As I’ve not been blogging regularly lately, there are a number of things I’ve been thinking about, had thoughts about, and generally considered blogging about/retreading, but haven’t. I sat down Saturday morning for awhile and typed a lot more than I intended. So I’ve broken that into several posts (this is one of those posts).
DIGITAL COMICS & PRICING
I’ve bought a few issues of Batwing digitally a month “late” for the discounted price DC offers. However, I think I’ve only actually READ through issue 2, so I may look for some other series to try this way. Where DC’s got it right is that these are rather new issues, BUT I’m not paying the full identical price as the PRINT EDITION. Marvel doesn’t seem to do this discount only a month later. They have the Netflix-style subscription to “stream” comics (not actually buying/downloading them) or full price matching the print edition (or paying $3.99 for the print and getting a code to ALSO get a digital edition, but that’s a different thing). 
Marvels are more expensive ANYway, which has put me off more of their books than I could probably list.
I cannot justify paying the same exact price for an electronic file as I’d pay for a physical comic. I’ve caved and see it moreso with ebooks, for convenience: but the primary reason for me for buying a digital comic WOULD be that it’s cheaper than the print, so I’m sacrificing convenience (of size/etc) in favor of a savings from DC. If the digital price is the same, I’m simply sacrificing convenience for the digital experience.
MARVEL $3.99 STANDARD PRICING
A couple years ago, I was all set to jump in on all the new Avengers books for the Heroic Age “relaunch.” BUT…I refused then and continue to refuse to pay $3.99 as a standard price. 4 Avengers titles at $3.99 each was NOT an investment I was willing to make. $2.99 each ($12/month) was within my tolerance…$3.99 each ($16/month) was beyond my tolerance.
More recently, I picked up X-Men: Regenesis and Uncanny X-Men #1 and Wolverine & the X-Men #1, just to try ’em (and because I’d spent a half hour in a comic shop that didn’t have whatever I’d walked in looking for, and I wanted to justify to myself the time/effort of going). But while I probably would’ve given both series (and some of the other X-books) more of a chance, I refuse to pay $3.99/issue (especially as I believe Uncanny was $2.99 before the renumbering). I enjoyed Gischler’s X-Men series, 
but even that I finally gave up on because it just didn’t seem worth $3.99/issue.
I dropped Iron Man for the same reason: at $2.99, it was a solid enough title (down from my loving it after reading the 19-issue hardcover). But $3.99 is more than I’m willing to pay.
I’m somewhat “grudgingly” continuing with Uncanny X-Force, because it hooked me with the Age of Apocalypse stuff, and scratching the X-itch as well as Deadpool. But I’m looking for an excuse to drop it, and may just as soon drop it spur-of-the-moment sometime as not.
Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: Age of Apocalypse, comic pricing, comics, digital comics, Regenesis, x-force | Leave a comment »
I’ve also acquired several other runs this year: 3 complete JSA minis from the 1990s, Blue Beetle (Post-Infinite Crisis) 1-20, a complete run of The Power of Shazam!, and a complete run of Hawkworld. Which means I have LOADS to read even before I’d even be in position to dig in on a lengthy Batman reading project.
I’ve been pruning my pull-list, and about to prune even further. I’m dropping Batman as of #6, though I’m interested enough I plan to pick up the Mr. Freeze Annual (Batman Annual #1). I’m just not buying into the hype over the Court of Owls. Had it been a single arc, it would’ve been good. But the fact that Batman #6 (spoiler alert! I’m about to spoil the end of #6!) ends with a kick-off into an “event” just REALLY turns me off. I imagine I’ll eventually read the story–whether grabbing issues later in the year from bargain bins or such, or a year from now whenever DC actually puts out a collected volume. I just don’t feel inclined to pay $2.99 (soon $3.99!) an issue for monthly installments, 
nor do I feel like buying multiple other series to get a COMPLETE story. (I’m not buying into the hype, and I’m not buying into reading only one title when this thing’s being pushed as an event rather than just characters showing up in other tiles).
Full Circle; Man Down
The zero issue sees the death of a guard who with his last breath as a live man requests another. In the premiere issue, we meet Sam–a doomed cartographer who finds himself stuck in Hell at the side of the deceased guard, who seems poised to show Sam a whole different world than he ever dreamed existed. Meanwhile, we get a hint at the nature of the warden, and some of Sam’s motivation (the car wreck that he died in and woke up in Hell also left his sister in Hell–something he’s not going to take lying down).
Comic Reviews by Walt 