Random Trains of Thought 7/25/2011

- Well, another San Diego Comic Con has come and gone. Naturally that brings a lot of thoughts to the forefront. Combined with some other things going on, I've got a few more things to ponder than most days of the year. So why the hell not put it down, you know what I'm sayin'?

- No lie, I'm pretty much completely on board the Superman soft reboot. A friend of mine, who's oddly not even a fan of Superman, was annoyed at this relatively recently and the fact that anything is even being rebooted, despite it only being some aspects of the universe. Truth is, I kind of think Superman needs it.

This was done once before, after COIE, and it certainly worked. Now's about as good a time as ever. I have to admit, throwing Grant Morrison on Action Comics did a lot to alleviate my fears - and honestly, I'm sure that's what DC was counting on for fans like myself - but that's not all of it. I think it's rather interesting, after all these years, to go back to the Golden Age style Superman and update him. Back then, you could say he was sort of anti-authoritarian, standing up for justice and what was right, not necessarily for the law and legality. That's an approach we haven't seen a modern take on; and frankly, it adds an interesting edge to a character that's been floundering lately.

Superman's not a character that should be floundering, either, yet we're coming right off the heels of a highly publicized and widely derided storyline in Superman and an afterthought of a backup in Action Comics causing more ridiculous controversy than I've seen in... months. Try naming a story worth a damn in the past few years and you're going to come up short. One can argue all day long whether Lois had anything to do with it, much less other elements, but something had to change.

- Not sure about George Perez taking Superman, basically the "other half" of his regular ongoings. Love his art to pieces. Not so sure he's a writer with modern enough sensibilities for leading a new initiative into the future like Grant is. The thinking probably goes along the lines of "well, he handled Wonder Womans reboot after COIE and that's pretty much one of her few generally liked eras, lets see if he can do Superman". I guess time will tell if he's up to the task. Even if he's not, his art will always be awesome.

- Seems like females in comics happened to be a prominent discussion at SDCC this year. Whether DC is improving in this regard depends on the individual viewpoint, but I noticed that Dan DiDio asked a good question in "who should we have hired" and interestingly, the fan not only couldn't answer but fumbled the recovery. When you sit and think about it, most are wrapped up in exclusives, Marvel and creator owned work. I suppose DC and Devin Grayson could always try talking to each other again, but that's about it.

Grant Morrison encouraged women to send their work in, but even if that happens the industry still has a ways to go, not just on a corporate level but a fan one. It sounds like the audience was, after a while, telling the people who kept bringing up female characters and creators to sit down and shut up. Embarrassing behavior, really.

- Boy that... protest against the DCnU... really worked out well, dinnit'? Of the five hundred people who RSVP'd, apparently twelve, give or take, actually showed up and it lasted all of fifteen minutes. I've heard of all bark and no bite, but goddamn.

I kind of had to raise my eyebrow at the folks who did show up, too. Most of them were in Joker and Harley Quinn costumes. Which is fine, but the person who organized it by all rights sounds less upset about the relaunch and more upset that Harley and Joker aren't together and continuing their "love story", as it were.

I'm not going to make fun of anyone about it, but I genuinely have to ask; are these guys seeing a different relationship than I am? Because Joker and Harley are about the best representation in comics of an abusive relationship, compounded by the fact that the guy manipulates the girl and her emotions. I've seen real relationships like that. It's sickening. So... how is the fictional equivalent encouraged by some and something some folks want to see more of? I genuinely don't get it. The B:TAS episode Mad Love alone should be enough for most everyone to feel bad for her and prefer to see her get away from him.

- I'm a little pissed that DC is revisiting the "Urban Legend" concept for Batman. You may recall that I feel the idea should be thrown into a toxic waste dump and never seen again. However, they're basically using this as an excuse to have Batman operating before Superman, the first Public superhero, and keep his continuity - or the best stories involving him - intact. The concept's still about as intelligent as sticking a fork in an electric socket, but at least it's just being used as a way to fit most of his continuity in and not like in Zero Hour, where the dude was thrown in the street with his back broken and then suddenly, whoop, everyone totally doesn't think he exists months later.

- I'm going to be honest; I'm more or less on board with this relaunch. When I sit down and look at it, there are more books after the relaunch I'm either seriously considering or keeping an eye on than prior. The New 52 sounds like a concentrated effort to diversify the genre's they publish instead of forty variations on the superhero book and I'm down with most of the horror and edge books as well as my usual favorites in the superhero area. Swamp Thing, Frankenstein and Animal Man alone are enough to get me excited.

- Something I'm not so sure about, however, is the rejigging of the Teen Titans. I'm not overly familiar with Scott Lobdell - and hear as much bad about his work as I do good - I'm not fond how how 90's some of the new designs are and - not just because Beast Boy and Raven aren't there - I really don't care about the lineup. Save Bart, I've never given a crap about the Young Justice four.

This one's going to take a lot of work to sell me on.

- So, someone is finally going to smack Cyclops around for his dickery? And it's going to be Wolverine? Well god damn, it's almost like Marvel knows exactly what I want! Except for the fact that they tend to go in asinine directions and will probably make Cyclops seem in the right. I'm not buying the "neither side is portrayed as right or wrong" crap. Civil War peddled that too and we know how that turned out. They'll have to sell me on it.

- CABLE REBORN ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? Who the hell wants this? Who ASKED for this? Why can't we just leave 90's relics in the past? Next you'll be telling me they're thinking about bringing the Scarlet Spider ba-

... Really? Really?

Hahaha. Haha. Oh screw you Marvel.

- I'm now expecting an announcement from Marvel on the return of Armored Daredevil any day now.

- Oh hey, they can even bring back Teen Tony! I mean, if we're going to dredge up the shit from the 90's, why not just go all out and be done with it? No holding back now guys!

- I suppose it could be worse; they could always assault us with another dose of Onslaught for the third time in four years.

-Capcom's not even trying to mask their dickery anymore, are they? They're jerking their fans around, it seems like they're currently burying the Mega Man franchise out of spite over Inafune leaving. They're not localizing several cool looking titles AT ALL. Now, suddenly, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 about six months after the original hit stores? Activision usually takes the cake for sheer dickery, but Capcoms making an honest try.