A few weeks back, I finally got the guts to drop Green Lantern from my pull list. And since just about everything other title I was buying as of March 2012 has either come to an end or joined Hal by the wayside, I now only buy two DC titles on a monthly basis: All-Star Western and Batman: Li'l Gotham (more on those later). This notion is still a bit of a shock for me. When I started buying comics regularly over 20 years ago, I started with only two, and they were both DC. Specifically, I bought Batman and Detective Comics, because I was obsessed with the character thanks to the Tim Burton movie. DC was my comics foundation, and Batman my first building block. The next title I got hooked on was The Demon, and I wouldn't have even looked at it if Batman hadn't made an appearance in it. I slowly began to pick up other comics from other companies, but DC got more dollars out of me than anyone in the those first few years, to the point where, in the late 1990s, I had at least 10 DC titles in my pull box (half of which here written by Chuck Dixon, so they crisscrossed each other quite a bit, making one HUGE story).
I'd drop a title from time to time, of course, but DC overall never lost its luster for me. That was home. I lived in Gotham, commuted to Bludhaven, occasionally visited Metropolis (and Hawaii when Superboy lived there), spent time in Manchester, and would jump in a time bubble to travel to the 30th Century (with rare visits to the 19th as well to see how Jonah Hex was doing). But then, not long after I made Coast City a regular stop, things got shaky for me. After Infinite Crisis wrapped up in 2006, DC had their "One Year Later" event, wherein every title suddenly jumped ahead, and many readers found themselves in unfamiliar territory. Friends became foes (and vice versa), characters changed for better or worse, and I began to develop a bad taste in my mouth when reading titles I'd once loved. The Bat-family suffered the most, as I just stopped liking the people I'd spent the past 15 years with. Nightwing went first, then DC made the hard choice for me and cancelled Robin and Birds of Prey around the same time they "killed" Bruce Wayne, an event I used as a good excuse to stop buying Batman and 'Tec as well. The version of the Legion of Super-Heroes I liked had vanished months earlier, so I vanished from that era as well. I kept trying to hang on to the DCU as best I could, but it was becoming harder to find something I enjoyed, at least when it came to new offerings. I found myself diving into back-issue boxes, looking for titles I'd missed the first time around, and enjoying them much more than what currently populated the comics racks.
Then "The New 52" hit like a final nail in the coffin. I tried like Hell to find something new to buy, I really did, but there's so many strangers with familiar faces looking back at me now when I peruse the racks. I even tried the Earth 2 stuff, but I couldn't bring myself to care about these people who just happen to share names with Golden Age legends. Congratulations, DC, you've done a lovely job of making me feel like an old woman with outdated tastes...except for the two titles that continue to entertain me.
All-Star Western: The current storyarc actually makes me giddy. I managed to unload many of the feelings I had regarding "Future Hex" years ago, but that doesn't stop me from wishing that it could be done over again, and done right. I think J&J are, so far, doing it right. They familiarized Jonah with the notion of time travel in ASW#19-20 before chucking him ass-over-teakettle in #21, and though I wish we could slow down a little, Jonah's reactions to the situation so far are wonderful. Plus I think the fact that we're dealing with here-and-now 2013 as opposed to blasted-to-Hell 2050 will help in the long run: there's no need to invent and explain everything to the reader, just to Jonah (if he cares to listen). However, I am pissed off that there's no ASW in September. Pardon my French, but I don't give a shit about Villains Month, and 3D covers ain't gonna sway me otherwise -- matter of fact, this whole event is what convinced me to finally drop Green Lantern. I also pray that J&J don't repeat Fleisher's mistake of leaving Jonah in the "future" with no feasible way back. That won't win any points with me or any other Hex-nut.
Batman: Li'l Gotham: This comic reminds me of Batman: The Animated Series, in that it can be serious when the moment calls for it, then it'll hit a humorous note without being overly silly. All the characters are perfectly-distilled versions of themselves poured into chibi-style bodies, and Damien...I actually like Damien here! I thought he was a little psychotic bastard in the regular Bat-titles, but here he's toned down to the level of a kid that just needs restraining from time to time. But the most remarkable thing about it? The cast is unaffected by all those "The New 52" changes. Barbara is still Oracle and in charge of the Birds of Prey, plus both Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain make appearances. I can live in this Gotham happily, with its turkey rampages and Mr. Freeze making slides out of ice because he likes slides.
My only fear is that Batman: Li'l Gotham will be a limited series, as it's actually reprinting a digital-first title. If it comes to an end, then all I've have left is Jonah in All-Star Western, and if DC ever decides that keeping Hex-nuts happy isn't worth the title's low numbers, then I'll be left out in the cold. No more DC titles, not unless things seriously change over there. I won't be bereft of comics, of course. I buy about a half-dozen other titles from various companies, so don't worry about me having nothing to spend my money on. But still, it'll be a sad day when I go into the shop and my pull box has no DC offerings in it.
I don't want to lose my home, but I feel like I'm being evicted.
