As the saying goes, “There’s no pleasing everyone”. And I know first hand the fine line we walk each week as reviewers.

When I started my reviews on AICN, I wanted to put everything into context. I remember my review of Booster Gold #0, where I drew parallels to Johns’ work on this book and Giffen’s work in the 1980’s Justice League.

Topping out at close to 1000 words, this tome to days of yore was met with a bit of talkback venom and griping. “Bug rein these guys in, enough of this remember when blah…blah…blah…”, wrote one irate Talkbacker.

So what do we do as reviewers? We want to please our readership, while still getting enjoyment out of this pro bono activity. Also, many of us have been collecting books for a long time. By pointing out where the book has been and where it’s going is just natural pontification for those of us with a pulp fetish.

Comics are serial in nature, building off of the momentum of past stories. On the same token each new issue brings with it a new air of vitality (or at least it should). I think both sides are right.

I’ve been marketing for fifteen years, and Marvel is indeed trying to capture new readers with Secret Invasion. Companies do not spend marketing dollars without a clear plan of attack. Why didn’t we see Brand new Day in Entertainment Weekly or any other Marvel title as of late? Why? Because EW is a channel to capture non-comic fans. If they just wanted the comic fan base they would have skipped the advertising money and just did an interview with Wizard. Even if the EW piece wasn’t a “paid” advertisement, marvel had to pay marketing dollars to make non-comic pubs aware of this book.

I would have applauded either a contextual review or looking at Secret Invasion with fresh non-jaded eyes as Stone so admirably did.

As I said, no pleasing everyone.

While I wasn’t really concerned with where Amnesty International will be 1000 years from now, I wondered how the hell the evil Justice league erased every damn historical record of Superman’s true existence. No matter how good any smear campaign might be, people will not dispute a deluge of documented facts.

Let’s no make mistake that Earth in this title parallels Nazi Germany. What made Hitler so “effective” (God I’m nauseous from writing that) was the fact that were very few books espousing the virtues of Judaism.

Plus in the pre intertube days information was a precious commodity held by only those who could afford it.

It’s only 2008 and the sheer volume of information on the Internet is staggering. Barring any apocalyptic event, I can only see information in the year 3000 being a million times more voluminous.

**QUOTE:"This is a terrible comic book. Titans #1 fails on nearly every conceivable level. Nearly everything about it is wrong-headed, and closer examination makes it fall apart even further. It’s something like this book, alongside things like Countdown, that reveals profound cracks in the DC editorial process."

Se e, I may be rude and crass at any given moment but at least I'm not an ignorant simp like you. Next time address a subject you actually know something about dipshit.

"Trash gets picked up."

**DIRECT QUOTE: NRAMA: Let’s get back into the kid who dons the mask and the set up…this is the “real world?”

MM: Right. Our world. The world right outside your window. It's a story about what would happen if you made a suit tonight and went out looking for trouble, using all the great things we love about superhero comics... from secret identities, arch enemies, horrible situations and so on. It's everything we've ever seen happening at once and turned up to eleven.

Uh-huh. Try again you fucking HACK.

House of M was dubbed a Big Event, as was Civil War. If you are a follower of the mutant titles the whole Messiah Complex storyline was also dubbed a Big Event.

I’m truly starting to become desensitized to Big Events, because every fucking issue I read these days, on both sides of the big houses, is an infinitesimal part of a Big Event.

Hey, I enjoy a good cross-over story as much as the next guy. I’ve also never been cheap with my comic buys, so this is not a money issue. But does anyone remember when the cross-over or cross tie-in events used to be special and only happen like once a year?

It feels like as of late every “chestnut” title is engrained in a year long story arc that ties-in to some other over arching universe shattering event.

I’m probably just being an old fuck, suffering from juvenile Alzheimer’s disease, but I remember when big events took you by surprise, they were contained between one to two titles, and they were over in like three months.

I enjoyed the living hell out of Uncanny 496 (for the first time in a long time) because it didn’t harp the shit storm surrounding the mutant titles. It touched on it briefly and then showed three characters I have grown to love over the past thirty years of my life, just being themselves.

My point is that these big events are turning into the boy who cried wolf. I hope after Final Crisis and Secret Invasion, the dust finally settles and both houses get back to great self-contained story telling.

Rock-Me got the point. When everything is an event, you can no longer call them events. They are just regular bloated stories.

When you no longer steal your comic money from your Mom's purse, perhaps you will be a bit more critical on where your hard earned comic dollars are being spent.

And if you think I'm old, most of your coveted newsarama reviewers are in their forties.

Hell, you should think your opinion is the right one, otherwise why have it.

What's bothersome is the inability to listen (in this case read) to a conflicting point without retaliating with base name calling as the lead in.

Hey, I get it. This is a message board, where flaming was conceived. I've done it in the past when my ire gets raised and perhaps I am a Nancy Boy, but I believe in civility.

That's just how I roll.

Woudl hate to lose you Psynapse, you have some good things to say.

Debate, I'm cool with, and I will be the first to admit my flaws or when I'm wrong.

Different strokes for different folks makes the world go around.

My issue is when people derail the topic to just throw out a personal barb or a jab during these verbal parles.

Seems unecessary and it veers the topic way the hell off point.

That's my only issue.

But, like I said earlier...I could be wrong.

You are right about one thing though. It is a message board. No one is going to agree on everything.

I think the problem now is the back to back to ones.

OK, you had Infinite Crisis, which sort of reset things. Then we had 52, which brought back the multi-verse. OK I like "What If" stories, so this is as good a way as any to address alternate universes.

I just don't know what they are trying to acheive with Final Crisis.

I tend to avoid all spoiler sites and pubs, so those of you that read Previews, enlighten me please if you have the answer.

Equate. Verb-1. to regard, treat, or represent as equivalent: We cannot equate the possession of wealth with goodness. 2. to state the equality of or between; put in the form of an equation: to equate growing prosperity with the physical health of a nation. 3. to reduce to an average; make such correction or allowance in as will reduce to a common standard of comparison.

Compare. Verb-1. to examine (two or more objects, ideas, people, etc.) in order to note similarities and differences: to compare two pieces of cloth; to compare the governments of two nations. 2. to consider or describe as similar; liken: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 3. Grammar. to form or display the degrees of comparison of (an adjective or adverb).

I was making comparisons NOT equating. I know the difference but my detractors apparently do not.

I'm just intrigued to hear your take.

Not trying to start anything. I would just appreciate a reply to my questions. Thanks.

Perhaps my love of it is mere nostalgia. I was coming of age when the first crisis came out, and that post-crisis time period marked my jump from Richie Rich and Archie to the superhero universes.

Perhaps I love what the first Crisis wrought, over the actual event it self.

Without that Crisis I would not have had some of the stories I still cherish: Giffen’s Justice league, Batman Year One, Batman Year Two, Emerald Dawn, The Worlds of Krypton, Smallville, Metropolis, Wally West as the Flash etc…

As a new fan it gave me a great jumping off point.

I guess I just answered my own question on why they are doing another one. Silly reviewer, comics are for kids.

300 words, now GO!

Heroes are paired off, stripped of powers and we've been asking people to write up 300 words on who would come out alive.

Really lame ass joke on my part out of context.

trolling cocksuckers.

And the only cogent argument I've seen you provide is the one where you claim to be better than everybody else. Only blowhards and bullies do that. My highlightin' of this particular fact is my fuckin' contribution to the discussion.

I couldn't agree more.

I hate Ret-Cons, so I wished they would have had the hutzpah to kill off the women in Peter's life.

More realistic and it would have given him a whole new bag of troubles to contend with.

I stopped with regular Spidey, during the JMS run. No fault of JMS', I was just tired of the sameness of the book. Plus I hated the cheap movie tie-in of the black suit.

Ultimate Spidey. I have enjoyed every damn issue since #1.

Just not pleased with the aftermath.

No, if you review a comic as a reader and a fan and not a critic -- because I can't imagine anything more embarrassing than being a comic book critic and I've reviewed a billion six comics on here-- you should just be able to pick up an issue off the shelves like you are a new reader. I know that new comic book readers are rarer than comic book writers who've read back issues by other people, but if you have to know what's been done in other comics, the creative team isn't doing their job. If they've laid seeds in previous work, then they have to be able to incorporate it into the new work.

Can you imagine any other medium working this way? "That guy can't review the episode of LOST because he didn't watch every episode of FELICITY for seeds that JJ sowed back then."

Or "No wonder you didn't get the joke the 75th Judd Apatow movie to come out this month. He set it up in the bonus feature of THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, but it really ties into FREAKS & GEEKS, and besides the punch line won't be revealed until next summer's SETH ROGEN CLONE FARM."

First of all, look at the name. It's got Skrull written all over it. Sure, it's possible there are Kryptonian influences, but he is a Marvel character, after all.

And how can we overlook the character's appearance. Except for when he looks like body parts from the Fantastic Four, he looks like the Skrulls.

Since you apparently have to read back issues to know what's going on, let me site SILVER SURFER VOL 2:

SURFER: Your people have lost the power to shape shift.

SUPER SKRULL: You dare mock our misfortune? I will--

SURFER:You misunderstand, Skrull. You alone have that power. You are your race's hope to regain their place in the cosmic order.

Sounds to me like both the Surfer and the Super Skrull are all but saying the Super Skrull is, in fact, a Skrull.

That’s why the book I’m trying to cobble together right now borrows elements from our world but just slightly eschews them. It’s just my thang.

I loved the fact that House of M took me on an alternate reality (sorta) joyride. Also as you said it gave us the New X-Factor which is hands down my favorite Marvel book at the moment. Plus it helped clean up a lot of the mess that the mutant titles were sliding down with the mutant “explosion” of the early twenty-first century aught time period.

Glad you agree on Legion. I have very specific tastes, so I hope people consider that when they read my reviews. I’m way more of a story guy than anything else. This was a great story. I wish I could tell you how it ties into Final Crisis, but I avoide previews and spoilers like the plague.

This is why I wanted to review for AICN. While I wouldn’t mind getting books a week ahead of time, I would never want a review up until the book hit the shelves and the readership had time to digest.

Just how I roll.

That's why I'm jealous of Bendis. He's headed to Iowa State next year in the 145 class, one of the toughest.