More on Secret Wars, NX, and the Commanding Fungus Officer who Tracks Gems and Stars

It's been over a month since I've posted here and I apologize.  I could make any amount of excuses and they wouldn't matter because... well...  Who cares?  Work, no computer at home, some sickness, all sorts of stuff.  But whatevs. 

Let's move on, shall we?  I'll try to cover as much as I can as terribly as I can.

First off, we have a lot more information about Marvel's upcoming Secret Wars.  We know Dr. Doom is somehow the orchestrator as the real identity of Rabum Alal (rah-boom ah-lawl) as a sort of future version of Dr. Doom along the lines of how Immortus is future Kang.  What we also now know a few more of the lands involved like the Regency which houses a pre-Brand New Day Spider-Man who is still married to Mary Jane, and a land dedicated to Doctor Strange where I presume there be the weird magic things happening, an entire world dedicated to Moon Boy and Devil Dinosaur (love those guys), a land dedicated to Old Man Logan, and a few others.  What is really interesting is the potential for Marvel to not just simply go full Crisis on Infinite Earths their world, but do more of a Nu52 of their world as they can pick and choose from what timelines and characters from which they like and implement them as they wish.  Let me explain.

The most obvious one to me is Jubilee in terms of character replacement.  Hailing from "Westchester" a world which never stopped being what seems to be the animated X-Men cartoon universe.  So why Jubilee?  Well, as of House of M our good friend Jubilation became a "Flatscan," worked as a social worker of sorts for other depowered mutants, joined the renegade-esque New Warriors utilizing technology specifically from the Wizard, the Ghost, and Hank Pym.  Most technology was based on the Wizard and her gloves simulated super strength, super durability via force field, and flight, the Ghost tech allowed her to pass through objects, and once used Pym Particles to grow to giant size.  Either way, she grew out of that phase and went full vampire, and while some people delighted in this change the vampire phase is now on a strong decline while there seems to be some thirst for the old sparkler Jubilee if certain circles are to be believed.  And this can be a very good thing, because Marvel could basically put in place a Jubilee which was wildly popular for a while and not have to explain it with anymore than a handwave of, "Blame it on the Crisis Incursion."  And I really believe this has a chance because this is the best place to bring back Wolverine.  "But he just died!"  Let's not pretend he was gone forever, as almost no popular character gets to stay dead.  This is a perfect place because Wolverine in the early 90's was also ridiculously popular (as he really always was) and the old team up of Wolvie and Jubes would be a big appeal. And there are other characters like Spider-Man who can be again married to MJ, Iron Man who will again be returned to normal like with Heroes Return where they literally altered reality to bring back pre-Kang/Immortus fuckuppery, and a few others I'm sure I'm just not thinking of.  This isn't to say Marvel will push the big reset on all of their characters, as I'm sure Captain Falcon America and "X marks the" Cyclops are here to stay.  This can be both good and bad, and Marvel should take this chance to get rid of some of the crappier continuity to streamline and untangle the web of nonsense Marvel has.  And while I'm sure the previous sentence blustered people into a furor, I'll comment more on that in another post. 

Nintendo says they're working on a new console with the project name of "NX."  Knowing Nintendo, they'll throw away this perfectly fine console name and replace it with "Bleeg" as the official console name.  No new info, just that.  I wanted to say it because I do want to see Nintendo release another console.

Last but not least is I picked up and played Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.  Wonderful little game.  Beautifully crafted, plenty of quickfire fun, accessible to pretty much anybody but challenging enough to satisfy me.  I say challenging in how the puzzles work, not necessarily challenging on how well I handle a controller.  It really has a fun personality to it, and well... I'll probably review it.

Sorry I've been off the radar for some time.  I'm hoping to get a computer soon and post more here since there's plenty to share.


              ~ Love,
                        Mak

Happy belated Valentine's Day AND St. Patrick's Day.

Marvel: C-C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!!!!

So this week Marvel did a live announcement concerning Secret War and I'd just like to say one thing:

I was right.

Marvel is kind of sort of pushing the reset button on their universe.  They are breaking the long history combo with a reboot counter.  And I think this might potentially be a pretty good thing, but that's not what this is about.

Some people (read: ridiculous amounts of people) compared this to DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths when it's really a lot more like DC's Flashpoint.  Why?  Read on before you start flinging your poop at your monitor.

The event basically spells the end of several universes, two of which are definitely the standard 616 regular Marvel Universe and the 1610 Ultimate Marvel Universe.  Following the line of stories Jonathan Hickman has been writing, Earth will enter an Incursion and those two Earth's will definitely collide and sort of meld creating a new permanent Marvel Universe.  Of course several other universes will be part of this new "Battleworld" and most likely some of their histories will get tied up into this as well.  While I don't expect this hodgepodge world to exist as a puzzle, I do think it will most likely meld into one cohesive history like Nu52 (NuMarvel? Post-Flashpoint Marvel?) and become it's own world.  Now, if you followed the live feed you'd see some people just being dicks (like me) who kept claiming things about this being a reboot (like I did), and while they were right they represented the worst of the commenting crowd with most others either being wary or okay with the reveal.  Okay, about half.  But then Tom Brevoort said something, "If someone wanted to bring back Gwen Stacey, this would be the time to do it," or something to that effect about ressurecting Gwen Stacey.  

Twitter lost it's shit.

People who were simply posting along with updates became hostile, paranoid, sad, and/or angry.  Some decried the entire event. Some felt the event was irrevocably ruined.  Some felt the event was originally a great idea but now felt betrayed (which is funny since Marvel is on nobody's side).  In short, people actually turned against the event, but that wasn't the worst part.  People in a hope to establish some sort of normalcy began to turn on each other.  Some people were beyond furious their history of comics was possibly going to pot for what may potentially be a disaster, some were striking out in fear of losing ongoing books (which all ongoing books will be cancelled temporarily for the event), many were afraid of the Gwen example being evidence this event might just return comics to a state of horror.  

It was insane.  

Some poured their hearts out, some tried for calm, and everybody was so pitched it didn't matter since all sides could only field the extremes while trying to make sense of everything.  People followed and unfollowed.  People raged against walls they or others put up.  In one particular battle of names who won't be posted, one person tried to appeal for calm but did it in the worst comic fan position possible: Since he has read comics longer than the other person, the other person should get with the program and calm down.  While it's not what he meant (sort of) it's what he said, and that sent the other person into a furor because gee golly, she was definitely a comic book veteran at 12 years of collecting and with that much investment she was definitely entitled to her feelings.  Shocker, I know.  Others had similar experiences.  As an aside, I understand what the guy sort of meant because as one becomes older in any community they become dulled to the reality of that world like doctors and bill collectors and these things just don't effect them and the guy probably just wanted to share that (I hope).  If that is what he meant, he just shouldn't have been so crap about it and pull the, "MY POWER LEVEL IS HIGHER THAN YOURS!!" card, and probably should just realize the wounds were too raw to close right away. Discretion is the better part of valor and such. Some people didn't want to be told how to feel (valid), and some people felt that other opinions were the ones we should aspire to (touchy subject).  I honestly stayed out of it or just joked around by telling one particular poster "Look at it this way, maybe they bring back Gwen as Ultimate Carnage/Gwen."  Even though the person humored me with a witty "Lalalala Can't hear you!" I'm sure they were dreading this might be possible.  In fact, people were really worried the characters they've grown to love will be perverted in such a fashion.  One person claimed Peter would be outright replaced, and while he might, I think it'll most likely he'll be replaced with a MJ married Peter who is otherwise the same.  This leads me to a thought other than comic fans are the worst in any fandom.

Let's be perfectly honest:  In ten years, all the characters we know now will be different anyway.  I know people don't want bad change, but comics thrive on change.  I know I just said people's feelings are valid, but fans know this sort of thing is inevitable and this isn't at fans who are facing drastic change and are worried about their books.  This is pointed at the Gee Wun fans I also saw who probably believe comics went bad the moment Jim Hammond the Human Torch and Namor went toe to toe.  This is a chance for Marvel to spice up and shake up their roster and make changes they want but couldn't feasibly do without breaking a story ala Brand New Day. And let's face the facts that Marvel can't have Dan Slott write every freaking book to smooth things over with the fans.  People are really worried characters who just got their start will just go away.  But let's be honest:  The big examples of Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, and Squirrel Girl are here to stay.  You think they won't?  Ratings and sales (and the newness of Ms. Marvel and SQ) say otherwise.  Marvel is sly to the game and those three books represent some of their best writing currently.  The crowds they're attracting won't be forgotten.  Captain America (I wish was named Captain Falcon with an energy punch) and the new Thor will stay.  All recently changed characters get to stay, almost guaranteed.  Who might go?  Spidey, like I said, but will most likely be replaced with a similar Spider-Man.  Iron Man might be changed to a non-Extremis or just more jokey, less dickish Iron Man.  I'll bet thirty bucks vampire Jubliee is replaced by '92 X-Men Jubilee with the yellow jacket.  Hank Pym might get replaced/changed because he ALWAYS gets screwed in Big Events.  Maybe Scott Lang will.  The Fantastic Four are primed for it.

You know what might also happen?  A bunch of characters might get Power Girl'd, and not in the way you're thinking.  They might simply get added on to the universe.  Miles Morales I bet sticks around on the new world (Nu616?) as someone with a modified history to fit if Marvel goes full Flashpoint.  Spider-Gwen might stick around (ARGH!! HOW CAN I BETRAY PEOPLE BY SUGGESTING THIS?!?!?!)  Other long time dead characters, or minor characters, or really just anybody in need of a restart might get this treatment.  Alright, I'm joking about Spider-Gwen.  If she sticks around, she sticks to the shadows of L.A. and becomes ultra sparse.  The chance for Marvel to adapt characters actually becomes pretty unique and might potentially be good.

Clearly the next day everything more or less calmed down with some people feeling bad for their behavior, some feeling that their worlds were a little smaller from the fighting, some feeling better just simply for venting and thinking things out.  As always with comic fans life just sort of goes on until the next reboot or cash grab.  But really, we should argue and such but we shouldn't be terrible fans because of this sort of stuff.  Not when there's so much worse things happening to real people.

Did you know Dan Slott was put on Jury Duty this week?  Seriously.  And Slott had to explain what comics he worked on and a DA told him the DA knew what Slott did to Spider-Man implying possibly villainous undertones.  But that and Marvel's problem pales in comparison to Peter Simeti's cat who had to go to the vet.  Seriously, there is almost nothing more sad than a cat in a crate who needs shots. 

Do these look like happy cats?  No, they do not.  THESE look like happy cats:

Okay, so maybe cats always sort of look displeased with us humans in some way.

Don't be the reason these animals look down on us.  I'm sure they ponder why we got opposable thumbs when they're clearly more deserving.

Comics and Portrayal: Their Importance in Society

Good morning.  Another week, another problem.  Am I right?

This week I had a post lined up to be about comic allegiance and blah blah blah, but instead it's going to be about portrayal of transgender in comics and the recent furor over Batgirl #27 and what it means because some of us just haven't caught up yet.

Immediately I'm going to apologize if any of my language or naming conventions are offensive.  It's most likely I'm not sure what the proper name should be.  Please feel free to let me know how much of a philistine I am being. I do understand there are specific terms such as cisself and such cisgender, non-trans, and others to help describe people but since I don't clearly understand them I probably won't use them.

Now I'm not going to say I'm some professional in this because I'm not.  I usually stay out of these conversations, and yes I understand that means I silently condone anybody who speaks out in offense of trans people since I basically don't do anything to help, and that's because I largely don't know what I should say.  I don't personally know the struggles of those in the community, their daily lives, what they must feel, and largely what they want.  If that sounds negative, it really isn't meant to.  I want to say that I just don't know enough but feel that I really should say something at this point as a few people locally felt that "Since it's a comic it's harmless," and "Really what did people expect?"

I reject this.  Comics are serious and are a reflection of us not only as a fanbase but us as a society in general.  I've read people talking about, "In today's more civilized society this isn't a problem, and we really shouldn't treat it as something huge and turn it into something it's not."  I am conflicted in this because: 1.) Society has been "civilized" since the dawn of civilization and every year we've felt ourselves across the entire world to be the pinnacle of civilized living, understanding, and being overall moral pinnacles when we do have a lot of problems we have yet to fix and some to even properly address such as this. 2.) Not addressing any problems under the guise of, "Let's not turn this into a thing," is a way of saying, "This isn't my problem I'm affected by, so I don't see why I should have to do anything about it.  I definitely don't want to hear about it."  3.) Again, COMICS ARE SERIOUS.  They are.  Don't believe me?  You're being ignorant. Comics are serious as both a social engagement and a business with people making billions of dollars with them at movies, using them in social sciences, enjoying them at home, and even crying when characters are hurt.  If they weren't serious, we wouldn't be labeling Doug Moench a hack for his JLA: Act of God with it's heavy handed religion or feel anger over Rob Liefeld's very name due to his crap, Greg Land for his borderline plagiarism, get upset when Gail Simone is kicked off a book about women, or have such a division between fans on the subject of Brian Bendis.  To us, and to the world, comics are important.  So let's just dispel that notion right away.

Now that we can acknowledge that comics are both important and influential, we can now acknowledge more than just regular kids at the candy shop pick up comics and address that comics are really meant for everybody of all ages and creeds, not that Marvel and DC act like that all the time, but still.  People will talk about how comics are primarily marketed at boys and how this makes it okay for comic companies to pull the crap they do, and that's a load of bullshiznaps.  Comic companies complain about not strong readerships and having trouble getting into other reading pools precisely because of this reasoning, to the point I've seen girls put down the Red Hood title, stop reading X-Men, or other titles due to objectification of women.  This is just women, a group which makes up 52% of the world's population of all humans.  Imagine an even smaller minorities such as those who are non-white and LGBT.  You may ask, "Mak, we don't think ill of them.  Heck, I can't think of any black or gay people I hate."  And I'd commend you on not being an outright bigoted racist, but that doesn't mean we as a society don't marginalize and sometimes make fun of them in unwitting ways.   This was something of a big thing with Batgirl #27.  I'll post the screen below:

 

Look at the scene and tell me what you as a person think is wrong.  Most likely you're going to say, "Nothing, Mak.  Looks normal to me.  Batgirl is surprised Dagger Type is a guy.  Just tell me what you want to try and guilt me with already you dag."   Well, if you already know Dagger Type's name then you also probably have been reading Batgirl for some time and all it's awesomeness.  You also know that Batgirl has a very personal friend by the name of Alysia Yeoh who is the transgendered friend of Barbara Gordon who came out and it was all very good.  (In fact, DC has been making strides recently to be more inclusive in a bid to not only appeal to a wider audience but to show a greater understanding of other cultures in general.)  So why is the image above possibly offending?  Well, Barbara has previously and personally been exposed to someone who is transgender and then shows exaggerated shock to come across another.  This is where things get murky, confusing, infuriating, and saddening.  "Well, that's natural.  If you were chasing someone who was running around looking like a woman you would be surprised if this person pulled off their mask and was clearly a guy."  "Dagger Type is an artist, so I don't see the problem.  Anyway, he's more crossdresser than trans." "Babs was excited and in the moment." A sampling of things I've heard in response.  All of them wrong.  Let's go back over them.

"Well, that's natural.  If you were chasing someone who was running around looking like a woman you would be surprised if this person pulled off their mask and was clearly a guy."  This is something I somewhat understand.  If I were a costumed fighter tracking down my doppelganger in glittery clothes and I ripped their mask off just to find out they were another gender I would be legitimately surprised.  I'll agree with you there.  Would I throw up my arms in dramatic fashion with a, "You?  But you can't possibly be a girl!  You just can't!" No.  This is pretty much what Batgirl did there and it taps deep into a stigma we as a society carry towards trans people when we find out they were different in assigned gender previously.  "But weren't you a man?"  "I have to say you looked better as a woman."  etc.  These things get brought up when comic characters pull this stunt.  This was double damning given that Batgirl previously had a very positive reaction to a trans person previously only to go back to the ignorant shock and surprise later on in such an exaggerated way we're supposed to, as readers, also feel shock and not in a good way.  Finding out Dagger Type was trans should be surprising to us as Babs was looking at someone who was her mirror reflection in everything from body type to voice and could never figure it out, has fought with Clayface, and really just has had all sorts of oddities that this is just... It just should have been handled better.  When we look at this and identify with it and see it as nothing more than a problem, we basically say it's okay to show great shock and maybe even fear (given Bab's face) to trans people.  It's not like their lives are bad enough without us pulling this crap to them and making them feel like they're an oddity, an outsider, and potentially even a sideshow attraction.  Things they've definitely been told in life and have struggled with.  Some still struggle today.  Many will struggle tomorrow.  If we are going to be "civilized" we need to stop being so shocked when this comes up.  

"Dagger Type is an artist, so I don't see the problem.  Anyway, he's more crossdresser than trans."  I don't even... I can't... Where to start.  This is a crap storm excuse of monolithic proportion.  If you subscribe to this, you may think you're being level headed and understanding towards creatives and artists and you're not buying into any agenda or bias and you're just above it all.  You can definitely take that back because you're wrong on all fronts.  While there's nothing wrong with fostering creatives, this is truly just on the backs of those who suffer.  Sort of like Jean-Paul Goude shooting a bunch of pictures of Grace Jones in multiple sexually and racially exploitative ways including "tribal makeup" armed with whips, and directly being put into a cage, and then even saying he has "jungle fever," and then claiming it's art so it's okay.  Art should be expressible by all forms, and comic books ARE art, but when you're shipping this as not so much a personal expression as a professional one and it should meet up to the standards of society it should reflect that society.  Also, screw Goude and those who think it's okay to subjugate entire groups of people because you just want to.  Speaking of grouping or failure to understand groups, crossdressers and trans tend to fall under the same tent.  When we talk about crossdressers, and the example (however unlabelled to whom it is) provided basically means that because Dagger Type isn't the full surgical male to female sort of trans it's okay to make fun of him or paint him in such a way and... well... no.  There's no real reason to assume that since Dagger hasn't gone full surgery that what he is and what he does as identifying as a woman is any different.  That would be like saying it's okay to make fun of or insult those of Protestant descent because they've become or are training to practice Catholicism as opposed to just being Catholic.  While the weight of religion shift is nowhere near even close to the same ballpark as what the issue at hand is, it is a similar precedence in how choice and change can be scrutinized or even marginalized due to misunderstanding.  In this instance, Dagger Type is not simply dressing as a woman for fun, he sees himself and is portraying himself as a woman.  He's identifying as a gender, and that's what trans is.  There's a distinct difference between those who "dress up" for fun and those who crossdress to be comfortable with themselves.  Trans doesn't simply apply to those who have the funds and the courage yet to reassign their gender and not to those who still live a similar lifestyle without it.  Not everybody can truly part with their born gender, and some do not even feel that a particular gender even fits them.  Some crossdress by choice because being that way fits them best. 

"Babs was excited and in the moment."  Hahahahahahahahahaha.  Yeah, that would make sense if Babs also showed shock and extreme disjointed surprise whenever anybody dressed up in a costume, left explosive gifts, etc.  As someone who is actually fairly well adjusted from paralysis recovery to just being a costumed crime fighter, this really shouldn't be this surprising.  Even in the heat of the moment.  Now if they're going to assign this as a true characteristic for her, they need to have an issue where they address her shrieking and running from the bed during sex because during the heat of the moment her partner reached climax and surprised the hell out of her.  "She would expect that."  Yeah, screw off.  Don't try to justify and marginalize crap.

There is one bit I didn't quote and I could have gone back and done it but whatevs.  "Dagger Type is clearly unstable.  Look at that makeup and why he is doing this.  Babs was right to be confused and surprised by such an unstable person."  That's more or less spelled out from what some people have implied.  Well, this is more or less a real big part of what was wrong.  Tropes of how trans people are portrayed.  Now what I'm not going to do is get down with super specific examples and paste picture after picture of examples because if you really need me to do that, you're looking for an excuse to argue and then you're going to pull excuse after excuse and pictures of trans treated properly to say, "Aha!  See!  They can be treated right.  You're making a big deal of this!"  The truth is trans and the greater LGBT have been treated with disparity in a negative fashion over the years.  The crazed, deranged, unstable trans stereotype is one of the bigger offenders.  Trans people are often treated as crazed individuals unsure of their self identity or narcissistic and just otherwise crazy such as Dagger Type was.  When we look at these events and say it's okay and we don't see the problem, it's because we look at it and agree that trans people must be unbalanced because they don't feel comfortable with their bodies and that would make people unbalanced.  Trans people are rarely crazy unbalanced people.  They may feel emotionally unbalanced at time while tackling just who they are, but everybody is prone to that for any reason.  Trans don't' get "extra crazy" because of this, and to say it's okay to portray them as unbalanced, or even to just say it's okay, due to their trans status is ignorant and perpetrates the trope.  This isn't to say we can't have unbalanced trans, or that no trans should be unbalanced as much as it is to say we should as readers and writers look at the issue and truly think and decide whether or not we're applying a personality to someone due to their status as a human or simply them as a person.  Because while yes, crazy mad people exist and plenty of them are not trans, it doesn't mean we don't evenly portray others as well rounded humans.  Trans people don't get that representation. 

Truly, there is a messton more to write about this and I'm definitely not the best representative to do it.  But I did want to talk and try to maybe help others understand why their feelings of normality might not necessarily be right.  And I definitely don't want anybody marginalized just because others believe comics are silly works and so they shouldn't receive any attention or recognition.  People are people, and the more we are exposed to our faults and strengths the more we grow.  Take this time to learn, to reach out, and to find out more about your fellow person.  It may just be you who makes their world a better place, even if just a little.

Also, as of writing this (the day it was released due to my compressed nature) I've found out Janine Schaefer's last day as talent scout for Marvel is tomorrow.  She was well respected and liked as a talent scout and her decision to leave Marvel to move with her husband to Los Angeles will be a loss for us as readers.  Thank you and good luck, Janine!

How You TOO Can Get Into And Enjoy Reading Comics: Encyclopedia Comica

For the final hard bit, and quite possibly one of the most damning.

How to Get Into Comic Book Reading

Don't be Stupid and Lazy

Does this seem familiar to you?  Judging by the sheer amount of responses I get when the question "Why don't you read comics?" is posited, there's a good chance you have made these faces before when contemplating getting into comic books.

Most comic books (particularly of the superhero variety) are beyond packed with an extremely extensive history which may extend back as far as 60 years or more in some cases.  Now if you're Marvel, you count everything which isn't stated to be retconned.  If you're other comic universes, you reset every once in the while and sometimes keep the old continuity in line when wanted in completely confusing ways.  What problems does this create?  Shit tons of problems, because now newer readers have no freaking clue where to start.  I hear this often.  While the whole "where to start" can be solved with, "Pretty much any arc," it's hard to justify when you say 12's a great jumping point for Blue Beetle because it deals with Jaime's discovering he's part of an alien conspiracy and his source of power is an alien source.  New readers will wonder just what the hell's been going on, why he's the third Blue Beetle and just figured this out, and maybe why the second Blue Beetle didn't have this power.  See, long histories create snarls of continuity which become extremely hard to follow.

Don't fret.  Because while continuity is important, it's not exactly all -that- important.  Why? Simple.  Continuity is subject to prevailing sales of story lines.  For instance, let's say Iron Man originally had his origins in the Vietnam War, but that dates him.  Simple solution, retcon it to a more recent or even just simply vague conflict.  That's a soft retcon.  A hard retcon would be like resetting an entire universe after Tony was manipulated by Immortus to be a bad guy, was replaced by an alternate universe teenage version, shunted to an alternate dimension after a conflict, and then brought back as good ol' Tony Stark from a series of storylines nobody has to remember.  If you were a brand new comic reader, would you think that's extremely important to anything which has been going on recently?  (I'll give you Onslaught given AXIS, but none of the rest before or after matters).  The answer is no, because it doesn't.  What about when Spidey doubled his strength, got stingers and organic web shooters as part of The Other storyline?  Retconned out with Brand New Day.  And that's just the retcons you can forget about.  What about Stark Solutions?  One of the failed companies Stark started?  Remember his rehab armor from one of his several stints of questioning whether or not he should be Iron Man?  How about when his armor was so poorly shielded it tried to kill him?  None of these were retconned, and yet none of them matter.  Some of their plot points might matter, such as Stark's alcoholism, his Armor Wars, the Ultron Iron Man, etc., but for the most part nothing really does after a while.  Remember when Rhodey was Iron Man, or when Rhodey was a big ol' cyborg, or when Rhodey wore the Eidolon War Wear which was lost in time?  Remember when Guy Gardner lost his ability to use a Green Lantern ring, but it turned out he was half alien and could make weapons all Random style, but lost that power?  Nobody else really does, nor really wanted to remember.  Anybody remember when Cyborg when full robot and blah blah blah? That sort of stuff doesn't matter, and worrying about knowing all of that gets in the way.

"Mak, if what you're telling me is true then I don't need to know anything about the characters?"  Yes and no.

It's helpful to know their origins, because origins have a tendency to come up time and again with revelations and the like.  The important thing is to just know the basics, because the rest will come and go as needed.  Just pick up in any old story line, especially one that is marked "Bold new direction!" or a new #1 that comic companies are just oh so happy to slap on comics because they like fucking with and confusing fans.  The thing is, as you read these comics you'll realize they're supposed to be unfolding new tales for the character, and when something is referential you can either look it up online or then go and specifically search for stories concerning this event.  Such as the character of Hush.  If Hush comes up and everybody is all "Oh no!  It's Hush!  Batman's long lost friend, blah blah blah!" If you're so interested, you'd go look up Batman: Hush and just enjoy it that way.  

Comics don't necessarily need to be all read at once, and I find this mindset is common with new fans and particularly with manga fans who sometimes feel a whole series needs to be read.  I'm not joking, in some of my "travels" I've witnessed veteran manga readers not wish to start ongoing series because they have like 800 chapters in the story to read.  And while mangas tend to have a slightly more integrated and needed story, most of it doesn't matter.  I'd almost hazard none of it really does.  In fact, Bleach is more enjoyable when you read it arc by arc and assume they're all stand alone as opposed to one story Aeon Flux style.  One Piece sort of matters, but not so much you'd feel stymied picking it up after the timeskip if you simply knew Luffy lost his brother and everybody got their asses kicked.  The story does well with catching people back up.  Naruto completely betrays it's earlier stuff and you can easily not care what the first half was about beyond the basics.  That's just how comics in general are (manga are comics, just Japanese comics).

So here's the bottom line for new comic reading:  Just pick a character you think you might enjoy.  Like light hearted fare?  Pick up Superman.  Like Batman?  Self explanatory.  And if you get confused along the way, consult the internet and look for back issues when that comes up.  Don't pull your hair out thinking you'll need to know everything.  

You can have all of these, and still have nowhere near enough X-Men to know everything about the X-Men

How You TOO Can Get Into And Enjoy Reading Comics: NERD!!! NERD, NERD, NEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRD!!!!

Two down, two to go.  This one I'm not so comfortable with because it's actually a pretty complex topic I cannot do justice to here.  But I'll say what I can.

How To Get Into Comic Book Reading

 You are such a nerd, and I don't mean it in a good way

In a day and age where some people equate being a "nerd" is "cool" and "trendy," and even valued in some places, it strikes me as odd when people really don't want to be identified as one by their peers. People go to their workplaces and schools and talk about how awesome Guardians of the Galaxy was, and how they saw it a couple times and bought the DVD, but when people make mention of reading the comics?  Well, they've crossed some invisible line that separates okay and weird.  There are excuses, and the work environment might determine this like if you're a cute girl into cute anime/comic characters and adorn your desk at a video game company as compared to a tiny guy like me at a healthcare company who puts up comic themed posters and sometimes wears comic shirts and sometimes is made fun of.  The gender doesn't matter, but the images help when determining which environment is more accepting.  And before you say "Mak, but it sounds like your environment doesn't value that sort of thing at all," that's untrue, and that still wouldn't influence the people around me even if it were.  It's a cultural thing.  Either way.

When I was but a wee lad of my early 20's, I'd hang out with some friends at my local comic shop.  Well, more like fellow travelers also there to pick up comic books on comic release day, we didn't hang out outside of this particular location.  One time, one guy said it was sort of nice to go to a comic shop that was slightly off the beaten path because nobody would really see him and therefore nobody would make fun of him, going on to further say he never really gave comics a chance until his son showed an interest in them because he always felt they were for "nerds." 

A small aside, I don't think comic books are for nerds or geeks or trend setters or whatever.  I think they're for everybody.  Everybody should be able to enjoy comics, and comics anymore don't seem to cater to anything but the dollar so it's not like major companies even really try to appeal to any particular niche crowd outside of those who might enjoy comics.  So... anybody again.  It's not like you have certain "enjoyment" qualifications you need to make before you have achieved your nerd certificate.  Back to the deal.

I felt bad for the guy because one he was still "in the locker" as I've heard before, but because he spent a large part of his life not even trying something because he didn't want to be made fun of.  And whether you think you're thick skinned or not, nobody actually enjoys being bullied/made fun of/laughed at/whatever.  Nobody does.  Let's say you go to work tomorrow you big tough guy and some of your coworkers bash you for your decidedly poor taste in sports team wear.  Now, that's a different sort of rivalry normally, but I mean outright make bad fun of you.  Not the, "Ha ha, your team sucks," as much as, "Your team sucks, and by extension you must be the product of your mom fucking a pig to get an outcome as shit as you are if you like that team."  Now clearly this rarely doesn't happen to this extent, but this is something potential fans of comics fear.  And it's a valid fear.  These people, already afraid of being the victim of this, have seen it in fellow coworkers.  Ever have a friend who's a little too much into Breaking Bad or Bones or some other "it" show like Big Bang Theory?  They sometimes are made fun of.  Why?  Because sometimes people just like making fun of other people, and the less socially acceptable makes it more likely to be made fun of or teased.  Or maybe it stems from being made fun of in high school and they want to avoid it.  Maybe.

Big Bang Theory.  Another thing I did sort of want to address, but not fully on this post.  Oh, get off it.  You know what I'm going to say, and while I'm not going to out and out say it's a bad thing, it does deter people in a separate way.  TBBT is a show built up of stereotypes, and while not as bad it is to "nerds" as black people to a show about other black people who live on welfare, are illiterate, can't control themselves sexually, are lazy, and are violent criminals.  Like I said, not an apples to apples comparison, but a similar idea.  The reason you don't see this fictional black show and you do see TBBT theory is because making fun of "nerds" is still an okay thing to do.  Now, I'm not calling for some revolution where nerds are placed in some sort of civil rights deal like sexual orientation, race, and religion finds footing, but keep in mind this is what people fear.  People watch TBBT and think that's what nerds might be and potentially what they might become, despite the fact pretty much everybody knows nerds aren't exactly that way.  People still don't want to be associated with a "Raj" or even worse be considered a "Raj" (a topic for another day in how that's ridiculous).  I have been asked whether I'm a Leonard or a Sheldon to which I usually reply I'm an Irwin Schwab and we all have a laugh when they have no clue what I'm talking about.  Why?  Because comic fans rarely are like TBBT cast.  Nobody is.  Go to your local comic shop (with your safari equipment) and actually look at these people.  Talk to them.  If you've ever even seen a comic convention on the news you realize they look like people who traverse fairs and Disneyland and restaurants.  They behave like everyday people.  Why?  Because they ARE everyday people.  And this stigma that they'll be treated like idiots on a television show or be equated to them drives people away from even trying this sort of thing out.  Nobody wants to be equated to that (unless you mean the actors, in which case I would because they're RICH).

The truth is you'll be made fun of for anything because people just make fun of others with varying degrees of acceptance (again, there are certain cultures you cannot do this to because that's crap).  So long as you continue to play life as normal while enjoying comics this will eventually go away. 

Now if you go to your job or school and cry from the rooftops about the revival of your very soul after reading a few comics, you're going to get made fun of for being a raving lunatic.  That's a different story.

How You TOO Can Get Into And Enjoy Reading Comics: Content, I No Want!

Gonna try to tackle all four today.  Wish me luck!

How to Get Into Comic Book Reading

I'm Not Really A Fan Of Superheroes

 

I've heard this complaint before as well.  People may like the Captain America, Batman, Superman, etc. movies, but they're not actually fans of superheroes, and so reading comics is out of the question.  This is a point which makes quite a bit of sense to me.  Batman Begins had all the tightly well crafted tale of an urban vigilante without all the tie ups of Robins, Batgirls, Apokoliptian minions, magic, aliens, etc.  It was something of a vigilante tale wrapped up in superhero garb.  Avengers appealed because of a limited tale which garnered good will via multiple smaller movies leading into one big one.  However, the story of Spider-Man having to run in fear because the mystic totem hunting Morlun is coming after him, or the story of a man who can change himself into any chemical chain, or the story of space conqueror whoever fighting earth heroes assembled into teams seems weird or something unappealing.

I find it a tad odd because people read science fiction novels, follow heavy handed drama of forensic scientists, read horribly written vampire fantasy, or even love stories about boys who grow up in magical boarding schools.  If those were on paper shared with pictures though?  Forget it.  Because all of those stories have very superhero ideas.  The genius and socially incapable detective who is just lovable enough in Bones has several parallels with Batman if Bones was merged her FBI husband and decided to wear a cowl.  Harry Potter is a chosen one in a universe filled with people who specialize in certain magics who bands with others to try and stop an oncoming darkness which reflects himself as he also struggles with the dilemma, sort of like any superhero story in recent memory dealing with the Avengers, or the Justice League, or really any hero team. And I won't lie, these are something of a stretch because Batman does have romance and drama stories, but they're not exactly as dripping thick as a Bones episode (which is a good thing), and Harry Potter was beyond tightly written story filled with adventure that didn't involve bright colors outside of wand battling as opposed to beam vision and fist killing.

This I actually get.  The idea of superheroes can seem very childish to many people.  Lacking in maturity, culture, taste, growth, context, etc.  It's why people don't go about watching shows about Sesame Street after the age of 8 or whatever.  It is a stigma which will be covered in the next article, but it's one that crosses over into how people straight up won't give them a chance.  This isn't about how people view readers as much as how people view the characters.  People see them as boring, one dimensional, bleh sort of endeavors.  Who cares that Superman punched that meteor out of the sky, doesn't he do it twice a week?  Yawn.  Another alien invasion.  Geez I really wish they'd up the ante and have Batman start a relationship with a married woman like the time he did that exact thing with Orion's wife, but instead of the natural curve of that relationship I want something forced like we find out Orion is a totally okay guy who was just troubled and wants her back and not the freaking Dog of War for New Genesis and the story suddenly becomes about the love triangle brought about by this indecisive woman's inability to choose which penis she wants more because gosh she just has so many feelings.  Or better yet, we should have a story about how Tony Stark and Clint Barton fight over which is the better man for the Wasp by engaging in long staring contests, pissing contests, abusive relationship tactics, and overall overly emotional dialogue appealing to an indecisive Wasp that even the 60's comic books would find a little contrived while said Wasp really wants both because both represent something she wants rather than realizing life is significantly more complex.  That or at least have it about a bunch of kid heroes who are learning from their elders in proper usage of their powers while dealing with teenage things like growth, crushes, self image, and a conspiracy to kill them all.  Wait, we called that one Avengers Academy.  (I'll admit, nowhere near as well done as Harry Potter)  Drama, romance, strife, heartache, death, dying, struggle, racism, all things covered in comics.  Captain Marvel (not the DC one, the Marvel one) actually straight up died from cancer as opposed to just getting hit too many times.  Dr. Light was an out and out rapist who assaulted Sue Dibney (the Elongated Man's wife) on the Justice League Watchtower, seeing future versions of present characters faced with what they may become if they continue their path.  Things all inside of comics.  Strong stories, messages, great action, wittiness and thought, all of it can be found there. And it doesn't even have to contain superheroes.  

There is a perception that comic books are just about superheroes, and it couldn't be further from the truth.  It's just that superheroes make up the bulk of comic sales and get all the movies and such.  There are several comic books which are either superhero-esque or have nothing to do with superheroes at all.  Some are Slice of Life, some are romantic, some are sci-fi, some are horror, some are even comedic.  Some of those will have superheroes or superhero elements, and some will just be about normal people living in normal or supernatural situations.  

A problem is people see "superhero" over the broad stroke and assume it's all just one story, rather than just a section of story telling.  It's the same belief which would have you think all horror stories are "Alien" or all action stories are "Divergent."  Rather than realizing Alien is Sci-Fi Horror as opposed to supernatural horror like Nightmare on Elm Street, and how Cobra fits under action as action adventure where Divergent falls under dystopia, coming of age action.  And this is the same with superheroes.  People see superheroes and they think "Super Friends," not Squadron Supreme or the Watchmen, or the more mature Batman/Iron Man/Captain America stories which were converted into extremely profitable movies people raved about concerning complexity and content.  Which leads to the final bit.

Another problem is people see comic books as primarily kid stories, and so why would you want to give a kid's story a chance?  I mean, doing that would be like adults watching Adventure Time, Spongebob Squarepants, Gravity Falls, freaking Jimmy Neutron, etc.  And we all know right and proper adults wouldn't give those shows the time of day.  Sarcasm mode off.  Superheroes are for all ages, and are primarily aimed at 15-35 year olds which means there's rarely any threat on getting stories about how you should drink your milk and exercise.  

Seriously, if you want to know superheroes can cross over extremely mature themes, comedy, and explicit content all at the same time while well written?  Go out and buy Bomb Queen right now.  If you want a smartly, dramatic, powerful science fiction sans superheroes?  Go out and buy Saga right now.  There's so many different comics that you'll most likely find something you can get behind and enjoy.  Even if it's the Walking Dead.

How You TOO Can Get Into And Enjoy Reading Comics: The Dreaded Wait

Over the holiday weekend (which was Christmas for me), I received a gift of a comic book cover to an issue of Iron Man (vol.1 #126 to be precise) which I (somehow correctly) guessed was from '79.  Of course, me being me I said, "Hey!  This is all the way from 1979!  Greatness!" to which the gifter commented, "Man, that is crazy!  This is why I can't get into comics.  You had to know a story line which was published 6 years before you were born!" I kinda just grinned in a twisted sense of both pride for the compliment as well as a twinge of pain because I've heard this several times before. 

Often when I talk to people about comic book reading and collecting (especially if they are manga fans in a native sense) I will commonly get reasons such as the wait (again mostly from manga fans), content, and even sometimes people who just don't want to be made fun of.  Granted those people will be happy to watch and glow about the Avengers, but you'll never see them wanting to crack open the Kree-Skrull War because that's for nerds.  Most commonly though is the backlog of comics that push away new readers through sheer intimidation by numbers and fear of a need to know every little detail of a comic character's existence to get the character now.

I'm here to tell you that you can.  You can, and it is far easier than you think.  Don't worry.  Mak is here to help you.  He's here to cradle you softly in his arms and comfort you with tales of fantasy.  I'm losing track, so let's start.

How To Get Into Comic Book Reading

We'll tackle this huge issue by breaking it down into the four points mentioned above: Wait, Content, Stigma, and Backlog.

The Dreaded Wait

Truth be told, I primarily get this complaint from manga fans.  Seems odd to veteran comic-only readers, but many manga (particularly shonen) titles are weekly.  Every seven days manga fans can pretty much depend on their title coming out, where American superhero comic fans tend to have to wait a month.  This isn't always true, and many fans on both sides are sometimes willing to wait inordinate amounts of time such as Hunter X Hunter's odd year long hiatus where fans are treated to a burst of issues month after month and then met with a yawning gap of inactivity, and Iron Man vol. 4 was well known for taking two years of intermittent releases to finish a six issue arc (Extremis for those who don't know).  The truth of the matter is, if a month long wait is your gate for patience it's a pretty crappy, fabricated, lazy ass excuse.  I assume it's most likely due to the similar medium having quicker (usually) releases in manga, because no other group really has this problem.  People wait years for movies, months for a mid-season hiatus, and really just about any amount of time required to pump out an entertainment medium for any reason whatsoever.  Is this entitlement?  Are some just so used to having more quickfire things that they just cannot handle slower issues?  History says no, because people have been known to wait and come flocking back (most people) to a series which has taken it's time in many mediums.  The truth of the matter is, if you cannot handle that wait then that's pathetic.  You'll still be there in a month, you have several other series you most likely keep up with, and truth be told 30 days of wait is pretty good considering the massive process it takes comic books to make print.  "But Mak, 52 had weekly releases.  This proves comic book companies can do it, so they should if they want my money."  Yes, they can do it if they plan out an entire year of stories, have several teams writing and drawing this very precise tale under super strong time constraints which remove them from any other project in the universe and has so many working cogs that the entire company has to basically push all other ideas to the back.  Infinite Crisis was the event that had DC telling no other stories for an entire year but stories which were carefully plotted out by a team above.  The army of writers and artists working on that basically dumped their lives into that effort, and it definitely isn't something a comic book company can normally do.  "Manganka's do it.  I don't see why not."  False.  Let's take someone like Oda Eiichiro who does definitely push himself into writing so much One Piece so often he sometimes gets sick.  That's fine and all.  Counting that One Piece is regularly just under 20 pages with several art assistants, rarely having color past the cover of the magazine, and if you're successful like Oda or Masashi Kishimoto and don't need to submit scripts you then only get broad instructions with little oversight to the direction of the series you want it to go.  If you're not as fortunate, you have to submit a "script" to the editor who then tells you to pursue that or not.  (Commonly editors will poke their heads in and make recommendations to improve the sales of a series, such as certain settings, extra characters, etc.).  Comic books, particularly superhero ones, work a little differently for several reasons.  Primarily because entire teams are usually utilized to make comic books.  Screw the writer and drawing assistant roles.  It's not uncommon to have multiple writers on the same book who are also working with others for different plots in other books at the same time.  Art is usually done by one person with several inkers following after for what are usually full color comic books.  A story has to be approved every single time (unless you're Bendis, then you get rubber stamped) to ensure characters can be used before you even go writing.  Lastly the printing process is usually set up for monthly, and distribution usually follows, since this is the primary standard of the superhero comic book industry.  This means you probably have to pay extra to have your comics printed every week at full color, forcing an entire team into extra overtime (comic writers/artists tend to work overtime as is) to complete projects which will eventually become terrible and rushed.  Remember when I said One Piece averages under 20 pages?  The average comic book issue is 24 pages.  24 pages multiplied against a dozen or so titles releasing each week individually from other issues.  Covers, interior art, editing teams, control teams, writer/artist coordination, artist/inking coordination, printing schedules, delivery schedules, future planning, writer/artist talent crossovers.  Comic books are a huge monster.  

There is also the matter with how stories are distributed.  Commonly many popular shonen manga are distributed as a large package every week in a anthology series which pressures a strict schedule which comics do not share, while comics do not do anthologies pretty much at all.  Batman might have four titles a month, all sold individually.  Thor is separate from the Avengers in sales, Constantine is his own deal, Spider-Man will have three individual titles.  To have one company have that much put together and go out every month is a staggering task.  Doing it weekly with that many moving parts is impossible.

So it's sort of weird when I hear things like "Manga can do it, comics can do it, I shouldn't have to wait."  And while I do think sometimes companies *cough*Marvel*cough* take advantage of loyalty, I still think when people say a month is too long they're acting spoiled.  This isn't a, "When I was your age we had to wait for ice all year long and we LIKED it!" scenario as much as a, "How inconvenienced are you really?"  Several newspaper comics beforehand used to be daily, or every other day, and I don't hear people clamoring about how those strips are a superior format.  There are huge differences in production and distribution for manga and comics, just like there is for movies and television, or books and magazine, or even tablets and computers.  Because the content and methods are different, they should be thought of differently.  So if a whole calendar period is the only thing stopping you, take a step back, take a deep breath, get over yourself and find a better reason.  Let's face it, if One Piece/Bleach/Hunter x Hunter/Case Closed/Slam Dunk/Assassination Classroom/Hajime no Ippo/JoJo's Bizarre Adventure/etc. suddenly went into a monthly schedule, people would happily wait, and like comics the series would be broken up to distribute throughout the month.

Now if your reason IS distribution and price methods that come from the monthly model or weekly model, those are far better problems with merit.

The Comic Bubble

Good day.  I hope everything is doing good for you.

Anyways last post I was talking about Variant Covers and how it was helping to inflate the Comic Bubble and potentially may be hastening the bubble burst. I didn't?  Well, it is.  But just what is the comic bubble, and what are my worries?  I guess I should somewhat explain what I be talkin' bout.

Not this sort of bubble

More like this sort of bubble, the fragile kind that when you "KAPOW" it, it just pops

See, the comic industry like any industry which relies on speculative value and work to expand influence.  Basically the comic industry like all industries will grow and deflate over time, and when it happens with comics it tends to be extreme.  But it's not because that's just how people are (though it has something to do with it) it's because how some in the comic industry are looking to turn a very quick buck.  In my previous post I talked about variant covers and market glut, and this is a huge part of it.  However there are other factors such as saturation of product, visualization, outlets, publicity and so on and so forth.  

Let me try to organize my thoughts into a slightly more coherent view and start at the bottom.

The basic market for all comic book companies are the primary comic book fandom.  These are people who generally buy comics and will spend more and take risks on different series and stories as they grow as fans and collectors.  From here comic companies test their products and see how dyed in the wool fans respond.  Then comic companies reach out to kids with toys and cartoons, and more recently the public at large with movies and tie in deals and food company advertisements and all sorts of stuff.  The merchandising aspect of comic book characters is insane and even the movies make far more money than comic books because movies are easier to get into and don't require a monthly investment.  Comic books do.  And that's where comic companies are having a hard time right now with converting movie watchers and other fans into comic purchasing fans.  This is reflected with how comic books actually begin to reflect their cinematic counterparts, such as Iron Man getting the Robert Downey Jr. effect in Keiron Gillen's relaunch of Iron Man (pre Guardians of the Galaxy which was pre Superior Iron Man).  Cap's new costume, the entire lineup of the Avengers, the Chituari becoming a Skrull subspecies as opposed to being alternate universe Skrulls, the entire Guardians of the Galaxy being changed from a cosmic horror team into a more lighthearted space adventure, the prominence of DC teams and characters who are getting movies (though it could be argued DC is simply trying hard to generate interest in these characters from two fronts).  Okay, so Marvel's a little worse about it.  But let's face it, Marvel is happy to whore it out to whomever pays up.  That's the Disney/Marvel way.  And not that this is particularly bad in some ways, but it is bad in the whole "Bubble" aspect, and here's why: Comic Character Movies are a fad.  

Sure, comic movies have been popular to some degrees since the 70's with a few successful and critical Superman films, the first couple Batman films, the first two Raimi Spider-Man/Singer X-Men films, and the Nolan Dark Knight Trilogy.  These were far from the only comic films as several were rolled out during the 2000's, but none of them really managed to catch on like the Nolan Trilogy which truly changed everything in 2005.  When Batman Begins hit, the movie going public and greater public in general began to more seriously contemplate and pay for superhero movies.  This was a big change in the industry after X3, Spider-Man 3, and Batman & Robin pretty much kept shoving superhero movies back down into the gutter.  But Batman Begins proved that the public was ready to embrace comic book characters as action heroes and Batman Begins launched them to the big time.  After Batman Begins, superhero movies were the big thing.  And not to say all superhero movies were as well received as the very next year with Superman Begins, the public wasn't as receptive.  However, Marvel found unexpected success (from many fan's at least) with Iron Man.  And from Iron Man, we all know how prevalent the superhero movie is every year now.  So for a decade starting next year, superhero films will have dominated cinema releases alongside YA movie adaptations for a decade.  It will not last.  And the comic industry is going to crash again when the movies fold?

"I don't see why the movie industry folding will crush comics, Mak.  You just said the industry has a hard time making readers out of viewers, and the readers should remain so stop being a bitch."

Wrong.  Why?  Because readers will ditch for the same reason viewers will: Burnout.

In the 90's, comics crashed due to things like oversaturation of covers, terribly written sensational stories, fatigue, and the fact you couldn't turn around without superheros trying to insert themselves into something.  Also Rob Liefeld should get some personal blame since Image (and his work in Marvel) were pinnacles of what was wrong.  And we see this now repeating with modern times with companies re-employing heavy usage of variant covers, TWISTS!! TURNS!! EXTREME RETELLINGS!!, redrilling into terrible 90's ideas, ridiculous changes to characterization, and the fact they have an Earth shattering big event every single year, sometimes more than one a year.  This is not to say comics are ONLY doing this.  When the burst happens this time, it won't be as bad as companies are doing their best (through pressure of the public) to branch out and try to appeal on levels that aren't simply extension of movie fun.  With women and minorities getting an expanded role, comic companies will not hurt as bad when they crash.  But crash they most likely will, because riding a boom on the very edge of it for a quick buck ensure that when the bubble bursts, the fall is just that much further down. I do want to talk more on this and explain why these herald a dark time, but maybe not.  We'll see.

The man who drew this, Rob Liefeld, was the highest paid comic writer and artist of the 90's.  'Nuff said.  We're also sort of returning to this mentality. 'Nuff said...?

New Week, New Topic: Variant Covers and they tie to the Comic Bubble

Alright, I'm ready to just start the rants about things I love and hate about comics and today I'm taking a shot at something I vehemently dislike: Variant Covers.

Oh lawdy, variant covers.

First off, sorry it's been a couple weeks since my previous entry but life's tough and shizz.

Second off, let me reiterate: FUCK. VARIANT. COVERS.*

*Sometimes they're okay.

Earlier yesterday I was bopping along the internet searching about comic news as I will when I came across something in The Escapist about the new Marvel Star Wars comic having 20 variant covers.  It attributes these covers to the fact this issue will outsell any other single comic book in a long long long time.  I clicked the link to Bleeding Cool (The Escapist's source) only to find out over 60 covers are planned for this series and they're only up to issue 1.  Wait... Yeah, that's right.  ISSUE FUCKING 1.  The first blitzing issue has over 60 planned variant covers.  Granted you can't hop on down to your LCS and find all sixty plus covers.  No.  Some of these will be far rarer than others, and your LCS has to shell out for X amount of copies to get access to some of them at all.  This is a direct appeal to collectors and investors in comic books and this is fucking disgusting.

FUCK THIS PRACTICE.

Let me tell you why I hate variant covers.  Do you remember the 90's for comic books?  I sure do, it's when I actually started getting into them, and I used to love comics a lot from that era since I didn't know better.  Comics during the 90's (early 90's) was the biggest time for all comic books and comics sold like hotcakes, pressing people into literally investing into comics by buying all the editions they could.  Marvel in their infinite glory and wisdom began to make variant covers by the truckload to directly appeal to speculators and collectors and the like.  This meant that many issues of comics would be sold with several versions of a cover to have people who were looking to cash in on the future but the same issue multiple times.  The same story over and over and over again just in the idea that if you were to sell this issue it would be worth so much as a collection.  

This tied in directly with the feel of excess the 90's carried.  America was doing great, economy was on the rise, do what feels good was the fun, the whole investment thing was bigger than ever.  Comics reflected this in the worst way.  We were growing out of the 80's into a more extreme decade which meant everything had to be turned up "TO THE XTREME!!"  No time for that first "E" that shit just gets in the way of how XTREME comics were becoming.  Variant covers were the ultimate expression.  Only an XTREME fan would have all the issues because the future looks so bright with dollar signs from collecting the four X-Men covers with the chromium sheen and gold/silver/regular covers to Avengers stories.  XTREME covers to match the XTREME stories.

Then the crash.

See, the problem with this sort of blaring overabundance is that eventually the entire medium suffers and it drives the fans away.  It was a model unsustainable because you can only go so far with comic books.  The market crashed on comic books and now books from that decade are straight up worthless.  Some hold some value, yes, but on the general curve you can't barely give them away.  I was in my LCS some years ago when a guy walked in with three boxes of comics (long boxes, not the short kind) and the owner gave the man a pained and sad look and told him he couldn't buy them because nobody wants them.  Comic books designed only to BE collected just wouldn't sell because of the missing covers, the lackluster stories, and overall poor quality.  The entire crappiness of an industry destroying trinkets people held on to for a decade and a half just for the former collectors to be told their fake loyalty was a waste of potentially thousands of dollars.

Okay, I'll back up a bit.  I do not hate variant covers.  At least I do not hate the idea of variant covers.  The very first time I came across a variant covers was during Marvel's "Heroes Return" bit when heroes who previously were jettisoned into a Counter Earth dimension ("Heroes Reborn") were coming back to regular Earth and to celebrate were relaunching these lines with alternate "Sunburst covers."  So each new first issue would have a regular cover and one with the hero coming over some clouds with a symbol resembling their power (or something) like a sun shining with the character over this.  It was special, because this was a special event.  This makes sense for variant covers.  I also sort of give a pass  for variant covers in the "flavor of the week" style.  These will have variant covers for an entire week (sometimes far longer which is inexcusable) and feature a theme such as "Deadpooling" or having the DC titles look like child cartoons.  I guess these can be okay so long as they don't get out of control.  However, they tend to and that's crap.  There is also a subtype of variant cover I also do not mind which is the Chase Cover.  A chase cover is when a print of an issue is reprinted with a new cover to be sold at stores after the first printing has run out.  Basically there is a "First Print" cover and a "Reprint" cover.  This gives an air of specialness (which I also somewhat dislike) for owners of an original issue.  THAT is special.  THAT is okay.  What's not okay is when specialness is artificially given to an issue by having multiple covers printed at the same time without any expiration of supplies.  That is just industry crap forcing the idea onto you that these issues are so special you need to buy them all.  "But Mak," you retort, "I don't have to.  Nobody has to.  If you don't want three covers of the same issue, then you don't buy them.  Comic companies aren't twisting your arm on this one." But you're wrong.  They are.  This implied specialness is real.  Especially when variant covers are reduced in number compared to their more plentiful "non variant" cover.  This makes the variant cover seem actually more special than the already implied special issue.  It makes collectors feel their collection is incomplete without these potentially more expensive covers.  And don't be fooled, these covers CAN be more expensive than their "regular" siblings.  And this practice is crap because it's like the industry is acting like getting this cover is some sort of special cover not available to other issues, but when you buy this cover and the other one and walk away, you realize the original cover already WAS individual to the cover.  In this way you're being deceived into thinking the issue is groundbreaking, great, acclaimed, or otherwise something more than just another issue of your favorite character.  It is banking on your feeling of being left out or incomplete when there is a variant issue presented.

"Comics make money this way.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Comics should ride this boom."

Alright, I understand this mentality.  Comics are riding a boom since the early to mid 2000's.  And it's welcome since the huge crash of the early to mid 90's.  I get it.  Comics are a bigger business than pretty much ever with all the tie in entertainment.  And variant covers figure into more sales since it encourages readers to buy more than one copy.  While the speculator boom is nowhere near as bad as the 90's, a similar feeling is pervading this boom.  There is much reporting on certain comics going sky high at auctions, lots of media coverage such as this Star Wars one, and the tie in comics (which is a topic for another time) shows us that comics are again very popular and sales show a growth.  Variant covers are a symptom of growth, but the perverse amount coming out is nothing short of disgusting and will fuel another pop when collector glut reaches another nauseating level when comics again decline after the public moves on to the next big entertainment fad and production costs can't keep up with the shedding of collectors who will begin to realize all these covers are a waste of their money.  If you really think that beloved Valkyrie variant of Secret Avengers #6 or vampire, Adventure Time, Lego, Hollywood, retro, and Tron (to name a few) variants are going to be worth anything in the next twenty years, you are fooling yourself.  None of those issues were worth of note, none of them had any demand to be recollected, and when you go back to look at these issues you'll more or less wish you had the hundreds of dollars back to respend on something else. Probably another waste of time and money, but at least a different waste rather than the same thing.

"But it's only a few bucks.  That's not bad, Mak."

A few bucks here and there becomes hundreds of dollars.  If you're a semi-"serious" collector, you probably buy a few issues every week, and we'll say 10 issues a week total.  Otherwise known as 30 bucks because Marvel and DC charge anywhere between three to five dollars per issue.  Let's say 2 issues every week come out with a variant cover and you being the semi serious completionist feel the need to buy them.  Another six to ten dollars a week.  This comes out to be around 520 dollars per year in variants alone.  And that's IF the variants are the same price as the regular covers, which they aren't always.

"We don't have to buy them."

I already talked about this, but I'm repeating myself anyway.  This is technically true.  In the same way we don't have to do pretty much anything like living in increasingly nice places, eating well, going to the doctor, buying new electronics, buying trendy clothes, or really anything.

"Mak, don't be such a stupid drama queen.  That's not the same thing.  You're comparing apples to oranges and reaching hard for this one."

Wrong.  It IS the same thing.  If it seems exclusive, special, trendy, or otherwise "cool," we as people want them.  We want them MORE than the things we currently have and others might not even if we already own them.  It lends us this air of exclusivity we don't normally have.  Like buying a fancy hat which you know will look "cool" or buying a new phone because it's flashy, variant covers do a very similar thing to us.  We can easily justify and compartmentalize this because it's significantly cheaper, but as we do this we end up allowing ourselves to spend more and more on these things.  It's why people own a hardcover Absolute Edition of the Watchmen while already owning the issues and soft cover TPB of it already.  It's why people own several colors of the same pair of shoes or jackets or hats.  Even makeup does this.  And the fact comic books do this is terrible.

Congrats Rosetta! Happy Veteran's Day! Comic Books and Their Movies/Shows. Character Changes.

Good day and congrats to the Rosetta Probe!

Sorry this is later in the week than I wanted.  I really want the format of a news entry on Monday with an opinion article on Wednesday and maybe Friday.  Oh well, I'll sort of mash them up unintelligibly here.

Firstly is the news segment.  The Superior Iron Man and the Spider-Verse event has launched from Marvel today, as well as the new Captain America series starring former sidekick (though he'd say partner) Sam Wilson as a Falcon/Cap hybrid.  Notable releases from Image include The Walking Dead #134, new series Drifter, and another TPB release of Invincible (vol. 20).  For DC, Dinah Lance finally takes up the (non-fishnetted) Black Canary guise in the Arrow show, and...well... Convergence.  Frickin' Convergence.

Let's start with DC.  The hard one.

The show Arrow has been fairly successful and was somewhat controversial in how it was clearly meant to be a show about Batman but someone scribbled out "Batman" on the top and renamed it "Green Arrow" about Dinah Lance, who in the show was Ollie's former love interest he cheated on with her sister (long story sort of), and how she wasn't the Black Canary but her sister (same one) was until the sister died.  The death led to the obvious in which Dinah will be stepping into her sister's non-fishnetted persona and continue on as a crime fighter.  So not news exactly, but it still seemed relevant enough.  Picture of her in the wrong costume below.

So let's get down to Convergence.  DC really loves it when people say they steal from Marvel (and vice-versa), but when Marvel has the same exact big event coming out of the pipeline you do, well... There you go.  Convergence is about Brainiac pulling the wool over a great and underappreciated character named Booster Gold in getting to something called the "Vanishing Point" where he basically has access to all realities and all time.  From here, Brainiac picks up all these quaint little cities/worlds/events/etc. and puts them under domes for his collection next to one another.  You might say, "Mak, isn't that the premise of Secret Wars?" And I'd say, "Only to this point."  The difference is, unless the Collector is the one placing all of Marvel's periods under one Battleplanet roof, then no. So what's the difference?  Well, it looks like instead of an all powerful time and space capable Beyonder placing specific points in history he probably enjoys onto a planet to encounter one another, Brainiac is reaching through time and space to specific points in history he enjoys and is putting them onto a planet to encounter one another.  Totes different, because the Beyonder is a snappy dresser.

You must be this fancy to be omnipotent for a while until you're not

 So the question is, "What is different?"  Well, the Beyonder at his core is someone who wants to see what people will do under conditions he sets and in locations he has selected and is in general curious.  Very different from Brainiac who wants to see what the people will do under certain conditions he sets and in certain locations he has selected and is in general a curious guy.  Hmmm....  Okay, well...  The Beyonder is a formerly all powerful sort of guy (who probably will have some influence in Secret Wars), and Brainiac is more or less a collector who has gained access to enlarge his collection.  There are subtle differences in the characters (assuming Marvel plays this straight and has the Beyonder come back and at near original power), and well... Yeah.  The events seem a lot of the same.  And this is very weird.  I'll explain in another post why I think this is weird.  But ONWARDS!

Image is releasing a new Walking Dead issue and that's important because people like the Walking Dead.  While they release comics every week all year long, WD only comes along once a month and blah blah blah.  I honestly have a real monotone reading of this in my head.  Image's other comic Drifter and this is the one I'm excited about. 

From Bleeding Cool: " Mankind’s colonization of the galaxy has left countless planets mined bare and lifeless in DRIFTER. A space transport crashes onto a backwater world whose unique properties set the stage for a story that combines the dark wonder of a strange and alien landscape with the struggles of an abandoned and lawless frontier town."

That's the basic premise of Drifter and judging by some of the art it will look great, and the premise has me interested enough to check it out.  Written by Ivan Brandon who is a complete unknown to me and art by Nic Klein who is also an unknown (but the image below is wonderful), I'm definitely seeing potential in this series and I'm glad Image has their hands on it because Marvel or DC would probably not even allow this series to see the light of day, and even if they did they'd axe it within a couple months when it doesn't reach Captain America numbers of sales.

SPACE FRONTIER, AHOY!!

 Finally is Marvel with Superior Iron Man, Spider-Verse, and good ol' Cap.  First up is Superior Iron Man which I hinted about in a previous post being Tony Stark with the dick knob turned up to 15.  Apparently from the events in Axis (which I skipped because of how I normally feel about Big Events), Tony Stark has been switched from his normally heroic (ha) persona to what he was pre-Iron Man: The incarnation of ego and evil with little regard to the people he may potentially harm.  That's right, an entrepreneur who's looking to make shareholders happy.  Daredevil is supposed to feature heavily in this and I should have a review on this soon-ish.

So is he superior because he's white?

 Next is Spider-Verse.  Written by Dan "Always a good time" Slott, this series is about a being named Morlun who is going about the entire multiverse destroying spider totem types, aka versions of Spider-Man, and it's up to every Spider-Man (or girl as famous now) to team up and prevent this disaster.  Notable because this series launched an entire cosplay fever and entire new ongoing comic series about non-616 Gwen Stacey: Spider Girl just by the cover alone.  And I can't blame them. That cover is gorgeous and the character design is just beautiful.

                              

The cover on the right is the only one anybody really cared about anyway.  Love that design.

Next is one of the controversial (only if you subscribe to the White Power movement) character shake ups: Captain America!  (Who am I kidding? The same movement is just as pissed off about Thor being a woman now even though she's technically white)

Due to the events of a battle with a cloned Red Skull, Steve lost the Super Soldier Serum which kept him eternally fit and youthful, which aged him to an extremely old man.  In his place he has selected his previous partner in crime-fighting, Sam Wilson the Falcon, to take his place.  Right away this is an interesting decision as Marvel has been under fire recently (as have all comic books) about inclusion and variety.  This is actually a pretty good move for Marvel because it's not just "See, we can have black heroes who aren't Luke Cage!" (Yeah, I know about Black Panther, I mean always in your face heroes.) This feeling is organic, and Sam's design alone makes him his own Cap even better than Bucky did when he took over the shield.  Sam has integrated much of his old Falcon suit into this new Cap suit and really melded both identities together to create something new, fresh, and very exciting to look at.  This is less "Black Captain America" (Yeeees, I -do- know about Isaiah Bradley.  I own Truth: Red, White, and Black and many comics concerning Josiah X, and his descendent Patriot was an extremely well conceived character) and more a great Captain America who happens to be black.  It's organic, it makes sense, it doesn't feel forced.  You don't read it and say, "Oh yeah, I forgot Marvel's PR needed a boost with all the crap going around all entertainment industries right now."  This also might set a precedent for the future of Marvel's movies with how after the Civil War-like movie of Cap 3 (which I said would never happen, so egg on my face), Chris Evans is probably done with Marvel (I think), and Sam (played by Anthony Mackie) might step into the shield wing first to continue on the tradition and keep the movies from getting too stagnant.  I cannot stress how good of a move this is.  Too bad Steve will be back in his red booties in the next few years.  Oh well.

Fear my Super Soldier/Captain America/Falcon fusion!

I wanted to write an opinion piece, and I will try to later this week.  Maybe it'll be about Big Events.  Maybe.  Or maybe just comic book fans in general.

Oh, I did want to put a quick bit about how Naruto is now complete.  I didn't realize in a previous post that it would be over the VERY NEXT DAY after I posted it.  I mentioned before how life is a little darker without a series like that going on.  It really brought it home today when I realized it wasn't coming out this week anymore.  You really sort of get hooked on a schedule of watching and waiting, and then finding out it's gone.  I mean, it's not like losing a pet, but it's definitely a little weighty.

Either way, thank you very much for taking the time to read this!