Karaoke Comics
After doing a little karaoke last night, it made me think about how the concept could be applied to comics (it is quite strange how many things I think about how they could be applied to comics..hehe), and it occured to that there have been a bunch of books out there that I would consider to be "karaoke comics."
A karaoke comic is a run on a comic that follows a previous run very closely, but as it is a copy, ends up being inferior to the original product.
Some examples:
Chris Claremont and Alan Davis on Uncanny X-Men are basically doing a karaoke version of their run on Excalibur. Nightcrawler and Rachel Summers are members of the team, Jamie Braddock is playing a big part and characters like Courtney Ross are being dusted off for the first time in a decade or so. The current run, though, lacks the humor and creativity of their initial run on Excalibur. I mean, a race of Saurons in the Savage Land? That soooo would not make it into the pages of the Cross-Time Caper.
Mark Waid's second run on Flash. A perfect example of someone who just should have left earlier than later (although I freely admit that I admire his dedication to the book). His second run on the book (#142-162) just lacked the inventiveness of his first run on the book, which still stands up as one of the best superhero runs of recent memory (especially #61-100). Here, in the second run, Waid ended up being influenced too much by both his own earlier run and the work of Grant Morrison. Regarding the first, Waid brought us yet ANOTHER storyline where either Wally or Linda was lost in time/space/whatever. This time, however, BOTH of them went missing! In addition, Abra Kadabra ended up being the big bad guy, making this literally the FIFTH time Abra Kadabra was used during Waid's run (the others being in the #70s, in Zero Hour, in Underworld Unleashed, and in the story where Linda was frozen). Regarding the latter, Morrison's big thing during the period was to evoke the Silver Age. Well, Waid definitely evoked the Silver Age, only Waid evoked the stuff from the Silver Age that probably was better left untouched. Barry Allen's Evil Twin Brother? *Groan*
Not to pick on Waid too much (as I like his work), but his run on JLA was also, to me, an example of karaoke comics. His work really struck me as "Grant Morrison-lite," even going so far as to make his first storyline as regular writer be a cast-off idea of Morrison's (the Batman protocols). This irked me because Waid's two previous fill-ins (not counting the ones he wrote with Devin Grayson) were, while still written in a Morrison-esque style, still had enough Waid in them to really stand out. His later issues, in my view, did not. Likewise, Joe Kelly also opened up with some karaoke comics, but quickly went away from that style.
Garth Ennis did not appear to really have many more stories in the vein of "Welcome Back, Frank" left in him, but that did not keep him from writing another 28-30 issues of Punisher in the same style. Luckily, I think even Ennis realized he was just singing over the same tune, and relaunched the title, and it is much different now.
Currently, Samm Barnes and Fiona Avery, on their respective attempts at Spider-Man, really read a lot like karaoke versions of JMS' Spider-Man.
Early in his solo Justice League Europe run, after Keith Giffen had left the book, Gerard Jones seemed to try to keep the style in the same humorous tone...but really did not match up with the humor of Giffen at all, so the book was like a bad karaoke performance, until Jones changed directions with the book (at which point it was still bad, but at least it wasn't a bad karaoke performance).
Can anyone think of any others?
A karaoke comic is a run on a comic that follows a previous run very closely, but as it is a copy, ends up being inferior to the original product.
Some examples:
Chris Claremont and Alan Davis on Uncanny X-Men are basically doing a karaoke version of their run on Excalibur. Nightcrawler and Rachel Summers are members of the team, Jamie Braddock is playing a big part and characters like Courtney Ross are being dusted off for the first time in a decade or so. The current run, though, lacks the humor and creativity of their initial run on Excalibur. I mean, a race of Saurons in the Savage Land? That soooo would not make it into the pages of the Cross-Time Caper.
Mark Waid's second run on Flash. A perfect example of someone who just should have left earlier than later (although I freely admit that I admire his dedication to the book). His second run on the book (#142-162) just lacked the inventiveness of his first run on the book, which still stands up as one of the best superhero runs of recent memory (especially #61-100). Here, in the second run, Waid ended up being influenced too much by both his own earlier run and the work of Grant Morrison. Regarding the first, Waid brought us yet ANOTHER storyline where either Wally or Linda was lost in time/space/whatever. This time, however, BOTH of them went missing! In addition, Abra Kadabra ended up being the big bad guy, making this literally the FIFTH time Abra Kadabra was used during Waid's run (the others being in the #70s, in Zero Hour, in Underworld Unleashed, and in the story where Linda was frozen). Regarding the latter, Morrison's big thing during the period was to evoke the Silver Age. Well, Waid definitely evoked the Silver Age, only Waid evoked the stuff from the Silver Age that probably was better left untouched. Barry Allen's Evil Twin Brother? *Groan*
Not to pick on Waid too much (as I like his work), but his run on JLA was also, to me, an example of karaoke comics. His work really struck me as "Grant Morrison-lite," even going so far as to make his first storyline as regular writer be a cast-off idea of Morrison's (the Batman protocols). This irked me because Waid's two previous fill-ins (not counting the ones he wrote with Devin Grayson) were, while still written in a Morrison-esque style, still had enough Waid in them to really stand out. His later issues, in my view, did not. Likewise, Joe Kelly also opened up with some karaoke comics, but quickly went away from that style.
Garth Ennis did not appear to really have many more stories in the vein of "Welcome Back, Frank" left in him, but that did not keep him from writing another 28-30 issues of Punisher in the same style. Luckily, I think even Ennis realized he was just singing over the same tune, and relaunched the title, and it is much different now.
Currently, Samm Barnes and Fiona Avery, on their respective attempts at Spider-Man, really read a lot like karaoke versions of JMS' Spider-Man.
Early in his solo Justice League Europe run, after Keith Giffen had left the book, Gerard Jones seemed to try to keep the style in the same humorous tone...but really did not match up with the humor of Giffen at all, so the book was like a bad karaoke performance, until Jones changed directions with the book (at which point it was still bad, but at least it wasn't a bad karaoke performance).
Can anyone think of any others?
posted by Brian Cronin at 3/12/2005 02:36:00 PM
14 Comments:
Nice observation. I don't know if I would be as down on "karaoke comics", but I can think of some examples.
For Daredevil, I would say there have been a few attempts to recreate the glory days of Frank Miller. Two prominent ones would be D.G Chichester's run which brought back Elektra and made numerous references to "Born Again"; and there's Kevin Smith's take which was very respectfull of Miller's stories.
I would also say that Mark Millar tried to follow Warren Ellis very closely when he took over Authority.
While his art is already similar, I'd say that Phil Jimenez's run on Wonder Woman was a kind of homage to George Perez.
Still, I liked all of those runs, go figure.
I think, Hisham, that you make a good point by noting that I perhaps should not have used a word like "inferior" which, while I still believe is technically accurate, carries negative connotations.
I agree with your picks, they all strike me exactly as what I would think of as karaoke comics, in that in each case, even if they were good comics on their own, they were not as good as the originals.
For instance, I liked Mark Millar's Authority, but I do not think it was as good as Warren Ellis' original.
I liked Phil Jiminez' Wonder Woman well enough, but I do not think it was as good as George Perez' Wonder Woman.
Now I can't say I was as much of a fan as Chichester or Smith...hehe.
I liked Waid's JLA run, but I definitely felt the "out-Morrisoning Morrison" vibe, particularly on Terror Incognita. I love Waid, but he's at his best when he's being Waid.
Karaoke comics I have known: The "Raven Rising" arc of Teen Titans definitely felt like Geoff Johns trying to karaoke Marv Wolfman. Fortunately, he got the hell away from that as quickly as possible.
Pretty much every attempt at Swamp Thing following Alan Moore's run has been flagrant karaoke. Ditto the interminable list of "Sandman Presents" series (with the notable exception of Lucifer).
Probably 95% of all 90's X-Men related comics were a karaoke version of Claremont's run.
The early Image books weren't just karaoke, they were drunken retard karaoke. (I apologize to drunken retards offended by this opinion.)
On the Daredevil note, Joe Quesada attempted to recreate earlier success on Daredevil with the Father series, but, it faltered, which is evident in the fact that Father is not so much a series as a single issue.
Lex, I don't get it...did you mean to say it was a good assessment of the Flash run, but not the JLA run?
In any event...
Yes, Mark Waid has ALWAYS been a huge Silver Age fan. Always.
But I did not see anything remotely resembling the level of Silver Age-style stuff like in his second Flash run (and the Silver Age 5th week event) until after Morrison started doing Silver Age-esque stories.
So while I certainly would never accuse Waid of taking the love of the Silver Age from Morrison, I do think that Morrison's success with that style of story inspired Waid to use it more in his second run on Flash (and the Silver Age 5th Week Event).
As for "Morrison-lite," I think Waid's ongoing run on JLA read extremely similar to Morrison's run. With that being said, "Morrison-lite" is perhaps too harsh of a term. In that case, I apologize if the term came off as too insulting.
"On the Daredevil note, Joe Quesada attempted to recreate earlier success on Daredevil with the Father series, but, it faltered, which is evident in the fact that Father is not so much a series as a single issue."
I dunno, Jim...I think a guy can return to a comic without is necesarilly being a karaoke thing.
For instance, I don't think anyone would ever accuse Born Again as being a karaoke comic...hehe.
I did not like Daredevil: Father, but I did not get the sense that Quesada was repeating any earlier themes. It just seemed to be a big pin-up book with little to no story.
How about whatshername's Vertigo run on "Doom Patrol" for another example of post-Morrison karaoke. She tried for groovy and metaphysical, but all you got was ugly and unpleasant.
Eyeball Kid - Yeah, Rachel Pollak's run is a great example of someone trying to hit the same notes, and falling, well, flat.
Christopher - I think Byrne has a few tricks up his sleeve...like Next Men. That being said, the dialogue is definitely a weird case of copying his old style of dialogue, but making it WORSE (and Byrne did not have great dialogue to begin with!).
Steve Gerber's recent Howard the Duck series.
Now Howard the Duck (original style) is one of my two favorite Marvel comics ever. And I was insanely psyched to see Gerber back writin' Howard. But his MAX take just fell flat on it's face, trying to be super-outrageous with all cussin' and such and failing to replicate the heart of the original... Cynical, bitter, and blackened as the heart may be. :)
I see your point, Brian. For some reason I was mixing the concept of karaoke with my frustration with creators for not finishing what they start. *coughjoemadureiracough*
Oh yeah, it's totally lame that he the Editor-in-Chief of Marvel cannot even get his own mini-series (MINI-SERIES, PEOPLE!) to ship on time.
Hehe...good point about Howard the Duck, Mark.
I love the point in the series where Gerber said that gay men like the Backstreet Boys a lot. That was too edgy, Gerber! TOO EDGY! Jay Leno will be LOST with that joke missing from his monologue!
Or that Oprah has a lot of power over people? I canNOT believe he went there!
YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR, GERBER!
Is nothing sacred? He even said that the Witchblade comics showed too much skin!
WHERE DOES IT END, GERBER?!?! The world is not safe from your rapier wit!
I kid, Gerber, I kid...he ruled on Defenders and his original Howard stuff rocked so freaking hard.
I almost forgot the ultimate "karaoke comic", John Byrne on Spider-man: Chapter One. Why bother to copy the style of Lee & Ditko when you can just tell the exact same stories.
Yeah, Chapter One really was an odd duck, wasn't it?
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