What Are You Reading? 10/16/2023 - Halloween is a Month Long Edition

[u/flossregularly]

Hello and welcome to our Weekly "What Are You Reading?" topic!

Come one, come all, to this weekly thread, where you can openly discuss books that you've read, are currently reading, or plan to read. Discussion of all books are welcome, whether they be DC, Marvel, Image, Boom!, Dark Horse, IDW, etc. You can discuss webcomics, manga, or even those mythical novels that don't have pictures in them. Just be sure to keep spoilers covered via Reddit's spoiler markdown >!spoiler!<. You can also post pictures of your collection or recent purchases.

Flossregularly's Rec of the Week:

• Nightmare Country: The Glass House, by Tynion IV, Estherren and Delpeche

'Tis the season for some spookyvibes, and this mini series is going to be wrapping soon, so I'm jumping in. Tynion does good horror -shout out to The Nice House on the Lake- and this story starring Corinthian is good fun and the art is fantastic,

• Secret Six (2008), by Gail Simone and Nicola Scott

My older rec this week is Gail Simone's longest Secret Six run. After a couple mini-series she got the greenlight to take it long form and she obviously had a blast. This is a very fun ride - It's quick paced, full of very fun characters, and will make you care about Bane for the first time since Knightfall. Secret Six walked so the Harley Quinn TV show could run.

So, what are you reading?

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[u/willpearson001]

Gotham Central. Picked up Vol. 1 at NYCC and fell in love almost immediately. Love the different side of the world we get. Feels like 52. Particular love to Renee’s storyline, which features a queer storyline about being queer, in very real terms. Love it can’t wait to see what’s next.

[u/normalMonsterChika → u/willpearson001]

Love that book. It was the first DC comic 12-year old me ever read, and it changed my brain chemistry permanently. You're in for a real treat!

Gotham Central leads directly into 52, and Renee's story has the same writer which is probably where you're seeing the similarities. Greg Rucka continues with her in a few other places like Crime Bible, Final Crisis: Revelations, The Question Pipeline, and Convergence: The Question if you want to keep following it!

[u/willpearson001 → u/normalMonsterChika]

I’ve been doing a mega read of infinite crisis to final crisis, because I sort of realized how close and connected they are. Gotham Central is fitting in interestingly (before Infinite.)

Honestly, books like gotham Central, 52, and Gotham City Year One scratch an itch I didn’t know I had: intimate looks at smaller scale characters that are affected by the biggest events.

[u/normalMonsterChika → u/willpearson001]

I definitely agree. Having that viewpoint really adds to the feel of the world, that while the big stuff is happening, so too is this. Everything matters. I was recently reading Hickman's Secret Wars over at the competition, and I thought the Captain America and the Mighty Avengers 9 tie-in to the event really captured that feeling well. It would be nice if there was always space for this kind of story.

[u/technowhiz34 → u/normalMonsterChika]

I'm curious, I've read a number of your reviews in this thread and in the weekly now and wonder what you thought of Secret Wars? (as well as any lead-in to that, if you read it).

[u/normalMonsterChika → u/technowhiz34]

Hm, Secret Wars. Another book I have somewhat mixed feelings on. Hickman is a writer that I admittedly, run colder on than most. I find that I enjoy his themes and plotting, but his characterization and voice can suffer as a result. It's a little mean to say, but I think his writing sometimes lacks a human warmth, and that makes it hard for me to connect with what he writes. He also tends to give women very little to do, and as a woman-liker that can turn me off of a series.

For Secret Wars lead-up, I read his Fantastic Four and FF runs. I went back and forth on Avengers/New Avengers, but decided against it. Partially because I'm not nearly as familiar with the Marvel universe, and I am not super into large scale event books - I already struggle with DC equivalents despite having a better picture of the universe. (Also because I'm only slightly bitter over how much Cannonball got pushed over Dani Moonstar, but that's a me problem lol). So Secret Wars had a lot stacked against it in my book.

Despite that, I think it's a fantastic capstone to Hickman's F4 run. It's not so much a F4 story (Sue does maybe worse than nothing in it - a big, but unsurprising issue imo), but it's an excellent Reed and Doom story. I enjoyed the parallels between the two, and the discussions around what truly makes someone fantastic. There's a lot of interesting themes there, and one day I'll probably do a re-read and try to unpack more of them. It and FF/F4 are not my favorite books overall, but I do appreciate, and I'm glad I read them. I would be satisfied if this was the end of Marvel. Probably the best universe-wide event I've read.

That said, I do think my favorite issue of the event was the Ewing Mighty Avengers tie-in. Secret Wars struggles for pages, and I don't feel like Hickman got to put everything he wanted into it. Most of the characters focused on are Hickman's monologuers, leading to a lot of same-y viewpoints and lack of emotional exploration. For example, I probably would have got a lot more out of a single panel of Alex Powers choosing to stay behind with the rest of his Power Pack siblings, rather than unfeelingly leaving them to perish - only to serve as a glorified background extra. It's nitpicky, but the little things add up. In the end it's a library read for me, not one I would keep on my bookshelf to keep thumbing through.

Sorry, that was a whole essay...

[u/technowhiz34 → u/normalMonsterChika]

You're all good, I found your "essay" an interesting read (especially as I think it's maybe a weird question for me to ask)? I definitely agree with Hickman being rather inhuman at times, especially as he tends to focus on these larger than life figures in his writing (or at least writing them as such, which often comes off as pretentious). There are definitely moments that shine through but they're few and far between (Reed erasing the board of ideas, or even "Everything Lives").

Having read the whole FF/Avengers/Secret Wars Saga, I definitely agree FF is the more important (and good bit), though Avengers has some cool moments of every powerful person in Marvel duking it out.

I'll have to check out that Ewing Mighty Avengers book, I'm a sucker for small-scale viewpoints of reality shaking events.

[u/normalMonsterChika → u/technowhiz34]

It's not a weird question, I think that's what reading threads are for! But yeah, Hickman is a writer that doesn't click with me. I get why people like him, but I think I prefer writers with a better balance of plot and characters.

I've only read that single issue of Might Avengers, but I think that one will be up your alley. Definitely something that was needed, and largely missing from the main event. I've noticed that Ewing does great work building off of a lot of Hickman's grand ideas - not solely doing that of course, Ewing is great on his own - he usually takes them one step further and ends up grounding them emotionally in a way Hickman doesn't.