OK. "Worst Of" Comics?

[Buffalo Tom]

Yup, I'm a reading JSA. It's one of my favourite titles right now. Actually, some of my favourite titles right now are written by Geoff Johns - Green Lantern, Action Comics, JSA. DC has some interesting story lines going on right now. What did you think of 'The Lightning Saga'? My guess is that they the Legion went back in time to bring back Barry Allen. Speaking of the Flash, I'm looking forward to Mark Waid writing the Flash again.

I'm not collecting much Marvel stuff these days, beyong Runaways and the New Avengers.

I could talk comics until the cows come home.

[Protoclown]

Yeah, I definitely think that on the whole DC is putting out better books than Marvel right now, but all the guys at my local comic shop are really behind what Marvel is doing right now. Ugh. They're still putting out some good books though...Brubaker's Captain America and Daredevil are great reads, Runaways is always fun, Garth Ennis's version of the Punisher never disappoints me, and Mike Carey's X-Men has been fairly interesting so far. I'm thinking of dropping New Avengers actually...the more Bendis I read, the more I dislike Bendis. It REALLY grates on my nerves when he has people speaking totally out of character with Yiddish words...not so much in New Avengers but in Ultimate Spider-Man. In the latest issue the Kingpin was dropping Yiddish words which I do not believe for one second he would even know. I mean, hey, I'm totally down with Bendis being proud to be Jewish and all, but does he really need to have characters speaking in a way that doesn't fit their character just because he can't keep that stuff off the page? Ironically, when Bendis writes dialog for Kitty Pride, she doesn't drop nearly as much Yiddish into her conversation as Peter Parker.

I'm reading Action Comics as well and have been enjoying the Donner/Johns run (though the delays have been very annoying). I read the first issue of the Green Lantern launch and never picked it up after that, though I hear Johns is doing great things. I was never much into the Flash, but I got the first issue of the relaunch and thought it sucked (and apparently so did everyone else). But because of that, I'm not really interested in picking it back up.

I thought the Lightning Saga was okay, but I was really kind of annoyed that it sort of interrupted the momentum that JSA was building on its own, and I'm glad that book can go back to kicking ass in its own right now. As for JLA, I was almost relieved that it forced an end to Meltzer's overly drawn out and convoluted team building story. I'm also not particularly thrilled with the dynamic of the new JLA team.

How've you been enjoying Countdown? I think it's been okay so far but it hasn't really hooked me yet. The most interesting arc so far has been the Mary Marvel one, I think.

[Buffalo Tom]

I've been kind of 'meh' about 'Countdown'. It's just been a little slow for me. I guess they're setting stuff up for the next major crisis next year (which, by the way, Kurt Busiek, one of my favourite writers, is rumoured to be plotting and writing). It doesn't feel as presicient as I thought it would be. Contrast this with the 'Camelot Falls' storyline in 'Superman', where Busiek has basically hinted very loudly that a crisis is coming to the DC universe, and that Superman's presence may exacerbate its impact. I think it's going to be a rocky year for the DC universe.

Have you been reading Paul Dini's run on 'Detective'? He just finished a two part Joker story that pegged the character exactly. Also, one of the writers from 'Heroes' is doing a multi-part story in 'Batman: Confidential' that details the story of Batman's first encounter with the criminal who would become the Joker.

You should definitely check out Flash. Mark Waid's previous tenure on the book is one of my favourite runs on a comic title ever, and his return to the book can only mean good things for the character.

[Protoclown]

Heh. I'm starting to feel like we should take this geekery to email like we used to back in the good ol' days. But nobody seems to care that we've hijacked the thread, so...

Speaking of Kurt Busiek, did you check out his run on the new Conan book by Dark Horse? Fantastic stuff...hell, it's still been really good since he left. I hear that it's staying very close to the source material, but having never read any Howard, I can't say for sure.

A big event by Busiek could be cool, but I for one am getting tired of these big events again. Things are starting to feel kind of like they did in the early 90s, right before everybody got sick of the same old empty gimmicks and dropped out of the game. The industry is walking a bit of a tightrope right now, I think, and too many more HUGE events that demand that the reader read shitloads of tie-ins to understand what's going on and there's going to be some serious fallout.

I've really been enjoying Dini's run on Detective and I'm glad to see that it seems he's finally breaking out of the "one-shot" story mold...because let's face it, how much tension can a story have when you KNOW it's going to be resolved in 22 pages, no matter how dire things may seem on page 18?

I heard about that Batman Confidential story, but according to the review I read on IGN, this newbie comic writer kind of completely sweeps away what Alan Moore did in the Killing Joke. Is that true? It seems kind of like an overly ballsy/shitty thing for a new writer to do--stepping on Alan Moore's toes. I mean, you could argue whether or not the shit in the Killing Joke is canon truth or just another of the Joker's delusions/lies, but still, hearing what Confidential did kind of turned me off from checking it out. If you recommend it though, I may take a look.