Comics!

While I was in Chattanooga for Con Nooga (wrap up post later) I stopped by Epikos Comics and picked up a few single issues. Now, due to A) laziness and B) space issues I don’t tend to get single issues very much anymore. I have subscriptions to a bunch of titles on Comixology (a digital comics provider) and then I pick up trades to have at home for the books I really, really like.
So, is this the best plan? No, not really. Do I even like this plan? No, not really.
I’d much rather be supporting a local comic shop and giving the creators of the books I like that extra physical order every month. I don’t actually know if the publishers put more weight behind store orders than they do digital subscriptions, but it feels like they might. Of course, that might be my bookstore culture talking.
However, a weekly or even monthly trip to the comic shop just isn’t really practical with my life these days. So, I have my digital subscriptions and then my trades.
I get subscriptions for a couple of reasons. 1) I don’t have to keep up with release dates. The comics just magically appear when they come out. 2) The subscription shows the publishers that I’m willing to take as much of the title as they’re willing to publish. Every time Gotham Academy comes out I’ve already put in my $2.99. Release week sales are, apparently, the most important, so I try to make sure I’m there to show support for the titles I like.

So, what did I pick up?

Thor #1
(This book came out in April, but my friends had gotten a copy for me that I picked up while I was there.)
This is new Thor. Thor is a woman who is wielding Mjolnir. The previous Thor is still around. He didn’t get turned into a woman or die or anything. He lost Mjolnir somehow and a mysterious woman picked it up and became the new Thor. As one might suspect, the advent of a female Thor caused a great unrest across the internet. I think it’s awesome. 

The Unbeatable Squirrel-Girl #2
(I have issue #1 on order, they were just out.)
It’s Squirrel-Girl! She’s amazing. And adorable. And awesome. She is canonically one of the strongest heroes in the Marvel Universe. She’s beaten Wolverine, Thanos, and Doctor Doom. She’s awesome. And she takes absolutely no shit. She’s young, but not in the annoying-teen-sidekick way. She’s sassy. She’s funny. And she has squirrels. And tiny fuzzy rodents with fluffy tails are pretty adorable.

Hero Cats
I actually picked this one up at the con, but it’s still a comic, so I’m tossing it in. Hero Cats is about… well, heroic cats. It’s a group of cats who all have some sort of extraordinary power. They’re fluffy and adorable and I love them so much!
There were also Hero Cats hats. I didn’t end up getting one because they were sold out of Midnight (the black cat, obviously!) However, I did get a custom comic cover done of Eris, the demonic cat. She was my first cat and I loved her even though she was Satan’s step-daughter.

Tomb Raider 12 & 13
Tomb Raider was being written by Gail Simone, who is made of magic. It has transitioned over to Rhianna Pratchett with #12, so we’ll see if I continue to be enthralled. Gail is so splendid, but she’s not the only person who can write good books. I just know and trust her whereas most other writers have to earn my trust. Rhianna was a writer on the Tomb Raider video game though, so I think we’ll be safe.
This comic is a bridge between the 2012 Tomb Raider video game which rebooted the franchise and this year’s forthcoming Rise of the Tomb Raider, which shows us Lara Croft stepping into the role we are familiar with; rich globetrotting archaeological scavenger.
The Lara of the first game is very much a young woman suffering after an extreme trauma. The comics help us get her from that fairly broken person to the protagonist of an action-adventure game that isn’t all about coping with PTSD. The comic even shows us Lara going to visit a psychiatrist. How many comic protagonists EVER deal with the horror they’ve had to go through? It’s kind of awesome.

Grayson #1
It’s a book I have a subscription to and it was a cool variant cover. I had to!
Grayson is about Dick Grayson, post-Nightwing. He becomes a super-spy. I don’t even know, but it’s fun.

Gotham Academy #5
I love Gotham Academy. I bought every copy my local comic shop (Kingdom Comics) had last month so I could give sets to people. So, I picked up the new issue because it was there. I also have a subscription to this one. I actually have a subscription to everything I’ve listed here already. I’m… weird.
Gotham Academy is set at the city’s best prep school. Except, weird things keep happening, there are secret passages in the walls, a secret society trying to raise the ghost of a previous resident, and the protagonist may have tried to kill Batman last year. We’re not really sure.

Do you read comics? If so, what’s tickling your fancy these days?