Another Comic-Con has come and gone. Not much to mention here as the announcements mostly rolled out prior to the Con, but a few things were sort of interesting.
Even if it weren't Austinite Chris Roberson writing it,
I would be looking at IDW's Star Trek/ Legion cross-over. I normally don't go in for these stunt, TV-tie in, non-canonical cross-over things, but
its Star Trek and Legion. With Roberson onboard, this should be FUN.
Fantagraphics to publish EC Comics collections four times per year. That sounds pretty great, if Fantagraphics can keep to their own production schedule, which has seemed like a problem over there. They're doing Pogo, right? I mean, eventually (I ordered that book literally a year ago. Latest is that its coming for Christmas.).
Marvel is trying to make one of my favorite short-lived Marvel comics, Alias, into a TV show. To avoid brand confusion, I think they're calling it
A.K.A.: Jessica Jones. This might also mean Luke Cage on TV! Sweet Christmas!
Nate Powell's Any Empire looks very interesting.
Mark Waid and that PVP guy had some interesting stuff to say about online comics (an area I realize I won't be too invested in until the iPad is far cheaper).
No doubt I'm in a little bit of a post-Con letdown. The people attending might have all had fun, but most of the announcements broke way the heck before the con (which is fine. Used to be you missed stuff in the deluge), but I can't escape a feeling of "well, that seemed a lot like re-arranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic". I'm sure attendees had a great time, but... I dunno. Something just seemed off about this year's Con.
DC's New 52 initiative seems to have come out of the Con shakier than it was going in.
Whoops. Something about how much reassurance DC felt was necessary can only remind me of how companies getting bought-out need to tell their employees to keep working hard because nobody is getting laid off. And then everybody gets fired. And, seriously, did they really think there wouldn't be some blowback?*
I have to wonder if TPTB at DC aren't having a "we've made a terrible mistake" moment back at DCU HQ today.
That said, according to
the Newsarama.com article, all comic fans now sound a lot like an
Our Valued Customers strip.
"I've never really cared about Superman before because he's got the whole boy scout thing," a fan remarked. "But Grant Morrison saying he's going to be more of a rebel now and more about what's right instead of what's legal, that sounds really cool."
Marvel seemed to be kicking DC's can pretty much everywhere, and it didn't help DC that
Green Lantern went pretty much undiscussed while
Captain America had a good opening weekend (not great. Opened lower than the middling-performing
Thor) and good word of mouth. They have TV deals going (and the
Wonder Woman fiasco at NBC is still fresh in everyone's mind), and the
Fear Itself event seems to be going well at the House of Ideas.
I quit reading Marvel about two years ago aside from some
Cap and
Daredevil**, so I really don't know what's happening over there. And given the "you have to read all 50 of these books" strategy for their series, and their dedication to the "event after event" model... I'm not real inclined to head back to Marvel at the moment.
The truth is, my patience for a lot of the telling and retelling of the same old stories is wearing thin. Solicits and announcements of another character dying and being reborn, of a "conspiracy", of dark secrets being uncovered... I need something of a break, I think.
And, in reading the Con reports, as uninspiring as the "announcements" might be... as always, the fans can be some of the worst part of the equation. Oh my, we are the worst. The absolute worst.
*no, I'm not buying all 52 of your new titles. Especially with so much of the creative roster rolling over (I know those guys and I don't buy their work now).
**the latest new issue by Mark Waid was really good, by the way
