Thursday, July 2, 2009

Dear Ed Brubaker,


I'd like my $4.99 back.


Sincerely,


Seth Jones

8 comments:

tsweeten said...

I've been out of comics for a while now (almost a year and counting) so I haven't read anything of note. Why don't you like Ed Brubaker? When last I was reading, he was THE MAN. I love his run on Cap. Did it turn to crap or something?

Monster Monkey said...

Ever since they killed Captain America- Marvel has been absolute crap.
The only exceptions I'll allow from the Marvel crap pile- are Fantastic Four.....that is all.
Actually, the Old Man Logan storyline in Wolverine was entertaining, but it technically was like a future\ elseworlds type story- so it doesn't count. Thor has been kinda hit or miss, as in- I'll read an issue here and there and it's either WTF?- or interesting.
And WTF is up with that Red Hulk crappola?
Anyone read DC's Cry For Justice?

Jason Arnett said...

In the link here is another link that may help you justify your pain, Seth: Why I may be leaving comics.

Y'know something, though? I'm really enjoying reading real books again. I've had more adventure and fun in the last six months of books than I have in the last ten years of comics.

Zarko said...

How do they make him 'come back?' Do tell.

Monster Monkey said...

All that needs to be said is covered absolutely by Arnett's link and link within. Comics are rotten as a whole and need that old school excitement to make it worth the money they ask for these days

Seth said...

I'll second Arnett's link and link-within-the-link. It's maddening, and for $3.99, we deserve better.

To answer your Cap questions -- nothing was really revealed in Cap 600 except that Sharon now remembers the gun she used to shoot Cap with? Well, it was a toy gun. Or SOMETHING, I don't know -- but something was strange about the gun, she goes back and recovers it, and sure enough, she's relieved by whatever the gun is. Perhaps it was filled with Viagara, I don't know.

Then, the book just sort of rambles on. The back ad is for "Captain America Reborn" by Brubaker. So... yeah. That was all yours for $4.99. Feeling ripped off? Because I am.

What's funny about it to me is, even though I hate everything that Brubaker has been doing to the character, enough to stop collecting Captain America after a 20-year run, I still see that he's trying to tell a story, and I respect that. It's just a story I really don't like.

BUT NOW, with this random-ass gun revelation, he's really stepped back into sophomore fiction writing, in my opinion. And that's inexcusable, especially with a character like Cap.

Jason Arnett said...

All the interviews I've read with Brubaker (and in general I prefer his creator-owned stuff to company work) is that this is molded on the "Lost" TV model and that if you stick with the story it pays off.

Not enough for me to collect it (hell I haven't been the LCS in six weeks!) but I like his work enough that I'll read it for free from the library when I happen across it.

Marvel's making a lot of sophomore marketing mistakes, the same ones that DC made 5 or 6 years ago. The big companies should know better. There's just nothing exciting. You're still doing the old, "Let's kill him to drive sales and bring him back when they start to sag" bullshit. You want to make a splash? Kill the goddamn secret identity and update the hero.

I think I did something like that in one of my first issues of PL back in the old days of four years ago. I'll see if I can dig that up somewhere.

mar said...

Why doesn't it "count" because it's a future story?

"Real books?"