Pretend Douglas Titled This SHIP Thread: August 27, 2008

Ambush Bug! Three Final Crisis Books, but only one I'm really interested in! Blue Beetle! Teen Titans Year One!

Or Richard B, or someone else I'm forgetting.

Oh god this week will ruin me. :(

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #569 NWD
AVENGERS INITIATIVE #16 SI -- might re-assess pull status
DAREDEVIL #110 -- GR & EB BFF
DC UNIVERSE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT #1 -- the king of SADFACE (but w/out his SADFACER!)
DMZ #34
DOKTOR SLEEPLESS #8 WRAP CVR (RES)

FANTASTIC FOUR TRUE STORY #2 (OF 4) -- miles better than Millar's "OH WOW GALACTUS" run
FINAL CRISIS ROGUES REVENGE #2 (OF 3)
FINAL CRISIS SUPERMAN BEYOND #1 (OF 2) -- GMO!!!! (AKA Douglas' FC pick)
GRAVEL #4 WRAP CVR
IMMORTAL IRON FIST #18 -- thrill me NOW!
JACK OF FABLES #25

KICK ASS #4
MADAME XANADU #3 -- must re-assess pull status
MIGHTY AVENGERS #17 SI
NEW AVENGERS #44 SI -- hey look it's ALL THREE AVENGERS BOOKS in one week! how "convenient"!
NEWUNIVERSAL CONQUEROR -- Simon Spurrier of "where the fuck is GUTSVILLE" fame gets his (one-)shot
NORTHLANDERS #9
NOVA #16 SI

SECRET INVASION AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1 (OF 3) SI -- more like "SIgh" amirite?
SHE-HULK 2 #32 SI -- hey, PAD finally has good artists on this book; enjoy their bosomy awesomeness until they get moved to a "high-profile" PUNISHER MEETS MILLIE THE MODEL maxi-series
SKAAR SON OF HULK #3 -- CROM SMASH?
TEEN TITANS YEAR ONE #6 (OF 6) -- fun enjoyable DC team book RIP :(
THUNDERBOLTS #123 SI

ULTIMATE IRON MAN II #5 (OF 5) -- turgid who-cares spin-off RIP :p (PS: get Pascual Ferry better gigs)
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #125 -- featuring the REAL SI!
ULTIMATE X-MEN #97 -- hey look THREE ULTIMATE BOOKS in one week! thanks, Marvel!
WOLVERINE #68 -- must re-assess WTF Millar is doing here
WOLVERINE FIRST CLASS #6
X-MEN LEGACY #215 MD -- must re-assess pull status

that be an xpost, btw

ha -- and by Douglas I meant SUP'R HUK-L fuck me comix have ruined my ability to read x_x

FC: SUPERMANIA = GMO + MAHNKE + 3D!!!

Ambush Bug
Daredevil
(alas, no Ambush Bug vs. Daredevil...THIS week, anyway)
FC - Superman Beyond

Probably something from the recommend me thread.

NEW AVENGERS #44 SI -- hey look it's ALL THREE AVENGERS BOOKS in one week! how "convenient"!

They have to give some plot somewhere, as there isn't any in the actual core series.

I'm just looking at:
Ambush Bug (though the first one wasn't as funny as I'd hoped)
Final Crisis - Supercrisisman!
Iron Fist - because I have to give the new guys a few issues, just to be fair.

Spending too much money this week:

AMBUSH BUG YEAR NONE #2 (OF 6)
DC UNIVERSE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT #1 (confident this is going to suck a fat one, but I'm reading all the other FC tie-ins, dammit, and at this point I might as well)
FINAL CRISIS ROGUES REVENGE #2 (OF 3)
FINAL CRISIS SUPERMAN BEYOND #1 (OF 2) (so is this still a two-parter or what? I AM CONFUSED)
ACHEWOOD THE GREAT OUTDOOR FIGHT HC (even though I can get it for free on the internets, I am stupid apparently)
JLA DELUXE EDITION HC VOL 01 (can finally ditch my old falling-apart trades of GM's run)
METAL MEN HC (really liked the first two issues of this, never got around to finishing it)

bad week to go out of town. hopefully the shop sticks a copy of Superman Beyond in my folder.

ASM, Ambush Bug, Blue Beetle, Daredevil, Final Crises...

My god, this week...

Ambush Bug
Reign in Hell
Madame Xanadu (I'll stick with this at least through Matt Wagner's brief return to the Mystery Theater.)

DCU: Last Will N' Testament (No, seriously, Meltzer: I'm okay with you staying gone. Really.)
FC: Rogue's Revenge
FC: Supes Beyond (Actively excited. Bunches.)

JSA (In light of recent pleasant surprises, I'm giving the broader Johns-verse a shot, hesitantly.)
Superman (And in keeping with that...the first Robinson issue sucked pretty hard, but the Super-titles are apparently cohering post BrainiAction, so a brief probationary status has been extended.)

Avengers: Initiative
Black Panther
Mighty Avengers
New Avengers
New Warriors
Nova
SI: Spidey
She-Hulk
Thunderbolts (My continued support of Marvel's Financial Crisis is hinging almost entirely on the crossovers, as the miniseries itself is a turd. Expect this weekly money drain to be on the compost heap as soon as I get one brain.)

Wolverine (Rethinking the need to read yet another alternafuture story.)
X-Force (And rethinking the need to continue buying the X-titles in general. I'll read through the first X-Force and Young X-Men storylines this weekend and give them a fair shake, but I think I might pare it back to X-Factor and...)
X-Men: Legacy (...which has been thoroughly serviceable.)

I thought I might be excited about the JLA hardcovers, except that I've been reading Mozza's run and re-confirming my impression that it's one of his weakest continuing series.

aw nuts, I gotta get Superman too, but I don't want to! I gotta get to the LCS with time to spare so's I can get a look at my list and cull it.

Speaking of which, anyone want to buy 1 longbox full of shitty DC comics?

DMZ #34
JACK OF FABLES #25
RUNAWAYS 3 #1 (!!!!!!)
SHE-HULK 2 #32
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #125
WOLVERINE #68
WOLVERINE FIRST CLASS #6 (Also known as Kitty First Class)
X-MEN LEGACY #215 MD

Maybe I'll give FINAL CRISIS SUPERMAN BEYOND #1 a shot. Tho the only FC spin-off I've liked so far was the LOSH one.

Speaking of which, anyone want to buy 1 longbox full of shitty DC comics?

Not before I unload my 4!

Okay:

Superman Beyond (very psyched for this)
Rogue's Revenge
DCU: Last Will.. (maybe?)
JSA
Teen Titans (may just drop this)
Amazing Spider-Man (in it for the Slott/JRJR)
Daredevil
Mighty Avengers
New Avengers
X-Men Legacy
X-Force (almost certainly my final issue)

also maybe, but probably not:
Runaways (Moore's first Spidey/MJ sucked hard, and I assume this will be just as bad if not worse)
Ambush Bug (I enjoyed the first issue well enough but I dunno...)

Yeah, definitely not getting Last Will.

Give us four hours, we'll save you four dollars.

Or give Matthew 4 hours, and he'll save himself $4. Still working on that one.

I'm guessing it'll be the same as Requiem: "Here's a few scenes that Grant Morrison deliberately left out, stretched out to tedious detail." But I like the punishment of Meltzer having to play second fiddle to Morrison.

punishment for whom, exactly?

The thing is, I didn't realize Meltzer wrote it until after I made the list here. So yeah, please no.

Oh god. I just read the preview of Rogue's Revenge #2 at Newsarama, and Johns...argh. I can barely bring myself to say it. He fucking brings in the replacement supervillains from the horrible, horrible Gotham Underground mini, one of the worst comics I've read in ages. And what's worse, it looks like they're going to be a major part of the plot. Christ.

Matthew: what were your problems with Moore's first issue of SM Loves MJ? I didn't expect much, but wound up kinda liking it.

I liked SM<3MJ too. I thought the cover was great -- I think TM should draw the whole thing.

I thought Moore's dialogue was terrible. The whole thing just felt really blah and generic, it missed the soul of McKeever's run. It wasn't a total failure but it was a clear signal that I enjoyed the comic because of McKeever and his partners, and that I'm not invested in the characters otherwise. (I could've guessed that, you know? I'm not a Spider-Man fan.)

So I picked up Last Will & Testament in the store and, as I started to thumb through, I thought, "No way is this going to be as OTT sadface as I'm expecting. Meltzer surely has at least two notes that he can play on his incredibly limited piano of talent." But I stand corrected. And the comic was placed gently back on the shelf. And the blood of DC's heroes dripped slowly onto the comics below.

I imagine that Meltzer's adaptation of Two Girls One Cup starring Star-Spangled Kid and Wonder Girl is forthcoming.

Superman Beyond was even more batshit than I expected. Superman has a TITANIC TEAM-UP! with Ultraman, Nazi Superman, Golden Age Captain Marvel and Thinly Disguised Dr. Manhattan as they travel to Animal Man's Character Limbo in the goddamn Yellow Submarine.

Thanks to that George Carlin tribute ship thread ilc will now no longer load on my work computer. wah.

Superman Beyond anyone? I think I may have plotzed when they turned up in Limbo -- that Animal Man issue is one of my favourite comics ever. (So much so that I semi-plagiarised it for an English class assignment when I was 12, and won a school prize for the story.) Also: is the second issue ever coming out?

God help me, but I sort of thought the Meltzer thing was okay. Totally overblown, obviously, but I enjoyed it in a good bad movie way.

"Superman Beyond" was fantastic, and it kind of blew my mind the way Morrison is incorporating so many things from so many sources (The New Gods, The Monitors, his own work, the multiverse, the Bleed) and making them all work as some sort of coherent macro-mithology of the DC Universe.

"Last Will" was laughable and ridiculous, but I enjoyed it in the same way as you, Chuck. And perhaps it's because I've been reading Cerebus lately (just finished Church And State II today) but doesn't "I'm Prince Of Markovia and nothing will ever change that" remind anyone of "Musn't. Black. Out."? Oh, Melterzpaws!.

It's more the comics that were the inspiration for that, manly comics with manly men, the bastard children of Frank Miller.

Also my kind of good bad movies are more maniacal (oh, man, a band last night had Rock 'n Roll High School projected behind them!)

Superman Beyond was great, but I need to read it again to make better sense of the Monitor/Bleed stuff. Loved Dr. Manhattan.

I went ahead and bought the first issue of Terry Moore's Runaways. It was....okay? I might...stick with it? Or at least until I can't handle it anymore? I could've done without the tribute to Kevin Smith and the thinly veiled Howard Stern appearance...

I bought the second issue of that new vertigo title about the lovely lady, and some comic about the vietnam war.

Andrew, I got what Sim was parodying :), but it just seemed funny that so many years later that kind of dialogue is still considered "mature" and used to convey great import. I (kind of) started to appreciate Meltzer when I began to picture him as someone who really believes he's writing his Shakesperean epic with Geo-Force. He just seems so eager, you know, and probably believes he's helping the genre grow. And that leaves me less angry and even makes me chuckle a little.

I don't know, I think that line works in this context, as we get the impression that he's kind of a high-fallutin' type anyway. (He's the king!) And also, he's kind of a boob (his henchmen have been lying to him about the fact that his name translates as "Superman.") So in this instance, at least, the line's Roach-iness makes sense.

The Challenger-as-therapist stuff was total bunk, though.

his henchmen have been lying to him about the fact that his name translates as "Superman."

That cracked me up- what, the king of a country, who's lived there pretty much his entire life, doesn't know what his name translates to in his own language?

So what happened in Last Will and Testament? I'm curious. I mean, I really don't want to read a Geo-Force comic book written by Meltzer.

There is an extraordinarily vague Crisis happening*, Geo-Force angsts to Black Lightning about wanting to kill Deathstroke so bad, tries, fails. Interspersed with scenes of superheroes Being With Loved Ones In Their Last Hour Before The End Of All That Be.

*my pet theory is that this has been sitting in a slush pile at DC for years, and was dug out now that another Crisis has come around. The nature of the threat in the book is never mentioned, other than a worldwide power outage and the sun failing to rise, neither of which have happened in FC, and the major superheroes- Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the first to be taken out of the equation in FC- are all present.

Well, it sounds like it takes place during/after Final Crisis #4.

Or possibly Final Night #3

Yeah yeah I've been out of town. So for the sake of my own LCS-going, just for the record:

ACHEWOOD: THE GREAT OUTDOOR FIGHT HC--man this is funny, but you knew that
AMBUSH BUG YEAR NONE #2--ditto
DCU LAST WILL & SADFACE #1--because, um.
FINAL CRISIS: ROGUES' REVENGE #2--read this & thought it was really good
FINAL CRISIS: SUPERMAN BEYOND #1--mind equals blown
DAREDEVIL #110--enjoying this whole storyline immensely
MARVEL ADVENTURES SUPER HEROES #2--Paul Tobin, guys, watch that name
MIGHTY AVENGERS #17--Bendispaw Left
NEW AVENGERS #44--Bendispaw Right

MIGHTY AVENGERS #17--Bendispaw Left
NEW AVENGERS #44--Bendispaw Right

I wet my pants over these (esp NewAv 44) over on the SI thread. LOVED 'em.