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Maybe DC's next BIG DOOM EVENT can be.....
Existential Crisis!!!
Where some villainous cosmic librarian who catalogs the multiverse decides to expose all the heroes and villains to their own endless reboots, retcons and redsigns, thus driving them all into deep pits of despair while questioning the worth of their own existence.
What might be interesting is a version of earth where death sticks if you are an ordinary person. No blowing up the world , but all the fights ,invasions,massacres and so on has reduced human society to ruins where the remains huddle in fear
All I know is this: I was okay with more Lantern Corps because a) Attrocius and Larzfleeze are cool. and b) the Black Lantern Corp needed Nekron because he's been in the comics a while now.
As for what happened with Wally...there's no justification other than King must have gotten a memo from Dido to screw over the Titans.
As for Bruce returning...I wasn't exactly thrilled but considering how much Dick was not really Batman...and Damien is annoying POS...so yeah.
This is also why I stick with Marvel. :p
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Dex'Star!
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The rise of the other color corps was a mistake. It was poorly written for one thing. There was no real sense to what each corp represented. It should have been more balanced for one: Love vs Hate, Fear vs Courage, and so forth. And it was too limited. There are a lot of emotions. The ones they had seemed very arbitrary.
Agreed. I like the idea, but not the execution.
Courage vs. Fear (Green vs. Yellow) seemed teed up to lead into Hal learning that A) the ring looked for the *bravest*, not necessarily the most 'willful', and that B) the Guardians (big shock) lied about how it worked, to keep their dancing minions from really understanding the true nature and source of their power, and finally C) that being the bravest is also sometimes not the best choice, tactically, since the bravest dude is the one that runs forward and catches all the bullets...
And then other ring pairings could be Hate vs. Love (Red vs. Violet), or Hope vs. Despair (Blue vs. maybe Indigo or Orange?), Anger vs. Serenity?
Instead, we get Avarice as an emotion? That's one of the seven sins, not an emotional state! Is there a ring of Sloth? Pride?
There's all sorts of possibilities with the rings and their nature. They feed off of willpower. In so doing, with so many of them out there, do they somehow *lessen* collective will, on a universal scale, making all life a tad more susceptible to things like the Anti-Life Equation? Is it a finite resource? Or is it, contrarily to expectations, working in reverse somehow, with the rings somehow stimulating the production of more 'willpower,' exercising it somehow, so that if there were less (or no!) Green Lanterns, living things would be much weaker willed and more vulnerable to will-sapping entities like Darkseid and Starro and Zazyl queens like Queen Bee, who would, if not for those pesky Green Lanterns, dominate even more worlds than they already do?
Lots of story potential to mine there.
Instead we get whacky Larfleeze-who-totally-isn't-Gollum-obsessing-over-his-precious-ring and an angry housecat that vomits acid blood, who, regardless of their individual entertainment value, aren't any more valuable or thoughtful as additions to the lore of the Green Lantern Corps mythos than funny-talking-animal Ch'p was, back in the day.
Eh. It's easy to back-seat write. It's not like the Green Lanterns have particularly been my cup of tea since the eighties anyway. :)
Set,
I can back seat write with the best of them. I still think Larfleeze and Dex-star are great additions to the DC Comics universe. But that's me.
I think Larfleeze is more Daffy Duck, 'MINE! MINE! MINE!" from the genie cartoon.
Philip,
Eh. Either works. Regardless, he's still way more interesting to me than the new Arkham Knight. Gah.
I wonder what you think of the example of having a Joker-ized/Dark Multiverse infected Billy Batson/Captain Marvel/Shazam?
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I think I'm getting to the point where Scott Snyder should be banned for life from ever even touching another comic script. And this is coming from someone who collected both the recent Dark Knights: Metal and is still collecting the Batman Who Laughs mini-series.
After reading the most recent issue of BWL, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that (several) someone(s) should be punished for allowing Snyder to run rampant in the Bat-verse. The story is, not surprisingly, pointless and dragging. I realize now I only collected it (and the Metal series) because I was bored and wanted some more comics to read. Plus the artwork was really good.
As for Snyder violating other characters with his Joker-izing nonsense - it's continuing evidence DC is trying to drive readers away by allowing hack writers to crap stories.
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Before I forget - someone please tell the douchenuggets doing lettering on Batman Who Laughs it's really impolite to do red lettering on dark-colored backgrounds. Especially when you have older readers who then have to shine a light directly on the letter box so they can read it, even WITH their glasses on.
A%&#$%%s.
I was okay with Snyder until he let this whole Dark Knight Metal thing infect like EVERYTHING and that led to No Justice and stuff...
I hate buying bags period...
Also Batman's Dad might not be the bad guy this time...
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It was nice to see the two most recent issues of Iron Man being a self-contained story. The story itself was kind of lame, but it was at least cool to see Stark back in the Mark I armor.
Daredevil continues to be interesting. Especially the end bit, with Murdock just sitting in his apartment, using his senses to find crimes and make anonymous phone calls to the cops. A very cool and creative use of his powers.
That Superman Year One was...a very large format. I wonder if all the Black Label stuff is going to be like that.
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I was suitably impressed by the most recent issue of Savage Sword of Conan. It seems to have been an actual, honest-to-god single-issue story. And even if they continue this tale next issue, the fact is it easily COULD be a one off. That's rare in comics these days.
Props to the writer, Meredith Finch. I don't recall ever hearing of her before, but she did good. I hope they give her more work.
Savage Sword and regular Conan are the Conan books I expected. Savage Avengers...not sure...
Yes the two issue tie in for Iron Man's War of the Realms was interesting. Not sure it fleshed much out though.
What interests me most about Daredevil's new run is that Wilson Fisk is pretty much "done" doing the whole "illegal" stuff. Now he's into the whole "I'm above the Law." while doing his own ruling of New York.
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I thought I had finally come up with a working theory on why some Robins suck ass. It was simple - that every good Robin (Dick, Tim) had to be followed by a Robin who was an insufferable douchebag (Jason, Damien).
The I remembered that Damien did not immediately follow Tim. Stephanie was thrown in there, as (chronologically, I suppose) the first female Robin. And she wasn't bad as Robin. I kind of liked her in that role, in fact.
Her tenure as Robin was kind of short, however, so maybe it still can work as a theory. If so, then they just need to get rid of Damien, and we can have a decent Robin again.
Personally, I'd like to see them bring back the old live/die phone number plan. My vote would be the same now as it was then.
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I was bagging and boarding more stuff, and came across the Doom Patrol revival series from a few years back, before they let Gerard Way take the reigns. It was a pretty decent series. Certainly more enjoyable than what way has given us.
I'm not even sure why I kept collecting the Way DP. The frequency of each issue was inconsistent. The artwork was so-so. And the story...well...
I'll put it this way. I thought for a long time now that Grant Morrison often thinks he can out-Alan Moore Alan Moore. I never thought I'd see someone who tries to out-Grant Morrison at out-Alan Moore-ing. Then Gerard Way came along.
Which is really weird, since I keep hearing that his Umbrella Academy work is pretty decent. I certainly liked the Netflix series they did based on it.
Maybe Way is more like Grant Morrison than I realized - both capable of cool s!%&, but equally capable of steaming piles of crap.
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Now I'm going to bag and board my copies of Justice League 3000 and Justice League 3001. I think those stories were basically Keith Giffen's way of trying to recreate his early run on Justice League, while also trying to be a bit more edgy and cool.
I don't think either attempt really worked, but the stories at least entertained me.
The Justice League 3000 and 3001 series, for me, was more about Giffen trying to say "Look at me! I can write super heroes!" in a time when people and stories had passed him by.
With regards to Gerard Way's DP...it wasn't THAT over the top so much as I thought he was trying to retread stuff while making it seem new.
Also Grant Morrison is better than Alan Moore since I think Alan Moore is a hack.
With regards to Stephanie Brown...I honestly felt she was a better Bat Girl than a Robin. But not quite the fighter as Cassandra. But I guess not everyone can be trained by one of the finest martial artists in DCU.
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Alan Moore absolutely is a hack. I think, however, that he's a pretty consistent hack who done lots of solid work and influenced (for good or ill) lots of other people in the industry.
Morrison can, on occasion, be better than Moore. However, he can also be substantially worse (Final Crisis and Damien Wayne are two very good examples).
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I'm really happy that Marvel has Conan back, and is giving us two great titles in Barbarian and Savage Sword.
That being said, I really loved the Robert E. Howard's Savage Sword anthology from Darkhorse. That was some cool s~+#. It's how I hope a future Robert E. Howard themed TV show would be.
A zombie can dream.
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Not sure about the other dude, but when I say "hack" I mean he comes off as crazy, over-the-top, and seems to occasionally sneer at the idea of traditional comic book super heroes simply because it makes him look cooler and edgier.
And, yes, there are a lot of hacks out there in the industry. That's true for pretty much any industry, however.
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I've been filling in the gaps on certain comic titles I collected over the years. One of those has been Legends of the Dark Knight. As part of my bagging and boarding process, I transfer the gap-fillers from the bags I bought them in into the resealable ones I've taken to using for all my stuff.
So just a few minutes ago I pulled out Legends #54 from its comic shop bag and realized right away I had already read it. At first I thought I might have double-bought the issue. Then I realized I had read it just a few months ago in a collection of Mike Mignola DC work.
I think I've mentioned that book before, but if not, I shall do so now. It's called The DC Universe by Mike Mignola. It's mostly got stuff with his art, but at least one Batman story he did both writing and art for. It's got a lot of Superman & Batman, some Phantom Stranger, at least one Swamp Thing. All in all, a great book.
There are some others existing for various writers/artists. The only other one I own (and have yet to read through) is a Len Wein book.
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Well, in my own defense, I'd only had three cups of coffee so far.
Plus, I'm old and cranky and tend to use words in ways that make sense only somewhere in the labyrinthine corridors of my aging brain.
In truth, we probably need to come up with a unique word to describe Moore. Hell, he probably could be the word.
Punisher ended it's trainwreck of an arc with the typical crash. yeash, lousy art and Frank is incoherent as ever.
Punisher reminds me a bit of the Hunter: The Reckoning game for those who know of it. Hunters have a Conviction stat that helps with abilities but the higher it goes, the more fanatic you are. Punisher is either max rank or almost there since he can barely interact with anyone who isn't on the same waveleangth
Not sure about the other dude, but when I say "hack" I mean he comes off as crazy, over-the-top, and seems to occasionally sneer at the idea of traditional comic book super heroes simply because it makes him look cooler and edgier.
And, yes, there are a lot of hacks out there in the industry. That's true for pretty much any industry, however.
That is Garth Ennis' area. Plus loads of homophobia,transphobia and fetishization of the military.
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Sam Wilson’s Captain America Almost Made A Cameo In ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’
This would have been cool. Even though I don't collect Captain America any more (and hadn't since sometime before the Winter Soldier was introduced), I always liked the idea of Sam pciking up the shield. In fact, I wish they'd kept it that way, instead of bringing Steve Rogers back.
That gets into one of what I consider to be the biggest flaw in superhero comics - the inability to let characters grow old/retire/die and let someone else take up the name. The powers that be seem hell bent on sticking to this nonsense, despite some evidence to the contrary.
Example one is The Flash. They killed of Barry Allen in Crisis. Wally took over and was a very successful Flash for nearly 20 straight years. True, when they tried to do it again, with Bart replacing Wally) it failed. However, I think that was a combination of piss poor writing and because they had kind of tried to make Bart a little unlikable. That was a shame, because I loved the idea of the continued succession.
Example two is Kyle Rayner. They killed off Hal. The other two human Green Lanterns were...whatever. So they give the ring to Kyle and he has a pretty decent 10 year run. Not bad for a character that pretty much came out of nowhere.
Example three is Batman himself. They replaced him once with Azrael. I didn't collect Batman at the time, so I don't know how successfull that was. Later, however, they did it right and replaced Bruce with Dick. Again, I didn't collect Batman at the time, but I've heard that was a pretty decent run.
Example 4 is Captain America. Rogers was turned old, and Sam took up the torch for what I understand to be a pretty decent and welcomed run.
I guess my point is, why keep having to revise these characters histories over and over. Let some successor come along. Kill them off (gracefully or not). Allow some retirement. Is it too much to ask for a little more sensible storytelling?!?
Okay. Rant over.
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Bit more of a rant along the same topic.
A large part of this modern-day continue with the same characters for ever I lay the blame for at the feet of one person.
Dan Didio.
He came over from television, back when the MO for even the most popular TV shows seemed to be "keep it going until the viewers hate it". No matter what kind of idiotic nonsense they had to come up with.
Maybe I'm off base, but it gives me a warm feeling to blame that douchenugget.
I dunno about anti-fan club so much as a club where we takes clubs to effigies of Didio and occasionally light them on fire...
Also in my mind hack goes back to thejeff's definition. I'm a HUGE anti-Moore fan. Grant Morrison, on the other hand, he's more my speed.
Especially for Final Crisis. I LIKED that way more than Flashpoint.
With regards to the Punisher run that Philip is talking about, I have read solicits for the next arc where Zemo FINALLY gets B+ bad guys aka his own Thunderbolts to handle Frank.
I never read the Dark Horse Conan, but I'm sure if it was even half as good as the Marvel stuff...then we're in better shape for more Conan down the road.
Also to the jeff's question, the rest of the industry runs the gammut of 'REALLY bad writers' (Tom King's Heroes in Crisis, I'm looking at you) to some very good ones (Tom King's the Vision mini-series) So it can vary between writers...and also the material. (I mean look at Spencer's Superior Foes of Spider-man versus him doing Hydra-Cap...)
So...yeah.
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I dunno about anti-fan club so much as a club where we takes clubs to effigies of Didio and occasionally light them on fire...
Funny, non-comic story...
My old highschool used to have a homecoming game bonfire, where we'd burn an effigy of the mascot for the opposing team. We even had a coffin to carry the thing, and would do this big processional before the burning.
Good times.
A-zombie,
I'm pretty sure every home town does something like that with the opposing team's mascot effigy...
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For some reason last week, my comic book store was shorted on certain books. So I haven't yet received my copies of the latest issues of Detective and War of the Realms. On the positive side, they should be in my box this week, so that'll add to what would have otherwise been a "not much to pick up" week.