Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Apathy


Hey folks.

I don't know if it's just me or if I'm in a persistent depressive state, but these days when comes to the world of comics, I have a serious case of the "I Don't Give A Fuck" 's.

Why?

I'm not 100% sure, but I'm sure it has a lot to do with the current state of the comic industry, specifically the big two mainstream comic book empire, Marvel and DC, and their lackluster stories and events lately.

I've been losing more and more interest in the "new" comic material that Marvel and DC having been putting out these days, and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in that sentiment.

Readership is down pretty much across the board, with sales, even if they're pretty good, not matching or evenly comparing in $ amount, to even just a few years ago, let alone the golden days of yesteryear, where even the lowest selling comic would rate numbers most companies would sell their soul or their kids' soul to get.

I blame a lot of this on the recent string of lackluster comic book "events" and numerous reboots and re-numbering, that up until recently, reached epidemic-levels.
This has pretty much exposed the big two's lack of originality and over-dependence on nostalgia and ideas that worked before to keep the company going, not to mention lack of long-term faith in some of the lesser books, despite the buzz they generate (Ex: Moon Girl,

Shit like "Civil War 2", revising the Spider-Man clone saga, bringing back Eddie Brock as Venom, are but many examples of that over-reliance on nostalgia that makes most of us fans, especially the old-school one like myself, long for the days of the old Marvel, the 60's/70's, and even some 80's, where the famed house of ideas was just that, a house full of new and original ideas.

Not any more. More like the House of Re-dos and Sequels.

Kind of sounds A LOT like Hollywood and the current state of that industry, with all of it's serious lack of original movies, and over-reliance on properties and movies that worked in the past.

And then there's DC. They're admittedly doing a lot better ever since they finally smartened up and abandoned the horrible NU52 experiment in favor of a reboot that actually and finally, celebrates its long history, rather than feel constrained and suffocated by it, like an albatross around their necks.

They're finally bringing back classic and familiar characters, like the JSA, Wally West, the LoSH, etc,
Of course all's not ALL well over there, since the current trend over @ DC is to completely shit on Superman's home plant of Krypton, as they have over the years. And now even his dead Jor-El, is being vilified to the point of becoming a homicidal manic that was recently revealed to be this Mr. Oz guy that's been lurking behind the scenes for awhile now.

Pathetic.


Now I'm not saying the comics industry as a whole is dying or in danger of ceasing to exist; on the contrary, despite my waning interest, I believe the comics industry will continue to survive, and hopefully thrive in the years to come. Of course a boom period akin to the 90's, would probably help out nicely as well.

All that to say, I find myself struggling to maintain interest in the current era's product.

I had Jeff Lemire's Moon Knight (shit that entire Moon Knight series kicked off by Warren Ellis) and Gerard Way's Doom Patrol to hold my interest, and even that's not a surefire thing anymore.

Shit.

I guess while I'll always love superheroes and that particular genre, it's time to maybe not care enough anymore to tune into the comic news sites to see what's going on.

I did that because, while my interest in seriously waning, I did what to keep up on what's going on in the comic world.

Not anymore.

From now on, baring the occasional comic, I'll be in the back issue bins and buying up trades of past work.

And then.....I'll be out.

Goddamn, growing up really is hard to do.


I will end on a positive note, and say I watched the new DC animated movie, Batman and Harley Quinn.



Damn was it funny, and overall just plain fun to watch. It was packed full of easter eggs and inside jokes(not to mention some adult ones) and showed why to me at least, DC makes better animated movies than they do live action.







8 comments:

googum said...

I have this problem: a ton of books out there I won't read for $3.99 an issue; but for a buck a pop? Give me a giant stack, please! Then when I like something, I wonder why they didn't do more: because nobody bought it the first damn time!

I was going to ask if you read Foolkiller: got the first what, five issues for a buck each; now I'm going to have to scramble to find the last one since orders went down and there aren't a ton out there.

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

@Googum: The latest Foolkiller series from earlier this year? If so, hell yeah. I just need the last issue to complete the set.

And shit, you can't tell me in this day and age, that that $3.99 price tag doesn't help scare away potential customers. Not when you can buy a digital copy on the cheap. And if you like it enough to buy the physical copy, you can.

It's funny you mention it, because isn't that exactly what Marvel does when they unload all those cancelled series' on their app for cheap?
I imagine in a way it could be considered a win-win, if the digital sales are so could that they consider either bringing it back those popular titles, or starting up new volumes.

Either way, they're making bank.

Gary said...

I know what you mean, man - time was pretty much everything I bought on a regular monthly series basis was from DC. Green Lantern, Justice League, The Spectre, and all the companion titles and one shots (I think I bought every single JLA Prestige format one shot!) were just automatic buys.

These days, I'm still reading GL and JLA stuff but beyond that, it's second string things like Aquaman and Blue Beetle. The only thing that's caught my eye from the stuff spinning out of Dark Nights: Metal (which, I admit, I am enjoying) is The Terrifics as that looks to be fun.

Aftershock and Image titles make up about half of my monthly haul these days, with a handful of titles from Dark Horse and Oni Press, and that's a situation that even 10 years ago would have been unthinkable for me.

As you know, I'm annotating past DC events and, like you, am more likely to look back and enjoy the fun, ridiculous and sometimes terrible comics from the 80s and 90s rather than the current stuff.

DC will likely always publish a JLA and GL title so they're probably always going to get my money for them - I'm invested in the characters - but so much other stuff they do I'm simply not interested in.

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

@Gary: Yeah I'll cop to buying some of the Metal stuff because IT IS actually pretty entertaining and well-written. It actually honors and references the past (well the past according to the newly rebirth rebooted universe) while building upon that with actual new ideas. So yeah, go them. Otherwise meh.

You buying the JL title with the Lobo,Killer Frost, Batman. etc roster, because right now that Looking for Ray Palmer storyline seems pretty decent.

I'm with you on the indy stuff. Now I did flirt with that, companies like Oni, Dark Horse, Dynamite, and stuff like that. Plus I fell in love with Image back in '95, so I was all about titles like Brigade, Bloodstrike, and anything by Liefield and Savage Dragon. Oh and then there's Top Cow, with Witchblade, the Darkness, and Cyberforce back in the 90's.

Nowadays, it's Brian K Vaughn's Saga that interests me as far as the Image goes. It's not a retread or reboot, all-original material, and a story that you can easily invest in. I have all the trades up to now. I higly recommend.

Shlomo Ben Hungstien said...

speaking of new comics Dale i just saw your link in regards to Peacemaker's return to the DCU. i checked it out and left a comment.

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Didn't see one yet.
Oh btw, If you haven't already, check out Grant Morrison's Pax Americana, the true spiritual sequel to The Watchemen. It features Peacemaker at his best as a sort of Captain America kind of guy, but in a good way. Trust me, it's worth the read.

Shlomo Ben Hungstien said...

i just learned a couple days ago DC released earlier this month the first issue of a Ragman mini-series. but as far as i can see it's a completely rebooted character then even when we saw him in the New DCU Batwoman a couple years ago....
http://suicidesquadtaskforcex.blogspot.com/2016/03/delivering-justice.html he was still very much the same old DCU Ragman in those Batwoman appearances but this latest reboot is horrible it seems like DC, marvel and idw have only one purpose in mind these days which seems to be to fuck up everything i used to love.

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Ha ha, it certainty seems that way right? #CorporateAsshats

"Closing time. You don't have to go home but you can't stay here."

Well..... I kinda always knew this day would come, and it sure has. It's been a hell of a ride, but it's time to for it end. Ti...