The Comics Buyer’s Guide’s Capt. Comics wrote an that took a swipe at the detractors of the company wide crossover:

CBG: With “Civil War” coming on the heels of DC’s successful “Infinite Crisis,” the online cynics are snarking that Marvel’s crossover is a “me too” response, and even the fair-minded wince at the timing. What would you say to counter this perception?

Really, is that so? And who might those “online cynics” be or include? The blogosphere, for example? I don’t know, but all the same, as an online writer myself, I’m honored to be called a cynic! LOL, I’m sure he didn’t intend to, yet that’s what he succeeded in doing - making me for one feel honored by the implication of cynicism! Ha ha!

Seriously now, the interview still misses the bigger picture, such as the mass interruption of the natural flow for only so many once great titles at Marvel, continuing the assault on Spider-Man’s ability to be entertaining, the misuse of Captain America, Iron Man, X-Men and the Fantastic Four, and just plain pitting everyone against each other in a contrived, forced storyline that nobody really needs. Except of course, for those who couldn’t care less that they’re insulting the intelligence of the readers who can’t resist making a habit out of collecting.

And Quesada’s reponse to the above question is rather laughable too:

Quesada: Well then, I suppose we could make the same claim, and say that DC’s event was a “me too” response to our big event of last year, “House of M.” But in all fairness, the actual answer is “no” for both parties; they’re just trying to keep interest up in their comics as we are with ours. It’s not like big events are some strange new thing to comics. Marvel has a tradition of doing yearly events, beginning with the mother of all events, Secret Wars (1984). Truth be told, if we wanted to take the steam out of DC’s event we would have shipped it concurrently, instead we’re shipping “Civil War” in May, which several months after DC’s event is over.

Here’s the thing: Marvel refrained from crossovers for almost five years before boomeranging as hard as they did, first with House of M and now this. That’s even more time than DC was willing to allow with their own stable of series.

And Secret Wars, as some might tell you today, was really nothing to crow over; just a kid’s absurdist power fantasy in the guise of the Beyonder mixed with a silly fanfiction. The 1985-86 sequel though, is what really scraped bottom, right down to the Beyonder’s hilarious costume (see below), which looked almost like a pair of airplane engines for shoulder pads! (Can anyone say “engine trouble”?) It’s things like that which, from a current perspective, have pretty much frightened me away from company wide crossovers altogether. Especially when they turn out to be overly-political platforms, something that even comics from the Bronze Age didn’t go overboard with, and usually had more sincere ideas involved anyway!
If comics cannot be allowed to flow freely and naturally, without being subject to editorial mandates at almost every turn, then it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out why they could end up as ruined as they are now.

Reading , it certainly does pose some interesting questions. First:

“People come to San Diego prepared to spend tens of thousands of dollars on artwork,” Apatoff said. “They store up over the year, like squirrels gathering nuts for winter.”

Artwork but not the fun of reading? There, that’s what’s been bothering me: some people still haven’t shaken the habit of just collecting for profit, which may have caused the market to collapse as a result. Or, this is the segment of the public that the companies are still pandering to.

Despite high rollers like Apatoff, the Con has an old reputation as a cheapskate confab. On paper, it’s still an economic underperformer. Compare it with the Health Information Management Systems Society, which held a convention here in February. Con-goers outnumber this group 4-to-1, but the HIMSS crowd laid out $82 million, 2½ times what Con-goers are expected to spend.

But the Convention Center vice president insists that the Con’s numbers are artificially low. Most of the HIMSS attendees are members of the society who book their hotel through their organization. Most Con attendees are – well, who knows? Again, there hasn’t been a survey in 10 years. Moreover, they’re an independent lot.

“They use the Internet,” Steven Johnson said. “People book on their own.”

The center calculates the Con’s economic clout by looking at the number of people who book hotel rooms through Comic-Con International – a service that many, if not most, attendees ignore.

So the official figure, $32.1 million, is based on incomplete numbers. “It has enormous impact,” Johnson said. “But we can’t say quite how much money this brings in. We’re not good enough to do that yet.”

If I’m reading correctly here, they don’t for sure how many people are, or still do, attend the convention? That’s a shame. And with the way sales are going, who knows if they’ll ever have the chance to figure out how to calculate? Sigh.

Update: the that comic book COVERS and their heroes are going to be honored:

Half of the pane of 20 features portraits of the characters, and the other half shows individual comic book covers highlighting the heroes’ exploits.

Are these to be old covers or new ones? Because having seen quite a few very indifferent covers in the past few years, that almost sounds like a joke. Why not panels from the actual stories? Let me guess. Because some of them just weren’t exciting enough? Hmm…

First, the good news: (H/T: ). He’d already written some stories for Dick Grayson and Roy Harper, aka Speedy/Arsenal back in 1988-89 in Action Comics Weekly, which were some of the strongest features in a whole mix of different character entries, including where Roy found out that he was father to Cheshire’s child, Lian.

…Didio said that Marv Wolfman will be making his return to the character, along with Dan Jurgens penciling for a four issue arc, beginning with issue #125 of the ongoing series.

Now, the bad news. As told in the same article, they’re shafting Wally West in favor of Bart Allen as the Flash.

Responding to a question about the Flash and Bart Allen becoming the new Flash as a result of Infinite Crisis, Didio said that he felt a change was needed with the character as he stood because, as he said, there was something very generic about the Flash. Themes were repeating, he said, and he wanted to bring a new generational aspect to the forefront again. In noting that Bart is the Flash for this new generation of the DCU, Didio added that Wally West is gone, but not forgotten.

So that’s his little game, eh? I’m not impressed. The whole argument that the Flash was generic is laughable due to the fact that, they’d actually done something like try and “develop” characters like Wally in the late 80s, but while there were some high points to that, people got tired of the whole notion after awhile, and so they turned to nostalgia without making too much of a fuss over development. But then, if there really was something generic, well then, why didn’t they just hire some writers who could actually do something about it? Or, why didn’t they leave Wally and Linda and the twin children around so that the parental theme could be explored as an example of trying to break the generism? I’m sorry, but DhimmiDio makes no sense, as usual, and I strongly disagree that the Flash is “generic”.

And when he gets around to the meaning of fun, he once again tells everybody what to think and believe:

Didio said they’re thinking about doing more with Captain Carrot, although, as he’s said before, doing “fun” comics is a hard sell because simply, they don’t sell. Didio noted that there is a strong core audience that wants “fun” and lighter themed comics, but by and large, the audience is not big enough to support a book. “People tell me that I hate fun books,” Didio said. “And that’s not true – I hate books that don’t sell.”

Translation: he knows there’s a strong core audience, yet he’d rather not listen to them.

Using an example, Rucka pointed out that Kyle Baker’s Plastic Man series wasn’t cancelled because it was bad – it was cancelled because no one was buying it, even though it’s a fun book.

I think it’s more likely that it was cancelled because a]they weren’t making any genuine efforts to promote it, and b]Baker, as the artist on Truth: Red White and Black may have turned off some people, certainly me. His job as an inker back in the late 1980s actually strikes me as very unappealing, and given his own apparent political positions, I have no interest in doing him any favors, that’s for sure. But that aside, DiDio was trying to confuse details by making it sound as if nobody wants to buy a brand new book they’d launched, because it was fun. What about Action Comics, Flash, Wonder Woman, JLA/JSA and even Teen Titans? Has anyone else ever shunned them because they were fun? Not to my knowledge, and something tells me that the devoted fans most certainly wouldn’t.

So here’s an interesting question that DiDio might want to answer: have you ever tried putting “fun” into some of the flagship titles, such as Superman? Something tells me that Geoff Johns, whom I lost faith in when I realized he was going along with the company’s viewpoint, isn’t going to do that so easily.

The rest of this article is pretty laughable too, with DhimmiDio and even Paul Levitz repeating some of their laughable arguments of recent that Vertigo should remain separate, because “Levitz does not feel that it is appropriate for mature-audiences characters, or characters that are and have been used predominantly in mature-audiences stories to appear in all-ages titles, or titles aimed at a more general, or younger crowd.” Oh, I see, so Levitz is also clowning around? Figures.

In fact, as , this does seem to be a sales stunt:

Didio must think he’s going to pull off the same trick as DC did in the 80s with Wally appearing in Flash #1. There are some parallels–Wally wasn’t a very likeable character in the first two or three dozen issues. He took money to deliver a heart to the West Coast and slept with every bimbo in sight. As the series went on, Wally became a better person and a more reliable hero. I think we stuck with Wally as readers, because we had a two decade history with him. We had already invested a certain amount of time, from Wally as a teenager in the Flash to a college student in Titans. Bart has had only a decade or less. I could actually see sticking with Bart if they hadn’t made him into a sucky dude drinking in pubs. It might have been better to have him learn how to control his Impulse-nature into something more mature. The big question is whether this new Flash will lure in any new readers than Wally West.

Very true. Something tells me that this may not go over as easily as Wally’s ascension to Scarlet Speedster due to the fact that, as enjoyable as Bart’s own solo book (Impulse) was for a time when Mark Waid first launched it, Bart’s popularity may have plummeted since then, maybe ever since Geoff Johns used him rather half-heartedly in his take on Teen Titans, and now, what have we here, he’s no longer using him as a cast member in that one due to his new starring role in Flash! Also, Wally is actually more down-to-earth as a character than Bart, one more reason why for him, being in the lead is more easily managed. Do I detect that Linda Park West is going to be turning up again soon, this time in her mid-40s, as the mother to some now grownup twin teenagers, one of whom will take up the mantle of Kid Flash?

In any case, this news tells why fans of DC and Marvel are going to have to start showing that, if they don’t approve of this increasingly forced attempt to replace older characters with newer ones, then the antagonism will just go on and on.

And that’s why I’ve got something to say to all those who care: enough turning the other cheek! You find the steps taken at one point bad, yet you’re willing to continue buying the books nevertheless. If Identity/Infinite Crisis was meant to affect the DCU as a whole, ditto Avengers: Disassembled and House of M with the MCU, then what’s the point of continuing to buy the books that end up getting soiled? Barry Allen’s legacy was embarrassed by the whole IC fiasco, yet you continue to buy it when the editors do something crass to tarnish his history?

Maybe comics grew up, but the audience didn’t. We make comics into a literal obsession and a habit, to the point of ridicule, buying them no matter the quality, letting the editors and publishers lording over our favorite characters and titles get the idea that they can just go and slap the stuff in the face and nobody will put a struggle, and even going so far as to attack and harrass the critics of these steps, because we’re so terrified of if the series were to just end in the gutter of cancellation. Grow up! It’d have to be better than to let them continue getting subjected to editorial and scriptwriting bias and abuse.

That’s not saying nor even suggesting that you and I should just give up comic book reading. Far from it. But if you can’t boycott certain series and perhaps even a major company to send them a message, or even try to criticize the editors and their apologists, then what have you accomplished? Nada. I wouldn’t be surprised if even Superman and Spider-Man, if they existed in real life, would argue that it’s foolish to let yourself get finked every Quesada and DiDio out there, and tell you that, if editors like those are going to insult your intellect, that you shouldn’t have to put up with it any longer.

Look at the Hollywood box office scene, and you see that Tinseltown is floundering of recent, because moviegoers are getting tired of their attempts to foist a stream of worthless biases on the public. Even comic readers might be among those fed up with Hollywood’s dishonesty. And if moviegoers can show the film producers that they’re not going to be hoodwinked so easily now, then comic fans can do the same.

What’s really needed now is to get the news columnists and analysts who might care to notice. Most syndicated news and magazine columnists, like Michelle Malkin, Peter Beinart, Diana West, Mark Steyn, et cetera, are pretty good, yet they may not consider comics important enough to write about in depth, so is it any wonder that you don’t see them writing about the state of the comics industry or even interviewing the writers, artists and editors on TV so far? But maybe there is a way to persuade them AND their publishers, if necassary, to take up some interest and see what’s going on. They may also need to take into account whether or not children read comics today and if it’s good or bad for them today, but that aside, if comics were taken more seriously as a subject for research by the mainstream writers in the news, THEN maybe it’d be easier to deal with the problem. How to get them to sit up and take notice is a challenge, I’m sure, but it may be possible.

Until then though, what needs to be done is to send a message to the companies that, if they’re going to go and screw around with our favorite heroes, that we’re not gonna take crap from them anymore. And we could also send a message if say, Sword of the Atom were to be published in trade format, all four parts of the miniseries plus the three specials, and buy that to show that THAT’S the character history we want for the Ray Palmer and Jean Loring to have. It may be possible to call out and ask if it’ll be published in trades, so don’t just stand there, do it! The same goes for a whole bunch of other, better comics from both DC and Marvel too.

If you can’t break the habit of buying and reading comics no matter the cost, what have you accomplished?

Topic linked with: , , , , .

That’s what I’m starting to wonder after reading , which leads me to figure that the guy who wrote some of the best Hulk adventures in his time has become little more than a knee-jerk setpiece at Marvel.

Peter David hasn’t tackled the “reveal” in his storyline, as he wanted to wait a bit after the “juggernaut” of the initial reveal to tell his story. In a couple of issues we’ll see if Peter Parker can retain his job as a teacher, as some parents may not seem him as a role model, and David promised that parents will have good reason to worry, including “several Mysterios converging around the school.” While some might say that Parker should just quit his job, but David acknowledged that villains could still terrorize his former students, and he’ll have to deal with a tell-all book written by a former flame (familiar to Marvel fans). David promised lots of fun mixed with the very serious ramifications of the story being told in all the Spidey titles.

Let me guess. It’s MJ, right? Or is it Betty Brant Leeds? I don’t know. What I do know is that just because David says it’s going to be fun is no garuntee.

In fact, the whole notion of the students finding themselves in danger of villains encroaching on the school, I hate to say, is not very entertaining when looked upon in light of . Let’s be clear here, schools under threat of criminals is not fun, and it’s most definately not funny.

As to the writers’ reactions to the reveal of Spider-Man’s identity, Peter David felt it was an interesting change and thought about a lot of new directions and ideas, which he didn’t mind at all. He knows that a character like Spider-Man is big and writers may have to “roll with some punches.” David loves the “exciting” possibilities that have come out of the story. Sacasa added, “How did I get so lucky to be on the Spider-Man books when the most momentous thing in his history is happening?” He’s glad to be part of something so large, that is a bit frightening and exciting at the same time, and he’s even gotten contacted by an old college roommate. “It’s going to be really cool,” said JMS.

So you say, Straczynski. But I grew tired of your own writing style long ago, and will not touch your work on Spidey’s books with a 30-foot pole.

As for David, while I realize that he’s likely afraid of being booted were he to say what he really thinks, if he does, I’m still disappointed in him for just going along with this the way he is. Currently, I’m reading two Visionaries trades of his work on The Incredible Hulk from the late-80s, in which he wrote some of the most enjoyable conspiracy thrillers combined with a throwback to the first few issues from 1962, when Bruce Banner only turned into the Hulk at nighttime, and even turned him grey at first, which was meant as a nod to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s initial idea of making the Hulk grey, until a printing error turned him green, and it’s some of the best stuff from David’s early career. When David first began writing and editing at Marvel back then, one of his first works, on Spider-Man at the time, with Ned Leeds revealed to be the Hobgoblin, was considered a disaster, but when given the Hulk, he made it his own for 11 years, and the humor worked pretty well there too. One of the best parts for me was when the Hulk kicked the crap out of a corrupt, wife-beating police chief in New Mexico, much to the pleasure of the townsfolk who felt betrayed by this jerk in uniform. And there was even a rematch between the Hulk and Wolverine! David also featured some pretty good rogues gallery members such as Half-Life, Mercy, and even Sam Sterns, the Leader, in all his cunning, crafty glory.

Now, alas, David seems to have been reduced to a hack writer in Marvel’s editorial board, where he seems to be stuck ever since DC shafted him when they cancelled his run on Supergirl in 2003. Actually, I can’t say I find what he’s done on Fallen Angel very appealing, so maybe even then, he was going down the drain.

I’ve found it almost impossible of late to read/enjoy anything Spidey related, and I feel really bad about that. And David and company aren’t making it better by going along with what’s doubtless an editorial mandate.

Well how about that! I managed to find a copy of that that told the readers what to think/believe is the problem with the Man of Steel these days. And I can’t say I’m happy with what they did here. First, the subtitling:

The Man of Steel is looking a little rusty. He’s not tragic. He’s not cool. Can America’s original superhero find a way to reconnect with us?

A better question might be - can the MSM find a way to reconnect with the consumer? Because this dud certainly doesn’t. Man of Steel is uncool? Please. And who needs more tragic than what we’ve already got? Gimme a break.

Superman is still the company’s flagship icon, but Batman outsells him…

Superman may not sell as well as he could, but I’m not sure if Batman sells that well either. In fact, last time I looked, Supergirl was the one selling really high on the charts, showing that a lot of people uphold the return of Kara Zor-El these days.

For America’s multimillion-dollar Superman industry, it’s a serious problem. This is a guy who’s from outer space–he was born on the planet Krypton, let’s not forget–but he’s also from another time. He debuted in the 1930s, when Americans liked their heroes like they liked their steaks: tough, thick and all-American. Nowadays we prefer our heroes dark and flawed and tragic. Look at the Punisher (wife and kids dead), or Hellboy (born a demon), or Spider-Man (secretly a nerd). Look at Batman: his parents were killed in front of him, and he dresses like a Cure fan. Now look at the big blue Boy Scout, with his cleft chin and his spit curl. He’s just not cool.

Sigh. This article is what’s really uncool. I’m sorry. And who sez that Americans don’t like their heroes tough and all-American anymore? Very cynical of Time, I must say.

They also interview/get some quotes from the writers assigned at the time to the three current series. But lo and behold, only two out of three writers are actually featured here, and the second one mentioned is one many would rather forget:

Jim Lee, who’s taking over the art on Superman, is fresh from a run on best-selling Batman, so he’s in touch with his dark side. But he admits it’s a challenge. “Batman is a more modern-era type character,” Lee says. “He’s fueled by vengeance; he’s the boogeyman. Superman is the altruistic alien hero that protects us all. It’s difficult to make that believable in this day and age.” In their first issue, Lee and writer Brian Azzarello have Superman in a church pouring out his heart to a priest. While Superman’s back was turned, a million people vanished from earth, including Lois Lane, and he’s powerless to do anything about it. He’s a brooding, angry, heavily shadowed Superman, riddled with self-doubt. “For the first time, I was really afraid,” he says. “Lost, without my rhythm.” You get through the entire issue before you realize not a single punch has been thrown.

When writer Chuck Austen got handed Action Comics, another Superman monthly, he knew punches would be thrown, what with the title and all. But Superman is on the receiving end for a change. “As someone who loved the dark side for a long time, I had little or no interest in Superman for years,” Austen says. “He was perfect–his powers left him with no vulnerability. So I requested DC allow some cosmetic changes–make him a bit less powerful, a lot more vulnerable physically.” Austen’s Superman can take a joke as well as a punch. He rags on his sparring partners for their lame trash talk: “What’s next? ‘Mindless cretin!’ Or ‘Had enough?’ Or my personal favorite–’No one can stand before the might of–(your name here).” The tone is light and fresh and surprisingly funny. “Much of it is the fun of playing against his type,” says Austen. “But much more of it is, without question, to upgrade him a bit. He’s the greatest superhero ever created! He needs to be cool!”

This part made me want to belch. Yet it doesn’t surprise me at all that, of all people whom they could interview, it’d be the one who’s now considered the joke of the industry, the one whose writing is astonishingly distasteful and sloppy, Chuck Austen. He exaggerated, of course, considering that Superman does have more vulnerabilities than just Kryptonite (giant robots and apes, for example), and the dialect Austen put into the book back then was simply annoying. Mainly because - while the Man of Steel most certainly can wisecrack, he’s still not Spider-Man, and what Awful Austen, now gone to Obscureland, put into the scrips he wrote then was simply not the Man of Steel at all.

The third writer assigned to Superman at the time whom they don’t mention is Greg Rucka, who, while not without his faults, was fairly better in his own efforts two years ago. And given that’s he’s considered by some to have more talent than either Azzarello or Austen, that’s probably why he was virtually blotted out of this puff piece for darkness altogether.

This also brings me to point to one of the biggest complaints I have today about DC comics: they lack a genuine sense of humor. That’s probably one of the reasons why I enjoy Gail Simone’s work on Birds of Prey much more, because she hasn’t allowed DC’s alarming editorial sabotage to get in the way of her talents. Thank goodness.

The Time article I’ve dissected above is but one example of what’s wrong with mainstream media coverage of comics today: they emphasize exactly the same thing without mercy: darkness. People do want and need mirth today, and if Time and their ilk are going to keep on with this, all they’re doing is showing why the MSM is not worth reading today.

Update: and while we’re on the subject, here’s a that ponders why the screenwriters of Superman Returns deliberately ommitted The American Way from the movie (Hat tip: ).