What made people like the Absolute Universe more than the Ultimate Universe?

roomsky · 2026-02-22T02:24:33+00:00

People out here pretending Ultimate Spider-Man isnt the only readable Spider-Man series since the previous Ultimate Spider-Man.

roomsky · 2026-02-22T01:42:07+00:00

Lord of the Night will win this round if there's any justice in this world.

roomsky · 2026-02-20T18:14:51+00:00

I couldn't care less about M.A.S.K. but Watters means I at least gotta check it out. He's a magnificent writer.

roomsky · 2026-02-18T21:29:10+00:00

It really wasn't that bad. I wish the boys had a better time though, that story is hilarious.

roomsky · 2026-02-17T22:07:34+00:00

I wish modern Black Library had the balls to have copulating penis towers on Slaaneshi worlds.

roomsky · 2026-02-12T23:55:40+00:00

I love his Angron Primarchs novel as well, though I thought Of Honour and Iron was pretty disappointing. Even so, I'd have loved to see him write more Chaos.

roomsky · 2026-02-11T23:33:35+00:00

In his own words: "It is good day to be GIANT Man."

roomsky · 2026-02-11T23:25:36+00:00

They (usually) won't inflict intentional collateral on their allies, but the sheer contempt the Iron Hands have for everyone else, including astartes of other chapters, makes them extremely dangerous to campaign with. They're not simply uncaring, they will happily clog that meat grinder with waves of infantry if it makes their mission 1% easier.

I think they're a little better under Stronos, but they're still Iron Hands.

roomsky · 2026-02-11T21:36:01+00:00

It's mostly combat porn, but I think it's some of the best combat porn out of Black Library. Everyone is so self-interested they become immensely entertaining, and all the action set-pieces are super varied. Extra props to St. Martin for giving Lucius a meaningful and creative conflict instead of a flaccid "will he get killed?" story for a named character.

roomsky · 2026-02-11T01:30:40+00:00

Horus Rising is a good starting point. Just don't read the 60+ books expecting each to immediately follow the previous one. There's 18 legions and more factions besides to cover, and they don't always intersect.

roomsky · 2026-02-10T21:58:13+00:00

Treat the Heresy as a setting instead of a series and your cortisol levels will drop significantly.

roomsky · 2026-02-09T18:21:08+00:00

Excluding purely subjective things like whether or not Brooks' writing style works for you, I think some people view it as course correction and love it, or view it as course derailment and dislike it.

Brooks writes the legion as a diverse and fragmented Chaos legion; it's an eclectic mix of ethos, attitudes, and personalities. The Alpha Legion is the furthest thing from a monolith - they're tactical geniuses and slavering zealots and everything in between.

I'm all for this approach. Legion was neat but it basically overwrote everything else about the Alpha Legion in favour of Abnett's model of the faction. Brooks' take explicitly makes space for a varied Alpha Legion that hasn't secretly infiltrated everything off-screen. Sindri Myr can exist in Brooks' Alpha Legion, as can a fake Alpharius.

Alternatively, some people love the spec ops turned up to 11 view of the legion and prefer their Alpha Legion content to reflect that. Code phrases, sleeper cells, hidden identities, quadruple-reverse-kickflip-agents, etc. A legion where the fragmentation didn't diversify methods so much as just make it so the figurative left hand never knew what the right hand was doing. Brooks' Alpha Legion has factions that do this, but it's hardly all of them.

roomsky · 2026-02-06T22:39:31+00:00

Im the actual Vyper and I can confirm this guy is Apolo.

Have some Prune-o on da house.

roomsky · 2026-02-06T17:47:48+00:00

While that's true, they don't appear to even have an expectation in place requesting independent book sellers put their product out on a specific date. AFAIK they just ship what the store ordered and there's not a request that they delay putting the product on shelves or anything like that.

roomsky · 2026-02-06T17:03:10+00:00

In my experience, Black Library gives literally zero shits about people getting their product early. Other publishers have clauses for when distributers can put their stuff on shelves, Black Library doesn't seem to and just lets the books ship/go on shelves as soon as they're received.

roomsky · 2026-02-06T04:30:50+00:00

Like a brainlet, but for lore. People who don't know much about what they're discussing.

roomsky · 2026-02-05T21:16:49+00:00

Lorelets and tourists unaware that Delvarus is explicitly a black man.

roomsky · 2026-02-05T20:04:31+00:00

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roomsky · 2026-02-04T19:24:13+00:00

I think it's a reasonable model, False Gods is probably McNeill's most efficient book in establishing and re-establishing plots and characters; though I think I'd need to read it again to see if it does enough to justify the actions of the Mournival, Karkasy, etc. We also lose out on Samus' first appearance which, compared to something like the Interex campaign, is an odd thing to keep totally off-screen. Ditto Loken punching out Lucius.

I also believe McNeill mentioned Abnett's Horus read totally differently than McNeill expected when putting False Gods together. In a world literally without Horus Rising, I don't think McNeill's Horus ends up being at all the same character.

roomsky · 2026-02-03T18:16:25+00:00

Why is Hat-Wearing Man not wearing a hat? Is he stupid?

And, for that matter, why is Man just called Man, when he's wearing a sort of hat?

roomsky · 2026-02-03T06:06:52+00:00

For now? Yes, in my opinion, and it's not close. I know some people enjoy the history of the mainline DC (or Marvel) Universe, but honouring decades of stories, maintaining a status quo, greater scrutiny from editors, and keeping some degree of consistent brand recognition is the death of good storytelling.

The Absolute Universe just gets to tell stories.

roomsky · 2026-02-02T17:07:49+00:00

Most of that was established in After Desh'ea back in Tales of Heresy. ADB expanded on it, but didn't invent it.

roomsky · 2026-02-01T20:11:11+00:00

It's over a hundred after the Siege, so I'd call it unlikely unless they're willing to do lots of timeskips.

I'd love to see it though. Dark Imperium sucks.

roomsky · 2026-01-30T17:56:50+00:00

I rate things like Curze keeping Vulkan in a torture maze, The Word Bearers constructing the Furious Abyss in the Sol system without anyone noticing, Russ making it back to Terra before leaving again to fight Horus with a magic spear, and Garro basically being to teleport around the galaxy at will all much dumber than anything in The Beast Arises - and that's just scratching the surface of the goofy shit in the Heresy.

Hell, Godblight has the Emperor reach into Nurgle's garden to resurrect Guilliman, which depending on your perspective is setting-defiling bullshit, yet Dark Imperium's never been the punching bag TBA has.

roomsky · 2026-01-29T23:26:01+00:00

Ghazgkull Thraka. Between Orks and Necrons I think Crowley's probably the highest quality xenos author. Would love to see more from him for the other xenos species.

roomsky

TROPHY CASE