RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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@Paul,
*Nearly* 40? Passed that a couple of years ago here.
All I read is X-Factor, and that is for PADs writing. The characters benefit from being c-listers as he can do more with them.
What scares me more than the state of both industries comics, are the comics fans I see online. I mean there is a recent Bendis interview where he says there will be some discussion of 'Phoenix Mutants' vs 'Real Mutants'. And the 'fans' are already cheering the conflict! There are people who argue that Cyclops was right because he was bringing food and water to the world. Ignoring the entire 'free will' thing. It terrifies me to see large groups of people who think that living in a absolute dictatorship is fine, as long as the trains run on time.
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And the 'fans' are already cheering the conflict! There are people who argue that Cyclops was right because he was bringing food and water to the world. Ignoring the entire 'free will' thing. It terrifies me to see large groups of people who think that living in a absolute dictatorship is fine, as long as the trains run on time.
The same Cyclops who was willing to stand against his own pregnant wife *in opposition* to that sort of 'benevolent dictatorship' back in the Alpha Flight / X-Men teamup where Loki was handing out free powers to people. It's a horrible mischaracterization of Cyclops, IMO.
And yeah, I got the same way when editorial was *honestly confused* that not enough people were siding with Iron Man over Captain America during the Civil War, as if somehow we the readers were failing to see how Tony & Reed were 'good guys' for blowing up buildings full of civilians attempting to catch unregistered teenaged superheroes. (Which were equally terrible mischaracterizations of Tony and Reed, IMO. At least Pym got the 'out' of having been replaced by a Skrull at the time.)
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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I recall reading (no cite, and it's my memory, so take it for what it's worth) the intent was to have both sides be presented as reasonable, but so many of the writers agreed with the anti-reg side that they wrote like "I'll write Tony and Reed as jerks, and let someone else write them sympathetic."
The question is interesting. I fall on the anti-reg side, feeling the possibility of another 'hulk outbreak' worth the fact that I, or my godkids, might develop powers and become the next superhero and should be left alone. Then again, I don't live in a world of paper prisons, and the pro-reg side would have benefitted from pointing that out, instead of blowing up teens.
Then agian, Cyclops derailment for me started in X-factor #1
Civil War was a damn good idea badly badly handled, possibly by too many cooks in the kitchen or possibly not enough(some people need good editors).
Civil War was a damn good idea badly badly handled, possibly by too many cooks in the kitchen or possibly not enough(some people need good editors).
There's one person at fault for how bad Civil War was and that's Mark Millar. While I love the two arcs that he did on Wolverine I pretty much dislike everything else that he's done in the Marvel U proper.
Civil War was a damn good idea badly badly handled, possibly by too many cooks in the kitchen or possibly not enough(some people need good editors).There's one person at fault for how bad Civil War was and that's Mark Millar. While I love the two arcs that he did on Wolverine I pretty much dislike everything else that he's done in the Marvel U proper.
very well. The world is better now that he has his own world to muck up. I live me some kick ass/hit girl.
My issue is less with rebooting or renumbering or relaunching or whatever you want to call it (though I do prefer my X-Men in X-books and my Avengers peeps in Avengers books rather than blenderizing them together, but that's just me) than it is with the "everything's a crossover" and "everything's a world-shaking event" pattern of how the Marvel-verse has been going the last 5-8 years. I get annoyed when major characters die off-screen in some book that's not even their own book, or when the continuity of the books you're reading starts to make no sense if you don't collect all 40 other issues of the crossover.
Thank You! This is one of my major points in the thread. The books lose their individuality.
To Shinhakkaider...
I don't mind an evolving world all that much, but such a drastic personality switch I do mind. In the case of Cyclops for example, with all the craziness in his life with Jean/Phoenix, he stood strong and never waivered, now he's adopting the Magneto view of things. To a guy like me who is trying to come back to the fold, it looks like Marvel sold out. To add to that, one of the first things I see is Wolverine being headmaster. I can understand Wolverine honoring Xavier and all and owing him a lot, but he's Wolverine and they softened him. He's the ultimate X-badass loner type. They could have had anyone else take up the reins like Storm or Kitty, etc.
On character deaths, I agree somewhat that these characters should stay dead. But seriously, do you thing Cap (an Cornerstone Icon for Marvel) would stay dead? Umm.. no. And that my friend, gets really, really old.
Barry Allen should have stayed dead. Jean Grey should have stayed dead, etc. I'm glad Hal Jordan came back from being Parallax though, very few heroes have had that kind of journey.
Old writers vs. new...
I've read Remender, Bendis, Aaron, Hickman, etc. with the exception of the current Thor and All-New X-Men being well written, there's no one writing for Marvel at the moment as good as the older writers, that's my opinion. Some have been downright disappointing, like Mark Waid. He was great with Captain America, even better on the Flash before that, but the new Hulk is terrible. Claremont was great until the last issue of his original run (#280?).
Did I ever read comics at all? Umm.... yeah, since the 70's. In case you lumped me in that category. Marvel was a house full of Ideas at the time. Interesting stories without sacrificing the character development or the identity of the books like in the direction of Marvel's new movie mentality.
Byrne's FF was a great example of this. The FF felt like the FF, exploring the Negative Zone like something out of Fantastic Voyage. Peter David's development of the Hulk alienating almost everyone while looking for a place that he fits in.
The marvel clones (not just the scientific ones), constant time travel, parallel realities, is getting to be too damn stale for me. Civil War dug a hole so deep that there isn't really a way to retcon it without looking cheesy. And blending the books with 10 gallons of powdered Shield added doesn't help. It just makes Marvel one big book of a zillion characters with lots of "Pow!", "Biff!", and "Ka-blam!" with not much else going for it.
Again, my opinions and YMMV....
Guys, check out the new nova. It's good. That's all I'm going say.
P.S. Agreed on Paul Smith - brilliant! The first X-Men issue I ever bought was #172. Loved his Kitty Pryde. LOVED HER!
Yes,Paul Smith was great!Great clean art,imo,but for me the best was Byrne.
Right now I don't read Marvel comics,I tried several times but I just feel disconnected from these titles rushing from one "great event" to the next(with more often than not no lasting consequences,how long do you think Xavier will stay dead?One year,maybe two?).
Right now,I think Marvel looks lost. Understand,back in the Beginning of the 00's when Quesada was hired as editor in chief,some bold changes were made(dropping the comic code,hiring indie writers and TV writers to write mainstream books,just to name a few)and the purpose of this was to create great stories,writers had the upper hand(just remember Milligan's X-force run)and Marvel was successful.It's been a few years that writers are no longer kings,what is king is the concept.I think it began with Civil War.
They look more interested in the next "concept" they can throw at you,drowning the reader in a sea of events,from civil war to secret invasion to dark reign,and so on!
When they gave freedom to their writers to let them tell good stories,you had Bendis's Daredevil and Alias,Strazinsky's first spiderman comics(remember that verything went wrong when editors put their fingers on his run),Milligan's X-Force,Ennis's Punisher,just to name a few!
But I think if Marvel hires bold writers and give them free reins on relevant series just to try to write good stories instead of preparing the next event or what the editor staff thinks the readers want,things will become good again.
Oww,I miss the 00's!
The events are annual (except for the year between Secret Invasion and Siege where Dark Reign was more of a theme than an actual event) and are used to build from one to the next. The events // blowback from Civil War (Anti-reg heroes vs Pro Reg heroes) lasted until the end of Siege. That was four ACTUAL years. The events from House of M (the lowered almost extinct mutant population) lasted until just recently in A vs. X. That's eight ACTUAL years.
Captain America was dead for little over 2 ACTUAL years before he was bought back and in that time we got some great Bucky Cap stories.As far as Marvel's writers? Bendis IS an indie writer. Brubaker same thing. Matt Fraction? Same thing. Jason Aaron was a writer from DC's Vertigo Imprint for Pete's Sake. Sam HUmphries? Indie Writer, Christos Gage, TV writer. Jonathan Hickman? Indie Writer. I'd say that Marvel has a pretty deep bench in terms of writing talent.
And if you think that there was no editorial oversite in the 2000's you're crazy. There's always going to be an editorial mandate in the big two. There are always going to be over arching stories in a shared universe. It's like you people have NEVER actually read comics. CRISIS. SECRET WARS, SECRET WARS II, ARMAGEDDON, ZERO HOUR, INVASION. I mean come on. They've had this structure since the late 80's but NOW it's a problem?
Their writers do have freedom to tell their stories and you know what if they didn't they probably wouldn't be on the books as long as some of them have been.
Matt Fraction was on Iron Man from 2008-2012. No fillins. All FRACTION.
Ed Brubaker was on Captain America from 2004 -2014. No fill ins. All BRUBAKER. That's 8 years.
Brian Bendis was on New Avengers from 2005 -2012 8 years.
Daredevil from 2001 - 2006 5 years.
Ultimate Spider-Man from 2002 - 11 years and counting.
They dont just UNLEASH a writer on a company owned property. There's always going to be editors who shepherd a title or a line of titles. Especially with the stars of the big two. The only time you get that kind of freedom is with a second or third tier title that hasnt been doing that well.
That's what you got when jonathan Hickman was "unleashed" on the Fantastic Four.
or when going back even further, Peter David was "unleashed" on the Hulk.
I dont miss the 90's leading up to the 2000's. That's when I stepped away from comics (about 5 books I was reading as opposed to the 20 or so from before) for the most part and I came back into comics with the Bill Hemas / Joe Quesada regime. I'm not a fan of Garth Ennis OR the Punisher so I never touched that book. Same with Peter Milligan. Grant Morrison is hit or miss with me. Really didnt care for his X-men run but LOVED All-Star Superman, his JLA run, DC One Million and 52. The less said about J. Michael Straczynski the better. I liked the first two volumes of Supreme Power and that was it.
And of course Christopher Priest's woefully underrated Black Panther. I will love Quesada forever for giving the book the chance that he did.
I'll say this again Marvel isnt perfect. But I just dont see the disconnect and awfulness that alot of you see in this thread. The BIG changes in characters dont seem all that big to me because I've been reading these characters and books again for over the last 10 years or so. I suppose that I'll keep reading them until they finally do something that alienates me from these characters. But until then? Make Mine Marvel.
Cyclops never Wavered?
Two words: Maddie. Pryor.
Three more words: NO. MORE. MUTANTS.
When faced with the fact that the woman that he loved committed suicide in front of you (to save the universe of course but still) that's gonna mees you up.
Then you meet a woman who is almost an exact copy of her and you fall in love with her only to discover that she IS a clone of Jean Grey? Then you ABANDON her to go back to your newly resurrected girlfriend?
Never mind the revelations of your mentor really being a really manipulative bastard. And then having your species almost wiped out to the point of extinction?
Scott has been broken since Jean died on the blue area of the moon. The fissures have just only recently turned into full sized cracks. And not for nothing I agree with his most recent actions, well maybe not the actual actions but the thoughts and desires driving them.
Turns out that Magneto was right all along. The idea of mutant Integration WAS a Joke. Protect your own.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games
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"It's like you people have NEVER read comics."
It's an odd thing to say.
I've been reading them since the 70s, and back then you absolutely DIDN'T have giant superultramegacrossovers. Crisis and Secret Wars were shocking because that's what they were. It was something very different and new. They were successful, so the big two went bananas with the idea. Summer crossovers like Atlantis Attacks and the Serpent Crown and the Kree-Shi'ar War (was that Operation Galactic Storm?). Some of them were World-Shaking Events. Some were only crossovers within a family of titles, more like a team-up. Others were broad-spectrum, affecting everybody.
But those quieted down a lot after the crash in the early 90s, and we went back to titles having their OWN storylines. You'd have occasional named story arcs, like the Mutant Massacre, or self-contained crossover miniseries like the Infinity Gauntlet/War/Crusade, but a lot of the time it was just issue after issue of stories dealing with a particular hero or team and their villains and adventures, not engaging them with any other heroes.
You don't remember this? To coin a phrase, it's like "you have NEVER read comics."
By the early 2000s, we started drifting back into crossover-land, but it's not just that. Even within individual titles you didn't just have the title. Every 5 or 6 issues was a new named character arc, with no sense of breathing room in between. Maybe this is part of the reality of simultaneously marketing to monthly buyers and to trade retailers, so they're not just selling Uncanny X-Men 315-320, they're selling "The X-Cution of Scott Summers" or whatever that issue span was named, instead of having to name it "X-Men Compilation, volume 4, #6" or something nondescript and boring like that.
The pace of crossovers continued to accelerate, to the point where it felt (to me at least) like every crossover bled right into the next one. Maybe that was intentional, to give a sense of a dynamic expanding universe. I just wasn't feelin it.
I can't speak for DC's crossover mania, as I only followed the two main Green Lantern books, but I can certainly say that even within those two there was PLENTY of the same phenomenon - arc after arc after arc, all bleeding out of the last crossover and into the next one. Maybe I should have called that foreshadowing and dramatic connection of the meta-narrative, but it just felt like an avalanche of stuff going on that couldn't be followed unless you bought all the ancillary titles.
But, that's just me. I'm glad you're enjoying the current crop of Marvels. 'Nuff said.
I love Marvel. My dad was a major comic collector, so I grew up reading Marvel comics(never got into DC except for Batman). I've sat and read Amazing Fantasy #15, Amazing Spider-Man #1, and read Uncanny X-men #1-200ish, all kinds of great ones. I think Silver/Bronze Age was my favorite time periods for comics.
But, I haven't actually gone out and bought a Marvel comic since the early 90's, when Jim Lee was doing X-Men, and shortly after Todd McFarlane had just wrapped up his run on Spider-Man(I bought Image and Dark Horse Comics for a while after that). I just go see the movies, and have my comic book-collecting friends catch me up on the big details.
I almost got back into collecting, but regular comics are what, $5+ per issue now? Just way too much for my funds. I'll stick with movies and the occasional graphic novel. Especially after reading the OP's points on the new series, just doesn't sound interesting to me at all.
While I am still buying back issue compilations from Marvel and DC, I have largely stopped buying recent releases from the big two for a few reasons.
First, the stories don't feel organic to me anymore. While retcons and reboots are certainly nothing new, there was a point in time where a new writer would build from what came before at least to an extent. Now whenever a book gets a creative team, it feels like almost everything that came before gets tossed by the wayside so we can have yet another "bold new direction."
Example of that:
Second, there are not many heroes who are heroic to me anymore. Marvel and DC have realized that heroes fighting heroes sells better than heroes fighting villains, and the end result is garbage like Civil War, Avengers versus X-Men, and so on where the heroes all act like dicks instead of guys I can admire.
Third, mainstream comics have gotten really dreary lately. I realize this is likely a fad that will pass just like the 90s did, but I'm getting less of a feeling of fun in stories lately. (Yes, this is purely personal and not an attempt to say that comics such now.)
For example,
I think that dark stuff has its place in comics, but it's a situation where the big companies have realized what sells and only want to do that stuff now. When Captain Marvel is no longer a goody-good but rather a guy who charges people money for saving them, I realize that it's time for me to take a break from comics for a bit.
May I say that X-Men: Legacy has turned out to be an excellent, excellent comic after the first two unintelligeble issues?
While I am still buying back issue compilations from Marvel and DC, I have largely stopped buying recent releases from the big two for a few reasons.
First, the stories don't feel organic to me anymore. While retcons and reboots are certainly nothing new, there was a point in time where a new writer would build from what came before at least to an extent. Now whenever a book gets a creative team, it feels like almost everything that came before gets tossed by the wayside so we can have yet another "bold new direction."
Example of that: ** spoiler omitted **
Second, there are not many heroes who are heroic to me anymore. Marvel and DC have realized that heroes fighting heroes sells better than heroes fighting villains, and the end result is garbage like Civil War, Avengers versus X-Men, and so on where the heroes all act like dicks instead of guys I can admire.
Third, mainstream comics have gotten really dreary lately. I realize this is likely a fad that will pass just like the 90s did, but I'm getting less of a feeling of fun in stories lately. (Yes, this is purely personal and not an attempt to say that comics such now.)
For example, ** spoiler omitted **...
Wow, I completely agree. Likewise, the "anti-hero" schtick was cool for the guys who pull it off; Punisher, Wolverine, Spawn, Batman, etc. But it's just wore out and dull when character who used to be witty and fun all try to pull off the dark angle.
For example, the Marvel character "Penance(Robbie Baldwin)"; who used to be Speedball. Instead of having this character fight through his guilt and become a bigger hero for righting his wrongs, he turns into some Hellraiserish Cenobite wannabe, because, spikes and blood are kewl.
Heroes just aren't heroes anymore, and the stakes just keep climbing to absurdly depressing levels. Everything is "dark and gritty" and frankly, I'm sick of it.
And people said the same thing when Punisher, Wolverine and Spawn were big. I don't exactly disagree, but the anti-hero/everything dark thing is nothing new, it's your perspective upon it that's changing.
Also, I would *STRONGLY* suggest you check out Avengers Academy- it is some of the best writing I've seen with young heroes in a while. And Speedball becomes Speedball in it again, and talks alot about what happened.
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Also, I would *STRONGLY* suggest you check out Avengers Academy- it is some of the best writing I've seen with young heroes in a while. And Speedball becomes Speedball in it again, and talks alot about what happened.
Avengers Academy was one of only two Marvel titles I still got monthly, until they cancelled it and replaced it with 'The Hunger Games; Teenaged Superhero Extreme Death Edition.'
It started a bit slow, but when it found it's footing, it had really good writing. I haven't seen it's like since the first Young Avengers run. When forced into crossovers, they did their best to make them meaningful and relevant, which was a nice surprise compared to how so many 'this will change everything!' events turn out to be utterly forgotten a month after they happen.
I'm not always thrilled with the directions Marvel has taken (killing off secondary characters when they get bored with them, such as the various depowered New X-Men put on a bus and blown up), but DC takes the cake for just ****canning their entire universe and starting over. Now that they've bet the farm on this reinvention, when their numbers start to sag, their going to feel compelled to do it again, and again, possibly resulting in every one of their classic characters getting rebooted every five years or so, to wash away any character development or supporting cast or whatever, and start all over again. It might even work, from a business perspective, a perpetual 'short-term solution.'
But I don't have to like it. :)
Yeah, Avengers Arena is one of those horrible moneygrubbing concepts which makes me doubt the sanity of the editorial staff who spawned this non-sense.
I like a lot of what Marvel is doing currently ( mostly in regards to the X-Men ), but the Avengers part of their universe seems to have gone right down the drain in the last months since Marvel Now! launched.
I would strongly suggest you read Avengers Arena. Few people have died so far, and it's fleshing out rarely-seen characters nicely. I like what they did with the new Captain Britain, for example.
Also, I would *STRONGLY* suggest you check out Avengers Academy- it is some of the best writing I've seen with young heroes in a while. And Speedball becomes Speedball in it again, and talks alot about what happened.Avengers Academy was one of only two Marvel titles I still got monthly, until they cancelled it and replaced it with 'The Hunger Games; Teenaged Superhero Extreme Death Edition.'
It started a bit slow, but when it found it's footing, it had really good writing. I haven't seen it's like since the first Young Avengers run. When forced into crossovers, they did their best to make them meaningful and relevant, which was a nice surprise compared to how so many 'this will change everything!' events turn out to be utterly forgotten a month after they happen.
I'm not always thrilled with the directions Marvel has taken (killing off secondary characters when they get bored with them, such as the various depowered New X-Men put on a bus and blown up), but DC takes the cake for just ****canning their entire universe and starting over. Now that they've bet the farm on this reinvention, when their numbers start to sag, their going to feel compelled to do it again, and again, possibly resulting in every one of their classic characters getting rebooted every five years or so, to wash away any character development or supporting cast or whatever, and start all over again. It might even work, from a business perspective, a perpetual 'short-term solution.'
But I don't have to like it. :)
I must stress that this is a take on BATTLE ROYALE- which is both older and superior to Hunger Games. It's also going in different direction than I originally thought.
Still do NOT like what they did with the depowered X-Men. As in I have to be careful when I go to the comic book store because if they have the guy there who decided to write that, I would take a swing.
I realize that that is a completely wrong and stupid thing to even consider, but it pisses me off that much.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Still do NOT like what they did with the depowered X-Men. As in I have to be careful when I go to the comic book store because if they have the guy there who decided to write that, I would take a swing.
I realize that that is a completely wrong and stupid thing to even consider,...
Yeah, it's not like it was Chuck Austin or anything...
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I would strongly suggest you read Avengers Arena. Few people have died so far, and it's fleshing out rarely-seen characters nicely. I like what they did with the new Captain Britain, for example.
I checked out the first issue in the store. A character I liked died pointlessly at the end, to shore up the street cred of perennial loser Arcade, who is infamous for charging a cool million bucks and building ridiculously complicated 'murder mazes' to *utterly fail to kill anyone, EVER.*
Either it's real, and Arcade has figured out how to kill people, which is a huge upgrade for this simpleton, or they are all Arcade's patented robot duplicates of people, and he's got the real ones unconscious and linked to some sort of cyber-interface that places their virtual consciousness inside the robots and tricks them into thinking the robots are their real bodies (making the dead people just go back to sleep in their little pods).
I had my fill of dead teen heroes long ago. Either it's real, and I don't like it, or it's a bait 'n switch, and I don't like it.
On the upside, if Marvel is going to poach novel-based tween movies for their mini concepts, I'm glad they didn't think of it until now, with the Hunger Games. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to see what sort of mini-series they would have made ripping off Twilight or Harry Potter.
Although Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum would make an interesting Hogwarts, and potential headstrong 'students' like Ilyanna Rasputin (very certain that she doesn't need 'training' like a newb)...
I would strongly suggest you read Avengers Arena. Few people have died so far, and it's fleshing out rarely-seen characters nicely. I like what they did with the new Captain Britain, for example.I checked out the first issue in the store. A character I liked died pointlessly at the end, to shore up the street cred of perennial loser Arcade, who is infamous for charging a cool million bucks and building ridiculously complicated 'murder mazes' to *utterly fail to kill anyone, EVER.*
Either it's real, and Arcade has figured out how to kill people, which is a huge upgrade for this simpleton, or they are all Arcade's patented robot duplicates of people, and he's got the real ones unconscious and linked to some sort of cyber-interface that places their virtual consciousness inside the robots and tricks them into thinking the robots are their real bodies (making the dead people just go back to sleep in their little pods).
I had my fill of dead teen heroes long ago. Either it's real, and I don't like it, or it's a bait 'n switch, and I don't like it.
On the upside, if Marvel is going to poach novel-based tween movies for their mini concepts, I'm glad they didn't think of it until now, with the Hunger Games. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to see what sort of mini-series they would have made ripping off Twilight or Harry Potter.
Although Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum would make an interesting Hogwarts, and potential headstrong 'students' like Ilyanna Rasputin (very certain that she doesn't need 'training' like a newb)...
Battle Royale.
It's awesome, and superior.
It's..Awerior!!!
The concept is horrible, it is highly disrespectful to the fans of the characters of Avengers Academy and it makes the heroes outside of the comic look like slavering idiots for not noticing that a lot of their charges have gone missing.
Sorry, this abomination of a comic needs to die. Luckily, its sales have sucked right out the gate ( especially significant because of the hype Marvel has thrown its way during the run-up to it ) and I can only hope that it will be canceled soon.
Oh, I could spray haterade on this comics concept for hours on end. But kind of like with the Mass Effect 3 endings, doing so just leaves me more bitter and frustrated with the issue, so I'd better stop.
The concept is horrible, it is highly disrespectful to the fans of the characters of Avengers Academy and it makes the heroes outside of the comic look like slavering idiots for not noticing that a lot of their charges have gone missing.
Sorry, this abomination of a comic needs to die. Luckily, its sales have sucked right out the gate ( especially significant because of the hype Marvel has thrown its way during the run-up to it ) and I can only hope that it will be canceled soon.
I won't be. It's a limited series. It had maybe a few issues left.
It seems we are of opposing opinions on this topic. There are a few areas where you are demonstrably wrong, but I'm not going to start an argument with you. The most I can say is that it will be over soon.
my biggest gripe with it, is what the heck is DARKHAWK doing in there??? My favorite marvel character... who's been around for over TWENTY YEARS... being tossed into this 'newb' meatgrinder????
uggggg
and after that long dry spell.. he was finally getting a bit of exposure again with Nova and war of kings....
Arbane, I'm going to disagree about your take on DC. They don't seem stuck in the 90's to me, but rather the Silver Age.
I'm probably going to drop all my Green Lantern titles shortly, as the permanent crossover is getting on my nerves.
The 90's were a big time where people started to want 'replacement' characters. Hal jordan is boring.... Bring in Kyle. Oliver Queen is boring... bring in Connor. Wonder woman, Batman, Superman... they all had the 'Why don't they age, their too old fashioned' story arcs that ent way too long and sucked.
Now people are clamoring for the same things again. Hal is out, sinestro is in.... Bruce was out, Dick Grayson was in... Then the new 52 rebooted to make the 'classic' that were left unrecognizable.
Having Hal Jordan and Barry Allen in the costume does not make it 'stuck in the silver age'... There was a LOT more to the Silver age mentality then merely 'who wore the mask.'
I'm a firm believer that comics are simply unacceptable for kids nowdays. The violence, the sex, the morals?? that once taught kids about 'heroes' is long gone.
Everything is dark and gritty. Even the Captain Americas and spidermans are written solely for the 'adult' marketplace.
It's weird... I was a DC Comics fan for @30 years... the new 52 lost me for a variety of reasons I am not going into. Only DC title I read is Sword of Sorcery, and I precisely keep up with it because its ties with the rest of the DCU are currently kept to a minimum, and I'm enjoying the nostalgia trip with Amethyst written by Christy Marx. If Amethyst ends and/or they do a lot more DCU tie ins, I'll probably give up on it.
Looking for new comics to read, I looked at Marvel. Always had trouble getting into some of their comics because I couldn't find a starting point, had subscribed to some X titles at one point but I could never keep track of what the hell was going on. Ended up picking up FF at its #1. Looked amusing, despite there being prior backstory I could figure out what was going on, and She-Hulk makes everything better. I'm enjoying it.
Thought #1 is that I wonder if all DC and Marvel are ultimately achieving is trading fandoms.
Thought #2 is that Marvel did earn a new reader in me, but if they blow stuff up even more and make things incomprehensible (which is what happened the last time I subscribed to some of their comics and then I stopped subscribing) then they'll lose me all over again.
Most other comics I read these days are TV-tie ins (Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover, Angel & Faith, temporarily reading Buffy while Illyria is in it, occasionally pick up issues of Steed and Mrs. Peel [based on the 1960s British TV show called "The Avengers"; they can't call their comic that for obvious reasons]). Hopefully will eventually find some good indies to scratch my itch, but I really want good superhero stories and those are hard to find (and getting harder and harder, what with DC and Marvel doing their best to be terrible).
Oh, in other news, I will start picking up Red Sonja when Gail Simone starts writing it.
Arbane, I'm going to disagree about your take on DC. They don't seem stuck in the 90's to me, but rather the Silver Age.
I'm probably going to drop all my Green Lantern titles shortly, as the permanent crossover is getting on my nerves.
The 90's were a big time where people started to want 'replacement' characters. Hal jordan is boring.... Bring in Kyle. Oliver Queen is boring... bring in Connor. Wonder woman, Batman, Superman... they all had the 'Why don't they age, their too old fashioned' story arcs that ent way too long and sucked.
Now people are clamoring for the same things again. Hal is out, sinestro is in.... Bruce was out, Dick Grayson was in... Then the new 52 rebooted to make the 'classic' that were left unrecognizable.
Having Hal Jordan and Barry Allen in the costume does not make it 'stuck in the silver age'... There was a LOT more to the Silver age mentality then merely 'who wore the mask.'
I'm a firm believer that comics are simply unacceptable for kids nowdays. The violence, the sex, the morals?? that once taught kids about 'heroes' is long gone.
Everything is dark and gritty. Even the Captain Americas and spidermans are written solely for the 'adult' marketplace.
It happens. Silver age shininess doesn't appeal to everyone. Dark and gritty doesn't appeal to everyone. You're going to lose people no matter what writing style you choose.
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I have no idea whats going on in the Marvel bullpen. Liked Civil War, even liked the new Secret War. I lost it after that. Between the new DCU and Marvel going monkeys#!t I've lsot interest. When I go to Books-a-Million and walk passed the DC trade-paperback section all I see is a wall of irellevance now. Pathfinder, Invincible, and Powers are the only things I look for. While I'm a huge fan of the big two, my favorite titles are long gone now anyway. Specifically Kabuki, Strangers in paradise, Poison Elves, and Planetary.