A POX ON TEMPY FOR PUTTING A POX

They're all very good singularly, but Jeff help you if you try to make it work in a continuity guff sense. Batman & Robin is excellent, but the above applies again. As long as you can ignore everything to do with the stupid continuity stuff, it's a great time.

so, bought and read Civil War and realised I'd already read it. Still, it was good fun all round. What stories/runs should I follow on from it?

Gremill wrote:

Olimite wrote:

Gremill wrote:

Olimite wrote:

Want to get the Batman and Robin (Morrison) books. Can someone clarify if there are just three?

I think so, I've just ordered the 2nd and 3rd. Very good they are too. Battle for the Cowl is the companion piece to it, which is also good.

I notice a lot of Morrison Bats books as well when browsing. Do they all interlink? If there's some stuff before B&R (Batman RIP perhaps?) then I'd like to get that first.

Batman RIP, Batman & Son and Batman: The Black Glove are all part of a trilogy onwards towards Battle for the Cowl and B&R. I loved all of them, but then I like pretty much everything Morrison does!

Cheers Grem. Will hit up Amazon today.

Does anyone know if Comics International is still published? I'd like to read something (hard copy) that talks about upcoming releases, etc. There was another, much larger publication I used to read which I used to order monthly batches of comics from (I think) Comics Warehouse. Dammit, I wish I remembered its name.

Are you in New Zealand?

That happens quite a lot. The prices for a whole heap of stuff on the American Amazon is turns out cheaper than the UK one, largely down to getting the Super Saver discount, I think.

Blue Swirl wrote:

Just put an order in for Animal Man volume 1. Due to economic weirdness, it's actually cheaper to get it shipped from the US than it is to buy a copy from a New Zealand retailer.

Is that the Grant Morrison run? Brilliant stuff if it is.

Gremill wrote:

Started to re-read B&R vol.1 in prep for 2&3 arriving. Had forgotten how good it was. Frank Quitely is amazing, some stunning art alongside a great story.

While I generally can't stand Superman, I loved the artwork in All-Star Superman.

The first issue of Animal Man was astonishingly good. I need that trade too!

Was recently making my way through Earth X, thought it was superbly epic until it hit Universe and Paradise, then it got far too confusing for its own good. Enjoyed seeing older versions of the heroes like Captain America though, reminded me a lot of Dark Knight Returns.

Next on the agenda is making my way through some of the big Marvel crossovers, like Secret War and World War Hulk. Thought House of M was brilliant and Civil War was a bit pish, so I'm guessing they'll be hit and miss.

Just read the synopsis on wiki, saves money/time/braincells.

Blue Swirl wrote:

Gremill wrote:

Is that the Grant Morrison run? Brilliant stuff if it is.

No, it's from the first lot of TPBs for DC's New 52. I'm tempted to go back and read some of the old Animal Man stuff; I bought the New 52 Swamp Thing #1 on a whim (the cover looked awesome), loved it so much I tracked down the Alan Moore stuff. Which was also awesome. If I enjoy this TPB I won't take much persuading to get the Morrison stuff.

As I've said on here* before, if you're reading the new Swamp Thing, you pretty much have to read the new Animal Man.  They're both excellent, and their stories are very much interlinked.  

I am however massively biased as Morrison's Animal Man run remains my favourite comic book story ever.  It's what got me into comics in the first place (I have them all from issue 5 - which is basically all Morrison's career condensed into one comic - onwards.)  It has a couple of blips - it has to fit into other continuity issues within DC at the time, and Morrison sometimes gets a bit too preachy - but even these are ultimately played with and subverted by the end.  No idea if I would feel the same way if I came to it fresh now, but as a teenager it blew my little mind.  (Milligan's short stint after Morrison is surreally entertaining if ultimately lightweight.  I wouldn't bother after that until you get to the new run.)

Most pleasing for me is that the team behind the new Animal Man, whilst taking it in a totally different direction  (again, if you've read Swamp Thing you know what to expect), have remembered to keep the soul of it the same.  Namely, the whole thing's as much about Buddy's family, and what it's like to have a superhero husband/Dad as it is about Buddy himself.  (Who remains, weirdly, a superhero who is rarely in charge of his destiny.)  Somehow both the original and the reboot have managed to do that without becoming unbearably cheesy.  (Although I've no idea whether the new version will keep it that way.)

(*by "here" I probably mean the old place.)

Browsing local Waterstones on the way back from the gym and I bought the first book of Preacher. Sod finishing House of M i'm reading this first.

I bought these about 3 weeks ago


And for some reason they've just sat there and I haven't read them. Must try harder.

Bollockoff wrote:

Browsing local Waterstones on the way back from the gym and I bought the first book of Preacher. Sod finishing House of M i'm reading this first.

The whole of Preacher is very good. I really enjoyed it. A great choice.

tin_robot wrote:

So after harping on about Animal Man and Swamp Thing yesterday, I discovered that the Animal Man Annual was released the same day.  Which is a crossover with Swamp Thing.  So you might want to check that out too.  (It's a stand alone story, but also basically a mini version of the story so far.  It's not the finest hour of either, but an entertaining read none the less.)

Aye, I want to get the annual, but my local comic store is beyond useless. Might have to try to track it down via another supplier. I've given my local enough chances.


In other news, here's a quite interesting article about how Loki won in 'The Avengers'. Makes sense to me. Warning, article contains massive spoilers for 'The Avengers', 'Thor', and by association the rest of the Avengers films.