What Comic Books Have You Read Today?

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

Report what comic books you have read today--and tell us a little something about it while you're here!

[Figserello]

Rob Staeger said:

I just read a little bit more of last week's Wednesday Comics -- there's not enough out this week for me to make a special trip, but I'll be near a shop in NYC on Monday, so I'll probably pick up Wednesday Comics and Ex Machina then. But two things I noted with puzzlement and delight in last week's:

Adam Strange changes bodies during the Zeta-Beam transfer? Whu???

And the Flash does a super-speed time-travel trick I've never seen before. Well done!

Well, this Adam Strange is out of continuity, as are all the rest apart form maybe the Teen Titans, which suffers for it.

The idea of the hero being an old man who is transported into the body of a virile, heroic young man is fairly novel. Usually old men who want to take over the body of a healthy young man are villains. Comics are ageist as well as just about every other negative "-ist" you care to mention...

I've only just put down Miracleman: Book 2 The Red King Syndrome, and it has the typical set-up of evil old genius wants to transplant his mind into the body of immortal young super-person.

As a matter of fact, the original set-up of Moore's Marvelman involved an out-of-shape and weary middle-aged guy discovering the power to transform himself into the powerful and ultra-virile Superhero. That's one of the things that made it so original then, but that was almost 30 years ago. Are there many other examples?

I think the occurence of it will increase, as we, the fanboys, get older as a demographic

And the Flash in WC isn't so much a high-speed hero now as a time-travelling hero. That's a whole other kettle of fish, and the main reason this story, too, is out of continuity.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

I think I missed the Coca-Cola reference; probably skimmed over that part. After the opening, the only section that really grabbed me was the American one. I knew most of those references, and was interested in seeing what Moore did with them.

Figserello said:

Mark Sullivan said:

Today I went through the back material in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II. I started out trying to read "The New Traveller's Almanac" (the long text piece). I found it so tedious that I skimmed the rest. It's certainly very clever, but not enough to hold my interest.

They are pretty hard going but clever nonetheless. Did you get to the references to Santa Claus' colour scheme and the attempts by the Coca-Cola man to get the polar bears to endorse his product?

For myself, I wasn't too impressed with the latest installment of LoEG. The story was to formalised. Everyone was acting out a part in the arrival of Nemo's daughter's pirate ship.

I have yet to read the text piece at the back of that too. There's a Marvelman-type superhero in there.

[Figserello]

It's very black humour but subtle too. Took me a while to figure out what was going on. Give the South Pole bit another look

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

Paul Tobin...I salute you...in today's Marvel Adventures Avengers, not only does the team stop the Leader, Abomination, and Rhino...they also take time to have a hot dog making contest...

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Doc Beechler said:

Paul Tobin...I salute you...in today's Marvel Adventures Avengers, not only does the team stop the Leader, Abomination, and Rhino...they also take time to have a hot dog making contest...

I always heard you didn't want to know how hot dogs were made.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Oh, yeah, I'm aware this stuff is out of continuity.. it was just a heck of a curveball. I'm loving it!

I can't think of any old man heroes other than these tow you've mentioned. But I'll give it some more thought...

[Phil Friel]

Echo Volumes 1 and 2. Terry Moore, of Strangers in Paradise fame, doing a sci-fi comic, and doing it very well.

I like Queen and Country, but I don't think you'll ever get me to read a G.I. Joe comic. When I was younger my mates were all into G.I. Joe and Action Man, but I absolutely hated both of them. Too much past history and bias for me to overcome, I'm afraid, especially when the real Queen and Country is out there to read.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Finally got to try Matt Wagner's Madame Xanadu. I read the first two issues in the TPB. The first ten issues were done in two issue arcs, and in the trade each pair has a single "Chapter" heading, with no indication of where the issue breaks occur. It's as if they've been repackaged as a series of double-sized issues: can't recall seeing that before, at least not exactly this way. Off to a slow start for me. At the same time, this first Arthurian arc moves almost too quickly. After a bit of scene setting it jumps right in to the fall of Camelot. I'll have to read a few more issues to know if I like it, I think. Also half of P. Craig Russell's Isolation And Illusion: Collected Short Stories 1977-1997 from Dark Horse. Wide range of subject matter here. Today's portion included adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft, Cyrano De Bergerac, and O. Henry (my favorite). Some stories worked better than others, but they're all gorgeous.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I just read the second Manhunter trade, Trial By Fire, and it's really good. Solid superhero action, but still feeling very modern. I'd read the first issue of Manhunter, and wasn't terribly impressed -- I much preferred the concurrently released Bloodhound (how's that for backing the right horse?). But there was such an internet fuss over the book that I checked out the later issues, reading all the ones once it came back from its hiatus (good stuff, but I was a little dazzled by the interrelationships of all the supporting cast; I wasn't sure how Mark Shaw fit in, for example, though now that I've read Trial By Fire I get the picture.). I haven't picked up the Gotham book she appears as a backup in, but I hope she has a successful stint as a backup feature. It'd be a shame to let this character (and her supporting cast) fade out of the DCU.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Rob Staeger said:

I just read the second Manhunter trade, Trial By Fire, and it's really good. Solid superhero action, but still feeling very modern. I'd read the first issue of Manhunter, and wasn't terribly impressed -- I much preferred the concurrently released Bloodhound (how's that for backing the right horse?). But there was such an internet fuss over the book that I checked out the later issues, reading all the ones once it came back from its hiatus (good stuff, but I was a little dazzled by the interrelationships of all the supporting cast; I wasn't sure how Mark Shaw fit in, for example, though now that I've read Trial By Fire I get the picture.). I haven't picked up the Gotham book she appears as a backup in, but I hope she has a successful stint as a backup feature. It'd be a shame to let this character (and her supporting cast) fade out of the DCU.

I will have to track down the second trade, I read the first and enjoyed it, and I started collecting the series when it got restarted after the hiatus last time. One of the cooler moments in comicdom for me was last year when I met Marc Andreyko, and he told me if I bought the first trade and didn't like it, to let him know and he would buy it from me.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

That's very cool of him.

I plan to pick up the third trade sooner or later... and the first, to catch up on those other issues I missed.

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

I read Superman Blackest Night and Green Lantern Corps (the latest one) today. Both were pulse-pounding, particularly Superman. The only thing I didn't like about it was the way James Robinson writes small town people as a bunch of grinning sentimental folk, but I can't blame a man from England for having no idea how those people would actually talk.