What is wrong with comics today?

[KevinP]

There are a few comics that are still fun reads. I get CAPTAIN MARVEL, WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN and NOVA.  That is, they're fun until they cross into some massive event crossover, like WOLVERINE AND THE X_MEN with A VS X and CAPTAIN MARVEL with AVENGERS: THE ENEMY WITHIN, and now the brand new NOVA with something called "Infinity."

I just opened WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN #27 and found out it's only a chapter of the Age of Ultron event.  Wolverine is in it, partnered with Sue Storm, but none of the regular supporting cast of students and teachers even get a cameo. I may drop my last few Marvel titles.

[darkmark (RIP)]

We're pretty much in the position of a Golden Age fan who sees an ish of THE AVENGERS with Captain America on the cover, buys it, looks thru it, and gets confused by these characters called Goliath, the Wasp, and Hawkeye.  Where'd they come from??

[Drahken]

I just opened WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN #27 and found out it's only a chapter of the Age of Ultron event.  Wolverine is in it, partnered with Sue Storm, but none of the regular supporting cast of students and teachers even get a cameo. I may drop my last few Marvel titles.

There are 2 versions of W&X 27. There's a normal, non-ultron one, and an "AU" one. They are doing this with several tie-in comics including fantastic four #5, a few avengers titles, and a couple other comics.
Regular version: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130327192358/marveldatabase/images/0/01/Wolverine_and_the_X-Men_Vol_1_27.jpg
AU version: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/3/3c/Wolverine_and_the_X-Men_Vol_1_27AU.jpg


I'm sick & tired of these universe-wide "events". It's very much akin to when there was the huge fad of making 20 different covers for each issue back in the 90s, it's fine (perhaps even good) when it's once-in-a-while, but it's just tedious & obnoxious when it never friggin stops.

[KevinP]

I just opened WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN #27 and found out it's only a chapter of the Age of Ultron event.  Wolverine is in it, partnered with Sue Storm, but none of the regular supporting cast of students and teachers even get a cameo. I may drop my last few Marvel titles.

There are 2 versions of W&X 27. There's a normal, non-ultron one, and an "AU" one. They are doing this with several tie-in comics including fantastic four #5, a few avengers titles, and a couple other comics.
Regular version: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130327192358/marveldatabase/images/0/01/Wolverine_and_the_X-Men_Vol_1_27.jpg
AU version: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/3/3c/Wolverine_and_the_X-Men_Vol_1_27AU.jp

Thanks! My local comics store was willing to exchange it for me.

[Drahken]

Yeah, I have no idea why they decided to do it in such a confusing way. At a minimum they should have numbered the ultron tie-ins as .1s or .2s or something. The key to look for is the banner at the bottom. The ultron ones have a big red circle sticking up in the middle (the normal ones are straight across) with a big AU. If you see that on one, you know that it's a "bonus" issue and not the normal issue of that number.

[backflash]

This reply may be a little late in coming since it was brought up nearly a year ago but I just went to WOWIO, for the first time and I am impressed with the number of titles that they have. One of the best features that they have is that you can preview the fist 5 or 6 pages to see if you like it, most of the titles are $.99 but some go higher.
I purchased 4 , at $.99 ea. just to see how everything went.  The download was a little slow, the books themselves are in PDF, not my favourite but I am able to convert to cbr.
All in all a good legal source for books, you won't find a lot of the mainstream titles, but there is a lot of good reading at a reasonable cost.
I am going to pay a visit to DriveThruComics to do some comparisons.
The fact is, that the best bang for your buck is still DCM, so visit lots, download lots, and donate lots.
backflash

[Yoc]

Thanks for the review BF.
Let us know what you think of DriveThru.  This is the first I've heard of them.

BTW, what are you reading your scans on?

[backflash]

I generally use CDisplay as it is the simplest, most straight forward, I also have Comic Rack which offers many more options.
I recently came across ComicSeer, but haven't installed it yet, it appears to very similar to Comic Rack, will try it out soon and let you know how it performs

backflash

[Yoc]

Hi B,
Ah, so you are not on a tablet I guess.

If you try any apps you'd like to review please feel free to start a new topic on it.

Take care,
-Yoc

[paw broon]

I'm reading comics on my Samsung tablet.  New stuff from Comixology, French G.N.s from Izneo and old comics and strips downloaded from a select few other sites.  I have "Perfect Viewer" installed for .cbz, .cbr files and there is a built in "office" programme which reads pdf files.  All I do is go to "File Manager", select a file from the internal memory (or e.g. the Comixology app) or the micro sd card and hours of happy reading ensue.  Oddly, the Izneo app doesn't react as well, or as quickly as Perfect Viewer, or Comixology, for that matter but the sheer quality of much of the French and Belgian books is so good that it doesn't matter. I said somewhere else on here that Cinebooks now release English translations of French books and they are on Izneo, where you can sample a few pages of each album.  None of this replaces the feel, smell and look of a "real" old newsprint comic or story paper but it certainly saves on space.  Most new comics from DC and Marvel leave me cold nowadays. And, to me, one of the great losses in comics was the change from newsprint to glossy paper.  But that's because I grew up with comics printed on crap paper and I loved them.  All that shiny stock is fine for prestige books and albums but I'd rather have paper you could spit through.

[Yoc]

I'm with you paw.  The jump to baxter, etc paper in the 80s and the rise in prices did not impress me either.
Today they've priced themselves out of the idea of impulse buying.  I recall grabbing many just to give them a try.  It's only 50 cents or later a dollar.  But today?  I don't think so.

[backflash]

As I said before, I am getting on in years, I can remember as a kid on a Saturday meeting friends and trading comics, not much of that going on today. I had a friend who subscribed to Mad magazine and it always arrived on a Friday, we would go over to his house after school so we all could get a look at it. We didn't think of collecting as such, many a comic was rolled up and carried in a back pocket (sacrilege)the main thing was to able to read as many as possible.
You can tout all the advantages of digital comics, and there are many,but nothing beats holding the real thing in your hands and for some reason the new glossy paper issues just don't cut it,we turn the pages so carefully so as not to damage them , keep them in bags, sometimes never to be read (one advantage of having digital) so much of the actual joy of reading comics is gone ,but what do I know I'm old.

backflash

[Yoc]

And with the plastic CGC coffins collecting comics is basically collecting over-sized stamps.

[narfstar]

Backflash you will find that most here in this digital community feel the same way. We are creating digital as a way to share our passion. But we all have the books we love. Most of the books that I have I would like to sell to make space. But I do have lots of books that picking them up gives an emotional high.

[Yoc]

True Narf.  But the main reason for sites like DCM and CB+ are sharing comics that no single person (well, maybe JVJ) could possibly amass without unlimited funds, time and storage space.  Long may our sites reign!

-Yoc