Hey y'all--apologies for the lack of updates, but in my defence, I've been dodging snowstorms and generally been pretty busy. Also, the next episode of The Prisoner in my series is God-Christ-Awful and will take any excuse not to write about it, because I have nothing to say about it. But as it's getting to the "just get on with it" event horizon, maybe soon.
But while we're waiting, a thought experiment for you--OK, so Marvel and DC both are beating the drums that their newer events post Dark Reign and Blackest Night will be a dramatic shift in tone away from the sturm und drang that has occurred for the past half-decade or so under the pens of Bendis and Johns.
Putting aside that it's a damning indictment that once again we have to have a big fuck-off event just to announce that We're Doing Something Different Now (instead of just getting on with the "something different") And the people bringing you this shift in tone are . . .Bendis and Johns, neither of whom has ever convinced me they can play outside of their very limited grooves to any great effect. I've never cared much for Bendis' work, and Johns has a high fail rate with me (though in the interests of fairness, Johns will come up with things I find intriguing, usually by accident)
So, uh . . .how's this supposed to work?
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16 comments:
I suppose a genuine clean break was too much to hope for...
Of course, what's really amusing about this whole situation is that the impending Shiny Happy People trend is clearly an editorial mandate - Bendis and Johns could've kept their current Wangstapalooza going for years - which means these would-be architects of their respective universes have been reduced to the same status as any early '90s writer-as-editorial-sock-puppet.
I find myself wondering the same thing. Frankly, I don't believe a damn thing DC or Marvel editorial has to say about anything.
I'm still not sure how DC's new "pulp heroes" line is going to be appreciably different, for example. The Batman/Doc Savage book didn't do much for me. This is supposed to be the first of many sub-lines?
At least this is leading DC to reprint old Doc Savage comics.
Diana--well, obviously. It's not like they haven't groomed a newer set of writers who might be able to bring a different voice to things if given the keys to the kingdom.
However, the rationale seems to be "let's do the same stuff with the same people and keep calling it something different until people believe it," I guess.
Chris--You mean you didn't beleive that Infinite Crisis was going to usher in a new lighter era of DC hero-ing? ;)
Can't say I'm sure either apart from the fact that the back-up stories are in black and white . Mind you, I'm not sure how easy a sell this is as the the only character besides Batman who's known at all is The Spirit and that may not necessarily be for the best of reasons . . .
To be brutally honest, though, I'm having a hard time thinking of any current writer I'd trust to "right the ship", as it were. It's more likely we'd lose Bendis and get, I don't know, Loeb or something.
It's probably an easier search to find someone to do a Watchmen sequel, eh?
Sadly, I have the feeling it'd be much easier. For all we know there are a dozen scripts lying on some director's table at this very moment labeled "Watchmen 2: Judgment Day." :(
Yeah. Mind you, the idea of doing Watchmen as a film already displayed a titanic example of Not Getting It so it doesn't surprise me that a sequel to it seems like a good idea as well.
Eh... I still think it was a worthy effort. Doomed to failure, perhaps, but they had to try. If only to learn the lesson that some comics really can't make the jump. And who knows, maybe they'll think twice about adapting an Alan Moore comic (just as well, since they're probably up to "Lost Girls" now and we do NOT need that). :)
Oh I'm sure there's some Alan Moore property that they can hijack and totally miss the point of . . .maybe "Promethea" can be repurposed into a girl-power movie. :)
Or "Big Numbers" as an educational film that teaches math to children. :)
And "For The Man Who Has Everything" would make a great Christmas Special! :)
"Hey, did you know Alan Moore wrote a Green Lantern story in some annual? I bet that'd be great for our next animated movie!" :)
Shh. They'll hear you. :)
If they could hear us, we'd be neck-deep in awesome comics and the Quesada-Millar-Loeb-Bendis axis would be exiled to Siberia by now. :)
Siberia's too close. I was thinking of somewhere like the poisonous surface of Venus. :)
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