2021 Comic Reading Challenge


MID YEAR TOTALS.Now, the numbers are SOLID, the charts however…very Costanza-esque.

6 Likes

You should be in the home stretch, right? I remember your “journey” all kinda started ZERO HOUR-ish and here you are pushin REBIRTH. That light at the end has gotta be gettin bigger/brighter…

6 Likes

Yeah. I actually started with Crisis on Infinite Earths, but this thread didn’t exist yet. There was a really good lineup of titles in the late '80s, actually.

And of course, I’m doing Batbooks only right now because I want to get caught up and see about subscribing to some current titles, but I’ll also have to go back for all the non-Bat-centric series, which I left off somewhere in 2007.

6 Likes

And 2007 is a good place for most of them to stay. Id rather read a BOB HANEY omnibus than a single tpb of that chunk of time. Maybe when I’m way older,say maybe another decade, I could do a reread, but unless its something I missed the first time around, I’m stayin away.

5 Likes

If I may take an old man minute/moment,I’m 47,been around,seen stuff,anyways…I’m at BnN earlier with the daughter and in the magazine section I see FANGORIA magazine. My heart jumps! It’s still around! Just like me! I pick up a copy, totally with the intent to buy until i see its $19.95!! NINETEEN FRIGGEN NINETY-FIVE!! I about popped at the 10 buck comics yesterday at the funnybook shop, and now this.sigh.BACK IN MY DAY…

5 Likes

Read some really good stuff this month. I’m getting near the end of re-reading Wonder Woman’s original title, and I made it up to 1980 on Marvel Unlimited (reading all Super Hero comics from 1961 on). Need a break on the old stuff so I am hitting 2019 now.

Hack/Slash was a lot of fun (can’t remember if I read it in June or earlier, now that I think about it).

1,889 for the year.

Summary





5 Likes

Just read one that would totally be up your alley if you haven’t checked it out already, SHE COULD FLY. Image book, half up for borrow on COMIXOLOGY UNLIMITED. Good read.

4 Likes

I’ll have to check it out.

5 Likes

I read a total of 177 comics in June, which is considerably more than the last few months, although it’s still not the most I’ve read in a month, given that January had 266. There were quite a few highlights from this month and I also finished Injustice.

First off, I started both Grant Morrison’s Batman and Paul Dini’s Detective Comics, since they were coming out at the same time and crossed over at certain points. I’ve read bits and pieces of both, but this is the first time I’m going through it all. I’m quite a bit further in 'Tec because it’s, you know, a lot better and I prefer reading it. My only real problem with it so far is there’s a ton of fill in arcs, but they’ve all been decent, especially the one Scarecrow story, if only because it’s drawn by Tom Mandrake. I’m not far enough into Morrison’s Batman to say anything, really, but, um, Damian is… something. But again, there’s a fill in arc drawn by Tom Mandrake, so how bad can things really be?

I also started rereading Mark Waid’s Fantastic Four because I’m weak and that run is like comfort food for me. Everything about it is absolutely perfect and I love every single page. I don’t have much else to say, but I feel like I can’t not bring it up.

Oh, and like I said, I finished Injustice which was honestly just a slog to get through by Year Five. Nobody’s acting in character and everything’s super rushed to accommodate the story of the actual game. There’s this whole side plot about rebuilding Metropolis, which feels like it should have been a big deal, but it’s literally mentioned in two issues and then completely ignored. There just wasn’t room, and they didn’t give it any set up in the previous years. There’s also a weird amount of time devoted to Bizarro for no real reason, which is even more confusing given that the creative team was still obviously trying to desperately catch up with the game. Even by the end, it feels like the characters aren’t quite to the right places yet. Costumes aren’t right, Metropolis isn’t finished, it’s just a mess. At least Injustice 2 is written by Tom Taylor again, who can make even the worst things fun to read.

Last on the list of highlights is Endless Winter, that event series from last winter that no one really talked about because it was in the middle of Death Metal for some reason. It’s such a nothing story that it honestly feels kind of relieving. Don’t get me wrong, I like the crazy, over the top messes that are the Metal events, but so many events now are either constantly one-upping each other, or shamelessly tying into movies. Endless Winter is just “there’s ice giants or something” and it’s a nice change of pace. Nothing special, obviously, and honestly a little boring, but it’s nice to see a bunch of characters team up for something that isn’t universe shaking.

Anyway, here are the charts:

Overall:
image

For the month:
image

Day by day:
image

7 Likes

And written by John Ostrander! And inexplicably featuring a major character with the first name “Wayne,” which is annoyingly confusing, but I still really like the Ostrander/Mandrake team-

4 Likes

Batgirl #17 from 2013
Writer: Ray Fawkes
Actually… Babs is weirdly much closer to in-character in this issue all of a sudden. I still hate this book, but I hate this issue substantially less than a lot of the other ones.
1,502.

Catwoman: 3 issues from 2013
Writer: Ann Nocenti
Oh, crap, Eclipso is here. Not inherently a bad character, but I still haven’t seen a good story with him in it.

Seriously, though, I think there are some passable ideas under here, but it’s all sort of muddled and a bit hard to follow. That’s… I’d say that’s not a death sentence, because for example, Kelley Puckett’s Batgirl run has a similar issue (though that’s more the writer and artist biting off more than they could chew in terms of visual storytelling, where here it’s almost too much dialogue and it’s distracting) and I still like that.

The feeling is sort of hard to describe; it’s like being at a distance from the book. You can’t quite tell what it’s thinking. But in Batgirl ’00, the story is still interesting, so it’s worth trying to parse. Here, it’s… meh?
1,505.

Nightwing #17 from 2013
Writer: Kyle Higgins
Oh, Damian’s going to play therapist like he cares about anyone who’s not himself? Even being as unduly charitable to him as possible, his assorted fans and defenders will be the first to point out that he’s an emotionally stunted ten-year-old. This is stupid.
1,506.

Batman Incorporated: 4 issues from 2013
Writer: Grant Morrison
I’m conflicted. I hate Damian, I hate the Damian-is-Batman future, and I particularly hate the idea that Babs will inevitably mutate into some kind of clone of her father even though she’s not a cop (so why would she become commissioner?) and has historically hounded him to quit smoking (so why would she start smoking herself?).

On the other hand, this is still the only title that wants to hold Damian accountable for anything (instead of letting him literally get away with murder because his parents are rich - Am I seriously the only one who thinks that’s problematic?!), and at least future Babs is acting like an adult and not running on magic spine implant power.

Though on the other other hand, GOLLY, IS THE KILLING JOKE A STORY THAT HAPPENED?! I DIDN’T KNOW THAT! THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME KNOW, NEW 52! I NEVER WOULD HAVE GUESSED!

Oh, I keep forgetting about Batman’s stupid army of robots. Wait a second, are they trying to make Kingdom Come canon again? Stop that!

And…

Sweet catharsis!

Don’t get me wrong. This is like being thankful someone stopped punching you in the face – a good thing relatively speaking, but it would be better if you hadn’t had the problem in the first place. And I’m aware how agonizingly temporary of a reprieve this is, so it’s more like being thankful someone paused the process of punching you in the face to take a break for a minute.
1,510.

Batman: Requiem: 9-issue event from 2013
Of course, now that the little turdnugget is finally gone, apparently every single title needs to try to make me care that he’s gone. Which, like, I do. It means a lot to me. But I’m certainly not sad.

… Actually, scratch that, most of these barely acknowledge him. A very appropriate lack of remembrance.

Issue-by-issue breakdown
  • Detective Comics #18 by John Layman: So, what’s Emperor Penguin’s point? Is he just the Penguin, but skinnier? Also, Zsasz is still a terrible villain.

  • Batman and Robin #18 by Peter J. Tomasi: On the plus side, the dialogue has improved.

  • Batman #18 by Scott Snyder: Yeah, I read A Lonely Place of Dying too, Snyder. While you’re ripping off Marv Wolfman anyway, might as well have all the characters awkwardly dispense textwally dissertations about each other’s motivations and emotional states, right?

  • Batgirl #18 by Ray Fawkes: What’s with Babs calling Dick “Richard?” This is consistent across multiple writers and really weird that she’s too embarrassed to call him by his preferred name. Also, I never thought I’d be glad to see Gail Simone not writing something, but Fawkes is legitimately a huge improvement. Low bar. Very low bar. (Which, again, is weird to be saying.) But it’s readable.

  • Catwoman #18 by Ann Nocenti: This doesn’t even mention Damian. Which is good, but what’s it doing in this crossover? It’s not like it’s just a banner they stuck on every Batbook, because The Dark Knight, Batwing, Batwoman, Birds of Prey (which was more clearly a Batbook with its original “Oracle and friends” premise, but is still pretty heavily Gotham-based), and Talon all skip it. They were spared from Death of the Family too, now that I think about it. I get that Batwing and Batwoman are trying to be more independent (which works in their favor, but they also do still have “Bat” in the title) and Talon only just started, but it’s odd that The Dark Knight is left out of the crossovers.

  • Nightwing #18 by Kyle Higgins: This book really, really thinks you care about Sonia. Actually, I’m not sure this title has had any conflict which isn’t directly connected to Dick’s origin somehow. It’s one of those things where you have to wonder if he actually does anything not tied to his own issues.

  • Red Hood and the Outlaws #18 by Scott Lobdell: While (because) it has nothing to do with Damian, this is actually the closest thing to a good issue this title has managed to fart out so far. Not great but it has some semi-serviceable character stuff? Though the timeline has become pretty incomprehensible. Jason’s face got burned in #17, right? Well, Damian was there when it happened. That means Jason’s stint as “Batwing” and Damian’s subsequent death can’t have happened yet. And yet, he flashes back to that in his trippy dream sequence.

  • Batman Incorporated #9 by Grant Morrison: OK, bored again now.

  • Teen Titans #18 by Scott Lobdell: I wonder if Not-Tim’s real name (again, given that this is literally not Tim) is Alvin Draper.

1,519.

5 Likes

That is absolutely my least favorite part of the arc.

5 Likes


Next week, ENDLESS WINTER for sure.

4 Likes

Yesterday i read a SHANG-CHI book where Shang karate chopped a shark and today, I’ve read a book where SNAKE-EYES get into it with a polar bear. A LIEFELD polar bear, so it was somewhere tween 20 and 50 feet tall. My opinion of his “style” will never change but his enthusiasm for comic books and “go for broke” attitude towards plots is refreshingly fun

4 Likes

I don’t think I’ve posted for 3 months but I have had alot of reading. When I’m logged into my computer I’m going to post it. For the year I’m at 344.

6 Likes

July-
Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #271, 272
Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes (1981) #1-3
(Month - 5, Total - 72)

Updated July 28th.

5 Likes

4 Likes

Batgirl: 6 issues from 2013
Writer: Gail Simone
“So my brother is an evil serial killer and is probably stalking you to kill you.”

“… ‘Kay, sounds cool. Say, have I mentioned I’m transgender?”

I am barely exaggerating this conversation. Given this series’ general insensitivity, I was kind of expecting this to be treated as some melodramatic shock moment. And I’m not sure it isn’t, given that the scene places it after some substantially more dramatic reveals on Not-Babs’ part, but it’s just such a hilariously mundane thing for the conversation to suddenly swerve to.

So, wait, James’ whole issue is that he’s jealous of Not-Babs being a perfect golden child? Simone, please stop dumping on your own previous better writing. There’s a great monologue she has in—I cannot emphasize this enough—Simone’s own Birds of Prey where she talks about being a socially awkward loner growing up. In addition to just being a good moment, it also humanizes her as she connects with Helena (remember when she existed?) about their insecurities and really opens up in a way we haven’t seen elsewhere. Plus, she’s always been kind of a nerdy introvert. That’s good and relatable.

Here, we get “The villain hates her because she’s too perfect.”

That’s it.

The end.

And that’s the thing about this… insult to Babs. The book is mortally terrified of having the reader think she’s anything less than perfect. Gotta hammer in how she’s an infallibly good and (self-)righteous person (even though a lot of her decisions are actually extremely questionable) with perfect parents and a perfect brain (that she never uses) and is perfect at fighting and is perfectly pretty (gotta include lots of underwear shots and have people make crude comments all the time in case the reader misses this) and has perfect vision (she always wore glasses) and heaven forbid her body be anything less than perfect.

How unbearably shallow.

#20 is a perfect storm of bad in its own right. First, we’ve got an edgy new Ventriloquist, which already didn’t work when Paul Dini did it. (The issue likes to announce that this version is scary, because it sure can’t actually make her scary.) Second, we’ve got Not-Babs’ idea of a “crisis” being drinking coffee and not wanting to wear her Batgirl suit, so this book still hates you for missing Oracle. Third, we’ve got more of Not-Babs creeping on a teenager. Fourth, the therapy framing device is needlessly confusing and makes no sense because why does Not-Babs think she’s going to get anything out of the experience when she won’t actually explain anything?

#21 has her hack a thing just so it can flag what a TOTALLY NOVEL THING THIS IS. Still just a giant middle finger.

This book continues to cheerfully not acknowledge the creep factor with Not-Babs and Ricky.

“This rage. It’s going to hurt someone. Or it’s going to destroy me.”

Oh, sorry, I’m looking for my sympathy, but I seem to have misplaced it. I think I left it back where you were making out with a teenager, or maybe around the part where you 100% straight-up murdered your brother. Like, I’m neither sad nor fooled that he’s “gone,” but putting a batarang through his forehead (can those even do that?) was all you could think to do?

Oh, man, now we’ve got characters randomly falling over, hitting their heads on something, and dying at inconvenient moments. We’re going all Injustice all of a sudden.

“He’s nineteen years old.” That’s sure as hell not what you said at literally any point before this, Not-Babs. Unless this story has lasted a good four years, which I admit it feels like to read.

Oh, McKenna isn’t dead, that ominous crack as her neck bent at an odd angle “will leave a goose egg.” OK, never mind, I guess.

Already read Zero Year tie-in. Recall not being impressed, though now that I know what the book around it looked like…
1,525.

My god, I need a break from these things. Let me try an extremely sudden switch.

Showcase: 3 issues from 1959-1960
Writer: John Broome
Well, usually when I read something this old, it’s by Gardner Fox, and I must say that Broome’s writing is quite a bit less… clunky. There are still a ton of goofball Silver Age clichés, but that’s not unexpected and some of what it’s doing is fairly clever for the time. There’s better variation in the plots than what you’d expect from Fox, too, which helps a lot.

Plus, there are mysteries like the hints that there are other Green Lanterns and the question of who’s sending orders through the battery which, while not developed extensively yet, show some surprisingly serial storytelling for the era. It’s not Lee and Kirby, but they may very well have been taking notes.

If Hal spent his first real adventure getting hit in the head with a yellow lamp, does that make this the original Sinestro Corps War?

Anyway, what color makes Hal’s ring go on the fritz? I can’t remember. If only the book would remind me a little more often.

This book is a PSA on the dangers of putting the moves on the same person in two different identities.

Dr. Phillips missed a promising career as an artist. Even his absent-minded sketches look just like Gil Kane’s professional art, including inks and colors!

“I can’t tell Carol what I’m really here for or she’ll suspect that Hal Jordan and I are one and the same person! And that’s one thing she must never find out-- or her life will be continuously threatened by enemies who will strike at me through her!”

Uh, GL? You realize that you are currently dating her as Green Lantern, right? You’re already creating all the “enemy” problems you can reasonably expect to have. You’re also sabotaging your own relationship with her as Hal for no clear reason. Secret identities are one thing, but this is a lose-lose.

For a guy named Lantern, you aren’t that bright, are you?
1,528.

Batman: 6 issues from 2013
Writers: Scott Snyder (2 issues, co-plotter on Riddler Villains Month oneshot), James Tynion IV (backups in 2 issues), Andy Kubert (Joker Villains Month oneshot), Ray Fawkes (Riddler Villains Month oneshot), Frank Tieri (Penguin Villains Month oneshot), Peter J. Tomasi (Bane Villains Month oneshot)
OK, so I already read Zero Year, but would you stop with the crossovers?! That makes three in one year. The ‘90s Batbooks get a lot of ■■■■ for too many crossovers, but that was like one every two years, and most of them didn’t take up more than a couple issues in any given title.

Anyway, I’m still not sad Damian is gone and you can’t make me be.

I really like the Riddler oneshot. This is only like the third issue I’ve read by Fawkes, but he’s actually making a pretty good impression so far.

Bane is cool, but I miss all his character development. Too many writers want to revert him to just trying to do Knightfall over again like twenty times. Also, his just killing randos for no reason at random intervals is pretty… extra.
1,534.

Green Lantern: 3 issues from 1960
Writer: John Broome
I was a little mean to Showcase, so let me be nice to this (especially since it has fewer… plot oddities than Showcase does).

While it’s got a healthy dose of Silver Age tropes (especially the obligatory hero/love-interest/secret-identity love triangle and the abjectly nonsensical conflict it necessarily brings with it), this book is still kind of ahead of its time in terms of having ongoing subplots across multiple issues. And I mean, it’s not like it’s that novel of a way of telling a story or it’s anything to write home about compared to even just a decade later, but it just wasn’t common in Silver Age comics, especially not before Marvel got big.

Or… this is an exceedingly minor thing, but bear with me. At the beginning of #3, Hal finds himself in a mirrored illusion of Ferris Aircraft and gets confused, but then it goes away and he returns to the real place. There are parallel shots of the buildings which are clearly mirrored and we see Carol writing with her left hand in the fake one… and the book never stops to patronizingly call attention to it. It’s just there. It’s mentioned later in the issue, but there’s not even a “Did you see what Green Lantern missed, kids? Wink wink,” caption. Even the ‘70s wouldn’t have let that pass without calling more attention to it.

Something else that stands out is that Carol is a respected professional in a position of authority over Hal, and the book doesn’t act like there’s anything wrong with that or that she’d have to quit if they got married (see, e.g. Jean Loring and Ray Palmer circa the same time period). Meanwhile, while his nickname is spectacularly cringe-inducing, Tom Kalmaku is also free of the offensive comedy and broken English and so forth you’d expect from minority characters of the time (in the rare books where they exist at all). He’s just, like, a dude, who happens to not be white. And has a spectacularly cringe-inducing nickname.

This is all very “Wow, this is somewhat less offensive than it could have been,” but I bring it up in terms of the book being decidedly ahead of its time.

In less damning-with-faint-praise news, I also love Gil Kane’s art.
1,537.

5 Likes

I had totally erased the New52 VENTRILOQUIST from my brain! Not so lucky with the JOKER’S DAUGHTER,tho. And good to read you’re takin a step away from the slog, go check out some 70s AQUAMAN.

5 Likes

This is actually the return of Fangoria. It was cancelled a while back and it came back a few years ago. I saw the price of the new magazine and decided that I have the internet for my horror news.

5 Likes