Comic Book Resources

And this is a surprise?

Seems way to soon, they should have waited at least five years.

Um, I know I’m not the first to say this, but again… why has no one seemed to notice Batman is dead and has been replaced by the original Robin? You’d think DC woulda made a big deal about this, especially with The Dark Knight being so popular. I don’t get it.

Because although the characters in the book believe Batman to be dead, the reader knows that Batman is alive and well, and stuck in the distant past. And DC made that disclosure to the reader only a month after ‘killing’ him off.

Marvel and DC should jointly copyright the slogan: “Get busy living or get busy dying.” This constant death and resurrection nonsense has gotten WAY too long in the tooth by now. Both Quesada and Didio jumped their respective sharks long ago. They need to go. NOW.

God, how I miss the 70′s…

Heh, well, is anyone too surprised Brian? I mean, in terms of public statements, Marvel has been full of crap for some while now. People seem to eat it up nonetheless.

I assume that’s why CBR is publishing Joe Quesada, after all, which I’m sure will prove a very popular feature. I don’t see people getting fed up with the House of Shenanigans any time soon.

Like this is a surprise? As for why no one is talking about Dick Grayson taking over from Batman is that was at least a natural outgrowth. I mean there have been tons of imaginary stories in which Dick took up the mantle of Batman after Bruce retired, and Dick has been around and been active in the comics. If anyone was going to take over for Bruce it was really going to be Dick — it’s always just gone unstated but understood. Unlike Bucky who was dead for decades and, even when he was alive, was never REALLY considered for taking over from Cap. They bring Bucky back from the dead and turn him into Cap and all in less than a year and that’s one reason why, to me the story felt kind of forced and unnatural whereas Dick becoming Batman seems like a logical transition for however long it lasts.

This title would be better if it were written by a black woman.

DC’s news wins.

http://dcublog.dccomics.com/2009/06/15/wednesday-comics-superman-strip-to-be-serialized-in-usa-today/

Honestly, this is what I expected as soon as Brubaker killed him off. I think Brubaker understands the character of the Red Skull too well to have him decide to just have Captain America shot. The Red Skull’s goal has never been to destroy America. The Red Skull’s goal has always been to destroy America while Cap watches.

I assumed all along that Brubaker had built in an “escape hatch”, and I just applaud him for having the guts to let it play out this long. (Although admittedly, it’s easier when you’re decompressing like a madman, but that’s a long rant I won’t play out here.)

Hypocrites all. Brubaker said in an interview with On The Media, an NPR program, on the week of C.A.’s death, that the death was permanent. What a bunch of prostitutes and pimps….The media and the comic book fandom should be aware that Gwen Stacy is coming back soon as well…It’s just a matter of time….

Huh. I kind of hoped that the old chestnut, “Nobody stays dead in comics, except Bucky” would be replaced by “Nobody stays dead in comics, except Steve Rogers”. Oh well, I have faith in the Bru to take lemons and make good comics (or something like that).

But as a “news event” meriting a Monday release? Make that bald-headed freak Colbert give the shield back – at least that would be funny.

I don’t know, CSBG, isn’t this a little like Chicken Little. Meh. Feh. And I’m so sure that this will be the last iPhone too! Also, a “five year mission”!?!?! Yeah right! More like 40 years! SO ANNNGRRYYYY!!!

I miss the 70s too. Stupid livin’ in the future.

-Wacker

Yawn. We all knew it was coming, and I’m surprised it lasted this long. I love Brubaker’s CA, but as for “consumers are responding to it like crazy”, I can’t imagine the consumers are people who have read a comic in the last twenty years or so.

Guess what? Peter and MJ will be getting back together, Bruce Wayne will be wearing Bat-tights again soon, and Jean Grey …. ah, it’s just hard to care anymore.

Um, I know I’m not the first to say this, but again… why has no one seemed to notice Batman is dead and has been replaced by the original Robin? You’d think DC woulda made a big deal about this, especially with The Dark Knight being so popular. I don’t get it.

Becuase Didio sucks at working the media in comparison to Quesada. He tried to pump the final issue of Batman RIP, and no news outlets could agree on what was happening in that issue. Every news story about that issue was unable to agree on the events occurring. It was not a very new reader friendly issue, plus it turned out to not even be the issue where Batman died. In comparison, when Marvel hyped Death of Cap, it was easy to understand and Captain America actually DIED in it. Throw in the fact that the Gaiman issues and Battle for the Cowl were such momentum killers and you have your reasons why Dick Grayson didn’t get as much press: loss of momentum due to poor, prolonged execution and the usual Didio incompetence.

What about the movie? What´s the big news?

Another good comparison to the RIP storyline’s lack of press would be the Death of Superman story – the actual issue was laid out in all splash pages, and was very straightforward. As a result, everyone who picked it up instantly grasped what was going on.

Here you go. This is how you fix this mess and bring Steve Rogers back.

1. The molecule man creates Steve’s Body out of recycleable materials. Doctor Strange re-assembles Steve’s soul from Wong’s soul. Reed Richards Jumps Sarts the Body with a Negative Zone defribulator. There you go, one living Steve Rogers. – Of course he wants to eat your brains though.

2. Time Travel – Go Steal Steve From the Past, so he would never be killed- But, then there would be no reason to steal him from the past – Then he would still be killed on those steps – Damn I hate Time Travel.

4. Make a Deal with Mephisto so that Steve will be alive. The cost? You just have to toss twenty years of continuity out the window, set the character back to square one, and accept the fact that all stories to come will seem redundant. – Nahhhh, that would be so stupid. Forget I said it. Bad Idea.

5. Cosmic Cube? Nah.

6. Infinity Gauntlet? Nah, then we have to get Jim Starlin involved.

7. It’s all been a dream that Diamondback was having? Stupid.

8. How about a Earth X / Universe X / Paradise X Thing? Do you honestly think Alex Ross can write?

9. Steve Faked his own death with the help of the Red Skull. He was disgusted with the state of America, and decided to just get out of the public eye. Steve is now living in Costa Rica and hasn’t looked back? Too dissmal

10. Leave him dead. Don’t second guess your own story Marvel. Let the Storyline move forward. Give Bucky a chance.

I would have waited until the Captain America movie debuted. That way, CyberBucky would have gotten about two more years of screen time as Cap and the return would make a great movie tie-in and jumping-on point for readers. But, who knows how Marvel makes its decisions these days.

” Hypocrites all. Brubaker said in an interview with On The Media, an NPR program, on the week of C.A.’s death, that the death was permanent. What a bunch of prostitutes and pimps….The media and the comic book fandom should be aware that Gwen Stacy is coming back soon as well…It’s just a matter of time…. ”

Dramatic, much? Don’t blame the salesman for selling out…

Well, the counter @ CBR Main still has 3 hours to go, so that’s 3PM EDT, but noon PDT. I’d say that might point to an announcement from the West coast. Perhaps a movie tie in?

Otherwise why wait until 3PM in the East for “the truth?” It seems a little late in the day for just the “Steve Rogers is returning” news, because we all knew that kind of thing would leak early Monday

There’s a point where it seems like there needs to be more than a good couple of comics. With Moon Knight and Cap Britain canceled, a new trash talking red Hulk that doesn’t give a damn about being comprehensive, the old Hulk’s 3 day old alien warrior children, Wolverine’s 8th book given to his mohawked, tattooed anti-hero son, the Death and Return of Captain America, the Death and Return of Batman, the Death (of Spidey’s marriage) and return of Barry Allen, and last but not least the Dark X-Men looming on the horizon, it’ll start becoming harder to sell to people like me regardless of what you’re doing.

Well, the counter @ CBR Main still has 3 hours to go, so that’s 3PM EDT, but noon PDT. I’d say that might point to an announcement from the West coast. Perhaps a movie tie in?

Otherwise why wait until 3PM in the East for “the truth?” It seems a little late in the day for just the “Steve Rogers is returning” news, because we all knew that kind of thing would leak early Monday

Excellent point, Ralf!

If it IS something major at that point, I’ll gladly point it out here.

Don’t feel too bad, Mr. Wacker. At least you can pretend it’s still the seventies three times a month with Amazing Spider-Man.

I don’t get the Chicken Little statement in the original post.

” There’s a point where it seems like there needs to be more than a good couple of comics. With Moon Knight and Cap Britain canceled, a new trash talking red Hulk that doesn’t give a damn about being comprehensive, the old Hulk’s 3 day old alien warrior children, Wolverine’s 8th book given to his mohawked, tattooed anti-hero son, the Death and Return of Captain America, the Death and Return of Batman, the Death (of Spidey’s marriage) and return of Barry Allen, and last but not least the Dark X-Men looming on the horizon, it’ll start becoming harder to sell to people like me regardless of what you’re doing. ”

With all due respect, how hard are you looking for good comics? You listed two comics you like that were cancelled, three comics that you don’t like ( Rulk, Incredible Hulk/Skarr, and Flash: Rebirth ), three comics none of us have read yet ( Cap: Reborn, Dark X-Men, and Dark Wolverine ), and two status quo changes that are distinct from actual stories ( Spidey: BND, the new Batman ). A far cry from the entire publishing lines of the Big Two.

I’ve found it a lot easier to look for what you might enjoy and ignore what you definitely won’t.

“I don’t get the Chicken Little statement in the original post.”

What Chicken Little statement?

What Chicken Little statement?

I’m sorry I meant to type “Boy who Cried Wolf statement,” but just finished reading Wacker’s Chicken Little comment and typed that instead.

So let me try again:

What does the Boy Who Cried Wolf statement in the original post mean?

they announced Cap was dead, that was “big” news, they announced a new Cap, that wasn’t as big, this new announcement will probably be met with less fanfare.

too many announcements lead to apathy if they aren’t that special.

Well explained, jjc.

Oh okay, gotcha. That makes sense.

The funny – or, well, not “funny” but you know what I mean – thing is that regardless of whether or not this story would have had any legs to begin with, these types of media pushes only work on slow news days. Last I looked, the riots in the streets of Tehran and the details of Obama’s new financial reform package were vying for top spot on Yahoo. Not exactly a slow day.

The difference between Quesada and DiDio is that Marvel is getting publicity outside the comic book world for its stunts. Captain America was barely a third-tier character before Brubaker came aboard. It was a perennial low seller and Cap was routinely rumored to be dying in this or that event.

Killing him off and bringing him back is the worst kind of comic book hackneyed cliche at this point. It ranks right down there with the magic glasses that Superman wears, the obsession with cunning death traps by Batman villains, no one realizing that Wolverine is a total leather bar/bear stereotype and everything else people outside of comics chuckle about. Except it is more offensive, since the people you love never come back when they die in real life.

That said, I cannot figure out why people are upset about this.

Quesada got what he needed out of this storyline. Cap jumped from the bottom of the third-tier to the first. It is hard to remember a character getting a bigger bump in their profile out of a storyline. Maybe Jean Grey matched it back in the first tour through the whole “Death of …” and “Return of …” thing. Cap has a movie coming out and millions of Colbert viewers have now been reminded that Captain America wasn’t just Peter Fonda in “Easy Rider”. Brubaker wrote the scripts well enough that a blatant publicity stunt was actually acclaimed and enjoyable. Who really lost here, aside from DC Comics?

And DC Comics really, really lost. DiDio killed off dozens of characters and brought back seemingly dozens of others. No one has really noticed. Marvel used the trick far less and got added traction in the marketplace. The smart place for DC to have been positioned during the Steve Rogers saga was on the side of stability. They could have embarrassed Marvel by saying “We are telling a generational story. Barry Allen has been dead twenty-three years. Hal Jordan has been dead for fifteen. Dick Grayson is new Batman. We are the ones who are serious about our stories.” Instead, the entire industry is kind of a joke.

I’m excited to see how all this unfolds, I think Brubaker’s run is a modern classic and shows how the cliched life-death cycle of comics can be done right.

What I find upsetting is the tone that Quesada and the Marvel staff have in that news release. In particular, Quesada’s line about how they’ve been waiting two year for this to happen.

Guys, this is a fictional character that you have creative control over. You have some agency in the whole proceedings. Don’t act like it’s a surprise, or that he was killed behind your back or agsint your will. That is what bugs me.

@Michael: Ohno, u dinint…oh, BWAHAHA

The Red Skull wakes up, shaken, in bed.
Hears water running in another room.
Quietly and slowly walks towards and into a small room that the reader sees is actually a bathroom and there’s someone inside taking a shower.
He steps in the room, pulls aside the shower curtain, and inside is a naked Steve Rogers taking a shower.
He turns to the Skull, smiling and says “Good Morning.”

When I hear people complaining that they are bringing too many people back from the dead, I think they shoudl be talking about Bucky, not Rogers.

It isn’t ‘bringing them back from the dead’ when it was clearly planned to be an ‘in-world’ swerve all along (just like Batman).

Don’t feel too bad, Mr. Wacker. At least you can pretend it’s still the seventies three times a month with Amazing Spider-Man.

Wowzers, that’s funny.

I can’t really say Rogers’ return is a surprise. When Brubaker first offed Cap, he said he had Bucky as Cap plotted out for at least two years, which means he was plotting til at least Cap #50, which seems like the obvious issue to have a resurrection. I didn’t count on it being it’s own miniseries(though I guess I really should have). I am disappointed that, despite being two years, thanks to Brubaker’s decompressed storytelling, it feels like Bucky hasn’t really had that much time with the shield. I was really enjoying the new dynamic and it will be a shame if everything just reverts back to the status quo(much like what Brubaker is doing in Daredevil).

Nitz, what I was criticizing was really the direction of superhero comics. All of the titles I mentioned were titles that I’d enjoyed last year, and now (with the exception of Spider-Man, actually) they’re taking directions that I don’t see myself getting with. Not that the titles won’t or can’t be “good.”

So what was the point of trying to put out the comic on a Monday?

I say trying because many retailers didn’t fall for this Jedi Mind Trick.

If they weren’t going to make a big tie-in with Flag Day being June 14, then why bother?

Oh, fer Pete’s sake. You don’t need the freaking Infinity Gauntlet to bring Cap back from the dead. I figured out a perfectly sensible explanation within about five minutes, back when Cap #25 came out.

Sharon shoots Cap with a paintball gun. Big splotches of “blood” everywhere. The paint contains some sort of paralytic or sleep drug that’s absorbed through the skin. An ambulance shows up, Sharon and Cap get into it, then they drive off. The ambulance is driven by the Red Skull’s goons (and Sharon is brainwashed, remember?) They go to another ambulance, which contains a cloned corpse of Steve Rogers (Brubaker had already established that Nazi cloning genius Arnim Zola was working for the Skull, and it wouldn’t be the first time the Red Skull had cloned Cap.) Sharon gets into Ambulance B, which goes to the hospital and Cap is pronounced DOA. Ambulance A drives off with a drugged Cap to lock him up somewhere.

Voila. No discrepancies with anything shown in issue #25 (which skips straight from the ambulance pulling away to its arrival at the hospital), no time travel or Cosmic Cubes needed, and it’s exactly the sort of thing the Red Skull would do.

Ugh.

No More Clones, Plz.

I’ll take time travel or interdimensional crossovers before I am subjected to another clone copout

Ah… Sorry, folks. I didn’t realize it was explicitly shown to us that Bats is really alive and well. Makes more sense now.

John Seavey–excellent postulation. But I think the answer is “magic”. And they don’t have to explain that. Or maybe Sharon worked out a Deal With The Devil (a trademarked idea owned by Marvel).

Alan Coil: The wit! The MURDEROUS wit!

Anyway: Anyone’s who’s pissed off by the resurrection NOW surely can’t have been reading the book, since it was obvious this would happen already in the death issue, and it’s been hinted at ever since.

I’d say it was obvious it would happen from issue #1. The night he “dies” (and actually winds up co-habiting Lukin’s brain with Lukin), the Red Skull has a long monologue about how he doesn’t want Cap to die at all. He wants Cap to suffer as everything he holds dear is destroyed in front of him. It goes on for several pages. (Probably the sniper that shot him was in full sight, waving, shouting loudly, “I plan to kill you in just a moment!” But the Red Skull was just lost in his internal monologue.)

See, I’m thinking that Nick Fury, who was in hiding at the time that Cap got shot, arranged for a doppleganger, clone or some such to be shot, while sequestering the real Cap away as an anti-Skrull, anti-Hydra ace-in-the-hole. That even works with elements that Brubaker had in the mix at the time of the killing.