My Latest "Guilty Pleasure"

I firmly believe that no single issue of a comic book should cost $5.

I started reading comics just after the price hike from $.12 to a quarter. This was The Bronze Age of Comics, just after Gwen Stacy's death. One of my earliest comics was an issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, where he fights The Tarantula (a truly politically incorrect and stereotypical rogue); and, is confronted by a Gwen Clone and The Gremlin. It was in a three-pack with an issue of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. Might have been a buck for the three-pack. I started reading Batman around the same time because I was a fan of the '60's TV series - still am.

From that point on, cover prices jumped to thirty-five cents, forty, fifty; then a buck, buck and a quarter, buck-ninety-five. Once the cover price got over a buck, it just kept going up and up until we're now at $3.95 or $4.99 for a single issue cover price. Which is ridiculous.

And yet... I've gone to Wal-Mart and gotten three issues of Batman Giant, an issue of Justice League Giant and the Swamp Thing Halloween Horror.

I'm trying to figure out how to track down an issue I missed. I missed Batman Giant 2. I'm trying to figure out how to track it down without it costing an arm and a leg. I checked eBay - yowza!

The reason I'm not a fan of these over-priced exclusives is that out of 100 pages, there's only a twelve-page original story. That's it. Twelve pages out of 100. The rest is reprint.Four stories in the Batman Giant, nine in the Swamp Thing Giant.

My question is, who decided to reprint the Hush storyline in Batman Giant? I thought Hush was pretty innovative. It involved the entire Batman Family; drawing in Superman and Lois Lane. It pretty much included nearly all of Batman's rogues. It introduced a new Bat-villain. Not the greatest Bat-villain, but a new one. The final reveal was pretty amazing to, as to who was really behind the whole thing. Turns out it was one of my favorite Bat-villains, thanks to Frank Gorshin. Although the story was written by Jeph Loeb, the art for Hush and Origin reprinting in the Justice League Giant and by Jim Lee. One of the critiques I have of the 2011 reboot of the Justice League in Origin is that the team's costumes are to complicated. The simple design is gone and replaced by a busy, over-complicated style. Lee's Hush was a nine issue series - nine months to tell that story. Six to tell Origin. That seems to be the way stories are written anymore. Six issues to collect in a trade paperback. Now it's coming back around as a reprint in an anthology comic book.

Batman Giant 3 started a Batman-Riddler story by Brian Michael Bendis, who wrote Ultimate Spider-Man. He's written Jessica Jones, too. He created a comic called Powers. He's working on Superman for DC Comics, now. It was a big deal that he went from Marvel to DC.

The Swamp Thing Halloween Horror Giant is interesting for a number of reasons. It's a pretty timely anthology collection comic out in October. It does feature an original Swamp Thing story, along with a Swamp Thing reprint. The other reprints do look recent. There is a Classic Batman and Robin story. Night of the Reaper, from Batman 237, December 1971! It's more of a Gothic murder mystery, set at the Annual Rutland Parade in Vermont.

The other thing that is interesting is that the stories feature more Superman, Batman - even Aquaman! Aquaman and The Demon! There's a unique pairing. I'm surprised that there isn't a John Constantine: Hellblazer, Sandman, Phantom Stranger, Spectre, Dr. Fate, Solomon Grundy or Shade story in there. Not even a Sinestro, or Sinestro Corps story. I jest.

Do you shop at Wal-Mart? When you head to the check-out, do you stop by the aisle where the collectibles are? That's the aisle the DC 100 Page Giant display is. Along with trading cards, bobble heads and other chachkeis are. DC is publishing four titles that are exclusive to Wal-Mart: Superman, Batman, Justice League and Teen Titans.I'm a Batman fan, so that was the one that caught my eye. Brian Michael Bendis has his critics, I'm not one of them. I'm enjoying his Batman-Riddler story. He's introduced a great- great- great- (not sure how many greats to go here) grand-daughter of Western hero Jonah Hex. There's something about Batman and Jonah Hex that is cool.

Like I said, I'm trying to figure out how to track down a cipy of Batman Giant 2 without it costing an arm and a leg. I think Batman Giant is going to fit in with my bucket list of gathering all twenty issues of The Batman Family from the '70's.