There are precious few DC comics I'll be reading come Sept. I'll give the ones that aren't characters I know and love and don't want to see retconned a try: Batwoman, Voodoo, and Grifter. I might try something else, too. Not sure yet. But everything I love about the DCU will be gone. Better to have started the whole thing from scratch than take the characters I love and destroy them this way. Sticking Roy Harper with a character I detest (Jason Todd) is no way to make up for killing his daughter. Taking the Batman cape and cowl away from Dick Grayson is a step backward. I've read him as Nightwing. I'm past that now. I want to read his adventures as Batman. So, I'll go from reading 30 or so DC books a month to 3-5. Somehow, I figure that'll just be a drop in the bucket of DC's profits. And I'm sad that after reading DC Comics for 50 plus years, starting when so few girls like me read superhero comics, I'm no longer a reader DC wants.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Posted this on DC's Facebook Page
They said they were reading feedback, positive and negative and appreciated everyone's passion and hoped we'd be reading the new 52 in Sept. So I posted this:
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You're 57?
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the point about Dick Grayson. Really, the same can be said about all of their characters. We've read about Lois and Clark trying to connect, and countless other stories that will be rehashed.
Then there are the continuity problems that are already running rampant although no book has been rebooted to this point. It's going to be quite messy.
Actually, I turned 58 a couple of months ago. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen characters like Superman are iconic, you can't really change them much, or if you do, as in the Death of Superman and the split Superman, you have to restore the status quo for the character fairly quickly. That they got away with it for a year or two was amazing. The same can be said for the recent Wonder Woman "experiment."
Robin is iconic, but doesn't have to be Dick. We've already had a bunch without a problem. But Bruce is Batman. So, when Bruce was dead, Dick could be Batman, but alive, Bruce has to be Batman. Two Batmen were okay, though, because Bruce was one of them.
So it seems that when writers want to play with the characters, they're left with tweaking. Breaking up the Super marriage, which isn't iconic, is one thing they can do. Taking the Bat cape and cowl away from Dick is another.
The secondary characters, especially the sidekicks, aren't iconic, so they can be messed with at leisure. Continuity problems is probably a separate rant. ;)
Yeah, it is becoming painfully clear, no matter how much I try to deny it, that DC is hellbent of screwing things up. They want to be Marvel in the worst way...and that's exactly how they are doing it...in the worst way possible.
ReplyDeleteLian no longer exists. Neither does Selina's daughter. Not too sure about Wally either, they're putting the entire JSA on ice, and god knows what else.
If they made the gesture of bringing back a few dead but beloved characters, I wouldn't mind so much...if everyone is younger, then shouldn't Ted Kord and Ralph Dibny be around? Wait, Ralph and Sue are happily married! We can't have THAT sort of thing going on!
Bah.
Yeah, I'd meant to post something about Selina's daughter. That was such a poignant storyline and I hate that it's gone. And yeah, if you're going to do away with all the things I like, why can't you bring back Ralph and Sue?!
ReplyDeleteI understand the need to bring in new readers, but it seems like they're doing it at the expense of all of us long time readers (I'm now in my 35th year of reading DC.)
ReplyDeletePretty much my entire pull list will be cancelled or "retooled" to the point of disinterest and the rich history of the Golden Age and legacy characters (my favorite aspect of the DCU) has been voided.
It just feels like a slap in the face.
It's a slap in the face and a punch to the gut.
ReplyDeleteI find myself wondering how Julie Schwartz would have handled this mandate to revamp the DC line. I wondered that every time DC hit the reboot button. Julie's Silver Age jump-start was non-destructive, even inclusive, giving us the multiverse in all it's wonderful variety. The guys who grew up as comic fans and now have the reins can only redirect the company's direction by tearing down what came before.
ReplyDeletePaul, I fear Julie Schwartz is rolling over in his grave. I don't think I'll ever understand how guys who grew up loving these comics think this makes sense. They're tearing down what was magical and starting over with something that seems to have no magic, other than characters with magic powers. DC has such a rich, wonderful history and they're trashing it. It makes me ill just to think of it.
ReplyDeleteI blame George Lucas. (Of course I blame George Lucas for everything I don't blame on television!) Ever since his introduction of "the Force" the generation that latched onto that as the touchstone for their lives has made everything into some mystic/magic induced nonsense. Julie took the magic ring powered Green Lantern and turned the character into Space Age SF champion of Earth/space cop/Lensman. He changed a truly wonky origin, sniffing "heavy water" into a pseudo scientific mixture of electricity and random chemical exposure to make a new scientific Flash. A past-lives, reincarnated Egyptian prince became another space cop from a different world! All without destroying what came before so that when a new thing was called for he brought back the heroes of the 40s. Now the Flash has his own "Force." Green Lantern in no longer unique due to a plethora of vari-colored rings tied to a spectrum of emotional "powers. Hawkman - who the hells knows?
ReplyDeleteIt won't surprise me if in a few years all the old continuity is reintroduced in some fashion. They are only doing this to gain new readers and I don't believe there are enough new readers out there to make the comics profitable in and of themselves! The younger generations are getting all their entertainment from electronics.
And while I'm at it I might as well yell, "YOU KIDS GET OFF MY COMIC BOOK LAWN!"
Sorry Shelly, I'll be quiet now and go read my Archives, Showcases, Essentials and watch my DVDs of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Have Gun Will Travel.
No need to be sorry, Paul. I agree. Those are excellent points. Julie Schwartz was God. He was a science fiction genius. And he respected the readers, the oldtimers and the newbies.
ReplyDeleteAnd those are excellent TV choices! :)