Marvel Comics blabbery

So pass my critique along to the faker!

And every plot has to be titled "Infinity <Something>", or just "Infinity" if you count the arc that wasn't really about them during Hickman's giant Avengers crossover thing.

Now that I think about it, why the heck was that called Infinity, anywa.

AFAIK, Hickman's Infinity was originally supposed to be only about the Builders (which makes sense since his Avengers run had been leading up to the conflict with them), but someone upper in the hierarchy made him add Thanos to the story (possibly because of Thanos' higher visibility thanks to the MCU?), so I guess the "Infinity" name came from there.

IMO this wasn't a good idea, since Hickman can't really write Thanos, and he decided to ignore all the character development Thanos had gone through since the conclusion of Infinity Gauntlet, making him into a megalomaniac tyrant leading a bunch of space pirates, just like he was at the beginning of IG.

On top of that, it wasn't very long after Abnett & Lanning (who do know how to write him) had given the big T a fitting and sweet conclusion to his story in the Thanos Imperative, so there was really no need to bring him back so quickly (though you can blame Bendis for that). I guess it was inevitable he would eventually be resurrected, especially considering the cross-marketing possibilites with the MCU, but he doesn't really add anything to Hickman's Avengers arc.

I've been mostly out of loop with Marvel since the ending of Secret Wars, since a lot of the creators I liked have left or been reshuffled to titles I don't care about. I've only been following Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl, but what else has been good with post-SW Marvel? Besides Al Ewing's books? Or is Marvel's latest golden age completely over now?

Chip Zdarsky's Spidey is good.

Tom King's Vision series is as good as everyone says.

It’s been a very dry 2-3 years for marvel

I dug Waid’s short run on Black Widow. Bendis started well on Iron Man until he Bendis’d it. Thor has been solid but not as good as the pre-SW run. Zdarsky’s improving as a writer but still workmanlike.

David F Walker on Luke Cage is cool if you're into 70's grindhouse...oh I just googled to make sure I had dude's name right and apparently it got cancelled :/

Thor is the only thing I’m still reading regularly, I think it’s very good.

I think she's got an edge against the Mangog -- Jane's lacking most of the hubris that the Mangog feeds on, could be an interesting angle in the story

I'm still only about six months into the post-Secret Wars books. I'll take a glance through what I've read and see what I'd recommend. Moon Girl is the first thing that springs to mind as pleasant surprise.

Thor
Ultimates/Ultimates²
U.S.Avengers
Black Bolt (underrated gem imo)
Royals

Dr. Strange w/the Aaron/Bachalo issues
Black Panther And The Crew (might be good collected, kind of long on exposition so far without much action)

No idea if it has stuck/will stick, but Ewing's repurposing of Galactus in Ultimates is pretty brilliant.

that is definitely cool

although I have an even bigger soft spot for the fact he gave Ego a body for a story arc

Bruh. Spoilerz.

Throwing my unread Ultimates comics in the trash as I type. I really am that prodigious a typist.

that's a small detail that should make you run to read the rest, imo

Retrieving soiled copies of Ultimates from the trash, wondering if it was really necessary to immediately soil them after throwing them away.

Al Ewing is also having fun doing noir/heist with the crew that will always be the Special Executive to me, in Rocket.

Also I wasn't here but https://alewing.tumblr.com/

apparently he's going to have a Hulk-as-horror comic soon!

Ah, fuck Marvel. Just read vol 1 of Spider-Woman, where she's pregnant and has a baby, and it was very enjoyable, so i start vol 2, which I bought at the same time (same writer, same artist, etc), and of course it is A DIFFERENT vol 2, so it's older, and is in the middle of an older storyline, and I wasted my fucking money.

Sorry about your luck, brother. Always feel free to check with the nerdz itt before you buy, or the ever-trusty Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators.

At least you didn't accidentally buy the previous vol 1, which is all just Spider-Verse crossovers.

And Greg Land art. You dodged the bullet at least a little, is what I'm saying here.

Which Vol. 2 did you buy? “New Duds” – which immediately precedes the volume you already have(?) That’s a good one!

Btw, I also like the Spider-Verse “Vol. 1”... the art isn’t my style, but it’s not terrible and it fits the story (Jess looks like Eva Longoria, which is kinda cool). Dennis Hopeless writes great dialogue!

(Also, btw, “New Duds” isn’t the middle of an older storyline – it starts at the beginning of the relaunch, after Spider-Verse. So you haven’t missed anything!)

(FTR, I liked Spider-Verse but I would've likely been very displeased if I'd accidentally bought a volume of Spider-Verse crossover issues thinking it was actually a discrete story unto itself.)

(And also, Pornmag McLightbox Greg Land is always terrible.)

That volume is the only Spider-Verse thing I’ve read, and it reads coherently enough for me...

It was New Duds. It opened with a many-page story so far thing, but I will actually read it now. Thanks!

Keep in mind that there's a gap between the volume you just bought and the one featuring Jessica's pregnancy but you won't have missed anything in between because the Marvel U was busy getting a hard refresh at the time and the storylines in all of the post-Secret Wars books jumped ahead 8-9 months into the future.

(I wish I could figure out a way to shoehorn my facilities with assembling IKEA furniture and parsing Marvel's publishing eccentricities into my resume somehow.)

Keep in mind that there's a gap between the volume you just bought and the one featuring Jessica's pregnancy but you won't have missed anything in between because the Marvel U was busy getting a hard refresh at the time and the storylines in all of the post-Secret Wars books jumped ahead 8-9 months into the future.

This is true -- though if you're looking to be a stone completist, there's a funny little 4-pg. Spider-Woman story at the end of ASM #1 (2015) (the post-SW relaunch issue) that teases the new series: https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spider-Man-Comic-No/dp/B01509IS3Q

...unless they thought to include that story in the "Baby Talk" volume (which would make sense) (which means they probably didn't do it!).

And they say modern comics are inaccessible to the casual reader!

And they're absolutely right!

Actually, that 4-pager WAS in Baby Talk, miraculously enough.

Nice, I’m glad!

Has anyone been reading the AMERICA series? If so how is it?

She punches Hitler at the end of the first issue - I didn’t read a second.

Read em all and loved em all. Heard it go canceled?

finally!

SPOILER: I'm bringing back Jonah's catchphrase "buy yourself some twist records" and also Peter's catchphrase "is what I like also" pic.twitter.com/ZBrcUUh6cs

— Chip Zdarsky (@zdarsky) March 6, 2018

xpost
Apparently so, RE: cancellation: https://www.polygon.com/comics/2017/12/22/16810138/marvel-exec-insists-wave-of-cancellations-not-motivated-by-books-diversity

Maybe I'll check out the TPB collections...

Also, if I may, a "cover connection":

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/cmx-images-prod/Item/529575/529575._SX1280_QL80_TTD_.jpg
https://thenextissuepodcast.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/lrvol1-24.jpg

That Jaime cover is pretty much the coolest thing ever drawn...

Squirrel Girl's lookin' scary mean there

and yeah it is. the poses are like perfect

I want to start reading Fantastic Four. But where? What are good arcs/eras/writers? I don't even know where to begin. Usually I get collections/trades from the library digital service –– what should I check out?

what sort of thing do you want to read, that you're looking to find in Fantastic Four?

The Jonathan Hickman run is probably the best thing he ever did at Marvel.

If you have a taste for silver age comics, checking out the early F4 is the place to start. Lots of the Marvel Universe started in that comic first. Visually those comics are great and they mostly hold up pretty well if you consider they were written for kids of that time.

John Byrne's long run on Fantastic Four is probably the best known outside Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.

I'm not sure how the essentials collections are as far as different versions, but it'd be a good start.