Over at Newsarama is a just released teaser from DC. It has the catch phrase "Heroes Die. Legends Live Forever." and the title appears to be Final Crisis with a date of May 2008.
Pardon me for saying this, but it just feels like one big kick to the gut. After all the high drama of Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, 52, and now Countdown, I am all event-ed out. God forgive me, but it also feels very Marvel-esque in it's boast. Don't have change happen for change's sake- there is no progress in that.
Now, I know that change is good and all, but what strikes me about this is that DC is getting ready to reboot several major characters again. I am wondering why this time? Didn't we finally get it right? Does Superman have to go be single again? Does Wonder Woman have to go back to Paradise Island? Will there only be one Green Lantern? Is Barry Allen going to be the Flash? Who is that masked man- is it Carter Hall or Katar Hol? Is Batman going to be pissed off?
You get the drift.
As much of a DC fan as I am, I am really burned out on annual events again. I don't know if I am having a flashback to the yearly "big changes" event of every year for most of the '90s, but I just can't bear it! Hera help us. Heh.
Any one have a different take on things?
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
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6 comments:
"As much of a DC fan as I am, I am really burned out on annual events again."
We should be so lucky to only have annual events. It seems to me we're in a sort of perpetual event mode, where we've all been figuratively "drinking from the firehose" for a ridiculously long time. Every mega-narrative needs some kind of denouement, and hopefully "Final Crisis" (as the title implies) will be it.
I've been saying this for quite a while now. I read some of 52 not all since I had a time keeping up with it, then WW III and a few issues of Countdown and found them for the most part pretty appalling. I didn't know who many of the new characters or 'replacements' were and not a clue what had happened in the various books related to the ongoing crisis. There's an idea. How about we change what is supposed to be just one theme and special event to "Ongoing Crisis Comics" instead of DC Comics? Seems like it already is, no special stories needed, the DCU has been in free-fall for years. And Marvel? I have been Marvelously-free for months now with the penultimate straw being the odious Civil War and the last one of course being the death of Captain America.
I thought comics were a visual/reading form of 'comfort food' and escape entertainment? Why do they reflect the fear and loathing of the real world now? Where did my safe haven where super powered noble champions that could make a change and did go? I seriously have noticed I buy my comics and sometimes don't read them for days if not weeks afterwards. My current personal 'crisis' is dreading to read my comics and a growing loss of interest in them...
Mark, you have a great point. Maybe it is "constant event" burn out.
I agree with you and hope that Final Crisis is it for a long time. Sadly I am fearful I will be wrong.
Carl, you make some excellent points. Mirroring society has a merit, but it also makes the reader lose the escapism associated with reading a comic book. There has got to be a balance, and the big two haven't found it.
I read Countdown #41 tonight and just absolutely hated it, so I am pretty down on the whole thing right now. Maybe things will turn around but at this point I am pretty skeptical.
As someone who isn't a completist and buys most of my comics via trades, the big events tend to pass me by. I'll follow them online to see what "changes" they're coming up with this time and who dies and who comes back, but an event doesn't get more money out of me. In fact, it gets less as I wait for it to be over so I don't wind up buying an incomplete story featuring a favorite character invovled in an event.
I do agree with you that I'm a little tired of them. Can't turn around with hearing about the next big event, even before the current one is over. I thought events were supposed to alter the status quo, and then bring stories out of the new environment, but with the rapid fire events onslaught we never seem to get any quality stories of how the characters deal or react to whatever changed. They're just thrust into another event where the universe "will never be the same again." I think giving the events a rest for a little bit would be a good idea.
Eaglewing: Regarding what you just said: I couldn't have said it better. Amen, my friend!
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