I've Seen Glaciers Move Faster!
Man oh man, but I have been in a cranky mood lately. So...so cranky.
Is it just me, or have so many of the books lately been moving at a pace that makes a glacier look fast? Month after month, it is just more of the same, with the plot advanced by...a panel or two. Or they do a flashback issue, which is nice, because at least something happens, but it is another way of delaying the action in the book. What is DC waiting for? Do we have to put up with yet another year of fan-fiction from the editors and writers?
I started out all excited about Swamp Thing and Animal Man. I stopped reading them several months ago, because not only was it getting really bloody and frankly, a bit disgusting, but it is Just...So...Slow. In Batman, I actually loved the whole Court of Owls storyline, and I think that Scott Snyder is an excellent writer...but the Joker has been capering about for quite a while now. I'm tired of the Joker. Really really really tired of the Joker.
Even my beloved Green Lanterns have been dawdling. The Guardians keep getting nastier and nastier...more and more worlds are being lost to the third army. Hal and Sinestro show up for a couple of panels...maybe...in each issue, and I find their story, as brief as it is...to be FAR more interesting than the trials and tribulations of Simon Baz, who has yet to do anything heroic yet. Kyle has been putting on a new ring in each issue, but that's about it...he's hardly even IN the book, it seems to be more about Carol or Arkillo, or whomever. And when Kyle is in the book, he's either angry, or greedy or hopeful, but he sure isn't acting much like Kyle.
Guy has at least been doing things. John has been wandering around looking for pieces of Mogo, which is actually a good plotline, and I would like to see that do something as well. But jeez! I gave up Red Lanterns months ago. I looked at the latest book,and it honestly could have been an issue from four or five months ago...literally nothing has happened. Just beat up the Guardians, bring back all the dead Lanterns, get Guy his ring back, and LET'S DO SOMETHING!
I love my comics, I really do...but I'm starting to get a wee bit resentful. Am I the only one?
posted by SallyP @ 12:22 PM
8 Comments:
I think it's a combination of less pages per book than a few years ago/more decompressed story telling. The two together tend to make things move at a snail's pace.
I actually just pulled Snyder's Batman books out of my boxes again to reread them all as a chunk so that I don't have to wait from one chapter to the next.
You're certainly not the only one, ma'am.
DC's nu52 has taken decompression and "writing for the trade" to new levels. Not every title, of course, but overall it's slow, slower and slwoest.
I quit buying new comics a few years back because of the slow pacing, depressing storylines and characterizations, and the insane cover prices for new comic books. I've found I don't miss it a bit. I look at the Marvel and DC websites every week and I don't see anything that makes me want to run out and buy a new comic book. I do love my old silver and bronze age comix though, and often re-read them. ;)
steve
I am beginning to understand why some people wait for the trade to come out, and read the whole storyline at once, Pete. I don't have that sort of self-control however.
Snell, I agree with you completely! I know that Bendis has taken decompression to its epitome...or is that nadir? But does everyone have to use five panels to show what one can?
Sheesh!
Steve, I can understand your impatience. I love my comics, I really do...but boy I wish they could stop stringing us along quite so much. Cut the cackle and get to the hosses, as it were.
I'm with you, Sally, but you already know that. For a person of my advanced years, decompression is agonizing. It's even more obvious and painful when current writers are re-doing old storylines (say, Ultimate Spider-man) and you realize Bendis takes 12 issues to cover the same ground Stan did in two. When you factor in the cost, it really starts to become annoying.
Honestly, I'm surprised that publishers put up with it. They're paying a lot of money for MUCH less plot. This also ties into my reply over at the Absorbascon to Scipio's post on Fisch. It's so much more pleasant to read a comic with a beginning, middle, and end. I can't understand why readers flock (well, flock is probably too strong a word in today's comic industry) to these draggy, dreary, 50-part "epics."
Now get off my lawn, I'm going to take a nap.
A beginning, a middle and an end. What lovely words!
You're not the only one. This got to me in Resurrection Man, in particular. I think years of reading Bendis burned most of my patience for decompression right out. I mean, Animal Man and Swamp Thing are still doing this Rot story they've been on since the relaunch started. And I really doubt they've needed 18 months for 2 books to tell that story.
It's one of the things I appreciate about Nocenti's Green Arrow. each arc has been about 3 issues, all part of something larger, but the specific conflict does reach some sort of resolution (albeit a messy one. Nocenti's never been one for neat and easy endings). Angel & Faith's been good for much the same thing.
The Rot story does seem to have been going on for eons doesn't it? Sheesh! I finally lost patience with it, and I do not care in the least what will finally happen.
It used to be that they would have a story arc that would be six or eight issues perhaps, "writing for the trade" to make a nice collection. Well, now it is more like 12 or more issues, which is getting ridiculous.
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