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The Watchtower - A thread for all comics

biglime

By biglime
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DLNY

DLNY

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Sounds like I'll have to pick up that Transformers ongoing too (and the Nao of Brown). I always feel slightly dirty asking for teh robotz at my LCS. I tried the IDW stuff at the start but it soon started getting bogged down in spin-offs and minis so I checked out.

On a completely unrelated note, is anyone reading the Hellraiser ongoing? I've got a soft spot for the first two films and this title basically ignores everything from 3 onwards and really captures the tone of the earlier efforts. The first few issues were a little sparse, lots of splash pages and gothic architecture but it's found a groove and become good horror comics (Clive Barker supposedly co-writes though I'm not convinced it's anything but a stunt credit). Certainly one of the few books I look forward to when it comes out (I think it might just be this and Saga right now. I really have to steel myself to read anything with a mutant in it, I feel like a horrendous fanboy saying it feels like the X-Men franchise is being driven into the ground. None of the NOW! stuff has any appeal for me at all).

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Zappster

Zappster

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Sounds like I'll have to pick up that Transformers ongoing too (and the Nao of Brown). I always feel slightly dirty asking for teh robotz at my LCS. I tried the IDW stuff at the start but it soon started getting bogged down in spin-offs and minis so I checked out.

Just to sell it even more.

I'd say this isn't a problem currently. The general feeling I get is that most fans of the comics, especially the ones that have followed the IDW comics, appreciate the new direction of the two ongoings. One point that is continually emphasized is the focus on the Transformers. Not a human in sight in either book. In terms of miniseries, there are or have been some but they haven't affected the ongoings yet (we're about 9 issues into their respective runs). They're their own separate entities exploring other points in the IDW continuity (Autocracy) or are crazy crossovers (Infestation 2). Just as it should be really.

The two ongoings vary in tone and content as well. Robots in disguise is all about the current events on Cybertron as the various factions look to rebuild. There's politicking, Prowl doing nefarious things etc Generally it's more serious in nature. More than meets the eye is a bunch of them on this epic quest and the misadventures they have along the way. Heavily infused with comedy and snark. e.g. some of the moments involving Ultra Magnus are genius :lol: .

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Anne Summers

Anne Summers

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Anyone got a recommendation for a really brilliant, epic sci fi or fantasy comic series to get into? Looking for something specific - although not exactly sure what - but I'll know it when I find it. Nothing super-hero related. If there is such a thing then a graphic version of something like David Eddings or Terry Brooks would be the right sort of thing, I think. (Not like a graphic novelisation of a Eddings/Brooks fantasy story - I mean something in the same genre but original to comic format).

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Talvalin

Talvalin

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Bone. Bone. Bone. Bone. Bone. Bone. Bone. Bone. Bone. Bone.

Er, some other types:

Locke & Key (more urban fantasy though)

Journey into Mystery (since Gillen started writing it with Loki as the main character anyway)

Akira (no really, the original manga is amazing)

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Arn X Treme

Arn X Treme

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Transformers has been awesome since the two new titles came out.

Always good writing imo, both storylines are pretty decent at the moment although i think the DJD got a little bit boring towards the end. That said i'm still trying to work out who they really are and the few clues arn't giving away much at all.

MTMTE annual was really really good and a nice continuation of Drifit's series. Has there always been more than one Metrotitan in Transformers?

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Zappster

Zappster

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Anyone got a recommendation for a really brilliant, epic sci fi or fantasy comic series to get into? Looking for something specific - although not exactly sure what - but I'll know it when I find it. Nothing super-hero related. If there is such a thing then a graphic version of something like David Eddings or Terry Brooks would be the right sort of thing, I think. (Not like a graphic novelisation of a Eddings/Brooks fantasy story - I mean something in the same genre but original to comic format).

It's the kind of thing I think is almost tailor made for comics because you can have all the visual spectacle with zero budget concerns. I'd especially love for a some kick-ass space opera with huge space battles. So far I haven't really come across anything like that although I haven't looked that hard.

What I have come across recently that may fit the bill for you:

Saga - going to back up KartoffelKopf's recommendation

Prophet - Brandon Graham writes this (and occasionally draws an issue). It's probably the closest I've come to the sort of sci-fi I'd like to see more of in comics. Some very interesting ideas and concepts, and at one point pulls back to reveal the huge scope of what he's doing. Start with issue 21. You don't need to know anything that happened beforehand. I certainly didn't.

Manhattan Projects - It starts off with events on Earth with some oddball concepts. The elevator pitch is esssentially: "What if the research and development department created to produce the first atomic bomb was a front for a series of other, more unusual, programs?" The series goes onto explore these other projects and as of issue 5 events begin to occur away from Earth.

Demon Knights - fantasy focused book in the DC new 52. It's pretty good although I prefer to read it in trades.

I guess the Transformers books we've been talking about also fit the bill. I promise I'll stop talking about them now.

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zuum

zuum

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Anyone got a recommendation for a really brilliant, epic sci fi or fantasy comic series to get into? Looking for something specific - although not exactly sure what - but I'll know it when I find it. Nothing super-hero related. If there is such a thing then a graphic version of something like David Eddings or Terry Brooks would be the right sort of thing, I think. (Not like a graphic novelisation of a Eddings/Brooks fantasy story - I mean something in the same genre but original to comic format).

If it's epic fantasy you want I recommend you check out the collected editions of Thorgal. I think it's Belgian and hasn't been available in English for that long but it's heavily inspired by Norse mythology shot through with sci-fi.

A great but highly under-rated fantasy title is The Adventurers. It was published by Aircel in the mid to late eighties and for a time was a really popular indie title. Aircel went bust so the series has a rather abrupt ending but that aside it remains one of my favourite titles.

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paddyo

paddyo

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Right everybody i need your help, i'm hoping you can help identify a comic for me and in particular an issue or a storyline.

Basically i've just done a guest spot on my friends comic podcast, doing reviews and a bit about me being a comic collector etc.

Well one of the questions was "what was the first comic you read?"

Now this was a tough question because tbh i don't know what my first comic actually was, i know details but that's it.

This is where i'm hoping someone can help, i have never been able to find out what the comic was myself (even with nine years in a comic store) and online hasen't really helped either.

Here's the information:-

"It's a DC Comic"

"It has Batman and the Martin Manhunter"

"Batman is the classic blue and grey costume (Neil Adams) & Manhunter is in the classic cape and straps costume"

"Other DC Heroes are in it, i seem to think superman but i'm vague on this."

"The enemy makes a giant monster but they can't attack it as it's made out of innocent people from a shopping mall kind of stuck together"

And sadly that's all i remember :(

I think it maybe JLE or JLTF but hell it could be a DC crossover for all i know. It's around the late 80s, and was a British reprint of the usual American Stories.

Any help would be apreciated as i'd love to get a copy or at least read it again.

Is the baddie Starro? A big giant alien starfish?

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Space Renegade Ulala

Space Renegade Ulala

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Are they all grey looking dudes? I recall one of the JLI-JLE team-ups involving the Grey Man doing something like that, roughly in the 30s for JLI, somewhere around #8-12 for JLE.

Plot was the second Grey Man going mental like his predecessor, racking up a load of victims in eastern Europe, Doctor Fate (female version) tries to stop him with the JL's help.

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rumblecat

rumblecat

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God, I loved those Giffen and DeMatteis Justice League comics. I never used read superhero ones but I bought every issue of them at the time.

I just read through the entire run of Morrison's The Invisibles. When it first came out I collected it up until about issue 20 or so and then gave up, not enjoying it, and wanted to see if time had changed my opinion, and also to find out what happened to all the rest of it. Plus with the world ending in 2012 I was quite keen to see Morrison's take on that and the lead up to it, and to see if the comic had dated at all or if it felt more current.

Mixed feelings really... I just don't like or enjoy reading many of the characters. Surprisingly Lord Fanny (ahem) was a far more interesting character than I remembered, but it was pretty heavy going. Got quite irritated with King Mob and his shooting everybody, but when the comic drew attention to it as well and his regrets over it I thought it was going to head somewhere interesting... but no, he just decided not to shoot people much anymore. Same with Dane- a great moment where he gives powers back to one of the bad guys, saying that he (Dane) is not what everyone thinks he is- but that ambiguity got thrown aside as well.

Back when I read it I thought it had two great issues- 11 and 12. 11 is drawn by John Rdigway and deals with an undercover operative in service of the Royal Family who has lost his nerve and retreated into his cover story, rather than fulfil his mission- brilliant writing, great unreliable narrator and atmosphere. And 12 is Best Man Fall, a nonlinear story of the life of a security guard shot in one of the earlier episodes, and I think it's one of the best things Morrison has done- really moving, and beautifully constructed.

So it's kind of frustrating because these issues give a glimpse of what I really hoped the Invisibles would be, but because it focuses so much on the team dynamic and the kind of tedious characters involved, it never really sparked off by me, and by the end when they were using four or five different artists on each issue it all just falls apart, along with that Division X Sweeney parody thing which never really works either for me. Ah well.

Shit, sorry, I went on way longer there than I meant to.

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Anne Summers

Anne Summers

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The Invisibles is very of-it's-time I think - great overarching back story (all conspiracy theories are true/secret society of anarchists v secret society of fascist totalitarians) , fantastic set pieces (Fanny's journey into the Aztec afterlife, raids on Area 51 style bunkers, flashbacks to the 1920s Invisibles, the bit you mentioned with the guard's backstory etc) but all seems a bit silly now in the cold light of whatever-we-call-this-decade.

Particularly all the pop-culture stuff - the fetishwear, drug references, trance music, and King Mob - supposedly the coolest guy on the planet, and a massive Kula Shaker (lol) fan.

But then you didn't really enjoy it back in the day either, so, hmm.

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Rev

Rev

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I've very recently read the first TPB of 'Y: The Last Man', I'm not overly impressed and few things niggle, but it's noted for being a bit good. Should I keep up with it or is what I've read indicative and I should bail?

Starts average, gets brilliant, ends awful. I'm genuinely tempted to say read it all but the last TPB, but I know no-one would do that. So I'd say don't bother.

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Anne Summers

Anne Summers

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Actually I've read all of Y except the last TPB. Just never got round to it. I've even got the first four editions of the deluxe hardback, but never got round to buying the last two (because I remember the story petering off into boringness when I read through the individual issues back in the day).

Will get round to it one day.

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Arn X Treme

Arn X Treme

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I wouldn't say it's been complete rubbish.

Some of the issue's of the main book were ok to read, and some of the Tie-Ins were fantastic.

Wolverine and the x-men where colossus went to see kitty pride was great, as was the tie-in Avengers issue where they had Danger mess with Hawk-eye's mind as well as the escorting Emma Frost to prison issue.

We all knew how this was going to end and i look forward to seeing how this progresses in Uncanny Avengers. Looking forward to Avalanche wrecking some shit!

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