“Oh Look, Someone Else Is Dead.” - Special Guest Entry
Our pal Mordechai wanted to get something off his chest, so here's a guest entry by him.
The entire internet comic fan community is apparently in a tizzy over “Countdown to Infinite Crises”. Before this, they were in a tizzy about “Identity Crises”. Prior tizzies include the Death of Hawkeye, the Norman Osborn and Gwen Stacey got freaky thing, Hush and Wargames.
Anyone remember, not to long ago, how fandom was all riled up (hah! You thought I was going to say ‘in a tizzy” again!) about Hal Jordan becoming a bad guy? How they actually took out full-page ads and the like?
Almost a decade after that full-page ad, guess what?
Hal’s back.
Not because of the ad, or the whining by the fans (and several creators). No, he’s back because a writer figured out a viable way to make the character “work” that no-one thought of ten years ago. He’s back because characters exist to make money, and the second the publishers think a “dead” character can make money, they’ll ignore the death and bring them back.
Joss Whedon wants to write Colossus? Forget “Dead is dead!” Let’s unearth the big guy!
Kevin Smith wants to write Oliver Queen as Green Arrow? DC couldn’t back-peddle fast enough.
So taking all that into account…
Why does anyone bother getting worked up by these “events”? They’re never permanent, and they rarely make for good reading.
You know what would be a great “event”? If someone did a mini-series where the goal wasn’t to change how you look at your favorite heroes, or to make things more realistic, but just tells a good story. Period
The entire internet comic fan community is apparently in a tizzy over “Countdown to Infinite Crises”. Before this, they were in a tizzy about “Identity Crises”. Prior tizzies include the Death of Hawkeye, the Norman Osborn and Gwen Stacey got freaky thing, Hush and Wargames.
Anyone remember, not to long ago, how fandom was all riled up (hah! You thought I was going to say ‘in a tizzy” again!) about Hal Jordan becoming a bad guy? How they actually took out full-page ads and the like?
Almost a decade after that full-page ad, guess what?
Hal’s back.
Not because of the ad, or the whining by the fans (and several creators). No, he’s back because a writer figured out a viable way to make the character “work” that no-one thought of ten years ago. He’s back because characters exist to make money, and the second the publishers think a “dead” character can make money, they’ll ignore the death and bring them back.
Joss Whedon wants to write Colossus? Forget “Dead is dead!” Let’s unearth the big guy!
Kevin Smith wants to write Oliver Queen as Green Arrow? DC couldn’t back-peddle fast enough.
So taking all that into account…
Why does anyone bother getting worked up by these “events”? They’re never permanent, and they rarely make for good reading.
You know what would be a great “event”? If someone did a mini-series where the goal wasn’t to change how you look at your favorite heroes, or to make things more realistic, but just tells a good story. Period
posted by Brian Cronin at 4/01/2005 08:36:00 PM
5 Comments:
Good Post, I think its paticularly ironic right now being that this week marks the return of a character that people actually PAID to kill.
I'm expecting Uncle Ben and Bucky to popup as villains any day now!
As a newbie who prefers collected editions, my concern with event comics is that most of their entertainment value will be gone by the time I read them. Since I do like to do research for upcoming comics, I expect to find it impossible to keep track of what is coming out of the big two without learning what House of M and the Crisis books are doing to their respective output.
Conclusions like this also lead me to believe that event comics like this don't have legs. Only the good stories have legs, right?
I still find plenty to read outside the big two, but I enjoy superhero stories too.
Man.. I'm really stating the obvious here, aren't I? I'm tired.
I'm gonna have to work extra hard to become a screenwriter so I can bring Blue Beetle, Sue Dibney and Ice back.
I figure once I get one good movie made, I'll be able to do it.
Ouch, Republic...harsh.
But probably fair, hehe.
Just posted this.
Figured you guys might get a kick out of it.
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