What was the last comic you read?

[jpd13]

The last comics I read were Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller Volumes 1 and 2 for the first time(starting the 3rd volume and Born Again one soon ).

Born Again still ranks as my favorite comic story of all time. IMHO comics don't get any better. Vintage DD.

I love the Farseer and Tawny Man Trilogies by Robin Hobb. They are my all time favorite books. Have you read Royal Assassin, Assasin's Quest, The Liveship Traders trilogy, and the Tawny Man trilogy yet?

I did read the whole Farseer Trilogy and really enjoyed it. I do have the first book of the Liveship Traders Trilogy, but haven't read it yet. Honesty I wasn't sure it was going to be for me, but once I heard it ties back into Fitz and some of the characters in the Farseer Trilogy, I figured I'd give it a try.

[SpideyInATree]

NOTE: The are spoilers ahead for Sweet Tooth # 11, Walking Dead # 74, and ASM # 636. If you have not read these yet and don't want to be spoiled don't read any further. I know there are a lot of Walkind Dead fans that read in trade format so don't read any further if you want spoiled!

SWEET TOOTH # 11 - Ok...if you are not reading Sweet Tooth than you are not a comic book fan. That's right, I said it. You just should not be a fan of comics if you don't read this. Just kidding. Seriously though...this issue was just absolutely awesome. Jeff Lemire is a GREAT writer. From the beginning of this I was like, "Jeppard seems like a pretty good guy". Then he pawns off poor Gus to the laboratory for his "gift". Then you're like, "Jeppard you, douche bag, how could you do that to Gus? I hate you now!" Then you see he wants his dead wifes body back to bury her and you begin to see Jeppard and his wifes journey after the "event" happens. Then you start to slightly warm back up to him. Then...after this issue...with him locked up in that dog cage wanting to see his wife. That guy lets him out and Jeppard just basically kills EVERYONE in his way like a true bad ass just in time to see his wife in labor. That damn doctor, who must have taken some great martial arts classes, trashes Jeppard. Then we find out why he did what he did to Gus. Then the last panel... "...I'm gonna kill them all". Just AWESOME. Now I'm so back behind Jeppard and hope that he can get to Gus and save him from those *****. Keep it up Jeff Lemire you are writing one of the best comics on the stands.

THE WALKING DEAD # 74 - Ok...when they started this new story arc with the main group ending up at this new community I was starting to feel a little bored. However, the past two issues, including this one, has got me REALLY into this new arc BIG TIME. It seems this guy who is "the leader" has a more dark side to him than you think. It seems that because of Abraham's actions and Rick, well being Rick, has some of the other community members kind of wanting to see a change of leadership. Unfortunately that damn priest has to throw a monkey wrench into things, which I just had a bad feeling about that guy. So this issue has definitely once again turned up the drama and intensity with the series. Kirkman is writing such a great comc and Charlie Adlard is just getting so much better in his work. I just love getting this book each and every month. If you are not reading Walking Dead...DO IT! Yeah, it's got the whole "zombie" thing going on but it's not just about the zombies. It's great character studies and just fantastic story telling and ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. Keep it up guys I'm with you all the way, even if I'm poor I will sell blood to be able to buy this comic.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN # 636 (Grim Hunt Part 3) - The Spider-Man book continues to just be super entertaining. Joe Kelly has been doing a great job with the Grim Hunt storyline. It was a bummer to see that Michael Lark only did the three pages at the end but Checchetto did a great job as well so I am definitely not gonna complain about that. The reveal of Kraven now being "undead" because of the tainted blood from Kaine was a great touch. I thought Kraven would have come out like his son Vladimir but this works just as well. Loved how Kraven just KNEW something was off about everything. I have to admit that I was pretty upset about Kaine biting the dust, being a huge Clone Saga nut, but the way they let him go out was so awesome. He went out getting to be a hero, just like his "brother". Now they dialogue from # 635 made sense to Madame Web. "It was good to know what it was like..." and then he just got massacred. That was very touching. Then when Peter climbed out of the grave and we saw the flashbacks to what Kaine did...nice...and then Peter seeing Kaine in the coffin with the black costume lying there and the note "Hunt Me". It gave me freakin' goosebumps. Just fantastic stuff. So, looks like Peter is gonna be "Back in Black". Heh. And the Stan Lee/Marcos Martin back up is really fun. However, it bugs me SO BAD that it's only two pages. I mean Martin's artwork is so beautiful and so fun that I just want so much more. OH SO MUCH MORE. Apparently it seems Peter is building some sort of time machine it looks like. Heh. Wonder how that is gonna work out. Guess we'll find out next issue.

[insaneJonny]

Picked up a shitload of comics yesterday to celebrate my new job, here's the rundown in my reading order.

Brave And The Bold 33 - Top of my list after seeing all the great reviews and needless to say I loved it, nearly drew me to tears during the dinner scene and I realised what was going on, short sweet and emotional.

X-factor 206 - The round off to the second coming crossover which is pretty much a standard action story letting the team dynamics bubble to the arguably disposable backdrop of the second coming story. Then again the team dynamics (along with the twists and turns) are the main reason to read the book so I have no problem with more of that. Madrox trying to make a joke about the baby incident at the end of the story simply killed me. One problem though- this took places during second coming and features the first time the x-factor team were completely reunited but in the x-factor nation x one shot which takes place BEFORE this story the entire team was together, complete continuity clusterfuck there.

You see, just because you enjoy something doesn't mean you should completely gloss over the flaws.

Invincible Iron Man 26-28 - Parts 2-4 of Resilient: Since I've always read this on a month to month basis I cant help but feel ever since 1/3 through "Worlds Most Wanted" this book was really dragging it's heels waiting for the marvel universe to hurry up and fix itself so it could do the stories it wanted to do, Stark on the run didn't need 12 whole issues and even worse, it didn't need 5 parts to put him back together but thats a story for another time. Now it's back to Stark being Stark, doing new interesting things with technology while dastardly foes try and smear his name, I'm also very happy that Peppers role hasn't been downsized after being beefed up considerably in Worlds Most Wanted, I'm also happy to see that some of the plot details in Worlds Most Wanted are still referenced and used to give the story interesting character dynamics.

Not even halfway through the stack either, more reviews to follow.

[Tabularasa]

Just read Avengers Academy #2. Another twist happens at the end of this one. Really liking this book that seems to have come out of nowhere.

[Berserkfury819]

Orc Stain #1-3. This weird little comic from Image about Orcs, a friend of mine lent it to me and I completely expectd it to suck. Its actually really good. Its kind of like Chew in thats its a bizzare concept that could only work in a comic.

[thjan]

Well, I've now read Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller Volume 3 and Daredevil: Love's Labors Lost(collecting DD 215-217, 219-222, and 225-226), and I enjoyed them both a lot. Volume 3 was the best of the 3 MIller Visionaries volumes IMO. I liked the resurrection of Elektra story and really liked Stick and his students(Stone was awesome). I liked that there were other students of Stick who also had some of Daredevil's abilities. I hope more writers use some of this stuff in the future(I have been getting a bunch of Daredevil TPB's, some used and some new). One thing I didn't like about Volume 3 though was Matt being a complete jerk to Heather(which probably played some part in what she did in Love's Labors Lost ). Overall I enjoyed Miller Visionaries issues even though.

Daredevil: Love's Labors Lost was a really enjoyable book too. I enjoyed the story with Two-Gun Kid even though I don't usually enjoy Western themed stuff. It was cool seeing all the similarities between Daredevil and Two-Gun Kid. I also enjoyed the stories with Black Widow(I really want to get Daredevil Essential Volumes 4 and 5 so I can read the older stories when they were together) . I felt sorry for Matt in these stories though, since things started going really bad both in his personal life and in his professional life in these issues. He sure doesn't have good luck with the ladies does he ? I have been enjoying Daredevil's comics so far and I'm looking forward to reading more. Before this, the only Daredevil stuff I had read were a bunch of his guest appearances and the two Daredevil prose novels, Daredevil: Predator's Smile and Daredevil: The Cutting Edge.

Born Again still ranks as my favorite comic story of all time. IMHO comics don't get any better. Vintage DD.

I'm starting it now .

I did read the whole Farseer Trilogy and really enjoyed it. I do have the first book of the Liveship Traders Trilogy, but haven't read it yet. Honesty I wasn't sure it was going to be for me, but once I heard it ties back into Fitz and some of the characters in the Farseer Trilogy, I figured I'd give it a try.

Yeah, the Farseer Trilogy was awesome. Fitz is my favorite fictional character of all. I didn't like the Liveship Traders Trilogy as much, but they were still pretty good, and it was cool getting a bigger picture of the world Fitz lives in. Plus, your right that the Liveship books feature a character from the Farseer Trilogy, and several characters from the Liveship books later appear in Tawny Man Trilogy(the second Fitz trilogy). The Tawny Man trilogy is another great Fitz trilogy IMO. Many fans did not like the ending to it, but I enjoyed it. I still remember getting each of the Tawny Man books months ahead of the U.S. release date(Robin Hobb’s books are released in the U.K. and other countries months before the U.S. release date). For the first one I got the United Kingdom edition from Amazon.co.uk, for the second book I got an ARC(Advanced Reading Copy) from ebay(so I got to read it even ahead of the U.K. release date), and for the third book I got the Australian edition(which came out just a little bit earlier than the U.K. one) in addition to the U.K. edition. Those were good times.

[Berserkfury819]

My neighbors Terry and Jacquelyn are Scottish (I swaer this has to do with comics) and have been here for a number of years on a greencard as Terry works for an American company. They are the nicest people ever, but don't call them British or they will kill you. Anyway, I talk with them regularly and one night we were just sitting and talking about movies, books and pop culture. We eventually got to comics and Terry was telling me about what he read back when they were living in the U.K. His favorite is character named Judge Dredd from 2000 AD. I told him I was aware of the character but had never read anything about him. So he went inside, brought out this big Judge Dredd trade a loaned it to me. Judge Dredd is, well, awesome. About 100+ years into the future there are Mega Cities and the surrounding areas have become wastelands. Dredd operates as a Judge in Mega-City One. Judges represent the law, all of it, judge, jury and executioner. They are the police force and have the right to carry out sentences to criminals. This volume is a collection of strips from the magazine 2000 AD. Some of the stories are mutliple parts, some aren't. My favorites were "Judge Death" where a judge from an alternate reality enters Mega-City One. In his reality living is a crime, so he begins executing everyone. Chaos ensues. "Father Earth" is also great, as its Dredd verses an army of militant hippies, no really. I don't know if Judge Dredd/2000 AD is available in America, but if you can get it, its worth it.

Rating: Judge Dredd needs no rating, for he is the law.

[cpahl2000]

I read the two first isues of the Brightest Day. Pretty good and intesive. Plus the first two issues of The new Flash series. I love the return of Barry Allen as the true and only Flash. I know he isn´the only but it is good.

[Tabularasa]

Read Birds of Prey #1-3. Clearly, one of the only good DC books since they've been ruining everything for me (Red Robin) Gail Simone proves why she's one of the highest regarded writers out there. Seriously check it out, you won't be disappointed.

[Javi Trujillo]

Plus the first two issues of The new Flash series. I love the return of Barry Allen as the true and only Flash. I know he isn´the only but it is good.

Yeah, don't forget Jay and WALLY!

As for me, Adventures of Superman 468. Superman fights an Intergang robot called Purge with BEAUTIFUL Tom Grummett art! I also jumped in to my recently acquired Superman: Panic In the Sky tpb. So far so good with that! I like how before every issue, there are "liner notes" from the authors/artists

[butters911]

Last comic I read was Death of Dracula. pretty good

[CrazyChris]

I’ve been reading a whole bunch more stories from the second and third trades of Grant Morrison’s Batman run. Here’s what I think of each of them.


First, there’s a three-parter involving a reunion of the International Club of Heroes from an old 1950s Batman story. The story has a great old-timey, murder mystery dinner party feel to it, with the characters assembled in a mansion by an eccentric billionaire and being killed off one by one by an unknown killer. It’s sort of like the board game clue, only the people getting iced are Batman rip-offs from many nations. Batman uses his detective skills, and the climax involves a zany death trap that you might have seen in the 1960s TV show if the writers were warped and sadistic. This is one of the most accessible and enjoyable arcs of Morrison’s run. Even if you hate the trippy, psychological meta-arc going through Morrison’s stories, I think everyone can get behind this arc.

Next, there’s another three-parter in which the third cop dressed as Batman, the one who supposedly sold his soul, attacks Batman, causing Batman to die for four minutes. During this time, Batman has a crazy hallucination as memories unlock in his mind. Here, Morrison counts on his readers either being ridiculously hardcore Batman fans or initiated enough to look references up on the internet, because this story contains heavy visual references to various 1950s and 1960s Batman stories. I recently read Batman #156, which is easily the most important story for understanding this run, and Morrison’s story made a hell of a lot more sense, afterword. Without that background you’ll probably be scratching your head. The Zur En Arrh story from the 50s is also required reading, without question. If you’ve done the requisite background reading, this story pretty much unfolds the entire puzzle of this run for you, and it is a hell of a lot of fun putting the pieces together while at the same time gaining a deep insight into the inner workings of Batman’s brain.

After that, there’s a one-part story where Bruce Wayne and his love interest are attacked by a super-powered terrorist. It ends with a plot development that’s sort of important. This story, I could take it or leave it. It isn’t bad, but it’s one of the more straight-forward and unexciting stories from Morrison’s run.

And now we get to the big one, Batman RIP, in which Batman’s enemies spring their plot to psychologically destroy Batman. This story kicks ass. It’s the kind of story that’s so dense and meaningful to the main character that you could easily write an essay on it. A common criticism is that this story is too confusing, but I suspect that the people saying that have not read all of Morrison’s run leading up to this point in the proper order, have not been paying close enough attention, and/or have not at least familiarized themselves with the 1950s and 1960s stories that inspired Morrison’s run. If you want a straight-forward explanation of the plot, here it is:

As shown in Batman #156, many years ago Batman volunteered for a military experiment to simulate the loneliness of space travel by spending 10 days in an isolation chamber. In RIP, it is revealed that Batman did this because he wanted to have a mental breakdown and experience the Joker’s insanity. The doctor who ran the experiment was Doctor Hurt, and he had full access to Batman’s mind for 10 days. He implanted post-hypnotic suggestions into Batman, so that when he was exposed to the trigger phrase “Zur-En-Arrh,” it would switch off his entire identity.

The phrase “Zur-En-Arrh” is from a 1950s story where Batman went to an alien planet of the same name and met the Batman of that planet, who was inspired by observing Bruce on Earth. In RIP, it is revealed that this experience was a hallucination. The real origin of “Zur-En-Arrh” is from a blocked-off memory in Bruce’s mind. When walking out of the Mask of Zorro the night the Waynes were killed, Batman’s father said that if Zorro were real, they’d throw him in Arkham. “Zorro in Arkham” = “Zur-En-Arrh.” When Batman did the Throgal meditation, he saw that Zur-En-Arrh was related to some scar on his consciousness that he couldn’t access. My theory is that Bruce blocked off this memory because if he knew that his father, the person he became Batman to avenge, believed that someone like Zorro (who is like Batman) would be thrown in the loony bin, then that would undermine his entire mission and destroy him. I suspect that Doctor Hurt saw this in his mind during the isolation experiment and used it as the trigger word to destroy Batman because of its psychological significance.

But, Batman prepares for everything. After he learned through meditation that there was this “Zur-En-Arrh” thing blocked off in his mind that could destroy his psychology, he created a back-up personality to take over in the case his main personality was destroyed. This is the Batman of Zurr-En-Arrh. After Hurt destroys Bruce Wayne, the Batman Zur-En-Arrh takes over and he goes to confront Hurt and his organization, the Black Glove, in Arkham Asylum. It turns out Bruce’s girlfriend is in on the trap, and she and the Joker stun him with Joker venom stored in flower petals and Hurt buries him alive. Batman reassembles his consciousness in the grave, breaks out, and defeats the badguys.

Obviously, there’s a little more to it than that, but I think that covers the basic question of “what the hell was going on?!?!” I love this story because it gazes deeper into Batman’s psychology than any other story of which I’m aware. We see just how close to insanity his mental perfection brings him, how resilient his mind is and how the series of locked doors and contingencies in his mental hallways have made his psychology more powerful than Bruce himself can consciously comprehend. Because he needs to prepare for anything, including mental invasion, Bruce has mentally blocked certain contingencies even from himself, so when those contingencies begin to unlock he doesn’t know if he’s loosing his mind or just following some plan he made for himself in the past and then blocked off from himself. This is absolute brilliance. Morrison is the next Frank Miller when it comes to redefining Batman.

The last story in the RIP trade is a Final Crisis tie-in where Darkseid’s minions are trying to harvest Batman’s psychic trauma and DNA by hooking him up to a psychic parasite and forcing him to relive memories, real and false. This is another great look into Batman’s psychology, and a good compliment to RIP. However, it’s a tie-in to Final Crisis, which, so far, I’m not loving.

But Morrison’s Batman run rocks. I know that’s a controversial opinion, so I hope someone reading this will debate me.
RATING:

[spidertour02]

The last book I read was Spectacular Spider-Girl #3. I could take the time to carefully write out what I thought of the issue, but I already did that.

Pimpin' ain't easy.

[CrazyChris]

The last comic I've read is the Final Crisis trade paperback (Final Crisis #1-7, Super-Man Beyond, and Final Crisis: Submit). I don't think I've ever been more lost reading a comic. What . . . was that? I'm not going to rate it just yet because I don't want to misjudge it based on my own failure to comprehend it based on insufficient concentration and a limited knowledge of the DCU, but I will say that reading it was not a pleasurable experience. I'm going to read it again because I know from experience that there's often more to Morrison's work than meets the eye, but so far I can't penetrate this one.

[Donomark]

Unfortunately, the last comic I read was #638 of ASM.

But BEFORE that was the second Icon trade, and it was very good.