General omnibus & hardcover discussion vol. II

[Balakin]

There's only one more hardcover to go...I'd call that nearly.

oh I thought it meant to be longer maybe I was confusing it with the Manhattan projects.

[The Whovian]

Sorry, EoW is not the best, not even close. It's good, but like most Hickman titles there's no heart, no connection to the characters. It's just cold and soulless.

Huh? Have you read his FF, Avengers and EoW?

[TomSlick]

Huh? Have you read his FF, Avengers and EoW?

I've read all of those and I agree with ER PRest - with the exception of Hickman's FF - his titles have no hear . . . just cold and soulless.
Sure there's some moments of brilliance, like the talks between Hyperian and Thor, or his take on the Beast and Submariner (how Namor taunts him) but at the end of the day, you could just insert whatever character.

That said, he knew what he was doing with FF and actually made Johnny Storm a hell of a character . . . until the overrated Fraction took over and effed it all up. But I digress.

Also, note, neither myself nor ER are saying his stories are bad. His characterization often is lacking.

[Mr`Orange]

Bone.

Best book ever!

[The Whovian]

I've read all of those and I agree with ER PRest - with the exception of Hickman's FF - his titles have no hear . . . just cold and soulless.
Sure there's some moments of brilliance, like the talks between Hyperian and Thor, or his take on the Beast and Submariner (how Namor taunts him) but at the end of the day, you could just insert whatever character.

That said, he knew what he was doing with FF and actually made Johnny Storm a hell of a character . . . until the overrated Fraction took over and effed it all up. But I digress.

Also, note, neither myself nor ER are saying his stories are bad. His characterization often is lacking.

I disagree, but that's okay. We all have different opinions. I love the characterizations he imbued into the FF members. And EoW, while dark, has some great characters in it that make you root for them.

[The Whovian]

Bone.

Best book ever!

Ack! How could I forget Bone! Great recommendation!

[ER Prest]

Huh? Have you read his FF, Avengers and EoW?

I've read all of those and I agree with ER PRest - with the exception of Hickman's FF - his titles have no hear . . . just cold and soulless.
Sure there's some moments of brilliance, like the talks between Hyperian and Thor, or his take on the Beast and Submariner (how Namor taunts him) but at the end of the day, you could just insert whatever character.

That said, he knew what he was doing with FF and actually made Johnny Storm a hell of a character . . . until the overrated Fraction took over and effed it all up. But I digress.

Also, note, neither myself nor ER are saying his stories are bad. His characterization often is lacking.

I disagree, but that's okay. We all have different opinions. I love the characterizations he imbued into the FF members. And EoW, while dark, has some great characters in it that make you root for them.

I've read his FF, about a third of this Avengers(have it all, haven't gotten to it all), and am up to date with EoW. Have also read Secret Warriors, Ultimates, Red Wing, Nightly News, Red Mass for Mars, and probably a few I'm forgetting.

I hope you're not equating soulless and cold with being bad, I quite like most of his work and continue to buy and read it. But, as I said, there's no heart in his work. All the characters are chess pieces for the greater complex story he is weaving. Even when Johnny died in FF...didn't feel it. Or the betrayal in SW....empty.

It's not a bad thing. He writes like you, the reader, are outside of the events unfolding instead of seeing through the eyes of and feeling the character emotions.

His stories and writing are great, but the soul of the characters are usually empty. Again, I'm not saying they're bad. I get a similar feeling from a lot of the newer guys like Snyder.

[TomSlick]

it's a great all ages story with good mythology, long form storytelling and fun characters. It's a bit like a Disney cartoon mixed with Lord of the rings. Like if Ducktales had a take on LoTR.
Also excellent cartooning.


I have a question too: So I'm reading the Sunstone deluxe and it is effin great! I've never ever been into erotic comics but this won me over big time. I'm now considering trying out Empowered but the first deluxe is massively oop. But I've also heard that the start of that series is mostly short stories and it gets better later.

So any advice on what should I get ?
Vol 1 tpb?
Vol 2 dlx?
A later tpb volume? like vol 3?

Is it gonna be good follow up to Sunstone?

I just ordered the Batman Knightfall omnibus and because of my 2 percent discount it put me at $48 ($2 under free shipping). Soooo i looked all through IST (hate their search engine) to find something in the $8 range. Nothing stood out but I remember this post and I bought the first tpb volume of Sunstone. Like you I'm not really into erotic comics, but we usually agree on most stuff

[Orion]

FF and Avengers and Secret Wars are full of emotion. Not heart-on-your-sleeve overly sappy simplistic emotion, but a much more thoughtful emotion that makes it all the more powerful. The issue where Mr Fantastic tracks The Thing through all the eons into the future and then when he gets back he goes and has a beer with him and johnny...I mean come on.

[Orion]

I really wish Dark Horse would've included the two short Aliens stories at the end of the first omnibus in the new hardcover that comes out tomorrow. Then I could've gotten rid of that volume.

[ER Prest]

FF and Avengers and Secret Wars are full of emotion. Not heart-on-your-sleeve overly sappy simplistic emotion, but a much more thoughtful emotion that makes it all the more powerful. The issue where Mr Fantastic tracks The Thing through all the eons into the future and then when he gets back he goes and has a beer with him and johnny...I mean come on.

Maybe a better way for me to explain it would be that he uses the characters to tell his story, rather than letting the characters tell their story.

But like I said, I'm not saying he's bad, so arguing like this is moot

[ER Prest]

I just ordered the Batman Knightfall omnibus and because of my 2 percent discount it put me at $48 ($2 under free shipping). Soooo i looked all through IST (hate their search engine) to find something in the $8 range. Nothing stood out but I remember this post and I bought the first tpb volume of Sunstone. Like you I'm not really into erotic comics, but we usually agree on most stuff

I've been enjoying Sunstone, Sejic's art is so broad in range, and it really shows in this. While this is "erotic," it's not like Manara erotic. I'm about 2/3 through and you see ****, but so far nothing too crazy graphic. It's definitely character driven, they drive the plot, but it's kind of interesting how things unfold. I wonder how much Sejic researched this vs how much he's involved in it...hah

Also, it's pretty interesting to me that, from what I understand, he wrote/drew this over a number of years posting it to his deviantart and then collecting them in trades. So I'm assuming he plotted 3-4 pages at a time? I'm just guessing, anyone know more about it?

[TomSlick]

FF and Avengers and Secret Wars are full of emotion. Not heart-on-your-sleeve overly sappy simplistic emotion, but a much more thoughtful emotion that makes it all the more powerful. The issue where Mr Fantastic tracks The Thing through all the eons into the future and then when he gets back he goes and has a beer with him and johnny...I mean come on.

Maybe a better way for me to explain it would be that he uses the characters to tell his story, rather than letting the characters tell their story.

But like I said, I'm not saying he's bad, so arguing like this is moot

I agree with ER but you make a good point Orion. It's just a different way to tell the story...But, FF - to me - is his one exception in which he did use the characters for the most part to tell the story. Hell, those last words Johnny tells Ben right before he enters the Negative Zone for that final battle are amazing. And there's great emotion.

I'm not sure if you've ever read the Atlantis Chronicles but it's a great example of world building through characters rather than world building through worlds . .. if that makes sense.

Either way, I just wanted to chime in. Don't want to argue. I own just about all of Hickman's stuff so I obviously like his work

[seusilva]

I got the impression that the main theme from Hickman those last years is the inevitable and how people deal with that - but the main characters from his stories are usually so powerful and important on their worlds that they can't really feel the consequences, they don't have surprises - they're just reacting to preserve their interests. On New Avengers they know exactly whats going on and what they have to do (the last issue pre-SW from Ms. Marvel is a good example of how diferent other less important people at that Earth deal with the event, an emotional and heartbreaking issue); on East of West they know the final from the story (the end of everything) and the characters don't just accept the situation but help to lead to the apocalypse (even Manhattan Projects deal with that kind of situation, with the triumph of science above eveything else). In my opinion, that's why his books cause that souless, heartless impression... and at the same time are so good haha

[PLEDGE]

I just ordered the Batman Knightfall omnibus and because of my 2 percent discount it put me at $48 ($2 under free shipping). Soooo i looked all through IST (hate their search engine) to find something in the $8 range. Nothing stood out but I remember this post and I bought the first tpb volume of Sunstone. Like you I'm not really into erotic comics, but we usually agree on most stuff

How do you even claim the 2 percent?