(OK, what follows is a pretty big geek rant, so I won’t get mad if many of you want to skip over it and move on. I really didn’t bother to try to explain a lot of things for non-geeks, and there are probably a lot of things that I could have explained better as well. But it’s something that has been bugging me for the last few days, and I felt I needed to get it off my chest in some form or another.)
This really sums up what’s wrong with a lot of the mainstream comics today:
Retconning: Just Another Day Like All The Others (Via Will Wheaton)
I was talking to my buddy Jim the other about how crappy the DC Universe’s Infinite Crisis storylines are getting. Not only is Jason Todd (the Robin that the fans voted to kill off) back thanks to an alternative Superboy prime, but Jimmy Olsen (yes that Jimmy Olsen) now has super powers that he supposedly sucks off of dead New Gods.
Yes, I know that sometimes comics can be a little confusing to “outsiders,” but even as someone who knows a great deal about the DC Universe, I can tell you that I have no idea what’s going on anymore. I should also come clean and say that I have read very little, if any of the Crisis comics, but if this the out come of it, count me out.
And this is exactly what Eric is taking about. It seems like there’s a whole bunch of editors who somehow ended up in charge of the AAA titles and then find themselves running out of things to do with the confines of the established cannon of the series storyline. The same storyline that amassed the title a huge and devoted following in the first place.
So what do they do? Step down? Hire someone with fresh ideas?
Nope, they reboot the entire series, thinking that if they start over, or change that by changing a critical part of the story, that they, the same people who couldn’t figure out how to make things work in the first, could make things much better then the original story that was probably written by some of the biggest names in the industry.
The other big technique? Why kill off a major character of course.
Granted it worked for Superman (and for Jason Todd, at least till they brought him back), but most of the time it comes off a cheap plot device, made worse by the fact that most readers know that if the bigger the character, the less the chance that they will stay dead for long.
Case in point? The resent rumors about the upcoming death of Batman.
I think the thing that bothers me the most about all the rumors is that you just know that if he does die, they’ll bring him back in a year or so in some overly convoluted storyline involving alternative earth, or a sorcerer, or J’onn J’onzz will sacrifice his body some Bruce’s soul could inhabit it.
Well actually the talk is that Bruce is going to become a New God himself, so I guess they can have him die later and come back in Jimmy Olsen.
How can you be sure that he’ll be back?
Ask any non-comic reading person to name 2 superheroes and their alter egos. You will get Superman\ Clark Kent and Batman\ Bruce Wane every time.
Alright, alright… I need to say that I was a huge fan of the Nightfall storyline, and that I would love it if Tim Drake took up the mantle.
Still, with all the craziness of the Crisis storylines, I don’t have high hopes.
I know I’m just some guy with a blog, but please DC don’t screw with one of favorite characters just to pull off some shlocky publicity stunt, only to make someone write yourself out of the corner.
Why alienate a huge and devoted fan base like that?
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