Less is More, DC Comics!

1 weeks worth of DC comics: too much?

I have enjoyed many of the DC relaunch comics but it would have been better if DC had started with only a few books instead of 52. Fifty-two comics every month is a lot of comics and would leave a new reader beleaguered. It would have been wiser if DC had relaunched with a dozen to 20 comics instead. As it stands you average 13 new issues every week, which will increase as DC unveils various mini-series and one-shots. A smaller number of comics each month also means a better and tighter focus on what you have, increasing the production value. It also means that readers will not be stumped on what to buy, granted due to there being less choice.


But, consider the redundancy. There are a total of four Batman books and another SIX Bat-related books (eg. batgirl); there is definitely room for downsizing! A new reader would have little idea of what Batman book to choose. How would you choose if you've never read a Batman book before but loved the movies and decided you wanted to read the source material!

Compilation of Batman & Batman affiliated comic covers.

DC missed what a lot of the readers were asking for: fewer books and more concise stories. The more books you have for one character, the more difficult it becomes to follow the story arc of that character because inevitably the story crosses over from one book to the next. I will grant you two things: that Detective Comics and Batman have been around forever and it would be sacrilege to cancel either one: and that affiliated books have readers of their own, like Batgirl, and present very different stories and styles of stories. However, I fail to see a reason to publish both 'Batman the Dark Knight' and 'Batman and Robin' when both books discuss concepts already covered in 'Batman' and 'Detective Comics'. It is overkill!

Week 3 of the New DC

Encouraged with how much I enjoyed the few comics I read of the initial two weeks of the DC comics relaunch, I decided to go for broke (literally) and buy all of the new DC comics that came out in the third and fourth weeks of the relaunch. In this post I briefly discuss 6 of the third week issues. Out of the 6, only one (Batman) was a comic I previously collected on a monthly basis. Going forward I will also be collecting Catwoman on a monthly basis and will try the next issue of Captain Atom as these were the two strongest, besides Batman that I talk about here.

Batman: Written by Scott Snyder and drawn by Greg Capullo, this was a great read that like the previous Detective Comics issue, brought the Dark Knight back to his roots -as a gritty detective! I loved how the book opened with a great fight scene in Arkham Asylum and the narrative text discussed how the citizens of Gotham viewed their city. Their view had become bleak and Bruce Wayne was determined to change that view through the utilization of both his personas!

Interior page.

On a side note, I loved Greg Capullo's art. I remember his art from his earlier days working on Spawn back in the 1990's, but haven't seen anything he's done since. In Batman he's retained his Todd McFarlane (creator of Spawn) inspired style but provided it with cleaner lines. My only negative comment is that Capullo tended to make some of the characters too similar looking, such as Bruce Wayne and the new character of Lincoln March.

Birds of Prey: This book presents more or less what I was expecting from the DC relaunch: a book that starts from the beginning. The above mentioned Batman did not do this, but did present the beginning of a new Batman story. Birds of Prey however, presented the formation of a new team. The team is presented as an entity that had been previously established but has to now find new members.

The story is of a group of female crime fighters that all have ties to other superheroes, which kind of makes the ladies here seem like sidekicks to their male superhero counterparts (eg. Canary is from the Green Arrow comics). Regardless, this team can kick some but and showcases strong female characters. The storyline is interesting but does not stray far from the status quo of comic stories. The artwork is also solid but not too flashy. This is a book I could go either way on for reading again in the future; as in, if it's a slow week at the comic store I may pick up another issue.

Blue Beetle: I absolutely love this character from the cartoons but am not too familiar with the comic book source material. The first issue was great for someone like me who was not familiar with the character as it starts with the origin of the character. The story is told well but lacked the humor I expected from the cartoon, making the story feel dry. In the comic, the main character obtained his power in a happenstance and non-memorable way, unlike other characters such as Spider-Man who was bit by a spider or the Hulk saving a person's life during a gamma bomb test. Those are memorable origin stories and the Blue Beetle origin story was weak in comparison. Additionally, the story was rushed and did not have sufficient build-up for me to care about the characters that were being affected. While a reader would likely expect, and perhaps demand the appearance of the Blue Beetle to appear in the first issue, in the case of this comic I feel it would have worked better if the first issue was spent instead on building the foundation for the characters and storyline and then introduced the Blue Beetle in the second issue.  However, the story has some potential and I liked how most of the characters are Latino, which is a nice surprise to see in a comic book as the vast majority of the characters are white.

In regards to the art, it was solid but more care was needed in inking as the lines were muddled. I hate it when inkers use too thick of brushes when the lines need to be crisper.

Captain Atom: This was a surprisingly great read! I was not familiar with the character of Captain Atom and didn't know what to expect. What I found was some very well illustrated pages by Freddie Williams II and a very interesting story with loads of potential by J.T. Krul. The story throws the reader mid-way through the career of Captain Atom, with the superhero already well established in the world. However, his powers had become unstable. From there the book begins the deconstruction of the hero. I had the impression that the book did not want to start from the beginning of the character's story as the deconstruction of the hero would only be successful if it started off with a pre-established foundation of who the character was, which was quickly established in the first few pages of the book which explains the situation to new readers and notifies older readers that what they previously knew of the character was still true. In all, Captain Atom is a book I will read for a few more issues at least!

Interior page.

Catwoman: Hands down the best book out of the bunch I'm discussing in this post and is one I had not previously collected on an ongoing basis. I was absolutely floored by the beautiful artwork of Guillem March. His style seems as though it's a mesh of Joe Kubert and a sketchier form of Manga. His inks are dripping with style and I loved his usage of perspective; Guillem really thought out how he would illustrate this book! On the side of writing, Judd Winick presents a powerful female character. A woman who is confident, sexual, and loving -a real and well rounded character. I really appreciated as to how Winick gives us a female character that is anything but a stereotype! This is a character who is situated in a very complex story told in under 30 pages. Of these pages, the final few will make you open the window as it gets really steamy! This is definitely one book I will be reading on a monthly basis!

DC Universe Presents: Deadman: I am not familiar with the character of Deadman and was interested to see that DC chose this character as one of their leading heroes in the new 52 line. This book retells the origin of Deadman through narrative flashbacks and starts off a new chapter in the character's life. The character is conflicted and begins to question his role as an individual who must aid the living with their problems in order for his own soul (?) to be saved; kinda reminds me of Quantum Leap actually. The art  by Bernard Chang is clear and straight forward, but the covers have fantastically powerful illustrations by Ryan Sook. The writing is also engaging and I like where they are headed with the character. However there is something missing from the book that didn't draw me in. I can't place it, but I was left feeling very 'meh' about the character and where the story was headed. Perhaps I would have been more favorable towards this book if it had not been for the other comics I read before it. The competition in this group of week 3 books was too stiff, and in particular Captain Atom and Catowman presented much stronger stories.

Week 2 of the New DC Comics!

On the week of September 14th came the second installment of the new DC comics! A total of 13 number one issues were released that week, with me buying five of them. I would love to buy them all, but as a responsible adult :), I just couldn't afford all of them! However, I did want to pick up Grifter #1 but it had sold out within an hour or so of the store opening! Insane!

From the five issues I picked up only one was a disappointment. I had previously been collecting two of the books on a monthly basis and will likely continue. The other two are definitely monthly reads now! Below are brief comments on each of the books I picked up:

Batman & Robin: A solid read with equally solid art. This is one of the books I had previously collected and the renumbered book met expectations. The book focuses on the relationship between Bruce Wayne and his son, Damian, who is the acting Robin. Previously the book had Bruce Wayne's son being partnered with Dick Grayson, who was the original Robin that later overtook the mantel of Batman (long story). In the renumbered DC comics, Batman is again portrayed by Bruce Wayne. This story begins with the relationship and roles previously established but Robin is still in the process of learning how to be a superhero, and more importantly a son /man. While I enjoyed this book, I wish that the story of how Bruce's son became Robin was explored in the first issue instead of placing the reader somewhere later on in the story.

Batwoman: This is one of my more highly anticipated books because the previous work on the character was so strong. The previous material was written and drawn by J.H. Williams III, who has continued his vision. This first issue did not disappoint but like Batman & Robin I wish the story had begun earlier in the character's career. The book does begin at the beginning of a new chapter for the character as a new villain and challenges for the heroin are introduced. Besides the story, the art is fantastic and is perhaps the best illustrated book that DC is producing -although Paquette's art in Swamp Thing deserves special attention too. The cover has a gorgeous water color painting by Wiliams that (refreshingly) ties into the story within the book. Williams also uses two different styles of art to tell the story, where a more fluid and painterly style is used when Batwoman is acting as a superhero and a more traditional comic style is used when the main character is not in her superhero persona; makes me think of David Mack's art.

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E: Going in I thought this was to be one of my favorite reads. I knew nothing about this character and it is not a book I had previously read. The title seems ridiculous and the premise is perhaps even more off kilter as it stars Frankenstein (the monster, not the scientist) who leads a team of ultra-secret government monster /agents who go after other monsters that threaten global security. This should leave tons of room for the writer and artist to have a lot of fun, however the efforts fall flat. The writer of the book is Jeff Lemire who I have previously admired because of his outstanding work on Essex County & Sweet Tooth. These books were written with great imagination and feeling. This book does not exemplify either of these previous qualities and instead offers a tired and frankly lame story that one would think was produced by a 14-year-old. In the future I think I'll be passing on this title.

Green Lantern: Like the previously mentioned books, GL begins with a new chapter to the main character's life instead of at the character's beginning, which is what I thought the whole point of the New DC was supposed to be. GL is a book I have been reading for the previous few years and the new GL picks up directly from where the last issue ended. This left me VERY confused as to what the point of the renumbering was! The creative staff of the book, Geoff Johns (writer) & Doug Mahnke (illustrator) remains the same, which again works against the idea of changing up the books. Nonetheless, Johns and Mahnke do an excellent job on the book, producing an interesting and exciting work that I will continue to read. My only problem is that this book, in particular, left me confused as NOTHING had changed from the previous GL book.

Superboy: Here we go DC! Finally a book that begins with the origin /introduction of the character. This is what I had been expecting from DC in each of their renumbered comics. This book is written by Scott Lobdell who presents an interesting story of Superboy being born in a test-tube as an experiment by a secret company with equally secretive motives for doing so. The characters are strong and there is plenty of plot lines presented in the first issue to keep this book going for quite some time. R.B. Silva draws the book with a clean, traditional comic style that is very enjoyable to look at. The art isn't fancy and does not have a particularly unique style, but it is strong and well executed. I've never collected Superboy before but after reading this first issue I will surely be back for more!

In all I would have to say the biggest and best surprise was found in Superboy. The best continuation of expectations goes to Batwoman. Batman & Robin and Green Lantern met expectations, but I had expected more from the stories. Frankenstein is the hands-down biggest disappointment because I expected a lot more from Lemire, but in retrospect was still better than the previous week's Green Arrow.

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!

Evolution of Comics

Entertainment is changing, which ironically is nothing new. In my opinion there is a move towards packaging serialized stories into larger volumes that could otherwise be digested in the original individual packets for nothing or more cheaply. So why is there a move towards paying more for something that we once received for free or for a little? It's because it offers immediacy to the medium and a perceived value in quantity.

Over the past decade TV shows have been bundled up into individual seasons and sold on DVD. This has revived some TV shows, most notably Family Guy after its third season cancellation, while enlarging the popularity of others but failing to revive them, most notably for Firefly. The packaging of these DVD sets have also become smaller over the years, taking up less space on the bookshelf so that more can be purchased. These sets are popular because they allow a viewer to watch an entire season commercial free, at their own convenience and most importantly (but related) allows the viewer to watch an entire season at once, as opposed to watching it once a week over the course of 6-8 months. Further, this lets people watch shows that they were not able to watch on TV because they were broadcasted in different countries (such as many of the BBC programs) or were shown on higher tier cable networks like HBO (thinking of True Blood, Dexter, etc.).

Most recently, the introduction of the PVR allows viewers to record TV shows and watch them at their discretion while skipping the commercials. While a PVR has a limit on how many shows can be saved at one time, excluding the ability to watch an entire season of one show, it does provide the viewer control over 'when' to watch and to watch 'multiple' episodes at once. In hand with the PVR comes the internet which allows viewers to download or stream episodes, providing the viewer with the same power as is found in the PVR while also providing a greater number of episodes to watch, similar to the DVD sets of a show's entire season.

The point is that viewers are gaining greater control (empowerment) over how they are being entertained. This is not a new revelation as many other people have previously pointed this out (and probably more concisely). What may not have been called attention to is that comic books are also moving in this direction and will continue to do so in the next ten years.

Trade paperbacks (tpb) have been around since the 1970's. These early trade tpb's were comic books (some call them graphic novels) that featured one long comic story with sometimes more adult themes. This style of tpb has continued today, for instance my earlier post about the Swallow Me Whole tpb (http://pickledpeanuts.blogspot.com/2010/09/swallow-me-whole.html). In the late 1980's and early 1990's, tpb began featuring a collection of comic stories that were originally published individually on a monthly basis (eg. Superman issues #14-48). This is similar if not the same to how TV shows are now sold in DVD sets. This style of tpb became increasingly popular as many comic readers could not afford to purchase individual comics (tpb's are generally cheaper) or could not be bothered to return to a comic store on a weekly or monthly basis. Tpb's were also great for they interested readers who normally did not read comics. The tpb seemed like a more authentic and adult form of literature because it came in a book format.

Today, tpb's continue to be popular and the style of tpb's continue to change. The subject matter ranges widely and are now sold in places other than comic stores such as Chapters (always a good sign when a market expands). The medium that tpb's are being sold and distributed has also changed in the last 5-10 years -they've gone digital. Marvel comics has perhaps done the most to encourage the evolution of tpb's with their foray into the digital realm. Tpb's are currently being sold on DVD's, where individual frames and pages are shown on the screen. This creates a sense of movement, although I believe this moves the original medium of comic away from its original form of 'sequential art' and into a grey area between animation and sequential art. Sound effects are also often added to the tpb DVD's.

A second way tpb's have entered the digital age is through the internet and iPhone, iPod and iPad applications. Individual comic stories and tpb's are being digitized and then offered for download onto these popular devices where they can be read at any time and place (for instance Marvel's Spider-Woman series is featured on the iTunes store). Much like the earlier paper form of the tpb, this also presents comics in a more (perceived) legitimate context where society may not automatically consider it children's fair because now it is being read on something socially acceptable and labeled 'cool'. I find this very exciting!

I feel that comics will continue down this path of packaging long stories in small packages to be sold in different mediums. The future looks bright but has its pitfalls. One pitfall is that the audience who purchases the comics in a digital, compiled form, may not be drawn into the comic shops to purchase the original monthly and paper forms. This leaves the audience that does frequent the comic shop at a stagnant level while the digital audience grows. This situation has pros and cons.

Another aspect is that the longer and compiled tpb forms will continue in their popularity and force some comic properties to only be sold in such a form, otherwise they will be faced with their newfound readers leaving that property because it takes too long for the tpb (paper or digital) to be released. A solution to this, and perhaps something we will see in comics, is that comic properties like the X-Men and Batman will be created by a larger team of artists. These properties will be treated much like a TV show where a gang of writers will work on multiple scripts and a gang of artists will bust out the art. The combined effort of these individuals will produce a large volume of stories in a short amount of time, satisfying the demand of the audience. However, the rub is that the quality of the stories may diminish for the stories and art will be rushed. Also, gone will be the day of a single writer /artist with a single vision such as the legendary Frank Miller run on Batman in the 1980's or Neal Adams on the Green Arrow in the 1970's.

Needless to say, the past decade has shown that comics are not dying, they are evolving. The process might be slow and rough, but it is undergoing. I am excited to see where this leads but am also pessimistic by what might be lost.

Some sources:
Longbox Digital Comics image from: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=21693
Captain America Digital comic for the PSP image from: http://www.joystiq.com/screenshots/digital-comics-psp/2217058/#/0
Comic Book Evolution image from: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/45773