Too Often or Not Enough - Milking Events Without Offering Content

How can you enjoy your favorite superheroes in Marvel's latest mega-event? It's simple; don't buy any comics with an AvX banner on it. That way, you won't have to spend hundreds of dollars on comics that you can probably pick through after the event has ended and buy only what actually entertains you. As Marvel events go, this one is not being solicited across the board like, say, Fear Itself was last year. Fear Itself was a disaster and I am officially on event burnout this year.

Maybe it's because I have budgeted the hell out of my comic buying habits and just can't justify spending extra money on an event that is going to milk me for every penny. This is how it would go down; I would buy the first issue of AvX proper, then my completionist tendencies would prevent me from skipping the next 11 issues. Let's not forget that there is a six-issue 'just fights' series also being published, and really, that's what we want to see. It's like a celebrity deathmatch between our opposing counterparts on each team. Some of us want story, some of us want fights, you know, because we don't see enough pointless 'misunderstanding' fights in comics. So what does Marvel do for this big event? We get two batches of comics that feature either story or fights, and from what I have heard, thus far, the main AvX title has been nothing but an enormous fight scene. I'm sure we'll see our share of tie-ins, one-shots, and minis to go along with a story that could be delivered in one simple story arc.

What ever happens to crossovers? Do you remember those? They were stories that happened to multiple titles that didn't require extra titles to be completed. Second coming was a crossover that apparently didn't need an extra 12-issue series. Sure, we had a Second Coming #1 and #2, but they were a necessary a beginning and a final cap to the story. Yes, we had a couple one-shots and such, but they pissed me off too. Why can't you tell the story in the pages of the books that feature the characters involved in the story? Why put me through all this bullshit?

I know that an event like this involves pretty much every character that matters in the Marvel U, and it would piss me off if the books that featured those characters ignored the current events***coughSCHISMcough*** excuse me...but don't force me to buy extra comics. That means I have to cut other comics out of my pull list just to budget for all this extra crap, and since Marvel is double shippng on three of the comics I read monthly, I'm extra tapped out on cash. Well, guess what, guys? I'm not going to suffer a gap in my X-Factor, Wolverine and the X-Men, or Amazing Spider-Man collections, to buy your stupid event. If I hear good things about it when it's all said and over, I'll think about squeezing your event into my trade budget. As for the rest of you, take a good long look at you pile of Fear Itself tie-ins and resolve to wait until the smoke clears before you start on your 2012 stack of shame.

Locke and Key show???

This is a terrible idea. I hate it. This story is not for live action and never should be butchered in such a way.

I've caught upon Locke & Key as of today, and am anxiously awaiting the final issue of the Clockworks story arc. It has been the most unique and wonderful comics experience in recent memory. Possibly the best comic I've ever read. I'll pretend I didn't hear a rumor that Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez are concluding this masterwork and starting a project at Marvel. I would go on a completely different rant if I startedtalking about that. Instead, I just want to express my disdain for the idea that you would want to disservice this brilliant series with a live action TV adaption. Remember the Silent Hill movie? I do. I hated it, because I loved the first few games so much. I felt that sad feeling that I felt for that movie whileI was watching this trailer. Nobody looks right. The house does not look like the iconic, colonial house from the book. I just can't see this working. The biggest concern is the fact that I was expecting it to be animated. Gabriel Rodriguez' artwork is so perfect for this story, that I can't see it in any other visual medium than he has presented it. In any case, Fox, in it's infinite wisdom, has scrapped this show, but I hear that MTV has expressed interest. Well, MTV, take a hint from your own playbook and present it like the MAXX show from the 90's. Directly ripped from the comic and beautifully animated.

 This show was awesome. It was exactly what the fans of The Maxx wanted in a show about an awesome comic. The comic, but in motion. Not that crap motion comic garbage that Marvel has been making, that look more like fan-made flash movies. This is how comics should be made into shows. Hell, this is how comics should be made into movies. Take Rodriguez' artwork, make it move, and add sounds and voices. Done. Joe Hill won an Eisner for this book, don't make a mockery of it with this show. Do it right. I know you won't listen, powers that be. I also know that IDW and the creators of this comic probably have no influence after the option was sold to a television network. I love your books, and I hope this doesn't ruin it for people who haven't read it.

Frankensein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #7

Ok, let me go on record as saying that I have alot of criticisms for this series thus far, and have completely ignored them in favor of just enjoying the hell out of it, but this last issue of Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE bothered me.

I love Jeff Lemire and pretty much red anything he writes )I'm finally caught up on Sweet Tooth!), and I love Alberto Ponticelli's gestural artwork. My problem with this issue is twofold. I found myself checking the title page several times to make sure that Ponticelli actually penciled this book, and decided that he was either sorely rushed or had a different inker and colorist. The visuals were horrible!

Now, understanding that half of the characters are of the undead persuasion, I risk saying that the pages lacked their usual life. The fact that this trend got progressively worse until the final awful page, tells me that, if Mr. Ponticelli pencils his pages in numerical order, that he was horribly behind schedule.

I could say the same for Batwoman #7, but that's another post entirely. I feel as though the New 52 is loosing steam rapidly, which is really bad for new DC readers. like myself, who were hit with a barrage of exciting new books and adventures, only to taper off after the first story arc. Which leads me to another irk of mine.

Many of the New 52 story arcs don't seem to stick the landing. When we get the trade, it will undoubtedly collect issues #1-6, per industry standard. If this is the first issue of the next story arc, it makes no damned sense. Sure they could collect #1-5 instead, but to hell with paying trade prices for five-issue books. I just bought a Sweet Tooth trade that was eight issues long. EIGHT ISSUES. That's getting your money's worth. I don't know how the New 52 trade structure will pan out, and for most of the books, I'm reading, I'm not sticking around any longer to find out.

I know that comics take time to create. I've taken 5 months to write one issue of my own comic, and it isn't even laid out yet! I don't work for DC, however. So When a monthly title delivers in its first 5 issues and starts to feel rushed in subsequent issues, I feel that it is a momentum that can't be kept and I won't keep reading it.

This issue was a mess from the start and a train wreck at the finish. It took only a few minutes to read, which tells me that the story didn't move much, and in those few minutes, it was a sloppy mucky-muck of muddy artwork. I know Jeff Lemire is a good writer. I also know that Alberto Ponticelli is a marvelous artist. So it makes sense that, togetehr, they should put out an enjoyable sequential story. Well, it seems to me that both of these talents were victims of scheduling. Clearly, the quality that we've seen from this book can't compete with DC's deadlines. maybe they were too busy slapping a new ugly logo on all their books to realize that they were compromising their craft.

It would break my heart to drop this book. I like the creators and want to support them, but there are other creators I respect that I chose not to support this last month, because preordered this hot mess. Publish a week late if you have to, but please publish work that is consistent with what you have shown us prior to this.

The New 52 is falling off the wagon.

I give Frankenstein: Agent of CRAP two lumpy inkers down.

FAIL DC. You have failed these creators.

Locke and Key Vol 1 - Welcome to Lovecraft

The week I get my new Kindle Fire, and Comixology has a sale on all Locke & Key digital comics. I've never read any L&K, but I'd heard good things about it. Well, I bought the first trade for $4.99, which falls well within my I-don't-believe-in-buying-digital-comics-for-more-than-a-dollar-each rule. I read the first issue and went back and bought the remaining 4 volumes. It's really enjoyable.

The story is basically that a 17-year-old kid named Sam Lesser ends up murdering Rendell Locke because he wanted to know the where-abouts of a key that goes to something that we don't know yet. He ends up getting bludgeoned with a brick by Rendell's oldest son, Tyler and sent off to juvenile hall.

Tyler, his sister Kinsey, younger brother Bode and his mother ditch town and move to the town of Lovecraft into a house that has been in the family for awhile. Anyway, Bode opens a door with a black key he found and, upon stepping through the door, is separated from his body and can float around as a ghost while his lifeless husk drools at the door. Well, no one believes him because they assume he is just making stuff up to cope with his father's murder. As a ghost, he starts to find more strange things going on inside and outside of the house. Meanwhile, Sam Lesser escapes from prison and starts his murderous trek across country to finish what he started a year ago.

My summary really does no justice to how well dialogued and laid-out this story is. Gabriel Rodriguez pencils the books and it seems as though this is one of those perfect duos of art/story that I, for one, will remember. It's a thick-line, slightly caricatured style for the characters he draws, on top of a very cohesive and realistic backdrop. It's gorgeous. The big chins on the guys bothered me at first, but as soon as I started reading it, I understood what a perfect fit it was. On the topic, it is very graphic and there is alot of gore and disturbing imagery. This is not for children. I loved it, however.

I can't recommend this series enough and can't wait to start the second volume.

Unfortunately, the %50 of sale that comixology has ended, but I would pay full price for these in a heartbeat.

I give Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft two drunken mothers up and one gaping exit wound to the eye socket also up.