Comic Book Dorks Unite!

[Justin G]

I figured with all of the comic book love in that oddball Helloween thread on the main board, we could probably get a discussion going here about comics.

I was a huge comics fan back in the day (I managed a comic store for 7 years before getting out and, you know, having sex and stuff) and still keep up with a few titles. These are what I still follow:

The Walking Dead - Robert Kirkman + Romero-style zombies = WIN
Invincible - easily the best superhero comic in a long long time.
Daredevil - This series has been excellent since 1998, and that's a pretty rare feat.
Iron Man - This series has been great lately.
Astonishing X-Men - I'll pretty much only read X-Men projects with someone like Whedon, Ellis, Millar or Morrison at the helm.

I also dig Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina. I know they've both ended, but I'm following them via hardcover, so I haven't read the finales yet.

 

[DuchessOfDork]

I'm here I'm here!!

Big old school X-Men fan. Basically, I'm a nerd about everything that happened before the year 2002 came and f'ed up everything. After that, I took a big hiatus from comics because I was disenchanted by Rogue suddenly kissing Colossus out of f'ing nowhere, and becan focusing on college. Then the band happened. I've recently gotten back into the swing of things, and it seems I've missed a lot.. but when I look back at what I missed, I'm not impressed. They depowered a bunch of my faves, married Storm off to the Black Panther, killed Banshee, and made Cyclops date the White Queen. It's too much, for me. So, I decided to go another route..

I went to DC! I loved Booster Gold, from the JLA cartoon. So I did some research, and have now become a full-fledged Booster Gold/Blue Beetle fangirl. I love them SO HARD. So hard, I bought my first long-box and actually have the entire Booster Gold series bagged and boarded.

Can you believe I used to keep my comics loose, in a wooden box, back when I was a kid? ;D

 

[Diabolik]

I read mostly Marvel......

I am a huge Thunderbolts fan.
I read all the Avengers books. (New, Academy,Secret and so on)
Hulk
Captain America
Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy before they got the axe
Spider-Man
Moon KNight
Fantastic Four since Hickman is now writing the book and making it readable again.

I have a love for the odd ball characters like the Great lakes Avengers, Stingray, Quasar, Woodgod, Aquarian, and such. So any book they show up in I will buy.

I also read books like The walking Dead, DMZ, 100 Bullets (RIP), Ex Machina, and a few other indie books / Vertigo stuff.

 

[Diabolik]

I'm here I'm here!!

Big old school X-Men fan. Basically, I'm a nerd about everything that happened before the year 2002 came and f'ed up everything. After that, I took a big hiatus from comics because I was disenchanted by Rogue suddenly kissing Colossus out of f'ing nowhere, and becan focusing on college. Then the band happened. I've recently gotten back into the swing of things, and it seems I've missed a lot.. but when I look back at what I missed, I'm not impressed. They depowered a bunch of my faves, married Storm off to the Black Panther, killed Banshee, and made Cyclops date the White Queen. It's too much, for me. So, I decided to go another route..

I went to DC! I loved Booster Gold, from the JLA cartoon. So I did some research, and have now become a full-fledged Booster Gold/Blue Beetle fangirl. I love them SO HARD. So hard, I bought my first long-box and actually have the entire Booster Gold series bagged and boarded.

Can you believe I used to keep my comics loose, in a wooden box, back when I was a kid? ;D

yeah....it seems the X-Men come and go with quality. Instead of trying to write good stories like they used to they just kill off characters like Nightcrawler thinking that will boost sales and create interest. All it does is make long time fans mad and leave the book. Honestly the only X-Men I have in the last 15 years is the Ed Brubaker run.

 

[Justin G]

yeah....it seems the X-Men come and go with quality. Instead of trying to write good stories like they used to they just kill off characters like Nightcrawler thinking that will boost sales and create interest. All it does is make long time fans mad and leave the book. Honestly the only X-Men I have in the last 15 years is the Ed Brubaker run.

I haven't followed X-Men regularly, but there have been some stellar runs in the last 10 years or so. These I'd consider essential:

Grant Morrison's New X-Men run. This essentially made X-Men a cutting edge, almost-indy book. I still re-read them every year or so.

Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run. This was a totally modern story with real appreciation for the team's '80s history.

The first 5 or so hardcovers worth of Ultimate X-Men were also pretty terrific.

 

[Justin G]

I love a lot of the DC characters, but it's not as easy to jump in there, what with all of the crossovers and other events.

 

[Diabolik]

I haven't followed X-Men regularly, but there have been some stellar runs in the last 10 years or so. These I'd consider essential:

Grant Morrison's New X-Men run. This essentially made X-Men a cutting edge, almost-indy book. I still re-read them every year or so.

Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run. This was a totally modern story with real appreciation for the team's '80s history.

The first 5 or so hardcovers worth of Ultimate X-Men were also pretty terrific.

I tihnk Whedon is very over rated. I thought his run was ok but had a terrible villian. ( I read my freinds trades )

I think the best X-Men run is all the Vulcan / Shi'Ar stuff that Brubaker did. He made non interesting characters very interesting. Thus even being able to turn that story into one of the greatest cosmic stories in decades. The War of Kings.

 

[DuchessOfDork]

I love a lot of the DC characters, but it's not as easy to jump in there, what with all of the crossovers and other events.

That's why I'm only collecting Booster Gold. I know that all the other stuff would take YEARS to latch on to.. but Booster is so obscure that he's only been in a few titles, and his other comic from the 80's only lasted 25 issues. I can safely collect him without worrying about other dimensions.

And I agree with the Whedon thing. I wasn't really impressed with that, either.

 

[Diabolik]

That's why I'm only collecting Booster Gold. I know that all the other stuff would take YEARS to latch on to.. but Booster is so obscure that he's only been in a few titles, and his other comic from the 80's only lasted 25 issues. I can safely collect him without worrying about other dimensions.

And I agree with the Whedon thing. I wasn't really impressed with that, either.

I suggest the web site Comicsvine. you can type in any character and it will give you every issue and cover an synopsis from that character....from most popular to totally obscure.

 

[DuchessOfDork]

Ooooo sweet!

 

[Jibrille]

I read all the X-men books including Wolverine, Excalibur, X-Factor, X-Force, and a ton of miniseries in the 90s up until shortly after the Onslaught storyline. Randomly bought other comics including Spider-man, Impulse, Robin, and WildCATS. Stopped buying comics altogether when I stopped reading the X-books but then started reading the comics Marvel made available free online for awhile in the early 00s. Which was pretty much Origin, Ultimate X-Men, and Ultimate Spider-man. Stopped reading again until I moved in with Brian. He buys a ton of comics, especially DC universe stuff which I've never gotten into beyond the two series I mentioned. But I've read Kickass, Ex Machina, Astonishing X-Men up until Whedon left, Ultimates 1&2, Runaways, and a handful of other things. I can't get into the ones that have too many crossovers and need you to read 10 books to get the complete story anymore.

 

[Metaldrumz]

I used to be a huge comic book fan back in the 80s and early 90s. I remember getting excited when IMAGE COMICS was created, and followed the titles religiously at the time. I used to love going to the comic shop and buying WIZARD magazine. I still own the first 30 issues, and had a letter published in issue 28. I know its still around but havent read it in several years.

I also was a huge fan of the character DEADPOOL. Its funny to see him popular these days. I used to own so much Deadpool merchandise it was "uncanny" (ha ha ha)! Original art, paintings, trading cards, any comic he was in including cameos, shirts, posters, statues etc etc. I even had foreign comics from Brazil, and Italy. I ran the internets largest Deadpool website for years called DEADPOOLS DEMENTED DOMAIN. I have met many people involved with Deadpool over the years and have had my actual name solidified in Marvel Comics / Deadpool history by having a character named after me in Deadpool 50. It was later mentioned again in Deadpool Rank and Foul a one shot. I still read Deadpool but am not a diehard collector anymore. Sold most of my stuff over the years. The only regret I made was selling the original art cover from Deadpool 1 (the first ongoing) by Ed McGuinness.

Speakin of comics.......my mascot for my radio show was created by Jimmie Robinson who works for Shadowline which is part of Image Comics and owned/operated by Jim Valentino (Shadowhawk). He has the very successful character called Bomb Queen. Jimmie had the rough idea sketch, and then Erik Von Lehmann an amazing talent on Deviant Art took him to the next level.

I still follow what goes on in the Marvel Universe but don't read or collect any of them anymore besides Deadpool.

 

[eppst1]

Mostly a Marvel guy, because (like somene mentioned earlier) DC is so hard to dive into with all the back story stuff.

Stuff I buy:
Avengers (all 4136 different titles)
Thor
Deadpool
GI Joe
Iron Man
Thunderbolts
Some Star Wars stuff
I'll also pick up mini-series for stuff I usually don't read. This is where I get most of my DC stuff, especially Batman stories.

 

[Diabolik]

Marvel has some great stuff going on and has....like the whole War of Kings with Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova. THe Fall of the Hulks is a great storyline. Anything Thunderbolt related. For as many people rip on Marvel....the stuff they dont push down our throats like Wolverine and Deadpool is usually really good. I really like that they have tightened up thier universe. My only problem is that they dont give time between big events to let books come into thier own.

 

[guardian26]

I jumped in and out of Marvel a few times, stopping with the Civil War stuff a couple of years ago...Ultimate Spiderman was a fav.

 

[DuchessOfDork]

Marvel has some great stuff going on and has....like the whole War of Kings with Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova. THe Fall of the Hulks is a great storyline. Anything Thunderbolt related. For as many people rip on Marvel....the stuff they dont push down our throats like Wolverine and Deadpool is usually really good. I really like that they have tightened up thier universe. My only problem is that they dont give time between big events to let books come into thier own.

Yeah, it's a little annoying how Wolverine is in nearly every gaddamn title, right now. I'm pretty sure he's got like, 10 clones.

 

[Justin G]

Marvel has some great stuff going on and has....like the whole War of Kings with Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova. THe Fall of the Hulks is a great storyline. Anything Thunderbolt related. For as many people rip on Marvel....the stuff they dont push down our throats like Wolverine and Deadpool is usually really good. I really like that they have tightened up thier universe. My only problem is that they dont give time between big events to let books come into thier own.

That's part of the reason I enjoyed Daredevil so much. He seemed to exist in a vacuum. They may have stuck him in a crossover event, but it never bled over into his solo title.

 

[Diabolik]

That's part of the reason I enjoyed Daredevil so much. He seemed to exist in a vacuum. They may have stuck him in a crossover event, but it never bled over into his solo title.

The Ed Brubaker Daredevil run is amazing from start to finish. I do like how they kind of keep him out of stuff but now ruined the great character yet again by having the Black Panther be the new Man Without Fear.

DoD - no kidding....I am in Wolverine overkill.....back in the 80's when I was collecting it was a rare thing to see him in more than 1 book a month. Now you get him in all the books asides one Marvel book.

 

[Justin G]

The Ed Brubaker Daredevil run is amazing from start to finish. I do like how they kind of keep him out of stuff but now ruined the great character yet again by having the Black Panther be the new Man Without Fear.QUOTE]

Wait, what??? I haven't read anything post-Brubaker. What the hell happened there?

 

[Diabolik]

The Ed Brubaker Daredevil run is amazing from start to finish. I do like how they kind of keep him out of stuff but now ruined the great character yet again by having the Black Panther be the new Man Without Fear.QUOTE]

Wait, what??? I haven't read anything post-Brubaker. What the hell happened there?

After the Brubaker run he lea the Hand and the "shadowland" cross over where basically Daredevil and the Hand took on , Iron Fist, Power Man, Shroud, Daughters of the Dragon, Paladin and a bunch of others and from what leaks say that he gives up the mantle of Daredevil and the Black Panther takes over. I am sure he will take a year off and then we will get the Return of Daredevil with a whole new creative team and having him rebuild his name.