Oh, Vienna.
If it were up to me, Peter Parker would stay dead.
Same for Jean Grey, Damian Wayne and Professor X. I would have left Johnny Storm in the grave, Along with Janet Van Dyne, Captain Marvel, Steve Rogers, Norman Osborn, Elektra, Thor, Bruce Wayne. Clint Barton is the exception that breaks the rule.
I’ll go one further. The next issue of Batwoman would open with Kathy Kane telling Mr Bones that she was done with the whole gig and going off to get married, with Bones then finding some other lady to become Batwoman until some point where DC could find a way to create a Batwoman comic that J.H. Williams III was happy with working on. That issue of New Avengers where Tony Stark sat down with Nov-Harr and gave him a very stern lecture on how to behave now that Grant Morrison wasn’t writing him anymore? Nov-Ahh would have kicked Iron Man up the arse, shouting ‘I’M NOT TAKING LIFE ADVICE FROM DRUNKS WHO THROW THEIR MATES INTO THE NEGATIVE ZONE, YOU TOM SELLECK LOOKING TWAT!’ and then stayed there until either Grant or maybe Brendan McCarthy decided to start writing him again.
Probably Shagged Pepper Potts. For A Laugh. And Jon Favreau. For Balance.
In fact, while I have no desire to write comics at all, I do have an idea for a cross company crossover pitch which would read roughly like ‘Fred Hembeck Kills The Marvel Universe.’ (perhaps drawn by Nathan Fox or Eric Powell.) in which Deadpool and Harley Quinn would wander through time, popping up just as any of the above characters were coming back to life and promptly shooting them in the head. And then dismembering them. And then burning each limb. On Earths Two, Three , Shazam and Prime.
There’s a cardinal sin in the world of Sports Entertainment Wrestling, known as the ‘No-Sell’. Most wrestling matches (and superhero comic crossovers, for that matter.) work on this formula: Good Guy (Face) shows off how cool he is and gets some of his popular moves in. At some point, the bad guy (Heel) gets in some kind of sneaky attack, and gets the advantage in. The Heel spends a considerable amount of time beating on the Face until the Face until the Good Guy can rally it together and launch a comeback. The Face and Heel exchange their more dangerous moves until finally, against the odds, The Face pulls it out of the bag, executes their winning combination and the crowd goes nuts. It’s a winning formula that has made Hulk Hogan an international star. It’s the process you’ll get every time you watch The Undertaker defend his unbeaten streak at Wrestlemania. Which is one of the main attractions to Wrestlemania now.
The thing is, for that story to work, The Heel HAS to look dangerous. He has to look like his offense is hurting our hero to a point where..actually, he might not win. This could be the night we see Hogan…lose? That’s why the No-Sell is such a terrible thing. We’re well aware that what we’re seeing is pre-orchestrated in terms of what the finish will be, and rarely will you see something onstage that hasn’t been discussed 1st but the selling of the Heel’s offense is what creates the suspension of disbelief. To No-Sell is shrug off your opponent’s offense as ineffectual, Current WWE Champion John Cena is particularly bad for this, with a career of no-selling that includes particularly ‘You…just don’t GET it, do you?’ moments as being driven face 1st into a concrete floor and then taking out THREE wrestlers within minutes or being lamped with a leadpipe and shrugging off what ought to be a career threatening assault to prance his way to another win. Cena is the most polarising Top End WWE star ever, and I suspect a degree of that dislike he draws from the fans is the instinctive knowledge that he is shattering the illusion with each match. Not in a clever, Fourth Wall bending way, but just out of sheer ignorance of the craft.
Funnily enough, you know what John’s nickname is with people who don’t like him? Super-Cena.
….I wish I’d known about this meme before I spent 2 hours writing the last two paragraphs.
LOLZ NEVZ, WTF? What does wrestling psychology have to with superhero comics?
Glad you asked.
I was trying to work out why I’m quite so opposed to crossover event comics, beyond the cynical decompressed story-telling that requires too many comics to tell not enough story (And really, if I never have to see Tony Stark make a speech about anything ever again, that would be good. In fact, I wish Wanda’s last act had been to say ‘No. More. Speeches.) and what I concluded is a couple of things:
Following my metaphor, Death ought to be the most dangerous offensive move in comics. The Kimura Armbreaker slowly, painfully grinding the hope and fight of our hero before they pass out and that horrible, final ‘CRACK!’ rings out, telling us that whatever we hoped would take place, it’s over. Special funeral mini-series. Sound off the Ten Bell salute, Monologues about only having seen them a week ago, etc. Every crossover for the last decade has purported that our heroes will face The Ultimate Kimura Armbreaker this time, and everything before that has been a build-up.
Except, and here’s what I think my problem is, Death is no danger whatsoever. How many of the people populating the ‘Okay, this is The MacGuffin Of Doom, it’s coming to Earth, and we have to deal with it…Or Die Trying.’ have already died? Older readers may be aware of the joke where people would watch the opening credits of Dad’s Army and point out how many members of the cast had passed on. The opening act of most comics events is the reverse of that. And I don’t understand how I’m meant to suspend my disbelief that The Earth, The Multiverse, The Time-Space Continuum, Clapham South can be in any danger when the heroes treat Death like a particularly efficient revolving door. The Avengers should rename themselves The Kamikaze Warriors.
Let’s be honest, when you heard Wanda and Rogue snuffed it in Uncanny Avengers, did you believe it? Deep down, did you honestly think ‘Wow. Marvel will never, ever publish a comic featuring The Scarlet Witch again.’? I bet you didn’t, really. You may well have been pissed off that the only two women in the team had snuffed it, but never for a second did you think ‘They’re done.’ You probably thought ‘How are they going to bring them back?’
If I don’t believe there’s any danger to the Hero, why should I care what the Big Bad’s plan of Doooooom is?
‘WhatEVER…’
Here’s the 2nd thing:
Most resurrections tend to be a bit….well, I can’t think of a nice way to say this, but..cheap.
One of the best things DC has done is to totally leave James Robinson’s Starman stories alone, unless James himself is writing them. The Starman saga remains, for me, the best superhero story that they’ve published in a very long time. It’s the story of Maturing, really, via a huge backdrop of a city, incorporating James’s obvious love of DC history whilst never making people unfamiliar with it feel like they should have read All-Star Squadron 36 to fully understand what’s going on. It ends very definitely, but the story is rich enough that more opportunistic editors could have piecemealed out various mini-series and such to lesser creators and sold them on the back of the Starman brand. James knew the deal going in that he wouldn’t own or have any say in what happened to Jack Knight and I open each issue of Previews with a dread that The Mist has joined The Ravagers or something.
That’s an example of a creative type pouring their heart and soul into creating a character and world that is rich, fitting within the framework of what’s been defined, and selling enough to sustain itself, and a publisher having the option to exploit the brand for short-term gain but choosing not to employ it. It’s an ideal situation.
This. Buy this.
And then there’s Elektra.
While I’m quite happy that there will be an ongoing Elektra comic next year, just because I believe one more female lead mainstream comic book that’s both well-done and has top talent that could lead to it selling well (Which is still entirely up to you, by the way, dear reader. If it doesn’t sell, it’s not because Marvel didn’t publish it nor us retailers didn’t order it, but because you didn’t buy it. Bear that in mind before composing tweets of outrage.) , the thing is…
Carrying on the Sports Entertainment analogy, Resurrection in Comics is what would be called ‘A Cheap Pop’. Someone like Mick Foley would come out to interrupt the Heel and cut off their monologue to say something like ‘And I don’t think you’ve taken into account the good people…RIGHT HERE, AT BLEEDING COOL!’ For some reason, people really like it when you mention the name of the town you’re in. I’ve never understood it myself, but nonetheless, it’s a tried and tested formula for getting people on your side.
In Comics terms, those final few pages where the tomb opens, or the monologue from the Big Bad reveals that it’s been The Red Skull or The Winter Soldier or Johnny Storm all along are a Cheap Pop. Everyone gets excited in a ‘OMIGOD! BUT HOW?’ way. Then there’s the explanation of exactly how Steve ran through Time or that The Green Goblin had been hanging about in ‘Europe’ or whatever. But then…what?
Has there ever been a comic published featuring any resurrected character that had any of the emotional impact or in-depth characterisation that made their death so powerful in the 1st place? Is there anything Elektra has done since her return that any number of scowling dark-haired Marvel Ladies With Knives couldn’t have done, considering no one has touched on her personality beyond ‘Being Quite Good At Stabbing People Quietly.? Ultimately, what I’m asking is…was it worth it? Maybe someone will produce a comic with the imagination, scope, range, subtext and morality of Elektra: Assassin featuring someone who had been dead, but as it stands, could every appearance of Elektra since ‘Fall from Grace’ been replaced with Psylocke or Lady Deathstrike or such?
What i think I’m saying is, while it is legal for Marvel or DC to say ‘Well, Frank Miller created Elektra as part of the Daredevil story, which we own.’ or, more recently DC to say ‘We are more interested in our perception of Batwoman than J.H. Williams III’s vision.’, I think it’s been proved, historically that certain characters are clearly driven by the people who work on them, flesh them out, give them life, and they might not be the action figures that can be theoretically be passed around to any freelancer kicking about for a gig and get the same results, creatively. This is my nice way of saying I think Batwoman will be cancelled within a year because J.H. Williams III isn’t working on it.
So Problem A: The lack of consequence of Death has obliterated any suspension of disbelief that’s required to properly invest in The Big Crossover Events
Totally taking to you. In a Bill Hicks to Jon Bon Jovi way.
B) Most resurrections haven’t been worth the effort as they’re generally not done by the person who created the character and after the initial ‘WTF!’ Buzz moment. Within a year of their return, they might as well have not died, meaning the whole signifiance of their death was a total waste of time.
Here’s a possible solution:
New standing rule: If you’re going to kill someone, the publisher isn’t allowed to use them in any form for say, 20 years real time with the person most responsible for their current state of popularity being consulted on how and if they should be brought back. So if Hawkeye dies, Matt Fraction is asked what he thinks about the resurrection. Deadpool? Joe Kelly. No toys, no movies, no Elseworlds style minis. (One of the things that totally took away from the impact of Batman’s death a few years back was seeing him alive and well in the Kevin Smith minis, Batman Confidential, etc. I can’t miss you if you haven’t gone away. ) That character is retired for anything that would create revenue from their appearance. Obviously, there’d be some leeway for someone writing a World War 2 story if Cap had died or suchlike, but if I knew coming in that the rule was in place and Darkseid twatted Dick Grayson in the 1st chapter, that would give me pause to think, given how much money is tied up in the brand of Nightwing. Because as it stands, I’m all too familiar with ‘Last Act, Heroes appear to win. Final MacGuffin kills a Hero. Fall out One-Shot/Mini-Series dealing with Death. Period Of Time passes. Character returns in expensive comics.’ I understand what you’re selling, and I’m not buying it.
I’m really not buying it.
So, it’s an idea. Am I wrong? Come argue with me on Twitter. I’ve seen the message boards and I don’t think I’ve had enough inoculations to survive extended periods in that swamp.
Does Continuity Matter? Also this column is going to give you Nightmares. #SorrynotSorry
n which we contemplate how time has to contradict itself, how that might be a good thing and I leave you with an image that you’re going to see in your nightmares. Sorry about that, It was necessary.
Reader reaction thus far has been generally negative towards Age Of Ultron thus far, with most commentary being along the lines of ‘It doesn’t make a lot of sense.’, ‘There was too much waffling about the consequences of time travel.’, ‘Who is this Morgana Le Fay, anyway?’ and ‘All this for Angela? Really? Why don’t you just stick Bucky O’Hare and Lady Death in there as well?’
I don’t know if I liked Age of Ultron 10, and I wouldn’t even suggest I fully grasp all the side effects of Wolverine treating the Marvel timeline like his own brand of fan-fiction, but my understanding is that Logan jumping back in time, murdering Hank Pym for things he would do in the future, having a chat with New Future Tony Stark and then an alternate Wolverine going back and unkilling Hank has led to the Marvel Universe’s history being in total disarray. Various heroes are shown towards the end of the book with conflicting memories, suggesting that the timeline of the Marvel Universe is now totally open to anything happening and having happened. (Also, I was happy to see Blackbeard Thing. I’m easy that way.)
‘…And bring me some Pie!’
Why? Because Reasons; here are some of them.:
Continuity only matters, for my money, if the story you’re writing and plotting has an ending. Narrative works on a pretty simple formula:
Status Quo, Disruption, Reestablished Status Quo. (Jokes about Francais Rossi and The Avengers singing ‘Pictures Of Matchstick Men’ begin here.)
Status Quo: Archie is on a date with Betty.
Disruption: Reggie tries to get off with Betty while Archie is distracted. Cherry Poptart shows up and takes Betty dancing.
Reestablished : Archie and Reggie go home. Story ends.
In both the Marvel and the DC Universe, their stories have been caught in a middle act for years. Decades, even. While non continuous comics and cartoon strips can play off the interactions between their characters possibly forever (Archie, Pogo, Calvin & Hobbes,) the Big Two superhero worlds run on the illusion that life is happening to their characters.
Be it Broken backs, Babies, Death, New costumes, and suchlike, when you’re telling stories that suggest there is a sequence of events happening to Spidey, Batman or Rocket Raccoon, then the chances are, you’re going to run into some problems.
There are rare occasions of stories in superhero universes being written with an ending in mind whilst happening in continuity.James Robinson’s Starman springs to mind and is totally recommended by me. Several times over.) Obviously comics get cancelled and the narrative is hastily reconfigured to accommodate the fact that your 75 issue magnum opus is now going to be finishing with issue 7. Also, ideally, if you’re creating a character for Marvel/DC, you’re probably writing with a view to get them into the same level of recognition as a Wolverine or Iron Man. Whose story you don’t want to end, for obvious T-Shirt and Video Game based reasons
Part of the reason Deadpool (who’s a very rare example of someone created after the end of the Kirby/Lee period of Marvel actually becoming popular in Real World stakes) works so well is that he’s almost anti-narrative and probably has more of an everyman mindset for the 21st Century than anyone else running about in comics today. People probably would like to be as efficient and cool as Batman but the truth is you or I would probably end up being Deadpool.
Speaking from a retail perspective Deadpool is a marketing dream. He’s got cross-media exposure, so ‘Straights’ (my term for people who don’t know the difference between Tim Drake and Jason Todd ) have an idea of who he is. While there is a back story to Wade Wilson all you really need to know about him is, ‘Unkillable Sarcastic Killing Machine. Think Bugs Bunny with a Boob Fetish and a ‘Kajillion Guns’. I’m not sure where the popular Fourth Wall breaking angle to the character came from (Certainly wasn’t talking to the audience when Rob Liefeld debuted him), but I’d stake money that Deadpool is probably the Mary Sue of comics fandom circa 2013.
Yet again, here’s the thing: He’s Anti-Narrative. The weight of Marvel History doesn’t loom over his comics except for a few in-jokes. Whomever the guest star is ends up as the straight man, regardless of whether Captain America is actually Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes or Commie Smash Cap William Burnside, he’s still just going to be the guy who ends up with literal or metaphorical pie on his face, and can just go back to the Avengers none the wiser.
Most issues of Deadpool.
Before anyone gets me wrong on this, I’m going to draw my line in the sand here. Marvel can do whatever they want with their properties. The key word in that sentence is ‘Their’.. It does make explaining what’s going on a bloody nightmare though and ultimately, in ten years time, I’ll need to know as much as Spocktacular Spidey as I need to know about Spidercide, Deb Whitman and Jonathan Casear now.
Here’s why:
Pre-Netflix, DVD Box-Sets, Iplayer, YouTube, 4OD, etc , the only way to watch a show was its original broadcast. There were only so many channels, so ratings determined everything to a much stronger degree than it does now. While a Family Guy or Futurama could be saved by online petitions and strong DVD sales today, in those days the show would just be cancelled and that’d be the end of it. Booking for new episodes of a show were dependent on how episodes rated during ‘Sweeps Week’. If you had low ratings during that period, your show was dead and any number of things would take its spot.
Writers and Producers soon twigged this formula, and would craft stories so that huge plot developments would occur during this period, to ‘spike’ ratings. ‘Will Sam propose to Rebecca?’ ‘Who Shot J.R?’ and ‘Who, Seriously now, No more fucking about with Owls or Log Ladies, Killed Laura Palmer?’
This guy.
Now with television, where things could be cancelled and you couldn’t go back and check things because there was no way of watching them, it was fine, to an extent. Mention the phrase ‘And then Bobby Ewing stepped out of the shower’ and watch eyes roll. Some of us are still upset that Becky was played by a different actress for at least one season of Roseanne by the way.
Still though, when spiking became a thing, nobody knew that in the future people would be pointing out the contradictions of the event decades later. Promising that we’d finally see Bruce Willis and Cybill Sheppard snog was just a way of hopefully keeping everyone’s job for another season. When comics picked up the habit though, things became difficult. DC were famous for making the most insane promises on their covers. Clark was finally going to marry Lois; Bruce was going to shack up with Selina; Jimmy Olsen would acknowledge that his habit of dressing up as women in order to infiltrate The Mob might suggest questions about himself he needed to answer.
because… crime.
The thing is, DC didn’t really have a timeline of events or a cohesive universe to worry about. Sure Superman and Batman saw each other all the time but the events in Action Comics barely affected the goings-on in Superman, let alone Detective. Something frontal-cortex fucking would happen in the pages of Batman Family and then it’d be written off as Alfred’s personal Fan-Fiction or some Make-Believe movie that the poor, bored shitless people of Kandor would have to watch while waiting for Clark to get them out of that bottle.
But then The Death Of Gwen Stacey happened. When Amazing Spider-Man promised ‘THIS Issue, Someone DIES!’, I imagine nobody realised that Marvel actually meant it.
Much has been written about the Death Of Gwen Stacey, whether it was Norm hitting her with the Goblin Glider or Pete catching her with his webbing that actually finished her off. Did Stan Lee come up with the idea to end her or was it Gerry Conway acting without Stan’s permission? Stories conflict but for the sake of this, all we need to know is that Gwen’s Death is probably the most significant one in modern comics. The adventures of Peter Parker had been a bit of a formulaic soap opera since Lee and Romita Sr left the book but now, well, things were happening. Importantly a sequence of events that couldn’t be reversed by writing it off as a ‘What If’ had occurred and it carried with it inherent problems.
Spiking became a thing across the Marvel (and later, with 1985 Maxi-Series Crisis On Infinite Earths, DC) until stories weren’t written with a view to advancing characterization, making a point or just telling an interesting story so much as they became time-killing build-up to ‘THE THING THAT OH MY GOD DID THEY ACTUALLY JUST DO THAT THEY DID I CAN’T EVEN!’ Spidey gets a Black Costume, Barry Allen Dies, Spidey Gets A Silver Costume, Supergirl Dies, Harry Osborn Dies, Superman leaves Earth, Spider-Man’s Parents Return, Jason Todd Dies, Doctor Octopus Dies, Batman Stops Being Batman, Pete Has Been A Clone For As Long As You’ve Been Reading Spidey.
This happened, also.
Spike. Spike. Spike. Spike. Which is fine if that’s what you were planning to do since the inception of the character. If you had a finite narrative in mind. If Steve & Stan plotted from the start a story that went from Spies buggering off under the instructions of Nick ‘Father Time’ Fury through Norman Osborn sleeping with Gwen, Mary Jane being pregnant, Otto trying to marry May Parker, The Avengers, Spider-Prime, Miles Warren mucking about with clones, Alien Symbiotes, The Spider-Mobile and God knows what else I’m forgetting that would also be part of the ongoing, sprawling Marvel narrative, then possibly, all this would make sense.
Obviously they didn’t; admittedly Spikes that have been done to Spidey (Particularly in the early 90′s) are certainly more insane than most but this process also applies to pretty much every other major comics character published from Marvel or DC. When you try and correlate these events into some kind of ongoing story you either end up getting it wrong or having to create an event every ten years or so that explains how time is in a mess and pretend certain comics just didn’t happen.
I think we all know what I’m taking about, here.
The problem as Stan Lee put it, is ‘The Illusion Of Progress.’ With the best will in the world it’s the core troupes of these characters that the general public (who are more likely to buy a copy of Batman: Arkham Origins on Xbox 360 than they are Grant Morrison’s Batman Inc collections, which means a hell of a lot more to DC at the moment) are aware of. For everything we know about Spock, Ben Reilly, Mephisto, Miles Warren and Nathan Lubensky, eventually Spider-Man has to be about Pete, Power And Responsibilty, living with Aunt May, having bad luck, etc. Those constants have to be in place in the comics for the franchise to work. It’s only by messing them around that any shock value can be transformed into a Spike Comic.
So, Does Continuity Matter?
Honestly speaking, there’s no way it can matter. Either The Marvel Universe is made up of a series of events that happen sequentially (Which makes the fact that Franklin Richards hasn’t aged and Katie Power has difficult, since they hung out when they were kids. Except Katie is now a teenager but Franklin is still a kid because one of the constants of The Fantastic Four is that Reed and Sue have a young son called Franklin. Also, no one really cares about Katie Power) that has to finally come to a conclusion OR you create some kind of set-up akin to Archie Comics where characters interact but the status quo is resumed at the end of each issue*
Right now Marvel has created a culture of shock fatigue. There’s literally nothing that Dan Slott can do to the cast of Superior Spider-Man that can have any effect on me beyond ‘I wonder how they’re going to undo that then.’ That’s not a case of him being a bad writer. I really like Superior Spidey as a quick read. But there’s nothing anyone at Marvel can do to convince me I’m actually reading a chapter of an ongoing story that has an ending; which is what gives those Spikes real impact. That’s down to seeing Janet Van Dyne die and turn out to have been sent to The Microverse. Watching Bucky Barnes snuff it but turn out to be a Life Model Decoy. Due to watching Spike after Spike after Spike after Spike over the last twenty years that have a need to be undone to maintain the Status Quo/Narrative Conflict suggests to me that my understanding of Age Of Ultron is the most positive one. DC did something similar with Mark Waid’s The Kingdom a while back, where the suggestion was while every appearance of Sugar & Spike, Comet The Super-Horse and The Inferior Five had all happened but while there wasn’t a need to ever refer to them again, nor would they need to brutally wiped from history.
I suspect Marvel might be onto something with the same idea. They’ve got a lot of good will out of how well Marvel Now! has done, both critically and commercially. While I don’t think any of our wallets are looking forward to Battle Of The Atom, Superior-Month and Infinity all happening at once, they’re on the ball with their current books whilst also upsetting the right people enough to know how to create nerdrage by clearly chuckling when working out how to abuse the Spider-Man franchise next. What they don’t want to be doing is ‘explaining how it all comes together with explanations probably blabbed at us by The Watcher.
SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP!
It all happened; unless you refund me full price on comics I bought that you say didn’t happen anymore. Don’t try and make sense of it, because you can’t. Inherently you can’t. The only way to’ fix’ it is to try and draw a line in the sand and suggest certain comics didn’t happen and that tends to end pretty badly. It’s a short term solution that renews interest in your properties for a limited period but readers tend to become annoyed when you tell them that they’ve just wasted years worth of money buying comics that have no relevance anymore.
After all how many of the ‘All Time Greats’ in the super-hero genre throw the rulebook out of the window and just tell a story? Superman:Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow, Dark Knight Returns, Spider-Man: Tangled Web, Superman:Red Son, Elektra:Assassin, Ambush Bug, Marvel Zombies, The Golden Age, Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe and even current fandom darling Hawkeye could be happening anywhen. They’re good stories because they tell an interesting tale free of worrying whether they correlate between Adventures Of Superman 532 and Man Of Steel 23.
If this doesn’t make you laugh, we can’t be friends. I’m sorry.
*This isn’t the terrible idea it might sound. DC’s better books of the last few years have been the ‘kids books’ that play with continiuity but don’t really deviate from it, such as Evan Dorkin, Mark Millar and Scott Mccloud’s issues of Superman Adventures and Batman:Brave And The Bold. See also Marvel letting Ty Templeton run amuck with Ultimate Spider-Man. (Not the Bendis one, which is proof of ‘Trying to solve The Status Quo/Narrative Conflict times a Kajillion.)
Give The Kids Their Toys Back.
It used to be that when people asked me the best way to break into comics, I’d have an spiel that ran about 20 mins or so, touching upon awareness of your product, friendly customer service, knowing your audience and what they’d probably like, doing your research, checking updates online, cultivating a relationship with the independent and small press world. That kind of thing.
Nowadays, I just tell them: ‘Go watch The Wire.’
I’ll come back to this.
I’m assuming if you’re reading this on bleedingcool.com, then you’re aware of the story leaking yesterday that DC will be relaunching all of their mainstream titles in September once Flashpoint rewrites the history of the DC Universe. New number ones, $2.99 price point across the board, aimed at a slightly younger audience. Sounds great, to me. I’m just worried about one thing:
What if it’s too late?
For this generation, the idea that superhero comics REALLY weren’t for kids came about with The Ultimates. Now, I like the 1st two volumes of The Ultimates. They’re funny, ‘packed with redeeming social commentary; as Russ Meyer used to say, beautifully drawn and in general a nice step in the direction of superheroes for adults. That was fine. When that angle was contained within that title.
The problem came when, much like in the eighties when every superhero comic wanted to be Watchmen or Dark Knight, all the Marvel and DC wanted to translate that sensibility and more importantly, sales figure to all their titles.
Politics, sex, religion and serious violence became the touchstone of modern mainstream superhero comics. Dr Light was retconned into an angry rapist, Norman Osborn slept with Peter Parker’s girlfriend, Batman became so paranoid as a result of The Justice League’s betrayal that he set up a global cctv network, Wonder Woman snapped a man’s neck on television, Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne practiced superhero oral sex. Again, for the record, I have no problems with any of this stuff being depicted in comics; I just don’t believe they’re the appropriate things to be doing in titles that are aimed at children.
This style of storytelling culminated in Civil War, which became the model for the industry and certainly Marvel’s publishing plans for the next few years. Summer long crossovers, incredibly decompressed storytelling with very little actually happening, numerous spin-offs, and titles hijacked in order to flesh out thin plots. Ultimatum (An Ultimate Universe crossover.) wasn’t so much a story as a progression from one violent death to the next. Over the last few years, it’s been a steady decline to almost total inaccessibility. Between this anti-new reader mentality, unnecessarily jacked up price points and the rise of the availability of new comics online for free, the new comic market has been taking a kicking.
I think one of the significant reasons for this is that, speaking as someone spends time behind the counter, it simply hasn’t been safe to recommend most Marvel/DC comics to children for a long time, and I can’t tell you how incredibly difficult that is.
Personally, I really like Deadpool Max, but I just turned 34. Deadpool is an action figure; he’s a character in Marvel vs Capcom 3. He’s probably the most bankable single Marvel have come up with since Wolverine that kids love, and he features in a comic I can’t sell to kids. What ought to be is that a parent should be able to pick up a Marvel/DC superhero title and safely be able to pass it onto their children without having to worry if there’s going to be an alternate history of the Nazis in the opening 10 pages.
I’m aware that Deadpool Max is aimed at adults, but most parents simply aren’t aware of the silly nuances of the comics industry where a superhero can swear in one title and not in the next. They wouldn’t expect to walk into W.H. Smiths or Barnes & Noble and try and work out why Kermit is having his normal adventures in The Muppets Show comic and fisting Fozzie whilst gutting Staler and Waldorf with a blunt chisel in DARK MUPPETS MAX!
(Let me sidetrack for a minute and say that I have no problem with superhero comics featuring this stuff. As long as they aren’t being used to sell toothbrushes and pajamas at the same time.)
The idea of Marvel/DC superhero comics should be that they’re a gateway point into the medium. They’re a nickel bag product. You get started with Spider-Man and Batman, move onto Miracleman, Rocketeer, Creepy and end up at Love and Rockets, Eightball, Glamourpuss, Elephantmen. Or to put it in Wire form, you start with weed, move on to speed and end up on coke. Right now, as a retailer, I’m in the position of trying to push product that is the equivalent of crystal meth on first time users. It’s like the film ‘Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story.’ was the only advert for Barbie toys.
This isn’t, in any way, a call for the return of badly written superheroes. People say that in the age of Xbox 360, the Internet and Iphones, kids aren’t willing to read anymore. This is nonsense. Kids love reading, but you have to present the material in such a way to they can enjoy it. Things like Twilight, Harry Potter, Artemis Wolf, Dr Who, The Dandy, Tiny Titans and a dozen other examples are proof that you can’t play the ‘There’s no money in the younger reader market.’ card. You have to create content aimed at them, and if I’ve learnt one thing about children in my twelve years of working with them, it’s that they DON’T like being referred to as ‘KIDZ’ or ‘Younger Readers’ or any of that crap.
So, if DC are being straight about this, that the days of Sue Dibny being raped, of the dead coming back with a guilt trip monologue for two pages, of cities being blown up and Green Arrow killing people as a consequence are over, I’m ecstatic. Hopefully this’ll lead to writers exploring more adult themes in a line of comics that aren’t aimed at kids, a line pitched somewhere near the Vertigo/Epic aesthetic. I’m just hoping it isn’t too late. That when Mario Stanfield returns to the street corner, there’ll be a new generation of eager new addicts.
(Recommended for people trying to get children into comics: Tiny Titans, The Muppets, Bone, Marvel Super-Hero Squad, Calvin and Hobbes, The Dandy.)
No One Is Innocent 