Marvel Madness

CIVIL WAR #3 hit shelves yesterday, and I snatched it up like the rest of the comic book zealots. While I'm enjoying the turmoil tearing apart the Marvel U as much as the next nerd, it's really helping me to understand the depths of what a weak-willed marketing mark I truly am. See, my next gig doesn't start for about a month, and I'm trying to conserve funds. Seriously, the state doesn't pay terribly well. Okay, maybe I can allow myself CIVIL WAR #3. I'm already involved in the story, and it's pretty damn exciting to behold the pyrotechnics of Marvel's finest duking it out. Fine, but did I really need to pick up CIVIL WAR: X-MEN #1 and X-FACTOR #8 and #9? Did I? I'm already reading CIVIL WAR: FRONT LINE, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, NEW AVENGERS, WOLVERINE, and CAPTAIN AMERICA, among others. How many more Civil War tie-in titles do I need?

Add to that UNCANNY X-MEN #476. Ed Brubaker is writing it, and I can't pass that up. Brubaker's delivered some amazing work with DAREDEVIL, BOOKS OF DOOM, etc., and I'm very much a fan. Need that one. Hey, look, it's ETERNALS #2 -- Gaiman! Gotta grab that... And there's X-MEN: FAIRY TALES #3, SHE-HULK #9 and a bargain pack of ULTIMATE IRON MAN #1-6 (Orson Scott Card!). It's a sickness. Seriously.

Yes, it could be worse. I know a lot of geeks have it really bad. I see them at the comic store grabbing up practically every new title they see, cradling gigantic slippery story stacks in their pepperoni-stained paws. Yes, I could be caught up in DC's "One Year Later" insanity. Yes, I could be buying variant covers. Yes, I could be more afraid to talk to girls.

And yes, I am going to Comic-Con this weekend. I am doomed.