Dropping Serenity

So, having finished reading the second issue of this latest story arc, I've got to admit I'm pretty much ready to drop Serenity.

I'm a big fan of the Firefly show and the Serenity film which came after it. I'm also a big fan of the various comics which have come out, charting the further tales of Captain Mal Reynolds and his crew, with a copy of every single one of them in one format (print) or another (digital).

Therefore, when I saw the solicitations for the new Serenity: No Power in the 'Verse mini-series, it felt like a no-brainer to add it to my pull list, especially given how much I loved the previous 'Leaves on the Wind' run.

However, two issues in and, while Leaves on the Wind felt to reinvigorate my love of this universe, No Power in the 'Verse has felt like a real drop in terms of its enjoyment.

The story, which follows on from the seeds planted in LOTW, sees Mal and the crew embark on a search and rescue mission for a friend, but ending up getting caught up in between another revolution and the evil Alliance operatives River could have been a part of.

Now this, on paper, sounds perfectly fine to me as it takes a lot of the beats from that last story and so should come off just as well. Unfortunately, two issues in and the story just feels really disjointed and rather laborious to read. It makes me wonder if Serenity can only be written by a Whedon as Chris Roberson does an ok job (Mal's voice sounds pretty spot on) but the story just doesn't seem to flow for me, feeling a little bit clunky.

That said, Georges Jeanty the art is still 'God Damn' gorgeous (see what I did there!), giving a nice sense of continuity from the last arc, and being real easy on my eye. If I were able to bypass the general story and focus solely on the art I might keep getting this book just for what it looks like.

However, that's not why I read comics and while the story isn't terrible, it also isn't captivating enough for me to justify spending a quarter of my budget on it, especially when there are other books which I'm tempted to look at.

And so, as sad as it is for me to say, Serenity has to get canned. I might pick up the remaining issues at a later date if I have some spare change but, for now, I think I'll look for something else to read.

Return to Daredevil?

This has been a thought brewing in my head for a couple of weeks now. Ever since I saw the it in the February solicits I've found myself constantly 'should I return to Daredevil?'

It's now been almost six months since I dropped Charles Soule and Ron Garney's run on Daredevil with issue 7 after a lacklustre first arc and my being unable to get into the series up until my exit. So far, this has not been a restful decision and I'm glad to say that I haven't really given the book a second thought.

However, that appears to have changed now with the release of the February 2017 solicits and, in particular, the synopsis of Daredevil issue 17. While I still have trouble getting interested in anything Marvel brings out, seeing this new issue of a character I've been invested in since Bendis was writing him does have me a little tempted to come back for a couple of reasons.

 

For starters, this issue's synopsis touts how it's the beginning of the story about how Murdock was able to get his secret identity back. Now, this is something I struggled with in the issues I had bought because how on Earth did the character undo that little secret. By magic? A deal with the devil (ironically)? This was something which always made me wonder and bothered me when it was (seemingly) treated as unimportant but now it is being focused on I'm interested to see what Soule has come up with (which I think might involve the Purple Man given the arc's title).

 

And then there is the cover and the woman in the front in Matt Murdock's arms. While initially dismissing this as just some new love interest for our hero, I changed my tune when I saw this tweet this tweet from Soule confirming that it is in fact Waid creation and all-round awesome character Kristen McDuffie. This is another bonus for me as (if you hadn't have guessed) I'm a big fan of the character and was really bummed when she got cast aside at the beginning of this volume. Therefore, I'm intrigued to find out what became of her between the last Waid/Samnee issue and the first Soule/Garney one.

However, while I think these are both solid reasons there are also equally good reasons to stick to my guns and not go back to the man without fear. The first of these are, as always the price of an issue because at $3.99, this is still an expensive purchase for a guy on a limited budget. If the price was reduced to $2.99 I'd be happier with picking Daredevil back up but having to spend a whole extra dollar for a digital code I don't want means that, in British money, I'm having to find an extra 80p (because if I buy, I will buy print like I always have for DD). This might not be much but it adds up, especially when I'm already buying other books.

Of course, my biggest reason comes from another of Soule's tweets when answering a question on whether the series is going twice monthly. While Soule's response appears to be light-hearted, it also doesn't state that it isn't (while, admittedly, not confirming that it is). As such, if Daredevil is going to go twice monthly from, say, March then that is going to be twice as much as I am currently fretting over and, in all honesty, more money than I can even think to consider. Therefore, I'd rather look at books which are guaranteed to be if a stable cost for the foreseeable future and not waste my precious budget on an issue of a comic which can't be a long term option for me.

And that's pretty much it for me, my choice with an equal number of pros and cons (there is another con that I'd need to retrieve the runs missing issues, but that's not really a major concern, I can get them whenever). However, while a part of me is very tempted to pick up issue 17 and possibly beyond, another part of me thinks maybe I should move on to something else worthy of my time. I've got some time before I need to ask my Local Comic Shop to hold a copy for me, but hopefully a decision will come to mind soon. For now though, I am sure wishing I had better decision making capabilities.

Easing back into the comic life.

It has been nearly four months since I posted on here but, with a little time on my side, I figured I'd try now to get back into the groove.

I also figured that I'd start by explaining where I've been.

Where I've been is at home, having been lacking two fundamental things; Time and motivation.

With time, the last seven months time has seen that most precious resource be a pretty rare thing to nail down. The reasons for this is that I've had a child to raise, a new job to do and a house to keep in order (not to mention the Arrow-verse has just returned to Sky 1). Also, I've tried to keep my commitments and continue reviewing new comics at least once a week for Pipedream Comics.

I must confess, the lack of time I'm now having has me wishing for my younger years and the opportunity to use the time I had then far more carefully and not waste it like I did.

 

And then there is the motivation. I've discovered that when you are rushed off your feet constantly, your motivation to do anything beyond fall asleep just disappears. This has been the case with my motivation to read and talk about comics, which hasn't been helped by the struggles I've been having with Marvel's new film inspired, X-men hating comic approach as well as a general lack of new titles which really intrigued me and even event fatigue (yep, I suffer from that).

However, you can't keep a good addict down and so I've started to ease myself back into the life. As I said, I'm still reviewing over at Pipedream, but I've let my pull list disintegrate into practically nothing. So now I'm building that list back up, with the new Serenity mini and DC's new Trinity book being added along with my staples of Lazarus and Black Science. This is to (hopefully) be followed by the return of the Legend of Wonder Woman and Black Magick next year (once Serenity ends, which is convenient to my bank balance), allowing for a steady, gradual return to form.

I know it's not much, but it's a start.

I'm hoping that by easing myself back in slowly I can both prevent myself from getting overwhelmed (because, again, time is precious) and not ending up reading too many bad comics which put me off the medium again. Of course, there is the flip side that I might miss out on something great but then, given how few great books I can find at present (in my opinion), that's a risk I'm willing to take.

Besides, I'll still read plenty reviewing four small press comics a month (at least).

What it means for this blog though is an increase in the amount I post (I hope). Now, this might not be an immediate increase (I'd wager almost as gradual as the increase in my pull list) but I have missed airing my thoughts here and already have ideas about things I'd like to write about going forward.

But time will tell if this is the beginning of a return to form for me or not.

For now though, let's call it a start and go from there.