New Night Force with Baron Winters

[Deleted]

So I won't get to the shop until Thursday afternoon to pick it up, but Marv Wolfman and Tom Mandrake's new Night Force series launched today. This series has only had 2 brief runs, but Baron Winters has always intrigued me (hence his presence in UBoM) and I am really looking forward to this series. In fact, it was the solicitation of this series that took me to the DC website where I started looking at the DCnU stuff for the first time and then to CBR to read up on Snyder's Batman that got me back into the new comic DC game (and eventually lead me here to the Ultimate DC). The only new DC Comic I had bought after Final Crisis was the Zatanna book and when I learned it was cancelled in the wake of Flashpoint I had given up on DC altogether.

-M

[buck]

I actually picked this up today for Marv Wolfman and the intriguing concept off the book has me interested. I haven't read any of my books yet though as I was a little off put that my store didn't get shipped copies of Action Comics or Stormwatch.

[C_Miller]

I'm still debating whether or not to pick up my books before I go home for Spring Break. I may have to add this if I decide to.

I hope someone here can report back before I head over tomorrow.

[Deleted]

That sucks. It happened to me a few weeks ago with King Conan #1. It was ordered and invoiced, it just didn't get shipped by Diamond. I got it like 2 weeks later though, so it wasn't that big a deal. Not like I don't have a few unread comics to rea din the meantime

But yeah if it's a book you've been looking forward to and suddenly it's not there on new comic day when it's supposed to be, it messes with the comics mojo for the week.

-M

[buck]

Yes I picked up Nightforce on a whim and I've decided to dip back in to Marvel and bought the first three issues of the Ultimates to see how I felt about them this week. Filled a few holes in my collection of The Great Ten miniseries as well.

[Deleted]

If you're dipping back into Marvel, check out Waid's Daredevil. It's great stuff.
-M

[buck]

Nightforce was pretty good decided to give it a whirl before bed. I'm not terribly familiar with the earlier volumes, but I was left wanting more and the art is pretty solid to boot.

[buck]

I've been having trouble getting all the issues of Daredevil but I read the first one and liked it a lot and I also picked up Rucka's Punisher not too long ago

[Deleted]

Mar 8, 2012 2:42:17 GMT -5 buck said:

I've been having trouble getting all the issues of Daredevil but I read the first one and liked it a lot and I also picked up Rucka's Punisher not too long ago

Never a fan of the Punisher as anything but a foil, but like Rucka's stuff a lot. So when DD crosses over with Punisher next month I will give it a shot.

As for DD, I hear you. I have only gotten the 2 most recent ones ( I decided to give it a try after it got nominated as best book of 2011 on the CBR forums since I loved Waid's Flash work). Liked them and was able to find issues 1 and 2 (in later printings) but nothing in between yet.

The only Marvel books I am reading are DD and Defenders (love me some Dr. Strange) but I not grooving Defenders enough to recommend it to anyone else yet. It's funny but growing up I was always more of a Marvel guy, though I loved a lot of DC stuff post Crisis, but as I have gotten older (post 35ish say) DC has grown on me more and Marvel's appeal has lessened (movies excepted).

-M

[C_Miller]

I'm actually a pretty big Marvel fan, kind of in the same way you describe, MRP (although I wasn't alive Pre-Crisis). I actually love Marvel of yesteryear. At lot more than DC really. The only DC I really enjoy prior to the Crisis was New Teen Titans. I'm sure there were some one offs here and there. I love me some Silver Age Flash stories, but otherwise, Marvel did everything better, in my opinion. There's just no way around.

But Post-Crisis, it seemed like DC got their ducks in a row and everything was firing on all cylinders. And while I still liked some Marvel in this era, I begin to like what DC was doing a lot better. Batman: Year One, John Byrne Superman, George Perez Wonder Woman, Wally Wes Flash, Justice League International, Future Vertigo titles like Sandman, Animal Man, Doom Patrol.

As it stands now though, I'm kind of on the outs with Marvel. I think Joe Quesada is a horrible business man and a horrible person to put in charge of creativity. Even worse than Dan Didio. But they have a ton of great writers. Nick Spencer, Jonathan Hickman, Jason Aaron, and of course Greg Rucka and Mark Waid. If DC had played their cards right, all of these people could have been a part of the New 52 and we'd have been better for it.

As far as Mark Waid goes though, except for a few exceptions, I generally like his Marvel work better. His Captain America, Fantastic Four, Daredevil and some other stuff are all classics in my mind. And while he has done good DC stuff, I don't think it matches his Marvel stuff.

[Deleted]

So I picked up and now have read Night Force #1. Very good read. Some definite revamps (they've given the Baron a whole new more modern look-and I think I like the classic better), but very much in the vein of earlier stories. Marv Wolfman is one of those comics writers that when he is on is phenomenal, but he can sometimes mail it in. This is definitely a strong effort from him.

It has a bit of a nod towards a Rosemary's Baby type of vibe with the mystery around Zoe, and a bit of an X-Files vibe with Duffy and the strange FBI agents (or alleged FBI agents). As a 7 issue mini it will have a definite end to work towards, so I will be picking up the rest of the issue.

Mandrake's art is excellent as usual (his run on the Spectre with John Ostrander is one of my favorite comic runs of all time). I especially loved the look of Melrin in this. So much character in the expressions of a big cat.

I also picked up (but haven't read) Green Arrow #7-heard bad things about the first 6 but Ann Nocenti takes over on this issue and her Daredevil run was another favorite of mine, so I am checking out the issue to see what its like.

-M

[buck]

I bought GA #7 too first four were awful. Dropped it for 5-6 and now giving Ann Nocenti a shot.

[Deleted]

Read GA 7. I'm torn. Nocenti looks like she is setting up something interesting, but Ollie as portrayed in the book (which is what she inherited I guess) is just such a tool that I don't know if I want to read a book about him. Shame too, because Ollie is a favorite of mine in his classic portrayal.

-M

[C_Miller]

Yeah. I think Green Arrow is probably the biggest dropped ball with The New 52. When I first jumped from DC to Marvel, I picked up Green Arrow #34, The Flash #207, JSA #59, JLA #94, Teen Titans #8, Aquaman #15, Green Lantern #176 and Batman #620.

While I enjoyed pretty much everything I got (all jumping on points, mind you. What ever happened to those?), Green Arrow was the far and away favorite. Green Arrow was unlike any hero I had ever encountered before and it was refreshing. While I became a bigger fan of The Flash and the entirety of the JSA and I've been a fan of the Batman mythos since I was like 2, I still credit Green Arrow as the reason I became a DC fan.

So that makes the new Green Arrow an even bigger travesty. They just took everything that made the character great in the first place. And they turned him into a rather generic cool-guy badass rogue with an arrow gimmick, similar to Ultimate Hawkeye.

I do remain optimistic about Noccenti though. This first issue had its problems, but I think that there is definitely hope for the future.