see a more serious version of Johnny...I'd probably laugh then ;)

I need to dig out my old box of comics.  I never collected them long, but for a year or two in the early 90s, I followed a couple of series.  Those things got damn expensive for a kid with no job!

Well, I finally finished reading all of Preacher...Pissed me off.

I loved it at first, but the ending just ruined it for me. I'm not expecting Bertrand Russell or anything, but if he's going to attack Christianity, the least he could do is not be so fuckin' juvenile about it. Up until that point it was an "adult" comic.

I haven't finished all of Preacher, so don't spoil it for me.

I did read all of Rising Stars. What is it that is holding this book up? There are supposed to be 3 issues left and Top Cow hasn't published them? Why? Great book, kind of like JMS does the X-Men through the looking glass of Watchmen. Damn good read.

Transmetropolitan.

Hunter Thompson in the future. GREAT fucking series.

There were a few disputes between JMS and Top Cow that needed ironing out before JMS would finish up the scripts for the last three issues  Last I heard a few weeks ago he only has one more left to turn in now, and even that one may be turned in by now.  I haven't heard too much in the way of specifics as to what was going on between JMS and Top Cow, although I've heard that part of it had to do with the movie deal for Rising Stars.

Do you guys generally like JMS authored comics?  I have been considering starting up one of his story arcs coming up in his current amazing spiderman run.  I have been considering it for awhile, but lately he has been on a weird mystical kick that just does not fit with spiderman in the least.  Looks like 509 or 510 (I forget) will be the first of a 6 parter in this new arc.

You guys probably look down on spiderman as a comic, and it is cheesy, I will admit, but it is just one of those guilty pleasures from my childhood.

So, is JMS generally a good comic author?

I think so, but I'm a JMS fanboi from B5 days. I haven't read or seen anything by him I didn't like. Rising Stars is good, and even though he kind of went metaphysical/mystical on Spider-Man, I've heard nothing but good things about that run. I'm not a big Spidey fan, myself, but I've considered trying to get the JMS stuff just to read it.

I don't. I've been wanting to get more cheesy superhero type comics, but I'm not sure where to start. I've picked up some X-Men, Punisher, Daredevil, and Batman stuff, but those are probably the least cheesy of the bunch. Any suggestions on Spider-Man? Maybe Superman too?

I started reading and collecting comic books in 1981.  I was bored and on a whim picked one up to read during a trip to Canada because I had nothing else to do.  Within a month of returning home I was regularly buying a half-dozen different titles every month.  I got my brother hooked as well, and with his money we bought a LOT of comics. :)

Soon thereafter he moved to Colorado (first Denver, then Colorado Springs) and began to buy comics at the local Mile High Comics shop.  They offered a subscription service, had a huge warehouse of back issues, and you could also get the independents and non-newstand releases.  So we started getting everything through them.

By the late 80s I had less time to read comic books, what with college and the Internet and all, and we both started to cut back.  The industry was also slowly killing itself... an explosion of titles, massive crossovers, new series just to create "First Issue" sales, revamps, reinventions, trading cards, multi-hologram covers, etc.  It was all getting to be too much.  It also didn't help that DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths had royally screwed up the two titles I cared most about, Legion of Super-Heroes and All-Star Squadron.

By 1991 we had both pretty much stopped collecting.  However, early in 1992 Mile High Comics was going to open a store in Colorado Springs, and I needed a job.  So I and several others applied.  The interview process with their Pesident and CEO went well; they were mostly interested in people who had a knowledge of comic books and I had that plenty.  (One of his questions was "Name 2 of the 5 companies other than Marvel and DC that were publishing comic books before WW2."  I was the only interviewee that actually got 2 right; most of the others could only name one.)

I was hired along with another guy from Colorado Springs.  They said they likes both of us so much they wanted us to be co-managers of the new store and they put us through a month of training at their warehouse learning all about the operation, from warehouse operation to back issues to subscriptions to order processing to store management.  Everything was great, and despite my disappointment with how the publisher titles had progressed I was prepared to renew my interest in the genre.

At the end of the 30 days, they called us both in seperately for what was supposed to be salary offers and final preperations for us to open the store in Colorado Springs.  Instead, they told me that they lied, and never intended to hire both of us, and instead the past month had been a competition to see which one they wanted to actually run the store.  He won, and I lost, mainly it seemed because I had had an argument with one of the other co-workers about the best way to shelve a stack of comic books on the rack and he bad-mouthed me to his boss.  So that pretty much ended my interest in comic books as a regular hobby.

Bruce

I picked up the first few issues of JMS's Spider-man but didn't really like it.  It's not because I look down on Spider-man, as the six-part Fearful Symmetry (Kraven's Last Hunt) storyline was what really got me into comics.  Before that I had picked up a comic here and there when they could still usually be found in gas stations and 7-11 type stores, but something about the image of Spider-man (then in his black costume) crawling out of his own grave on the cover made me have to track down the other five parts.

Anyhow I just don't feel that Spider-man's origin needed to be mucked around with, let alone with some hokey sort of magical angle.  It doesn't add anything to the character, and I can't really see future writers using it after JMS leaves.  It's far from bad writing, but it just didn't appeal to me.

I still like a lot of old-school type superhero books.  I read Avengers until Chuck Austen came on board, although I've still gotten my fix through Avengers/JLA and Avengers/Thunderbolts while I wait for Bendis' run with the Avengers Disassembled storyline.   Mostly though I'll just pick up a couple of issues various comics here and there depending on what catches my interest.

The new JMS arc seems to be moving away from mystical or so I hear.  Starting with 509 I think (not out yet, but the one AFTER the current two part ezekiel one they have on stands).  It also is a new artist (from the hulk I think) and I am liking his style so far.  The full comic is actually available online as a preview of the new arc, but I don't have the link at work.

Two characters from Parker's past that he does not seem to know coming back with some link to Gwen Stacey.  He got half a letter she wrote but never sent talking about some huge secret she was keeping from him.  This was back when she went on a 4 month trip to Europe.  She died shortly after returning.  The rumor mill is already running that she may have been pregnant and had the children in europe.  It would fit that the two new characters who attacked him would be his children but the ages would be way off.  They could not be more than early teens at best, probably less.

My biggest annoyance with Spiderman is that aunt may is still alive.  Wasn't she ancient back when he first became spiderman?  Wasn't that about 15 years ago in the storline?  And she keeps acting younger and younger it seems.  Especially with JMS who writes her as far more intelligent than is normal (I like this better, but she should be dead).  She has died twice already.  One was an 'actress' planted during the clone saga.  Meh, whatever.  I forget how she came back to life the first time.  As it is now I will be annoyed if spiderman even bothers to grieve for her third freaking death.  More like "see ya later May".

Oh, I'm sorry. Were people talking about which comics books they liked and why, instead of talking about you?

Although if you're a fan of his mystical-type stories it's interesting to note that he will be doing a Dr. Strange series starting in September.  He'll be taking a break from Supreme Power in August while some other writer he's picked will be doing a Dr. Spectrum mini.  It also seems that the next issue of Rising Stars is finally coming in October.

Nooo!  Dammit, SP is one of the coolest books out there, and it's largely due to his writing style.  Oh well, I guess I will give the Spectrum mini a shot and see how it plays...

I'm not sure how long SP will be on hold.  JMS has said this though:

I rather like the ultimate version of Spiderman, which is a sort of extended what-if version of the character where he is still 15 and just starting out again. Plus you can get it in hardcover which is a bonus. I think one of the US bookstores is doing a special on it collecting the first 3 HC ( about 40 issues) for $50 or so.

Apart from that the Ultimates is satisfying nonsense or you could start collecting the JMS amazing spiderman run which presently runs into 6 trades. I'm one of the few it seems that doesn't mind the mystical angle

Dr. Strange in september?  Ugh.  I will hold off on a subscription then until that is at least over.  I HATE Dr. Strange.  Worst villian spiderman has IMO.  The books just become utter salvidor dali nonsense.  Mysterio is almost as bad.  And anything involving solid holograms also makes my twitch, hehe.

I will pick up the next 6 at least in the local shop though.

Ultimate spiderman is indeed quite good IMO.  At least I really like it.  I love Bagley as penciler.  Great emotional range on the characters and good action scenes as well.  I have only followed it in trade paperback so far and have read synopses of all the stories to date so I have an idea of where they are going with it.  I so far only own the first four trade paperbacks that run up through the second green goblin arc (love the new villians, finally electro does not look like an idiot).  I am picking this story up slowly, buying a few TPB's everytime I see a good sale.  I think I will pick up the hollywood arc tpb before the movie comes out because it looked like a potential goldmine for comedy.  Spiderman when well written is good for laughs at least.

Dr. Strange isn't a villain, he's the Master of the Mystic Arts and Sorcerer Supreme for Earth in the Marvel Universe, as well as a friend of Spider-Man's. Dr. Octopus is a Spidey villain. Not sure what other occult villain Spidey has that you might have confused this with.

I avoid anything with Dr. Strange in it with a 20 foot pole.  I have never managed to finish a full comic with him in it.  Just flipping through the pages of them is enough for me to move on and wait for the next issue.  So I don't know much about Dr. Strange.  I avoid him.  I apologize for making the mistake of assuming he was a villian.  I have a few issues with him on bit torrent.  Maybe I should force myself to read them.

There's actually some decent stories out there with Dr. Strange. But narratively, he can present a problem. He's the ultimate nullifier, since he's sorcerer supreme, he should be able to handle most mystic threats. So where is the dramatic conflict? When he can't handle the threats, no one else should be able to either. It's kind of like when Superman is in team books, it's really hard to not just sit back and rely on the big cheese.

Not a big fan of superman comics in general really.  Feels too much like watching a Rocky movie.  Badguy uses light of red sun/kryptonite, whatever to make superman totally usless and beats up on him.  Then somehow the device is taken away and superman becomes god and wins.  Too much like a light switch for me.  He is either supreme being or schoolyard bully bait.  Although you can introduce extra challenges in him saving others instead of himself.  Same thing happens in all other comics as well of course, but it is a bit less blatent to me.  We all know who will win at the end of the book/series.

Maybe if I read more of them I would find the hook that I am missing though.  I don't really know that much about the superman timeline.  Other than reading up a little bit on the whole "Superman is dead, no, he is four people now, no, they are all imposters, the REAL superman was visiting the interdimensional land of dairy queen" fiasco.

Dr. Strange can be a little too powerful at times.  There was one issue where he went up against Adam Warlock, who was wearing the Infinity Gauntlet at the time.  Warlock used one gem at a time to fight Strange (rather than just snapping his fingers and making Strange disappear or something), and with the help of various artifacts Strange managed to counter each gem.  He can be an interesting character at times though, mostly when he's manipulating others to do his work (Blade and the other Nightstalkers for instance).

Still, this upcoming series is under the Marvel Knights imprint which means it may be less bound by continuity.  JMS may just do the same thing he did with the Squadron Supreme and just take what works with Dr. Strange and throw out all the things that don't.

Since we're talking about both of them: If there was ever a crossover, Dr. Strange would kick Superman's ass. So, there is someone who could do it. Just not in DC. In Marvel there are quite a few characters who could win against Superman (Surfer, Phoenix, Thor, Professor X, etc..). Maybe he just needs to move.

So the Ultimate Spider-Man series then? I picked up the Ultimate X-Men not too long ago. Thought it was kinda cool. A little irritating though (It seems like they already killed off one of my favorite characters in Vol. 1).

One more thing: Has anyone read Ennis' take on Thor? I was surprised to see that the other day, but wasn't sure to get it. Not a Thor fan, but I'm interested to see what he did with it.

Actually it was shown in Avengers/JLA #2 recently that Superman can beat Thor (although Thor later remarked that now that he knows Superman's measure he could take him).




I haven't read it, but by most accounts it was just ok.  If you want to check out more Ennis stuff I'd suggest Hitman, Punisher: The End, and maybe some of his War Stories stuff.

I always thought that the Marvel universe suffered from some serious MUDflation in character power.  That might just be me.

I had a ton of cheesy comics from from the 80's.

My favorite were:

Micronauts
Shogun Warriors
ROM
GI Joe
Sgt Rock
The Haunted Tank
Avengers
Thor

I also liked to pick up Epic Comics:

Marshal Law
Groo

Well, I just picked up a couple of the Ultimate Spider-Man series. Also picked up the first 3 issues of "Wanted" on a whim (it was displayed by the register, and I wanted something else to read). Didn't know anything about it, but I guess it's OK so far (a little heavy on the "teen angst" thing though). It's about a kid who inherits his father's legacy as a super-villian (and a different take on super-villians in general). Anyone read this yet?
 
I would have purchased Rising Stars by now, but I can't find graphic novels. Some of the earlier single issues are too expensive for me.

Oh, and what's Top Cow anyways? Like a Marvel subsidiary? The Wanted stories had some Marvel references in them (but without a fuckload of ads).

Amazon has the Rising Stars TPB's "Born in Fire" (Vol. 1) and Power (vol. 2) for around $14 each, as well as Visitations which has a few stories.

Top Cow is an off-shoot of Image founded by Marc Silvestri.  Aside from stuff like Rising Stars, they also publish stuff like Witchblade, Darkness, Fathom, and Tomb Raider.  Wanted is probably their big seller right now since Mark Millar (Ultimate X-men, Ultimates, The Authority) is pretty popular at the moment.

Rising Stars is also not finished yet, JMS and Top Cow had a spat. Rumours that they have kissed and made up and hes finishing the rest of the series havent been confirmed.

I am not the comic book collector or even a huge fan, but back in my MtG card buying days I did pick up a few things from the store whilst feeding my cardboard habit.  I have a nice Dr Strange & Dr Doom book wherin we get to learn more about our favoritre metal clad villian and his life.  Involved freeing his mother's soul from Mephisto..by any means neccessary. Not bad; I enjoyed it.

Xilren

Xilren

There's an interview with Brandon Peterson, mostly about Strange here (http://newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14658).

Other news that might be of interest to some people here is that Neil Gaiman will be making a comic book adaptation of his novel Neverwhere.  That story can be found here (http://newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14555).

I was getting an oil change and mosied over to the comic book store in the nearby strip mall. First time in a very, very long time. Holy crap are comics expensive now!  2.50-3.00$ for a single issue.  Maybe I'm just being a cranky old bastard, but I don't remember them being that pricey when I was a kid (even accounting for inflation). Keeping up with several series would put you in the poorhouse.

The illustration nowdays is really cool though. Picked up an Uncanny X-men and a Thor just for nostalgia sake and they looked really cool. Having something cost half of what a paperback novel does when you can read it in 5 minutes is just too damn much though.

Trade paperbacks alleviate at least the reading it in 5 minutes part of that.  They are usually priced at about $15 for 6 issues, so theres no actual cost savings for the consumer and you have to wait a lot longer to get your fix, but 20-30 minutes of entertainment for the price feels a little less like a rip-off.  At least until you think about it.  Fuck.

I can't think of too many novels though that I'll read through more than once though.  Even an average comic book though I can pull out and re-read when I feel like killing a few minutes and some of my favorite TPB's I've read dozens of times.

I agree with you about the cost of comics. I used to drop $40 a week on the goddamn things, and this was 3-4 years ago. I think economically, as well as narrtively, comics are much better served being released as graphic novel collections than single-issue monthly periodicals. Though I wouldn't mind seeing electronic distribution of the monthlies, either.

It's called bitorrent. I'm in the process of d/l every single spiderman comic ever done at a whopping 8.5 gig. I shudder to think what size the x-men will be.

That 8.5 gigs is FAR from every spiderman ever done by the way.  That is just the Amazing and spectacular runs.  I don't know where that file stops either, since they are both still going.

Amazing and spectacular were the biggest runs, but you still can't follow some of the storylines without the other titles like web of spiderman, the just 'spiderman' one, and others I forget.  Then you have some stand alones that don't fit into any of the other lines but are still parts of series.  The only one I can think of off the top of my head is the maximum clonage one though.  Lots of offshoots like Peter Parker: The lost years and such as well.

I have done some spiderman bit torrenting lately to try and catch up.  (mostly on the clone saga stuff).  I have yet to download the 8.5 gig file because my hd won't fit it right now (waiting till my new system).  Just the 'other' stuff I have downloaded is 3+ gigs on its own and that is just standalones, not even touching "web of spiderman" or "spiderman" or "peter parker spiderman" or "tangled web of spiderman" etc...

Yes, I know. I mean LEGITIMATE electronic distribution, whereby I pay the creators/publishers, instead of the kind where I don't spend any money, the creators don't make any money, and the industry dies on the vine.

Not that BT is responsible for that, the comics industry has been doing a goddamn great job of shooting itself in the dick for over a decade now. While I do BT monthlies, I'd rather actually pay for it, if I had the money.

I am reading a lot of back issues to catch up, but am making a point to not read anything new that is not put out legitimately.  I am loosely following some series as they are coming out now and am buying a TPB or two of ultimate spiderman per month.

I don't know of anywhere I can get legitimate copies of all the clone saga stuff without downloading it.  Heck, even downloading it I am going to have gaps from what I can find so far.  Don't ask me why I am drawn to the whole clone saga.  I know it is insanely stupid and they were pulling shit out of their asses like crazy on that whole multi-year storyline, but I can't help but being morbidly fascinated due to how convoluted the whole mess is.  Kind of like an accident scene.

I've been the same way about the X-Men. I loved the Grant Morrison stuff, but there was so much continuity I'd missed in the years since I last bought an X-Men comic. I've managed to make it to present day in both the X-Men and Uncanny and X-Treme series, but haven't caught up on the periphery stuff, like the 1.7 GB of shitty mini-series spinoffs, or the "started good, but veered into suckage" Generation X title. It's amazing how badly Marvel screwed up the continuity of X-Men before Morrison and Austen came on. I mean, you'd have characters that had been X-Men for a year, and all of a sudden, they just up and disappeared, either because of some fucking mini-series or just because the writer didn't like them.

I never followed Xmen, but might start with the BT ability to read some back continuity before leaping in.  How many Xmen are there generally at any given time in the continuity?  I am always curious because when they show up in other comics they bring just the A-list stars usually and claim that 'everyone showed up' or something.  It is probably just horrible writing, but aren't there dozens and dozens of xmen at any given time?  Or do they kill them off as they add new ones?  Then again death is such a minor setback in comics.

It also seems like all comics have a totally fucked up period which makes you think "WTF?".  Clone saga for spiderman, death of superman (and splitting and rebirth)...  Didn't the Xmen have a long series where they got stuck in the past or something?  I seem to recall people bitching about the continuity becoming stupid back in highschool (late 80s / early 90s).

Oh, and who is the current Batman?  Is it bruce wayne again or is he still crippled from bane or whoever?  I remember they took him out of action and tried a bunch of new looks.  never paid any attention if they ever brought the original back.

Batman is still Bruce Wayne. The Azrael thing only lasted about a year. Dick Grayson (first Robin) is Nightwing, and the current Robin (Tim Drake) just gave up being Robin because his dad was worried about him and found out about his being Robin. So Robin 4 is actually a girl who used to be called Spoiler. I think there's even another Batgirl.

X-Men... holy fuck, sometimes it feels like EVERYONE is an X-Man. There have been a ton over the years. There are currently 3 X-Men proper books. Astonishing X-Men just started and is written by Joss Whedon (he of Buffy, Angel and Firefly fame). It is only using 5 characters, I think, Emma Frost (the White Queen), Cyclops, Wolverine, Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) and Beast. Uncanny X-Men is being done by longtime X-scribe Chris Claremont. Members in that book include Cannonball (one of my favorites), Bishop, Sage, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Polaris. This one has a fluid team. X-Men (used to be New X-Men) has a team led by Havok (Cyclops's brother), Wolverine (somehow he's in every goddamn book), Juggernaut (yes, the villain) and I think Angel and Husk (Cannonball's younger sister). I forget if there's others, because there are so many. That doesn't even include the new book Acadmey X (or Xavier Academy or New X-Men: Xavier Academy), which has 5 or 6 new kids plus some old favorite New Mutants like Danielle Moonstar. Wolverine has his own book, there's Weapon X (which guest-stars Wolvie and has former X-Man Marrow), Agent X and something else.... X-Statix, which doesn't have much relation.

I've been trying to get as much of this stuff as I can, and trust me, there's a shitton. Some of it good, some of it mediocre and a lot of the back issues after Claremont left and before Morrison and Austen got on the run that just plain suck ass.

Astonishing X-Men is great. Some of the best work to be done on the X-Men in ages. It builds off of Morrison's run just the right amount, and quietly ignores some of the stuff that, while brilliant, was just too fucked up to be used long term.

Uncanny X-Men is Claremont, and it's vintage Claremont. Works well.

X-Men is by Austen. When Morrison was writing the other main X-Men book, Austen's writing was tolerable because it resembled classic X-Men. Now whedon and Claremont are running rings around him, and this book is fucking torture.

Don't know much about the other X-books, except for Excalibur, which is Claremont, and is pretty good.

I actually liked Austen's run on Uncanny. Sure, there was a lot of soap opera shit, but the stuff he did with Juggernaut was just top-notch.

There is also District X which features Bishop, who now patrols the mutant disctrict know as Mutant Town I believe, Emma Frost, which focuses on her back story and has probably been canceled, Cable and Deadpool, Mytique, and Fabian and Liefeld are getting ready to do another X-Force.

The big problem I have with the X-books though with the possible exception of Astonishing which seems to be doing well, is that the writers have pretty much been told to undo a lot of Morrison's work.  Austen has gone on record as saying it wasn't his idea to bring Xorn back, I think Claremont was told to bring Magneto back, and they were pretty much all told that the X-men had to get back into spandex costumes.  I"m not a big fan of Austen or Claremont's current work, but I don't think that they should be told what to write to this extent.  If Morrison hadn't had that clause in his contract that prevented his work from being fucked with, I'm sure the editors and higer-ups would have found a way to screw his stuff up too.

X-Statix is actually pretty good.  When it started off in X-Force (having no connection to the previous X-Force and just using the title and numbering) it was probably one of the best comics out there.  It started to lose it's edge after a while, especially when Marvel made them change their 3 part story that was supposed to feature Princess Di coming back from the dead and the issues were quickly and poorly rewritten.



If you have the spare time one day read this (http://newcomicreviews.com/GHM/specials/LifeOfReilly/1.html).  This is a 35 part look at all the behind the scenes shit that went on that turned the clone saga from just a possibly bad idea into a crap storyline that lumbered on for months and months after it was supposed to end because sales were up.  It's an example of the old saying about too many cooks, as just about every person who worked at Marvel at the time had some sort of input on the storyline.

A decent sized piece of me actually enjoyed the whole clone saga.  Hell, I personally think they should have just exposed reily as the clone and left him to do his scarlet spider thing.  It has been pretty fun going back and reading the scarlet spider stuff.  I have not read the amazing or the spectactular stuff where most of the story was though.  That stuff may very well suck ass.  The ending of it was abit too complete.  Maybe that is just because I happened to like reily, oh well.  I suppose him degenerating was the only way after all the stupid misdirection to be sure of who was really who.  The one thing that really seemed to ring true in the "100 ways to end the clone saga" spoof was that marvel was really sick of the entire thing by then and just wanted to put every shred of it behind them.  The overly convenient ending where all the new characters all suddenly died was abit too compartmentalized for me.

Going back and reading it at once is very differnt than slagging through it for 2-3 freaking YEARS though.  I can imagine that time for subscribers probably sucked ass.  That and most of the major stories were split up in 4-5 parters that spread across all 4 of the comics being produced at that time.  So following the story would have been expensive as well.

The Clone Saga, what little I read of it, highlights a major problem Marvel had and is starting to repeat. Too many books for one character/team. I mean 4 Spidey books, ALL written by the same guy? 4-part stories with each part being written and drawn by a different artist/writer team? WAAAAAYYYY too many cooks in that kitchen. X-Men has had that problem a lot, and I'm hoping they don't continue to overextend themselves with the new run of stuff. Both Marvel and DC seem to be repeating the mistakes of "take any book that has succeeded and spin it off or make tons of special one-shot issues/series until the market is flooded with books." X-Men, JLA, Spider-Man and Wolverine have been the biggest guilty parties of this.

The other trend I see is in the Ultimate versions of these books, at least spiderman.  And that is to write for TPB format.  The Ultimate spiderman books are obviously designed for TPBs.  The arcs are conveniently always 6 or 7 issues long and then rather quickly stuck in TPB format.  Any gaps between arcs that don't form their own arc are ALSO 6-7 issues long.  There is a reason I am collecting Ultimate Spiderman in TPB format.

I'm kind of a noob with BT, and I've only used it when directed towards a link. Where's a good place to start getting comics? Is it safe to follow links from Google or what?

I don't mind paying when I can, but for most part, I'm just trying to catch up on series/storylines. I just want to read them, not collect them. I've been catching up as best as I can by buying compilations/graphic novels (which saves a little money, but still, I've probably spent around $500 in the past 2 months). So far, the only cheaper things I've purchased is Astonishing X-Men and Wanted, since with those, I can at least start with issue number 1.

I agree that Comics are too expensive. At least for what little you get out of them. Sorta like Albums I guess (which would be more reasonably priced if they were around $5 cheaper). The only difference I guess is that CD's don't rise in value over time like comics will (Then again, I doubt the graphics novels -- or "TPB's" -- I'm buying hold much value either).

BTW: What's "TPB" stand for?

TPB is 'Trade Paper Back'.

And I don't know this site's policy about giving links to BT sites.

There are a few good deals around though as far as price goes.  Most notably Marvels Essential collections, which you can find for around 10-15 bucks and collect 24 issues in B&W.  Also some places with give you discounts for pre-ordering comics.  I get my new comics at G-mart.com for example which gives me a 35% discount when I pre-order them three months in advance.



Yeah, "paced for the trade" is a big tlhing in comics right now, not just the Ultimate books.  Bendis is usually the most guilty of this but just about everybody is doing it now.  You'll almost never find a stand-alone issue these days and arcs less than 6 issues long are rare also.  These days it seems that the TPB comes out the month after the storyline ends.  I guess the idea is that since trades are sold in book stores, there's a larger potential audience they can reach compared to the momthlies being sold in comic book stores.  They're increasingly trying to reach that books store market, having seen how much money kids these days spend on Manga there.

Speaking of Bendis the first 23 pages of the 48 page Avengers #500 is now online here (http://www.newsarama.com/pages/Marvel/Avengers_500/Avengers5001.htm).  This is the first part of his "Avengers Disassembled" storyline which is supposed to result in a restart of the Avengers, and seems like an interesting read so far.

Edit:  Milehighcomics.com also has a 22 pg. preview of  Iron Man #86 (http://www.milehighcomics.com/firstlook/marvel/ironman86/) which is a tie-in to the storyline (as are just about all the Avengers related comics and some of the Spider-man comics).  Plenty of other previews there at http://www.milehighcomics.com/firstlook/marvel/ also.

Isn't that about the same length as the actual comic?

I think so.  Marvel seems to be showing off a lot of their comics right now (although District X is the only X-book being previewed from the looks of it).  Looks like they've got 20 full issues being shown at milehighcomics.  I guess maybe they figure that it's not really much different than people flipping through the book in a comic book store.  The print is kind of a pain to read at times though on the computer.

Yeah, probably not a good idea. I'll probably figure it out.

Anyways...Unless someone else wants to start another thread:
 
Anyone see Spidey 2 yet? I just got back myself. I really liked the first one, but it doesn't compare. I'm not sure any other comic book adaptation does either. I'd say it's worth watching in a theater instead of waiting. Molina is always great in whatever he does, but it's the director that really stands out in Part 2, much more so than Part 1. Doc Oc is a such perfect fit for Sam Raimi. Defoe rocks, but the Goblin just wasn't that scary.

I heard that they're already filming Part 3. We all know how Harry Osborne turns out, but I hope he doesn't include some stupid shit like say..Vulture or Electro into the films. I think the only guy left worth seeing (under Raimi's direction at least) would be Eddie Brock.

[ETA]New spidey 2 thread has been made here:
http://www.f13.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=15434#15434
[/ETA]

Well, they setup Johnah's son and Curt Conners as well.  They could develop manwolf or the lizardman.  Plus doc can always come back as could the original green goblin.

The third will for SURE have Green Goblin number 2.  That is a lock.  It could setup lizardman for a possible fourth movie or even go ahead and put lizardman in the third if they want a second villian.  I would not mind just spiderman vs harry osborne but I think the suits will want another villian to set the movie apart from the first one.  Even though the harry green goblin has different motivations than daddy goblin.

Oh, I forgot to say the movie floored me.  I totally loved it.  They just NAILED peter parker again and all the awkward problems that spiderman has.  I was waiting for the line "There is no WAY [insert hero] has to go through this!".  They never used it, but you could sure feel it in the elevator scene.  Oh god that scene killed me.  The movie is hilarious in it's own subtle way while at the same time being dark.  Great job balancing parker and spiderman screentime.  I don't think either one got left out overly much.  Not for this stage in his life.  Awesome film.  Blows the first one away IMO, and as a spiderman fanboi that is saying a lot.

Lets put our hopes on the new batman kicking ass now.



On the topic of mile high, they had the current spiderman in full on their site as well.  I am not sure if it is even in stores yet.  It wasn't back when I saw it.  They are introducing some characters who are after parker (not spiderman) and have some ties to gwen stacy's past.

Fantastic Four in 2005

So, did anyone ever see that last one? I doubt anything could get worse than that, but I'm not sure if the FF would make a good film even with the best of intentions. Out of all the Marvel franchises, I'd say it's probably the easiest to fuck up. Even a Sub-Mariner film would have a better chance at not coming off too corny.

The reason why I mention it is some casting choices were announced (http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=17928) this week. All of them seem pretty poor (except Chiklis). No word yet on who will be playing Dr. Doom. Also, for some reason, the guy who brought us "Barbershop" was given the job to direct.

I realize that FF #1 was pretty much the beginning of the Silver Age of comics and when Marvel started to become the big name in comics...  but I've just never given a fuck about the Fantastic Four.  I can see why they'd go with a director with experience in comedy though since there's no way the average person is going to take any character who calls himself Mr. Fantastic seriously.  I mean fuck, if I were making that movie it would just be 15 minutes of Ben Grimm beating the hell out of Reed for getting stuck with the pussy magnet code-name of The Thing, while Reed calls himself Mr. Fan-Fucking-Tastic.  Way to rub it in Richards!  Anyhow, the Fantastic Four movie excites me about as much as Elektra, ranking higher than Namor but below even Man-Thing or Iron Fist.

For years, I thought the Sub-Mariner was the most unappealing comic book character ever. Then, when I read "Marvels" recently, and caught up with some other stories, I saw something in him that I never considered before -- A dark side. He's pissed, stuck on vengeance, confused, alone, extremely powerful, and largely misunderstood by everyone else, including other heroes. Those are the same reasons why the Silver Surfer has been my favorite.

I think a movie can work. There's lots of room for cool eye candy, the backdrop is part fantasy/part sci-fi, in an environment which is rarely used in films (aquatic), and if they stick with his original story, it'll be about revenge...Which always works IMO. The other thing going for it is that (supposedly) the guy behind the Harry Potter movies is directing.

I liked the Daredevil movie, I really dig Jennifer Garner, but I'm not sure about Elektra. I said the same thing when I first heard about Kill Bill as well, but I changed my mind the minute I saw it. Not that I even expect Elektra to resemble anything like that, but as long as it isn't China O'Brien or Barb-Wire, I guess it can't be that disappointing.

Man-Thing. I dunno. I think I'd rather watch "Anaconda 2". Besides, John Carpenter pretty much did the same thing already (Swamp Thing will always hold a special place in my heart, thanks mainly to the wonderfully "gifted" Adrienne Barbeau and my first exposure to boobies-on-screen).

As for Iron Fist...Well, at least they're using a decent Chinese/Kung-Fu director. Who knows?

Then there's Ghost Rider. Rumor is that it's Nic Cage (as Blaze) and the guy who directed Daredevil. That doesn't sound bad, but I remember a while back that Depp/Burton were going to do it, but it never panned out. It's a shame because those two together can do no wrong.

Nic Cage has been tapped for Ghost Rider for years, but it never seems to get off the ground. And for fuck's sake, keep Tim Burton the fuck away from my goddamn comics. No-talent creepy clown shoes motherfucker assmunch screwed up my childhood favorite "Planet of the Apes" and tries to make Superman transparent, he can go eat a fat bag of cocks and die.

As for a Fantastic Four movie, anyone have a link or a line on where I can BitTorrent a copy of the Roger Corman Fantastic Four movie online? It's supposedly out there, but I've yet to be able to find it.

Chiklis is a great cast as The Thing, but I don't know the others well enough to comment. I always thought Paul Walker would make a good Human Torch/Johnny Storm.

I wouldn't mind an Elektra movie.  Of course, my only exposure to Elektra in the comics was that mini-series with The Hand, The Beast, the Beast's milk, and the 'two dollar whore' bit.

I suspect the movie will be nothing like it.

DC just released their October solicits and there are a few interesting books coming out that month.  Kurt Busiek takes over on JLA, Hal Jordan may be returning as Green Lantern in the Rebirth mini, but of particular note, George Romero has a comic book coming out:

Cool...I recently picked up the Dawn of the Dead comics too, which are pretty good (but aren't written by Romero). This should be more what I had in mind.

They are DEFINITELY bringing back Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern.

Which I think is the height of ripping people off, personally, because despite my objections to his turn as Parallax, I think he went out on a good enough note. Bringing him back as the Spectre was stupid, but bringing him back as GL with such a good, strong lead on GL now as Kyle Rayner is the height of absurdity.

And it looks like Jessica Alba is going to be playing Sue Storm in the FF movie.

Something else worth adding: Land of the Dead (http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/index.php?Show=2159&Template=newsfull)



Oh, one more bit of movie news (sorry 'bout that, I know this is the comic thread and all): WTF? (http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=17971)



Wow...Pretty fucked up idea, but..Well, it sounds kinda funny. If Jack Black's doing it, they might as well get Spike Jonze too.

I'm not a big Jack Black fan, but if nothing else this at least sounds a million times better than Catwoman, and probably better than how Superman will end up as well.  No matter how they went about doing a GL movie, they would have pissed of the majority of the fans anyway as soon as they decided on which GL they would use.  I mean fuck it seems that the time for DC to have been thinking about GL fans was back when they made Hal insane and a murderer.  I'm not expecting great things from this movie, but on the off chance that it's done right it could end up being one of the better comic book movies out there.

As for Romero's new movie goes, it will be interesting to see if he's still got it in him.  Times have changed since the last of the Dead moives came out, and with the comment in there about the dead evolving I'm curious to see if he's moving toward the current trend of fast moving zombies or if he's going somewhere else altogether with this.  Anyhow as long as he doesn't decide to base it on a video game this should at the very least end up watchable.

The zombies would have to do something new; six people in a mall vs. 1000 zombies is scary, x000 people in a fortified city vs. x0000 zombies who have problems with ladders isn't.

Who is "Kyle Rayner"? I've seen his name mentioned a few times here and there, that he'd been the only GL that Black could possibly fit.

Kyle Rayner took over as GL after Hal went crazy and killed all the other GL's.   He's an artist, which is supposed to make him a little more imaginative when it comes to making things with the ring.  He's younger and in better physical shape than Black so I can only imagine Black as being a new character which is fairly easy to do with the Green Lantern concept since there are already multiple Green Lanterns out there.

Ahh, OK then. Not much a Lantern fan I guess (I bought quite a few when I was a kid, like I did with Iron Man, but I don't remember shit. I know more about him from the cartoons). Maybe I'll check some issues out, just to see what all the fans at AICN are frothing at the mouths for....Sounds like a good way to catch up with DC anyway, as everything I've bought is either Indie or Marvel (Besides Batman). What issues have the evil Hal Jordan story arc (or is there a TPB out?)?

The story is currently collected as Green Lantern: A New Dawn (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/156389999X/qid=1090083644/sr=1-9/ref=sr_1_9/104-5525453-3523955?v=glance&s=books).  Come October it will be reprinted as Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight/New Dawn, to coincide with the Green Lantern: Rebirth mini.  You might also want to pick up Final Night which has Hal sacrificing himself to reignite the sun.

And getting back to comic book movies, it looks like WB is getting the team that did X2 to work on Superman (http://aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=17972).

Wait, so "New Dawn" is the exact same thing as "Emerald Twilight", right? I won't be getting anything different if I wait?





That's cool. The title "Superman Returns" sounds like a much more exciting concept than another origin rehash..It sounds fucking great, in fact. Hey, maybe they'll use John Williams for the score again too. I'm surprised that Singer has signed on for this though (not only cuz of X-Men, but he's working on a remake of Logan's Run as well)..Figured he'd want to move to something smaller for a while, but I have no doubt he'll do it justice.

In related X-Men news:

Caught this late, but hell, I should be playing Jesse Custer, not this guy ;) Seriously.

Marsden Talks Cyclops and the Preacher (http://www.comicbookmovie.com/news/articles/1271.asp)



Maybe I can still audition for Arseface.

EDIT: Heh, I did manage to find this, from some old pre-production work

(http://www.theparaplegics.com/arseface.jpg)

I'm not sure if any extra material is being put in the October version or not but they both seem to have a 192 page count so it will probably be the same collection with a new cover and title.  The story used to be collected in 2 tpbs though.  Emerald Twilight was the 3 pt. story of Hal going crazy, and New Dawn was the first few issues of Kyle learning how to use his new powers.  The tpb I linked to contains both those stories and a couple other issues I think (issues 148-155 I believe is what's collected).

If you want to check out some later stories, I've heard that "Emerald Knights" (which is a story about Hal and Kyle)  or the "Power of Ion" (about Kyle becoming omnipotent and calling himself Ion) might be good choices.



Not much I can say about this one.  I just don't really see Preacher working as a movie, but maybe they'll prove me wrong.

WHAT THE EVERLOVING HOLY MONKEY FUCK BULLSHIT IS THAT?!@!!

Jack Black has no right to ever portray a superhero who is not The Creeper, Ambush Bug or fucking 'Mazing Man. Green Lantern... I mean... what the fuck? Do the pigfucking furries Warner Bros. calls executives even read the fucking comics?

Only comic I am reading these days is the Astonishing X-men (http://www.herorealm.com/Interviews/q_quesada4.htm) being written by Josh Whedon.

Oh.. and of course the COH comic.

My boss told me something about investments once. You never have to see a soybean to know how to make a fortune trading them on the market. The important thing is never the medium, its understanding the forces at play that make you money.

I guarantee they've never read page one of a comic, but that won't stop them from reducing the medium to a formula and making fat stacks of cash.

I'm hoping the dropping of that "Catwoman" turd will convince these nutsacks to find other employment.

Trailer:
 
http://batmanbegins.warnerbros.com/

I changed my mind. Just from this teaser, it looks like this will be better than any of the previous Batman flicks.

That teaser is something I could watch over and over again, especially if the only other viewing choice was watching the entirety of Catwoman.

I take great pleasure in knowing Catwoman has made less than $30 million so far.

Especially since it was said to cost just under $100 million to make.