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Marvel Comics Omnibus thread


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Inferno is next, chronologically (I just learned they came out the same year! jesus!)

 

Early Excalibur was nice because it dealt with the fallout of Mutant Massacre a bit more than the main books

 

Did they ever collect the Siege Perilous X-men stuff?  That was neat because it was so different

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Inferno is next, chronologically (I just learned they came out the same year! jesus!)

 

Early Excalibur was nice because it dealt with the fallout of Mutant Massacre a bit more than the main books

 

Did they ever collect the Siege Perilous X-men stuff?  That was neat because it was so different

The entire Claremont run was collected.

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That's what everyone keeps saying.  But since they're adding issues of that to MCU on weeks that have very low new-issue counts, I'll keep reading it.

 

Now where the fuck is the Silvestri Guardians and the rest of the Simonson X-Factor?  There are inexcusable holes in this service, and my $60 a year means they have to listen to me and give me things I might otherwise pay $2 per issue for on Comixology! *whinetwitchgrowl*

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Been reading the War of Kings event the last week.

Dug Road to War of Kings. The Secret Invasion issue setting everything up was cool. I liked the idea of the Inhumans taking control of their destiny and no longer choosing to hide. Them taking over a Kree Empire in need of leadership was nice and was a good call back to their roots. The Kingbreaker mini focusing on the Starjammers was damn good. I liked how it continued to build on Vulcan's character and the feud with Havok. The ending with Havok getting supercharged and and be willing to commit kamikaze to take Vulcan out was pretty awesome.

The actual War of Kings mini was pretty good. I liked how much of it was from Gladiator and Crystal's perspectives. I also liked the relationships built and what it did for many of the characters themselves in terms of moving forward. The ending climax between Vulcan and Black Bolt was fantastic. It was just an awesome fight with some great drama, especially with how it finally ended. Wasn't fond of Lilandra dying, especially with how it occurred, but I can see the point of it considering the direction they want to take with the Shi'ar and Gladiator. I was also disappointed with how the Havok was used. He was very much a background character with his feud with Vulcan never getting properly settled or really pushed much here. I also thought Rachel got a bit of the short stick here with her vengeance on one of the Shi'ar Death Commandos very much being an afterthought. The epilogue leading to Gladiator becoming leader was solid. War of Kings: Darkhawk and War of Kings: Ascension were both interesting reads. I wasn't too familiar with the character beforehand, but I thought WoK: Dakhawk did a solid job introducing and giving a rundown of history and character while introducing new elements to it all. WoK: Ascension did a  good job following things up and leading to something interesting new direction wise for the character. They weren't great, but I thought both minis were pretty solid reads that gave insight on a smaller but important subplot in War of Kings while leaving me wanting to read more of Darkhawk. Savage World of Skaar was decent, but a completely unnecessary addition that did nothing to enhance any of the plots in War of Kings. The War of Kings: Warriors were nice little additions with the further insight they gave to several character characters. I read the bulk of War of Kings via a hardcover collecting most of it (no Road to, Nova, or GotG). I have to say that I do wish they did a better job of ordering the stories. It starts you off with the Secret Invasion issue again before throwing you off into the main conflict. It made it just a bit annoying pretty much all of the minis yo read after take place before the main story.

Nova: War of Kings. I dug how it tied in with the main event and thought it was a stronger story than the tie-in with Annihilation Conquest. It was great seeing things with Worldmind settled, and I liked where it ended with the Corps still around but smaller and gradually building themselves up as it should be done. I dug the interactions between Richard and Blastaar. It was nice seeing Rich use his head to manipulate things in his favor. Loved seeing Richard's brother really proving himself and getting to stay in the Corps. Good read.

Guardians of the Galaxy Books 1 & 2. Book 1 did well building to War of Kings while focusing on the Guardians separate adventures. I liked that Heather was saved and what Phyla sacrificed to ultimately save her. The 42 story focused on Peter and Jack Flag was damn fun. Unfamiliar with Flag, but I liked his character and how he interacted with Quill. Also dug how Rocket was running things with such a smaller powered crew and the reveal of the Badoon trying to become power players after Rocket and co. thought so little of them. Book 2 was where the meat of the action was and shit really went down. The Guardian failed spectacularly to stop the War of Kings, and we got several deaths from trying to stop the fallout with the Fault. I loved Peter in co. traveling through various GotG futures. It was especially neat to see the old team members and see hints of bigger things for Jack Flag. I did find Phyla to be strangely out of character here even with what DnA planned to do with her. It made her later deaths even more disappointing since I really liked her beforehand in Annihilation Conquest and the first half of GotG. Speaking of deaths I have to admit it was much seeing so many fall in such rapid succession with the return of the Magus. I dug the finals scenes and the general storyline, but was damn disappointed to see so many lost. I'm not sure it was the best course of action if I'm being honest. Phyla was made to look bad before she died, and I felt Vance's death was just a tad on the lazy side with there being no option to return him to his proper time. All that said, I dug the overall story and volume. It was pretty good read with the group suffering some real loss.

Should be finished with the rest of DnA Marvel cosmic sometime within the next week.

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Been reading a boatload of 80's Marvel:

 

West Coast Avengers is sadly mediocre through the majority of its run despite having many great characters on the roster or hanging about at various points (Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Moon Knight, US Agent, Hellcat, The Shroud, The Thing) but its oafs like Wonder Man and bizarre plot lines involving Tigra and cat-demons and Byrne's obliteration of Vision & The Scarlet Witch that derails even the most decent story aspects. Wasn't worth the slog to read.

 

The Incredible Hulk is dope for most of Peter David's early run, especially the "Ground Zero" storyline with early Todd McFarlane on art. His grotesque style suits the title immensely and David really sets up the Doc Banner is schizo storyline perfectly. Once Dale Keown joins and they execute the war between his personalities, the title is flying. The Joe Fix-It interlude doesn't really go anywhere though and once Banner's personalities are fused into the Professor version of the character, I started to lose interest because a super-smart, insane strong character is often kinda dull.

 

Wolverine is worth browsing just for John Buscema's gritty and intense art. Chris Claremont's story is a mixed bag and once they leave the title, it flounders a bit. Wolverine is one of those weird A-list characters who doesn't have a truly iconic storyline other than the initial Claremont/Miller mini (unless that's happened more recently because I haven't read any Wolvie past the mid-90's). Is Rucka's run any good?

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I kinda liked WCA when it first came out (I picked up every issue when it was released), but even for the time, I never thought it was "good".  I was thrilled when Byrne came on, and it's not a terrible scripting job by him, but, yeah, the character assassination plotlines really undermine his run.  When I reread his WCA run last year, I was surprised how little I enjoyed it.

 

David's Hulk run might be my personal favorite long run on a superhero book.  He kept the book interesting for years and years, through a shit-ton of artist changes, crossovers, and changes in direction.  The Joe Fixit run doesn't hold up well for me, but, at the time, it was a great change of pace from the McFarlane run (which had an overall arc and darker, more serious scripting),  McFarlane's style has aged really badly for me - when I reread Spawn recently. I was thrilled when he stopped doing pencils - but his style fit Hulk really well.

 

Actually, I need to go back and reread David's Hulk run.  About the time the Pantheon storyline wrapped up, I started drifting out of comics, so I don't know that I ever finished the run.

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I think it was a consistently good book. I liked that Englehart took the book in directions, you would not see in the main Avengers book at the time. I thought the Byrne run was really good. I am not a fan of what Byrne did to Vision, or his views on the character. But at the same time, I thought it was exciting and he put in back doors to fix anything he did.  

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Finished DnA's cosmic run in Marvel.

Realm of Kings was interesting in that it wasn't so much as an actual event as it was build to the real event in Thanos Imperative. The one introducing the Cancerverse was cool. Realm of Kings: Inhumans was a nice follow up to War of Kings with the Inhuman Royal family trying to deal with the fallout of black Bolt's death and attempts to further establish their rule of the Kree. This was pretty solid. I dug what DnA did with Medusa. She really hardened herself up and went to a pretty dark place to stay in power. I also enjoyed the relationship with Crystal and Ronan moving further along with both showing true feelings for each other. Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard gave some good insight into the actual Imperial Guard, making them feel like real characters which outside of Gladiator you saw little of beforehand. I dug it a good deal. Nova: Realm of Kings was good fun with the introduction of Philo and Rich getting a little adventure in with Darkhawk. It ends at an awkward place though with Thanos Imperative literally just beginning at the end of its last issue. Guardian of the Galaxy: Realm of Kings is probably the highlight of the RoK arcs. We see the Guardians battling the UCT, a decent surprise with the dead Guardians not being quite so dead, and the return of Thanos. Good reads all around. I dug how all of these stories managed to be a bit of their own thing with the tail end of each mini/arc further building to the big event in Thanos Imperative.

Thanos Imperative was awesome. I recall seeing mixed feelings when it was going on a few years ago, but I loved this. It felt big with the amount of action going on throughout and the involvement of the Marvel Universe's cosmic beings. Dug the hell out of Thanos' role in the battle and how they actually manage to win the whole. Have to say though the ending with Rich and Quill's sacrifice is damn telegraphed though good. The epilogue issue with Cosmo forming the Annihilators is a nice addition. I particularly thought it worked well with Peter's sacrifice and the admittance of the GotG's faults.

Annihilators mini was decent though nothing special. Wasn't the biggest fan of Ikon though I did like her inappropriate flirting with Quasar, especially with how much it threw the man off every time. The other story focusing on Rocket's Raccoon's origin wasn't too bad. I found Annihilators: Earthfall more satisfying than its predecessor. The interactions with the Avengers was good. I liked the involvement of the Magus and UCT. I dug the argument of ideals when discussing differing levels of global and galactic threat, and overall, I just found it a much more fun read. even the back-ups with Rocket Raccoon and Groot did more for me this time around due to its shorter length and general dealing with Mojo. Solid read.

Just a few comments to add. Was disappointed to see the Starjammers down to two crew members duirng Imperial Guard. I actually liked Rachel, Polaris, Havok, and Korvus as members and was disappointed to see all of them gone. I'm not sure why they didn't at least have Korvus and Hepzibah return. I really want to know what DnA had against Phyla-Vel at the end. They seemingly went out of their way to make her look bad and went through the trouble of actually killing her off three times. It just seemed unnecessarily mean spirited to what had been a solid character up until they made her Death's avatar. It annoys me as I liked her character. The growth of the Raptors' numbers was interesting and I really would have liked to have seen a proper follow up on that. It made it all the more disappointing with the Darkhawk being benched during Thanos Imperative. The lack of follow up on the rest of the Guardians was another disappointment. It was great seeing Groot and Rocket again, but I really would have liked to have seen what Mantis, Bug, Moondragon, Jack Flag, & Major Victory were up to. Honestly as nice an idea of the Annihilators were I really would have preferred seeing Rocket lead another incarnation of the GotG adding Quasar and Darkhawk to the mix. DnA taking out the Nova force with Rich seemed like another unnecessary element, especially with Philo and the character who made of the rest of the Nova Corps. There was plenty of interesting things to build on their. All my complaints aside I've enjoyed DnA's run. They built up a very interesting universe with Marvel that only ever got touched upon so much beforehand and brought many characters to new heights. I only wish Marvel would have been a little smarter in diving back into this area.

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Wolverine is worth browsing just for John Buscema's gritty and intense art. Chris Claremont's story is a mixed bag and once they leave the title, it flounders a bit. Wolverine is one of those weird A-list characters who doesn't have a truly iconic storyline other than the initial Claremont/Miller mini (unless that's happened more recently because I haven't read any Wolvie past the mid-90's). Is Rucka's run any good?

 

Rucka's first arc is quite possibly my favorite solo Wolvie story, but after that it is merely good, nothing special.

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Hepzibah was tied up in the X-Books until they forgot she existed. Oh, and fuck Jeph Loeb for Wally West-ing Rich Rider.

Honestly it was DnA who pretty much intended Rich to be either dead or off the table for a good long while. If anything it was more stupid on Marvel's part to bring Thanos and Quil back so quickly, especially with them being too lazy to explain how, you know despite the fact that there was a written in with Peter having a damn cosmic cube with a charge or two left at the end of Thanos Imperative.

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Literally everybody else returned except for Rich and Vulcan. And when it's decided to bring Nova back, rather than bring an established character that had gotten an upgrade, Jeph Loeb had to fetishize his dead son again.

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That seems a bit harsh especially since it was Loeb who decided to bring in a Nova in general. If there wasn't a cameo for him in Avengers Thanos likely wouldn't have come back so soon. Same with the Guardians movie being likely why Quil ad Drax were brought back.

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