Super Saturday - Random Comic Reviews: The Introduction

Sometimes I get an itch to go back and read a comic book run that I missed.  There's plenty to work with as I missed a lot of the Marvel and DC events from the last ten years or so. I am generally aware of what happened in most of them, but I didn't read them and with all of the animated shows & movies turning up on Netflix, the live action shows on the networks, and the big movies I thought it was time to go back to the source material. I am making a slow but continuing effort to catch up and as I do, I figure I might as well post my thoughts on them here.

Since there will likely be plenty of these kinds of posts in the near future here is my background - there are 4 long boxes in my closet:

• One is a nearly complete run of Iron Man from about Issue 100 to about issue 300
• One is a bunch of 80's-90's Avengers comics
• One is a nearly complete run of West Coast Avengers
• One is a bunch of 80's - 90's X-Men acquired somewhat by accident but still worth keeping

I've owned quite a few others over the years but these are the one's that stuck and formed the core of my formative years. Beyond them I was there when Secret Wars was new, when Crisis on Infinite Earths was breaking up DC's universe, and when the Ninja Turtles were a fairly dark black and white indie book.I was an on and off comic book guy from the late 70's to the early 90's so the 80's is my chronological sweet spot, with Marvel as my general discipline, and the Avengers and their related books as my specialization.

I'm not a snob about it - I have read some Marvel and Indie stuff recently and intend to catch up on my DC gaps as well. Over the last few years I started paying attention again and went back to Avengers Disassembled, the New Avengers, and Civil War with side trips to Planet Hulk and Annihilation. I also tried to keep up with DC's New 52 but dropped out after about a year.  For this exploration of history I've gone electronic unless I can find cheap trades.

Now this exploration will not just be the newer stuff - there were a lot of books I did not follow closely even in the 80's. I also have an idea about trying to read, say, all of the Superman or Batman books from, the year I was born onward.  It's a tall order but it should be fun. More to come!