State the Last Comic Book You Read and Rate It

[dancj]

Letter 44 4/5 - Very enjoyable story where the 44th President (not Obama) gets a letter from the 43rd President (officially not Bush, but it might as well be) explaining that the reason he lied about WMDs and waged war was because he was preparing for a potential war with some aliens who seemed to be building something in the Asteroid Belt. The story flips back and forth between him and the crew of the ship sent to investigate. It's a little fanciful at times, and I'm not fond of the art, but the story is good.

Renato Jones: The One% Season One 2/5 - I love Kaare Andrews's art, and he's clearly up for some good experimentation with his storytelling. He seems to channel people like Frank Miller and Bill Seinkeiwicz, which I like a lot. Story-wise though, this was pretty weak - and it just seemed to stop mid-story. We need to get this guy teamed up with some great writers.

Moonshine v1 - The latest Azzarello/Risso collaboration, is about bootleggers during the prohibition and werewolves. It pretty much hadto be called Moonshine. Great art as I expect from Risso and a good story which is holding my interest so far.

Asterix in Corsica 3.5/5 - Fantastic art and some great characters, but plot-wise this is one of the weaker Asterix books for me. Still good though.

Asterix and Caesar's Gift 4.5/5 - I love this book. A really great set-up, and some great characters. Just just short of the top tier Asterix books.

Shakara v1 2/5/5 - Gordon Rennie and Henry Flint do their best to emulate the mad sci-fi 2000AD stories from Pat Mills, like Nemesis and ABC Warriors. They do a pretty decent job of it, but ultimately, it doesn't have quite the same meat behind it as Mills's stories.

Bizarro 2.5/5 - Bizarro on a road trip with Jimmy Olson. It's okay, but didn't really make me laugh - which is the main aim here. Maybe if I was a kid I'd have liked it more.

[dancj]

Caliban 4/5 - Garth Ennis does Alien. He does it well. The art isn't special, but it's better than most Avatar books.

Constantine v1: The Spark and the Flame 2.5/5 - The best thing about this book is the art by Renato Guedes. The second best bit is Zatanna's answerphone message which ends with "rebmun siht eteled sretekramelet". Generally though, magic based stories are tricky because the writer can pull out any old deus ex machina device any time to save the day. The writer has to work harder to make it work - and it didn't work here.

Constantine v2: Blight 2/5 - The art isn't as good in this one, and the flow of the book was heavily damaged by a crossover (Trinity War I think). The worst thing though is that Ray Fawkes completely doesn't get John's voice. He really isn't the kind of guy to stick "yeah?" on the end of every other sentence. It gets very irritating very quickly, yeah?

Constantine v3: The Voice in the Fire 2.5/5 - Aco (or maybe ACO) is a good artist with a bit of John Cassaday and a lot of Brendan McCarthy about him - Good fit on this book. Juan Ferreyra did a good job on his issue too, a neat little one-off Doctor Fate story. Edgar Salazar probably wouldn't be bad on a superhero comic, but he's a really bad fit on Hellblazer. The story - It was okay. Still with the irritating "yeah?" though.

Constantine v4: Apocalypse Road 3.5/5 - Suddenly the book leaps in quality. Good art throughout by Jeremy Haun. The story is actually good too. Part of me liked the idea of John being back in the DCU. His whole thing is about manipulating people more powerful than him, so putting him in a world with superheros (which is after all where he started off) is actually a good fit - and this story showed it. If this run had started at this level of quality I think it would have been much better received. And he only used "yeah?" once or twice in this volume.

Asterix and the Great Crossing 3.5/5 - Easily one of the weakest Goscinny penned Asterix books, but it never stopped being entertaining.

Obelix and Co 5/5 - And one of the strongest. I just love this one.

[dancj]

Big catch-up of the last month:

She-Hulk v1: Law and Disorder 3.5/5 and v2: Disorderly Conduct 4/5 - This was a good fun series. Nice and quirky. I have loved Javier Pulido's art in the past (like on Human Target). Here it seems a lot stiffer, which is to its detriment. That said, there is the occasional brilliant page.

Asterix in Belgium 3.5/5 - The last of the Goscinny Asterix books - and one of his weaker ones sadly. There are plenty of funny bits, but the plot is almost non-existent.

Gotham by Midnight v1: We do not Sleep 4/5 and v2: Rest in Peace - As I was reading this, I was thinking "this is they guy they should have got to write the DCNU Constantine book - then I looked and realised it is the same guy. This book is a lot more successful. The art is great too.

Tom Strong book 5 3/5 - The Brian Vaughan and Ed Brubaker stories are very good (though the Brubaker one is very like For the Man Who Has Everything). Other than that, nah.

Tom Strong book 6 2/5 - Really nothing here was very good at all.

And then on holiday:

Asterix and the Great Divide 4/5 - The first book written by Uderzo - and one of his more successful ones. The walking fish person is a step too far into fantasy, but overall, I like this one.

Joe Hill: The Graphic Novel Collection 4/5 - Individually, The Cape, The Cape: 1969 and Thumbprint were all good stories. Wraith (the only one which was directly written by Hill rather than adapted by someone else) was excellent though - up there with Locke and Key. Good art on The Cape, Thumbprint and Wraith.

Doom Patrol Book One 4/5, Book 2 4/5 and Book 3 4.5/5 - Morrison's classic run on the title. I wanted to rate these books a bit higher, but they're all uneven. The highs are very high though.

Asterix and the Black Gold 2.5/5 - The sentient fly and the unrealistic technology of Doublosix push the credibility again, but other than that, I couldn't really say what this book does wrong. The jokes all fall flat for me - except Obelix trying to swim in the dead sea, which I love.

Technopriests 4.5/5 - The first half of the book is easily 5/5 level quality. It tapers off towards the end though, as he approaches god-like powers. Still good, but it becomes less effective for me. Still a great book though. Probably higher highs than Metabarons for me, but less consistent. I prefer the art here though.

[Deathstroke]

I've read the first 8 issues (out of 9) of the Marvel series Semper Fi. I enjoyed what I was reading, but I thought the lack of a linear timeline to the story telling in the main or back up stories was somewhat annoying.

[dancj]

Big catch-up...

Suiciders: The Big Shake 3.5/5 - Excellent art throughout, whether it's by Bermejo or not. Storywise, it lacked clarity a bit for me. Part of the problem was that they reprint the two stories in chronological order of when they're set, which is the opposite order to when they came out - but the world-building was done in the story I read second, so I wound up having to read the blurb on the back to get a lot of details. Even then, it was often unclear who lived on which side of the wall. Still, there's some decent stuff here.

Tom Strong's Terrific Tales book 2 2/5 - The Pete Bagge and Bruce Timm drawn stories where the best ones. Jonni Future stories were okayish. The Young Tom Strong stories just had terrible art. It wasn't too bad when all you could see were adults, but children and teenagers just looked terrible. Two year-olds are about half the height of adults, not eight-year-olds. It made them look like freaks.

Tabatha 3.5/5 - Decent little thriller. The art is passable at best, and there is a lot of plot induced stupidity, and characters who just completely don't take impending death seriously at any point, but it never got boring. I enjoyed it.

Dan the Unharmable v1 4/5 and v2 2.5/5 - Ultraviolent dark comedy from Dave Lapham. Decent art for an Avatar book, and for the most part it was enjoyable. It did completely fall apart at the end though. Maybe if they added another volume to wrap things up properly I'd be more forgiving of the completely random ending.

Asterix and Son 4/5 - The best non-Goscinny Asterix book by a mile for me.

Daredevil by Mark Waid v2 4/5 - Good stuff. Great art by Paulo Rivera.

Starlight: The Return of Duke McQueen 4.5/5 - I know people love to hate Millar (and he can be a bit of an arse). When he's on form though, he's great. Much like Huck, this book exudes heart. I only wish the book was a couple of issues longer so it could be more fleshed out. I've always loved Goran Parlov's art. Before I've compared him with Alex Toth, but on this book he's clearly (and clearly deliberately) Channelling Moebius. It's beautiful.

[dancj]

Dastardly & Muttley 3.5 - Fun tale from Garth Ennis with a slight horror feel, but mostly just silly fun.

Ultimate Comics Avengers v1: Next Generation 4/5 - Millar can spin a great shallow action yarn when he wants to. Lovely art from Carlos Pacheco doesn't hurt.

Ultimate Avengers v2: Crime and Punishment 3/5 - A bit less to grab me in this one, but still fun. I can decide what I think of Leinil Francis Yu. He can certainly do some good panels, but some bad habits (like making me turn the book sideways randomly for no reason) hold him back from being great.

Ultimate Avengers v3: Blade versus the Avengers 3.5 - A bit better. I appreciate the extra freedom you get in the Ultimate universe to kill characters willy nilly.

Ultimate Avengers v4: Avengers vs New Ultimates 4/5 - It all comes to a head nicely here, with a twist that I only saw a couple of pages before it happened - which is quite good timing I think.

Asterix and the Magic Carpet 1.5/5 - Just not good. The art looks like someone imitating Uderzo and getting it a bit wrong. The story is just not good.

Stumptown v1 4/5 - Fairly typical Rucka detective story - which is a good thing. Rucka is very good at this sort of thing. Good art from Matthew Southworth too.

Roche Limit v1 2.5/5 - I can't honestly say this is bad, but it was a bit of a chore to get through. It's not a good sign when I keep checking my phone while reading a book.

[dancj]

Avengers: Endless Wartime 2.5/5 - Just not very good. The art is fine.

Stumptown v2 4/5 - Similar to the first, but a bit more light hearted. Still good.

Mesmo Delivery 2.5/5 - Some ultraviolence with nice art, but the story is pretty much non-existent.

Asterix and the Secret Weapon 2.5/5 - (bear in mind I'm harsher with ratings on Asterix books because of the high quality of the good ones) Incredibly sexist, but still fun. Way better than Asterix and the Magic Carpet and Asterix and the Black Gold.

Hellblazer: City of Demons 3.5/5 - Good, but unremarkable Hellblazer yarn.

[dancj]

It's bn a while (and I know I'm keeping this thread going single-handedly a lot of the time, but I like to record these things):

Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. v1: War of the Monsters 3.5/5 and v2: Secrets of the Dead - Fun little series. The penciller is the same all of the way through. For the first 6 issues, he inks himself and the art is great. Then a different inker comes on and it's terrible for a couple of issues, then another inker starts and it's good again - though not quite as good as it started. It's interesting to see how much difference the inker can make. Story-wise it's generally quite fun. They do make it quite clear at times quite how amoral S.H.A.D.E. are, but none of the characters seem to notice. Odd.

Asterix and Obelix All at Sea 1.5/5 - Just bad.

Crossed v2: Family Values 4/5 - It's hard to write something like this and give it any kind of substance to make it worthwhile. Ennis managed in volume 1 and Dave Lapham manages here.

Superman: Earth One v3 - Good stuff. Nice take on Lex Luthor. I think this might be where the line ends. A bit of a shame, but at the same time, the line feels a bit redundant.

Asterix and the Actress 2.5/5 - Still not good, but a huge step up from All at Sea.

Punisher: Franken-Castle 3/5 - Enjoyable enough - but pretty inconsequential.

Asterix and the Class Act 2/5 - A disappointing mishmash of short stories.

Annihilator 4.5/5 - Loved this. Generic title, but a great story with Grant Morrison managing to reign in his worst excesses while still being a bit out there. Luscious artwork from Frazer Irving.

[Foxy]

You really do keep this thread going single-handedly

Realised that I haven't posted in this thread since January. Read a lot in the meantime, not sure I remember all books, but among them were:

- the remainder of the Bendis New Avengers series (from House of M, through Siege and Fear itself up to Age of Ultron)
- the Marvel Cosmic saga (i.e. Annihilation, Annihilation Conquest, War of Kings Trilogy),
- Knightfall Omnibus volume 1;
- Book of Chaos by Xavier Dorisson;
- Global Frequency Deluxe
- the Star Wars Darth Vader omnibus,
- Superman: Red Son,
- Siegfried Trilogy by Xavier Dorisson;
- Frank Miller's Daredevil, Daredevil Companion and Elektra omnis;
- Mike Mignola's Baltimore;
- Alan Moore's Neonomicon,
- Absolute Transmetropolitan 1-3 (just finished the last Absolute last night, awesome series)

I may have forgotten a book or two. Not as much as I had liked to have read, but I had a lot of work and not much free time.

Enjoyed almost all of these books a lot, but not sure how I feel about Neonomicon and Elektra being the only disappointment. While the art of the first ark was interesting, the story was not very engaging to me. I had hoped for an origin story but there was too much focus on this agent of SHIELD instead of on Elektra herself. The second part was great though, when it was firmly back in the Daredevil world.

While I am not good at rating these books, especially as they are so different, I can definitely say that the funnest and therefore quickest reads were Baltimore, Red Son, Darth Vader and Book of Chaos. Transmetropolitan was a real stand-out and rightly deserves the praise it gets. The Siegfried Trilogy was great (both art and story) and Daredevil by Miller was another standout - so much better than I had expected.

Now I am a bit undecided what to read next. Read many modern runs recently and may go back to read some silver age stuff, maybe Spider-Man. But the first Lee/Kirby Fantastic 4 omnibus put me off of silver age stuff for more than a year now...

Alternatively, I may continue the Knightfall run, or Punisher Max, or Preacher, or the Incal... Too many choices...

[dancj]

Enjoyed almost all of these books a lot, but not sure how I feel about Neonomicon and Elektra being the only disappointment. While the art of the first ark was interesting, the story was not very engaging to me. I had hoped for an origin story but there was too much focus on this agent of SHIELD instead of on Elektra herself. The second part was great though, when it was firmly back in the Daredevil world.

Elektra: Assassion had a ropey first couple of issues, but from about the third issue onward, I love it. One of my favourite stories. Electra Live Again (which I'm guessing is the bit you liked more) did nothing for me. Lovely art, but the story was barely there.

Transmetropolitan was a real stand-out and rightly deserves the praise it gets. The Siegfried Trilogy was great (both art and story) and Daredevil by Miller was another standout - so much better than I had expected.

Love Transmetropolitan and Miller's Daredevil.

Alternatively, I may continue the Knightfall run, or Punisher Max, or Preacher, or the Incal... Too many choices...

I'm not sure how well Knightfall will have stood the test of time, but you can't go wrong with the other three.

[Foxy]

Elektra: Assassion had a ropey first couple of issues, but from about the third issue onward, I love it. One of my favourite stories. Electra Live Again (which I'm guessing is the bit you liked more) did nothing for me. Lovely art, but the story was barely there.


Love Transmetropolitan and Miller's Daredevil.


I'm not sure how well Knightfall will have stood the test of time, but you can't go wrong with the other three.

Kind of liked the first Knightfall omnibus. A lot of people were very negative about it so my expectations were very low. But then it's easy to be pleased

Was actually quite surprised that there are two more omnis of material - curious to see what other places the story can go to.

[Foxy]

I'm not sure how well Knightfall will have stood the test of time, but you can't go wrong with the other three.

So I read the first volume of the Incal yesterday (The Black Incal). I have these coffee table size editions which are bigger than Absolutes and they are glorious.

The story, while confusing at first, is quite intriguing and I can't wait to continue with the second volume tonight. The art by Moebius is amazing in this size. Difficult to rate as it's only the first of six volumes, but really liking it so far.

[dancj]

Cool. I've got the single hardback of the whole series (though I previously had it in three paperbacks).

When You've finished The Incal, I highly recommend Metabarons and Technopriests - both set in the same universe.

[Foxy]

Cool. I've got the single hardback of the whole series (though I previously had it in three paperbacks).

When You've finished The Incal, I highly recommend Metabarons and Technopriests - both set in the same universe.

Thanks - I've got them all lined up

Should I read before the Incal and Final Incal first?

[dancj]

Thanks - I've got them all lined up

Should I read before the Incal and Final Incal first?

I haven't read Final Incal yet, but I generally prefer to read things in the order they were originally published. I this case, I think that puts Metabarons and Technopriests before Before the Incal and Final Incal.