Comics for this week

This week brought some really decent comics. I picked up Avengers:X-Sanction #3(of 4), X-Factor #231, Invincible #88, Clive Barker's Hellraiser #10, Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes #4(of 4), and finally Sergio Aragones Funnies #7.
     Avengers:X-Sanction continues our fight between Cable and Red Hulk. After a couple of funny bits courtesy of Blaquesmith we get a flashback that sheds some light on why Cable is so gung-ho against the Avengers. We see that (in the future) the Avengers have lots of tech that would be used to take down the X-Men. Cable blasts Rulk out the side of the ship, but it isn't enough. Rulk gets the upper hand and makes some vague threats until Cable lashes out and infects him with the Techno-Organic Virus. Cable then notices his virus receding in response, but no time to dwell on that because Hope and Cyclops show up to have words. This too is cut short because we need Spider-Man and Wolverine to show up and say something dumb. This book is pretty standard Event-fare. I'm just surprised that they are using Blaquesmith. A character that could have only come out of the 1990s and one that has largely been ignored ever since.
     X-Factor continues it's "they keep killing Madrox" story. I love this book. It doesn't always have the best art, but it's an incredibly fun read. I genuinely have no idea what's going to happen next from issue to issue. Right now, since MadroxPrime was killed, Jamie is jumping into the dead bodies of himself from other timelines. It's the same kind of thing we've seen recently in Batman books and Captain America books, but this time we get to see how Peter David would handle this type of story. This issue has Jamie stuck in a world where instead of saying "no more mutants", the Scarlet Witch said "no more humans." Tony Stark was in space when it happened, so he became one of the only humans to survive. He fought and killed nearly all the mutants using his technology and giant sentinel-like robot iron men. A Deathlok version of Captain America shows up and starts a battle with Iron Man. Jamie gets caught in the middle while trying to find out what's going on from the mysterious Mr. Tryp. Jamie almost gets flown to safety by one of his dupes and then dies in a humorous fashion only to wake up in the body of another Madrox. This time he's been killed by what looks to be Dormammu:the Sorcerer Supreme! I know all of that sounds confusing as hell, but it's such a fun book.
     Invincible brings us back to the stand-off between Alan and Invincible. Thragg shows up and tries to reason with Alan about why he shouldn't try to kill off all of the Viltrumites with his new virus. Some interesting dialogue happens and Alan is swayed by what Thragg has to say. Invincible's brother Oliver is not so easily swayed. Robot and some Gaurdians show up and a fight starts. Invincible tries desperately to control the situation and keep Thragg from killing all of them. In the confusion Oliver grabs the gun containing the virus and flies to Earth to finish what they came to do. Invincible flies after him and the two struggle over control of the virus until Oliver accidentally shoots Invincible in the face with the virus. Alan helps and tries to explain how the virus is spread to which Invincible just replies that he feels fine and his virus must not work very well, but we get a reveal at the end that it may be working better than he thinks. Bum bum bum. This book is consistently good every month. I love this book and implore everyone to read it.
     Hellraiser is like everything Clive Barker writes; some cool stuff happens and some incredibly confusing stuff happens. Kirsty has traded places with Pinhead. She believes that she can fight the good fight from within Hell. she, of course is finding that it's a little harder than she anticipated. Meanwhile, human Pinhead has been trying to remember who he is until Kirsty decides to let him have all his memories back. Human pinhead is flooded with all his memories of Hell. This book is strange. I love Hellraiser and having Clive Barker writing it makes this a must-have for me, but it's not the most exciting read every month. I would suggest waiting for a collections to read this book.
     Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes shows us why Dr. Zaius went from a human sympathizer to a human hater. This has been a good read and leads into another upcoming mini series. If you like the old films, you'd like this book. Get the collection when it comes out.
     Sergio Aragones Funnies delivers another fantastic issue. Aragones is one of the greatest cartoonists to have ever lived and this book is always full of poignant, touching, hilarious, and fun stories. Not to mention puzzles and fun stuff for kids. This book is a must-have for adults and children alike.
     This week delivered some good books. They aren't all the best that they can be, but I'll take it over the quality I sometimes get out of comics. Till next time, Taa Taa!

First Rant about comics

Hello and welcome to my blog. I’ve been told numerous times by friends that I needed to start one of these, so now I’m finally doing it. I want to say, up front, that I don’t always have perfect grammar and I know my wife will loathe me posting anything that isn’t perfect, but it’s going to happen. I’m going to screw up.  Expect run-on sentences, comma-splices, poorly worded sentences, and all of it written in a conversational style. I hope this won’t detract from what I’m saying or drive anyone away. So, without further ado…

Lately I’ve been reading a number of back-issues of Marvel Comics Presents. I noticed a lot of talented creators getting their start in those pages as well as some established creators doing some nice work. People like Joe Madureira, Jae Lee, Sam Keith, Peter David, Tim Truman, etc… I started thinking about how there isn’t a good anthology book on the newsstand today. Scratch that…Dark Horse has revived Dark Horse Presents which is attracting a lot of great talent. However, it stands alone and I have no idea how well it’s doing in terms of sales. I picked up a recent issue because it had a Ricardo Delgado story; A new Age of Reptiles tale. It was great.

            I started thinking about the state of comics today. They don’t sell as well as they used to, but they also seem to be more in the public consciousness. We’ve seen a number of comic book based movies do very well at the box-office lately. So, how is Marvel welcoming new readers that might want to check out an Avengers comic once they see the upcoming movie? They can go to their local comic shop and find…Avengers, New Avengers, Secret Avengers, Avengers Academy…wait…what the hell? How the hell is that a good thing for a new reader to find? X-men comics are known for having many different titles since the late 1980s. X-Men: First Class fans can go to their local comic shop and soon find 8 different X-titles to choose from. Not to mention one-shots or mini-series that may be out there.

            What if they could have one book called Avengers and one book called X-Men? They could have a back-up feature that would showcase stories of the other teams. Make the issues have a higher page count. Hell, make it a double sized book containing two complete issues. My other idea is that you could have an anthology book outside of the main title. You could have an Avengers ‘family’ anthology. It could contain stories of the Secret Avengers, the Avengers Academy, and the New Avengers. Deadlines could easily be met by the authors and the artists because they are only doing eight pages or so every month! You could do a special issue every now and then that might focus more on one of the particular titles. Do the same thing with the X-family of books. Fans of the movies can go to the store and find the Avengers comic or the X-Men comic and not feel daunted by the thought of 8 different titles from which to choose.

            It just seems strange, to me, that with comic books selling less and less that the big companies are putting out more and more titles. Where is the promotion? Where are the commercials on Saturday mornings? Where are the banners and ads on the internet? The only places I see comic books promoted are on comic book websites. Do you know where I see promotions for pills, anti-aging creams, cat litter, mops and brooms, etc…? They are EVERYWHERE online. I see them when I look at the weather, video game news, world news or just silly videos. I see ads for all the things previously listed and more. Where are the comic book ads? Comic books try and sell more books by bagging them or having variant covers, but the only people who are buying those gimmicks are the people buying comics in the first place and that pool is quickly drying.

            I bought my first comic book at the E-Z Mart gas station by my house. It was the last chapter in a story arc. I loved it. I bought more. I was a little confused by things, but I made my way through it and bought more. I still buy comics today because of that issue. I wish companies would put comics back in front of children. Distribute them to places people go; the grocery store and the convenience store. I also wish comic book companies would quit rebooting things and putting out new number one issues to try and get new readers. It didn’t matter to me that my first issue wasn’t a number one. Trust your creators to be able to make an interesting story that will entice readers whether it’s the first chapter or the last chapter of a story. If people know about it, they will buy it. If it’s good, people will continue to buy it.