(Note: A�The first ones are free, Kid. A�After that, you gotta pay.)

 

I’ve been under the impression that our family made Free Comic Book Day a tradition and that we’ve gone every year for the last couple of years. A�Now that I look at this picture of our first (and only recorded) visit, I realize that memory is, once again, the worst witness. A�That was at least two–and maybe even three–years ago. A�A visit to Facebook to check the time stamp confirms that we took a year off from the annual celebration of five finger discounts on the funny pages and I’m not sure why. A�It might have been birthday parties or something. A�It definitely was not the quality of comics. A�Those were actually very good and quite impressive for free.

We missed last year, as mentioned, but I put it on the calendar this year. A�I also reminded everyone for days leading up to the big event. A�Some of he story of how the actual day went are told in my previous post. A�If you can’t–or don’t want to–read the story right now, I’ll give the TL:DR version. A�We got stuck in parade traffic, got to the comic book store late, got our comics, and didn’t stay for anything else. A�I almost got suckered into buying a set of Dice Masters. A�Bound to happen eventually.

So, what about the books? A�I don’t know if it was just because we were late, but the selection seemed quite underwhelming this year. A�Maybe it is because I haven’t been collecting for at least a decade. A�I didn’t recognize many of the comics. A�The ones that I did know didn’t look that appealing. A�I mean, really, they’re doing Secret Wars again? A�Come on, have some originality. A�In the end, I got TMNT (to see if the hype is real), Divergence, and Secret Wars because I’m a fraud. A�The boys got Pokemon, Transformers, Sonic/Megaman, and Teen Titans/Scooby Doo. A�Truth be told, their comics look more interesting, so I’ll leave those for last.

First up is Divergence. A�This is some DC book that contains three separate stories about their most popular characters. A�I’m a little frustrated that they’re rebooting again, but it is also maybe a good idea. A�How much are comics now? A�$3 isn’t bad. A�I’m intrigued. A�Wait, they killed Batman? A�And Joker? A�What the hell is this? A�I agree with Gordon. A�This is dumb. A�A reboot is good because it gives a good place to get back in, but will I? A�The next story is about Superman. The first thing that I notice is that JRJR is now with DC. A�That seems odd. Lois gave up his secret identity? A�Maybe I do want to check this out. A�The Wonder Woman story is also good and I actually write Chris that I’m considering a return to the comic book store. A�If only the Marvel books are as good.

Yeah, about that. A�They are not. A�Secret Wars is terrible. A�Ultimate End is awful. A�Inhumans is ridiculously inane. A�These are all previews and none of them make me want to buy the actual book. A�In what universe do we live that I’m more interested in DC books than Marvel? A�Clearly Marvel has given up on comics and prefers to exist in movies and television.

That brings us to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. A�Both Chris and I had strong things to say about Donatello being killed off in a recent story line, but this is actually a pretty good book right now. A�The only name that I recognize is Eastman, but that might actually be a good thing. A�I still think that it could have been done without killing Donatello. A�Still, I might pick up some of the trades to catch up on the story.

Now, onto the books that the boys picked up. A�Liam read Pokemon as soon as we got back in the car. A�He called it weird and said that it didn’t follow the main story. A�It is one of the comics that reads backwards, but I don’t think that’s what he meant by weird. A�Many of the Pokemon comics are like that. A�I suspect that he meant the same thing with both statements. A�I haven’t read it yet, but I trust his judgement.

The Transformers comic is a full story one similar to the DC books that I read and they illustrate just how old I am. A�I only recognize Bumblebee, but I suppose that many of the characters are from the Transformers Prime. A�I’ve always meant to watch the show. A�Maybe this will be the introduction and reason that I need to start. A�There is also an interesting little introduction to Transformers vs. GI Joe. A�The book isn’t bad, but it’s definitely a kid book.

Both the Sonic/Megaman and Scooby-Doo/Teen Titans books follow the same format as the Transformers. A�They are full story introductions into the new stories that are coming during the summer. A�One thing that I notice is that there are multiple Sonic titles. A�They also blatantly plug a new video game, which is to be expected, I suppose. A�Megaman is much darker and more intense. A�Seems like it might be better for older kids and I’m somewhat interested to see how the comics and worlds will cross over. A�Finally, Scooby-Doo is much more like the older TV show that I remember than some of the more recent TV shows have been. A�That’s a good thing. A�I couldn’t even do Teen Titans. A�There was far too much happening in that book, color and insanity wise for my old brain.

In closing, other than TMNT the adult books were disappointing. A�DC was better than Marvel, but that’s not saying much because Marvel were awful. A�The kid books were all full story, mostly decent, fun, and more interesting than the adult ones. A�A�I doubt that I’d enjoy any of them as a month to month. A�There is some glimmer of hope. A�They are doing what Chris and I thought they should do and trying to hook young fans into comic books. A�I don’t know how successful, but both boys have asked to read some of my old books. A�I also asked them if they wanted to start collecting comics and they both said yes. A�Once again, they failed to hook me enough to get me to start collecting, but I might invest in trades of TMNT, at least, so that’s something. A�Also, definitely going to sign up for Marvel Unlimited because they have another free month trial. A�I’m not fully back and I might never be. A�However, I’m at least partly still in, so there’s hope for us old guys, too.