Dear DC Comics
Several years ago, I penned an imaginary "Dear John" letter to Marvel Comics, lamenting our breakup, since I had been stepping out with DC. The "Civil War" crossover was the coup de grace as it were. It was an unpleasant crossover, filled with unpleasant people.
So imagine my distress, at being in exactly the same damn situation, only this time it is DC that has become distressingly depressing, and Marvel who is winking and smiling at me from across the room. DC just wants to keep doing the same thing over and over and over and over, and it keeps getting more extreme and horrid, each time. How many times can I watch a man get his arm torn off? Really, it isn't even startling any more, in fact, it has almost been reduced to a Drinking Game. DC Hero gets arm torn off, take a swig of your beer.
Ho Hum.
Marvel on the other hand, keeps flirting with me. Bringing out books like She-Hulk, and Hawkeye, and Young Avengers, and Loki: Agent of Asgard, and the new Ms Marvel and Thor, are a heck of an enticement. Hell, even their movies are good.
So I am feeling a bit torn. I love DC Characters, really I do, I just wish that I could actually read stories about them. I will NOT be buying the new weekly series, the whole Future Doomsday, Time-Travel, Let's See How Many Heroes We Can Kill Crossover. I don't like Brother Eye. I have NEVER liked Brother Eye. Seeing my favorite or even not so favorite characters be horribly murdered, or zombie-fied, or whatever the hell is going on, is trite...and boring. It has been done to death MANY times over. Seriously, plundering various tropes from other books and movies and even your own comics is the best that DC can do?
Here's a thought. Howabout, we go back to the REAL DC Universe, and start using all those wonderful characters that have fallen by the wayside, and tell stories about them. Taking their names and using them for completely different people in the new Universe, just doesn't do it for me. It's like your Uncle showing up with his new wife, who has the same name as his old wife, but she's meaner...and uglier. And can't cook, and gets into the liquor cabinet.
So come on DC...I'm ready to be wooed.
posted by SallyP @ 1:12 PM
8 Comments:
Yup. What you said. (Someone got his arm pulled off? Who? Can you tell I don't read much DC these days?)
I've always hated Brother Eye, too. If I want an all seeing computer, I'll watch Person of Interest. And I do. And it's much better.
I keep waiting for DC to concede they made a big mistake with the New 52, but nope, they just keep digging that hole deeper and deeper.
I like Brother Eye in the context of the CHARACTER O.M.A.C.'s solo series (Kirby's, Starlin's, the recent Giffen/DiDio one), but otherwise it leaves me cold.
And Person Of Interest IS much better.
Agreed.
I'm saddened that it's obvious that people are buying these comics. I can't imagine they'd continue publishing this crap if it weren't selling reasonably well. I have my doubts we'll be seeing any of our favorite characters soon.
I was beginning to enjoy Action Comics because of Greg Pak, but now it's going into crossover hell and I doubt I'll continue reading it.
Just when the individual books start to pick up and get interesting...Wham. Another bloody Crossover.
And I guess that someone IS buying these books...but it won't be me.
Dan Didio has a small bag of tricks that he keeps recycling over and over and over. But the one thing we know from his history is that he NEVER admits he's wrong. So I wouldn't hold any hope for any deviations from the current plan.
But I'm ok with that because it's kind of liberating - I feel completely divorced from the Big Continuity of either organization. I'm reading more Marvel books than I have in years but they aren't the crossover or continuity porn stuff. "Hawkeye" is awesome. So is "Wonder Woman." I don't know that either has anything to do with their larger universes and that's fine by me.
I do think it is a mistake to always frame the conversation in the dark/light contrast. I think people are imagining the "good old days" of comics. They killed Aquaman's baby back in 1978. This is a road that they've been traveling down a long, long time and if depictions are a bit more graphic that's just the reality of the culture in every entertainment medium. For me the problem with DC has been the poor quality of the storytelling, the failure to think through the basics of their reboot, the lack of real creativity in their reboot, and the generic sameness across their line of books.
Good point re: Arthur Jr being offed decades ago by DC. Child killing has long been in their history.
I don't mind DC being dark. I did mind DC changing the continuity just for the sake of changing continuity. I still think, as I have all along, that if they wanted to shake things up, they had a whole multiverse of Earths to choose from to focus their books on. So, for me, the current DC is an alternate reality and I read the titles that I want. These days, that's the amazing Harley Quinn and the less amazing but still good Red Hood and the Outlaws. And that's been liberating because it's allowed me the time and money to sample what other publishers like Marvel and Image are doing.
Who got their arm taken off this time? I hope it wasn't Risk after getting rebooted with arms because that's the worst luck ever.
For me going back to Marvel is hard because the things I loved have been changed in my absence. I loved the X-character but now have zero interest in them. I dislike what I've seen of Spider-Man (although I like what I've seen of his clone.) There's too much to catch up on and I don't know if I want to get invested again.
As likely as the death toll seems like it's going to rise in Futures End at least it's a time travel story so it can be undone. I don't know about the other books. Yes it does sound boring.
As much as I loved the DC I first entered after leaving Marvel I'm not going to hold my breath. Marvel still hasn't gone back on the divorce deal with the devil.
As long as my favorite book is being written (and is enjoyable)and we have a possible Booster book I'll stick around.
Erin, at least there are hints that Booster is still out there...somewhere.
And yes, I still don't read Avengers or Spider-Man or Iron Man or even the X-Men anymore. I only really seem to like the quirky books.
Daredevil for example has been amazing.
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