Wednesday's Ramble: The Comic Book Shop Owner Knows Me by Name

Wednesday’s Ramble 

The comic book shop owner knows me by name.

How is this possible? A former athlete and former coffee house snob who detested coffee cannot become a comic book geek…or can they? Perhaps my 90’s infatuation with coffee houses heaves up awareness to the geek possibility. But seriously though, I was a tough hard nose soccer player. However, retrospectively, we (the soccer players) all knew Wonder Woman kicked ass. We must have been in tune with our inner geek.

Removed from the coolness of bygone youth, I venture to my comic book shop weekly. If you are a true comic book geek then you know what day of the week I venture to my comic book shop. If you do not, then I am assuming that you do not follow Will Wheaton on your twitter account. (If you do not know who Will Wheaton is, then I give up entirely on you)

What started as random visits to comic book stores to pick up my son’s copy of Dark Horse’s Star Wars the Clone Wars turned into watching Clone Wars on the Cartoon Network which turned into my son watching “Batman the Brave and the Bold” on the Cartoon Network—which turned into buying “The Batman Brave and the Bold” comic book—which led to watching “Young Justice” on the Cartoon Network—which led to my son collecting “Young Justice” comic books. I could continue breaking laws of grammar by rambling on about this pattern but I am going to spare the horrors of my writing errors by summarizing that my once superman-obsessed husband began picking up random comics and soon, so did I. Once DC launched “Flash Point” and the “All new 52,” my random visits to the comic book store became weekly.

Having grown up with a Marvel-head older brother, the DC storylines were novel to me.  I confess that I once collected “Power Pack” as a kid (do not judge me) and enjoyed the occasional Iron Man story while my brother loved the X-Men. My brother, since removed from the comic book world, upon hearing of my weekly visits to the shop threatened me over the phone “you better be buying Marvel.”

Alas, I have become a DC girl.

Seriously, though—why must I choose?

I am reading several of the new 52’s. Some are great and some are as unpleasant as the Penguin’s laugh. But do tell me, Marvel fans, what do you suggest that I read?

*the above ramble was written while watching a hockey game on TV. Any Canadian dialect that can be detected in the writing was not intended.  

*stay tuned for my perspective as to which 52 are worth buying and which I have given up on