Comic Book Discussion Thread (Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, Top Cow, IDW, Indy, etc)

Infinity has been awesome, but you need to read both Avengers and New Avengers to get the entire story, which is pretty awful, but DC has been doing that for years. I'll wait to fully judge the event as a whole once it wraps up. 

Apparently it's not entirely Bendis' fault that Scarlet has been delayed so much. All his other non-super hero books still come out. Alex Maleev is partly to blam. He is a notoriously slow worker and sometimes just stops doing projects because he wants to do something else. 

 
GhostShark said:
Infinity has been awesome, but you need to read both Avengers and New Avengers to get the entire story, which is pretty awful, but DC has been doing that for years. I'll wait to fully judge the event as a whole once it wraps up.

Apparently it's not entirely Bendis' fault that Scarlet has been delayed so much. All his other non-super hero books still come out. Alex Maleev is partly to blam. He is a notoriously slow worker and sometimes just stops doing projects because he wants to do something else.
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It's hard to do tie in's right though. I Think only crossover that got it close to right in recent memory was Blackest Night. Though the weight and importance of events immediately gets lost in things like Forever Evil when the 3 or 4 Superman titles have him fine and not acknowledging anything that's happened in this "big event".

 
bardockkun said:
And it's a video game tie in and a prequel all taking place in an alternate universe with art and coloring that goes from acceptable to "someone is obviously asleep", all of these should be death sentences, but...I'm somehow still picking up the Injustice comic and I'm somehow still enjoying it. Batman's contingency plans for the latest issue and Superman testing his wits against him were all the makings of a good read. I'm shocked.
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I think everyone was surprised by Injustice, DC included. I haven't read the whole thing (last digital chapter I bought was the one after Dick died) but I was pretty excited to find out that they'll be bringing it back and continuing with it in January. I love it so much that I plan on buying the first tpb despite owning the digital version of those issues already, and after that I think it'll be too hard to resist buying the print issues taking place after that point.

 
poison_SHADOW said:
I think everyone was surprised by Injustice, DC included. I haven't read the whole thing (last digital chapter I bought was the one after Dick died) but I was pretty excited to find out that they'll be bringing it back and continuing with it in January. I love it so much that I plan on buying the first tpb despite owning the digital version of those issues already, and after that I think it'll be too hard to resist buying the print issues taking place after that point.
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12 Issues an an annual, right? Though, yeah that sounds about right with no expectations from anyone since my shop sold out on the first few printings.

 
Some random thoughts on Infinity from me.

I'm a bit behind on stuff though since I had to work NYCC for 4 days helping a friend with his booth then spent a week working on my house.  Last weekend I managed to catch up a bit but still not up to date and haven't even touched this week's stuff yet.

Epic is definitely the word I would use.  I have NOT liked most of the recent "events" in past years.  AvX was awful and filled with terribly written characters, Fear Itself was disappointing, and Age of Ultron was a complete waste of time.  I have some issues with Infinity, but overall I have really enjoyed it.

I don't like how Reed has been characterized.  The Reed I've read for decades would never remotely consider some of the stuff he has done with the Illuminati, but then again how many years does a character have to be mis-characterized before that BECOMES their character?

I'd like to see Cap comment on all the killing.  What he sent Thor to do was very...un-Cap-like.  Cap will kill in war and this is certainly a war, but he should at least be mentally stewing a bit over what he's been forced to do to protect the Earth.  The Cap in the recent(ish) non-Infinity related A+X story with Jubilee was a perfect Cap.  Actually that whole issue was great.  The Beast/Wonder Man part was excellent as well, but anyway back to Infinity.

The rest of the cast has been pretty good, particularly Spider-Woman and Carol.  While I approve of continuity the recent event's of Carol's book has probably hurt their dynamic a bit, but it's still been pretty entertaining.

I HATE the New Universe/Builder stuff.  Hate hate hate.  Leading in I would have stopped reading all that crap a million times if I didn't know it was going to tie into Infinity.  It was dull.  It dragged on forever and I never liked New Universe in the first place.  That said once Infinity started picking up it's gotten a lot more palatable.  

Thanos has been pretty awesome.  It seems a bit odd for him to have an army but at least he feels like Thanos.

Overall, despite my complaints  I am enjoying Infinity more than any event since Annihilation.  It's very good and does capture that epic feel that events have been lacking for a long time.

 
Somebody obviously doesn't remember Reed Richards being part of the Illuminati. The whole point of the Illuminati is to do the things that must be done, whether it upsets their consciences or not. Reed is damn perfect in the role. You gotta realize that they are doing these things to save Earth. And it should be known that Reed along with Tony basically created the Illuminati behind everyone's back. You could even push that a bit more and say he is just following in his daddy's footsteps like Tony is.

As for Cap killing, he's been like this since he returned from the dead. I'd say dying is one way to certainly change one's outlook on life. And let us not forgot that this is the man that was director of SHIELD for a while and created the Secret Avengers to do the shady things that the normal Avenger teams can't do. 

I do agree with the Builders, though. They need a bit more exposition within Avengers and New Avengers with Infinity. But, hey, as a result, we get such awesome characters like Ex Nihilo and Starbrand. 

 
Sad to hear Fables is ending with issue #150. But I feel it's run it's course and the story does seem to be winding down. Hopefully it ends well.

We still have Wolf Among Us. The first episode was stellar.

 
So I've now finally gotten around to reading all of my Villain's Month issues besides Joker, and maybe I lucked out and picked a bunch of good ones, but on the whole I was pleased with them. I don't know what Zod's pre-N52 origin was but I enjoyed his story. I do kind of regret not getting the Cyborg Superman issue considering how many appearances Zor-El had in Villain's Month, but I guess it doesn't matter much because Batman/Superman and Superman/Wonder Woman are the only Supes books I read. 

And Forever Evil has been FUN. Don't know what lasting effects (HAH!) it'll have, but so far I'm enjoying it more than Marvel's Dark Reign period. I enjoyed Otis' brief appearance in #2, that was a nice throwback. Finch needs to pay more attention, though, because there have been a lot of errors just in these first two issues. 

 
Oh I've read it. If it's Marvel, 616 universe, and not some obscure miniseries/one shot, odds are good that I have read it. Reed was out of character then and he is now. A change in one thing does not erase 40ish years of history. Of course as I said, Reed's been fairly consistently OOC for a good 6 or 7 years now and at one point it goes from being out of character to his new character. No one can say when that is, but I don't have to like it. It all started with Illuminati and playing Igor to Tony Stark in Civil War.

Making the hard decisions may be the point of the Illuminati, but not of Reed Richards. Dr. Strange, Namor, Black Bolt, and T'Challa make sense. Three of them are the leaders of their people have a long history of making such decisions. Dr. Strange has often done so as well. Tony was a genius inventor/engineer who in the past 10 years has been turned into someone on Reed's level of theoretical science, something he was not true before. But he's also been willing to make similar decisions in the past. Reed, however, has always been a guy who does not compromise on his morals no matter what. He's also supremely confident of his ability to fix any problem with science. He often does this to the level of arrogance, and it can be a fault as much as a strength due to this. Over the existence of the character he has had the opportunity to take the easy way out in similar situations dozens of times and never has until recently.

As for Cap. He can change, certainly. Anyone can. I'm fine with it if they actually bother to explain it in story. Unless it is a minor change it cannot be left up to reader interpretation. If we universally assume "He had his reasons" to anyone who acts out of character without actually giving those reasons in a story it just becomes a crutch for bad writing, and lets ANYTHING be explained away. Cyclops turning into what he has has actually been a slow transformation shown over a good amount of time. As much as I dislike the character now, I respect that it wasn't that he just woke up one day and decided to act completely different than he had since the 60s. Why not have Cap start decapitating villains and carrying around a sack of their heads. Crazy? Well, it wasn't explained but I choose to believe that he was traumatized by what went on in Dimension Z an this is how he copes now. Or we can take option B of pretending this was always the status quo because hot writer 37A says so. If a writer wants to make major changes to a character and editorial allows it (Which is just about anything these days) go for it, but actually set it up. Plant the seeds, have it happen over time and for a reason, don't just wave a magic wand and take the "A wizard did it!" route. Well, unless of course, a wizard actually did do it... And if you can't do this without being booted off the book, maybe you aren't as good a writer as you think.

I'm coming off a bit more cranky than I would like to. I do love Marvel and I still read everything Marvel puts out set in 616 or the Ultimate Universe. Fairly tight continuity is part of why I am enjoying Infinity and I hope it keeps up, because more and more continuity is becoming a lost art. I've really enjoyed the scenes where in separate comics we have gotten separate point-of-view scenes from the various groups involved while actually still retaining what happened in the other comics.

Ok, got my crazy old guy rant out. On Injustice, I was ignoring it at first as well due to being a video game tie-in. But, I caught some of the more recent issues and it has really grabbed me. I've always been a fan of What if? type stories am I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

GhostShark said:
Somebody obviously doesn't remember Reed Richards being part of the Illuminati. The whole point of the Illuminati is to do the things that must be done, whether it upsets their consciences or not. Reed is damn perfect in the role. You gotta realize that they are doing these things to save Earth. And it should be known that Reed along with Tony basically created the Illuminati behind everyone's back. You could even push that a bit more and say he is just following in his daddy's footsteps like Tony is.

As for Cap killing, he's been like this since he returned from the dead. I'd say dying is one way to certainly change one's outlook on life. And let us not forgot that this is the man that was director of SHIELD for a while and created the Secret Avengers to do the shady things that the normal Avenger teams can't do.

I do agree with the Builders, though. They need a bit more exposition within Avengers and New Avengers with Infinity. But, hey, as a result, we get such awesome characters like Ex Nihilo and Starbrand.
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Did anybody else read the Lobo villain's month issue? I think I mentioned previously that my only exposure to Lobo was in Superman the animated series... and then recently in Rob Liefeld's half of New 52 Deathstroke - with that said, I actually really liked this issue. The new Lobo's design ended up looking less "sparkly Twilight", as the concept art implied, and more "sci-fi 50's greaser" which isn't so bad. Might've also helped that I read his dialogue in Adam Baldwin's voice. 

I'd be up for reading more about the new guy.

 
CaptainJoel said:
I read it and absolutely abhor this new Lobo. Could not be more disappointed in a decision to revamp a character.
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I guess it all depends on what they plan to do with the old one. If they kill him off then that would definitely be a slap in the face - but then what if he pummels the "real" Lobo and keeps the name? I did find it funny that they had the original Lobo (albeit shirtless) on the cover, despite that version only being mentioned in passing and never seen within the issue.

Has anything been said about when that particular story thread will be picked back up? Like I said before, I'd be very interested in following where it goes.

 
poison_SHADOW said:
I guess it all depends on what they plan to do with the old one. If they kill him off then that would definitely be a slap in the face - but then what if he pummels the "real" Lobo and keeps the name? I did find it funny that they had the original Lobo (albeit shirtless) on the cover, despite that version only being mentioned in passing and never seen within the issue.

Has anything been said about when that particular story thread will be picked back up? Like I said before, I'd be very interested in following where it goes.
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I didn't see anything about when, but around the time the issue came out they said he was going to show up and beat the tar out of real looking Lobo to reclaim his place as Lobo.

 
So apparently I ordered a Teen Titans tpb directly from one of the artists. I didn't intend to - it just happened to be the cheapest one on ebay. I think it was one of the final pre-N52 volumes: Prime of Life. The guy signed it and everything, and even went so far as to send me a few gold foil Superman cards as a bonus when he noticed a crease on the back cover. His name is Doug Hazlewood, though I can't say that I heard of him before this. Nice guy, though, assuming it's really him.

CaptainJoel said:
I didn't see anything about when, but around the time the issue came out they said he was going to show up and beat the tar out of real looking Lobo to reclaim his place as Lobo.
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Mm. A shame - I guess it'll be a whole lot less interesting than I was hoping it would be.

 
Man, I hate when the big two have to pander to the media to show they're "hip" and "with it". Muslim Ms. Marvel, you're already on my shit list. Not because Muslim, but because I hate when Marvel does this shit.

 
Comixology is having a sale on the first volumes of New 52 Batman books and - while I don't see how it qualifies as a Batman book at all - I was able to get Teen Titans vol. 1 for four bucks.

There are two factors that could be affecting my opinion here: 1.) I heard so many bad things about it that I expected it to be irredeemably awful and 2.) I got seven issues for less than five dollars.

With that said, I enjoyed what I read. It definitely had problems. Tim's insane reaction to Bart wearing one of his shirts being the standout, along with Skitter's apparent uselessness. Superboy also seemed to turn on his organization insanely quickly, though I haven't read his solo book so maybe those seeds had already been planted? I loved the art though - very 90's. Do I feel good about the impluse buy? Yup. Do I feel compelled to read any other issues? If there's another sale sometime down the road, maybe.

 
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I don't see the big deal over the new Ms. Marvel. I think it's great, actually. It's a new character. She's not replacing Captain Marvel. They're two completely different characters.

 
I understand why they try to revamp characters and why they try to add diversity to the universe. I get the fact that most heroes were white folks. I just find most of this stuff to be forced. Marvel and DC are the hipsters of comics now. Trying too hard. I'm sure they can explain everything away with other universes, swords, and magic, but comics have gotten ridiculous the past 15 or so years. Any rules that existed are thrown out and we are left with universes where literally anything can happen. I understand a writer doesn't want to be limited, but continuity is essential to keep long term readers. I would like to start reading the mainstream stuff again, but every time I pick up a book it is cancelled or going to be revamped.

 
While I think the Ms. Marvel ideas sound stupid for the same reasons that bardockkun does, I actually think it looks good enough to give it a shot. I also like that the first issue's cover pays homage to 90's Supergirl. That was one of my favorite covers ever when I was a kid.

 
Is it bad anytime I think of a Supergirl cover I just think of Crisis on Infinite Earths with...whichever Earth that Supergirl was, dead in crying Superman's arms?

 
bardockkun said:
Is it bad anytime I think of a Supergirl cover I just think of Crisis on Infinite Earths with...whichever Earth that Supergirl was, dead in crying Superman's arms?
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No. That was when characters dying meant something. The series was made to tie up continuity problems and to get DC back to one universe. That is an iconic cover that has been done 100s of times though...

 
bardockkun said:
Man, I hate when the big two have to pander to the media to show they're "hip" and "with it". Muslim Ms. Marvel, you're already on my shit list. Not because Muslim, but because I hate when Marvel does this shit.
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LOLZ...you must've flipped your shit back in the 90's when Marvel made Northstar, from Alpha Flight, gay. :rofl:
 
neocisco said:
If the concept art for Ms. Marvel is the same style the book will be drawn in, count me out. Yech.
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It probably is, it might work, or at least work better than Alphona's work on Uncanny X-Force which just didn't fit the tone of that book at all in my opinion, not that the new Uncanny X-Force has had a very good story at all anyways.

It does kind of confuse me though, since I liked the artwork from Runaways, but it honestly feels like Alphona has changed his style a decent amount from what it was back then, and now it just feels really sketchy and weird.

CaptainJoel said:
While I think the Ms. Marvel ideas sound stupid for the same reasons that bardockkun does, I actually think it looks good enough to give it a shot. I also like that the first issue's cover pays homage to 90's Supergirl. That was one of my favorite covers ever when I was a kid.
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Totally agree, while I personally am not the hugest fan of the content from the Linda Danvers stories, I really liked that cover (and some of the other covers from that series).
 
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dohdough said:
LOLZ...you must've flipped your shit back in the 90's when Marvel made Northstar, from Alpha Flight, gay. :rofl:
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...

He's gay?! WHAT?! THIS IS HOW I FIND OUT!?

Though in all seriousness I don't remember anything of Marvel going to such shameless publicity tactics until after Joe Q. took over. Things like ruining Captain America #25 before it's even out made me want to drop that book entirely with the feeling of the focus is on this one event as opposed to the story.

Oh and on the other side of the coin, fuck Judd Winick.

 
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Shameless? So giving creators the open opportunity to create and change characters for the better is Shameless? Hmmm. I mean, this same backlash came from Simon Baz and that has turned out splendid. Let's not write stuff off before the book even drops. 

It is weird to see how much Alphona's pencils have changed. I don't think I've ever seen such a drastic change from a penciler before. I wonder what brought upon the change. 

Disney and Netflix have announced TV series for Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Jessica freakin' Jones! All will lead into a Defenders mini-series. And the MCU continues to grow. 

 
holy shit more xmen  comics? not that I'm complaining but I haven't kept up with xmen in like two weeks and I just saw there's an amazing xmen now

 
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GhostShark said:
Shameless? So giving creators the open opportunity to create and change characters for the better is Shameless? Hmmm. I mean, this same backlash came from Simon Baz and that has turned out splendid. Let's not write stuff off before the book even drops.

It is weird to see how much Alphona's pencils have changed. I don't think I've ever seen such a drastic change from a penciler before. I wonder what brought upon the change.

Disney and Netflix have announced TV series for Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Jessica freakin' Jones! All will lead into a Defenders mini-series. And the MCU continues to grow.
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Shameless is when they go on CNN and other news outlets and websites to promote a character that is only there to get some quick publicity. DC Comics whole big bullshit over "A MAJOR CHARACTER IN THE DC UNIVERSE IS COMING OUT!" and it being Alan Scott from Earth 2 with no relation to the current new 52 or whatever is one of the things I'm talking about. They can change a character however they want, I'm fine with that, but when they go on TV to advertise something to boost sales then fuck yeah that's shameless. The story should speak for itself not just a ploy to sell more issues by saying someone is coming out of the closet, this person is going to die or this character is now this nationality or religion.

 
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We live in an age of marketing and media.These things are always going to come out in media outlets first. That's just how things are now. 

Also, if anyone reads Amazing X-Men, let me know how it is. I don't really need another 4 dollar book on my list, but I love Nightcrawler. 

 
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GhostShark said:
Also, if anyone reads Amazing X-Men, let me know how it is. I don't really need another 4 dollar book on my list, but I love Nightcrawler.
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Read it a couple hours ago, I actually enjoyed it, not a whole ton happened since it is setting stuff up, but at least around half the book was focused on what Nightcrawler was up to and that was awesome (I love Nightcrawler too), then the other part of it was at the Jean Grey School which reminded me of the earlier issues Aaron did for Wolverine & the X-men which isn't a bad thing, but that part was the setup part, so it wasn't as interesting, but it also served to introduce Firestar as well.
 
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Just finished reading Damian: Son of Batman #1. It was... eh, alright.

I figured the dialogue would suffer since the story is being written by an artist and I was right. This being a $3.99 book, I was delighted to see that it received the very nice, glossy kind of covers DC has been putting out lately - and then felt incredibly ripped off to find out the interior pages are printed on that very rough, low quality paper I've always hated. If they were going to do that then I at least want a back-up story tacked on at the back of the book, maybe something set in the future when Damian has been Batman for a while, but nope.

And is this the first story where a member of the Bat family tracked down some of their recurring villains using social media? I never knew Mr. Freeze had a facebook page or a blog. That's certainly... interesting, although Killer Croc's was more surprising. :wall:  

 
I was thinking about reading Damian: Son of Batman, but from the glimpse of the cover that I saw online, that art looks horrendous to me. I don't think I'd be able to stand it.

Good to know I'm not missing out. But I was still kinda looking forward to it because I do like Damian quite a bit.

 
genderbreak said:
I was thinking about reading Damian: Son of Batman, but from the glimpse of the cover that I saw online, that art looks horrendous to me. I don't think I'd be able to stand it.

Good to know I'm not missing out. But I was still kinda looking forward to it because I do like Damian quite a bit.
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The art was actually pretty good in my opinion, first page aside.

Damian himself, though, was kind of unrecognizable. He has all of the brutality from his earlier appearances, but his dialogue is pretty out of character ("Holy crap, Batman!") and at one point he even stops by a church to hop into the confessional booth because... well, I don't know why, exactly, because it was pretty random.

I'm going to keep reading because it's only a four issue mini and I'm curious where it's gonna go, and also (though this is wishful thinking) I'm hoping decent sales will make DC consider bringing Damian back in one form or another. Plus there's always a chance that Kubert will find everyone's voices and improve his writing before the end. That, too, is wishful thinking.

I mean, there was a halfway decent twist:
apparently the Batman who dies in the beginning was Dick, not Bruce. Bruce is alive and well and was apparently posing as a priest, unless I'm mistakenly linking two separate "mysteries".

 
I had no idea we had a comics thread. 

I just finished reading Court of Owls after about a decade hiatus from reading comics (sans picking up Hush Unwrapped, which was epic)... went ahead and took advantage of Comixology's Vol. 1's sale and bought Dark Knight, Detective Comics, and I'll probably grab Nightwing and Batman & Robin while I'm at it.

 
poison_SHADOW said:
The art was actually pretty good in my opinion, first page aside.

Damian himself, though, was kind of unrecognizable. He has all of the brutality from his earlier appearances, but his dialogue is pretty out of character ("Holy crap, Batman!") and at one point he even stops by a church to hop into the confessional booth because... well, I don't know why, exactly, because it was pretty random.

I'm going to keep reading because it's only a four issue mini and I'm curious where it's gonna go, and also (though this is wishful thinking) I'm hoping decent sales will make DC consider bringing Damian back in one form or another. Plus there's always a chance that Kubert will find everyone's voices and improve his writing before the end. That, too, is wishful thinking.

I mean, there was a halfway decent twist:
apparently the Batman who dies in the beginning was Dick, not Bruce. Bruce is alive and well and was apparently posing as a priest, unless I'm mistakenly linking two separate "mysteries".
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Pretty damn sure that was Jim Gordan as the priest, not Bruce.

 
bardockkun said:
Pretty damn sure that was Jim Gordan as the priest, not Bruce.
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That was my initial thought too (dude was a dead-ringer for Gordon) but then Bruce pops up out of nowhere to scold Damian pretty soon after the priest's "You have no idea how well I know you" line. That's what made me think it was just a Matches Malone-like disguise.

 
poison_SHADOW said:
That was my initial thought too (dude was a dead-ringer for Gordon) but then Bruce pops up out of nowhere to scold Damian pretty soon after the priest's "You have no idea how well I know you" line. That's what made me think it was just a Matches Malone-like disguise.
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A part of me wants to debate this some more, but I figure trying to explain logic in this along with a world that portrays Mr.Freeze as having a social media page with a snowy background takes a bit of a logic leap as is. So I'll wait until next issue to clarify before further going "BUT!"

 
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bardockkun said:
A part of me wants to debate this some more, but I figure trying to explain logic in this along with a world that portrays Mr.Freeze as having a social media page with a snowy background takes a bit of a logic leap as is. So I'll wait until next issue to clarify before further going "BUT!"
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Fair enough. I mean, this could very well end up being a story that isn't worth talking about at all anyway. I'm trying to stay optimistic and remind myself that it was only the first issue - but then there's only three issues left, so how much time for improvement could there really be?

Anyhoo, I bought the first (gigantic) volume of Knightfall. I'm definitely enjoying it so far, and it has proven to be something I can't put down for long periods of time before jumping back into it.

Anybody read Batman/Superman #5? I like that they switched artists (Nightwing's suit looked awesome) but I really didn't care for the horizontal reading format. The only similar gimmick I ever liked was in Snyder's Court of Owls when the pages slowly started twisting until they were eventually printed upside-down entirely.

 
poison_SHADOW said:
Ha! That's hilarious. A lot of people who bought the hardcover and tpb seemed to think it was a printing error. Reading some of those Amazon reviews bitching out DC are pretty entertaining.
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I was actually at work reading Court Of Owls when I got to the upside down pages. I was like... "...fuckin' iPad is glitching? How could Comixology have a glitched comic?!" Ended up googlin' the answer.

 
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