Comic Cuts

The new apartment is cutting significantly into my money and some things have to go. I'm down to the unlimited 1-at-a-time plan on NetFlix ($5 saved a month), so the next thing to are the underperforming comics. Every comic I read is graded on a scale of 1-10 using Pitchfork's old standards, and then the comics I currently collect are ranked in order based on their three most recent issues. This helps me monitor which titles I love and which have declined. Here are the first two to be cut.


AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
First Issue Bought: (volume 2) #40/(volume 1) #481, June 2002
Last Issue Bought: (volume 1) #537, February 2007
Total Issues Bought: 57
Length Of Collecting: 4 years, 8 months

I first started buying Amazing Spider-Man on the strength of Spider-Man 2; I love that movie. John Romita Jr. was the penciler back then and he and JMS, the writer, were doing truly strong and important stories with Spider-Man. The book felt fresh, exciting, and new, not to mention gorgeously drawn by my favorite artist. The book peaked here.

After Romita Jr. left, Mike Deodato was brought on. His art always seemed too early 90s and not as defined as it should be. Plus there's all sorts of juicy gossip on message boards about Deodato being the Carlos Mencia of pencilers, but he's nowhere near as bad as Roger Cruz. This change gave us "Sins Past," "Skin Deep" and a series of issues dealing with Spider-Man's joining the New Avengers. Okay stories, "Skin Deep" being the strongest of the bunch. Then it all went downhill, with "The Other" and both the lead-up and tie-in with "Civil War" being, really, just boring.

I've been collecting Amazing Spider-Man just to be collecting it for a while, so it's time for it to go.

ULTIMATE X-MEN
First Issue Bought: #16, May 2002
Last Issue Bought: #79, April 2007
Total Issues Bought: 64
Length Of Collecting: 4 years, 11 months

This is a tough one. I read the first two Ultimate arcs in trade paperback before picking up with the book monthly at the start of "World Tour." Millar's hype-machine and antics made the book stand out until he left with #33, but he never really impressed me. It was always good. Never great. I thought the book was going to be great when Brian Michael Bendis took over with #34, but by the time he left at #45, the book was still just okay. Bendis did two action packed arcs and keept up the level of insanity that Millar is known for.

I stuck with the book then just because, I guess, I had the money to. I hadn't heard of Brian K. Vaughan and had no expectations. His first two arcs, "The Tempest" and "Cry Wolf", were okay but nothing spectacular. Then Ultimate X-Men became the best x-book being made. Vaughan remade Dazzler and sent the team to Krakoa and a twisted version of Longshot which showed that Vaughan was really getting the hang of the team dynamic. Vaughan was nailing the chemistry that made the X-Men so successful in the 80s. Vaughan went out with a bang, "Magnetic North" being one of the best X-Men tales of the past five years.

Robert Kirkman, great writer, took over with issue #66 and he seemed to be continuing Vaughan's love of 80s X-Men. Still, his stories didn't resonate the way Vaughan's did and the series really went off the track with the mediocre "Magical" and the what-was-he-thinking "Cable." The title doesn't feel special anymore and now that X-Factor is around and the two main x-titles are the best they've been in years, this doesn't cut it.


I have a feeling more cuts are on the way, especially since I'm interested in Mighty Avengers and have to buy the new Buffy comic. If Ms. Marvel's new direction doesn't tighten the book and if New Avengers doesn't start telling stories again, they're next.