Comics in review

Next month I’ll be doing a full posting on my current pull list and some more on the reasons for those books; while it’s still January, another retrospective piece on how things got to now for me in the world of graphical goodies.

DC New 52 Fun in Review

Flashpoint got me back in to buying comics; Batman kept me reading. The low point of the year was a certain artist getting a hold of Deathstroke and taking him in a weird direction for a few months; which was rebounded later in the year and with T7. The Court of Owls was, interesting, and lead to the fun that is Talon. There were some other major story lines, but the big zero month did a good job of keeping the overall momentum going. Possibly most surprising was finding myself actually liking Jason Todd, not as much as Tim (needs his own book already) or Dick (best solo book right now for me), but more than I thought I ever would.

One of the most interesting moments in my DC collecting came when I realized that I had cut all the female books from my pull list; this isn’t all that surprising since there’s not a lot of the female characters in print form that I enjoy. In the DC Animated Universe (DCAU) I could use another few episodes of Wonder Woman, or Barbra Gordon doing her thing. Then I started to think about what would happen if I had a daughter who wanted to join in reading with me? This caused me to check up on all of the other characters that I had neglected since issues six; of all the books the one that captivated my attention the most was Batgirl (given it’s the Bat Family that I enjoy the most not too surprising), so I’m now caught up on those.

The New 52 has continued to be a great source of awesome and frustration for me; there’s a point of pride in knowing that many years of history and lore! That many years is fine and great, but when it stifles new stories it loses its appeal; these new starts and not worrying about any real past status quo has started to grown on me and I’m enjoying them a lot.

Marvel When?!

Moving on to Marvel there wasn’t much I enjoyed in the year; Schism was a bit of a flop for me, as was Avengers vs X-Men. But then came the All New X-Men, a big Spider Man event (more on that later) and now an Indestructible Hulk! The X-Men title may have spilled in to this year but its first few issues were in 2012; putting Beast made me very happy, giving him another new look after all these years was a good touch, too. Dr. McCoy and Logan have been my favorite X-Men since I was a little kid, but there’s been a little much of Logan in the world recently, more Hank can only be fun and exciting.

The Hulk has, historically, been at the bottom of character I like to read. The first issue of the new Hulk book changed that all for me. It came out right after I watched The Avengers again wishing for some more highlights of Bruce Banner in the comics; low and behold that’s exactly what I got! I’ve temporarily added it to my pull list for the beginning of this year, but it was a great way to cap off 2012 unlike the next event…

The comic series that got me in to comics in the first place all these years ago was a guy named Ben Reilly who took over for a certain web slinger of historic proportions. Sadly, this only lasted a few issues, but was my real introduction into reading and collecting comics; to the point where I asked for the Epic Ben Reilly collections for Christmas this year. Being burned so badly by his death (his portrayal as the Scarlet Spider before Peter stepped down is still some of my favorite moments in comics books) I wasn’t totally sold going in to this whole “Death of Spider-Man” thing. In the end, I very much don’t buy it; Peter’s memories aren’t powerful enough to make Otto just change on the spot given he’s still the dominate personality in that body. I’m not going to comment on the longevity as I’m not too worried about that, but I will comment that the end of Amazing doesn’t make me want to pick up Superior.

Locke and Key Open The Moon or how I leaned to cry when reading a comic book

While this may have come out in 2011, I didn’t read it until 2012 and was the most surprising thing I read all year. Not only did it serve as my introduction to the series it made me cry. I don’t cry over much, I get it out once a year on my late grandfather’s birthday; but that comic made me cry darn it. I’m getting choked up just thinking about it now…

Transformers, Turtles, and Manga!

The new Transformers books are better than I thought they would be; “Regeneration One” feels expected most issues, but that’s not a bad things. “More Then Meets The Eye” and “Robots In Disguise” feel like people who really liked all the animated series, and had a couple toys they wish had more screen time, got together and pushed the bounds of what a Transformers story should be. From characters physical transformations to a very cool time travel issue these books kept my captivated for the year.

Another large part of my child hood revolved around the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which leaked in to my adulthood given the name of the site this is hosted on. The Micro-Series issues focusing on one character that’s not a Turtle is a great idea; it’s what I wish other companies would do instead of trying to give a character a solo book. One full issue to completely focus on one character, what makes them tick, why they are the way they are, and just leave it at that! Additionally, it makes the TMNT universe feel a little bigger, but not like a conglomeration that’s too large where you can’t know everyones name.

One of the awesome guys at Comics Toons N’ Toys in Tustin told my wife that Sailor Moon had returned in manga form; we now own all of them. This caused me to go to that side of the shop a bit more and check out some titles I haven’t read in close to ten years.

Where I Buy These Graphical Goodies

This will also serve as my plug for this article that if you are in the Orange County area, or ever pass through and need some comics, then you should really check out Comics Toons N’ Toys in Tustin; the people are awesome, will hold books for you, and make sure that everything is priced fairly (including discounts on Wednesday, aka New Comic Book Day). Not only are the workers nice, but everyone who I have talked in the time I’ve been going has been quite nice and genuinely enjoying themselves, not the snobbery of some stores. Additionally, its quite kid friendly with a few places devoted to younger readers selections.


Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *