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General Comics Thread (Discussion, Recommendations, Whining)


Marcello

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People occasionally talk about western comics in the status updates and I noticed we don't actually have a thread for general talk about comics (Or at least I couldn't find one with the search function); just some threads for specific comics, so I thought, why not make a general one? 

So you want to discuss a comic you just read? Or recommend one you like? Or want some recommendations for yourself? Or do you want to whine about something a company did to a character that totally, definitely, absolutely won't revert in a matter of time? You can do all that here!

I've only read one of this week's comics and that one is Darth Vader #22 by Charles Soule

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This issue was pretty cool. The helmet on the cover is from Lord Momin an ancient Sith Lord. The helmet has had appearances in various comics by Soule these last few years and in this issue, we finally got some backstory.

Spoiler

 

He was an artist who mutilated animals to create art that provoked and disgust people and was eventually arrested for that. He was broken out of prison by the Sith Lady Shaa who took him on as an apprentice. Like any good Sith apprentice, he killed her and never took an apprentice himself. He created a superweapon, but before he could finish using it he was attacked and defeated by the Jedi and somehow had his soul banished into his helmet.

That's the basic gist of it. What was cool was that the planet he was attacking was Mustafar before it became the desolate lava world we've seen until now. It seems like his superweapon was eventually used on the planet, but it's not yet confirmed.

 

 

A series I'd like to recommend is West Coast Avengers by Kelly Thompson because I don't want it to be canceled. :V

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The series is only 2 issues so far, but it a bit of a continuation of Kelly Thompson's Hawkeye run. Unlike that, though, we've got the two Hawkeyes Clint and Kate together from the start. The friendship between these two is one of my favorites in comics and Thompson writes the two of the well together. So, the WCA is a group of young superheroes based in Santa Monica. The group consists of the two Hawkeyes, America Chavez, Kid Omega, Gwenpoole, and Fuse. The basic premise so far is they have no money, so they're letting people shoot a documentary on them, which give us some talking to the camera bits. The series is a lot of fun, the characters bounce off of each other well and the art is nice.

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It saddens me that I keep seeing this on best of lists, but no one ever seems to discuss it, when IMO, it's one of the best stories featuring the character I've ever read...

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Spider-Man: Blue

When I was going into the story for the first time, I didn't know what to expect, beyond just a love story, as that's always what I had been told before. Some kind of alternative take on the life and times of Gwen Stacy and her love triangle with Peter Parker and Mary-Jane Watson. Reading it though, it's a whole different story. It's a retelling of the events prior to Gwen Stacy's death at the hands of the Green Goblin, instead focusing on the time between the Green Goblin's memory loss, and the hints of his memory returning, while also covering Peter and Gwen's time together...

...and I honestly don't think a Spidey story has ever encapsulated the true beauty, and tragedy that follows Peter Parker's life. People always joke about how Spidey is always angsty and blaming things on himself, but I think this story not only presents a very good take on it, but a realistic, and heartfelt one. There's only one line I can really say that defines why I love this story - because unlike other stories that try to hype up or build up Gwen Stacy's death as some big impactful "OMG THE GAME CHANGER" moment and even somewhat celebrate or shit on it, it doesn't do that.

Blue isn't a story worshipping Gwen's death. It isn't a story designed to be an impactful shocking moment that's only there to destroy Gwen as a character (Namely, Original Sin's reveal of Gwen having had sex with Norman Osborn). The thing that makes Blue stand out the most is that it isn't a story about the death and tragedy of a character, it's a story about the beauty, the love, and the genuine life that Gwen Stacy brought to the table. It's not a Spider-Man story about loss, it's one about love.

It's this balancing of tones that I absolutely love about the book. The story sets up that Gwen is dead from the first page. The story takes place years after her death with Peter narrating, talking to her through audio-tapes on the anniversary of said death and by this point, it's after Peter has married MJ. It's solely a story about remembering and honouring the life of a genuine and caring person. Someone who had been a positive influence on Peter and someone who brought happiness to the webhead's world filled with tragedy. 

It doesn't shy away from the hurt, the tragedy, the pain that Gwen's death brought Peter, but it remembers every good moment about it too. That in the end, while Gwen might've died, the happiness that Peter and Gwen felt in their time together was more than either could imagine. The art is on point, and the writing has a very smart balance of Spidey-snark, cute dynamics between Peter, MJ and Gwen, and more. 

But the best moment, bar none in my opinion is the ending, where we flash-forward to Peter sitting in the dark, trying to justify his emotions and trying to explain how he feels about Gwen's death and the time of year, how it always made him feel blue. But he also admits that he is in love with MJ, that he was broken after Gwen's death and how MJ helped him love again. The especially gut-punching moment being that how Gwen's death effected MJ, as it was the moment where she stopped being the party girl, the moment where MJ realized they all have limited time on Earth and they need to make the most of it they can. In Peter's own words - "I don't think Mary-Jane Watson could've had a serious relationship with me until she realised how much we all lost with you gone".

Even better, Mary Jane walks in right in on the above quote, and where Peter thinks she might be upset, she simply smiles and tells him to say hello to Gwen and tell her she misses her too. The story builds up MJ as this obnoxious and shallow party girl for a lot of the flashback portions and then introduces her here at Peter's most vulnerable moment at the end of the story, revealing she was worried and wanted to check up on him. Holding his hand and comforting Peter, while trying to help him cope with the anniversary of Gwen's death. It's a perfect bookmark for how far Mary-Jane developed as a character, and how her relationship with Peter developed. 

There's one line I think describes it best, describes how important it is to remember the good times you had with a lost one. To celebrate their life instead of their death.

"And I long for a time when a girl I knew with an incredible smile and so much good in her heart made me think...life can be great" - Peter Parker. 

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I picked this up today:

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It was cute. I got it mainly for the art style and it's mostly just a cute romance between Penny and a guy she meets after losing her apartment and job. The problem is that it has some sloppy pacing issues when read in one go, but from what I understand it was a webcomic published over the span of three or four years, so it's understandable that it wasn't written for a 30-minute single-sitting reading in mind. I also thought that it cribs Scott Pilgrim toward the end which was weird, came out of nowhere, and didn't fit with the rest of the story at all. That was the one part of the story I didn't like and I would have forgiven the all-over-the-pace pacing before that if it hadn't been for that scene.

Otherwise I liked it and it'd be nice to see more of Penny someday. The story is nothing special, it's mostly just cute fluff, but it didn't need to be anything more (which is why the ending is really weird)

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https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/exclusive-read-the-new-sdcc-mystery-science-theater-3000-ashcan-comic-for-free

The first issue has been out for some time. Admittedly, as much as its nice to see Mystery Science Theater 3000 in another format, its sometimes hard to figure out how it'd work. I'd love to see a game version of it (video or board,) but I really don't know how that'd work... though I figure a board game would probably be like the Scene It series.

I'm not quite sure about the comic yet. Instead of treating the comic they're riffing like a movie, the characters are actually IN the comic, with Tom Servo replacing on of the characters and a few others occasionally chiming in. The riffing is still there, though a chunk of it is in the form of replacing dialog with something funny.

The thing I really didn't like about the first issue was how it ended. The Mads randomly showed up in what seemed to be some blatant product placement (to be fair, this is rather in character for Kinga,) turning  Servo's head into a serving bowl. I was mostly enjoying the comic up until this point.

For the most part, I did enjoy the comic, but I'm still not certain about the format. That might change as the series goes on.

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