Seven Soldiers (that other crossover)

[Velorath]

So while Marvel's House of M and DC's Infinite Crisis are getting all the major event hype right now, DC also currently has a second event going on right now in Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers series of interconnected 4-part mini's and one-shots.  Currently released are the first three issues of Shining Knight, Guardian, and Zatanna, and the first two issues of Klarion the Witch Boy.  Mister Miracle, Bulleteer, and Frankenstein mini's are upcoming.

I don't have time for a full review or synopsis right now (which would be difficult anyway since it's only now really being shown how the stories are being connected)  but I was wondering if Haemish or anyone else has been reading these.  It's been a while since we've had a crossover that is more about telling a good story than trying to sell a bunch of tie-ins (although DC has said that this does fit into Infinite Crisis somehow, I'm guessing it's not exactly a direct relationship).

[HaemishM]

I haven't had a chance to read them yet, though I want to. Morrison is one of my favorite writers. He's said that the series are all to kind of relaunch these underused characters into the DCU. I have the issues somewhere, I just need to get them together and read them.

Also, love Mister Miracle as a character, and can't wait to see Morrison's take on him.

[Velorath]

I haven't had a chance to read them yet, though I want to. Morrison is one of my favorite writers. He's said that the series are all to kind of relaunch these underused characters into the DCU. I have the issues somewhere, I just need to get them together and read them.

Also, love Mister Miracle as a character, and can't wait to see Morrison's take on him.

Well Morrison going to have a hand in relaunching a lot of underused characters in the post-IC DCU.  They're calling him DC's official 'Revamp Guy', so it sounds like we'll be seeing a lot of his influence at DC in the months to follow.

[Velorath]

The first issue of Mister Miracle comes out this week.  Now you'll have to go through and read them all.

[HaemishM]

I've read the first 3 issues of Zatanna, and I like it so far. It feels a bit disjointed, however, as if each issue doesn't quite connect to the previous one. I've also read the first issue of Guardian, which is even stranger. It is also good. I still don't have a feel for the series as a whole.

[Velorath]

I read them in the order they came out in (and there was Seven Soldiers #0 or whatever it was called).  Shining Knight actually seems the most important to the overall plot.  You mostly get bits and pieces in the other books.

[Arnold]

What's Shining Knight's story?  He (and his buddy, Vigilante) seems like a real goofy character on the JLU show.

[HaemishM]

Shining Knight's old story was that he was an Arthurian Knight, with a winged horse, frozen in a block of ice or something like that. The new one is very Invisibles like.

Also, having now read all the SS books that have come out, I can't totally recommend them. They are good, but not spectacular. The best is Mister Miracle, but I may think that because I love the character. I think they have removed all his old continuity, because it never mentioned his wife Big Barda. I hope not. The main villain of the SS series are the Sheeda, and lo and behold, these actually made an appearance in Grant Morrison's last JLA stories, in the first 3 issues of JLA Classified.

I still have no idea where the series is going.

[Velorath]

I still have no idea where the series is going.

What I've gathered so far is that the Sheeda have a habit of taking down powerful civilizations and it's usually the job of the Seven Soldiers to oppose them.  As shown in the prelude issue though (and in the last issue of Guardian), just gathering up a group of seven heroes doesn't always seem to work all that well so this time the plan seems to be to get a group of seven heroes to fight the Sheeda, but not really let them know they're a group so the Sheeda won't go looking for them.  So what we've got is seven mini's of the characters kinda being dragged unknowningly into a bigger plot.

[Velorath]

Getting close to the end now.  Mister Miracle was perhaps the oddest of the minis so far, and I'm really not sure what to make of it.  Bulleteer and Frankenstein also wrap up this month and the final one-shot should come out in early April to finish the story off.  Bulleteer has been entertaining but Frankenstein has been one of the best things to come out of this series.  If Morrison made Frankenstein into an ongoing series it'd be near the top of my list every month.

[HaemishM]

I think Frankenstein and Bulleteer were the best of the books, with Zatanna being a little behind the others. Some have been hard to follow, especially in the context of the greater story.

[Velorath]

Well, the last issue finally came out, and fuck was this not worth the wait.  After a build up of 7 minis which were hit and miss, the story collapsed under its own weight in its headache inducing final issue.

[Llava]

I know everyone's going to disagree with me on this and list a bunch of books I haven't read that prove me wrong, but I really feel that Grant Morrison is overrated.  I've never read one of his stories that hit me like an Alan Moore or Warren Ellis story.

[HaemishM]

Morrison excels at some things, not so good at others. His JLA and X-Men were fantastic. His recent Batman and the Seven Soldiers stuff? Not so good. His best non-superhero work was Invisibles, and it's worth reading today, this minute. He's done the best versions of X-Men I've seen since Claremont's heydays with Bryne, and just above what Whedon was doing in the first 6 issues of Astonishing. Unfortunately, Whedon has lost the thread I think with this latest run.

But yeah, Morrison's great at what he does well, it's just that some editors try to shoehorn him into things they shouldn't.

[Velorath]

There's a lot of Morrison stuff I don't like but:

Animal Man
Doom Patrol
Flex Mentallo
X-men
JLA
We3
Frankenstein

The guy has done some pretty good stuff.

[Llava]

Called that one, didn't I?

I read the first two trades of Invisibles, really didn't like it.  If you haven't grabbed me by then, I'm done, I don't care how good the rest gets.

[HaemishM]

Yeah, if you didn't like Invisibles after the first 3 issues, you aren't going to like it. Morrison is definitely a taste you have to acquire, because his style is distinctive. I think it's great, but I'm not going to tell you you are crazy for not liking it. I can see how it would irritate folks.

Now if you'd said something like Watchmen sucks, then we'd have to scrap.

[Llava]

Watchmen rules.

I don't think it's PERFECT, mind you (people love the pirate comic book, I really felt it distracted from the main story. I know it was a metaphor for what was going on, doesn't matter, I can see what's going on- I'm reading the book) but altogether it's easy to see why it's one of the most important comic books... well, ever.

[HaemishM]

The Pirate story works on a literary level, but not on a comics level. I agree is sort of distracted from the story. It's similar to a lot of the "Reads" stories and type heavy prose pieces Dave Sim started injecting into Cerebus around the 150's. It probably had a lot to say, but it distracted me from the main story.

[Velorath]

Morrison made the X-men not only readable, but consistently good for the first time in probably over a decade.  That alone is noteworthy.  He may not be Moore or Ellis but pretty much no one else is either.

[Llava]

I don't hate the guy.  But people put him right up there with Moore, and I have to call BS on that.

[Velorath]

I don't hate the guy.  But people put him right up there with Moore, and I have to call BS on that.

Well no, I wouldn't put him up there with Moore, but then I generally wouldn't put anyone up there with Moore.