I know I'm opening myself up to 'snarkery' but after being handed a USB with about 1000 comics on it, I've found myself becoming a fan again. The artwork, storlines and character building have come a long way since I was a kid. He had digital copies of the entire original Avengers series from way back in the 60s so I'm able to compare.

The old originals are so terrible by today's standards that they are readable only for chuckles. The stories are simplistic in comparison and very fractured. Powers get tossed around, created and changed so much it's like they just couldn't be bothered to read their own previous episodes to get the powers or costumes right. Of course it's not fair to compare artwork as they were working with what they had in the day, except to say that many modern styles are truly amazing, but they are also very varied as well. Checking out what artist worked on a book actually means something now. You may love or hate their very personal style.

Gone is most of the tongue-in-cheek humour (well maybe except for Spiderman) and in it's place are dark, troubled characters. What's kind of cool though is that although there are thousands of new choices of all genres from Star Wars to Romance, but it is still the super-heroes of our youth that are still at the height of popularity.

There are still some cheesy ones being made though and I'm not much for when they do classic super-heroes in anime style (mostly cause that brings back the over-the-topness + cheesy humour.)

I really enjoyed starting with "A Vs. X" (Avenger's Vs. X-Men) as it re-introduced all the classic heroes and villains for me and the story lines were much more complex than "Hulk Angry so Hulk Smash", so to speak. The reason for the conflict was much more intricate & personal.

If anyone is interested in reliving their youth a bit, I highly recommend the 12 book "A Vs. X" series as a good first step. Also, the "Batman Arkham Unhinged". The newest Captain Marvel will surprise you as well.

With the exception of Batman, I'm definitely preferring Marvell vs. D.C. D.C. still seems to want to run with the more old-school, fractured storlines and a lot more cheesy humor (sorry to keep using the same term but it fits). I tried to get into the new JLA and Superman but so far Batman is my only D.C. regular read.

For non-traditional titles, companies like Dark Horse Comics and Image have some very original new titles like "The Manhattan Projects" (not what you think) is really cool. "Punk Rock Jesus" is a 'what if' story about a company cloning a possible Jesus from the Shroud of Turin and grooming him not as a religious savoir but as the lead in a rock band / marketing fiasco. Sounds ridiculous but an interesting read. Some of the newer Star Wars titles are pretty good as well. "Saga" is super popular among the 'hipster on my lawn' crowd but I'm having trouble adapting to it.

If you feel like another Robert Jorden sized journey, Marvell's "Civil War" series is very good and delves deep into the personal lives of all the major heroes. However, it's 107 books long and it isn't completely it's own series. To follow the complete story, you have to branch off into a bunch of other series as it spans the whole Marvel Universe. It would be near impossible to collect all these in print now but digital copies make it easy.

As a result of all this, I've actually subscribed to a few titles electronically via ComiXology. You can get digital copies the same day new titles go into print and often 1st editions are free for older titles so you can see if you like them.

Sorry for the novel.
I'm working from home today due to the weather but I'm waiting for a call back from our help desk about my VPN so my work laptop is dead in the water.


With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.