Rose tinted glasses.

Last week, I wrote about the fact that, due to having another child on the way, I was engaging in a mass clear out of my comic books in order to make space.

This week, I thought I'd talk in a little more detail what how much of a pain the arse I'm finding that process.

The reason I'm finding it such a hardship comes down to one simple dilemma; is the comic series I'm considering for keeping actually worth my time and space?

Here's the funny thing, in the last six to nine months since I began the process of reading through my entire collection, I've discovered that many of the comic runs and series which I believed were a shoo in for keeping are actually below the standard I deem acceptable for saving.

As such, this has gotten me thinking, do we as comic readers wear rose tinted glasses when it comes to older runs and series which we haven't read in a while?

A case in point. I used to own Gail Simone's Birds of Prey run which exploded out of Brightest Day (and led into Flashpoint) seven years ago. Now, Brightest Day was a highlight of my DC reading at the time as I collected the Brightest Day main series, Justice League Generation Lost, Green Arrow, the Flash and, of course, Birds of Prey (I have an Atom one-shot too, but I'm not counting that).

Now, as I was doing my initial scan through my collection, deciding what series I should consider going, I came across all of these runs and made my decision based on how I remember enjoying them. Therefore, Green Arrow was a guaranteed sale (it was an awful run in my opinion), Flash and Brightest Day were on the fence (I recall Flash starting well but falling short while Brightest Day had good parts but not as a whole) while Justice League Generation Lost and Birds of Prey I recalled being stellar series that I was going to keep for sure.

However, when I got to reading Birds of Prey, I discovered/realised that it actually wasn't as impressive as I had initially remembered. The opening couple of story arcs were interesting enough and the covers by Artgerm were absolutely gorgeous (I especially love the issue 11 Catman/Huntress cover). However, by the end of this re-read I had reached a point where these issues just weren't grabbing me like I thought they did.

So, was this a case of 'rose tinted glasses', was I simply remembering these comics with a fondness because they were a part of the past; similar to how people look back at the 70's and 80's as a great time (although in reality it probably wasn't all that great when you lived through it)?

In fairness, it does have me wondering if maybe it's less about reminiscing kindly about the past as it is my ever changing tastes, like Ted (from How I Met Your Mother) finding a shirt he once hated now looked good on him. So maybe Birds of Prey was great when I read it then but, due to my change in tastes, it's good qualities are now wasted on me?

In the end, I'm not sure how classifying the reasons for such changes in opinions ultimately helps me, simply because it makes me doubt my opinion of literally every comic book I own and means that I will have no choice but to read every single one to determine what of my collection can stay and what can go.

And I thought my time was at a premium before just from reading the new stuff.