The December 2015 Solicits!!!

So, this post is going to be a fairly short write up as, having looked through the solicits for December at the big four, I wasn't really able to see much which appealed to me.

Therefore, my wants in the run up to Christmas consist of:

Black Magick #3 (Image) - At this point there is very little I can say to endorse my reason for buying this book besides 'it's created by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott'. However, that's all I've got and I have enough faith in such a team to buy the first three issues without fully knowing what's going on (because the solicits doesn't exactly spill the beans).

Black Science #18 (Image) - I'm still two months away from seeing this book return from hiatus and still it has me haunted with questions regarding what happens next. This is no better proven that the mention of 'the last surviving dimensionaut'. So, what happened to the others? Image better stop toying with me and release this book pronto.

Superman: American Alien #2 (DC Comics) - Much like Black Magick, with no issues under my belt, wanting this book is more about faith than actual enjoyment. However, unlike Black Magick, I know what's being sold here and reading about pre-Superman Clark Kent is still as enticing to me now as it was last month and seeing him in early ''Smallville' mode sounds pretty awesome. Also, this issue has Tommy Lee Edwards on art and, based on the variant, that's more than enough to hook me.

Unfollow #2 (Vertigo) - After last month's debate between Huck and Unfollow, I decided against either, feeling the decision was too difficult. Unlike Huck though, Unfollow was less willing to let me go without a fight and so here is issue 2. This second issue sounds like it will take a larger scale form of ten little Indians in that 140 people will have to kill each other or something. In truth, the synopsis doesn't really tell me much about this book, but I find myself following Unfollow nonetheless.

And that's it. Once again, Dark Horse couldn't release anything to take my fancy, like Marvel whose All-New, All-Different banner began with nothing which could make me reverse my views on their titles.

Hopefully, when 2016 arrives they'll be a lot more which entices me to read it.

And, touch wood, I'll have more funds with which to pick up more of these books.

If Terrigen Mists are toxic.....

So, I read this article on Comics Alliance yesterday morning that Marvel are using the Inhumans to kill off the X-Men in a roundabout way of screwing Fox even more over their control of comic book movie rights. However, it wasn't until the walk home yesterday that I realised the fundamental flaw in the plan they had announced.

As per the link, the basic idea that Marvel has dreamed up to propel the X-Men's story forward (which, based on the article, is obvious code for get rid of characters Fox has film rights to so they get no free advertising. Yes, I'm still bitter about FF) is that the Terrigen Mists, those fancy crystals used to make Inhumans Inhuman, are actually toxic to mutants, killing them on contact. Not only that though but, not only do the mists kill mutants, they also make them sterile, meaning no chance of more mutants being born.

Now, this is pretty obvious to me that it is a plot device designed to cause more friction between those two warring film studios (at the expense of a set of characters and, by extension their fans) but I have to admit that it's a smart way of doing it. By using the Inhuman's origin method as the X-Men's extermination method, it subtly implies superiority.

However, it has occurred to me that there is a flaw in this idea, all based on previously established backstory.

This backstory comes in the form of the Son of M storyline from the Decimation event (yes, I was that guy who bought that series). The story there was that Quicksilver, now powerless after M-Day steals Terrigen Mists from the Inhumans to re-power himself and various others, which actually works (in a fashion).

Based on this story, how can Terrigen Mists be toxic to Mutants? Now it could be argued that, after being depowered, those mutants were now simply regular humans and this is true but if that is the case then how did they get repowered unless they were Inhuman descended? If Marvel are going on the presumption that Mutants and Inhumans are fundamentally different then they can't claim that these characters are a bit of both.

Of course, that then brings me to Luna, the part-mutant, part Inhuman daughter of Quicksilver and Crystal who, in the same series, received powers via the mists. Now if the mists were toxic to Mutants then wouldn't Luna have had a toxic reaction to them instead of developing powers?

At the end of the day, these are just thoughts which crawled into my head and while I'm sure the X-Men writers will fully explain the plot when it is released, I just wanted point out the elephant in the room and say that these continuity points were here.

That said, this is comics so who cares about continuity?

Crap box!

I was part of a Facebook conversation the other day which got onto the subject of crap boxes.

To clarify, a crap box (well, to me anyway) is a box which contains the dregs of a comic book collection. The unloved, under-appreciated and truly awful (in my personal opinion anyway) books which are picked up are subsequently relegated to this box.

The crap box is the one selection of any comic collection where its only destiny is to stoke the fires on a cold winter night (or cook the food on a barbeque, but whichever)!

So, reading through this conversation and seeing what everyone has in their own crap box's, I got to thinking about my own 'crap box'. Though, in truth, crap boxes is a more accurate term because I actually have THREE short boxes which I would classify as my 'crap boxes'.

Within these boxes, the contents are split into two categories. First there is the single issues, the individual comics (many being issue 1) which I have picked up and, realising I don't actually enjoy them as I thought, cut from my pull list without a second thought, though one or two may also have issues 2 and/or 3 to join them as I had wanted to give them another shot.

This box contains a fair few books from the NEW 52 (Mr Terrific, Batwing, Justice League), Marvel Now (New Avengers, Thunderbolts), All-New Marvel (Silk, Spider-Gwen and DCYOU (Martian Manhunter, Dr Fate, Black Canary) as well as indy books like The Rinse and Five Ghosts amongst many others.

As for the other two boxes, within these are the series, the multiple issues and arcs of a comic book run which, while I may have enjoyed at one time, I've since reread and realised that those particular titles just do not appeal to me.

In these boxes, there is a varied palette including the Massive, Ten Grand and Indestructible Hulk amongst others as well as the one series in there that I consider truly bad, Countdown to Final Crisis (which, to this day, I still don't understand why I picked it up. It must have been a youth thing).

No doubt, everyone's 'crap box' is different, but after thinking about what was within mine I've begun to wonder 'what the hell do I do with them all?' Because while comics are very much a trial and error hobby, picking up boxes you think you'll enjoy but realsing they aren't your thing, they are also very much a space and money consuming one. I guess the only options are to either put up with this crap or sell them off.

However, if my crap box is anything like everyone else's, I suspect no one will buy any of what I have... they'll be too busy shifting the very same comics from their own.