Tuesday, March 5, 2013

New Series coming: Superman Unchained! (nice title, DC...)

Sigh.

I wonder if DC even realizes that they're also publishing a comic of Django Unchained at the moment.  And that comic's title has a meaning to it that's a lot less steeped in DC's insecurities about their flagship character.

This, from an article at Newsarama:
"We're all fans and we've all known this character for a long time," Jim Lee tells USA Today. "You have to fight your natural tendency to do what you know or what you've always thought the character to be.

"We've been pushing the creators to not be beholden to the past conceits and understandings of Superman. So we will speak to a new generation of readers."

You can more or less read that as "we're really uncomfortable with Superman as a character who isn't as straightforward as Batman, and as guys who grew up thinking Batman rules and Superman drools, we're not sure what a Superman comic looks like, and we really aren't going to do any research to find out.  But we have a corporate imperative to make Superman work in the comics, so we're doing what everyone else has said they're doing since Mike Carlin left the editor's post."

I'm not sure the comic will be bad, necessarily, but the one drumbeat DC has had around Superman for at least 13 years has been "we think we know Superman, but we're going to try something new for a new group of readers".

At this point, the only thing left new to try is to actually go back to whatever that model was that they think Superman has been living by until the new writer (who has never read Superman before) took the paycheck. Only, the character hasn't had an opportunity for 13 years of comics to even have a status quo.  He's been rebooted five times in the past 8 years or so, and I think only writer Geoff Johns managed to get Clark Kent in a Daily Planet newsroom with Perry in more than one issue of his run.

Frankly, I'm tired of DC's shame of their own very lucrative bit of IP.  Nobody buying those t-shirts or stickers for their cars (all of which bring in way, way more than this comic ever will) are looking for a new, edgy Superman.  Dumping 75 years of the character doesn't automatically equate to speaking to ANYONE.  In fact, I'd argue that a lot of people would like to pick up a Superman comic and see what they're expecting as per Superman's status quo, not whatever the writer of the week and Jim Lee (no master storyteller, he) have as a way of reimagining the character.

DC, you are the disappointing sibling who we all think has the tools to get his life together, but who keeps somehow making bad decisions that he can only see as strokes of bad luck.  We're getting tired of bailing you out so you can keep the electricity on in the apartment you can't afford.


7 comments:

Simon MacDonald said...

I don't see what this is so hard for DC to get right. In other news what do you think the over/under n number of issues is before Johns has Superman rip someones arm off?

The League said...

I believe he had Superman killing Parademons and dismembering them in that first Justice League run.

Simon MacDonald said...

Okay then they've already lost me. I've heard that Justice League is just terrible but it is at the top of the sales chart every month.

The League said...

Man, if sales were an indication of quality in comics, it would be a truly magical medium/ artform. Reminder: check the Billboard charts and what's moving at Barnes & Noble sometime.

Simon MacDonald said...

Touché. The point is yours.

Stuart said...

Re: "the disappointing sibling" comment. Nailed it.

Jake Shore said...

It's so bewildering to me that with 75 years of success, DC is stumbling around trying to figure this out. Between the initial popularity of the character in the 40s and 50s, Alan Moore's work, the 1978 film, John Byrne's run, and Grant Morrisson's work on All-Star, it's not like there isn't ample evidence of what makes the character appealing.

They act as though they're embarrassed of Superman; that he's not as cool, edgy or as full of pathos as Batman.

It seems like DC has become such a slave to the 16-35 demographic, that they've lost perspective and stifled creativity.

"Nobody buying those t-shirts or stickers for their cars (all of which bring in way, way more than this comic ever will) are looking for a new, edgy Superman. Dumping 75 years of the character doesn't automatically equate to speaking to ANYONE. In fact, I'd argue that a lot of people would like to pick up a Superman comic and see what they're expecting as per Superman's status quo, not whatever the writer of the week and Jim Lee (no master storyteller, he) have as a way of reimagining the character."

EXACTLY!!!