DC vs Marvel Today!
May. 3rd, 2006 09:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteImagine if the season finale of Lost aired opposite the premiere of 24. Imagine the hype, the bulid-up, the anticipation. That's what will be going on in the comic book shops of America today, as the last issue of DC's Infinite Crisis and the first issue of Marvel's Civil War arrive.
I don't think that Marvel planned this on purpose - the last issue of InfC was initailly supposed to be out a month ago. But this is pretty much what comics in America are like now. Each company creates the next Big Event to outdo both its own last Big Event and that of the competition. Each trips over itself to make it seem like no one has ever done anything like this before. And in the process, a small but noteworthy number of fans wonder if any of these Events amount to anything.
I am looking foreard to seeing just how InfC ends, though I suspect it will be a letdown. So far, it's been a great ride, but I wonder if anything will really change, or if after three months of great fights there are any really shocks left. Still, I trust Geoff Johns to do this well. I don't think, though, that DC has gained much from this tale, as it seems there are just enough old fans and DC haters who can't stomach it to offset any arriving new fans.
I don't have any plans to buy Civil War, as it's written by Mark Millar (whose Marvel work annoys me), but I am curious to see if this tale of heroes taking sides over government efforts to regulate their careers and lives changes anything. I truly expect that after seven months, things will be where they were before, or that any changes won't last. Still, after 45 years, it's good to know that Marvel fans can still count on their heroes fighting each other, as they have since the Hulk fought Ben Grimm.
The bottom line, though, is that if you love one of the big two companies, you know that you have spent a lot on the hype, and that you will continue to do so. And that if you don't like DC or Marvel, you are increasingly out of luck. Yes, the smaller comapnies still publish. But like shows hidden on the smaller networks (to go back to my analogy), these comics are more and more overshadowed by the unending hype engines of the big guys. While I am a dedicated DC fanboy, I can't say that a market dominated only by DC and Marvel is what we need.
But in the meantime, we have a crisis and a war and lots of bankrupt fans.
And just wait till next week, when DC launches its weekly serial comic, 52.
I don't think that Marvel planned this on purpose - the last issue of InfC was initailly supposed to be out a month ago. But this is pretty much what comics in America are like now. Each company creates the next Big Event to outdo both its own last Big Event and that of the competition. Each trips over itself to make it seem like no one has ever done anything like this before. And in the process, a small but noteworthy number of fans wonder if any of these Events amount to anything.
I am looking foreard to seeing just how InfC ends, though I suspect it will be a letdown. So far, it's been a great ride, but I wonder if anything will really change, or if after three months of great fights there are any really shocks left. Still, I trust Geoff Johns to do this well. I don't think, though, that DC has gained much from this tale, as it seems there are just enough old fans and DC haters who can't stomach it to offset any arriving new fans.
I don't have any plans to buy Civil War, as it's written by Mark Millar (whose Marvel work annoys me), but I am curious to see if this tale of heroes taking sides over government efforts to regulate their careers and lives changes anything. I truly expect that after seven months, things will be where they were before, or that any changes won't last. Still, after 45 years, it's good to know that Marvel fans can still count on their heroes fighting each other, as they have since the Hulk fought Ben Grimm.
The bottom line, though, is that if you love one of the big two companies, you know that you have spent a lot on the hype, and that you will continue to do so. And that if you don't like DC or Marvel, you are increasingly out of luck. Yes, the smaller comapnies still publish. But like shows hidden on the smaller networks (to go back to my analogy), these comics are more and more overshadowed by the unending hype engines of the big guys. While I am a dedicated DC fanboy, I can't say that a market dominated only by DC and Marvel is what we need.
But in the meantime, we have a crisis and a war and lots of bankrupt fans.
And just wait till next week, when DC launches its weekly serial comic, 52.
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(no subject)
Date: May. 3rd, 2006 01:46 pm (UTC)I too find it interesting that Infinite Crisis is ending just as Civil War begins, and your analogy works very well for me. Sadly, I won't be able to pick up IC until around 5:30 PM, and then I may not have a chance to read it until tomorrow. I do hope the conclusion makes the whole storyline worth it...but in some ways, from what I've heard, this series was just Zero Hour writ large.
(no subject)
Date: May. 3rd, 2006 01:59 pm (UTC)From what I've heard, it's Zero Hour/Crisis on Infinite Earths backwards and in high heels. (-8
(no subject)
Date: May. 3rd, 2006 02:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: May. 3rd, 2006 03:46 pm (UTC)But yeah, I like what reboots do, but don't like to read them. So I'm looking forward to 52 and I've been following some OYL stuff, but IC itself was nothing I cared about.