Comic Book Coffee Break #52

 Thanks for joining me no my Comic Book Coffee Break!  Today I grabbed coffee at Dunkin' on my way in for an early meeting. Pretty solid coffee.

Let's talk comic books!

This week I was guest-hosting Previously on X-Men and the focus was on The First X-Men, a 2012 limited series from Neal Adams and Christos Gage.  Because of that you get an all Neal Adams issue.  Let's do it.

Marvel 

I'd already read The First X-Men a while back so I jumped back to Adams' early X-Men stuff as collected in X-Men Visionaries: Neal Adams.  This collects several issues from '69-'70 illustrated and plotted by Adams.  I always like the original team so it was fun to dive into this mess of a story and revisit the characters. The story dealt with Havok and then with the Sentinels, but I was primarily focusing on the art, which did live up to the hype.  It's bright, clever and delightfully chaotic. I can see why it got the "Visionaries" treatment. 

On to The First X-Men.  I guess I'd categorize this as... harmless?  It's fine.  It's a relatively entertaining story about Wolverine and Sabertooth setting up a proto X-Men team. It doesn't provide much in the way of new insights into the characters, but it does tell a very serviceable story.  We really picked it apart in the episode. 

DC Comics

I've read a lot of books with Neal Adams art, Green Lantern/Green Arrow and classic Batman comes to mind.  But I've only recently read some of the stuff we wrote as well. Let's talk The Coming of the Supermen. This feels to me like something that was written in the 80s, forgotten for a few decades, then dusted off and printed with no changes.  And I mean that as a compliment. It's kooky, it's weird, and I had a great time. 

Batman: Odyssey on the other hand, is every bit as bad as you've heard.  Despite the negative reviews, I went in to this slightly optimistic. After all, I'd enjoyed the Superman story, so I thought maybe. 

No. Everything about this is bad.

For starters, the plot is impossible to follow.  Not difficult, IMPOSSIBLE. The character designs are clunky and the overall look of the book is unappealing. I've read a lot of bad graphic novels, but this might actually be the worst mainstream graphic novel ever assembled.  I can't believe it went to print. 

There was one section with Robin and a dinosaur that I enjoyed, but it was brief. That's as close to a compliment as I can get. 

Here's the thing though, I do think you should read it, as least part of it anyway. It's worse than you think.

Next Time

I'm finishing up Superman Savage Dawn, then that's only leaves Final Days.  See you then.

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You can find back issues of the video version of Comic Book Coffee Break here.
The audio version of Comic Book Coffee Break is over there. 
You can find me as the co-host of 9021 Here We G0: A 90210 Rewatch Podcast and This Endorian Life, both for the Radio Meanwhile Network. 
I also host Howe's Things, the podcast and radio show of the David A. Howe Public Library. 

Comic Book Coffee Break #47

 Thanks for joining me on my Comic Book Coffee Break. We left the house in a hurry this morning, but I managed some Folgers Noir with cream and a Vanilla syrup.  It served me well.

Let's talk Comic Books!

I'm reading and writing in the midst of Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month so I thought I'd spotlight Agent Jimmy Woo and Ryan Choi as the Atom. 

Marvel Comics

Let's start with Agent Woo, while I may have bumped up against him sometime in my reading, it was Ant-Man & the Wasp and WandaVision, that really made me take notice. Last week I read Agents of Atlas featuring an elderly Jimmy Woo rebooted as his 50s self but in the modern day.  This week I read the digital exclusive Wolverine & the Agents of Atlas by Jeff Parker & Benton Jew.  This was fun because you get to see Jimmy in his day mixing it up with a very confused Wolverine. I think the period setting worked a lot better on the Agents of Atlas vibe. This is a relatively brief 3 issues and I would have loved more. I'll likely pick up more Agents of Atlas, but I much preferred the retro feel of this.

DC Comics

Over in the world of DC, I picked up the first volume of Gail Simone's All-New Atom: My Life in Miniature. My library has this whole run and I'd been meaning to read it for years and finally picked it up. I'd read Ryan Choi in some of the Rebirth stuff and had seen him in the CW Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, but this was the first time I read something specifically devoted to him.  I'm a Gail Simone fan, primarily from Birds of Prey, so was excited to pick this up. It starts well enough, but then gets real weird, real fast. At one point a giant, naked women traps Ryan in a little ball then swallows him.  All this happened at a drive-in theater. I kept expecting these weird swings to pay off but they just didn't. It seemed weird for weird's sake and I don't think it worked. I don't blame Ryan Choi though. 

I've got a few more randos to finish out the week. Back to...

Marvel Comics

I read Deadpool: The Circle Chase by co-creator Fabian Nicieza.  (I actually started with the first appearance of Deadpool & Domino in New Mutants #98.)  This is Deadpool's first run at being a solo character.  It's worth reading for that, but I don't have much more to say.  He has some funny moments, but the characterization still has a ways to go, and honestly he hardly feels like the main character here. I haven't read a ton of Deadpool up this this point, so I don't know how it compares, but I have to assume it gets better. 

DC Comics

Finally, I got back to my New 52 Superman reread with Superman V5: Under Fire by Scott Lobdell and Ken Lashely.  The collection as assembled by DC is real mess with the tail end of Krypton Returns and a little of Doomed messing with the flow.  However, the Parasite story shoved in the middle is pretty decent.  Nothing ground breaking here, but I did enjoy the standalone sections more than I remembered. 

Next Time...

My copy of DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Super Hero Celebration arrived in the mail so I can't wait to dig in to that. See you then.

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You can find back issues of the video version of Comic Book Coffee Break here.

The audio version of Comic Book Coffee Break is over there. 

You can find me as the co-host of 9021 Here We G0: A 90210 Rewatch Podcast for the Radio Meanwhile Network. 

I also host Howe's Things, the podcast and radio show of the David A. Howe Public Library.

Comic Book Coffee Break #42

Thanks for joining me on my Comic Book Coffee Break.  Today, I'm drinking an XL tea from Tim Horton's (4 sugars).

Let's talk comic books.

DC Comics

Starting in DC Comics this week, I got back on track with my reading of the post-Rebirth world.  I was on Teen Titans V.3: The Return of Kid Flash by Benjamin Percy and Khoi Pham. For the most part this is a pretty solid Teen Titans story. I like Robin having his weird hairy monster bat. It's a nice bit a continuity with that short-lived Robin series from awhile back. I guess the problem here is Kid Flash. And it's not his fault. Ever since Rebirth kicked off we've been dragging along this storyline with a new Kid Flash bumping up against the OG Kid Flash from the Pre-Rebirth days and it's just tired. If that's truly over and done with then I'm looking forward to the next volume.  I wasn't really down for a Damian fronted Teen Titans, but this book has surprised me. 

In my New 52 Superman reread I came to Action Comics v.5: What Lies Beneath by Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder.  This was the first title in my reread where I changed my star rating. It actually went up.  I think by this point in my initial read I was just so over weird, edgy Superman stories that I had no patience left. This time, however, I was kinda in. It's primarily a Superman/Lana story.  Superman finds a little monster changeling who's probably a prince who lives in an underground city and Lana is a Lara Croft type... I should stop. I'm talking myself out of that star upgrade. The point is. It was kooky, but this time I found it fun.

Marvel

Over in Marvel, I continued my streak of X-Men side quests by reading Robert Kirkman's 5 issue Jubilee series. This came out in 2004 and I remember buying this in single issues for my girlfriend.  (We got married shortly after, so I'd say it worked!) She was (and is) the bigger X-Men fan out of the two of us. I absolutely love Kirkman's Invincible series, and didn't realize it was him until I started reading. Overall, I would mark this as okay.  I like the idea of spinning off Jubilee, but this rarely feels like her throughout the run. Little action, hardly any use of her powers. It's so far removed from the X world, that when Wolverine ultimately (and inevitably) shows up, it's actually a little jarring. If there were more I probably would have read it, but this ends nearly before it starts.  Extra points for the BTTF Easter Egg with "Twin Pines Mall" and the nod to Jack Kirby with the Kirby Puffs cereal.

Archie Comics

A few weeks back I did an interview with Jamie Lee Rotante over on Howe's Things.  We talked mostly about her Betty & Veronica books, but also briefly discussed Archie Comic's super hero line. I've read The Shield from The Golden Age and found it to be pretty on par with its Marvel counterparts. For this week a read a more modern take. New Crusaders: Rise of the Heroes sees the Shield as the last remaining member of the old guard, prepping the way for a new batch of heroes.  While I did enjoy the book, I felt like it spent a little too much time on setup.  Because of that, the action felt forced and rushed.  I also was a little surprised by the violence mixed with Archie-style illustrations (though really Invincible) should have prepared me for that.  Even with the short comings, it did make me interested in the world.  I would read more.

For next week, I'm planning to get back to my Marvel readthrough, picking up Uncanny Avengers.  At this point, I figure I might as well lean in to weird X-Men so I'm going to pick up where I left off with Exiles. For DC, I'll be on to the next New 52 Superman and maybe even some Nightwing. See you then.

______________________

You can find back issues of the video version of Comic Book Coffee Break here.

The audio version of Comic Book Coffee Break is over there. 

You can find me as the co-host of 9021 Here We G0: A 90210 Rewatch Podcast for the Radio Meanwhile Network. 

I also host Howe's Things, the podcast and radio show of the David A. Howe Public Library.