Comics Rant + Issues
It's been about five months since the last time I let out a rant on the current direction of comic books, and now I have the chance to update my stance. I've come to the conclusion that perhaps it's just the fan in me maturing and wanting more than just the hero defeating the villain, that I want to see progress in the character's life, be it good or bad, eventual change and a move from the constant repetition of plots. I will always love the characters for who they are, but I've begun to really see a decline in the interest of the story lines for me due to their inability to do more than they can.
I'll start with DC's Big Three: Batman, Superman & Wonder Woman. I love these characters, but there is no change in their paths outside of huge events that may or may not just get retconned at the next huge event. After the events of Infinite Crisis last year, and through 52 this year, it's been revealed during the OYL jump that Catwoman aka Selina Kyle became pregnant and had a child, Helena. This is in homage to Earth-2 Helena Wayne who was the daughter of Batman and Catwoman and eventually became the Huntress. This universe's Huntress, Helena Bertinelli is a directly influenced from that Earth-2 character. During a very popular Batman event, Hush back in 2002, the relationship between Batman and Catwoman intensified to a point where she even learned his identity I believe. Yet like with most things DC does, it was just a tease and shortly after his identity is protected and the relationship is non-existent.
Back to the present, Batman is not Helena's father. Instead a minor character who they end up killing during 52 is. Why you ask? Right from Catwoman writer, Will Pfeifer's mouth: Batman is not going to become a father in someone else's book. That's it. So because Catwoman has her own book, Batman can't be the father, can't be a minor character, and another love connection can pretty much be written off because of that stupid little rule. Does this mean if Lois Lane still had her own comic like she did in the 60's, that she would've never gotten married to Clark Kent? Would Lana Lang have a bigger role because of that, unlike her practically non-existent one now.
The real hypocricy in this is that at the same time in OYL, it's revealed that Talia, Ra's Al Ghul's daughter has apparently borne Batman's son, Damian who is six or seven and is a royal brat. Yet they show up for a small four issue arc and are presumably gone from future story lines for the time being due to an explosion they didn't reappear from.
This brings me to Richard "Dick" Grayson, Robin I, Nightwing, and perpetually never making it to the big league thanks to those in charge despite him arguably being one of the oldest and popular characters created despite his beginning as a sidekick. With that revelation from Will Pfeifer, you can pretty much kiss any reconciliation between Dick and Barbara Gordon, Oracle. Barbara stars in her own fairly successful title, Birds of Prey and Nightwing has his own self-titled book. It's obvious now that the proposal I ranted about last August was merely a final moment for those two characters in DC's eyes since Dan Didio was planning on killing the former Boy Wonder during Infinite Crisis. I will not be reading the annual that will come out this Spring, indicating how those two fell apart after Infinite Crisis. It was just poorly planned, although it does leave the door open for Koriand'r, aka Starfire, who Dick has also been in relations with prior and just happens to not be connected to any title currently (unless something happens to her during 52 that we haven't seen and which would just suck).
Besides Dick's love life, his crimefighting life also is affected by the Big 3 effect. When he was with the Titans, some of his teammates were Wally West aka Kid Flash, who had become Flash III at the same time Dick became Nightwing, and is actually now not in this universe anymore and has since been replaced by Bart Allen as Flash IV, and Roy Harper, who started as Speedy (Green Arrow's sidekick), became Arsenal and now is Red Arrow and in the Justice League. Both have moved on to the Justice League at one time or another, Dick can't because of his position of being in Batman's shadow and DC's unwillingness to change those characters from their positions as JL mainstays. This also befalls Donna Troy, who was once Wonder Girl but has now moved on to a self-titled superheroine role because Wonder Woman is going nowhere, as is being proven in the current often delayed, Wonder Woman arc where Donna had taken over the position after Infinite Crisis but seems to be over her head as WW's villains seem to be stronger than ever before and Diana will have to come save the day and retake the role.
Green Lantern, another often delayed book, is suffering from the character comes back to life syndrome. Hal Jordan who they'd made into the perfect fallen hero character who ended up sacrificing himself in the end was brought back to life to try to reinvigorate the listless franchise and to me it's just retreading over well worn tracks. Yes Kyle Rayner was a Lantern that writers just didn't seem able to make into an iconic figure, but to ditch him to the side to bring back Hal Jordan was a mistake. Seeing him look all young without even his trademark streaks of grey is disheartening, much like the youth movement with the first lantern, Alan Scott, it just doesn't make sense. What they should have done with the Lantern book is what they've done with a new title they created just under a year ago, Green Lantern Corps. It follows the recently rebuilt Corps and Guy Gardner as the most consistent known character along with a lot of never before seen Lanterns. It has wonderful art and fun stories that just make the current Lantern title pale in comparison.
With Marvel, I really don't understand what they're doing with their Ultimate line. They squander the Gwen Stacy character, just to kill her off lamely early on in the series. Although I did like what they did with having a little Kitty Pryde/Spidey romance, but that seems to be quickly dwindling with how fast they produce issues of that series. But their Ultimate X-men, my god, do they really have to go the Professor Xavier loves Jean Grey route ... I'm sorry that's just a tad much, it's enough that in the regular universe I had to deal with Logan, and then the eventual demise of Jean totally screwing up the Rachel Grey possibilities outside 'alternate universe' but now i have to deal with Xavier in Ultimate... gah! I'm glad I stopped following this series. I now follow no Ultimate series.
A title I was planning on picking up from Marvel was Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, but news just broke within the last week of the writer signing an exclusive with DC, pretty much killing that series since the regular artist had already left for other opportunities. That's really unfortunate because it seemed like a fun little title.
Right now I'm just being a silent observer with Civil War, and i'm waiting until it's over to decide how I feel about it. All I know is I better not see Marvel just jump right into another big event when this is through like they did with CW just barely past House of M. And I ended up disliking House of M because I had really liked what they were doing with Scarlet Witch and Captain America before that event ...
Favorite Books Right Now: (#1's up for download)
DC: Green Lantern Corps
Vertigo (DC's more mature line): American Virgin (NSFW?)
Marvel: X-Factor
Image: Invincible
Dark Horse: Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic
Devil's Due Publishing: GI JOE - America's Elite
Dynamite Entertainment: Red Sonja
I'll start with DC's Big Three: Batman, Superman & Wonder Woman. I love these characters, but there is no change in their paths outside of huge events that may or may not just get retconned at the next huge event. After the events of Infinite Crisis last year, and through 52 this year, it's been revealed during the OYL jump that Catwoman aka Selina Kyle became pregnant and had a child, Helena. This is in homage to Earth-2 Helena Wayne who was the daughter of Batman and Catwoman and eventually became the Huntress. This universe's Huntress, Helena Bertinelli is a directly influenced from that Earth-2 character. During a very popular Batman event, Hush back in 2002, the relationship between Batman and Catwoman intensified to a point where she even learned his identity I believe. Yet like with most things DC does, it was just a tease and shortly after his identity is protected and the relationship is non-existent.
Back to the present, Batman is not Helena's father. Instead a minor character who they end up killing during 52 is. Why you ask? Right from Catwoman writer, Will Pfeifer's mouth: Batman is not going to become a father in someone else's book. That's it. So because Catwoman has her own book, Batman can't be the father, can't be a minor character, and another love connection can pretty much be written off because of that stupid little rule. Does this mean if Lois Lane still had her own comic like she did in the 60's, that she would've never gotten married to Clark Kent? Would Lana Lang have a bigger role because of that, unlike her practically non-existent one now.
The real hypocricy in this is that at the same time in OYL, it's revealed that Talia, Ra's Al Ghul's daughter has apparently borne Batman's son, Damian who is six or seven and is a royal brat. Yet they show up for a small four issue arc and are presumably gone from future story lines for the time being due to an explosion they didn't reappear from.
This brings me to Richard "Dick" Grayson, Robin I, Nightwing, and perpetually never making it to the big league thanks to those in charge despite him arguably being one of the oldest and popular characters created despite his beginning as a sidekick. With that revelation from Will Pfeifer, you can pretty much kiss any reconciliation between Dick and Barbara Gordon, Oracle. Barbara stars in her own fairly successful title, Birds of Prey and Nightwing has his own self-titled book. It's obvious now that the proposal I ranted about last August was merely a final moment for those two characters in DC's eyes since Dan Didio was planning on killing the former Boy Wonder during Infinite Crisis. I will not be reading the annual that will come out this Spring, indicating how those two fell apart after Infinite Crisis. It was just poorly planned, although it does leave the door open for Koriand'r, aka Starfire, who Dick has also been in relations with prior and just happens to not be connected to any title currently (unless something happens to her during 52 that we haven't seen and which would just suck).
Besides Dick's love life, his crimefighting life also is affected by the Big 3 effect. When he was with the Titans, some of his teammates were Wally West aka Kid Flash, who had become Flash III at the same time Dick became Nightwing, and is actually now not in this universe anymore and has since been replaced by Bart Allen as Flash IV, and Roy Harper, who started as Speedy (Green Arrow's sidekick), became Arsenal and now is Red Arrow and in the Justice League. Both have moved on to the Justice League at one time or another, Dick can't because of his position of being in Batman's shadow and DC's unwillingness to change those characters from their positions as JL mainstays. This also befalls Donna Troy, who was once Wonder Girl but has now moved on to a self-titled superheroine role because Wonder Woman is going nowhere, as is being proven in the current often delayed, Wonder Woman arc where Donna had taken over the position after Infinite Crisis but seems to be over her head as WW's villains seem to be stronger than ever before and Diana will have to come save the day and retake the role.
Green Lantern, another often delayed book, is suffering from the character comes back to life syndrome. Hal Jordan who they'd made into the perfect fallen hero character who ended up sacrificing himself in the end was brought back to life to try to reinvigorate the listless franchise and to me it's just retreading over well worn tracks. Yes Kyle Rayner was a Lantern that writers just didn't seem able to make into an iconic figure, but to ditch him to the side to bring back Hal Jordan was a mistake. Seeing him look all young without even his trademark streaks of grey is disheartening, much like the youth movement with the first lantern, Alan Scott, it just doesn't make sense. What they should have done with the Lantern book is what they've done with a new title they created just under a year ago, Green Lantern Corps. It follows the recently rebuilt Corps and Guy Gardner as the most consistent known character along with a lot of never before seen Lanterns. It has wonderful art and fun stories that just make the current Lantern title pale in comparison.
With Marvel, I really don't understand what they're doing with their Ultimate line. They squander the Gwen Stacy character, just to kill her off lamely early on in the series. Although I did like what they did with having a little Kitty Pryde/Spidey romance, but that seems to be quickly dwindling with how fast they produce issues of that series. But their Ultimate X-men, my god, do they really have to go the Professor Xavier loves Jean Grey route ... I'm sorry that's just a tad much, it's enough that in the regular universe I had to deal with Logan, and then the eventual demise of Jean totally screwing up the Rachel Grey possibilities outside 'alternate universe' but now i have to deal with Xavier in Ultimate... gah! I'm glad I stopped following this series. I now follow no Ultimate series.
A title I was planning on picking up from Marvel was Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, but news just broke within the last week of the writer signing an exclusive with DC, pretty much killing that series since the regular artist had already left for other opportunities. That's really unfortunate because it seemed like a fun little title.
Right now I'm just being a silent observer with Civil War, and i'm waiting until it's over to decide how I feel about it. All I know is I better not see Marvel just jump right into another big event when this is through like they did with CW just barely past House of M. And I ended up disliking House of M because I had really liked what they were doing with Scarlet Witch and Captain America before that event ...
Favorite Books Right Now: (#1's up for download)
DC: Green Lantern Corps
Vertigo (DC's more mature line): American Virgin (NSFW?)
Marvel: X-Factor
Image: Invincible
Dark Horse: Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic
Devil's Due Publishing: GI JOE - America's Elite
Dynamite Entertainment: Red Sonja