also the current Miles Morales run of Ultimate Spider-Man is really good and was specifically designed as a good jumping on point for people who ain't read it up to that point
it's an interesting perspective on the concept of a "legacy character", the idea that Miles is the second dude to be Spider-Man and instead of angsting about his dead uncle, he feels the weight of responsibility to live up to the heroic mantle he took upon himself
His whole storyline is going kind of slow, that's my only complaint.
Ultimate Spider-Man continues to be great, just as it was with Peter Parker.
superheroes are awesome and i keep wanting to get into comics but it's just too vast and intimidating and i don't know where to start diving in
Just pick a point. If you run into continuity questions then just ask Pony, Jacob or myself. If we can't answer them between the three of us, I'd be shocked.
but which point!! there are so many!
Tell us a character or group you're interested in and we can give you a bunch of points.
um i like the avengers in theory but really i think i only like iron man and captain america
superheroes are awesome and i keep wanting to get into comics but it's just too vast and intimidating and i don't know where to start diving in
I feel this way too.
I want to get into Marvel comics, but (and maybe this is just comic book nerds being comic book nerds) I am told that picking up any particular run of comics is like summer-salting through a minefield.
People who say this are people who dont read funnybooks
I mean, you're not going to injure yourself I you miss a throwaway reference to something from years back
Also the 80s and 90/ were a while ago
Superhero comics have a real hard on for being approachable and not insular right now
You would need zero background to read any of DC's new comics
It doesn't really matter who was in the x-men or avengers a decade ago most of the time
also the current Miles Morales run of Ultimate Spider-Man is really good and was specifically designed as a good jumping on point for people who ain't read it up to that point
it's an interesting perspective on the concept of a "legacy character", the idea that Miles is the second dude to be Spider-Man and instead of angsting about his dead uncle, he feels the weight of responsibility to live up to the heroic mantle he took upon himself
His whole storyline is going kind of slow, that's my only complaint.
Ultimate Spider-Man continues to be great, just as it was with Peter Parker.
I never touched the Ultimate Universe until Morales showed up. :^:
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GonmunHe keeps kickin' me inthe dickRegistered Userregular
Gotta side with my fellow Canuck on this one Monkey. Moore is definitely better then Dalton.
Putting on my serious face for a moment, I really did like Daniel Craig's reboot Bond in Casino Royale. It's a shame that was followed up by Quantum of Solace, but that's neither here nor there.
I did too. Given that it was supposed to be from the perspective of Bond first starting out he did really good job. QoS was meh to me though. Just sort of seemed a bit off to me. I'm hoping the next one is a bit better.
all i remember is that in grade school we usually had our field day on may day and they did those may pole things
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VanguardBut now the dream is over. And the insect is awake.Registered User, __BANNED USERSregular
The biggest problem modern comics have is the ability to tell a self-contained story. The on-going monthly series that have a million tie-ins are the worst.
The good news is that each of the big two companies offer mini and maxi series with your favorite characters.
they should just let christopher nolan write all the batmans
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
@Dread Pirate Arbuthnot I think the cartoons are a good point. Either the Avengers cartoon or the Batman, Superman and Justice League animated series. They give you the basics of what you need to know without having to dig through 40 year old books that you might not be interested in.
superheroes are awesome and i keep wanting to get into comics but it's just too vast and intimidating and i don't know where to start diving in
I feel this way too.
I want to get into Marvel comics, but (and maybe this is just comic book nerds being comic book nerds) I am told that picking up any particular run of comics is like summer-salting through a minefield.
generally speaking, a series' numerical issue value is an indicator of how far along it is into a specific run or storyline
for example, if you start reading Astonishing X-Men with issue #47, which came out this year, that is a mistake
if you start reading Astonishing X-Men with issue #1 (which came out in 2004), that is fine
"Issue #1" for comic book series nowadays are RARELY the first instance of that character starting out and shit, given the myth cycle nature of comics i just mentioned
however, if a comic book company is starting a spin-off or retooled series with "issue #1" then that is generally intended to be a jumping on point for new fans and the first few issues of that new series will try to ease you into learning these characters and what story it is trying to tell
if you start reading Astonishing X-Men from issue #1, are you going to get the over thirty years of continuity nods, in-jokes, references, etc. that long time fans will? no
but you won't be lost
comic books are not this impenetrable wall that non-fans think they are
i blame troglodytes who want to keep non-fans out of their hobby for that mentality
JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
Hi-five @Dynagrip and @Pony for remembering Spider-Man 2099. That was a pretty rad book considering I never in a million years would have guessed "Cyberpunk Spider-Man" could be a thing and actually work.
4 year costs, graduation in 2020:
Public $93k
Private $187k
2025:
$113k
$211k
2030:
$136k
$237k
*shudder*
It's a bubble, and it's unsustainable. I'm hoping the whole facade will crumble in the next two years - let the bloodletting commence before I have to start paying for it!
It's going to require direct federal intervention, though, or else we're completely fucked. And I don't trust the government to make the hard choices they'll need to make.
So what will probably happen is costs will continue to rise, the bubble will burst, all but the most prestigious colleges will severely curtail their services, leading to a greater gap in educational opportunities between the richest and the poorest students, which will cause the US to have a disadvantage competing against countries with more centrally-managed higher education systems in education-heavy industries like technology.
College services need to be curtailed, severely. IMO, your line of thought is part of the problem. A lot of the problem with the post-secondary education system is how little educating it gets done relative to the money it spends. Unfortunately, I think you're right about the outcome because the college administrators can't be relied upon to trim the fat while maintaining their core mission of educating students.
It'd be possible to massively slash tuition and still provide a good education, but it would require cutting a lot of campus sacred cows and increasing the actual teaching output of the faculty. Neither of these things will happen in any institution I'm familiar with, because the people with the power to do the cutting won't do it.
Once the correction is over, education will be far more accessible to the poor and seriously, considering the student loan burden these young folks are laying on themselves, the reality now is that education itself is a giant drain on the economy that often provides very little value for money.
The flip side to this is the desperate need to stop requiring a college degree for work that doesn't require a college degree.
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ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
superheroes are awesome and i keep wanting to get into comics but it's just too vast and intimidating and i don't know where to start diving in
Just pick a point. If you run into continuity questions then just ask Pony, Jacob or myself. If we can't answer them between the three of us, I'd be shocked.
but which point!! there are so many!
Tell us a character or group you're interested in and we can give you a bunch of points.
um i like the avengers in theory but really i think i only like iron man and captain america
uh
the x-men are cool i guess i liked the movies
For the Avengers, start with Busik's run. It's good, modern take that will give you lots of the Captain America and Iron Man you crave. Along with a healthy dose of the Thor you didn't realize you needed. And you need some Thor.
For Captain America, Brubaker's run is brilliant and modern.
For X-Men, I'd start with the early Claremont. Not all of it has aged well, but if you make it through Claremont's run then you will understand the twisted continuity of X-men.
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DynagripBreak me a million heartsHoustonRegistered User, ClubPAregular
I loved Spider-Man 2099. I think I'm missing like one issue of it. Kind of went off the rails a little bit at the very end but I think that was more due to the fact that Marvel was closing up shop on all of the 2099 titles.
Tell us a character or group you're interested in and we can give you a bunch of points.
Sentry.
Right, so the best starting point for Sentry is to put the fucking books with Sentry down and pick up something good. Perhaps the silent issue of G.I. Joe.
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
I actually want to check out a Charles Atlas manual sometime. The interesting thing is that Dynamic Tension apparently actually worked, if you followed it.
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VanguardBut now the dream is over. And the insect is awake.Registered User, __BANNED USERSregular
it was this weird cyberpunk future where the influence of decades of super-heroes existing has had a dramatic effect on culture and shit
for example, in 2099, Norse religion is a pretty big major world religion, eclipsing Christianity
due to the fact that the Norse gods are real and Thor is a real guy who runs around doing real things
it's very easy for a religion to sell that!
and it came up in some subtle ways, for example Punisher 2099's family was subject to a viking funeral and Punisher was all bitter and cynical about Norse religion, shrugging his shoulders at it
Posts
His whole storyline is going kind of slow, that's my only complaint.
Ultimate Spider-Man continues to be great, just as it was with Peter Parker.
um i like the avengers in theory but really i think i only like iron man and captain america
uh
the x-men are cool i guess i liked the movies
Ultimate Spider-Man, it's the least intimidating comic ever!
People who say this are people who dont read funnybooks
I mean, you're not going to injure yourself I you miss a throwaway reference to something from years back
Also the 80s and 90/ were a while ago
Superhero comics have a real hard on for being approachable and not insular right now
You would need zero background to read any of DC's new comics
It doesn't really matter who was in the x-men or avengers a decade ago most of the time
I never touched the Ultimate Universe until Morales showed up. :^:
I did too. Given that it was supposed to be from the perspective of Bond first starting out he did really good job. QoS was meh to me though. Just sort of seemed a bit off to me. I'm hoping the next one is a bit better.
all i remember is that in grade school we usually had our field day on may day and they did those may pole things
The good news is that each of the big two companies offer mini and maxi series with your favorite characters.
generally speaking, a series' numerical issue value is an indicator of how far along it is into a specific run or storyline
for example, if you start reading Astonishing X-Men with issue #47, which came out this year, that is a mistake
if you start reading Astonishing X-Men with issue #1 (which came out in 2004), that is fine
"Issue #1" for comic book series nowadays are RARELY the first instance of that character starting out and shit, given the myth cycle nature of comics i just mentioned
however, if a comic book company is starting a spin-off or retooled series with "issue #1" then that is generally intended to be a jumping on point for new fans and the first few issues of that new series will try to ease you into learning these characters and what story it is trying to tell
if you start reading Astonishing X-Men from issue #1, are you going to get the over thirty years of continuity nods, in-jokes, references, etc. that long time fans will? no
but you won't be lost
comic books are not this impenetrable wall that non-fans think they are
i blame troglodytes who want to keep non-fans out of their hobby for that mentality
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin
Daniel Craig is my favorite "serious" Bond.
smashing capitalism
I'm going to spend the week not drinking with SiGmund so you can do your little thing too. Let us give and receive moral support, comrade.
Sentry.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Me too.
LOL
College services need to be curtailed, severely. IMO, your line of thought is part of the problem. A lot of the problem with the post-secondary education system is how little educating it gets done relative to the money it spends. Unfortunately, I think you're right about the outcome because the college administrators can't be relied upon to trim the fat while maintaining their core mission of educating students.
It'd be possible to massively slash tuition and still provide a good education, but it would require cutting a lot of campus sacred cows and increasing the actual teaching output of the faculty. Neither of these things will happen in any institution I'm familiar with, because the people with the power to do the cutting won't do it.
Once the correction is over, education will be far more accessible to the poor and seriously, considering the student loan burden these young folks are laying on themselves, the reality now is that education itself is a giant drain on the economy that often provides very little value for money.
The flip side to this is the desperate need to stop requiring a college degree for work that doesn't require a college degree.
For the Avengers, start with Busik's run. It's good, modern take that will give you lots of the Captain America and Iron Man you crave. Along with a healthy dose of the Thor you didn't realize you needed. And you need some Thor.
For Captain America, Brubaker's run is brilliant and modern.
For X-Men, I'd start with the early Claremont. Not all of it has aged well, but if you make it through Claremont's run then you will understand the twisted continuity of X-men.
Right, so the best starting point for Sentry is to put the fucking books with Sentry down and pick up something good. Perhaps the silent issue of G.I. Joe.
The Sentry miniseries by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee. It's a really nifty little self-contained story and Jae Lee is just a tremendous artist.
Read All-Star Superman. Just shut up and read it, we both know I'm right.
I've been tryinG to repress the desire to point that out for like 2 pages
Sort of. I tried looking up a theorem I needed and it just keeps redirecting me here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creationism
Batman is exciting for his villains. I think the character himself is pretty boring.
Superman is awesome only so long as Lex Luthor and Brainiac are involved.
I don't give a shit about spiderman.
So you're a Wolverine fan, eh?
Yep. Also, DON'T read All-Star Batman and Robin.
oh no
"we both know i'm right"
"of course i'm right, i'm talking"
i'm not tolerating this
putting my foot down
no superman
no superman ever
it was this weird cyberpunk future where the influence of decades of super-heroes existing has had a dramatic effect on culture and shit
for example, in 2099, Norse religion is a pretty big major world religion, eclipsing Christianity
due to the fact that the Norse gods are real and Thor is a real guy who runs around doing real things
it's very easy for a religion to sell that!
and it came up in some subtle ways, for example Punisher 2099's family was subject to a viking funeral and Punisher was all bitter and cynical about Norse religion, shrugging his shoulders at it
it was little details like that
Really awful writing/plotting
That's the one where Batman yells at someone that he's the Goddamn Batman, yeah?
Check out my site, the Bismuth Heart | My Twitter
Cass, every time you argue with me, you're wrong. About red sauce. About sandwiches. The list goes on and on.