What Titles Are You Currently Reading?

[Rushmoras]

So far, read through the end of 1997.

Regarding Superman, still not a fan of his weekly comic books, because the plot keeps on dragging on and on and on, and the fact that the plot is weaved through four - sometimes five - Superman titles does not help it, because they have various degree of quality ranging through awful to I guess it's good enough. I guess, "Identity Crisis" storyline (Superman versus Brainiac) in 1996 was kinda good (since I marked it, but can't really remember that much of what has happened there). I'm not really a fan of how Superman later in 1997 became electrical, though the closing arc for the year 1997 with the Dragon's Tooth and some monster-serial killer on the loose was good (throughout all titles).

What really surprised me was... Supergirl's comic. Yeah, actually, the stories there... they are kinda what would I have expected from Hellblazer before even knowing what that was all about. It's so different from Superman that... wow... and actually, majority of it is interesting.

Batman. Again, not really much there is to say. It has some interesting stories, but mostly not interesting. I liked "Legacy" Arc (continuation from Contagion), some one-shot comics from 1997 (Batman/Wildcat, Batgirl, Poison Ivy, Mister Freeze and Batman/Phantom Stranger), but mostly there's nothing to say. Doug Moench in the main Batman title is still having Batman for two years now I guess (since pre-Knightfall) tracking down The False Face Society and Dixon in Detective Comics is doing his own separate thing, which is mostly unrelated to anything.

In Robin comics... they are good, I guess, but I usually skip everything related to the 'Kid General'. I just find him... bleh.

Wonder Woman. I thought that I would like John Byrne, but aside from his initial Second Genesis and Bloodlines arc, most of what he writes is boring. I guess it's better than Loebs, because I did not skip (mostly) any of the issues. The most interesting probably thing was that Diana got made in to a Goddess of Truth, and her mother became Wonder Woman as a penance to Themyscara (I guess somehow he had to rectify whatever shit Loebs wrote-in, but...).

Justice League. I liked Midsummer Nightmare (1996) and the first arc. The rest was kinda 50/50. But I like the fact that it can be read separately from any other comic books. I mean, they acknowledge the current status quo (like Superman being made from energy now or Diana being 'dead'), but mostly, to what is going on, its its own separate thing.

Hellblazer. Ever since he got to hang-out with his hippy friends, because a new writer came-in, in a bar for the most of the time, I don't like it. It has some good stories, but most of the good ones are unrelated to the broader arc.

Oh, yeah, and Genesis Event... what a fucking waste of time even with skipping most of the reading material.

[Rushmoras]

Read through the year 1999. Had to ditch Supergirl somewhere after issue 30 perhaps, because for a long while I just found the writing boring and non-engaging.

Regarding Superman... I don't really think that baring the fact that Lex Luthor made sure that DailyPlanet is no more, there were any issues that actually stood out, and what's got my attention was the issues that were released in December 1999, because it felt like Superman titles will be more mature from now on in terms of quality in writing and drawings. Even the Man of Steel comic books somewhere in 1998 became tolerable (after Louise Simonson departed from writing them).

Regarding Justice League... I think that I don't like team-up stories. Out of 35 issues that I read maybe I liked about six or seven of them. Everyone is like "Oh, my God, Grant Morrisson is the best", and all I am thinking that the respective solo titles of characters are much better than the team ups. Of course, the mini series of JLA are quite good and had no qualms with them.

Batman. So, I completed the No Man's Land arc today, and overall I've gonna say that it was good. Did I like everything therein? Nope. There were countless of issues that were boring and/or I just skipped, but the whole ending sequences and/or everything surrounding Cassandra Cain, were very interesting. Dark Victory was also very good mini-series, and whole lot better than the Long Halloween in my opinion.

Wonder Woman. So far, I like Eric Luke's run, especially his war against the titans arcs. And I think he's better than John Byrne at least.

Hellblazer. Warren Ellis saved the series, because I was really pondering of whether I should ditch it, because it was so damn boring for many issues. But then he came with his writing style and bam, Constantine was good again.

Sandman Present's Lucifer. Was also an interesting mini-series.

Day of Judgment Event. I kinda liked it, but it was on a boring side.

 

Edited July 16, 2023 by Rushmoras

[Rushmoras]

Read through the year of 2003. Nothing substantial I've got to add, save for these things:

a) the most memorable arcs in Justice League were World War 3 (Issues 36-41), Tower of Babel (43-46); The Queen of Fables (47-49); The Obsidian Age (68-75) and Trial by Fire (83-89);

b) for sometime now, Batman has been for the lack of better word an unlikeable c***, especially in Robin comics;

c) the best "discoveries" for me was randomly stumbling upon Lucifer and Gotham Central. They are both equally interesting and probably the best reads out of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, JLA and Hellblazer comics;

d) for the most part, I don't care about Superman's futuristic Metropolis and all the troubles it causes. It's been stale for some time now. Though, I guess with the issue of Superman No. 200 (2004 February), they are going to reconcile something with Superman: Birthright, which reading it prior to this, in my opinion was something out of Elseworlds without being labelled such.

[Rushmoras]

So, I was reading JLA "Pain of the Gods" story from 2004, which is basically, JLA coming to terms with various losses they suffer, and in penultimate issue of the story, Wonder Woman comes to the JLA tower for some consolation, and Martian Manhunter is there, and says: "I sense you are distraught. do you need some moral support?" or something like that, and Diana happy to talk it out begins to open her mouth, but Martian Manhunter says to her then: "Well, then go to Superman", and walks away. This was unintentionally hilarious.

[Rushmoras]

Well, flash forward a couple of months and now I'm in DC's 2007 era, just completed Amazons Attack event, and, oh boy, what a shit fest it was (pardon my French).

If I understood what was happening correctly,

Spoiler

Circe, furious that Ares took their daughter in the beginning of the new Wonder Woman, which was issued in 2006, devises a plan of vengeance against the Greek Gods. She thinks that getting back at them through the Amazons, by pitting the world against them, will somehow return her daughter back or something. So, she, through magic and persuasion, and whatnot witchy craft, replaces Sergeant Steel from the Department of Metahuman Affairs with a shape-changer, who, as a pretext for assassinating Maxwell Lord, apprehends Wonder Woman. But, instead of, you know, interrogating her for this specific instance, has her hauled to some off site black ops facility to be tortured for information about the Themyscarian super weapon.

Meanwhile, while all of this is happening, Circe appears on Themyscara and, sacrificing a portion of her own soul, resurrects Queen Hippolyta, who appears not like herself (and neither are the Amazons, I might add). This is more evident, when Circe through magic shows her Diana bound in chains in the world of man. Enraged and furious, Queen Hippolyta summons under her banner an army of Amazons (who don't even protest at all this decision, I might add) to invade the world of man, and save her daughter...

This was the main premise, and while writing this summary down, it would have seemed that this could be a pretty decent story. But it wasn't. In fact, looking back at it, all I can say that it was a cavalcade of random events about characters that are acting seriously way off. I think, I actually liked only three issues in the entire event, and even that word "liked" is a strong one. I actually liked the ending portion of Amazons Attack (No. 6) due to how absurd it was -

Spoiler

so, it appears that Granny Goodness has been masquerading as Athena for a while now, and now is holding captive some of Amazon generals. What happened? Did Darkseid kick her out from Apokolips or something? This was so random thing to put in this series, when you literally have Ares from the last volume grinding his teeth at Athena for becoming too powerful.

Also, I'm surprised that Jodi Picoult wrote a couple of issues for Wonder Woman. No disrespect or anything for her, I'm sure she's great novelist, but, um, everything she has written in Wonder Woman either seemed off character and/or random events that ultimately bear no substance whatsover. Will Pfeifer, while doing almost the same thing in Amazons Attack mini-series, managed to at least be more entertaining with his dialogues.

That being said, it was probably the worst character assassination event that I have yet to read from DC.

[Lantern7]

@Rushmoras . . . You might want to check out Incredible Hercules: Love & War. We got rampaging Amazons there, but Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente do a great job with it.