Waffling
November 30th, 2009 by Esther Inglis-Arkell | Tags: black canary, DC comics, Green ArrowI keep buying one issue of Green Arrow and Black Canary and then dropping the book for the next few issues, and then picking it up again.
I have a fondness for Ollie. I like Mia. I liked Dinah better in Birds of Prey, but, what the hell. You take what you can get. And of course I like Roy, who is like Ollie but not quite as much of a jackass, except to Nightwing, who seems to bring out his jackassery.
But the book has been nothing but misery and more misery for years on end, now. I want to see a happy superhero team having fun in Star City and it’s less and less likely that that’s ever going to happen. And don’t even get me started on Cry for Justice.
Are there any books out there that you waffle on? What makes you drop them? What makes you pick them up again?
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Booster Gold.
If I didn’t have such an immense fondness for the character, the bland plots, lame villains, and callbacks to stories nobody on Earth could possibly care about would have made me drop it a long time ago.
Booster should be one of the most dynamic books on the shelves. The character has an interesting, unique personality and bounces well off pretty much anyone in the DCU, and the dude can go anywhere and interact with anyone, from heroes long dead, to those yet to be.
But instead of seeing Booster fight alongside Justice Legion Alpha, or clash with famed criminal Eel O’Brian, every month readers are treated to A) boring mystery villains B) team-ups with characters like the New Teen Titans, who are already in a ton of books anyway or C) callbacks to shit Jurgens did a decade ago.
Spawn.
The book came out when I was pretty young, so to my impressionable mind it was the coolest thing there was. After years of the character chasing his own tail and literally getting nowhere I would get so sick of the repetition that I would drop the book for months at a time. As soon as we thought we were getting somewhere BAM! brick wall and now we have to unearth a whole new hidden world of secrets. But I would always come back because it was one of the first comics I ever really got into on that level. Then finally it seemed like we would have some finality and closure in issue 163. Instead McFarlane hits the reset button and literally starts from zero. Come on man, we can only go in so many circles.
X-Factor.
I know. I know. Peter David is the bee’s knees. Clones becoming their own chars. Love it. Dupe baby reabsorbed into Jamie? Love it. Slightly homophobic Strong Guy? Love it. Suddenly giving a shit about Trevor Fitzroy? Not so much. This book has peaks and valleys and currently I’m just tired of it.
I actually made a list a few months back of books that I just hadn’t been enjoying. I would give them a total of one more month to win me back or they were off the pulls.
Booster is going on there next month, because holy god it’s alternated between “dire” and “passable” lately (and keep in mind this is coming from a guy who proudly has his Showcase collection on their shelf), Thunderbolts just got shitcanned, and two of the other three are staying because apparently I chose to drop them just as the fuckers were ending in a month anyway (RIP War Machine, Son of Hulk can go fuck itself post-Pak though).
But yeah it’s mostly miniseries I have this issue with, otherwise a terrible monthly gets dropped and I’ll just borrow a friend’s copy, someone’ll ALWAYS pick it up. Haven’t had a book yet that I was the last one to read.
I think the closest I’ve ever come to waffling on a book is Ms. Marvel. I picked up her Annual where she teamed up with Spidey, considered getting issues of the series after Dark Reign hit, but never did till the one where Deadpool made an appearance, then didn’t pick up any more till last weeks issue. I wanted to like the series, but I was just never able to compel myself to buy the book for the main character, which with the way I try to keep my spending on comics low, kept me from making it a regular buy. Which is a bit sad, since I have a feeling I could have enjoyed it, I just never was able to convince myself to stick with it.
Buffy.
I loved the way it continued from the tv show and getting to see everyone again. But at some point everything started dragging and much of the plot just got stupid and annoying. So I dropped it after realizing it was only inertia keeping it on my pull list…
I’m also thinking of dropping DMZ. Not that its bad at all. Just that I’m finding I prefer Wood’s writing in collected chunks like a trade.
I’m contemplating dropping Streets of Gotham. I started getting it because it seemed like it had the potential to be like Gotham Knights, not tied to one particular set of characters but free to tell stories about anyone and everyone in Gotham (with the added bonus of the Manhunter backup). Not to mention that it has Dustin Nguyen doing pencils, whose work I love and I’m drawn to his covers like a moth to a flame.
But I really haven’t found the stories all that interesting or memorable. The last two issues with Huntress were a disappointment to me because it just shows how outside of the much-missed Birds of Prey, every writer seems to revert Huntress back to a I-want-to-kill-people-by-default stance and she therefore must be taught a lesson by circumstances and other heroes. It’s tiring, considering the character development that we saw in BoP under Gail Simone’s writing that got Huntress past that.
Ms. Marvel.
A friend got me to check out the book by explaining that in some Earth-altering timeline (House of No More Mutants?) Ms. Marvel is the best hero ever, and when time gets kinda set back right, she remembers that, and dedicates herself to fixing her messed-up, underachieving life. Do not ask why I relate to the book. The POINT is, I keep trying to buy the book for THAT story, but every five issues, the status quo totally changes and she has to fight in the latest crossover.
And goddamn it, when she spends five issues killing skrulls nonstop, the book’s sales DOUBLE. So I am clearly the one whose tastes are out of step. It’s a shame. I went from catching up on trades to buying issues, which is not my preference, just to support a second-tier, female-lead book. Now I’m off, and may pick up any trades that don’t look crossover-mired.
Note to Space Jawa: The first four trades are worth checking out, even the Civil War crossover in Vol. 2.
Note to Maddy: God, yes, Simone/Birds/Huntress — much missed.
Secret Six.
GI Joe titles.
Justice League titles.
Green Lantern.
Honestly, I’m surprised by the first one, but after being pretty disappointed that the last few issues took as long as they did to wrap up a story, I can’t help but feel that I’ve had this feeling for a while now. The cruel, dark humor in the book is a guilty pleasure, but the stories don’t seem to have the punch they did in the beginning. Or I could just be tired of Bane. Not sure.
As for GI Joe, I’m a fan from way back when. I was excited about the movie. I was excited about the IDW relaunches. Now, notsomuch, thanks. I’ve been sorely disappointed with the main title. Origins and Cobra have been good, but if I drop one, I’ll probably drop them all.
I’ve been giving Robinson the benefit of the doubt on Cry For Justice (mostly because I’ve been dying for a good JLA book, but partly because I’d already preordered most of the mini before the first issue even got to my hands). I’ll finish out the mini, but if Justice League of America doesn’t pick up real fast, then it’s gone, too.
I’ve been following the GL trades for a while and they’ve been pretty good. I decided to jump on board the monthly for Blackest Night. While it was a good jumping on point, I think I may go back to picking up the trades at my local library.
As for titles that I waffled on and then dropped, but have thought about picking up again: Daredevil, Thunderbolts (I actually have started picking this up again because of a subscription deal Marvel was running), Batman titles, X-Men titles.
I was getting DD through a subscription and when that expired, I dropped the book. I thought about jumping back on when Diggle took over, but decided against it. The Batman and X-Men titles are almost always in my peripheral. I read those titles for so long, it was difficult to drop them when I finally did. That said, it’s been equally as difficult to jump back in. While the Batman titles have had a few good jumping on points recently, nothing has really jumped out at me as something I want to read. The X-Men titles have creators on them that I like, but I’m just not sure I want to wade into that again.
That’s sad, if you think of it. I’m avoiding two of the most popular franchises because they just seem way to muddied to be worth the effort.
Green Lantern,
I enjoyed rebirth, loved Sinestro Wars, was okay with War of Light but tthen blackest night came about and well I just don’t care, and why is it nine issues long, apparantly this is all happening in one day, why so drawn out, and Nekron a crappy villian from god knows how long ago. I want to like it but too many people with the same power flying around
Red Robin (after Robin) – a dull and identikit nothing of a title.
Azrael – see above. Had a strange fondness for the Denny O’Neill title. Up until Dancer of Death.
X-Force – promising, but was just stab-stab for ages and went nowhere.
Deadpool – painfully unfunny.
Detective Comics – okay, so doing a butch lesbian ex-marine with ‘toos and daddy issues is breaking new ground: it’s still a dull story.
New Mutants – seen it all before in half the page-count and I’m just not digging it anymore to the point I want never to see the characters again.
Thunderbolts – since Diggle, a downward slope even fan-favorite Jeff Parker hasn’t stopped.
Avengers: Initiative – once fun, now convoluted with angst and impenetrable.
James Robinson – anything by. Starman seems so long ago…
Uncanny X-Men.
I want to like the book. I like the characters generally. I like the idea. Typically I love Matt Fraction’s writing (Iron Man, Casanova, Five Fists of Science, etc.), but he’s just not getting it together here, and the photo-referencers (aka: artists) he’s working with don’t help much.
Amazing Spider-Man. If I see a solicitation that has a writer, artist, or character I like, I pick it up. Otherwise, I’ll pass.
Beyond that, if I decide to drop a book, I don’t go back to it.
Cerebus is probably a good example. Dave Sim turned the book into a soapbox. To each their own, but I wasn’t exactly interested in what he had to say. However, I was interested in dropping in from time to time to see how Sim’s art had evolved, or where Cerebus’ life was at.
I’d say the Books of Magic, but I didn’t really flip-flop on that – I stopped reading it after John Ney Rieber stopped writing, but what qualifies it for this topic is that I went back and read the last, Peter Gross written storyline, and it wasn’t bad. I also went on to read Dylan Horrocks’ Hunter: the Age of Magic stuff, which is very good. So it’s more like “A definitive writer left, I was convinced the book was going to turn into crap, got talked into reading it, was wrong”. Is there a succinct word or phrase for that? Anyone else have a title that they had the same experience with?
I gave up on GA:BC after they retooled Dinah’s origin to make her more miserable.
I’m probably going to waffle on the new Flash monthly if it’s anything like Rebirth. I like Barry, Wally, Jay, and their whole Flash clan, but for some reason whatever Johns is doing now isn’t going to click for me on a monthly basis.
They retooled Dinah’s origin to make her more miserable? Really?
Ah, the bliss of ignorance …
I’m a save the best for last kind of guy. So when, month after month, I read a book first because I’m not interested … it’s time to go.
Blackest Night
Ever since Sinestro Corps War, I’ve heard this was one of the best superhero titles on the stands. I had read some of the back trades and jumped in on Blackest Night. It was filed with characters I didn’t care about [Mera? Really?] and villains with no real motivation. (What does Black Hand want again?) Dropped.
X-Force/X-Men Legacy
Loved Choi’s art on X-Force, but I’d rather not look at Crain’s. I’m interested in the new direction for Legacy, but it never quite pulls me in. Dropped/dropping them at Necrosha.
I waffled on with New Avengers for about a year after I stopped enjoying it. I finally dropped it at #50. I’m alot better at dropping books nowadays, This year I started and dropped Proof, Batman and Robin and the Marvel Noir stuff and a load of mini series’. I’m still lingering with Gotham City Sirens and Northlanders because I do enjoy them, but mainly because I wish they’d be better!
Wonder Woman. I jumped on when Simone came onboard. The first arc was great and the subsequent issues were also pretty cool. However when the Rise of the Olympian stuff started the quality really started to go down. I feel that storyline could have been wrapped up in half the time and that the energy hasn’t come back to the book. However some of the solicits for future months look promising so I’m still not sure what I’m going to do.