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Jun. 11th, 2011
Oh no, not again.
Jun. 11th, 2011 07:40 pmI assume that all of you who care about such things have heard about DC Comics' big upcoming reboot of their titles?
Here's why I don't care, and pretty much gave up on comics years ago. Nothing is going to change. Oh, they'll update the character stories and change some costumes, but the big comic companies will never allow character development. Or anything but the most minor of changes that are inevitably ret-conned a few years later. Ignoring all the other failings of the superhero genre, why bother if the main characters are locked into a Kafka-esque cycle of repetitive stories?
Take Green Lantern, for example. Simple enough concept.. Hal Jordan is brought to the side of a dying Abin Sur who tell Jordan that he is heir to Sur's position as a Green Lantern. Jordan gets a ring that gives him power limited only by his imagination and strength of will. The ring needs to be recharged on a regular basis. Series goes on for a few decades, with Jordan stepping aside as the Lantern once or twice. Then he goes crazy, becomes a being called Parralax, tries to destroy the sun, is defeated, becomes uncrazy, and dies. Dies. Dead. We have the body. Open casket funeral. Jordan's spirit becomes The Spectre, a major magical being on the DC universe. Pretty cool, huh? We had a new Green Lantern, An established hero had gone on to become one of the most powerful beings in existence, and other characters had to deal with the aftermath of all this happening.
Until DC changed everything back.
Same thing happened in Iron Man. Tony Stark was shot by a deranged lover and left paralyzed from the waist down. Wow, what a chance for story telling! Tony's an addictive personality.. a known alcoholic and sex addict. How is he going to react to being confined to a wheelchair when he has a suit of armor that allows him to walk? How does such a powerful man deal with sudden disability? Stark has always been one of the more interesting people in Marvel's stable. This could have been great. Instead we have Tony implant a chip in his spine that bypasses the damaged sections. (As an aside.. why wasn't this ever marketed?) That causes further problems, and Tony dies, leaving everything to his long-time aide James Rhodes. Wow, another great story opportunity! Except of course they wimped out and revealed that Tony had faked his death. Small side note. This story took place in California. It is illegal to fake your own death here. Also, once the will went through probate Rhodes still owned everything. But everything went back to the status quo.
So how would I do it? I'd let characters age, change, die, retire, and move on. ( Let's take Batman as an example )
Obviously, my immortal Joker will plague all the Bat-folk.
What do y'all think? Nice thing is you can get years of stories out of each iteration of the main characters, and bring different points of view to the book with each change, as well as having a ready-made springboard for new characters.
Here's why I don't care, and pretty much gave up on comics years ago. Nothing is going to change. Oh, they'll update the character stories and change some costumes, but the big comic companies will never allow character development. Or anything but the most minor of changes that are inevitably ret-conned a few years later. Ignoring all the other failings of the superhero genre, why bother if the main characters are locked into a Kafka-esque cycle of repetitive stories?
Take Green Lantern, for example. Simple enough concept.. Hal Jordan is brought to the side of a dying Abin Sur who tell Jordan that he is heir to Sur's position as a Green Lantern. Jordan gets a ring that gives him power limited only by his imagination and strength of will. The ring needs to be recharged on a regular basis. Series goes on for a few decades, with Jordan stepping aside as the Lantern once or twice. Then he goes crazy, becomes a being called Parralax, tries to destroy the sun, is defeated, becomes uncrazy, and dies. Dies. Dead. We have the body. Open casket funeral. Jordan's spirit becomes The Spectre, a major magical being on the DC universe. Pretty cool, huh? We had a new Green Lantern, An established hero had gone on to become one of the most powerful beings in existence, and other characters had to deal with the aftermath of all this happening.
Until DC changed everything back.
Same thing happened in Iron Man. Tony Stark was shot by a deranged lover and left paralyzed from the waist down. Wow, what a chance for story telling! Tony's an addictive personality.. a known alcoholic and sex addict. How is he going to react to being confined to a wheelchair when he has a suit of armor that allows him to walk? How does such a powerful man deal with sudden disability? Stark has always been one of the more interesting people in Marvel's stable. This could have been great. Instead we have Tony implant a chip in his spine that bypasses the damaged sections. (As an aside.. why wasn't this ever marketed?) That causes further problems, and Tony dies, leaving everything to his long-time aide James Rhodes. Wow, another great story opportunity! Except of course they wimped out and revealed that Tony had faked his death. Small side note. This story took place in California. It is illegal to fake your own death here. Also, once the will went through probate Rhodes still owned everything. But everything went back to the status quo.
So how would I do it? I'd let characters age, change, die, retire, and move on. ( Let's take Batman as an example )
Obviously, my immortal Joker will plague all the Bat-folk.
What do y'all think? Nice thing is you can get years of stories out of each iteration of the main characters, and bring different points of view to the book with each change, as well as having a ready-made springboard for new characters.
