I’m quitting comics.
This isn’t news that is going to send the executives of DC and Marvel scurrying through the corridors in panic. To be honest I haven’t actually bought a superhero comic in about six years. I’ve not read one since I went through a phase of stealing them from the internet about six months ago.
But I’ve always intended to come back to them at some point. Once the kids were a bit older, our finances a bit healthier, and my time a little less pressured. Yeah, I’m not entirely sure when that would be either, but never-the-less I’ve always held the hope that one day I’d be able to regain my place on the comic shop’s pull list.
But not any more.
Why? Because they’ve killed Batman that’s why.
This video is especially for Lee who doesn’t know who Blue Oyster Cult are
Or at least they’ve killed Bruce Wayne anyway. Dick Grayson, the former Robin, has now donned the Dark Knights cowl. Of course he’s not the most recent Robin, that would be Tim Drake. Before him of course Jason Todd was the Boy Wonder, but he got killed by the Joker. Only he didn’t as he’s still alive. Although he’s dead now because he fell off a bridge in a battle with Dick Grayson (but lets face it he’s probably not dead). Tim Drake is now calling himself Red Robin and has gone off in search of Bruce Wayne, who’s not really dead by the way but just displaced in time. Oh, and Bruce Waynes long lost son Damian Wayne is now Robin, but he has issues.
Bloody Hell, it’s worse than Eastenders.
I’m not a raving fanboy as described by Matt over at Culture Kills. I’m not generally one to stand on the precipice screaming “This is what I Iove and you’re killing it!!!”. But I’m just tired of comics disappointing me all the time. I get it that all good stories need conflict, tension, and peril; and I understand that new writers joining established titles need to make an impact to distinguish their tenure from those who had come before. But I wish they’d stop messing about with my favorite characters damnit.
Oh I know he’ll be back, but that’s not the point.
Comic book characters are icons; especially ones like Superman, Batman, Spiderman and The Hulk. I don’t want their story lines to have huge life altering arcs a-la Babylon 5. I want them to have one off self contained episodes like Star Trek (could I even get any more geeky here?). Such characters have transcended beyond being the intellectual properties of Marvel and DC and have now become Jungian archetypes belonging to the cultural fabric of our society.
And as such it upsets me when they are gratuitously mucked about with in order to sell the latest cynical Crisis on Infinite Zero Hour mega comic crossover event.
Superhero movies and TV shows aren’t so bad. Sure they frequently mess around with settings, details and supporting cast; but to me they only exist in “elseworlds”, they don’t feel like they are part of the continuity or canon. If there is a Batman movie that I don’t like then I just expunge it from my memory and pretend it didn’t happen. But if DC do something in a comic that I don’t like then I can’t just ignore it, no matter how much I want to. The comics are somehow the reality that the character lives in, other media versions are just made up stories. If it happened in the comics then it feels like it really happened and there is no escaping it.
You know what: maybe I need to get out more.
So I’m quitting comics. Not particularly buying them as I don’t do that anyway; but taking any notice of what’s happening in them. I’m going to stop checking out my favorite characters on Wikipedia to see what’s happening to them, and I’m going to stop hiding in a corner at borders and reading all the graphic novels. It’s just too frustrating.
I’m not quitting superheros though. In fact I’ve recently developed a new facet of my morning routine. I get up at 6am, go for my three mile morning constitutional, then come home to an episode of whatever superhero cartoon I Sky +’d the previous day. I’m currently making my way through Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which I recommend highly. The last episode even had Blue Beetle voiced by Wil Wheaton, it doesn’t get much better than that.
Oh Blue Beetle, how I miss you so. Damn you DC, damn you to hell!
Drawing by the rather excellent Lee from Quit Your Day Job
Oh, and although I’ve given up superhero comics I’ve not totally abandoned the genre and will occasionally be dipping my toes into the water of small press comics. While I have yet to pick up issue 2 of Rol’s excellent PJANG comic, the first one was great (in a rather Rol like misanthropic way) and I will be ordering the new one in the next couple of days. Go check it out if you haven’t already.
Related posts:
That’s awesome, and for the record I know the band I just disconnected the name for a minute or two (sheesh I forget one little name and they’re all over me LOL).
I do know exactly what you are saying because after reading the new Batman and Robin comic I spent a fair amount of time thinking about the fact that this indeed was no longer my Batman. The history of Batman is forever changed unless they do some sort of brand new day Spider-Man thing on the DC universe (dear god no more crisis!).
I like the idea that comic book icons have a combined snapshot of who we think they are and to be honest some days I just want to read a Fantastic Four comic without having to firstly work out who the FF are now days and what politics are going on.
Iron Man, once my beloved favourite bears little resemblance to the character I grew up with and I’ve gotten bored with this stranger, the movie was closer in line to the real character.
I would also like to give a call out to Rol’s excellent indie comic.
Maybe you’ll be back if they revive Kord or produce a monthly G’Nort run?
[rq=5200,0,blog][/rq]My cunning hat and a character concept piece
@Lee, according to wikipedia Kord is back. But that doesn’t particularly make me happy, as I don’t trust the buggers not to bugger things up again. I might buy a Giffen and DeMatitis penned Blue and gold series which existed to one side of the universe. but you just know that as soon as they want to do the next crappy crossover they would bring them in a mess around with them again.
So that was pretty geeky, but being married to a geek myself, I actually very much appreciated this post. Particularly this line: “Such characters have transcended beyond being the intellectual properties of Marvel and DC and have now become Jungian archetypes belonging to the cultural fabric of our society.” That wasn’t geeky at all! In fact, that was very clever.
[rq=5803,0,blog][/rq]Patience
@Erin, why thank you. I read it on the back of a cereal packet.
I’m no regular ‘offline’ comic reader, and although I’ve quit many online comic the last couple of years I will not quit completely.
@BOC’s Don’t fear the reaper, I didn’t know that they’ve made different versions of this song too..because I’ve got another version of it. Now Lee will not forget BOC for a while haha.
@Arjan, it might not even be BOC to be honest, it could be just a cover by someone else.
There was a phase when they made Beetlejuice Batman, that I vowed to give it up. But it got better and I returned. Of course this is the movies but since I don’t read comics, it’s all I’ve got.
[rq=7150,0,blog][/rq]Gonna Fly Now
@James (Seattledad), I didn’t mind Keaton’s Batman, although he made a better Bruce Wayne. I didn’t like Burton’s direction though, especially in the second film.
Hmmmm, I get this to some degree. I’ve never been into comics, but if you’ve grown up with a character and have a tied history with them, then when something ‘out of character’ occurs then it just feels wrong. You’ve made an investment in them and it’s getting sha* on. Killing off a character and bringing them back more than once is just wrong, and silly and it would turn me off completely.
[rq=7347,0,blog][/rq]Cake
@Jo Beaufoix, it’d difficult drawing the line between having a exciting plot where you aren’t sure what’s going to happen next, and having a plot which craps over everything that goes before it.
Joss Weadon walks that line most effectively I think with shows like Buffy and firefly.
I used to have a massive 2000AD habit which extended into all the spin-offs. It got to the point where I was totting around (I had a very peripatetic existence for a while) two or three boxes of clothes, half a dozen boxes of records and twice as many comics. And they were growing. I had 15 years worth.
So I went cold turkey – I gave then all to a children’s home and stopped comics altogether, apart from Neil Gaiman. And the Cerebus collections, of course. And…
Actually, I need a much bigger house.
[rq=8218,0,blog][/rq]Good monrning, supergirl
@dadwhowrites, I still have a box full of treasured comics – Justice League international and a fantastic indi comic called Box Office Poison.
I could never get into cerbus, but I think I made the mistake of trying to start from the beginning.