The increase in the number of new comics was a little out of the ordinary, but one trend that wasn't was my buying from more publishers. In 2009, when I had 144 new comics, there were seven different publishers (and the year before, when there were also 144 new comics, it was only three publishers). In 2022, I ended up with comics from 13 different publishers, but half of those were at less than 5% of the total (Blood Moon, Source Point, Udon, Mad Cave, Dark Horse, Red 5, Oni Press.) Aftershock was just barely over 5% at 7 out of 139. So I don't know that it's the pie being split more equitably so much as it is more groups getting a tiny slice.
The end result is, even with Marvel being at its lowest share of the total of any year except 2020, it still added up to more than the next three publishers - Scout, Image, Vault - put together. 54 comics versus a combined 51 (21, 17, 13, respectively.) Although if a couple of comics had come out in December like they were supposed to, Scout would have set the new record for best total for a non-Marvel/DC publisher. 23 would have edged out Boom's 22 in 2018.
High Point: The switching between past and present does help to explain why Max is so intent of finding Stella, and Rosi uses it to introduce new elements in the present, before flashing back to show who they were in the past. The ending is sad, but Rosi and Nieto put in the work to where it feels earned.
Ford is an easily despicable villain. The kind of delusional that can easily excuse any terrible act he commits. On the rare occasions something goes against him, he can say it's because he sinned, but it's still others who have to be punished. Definitely someone to enjoy seeing killed.
Low Point: The coloring is still too murky, to the point it's not always easy to tell what's happening.
Lunar Room #2, 3: A werewolf somehow prevented from changing that teams up with a half-assed mage who promises to fix that. I thought Danny Lore was actually doing a good job fleshing out the characters, showing different sides of them in different ways, but I didn't really care about the plot, and couldn't shake the feeling this was going to be one of those stories with no one to really root for.
Mary Jane and Black Cat #1: OK, this is the one-shot by Jed MacKay and C.F. Villa where the Hood uses a still-recovering Peter Parker to force Felicia to find and recover his magic cloak. MJ happened to be in the hospital room when Parker Robbins showed up, so Felicia claims MJ as part of her crew to get her out. It's a very fun one-off that lets both character play to their strengths. Although I still call bullshit on MJ beating up the Shocker with a baseball bat. His suit absorbs concussive force, MacKay!
Mary Jane and Black Cat - Dark Web #1: This, however, is the first issue of a mini-series tying into Dark Web. Also by Jed MacKay, but with Vicenzo Carratu as artist. Felicia and MJ get sucked into Limbo by Belasco, who wants them to recover his Soulsword (spoiler for issue 2!) Also, Mary Jane has some slot machine-themed H-Dial for some reason.
High Point: Issue 8, where Marc's in prison due to some other event I ignored, so Hunter's Moon has to deal with the somehow returned Stained Glass Scarlet and turns it into a battle of stories, I liked that. Issues 14 and 15, which start with an argument between Marc, Steven and Jake while Moonie's getting his ass kicked, and turns to Steven and Jake reminding Marc how they bring something to the table that he needs. It was a nice demonstration of how each part of their system can work together, if Marc will let them.
Low Point: The vampire group plotline was interesting in theory, but Moon Knight ultimately dealt with them so easily, it felt like a lot of build-up for not much payoff. The point could be that with him being stronger with all parts of the system clicking, he could do the prep work to make it an easy win, but I still had a reaction of, "is that it?"
Moon Knight Annual #1: MacKay, Sabbatini and Rosenberg with a story where Werewolf by Night kidnaps Moonie and Marlene's daughter as part of a ritual to try and destroy the lycanthropic curse once and for all. Because the curse is Khonshu's fault. I would have figured it for Artemis, she's a moon god too, right? Suffice it to say, the curse is not broken.
Nature's Labyrinth #1, 2: A bunch of apparently awful people signed on for a cruise that's immediately become a "Most Dangerous Game" situation on a very strange island. Except the prey may be more dangerous to each other than the Jungle Jim looking jackass gunning for them. The main character appears to be an undercover CIA agent, but their cover's blown.
High Point: Gooden and Duke create some freaking terrifying monsters. The bit at the end of issue 3 with the enormous elk the cries gold. Especially when it freaks out after Nettie bluntly tells it she doesn't want the gold. But my favorite is still the Pinkerton agent with the vortex for a face, The Pale. That's just a really cool design, even before you add in him riding around on a giant spider.
I also like the imagery of the gold literally getting under men's skin, and the way Spurrier writes it so they get gold, then spend it all celebrating, then go back looking for more. Caught in the cycle until it kills them. Just a bit more literally here than in most places.
Low Point: Nothing really.
Sgt. Rock vs. the Army of the Dead #1-4: The Nazis decide to reanimate the corpses of dead Nazis to make them fight against the Allies. Sgt. Rock and Easy Co are tasked to destroy the facilities and the doctor behind the project. Much undead Nazi killin' commences. Bruce Campbell and Eduardo Risso know what the people want.
High Point: The start of issue 2, where the regens are partying in a bar and start shooting each other so the beer pours out through holes in their guts. Campbell showing them still laughing and having a good time, with Risso drawing them with these wide, almost rictus grins on their faces, makes them creepier than if they were just mindless berserk monsters.
Low Point: It was good they got most of the exposition out of the way in the first issue, but it still made for a pretty slow beginning. And the plot is thin enough, the dialogue sparse enough, the book feels stretched at six issues. So far, it could be probably one issue shorter comfortably.
High Point: The way writer Hedwig Hale and artist Alberto Hernandez R. use Elsie and Brenda visiting the same convenience store (separately) to tell us about each character. Not just what they buy, or even why either of them are there. The way they walk through the place, the way others react to them, and they to those others.
Also, a profane little child who happens to be a vampire is just kind of funny to me. Although my favorite dialogue is from issue 2, once they get to the mall.
Elsie - What kind of maniac drives a Vespa in Pennsylvania?
Brenda: The poor kind who was tired of homeless dudes masturbating next to her on the bus.
Elsie: That's disgusting. I can't believe you took the bus.
Hey, I just reread it before I typed this and it still made me laugh, so it's gotta be gold! (Although I thought the British, and Europeans in general, were more appreciative of public transportation than us auto-loving Americans.)
Low Point: Granted that Elsie went to extremes to prompt the reaction, I'm not sure Brenda's epiphany on the value of life, including her own, wasn't a little too neat. But if there's ever any more of this, we'll see if it sticks in the face of adversity.
Just one-quarter more to go. Tomorrow's got one ongoing I dropped, another I keep considering dropping, and a few mini-series I liked a lot.
3 comments:
I apologise in advance for this comment.
Having lived in the US for a bit, I think there is a definite difference in how public transport is viewed. It seems that, in general, in the US the bus is the province of the "lower" classes, the disenfranchised, the poor, whereas it's quite normal here in the UK.
(Aside 1: I'm sure somewhere out there a sociologist has examined why this is, but I suspect you're spot on with your suggestion that it's because of the American Cult of the Car.)
(Aside 2: It's only just occurred to me that when we see a character in a US film or TV show using the bus, that it's perhaps intended to be shorthand that that they are down on their luck. Look how bad things are for this guy, he's on the bus! If that is the case, then it's an allusion that goes right over the heads of foreigners!)
(Aside 3: Other forms of public transport don't seem to have the same stigma. Taxis are fine, and underground/elevated trains also seem to be fine, unless we're doing a "New York in the 80s was a filthy deathtrap" thing.)
(Aside 4: Overland passenger trains seem to be entirely alien in the modern US, if one relies only on pop culture output. There's that one Pryor/Wilder film, and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but that seems to be about it, and both of those are comedies, which may be significant.)
All that said, I know at least two British people who prefer not to use the bus because they consider it to be scummy, and one other who would prefer not to go anywhere near one except she is forced to by circumstance.
Anyway, comics!
I agree that buses, except maybe school buses, often get portrayed as for people who can't afford a car, with the implication of, how bad off are you not to afford a car? I part of it is tied up somehow with a notion of independence. You aren't stuck waiting for the bus, you've got your car. Don't have to be crowded in with other people, because you've got your own car.
Although I wonder if people who live in larger cities see it differently. Based on my experience trying to drive around Chicago a couple of times, I'm not sure I would want to deal with having a car. Trying to find a parking space, the traffic, it was really stressful.
But the people Alex and I were visiting used the elevated trains to get around, or Ubers, so they still weren't using buses, either. I would probably try to walk or bike if I wasn't going to drive. I should now, but I'd either have to get up earlier, which is probably a bad idea, or accept starting and finishing work later.
I've seen a lot of people who feel the U.S. really needs to invest in trains more. My dad thinks it'd be a better way to handle a lot of overland long-distance shipping than big trucks, but the only people I know who've ridden passenger trains usually are doing so for weekend jaunts or vacations rather than regular travel. That might be a function of where I live, though.
What's weird is that passenger trains are all over the place in Westerns, but it's like you get to the Twentieth Century and they all disappeared. The reasons are obvious, probably, but it's interesting that they were front and centre once, but now the very idea seems alien. Given the clear benefits of train travel in a country as large as the US, it's odd.
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