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First Impressions, Second Chances
playdohsrepublic
Posts: 1,377
Just read someone's comment about having tried to read a book and not being able to get into it, giving it a second chance down the road and liking it. It reminded me of my experience with "Annihilation". I read two issues and put it down never to be read again. It was way too out there, with characters that I always thought were too powerful, therefore boring, and it didn't seem to have an impact on the more mainstream Marvel titles I was reading at the time.
Then few years later a buddy was raving about it and I had nothing new to read so I gave it a second shot. I was blown away by how much I loved it. It was a sweeping space-opera, a war story, a book that felt like it had consuequences for the characters because it was less important than the major Marvel book. Soon I had everything from that era of Marvel Cosmic.
Anyone else have a similar experience? What was it that turned you off initially? Why'd you come back? What do you think changed your perception of the book?
Then few years later a buddy was raving about it and I had nothing new to read so I gave it a second shot. I was blown away by how much I loved it. It was a sweeping space-opera, a war story, a book that felt like it had consuequences for the characters because it was less important than the major Marvel book. Soon I had everything from that era of Marvel Cosmic.
Anyone else have a similar experience? What was it that turned you off initially? Why'd you come back? What do you think changed your perception of the book?
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But actually Saga is a pretty good example of what I was talking about before. After I read the first 2 issues I was dissappointed. It had been sold to me as a Star Wars like space opera with curse words (I'm paraphrasing BKV's quote here), and I didn't get that feeling at all. The story felt small. But I reread the issues when I picked up the trade (I'm a huge BKV fan so I decided to give it another chance, plus Fiona Staples art was gorgeous enough to warrant it I thought), and I finished the first arc and it became clear that all the space stuff, the science fiction elements were set dressing to tell a wonderful story about the different kinds of parent-child relationships. Once my perception changed, all the different themes came together and what was flat the first time around was a beautiful work of art the second.
As for Saga's parental relationship aspect all the major players have some kind of parental situation that is driving the story.
Obviously Alana and Marko are new parents.
Marko's parents, and therefore Alana's parental in-laws.
The Will is an adoptive parental figure to Slave girl.
Prince Robot is an expectant father, who has a difficult relationship with his own father.
The author from issue 12 wrote his book because of the son he lost to suicide.
Otherwise I tend to find it's individual artists I've turned around on as I've gotten older. Sal Buscema I didn't care for as a kid, but love now. Likewise, I remember being bummed out whenever Rick Leonardi filled in for Silvestri on X-Men, but nowadays I recognise him as being a pretty great artist in his own right.
I hated Barry Windsor-Smith's (at that time, simply Barry Smith) first comic works, dismissing him as a poor man's Kirby wannabe; I ate those words after he started doing some creative layouts for Daredevil and the Avengers -- and then he blew me away with his work on Conan.
Did I learn anything from this? Apparently not. Because after picking up the second issue of the then-new Cerebus The Aardvark, I dismissed Dave Sim as a poor man's Windsor-Smith wannabe.
And the cycle goes on...
I'm in book mode right now so I can't put that temptation in front of me, but it might be the next comic series I read.
For me, it was Sandman. The second time around, probably 15 years later, I read it again, and couldn't get into it at all.