snap judgments

We got 29 copies of Nextwave #5 in last week. Considering about 10 pulls and one damaged copy, we now have (no joke) 2 copies left.

This is my celebratory dance.

GAMES!

Oh wow.  I thought today was going to be dullsville (honestly, without comics we’re a slow ship), but YAY GAMES!

I swear, reviews tonight but you have to know about this awesome awesome stuff:

1) PIRATES!  I am proud to say that if you’re not a poser pirate fan who couldn’t name at least two female scourges of the seas but constantly recite Johnny Depp’s lines from Pirates of the Caribbean then has Metro got some stuff for YOU! 

First, Pirates of the Spanish Main kicked it up a notch by adding SEA MONSTERS to their already fabulous game.  Now, not only can you get a basic game going for just $3.99 a pack, but now you could get a SEA MONSTER!  It’s the easiest game to play and learn and every single new expansion just makes it that much cooler.  And it’s only $3.99 a pack!  I keep one in my bag at all times in case food is being served to slow during lunch so I can just bust it out and play on the table. 

Second, for the aesthetic, we have Dread Pirate.  I feared getting this game in due to its sheer beauty and price.  But once you play with the weighted metal ships, realize how simple the game play is, clink some of the sculpted metal ‘gold’ coins, and see how lovely the real wood chest would look in your living room, it becomes not a matter of ‘How can I afford it?’ but ‘How can I take this home?’  I could talk up the game, but it’s honestly something you have to touch and see in person to understand its full glory.  A truly classy game and a nice addition to any home and I’m going to make it my personal mission to see it leave the store.

2) BATTLESTAR GALACTICA!  Any geek worth their salt has sat down with the new Sci-Fi series and made their judgment known.  For those of you in the ‘This Show ROCKS!’ category, we have an all new card game that seems to have taken the best elements from a lot of popular games and worked them into a fast paced interesting system that keeps everyone thinking on each turn.  The card have the corners clipped off them to reflect the freaky paper they got on the show and it’s that kind of attention to detail that keeps my attention.  The fact that you work against your opponent to gain political power then combine forces to defeat a Cyclon threat makes me want to play. 

Enthusiasm is great for getting people to buy things.  And while comic fans can certainly have a great deal of enthusiasm for their favorite books, it’s finding a way to direct that in a positive direction to the customer.  I felt that Fantastic Four: Death in the Family was a travesty against Marvel and its fans and so I made sure that at least pull customers weren’t suckered in.  At the same time, I made sure to find other things that I could recommend wholeheartedly to replace that $3.99 failure.  ‘This book sucks’ should be followed with ‘but this?  This is a work of art!’

Games are the same way.  Yes, Yu-Gi-Oh is a terrible game for children and it’s sad to see Little Billy Second Grader lose his hard earned allowance money to a marketing ploy.  So, I’ll see if I can’t get him to take home some Pirates instead.  It keeps store employees (ok, maybe just me) from getting too maudlin.

Enjoy your shelves.  There’s a lot of cool stuff out there.  And again, really, don’t be afraid to try something new.  Not into card games?  Pick one up sometime that’s got an easy theme you like and try it out, just to make sure. 

ATTENTION EVERYONE.

YOU WILL RECIEVE YOUR COMICS ON THURSDAY, NOT FRIDAY.

BLAME MEMORIAL DAY.

AND  GO TO YOUR LOCAL COMIC SHOP ANYWAYS.  PICK UP A TRADE PAPERBACK IF YOU HAVE TO.  THEY’LL BE LONELY.

THANK YOU.

At my register at the front counter, I have copies of Nextwave and a gun.

Okay, maybe not a gun, but an iron clad schpeel on why this happens to be the only book in the entire store that one seriously needs.  Needs like air, like joy, like special time with Special Bear.  Each issue knocks me flat with awesomeness, only to outdo itself the next issue.  Brilliant. 

“But,” is the first reaction to my song and dance to get people to buy this book, “it’s #5!”  This veers off to “How did they get to issue #5?” (‘Well, sir, this is what happens when books come out on a regular basis.  I know, hard to believe…’) and some variant of “Do you have the #1 because that’s where I want to start.”

And I just want to hang my head.  We need #1s.  It makes us feel better and like we’re starting at the start.  No one wants to be left behind.   We’re very linear these days.  But for myself, I have purposefully chosen to try and never to judge a book by its #1 issue.  In fact, I would go so far as to recommend #2s above and beyond the first issue.

I really believe that comic book publishers see #1 issues as a way to make money, not tell a story from its start.  How else can you explain Marvel’s crazy numbering system or how storylines that could easily be strung together get portioned off into mini-series?  They think (and to an extent, are right) that the customer will see the #1, think ‘start’ or ‘this issue will be worth money someday!’, and pick that up.  But really, it’s not necessary for a start, if it ever was.  Most books have a handy dandy recap in the front that gives you the bare bones of what you need to know to jump into that issue.  Most #1s just rehash info you might have gleaned from advertising, just the hooks to make sure you pick up #2.  See the first Civil War issue, as most of the info in was told over and over and over in the media and public eye. 

I don’t recommend Strangers in Paradise vol. 1 to people.  I suggest ‘I Dream of You’, the second trade paperback in the series because that’s where the story picks up and Terry Moore really gets going with the theme of the title in general.  My store manager advised me that that first Sandman trade is a little on the sketchy side since Gaiman really didn’t know where he was going at first but the second volume is really where things start the process of coming together in that incredibly well woven tale.  First issues are there to get you hooked and second issues are typically the start of fleshing that out.  The recent Moon Knight is a great example of that; the first issue was just a recap of who he used to be and the terrible low he’s sunk to now.  Issue #2 tells you how he got so low and what he’s going to do next.

In fact, you could even say that #2s tend to be more collectable since retailers will up the orders on a #1 but tend to order low on the second since they’ll have no idea how the first will sell.  I mean, sure Superman started in Action Comics #1, but Batman was Detective Comics #27.  The Hulk’s title started with #1 to #6, but then jumped to #102, taking over from its Tales to Astonish story.  Julie Schwartz said in a biography I read that in the Silver Age, starting with a higher number meant that the book was more established and had more credibility than a #1 issue.

Nextwave is great because it asks so little of you.  You don’t need to know who any of these people are, what they’re doing, or why.  Things get kicked, things explode and nothing is taken seriously.  Start with #3 or #5, you’re going to get a good story.  And isn’t that what we want to begin with?

NEWSARAMA.COM: TEN YEARS LATER: ONSLAUGHT REBORN

You heard it didn’t you? A thousand voices, crying out in terror? Or just one lone little girl in Santa Barbara, CA. I didn’t even read it at first, just let it wash over me. After all, this is the semi-joke issue of Wizard magazine, right? Since when do they have honest info anyways?

But there it is in bold colors on Newsa-FREAKIN’-rama. Quote the Liefeld, “After Civil War fans can take a deep breath and then strap themselves in for this rollercoaster.”

OH! OH CAN WE? CAN WE PLEEEEEEASE???

But I will give Liefeld this, that the word ‘rollercoster’ is an apt metaphor for Marvel Comics these days. But not in an ‘exciting up and down’ kind of way. Ever been on ‘Pirates of the Carribean’ at Disneyland? ( I say Disneyland since I’m not sure if the ride is the same at other parks). Now, at the last part of the ride, they drag your little boat up this great steep incline and when I first rode it, I forgot that the ride took you down to begin with and assumed that this upgrade would lead to another some other big drop and kind of psych’d myself up for it. Big incline (when you’re small), the tick-tick-tick of the ride’s tracks, I was all set for some big splash at the end of it… and then found myself right back where I started.

Welcome to Marvel Comics. The moon has been promised these days. One HUGE event right after another. House of M had The Other right on it’s heels which in turn has Civil War on the next page plus two side events (Annihilation, Planet Hulk sorta) and now we’re getting the Return of Onslaught and possibly the Be-freakin’-yonder in the middle/end of Civil War! I can understand the idea of keeping your readers on the edge of their seat. I can understand that yearing need to compete with their Distinguished Competitors and their big extravaganza, but this… this is ridiculous!

With Big Events following each other so closely, there’s no breathing room, no time to settle into the new status quo and no time to go back and fill in blanks that might have been left out of the bigger picture. House of M had Spider-Man’s greatest wish fulfilled as being married to Gwen Stacy and not Mary Jane. There were hints by the folks at Marvel that this might change MJ’s and Peter’s relationship with this new revelation, not to mention he’d have a heck of a time reconciling getting his ‘greatest wish’ with the life he led now. How do you get up in the morning knowing that this isn’t what you want at all? Or that you had it and boy was it pretty twisted!

This got dealt with in Son of M for maybe… four pages? Not in his own books which were going through that The Other mess in which Spidey got new powers and some sort of twin spider person who… disappeared? And now he doesn’t have the time to sort those out because he has even MORE new abilities thanks to the Iron Spider suit which commits him to Tony Stark’s side in Civil War and then he’ll be yoinked out to go participate in Beyond!… *whew*. Someone give this man a vacation.

Hell, give us a vacation. We buy into it every time Joe Q. gets up there and tells us ‘In this issue Insert Name Here DIES!‘, there we stand cash in hand, hoping that this time it’ll be different.

Take Ike back, baby.

So, since people have been rather pleasantly disposed towards my little humble home of geekery, why not snazz the place up a bit? I whipped up some quickie comic banners, found a nice looking layout and hopefully some interesting things to say.

I’m also now officially listed on the Comic Weblog Update page, not to mention the lovely notice from When Fangirls Attack! and the very awesome Ragnell. With the wonderful neon arrow given to my She-Hulk ‘Integrity’ post, I am proud to say I hit the triple digit big time. The dance I did to celebrate was long and involved and lasted a couple days.
For some strange reason, I haven’t been posting to the comments people have been leaving me! I guess some part of my lizard brain thinks it’s little like signing your own yearbook, but you know, I paid for that damned yearbook and I can sign every single page if I wanna! Expect more words from me.
And, to get schmoopy for a moment, thanks for reading. Despite what it seems like, no matter how down things get and no matter what they smell like, comic book fans are some pretty damn kick ass people.
Go team!

So I go into Borders Bookstore this morning and what to my wondrous eyes do appear? The X-Men: The Last Stand novelization.

Novelizations can often be like little guidebooks to the treacherous vacation that is a comic book movie (please, if you haven’t, go read the Hulk movie novelization and see that even Peter David couldn’t make sense of the ending of that movie). And since I have this fear of the latest X-Men flick that is nearly akin to my fear of spiders (‘Oh, god, but what if it sucks? But I like the cast! *furious nail biting*), I thought about picking it up. And turning to the last page.

Yes, I am no fun. But I am very big on theories.

And the one I use probably second most in my daily life is why comic book fans purchase junk. We don’t like the way a book is going, we don’t like the art, we complain and beat our breasts and tear our hair but yet, there we are, every week, spending our hard earned cash on something we’re not happy with. We don’t like the new Spider-Costume? We buy it anyway. We hope it will change. If you read the internet, it’s a wonder comics sell as many copies as they do.

I call this the ‘Take Ike Back’ syndrome.

Mostly because of the SNL sketch I was watching at the time when the idea showed up.

Because no mater how hard we get kicked in the teeth, no matter how childish and foolish we’re made out to be, we always come back. We make excuses (‘Oh, it’s just Chuck Austin! We hate him.’ ‘They’re leading up to a bigger storyarc.’ ‘We just fell down some stairs.’), we give allowances (‘Oh, no, Daredevil: Father being so late is okay, Joey Q’s a busy guy!’). Being behind the counter, sometimes one of the other guys will make a note of how many books someone is putting back and go ‘Man, he doesn’t like anything!’ Which is his right! If a book is not up to your $2.99, you don’t have to get it. If the book is bad now, your collection is probably better off without them.

We’re a talented bunch to keep up with all these characters and storylines and publishers have really shown us a lot of opportunities than we would have if we’d stuck to the indy comics or sci-fi section at the local bookstore. We’ve had our ups, our downs, but we have fond memories of the way we and the Big Companies used to be. Nostalgia and knowing that this could be so much better keep us with a title when it starts to smell.

I own way too much of Bruce Jones’s run on the Incredible Hulk. The first issue was pretty good but then after it just started to sink with way too little of the Hulk and really drug out stories. Then Emil Blonsky’s wife somehow made it to the US to run a diner out in the middle of nowhere and Bruce Banner was sleeping with her and Betty was back from the dead and gamma-powered and sleeping with Doc Samson and Bruce Jones came to my house to personally kick sand in my face. I hated that book. I took it personally (why do we do that?) but by God, I know the whole ending to that last storyarc he wrote and can retell it in angry verbatim.

Why? Why did I read it? Why didn’t I just walk away, let go and go back to back issues? Perhaps because I took it personally. Perhaps because in that big ol’ pile of manure, I thought there might be a pony.

So I did actually pick up the X3 novelization and flipped to the back page (‘An epilogue! Surely it won’t be in the film.’). What I learned made me angry. But I’m going to go see the movie anyway.

It’s got Multiple Man.

Shorter, snappier, wired on two iced mochas of the day, I bring to you… some of what Marvel and DC is a little too lazy to promote on their own.  I have to admit, doing these reviews is pretty helpful in regards to plying my craft of selling books to people who don’t know what they want.  There’s a lot of stuff I normally wouldn’t read, but stuff that other people … might. If that makes any sense.  And when someone comes into the store and says ‘So, what’s this DMZ thing?’ and other register jockeys start to get that glaze in their eyes, I can a little spotlight as I scribble down notes for them to read to the customer.

Just 12, since I was turned on and tuned out to a new manga title on the shelves thanks to a rather awesome writer who happened upon my humble store.  It’s called Death Note and once you get past the character who looks like a reject from KISS then you find yourself in a artful crime drama that far too smart for it’s own good.

Daredevil #85

You know you’ve hit a rough spot when the Punisher is giving you morality advice in prison.  Ed Brubaker hasn’t missed a step in Bendis’s party line and I’d even say one upped the man as far as killer drama.  After all, who wouldn’t want to watch a shark tank?  With the Punisher, Daredevil and the Kingpin all swimming about, you’re on the edge of your seat for first blood and even though we never get that blood, there’s enough characterization and story development to explain why.  Daredevil isn’t Punisher, and with all the hardcore prison tough guy routine it’s nice to know that they haven’t forgotten that.   Next issue, prison riot!

Exiles #84

It’s the Heroes Reborn universe!  The miniseries version to boot!  Oh… boy?  Morph-Proteus shows up to do the obvious ‘convince clueless heroes he’s the good guy before the other guys show up’ shtick, the saps being the Young Allies, the group with the girl Bucky.  The Exiles show up, lather, rinse repeat, then ‘O’ and ‘K’ (manifestations of Order and Chaos wikipedia tells me) pick up Proteus for an end of the world kind of thing.  Could this mean the end of Proteus?  Can we dream?  This is a great concept book but the recent line has really started to stall with an overdone storyline.  Or maybe I’m just smarting since they lost Morph.

Fantastic Four: A Death in the Family

Okay, I don’t say this very much unless it’s absolutely true, but for this one-shot, it’s entirely deserved:  Don’t buy this book.  Really.  There is nothing to see here and the fact they want $3.99 for it is rather depressing.  It’s a short story about Johnny Storm inadvertently causing a monster to show up who’s energy blast can’t be deflected by Sue’s invisible shielding so she dies.  Reed (who last went a little around the bend when Ben kicked the bucket when Waid was writing) is pretty much hopeless as he holds the dead body of his wife so Johnny goes back in time and stops the monster.  Apparently, this is a futile gesture as it saved another reality’s Sue and not the Sue that died in Time Traveling Johnny’s universe, but Ben says that he did it to prevent them from going through the same heartache as his universe and then it’s group hug time!  This is like 6 pages.  The rest of the book is a reprint of FF #245, a Official Handbook entry and a Franklin Richards, Son of a Genius reprint, ‘Now You See Me’.  I don’t know why they bothered.

Iron Man #8

Iron Man continues to do hellacious damage to guys listed on a mysterious laptop screen as Tony does hellacious damage to his reputation on the (new) Avengers.  Iron Man is on the scene for a breakout attempt handled with excessive force, definitely showing up the rest of his team in the same amp’d up manner of last issue.  When Captain America tries to get him to stand down, Iron Man attacks Cap.  When they call him on being late, Tony couldn’t give a damn which Spider-Woman is left to sort of deal with.  Which she does by giving Tony the benefit of the doubt.  I guess people are more willing to believe the Avengers’s Clock is off than that the guy who nearly choked out Captain FREAKIN’ America and was a pheromone away from throwing down with Wolverine might have been late.  Total alcoholic behavior, getting belligerent and blaming other’s vehemently for your own bad behavior, which means that when a team guest stars in a title character’s book, they lose all credibility.  As long as you don’t think about the Civil War tie in potential, it’s actually interesting to watch Iron Man’s descent into addiction to the new power of the Extremis virus… if that’s what this is.

New Excalibur #7

Black Tom Cassidy loses his mutant powers thanks to Wanda/’M-Day’/whatever they want to call it nowadays and is back to being human instead of a man-plant monster.  What does he do?  He goes out and at great expense recreates his powers mechanically.  Because robotic ‘plant’ tentacles can’t be cheap.  Oh, and he wants to defeat the new Excalibur.  Most likely because they were there.  Juggernaut confronts him on the death of his precious Sammy the Fish-Boy and talks at him a bunch, causing Tom to give up.  And Dazzler dies and comes back, Tessa ‘defeats’ the Evil Charles Xavier from Another Dimension and the team flounders on.  With Sean Cassidy gone (thanks a lot Deadly Genesis), there’s some great potential for the Black Sheep of the Cassidy clan.  Uhm, maybe that’ll be in next issue.  Or something.

Sensational Spider-Man #26

I love Clayton Craine.  His run with Garth Ennis in the last Ghost Rider mini-series was off the charts awesome.  I’m not a big Ghost Rider fan but the detail and visuals were just great.  He does this issue of Sensational Spider-Man and can certainly do some big monster battles.  Spider-Man visits Madame Web, Reed Richards theorizes and Puma shares with the Black Cat pretty much the same info:  that there is some sort of radiation being emitted that is causing all the ‘animal’ themed villains and heroes to go feral.  Spider-Man isn’t as effected because he is, and I quote: ‘so decent’.  And he’s honestly been turned into a human spider way too much in recent months.  He goes under cryptic orders to Central Park, talks up his new super suit when coming in between the Lizard and Vermin, and learns that Dr. Vincent Stegron is behind this whole thing! Or… at least behind a bunch of Lizardy-henchpersons.

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #6

Don’t you think the title should be the other way around?  After all, MJ really shines in the book.  Anyhoo, Mary Jane is caught up in liking Peter who may or may not be totally into the new girl and is wonderfully high school girl about it to make Liz ask why.  Cue flashback where MJ is dumped by Ned Leeds for ‘Betty’ (ah, name dropping!  like Scooby Snacks for the uber-nerd) and in response to her heartache… goes goth with new friend, ‘Jessica’.   Read into that what you will.  In the end, it’s this new Spider-Man guy’s ‘Shaa, whatever’ attitude that’s got her smiling.  I love this book.

X-Factor #7

HA!  Scott Summers, bless his heart, comes to the X-Factor detective agency to tell ailing Siryn her father ‘died in action’.  Her response?  A shrug and ‘He’ll be back’.  Leave it to Peter David to put to paper what we’ve all thought for years.  One half of the X-Men are always mourning the loss of the other half, so let’s get some chow.  Wow.  Mind you, the skeptic in me says that this reaction only means they killed the guy for good, but I’m gonna keep my fingers crossed.  Guido mistakes the death of Sean Cassidy for the death of Shaun Cassidy, which is the kind of joke you know is going to be lost on half the audience and is kind of sour.  And the standoff between Tryp and X-Factor continues to follow very Angel-esque guidelines.  Do note Scott asking what Layla’s doing there, harkening back to House of M.

American Way #4

Racism is an ugly thing and really hard not to write without going cliché.  Having a racist character named ‘Burning Cross’ for example.  Poor, poor stereotyped Southern people.  In the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, someone is an idiot and lets an actual psychotic murderer loose to kill Cuban delegates. The government wants it done covertly too, and for this psycho ‘Hellbent’ guy to fall to their fake hero team as well.  This should not only get rid of the communist delegates, but make the CDC look good since it’s been found out they have an African American hero on the team.  Unsurprisingly, Hellbent does none of this and slaughters a bus full of innocent black protesters and, well, most of the CDC.  The story continues to bring me down as far as message and cliché go, but I’ll still leave some hope that there’s going to be hope.  Remember when heroes were heroic?

Hellblazer #220

The noose continues to tighten around John Constantine’s neck and we continue to wait because this is when he does his best work.  The secret and most likely evil religious sect that’s lured John to Scotland and wants him dead is going to power an engine of some sort that will flood the world with empathy and make the keeper of Limbo very unhappy.  Decisions are made, some of them bad, and the story rolls along smoothly.

JSA Classified #12

There’s a One Year Later stamp on the cover, but can they do that for an anthology book?  I guess so as a few things are let slip throughout the story, such as ‘the JSA’s not… totally together at the moment’.  Not to mention the idea that you really shouldn’t mess with Vandal Savage, even when you think he’s dying and certifiably crazy.  Alan Scott and the Sandman go to look into Mr. Savage, mad, vengeful and dying, only for Alan to be trapped and confronted about his parenting skills.  It’s a so-so conversation, but the intent is there.  Because if Vandal Savage goes, he’s taking Alan Scott with him.

Skye Runner #2

Remember Battle Chasers?  Man, that was a good looking book.  There was the girl with the big gloves, a big metal guy, and old guy, a hero with a sword and oh!  The chick with the HUGE boobs.  It was a pretty book, back in the Joe Madureira heyday and certainly sold right off the shelf, but does anyone remember it was supposed to be about?  I can think of a few character points and a couple hooks, but what was the overarching story?  Nope, not coming to me.  Welcome to Skye Runner.  Enjoy it for the art, the neat little nuances but leave the plotline to long forgotten memory.  There’s an underwater fight in this issue and a J. Scott Campbell cover.

Happy Wednesday, folks.

I am the only chick at my store.  We used to have two, but the first went on to bigger and better things and we enjoy her return visits. But when we were together, we noticed something.

Guys don’t want our opinion.

We all have specialties here at the store.  One guy is the Bat-Fan, another guy has a brain like the Flash Museum, I like to think that if you want to know about Marvel, you can come to me.  When Straczynski started in on Spider-Man, I wasn’t buying it.  The Spider Totems and magical destiny and new guy just didn’t do it for me  (and still don’t actually, but that’s for another rant).  The store manager, on the other hand, thought it was the Second Coming and recommended it to everyone he made eye contact with.  Not wanting to share an unpopular opinion, I was respectfully quiet when he’d start in on his ‘This new Spider-Man rules!’ opinion.  One time, I finally admitted not to caring for it in front of a customer but left the discussion to let the manager sell the book.  I wasn’t going to talk bad about product, but I couldn’t join the bandwagon.  The manager, jokingly (later on I got a little more respect, but hey, I was new), shouted back to me in front of the customer, “Well… that’s because you’re a GIRL!”

I shouted back, “Yeah!  It doesn’t have enough BOWS or PONIES in it!”  At the time, I thought it was funny.  I was new.

Another average example:

Guy (played by about 3 out of 5 customers we’ll say)
Girl Employee (played by me)
Co-Worker (played by dude I work with)

Guy:  Do you have any X-Men comics?
Girl Employee: Quite a few!  Was there anything you were looking for in particular, back issues, trades, the newest issues…?
Guy:  No, I used to read comics when I was a kid you know and wanted to get a X-Men comic.
Girl Employee: Oh! Not a problem.  Let me show you what we have-
(Girl Employee turns to point out the TP section as an example.)
Guy: (not following, turns to Co-Worker) What’s a good X-Men story?
Co-Worker:  I’m currently busy-
Girl Employee: (by the books he wants) Sir? 
Guy: Like, what’s good?
Co-Worker: Uhm, she can help you?
Girl Employee: (ready with encyclopediatic-like knowledge) Sir, if you’re just getting back into the books, I’d suggest-
Guy: (to Co-Worker) I like Wolverine, what’s he been doing?

Believe it or not, this or a variation will happen at least once every couple weeks.  Someone will ask me where something is in the store, but go to one of the guys for a ‘real opinion’.  Because, you know, I’m just going to give them Sandman.  Or cooties.

The first girl had this problem in spades because she was the Games Manager and handled all of the role-playing and collectable card games.  Yeah, looking a Magic player in the eye when he’s wrong about what set a card is in it like looking into the abyss.   And I can understand why.  I’m not saying it’s not intimidating having a member of the opposite gender there when everyone and their mom will agree that comics and games aren’t a ‘girl’ thing.  Industry professionals, comic shop owners, fanboys and your average guy on the street pretty much can agree on a biased gender statement.  After all, girls aren’t firemen, are they?  That’s why it’s fireman.

Mind you, there are those who do this to themselves.  Some fangirls really do just limit themselves to what they’re supposed to like and rather enjoy their little pink ghettos of manga, or the Neil Gaiman and Jhonen Vasquez (seriously, this guy gets chicks.  I don’t get it.) style and sections.  I’ll admit to having Strangers in Paradise as an automatic ‘girl’ recomendation in a ‘ask questions later’ situation.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.  Take a chance.  Ask what someone likes.  Don’t let them be intimidated by social rule.  Comics are for everyone, boys and girls, young and old.

And don’t look at the floor when you’re talking to the girl employee.  She’s just going to make it worse for you.

( seriously, I’ll be off my soapbox soon.  reviews are on their way…)

Ragnell got me thinking about something I’ve been wanting to say for awhile now, so forgive my soapbox.

Awhile back in a Newsarama interview, when Bendis seemed to have no problem suddenly making the formerly heroic (and most certainly tragic) Hulk a mass murderer from the start retroactively in order to justify shooting him into space, there was some hubub about the issue. Dan Slott weighed in with the most dead on reason why every time we hit a little too close to home in books someone should be stepping back.

Integrity.

from Newsarama: The Hulk, just by being alive, is pretty much proof that he hasn’t taken an innocent life.

But what about all of those cities he’s leveled?

Well… What about all of those buildings that Thor’s knocked the Absorbing Man through? Or all of the buildings that Iron Man’s knocked the Titanium Man through? And so on, and so on… If you’re going to play by THOSE rules than the entire Marvel Universe is populated by heroes with buckets and buckets of blood on their hands. And WHO wants to read about THAT?

Yes, who WOULD want to read about that?

He brought attention to the same point in She-Hulk #7 this week, where the comic book archivist mentioned that this whole ‘Starfox Sexual Harassment’ story was ‘skeevy’. It’s not that I don’t think there a place for adult issues in comics. It’s not that I don’t understand that rape happens and I’m trying to make the comic world a pretty sparkly place. After all, there’s a time and a place for everything and it’s called the ‘MAX’, ‘Ultimate’ or ‘Vertigo’ imprint. All I’m saying is that these days, with rape suddenly cropping up in superheroine’s backgrounds, when children are murdered in bulk, we seem to be lacking a sense of integrity in our stories.

Integrity means (thanks, M-W.com!) a firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values, like Spider-Man’s ‘with great power comes great responciblity’ mantra, an unimpaired condition, like the Wasp not letting her troubled personal life get in the way of being the Avengers’ leading chairwoman, and/or the quality or state of being complete or undivided. I guess that doesn’t sell comics.