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The 2014 Reading List Thread - March
Torchsong
Posts: 2,794
I know we still have the rest of today to get through, but just in case some weekend readers want to log their progress.
Links to Previous Reading List Threads:
January - http://thecomicforums.com/discussion/2596/the-2014-reading-list-thread-january#latest
February - http://thecomicforums.com/discussion/2662/the-2014-reading-list-thread-february#latest
As always - there are no real rules - just keep a list of what you read - singles or trades or whatever. I bold the top 5 or 6 books and pick a "winner" each month, but that's just me. I'm amazed at how much I've read this year already!
Above all - Have fun!
Links to Previous Reading List Threads:
January - http://thecomicforums.com/discussion/2596/the-2014-reading-list-thread-january#latest
February - http://thecomicforums.com/discussion/2662/the-2014-reading-list-thread-february#latest
As always - there are no real rules - just keep a list of what you read - singles or trades or whatever. I bold the top 5 or 6 books and pick a "winner" each month, but that's just me. I'm amazed at how much I've read this year already!
Above all - Have fun!
Comments
January Winner: Marada the She-Wolf (Titan)
February Winner: Will Eisner's The Spirit: Femme Fatales TPB (DC)
March:
X-Men: Alpha Flight HC (Marvel Premiere HC)
Girl Genius: Vol 8 (Studio Foglio)
Dragonar Academy Vol. 1 (Seven Seas)
Toradora! Vol. 6 (Seven Seas)
Locke & Key Vol 6: Alpha & Omega (IDW)
Fearless Defenders Vol. 2 (Marvel)
Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 3: The Fatal Five (DC) :(
Revival Vol. 3 (Image)
Supergirl Vol 3: Sanctuary (DC)
Batman: Hong Kong
The Thing: Liberty Legion (Marvel Premiere HC)
Avengers: The Private War of Dr. Doom (Marvel Premiere HC)
Fantastic Four: The Overthrow of Doctor Doom (Marvel Premiere HC)
Girl Genius: Vol. 9 (Studio Foglio)
Girl Genius: Vol. 10 (Studio Foglio)
Hercules: Prince of Power (Marvel Premiere HC)
Feb Winner Snow Piercer
March
Collections:
Lucha Libre - by Jerry Frissen
The Tikitis - the follow up to lucha libre. In lucha libre we learn luchadores protect the world from all sorts of villiany. In Tikitis we see a stable of luchadores in retirement. It's really fun comics.
She Hulk (2004) - one of my favorite series.
FBP
TMNT vol 2 (IDW new series) - this is a really good series.
TMNT vol 3 (IDW new series) - Micro series vol 1 fits in between TMNT vol 2&3. Splinter is the man.
Cautionary Fable & Fairy Tales: Africa Edition - a kickstarter anthology based on African Fairytales.
Scam - another kickastarter comic about super conmen in Las Vegas. It had an interesting concept that ended wonky. It had a lot of potential.
Singles:
Indestructible Hulk 1-10 Hulk destroys, Banner builds. More on hulk thoughts a little later.
February Winner: Hawkeye #1-11 (digital)
March Winner: Breath of Bones: A Tale of the Golem
March List
Breath of Bones: A Tale of the Golem HC (I'm just going to call this one: March Winner)
Daredevil #36
Batman #28
Samurai Jack #5
Marvel Knights Spider-Man #5 (of 5) --The art was a little much to look at at first for the series, but eventually I came to appreciate the surreal images. Matt Kindt's story was not easily followed. Maybe it will work better if I read the whole thing together instead of serialized monthly issues.
The Superior Spider-Man #27.NOW & #28 --I've enjoyed all of Slott's run on ASM and SSM. It's fun to see things playing out while knowing that Peter is coming back soon.
Star Wars (ongoing) #14
The Star Wars #5
The Superior Foes of Spider-Man vol. 1 TPB
Daredevil: Road Warrior #1 (digital) (:|
Deadpool: The Gauntlet #1 (digital) (:| - glad these were free.
Scribblenauts Unmasked: A Crisis of Imagination #1 (digital)
I.M.A.G.I.N.E. Agents #1-4 (digital)
Alex + Ada #1 (digital)
Black Science #1 (digital)
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter #1 (digital)
Star Wars: Jedi Academy --(I suppose this isn't a "traditional" GN, but there were enough comics in there that I think it should count!)
Wolverine and the X-Men #9-29 (digital)
Valiant 8-Bit Adventure: Unity! (digital)
Atomic Robo: Two-Fisted Tales - Along Came A Tyrantula (digital)
X-O Manowar #1-4 (digital)
The Walking Dead #115-121 (digital)
January winner - X-Factor Vol. 3: Many Lives of Madrox
February winner(s) - Ms. Marvel #1, She-Hulk #1, Flash: The Return of Barry Allen, Flash (New 52) Vol. 1: Move Forward, X-Factor Vol. 9: The Invisible Woman Has Vanished
Single Issues:
Fantastic Four (Heroes Reborn) #1 (read digitally)
Velvet #4
Secret Avengers #1
Hawkeye #17
Captain Marvel #1
She-Hulk #2
Daredevil #1
Ms. Marvel #2
Collections/Graphic Novels
Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood (read digitally)
Shazam (New 52) Vol. 1 (digital)
X-Factor Vol. 11: Happenings in Vegas
X-Factor Vol. 12: Scar Tissue
Fantastic Four: Into the Breach
Hellboy Midnight Circus OGN (Dark Horse)
February Winner
Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 12 Grasscutter tpb (Dark Horse)
March
Fables Deluxe Edition Vol. 8 HC
Daredevil Dark Nights TPB
Matthew
Starting at Planet Hulk this family of books has been as good as anything Marvel was publishing at the time, in some cases it was better, in some cases worse (World War Hulk I'm looking at you). However it stacks up pound for pound with the best of Marvel over the 8 years.
I highly recommend Planet Hulk if you want to check out a great Hulk story or try Indestructible Hulk by Waid for great new stuff.
Feb Winner(s) - Saga of the Swamp Thing vols 4&5 and Thor: God of Thunder vols 1&2
Just couldn't pick between em this month.
So far this month I've read...
Umbral 1-3
Deadly Class 2 (loving this series so far)
Forever Evil ARGUS 5
Code Monkey Save World
Cyber force 1-6
Hinterkind 3-6
Revenge 1
Forever Evil 6
She Hulk 2
Forever Evil Arkham War 6
Swamp Thing 29
Earth 2 21
Faker 1-6
X-Men Season 1
Alex + Ada 1
Avengers Forever 1-12
X-O Manowar 1-4
Grimm Fairy Tales 1-6
The Ultimates 1-6
JLA 13
Demon Knights 0, 8-23
Locke & Key vol 4 - Digital. Stunning series, can't believe I waited this long to read it
Moon Knight #1
Revival #18
Captain Marvel #1
Star Wars #15
More Than Meets The Eye #27
All New X-Men #24
Afterlife With Archie #1
Bumblebee and Me; My Life As A G1 Transformer
I've done a horrible job of keeping track in March, fell behind in reading too.
She-Hulk #2
Captain America #18
Night of the Living Deadpool #4
Magneto #1
New Warriors #2
Thoroughly enjoying the new Loki series. Love the overall arc of the book of Loki completing missions for the Asgardian triumvirate in exchange for past mis-deeds being erased from history. In true "God of mischief" fashion, the book does a great job of using "sleight of hand" to get the reader looking one way, while something else is happening in the other.
She-Hulk has been entertaining through 2 issues thus far and I'll continue to pick it up. Love her and Hellcat engaging in some "drunk Avengering."
Magneto was excellent. He truly comes across as terrifying in this one. Looking forward to see where things are headed.
~~~~
And on the opposite end of the spectrum, here are some books I've hopped off of:
Miracleman
Empire of the Dead
Neither one was grabbing me and my comic funds would be better served being invested elsewhere
I thought for sure Superior Foes of Spiderman #9 was due out this week. Kid working the register was of zero help as to it's status.
http://www.comiclist.com/index.php
Richard Stark's Parker Vol. 4: Slayground
Floppies
She Hulk 1-2 (enjoying so far!)
Ms. Marvel 1 (meh. Won't get #2)
Thor God of Thunder 19 (last one. Dropping this book)
Lazarus 6 (probably dropping this one too. Losing my interest)
Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril 6 (of 6)
Trillium 7 (of 8) (sorry to see this go. Brilliant book)
Hawkeye 15 (still my favorite monthly)
Sledgehammer '44: Lightning War 3 (of 3)
Revenge was a bit too 'Saw' for my liking i.e. Graphic for the reason of being graphic.
Swamp Thing is by far the best thing DC is bringing out right now too. Keep it up Charles Soule!
Hawkeye had been at the top of my list. But Hawkeye #17 was the biggest pile of crap / waste of money I've encountered in a long, long time.
Gonna be another tough month picking a winner!
On a better note, I've recently read and reread a lot of the 2001: A Space Odyssey comics that Kirby did for Marvel in the '70s. Very weird and unique stuff. I'm sorry the series didn't last longer and I'm sorry it hasn't been reprinted. It varies between absolute genius on the one hand, and "I can't believe Marvel let Kirby get away with calling this a 'story' " on the other. But irrespective of narrative coherency, the artwork is Kirby at his very best. (Royer inks.)
I also picked up the first New 52 Green Arrow TPB that starts Jeff Lemire's run on the title (Vol. 4). Nice stuff! Definitely a DC series to mention as an exception to the general feeling that they're in a creative slump over there. I'll be picking this up in trade from now on.
The Batman by Moench & Jones HC came out and I picked up that as well. I haven't read these issues in so long, and... they hold up! For me anyway. Going into it, I strongly wished the collection was oversized and I wished it wasn't just "Vol. 1", but once I start to read these stories again, I just find myself lost and not caring about peripheral matters. Vol. 2 can't come soon enough. I may be forced to dig out my back issues.
Lastly, I also read Saga Vol. 3. I still enjoy this title and am happy as hell to get the TPBs for like $7.50 apiece at instocktrades. But I still don't think the series lives up to the hype. It just seems like a generic mish-mash of fantasy sci-fi, albeit one that's VERY well produced. Vaughan is a master of pacing and Staples is a great artist. But for me this just doesn't have the right ingredients to make it a true masterpiece or whatever. I also just wish that there wouldn't be so much needless swearing or pointless images of sex. I'm not a prude and I'm all for sex and swearing in books like Preacher or whatever. But Saga is VERY close to a hellova all-ages book, and it feels like Vaughan goes out of his way to drop "fuck" into characters' dialogue just to seem edgy or whatever. Same with the lengths he goes to to include images of orgies in people's minds or random porn scenes on TV screens. For no reason at all. It isn't that I find it offensive, but I just find it annoying, like "Oh, he wants me to think this is really edgy and cool. Groan." Overall, though, I would recommend Saga. It is a very solid book, just not the 5-star masterpiece it gets billed as (at least, no in my opinion).
Comics I Tried But Just Couldn't Get Into (Pants):
Elf Quest. Just as they said; starts in the middle of the story. Confusing.
Thor: God of Thunder. The Godeater arc was good, but after that, it just doesn't grab me. Bad art.
Revolutionary War series. Tries too hard to be comic-British. Also, Pete Wisdom is a boor.
Marvel Knights: Spider-Man. Too chaotic, too disjointed, too short.
Superior Spider-Man Team-Up. Forgettable.
Wolverine and the X-Men relaunch. Maybe if Wolverine wasn't in it. Storm either, for that matter.
Black Widow. Like Hawkeye, just not as inspired. Confusing. Art terribly dim and flat.
On the Bubble (Borrow):
Avengers World. It feels like I'm coming into the middle of another story.
Marvel Knights: X-Men. I stayed with it just because it's a limited run. Done now.
Captain Marvel relaunch: Liking it so far, but it could lose me if it goes too space opera.
New Warriors. I'm intrigued by the characters, but I reserve the right to bail.
Iron Patriot relaunch: Characters seem kind of stock, but it's only the first issue. Competent.
I'm In (Buy):
Avengers Undercover. I get good vibes from Hopeless's writing, and I've always liked the MoE.
Secret Avengers. Cover art awful; inside much better. Excitement on every page. Pleasant surprise.
Iron Man, starting with 023.NOW, Rings of the Mandarin. Good concept and execution.
Magneto relaunch. This is where he should be. Only one issue in, but it's compelling as a setup.
Captain America ongoing. Favorite superhero. Very good after returning from Zola-land.
Mighty Avengers. Street-level Avengers is the best of both worlds. Love the characters and story.
Amazing X-Men. Weakest of the buys; reintroducing Nightcrawler is bringing life back into the story.
I'm All In (Don't Miss):
Manifest Destiny. Came for the history, stayed for the wild excitement around every corner.
Hawkeye. 17 didn't work, but it's still the top of the line right now.
Superior Foes of Spider-Man. Who knew I'd be invested in D-listers? Speed Demon is hilarious. *pew*
Moon Knight relaunch. Expertly crafted. Making compelling sense of an enigma character.
She-Hulk relaunch. Just the right amount of fun and adventure.
Ms. Marvel relaunch. Doing what Marvel does best; superheroes tackling every day problems.
Loki: Agent of Asgard. I can't stop reading. The last page of issue 1 alone had me hooked.
Best of the month: It's close, but Loki gets the gold. Moon Knight gets silver (heh), and She-Hulk bronze.
Next month: All of the Borrows, Buys, and Don't Misses, plus Amazing Spider-Man to look forward to. See you there.