Johns does this with Green Lantern or Brainiac and fans jeer.

No, bloggers jeer.

Sales were pretty damn high on GL: Rebirth if one recalls.

It makes me sad that this is a legitimate case you can make regarding current superhero comics, that you don’t need to introduce characters or do any setup because everyone reading it is already so hardcore it’s a waste of space… but that’s another column.

As I feel with Rebirth, I feel the same here - I think you worry too much about the book turning off readers... I've got friends who go in and out of comics, and they love books I think they'd hate - due to needing to know too much - and yet they love them.
Some people - I was the same when I first got into x-men - love the feeling of a world being over their head, with characters popping up left and right.
I think the trouble actually comes later when they'll realise that most of this will all be swept away in a year or two.
Some of them thought World War Hulk was the shit, where as I was slightly underwhelmed because I have no idea who Ronin is, who the dude with red glasses and a red shirt is, and what the hell is up with two different Avengers teams.
(Not to mention the 'heroes' acting like total dicks the whole time - Hulk risks less lives than Strange and Stark with their hair brained schemes to stop him... I thought heroes being dicks was meant to be DC's thing according to message boards?)

As for Brave And The Bold, that's where we totally agree!
I got the first trade and loved the heck out of it.
I don't know why this doesn't sell huge, and say 'nuts to you McGillicutty' to Joe Rice and his hatred of the first issue.
(Although it does have a lot of what you apparently hate about Final Crisis in it... but then again, when it's Space Cabbie, who cares as long as he's appearing!)

Cripes. That's 12 books canned in the past year. Geez.

Have a good day.
John Cage

Of the 22 books I subscribed to in 2008, half have been cut or are ending soon -- Amazing Spider-Girl, Birds of Prey, Blue Beetle, Checkmate, JSA Classified, Justice League Unlimited, Manhunter, New Warriors, Nightwing, Robin, and She-Hulk -- and four were limited series -- I Hate Gallant Girl, Rogue's Revenge, Tangent: Superman's Reign, and Vixen -- leaving me with only seven titles on my pull list -- Avengers: The Initiative, Booster Gold, Captain Britain & MI: 13, Deadpool, Nova, Runaways, and Thunderbolts -- and even then, two of them are recent additions. It's worth noting that I still buy a few other titles here and there, but the books I subscribe to are titles I want to be sure I get every issue of. And in all fairness, I was really close to dropping Checkmate until I found out the Global Guardians were showing up and then that the series was ending, at which point I figured I'd finish off the run.

But it's crazy to realize that in five months I'll have about a third the amount of titles in my pull-box. Then again, with the price increases I've been dealing with as a Canadian reader it's not the worst thing in the world, I suppose.

Have a good day.
John Cage

The cover was one of Brian's Top five picks from his cover-judging a couple of months ago... Could that be where you saw it first? Or is it just a standard ticker-tape homage á la Prez??

" I just wish publishers would follow this line of reasoning all the way to the end and realize that this really is what they’re doing now, and quit hanging on to the 22-page monthly as some sort of arbitrary limit on how comics need to be done. "

I wish publishers would do 22-26 page monthly self-contained short stories for their monthly books, with four quarterly 80 page Giants in February, May, August and November for what would be the equivalent of their 3 issue miniseries releases throughout the year, and two "event" OGNS at 144-200 pages each released in June and December, respectively.

In other words, assuming the price for monthly is going to be $3.99:

January: Batman #XXX - short story
Febrary: Batman #XXX - short story; BATMAN: STORY NAME HERE (80 pager) $7.95
March: Batman #XXX - short story
April: Batman #XXX- short story
May: Batman #XXX - short story that is epilogue to OGN, BATMAN: 80 page #2 $7.95
June: BATMAN OGN #1 comes out first week of month at $19.95 (192 pages), Batman #XXX epilogue to OGN story
July: Batman #XXX - short story
August: Batman #XXX- short story; BATMAN: 80 pager #3 $7.95
September: Batman # XXX- short story
October: Batman #XXX- short story
November: Batman #XXX- short stpry prologue to OGN; BATMAN 80 pager #4 $7.95
December: BATMAN OGN #2 first week of December (192 pages, $19.95), Batman #XXX epilogue story.

12 X $3.99 = 47.88
4 X $7.95 = 31.80
2 X $19.95= 39.90

TOTAL: $119.58

That's 1,016 pages of BATMAN a year for roughly $120, if you bought everything new. I think that is more than a sufficient amount of product for the year, don't you, people? 18 books a year total.

And okay, let's say you want to wait for the collections:

B-R'S BATMAN TPB - Collects 8 of the 12 monthly issues for $19.95
B-R'S BATMAN OGN #1 ULTIMATE EDITION HC: Collects the Prologue & Epilogue story as bookends to the Main story, includes a sketchbook section, and an interview with the writer and artists from the OGN, for $39.95
B-R's BATMAN OGN #2 ULTIMATE EDITION HC: $39.95

(NOTE: No, I'm not saying "B-R's BATMAN" as though it was my story. Just the format.)

1 TPB = $19.95
4 Quarterlies - $7.95@ = $31.80
2 HCs - $39.95@ = $79.90

TOTAL: $131.65

So, you can buy it this way instead, and spend $131.65 a year total for the same stories with the OGNs in the higher grade format with some additional goodies.

Now, not every solo character merits this kind of production level. I mean, I don't think THOR is going to warrant a monthly and 4 quarterlies and 2 OGNs, for example. But your "top tier" characters, I think it works nicely.

"But what about all the spinoff books, like NIGHTWING, ROBIN, BATGIRL, BIRDS OF PREY?" you ask. Well, they likely don't rate that sort of production level either, I suspect. But then that could be what a BATMAN FAMILY Quarterly at 96 pages at $8.95 might hold, featuring short stories in each, or a larger, 120 page TPB for $14.95 with one larger feature story that rotates with the other three being normal short story length. Meanwhile the characters are guest starring intermittently in the monthly self-contained BATMAN stories. You don't have to eliminate the prospects of giving these characters stories, just cull the herd of redundant titles and crossover happy lines of books.

I could apply this to Marvel, as well, but I really don't care to deal with the headaches at the moment, because lord knows I'd cut half their titles, at least.

"Okay, but what about team books?"

Example: JLA ---

Monthly books are stories that feature only 3-4 members of the team, self contained, or maybe you do a solo character story for the characters who don't have their own series. The quarterlies give you the full "Big 7" roster, for lack of better terminology at the moment, and with the OGNs the threat is so large you call in the reserve members to boot.

Damn, is it really that easy? Yep.

Legion, same thing. Avengers, same thing. FF only has four team members and you can always do a Thing or Torch solo story any given month, and your quarterlies / OGN may feature some additional guest characters. (Darn, that was hard.) X-Men? Well, see, that there's where I pull out the big scythe.... *wink*

So yeah, Greg, it's not like 22-26 page stories have to be dead. It'd be smart to do it my way, because then if you don't happen to like BATMAN this month, you just might pick up that FLASH or GL for a month instead if it has an interesting cover or story hook you heard about, knowing it's just an impulse buy with no additional commitments required.

And damn if that wasn't the whole point of comics when we were kids? An impulse buy for a quick bit of light entertainment.

************

"The DC superhero line over the last five years is often written with the same vaguely arrested-adolescent “adult, serious” sensibility. These are wildly different characters, setups, premises… and yet so many times they all have the same morose tone. A grim story that might work pretty well in Batman is ridiculously out of place in Flash or Teen Titans, but that same “darkness” is apparently now de rigeur for the entire mainstream DCU line. "

That's what happens when you hire a bunch of exclusive writers to write as many titles as you can drag out of them, instead of doing it properly and looking for GOOD STORIES, without real concern about who writes or draws them specifically. But even with that said, Greg, I cannot agree that a 'grim' story told well would be 'ridiculously out of place' in FLASH or TEEN TITANS - but there's the rub; it has to be told well and fit the characters properly. I'll certainly agree that nobody seems to be following the basic four principles of story editing / writing.

"Grant Morrison on Batman is more problematic. Again, I was enjoying what he was doing, maybe not swooning over it like some of my colleagues but on the whole I thought he was doing good work. Then we got “R.I.P.”, which, sorry, strikes me as a bit of a mess. Take the trademark Morrison style away and what’s left is exactly the same thing Geoff Johns gets pilloried for– an attempt to integrate old forgotten continuity into the character’s history again. Johns does this with Green Lantern or Brainiac and fans jeer. Morrison does it with Zur-En-Arrh and the Club of Heroes and fans say it’s a work of genius. As far as I can tell, the only real difference is in the execution."

It's not even that, Greg. It's just a question of whose writing style you prefer. In terms of actual execution, they're both pretty lame.

If all a given writer can do is cannibalize the past and recycle it - and that seems to be the modus operandi for about 90% of the writers in comics today - then please, exit, stage left. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Get them the hell out of the industry, because they're not just screwing the pooch, they're screwing the pooch's corpse in some cases, and it's demeaning. It's demeaning to the characters, demeaning to the readers, and really demeaning to themselves, when you think about it.

"For God’s sake. Does no one at DC even try to be an editor any more? Was no one brave enough to raise their hand in an editorial meeting and say, “You know, this Battle For The Cowl thing might seem a little too much like going over the same ground."

"(Final Crisis) is not doing as much for me as it is some others here, and it is far too reminiscent of Morrison’s JLA arc “Rock of Ages” for my comfort..."

"Truthfully, there is a key point that DC as a whole seems to have forgotten when it comes to these big Event books. Sooner or later, for the gimmick to work, you have to finish.

I don’t think DC knows how to finish a story any more."

I already covered this in my post over on Cronin's theory of why artists get work easier than writers. It's very simple to know what to look for in a good story, but it's time consuming to actually DO it. And you've hit all the complaint spots in your column, Greg. Between story redundancy, never knowing how or when to FINISH a story, the lack of uniqueness in execution (irregardless of the technical merits of said execution)... honestly DC and Marvel are both in one big epic fail right now.

Maybe your students should be the so called "professionals" instead of the kids.

****************

RE: Tangent Superman - I wanted to try it, but nobody was really ordering it here. Maybe someday.

***************

RE: TRINITY - I'm relatively confident that Busiek and Bagley are doing fine on it, and it's probably a well done book, but honestly I had no interest in a weekly year long book, regardless of who was doing it.

***************

RE: BRAVE & THE BOLD - Well, I think I summed up my thoughts on Waid's run months ago (it wasn't pretty), and Perez was the only purchase draw for me, so I dropped this a long time ago. But I do feel that Braithwite and Reinhold are doing some nice art on the series.

***************

RE: LEGION OF 3 WORLDS - I *was* going to get it, but DC stupidly tied it into Final Crisis (however limitedly) and killed the sale.

***************

No personal interest in anything Superman...

For whatever reason, the books like Jonah Hex, The Land That Time Forgot, and other non-superhero stuff... either it's "pulls only" or it's flying off the shelves at my local shop, because I almost never see these. Thus, I haven't really been interested in seeking them out....

Never really saw Manhunter...

I cannot disagree with you more about Dark Tower or anything else Marvel or DC is adapting from famous prose authors. If I want King or Hamilton or Card or Kenyon, I want something NEW from THEM. Not adaptations of their old stories I already own by other writers, or these writers' versions of the Marvel / DC characters, or even 'new' stories featuring the same characters from their prose (because to tell you the truth, I'm just as jaded and bored with that stuff due to overexposure). Certainly Stephen King has some new story that he could have collaborated on with Peter David and had Jae Lee drawing, no? Give me Laurell K. Hamilton doing a NIGHTSEER comic book, which is only one novel and offers a whole world to explore. Not Anita Blake of the fifteen to seventeen novels, the latter half of which have been little more than orgyfests, unfortunately.

I mean, really, people, how hard is this?

***************

You're probably wondering what I *am* buying, huh, Greg?

2008 published books:

Aletheia #1-3 (Image miniseries)
Perhapanauts #1-4 (Image ongoing that's been delayed)
Hellboy Animated Digests (the first three)
Hellboy: The Crooked Man #1-3
Hellboy: The Wild Hunt
BPRD... well, I got four of the past six minis dating back to 2006, so I can't remember which one was the newest.
Courtney Crumrin & The Prince of Nowhere
Nocturnals (Image one shot - I think it was subtitled Night of the Beasts?)

And that's all I happen to remember offhand as being released in 2008.

I have READ (but not purchased) various Marvel Adventures, Young X-Men, X-Men: First Class firest Digest TPB, the first 3 RUNAWAYS Digests, the Astonishing X-Men GIFTED TPB, Morrison's run on New X-Men in TPB, Claremont and Davis' ICE AGE story for X-Men in TPB, Kirkman's first two volumes of Invincible in HC, Two FABLES TPBs, the Meltzer JLA "tornado's path" or whatever th story was called in TPB, uhm... Geoff Johns' Green Lantern in TPB where Hal faced off against Hank Henshaw and the Manhunters and reformed the GLC... Whedon's SERENITY: THOSE LEFT BEHIND or whatever it was called in HC... via reading John Norris' pulls on the way home from the comics shop, or borrowing them from my library this past year, among some 40-60 other TPBs that I borrowed out of the library.

So I have been trying to "keep up" with what everyone else seems to like, and often saying to myself, "What in the world did anyone see in this to be praising it? If these are the *good* comics, how bad are the books these people are constantly ragging on?"

Ah well. May there be a light in the darkness in 2009.

I've been staying out of crossovers saga almost since they started doing them in the 80's. I understood right away that it was not a tool to tell a good story, just a cheap ploy to get you to buy stuff you wouldn't normally buy.

There was a time when my pull list was limited only by my budget. I could easily buy, on a monthly basis, 15 ongoing titles, plus minis, annuals, etc. Now I have a hard time pick up half a dozen titles. For many years now, I've been spending my "comic book money" almost exclusively on Archives edition of old stuff, comic strip collections and books about comic book creators.

It is a sad thing that actual comic books (which is still mainly populated with super-heroes) are selling less and less, year after year. Which is ironic when you think of all the movies and tv series they have generated these last few years. Super-heroes are now accepted as a legitimate and even cool genre outside of the comics-geeks community. This recognition and acceptance should be represented by higher numbers of sales of comic books shouldn't it?

But, of course, we all know it isn't. There are many reasons for this, but certainly one of the factor is exactly what you have pointed out in your excellent analysis Greg: you can't just pick up a single issue of a super-hero comic book and read a good stand alone story anymore.

They have been so many reboots and rebirth of characters in this modern age of comics that you need a masters degree in DC universes to understand anything. I used to be a huge Legion fan but they lost me at Zero Hour. I have no idea what the LSH is all about now. And then, there is this annoying tendency to think that to be cool, all super-heroes must be written in a dark and grim way. Been there, done that... 20 friggin' years ago!!! Some comic book historian even had a name for it: the Dark Age (started in the late 80's with Frank Miller's DARK KNIGHT and Alan Moore's WATCHMEN).

I used to be a DC man as well. Used to follow a lot of series. IDENTITY CRISIS put the last nail in the coffin for me. That's when dark, grim and even sordid became the "hot" way to do super-heroes again. Thats when Didio's DC went on a murderous rampage of character assassination (in the litteral and symbolic sense). Super-heroes could not be fun anymore.

Aside from Archives and collections and maybe an occasional mini-series or one-shot once in a while, the only DC ongoing title I have left on my pull list is JONAH HEX. And even with this one I am getting tired on the grim violence. Wish they would do more lighter stories. Westerns can be fun too, you know.

When I heard that James Robinson was back writing at DC, I tried ACTION and SUPERMAN for a few months. But then they added a third ongoing series to the package, SUPERGIRL, and even more, a bunch of related one-shots, and it started to look suspiciously like a crossover-type of ploy to get me to spend more money on comic books I wouldn't normally buy. To make matters worse, they were stories about Robinson clashing with editorial, his leaving/not leaving dance. Dammit!!! I just wanted to read Robinson's (His STARMAN is still my favorite ongoing series of all time) take on Superman!!! Not have to pick up a whole line of books!!! So: bye-bye (and not "buy! buy!") Superman line.

I thank you for your suggestion of stand-alone titles Greg. Most of them haven't tried yet. I will have a look at them. I'm always on the look-out for good old school comic books. I have a few suggestions of my own:

Ed Brubaker's CAPTAIN AMERICA. Normally, I wouldn't be into a title that killed their main character in the first arc and having him replaced with a "back from the dead" side-kick. With some ties to the whole Initiative crossover, the basic plot of the series had everything to make me stay away from it. But I've been a fan of Ed Brubaker since his SCENE OF THE CRIME. GOTHAM CENTRAL was the only "bat book" I bought for the duration of Brubaker's stay on the title. So, when he left DC for Marvel I gave him a chance and I don't regret it at all. CAPTAIN AMERICA is a page-turner thriller month after month.

Ditto on Brubaker's DAREDEVIL.

And on THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST. Since Brubaker and Fraction left the title, Duane Swierczynski has been doing a good job on keeping my interest. Plus, as a bonus, we get a few nice pages from the great Russ Heath once in a while!

Speaking of the master, the best war title I've read for a long time is BROTHERS IN ARMS from Dynamite. Davide Fabbri may even be the new Russ Heath of war comics. He too draws with a clean and clear line. I appreciate that he does his homework on research. Like Heath used to do on Haunted Tank, his Stuart light tank actually look like a Stuart light tank. US soldiers don't just shoot with generic rifles, they have realistic looking M1-Garands. Plus the story is good too.

Last time I bought an ongoing BATMAN series was Doug Moench and Kelley Jones' run. So when Jones teamed-up with Steve Niles for a 12 issues limited series I gave it a try. So far so good on BATMAN: GOTHAM AFTER MIDNIGHT, even though I think I have already found out who the villain is, and only midway throught the series.

And the only title I have been keeping on my pull list ever since I started having a pull list: USAGI YOJIMBO! Seriously, not enough people know how good a storyteller Stan Sakai is. Please read it if you are not already doing so.

Naaah, Knightfall had a good, solid story hook (if a bit bloated) in the "Bane wears down Batman before moving in for the kill" angle, which made it tense because you knew that the more Batman succeeded, the more likely he was to fail in the end. RIP's hook was entirely in the meta-story stuff - Batman eventually winning wasn't ever really in doubt.

Of course, since I didn't care much about the hype, I appreciated it for the good story it told. Anyone who expected anything universe-changing may be disappointed, but I can't diminish my appreciation of a story to take into account people too dumb to see through marketing hype. I knew Bruce wasn't literally dying except in the most open-ended of manners, I knew Morrison would have to account for Final Crisis somehow, so it all fit together nicely in my eyes.

"Yes, I’m pre-judging. But damn it, I’m the audience DC apparently wants, the knowledgeable comics fan. This is the sort of thing that goes through our minds when we see the ads."

It's really not. I basically think "hmmm, is that going to be an interesting story hook? If so, buy." I mean, I'm not exactly thrilled that Final Crisis is essentially Rock of Ages on a larger scale, but I can shunt that aside fairly quickly and enjoy the story on its own merits.

(And, really, we're hating on Darkseid because he was the bad guy in the Supergirl introductory stories? Are we going to start saying Riddler was used too much because he was the mastermind in that Green Arrow arc, too? I think Darkseid shows up in Green Lantern vs Silver Surfer, too... between that and a JLA story from 1997, he's obviously overexposed in 2009. Maybe it's because I skipped both Countdown and Death of the New Gods, but "Darkseid, Again" doesn't hold any validity as a complaint for me at all.)

The cover to Birds of Prey #125 looks familiar. Is it a swipe/homage of some previous, more famous issue? Or perhaps of some other pop culture thing?

It does, doesn't it? The thing is, at a passing glance it looks like the Birds are getting a ticker-tape parade and not being attacked by hordes of assassins. I looked at a couple of parade covers I remembered with the Batmobile, but it's nothing like them. The angle on the car is so odd I looked at some old Kirby Jimmy Olsen covers, too, thinking it was reminiscent of the Whiz Wagon. But nothing. I do think most of that deja vu feeling is coming from the car and the way it's depicted-- it seems so huge it looks like more of a superhero vehicle of some kind.

After a while it stops looking like the unfolding of a master plan, and a lot more like there really is no plan.

I've been saying this about Didio's DC for years, and getting bashed for it. I guarantee Final crisis will resolve in a disappointing way too.

I read the same story as everyone else, and I’m sorry, but once you strip away all the self-referential, meta-continuity-patch stuff out of “Batman R.I.P.” there’s not a whole lot left:

Actually, what's left is Knightfall.

Have to join the chorus backing Heart of Hush and Rogues Revenge.

Similarly, I didn't go for Trinity, though I have been following the annotations... After really enjoying 52 and being let down by Countdown, which I thought started well... I didn't want to commit to another 52 issues of a comic.

I was considering dumping JSA, but changed my mind when I heard Willingham and Sturges will be taking over..

I also considered dropping Ast-X-Men, due to the $5 premium you pointed out for Ghost Boxes... But I do love my Warren Ellis, and he made a point of telling people on his Whitechapel blog that it was purely a Marvel editorial decision to charge that much for it... so...

I'm going to follow you into picking Jonah Hex up in trades.. either through Abe's books or Amazon...

Though my biggest saving per title is going to be a certain web-slinger who now comes out three times a month... That's three less comics in one cut... plus, it feels like Groundhog day in Spidey-land, whereas JMS actually seemed lie he was taking Peter somewhere...

A few titles are either dying or have died. She-Hulk, Spider-Girl, Checkmate, Secret Invasion (which in finishing has taken with it from my pull list Front Line, Mighty Avengers and New Avengers. Sorry, but not interested in Dark Avengers or Dark Reign, although I will stick with Thunderbolts for a bit longer...)

The only new title I'm actually looking forward to is R.E.B.E.L.S.!!

And while I agree about the similarity to Morrison's JLA story arc, when exactly was Darkseid the villain of a DC crossover? Legends is it I think. He's played a part in other crossovers but not as the major bad.

Fair point. I should have said "storyline." Rock of Ages, the intro of the new Supergirl, the final season of JLU (yes, that was animation, not comics, but still a familar story to most DC fans) Countdown, the Terror Titans stuff and even sort of in Seven Soldiers. My point was simply that he is over-used. There was a reason Grant Morrison asked DC to back off using him as a villain for awhile.

Oh, and I guess you have to dodge spoilers, if you care about those.

Otherwise, a totally satisfactory experience.

Morrison claims that he wanted DC to keep the New Gods quiet for the year or so before Final Crisis hit the stands. Editorial proceeded to release Countdown and Death of the New Gods. If true, that says a lot about DC's editorial quality.

As for Trinity, I get the feeling it would be a better series if it was 26 issues released biweekly rather than 52 issues weekly. There's a bit too much filler and the plot seems to move a bit too slowly because Busiek lingers for issues over minor details. 52 worked better as a weekly since it had six plots that could be inserted or removed as necessary so it always felt like something important was happening, while Trinity has one plot with a couple minor subplots to keep an eye on and often those plots can stall up. (There would still more people who dislike it, because the Tarot stuff is more confusing than 52's plot, but I think it would be more read.)

And while I agree about the similarity to Morrison's JLA story arc, when exactly was Darkseid the villain of a DC crossover? Legends is it I think. He's played a part in other crossovers but not as the major bad.

Probably an honest oversight, but as the writer of Supergirl, I think Sterling Gates should get the lion’s share of the nice retooling of the superheroine, rather than Jamal Igle (although Igle’s work is solid and appealing).

AAGH! Typo-slash-brainfart. Fixing it now.