What makes me tick as a comic book reader/collector - Part 1

Hello readers. In all this time I've been doing this blog, I don't think I've gone into a little about myself as a comic book reader. Well, today is the day! I think the reading habits of someone can give you an insight into their personality. Lemme tell you about some of my quirks or maybe you'll find them endearing traits. I dunno, YOU be the judge.

Alright, really, how many comics DO you have?

Let's say it's north of 15,000. Keep in mind, this is an accumulation of about 30 plus years of comic book collecting. I took a pause between 1998-2003 because I was in college and I thought I was over this comic book thing. I was wrong. Once I got a real job with disposable income, I hit comic book stores, conventions and eBay HARD. Then I became a reader that would buy every Wednesday and here we are. 

Why don't you buy digital comics?

This is one of the places where I'm more analog. I like the feel of a comic book, holding it and finding a nice place to read it. As a collector, based on the aforementioned answer, I can't continue to be a hoarder with digital books. Come on! 

On a more serious note, I feel like it is my part to support my local comic book shop. The margins for running a comic book shop is so thin. I was worried about my comic book store during the pandemic and once or twice, I paid double what I owered for my weekly pickups, to help offset what I perceived that they would be losing. Now while owning my own comic book store would be a dream job of mine, I know I don't have the business acumen or the patience to turn a profit.

Speaking of comic book stores, what's your LCS (Local comic book shop) of choice?

I'm nothing, if not loyal. So I've been going to Capitol Comics for the past 21 years now. They used to have two stores, one on Hillsborough Street and one off Glenwood. Only the Glenwood one remains. So that is always my first choice. My second choice by a mile is Ultimate Comics. They are more kid friendly and have gobbled up the local market here by having like 5 different locations. I used them as a back up choice just for back issues or indy comics my shop didn't have. They just have more volume. My main beef with them has always been how expensive their back issues are. There's a comic book store in Fuquay-Varina, Yellow Bird Comics that just opened up a few months ago. I've only been once, but it was new then, so I will give it another chance soon.

When you buy your comics, do you have a particular order that you read them in?

Here's the thing about my reading order. I sort my comics by most excited to read to least excited. This way I get to the stuff I really want to read first and leave the sucky comics for the bottom. As time goes on, if I have a book that is constantly at the bottom and never moves up, I drop it. I can't be wasting money on stuff that I hate read. 

What are your current favorites right now?

You'll have to read my best of the year lists. Ha! I'm saying nothing here because my tastes change.

Have you ever had a comic that you strongly disliked?

Believe it or not, yes. They can't all be winners. But what sticks out in my mind is a particular episode of either Action Comics or Superman back in the mid-90s. All I remember is that there was a white villain that was going out of his way to murder black people. Just because they were black. I had never been more enraged reading a comic in my life. In a rare instance, I actually tore it to shreds and threw it away. I vowed that it would NOT exist in my collection. I almost went as far as writing a letter to DC about it, but I knew in my heart, it wouldn't have changed a thing.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994)

After watching the X-Men: Animated series, I figured, "What the hell, I'll watch that Spider-Man: Animated Series from the same era." This decision was also supported by a blink and you'll miss it cameo of Spider-Man from X-Men '97. I read speculation that seeing Peter and Mary Jane meant that Peter had found "the real MJ." I read that and was like, "What are people talking about? I don't remember that at all." I think it was because by the time the late 90's came around, I had jumped off the bandwagon for that show.

I can say now that I have watched all five seasons in it's entirety, I made the right call. For as much shit as I gave X-Men, that pales in comparison to this show. This show is remarkably bad. I'll get into my reasons for thinking that of course, but I didn't want to waste too much time before I got into my feelings on it. I will inevitably pull in comparisons to the X-Men show to prove my point. 

One thing I distinctly remember as a teenager when both this and X-Men were on is that X-Men had a Y7 rating and Spider-Man had a Y. I didn't fact check that, but my point is that the X-Men was the mature show and Spider-Man was for younger audiences. That is stark in the action that is presented. There's less hand to hand stuff and more laser guns misfiring like it was a GI Joe cartoon. X-Men sometimes stumbled into some cool action sequences, whereas all of Spider-Man's action sequences feel very boring. Spidey leaps out of the way of stuff, that's expected, but he plays so much defense, we don't see a lot of good offense. 

I was annoyed at the amount of stuff he literally threw. Either tossing bad guys or tossing stuff at the bad guys. Never any hand to hand combat, my bread and butter. To make things worse, throughout it's five seasons, this show repeatedly uses the same couple of clips of explosions, generic web swinging or Spidey shooting his web. They could be in the forest, something explodes and it's a shot of a city building having an explosion pop out. Maybe all the money in their animation went into the 3D backgrounds they tried to deploy. Even in 1994, those 3D backgrounds looked astonishingly bad.

While I'm railing on this show, let's talk about the animation a little more. This was some of the most safe and boring animation style that I've seen. It's colorful, but it doesn't feel colorful. I know that doesn't make a lot of sense, so what I'm trying to say is the coloring wasn't dynamic. This lead to some weird character design choices like Venom, who had a blue and red hue to him at all times. I get that if he is all black, it's hard to shape him and his movement, but it just looked so weird. When they bring in other characters such as the X-Men, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, Doom, etc. they all just look bland and simple. X-Men at least used shadowing at times. I don't think this show ever heard of shadows.

There were also wild character choices made for this show. I feel like Spider-Man has a wide enough gallery of characters that he didn't have to stray too far out of his comfort zone, but they tried to anyway. They brought in the Punisher, Morbius, Blade and even the X-Men from the superior show as guest stars. Each appearance was watered down versions of these characters.  Again, I know it's a kid's show, but maybe you don't shoe horn in more violent characters into this show and sanitize them to the point where they don't feel like a threat. Also, Black Cat's origin is truly bizzare as it is fueled by Super Soldier serum and the ability to just...change at wll.

One thing I can't harp on enough. Spider-Man/Peter Parker is a real asshole through the majority of this show. He constantly whines about the state of his life, is rude to fellow heroes, blows off friends in weird ways and does this while constatnly chirping to himself and to anyone that listens. Spidey's whole thing is how much he jokes, but a lot of it is very annoying here. Marvel has put Peter Parker through the ringer, but I don't remember him whining about it as much as he did in this show. 

This show is caught between being a kid's show, but trying to have adult themes. I think it failed at both. His relationships with Felicia Hardy and Mary Jane felt weird and forced and I don't see what they want with the guy. There's cringeworthy plots with Hydro-Man, MJ's ex showing up and being super possessive and jealous. 

A final note. The stories this show tells. Boring. There's a watered down Secret Wars, there's some stuff with Golden Age heroes, Carnage shows up and a lot of Kingpin and Alastair Smythe stuff. Oh! Hobgoblin shows up before Green Goblin and Green Gobline is only Spider-Man's greatest archvillain. But no, let's shove Venom in here. The only thing I will respect about the show is each season had an arc that they stuck to. I can admire that kind of commitment to an idea, even if it's a bad one.

All in all, this show was an absolute chore to watch. I did it because I'm a masochist. Do I recommend anyone else watch this? Hell no. But if you're like me, you're going to do it anyway.

Deadpool & Wolverine Review

I'm just as surprised as you that I didn't see this movie, day one. I can explain that. Life stuff was happening and I couldn't find he time, so I had to wait a whole WEEK to finally see it. That is a lifetime in trying to avoid spoilers on the internet talking about the numerous amount of cameos in this movie. I finally did and let me tell you, I enjoyed it and thought it was great.*

You may be thinking, he put a * , what does that mean? I put this as a qualifier because I'm going to be real about something. My level of enjoyment was raised because of the massive amount of meta commentary that was throughout the movie. Unfortunately, a lot of that is built on whether or not you have read comic books in the last twenty years as a more than a casual fan, kept up with all the studio nonsense behind all these characters, watched the first two Deadpool movies, Logan, both seasons of the Loki series, any of the X-Men movies and some of the other Fox/Marvel movies that you forgot existed before Disney bought their whole catalog. Then there's stuff about movies that never were, jokes about comic book creators, obscure characters, actors that appeared in other movies. There is a LOT of homework that goes into fully appreciating some of this movie and I feel sorry for the normies. You basically need to have a PhD in Marvel of the last 28 years. So the target audience is nerdy 44 year olds. Oh wait, that's ME. This movie does nothing to explain any of what I just said, so you either know or you don't. Unfortunately, my brain is a factory of useless facts that serve no one except M-E. 

High level, if you liked the first two Deadpool movies, you will like this because it is more of that. With a bigger budget and more toys in the toybox to play with. You know the level of violence to expect and the kind of jokes you will see. If you aren't prepared for that, you're in for a rough ride.

Also, outside of the movie, "Logan", this is far and away the best Wolverine we've ever gotten. Look at that, it only took 24 years to get here, but we here.

Now, I'm going to take a different tact and start with things I really liked about this movie, that does not involve the cameos and the humor. What really got me in the feels as I thought about it was watching two tortured heroes that come together on two different paths. Deadpool realizes that for all his joking and antics, all he really wants is to matter. He wants to matter to his friends and he doesn't want to let them down, which is amazing given how he started out in that first movie. He's in a sad place when we find him and I think his mission is well meaning, despite how we get there.

On the other hand, we have Wolverine. He's been racked with guilt for his inability to stop what happens in his timeline and it's what turns him into a full on alcoholic wanting to live out the rest of his days. His gruff exterior is extra gruff in this movie and the more you find out, the more you see what makes him tick. I think his arc is fascinating, brought to life by Hugh Jackman who is really putting in great work here. That might be lost with all the antics happening around him, but I want you to really focus on him when you see this movie.

So you take this unstoppable force with an unmovable object and you get the kind of buddy cop film that I eat up. Wolverine is clearly playing the Murtaugh to Deadpool's Riggs. If I lost you on this reference, you might get lost on this review. I may stray into more pop culture references like this movie does. What I'm taking a long time to say is I loved their dynamic here and how they push each other to be better.

This movie moves fairly quickly and has jokes going at the rate of a Naked Gun movie. Just sight gags, quips, bits and other things to keep you distracted from what a serious movie it might actually be if they would let you sit with it instead of undercutting everything with a joke. For me, most of the jokes land and that is because the way the actors deliver them. Ryan Reynolds joking with people through out the movie makes everyone up their comedy game. 

Unlike the internet, I'm not going to spoil the cameos you see here, but there are a lot. All of them fulfilling in their own ways. It shows the magnetic pull Ryan Reynolds has behind the scenes to get all the people that he did. I enjoyed every last one of them and I so badly want to reveal them here, but I won't.

I will say, the main villains in this movie are merely a means to an end and never REALLY feel like a threat. Cassandra Nova joins a long line of Marvel villains that were mostly one note. To her credit, she just enjoys chaos and I think that's all you need to know. There is some really creepy body horror stuff that goes on when she uses her powers, that is unsettling in a good way.

I'll wrap up by saying the fight choreography is off the charts for a Marvel film. There's some quick camera work for some scenes that's very distracting, but for others, there are some close quarters fighting that shows the amount of effort they put into practicing to make it look good. Also, the Wolverine costume looks pretty good.

Would I recommend people seeing it? Yeah, but with all the caveats I listed. Most of you were already going to see it anyway, so I'm only validating your opinion. For others that are on the fence, I would recommend waiting till it comes to streaming because you might get overwhelmed with the amount of homework you will feel like you need to keep up. Better to save your money.

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman have undeniable chemistry. I hope this is the last Deadpool movie, but I want to see them in other movies together. 

State of the Union: Black Panther

This year, 2024, I'm rolling out a new series of posts in this here blog. I'm not keeping up with it like I should and as a man in his mid-40's, I have lots of old man opinion on things. Why not channel that old man anger into my favorite thing...comic books!

This is my chance to focus on something that I like or don't like in a single post. If you know me, it will be a vehicle for my incessant bitching about said topic. Maybe it will be entertaining, maybe it won't. We'll see if the State of the Union is really strong!

The first thing I want to tackle is the Black Panther. Specifically within the comic books. He's been my favorite character for nearly 20 years now, so I've read practically every series he's starred in. I may not remember all of it, but I have a good enough sample size to have an informed opinion. Why am I talking about him right now? Simple. His comic book series have been mid to outright bad the past few years. If you read any of my thoughts last year, I railed against this book and did a think piece on why having an American black writer on the book is not enough.

My true problem is that Marvel editorial keeps throwing prose writers at a comic book. The reason I think this is a bad idea will be fleshed out more below. Just stay with me. It's a formula that doesn't normally breed success and it's especially egregious with this book. Marvel has it in their mind that getting someone outside of comics will bring new eyes and make new fans. I would love to think that is true, but comics are so intimidating and often impenetrable to new readers that I don't blame them for taking a hard pass.

Back to my problem. So the last couple of writers have been Ta-Nehisi Coates, John Ridley and Eve Ewing. All accomplished writers in their own rights, but not comic book writers. The reason prose writers don't work out in comics is because they treat comic books like they're prose books. They're not. The art does the heavy lifting so you don't have to explain every detail via overwrought dialogue, but these kind of writers tend to do that. It is a slog to get through and that is not how modern day comics work. 

Also, these writers couch their stories in more high concept themes that don't fit Black Panther. You want to talk about the downfall of a sovereign nation-state, espionage, living at the ground level as your people, that's fine. Each writer is socially conscious and know how they want to relay their message. Unfortunately, that gets lost because the stories are overwrought with extraneous dialogue that is either clunky or overly verbose. There's a pace within a comic book where the art has to mesh with the words. If I'm spending too much time reading the dialogue, my eyes get tired and I don't take in the art. I power through just so I can be done. You've failed.

Given that editing comics is their JOB, you would think the editors of Black Panther would have a better eye for talent. They especially know that it takes a love of comic books and understanding of how the medium works to be successful at it. This is why I keep harping on why prose writers are not the proper course of action. I still stand by my thought that the Black Panther is a character that needs to have a person of color writing it and there are a dearth of writers out there that Marvel can find. 

These last few writers have made me question myself. I've had to ask, "Do I enjoy this or am I making myself enjoy this because it's my favorite character?" Generally, that answer has been no, I'm not enjoying it at all. I have been hate reading for a few years now.

This is where we find Black Panther. He's had creative changes and new directions every volume, so much that it is making my head spin. Each writer wants to put their own stamp on things, but it doesn't tie back into the overall narrative of the character and has NO impact on the rest of the Marvel Universe, so why even bother? It's further worsened by the fact that he's a chair person on the Avengers and doing super hero stuff, while not being in his country and nothing in his own title affects that.

I've been reading comics enough to know that traditionally, Black Panther series do not sell well. It's a fact that is not lost on me. That is why they keep rebooting them because some complicated metrics show that #1 issues sell well. When the movie came out and turned him into an A-List character, I thought the quality of the books would follow. Marvel's typical penchant for synergy with their movie franchises never materialized. There was a real moment for Marvel to capitalize on. They could have ushered in an era of Afro-futurism on a grand scale and they fumbled it. 

I have not heard news of a new creative team and that's worrisome to me. It means that no one has volunteered up a pitch that Marvel wants to get behind. Maybe it's just a cursed book. There is an Ultimate Black Panther title that is written by an author I like, Bryan Hill. I've always felt the Ultimate universe and any multi-verse story is a cowardly way to do something new with your characters. However, that book has been very good, so I have hope.

Who would I like to see take over? It's hard to gauge. In an ideal world, I would want someone who is from Africa that would be able to tell a tale with some nuisance that an American born person just could not convey. I don't want Black Panther cozying up with any other teams in his solo title. He needs to primarily stay in Wakanda and deal with issues there because that is the space to explore that. It's also the ONLY book we can even find out about this fictional nation, so why not spend more time fleshing that out.

Will I keep reading? Yes. I've suffered worse than this. If nothing else, my blind loyalty can help sales in some miniscule way. 

State of the Union: Not Strong.