The Batlord

Just started reading the first volume of New Avengers from the mid-'00s, and been enjoying it more than most team books so far, but at issue #18 I've unwittingly run right smack dab into Civil War. I have nothing against reading Civil War -- and I've certainly intended to read it eventually, along with Final Crisis, Secret Invasion, House of M, Annihilation, etc, etc, et-****ing-c -- but these massive company crossover events are just so exhausting to get into, and every time I try I just end up quitting. Doesn't matter how good they are; when I see a list of issues and tie-in issues that literally almost reaches 100 issues, it's kind of hard getting my head around actually reading all of it, or even just the "essentials".

But New Avengers is a pretty sweet book so far, with engaging character arcs balancing out delightfully overblown, uber-comic book shenanigans, and I just straight-up want to ****ing read about the Avengers team that brought Spider-Man and Wolverine into the fold, and looks to eventually bring in Daredevil as well (who I wouldn't have cared about until watching his TV-series, along with reading parts of Frank Miller's and Ann Nocenti's comic runs, made me into a fledgling fan).

And along with his appearance in Dark Avengers, the Sentry is fast turning into one of the more interesting characters in comic books that nobody's ever heard of. Not to mention that Spider-Woman, a character who I'm only vaguely familiar with, is likewise becoming interesting, and to abandon the book at this relatively early stage would mean leaving what I'm assuming is going to become one of her character-defining moments.

Damn it, Brian Michael Bendis, why did you have to be so on fire in the '00s? As the original writer for Ultimate Spider-Man (easily the best Spidey series I've yet read), he also means that we're getting Spidey at the top of his game, even if he's often mostly just the team quip machine -- Bendis seems to have a knack for brilliant quips in general, so I guess it's no surprise that he knocks Spider-Man's banter out of the park.

And it's not like I can just skip Civil War in general and just stick to New Avengers. The Avengers were completely integral to the event, with the two team leaders (Captain America and Iron Man) being the central protagonists/antagonists as far as I've heard. It would be like reading about the political careers of FDR and Adolf Hitler while ignoring WWII.

To make matters worse, the central Civil War series was written by Mark Millar, who has recently become one of my fav writers after reading The Ultimates, Kick-Ass, and Superman: Red Sun. The man just has superhero deconstructionism in his blood, and I'm kind of stoked to see how he can obliterate the entire Marvel Universe.

God damn it. So many comics to read, so little brain space.


P.S. Speaking of Daredevil's TV series, I'm already planning to read Alias before Jessica Jones premieres on Netflix, and Matt Fraction and David Aja's Immortal Iron Fist before that show (which I'd be thrilled to read if only because it's got the exact same writer/artist team as the last Hawkeye series), but where to go for an introduction to Luke Cage?

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