Musings of a Curmudgeonly Comics Fan
Apr. 27th, 2006 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khaosworksAs you guys probably know, I haven't been buying comics regularly for, oh, coming on to three years now. Not that I don't still keep in touch with what's going on - I buy the odd trade paperback, the odd reprint, and every week or couple of weeks I mosey down to the ol' Comics Mart and scan over the shelf, see what's happening these days with the X-Men, or Spider-Man, or pick up stuff like Infinite Crisis and start going, "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!?"
Last week, I picked up volumes one and two of Grant Morrison's latest conceit, 7 Soldiers of Victory. Morrison's an odd kettle of fish, to put it mildly. His practice of chaos magick aside, his stories can range from the amazingly iconic, to the amazingly ingenious, to the amazingly pretentious and the amazingly incomprehensible.
This is old hat to those of you who've been better at keeping up with the comics than I have, but a quick refresher. The conceit behind 7 Soldiers, seven 4-issue mini-series, each about a different, reimagined superhero, with two bookend issues, making it 30 issues in all, is this: a superteam that doesn't even know it's a superteam. Each of the seven mini-series is designed to be read on its own, but cross over with each other in subtle ways, so that read together, they become one big tapestry, with the seven facing a threat more massive than even they know... but we do, since we can read all their stories.
It can be confusing, and to be honest, when the books were coming out month by month, it pretty much was. But that was if you were approaching it on the order of it being a linear story, trying to see the wood, but missing the trees. The trade paperback version is much more organised, seeing as it does unfolding the chapters not series-by-series, but issue-by-issue, so you can see the threads weave in and out of the various heroes' lives.
I'd suggest buying the TPBs rather than spare the effort trying to figure out what fits where. Yes, the individual mini-series can be read on their own, but the story arcs are ultimately so-so. It's the stuff between the cracks that really make the story worth reading, the concepts of the Sheeda, the old teams of Seven Soldiers, the Seven Unknown Men of Slaughter Swamp, and these only make sense if you've read everything, so it's much more effective as a 30-issue series.
So it's a recommendation. But the thing that 7 Soldiers has made me realise is what my ultimate problem with comic books as they stand is. That Marvel and DC, in the name of trying to sell more books, have basically decided, "Screw continuity." Which isn't necessarily a bad thing - except that at the same time they seem to want to embrace it, leading to this patchwork, half-fucked gooey stew where ye olde time reader like myself can't seem to decide what fits where and whether this should be linked to that or what ramifications this has or not.
Honestly, too much continuity is masturbatory in the extreme: Infinite Crisis, for example, is one big circle jerk. I can't even read the damn thing. I just look, "ooo, George Perez art" and ignore the multiple dismemberments and holes punched through bodies. I look at it and wonder, "What is the point of it all?" At least the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, flawed as it was, tried to make a point about unifying the universe. All Infinite Crisis, and Identity Crisis before it (another train wreck of an event) seem to be doing is to try and make the DC universe as confusing as it possibly can so that when everything falls apart, they can justify it as a continuity-cleaning exercise.
But if you're going to jettison continuity, just jettison it. Don't pretend that anything you're doing is even vaguely consistent with what went before. And stay within those rules. 7 Soldiers is fun in a way that Infinite Crisis is not because when Grant Morrison is messing with continuity and characters, you know this has no real connection to anything that's gone before except in the most easter-eggish of ways (like calling reanimated zombies "Grundies" or making vague references to the original teams). You can think to yourself precisely what DC editorial is thinking: "Screw continuity," and just concentrate on enjoying the story.
You see? Being a comic fan can be so much more pleasant if you just no longer care about the characters you're reading aboutor the history behind them. Or is that not the point that DC wants to make?
Being an eternal optimist these days, I'm hoping that one day both DC and Marvel will pull back from this abyss and manage to reconcile the idea that telling good stories is possible within a continuity-rich (not heavy, mind you, there is a distinction) framework. There are slight hints of it on the Marvel side: the lead-in to Civil War was probably the best Bendis script in years because the characterisations and motivations behind the MU's split on the Superhero Registration Act made absolute sense. Of course Tony Stark'd be behind it, mister big time industralist capitalist ends justify the means conservative man. Of course Reed would agree, because it's logical and rational, and hang if it's moral, mister I don't have a secret identity and I'm not really a superhero anyway man. Of course Namor would freak, as would Black Bolt and Doctor Strange, because they know how the norms freak out at anything strange, whereas Tony and Reed have almost always been the blue-eyed boys of the MU (as long as their bank balances are intact). So I enjoyed that aspect of it. And I'm looking forward to the ramifications.
Marvel does this a lot better. Dan Slott, in particular. She-Hulk has been a joy to read, because Slott knows how to use continuity. Sparingly, and to put fresh spins on it without gang-raping the past. I still say Spider Man & Human Torch: I'm With Stupid deserves an award for that kind of writing.
DC, however, is rapidly becoming a showcase of lots and lots of Elseworlds. It's probably no coincidence that the two things that I most enjoyed from DC over the last few years are both Elseworld type stories - Superman: Secret Identity and DC: The New Frontier. The thing about All Star Superman and All Star Batman and Robin... they are only even vaguely enjoyable if you imagine they're from Earth-72 and Earth-BDSM-Batman respectively. Or something.
But really, non-continuity, re-imagined stuff is the way to go if you want to squeeze any enjoyment out of today's offerings. Otherwise, you're pretty much S-O-L ("Shit Out of Luck" for the uninitiated). The Ultimate Galactus trilogy is a great read (I love Warren Ellis's reconciliation of the Drake Equation and the Fermi Paradox), and the Ultimate Universe is fun because it has its own rules and its own terms.
So am I returning to comics? Not really. I'll wait for the trades since they come out so fast these days, or occasionally flip through the issues on the stands if I really can't wait, but I don't see myself getting back to pre-2003 levels of expenditure. Which is good, because I have some money in the bank for once because of that.
This went on, and was more rambling than I intended. I started out wanting to recommend 7 Soldiers and wound up bitching about the comics industry as usual. So I'd better stop now before I start mumbling about how X3 and Superman Returns is so going to suck so bad they will actually swallow. I really am becoming a grumpy old man. Next thing you know I'll be saying, "In my day...."
Oh, wait, I already do that.
We now return you to your regular, non-curmudgeon programming. Excelsior, beeyotches.
Last week, I picked up volumes one and two of Grant Morrison's latest conceit, 7 Soldiers of Victory. Morrison's an odd kettle of fish, to put it mildly. His practice of chaos magick aside, his stories can range from the amazingly iconic, to the amazingly ingenious, to the amazingly pretentious and the amazingly incomprehensible.
This is old hat to those of you who've been better at keeping up with the comics than I have, but a quick refresher. The conceit behind 7 Soldiers, seven 4-issue mini-series, each about a different, reimagined superhero, with two bookend issues, making it 30 issues in all, is this: a superteam that doesn't even know it's a superteam. Each of the seven mini-series is designed to be read on its own, but cross over with each other in subtle ways, so that read together, they become one big tapestry, with the seven facing a threat more massive than even they know... but we do, since we can read all their stories.
It can be confusing, and to be honest, when the books were coming out month by month, it pretty much was. But that was if you were approaching it on the order of it being a linear story, trying to see the wood, but missing the trees. The trade paperback version is much more organised, seeing as it does unfolding the chapters not series-by-series, but issue-by-issue, so you can see the threads weave in and out of the various heroes' lives.
I'd suggest buying the TPBs rather than spare the effort trying to figure out what fits where. Yes, the individual mini-series can be read on their own, but the story arcs are ultimately so-so. It's the stuff between the cracks that really make the story worth reading, the concepts of the Sheeda, the old teams of Seven Soldiers, the Seven Unknown Men of Slaughter Swamp, and these only make sense if you've read everything, so it's much more effective as a 30-issue series.
So it's a recommendation. But the thing that 7 Soldiers has made me realise is what my ultimate problem with comic books as they stand is. That Marvel and DC, in the name of trying to sell more books, have basically decided, "Screw continuity." Which isn't necessarily a bad thing - except that at the same time they seem to want to embrace it, leading to this patchwork, half-fucked gooey stew where ye olde time reader like myself can't seem to decide what fits where and whether this should be linked to that or what ramifications this has or not.
Honestly, too much continuity is masturbatory in the extreme: Infinite Crisis, for example, is one big circle jerk. I can't even read the damn thing. I just look, "ooo, George Perez art" and ignore the multiple dismemberments and holes punched through bodies. I look at it and wonder, "What is the point of it all?" At least the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, flawed as it was, tried to make a point about unifying the universe. All Infinite Crisis, and Identity Crisis before it (another train wreck of an event) seem to be doing is to try and make the DC universe as confusing as it possibly can so that when everything falls apart, they can justify it as a continuity-cleaning exercise.
But if you're going to jettison continuity, just jettison it. Don't pretend that anything you're doing is even vaguely consistent with what went before. And stay within those rules. 7 Soldiers is fun in a way that Infinite Crisis is not because when Grant Morrison is messing with continuity and characters, you know this has no real connection to anything that's gone before except in the most easter-eggish of ways (like calling reanimated zombies "Grundies" or making vague references to the original teams). You can think to yourself precisely what DC editorial is thinking: "Screw continuity," and just concentrate on enjoying the story.
You see? Being a comic fan can be so much more pleasant if you just no longer care about the characters you're reading aboutor the history behind them. Or is that not the point that DC wants to make?
Being an eternal optimist these days, I'm hoping that one day both DC and Marvel will pull back from this abyss and manage to reconcile the idea that telling good stories is possible within a continuity-rich (not heavy, mind you, there is a distinction) framework. There are slight hints of it on the Marvel side: the lead-in to Civil War was probably the best Bendis script in years because the characterisations and motivations behind the MU's split on the Superhero Registration Act made absolute sense. Of course Tony Stark'd be behind it, mister big time industralist capitalist ends justify the means conservative man. Of course Reed would agree, because it's logical and rational, and hang if it's moral, mister I don't have a secret identity and I'm not really a superhero anyway man. Of course Namor would freak, as would Black Bolt and Doctor Strange, because they know how the norms freak out at anything strange, whereas Tony and Reed have almost always been the blue-eyed boys of the MU (as long as their bank balances are intact). So I enjoyed that aspect of it. And I'm looking forward to the ramifications.
Marvel does this a lot better. Dan Slott, in particular. She-Hulk has been a joy to read, because Slott knows how to use continuity. Sparingly, and to put fresh spins on it without gang-raping the past. I still say Spider Man & Human Torch: I'm With Stupid deserves an award for that kind of writing.
DC, however, is rapidly becoming a showcase of lots and lots of Elseworlds. It's probably no coincidence that the two things that I most enjoyed from DC over the last few years are both Elseworld type stories - Superman: Secret Identity and DC: The New Frontier. The thing about All Star Superman and All Star Batman and Robin... they are only even vaguely enjoyable if you imagine they're from Earth-72 and Earth-BDSM-Batman respectively. Or something.
But really, non-continuity, re-imagined stuff is the way to go if you want to squeeze any enjoyment out of today's offerings. Otherwise, you're pretty much S-O-L ("Shit Out of Luck" for the uninitiated). The Ultimate Galactus trilogy is a great read (I love Warren Ellis's reconciliation of the Drake Equation and the Fermi Paradox), and the Ultimate Universe is fun because it has its own rules and its own terms.
So am I returning to comics? Not really. I'll wait for the trades since they come out so fast these days, or occasionally flip through the issues on the stands if I really can't wait, but I don't see myself getting back to pre-2003 levels of expenditure. Which is good, because I have some money in the bank for once because of that.
This went on, and was more rambling than I intended. I started out wanting to recommend 7 Soldiers and wound up bitching about the comics industry as usual. So I'd better stop now before I start mumbling about how X3 and Superman Returns is so going to suck so bad they will actually swallow. I really am becoming a grumpy old man. Next thing you know I'll be saying, "In my day...."
Oh, wait, I already do that.
We now return you to your regular, non-curmudgeon programming. Excelsior, beeyotches.
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no subject
Date: 2006-04-27 10:39 am (UTC)Nostalgia for the Silver Heroes
Date: 2006-04-27 01:13 pm (UTC)In the late '50s and '60s, where Green Arrow
Could shoot himself out of a steel cage,
And Superman retreated to an icy barrow:
Oh, what did purple Kryptonite do?
Yes, what did purple Kryptonite do?
My sister dearly loved Fin-Fang-Foom;
I was bored to death by Doctor Doom —
Back when DC comics had no writers,
Or inkers, or colorists, just some editor:
On the bacovers they sold "Helen of Toy" —
Wretchedly printed, yes, when I was a boy.
But the pulps were pulped before I was grown,
Though the memories of Supergirl were nicely sown.
Will Batman think, and save that unicorn girl?
Will Superman once more save the whole darned world?
Oh, they said what purple Kryptonite did ...
But I don't remember, 'cause I was just a kid.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-27 03:00 pm (UTC)I've discussed Morrison before -- I've had enough of his writing because it just seems to me that he hates the older comics that he's "reimagining". There's a lack of respect for the material and the readers that I've tired of.
Civil War looks to me to be like it's going to be fertile ground for conservative bashing. Thanks, I've had enough of that. And I already dropped Bendis' New Avengers. I rode out his Daredevil run to the end, but I'm really at the point of not reading anything that he's writing in the future.
Last night, I realized that I'm enjoying the DCU and I'm not enjoying the MU. And then I realized that's because the two universes have switched positions since the 1960s.
See, it used to be that things changed in the MU, but not in the DCU. Reed and Sue could get married. Clark and Lois couldn't.
I don't think that's true any more.
But we'll see.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-27 04:31 pm (UTC)I'm wondering at this point what you enjoy about Infinite Crisis. The wholesale slaughter? The continuity references that no one gets or cares about anymore? The continuing moral erosion of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman? Okay, not fair rhetoric here, but I look at it, and like the Fourth Doctor in The Pirate Planet, look at the intricace machinery of it all and wail, "But what's it for?"
Which is why, to truly enjoy the DCU these days, you have to forget that these are characters you used to care about and focus on the story instead. Which is why 7 Soldiers is more palatable, since it doesn't pretend to have any real connection to the originals. So the question of respect doesn't quite arise. Unlike Infinite Crisis, which I really fail to see how any of it shows any respect for the older comics at all. And is a crappy story.
The problem with Bendis is that he's bought into his own hype and is now listening to the voices in his head. I hated Avengers Disassembled. I dislike New Avengers. I find Daredevil like looking at a room with the lights out and you keep bumping into furniture and stubbing your toe. Repeatedly.
However, why Civil War as an idea appeals is not because of the potential for conservative bashing... and I'm really not sure there's going to be that much of it. What is actually good about Civil War is that the polarization makes sense in the context of the characters. For once, Bendis, by design or sheer coincidence (probably the latter) has understood how these characters would plausibly react to the idea of a Superhero Registration Act. That's what's missing from the DCU; nobody acts in character anymore. Nobody acts as if they even have a history that stretches across decades. Tony's acts make sense in the context of his MU history in a way that the various blockheads in tights that populate the DCU don't anymore.
Just because there's radical change doesn't mean that the change is necessary, or even plausible. Identity Crisis wrought changes in the heroes' characters that was just plain incomprehensible because it was so out of character. The train wreck that was the "Gwen Stacy slept with Norman Osborne and had twins" storyline was horrid, not because of change, but because it made no freaking sense. As I said - you either want continuity, or you don't. Don't mess with mister in-between.
It's not even that Marvel is better than DC. Or the other way around. Both are in very dire straits as far as I'm concerned in terms of quality. But Civil War seems a logical development, so I'm interested to see where it goes. 7 Soldiers is enjoyable as a romp, no more, no less, so that's where I'm coming from with that. It's a pragmatic approach, because I'm trying to draw out as much enjoyment as I can from what is an almost creatively bankrupt mainstream comic industry. I have to do this because more and more, I find myself looking at the newsstand shelves and go, "I don't give a shit anymore."
I take it where I can. Your mileage may vary.