DC Doomed?
I haven’t read any new comics in over a year now. There’s a comics store here, I just haven’t been motivated to try and catch up. The things Marvel and DC are doing these days have really turned me off. Apparenly, things are worse than I imagined with DC planning to replace Bruce Wayne? Are they insane?
According to Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood fame, Editor in Chief Dan DiDio is in big trouble. And the replacements being bandied about don’t sound like much of an improvement.
I’m sure glad I got out of that racket. I actually have new comics planned for next year, but I’m sticking with creator owned material from now on. The editors at the big two have lost their minds.
With all the character deaths and reboots, it’s obvious that the powers that be in those places have lost their ability to tell good stories or understand simple fundamentals. They don’t have faith in the characters that have made their companies successful. Instead they are trying to undermine and destroy their character’s reputations in order to replace them with younger, less interesting imitators. Nobody likes this, yet they keep doing it, despite the fact that sales continue to spiral down.
You would think they would be able to see that what they’re doing isn’t working. Instead, they validate Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
What these companies need is fresh blood atr the top. Let’s hope it happens before it’s too late.
Personally, I think Marvel will have far better luck with their movies (from their Marvel Studios production arm) than their current comics.
I can’t quite say the same for DC Comics. Batman is their one popular character (out-popular-ing Superman, DC’s breakthrough character, and the foundation for the modern superhero image), so in the media outside their comics, DC is grossly lacking variety. There’s far more Batman than there is anyone else (Superman, Wonder Woman, etc.), and he’s gotten way too much overexposure. Marvel, by comparison, has more characters under their belt (Spidey, Iron-Man, Hulk, Wolverine, Captain America, Punisher, Fantastic Four, etc. etc.). Meanwhile, what do we see from DC (even in the JUSTICE LEAGUE series)? Batman, Batman, Batman, and more Batman. (With the occasional Superman and thereabouts.) Even TEEN TITANS was really popular, and then got cancelled! It was virtually never to be seen again, and after that, there was ANOTHER new Batman cartoon, and yet ANOTHER is on the way . . .
I fear that no matter how good Batman will be portrayed in THE DARK KNIGHT, he has all but lost his relevance due to said overexposure (plus the fact that the more extroverted Iron-Man pretty much killed the wet-blanket “dark hero” image). More people will no doubt go see the film out of pity for the late Heath Ledger. Pity it is, because before Ledger died, there were mixed reactions (mostly negative) to his Joker character. So I think this kinda’ steals Batman’s thunder.
In DC’s comics, classic superheroes are getting killed left and right. So Batman’s “death” doesn’t surprise me in the very least. I’m surprised, though, that they’re going easier on him than they did Superman, because, well . . . he’s Batman.
And please don’t get the wrong idea; I LOVE the Batman character, but for my own reasons, mostly that Batman is *self-made*. His being “realistic” and “believable” just doesn’t cut it (that’s the only reason most fans like him), considering that I always also had a soft-spot for superhuman heroes. But these days, Batman’s become more another Superman, because of the many Bat-writers having a terrible case of Super-Envy (they’re *very* jealous of Superman).
I seriously think that DC had better keep up with Marvel if it wants to survive, in and out of comics. And I agree, DC needs new blood. Both in staff and in their stories/characters.
Posted by John Cassidy on 06/22 at 11:11 AMDC has some good comics in the form of some Vertigo titles and I believe Green Lantern and a few others could make good movies. Let’s not forget Iron Man was concerned a poor man’s Batman until the movie came out.
But Marvel has finally got their act together as far as Hollywood goes. Marvel movies used to really suck. Admittedly, a lot of them still do. Hopefully Iron Man wasn’t a fluke
Posted by on 06/22 at 12:56 PMYeah, until now, many of the Marvel films really did suck. The first two Spider-Man films, IMHO, were the best of the bunch. (I still haven’t seen 3 yet, though.) Partly because I’m also a Spidey fan, and Hulk fan.
(Speaking of which, I saw THE INCREDIBLE HULK today! Long story short, I loved it! Suited the character more than the first movie ever could.)
But some of the Vertigo titles are quite good indeed, and would make great movies.
I hear GREEN LANTERN is being made into a movie, which would indeed be exciting, and could very well breathe new life into DC’s media output. But the question is, “WILL IT BE MADE!?” Their proposed JUSTICE LEAGUE movie is currently in development hell. They just need to get some bats out of their belfry . . .
Posted by John Cassidy on 06/22 at 04:00 PMDidio is doomed… Quesada should go sometime soon, too.
BOTH have long outworn their welcome. A significant minority of fans feel both outraged and ridiculed by the EIC’s. Neither of these men can touch Stan Lee as far as general goodwill is concerned. Stan DIDN’T take the fanbase for granted, and certainly didn’t condescend to them and piss them off on purpose, either.
No question that the writing and editorial staffs at both Marvel and DC need an injection of veterans who know the characters and newer people who understand the relevance of sensible plotting and consistent characterization versus slavish devotion to continuity which is NOT the same thing! As autocratic as Shooter’s reign at Marvel was, he had a very good crew of editors and they were far more consistent in the 1980s than any crop of editors and writers since.
Seriously, the Big Two are being run now by Goobers who don’t know what they’re doing, and they’ve unfortunately handed over the reigns of writing and editing major titles to indie talent (I’m looking at you, Bendis and Morrison) that is doing more long-term harm than good.
Those last two paragraphs I wrote are among the reasons why—even more than cost—I quit collecting monthly comics from the Big Two.
P.S.—As much as I like superheroes, there’s no question the comics field in the US is constrained by the overemphasis on “action comics” as opposed to diversity. Reprints from Japan won’t save the field, either…Posted by on 06/22 at 09:35 PMHud….in the last 3 paragraphs, sounds like you’re talking about Congress!!
Posted by on 06/23 at 02:31 AMYes, Congress is just as loonie as he comics biz. The Democrats just trot out the same failed rationales that they have in the last 40 years. All they do is repeat the same attacks on Republicans whether they work or not. he Bush National Guard thing being a prime example. And no one really cares about Plamegate except rabid Democrats.
Posted by on 06/23 at 07:13 AMThe problem is “not created by me” compounded by the insistence on a mythical originality by elements of the blithering class. So you get attempts to reinvent characters combined with a need to keep old elements that really belong to the original iteration.
I don’t folow comics at all (feel free to update me via contributions in (physical) kind
), but I do enough about story telling to know that sometimes what others say is the worst thing you can is actually the best thing you can do.James, you protest against the planned death of Bruce Wayne. Why? Has it occurred to you that Wayne’s death, and his subsequent replacement as Batman’s alter ego, is the best thing that could happen to the hero. Wayne dies. One of his proteges takes his place, and Batman lives on. Being the sentimental sort I’m for Dick Grayson taking on the role. I can, however, be persuaded to support another.
The heir assuming his predecessor’s role is an old trope in fiction, I can see it working here.
Posted by mythusmage on 06/24 at 04:47 AMThey’ve tried replacing classic alter egos with NEW alter egos and it doesn’t work for the most part.
I can name for you on ONE hand where the replacement of alter egos worked—
Green Lantern I/Alan Scott => Green Lantern II/Hal Jordan
Flash I/Jay Garrick => Flash II/Barry Allen
Flash II => Flash III/Wally West (?)What’s the difference in these cases? With the exception of Wally West (where it’s arguable that the replacement is wearing thin and the predecessor IS on his way back), the previous incarnations of the characters were not shat upon and didn’t cease to exist because a new version was being published. In fact, the originals were brought back and for a while outlasted their killed-off successsors during the dark days of the mid-1990s.
The other revamps have failed miserably because A) the original alter ego was the popular established one and the story wasn’t handled well (see Emerald Twilight), B) characters got inexplicably changed for no good reason other than PC and strong-handed editorial mandates (the Charlton characters at DC, the new Firestorm, Blue Beetle, etc.), and C) again, it’s that obvious editorial agenda that tees people off.
I’m sorrry, but most people didn’t want new Questions, Blue Beetles, and Firestorms. They wanted good stories featuring the Vic Sage, Ted Kord, and Ronnie Raymond of these characters, NOT ethnic revamps chasing an audience that doesn’t exist or doesn’t particularly want a lesbian or bisexual Asian lead. The new versions of these characters have practically been DOA. DC should’ve learned from what they tried to do to poor Hal Jordan in 1994.
(P.S.—I found the Blue Beetle revamp stupid and pandering… and I’m Hispanic! I liked Ted Kord and felt that the needless slaughter and scattering of the JLI characters was really bad form by the DC editors. Here’s hoping somebody remembers that fan favorites CAN be brought back, editorial mandates be damned! The rapes, killings, and name-smearing have got to stop before it’s too late.)
Comic fans just don’t like gratuitous deaths and character assassination for sheer shock value. That was never novel and never made for a great story.
Posted by on 06/24 at 08:32 AMmythusmage,
The reason killing Bruce Wayne is a bad idea is because Batman is an iconic character. Both of these comics publishers have regularly “revamped/rebooted” their characters to an extent where it’s always a gimmick and its almost always badly executed.
As George pointed out, the only good examples were done in the 1960s. That’s because they didn’t get rid of the old versions. They merely started new ones for a new generation. What they do now is do some hack thing of killing off a character so they can relaunch the book. But it’s almost always satisfying, because the writers today (often hampered by the editors of today) don’t really have a feel for what makes the characters tick, or they are more interested in reinventing them as some kind of ego trip. It’ not in service of the book itself.
I would add that one reboot that worked in recent (well, 1980s) times, was Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing. But he didn’t reboot it as much as expanded on the character, so we understood him better. Grant Morrison’s Animal Man and Doom Patrol did a similar thing. They either updated the book by keeping some old characters and adding new ones (as in the Doom Patrol) or they just gave us more info about the character than we had before.
As for Batman, you don’t improve a character by trashing them. You improve them by giving them more depth and better stories. And that’s where they often fall down. They ruin their characters with lame stories and crossovers.
Posted by on 06/25 at 08:05 AM
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