So I was busy as hell on Saturday, but not so busy that I couldn't find time to snag some free comic books!
Yes, Saturday was Free Comic Book Day, the annual event that comic book publishers and stores put on in an attempt to lure the unsuspecting into a comic book habit. ("Come on. The first one's free...")
I picked up 5 comics. Here are my thoughts.
Archie presents The Mighty Archie Art Players. I don't know what I expected from an Archie comic, but this is way lame. Except for Veronica in Cleopatra garb and Betty in mermaid garb. Pathetic cartoon crushes are the only reason to read this.
The Avengers. Now extra tiny! The comic book, not the superheroes. There was nary a Wasp or Ant Man in sight. This is the kind of thing I like--it's a self-contained story about, um, fighting a frost giant with a magic sword, or something. And while you'd probably appreciate it more if you understood what was going on with the supervillain faux-Avengers starring the Green Goblin in an Iron Man suit, if you have no idea what's going on with the post-Civil War fallout, you can still enjoy the story. Sort of.
Bongo Comics Free For All! Bongo comes with a whole lot of free comic here. Two Simpsons stories and a Futurama story, and they're all pretty good. Thumbs up! Made me consider actually picking up a few Simpsons comics in the future.
Atomic Robo. This one features a fun Atomic Robo story (I've been solidly pro-Atomic Robo since meeting the artist and having him be very nice to my son at Boston Comic Con) that features all the action and humor you've come to expect from Atomic Robo. Previewed are two new series: Proxy, about hackers who, um, hack into the control system for robot combat drones--looks like it could be interesting, but what's on display here is just kind of puzzling. Not puzzling and absolutely kick ass is the preview for We Kill Monsters! Which is exactly as cool as something called We Kill Monsters! should be.
Aliens/Predator. The Aliens story is kind of good--it's got some human-chompin' action and a decent fake scare. The Predator story is not so great, but then I've never seen that movie and never got into it. I might pick up a copy of the Aliens comic. Don't think I'll be doing that with the Predator comic.
Question: why can't book publishers and bookstores do "Free Book Day?" Wouldn't that possibly help the beleaguered publishing industry? Might we not hook in some new readers? I'm just saying.
