Amph ***OFFICIAL*** Comics Thread

Immortal Hulk really felt like Ewing kept coming up with cool ideas he wanted to pursue, he would then do so by dropping the other cool ideas he had been pursuing on a whim over and over again, and then when he actually had to wrap it all up he tried to fake it until he made it. So it's like... a weirdly great but also pointless run? Which I guess is preferable to Donny Cates' followup with his usual "trying too hard and also pointless" approach.

 

A good set of reads:

Radiant Red

Part of the Massive-verse this is, like the other books, well executed superheroics. It isn't reinventing or deconstructing anything, just spinning good stories.

What its stories are built around - and this one is certainly so - is the idea that if a superhero is supposed to be better with the powers they get, then that needs to be reflected in the person too. In that respect the Massive-verse is as much an exploration of atonement and redemption as it is superheroes.

This series also has Lafuente on art, and it's always good seeing his work.

Seven Secrets: Volume 3

Boom seem to be doing this three volume, short series structure on a few stories - Wild's End and We Only Find Them When They're Dead. Clearly it works for them and the teams on the books.

This is an excellent conclusion to a series that knew where it wanted to go, to do and was not afraid of ending.

In this volume Taylor wraps up everything, pays off plots set running from the first issue, throwing in various twists that really do change everything, but which also all make sense with the story.

Brink: Book Five

How does Dan Abnett do it? He keeps putting out story after story, every one of them a banger. This one took longer to hook me at the start but once I was past that tipping point....

This volume is a parallel story, which ends as you expect it to - you can see the writing on the wall for the character - but that doesn't make it bad. As to where it goes from here I have no idea but I'll be back for the next one.

Catwoman: Lonely City

Wonderfully presented as a squarebound OHC which really shows off Chiang's work, thus was a delight to read. It's also great to have this completed, as the release date kept getting bumped.

After King's super competitive psychopath take, Chiang does a much better version of Catwoman, which shows the appeal of the character. It's similar to Darwyn Cooke's take too.

At the same time this also shows up just how much can be done with the freedom of the Black Label line. Chiang doesn't just do a new take on Gotham but also the various characters. Who knew a well built version of Poison Ivy would work so well? Ivy is still the same character, just looks a little different.

That attention to details really makes this work. From Seliba flat-sharing with Killer Croc, who forgets to flush, to how she crosses paths again with Riddler, Penguin, Two-Face and, in one case, their kid, it all flows brilliantly.

If you have any interest in comics, you have to read this.

 

Eh, until it ("Theee Jokers") is straight up contradicted in the books, I view it as part of continuity. Same way I do with certain issues of LOTDK and LODCU books.

 

I do try to do that but the TJ story has those aspects that make it a square peg, round hole type fit. Kind of works but kind of doesn't. Love Fabok's art in it but not to the extent if buying the Absolute.

Talking of, anyone know what Fabok's working on now?

 

Yeah, but name a comic book where that doesn't happen. "The Long Halloween" and "Dark Victory" doesn't fit in Legends Of The Dark Knight Annual #2, Batman Annual #14, Robin Annual #4, "Robin: Year One" and "Catwoman: Year Two". "Catwoman: Her Sister's Keeper" doesn't align with Catwoman Annual #2. Batman #416 doesn't align with "Nightwing: Year One". I can go on.

He's done variants for Batman #131, World's Finest, "Batman Vs Robin", "Flashpoint Beyond" and "Batman/Spawn".

 

"Long Halloween" made a point to follow the events of Frank Miller's "Batman: Year One", and Miller made just as much a point to deliberately contradict "Long Halloween".

My X-titles reread and indexing has reached a decade's worth of comics, and I am about to enter the dreaded Chuck Austen years of the X-Men... exploding communion wafers and underage sex, anyone?

 

My SO got the classic Batman:TAS complete series for Xmas, and it's got a pretty tight universe going on - right out of the gate, we have Harvey Dent as the District Attorney, flipping a coin. So wonderfully iconic! Then, the episode which introduces Poison Ivy as Harvey's date (using him to get to Bruce Wayne, her actual target), the origin of Two-Face story (changed to an explosion instead of acid thrown in his face for obvious reasons), and then the episode with the villains trading Batman stories while playing poker, where Harvey threatens to kill Poison Ivy and she explains to the rest "We used to date".

I'm not much of a DC Comics guy, but I do love the "Long Halloween" Batman continuity (especially since they had a recent installment!); the Arkham universe I loved at least until Gotham Knight.

 

Uh, no. TLH and DV were LOTDK stories which were never intended to be part of continuity. Loeb then messed that up by referring to it in "Hush". Miller only wrote two Batman stories set in continuity, YO and the 1989 Christmas Special. Mindy Newell wrote Selena's origin and it was later retconned by Doug Monech and Jordan B. Gorfinkel. Then Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke restored HSK. Chuck Dixon wrote a new origin for Dick Grayson which runs counter to Loeb's story. Havery Dent had his origin established by Andrew Helfner. Dennis O'Neil included Arnold Flask in the LOTDK Annual, where he wanted revenge on Jim for going to prison.

That's what I mean.

I own this. Got the TPB back in early 96. They did a good job making it fit in with YO. It truly is a great story. I have most of "Heat" and don't have "Fear".

To be fair, I enjoy Loeb's stories. But being a stickler for continuity with other people's work is not his strong suit.

 

That was just an aside on the pettiness of Miller - the contradiction was an offhanded comment on the survival of an incidental character to his story, very pointed. In any case, I don't recognize "Year One" as having anything to do with the "Long Halloween" continuity other than the story elements actually referenced.
I don't have any personal interest in DC continuity apart from those individual story universes (the Arkham games and the Long Halloween series)

 

I'm confused. Miller never said anything negative about TLH and DV. I recall that he had intended for other writers to pick up the pieces from YO, if they so wished. Garth Ennis did that with Captain Brenden in "Infected". Anyway, my point is that DC and Marvel both publish stories that don't always connect together neatly, but can unless they are something totally different. Most of the Black Label stories cannot.

 

Marvel and DC continuity are two very different beasts. DC needs to get the equivalent of a Mark Grunewald to get theirs straightened out.

As far as Muller, in his sequel to The Dark Knight Returns, he made a point to mention that the crimelord in Year One - killed by Two-Face at the end of The Long Halloween - was in jail. It had nothing to do with the story whatsoever, just Miller firmly delineating the boundaries of his "Millerverse". And honestly, that was the least of that series' sins.

 

Which doesn't change anything about Marvel publishing stories that don't fit. Case in point, the Venom stories by Peter Milligan clearly contradict the Spider-Man books. Namely that Black Cat had encountered both Venom and Carnage according to "Venom Returns" and "Maximum Carnage", yet she never has according to "Venom Vs Carnage".

Spoiler

1. TDKSA was partially written prior to "Hush", by about a year.

2. The Dark Knight stories were never intended to be part of continuity to begin with. So Miller didn't contradict anything. At the time, TLH and DV weren't in continuity either. Loeb's work was a legend and Miller's work was an Elseworlds story. That's why Miller's work was placed in the Multiverse in 07.

 

1) You are misconstruing my comments about The Long Halloween and Frank Miller. I wasn't talking at all about relationships with some overall DC continuity, but with respect to each other.
In any case, regardless of the shifting sands that are DC continuity - The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, When In Rome and The Long Halloween Special will always form a great story.
2) I can cite a dozen instances at least off the top of my head of inconsistencies in Marvel stories - but as Karnak says in Earth X, "Reality can rarely be explained without contradictions." That's the price that IPs shared among multiple authors over periods of time pay; but the point is that Marvel has made a concerted effort over years to at least to try to keep some form of continuity, thanks in the initial efforts of Mark Grunewald and the OHMU. DC has certainly tried over the years to do the same, a number of times - but it's comparing apples and oranges, at any rate.

 

I have a question for you all. It's my understanding that in the Aquaman stories, Xebel is supposed to be an entirely different dimension, is that correct? So Mera was able to cross over, and so does Nereus, but what about everyone else? Are they all stuck in that underwater prison dimension or whatever?

 

Right, but both are out of continuity to each other. Always has been. Out of continuity stories don't have to be in sync. TLH and DV were not written to fit with the main Bat books and neither were TDK books. Likewise, Miller never intended to align with Loeb and vice versa. Just as the LOTDK stories were designed to align with YO, but not each other unless a creative team did a follow up. "Prey", "Heat" and "Terror" made up a trilogy. "Blink" and "Don't Blink" were a duology. "Blades", "Tao", "Going Sane", "Citadel", "Werewolf", "Shaman", "Venom", "Gothic" and "Idols" weren't connected to each other, nor to those other arcs. Much less TLH and DV. They were just random stories.

Never said otherwise.

And DC has as well. But my point is that something like "Three Jokers" and "The Long Halloween" don't fit neatly with the other stories that came out first.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis_(Aquaman)

 

The wikipedia entry doesn't answer my question at all. It's an extra-dimensional penal colony, which was the premise of my question. But who is allowed to pass into the real world, how, and why? I was hoping to get an actual answer from someone who reads Aquaman, since my online search had been fruitless.

 

Just as a warning, you’re not going to like any of this explanation. The penal colony thing is a retcon, as originally it was just a water dimension and Mera came to our dimension by “fleeing” from it, and it was the 1960s so they didn’t really get into the mechanics of it. By the time the former penal colony retcon came about, magic was a pretty firmly entrenched aspect of Aquaman lore, so the answer going forward has just been “it’s magic.”

 

I don't think too many here read Aquaman.

 

I am hoping for an OHC of the Abnett run. There's a Black Label mini by Ram V and Christian Ward too.

 

A good quartet.

Devil's Highway Volume 2

For all that it could continue, this feels like a conclusion. A smart take on the serial killer story, this picks up threads from the first story and ties them off. Art is excellent, same as the preceding volume.

Climate Chronicles

A follow-up to Covid Chronicles, this uses the same format - 10 short stories, each highlighting an aspect of climate change. Well worth reading.

Join The Future

Maybe this was intended to be more, as it had a Volume 1, like Kapkan's other Aftershock book, Lost City Explorers. As they've filed for bankruptcy, a single volume it is.

Fortunately Kaplan doesn't leave anything hanging, preferring to bring his story to a close. In a way this future western is a story of insecurity being covered up with violence and coercion. Which is very true to the genre.

Metal Society

A far future set tale where a robot society revives their long extinct predecessors. What Kapkan sketches out is a tale of one lifeform emulating another, while not knowing why; of individuals versus the group mob; of how the past shapes the present.

Some see the final issue as being too delayed, that its events could have been told sooner. If they had been, there wouldn't be the understanding of each side that the story needs the reader to have.

 

I missed this one during my forced sabbatical from buying new comics, between 1998 and 2006. I think with Monech it was apparent by 1996, that he was running out of steam on the monthly book. So I could understand his departure in 98.