Weekly Reader, August 15, 2018

[Jeff]

Starting up tomorrow's list early since it's my last day at work and I'll be pretty busy exiting.

Marvel Unlimited
Tales of Suspense 101
Doctor Aphra 16
Avengers 678
Avengers 679
Hawkeye 15
Black Bolt 10

ComiXology
Batman 53
DC Comics Presents: Batman Noir 1 (2011)
Flash 52
Hal Jordan & the Green Lantern Corps 50
Helsing 1 (2014)
Justice League 6
New Challengers 4
Plastic Man 3
Red Hood & the Outsiders 25
The Sixth Gun TPB Vol 4
Strangers in Paradise 61
Strangers in Paradise 62
Strangers in Paradise 63
Superman 2
The Wild Storm TPB Vol 1

[Jeff]

Made it through the Marvel list.

Marvel Unlimited
Tales of Suspense 101
Doctor Aphra 16
Avengers 678
Avengers 679
Hawkeye 15
Black Bolt 10

ComiXology
Batman 53
DC Comics Presents: Batman Noir 1 (2011)
Flash 52
Hal Jordan & the Green Lantern Corps 50
Helsing 1 (2014)
Justice League 6
New Challengers 4
Plastic Man 3
Red Hood & the Outsiders 25
The Sixth Gun TPB Vol 4
Strangers in Paradise 61
Strangers in Paradise 62
Strangers in Paradise 63
Superman 2
The Wild Storm TPB Vol 1

[Jimmy T]

I, ah...been in a bit of a dry spell for interest.

I was able to read up on Unlimited this weekend some; That Venom,Inc/symbiote story ending (gawds, I hate symbiotes now and forever. Washed out, watered down junk is all it is now ugh.)
-Cable issue 15..7? Man, with this art, this is SUCH a 90s story!
-Daredevil ...595 or something. First issue of Matt Murdock as City attorney. Nothing exciting, honestly. Just set up. Not interesting, really, with Muse returning *yawns*
-Um...oh yeah Dr. Strange as

An Asgardian Demi-god!! And using the Void to take up all of Strange's evil just makes the Sentry that much better of a man! BRILLIANT!!

Great issue.
-Weapon X something or other with the Nuke(s) storyline. I have hated every single occurrence of Nuke since after his inception in Daredevil comics. He is a terrible F***ING character that I wish would just wash away. I don't get Genis Vell, but this hunk of crap remains?
-Avengers part 1 of No Surrender. I feel Avengers event fatigued and I have no idea why.

I think I just caught some of what Perry has currently- 'comicolyses malaiseoemia'. Just...out of it, Feel like comics are passing me by.

Doesn't help that my main guys, DC, have lost my dollars, with, yes, Superman. Dropped both those titles. Super Sons was cancelled due to those plans. So, that's 3 books I'm down. Also, Wonder Woman turned to such sh!t with Robinson and that f***ing damned twin brother, so I'm out. And there's a fill in for, like, 3-4 issues. No thanks at all. If I want pedestrian WW stories, I'll just read most of the decade after Perez left the title. I feel Terrifics will get cancelled in just about any day now. Mister Miracle is almost over. I don't have to depend on Doomsday Clock publishing schedule.  I'll only ever get Batman in a digital trade; I just don't stay current with his stuff, and now I feel REALLY behind with King's work.
Snyder's Justice League is still being bought....yeah...
And so far I'm still digging on Aquaman and Hawkman.
Here's to whatever is going on in my head!

I've actually started buying up old roleplaying games manuals and books.So, I've returned to ebay, and did some good hunting, so my comic money is going elsewhere right now too-and that also is okay with me currently.

Doesn't help that with the baby right now, the daycare, and waiting for another year for the wife's Master's degree to start helping us financially, waiting and working on getting Junior out of diapers, and a lease coming up on the car that money just doesn't seem as ...fun. So, I take it in small doses where I can.

Because I hate my job, my 'job-life' I should say. I'm having a hard time balancing being 'me' and being a parent with a baby that still won't sleep through the night, a terrible two, my dad who was hiding congestive heart failure from me, and oh yeah, my health is utter shit because I get so depressed at work that I leave to just go sit in a restaurant and have some soda refills and chill with my sodokus for 30 minutes as I escape the world.

Whoops. TMI. OH well there it is.

[Jeff]

Your leasing a car??!!?!?!?  Dude ditch that and pay cash for a used car.  No car payments is the way to go!

[Perry]

Your leasing a car??!!?!?!?  Dude ditch that and pay cash for a used car.  No car payments is the way to go!

Sounds like a guy that has enough cash laying around to buy a used car.
 
Kidding, kidding
 

As someone that spent a good portion of his youth underneath the hoods of used cars, repairing them, IN THE DAMN SNOW MOST OF THE TIME  I am a firm believer in the adage "when you buy a used car you buy someone else's problem", but cars are a lot better than they used to be compared back to when I was 18-24, a car with a 100k is nothing nowadays for example, so the saying doesn't carry the same weight  . Still, I will never buy used again. I am burnt out from those damn things.
 

But yeah, leasing is about the highest car payment you can have. If you are going that route, why not buy the vehicle? Unless you are a "new car every 3 years" kinda guy, then sure, leasing is the way to go. Expensive as hell, but the way to go if you are switching cars a lot.

But enough of life lessons.
 

I, ah...been in a bit of a dry spell for interest.

I think I just caught some of what Perry has currently- 'comicolyses malaiseoemia'.

Haha, yeah, I have that!!!

I decided to go Marvel Unlimited, finally, hoping that reading some older runs will help me get back into the drive, the happiness I once had. I chose poorly picking "Fantastic Four 1243" as Morrison really slams the shit out of the famlly in the first couple issues. Not saying it is poorly written (though it kinda is), but not really an uplifting title when you are trying to find the joy again.
 

Gonna try the Marvel Knights version next, "4", hopefully that will be as strong as I remember it being when it first hit

[Jimmy T]

Well, with the lease, it was 'I have a car, this Monday' and then 'It's Tuesday; I no longer have a car!!!'

And a close friend was manager at the lot, and I got A REAL big discount for this lease, so, at the time, it seemed right, and I'm...okay with it.

It may have been more the wife's idea....and following 'happy wife, happy life' I went with it....even though I really truly believe we shouldn't have. 

But now I get to rectify it-next year May.

And no, I"m certainly not a new car every 3 years kind of guy. I bought a 2000 Chevy Impala in 2001-and then drove it for nearly 16 years!! I put 200K on the car myself, with only a numbered 10 trips out of state in that entire time-and 8 of those were to Illinois, which is only 115 miles for me! So, I make them last.

Just to banish the idea from her head that buying a car with between 65-80,000 mile is a death sentence...until I DO buy the one that is a Dead Car Walking. Mostly why we were' trying to find a Odyssesy, since that one lasts so long, and has such good rated reliability and resale value. Some day, I'd prefer to not buy so used, but...financially it's foolish for us to do so at this juncture.

[Jeff]

In all fairness I normally buy a car that’s one to two years old so someone else took the depreciation hit.  And I will finance it for no more than three years but almost always pay it off in one year.  Then we start socking away money for the next car little by little.  I drive a car for 8 to 10 years so that’s lots of time to build up some cash.  I’m due for my next car next summer and have been working on that purchase.  You could easily say I’m still “making a car payment “ but just doing it on the front end instead of the back.  Took me 20 years to figure that out so if the advice  helps any of you youngins, take it.  Grin

Now back to comics......

Marvel Unlimited
Tales of Suspense 101
Doctor Aphra 16
Avengers 678
Avengers 679
Hawkeye 15
Black Bolt 10

ComiXology
Batman 53
DC Comics Presents: Batman Noir 1 (2011)
Flash 52
Hal Jordan & the Green Lantern Corps 50
Helsing 1 (2014)
Justice League 6
New Challengers 4
Plastic Man 3
Red Hood & the Outsiders 25
The Sixth Gun TPB Vol 4
Strangers in Paradise 61
Strangers in Paradise 62
Strangers in Paradise 63
Superman 2
The Wild Storm TPB Vol 1

Probably won’t make it to the two trades this round but really enjoying the DC reads this week.  That Batman Noir comic from a few years back helped fill my fix for Brubaker and Philips work.  Nice little one shot. 👍🏻

[Jeff]

Oh and I’m a full supporter of the happy wife happy life philosophy Jimmy so I hope I didn’t come off as judgmental.

[Perry]

Oh and I’m a full supporter of the happy wife happy life philosophy Jimmy ...

THIS!! A thousand times this

... so I hope I didn’t come off as judgmental.

This too of course 

[Jimmy T]

Oh, not at all guys. All is good. I hate leasing, because renting a car seems really stupid to me, but coming off a job change due to being let go, and a 2 month old baby in my lap meant getting a car ASAP.  So, for only 200 bucks a month, and keeping wife happy, meant driving a leased car with only 16 miles on it. Been trying to save up and pay ahead, like that Jeff, and I know it'll only get easier from here on out to do it.
But she's so leary of getting a vehicle with over 30k miles on it, and it drives me crazy. Her current car, now mine, she bought with 65k on it.. in 2 years (dealership vehicle for driving and transport). She bought that when she was just a girlfriend, but it drove me crazy, for that mileage on 2 years of use, and still paid over 12k for the car. But now we can't buy older used? Again, something else to drive me crazy!

[Jeff]

Really surprised I got this far.  I started my new job on Monday and I’ve been beat by the time I get home.  Had some good reads this week though. 

Marvel Unlimited
Tales of Suspense 101
Doctor Aphra 16
Avengers 678
Avengers 679
Hawkeye 15
Black Bolt 10

ComiXology
Batman 53
DC Comics Presents: Batman Noir 1 (2011)
Flash 52
Hal Jordan & the Green Lantern Corps 50
Helsing 1 (2014)
Justice League 6
New Challengers 4
Plastic Man 3
Red Hood & the Outsiders 25
The Sixth Gun TPB Vol 4
Strangers in Paradise 61
Strangers in Paradise 62
Strangers in Paradise 63
Superman 2
The Wild Storm TPB Vol 1

[Perry]

Hope your new job is going well for ya, Jeff!

I didn't bust out a lot, and I have forgotten some of what I read ... I know I read another title  , but this is what I know I got done

Batgirl #25 - An okay issue, but, I want to be here for Pelletier, but I am struggling. One more issue I think.
Wildstorm #16 - Just sucks for me this is only 24 issues. I mean, really really sucks. I love this entire universe.
(Went back and grabbed Snyder's Justice League #1 to start over this week. I want to come in fresh so I am going to read 1-6 in one sitting to see if it grabs me or not. Tried to start at issue #2, but with the Source Wall stuff I just need to restart. I should go all the way back to the four issue mini prior to JL #1, but I am not putting myself through that again.
  I am noticing how this DC Universe is now shaping out to be like Marvel's Agents of SHIELD season ... 2 ... or 4? Whichever one had them looking for all the Chitari stuff. That is what seems to be happening here)

Sentry #1 - Decent enough start
Fantastic Four 1234 #1
Fantastic Four 1234 #2
Fantastic Four 1234 #3 - Being both excited by the fact that the FF has returned and is once again being published by Marvel and also, at the same time, very let down with the first issue of said return, I wanted to read some FF of days gone by to get the love revitalized. Wow did I pick the wrong mini for that  This is a Four like ... just no. Still an interesting read/take, don't get me wrong, but not an uplifting read to say the least. And I am sure, by now, someone has told Jae Lee (whom I do like) that you can't just draw glasses on the Moleman that shows his entire eyes!!! He wears those things to limit the light coming into his eyes, not to frame around them
 

The Weatherman #3
Pearl #1 - Another Bendis creator title,. but now with a DC smell  Didn't hit for me. I'm out. Probably take 13 months to get 4 issues out anyway ... Hahaha... ZING!!