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I’d heard allot about a new two-story comic store in Vaughn, “Heroes”, one that featured collectibles, comics…and a snake and an alligator. How bizarre would this be?

The first thing that hits you like a punch in the mouth is the fact this store charges admission. Uh huh, you pay five bucks to enter the store! I’m sure many people turn around at that point. I also noticed that the big parking lot was empty, and this was a Saturday afternoon.

Inside one is greeted by a massive collection of comics, an enormous selection of collectibles and, also, tons of UFC and old wrestling stuff.

A couple of highlights for me were the pair of gorgeous motorcycles, one decked out as Captain America’s (including shield) and another decorated as a raw, ghoulish Spiderman accessory.

There were lemurs dancing around the back and we headed into the corners to see the alligator. The set-up is very poor and one can access only one side of the enclosure. All we could see was a tail. Underneath, and you have to bend down to knee level, is a snake. Again, the awkwardness of the set-up was a real detriment.

A perusal of the entire store, both levels, introduced the real drawback to the store.

The prices are outrageous. Everything is overpriced, some items ridiculously so. An old poster of Kim Basinger from the original Batman movie, something I would expect to find for a couple of bucks at a garage sale, was priced at a whopping seventy dollars! Action figures from the ancient Babylon 5 series were twenty bucks (I’d have given a couple of nickels!). I found what appeared to be a relatively nondescript statue of Batman for over 900 dollars. I could tell others who wandered in, and there weren’t many, had the same glazed look as they checked out the prices.

A comic book store has to be fun with many items offered cheaply. Everybody wants to buy something, but “Heroes” makes this impossible. I have a collection of a few statues…(uh, ones I bought for a friend, really, who never, like, picked them up) and they are gorgeous and all were picked up for under 15 dollars. A comic book store should never be oppressive. After all, it’s a trip back to your youth and an excursion of fun.

Heroes was oppressive, with way too many staff watching you on the floor and all those big bold signs telling you not to read the books and leave your knapsack at the counter.

It’s like a creation of a child, someone with no retail experience. I’ll put in a monkey and an alligator and people will flock to my location. Uh, no, “duh”, people go to a comic book store for comics and the collection here was dismal. I couldn’t find any of the new 52 books in important titles like Batman or Detective comics.

When I left I stood outside with my brother for a good twenty minutes and we were just riffing on the WTF was that theme? It was just crazy, we left empty handed and would never want to go back. They got my five bucks but they sure didn’t get a customer…