New Comic-book Night - 2/19/13

It's been a couple of weeks since New Comic-book Night for me -- mostly because of the weather.  Once again it decided to snow last Wednesday, and this time a veritable blizzard visited my area.  Since comic-books are definitely not worth getting into an accident over, I waited until this week to pick up my haul. And since it had been a couple of weeks, plus many of my pull list titles come out during weeks 2-3 of the month, quite a haul it was indeed.

Among the list are two of the last three New 52 titles I still collect, and the only two I get in print form: Supergirl 28 and Batgirl 28 (the third, Wonder Woman, I get digitally, and I'm a couple of months behind on that).  Also in the mix was Thor, God of Thunder 19, my only Marvel comic.  Rounding out the list of seven were four titles from the smaller "independent" companies -- two regulars on my pull list from Image (Ghosted 7 and Alex + Ada 4), and one regular (Red Sonja 7) and one one-shot (Red Sonja Berserker) from Dynamite.

Happy New Year... and it's been a while

First, I'd like to wish anyone reading my blog a Happy and Healthy New Year.  I can't believe it's 2014 already.  I'd have wished folks one earlier, but I was out of town over the holidays.

Second, I'd like to explain why there have been so few entries on my blog the last couple of months.  There are actually several reasons for this. The first and foremost was work -- I made my last post right before Thanksgiving, and of course went away for the holiday, and then when I got back, I became absolutely deluged.  I teach college, so some of this was the inevitable end-of-term business (writing exams, grading exams, doing up final grades), which was predictable.  But on top of this, we had an unusually frequent pattern of meetings for any time of year, but especially for the finals period (most semesters, meetings are suspended when finals roll around because no one has time for them).  And then there was a panel I volunteered to be on, which saw me reading 30 10-page (or more) proposals in a week, and writing page-long reviews of each one.  All of this adds up to the fact that I was swamped, and doing a lot of work at the computer otherwise, so the last thing I wanted to do of an evening (or a weekend) was sit down at the computer for more hours and do more writing.

New Comic-book night - 8/28

Well, I guess I am going to do another one of these after all.  I will be reviewing many individual issues in the next week, but I wanted to make a comment about my entire haul for the week and why it looks like it does.  This week, as the final week of August, not much new came out, but there were a couple of things I wanted to get my hands on from the previous couple of months, so I got myself down to the shop.  Also, I knew that issue 23 of Justice League was coming out, and that is (for the moment at least) on my pull list.  Below is a picture of the week's haul.

Two of the titles on the left are on my regular pull list (Thor and JL), but the others have not been on it.  I have reviewed the first two issues of Lazarus by Greg Rucka, which I just bought last week, and they were outstanding, so I was very pleased to find issue 3 on the stands already.  This comic is so good that it's already on my pull list (and I haven't even read issue 3 yet).

The end of New Comic-book Night (probably)

I regret to announce I probably won't be able to do "New Comic-Book Night" the way I used to each week, from now on.  In case anyone is going to leap to conclusions in a single bound, this is not because I'm doing something radical like giving up buying comic-books. I did that back in 1999, so there's no guarantee I won't ever do it again, but it's not happening any time soon.  Rather, there are two other reasons why I won't necessarily post NCN snippets each Wednesday.

First, because I now live a rather long way from the comic shop, there's no guarantee I can get to the c-shop every Wednesday.  Today is a case in point. I had a meeting at work that ran until 5:30 PM, and I wasn't about to drive 45 minutes to the shop, and then 45 minutes back home, that late in the day (battling rush hour along the way, too). The distance is now too great for me to reliably post something every Wednesday.

Second, as I said in an earlier post, I have decided to start posting more detailed reviews of individual issues rather than quick summaries in my NCN posts -- this is mostly because indexing the NCN posts is not really possible, and it makes quickly finding a review of a particular issue difficult if not impossible.  With the review content removed from the NCN post, that doesn't leave much to write about, and we'd be down to a very short post and a picture. I'd rather do longer entries.

Therefore, as I say, I will continue to post the same content I always have... I just probably won't make the NCN-specific posts every single Wednesday like I'd been doing.

New Comic-book Night - 6/5

Last night was New Comic-book Night.  I only bought one comic, The Movement #2, so I didn't think it was worth posting a picture.  I am also a little short on time this week, because I closed escrow on a house at 2 PM this afternoon.  Hopefully soon I will have some more interesting pictures to share -- about where and how I am storing some of my comics (if I can work out what I am planning).  Thus, I did not bother buying any of the digital stuff that came out this week, and I didn't sample anything or buy any back-issues. Once I get going with my move, I will have more time for that.  In the mean time, I will give a mini-review of the one issue I did buy yesterday.

The Movement #2 - The only reason I started buying this series last month is because it's written by Gail Simone, who is my favorite current comic-book writer. On Batgirl, at least, Gail Simone is inimitable. She has become Barbara Gordon over the years, and writes her with a powerful empathy for the character.  I became so enamored of Simone's writing that I couldn't resist trying The Movement.  However, I found the first issue to be remarkably mediocre (honestly, that's being generous), with characters who I found it difficult to like, and a plot I had trouble following (or, to be honest, caring about).  I hoped that #2 would improve things, but sadly, it did not. So, why am I having such a hard time liking this series?  I think there are two problems.

The biggest problem with The Movement is the characters. I just don't like any of them.  There is nothing sympathetic about them, nothing that makes me want to cheer for them.  They have annoying attitudes, frequently acting like jerks toward one another (and definitely acting like that toward people outside their clique).  They have strange powers that grate on me rather than intriguing me -- especially the rat boy whose big super-power is to summon an infestation of rats against his enemies. Wow, what a cool power. Then there's Burden, whose main superpower is to be possessed by a demon. I'm not sure if these are existing DC characters or made up for the series but either way, they do nothing for me in terms of powers or personality.

The second problem with this series, however, is that I despise the fundamental premise, which at its core is basically pro-anarchy.  Cops are bad -- down with cops. Government is bad -- down with government.  Everyone in authority is bad -- down with authority. Now, I'm as frustrated as the next guy at how inept and abusive our government can often be, especially lately, but that doesn't mean I think we should overthrow it.

Beyond the story/characterization issues in this series, there is the art, which I find sub-par (and again, that's being generous).  Combining sub-par art with characters I dislike and a philosophy I simply cannot embrace, I started to think it may already be time to end my dabbling with this new series.  However, it's Gail Simone, and she has earned some of my trust.  So, I will probably give it one more issue. But if she can't clean things up and make the book (and characters) more likable by the end of #3, I'm done.

My rating for issue 2: 6/10

New Comic-book Night - 5/29/13

It's that time of the week again - and although it's the "5th Wednesday," which often is an extra week that doesn't ship one's typical pull list items, two items that are on my "potential pull list" came out this week.  By "potential pull list," I mean that I am doing what my comic-shop owner calls "sampling." I have not committed to these titles, but have adopted a wait-and-see attitude.  This means either (1) it is simply too early to tell whether the series is good enough to get into long term (this is always true before I've read at least 3 issues, but lasted for 12 full issues with Superman recently), or (2) the series had been too mediocre to be sure I will like it long-term (but is either good enough to keep going on a month-by-month basis, or else something else is compelling me to keep giving it a chance).  The two titles that fell into these categories were +DC Comics'  Justice League of America, which just came out with #4 this month, and thus was "too early to tell," and +Marvel Entertainment's Captain America, which I started collecting because Cap is my favorite Marvel character, but which has been too strange and just plain too poorly written for me to put it on the pull list yet.

Along with these titles, I grabbed another issue of the third Supergirl series -- this was the second of two "New Krypton" crossovers for this series.  These issues appear in the 4-volume TPB Superman: New Krypton, but I have no interest in that story arc, and am only getting the Supergirl issues for completeness.  It was cheaper to just buy the two S-girl issues than to try and get the TPBs, especially since my comic shop doesn't have them (so now I'd have to pay for shipping on top of the TPB cost).

I haven't read Supergirl yet, but I have read JLA and Cap, and I've made a final "pull list decision" about one of them.

Justice League of America #4 - This series has been decent for four months, but also is slightly worrisome because it has been slowly backsliding.  I rated the first issue a 9/10, issues 2-3 8/10, and I only give this one a 7/10.  The art has deteriorated slightly, and the story is becoming tiresome.  The ending, which is supposed to be a cliffhanger, is ridiculous, because it seemingly depicts the death of a major character. This would have perhaps been suspenseful or dramatic, if not for the niggling little detail that the character depicted as dying has a series of his or her own, which is still ongoing.  Obviously this character cannot actually be dead or dying. So why am I supposed to be in suspense about this? The only question I have is how the character can look this "dead" but not actually be.  Also, again in terms of the art, the action sequences are really lame. There is no sense of kineticism or motion in the action panels. They all look like the characters paused in mid-action to pose for the camera.  Also, people's bodies are in very strange, ungainly positions.  So, this comic is staying on the "potential pull list." It hasn't been good enough, long enough, for me to commit to it.

Captain America NOW! #7 - This Marvel NOW! run of Captain America is perhaps the most disappointing series I have ever read in my life.  Captain America is the greatest superhero in the Marvel Universe.  He is one of the greatest superheroes in any universe.  He has always been one of the "weakest" in terms of power level, but that has never stopped him.  And for many years I was a huge fan of his comic, when the late, great Mark Gruenwald was writing it.  This series, however, is nothing like that wonderful run. It is without a significant supporting cast.  The plot is convoluted and strange.  Captain America is brutal and violent, and acts more like Wolverine than like Steve Rogers   His "12 year old" adopted son looks and acts like he's seven.  And the kid is so annoying that threats to him do not affect me, because I would honestly kind of prefer if this kid just died. I'd like it even better if they just retconned this whole psychedelic plot that reads like writer Rick Remender has been smoking some pretty intense hallucinogens before sitting down at his word processor.  I won't even mention the vomit-inducing art of John Romita, Jr., who has been such a horrible penciller for so many decades I cannot understand how the man still gets hired.  I rate this issue 3/10, and that's being generous.

And so with that issue, I have given up on Captain America.  Sorry, Cap. I tried. I really did.  I thought I could stick with it through this story arc and see where Remender is going. I gave it seven issues. But there's no end in sight for this thing, and I am not going to keep giving Marvel Comics money for a story that is so bad I wouldn't line a cat's litter box with it.  Perhaps the most bewildering thing is all the people writing in to say how much they love it.  I can only shake my head.  I can't imagine anyone liking this garbage. But as for me, at least, I'm definitely done.

New Comic-book Night - 5/22/13

I had a rare slow week this week for New Comic-book Night.  I've hit a bit of a roadblock with the 4th series of Supergirl.  I have the series in trades through issue 33 (except for issues 20-22, which were never collected in a trade, and I therefore have individually), and the next trade, Who is Superwoman?, covers issues 34 and 37-42.  Issues 35 and 36 are not collected in a Supergirl trade, but are, rather, part of the Superman: New Krypton arc, and appear in the second trade paperback collecting those comics.  However, I honestly have no interest in the New Krypton trades -- I'm just trying to get all the Supergirl series stories.  So rather than bother with a bunch of trade paperbacks that really aren't about Supergirl, I decided to go ahead and buy issues 35 and 36 individually.  This week I picked up one of those, issue 35.  It was quite good. This is the second issue of the Sterling Gates run (I won't get to #34, the first issue of the Gates run, until I get my hands on the next trade, which my comic shop does not have in stock).  I enjoyed it. 9/10.

The other comic I got was the only new issue from my pull list to come out this week, Justice League #20. JL has been faltering, lately.  The Throne of Atlantis story arc had a very weak ending in issue 17, and issues 18 and 19 were just not up to the standard set by the earlier issues in the series.  This isn't to say they were bad, but in my database, I have the pre-17 issues all rated 9/10 or 10/10, and 17-19 are rated 7/10 or 8/10.  However, I thought #20 redeemed writer Geoff Johns a bit.  The action was good, but there were also some great moments of quiet drama, especially a great discussion between Batman and Superman about what happens if one of the JL members goes rogue.  This issue served as a lead-in to the Trinity War crossover that is coming next month (apparently), and we can sort of see at least some of what is going to happen, as they are starting to set up the obvious conflict between the JL and the JLA.  I gave this one a 9/10 also.

Finally on a personal note, the main reason NCN was so sparse this week is that I am trying to rein in the spending and especially the buying of anything that will need to be moved, as I prepare to close on my new home in early June and move in late June.  By July I should be back to normal, but for these next few weeks, I am trying to keep the amount of stuff I bring into my apartment to a minimum.

NCN - 5/8/13

For New Comic-book Night, I got two new issues and an older trade paperback.  The new issues are today's releases of Justice League of America #3 (which is 2 weeks behind schedule), and Katana #4 (which is a week ahead of schedule, after being 2 weeks behind schedule last month... go figure).  I also picked up the trade paperback Supergirl: Way of the World.  This TPB collects issues 28-33 of her fourth series, which means I'm now half done with it (there were 67 issues total).

I haven't read the Supergirl TPB yet (I have one more to finish before I get to it), but I did get to both JLA and Katana tonight, so I will review them briefly.

Justice League of America #3 - This was probably the best issue of JLA to date.  Last issue we had a cliffhanger where what appeared to be Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman of the Justice League (without the "A") were on the point of attacking the JLA.  In this issue, we discover these were robots, and the JLA handles them.  They can't find any other sign of the Secret Society of Super-Villains, who own the robots, and they still don't know what the SSSV is up to.  Therefore, because no one yet knows that Catwoman has reformed, they have her commit some pretend crimes and get thrown into Arkham Asylum to  attract the SSSV's interest.  This happens by the end of the book, and Catwoman is left tied to a chair in the SSSV base.

This story was interesting and suspenseful.  I thought Selina Kyle (Catwoman) was characterized fairly well (she is a hard character to write, and up to now only Devin Grayson in the late 90s had really done her justice). The business about Green Arrow still being rejected from the team and trying to get on it is extremely wearisome, however, especially since we already know that he is going to end up on this team. Why drag it out? It's rather pointless.  On the other hand I've already become a huge fan of Star Girl (not a character with whom I am very familiar) so far.  She's a great example of how one can do a teenage superhero without making her brooding, moody, and irresponsible.  Star Girl is a good girl, and is looked up to by just about everyone. Which I find refreshing for a change, with a teenage character. I hope they keep this up and don't ruin her.  Rating: 8/10.

Katana #4 - Katana's sword was broken by Killer Croc last issue.  This month, the souls "taken in" by the sword (with each kill) leak out and start interacting with the world.  The Creeper is freed and looks around for a body to possess.  Katana's husband chides her for not moving on after his death.  Other souls flee the area.  A dragon spirit leads Killer Croc somewhere.  Katana waits tables and looks for a substitute sword.  Her mentor tells her to find a great blacksmith in Japan and have him re-forge it.  And then Creeper shows up again and battles her, because he's afraid that if the sword is re-forged, it will trap him again.

This series has had an insane number of ups and downs for one that is only four issues long.  The first two issues were mediocre but passable. Issue 3 was exciting and definitely made me think I was going to add this series to my pull list.  Now issue 4 comes along and... wow... this is one of the worst comic-books I've ever read.  The art was indecipherable.  In many panels I had to look and look and I still could not figure out what is going on. The dialogue is equally confusing.  The story goes in four or five directions at once, none of which make any sense.  I normally like Ann Nocenti, and up until now the series was at least passable, but this issue was inexcusably bad.  The creative team has one issue to turn it around, or I'm done.

Not that I think it matters.  I keep track of my "pull list" on Comixology, and they tell you there how many pulls each title has.  Now, this isn't a statistical sample by any means, and we don't know how many people even use the service.  But when I see 2,000+ pulls for JLA this week and Earth-2 last week, and less than 400 pulls for Katana this week, that's really telling me something.  I would bet this series will not make it past issue 10 at this point.  And it certainly won't if the team keeps turning out raw sewage like they did this month.  Rating: 4/10. (And that's being generous.)

NCN - 5/1/13

Last night was New Comic-book night.  I stopped by the comic shop and picked up one new comic, and one trade paperback:

On the left is the Supergirl - Beyond Good and Evil trade paperback.  This reprints Supergirl vol. 5 issues 23-27.  With this trade, I now have the first 28 issues of that series (0-28) either in trade or individual comic form.  It will be a little while before I read it... I still have to read the TPB before this one (Identity), as well as issues 20-22, first.

The only new comic I got in the shop last night was issue 1 of Gail Simone's new DC project, The Movement.  I read this last night, and I have to say I was a little disappointed.  The story was OK, but not up to Gail's usual Batgirl standards.  The plot was very disjointed, and the story jumped all over the place. I'm not clear on who the main characters even are yet, or who the good guys and bad guys are.  It was all very murky and more than a little confusing.  In fact if they hadn't told me Gail wrote it, I'd have more readily guessed this was a product of the fevered mind of Grant Morrison.  It was nowhere near as disjointed as his stories, but it had a bit of that feel to it.

I'm hoping this is a temporary condition, and that after 2 or 3 more issues I will be able to see where Gail is going with this.  If so, then I will stick with it. If not, then I will not be adding it to my pull list.

The way The Movement is told, as a first-issue story, reminds me of many other issue 1 stories I have read since coming back to comics, and I am starting to see a pattern here.  I don't have time to write about it tonight, but I will make that pattern the subject of my next longer article.

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!

New Comic-Book Night - 2/20/13

It's another Wednesday, and thus another New Comic-book Night.  Most of the time this does not matter to me -- I get my comics electronically and those you can buy whenever you want. I frequently have only bought back-issues on NCN in the past few weeks.  However, the "third week" of the month is the week when two of the three comics I've decided to get as physical copies come out -- Supergirl and Justice League.  Also this week, the first issue of Justice League of America (a JL spinoff) was released, and I wanted to at least begin that series on paper (if it's good enough, I will continue; if not, I will stop or switch to digital).

Before I continue, a word about what makes a comic-book "print worthy" for me (vs. just buying it digitally).  At this point, really, the main standards are that it has to be very high quality (such as Gail Simone's Batgirl), and it has to be about characters I can find myself following and liking long-term.  The reason for this second criterion is that my plan (once I buy a house later this spring) to create some sort of "display" with my favorite comic-books and the collectibles associated with them. For instance, I plan to have a bunch of Supergirl issues on display, and I already have some statues of her.  I will also have a Batgirl display for sure, though nowhere near as extensive as the Supergirl one. And I plan to have some Justice League characters to display with the main JL series, so I have started getting that on paper (though I did not bother to get the back-issues on paper like I did with Supergirl and Batgirl).

Justice League of America now... I am not sure about that. The characters are not generally ones that would inspire me to buy statues or other collectibles.  And the series is new, so I don't know if I will like it.  I'm getting it on paper for now, just because it is no harder or easier to get it on paper than it is to get the digital versions (unlike, say, Wonder Woman, which is on #17 already, and for which would be a pain, and expensive, to acquire all 16 back-issues).  I'm trying it (and the companion book, Katana) on paper for now.  Either it will be a stand-out series that will win me over by issue #6, or it won't be.  If it's not, then I will either drop it or switch it to digital.  If it's good enough for me to keep getting on paper, then maybe a JLA display, or a JLA side of the JL display will be in order. We will just have to see.

Speaking of JLA, I did not bother with the "North Carolina" flag variant on the cover, nor any other variants. I think the "50 variant cover" business +DC Comics pulled with this title is absolutely disgraceful, and I think DC should be ashamed of themselves. I came this close to not buying it at all.  However, I have very much liked the way Geoff Johns writes the main book (Justice League), and I bought it for his writing.  This book is on much thinner ice than most other new series would be with me, however, just because I have a bad taste in my mouth from even buying it at all.  Even more disgusting than DC putting out the 50 variant titles is the fact that the comic-fans of the world seem to be stupid enough that they are lapping it up.  Seriously, people, why are you applauding this kind of behavior from DC? Want to buy one copy of the issue to read? Fine, do that -- I did.  But why are people rewarding this kind of shameful money-grubbing behavior with multi-copy purchases.  Where is the outrage over this sort of blatant market manipulation?  There sure as hell should be some.

Additionally, I get to breathe a huge sigh of relief this week that issue 17 is the final Supergirl part of the awful "H'el on Earth" storyline that has polluted this series since issue 14 (it ends next week in Superman 17, which is the last issue of that series I will collect).  I can only hope the series will improve once this awful story arc is over, because if things don't get better on this series soon, I may have to contemplate the unthinkable, and actually, for the first time in 30 years, stop collecting a Supergirl series that is still on-going even though I am still collecting comic-books (in the past, one series was canceled, and I only stopped collecting another two months after I had given up on all other comic-books).  That has never happened before. It should not be possible, because I love Supergirl so much as a character. Me voluntarily giving up Supergirl should be like Romeo voluntarily breaking up with Juliet - beyond the pale. But they have so destroyed this character in the last 12 issues of stories (4 of hers, 4 from Superman, 4 from Superboy) that I almost can't even look at her anymore.  Here's hoping that, before he leaves, Mike Johnson can fix her. Because it not, I may have to stop reading her series. Ouch.

Speaking of Supergirl, along with the three new issues, I also picked up the last 5 issues of Supergirl vol. 4 that my comic-shop had. Now that is a series that has some good writing.  I should never have liked that series because Supergirl was not Kara Zor-El.  But Peter David wrote it so damn well, and made her act so "correct" for the character (i.e., an awful lot like the original Kara), that he won me over and has kept me won over for all 43 issues I have read so far (my buying is ahead of my reading).  Peter David knew how to write Supergirl, I'll give him that.   I now have 69 of the 80 issues (though not all in order, after #61).  I have 11 to go, but those will have to be mail-ordered.  I've only read about half of them but I have absolute no qualms about shelling out money for the last 11 ahead of time, because I know Peter David will not disappoint me.  Wish I could say the same for the current version of the Girl of Steel.

New Comic-book Night - 2/13/13

Once again, it is New Comic-book Night (or NCN, for short).  For the last couple of weeks, I have only purchased back-issues of the older "Matrix" Supergirl series, because I did not need any of the new releases on those weeks. It's not that I didn't want to read any of the comics that came out over the last two weeks, but rather, I mostly read digital comics now, and those can be bought any time. I'm still frantically trying to catch up on most of the New 52 series from +DC Comics, having gotten current so far with only four (Batgirl, Supergirl, Superman, and Justice League), and one of those (Superman) is about to get the hook.  For most of the other titles I collect, I am many months behind, still (for example, I just read Wonder Woman #10, and #17 is about to come out this month).

However, there are a few titles that I want to collect "on paper," for various reasons I shall not discuss here.  Those include one that came out this week, Batgirl.  Indeed, Batgirl is on my pull list at my comic shop (one of only three titles to earn that distinction, the other two being Supergirl and Justice League).  Also this month, the new JLA title is being launched (but it's not out yet), and one of the new series affiliated with it is Katana, debuting at #1 this month.  I don't know much about Katana as a character, but I tend to like Samurais, and I will be picking up JLA for the first few months, at least, to see how it is going, so I thought I'd give Katana a try.  I haven't read it yet, so I don't know if I will like it or not.

Along with those two new comics, I also picked up a few more "matrix" Supergirl issues -- 61, 65, 67, 70, and 71. Now, before tonight, I did not have any issues of that series past 60, so you might be wondering why I didn't continue to move up in chronological order.  Well, I wanted to, of course. But my comic-shop was missing most of the 60s. The three I purchased were the only ones they had.  They're also missing about half of the 70s as well, so I am going to have to do a lot of mail-ordering to complete the series.

I noticed with some dismay that Gail Simone did not write Batgirl #17. I wonder if this issue was written during the brief period after she was fired, but before she was re-hired.  It wouldn't be surprising to have one such issue, but I'm a bit befuddled that it would come out so quickly.  They fired Gail in early December, and this is only two months later. I always thought comic-books had a longer lead time (3-4 months from scripting to publication). But maybe these days they are not so far ahead as they used to be.  They did re-hire her, so hopefully Gail will be back by #18.

New Comic-book Night - 1/23/13

It's Wednesday, which means it's "New Comic-Book Night" (a phrase I picked up from +The Big Bang Theory ). Most weeks of the month, since I buy comics digitally and I am still working on issues from 10+ months ago, "New Comic-Book Night" is not very important to me.  But I am collecting three titles in hardcopy form right now -- Supergirl, Batgirl, and Justice League.  Last week, Batgirl #16 came out, so I had to stop by the shop last Wednesday to make sure I got a copy.  This week, both Supergirl and Justice League #16 came out, so again, it was time to make a stop by the shop.  It'll be a few weeks before I need to go on a Wednesday again, because nothing else that I'm collecting comes out in print for about three weeks.

In addition to picking up the two new comics, I also wandered into the back-issue section to look through the Volume 4 (Matrix) Supergirl back-issues.  Before today I had #1-35, and #37-45 (I'm still missing #36, which is apparently very rare for some unknown reason).  Acme Comics (the shop in Greensboro that I have been patronizing) had #46-48, so I picked up those three back-issues, bringing my total number of Matrix Supergirl issues to 48 out of 81 (if you count #1,000,000, which I sort of don't).  All in all, it was a decent haul for under $20:

Next week, I will probably pick up a few more Matrix Supergirl issues (at least to #50, and perhaps beyond).  But I don't know if I will bother to go on "New Comic-Book Night," since I can get those any old time, and I'm not aware of any physical copies coming out next week that I will need to buy (it's too soon for Batgirl to cycle around again -- her book just came out last week).

I have to admit I'm having somewhat mixed feelings about the print copies.  On the one hand, I really do prefer reading comics on the printed page, the way they were "meant" to be viewed.  I still feel I get a better sense of the layout and panel dimensions that way than I do electronically.  And I do enjoy the feel of going into the shop for "New Comic-Book Night" and seeing the next issue of my favorite title there in a nice, crisp, mint-condition form, waiting for me to pick it up.  There is a sense of satisfaction one gets from getting there "in time" to pick up your copies before the book sells out (this is mostly fictional, since most books never sell out, but the thing is, you never know if one will or not ahead of time, so there's always that little bit of adrenaline rush when you walk into the store, wondering if your favorite mag will be there for you).

On the other hand, I can live without the hassle of the crowded shopping mall parking lot, and the crowded store full of people who want to stand around and talk about comics instead of moving the line forward so they can buy them.  I don't mind talking comics on a Saturday morning, but on Wednesday evening after a long day of work, I just want to buy my stuff and get out of there so I can come home and make dinner.  And I also appreciate the fact that digital titles can be bought "whenever." There may be less sense of "accomplishment" in amassing a digital collection (all it takes is money, assuming the digital versions of your title exist), but there's also no chance of annoying gaps, or having to read things out of order. It's all there fore you, whenever you want it.  A part of me likes that.

This is why, right now, I am hyrbridizing my print vs. digital copy purchases.  I definitely want to keep getting Batgirl and Supergirl in hardcopy form, because I have plans for those series, involving a nice curio display cabinet, a bunch of statues and action figures, and a "Steve's favorite heroines of the DC universe" type of display.  I have been toying with the idea of a Justice League display as well (it would give me an excuse, as if I need one, to buy statues or figures of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman), so that is why I am buying those physically.  For everything else, though, I think that just reading the stories (not necessarily having the issues) is sufficient, and I am sticking with digital for everything else.  Hopefully I won't end up changing my mind and wanting to re-buy everything in hard copy like I did with Supergirl!