you_will_forget

In regards to Mark Millar, I put him in the same group as Grant Morrison. They both have a style that works fantastically well for some things, but is completely wrong for others. To my mind, Millar writes "massive, no holds barred" well, but struggles with more down to earth stuff. In a similar sense, Morrison writes "weird" better than enyone in the business, but fails to write a convincing mainline comic (for me, JLA and Batman were not good books by Morrison). On the subject of Jeph Loeb and the Ultimates (which, for reference, I found on Newsarama in a New Joe Fridays column) I give it a hearty "hmmm". Loeb has written some fantastic books, but has also written some real stinkers (just have a look at Supergirl: Power). It'll be interesting to see if he can handle the Ultimates. Just out of interest, did Ultimate Rhino appear anywhere else, or just that short battle in Spider-man? Jo

As far as UK readers goes, its worth checking out www.bookdepository.co.uk for trades. They aren't wonderfully quick, and their search feature leaves a bit to be desired, but if you can fight your way through it they're pretty cheap. You need to wait about a week after the book has been released, but they do free postage. My only niggle is that they send every. book. seperately. I order five books, and I get five jiffy bags arriving over the course of a couple of days. Back on subject, Marvel has Ultimates 2: Grand Theft America out on 27th June. I'm looking forward to it. Not sure how I feel about the title under a different creative team though (Ultimates 3 and 4 already being planned, but without Millar and Hitch). Have to see how that plays out. As far as Ultimate Six goes...hmm. Having recently finished reading it: The trade collects an issue of USM that isn't collected elsewhere, but it is pretty non-essential. The story is bland, but has a number of funny moments - Thor replying "No" whenever he's asked to do something - but doesn't have any impact on either of the ongoing storylines. It's ok, but you won't miss anything if you don't read it. Jo

Personally, I assign a lot of the blame to Lurch and his lists. If he hadn't shown me what was available, I would never have spent so much money. Jo

That's sad really. I loved the first three trades, and, even though I was annoyed that the intervening issues weren't collected, I liked Golden Eagle as well. I hope that losing the title will make way for a new Hawkman (or Hawk family style). History has not been kind to the Hawks. At least when JSA finally starts coming out in trades we'll have a little Hawkman. If only they'd scale back a little on Batman titles and put some work into the others. What with Green Arrow getting cancelled (and no, a Year One story doesn't do anything for me) and (it's in DC's August previews, but I thought I'd spoiler it just in case), I'm rapidly losing interest. I just ain't a big character guy. Jo

Ugh. Currently struggling through Hawkgirl: the Maw. Big Hawks fan, but don't like Chaykin's art, so I was prepared for that. However, I'm really struggling with the writing. It's just really bad. There's no real character to any of them, and the story seems to skip from panel to panel, almost like a poorly recorded film. Also, who is Khimaera (not at home, so I'm pretty sure that's spelt wrong)? She appears to be an established character, but not one I've ever heard of. Is this just an OYL thing or was she introduced in part of the story that hasn't been collected in trade? Help me please *flutters eyelashes* Sorry for the rant, but I was really looking forward to reading this. Oh well. Jo

My first set was the Indymates set. I'd loved the Witchblade TV series (the live-action one, this was before the cartoon) and read some Darkness, and thought the pack looked really good. I didn't buy any others until I heard about the new DC mates in Spring last year, at which point I started buying up C3 stuff. Can't remember which of those I got first. Jo

I'm slowly catching up on the Ultimate Universe in trades (up to book 11 on Spider-man, 9 on X-men and 4 on FF, as well as all 3 Ultimates books so far). Got into it from a recommendation from a friend and following a winning combination of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch of The Authority fame. I'm enjoying it, and loved Warren Ellis' Fantastic Four. Bendis writes a good SM, but it feels a lot like it's "Introduce villain! Beat villain! Introduce next villain! Repeat!" so far. X-men is fun. Kinda wish I hadn't bothered with Ultimate Iron Man though. Bit of a snore-fest. Jo

you poor, poor soul. Be sure to sign yourself up for MMA (MiniMates Anonymous) as well, we've been able to help a number of people with the same problems as you. It's free, and you don't need to give any of your names. We counsel people to not concern themselves with plasticy things and hand over their minimates to us, where they can be dealt with properly. Either that, or enjoy yourself here. Your choice. Jo

Personally I like the idea of posting your pull list, even though mine is a bit scantily clad this week: Countdown #50 Battler Britton TPB (though I tend to pick up TPBs at the end of the month) Kinda gives an insight into what other people are reading. I've not read any Invincible, but I've heard nothing but good about it. What's it like? (not too spoileriffic, as there's a few of us who may be picking it up judging from the thread so far) Jo

Yeah, and no Alfred either. Personally speaking, I loved the C3 line - I like the figures in the DCD line better, but I miss the vehicles. I reckon there's some mileage in a Batman-specific sub-line, considering the number of variations and villains. Would save some space in the main line for other characters. Nice article matey, Jo

Yeah, I've been a little less than impressed with most of the OYL stuff. I'm reading in trades, so I'm a little behind, but the only good one I've read so far has been Teen Titans (for the record, I'm not counting newer books like Blue Beetle, Green Lantern, Checkmate, Shadowpact and a few others - which are all great). JSoA and JLoA both look to be pretty good, and I was a huge fan of Geoff Johns' JSA, so that comes as no surprise. But so far the Flash trade was rubbish, the Batman stuff was sub-par at best and Superman was just bleaurgh. That's a real word. Aquaman's been interesting, but he's almost a new character to me as I only know his background from the Superman TAS/JLU version. We seem to be getting a settling down now, with the sensational but not-that-good writers being dropped from titles to replace them with, y'know, people who can write comics. I really can't wait for Gail Simone to start writing Wonder Woman later this year. As for Countdown, hmmm. My LCS won't have sorted the comics until tomorrow, so I haven't read #50 yet, but why is Duela now a villain and Red Hood a hero? Isn't he a wanted murderer? I've seen the character in four places now (Batman: Under the Hood 1 and 2, Teen Titans: {can't remember the name of the trade}, Nightwing; Brothers in Arms and now Countdown 51) and each time he's been a completely different character. Is this a Marvel-esque lack of editorial control or is something happening with the character to explain his multiple personalities? That's my rant done for the minute - off to lunch! Jo

Damn, missed it. That's what I get for not checking the board for a day, I miss my official chance to annoy the owner. Oh well, I've got it marked in my diary for next year now. Jo P.S. - if it's National Bug Ady Day, do you still ban non-brits for bugging you?

I on the other hand now have the money for a botcon set, after being broke the last two months. Life ain't fair. *waves wad of cash* still willing to pay for a bagged set if someone's willing to help. Jo

Booster Gold #1 is out in July - look at DC's July solicitations on their website. Wizard also has a preview of the cover and a short chat with Geoff Johns about it on their site. For Donster, as far as trades go, it's difficult to recommend without knowing how you like your comics. Personally I'd recommend everyone reads the Checkmate and Shadowpact trades. Teen Titans, JSA and JLA are always required reading, as is Birds of Prey for me, as I'm a huge fan of both Gail Simone and the Huntress. The Green Lantern titles are great - I personally prefer the Corps, but they're both well worth the read. I can't really recommend the OYL Superman or Batman works (I'm still waiting for my copy of Detective to arrive, so this doesn't include that yet) as they were at best lacklustre. Same with Nightwing. Robin's a good read. I enjoyed Rucka's Wonderwoman trades, but haven't read the new stuff yet (see above). Most of Johns' Flash run was good, though some of the art is a little poor. Outsiders is good if you're ok with Judd Winick's use of real-world themes. I enjoyed Aquaman, though it is a little strange. The new Blue Beetle is pretty good. So, there's a nice little ramble through the current DC universe in trades. Hope you can take something from it. Jo

Just wanted to post this as yesterday I got my replacement Toyfair Starbuck (she had 2 right arms) and re-crotched modern Cylon back. I contacted customer services and they said to post them back, so I did and got them back within a couple of weeks (I'm in the UK) So thank you DST. Jo

I'm also not bothering with the movie line. Unfortunately, these little bits of plastic called minimates (you may have heard of them, but they are a little obscure) have grabbed my attention recently and have meant I need to be much more selective with my transformer buying. I have my pre-orders in for the MP3 player Soundwave, BT-18 Mirage and MP-06 Skywarp with Fantofan.jp and I'm picking up the rest of the classics, but otherwise I'm holding back a bit. Speaking of which, if anyone is getting the Botcon set and is willing to buy an extra bagged set to sell to me, I'd be very grateful. The trials of belonging to an expensive club and also running a house. It ain't fair. Jo

Gonna give it a couple of weeks here. I've had a few films spoilt by there just being too many people talking through the film to enjoy it. Looking forward to it when I can though. Jo

Isn't Booster Gold Michael Carter? Or am I all confuzzled? Thought the WW3 titles were a little "meh" myself, compared to the main story in 52. I felt genuinely touched when Buddy got home and his kid is still an obnoxious little perv. I'm a little unsure whether to pick up Countdown. I pick up DC in trades, so 52 worked, but with Countdown fitting in month by month I may just end up with a headache. Also, anyone care to spoil Wonderwoman for me? I've not read any of the new series yet (see comment re: trades) but the whole Donna/Diana thing has me wondering who's who and when. Please PM me if you can fix my poor broken head. Jo

Whilst I probably should have spent the weekend in the garden, I instead spent most of saturday dyeing Charlotte's hair. Those of you who know me know this is a stressful and sometimes hilarious task. For those who don't, my other half is 3'6" and has only one arm, with a fused elbow, so she can't reach to dye her own hair. I, on the other hand, am particularly crap at any form of hairdressing. Being a proper manly-man, like. She now has a rather funky blonde chunk at the front to one side, with the bottom inch or so in red. Deliberately. See, this is what happens when I'm deprived of forums. Anyway, looks great, but I'd like to echo the size posts - I'm constantly having to scroll side to side to read. Jo

Good point - I'll look up what was happening and get back to you via PM. Jo

Yup, that was me. I'd recommend them, no problems at all, and prices were good (well, good for here). I've been buying most of my minimates through a board member in the States recently, but that's just because I'm broke and its cheaper to buy them at retail in America then pay for postage than buy them in a shop here. Stupid, but true. Jo

Are you sure that's such a good way to end that post after all the talk about not being a dick? :tongue: :tongue: :tongue: Sorry, couldn't help it. Watch me get banned. Jo

I know, it's terrible. If only they could make me some insulin that works on plastic crack as well. That damn food uses up far too much of my money each month. Jo

At least I don't usually have time to access the net over the weekend. But friday afternoon is so going to drag. Anyway, hope it doesn't eat too much of your weekend. Jo

I'd be inclined to highlight the minimates in some fashon (highlighter, drawn ring), but they can't really expect you to just buy minimates. Some of us need food to survive on as well. Jo