I thought it would be nice to talk about our favorite comics and maybe learn about different titles that others are reading. You don't have to follow this format, but I thought it would be fun to divide them up in categories like Keepers, On the Fence and Dropped. Keepers are titles that you buy every month and plan on continuing to buy every month. On the Fence books are ones that are currently on your pull list, but you are thinking of letting them go for whatever reason. Dropped titles are books that you are definitly going to remove from your pull list or maybe titles that you have let go of recently. There isn't a General Comics Topic on the site, so unless someone objects, let's not limit our discussion to strictly DC titles. Please tell us a little bit about the comics you're reading to help others decide if it's something they'd be interested in. Thanks!
Keepers
1. All-Star Western - Really fast-paced and crazy fun. Right now Jonah Hex is in modern day Gotham.
2. Batman - Not counting the Villains Month tie ins, the Art and Writing make this one of my favorite books right now!
3. Batman '66 - Just started but so far it's a lot of fun.
4. Danger Girl - This isn't a regular ongoing series, but IDW has been doing one mini-series after another for a while now and I get them all.
5. Daredevil - Mark Waid is tearing it up on this book and I love Chris Samnee's art!
6. Kick-Ass 3 - These issues trickle out every 2 or 3 months. It's a fun book if you don't mind waiting.
7. Thor: God of Thunder - Jason Aaron is one of my favorite comics writers and the artwork has been top-notch so far. The last story arc brought together Thors from 3 different time periods and introduced a new villain who murdered thousands of Gods.
8. All-New X-Men - Cyclops is public enemy No. 1 after the events of AVX. Beast goes back in time and brings the Original 5 X-men to the present to help Scott come to his senses. Jean Grey finds out she's going to die and refuses to go back to her original time. This book has turned me into a major Stuart Immonen fan!
9. Wolverine and the X-Men - Wolverine is headmaster of a school for gifted youngsters. Kitty Pryde, Beast, Iceman & Storm are instructors. This is what X-Men is all about for me, Superhero teachers and students getting into wild adventures. It's a little more light-hearted and the characters are all really endearing.
10. Jupiter's Legacy - Old School heroes and their superpowered, screw-up children fight against eachother over the fate of the world. Should they push humanity aside and run the planet for us, or should they just stick to heroics and let us struggle with issues like Global Warming and the Economic Crisis?
11. Revival - The recently deceased are coming back to life in a small Wisconsin town. They aren't exactly like zombies though, and after they revive they cannot be killed again. The local law enforcement tries to keep control of the situation but the town is about to boil over under the pressure of a government quarantine and the media frenzy. Oh, and there's a psycho killer on the loose.
12. X-Files: Season 10 - picks up right where the TV series ended. Shapeshifting Aliens are after the young boy that Scully put up for adoption years ago. X-Files Creator Chris Carter is attached to the series and so far it's been pretty cool. The art is a little rough looking sometimes but they nail the likenesses of the actors from the show in every panel.
On the Fence
1. Ame-Comi Girls - I like the fast-paced action and the (almost) all-girl cast, but the art has never really felt like Manga or Anime except for #3 several months ago. It's not terrible but I'm losing interest pretty fast.
2. Detective Comics - I was bored to death during the whole Penguin/Emperor Penguin story-line. The Wrath story arc was okay but not great. I love Jason Fabok's artwork and I really dig the Man-Bat backups too, so I'll give it a few more issues.
3. Aquaman - I was just about to lose this title when Throne of Atlantis started so I kept it for a while longer. Now I'm thinking about dropping it again. Johns goes for several issues without getting much acomplished and then tries to cram all the details into 20 pages at the end of a story arc. Every story that features "The Others" has either been a total snooze-fest or I just get too confused to care. I miss Ivan Reis too.
4. Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight - There have only been a few standout issues in this series so far and it's $4.
5. Batman: Lil Gotham - I like the artwork and the stories are cute, but the novelty is wearing off for me. I love how Dustin Nguyen is totally ignoring the New 52 redesigns. If I had a kid I would definitly buy it for them though.
6. Earth 2 - I love the artwork but the story is only so-so. If the current storyline doesn't impress me, this book is off my pull list.
7. Judge Dredd - Started reading it to learn about the character and see if I was missing something. So far I haven't been too impressed. If you've seen one dark, urban dystopian future, you've seen them all.
8. Star Wars - I love the Original Trilogy but SW comics usually don't do much for me for some reason. This stroy takes place between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. The artwork is okay but the ship to ship space battles are never done very well and they don't even attempt to capture the likeness of the actors. If Luke and Wedge both had the same color hair, you couldn't tell them apart.
Dropped
1. Avengers Assemble - Started about the same time as the New 52 and looked like it was going to be new-reader friendly for folks who just saw the Avengers movie. That was not the case. Every issue of this book is a throwaway tie-in to whatever big event Marvel happens to be doing at the moment. It's total crap!
2. Batman: The Dark Knight - This title is kind of a stand-alone Batman series, so you didn't have to keep up with every other Bat-title to follow this one. I was about to drop this when Ethan Van Sciver took over the pencils, but that only lasted a few issues. Now Szymon Kudranski is on it regularly and it's really boring to look at. Two thirds of each panel is blacked out and he hardly ever draws any backgrounds. He does a fraction of the work that any other artist does. Some might say that it's cinematic, but to me it just looks flat and lazy. I know the title is "Dark Knight" but Gregg Hurwitz takes it to a whole new level. It is a bleak and joyless comic series.
3. Batman/Superman - I only started picking this one up because I fell in love with Jae Lee's artwork during the Before Watchmen: Ozy series. This book was confusing enough between the multiple Batmen and Supermen, but now Wonder Woman is inexplicably thrown in the mix. I don't really care enough to try to figure it out anyway.