My Week In Comics: Free Comic Book Day!

You can't go wrong with something that's free, right? Well, sometimes you get what you pay for. So it was with Free Comic Book Day. Each year on the first Saturday in May, comic book stores give away free books, especially provided by the publishers. The FCBD website lists 23 different free comics that were being given out this year.

This is the first time I actually went to a store on the day itself. I wasn't sure I would make it, but there was one book I really needed to get and I didn't want to risk waiting and hoping the supply wouldn't run out. Fortunately, softball practice ended early enough that I could make it to the store and get home in time for the last two periods of the Flyers playoff game. The store had a three-book limit on the freebies, but I ended up buying one of the non-free books anyway.

War of the Supermen 0: You can probably guess that this was the one I absolutely had to have. It's just a prologue to the main event, which will be occurring over the next 4 weeks (chronicling a war that lasts 100 minutes -- 25 minutes per issue), so not much actually happens. There are two stories here. First, Superman confronts General Zod, who's just declared war on Earth. Then, there's a short summary of what got us to this point, via a story being written by Lois Lane, who gets a surprise visitor on a dark and stormy night in the conveniently empty Daily Planet offices.

Bongo Comics Free-For-All 2010: Probably the best bargain of my three freebies, from the publisher of Simpsons Comics (and related titles) and Futurama Comics, although nothing Futurama is in this free book. There are four stories of various length, including a superhero mashup called "The League of Extraordinary Barts" starring Bartman, Stretch Dude and the Cupcake Kid. (And, by the way, I still don't understand why Bongo Comics doesn't have a website.)

Green Hornet 1 FCBD Edition: A publisher called Dynamite Entertainment provides the first few pages from 5 different stories starring the Green Hornet and Kato, set at various times (from the inside cover: "from the Golden Age to the present day to the near future") with some, umm, alterations -- apparently, in one story, written by Kevin Smith, Kato is now a woman. I have no intentions of buying any of these books, though. The few pages of each story failed to pique my interest. Of course, this also serves as hype for the upcoming Green Hornet movie starring Seth Rogen, which is unrelated to Kevin Smith in any way -- he had a story for a movie but the project fell apart and he's now adapting that story for his comic book.

As I mentioned, I did buy one book (which came out a few weeks ago) because I felt a bit weird about picking up nothing but freebies, and because anyone buying a copy of The Flash 1 -- the new ongoing series starring the Barry Allen Flash brought back to life in "Final Crisis" and kept alive through "Blackest Night" and now into the "Brightest Day" -- got a free Flash Ring. The story was rather interesting, but I don't know that I'll keep buying. I really have to watch my spending, and besides, they're not going to give out rings with it every month.