I can haz comicz

[ellex42.livejournal.com]

Everyone here has been tremendously nice about guiding newbies to the world of comics in their purchases, so my first thought earlier this evening when I spotted an entire display of Avengers comics in a Half Price Books was to ask you guys.

They had an "Essential Iron Man Volume 2" at a very reasonable price.  It appeared to have a lot of older issues of "Tales of Suspense" featuring Captain America and Iron Man.  I love Tony and adore shipping him with Steve. 

What are your thoughts on this volume?  Snatch it up?  What makes it good?  Ignore it?  What makes it not so good?

Comments

[ellex42.livejournal.com]

I leafed through the book when I saw it and noticed that it was older comics (the design of the Iron Man armor is a great giveaway) and cheap paper. On the other hand, it's huge, it was $8, and I find the older stuff fun in part for the glimpse into social history. I'm not worried about reading stuff in order - it's far too late for that!

Thanks - you make some good points I'll need to think about.

[muccamukk]

I'd get it. I don't have that one, but I have Essential Cap from the same era, and it's a fun read. You have to enjoy a bit of crack with your crack, but I like the melodrama, and really stripping out the colours only improves the art.

[ellex42.livejournal.com]

Crack is always welcome! And it's very tempting at $8.

So much for the money I'm getting for selling them some of my books!

[ellex42.livejournal.com]

Thank you! No, I haven't read any of the Essential collections, but I have read some of the older Iron Man comics. At this point, I only remember some of the arcs I've read, and my reading has been all over the place since I've been limited by what I could borrow. I find the older comics generally interesting and amusing for the glimpse they provide into popular media of the era (transistors! magnets! No one wlll realize we don't know anything about science!). Except for the 80's. I already lived through that once, and Rhodey with purple fingernails and Tony with Hasselhoff hair made me shudder.

The book was only $8...I'm really tempted.

[mostepotente.livejournal.com]

I would buy it if you're into the 60s/70s comics. The essentials are great for getting a glimpse of the origins of characters (Hawkeye and Black Widow were both originally Iron Man villains!) and even though some of the backstories may have been retcon'd in the intervening years, it still provides an interesting insight into the characters at their genesis.

[ellex42.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm thinking now that if it's still there tomorrow, I'll get it. I do enjoy the older comics in part for the insight into popular media of the era (I guess they didn't teach kids how magnets worked in school in the 60's).

[mostepotente.livejournal.com]

What impresses me about the old ones is that the language was a lot more complicated than I would expect at a young preteen reading level. That, and hilarious 'so THAT's where that dumb line of thought came from', like when Tony tries to protect Pepper by being mean to her, and lets Natasha go because 'she's just a girl, she can't cause much trouble'.

[ellex42.livejournal.com]

LOL....yeah, a line like that wouldn't go over too well today, although there's still a fair amount of misogyny to be found in comics. It's interesting to see what was once socially acceptable that would be taboo today.