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2011 was quite a year in the world of comics in general and for me specifically. For me there was the opening of a new comic store. I had been buying my comics online for quite some time until the new store opened up, and had been reading my comics anywhere from a week to two weeks behind when they came out. I have to say that it is so nice to be able to actually go to a store on Wednesdays and pick up all the new titles that have come out.
There is of course a downside to having a local store. As with most stores, this means that I have access to Previews and the opportunity to order from it. I could have gotten Previews from the online store, but I just couldn't bring myself to do so. So, for the past couple of years I've been collecting mostly comics with a few collectibles that I caught wind of. Well, that definitely changed this past year.
This year we were hit with a number of comic movies. Some inspired by lesser known comics, and then there were of course the major hero movies. For the major hero movies we had Thor, Captain America, X-Men: First Class, and of course Green Lantern. Out of all the movies I have to say I thought X-Men was the best. The one I enjoyed the least, was unfortunately Green Lantern. I still have it on Blu, and I have loaned it out to many people who didn't see it in the theater, and so far I have yet to talk to someone who didn't at least like it a lot. The only thing I can say is that being a Green Lantern fan for so long, I didn't have as much to learn in the movie. That apparently is what people liked about it so much, understanding who Hal Jordan was and how he became a Green Lantern. Of course, while the movie may not have connected with me as it did others, it did bring about a major influx of Green Lantern merchandise.
As I was saying earlier, I've only picked up a few collectibles over the past few years of buying comics online. That changed once I had both a local comic shop and the Green Lantern property was blowing up due to events in the comics and the movie. Needless to say, I have bought a whole lot of Green Lantern merchandise this past year. One of the people who works at the new shop said he was a Green Lantern fan when we first met. After we became friends a short time later he came over to my place and I showed him all the stuff I had collected over the years. He was shocked. Now whenever he meets anyone who comes into the store declaring they have collected a lot of Green Lantern stuff over the years, he says, "No, our customer Wally collects a lot of Green Lantern stuff." It's pretty amusing.
Moving away from the personal impacts of comics this year and turning back to the world of comics itself, we've had our fair share of major events to enjoy and be upset by. However, it's difficult to deny that when you look at everything that happened in the realm of comics, that DC's "New 52" is at the top of list. Love it, hate it, or exist somewhere in the spectrum between those two extremes, there is no way you avoided it. It was not only a huge move, but a huge gamble. Customers would be lost, and customers would be gained. The question was (and still is) would the number of customers that DC kept after the launch of the "New 52" make the move worth it?
While I think we're still quite a bit of time away from being able to say if the "New 52" was a complete success, I think it's fair to say that it has been a short-term success. There are still the people that complain on various sites, and it's their right to do so. Some characters have changed drastically or vanished altogether. That's something that's difficult to deal with in general. Humans don't deal well with change. Comic geeks? We can be quite a fickle lot, so we deal with it even worse most of the time in my opinion. Still, DC is sticking to their choice and moving forward with this new universe of theirs. I picked up a number of new titles from them and stayed with many that were "continuing" (so to speak). I started out with 23 of the new 52 and that's still where I am. Some of the titles I was concern about are already getting better, others are still questionable. Still, to get a fair understanding and judgment of the "New 52" I will be sticking with all 23 titles until at least issue #6. DC took a gamble, but I think it has (and will) pay off in the long run.
For me and the world of comic collecting, 2011 was one heck of a year. I'm actually hoping that 2012 will be much more calm. As the "New 52" moves forward we will start seeing the upcoming events for the DC Universe spinning up (we're already seeing it happen in some titles). Personally, I am hoping that the number of collectibles for Green Lantern will die down, or I may just have to start being more picky in what I buy. Still, it's been fun. I can say that right now though that 2012 looks to be a new angle on reading for me. I've always been more DC and Marvel than anything else, but I'm really getting into more creator owned stuff here recently. Perhaps 2012 will be the year I look more into that corner of the comic book realm. I hope your 2011 was a great one and your 2012 will be just as good or better. In the least, we have an Avengers movie to look forward to. That's enough for me right now.
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