INCOGNITO #4UMBRELLA ACADEMY: DALLAS #6 (OF 6)
DAREDEVIL #118
EMPOWERED TP VOL 05
THE BOYS #29
PHONOGRAM 2 SINGLES CLUB #5
B.P.R.D.: THE BLACK GODDESS #4 (OF 5)
MYSTERIUS THE UNFATHOMABLE #4 (OF 6)
HELLBLAZER #254
SCALPED #28
AGENTS OF ATLAS #3
LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN III CENTURY #1 1910
JERSEY GODS #3
CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI 13 TP VOL 01 SECRET INVASION
FABLES #83
SEAGUY: THE SLAVES OF MICKEY EYE #1 (OF 3)
MADAME XANADU #10
INCREDIBLE HERCULES #128
CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI 13 #12
THUNDERBOLTS #131
Gosh, I haven't posted anything for a while...and still don't have any reviews finished yet. I need to get something up here, so I'll just ruminate a bit with you.
I was thinking about something the other day, and one look at my recently-submitted DCBS order, reproduced for your reading pleasure above, confirms it. Please take a second or two to scan the titles...and do you see, perhaps, something missing?
For the first time that I can remember, and honestly, it's not like I've gone back and counted or anything, but for the first time in recent memory, anyway, there are NO MAINSTREAM (non-specialty imprint) DC COMICS ON MY LIST.
And since I've always kinda thought of myself as a DC kinda guy, although when I really look back I've always bought a variety of titles from a variety of publishers, this really freaks me out a bit. Looking at the numbers:
Vertigo: 5 titles. The Vertigo imprint has been my main point of interest for DC books for a long time now actually.
WildStorm: 1. I still just don't get Mysterius coming from this imprint, but what can I say.
Image: 2.
Top Shelf: 1. I miss the days when they'd send me stuff. Such is life as a has-been "luminary of the Comics Blogosphere".
Dark Horse: 3.
Dynamite Entertainment: 1.
And finally...
MARVEL (and Marvel imprints): 7. Seven! I can remember years, especially back in the 90's, that I didn't buy seven Marvel books all year long!
And while I'm not ready to proclaim myself a Marvel Zombie just yet, I am a bit amused/bemused to discover that of all the newish titles I've sampled over the last few months, I'm really enjoying what Marvel has been doing a lot more than I have what the Distinguished Competition has. Both companies are giving us dour, grim and dark, but there's a sour edge to DC's that rankles a bit, or at least drains away whatever entertainment value that can be had, for me anyway. Of course, it's true that of all the DC proper titles I was buying and enjoying on a regular basis, most either ended their runs or have been canceled (Blue Beetle, Manhunter, Catwoman) and I continue to read a couple (that I wouldn't be buying anyway) via...alternative venues... but none have come up to take the discontinued titles' place with me. Much of DC's recent output has been tied in, however marginally, with Morrison's inchoate and mostly downbeat Final Crisis, and that's not really a plus as far as I'm concerned. FC was entertaining, as only Grant can be, and yeah, there were lots of "mad ideas" (that seem a lot like the same "mad ideas" he's given us for well nigh 20 years), and sure, some of the spinoffs have been well done (Rogue's Revenge, Requiem), but it looks more and more to me like a definite misfire, a miscalculation based on the assumption that people will buyinto what Grant's selling no matter how sloppily it's presented. Other high-profile titles they've been giving us lately have also left me cold, such as Gaiman's recent stab at Batman, which is, to be fair, only on part one (and I'll review it eventually, later this week I hope). Perhaps the most consistently enjoyable DC title that has crossed my path, has been, of all things, Tiny Titans- which at least has the virtue of not being so damn pretentious. Perhaps DC could use an influx of new writers, who don't seem to be as determined to depress. Who knows. Marvel, on the other hand, while they've been involved with a multi-issue crossover event of their own (which seemed to be coordinated better, although I certainly haven't read everything involved) and are no less susceptible to the dour and grim as well (mostly via Brian Bendis' hamfisted iconoclasm), have managed to at least mix in some good old fashioned humanism in with the cataclysmic- as titles such as Incredible Hercules and Captain Britain and the MI-13 (both new additions to my pull list) bear out. The character interaction in the Marvel titles I've sampled just seems more engaging, for lack of a better word. You've also got Andy Diggle doing Thunderbolts, which would interest me even if not for the resurrection of Yelena Belova; Daredevil, which inexplicably remains engrossing despite the constant parade of misery that Brubaker sees fit to inflict on poor Murdock every month, and it's been more or less very good for a very long time, and also Brubaker and Phillips' Incognito, which continues their collaborative winning streak. I have also been picking up the recently-concluded Age of the Sentry, a mostly-fun exercise in retro-for-retro's sake, and keeping up with Guardians of the Galaxy, space opera with a 70's kinda what-the-hell feel. I believe the last time I picked up as many Marvel titles on a regular basis would have to be sometime in the mid to late 1970's, I kid you not.
So what does it all mean, Pee-Wee? I hear you ask. Hell, I don't know. Check back in six months, and I might not be buying any of those cited above. But as a phenomenon right here right now on Planet Dave, I think it's quite remarkable. You never know sometimes, I guess.
EMPOWERED TP VOL 05
THE BOYS #29
PHONOGRAM 2 SINGLES CLUB #5
B.P.R.D.: THE BLACK GODDESS #4 (OF 5)
MYSTERIUS THE UNFATHOMABLE #4 (OF 6)
HELLBLAZER #254
SCALPED #28
AGENTS OF ATLAS #3
LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN III CENTURY #1 1910
JERSEY GODS #3
CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI 13 TP VOL 01 SECRET INVASION
FABLES #83
SEAGUY: THE SLAVES OF MICKEY EYE #1 (OF 3)
MADAME XANADU #10
INCREDIBLE HERCULES #128
CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI 13 #12
THUNDERBOLTS #131
Gosh, I haven't posted anything for a while...and still don't have any reviews finished yet. I need to get something up here, so I'll just ruminate a bit with you.
I was thinking about something the other day, and one look at my recently-submitted DCBS order, reproduced for your reading pleasure above, confirms it. Please take a second or two to scan the titles...and do you see, perhaps, something missing?
For the first time that I can remember, and honestly, it's not like I've gone back and counted or anything, but for the first time in recent memory, anyway, there are NO MAINSTREAM (non-specialty imprint) DC COMICS ON MY LIST.
And since I've always kinda thought of myself as a DC kinda guy, although when I really look back I've always bought a variety of titles from a variety of publishers, this really freaks me out a bit. Looking at the numbers:
Vertigo: 5 titles. The Vertigo imprint has been my main point of interest for DC books for a long time now actually.
WildStorm: 1. I still just don't get Mysterius coming from this imprint, but what can I say.
Image: 2.
Top Shelf: 1. I miss the days when they'd send me stuff. Such is life as a has-been "luminary of the Comics Blogosphere".
Dark Horse: 3.
Dynamite Entertainment: 1.
And finally...
MARVEL (and Marvel imprints): 7. Seven! I can remember years, especially back in the 90's, that I didn't buy seven Marvel books all year long!
And while I'm not ready to proclaim myself a Marvel Zombie just yet, I am a bit amused/bemused to discover that of all the newish titles I've sampled over the last few months, I'm really enjoying what Marvel has been doing a lot more than I have what the Distinguished Competition has. Both companies are giving us dour, grim and dark, but there's a sour edge to DC's that rankles a bit, or at least drains away whatever entertainment value that can be had, for me anyway. Of course, it's true that of all the DC proper titles I was buying and enjoying on a regular basis, most either ended their runs or have been canceled (Blue Beetle, Manhunter, Catwoman) and I continue to read a couple (that I wouldn't be buying anyway) via...alternative venues... but none have come up to take the discontinued titles' place with me. Much of DC's recent output has been tied in, however marginally, with Morrison's inchoate and mostly downbeat Final Crisis, and that's not really a plus as far as I'm concerned. FC was entertaining, as only Grant can be, and yeah, there were lots of "mad ideas" (that seem a lot like the same "mad ideas" he's given us for well nigh 20 years), and sure, some of the spinoffs have been well done (Rogue's Revenge, Requiem), but it looks more and more to me like a definite misfire, a miscalculation based on the assumption that people will buyinto what Grant's selling no matter how sloppily it's presented. Other high-profile titles they've been giving us lately have also left me cold, such as Gaiman's recent stab at Batman, which is, to be fair, only on part one (and I'll review it eventually, later this week I hope). Perhaps the most consistently enjoyable DC title that has crossed my path, has been, of all things, Tiny Titans- which at least has the virtue of not being so damn pretentious. Perhaps DC could use an influx of new writers, who don't seem to be as determined to depress. Who knows. Marvel, on the other hand, while they've been involved with a multi-issue crossover event of their own (which seemed to be coordinated better, although I certainly haven't read everything involved) and are no less susceptible to the dour and grim as well (mostly via Brian Bendis' hamfisted iconoclasm), have managed to at least mix in some good old fashioned humanism in with the cataclysmic- as titles such as Incredible Hercules and Captain Britain and the MI-13 (both new additions to my pull list) bear out. The character interaction in the Marvel titles I've sampled just seems more engaging, for lack of a better word. You've also got Andy Diggle doing Thunderbolts, which would interest me even if not for the resurrection of Yelena Belova; Daredevil, which inexplicably remains engrossing despite the constant parade of misery that Brubaker sees fit to inflict on poor Murdock every month, and it's been more or less very good for a very long time, and also Brubaker and Phillips' Incognito, which continues their collaborative winning streak. I have also been picking up the recently-concluded Age of the Sentry, a mostly-fun exercise in retro-for-retro's sake, and keeping up with Guardians of the Galaxy, space opera with a 70's kinda what-the-hell feel. I believe the last time I picked up as many Marvel titles on a regular basis would have to be sometime in the mid to late 1970's, I kid you not.
So what does it all mean, Pee-Wee? I hear you ask. Hell, I don't know. Check back in six months, and I might not be buying any of those cited above. But as a phenomenon right here right now on Planet Dave, I think it's quite remarkable. You never know sometimes, I guess.
No comments:
Post a Comment