the sjw crowd are incredibly stubborn. they'll admit the son of Superman isn't that good. but they refuse to ties it to woke politics. they're that deranged. bascially they're saying, yeah it's bad but we won't stop trying because muhhh dIvErsITy
I work in the media. When media outlets admit the status quo is a problem, things are about to get WORSE. EVERY outlet has to maintain SOME level of legitimacy. Things have gotten so bad, they MUST acknowledge the reality of a situation to survive.
The industry is going to implode. They want it to collapse. They see it caving in instead of turning back to the way it was before the soy woke S.J.W.s had taken over as a good thing. For them, it's better that everybody loses rather than they not be the only one who win.
@@jaylucien669 I agree with you 💯. Legendary authors wrote really good stories for the fans. Superman, Batman and Spider-Man were so great back then. X-Men was so epic. Comics did make fun. I miss the high quality of the comics. 😒
The worst thing about them writing it like its a television show is the dialog and exposition dumps and all the talking in the restaurant, the park, talking on the phone, going to the meeting to talk about the last meeting. At the end there will be some reveal of information and one of the characters goes, "Gadzooks, I must go now to talk to another person!" and flies away, teleports away or something, and that's the "action" in a comic book. So lazy, these wannabe tv show dialog books.
Show don't tell. Should be the easiest thing in the world for something like comic books. Given you have pictures, art work to show someone how things work and don't need to detail it with words. Which just goes to show, editors are not doing their jobs. Writers are not doing their jobs. just here for a quick pay check. Which the worst case of tell don't show, has to be the crew with Luke Cage. Where they talk about these robots if I recall correctly and how they are oppressing people. Only they never show these robots doing anything bad. Making the heroes look like crazy people that just made all this up, to have a dragon to slay.
I think one of the biggest mistakes made by the comic book industry was to drop the newsstand market. We are reaping that decision made a generation ago. It prevents the companies from growing a fan base and mitigating the natural attrition of readers. It also creates a collectors bubble and prevents the companies from gauging the success of a book beyond prospective collectability.
Back in the late 1990s, I could buy comic books at my local drugstore or local supermarket. Now I don’t know where to buy comics near me if I wanted (I was going to add, “Not that I want to because of the dreck being published today,” but sometimes there’s something good).
Never thought In a million years I would see cbr actually make a list that actually makes tons of sense especially with a lot of current problems within comic book industry.
Most of these bad trends (variants, events, writing TV pitches, too much Batman, etc.) are downstream from the fact that the industry hasn't been able to rely on quality to sell books for quite some time. The number of gimmicks employed is inversely proportional to the quality of the core product
I had to switch comic shops when they would sell a speculator the comic in my box, then tell me it’s missing because “they must have been shorted.” Very happy with my new shop.
@@MutantGenius For years, I’d seen the counter guys raiding the reserved comic boxes when speculators demanded a “first printing” or “variant cover.” I only buy comics I like to read and was always told, when I would discover a skipped issue, that “my box must have been missed.” My only must buy is Daredevil (loved him since I was a kid). I saw all of the scuttllebutt about Electra becoming DD, and when I didn’t have that issue in my box, the clerk’s story became “Don’t quote me, but I think we were shorted that issue”. I knew the owner and he knew I never miss DD, and there’s no way that the highly anticipated Elektra/Daredevil issue would have been “shorted” in the orders. So after 3 decades, I moved my business to a different comic shop. F that place.
@@MandatoryReporter2015 Wow, what a scumbag way to treat a friend and customer! I would have knocked something over on my way out the door...BTW, DD was my first love, too. Nocenti and Romita Jr. were on literal fire to my young eyes. Great minds think alike, kdott...Peace!
A few months ago, I did my weekly Wednesday shopping. I always buy at least six new books. When I got home, I realized one of the books I bought was the same issue of a book I already purchased but with a variant cover. Mind you, this variant was on the top rack, just like all the latest releases are, every Wednesday. The next day, I took the variant issue back with my receipt and asked to exchange it for a different title. The guy and I got into an argument becase he asked me if I was sure I got the book off the top rack. I went to look and sure enough, they were moved to the bottom. I was so pissed, I just kept the damn book and haven't been back there since.
@@douglasbryant9571 It's a shame that when times get tight, people will stoop to doing unscrupulous things, where normally such behavior would be unthinkable from them.
Batman should never kill. His Catholic "Christian" origin should be acknowledged, and he should be someone with faults and flaws, not portrayed almost as some sort of god, but I don't trust soulless comic book writers, who probably lack true empathy themselves, to be able to put themselves into the headspace of such a beautiful, and kind of deceptively wholesome, character. *By Catholic "Christian" origin, I mean that he was raised attending the Catholic church, canonically. To my knowledge, he is not religious and is actually distrustful of religion, but that doesn't mean the values instilled in him as a child wouldn't sometimes express themselves. For example, promises being important enough to carry to his grave, even if objectively his practice of showing mercy to everyone is ineffective when the justice system doesn't work.
Point #6 on multiverses could be fun at DC if each universe was developed by a particular creator (like Geoff Johns defined universe and a Sean Murphy universe,) where rules are developed and certain characters in that universe die and never come back. And the only time one parallel universe would affect another parallel universe is when there is a multiverse-wide event.
The Genre thing is a big one and would be good for the Big 2. Maybe they could push some these writers who clearly want to be writing young adult romance onto books and get them off the Superhero ones.
We've been saying this for years and got mocked, bullied and called the worst things for doing so. Will CBR get the same treatment for doing the same now? we all know the answer.
@@jaylucien669 Yeah that sounds about right. people like Cbr wait until it safe to speak up about these things. Wouldn't be surprised if they try and steal the credit others have said for ages.
The problem is that the big two are poorly run. For every decent writer they have, they hire several bad ones, often based on a set of check boxes. Also the endless stream of events, with a bazillion of tie ins, that cost a reader a tiny fortune. It was the reason I finally stopped collecting marvel. I and my wallet are much happier now.
Newsprint. With every cover price increase, it gets harder to justify buying a comic that can be read in 5 minutes. If companies would go back to newsprint (like Alterna has done), they could cut cover prices in half.
There was nothing wrong with newsprint. If it meant that comics only cost $1.00 then that's fine. It was much more economical. It wasn't until in the late 1990s when they started making the material like the slick paper of magazines and issues being more than 31 pages and putting in more ads that comics started to increase in price in the early 2000s up to $2.00 or more, which was ridiculous. Quality of good product over quantity of bad product is the way that they are supposed to be. But I guess everyone wants to be special now.
I've been saying this for years. Production costs would drop dramatically. I've noticed DC using newsprint-like paper on their facsimiles and some other titles. Also, I'd have to believe that newsprint requires cheaper inks as well. Seems like a no-brainer solution to me.
They have so many events they can't even come up with original names for them! "Inferno," "Heroes Reborn," "Avengers Forever," and assumably others all stole their name from older, better events. And, sometimes, the old events weren't actually all that great to begin with...
I used to love reading the old war comics. Haunted Tank, Old Nick Fury and the Howlin Commandos, Blackhawks, America at War. And the old scifi Alien Legion.
Too bad CBR didn’t have the balls to also state these three big reasons too: Writer/artists attacking fans online, forcing unwanted characters onto fans and the constant gender/sex pref/race swaps of legacy characters. Maybe in another 10 years they will write that article
There will be no peace with those types of people without the shedding of many tears first. Yes, there will be many tears shed before everything is said and done.
Worst writing trends in my opinion: Sexuality changes Gender swapping Representation pandering Every thing that you find in Harley Quinn comics right now Hactivist writers putting themselves in the comics
And the stupid food fetish-animey thing. I'm sorry but that troupe is such a "girly-girl" thing. No, I don't mean true female comics fans. I'm talking about fake geek-girl posers and theres a lot of them these days.
@@jaylucien669 funny thing , Jay , back in the late 90s & early 2000s some comics tried to be more like anime & manga ( I remember Superman & x-men in particular) when it come to art style & inserting references to anime , but now they are taking the worst anime props and using it in their stories, like that food fetish, look how big my mouth is when I’m about to eat thing
@@mohammadbashammakh You're right it's never the cool anime and manga troupes they borrow from. I can get all that Japanesey stuff in my JRPG's, were I actually enjoy it but I have ZERO desire to see it in American comics. I vaguely remember that being the case during the early 2000's. But I can't remember what characters and books did it, specifically.
Those Retailer Incentive Variants are always crazy expensive, and many lose significant value over the years. Yes, many also don't, which brings me to my point, buying those is always a crap-shoot. For $50-$100, or whatever, it's just not worth it. The funniest thing about variants in general is, in most cases, they never end up more valuable than 1A anyway. 🤣
None of these "trends" are destroying modern comic books...the only thing destroying the industry are the people being hired...actual talented creators that actually care about comic books can make any of these "trends" work...
I'll agree with you when it comes to every "trend" except decompression, which has been the norm for so long that it can't really be called a trend anymore. As paper costs rise, and content decreases (I can read a modern comic book thoroughly in under 5 minutes), it gets harder to justify the expense.
@@cyberfist6568 Agree. Note how 2 of the issues they mentioned with nigh 50 variant covers were by Dan Slott. Good creators wouldnt need 47 48 covers to boost sales.
True, give me some real individual and thrilling Characters instead of Variants over Variants over Variants. Yeah I know, Omniverse, but I don’t need everything to be infinite 😂
2 Universes- Positive-Matter and Anti-Matter, that's all. And not everybody needs a counterpart in the others universe. Universes are basically infinite in size, so create new characters from new worlds from new systems etc. etc. In other words, BE CREATIVE and USE YOUR IMAGIANTIONS! That's what they're paid to do. Or at least it should be.
You can thank that succubus Zoe Quinn for ruining that once great subsidiary with those stupid feminist trash DC Comics comic books, like She Said Destroy!, Goddess Mode, and Hex Wives. That she-demon had murdered Vertigo. She was the psychic, energy vampire who drained its life force.
What the comics industry need are creative teams of writers and artists who love the medium and the universes of the characters, instead of taking folks from film and television. Aside from Al Ewing's IMMORTAL HULK and Philip Kennedy Johnson's ACTION COMICS, many of the modern titles featuring characters I used to read regularly have been god awful. What the comics industry need are creative teams of writers and artists who love the medium and the universes of the characters, instead of taking folks from film and television who have no knowledge or desire to write and draw comics. That, and they need to fucking get rid of variant covers. All The Best, James Heath Lantz Freelance Writer Staff Writer for BACK ISSUE magazine 2021 Eisner Award nominee, 2019 winner, "Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism"
Great job, many of the complaints I personally have are voiced. Variant covers are a scam now and like you I feel comix are treated as a vehicle to get in a live action show. I am moving to the Manga camp where I still find original story telling, fantastic art and a variety of genres. Thanks I really enjoyed this.
The manga community has overworking and exploitive lack of pay issues as well. Manga is not that great either. The Isekai and Naruto style manga is way overused at this point as well.
Another writing trend that is so overdone at this point is Mystery Box storylines, every damn story becomes a "whodunnit?". Can we not just have some straight up superhero stories where we know who the villain is and it's not "the villain is actually my team-mate/best-friend/whatever"
My LCS has a new release shelf, and Marvel/DC, Horror, and Fantasy recent shelves. The Horror and Fantasy shelves carry as many titles as Marvel and DC put out. Another thing about the comics/film thing - movies can’t do stuff comics can like dropping a diagram in a raging storm. It’s not just potential location that suffers on the page, it’s losing the entire storytelling ability of comics.
Writing for trades is why there's so many reboots. The writers are mostly mediocre which means 5-6 issue arcs have a ton of boring filler and people tap out.
@@jaylucien669 Variant covers are meaningless. It's pure hubris on the part of the comic book industry. And people fall for that soulless, corporate gimmick cash grab every single time.
You guys hit on a really important topic and that was regarding the genres, and the lack thereof from the big 2. This is the greatest reason why most people to read american comics. And it is quickly glossed over!
I agree, on the Legacy thing. We got Wally West, back in the day, and technically, the most well-known Flashes and Green Lanterns are legacies, from Alan Scott and Jay Garrick. But, with that comes the tokenized, bargain priced hand-me-downs. I have no interest in Jace Fox, Sam as Cap, Riri, etc, despite them all "looking like me". And for aged up Jon Kent, Aqualad's new age reinvention, distaffs like Batwoman, the list goes on. It's lazy, where they've taken the idea, and I would love it if they were original. Taking the gimmicks of the high rollers and slapping a "diverse" tag on it doesn't endear them to fans. This is especially true, with the main eventers. Bruce, Clark, Diana, Peter, Steve, these names are legend. Don't mess with them.
Events, deconstruction, and duplicate powered heroes are my top 3. Events mean I save money for 6-7 months. Deconstruction is the quickest way to get me to not buy anything else from the writer, and the list is growing.
The trouble with deconstruction stories is that they usually violate the characters of the superheroes themselves. For example, typically these character violate their consciences, and yet those consciences are what make them heroes in the first place, it makes them what they are. It's an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. This cannot happen.
I agree with deconstruction. EVERY new writer does nothing more than deconstruct heroes. Batman and superman are deconstructed every 6-8 months. The one they forgot is hero vs hero. What does it say when over the past 15 or so years the best books breakdown to heroic team vs heroic team. Marvel had the nerve to do avengers dissambled, civil war, avx, schism, civil war 2, axis, xmen vs inhumans, and axe all of which came down to hero vs hero. If you started reading comics over the past almost 15 years you'd have no idea that heroes used to work together. In all those stories and even in between, there have been no new villains, are a new group to come out of marvel (at least with staying power). Dc is no better.
The one I'm most surprised that DC is continuing is the diffusion of IP. Even in Dawn of DC, instead of focusing on the core characters and refocusing on their central characters, DC is splintering into more and more characters with the same skill sets. They aren't focused on Superman, the lone survivor of a doomed planet....nope, now it's a super powered army that even in issue one has authoritarian impulses. Lazarus Planet: What do these characters have to do with Krypton had few actual Kryptonians and again elected to focus on non core characters. DC has Steele. What do they with him? Pass his mantle to Natasha. It just seems odd that when the CEO of the company says they are going to focus on their strong IP, the result is derivative characters and characterizations not in keeping with the characters. Oh, well. The DC savings plan in practice.
They used to have something like that before back in the 1980s and early 1990s. They were either called Quarterlies which came out once every three months (or every Quarter of a year), or Annuals which came out once a year, especially on an Anniversary. They stopped doing that back in the mid-1990s and they never brought them back ever since. DC Comics and Marvel Comics should go back to doing those again. Some of their best writing was in those DC Quarterly comics and Marvel Annual comics. They were also all special double-sized prestige formats, too. So you got books that were twice the overall size (60 pages) and minimal ads. That alone was worth the wait.
Thanks for the breakdown, fellas. So much stuff wrong with comics now. Different subject, thanks for turning me on to World's Finest. Totally agree it's the best book being published from the big two.
Events are pain in the ass when you have to go back issues of 4 different runs to piece wtf is going on, if you want an event, do it in a miniseries, and that's it
The Multiverse concept is the biggest problem. As a person who got into comics late in life, there is no way imma wade into that. I’d rather read horror or sword and sorcery anyway. The only marvel titles I read are planet of the apes, and predator, and I don’t read any DC. Publishers like Image, AfterShock, DarkHorse, vertigo, Valient, Vault, Boom, etc... are getting all my money right now (new releases and back issues)...
Change is inevitable. But it generally for the good or to progress as a society. "Modern" change is the opposite of that. A generation of sheep just ruining everything.
12:50 I'm also not against the legacy character trope, but only if the main line hero was retiring or permanently indisposed. To piggyback off of what your CO host was talking about having several characters with the same title would get confusing.
The comic industry should have more diverse genres like the mangas no just the super-hero genre only.I know many people that love read comic but dislike super-heroes stories.Those people prefer read manga instead because that.I found too many rip offs the same character boring too.I just checked out Action Comics 1051 and the Superfamilly is more bigger than any Era now.We have three Superboys right now Jonathan, Conner and Kong Kenan.Superman needs this after all.I guess not.
People who dislike super-hero characters in the comic book industry ruined the comic book industry. If they don't like super-heroes, then they should just stay in their lane and get out of American comics.
Kong shouldn't have been created as a "Super-Man." That was a huge, missed opportunity. Creating a Chinese Superhero for the oppressed people of communist China is an excellent idea. But a character like that needs a fresh origin, identity and powerset. Making him a D-List Superman/Boy was incredibly short-sighted of Yang and DC.
I used to read the DC books religiously but I stopped buying them right after the New 52. It makes me sad but I don't think I would enjoy what they are producing now. The new JSA book looks interesting, though.
Superman & Lois, Rebirth Superman, and Super Sons was a good read covering 12year old John Kent learning about his powers and just dealing with kid stuff about having your first girl crush and forgetting to remove the cardboard from the bottom of a frozen pizza. Along with John/Superboy wearing four music headphones just to block out all the background noise his hearing is picking up on. Being dropped on to his knees cause he heard screeching semitruck brakes from a mile away. All the comics are free to read on YT. Hope you had a good weekend.
The Batman problem is a big problem, as you said. He's a dark character, so with nearly half of DC's titles being Batman-related, it casts a shadow upon the entire universe, making everything darker and grittier. It's a shame that we can't have a Superman problem, where everything is tinted with a positive, uplifting tone. That'd be a good problem to have. I like Batman. I hate the Dark Knight. I love Superman. But even, at least in the movies, the last two Superman actors were playing darker versions of the character.
10:13 To be honest, I'm actually a massive fan of the multi verse concept. My only issue is that when it crosses over from universe to universe, Something like the original injustice. I was not a fan of the main line Superman coming in and stopping tyrant Superman. I wanted them to take him down on their own terms of the universe, not reach out for help. But then again, I am the kind of guy who eats candy for dinner, and it hasn't lost the impact for me, so... 🙃
I feel like legacy characters and 'families' are different things. To me a legacy character is when a character dies or retires and another character takes up their mantel but they act only one at a time. Family is when they have them all acting at the same time but while they're based on the same powers/ concepts they have their own name and kind of have different (if similar) costumes. I have no issue with legacy characters IF the original character stays dead or retired and they don't keep coming back and working with the new character. The downfall of the 'family' concept is that you end up with a bunch of similar (if not actually the same) characters and it gets boring. It also comes off as lacking creativity and originality.
Why the f**k did DC give Tom Taylor the new Titans series? I don't have much hope cause the Titans have never been a seller in the past 20 years and with the live action cancelled on HBOMax ...
I want to add one more to the list. To many "god" level heroes and villains, like Omega level mutants or Captain Marvel. In the good old days, event the most powerful heroes like Superman or opponents Galactus had a way to defeat them. But now they just up power characters to a ridiculous degree. I think it started way back in the day with Jean Grey/Phoenix a character so powerful that it could only be defeated by killing itself. It's like what I hated most about Stephenie Meyer's' Twilight books. The vampires were so powerful and indestructible that only another Vampire or a Werewolf could destroy them. Regular humans didn't have a chance. A key story point of such monster stories is that the regular human had shot at vanquishing the monster.
The reasons are= 10. Some comic books are clearly written to be tv shows and movies. 09. Decompression is OK, but readers still like shorter arcs. 08. The Comic Industry has seen its genres whittled away. 07. The Shrinkage of Ongoing Books leaves readers little to invest in. 06. The Multiverse is Fun, but there can be Too Much of a Good Thing. 05. It's Time to Admit the SuperHero Families are Too Big. 04. There's No Good Reason Any Comic Should Have Dozens Of Variant Covers. 03. Fans miss a world that wasn't quite so Batman-Centric. 02. Deconstruction Stories Have Long Outstayed Their Welcome. 01. Too many Comic Events will turn away readers.
I remember reading the new age of heroes and that didn't last long and also that's when I wanted read to read good comics but it seems I was too late to be a fan of the big two!
I wish fanboys would stop comparing modern comic writers to Alan Moore because of deconstructionism. Alan Moore didn’t just deconstruct characters and abandon the title. He reimagined characters and made them more interesting. He also created characters that lasted almost half a century in comics. Fanboys are still reading Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing and Killing Joke. He only deconstructed characters to construct new narratives.
I want to weigh in on Batman. Shadow of the Bat was more psychological. Detective Comics was basically an action book. And Robin was different. And Nightwing was different. Catwoman was basically cheesecake. And you could have a Jim Gordon or GCPD book. A hard crime series. Superman is a super hero. Batman is more of a mystery man. He looks to the Gray Ghost, The Sandman,, maybe the Crimson Avenger. Every character has to be distinct. Superman catches planes. Batman solves murders. Jim Gordon doesn't wear Batman armor. Blurring it together diminished the whole. And I completely agree about deconstruction. You aren't Alan Moore. He needs a haircut and a bath and thinks he's a wizard. He wrote great stuff. Time to move on. The book you showed Wes with Martian Man Hunter burning himself and banging Fire was just stupid. The John Ostrander book was much, much better. J'onn eventually moves past his losses and either becomes RJ Brande, or merges with the planet Mars, not unlike The Martian Chronicles, which is a great book. That's the character growing. I love that. It's construction. Some of the Jack Kirby stuff would be weird or goofy, but he made dozens of toys to play with. That's what being creative means. Even some minor character like Desaad. He's the god of torture. That's scary as hell. I think Batman could be pared down in say the Brave and the Bold or Showcase or something similar. We don't need 15 of him or a hundred spider people or whatever. Get back to the core. I always thought Batman and the Question were interesting as a team.
I don't agree with what you said about Batman yes there's too much batman but if the interesting thing about Batman is his darkness then of course having more darker characters would make more interesting characters I just don't want them to have anything to do with Batman and yeah the universe is mostly hopeful but that doesn't mean there can't be a lot dark characters
To be fair, a lack of Batman would end DC Comics. They should rebrand as Batman Comics and stop wasting time with anything else that clearly doesn't sell. Just license the other characters to people willing to write good stories, not woke politics.
22min. This is what drove me away from "the big 2". I like a comic with history. Where stuff matters. If it's just going to be restarted all the time, then I'm not interested.
When CBR actually makes a list that correctly points out the problems of the comic industry, you know the situation is bad.
It's like if Paul Revere had waited 'til 1780 to let everyone know, "The British are Coming." Too little, too late.
It’s too late, their credibility is already shot, no one wants to read their gibberish anymore.
the sjw crowd are incredibly stubborn. they'll admit the son of Superman isn't that good. but they refuse to ties it to woke politics. they're that deranged. bascially they're saying, yeah it's bad but we won't stop trying because muhhh dIvErsITy
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
I work in the media. When media outlets admit the status quo is a problem, things are about to get WORSE.
EVERY outlet has to maintain SOME level of legitimacy. Things have gotten so bad, they MUST acknowledge the reality of a situation to survive.
The industry is going to implode. They want it to collapse. They see it caving in instead of turning back to the way it was before the soy woke S.J.W.s had taken over as a good thing. For them, it's better that everybody loses rather than they not be the only one who win.
I worked in Network Radio during the 90's and 2000's, I can confirm this.
On decompression, Amazing Spider-Man 248, The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man, told a more complete and complex story than Tom King's entire Batman run.
All I want is good stories and passionate writers being respectful
That's what we all want and it shouldn't be this difficult to make happen.
That died in 2015 after the soy woke S.J.W.s went peak woke, 1,000% woke.
I read the old stuff, because Marvel and DC don't know what are the good comics. 😒
@@harvey2906 I know we say it just about every one of our conversations, But I'M SOO GRATEFUL we still have the old stuff!!
@@jaylucien669 I agree with you 💯. Legendary authors wrote really good stories for the fans. Superman, Batman and Spider-Man were so great back then. X-Men was so epic. Comics did make fun. I miss the high quality of the comics. 😒
The worst thing about them writing it like its a television show is the dialog and exposition dumps and all the talking in the restaurant, the park, talking on the phone, going to the meeting to talk about the last meeting. At the end there will be some reveal of information and one of the characters goes, "Gadzooks, I must go now to talk to another person!" and flies away, teleports away or something, and that's the "action" in a comic book. So lazy, these wannabe tv show dialog books.
Show don't tell. Should be the easiest thing in the world for something like comic books. Given you have pictures, art work to show someone how things work and don't need to detail it with words. Which just goes to show, editors are not doing their jobs. Writers are not doing their jobs. just here for a quick pay check. Which the worst case of tell don't show, has to be the crew with Luke Cage. Where they talk about these robots if I recall correctly and how they are oppressing people. Only they never show these robots doing anything bad. Making the heroes look like crazy people that just made all this up, to have a dragon to slay.
I think one of the biggest mistakes made by the comic book industry was to drop the newsstand market. We are reaping that decision made a generation ago. It prevents the companies from growing a fan base and mitigating the natural attrition of readers. It also creates a collectors bubble and prevents the companies from gauging the success of a book beyond prospective collectability.
Back in the late 1990s, I could buy comic books at my local drugstore or local supermarket. Now I don’t know where to buy comics near me if I wanted (I was going to add, “Not that I want to because of the dreck being published today,” but sometimes there’s something good).
This cannot be repeated enough!!
Never thought In a million years I would see cbr actually make a list that actually makes tons of sense especially with a lot of current problems within comic book industry.
You and me both.
@@jaylucien669 indeed :)
Thank god CBR's discovered these problems! How would we've ever known otherwise?
Most of these bad trends (variants, events, writing TV pitches, too much Batman, etc.) are downstream from the fact that the industry hasn't been able to rely on quality to sell books for quite some time. The number of gimmicks employed is inversely proportional to the quality of the core product
I had to switch comic shops when they would sell a speculator the comic in my box, then tell me it’s missing because “they must have been shorted.” Very happy with my new shop.
How did you find out they actually did that to you?
Just curious...
@@MutantGenius For years, I’d seen the counter guys raiding the reserved comic boxes when speculators demanded a “first printing” or “variant cover.” I only buy comics I like to read and was always told, when I would discover a skipped issue, that “my box must have been missed.” My only must buy is Daredevil (loved him since I was a kid). I saw all of the scuttllebutt about Electra becoming DD, and when I didn’t have that issue in my box, the clerk’s story became “Don’t quote me, but I think we were shorted that issue”. I knew the owner and he knew I never miss DD, and there’s no way that the highly anticipated Elektra/Daredevil issue would have been “shorted” in the orders. So after 3 decades, I moved my business to a different comic shop. F that place.
@@MandatoryReporter2015 Wow, what a scumbag way to treat a friend and customer! I would have knocked something over on my way out the door...BTW, DD was my first love, too. Nocenti and Romita Jr. were on literal fire to my young eyes. Great minds think alike, kdott...Peace!
A few months ago, I did my weekly Wednesday shopping. I always buy at least six new books. When I got home, I realized one of the books I bought was the same issue of a book I already purchased but with a variant cover. Mind you, this variant was on the top rack, just like all the latest releases are, every Wednesday.
The next day, I took the variant issue back with my receipt and asked to exchange it for a different title. The guy and I got into an argument becase he asked me if I was sure I got the book off the top rack. I went to look and sure enough, they were moved to the bottom. I was so pissed, I just kept the damn book and haven't been back there since.
@@douglasbryant9571 It's a shame that when times get tight, people will stoop to doing unscrupulous things, where normally such behavior would be unthinkable from them.
The overly relinace on Batman is hurting DC. He's there Twitter. If he goes under then they're boned. They're ruining him with every issue too.
Batman should never kill. His Catholic "Christian" origin should be acknowledged, and he should be someone with faults and flaws, not portrayed almost as some sort of god, but I don't trust soulless comic book writers, who probably lack true empathy themselves, to be able to put themselves into the headspace of such a beautiful, and kind of deceptively wholesome, character.
*By Catholic "Christian" origin, I mean that he was raised attending the Catholic church, canonically. To my knowledge, he is not religious and is actually distrustful of religion, but that doesn't mean the values instilled in him as a child wouldn't sometimes express themselves. For example, promises being important enough to carry to his grave, even if objectively his practice of showing mercy to everyone is ineffective when the justice system doesn't work.
Point #6 on multiverses could be fun at DC if each universe was developed by a particular creator (like Geoff Johns defined universe and a Sean Murphy universe,) where rules are developed and certain characters in that universe die and never come back. And the only time one parallel universe would affect another parallel universe is when there is a multiverse-wide event.
You could write a New Testament on habits from bad writers in the last 20 years.
And then appropriately punish said bad writers Old Testament style with the potential promise for redemption. Operative word being potential.
The Genre thing is a big one and would be good for the Big 2. Maybe they could push some these writers who clearly want to be writing young adult romance onto books and get them off the Superhero ones.
We've been saying this for years and got mocked, bullied and called the worst things for doing so. Will CBR get the same treatment for doing the same now? we all know the answer.
Comic Book Resources is controlled opposition. They will not be criticized because they are paid shills who have "the right kind of politics".
No and they'll probably end up taking credit for it down the line.
@@jaylucien669 Yeah that sounds about right. people like Cbr wait until it safe to speak up about these things. Wouldn't be surprised if they try and steal the credit others have said for ages.
@@tacticianAlexandra TBH I'd rather put up with them taking the credit if it means the industry is healthy again.
Once the corporation became more about quantity of bad product instead of quality of good product, the business had lost its soul.
I’m shocked that they even mention these.
And Dok isn’t a clown. He’s a prophet.
I don't agree with Dok on everything but there's no question the man is in tune with what's going on.
@@jaylucien669 I don’t either especially on manga but he’s my spirit animal. Lol
How bout calling their customers toxic because nothing is sacred, consistent, or in character anymore?
The problem is that the big two are poorly run. For every decent writer they have, they hire several bad ones, often based on a set of check boxes.
Also the endless stream of events, with a bazillion of tie ins, that cost a reader a tiny fortune. It was the reason I finally stopped collecting marvel. I and my wallet are much happier now.
Newsprint. With every cover price increase, it gets harder to justify buying a comic that can be read in 5 minutes. If companies would go back to newsprint (like Alterna has done), they could cut cover prices in half.
There was nothing wrong with newsprint. If it meant that comics only cost $1.00 then that's fine. It was much more economical. It wasn't until in the late 1990s when they started making the material like the slick paper of magazines and issues being more than 31 pages and putting in more ads that comics started to increase in price in the early 2000s up to $2.00 or more, which was ridiculous. Quality of good product over quantity of bad product is the way that they are supposed to be. But I guess everyone wants to be special now.
I've been saying this for years. Production costs would drop dramatically. I've noticed DC using newsprint-like paper on their facsimiles and some other titles. Also, I'd have to believe that newsprint requires cheaper inks as well. Seems like a no-brainer solution to me.
They have so many events they can't even come up with original names for them! "Inferno," "Heroes Reborn," "Avengers Forever," and assumably others all stole their name from older, better events. And, sometimes, the old events weren't actually all that great to begin with...
I used to love reading the old war comics. Haunted Tank, Old Nick Fury and the Howlin Commandos, Blackhawks, America at War. And the old scifi Alien Legion.
I miss the old war comics. Haunted Tank, Sgt Rock etc
Holy cow! Next, the Beat is declaring some comic shops are in trouble! Details at 11. Good video, guys!
Too bad CBR didn’t have the balls to also state these three big reasons too: Writer/artists attacking fans online, forcing unwanted characters onto fans and the constant gender/sex pref/race swaps of legacy characters. Maybe in another 10 years they will write that article
Character Deconstruction has been nothing but a plague upon superhero comics.
This video hurt but its all true. The comics will need a MAJOR rehauling once this cultrual vandals are run off.
There will be no peace with those types of people without the shedding of many tears first. Yes, there will be many tears shed before everything is said and done.
Worst writing trends in my opinion:
Sexuality changes
Gender swapping
Representation pandering
Every thing that you find in Harley Quinn comics right now
Hactivist writers putting themselves in the comics
Perfectly spot ON
And the stupid food fetish-animey thing. I'm sorry but that troupe is such a "girly-girl" thing. No, I don't mean true female comics fans. I'm talking about fake geek-girl posers and theres a lot of them these days.
@@jaylucien669 oh yeah, THAT too
@@jaylucien669 funny thing , Jay , back in the late 90s & early 2000s some comics tried to be more like anime & manga ( I remember Superman & x-men in particular) when it come to art style & inserting references to anime , but now they are taking the worst anime props and using it in their stories, like that food fetish, look how big my mouth is when I’m about to eat thing
@@mohammadbashammakh You're right it's never the cool anime and manga troupes they borrow from. I can get all that Japanesey stuff in my JRPG's, were I actually enjoy it but I have ZERO desire to see it in American comics. I vaguely remember that being the case during the early 2000's. But I can't remember what characters and books did it, specifically.
Doc is spot on with the Ratio Variants. I have seen some great ones out there but I’m not paying the $70 and sometimes more just for a piece of art.
A reproduced piece of art at that. Real art has 1 copy. Fight me.
Those Retailer Incentive Variants are always crazy expensive, and many lose significant value over the years. Yes, many also don't, which brings me to my point, buying those is always a crap-shoot. For $50-$100, or whatever, it's just not worth it. The funniest thing about variants in general is, in most cases, they never end up more valuable than 1A anyway. 🤣
@@MutantGenius 🤣 But aren't all variant covers their own individual pieces of original art? Fight me back.
@@jaylucien669 I'm a 1A cover die-hard. If my store doesn't have one, I'll go to another store. Variant covers don't exist, AFAIC.
@@MutantGenius 🤣 You're the man, Mutant. I can't argue with your logic because Variants are usually fools gold.
None of these "trends" are destroying modern comic books...the only thing destroying the industry are the people being hired...actual talented creators that actually care about comic books can make any of these "trends" work...
I'll agree with you when it comes to every "trend" except decompression, which has been the norm for so long that it can't really be called a trend anymore. As paper costs rise, and content decreases (I can read a modern comic book thoroughly in under 5 minutes), it gets harder to justify the expense.
Nah, disagree. Most of these are poor writing tactics, and good talent by definition wouldn't be collectively doing the same thing.
@@cyberfist6568 Agree. Note how 2 of the issues they mentioned with nigh 50 variant covers were by Dan Slott. Good creators wouldnt need 47 48 covers to boost sales.
They forgot it’s all wokeity, woke, woke garbage 😀
Regarding comics being written and illustrated with a movie or TV budget in mind... the complete antithesis of the work of Ditko or Colan.
Good point on the storyboards. That's why there's such minimal background art now
True, give me some real individual and thrilling Characters instead of Variants over Variants over Variants.
Yeah I know, Omniverse, but I don’t need everything to be infinite 😂
2 Universes- Positive-Matter and Anti-Matter, that's all. And not everybody needs a counterpart in the others universe. Universes are basically infinite in size, so create new characters from new worlds from new systems etc. etc. In other words, BE CREATIVE and USE YOUR IMAGIANTIONS! That's what they're paid to do. Or at least it should be.
Genre comics from Vertigo are some of the comics I miss the most.
You can thank that succubus Zoe Quinn for ruining that once great subsidiary with those stupid feminist trash DC Comics comic books, like She Said Destroy!, Goddess Mode, and Hex Wives. That she-demon had murdered Vertigo. She was the psychic, energy vampire who drained its life force.
Correct me if I'm wrong. Hasn't CBR celebrated comics that have done/doing the shit that is on the list?
They’ve been the ones championing all the books that are the worst offenders of these terrible trends.
Yes, many, many times.
I'm pretty surprised CBR criticized the comic book industry. That's something they almost never do.
What the comics industry need are creative teams of writers and artists who love the medium and the universes of the characters, instead of taking folks from film and television. Aside from Al Ewing's IMMORTAL HULK and Philip Kennedy Johnson's ACTION COMICS, many of the modern titles featuring characters I used to read regularly have been god awful. What the comics industry need are creative teams of writers and artists who love the medium and the universes of the characters, instead of taking folks from film and television who have no knowledge or desire to write and draw comics. That, and they need to fucking get rid of variant covers.
All The Best,
James Heath Lantz
Freelance Writer
Staff Writer for BACK ISSUE magazine
2021 Eisner Award nominee, 2019 winner, "Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism"
Great job, many of the complaints I personally have are voiced. Variant covers are a scam now and like you I feel comix are treated as a vehicle to get in a live action show. I am moving to the Manga camp where I still find original story telling, fantastic art and a variety of genres. Thanks I really enjoyed this.
The manga community has overworking and exploitive lack of pay issues as well. Manga is not that great either. The Isekai and Naruto style manga is way overused at this point as well.
Another writing trend that is so overdone at this point is Mystery Box storylines, every damn story becomes a "whodunnit?". Can we not just have some straight up superhero stories where we know who the villain is and it's not "the villain is actually my team-mate/best-friend/whatever"
My LCS has a new release shelf, and Marvel/DC, Horror, and Fantasy recent shelves. The Horror and Fantasy shelves carry as many titles as Marvel and DC put out.
Another thing about the comics/film thing - movies can’t do stuff comics can like dropping a diagram in a raging storm. It’s not just potential location that suffers on the page, it’s losing the entire storytelling ability of comics.
Writing for trades is why there's so many reboots. The writers are mostly mediocre which means 5-6 issue arcs have a ton of boring filler and people tap out.
"I don't bitch, Doc, I opine." 😂😂😂
My friend is a variant cover artist @ Marvel. Not the chase covers. I think they are just for fun. I never saw them for collecting...
Variant Covers are awesome. Over saturation of Variant Covers is not.
@@jaylucien669 Variant covers are meaningless. It's pure hubris on the part of the comic book industry. And people fall for that soulless, corporate gimmick cash grab every single time.
@@incubustimelord5947 That's partially true.
Variant covers are for collectors and completionists.
Quick poll:
Will it be Batman 135, 900 or a new #1 this spring?
DC hasn't said squat, it's kind of mysterious if you ask me...
No more numeric reboots.
You guys hit on a really important topic and that was regarding the genres, and the lack thereof from the big 2. This is the greatest reason why most people to read american comics. And it is quickly glossed over!
If you don’t reconstruct characters after deconstructing them, you’re just tearing them down
I agree, on the Legacy thing. We got Wally West, back in the day, and technically, the most well-known Flashes and Green Lanterns are legacies, from Alan Scott and Jay Garrick. But, with that comes the tokenized, bargain priced hand-me-downs. I have no interest in Jace Fox, Sam as Cap, Riri, etc, despite them all "looking like me". And for aged up Jon Kent, Aqualad's new age reinvention, distaffs like Batwoman, the list goes on. It's lazy, where they've taken the idea, and I would love it if they were original. Taking the gimmicks of the high rollers and slapping a "diverse" tag on it doesn't endear them to fans. This is especially true, with the main eventers. Bruce, Clark, Diana, Peter, Steve, these names are legend. Don't mess with them.
This is where I somewhat disagree with Dok. If they took Wally away, I'd be vocal about bringing him back (again).
@@jaylucien669 Wally, Kyle Rayner, Tim Drake, there are great examples. But the past decade have rise to all the bad ones.
Events, deconstruction, and duplicate powered heroes are my top 3. Events mean I save money for 6-7 months. Deconstruction is the quickest way to get me to not buy anything else from the writer, and the list is growing.
The trouble with deconstruction stories is that they usually violate the characters of the superheroes themselves. For example, typically these character violate their consciences, and yet those consciences are what make them heroes in the first place, it makes them what they are. It's an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. This cannot happen.
I agree with deconstruction. EVERY new writer does nothing more than deconstruct heroes. Batman and superman are deconstructed every 6-8 months.
The one they forgot is hero vs hero. What does it say when over the past 15 or so years the best books breakdown to heroic team vs heroic team. Marvel had the nerve to do avengers dissambled, civil war, avx, schism, civil war 2, axis, xmen vs inhumans, and axe all of which came down to hero vs hero. If you started reading comics over the past almost 15 years you'd have no idea that heroes used to work together. In all those stories and even in between, there have been no new villains, are a new group to come out of marvel (at least with staying power).
Dc is no better.
The one I'm most surprised that DC is continuing is the diffusion of IP. Even in Dawn of DC, instead of focusing on the core characters and refocusing on their central characters, DC is splintering into more and more characters with the same skill sets. They aren't focused on Superman, the lone survivor of a doomed planet....nope, now it's a super powered army that even in issue one has authoritarian impulses. Lazarus Planet: What do these characters have to do with Krypton had few actual Kryptonians and again elected to focus on non core characters. DC has Steele. What do they with him? Pass his mantle to Natasha.
It just seems odd that when the CEO of the company says they are going to focus on their strong IP, the result is derivative characters and characterizations not in keeping with the characters.
Oh, well. The DC savings plan in practice.
Seasons make sense in a TPB world. Periodical comics only make sense for the DM and WOULD make sense for a low cost digital industry.
They used to have something like that before back in the 1980s and early 1990s. They were either called Quarterlies which came out once every three months (or every Quarter of a year), or Annuals which came out once a year, especially on an Anniversary. They stopped doing that back in the mid-1990s and they never brought them back ever since. DC Comics and Marvel Comics should go back to doing those again.
Some of their best writing was in those DC Quarterly comics and Marvel Annual comics. They were also all special double-sized prestige formats, too. So you got books that were twice the overall size (60 pages) and minimal ads. That alone was worth the wait.
Thanks for the breakdown, fellas.
So much stuff wrong with comics now.
Different subject, thanks for turning me on to World's Finest. Totally agree it's the best book being published from the big two.
Just saw the list. Some of those problems have been going on for at least twenty years now.
I'm bothered by what the MCU is doing to Spiderman
“Look! It’s ‘X of Swords!’ It’s the X-Men…but with swords! Written by writers you don’t care about!”
Personally comics after 2016 started to have serious problems
I would say 2010 lol
@@xLordOfNothingx I'll say 2011 with N52. But the woke crap began rising around 2014-15.
I would say after 2005. Or maybe even after 1995. But that's just me.
There’s a lot of things wrong with CBR, but you know what they say: “Even a broken clock is right twice a day.”
With some of the books I've read, the writers know nothing about the characters. They know nothing about comics.
On Multiverses: It happened once before, and it took a Crisis to straighten it all out. History repeats itself because it’s lessons are never learned.
Events are pain in the ass when you have to go back issues of 4 different runs to piece wtf is going on, if you want an event, do it in a miniseries, and that's it
The Multiverse concept is the biggest problem. As a person who got into comics late in life, there is no way imma wade into that. I’d rather read horror or sword and sorcery anyway. The only marvel titles I read are planet of the apes, and predator, and I don’t read any DC. Publishers like Image, AfterShock, DarkHorse, vertigo, Valient, Vault, Boom, etc... are getting all my money right now (new releases and back issues)...
Change is inevitable. But it generally for the good or to progress as a society. "Modern" change is the opposite of that. A generation of sheep just ruining everything.
*2 generations of sheep
another great vid
12:50
I'm also not against the legacy character trope, but only if the main line hero was retiring or permanently indisposed.
To piggyback off of what your CO host was talking about having several characters with the same title would get confusing.
Don't congratulate a fish for swimming, they should have put this out way earlier.
The comic industry should have more diverse genres like the mangas no just the super-hero genre only.I know many people that love read comic but dislike super-heroes stories.Those people prefer read manga instead because that.I found too many rip offs the same character boring too.I just checked out Action Comics 1051 and the Superfamilly is more bigger than any Era now.We have three Superboys right now Jonathan, Conner and Kong Kenan.Superman needs this after all.I guess not.
People who dislike super-hero characters in the comic book industry ruined the comic book industry. If they don't like super-heroes, then they should just stay in their lane and get out of American comics.
Kong shouldn't have been created as a "Super-Man." That was a huge, missed opportunity. Creating a Chinese Superhero for the oppressed people of communist China is an excellent idea. But a character like that needs a fresh origin, identity and powerset. Making him a D-List Superman/Boy was incredibly short-sighted of Yang and DC.
I used to read the DC books religiously but I stopped buying them right after the New 52. It makes me sad but I don't think I would enjoy what they are producing now. The new JSA book looks interesting, though.
Superman & Lois, Rebirth Superman, and Super Sons was a good read covering 12year old John Kent learning about his powers and just dealing with kid stuff about having your first girl crush and forgetting to remove the cardboard from the bottom of a frozen pizza. Along with John/Superboy wearing four music headphones just to block out all the background noise his hearing is picking up on. Being dropped on to his knees cause he heard screeching semitruck brakes from a mile away. All the comics are free to read on YT.
Hope you had a good weekend.
12:30 You want Sonichu? This is how you get Sonichu.
That's exactly why the people in the big two act like chris chan because they don't do much to improve the art style or anything it's just more bs!
The Batman problem is a big problem, as you said. He's a dark character, so with nearly half of DC's titles being Batman-related, it casts a shadow upon the entire universe, making everything darker and grittier.
It's a shame that we can't have a Superman problem, where everything is tinted with a positive, uplifting tone. That'd be a good problem to have.
I like Batman. I hate the Dark Knight. I love Superman.
But even, at least in the movies, the last two Superman actors were playing darker versions of the character.
I dont have a problem with too many flashes or green lanterns. Batman and superman is were the problem lies for me
It's probably too late for comic book "journalists" like CBR. Who would trust them at this point?
I dont like when new writters always have to leave their mark on a character that just makes it worse.
OK, I'll be the guy. 😅
It's funny how these issues don't affect manga and anime. 🤣
When every event is special, then there really aren't any more special events, are there?
Money cutbacks even affect "sponsored" posts.
Writing for the trades, over reliance on Photoshop, diluting characters and wokeness has destroyed comics. Also variants and overall terrible covers.
10:13
To be honest, I'm actually a massive fan of the multi verse concept.
My only issue is that when it crosses over from universe to universe, Something like the original injustice.
I was not a fan of the main line Superman coming in and stopping tyrant Superman.
I wanted them to take him down on their own terms of the universe, not reach out for help.
But then again, I am the kind of guy who eats candy for dinner, and it hasn't lost the impact for me, so... 🙃
Keith Giffin said decompression is lazy story telling.
I feel like legacy characters and 'families' are different things. To me a legacy character is when a character dies or retires and another character takes up their mantel but they act only one at a time. Family is when they have them all acting at the same time but while they're based on the same powers/ concepts they have their own name and kind of have different (if similar) costumes.
I have no issue with legacy characters IF the original character stays dead or retired and they don't keep coming back and working with the new character. The downfall of the 'family' concept is that you end up with a bunch of similar (if not actually the same) characters and it gets boring. It also comes off as lacking creativity and originality.
Why the f**k did DC give Tom Taylor the new Titans series? I don't have much hope cause the Titans have never been a seller in the past 20 years and with the live action cancelled on HBOMax ...
I want to add one more to the list. To many "god" level heroes and villains, like Omega level mutants or Captain Marvel. In the good old days, event the most powerful heroes like Superman or opponents Galactus had a way to defeat them. But now they just up power characters to a ridiculous degree. I think it started way back in the day with Jean Grey/Phoenix a character so powerful that it could only be defeated by killing itself. It's like what I hated most about Stephenie Meyer's' Twilight books. The vampires were so powerful and indestructible that only another Vampire or a Werewolf could destroy them. Regular humans didn't have a chance. A key story point of such monster stories is that the regular human had shot at vanquishing the monster.
How about the death of characters. Gwen Stacy has lost it's impact and the death of Phoenix started the unintentional landslide.
The reasons are=
10. Some comic books are clearly written to be tv shows and movies.
09. Decompression is OK, but readers still like shorter arcs.
08. The Comic Industry has seen its genres whittled away.
07. The Shrinkage of Ongoing Books leaves readers little to invest in.
06. The Multiverse is Fun, but there can be Too Much of a Good Thing.
05. It's Time to Admit the SuperHero Families are Too Big.
04. There's No Good Reason Any Comic Should Have Dozens Of Variant Covers.
03. Fans miss a world that wasn't quite so Batman-Centric.
02. Deconstruction Stories Have Long Outstayed Their Welcome.
01. Too many Comic Events will turn away readers.
the comic book industry has been dead for at least three years
Gee, CBR forgot the political propaganda plaguing comic books. That is the number one killer of every single series.
CBR is a bit late.
I remember reading the new age of heroes and that didn't last long and also that's when I wanted read to read good comics but it seems I was too late to be a fan of the big two!
I picked up Avengers war across time and that is it
I am almost done with new comic books 😢
but they write themselves into the characters so Tom King writes batman as himself and superman is the same.
Hickman's G.O.D.S, he definitely wants a tv series.
I wish fanboys would stop comparing modern comic writers to Alan Moore because of deconstructionism. Alan Moore didn’t just deconstruct characters and abandon the title. He reimagined characters and made them more interesting. He also created characters that lasted almost half a century in comics. Fanboys are still reading Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing and Killing Joke. He only deconstructed characters to construct new narratives.
I want to weigh in on Batman. Shadow of the Bat was more psychological. Detective Comics was basically an action book. And Robin was different. And Nightwing was different. Catwoman was basically cheesecake. And you could have a Jim Gordon or GCPD book. A hard crime series.
Superman is a super hero. Batman is more of a mystery man. He looks to the Gray Ghost, The Sandman,, maybe the Crimson Avenger. Every character has to be distinct. Superman catches planes. Batman solves murders. Jim Gordon doesn't wear Batman armor. Blurring it together diminished the whole. And I completely agree about deconstruction. You aren't Alan Moore. He needs a haircut and a bath and thinks he's a wizard. He wrote great stuff. Time to move on. The book you showed Wes with Martian Man Hunter burning himself and banging Fire was just stupid. The John Ostrander book was much, much better. J'onn eventually moves past his losses and either becomes RJ Brande, or merges with the planet Mars, not unlike The Martian Chronicles, which is a great book. That's the character growing. I love that. It's construction. Some of the Jack Kirby stuff would be weird or goofy, but he made dozens of toys to play with. That's what being creative means. Even some minor character like Desaad. He's the god of torture. That's scary as hell.
I think Batman could be pared down in say the Brave and the Bold or Showcase or something similar. We don't need 15 of him or a hundred spider people or whatever. Get back to the core. I always thought Batman and the Question were interesting as a team.
I don't agree with what you said about Batman yes there's too much batman but if the interesting thing about Batman is his darkness then of course having more darker characters would make more interesting characters I just don't want them to have anything to do with Batman and yeah the universe is mostly hopeful but that doesn't mean there can't be a lot dark characters
i would be in favor of another infinite crisis style reboot for DC
the family and verse thing is annoying, Gwen verse, Spider-verse, Venom-verse, Miles what if he was every hero,
Once again, from the rooftops : GET WOKE... GO BROKE
Woke doesn’t exist, just bad writing.
theyre not called incrementalists for nothiing.
To be fair, a lack of Batman would end DC Comics. They should rebrand as Batman Comics and stop wasting time with anything else that clearly doesn't sell. Just license the other characters to people willing to write good stories, not woke politics.
22min.
This is what drove me away from "the big 2". I like a comic with history. Where stuff matters. If it's just going to be restarted all the time, then I'm not interested.
Long winded doc has no idea how to be short winded once again!
It's who he is, Jollygreen. No ones forcing you to listen to him.
I wish Wes cut in more.
@@jaylucien669 I recently learned he's not a real doctor, he just plays one on TH-cam...
@@MutantGenius I’m also not a lawyer but I have to play one at work way too often.
@@ScienceJesus You're not a doctor, you're a doktor. Totally different kind of Medikal Skool.