I had a problem.
Free Comic Book Day conflicted with a
birthday party and a graduation party. Most comic book shops open at 10 AM and
it just so happened that the birthday party and graduation party ran back to
back starting at…you guessed it…10 AM. So what do I do? I could have a buddy of
mine pick up the comics I’m looking for, but honestly the best part of FCBD is
seeing what the shop is giving way that’s off the FCBD menu. Then I found a
possible solution. I found a shop near the graduation party that advertised a
restock of the FCBD comics at 4 PM. I’m taking a bit of a chance, but this
could work…
So I’m there at the graduation party and we’ve hit a lull in the conversation when I notice it is 3:30 PM. Perfect. I have just
enough time to sneak out. Grab some comics. Sneak back and finish out the party
for 30 or so minutes. Everything was working to plan until…
Hmm… There’s no table for the free comics. No sign of them
at all actually. Wait…
What’s that…
It’s an empty space on the shelf with a tag for FCBD. Oh! I
see what’s happening here. They’ve mixed in the FCBD comics alphabetically by title
with all the other new releases. That’s an interesting way to get the customer
to check out all the new stuff. Oh look there’s another FCBD tag... with an
empty space where the comic should be. Hmm. Over there is an empty space with
an FCBD tag… Empty space... FCBD tag... Empty space... FCBD tag... I see a
disturbing pattern here.
Wait! What’s this!
Found one! And another!
Looks like there’s 6 in total out of
the possible 50.
And of those I didn’t take Tex Patagonia (not feeling it for
some reason) or I Hate Image (not a great idea to have a Mature rated comic
that looks like it’s for kids in a house with kids. Mistakes are bound to
happen). So here I am with 4 comics, none of which I can really let my kids
have.
It turns out that this particular comic shop got slammed
early and often by people wanting their free comics. So they had to dip into
their 4PM supply which means: no comics for me. I guess the old saying “The
customer is always right” holds true in the sense that it’s the customer
located in the shop that has the power, not the one that will be there later
according to information on the website. Whammy. That’s like getting blown off
the sidewalk by a speeding coffee truck
I probably made a face like that too.
So here’s the lesson’s learned:
(1) Go to Free Comic Book Day early. Otherwise, don’t expect
much.
(2) Just enjoy the experience. Would you get upset if someone gave you one free comic?
No. So why get upset about only getting 4 free comics?
It turns out that as I was searching through the comics looking for the last available freebies, I met a guy doing the same thing. But
this guy was not as skilled at finding the FCBD tags as I was. So I got the
chance to help the guy out. And it turns out he was there to get comics for his
daughter. He sounded most excited to get the Betty & Veronica comic since I
seemed like that was a special request of hers. If nothing else, it made it seem worth it for me to be there.
The good day gone bad…
…becomes WORTHY…
Wait? What?!? Evil Cap is somehow able to steal the hammer from Thor? How do you feel about them apples, Captain America and Thor
fans? You both got pooped on at the same time!
Me? I’ve learned to roll with it. The most notable comic
books have always been about doing something drastic. I’m interested to see
where the writer goes with this. He said they will be exploring what it really
means to be “worthy.” The good news is that, if it works, it can be a really
interesting dig into a bigger idea and what worth means in the real world. The
other good news, if it doesn’t work, it’ll all be retconned or explained away
later such that everything will be back to the way you want it, dear reader.
MID CREDITS SCENE
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the Spider-Man story.
Peter Parker has always rubbed me the wrong way as not very likable and a bit
whiny, but this FCBD did an amazing job. It played off Peter Parker's propensity
for poor puns (BOOM! How do you like me now, alliteration!)
It lulls you to sleep with a bunch of bad jokes…
…then hits you with a funny one out of nowhere. Did he just
make fun of Falcon and Logan? Nice!
Then turns it all back on Spider-Man to make him look like
the goof. All the while introducing an updated villain.
Best of all, the bad jokes to hide a key clue that somehow it
seems Vulture has stolen technology from SHIELD.
“I--the name was free!” Ha! Cuz the Falcon is now Captian
America. And now also an important plot point.
Nice work, Spider-Man team Chip Zdarsky and Adam Kubert. You
made exactly what I want in a Free Comic Book Day delivery. I expect there to
be fluff since you’re really using FCBD to get us to buy from the series, but
you made the fluff not only enjoyable, but turned it into a plot device simultaneously introducing two future paths to work off of. Bravo.