If there's a posting drought in the middle of the week, it's almost always school. If you look back at the posts, you'll notice that they've been for the most part on Fridays and Saturdays.
This week's comics are pretty much mid-arc, so I'm going to lump this week with the next. For today, I'd like to talk about. . .
MARVEL SUBSCRIPTIONS.Marvel offers subscriptions to its readers for some titles (not miniseries though!) and considering the price of 24 bucks for twelve issues, that's saving 12 dollars when you're three bucks an issue! The catch, of course, is the feeling of commitment, but you can actually refund your subscriptions.
Originally, I was just reading it in trade, but the first title I subscribed to was Amazing Spider-Man. Considering the title of the blog, is that much of a surprise???
I did this around. . . Straczynski's and Deodato's third or fourth arc together. Peter had just joined the New Avengers, and seeds were being planted for the Other.
I continued to follow the subscription (yes, even through the Other), until it ended around Civil War (my last issue was "Mr. Parker Goes to Washington pt.2"). I could've renewed it, but it was going into a direction that I didn't care for. Don't get me wrong, I really liked the idea that Peter wanted a father figure through Tony, but I dunno, I was just apathetic about the title, I guess.
That was the point where I stopped reading Amazing and started reading Sensational Spider-Man (which happened to be written by current Dead of Night scribe Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Interesting, that.)
The title was meant to be a more urban, mature take on Spidey's life, and it accomplished that well enough. Sales never flourished, though, because readers saw it as a peripheral and "unnecessary" spidey book. The Black Cat made some appearances (remember her???), and there was a beautiful arc in #38-39 called "The Last Temptation of Eddie Brock" or somesuch, so it's a shame that no one paid attention to it until it was tied into OMD.It was then that I started investing myself in Amazing again, and six issues into Brand New Day? I can't say that I'm pleased, not at all.
I feel like I'm being gypped by the writers. They haven't given much attention to any of the devoted fans besides "just bear with us, we promise it'll get better." By six issues and 20 bucks, you should've tossed them some kind of bone. But no: inconsistent art, disconnect from and disregard for past, unextraordinary writing, for ten bucks a month?
I really want to like Amazing, but I, well, don't. When Slott and Guggenheim started their arcs, I was optimistic, maybe too optimistic, but eventually disappointed.
It's been two weeks or so, and I haven't received the last two issues of Guggenheim's arc from my subscription, so that may explain some of it, but still. There's no reason to keep on plopping money down for a book that doesn't respect me as a reader. It's just a pity that Amazing was my gateway comic, and I have so much invested in the characters, or at least who they used to be.
Currently, the Marvel Subs. office is down due to severe weather, so that gives me some time to think it over, but apathy might force me to transfer the sub. to something else, like Spidey's Ultimate title (who has Stuart Immonen on art!!!!).
So, if you're reading the blog for BND, I guess now's the time to take it off your bookmark or your RSS feed (cricket, cricket). I might, however, make nostalgic posts like the MJ one from time to time.
Do YOU guys have anything to say? Maybe you're actually enjoying BND and wanna rub it in my face/change my mind? Feel free to, so long as you're respectful about it.
Which is more than I can say for the title right now =(.
