A Special Comment on Marvel's Preview Books, by Matt

So, you know, I review these preview books all the time, right? Each week, I read through the envelope and give my pithy thoughts. Usually, these consist of "_______ was pretty good!" or "______ is on a down week, but I look forward to future issues," or "Wolverine Origins is just a terrible comic." But, see, here's the thing: who cares?

Not rhetorical: who actually cares? Once in a great while, I can do some good -- say something like, "Hey, that SKAAR book is better than it sounds," or "Holy crap, Guardians of the Galaxy is good even if you don't like Annihilation." That's a nice feeling, even if only six of you are reading this. Less frequently, I can warn you off some kind of horrid abomination, although usually it's just another issue of Wolverine Origins.

This week, though ... this week, Marvel really irritated me. Here's what we got in the preview pack, along with my incredibly terse (and always spoiler-free!) review:

• Amazing Spider-Man #564 - Fine. Not nearly as clever as it thinks it is, but fine.
• Avengers Invaders #3 - I find this unreadable, but those of you that are liking it will probably continue to do so.
• Cable #5 - Eh. It's ... readable. Fine. Inoffensive. Wraps up the storyline adequately.
• Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #41 - I'm not the fan of the Marvel Adventures books that some are, but this is decent enough. Does what it sets out to do, anyhow.
• Punisher War Journal #21 - My love of Matt Fraction is on frightening public display in my other posts here, and I've worked hard to sell his other awesome work (buy the THOR thing! It's TERRIFIC!) so I feel totally fine saying that this is, um, far from his best.
• Squadron Supreme 2 #1 - Continues Straczynski's work accurately in tone and pacing, which means that I want nothing to do with it. But that's a personal issue more than anything else. Supreme Power fans should be very happy.

Okay, so that's five perfectly adequate comics that may or may not please existing fans of the title/character/creator, plus a first issue that's pretty much a continuation of a recently cancelled title.

Meanwhile, here's what was NOT in the preview pack:

• Astonishing X-Men #25 - Because god forbid I be able to confidently recommend Warren Ellis's first issue, right?
• Patsy Walker Hellcat #1 - No doubt Marvel is so confident in the built-in Hellcat audience, there's no reason to let word get out if this thing is actually good or not. Yep, all eleven Hellcat fans nationwide are just LOCKED IN TO BUY.
• Secret Invasion Front Line #1 - The Front Line books have been frankly abominable for the last two big events, but they've put a new, more appealing creative team on this one ... so why not give retailers a chance to put the word out if it's better?

Look, seriously? What's the POINT of these preview packs? If it's just to give people like me a chance to read Cable a week early, well, fair enough. But it's an OPPORTUNITY, a chance for me -- and people like me around the country -- to tell our customers when there's something out there that they're not picking up. And, realistically, that's not going to be mid-storyline in Cable, Punisher War Journal, or anything else, even if those books were better than they actually are.

I dunno. Is anyone actually reading these things of mine? If so, does anyone find them helpful? Because this week's previews depressed the hell out of me, and it had nothing to do with the quality of the books involved.

Good night, and good luck.