Once a Stranger

Most of those are Yuletide fics; but perhaps not all. So yeah I finally finished reading all the Yuletide fics I meant to read this year - four months late! - but on the plus I'm pretty sure it's the first year I actually manage doing that instead of letting the last fics trail into forgettingness.

( norse mythology, marvel comics, the administration, death gate, book of the raksura, cyteen, amber, left hand of darkness, lion in winter, princess tutu, mad men,vorkosigan, revolutionary girl utena, dc comics  )

I don't think i'd posted yet on Black Widow (2010)

So, the Black Widow run by Liu was, like, really, really good. Hmm, why was it so ridiculously short? Great art too, and a great balance of atmosphere and badassness.

Then Swierczynski did a story too, which was okay, I guess.

Then I tried reading Widowmaker but I got bored so I gave up.

And I've finally concluded my reading of the Claremont era of X-Men.

The whole Outback - Siege Perilous era was mostly very weak, messy and aimless, with some highlights like the introduction of Jubilee and Gambit and it does get better by the ending though, when the team start gathering again. (although to my disappointment they never really acknowledge how douchy it was to play dead for such a long time)

Louise Simonson's X-Factor is overall mostly very solid, with a few weaker issues here and there, but I found myself surprisingly interested in those characters (given that I'm hardly a fan of the O5 as a team), also great art

Wish I could say the same of her New Mutants, but she's obviously more interested in her own characters (the X-Terminators one) than any of the previous ones. I do love Boom Boom and Rictor, though, so there's that. And the return to Asgard arc at least was okay.

Excalibur, I kind of love the character dynamics and characters period (well except for Brian), but I usually found it pretty hard following the plots and as a result caring for the stories. Lots of great art though.

Days of Future Present was very good.

I also read Vision Quest and Darker than Scarlet while I was at it, which were okay as stories if... wince worthy at times.


If anyone's still reading and has suggestion for 90's X-Men stuff that are worth bothering with, I'm all ears. Obviously, i'll try PAD's original X-Factor run, I'll continue Alan Davies' Excalibur and will try the Warren Ellis one, there's Lobdell's Generation X and the whole Age of Apocalypse I'll check out. And someone on tumblr persuaded me to try Nicieza's X-Force (I think they have psychic power). Beyond that...




Oh, and for something completely different, I've started reading Starman, which is very good.

Teaser:

Black Widow (Name of the Rose) x17
Loki (kid Loki, quotes) x16
X-Men (Mystique/Destiny, Kitty, Emma Frost, Hope) x4
Magnus family (Magneto, Children's Crusade, House of M - Civil War) x10
Demon Knights (Xanadu) x1

( under the cut )

If you want, please, comment & credit ♥

Read Freak Angels, which was very good. Gorgeous art and the story is entrancing start from finish. Reminded me a bit of la nuit des enfants rois.

The Immortal Iron-First

Aka the last chance for me to find out if Fraction actually can write or if everything he does is crappy. And, errr, yes, actually this was pretty damn good. Very solid storytelling, atmosphere, action and characterisation. Some of the one shot stories, especially, were really brilliant. Of course perhaps it was only due to Brubaker's co-writing XD The plot was a bit more so-so, with some strange skips here and there.

The follow up by Swierczynski was also solid, though a bit more aimless.

Immortal Weapons
Dog Brother #1 was good. The rest were mediocre. (Although Prince of the Orphan has some nice art of half naked Danny).

The first Robin miniseries

Well anything with Shiva is automatically good as far as I'm concerned. Overall a nice little story.

The second Robin miniseries

Cute stuff, especially the very 80's concept of computer virus OMG and what not. XD a solid story anyway.

But do I really want to read those 100 issues of the Robin on going by Dixon? Err, they're probably not bad and I'm sure it'll be somewhat entertaining, but I'm not sure I have the motivation, no.

That Vorkosigan / Gotham fuzion brainmeld I was mentionning earlier? runespoor7 posted the details: Gotham's Whole

Checkmate (Rucka)

Solid stories, and as always with Rucka, lots of badass women; but - well I think the big problem is I'm not that interested in spy stories (think I mentioned that while talking about Secret Warriors) especially in a superhero comic context when they're going to fight against ridiculous organisations - so I can't say I was gripped. Also I thought the ensemble cast dynamics failed to properly coalesced. Too many characters, perhaps, and too much on the jobs most of the time.

Not that I disliked it either, it's a good series. I just didn't think it was great.

Hickman's run on Fantastic Four (including Dark Reign: Fantastic Four & FF up to now)

Hickman has a way with long term storytelling that is very entertaining. I wasn't entirely sold on the story at first (note that the FF are probably, of Marvel's biggest franchises, the one I was the least familiar with or interesting in, so that doesn't help), but seeing plotlines converge and start having pay off is a thing of beauty.
On the other hand, I still hate sitcom family dynamics; the art is frequently crappy - especially on characters' face; Hickman sounds like a smug assholes in the letters in the back; and the poor Inhumans really are getting dragged right & left willy nilly depending on what authors from various corners of the marvel universe want to do with them, aren't they? Sad.

I've reached 50 icons in my folder of newly made icon, so I thought I'd post 'em. And wow, it's been a long time. Reading comics has been good on my icon making XD

5x Miscelleanous DC
16x Daken (& friends)
16x Deadpool (& friends)
12x Magneto
1x Black Lagoon

( hitherby icons )

If you like, please, comment & credit :D
If you like something, but would like some kind of fiddling, don't hesitate to ask.