![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Things I have read lately: Comics!
AKA PART TWO OF DOOOOOOM. Seriously, though, I ... read a lot of comics? And I meant to do this at the end of January, so every day I procrastinated on this the list increased exponentially, so what I read in the beginning of January was, like, 250 comics ago. NOT EVEN EXAGGERATING, IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING. COMICS READ SO FAR THIS YEAR: 276 299 SEE WHAT I MEAN ABOUT PROCRASTINATING.
So, in roughly chronological order:
Batman and Robin
This started off so ... well, like a regular comic, IT WAS SO GREAT. And then around the third trade it got super Morrison-y on me, which I should have been expecting. STILL GREAT, THOUGH. AND SUPER DISTURBING. AND WEIRD AND SLIGHTLY HARD TO FOLLOW TOWARDS THE END. BUT GREAT.
Birds of Prey
I'm only through the first few trades so far (pre-Gail Simone era, when the comics were all collected kind of sporadically), but I enjoyed it. True story: The other day J was reading a poll about the best non-canon DC couple, and Black Canary/Oracle was on it, and we were all like WHAT DO YOU MEAN, NON-CANON. What I'm saying is, they are really amazing, and probably the best reason to read this so far. I'm looking forward to the Simone era, though!
Young Avengers
Okay, so, between my marathoning of Young Avengers and the ongoing Hawkeye, I am 100% in love with Kate Bishop. ALSO SO EXCITED HER YA PRESENTS ISSUE IS SUPPOSEDLY GOING TO BE INCLUDED IN THE FIRST HAWKEYE TRADE? Because that was hands down my favourite, loved it so much. At first I was slightly ... IDK, nervous about seeing Clint in YA, because their relationship in Hawkeye is SO GREAT and I didn't want it to be not great here, but then it was still pretty much super amazing. Also, I really, really enjoyed Children's Crusade, despite the unnecessarily tragic ending, P.S. WANDA'S KIDS LOOK EXACTLY LIKE HER AND QUICKSILVER AND ONE OF THEM HAS PIETRO'S EXACT POWERS and all I'm saying is I will never not love their slightly ambiguous ~sibling relationship.
Also, I really wish people would stop bitching about the new YA #1, like, I get it if you didn't enjoy it? (But not if you start slut-shaming Kate, then you can GTFO.) But it's been one issue, it's literally impossible to say a series definitively sucks after one freaking issue. Just - calm down. (Although, it did make me wonder how big Loki's role is going to be, and much I should really go back and read Gillen's run of Journey into Mystery even though I really don't care about Loki at all, IDK.)
Runaways
For whatever reason, I had very little interest in reading this, except I kept running up against YA/Runaways crossovers so I figured, what the hell, I might as well give a shot. AND IT WAS AMAZING, SUCK IT PAST ME YOU WERE SO WRONG. KAROLINA <3 <3 <3 AND NICO AND MOLLY AND GERT AND CHASE, I CANNOT EVEN BELIEVE IT ENDED WHERE IT DID. Apparently it's on "hiatus" rather than actually cancelled, but since there hasn't been a new issue since 2009 I'm not really sure what the difference is. MORE RUNAWAYS PLZ.
Things I loved: Molly and how she's super amazing and wants to marry Wolverine until she meets him, then she beats him up and thinks he's stupid. WOLVERINE GETTING BEATEN UP BY PRE-TEEN GIRLS: NEVER NOT AMAZING. Karolina and all her feelings ever, the relationship between her and Nico even after Karolina kisses her, Xavin and the way her gender fluidity was resolved and her relationship with Karolina in general, so great. INTERGALACTIC LESBIAN BETROTHALS FTW.
Things I didn't love: Joss Whedon's run, the story itself just didn't do anything for me and it was just ... too removed from what Runaways is usually all about for me, too many steps for me to take for me to be on board with what was going on, he lost me pretty early on. And IDEK what was going on the Victor and that other chick (SORRY I DON'T REMEMBER HER NAME I'VE READ LIKE A HUNDRED COMICS SINCE THEN), I guess (because Nico helpfully exposited it) he was trying to sell some epic forever love at first sight thing but I did not get that AT ALL, all I got was Victor was dating Nico and she finally starting referring to him as her boyfriend and that was a huge step for their relationship and then SHARP RIGHT TURN INTO WHATEVER THE HELL IS GOING ON NOW. Probably an unpopular opinion, since people seem to talk about his run all the time. (I was also surprised how short it was, given how much I've heard about it, like, he wrote six issues, and all I ever really seemed to hear about was JOSS WHEDON OMG and hardly a mention of Brian K. Vaughan at all - like, at one point I was under the impression that Runaways was entirely Whedon's creation?) Also the story arc with Alex's dad, but the rest of it was amazing.
New X-Men
Okay, so, speaking of Morrison-y? I actually read half of this a couple of years ago, but, being Morrison, it's pretty dense at times, and I just never ended up finishing it until now. I was actually pretty disappointed by the second volume (I read them in the three-volume Ultimate Collection), which, unlike the first and, to a lesser extent, third volumes, didn't seem to have any kind of coherent arc tying it together, BUT LOLING FOREVER AT THE XORN REVEAL, SO AMAZING. And, like - it feels like that kind of ~sudden reveal could be pulled by pretty much any superhero comic ever and just be super cheap, but the thing about Morrison is that he fucking plans his shit, so it's literally something he intended since before Xorn was even introduced and not just the last-minute ass-pull it probably would have been anywhere else. WHICH DOESN'T MEAN IT WASN'T KIND OF HILARIOUS, LIKE, EVEN BEING SEMI-SPOILED FOR THERE BEING SOMETHING UP WITH XORN, I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT. And apparently that was all retconned after the title reverted back to X-Men v.2? Which is even more ridiculous, XORN WAS NOT EVER A FUCKING CHARACTER, HE DID NOT EXIST HE WAS A MADE UP PERSON, HE CANNOT HAVE A TWIN BROTHER ALSO HIS "POWERS" WERE HEALING AND HAVING A SUN FOR A HEAD, EVEN IF HE WERE REAL HE IS NOT THE MASTER OF FUCKING MAGNETISM AND HE COULD NOT ALMOST SWITCH THE NORTH AND SOUTH POLES. Er, sorry. Comics rage blackout. Basically, I'm super glad I finally got around to finishing this, and I still love the first volume (and the establishing of Scott/Emma, NICE WORK THERE MORRISON), but it's definitely not the kind of thing I'd casually re-read.
Astonishing X-Men
And this is the part where I forgive Joss Whedon for the whole Runaways thing, because his run on Astonishing X-Men is one of my favourite comics runs ever. I'd read the first few trades a while ago, but wanted to wait to re-read/continue the series until I'd finally finished New X-Men, AND THEN I DID AND I GOT TO READ THIS AGAIN AND IT WAS AMAZING. Not so much Ellis' run, though I honestly missed Cassaday's art even more than Whedon's writing. And I actually really enjoyed the Monstrous and Meanwhile storylines, which seems like (yet another) unpopular opinion given other people's reactions I've seen; that's as much as I've read so far (so I'm roughly one trade and about a year's worth of single issues behind), and I have a vague idea about where the series goes from here, so, we'll see how that goes, LOVING WHEDON'S RUN FOREVER THOUGH.
X-23
X-23 <3 <3 <3 I JUST WANT TO HUG HER, P.S. FUCK OFF CAPTAIN AMERICA. I'm about halfway through at the moment (have read both minis and the first trade of her ongoing series, little interest in reading X-Force though), and I love X-23 like crazy. And her second mini in particular gave me ALL THE FEELS, like Captain America is standing there being a judgemental asshole and Matt Murdock is, like, being an actual human with feelings IT WAS SO GREAT, NOW I REALLY WANT THEM TO TEAM UP LIKE SOME COMICS-VERSE THE O.C. AU WHERE X-23 IS BASICALLY RYAN ATWOOD AND DAREDEVIL IS HER SANDY COHEN.
New Mutants
New Mutants v.2, that is - I haven't read the first series, but it didn't seem super necessary (except as background for the older generation of characters, but that was pretty well addressed here). Besides which, I just don't go back to the eighties for any comics except Wonder Woman, sorry. I enjoyed this - it was fun to see where it fit into New X-Men in parts - and will probably keep reading Academy X > Young X-Men > New Mutants v.3, which I'm pretty sure is how that goes.
Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man
aka. The Miles Morales comics, p.s. these are super adorable. Confession time: I was never a huge fan of Peter Parker's Spider-Man (though I do really enjoy the animated Ultimate Spider-Man series, which I guess makes me 2 for 2 on unpopular opinions). BUT I REALLY LOVE MILES MORALES, HE IS JUST SUPER ADORABLE. And I pretty much judge the hell out of anyone who hates on Peter Parker being replaced as Spider-Man, THIS IS NOT EVEN THE ONLY SPIDER-MAN ONGOING TITLE. THERE ARE AT LEAST TWO MORE! THIS ONE ISN'T EVEN IN THE REGULAR CONTINUITY! And this is just a fun title, ALL MY FEELS WHEN AUNT MAY GAVE MILES PETER'S WEB SHOOTERS, but man, I had to laugh (or else I'd scream) when Captain America showed up YET AGAIN to tell a teenager they weren't allowed to be a superhero, he and Batman should really team up, they would be thebest worst Superhero Police ever. CAPTAIN AMERICA YOU ARE A JERK <3 <3 ILU GWEN STACY BE MINE 4EVER. SECOND FAVOURITE COMICS PANEL EVER (#1, of course, being Stephanie Brown Slaps Bruce Wayne, because - well, because Stephanie Brown slaps Bruce Wayne, and damn did he have that coming). What I'm saying is, basically, WHEN NICK FURY SAYS YOU CAN BE SPIDER-MAN, WHEN GWEN STACY AND AUNT MAY AND MARY JANE SAY YOU CAN BE SPIDER-MAN, WHEN PETER PARKER'S FREAKING CLONE SAYS YOU CAN BE SPIDER-MAN, CAPTAIN AMERICA DOES NOT GET TO HAVE AN OPINION. I wish we'd gotten the full Jessica Drew reveal, though, and I'm looking forward to more of her and Miles.
So, in roughly chronological order:
Batman and Robin
This started off so ... well, like a regular comic, IT WAS SO GREAT. And then around the third trade it got super Morrison-y on me, which I should have been expecting. STILL GREAT, THOUGH. AND SUPER DISTURBING. AND WEIRD AND SLIGHTLY HARD TO FOLLOW TOWARDS THE END. BUT GREAT.
Birds of Prey
I'm only through the first few trades so far (pre-Gail Simone era, when the comics were all collected kind of sporadically), but I enjoyed it. True story: The other day J was reading a poll about the best non-canon DC couple, and Black Canary/Oracle was on it, and we were all like WHAT DO YOU MEAN, NON-CANON. What I'm saying is, they are really amazing, and probably the best reason to read this so far. I'm looking forward to the Simone era, though!
Young Avengers
Okay, so, between my marathoning of Young Avengers and the ongoing Hawkeye, I am 100% in love with Kate Bishop. ALSO SO EXCITED HER YA PRESENTS ISSUE IS SUPPOSEDLY GOING TO BE INCLUDED IN THE FIRST HAWKEYE TRADE? Because that was hands down my favourite, loved it so much. At first I was slightly ... IDK, nervous about seeing Clint in YA, because their relationship in Hawkeye is SO GREAT and I didn't want it to be not great here, but then it was still pretty much super amazing. Also, I really, really enjoyed Children's Crusade, despite the unnecessarily tragic ending, P.S. WANDA'S KIDS LOOK EXACTLY LIKE HER AND QUICKSILVER AND ONE OF THEM HAS PIETRO'S EXACT POWERS and all I'm saying is I will never not love their slightly ambiguous ~sibling relationship.
Also, I really wish people would stop bitching about the new YA #1, like, I get it if you didn't enjoy it? (But not if you start slut-shaming Kate, then you can GTFO.) But it's been one issue, it's literally impossible to say a series definitively sucks after one freaking issue. Just - calm down. (Although, it did make me wonder how big Loki's role is going to be, and much I should really go back and read Gillen's run of Journey into Mystery even though I really don't care about Loki at all, IDK.)
Runaways
For whatever reason, I had very little interest in reading this, except I kept running up against YA/Runaways crossovers so I figured, what the hell, I might as well give a shot. AND IT WAS AMAZING, SUCK IT PAST ME YOU WERE SO WRONG. KAROLINA <3 <3 <3 AND NICO AND MOLLY AND GERT AND CHASE, I CANNOT EVEN BELIEVE IT ENDED WHERE IT DID. Apparently it's on "hiatus" rather than actually cancelled, but since there hasn't been a new issue since 2009 I'm not really sure what the difference is. MORE RUNAWAYS PLZ.
Things I loved: Molly and how she's super amazing and wants to marry Wolverine until she meets him, then she beats him up and thinks he's stupid. WOLVERINE GETTING BEATEN UP BY PRE-TEEN GIRLS: NEVER NOT AMAZING. Karolina and all her feelings ever, the relationship between her and Nico even after Karolina kisses her, Xavin and the way her gender fluidity was resolved and her relationship with Karolina in general, so great. INTERGALACTIC LESBIAN BETROTHALS FTW.
Things I didn't love: Joss Whedon's run, the story itself just didn't do anything for me and it was just ... too removed from what Runaways is usually all about for me, too many steps for me to take for me to be on board with what was going on, he lost me pretty early on. And IDEK what was going on the Victor and that other chick (SORRY I DON'T REMEMBER HER NAME I'VE READ LIKE A HUNDRED COMICS SINCE THEN), I guess (because Nico helpfully exposited it) he was trying to sell some epic forever love at first sight thing but I did not get that AT ALL, all I got was Victor was dating Nico and she finally starting referring to him as her boyfriend and that was a huge step for their relationship and then SHARP RIGHT TURN INTO WHATEVER THE HELL IS GOING ON NOW. Probably an unpopular opinion, since people seem to talk about his run all the time. (I was also surprised how short it was, given how much I've heard about it, like, he wrote six issues, and all I ever really seemed to hear about was JOSS WHEDON OMG and hardly a mention of Brian K. Vaughan at all - like, at one point I was under the impression that Runaways was entirely Whedon's creation?) Also the story arc with Alex's dad, but the rest of it was amazing.
New X-Men
Okay, so, speaking of Morrison-y? I actually read half of this a couple of years ago, but, being Morrison, it's pretty dense at times, and I just never ended up finishing it until now. I was actually pretty disappointed by the second volume (I read them in the three-volume Ultimate Collection), which, unlike the first and, to a lesser extent, third volumes, didn't seem to have any kind of coherent arc tying it together, BUT LOLING FOREVER AT THE XORN REVEAL, SO AMAZING. And, like - it feels like that kind of ~sudden reveal could be pulled by pretty much any superhero comic ever and just be super cheap, but the thing about Morrison is that he fucking plans his shit, so it's literally something he intended since before Xorn was even introduced and not just the last-minute ass-pull it probably would have been anywhere else. WHICH DOESN'T MEAN IT WASN'T KIND OF HILARIOUS, LIKE, EVEN BEING SEMI-SPOILED FOR THERE BEING SOMETHING UP WITH XORN, I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT. And apparently that was all retconned after the title reverted back to X-Men v.2? Which is even more ridiculous, XORN WAS NOT EVER A FUCKING CHARACTER, HE DID NOT EXIST HE WAS A MADE UP PERSON, HE CANNOT HAVE A TWIN BROTHER ALSO HIS "POWERS" WERE HEALING AND HAVING A SUN FOR A HEAD, EVEN IF HE WERE REAL HE IS NOT THE MASTER OF FUCKING MAGNETISM AND HE COULD NOT ALMOST SWITCH THE NORTH AND SOUTH POLES. Er, sorry. Comics rage blackout. Basically, I'm super glad I finally got around to finishing this, and I still love the first volume (and the establishing of Scott/Emma, NICE WORK THERE MORRISON), but it's definitely not the kind of thing I'd casually re-read.
Astonishing X-Men
And this is the part where I forgive Joss Whedon for the whole Runaways thing, because his run on Astonishing X-Men is one of my favourite comics runs ever. I'd read the first few trades a while ago, but wanted to wait to re-read/continue the series until I'd finally finished New X-Men, AND THEN I DID AND I GOT TO READ THIS AGAIN AND IT WAS AMAZING. Not so much Ellis' run, though I honestly missed Cassaday's art even more than Whedon's writing. And I actually really enjoyed the Monstrous and Meanwhile storylines, which seems like (yet another) unpopular opinion given other people's reactions I've seen; that's as much as I've read so far (so I'm roughly one trade and about a year's worth of single issues behind), and I have a vague idea about where the series goes from here, so, we'll see how that goes, LOVING WHEDON'S RUN FOREVER THOUGH.
X-23
X-23 <3 <3 <3 I JUST WANT TO HUG HER, P.S. FUCK OFF CAPTAIN AMERICA. I'm about halfway through at the moment (have read both minis and the first trade of her ongoing series, little interest in reading X-Force though), and I love X-23 like crazy. And her second mini in particular gave me ALL THE FEELS, like Captain America is standing there being a judgemental asshole and Matt Murdock is, like, being an actual human with feelings IT WAS SO GREAT, NOW I REALLY WANT THEM TO TEAM UP LIKE SOME COMICS-VERSE THE O.C. AU WHERE X-23 IS BASICALLY RYAN ATWOOD AND DAREDEVIL IS HER SANDY COHEN.
New Mutants
New Mutants v.2, that is - I haven't read the first series, but it didn't seem super necessary (except as background for the older generation of characters, but that was pretty well addressed here). Besides which, I just don't go back to the eighties for any comics except Wonder Woman, sorry. I enjoyed this - it was fun to see where it fit into New X-Men in parts - and will probably keep reading Academy X > Young X-Men > New Mutants v.3, which I'm pretty sure is how that goes.
Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man
aka. The Miles Morales comics, p.s. these are super adorable. Confession time: I was never a huge fan of Peter Parker's Spider-Man (though I do really enjoy the animated Ultimate Spider-Man series, which I guess makes me 2 for 2 on unpopular opinions). BUT I REALLY LOVE MILES MORALES, HE IS JUST SUPER ADORABLE. And I pretty much judge the hell out of anyone who hates on Peter Parker being replaced as Spider-Man, THIS IS NOT EVEN THE ONLY SPIDER-MAN ONGOING TITLE. THERE ARE AT LEAST TWO MORE! THIS ONE ISN'T EVEN IN THE REGULAR CONTINUITY! And this is just a fun title, ALL MY FEELS WHEN AUNT MAY GAVE MILES PETER'S WEB SHOOTERS, but man, I had to laugh (or else I'd scream) when Captain America showed up YET AGAIN to tell a teenager they weren't allowed to be a superhero, he and Batman should really team up, they would be the