What COMIC BOOKS have you been reading?

I found a bunch of back issues from Peter David's Aquaman run at my local comic book store. I've read about 11 issues so far. It's really fun and I like the whole underwater civilization thing going on, though I'm not sure if this series will change my life. I have always wanted to get into Aquaman though, so this has been a good way.

I hadn't read Watchmen so a friend of mine shoved his hard-cover copy into my lap without warning. It's a great book: every single panel could be framed and it uses the medium in a quite spectacular manner, it's not just a sequence. I think it becomes a bit weird at the end - it feels the plot could have been streamlined somehow - and I'm not sold on either of Dr. Manhattan's motivations or Moore's caricature of Reagan but it still manages to feel very complete and very tight.

It's also very dense which coupled with my ignorance on superhero comics meant I felt I was losing a sizable amount of the stuff going on. I don't quite get the pirate stuff (I only get it in a rational sense) and it's clear that there's a lot of pointed criticism of the way superheroes are treated that I don't get. This might play a part on my interpretation of the ending quite a bit because the line of what could be streamlined and what is intentional commentary on obtuse plot resolutions is very blurred there.

Still, I enjoyed the book, shame it's so expensive or I would get a copy.

Watchmen is dense with symbolism, but it's otherwise a self-contained work that doesn't require any prior comic book knowledge of the reader. The pirate sequences are a rebuttal of Ozymandias' belief that the ends justify the means. The recurring clock symbol on the covers refers to the cold war era gimmick of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which arbitrarily measured our closeness to nuclear war on a scale of 1 to 15 minutes to midnight. The other recurring clock and watch symbolism in the story is more about quantum mechanics and determinism, in part because Dr. Manhattan can see (most of) the future with such crystal clarity. That's just a bit of the symbolism off the top of my head.

Shellhead wrote: Watchmen is dense with symbolism, but it's otherwise a self-contained work that doesn't require any prior comic book knowledge of the reader. The pirate sequences are a rebuttal of Ozymandias' belief that the ends justify the means. The recurring clock symbol on the covers refers to the cold war era gimmick of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which arbitrarily measured our closeness to nuclear war on a scale of 1 to 15 minutes to midnight. The other recurring clock and watch symbolism in the story is more about quantum mechanics and determinism, in part because Dr. Manhattan can see (most of) the future with such crystal clarity. That's just a bit of the symbolism off the top of my head.

When I first read Watchmen at 13 I was all like, crap it's issue two and the heroes haven't fought each other yet, this is lame. Rereading it at 27 and then again last year (41) I could appreciate it a lot more.


/Well, off to watch some wrasslin'
//John Cena is the worst Face ever
///It's still real to me dammit

Last week I bought the first trade of Marvel's Star Wars series by Jason Aaron. First off, I'm not much of an artist guy, but John Cassaday really kills it. It was really good and fun, getting me even more excited for the movie to come out. I appreciated that Luke's fighting skills are not up to par, just as it should be. He fights pretty well with storm troopers, but in other parts survives by sheer luck. I really like what I read of Brian Wood's Dark Horse series, but I felt like Luke was a little to skilled for how long he had been with the rebel alliance. I'm planning on waiting to read it as it comes out in trades, but if that's the case, it's going to take a lot of discipline to not just buy the issues.

I have been collecting Dan Slott's Amazing Spider-Man series. I'm really digging it, I especially enjoyed the Renew Your Vows mini series. It felt like the actual Spidey version of Dark Knight Returns. Not to be confused with Spider-Man Reign, which from what I hear is the Batman version of Dark Knight Returns that happens to star Spider-Man. Anyways back to Slott, I think his series is fun and entertaining but for some reason he is constantly trying to make Spider-Man more like Batman or Iron Man. That bugs me.

Also liked the first issue of the new Star Wars. I thought the writing was particularly good. Excited for the first Darth and Leia trades upcoming.

Bitch Planet is the real deal. A fantastic feminist takedown and also a trashy exploitation sf comic.

Lately, I've been rereading Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series.

I recently read the first four volumes of Fatale, by Brubaker and Phillips. Excellent. The title character is an immortal and attractive brunette of the noir femme fatale variety, imbued with supernatural charisma. She is being pursued by a lovecraftian style cult. Various interesting characters come and go from her life, and various points in history are covered in flashbacks. I hope Brubaker has an ending worked out, because this kind of mystery can only be milked for so long before a reader gets frustrated.

I just got to book 6 (of 6) of Scott Pilgrim by Brian Lee O'Malley. It's really fresh and awesome and original.

Is anyone an Elfquest fan or know enough to recommend it?

I tried the first volume of Elfquest. It wasn't my kind of thing, but the quality was decent. Your best bet is to try some for free at this website and decide for yourself:

elfquest.com/read/digitalEQ.html

Let us know what you think. I read some from that website too. I generally really dig elves. House elves, santa clause elves, keebler elves. Tolkien/D&D elves are probably my fave though. One of my favorite parts of Fellowship is when Legolas stabs an orc in the neck with an arrow and then uses the same arrow to shoot another orc. So sweet.

Green Lantern wrote: Is anyone an Elfquest fan or know enough to recommend it?

Elfquest is a favorite punching bag for Repoman and myself.

Josh Look wrote:

Green Lantern wrote: Is anyone an Elfquest fan or know enough to recommend it?

Elfquest is a favorite punching bag for Repoman and myself.

You whack off to comic books? Different strokes, I guess........

Back when I played Magic, my friend Brady was grousing about a then-new card, an elf named Seeker of Skybreak. He said it was a dumb name and that it sounded like it came from Elfquest. I knew of Elfquest but have never read it, so I asked for an example. He said, "Oh, all the characters have dumb names like Crotchwind Scrotumsong'"

That was the name of that card from then on. Brady went on to work at WOTC (and be a creative lead for Magic) and I'm sad that he never got an actual Crotchwind Scrotumsong card into a set. He's now at Bethesda and has offered to pass on my complaint that dweller names in Fallout Shelter are too short for me to name a vault dweller that.