Comments on: Wizard hits issue 200 ... and we are there!

By: Comics Should Be Good! » Some Responses to the Latest Comics Journal

Comics Should Be Good! » Some Responses to the Latest Comics Journal — Sun, 04 May 2008 10:19:39 +0000

[...] writing this makes a nice bookend to Burgas’ Wizard piece. [...]

By: stealthwise

stealthwise — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 01:50:39 +0000

2 things:

1. I've managed to get two non-comics reading people into comics by turning them onto two books: Preacher and... wait for it... Y the Last Man.

b. The Doom crying thing was entirely metaphorical. It doesn't get mentioned again later on, and it's never actually presented as being an in-continuity, in-story thing.

By: Mr Met

Mr Met — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:01:24 +0000

I kept waiting for The Top 100 lists from Wizard"... guess I'll have to wait until issue 300.

By: wwk5d

wwk5d — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 06:38:36 +0000

Wizard I gave up a while ago cause it's become such a crapfest. 'Y' being number one is the best example. So it got mentioned in certain 'mainstream' magazines...so what? How has this made comics any less 'geeky' in the eyes of the general public? Or lead to record breaking sales once the general public became aware of how 'cool' the title is because EW mentioned it? Stupid list's ever, tho some of the tribute articles are nice. Wizard isn't something I buy anymore, it's a website I visit every 4 or 5 months... Northstar was certainly hinted at being gay in such an obvious way that it became a non-issue, in my eyes. I don't remember Alpha Flight # 18...but in the X-men/Alpha Flight team up from the 80s, it was certainly obvious during his discussion with Rogue...

By: David

David — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:51:20 +0000

"Two of the key players in DCâ€™s trend of needlessly killing off well-developed supporting characters just for the shock value?"
How else could DC pull off surprises without deaths in the issues I mentioned? We had the Joker - who's always crazy. We had Captain Boomerang - have you seen how sharp a boomerang is?

By: Greg Burgas

Greg Burgas — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:57:20 +0000

I didn't like the issue, Rusty, because I thought it was too mawkish and made it clear that these superheroes were absolutely ineffectual. I know they're fictional characters, and that's where they should have stayed. As so many people pointed out, the fact that superheroes couldn't stop the planes makes them ridiculous, and Marvel should have stayed away from it. The tribute issues they put out that dealt with the real people on the ground in the aftermath were fine tributes. The Spider-Man issue didn't move me, because it was pointless (and I guess I am petty and did miss the point of the book then). The fact that villains were acting out of character might be petty, but it's Marvel's sandbox, and when they have these villains often trying to do the very things that terrorists accomplished, it's asinine to have them weeping. Dr. Doom didn't need to be in the book, after all. For me, it still would have been a cheap ploy had Doom not been in it, but it wouldn't have been an insulting cheap ploy. Marvel makes money by showing villains doing horrible things, and to portray those villains in a different manner when something serious in the real world happens is incredibly disingenous of them.

By: Rusty Priske

Rusty Priske — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:01:08 +0000

I consider the Amazing Spider-man tribute comic to be a very moving read. nyone who concerns themselves with continuity is missing the point. (Dr. Doom acts out of character? So what?)

It should be treated like the also good episode of West Wing that came out at the time. It is a play, not part of the regular storyline. West Wing had to do that because otherwise Leo McGarry ceased being a sympathetic character. ASM had to do it because otherwise you had to deal with why superheroes weren't doing something to save the victims etc. which would undercut the REAL heroes who were in there trying to save who they could.

Getting mad because Dr.Doom is out of character is incredibly petty and misses the point of the book.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:23:45 +0000

"What was so crappy about Detective Comics 741 & Identity Crisis 5?" Two of the key players in DC's trend of needlessly killing off well-developed supporting characters just for the shock value? Okay, whichever issue of War Games when Spoiler gets offed is probably a worse offender than the Essen death - which Rucka handled very well in the novel - but Identity Crisis #5 is still ludicrous. It basically rendered a decade's worth of Robin stories moot by starting the inexplicable "Tim Drake wants to be Batman some day, so everyone he loves has to die" angle (something everyone who created the character went to great lengths to avoid). Killing Sue was fine, since she hadn't been an active character in years. Killing Jack Drake was sticking two middle fingers into the face of everyone who'd followed the Batman books, and as a book Robin's never really recovered. And I actually LIKE Identity Crisis. It's just that one death that was ridiculously unnecessary.

By: David

David — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:16:10 +0000

"Yes, because we all know that also putting out good comics suddenly makes the crappy ones bulletproof. And criticizing = thrashing!"
What was so crappy about Detective Comics 741 & Identity Crisis 5?

By: Alan Coil

Alan Coil — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:41:28 +0000

Chuck D...

We are all so sorry.

Would you like to try some of this Kool-Aid?

By: J to the AAP

J to the AAP — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:51:07 +0000

Nice of you to trash one of the best comic companies (DC). Sigh.

Yes, because we all know that also putting out good comics suddenly makes the crappy ones bulletproof. And criticizing = thrashing! "DC's body is rejecting your criticisms!"

By: David

David — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:13:16 +0000

"46. Detective #741. This is the issue in which Sarah Essen dies. If thereâ€™s a list for most odious comics of the past 17 years, this oneâ€™s on it."

"57. Identity Crisis #5. You know, the one where Tim Drakeâ€™s father is killed. See Detective #741."

"2. The death of Superman. Yes, it was a media event, but man, what a stupid one."
Nice of you to trash one of the best comic companies (DC). Sigh.

By: layne

layne — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:58:38 +0000

"Yes, the one where the mass-murdering, â€œDeath to Americaâ€ tyrant Doctor Doom sheds a tear for the World Trade Center bombing. What a joke."

I thought Doom was weeping because Osama totally knew he had dibs on the WTC.

By: Grant

Grant — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:30:15 +0000

I gave all my issues of Mouse Guard to my friends nephew. I had no idea it went up that much in price.

That kid better enjoy that fucking book.

By: krypto

krypto — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:56:31 +0000

Wizard perpetuates the notion of comic books being for awkward losers and nerds. The magazine truly caters to the "fanboy" mentality. It's really sad to see where the industry is today. I long for the days when "Amazing Heroes" was published. There's a magazine that took the industry serious and didn't pander to the latest trends in pop culture.

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:20:09 +0000

Man, there are times when this site reminds me of Ain't It Cool News, and this is certainly one of them. I realize that technically CSBG is separate from CBR, and yes, is widely known as a blog, and not an honest to God news source, but really---pedantic bullet-point sniping at a competitor using the same tired "witticisms" of Wizard/print media/top "whatever" lists in general were making me hate the internet back in nineteen-diggity. Didn't it run across your mind at some point that we need more of this crap like yet another "cause we just needed a reason" anniversary issue of Wizard? Feh.

By: Chuck D

Chuck D — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:06:15 +0000

I realize that the entirety of the internet hates Wizard just like they hate all things main stream but I happened to enjoy this issue. Yes, I do find it funny that Wizard now makes fun of things that they praised when published. I also understand Wizard's role in the speculator frenzy of the early to mid 90's. However, I do still enjoy the magazine. I'm a main stream comic reader and I like the interviews and preview pieces they do. Can it be done better? Of course. That doesn't mean that its entirely crap though. People have a tendency to put everything main stream down. Its ok to like things that other people like though. I promise.

By: Brad

Brad — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:10:09 +0000

Yes. 200 Gold is a retrospective issue covering the past 17 years in comics.

200 Platinum, due out next week, is a regular issue with current news, previews, price guide, etc.

By: Lucion

Lucion — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:42:56 +0000

So issue 200 Gold is different than issue 200 Platinum? Not just variant covers but totally different articles?

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:23:37 +0000

It'd be funnier if the Witchblade entry was for Marz' first issue (#80?), with a caption along the lines of "oh, maybe after 79 horrible issues we might want to see if a competent writer can actually pull off a miracle and make the most gratuitous T&A character in comics into something interesting." And I'd argue that the Death of Superman was important on more than a media frenzy level, because - as Johns cutely pointed out in the opening to Infinite Crisis (maybe his one effective subtle storytelling point in that entire thing) - people were REALLY hammering on the "Superman is no longer relevant" point in 1992. Between that and Knightfall, it was the first sign that DC was going to stand up for its bigger characters as the icons they were, rather than try to mould them into grim n gritty characters, as everyone and their brother was suggesting they should do to "keep up with the times."