New Comics: The Rogues hold court in Scott Snyder's Joker story, "Death of the Family" (SPOILERS)

[about_faces]

At the risk of invalidating my opinion right off the bat, I want to briefly discuss the use of the Bat-Rogues--especially Harvey--in Scott Snyder's current Joker event, Death of the Family.

Comments

[about_faces]

As for Bat-fandom circles and trends, I must confess, I don't really run in any circles at all. I'm kind out of everyone's loop. Honestly, that's why I needed to start this blog in the first place, to find my OWN community! I've always been kinda out of touch when it comes to whatever's hot with current Batman readers, especially with the Hush era onward, and I don't really know enough fans of classic Batman to whom I could relate in the same way.

I'm not really sure what question you're asking or how to answer it, so I'll just ramble about what comes to mind. I haven't really noticed that trend per se, but I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. There's always going to be disparity between old fans and new ones, partially became many old fans prefer the stuff they grew up reading and partially because many new haven't really read that much else. That's a gross oversimplification, mind you. There are many other factors at play here. I'm sure there are many new fans who would sooner gravitate to some older takes on the Joker over the current version, just as I'm sure there are many old school fans who think that Snyder's Joker is the scariest, coolest Joker ever, just like many experienced fans thought with Morrison's Joker. It's hard to speculate what the trends are, especially for someone like me who feels completely out of place with modern fandom.

Thing is, the way you describe modern fans like yourself doesn't surprise me, nor can I really by upset by it. I understand that new readers are coming along all the time, most of them getting into it via the Nolan films and picking up whatever's most popular and/or most critically praised and/or what's most strongly marketed by DC, and I also know that most great classic stories are hard to find even if these new readers hear about them at all.

So of course current fandom will have mostly only read the recent stuff. Most of them have probably only been into the fandom for a couple years, and there's no telling how long they'll stay in it to keep reading new comics, much less scour through the archives for older stories, much less read even the bad and forgettable stories for pleasure. That takes a certain kind of passion, not to mention money, not to mention free time. I have been lucky to have had those last two to fuel the first one for many years, at least until my son was born.

I should also mention that my opinions are still evolving. When I was first getting into comics at age thirteen, I thought that The Long Halloween and Dark Victory were the best things ever! Then, as the years went by and I read more, my opinions changed. Hell, I didn't even like the Bronze Age until about two years ago! I'd never even thought about it before then! I guess what I'm trying to say is that I can't speak for any classic, old-school, get-off-my-lawn Batman fan. I've just read enough to know what I've liked so far, and I try to do my best to be open-minded enough about new stuff while still wanting to see the good stuff I've liked done better.

Not sure if that answered your question at all, or if any of that made any sense, but there you go. Now, time to sleep, for the love of god.

[about_faces]

I tend to review more older stories than newer ones because the older ones have gotten way less attention or have been forgotten outright, and I love to unearth gems like that. Also, I've reviewed most recent Two-Face stories, but I usually get to them a few months or even years after they've come out, so I guess they really aren't all that recent by the time I get there!

I don't participate in discussion at scans_daily anymore, but while it can still be a hotbed of drama, it is also an invaluable resource for scans and samples. Less so these days, now that fewer and fewer people seem to be posting interesting stuff there. It's a shame, really, especially since that place really used to be the best comics community I'd ever known! But at least there are still good scans to be found there, so long as you're able to ignore the comments. I can't think of any other major resource like it other than a couple blogs like Grantbridge Street and Diversions of the Groovy Kind. If only more sites like that existed to give exposure to all sorts of great and/or obscure and/or bizarre stories of the past!