WHAT ARE YOU READING?

[odessasteps]

You won’t get to it for a while the Sins of Sinister event has started decently. 

[JLSigman]

On 2/12/2023 at 9:00 AM, JLSigman said:

Also, a quick internet search said the sequel to Inferno was X Lives and Deaths of Wolverine, so I'm reading that. I swear I'm going to start skipping the Wolverine time weirdness part if it doesn't start being interesting in a minute.

This is definitely a tale of two stories. The Wolverine part where he's going through his past is pure masturbatory blood and violence for a reason they didn't bother to explain until the very end. 1/5, for fuck's sake can we ever do anything else with him? The Moira on the run part was pretty good until the end, of course she's not gone, and my eyes rolled out of my head. 3/5, now where do we go with her from here?

 

Decided to start with Immortal X-Men, the series about the Quiet Council, and I'm loving it so far. I need to read up on who Hope is and what her powers, exactly, are (there's a collection that I'll flip through eventually).

[Doc Townsend]

Barnes and Noble is running a buy one, get one free sale on Image this month, so I am loading up on Image.  Almost compete run of Invincible arrived last week.  Complete Black Science and Wicked + Divine scheduled to be delivered today.  Think the sale runs to end of the month, so I’ll probably grab Black Magick and East of West next week.

Finished up Azzarello’s 100 Bullets over the weekend.  Probably will start Black Science tonight or tomorrow.

[odessasteps]

2 hours ago, JLSigman said:

This is definitely a tale of two stories. The Wolverine part where he's going through his past is pure masturbatory blood and violence for a reason they didn't bother to explain until the very end. 1/5, for fuck's sake can we ever do anything else with him? The Moira on the run part was pretty good until the end, of course she's not gone, and my eyes rolled out of my head. 3/5, now where do we go with her from here?

 

Decided to start with Immortal X-Men, the series about the Quiet Council, and I'm loving it so far. I need to read up on who Hope is and what her powers, exactly, are (there's a collection that I'll flip through eventually).

Gillen created her a few years ago. That series was pretty good. 

[Matt D]

14 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

Gillen created her a few years ago. That series was pretty good. 

2008 is now more than a few years ago unfortunately. 

[odessasteps]

The last 20 or so years of comics is one big blur to me, a lot like the rasslin. 

Edited February 15, 2023 by odessasteps

[JLSigman]

On 2/12/2023 at 9:00 AM, JLSigman said:

Currently reading Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire. Not sure I'm going to like this as much as I did Middlegame, because we keep getting interrupted just as we maybe begin to understand something.

Finished this last night. It's not terrible, but it's definitely not in the good section of her work. Way too many dangling ends, and the last 5 - 10 pages were just very rushed after 30 pages of rushed after 400 pages of slow.

[JLSigman]

On 2/15/2023 at 9:19 AM, JLSigman said:

Decided to start with Immortal X-Men, the series about the Quiet Council, and I'm loving it so far. I need to read up on who Hope is and what her powers, exactly, are (there's a collection that I'll flip through eventually).

This was EXCELLENT. Absolutely perfect. 5/5, I want to own this.

[Cobra Commander]

When I typed that American Midnight was the last of my Christmas haul of books. I wasn't lying. I got a copy of the following book before Christmas and only just read it in the last week.

"Invisible Storm: A Soldier's Memoir of Politics and PTSD" by Jason Kander is a book where the author tells the story of his time in Afghanistan as an intelligence officer, his time as a candidate/elected official, his time being considered as a Presidential candidate, and how ultimately he ended up ending a Mayoral campaign to go into therapy to treat his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. There are parts of this book that sorta retell parts of his 2018 book ("Outside The Wire: 10 Lessons in Everyday Courage") which came out months before his announcement but this book tells some of that from a different angle with the knowledge that the events in Afghanistan had an impact on his life after coming home. This book can be interesting/thought provoking even if you didn't serve in the military (FTR, I didn't) as it also mentions the impact of his PTSD on the people around him. During the week or so I spent reading this book, a current US Senator revealed he was in treatment for depression (due to a stroke last year, PTSD isn't a contest as this book mentions). The last few years have had no shortage of mental health challenges for people all over the world so it's a very relevant topic.

Now, having typed all that, full disclosure: I know the author. Not in the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the TV meme sense. I volunteered on his campaigns in several ways, I was at the election night parties for his win (2012) and loss (2016) and at his announcement for mayor (2018) shortly before he decided to get treated (three events mentioned in this book). Back in 2016, I thought Jason could get mentioned as a Presidential candidate if he won. So having that sort of talk happen after he lost a Senate race surprised me. Knowing what I know from reading this book, i'm really happy that he was able to step back and get treatment because his writing makes it clear how bad things were getting after being bad for years before that. The writing about complexities about trying to deal with 'The Monster' is very interesting, for one, he mentions how his perception that he didn't "earn" PTSD meant that he didn't get treatment for years and how he's happier working with Veterans Community Project than all the time he spent flying around the country and missing out on time with his family.

So the book is good and hopefully helps as many people as possible.

[JLSigman]

Ran through X-Men Red volume 1. It takes a couple issues to get going, but inject "Magneto dealing with the autumn of his life" into my veins any day. It ends in the middle of a big crossover event, which is kinda annoying, I'll have to look up more about this "Judgement" thing - it was touched on in Immortal X-Men, but then seemed to be over by the end of that collection, so I just want to know where to find the finale of it (that final panel in Red #5 is horrifying).

 

I'm also slowly reading Kushiel's Avatar, the finale of the first Terre D'Ange trilogy. 200 pages in and I'm remembering why I don't like this one as much as the previous two, and seeing the faults in her writing that kept me from really enjoying most of the rest of these books.

[JLSigman]

Marauders volume 1 barely gets 2/5. They tried to go all Captain Harlock, so tried to make the art all anime, and it looks like shit. Really disappointing.

[odessasteps]

9 minutes ago, JLSigman said:

Marauders volume 1 barely gets 2/5. They tried to go all Captain Harlock, so tried to make the art all anime, and it looks like shit. Really disappointing.

If nothing else, don't like Kitty with the curly hair.

[JLSigman]

Zipped through the first 5 issues of Invisible Kingdom, by G. Willow Wilson. While there's really nothing new with the writing, Christian Ward's art takes it to a higher level. I'll definitely want to read more of it.

Still making my way through Kushiel's Avatar. Still the weakest of the first trilogy.

[JLSigman]

On 3/1/2023 at 7:58 AM, JLSigman said:

Zipped through the first 5 issues of Invisible Kingdom, by G. Willow Wilson. While there's really nothing new with the writing, Christian Ward's art takes it to a higher level. I'll definitely want to read more of it.

Finished this series. It's very by the numbers in the writing, but gorgeous art.

[Technico Support]

Between last Summer and maybe a month ago, I re-read Stephen King's Dark Tower series.  It, uh, "hit different" as the kids today like to say.  I enjoyed it more knowing how it was going to end and maybe also benefiting from more life experience, as I'd previously read the series between the ages of 15 and 30 and now I'm somewhere near 50.  I felt like the themes of redemption and bettering yourself (even if it takes lifetimes in Roland's case!  :P)  resonated more.  Now if they could just do a good adaptation of it!

Speaking of adaptations, I also read The Cabin at the End of the World since the movie version came out recently.  I can tell it was well-written, well paced, a real page turner, but it just wasn't for me.  There were violent parts that felt unnecessarily brutal, but worse than that was the ambiguity.  You never find out whether The Big Thing That Is Happening To The World And Driving The Antagonists is actually real or just in their heads.  I mean it's a good rumination on conspiracy culture, but I needed more.  It's the only Tremblay book I've read but apparently this kind of ambiguity is his bag.  Incredible premise with a popcorn fart payoff.  YMMV.

Edited March 9, 2023 by Technico Support

[JLSigman]

On 3/1/2023 at 7:58 AM, JLSigman said:

Still making my way through Kushiel's Avatar. Still the weakest of the first trilogy.

Finally finished. 3/5 stars, it drags a lot. I did not enjoy the next trilogy about Imriel at all, and while I remember liking the first of the third trilogy (Naamah's Kiss) the rest dove into some serious White Savior-isms and lazy tropes. I think I will find something else to read in a little bit.

[JLSigman]

Started Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnendi Okorafor on my phone/Hoopla. It's a bit younger than I had expected, but that makes it easier to read on the small screen. 

[odessasteps]

While I was at the library, I picked up Number One is Walking. Steve Martin’s graphic novel drawn by Harry Bliss.

[ohtani's jacket]

I finished up Julie Doucet's Dirty Plotte. Wonderful stuff. Honest, surreal, funny. I wish she'd stayed in comics longer, but what a brilliant legacy to leave behind. Of all the great early 90s alternative comics, Dirty Plotte was the most fun to read. 

[JLSigman]

On 3/11/2023 at 8:47 AM, JLSigman said:

Started Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnendi Okorafor on my phone/Hoopla. It's a bit younger than I had expected, but that makes it easier to read on the small screen. 

4/5 stars, a nice tale in a part of the world I really need to make an effort to read more from.

[odessasteps]

Doing American Flagg research and just realized Reuben Flagg is a millennial, born in October 2000.

[JLSigman]

4/5 stars to Catwoman: Lonely City. My first DC comic since the collected 52 left such a bad taste in my brain. This was a nice AU with a weird twist at the end that didn't quite work for me.

[JLSigman]

4/5 stars to Legion of X vol 1. I love Nightcrawler, and I like what they're doing with Legion/David Haller. This was a very interesting, completely contained story (for once!) that worked well.

[Tarheel Moneghetti]

I’ve read a decent portion of Marvel’s 2010-ish Star Wars line.  Basically, I’ve read the Aaron and Gillen runs on the main book, the first Doctor Aphra series (Gillen and Spurrier runs) and Gillen’s Darth Vader book.  Great fun and I highly recommend everything I just mentioned,  Especially Gillen’s Darth Vader book, which I thought was outstanding,  Gillen’s one of my favorite comic writers and Salvador Larroca drew virtually every page.  Larroca drew much of the main book too, but he leaned more heavily into the photoshop/tracing thing and the results were mixed and divisive.  Darth Vader looks beautiful though.

I’m by no means a fan of the franchise, but I’m somewhat sad Marvel rebooted the line with writers and artists I don’t like nearly as well.  Charles Soule and Alyssa Wong are fine, but they don’t sell me books.  It probably couldn’t be helped.  Marvel lost a fair number of my favorite writers and artists after Secret Wars and I don’t pay near as much attention to the line these days.

 

Edited March 26, 2023 by Tarheel Moneghetti

[Eivion]

The Aaron & Gilken books were so good that anything after was going to be a step down. I will say Soule's Vader run was solid, just not on the same level as Gillen. It was at very least a noticeable upgrade from his Poe Dameron book.