She-Geeks discussion

I'm curious to see what everyone has read. I tried Animal Man, which was good. I stated Gambit but then they cancelled it. And I was interested in Constantine but still not sure if I want to buy a trade.

I tend to wait until a longer story has been published and then I read comics in trade paperbacks based on who wrote it or which ones are critically acclaimed. So I spent a lot of time last year getting the first several volumes of various New 52 titles from the library and figuring out which ones I liked. I like Jeff Lemire and Scotty Snyder as writers, so it came as no surprise that I liked Animal Man, Swamp Thing, and Batman (but there are like 6 different Batman titles, so that in itself can be overwhelming unless you get the collections that publish a whole arc). I really liked Gail Simone's Batgirl and some of the Justice League Dark books I've read.
Justice League and Aquaman were the worst things I've read from DC since the New 52 - no surprise, since they were written by Geoff Johns.
Aaaand my favourite series from the New 52 by far, which has been the only one I now own all of the trades for, is Brian Azzarello's Wonder Woman. I highly recommend it if you like modern twists on ancient mythology.

oh, and Gambit is Marvel, not DC. I also heard some good things about it in its first year but all the ladygeeks I know who were reading every issue said it went downhill fast.

Beth Sniffs Books wrote: "Ok, there are 6 different Batman titles for the new 52? See this is why the superhero genre is so overwhelming. What are the differences between the six? How is Batman #1 different from Batman: ..."

Good questions. I don't know enough to answer that, and if I did, it would take hours. But I can recommend using reading the main title from New 52 called Batman, which starts with Batman, Vol. 1: The Court of Owls.

There are various ways to step into the superhero genre without needing to know all the overwhelming, complex context. I did it by reading stand-alone series that were completed years ago in 10 or fewer books and mostly don't interact with other storylines in a vast universe. Then I started reading one-shot story arcs by writers I already loved when they would step in to handle the most well-known superheroes. E.g., Alan Moore's Batman: The Killing Joke, or the various important mainstream Grant Morrison arcs, i.e. Batman: Arkham Asylum - A Serious House on Serious Earth, Absolute All-Star Superman, Batman and Son, or (in the Marvel 'verse) New X-Men by Grant Morrison Ultimate Collection - Book 1.

If you want my specific anti-hero recs that intentionally subvert the superhero genre, I'd be happy to list some either here or elsewhere since you specifically asked about DC New 52 stuff here.

I am actually pretty much still a noob to the world of superhero comics. I got started with an ARC of Batman, Vol. 2: The City of Owls, but I felt in order to give it a fair shot that I would need to start with Batman, Vol. 1: The Court of Owls. I TOTALLY loved it, so down the rabbit hole I went.

Since then I have added Wonder Woman, Vol. 1: Blood and Nightwing, Vol. 1: Traps and Trapezes to my read list adding more love to fuel my comic fire.

I also tried World's Finest #1. I didn't care for it. The two female characters came across as vapid sterotypes and the writing felt stilted.

Now, these were not part of the New 52, but I have also found myself enjoying Superman Unchained #1 issue by issue and now Superman/Wonder Woman, Vol. 1: Power Couple.

Oh, I just picked up The Flash, Vol. 1: Move Forward digital version as a Kindle Daily deal, but I have not had a chance to read it yet. Fingers crossed!

Beth Sniffs Books wrote: "Yeah, this is just too overwhelming for me. Maybe I prefer comics and graphic novels that aren't so open-ended -- where there is a sense of closure and not an indefinite series/story arc that just ..."

I'm looking at your "graphic and comics" shelf now and it looks like you've liked a lot of interesting graphic novels I haven't heard of or read yet. Would you like me to message you, or perhaps I could start a new thread with self-contained comics recommendations?

In the name of all this is holy…how did I not know about Comic Books 101: The History, Methods and Madness??

Well, taking a step back I didn’t know about it because all of my comic friends are male and have been reading comics for forever. I am so buying this right now!! I’m a complete noob when it comes to Superhero Comics and with the whole new 52 I think I picked a good time to get into it.

I tend to wait for the TPB to come out on a lot of stuff, but there are some titles I have picked up as they were released and added to my pull list like Klarion and Batgirl.

After reading this thread I will add some of Mabel’s and Valerie’s recommendations to my list- so thank you ladies!!

Beth Sniffs Books wrote: "Ok, I've never heard of Gambit, but do you know why they cancelled it? Were you enjoying the storyline? Were the writers/artists even able to try to wrap things up or was everything left wide ope..."

He's one of the X-Men. And oops, Mabel's right, definitely not DC. They're Marvel.
I enjoyed the storyline. He's one of my favorite comics characters. The artists were consistent and I believe the author was too. I'm not sure what went wrong. I do feel that sometimes the story is not strong enough or unique enough to sustain interest.

For example, I read this Batwoman: Elegy and while the art was absolutely beautiful and the character was to my liking, the story didn't hold me that well. I'll still read the next volume for the art though - Batwoman, Vol. 1: Hydrology

Mabel wrote: "I tend to wait until a longer story has been published and then I read comics in trade paperbacks based on who wrote it or which ones are critically acclaimed. So I spent a lot of time last year ge..."

Adding Wonder Woman by Azzarello. Sounds good!

Winter wrote: "In the name of all this is holy…how did I not know about Comic Books 101: The History, Methods and Madness??

Well, taking a step back I didn’t know about it because all of my comi..."

That looks like an awesome resource.

Thank you SOOOO much Beth!! I just bought the book with shipping for only like $6.00. The ebook was more than that!!

Thanks, I just picked up the companion graphic novels to The Hollows series for a song!

That is awesome- I am definitely going to have to start looking for books there first!!

I'm glad I ordered my copy when I did- it came in Friday and I am so excited to get into it today!!

I didn't pick up anything else as I wanted to order that book really quickly (I realized there was no other stock when I accidentally clicked the link twice).
Now, I'm doing a no spending challenge for 30 days so I'm going to have to wait to order any more books, but I have bee perusing the Hamilton Books website and found some stuff I definitely want!!

Beth- I was on my phone originally and clicked the link and started to go through the process then decided it would be easier to put in all my info on the computer. So, I pulled it up on the computer and it said the book was sold out.
I had to finish the purchase on my phone because I had already added the book to my cart.

Beth Sniffs Books wrote: "Did this announcement rock your world when it came out? Are any of you religiously reading this series?"

I had mostly read things in the Angel/Buffy universe with a few random stand-alones before the New 52 came along. While I read some DC comics stuff, I was hesitant. I like reading from the beginning. Seeing issue #300 as being the "new" issue, and knowing that there probably wasn't any way to read the prior 299 issues (both because issue #1 was probably released in something like 1939; and while there might be collections out there, they were super confusing, at least to me when I went into the store and saw 11 volume 1's for the same title, none of them having the same issues inside of them), I wasn't that interested in either DC or Marvel.

So, DC's new 52, and Marvel's Marvel Now allowed me the opportunity to try both universes. I gobbled them up as they were released. Reading most of the titles from the first wave, many from the second and third, but ...

I stopped reading Marvel almost immediately, just didn't keep my attention (exception being Superior Spider-Man, but that one had an issue with "The End" on it so . . despite it coming back again, with at least 1 more issue, I took "the end" as my breaking off point). I hung in there with DC for a longish while but it was too annoying. Getting into a series and they would suddenly change the creative team. Or, even if they kept the team, they would suddenly wander off into these massive multi-issue arcs crossing most of the titles. Disrupting the ongoing story arc of the individual titles, and disrupting my bank account.

I'm basically done with both Marvel and DC. Just got to overwhelming. For DC Comics, I'm still following The City on the Edge of Forever, a comic adaptation of a Star Trek episode from the original series. It's interesting to see the difference between the original plot and what was aired.

Oh, and when I say "bascially done", I mean with the new stuff. I still pick stuff up and sample it. Most recently gobbling up Gotham Central.

So . . . the relaunches for DC Comics and the reverting to #1's for Marvel got me to try both. Quite excitedly try them. But didn't keep my attention.

Lexxi Kitty wrote: "Getting into a series and they would suddenly change the creative team. Or, even if they kept the team, they would suddenly wander off into these massive multi-issue arcs crossing most of the titles. Disrupting the ongoing story arc of the individual titles, and disrupting my bank account."

Exactly. I remember another New 52 title I read - I, Vampire. It started out great, wonderful art, interesting story. Then they incorporated another 52 title crossover. Then they changed artists, which really bugged me.

They cancelled the series pretty quickly. The final issue had so many artists it was absurd. Every few pages there was a different one.

And this is why I prefer creator-owned comics. Image Comics is my favorite publisher.

Beth Sniffs Books wrote: "@Lexxi Kitty, YES! I am waiting for the trade of CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER to be released. Is the 5 or 6 issue series done yet?! (no spoilers please!) (Although I think COTEOF is published by..."
City on the Edge of Forever is in fact put out by IDW. I had looked at my book shelves to see what I was still reading for DC and Marvel and saw that Forever one on there. But didn't actually go to the page to see if it was DC or not. I mislabeled it. Must remember to remove it from that shelf.

In that case: There isn't anything currently being released that I read for either Marvel or DC Comics. Last time I read something by DC was . . .John Byrne's Superman: The Man of Steel Volume 1. Read that September 14 2014. Hated it, I did. Couple days earlier, though, I had read Kurt Busiek's Superman: Secret Identity and loved it - 5 stars worth. Let's see. In terms of new stuff, I finished off Dial H in May of 2014 and the first volume of issues for Constantine, the New 25 version, in February.

In terms of City on the Edge of Forever - most recent issue I read was issue 4. hmms. They had previews for issue 5 in August. I don't see when it actually gets released, though.

Anna (Bananas!) wrote: "Lexxi Kitty wrote: "Getting into a series and they would suddenly change the creative team. Or, even if they kept the team, they would suddenly wander off into these massive multi-issue arcs crossi..."

I read the first two volumes of I, Vampire. Never looked to see if there was more. I read them mostly because I had previously read an independent comic by the comic writer which I enjoyed.

In terms of comic publishers . . .
1 by Archaia - that's the Tumor book by Joshua Hale Fialkov - the I, Vampire writer.

5 by Boom Studios. The only series I followed in issue form was Aliens vs. Parker. It had potential but fizzed.

29 by Dark Horse. That's the one that puts out the Buffy universe comics (currently). I don't think I've read anything else by them though. Dark Horse is annoying and make it hard to actually get their issues. They aren't on that digital comic service I use. That all other comics are on.

72 by DC Comics. Some titles I've loved. Some I've hated.

21 by Dynamite. I was following Garth Ennis' Red Team through Dynamite, but while it looked interesting, it never went anywhere. Not currently following any Dynamite titles, though did follow Lady Rawhide, Red Team, Masks, Kevin Smith's Bionic Man, Jim Butcher's comic adaptations, The Boys, Kevin Smith's Green Hornet.

26 by IDW. They have had interesting looking titles which ultimately do not satisfy. For the most part.

42 by Image. Was following Saga through them. The Fade Out. Velvet. Sidekick. Fatale. Mind the Gap.

13 by Top Cow. Tales of Honor. Aphrodite, and Think Tank by same writer as Tales of Honor fizzed. But still following Tales of Honor.

60 by Vertigo. Saucer Country. Fables. Y: The Last Man.

In terms of favorite, I guess it would be Image since Top Cow is released through Image. So put those together and there have been 4 volumes I gave 5 stars to.

eta: oh, and 32 by Marvel. That got stuck on a different window.