As you've noticed already, 2011 isn't going to be the daily post-a-rama that 2010 was for various reasons - mostly due to an uptick in activity in my real life. However, the other reason? Comic "industry" news is pretty damn boring when you get right down to it. Let me go through the big news of the last little while.
-One of the Fantastic Four Dies! Uhm,....yeah, you do realize you brought back BUCKY, right? And Captain America, and Jean Grey's about due to pop out of the grave any day now, so excuse me if I don't take this all that seriously. How about, and this is a crazy idea, instead of obsessing on killing and murder and death (Heroes dying! Kids dying! Villains Slaughtering whole races and countries and creeds!) they try giving characters interesting lives? I know that would be a challenge, and challenge isn't really something that Big Two comics goes for much, but it's just a thought.
-WIZARD will stop publishing! Well, that's not a surprise, ever since any 12 year old figured they could find better toilet based humor using a Google search, Wizard has been redundant.-Marvel Editorial Shake-ups! You know what? I'll care when I see any indication that there's a change of philosophy or how it treats creators rights, or shows a different and evolving perspective of comics as medium in the 21st century. Otherwise, it's just deck chairs on the Titanic.
-A final note - on Marvel Comic movies, there are only two possibilities as far as I'm concerned; either they will be good entertainment, which is more than 99% of their current comics output, in which case I'll spend money on it, while wondering why there isn't similar quality in the comics, or they won't do as well, which will lead to more focus on the comics side of the business, which will force the quality of them to rise by adapting grown up policies. It's a no-lose scenario, as I see it. Thus, I'm not too concerned about things like Jon Favreau or the new Spider-Man Costume. If they want to lose money and audience - well, they've had a lot of experience with that the way their comics have been selling the last 15 years, so who am I to stop them from doing what they do best?
2 comments:
ONE OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR DIES!!!!!--You know what? They should've had a talk with Tom Defalco before attempting this. Years before he won the hearts and minds of Spidey fans with his Spidergirl series, he was hated just as strongly for his Fantastic Four run. Why? Because of crap like this. Didn't work in the mid-90's and it won't work now.
THE END OF WIZARD--I'll admit it. I used to be a fan of Wizard back when it first started. I still remember picking up one of my first issues and reading about how some of my favorite Spidey and X-Men artists have jumped ship and formed their own company. It was an exciting time for me as a comic fan (yes...I'm fully aware that I'm not supposed to have ANY fond memories of anything that has to do with Image Comics. Whatever. I'll take early 90's Image over anything the Big 2 are doing right now!)
Anyway, as the years went by, the jokes started getting more and more juvenile, and the magazine started using their position to start dictating what companies should and shouldn't do with their comics. I still have the 1998 issue where they detailed ideas on how to 'FIX SPIDERMAN' (which included ending the marriage and making him a more 'relatable' swinging single). That would prove to be their JUMP-THE-SHARK moment, as both the Burne/Mackie run and the current OMD/BND/OMIT/Big Time run would use those ideas outlined in Wizard...which led to the lowest sales numbers in the title's history. From there, it was only a matter of time before Wizard bought the farm.
I also remember a few issues later where Wizard outlined their ideas on how to fix Superman, which also included--wait for it--ENDING HIS MARRIAGE TO LOIS LANE! Thank God DC wasn't dumb enough to listen to them.
As for the upcoming Spidey movie, You pretty much said everything that needs to be said.
By the way, check this out:
http://bullyscomics.blogspot.com/2011/01/again-but-that-trick-never-works.html
And he caps it all off with the one Fantastic Four member that actually STAYED DEAD.
That Doom/Reed disintegration scene would make a nice poster, by the way.
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