Another Comic Book Summer

Free Comic Book Day has come and gone, Memorial Day weekend has passed, Heroes Con is over, and San Diego's Comic-Con is only seven weeks away. We've had two comic book summer movies hit theaters already, and Green Lantern is set for its debut in two short weeks.

Both DC and Marvel are right in the middle of their big event books for the year, and the deluge of tie-ins and crossovers has started from both companies. Big movies, major conventions, and mega-events at the Big Two.

What does all of this mean? Well, that's easy. It's officially the summertime, folks.

And for comic book fans, that means the best time of the year is upon us. Hollywood caters to us, whole cities turn into fanboy- and fangirl-friendly meccas of pop culture, and the publishers...well...they give us even more books to buy.

So far this comic book summer, I've seen Thor, and I have plans to see X-Men: First Class sometime next week. I haven't yet been to a convention, and I won't be to one until the New York Con in October. I have a wedding the weekend of the Baltimore show, or else I'd definitely be there.

And as for the comics themselves, I'm caught up on both big events--Flashpoint, from DC, and Fear Itself, from Marvel.

I've been immersed in DC's event, buying up all of the crossover titles and really, really enjoying what they're doing. The whole event feels like one big, giant Elseworlds tale, and being a fan of those stories, I'm eating this new DCU up.

Actually, I'll be going into a longer review of the DC titles later this week, so stay tuned for that.

On the other side of the street, I'm reading the main Fear Itself book and liking it well enough, but for the most part I'm avoiding the tie-ins from the House of Ideas.

DC's offering of the tie-ins to Flashpoint at $2.99 makes a big difference in a weekly comics budget, and as a result, I've branched out a bit and tried every one of the new tie-ins, which is something I haven't done in years.

I feel that Marvel's $3.99 price point across the board makes jumping into something new more of a decision than it really ought to be.

Still, there's plenty of quality comics out there for a whole summer's worth of reading, and even if I don't have the time these days to lounge around and read outside, there's just nothing better than a good book on a summer day.

Even if I have to read it in my car for half an hour at lunchtime.

My comic book summer is off to a good start, and I'm looking forward to the coming months. More movies, more cons, and more comics. Sounds pretty good to me. So how about you guys? Any comic book summer plans?