Earth's Mightiest Whozits? The Green Whatdidyoucallhim?!

I'm an unabashed comic book geek. On the last Wednesday of every month, I drive across town to an independently owned comic book store and empty my pull file.* Years ago, I read every book published by Marvel. And I mean every book. These days, I'm a little more picky in my comic book reading. Without sitting down and counting every title, I probably have 20 comics on my present pull file list. When I get my comics home, I sit down at the dining room table and organize them in the order they'll be read. I start with the comics about which I'm most excited and move down in decreasing order. I like all the comics I buy, but I enjoy some more than others. These days, the pile goes something like this:

Green Lantern
Iron Man
Astonishing X-men
The Avengers
Teen Titan
The Outsiders
Star Wars: Republic
Justice League
Justice Society
Star Wars: Empire

For the last several months, I've been hearing internet rumblings about significant changes for at least two of favorites: The Avengers and Green Lantern. Both comics have always been at the top of my monthly pile for the better part of ten years. As one might imagine, I'm not thrilled to hear the changes are real. If you read comics and don't want to be spoiled, don't read any further.

Let's start with The Avengers. Since the 1960s, The Avengers have always been recognized as THE super team of Marvel Comics. With Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor as the big three, joined by 2nd tier characters as Wasp, Antman/Yellowjacket/Goliath/Dr. Pym, Hawkeye, The Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Vision, Hercules, The Black Knight, She-Hulk, Wonder Man, The Falcon, Gilgamesh and a host of others, the team lineup has remained fairly consistent for the better part of 40 years. There have been some deviations, of course, but the core of the team has remained fairly stable. Last Friday, Marvel unveiled a new line-up for The Avengers: Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-man, Spider-woman, Wolverine, and The Sentry. What?! Captain American and Iron Man aside, the remaining characters AREN'T AVENGERS. The Spider characters work best as loners and always have. That's part of who they are as characters. I don't even know this Sentry character. He apparently appeared in some off-beat mini series several years back. Such an obscure character isn't Avenger material. And do I even need to rant about Wolverine?! Not only will he be an Avenger, but he'll also remain active in a million X-books. Aaarrrggghhhh! Where's Hawkeye, Hercules, or She-Hulk? Where's the Vision, Crystal, or the Black Knight? This New Avengers team (yes, that's what they're calling it) isn't Earth's Mightiest Heroes. I don't know what they are, but I'm giving serious consideration to dropping The Avengers as a monthly comic. Changing the dynamics isn't the solution to low sales--hiring proficient writers is the solution to low sales. Good writers=good stories=increased sales.

What's up with the Green Lantern? DC is bringing back Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern. For the last decade, Kyle Rayner has been the wielder of the last remaining Oan power ring . . . and I've loved every minute of it. From what little is known, Hal Jordan will become the focus of the main Green Lantern comic, John Stewart will remain the JLA Green Lantern, and nobody knows what's going to happen to Kyle. If he doesn't get his own book or join one of the team books, I'll be extremely miffed with the DC powers-that-be. So much for my all-time favorite comic book character, eh?


*A pull file is just like a subscription except the comic book store pulls the comics off the rack and saves them for you behind the counter. For comic book purists, this keep the comics from getting damaged in the mail ala regular subscription.