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.