However, now instead of 3 Batgirls, there's just been the one. Done to 'simplify' things and shorten the timeline.
And instead of 4 robins, one of whom came back from the dead, there's four robins, one of whom came back from the dead, another of whom died and it looks like he's going to come back. And Tim Drake's backstory has been retconned so that he never figured out Batman's identity.
You know, to simplify things and shorten the timeline.
All superheroes premiered 5 years ago, except for Batman who worked in secret 5 years before that (no JSA or the like). And Stormwatch, who worked behind the scenes and handled super stuff long before that, except then they were retconned and now they didn't.
Lobo is now a skinny pretty boy. Yes, that Lobo.
Harley Quinn is now murderously evil. Joker is now even more murderously evil.
All the Amazons except for Wonder Woman are evil (some people like the new Wondy comic for it's take on the greek gods, but it has a dozen things that majorly bug me).
Of the big event comic crossovers, the first one was about the various Justice League groups fighting among themselves, the second was about the villains winning (and ultimately being defeated by Lex Luthor), and the upcoming third one is about how the villains won and turned everyone into gross cyborgs so now a version of Batman Beyond (only darker and meaner!) is coming back in time to stop it.
And that's just (some of) the story stuff.
Behind the scenes? They keep micromanaging writers, there's very much a 'house style,' there's been multiple cases where writers have walked off books, sometimes before their first issues came out, and Gail Simone of Batgirl (which I personally don't like- I find it too dark and I prefer Babs as Oracle- but it is one of their books that is doing well) was fired by e-mail then re-hired due to backlash. Batwoman had the creators told they couldn't have the main character mary her girlfriend *after* they had had it approved and the proposal already published, and they also cancelled the writer's long-planned big story they'd be building to at the last minute, causing the entire creative team to walk and the story to just end on a cliffhanger. There's fewer female creators, fewer minority characters (female/non-white/non-strait/etc.), and less variety in book type in general. They've begun resorting to gimmicks like 3d covers, and notably their new Editor-in-Chief is the one who was in charge of Marvel's low-point in the 90s when *they* resorted to cheap gimmicks.
And over at Marvel right now, there's a bunch of books in truly great runs, and a bunch more enjoyable ones. They make sure their creators are all on the same page on where each of their runs are going to begin and end (now comics are done in a 'season' format,' where the arc is planned out, then when it's done, it's done, and they start a new one after), but give the creators freedom to use their own voice and style to get there. They have a wide variety of styles, characters, and creators, and it's really doing well.
Also, non-big two companies like Image are doing great as well with books like Saga and the Walking Dead and many others. Empowered at Dark Horse (which reminds me a bit of Onepunch Man in some ways, like it having a hero society with a lot of jerks). IDW's transformers is getting acclaim, Archie's Mega Man and Sonic comics are great for lighter adventure fair (Mega Man makes great use of the Three Laws of Robotics!), yadda yadda.
This is why last April DC was closer to Image in market share than it was to Marvel ^^ DC is declining and everyone else is doing great.
Dan Didio got into the top slot awhile back, things weren't entirely bad, he got more people of his type in high positions, sales slipped some, but he convinced the higher ups that he could solve everything with something he wanted to do for awhile: A big reboot. He did the Nu52 which *temporarily* got massive sales which helped him cement his position, he got more people who he liked- i.e. liked *just* the kinds of comics he did and managed in a similar way- and things went from there.
They like things their way- which is pretty much "Silver age characters, but darker and jerkier in the same vibe of the worst parts of 90s comics, cranked up," and treat most everything not their favorites as expendable (you're a fan of anyone else across DC's multiple eras of characters, be it golden age veteran heroes or newer younger heroes? Too bad!).
They also... just aren't very good managers, changing their minds, having the whole 'multiple bosses who don't talk to each other,' and confuse 'writers willing to put up with a bunch of changes' with 'good writers.' Or values 'loyalty' (i.e. putting up with crap) over other factors. Partially because, well, they're DC, they can get more writers to come to them from indy companies because they have money, but still. It's become a thing where writers are going to DC pretty more for the exposure and not expecting to stay.
Not one but multiples writers have famously swore off the big two saying, in short, "DC is a horrible, horrible place to work, they took advantage of my willingness to go for the wall for me and screwed me in return.... oh, and Marvel's fairly story-arc centric, which doesn't mesh with my style, but they're ok." Not little guys, veterans names, Greg Rucka and Paul Jenkins
Rob Liefeld quit DC off of three books, and he's a guy who gets work on the basis that, 'he may not be the best artist, but he always hits deadlines and he's super-easy to work with.'
They're very tone-def on a lot of issues, such as any issue on any group that isn't mostly older white males.
Like, in response to complaints that there weren't many very female writers or characters in the Nu52 launch? Didio announced, 'ok, I'm going to contact a lot of female creators and get them to do books!'. This turned out to be.... one book (Sword of Sorcery, staring Amethyst of Gemworld, which did have a real female writer), which wasn't overly female friendly (first issue had an attempted rape of a side character! That's totally what female fans want to read, right?), had a male-character backup story, and only lasted 7 issues before it was canned. That was it, their entire 'let's try and reach out to female fans' push.
Then there was the time they had a drawing contest to hype the Harley Quinn comic and find new talent... and the sample panels were of Harley about to commit suicide in a variety of sexualized ways, like holding a toaster over a bathtub she's in and such (see, she's supposed to get some healing powers or something...? But this wasn't specified in the contest, so....). The winner of the comic? Had worked for DC before.
Or the time they were doing a Superman anthology book and hired noted massive homophobe Orson Scott Card (You know prop 8, the measure to ban gay marriage in California? Yea, he was on the leadership council of the group behind that) to do a story because no-one bothered to do a little bit of checking about him.
Some parts of this- writers quitting before their books even start because they're asked to change so much even after their story is approved, not the tone-defness, that's still an issue- has declined a bit, but only because reports were getting out so much that corporate started leaning on them.
Oh yea, and Marvel's response to the Nu52 was called 'Marvel One'. Basically they did a massive relaunch... where they kept the continuity, but reshuffled the teams and such and started a bunch of comics at number 1, and started a policy of writers doing planned-out arcs to completion, ending that book, then starting a new book as a followup.
Marvel's doing awesome, because they have *managerial and planning skills*. Oh, and they figured out that women *like women in comics, especially if they kick butt*.
DC's awful because they don't even pretend to cater to more than a narrow audience any more, they just try and get as much as they can from that slice (and sure, while white males in a certain age range may be a large slice, it's much better to get money from many slices) and because they have a messed-up corporate culture.
Funnily enough, their 'digital first' comics are under a different editorial crew, and it shows, it shows so hard. They have a Batman Beyond Comic, Justice League Beyond (set in the same time as BB), a Batman '66 comic based on the old show, and a couple others (the Smallville comic, an upcoming Wonder Woman anthology book, etc.)... and they actually are doing a good job.
Gender: Male Location: home, playing Guilty Gear Xrd.
O.O So Boros apparently had an attack powerful enough to leave the entire planet's surface a wasteland... so assuming that's true, we're talking... what, planetary level destruction? And Saitama... just... punched it....
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Jun 16th, 2014 03:29 PM
