I just don't get it: Response to "news" that "Teen Titans" #1 has sold out for the 147th time somehow turns into a discussion of the quality of paper DC uses in its collected editions.

But that's not what puzzles me. This is:

In response to a post about Geoff Johns being "the king of team books," someone writes: "I don't read TT, but the plunging sales on Avengers would seem to indicate otherwise. And Flash is not exactly high up on the sales chart either. Most people seem to really love him, but I dropped The Flash after about a year or so, and I'm only getting the Avengers because I have continued to do so over the last 15 years. Of course, I believe I am in the vast minority regarding Johns." (Emphasis added, of course.)

It's perfect fodder for the "stop buying shitty comics" argument. Mind you, I enjoyed most of what I read of Geoff Johns' "Avengers" run; but that's not the point.

The point is that this poor bastard, for whatever reason, has collected "Avengers" for the past one-and-a-half decades not because he's enjoyed the title that entire time, but ... just because. Poor, masochistic bastard.

Oh, I know he's not the only comics fan (slave?) to respond to some primitive instinct to hoard entire runs of a series, mindless of their quality. I'm sure that, somewhere out there, someone has bagged and boarded all the issues of "Justice League of America" --even when they were based in that Detroit warehouse. (I love you, Gypsy! I love you, Vixen!)

But I just don't get it. Other bloggers (my apologies, but I don't recall who right now, so I'm not linking), have criticized readers who will ride out a story arc, even though they're not enjoying it. Well, that's nothing compared to the Avengers Masochist.

Why would you collect a comic that you don't enjoy? And to what ends? It's not likely that Marvel will cancel "Avengers" anytime soon, and the guy's collection only goes back 15 years. So, there's not even bragging rights at stake. He can't boast to his message-board friends, "I have all the 'Avengers' books in recorded history!"

Not that anyone would care, anyway.

Eh, let's see if he's still collecting "Avengers," say, six months into Chuck Austen's run on the book. That'll be a true test of his devotion (and pain threshold).

Man, I'm cranky this morning ...