After the re-boot of eighty percent of the Marvel titles I came to a grand and economically sound realization. For collectors, direct subscribing to big titles such as , Avengers, New Avengers, X-Men books and basically all the BIG TITLE crossovers, they should stop giving the $$$ to Marvel and read these titles digitally.

Ok....I say this because,.....

although one of my favorite sribes, Johnathan Hickman seems to be recycling the Ilumminati for New Avengers. (replacing Xavier with Captain America and Black Panther) Boring!!!

Recall this being done in "Road to Civil War," and Vol 1. of Bendis' classic New Avengers.

And HELLO?!!! What happened to Avengers Vol. 2? THE HEROIC AGE?!!!!There was a trainwreck of marketing if I ever saw one. Was that done only to make sense of the reign of Norman Osborn? If it had been, I wouldn't have demanded Bendis' towel be thrown in.

It is evident that Marvel needed to cash in Mr. Hickman's unparalled run on Fantastic Four (570-end of Vol. 1 and FF-Future Foundation) which wasn't getting the critical acclaim it now receives.... ...(for me much better than Millar, though he and Hitch were great...) Hickman reinvented a title I had stopped reading after John Byrne's wonderful run.

FF itself was lost in a blur of stupid criticism because of Spidey being there....THAT'S NOT THE POINT!!! FF was Valeria and Franklin as well as the stray kids in the Baxter building to adventure unlike their predecessors had before....Inhumans....UNCLE DOOM!!! C'mon people...we know the kids are smarter than all of us...

The first volume of Future Foundation illustrated beautifully by Steve Epting. (Mr. Epting, of Captain America fame, also Illustrated my sequential-art literary idol Ed Brubaker's "Marvel Projects," most of the market missed it but no me...NO...I have all of the issues as well as the cool variant covers. By cool I mean there were only 2 covers of each issue and variants were cover price. READ THIS UNSUNG CLASSIC TODAY!)

So now we see Hickman giving the two biggest Marvel books, Avengers and New Avengers (which are essentially the Iluminati)

Although Secret Avengers is still my favorite Avengers title, from Brubaker, Remender and right into Vol. 2 by the Steranko prodigy Nick Spencer)

And although Mr. Hickman did do the wonderful thing in reaching back to Jim Shooter's and John Romita Jr.'s "New Universal" (then superbly re-imagined by Warren Ellis) to bring Starbrand aboard the flagship Avengers book, why fuck around? Starbrand is arguably the MOST POWERFUL character Marvel has EVER created....(Go ahead and try to argue that one Nerds)...now it's in continuity with the regular Marvel universe, cool...but is INFINITY a joke? Meaning this nonsense will go on FOREVER, draining serious collectors bank reserves while capitalizing on the American version of Warren Ellis. Sorry, but Hickman was his own until the re-boot. Now he is trying to emulate an innovator like Ellis and I'll be damed if I'm going to drop 4$ on each Infinty issue. I read them digitally and have no problem with saving the money. Friends give me the codes...I download the issues they spend $$$ on.

I am glad that the last crossover I bought each issue of was Shadowland. Diggle and Co. segued horn-heads dark times perfectly into Mark Waid's re-invisioning of the 60's swashbuckler. The Silver-Age nod being done by Waid so magistically...as well as the magnificent Punisher run buy Greg Rucka and co.makes me say this: ONLY SPEND $$$ ON MARVEL'S STREET HEROES!!! Waid's Daredevil (arguably the BEST comic to be publish since 2011) Punisher by Rucka, Fraction's brilliant Hawkeye with David Aja.

Moon Knight was (like 2010's Spider-Woman, tragically stopped during Bendis' and Maleev's peak of collaborative powers) awesome and don't forget the noticabley absent Iron Fist....(god I wish that book would be done again...Brubaker and Fraction at the top of the street-level hero game.

Fear Itself was CRAP ITSELF....Fraction trying to write up the hype for the Captain America film....I'm still begging friends to take the issues since I wasted $$$ on the trade as well.

Age Of Ultron was the last straw...cool beginning, the Vision being Ultron's unwilling proy turns into a story essentially about Wolverine....sorry...Mr. Bendis, you and Hickman need to STAY AWAY from super-hero stories and concentrate on the brilliantly owned projects you do for the smaller publishers. Like Ed Brubaker, stick to what you are best at....hence the brilliant FATALE, SLEEPER, CRIMINAL, AND OF COURSE SCENE OF THE CRIME. I don't care what anyone says....Bendis stole Alias from Brubaker in Scene and just put it in the super-hero world. I cringe when Alias is ever referred to as a comics masterpiece....more like a cover of a project he created POWERS and Scene of The Crime...sorry...you won't find my praise for Alias by Bendis...it's regurgitated material traversed long before by Ed Brubaker.

All the others...from Avengers Dissassembled to Seige were a Brian Bendis testament to continuity and ingenuity right up until Dark Reign.

JOHNATHAN HICKMAN'S BEST, In Order:

5) Ultimate Thor

4) Future Foundation Vol.1

3) The Ultimates &Ultimate Hawkeye (VOL. 2, 2011)

2) Manhattan Projects (IMAGE)

1) Fantastic Four 570-end of Vol 1.(If you remember the Alan Davis covers you were there)...the death of Johnny Storm made sense when Mr. Hickman was cutting his teeth....a special time indeed.

Back to Bendis:

A Chris Claremont for the 21st century...

BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS', in order:

5) Moon Knight (2011)

4) Spider-Woman (2010)

3) All Avengers books from Dis-assembled through New Avengers Vol 1. Dark Reign)

2) Powers (IMAGE/ICON)

1) Daredevil...(if he didn't have Brubaker do it for him...J/K!!!!) (2002-2005)

All the others...from Avengers Dissassembled to Seige were a Brian Bendis testament to continuity and ingenuity right up until Dark Reign.

Bendis is writing great new X-Men stuff...although...it's not worth the paper... not like his Daredevil...which I still think Brubaker ghost-wrote for him.

Bendis' X-Men aren't even close to as good as Jason Aaron's Wolverine & X-Men, notice it didn't get re-booted

(SELL YOUR ONIMBUS ALIAS AND BUY UP AS MANY ISSUES OF BENDIS' DD....worthy of the Frank Miller years....if not dare I say better...when Brubaker took over.

My point is this...in the digital age...save your $$$ and the trees that these recycled stories are being told on. It's not blasphemous to say that these creators are worth buying and reading in a smart and strategic economic fashion! We who like what we like shouldn't have to justify why we like it....(TO ALL THE SNOBS WHO ONLY READ "LITERARY" COMICS....yea yea...I read those when I was 12 and am still encountering them every month as a comic-reader today....)

COMICS DIDN'T START AND STOP WITH ALAN MOORE AND FRANK MILLER....(Jesus....Grant Morrison has outdone them and is still writing mainstream stuff!!!)

Until Marvel wakes up....stay on the level of the street and keep your mind in the New Universe....someday they will collide.

U wot m8?

@peppeyhare:

What's that?

I think Hickman's Illuminati is miles better than Bendis's version

@adewolf: u wot

Wrong forum. @razzatazz or @the_poet this needs a new home pls. Thank you

@wildvine: Moved.

i only support writers i like.

and with the digital rerelease of tons of classics i can turn to the digital versions to get my fix on my favorite characters.

I have no clue what you're trying to get at.

You continually leap around and make bizarre tangents that are barely related to your original starting points, you may want to edit this down and make it FAR more concise as it appears that you made it while you were feeling a bit "passionate". You may also wish to remove the swears, unfortunately on these forums that will get you banned (which I personally feel is a load of f***ing s***).

This. I have absolutely no idea what you are trying to get at.

But it seems that you are trying to argue your opinion that Marvel stories,like Infinity bores you (So far I love Infinity,but to each his own. We must have different definitions of what quality is)....and it seems you pick specific ones like AoU or Fear Itself (which were widely regarded as crap anyway).

Seriously,I have no idea what you are getting at,but it just seems like a huge opinion,so I really don't care.