Why I Continue to Hate DC

Another rant, it has been a little while since I have slammed DC, but thought that it was time again to crucify my ex-favorite comic book company.

I was inspired by the November solicitations.

It starts with the Batman Zero stuff. When this 11 issue arc started I thought, at last a Batman arc that is not going to be cheapened by endless add on books. What the fuck was I thinking? Snyder and Capullo are sales gods for DC and since DC can’t get their act together anywhere else let’s make it market driven. So we get Action Comics, Batgirl (not written by Gail Simone), Batwing, Birds of Prey, Catwoman, Nightwing, Detective, Flash, Green Lantern Corps, Green Arrow and Red Hood and the Outlaws are all Zero year tie-in books. As an extra special fuck you they are all also $4. My answer is fuck you DC I will buy only the titles I normally get anyway.

After that we get the Forever Evil series part 3 of 7, which essentially is linked to all three JL books and 3 Forever Evil ancillary mini-series as well as Suicide Squad and Teen Titans. At least a few of those books are just $3.

This month also brings us Tom Taylor taking over Earth 2, which felt like a very personal vision of James Robinson. I’m not sure how this book will fare in my eyes going forward. The rest of the solicitations contain so many lackluster series that I hardly feel they are worth mentioning. I like that Soule is writing a bunch of books, but I know often it is not his vision, as much as he is just writing the screen play for the editorially mandated story. Specifically I’m speaking of the Superman / Wonder Woman book which is unappealing to me at this point. I will give it a try out based on Soule being the writer. We do have Wonder Woman still off in her own world and I have modest hopes for the Harley series but otherwise it is a bunch of pabulum. 

The solicitations are also notable for the lack of a solicitation for Justice League 3000. How many times is DC going to push the new creative team or book and have it fall apart before we even get an issue? The Kevin Maguire debacle, preceded by the Joshua Fialkov mess, the Andy Diggle Action Comics, the Jim Zub Birds of Prey, the etc, etc, etc. This is inexcusable in my mind. As a publishing company you do not need to make an announcement until you have everything well in hand. You have not only looked the fool, but you have unnecessarily dragged creators’ names in the mud or somehow perhaps tarnished them. Of course a DC snub may now be considered a seal of greatness.  

Also of late I have read Jon Layman espousing that he writes Detective Comics like a jazz piece, ready to move and groove to what ever has to be done. Keith Giffen was spouting off crap about how great it is to get Howard Porter on JL 3000 as he (hopefully) unintentionally pissed on Maguire. I know people need to eat and I know you have to swallow some pride to get along in a corporate environment but this stuff reeks of DC telling people to go out and talk up the great stuff about being here or else. Hell Didio and Lee interviews are a fucking joke, what do you expect the captains of the ship to say but double speak. It is a shame because a little honest and an occasion admission of screwing up can go a long way to generating some good will with the fan base.

I like it when Didio says it is just the internet crowd, look at the sales numbers guys, we are the bulk of your audience.

So many things make DC seem like a ship of fools. The 3D cover fuck up, which hopefully will allow me to sell some DC books for decent money, the renaming of Collider, the canceling of some Archives and no communication about when, if ever, it will be re-solicited.  Even inside the comics there are flaws all the time in the new continuity. I was reading Detective and this guy is dealing with Bruce Wayne and he wants to buy the tech that Wayne Industries makes for Batman. Bruce says why would you think I have anything to do with that? How about because of the whole Grant Morrison Batman Inc. storyline?  It is just incredible that Grant had to reshape his story to fit the new 52 and now it appears that it is already being wiped from continuity. Of course DC has no real continuity anymore.

A company that was built on legacy no longer has one. When you tear down the foundation you need to rebuild from the ground up. DC started on the third floor with nothing underneath of it. At this point they have become an easy target and a sad testimony to marketing versus quality. Hey it has saved me money as the three DC books I’m getting for August 14 are Batman, JLA and Astro City. In hindsight I believe this is what Didio has always wanted. He wanted comics driven by events, marketing and if a good story gets made now and again, great. It may work sometimes but DC is a house of cards that could collapse any day. Johns has no pizzazz anymore and is living off reputation and the power he wields being CCO. Snyder is their one star. I think DC has some great talent, but I think a lot of that talent is making bank while they can. I think Layman, Lemire, Kindt, Venditti and Soule would all be doing fantastic work if they were allowed to tell the stories they want to tell, but I do not begrudge they taking DC’s money.

It will not change until Didio, Lee, Harras and maybe even Johns are kicked to the curb. Hell I’m not even sure how you fix this piece of crap.

Jonathan Hickman’s Amazing Never Ending Avengers Story

24 Issues over 240 pages and we are
just getting to the prelude? WTF

Jonthan Hickman and the Marvel Universe is a match made in Omnibus heaven because his muther f**king stories will need Omnibus treatment to try and collect one story in it.  

Hickman’s Fantastic  Four story went on forever and I can’t even remember much about the conclusion, except future Franklin saved the world or universe. By the time we got to the end I had cancelled the title and then picked up a trade or two to catch up and the story still had not ended. He managed to add the Future Foundation and tried to age Johnny a couple of years. Johnny already is being written by Fraction like that never happened. The bottom line was after four years or what ever the impact to the title was minimal. Some great ideas as Hickman always has been a forgettable experience.

Now we have Hickman on Avengers. His current Avengers run is about 16 issues (and what 10 on New Avengers) in and we have the Builders, the New Universe characters involved, endless worlds being destroyed, the Black Swan, various parts of the globe changing and now it is all leading into the big Infinity event. Come on man, can’t you just tell us a story or two in a six issues. At this point by the time you get to the grand finale I will not even remember why I was reading this story. Hickman has these wonderful grandiose ideas that make Morrison seem like the only drug he has used is caffeine. The problem is it makes the characters into bit players in his drama. I see Hickman as almost being too diffused and unable to focus enough to get in and get out with his story. Every damn story does not have to be involved as Games of Thrones.

Guaranteed to be launching the
Inhumans series and at least one
more book by the time it ends.

 The Avengers work when you have the great team dynamics and fighting some cool villains or impossible menace but Hickman has them handling crisis or some many fronts even as a reader I can’t keep it all straight. Worse they try and tie the continuity together by explaining how Reed Richard and Tony Stark are doing what they are doing in other books and still finding time to be in the Avengers and/or the Illuminati. Now we find out it is just building up to a new Infinity event. It makes me long for the dragged out six issue Daredevil arcs under Bendis.

Even worse it seems like Marvel just uses one event to launch new books to go into the next event. Age of Ultron was a disaster that just set up story arcs. This never ending story may end the same way.

Let’s face I’m willing to commit to books and give writers a chance by Hickman seems to be living up to his full potential on East of West, while at Marvel he has so many great ideas and he decided to use them all at once.

Story – beginning middle and end, it should not take 24 issues to get to the prelude of the event you are writing.

Kyle Rayner is TOO DAMN YOUNG as is the rest of the DCU

Pre the New 52 Kyle

Baby Kyle in the New 52

The new DCU has made all of the characters so young that there is no way any of them have any gravitas to them anymore. Check out Kyle Rayner in this picture he looks like he is 14 years old at best.  It is just ridiculous to assume that Batman has only been around six years, has had at least three Robins and done all that he has in that short of a time. Before we were able to just think it may have been years or never know the exact timing, but since Batman appeared to be in his 40’s at this point (or late 30’s) we could at least think the story had some level of comic book believability. Now Green Arrow and the rest all look like kids and could be in the teen titans. Also, almost half the characters look the same Steve Trevor, Aquaman, John Constatine and a few others could be doppelgangers.

New 52 Kyle - Can't Buy a beer yet. 

Baby Face Steve

Why The New DCU Is Not Floating My Boat

So last time I excoriated Marvel, this time let’s see why the DC New has created problems for me.

First point is what I have already canceled. Static Shock, this was a function of the character. I never enjoyed the character and the first issue did nothing for me. Men of War, I went in with high hopes and it added super hero stuff almost from the jump. It felt like it was a book that had no real direction. Next up is Hawk and Dove all that needs to be said is Rob Liefeld but we can add the de-aging of the characters. Captain Atom, they killed him and my interest in the book with issue #2. Savage Hawkman by Tony Daniel was all I really needed because Tony has good ideas but is not a solid writer from what I have seen. Still I tried three issues and Daniel needs a co-writer to help smooth out his work or at least a strong editor. Fury of Firestorm was just a horrible story that was all over the board and the art was weak. Deathstroke was over redesigned and his armor and sword were a joke, he is a great character and this was a waste of the characters potential. Also the writer played the mysterious game with a briefcase that bored me. The character knows what is in the briefcase, let me know. If your idea is good let the reader know. Blue Beetle felt like a rerun. JLI was so generic I could have written it. OMAC was just too much Kirby homage and not enough willingness to give us a straight story. Legion Lost was a bad idea. LOSH is too much Levitz. This is the new DCU, let’s get started anew and get a fresh voice. Red Hood and the Outlaws was apparently a comedy book. Batwing was tied to Batman Inc, that does not seem to exist in the new DCU or it does but it is a confused mess. Green Arrow was too new; Mister Terrific and Blackhawks were aborted by DC.

All in all Snyder, Lemire and Tomasi are producing great books and others have some hits with Batwoman, I Vampire, Supergirl and some others, but the underlying issue is that this was too hard of a break from what come before and I no longer have a bond with the characters. When you break that bond it becomes easier for me to drop a book. The characters are familiar and unfamiliar all at the same time. Well written and strong art books like Suicide Squad has hooked me back in, but except for Deadshot and Harley Quinn Adam Glass is not using familiar characters. You could say Amanda Waller is, but she is now Angela Bassett and the hard break from the fat body style of before tells us this is a different universe. The other side of that coin is characters like Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon and Tim Drake all have a totally different vibe and I was bonded with those characters. Marvel over the years destroyed all the love I had for the characters and stuff like One More Day cut all loyalty I had to Spider-Man, this break has severely damaged the bonds I had with the DCU characters. It has not broken my bond with Batman 100% like OMD, but it has hurt it.

What Bugs Me About Comics Lately

I’m gonna complain about Marvel. Again I hope to get more regular with my posts on this blog in the next month.

Marvel is absolutely killing me with the maintenance of their $4 price points, their insane numbering and point one books and now the continuation of event after event after event. Marvel seems to want me to drop the entire line, since every time I get into a book I’m forced and dragged into buying other books.

Let’s take each point in order. First up is the continued proliferation of $4 books, even a cool little mini-series like Legion of Monsters is a $4 book. Captain America (a $3) becomes Captain America and Bucky and they launch a new Captain America and it is a $4 book. The Uncanny X-Men gets cancelled as it is re-launched after X-Men Schism (a $4 book) into Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine and the X-Men, one $3 book becomes two $4 books. The entire Ultimate line, which is only a few books, are all $4, but as a result I only get Ultimates as the other two series where not worth $4, but maybe worth $3.

What Is Happening

Probably started this blog at a bad time.

Hope to post more in the neaw future once my move is complete and hope to get regular posts up in February.

Week of November 2

A quick mention of everything I read this week.

Hulk #44 – Patrick Zircher is a very good artist, but is getting too cute with his layouts. Otherwise this is a decent story.

Batwing #3 – More fighting then you can shake a stick out and some decent art, but where the hell is the plot?

Moon Knight #7 – Why do I keep getting this, more crappy Bendis dialogue, but the story is intriguing enough and even Maleev cranking out a book on schedule is moody enough to make the art work.

Fear Itself The Fearless #2 – Entertaining and not taxing with solid art.

Sweet Tooth #27 – Damn if Lemire doesn’t know how to tell a good story and Matt Kindt on art for this flashback sequence is working very well. Plus we are learning just exactly what the heck is going on with these animal kids.