Drunken Comics Rage

Ok, guilty as charged.  I bought a crapload of collections while at the con.  Spin whatever comic addiction or denial metaphor/analogy ya want…I'm totally sold on trades and hardback collections.  I'm a huge book reader/collector, and I still love to read comics…but I'm scared to death of falling into the same trap that Ghost did…so being able to get a hardback collection of a full year's worth of, say, The Ultimates, totally rocks on a variety of levels.  Additionally, I think its awesome that you can spend $13ish on Amazon for the paperback collections of some of the old school stuff in black and white

Pretty sure I posted this down yonder somewhere, but…at the con this year I scored Marvel Essentials Vol 1 collections for Daredevil, Uncanny X-men, Avengers, and Nova, the Vol 2 collection for Defenders (already had Vol 1), and a similar year one collection for Green Lantern.  You just can’t beat buying the first year of some seriously classic comic books in a collection for like $6 at the con.  NICE.  I also bought the half-year-ish hardback collections of New Avengers, vols 2-5.  And (ok, I know I touched on this before) of course Fell, Vol 1, in paperback, which is now also adorned with Warren Ellis' autograph.

I loved the first two Essentials collections for the Defenders.  The first half of the Avengers Vol 1 has been a bit of a slog, but that all probably deserves its own entry at some point.

I'm through the first four New Avengers collections…geezus those go fast, and I've really enjoyed them…and in the fourth one I saw the Vision hanging out with the Young Kid Teen Avengers.  And here's another interesting phenomenon related to reading TPBs and collections as your primary/only comics source: the occasional WTF?!? moments.  Where in hell did the Vision come from?  I thought he was reduced to scrap a while back.

As I mentioned, in the first scene that I ran across him he was hanging with the Kid Wonder Twin Avengers.  Although puzzled, I was pleased to see him; I always liked the Vision, ‘cause I’m a good ol' fashioned Avengers-lovin' Marvel zombie.  I got most of the way through that issue before I realized this wasn't THE Vision, but rather seemed to be a Young Avengers, Playskool-My-First-Computer sorta Vision.

And I have to admit, it irritated the crap out of me in an old-crotchety-get-off-my-lawn sorta way.  And I also have to admit I'm fine with that.

I always thought it was too cheap and easy to kill the Vision anyway.  You can always play the "We had a backup!" card, and there are probably 30 dudes in the Marvel U who could whip up a new Vision body during a lazy Saturday afternoon over a coupla beers.

So I hit Wikipedia to see what the hell was going on there.  And while the idea of having Teen Kang come back as Iron Lad (that's a horrible, horrible name) and merge the mangled remains of the Vision (did they just put him in a closet like *I* do with old PC gear?) with his fancy armor isn't the worst comic book concept of all time…gah, the whole thing just makes me grind my teeth and spew curses at things that Aren’t How I Want Them To Be.

Heh.  I know this is my recent Essentials reading (and the wonderfully simple and fun stories that makes those books so great) influencing me, but if they were going to bring the Vision back I'd have loved for them to dust off Ultron and have him put Vision back together in an EEEEEEEEEEEVIL way.  Then the EEEEEEEEEEEVIL Vision could kick the crap out of the New Avengers for an issue or two.  When all appears lost, Thor could roll out of Oklahoma or Nebraska or wherever it is he’s rebuilding Asgard in the American Heartland and he’d blast EEEEEEEEEEEVIL Vision with a lightning bolt, rearranging his circuits and returning him to the side of good.  Spend a couple panels pounding Ultron into the dirt, and there you go.  I'd be totally satisfied with that story.

Filed under: Marvel Comics, Monkey Rage