They Don't Make Good Comics Anymore

[RPGPundit]

Superhero Woes
 
Up until a week ago, I could have told you that I wasn't really a comic reader anymore.  Not that I have anything against them, I like comics, really. I just didn't feel that comics today caught my attention. In part perhaps because I'd changed, in part because they'd changed.
 
Now, when I was young, DC comics was in its heyday.  I lived through the Crisis on Infinite Earths. When I was young, the Justice League, the Legion of Superheros and the Teen Titans were all really spectacular comics that read like they hadn't been done a million times before (ditto with X-men, but that's another company).    Now all I wanted was diversion, one shouldn't really expect more from a comic, as pretentiousness in comics is just as idiotic as pretentiousness in RPGs, but despite that some storylines were, within the limits of what comics are capable of, nothing less than masterpieces (the Crisis, the Darkseid story in Legion, the Terra storyline in Titans).  One or two even transcended what anyone would think comics were capable of (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Dark Knight Returns).
 
I guess that part of what changed for me was the feeling that it was the same thing over and over again, only done a little worse each time.  "Oh gee, are they reforming the Titans again? yay".  "So after getting rid of the Legion of Superheros that was actually good, and replacing them with a "reboot", they're doing the whole thing over again now? Hoo-ray". It was all derivative, and in some cases it was downright repulsive. To try to compare a joke like Kingdom Come to Watchmen, or even worse, the cardinal sin of doing an absolute-garbage sequel to Dark Knight Returns, was what led me to walk away from comics.  I felt they had little original to offer anymore, and what little they had wasn't very good.
 
Which is all why, if you'd told me only a month ago, that I'd be reading something like 8 DC comics titles at once, I'd have probably kicked you firmly in the nuts for being a dirty filthy liar. Only you'd have been right (sore-nutted, but right).
 
My hassle all started when I casually leafed through a copy of Identity Crisis #1.  I had heard about the miniseries on the internet over my various hours of pointless surfing, but I'd actually heard it wasn't all that good.  And it wasn't really great, and the end especially seemed pretty contrived. However, there was enough that was really good there that it caught my attention.  The Elongated Man, the flashbacks to the classic "Satellite League days", the conspiracy and the theme of dealing with a dual identity.  All of this led me to feel satisfied in reading the miniseries.
 
It could all have ended there. Oh yes. It could have. Only I had also known that Identity Crisis was the starting point for a years worth of comic stories that would lead up to the Infinite Crisis, a sort of sequel of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, twenty years down the road.  Now damn me for a fool, but I read a few of the titles that were affected by Identity Crisis (the Justice League, Robin, Teen Titans, Batman). And this meant I had to keep reading to see the fallout (plus Outsiders, Justice Society). And then I picked up the miniseries leading up to identity Crisis (Rann-Thanagar War, Villains United, Day of Reckoning, OMAC project). And the titles that spun off from those (the various Superman titles, Wonder Woman, more batman, more justice league).  So now I'm trying to find and read about a dozen DC titles and there's no fucking end in sight! Someone please put me out of my misery now! Just shoot me in the fucking head...
 
DC has gone and made an interesting and intricate mega-storyline. So why the pleas for assasination? Other than the fact that I don't have time to be wasting on all this comic-reading, there is the FEAR. The helpless fear even as you spiral forward like a drunkard driving a very fast car, that you are liking what's happening far too much and its bound to have a very bad ending. I have no faith in comic writers. With a few glaring exceptions (Alan Moore), most of them come from the Stephen King school of writing: come up with "neato" ideas, build it up into an intricate plot, and have NO FUCKING CLUE how to END it. So the end usually turns out to be a massive disappointment, a deus ex machina, or some other such thing that makes you want to wretch.
 
Ah well. Its too late to complain now. I'm in the car, my foot is on the pedal. Stopping now would be out of the question. I'll just accelerate more, frothing at the mouth as I race forward with anticipation into what I'm sure will be a multi-car pileup. All on the vain fool desperate hope that these fuckers can pull it off, that the game of literary chicken they are playing will pan out, and they will come out with a masterpiece.
 
Who am I kidding? They don't do masterpieces in comics anymore.
 
RPGPundit September 1st 2005

[beejazz]

Seeing as this blog entry is a little more than a year old, I think  a little updating is in order.

Good?

Or wildly disappointing?

[fonkaygarry]

This is why the only comics I read come from the Land of the Rising Fun.  No crossovers, no continuity issues.  Just volume after volume of dancing with what brung you.

[flyingmice]

This is why the only comics I read come from the Land of the Rising Fun.  No crossovers, no continuity issues.  Just volume after volume of dancing with what brung you.

Bah! I don't understand them at all! It's like they were written in a different language! :O

-clash

[arminius]

I never got into 'mainstream' superhero comics very deeply, about the only exceptions being the odd comic that somehow ended up in my hands as a kid, and which I read over and over without ever knowing what happened next (as a few of them did end on cliffhangers or story-hooks), and a few miniseries or special issues like The Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum, The Dark Knight Returns, and Batman Year One. I did read Watchmen (sorry, like V for Vendetta I thought it had flashes of brilliance amidst a leaden plot, tons of cliches, and heavy-handed politics) and the original Marshall Law (a much more entertaining riff on superheroes, though rather nihilistic).

Thing is, I can appreciate the problem Pundit got himself into, what with those little hooks from The Hulk and Superman. (How I wonder what happened after the Hulk fought Klaatu, was captured by Xeron, and met The Abomination aboard a starship.) I would have totally followed those stories if I could have, but thank goodness I didn't, because once you're on the treadmill you can't get off until you fall off.

[RPGPundit]

Seeing as this blog entry is a little more than a year old, I think  a little updating is in order.

Good?

Or wildly disappointing?

Somewhere in between.  It was unsatisfying, ultimately, but it wasn't god-awful.  It had one absolutely brilliant moment, which was how Lex Luthor finally deals with Alexander Luthor.

But in other respects, it was pretty corny. Certainly didn't hold a candle to the original Crisis. But then, I suppose nothing will.

RPGPundit

[Silverlion]

Maybe you should look at Astro City, Invincible, Planetary--sure they aren't the classic "characters" but they're fine stories of their own that do things, quite a bit different.

or Top Ten, or even go get old hardback collections of T.h.u.n.d.e.r Agents (sure not new for Thunder Agents but still...different)....

I love comics--but yeah, I don't read much "Marvel" or "DC" as I used to---mostly because they lost something in terms of innovating, some came back around Supreme Power for example--updated Squadron Supreme, but darker, and not to everyones tastes.

[Geekkake]

Personally, I don't spend too much time with comics, for whatever reason. However, I regard Transmetropolitan as utterly brilliant. If any book series was going to get me into comics on a regular basis, it was that.

[Hastur T. Fannon]

The current run of "Batman Detective Comics" is brilliant

Warren Ellis's "Fell" is magnificent

If you like "Transmetropolitan", then you might be interested in Garth Ennis's "The Boys", but be warned.  It's rather extreme

I'm enjoying Marvels: Civil War, but it's making me buy a lot of comics just to keep up with all that's going on.  It's probably time for a cull

[Balbinus]

Transmetropolitan
100 Bullets
Fables
Global Frequency
Y, the Last Man
The Walking Dead
Hellboy

I could easily go on, DMZ which is a new one looks promising too.

There are a ton of good comics, in fact I shall start a new thread on it.

[jrients]

The only new comic I've read recently is Nextwave.  They talk smack and blow shit up every issue.  And that's exactly what I want from comics.

[cnath.rm]

Fables
Global Frequency
Y, the Last Man
The Walking Dead

I've followed all of these and can second the recomendations.  I think Pundit that you might particularly enjoy Fables, and there are 6-7 trades out so far, broken into individual storylines. (I'm not sure I'll ever forgive the WB for dumping the Global Frequency tv series without even airing the pilot, it was amazingly cool and might have done really well in the current climate.)

[cnath.rm]

Fables
Global Frequency
Y, the Last Man
The Walking Dead

I've followed all of these and can second the recomendations.  I think Pundit that you might particularly enjoy Fables, and there are 6-7 trades out so far, broken into individual storylines. (I'm not sure I'll ever forgive the WB for dumping the Global Frequency tv series without even airing the pilot, it was amazingly cool and might have done really well in the current climate.)

[Hastur T. Fannon]

(I'm not sure I'll ever forgive the WB for dumping the Global Frequency tv series without even airing the pilot, it was amazingly cool and might have done really well in the current climate.)

I just cannot comprehend how or why they cancelled this.  It even had it's own logos and tagline ("You're on the Global Frequency.").  Maybe that was the reason - the execs couldn't provide any "creative input" to it because Warren had handed them a complete package, including a series-worth of screenplays

There are two moments in the first Global Frequency trade that actually brought tears to my eyes

[RPGPundit]

On the whole, I've never been a big fan of comics that weren't superhero themed, though I have read "Y: the last man", and thought it had its moments.

Transmetropolitan is, of course, utterly brilliant. But mostly because its tapped into the spirit of the brilliance that was Hunter S. Thompson.

RPGPundit