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Author Topic: IC #1 - At last they return  (Read 106097 times)
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DakotaSmith
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« Reply #32 on: October 14, 2005, 02:45:31 PM »

Yet again, someone important at DC is demonstrating that they simply haven't the slightest inkling of the tiniest clue.

Is the comics readership more sophisticated now than half a century ago?  Yes.  But why is that?

Changes in culture or society?  No -- if you look at other areas of entertainment, you find extremely successful individuals and styles which do not resort to darkness and "edginess" to do what they do.

If you examine the programming on Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network, you find some surprisingly good fare that is no way dark and edgy.

What the entire super-hero comics industry -- and DC in particular -- has really blown it on is this:

Super-hero comics published by DC were never intended for adults.  They were intended for pre-teen boys, plain and simple.  Everything about them, from the nerd who takes off his glasses to become Superman to the beautiful girl who never looks twice at the nerd but pines for the strong guy is aimed directly at children.

The entire concept of the super-hero was never intended to be an adult medium.  If you really try and take the super-hero concept seriously as an adult form of entertainment, it totally breaks down.

Firstly, imagine that a rocket from another planet were to appear in the skies over Kansas today, when virtually the entire airspace of the country is covered by a web of radar tracking.  It would be picked up as soon as it was detected and quite possibly blown out of the sky for security reasons.  Failing that, wherever it landed would be cordoned off by government troops and the entire thing taken into government custody, rocket and its contents and all.  No kindly couple of "passing motorists" like the Kents would ever have a chance to see it, and if they did, they'd be told it was a matter of national security and at the very least sworn to secrecy.

The infant in the rocket?  Well, if he was super-powered from the get-go, he would ultimately become uncontrollable.  The geo-political implications of an uncontrollable super-being roaming the Earth are so obvious that the government would have no choice but to destroy the infant at all costs.  Assuming it was possible, baby Kal-El wouldn't survive long enough to grow to adulthood.

But assuming it were impossible to destroy him by any conventional means, you'd have a super-powered infant buzzing around the world.  As a father of two daughters, I cannot imagine being in any way capable of tempering the anti-social outbursts of a super-powered infant.  He starts playing around with punching holes in the wall just to watch the drywall crumble in the funny way that it does, and what can I do to stop him?  Spank him?

I could go on, but you see how quickly the concept of the super-hero breaks down the moment you apply any level of realism to it?  And trust me, it only gets worse with someone like the Batman.  An adult who dresses up like a giant bat at night and beats up on criminals is obviously crazy, and Commissioner Gordon would stop at nothing until the nutbar is safely locked away.  He wouldn't be tolerated -- ever -- and any police commissioner who did would correctly be canned in ten minutes.

DC's real problem is that they're attempting to apply modern adult sensibilities to something that is children's material.  In so doing, they're failing miserably, both artistically and ultimately commercially.

If they want to really succeed, they need to look no further than the Warners animated DC series.  In all three -- Batman, Superman, and Justice League Unlimited -- Warners has brilliantly succeeded in every way that DC comics has failed miserably.

The Warners animated shows are aimed at the correct audience.  And unlike the occasionally silly Golden and Silver Age, which was also aimed at the correct audience in their time, the Warners plots are well thought-out and reasonably sophisticated.  There is just enough "adult" pathos in them to make the cartoon watchable for an adult, yet the appropriate level of outright action to make them accessible to a younger audience.

In short, my 10- and 12-year-old daughters and I can sit and watch them together and both enjoy the hell out of them.

Frankly, when I see Superman on JLU, I'm seeing Superman the way he should be.  He's the Superman I remember from my youth, and the Superman found in the online comics of this site.  That other guy, the one in the comics now, is a total imposter.

DC needs to take care of this.  They need to be targeting the intended audience of the super-hero genre, the child, rather than a bunch of adults who demand that their childhood heros grow up with them.

Dakota Smith
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DakotaSmith
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« Reply #33 on: October 14, 2005, 03:31:30 PM »

Quote from: "Great Rao"
Quote from: "DakotaSmith"
Again, a waste of time, but it needed to be said.

If it needed to be said, then it wasn't a waste of time.


Well, I just mean that it was pointless in terms of convincing her that her perspective was extremely narrow.  And what really amazes me is that the whole Goth sensibility is generally displayed by people who have absolutely no real experience with hardship.  I mean seriously, some middle-class suburban white girl is buying into the idea that life is inherently meaningless and grotesque?

Dakota Smith
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alschroeder
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« Reply #34 on: October 14, 2005, 03:47:21 PM »

Quote from: "Super Monkey"


Also, welcome Al Schroeder, I hope you stick around and have fun as well.



Glad to be here.---Al
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Al Schroeder III, former letterhack (met his wife through Julie Schwartz' lettercolumns) of MINDMISTRESS http://mindmistress.comicgenesis.com---think the superhero genre is mined out? Think there are no new superhero ideas?

Think again.
Great Rao
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« Reply #35 on: October 14, 2005, 06:02:58 PM »

Quote from: "DakotaSmith"
Quote from: "Great Rao"
Quote from: "DakotaSmith"
Again, a waste of time, but it needed to be said.

If it needed to be said, then it wasn't a waste of time.


Well, I just mean that it was pointless in terms of convincing her that her perspective was extremely narrow.  And what really amazes me is that the whole Goth sensibility is generally displayed by people who have absolutely no real experience with hardship.


But you see, that's what it means to be a teenager.  Any teenager.  Life stinks, and it'll just get worse.  It's not until people grow out of their teens that they get past this.

As adults, it's our responsibility to show them that there are other ways.  We have no control over whether they choose to acknowledge this or not, but when we say or show it, our duty has been done.  That way, when those teens get older, the seeds of truth will have been planted and they will be able to grow.  So when you said what you did, you weren't wasting time, you were investing in the truth and in her future.

That's what Mort Weisinger knew, and that's what the current folks at DC don't know at all - because none of them ever grew out of their teens.  They're all just angry kids who think they're really cool.

S!
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"The bottom line involves choices.  Neither gods nor humans have ever stood calmly in a minefield forever.  Good or evil, they are bound to choose.  And when they do, you will see the truth of all that motivates us.  As a thinking being, you have the obligation to choose.  If the fate of all mankind were in your hands, what would your decision be?  As a writer and an artist, I've drawn my answer."   - Jack Kirby
DakotaSmith
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« Reply #36 on: October 14, 2005, 06:59:50 PM »

Quote from: "Great Rao"

That's what Mort Weisinger knew, and that's what the current folks at DC don't know at all - because none of them ever grew out of their teens.  They're all just angry kids who think they're really cool.


Couldn't have said it better myself.  They're frakking teenagers who never grew up.  They think it's cool to diss the past, and indeed actively work to destroy it rather than create something new and interesting of their own.

Actually, my worst fear is that they only reason they've brought the Golden Age Superman back is to kill him once and for all.

Dakota Smith
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Great Rao
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« Reply #37 on: October 14, 2005, 08:30:13 PM »

Quote from: "DakotaSmith"

Actually, my worst fear is that they only reason they've brought the Golden Age Superman back is to kill him once and for all.

If Jenette Kahn and Mike Carlin couldn't do it, no one can.  Besides, no comic book character ever stays dead for long. :wink:

S!
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"The bottom line involves choices.  Neither gods nor humans have ever stood calmly in a minefield forever.  Good or evil, they are bound to choose.  And when they do, you will see the truth of all that motivates us.  As a thinking being, you have the obligation to choose.  If the fate of all mankind were in your hands, what would your decision be?  As a writer and an artist, I've drawn my answer."   - Jack Kirby
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« Reply #38 on: October 14, 2005, 09:27:52 PM »

Well, Jor-El, Lara, Barry Allen, Uncle Ben, Gwen Stacy, and Thunderbird seem to be amongst the truly dead at DC and Marvel.
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NotSuper
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« Reply #39 on: October 14, 2005, 10:07:54 PM »

I really enjoyed this issue. It reminded me of the original Crisis with so many things happening at once.

I actually thought that Batman was justified in his passive-aggressiveness this time. He's completely right about Superman relating "too much" to humans instead of inspiring them. He probably could've said it in a better way--without the death crack--but that's Batman for you. Hopefully we'll get an improved Batman after the Crisis.

I'm wondering how Mongul ties into all this. I'm glad he's being presented as a threat again (instead of the Cyborg Superman's lapdog), but how did he come back from the dead? It does appear to be the original Mongul, rather than his son.

I'm guessing the OMACs will be the equivalent of the Shadow-Demons from the original Crisis, and I see no problems with that. They're visually cool and make for credible opponents. Their powers do sometimes seem to be inconsistent, though.

What more can be said about the ending? We've all heard the rumors and speculated about this, but seeing it was something special. What better time for the ORIGINAL Superman to return than a time of universal chaos? I'm guessing the Earth-Prime Superboy will snap Kon-El out of his depression and get him to start acting like a hero again.
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Many people want others to accept their opinions as fact. If enough people accept them as fact then it gives the initial person or persons a feeling of power. This is why people will constantly talk about something they hate—they want others to feel the same way. It matters to them that others perceive things the same way that they do.
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