First, a little news:
As you may have heard, it was announced today that Disney has bought Marvel for $4 billion (story on CNN over here). I have very, very mixed feelings on this. I have a great amount of love for both companies, but I do not want them mixing. There is a part of me, no matter my loyalty to Disney, that feels that Disney may try to control what Marvel is publishing. I don't want that to happen. I don't want Disney dictating the level of violence that can be used, the amount of cursing, etc. I know it's premature to worry about that, but the thought is in my head.
On the plus side, maybe this means we'll see more of the Gargoyles & Haunted Mansion titles. I've never seen either title in my LCS, but maybe they'll become more prominent. Perhaps we'll see more Disney properties become comics (I'd be up for a Kingdom Heart book, though Square/Enix would have to have a say in that, I suppose).
In any event, it's going to make for an interesting week of podcasts among the comic world, and hopefully, it will be a positive thing for both companies. I'll be sure to bring the latest whenever it's announced.
And now, back to your previously scheduled blogging. . .
So, you might be wondering what got me into comics in the first place. Well, as a kid, my parents bought me a pack of the old Star Comics imprint from Marvel. I don't completely remember what titles were in it, but I do remember it containing a Muppet Babies book & an ALF book (don't look at me that way! It was the 80s!). I also had a couple of film-to-graphic novel adaptations, one for The Secret of NIMH and one for Return to Oz. I wish I knew whatever happened to them.
After that, it was a long time before I officially got into mainstream comics; it didn't happen until my teen years. It was a compilation of my friend Donna and my uncle who got me into comics. My uncle had been collecting comics for a while, and I kind of remember picking up some of them and flipping through them while he was at work.
Donna was into the X-Men books, and after I started watching the 90s X-Men cartoon (again, thanks to my uncle), I started borrowing her books, and then I snookered my mom into buying them for me.
Back then, the X-Men titles were the only books I read. The first storyline I really read was X-Cutioner's Song, the big convoluted crossover among all the X-books that dealt with Stryfe (Cable's clone), the Legacy Virus, & Professor Xavier nearly dying after being attacked by Stryfe. I remember getting these polybagged copies of it at Wal-Mart; it was a pain to find them all, but I did, and after that, I was hooked.
I stayed with the X-titles until around the Onslaught saga; it just seemed too much like jumping the shark for me, and I hated what they were doing to Wolverine at the time (this was post-Fatal Attractions, where he lost his adamantium thanks to Magneto, and he was going feral; I think his nose actually ran away from his face out of frustration with the bastardization of his character).
See, look! His nose ran away!
I didn't get back into comics until about 2002, 2003. I decided to give X-Men another chance, and I stuck with it until a couple of months ago. I did like some of what they've done in the last few years; money and other situations led me to dropping all of my X-books.
However, I've expanded to other books. Fables and Jack of Fables are probably my favorite titles that I buy every month, closely followed by The Incredible Hercules & Deadpool. I ended up with Hercules as a fluke; I had been buying The Incredible Hulk when the Planet Hulk series ended & they shifted from Hulk to Herc. I was just going to give it a little trial, but it quickly won me over. I'll try to show you why you should be reading it in upcoming posts.
I've been a fan of Deadpool since the 90s. I never got to read his initial appearance in New Mutants, but I've loved him from the first time I saw him in X-Force. I love his manic energy, his breaking of the fourth wall, and his love for Bea Arthur (and of Siryn, though that seems to be stuck in the past and not gonna happen again). You'll see some of him in this blog, too.
Other than those books, the other ones I'm picking up regularly are Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Astro City. I like the former, but it's kind of hit and miss; I love the latter, but I'll love it more once Busiek gets back to the regular title instead of the Dark Ages miniseries currently going on.
A Blast From the Past
Do any of you remember this little cartoon?
I used to have the VHS for this, and I watched it quite a bit. I still remember the damn theme song. Just try to get it out of your head! Try! I need to sit down and watch the whole thing and see if it's like I remember.
Stuff You Should Be Reading
Now, I know I haven't talked about my love for the Bat, but I do have a lot of love for Batman, even though I'm largely a Marvel girl. My love probably began with The Animated Series, but I love the books as well, though I don't read them often.
This, however, is my personal canon:
Bat's in the Cradle by *The-BlackCat on deviantART
This is the work of Black Cat, and you should go to her deviantArt page and read all of her stuff. Seriously, it's the best (or nearly best, from the buzz I'm hearing on Batman & Robin) Batman comic around these days. She'll melt your heart with the adorable and make you laugh your ass off as well. Not an easy task.
So, that's a little background on my passion for comics. Up next is a post on Fables #1, and later this week, we'll start the X-Men posts. Hope you enjoy the ride!
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