It won't, it'll be shit.

Next door neighbour is a comics guy. And a lovely bloke. Hammering Ex Machina right now thanks to him. Good stuff. 

One volume to go for Black Science. Awesome fun.

Saga still cracking too. Gonna do Watchmen again thanks to the series.

Dinostar77 wrote:

Marvel comics have acquired the rights to Alien and Predator, which means that they will soon appear in Marvel stories. This could be interesting....

Novelty be damned, I'll be all over an Avengers Vs Alien.

In other news, I just finished Killing Joke. It was rather good. A mild let down after spending most of my life being told it was the greatest thing since sliced handjobs.

Is anyone else reading the new Hellblazer run?

It's absolutely great - Constantine's finally Constantine again - Spurrier absolutely gets him in a way no-one has in a long while. (I'd go so far as to say, to date, it's the best take since Delano's original run.)  Not only is the reliable bastard with a conscience of old, but the social commentary is back with a vengeance too.  It's a comic bristling with anger at the version of Britain we find ourselves in now, as well as surprising empathy for all the broken people within it.  The current run has a slight wobble when it detours into the comedy apprentice installed in John's absence, but has firmly kicked back in, with #6 in particular being an absolute belter.

If you had any love for the character in the past, but let it slide as he became more and more just a DC guest character, it's worth picking up.

Speaking of Spurrier - his recently completed run on The Dreaming is also excellent.  Of the original 4 Sandman spin-offs that were announced a while back, Dreaming was the one that seemed most likely to stumble. A return to the world of The Sandman, only without Dream, seemed a bit pointless - and the previous Dreaming comic in the 90s seemed to spend most of its time struggling with the burden of "not being The Sandman".  Instead I'd say it was the only one of the four that seems essential in retrospect (Lucifer's beautifully drawn, but narratively not that interesting, Books of Magic feels a bit too much like it should sit in the "Young Adult" section and I really tried to like House of Whispers but...  I didn't.)

The future of The Dreaming seems a bit uncertain at the moment - G. Willow Wilson was supposed to be taking it over, but it's also officially cancelled, with her effort apparently being a limited series instead.  Or something.  It doesn't matter - indeed in some ways it works in its favour - Spurrier's run is wonderfully self contained, with everything tying up neatly and beautifully (Bilquis Eveley's art is amazing throughout, but the finale's exquisite) at the end.

So, yeah, read them both.

Just finished watching the Watchmen movie extended cut.

Gonna redo the book soon. 

On rewatch and with the extended version, I'd like to say it's pretty faithful, is my memory right? Took about 4 sittings to do it as it clocks in at 3.5 hours.
I assume that, apart from the BLM angle, is what had the incel nazis knickers in a twist?

Plus, it'd be a hell of a lot harder to do a sequel series in a post-nuke America than a localised post-squid America.

The Dark Horse Aliens and Predator comics still hold a special place in my heart (or nestled behind the ribcage at least). I read a lot of them as a teenager and I think they really captured the essence of the movies. However as I grew up I got a bit tired of the 'basically almost everyone dies and it all ends on a downer' narrative structure, that also made me dislike the Matrix comics. It's okay for a movie, but the endless atrocity exhibition of the comics wore me down.

I enjoyed the Dredd vs Aliens crossover, but I can't imagine Marvel's reimagining will please many fans - especially if it's closer to the new Predator movie.

Time_on_my_hands wrote:

The Dark Horse Aliens and Predator comics still hold a special place in my heart (or nestled behind the ribcage at least).

This comment means you win the thread.

Nay - you win the forum.

Started the first volume of Scott Snyder & Charles Soule's 'Undiscovered Country', which I've been waiting on for a long time.

It's as mental, imaginative and ambitious as I hoped it would be.

Finally had time to catch up on some comics today, only to discover Hellblazer's been cancelled.

I mentioned before how good Spurrier's run with this is/was.  It was cancelled back in August, before the TPB had even been published, as it "wasn't making enough money."  Seemingly a victim of AT&T's takeover of DC as much as anything else.

Spurrier was, at least, given enough notice to finish the specific story he was telling, even though it's abundantly clear there were plenty more he wanted to tell.  I mentioned I thought it was of the quality of early Constantine, but in truth, I'm going to controversially suggest it surpassed it.  As a comic for this particular moment in time, it's pretty much perfect.  Constantine's as brilliantly drawn as he ever was, but if the world ever needed a complete bastard with a conscience, it does so right now.  The whole run gently pulls at what's going on with the world, but particularly England - and the poisoning of our cultural through a toxic blend of fear and pride.  I say "gently" - the need to finish quickly means that the ending is a little rushed (though still very well realised), with any notion of subtlety thrown out the window with the reveal of....
That's two books in a row that Spurrier's written for DC, had rave reviews, and then had cancelled from under him.  I'm hoping he finds another outlet soon - for my money he's one of the best voices in comics right now.

In the meantime - you should read it.  Maybe if enough people do, the algorithm that decides these things will bring it back, with Spurrier in tow.  It's good, really really good, and despite the cancellation, the story does at least have an ending - if all too soon.

tin_robot wrote:

Seemingly a victim of AT&T's takeover of DC as much as anything else.

Why is the first thing someone does after buying a company always "fire a shit ton of people"?

I watched Amazon's star studded version of Invincible last week, then remembered I had the original 2003 TPB, from when it came out, sitting around (comics were thing and easy to take to Uni) was interesting jumping back that far and seeing how far Kirkman has come in the intervening 17 years.


Then I downloaded all 25 TPB volumes and read it over the course of a few days. 3000 pages. Yikes! It's really good, surprising now one, and it gets better and more mature as it goes on. I think I prefer Corey Walker's art when he's on design duty, but I really couldn't say a bad word about Ryan Ottley's pencilling, it's so good, especially in conversation panels, and panels of great, horrid violence, of which there is a lot.

It's fun picking up all the references to other superhero comics and mythologies, whether obviously knowing or subtle, and it's interesting to see the whole idea of the the modern superhero condensed into such a relatively short space of time versus the typical 50 year sprawl that other comics have had. It's a bit like All-Star Superman in that it deals with a lot of subjects rapidly, but it has more time to breathe than Morrison's experiment, and it has to create its own mythology to call back on, and it does it really well. Clones? Alternate dimensions? Intergalactic Wars? The Avengers? Civil War? Ultron? Costume changes? Child Superheros? Deaths and returns? Do-overs? Evil Geniuses? Benevolent Genius? Secret Government Agencies? Faked Deaths? Permanent Deaths? All that shit? It's in there.

The only uncomfortable parts are the bits where Kirkman is sill writing a bit early 2ks. Bad stuff is gay, everyone is always shagging, it's good when Eve puts on weight cos she gets bigger tits and a fat ass etc. Later on this stuff cools, a little, but it's about the same time that Ottley's art gets a bit more sexualised and it's always focussed on the ladies. It fits with the world of Invincible I guess, but it's never something I really grew to stomach or ignore, especially when it's highlighted in the sketch sections. But that's what happens when 90% of your crew is guys I guess. (the Animated show is more progressive in some respect especially by knocking all the gay-bashing on the head immediately, though I do wonder how some of these changes will play out over time)

A minor blemish on an interesting ride of a comic, that otherwise raises interesting questions, puts the critical lens on the ideas of superheroism, whilst also getting to have its bloody, violent, cake at the same time. Highly recommended, especially if you're a fan of superhero stuff but can't be dealing with the sprawling, impossible chronology of catching up with Spider-man or Superman, and knowing they will never end. Spoilers, this one does, and it's beautiful.








Love it.

[font=Whitney, ]Comixology have a sale on What If? at the moment. All 47 issues of the '77 - '84 run for just under €36.[/font]

Holy shit I havent thought about Invincible in over a decade.

Blue Swirl wrote:

"What If" is getting an animated series or something, right?

Sure is, real soon.

So the Marvel alien/predator thing, which I'm guessing has been and gone, got some variant covers in other books to act as promotion. What I'm wondering is why they decided to give the Invisible Woman a square arse for this issue of Fantastic Four.