Mike Hunt Comix

Michael Diana has had his share of trouble with the law . . . all over his comic books. Here is a review I did of his little known mini-pack with Mike Hunt Publishing. 

Bad Pills

If anyone is interested in a review I did of Sverre Helmer Kristensen's Bad Pills, you can find it here.  He was a very talented artist who died early of cancer.

Star Wars #108 Marvel Style

After acquiring the rights to Star Wars back from Dark Horse, Marvel went and published roughly 200 different series focusing on various timelines and characters. I must say I had mixed feelings about Marvel, through Disney, taking back on the Star Wars franchise.

As a child, seeing the original film in the theater, the comics and novels were the only way to enjoy the Star Wars universe between films. Marvel's comics, in particular, thrilled me to no end. It was one of two subscriptions I had to Marvel's books. There were, however, some real clunkers in there, as the writers were constrained by George Lucas and just what could be done with the characters. There were also some gems, though, too, which I fondly remember. I've written about my love before here, so go back and read that column for the skinny.

When Dark Horse lost the license and it reverted back to the House of Ideas, I must admit I was skeptical. Dark Horse had been doing okay, though some of the fun had been sucked out of the franchise in its hands, if one must be critical. Marvel, however, had not been doing comics very well in quite some time, and I feared Star Wars would suffer the same fate.

I was wrong. The core series was killer, and brought me right back to being a kid. Then came the announcement. Marvel, which ended its original Star Wars series at issue #107, was going to publish issue #108, and it would take place back in that often misguided universe.

You bet I ordered it.

What could have been a disaster, filled with secondary characters few current readers knew about (but older readers either fondly remembered or hated), was actually quite amazing. Marvel had done something very right for a change. It was an absolute gem of a comic, and brought those old characters into a new light.

I'm glad Marvel has Star Wars back under its belt. I just hope the company doesn't let it slide into oblivion like it did the first time. It was a sad day for me when that final issue was published, and it was a long time before anything new from the universe was released in either book, comic, or movie form. I hope I never have to experience that again ...

Investing in Comics Part 2

When it comes to finding comics to invest in, the current atmosphere couldn’t be better … and worse.

In the past if you wanted comics, the first place they were available was through various stores on spinner racks and newsstands.  Subscriptions soon followed.  Then came mailorder, which was a huge boost to the hobby and eventually led to flea market booths and comic shows.  From there, specialty comic book shops opened, followed by the behemoth of eBay … and the world of comic investing has never been the same.

To downplay the importance of eBay in the field of comic collecting is to not understand the market one wishes to invest in.  eBay opened up the world for everyone with a computer and Internet availability.  Issues that were impossible to find suddenly became readily available … in multiple copies.  Books you thought were rare were as common as romance novels.  And it wreaked havoc with prices … or so it seemed.  The reality was that it leveled the playing field in all ways … something not exactly conducive to investing.

When flea markets and mailorder were the only way to buy, consumers (and that includes investors) were at the mercy of the seller.  If you were an investor selling this way, you were in luck as long as you could find someone to take your comics off your hands.  That usually wasn’t a problem, though you sometimes had to wait to find the person.  When stores entered the picture, they stuck to competitive pricing based on the comic values given in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and what the local market would bear.  eBay started a race to the bottom … for serious collectors.  Sellers who dealt in comics underpriced to drive bids.  Sometimes this backfired and worked wonders for the collector.  Sometimes it went the opposite way and sellers made out like bandits.  All markets have their pros and cons, however.  I’ll focus on the three main markets here and let investors decide which is best for them.  I’m doing this under the assumption that the investor is simply looking to buy comics in which to invest. 

Flea markets are the bane of comic book collecting at this point in time.  All one has to do is take a walk through any market and see that if there is one certainty when it comes to sellers at flea markets it is that most don’t know what the hell they are doing.  There you will find one of two types of dealers: the one who has knowledge of comic books, or the one who doesn’t.  The two are easy to differentiate.

The dealer who doesn’t know what he (and it is usually a he) is doing will usually have one small box worth of comics.  The comics may or may not be sleeved.  They most likely won’t be boarded.  The prices will have nothing to do with condition or anything even remotely resembling reality.  The stuff you can find in a .25 cent box at your local comic book store will sell for $5.00 or more here.  The price, as odd as it is, is usually set by the comic’s age and who is on the cover.  The good thing about this is that you can sometimes find a gem that is vastly underpriced, but that is rare.  Also, once you check out this guy’s stock, there is usually no reason to return to him on future visits, as his lack of sales will keep him from purchasing more books to sell.

The dealer who does know what he is doing will have the comics sleeved and boarded, and the prices will be around Overstreet levels.  Your chances of finding a gem with him are very slim, but negotiating prices works out better.  After all, it is far easier to get a deal on a book you want to pay $8 for that is priced at $11, but really worth $10.  With this type of dealer you are starting closer to what the book is worth, while at the former dealer that $10 book may be priced at $20, so your odds of getting it for $8 are virtually nil.  This dealer’s stock will also change, so checking back with him is a good idea.

The comic book store is a great place to get new and back issues, though fewer and fewer shops are carrying the latter due to space constraints and competition from eBay.  Like with the knowledgeable dealer at the flea market, the comic book store owner will have his books priced competitively.  You can negotiate, but it is rare that you will find a deal, unless you go to the one place a lot of people avoid: the discount boxes.

Discount boxes usually have comics anywhere from .25 cents to a dollar.  The conditions aren’t always great, but there are some treasures to be found.  You can also cheaply fill gaps in your collection so that you can sell off the entire run of a title at a good price.  I have found quarter books worth over $11 in the condition they were in, so treasures are not unheard of by any means.

It's "Action," not "Acton." Also, that lion is screwed.

eBay and other auction sites have changed the game.  They have let everyone with a comic book to sell and everyone who wants to buy a comic book connect like never before.  That rare issue you’ve wanted for years?  It’s there.  The problem with these sites is that there is so much “inventory” that the shrewd investor won’t be able to sell here with any reasonable certainty of return, but will be able to buy as long as they do so from a trusted source who knows comic conditions. 

The amount of traffic on this site sometimes drives down prices, as you will have 800 copies of the same book selling, but can also inflate prices on books that shouldn’t be valued as high.  If you are investor looking to buy, one of my tricks is to purposely misspell the book’s title while searching for it.  You’d be shocked by how many people list things like Acton Comics.  Sometimes they don’t even put them in the comic category.

As I noted before, this is not the way to fund your retirement unless you own a store, but it is a fun hobby that can bring you some money if you work hard at it, study the markets, and invest in what you love.  Otherwise, it’s blindly throwing money away, and that’s not investing.  That’s gambling, and nobody wants to gamble with their financial future.

  

Investing in Comics Part 1

A topic which often comes up in the world of comic collecting is that comics are a good monetary investment.  This is often followed by the advice to collect what you love.  Fair enough.  I’ve made some decent money selling comics throughout the years.  Would I look at them as a retirement plan, however (this coming from the prospective of not owning a store)? 

No.

I do believe comics are a good investment.  I don’t believe, like I’ve read time and time again, that they are recession proof.  The value of comics, like any other collectible, can take value hits based on supply and demand, the state of the economy and so on.  Currently, most of the short-term collector market is being driven by the comic-based movies.  As soon as word gets out that some character is going to be featured on the big screen, investors start seeking out its first appearance.  If I’m a collector or investor looking to sell previously purchased issues, that’s good news.  If I’m an investor who doesn’t own any of those issues, but is looking to find them and make a quick buck … well, I’m not a very savvy investor.

Buying comics while they’re hot is usually not a good idea, and this holds especially true for comics that are hot simply because of films.  The comic book film genre will cool, and these comics will come back down in price.  As an investment, these comics would have been good to grab back when they first came out or well before a film was announced.  Hence, collect what you love.  (If you are investing for a short term turnaround, you may see some profit, but you have to remember that there are a lot of other people doing the exact same thing, and that will actually drive your profits downward as it causes the price you pay to obtain an issue to be inflated too dramatically.)

If you are an investor just buying whatever you think will rise in price over time, and you want to avoid the advice of buying what you love to read, you’ll want to look at books with a crossover appeal.  Crossover appeal assures you that your investment will have some kind of value no matter what happens in one market.  A good example of this is Disney’s Pocahontas comic.

If you bought this comic when it came out in 1995 it would’ve cost you $4.50.  One would think if you were buying it simply as an investment you would have been eyeing the comic market, the Disney market (which is huge), the film tie-in market, and possibly the market for female-centric collectibles.  The good news is that each of these markets, while they do have some crossover appeal, is separate from one another.  The comic has its worth to comic collectors, but a Disney collector may be inclined to pay more than the comic collector (either through ignorance or perceived worth) for the issue.  From an investment standpoint, this particular issue has more potential long-term value than, say, a random issue of Action Comics from the same year if only due to the size of the audience that will want to buy it.

The 2014 value placed on that Disney comic in Near Mint ungraded condition by the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide was $7.50.  Selling it at that price would not seem to give you a huge return, but you actually came close to doubling your money (over nearly twenty years, which is not unheard of in the comic field) but that is just to the comic collector market.  The price willing to be paid by other collectors could’ve been higher depending on what they were buying it for.  The fact remains, though, that if comics are to be a long-term investment, you have to treat them like a long-term investment (and twenty years isn’t that long).  Yes, you can make fast money by buying and selling what is hot in the moment, but you will usually burn out financially in the long run as the market fluctuates as badly or worse than the stock market.  Higher risk leads to potentially higher rewards, but also bigger losses.  The short-term comic investor market rarely gets to buy low and sell high.  Keep that in mind.

The bottom line is: you can make money investing in comics.  People do it every day.  To do it, however, means you really have to know what you are doing.  You have to educate yourself on the product even moreso than when you invest in stocks.  The easiest advice to give a newcomer is the age old invest-in-what-you- love-to-read line, but there is one other thing that should be said, too: Expect nothing to come of your investment.  If you are expecting that issue featuring the death of Superman to worth hundreds of dollars, you are going to be disappointed.  If, however, you bought it for a few bucks, enjoyed reading it (if you took it out of the special sealed bag it was sold in), and then you get a few dollars more than you paid for it – great.  You just came out ahead, and that is the absolute best scenario one can expect from investing in this hobby.  Yes, there are the rare moments where an investor makes over a million dollars, but that is not the norm, and nor will it ever be.

Next time: the best places to buy comics for investment purposes.

Cyclops

I’ve read Uncanny X-Men since the ‘80s.  That means I’ve experienced some high points and some (very) low points.  It also means I’ve gotten to know the characters.

My favorite X-Man has always been Nightcrawler.  He was, in better times, the heart and soul of the team.  I’ve also enjoyed, depending on who is writing the title and its storyline, Wolverine, Storm, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, and Sunfire.  I have not ever really gotten into Cyclops, however, despite his status as the team’s spine.e his status as the team'

Cyclops has always been a one-note general to me.  I was even cold to him when he first got romantically involved with Emma Frost, no pun intended, despite the potential for character development.  He’s never been all that interesting, and there were always better players in the ensemble. 

That has changed.

Brian Michael Bendis, a writer with whom I have had problems with in the past, is the reason for this turnabout.  While I loved Bendis’ work on Daredevil, I do think he tends to get a little wordy and stuck on himself at times (and this has nothing to do with him turning down my interview request for Film Threat over a decade ago).  That said, Bendis’ work on Uncanny has taken the generic character of Scott Summers and has filled him with more issues than Matt Murdock had back in the day.  Not only has Bendis made Cyclops relatable, he’s made him interesting to a degree writers tend to fantasize about.  He’s become the standout Marvel always wanted him to be.  The comic is now the Cyclops show, and it is worth reading again.

I’m sure that someday, when Bendis has moved on to some other title, Cyclops will slowly fade into the background and become just another body.  Until then, however, Bendis is doing for him what he did for Daredevil, and future writers of the character should take note:  this is how you write him.  Mark Waid was able to keep Daredevil’s momentum going.  Will Bendis’ successor be able to do the same with Summers?  Only time will tell, but if they don’t, the title will, as it has in the past, suffer … and so will the readers.

iZombie on the Small Screen: When There's No Room Left in Comics ...

I’ve written about iZombie before, and did so prior to the CW show.  Basically, I am a fan of the comic’s story and Mike Allred’s fantastic art.  I was saddened when it ended, but was not all that surprised when I heard it had been picked up for television.

I’ve watched the show.

I like it.

It’s not the comic.

What strikes me as odd is the direction in which the show went.  At first I thought the show was going to slowly introduce the comic’s aspects in order to ease the audience into this weird world that had been created.  As each episode passed, however, it was clear that the show was going in its own almost cookie-cutter direction.  It is, for all intents and purposes, a mystery show with a psychic.  Something, I might add, that has been done before, though not with a zombie.  I imagine the show’s creators didn’t want to mess with the formula that has been tried and true.

A fan of the show who picks the back issues or trade paperbacks is going to be very surprised, especially if he or she really loves the show.  The comic is nothing like it.  My guess is that if they are driven to pick up the source material it is because that fan loves the show’s premise that much and if that is the case I can’t help but think that fan is going to be disappointed by what he or she reads. 

There are moments in the show that lead me to believe it could be really slowly delving into the comic’s storyline (and I’ve yet to see the last two episodes as of this writing), but at this rate it will be about ten seasons before it even gets close to the insanity of the source series.  Perhaps that is the plan, but I doubt it.  The show, as good as it is, has played it far too safe so far to make me think it has the rotting guts to do anything else.  That’s a shame, too, as iZombie was at its best when it took readers out of the norm.  The show seems content to be by-the-numbers, and that is fairly disrespectful to the comic’s creators … and the audience.

Cover Review: Micronauts #32

The cover to issue 32 of Marvel’s original Micronauts series had just about all the right elements in it to snag my attention.  First, I loved the Micronauts toys as a kid, and the comic was pretty darn good science fiction, too.  Then there is that white “snowbear.”  (I imagine in some cultures it would be a polar bear, but here the weird eyes, aura and rune-like chest symbol denote that it is something far stranger.)  And finally there is the snow against a black sky.  I am a sucker for black and white cover schemes.  They catch my eye every time.

The more observant among you may have noticed a woman’s ass jutting out at an odd angle.  Go ahead and try that pose.  It’s lovely to look at, but not so hot to hold.  That woman is known as Marionette, and she always looked damn cool in the comics.  Here the pose is strictly for eye candy, and does not speak well of her character.  Those who read the comic know what I mean.

There are certain comic book covers that I’d love to own the original artwork to so that I could hang it on my wall.  This is one of those covers.  Later in life I would swear this influenced the cover of issue 19 of the New Mutants, which was part of the demon bear saga.  Look at the covers and compare.  While not exactly the same, you can’t help but think its artist, Bill Sienkiewicz, had this Micronauts issue in mind when he painted it.  I’m not saying he ripped it off, but I believe a strong case can be made for inspiration.

Marvel put out some great covers in the early-to-mid 1980s (the Micronauts cover is from 1981) that were often the perfect marriage of art and storytelling.  You could look at the issue and know what was going on between the covers.  This issue’s cover artist, Pat Broderick, knew how to capture a potential reader’s attention and hold it, as he proves here.  I actually don’t think anyone can look at this cover and say it looks boring.  It is pure action with a good sense of style and color.  Granted, not every issue’s cover was up to this one’s high standards, but most of them in both of Marvels’ Micronauts series were appealing in one way or another.  Of course, there is the exception of that Beyonder one … but then again all of those covers associated with that crossover sucked, as did most of the issues, too.

Mandatory FTC Disclaimer: Clicking on a link may earn me some dough!

Sparks

Sparks is one of those works that if I had just read the description for it in Previews without knowing the talent behind it, I probably would not have ordered it.  Writer Christopher Folino (one of the directors of the excellent movieadaptation of this) and artists JM Ringuet and Tyler Endicott created a superhero story that looks at the genre realistically and weaves a tale of intrigue, violence, backstabbing, lust and love against a 1940s noir backdrop.  How many times have you read of something similar?  How many times has it worked?  Exactly.  People do this sort of thing a lot.  It usually fails.  Not this time. 

The start of this tale, which was put out by Catastrophic Comics, opens with a serial killer operating in 1920.  As he makes a kill, a meteor hits the town he is in, and a lot of people die.  13 survivors, however, are irradiated and start to mutate to the point where they gain powers.  Later their children inherit those powers.  Enter Sparks, a young man who believes he has powers.  Things go horribly wrong when he tangles with a new serial killer 28 years after the meteor strike, and so begins his downward spiral in the public’s eye and in his mind.

This is an interesting and unusual take on the hero genre, and it works incredibly well.  The characters are handled so deftly and are so against the usual stereotypes that exist in the world of comics, that you can’t help but wonder just how Folino managed to pull this off the way he did.  If you read comics a lot, you know this type of story rarely works.  (Incidentally, the movie adaptation is something that must be seen, too.   See it after reading this, though.)  Why is that?  Because superhero fans and creators talk a big talk, but they don’t walk the walk.  They say they want something different and unusual, but when they get it, they shun it … if it’s any good in the first place, which it usually isn’t.  The work usually starts out flawed because the creators are steeped in the history of the genre and are not only far too familiar with its conventions and archetypes, but they are also too familiar with those tweaks other creators do in order to set their stories apart from the rest.  That causes the superhero genre to become an incestuous cesspool of stale ideas masked as groundbreaking entertainment and art.  It’s the equivalent of saying Terminator 2 was original where all it really did was tread the same ground as the first film with just a few eye candy differences.

When fans get something truly new and original, they stay away from it like the plague.  They can’t pin it down to something they recognize, so therefore it is wrong.  If that sort of “logic” is keeping you away from this project, shame on you, Jack.  You are missing out on something truly unique.  No, it’s not Wolverine in his 4,332 story, and nor should it be.  You’ve read all of those.  Try something different.

Admittedly, the art is sometimes a little hard to follow in places and there are few scenes that feel like they could have been strengthened by a bit more fleshing out, but overall it works with the story’s noir aspects.  This is just wonderful storytelling, and should be read by anyone who thinks he or she has seen it all when it comes to superheroes … but only if you really want something different and not just the same old tale dressed in some new tights.

Mandatory FTC Disclaimer: I received this copy to review.  Clicking on a link may earn me some dough.

They Shoot First Ladies, Don't They?

1988.  Action Comics #610.  The series was experimenting with a weekly format.  48 pages for just a buck fifty.  A bargain by today’s standards.  When the series was weekly it was a testing ground (or dumping ground, if you prefer) for second-string characters while the man who made the series famous (Superman) took a back seat.  In this issue he was relegated to a two page spread that did little more than tease the average fan.  Also filling its strange pages was a Black Canary story that made no sense unless you read the issues prior, a Secret Six story that ended with a man falling to his presumed doom while clinging to a butchered pig (I am not kidding), a Phantom Stranger piece with artist Kyle Baker that was just short of being utterly boring, a Green Lantern story that had its moments … and a chapter in an ongoing Deadman story written by none other than Mike Baron (Badger, ThePunisher).

Nancy Reagan's about to get blasted!

The Deadman chapter was called “Catfight,” and it featured the title hero possessing the body of Mikhail Gorbachev’s wife, Raisa.  It opened at a black tie political function, and in attendance was Raisa’s husband, as well as Ronald and Nancy Reagan, who was possessed by a devil claiming to be Satan.  Deadman, inhabiting the body of Raisa, wielded an alien gun that he was going to use against Nancy to kill the devil inside her, all while Ronnie was busy being his typical clueless self.  In addition to that insanity, there was also an appearance by someone who was mistaken for D.B. Cooper and a man who was turned into a Ken doll. 

I don’t think this was based on a true story.

I can’t say this chapter of Baron’s story was good storytelling.  It was, however, weird.  It was the high-end kind of weird that indie comics were known for, but this wasn’t an indie comic.  This was DC, the home of Batman.  This was Action Comics, the book that gave the world Superman and changed the comic book game completely.  The title was Americana at its finest, and here was First Lady Nancy Reagan possessed and being shot at with a gun obtained from an alien astronaut … a gun being used by the story’s hero.  The ‘80s were cynical, but they weren’t that cynical.

Baron has always been a solid writer.  I don’t enjoy all his work, but it contains a certain chaotic glee that I find missing from a lot of comic stories.  On the flip side of that, his work can sometimes feel a bit forced.  This chapter of the Deadman arc was neither of those things.  It was, if anything, probably influenced by some Hunter S. Thompson-like dream and liberal paranoia (often one in the same).  D.B. Cooper’s appearance felt right at home in it, and Nancy Reagan’s possession seemed proper.  It all made sense in its own strange way, and readers were better off for it.

The weekly experiment for the title didn’t last too long, which I found to be a relief.  It really wasn’t a good idea to begin with, as it gave readers an excuse to avoid buying the title.  If they hated the characters, there was no need to get it, and if they liked the characters, the stories weren’t long enough to satisfy.  It did, however, give artists and writers a chance to go a little nuts, and while that didn’t always work, they sometimes created something so bizarre that you can’t help but remember it decades later.  

Mandatory FTC Disclaimer:  I bought this comic.  Clicking on a link may earn me some dough.

The Legacy of DC's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

I used to play Advanced Dungeons & Dragons quite a bit.  With that in mind, back in the late 1980s when I heard DC was doing a comic based on the role playing game, I immediately put it on my pull list.  How could I not?  How could any player who was also into comics not want to read this title?  There was a genuine air of excitement around it, and the wait for the first issue to arrive was a bit maddening.  In the days before the Internet made it commonplace to ruin any surprises, the speculation of what the comic would be like was the topic of many conversations.  And then it arrived.

The cover of that initial issue looked promising.  It was a group shot of the comic’s cast of characters with a hint of the evil they would face, and anyone who played the game and saw it on the rack would be intrigued by it.  The story, however, was fairly standard fantasy stuff … which was all it really needed to be.  Granted, it was cool to see some of the spells and monsters from the game brought to “life,” but the setting could have been any fantasy realm as most are fairly interchangeable.  Fantasy comics at that time were limited, as well, so genre fans grabbed whatever they could get their pale, trembling hands on, and this series was no exception.  It had a built-in audience from the start, a fact I’m sure wasn’t lost on DC.  It was guaranteed sales (at least for a while) regardless of quality, and the comic franchise did something no other work of entertainment has done since.  More on that in a bit.

I bought all the issues in the DC series, and several of the other associated titles, all of which varied in content.  (Spelljammer was not a favorite of mine, though I had friends swear by its superiority to any other title on the market at the time.)  Once the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons series folded thirtysome issues later, there was a lull before other publishers brought the franchise back to life in the comic world … all with mixed results.  Few of the titles managed to spark fan’s excitement like that first DC series, though.  Many of those companies should have never tried, either, as that initial series was never really all that special anyway.  As a matter of fact, I can’t remember a single character or storyline from it.  I actually remember some of the Hardy Boys stories I read as a boy far better than those issues.  Memorable?  It’s the exact opposite, and nothing since that DC run has really caught fire, either.

I haven’t revisited the title since I read that last issue, but every once in a while I think about breaking it out to see if I could get anything new from it.  I fear, however, with tastes that have changed over the years, the flaws I casually overlooked before would become glaring nightmares this time around and ruin even my sparse nostalgic memories of the title.  I’ll go back to it eventually, though, if only to satisfy my curiosity.  After all, waiting 12 years between thereadings of Origin changed my view ofthat series for the better, though I doubt re-reading this one will give mesimilar results.  What that means for the game that inspired it, however, is something totally different.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons really only failed as a comic book series because the game was impossible to live up to.  Anyone who has played the game knows that you are only really limited by your imagination.  Readers of the comics were limited by the creators’ imagination, and sometimes that imagination wasn’t all that strong.  While the concept of a comic based on the game seemed promising at first, it didn’t take long to see that everything which made the game special could in no way be transferred to a static comic book series because it lacked one simple thing: the players.

There is not a single one of those series that could stand as a testament to the game from which they sprang.  They do, however, prove that unlike other games, it isn’t the mechanics that makes it stand out, it’s the players.  I can’t think of another instance in any crossover media where such a thing has happened.  Sure, sometimes a movie adapted from a book makes moviegoers say the book was more in-depth and therefore better, but when else has an audience been credited with making the work special?  Never, and that’s what makes these various series such an anomaly in the realm of entertainment.  Their mediocrity proves the superiority of its source inspiration, and that is something players should be proud of.  

Origin

In 2001 I was working as the manager of a comic book store in Eureka, California.  One of the biggest events of the year was the release of Origin, a six-issue limited series written by Paul Jenkins, Joe Quesada, and Bill Jemas; and with art by Andy Kubert.  It was an event simply because the series was going to tell the story of how one of the most popular comic book characters, Wolverine, came to be.  To say most of the customers were talking about it is an understatement.

There had been hints of Wolverine’s past in previous stories.  Often times these were red herrings or contradicted one another.  Each dropped clue kept the mystery and speculation alive, however, and they kept fans talking and guessing.  With that in mind, I wondered why Marvel, the publisher of this series, was even bothering to tell the story, as it was a tale that didn’t really need to be told.

Wolverine sold titles.  His solo title sold, and any book he was in sold.  Wolverine fans would buy his books no matter what, so to do a series that would put an end to some of the mystery seemed almost counterproductive.  In that sense, like the Star Wars prequels, it could only fail in its attempts.

My first reading of the series left me disappointed.  It had gothic sensibilities and horrific moments, sometimes actually feeling like a Hammer horror film back in the 1960s and 1970s.  Far from the anti-hero of Chris Claremont’s heyday on the Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine, the boy, was a pathetic, tragic figure who slowly transformed into the hybrid beast of a man readers knew and loved.  It made dramatic sense, however, and it also made his rise to the samurai-inspired, bloodthirsty savage even more poignant, but something about the story felt decidedly lackluster.  As it transpired in those six issues, Wolverine’s rise to power was more situational than anything else.  He was an accidental hero, though those heroics were barely seen in the series.

Then a funny thing happened.  I decided to revisit the story recently, and was actually most pleased by what I read.

When Origin is left to simmer away from the hype of telling the Wolverine origin story, it actually gains strength.  It is no longer the let-down it had originally been simply because it is removed from anticipation.  Many die-hard Wolverine fans complained to me that the character didn’t start out kicking butt, but instead was sickly and quick to cry.  It was a blasphemy, and it didn’t jibe with what they knew.  That wasn’t the problem I had reading the series for the first time, however.  Instead, I found the story to be far too boring.  Sometimes it took too long to make its point, and at other times it was too heavy-handed.  Time changed that, though.  Removing the story from the constant hype and checkout counter criticism has shown that despite its flaws (those very obvious references to the character’s future that have all the subtlety of being hit in the face with a mallet), it was a rather well-crafted bit of characterization that worked.  What seemed lackluster on the first reading, now feels like a masterful stroke of storytelling.

There are some outstanding Wolverine stories out there.  Comic book legends like Frank Miller (Sin City) and Mark Millar (Kick-Ass) have contributed tales that are above and beyond Jenkins and company’s work, but that doesn’t mean Origin should be dismissed for what it attempted.  To answer my earlier question of why it was even written in the first place, the tale was created because Marvel feared that if it didn’t tell the story of how Wolverine came to be, Hollywood would do so, and once that cat was out of the bag Marvel would have a hard time reclaiming the character if purely on an ideological level.  No amount of great talent could save that story if Hollywood, with all its entertainment-by-demographics, got its hands on it first.  The creators Marvel assigned to do it had to know they were playing with fire, and were going to most likely disappoint people artistically, all while realizing sales would be through the roof regardless.  It was, by and large, a bold move of them to create the story they did, and they did it far better than Hollywood would have done if given the chance.  Marvel set the standard, and then Hollywood tried to tell its own version in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which borrowed from the comic series and added its own bit of misery to it.  Marvel, which has only been helped by the silver screen as of late, beat the beast at its own game.

Ironically, Marvel, in a fairly standard Hollywood-like move, has its own sequel to the comic due out soon.  Will lightning strike twice?  I seriously doubt it, but I’d love to be surprised … again.

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Legacy

I have never been a fan of Superman, but I always liked Action Comics … at least I did until the latest revamp.  I started buying the issues in the ‘70s, when Superman was king, but why was I purchasing those issues if I wasn’t a Superman fan?  Legacy and history.  Each issue had a sense of both of those things with their high numbers and referencing of material from years before.  Action Comics and many other titles gave readers a sense of their place in history and the feeling that they were stepping into something that had been going on for decades before them and, as logic would figure, would continue decades after they left.  The series title may have been plain.  The hero and his stories tired.  All that was forgiven, however, for the comic’s legendary place in history.

Most of that comic’s history and legacy seems to be lost now with DC’s rebooting, revamping and renumbering every title that matters (and many that don’t).  Some say it’s because people only want “new” things.  Others say the history I so loved so much was too confusing for new readers (something I never had a problem comprehending as a new reader).  The truth, I believe, is much simpler and far more appalling. 

DC is a greedy bastard.

I believe the real reason companies like Marvel and DC do this is because it makes the news and gets people like me to write about it.  The companies figure they’ll lose older readers (for a little while), but gain so many new ones in their place that it will be worth it to tank a title.  Everything is sacrificed for the dollar.

I can’t complain too much, though.  Today’s stories are better and more mature than the tales that spawned them.  Creators are taking real chances with the characters, and while not all have paid off, most are at least interesting.  It is, above everything else, a really good time to be a comic book fan.   Yes, the artform may have lost that spirit that attracted me to it in the ‘70s, but it gained something new.  It gained vision and a renewed sense of daring.  No longer resting on its laurels, the comic book industry is doing everything it can to attract new readers and make exciting stories, and I have to admit, we’re all better off for it.

I may miss those things that drew me to Action Comics, but I finally believe that the industry may be doing the right thing after all.  Part of me mourns the past, but another is fairly certain that this move by the comic companies solidifies their future and without that all we have is the past.  I can’t believe I’ve actually written that, but I have to admit: DC and Marvel may be right. 

Greed isn’t only good in this case … it is survival.  That said, I haven’t read any of the new Action Comics and I don’t intend to anytime soon.   The title was all about legacy and history to me.  Without that it is just another comic book with a character I don’t care about, and there’s no reason for me to start caring now.

The Trouble With CrossGen

CrossGen was a comic book company that bit off far more than it could chew.  Many people, including the owner of the store where I worked (Comic Castle) during the time the company started, thought CrossGen was going places and would give Marvel and DC a run for its money.  Its “innovative” titles and programs would boost the comics industry and help get it out of its slump … or so it seemed.  I was less-than-enthusiastic because I had seen far too many companies as bold or bolder come and go just because they got too bold too quickly, and looking at the press release material made it obvious this comic was not going to produce characters as interesting or memorable as Wolverine, Raven or Marshal Law.  As it was, I stayed away from the CrossGen titles.  Not only did it seem like the company would go under fairly quickly, but the titles themselves came across as mediocre, though you couldn’t say that to the company’s fans.  There was one title that looked like it could be an exception, however.

Abadazad.

That comic, from the description in Previews, held promise for me.  I think a lot of it had to do with the artist, Mike Ploog.  I’m a fan of his work, and this project sounded right up his alley.  The first issue came out and I have to admit I was disappointed.  The cover was horrible, and looked worse holding it than it did in the publicity material.  It wasn’t that it was poorly drawn; it repulsed me because I so dislike characters who are nothing but head, though I think M.O.D.O.K. is pretty cool for some reason.

I put aside my disgust and delved into the first issue, eager to see if it would live up to my expectations.  It didn’t.  Not even close.  I could tell it had potential.  I could see that it would possibly get better.  I quickly put it back on the shelf, though, convinced the company would go under soon enough, which meant I wasn’t going to put any effort into what I viewed as a doomed series that started off on the wrong foot. 

Two more issues were published and then Crossgen bit the dust.  Yes, it was later bought by Disney, and Abadazad became a series of children’s books that also never lived up to their full potential and then those were also scrapped.

CrossGen was an example of a company gone wrong.  Its intentions were pure and good.  The then-owner of Comic Castle bought into the hype full-bore and ordered a lot of CrossGen material on nothing more than a wing and a prayer and a belief that the stuff would sell, and when I left my employment there, we were still sitting on a majority of it.  The comics sold, but never at gangbuster numbers, and the trades languished – especially when they changed formats.  Abadazad was a prime example of one of the reasons I think the company never caught on: its books seemed good, but the execution was flawed.  It’s the story of CrossGen, and it’s the story of far too many new comic companies.  And it will happen again and again.  If only that cover were a little less creepy …


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Revisiting Wolverine and the X-Men

My first take on Wolverine and the X-Men was less than positive.  I was not impressed by the first issue at all, but I stuck with it.  I'm reading the Avengers Vs. X-Men stuff now, and I have to say that the title has done nothing but improve.

If I have any complaint about the series it is one that is common to far too many comics these days: the art is sometimes hard to follow.  Extreme close-ups of action sequences do not "put you in the action," they confuse the reader and make it hard to follow the story.  The issue with Beast in outer space really hammered that home.  I don't want to pick on one artist for this because it is an issue with many artists, but if you are guilty of it -- stop.

There are moments in this new series that make that complaint easier to tolerate, however.  Wolverine's take on Hope.  Krakoa.  Genesis.  Kitty's "pregnancy."  Space gambling.  In some cases this title is starting to feel more like the Uncanny X-men of old.  The types of stories the series is doing seems unlikely to change now, too, with the series becoming part of the Marvel Now! lineup.  That is good news.  The bad news?  It's part of the Marvel Now! lineup, which feels like a limp attempt to cash in on DC's new fame.  What does that mean?  For now nothing, but it does make me wonder what will happen when the inevitable killing off of titles occurs.  Will sales be strong enough to keep this one going?  Only time will tell.  Until that happens, however, I'm going to continue with the title ... unless it reverts back to its first issue shenanigans.

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Cover Review: Strikeforce: Morituri #22

What I'm about to write bears no judgment on Strikeforce: Morituri as a series.  It has nothing to do with the planet I live on facing some kind of meteor threat.  It has everything to do with the testicles the creature is wearing on his(?) face.

I get the idea that a comic book cover is meant to sell a story.  It's there to grab someone's attention.  It's there to entice a new reader or suck back in someone who let the series go.  Sometimes a cover will target a certain demographic.  Thirteen-year-old boys like big-chested women wearing next to nothing.  Intellectually stunted emo girls like a weepy looking guy.  What demographic, pray tell, is drawn to alien men(?) with testicles growing off their faces?  Not even the most testicle-fixated man or woman could view this cover and think, "I have to buy this."

There is nothing else about the cover that looks vaguely sexual.  There are not strange vagina-like plants.  No woman eating a banana or dribbling milk down her chin.  There isn't a man holding a log in a strange place while a boy looks on in excitement.  None of that.  Testicle Chin stands alone as the cover's high weirdness.  I wonder how many issues this sold beyond the title's core readers?  My guess is very few.

At least we should be thankful Testicle Chin wasn't starting to grow a beard.

Mark Waid's Daredevil

I have been a fan of Daredevil since the 1970s.  Since the character's inception, Daredevil (Matt Murdock, lawyer) has gone through many changes.  He's been carefree and wisecracking, he's been dark and brooding, and he's gone insane.  Of all the superhero characters I can think of, his is the one that has been written with the most depth.  His love of women has led to him being labeled a bit of a womanizer, but as witnessed when the women closest to him die, he has troubles dealing with the losses.  His friends and allies constantly question his mental stability, and his fellow heroes have grown to distrust him.  His civilian identity has been learned by his greatest nemesis, sold out by a female he once loved who got hooked on drugs and turned to porn.  This was his first break with reality.  Decades later, his civilian identity was revealed to the world, and this led to yet another series of downward spirals in Daredevil's life. 

For Daredevil fans, it has been a hell of a ride.  And now the character has come back full circle with writer Mark Waid taking over the title in 2011.  Many fans and critics agree: The title has never been better.

I had to admit I was hesitant to embrace the new old Daredevil.  Gone was the depression and insanity.  Gone was Daredevil tossing villians out third story windows.  Instead, all this was replaced with a hero who cracked jokes and seemed to be having fun with his life.  He was rebuilding.  He was mending bridges.  He was getting to do the things most people would want to do with their lives had they had the chance to do it again.

I started reading the new series, unconvinced I would like it.  Daredevil was deep.  Yes, he started out as a fairly standard hero, but along the way he had grown.  He had a foundation in religion (fairly rare in comics), he had known insanity, he had tortured.  Taking him back to square one seemed not only like a bad idea, but also it felt unrealistic.  I know the idea of having realism in a comic seems ridiculous, but the best stories and characters have a basis in realism, and Waid making the character a blind Spider-Man felt wrong to me.  I read it with an open mind, however, and I was pleased.  Very pleased.

Yes, Daredevil is more upbeat, but the past hasn't been forgotten.  This new variant on Murdock feels real.  It seems like he is trying to make his life better.  He is enjoying every moment, but ... there is something underneath it.  The insanity still comes up when people think of him.  He can't dodge the past with the outing of his civilian identity.  And you get the idea that this could end for him at any moment and in a really big way.  Sure, the original Daredevil is back, but all the stuff that happened between then and now is still there, and that somehow makes this take on the character not only more tenenous, but also more dangerous.  If it all falls apart now, after he's tried to get his life back on track, it could ruin him permanently.  Marvel would not let the character just fade away, but if handled improperly after something like that which could happen, readers would leave.  Waid has advanced the story, advanced the character, and has advanced the readers' expectations of what they can expect in the character.  That's what a good writer does.

Waid won't write this character forever.  I'm a bit behind on the title, so he could even be gone by now.  What I do feel justified in saying, though, is that when he leaves the title, his name will be up there with the other great writers on the series.  Miller.  Bendis.  Brubaker.  Smith.  Diggle.  Waid.  This skeptic has been cured.

Cover Review: Avengers #25

Since the Avengers movie is such a hot commodity these days, I thought I'd go way back in the vault to check out the cover to issue number 25.  Those of you who only know the Avengers through the movie may be a bit puzzled by this one.  You recognize Captain America, and think that maybe that one guy with the bow is Hawkeye (it is), but who are the other two?  That's Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, mutants, Avengers.

These four heroes are being startled by none other than the Fantastic Four menace known as ... wait for it ... Dr. Doom!  He is a total bad ass, but the Avengers' reaction is a bit peculiar.

From the way everyone is standing, it appears that the Avengers were just strolling down a street in Latvia when they encountered Doom standing dramatically.  The Avengers' reaction?  "What the --!?" And then they struck surprised poses.  Captain America even seems ready to let loose some Kirby-esque karate on Doom's metal butt.

If you were reading Marvel comics at the time, this cover, with an overuse of the color blue making everything seem calmer than it should, this issue must have seemed pretty cool.  The Avengers up against a FF villain with the FF thrown in for good measure?  Excellent!  If you weren't reading Marvel comics, though, this just had to seem kind of lame.

Dr. Doom seems like a cool figure.  All metal and green, standing undaunted before four kind of wimpy looking heroes.  It hardly seems like a cover that would grab the readers' attention and make them want to buy the book or even open it up.  The blurb says, "In this great issue," but the cover screams otherwise.

The Avengers has had far better covers.  Most of them came in the '70s.  This one probably turned away more new readers than it drew in.  It obviously didn't tank the series, though, or you wouldn't have seen the movie five times already.

The Savage Dragon

I was recently at my local dollar store and happened across a box of polybagged comics.  They came from some company whose name escapes me at the moment, but they looked worth getting.  Each pack had two comics (you could only see the front cover of one of the two) and a card.  Each pack was a buck.  I ended up picking up five packs because I could tell by the comic I could see that I wanted to add it to my collection.  The very first bag I opened had issue #45 of DC Comics Presents.  That is why I picked it up.  While I'm not a Superman fan, I did enjoy that series.  It was the second issue that stunned me, however.  The Savage Dragon #3 ... with the coupon in it!

Oddly enough, I have seen this title for up to $13 on auction sites.  Mine is a first printing, and I must admit I found it to be a strange find as these are usually surplus comics that are available in these packs.

I haven't opened the other packs yet, but I am tempted to go buy up the rest of the store's supply.  I know there were some Valiant titles in there, along with more '80s Marvel and DC issues, which is what I was mainly after.

Best find ever?  Not even close, but I bought those packs thinking I would be getting some utter junk.  And while I'm not a Savage Dragon fan, I do know the early issues can go for some bucks.  I think I need to head back out to that store.

Raven

It was bound to happen.  My daughter discovered the Teen Titans animated show through the wonders of Boomerang.  Her favorite character?  Raven, of course.

When I ask her why Raven seems to have caught her attention, I get the usual run of answers.  She's dark, goth, strong, cool -- you name it.  Admittedly, of the Titans, she is the most interesting on the show.  There are worse characters she could like.  Faust.  Foolkiller.  That creepy Charlton clown who shot a kid.  Squirrel Girl.  Raven, on the whole, seems ... wholesome.

I'm not complaining about this newfound admiration of Raven.  In fact, I think it is kind of neat.  She's had an interest in Phoenix, Kitty Pryde, Rogue, Storm, Nightcrawler, Batman ... but Raven is the one she talks about the most (it's also the wallpaper on her computer).  When she asks me to find things on eBay ... it's all Raven.  (And for the record, the Teen Titans Go comics are way overpriced on eBay.)  So now I'm on a search to find her all the Raven products I can.  If any of you reading this know of any cool ones (statues, toys, books -- whatever), let me know.  It's a new quest of sorts ... at least until she's onto the next thing.