posted
It kinda depends. If it's new series then I'll usually get at least thef irst five issues if it's vaguely interesting to me. I'll usually flick through any new series' first issue anyway just to see what it looks like (but not read it in the shop. That annoys the hell out of me) so I'm unlikely to get anything that turns out to be absolutely hoorendous first issue. If I'm nto enjoyign it after five issues then I'd probably drop it (although with Teen Titans and Outsiders I'm considering dropping them already since they just haven't grabbed me).
If it's a title I've been buying for a while where the writer or the artists changes I'll usually do the same thing, give it a few issues and if I'm not enjoying it I drop it until someone new comes along. I did that with Nightwing. Got every issue up to when McCarthy (i think that was his name took over on the art. He got one issue and then I dropped the title since I couldn't read it with his art. Then when Devin took over the writing I was back.
If it's a title where the writer and artist haven't changed then I'll often hang on longer than I probably should do just in the hope that it'll get better.
And then there's that special catagory whereby I buy them pretty much whatever happens. There are really only two titles like that that I've been bying for ages, Wonder Woman and Birds of Prey. Both have had some seriously sucky arcs and creators recently but for the most part they've been fill in teams and I've held out till the new teams come on board. In a way it's oyalty to the character I guess no matter how silly that may be. If someone came on as the new permanent writer on either title though and I ended up really hating what they were doing then I'd probably drop them too. They'd have to be *really* bad though.
I'm not really the kind of person that obsesses about getting complete runs of titles though. I'll quite happily drop a title and then pop back in for an issue or two here or there if they seem interesting.
-------------------- Truth and Justice shall Prevail! (Unless Tamper Lad Screws it up...)
From: Manchester, UK | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
It depends on the book - I sure don't have a hard & fast rule.
The Legion would probably stay with me long, long after it deteriorated - if it did.
I've just dropped "Y The Last Man" and "H.E.R.O." - they're not bad, just really fast reads and not worth the cost to me. Too much other stuff to buy.
I'll usually give a new series 3-6 issues. I dropped The Resistance and Global Frequency after about 4 issues, just didn't attract me enough - again, "thin" reads. The Runaways sounded interesting and I actually bought #1 because I liked the girl's spiky hair on the cover (really logical!) and dropped it right there - it wasn't an uninteresting story, but I really don't like to read about teenagers, Legion is the exception.
If I thought a book had deteriorated but was changing the creative team, I'd probably stay with it for the continuity, until I saw what the new team did.
I'll usually give a book the first story arc to hook me unless something really bugs me about it. With Outsiders, none of the characters remotely interested me, so it was gone after the first issue -- same with Reign of the Zodiac. I haven't loved Crossovers, but I see its potential, so I've stuck with it. And knowing Aquaman is getting a new team soon, I'm sticking around. I liked it at the beginning, but this arc is dragging on and on and on, like a slow-dripping faucet in the middle of the night.
Same rules apply to a new creative team, though if I've been reading the book for a long time, like with Legion, Wonder Woman and Flash, I'm more likely to stick around because I'm more invested in the character. JLA was hard to drop after the Age of Obsidian, but I just wasn't enjoying it, and it didn't look like it was going anywhere, so the completist in me finally let it go. Flash may turn out to be an easy drop, though, because the first issue of the new direction was so blechy.
Eric
-------------------- Geek Watch
From: Standing beside you in Ferndale, MI | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Whenever I don't remember what happened last issue and don't care, it's time to move on.
I recently dropped Incredible Hulk, because the conspiracy story has gone on far too long and seems to have stalled. Earlier issues were dynamite. The Hulk has never been one of my favorite characters, and I only read his title when the story line is exceptional. A year or so ago, it was full of intrigue and mystery and a feeling of one man against overwhelming odds. But then we had the Abomination arc which, after a lengthy build-up, amounted to nothing and the Crusher Creel story, which wasn't bad, but, like "Dream Crime" suffered from TP-obesity. It was a story that didn't need five issues to tell.
Enough is enough. I may remember what happened in recent issues of Hulk, but I no longer care.
[ September 10, 2003, 04:45 PM: Message edited by: He Who Wanders ]
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
It depends on why I picked up the title in the first place. Something like "Teen Titans" and "Outsiders" I picked up because they were new, the art looked good and I have some familiarity with the characters. That said, I only got 2 of Titans and 3 of outsiders. I had no real investment in the characters and the book didn't really hook me.
Something like "Green Lantern", however, I bought for an entire *three years* after "Emerald Twilight" because I'm a big fan of Hal and Green Lantern, but I never warmed to the title character and the book was too different from what I liked about the GL concept.
The two Legion titles were also hard for me to drop during the Archie days. During "team 20" I stuck with the book that had the team members I liked the most, but it still took me about 4 -5 months of being unsure before dropping it.
From: New York, NY | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Generally, since I order my comics through the mail. I will wait until I've received the third issue. At that point, I've generally already ordered 4 and 5. So I would say 5is the cutoff point.
It's the same way with a new creative team.
-------------------- Touch the magic...
From: Morganfield, KY | Registered: Jul 2003
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