Where is DC comics going?

[Eros]

I have a question, does anybody know where Dc comicbooks in general are going? What the overall end point, the destination? I mean i sometimes get tired of the neverending fight between "Good and evil" in comic books. We know the good guy will win, Batman and superman will survive and all that crap. I just dun get whats the overall point, where does it all end? When does Batman meet his final destiny, and when does superman meet his? Why restart the justice League, it all just seems so pointless.

These characters never trully get old, they just are given new backrounds every so often. It becomes pointless, a exercise in futality. The badguys come up with a complex new shceme to destroy the good guys, and our heroes eventually stop them. People come back from the dead [Jason Todd ] and where forced to revisits a character whos story was suppose to end years ago. Comic books dun sell as nearly much as they use to, and who knows how long before people stop buying comic books in stores all together. Between undead characters,repetive villians,repetive heroes, and a non linear overall stories with no end, reading comics becomes pointless. Sometimes im tired of Batman trying to stop yet another nefarious joker scheme. I get tired of Lex Luthor, who doesn't really have a purpose or a goal anymore, trying to kill superman. It also makes it worse, when DC comics seems to be bringing back dumb ideas from the silver-age as well. Thats all i have to say, and maybe you agree or disagree, but really who cares anymore.

 

[Lt. Figgnuts]

The fact of the matter is, it doesn't end. Not so long as there are people reading the books. And does that have to be a bad thing?

This is the nature of the medium. Things are always in a state of flux, and there is never any real, definitive end in sight (at least not from our point of view).

Comic books will probably be around in some form or another for generations to come, and even when they eventually die out, the characters will likely still exist in some form or another.

It's an endless cycle. At some point in the future, DC will probably reboot their universe again, and it's a fair bet that eventually Marvel will do it as well. It's just the way these things work.

 

[Eros]

yea i undertsand, but it gets tiresome reading new origins, or watch the same villian attempt yet another world domination scheme. Im starting to tire of the Joker, all the good Joker stories have already been told. Luthor has become a joke, who lives underground man.

 

[joke]

Then the only thing for you to do is stop reading superhero comics. The fact is that there will never be a definite end for the main characters like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man or Iron Man. They are cash-cows and Marvel/DC will never stop.

 

[Eros]

Then the only thing for you to do is stop reading superhero comics. The fact is that there will never be a definite end for the main characters like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man or Iron Man. They are cash-cows and Marvel/DC will never stop.

how long will they be cashcows? The world is changing, people will lose interest eventually.

 

[Purple Man]

It's been over sixty years and the comic book industry is still booming.

But if you want to talk about the futility of constant violence as a means to entertain others, I suggest you read Animal Man #5. It's titled 'The Coyote Gospel'

Hell, read the whole run of Animal Man 1-26 and you will probably have a different view of the whole medium

 

[Eros]

It's been over sixty years and the comic book industry is still booming.

But if you want to talk about the futility of constant violence as a means to entertain others, I suggest you read Animal Man #5. It's titled 'The Coyote Gospel'

Hell, read the whole run of Animal Man 1-26 and you will probably have a different view of the whole medium

Comic books sales have dropped alot in the past 2 decades. 30 or 40 years ago, a comic selling 80,000 an issue would be a disapointment

 

[Purple Man]

It's a smaller, more dedicated market these days.

But I don't think sales is the topic of discussion. Now go read Animal Man so your view on comic books can be changed forever.

Morrison will own your mind.

 

[Eros]

It's a smaller, more dedicated market these days.

But I don't think sales is the topic of discussion. Now go read Animal Man so your view on comic books can be changed forever.

Morrison will own your mind.

Ive read his Animal run, it was rather good. It is definatly the best version of the character. at times i didn't get some of the stuff he was trying to do.

 

[Tropico]

Is this another one of your anti-DC rants or do you feel the same about Marvel and other comic companies?

 

[Assassin]

Home?

 

[cerealkiller182]

I just wish the writers had the balls to make decisions and stick with them. Why is the Flash the only hero with a true legacy? I would say he is a tentpole character in the DC universe; no Supes or Bats though. Batman's sidekicks are suppose to have a family bond and they are constantly talking about one day taking over for Bruce, so why dont they? The writers are scared ****less thats why.

Its not like bad stuff hasnt happened to heroes. Barbara was paralysed (a plotpoint that doesnt seemed to be retconing) and there have been a lot of deaths lately, but they prolly wont stick.

 

[batnkevlar]

I think they're waiting for our generation to stick with Tim Drake, then move him to Batman... you know, win the love of a generation...

 

[Assassin]

Did I guess right?

 

[Eros]

Is this another one of your anti-DC rants or do you feel the same about Marvel and other comic companies?

yea I do, why wouldn't I, they all do the same thing.

 

[GNR]

What gets me nervous is when I hear Didio talking about how IC was only the beginning and that there is much more brewing.I mean,I love alot of the DC I'm reading right now,but if there's anything that's going to draw me away,it's a bigass crossover with insane amounts of tie-ins and lead-ins.That's what happened with CW,just so you know I'm not placing the blame on DC alone.

 

[BrianWilly]

Do you even realize that you could have made this exact same post ten years ago, or even twenty years ago, and almost word for word the argument would remain the same? What you're implying about the state of comics today -- the cyclical stories, the good vs evil simplicity, the unending timeline -- is nothing new.

But comic books do change, as well as comic book characters. Comic books are written completely differently today than how they were written twenty years ago. The tone, style, art, and focus are all different; the evidence is that it's easy to spot a comic made in the 90s, or in the 70s and 80s, and it's easy to spot a comic that was written recently. If I showed you a Batman issue from the 70s and a Batman issue from last week, all else being similar you could tell immediately which was which.

Sales are a whole other subject that doesn't seem to have anything to do with your original complaints, which are narrative in nature.

I don't understand what's so strange or outdated about a story where good guys fight bad guys. That's what superhero stories are. What do you expect them to do, suddenly stop fighting bad guys and start a career in theater or something?

Listen, I grew up on manga, where stories have a definite beginning and a definite end and characters are finite and exist in a vaccuum, so I understand perfectly why a neverending saga of the same characters doing the exact same things over and over again would get stale and uninteresting after a while. If I had my way, older characters would get old and married while younger characters got mature and formed their own Justice Leagues. But that's just not how Western comics work.

And even with that said, you can't claim that growth hasn't happened at least on some level in DC. Speedy-turned-Arsenal is a father on the current JLA; three of the five original Teen Titans have already been on the JLA at some point or another. Alan Scott and most of the JSA alumni are old men with wives and adult children. Wonder Girl has turned from a skinny little pubescent brat into the fiery warrior babe she is today. Those progressions -- completely natural and only possible through work and the passage of time -- are the reasons I continue to love and read DC. The DCU changes all the time; only people with a superficial, surface understanding of it claim that it doesn't. You can't look at the few, unchanging aspects of the DCU like Superman and Batman and hold it up as some sort of example of the rest of the universe.

 

[Darthphere]

DC Comics is moving on up to that deluxe apartment in the sky, they finally got a piece of the pie.

 

[Superman: Idols]

Do you even realize that you could have made this exact same post ten years ago, or even twenty years ago, and almost word for word the argument would remain the same? What you're implying about the state of comics today -- the cyclical stories, the good vs evil simplicity, the unending timeline -- is nothing new.

But comic books do change, as well as comic book characters. Comic books are written completely differently today than how they were written twenty years ago. The tone, style, art, and focus are all different; the evidence is that it's easy to spot a comic made in the 90s, or in the 70s and 80s, and it's easy to spot a comic that was written recently. If I showed you a Batman issue from the 70s and a Batman issue from last week, all else being similar you could tell immediately which was which.

Sales are a whole other subject that doesn't seem to have anything to do with your original complaints, which are narrative in nature.

I don't understand what's so strange or outdated about a story where good guys fight bad guys. That's what superhero stories are. What do you expect them to do, suddenly stop fighting bad guys and start a career in theater or something?

Listen, I grew up on manga, where stories have a definite beginning and a definite end and characters are finite and exist in a vaccuum, so I understand perfectly why a neverending saga of the same characters doing the exact same things over and over again would get stale and uninteresting after a while. If I had my way, older characters would get old and married while younger characters got mature and formed their own Justice Leagues. But that's just not how Western comics work.

And even with that said, you can't claim that growth hasn't happened at least on some level in DC. Speedy-turned-Arsenal is a father on the current JLA; three of the five original Teen Titans have already been on the JLA at some point or another. Alan Scott and most of the JSA alumni are old men with wives and adult children. Wonder Girl has turned from a skinny little pubescent brat into the fiery warrior babe she is today. Those progressions -- completely natural and only possible through work and the passage of time -- are the reasons I continue to love and read DC. The DCU changes all the time; only people with a superficial, surface understanding of it claim that it doesn't. You can't look at the few, unchanging aspects of the DCU like Superman and Batman and hold it up as some sort of example of the rest of the universe.

Couldnt've said it better myself. There have been many, many changes to the DCU in the past twenty years, both in terms of content and the characters themselves. The great thing about Batman and Superman, however, is that they are unshakable pillars in the DCU. I understand that comic's "plastic time" concept might be annoying to some, but its better than seeing childhood heroes grow old and die.

 

[Assassin]

DC Comics is moving on up to that deluxe apartment in the sky, they finally got a piece of the pie.

no, the right anwser is Home, so they can vist their family, Kwanzaa is Tuesday,

 

[LadyVader]

Well we know that Batman will retire at some point and there are two perfectly good characters (Dick Grayson and Tim Drake) ready to fiil the cape and cowl while that happens. I thought the same thing would happen with Superman, but now that Conner Kent is dead... I don't know.

 

[CBG]

Backwards to move forwards.

 

[Dope Nose]

couldn't agree more with both BrianWilly and Superman: Idols. if it's one thing DC does well it's natural character development. Marvel on the other hand tends to completely ignore any pre-established character development and makes sweeping changes to their roster purely for shock value.

 

[CBG]

couldn't agree more with both BrianWilly and Superman: Idols. if it's one thing DC does well it's natural character development. Marvel on the other hand tends to completely ignore any pre-established character development and makes sweeping changes to their roster purely for shock value.

Apparently, this doesn't hold true for OYL Cassandra Cain.

 

[Darthphere]

Apparently, this doesn't hold true for OYL Cassandra Cain.

OH SNAP! OH NO HE DIDNT!