Indeed. And y'know what? You are SO right about new readers. SO right. I'm one of them. I'm a big fan of the "mythologies" of Marvel and DC and have been, like, all my life. But could I ever get into the main titles of either? It's doubtful. I mean, I still love comics, stuff like Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, all those sorts; the ones that aren't ongoing, main universe stuff. But keep up with the current adventures of Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and whatever "OMG MYTHOLOGY WILL CHANGE AND WE WILL EMPHASIZE THE WORD EPIC! ...DID WE MENTION EPIC?!" event of the year? No. It (at least, in its current form) is too stagnant.
Take New X-Men for example. About two (or a little less) years ago, I considered doing just that. I was aware of classic comic history, but didn't know too much about modern stuff. Not sure what to pick up, I randomly selected the first volume of Grant Morrison's New X-Men. I loved it and collected the rest of his stuff, followed by some of Whedon's (since I loved Whedon through his other work) and enjoyed the Morrison references in that. But then I checked out what the rest of the universe did... They raped everything Morrison did to restore some status quo that no one cared about. I certainly didn't. I am that fan that Marvel stopped becoming a regular X-book-buyer in order to... what? Do another Magneto story? Remove 90% of mutants so they can go back into space?
(BTW a bit off topic but can I just say how much the Xorn retcon sucks? I know, I know, EVERYONE *****es about it, but I haven't heard this reason used that much. Did Marvel even realize Morrison ALREADY LEFT THEM with a possible "Magneto isn't a cremator" retcon if they wanted it? Magneto was on the drug, Kick, when he did those actions. It controlled him. Kick was revealed to be the sentinent being, Sublime. Therefore, SUBLIME was behind Planet X, not Magneto. WTF was the point of the "two Xorn" stuff?! It's like to go from Indiana to Illinois by taking a plane to Florida, a bus to Alabama, another plane to California and then horseback to Illinois instead of just driving/flying from Indiana to Illinois).
But I digress. But the comics industry just makes me sad. It has the potential to be, IMO, the most rewarding medium and standalone comics show that, many a time. It has the visual, dynamic punch of television and motion pictures, while revealing the inside character thoughts of prose. It's unconstrained by budget, only imagination. It's perfect for BOTH one-man personal tales and extremely large collaborations. But it's stuck in this mind-set that the way to please the audiences is by having up-and-coming-hip author A make, "THE DEATH OF (let's say...?) SHARON CARTER" which is shocking and universe-changing and then two years later, up-and-coming-hipper author B do "THE RESURRECTION OF SHARON CARTER."
(And on an in universe perspective, it's hard for me to relate to the characters. Let's say if an X-Man dies now, we're left with only two reactions. One, they feel genuine grief, which makes the fan laugh at how many times they've had fellow X-Men die only to return. Or two, they don't react and ARE just like, "Eh, everyone's died at least once." And that's unreadable and unrelatable. So everytime they do it now, it makes the next guy's story ALREADY ridiculous.)
But you want to know the sad part? The fans buy 'em up. They buy every universe title and event book. Every Crisis, every War. But I don't. I refuse to put my money on something that chaotic where I have no idea if the book I'm picking up will even MATTER in a month. No matter how much I read it, the cynical in me knows deep down that all it takes is one more writer to decide, "Well, that doesn't fit in with MY idea of what happens. So in actuality, THIS is what happened..." Or worse, "Well, that doesn't fit in with what happened in the 1960s. So in actuality, THIS is what happened..." I can read various in-universe things on their own, in TPBs or graphic novels. Standalones. But trying to follow an entire universe that's as discombulated as that would drive me crazy. Good ideas, bad ideas, non-ideas, it's nothing but a series of retcons now and I don't have the time or patience to try to figure out, "Wait... so what ACTUALLY happened in that arc back in 2004?" FOR EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER AND FRANCHISE.
So if Marvel keeps Bucky Captain America for years to come, hey. Good on them. I'll be very surprised, plesantly so. In fact, given all the rave reviews it has, I'll probably read Brubaker's Captain America some time, viewing them as 100% standalones in their own bubble universe of course. But I don't expect Marvel to do that. Because what this boils down to is: fans who might be picking up Cap for the first time and becoming entranced with Bucky, him becoming "their Cap" (which is probably me) aren't as important as fans who want things as they were. But this is spelling disaster for the future. What happens when all the old fans die and the fans of the next generation were driven away by the most wildly inconsistent universes in all of fiction...? But for now, a toast to Bucky as Cap in hopes that years from now, it will be that way. Cheers.
(Wow. I made a post long enough for even the Mighty Dread of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe to be proud of. Hopefully.)
