Rob Pawson @Rob_Pawson@mastodon.social

The new Marvel projects today (Phoenix, R&G) plus the continued excellence of Astonishing and Hawkeye takes some of the sting out of all of the recent cancellations. I'm going to miss many of those titles, but it is encouraging to see great new material released in their wake.

Enjoy your titles today! #ncbd #comics

Rogue & Gambit #1 (W: Kelly Thompson, A: Pere Perez C: Frank D'Armata, L: Joe Caramanga, Cov: Kris Anka) - this is my first time reading work by Pere Perez, and it is *gorgeous*. Thompson's affection for the titular characters shines through, and she has a good feel for voices of the supporting cast as well. Excited to see where this one goes! #ncbd #comics

Phoenix Resurrection #2 (W: Matthew Rosenberg, P: Carlos Pacheco, I: Rafael Fonteriz C: Rachelle Rosenberg, L: Travis Lanham) - WOW. The stakes feel real and very high, there's tons of easter eggs, the art just pops, the cast is huge - this feels like an old-time X-Men capital-E event. #ncbd #comics

The Infinite Loop: Nothing But The Truth #3 (W: Pierrick Colinet, Elsa Charretier A: Danielle Di Niculo, C: Sarah Stern, L: Ed Dukeshire, Cov: Elsa Charretier) - this universe continues to make very thoughtful observations about society and frames them in a compelling near-future setting. Great sci-fi, and beautiful to look at to boot. It's gonna be a treat to re-read both volumes once this series concludes. #ncbd #comics

Hawkeye # 7 (W: Kelly Thompson, A: Leonardo Romero, C: Jordie Bellaire, L: Joe Sabino, Cov: Julian Totino Todesco) - this creative team continues to fire on all cylinders. Kate's visit with her mother damn near broke my heart, I had to stop reading for a few minutes. Romero continues to draw the best panel sequences in the biz. It is nearly an actual crime that this series isn't continuing past March. #ncbd #comics

Astonishing X-Men #7 (W: Charles Souke, A&C: Phil Noto, L: Clayton Cowles, Cov: Mike Deodato & Frank Martin) - this story continues to unfold at a breakneck pace. The recently returned Xavier seems to be playing things very fast and loose, and I'm *still* waiting for the other shoe to drop with him. The issue concludes with another surprise return! This is currently the best ongoing X-team book imo. #ncbd #comics

Animosity Evolution #3 (W: Marguerite Bennett, A: Eric Gapstur, C: Rob Schwager, L: Marshall DIllon) - Animosity continues to entertain and surprise as it's world unfolds and evolves. This issue had a criminal investigation, an attempted hit on a witness, and a black market speakeasy that were all unlike any scenes like this I've seen or read before. #ncbd #comics

All right, it's the first #ncbd of 2018 and I have thoughts and observations about the books I read! Let's do this! #comics

Things seem to be more or less stable now that I've got my frequent sites updated. Forgot a few instances where I needed to share a password, but by and large this is working well. 2FA setup everywhere that offers it as well.

Starting the new year right...

...

...by tediously replacing all my old passwords with new strong randomly generated passwords via Dashlane. This is probably long overdue, but will be good for my peace of mind once I think I've updated all of my frequently visited sites.

I guess there's also 5 titles, not 4. Mastodon could use an edit button, just saying! #Comics

Anyway, that's the plan going forward for 2018. We'll see how I feel about it in a few months, but my wallet will likely be pretty grateful for the changes. And hopefully it takes the sting out of so many Marvel titles coming and going for me.

If you read to the end, thanks for reading. There is no prize. Not even a No-Prize™.

#Comics

So that summary I think also underscores why I decided not to bother collecting as many Marvel titles going forward. Marvel, in the past, has tended not to announced limited series or limited runs as such when they're released, and has also cancelled many series I collected. Voting with my dollars didn't make a difference there. While other stuff (Weapon H? Weapon X) continues to seemingly thrive. So I'm just avoiding this dissonance by reading on MU instead.

#Comics

- 4 were long running series that reached their announced conclusion (only 1 of these was Marvel)
- 3 are series that are On Hold for a variety of reasons - I decided not to keep those on my list for now, and I can decide how/if to collected them or read them should they ever come to pass

#Comics

- 10 were dropped as I plan to continue to read them on Marvel Unlimited with a 6-month wait from release date
- 8 were dropped because the series was cancelled (all 8 were cancelled by Marvel)
- 7 were announced limited series that had concluded (only 1 of these was from Marvel)
- 6 I just dropped due to lack of interest/commitment
- 5 were dropped because they switched to a new volume / numbering (all Marvel)
(cont'd)

#Comics

Another part of my League of ComicsGeeks subscription page helps underscore why I thought this was a good time to make these changes to how I read and collect comics going forward.

The subscription page keeps tracks of subscriptions that were "Recently Dropped". For a variety of reasons, my page shows **43** titles that I recently dropped. The reasons behind these break down as follows:

#Comics