FCBD 2012: One Aging Fanboy’s Opinion

[[wysiwyg_imageupload:1646:]]TGIFCBD!

I don’t know about you, True Believer, but I had a ball on Free Comic Book Day, after 40-plus years as a fanboy (fan-gramps?) my first at my LCS.

Oh, what this would’ve meant to me back in my younger days when books were cheaper, more entertaining and bucks were more plentiful.

Now, of course, even though there were some great deals (thank you, Moonlite Comics of Frankfort, KY), these things are of course designed to get a lot of people into the store where things other than free books (older books, HCs, DVDs, models, action figures, swag, etc. etc.) can be uncarted at terrific bargain prices – and so they were!

Of course, the real treasures of this year’s FCBD, IMHO, were the mostly-new material books from DC and BOOM! Studios.

From DC, we got the great The New 52 #1, featuring a great gate splash starring the Justice League and other characters who will be involved in something called Trinity War next year. How is that for early promotion?

This adventure really gives us some background and insight into the hints that Justice League writer Geoff Johns has been dropping since September. Colonel Steve Trevor is BMOC hereabouts, as liaison to the League. He also has many worries of his own, as this publication shows well.

In continuity, the story takes place after the last Justice League issue and, I would wager, before the next, so kudos on great continuity here.

The saga herein is Pandora’s search for her box (lol?), its capture and threads leading to what will be on the New 52 menu next year. And there are some fine hints here also about Justice League stories to come, as well as its connection to its backup, Shazam.

Next from BOOM! Studios, home of the fine sci-fi comic, Planet of the Apes, and its many minis, we were treated to an early sampling of pure DnA cosmology.

Yep, that is right! CBN fan fave writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning team with Guardians of the Galaxy co-creator Brad Walker to sling off their Marvel Comics shackles and bring us the story of their own cosmic creations, The Hypernaturals!

While we do not know much yet about this future world, there are already intriguing threads being dropped in DnA fashion to set up future stories. A thanks to BOOM! Studios for letting these great creators of cosmic fare loose to do what they do best: create!

In an email I received from Dan Abnett shortly after I read Hypernaturals, the scribe said, in part: “We’re really having fun with HN, and I believe we’ve got some great ideas, characters and plot lines to unleash when the series comes around.”

The team, in the FCBD story celebrating the 100th year of Hypernaturals activity, is not just released upon some cosmic big-bad. They do investigate some wrongness in an important corner of their universe and — well, all contact is lost and something terrible happens to at least one of this newbie HN brigade.

So what do the officials on Earth do? Well, it looks as though they will be bringing in former HNs to help solve the problem and find the Centennial Year Iteration. The question is, do they want to assist?

Hope you had fun at your LCS last Saturday. I did!