It is almost funny that with the advent of so many epic
stories coming out from the big two that I find I almost miss the decompressed stories
of just six issues. It was all about writing for the six issue trade. That epidemic
just occurred a few years back. Heck I’m now longing for the days of the Jonah
Hex series that was actually set in the West when most stories were one and
done. Alas that is not to be at this time.
Instead we get the 11 Part Zero Year from Scott Snyder on
Batman. We are only two years into his run and this is after the epic length
Court of Owls and Death in the Family story lines. Worse Scott is going over
the same territory that has been trudged on by many many others. I know he is
bringing in new elements and that we have great art work by Capullo, but it
still is not as exciting as going forward. Worse DC is constantly trying to
piggy back off the success of this series by adding tie in books to the nth
degree. After the horrendous Death in the Family added books deluded what was a
decent story I will only buy the books I normally get this time around. The
problem is that a story that takes a year to unfold loses any immediacy. Take
the Joker’s Five Way Revenge story by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams as an example
of what can be delivered in a single issue story.
Hickman I have beaten up for the epic story telling before.
I will try to not belabor the point on Hickman too much except to say that it
appears that all the preliminary work he has laid in over 24 issues of the
Avengers and New Avengers is almost treading water as he built up to Infinity.
Worse, with Marvel all the build up is almost more about a
lead up to launching new series. The jaw dropping, nothing will every be the
same consequences fade into memory after just a few months. Civil War, Secret
Invasion and other events had “impacts” that are already long gone. Infinity, which
remember has been building with 24 Hickman books and will encompass a few other
series, seems to now just be a prelude to the Inhumans series, which of course
threatens to change everything we have ever known.
The writer of said series Matt Fraction was winning me over
to be a pure fan of his work with Hawkeye. Although I thought he gimmicked the
time jumps too often and did not trust that his story was good enough without
tricks. Yet Matt also succumbed to the siren call of the epic story with both
FF and Fantastic Four. We are a year in with no resolution in sight. Worse, as
his writing assignments grew past his ability to be able to handle all of them
he has had to let FF and Fantastic Four go to other writers to conclude his
story.
Jeff Lemire, whose work I normally love, is used to telling
a story with a beginning middle and an end. This means that stuff like Essex County
This is not to say that an Epic story line can’t be a good
thing. Matt Kindt’s Mind Mgmt. is telling us a long form story; Saga is
advertised to be a long form story. Of course with independents that story can
be long form as we get to watch the characters grow and change. In the spandex
set it is not the same. The change is artificial and due to be re-written the
next time sales need to be goosed.
Variety is the spice of life and comics need to understand
that. We need more Hawkeye comics and less of the Odyssey. It is not that some
of the epics are not well done, but even the recent Thor 11 part sage could
have benefit from a quicker pace and a tighter plot. I enjoyed it, but Gorr was
a poorly designed bad guy (the floppy ears made him seem like a humanoid bunny)
and the pacing was very slow. It reminds me of many movies I have seen over the
last few years, you think we have reached the climax of the movie and then it
continues and you think this is the climax and then it is the next scene
instead. By the time you get to the end of the story you forget why you ever
cared.
Well said. Trinity War is shaping up to be a "trigger" for the next launch of a new DC event as well it seems.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more. We are in a cycle where there's maybe 2 weeks per year when Marvel isn't doing an event. Worse, I heard Infinity isn't self-contained, that you will have to read Hickman's other books to get the whole story. Immediately after Infinity, Bendis will launch his Ultimate line event. Talk about event fatigue. Heck, even Animal Man and Swamp Thing lost me during that drawn out crossover between the two. The Red, the Green, the Rot.....who cares? Just tell a good story that's done in a couple of issues so I don't have to spend $100 on something just to see if I like it or not.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Gorr was pretty silly looking. I sort of liked the massive Infinity #1 (despite the Spacenights being eradicated from existence) and I looked at the tie-ins this week. Looked like both issues ended the same way -- didn't look like they went anywhere. So, I skipped them. I'm mildly interested in Green Arrow, but most of DC is dead to me right now. Superman Unchained is really disappointing. I do like Batman, despite the rehash. I'm waiting for the new New 52 or whatever they'll be calling it. Kevin Maguire did a Legion issue (last one) this week - you might want to check it out.
ReplyDeleteI did order the last two issues of LOSH, figured I should see how it ends.
DeleteWow, a blog with plenty of comments. Who would've thought? Maybe we need to change our format back so we can have them on the other site...despite our sporadic deadline-free schedule.
ReplyDelete