sdowner
02-14-2007, 09:16 PM
Ok, I'm not so much a rabid fanboy like many here, so maybe I shouldn't be the one to bring this up. But here I am, nonetheless.
What's the deal with superheroes today?
It seems like superheroes- and by superheroes, I'm referring pretty much just to Marvel & DC now- have become very rote & boring lately. Why?
In reading comics, I get the feeling that the superheroes I love, like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and others have... well, run their course. Like despite all the hype of their various Infinite Crises, War Games, Civil Wars and whatnot, the characters aren't changing in ways that are interesting. Why is this?
As an (admittedly recent) member of the comics creators & readers community, I get the impression that there's a surge to the older days of comics, when the characters were actually developing and the creators were doing things that hadn't been done. Others are leaving the venerable publishing houses and seeking alternative fare from newcomers like Devil's Due or Image Comics. Why?
I might be torn limb from limb for this statement, but may I venture that perhaps characters like Batman and Superman have... well, had their time? That they might be better off gone from comics, for the most part? I know, it seems like complete foolishness but it may be a good thing.
Think about it.
If the characters that have been developed, have had their day, and have seen better days are laid to rest, it will force creators to do something NEW. They can't count on their fanboys who grew up reading Batman to buy their work because they like to complain about how he's being butchered. They will have to explore and develop new characters.
You say, it would be suicide for the publisher to kill off their stable of characters. Maybe. But they don't have to go too far for new material. Look at the Incredibles, from Pixar. In everything but name, it's a Fantastic Four movie. But it's also something completely new. That's what I'm suggesting. Kill off the stale, bland characters who've had their day and replace them with someone younger, fresher, yet... familiar all the same.
Look at Image Comics' Invincible. He's a newcomer to the superhero scene, and yet he wouldn't seem at all out of place sitting around the Justice League table.
Look at All-Star Superman. When Grant Morrisson was given free rein with the character and ignored all previous continuity, he made what HE thought Superman should be and has given the comics reader a gem. Look at Nextwave. When Warren Ellis took characters that nobody wanted, and that had almost no established history he created something wonderful, silly and above all FRESH.
So I say, let the sidekicks grow up. Let the third and fourth-stringers have their lives and make THEM the top dogs.
Let Batman die. Let Tim Drake grow into the cowl of The Dark Knight. But kill off the Joker, and Two-Face, and the others and let the kid make the character his own.
Marvel did this in a sense with their Ultimate series, and it's worked great for the most part because even if you take away the costume, or the ring, or the haircut, or the cape, the things a superhero stand for are unchanged. There will always be a need for someone to save us. There will always be a little boy in an alley, crying for his family.
The archetypes are what we identify with- or wish to identify with- in heroes, I think; and the way the principles of justice, freedom, equality and compassion are filtered through the individual characters' lives are what is so compelling in comics.
The classics of the genre come when a writer and artist remember that, but when some characters have become so well-defined, and developed to the point that further development contradicts what's come before- well, it's time to move on.
I'd miss Batman as much as anybody else. But if those who still have so much potential and such weight as supporting characters are allowed to fully come into their own by the removal of those who've been around for 70 years and have nothing new to say, I for one would be happy to allow that.
Plus, we'd always have the old stuff in boxes in our closets.
Maybe I'm full of crap. Maybe I should read more comics before I make these judgments. But I want to throw this idea out to people with more experience in the current monthly superhero book market and see what they have to say.
So loose the opinions and please don't let this degenerate into a thread where we whine about how this writer did this to your favorite character and should thus be cast into the street upon his tuckus.
–Steve-O
What's the deal with superheroes today?
It seems like superheroes- and by superheroes, I'm referring pretty much just to Marvel & DC now- have become very rote & boring lately. Why?
In reading comics, I get the feeling that the superheroes I love, like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and others have... well, run their course. Like despite all the hype of their various Infinite Crises, War Games, Civil Wars and whatnot, the characters aren't changing in ways that are interesting. Why is this?
As an (admittedly recent) member of the comics creators & readers community, I get the impression that there's a surge to the older days of comics, when the characters were actually developing and the creators were doing things that hadn't been done. Others are leaving the venerable publishing houses and seeking alternative fare from newcomers like Devil's Due or Image Comics. Why?
I might be torn limb from limb for this statement, but may I venture that perhaps characters like Batman and Superman have... well, had their time? That they might be better off gone from comics, for the most part? I know, it seems like complete foolishness but it may be a good thing.
Think about it.
If the characters that have been developed, have had their day, and have seen better days are laid to rest, it will force creators to do something NEW. They can't count on their fanboys who grew up reading Batman to buy their work because they like to complain about how he's being butchered. They will have to explore and develop new characters.
You say, it would be suicide for the publisher to kill off their stable of characters. Maybe. But they don't have to go too far for new material. Look at the Incredibles, from Pixar. In everything but name, it's a Fantastic Four movie. But it's also something completely new. That's what I'm suggesting. Kill off the stale, bland characters who've had their day and replace them with someone younger, fresher, yet... familiar all the same.
Look at Image Comics' Invincible. He's a newcomer to the superhero scene, and yet he wouldn't seem at all out of place sitting around the Justice League table.
Look at All-Star Superman. When Grant Morrisson was given free rein with the character and ignored all previous continuity, he made what HE thought Superman should be and has given the comics reader a gem. Look at Nextwave. When Warren Ellis took characters that nobody wanted, and that had almost no established history he created something wonderful, silly and above all FRESH.
So I say, let the sidekicks grow up. Let the third and fourth-stringers have their lives and make THEM the top dogs.
Let Batman die. Let Tim Drake grow into the cowl of The Dark Knight. But kill off the Joker, and Two-Face, and the others and let the kid make the character his own.
Marvel did this in a sense with their Ultimate series, and it's worked great for the most part because even if you take away the costume, or the ring, or the haircut, or the cape, the things a superhero stand for are unchanged. There will always be a need for someone to save us. There will always be a little boy in an alley, crying for his family.
The archetypes are what we identify with- or wish to identify with- in heroes, I think; and the way the principles of justice, freedom, equality and compassion are filtered through the individual characters' lives are what is so compelling in comics.
The classics of the genre come when a writer and artist remember that, but when some characters have become so well-defined, and developed to the point that further development contradicts what's come before- well, it's time to move on.
I'd miss Batman as much as anybody else. But if those who still have so much potential and such weight as supporting characters are allowed to fully come into their own by the removal of those who've been around for 70 years and have nothing new to say, I for one would be happy to allow that.
Plus, we'd always have the old stuff in boxes in our closets.
Maybe I'm full of crap. Maybe I should read more comics before I make these judgments. But I want to throw this idea out to people with more experience in the current monthly superhero book market and see what they have to say.
So loose the opinions and please don't let this degenerate into a thread where we whine about how this writer did this to your favorite character and should thus be cast into the street upon his tuckus.
–Steve-O