Sooo, I took a look at the most recent Marvel Previews (from last Wednesday), which featured a lot of HOUSE OF M issues/crossovers. From what I can gather (and this is mostly speculation and perhaps this has been revelead elsewhere and I just didn't see it), the Scarlet Witch is going to re-write Marvel history with Magneto as a guiding influence/force over everything (he's the M in House of M, or at least it stands for Maximoff, I'm guessing). Much like the Age of Apocalypse, then, all of the issues concerning this crossover will feature variations on the characters we've grown to love or hate.

On further thought, I've decided to avoid this event altogether. And based on IDENTITY CRISIS, COUNTDOWN and the first issue of the new OMAC mini, it's not looking too good for INFINITE CRISIS either.

Anyone else get the feeling we're living through the endtimes of the superhero genre?

I think you may be right....

I wish the companies would just stop publishing new stories and just start reprinting the classic stories....they could save on paying talent and we would have something readable very month.

Lately, on and off, I've been wondering if we never should have let ourselves grow up with this stuff at all, and instead just left it as a childhood thing and been done with it. Today we could be discussing comics with nothing but nostalgic joy the way they do in the Babar forums, or the Nancy Drew forums, or the Pillsbury Doughboy forums ... you know what I mean?

Once we started to take the books with us into adulthood, it was inevitable that they'd end up like this one day. New Fucking Avengers, Dead Beetle Crises. Tell me something, if one wants to read superhero stories, exactly what will be left after IC and HoM? The characters will all be "broken down and rebuilt", distrust each other, be unrecognisable ... or dead altogether ... and we'll be faced with yet another round of #1 issues with "Such-And-Such As You've Never Seen Him Before!" blaring from the covers.

Not your father's Such-And-Such! This series will change Such-And-Such's world forever! Oh ... great.

Forgive me for coming off like the ancient mariner, but I am fairly ancient. How many versions, reboots, refits, retcons, new directions, deconstructions, reimaginings and "arcs that change Such-And-Such's world F O R E V E R" do we have to read before we're allowed to say that nothing has been or ever could be anywhere near as satisfying as the stupid kiddie stuff we read when we first got into comics? Can we say that yet? Tell me when we can say that.

If you can ever give up the iconic characters (because they've given up on you, as you implied) then there's a host of fantastic independent superhero comics out there. Great art, classic storytelling, and none of this "I hate me" baggage that so disgusts you (and me).

Look, you like reading comics digitally, right? Check out one of my faves. It's reminiscent of Byrne's SHE-HULK. It's called MAN! and you can find it here:
http://www.komikwerks.com/episodes.php?ti=104&ep=1278

Simply put....yes.

And to think I wondered why my comic "The Amazing Adventures of Captain Courage" was deemed too "old school" for the dollar I was selling it for.

I saw all the House Of M stuff too. Can’t say I’m much interested in it. Hope is doesn’t mess up my regular books too much.

Best book I got last month: Essential Avengers Vol. 4

Linda,
Don’t give up on the Pillsbury Doughboy yet. He still kicks ass!