Preview of Marvel's House of M

[HaemishM]

6-pages from Newsarama here.

So, ummmm, looks like the big House of M summer event will be centered around Wanda/Scarlet Witch's madness, thus continuing the fucking idiocy that shat out the New Avengers book I've been so reviling. Yay. Not only that, we get to see more of Professor Xavier and Magneto playing bosom buddies on the ruined island of Genosha. Double yay?

Seriously, what the fuck is Marvel smoking? These were bad story ideas when they were originated, and focusing the entire SUMMER EVENT! (TM) books on them will only ensure their suckitude. What the hell happened to Bendis?

[Velorath]

6-pages from Newsarama here.

So, ummmm, looks like the big House of M summer event will be centered around Wanda/Scarlet Witch's madness, thus continuing the fucking idiocy that shat out the New Avengers book I've been so reviling. Yay. Not only that, we get to see more of Professor Xavier and Magneto playing bosom buddies on the ruined island of Genosha. Double yay?

Seriously, what the fuck is Marvel smoking? These were bad story ideas when they were originated, and focusing the entire SUMMER EVENT! (TM) books on them will only ensure their suckitude. What the hell happened to Bendis?

The editor's probably aren't allowed to reign him in these days.  I think all the people at Marvel have become his yes men, and encourage him to follow through with even his most blatently stupid story ideas because for some fucking reason they sell.  And fuck, I don't know if I can really blame Marvel for that.  Let Bendis do a crap story like Disassembled and the readership on Avengers jumps up 100,000 people and becomes a top selling title.  Publish well written books like Runaways and Madrox and watch their numbers hover around 20,000-30,000.  Unlike DC, Marvel can't afford to  keep the lower selling books going.

[HaemishM]

I'm more inclined to blame it on Quesada either not reigning him in, or giving him bad ideas and forcing him to run with them. Frankly, he's not the best guy to write Avengers anyway; he's always been a good down-to-earth/noirish type of writer. His schtick just doesn't work.

It really hit me hardest about the Avengers when I read the last issue of Amazing Spider-Man (#519). Peter Parker's apartment is destroyed, his Aunt May's house is burned down, and Peter goes to live in Stark's building with the Avengers. And there's this whole scene where Aunt May meets the Avengers, and FUCKING WOLVERINE is there. And I'm thinking, "DID NO ONE TELL ANYONE THAT WOLVERINE AS AN AVENGER IS A MORE ASSTARDICALLY-ASSININE IDEA THAN THE SCARLET WITCH DESTROYING THE AVENGERS?!!?!?!"

Fuck. Just had to get that off my chest.

[Velorath]

I'm more inclined to blame it on Quesada either not reigning him in, or giving him bad ideas and forcing him to run with them. Frankly, he's not the best guy to write Avengers anyway; he's always been a good down-to-earth/noirish type of writer. His schtick just doesn't work.

It really hit me hardest about the Avengers when I read the last issue of Amazing Spider-Man (#519). Peter Parker's apartment is destroyed, his Aunt May's house is burned down, and Peter goes to live in Stark's building with the Avengers. And there's this whole scene where Aunt May meets the Avengers, and FUCKING WOLVERINE is there. And I'm thinking, "DID NO ONE TELL ANYONE THAT WOLVERINE AS AN AVENGER IS A MORE ASSTARDICALLY-ASSININE IDEA THAN THE SCARLET WITCH DESTROYING THE AVENGERS?!!?!?!"

Fuck. Just had to get that off my chest.

Quesada's just doing what's good for sales.  The sales numbers for Avengers have gone up from 57,000 with the last pre-Bendis issue, to 155,000 at the moment with New Avengers #4.  The only comic that did better in March than New Avengers was Countdown to Infinite Crisis, which only cost a dollar, was 96 pages, and leads into a much-hyped DC event.  We may not like Bendis on Avengers, but Quesada has the numbers to back up his decisions.

[schild]

I don't like The Avengers. Or at least I haven't since I first read their stories in the 80s. What superhero groups have gotten stories worth reading?

[Velorath]

I don't like The Avengers. Or at least I haven't since I first read their stories in the 80s. What superhero groups have gotten stories worth reading?

I'll think of more later but right off the top of my head, the current volume of JSA is pretty damn good.

Oh, and even though you aren't a Whedon fan, I'd still recommend Astonishing X-men.

[schild]

Did Image's characters ever get better? Back when I read comics they still sucks - and sucked from the beginning - is anything happening on that front? Also, How's Superman and the other big lone series been?

I'm going to check out Whedon's X-Men later this week, you haven't steered me wrong yet.

[HaemishM]

The entire Grant Morrion/Mark Waid run of Justice League of America was good. Issues 1-50 or so, I think. Whedon's Astonishing X-Men. I thought Geoff Johns Avengers was good, as was the earlier Kurt Busiek's run. JSA has been good since the beginning.

As for Image, get Invincible. It's one of the freshest looks at super-hero's in quite a while. Funny, yet with good drama, character development and decent art.

Superman is uneven. He's got 3 freaking books per month. Action was decent for the last year or so, when it was written by Chuck Austen. The Greg Rucka stuff in Adventures of Superman was good. Brian Arrazello and Jim Lee's 12-issue run just came to a close in Superman, and I hated it. The art was decent, but I absolutely HATED the tone of it. It was so off. It reintroduced General Zod and the Phantom Zone, and I hated their carbord flat, over-armored version of him. "Kneel Before Zod!" lost all meaning. It just wasn't written well, at all.

Batman has been decent in the Batman book, written by Judd Winick. Detective Comics, decent but unspectacular. The Catwoman book was good, but haven't read it in a few months. Gail Simone's run on Birds of Prey was good. The Robin book would be good, except the art is just WAY too over the top anime style. BLEH.

[Velorath]

Did Image's characters ever get better? Back when I read comics they still sucks - and sucked from the beginning - is anything happening on that front? Also, How's Superman and the other big lone series been?

I'm going to check out Whedon's X-Men later this week, you haven't steered me wrong yet.

Image has gotten better in that they don't do as much superhero stuff anymore.  They've got 5 page previews of most of their stuff, and a lot of it isn't too bad.  You've got the Walking Dead, Invincible, Powers got it's start at Image, and they even put out a couple issues of Flaming Carrot.  I think Dark Horse has overtaken Image though as far as sales go thanks to their Conan series (which is good stuff), and the Star Wars stuff they churn out.  They also have Usagi of course which I still need to pick up the last couple of trades of.