Comic Books Comic Book • Page 478

I finished the first three books of Cassandra's and Stephanie's respective Batgirl runs and I have to say, I think I like the latter more. Steph's is more exciting and there's a lot of banter with the baddies. I don't really like the art style for Cass tbh, but liek, it's Cassandra freakin Cain, I'll read practically anything she's a main character in. Every now and then there's a Cass issue that really hits emotionally, whereas Steph's is consistently more lighthearted. Both runs feature Babs as the primary mentor figure, run ins with villainous parents, plus a few fun team ups here and there with one of the Robins and some other "sidekicks." There's a big portion of Cassandra's run that iirc was never collected in trades, but other than that I think I've read every Batgirl book...!

 

finally got my hands on Catwoman: Lonely City and it is fucking fantastic, I could not put it down. the art is obviously beautiful as to be expected. I loved Cliff Chiang's work in Paper Girls and Brian Azzarello's run in Wonder Woman. the latter didn't have a great story, so it was cool to see Cliff Chiang come back to DC not only as the artist but also the writer on this Catwoman miniseries. it's set in a timeline in which, ten years after Bruce Wayne's death, Mayor Harvey Dent has set up a militarized police presence in a Gotham where all masks are banned, Councilwoman Barbara Gordon is trying to get elected to replace Dent as mayor, and Selina, fresh out of prison, is putting together a team of other ex-criminals to pull off one final heist: the Batcave itself! this did a good job of portraying these characters aged up from how we normally see them. there's a few fun cameos and easter eggs that feel a little less relevant to the plot but are still interesting from a world-building perspective. probably my favorite subplot is Selina inadvertently inspiring a cultlike following

 

i was looking up what other Supergirl titles to pick up and it took me way too long to figure out that

vol 4 Daughter of New Krypton, vol 5 The Hunt for Reactron

and

vol 6 Who is Superwoman?, vol 7 Friends and Fugitives, vol 8 Death and the Family

were the same thing

for some reason the series was collected in 2015 and again in 2018 but this time they left out the whole Bizarrogirl plotline which was vol 9 and now anyone trying to get into it (me) comparing reading orders and amazon lists will be confused for half an hour

 

I have been out of the loop with Marvel Comics for a real long time. Just used my all my Hoopla borrows for this month on most of Marvel's event comics since 2017 to get somewhat caught up. Secret Empire, Infinity Wars (plus Countdown), War of The Realms, Empyre, King in Black, Heroes Reborn, and Devil's Reign.

 

Rewatching Daredevil has got me in a mood so I've been rereading old Daredevil runs. Finished the Bendis run and now on to Brubaker.

 

If you are into Shang-Chi, the recent run by Yang is some of the best I’ve read in recent years.

 

(mostly) recently got

Supergirl by Sterling Gates vols 4-5 (issues #34-50) and vol 9 (issues #53-59)
Wonder Woman by Gail Simone vols 1-2 (hardcover) and vols 3&5 (paperback)(vol 4 is $40)
Birds of Prey by Gail Simone vols 1-2 and 4-5 (vol 3 is $100 but at least it's getting reprinted in May)
Harley Quinn by Stephanie Phillips vols 1-3 (paperback)(vols 4-5 are only in hardcover)
Catwoman by Joelle Jones vols 1-2 and Ram V vols 4-6 (vol is 3 $80)
Catwoman: Lonely City
Wonder Woman: Historia
Wonder Woman: Death Earth

i'm a bit peeved by the inconsistencies and omissions but nevertheless i'm very excited to get into all of these

and i'm reminded that aside from a few characters my DC collection mostly sticks to Batfam/Gothamites

 

I have read 3 so far. Right now I would say War of the Realms > Secret Empire > Infinity Wars.

 

Secret Empire is very bad 2 me, so like. Amazing that you started there and didn’t immediately give up, lol. Though it at least has some rad artists.

 

It was meh. Disliked Infinity Wars more though, that was more of slog to get through.

War of the Realms though fucking rules.

 

lol, Hickman kept saying that his biggest bummer in leaving the X-line when he did was that he didn’t get to do the Imperial Guard book he wanted to do. Well, looks like something like that is finally happening! Good for him.

 

The New Agents of Atlas portion of War of the Realms is fun. They nerfed Sun Wukong bad but whatever

 

I didn't like Infinity Wars or Empyre. I loved Annihilation back in the day, but a lot of recent Marvel cosmic stuff is a little too esoteric for me. Not a fan.

 

what are some other cool little Elseworld origin story miniseries? I've read Supergirl: Being Super, Zatanna: Bring Down the House, Wonder Woman: Earth One, Harleen

 

Finally made my favorite comics of 2024 list! Decided to make it a long ass list, with 40 comics (ranging from excellent to silly nonsense) so I can highlight a whole bunch, for fun.


1.) Anzuelo (Emma Ríos; Image)

2.) The Deviant (James Tynion IV, Joshua Hixson; Image)

3.) Froggie World Vol 1: Love, Angel, Music, Bike (Allee Errico; Cram Books)

4.) Rare Flavours (Ram V, Felipe Andrade; Dark Horse)

5.) Poison Ivy (G. Willow Wilson, Marcio Takara, Haining; DC)

6.) We Called Them Giants (Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans; Image)

7.) Minor Arcana (Jeff Lemire; Boom!)

8.) The Power Fantasy (Kieron Gillen, Caspar Wijngaard; Image)

9.) Absolute Wonder Woman (Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman; DC)

10.) Ultimate Spider-Man (Jonathan Hickman, Checchetto, David Messina; Marvel)

11.) Zatanna: Bring Down the House (Mariko Tamaki, Javier Rodríguez; DC)

12.) Red Before Black (Stephanie Philips, Goran Sudžuka; Boom!)

13.) Batman and Robin: Year One (Mark Waid, Chris Samnee; DC)

14.) Sunflowers (Keezy Young; Silver Sprocket)

15.) Ultimate X-Men (Peach Momoko; Marvel)

16.) Usagi Yojimbo (Stan Sakai; Dark Horse)

17.) Santos Sisters (Greg & Fake; Floating World)

18.) The Collected Crimehot Volume 1 (Alec Robbins; Silver Sprocket)

19.) Exceptional X-Men (Eve L. Ewing, Carmen Carnero; Marvel)

20.) 24/7 Magical Maiden Mimi (Mira Ong Chua; self-published)

21.) Catwoman (Torunn Grønbekk, Fabiana Mascolo, Marianna Ignazzi; DC)

22.) Dawnrunner (Ram V, Evan Cagle; Dark Horse)

23.) Hack/Slash: Back to School (Zoe Thorogood; Image)

24.) Even Though We’re Adults (Takako Shimura; Seven Seas)

25.) Public Domain (Chip Zdarsky; Image)

26.) Cable (Fabian Nicieza, Scot Eaton; Marvel)

27.) Iron Man (Spencer Ackerman, Julius Ohta; Marvel)

28.) The Horizon Experiment: The Sacred Damned (Sabir Pirzada; Michael Walsh; Image)

29.) I Heart Skull-Crusher (Josie Campbell, Alessio Zonno; Boom!)

30.) Friday, Book Three: Christmas Time is Here Again (Ed Brubaker, Marcos Martín; Image)

31.) Crave (Maria Llovet; Image)

32.) Captain Momo’s Secret Base (Kenji Tsuruta; Dark Horse)

33.) Black Cloak (Kelly Thompson, Meredith McClaren; Image)

34.) Betty and Veronica Summer Spectacular (Ian Flynn, Holly G!, etc.; Archie)

35.) Influenca (Jade LFT Peters; Silver Sprocket)

36.) Monster High: Howliday Haunt (Ben Kahn, Sonia Liao; IDW)

37.) Psylocke (Alyssa Wong, Vincenzo Carratù; Marvel)

38.) Hellverine (Benjamin Percy, Julius Ohta; Marvel)

39.) Godzilla Rivals: Mothra vs Hedorah (Josh Trujillo, Josh Cornillon; IDW)

40.) [Spawn] Rat City (Erica Schultz, Zé Carlos; Image)

What a great year of comics reading, and already lots of dope shit I’m excited for in the new year!

 

My girlfriend got me the Sex Criminals compendium and I am devouring this thing!

 

Has anyone read Tom King's Batman/Catwoman? Apparently there's a version of Andrea Beaumont in it

 

Yeah, it’s great and she’s great in it. Thats what actually got me to finally see Mask of the Phantasm

 

I wasn’t into it when I last tried to read it, I think partly because I’m not really a Clay Mann fan. Also remember finding the approach to transitions between the three time periods it’s set it a bit clunky, at least in that first issue.

 

the newest issue of Batgirl brought back Nyssa al Ghul for what was apparently the first time in a very long time

by the way, this current run of Birds of Prey has had maybe three or four shorter story arcs so far, and each one of them has been fantastic

 

Absolute Wonder Woman is so fucking cool

 

Hayden Sherman’s art is so good, especially with those Bellaire colors. Some really stunning page layouts.

Adored the sequence in issue one of Diana saying “Amazon.”

 

Oh, and he's currently doing the Wonder Woman ongoing, how's that? I vaguely remember @Tim you said you generally don't like his work?