Everybody loves a bargain.
For comic book geeks though, a good deal can be a double-edged sword.
Sure, scoring a cheap comic book can be satisfying in and of itself, but then there's that unintended consequence - the need to complete the story told within.
Comic books are sort of unique in that way. Pick up a comic book and you're only getting a piece of the story being told. Even if the comic is billed as a one-shot (a self-contained, single issue), chances are there's still some back story you're missing from a past installment of the series.
But aside from those single-issue books, most comics are ongoing. They get printed monthly and tell single stories in arcs spanning from two to three to dozens of issues.
I remember getting random single issues as gifts when I was a kid. The books would always pick up in the middle of a story and make reference to past issues, which meant having to hunt down the old issues while also keeping track of the new books arriving each month.
People who purchase other types of entertainment tend to move singularly forward. For geeks like me though, reading comics is most always a multi-directional adventure. There's the book in your hand, the back issues and the new issues yet to come out - not to mention all the other titles being published concurrently with what you're reading. Sometimes publishers tie all of them in together, though it's usually just tangentially.
Still, despite knowing all this, I somehow found myself in a double-edged situation only a few weeks ago.
Everybody loves a deal, and I'm no different. So when our local comic shop was running a week-long sale in mid-August, I found myself digging through boxes of back issues on a couple of different days.
For years now, the shop has had these boxes of back issues in the center of the store. With this sale, the hope had been to try to get rid of enough back issues to make room for more graphic novels. So, in order to clear out all the many boxes at the center of the store, they dropped the price of back issues from cover price down past $1 to a measly 25 cents apiece.
Now, despite these boxes of back issues having been picked over many, many times throughout the years, I've always been able to eye something worthwhile every time I've entered the shop. So at 25 cents apiece, I found myself carting home books by the dozen. Now the trouble is going to be filling the gaps. I've gone ahead and signed myself up for a dozen new quests, so to speak. I've got some sequential issues, but lots of holes to fill. So, was it worth it? Were the cheap issues all that good of an investment if they're really only signing me up for more future spending (and not at a discount). It's a double-edged sword, but I doubt there's a single comic fan who'd fault or who would have passed up the sale themselves.
All that blather about buying discounted back issues and I didn't even mention a single title? What's wrong with me?
So, what did I buy that has me fiending to check out other comics shops? Well, being a fan of DC/Vertigo, I picked up about a dozen random issues of "Sandman Mystery Theater." On top of that, I got some old "Swamp Thing" issues and a bunch of "Doom Patrol," both from Grant Morrison's run on the title as well as the 18 issues that immediately preceded it.
In terms of smaller quantities, I grabbed a couple of Batman books, a few "The Brave and The Bold" and also about four or five old issues of "Aquaman."
I'm serious about this.
Still, most people get a big toothy grin when I tell them this ...
But DC's new "Aquaman" title written by Geoff Johns is one of the best books to have come out of the whole "New 52" reboot.
DC rebooted its universe of characters with "The New 52." The reboot took all of DC's books back to first issues about a year ago, and now the first wave of collected editions are hitting store shelves.
Out this month is "Aquaman: The Trench," the character's first volume of his rebooted title, collecting issues 1-6 of the series.
While some characters received massive overhauls in the DC reboot, this Aquaman title keeps in tact a lot of what's happening with the character in recent years - Blackest Night, Brightest Day and all that. Also, writer Geoff Johns kicks off the book in a self aware sort of manner. Society doesn't expect much from Aquaman. Hell, some people don't even know his powers or what he's all about. As a result, Johns is able to inject some comedy into the straightforward superhero story, while getting across a whole bunch of info about the character to us readers.
Some of the most exciting stuff about this book comes right toward the end. In issue five of the new Aquaman series, after Aquaman and his lady Mera have quelled the issue in "The Trench," we get a single-issue story titled "Lost." Like much of this new Aquaman series from Johns, the single issue flies by fast and ends up leaving readers with more interest in the character than they had going in. Or at least, that's how every issue of this Aquaman run has ended for me. The issue sets up a lot of what's going on now in the single issues, revelations about Aquaman's past and what happened to Atlantis.
So pick up this graphic novel now. It's the best of what "The New 52" has to offer. And then, once you're done, don't wait for the second book to be collected and printed some time next year. What Johns does in the second arc of this series, picking up from the things hinted at in "Lost," are amazing.
Familiar with the DC reboot? Or "The New 52" as they call it?
Well, you should be. I just described it in that last section about Aquaman.
Regardless, the reboot reinvigorated DC so much and got so many people talking about the new issues that now Marvel's going to try something similar, though they're calling their relaunch "Marvel NOW!"
Announced in recent weeks, the "Marvel NOW!" relaunch will kick off this October. So far, the new series include: "Uncanny Avengers," "All-New X-Men," "Avengers," "New Avengers," "Iron Man," "Thor: God of Thunder," "Indestructible Hulk," "Deadpool," "Fantastic Four," "FF," "Captain America," "X-Men Legacy," "Avengers Assemble," "Journey Into Mystery" and "A+X."
From what little has leaked out so far, it sounds like the new titles will follow the conclusion of "Avengers vs. X-Men," sort of in the same way that the DC reboot followed the events of "Flashpoint." Oh, and just like DC tried to say, Marvel's stressing that this "isn't a reboot." However, for clarity's sake, I'll just keep referring to the both of them as reboots, relaunches and maybe even cash grabs.
The point of both reboots really boils down to trying to give readers a fresh start, whether it be with a new title or a renumbering back to first issues for old titles.
Essentially, both companies have cooked up changes in hopes of making it easier for new readers to jump on board. Looking back at The New 52, I'm pretty happy with the way things have turned out. There are a lot of pros and cons to all arguments regarding reboots such as these. Sure, some things were lost in the shuffle. Some titles and characters could have been rebooted differently. And, of course, there have been both misses and successes now that we're 12 issues into the DC reboot. No doubt Marvel will surely see the same sort of mixed bag of results which DC has seen, so I'll hold my tongue. But I'm ever the optimist. I know a lot of nerds and geeks who immediately want to poo poo change. Hell, regardless of the details and even in larger contexts, almost everyone wants to poo poo change. But let's be honest, changes such as these are really kind of exciting. What's the worst that can happen? The companies fall flat on their faces and we return to the status quo in a few years? Seems better than to not have tried it at all.
Getting back to the actual reboot though, one thing worth noting is the fact that comedian Brian Posehn will be writing the Deadpool series. Here's the pitch from Marvel:
"It starts with a man who has decided that America has a lot of problems that can only be fixed by bringing back our former leaders, Our great American Presidents. But that's not how it works out. Once they're back, they have a completely different idea of what they need to do and what the country needs. It's a distasteful job having to send our presidents back, but Deadpool is up for the job and is suited for it."
Sounds sort of perfectly timed for the coming election, don't you think? First issue hits shelves in October with a second to follow right at the election? Heh. Can't wait to see how in the world Brian Posehn ties that all together.
For the rest of it, some titles catch my attention because of the characters while others catch my attention because of the writers and/or artists. Jeph Loeb's writing a Hulk and Wolverine story? Dan Slott's writing a Cable and Captain America story? There's a new FF team consisting of Ant-Man, Miss Thing, Medusa and She-Hulk?
Though I read a lot of different comic books printed by a number of different companies, I do pretty much consider myself a DC guy. Still, with the way this "Marvel NOW!" is looking, I may just have to make mine Marvel this fall.
Last month I led off with the news that Neil Gaiman will be writing a prequel to his series "The Sandman" next year.
Not much has changed since then, but the shear fact that Gaiman will be revisiting Morpheus and the world of Dream had me digging out my Sandman comics in the last month. I'm presently about halfway through re-reading the whole series for the fourth or fifth time. Then, after finishing, I'll re-read "The Dreaming" and begin to hunt down all the other tie-in books. I've never read Mike Carey's solo Lucifer series nor do I own any of "The Sandman Presents" comics, so it looks like I'll be bolstering my collection quite soon.
I was going to give this its own subhead, but ... nah. DC's reboot keeps grabbing national press headlines with more stunts like this in its funny books. Just the other day, the company announced that Superman and Wonder Woman are now a couple. Yep, that's right. In the world of "The New 52" the love dynamics are different. Forget Lois Lane and Steve Trevor, Clark and Diana have each other. And DC says it's going to affect the rest of "The New 52," so ... more as it develops, I guess. And more from me in a month's time.
Nerding Out With Nick Dean is a monthly column about comic books, movies and more. For more, visit NerdingOutWithNickDean.blogspot.com.