I thought this post, hence, made a very good point about superhero comics:
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jv2000
Posts: 1,223 |
Re: Wonder Woman #220 (Maybe spoilers...) Posted: Sep 7, 2005 9:27 AM The problem here is that superhero stories have become too introspective. Too many writers are trying to write stories where the heroes themselves are in danger or are being tested to their emotional and physical limits. This makes for a monthly parade of creating beings stronger and more powerful than Superman and Wonder Woman (who are supposed to be unbelievably powerful), so then we end up with universes populated with dozens of uber powerful super villains and superheroes who seem unhappy and physical wrecks. The point of a superhero is not that he saves himself, but that he save US (hopefully with the appropriate fanfare in the background). This is why we have Lois Lane, Steve Trevor, Etta Candy, etc. "I could easily dispatch the Cheetah, but if I do Steve will fall into that molten pit of lava." If the majority of the stories are about threats to WW or Superman, we end up with a world that would be better without them. Vendetta stories and personal stories should be the exception, not the rule. |
This next was originally a post on the Titans board at Alvaro's Comicboards: original copy of the post
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When I was a kid, I read Sherlock Holmes, I read the Oz books, I read lots of stuff that was written and set before my grandparents were born. It doesn't bother me. It never has. I don't need to have the adventures of Sherlock Holmes updated into the present day--in fact, given the advances in forensics in the last century, it might not be possible to do the same character in the present day. But he was still my character (in a fan sense), my hero. The same is true for the Oz characters, the Mary Poppins characters, Jeeves and Wooster, Robin Hood, Prince Valiant, and the 1960's Spider-Man.
There's this huge fallacy that somehow, because a comic book is published in 19whatever (or 20whatever), it must be set in that same year. Huh. Guess we fans of Conan, Prince Valiant, Legion of Super-Heroes, Alien Legion, Sandman Mystery Theatre, Classics Illustrated--we're a minority? I don't think so!
When I was a kid, I didn't really go for books set in the present day. Or even books set in the USA, in even close to modern times (unless they had talking mice or something--or were detective stories, but I digress). I wanted to read about different places. I read fantasy, sci-fi, historical stuff. I read stuff set in Europe, or among woodland creatures. I liked getting into the point of view of something that wasn't like the basic American human beings around me. People on other planets. Sea otters. Whatever.
Even today, the Father Camillo books (Italy) & Graham Greene's Monsignor Quixote (set in Spain) mean more to me than a similar book about an American clergyman ever could. Weird? Maybe. But I don't want to read only about the world outside my window.
And my love of fantasy made comics a good fit for me. And when I was a kid, the temporal indefiniteness of the DC Comics was kind of a cool quirk. I hadn't been around long enough to see the problems.
But then I came to realize. There are 1940's DC heroes, but there are no official 1970's DC heroes. Or '60's heroes. Because we had the ageless generic heroes then, & the stories that were about those periods have been retconned away. And that sucks.
If DC decided (for example) that Green Arrow should be a 1960's hero, Superman a '50's hero, & Black Lightning a 1970's hero, people would still read their comics. In fact, I think more people would find them understandable, because like real people, they would belong to a time & place. And we would get more stories: Stories of old age, stories of their successors grown. By keeping everything timeless, DC gives us (itself, really) fewer stories & less potential. Much more is lost than gained.
I should add, in case it's not clear, that you can publish stories about a 1970's Black Lightning or a 1950's Superman today. This is actually the sort of thing that was done with Sandman Mystery Theatre & All-Star Squadron. It's an idea whose time has come.