What a waste

My current comic book store is a little odd. They are the only shop I have been to that puts aside for you just the comics you subscribe to.

This may sound like a good thing, but other shops will say, "Matt reads Green Lantern; he probably will want this Flash book with Green Arrow in it." Or "Matt reads Avengers comics; I bet he'd like this spinoff." I liked it because the extra books were good reads; it pays off for the store because they aren't giving me these extras for free. I did not have to take them but if I did I had to buy them.

But not my current store. Only what I order. I suspect they order very few comics beyond what are ordered so they don't have extras to tempt folks with.

When I saw my latest purchases, I was reminded of this policy and kind of annoyed. I got Amazing Spider-Man 700, the last Amazing issue but not the first issue of the next series.

My annoyance quickly disappeared, though, thanks to bad art (or at least a style I hate) and the stupidest plot twist I have ever read, and that includes the Spider-Man where he made a deal with the devil so no one knew he was Spidey and MJ and he weren't married.

I feel pretty OK saying what the twist was because the issue came out in December, but just in case: SPOILER ALERT







They kill off Peter Parker. I saw a headline about it in December. I ignored it, thinking it couldn't be really true. But yes. Doc Ock, who was dying, managed to swap brains with Peter. And there was no swap-back. Doc Ock, with Peter's mind, died. Peter, with Doc Ock's mind, lived. The new Peter has all the old Peter's memories and his feelings. But am I really supposed to read the Adventures of Doc Ock?

So stupid.