Comics Round Up!

I can be quite weak-willed when it comes to new things. Always have been. Its one of the reasons I stopped buying "floppy" comics, because that weekly trip to the comic story inevitably lead to purchases over and above whatever I was subscribed to at the time. I just couldn't walk into a shop full of geek catnip and then walk out empty handed. That was a few years back, and my range of collected editions has expanded happily, mostly bought safely over the internet where the smarter bits of my brain get time to kick in and stop me spending money I don't really have. However, recently that changed, because I signed up to Comixology, and now I have subscriptions again. Here's a quick run down of what I've subscribed to.


Hawkeye
I picked up the first collected volume of Hawkeye a few months back on recommendation and it was a shoe-in for getting regularly. Matt Fraction's take on the character is to focus on his life away from the Avengers, and all that super-hero jazz, and what you get is a wry, street-level look at the character. Its not to say there isn't heroics, because there is, but its local gangs and natural disasters as much as anything else. The art is fantastic too, a lovely, 60s inspired look to many of the characters, and a reduced colour palette that really works. Best of all, you get a lot of the other Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, and they're a hugely entertaining double act. Oh, and there's an episode from his dogs perspective, which is just amazing.

Young Avengers
Also featuring Kate Bishop is Young Avengers, featuring a lot of characters I know nothing about. I mean, Loki is a kid now? and half of them seem to be alien races I've never heard of. Proof perhaps that foreknowledge is over-rated, I'm really enjoying YA even when bits of the universe lose me, because it's just so much fun to read. Its arch and snarky and quippy, and occasionally painfully self-aware, but it's also great fun to read. It also manages to feel big, yet intimate, which is no mean feat.

Saga
I've been meaning to get into Saga for ages, and this seemed like a good time. A mix of hugely diverse inspirations, Saga is a space opera set against the background of generations long war, with new parents (one from each side) struggling to break free of a universe that seemingly wants them dead. Although many of the people sent after them don't seem that bothered about finding them, as everyone has their own concerns. The main couple in Saga are hugely endearing - one of the best couples I've think I've read in comics, actually, and the breadth of imagination on display is staggering. It's also refreshingly mature - theres a lot of sex and violence but it's properly grown-up sex and violence, full of consequence and meaning, which, lets face it, can be pretty rare in comics.

Atomic Robo
I've rhapsodised about Atomic Robo before, but here I am getting the issues as they come out. And I'll still buy the collected volumes. Sucker.