New Comic-book Night 4/24 - and some older ones too

For this week's NCN, I knew that Katana 3 was finally coming out (I've grumbled about that for the last two weeks, since it was supposed to come out much earlier this month).  There is still no sign of JLA 3, which should have come out last week.  This is the last week of April comics, and I had some money left in my "entertainment" budget, so I decided to pick up some back-issues while I was in the shop.

Knowing I had the trade paperback Supergirl: Identity on order (along with some Supergirl/LSH and LSH trades), my first impulse was to pick up some more Girl of Steel literature.  I already have (and have read) the first two trades from Supergirl series 3 ("Power," which covers issues 0-5, and "Candor," which covers issues 6-9 plus other stuff).  Identity covers issues 10-19.  Next on the TPB list is Beyond Good and Evil, which covers issues 23-27.   Sharp-eyed readers will notice this leaves a gap -- issues 20, 21, and 22 do not seem to be reprinted in any TPB that I could discover.  Therefore, I needed to buy those issues individually. The shop had all three for a slightly unreasonable price, but I bought them anyway. I could easily beat the $3.50 price per issue by shopping online, at a place like Lone Star Comics, but the shipping would eat up any savings.  So I picked those up.  Once I get Identity, I will have all the Supergirl series 3 stories from issue 0 through issue 22 (which is about 1/3 of the 67-issue series).  I will also have all 20 or so issues of LSH in which Supergirl appeared, and the Superman/Batman trade paperback that rebooted her.  Not bad for a few months' work.

I still had more than enough money to buy Beyond Good and Evil, but instead, I surprised myself by going in a totally different direction. The comic shop still had out in the "current" area (i.e., not bagged up as back-issues), the previous 5 issues of the Marvel Now! version of Captain America, and issue 6 was on the "last week" shelf.  Other than trying, and quickly discarding, Avengers Assemble after reading the first four, badly written, issues back in December, I have not touched a Marvel comic in probably 20 years.  I gave up on Marvel in the early 1990s after getting utterly fed up with the whole "mutant thing" (which is a topic for another day).  But I've always had a special place in my heart for Cap, who is my favorite Marvel character and is second only to Supergirl on my all-time favorites list.

As I say, it's been a long time, and I have no idea what has been happening with Captain America.  Well, that's not completely true. I've heard some things -- like he was killed, and then came back.  (I am so shocked at that!)  I toyed with this series when it first came out (I believe issue 1 came out right around the time I returned to collecting comics) but in addition to being a Marvel title, I was hesitant to buy anything penciled by John Romita. I have never liked his work since I first saw it way back in the 170s of the original X-Men series.

On the other hand, I've read plenty of other comics with good stories and poor (or even hideous) art.  Recent examples include the New 52 Wonder Woman (Chiang is good but Akins is horrible), and Supergirl (As I noted in my first article about that series, Asrar's art has its moments but is really not my cup of tea).  And perhaps the best example of all time is the Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, which for 22 of 23 issues was nauseatingly drawn by Carmine Infantino, who in several panels each issue managed the seemingly-impossible task of making Kara Zor-El look ugly.  If I could put up with all that on behalf of other characters I love, I suppose I can stomach Romita's art if it's the price of reading good Cap stories.

Of course, whether these stories are any good or not remains to be seen. I haven't read them yet.  I'll certainly be reporting on them in the future.

A couple of things I have already noticed, however.  I like DC's cover and inside paper better than Marvel's (DC's is smoother and shinier looking).  On the other hand, I absolutely love that I get full access to the digital version of the comic by buying the paper version -- at no extra charge! DC wants to charge me an extra buck for that. No thanks. I really like that Marvel doesn't force me to choose formats. I buy the comic, and it gets me the right to both formats.  That is as it should be.  It's a nice little "thank you" to the fans for our support, and I have to give that one to Marvel.  The other thing I noticed (though I haven't read them yet) is that Captain America has a letter column! This is what I've been telling DC to do for months.  I'm looking forward to being able to read the letters.

A couple of final notes:  There are some brand new "New 52" versions of DC Covergirl statues coming out for Batgirl and Supergirl!

Batgirl:

Supergirl:

These gorgeous 10" statues are due out in Sept/Oct of this year, so reserve your copy today!

Finally, if you like Gail Simone, her Red Sonja series is due out in July.  My comic shop is already letting people add it to their pull list, so if you want a copy of issue #1, reserve it today at your local shop!