Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The Great Comic Depression?

Okay, I just polished off my final review of the week and I have to admit, it was much better than I had expected. But still, it only came away with a 7, which is, by my loose definition, an average comic book. That 7 actually got me thinking about how lackluster this year has been for me comic-wise... So far in 2012 I've given out ONE perfect score. We're almost 1/4 of the way through the year and that's it. At this rate I'll have given out 4 perfect scores by year's end, which would make my decision for Favorite Single Issue of the Year really easy at my year end awards, but would cap an incredibly depressing year! Since I was off from work today and had some extra time on my hands(and am a huge numbers nerd...), I decided to compare 2011 and 2012, through March 27... In 2011 I reviewed 173 new comics through March 27th. In 2012 I reviewed 167 new books through the same date, so the numbers are pretty similar. However, in 2011 I handed out 7 perfect scores during that timespan(an issue of Children's Crusade, two issues of Captain America: Man Out of Time, Hawkeye: Blindspot #1, two issues of Captain America and an issue of Batgirl), as opposed to the aforementioned one in '12(Avengers Academy #27). So what's the difference? Is it me? Have I become more critical of the books I read? Is it the comics themselves? Are they just not up to par this year? Are the comic companies waiting until the spring/summer to bring out their really good books? Is it the fact that I'm reading less mini-series now than I did then? Four of those seven perfect scores from 2011 were mini-series... Is it some combination of those reasons? Something different? I really don't know what it is... Before I go any further here, I do want to say that I've read a lot of damn good books this year. I have handed out a fair share of 9's and 9 1/2's, so I have read a lot of great books, just not a lot of “perfect” books... I guess I'll finish this post with a question... Is it just me? Have you also noticed the quality of the books you've been reading lately to have been slightly more disappointing than last year at around this time? Eh, it's probably just me... Anyway, until tomorrow and New Comic Day(as well as hopefully 7 perfect scores!), X out.

teen titans year one #1
new titans #55
batman vs nightwing
nightwing vs batman
And now, in the grand tradition of DC, here are some previously posted scans of Batman beating up Dick Grayson! What, if it's good enough for DC, it's good enough for me!

7 comments:

  1. I agree, this whole year is just lacklustre in comics, I mean we got early warnings at fall but comics sometimes tend to suck during those days. Sadly they arent recovering from that writers block; even the good ones are going down in quality :(
    It seems the comic publishers are going to their last minute ideas thinking their industry will crash. (IE crazy bendis osborn love doll story in avengers)
    Sigh, (Sort of off topic but...) I read an article that said a Brazillian independant comic writer was selling 400k copies of his work compared to Marvel and DC books that only last till 200k max. The article basically said that the people need to know where to get their comics these days because an average person gives up looking for it ( for the brazillian dude it was in his hometown, the place wasnt that big). I agree cuz I had many cases with friends who were interested in comics but didnt know where to look for them so they just gave up easily. The publishers really need to start advertising WHERE TO find their comics more (like online) instead of advertising their heroes.
    I mean what good is a product that everybody likes but cant buy!
    -Average One.

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  2. Why's he always bashing Dick with the Left hand? Also... that sentence came out hilariously but I refuse to change it...

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  3. @jason todd
    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    @x-man
    damn wtf now we get why dick and wyane dont get along, shit.
    has bruce beaten any of the other robins like this??????? cus lord knows Jason deserved it more than dick..... (haha damn can we not talk about dick grayson with out dick jokes sneaking about unentionaly) even before he was red hood jason was a brat

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  4. It is out of love. If he was serious he would use his right.

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  5. Hey X i just want to say, its not over until it's over.
    In fact I think we're entering a period of awesome comics right now, we got the Spidey event which has got me all riled up, AVX is beginning and its going to take over nearly every marvel series that I read and I can't tell you how epic thats going to be, the new Uncanny X-Force big arc starts in issue 25 and if it was anywhere as good as the archangel saga thats gonna have a few 10s, honestly i think I might only stick Batman&Robin from my DC pull-list because I really want to be able to get all the stuff marvel is going to pump out.
    On a side note did you ever get around to reading FMA, what did you think of it?

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  6. It could have been worse, JT... At least you didn't ask why Bats was always whacking Dick... :/

    Damn, 400k, Average One? The big two WISH they could move those types of numbers nowadays! Now you're lucky if you have two titles on the top 300 selling over 100k! There's a part of me that thinks that the comic industry(especially the big two) don't want people to find the actually physical comics, since they seem so keen on getting fans into digital books. And exactly! The early portion of this year just hasn't been up to the early portion of last year! It's vexing...

    That's what I'm hoping, Anon, that things pick up as we enter the spring/summer period. It definitely seems like Marvel is going to be throwing ALL of their good stuff at us as we get closer to the Avengers movie. As for DC... Um, that Night of Owls event may be pretty good... But yeah, I'm expecting some REALLY good things from Marvel. If THEY don't deliver this could be a really bad summer. And I DID read FMA, but I read it at work, and thus didn't really give it the attention it probably deserved. What I need to do is read it when I'm at home and not surrounded by distractions.

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  7. Awh...don't be depressed X! To cheer you up, I left a few theories for your entertainment pleasure on Avengers X-Sanction #4 review, especially regarding how certain individuals in that comic come to the conclusion in regards the possibility of Hope being the Phoenix though the Pheonix Force hasn't arrived on Earth yet. My treat!

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