Drunken Comics Rage

 Okay, so it's been a little while since I was here.

It's not that I didn't want to post. Just sometimes life gets in the way of comics, wine, and rage. Well, the comics and wine anyhow. There's always something to rage about I suppose. It's just not always comics.

Anyhow, I have returned. The people can breathe a deep sigh of relief. All things comics and ragey shall commence again.

First off, gotta say that Shark's rant last week was wonderful. So much so that Mrs. DVO found it hilarious. I believe “priceless” was the word she used.

I don't know that Shark's comparison of comics to paperback novels is entirely fair. There's a substantial segment of the book industry that begins it's life as a much more expensive hardback before becoming the more economically priced and portable paperback. Even if within genre books where they begin life as paperback there tends to be years between volumes of a continuing story. It just happens that if you come to discover the series after several (or all) the volumes are out you get the perception of a complete story instantaneously.

But I think the core of his rant still holds to be true. We all want to feel we are getting the better end of the bargain in the dollars spent to entertainment ratio. Which even I must confess is hard to come by in this day and age. So many stories are so decompressed that it's hard to tell from one or two (even three) issues where the story is going and whether it's something you want to continue to invest dollars in.

Still, even as Shark predicted in his rant, it was kind of a moot point. He went again this week to the comic shop with the Artist and I and ended up buying a few comics. I even put a few specifically in his hand so he can blame me if he hates them. More on that shortly though.

Not too very long ago I pulled out my stack of Moon Knight comics from his original series to reread them. They are still sitting out and thus far I've only managed to read the first issue, but that's enough for this story. Within one issue, we get Marc Spector's background, his death and rebirth at the hands of Khonshu, introduction to all the principle characters (Marlene, Frenchie, etc.), establishing his other identities, and finally defeating Bushmaster in New York.

That's a lot of shit crammed into one issue. Good luck finding that in today's comic world. The above referenced story would likely have been at minimum a six issue story arc. Not that extended story arcs are inherently bad. But in today's “decompression era” invariably you hit a point somewhere in the middle where you feel like “where is this going? Do I want to dump more money in it?” It really is a crap shoot at that point. You roll the dice and either you come away breaking even or you crap out. On a rare occasion you feel like you came out ahead, but more times than not the frustration of wondering whether something is going to pay off well diminishes the final product.

Prime example today at the shop with GhostShark (see? I told you we'd get back to it). He's browsing the books and had picked up the first issue of Omega Flight. He turned and asked me if it was worth checking out. I honestly couldn't answer him. I've been buying it and through 3 issues I really don't have the slightest idea how to feel about it. Through three issues of a five issue miniseries we haven't even officially formed the complete team. Hell, we didn't even get Beta Ray Bill (who is a big chunk of why I checked it out) until issue three. At which point he gets beat down by the Wrecking Crew. Yes, the Wrecking Crew. Don't ask. I had this conversation with the Artist today and it wasn't pleasant the first time, it doesn't need to be put in print.

Regardless of where it ends up, I'm probably buying the rest of at this stage. I'm more than halfway through at this point right? In for a penny, in for a pound as they say. We've almost hit a point where I'm grateful that a book shows itself to be complete and utter trash in the first issue and saves me the pain of dropping another $2.99 three or four times over before coming to that conclusion.

Sad, sad times we live in.

Without further ado, This week's reading list:

1. Avengers Classic #1
2. World War Hulk #1 - Has there ever been a better title for an event comic? I think not.
3. New Avengers #31 - Which Marvel promises to be the next "must have" comic. We shall see.

Tonight's wine is an Australian white wine called Shoofly. There's no grand story to go with this one other than the Mrs. picked it up because it looked interesting and most importantly, it was already open. It is in fact, rather pleasant to taste as well.

Filed under: DVO Reading Rage, General Comics Rage