The solicitations for February were released last week, and things picked up a little bit from last month's selections. Not a lot mind you; I'm still probably in the single digits on total comics, even with all of Marvel's blasted double-shipping.
If they're just going to cancel the book every time the creative team wrap up their storyline, then why the need to rush? It's a month here or a month there, what's the big deal?
DC is still just Harley Quinn, but they solicited another trade for her fist ongoing series. Issues 14-25, to be exact. I've been trying to track that series down for years now, but I either can't find the issues, or they're prohibitively expensive. 12 issues for 20 bucks is a good value, but I already own 7 or 8 of those issues. I hate to double-dip (it's one of three reasons I haven't seriously considered trying to convert my collection to trades). I'll probably end up biting the bullet. That's about the point where the issues I have run out, so I should definitely encourage DC to finish collecting the series, so as to save me greater struggle. On that series, anyway. It seems there will always be another series I'll want to track down, and some of them are inevitably going to be a pain in the rear in that regard.
Once again, I didn't see much of interest outside Marvel/DC, though I did note a solicitation for the collected Savage Sword of Dr. Dinosaur. At the current rate, the mini-series will only finish in January, unless they accelerate shipping on the final two issues to make up for the lengthy delay between 2 and 3. Which maybe they will, but probably not. I can't decide whether releasing a trade of a story roughly a month after it concludes is a good idea or not. It's certainly good for people who prefer to trade wait, as it reduces that wait time. And that's good for the creators and publishers, too, because the longer the wait, the greater the chance the potential customer may forget they wanted it, or it may fall down the priority list behind other things. If they've already waited six/twelve/eighteen months, what's a little more waiting? I'm the impatient sort myself - it's why I rarely trade wait - but also cheap, which creates an interesting sort of friction. Just how long can I wait for the price to fall, if I wait at all? Depends on how much I'm willing to pay, it is.
Marvel, for better or worse, is where most of the action is at. The new She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel books are starting up, and I'll be trying both of those. I'm hopeful for both, and I figure if Marvel is going to sell them at 3 bucks an issue rather than 4, I might as well encourage that business decision. Plus, Javier Pulido and Adrian Alphona as the artists, respectively. Hopefully this won't be an "opening arc only" bait and switch like some of their other titles.
Besides, the pull list has room to spare. Even adding those two titles, we're only talking six titles. And this marks the end of Daredevil, unfortunately. I'm sure this new digital Daredevil series Waid's writing (with a different artist), will eventually get collected, but until it does, it's a no go. And even then, it'll end up as the occasional trade purchase, rather than a monthly thing. Unless Marvel goes the route DC did with Batman Beyond Unlimited and the other digital first stuff like Batman '66 and so on.
Even with Deadpool and Superior Foes of Spider-Man double-shipping, that only comes up to 8 Marvel comics for February. It could have been 10, but I'm pretty sure I'm saying farewell to X-Men. I'd like to say I was making some principled stand in response to the whole situation involving writer Brian Wood and Tess Fowler, and that whole thing sounds off-putting and creepy, but I was already thinking about dropping it. SO I'd be using that as an excuse. If I'm looking for excuses, I might as well just drop it. There are things I liked - the combination of characters, Jubilee as a vampire and a young mother, David Lopez' art - but things haven't really come together. I'm sure wasting two months on Battle of the Atom didn't help, but even before that, things felt out of sorts. I couldn't tell what was poor writing, and what was Wood trying to drop hints/be mysterious/foreshadowing. Now Kitty's off the team, there's no Rogue on that cover, and it's a $4.
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