Comic Book Talk (2 Viewers)

bonnjer

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The "what are you reading" thread gave me the idea to kick off a comic book discussion thread. I was kind of surprised that we didn't have one going already, seeing as we have a rather diverse crowd of comic lovers. So, to get this one going, I bring this news:

https://screenrant.com/superman-costume-action-comics/

And I couldn't be more excited by it! :)
 
Where I am on mainstream comics right now:

DC has been mostly making the right decisions since Rebirth. I haven't been able to keep up with everything but what I have I have enjoyed. There has been fidelity to their legacy without being slavish, and so far I have enjoyed Doomsday Clock and the meta themes they've got going on there.

Marvel is...well, Marvel is a complete disaster. and has been for a few years now And not just in terms of what they're publishing (which is terrible), but also their business practices. Their minimum order thresholds on books, insane policies on variant covers, etc. have literally been so toxic for retailers that some are claiming they straight up put them out of business. And that's not even getting into the fact that they were intentionally over-shipping orders to make it look like they were moving more comics than they actually were.

Getting rid of Axel Alonso was a step in the right direction. But they have so much work to do to fix their situation. Marvel is in a really bad place right now. ) As Brian Bendis allegedly said prior to leaving for DC, the only thing that sells at Marvel anymore is Spider-Man and Star Wars. Ouch.
 
Where I am on mainstream comics right now:



DC has been mostly making the right decisions since Rebirth. I haven't been able to keep up with everything but what I have I have enjoyed. There has been fidelity to their legacy without being slavish, and so far I have enjoyed Doomsday Clock and the meta themes they've got going on there.



Marvel is...well, Marvel is a complete disaster. and has been for a few years now And not just in terms of what they're publishing (which is terrible), but also their business practices. Their minimum order thresholds on books, insane policies on variant covers, etc. have literally been so toxic for retailers that some are claiming they straight up put them out of business. And that's not even getting into the fact that they were intentionally over-shipping orders to make it look like they were moving more comics than they actually were.



Getting rid of Axel Alonso was a step in the right direction. But they have so much work to do to fix their situation. Marvel is in a really bad place right now. ) As Brian Bendis allegedly said prior to leaving for DC, the only thing that sells at Marvel anymore is Spider-Man and Star Wars. Ouch.



I wonder if they are more focused on the movies than the comics because they are making a **** load of money and killing DC.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I wonder if they are more focused on the movies than the comics because they are making a **** load of money and killing DC.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The film studio and publishing arm are totally separate entities. The only real overlap is when publishing changes something in the comics to try and capitalize off what's going on in the movies. But even that happens less than it used to because while the hope a decade ago had been "popular comic movies means more comic readers," that hasn't remotely proven to be true. Avengers can make a gabillion dollars world wide but it won't move the needle on the monthlies whatsoever. The other area where it has an effect is Crazy Ike Perlmutter canning Fantastic Four and de-emphasizing X-Men due to his beef with Fox. But assuming that the Fox/Marvel deal goes through, that will probably be going away soon. Likely it already has, with Wolverine and Jean Grey coming back in heavily promoted stories.

Marvel's real problems are lame business practices (seriously, at this point so many comics retailers hate what Marvel has done to them. It's more than I can recap here, but it basically boils down to Marvel trying to mask declining sales by forcing retailers to buy more volume, exploiting variant covers to laughable levels, etc.) and a complete misreading of their audience. A lot of people scream about the "diversity push" or whatever, but DC has done a very good job of incorporating diverse legacy characters going back decades at this point. The problem wasn't that there were characters who were different colors. The problem is they COMPLETELY REPLACED existing characters on almost no notice.

The problem with Marvel is their characters have never been legacy characters. So unlike the idea of a Superman Family or a Flash Family or a Batman Family or Green Lantern Corps or the Justice Society or whatever, which are by their nature these groups of characters that invite new additions to tell new stories, Marvel never had that. So it was completely jarring to the reader when one day they picked up Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man and those books starred Falcon, Jane Foster, and a new teenage girl super genius instead. Too much, too fast. Basically DC has conditioned readers for flexibility since the Silver Age and Marvel never did. Then Marvel tried to do what DC does and failed.

And then you get to an issue of talent. Marvel has had a real talent problem lately. The art on their books has been *BAD*. Part of this is because Alonso believed and said that artists didn't "move the needle." He didn't care about art. And it shows. They literally recruited an artist off of Tumblr for Squirrel Girl, and her work is terrible.

Another problem that Marvel is facing is writers working for Marvel for a while, building a name for themselves, then bailing to do creator owned work. Marvel hasn't been able to build up the bullpen of talent like they used to have. And for whatever reason, DC is having an easier time recruiting and keeping talent.
 
to what degree is this the morphing of nerd culture to pop culture?
with superman/batman DC has always been part of mainstream culture
otoh marvel was much more embedded in nerd culture - it had broken out before the recent glut of movies (maybe the 90s xmen cartoon did it?) - but now along with star wars (and computers/gaming) not only are marvel characters part of pop culture - it cold be argued that they are a predominant part of culture

BUT
comics will never have that sort of appeal - comics themselves remain niche
maybe with DC's lack of success, it allows them to be more nimble with story/character, etc and change as the fans change
maybe the shadow of the MCU is so pervasive, it's difficult for comics to make any move (much less a good one) under its shadow

maybe
 
The "what are you reading" thread gave me the idea to kick off a comic book discussion thread. I was kind of surprised that we didn't have one going already, seeing as we have a rather diverse crowd of comic lovers. So, to get this one going, I bring this news:

https://screenrant.com/superman-costume-action-comics/

And I couldn't be more excited by it! :)

I tried starting one, but it didn't get much traction.

Like Sun, the most of what I'm reading is DC. They've really done a good job of making up for much of the crap started with the New 52. I just hope they don't give Bendis too much rope to where he screws up some of the most beloved characters.

I have a few Marvel titles on my pull list, but they are doing real bad with some of the crap they're putting out. And it's going to get worse because the decent writers they do have are burning out and jumping ship.

I've also dove into some indie books as well (Dynamite, IDW, etc.).
 
I only read Marvel for years. Would always try and get into DC, just found them incredibly boring.


But I quit even reading Marvel when they killed off Scott Summers and brought "The young originals" from the past. Cyclops was right and they treated him like ****.


But, a month ago I came back due to the Phoenix Ressurection and the hints that Cyclops might be coming back. So I've read the last couple of weeks now.


It hasn't been bad. But putting Deadpool in like 15 books at once is annoying. I get that a company has to make money. But Deadpool and Wolverine are fun characters, but no need to have them in everything. Causes me to hate 2 perfectly good characters simply due to overuse.


Bring back Scott Summers. He is the best X-man ever.
 
I only read Marvel for years. Would always try and get into DC, just found them incredibly boring.


But I quit even reading Marvel when they killed off Scott Summers and brought "The young originals" from the past. Cyclops was right and they treated him like ****.


But, a month ago I came back due to the Phoenix Ressurection and the hints that Cyclops might be coming back. So I've read the last couple of weeks now.


It hasn't been bad. But putting Deadpool in like 15 books at once is annoying. I get that a company has to make money. But Deadpool and Wolverine are fun characters, but no need to have them in everything. Causes me to hate 2 perfectly good characters simply due to overuse.


Bring back Scott Summers. He is the best X-man ever.

Man, I was right with you until that last sentence
On a list of 20 X-men he’s probably 17 (gambit, angel, kitty pryde)
 
It hasn't been bad. But putting Deadpool in like 15 books at once is annoying. I get that a company has to make money. But Deadpool and Wolverine are fun characters, but no need to have them in everything. Causes me to hate 2 perfectly good characters simply due to overuse.

Deadpool is the Harley Quinn of Marvel Comics. He got a hot pop and they decided to make as much as possible about him. A lot of people have burned out on him, just like they have gotten tired of Harley being in everything at DC. At least DC has taken note of it and reduced the number of books she's in.

Man, I was right with you until that last sentence
On a list of 20 X-men he’s probably 17 (gambit, angel, kitty pryde)

No ****. Scott is no where in my top 5; not even the top 10.
 
Scott gets a bad rap.


For the last 30 years he has had to lead the X-Men. All the **** they have gone through, HE has been the rock. Plus he is a master strategist. That always gets lost.


In the ratio of what he means to the X-Universe to how he gets treated by writers and fans, he is the Drew Brees of the X-Universe. Never gets the due he is warranted.


My personal list has Cyclops at the top. Wolverine somewhere after #500, just barely ahead of Gambit, another character that annoys me.


1. Cyclops
2. Kitty
3. Colossus
4. Cannonball
5. Multiple Man - The Madrox Noir PI series was fantastic
 
Speaking of Scott, it was announced today that Scott Snyder will be taking over Justice League in May and bringing the Batmen of the Dark Multiverse with him. I'm not excited for that at all.
 
This has mostly been aMCU/DCU talk
But I have to give a shoutout to BRian K Vaughn (yes I’m late to the party)
I started with Y and thought that was great Paper Girls and Runaways were ok, but I finally caught up with Saga and it has to be one of my all time favorite titles and such an awesome blend or story/art
 
Nuclear Man is Coming To Superman Comics

Bendis, what are you doing? This version of Nuclear Man better be a whole lot more awesome than the movie.

Seriously, I'm very worried about Bendis on Superman and in DC in general. Right now he looks like he's trying to take Lois Lane and Jon Kent out of Superman's life. Man of Steel just hasn't been good IMO.

This has mostly been aMCU/DCU talk
But I have to give a shoutout to BRian K Vaughn (yes I’m late to the party)
I started with Y and thought that was great Paper Girls and Runaways were ok, but I finally caught up with Saga and it has to be one of my all time favorite titles and such an awesome blend or story/art

I missed out on Saga when it first started, but have a few volumes in digital format. I plan to catch up that way.

These are the three indie books that I have really enjoyed (all by Image):

1. Kick-arse: Patience Lee is awesome in the role of Kick-arse. Rumor has it that the movie reboot will feature her.
2. Skyward: This is a good book on what life on Earth would be like with less gravity. It's suspenseful but fun as well.
3. The Magic Order: This released last week, but the first issue was really good.
 
Seriously, I'm very worried about Bendis on Superman and in DC in general. Right now he looks like he's trying to take Lois Lane and Jon Kent out of Superman's life. Man of Steel just hasn't been good IMO.

I'm behind in my reading right now. I've got the first four issues of Man of Steel coming in mail. I was really hoping that it would be a good lead-in to his run on the other books.
 

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