The March + April + May General Comic Book Thread - anyone still here?
 

Figured I'd start the March thread since new comics are coming out... even though the comics I'm reading are from last month.

Here's my (thinning) haul from Feb's order:

Annihilation Book 2 TP: Finally gave up on finding the hardcover version, so this will be sandwiched between two HCs... of course, I couldn't wait and read through vol. 3 (and Conquest) already. Still, it's nice to finally flesh out the missing pieces.

JLA 18

JSA 12 and 13

Legion of Super Heroes 39

Order volume 1: Next Right Thing

Showcase Presents Supergirl v. 1

Supergirl 26: I swear I complain about this book every single month. And yet, they always bring around some new creative team or new creative direction, and I get suckered into sticking around. Hey, it's the guy that wrote Batgirl, he was supposed to be pretty good, right? And he's going to be asking questions that were never asked before! And the artist can draw decent pin ups...

Unfortunately, I still can't tell if it's the weakness of the writing or the art, but the storytelling in this book leaves much to be desired. This is the third issue of the new creative team, and I'm just totally lost. The climax of the issue, after the big fight, is some simple comment that Supergirl made (and really she had no way of knowing what the situation really was), and that's presented as a huge deal. As if Superman wouldn't have said something like that himself. And then this "new question" that she asks is presumably the big direction shift for the title.

I guess it's good that she's not fighting every other superhero in the DC Universe on a monthly basis, or trying to kill Superman anymore, or hooking up with superpowered psychos. So there has been some improvement in the title. It will just always make me wonder: they cancelled PAD's series for this?

Teen Titans 56:

Is this cliffhanger another way of checking to see if anyone's here?

Ha... no, just haven't finished reading all the comics yet, figured I'd update my post tomorrow... :)

I had to work today, or I would've gone to the comic book store.

I'm heading out tomorrow morning bright and early, I'm also going to be hitting up Gamestops and Targets to see what HD product is left over.

Big day for daddy, a.k.a, sneak out while fiancee and daughter are sleeping in! :lol:

I'll probably hit my LCBS on Thursday. I'm 2 weeks behind on shit.

Today, I picked up:

Logan:

I was really hesitant about this one. I love BKV to bits, but I find his superhero work not up to par with his creator-owned series. Furthermore, I hate Wolverine. I find him to be one of the worst characters in almost all of comicdom. If people think Superman is a stodgy character, Wolverine is by far the most immature character ever.

I'm about 3 weeks behind, but I'm looking forward to reading Echo, RASL, Young Liars (picked up within the past couple of weeks).

Amazing Spider-man - The Brand New Day thing isn't bad, but I'm still having trouble accepting the whole "reset" business. So far, everything feels like the old "Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-man" title where all the stories had that "filler" feel - careful not to mess with the main title plots. If I weren't such a die-hard Spidey geek, I think I'd be dropping this.

Uncanny X-men On one hand I'm liking that there's a break from whatever major universe-changing threat event, but on the other hand the last 2 issues have felt kinda directionless.

Other Stuff I've Been Reading - Having recently completed my search for the first 24 issues of the current Captain America run, I have now finished reading them. If I didn't have a pile of unread stuff to get through I'd probably re-read the rest of the series again, but there's always a future date for that.

Crime Bible #5 of 5

I was really into this Mini because I like The Question/Renee Montoya.

However....WTF!? :grunt: Way to string me along for a crap ending!!!! If you can even call it an ending. Then you cut the story short for some DC/Wildstorm Crossover tease for the last several pages.


LAME!!!

Haven't picked up a book in months, but I've been in and out of the threads and I notice that the discontent is growing and growing... so I wonder, who here is buying Marvel / DC books because they actually still enjoy the stories, and how many are buying them to bide time and keep up with the story, hoping that it eventually improves?

I've stopped a lot of my monthly reading... I think I'm finally dropping Supergirl and maybe Teen Titans, because it's been a long time since I've enjoyed them... I always read them first when I get my monthly pile, and I usually save the best for last. After 52 was over, I picked up the first month of Countdown and then stopped (just got burned by having too many miniseries tie-ins, though I'll try the collections). JLA is decent enough that I'll continue with it, as is Legion, though both seem to regularly get TPB collections, along with Teen Titans (on a sidenote, the new #1 reason to go TPB only: almost every issue of the recent Teen Titans series is collected EXCEPT for the fill-ins, which include Liefeld's issues).

JSA is the one book that I look forward to reading month in and month out. It gets collected regularly too, but I just can't stop.

I don't collect any Marvel series because EVERYTHING they publish gets collected.

In tpb/HC form, I'm still collecting and enjoying:
Annihilation whatever-series-is-current, including Nova
Green Lantern
Green Lantern Corps
Invincible (I'm a sucker, I buy the tpbs AND the large hardcovers)
Ultimate FF and X-men (large hardcovers)
X-factor
Y the Last Man

and am catching up on Fables (on v. 8 now).
and a ton of manga.

I always read what I enjoy. There are lulls, like in anything, that I may ride out but it's never for too long. I can deal with a few bad issues or a bad storyline (X-Factor during Messiah for example -- just because I didn't read the rest of it), but not an overall bad book. And honestly, sometimes my enjoyment from a series does essentially come from seeing what happens next (like Mighty and New Avengers).

I see the discontent too, but I just don't have it. There is so much in comics that I enjoy, that I don't harp too much on that which doesn't.

I am still loving Thor which is on its way to becoming a classic if this maintains its steam. X-Factor is still really good. JSA is a great read. Gotham Underground is like crack for a Batman/Gotham fan like myself. And there are a handful of other mainstream Superhero/mainstream books I'm enjoying as well and another handful that I want to try/catch up on (mainly Iron Fist - I've finally given in and will try this book).

ETA: I know it's tired now, but I still love a good fight between Batman and Superman. It's a fanboy guilty pleasure. Well, Cooke gave a great version of this classic matchup in the New Frontier Special. One of the better "fights" between the big two that I've read. I love how Cooke writes those two.

I am still here but barely. I went cold turkey with comic books about 3 weeks ago, I dropped my entire sub list from the LCS and now I only get the 3 per month Amazing Spiderman and Ultimate Spiderman by mail order. I am saving over $35 per week now and I am never looking back. The LCS in my area is on life support and once this store closes (within the year) there will be no more comic stores in this area. In my opinion comic books are a dying bread. I think about the numerous full comic boxes I have and how little they are worth and how much I spent on them over the past 35 years and it makes me sick. If comics ever go back to $1 each maybe I will come back but I seriously doubt that will ever happen.

Why are you sick at the money you spent? Did the comics not bring you valued entertainment? If not, then that is bad. But if you enjoyed reading and collecting them, then the money was well spent.

Remember that you probably won't make any money on your couch when you sell it or throw it in the dumpster, but you're not considering that a waste of money. So if comics served their purpose on an entertainment level, it shouldn't matter if you get nothing for your collection.

All too true... unfortunately, all my various hobbies have a very poor resell rate... my stacks of videogames, dvds, and toys are now worth a pittance of what I put into them...

Here is my thinking. For the last 2 years or so I have been paying 2.99 for one single comic book. It takes me a total of about 10-15 minutes to read it and then it gets bagged and boarded. I see on Ebay people buying huge lots of the books I have bought thru the years for 10-20 cents each. Yes I enjoyed reading them, but damn they are not even worth the paper they are printed on! Selling a $3 comic for less than 50 cents is giving it away. Collecting comic books is a hobby, they should maintain some value over time. I think I got out when the time was right, the comic business is due for another cover price hike and then it is really a waste of money.

I think the problem is that there are very few ways to (legally) preview comics, or rent them and read them once. I think if I could rent comics or check them out at the library (which does usually have a good tpb section, but obviously not the recent monthlies ), I'd cut back on purchases. A lot of stuff, like you say, I'll only read once... but the hook is that if I want to find out what happens to these characters, the only way to do that is buy the book. We'll see if the online service that Marvel's offering will help that.

I have decided to cut down on both monthlies and tpbs, though. I mean, Ms. Marvel is a fun read, but do I really need to own the tpbs? On the other hand, something like Fables or Y the Last Man or JSA I can see reading over and over again.

I think most every real reader knows that their collection will not be worth money. I worked in a comic store back during the "big" events like the Breaking of Batman and the Death of Superman, and I dealt with a lot of "I'm gonna get big money from this" type of people. I finally gave this advice to people looking to invest in comics - take a look at that long wall of books. That's the last 3 months of comics. In 20 years, one of those books might be worth $30. The rest will be worthless. If you're dead-set on investing in comics, you're better off taking your money and investing in high-quality Silver Age books.

People still didn't understand. One guy came in and said "see, I just sold my copy of Superman 75 for $50!" To which I said something like "great. You bought 10 copies of each cover of Jim Lee's X-Men #1. How much are those worth now?" (they were in our 50 cent bin at the time).

Quoted for truth.

Most of the books (novels) I own are worthless now too, but I don't regret buying them and reading them. Same for dvds (which hold their value ok, but not if you buy them upon release). But unlike books and dvds which people tend to turn over when they no longer want them (selling, give them to friends, etc), comic fans hold onto everything so after some years of collecting you see all of those books you amassed and start to think what you could have spent that money on instead. I get where Nicolas is coming from.

I don't hold onto mine (only trades - and not many of those to be honest) so I avoid that. My whole goal is to only keep books that I think I will read again or may want to lend out to others in the future. That leads to a nice tailored library that speaks to my personal tastes, and the things I read that I didn't like or only sort of enjoyed I make bounce.

I bought the first Runaways giant HC, liked it but knew once was enough, so I gave it away. I don't look at that as $20 wasted as the story was very enjoyable and I gave the comic to someone who might enjoy it as well. This is easier to do with trades and such instead of singles, but same principle. I think hoarding anything can become overwhelming overtime.

99 cent comic books would bring people back, especially the kids. Until then the business is doomed.

I went to the LCS today to pick up my books. I hadn't been ther ein a few weeks, so i had maybe 10-12 books. near the checkout they have there "pick of the week" and "you must read this book" display, and Hulk #2 was the "must read book." I figured, ok I'll check it out, so i walked back to pick up 1 and 2, since i never picked up issue 1 and both were sold out. near where they should of been, was a card saying something to the effect of "ask for hulk red variant at the counter, one per account $49.95." WTF...1st of all, of have nothing but bad about this book, and it is sold out, they had a shit-ton of them the week it came out, like Spidey BND, no one bought them, and now both are sold out...weird, and the 49.95 variant, wtf is that...

Sinestro is a Genius.

So far his plan is right on Target and working like a charm.....

I've been reading old Batman stories in reading order as of late. I found some pdf file that had a huge reading order of the Batman continuity and I started at the top. I read Year One again and was loving every minute of it as if it were my first read. Then, I read a couple old stories, one from the late 80's early 90's and one crappy story from a 2000 Annual. I can't fathom the idea of Batman fighting guys with jetpacks in Year 1 continuity. When I get paid next month, I plan on buying more to continue on.

I've also been reading the exclusive Larry Hama comics that have come out with GI Joe packs. They're not great but what can you do? The best one, in my opinion, was I think 26 and a half. It had the introduction of the Crimson Twins. These are nothing special but they come with some awesome figures. I'm also thinking about continuing on with GI Joe World War III. I think I only got as far as issue 2 in the arc.

Care to share a link to that pdf?

Uncanny X-men #496
I am actually digging the directionlessness going on in uncanny, I feel like the last two stories actually acknowledge that these people (colossus, wolverine and nightcrawler) are friends/family. I like some of brubakers work on Cap America, other stuff I don’t like, but I am liking the general direction this is taking. I wish they would let this book go along without worrying what is going on in the other books, but...

X-factor # 29
I think i wrote this last month, I am really impressed that Maddrox has become an interesting character capable of carrying a book. I still haven't picked up the Maddrox TPB and the first 2 arcs of Xfactor in trade, but I really like this book alot. Anything can and does happen in this book.

Captain America #35
The new Cap in action for the 2nd issue...saddly, I don't think this is as interesting as it was without a Cap, The new threads were ok at first, but now they are distracting, I think the best parts of this book has been the Falcon, and I have never been a fan of his.

X-Men: Legacy #208
I don;t know what they expect to do with this book, I hate when they change a name for no apparant reason. it isn't like xavier isn't coming back, they didn't even leave him dead for an issue, fuck, i should just let this title go...