Superheroes: Threat Or Menace?
Another of my brief rants. I'll be adding these periodically as they come up, and do my best to keep them short 'cause I hate it when people go on and on in cases like this. We get it. You're angry. Go shoot something in a video game and calm the fck down.
Anyhow. You know what really grinds my gears? The complaints about superheroes dominating the comic book industry. Don't get me wrong, its definitely true, but to hear these people talk, they sound like they'd be happy if superheroes were wiped out from comics entirely.
...Word, son? So then comics can be a respectable medium of storytelling like the others? And on top of that, exactly the same, too. Filled with the exact same genres except with nowhere near as interesting stories. Brilliant.
Don't get me wrong--I don't hate ALL indy comics. Vertigo frequently comes out with some gems, and I really enjoy a lot of the licensed comics coming out of BOOM! and IDW, and I'm giving thought to checking out some things from Dynamite as well.
But really, setting aside the quality of most independent comics...just, look at the genres. Mystery. Horror. Sci-Fi. Horror. Fantasy. Horror. (Yeah, three times. There's a lot of horror stories in writers, for some strange reason.) Haven't we seen these before? Like, in every other form of storytelling there is?
Superheroes started in comics, and they're unique to comics. Yes yes, I know, they're in cartoons and movies, but really. 2008 was hailed as this great year for superhero movies--how many did we actually get? Three. Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and The Dark Knight. 2009 was devoid of them, to my knowledge. (Not counting Watchmen.)
New cartoons come out pretty much every year, but superheroes make up a miniscule portion of those cartoons, not even comprising all of the action series to be released. Between DC and Marvel, there's currently a total of five superhero on the air: Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Spectacular Spider-Man, Wolverine and the X-Men, and Batman: Brave and the Bold. (And, recently, The Super Hero Squad.) That's the most that's been on at one time all decade, and even WITH all four of those on the air, you gotta know at best they're all going to die after 65 episodes, while Spongebob continues to run and gain an episode count into the 100s.
There's live-action, but Warners has been trying to get a series that isn't Smallville off the ground for the better part of the last five years to absolutely zero success. Marvel didn't even try.
The fact is, for all of their popularity, the only place superheroes have REALLY been able to live, nevermind thrive, is in comics. And you want to wipe them out THERE, too? Wow. Selfish. You get every other form of storytelling there is, and you want this one too?
Plus, you can't actually tell me all superhero comic books are awful. Not without having some ridiculous bias. Kurt Busiek's Astro City. The Busiek/Perez Avengers run. Kurt Busiek's Iron Man. Grant Morrison's stint on JLA, with all its epic insanity. Keith Giffen's comedic take on the same characters in JLI. Morrison's New X-Men. Brubaker, Fraction, and David Aja's Immortal Iron Fist. Grant Morrison's Flex Mentallo. Chuck Dixon's 100 issue Robin run, which was basically the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko Spider-Man of its era. Busiek's Marvels mini-series. Jeph Loeb's Spider-Man: Blue. Neil Gaiman's 1602. Geoff Johns' Hawkman. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's The Legion. Geoff Johns' JSA. Joe Casey's modern-day take on the early years of the Avengers, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The epic weekly series by Mark Waid, Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and Grant Morrison, 52. Peter David's wonderful 80 issue run on Supergirl. Geoff Johns' Green Lantern. Peter David's classic Aquaman run. Gail Simone's All-New Atom. Allan Heinberg's Young Avengers. Peter David's Young Justice series. James Robinson's Starman.
Those are just the titles I thought of off the top of my head. If you can tell me NONE of those titles are any good, then fine. I guess you hate superheroes. But that's not really the genres fault, because they've churned out plenty of quality work, ranging from pure superhero action (Avengers) to futuristic sci-fi (The Legion) to romance stories (Spider-Man: Blue). And there are so many stories I left out. Dozens that I've read, not to mention the older stories I've never read. Wolfman/Perez's Titans. Paul Levitz's Legion. Mark Waid's Flash. Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams' Batman. O'Neil's The Question.
Yeah, there's crap. Plenty of it. But that's in EVERY genre. Sure, the fans can be annoying. Again, in EVERY genre. But to pretend like the medium would be better off without superheroes...its not just selfish...its kind of offensive. Basically, you're saying you don't enjoy good stories.
Anyhow. You know what really grinds my gears? The complaints about superheroes dominating the comic book industry. Don't get me wrong, its definitely true, but to hear these people talk, they sound like they'd be happy if superheroes were wiped out from comics entirely.
...Word, son? So then comics can be a respectable medium of storytelling like the others? And on top of that, exactly the same, too. Filled with the exact same genres except with nowhere near as interesting stories. Brilliant.
Don't get me wrong--I don't hate ALL indy comics. Vertigo frequently comes out with some gems, and I really enjoy a lot of the licensed comics coming out of BOOM! and IDW, and I'm giving thought to checking out some things from Dynamite as well.
But really, setting aside the quality of most independent comics...just, look at the genres. Mystery. Horror. Sci-Fi. Horror. Fantasy. Horror. (Yeah, three times. There's a lot of horror stories in writers, for some strange reason.) Haven't we seen these before? Like, in every other form of storytelling there is?
Superheroes started in comics, and they're unique to comics. Yes yes, I know, they're in cartoons and movies, but really. 2008 was hailed as this great year for superhero movies--how many did we actually get? Three. Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and The Dark Knight. 2009 was devoid of them, to my knowledge. (Not counting Watchmen.)
New cartoons come out pretty much every year, but superheroes make up a miniscule portion of those cartoons, not even comprising all of the action series to be released. Between DC and Marvel, there's currently a total of five superhero on the air: Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Spectacular Spider-Man, Wolverine and the X-Men, and Batman: Brave and the Bold. (And, recently, The Super Hero Squad.) That's the most that's been on at one time all decade, and even WITH all four of those on the air, you gotta know at best they're all going to die after 65 episodes, while Spongebob continues to run and gain an episode count into the 100s.
There's live-action, but Warners has been trying to get a series that isn't Smallville off the ground for the better part of the last five years to absolutely zero success. Marvel didn't even try.
The fact is, for all of their popularity, the only place superheroes have REALLY been able to live, nevermind thrive, is in comics. And you want to wipe them out THERE, too? Wow. Selfish. You get every other form of storytelling there is, and you want this one too?
Plus, you can't actually tell me all superhero comic books are awful. Not without having some ridiculous bias. Kurt Busiek's Astro City. The Busiek/Perez Avengers run. Kurt Busiek's Iron Man. Grant Morrison's stint on JLA, with all its epic insanity. Keith Giffen's comedic take on the same characters in JLI. Morrison's New X-Men. Brubaker, Fraction, and David Aja's Immortal Iron Fist. Grant Morrison's Flex Mentallo. Chuck Dixon's 100 issue Robin run, which was basically the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko Spider-Man of its era. Busiek's Marvels mini-series. Jeph Loeb's Spider-Man: Blue. Neil Gaiman's 1602. Geoff Johns' Hawkman. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's The Legion. Geoff Johns' JSA. Joe Casey's modern-day take on the early years of the Avengers, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The epic weekly series by Mark Waid, Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and Grant Morrison, 52. Peter David's wonderful 80 issue run on Supergirl. Geoff Johns' Green Lantern. Peter David's classic Aquaman run. Gail Simone's All-New Atom. Allan Heinberg's Young Avengers. Peter David's Young Justice series. James Robinson's Starman.
Those are just the titles I thought of off the top of my head. If you can tell me NONE of those titles are any good, then fine. I guess you hate superheroes. But that's not really the genres fault, because they've churned out plenty of quality work, ranging from pure superhero action (Avengers) to futuristic sci-fi (The Legion) to romance stories (Spider-Man: Blue). And there are so many stories I left out. Dozens that I've read, not to mention the older stories I've never read. Wolfman/Perez's Titans. Paul Levitz's Legion. Mark Waid's Flash. Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams' Batman. O'Neil's The Question.
Yeah, there's crap. Plenty of it. But that's in EVERY genre. Sure, the fans can be annoying. Again, in EVERY genre. But to pretend like the medium would be better off without superheroes...its not just selfish...its kind of offensive. Basically, you're saying you don't enjoy good stories.
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