Quarter Bin #47 "Resurfacing Cerebus and Others"

Disclaimer: Comics featured in "Quarter Bin" are not necessarily from an actual quarter bin.  This is a column about back issues.

Aquaman Secret Files 2003 (DC)

From May 2003:

I don't have an extensive history reading Aquaman, but I've generally kept tabs on the character during the midst of my comics experience.  Perhaps the most notable stories of the past twenty years came from Peter David, who famously had Aquaman lose a hand and grow his hair out, so that he was more distinguishable from DC's other heroes.  Amazingly, the lost hand stuck around for years after David's run, and was even referenced when the character resurfaced in Brightest Day a few years ago.  After David, the character went back in search of direction, which at one point even included an assist from Savage Dragon's Erik Larsen.  It became pretty random.  Now, before recent years when a series was relaunched it was because a publisher was just trying to draw attention to a character whose visibility had been shrinking but who otherwise was still relevant enough to justify their own book.  Aquaman got that treatment, again, around the release of this Secret Files release.  Things did not really improve for the character, though.  By the end of the series a few years later Aquaman had been killed off and replaced pretty unceremoniously (although the Tad Williams issues of Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis are well worth reading).  The problems can be found here.  Apparently someone had the idea that Aquaman should be a fantasy character.  This is a problem, because Aquaman has always struggled for mainstream credentials.  You will never find mainstream credentials for someone like Aquaman by attempting to shape his stories into a niche genre.  Comics are already a niche genre, especially those featuring superheroes.  To ask a large pool of fans to care about a character you're suddenly limiting that much more in his appeal, without making him more compelling, is a recipe for disaster.  The one thing I learned from this special is that Vulko, a character Geoff Johns has been using in his current and far superior Aquaman, is an established supporting character.  But he's one, along with Mera, that Geoff uses far more effectively, along with everything else.  

Cerebus #262 (Aardvark-Vanaheim)

From January 2001:

One of the things I'm pretty mad at myself as a comics reader is that I didn't read Cerebus when I had the chance.  Cerebus is perhaps the most iconic indy comic that never went mainstream, a step below Jeff Smith's Bone and two behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  It's most famous for creator Dave Sim's vow to run it for three hundred issues, which he kept.  Part of the reason why it has more limited appeal than its more famous indy kin is that Cerebus was not about anything in particular, but rather whatever Sim wanted to explore.  The main character, like Groo, began life as a parody of Conan the Barbarian, an aardvark warrior of all things.  I had a chance to read some of its final issues as they were released, but at that time I was just getting my access to comic books, and wanted to reconnect with the superheroes I used to enjoy.  But don't feel bad, Cerebus fans.  I also skipped out on the final issues of Bone as well as Grant Morrison's New X-Men and Brian K. Vaughan's Y: The Last Man.  I was pretty much an idiot.  What it means for me as a reader today is that I have a chance to revisit Cerebus for the first time, and this is the very first issue I've ever read.  As I expected, Sim's concept of narrative is pretty loose.  This issue is part of the extended "Going Home" arc (it ran from #232 to 265).  Based on this tiny experience and what I know of the complete series, it may be worth arguing that Cerebus is the most cerebral, philosophical, literary comic book ever created.  I have every intention to eventually read the whole run.

Avengers: The Children's Crusade - Young Avengers (Marvel)

From May 2011:

Young Avengers from original creators Allan Heinberg and Jimmy Cheung was the best comic book Marvel published at the time.  It was a mix of old and new school, and a rare instance of attempting to create a new generation, or a new New Teen Titans if you will, wholesale and actually succeeding.  When Heinberg and Cheung reunited for The Children's Crusade, I expected everyone to be as pleased as the original series was beloved.  Yet it was met with massive indifference.  Now it has some historic importance, since the Scarlet Witch's return in the pages of Children's Crusade led to her considerable role in AvX and subsequent X-Men lore such as featured in All-New X-Men.  This particular issue from the Children's Crusade period was a one-shot that harks back to the original Young Avengers, with a strong focus on Iron Lad, who happens to be the younger version of the classic Avengers foe Kang the Conqueror.  The struggle between these two was a key element of the early days, but the longer the team stuck around the more the focus shifted to other characters, whether the emerging relationship between Wiccan and Hulkling or Patriot's growing ambivalence toward a continued superheroic career.  Yet Iron Lad's conflict remains fascinating and could easily support its own continuing story.  At the very least this special is worth reading to see how interesting it really is.  Because of things that were happening to me as Children's Crusade was being released, not only did I not read every issue (notably missing the finale), but I had no idea this even existed, so I was glad to discover it.  With a new Young Avengers series just begun, it'll always be worth looking back at what came before.