Mike's Box Of Awesome

Why Didn’t I Think Of That? Wait, I Did.

Years ago (around 1993-1996) I was interested in breaking into comics as an artist, but I always thought up plots. Sometimes for existing characters. Sometimes ideas that could fit pretty much any characters. One of those concepts was based around the idea that super villains are idiots for always staying in the same cities that have a bunch of super heroes, especially New York. A smart gang of villains would pack up, leave the costumes at home to avoid attention, and go someplace without any super heroes. Head someplace like the Cayman Islands or even Hawaii and rob a bank there.

Fast forward to now and somebody else is actually making that comic… Mark Millar’s SUPERCROOKS.

I’m not one of those idiots who sues when somebody else comes up with a similar idea. Personally, I always think it’s kind of cool when somebody in comics or movies actually puts out something that I also came up with. Sort of confirms my idea that I probably could’ve had a successful career in comics if I didn’t get burned out on them by working in a comics store back in that ‘93-97 time period.

Latest Comics Sales Stunt

So the current “big deal” is the new non-white Spider-Man. Apparently, anybody who doesn’t like the idea of killing off Peter Parker and replacing him with a Blacktino kid is a racist. I do think there is a bit of that out there, but there’s also a lot of people who just don’t like a beloved character being killed off and replaced by anybody.

Personally, I generally like replacement heroes. I’m also not fond of spin-off heroes like Supergirl, Superboy, or any of the zillion attempts at Spider-Woman. I think that it makes the original character less unique when there’s another person running around who can do all the same stuff as the original, and often they wear essentially the same costume. In the case of somebody like Spider-Man a replacement doesn’t make much sense, because Spider-Man has a fairly unique set of powers. It’s not like replacing Iron Man, where pretty much anybody can put on the suit and be Iron Man. (Which is probably why I never really connected with the character.) Admittedly, what makes Tony Stark special is that he invented the suit. I also didn’t like Batman being replaced, even if they did at least make the right choice and chose the most logical replacement with his original Robin, Dick Grayson. But still, unlike Iron Man, where it’s not all in the suit, not just anybody can be Batman.

The only replacement heroes I can think of off the top that I liked better than the character they replaced were the Wally West version of the Flash, and the Green Lanterns John Stewart and Guy Gardner who I find infinitely more interesting than Hal Jordan. (The Lanterns are part of a Corp of heroes, so that works for me.)

I think this might be a bigger deal if it was the actual Spider-Man, and not the one from the alternate universe Ultimate line. They’ve already replaced Wolverine with his wuss son in that universe (unlike the regular line where his son is just a boring and terrible character).

It’s a shame they couldn’t come up with a new hero and make that work instead of just taking the role of Spider-Man and turning it into a hand-me-down. If you’re going to kill Spidey off, kill him off and let somebody new, with their own identity pick up where he left off. Do something new. Something that feels less like a sales stunt and is actually creative.

All that having been said, I’ll give the new guy a chance and hope it works out. If it doesn’t there’s just one more comic I can drop. Marvel and DC are both doing a great job providing their readers with jumping off points lately.

Crisis On Infinite Something Or Others

Another comic book nerd asked me what I think of the big reboot DC Comics has planned for September.

Honestly? It’s been there done that.

This “reboot” sounds like what the original plan for CRISIS ON INFINTITE EARTHS was back in 1985. Before CRISIS, DC had multiple universes, and books took place mainly in one universe called Earth One, but some took plance on Earth Two, and there were tons of other universes and they’d cross over, etc. Then CRISIS wiped the slate, destroying all but one universe, and reset everything to the beginning. A fresh start, with all new #1 issues for the entire line, rebooted back to the beginning. That was the concept at least. Except, after CRISIS some titles kept their original numbering, and a lot of people both fan and creator were unsure of what was still in continuity and what wasn’t. Given this statement…

“We have taken great care in maintaining continuity where most important, but fans will see a new approach to our storytelling.

Some of the characters will have new origins, while others will undergo minor changes. Our characters are always being updated; however, this is the first time all of our characters will be presented in a new way all at once.”

… it won’t surprise me in the least to see the same thing that happened with CRISIS happen again here.

All the confusion over what was in or out of continuity led to books contridicting each other. In the mid-90’s DC put out the ZERO HOUR mini-series to try to correct some things. This just made things worse. After that they pretty much left things alone until the last few years where we’ve seen attempts to undo CRISIS. There was INFINITE CRISIS, which was the biggest. That restored the multiverse concept, and acknowledged the original DC universe(s).

Of course, Superman, who was cleanly rebooted in 1986 with MAN OF STEEL, has had multiple contridictory origin reboots since then. In the last few years, his origin was retooled with the BIRTHRIGHT miniseries in 2003, before that version was tossed aside for the SECRET ORIGIN version in 2009.

This whole thing seems like DC going for their own version of Marvel’s Ultimate line, which was an attempt at clean, fresh continuity with the characters restored to their basics. The difference is Marvel didn’t supplant their original continuity with the Ultimate line. It was a side universe. One they’ve managed to mis-manage and run into the ground after a strong start, but that’s a whole other issue.

I can’t muster much nerd rage over this whole thing. Mainly because I’ve seen it before. Eventually, some creator who grew up on the post-CRISIS version of the characters will come into power and restore things. Just like the guys running DC now, who grew up in the pre-CRISIS era, were hellbent on returning the DCU to it’s pre-CRISIS status quo (Barry Allen as the Flash, the Multiverse, etc) before deciding to re-re-re-reboot the whole thing.

Plus, aside from a few titles (some of the BATMAN line, SECRET SIX, TEEN TITANS), I don’t read much of DC superhero books these days. Most of the stuff I read from them is from their Vertigo line. With those sorts of titles you mostly only have to worry about cancellation from low sales. A good chunk of the line is creator owned, and even on the DC-owned titles, you generally don’t have to worry about another writer coming along and wiping out x amount of years worth of stories.

One big mis-step though, is by announcing this, DC are essentially telling you that the next few months worth of comics coming out from them probably aren’t worth buying. After all, anything that happens between now and September won’t have any sort of impact when the slate gets wiped in September, they won’t really matter.

Ultimately, it’s very simple. Don’t like what they’re doing? Just don’t buy it. Or wait for the next reboot. No changes in super hero comics stick forever.

I do have to give DC a nod for being smart enough to move to day and date for their digital offerings. It’s nice to see a company moving forward in that sense. Not sure what the pricing is. If it’s as much or more than the printed comics, I think it’s a mistake. If they can offer digital titles for $1 or less that’s brilliant. After all, no printing costs, shipping costs (maybe bandwidth), storage costs (aside from hard drive) or retailer markup should make for a less expensive product. If they’re charging the same amount (or more as a “premium”) then that’s a bit of a rip-off, at least in my opinion.