JohnMcMahon

Still have a chunk of Immortal Hulk left but took a wee break.

Currently reading Bendis' run on Uncanny X-Men and it's not exactly rocking my world, weird bit in the middle where the time displaced X-Men suddenly join the team and then disappear off to do something in space I guess ?  It's not awful or anything, just kind of there - definitely some bits, big fan of asshole Scott Summers.

Watching this loser and his pathetic cronies debase themselves has been great thus far.  Will they manage to outdo the 'press conference' at a garden centre ?  Almost certainly!

There's a less-than-zero percent chance that we'll get to see Donald Trump dragged out of the White House by the Secret Service in January.  A Service that he's used and abused during his time in office, so I'm sure that they'll be extra careful when tossing him head first through the nearest window in the Oval Office.

Agreed with all of that, like I said after the first issue I think the fact that we're getting the 'good stuff' monthly right now has kind of cut-the-legs out from under this effort.

I don't watch much US news coverage but watching CNN verbally assault Trump for being what he is, lying scum, last night was very cathartic.  

Am I the only one who bought this ?  Wouldn't be surprised, ridiculously expensive.

Went to bed shortly after the Miami-Dade numbers came in, around 1am my time then checked in around 6am to see Trump looking quite strong but now it seems we're very close to a Biden presidency.  This will be hamstrung by a Republican senate but given where we were a few hours ago, I'll take it.

This was...fine.  Satan's a pretty funny character.

HELLBLAZER : RISE AND FALL #2

Written By : Tom Taylor
Art By : Darick Robertson
Cover By : Darick Robertson

John Constantine has been in trouble before, but running afoul of the Devil himself is crossing a line even for the self-styled Hellblazer. But that’s exactly who darkens Constantine’s door with news that John’s investigation into the gruesome “angel murders” of London’s billionaire class and Satan’s own vendetta against a treacherous demon are actually the same mission. What’s that mean? You guessed it: It’s time for a team up!

Sending positive vibes to my US peeps today, good luck folks.

If he doesn't get crossbarred everywhere by a young Chas then I'll be furious.

Amazing!  Remember when DC where loath to have the streams cross between their various lines and now we have an old-school Vertigo character appearing in a children's comic!  Ace!

I hereby declare these books as totally canon.

Absolutely, the potential's definitely there and hopefully they'll get to revisit the title and fulfil it.

11 minutes ago, GottaGetAGrip said:

I've seen a review that marks this issue as the point where Spurrier exceeded both Delano and Ennis, and while I wouldn't go that far this issue once again illustrates how much of a worthy successor he is to the classic Hellblazer they established. 

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Yeah, that's crazy talk but the current creative team are leaving having built a foundation with the potential to rival those classic runs.  Campbell might be my second favourite Hellblazer artist after Sean Phillips mind.

Fantastic stuff, political commentary mixed with proper horror, just what I'm looking for from my Hellblazer.

JOHN CONSTANTINE: HELLBLAZER #11

Written By : Simon Spurrier
Art By : Aaron Campbell
Cover By : John Paul Leon

A message from Clem Thurso, the most virulently bigoted politician in the UK, unexpectedly sends John on a journey deep into the heart of occult evil-and down into a chamber below Parliament where something truly unspeakable waits...

Read the first big Immortal Hulk trade over the last few days, think it collets up to #11 and it's really good stuff that recasts the character in a horror vein though there's still plenty of fools getting punched, as you'd expect from a Hulk comic!

Finished Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man run, for real this time.  Great final story though it could have used a little more build up. 

Little disappointed that they wrote

but otherwise it was a fitting end to

I need to check timelines, I kind of assumed that the Peter Parker/Tony Stark lovefest was a movie thing but Bendis leans on it quite heavily here.

Are you enjoying Moonshine, Lou ?  I bounced off the first trade, looked lovely but Azzarello's writing just isn't for me.

Loving Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, it's a good example of how to do a relaunch as

is a big shakeup of the status quo.  Art's great too, not the kind of style I'd usually like but it's perfect for the stories being told.

Big fan of 100 Bullets, it does kind of lose it's way a little but it's gorgeous throughout - Risso does slutty sexy so well and Azzarello's writing tics are at home in the world they created together.  They reunited a few years ago for a follow-up mini that wasn't great but still contained all of the elements that made the series what it was.  How it's never made it to the small screen is beyond me - there's like a 5 season HBO series right there!

12 hours ago, Christian said:

Oh, you know what, John? I didn’t even read that story-arc. I only read Bendis’ “New Mutants” issues and forgot he wrote that other story.

Yeah, that one didn’t sound like it would appeal to me so I skipped it.

It was pretty good - Spider-Man and Wolverine make for good contrasting characters and Bendis knows how to exploit that.  The rest of his short run was solid X-Stuff, the New Mutants arc felt like it was going to be a set-up to a much larger story but he wrapped it up well enough.  

Started Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, which jumps forward six months after Ultimatum and sees Peter with a new girlfriend, new job and a new house-mate!  David Lafuente takes over art chores and his kid-friendly style really works well for the stories being told.  Only a few issues in but enjoying it so far, it feels like what Spider-Man should be - teen drama mixed with punching weirdos in spandex.

21 hours ago, Christian said:

The Bendis run on UXM was pretty fun. It’s a series of mostly standalone issues with each one introducing a new character. There’s one really strong X-Men story during the Bendis run too.

First few issues feel like leftovers from Ultimate Team-Up as Wolverine, Spider-Man and Daredevil take on some old Weapon X dudes.  

Thanks to an error on Comixology's side, where they incorrectly labelled the 4th Ultimate X-Men collection as being written by Mark Millar rather than Bendis, I'm finished the former's run a little sooner than expected.  A definite stroke of luck as (1) his run was boring and (2) I'm a definite fan of Bendis' style so won't grumble about having a few more of his comics to read! 

As previously mused, all of Millar's characters in UX are unlikeable dickheads, everyone's a prick just dying for the chance to sneer at anyone within bile range.  Now that can work if the characters are being used in service of a compelling story but we don't get that either, it's really just Magento being 616 Magneto but a little nastier.  

DC have changed their distribution system over the last few months so might still be working out a few kinks ?

Reading through the second of the five big Clone Saga omnibus collections and while the quality has been mainly...average..I'm in the middle of a pretty good story about Doctor Octopus kind-of helping a poisoned Peter Parker.  

The Scarlet Spider costume is fire.