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.