New Comic Wednesday (No Running...Sorry)

As some of the nerdier of you may know, this past weekend was San Diego Comic-Con, alternatively known as Comic-Con International (CCI) or just plain Comic-Con. The last of these titles is actually a misnomer, as there are many comic conventions across this great land of ours (as well as around this pale blue dot we call Earth), all of which can be called "comic-con". But certainly, CCI is the biggest, taking over the entire San Diego convention center and selling 125K tickets within hours of offering them to the geeked out masses.

As you may also know, Wednesday is when new comics are released, although different comics come out throughout each month.

Since it's Wednesday, and I don't have anything particularly interesting to post where running is concerned, I thought I would drop a post about my own New Comics Wednesday. It's a bit long, so if you're looking for running stuff, it won't be in the paragraphs that follow. Sorry. it was a rest day.

Comic books are a deceptive hobby, because each book by itself is relatively low-cost at around $3.00 or $4.00 each. Some longer running and/or less well-known books can be even cheaper, at around $2.50. So it's very easy to get into a dozen books and end up spending $50 a month or more on new books alone. Then you have additional expenses if you collect other memorabilia associated with your favorite books like action figures, posters, clothing, toys, and trade paperbacks or graphic novels. This is where The Big Two (Marvel and DC Comics) make a lot of money, in addition to proceeds from their movies. Big franchises like Batman, Superman, etc are prime areas for this money suck.

So, I have a self-imposed maximum of five books on my "pull list" at any given time, with two or three additional slots for impulse buys. A pull list is simply a list of books which you buy every month, and is typically maintained by your local comic store. In my case, my local store, Alliance Comics in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, pulls my books and I stop in once every other week to get them. Right now, my pull list only has four books on it; I have one non-subscription book I'm trying out as well:

• Batman (DC Comics): My personal favorite superhero since I was a kid. I've really liked the New 52 reboot of the series with the recently-concluded Court of Owls story arc. The book is darker and more similar to the Christopher Nolan movies than the campier or more cartoonish earlier movies in the franchise (e.g. the Val Kilmer and George Clooney films). The writing is strong and the art is also very good. The Batman presented here is not perfect, and has become more conflicted about his place in Gotham over the last few issues. Now, with the Court of Owls done, DC announced at CCI that the new story arc beginning in the fall will bring back The Joker, which will be fantastic. Some of the ideas Scott Snyder, the writer for Batman (and who will be at Baltimore Comic-Con in Sept), has talked about for The Joker, are very compelling. A solid monthly pick up.





Cover from Batman #1, source: DC Comics



• Justice League (DC Comics): The second of my two Big Two superhero selections, and the most recent addition to my pull list. I have not been an historical JL fan, but the New 52 offered me a nice jumping on point and I've been pleased with the writing thus far. I've particularly liked the recent Journey of the Villain arc over the last two issues (the arc wraps up with the latest issue #11, which is out today). I prefer JL to Avengers for reasons I don't really know. I've yet to really get into reading a Marvel book, but that could change; I have an open mind. I'm sure Batman's presence on the JL team has something to do with my affinity. But I also enjoy the other characters and think the writers have done a good job of making them individual characters. The next few issues going into the end of 2012 are supposed to tackle how the JL goes from a bunch of individual heroes to a cohesive team that can oppose the new villain Graves. And Aquaman leads the way in this issue, I hear! Good stuff!



Cover from Justice League #1, source DC Comics







• The Walking Dead (Image): Arguably my favorite book for a litany of reasons. Up until two years ago, I had never heard of TWD, but ended up loving the AMC TV show. I was surprised to learn about the comic, and once I checked it out, I was hooked. The local library had all of the past issues, so I consumed those to catch up in the book. Last week issue #100 came out right before CCI to great fanfare. I read it this weekend and loved it. TWD is consistently great, both from a story and artistic standpoint. The story is of course a zombie apocalypse, but after 100 issues, creator Robert Kirkman has gone way beyond that to explore these survivors' lives, such as they are. The book is not for young children; there's lots of gore (even though the book is drawn in black and white, it's still messy) lots of f-bombs and other adult language/situations. But it's a wonderful read each month and I can't wait to see how Rick and the survivors make it out of the latest horror show they found themselves in at the end of issue 100.



Variant Cover from Walking Dead #100, source Image Comics



• Manhattan Projects (Image): This is the most surprising member of my pull list, as it came out of nowhere and is now one of my favorites. Like TWD, this is a creator-owned comic, in that the creator retains the rights to the intellectual property in contrast to Marvel and DC, where creators usually at least share ownership with the company. That's another post for another day, but suffice to say this model begets a lot more "out there" books and MP is no different. The premise is simple: what if the Manhattan Project had actually been a front for a government operation where the best minds in the world could work on projects even crazier than an atom bomb? We're talking contact with aliens, different dimensions, etc. The characters are all familiar: Robert Oppenheimer, Einstein, Richard Feynman, Enrico Fermi, etc. But nearly everything has a twist. Oppenheimer, the director of the projects, has multiple personalities (not all of which are good); Einstein is actually from a parallel universe and may not be a good guy; Feynman is actually quite normal actually; Fermi is actually a supergenius, super-old alien. Oh, and when FDR suffers an aneurysm (the book takes place in 1945), they put his consciousness into the first AI supercomputer environment. So, not your typical comic! But it's addictive for an amateur science nerd like me. And I got in with issue #1, so I hope it continues for a long time a la TWD.



Cover from Manhattan Projects #1, source: Image Comics



The fifth slot on my pull list remains empty for now. New books are released or announced all the time, so I won't suffer from a lack of contenders. At CCI, for instance, Image announced a dozen new books under development for release in the next several months; Dark Horse announced a new Star Wars comic book coming in January 2013; DC talked more about the next wave of New 52 series that will start to come out this fall and the New 52 "zero issues" coming out in October; and Marvel talked up its Marvel NOW! project, which is an end for several key series including Thor and The Incredible Iron Man, and the beginning of several new titles utilizing the X-Men and Avengers, among other characters. And obviously, new Thor and Iron Man books will come out in 2013, given all the hype around the movies, etc. So, plenty of material coming.

Finally, the one book I'm reading that's on a month-to-month basis is The Massive, from Dark Horse Comics. It's a story about an environmentalist group led by a former mercenary, who are on a ship, The Kapital, searching for its sister ship, The Massive, after a series of huge natural disasters have ravaged the planet. It's only on issue #2, but it's been OK thus far. A little slow, as the book goes back and forth between the present (in the story) and the past to explain the characters, the disasters, etc. I really like the art and colors in The Massive, so I hope it picks up in issue #3.



Cover from The Massive #1, source: Dark Horse Comics