Comics I bought this week

This week was another slow week for me. I tried looking around for anything that might catch my eye, but the only thing that ever does are large hardcover collections and I don't have the money or time for those right now. This week I purchases Godzilla:Kingdom of Monsters #11, Daken:Dark Wolverine #20, X-Men Legacy #261, and The Walking Dead #93.
     I'll start with Godzilla:Kingdom of Monsters because this seems to be the penultimate issue in a series that has quickly gone downhill. The first few issues seemed to have a direct purpose and an interconnected story between numerous characters. This issue is nearly incoherent. A huge battle has happened between our strongest monsters and now a couple of the lesser monsters have come to try and control Godzilla while he is weakened. They charge him up with a nuclear explosion, but instead of being grateful he takes them out and we end almost where we began: with a bunch of monsters knocked out and lying around. It's pretty lame. The fight scenes don't make much sense thanks to Victor Santos' rushed looking art. Victor Santos has been a poor choice of artist on this book. It just doesn't play to his strengths at all. I'm very ready for this title to end. It's too bad really because the other miniseries that have spun off from it, gangsters and goliaths and legends, have been strong stories and fun to read. OH, and Eric Powell, the guy who was the selling point of the series, didn't even write this issue. Lame
     Daken:Dark Wolverine #20 is the final issue of this series. I feel ok knowing that this was it. I know some people don't like the character for numerous reasons, but I thought he was very intriguing. However, this series has gone a direction that didn't much interest me for the last 10 issues. This issue finishes that up and gets the character ready to be put on the shelf for a while; ready to make cameo appearances whenever needed(or not needed). Writer Rob Williams has tried to further our sociopathic lead by making him mortal(getting rid of his healing factor at least for the time being) and having him (basically) fall in love with someone. Sadly, the love story was very rushed (due, in part, to the books cancellation) and we can already tell that his healing factor will be back. This doesn't do much to make him a stronger character because he gets his heart(?) broken and becomes a grumpy thug again by the last page. Sad. This series could have been so much better.
     X-Men Legacy #261 brings back the villain Exodus in a story that seems organic. It's a decent story with good characterization. Exodus has come back to reunify the X-Men one way or another. He wants Mutants to survive and thinks Wolverine's team made a mistake leaving Utopia. They battle and Rogue gets to have a stand out moment by taking Kid Gladiator's powers so she can throw down with Exodus on his level. They stop and finally talk about it and Exodus reads everyone's minds and notices their motivations for leaving Cyclops. Exodus agrees that they did the right thing. Then he says something about knowing what he must do and flies away. Rogue looks at Wolverine and asks "um... Did we just get Cyclops killed?" Wolverine replies "Damn it" as they all charge off together after Exodus. It's a truly funny moment that feels right for the book. This issue is a good mix of fun, excitement with a good amount of drama and tension. A really good read.
     finally, The Walking Dead #93. This is the first part in the "A Larger World" story arc that will likely lead us to whatever huge event Robert Kirkman has planned for issue #100. This book is always good. You should read it regardless of what I say about it. A man has shown up explaining that he comes from a large group that trades and barters with other large groups. He offers Rick and our group a chance to join up with them as another part of a large community. Rick, of course, ties him up and puts everyone on alert that someone might invade. He then goes in search of this group believing the worst about them. Given his history with other groups of people we are sympathetic to his point of view. However, Andrea, believes that this might not be bad. She challenges Rick (nicely) and gets him thinking. By the end of the issue Rick is pontificating about a larger world that maybe they should be a part of...or at least take everything from this world and leave them for dead. It's a truly chilling moment. Partly because you almost thought Rick had turned back into old Rick in a moment that seemed a lot like the hope he saw in the Prison when they found it, but then we quickly see the Rick he's become since losing most of his family and friends to murderers and zombies. Again, it's good stuff, you should read it.
     That's it for this week. Let me know if you agree or disagree or if you have no idea what i'm talking about. Later!
PS don't forget to support your local comic shop. Go inside, look around, buy some stuff, you might be happy you did.

New Comics that I bought

     Lately I've been trying to make good decisions on what comics to buy. I tend to buy Marvel comics and some independents. I had started to buy DC comics, but then they did their "New 52" and I bailed. I've always been an X-Men fan because it's how I got into comics, but after the recent "Schism" I've had to muddle through a slew of first issues as they restart all the X-Titles. Ughh... I've finally decided which titles to drop and which to keep up with just in time for a new crossover event to (maybe) pull me back.
     Anyway, This week didn't offer me much in terms of worthy titles for reading. Uncanny X-Force #20, New Mutants #36, and Generation Hope #15. After the decent first 19 issues of UXF I've found my interest in the title waining. It's truly solidified itself as essentially a Fantomex solo book. That's all this title has been from the start with lots of recurring guests. This week Fantomex finds himself on trial by the Captain Britain Corps. Ugh... I've never been interested in Captain Britain and any of the characters that showed up in Excalibur back in the day. The only thing that is remotely interesting is the fact that we are trying to deal with the repercussions of Fantomex's decision to kill the En Sabah Nur child 17 issues ago. However, that's what the entire book has been about this whole time. So, we aren't exactly breaking new ground here. Meanwhile Captain Britain's Magic Land is at war with itself and X-Force fall head first into the battle. Yawn...
     Generation Hope #15 found the team back on Utopia with a Mindwiped Sebastian Shaw in tow only to find out that Cyclops (and others) are less than happy to see him again. This title has been very interesting to me from the beginning. I especially enjoyed the title when it steers clear of the rest of the X-Men and does it's own thing. However, since the title has introduced Shaw into the mix and moved more into continuity I'm finding myself cringe. This issue Hope challenges Scott (again) and shows off a bit more power than she's ever shown before. Of course, this is only to tease the Phoenix force storyline coming up entitled Avengers vs. X-Men. Ugh...  The thing I don't understand is why the Phoenix force would even be interested in Hope in the first place. So far, all we've ever seen the Phoenix want out of a mutant is for it to be telepathic. Hope isn't telepathic or even all that powerful. The only reason I can see them doing this is because she has red hair and looks like Jean Grey. Ugh...
     New Mutants #36 finishes up the search for Blink storyline(thank god). This title has been limping along since the beginning. There hasn't been much to make this title stand out and I think it's been coasting on the nostalgia of people who grew up with these characters in the late 80s, but I think recently with the titles new direction that it's really settling into something that could be good. The characters are solidifying and it's tangential role to the other X-Titles is a good thing. I hope it can steer clear of too much continuity and do it's own thing for a while.
     I also picked up Ultimate Comics All-New Spider-Man #6. What a terrible title. Ultimate Spider-Man was such a better title for the book. So, six issues into Miles Morales taking over the title from Peter Parker and we finally have an issue where he actually fights some bad guys! In costume! Hooray! Bendis Ultimate Spider-Man(under any title) has been very consistently good. I've enjoyed every issue of this book. Every single one (i'm counting the almost a hundred and fifty issues preceding this restart), but it's been lagging recently for me. The Miles Morales storyline seems to be taking it's  time getting anywhere. I think it's because we don't know enough about the character yet (not nearly as much as we knew about Peter) and we don't yet see the point of the title. It doesn't have a direction yet. No main antagonist(like green goblin was for Peter) or even a sub-antagonist(like Doctor Octopus was for Peter). I'm sure we'll be introduced to these elements soon, but it needs to hurry if it has any hope of keeping new readers.
     Rounding out my week is Planet of the Apes #10(BOOM! Studios). This title has been so good from the start. The art is great the story is interesting and each issue keeps me wanting to read more. It's weird. This title should have been terrible. It's supposed to fit into the old Planet of the Apes movies continuity. As hokey as those films became this title manages to keep all the good elements of those films while setting itself apart. We don't have the Star Wars Prequel problems of having to show the origin of every main character from the films. Instead we are given a whole new set of characters that we get to know and like. We get invested in these characters even though they aren't familiar at all. This issue gives us flashbacks from three of our main characters: Sully, Alaya, and Nix. We see how their paths first cross at a definitive moment in history. Our other main character, Bako, is absent until the end. A battle is fought between the White Troop and the Ghost Battalion that is very well presented. Just a great title overall. I highly recommend picking it up even if you don't know much about the movie continuity. If you can't find the issues, get the volume 1 TPB.
     I suppose I might start doing this weekly now that I have a little more time to devote to it, but I can't guarantee that will last. So, until next time!

My thoughts on Marvel's Digital Initiative

I just read an interview on Comicbookresources.com with Peter Phillips, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Marvel's Digital Media Group, David Gabriel, Senior Vice President of Sales, and Arune Singh, Director of Communications, Publishing & Digital Media about their new digital initiative. Here are some excerpts and my thoughts.

"Recently, Marvel canceled of a couple of series before they were published. Would you ever consider going digital first, or doing exclusive digital issues followed with a trade, as Archie is doing with its Jinx property?

Gabriel: I wouldn't say never, but with the things that have been going on here in the past couple of weeks, we are not looking at any of those books that have been cancelled for various reasons [going to digital publication]. In the near future, no."

-Why the hell not? This sounds like a fantastic idea. Marvel could publish good comics without having to worry about selling enough paper copies because it doesn't have to print them! Fantastic series like S.W.O.R.D. wouldn't have to be cancelled and many creators could continue working on their favorite characters.

"One concern, especially by comic store owners, is that as digital distribution grows, print will suffer. How do you plan to encourage customers of your digital comics to visit brick-and-mortar retailers?

Gabriel: We are working on some couponing programs that would be a digital coupon that gets sent to digital customers. So the Marvel app digital customers would get a coupon for a dollar amount that they could print out and redeem at their local comics store. We will be talking to retailers over next few weeks, 15 to 20 retailers, about what is the best way to do it, the most fair way, how to help the customers find the closest store in their area and, if there is not a store in their area, how to drive them to an internet shop that would accept the coupon. I think we will be the first publisher to offer something like this in support of the direct market retailers. We both can exist side by side very healthily, and we are just starting to find ways to do that."

-coupons? Coupons are gonna save the brick & mortar stores? Everyone can calm down and quit worrying about their business going under because the customers have coupons! This is a sad, sad effort on their part…

"Will your graphic novels stay available digitally when they go out of print on paper?

Gabriel: Sure, unless we don't want them to."

-What the heck is that supposed to mean? 

"What will be the price of the digital comics?

Phillips: It's funny we are asked this question; we have a year and a half of established pricing.

So, same as print, then. Any plans to mark them down after some period of time?

Arune Singh: Marvel does 99 cent sales every week [on comiXology], so there is a lot of fluctuation of [prices] for the consumer's benefit.

Gabriel: We will make a book completely free if we are trying to promote something else. There are a lot of opportunities for different pricing strategies. Again, we are looking at the model of a comic shop: A store owner wouldn't have a comic on his shelf that was $2.99 for four weeks and then mark it down to 99 cents. They would have it at $2.99 for as long as they could, and when the trade comes out, most retailers put those into back issue bins and generally the price goes up a bit. I'm not saying we are doing that, we are not copying everything they do, but we may not reduce the price."

-this is the most infuriating part for me. Why on earth do they cost the same? I love how they pull it around to what the comic shops are doing to let you know that they have an excuse to RAISE the price if they really wanted to. So, you see, they are really doing you a favor by having them cost the same as a printed book that you can physically hold onto and keep and pass down(literally) to your children or friends. How many shops have you been in that didn't have a $.99(or lower) bin? There are very few comics that actually get marked up and even fewer that sell at a marked up price.

I hate to read interviews like this because they always make me mad. I can't think of a time when they made me excited about anything.

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.