Non-Big Two Comics Omnibus Thread

[Victator]

I started reading Magnus:Robot Fighter from 1990. I thought it was a nice job of turning the concept on its head. I also appreciate the effort to not make the robots look different. I think it illustrates how much easier it is to see the robots as things and not alive. It makes so many of his choices more difficult. Is there any particular order I should be reading this old Valiant stuff?

[Clayton Jones]

I thought the fake out was pretty cool.

 

Agreed, and I thought it was the best Invincible trade in a while. They were starting to lose me... I know a lot of fans love the supporting characters so much that they're all for books just about them, but that Robot/Monster Girl story arc was hard for me to get through. And even the Invincible focused stories recently, with all the philosophical stuff, and the trope of the hero losing his powers, and so on... the series felt like it had strayed way too far from what made it great. I don't know if they'll ever do anything as good as the Viltrumite War again, but the Death of Everyone was a big step back in the right direction for me as a fan.

[davidb]

I started reading Magnus:Robot Fighter from 1990. I thought it was a nice job of turning the concept on its head. I also appreciate the effort to not make the robots look different. I think it illustrates how much easier it is to see the robots as things and not alive. It makes so many of his choices more difficult. Is there any particular order I should be reading this old Valiant stuff?

Not really except for crossovers like Unity, which would make no sense if you weren't reading the entire story.  Chaos Effect's the other big crossover, but it seemed to keep the focus on the characters in the book and how they react to what's going on.  Unity has a lot of scenes involving characters in other books and trying to mix them all together into one coherent universe.

[Ryan]

 

I thought the fake out was pretty cool.

 

Agreed, and I thought it was the best Invincible trade in a while. They were starting to lose me... I know a lot of fans love the supporting characters so much that they're all for books just about them, but that Robot/Monster Girl story arc was hard for me to get through. And even the Invincible focused stories recently, with all the philosophical stuff, and the trope of the hero losing his powers, and so on... the series felt like it had strayed way too far from what made it great. I don't know if they'll ever do anything as good as the Viltrumite War again, but the Death of Everyone was a big step back in the right direction for me as a fan.

 

More exploding intestines, less Dinosaur anti-hero's cloning you.

[The Z]

I think I've pimped it before on this board, but I'll do it again. If you haven't bought the Blacksad collection from Dark Horse yet, you should do so right now.

I've just read the 2nd volume (or 4th, since the first Dark Horse volume collects the first three original volumes) Blacksad: A Silent Hell and I think it holds up to the first three books.

There's nothing else like this on the shelves. Just the art alone would be worth every cent, but the stories are pretty damn good as well.

[Cliff Hanger]

TF: Dark Cybertron started this week officially, after nearly a year of "prelude" comics and overt build, and quieter build-up dating back to the relaunch in 2012.  The bookend one shot is more about getting pieces into place (Orion and Hardhead hooking up with Rodimus and the Lost Light heading back toward Cybertron, Shockwave reopening the portal to the Deadverse, etc.) and ends with two pages solid of FORESHADOWING~!  It was okay, but it leaves me worried about what it's going to do to MTMTE (which had gotten along just fine playing around the edges of the mythos and is likely to be ill-served by having to turn into pack-ins for toys that Hasbro decided independently to make.)  I worry that after this is over, with Hasbro's greater involvement and the fact that "Remain in Light" pretty much ended the Knight Quest, it'll be impossible to get the old comic back.  But hey, new Skids figure should be shipping soon so I guess that's something.

[Victator]

I read all of Jim Shooter's run on Solar and that was legit great stuff. Not sure why it is not raved about more. It was interesting reading it and comparing it to his work on Star Brand. Seeing him get to finish the story in a more conductive environment. With hos chaotic Marvel was behind the scenes at that time. There were parts that were very similar to what John Byrne did on Star Brand. Which I am almost positive Shooter never read those issues. I read a bunch of X-O and loved it. I thought the concept was very unique. 

[Cliff Hanger]

You're talking about Valiant's Solar series, not Shooter's Dark Horse version from 2-3 years ago, right?  Because that one was pretty much ass on toast.

[Victator]

The one at Valiant, I have not read the Dark Horse books. 

[Victator]

Nothing shows how stupid Acclaim was that they bought Valiant without buying the Gold Key characters.

[_MJ_]

Anyone read the first issue of the new Sandman; Overture?

[Cliff Hanger]

Savage Sword of DR. DINOSAUR is FINALLY out next week.  I was starting to worry that something awful had happened.

[Brian Fowler]

Vol 4 of the Scott Pilgrim Full Color hardcover series is out now, as well.

 

God, these things are glorious.

[Eivion]

Read Hack/Slash Omnibus Vol. 1. Skipped over the first three stories since I read them already. Unfamiliar with Evil Ernie but his story was decent enough. Land of the Lost Toys was fun. I particularly had fun seeing Cassie fight both He-man and Lion-o. The trailers issue was good fun if only for the space trailer intro. Sliced Hard reminded me of Cabin in the Woods. Actually dug this one a decent bit despite knowing how it would turn out. Don't think I have ever liked Chucky despite seeing his movies when I was younger. That said, I somehow ended up enjoying Cassie vs. Chucky more than I thought I would. I loved seeing Laura from Girls Gone Dead return, and the arguments/death threats between Cass and Chucky was good fun. In general I'm liked seeing surviving characters from the past return and not just for fodder. Anyways enjoyed this one the whole though i still find myself hoping for something just a little more.

[Cliff Hanger]

The Dairy Men, man.  It's all about Milk and Cheese.

[Cliff Hanger]

Chew is heavily discounted on Comixology this week. Four bucks for the first TPB, five for v2-v6 and individual issues for a buck.

[odessasteps]

RIP Al Plastino

[Cliff Hanger]

Quarter of the way in, Dark Cybertron is kind of exactly what everyone was afraid of.  Characters who we've been following for two years pushed aside to make room for characters who're getting toys in 2014 (and "big name" characters like Perceptor and Ratchet, who don't have new toys coming up but are more recognizable to people who will only get the comics as toy pack-ins) Bumblebee and company in the desert standing around waiting for two and a half issues for the Titan to do something, and a general feeling that this is an ad first and a story second.  I'm wondering if this isn't a situation where the current creative teams aren't a victim of their own success; suddenly people are talking about Transformers comics again, so they're useful to Hasbro as a promotional tool rather than a nostalgia sop to the crowd that spends $500 for Botcon exclusives.  At least the parts on board the Lost Light are still fun.  But can we please see where the hell Chromedome and Tailgate have been?  It feels weird to see the two characters who had in many ways been the emotional core of the MTMTE story shoved so totally offstage.

[jaedmc]

The art in Rocket Girl is so fucking good it hurts. The story is cute, with a time travel premise that's made interesting because the future is a super-duper futuristic 2013, and the character is going back to 1986. 

 

I can tell that even when nothing huge happens in an issue, the art will be more than enough to make up for it. Just so damn fun.

[odessasteps]

Picked up the Bandette HC at a LCS on sale and it was originally only $15 to start.

[jaedmc]

I don't know Bandette, could you tell me a thing or two about it?

[odessasteps]

I don't know Bandette, could you tell me a thing or two about it?

Cute female cat burglar. Set in pseudo Paris.

(Go all the way back to the first post in the thread)

Also, check here for a couple preview pages from the last issue.

www.monkeybraincomics.com/2013/07/10/bandette-5/

[Bustronaut]

I just read/re-read all of HELLBOY to date.  It was going along fine until the frog war started, then it became a real downer.  It's weird that after 250 issues/stories/etc. I still couldn't say whether I like it or not.  I prefer Johann's original suit to his movie-inspired suit though.  It's almost Charles Schulz-esque.

 

BPRD is a lesson in not writing yourself into a doomsday corner, if nothing else.  Recent series have started looking up though - Abe is awake, Liz might be coming back to the BPRD and Hellboy just killed Satan, so he may be coming back to the land of the living soon.

[dauvenfrink]

I'm making it a "DEFIANT" December:

 

I have the first arcs of Dark Dominion & Warriors of Plasm. Where should I start?

[Justin877]

I remember Warriors of Plasm.  Interesting concept with the biological universe