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Title:: Irredeemable Publisher: BOOM! Studios Brief description: The Plutonian, a Superman archetype, has completely snapped and destroyed his version of Metropolis in a fit of anger. The world is making GBS threads itself because there's really nobody out there to stop him. His former hero comrades are constantly on the run while trying to come up with ways to stop him while he makes an effort to pick them off. The government's plans to counter him are more self-destructive than anything and any time something is brought in that can stand up to Plutonian, there are major repercussions. Also of note is how Plutonian's arch-nemesis, the super genius Modeus, shows up every now and again to work things to his advantage, whatever that may be. All the while, Plutonian treats the world like his own personal sandbox, like a slightly less sadistic version of Kid Miracleman. Why I like it: It's Mark Waid and he's usually pretty good, especially with his world building. I will admit that after the first year, the series dips really badly. Plutonian himself is very interesting, especially with the many, many things we see that have worked together into making him snap. Unfortunately, quite a few issues spin their wheels with too many characters for the series to handle. Luckily, Waid seems to have scaled down on that as we're back to reading about a Superman who you pity and understand one moment only to fear and hate seconds later. Issue that is a good jumping on point: You might as well start from the beginning, as that's where the better stuff is. Title:: Incorruptible Publisher: BOOM! Studios Brief description: Taking place in the same world as Irredeemable, Incorruptible stars Max Damage, one of Plutonian's biggest rogues. His power is that he becomes increasingly strong and invulnerable the longer he stays awake. His weaknesses are that he's vulnerable when he wakes up, vulnerable to sleeping gas and being awake for too long causes him to get incredibly loopy. Having seen Plutonian's rampage firsthand, he realizes that somebody out there needs to step up. He pulls a complete 180, going completely straight to the point that he won't have sex with his underage sidekick Jailbait and refuses to use stolen money for his war on crime. He hooks up with a recovering alcoholic police chief and Plutonian's Lois Lane counterpart in an attempt to bring order to his city. Why I like it: This is easily the better of the two books, mainly because there's a hopeful feel to it and the stories stay interesting. Max's supporting cast is far more likeable compared to the goofs trying to stop Plutonian and Max himself is likeable in his own dumbass attempts to be a hero. He's able to do the right thing, but doesn't understand why it's the right thing. He acts like he read a manual on what's good and evil and took it as gospel while never thinking any deeper. The best thing to come out of it is easily the issue (fairly late in, shockingly) where Max and Plutonian finally throwdown. Issue that is a good jumping on point: The last three or four issues would be a good jumping on point. The last couple issues have shared an arc with Irredeemable where we'd finally see the origins of our title characters. You don't have to read the Irredeemable issues for it to make sense, but they do tie in together in the sense that Plutonian and Max have more to do with each other's development than they realize. Luckily, you don't have to read Irredeemable to get Incorruptible. References are made, but it's explained well enough in the issues.
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Feb 1, 2012 04:44
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Title:: The Mis-Adventures of Adam West Publisher: Bluewater Brief description: Actor Adam West is in a slump. He gets offered roles in movies, but turns most of them down against his agent's wishes because he doesn't agree with the actions of the hero characters and their lack of morality. A fan sends him a mysterious amulet and soon he finds himself decades younger as a spy in the world of one of those scripts. With nobody believing that he's only an actor, he proceeds to act out the story, only on his terms. Like some kind of Quantum Leap story, he moves from world to world after setting things right. Why I like it: I was going to read it anyway because it's too strange not to, but there's some real fun and a little bit of heart to be had under the overly-contrived plot. The biggest obstacle is the art, which is your usual overly-scratchy indy artist. It would be fine if his depiction of Adam West looked anything like him. Issue that is a good jumping on point: There are only four issues so far, so #1 is where to start.
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Feb 4, 2012 20:32
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Since two of the more well-known series aren't mentioned, I might as well take care of it: Title:: Invincible Publisher: Image Brief description: Mark Grayson is the son of Omniman, a superman-like dude with a mustache. His powers finally kick in and he gets into the superhero business. He quickly discovers that his father is actually a bad guy setting up for an eventual invasion by his people, the Viltrumites. Invincible makes a lot of friends and a lot of enemies over the years with a lot of setup made for the Viltrumite War, which itself finally ended about a year ago. Now he's dealing with the morality of the superhero lifestyle, wondering if most villains aren't truly evil but need to be heard and understood to better everything. Why I like it: It has its flaws, but it's a fun series with a ton of interesting characters and situations. Kirkman at least knows not to keep his tone in the same place for too long, so you can go from happy and funny to dark and messed up between issues to break up the monotony. The biggest problem of the series is that it was mainly leading up to the Viltrumite War for years and at the end of the day, the Viltrumite War was boring as hell, went way too far on the gore factor and nearly killed the series. Luckily, the whole thing has picked up after Mark got home. Issue that is a good jumping on point: #77 and #78 cover the end of the Viltrumite War and lead right into the next status quo. So somewhere around there. Title:: The Goon Publisher: Dark Horse Brief description: The Goon, flanked by his little buddy Franky, is a mob goon claiming to be working for a guy named Labrazio... only in reality, he killed Labrazio in a fit of anger decades ago. He's truly been running things, but he's ultimately a really good guy, constantly protecting the people in his neighborhood from all sorts of macabre threats. His main villain is a nameless sorcerer (he's really Rumpelstiltskin) who conjures up armies of the undead. Goon has a mentor of sorts in Buzzard, an old gunslinger who thanks to the nameless zombie priest is an anti-zombie and cannot die no matter what he does. Goon has also done crossovers with both Hellboy and Dethklok from Metalocalypse, while Buzzard had his own 3-issue miniseries. Why I like it: First off, Eric Powell's art is absolutely stellar. The characters are great, from Goon and Franky to the supporting cast like the Willie Nagel the friendly zombie and reformed supervillain Dr. Alloy. The humor hits more often than it misses. The hopeless atmosphere of it all contrasts well with Goon's ability to ultimately make things right. Issue that is a good jumping on point: It's worth starting from the beginning, but if you need to start later, I guess go with #31. Goon's issues are mostly done-in-ones, but the 20's mostly dealt with a major story arc. It goes back to normal by #31 and there's a really good issue co-written by Evan Dorkin, but the last few issues have been mostly Powell using the comic as his soapbox. #36 is easily the worst issue of the series, as it's Powell writing a crossover between Goon and some burlesque dancer he knows.
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Feb 5, 2012 21:41
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choobs posted:Just went back and re-read it and yeah, 36 was one of the weakest in the entire series. I enjoyed 37 a lot though, despite its soapboxiness... Using the Triangle Shirtwaist FIre to tell a pretty cool ghost story was clever, but the pro-union tone might put some people off. I have no problem with the pro-union aspect of it at all. It just seemed paced awkwardly in that Goon only cameos in his own book because Powell spends so much time talking setup.
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Feb 6, 2012 04:50
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Dr. Hurt posted:Issue that is a good jumping on point: Dark Horse has just recently been releasing hardcovers aimed at collecting the entire series (I think barring 1946/1947) into four inexpensive hardcovers. So far they've released volume 1 and 2, with volume 3 coming out very soon. The first volume is around four hundred pages of comics for around 15 dollars, which is a real steal and a perfect place to start if you've already read Hellboy. If not, start with Hellboy: Seed of Destruction and continue until Conqueror Worm- then go into BPRD. The first two volumes both have quotes on the back from hermanos, but the second one is better because it labels him as "4thletter.net"
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Feb 7, 2012 01:00
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Irredeemable ended this week and I'm not sure if the ending should make me think, "That's cute," or, "Hahaha, really?" For those curious, Qubit blackmails/tricks Plutonian into saving the world in a process that causes Plutonian to die and revert back into his original energy form. Qubit says he doesn't blame Plutonian for all the terror he's caused, since it's the fault of the insane woman who wished him into existence all those years ago and passed her issues onto him. Qubit had promised him that he'd get to redeem himself through a new life, but not in the way he expects. He opens a series of portals to hundreds of thousands of dimensions and splits up Plutonian's energy self, hoping that somewhere out there, someone will be able to fulfill Plutonian's true potential and get it right. In another universe, a Jewish boy busts into his friend's house and excitedly tells him that he's gotten the inspiration for their funny books idea. The last panel shows a rough outline sketch of Superman with the nearby notebooks revealing that it's Siegel and Shuster.
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May 24, 2012 07:55
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Madrox posted:I guess Incorruptible is ending as well (or has ended already?). How did that hold up? I was enjoying it more than Irredeemable, but I ended up dropping them both a while ago due to budgeting. Incorruptible has one issue left. For the most part, it's been pretty good and is at the very least head and shoulders above Irredeemable due to having a better main character, a better supporting cast and less issues so that it doesn't feel like it's being stretched out for the sake of telling more story. Max was finally embraced by the public around the time Waid announced the series is ending, so the remainder is him dealing with this while his own character flaws -- as well as the flaws of the public -- begin to get under his skin. The biggest problem with it right now is that despite being in a shared universe, Incorruptible always felt like its own story. This final arc feels like the last few issues of Irredeemable are a weak event story and Incorruptible is an event tie-in.
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May 25, 2012 09:23
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There is not a  big enough to describe this week's Invincible.What the hell did I just read?
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Nov 15, 2012 23:01
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Recently they started a status quo where Mark lost his powers and Bulletproof (Zandale Randolph), a member of the Global Guardians became his replacement due to having a similar power set... and being black. So in #97, there's two  segments.In the last issue, Zandale's parents find out about his secret identity, when they thought it was his smarter twin brother, who they cared more about that fought crime as a superhero. Here, Zandale goes over his backstory and explains how his twin was actually kind of insane and forced these powers onto Zandale and the process killed him. Since then, Bulletproof's been pretending to be both brothers because he didn't want to hurt his parents. Their reaction is to freak the gently caress out, insist that he murdered his brother out of jealousy and that they're going to tell the police. Out of nowhere, Zandale's girlfriend shouts, "SHUT UP YOU BITCH!" and nails the mom with a frying pan. And not in the cartoony way, but by slamming the edge into her skull so that her eyeball pops out. The dad throttles her, screaming that he'll kill her and Bulletproof accidentally and gorily snaps his father's neck trying to pull him off. Bulletproof shoves the bodies into a car, throws it off a cliff, we see the funeral and then a panel of he and his girlfriend sitting silently and awkwardly in the kitchen. Followed directly by a page of Kirkman's self-insert creator of Science Dog guy, who defends his decision to do a scene in Science Dog that was "heavy handed", "jarring", "overly dark" and "out of place" because it's almost time for issue #100, he needed to do something shocking and he'd never be able to do such a thing in a corporate-owned series. Then later on, we have a scene of Mark and Eve having sex. It's been played up that Mark looks down on himself in the bedroom because of his lack of powers, but Eve starts to really get into it. Then the last page is a full page image of the two of them naked, floating and in mid-thrust where Mark is excited to announce that his powers are back.
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Nov 16, 2012 01:03
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al-azad posted:Kirkman... I don't know about Kirkman. He thinks cartoon gore and killing off people on a whim is compelling storytelling. And he showed he doesn't have to rely on that in the issue right before this! I mean, the previous arc was really good and the dark final scene wasn't jarring, overly-dark, out of place, etc. It felt like a natural character move that would lead to some intriguing drama down the line.
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Nov 16, 2012 01:34
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LtKenFrankenstein posted:That whole issue summary sounds so much like something Mark Millar would write that it's not even funny. That's the unfortunate thing. Like, I've reached the point where I realize that Ultimates and Red Son were years ago and now Millar can only be Millar. Invincible has been consistently pretty good from the aftermath of the Vitrumite War (which itself was boring) to this issue. The previous arc was really good and the final scene reveals that one of the series' heroes committed an act of genocide on another world. Yet it's actually a well-done and natural development based on passion, frustration and a little bit of Ozymandias "ends justifies the means". It wasn't shocking for the sake of being shocking. Even the current issue is good up to a point. The backstory and even the parents' reaction work. It's the moment the frying pan shows up out of nowhere that I feel like, "Come on, Kirkman. You're loving up. You're better than this."
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Nov 16, 2012 14:09
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I picked up the new Super Street Fighter hardcover, as UDON is now releasing all of its new SF content in graphic novel form. It looks really nice, but there's not enough content to vindicate the list price, so I suggest getting it online via Amazon or B&N. Capcom's always had a pretty detailed set of events for the Alpha games and SF2, so UDON had little problem being faithful to the source. This arc is based on the SF3 games, which Capcom never really defined the events of. Plus those games only had a handful of pre-existing characters. In this retelling, some of the SF2/Alpha guys show up just for familiarity. The story is that several years after M. Bison's tournament, Guile spends his focus on taking down Gill's Secret Society. Unfortunately, his inside man has gone missing and his last action was sending a list of targets that the Secret Society was going after. One of them is Ryu and in Guile's search, he finds out he's too late. Ryu's missing and all he knows is that Sakura has been driven insane because of whatever happened. Over the course of the volume, Guile is joined by two others (Alex and Dan Hibiki) to help find Ryu and stop Gill. But that's only about half of the book. The other half is a bunch of random short stories about the other SF characters. This includes a really fun 6-page story by Chris Sims about Balrog crossing paths with Dudley. There's also a funny story in there about E. Honda and Hakan arguing and outright fighting over whose sport should be in the next Olympics.
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Feb 8, 2013 06:43
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Mr Wind Up Bird posted:Is there an Elena story? She's my favorite Street Fighter Not yet. Other than the main story, we get Dudley vs. Balrog, Guy vs. Ibuki, Dhalsim vs. Twelve (where Twelve transforms into various characters from SF1), Honda vs. Hakan and a Juri origin story. The Juri story does a really good job of explaining why she would be out to destroy Shadaloo while at the same time being a total scumbag villain. Endless Mike posted:When do we get a Gavok Street Fighter short story? I would write the gently caress out of Adon. quote:Or will it be Mortal Kombat since Sims is your mortal nemesis? I would write more the gently caress out of this. It's not like I could do worse than the Malibu series. 
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Feb 8, 2013 21:27
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Endless Mike posted:Isn't that a CHIKARA wrestler? No, combatANT uses a different sense of grammatical fuckery.
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Feb 8, 2013 22:20
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I wrote a lengthy primer for the IDW TMNT comic. Character profiles, mentions of when the micro-series issues take place, etc. The comic is a treasure for somehow being able to make the Neutrinos bearable.
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Jul 14, 2013 01:23
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side_burned posted:Has TMNT ever had a bad run in comics? All the runs I've read range from solid to great. I never read any of the Dreamwave run, which went only 7 issues. I imagine that would have been the best answer.
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Jul 22, 2013 01:22
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Lurdiak posted:And how. From what I understand, that's how Brian Bolland wanted it. The original coloring job got him really depressed back in the day.
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Aug 5, 2013 03:41
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LtKenFrankenstein posted:I just wanted to take a minute to rep Burn The Orphanage by Daniel Freedman and Sina Grace, which came out this past Wednesday. You have my full attention.
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Aug 11, 2013 20:31
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I bought it off Comixology and it is definitely worth reading. Thanks, Frank!
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Aug 12, 2013 03:43
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TMNT #25 is pretty loving great and has an awesome reveal that I didn't see coming at all. They've solicited the upcoming Micro-Series issue that centers around Hun, even though he's yet to show up at all. Then in the new issue, Casey's drunk dad has a moment of clarity over his son being hospitalized at the hands of the Foot, punches a mirror, yells, "NO MORE!" tears apart his shirt and we see the giant Purple Dragons tattoo on his back.
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Aug 30, 2013 03:01
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I just read through UDON's Street Fighter Origins: Akuma graphic novel. I've always been a fan of Akuma and I thought it did a great service to explaining the backstory of an enigmatic character whose background goes no farther than, "Killed his master, killed his brother (but he got better) and lost in a fight to Gen one time." The Ryu/Akuma stuff from Street Fighter lore is so blatantly Jedi/Sith that it almost feels like the writer wanted to see if he could write an "Anakin turns to Vader" life story without wussifying the main character and making him whine and cry. poo poo happens and you nod your head because, yeah, it's totally understandable that a dude would become a badass demonic hermit living in the mountains, obsessed with power and honor.
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Sep 15, 2013 02:13
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I did a review of a book called Rainbow in the Dark which is worth checking out. It's a cross between the Matrix, Pleasantville and They Live as a rock opera adventure story where people sprinkle memorable song lyrics into their dialogue. It also has electric guitars that shoot lasers.
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Dec 20, 2013 05:02
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Wanderer posted:Daniel Way is the writer on the new arc of Crossed: Badlands. A chill just went down my spine that I haven't felt since Onslaught Reborn was created.
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Jan 12, 2014 23:55
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I got a review copy of Down Set Fight by Chris Sims, Chad Bowers and Scott Kowalchuk. It's really fun and I highly recommend it. The first three chapters are currently available in digital form. It's about a football player Chuck Fairlane, who lost his temper years ago and punched out a mascot, escalating into him beating up everyone on both teams and getting blacklisted. Now he's a high school football coach and there's been a series of incidents where guys in mascot costumes have been mugging star athletes. This leads to a guy in an elephant costume showing up at Chuck's school to start a fight. Chuck and an FBI agent try to figure out how he's linked to the sudden rise of mascots beating people up. To give you an idea of how ridiculous it is, there's a fight where Chuck is rushed at by a dozen guys dressed in one Chinese dragon costume. Chuck grabs the first guy and is able to take all of them with him in one giant suplex.
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Jan 25, 2014 05:38
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Haha, welp! I am officially done with Invincible. I put up with a lot in the last couple years, but I think Invincirape is the last straw.
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Apr 10, 2014 03:36
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Lurdiak posted:Man I think I jumped off Invincible the very first time someone got punched into meat confetti. Kirkman's the guy who had Luke Cage melt into a puddle and Speedball carry a severed arm around during a "lighthearted" Marvel Team-up issue, I feel like whatever strengths he has as a writer will always be eclipsed by his addiction to cheap shock value. To be fair, that wasn't Speedball, but the Terror, whose entire preexisting gimmick is that he's a patchwork zombie man who attaches dismembered body parts to inherit skills. It worked in the context of the story and everyone called him out on being loving gross. GrandpaPants posted:I'm almost curious as to what happens but at the same time I kinda don't want to know. It's really, really annoying because Kirkman has the tendency to write up some good plot points or ideas before completely overshadowing it with poo poo. A few months ago, he brought back Angstrom Levy, the reality-traveler guy from the Marvel Team-Up crossover issue. He has Eve as his hostage, waiting for Invincible to show up so he could destroy him and get his revenge. Eve talks him down over how worthless and petty revenge really is and convinces him that he's wrong about Mark. Invincible and an alternate reality Invincible show up and Levy explains his actions and that he understands that he was wrong and that Mark isn't the monster he thought he was. As he surrenders, Alt Invincible captures him and brings him to his home dimension to torture/kill him. The final page is Mark going, "We're going to find him and bring him back." And I was so jazzed because that's such a great superhero moment. He's going to go save the guy who is no longer his enemy instead of letting him get tortured to death, even if he deserves it. He's going to prove him right that he is a real hero. That's so perfect! Then in the next issue, he explains that he figures Levy will be back one day to attack his family so he might as well go into the dimension to make sure he stays gone. What. Eve tells him not to do it and Mark agrees he won't but does so anyway with Robot. Robot turns on him, which is something Kirkman's been building to for a long time, murders Alt Invincible and Levy in easily the most violent of scenes in the book's history and strands Mark there. Presumably, Robot is going to return to their Earth and take over. In the previous issue, which was pretty good, Invincible figures out a way back to his Earth, bringing us to this week's issue. Eve thought that Mark was dead and is super pissed when he returns, telling him that they're through, not even letting him explain. Then he flies off, only to be confronted by that one female Viltrumite. She wants to have a baby, but doesn't want a human to be its father. Invincible tells her to get lost and she beats him up, tears his clothes off, tears her own clothes off and then rapes him on the spot. Then she flies away, saying that she might have to try it a couple more times to make sure. Yep.
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Apr 10, 2014 05:59
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Guys, Andre the Giant: Life and Legend by Box Brown is totally worth checking out. Thought you should all know.
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May 11, 2014 02:02
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pugnax posted:I learned this in college and it's been one of my favorite little cocktail trivia factoids. Glad to see it made it into the comic. My favorite Andre trivia factoid that made it into the comic is his tendency to rip massive farts in elevators just to gently caress with people.
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May 11, 2014 18:23
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