I've Had Enough of Your Two-Bit Justice League!
A friend recently asked me what I thought about the current state of the DCU. If I had answered a few hours ago, I would have said that I was pretty much disgusted. Why? This.
It doesn't help that [SPOILER] Ryan was killed just a few weeks after the whole Cry for Justice/Rise of Arsenal debacle. Incidentally, that means that DC has killed off two of their most prominent Asian/part-Asian characters in quick succession. It's another example of the rather creepy white-washing that the DCU has been undergoing in the last couple of years.
Plastic Man by Kyle Baker. Click to embiggen.
Also, this makes no sense from a business perspective. Ryan is the Atom featured on the very popular Batman: the Brave and the Bold cartoon, which I'm sure generates much more revenue for DC Entertainment/Time-Warner than any comic about Ray Palmer ever will. I mean, I have a Ryan Choi Atom toy that I bought from fucking Wal-Mart. "Sorry, Little Billy, but you can't read any comics with Ryan in them. Because he was brutally murdered."
I was a total DC fangirl when I first got in to superhero comics, and really, I still am. But I don't read JLA anymore. I don't want to read anything by James Robinson, so no Superman titles. JSA is being written by Bill Willingham, so that's out. Teen Titans has been terrible for God knows how long and the less said about the Arrow family the better.
Don't get me wrong, there are a lot DCU titles I really enjoy. I love everything Grant Morrison has done with the Bat books and I'm thrilled with all of the attention Booster Gold is getting. I still adore everything Gail Simone writes. I'm cautiously optimistic about the relaunch of The Flash (although Piper is still MIA) and I really dig the C-lister space opera title R.E.B.E.L.S. It's just that the line-wide tone of the DCU is less than appealing to me at the moment.
Although it was short-lived, The All-New Atom really meant a lot to me. I mean, it still does. I'm going to go dig it out of my shortboxes and re-read it as soon as I have time.
I really shouldn't have taken the time to write this post as I haven't even able to do monitor_duty because of my insane flesh-life. One of my co-workers has taken a leave of absence, which means my supposedly part-time job is now eating up about 40 hours a week. If I'm not working, I'm in class, sleeping at weird times, or drawing. I also have a bundle of balsa wood that needs to become a model house by the end of the quarter. But... I didn't want to let this pass without comment. RIP, Ryan. I will miss you.
It doesn't help that [SPOILER] Ryan was killed just a few weeks after the whole Cry for Justice/Rise of Arsenal debacle. Incidentally, that means that DC has killed off two of their most prominent Asian/part-Asian characters in quick succession. It's another example of the rather creepy white-washing that the DCU has been undergoing in the last couple of years.
Plastic Man by Kyle Baker. Click to embiggen.
Also, this makes no sense from a business perspective. Ryan is the Atom featured on the very popular Batman: the Brave and the Bold cartoon, which I'm sure generates much more revenue for DC Entertainment/Time-Warner than any comic about Ray Palmer ever will. I mean, I have a Ryan Choi Atom toy that I bought from fucking Wal-Mart. "Sorry, Little Billy, but you can't read any comics with Ryan in them. Because he was brutally murdered."
I was a total DC fangirl when I first got in to superhero comics, and really, I still am. But I don't read JLA anymore. I don't want to read anything by James Robinson, so no Superman titles. JSA is being written by Bill Willingham, so that's out. Teen Titans has been terrible for God knows how long and the less said about the Arrow family the better.
Don't get me wrong, there are a lot DCU titles I really enjoy. I love everything Grant Morrison has done with the Bat books and I'm thrilled with all of the attention Booster Gold is getting. I still adore everything Gail Simone writes. I'm cautiously optimistic about the relaunch of The Flash (although Piper is still MIA) and I really dig the C-lister space opera title R.E.B.E.L.S. It's just that the line-wide tone of the DCU is less than appealing to me at the moment.
Although it was short-lived, The All-New Atom really meant a lot to me. I mean, it still does. I'm going to go dig it out of my shortboxes and re-read it as soon as I have time.
I really shouldn't have taken the time to write this post as I haven't even able to do monitor_duty because of my insane flesh-life. One of my co-workers has taken a leave of absence, which means my supposedly part-time job is now eating up about 40 hours a week. If I'm not working, I'm in class, sleeping at weird times, or drawing. I also have a bundle of balsa wood that needs to become a model house by the end of the quarter. But... I didn't want to let this pass without comment. RIP, Ryan. I will miss you.