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Friday, April 20, 2007

MARVEL COMICS SUCKS!!! GRRRR!!!

Not really but I am currently buying two ongoings(Runaways and Astonishing X-Men), one mini-series(Loners) and following three books in trade(X-Factor, Nextwave, Ultimates) two of which I will stop when their current runs complete. I'm not really getting into the majority of what Marvels doing right now.

Now I am not going to say that the creative teams suck, but I don't think I care enough about many of the writers to gravitate to their titles. I have honestly been underwhelmed with everything I read by Brian Bendis. Ultimate Spider-Man? Read the first trade and thought it was alright. Daredevil? Eh. Not sure I even care enough for the character. House of M? Thought it was rather dull. Plus I refuse to believe no one brought up the fact Beast was sitting on a cure for the mutant gene. Someone told me Kitty was going to bring it up but Emma stopped her and that may be Bendis' intent with that scene in issue 1 but that doesn't make up for it. New Avengers? Read 13 issues and got really frustrated when he cut from the big climatic fight scenes to talking. Especially in Sentry arc. You had New Avengers, X-men, Defenders, SHIELD, Fantastic 4, and Dr. Strange and what do you do? You cut to Emma Frost and Mr. Fantastic talking with Sentry. Oh, that scene McNiven drew was nice but I can' say it was awesome as I had just finished reading Promethea before this and they had already done similar scenes. Oh, and that whole thing where the characters seem to repeat the same thing to each other for panels at a time. Plus I did not appreciate that scene in Ultimate X-Men where Rogue somehow forget she herself is a mutant and hung out with strange looking people to point out rather naively Nightcrawler being a 'demon' and Angel being a-yeah, angel. But I don't hate Bendis nor do I blame him for my general dislike of Marvel.

Went off on my dislike for Bendis there. Marvel has other writers like J. Michael Straczynski. I read his first Spider-Man arc, and I thought it was okay. But I haven't really read anything by him nor do any of the projects he take seem interesting to me. Ed Brubaker is a writer I should enjoy because Gotham Central was an amazing series. Though I stopped buying Capt. America because while I thought it was good its pacing and the release date(plus money at the time) forced me to cut it. I picked up Winter Soldier in trade and liked it but I found out a few months back Marvel released a few more Brubaker trades and I didn't even notice nor do I feel the desire to buy them. I like Iron Fist, read the first issue and shrugged it off. I love the X-Men but outside Nightcrawler his team line up features characters I really have no interest in. This I can contribute to the fact that the X-Men characters are so split up between three books. Robert Kirkman? Sorry, I really think his Ultimate X-Men is my least favorite of the series. I own the first few trades and I just do not like what I see. Well, to be honest with the last one I couldn't even get myself to read it because I was not a fan of the previous trade. Mark Millar? Well... he's written some stuff I really like but I hated Wanted so much that I pretty much avoided anything else. I forget why, but maybe its because in the time frame it took for that book to finally finish I had sort of become more into older super-hero comics and less cynicism with super-heroes.

Now, the heroes. I loved Spider-Man as a kid but I look at the character now and I'm not filled with that same joy. Except with Spider-Man 2. that was an awesome film. Fantastic 4, I tried. I read the first 40 issues and disliked them. Everyone tells me that the third Essential is when it gets good but that does not change the fact I spent 16.99 on two books and will never look at them again. Because I have gained such a view of this characters, who I find boring or just annoying in general, I can't bring myself to even want to read the stuff with the Silver Surfer or Galactus or the Inhumans. I love Grant Morrison but I'll probably never buy his Fantastic 4 mini. Daredevil? I don't know... I'm waiting the Frank Miller omnibus I ordered but that was because I love me some Frank Miller. DD just comes off as so cold and unfeeling. Hulk? Er... no interest to me. Plus some characters I do like aren't in stories that interest me(Iron Fist, Cage). Or they're like Iron Man and have completely become a douche. X-Men? Well let me break this down for my one time favorite team.

Cyclops: Fav Marvel character. I said it.
Jean Grey: Love her.
Emma Frost: Love her.
Wolverine: Use to love him as a kid but now I only enjoy him with the X-Men. Besides, he's just about as hard to kill as Superman but without a supporting cast and his rogues are pretty much just as lame. though I love Superman, but i like the idea of good for goods sake and Wolverines become pre-packaged cool. IMO.
Shadowcat: Cool.
Colossus: Cool.
Beast: Cool.
Rogue: One of my fav Marvel females.
Sabretooth: Is he good? Is he bad? Is he dead? Is he brain dead? Someone make up their mind. he's alright.
Iceman: Okay.
Cable: Fuck 'em.
Havok: Never cared.
Rachel Summers: I started disliking Claremonts run right about the time she showed up.
Storm: I like her.
Polaris: Does not interest me.
Bishop: Is he still around? Lame.

Thats just some of the characters. it take too long to go through them all.

What about the artists? Now Marvels got some damn good artists but call me old fashion but I like artists more like a Joe Bennett to a Jim Cheung. I like Salvador Larroca, Skottie Young, and many others. My taste is sort of like this: Pop art/experimental, then traditional super-hero, animated, and then "near realism." So DC has more artists I like that fall into the main two categories. But... I never buy titles specifically for artists, or writers, or characters anyway. It has to be a combination of things. For some reason the combinations work mroe for me with DC. I like Batman, I like Morrison, I like Kubert so I buy Batman. Not my fav title but I have faith it'll get better. Sean McKeever taking over Birds of Prey. Don't really read McKeever but it is Birds of Prey and as far as I know Nicola Scott is still on so I will stick with it. Brubaker, X-Men, Billy Tan on Uncanny. Like Brubaker, hate the team, feeling meh on Tans work thus I did not pick it up.

Now, I should try more Marvel titles, I admit. But looking ahead I am just so god damn confused. There's a space event, Hulks running crazy, there is something going on with magic, I hear there is a big X-Event oh-and every comic book in the main universe is reeling post-CW where the characters are on a side of pro-reg or anti-reg and I decided to just not bother with Civil War. Maybe in a few years I'll branch out and try something. Until then, they still put out Essentials and trades of older stories that seem interesting to me. I'm actually looking forward to seeing Frank Millers Daredevil and I pre-ordered the Spider-Man omnibus. I hear the second volume of Spider-Woman comes out in July. Wasn't that big a fan of vol. 1 but like the character enough to get vol. 2.

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