Click for source By Aaron Nash
The comic ‘blockbuster’. A term which, much like its film counterparts, signifies a big, loud, expensive hit. It may not be great, but it’s sure to sell in mass numbers, as people know what they’re going to get. But is this a good thing, or is it taking a toll on the industry in a negative way?
It’s a hard question to fully answer. With so many people currently reading comics, the industry is at its peak, and this is partly down to the success and breakout of the ‘superhero film’. This has arguably made comics ‘cool’ again. What once were considered only for geeks and kids are now being read by a far more mainstream community. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great thing. More people than ever are enjoying this amazing visual medium and the industry is thriving because of it, and this means more comics and new, fresh stories, doesn’t it?
The comic ‘blockbuster’. A term which, much like its film counterparts, signifies a big, loud, expensive hit. It may not be great, but it’s sure to sell in mass numbers, as people know what they’re going to get. But is this a good thing, or is it taking a toll on the industry in a negative way?
It’s a hard question to fully answer. With so many people currently reading comics, the industry is at its peak, and this is partly down to the success and breakout of the ‘superhero film’. This has arguably made comics ‘cool’ again. What once were considered only for geeks and kids are now being read by a far more mainstream community. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great thing. More people than ever are enjoying this amazing visual medium and the industry is thriving because of it, and this means more comics and new, fresh stories, doesn’t it?
Click for source Well, no! And, in my humble view, this is the big downside. Yes, we have more comics coming out, but they generally feel stale and so very meh… Again, I’m not saying that all titles are like this and I’m not saying I don’t enjoy some of these stories. It’s just a shame that it feels like originality in comics has been pushed to the back burner in favour of the same old stories, just featuring new characters.
It seems that Marvel have become the biggest culprits. You may argue that there are only so many stories that can be told, and that is a true statement. Depending on who you listen to there are between three and seven original story structures that almost everything will fall into. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t jazz it up with some fancy writing, and new and exciting artwork.
I recently reread the entire run of Steve Gerber’s Man-Thing, and it still feels fresh all these years later. The writing is clever and really quite powerful. The title doesn’t rely on fancy gimmicks and loud action set pieces. A calm and sombre study of a man trapped inside himself, with no way to call out to others, it’s a deep look at the human psyche - and what it ultimately means to be human.
If we compare this to pretty much anything that is being pumped out by Marvel nowadays, it doesn’t really compare. It feels very much like a lot of their writers are just going through the motions in order to please their editors, not themselves. The last time I truly felt ‘rocked’ by a recent (ish) comic was Fantastic Four #587 (spoilers for those who have never read it coming up). The final image of Johnny Storm facing off against thousands of enemies to save his friends is still imprinted in my mind, along with the look on Grimm’s face as he sees his friend sacrificing himself. It’s moving, powerful and really hits you hard - one of those moments that lends itself perfectly to the medium. But Marvel had to go and throw all of that emotion away when, 13 issues later (after fans stopped reading), who was magically reborn? Johnny Storm!
This is what I mean about making something simply to bring in the money. There needs to be a balance, to ensure there is enough money to pay for fresh stories coming in, but it just seems to have gone too far in the wrong direction. To be fair, Marvel did try to freshen things a little with the whole Marvel Now thing, but with every one of these we get a run like Fear Itself. Marvel Now was a great idea, with some really good stories and some interesting takes on old characters. But, alas, even that began to get stale and reuse old stories.
It seems that Marvel have become the biggest culprits. You may argue that there are only so many stories that can be told, and that is a true statement. Depending on who you listen to there are between three and seven original story structures that almost everything will fall into. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t jazz it up with some fancy writing, and new and exciting artwork.
I recently reread the entire run of Steve Gerber’s Man-Thing, and it still feels fresh all these years later. The writing is clever and really quite powerful. The title doesn’t rely on fancy gimmicks and loud action set pieces. A calm and sombre study of a man trapped inside himself, with no way to call out to others, it’s a deep look at the human psyche - and what it ultimately means to be human.
If we compare this to pretty much anything that is being pumped out by Marvel nowadays, it doesn’t really compare. It feels very much like a lot of their writers are just going through the motions in order to please their editors, not themselves. The last time I truly felt ‘rocked’ by a recent (ish) comic was Fantastic Four #587 (spoilers for those who have never read it coming up). The final image of Johnny Storm facing off against thousands of enemies to save his friends is still imprinted in my mind, along with the look on Grimm’s face as he sees his friend sacrificing himself. It’s moving, powerful and really hits you hard - one of those moments that lends itself perfectly to the medium. But Marvel had to go and throw all of that emotion away when, 13 issues later (after fans stopped reading), who was magically reborn? Johnny Storm!
This is what I mean about making something simply to bring in the money. There needs to be a balance, to ensure there is enough money to pay for fresh stories coming in, but it just seems to have gone too far in the wrong direction. To be fair, Marvel did try to freshen things a little with the whole Marvel Now thing, but with every one of these we get a run like Fear Itself. Marvel Now was a great idea, with some really good stories and some interesting takes on old characters. But, alas, even that began to get stale and reuse old stories.
Click for source Although I say that Marvel are the biggest perpetrators of this, DC did decide to revamp everything with the New 52. But although they attempted to freshen things up by fully rebooting the stale franchises, they seem to have simply told the same stories, leading to the whole thing being entirely futile and pointless.
There is also far too much copying from the movies. As I mentioned earlier, the superhero film genre has gone from strength to strength after its early failures, which include Captain America from 1992, Howard the Duck (which I personally love), and Steele, with the most random of castings in Shaquille O'Neal . It was really Spiderman, X-Men and Blade that started the ball rolling, showed what could be achieved and really made things escalate. Now, 18 years on from the release of Blade, we have films with some of the biggest superheroes from the most popular comics. Each one gets bigger and feels more accomplished, but the whole ‘unoriginal’ feeling has begun spreading to them as well, with only the most recent of their films, Guardians of the Galaxy, feeling truly ‘different’ in a great way.
Nonetheless, with the success of these films the Marvel editors seem to have thought ‘I know what to do, we’ll just take what made these films successful and use it in the next film to lure in the same audience’. This means that instead of creating complex and powerful stories, we just get hollow shells that are trying to be like the films that came before them… figure that out in your head…
So, what is needed to resolve this issue?
What we need is for writers to be given far more freedom in what and how they write, so they don’t get squished into a tiny box. Just look at Jason Aaron’s run on Ghost Rider as an example. It was fantastic, as it harked back to the olden days when it was all about dialogue, originality and atmosphere. Some would argue that things like Whedon’s X-Men run was also great, (which I personally wouldn’t agree with, as I believe he is nowhere near as clever as he or other people think he is), but I can see where they would be coming from. Every once in a while we seem to get something slightly different, but these rare occasions generally mean nothing in the overall scheme of things, as any popular characters that die will always come back because the studios believe the comics won’t sell without them. Just look at Civil War. What an amazing ending again made completely pointless by Captain America being reborn.
We need freshness and originality! Simple as that. People will only mindlessly read the same story again and again for so long, and when the day arrives that they want something new we’ll have to see what happens. Until then, I’ll be happily reading through Man-Thing, Howard the Duck and Ghost Rider.
There is also far too much copying from the movies. As I mentioned earlier, the superhero film genre has gone from strength to strength after its early failures, which include Captain America from 1992, Howard the Duck (which I personally love), and Steele, with the most random of castings in Shaquille O'Neal . It was really Spiderman, X-Men and Blade that started the ball rolling, showed what could be achieved and really made things escalate. Now, 18 years on from the release of Blade, we have films with some of the biggest superheroes from the most popular comics. Each one gets bigger and feels more accomplished, but the whole ‘unoriginal’ feeling has begun spreading to them as well, with only the most recent of their films, Guardians of the Galaxy, feeling truly ‘different’ in a great way.
Nonetheless, with the success of these films the Marvel editors seem to have thought ‘I know what to do, we’ll just take what made these films successful and use it in the next film to lure in the same audience’. This means that instead of creating complex and powerful stories, we just get hollow shells that are trying to be like the films that came before them… figure that out in your head…
So, what is needed to resolve this issue?
What we need is for writers to be given far more freedom in what and how they write, so they don’t get squished into a tiny box. Just look at Jason Aaron’s run on Ghost Rider as an example. It was fantastic, as it harked back to the olden days when it was all about dialogue, originality and atmosphere. Some would argue that things like Whedon’s X-Men run was also great, (which I personally wouldn’t agree with, as I believe he is nowhere near as clever as he or other people think he is), but I can see where they would be coming from. Every once in a while we seem to get something slightly different, but these rare occasions generally mean nothing in the overall scheme of things, as any popular characters that die will always come back because the studios believe the comics won’t sell without them. Just look at Civil War. What an amazing ending again made completely pointless by Captain America being reborn.
We need freshness and originality! Simple as that. People will only mindlessly read the same story again and again for so long, and when the day arrives that they want something new we’ll have to see what happens. Until then, I’ll be happily reading through Man-Thing, Howard the Duck and Ghost Rider.
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