Summer Comicbook Block Busters: Marvel vs. DC

Fear Itself (main miniseries) #2

Every year there seems to be at least one sprawling event that impacts the majority of comic books from a particular company. Those particular companies are Marvel and DC. This year DC has gone forward with the Flashpoint storyline. This sprawling series will lead into the renumbering and tweaking of all their characters that has grabbed national and international headlines. Marvel's epic summer odyssey is entitled Fear Itself. This epic has not garnered anywhere near the same attention as DC's storyline, mainly because the story does not have the same kind of dramatic impact on future Marvel comics.

Cover to Flashpoint (main minseries) #1

Fear Itself off shoot miniseries

The structure of the summer time epic stories is pretty routine for both Marvel and DC. You have one miniseries that is written and drawn by an A-list talent. The main series features the core of the summer time story. Shooting off from this are the miniseries. These are a line of shorter stories that compliment the main miniseries. These stories are often written and drawn by virtual unknowns. I believe that the companies use these, almost throw-away stories, as a device to test these creators. If they do well on these short stories then they might come back to work on more permanent and important comics. A third aspect is the tie-in stories that are featured in the regular, on-going series such as Batman in DC and Avengers in Marvel. This brings in the regular readers from the company's flagship titles. It forces those regular readers to also read the main miniseries because they are left with little clue as to what is occurring in the comic they purchase monthly. Once the event is over there is usually some sort of fallout which all too recently entails a renumbering of the most affected regular series. This is why over the past few years (much to my chagrin) the Avengers has been rebooted to issue number 1 multiple times following each Marvel summertime story, and why DC is rebooting all of its books to issue 1 following the Flashpoint series.

Avengers #15 ties into Fear Itself

These summertime epic story lines are fun to read but recently have become too cumbersome to follow and have results that mean very little to the world of the publisher's characters. They are cumbersome because there are so many tie-in issues and while the main miniseries does tell the majority of the story there are still key concepts included only in the tie-ins and offshoot miniseries. The story lines have weak results because you know that after a year or two down the road the results will be washed away as in the case of Marvel's Civil War story line that resulted in the death of Captain America. A few years later the good Captain re-emerged, lessening the results of the Civil War story line.

Flashpoint off shoot miniseries

My point is that DC and Marvel need to tighten up their epic summertime stories and to make the results more impressive and lasting. By tightening up I refer to having fewer off shoot story lines and tie-in issues. It is unfair to the regular reader to be forced into purchasing a new series just to understand the story that they have been devoted to for years. It is also tiresome to see nonsensical stories such as the over usage of certain characters like Wolverine. In the Fear Itself story Wolverine appears in multiple comics and yet each comic features him in a completely separate story that occurs at the same time. DC's Flashpoint series is even more frustrating than the Fear Itself book for at least a reader can jump right into Fear Itself without needing to be caught up on some other book. The story truly begins in Fear Itself. Elements of the story that are the result of previous story lines are explained within Fear Itself, unlike Flashpoint. I was completely lost in Flashpoint because, unbeknownst to myself this story line was building off a year or more worth of story from the Flash comic that was not explained in the Flashpoint main miniseries. The summer time major stories should not require previous reading but in the end encourage additional reading. I think Marvel understands this concept much more than DC does.

Flashpoint (main miniseries) #3

Death of Cpt. America

The second point is that the results need to be more worthwhile. This would increase the collectibility of the comics and make them more attractive to read. If readers knew that what would occur in those pages would include actions written in stone, then the readers would recognize that this is truly a must read; eg. Captain America actually dies and never comes back. These books would become more collectible because the events would be told once, and only once while also having important contributions to future publications; eg. the story of Captain America's death told only once and have far reaching implications on all subsequent comics.

List of Flashpoint comics for the month of May & June

As a side note, it is becoming increasingly frustrating to see a renumbering of comics follow each summer time event. This renumbering never lasts, as Marvel has reverted their flagship titles back to their original numbering a few times in the past 5 or so years; eg. Spider-Man and more recently the Incredible Hulk. DC argues that such renumbering makes their titles more attractive to new readers because they offer a jumping on point where you know it will feature the beginning of a new story, not to mention a perception of value as you are purchasing the first of a series and not issue 500-something of an ongoing storyline. What the publishers don't realize is that these are all perceptions that can be overly indulged. If you continue to publish comics that are rebooted to issue 1 every few years then people will know that the appearance of the #1 means little to nothing.

Renumbering of books is pandering to an outside audience and is neglectful of the core audience, like myself and other fanboys that regularly purchase these comics. Similarly, Kevin Smith (at the Calgary Red State premier) pointed out the pitfalls of not pleasing your core audience and worrying too much about the outside audience. The people that pay you for your services every month, according to Smith, are the ones to care for. The people that have never bought your product may never buy your product and it is not worth altering your product to appease those that were never interested in it, which is an action that can easily alienate the people that have supported you over the years. It is great if new people purchase your product, but it is not worthwhile loosing your core group to do so. I wonder how much of that core group has been lost versus new purchasers showing up because of comic book renumbering?

Below are 5 #1 issues of the Avengers that have been released over the past 10 years, and this is only a sampling of their #1 issues!

Kevin Smith's Red State

Kevin Smith has gone on tour showcasing his latest movie, Red State. For the tour he personally introduces the movie, sits at the back of the theater to watch alongside the audience, and then performs a Q&A. He admonishes that this is nothing new as movies such as Gone With the Wind were handled in a similar manner, although he is perhaps the only person in my lifetime to have done so.

Red State was not picked up by a movie studio. Instead of selling his movie for very little and having a third party represent it, Smith opted instead to showcase his movie in the same style that he has been providing his stand-up and Smodcast tours for the past 5+ years. At first Smith had toured extensively across the United States, leaving myself and others wondering if he would ever grace his audiences in Canada with the movie. Sure enough, on August 17th 2011 he did just that in the city of Calgary, Alberta.

I follow Kevin Smith's career with a level of regularity that fits somewhere between the obsessed and the curious. I love pretty much all of his movies equally and for that I am easily pleased with anything he produces. Not surprisingly I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It is not a laugh-a-minute movie like Clerks but more akin to Dogma with a little more dry humor and levity. The story revolves around a hard-lined biblical group in the United States that kidnap three teenagers and as a result the FDA are called out to end the situation, ala Waco. The acting is excellent, which is not surprising as Smith bring out the best in his actors. The storyline is for the most part quite original and engaging with some very memorable moments. The only downside I wish to point out is that (and this is not a spoiler) the preacher has a very lengthy sermon that needed to be edited down. At some point during the sermon I believe the audience was beginning to get lost, however, the sermon does add a great element of fear and trepidation for what would come next. A positive note is that this movie feels like an indy art-house flick, with frayed edges and a richness that can be studied and discussed ad nauseum.

Following the movie Smith entertained the audience with over 2 hours of great commentary on everything from what occurred while and following the filming this picture to events in his personal life, along with answering numerous questions from the audience. In the early phase of this tour Smith was sometime accompanied by actors in the movie, but in this case it was solo Smith. It is hard to not like Smith because he is incredibly personable and real. There is not a moment when you feel that he is up there only for the money or that what he is doing is an act. This is a rare quality that is a driving reason as to why Kevin Smith has become so popular over the past two decades. 

I wholeheartedly recomend anyone reading this blog to go see Kevin Smith on his tour or at the least watch his latest movie Red State once it becomes available on DVD sometime later this fall or early winter.

A Legendary Rant by Kevin Smith

Something motivational for today. Considering it's New Year's Eve it seems appropriate. So here I've copied out a rant that Kevin Smith posted on Twitter a few weeks back. This rant is a rare bird and I encourage everyone to follow him on twitter (@thatkevinsmith) or check out his free smodcasts from where this tweet was copied from (http://smodcast.com/home.html).

Smith is a large man to say the least and has been loosing weight since October, which I believe began right after he finished filming his latest movie Red State. Over the summer he was dejected from a plane because the flight attendants believed him to be too large to fly, which was horse shit. He has since been on the defensive about his weight but likewise advocating a healthier lifestyle that included copious amounts of sex, pot, and cigarettes.

Now for his rant:

Dec. 30th, 2010

We’re all too fat, sir.

But weight loss, while a frustrating proposition, is the key - because when you’re thin, you’re healthy, & nobody bothers you - so life’s always a non-caloric-cupcake-&-firework party!

However, having met one or two thin people (or “normies”) in my life, I’ve been able to glean that it’s also not always a picnic being skinny. So if life blows for fat and thin people sometimes, then it’s all relative - except for your packaging.

So remove the whole “IF I CAN JUST GET THIN, EVERYTHING WILL BE BETTER!” bullshit and approach the weight loss with a realistic perspective: losing weight will solely make you thinner & heart-healthier. Other than that, it’s no different from being thin - except all the sweating & getting a hard-on for Devil Dogs.

So when the fantasy factor of weight loss is eliminated (fact: your life may stay the exact same & your problems may not suddenly evaporate), you’re left with un-hyped, non-augmented truth: when you lose weight, you’re doing just that: losing weight.

Now - if you need to attach drama to weight-loss, as a sort of motivator, there’s no better gas in the tank than the simple desire to shut motherfuckers the fuck up. S’fun to watch the endlessly opinionated suddenly choke on a reality they’d never prepared for: the mutable you.

Folks wanna cast you in a walk-on role in the movie of their lives: they wannna minimize you to one aspect/role/title that their self-esteem can handle. Don’t settle for being a last-billed extra in some other prick’s feature; be the goddamned STAR of your OWN movie. The best revenge is when folks who’ve tagged & bagged you suddenly realize their true roles: they amount to little more than a footnote in the film of YOUR life. Then? #CuttingRoomFloor

Now, I’m not spectral communicator & I don’t claim to congress with the dead. But I doubt ANY of this can be accomplished from the grave.

As far as I know, you get one life. Milk it, sir. Chocolate-milk it, if you’ve gotta, but milk it for all it’s worth (without harming others). Treat yourself like you treat the things you own: bag & board your life & put it somewhere fuckers can’t bend your pages, maybe even framed.

But whatever you do, don’t even whimsy about ending shit. It all ends soon enough, without our input or agreement.

Drop a little weight and it’ll be easier to drop a little more. For me it’s more about portion control: I’m an American, so everything I eat is like four feet tall. On Weight Watchers, I’ve been rocking the Smart Ones meals, which I’m using to train myself to remember that two boxes of cereal in one sitting is not a meal; it’s a freak show that belongs on the boardwalk at Coney Island, in the summertime.

Make the portions smaller. It’s the thing no chubby wants to hear, but it’s the only path: eat less & exercise. I’ve been doing that since November first and I’ve lost 40 pounds now. And if I can do it, ANYBODY can do it. I’m the laziest, fattest slob I know. My gut has a gut. But I’ll go Christian-Bale-In-The-Machinist before I give this wicked, wicked world one more second of my life any earlier than I’ve gotta…

Batman watched his parents get killed and rather than crumble in defeat, he opted to stay above ground to make sure the same didn’t happen to anyone else. Granted, Batman is fictional… but then, so are most of the people you look up to. They’re fictional, too: you don’t see their struggles, you only see their wins. Life is a zero-sum game: there has never been a winner.

Find a role model: someone who’s done this life in a way that inspires you and use the lessons of their life to enrich your own (hands off Gretzky, Lunchbox: he’s mine). But find a role model, not a hero. Learn from others but be your own hero.

Long story short: next meal, eat less.

Meal after that? Eat half.

Leave food behind. Start like that.

In a week or two, step it up a little: go out walking. Bring an iPod (I recommend loading with some SModcast Network shows). Walk for 10 minutes. Then 20. Then 30. Increase weekly.

A week will go by. Then a month - at the end of which, you’ll have lost some weight. It may not be a breathtaking amount, but it’ll be enough to make you wanna lose a little more, maybe. And then a little more.

But you can do this. Just know you’re going to do it ALONE - and that’s okay. This is YOUR journey. From time to time, even when nobody else understands why, we have to act against their grain - to get shit done.

Expect some taunts and teases from the swine. I suggest finding a somewhat less-traveled road (but always let someone know where you’re going); and to paraphrase Teddy, a walking stick’s good for balance and for making fucktards think twice about shooting their mouths off.

So no more of this suicide bullshit: how the fuck do you know you’re not the one who’s supposed to cure cancer? Or change shit? Or inspire the one who will change shit? The flick has three acts, sir; stay above ground - or you’ll never know what was possible; just what wasn’t…

So today, eat only HALF that Ho-Ho. All this week, eat only half the Ho-Ho. Next week, it’s Anti-Claus time: meaning NO Ho-Ho. Ho-Ho’s won’t vanish in our absence: there will always be Ho-Ho’s. Months from next week, maybe years even? You can have another Ho-Ho - after which, you may mutter to yourself “Wasn’t worth it…” because that Ho-Ho becomes an hour walk to even make a dent in the caloric burning department.

We’ll lose weight, @thedarkknight98 - that’s easy. Much harder to lose: the yapping, negative swine.

Like herpes, they’ll be with us always.

San Diego Comic Con 2010: Episode XI

Stan Lee at San Diego
Comic Con 2010

Saturday is the last day for most of the big panels, and the last full day of the convention. We again stood in line for Ballroom 20, and again we attended only the first half of the day’s panels so that we could explore other areas of the convention. For this morning we saw the panels, and full casts, for Chuck, Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, Futurama, and The Simpsons. Chuck was great, and the cartoon panels had script reads of upcoming episodes by the cast members. This was something wholly unexpected and a highlight of the day, especially with Seth McFarlane singing in the voice of Stewie from Family Guy. 

After leaving Ballroom 20 on Saturday, we explored the main hall, running into Danny Devito, Stan Lee, and having a photo taken with the incredibly friendly Jason Mewes –despite his abandonment by his handler and deep need to escape for a cigarette. After a failed attempt to meet Val Kilmer (who did not show up for his appointed meet and greet time), we decided to tempt fate and wait in line to enter Hall H to see Kevin Smith’s comedy panel and a few movie panels (including the Avengers). While waiting in line we discovered that someone was stabbed in the eye inside Hall H for yelling “Resident Evil sucks”; note, this is a rarity and Comic Con should not be thought of as ‘unsafe’. As it seemed that the Hall would be closed for the day we decided to walk over to the Indigo Room to see a screening of Cop Out, introduced by Kevin Smith (in person) following his comedy panel.As it later turned out, Hall H was not closed but even though we waited numerous hours to enter Cop Out, it gave us a well needed rest and guaranteed us front row seats. Additionally, when I had left the line-up I rode the escalator up with Joss Whedon who was returning from his announcement that he would direct The Avengers movie! It was a moment of awe, surpassed only by the priceless moments where we sat a few feet away from Kevin Smith, one of my favorite directors. The movie did not get out till very late and while walking back to the hotel we ran into Matthew Lillard (of the Scream movie fame) and Cassidy Freeman (from Smalliville fame). As every night on our trip to San Diego, we ended it with broad smiles!