RadioactiveGazz

@kaiklown: I've noticed that seems to be the common opinion around these parts. Enough so that it momentarily made me question why I like Death of the Family so much. I questioned if I was missing something or if everyone else was.
Then I realised that it seems to be common opinion around here that The Wake is well written, so I'm inclined to trust my own thoughts over the population of this site on this one.

Cool, I may need to check it out, though at the minute, I'd rather make a straight line to Messiah Complex :)

Comics in general are maddening to people like me. Every major must-read event branches off to 73 million side stories, spin offs and other events.

So I'm currently eyeing up Messiah Complex. I have House of M, and I have the big and mostly-inessential House of M: No More Mutants thing full of side stories plus a single issue depicting The Day After. I own Endangered Species too, but understand there's some stuff in between I need. I'm a crazy person who likes to own full stories and not just various parts (I'm sure some of you can relate), so what TPB books would you say I require to bridge House of M and Messiah Complex?

Would Decimation: The Day After, Deadly Genesis and Endangered Species cut it? Or am I missing something?

OK, so I have been pretty vocal about this series (I don't think anyone noticed). I love Scott Snyder, and I love the art by Sean Murphy. But the first issue was so utterly riddled with cliche that it almost came across as comedic parody (like A Touch of Cloth, if anyone knows that). I was surprised it was Scott Snyder behind it. Anyway, issue 2 was a lot better, but still heavy on cliche, but since they were no longer introducing characters, there was less opportunity.

Then comes this issue, and I thought it utterly sublime. I am now VERY excited for how this is going to go turn out. I hope this issue wasn't a fluke, because other than a single (and not offensively terrible) cliche, I found this issue to be panel-by-panel perfect.

Watched it without reading Flashpoint, it was awesome regardless.

@longbowhunter: I'm talking more about the abysmal dialogue than any elements of the concept itself. Literally every line of the first issue was an absolute cliche. I think the comparisons to The Thing and The Abyss are kinda favorable ones, even if it does detract from the originality of the series. Other than a monologuing Owl Man in Batman, I've never felt Snyder's dialogue to fall victim to cliche, so to have him then go and write something like this is puzzling. All it needed was for one character to be described as a "Maverick" or a "Loose Canon" and I would have just put the book down and not continued.

I just can't understand why this series s getting such great reviews. Issue one was full of so many cliches, it hurt to read. I was rolling my eyes at every panel. The concept is awesome, and so is the art, and I'm a huge fan of Snyder's other work, but the writing here has been so bad that I questioned if he was writing parody. Second issue was much less of a cliche-offender, with the positive outweighing the negatives. I will keep reading. I just don't understand 2 glowing reviews when the first issue felt like it was written with a pre-set template of some kind.

@V_Scarlotte_Rose: City of Owls, Vol. 2 of Batman comes this April, and the last issue that arrived from that was late 2012. I personally would say we will see Vol. 3 arrive before christmas, but that's a hope more than anything.

EDIT: Furthermore, Vol. 1 was released 2 months after the last issue (issue 7) included was released. Unsure why issue 2 looks to come so long after, but there might be hope for seeing Vol. 3 sooner rather than way later.

So I was reading back through some of the batman issues so far, and realised Batman Issue Zero was still left without an ending. With current story arc complete, and seemingly a 2 part story to follow it, then a huge story arc after, I can't seem to find where the release of the conclusion to that issue is likely to be released. Anyone know something I don't on this matter?

I would also like to know your thoughts on which volume, if any, these stories will be contained in. Also, when do you think Death of the Family will be released as a hardback book?

Joss Whedon on writing. John Cassaday was perfect for that, but I would also take anything from Capullo at this point, and Jae Lee is always fun. Though neither of those would necessarily fit with Whedon's writing.

So pretty much Whedon/Cassaday.