RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books R3P0 (for gayla): Avengers Dissasembled/House of M vs. Identity/Infinite Crisis

Price:
Marvel-$41 for two tpb
DC-Like a hundred (and I haven't even bought most of the tie-ins)
Story:
Marvel-Without reading any Avengers comics before it, I was introduced to the scenario and the characters, the story was told and I felt how the events had a big impact on the marvel universe. Also, having never read Avengers, Bendis did a damn fine job of making me care about Hawkeye's death, and how monumentally sad it was that the team was ending this way. It played out like a classic tragedy.
DC-I've known and loved the DC characters since I was 12 and, to be honest I was confused half the tiem and apathetic the other half. Johns writing is so heavy handed, cliched, and corny that I was really rooting for the villains to just kill everyone by the end of issue 2. Also, not feeling up to buying 4 tpb tie-in stories and the umpteen crossover related titles, I felt confused most of the time.

Story Details:
DC-Superman of Earth 2 can't accept that his 90 year old human wife is dying peacefully of old age, Superboy-prime is pissy because he never had a childhood, and Alex Luthor is evil despite being from a backwards world where the Luthors are good.
Superboy-Prime punches through a wall, which causes every story over the last 18 years in comics and then has this complex plan to launch 4 mini-series.
Also, Sue Dibny is killed because Jean Loring wants to make her husband (who she left) love her again, despite his always carrying a torch for her.
Then she becomes Eclipso, Luthor puts on his green armor, Superboy-prime moves planets with his bare hands, and Hal Jordan is back.
Marvel-Scarlet Witch has a history of going crazy (I looked it up, not a retcon). One day she snaps and uses her powers to cause a whole shitstorm to fall on her friends who she blames for the loss of her imaginary children (also an old story, not a retcon). They confront her and she is placed in a coma. She then wakes up and undergoes therapy but everyone knows that won't work and consider killing her. Her brother gets to her and convinces her to remake the world. A young girl is able to undo memory blocks in people and Wolverine gets her to free certain key heroes so they know what's going on and can stop the Scarlet Witch.
Ramifications: DC is a tangled mess that will take the 52 issue series to understand. Most of the changes seem to be geered at pleasing whiny messageboard fans (seriously, this looks like every complaint on messageboards over hte past 5 years is being addressed).
Marvel has created several new teams, Wolverine has his memories back, and the mutant population is down to a manageable level so that they're actually a minority group again.

Conclusion: After all the complaints about the 90's crossovers getting out of hand, it seems almost suicidal for DC to do a crossover this big that requires more money than most adults (and any kid) is able/willing to spend on comics.
As I said already, Bendis story was easy to get into (and I literally am a "new reader" when it comes to the Avengers) and it was cheap enough to get into. I didn't need the tie-in tpb to understand either story, and I was satisfied.
In other words, Marvel has earned some respect and interest from me, while DC has managed to alienate me from titles and characters I grew up with.


Rob is gay.

Rob's never going to let you be a mod again!

Interesting, Ray, that you count every book associated with the Crises, but only count the two trades for Disassembled and House of M, conveniently neglecting their related tie-ins. Revealing a bit of a Marvel bias, Ray?

In all seriousness, that was a good recap by r3xyz4a.

If I wasn't consumed with destroying him and everything he stands for, I would start a petition to make him a mod of this forum again.

Oh well.

The Marvel bias seeps through unconditionally in that review. I'm sure Quesada is paying you well...

he pays him in arse fucks!

Ray must think he's richer than Bill Gates!!!

Nicely played!

While I agree with Ray, I believe the reason he truly chose Marvel over DC is because House of M #7 (the cover Ray chose to post) comes as close to showing an exposed schlong as super heroe comics dare.

My main complaint w/ House of M is that if you choose to read the tie ins you realise that there wasn't a whole lotta communication between writers. I mean How can you justfy House of M Spiderman with the rst of the continuity? Wich is it was he picked up in the street by teh Mutants to defeat Magneto or did he run off and live on a campground for the rest of his life?

Keyword: dcp

BELIEVE IT!

Dissasembled

While Bendis did weave past continuity well, he did it hamfistedly and needless killed off many Avengers. It was like a sad devolution into a soap-opera with the checklists of fallen Avengers and the covers: 'One of these 4 Avengers will die this issue. Which one?'

While the story did make sense in that she went off her rocker and it permanently damaged the Avengers, it also had a few mistakes

. Strange said 'Chaos magic' doesn't exist, even though he's supposedly used it himself a few times

. Magneto carrying his daughter off at the end. Im not sure of Magneto's standing around this time, but im pretty sure the Avengers still viewed him as a mad terrorist. Allowing him to carry off a psycho reality warper didn't make too much sense


House of M

It was OK, though it was another Marvel 'alternate reality' affair, something I normally object too because you know its meaningless to give a shit about a mutant populated world

AoA did it better, but it was still interesting that Quicksilver was the one who fucked everyone over and the lasting effects it spawned, even if Spider-mans perfect life seems to have been forgotten

Im not happy that they regressed the Mutant population back to a minority. It undercut Joss Whedons superior writing in Astonishing X-men, and set the X-franchise back another decade after Grant Morrison tried to move things forward


Identity Crisis

All good until the final issue, which made me regret buying any of them

Some interesting stories spawned from the series, but Dr. Light crossed into too many titles seeking revenge for me to care. The Flash tie-in was interesting, even though Geoff Johns undercut his own work with the Rogues over his 61 issues on the title


IC

Im not sure about IC yet. I've only bothered to read #1, and I've heard mixed statements about the need for the tie-ins

Its certainly the most interesting to me, but certain things involved in it bug me

. The amount of crossovers tied in to it are ridiculous. The 4 build up mini-series' were OK, but then you have the 7 issue series, the 4 specials to wrap up the mini-series', the need to pick up a few outside comics involved in the event, like Wonder Woman #219, the supposed need to pick up that Superman issue where the 2 Superman fight, aswell as the Secret Files if you want tp grasp of the motivation. Then the 52 issue series at $2.50 a pop

. The way they handled things is poor. Blaming revivals on Superboy-Prime punching a wall, trying to fix editorial mistakes like the Doom Patrol by saying they planned it, and then creating this new Earth that is basically another retcon. Not to mention key plot points have already been given away by their half-assed schelduling, like the regular Superboys death, and already knowing everything that comes out of all this because OYL later is here before IC has even finished





Overall I just about give it to DC, but substitute Avengers Dissasembled for the Mark Millar written Civil War and it will most likely be a different story

Those shells were bad mothas yo!