me briefly talking about and evaluating comics i've read
i'm not going to natter to my irls about this so here it goes yippee
i'm not going to natter to my irls about this so here it goes yippee
i'm working on reading IDW transformers universe 2, since i finished reading G1 (well, mostly. i have some spotlights left). i'm on #14 right now.
this one looks worse than IDWG1 to me. idk what it is. the art isn't as nice? as detailed? the pages are a lot emptier? also i was musing that god i hate how there always is a trigger-happy cop. and they're currently doing some massive police operation in the desert in #14. ugh
currently at: #57. I used to read them monthly when they first started publishing but dropped off in late 2019/early 2020. then i caught up again in early 2023. I’ve seen boatloads of discourse for some issues (#50 in particular) but tbh… STH IDW are okay. Like, completely fine. Kind of boring almost. I like Stanley’s writing better than Flynn’s though.
i associate this run so strongly with fall for some reason, like cozy cinematic fall. cute little hills dotted wth orange trees and drinking hot chocolate and all that stuff they do in american films with pumpkins and fireflies etc. basically, the landscapes in this are really cute which is memorable to me, because they've built this new world with only anthros in it (and Eggman) and it's a whole detailed universe of its own. where the cast belieavably live and do their thing.
as for the discourse: Sonic’s attitude (“principles”) aren’t that weird for a comic tbh, the PROBLEM is that STH purports to be following all of the games, and in the games… Sonic has remorselessly killed before. So this no-kill stance in STH looks about as good as Batman’s. AND THEN! “Big oof” as only reaction to Starline’s death, I mean which way do you want it? Second chances for everyone vs admit you actually can’t be arsed to do that? Games Sonic just stops them, here he says he wants to redeem them. BUT LIKE. This is a personal issue of taste. this Sonic just comes off kind of... preachy. he shouldn't drop a moral stance on the villain, he should just run off while pulling a backflip.
ANYWAY! i love Belle so so much and she's from this comic. thank you Evan Stanley. honestly most of the characters introduced in these comics are great. everyone loves Surge & Kit (i'm undecided), Tangle is fun, Whisper has interesting backstory, Starline and Mimic are pretty good villains (and cool designs) and then all the background characters are really nicely done. they really make the world feel lived in, y'know? which i already mentioned above.
goddamn... best comic book i've ever read, hands-down. actually reading this one makes it honestly embarrassing to read a lot of other comics because they're so damn bad in comparison. and like, just the most obvious things! this writer understands chekhov's gun. this writer understands world-building, and developing relationships between characters, and letting characters feel emotions. this comic made me cry real tears in real life (an event which happens approximately once a year).
the art is fantastic too - like these robots are complicated as hell with a hundred tiny bits. it's super impressive how expressive they look here. just absolutely fantastic.
it's a grail quest, in space, which is both very sincere and emotional and funny. humorous. silly. a little parodical of itself in some issues, even, but in a super heartfelt way. and it takes itself and the world-building dead seriously, and it's incredibly intricate and vibrant. there are elements of horror which are great, wish there was more of it. there is romance, which is all gay and we have firstly the couple who've been together for ages (who have a ton of interesting backstory stuff but anyway) who deal with issues like both of them changing, because people change over time, do we know each other as well as we think? then there's the couple with all the drama, "i walk walk through fire & ice for him, i would give him the world" etc devotional knight and they think they've lost each other so many times... i cry thinking about them... another established couple who bicker all the time, they're hilarious- ok i'm gonna cut here.
I love the characters so much. they're just so incredibly well-written. everyone has a problem, there's something weird about them, and they're all distinct and funny and wonderful. the cast is so strong here. Rodimus slowly becoming a better captain and more responsible person... Magnus learning to let go and relax and show his true self (and man his identity issues are so interesting), of course Megatron's redemption arc...
gorgeous, gorgeous book in every aspect.
from 2012. anyway, i love how the writer like mentions here how much he looks up to optimus prime literally IMMEDIATELY before writing him doing police violence to some random schmuck while bumblebee watches on in horror. christ. also full disclaimer: i goddamn hate Ramondelli's art. it sucks so bad. i can never see what's even going on in the panels, and it's so ugly. that absolutely also drags down my enjoyment here. but reading this one was such a chore. at least it was pretty short and there was nothing here which made me like, stop to reflect or appreciate art or evoked any emotion in me so the read was quick. there are better comics in this universe to read, basically.
from 2016. the culmination of Windblade and Starscream's... rivalry? their short complicated story together. they really are just so much fun together. like the previous series (Windblade 2015) was just good fun, and this one is also fun, but it also brings out the pain. it takes forever and ever for Starscream to finally admit to any issues but when he does... man... and Windblade is just so fucking good in this. Gah she's so excellent. What if we actually tried to talk to each other and understand each other and what if I bravely tried to do that again and again? And succeeded?
the beginning of this comic feels like a completely different era from the end. From the transformers & humans terrible relationship dramatics in the beginning all the way to… anyway THIS is where the IDW transformers G1 really takes off and gets good. This run contains Chaos theory, for example – the famous arc with the conversation between Optimus & Megatron which is just delicious on all levels – and it sets up everything for MTMTE & all the post-war storylines to take off. It ends the war!!! man that’s crazy. Transformers really should do more stories about the aftermath of the war bc they’re so good. So yeah, this is a sort of transition into the brilliant future, and it has some super memorable moments.
However, if you wanna start reading IDW transformers G1 (2005) and just want to get to the good parts then I’d say begin right after this one. This one’s beginning is so building on what came before (AHM, etc) that I’d just skip right to the MTMTE and Robots in disguise beginning in 2012. that said Chaos Theory is fucking incredible and you probably wouldn’t want to miss that.
from 2010. a huge and dire last stand, incredibly dangerous mission, let's send these crazy elite soldiers to get an item from some hell-on-earth prison. and the human verity also tags along secretly! what is going to go wrong? everything, obviously. I'm a big fan of character deaths and associated drama, so this was great! also it's interesting how much torture they can show - is it that the comics are not aimed at kids or is it that the characters are robots?
"somebody's kidnapped Prowl... but does anyone want him back?" brutal. also hilarous and so true. gah Prowl is so deranged but so much fun to watch. also Verity literally attempting to blackmail him. so true. Tarantulas' whole deal is crazy too. everyone in this is so intense and then the backstory drama is delicious. just a great fun read, art's cool too
there is something very tender about this comic to me. that one flower they're so carefully keeping alive... this comic also implies that it's way easier in the sonic world to build a sentient robot than a non-sentient robot, apparently, but i do love this concept of the scrapniks living on the ruins of the death egg in the ocean... it's really poetic, isn't it? and sad. this one was a really intriguing adventure and definitely the best one of the IDW sonic miniseries.
this one really felt like one step forward one step back, net sum zero, this could've been an e-mail. like you know, we need to write a mini-series about these guys i guess, uh, but it's not allowed to have any plot or change any stakes in the main story whatsoever or even expand on anyone's character. but that goes for most of the idw miniseries i guess. well, it was boring. i really don't care enough about zavok for this. zavok's philosophical disagreement with starline was the most interesting part here. zavok really should've dug harder into starline. gah can you hear how many times i said zavok here? i don't even like him but i care about the other characters even less, i guess.
this comic is legitimately interesting just from a "what can you do with the medium?" viewpoint, and it doesn't just look at or poke at the fourth wall but is passionately making out with it. characters will trip over their own name announcements and bicker over what font the other one uses. and it's Sonic Boom, so it's a match made in heaven! it's a shame this run is so short but it's great. absolutely matches the show for audacity.
good! the concept here drives me nuts. okay so everyone knows superman, the comic book character, yeah? so this couple, surname kent, think it'd be hilarious to name their son clark to get him named clark kent just like superman haha (which this kid angsts over A LOT). okay but then when this kid becomes a teenager he one day, randomly, wakes up and... actually has all of superman's powers. so what does he do then? it's like he's parodying himself, and yet, this isn't rly humor - there's a ton of introspection here, and also just, fear of the government and all that. a more realistic look at superheroing? idk. just a young man trying his best. really intriguing read
really good. different artist every issue but they're all fantastic. this is like a character study. also it made me laugh in a few places, so it's really fun to read, too. very entertaining. man he's so young... emotional, funny, brilliantly arranged.
another superman comic with a really interesting concept. so superman is going to die, he knows it for a fact. so, what is he doing to prepare his loved ones, what legacy he'll leave behind? so much really absurd sci-fi, lots of introspection - some parts in the middle were kinda weird but yeah. it was... interesting.
at issue #19. did not finish. so, for the first five(?) issues this comic had me absolutely CONVINCED that clark, lois and jon here did not know each other at all. like, they're in some kinda deranged witness protection program where they all got shoved together and just have to pretend to be a family. that's how goddamn stilted and weird all of their interactions are written. is this supposed to be a horror story from jon's point of view? anyway honestly they could all be strangers to each other yet. i didn't finish reading it after all. did they just bury another version of clark in the backyard? literally what the hell is going on here and why the fuck can't DC comics do the sensible thing like everyone else and provide a "previously" segment, a "you're here in the timeline" part at the beginning, a role call perhaps? anything? stop rebooting every other year too. ugh!!! actually there was some cute stuff in here too though. jon is really adorable.
at issue #14. yeah babey!!! why did i stop reading this, i was having fun? i should continue reading it and come back later
only green lantern i've read, because it's a one-shot. it was cute!!
i really like the art, diana looks cool in this. scrawny kal-el is also an interesting look. and mecha hell yeah ofc.
start reading together with new avengers 2013 a couple issues into this one (when it starts to get confusing). so the team in this run is pretty large - or well, it openes with the 6 from the 2012 MCU movie, but then like 20 others jump in at various points. and - off-tangent, but i have a few favorites for superhero battles. a classic 1v1 is great, but i also love it when you've got like 50 people and it's no longer about how powerful a character is, but like, do they have a strategically useful ability? can they teleport or make forcefields or something? - but yeah, a couple of dudes calling the shots digging everyone into this enormous hole. i don't wanna write spoilers so i'm just gonna leave it at the fact that i really liked this era. anyway, this run also has a really cute annual, it's a christmas issue but it's really funny.
you've really gotta read this one together with avengers 2013. anyway, not my absolute favorite but this run really delivers on the drama, the high-stakes angsting... specifically if you like tony, steve, t'challa and some other dudes i guess, but man what a read. Hickman really knows how to write stevetony drama. the betrayals, the suspense, the secret-keeping... the looming apocalypse on a ridiculous scale... this is what comics are all about! ridiculous stakes, high-tension interpersonal drama - i suppose it's a tragedy this story. and you can feel it coming.
so the apocalypse has come to pass (from new avengers 2013), the multiverse smashed to bits, and from these pieces... another world. ruled by victor von doom, a weird patchwork world of sci-fi goodness. and then reed, t'challa etc - who failed to stop the apocalypse - get to do a redemption here and fix things. well, i already said i liked this plotline so yeah. liked it. it was cool.
from 2016. with tony in a coma, victor von doom takes the opportunity to... pay homage to him by dressing up as iron man? it's quite funny as a concept, like in the prev iron man run victor was just popping up everywhere to like, crash tony's dates with this scientist amara. and amara is in this one too - there's a hilarious scene where victor accidentally surprises her, she pulls a gun on him, he actually gets shot, then she's like "what! you're a wizard! how did that even work?" and he's like "...i was taken by surprise". another hilarious interaction is victor trying to apologize to ben grimm lol (since they're old arch-enemies etc). anyway, it's a very interesting redemption (?) arc, in that he's trying to fulfill iron man's role mostly because he thinks it's a shame he's gone. so it feels a bit melancholy, too. and victor & amara are fun together.
gay romance real... i want to give the symbiote a blanket and hot chocolate. the symbiote and that priest. and the adventure with moon girl and devil dinosaur!
my favorite avengers run. short 'n sweet. the line-up is just really fun too
everyone recommends this (or at least used to) and yeah it's good. feels almost slice of life-y even though there's definitely vigilante stuff going on in it. but also clint's just such a mess. kate is more put-together but no less deranged. and lucky the dog is in it :)