Sins Past

Okay, so Amazing Spider-Man issues 509-514 came out a while ago (*ahem* six years), but I just picked it up in trade format on sale last week, and finished it last night.

There is a very good review of the story here, and I agree with most of what the author says, except for the need to have this properly retconned out of the plot.

I think that it was a poor follow-up to the more interesting run dealing with Spider-Man's link to the spiritual world and while Mike Deodato's art was pretty to look at, that no fan really wanted him to draw a panel of Gwen Stacy in the throes of passion with Norman Osborn. Seriously, it was kind of gross.

I don't really get what the goal of this story was, from J. Michael Straczynski's point of view. I thought that it killed a lot of momentum that his book had going following the conclusion of the Ezekiel story. And killed it in such a weird way, by making Gwen the girl in high school who gave it up to one of her closest friends' father.

If they never have another plot line centered around Gwen Stacy again, I'd be happy.

Hot Rods

Yes, this did come up in conversation today.

Such is my life.

Montreal Comicon

Marisa and I went to the Montreal Comicon yesterday. It was at Place Bonaventure, and was only 15$, so we decided to check it out.

We were both a little sad about missing FanExpo, but then we started to hear about the mass over-crowding and long, long lines that Toronto suffered through, so we decided it wasn't such a bad thing that we missed out. Montreal has a smaller con, so we decided just to check it out for a few hours.

It was very low key, as far as cons go. It was also very dealer heavy. Lots of vendors tables. It was also a little crowded, but mostly because of the layout of the tables. They aisles were not wide enough to accommodate people stopped at a table and people trying to walk by. There was alittle too much pushing and shoving for my tastes, especially when I was being shoved by a woman who was using her baby and carriage as a ram to make her way through the crowd.

On the upsides, the con was following the Toronto con for a lot of vendors, and sales were plentiful. I got some nice, hard cover trades for 5-10$. Yay for good sales. I got a nice DC Archives edition of The Teen Titans for 10 bucks.

I also met Larry Hama, and commissioned a sketch from him of Destro, which is pretty damned awesome. Saw Darrick Robertson for a bit, too, and caught glimpses of Brent Spiner, Billy Dee Williams, and Elvira.

All in all, it was a positive experience. I felt like I got good value for the price of admission, and there were no lines anywhere to meet the guests.

Makes Me Sad

I was looking around Box Office Mojo this morning, and this made me sad.

Scott Pilgrim:
Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic:
$27,040,800
+
Foreign:
$6,173,367
= Worldwide:
$33,214,167


Marmaduke:
Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic:
$33,579,130
+
Foreign:
$36,000,000
= Worldwide:
$69,579,130

Deadpool

I stopped by my comic shop last week, and I decided it was time for a trimming of my pull list. Deadpool got the chop. So did Deadpool Team Up. And Deadpool Corps.

Honestly, I started rereading Deadpool just towards the end of the Deadpool/Cable run, and I sort of got hung up on it. It was quirky and light. I don't really remember how all of a sudden I had three books on my list. At the price current comics go for, I think that 12$ a month (144$ a year?) for Deadpool was too much. None of the comics were particularly spectacular, and worse, I found myself buying an uber-violent Rob Liefeld comic. It was high time I woke up from that scheme.

Dropping three books from the pull list does leave a bit of a hole in my visits to the shop, however. I don't really think there's that much out there that I'm missing out on, but I'll have to keep a sharp eye out for something new.