They are! Not least of which because the average level of craft (at least on the art side of things) was higher back before the nineties.

As far as I can tell, there's no rhyme or reason to what they decide to feature, beyond what their critics want to write about. I'm sure Oliver (who appears to be their lead comics critic) makes some consideration based on what might drive traffic; The AV Club writing about Spawn might generate some hits from non-core…

Which outlet did you write for at the time?

Oliver wrote about Clean Room in the latest Big Issues instalment; I seem to recall he made some observations about the general state of the line.

Although I have a hard time defining myself as a fan of anything, these days, I'm definitely one of the people who would disagree with your take on VM. Rewatching the show in anticipation of the movie, I was quite taken with the world-building Thomas and company did in those first two seasons. The stand-alone stories…

Yep, some of those Bendis- and Ennis-led events were really solid. Which made Loeb and Millar's events all the more aggravating; all that wasted potential.

Even though I haven't got the money to spend there at the moment, I'm trying to get back into the habit of visiting my local comics shops, just for the invaluable insight it gives into the state of the medium. It's just so rewarding to be able to touch and look at books I've only read about online, or to see how the…

Ta for the lowdown; I'm champing at the bit to read this now. From the previews, the art looks really lovely as well.

I'd recommend giving it another whirl; unlike VM, iZombie gets stronger as it goes. Maybe a positive side effect of it being an adaptation?

The prices for the digital offerings on his site are pretty hard to beat. I should really give him a whirl, even though it seems a bit outside my wheelhouse.

Yassss

I have no problem understanding Marvel's desire to wash their hands of all Card-related things, but I was disappointed to see that retcon.

I'm with you on the new book; Oliver was raving about it on Twitter the other day. And it's best to focus on the positive with WW, lest we remember the state of her main DCU titles.

Yeah, I gathered that from the solicitation description. The show not being a straight adaptation is just added value, as I see it. Regardless of the differences, I don't really expect to be disappointed, given Allred and Roberson's pedigrees.

Plutonia's good, then? I've been eyeing the first two issues in Image's current digital sale.

Yeah, I'm with you on that. Reading all of it in a short space of time, the X-Men's branch of that universe felt ridiculously unnecessary. There wasn't a single part of those stories that felt like they offered up anything new or different; at least with the power of hindsight.

I don't think I've ever read anything of Gischler's that didn't come across as hacky (inoffensive, but hacky), so it could very well be that the lion's share of the blame should be laid at his door. It's easy to forget that the writer carries part of the responsibility for the visuals of a comic.

Too right.

I looked at the preview for this week's issue of the latter. My distaste for the kind of lifeless, likeness-enslaved "realistic" art that Will Conrad is doing there has grown to the point of disgust lately. I know it's a dogmatic viewpoint to take, but I kinda don't feel like that stuff is real comics.

Yeah, there was so much interesting stuff this week! I've another ten or fifteen items to go to finish it, still. Anyone complaining about there not being enough good comics today is obviously a crazy person.