Lower Decks

In today’s column I discuss why I dropped Vertigo’s Air, my continued waffling over the issue of switching entirely to trade paperbacks and why I might be interested in DC’s Justice League: A Cry for Justice.

Goodbye Air, Goodbye House of Mystery

Of the many titles I started buying in 2008, two Vertigo books are the only ones I’ve dropped. To be fair, most of the others were miniseries or limited series. Of those, there was only one that I actually considered giving up on before it finished: DC’s The War that Time Forgot. Ultimately, I let the limited series run its course. One of the Vertigo books, House of Mystery, wasn’t a difficult choice to drop. Each issue of the horror series includes at least one standalone story as well as framing sequences that continue each month.

The problem with this format is that I haven’t been all that interested in any of the standalone stories. The framing sequences held my attention but there just wasn’t enough in each issue to justify buying the books. Any given issue would start with a few pages of framing, in which a character would being to tell a story, and then the bulk of the book would consist of this story. A few more pages of framing, perhaps moving the overall story along, closed things out. I gave up on House of Mystery after #13.

I grappled for several months before deciding to drop Air, the other Vertigo title, after #10. I actually think I was introduced to the book through a preview at the end of an issue of House of Mystery. It suggested that Air would be about an airline stewardess and maybe some terrorists. I thought that sounded interesting. But the book isn’t at all what I expected.

There’s a country that doesn’t exist on any map that nobody should be able to visit. There’s a mysterious piece of technology that allows people to move from one point to another. There’s a strange snake-bird creature. In one issue, the main character finds herself in the body of another character. The last issue I read, #10, was set in the past and didn’t involve any of the main characters. I’m pretty sure Air is just too high concept for me. All I wanted was a few terrorists.

Air #10 (Courtesy the Grand Comics Database)

Air is far too intellectual for its own good. I don’t see how anyone can go a month between issues and still keep track of the plot. It might work better as a graphic novel. Or maybe I’m just not deep enough to get it.

Trade Paperbacks, Trade Paperbacks

After getting rid of House of Mystery and Air, and with many of the miniseries/limited series I’ve been reading ending, I’m running out of books. Aside from Fantastic Four and Captain America the only continuing titles I’m reading are DC’s Warlord and Aspen’s Fathom (Vol. 3). But I think Fathom (Vol. 3) is ending soon. And by the end of August I’ll be down to just two miniseries.

I’ve been looking at advance solicitations trying to find new books to pick up. I don’t plan on trying to jump into an ongoing series so that leaves miniseries, limited series and new ongoing series. I’m just having trouble convincing myself that paying $3.99 for a four-issue miniseries or a five, six or seven-issue limited series. Trade paperbacks, especially those purchased online with nice discounts, are a good deal cheaper than buying books individually. Or so my hasty calculations have suggested.

But you lose something with trades. The feel of the comic book isn’t something I want to give up. So I have to make a decision. And I think it has to be an all-or-nothing deal. Either I commit to buying all upcoming miniseries/limited series in trade paperback form (aside from those connected to Fantastic Four, which I collect) or I keep buying the individual issues.

Justice League: A Cry for Justice

I read issue #4 of DC’s The Warlord last night. It included a six or eight-page preview of Justice League: A Cry for Justice. I can’t say I recognized all the characters — the big names, of course, were obvious — but the artwork just blew me away. I’ve yet to really delve into the DC Universe proper in any meaningful way and maybe this is a good way to put a toe in, so to speak. In trade paperback form, of course.

On a related note, looking over DC’s September solicits I saw what must have been a dozen Blackest Night titles. Is it the DC equivalent of Dark Reign? I read the FCBD Blackest Night #0 and it was interesting, so I considered buying it. But then I discovered that there is no “it,” just a lot of tie-ins. So it really is a lot like Dark Reign. Justice League: A Cry for Justice, on the other hand, seems to be a follow-up to DC’s Final Crisis miniseries. I think. Maybe.

We’ll see.