My first introduction to comics, outside of newspaper strips, was because of my older brother. At some point (I can't quite remember when) he started collecting X-Men comics. I'd go with him to the LCS (a tiny place I can still remember bits of) and I'd get Ghost Rider. I remember it just seemed cool at the time. I mean, the dude's got a flaming skull for a head, he has a chain whip and he rides a motercycle — what more could a pre-adolescent boy ask for?
I also remember really wanting to read my brother's X-Men comics but not being allowed to. I can't remember how everything fit into the timeline, but I watched the X-Men animated series and thought it was awesome (I still do). I loved the epic-ness of it and the cast of characters, each with their own powers. I've always loved fantasy and sci-fi, and I especially love magic-users. Well, many super-heroes are basically like magic-users with a small subset of spells. Of course I'd love it all.
Even though I had never read or watched anything else Marvel-related, I had gained a decent knowledge of many of the characters and some plot points. Most people (especially more recently) know a bit about Spider-Man, and, this being the 90s, I knew of Venom and Carnage and some other general plots. I had a similarly general knowledge of the other major Marvel characters, too. My DC knowledge was limited to watching Batman: the Animated Series a bit and the Batman and Superman movies (and the big hullabaloo with the death of Superman). I'm not sure I even knew there were other comic publishers, let alone non-superhero comics.
So, when I started visiting my LCS to get my monthly dose of Buffy, it was with middling knowledge but much interest in superhero comics, especially those of Marvel. I went with my (then) two children while my wife had a class at the nearby college. We passed the time there, the kids looking at comics or the statues they had on display and me talking with the staff and expanding my knowledge of the range of comics available. My oldest could read well, so she'd get a comic most of the time. My youngest was, at first, to little to care, but eventually he started asking to get something, too. As luck would have it, at the time there were small (about ¼-sized, I think) books for $1 containing the first three issues of some of the major Marvel characters. They were small and black-and-white, but they were cheap introductions to these classic characters and teams. I really like starting from the beginning of things, and these were perfect. So, of course I read them as much as my kids did.
I really wanted to like the X-Men book. I love the concept and the characters. As I said before, I loved the animated series, and I'd like to think that I didn't enjoy these issues because I was used to the “new” X-Men, but I know that isn't true. I didn't like it because the first three issues of X-Men are pretty lame. I expected some cheesiness and out-datedness — silver-age comics just have a certain level of all that. But it wasn't that. It was too “monster-of-the-week” and not enough of what makes the X-Men good. I'm sure some of that comes in later, but the first three issues were not enough to pull me in, and I can see why it struggled when first released.
The Avengers book was no better. I just didn't see a reason why they were together. None of the threats seemed to warrent a group of this type. The only thing I found interesting, really, was the team's struggles with the Hulk.
And that leads me into the Hulk book. This I did like. What I liked about it, though, wasn't any of what the Hulk got into, it was Bruce Banner's struggle with being the Hulk, and Rick Jones's relationship with him. This, I think, is what the other two books lacked. They were just adventures (excepting the Avengers' troubles with the Hulk) without personal dilemma. Nothing made me really care about the individual characters or even the team as a whole. It was all about the action.
The last three books were much better in that department. I loved the Fantastic Four from the start. (Enough so that I've bought and/or read from the library all the Essential collections I could get my hands on — and loved them all, too.) Yes, it was extremely cheesy at times (“COSMIC RAYS!!”) but also there were personalities that mattered and personal struggles that made me really care about the characters. The biggest draw for me was, again, the struggles of a man being turned into a monster: the Thing. He is the biggest draw in the early days, and enough of one to have kept me coming back time and again.
The final two books are both Spider-Man books. So, we get Amazing Fantasy #15 (Spider-Man's debut) and Spider-Man #1-5 spread across the two books. Like I said above, I knew a fair amount about Spider-Man and was familiar with several of the major plots, so I was going into this ready to like it, but even if I wasn't, I would've liked it. Peter Parker's difficulties balancing super-heroism and everyday life are done really well and are the biggest draw. I have, unfortunately, been unable to read more than the first two volumes of the Essential collections of this (my library only has those, and I just recently got the third volume), but I plan on reading them until they stop being so good.
But what about DC (or other publishers), you ask? Well, my introduction to comics was through Marvel, so I was most familiar with those characters, and that's where I started. But, those others did come. That'll have to wait for another post, however.
0 comments:
Post a Comment