By Adam Frey

By my count, Saturday was my fourteenth Free Comic Book Day, and my eighth one as a dad. Years ago, as a consumerist comic-loving young adult, my FCBD goal was to load up on as much of the “free” and “comics” as I could. Fourteen years later, as a slightly-wiser parent, my priorities have changed. I’ve realized that, one, FCBD exists to keep the industry afloat. The first weekend in May has become a pop-culture event, but it’s also a mechanism to get comic shops in the news so they can get more people in the store, keeping shops and the industry alive. So the day is (slightly) still about me as the consumer, but it’s more about everybody else out there, to introduce them to a medium that we love.

Two, it’s about bringing in the next generation of readers, including my kids. (OK, it’s really about getting that next generation of readers to spend money, but FCBD is fun. Let’s try not to get too cynical here.) Kids have to want this stuff, but they also have to keep wanting it so they’ll come back month after month and keep reading. To that end, the goal of each publisher putting out a FCBD book should be to get the reader to come back.

So how well did the publishers do in getting kids hooked on their gateway drugs? I managed to get—I think—each of the 50 books published this year, or close to it. (My shop had them all in a big pile. I’m not sure I grabbed everything, but it’s close.) Rather than doing a traditional review of each book, I’m going to hit you with some rapid-fire mini reviews of each one over a series of four articles. The key question is “Would I Come Back?”—that is, would a new customer or kid want to come back into the shop to keep reading this? Let’s start with six offerings from the “big publishers.”

Divergence #1 (DC Comics)
Writers: Scott Snyder, Gene Yang, Geoff Johns
Artists: Greg Capullo, John Romita Jr., Jason Fabok

Whether intentional or not, DC managed to publish a sampler that touches on all three parts of the “trinity”: Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman (the last one really being a Justice League story, but it’s got hefty WW overtones). Maybe this theme would be better timed with the Batman vs. Superman movie release, but with the film’s trailer in the news, I suppose it works. Anyway, with the Bat-story, we get introduced to Batman’s Robocop-like replacement in the aftermath of Endgame; with Superman, it’s Clark adjusting to life in poverty with his secret identity exposed; with the Justice League, it’s a prelude to June’s The Darkseid War.

Would I Come Back? Maybe. The replacement-Batman is all over the news right now, and nothing screams “speculators” like Batman being a mainstream news story. The Justice League story touches on Wonder Woman’s origins and briefly shows the League, so hey, a casual reader might want to know what it’s all about. (On the other hand, it’s heavy with New Gods, Darkseid, and the Anti-Monitor, so they might also find it very inaccessible. Let’s face it, Thanos has better media presence than Darkseid right now, and that’s pretty sad.) The Superman story struck me as the weakest of the batch. John Romita Jr.’s art is just not what it was 10 or 20 years ago, and “homeless Superman” lacks a certain mass-market appeal. I hate to say it, but these three showcased books will probably do fine with or without new readers, so DC may have lost an opportunity to showcase its other titles in its June semi-relaunch.

The All-New, All Different Avengers/The Uncanny Inhumans (Marvel)
Writers: Mark Waid and Charles Soule
Artists: Mahmud Asrar and Brandon Peterson

On the other hand, Marvel’s sampler—an Avengers/Inhumans tag-team—has a little more diversity since, showcasing two teams, we get a sampling of a bunch of characters who have their own books and come together as a unit. (DC’s Justice League short story has that too, but we really didn’t feel it.) The Avengers half gives us a glimpse of what appears to be September’s lineup of Kamala Khan’s Ms. Marvel, Miles Morales’ Spider-Man, Sam Wilson’s Cap, that still-unknown Lady Thor, the Vision, and Sam Alexander’s Nova, along with an ambiguous Iron Man who may-or-may-not be Tony. I’m sure it’s also no coincidence that the Avengers’ lineup superficially resembles the lineup from the ending of Avengers: Age of Ultron. All-in-all, it’s a fun, youth-oriented story about teenaged Avengers adjusting to an adult team. The Inhumans story is similarly fun, as new Terrigen-powered characters are introduced in the aftermath of Infinity from, what, two years ago? It’s not bad, although it’s increasingly apparent that Inhumanity is developing into Marvel’s replacement for mutants.

Would I Come Back? Probably. Marvel seems to reinvent the Avengers every two years now, but I’ll admit that this lineup seems more fun than Jonathan Hickman’s thick Secret Wars-prelude team or Brian Bendis’ dark-but-witty teams. It’s modern, but familiar all at once with a team that resembles the classic lineup, but really is its own thing. The Inhumans book is a bigger gamble—here’s a team that’s deeply rooted in the Fantastic Four’s mythos, and Marvel seems unsure of what it wants to do with the FF right now. Inhumans seems to be the push right now, so Marvel fans may have to read it out of sheer necessity.

Secret Wars #0 (Marvel)
Writers: Jonathan Hickman and Hajime Isayama
Artists: Paul Renaud and Gerardo Sandoval

Alternate Earths are colliding with each other, and the Marvel Universe is about to be hit next. The children of the Fantastic Four hatch a plan to save a last remnant of humanity, even as Marvel’s heroes ready for war with another, familiar Earth. The art is good and the story is tense, but the ending is, of course, the setup for a much bigger story which will dominate the summer. As a backup, we get an unpublished-in-America-until-now crossover between the Avengers and the giant beasts from Attack on Titan.

Would I Come Back? Well, of course I will. So will everybody else. Secret Wars is going to consume comic shops like blockbusters consume theaters. The casual reader might be confused by this story—somebody off the street expecting a story about Spider-Man or the X-Men isn’t going to see them until that last two-page spread, which is admittedly great. Oh, and then there’s the “Attack on Avengers” story, previously published only in a Japanese manga magazine. It’s cute, but it’s not advertised at all on the cover and appears to be filler—but fun filler, at that. If this was meant to draw people off the street, Marvel didn’t announce it. That may be just as well, since the story ends on a “to be continued” note but with no actual second part coming. That’s probably going to piss off casual shoppers who want to know when part two will be released.

Bongo Free-For-All (Bongo Comics)
Writers: Various
Artists: Various

You know, Bongo does publish stuff besides Simpsons comics, but this is a straight Simpsons issue that doesn’t showcase any other titles, so take-it-or-leave-it. It’s good stuff, though. One of the difficulties Bongo has to overcome is translating The Simpsons—a show dependent on animation and sound gags—into the static medium of comics. Bongo usually manages to impress, particularly in playing off the tropes of the comic medium itself. Besides two standard stories about Bart and Homer, we get short stories about Comic Book Guy dating a cosplayer, a Lisa story done in manga style, and a Sideshow Bob short in Mad Magazine format. It’s good stuff.

Would I Come Back? Heck yeah, if I’m a Simpsons fan. I can’t fathom that a non-Simpsons fan would exclusively read Simpsons comics, but the show has enough mass appeal that they should enjoy the comic as well. In fact, I’d say this comic has more kid-appeal than the show does. (My daughter loved the Lisa story.) There’s no reason shops shouldn’t be recommending this to their customers as a staple read.

Bob’s Burgers (Dynamite)
Writers: Various
Artists: Various

In contrast to The Simpsons, the Bob’s Burgers adaption doesn’t quite click in comic form. Admittedly, I’m biased—out of the various “Animation Domination” shows to hit prime-time television (such as Family Guy, American Dad, and King of the Hill), Bob’s Burgers doesn’t quite click with me. It’s amusing, but I’m mildly annoyed with the destructive antics of Bob’s kids and the obnoxiousness of Bob’s wife Linda. This particular comic has short story samplers about each of Bob’s kids, as well as brief one-page insights into Bob and Linda’s heads in the form of Bob’s poor ideas for Burger recipes and a stream-of-consciousness letter by Linda. The art is spot-on, though.

Would I Come Back? Probably not, but that’s just me. The comic does a decent job of capturing the characters’ voices, but the plot of the two Louise stories each come to a dead halt. Maybe a Bob’s Burgers fanatic would come back for more, but this sampler personally didn’t do it for me. On the other hand, my eight year old kid who doesn’t watch the show really enjoyed this book–particularly the stories about Gene leading an army of frogs with his farts and Louise sabotaging her class photos. So what the heck do I know?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW)
Writers: Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz, and Tom Waltz
Art: Mateus Santolouco

I keep forgetting that TMNT has probably had more reboots than DC Comics by now, because I sure didn’t recognize this particular iteration of the Turtles. It certainly blends a lot of elements from both the original Eastman & Laird comic and the late 80s cartoon show, but I’m really not up on whether this ties into either of those continuities or if this version is its own thing. Anyway, this story apparently spins out of recent newsworthy events where one of the cast apparently died, setting up a new status quo for the characters. The art here was decent, though definitely a style for the Turtles that I haven’t seen before. The plot, however, was thick with exposition—at least half the comic was a recap of the team’s origins, recent events, and a rundown of the book’s characters…which honestly left me bored.

Would I Come Back? Maybe if I were a TMNT nut. It certainly resembles everything I remember about the Turtles from the 80s and 90s, so there’s a nostalgia factor there. However, the story really does pick up from last month’s controversy and the exposition in this issue was pretty heavy, so I can envision new readers being confused or bored.

Coming up next: more mini-reviews of the “big” titles, including Valiant 25th Anniversary Special, The Tick, Fight Club, Doctor Who, Street Fighter, and 2000 A.D.