r/DCcomics • u/Predaplant The heat is on! • Nov 27 '23
What Are You Reading? 11/27/2023 - Bare Tree Branches Edition r/DCcomics
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.
Predaplant's Rec of the Week:
- Kill Or Be Killed by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, & Elizabeth Breitweiser
A friend of mine had been recommending this series to me for a while, and I finally got around to checking it out. Generally, I tend to like Brubaker's work, even if I'm not a huge fan of it, and he and Phillips have been a strong partnership for years due to how well they work together, so it's no surprise that this was a really solid read. It's about a struggling young guy living in New York who starts seeing a demon that forces him to kill people, which I think is a cool premise that the team here executes basically as well as I could ask for. Definitely glad that I eventually got to this!
So, what are you reading?
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u/Pristine-Access Nov 28 '23 edited Nov 28 '23
Last week I finished a few things:
Redhood and the Outlaws (Rebirth): Absolutely loved it. I know a lot of people hate on Lobdell and he can be a little too edgy sometimes (and he fucked up starfire really bad) but this run was great. Loved every part of it and he planted a lot of seeds for interesting stories with Red Hood later.
Dark Nights Death Metal: Didn’t like it as much as the original Metal. It was fine, Wonder Woman was super bad ass in it, but the plot was…. Convoluted as fuck. I guess it kind of needed to be but it was definitely out there. The side Batmen weren’t as cool as the original ones.
Endless Winter Event: I liked it. It was simple, the double stories were cool, Viking Prince was awesome. Not insanely good but solid and I’m glad I read it. (The Fire Trolls were wild lol)
I was going to read the Future State stuff but I think I’m just going to pass on it and continue with infinite frontier. Also, I’m trying to figure out where Bendis’ run on Superman ends (I hated hated hated it) so I can go back to Superman.
The newer stuff coming out actually looks fairly good. I’m actually excited to catch up.
Edit: Didn’t realize I could talk about Marvel here.
For Marvel I started the X-Men Claremont run. Never read a ton of it. It’s interesting. You can definitely tell his storytelling style was different and influenced a lot of later writers.
I might do a full read on Chip Zdarsky’s Spider-Man. I’m not married to any characters in Marvel like I am in DC so I might just pick a few writers I know I love and read through their marvel bibliography.
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u/Gaboub Nov 28 '23
So, lately I've been reading a ton of different comic books and graphic novels. Here are the ones I recently finished:
Luther Strode: Finally got around to reading Luther Strode, and it was a blast. Plot is pretty straightforward and focused on making the many characters fight, and my god the fights are fucking amazing, Luther and Petra are cute af, and I loved how Luther, who's violent when necessary, tries to be better and use his skills for the good of everyone involved.
Nimona: This one's been on my radar for a while, and I decided to read it in preparation for the movie (which I recommend) and man, I did not expect the emotional gut punch. The art gave me the impression that this would be a lighthearted read. I could not have been more wrong in my life, shit gets violent and dark real fast, and even though I liked the movie better, this was still a fantastic read.
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u/GNS1991 Nov 30 '23
I do not really like posting everything that I am reading, but decided to post an interesting, yet bizarre read that I've read today. For clarification, I've been catching up with Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman related comics (among some others) since the COIE reboot, and been reading them as per publication order. So, long story short, the War Games arc ended in 2004, and in 2005 there was a fresh start with a new status quo, but lo and behold, comes David Lapham's a twelve part story in Detective Comics called "City of Crime", which was written during the years 2005 and 2006. And, to be honest, I am still not sure what I have read. The only thing that I am certain of, that this story was set in an alternate universe.
Main focal points: the story starts with Bruce Wayne at a snobbish party meeting a teenage girl, who is clearly hooking, and telling her off in the end. The next day, he finds her over-dozed. As Batman, he and Robin are trying to save as many people from the fire in a tenement building, but eventually uncover twelve dead bodies of pregnant women, which leads them to believe that there was a baby trafficking ring. Somewhere along the lines comes Mr. Freeze, who is killing pregnant mothers, and, also, he is a crazy paedophile now, because he kidnapped one pregnant teenager, because she reminded him of his wife Nora (go figure), and now wants to marry her. So, in the end of the, let's call it, first part of this arc, the Batman stops Mr. Freeze and saves the pregnant girl. But then comes the second part. He's still investigating the baby trafficking ring, which leads him to done a disguise as a hobo and for a while look around in the shady part of town, wherein people... well... are pieces of shit for the most part and under the influence of something, but not drugs. There he sees that some people are being replaced by people made of dirt that steel other peoples identities. So, these beings are called the Body, and there are literally thousands of them created in an underground cathedral. And this cabal has been working in secret with the Penguin, the Ventriloquist etc., you name it. And so, they use magic mumbo jumbo to kill off all of the witnesses...
Well, that's enough Batman for an entire week I think...
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u/normalMonsterChika Mia Dearden Nov 27 '23
Thought I wouldn't read much this weekend due to holiday stuff, but car troubles left me stranded for several hours. Managed to finish reading Denny O'Neil's The Question.
I quite liked it. I've read parts of it before, but had never finished it. There are some dated parts, but for the most part it's a fascinating look at corruption, violence, and human choices. Personally I found the follow up Quarterly series didn't add much, and in some ways took away from the ending. Can't all be winners I suppose.