Comic Book Resources

1) Way too much credit, way, way, WAY, too much credit given to Marvel. And teenagers read comics?

2) This makes sense up until that last statement. Editors don't work for their love of comics? Please, from last I heard, they don't exactly make top dollar in their field. In fact, the entire comics industry appears, at least on the surface, to consist of people who forego much higher paying work in favour of contributing to a medium that they love almost unconditionally. Why the hell else would certain talented artists, writers, and other professionals who could get much more prestigious and financially rewarding work stick around for so long? The same principle applies to editors.

3) I completely agree with recognizing the idiocy of the whole "dead Spoiler Robin" storyline, but this "phenomenon" is no larger than the whole HEAT thing, and that did little more than eventually (after ten years?) motivate DC into bringing back Hal Jordan in a TOP-TEN SELLING MINI-SERIES. Didio only wishes that this whole feminist fan movement provokes even half the amount of passion, so that he can turn it into an event in order to cash in.

4) Agreed, although again, a bit bias towards Marvel, who are just as guilty of milking the "big event" while offering little more than mediocre stories.

5) Fair enough.

6) Da Fug? I get to the "yin" and "Yang" crap and skip ahead to...

7) There is no 7...

What the hell is "Mother Jones"? Again, I think the author is really overestimating the visibility of certain publications/movements.

9) How are either Minx or Zuda "innovative"? They're both just attempts to reach out to demographics that until now DC has been ignoring. Minx has next to no brand identity, and Zuda is... well, nebulous at best. I agree about Didio's contributions to the DCU, because "Arena" sounds ridiculously lame. However, where the hell is the innovation in Marvel's mainstream. Nextwave? Cancelled. Ant-Man? Cancelled. Runaways? She-Hulk? Still there, but not doing a whole lot, though I will give Marvel credit, for relaunching and promoting those books, not like DC, who decided to give Manhunter only, like, two or three chances before axing it, and who wanted a new Spirit and Jonah Hex, giving their creative teams free reign. Oh wait.

10) Yup. Wait, "Marvel does this by being Marvel?" What does that even mean?

11) Agreed. I have no idea what the hell is going on, but professionalism is a four-letter word with DC right now, although Marvel hasn't been too great in recent memory, allowing an entire line of books to be delayed due to their inability to gauge McNiven's speed.

12) Agreed. No idea where the DCU is heading, but rather than that being exciting, I find myself waiting out the storm to see if there's anything even worth reading in a year or so.

Post-Didio: - McDuffie - Hell no, he's so obsessed with fan service and continuity (from what little I've seen, I could be way off).

- Mark Waid - Meh. Couldn't be worse.

Overall, this article told me a lot of what I already knew, but did it in a way that was mildly irritating.

A pretty interesting article. I tend to agree that DC is not being well run right now, but is Marvel being run so much better? The continued dominance of line-wide events, is somthing that will permanently damage both companies if they carry it on forever, but of course they won't stop while sales justify it. At least Marvel seems to have toned it down somewhat with World War Hulk, but two fifty two issue series in a row?! Give me a break!

SW, wow, not sure why you read it that way, but I thought it was great. A spot-on piece from someone with an insider's perspective.

There's a lot of truth in her post, but she seems to forget that Marvel, while more successful than DC, is in the same creative rut.

I would agree that they're in a creative rut, but I don't think the magnitude of that rut is even comparable. As dumb as Civil War turned out, it's nowhere near as bad as all the Crisis garbage, which keeps getting recycled ad nauseum, while Marvel keeps doing different stuff.

stealthwise, I have one reply to your reply to the above Your first point specificly.

As someone who was a teenager only a few years ago, I read comics. Still do. Plenty of the people I knew/know were familiar with lots of stuff going on. More than a few had read a few issues of Marvel's ultimate line. I knew a bunch of art students who bought the Ultimates trades based on the art. I don't think any of them had read a comic before or since.

Many, and I can't emphasis this enough, MANY of the teens/university students have downloaded a few issues of something they caught their eye on a bittorrent tracker somewhere. What is a few extra MB here or there?

The reason that this doesn't translate to a lot of extra followers or people in shops is that it is a pain in the ass to be a comics fan. There is no way to casually follow a comic book. You either make the trek to the speciality shop every couple weeks or you don't. They are not hanging around in book stores. most shops don't carry a years worth of back issues to browse through. Even in trades, unless it is a huge title, if you miss the release date by a couple months that's it.

People like comics. 'Young People' like comics. We are just not willing to jump through the hoops.

I'm AMAZED by how quickly my interest in DC has died post-52. On the other hand, I was pretty burned out on Marvel, but I've been loving things post-Civil War.

Two years between Infinite and Final Crisises? Er, Crises? At least House of M and Civil War were reasonalby unrelated. Countdown is making Marvel's slew of tie-ins seem downright restrained.

What the hell is “Mother Jones”? Again, I think the author is really overestimating the visibility of certain publications/movements.

It's a magazine As it turns out, a fairly well-regarded one.

I can't comment authoritatively on the comics stuff here, but it does drive me a little nuts when 'she's overestimating' translates to 'I, personally don't know what she's talking about.'

Conor E said:
"I’m AMAZED by how quickly my interest in DC has died post-52."

Thios sums up my attitude as well. I'm a DC fan. Have been for 20+ years. I love their characters and rich history. At first my enthusiasm for their superhero line was rejuvenated during Infinite Crisis and 52. I even overlooked some of the mistakes like releasing IC #7 unfinished and like the butcher job they did on several books during One Year Later (*cough*Hawkgirl*cough*).

But I have finally reached the end of my patience as a fan. Countdown has blown and I finally dropped it. And I'm dismayed at the HUGE amount of Countdown crossovers in the newest listings, none of which interest me. Please don't get me started on how bad Amazons Attack has been. Or the large amount of 'shock deaths.' I'm back to reading my indy and manga books...

Frank Miller had a lot to say about superhero comics (and DC comics in particular) in Dark Knight Strikes Again. I think heeding on some of those ideas (better late than never) would be a good idea.

The piece had some truth to it, yet it certainly had a bias towards some people, while salivating over others.

It was also rather poorly written, as she could have cut her points down by half, and had a stronger, less repetitive argument because of it.
Instead it started to feel like a rant, and was totally lacking in proof to back up claims.
(Also it seems blindly ignorant not to think that Marvel will have a very similar problem if they keep going for the big event - I'm personally shocked that World War Hulk is doing good business).

there's a problem in the DC universe when all the good books coming out of there are the second and third tier characters.

The Big three sort of suck or are non existent right now, even Morrison's Batman has just come out of its crap period.

there’s a problem in the DC universe when all the good books coming out of there are the second and third tier characters.

The Big three sort of suck or are non existent right now, even Morrison’s Batman has just come out of its crap period.

Well that's the problem with deciding three of your characters are more important than others - it's totally reliant on talent involved, and also what is wanted from the audience.
The other problem is that editorial then becomes protective of those characters, and so the sorts of stories that made them the corner stones they are today get told less and less.

I do appreciate the fact that it's a piece on the internet that actually is willing to admit that DC is way more crass and mercenary these days than Marvel. The net is so pro-DC that it seems everyone wants to pretend that Civil War and it's ilk are on the same level of crassness and blatant commercialism as Didio's reign at DC, which I think is unfair. The poor quality, shitty direction and desire to rape wallets that Didio's DC exhibit are totally unmatched.

first of all, NEXTWAVE ceased publication b/c Warren Ellis no longer wanted to write issues and that Simmon was moved to Ultimate Spider-Man (according to Quesada)

and i think that's the main problem: now a days so many titles are linked to their writer or writer/artist team that editors seem to think that if you change creative teams the readers will no longer be there...and I'd kill for some more NEXTWAVE

DC's doing fine(or at least it will be soon). The sales are still up from what they were a few years ago, right? They're just losign in market share to Marvel which is how it's ALWAYS been.

And while yes, there's crossoveritis, the comics that are being released generally have pretty good creative teams on them and will likely be pretty good.

Look at the solicits for October. There seems to be a big turn around coming.

There are a LOT of great writers on a lot of books. I'm talking at least 30 books that should be very good just based on the fact that someone like McKeever or McDuffie is writing them.

I'll admit there's some problem with accessibility, but it's hard for me to care that much, since I've already put the investment into learning about the universe and its characters years ago.

You put good writers on comics and a poor central direction can generally be overcome.

Getting people to care enough to stick with the comics through some creative lulls is another story.

I'm just thinking by looking at the October and November solicits that things are looking pretty good for the DC Superhero line.

The fact that it's all leading to a Morrison/JG Jones comic that apparently Morrison is honestly excited about doesn't hurt things.

Mother Jones? Yeah, it's a magazine, one with a circ above 200,000, & it's been around since at least the mid-'70s.
Not having a clue what it is does not speak well for one's cultural awareness.

I mean, I haven't watched TV in going on 3 years -- I no longer have cable, & I can't receive a signal worth a damn -- but I, uh, know who Jon Stewart is.

Jeez.

Actually, Carl, Ellis stated that Marvel was willing to keep Nextwave, but they'd have to do it with another artist, because the sales were too low to justify paying both Ellis and Immonen. That, of course, would completely ruin the series, so they stopped, but they will have minis later, apparently.

The article is interesting, in that it's actually an informed opinion. However, I can't help but feel that the positive things about Marvel she notes are mostly because she has directly experienced the bad DC stuff, and thinks the grass is greener over at Marvel.

I don't really get the DC vs. Marvel thing. I'm more likely than not to pick up books from both companies. But I'm not enjoying Countdown, and I'm not enjoying the Illuminati Trilogy (aka House of M/Civil War/WWH). Both are intruding in clumsy ways in books I buy, and both just make me that much less likely to continue to buy those books or the next "event" from either company.