Some Thoughts on Comic Books

I've complained on this site a few times about the declining amount of creativity in the media world, most particularly modern music (See Paul McCartney Music Review) and in films (See Machete Review). I wish I had nothing to complain about after all, and in all fairness there are plenty of new movies and new bands that I can get into. I recently discovered the Philly band Dr. Dog and they are a really fine indie band. There just seems to be a dumbing down in music and film nowadays; in film particularly, with all the "In 3-D!" signs and old licensed material. A Yogi Bear movie is coming out next week for God Sakes! Do kids even know who Yogi is? Oh and its in 3-D! Theatres will only charge five...six bucks extra. There's just no subtlety or thought put into these things anymore. It's all on the go. It hits you in the head, and there's not much to think about anymore because no one seems to have the time to think.

I'm sad that my admittedly cynical views towards music and film are now extending to the world of Comic Books.

Those who know me well know that I'm a bit of comic book nerd. Not insanely crazy. I don't dress as Dumbeldore or decorate my house with mini-busts of the Justice League. Just the occasional Green Lantern t-shirt.

I read some books when I was a kid, mostly Batman, Superman and the Justice League of America. Once I got to high school however and it became real apparent that it wasn't cool to read comics, the comics went in a box and sat in my closet for a few years. Later in college I was in a dorm surrounded by all sorts of nerds. Music nerds, Evil Dead nerds, manga nerds, and a few comic book nerds. Naturally I was no longer trying to look cool amongst the sea of nerds and got back in the books. I think it was the 1st Volume of Daredevil under the art and scripting of Frank Miller.

When I went back home to New York for an internship and had some spare cash from bartending I would trek up to Midtown Comics on 42nd St. The store is enormous. Three floors of books, toys, clothes and filled to the brim with dorks of Potsie-like proportions. This was 2006 and the main event in the world of comics was the Marvel Civil War. The storyline encompasses all the Marvel superheroes, centering on Captain America and Iron Man. After an enormous tragedy caused by superheroes, there is a Federal Act on the way that would require all heroes to become licensed by the government, thus giving up any secret identities they might have. On one side there is Iron Man, leading the Pro-Registration side, and Captain America leading the Anti-American side. The book basically becomes a satire of the way our two-party political system works with Iron Man representing the Right and Cap the Left. The book is well written by Mark Millar and given the chance you should check it out.  I loved how relevant many of the themes were while staying grounded in comic book lore.

Captain America RIP...along with
good comic concepts, RIP to that too.

It all leads to Captain America dying by sniper fire. And with that final shot....all the creativity in these books disappeared.

Within a year, DC Comics were ready to kill off Batman. Characters like Thor that were thought dead were suddenly brought back in all sorts of confusing ways. Books became a gimmick. Comic book fans were rushing to the stores to buy the copies of Captain America dying or Spider-Man revealing his identity to the world because they got suckered in. They needed to buy all the alternate covers, under the justification that maybe "one day these will be worth something". Oh by the way, a year after Captain America died, he was brought back. Spider-Man underwent a change in which everything that had changed after his coming out was rolled back as if nothing ever happened.

Batman was recently brought back from the dead. Turns out he never actually died, he was just sent back through time...Really??? That's the best you could do?

The average comic books costs $2.99, but seemingly every other issue is some kind of an event or an annual or a special, and those cost up to $4.99. Not to mention the alternate covers, which have significantly taken the value out of these books.  It's too expensive to read these things anymore. I know comic books are a dying art, but it's a sin to charge that much for an inevitable stomach ache.

The "Big Two" in comics do the same thing that their music industry and film industry cohorts do. They take an idea, dumb it down, put it through the grinder, smash it into your heads, repeat.

And just before I thought it could get any worse, Marvel is running a new event about superhero vampires. I'm done...I will just focus on the good times, the back issues.

Ollie Makes an Impulse Buy

Walking down the foggy, exotic streets of Chinatown, Ollie could think of only two things.  Proving his commitment to his girlfriend and finding a way to not quaff the endless stench of far away Oriental fish that permeates this section of Chinatown.  He knew that to get the perfect the gift, the perfect keepsake for the women he loved he would have to venture into Chinatown.  Scouring the streets he would soon find the answer to his dilemma. 

It’s been a problem his entire romantic life.  He was committed to his job, to his hobbies, but never to his girlfriend.  They were just leisure activities.  Someone to go out with when he wasn’t playing World of Warcraft or watching Mexican wrestling (he always dreamt of being a luchadore).  However, Ollie was truly enraptured by his current squeeze.  Unlike other women, she saw him for what he is.  She needed to be with him and he needed to be with her.  To prove his commitment only to her, and to show her that he can abandon his old ways he would first need the perfect gift.

It was several hours and several cups of coffee and several cheap pork buns before Ollie discovered the answer to his problems.   The sign for Pei Wei’s thrift shop was decrepit.   Just a cheap piece of plywood with a corner torn off and splintered.  Whomever painted the sign used too much paint and all the signs bore the long drips of paint from each letter.  What drew Ollie to this particular shop amongst all the thrift shops in Chinatown was its appearance. After all, his girlfriend loved finding random eclectic (beat down) thrift stores to buy random knick-knacks at.