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Comic Book Full Circle
Aug. 15th, 2011 02:42 pmY'know how everybody thinks Comic Books were just so much better when they were kids? When I first started getting in to comic books in a BIG WAY (buying mylar bags, price guides and back issues for more than cover price), I can remember some of the older "kids" (read: 40-year-old virgins) at the comic shops complaining about the current state of comic books. "What the hell, man? Lex Luthor is in some weird alien suit of super-armor now? Peter Parker is marrying Mary-Jane? Rogue is in The X-Men??? THEY KILLED THE FLASH?!?!?! THEY'VE RUINED COMICS!!!"
I thought I'd never be one of those people. Then DC Comics published "Identity Crisis" back in 2004, and I became one of those people. The story was indeed epic and well written and thought provoking and all sorts of awesome.... but after it was done I just couldn't stomach "New" comics any more. Too much blood, too much death, too little heroism. Everything had to be dark, gritty, realistic and depressing.
So I stopped reading comics books and, like a good little nerd, complained to all the young whipper-snappers about how terrible these new comic books are and how they need to get back to "Basics". I thought I was really cool (well as cool as a Comic Book Nerd can be) to tell everybody that I was completely done with "Mainstream Comics" and only bought new creations any more like Robert Kirkman's "Invincible". With every article about new comic book cross-over events that I read, I thought "Oh GAWD they're going to drive away every reader they've ever had". Infinite Crisis, Civil War, Heroic Age, Final Crisis... it all just sounded TERRIBLE.
But then just recently I've had a complete change of heart and I've started looking at the new "Events" in the same way that twelve-year-old me looked at John Byrne's "Man Of Steel" reboot of the entire Superman mythos. Those older guys at the comic shop complained up and down about how this was ruining everything, just as all the other big cross-over events were ruining comics forever. Crisis on Infinite Earths and Secret Wars were the WORST thing that could have EVER HAPPENED according to them, and yet to me these things were... well they were just incredible.
So now I look at the announcements form DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and i can't help but feel... revelation? DC Comics is retooling their entire Universe of comics and relaunching with all new costumes, titles, number-1 issues... lots and lots of people are very angry about this, but right now with my current frame of mind I'm as excited to see these comics as I was to see John Byrne's take on Superman! And over at Marvel I see that there's some virus going around New York that's giving everybody Spider-Powers just like Spider-Man, and over in their "Ultimate Universe" they've killed Peter Parker entirely and replaced him with an African-American kid. THESE SOUND EXCITING! No worse than Spidey getting married or the entire "Clone Saga", right?
They're just stories... they're fantastical, wonderful stories that some very creative folks have spent a lot of time making up. And right now, I can hardly wait to see what comes next :)
I thought I'd never be one of those people. Then DC Comics published "Identity Crisis" back in 2004, and I became one of those people. The story was indeed epic and well written and thought provoking and all sorts of awesome.... but after it was done I just couldn't stomach "New" comics any more. Too much blood, too much death, too little heroism. Everything had to be dark, gritty, realistic and depressing.
So I stopped reading comics books and, like a good little nerd, complained to all the young whipper-snappers about how terrible these new comic books are and how they need to get back to "Basics". I thought I was really cool (well as cool as a Comic Book Nerd can be) to tell everybody that I was completely done with "Mainstream Comics" and only bought new creations any more like Robert Kirkman's "Invincible". With every article about new comic book cross-over events that I read, I thought "Oh GAWD they're going to drive away every reader they've ever had". Infinite Crisis, Civil War, Heroic Age, Final Crisis... it all just sounded TERRIBLE.
But then just recently I've had a complete change of heart and I've started looking at the new "Events" in the same way that twelve-year-old me looked at John Byrne's "Man Of Steel" reboot of the entire Superman mythos. Those older guys at the comic shop complained up and down about how this was ruining everything, just as all the other big cross-over events were ruining comics forever. Crisis on Infinite Earths and Secret Wars were the WORST thing that could have EVER HAPPENED according to them, and yet to me these things were... well they were just incredible.
So now I look at the announcements form DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and i can't help but feel... revelation? DC Comics is retooling their entire Universe of comics and relaunching with all new costumes, titles, number-1 issues... lots and lots of people are very angry about this, but right now with my current frame of mind I'm as excited to see these comics as I was to see John Byrne's take on Superman! And over at Marvel I see that there's some virus going around New York that's giving everybody Spider-Powers just like Spider-Man, and over in their "Ultimate Universe" they've killed Peter Parker entirely and replaced him with an African-American kid. THESE SOUND EXCITING! No worse than Spidey getting married or the entire "Clone Saga", right?
They're just stories... they're fantastical, wonderful stories that some very creative folks have spent a lot of time making up. And right now, I can hardly wait to see what comes next :)
