Pop! Goes the Icon

When I was a comic-collecting kid, my heart belonged to Marvel Comics. Even through the early 1980s, DC’s mainstream comics were still bland, fluffy and dumbed down (until, let’s say, the Crisis era). So though I liked the characters of Superman, Batman, etc., even as a 9- or 10-year-old, I knew instinctively that Marvel’s titles were more sophisticated, diverse and interesting.

I loved the creators, the storylines, the characters, the presentation, everything. Even by the late ’80s, as DC came into the modern era with John Byrne, George Perez and Frank Miller reinventing the “Big Three,” my DC love was slow growing. During my peak collecting period in the very early ’90s, my DC selections each month were limited to the two or three regular Batman titles (plus almost anything related, such as the Robin limited series), occasional issues of Superman titles and for a little while, Green Lantern (including the two Emerald Dawn limited series).

But Marvel? X-Men. X-Factor. Uncanny X-Men. Iron Man. Thor. Namor. Quasar. Spider-Man. Amazing Spider-Man. Spectacular Spider-Man. Fantastic Four. West Coast Avengers. Avengers. Even Quasar (don’t dis my man Wendell Vaughn). And that was just the regulars, not counting the required tie-ins, crossovers, annuals, etc. When I thought I was going to be a breakout comic book artist at 14 (what did I know?), I only sent my samples to Marvel. ‘Nuff said.

Of course, then the mid-’90s happened. We’ve been over this before. Disregarding the fact that I stopped collecting comics regularly in 1992,  the only comics I purchased for about 15 years were DC titles such as Kingdom Come and The Dark Knight Strikes Back. Hell, I even bought the entire 52 series. When my interest in comic books was renewed sometime in the last year, however, the only Marvel purchasing I was doing involved filling in holes in my collection.

But curiosity got the best of me. “Messiah CompleX” sounded like a good jumping-on point for the X-titles I so used to love. I read about the death of Captain America but avoided picking up the book. Fantastic Four seemed unrecognizable over the years, but Mark Millar’s taking over of the title sounded intriguing.

Well … here we are, and now I’m making weekly stops at my friendly neighborhood comic book store. I picked up Bucky Barnes’ first issue in uniform as Captain America. I was impressed. I bought most of “Messiah CompleX” and the realization that Peter David was still on X-Factor made that a must-buy, and his first “Divided We Stand” issue was awesome. And Millar/Hitch’s FF? I admit, I’m coming back for “World’s Greatest” part two.

So now we have on the monthly paycheck-draining list Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, Captain America and Fantastic Four. Potentially, that list will expand to include whatever is happening with the other X-Men title (though I will NOT be going near X-Force, as mentioned before).

Oh, and I placed a bid on a block of comics Roger Stern is selling on Ebay.

I’m putting my faith in these titles, Joe Q — even though you, sir, are no Jim Shooter, no Stan Lee, hell, no Tom DeFalco. Don’t let me down.