Wednesday, September 7, 2011

DCU: Let's all pretend we care more about the comics themselves than the state of the industry for a week, shall we?

Since June, the only story at DC Comics has been the story of DC Comics - the business.

Sure, that's been the intention at DC, to get folks like myself interested and excited in DC changing course and all that.  Mission accomplished.

As you may know, I like my UT Longhorn Football Program.  And, of late, I have had some scattered thoughts regarding the fact that college football chatter increasingly centers increasingly less on the players and teams and win/loss records, and now seems to focus upon the maneuvering around conference contracts, NCAA violations, etc...  (especially here in pre and first weeks of the season). 

In truth, all I really want to do is watch football and see how these guys are playing.  When the  men and women in suits cutting deals become more interesting than the young men on the gridiron, something has gone askew.

I figure there's a 40% chance this will be awful, a 30% chance it will be mediocre, and a 30% chance its going to rock. 

So, too, has the story become so embroiled in the maneuvering of Didio, Lee and Johns these past few months that virtually no conversation seems to be taking place considering the actual content of the comics except in the most perfunctory fashion.  I enjoyed comics just fine for a long time before I even knew that comics came out on Wednesdays (somehow this escaped me until late college), or that DC reported up through the movie division rather than publishing.

If I may, I'd like to just worry about what's going on in the actual comics I'll be picking up this month.  Frankly, I'm a bit exhausted by watching the convulsions and contortions of not just DC itself, but all of us comics fans trying to make sense of this thing, partially because I'm tried of trying to make guesses of what this actually means for the comics industry.  We don't know.

Stories and interviews with writers and artists handling the relaunch inevitably turn to quoting someone else within the organization, questions about sales figures, etc...  Its just become about the business, and as I don't work in that business, I don't want to care more about sales charts and marketshare more than I care about how, exactly, Lex Luthor will have gone bald in the relaunch.

I never read the first Stormwatch, so this is all new to me
The pre-game hype show is over, and its game time.  This week, we're getting our all new Action Comics #1, and as a Superman fan, I'm going in with as open a mind as I can.  I'm also picking up Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Stormwatch (sorry, I had to see Martian Manhunter.  I love that guy.  Plus, Cornell), Static Shock, and Batgirl (c'mon, Gail!  You can do this!).

I may pick up another title or two.  We'll see.  I really want to spend some time looking at the books and hear what my colleagues are saying.

Hey, YOU GUYS are colleagues!  What are you getting?

5 comments:

Fantomenos said...

Well, since I have tribal tattoos and am the kind of comic fan other comic fans look down on, I'm holding out for the 3dgy stuff.

JL Dark and Red Lanterns!

Simon MacDonald said...

I think I've already mentioned in another thread that I'm getting Animal Man, Batgirl, JLI and Swamp Thing. When I stopped by my LCS to get my books they were delayed due to Labor Day so I was not able to get them.

I did chat with John, the owner, for a bit and he mentioned that every one of the new 52 titles had at least one pull request except for Static Shock which I found pretty sad.

The League said...

If I kind of squint and try not to see that as a possible comment on the lack of enthusiasm for non-white or heroes from an era after 1975... then I don't blame people for being a bit skeptical of how DC will handle Static, given the half-baked treatment DC's had since getting the rights to Milestone.

As per JL Dark and Red Lanterns, shine on you crazy diamond! There's a reason they're trying to diversify content within the DCU.

Anonymous said...

Justice League and Legion of Superheroes.

Everything else I'll get in trade if it's warranted by reviews and word of mouth. I don't buy a trade unless I'm told by a trusted source it's good or if I know the writer/artist.

Of course, this might all change if I get that iPad2 I've been looking at but haven't made the commitment to yet because I want to see if the new Amazon tablet that's coming out. If I get a tablet, the number of titles will triple.

-NTT

Simon MacDonald said...

@NTT the iPad 2 is pretty great. It's replaced my home computer for a lot of functions like web surfing and email. Plus I can read books and comics and watch TV on it when my wife is watching something I can't stand. I have to say it is a pretty great machine.