Odds ‘n Ends

  • The upcoming redesign/relaunch of PGPoA continues apace. Rome wasn’t built in a day, when it’s done, Valve time and all that. Hopefully it will seem worth the hubbub once it’s revealed. I will say we have a pretty cool contest planned to coincide with it.
  • In the meantime, as I’m sure is obvious, I’ve been on something of an unofficial hiatus for a few months now. It was a nice break, and necessary, I think, but things should start picking up soon. April and May were very busy months for me, but things appear to be calming down now.
  • So, DC is rebooting their entire universe. I have a lot of reservations and many questions, but the first one I want answered is: does this mean Damian Wayne can finally go away? More significantly, though, it occurred to me that the comics themselves are really the least relevant form of media for superheroes these days. My Batman is the Batman of B:TAS, the Burton & Nolan films, and Arkham Asylum/City. And action figures, of course. As long as DC still produces Elseworlds-style side comics like Batman Beyond and one-offs like Brian Azzarello’s The Joker, while making animated adaptations of Batman: Year One and Dark Knight Returns, I’ll be fine. What are your thoughts?
  • BotCon is this weekend…anyone going? Anyone interested? Anyone else find it painful Michael Bay is being feted?

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16 Comments

  1. OB1

    I am removing all DC Comics from my sub on my next trip to the store. (Not that I have many left since they ruined Batman.) I love Jim Lee, but this is the last straw. Money grab. The only positive is day-of-release digital so maybe when they get back to normal business I will jump back on board and get them for my iPad. I wish Marvel would go digital as well.

  2. If the DC reboot results in good stories being told, great. If it doesn't, it's a failure.

    For what it's worth, the JLA title has been an absolute mess since they took McDuffie off of it anyway, and a re-alignment, at least, is desperately needed there.

    And as much as I love the JSA, the current story and art were so pointless and odd, respectively, that I took it off my pull list, something that would've been unthinkable a year ago.

  3. dayraven

    i'm skeptical of the DC move, especially because they've done it before, and of the comic companies, they have the longest history to essentially own up to… those classic stories and classic characters are so for a reason, so you can't abandon them, and you can't retell them without pissing off old fans… so you really need to get a team, keep them on the book a while, and let them get a feel for what they're doing and who they're doing it with… which is practically verboten these days. the relaunch means nothing, ultimately, if you're not telling stories people want to read, and the relaunch wouldn't be needed if they were currently capable and interested in doing that.

    the industry needs to consider slowing down. one team, let them work for a year at a time, minimum, no guest authors, no guest artists, no giant crossovers, no huge retcons… just a year of continuous, self contained storytelling. is that friggin impossible? i'm not one who believes that the industry is dying because of the internet, just as i don't believe figures are dying because of video games… the past just hasn't figured out how to reconcile their past w/ their present to inform their future.

    that said, hey MAYBE this is precisely what they need to get that perspective and they can turn around a whole industry with this move. i will never say it can't be done… just that it's highly unlikely.

  4. Heli

    I wish I could afford to go to Botcon. I've been once, when it happened to be practically in my back yard, but I can't spend the dough for the (crazily high, IMO) ticket prices, along with hotel and travel.

  5. Can't wait for the new PGPOA!

    I don't care about the reboot. I've completely given up reading superhero comics and shifted my interest to European non-superhero comics, after seeing good series ruinied.

    IMO, the US comics industry as a whole pretty much deserves the hard times.

    I'm still far away from being a Transformers fan, but to my own shock, my interest is growing lately.

  6. Thrawn

    I read comics (less and less though). I think one of the big reasons this is being done is so Grant Morrison can write an unmarried Superman. It's OMD all over again. I dropped every Marvel comic but one after OMD. I went to DC. Now they're pulling this too.

    Wonder Woman is still going to be in her stupid Jim Lee redesigned costume too from what I've seen.

    The more I hear about this, the less I like it. We'll have to wait and see though.

  7. AJ

    The main reason I'm wary about DC's big reboot is that the company has done it before (in fact, it's their default solution for everything) and then they manage to squander it away.

    On a more personal note, it feels like DC is trying its very hardest to make me not care about their comics. The needless retcons to Superman over the past decade have already soured me on following the character on a monthly basis. Now they're doing it yet again, to every character. Why should I read anything if the company is just going to invalidate it in a few years? Furthermore, DC always seems to be ignorant of its back-issue collections when doing these reboots. Why go through the effort of paying talent to retell old stories instead of prompting the old material in reprint form you already paid for?

  8. Reverend Ender

    I like Damien Wayne. I also like reading comics. I get the feeling that the other titles will keep going, but these will be new and different, like the Marvel Ultimate universe.

  9. FakeEyes22

    I think the DC thing has a lot of fun potential, but it could get really awkward. Introduce all the same supporting characters in Superman? It could be boring. We've seen a billion takes on this. Change things up a bit? Interesting, but it could really feel wrong when every event is now the new official take.

    I think Ultimate Spider-Man succeeded because the regular guy still existed and the same writer has been on it the whole time. With how often creative teams switch these days, it won't take long for a rebooted character to become as convoluted as the current version.

    The digital aspect of it is bold and ambitious, but not the best news for comic stores.

  10. Dead Man Walking

    I am disturbed about Michael Bay being fellated. Frankly, I'd rather he be flagellated.

  11. When I heard about the DC reset yesterday I immediately thought "that is not a very good idea, just to throw away all of that history." Then I realized that I don't read the mainstream stories anyway. When I buy comics, usually in TPB form, it's always some random no name hero that just happens to catch my interest, or one shot stories about the big boys that don't really fit into the canonical DC universe anyway.

    Superman is my big hero, and I will always have the golden age stories and Fleischer cartoons (which is my preferred version of supes), and my Batman will always be TAS version. I'm curious what will be different in the DC universe, and if I hear good things about it I might get around to buying some of the new stuff.

  12. As a geek who really doesn't read comics, I don't really pay too much attention to whats going on.

    As far as "my Batman", you could have just stopped at Batman: TAS.

  13. Ridureyu

    Comics have been appealing to a smaller and smaller audience for a while now. They are killing themselves due to inmates running the asylum, over-emphasis on hardcore fanatics only, and limiting all of ciomics to superheroes alone. Really, DC and Marvel onyl make money on licensing. They lose on comics, especially after Diamond Distribution takes 65 cents out of every dollar.

    They've needed something like this for a long time now.

  14. I'll be at Botcon representing PowetToys. Very much looking forward to it. Not angry about Bay. Love the movies are hate them, it is undeniable they have rejuvenated the franchise and guaranteed the brand's success for years to come.

  15. My favorite superheroes aren't usually from the comics. I love Dr. Fate… but I don't really read comics he's in. I mostly enjoy when he shows up as a guest on cartoons, same goes with Captain Marvel.

  16. Nik

    I will be at Botcon. I'm okay with the Bay thing. Feelings on the movies themselves aside, he brought it so much "risk money" for Hasbro. The continuation of new "classics" in Universe and Generation/RTS and the future exists mostly because of the profits from the movies.

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