#@@I have tried to find something worth reading in the new Marvel Now. I subscribed to nearly every title and tried to give those titles at least an arc or a few issues to win me over. After a year plus some change, I have a few solid titles I can't miss and truly find myself looking forward to. The rest have been somewhat of a disappointment. My Marvel pull list has been something like a war of attrition with several titles falling to the the "white long box of the damned".

Now don't get me wrong. There's titles and characters WORTH reading over there at Marvel. I think my dis-taste falls somewhere in between the Marvel Comics I knew as a kid, and what happened when I wasn't paying attention... You know that time in our lives when a young mans fancy turns to women and... Yeah, short story I got married, had a kid, got a job, and didn't read comics for nearly 15 years... blah, blah, blah. This isn't a tirade about my perception of how things were better back in the day (MY day)... that's B.S. and subjective. This is simply my take on why I can't seem to find my place in the Marvel Now! and probably never will again.

Like I said, there are still several Marvel titles I get as part of a sub service I have. I'll get to why I like those. There are FAR too many I was subbing to and dropped to go into detail on them all. I'll highlight a few of those as well.

I think my biggest problem with the current Marvel U is the crossover. I HATE crossovers. I can deal with them when contained to a select few titles or within a Characters "Family Titles" ie., Batman Night of The Owls was fantastic. Since Marvel Now! launched there was Age of Ultron, Infinity, and now that Inhumanity event or "fallout" or whatever the hell it is, and quite frankly it's confusing, distracting, and frustrating. Why would you do something on that scale so soon into a bunch of books that were still trying to "find their legs"? I had no interest in Infinity, or Age of Ultron mostly cause they spanned every single book in the Marvel Now! with a tie-in. If they'd waited a year before something of that scale and magnitude maybe I'd have been interested. As an outsider trying to find my way back in and get a "feel" for what these characters had become since I was "gone" I was even more lost, and became immediately dis-interested. As it stands now most of the titles I read are self contained or have a "sister" title. I find those more accessible to a new fan or an old reader trying to get caught up on a character.

My next biggest pet peeve is musical artists/writers. In the old days (wait, I said I wouldn't do that, right? Just this once... promise) there was a gradual process to a artist with a different "style". Take Amazing Spider-Man in the late eighties and early nineties. McFarlane to Larsen. I didn't pay too much attention to it in those days, but I will say that it was damn near a year before I realized McFarlane wasn't penciling ASM anymore. I've already fallen victim to Cho and McGuinness (to name a few) suck me in with the promise of wonderful pencils only to move on to something else after a few issues or an arc. Savage Wolverine and Nova... That's an old bait and switch in my opinion. Not a fan.

The last thing I can put a definitive finger on as to why I'm just not into Marvel anymore is the Doom and Gloom. Its a little too realistic (for me some of the pencils I think), a little too dark, a little un-heroic in my opinion. Some may love it, that's why its called progress, I however can get a dose of that crap by turning on the 6 o'clock news. It seems to me anyway most of what I've read has been like a build up with no payoff. Misleading covers, and a lack of action, but a whole lot of friggin' dialogue. I'm not fond of 15 issues to play out an arc. I like a good in depth story, but c'mon man. The formula is simple. Protagonist is challenged by an antagonist, faces several hurdles in attempt to resolve confrontation. Insert subplots here and there to tease the next arc. Rinse and repeat. I want ACTION. I want superheros doing superheroic things.... Why? Cause I can't. I can however stand around and extrapolate about the evils in the world, meaning of life, and why I believe the worlds screwed up... So why do I want to watch my Heros do that? Seems like I get more action out of my Marvel video games... and that's just sad.

A current list of my Marvel Pulls.

All New X-Men

Amazing Spider-Man (not yet released)

Avengers - I'm on the fence with this one. The art is fantastic, but I'm not exactly warming to Hickman's story telling. It's like a Costner movie... Full of big names and pretty sets, but about an hour too long. The dialogue is long and the action too short for my tastes. If I didn't need it to get my discount plateau I would drop it... and have. Twice. I never got into New Avengers which I permanently dropped towards the Infinity conclusion and since this title has "sister titles" in New Avengers and the recently released Avengers World I'm thinking that its days are finally numbered in my pull list.

Avengers World - See above.

Captain America - I never really read Cap as a kid. My Marvel staples were Amazing Spider-Man, Wolverine, X-Men, Punisher, and G.I. Joe. Yeah, G.I. Joe. Marvel licensed it in the 80's. Outside of the occasional Cap issue I picked up cause the cover looked intriguing I just didn't have an Interest in a guy who was known for fighting Nazi's. He just seemed out of place and out of time. I like this Cap cause its not what you'd expect. I didn't completely enjoy the first arc. It had its moments, but like most everything I seem to reading in Marvel Now! waaay too long. The art is "Kirbyesque" and the story has enough to keep you coming back to see what happens next. I'm not sure I like the direction its about to take though. I have no idea who Dr. Mindbubble is, and kind of find him to be unrealistic and ridiculous even by comic book standards.

Deadpool - Guns? Check. Katanas? Check. Red and Black costume? Check. Crazy? Double Check. It's Deadpool. $#@*! is gonna get blown up, there's gonna be blood, and smart ass comments. What more could you want? Having a middle aged African-American woman trapped in his head takes the voices to a new level. Love this book and its the first one I read when it arrives.

Guardians Of The Galaxy - I'm on the fence with this one as well. Love the characters, love the story so far, but that infinity event hurt this title in my opinion. It created a "pause" in the story that was just an irritating distraction. Sure, Gamora is linked to Thanos and has a vested interest in seeing the Mad Titan destroyed, but I would have rather seen a great first arc to this title and had the Guardians making cameos in other Characters Infinity tie-ins. It has potential to be great and with a summer movie looming it should get even more attention from the casual readers. I hope to see it go somewhere soon though and find its unique identity. Again, the title is barely 12 issues in and here's ANOTHER crossover. This time with the All New X-Men.

Punisher - One issue in, and I am not up to speed with what's been going on in Frank Castles life. He's in L.A. now. He's about to take on a Drug Cartel, and I have high hopes. With so many disappointments in my Marvel Now! experiences in the past year, I wasn't even going to try anything new Marvel puts out this year, so I already broke a personal vow to not replace any Marvel titles I drop with more Marvel titles when I subbed the Punisher. Which is a shame, because I'm kind of intrigued by the New Ghost Rider and the X-Force title.

Secret Avengers

Superior Spider-Man

Superior Spider-Man Team Up

Thor: God Of Thunder

Uncanny Avengers

There's really only a handful there I couldn't go without. I've dropped at least a dozen others, and some may notice besides All New X-Men, there are no X titles. Just can't find one I like.