I figured it was perhaps a bit too long between posts to allow it to be decent. After all, a month between postings is a bit more than I would like, and certainly, I don't want to make the blog feel more neglected than it already is.
With that being said, I find myself on a Monday morning attempting to sort through the last week and prepare for the next week. Ever feel that your caught between three places/events and you can't make that decision because you're in the sweet spot....that perfect place where indecision reigns supreme? That's what it feels like.
Amid this the Earthquake happened. On Tuesday of last week, we had ourselves a 5.8 earthquake that had an epicenter no less than 50 miles from the house. I admit that it had been some time since I was in an Earthquake, but it was an experience, and while I wasn't throwing my arms up shrieking like a little girl, I did decide to leave work early to go and check on everything, including Bixby the Cat. As it turns out, all was well (Except some little things), and a few cracks in the plaster which will be fixed at some point.
Turn right around three days later and Hurricane Irene made her presence known. I've been through several hurricanes, the two burned into my memory are David (1979) and Isabelle (2004). Isabelle was special mainly because of the loss of power for five days. David was the first time I had seen tornados spawned by hurricanes, and I had just purchased Micronauts King-Sized Annual #1, one of my favorite comics of all time. Irene however had something else.
Of course, everyone was in full-on panic mode looking for the essentials - Water, Toliet Paper, and Religion. I would like to say that I went venturing for bottle water twice before finally getting it, and that shows how crazy some things are if hyped enough. Low and behold Irene arrives, and mainly it's a matter of losing power and waiting in the dark for power to be restored.
Good times.
It gave me a great deal to think about, because I'm about as active during a blackout as my lamps are. I did however have a plethora of books recently purchased from the 'Borders' fire-sale, and I caught up on reading. Also went over a few graphic novels I had purchased but not read, and I am now utterly convinced DC Comics is making the worst move possible for itself.
The relaunch 'goes live' at the end of this week/next week, and I've made a personal vow to not support it. I'm not one of those who are screaming on how it will destroy the industry, nor am I yelling on how things need to adapt. I think however, the reasoning is not solid nor logical, and the changes are robbing the one thing that makes DC unique: It's iconic status. Consider this - the Superman costume has been an evolution from first appearance, but certain elements have always remained constant, and in some cases, questionably so. The point is, that there is an iconic element to things, something that makes the character truly transcend printed pages, and to work against that image is counter-productive: What new readers will one attract through this new means of 'modernization'? The truth is - A six month bump in sales, until like all disposable entertainment mediums, the 'newness' wears off, and people are left with a choppy, uneven product which cannot easily be fixed. Ignoring the existing fanbase is a hell of a thing to do, as most of the fanbase has the sort of extra income that makes sales...and what gauls me, what really gauls me, is that Dan Dido believes this will save DC Comics, with the full knowledge it is nothing more than a publicity event.
The 1990s were a terrible time in comics, as the reinvention of mythologies were pattered after three works: Watchmen, The Dark Knight, and Image Comics. Even Alan Moore admits that Watchmen should have Never been taken to the level of impact and influence it was. If readers have noticed, Moore has gone out of his way to undo the deconstructive aspects of his writing in such books as Promethea and Supreme. As for Frank Miller - Frank Miller is wrapped around his own ideology - Batman wasn't in need of the darker and grittier re-work that was the story - It took something out of the 'Detective' in 'Dark Knight Detective'.
As for Image, let's look for a moment: Name me one storyline that existed from the original Image line-up that the public at large may know. The odds are that 9/10 readers could tell you about the break-up of the founders, the internally issues, the lateness of the books, or the infamous Image Unlimited which still hasn't seen the light of day. Jim Lee is a man whose artistic abilities I truly respect and find impressive, but his choices, storylines, and problematic resolutions show that he shouldn't be part of the restructuring of the DCU.
I do not work in the industry, I admit that...but I am a fan, I am a fairly informed individual, and I'm most importantly a very vocal critic when I see something wrong. It doesn't take a dedicated fan to see that the destruction of our shared mythology in the DCU is a wrong course of action, and the omission of the rich legacy of books (AND ESPECIALLY THE JUSTICE SOCIETY) is a huge mistake, a mistake which has made me decide to not only not purchase any DC related material, but boycott websites, cons, and perhaps even movies. I think that if a company has so little respect for their creations that they would simply 'reboot' to avoid issues they've created, I've got no time or money to put into it.
So...that's about it.
More later
- M -
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