How can I know what's actually good when...

...it seems like every review on the site is either a four or five star review? Surely there can't be loads of 5 star comics released every week. Could we be a little more discerning, perhaps?

I love comics as much as the next reader of this site, but perhaps we should separate our fanboy and girl-isms from our critical eye(s). At this point, I just assume nearly every comic is amazing in the opinion of Comicvine and therefore don't even factor these reviews into my purchasing decisions.

@mitran: Amazing! I hadn't thought of that!

While I don't base my purchasing decisions solely on reviews, they can help to sway me if I'm unfamiliar with a book or am on the fence regarding a purchase. And yes, I do read different reviews, but at this point, I don't even bother reading ComicVine reviews when every issue is given a four or five. Why bother doing reviews if everything is awesome?

Ign has a pretty good team of reviewers on their site. They don't always factor into my decision when buying but they have been pretty spot on with most of their rankings. I owe them a lot for their reviews of new series or mini-series that come out.

You could read my reviews. :)

They would only be helpful if you want to know about very low selling comics that came out in the previous month though.

I've heard that the CV staff don't want to waste their time reading books they know they won't like - that's why it seems everyone loves every book.

I go by word of mouth and my own opinion over reviews most of the time....I have a few friends who I feel we have very similar tastes so if one of them is constantly saying that a book is great then I'm going to check it out....@inferiorego's constant praise of Saga is the reason that I checked it out and I'm very happy that I did

or if a book is coming out that has a creative team that I enjoy or a character that I like then I'll check it out and go from there

the thing is that the staff here reviews the books that they themselves read...so they're not going to be constantly giving bad reviews to books still on their pull list

This^. They don't read books that suck, because why would anyone do that to themselves? If a book they expected to be good sucks, they will give it a low score; it's happened.

If I reviewed comics, I wouldn't bother reviewing terrible books. I only feel like talking about a story if it's a good one (4 or 5 stars)

To see how bad it is.

Yep, Red Lanterns didn't get consistent reviews until a creative team that they liked joined and the reviews were fairly regular then.

How about not using somebody else's opinion to determine what you like. Buy a book about a character that interests you. If you like it, buy it again, if not, then don't. It really is that simple. It's hard to believe comics have been around longer than the internet and people actually reviewing them.

NEVER let reviews sway you on whether you want to get something... nice to see other peoples thoughts on stuff after you have read it though.

First, don't go simply by ratings. Read the actual reviews.

Second, use your own judgement. I, personally, only use reviews if I am on the fence about something. Aside from that, I just ask people what their thoughts are.

Talk to people at the shop/s where you buy your comics. The employees generally make it their business to know what's good, and depending on what you're looking for will have read the comic in question and can tell you whether or not they'd recommend it.

I'm the only staff member that flat out said that. Usually, the other staffers are given books that they may be interested in, but it's a crap shoot. I'm the picky one who doesn't want to waste time with things I won't enjoy.

Read them yourself and decide on your own whether you like it. I know forming your own opinion is out of style now days but its really the only way you will actually know if you personally will like something or not.