I approach every New Comic Book Day the same way Forest Gump approaches a box of chocolates. You may never know what you’re gonna get with a box of chocolates, but you usually have a partial idea with comics. However, that does leave some room for novelty and exploration.
For as long as I’ve been into comics, I’ve had a simple rule. I have books that I’m subscribed to. I’ll always buy them the day they come out. They’re usually just standard X-Men, Spider-Man, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Avengers titles. These are like big budget blockbuster movies. You know what you’re getting with them and it’s usually awesome.
At the same time, I always try to leave some room for new, different, or otherwise unknown titles. That’s how I discover underrated gems or new characters that I become fond of. Even when my comics budget is tight, I try to leave enough money for just one of those books.
It’s because of this rule that I found Ms. Marvel.
It’s because of this rule that I rediscovered the Power Rangers comics.
If you’re into comics on any level, I highly recommend you adopt this rule. Your budget may vary. You can still work with that. You may have to be patient and wait for some other books to come out in trades, but use every week as an opportunity to find a new flavor of chocolate.
You’ll be amazed at some of the gems you find. You may find yourself becoming a fan of something you don’t expect. It’s a beautiful thing and this is as good a week as any to start. Here’s my pull list and pick to help get you started. Enjoy!
I’m simple man. I like waking up early on Wednesday mornings, brewing a cup of coffee, and reading new comics on my iPad via Comixology. If I can, I try to do all this naked. For much of the spring and summer, this isn’t an issue. This morning, it might be a little challenging.
That’s because for the past couple of days, it’s been downright cold in my part of the world. I know that’s not major news for some people, who have already felt the shifting seasons. However, this is somewhat jarring to me.
It’s still September. Historically, September mornings have been relatively cool, but never cold. In some years, I could lounge around naked reading comics into October. I honestly don’t think I can do that today. That doesn’t bode well for the coming winter, but I’ll manage. I have comics, coffee, and sweat pants to keep me warm.
Don’t get me wrong. I still enjoy reading comics naked on Wednesday mornings. I will not ever apologize for that. I just may have to start wearing pants sooner than usual this fall. To those living in warmer climates, I hope you take advantage of that on New Comic Book day. It’s a wonderful feeling.
To assist in that effort, here is my pull list and pick of the week. Enjoy!
Happiness and joy often come in small doses, but like good investments, they compound quickly. I learned that early in life when I discovered how much more joy I got from a $3 comic than I did by trying to be the most popular kid in school.
Don’t get me wrong. Having friends is great. Being popular is great. It’s just easier to pay a few bucks for a comic than it is to jump through all the assorted hoops that come with seeking more elaborate forms of happiness. In terms of the simplest things that make me happy, a comic is one of the best bargains out there.
They’re not very expensive. They’re colorful and easy to access. You can even take them with alcohol. Kids and adults alike can appreciate them. Once you find a few series and titles you like, you’ve got a consistent source of joy to look forward to every week. That’s a big part of what makes New Comic Book Day such a delight.
My comic book consumption has changed over the years, but I’ve always found a way to enjoy every Wednesday. Thanks to Comixology, it has never bene easier. In a year like 2020, we need whatever sliver of joy we can get. New Comic Book Day can be part of that effort. To that end, here’s my pull list and picks for the week. Enjoy!
It’s official. We made it through the summer of 2020. In most years, that’s hardly cause for celebration. In fact, around this time last year, I was lamenting over the end of warm bikini-enabling weather. This year is different because this year just objectively sucks for reasons we’re all painfully aware of.
We all have our own way of getting through awful years like this. For me, a weekly dose of new comics has been critical to keeping my broken sprits relatively intact. It’s not just about escapism and distractions, either. Comics are a good reminder that these ideals we still cherish are relevant, even when a pandemic comes so close to breaking us.
In years past, they’ve provided a sense of comfort and reprieve for when school started up. It was still much harder back then because I didn’t have Comixology or day-and-date digital releases. I like to think if I did have it, I would’ve coped better with my circumstances.
However, I don’t want to focus too much on the past or how awful this year has been. Summer may be over, but with another season behind us, we’re that much closer to leaving this awful year behind us. In the meantime, I want to focus on the present and how new comics make it objectively more awesome.
To that end, here is my pull list and picks of the week. Enjoy!
Let’s face it. Pretty much every industry not associated with health care, masks, streaming media, and Zoom calls has been hit hard this year. That’s especially true for certain segments of the entertainment industry. Basically, if you’re a movie studio, a movie theater, a comic shop, or a mall, this year has been like 100 punches to the gut, jaw, and genitals by a crack-fueled Ivan Drago.
That’s how bad global pandemics are. They pull no punches and will hit anything that attempts to prosper, both directly and indirectly.
Those blows extended to the comics industry, as well. As a lifelong comic book fan, I certainly felt it. I haven’t forgotten the weeks on end of having no new comics to enjoy for the first time in over a decade. It was not a pleasant experience. As elated as I was to see New Comic Book Day return, I didn’t doubt for a second that there would be some lasting scars.
Well, now it seems some of those scars are starting to fester and the first one to feel the pain is DC Comics. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the entire DC Comics operation has been hit with major layoffs and restructuring. It’s still intact, but make no mistake. This is the single biggest purging of personnel from a major comics publisher since the mid-1990s.
Monday’s WarnerMedia layoffs have affected a significant number of high-level figures at comic book powerhouse DC, multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.
Among those said to be losing their positions are editor-in-chief Bob Harris, senior VP of publishing strategy and support services Hank Kanalz, VP of marketing and creative services Jonah Weiland, VP global publishing initiatives and digital strategy Bobbie Chase, senior story editor Brian Cunningham, and executive editor Mark Doyle, who oversaw the rollout of the Black Label graphic novels. Jim Lee remains the CCO.
Roughly one third of DC’s editorial ranks are being laid off, according to sources.
Insiders also say the majority of the staff of the streaming service DC Universe has been laid off, a move that had been widely expected as WarnerMedia shifts its focus to new streaming service HBO Max.
I can’t understate how big a deal this is to the larger world of comics, but I don’t want to overstate it, either. This situation is objectively bad. There’s no way around it. It’s also not the definitive end of DC Comics. That’s a narrative I don’t want to fuel.
Don’t be fooled by what some asshole voices on social media claim. This restructuring is not because DC Comics had too much diversity. It’s more a byproduct of DC Comics having lost its sense of vision, scale, and identity. This is something that happens from time to time in comics. After a while, the whole line loses its sense of self and needs some revitalization.
I can say, as a longtime comic fan, that DC has become somewhat stale in recent years. Even before the pandemic, I felt as though it had lost momentum outside its mainstays. It has primarily been relying on the strength of Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Lantern, and Flash. As iconic as those characters are, they just can’t sustain the entire line.
There are many reasons for that. I think DC Comics, as a whole, hasn’t had a consistent vision since the days of DC Rebirth. It just got bogged down too much with competing visions, like DCeased and Injustice: Gods Among Us. It also endured way too many delays with its last big crossover event, Doomsday Clock.
The onset of the pandemic just exacerbated a problem that was starting to grow. As bad as things are now, there’s also an opportunity to set things on a better path. That’s my greatest hope for whatever restructuring DC pursues next. It still has plenty to build on. The success of the Harley Quinn show is proof enough of that. It’s just a matter of what form that will take.
That said, I do have major concerns. Comic lines have gone through upheavals before, but never during a global pandemic. This is uncharted territory for the comics industry, as a whole. This is not the era of newsstands and comic shops where top books could easily sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Paperbacks alone are not going to make this industry succeed.
Comics, in the current system, work best as a garden from which new characters, stories, and ideas can blossom. The fruits of that system can later become the basis for TV shows, movies, merchandise, and so much more. DC Comics already has a major media partner in its owner, AT&T. The structure is there. They just have to carve their niche into it.
I understand that’s easier said than done. Right now, a lot of factors are working against DC and the comics industry, as a whole. When all is said and done, comic shops may become much more diminished and trade paperback sales may dwindle to just a handful of titles. I’m not looking forward to that kind of status quo.
The ultimate setup may one day involve DC Comics just abandoning its publishing system, as a whole, and shift to licensing its characters to other companies, such as IDW. That’s very much a last resort, but one that may be more likely if DC can’t get its comics in order.
I want to be hopeful, but I’m also going to brace for the worst. If 2020 has taught me anything, it’s that things can always get worse and the things we love are always capable of succumbing to forces beyond our control. It’s a sad, nihilistic mindset, but one that a global pandemic tends to affirm. Only time will tell and I’ll be waiting with baited breath.
What do you do when you’ve had a lousy week? How do you make it bearable or, at the very least, somewhat less awful? These are questions I’m sure many people have been asking throughout 2020. There have been many lousy weeks thus far for reasons I hope are obvious. This past week certainly threw in a few more gut punches with the death of Chadwick Boseman.
As objectively awful as that is, we still move forward. We still try to make the following days less shitty. For me, enjoying a stack of new comics is part of that process. I’ve had many bad weeks throughout my life. Between puberty, high school, and graduating college during a recession, there was never a shortage of misery.
However, every Wednesday morning brought a ray of hope. Thanks to Comixology, the prospect of New Comic Book Day has always offered a boost to my dampened spirits. After this past week, I need that. I think we all need that. We find that boost wherever we can. For me, it’s new comics on Wednesday morning.
I’ve got my iPad, a fresh cup of coffee, and a wounded spirit. I’m ready to feel slightly less awful about the world now. I hope my other fellow comic fans can do the same. As always, here is my pull list and pick of the week. Enjoy!
I’m a simple man. Give me a ball game, a beer, and an option to not wear pants and I’m a happy guy. On New Comic Book Day, I’m even simpler. Hell, I don’t even need clothes, thanks to the wonders of digital comics. I just need my iPad, a good internet connection, and a damn comfy chair to feel like I’m in Heaven. It’s a beautiful thing.
For me, Wednesday mornings is pure joy in its most simplified form. I love comics. I get new comics streamed right to me. That’s like downloading happiness and I didn’t even need a prescription. I thank the comic gods every week for that feeling. After losing way too many weeks earlier this year, I’m even more grateful.
Things are still quite chaotic in the world of comics. Long time publishers like DC Comics have been hit with some major disruptions, but they’re starting to get back on track. Plans at Marvel have been significantly altered as well. Believe me. I felt all of these shake-ups. They all hurt.
Now, as this broken world drags along, the joy of New Comic Book Day has never been more important. I cherish it now more than I did at any point in 2019. I don’t know what the future holds. I just know that Wednesday mornings will still be special to me. I hope others experience that same satisfaction. To help, here’s my pull list and pick of the week. Enjoy!
This past weekend was a damn good weekend if you’re a fan of all things DC Comics. The festivities surrounding DC FanDome, a showcase of the revamped future of DC Comics, was truly a sight to behold. As someone who is genuinely concerned about the future of DC Comics, and the comics industry in general, this was an incredible experience that gives me some tangible hope.
In a year like 2020, hope is almost as precious as a vaccine. Let’s not lose sight of that.
There were many highlights. I already cited the new “Wonder Woman 1984” trailer as a wonder to behold. However, the one teaser that got me most excited was the first full teaser of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which is set for release on HBO Max in 2021.
Now, I want to make one thing clear. I was not among those loudly protesting for the release of this movie. I saw the first “Justice League” movie in theaters. I didn’t hate it, but I could tell that it was not a well-organized movie. While I may not have joined the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement, I did hope that we’d get some sort of extended cut at some point, if only because there’s a solid precedent for it.
Solid doesn’t mean good, but in Zack Snyder’s case, I think there’s a context worth considering here. Snyder’s record as a filmmaker is mixed, but the man clearly knows how to think big. For a franchise like DC Comics and Justice League, you need that kind of vision and scale to do justice to these characters. That’s why I thought he was such a good choice to turn DC Comics into a major film franchise.
Snyder approaches movies as a huge, over-arching vision. He’s great at making spectacles. His work on “300” is proof of that. However, Snyder also has a nasty habit of clashing with studios who want to chop his vision up into something people can see in a movie theater without taking one too many bathroom breaks. Oftentimes, that grand vision is difficult to condense into a commercially viable product.
It happened with both “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Watchmen.” Each movie came out in theaters to mixed reviews by both fans and critics, to put it mildly. However, each movie also has an extended versionthat came out later. In both cases, the extended product was far superior. They include additional plots and details that make the overall vision more complete and satisfying.
This is especially true of “Watchmen.” Seriously, if you haven’t seen the Ultimate Cut of that movie, I highly recommend it. Even if you hated the theatrical cut, this one is a lot more satisfying, even if it’s over three-and-a-half hours long.
The same goes for “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” Its extended cut is far more complete and concise than what we saw in theaters. No, it doesn’t make Jessie Eisenberg any less annoying as Lex Luthor, but it is a more competent and complete movie. It’s just longer and more fleshed out.
There’s also an extended version of Zack Snyder’s other film, “Sucker Punch.” Now, I’m not a big fan of that movie and that extended version doesn’t add much, especially compared to “Watchmen.” However, those extra minutes of footage add critical context to the movie that make it work better, as a story. Even if you don’t like how the movie plays out, you can at least appreciate the context.
In every case, it shows that Snyder had a solid vision for these stories. Too much of that vision got left on the cutting room floor. With “Justice League,” we’re not just talking about an extra half-hour of footage. Basically, this version of the movie contains footage that was almost entirely scrapped for the theatrical cut. It’s the same cast and concept, but a very different vision.
It’s also a vision that will have the time and space to be complete. According to Deadline, this cut of the movie will be nearly four hours long, divided into hour-long segments. That’s a hell of a vision and if history is any indication, it’ll be a spectacle worth seeing.
I, for one, will be eager to see the finished product. Snyder has shown in the past that he can tell a damn good story when he has enough time, space, and energy. HBO Max may be a more fitting platform than a standard movie theater. It may also open the door to a bolder vision for DC Comics in the future.
Only time will tell. All I’ll say from here on out is that the Snyder Cut is almost here. Hallelujah!
This year has been objectively terrible, but there’s still time to for it to end feeling slightly less awful. Among the many casualties of this year has been the release of “Wonder Woman 1984.” This movie was supposed to come out back in May. Then, a global pandemic hit and everything wonderful was either cancelled or pushed back.
However, there’s only so much you can do to push back Wonder Woman. Pandemic or not, her wonder is worth fighting for. That includes pushing through with a theatrical release. I don’t care how many masks I have to wear. I don’t care how many times I need to dip my hands in soap and/or hand sanitizer. I’m going to see this movie in a goddamn theater. This final trailer only proves why.
Growing up, you learn vital life lessons from strange sources. For those my age, we all probably remember those after school specials or those public service announcements. They usually amounted to things like “eat your vegetables,” “listen to your parents,” and “hating someone because they’re different is wrong!” It was very preachy and crude. Most of us just rolled our eyes and went back to being kids.
Looking back on my youth, I don’t think those life lessons really taught me anything I didn’t already know. In fact, I think the most useful life lessons I learned back then came from comics. I still knew that comics could be preachy too. They always have been, despite what the assholes at associated with certain hashtags may claim. They just got their point across in a different way.
Personally, I think that way was more effective. The stories in comics didn’t just tell you to be honest, selfless, and kind. They showed you why those values are important and dared to have some fun along the way. Within the stories, you learn why Captain America and Superman’s altruism is so powerful. You also learn why Lex Luthor and the Red Skull’s selfish narcissism is so bad.
That really helped shape my understanding of right, wrong, friendship, tolerance, and understanding. My parents, friends, and teachers all played a part too. However, the stories I read in comic books made those life lessons fun and engaging. That’s not to say every comic teaches valuable lessons. If you try to learn life lessons from Deadpool, you will get mixed messages.
Those messages are still there, along with plenty of life lessons. More and more unfold every week with every New Comic Book Day. Once again, I offer to you my pull list and pick of the week. There are life lessons to be had. Even if they just involve how to kill zombies, they’re worth learning. Enjoy!
