999 Reading Challenge Review and Discussion Tread

[Jeppe]

6 books down, but I'm way being on reviews!  (Avenger's Children's Crusade is an elusive title to get a handle on...)

Here's the latest -

Horus Rising, by Dan Abnett

Glad you dug it! 

[erikh42]

Glad you dug it! 

It was a ver pleasent surprise.  After I finished reading it, I spent an hour surfing the GW website.  I'm trying to figure out if I  have time in my life to start painting again, there's some really cool new stuff.

[Lesson_25]

6 books down, but I'm way being on reviews!  (Avenger's Children's Crusade is an elusive title to get a handle on...)

Here's the latest -

Horus Rising, by Dan Abnett

It was with great trepidation that I downloaded and started reading Horus Rising by Dan Abnett.  It is in very rare cases that I read licensed properties.  All too often these books are cash grabs, with weak plots, poor characters, and just plain bad!  This is not the case with Horus Rising. 

This book is the first book in a very long series that (spoilers!) tell the story of Horus's fall from being the Imperium's greatest hero to becoming the person that almost destroys the empire.  Mr. Abnett has an excellent grasp on the 40K universe and crafts an excellent story displaying the glory of the Adeptus Astartes.  He lays the space marines out as an unstoppable force for good, but subtly and carefully shows their cracks and weaknesses.  The reader is discovering the full dangers of the 40K universe along with the main characters.  This makes for interesting reveals, good suspense and an exciting book.  It is not all bolter fire, spinning chain swords and unending fight scenes.  This is solid gothic science fiction written by someone who has as much affection for the subject matter as his audience.  I'm in the for next 18 books!

Nice review. Glad you weren't disappointed. Loken would be proud.

[Ryan 'gobo' C.]

Pussey by Dan Clowes
A satirical look at being a comic artist. I've become a big Clowes fan and I totally loved this.

Low Concept 1 by The 11 O'Clock Forum

 

[Jon O]

7 down.

Brother's Bookshelf

Infinite Kung Fu

This book was awesome. I'm sure everyone's heard the boys talk about it by now.  The action is this book is so fluid and beautiful.  The story is just super fun, kick ass ninjas vs. zombies.

[Rustyautoparts (Russ Otto)]

Sinestro Corps War vol 1 & 2

This started out really rough for me. As a fan of the bookends to this event, this was my first time reading SCW. I love Van Sciver's art in Flash Rebirth, one of the first titles I began collecting. His prologue chapter did not work for me at all in this. It just felt muddy and almost unreadable. The subsequent issues by Ivan Reis and Pat Gleason were much better IMO. I've been gravitating away from mainstream superhero fair for the last few months, so it took me a while to readjust my expectations. In the end, it was a fun read, but I was left wanting more, which says more about the state of superhero comics in general than the quality of this event, which was really well done.

3.5/5

[RickV]

Appleseed vol 1-4
So this is Masamune Shirow recent series (2008-2009) and I like the Ghost in the Shell manga quite a lot but this thing is more of the down and dirty cyberpunk police stuff and less of the philosophy of Ghost in the Shell (there is a bit of it). Also the 4th volume of this has the best Gun / Hand To Hand / Knife fight that I have ever seen presented in comics. It is so unbelievably awesome.

EDIT: This series was done in the mid 80s I was just reading the printing of the most recent versions.

[Jon O]

8/81

The Classics
Creepy Archives 4

Great art, and cool short stories predominately written by Archie Goodwin.  Art by Steve Ditko, Gene Colan, Neal Adams, John Severin and more.  I was most surprised by the art of a guy named Roger Brand.  He had a really cool underground comix aesthetic and every time I came across one of his stories in the book I really enjoyed it.

[Night (Travis) Nurse]

Avengers the Childrens Crusade

Wanted to finish this up before the "big" event started. Yes the art is beautiful but I found the story to be lacking. There were a few fan boy moments but the whole Avengers fighting X-Men over who gets to kill the Scarlet Witch was blah. I imagine that my enthusiasm for hero fighting will play against me in the upcoming months.  Nice to have the scarlet witch back but they way they contrived it to be

doom responsible for her miss deeds was lame.

I would much prefer her brought to justice instead of let free.

Travis

[heylook]

What are you waiting for?  I'm being strict on myself because I so much to read.

I'm trying to still read weekly floppies in addition. I also started with my prose book and its pretty large, I suppose (though reads quick)

[whirlwindx]

9 down.

Bakuman Vol.1

I enjoyed this story about two kids trying to create the best manga for the most part but it’s far from a favourite at this point. This took me longer to read and was more bizarre than I anticipated. I don’t read a whole lot of Shonen manga and sometimes the extremes with that can make it a different or difficult reading experience. Cultural things and finding out about quirks about the manga industry compared to north American industry sometimes bordered on the absurd. I’d be more likely to laugh at someone proposing marriage to a girl without even having spoken to her and her agreeing to the proposal if they become a manga superstar but I have to consider it a serious possibility in shonen manga. Apparently creators are concerned about surveys since they are important if a new series is going to continue. I had to laugh when the kids were trying to come up with manga story to do and they said they didn’t want to do one with rape, pregnancy, or sex because that was in girls manga.

[Ted Falconi]

I'm in.  Been out of town the past week, and haven't rifled through my boxes to nail down my categories, but I'll be contributing soon.

[Night (Travis) Nurse]

3 Story Whats a wonderful work. This book took my breath away not only in wonderfully colored and drawn pictures but fantastic story telling. Like a great director, Kindt sets up the shots with words moment to moment to pull you in. The first story about Craig and his mom breaks your heart with the way Kindt lets the story unfold. Although sparse in words, each panel is used for %100 impact on the reader. I loved this and plan on forcing this on my wife and anyone else who is wants to read something amazing.

Tavis

[Night (Travis) Nurse]

Tardi - Extrodinary Adventures of Adele Blanc Sec Vol. 1 So ... Im not sure what I'm missing from all the accolades that this has received. I barely could make it through reading it. The plot is crazy ridiculous with so many twists that I would consider it comical, in the vein of the Clue movie but it was so serious. As for the art, most of the male figure looked alike and whats with the lips? The characters without beards have one upper lip that's colored flesh and there are no mouths. Most of the characters, unless close up have squinty eyes that make then look just off. The backgrounds and textures were very nicely done but I dont get it 

Im a little worried as I have another two Tardi books to get through for the challenge.

Travis

[Jon O]

I like the art a whole lot, but the story was a total curve ball for me after the first book.  I was more prepared with the second Adele Blanc Sec collection and enjoyed that a lot more, to the point where I wanted to go back and reread the first volume (though I haven't yet).

Arctic Marauder has the same narrative peculiarities as well, but that book is drop dead gorgeous.

[Jeppe]

Tardi's homage writing is definitely an acquired taste, and I know a lot of folks who dislike the Adele series. Personally I love them

[S. Earl]

Wow, I thought it was just me. I'm reading West Coast Blues for the 999 right now, and it kind of road blocked me. I started enjoying it more after he made it to the forest section, and I'm not finished yet... but it certainly isn't grabbing me as much as I expected it to considering the accolades he has received from the show over the years.

It's possible I'm just not in the right mind set, it's not bad, but I expected my socks to be blown off... that's probably the problem right there. Raised Expectations.

[Night (Travis) Nurse]

Nice to see the other takes on Tardi. Earl, I was wondering about the "mindset" thing too. Since I have two more Tardi books, Im going to wait until later this summer on a beautiful day on my deck with a beer before I try to read another one. Maybe just being in a different mind set will help clear my pallet.

Another book I read today was Mouse Guard Fall 1152. Its hard for me not to compare this book to Mice Templar (which is one of my favorite books coming out) but Ill try. Its a very basic story, easy and accessible to children. The art is fantastic with wonderful layered textures and colors. Overall I enjoyed it very much, a fun story with some interesting characters Ill definitely finish up the series but it suffered in two areas. First, it was really really quick to read. i read the whole book in under an hour. For six issues that's not a lot of content and the plot is very surface level, not much deep thinking involved. Secondly, is a problem that I have with most Archia books is the lettering. They use a horrible digital lettering there that looks so mechanically computer generated it takes away from the story. Each bubble is the same perfect shape with perfect crisp white background and the same boring font. It really drives me crazy, it kills the wonderful art on the page. Now in comparison to Mice Templar this books got nothing. Templar is a much better crafted story with more detail and sub plot and character development but nowhere near as kid friendly.

Travis

[Jeppe]

Now in comparison to Mice Templar this books got nothing. Templar is a much better crafted story with more detail and sub plot and character development but nowhere near as kid friendly.

Travis

I couldn't disagree more. To me, Mouse Guard is a beautifully told and illustrated story, while Mice Templar is yet another derivative and unoriginal fantasy slog with antropomorphic mice. That said, I'm happy that there are mice stories enough out there for everyone   

[erikh42]

Avengers the Childrens Crusade

Wanted to finish this up before the "big" event started. Yes the art is beautiful but I found the story to be lacking. There were a few fan boy moments but the whole Avengers fighting X-Men over who gets to kill the Scarlet Witch was blah. I imagine that my enthusiasm for hero fighting will play against me in the upcoming months.  Nice to have the scarlet witch back but they way they contrived it to be

doom responsible for her miss deeds was lame.

I would much prefer her brought to justice instead of let free.

Travis

Well you summed up nicely what I felt about the book.  I did the same thing rushing to read it before AvX started.  For more of my thoughts - here's the full review

This book is about as big a title as Marvel could put out.  It's one of their premier artists, given license to put the story out at his own pace along with a major TV and Eisner Award wining writer.  Despite this, Avenger's: the Children's Crusade is a tough book to get a handle on.  There are many parts that are excellent, but unfortunately there are several issues with the story.

It's easy to start with the good.  Jim Cheung's artwork is simply outstanding through out the entire book.  There is not a single page where the ready feels that the artist is taking a shortcut or sacrificing for the sake of putting out a story.  His figures are outstanding, faces show every bit of emotion, there are always detailed backgrounds.  In fact, Mr. Cheung's artwork improves as the story progresses, something that is typically seen in the inverse in modern comics.

Allan Heinberg's dialogue is everything you expect.  He has a solid grasp on the character's voices (which he should since the Young Avengers are his creation).  The 'witty' banter during the course of the story make the book a pleasure to read.  The story rarely feels slow, it's tense and exciting as necessary.  The story also (unexpectedly) takes place on a very grand scale touching and changing large parts of the Marvel Universe.

This is where things start to be problematic.  Avenger's: the Children's Crusade is not for the newly initiated or possibly even for the casual Marvel reader.  This story is vested deep in Marvel continuity.  It pulls on some of the biggest story lines in recent Avenger's and X-Men history and relies heavily on current interpretations of the main cast.  Oh, what a cast we are dealing with, Mr. Heinberg pulls out every action figure from the Marvel toy box.  Every Avenger, many X-Men and all the Young Avenger's have a moment (or at least one clever retort).  This makes it difficult for the reader to develop a strong emotional response to the story.

Then there is the overall story.  The overall arc feels ... forced.  The books opening introduction of the team states how ultimately they are seeking respect and recognition from the main team of Avengers.  The Young Avenger's actions throught the book completely contradicit this original mandate.  It feels like they are on the rails of a ride at Disney World, hitting story point after story point regardless of which way they want to go.  It is hard to shake the feeling that this book was designed to take the Marvel Universe from point A to point B and using the Young Avenegers just seemed the most expiedent way to get there.

Avengers: The Children's Crusade is definately worth reading if you need to keep up on the current status of the Marvel universe, you want to look at 9 issues of beautifully rendered comic art, or you really need one more taste into Mr. Heinberg's creation.  If you are looking for a solid story top to bottom, with character arcs that make sense stick to the original two volumes of Young Avengers.

Overall I gave it a 3 of 5.