I don’t have a lot to rant on this week, not sure why, but my brain has run all slow on things comics this week. There have been some upsides though, new titles I enjoyed, new creators I’m seeking out. Oh, hey, there was a convention too! I almost went to it! Really, I need to acquire a traveling buddy to split hotel costs in the cities I don’t have places to crash (i.e. everywhere but New York, Toronto, and Miami). Really, anything that gets me to the show is good enough for me. I like networking and meeting people and not being the only person I hang around regularly that reads comics.
That’s right, I talk comics with myself sometimes. I’ve had to after some of my buddies have moved out of state while others have taken busier jobs leading to less book talk. On top of that, it’s such minor respect I get for my hobby instead of the past indifference. I miss that indifference! I miss people just being awesome with it because I liked it. It beat the hell out of a friend bitching that I’m watching Young Justice. Seriously, he walks in fifteen minutes in and immediately tries to change over to play video games.
“Why would anyone watch this? What is this, Justice League? Nobody here wants to watch Justice League. Turn this off.”
“Ummm, yeah, dude, you might not care, but the rest of us were watching this before you came over, and we’re not going to stop because you can’t wait five minutes.”
Of course, “the rest of us” bears more weight than the honesty of it referring to just myself and my cousin. But still, there was a time a few years back when that same buddy would have sat down and asked questions to get caught up instead of instantly whining that he can’t go play a one player game in a room full of five people.
Wow, that got a bit off topic.
Maybe it’s just an issue I’m having dealing with the personal life, and the fact that I feel more at home in my several worlds of fiction than in my own head some days. Maybe it’s that I’m tired of people thinking that my love of comics are weird, or a phase, or a personal favorite of mine “getting in touch with my inner child”.
I’ll tell you what, if anyone ever says something like that to you, just show them Crossed and tell them to go to hell.
Maybe it’s just a generational thing. My parents generation seems to think that comics are a money pit. People my generation seem to think that they are for kids. And everyone younger that I meet through work or family (I have quite a few cousins still in their teens) seems to think my encyclopedic knowledge is awesome. Maybe I’m just full of it though, as I have friends two years older who talk to me about GI Joe, Transformers, and Thundercats and I just stand and nod about.
Ah, fuck it, you know what we need? More cartoons. Those were awesome when I was a kid. I grew up with X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman. Remember the Marvel Action Hour? Or the WildC.A.T.S. Cartoon? How about Savage Dragon? Really, from about the time I was seven and saw the X-Men cartoon up until JLU went off the air, I don’t think I ever wanted for an animated comic book show. I always had at least one. Nowadays we’ve got a few, but there was a definite painful gap there. Shows like Wolverine and the X-Men and Spectacular Spider-Man got high praise and ate the axe. Iron Man and Fantastic Four got some crappy shows. Superhero Squad and Brave and the Bold filled a void for kid friendly shows, but they were too kid friendly.
Young Justice and Avengers fill a major need for me now, offering up enough to bring in older fans without scaring off the new kids. Stories complex enough for someone like me and yet simple enough that my nephew can watch it too. But you know what? I still want more.
I want a cartoon on HBO, in the vein of the old Spawn series. I want cartoons that aren’t kid friendly just as much as I want the ones that do.
Hell, I’d take live action as well! Pretty much anything that would turn “Hey, lets watch Game of Thrones!” into “Hey, lets watch this comic book show!”
What I read this week:
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #8
- Green Lantern #8
- Grifter #8
- Legion Lost #8
- Resurrection Man #8
- Smallville Season 11 #1
- Suicide Squad #8
- Superboy #8
- America’s Got Powers #1
- Saga #2
- Avengers Assemble #2
- Avenging Spider-Man #6
- Fantastic Four #605
- New Avengers #24
- Scarlet Spider #4
- Secret Avengers #25
- Secret Service #1
Top Five Books of the Week:
5. Avenging Spider-Man #6
4. Green Lantern #8
3. America’s Got Powers #1
2. Smallville Season 11 #1
1. Fantastic Four #605
What I Watched This Week:
- Raising Hope
- New Girl
- Tosh.0
- South Park
- Ugly Americans
- Psych
- Community
- 30 Rock
- Awake
- Touch
- Shark Tank
- Fairly Legal
- Young Justice
- Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes
- Eastbound and Down
- How I Met Your Mother
- WWE Raw
The Worst Things I Saw On Shelves:
It wasn’t on shelves, but man, fuck Fox. I love Breaking In and they just can’t seem to stop canceling. Even worse, this time around they yanked it from the schedule rather than keep at it. That show is awesome, and it’s a crime that most people I’ve talked to haven’t even heard of it.
Avengers Assemble is a fucking mess of a book. The villains are the only part that I really like, as the rest of it feels more like an introduction to new fans than a new ongoing in the Marvel Universe. Sure, such a thing is hardly the worst thing ever, but why push it as a new premier title that has seemingly nothing to do with anything save for pushing the product on people who see the movie Oh. Wait. Marvel.
Not really a worst, but after reading Secret Service #1 I’ve officially moved Mark Millar to my “only read in trade” list.
The Best Things I Saw This Week:
A bit more TV love, but Eastbound and Down is over, and it ended the only way it really could. There’s no way Kenny Fucking Powers goes out any other way.
Weekly Smallville by Bryan Q. Miller and Pere Perez is all sorts of awesome. That’s a definite must read.
I went ahead and bought all of the digital JLU issues last night while bored, read through them….now I wonder why it took me so long to try them out.
Top Five Moments of the Week:
5. Spidey hasn’t seen Frank in a while – Avenging Spider-Man #6
4. Classic Andrew – Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 9 #8
3. Cap, you dumbass – New Avengers #24
2. Sinestro, bitch. – Green Lantern #8
1. Red and Ben – Fantastic Four #605
