Fifty-two channels and nothin's on

[sigma7]

The ever-awesome alasdair at his blog makes a bold statement:

Of late, the subject of DC’s reboot has come up in the sort of conversations I mention. And I think it’s worth saying this: DC’s new reboot, when viewed collectively, is one of the most creatively bankrupt pieces of shit the medium has ever put out, and if there is any justice in this world, it will be remembered as the moment that DC began the death spiral that ultimately lead to the collapse of the American comics industry.

Seriously: if you are buying any one of these fucking pieces of crap, just stop. If you’re telling yourself that one of the titles you’re buying is better than the rest, even if you’re right about that, just stop. Every single week, in addition to a load of titles that are just an undifferentiated mass of bland crap, DC manage pump out a couple of pieces of hideous crap that fall somewhere on a spectrum between “unfortunately sexist” and “outright misogyny”. From where I sit, if DC are managing to publish one or two titles that aren’t complete shit, I assure you, it’s a mistake that they’re bound to be rectifying soon.

Read excerpts from Catwoman and Red Hood and the Outlaws online. Don't buy them. Flip through them. Those are just the two most egregious pieces from this week. There've been worse. There'll be worse still. There may be one or two titles in the lineup that are, by some statistical anomaly or the result of a pact with a chaos lord, good books. There are others which are merely mediocre and they stand out as the paragons of the line. The rest is four-color slurry, best left to sluice through the grates and into the sewers, never to be polybagged.

They had the whole of reality to retcon and start afresh and managed to distill each comic to its barest essence -- so they could foul the very soul of the title, insuring it would never bear edible fruit. It's a garden fertilized with mulch made in the 90s, sprouting with swords and spikes and impossible knees and pouches and capes...this is not a proper garden; nothing green can stay.

Alasdair is right: And even if I’m wrong about that, you know what: if a few good comics have to fail, just so this reboot can die on it’s arse, and ultimately put the shambling corpse of the comics industry out of it’s misery, then that’s a price I’m willing to pay.

Which reminds me, I do need to review one of the series Alasdair talks about above, one of the few still readable, and write a lengthy piece as to why you probably shouldn't read it. Maybe later.

Comments

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any of it, but I am highly disappointed that Batgirl is out of her wheelchair. She was awesome as she was.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Oracle was a thousand times more interesting than just another costumed body with a utility belt. Every other Batgirl -- Cass, Steph, Misfit or even Helena -- brought something interesting into the equation, but Barbara's best contributions came when she stopped throwing fists.

I think Gail Simone's writing the best title she can under the editorial directive of Batgirl = Barbara, but the book is just predicated on a distasteful premise to me.

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

Oracle also showed disabled people - disabled women - that it was not only okay to be crippled, but awesome. Many of my friends are really upset about that. In her wheelchair, Oracle was no different than any other superhero who didn't walk much, and she was almost limitless.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Oracle was one of the great character creations of the last 20 years -- she stood her ground amongst a virtual pantheon. There were so many aspects of the composition of her character that really worked for me that I resent her being gone.

But then, I think I was always partial to her because I was reading the title where she was first introduced....

[blemt.livejournal.com]

I now need brain bleach. Yergh. I'm a Batman fangirl. And I've got no issue with Batman and Catwoman as a potential couple. HOWEVER...just wrong, wrong, wrong! Beyond not in character. 'Sides, have we totally forgotten about safe sex.

My poor eyes...

[motteditor.livejournal.com]

They were wearing their costumes, which are presumably armored/protective. Oh, is that not what you mean by safe sex?

I think the Batgirl thing is tough (and I say that as someone very disappointed about no longer having a decent BoP and no Oracle, who I thought was unique in comics). I can certainly see why advocates for a change ask why she's the one character who DOESN'T get better. Others come back from broken backs and death, but Babs was always in the wheelchair. I think you're almost forced to ask if it's because she's a woman ... but at the same time Oracle is all kinds of awesome in a way that just being a bat-knockoff doesn't make me have any real interest in reading even if it is Gail.

[chaobell]

Soooo I just read those two excerpts, and... ugh.

Yeah, I'm pretty much done with DC.

[bedsitter23.livejournal.com]

This is so right on, that I almost feel embarrassed showing up here. I have a longtime friend who owns a comic shop and has seduced me with a couple of free issues and a deep discount or two, but that's still no excuse. I will show myself out.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Aw, I trust your assessments and reviews of the new books that come out -- if anyone does monitor the current DC crop, I wish/pray it were people who could interpret them in an intelligent and thoughtful way.

Me, I've got longboxes of embarrassment in the basement. I have multiple copies of the first issue of X-Force, for cryin' out loud. The very first one. And most of Ellis's Avatar run, and that's not the sorta thing you want someone reading over your shoulder. *shudder*

There are two more excellent essays that approach just what the hell is going on with the new 52, one by the ever-erudite Andrew Wheeler and one from Laura Hudson that approach many of the same ideas from mostly different angles. And MGK is a a bit kinder (oops HTML fail) toward the 52 than Alasdair in much the same way that a napalm drop is gentler than a tactical nuke. But I'm done with DC (even LSH, which is the one title more or less untouched by the reboot) until they seriously rethink their current editorial mindset or lack thereof.

Haven't given up on the medium yet, but it is a bit like trying to stay a Colts fan when Peyton Manning's neck is a pipe-cleaner.

[vulpisfoxfire.livejournal.com]

Yeesh. I always feel a little bad about having not bothered with mainstream comics for years (I was a fan of Captain Carrot and Star Trek on the DC side of things and Star Wars, Transformers, and GI Joe on the Marvel side, but for most everything else I read it was the small-press/indy titles), but then I see things like this, and don't feel so bad.

As far as Babs Gordon...she might want to have a talk with a certain Charlie Xavier and what happened when *he* got out of his chair...

[vulpisfoxfire.livejournal.com]

And come to think of it, on the Catwoman thing..

I know at least one of the Catwoman origin stories has her originally being a prostitute. I'm wondering if Brucey is using his Bat Credit Card here...

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

*snort* That's Bruce, master of free enterprise.

It's really baffling to me. In the first issue after a reboot, the first thing we see is them making the bat with two backs? Gah. Save it for issue #3, at least. And I love that the reinterpretation of Starfire turns her from "society is free with love" to "society is free with sex" because those ideas are perfectly interchangeable.

It's like the Fanfic 52, with about the same percentage of it being absolute drivel. Is anyone editing this?

And I was impressed that Chuck spent so much time upright -- and then went right back to having more or less the exact same debilitating injury. Dude got his spine rebooted.