Comic book subscriptions

[The Burgomaster]

So, I've never subscribed to any comics (but I've bought plenty in my time) and I know very little about the current stuff that's out there (I'm most familiar with Marvel Comics from the early 1960s through about the mid 1980s . . . so I have no idea what's been going on with Spider-Man, Daredevil and the rest of the Marvel Universe over the years . . . except the highly publicized stuff such as when Captain America died).  So, today I decided to take the plunge and re-enter the world of Marvel Comics.  I ordered 12 month subscriptions to:

* Amazing Spider-Man
* Avengers
* Black Widow
* Captain America
* Daredevil
* Fantastic Four
* Incredible Hulk
* Invincible Iron Man
* Thor
* Uncanny X-Men

I suspect Peter Parker no longer wears flair pants?

[The Gravekeeper]

Have fun! I've been thinking about trying Marvel again myself, but some of the reviews I've read have kind of put me off. Oh, not because some of the reviews say that the comics are bad, but because I have no idea what the heck is going on anymore. 10 years of changing writers, conflicting character interpretations, retcons, reboots and everything else tend to result in broken continuity that can really turn off new/returning readers. If you can power through all that, all the power to ya.

If it's not too much to ask, once you've figured out what's going on, would you mind telling the rest of us? Again, I personally wouldn't mind reading a bit of Spider-Man again, but I just plain don't have the money to buy all the issues needed to understand what's going on.

[The Burgomaster]

If it's not too much to ask, once you've figured out what's going on, would you mind telling the rest of us? Again, I personally wouldn't mind reading a bit of Spider-Man again, but I just plain don't have the money to buy all the issues needed to understand what's going on.

No problem.  By the way, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is now published 3 times per month . . . it's $50 for a 12 month subscription!  What happened to the 12, 15, 20, and 25 cent cover prices they had when I was a kid?

[HappyGilmore]

If it's not too much to ask, once you've figured out what's going on, would you mind telling the rest of us? Again, I personally wouldn't mind reading a bit of Spider-Man again, but I just plain don't have the money to buy all the issues needed to understand what's going on.

No problem.  By the way, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is now published 3 times per month . . . it's $50 for a 12 month subscription!  What happened to the 12, 15, 20, and 25 cent cover prices they had when I was a kid?

Those days are long, long gone.  I started reading comics in the early to mid '90s and prices were around $2 then.

I did subscribe to both Spider-Man and Incredible Hulk through '08/'09.  But I moved last summer, and eventually, I had to not re-new them when they ran out.  I could afford them now, but haven't gotten to it.

I will say this: last few issues of Hulk I read, they had introduced a Red Hulk that was a villain, running around causing all sorts of trouble for Banner/Green Hulk. 

Spider-Man: last story arc I saw had Norman Osbourne being affiliated with the Dark Avengers, and J. Jonah Jameson's long lost father showed up and married Aunt May.  J. Jonah Jameson also became the mayor of New York, going so far as to start up a task force exclusively formed to stop Spider-Man.  Mac Gargan, the Scorpion, is now Venom, and Eddie Brock (The original Venom) is homeless, has cancer, and is the Anti-Venom...not a hero, not a villain, but a vigilante driven insane from his experiences and running around trying to stop criminals. 

[The Burgomaster]

To prepare myself for my subscriptions (which won't start for 6 - 8 weeks according to Marvel . . . and they even told me numbers of the first issues I would receive) I went out yesterday and bought a few recent issues of the titles on my subscription list.  I must say, I was very entertained.  Today's comics are very different from the ones from my youth . . . in some ways better (realism and mature themes), in some ways not as good (they often look and feel more like action movies than comic books).  I have a lot of catching up to do as they apparently abandoned most of the old storylines and histories and started them all over again (otherwise, Peter Parker would be an old man now).  The Spider-Man comics I bought (3 issues) have a story about the Lizard, who is now somewhat of a demonic figure sort of like a gut-munching dinosaur as opposed to the lizard from the 1960s and 70s who looked like a taller version of the Geiko Gekko.  So, I will always feel nostalgic for the old Stan Lee / Jack Kirby / Sal Buscema / John Romita, Sr. / Don Heck / etc. days.  But I'm very interested to see where the new Marvel artists and writers (including John Romita, Jr.) will take these stories.

[HappyGilmore]

To prepare myself for my subscriptions (which won't start for 6 - 8 weeks according to Marvel . . . and they even told me numbers of the first issues I would receive) I went out yesterday and bought a few recent issues of the titles on my subscription list.  I must say, I was very entertained.  Today's comics are very different from the ones from my youth . . . in some ways better (realism and mature themes), in some ways not as good (they often look and feel more like action movies than comic books).  I have a lot of catching up to do as they apparently abandoned most of the old storylines and histories and started them all over again (otherwise, Peter Parker would be an old man now).  The Spider-Man comics I bought (3 issues) have a story about the Lizard, who is now somewhat of a demonic figure sort of like a gut-munching dinosaur as opposed to the lizard from the 1960s and 70s who looked like a taller version of the Geiko Gekko.  So, I will always feel nostalgic for the old Stan Lee / Jack Kirby / Sal Buscema / John Romita, Sr. / Don Heck / etc. days.  But I'm very interested to see where the new Marvel artists and writers (including John Romita, Jr.) will take these stories.

I quite like the direction they've taken Spider-Man in the past year or so.  I don't subscribe at the moment, but get the issues whenever possible. 

They always sorta re-direct the stories in any comic.  Every ten-fifteen years it seems to jump back a decade to do new stuff.