Am I the only person not thrilled about the direction my favorite comic titles and characters are headed…? Surely there are people out there that are seeing the same thing I am looking at when I look at the shelf of my favorite comic store and simply sigh.
I have gotten used to the comic industry publishing some sort of summer “event” to boost sales. Marvel has, by far, been more creative on this front as DC has mostly had some sort of “crisis” happening. As much as I enjoyed the original "Crisis on Infinite Earths"….I think at this point they are beating a dead horse.
Fast forward to the summer of 2015 (now) and Marvel has gone back to one of their classic events and are doing a new "Secret Wars." I can’t blame them for trying to capitalize on a previous success, lord knows DC has certainly cashed in on Crisis…and truth be told, the Secret Wars event looks to be very interesting. I wish I could say the same for DC. Thus far “Convergence” has been nothing but a let down as it seems to be no more than their version of "Contest of Champions."
When I started reading the books and found out that it would be various heroes from various realities battling to see who gets to keep being published…I couldn’t have been more disappointed. At best it streamlined the DC Universe of characters not really being used (so what’s the point in streamlining?). At worst it was them getting rid of some great characters that any competent writer could find a great use for.
In the wake of this foolishness, I started thinking about some specific characters and the changes they have endured (or will endure) and have decided to weigh in in hopes that I’m not the only one hurting from the laziness of the industry. Let’s start with one of my favorites….Dr. Fate.
According to issue # 1451 of Comic Shop News, Dr. Fate will now be “An overwhelmed Brooklyn med student who’s been handed the Helmet of Fate, without an instruction manual.” Oh my…with that I just have to go out and grab a copy of Dr. Fate # 1 (sarcasm). I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not the least bit interested in yet, another character having to “learn” the powers of Fate. Been there, done that, and it’s boring. I would much rather see Fate used as a supremely kick-ass character, the type that can walk into a room of fifty versions of Superman, and the whole room giving pause just by his presence. Ok, maybe that’s a bit too much, but the point is I’d rather see him as the bad-ass I grew up on than some clueless bystander being taken for a ride by the helmet. Simply put, give him the mantle he deserves, and use him accordingly.
Another character DC seems to not know what to do with is Shazam (shame on them for losing the rights to call him Captain Marvel). Here we have an awesome character that was more popular than Superman when they both first came out, and DC has no clue how to really make him interesting. How many version of “the kid in an adult body” am I going to have to go through before someone figures out that great writing can revive this character….and to do that they need to really put some effort into utilizing the “Wisdom of Solomon” (check out the write up to this power in the link...it's incredible). The “gosh” and “golly gee wiz” has run it’s course a long time ago and a Shazam that’s not some dumb kid, but wise beyond most characters would be very interesting. But that would require writers to actually come up with great stories and intelligent situations…so I know it’s just too much ask.
Now it’s being reported on Den of Geek that Batman # 41 is going to debut a new Batman. ***Spoiler Warning*** Word is that it’s really Commissioner Gordon (yawn). So wait…an old cop in a suit of armor looking like something right out of Amine is going to get me to stop reading the leader in the industry of armored suits (Iron Man)? Probably not. There is really nothing about this revelation that excites me about continuing to read the Batman title. In fact, I probably will stop as it’s just not interesting to me to read about Gordon in armor fighting criminals in Gotham. I can pull out my old issues of War Machine if I really feel the need to see an armor laden with massive weapons causing mayhem and destruction. While I’m on the subject, I have never really been impressed with any Batman armor that he created himself without the help of the Justice League. For all of Batman’s knowledge and genius, he has never been a Tony Stark. I think DC should stop trying to make him one.
Before I close out my rant (cause if I don’t I will be writing a small book), I want to quickly touch on the New 52 version of Lobo. In a word, he sucks. I collected the book and waited, like Sean Connery in “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” to be impressed. It never happened. I see where they wanted to go with the series, but I also saw where they were falling short. If they wanted to make him the baddest and most dangerous bounty hunter in the universe (in all of comics really) then they needed to stop playing around with all the stupid gadgets and get back to him being simply unstoppable. I can see wanting to get away from the biker image, but they could have easily made him a cold calculating genius that brutally gets to the point. Heck, they could have even kept the gadgets, but with the mantle of being the “best” they should be gadgets with power enough to deal with any threat, even a fully powered Kryptonian…and when they failed (or our hero somehow escaped/survived), then we should be treated to a real show of why Lobo is so dangerous. Lobo has never regained his status from the days of going to the Fortress of Solitude and straight up beating the crap out of Superman….and that’s a shame.
I firmly believe that DC can do better…but what I believe and what they are actually doing seem to be two different things. With all that said, don’t even get me started on the ongoing cinematic war (or more accurately the clubbing of DC like a baby seal by Marvel)….that will have to wait for another post.
