#463 - Back in Print

It's been a bit of a dull week, as life has once again occupied the majority of my time.

That said, I did manage to read a few small comics (even if they weren't the ones I wanted to read).

Of my collection, this consisted primarily of The Magnificent Ms Marvel Annual #1, the Acts of Evil tie in from a couple of years back where Magdalene Visaggio, Jon Lam and Msassyk pit Kamala Khan against classic FF foe the Super-Skrull, as he attempts to absorb her shape-shifting powers in order to use them to kick start the rebuilding of the Skrull Homeworld.

No, I bought this back when it was first released, as my appreciation of the Super-Skrull had me wanting to check it out, but I recall this being a comic that just wasn't my thing. This time round, however, I took to the issue a little better as I found it more interesting. Overall, it was an ok title because both the art and the story were just that. I mean, the art looked a little rough for my liking and the story was a little 'cartoony' (for want of a better word. However, the latter certainly did manage to entertain me sufficiently and I guess that is all that's needed.

Everything else I read this week found its way to me via my need to review. The first of these was Savant, a Giant-Size one-shot comic about an alien artificial life-form which attempts to help a planet on the verge of extinction.

Unfortunately, this wasn't really for me. It was an interesting concept and it's art had a cool end of the world look like Canopus and Bountiful Garden (which I've also previously reviewed). However, it's problem with me was that it didn't set things up sufficiently in that I felt like the landscape and characters were not properly set up. As a result, this comic just wasn't for me and I couldn't find the words to do a review justice.

The same could be said for Fox and Hare #1, a recent Vault Comics which told the story of two child orphans who grew up to become vigilantes and champions of the downtrodden in a technological future city of Mazu Bay. However, when a new mission brings them in contact with a young hacker, they find themselves targeted by all the worst the city has to offer.

I'm a big Vault fan and pretty much anything they release seems like gold. With this though, I thought it was more a rusty nail than a gold nugget. I liked the art, which made me think of Superman Smashes the Klan in it's Manga-esque vibe. However, while the story and the background was better provided here, I just found that Fox and Hare really wasn't my thing.

My final read of the week was actually a physical comic as I checked out Daughters of Albion #1, which I had picked up at MCM last week. Now, this one has a proper review coming up as I could better find the words to describe it but, to put it simply, this was an interesting comic. While the story took a bit of time to get going and maybe didn't offer enough exposition to start with, the artwork was absolutely gorgeous and, by the end, the plot had me intrigued enough to want to go back for the next issue.

And so that's been my week, very light as I said but it has given me time to think and realise something through the comics I've read.

What I've realised is, as I was reading the three digital comics (Ms Marvel, Savant, Fox and Hare), is that digital no longer appeals to me.

It's been six years since I last thought on the topic and felt like I was going to go completely digital. However, after this week's reads along with my recent collection of pull list comics and the Other History of the DC Universe, I've come to realise that the reading of physical comics is still the more superior method to consume (and they smell better too!!).

Also, given all of the issues surrounding Comixology and their app/company's gutting by Amazon (capped off by the recent news that you can't buy direct through the app), I just feel as if buying and/or reading digitally (well, through Amazon) is just so incredibly tiresome.

Therefore, with a great number of unread trades piled up, I think I'll be taking some time to read (and maybe re-read) those print copies for the next few weeks.

Hopefully, I can make the time to do just that next week.