My Comics Devirginization

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

I have finally decided to plunge into the world of comic books. I know I prefer DC to Marvel a helluva lot, and specifically Superman, Green Lantern, and The Flash. I don't really know how many different comics there are for each one, I just want to follow the main ones, if they even still exist.

 

So a quick primer on these three fellows, NOT TOO DEEP PLEASE, I'm as green as green can be about this and I know NOTHING, would be greatly appreciated.

 

I pray I don't become a comic nerd.

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest gthureson]

Sassquatch can give you the primer to end all primers....

 

But if you just sort of want the skinny on whats going down in them, and figure out when to jump on (such as the start of the next story arc), visit the DC Comics message boards.

 

Superman is supposed to be going into a big 'Fall of Lex Luthor' storyline soon, so you might want to get your feet wet before that one and see if you like the book.

 

Flash...don't follow at all.

 

Green Lantern....don't follow at all.

 

However, generals:

 

Superman: Clark Kent is still Superman. He's married to Lois. I think he is still a columnist (not a reporter anymore, he's moved up the totem pole.) Lex Luthor is President of the United States. He is evil businessman instead of evil scientist. He's still an evil genius, just the world sees him as more or less legitimate. Kinda like Bill Gates. Ruthless business practises, but not supervillain ruthless. Uhm, thats all I can think of that you need to know. Other than that, its Superman. If you've watched cartoons, or flipped through a book, you should be relatively familiar with it all.

 

Flash: I couldn't even tell you who the Flash is these days. I think its still Wally, but I'm sure.

 

Green Lantern: Current Green Lantern is Kyle Rayner, and there are a few threads further down that go into detail about his book has been like lately. I've only seen him in guest spots in other books the last few years.

 

 

However, you really should pick up 'Detective' every month. Brubaker is moving over, and while I didn't like his stuff as much as Rucka's, he does write some pretty good Batman stories.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Batman never appealed to me too much. In all honesty, I want as little realism as possible in my superheroes, thus the want to follow the more powerful DC guys.

 

I'm surprised about Luthor though, and already incredibly intrigued.

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest starvenger]

The Flash is still Wally West, and I believe that he's married as well, to a Korean woman (who is a journalist, I think. Isn't everyone a journalist in comics?)

 

Everything you want to know (and a lot that you don't) about Green Lantern can be found at www.glcorps.org

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Well, Sass has given me a pretty damn good primer, and I expect to join your discussions soon!!!

 

(And my gradual rule of the board comes closer...)

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest BA_Baracus]

Okay...

 

...Superman has a red cape, Green Latern is green and the Flash runs fast.

 

Am I going to in depth for you?

[Guest areacode212]

I don't really follow any of these, but I've been reading Superman on and off while standing at the rack in the comic store. Apparently, Luthor now knows that Superman is Clark Kent (some government dude showed him old satellite photos of the Kryptonian ship landing in Kansas). What more has transpired here?

 

Green Lantern has been pretty good lately from what I hear. Judd Winick has been writing some great stories and characters in Exiles, so I expect he's been doing the same here.

[Guest Sassquatch]

First up will be...

 

The Flash:

 

- The current Flash is Wally West who was the original Flash's sidekick Kid Flash.

 

- Wally is married to Keystone City TV reporter Linda Park.

 

- Keystone City's mayor is the reformed super villain Goldface.

 

- The most recent Flash storyarc had the Flash fighting the Rogue's Gallery which is a group that consists of some of his most dangerous adversary’s such as Captain Cold, the Weather Wizard, the new Trickster, the Mirror Master, Heatwave, Stockpile and the team's temporary leader Blacksmith (who is the daughter of Goldface).

 

- The city was on the brink of being enslaved by the Rogue's Gallery. But the citizens revolted against the Rogue's and with the help of the Flash and wacko hero/villain Magneta, they were able to defeat the Rogue's and send them all back to Keystone's super villain prison, Iron Heights.

 

- The Flash's old buddy the Pied Piper has also apparently gone back to crime and looks to finish off the Flash.

 

- Flash's old girlfriend, the unstable Magneta, has also been a pain in the ass for Wally and is also more dangerous as ever due to her unstable mental health.

 

- The book is currently taking the time to give the spotlight to the villains Heatwave, Captain Cold and the new Trickster.

 

 

Green Lantern:

 

- The current GL is Kyle Rayner.

 

- Rayner was selected as the new GL when the former GL Hal Jordan went insane after his town Coast City was destroyed by Superman villains Mongul and the Cyborg during the Superman storyarc "The Reign of the Superman."

 

- The Guardians of Oa who are the little blue skinned, white haired guys gave Rayner a GL ring so the GL Corps would live on after Hal's rampage through the Corps.

 

- The psychotic Major Force killed Kyle's girlfriend and nearly killed Rayner in the process and this was on Kyle's first outing tackling a super villain like Force.

 

- Kyle then started to date Darkstar member (a race of alien space officers) Donna Troy who was also the former Wonder Girl.

 

- Things fizzled out between the two of them and Kyle hooked up with the green skinned daughter of the original GL Alan Scott, Jade. Jade is Kyle's current girlfriend.

 

- Jade's brother Obsidian recently turned evil and that has left Jade with some emotional scares which she is trying to get over.

 

- Kyle is also a cartoonist and has a gay assistant named Terry to help him with his work.

 

- Kyle gave up the Ion power in the GL ring to restore the power on Oa which had been ravaged by Hal Jordan when he went rogue. This event led to the birth of new baby Oans which will give the Guardians a chance at restoring their powerbase.

 

- The big GL story that just went down was that Terry was caught by some homophobes who saw Terry kissing another man and the men beat Terry up and left him for dead. He is currently in critical condition.

 

- The current writer for the GL series is Judd Winick who you might remember from MTV's Real World San Francisco.

 

 

Superman:

 

- After the big Our World at War crossover, Superman finds the Kents, who were MIA after Kansas was attacked.

 

- Superman later on fights a partially demonized Guy Gardner who was thought to have died in OWAW.

 

- Supes helps Guy out and he is no longer possessed.

 

- Lois finds out that Brianiac warned President Luthor about the alien invasion from OWAW.

 

- Luthor tries to kill Lois but that plan fails thanks to Superman.

 

- Luthor then breaks into Lois's apartment and calls in a favor that Lois owed him from sometimes back.

 

- Luthor orders her to bury the story about him letting Kansas get wiped off the face of the earth.

 

- Lois gets around this by having Clark front the story and take credit for writing it.

 

- Luthor denies the charges against him by letting the Martian Manhunter probe his mind. Luthor fools the Martian Manhunter's telepathic probes when he gets inside of Luthor's head and he can not prove anything against Luthor.

 

- Luthor then threatens to sue the Daily Planet into oblivion for slander if Clark isn't fired.

 

- Clark is fired but in reality it is all a ruse. Perry tells him to keep digging up dirt on Luther so that they can get to nail Luthor for his crimes.

 

- Luther discovers evidence of an alien spacecraft landing in Kansas decades earlier around the Kents farmhouse.

 

- Luthor, who learned how to read Kryptonian after OWAW, deciphers that the space ship belongs to Clark.

 

- Luthor kills the researcher who brought this info to Lex so no one else except him would know about it.

 

- Lois meanwhile leaves Clark temporarily to move in with her mother who was having a hard time dealing with the death of Lois's dad which happened in OWAW.

 

- Clark uses his powers to constantly try to visit Lois and keeping her in touch with everything that has was going on in Metropolis and with Luthor.

 

- The current Superman storyline has Mongul, a brand new version of the Master Jailer (old Superman foe from the Pre-Crisis), Silver Banshee, and Bizarro teaming up and using other villains as pawns to go after civilians that have connections to Superman.

 

 

I hope this helps everyone out and if any of you have any questions, by all means ask away.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

So THAT'S why you wanted the AIM transcript.

 

Oh, and BA can bite my shiny metal ass.

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest Sassquatch]

You are correct in regards to why I wanted the transcript Kotz. I didn't feel like going back and try to remember all of the things I told you so instead I just had you give me the chat.

 

*caught red handed*

 

 

If anyone else is curious about recent events involving the heroes above, they can just read this post and ask questions any questions they might have later on.

[Guest BA_Baracus]

[bites Kotzen's ass.]

 

Pfft...that was neither shiny, nor metal. Although it was plenty hairy.

[Guest starvenger]

Wait... PRESIDENT Luthor?

[Guest Sassquatch]

After trading his daughter Lena in for alien technology from Brainiac after the B13 storyarc, Luthor decides to run for President. He gave no reason for why he wanted to run for President. Luhtor also gives LexCorp over to Ras Al Ghul's daughter Talia. Talia became frustrated with her dad's schemes to kill off the bulk of the human race so she leaves Ra's. She had leaked information to the JLA that Ra's was going to use Bio weapons which burned her bridges with her dad. Luthor also gets Pete Ross to be his VP candidate who becomes the VP of the United States after Luthor wins the election.

[Guest starvenger]

Well, that's an assassination that's waiting to happen...

[Guest gthureson]

Traded his daughter to Braniac?

 

Man, thats such a cold, yet so cool act of a supervillian.

 

That lets you know right there where the man's priorities lie.

 

"You are my daughter, I love you. However, Brainiac has offered a sweet deal of alien tech for you, so what can I do? Business is business. Keep in touch, sweetheart."

[Guest Sassquatch]

When Luthor is finally confronted by Superman about his acts in OWAW and is on the verge of being impeached as Pres or something like that, I expect Lex to become a criminal. My gut feeling is that Luthor will create the green powersuit from his Pre-Crisis days and turn on the world and becomes the super-villain criminal that everyone from his or her youth remembers. It would also make sense due to how a lot of the current Superman creators have expressed how the interest in Luthor's old Pre-Crisis suit of armor. Not to mention Cartoon Network had an episode of JLA where Lex was finally revealed as a criminal and how he ran away from the JLA and then tried to kill them with his suit of green suit of armor.

 

This is all speculation at the moment. But the rumor mill at DC has been spinning some yarns about how when Luthor is finally forced to deal with the events of OWAW, how he might turn his back on his country after everything is said and done.

 

Another scenario that I could see happening is how Lex is forced to not run for President or resigns due to Supes forcing Lex to bow out because of some evidence he might have against Lex that would expose Lex as a criminal.

 

Either way, I just have this feeling that once the fall of President Luthor goes down (and it will) Lex will not be in the same position he was before he ran for President. Mostly due to him selling LexCorp to Talia and how he will have to pay big time for the shit he has pulled that goes all the way back to No Man's Land. Everyone hero in the DCU wants a piece of Lex's ass and that will just lead to one Hell of a showdown between the President and the heroes of the DCU.

 

But that's just my thoughts.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

BTW, if you want to get into comics, a good magazine to read is Wizard.

[Guest Sassquatch]

"BTW, if you want to get into comics, a good magazine to read is Wizard."

 

- pinnacleofallthingsmanly

 

 

Wizard is the equivalent to comic books that PWI is for professional wrestling.

 

Wizard has been slowly been rescinding over the last 6 or so years into nothing but a fanboy mag where they pimp the company of the month/year while giving the rest of the competition the mini blurb. Wizard has been/is grossly misinformed when it comes to pricing comic books along with pointing out trends and making competent and educated reports on why the trend will earn collectors money. The book also can bring a reader's IQ due to the inane and worthless drivel that they often put in the book. Marvel has becomes Wizard's new sugar daddy and the amount of kiss ass articles and bias and ill informed reporting on their parts is pretty clear to the mind of a fan who has been buying the book on and off since it's inception. Wizard pimps books that have been hot for about four or so months and when they finally inform the reader that the book is hot, nearly every copy is has been bought by the fans that keep up with the collecting game. This is mostly due to fans asking comic store clerks (competent ones) what to be looking out for and going on the net and finding sites that actually track the increases/decreases in a book's rise/fall that also gives you clear info as to why that is happening.

 

I'll give an example of this shoddy reporting by Wizard. Wizard did not latch onto Miracleman's tit until the middle of '97. They decided to start letting fans know that they should read this book and how it is by Alan Moore which is another reason why they should buy it. Unfortunately for Wizard they were two years too late in their pimpage of MM. Retailers and comic store owners/clerks had been telling fans back in '95 to go out and pick up the series because later on it would be a collector's dream run. Sure enough, everyone that gets wind of these suggestions goes out and buys up as much MM stuff as they can. By '97, the Miracleman books were hard to rare to find and the hardcover reprints of his storyarcs are out of print and nowhere to be found. Wizard was too busy trying to give Marvel the pub for the Clone Saga during this time and they were also too busy because they were slagging every hero in the DCU except Batman (due to that fanboy dream of that anyone could be a Batman in real life).

 

Their reporting of comic book events has also been shoddy as well. Wizard has slowly been becoming that reporter that gets info and spouts off like it is concrete and solid but to then find out they did not get the whole story and also have some of the facts wrong. In late '98, Wizard was reporting that Bob Harras was planning a possible takeover of Image with the help of Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. This story was quickly debunked by critics and insiders and Wizard was made the laughing stock of comic book reporting (they still are to this day).

 

Honestly, you are better off asking your local comic store clerk what to read/watch out for in regards to a possible hot comic. Or you can go to one of the many comic book sites that reviews new books before they are even out and gives you a wider range of opinions and what you should be looking for. It's your best bet.

[Guest areacode212]

I like The Fourth Rail for my comic book reviews. Randy Lander's tastes have fallen in line with mine in recent years.

 

As for Wizard, I've loathed them for years for the reasons Sassquatch mentioned, but they sometimes have interesting interviews and can be funny at times (the quality of their humor has sharply nosedived...either that or I've grown up)

[Guest Sassquatch]

You grew up and their humor has taken a nosedive. Some of tha pieces they wrote that made fun of the Clone Saga were funny along with the some of the Bull Pen stories they had.

 

Wizard will occaisionally have an interesting interview here and there and sometimes they might even print a letter that is not from some rube who does not know what he/she is talking about.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

Alot of the Wizards that I have been reading are old ones that my roommates have saved up. I don't read them from cover to cover, but I like the stuff that they have in the price guide section.

[Guest Sassquatch]

The price guide section is really inept nowadays. The best example I can give you of this would be how Wizard has Miracleman #15 marked at being $75. If you go to any comic book store that actually has the book for sale then you are most likely going to see a price tag of $120 - $150 (no CGC grading either). Same deal with Ultimate Spider-Man #5. Wizard has the book listed as being $70 when most sores have it priced up from $90 - $120 because it is a rare book.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

I wasn't talking about the price guide so much as I was talking about the little blurbs that are sprinkled througout them. I think some of them are called famous firsts and stuff like that.

[Guest Sassquatch]

I know what you are talking about pinnacle and I will admit that those little blurbs can be interesting to read and might even convince some people to buy the issues.

[Guest cynicalprofit]

Honestly, you are better off asking your local comic store clerk what to read/watch out for in regards to a possible hot comic.

 

Be warned, many clerks are bitter old men who are only running a comic book store because they couldnt do anything else with their lives. This is a sad but true reality, atleast in many of my personal experiences. But there is usualy someone friendly who does work there who isnt as jaded.

 

Wizard did used to rock, I started to read them at issue 14, stopped around the 50's and picked it back up a few months ago and good god do they WHORE themselves out to Marvel and DC. (But I still must buy My Monkey's Name is Jennifer)

 

I dont collect comics anymore, so I dont really know about prices anymore. I'm more of a buy a TPB and read them, because anyone who has to have a comic book encased and unreadable to jack up its value is beyond stupid. Wheres the fun in that? If I want an issue that bad, Ill pay for what teh tag says, but never more then 5 or so.

 

Actually I think Wizard pimped MM back in 93 or so in a small, "what to watch" blurb, but I could be wrong on that since I havent read through the issues in years.

 

And their Toyquest Twisted Toy Theater stuff is HILARIOUS.

 

If wizard is so bad, what can you recommend, magizine wise?

[Guest starvenger]

If wizard is so bad, what can you recommend, magizine wise?

That's actually one of the problems - there really isn't anything else out there.

 

Your best bets are to check out the articles online at Newsarama, Pulse and Comics Continuum for stuff. Sure, they're not super-long articles, but it doesn't cost $5 and normally don't suck up to creators and such.

 

If you must read Wizard, go to a Barnes and Noble/Borders/Chapters/Indigo and read it there instead...

[Guest Sassquatch]

Okay kiddies, here is *the* alternative to Wizard and is considered *the* best source to go to when trying to price comic books:

 

The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide.

 

The guide is about a 1000 pages long with nearly every comic book ever created priced accordingly. It comes out once every year and has been *the* source that comic book collectors/fans go to when they want to know how much a comic book really costs. The guide also puts Wizard's "what is hot" system to shame as the guide goes in fuckind depth on the rise/fall of comic book prices and also offers reasons as to why the book made that movement. Nearly every comic book dealer worth their salt uses this thing and I have haggled with many comic book assholes who over price their books but to then lower it down to the Overstreet price after I have confronted them about it.

 

The book can run anywhere from $10 - $25 but is more than worth the price.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

Now that I look closer, I guess I can see what Sassquatch was saying about Wizard. It doesn't really bother me though because I always take everything with a grain of salt anyway. I was looking at a Wizard that had the "Best of 2001." They sang the praises of the New X-Men and Cassandra Nova, but it didn't really bother me because them proclaiming Nova to be the greatest villain ever created didn't actually make me believe that it was true.

[Guest raptor]

I agree with pinnacle. It's obvious that Wizard is pretty indentured to Marvel and DC, but it's still a fun read that I look forward to every month.

 

And Sassquatch is right- Overstreet is the way to go for pricing. Wizard still has some great editorial content, though.

[Guest Sassquatch]

Editorial content?

 

What the fuck are you talking about?

 

The "editorial content" is an embarrassment and a waste of anyone's time whether it is a rube or someone who studies the comic market on a regular basis.

 

Gareb and the rest of the goof troop have no idea what the fuck they are talking about today. The magazine is grossly off on comic book prices because they stick to the East Coast market prices which are less than the prices on the West Coast and that screws up retailers and comic book fans alike. A fan sees Actions Comics #775 for $8 in Wizard but are horrified to learn that most stores only sell the book for $15 and above.

 

One worthless number with a dollar sign does not mean shit in the comic book market because there is a price range that most books are soled at and Wizard does not cover that because they need more page space for their boring, immature and useless "tour with..." articles that they are fond of or some other inane and bullshit article.

 

That book honestly has no more redeeming value to it today. Now fans can go online and read interviews with their favorite creators that are interesting and fascinating to read and are not bogged down by the red tape in Wizard's interviews. Not to mention the interviewer's on the net are much more competent in how the conduct the interview and what questions to ask instead of dicking around and asking questions that most of us know the answers to.

 

The book is a waste of cash and you are all better to go out and buy the Overstreet whenever it comes out.