Here we read comics, mostly about the big print ones, but I'm interested in indie comics as well. Really, I just wanted to scream about how good Infamous Iron Man is, but since there isn't an existing thread I figure I'll have to set things up with a little more context. *Finishes reading a stack of comics and screams* So I grew up with a bunch of brothers and never really went through a true phase of girly interests aside from the superficial and for entirely different motivations. I was familiar with a lot of comics stuff (like knowing Lobo who was my brother's favorite character), but as with Star Wars, I didn't think much of my enjoyment of these things as anything other than the normal amount of interest one had in entertainment. I watched the various animated series of my time in the late 90s and never had a true preference between watching whatever show was on, so I was reasonably familiar with Batman, Spiderman, Superman and the X-Men with a bit of the Justice League. I read a lot of novels in my adolescence but the only comics I read was the various Manga which tended to catch my eye for being the weird shit that my other friends weren't into. (I'm a hipster, I tend to avoid things that are popular until they become uncool again) I did read some webcomics, most notably in this case, which was Dr. McNinja (I should decompress about that some time in my personal thread) I met my now-ex there after he lost his mind over the fact that an attractive young woman had read the Dark Tower series and was within driving distance to him. In any case, he was my first true education in comics. We started with the Bruce Wayne Murderer story arc and I immediately fixated on Cassandra Cain and I still want to cosplay her Batgirl. We then read a JSA series (which one escapes me at the moment, I have it somewhere but) and I met the next love of my life in Power Girl. JSA and then especially the original Justice League International run cemented my love of all things comics, in that era I was strongly biased towards DC. Legacy characters, weird histories, Camp and heroes who were icons. Then the new 52 happens, and between that and the Brony fandom I was reborn a feminist. My education in Marvel had been lacking, but included The Ultimates, which was my first introduction to the Avengers, 1602 which really allowed me to understand the fundamentals of the characters and Dynamics of the world and then Civil War. Captain America, both Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes cemented what I needed from comics. Steve Rogers is the purest example of what Iconic means to me. I fell in love with him not just because of his dedication in 1602 to stop the genocide of Native Americans before it happened, but in a New Avengers issue whilst captured by the enmy, restrained in power neutralizing cuffs and stripped naked, his first response upon waking was "Surrender!" I'm much closer to Bucky Barnes. As much as I initially derided Marvel as being too focused on gritty angst whereas I preferred my comics light escapist fantasies, all I write and live for is tragedy. Steve makes a nice surrogate for what my Big Brother meant to me, someone to look up to and Idolize that I could never hope to be. And thus I was immediately identifying with Bucky's broken past and pragmatic dedication to a future of earning ones worth. BuckyNat is one of the greatest comics romances OF ALL TIME right up there with Lois Lane and Clark Kent or Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, only without the crinhey problematic phase of golden and silver age comics era prejudices. Bucky and Natasha are brilliant partner's, great foils to one another and the best of friends, every moment between them is the admiration and respect of equals who Choose each other. Naturally comics being comics it didn't last but it still cements itself as #goals I fell out of comics a bit, but enjoyed the MCU despite the conflicts between fans who could only recognize one continuity. I didn't really drift back into it until I had a friend who collects them regularly. For the last year or two I've been reading Ms Marvel, the Chsmpions and Infamous Iron Man. Today I read a pile that included the final issues of many of those as well as some promising starts. I haven't read so many wholesome comics at once in forever, so if you follow any of those please come scream with me about them. Some day I will get back into DC, but once bitten twice shy and all that, just as I have only ever opened two issues of Rick Remender's Cap and none of the Nazi Steve shenanigans. Next up I need to catch up on Black Widow so I can be even more pissed off about the fallout of that.
