First of all, if you haven’t seen it, you must check out IFC’s “Super.” I’m a bit late to the party on this one, but I watched it on a whim and it was just brilliant. This was what Kick-Ass could have and should have been. Yes, Super is violent and twisted, but it’s a lot more sincere and has a human heart, rather than whatever sustains the bile running through Mark Millar’s veins. If you have cable with a Video-On-Demand service, check there under “IFC” and watch it.
Next . . . oh, DC Comics.
For those of you not in the know, DC has announced it will be rebooting their entire line in September . . . well, almost. Apparently low-sellers or books which aren’t pet projects to the superstar writers like Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison will be put through the continuity ringer, while Morrison’s insane Batman screed and Johns’ Green Lantern love-letter to the Silver Age (i.e., comics that were written before we were born) will continue undaunted. But for all you fanfic writers waiting for Superman to bone Wonder-Woman, your day has come! And Barbara Gordan, who’s been in a wheelchair for ages, will walk again. I think this comic from The Gutters sums that situation up nicely.
But I’m not ranty about that, no no. All of this silliness and hoop-jumping and digital releases in the desperate effort to bring in “new readers,” that’s bad enough. What’s got me irritated is the quiet, unspoken war on DC’s Vertigo imprint by none other than . . . DC.
To bring you up to speed, Vertigo began in the 80′s as a way for comics to print “more mature” stories than were allowed under the existing Comics Code Authority. What it ended up becoming was the premiere publishing line for new, innovative and critically acclaimed series, quite simply some of the best comics ever written. Books included legendary titles like Sandman, Shade the Changing Man, Transmetropolitan, Preacher, Hellblazer, Swamp Thing, The Unwritten, Fables . . . basically, if it involved compelling storytelling, fantastic art, true exploration of the medium which is comics, and a turn away from the constant bog of recycled status-quo that was the Spandex Books, you could find it at Vertigo.
Green Lantern does not win Eisner Awards. Action Comics is not considered a literary triumph. There’s a reason for that: they’re stuck. The very essence of the modern spandex book demands that a status quo be maintained. Small changes are allowed here and there, until a new writer jumps on the title and reverses the changes he dislikes, then adds new ones. Yet at the end of the day, an unending equilibrium is maintained that leaves the stories stuck in slow-moving amber, doomed to remain the same.
Vertigo titles never had this problem. They had a freedom unrivaled, and as a result moved the field of “sequential art” forward. Not every book was a winner, but every book tried something new, or different, or just tried something.
And judging by DC’s treatment of its own award-winning imprint, you’d think they don’t like that. The Vertigo editorial staff has been slighted and some would say “gutted.” The number of books from the line have dwindled. Innovative books like Madame Xanadu have been shitcanned. For making some of the best comics of the modern era, Vertigo has been roundly punished at every go.
Now to tie it all together: news comes from DC that their “relaunch” (don’t call it a reboot, they been here for years) will include Justice League Dark. It will feature a team of supernatural “heroes” including Deadman, Zatanna, Madame Xanadu, Shade the Changing Man . . . and John Constantine.
John Constantine. Hellblazer. The man who sold his soul to three different demons to cheat death, and gave them the finger when he was done. The original bastard. John Constantine will now be a superhero.
If you don’t read comics, this will mean nearly nothing to you. If you do read comics, you’re either in a laughing fit or frothing at the mouth.
First of all, in regard to Justice League Dark, I liked it the first time I read it . . . when it was called Shadowpact. Second, 2/3 of the lineup seem to be DC’s way of saying, “Wait, no! We’re just as good as Vertigo! See? We got all them characters you liked before! So it’s just the same, right?”
No. It isn’t. The old way of writing superhero comics is coming to an end, and DC does not seem to be able to cope with this fact. That’s not to say the superhero book is over; Robert Kirkman’s Invincible is an example of an evolution of the style, and it’s been brilliant. The same went for Brian Michael Bendis’s Ultimate Spider-Man (though it remains to be seen if this, too, has come to an end).
New readers will not come for more of the same, and old readers will not come for a table-flipping. Neither will the readers of the Vertigo imprint, who will probably find this mass-marketeering of their favorite stories and characters to be as cheap as I do. But I sense some arrogance and pride in DC’s actions, especially regarding their shoddy treatment of one of the best publishing lines to ever be part of comic book history.
TL; DR: DC can’t stand to be upstaged, and will break your toys if you do.
