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!

[Captain Comics]

What I love about both the Black Canary Archives and the Doctor Fate Archives, Dr. Hmmm, is that both are comprehensive collections of the characters' solo Golden Age stories. I'd sure like to see more of that.

[Doctor Hmmm?]

Which I did not realize until I started reading them. Yeah, I liked that too.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

WASTELAND #1

BEAUTIFUL STORIES FOR UGLY CHILDREN v9 ("By the Light of the Screaming Moon")

Yep, I'm in that kind of mood. 

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Fantastic Four Roast - This was...not good. But like I always say its hard to do comedy, and I think even harder to pull it off in comics. I think it would have been better if Fred Hambeck had done all of the art, maybe he could have pulled off some of the sight gags better. I still don't think it would have been good though.

I'm also reading Legion of Super-heroes: The Silver Age vol 1. This is all of their first stories, and some of them I have read before, so I don't mind skipping the first appearance of Mon-El since it hasn't been that long since I read it. Now the story from Superboy #86 I haven't read since 1987 or 88.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

THE DEATH OF DOCTOR STRANGE #5: [SPOILERS] The end of this series is not exactly what I was expecting. I thought the "death" and the "Doctor Strange" of the title was going to be the Doctor Strange of the past (somehow). It seemed to be heading that way when Doctor Strange-the-younger cast a spell of transmutation of Kaecilius (one of the villains) which restored Doctor Strange-the-elder. the younger Doctor Strange even convinces the older Doctor Strange to reconcile with Clea. Then they set about resolving the conflict by uniting the Sorcerers Supreme of five dimensions: Dr. Strange (Earth), Tiboro (6th Dimension), Aggamon (Purple Dimension), Clea (Dark Dimension) and Illyana Rasputin (Limbo). But the regeneration spell doesn't hold, Strange dies anyway, and Clea becomes the new Sorcerer Supreme of Earth. If fact, it will be Clea who will be featured in the new series Strange debuting in March. [END SPOILERS]

SPIDER-MAN #87: This issue is less about Spider-Man (Ben Reilly, that is) than it is about Peter Parker being trained by Captain America and Black Cat in order to regain his title. We already know how it will turn out, but frankly I'm rooting for Ben. This issue also features a call-back to the '80s as Peter goes into action with a paper bag over his head. 

SUPERMAN '78 #6: This sequel to Superman: The Movie has come to a close just as coverage of Superman II is ramping up the "Superheroes Every Day" blog. Check it out!

[Richard Willis]

The setup for Strange sounds like what they did with Jane Foster.

[The Baron]

To be precise, I've only read two of them.  The X-Cellent comic will have to wait for later.

[The Baron]

Fantastic Four: Life Story #6:  An OK ending to a series that was never quite what I expected it to be.

Justice League Incarnate #4:  Good stuff.  A certain character proves to be the arrogant dumbass that I always thought they were.

X-Cellent #1:  Underwhelming.  A disappointment, really.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Continuing to go through my Kindle Fire, and there have been several striking books.

1. God Is Disappointed In You is really a prose book with cartoon illustrations, but it was published by Top Shelf. Mark Russell retells the entire Bible in brief, irreverent chapters, illustrated by Shannon Wheeler's puckish cartoons. Hilarious (reminded me of The Cartoon History of the Universe), although I wound up skimming parts of it, like all of Paul's Letters, which got repetitious.

2. I Hate Fairyland, Vol. 1: Madly Ever After was also hilarious (and vulgar). Skottie Young tells the story of a little girl stuck in Fairyland, frustrated and killing every cute creature she encounters. I plan to read the rest of this series.

3. Nowhere Men, Vol. 1: Fates Worse Than Death by Eric Stephenson, Nate Bellegarde, and Jordie Bellaire was a surprise. It's a kind of alternate history about a group of star scientists, full of faux-historical documentation like the text material in Watchmen.

4. Peepland by Christa Faust, Gary Phillips, and Andrea Camerini is a crime noir comic from Hard Case Crime. Set in New York City in the 1980s when Times Square was a seedy place, it follows a peepshow worker who becomes embroiled in a murder by the son of a prominent politician. Just terrific, and highly recommended.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

SERIAL #10 - "FINAL ISSUE": As with the previous series, Five Years, Serial comes to an unexpected end. 

FANTASTIC FOUR: LIFE STORY #6: ...as opposed to this series, which came to an end as expected, I have to agree with Bob that it never lived up to the potential demonstrated by its predecessor, Spider-Man: Life Story.

THE MARVELS #8: The best title Marvel publishes today, IMO, soon to be coming to an end.

THE X-CELLENT #1: I remember being really enthusiastic when this team (Millisan and Allred, I mean) took over X-Force. I followed them over to X-Statix, but then I don't remember what happened. Did I lose interest? Did I stop buying? I don't remember. But The E-Cellent is very much like I remember X-Statix to be. If you didn't read X-Statix, don't expect much in the way of recap; it just sort of picks up where the previous series left off, despite it having been "X" number of years ago (no pun intended). I do remember that with all three series I like the art more than the story. In fact, I like the art so much I may continue on to give them a chance to win me over. Dark.

ONE-STAR SQUADRON #3: As much as I am indifferent to Russell's FF: Life Story, I am enjoying this cynical and irreverent look at super-heroes.

SPIDER-MAN #88: If I am indifferent to FF: Life Story, I am ambivalent to Spider-Man. Try at your own risk.

STARTUP #1: Another "Binge Book" from Darin Henry and Sitcomics. Of the three super-hero titles, chronologically this one takes place earliest and leads directly into Heroes Union #1. These "Binge Books" are "68 pages of epic action" for five bucks. A similar package from Marvel would cost maybe nine or ten bucks. The "rating" on the cover  Startup is my favorite of the three. A breath of fresh air after the dark X-Cellent #1. 

[JD DeLuzio]

Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod) said:

although I wound up skimming parts of it, like all of Paul's Letters, which got repetitious.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"God Is Disappointed In You"

I started read this 2013 when it was first published (I pre-ordered it), but then I got side-tracked to (what turned out to be at the time) an overly ambitious project. I started reading The Bible, Asimov's Guide to the Bible and God Is Disappointed In You one book at a time (in much the same way I am currently re-reading ERB Tarzan and PJF Tarzan Alive). I don't remember how far I got, and I can't believe these books have sat in my "to read" pile for nearly a decade. Now that I find myself with too much time on my hands it might be the time to resume this project.