(no subject)
Nothing really changes too much these days. Most of my daily non-work endeavors revolve around (predominantly Marvel) comics nowadays, whether through slowly collecting trades or creating as many VS decks as possible that involve stalling to turn 9 when Galactus shows up in all his glory and eats my opponent (I also like giving props to Dr. Strange allowing for my 7 cost Hulk to theoretically gain over 50 ATK, as I laugh because Overload is banned...). My trade library is growing by leaps and bounds. Here's a breakdown
DC:
The Watchmen
The OMAC Project
Villains United
Infinite Crisis (still haven't read it, as I need to pick up Day of Vengeance and Rann Thanagar to complete the build up series)
Marvel:
1602
House of M
Decimation: The Day After
Decimation: Generation M
Decimation: Son of M
Decimation: Sentinel Squad O.N.E.
Decimation: The 198
X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Wolverine: Origin
Astonishing X-Men 1
Astonishing X-Men 2
Astonishing X-Men 3
Ultimate Spider-Man 1
Ultimate Spider-Man 2
Ultimate Spider-Man 3
Ultimate Spider-Man 4
Ultimate Spider-Man 5
Ultimate Spider-Man 6
Essential Fantastic Four 1
Marvels
Indies:
Action Philosophers! Vol. 2
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #'s 1-3 (not trades, and this is the first ever series I will be buying in floppy form as it comes out)
So yeah. Marvels is one of the best books ever. The Astonishing X-Men stuff is really solid Whedony goodness. I thought Decimation (Especially Generation M and Son of M) was absolutely awesome as a bridge between the beginning avalanche of House of M leading into all this Civil War craziness. I do have four Civil War trades on order (the main trade, Punisher War Journal Vol. 1, Amazing Spider-Man and Wolverine), and I will be picking up the Road to Civil War trade tomorrow at work. The main reason I'm jumping headlong into this is to give me some sense of understanding for when I start to pick up World War Hulk and follow that as it comes out. Really looking forward to finally finding out exactly what happens in Civil War beyond the bare essentials everyone knows (Registration bad, Iron Man evil, Cap dead, etc.). Lots of people dump on it, but these are the same people that hated House of M, which I absolutely loved. Between all the Marvel madness, and DC's whole 52/One Year Later/Countdown stuff, it's a very exciting time to be a comic fan.
In other non-comic news, I think Edge may go down as one of the first truly smart heels that isn't married to the boss' daughter. The work he did last week in beating Kennedy for the Money in the Bank briefcase, and then immediately turning that around into winning the World Heavyweight Title at the end of the week on Smackdown shows just how damned smart the character is, not to mention the litany of battle royals he's won in the last year thanks to simply rolling out of the ring, waiting for everyone to clear each other out and dumping the last person as he's celebrating his premature victory. Sure, others have done the same thing on occasion, but I can think of three times in the past 6-8 months that Edge has used this tactic and ended up winning the match. I think the WWE is much more on track right now than they've been for a while. Co-branding all the PPVs has actually made for some more fluid storylines that may bridge the brands without completely nullifying the brand extension. With TNA still having some Russo related booking headaches (Lockdown was godawful), I think the E has the edge (get it?! HA!) right now as far as overall product is concerned.
As thrilled as I am that Ring of Honor's getting pay per views, it really does suck that TNA has had no choice but to pull all their talent. It makes perfect sense, but it feels a lot like when ECW finally got their TV deal, but lost Taz and the Dudleys right as they were getting their national exposure. All those big guys that built the company like Joe or Chris Daniels or Colt Cabana or Homicide are gone now, and as strong as their roster still is (with Morishima, KENTA and Marifuji making regular stops over from the East, as well as mainstays like Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness and Roddy Strong), it'll be weird to not see the ring doused in red light as the siren blares and Julius Smokes starts dancing around like a crazy person while Homicide stares down whoever he's about to destroy in the ring. It'll be interesting to see how things'll go now.
DC:
The Watchmen
The OMAC Project
Villains United
Infinite Crisis (still haven't read it, as I need to pick up Day of Vengeance and Rann Thanagar to complete the build up series)
Marvel:
1602
House of M
Decimation: The Day After
Decimation: Generation M
Decimation: Son of M
Decimation: Sentinel Squad O.N.E.
Decimation: The 198
X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Wolverine: Origin
Astonishing X-Men 1
Astonishing X-Men 2
Astonishing X-Men 3
Ultimate Spider-Man 1
Ultimate Spider-Man 2
Ultimate Spider-Man 3
Ultimate Spider-Man 4
Ultimate Spider-Man 5
Ultimate Spider-Man 6
Essential Fantastic Four 1
Marvels
Indies:
Action Philosophers! Vol. 2
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #'s 1-3 (not trades, and this is the first ever series I will be buying in floppy form as it comes out)
So yeah. Marvels is one of the best books ever. The Astonishing X-Men stuff is really solid Whedony goodness. I thought Decimation (Especially Generation M and Son of M) was absolutely awesome as a bridge between the beginning avalanche of House of M leading into all this Civil War craziness. I do have four Civil War trades on order (the main trade, Punisher War Journal Vol. 1, Amazing Spider-Man and Wolverine), and I will be picking up the Road to Civil War trade tomorrow at work. The main reason I'm jumping headlong into this is to give me some sense of understanding for when I start to pick up World War Hulk and follow that as it comes out. Really looking forward to finally finding out exactly what happens in Civil War beyond the bare essentials everyone knows (Registration bad, Iron Man evil, Cap dead, etc.). Lots of people dump on it, but these are the same people that hated House of M, which I absolutely loved. Between all the Marvel madness, and DC's whole 52/One Year Later/Countdown stuff, it's a very exciting time to be a comic fan.
In other non-comic news, I think Edge may go down as one of the first truly smart heels that isn't married to the boss' daughter. The work he did last week in beating Kennedy for the Money in the Bank briefcase, and then immediately turning that around into winning the World Heavyweight Title at the end of the week on Smackdown shows just how damned smart the character is, not to mention the litany of battle royals he's won in the last year thanks to simply rolling out of the ring, waiting for everyone to clear each other out and dumping the last person as he's celebrating his premature victory. Sure, others have done the same thing on occasion, but I can think of three times in the past 6-8 months that Edge has used this tactic and ended up winning the match. I think the WWE is much more on track right now than they've been for a while. Co-branding all the PPVs has actually made for some more fluid storylines that may bridge the brands without completely nullifying the brand extension. With TNA still having some Russo related booking headaches (Lockdown was godawful), I think the E has the edge (get it?! HA!) right now as far as overall product is concerned.
As thrilled as I am that Ring of Honor's getting pay per views, it really does suck that TNA has had no choice but to pull all their talent. It makes perfect sense, but it feels a lot like when ECW finally got their TV deal, but lost Taz and the Dudleys right as they were getting their national exposure. All those big guys that built the company like Joe or Chris Daniels or Colt Cabana or Homicide are gone now, and as strong as their roster still is (with Morishima, KENTA and Marifuji making regular stops over from the East, as well as mainstays like Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness and Roddy Strong), it'll be weird to not see the ring doused in red light as the siren blares and Julius Smokes starts dancing around like a crazy person while Homicide stares down whoever he's about to destroy in the ring. It'll be interesting to see how things'll go now.