This week’s meager haul, Civil War ramblings
Three stinking books this week. That’s it. Of course, this means my wallet is a little heavier (although it’s not, since we’ve evolved to a cash-less society. How can the future be dystopian if commerce is such a breeze? Orwell, you’re full of shit!) so I shouldn’t complain.
I can’t reveal my thoughts on Astro City #1 yet. You’ll have to come back Saturday to partake in our Books of Doom discussion for that. Pretty please.
Aside from that, I picked up Astonishing X-Men #18 and Tales of the Unexpected #2. And I only picked up TOTU because I felt like a prick only buying two books. And, if you want a good evaluation of the book, I’d say it’s the kind of thing one should only buy if you’re really desperate to not look like a prick. David Lapham writes these adventures of the Spectre and Crispus Allen, and it’s okay but abundantly cheesy and dark for the sake of darkness. Maybe this works for the four diehard Crispus Allen fans, but it doesn’t for me. And the back-up story, which I’ve already forgotten the title of, was just piss-poor. Some annoying guy and some vampire are in a cave and have a stupid conversation about pointless crap. The end.
As for Astonishing, I hate to say this, but Joss Whedon has done such a fantastic job with this series so far, and of course my expectations are sky high, but this was not a very good issue, at least on the first read. The explanation of multiple Emmas and non-existent Hellfire Clubs and Cassandra Nova (whom I never read much of) just seemed like a big pile of mashed potatoes smeared on the page. Everything else was fun, but there wasn’t a whole lot else.
The sequence with Beast and the ball of yarn was great, but then Whedon wrote him as too bookish when he comes back. Beast was always polished, but he wasn’t a Victorian aristocrat. In other words, for the first time, it seemed Whedon didn’t quite nail a character, which is all the more jarring for how perfectly he’s gotten everyone before.
Then again, maybe I’m just feeling a huge bum-out coming when they kill off Colossus again. Like when Hawkeye bit the Bendis bullet, I have a feeling another of my favorite characters is heading for the Land Where Heroes Are Forgotten Until They’re Remembered and Brought Back For Some Nonsensical Reason.
Now, while I’m good and warmed up, have I ever got a lot to say about Civil War #5!!!
I didn’t buy it.
Wow, a perfect review in four words (rounding one contraction down). What’s the point? Well, I’m pretty sick of this online fanboy blogger community jumping all over themselves to crap in the cereal of various books or writers they love to hate (or vice versa). You know what, if you don’t like something, DON’T BUY IT!
Do you really think mega publishers are reading this crap and deciding what gi-normous event to plan next? Not a darn chance. We wee readers have little truck with the giants of the comics world. But, we do have our dollars. And while MY dollars may not mean the world to mega publisher, the average sales, etc., etc., do mean an awful lot to them. So instead of everyone buying the big pile of crap served up to us only to rip it online, we could just give it a “No thank you, ma’am,” and maybe the next time they’ll serve up something better.
I bought it.
Wow, what a perfect review in three words. Not really. I don’t wish to trash it, since I think that Marvel’s actually trying their best at making a satisfying gi-normous event, but it’s not good. I keep buying it in the hopes that it’s either going to, a) become good, or, b) be important enough to Marvel continuity that I can justify dropping all this money on it.
Putting Punisher in the mix just isn’t enough for me, I guess. Still, though, I have to give you “mAd PrOpS” for the last couple paragraphs in this post. You’re absolutely correct. If you don’t enjoy reading something, you should probably stop buying it. That said, I’d like to know why in the blue hell I’m still picking up “OMAC.” Maybe I love Bruce Jones and just can’t come to terms with it.
Larry at Trade-a-Tape told me he was seriously considering not ordering any copies of Daredevil:Father out of protest for the lateness. He ended up not even ordering enough to satisfy the pull lists he had, so he had to order more. But he’s boycotting the eventual trade and hardcover out of principle.
Good job, Larry.
In retrospect, perhaps this deserves a post of its own: Hey, fanboy! You vote with your wallet, not your blog!
Correction: Come back to see our Book of Doom review sometime.
[…] Back in the day, I wrote a Worst to First and mentioned a Tales of the Unexpected purchase and how much that book sucked. I said: And the back-up story, which I’ve already forgotten the title of, was just piss-poor. Some annoying guy and some vampire are in a cave and have a stupid conversation about pointless crap. The end. […]