Comics!

I started this before I decided I needed to concentrate on one thing. So this is my last focus pop culture / comic blog for a while. Pretty happy I have been doing travel writing, but I want to get this posted, so I have no distractions.

Comics, I love them. I have loved them since grade 3-ish?? So, 8 years old, 35-year love affair. I mean, it started before that. What are comics besides still cartoons, and what kid doesn't like cartoons? I guess I am gonna go on about my comic history in this blog. (This was started before I decided to focus more on my writing. So for real, last non-travel blog for a bit)

Saturday morning cartoons are the start of it. It is true that back in the 80s and 90s, we had Saturday morning cartoons. There wasn't just a network dedicated to cartoons; you had to slot them in! It was a treat to see them, and we all loved them. It would make sense that a generation raised on cartoons would enjoy comics, a physical copy to hold in your hand and reread anytime if you wanted. That may also be why I hate web comics. I will always want a physical copy! 

If you can call it a comic, Archie was my first venture into comics. I am willing to bet that those early ones I read, I didn't get the humor, just laughed at how many burgers Juggie could eat. My babysitter in grade 2 had two sons. One was my age, and the other was a couple of years older. The older one was collecting the "classic" X-Men series. That was a series of reprints of older issues. Reprints of some of the best X stories out there. He let us read them, and I was hooked. Mutants fighting to save the world! I didn't get the whole world fears and hates them angle, they were just heroes, good vs bad with bright colors and big fights. Sure, Batman 89 had come and been a hit, or it would have been right around then, but it didn't catch my eye and wasn't aimed at children. Superman movies to this day, I still am not a big fan of, but these Mutants from this Marvel comics place had me hooked. Besides the reprints in Classic X-Men, it was 1990-ish when I really started liking comics, and it was a great time for it. X-Men had a massive crossover with Days of Future Present. I remember this one, and it introduced me to the current X-Men, X-Factor, and the New Mutants. Plus, the Fantastic Four, which didn't do it for me. It was also a crazy jump in point as it is all over, with time travel and crazy mixed-up timelines. Then 1991 hits, and the whole mutant world flips all over! They launched just X-Men, not Uncanny. So I am somewhere between the classic 70s and 80s issues reading and this entire new line. This was when I started to get some of the subplots. Magneto, ya, he was a villain, but there was a reason. Maybe there was more to these flashy fight scenes. I can't say I was a dedicated collector then. I was a kid and got comics when someone bought them for me. Truthfully, I was a bit spoiled and did get them often. I did get a copy of New Mutants 98. (first Deapool) It got tossed around and was not taken care of. Had I any clue what that issue would become even as young as I was, I woulda have put it somewhere safe!! During the 90s, my collecting was sketchy, and there are giant holes, but when I moved to Edmonton, got a half-decent job, and a roomie who loved comics, I got back into them big time. During that time, I bought NYX 3, and I still think it is in decent shape. (First X23, I assume, will be MCU Wolverine). This was when I started with the back issue obsession and filling in important stories. I wish I had gotten more back then. Now the ones I want are way more $$. This is when I fell in love with Chris Claremont's writing. The metaphors, the stories, and everything were sooooo much better than a lot of what we have today. It takes a while to read one of those issues; most of today, I get through in a few minutes. People call comics "woke" now, and they are not wrong!! Comics are pushing shit down people's throats. X-Men has always been woke, but it was so much better written; you didn't see it, you learned it. Without Claremont and the X-Men, I would not be into comics, but I have to move on from them. I did like others as well. But anyway, the comics store I was going to in the early 2000s pissed me off, and I stopped collecting everything until 2019. Another great time to jump back in, the Krakoan age started, but damn, miss 15 years and a lot of stories happen! My fav storylines are mostly old, Days of Future Past, God Loves Man Kills, Inferno, Dark Phoenix Saga. I couldn't tell you my favorite X-Man, but probably Wolvie or Gambit.

I want to be cool here and say I saw the original TMNT run because it is badass. I didn't; I got introduced to them like a lot of people in the cartoon series, where they are just happy joking, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I did not get the parody of Daredevil, but they were... Well, I didn't even know DD at that point, but DD's enemy, the Hand, and the Turtles fight the Foot. Stick trained DD, Splinter trained the Turtles. I am only briefly mentioning this as TMNT helped me get into comics, and the recent Last Ronin series is one of the best series I have ever read. They hit the mark with that. While it is the saddest TMNT series I have ever read, it is incredible. I feel it was aimed at guys like me who loved the cartoon when younger and now love more mature comics when older. I can only hope IF they ever do make a movie of it. It is done well and honestly, not for children. Sorry, kids, but this one is all nostalgia and way too violent. 

I was going to mention New Warriors here. Cause I am cool like that and had the early run of them. Truth is, I couldn't even remember the team, just that they were hip. So, ya, my saying that they had a big influence on my comic life would be a lie. I just remember how cool these young heroes were, and truth be told, back in the day, I did prefer them over the New Mutants. Honestly, the New Mutants were not my thing. I found them mostly boring. I wish I had picked it up when I saw the first 100 issues for $100. They do fill in some of the mutant stories for me. 

I am going to mention a couple of titles that never did it for me. Spiderman! Everyone loves Spidey, but I really never got the hype. Also, Superman, to me, yawn. Captain America and Iron Man, meh. I loved the MCU adaptations of them, but I thought they were going to flop. As I said, Daredevil did not do it for me, and again, they did a fantastic job bringing him alive on Netflix. 

So, I talked about the "childish" comics that got me into comics, but in the late 90s, Preacher blew my mind. I started working in a kitchen at 15, and one of the older cooks, "Evil," liked me for some reason. He introduced me to current rock. I was listening to GnR, and he showed me Korn. I said X-Men were awesome, and he handed me something called Preacher. My mind was blown. I never finished the terrible AMC series, but I devoured these comics. Could comics be aimed at adults? God took a holiday? Jesus' bloodline has become retarded? Hell, there was a guy named Arseface who shot himself because of Kurt Cobain, and in the 90s? Who didn't love Kurt? Over the years, Garth has had some of the best comics I have ever read. He also goes over the top and does get boring, but damn, he was the first writer that shocked me with comics and showed me that not everything has to be colorful and good guys winning. This media can be dark and made for adults. I am split now, half my file is "kid" comics like the X-Men, but half is darker, more mature comics. I am just going to put it out there: Worldtree is amazing. I will say that mature comics are hard to make a decent ongoing series. A lot start strong but don't seem to have staying power.....

Batman has always been there. Personally, my favorite character. Don't get me wrong, there is a LOT of misses in Batman. Years, it seems, without a decent story, but when they do get it right, it is amazing. I don't have as many childhood memories of Batman as I do the X-Men, because Batman was a more challenging read. X-Men is always colorful and over the top. Batman is grim and less appealing to a kid. The Joker, though, I always liked him. He still stands out more in Batman 89 to me than Batman. Jack nailed it. Truth is, my comics-obsessed roommate in the early 2000s was a Daredevil guy. I bought Batman to have a non-super title, and the fact was that I enjoyed it. Again, a great time to buy, as you had guys like Jim Lee and Jeph Loeb working on it. Lee is probably my all-time favorite comic artist. So, ya, I was kind of a Batman poser, then as a gift, I got 100 issues. That is a ton of Batman. All in a row, and yes, there was a ton of crap in there, but also a few amazing story lines. Then I was hooked, no longer a Batman poser but really into him. Of course, as I said, I had a falling out with the comic shop and didn't buy anything for years, but we still had amazing media come out, like the Dark Knight Trilogy. Heath will never be topped as the Joker. The Arkham games came out, and I love them! Then, in 2019, I went back to buying comics. There have been a few great arcs since then and a few boring ones. I notice Bats is getting milked now. A million titles and also the Batfam, which just keeps growing. Even if I cut down the titles I buy, Bats will have to stay. The recent uptick in Bat hate makes me laugh. There is an issue now that he is a billionaire. So they took away his fortune. Seriously?! Part of Batman is the Wayne family fortune, and that has been written out to appease stupid people? At this point, I just can't. As I said earlier, I love comics where they are written so well that you get the message without it slapping you in the face. Losing the Wayne money is a joke. Don't get me wrong, Absolute Batman is fantastic, but it is an alternate universe without the money. Not a main timeline to appease idiots. Anyways, Batman is human. Often, it is pure will that gets him through fights. He always tries to do the right thing, but sometimes he is wrong. He is actual hope... He wants to stop crime, but also gives criminals a chance. He could be the Punisher and kill them, but instead, they get taken to jail or wherever. He has the best rogues gallery, sorry that's just the way it is. Like any hero that is decades old, ya, he has some lame ass villains, but overall he has the best lineup. 

I won't call them out by name as they are now out of business, but when I moved to Edmonton, I did find a great comic shop. My roomie and I would go on Thursdays, every payday, and grab our file. Rent movies, when people still did that. Grab a bottle and head home. I loved it; it was my favorite weekday. I didn't grab a ton of titles, but a couple a week. I had a falling out with them. I can't even remember the title that was coming out, and I said to please put it in my file. They didn't, and it was not the end of the world, but I asked nicely to start doing it. I think it was 2 or 3 issues in when I was finally mad enough to ask again. The same guy said I didn't ask and was kind of snotty about it. So I said, add this and this and this..... He seemed happy I would be getting all these titles, and I never came back. Fuck you. I jumped around for a few years, like I said, never opening a file, just grabbing things now and then. In 2019, I found a new store here in Edmonton called Variant Edition. They have been great. Over the years, there have been a lot of stores in Edmonton. Some have been awesome, some kinda sketch. I will say Warp and Comic King have stood the test of time. Comic King amazing for back issues, along with We Have Issues. 

I also really like a couple of smaller companies. I mean, Zenescope isn't "smaller," I guess, but when I first started reading their titles, it was. I don't even remember what comic show it was, or if it was just a small pop culture fair here in Edmonton, but Zenescope had a booth. Two women dressed like Alice and the Mad Hatter drew me and a friend in. Honestly, Cosplay is a great idea to draw guys in, sorry, just being honest, and for me, Alice in Wonderland, ya, you got me. They had Grimm Fairy Tales, and I believe it was just starting. Only one shop in town had their titles. I love fairy tales, and these takes on them were amazing. SO I got into them. The line grew, and they got into all sorts of other stories, not all of which I enjoyed, and the fact is, I dropped them. I will still grab a graphic novel now and then if it looks good, but sadly, I have moved on from them. I also discovered AWA Publishing about 5 years ago. I was drawn to the fact that, in general, they had much more grounded stories. The first few series had no supes, just gritty, down-to-earth stories. Then they started to expand. More supes, but still gritty and dark writing. Some supernatural and such, which was cool. I will admit that I am not a fan of the fact that all their titles are minis. I want an ongoing series! Once in a while, yes, a mini is cool, but I want 100 issues! I like the background, I want the expanded universe!!! Either way, I do still love both Zenescope and AWA. 

I guess I should get into the claim that comics are going "woke." That's not true. Comics have ALWAYS been woke. If you look just at X-Men, it is a huge metaphor for that. Almost every hero in mainstream comics has championed what the Western world claims to be. Accepting all people, protecting everyone. The reason superheroes became popular is that they were the best of us, doing what we claim to do for humanity! Now, there used to be clearer bad guys and over-the-top caricatures. Yes, when the Russians were a significant threat, that's who they fought, or the Middle East or whatever. No hero has ever been a bigot! That's not 100% accurate, I guess, like any media, if you judge it by today's standards, there is acceptable racism, sexism, homophobia, or whatever from the time it was printed. In those cases, it is a reflection of society at that time. That doesn't mean they weren't "woke," it just means that was what society accepted at the time. People saying comics are woke now just isn't true; for the most part, the heroes are the same. Fighting to make the world a better place for everyone. The flipside is, I can see why people feel this way or say this. Comics haven't quite got to Netflix and Disney levels where a white male Viking king is portrayed by a black female, but they are tap dancing towards it. We now have Pride specials or minority specials. Every title has to have at least 1 gay couple and a few minorities thrown in. Look out your window, that is a reflection of society! What is over the top is gender and race-swapping characters. Making Batman lose his money because billionaires are bad. Changing names, pushing ideas on people. Scalphunter will always be Scalphunter, it's a bad ass name! Also, not every new character needs to be a minority; white males still exist. What I am getting at is comics didn't go woke, they always were, but they used to be written better. So people could understand a metaphor and not be beaten over the head with it.

X-Men movie note, Jlaw is a way better Mystique. She actually has a plot unlike Stamos who is arm candy for Magneto. I want to go into a whole X-Men movie rant here but I won't. The MCU really needs them to show up though. If you look at all the releases T.V and movies the MCU has done since Endgame we don't have many winners. Even F4 doesn't seem to be killing it. Flip side DCU seems to have started strong. I see some people yelling Superman was woke but people I actually trust on comic movies all have positive reviews. The Batman was 45 minutes to long, I hated Batissons Bruce but it did feel like a Batman movie based of Detective comics. Personally I think Gunn is over rated BUT he seems to be starting his leadership at DC strong from sales numbers at least and maybe they can dominate the next 20 years of movies. I mean saying that I was really liking the DCEU, even with its flaws.

Anyway to end it off.... Marvel or DC. Marvel. Best Hero, Batman. Best Villain, Joker..... Not saying this one isn't close. Magneto, Sinister, Apocalypse, and even Sabretooth are in the running. However, Mr. J wins in the end, except when played by Jared Leto. Best team, X-Men. I was gonna pick the hottest female, but that's just too hard. Just saying, it is very clear that some artists love drawing females. I love comics; the fact is, there is some really iconic writing in them, if you get into them. The MCU has exploded them over the last 20 years. Honestly, there were a lot of people who doubted an Ironman movie, and yet, however many years later, the MCU has to be the biggest franchise in history. 36 movies! IDK how many TV shows, it's insane. Will the big screen die off? Possibly. They have 2 years, I would say, to do a great job introducing the Fantastic 4 and mutants, or we might see this decades-long craze die off. Part of me is okay with that; some comic companies are now milking this and putting out too many titles, which dilutes the storytelling. Part of me hopes they do a great job and we see another 20 years of MCU centred on my favs, the X-Men. I mean, I'll be 65 and still be going to the theatre to watch comic movies, but oh well! 

I am going to close out with another thought. I heard someone post that people are becoming cheap and not seeing MCU movie sin theatre. We saw almost every pre End Game movie in theatres. It was always  good date. Also almost every time I was pleasantly surprised how good they were. Since then we have seen a few MCU movies in theatres, in general I haven't been impressed and to be honest no, I am not wasting money on that. Make movies that make people want to go back to the theatre. I will hopefully see Fantastic Four in theatres and likely Superman but thats it. Until the mutants make the movies I think I have an MCU hangover..... Well probably see Avengers movies in theatre....

Okay for real last thought, James Gunns Superman is not a great movie. Its not bad but it sure didn't blow my mind. Right down to the color scheme it is like he tried to repackage Guardians of the Galaxy as Superman. I half expected Starlord to show up and help Supes out. Unlike GotG the jokes don't land nearly as well. Krypto is cool but he sure isn't Rocket. Just my take, Man of Steel was a better Superman. Saying that I didn't mind the actor at all. Also a decent Lex, watching Dawn of Justice right after and I realized why people hated that Lex. This one the cameos from Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and Mr Terrific didn't really do much for me. Just my take, I know a lot of people liked it but not my fav... I will be watching Thunderbolts and F4 soon to see how they go.....