999 Reading Challenge Review and Discussion Tread

[Night (Travis) Nurse]

Well you summed up nicely what I felt about the book.  I did the same thing rushing to read it before AvX started.


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.

Yea, there's the other words I couldn't find. you hit the nail on the head with this wrap up.

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  

I think its amusing, and Im guilty of this too. But in a world that has a million super hero titles we can easily read 5+ without having to PICK a favorite. However, if there are two mouse books there must be a winner. Both books are set up completely different with largely different plots and mythos so there should be no problem reading both. Im going to continue reading Mouse Guard because it is beautiful and I think reading it to my kids will be grand. And I would never say your wrong Jeppe ... but your wrong  

Another read today, Dar: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary Vol. 2. Erika Moen is a strangely funny, talented and open person. Chronicling her late 20's in a two volume collected web comic. She puts it all out there. Her sexuality, bodily fluids and relationships. Its all very funny and at some times intense and sad. Few times It left me feeling awkward looking into someones most intimate moments. In the follow up to the first collection we get more of the same. The only difference here is that only the first half is collected from the web comic and the other half was stuff she did in her early 20's while still finding herself. Some of it comes off as pretentious, emo art which on its own would have done nothing for me. But seeing her growth was really a neat aspect of the work.

Travis

[Jon O]

I don't have the second half of DAR yet, but I loved the first one.  Erika Moen comes off so funny and so genuine.

[S. Earl]

Finished West Coast Blues

After the years of hearing praises being sung for Jacques Tardi  on the show, I had pretty high expectations. The face that this was described as a Crime Noir, one of my favorite genres, also piqued my interest. Sadly I’d give it a B-, and that is pretty much on the art alone and a few choice captions of narrative I found enjoyable. The overall story, which I would have a hard time describing to anyone save saying a guy is almost killed, ends up becoming a hobo, and then kills some other people only to end up right where he started, seemed all over the place. The cartooning was spot on though, I can see where the love for Tardi’s art comes from. My main problem here is with the writer he collaborated with, and I think my next attempt at his work will be Adèle Blanc-Sec series, where that won’t be a problem.

[erikh42]

I think my next attempt at his work will be Adèle Blanc-Sec series, where that won’t be a problem.[/spoiler]

Read the Arctic Marauder, it's what got me hooked on Tardi.

[Jon O]

1/9 of the way through!

Superheroes!
Showcase Presents Metal Men 1

I love this stuff.  While the stories are a bit dated (and crazy sexist) there is nothing about these issues that doesn't scream ridiculous fun.  There was a moment where a giant underwater robot goes to Neptune, asks for control of the seas to command sharks to form a harpoon.  Then the giant robot throws the shark harpoon at the Metal Men.  Freaking awesome.  If DC ever asked me what project I'd want to work on, it'd be the Metal Men.  What a great team.

[Night (Travis) Nurse]

After this challenge is over were all going to have to sit down and have a lengthy discussion on the pros and cons of Tardi. There seems to be lots of diverse opinions and even those that aren't to keen on one, may like another one or are willing to try Tardi again.

Travis

[whirlwindx]

After this challenge is over were all going to have to sit down and have a lengthy discussion on the pros and cons of Tardi. There seems to be lots of diverse opinions and even those that aren't to keen on one, may like another one or are willing to try Tardi again.

Travis

Some people have me worried if I'll enjoy other Tardi volumes now if they vary in quality or tone too much. The only one I've read is West Coast Blues which I enjoyed.

[whirlwindx]

Double digits! 10 down.

Mega Man Megamix Vol.1
Much like the Mega Man Archie series this manga series chronicles Mega Man's video game adventures going through 1-3 of the series. It's interesting to compare the series since they definitely cover some of the same beats but eventually Megamix introduces it's own elements and expands Mega Man's world beyond what was seen in the games. Iceman for example still does some puns in his dialogue. The series doesn't focus on going through all the levels and following the order to defeat the robot masters religiously. It even gets around to telling it's own original story and giving the Mega Man series more depth and emotion by the end. I look forward to reading more. I would recommend this to any Mega Man fan or fan of the Archie series.

[S. Earl]

Double digits! 10 down.

Mega Man Megamix Vol.1
Much like the Mega Man Archie series this manga series chronicles Mega Man's video game adventures going through 1-3 of the series. It's interesting to compare the series since they definitely cover some of the same beats but eventually Megamix introduces it's own elements and expands Mega Man's world beyond what was seen in the games. Iceman for example still does some puns in his dialogue. The series doesn't focus on going through all the levels and following the order to defeat the robot masters religiously. It even gets around to telling it's own original story and giving the Mega Man series more depth and emotion by the end. I look forward to reading more. I would recommend this to any Mega Man fan or fan of the Archie series.

Interesting, I was under the impression that Archie's Mega Man Comics were the first. I assume these are a Japanese import?

[whirlwindx]

Interesting, I was under the impression that Archie's Mega Man Comics were the first. I assume these are a Japanese import?

I guess I should have mentioned they were put out by Udon. There's another series called Gigamix. I think both are 3 volume series. From reading the introduction it seems like there have been multiple manga about Mega Man in Japan.

[Jeppe]

After this challenge is over were all going to have to sit down and have a lengthy discussion on the pros and cons of Tardi. There seems to be lots of diverse opinions and even those that aren't to keen on one, may like another one or are willing to try Tardi again.

Definitely! Between this forum, the EOC podcast, and the DCB podcast, the range of responses to Tardi really intrigues me 

[erikh42]

Catching up on my reviews.  Here's last night's book, Last of the Greats.  (It's surprising tough to write a bad review).

Last of the Greats by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Brent Peeples came out three years too late.  It's not that the book was delayed, but all the themes that this book addresses have not only been addressed else where, but have been presented better than they are in this volume.

[MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD]

This book looks at the Superman archtype gone bad.  In this case it seems as though the character was never good.  However, at the very least he wants the Earth to think he is good, despite the fact he loathes humanity.  After watching his sibilings be destroyed by humanity it is unclear why he wants them to worship him and believe that he is acting in their best interests.  His wanton actions are clearly shown, as he partakes of killing children and homosexual male rape,but they add little to the story or the character arc.

Additionally, over the five issues, there is not that much story.  None of the questions raised are answered in the arc.  There are no conclusions to any of the situations that the author has presented.  While there is the promise of subsequent arcs the lack of resolution in this first trade leaves the reader with little motivation to continue.

If you really want to read a fine work in this vein read Waid's Irredeemable or Tomasi's The Mighty.

[Night (Travis) Nurse]

Catching up on my reviews.  Here's last night's book, Last of the Greats.  (It's surprising tough to write a bad review).

Additionally, over the five issues, there is not that much story.  None of the questions raised are answered in the arc.  There are no conclusions to any of the situations that the author has presented.  While there is the promise of subsequent arcs the lack of resolution in this first trade leaves the reader with little motivation to continue.

If you really want to read a fine work in this vein read Waid's Irredeemable or Tomasi's The Mighty.

I read this as it was coming out and your review sums up my feelings toward the book. So little happens that I think I was averaging less then 10 minutes per issue to get through it. To many questions with not enough rewards make me not coming back for the second volume.

Travis

[Jon O]

I've been eyeing the Udon Mega Man series for awhile now.  Thanks for the impressions. 

[ford]

I've just broken 20 (comic) books, so far everything has been quite enjoyable.
I'm expecting to get fatigued soon because at the same time as my 999 reading I've been reading my weekly comics as well an additional trade or two.
The only reason I can work out for my excessive reading is that my sub-conscious is making me burn through the comics so I can spend the remaining months leisurely reading the book books.

[erikh42]

I read this as it was coming out and your review sums up my feelings toward the book. So little happens that I think I was averaging less then 10 minutes per issue to get through it. To many questions with not enough rewards make me not coming back for the second volume.

Travis

That's two for two that we're minds a like - I'm going to have to go through your list and see what else we should be tag teaming on.

[Purdie]

I'm 11 down, here are some reviews...

Bound Books - Garth Ennis’ Hellblazer Volume 1 – #41 – 63 & Volume 2 – #64 – 83, 129 - 133

Like all of my bound volumes, I got them bound so I would have a cool hardback volume and so I would be able to re-read them easily.  Most of them however have just sat on the shelf (looking cool at least) and have not been read.  I thought I’d begin this category of the reading challenge with the 2 volumes of Garth Ennis’s Hellblazer... and what a great place to start.  I just love this run.  It’s a great example of a run that is comprised of multi part stories and one shots the come together in the end as a whole much greater than its parts.

The story starts with Constantine getting lung cancer (the story used as a basis for the movie) and the trick he pulls on the devil (or First of the Fallen as he’s more regularly called) to get out of that.  The devil is obviously none to please and plots his revenge against Constantine.  There are stories that are not directly related to this ‘battle’ but the thread runs through rest of the run until its brilliant climax in issue 83.  Issues 129 – 133, a story called Son or Man, are not directly related to the first run though it does include a number of familiar characters.  It’s a good little story that’s about Constantine dealing with a choice he made 16 years ago.  It doesn’t fit the tone of the long run but it’s fine none the less. 

Alan Moore - Smax #1 – 5 by Alan Moore and Zander Cannon

I loved this.  It’s like comedy Lord of the Rings meets League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  The League similarity is maybe a slight one but it reminded me of it because of all the chicken fat (thanks to Vince B for that term) included in the series.  Just like in LOEG the series is littered with references to other works in the background and on a few occasions in the foreground.  Also just like LOEG I’m sure I didn’t get all of the references but that’s part of the fun.  The Harry Potter references in particular are all over the place and one of these provides one of the funniest bits in the series.

The story concerns Smax and Toybox travelling to Smax’s home dimension for his uncle’s funeral.  Whilst there, against his better judgement, Smax gets pulled back into his old profession as a dragon slayer and through this has a chance to slay some personal demons as well as a particularly nasty dragon.  I must admit it didn’t feel the same as the Top Ten books but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment.  Fun book.

Hardback Regina - Invincible Ultimate Collection Volume 7 by Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley

I switched from singles to ultimate collections with this volume of Invincible so it’s been a long time since I read this title.  Unlike the Walking Dead, which I also read in the collected hardbacks, I didn’t pick this one up all that seamlessly.  The last single I read was the Invincible Returns one shot which I think came out almost 2 years ago so I couldn’t really remember everything that was happening in the series.  That said a few issues in and I was back on track. 

This collection covers the end of the Viltrumite war and leads to a change of outlook for Invincible that is going to put him at odds with the Global Defence Agency.  The Viltrumite war is a bloody affair and ends with an unexpected twist that I’m not sure how I feel about yet.  It makes sense but it lacked closure for me.  Also, I thought the choice to keep Invincible and his dad and brother out of the war for months while he’s injured was a strange one too.  But those are nitpicks, I really enjoyed the volume and look forward to the next one. 

Hardback Regina - Torso by Brian Michael Bendis

I been a fan of (most of) Bendis’s work since Daredevil but I hadn’t read any of his older crime books.  That’s changing now that Marvel is releasing the hardcover collections.  The book is based on the true story of the Torso Murderer, a serial killer operating in Cleveland in the 30’s, and the team of police officers trying to catch him led by Eliot (Untouchables) Ness. 

This book is ‘based’ on true events so I’m not sure where artistic licence has been taken but the story here is a good one with interesting characters.  I did struggle a bit with the art.  I wouldn’t say it was bad but it was difficult to follow in places and the copying and pasting was distracting.  I understand why this is sometimes done but I didn’t like it here.  But this didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book overall.   

[S. Earl]

I'm 11 down, here are some reviews...

Bound Books - Garth Ennis’ Hellblazer Volume 1 – #41 – 63 & Volume 2 – #64 – 83, 129 - 133

Like all of my bound volumes, I got them bound so I would have a cool hardback volume and so I would be able to re-read them easily.  Most of them however have just sat on the shelf (looking cool at least) and have not been read.  I thought I’d begin this category of the reading challenge with the 2 volumes of Garth Ennis’s Hellblazer... and what a great place to start.  I just love this run.  It’s a great example of a run that is comprised of multi part stories and one shots the come together in the end as a whole much greater than its parts.

The story starts with Constantine getting lung cancer (the story used as a basis for the movie) and the trick he pulls on the devil (or First of the Fallen as he’s more regularly called) to get out of that.  The devil is obviously none to please and plots his revenge against Constantine.  There are stories that are not directly related to this ‘battle’ but the thread runs through rest of the run until its brilliant climax in issue 83.  Issues 129 – 133, a story called Son or Man, are not directly related to the first run though it does include a number of familiar characters.  It’s a good little story that’s about Constantine dealing with a choice he made 16 years ago.  It doesn’t fit the tone of the long run but it’s fine none the less. 

Alan Moore - Smax #1 – 5 by Alan Moore and Zander Cannon

I loved this.  It’s like comedy Lord of the Rings meets League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  The League similarity is maybe a slight one but it reminded me of it because of all the chicken fat (thanks to Vince B for that term) included in the series.  Just like in LOEG the series is littered with references to other works in the background and on a few occasions in the foreground.  Also just like LOEG I’m sure I didn’t get all of the references but that’s part of the fun.  The Harry Potter references in particular are all over the place and one of these provides one of the funniest bits in the series.

The story concerns Smax and Toybox travelling to Smax’s home dimension for his uncle’s funeral.  Whilst there, against his better judgement, Smax gets pulled back into his old profession as a dragon slayer and through this has a chance to slay some personal demons as well as a particularly nasty dragon.  I must admit it didn’t feel the same as the Top Ten books but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment.  Fun book.

Hardback Regina - Invincible Ultimate Collection Volume 7 by Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley

I switched from singles to ultimate collections with this volume of Invincible so it’s been a long time since I read this title.  Unlike the Walking Dead, which I also read in the collected hardbacks, I didn’t pick this one up all that seamlessly.  The last single I read was the Invincible Returns one shot which I think came out almost 2 years ago so I couldn’t really remember everything that was happening in the series.  That said a few issues in and I was back on track. 

This collection covers the end of the Viltrumite war and leads to a change of outlook for Invincible that is going to put him at odds with the Global Defence Agency.  The Viltrumite war is a bloody affair and ends with an unexpected twist that I’m not sure how I feel about yet.  It makes sense but it lacked closure for me.  Also, I thought the choice to keep Invincible and his dad and brother out of the war for months while he’s injured was a strange one too.  But those are nitpicks, I really enjoyed the volume and look forward to the next one. 

Hardback Regina - Torso by Brian Michael Bendis

I been a fan of (most of) Bendis’s work since Daredevil but I hadn’t read any of his older crime books.  That’s changing now that Marvel is releasing the hardcover collections.  The book is based on the true story of the Torso Murderer, a serial killer operating in Cleveland in the 30’s, and the team of police officers trying to catch him led by Eliot (Untouchables) Ness. 

This book is ‘based’ on true events so I’m not sure where artistic licence has been taken but the story here is a good one with interesting characters.  I did struggle a bit with the art.  I wouldn’t say it was bad but it was difficult to follow in places and the copying and pasting was distracting.  I understand why this is sometimes done but I didn’t like it here.  But this didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book overall.   

Good stuff! You can't go wrong with Ennis' Hellblazer. I think he blazed a trail (sorry) for all of those that followed, I think he did more for the character in the long wrong then his creator did. I'm very proud of my run of Hellblazer comics, and I need to get around to binding some of it, especially considering there are chunks that are yet to be collected (mostly the Jenkins/Phillips era)

I really need to read Smax. I've been meaning to read the other Top 10 volumes for a while now, I've only read the first two trades.

I wonder how Bendis' of earth 2 evolved, when he stuck with drawing as opposed to writing. There was a gem of something really special in his crime comics artwork.

[Farrell]

The Tardi I've read has all been Adele Blanc Sec stuff that was published in Dark Horse's Euro anthology Cheval Noir, along with a story called "The Roach Killer" from the same anthology.  I didn't care for it much.  Both his art and his writing left me cold.  Because of that, I haven't tried his war comics (Sniper, Trenches), West Coast Blues or Arctic Marauder[/i].

On the "mouse" front: Heather and I are both fans of Mouse Guard.  Beautiful art and simple stories.  I can see where Mice Templar might be more involved, but reading the first issue several years ago, I was left thinking it was more convoluted and confusing than anything else.  I'm a pretty savvy and experienced comics reader, and I could barely tell what was going on.  Considering how much friends like Travis and (Neverwanderer) Joey love it, it's at the top of my list of "give it another try" books.

[DoctorTeeth]

1/9 of the way through!

Superheroes!
Showcase Presents Metal Men 1

I love this stuff.  While the stories are a bit dated (and crazy sexist) there is nothing about these issues that doesn't scream ridiculous fun.  There was a moment where a giant underwater robot goes to Neptune, asks for control of the seas to command sharks to form a harpoon.  Then the giant robot throws the shark harpoon at the Metal Men.  Freaking awesome.  If DC ever asked me what project I'd want to work on, it'd be the Metal Men.  What a great team.

Awww yeah! I loved the Showcase Presents: Metal Men collections; some of my favourite Silver Age DC characters being weird and wacky. If you liked them, you should try the Showcase Metamorpho collection, which is easily my favourite Showcase.