My approach to this blog or "The fans don't care about that"
I honestly don't know where it came from...but a disturbing trend in comics criticism is a complacency towards whether a book is good or not.
One thing that I think certianly does not hurt this attitude being so prevalant is the argument "The fans don't care about that."
"The story makes no sense."
Well, that's okay, the story doesn't have to make sense because "the fans don't care about that."
"The art is terrible."
Well, that's okay, the art doesn't have to be good because "the fans don't care about that."
The so-called "critiqueproof book" first made its appearance recently with the HUSH storyline in Batman #608-618.
The story made little to no sense. What mystery there WAS was obvious from the first or second issue (A mystery villain shows up at the same time Bruce's longlost friend does...I wonder why??). The art had major issues, especially in the objectification of women....in particular, Huntress' new "Disarm the bad guys by looking as trampy as possible." The whole gist of the storyline was "Major events happen every other issue, so we can distract the audience from the fact that there's not much ACTUALLY going on here."
And the fans ate it up.
And any attempt at critcism was rebuked with "the fans don't care about that."
And Jeph Loeb (who seems to be at the heart of a lot of this stuff, doesn't he?) uses the sucess of Batman to go do Batman/Superman, where he decides to make even LESS sense.
And the fans eat it up.
And any critcism is met with "the fans don't care about that."
I think it is important to note that just because a series is economically successful does not mean it should not be open to criticism for its story, or lack thereof.
We should never resign ourselves to subpar stories.
And that is what I hope we do here on this site...not resign ourselves to subpar stories.
And if that comes off as nitpicking...then whatever...but I do not think it is ever cool to say "it's close enough to being good" or...
"The fans don't care about that."
One thing that I think certianly does not hurt this attitude being so prevalant is the argument "The fans don't care about that."
"The story makes no sense."
Well, that's okay, the story doesn't have to make sense because "the fans don't care about that."
"The art is terrible."
Well, that's okay, the art doesn't have to be good because "the fans don't care about that."
The so-called "critiqueproof book" first made its appearance recently with the HUSH storyline in Batman #608-618.
The story made little to no sense. What mystery there WAS was obvious from the first or second issue (A mystery villain shows up at the same time Bruce's longlost friend does...I wonder why??). The art had major issues, especially in the objectification of women....in particular, Huntress' new "Disarm the bad guys by looking as trampy as possible." The whole gist of the storyline was "Major events happen every other issue, so we can distract the audience from the fact that there's not much ACTUALLY going on here."
And the fans ate it up.
And any attempt at critcism was rebuked with "the fans don't care about that."
And Jeph Loeb (who seems to be at the heart of a lot of this stuff, doesn't he?) uses the sucess of Batman to go do Batman/Superman, where he decides to make even LESS sense.
And the fans eat it up.
And any critcism is met with "the fans don't care about that."
I think it is important to note that just because a series is economically successful does not mean it should not be open to criticism for its story, or lack thereof.
We should never resign ourselves to subpar stories.
And that is what I hope we do here on this site...not resign ourselves to subpar stories.
And if that comes off as nitpicking...then whatever...but I do not think it is ever cool to say "it's close enough to being good" or...
"The fans don't care about that."
posted by Brian Cronin at 12/10/2004 01:55:00 AM
1 Comments:
I think this is a smaller subgroup of that most wonderful of movie cliches. "It's okay, as long as you switch your brain off."
I DON'T WANT TO SWITCH MY BRAIN OFF!
I like my brain. It tells me when I'm standing in a cool, crisp mountain stream, and when I'm standing knee-deep in camel crap. But hey, the camel crap's not too bad... if you switch your brain off.
Bah.
Pól.
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