Comic Book Chatter

This is the place where you can conflab about all the other stuff besides videogames
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duskvstweak
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

Post by duskvstweak »

I've been reading Tom King's Batman run and I just finished The War of Jokes and Riddles and how I feel about it is pretty much how I feel about the whole run so far. I like it but I want to like it more. As for the The War of Jokes and Riddles, the story never fully clicked for me, and Joker's line, "Who cares about the Riddler" has an element of truth in it. Tom King's dialog and style is artsy, but sometimes it comes across as pretentious. But, who am I to judge, his Batman comics are selling like hotcakes! There's a lot to praise about it, but I found the ending unsatisfying and the big Bat-twist to be hard to swallow and a bit unearned.
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

Post by Flabyo »

That seems to be the angle the Arkham games have taken on the Riddler. That he’s kind of at the side of what’s going on and Batman could basically just ignore him and leave him to the police if he wasn’t so fixated on bringing every criminal down.

In a lot of elseworld stories set ‘in the near future” the riddler is often reformed, having turned his mind to bringing other criminals down instead of just ‘I must prove I’m smarter than batman’. And I tend to find those depictions more interesting.

(Jim Carey just played him as ‘the joker in a different suit’ and that’s just one of many things wrong with that movie...)
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Alex79
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

Post by Alex79 »

Yeah Riddler had never really featured very heavily throughout the entire Batman history. I did really enjoy Zero Year (New 52 book 4 I think) because he had a major role and it was nice to get a story that wasn't more Joker.

As for Rebirth, I'm just finishing off Snyders New 52 run as well as some other stuff but really want to get round to reading it soon.
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

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I did enjoy the Riddler in Zero Year but I also liked him in Batman Earth One Vol. 2 (I enjoyed that whole book more than the first). In all honesty, I do think he's one of the Bat's best villains, but The War of Jokes and Riddles just didn't sell him as anyone the Joker would waste time on.
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

Post by Alex79 »

Ah I've got the Earth One books ready to read at some point. Lately I've been working through a reading list I kind of made for myself. I wanted to do more reading on Robin, so made a TPB list covering the origin of Grayson as Robin, then some of his stuff, then when he becomes Nightwing, before reading about when Jason Todd became and subsequently un-became Robin, followed by Tim Drake. (I've already read plenty of Damien Wayne stuff).

It's been really interesting, actually.
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

Post by duskvstweak »

Alex79uk wrote: May 18th, 2018, 7:32 pm Ah I've got the Earth One books ready to read at some point. Lately I've been working through a reading list I kind of made for myself. I wanted to do more reading on Robin, so made a TPB list covering the origin of Grayson as Robin, then some of his stuff, then when he becomes Nightwing, before reading about when Jason Todd became and subsequently un-became Robin, followed by Tim Drake. (I've already read plenty of Damien Wayne stuff).

It's been really interesting, actually.
Un-Became Robin is a very tactful way of putting it. : P
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

Post by Alex79 »

Haha yeah. I have read Death In The Family years back, but looking forward to reading it again when I get to that part of my list!
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

Post by Alex79 »

Right, that's the entire Batman New 52 run done. I really enjoyed that, and I'm going to say I think Snyder is probably my favourite Batman writer of all time. Court Of The Owls, Death Of The Family and Superheavy were exceptional from start to finish.

Before I jump on to Rebirth I think I'm going to blast through the whole of 100 Bullets. I read about half of it as it was released and loved it. I always thought it would make a good TV show. I seem to remember the quality dropping a bit when it hits the middle third of the series, but always wanted to see how it ends so will plough through!
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

Post by duskvstweak »

Alex79uk wrote: May 21st, 2018, 1:55 pm Right, that's the entire Batman New 52 run done. I really enjoyed that, and I'm going to say I think Snyder is probably my favourite Batman writer of all time. Court Of The Owls, Death Of The Family and Superheavy were exceptional from start to finish.

Before I jump on to Rebirth I think I'm going to blast through the whole of 100 Bullets. I read about half of it as it was released and loved it. I always thought it would make a good TV show. I seem to remember the quality dropping a bit when it hits the middle third of the series, but always wanted to see how it ends so will plough through!
Personally, I felt like Snyder was running out of steam near the end, but he's definitely cemented himself as one of the legendary Bat-writers. Death of the Family is a modern classic for sure and, despite it's flaws, there's a lot to like out of Zero Year.

I'm still working through 100 Bullets myself (have been for years...) I like it but never love it. Also, I'm pretty sure there was rumbling of it becoming a TV show? AMC or something like that?
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

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So, this year, for some reason, I decided to finally read the rest Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns books. Strikes Again was as weird and sloppy as it's reputation stated, but it was crazy enough that I was... entertained. The Last Crusade was almost the exact opposite. It played it so safe that it never felt like a story that needed to be told, outside of that last page.
Master Race felt like a real event, though not necessarily a Batman story. It's just as much a Superman/Supergirl book and more of a Elseworld DC Universe tale. I enjoyed it, but would have preferred more Batman in this Batman book. However, while I'm of two minds about the ending, I will admit it's one of the happiest, hopeful Bat-endings I've ever read.
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

Post by DomsBeard »

duskvstweak wrote: May 17th, 2018, 3:54 pm I've been reading Tom King's Batman run and I just finished The War of Jokes and Riddles and how I feel about it is pretty much how I feel about the whole run so far. I like it but I want to like it more. As for the The War of Jokes and Riddles, the story never fully clicked for me, and Joker's line, "Who cares about the Riddler" has an element of truth in it. Tom King's dialog and style is artsy, but sometimes it comes across as pretentious. But, who am I to judge, his Batman comics are selling like hotcakes! There's a lot to praise about it, but I found the ending unsatisfying and the big Bat-twist to be hard to swallow and a bit unearned.
That is strange I finished reading that last night myself and 100% agree.

I have dialled down my dc subscriptions from my local comic store to just Batman, Batwoman and Green Lanterns now. Lanterns still continues to be amazing.
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

Post by duskvstweak »

DomsBeard wrote: May 25th, 2018, 8:36 pm
That is strange I finished reading that last night myself and 100% agree.

I have dialled down my dc subscriptions from my local comic store to just Batman, Batwoman and Green Lanterns now. Lanterns still continues to be amazing.
I haven't read Green Lantern since Geoff Johns left! I guess I should pick it up!
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

Post by Alex79 »

I've never managed to get in to Lantern. I think it's because I don't tend to like all the more fantastical cosmic type stuff - for want of a better way of putting it. I think it's the reason I don't really like many superhero comics. I love Batman, but that's always kind of been more grounded in reality (he says looking at Killer Croc, Poison Ivy etc), and the more fantastical stuff by Grant Morrison (Final Crisis etc.) I really hated. No idea why, there's just something about it that really fails to engage me.
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

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I finally got round to reading all of Red Team by Garth Ennis. I really liked it, and there are (barely) more thoughts to be found in the link in my forum sig...
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

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Alex79uk wrote: May 26th, 2018, 12:53 pm I've never managed to get in to Lantern. I think it's because I don't tend to like all the more fantastical cosmic type stuff - for want of a better way of putting it. I think it's the reason I don't really like many superhero comics. I love Batman, but that's always kind of been more grounded in reality (he says looking at Killer Croc, Poison Ivy etc), and the more fantastical stuff by Grant Morrison (Final Crisis etc.) I really hated. No idea why, there's just something about it that really fails to engage me.
The Lantern books are definitely out there. Geoff Johns' was very much a space opera but it was epic at times and a lot of fun. But, yeah, not for those who want a grounded story.
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

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Never been a fan of Hal Jordan or any variation of Green Lantern. I bought every issue 1 of the rebirths and Green Lanterns has been excellent. The pair of Simon and Jessica really work.
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

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Just read Batman: Year 100. Cool story with a lot of fun twists and nods to the Bat-history. The art is some ugly stuff, but I guess that's the point? Makes this version of the future look extremely unattractive.
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

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Re: Comic Book Chatter

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Can't wait!
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Re: Comic Book Chatter

Post by Tleprie »

I've been reading a bunch of non-superhero stuff lately, which I may go into more some other time, but last week I picked up the first two hardcover volumes of Spider-Gwen, and finished the first. I really enjoyed it, it has enough of the familiar beats of Spiderman stories, but feels fresh and exciting. Also the Spider-Gwen costume has to be the coolest superhero costume ever. I know they recently got into Gwenom, and the art I've seen of that looks awesome, but I'll probably wait for the 3rd hardcover to come out to read it.

I haven't read too much Spiderman outside of his involvement in Civil War and the Ultimate series, which I read all of the Peter Parker story, but now this has reminded me why I love it, but can only read so much of it at a time. Peter/Gwen/Miles can never catch a break. I like that the stories feel much more personal than the world ending every five minutes, but at the same time, damn does it get tough seeing them basically just scrape by.
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