Tuesday, 4 April 2023

Today's dilemma; How do I finish reading X-Terminators?

I went and picked up my March pull list comics from my folder at my LCS this past weekend.

Everything I was expecting for the month was in: FF 5, Star Trek 5, the finale to Star Trek the Illyrian Enigma, She-Hulk 11 and the first issue of the new Jon Kent series.

Unfortunately, not everything I was expecting in the folder was there. Still missing was the finale of Marvel's X-Terminators by Leah Williams and Carlos Gomez.

X-Terminators #5 was release on January 25th, a little over two months ago. I won't lie, I'm unsure why it wasn't in my folder when I went to pick up my January Comics, especially as I know I asked for it to go on my pull list. Did Diamond simply run out and decide that my LCS didn't need the solitary issue (or maybe more, I don't know) that it asked for? Or was it my LCS, who forgot that I asked for it and either didn't order that final issue or else sold it to another customer?

The truth is, I don't know and, honestly, I don't care. I don't deal in blame, I just want a solution.

So, I find myself wondering, what do I do now?

My LCS back-ordered the issue some time back (like when they didn't have it initially) and I was told it would be a couple of weeks. However, a couple of weeks has been and gone and I find myself wondering, how much longer could it be? A month? A Year? Maybe it'll never show? Maybe they've all been sold out.

Of course, some of this seems a little moot as of the beginning of April because one of the reasons I buy Marvel print is for the digital (in truth, if I feel that a series doesn't warrant my keeping of it, then having the digital copies allows me to keep the series without sacrificing the space). However, based on the comics for March that I picked up, the digital codes only last a couple of months and I suspect the expiry for X-Terminators has been and gone.

So, I find myself at something of a quandary. I want to finish the series (because it was turning into a great read by the time I got to issue 4) but I don't know how to proceed.

I could continue to wait but who's to say that a copy will find its way there? Of course, if a copy appears, then there'll be no code, impacting the completionist in me. Of course, I could buy the digital with it, but then I'm taking twice the hit, something I'd rather avoid and use that spare coin to buy a different comic.

I could try and sell 1-4, and with it buy issue 5 digitally. The problem I have with this is if the end holds up to the rest of the issue, then I'd be sacrificing the opportunity to read the series as the Gods intended (and by that I mean in print).

There is one final option though, I could sell the load of issues and buy the trade, which is coming out in the near future (like the end of April, I think). To be honest, this tempts me as 1. I might actually receive the full story before I get the final issue. 2. It allows me to have the whole run in a single entity which not only is easier to read but easier to share with people who might get a kick out of it. 3. .... Well, there is no three, but these are certainly tempting ideas, and at least then I could maybe hold out for a final digital copy issue should the company formerly known as Comixology put it on sale for cheap.

When's all said and done, I just can't decide which road to travel here. What I do know is that the extended wait is darn near killing me and I really want to get the story finished ASAP!

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