I've been desperately meaning to write a cblog over the last few weeks, but between wrapping up the summer term -- four classes left and then I can do Dtoid full time, thank eff! -- and putting the rest of my free time toward work here (mostly behind-the-scenes stuff), nothing has come to fruition until now. Part of that is also due to it being August; we're right on the cusp of regularly scheduled big-name videogame releases, but not quite there yet. And, frankly, there's not a whole lot on the immediate horizon of interest to me, game-wise, since a lot of what people DO seem to be genuinely excited about are new installments of franchises I'm not really into so much. It's a sleepy period, one that really does feel like the last leg of this console generation, and not even admittedly wonderful downloadable/indie games are enough.
So, with all that said, I gave up on trying to make this thing strictly videogame-related. But comics are close enough, right? I'm one of those weird people who always has to qualify that, "Yeah, I like comics ... in theory. I enjoy movie, television, and game adaptations, but I glean information from wikis and the like rather than actually read the damn things."
I doubt I'm alone in this, since comics -- while not necessarily expensive -- do add up quickly alongside other leisure interests. I'm also not entirely sure how I was able to avoid them growing up, because that would have been it for life. Done. As it turns out, the money side of it isn't the major roadblock. Rather, it's the nature of the medium.
Batman has always been my favorite, and after seeing
The Dark Knight Rises, I was compelled to seek out some comics after looking up Bane quotes on IMDB and scolding my kitten about his severe punishment (see below). The Internet gave me two or three starting points -- I opted to go with
Batman: The Long Halloween, which was a wise decision in retrospect. It's a terrific entry for people who like Nolan's grounded-in-reality take on Batman (as much as you can given the fiction, anyway) and have some general knowledge about the better-known characters and villains.
Tremendous stuff, and it taught me something: I can seriously get into comics if I'm not reading them issue by issue. Volumes, omnibuses, and the like are where it's at, as silly as that might sound. That's where you guys come in. I'm positive we've got some resident comic experts in here somewhere.
Where should I go next?
No thanks to Amazon's black magic, I went on a mini shopping spree and recently got
Dark Victory,
Hush,
Knightfall, Volume 1 (the paper quality makes me sad),
The Ultimates: Ultimate Collection, and
Astonishing X-Men, Vol. 1. So those and the ensuing volumes can be left out. But other than that, I'm open to pretty much anything as long as it's halfway decent, no matter the character, publisher, etc. Hit me with some recommendations, if you would be so kind.
Obligatory cat pic: