I’m not entirely sure what’s happening with DC Comics at the moment, but a lot of people I talk to are really starting to go off them. I am not a full fledged comic nerd. I like to read comics and my house is chock full of the blasted things, but I’ll be honest and say that I’m not up to date with all the ins and outs of the industry. What insider knowledge I do know I usually get from the website “4thletter” or the occasional chat with my pal Phil.
The whole comic industry does seem like a bizarre and interesting place to be. I’ve always secretly wanted to write a comic or graphic novel. I have never given it more than a glancing thought though because I can’t draw for toffee and it seems like such a weird industry to get in to. It’s mainly the drawing though. Seriously, I struggle to draw a convincing looking stick man, the idea of drawing a sprawling fight scene across a murky dystopian landscape would be far beyond my piddling abilities.
The thing is, whenever I’ve thought about writing a comic I usually always want to write about the DC characters, this despite the fact that right now I’m enjoying reading Marvel much more than DC. This seems to be the general consensus from other people that I talk with. Everyone just seems so much more into Marvel. Some aren’t even buying any comics from the supposed “Big Two” and instead are buying comics from independent companies.
That being said, if someone offered me a contract tomorrow to write a story for an existing character from DC, Marvel or anywhere else, I’d still likely pick a DC character just because I find them so interesting. Make no mistake, the DC universe is a grim and depressing place filled with a host of brooding dark characters. With characters like Batman, Jason Todd, Deathstroke, Lex Luthor, Sinestro and others, DC has a very rich talent pool to draw from. Why then, is the current drop of DC books seemingly failing to grip people’s attention? I mean, I buy quite a few DC comics and I’m sure DC makes a reasonable amount in sales each week, so commercially I don’t think they’re failing. But critically, the stories really seem to have missed the mark with more long time readers.
As someone who buys DC, I find most of the time that I am buying the books I buy more for the characters they contain than the actual stories they offer. For instance, I’ve been a regular buyer of “Red Hood and The Outlaws” since its inception. We’re at issue 20 now and none of the narratives have gripped me in any noteworthy way. I keep buying the book because I’m a fan of Jason Todd and occasionally he has an interaction with Starfire, Arsenal or someone else in the Batman universe that I find intriguing. Outside of that, there’s no other reason why I buy it. The current story of Jason wilfully having his memories wiped and the team having a bounty on them isn’t a bad story but it’s not exactly rocking my world either.
The book itself is a collection of good moments but the actual substance of the stories themselves never really infuses. For instance, in one of the earlier stories, Jason and his date end up getting roped into an interplanetary war. Cue plenty of nice scenes where Jason’s date is freaking out that she’s on a space ship while Jason is off shooting aliens. But that’s the only real joy I got from it. I found the actual story of Starfire trying to repel invaders to her home planet rather dull if I’m honest.
I seem to buy DC books now more as a force of habit than actually being interested in the story. Batman and Robin, Red Hood, Batwing, Green Lantern, Red Lanterns and Suicide Squad have all become things I just buy when I’m in the comic shop. In fact, from issue 21 onwards I think I’m going to cut all of them. I might stick with Red Hood and possibly Red Lanterns, but the others are just taking up space now. Suicide Squad in particular has been a massive disappointment for me. I’d been such a huge fan of “Secret Six” and was dismayed when it was pulled. “Suicide Squad” started off looking like it would be the natural successor to that book, and it was probably intended as such.
Ultimately though, it’s gone from being quite interesting to being pretty much a slog. It really is a shame because a comic whose main characters are Deadshot, Harley Quinn and King Shark should really be a great read. King Shark hasn’t been as funny or as entertaining in “Suicide Squad” as he was in “Secret Six”. I really don’t like the new design for him either. It’s weird how a character who is essentially one dimensional can actually lose depth of character, but it’s happened in this book.
Deadshot is by far the best thing in the book and he’s the only character you truly find yourself rooting for. He’s not a traditional bad guy. To call him a bad guy is probably going too far. Deadshot is a selfish person who does bad things because of it. He can equally be capable of doing good things as well, but again it will always be for a selfish reason. That being said, I still kind of like him. He’s the main reason I’ve stuck around as long as I have in all fairness.
Quinn has just kind of got annoying now. I think, more than any other character in DC at the moment, Harley Quinn is the most over-exposed. I just don’t think we need anymore Quinn right now. For the past 10 years they’ve just been shoving more and more Harley at us to the point that I think I’ve hit my Quinn Tolerance Level. She’s a great character but I really think it would do her good to disappear for a little bit. Character’s need a break now and then. For instance, I’d be highly interested in a Killer Croc comic right now because it seems like ages since I last saw him (It likely isn’t of course).
One of the reasons why I’m so into the new “Justice League of America” and spin off “Vibe” comic is that it’s using some characters that we either haven’t seen in a major role for a while (Martian Manhunter) or incorporating some of the brand new ones they’ve just brought in (Vibe, New Green Lantern). JLA has a feeling of freshness to it, even when it also contains other regular characters that have been popping up elsewhere (Catwoman, Green Arrow, Amanda Waller etc)
I tapped out on Catwoman somewhere around issue 11 or 12 I think. I can’t remember. I kind of liked it at first and even when I didn’t, I stuck around as I wanted to give it a chance. It just got to the point where I wasn’t enjoying it anymore and even my admiration for the character couldn’t get me to stick with it.
On the other side of the coin, I’m really starting to get more into Marvel at the moment. A vs X was excellent and felt like a proper “event”. It left the Mutant and Marvel landscape in such a way that I’m excited to see where it goes. Marvel was also smart to introduce a slew of new mutants to enrol at Wolverines school and work hard at giving them recognisable personalities. Quentin Quire in particular has been a stand out but I like Kid Apocalypse too. X-Force went out in a blaze of glory and I was genuinely upset to see it fall by the wayside. Fantomex and Deadpool were excellent with Fantomex being toned up, while Deadpool was toned down. It also had a major role for Daken towards the end, which always scores comic points. Daken’s book getting pulled caused me to lament for a long time, so it was good for him to get a run in the finale of X-Force.
So yeah, Marvel is rocking my world more than DC right now. The number of DC books I buy is going down where as the number of Marvel ones I buy are on the up. I’m sure financially DC will do just fine, but we’re swiftly moving to a time where I will be buying a mere 4 DC books a month, where it used to be nearly 10. Meanwhile, my Marvel intake is going to swell from about 3 to something like 7 or 8. Take into account the ID books I buy and the percentage of income I send DC’s way is going to be considerably lower than it used to be.
Sort it out DC. I want to like you, but you’re not making it easy.
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