Early Comic Fan #1

Yeah, I have nothing topical to talk about at the moment, so I have decided to make this very personal. I say that, I'll probably keep this flippant, cold, unfunny narrative throughout the brief history of this blog. Nonetheless, I am here writing in the middle of the morning to talk about my first comic experience.

You'll never guess what I was reading. It's quite obvious and it's a character that I will never fall out of love with. Even if he's made deals with not very nice people.

Spider-Man. Fucking hell, Spider-Man

My brother was actually the first one to pick up an actual comic. It was a PANINI Collector's Edition comic called the Astonishing Spider-Man, which contained three issues of various Spider-Man series about four years behind the actual continuity in the USA. Oh yeah, I'm in Britain, if I haven't mentioned before. My brother seemed to keep reading and re-reading this thing with a card cover and a weird advert for a toy on the back. He was two years younger than me, how dare he enjoy something that I'm not?! It happened with Pokemon, but it's not going to happen this time, godammit!

Asking him very nicely, at the age of 10, if I could read his comic, was a blow. A major blow. I could've punched myself in the face with a brick and it would've been easier. Yet, ask I did. He quickly said yes, as at that time he wasn't an angsty little thing. I opened it and started to read.

What the fuck? There was no Spider-Man in the entire thing, just some brooding idiot called Dusk fighting a man who fought with glue and a guy dressed as a purple bee fighting the Vulture. Norman Osborn AKA the Green Goblin was a well respected businessman. I didn't know what the hell was going on. Spider-Man apparently committed the murder of some moron named Joey-Z. It was extremely confusing for a first time reader.

I was hooked and continued to buy what else I could find. Except X-Men. There was a guy throwing pink exploding cards, that's dumb.

So yeah, it reminds me of a topic that comes up nearly every week. A jumping on point. Back in the day, every issue was capable of being a jumping on point. When you're a bid, you don't care. You read. You see. If it's any good, you enjoy. What the guys behind the comics need to focus on, especially the Big Two, as that's is what most kids are likely to read, is not the jumping on points.

In fact, just getting somehow, kids to read them. Calm down the violence, forget dredging up stories from 40 years before. Don't worry about making it so accessible, it's patronising.

They'll pick it up. They'll understand. Every issue is a jumping on point. Just let them jump on.

Doctor New

This isn't strictly comics, but I may just talk about all things "geeky" and "nerdy" in here, including the use of quotation marks and the new, talked about reboot of Doctor Who, starting with a movie by David Yates.

One link of many: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15730665

Now, I have nothing against Mr Yates. His Harry Potter films, the last four of the series, were half-triumph, half-tolerable. He knows how to make a British feeling film. However, I do not feel that he is the man to take upon the task of an unneccessary reboot. It would be too kitsch and too simple. Another factor is whether he can actually get actors to act as apart from the already seasoned actors in the films i.e. none of the kids bar Rupert Grint, the acting was sub-par. Not that Doctor Who is know for its acting.

Also, he may have taken upon a doomed task. Reboots are the latest trend in popular media. Spider-Man has recently been rebooted, as has the Hulk (sort of), in the cinema. Batman will be after the Dark Knight Returns. Hell, the whole DC line of comics was. However, Doctor Who has nearly 50 years of history behind and while it may be slightly convoluted, the majority of Doctor Who fandom love that about it. I bet even some of the modern fans took into Doctor Who extremely quickly in the Russell T. Davies years as there was no origin episode where we see the Doctor steal the TARDIS or something else reasonably dull. Never mind the Doctor's ability to regenerate taking the need for reboots completely away. Yes, he may only have 13, but there's definitely a way out of that, I'm sure.

Yeats knows the score with translating a major franchise, just not terrifically. Never mind that Doctor Who is intrinsically more complex due to the time and space factor. More complicated than magic, yes. It's just money being thrown around at a time of there being no money. See the cancellation of Confidential and various other news reports on the TV show to find out what I'm talking about.

This blog has an immense amount of spelling mistakes, I feel. Hmm.

Anyway, I do not think that this is a good idea, especially as it will be seperate from the TV show. Two different continuities do not make anything easier. Whatever. Peace out.

And the cast and crew of the show must be feeling great about their futures as well.

The Cost of Reading Comics

Sort of around the time of going to university, I stopped buying and reading comics, bar a few in trade, mainly because of cost and I am terrible with money so something had to go. Recently, I restarted buying them and was hooked all over again. Still terrible with money, but I just starve a little bit more towards the end of a semester. No biggie.

However, comics are EXPENSIVE. Which brings me to "the biggest change in Marvel history for 35 years". Point One. And that quote may be slightly inaccurate or wrong or made-up. I saw it somewhere. Maybe a forum.

This is the one-shot that Marvel released last week which showcased upcoming series and storylines by different writers and artists all for the lump sum of $5.99. I cannot remember the British price, but it doesn't bode well via exchange rate. Buying this book was equal to paying for the trailers at the cinema. None of the sections really constitute a complete story, bar Fraction's Defenders tale and the return to the aging, hopefully dying, Age of Apocalypse timeline by David Lapham, who writes the abysmal DeadpoolMAX.

There was also some twin brother/sister story by Fred van Lente which was boring and probably already cancelled like the rest of his books recently. I feel bad for the guy, but these Yin and Yang characters did nothing for me, especially with their dull names like Colddragon or whatever. And they were Chinese, I believe. Calling them Yin and Yang...is that racist, bro?

Anyway, it kicked off with a framing structure which showed two unknowns hacking into the Watcher's memories (which will lead into a HUGE STORY which will CHANGE EVERYTHING FOREVER). This was nice with an artist whose name I forget, but it looked a lot like Marcos Martin, but it wasn't. Forget that.

Then into a Nova story written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by superstar of some sort Ed McGuiness. It had a planet blown to shreds with the Nova flying away, calling his failure or saving millions of live an "epic fail". I am beginning to think that Loeb just does this because he can and he is a massive WUM (wind-up merchant). The art is nice though and it's a tie-in to whatever the Pheonix Force is going to do next. Hopefully, CHANGE EVERYTHING FOREVER.

Another highlight was Brian Michael Bendis and Bryan Hitch's Ultron War preview which was essentially everything blowing up. It was well drawn and cinematic, but nothing more than a teaser to a storyline that has been teased since the relaunch of Avengers. If you want to know more, read Moon Knight which has an Ultron head in its pages.

So yes, once again I wasted money on something pointless. I can't even get drunk after spending that money. Sigh.

I need an accountant.