Aldo reads Marvel NOW! (even though you are, and he clearly hasn't learned his lesson)

two other titles that are really good right now are Fraction's FF and Hawkeye

most definitely

Apparently some stereotypical comics dudes were bitching about FF! They didn't like Mike Allred's art! wtf is fucking wrong with people

basically I feel like Fraction and Hickman are just running shit at Marvel right now

it's really fucking bizarre to me that there are no X-titles in my 5 favorite Marvel titles right now (Hawkeye, Avengers, FF, Avengers Arena, New Avengers)

btw it is still boggling my mind that Avengers Arena is actually really, really good

they don't like vegetables, they only like french fries - xpost

Wolverine and the X-Men isn't half bad!

I think it was the stupidly titled Age of Ultrun #10U.C. which was turned into Hunger. It's just a follow-up series like AvX: Consequences or Fear Itself: The Fearless. Still sounds extremely dumb.

Thor: God of Thunder is pretty cool as well!

my 6-10 Marvels are X-Factor, Young Avengers, W&tX, Astonishing X-Men, Uncanny X-Men

I have to post this from the new solicits. Hawkeye #14:

• This one has it all! Characters! Plot! Story! Dialogue! Theme! Meaning! Message! Action! A little exposition! Fire! Arrows! Criminals! Neighbors! Large bodies of water! Clients! Cops who don’t care! A system that victimizes the victims! The dog!

I'm hooked!

basically everything about Hawkeye is an exercise in What Makes Comics Awesome

didn't like Mike Allred's art!

i don't like allred's art that much (tolerated him on the xforce etc stuff because pete milligan was at the v top of his game for those) - limited actual technical drawing skills, and limited repertoire of 'tricks' and signifiers of 'hip' - occasionally musters a slightly eerie edge to some of his drawings - but he's no jerry grandenetti, eg

he likes sting, btw

I tend to put Allred and Bachalo in the same bucket where the style is so overwhelmingly appealing that any storytelling issues I have with their work are immaterial

Looking forward to catching up with Hickman's stuff back to Fantastic Four.

Yes, Hawkeye is awesome. With Marvel + Image being in good place right now, I'm probably buying (and enjoying) more single issues than I have in about 5-6 years. Plus, I'm even psyched enough to get B-level trash like Guardians of the Galaxy, which is probably a good sign.

Fraction, Hickman and Bendis, yes.

xpost

bachalo's storytelling chops seem incredibly deficient for someone who has been drawing comics for so long, but his work has much more wit and energy, to my eyes, than allred's rather stiff and self-conscious pastiche-y style - its, like he really aspires to be 'versioning' classic streamlined minimalist spook stuff like bruno premiani's 60s doom patrol stuff, but that shit actually requires series basic structural craft/sweat that allred actually hasn't got (don't get me started on richard sala)

I freely admit that my Allred ardor cooled someone when I started reading Hawkeye and saw what Aja and Pulido were doing

Bachalo's style and storytelling seems to change and wane by the year or project. There are a few instances where the storytelling is hard to follow, but it's in the minority, imo. He's definitely gone through several distinctive eras but still seems to change it up occasionally, although not always successfully.

DJP, did you read Iron Fist? Fraction/Aja was awesome on that.

Daredevil is my favourite Marvel book by so,e considerable distance. Mark Waid's plot line in Latveria as great.

Also the Zimworld Captain America stuff seems to have gone unnoticed.

Didn't read Iron Fist, no; only really started moving away from my Mutants Only stance via Avengers Academy and Secret Avengers

Mark Waid can fuck off for eternity, I actively avoid his shit

dude read Iron Fist ASAP

i hear so many gd things abt waid's daredevil, but i have been fucked over by waid recommendations SO many times

I guess it's possible that Waid is doing good work now but I remember when he was writing the X-Men with Lobdell and he actually had a scene in his book where Sam went and sulked in a tree because he thought he wasn't good enough to be an X-Man, which was just completely counter to the way the character had been written for the previous I don't know A BILLION YEARS

angry fanboys then used that as an example of how Lobdell sucks, lol

btw this is the only thing I remember from Waid's X-Men run, that and him being a massive cock on Usenet

I'd go so far as to say its maybe my favourite soft reboot of the pas 10 years. ( But maybe I have read so many shit comics ha a halfway decent one just seems like the best thing ever)

yeah, i'm hella trepidatious about trying another waid book of any variety

I read a few issues of that Daredevil, they were good superhero comics

This is all only so they can bring Angela into the MU apparently, now they own her.

They don't.

OK, sorry, so Neil Gaiman can bring her into the MU, now he owns her. Marvel have already released the sketches (copyrighted Marvel) of what she's going to look like.

I will whole-heartedly recommend Daredevil and take the heat for it if y'all hate it.

Also, today is like the fifth time I have been on the cusp of getting a Marvel Unlimited sub, then pulling away at the last min in fear/horror of the app. (This time I tried on a desktop - even that's terrible too.)

does the waid daredevil begin when kevin smith quit on the knights run? because i tried to read that shit and i love daredevil but daaaaammmn.
can you give me a starting point?

the unlimited is a mess and it's always fucking up but it's probably worth it. i've read more comics in the past few months than i have in years.

vol 3 #1 Sept 2011. Dd xpost

okay, queuing it up now.

Waid's DD is really good! I don't think I'd ever read anything by him before, but I'd been warned off of a lot of it beforehand.

I don't mind Allred's stylized cartooning, but I do have one small peeve with him -- he puts his wife in every goddamn thing he draws.

xp

Laura, I'd say, is a key part of the Allred equation - he looks waaaaay different w/o her colors.

In summary then, if Marvel want to beat DiDio's DC at being a shit heap, they'll have to start sucking a lot more.

That's about the size of it.

Marvel's winners are more brilliant and their failures are more abysmal; DC just moseys along on a flat path of okayness. The status quo for 50 years.

DC is much worse than "okay" right now.

Admittedly I am not the average DC buyer, but once Batman Inc's over, I don't think I'll be buying any of the books, for the first time since around 2004

Yeah, I know that I share what's probably a common ILC bias due to receiving more detailed reports from Aldo of DC's behaviour than Marvel's, but I'm not aware of any failure on Marvel's part as abysmal as giving two books to Rob Liefeld and/or treating serious creators (and Rob Liefeld) badly enough that they speak out publicly against the dicking-around they've been getting.

This is all only so they can bring Angela into the MU apparently, now they own her.

Who's "Angela"?

A Spawn character that Neil Gaiman co-created with Todd McFarlane and they've been fighting about ever since. Todd used the Marvel legal defence that it was work-for-hire and therefore he didn't owe him any royalties, Neil took him to court and won and they agreed they were co-creators as far as SPawn 9, Spawn 26 and three spin-off issues.

Since that legal case, it appears that Neil has bought out Todd's interest completely and is taking it to Marvel as part of his golden handcuffs deal there. No word on the other two characters that were part of the court case, or how this affects the Miracleman fiasco.

he didn't buy it out, he was awarded it by the court. (twice!)

and he obv doesn't have a golden handcuffs deal, as he's doing Sandman #0 right this moment.

It doesn't affect the Marvelman fiasco in any way.

Admittedly I am not the average DC buyer, but once Batman Inc's over, I don't think I'll be buying any of the books, for the first time since around 2004

I'm tentatively buying Batwoman for another month or so. But then I'm sure there've been occasional times since 1996 that Morrison hasn't had a book going at DC and I thus haven't been buying any of them.

(I do feel rly awkward buying Batwoman still, the way DC are treating readers and creators, and felt VERY gross buying Action - if I'd known the end date would keep moving, I would have bailed out around #10. But I've probably been done buying any Marvel ever for a year or two, unless they start paying royalties. Or put covers back on the floppies.)

the other two characters in the court case are acknowledged as being part-McFarlane, and so presumably Gaiman gets to request another audit, and McFarlane gets to declare bankruptcy in order to avoid it again, like after the first court case.

please explain A)golden handcuffs and B)put covers back on the floppies

at least i understand Marvel not paying nobody royalties

He was awarded co-creator credit by the courts. There has to be something else happened since the last court case for him to take it to another company - unless Todd is being paid shitloads by Marvel and I would imagine he'd have them over a barrel if Neil was insistent he was going to use it in GotG. I don't even see what NG's point is in using it, since he doesn't appear to show any affection for the character. He tried to swap it for Marvelman in 97 (which is where that character comes into it) and aiui his court cases were more about royalties and Todd deliberately leaving the issues in dispute out of tpbs.

Todd's a complete dick, but there's something weird going on here.

Didn't know about Sandman #0, retract my golden handcuffs statement. I'm amazed he's gone back to Marvel in that case, let alone to co-write a second (third?) tier book where whatever he writes is going to be retconned away by the forthcoming film in any case, or why Marvel are making such a big deal about it.

Okay, I remember reading about that Gaiman/McFarlane court case, but why would Marvel want to bring some obscure Spawn into the Marvel universe, especially if they'd have to pay McFarlane royalties for it?

"some obscure Spawn character"

that is a question that no one can answer

Waid daredevil is great by the way. Thanks and good call.

Maybe angela is being written into one of the movies?