I’m currently on the third omnibus of James Robinson’s Starman, a series that is already a favorite of mine despite only having read little less than half of the entire book. Having not read it in its entirety is not entirely of my own choice; DC’s infamously inefficient trade/collections program will not have the fourth installment of the omnibuses available until February. That’s enough of a problem by itself, but then DC decides to pull some PR stunt involving Blackest Night and eight “dead” series that will begin in January. One of those series is James Robinson’s Starman.

There is some messed up math in there somewhere.

You’d think I’d be excited for #81 come next year. I would be, too, had I have already read the series in its entirety and did not have to depend on an incompetent delivery system. Now I have to hunt down and read over 40 issues by the end of the year so I can not ruin any possible key plot points I have not come across yet – I assume, with the latter half of the series still waiting for me, is highly likely.

There’s always the other option of just not reading #81 until I have read the rest of Starman, I know. Unfortunately, I also know how unrelenting both the Internet and the Dreaded Competition love to keep on keeping on with news and updates and spoilers and general.

Oh, spoilers.

The one constant threat that anyone who loves the journey more than the destination must constantly avoid during their travels. I personally try to avoid just about any leaked information that I can without totally going offline, which I must say is quite a task. People nowadays seem to be more focused on learning the fact-to-fact payoff of a story than experiencing the work as one is supposed to, being fully exposed to the action and drama within it.

Maybe I’m more upset about spoilers and things of the sort than I should be. I mean, I’m a guy who was bothered by his friend posting the first TDK promo shot of Harvey Two-Face’s good side as his default picture on Facebook. (The same guy later posted a picture of Kilowog that may or may not be a promo shot from the upcoming Green Lantern movie. For the sake of our e-friend status, it better not be.) I admit to only wanting the thinnest sliver before I gobble up the whole enchilada. If one is interested in something with just that, though, isn’t that enough? I remember the first teaser trailer for Transformers about the Mars rover being squashed and how, against my better judgment, I was hooked right then and there. That, to me, is an example of successful marketing.

Nowadays, just about any media company will spill out all but the last ten minutes of content in advertising. That’s not just the blunder of film and television studios either; comics’ Big Two, especially Marvel, throw caution and suspense to the wind with their three-month solicitation systems. On the second or third issue of an arc and can’t wait to see how it ends? Don’t worry, you can get a good idea by checking out the preview/solicit of the first issue of the next arc of that series. Bam. No more suspense, and all it cost was about half the enjoyment one gets out of reading or watching just about anything.

When it comes to problems like this, I’m sorry to say that I have no real advice on how to deal with it. (Sorry, I know I could’ve told you that earlier, but that’d make me a hypocrite at this point.) The best advice I can give you right now is just stay away from the temptation of knowing when you really don’t want to, and catch up as quickly as you can. It probably wouldn’t hurt to stop thinking about why Jack Knight has not been mentioned for the past few years either.