More Titles I Should Have Dropped Sooner

As we await today's scheduled extinguishing of the Sun, and presumably all life on Earth (about time!), I'm going to resume looking back at ongoing series I dropped, and how much money I wasted by not dropping them sooner. Which makes it sound much more like an exercise in self-flagellation than I intended. We're up to 2007 now, so we haven't yet reached that point where it was more common for the titles to get canceled than dropped.

Ultimate X-Men: I started buying this around issue 5, I think. It was when I got back into comics, and I grabbed most of the issues the store had on the shelf, so it's hard to say which was the most recent. I bought it through the Millar/Kubert initial run, Bendis' time writing the book, the Brian K. Vaughn run, which I remember enjoying although I didn't keep any of it, and finally dropped the book at #79 during the Robert Kirkman/Ben Oliver run. I had been a little disenchanted with the story Kirkman did where Nightcrawler abducted Dazzler from the hospital and kept her hidden in a spot underground to try and make her his girlfriend. Then he brought in Ultimate Cable, who was Wolverine, but older and missing an arm. Which is simpler than actual Cable's origin, I guess.

I could have done without Millar and Bendis' runs on the title. I can't even remember most of it. Magneto trying to cripple Quicksilver, Sexual Predator Wolverine, Cyclops being dropped off a cliff (that was funny). Vaughn's is the only one I have many fond memories of, aside from a two-parter Chuck Austen wrote about Gambit, of all things. Like mixing vomit and goose shit and somehow getting a delicious frosty chocolate milkshake. Anyway, even with Vaughn, I could have dropped off before the last story, Magnetic North, which seemed mostly about how the Ultimates are reactionary assholes and the X-Men are hotheaded kids. Which was already the point of every interaction those groups had. Well, every Ultimates story was about them being assholes, but that's beside the point.

If we assume I would not have started buying the book at Vaughn's run if I wasn't already buying it - a sound assumption - #60 would have been the last issue.

How many issues too many? 19

Exiles: Exiles was one of the first books I started buying after this blog began (I had started picking up X-Factor just prior to starting it). I started getting it because, it had Longshot and Spider-Man 2099 in it? Or I was disillusioned by Bendis' work on New Avengers and wanted a more interesting team book. Something like that. It was in the middle of an exceedingly long and ultimately overly drawn out story about chasing Proteus through realities. Though that may have been due to Chris Claremont's scheduled taking over of writing duties from Tony Bedard being delayed by health issues.

Once Claremont did take over, at #90, he immediately moved Psylocke onto the team, and then brought Slaymaster into the mix, and it was time to go. #94 marked the endpoint. All that said, I don't regret giving Claremont a shot. The man has written team books I liked, and there was something to be said for pairing Psylocke with a version of Sabretooth and seeing it play out, since one had killed her previously. Plus, I like Paul Pelletier's artwork.

How many issues too many? If we're being extremely uncharitable, 5. But I'm going with 0. Giving him one story to show me something wasn't unreasonable.

Shadowpact: By the time I picked this up, I'd dropped every other DC title I had going. But the concept had sounded intriguing, and issue 8 was focused on Ragman and seemed interesting. That didn't last long. I couldn't really get into Willingham's writing style, and Tom Derenick's art always feels a little off. Everyone's anatomy is a little too exaggerated to the point they start to look misshapen. I dropped it by issue 16, probably could have done so after 11 or 12, the fight with Etrigan was somewhat cool.

How many issues too many? 4.

Amazing Spider-Man: I resumed buying Amazing Spider-Man in the last few months of Howard Mackie's run on the book. They had started the numbering over a couple of years previous, trying to shake off the stink of the Clone Saga still, I guess, so it was around #25. A while later, they kept that numbering, but would show the combined number in a lighter color ink next to it. So by that system, it was #467. Right around the conclusion of a plot by Norman Osborn to make Peter his heir involving drugged toothpaste.

Straczynski took over as writer within the next six months, and he and Romita Jr. made a pretty good team for a couple of years. Eventually Romita left and Mike Deodato took over as artist, and things which had already started downhill slightly earlier, picked up speed. There were a couple of stories in there I enjoyed - a decent one featuring the New Avengers that was better than anything Bendis managed with the roster he put together - but there was a knock-off Molten Man character, then The Other, and then we were into Civil War tie-ins and the Back in Black story. By the time it was wrapping up, we knew enough about One More Day that I knew it was going to piss me off, and why pay for the privilege? So I bailed after #542, the issue where Peter whups the Kingpin.

Best case, I should have bailed after that New Avengers story, so around #520, 522. Worst case, I should have left after the two-issue Loki team-up, which ended in 504. Either way, outside of a four month stretch in early 2010, I haven't bought Amazing Spider-Man regularly since.

How many issues too many? 22 minimum, 38 maximum. Ouch, so much for progress.

Batman and the Outsiders: For some reason, this book went through three creative teams in the first three issues, and the cast shifted at least 50% until Chuck Dixon came on the book. Me, I was just there in the hopes of getting a well-written Cassandra Cain for the first time in two years. And we did, and it was good, and I also enjoyed Julian Lopez' art.

Then Chuck Dixon left the book because he was having to make changes to his scripts at the last minute because editorial was making all the Bat-books do Batman R.I.P. tie-ins, and Morrison was holding his scripts back until the very last second so editorial couldn't mess with them (or so the legend goes). I recall a lot of yelling on the Internet between the forces that were for and against Morrison at the time. Maybe that's always going on. I was just annoyed Dixon was off the book, and replaced by Frank Tieri, and that it was Batman R.I.P. tie-ins, and that once those were done, Cass was being shuffled off the team by whoever was taking over the book next (Keith Champagne?). I left the book at #14, holding out for good Cass moments to the bitter end. I should have jumped ship when Dixon did.

How many issues too many? 4. Sometimes circumstances make it very easy.

Ms. Marvel: The Carol Danvers version, not Kamala Khan. Marvel tried to give Carol a push coming out of House of M, since she was the world's best super-hero in that universe, and she wanted to live up to that. Then they put Carol on Tony's side during Civil War, which sure as hell wasn't going to win her many points. She was written woefully inconsistently, being the hardass one minute, but then refusing to own up to her actions the next. Impending Secret Invasion tie-ins were the straw that broke the camel's back, and I jumped off at #24.

When should I have bailed? Probably post-Civil War, her choices in that storyarc poisoned the well for me. But then I'd miss out on the addition of Nextwave-flavor Machine Man to the cast. The only issue I still have is #20, when he dons a big fake mustache as part of an undercover recon mission.

How many issues too many? At minimum, 4. At maximum, 16.

Ultimate Spider-Man: Like Ultimate X-Men, I started buying this when I got back into comics, and grabbed all available issues. But I'm sure they were still somewhere in the origin story, so maybe #5 here as well? I bought the book up through #122, when a combination of factors made me drop it. Impending Ultimatum tie-ins. Tie-ins to the Ultimate Spider-Man video game, which had annoyed me and never been finished. The return of Ultimate Venom. Growing dissatisfaction with Bendis' multi-issue stories. And I hadn't entirely adjusted to Stuart Immonen's artwork, though that by itself wouldn't have driven me off the book.

When should I have dropped it? I don't know. I actually liked the two done-in-one stories that I bought right before dropping it. I liked the Ultimate Knights arc that concluded Bagley's run on the title, so I'd need to go to 111. The Green Goblin story that kicked off Immonen's run was horribly paced, even by Bendis' standards. At times I think dropping it when he introduced Ultimate Carnage would have been the smart play. I kept a lot fewer issues after than story than before (about 16 out of 60).

How many issues too many? At least 11.

X-Factor: Started buying it when it came out, dropped it after #32. More accurately, I picked up #33, thumbed through it, had an eyeball explode at seeing Larry Stroman's art, and dropped the book. To be fair, I'd been considering it for awhile. #33 was simultaneously a crossover with She-Hulk (which Peter David was writing), and a Secret Invasion tie-in. The book had lost both Rahne and Layla Miller to Messiah CompleX-related nonsense, and even before that, had seemed to lose momentum after a strong first year.

Still, I enjoyed the issues about Jamie trying to track down his various duplicates so he'd feel more whole, so I'd want to go to at least #16. There was an appearance by Arcade right before I dropped the book, but I felt pretty blah about it, which is a bad sign, when Arcade can't get me excited.

How many issues too many? 16.

The Punisher: OK, last one for today. This was the MAX version of the title. I had started reading Ennis' Punisher work sometime during the initial "Welcome Back, Frank" mini-series, and stayed with the title when it became a Marvel Knights ongoing (which was a mistake overall), and on into the MAX run of the book.When Ennis wrapped up in #60, I considered dropping the book, but figured I would give Gregg Hurwitz a shot. Three issues later I reconsidered and dropped the book.

I'm sure Hurwitz is a fine writer, but I didn't know him from a hole in the ground. So that bit I wrote in the Exiles' section, about Claremont having earned a test story? Doesn't apply here. Should have dropped the book at #60. I've read all the Punisher comics I ever need to.

How many issues too many? 3.

Well that's a lot better than the last time. There are actually multiple titles I stayed with for less than a year longer than I should have. Amazing Spider-Man is the most egregious, and hey, it's Spider-Man, that connection was hard to break. But credit to Marvel, they persevered in their attempt to break it, and eventually succeeded. Good work guys! Sure saved me a lot of money over the last decade, and not just because it meant I wasn't buying the Amazing when it was triple-shipping every month. If I could just walk away from Spider-Man, then there was no character I couldn't draw a line under and say, "Enough".

There are still other titles that got dropped after the end of 2008, but like I said, most of them get canceled instead. The beginning of the New 52 being an example as well. That took at least three books I was buying out in one swoop. So I may return to this again, or maybe not.