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Can there be too much action in comic books?

 
 
Recently, I had been hit with a writing bug and my article had the honor of being posted on such fine sites as ComicVine and AnimeVice. I had even heard that it was posted across many other manga/anime blogs. The gratitude I have toward the ComicVine staff, that encouraged me to write the first featured article, is quite incalculable. The same goes to the staff on AnimeVice who also carried the story.

One thing about the largest selling point to US comics is the action. It’s what we all love, and pretty much been the hallmark of some of our greatest comics and events. Who wasn’t effected by the fight of Superman and Doomsday? We have the promise of amazing action that is to fill the pages and get are blood flowing. Though it’s not always delivered as promised. As I was watching G-Man’s review of the Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Exodus book something struck me. The Utopia story had so much potential that fell short.  For months we had a slow and steady build up to what was climaxed in the Exodus book. Though this book felt like a promise unrealized. In the beginning it had a long climb up, similar to the start of a roller coaster. You sit, strapped in, waiting for that first great fall that will give you the momentum needed to hit all the twists and turns to come. Utopia felt more like a long, five minute climb to ten foot drop, and it was all over. Exciting for a whole three seconds, but left me vastly unfulfilled. Not to say that the fights were bad. It all just felt as if so much was missed. I don’t even hold the writers or the artists accountable for this. Their job was done and done well in each book. For I blame what none of us can escape, even as it constantly moves: Time. Well, Time and the Marvel editorial staff that dictates that these events have to settle within a certain time frame.

It seriously feels that in many comics we have to choose between either story or action. If we desire more of one. We then must sacrifice a part of the other. This was also shown in Babs’ review of Dark Reign-The List: X-Men. It’s not as if our writers or artists in the US series aren’t capable of doing both. Wolverine's story during Civil War was a great read with great action. Why does this even have to be a choice? 


Thinking of how this story moved it reminded me of an arc that was used in the manga series, One Piece. It’s a story that was published several years back about the CP-9/Enis Lobby arc. In many ways it shares a couple of similarities with the Utopia/Exodus story. Both had a long build up,friends turning on each other, twists in loyalties, possible betrayal from an enigmatic member of the heroes, clashing with a dark, corrupt government organization filled with killers; and ended in battles that changed the status quo forever. To date, it’s one of my favorite arcs, because of the emotions it evoked, with Nico Robin’s past; and the scale of the battles at the end.

The story for this stage in One Piece pretty much began with chapter 343(Oct. 24, 2004) and the appearance of the Cipher Pol-9 (CP-9). Following the tradition of weekly chapter releases, the build up lasted past the following year, and the opening salvo was in chapter 398(Jan. 29, 2006). The Utopia story first began in Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1 (Jun. 24, 2009), but the roots of the story date further back. As with all tales in the current Marvel continuum. All roads lead back to Civil War, which to me played out like a political allegory; similar to Animal Farm, but without the talking pigs. (Well, unless you wish to count Stark, but that’s getting off the topic.) Civil War ultimately is what lead to the Dark Reign. Norman Osborn stole Wolverine’s kill shot in Secret Invasion; and the murderer of Gwen Stacy quickly became America’s hero. He had created the Cabal in Secret Invasion: Dark Reign #1 (Dec. 3, 2008) and the X-Men had been mostly uninvolved. Despite Emma Frost’s agreement to join at the end of Uncanny X-Men #505 (Dec. 17, 2008). It all came to a head when the mutant riots broke out and Dark Reign finally fell on the mutant population in DA/UXM: Utopia.

In the Enis Lobby story the Strawhat Crew pretty much separated and paired off with an opponent at chapter 400 (Feb. 12, 2009), though these matches would mix up as the story moved on. Much in the same way Cyclops had his X-Men paired off with certain enemies, but had certain twists as the action progressed. Just to give you a feeling for just how these battles lasted in the One Piece series. This was the make up and the duration of each fight seen, from first meeting to final blow.

Strawhat/CP-9	Chapters	Time duration
Zoro vs. Kaku	CH.400-418	20 weeks
Nami vs. Kalifa	CH.403-412	11 weeks
Sanji vs. Jabra	CH.413-415	3 weeks
Chopper vs. Kumadori	CH.403-408	7 weeks
Franky vs. Fukurou	CH.402-406	6 weeks
Luffy vs. Rob Lucci	CH.408/418-427	22 weeks

 
You may notice that some of these chapters over lap. That’s because even while fights were going on around. The story was still being told, and more then one battle was happening at a time. This wasn’t like the Dragonball Z fights, that were just blind fighting. In the Enis Lobby arc the battles just felt as epic as the story that had been built up. There was a balance. So much detail was given to each fight. It could be used as a story board for the animated version, and most likely was. The climax was with the leaders’ fight of Luffy and Rob Lucci is the kind of thing you cheer at. Luffy had been beaten down over and over. Only to rise again and pull off an amazing last-ditch attack. So traumatized did this leave the hero, that he couldn’t move afterward and was unconscious for three days after the fight had been over.

Balance that to the Utopia/Exodus story. While it started in late June. It came to a conclusion in early September of the same year. I have been quite the critic of Fraction’s handling of the X-Men’s story, but I can’t hold it against him with the balance of action to story. I felt the build up was looking promising. Here, he’s working with the time he had. The entire battle was told within a single book while the story that began this was through Dark X-Men: Beginning #1-3, DA/UXM: Utopia, Dark Avengers #7-8, Uncanny X-Men #513-514, and X-Men Legacy #226-227. This was a ten to one ratio of story to action. There was some action in between, but none on the level that was expected of having two powerful forces come to a head. Normally, when there are crossovers of major teams. It’s between heroes that get caught up in some sort of misunderstanding. No side wants to be painted poorly. This was a team of villains. A massive battle was deserved. This was the line up we had for Exodus:

X-Men	Dark Avengers/X-Men
Wolverine	Weapon Omega
X-23/Pixie/Armor	Daken
Archangel	Bullseye
Colossus	Venom
Namor	Sentry
New Mutants	Ares
X-Club	Dark Beast
Iceman/New X-Men	Mimic
Various mutants	Moonstone
Cyclops	Osborn

For the length of the battle. The art was often times breath taking. From pencil to color. I can’t remember when I’ve seen Archangel look so cool. You could almost feel the level of doom coming Bullseye’s way. Past introductions we didn’t really see much of ‘anything‘ in the majority of these fights. The battle that got the most attention was between Cyclops and Osborn, in his Iron Patriot armor. That consisted mostly of Scott being beaten around while mocking Norman. Though I did enjoy watching Norman break down like a tantruming two year old screaming, “No No, No, No!!”. It appeared that the battles of Namor/ Sentry and Wolverine/ Weapon Omega were both of epic detail. What happened between Namor throwing that truck to being pounded into the pavement by Sentry? How was Weapon Omega standing after being stabbed in the back? It’s just sad so little was ever even seen. It could also of been quite entertaining to see Daken have his regenerating rear handed to him by three teenage girls, considering how poorly he tends to treat women. I don’t know if that was intentional, but my hat’s off to Matt Fraction on that touch. Moonstone's involvement was so short it was almost laughable. Dani Moonstar’s power revival and fight with the war god Ares, while incredibly well drawn, felt slighted by the time it was given. A battle that by all rights should of lasted hours, felt closer to thirty minutes. It was more like watching a highlight reel of a soccer match or baseball game. Rather then the sensation of actually being there watching.  If there was ever a fight that I would of loved to of seen get some manga-like attention. It would have been these.

Out of everything, it was the aftermath that felt silly. All this massive fighting and no one was shown even bed ridden once the dust settled.  Scott, who had done little else but get pounded upon, by a psychopath in a suit of armor, only seemed to suffer some cuts, torn clothes, and had a little bandage on his head. All over the X-Men seemed relatively unharmed. Osborn’s Dark X-Men and Avengers were even more bizarre for a team that lost. Moonstone had her arm in a sling for some reason. Somehow despite multiple goring by Wolverine, Weapon Omega only seemed to have his hood damaged. Wolverine has never struck me as the kind of man who lets someone get away without losing a toe at the least. Especially, when there is a personal aspect to a fight. Dark Beast, though well outnumbered, didn’t even seem to suffer so much as a scuffed shirt. Though what was the oddest touch I noticed, of all the people to still show fresh injuries. Daken clearly was showing cuts. If anyone should have been healed completely by the time of a press conference, it’s him. There is some irony that the only member of the X-Men or Dark Avengers that seems to suffer any long term effect from this battle is Emma Frost, the one who wasn’t even involved in the physical fighting.

This being said. One Piece is pretty infamous for people surviving ridiculous amounts of bodily damage. Don’t think I’m just picking on US comics alone for breaking the laws of continuity. The One Piece character Pell, from the Alabasta arc, flies a bomb, intended to level an entire city, into the sky. He is point blank when it finally goes off and easily presumed dead. It was a moving moment where he seemingly sacrifices himself to save thousands and the princess, Vivi, he has watched grow up from childhood. (I highly recommend you at least look up the scene on you tube if you ever get the chance.) At the end of the arc he is shown to of somehow survived. Also at times, Zoro (who I often see as the Wolverine of One Piece) suffers such damage in a fight it effects his performance considerably for many arcs past. So far, any character deaths that have happened in One Piece have been in flash backs. The creator, Eiichiro Oda, has said that he feels it is more important for the villains’ wicked dreams to die, rather then having the heroes actually take a life. Which is fitting when you consider the over riding theme of One Piece is about dreams. Each character has their own dream. Luffy to be King of the Pirates, and Nami to draw a map of the world.

When it comes right down to it. There is a question I want to ask you. Mind you ahead of time. No one has ever even seriously considered this. It's not a rumor I heard. It’s just an idea I had running through my head. If it meant that you could have your comics in full color, not to mention having equal parts action and story; do you think you could have the patience to see US comics be published like weekly Japanese manga? Mangas have a distinct advantage being published weekly. If a reader doesn’t like a particular section. They normally only have to wait for the following week to see what happened next, rather then the monthly time line we have. I think that US comic creators have the skill to do it. They just lack the time needed.


A single issue of the manga magazine, Shonen Jump, has several different manga series between the covers; from Bleach, One Piece, Naruto, and many more. Imagine all the X-Men titles being published in a single weekly magazine, with sixteen to eighteen pages of story dedicated to each series; New Mutants, Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine, etc. When you consider how many pages that are in a month’s issue of your average comic. You could easily have about two normal sized comics (25-30 pages) within a single month. It may feel slow going at times, but the action we all enjoy out of these comics would increase ten fold in both length and detail. You would get to see the high and lows of a fight. Watch our heroes struggle against a powerful villain and turn the tide with one last attack. It could also seem faster if we had new issues each week, missing only during national holidays. There would be little concern about missing an issue during crossovers. Say you don’t want to read the other books. You would only have to wait two to three months and get the volume collection that would contain twelve weeks of the chapters per volume.

Overall, I feel the format given to US artists can be too constraining. Major story events are created one after the next and each writer is pretty well forced to fit their story within a small handful of months. Rather then writing an organic story that progresses naturally and has a satisfying climax (no puns, please). We more often get what I talked about earlier. More action with less story development, or long drawn out story with a flat or rushed conclusion.


These are my thoughts on the issue. Do you think you have the patience to read a story arc that could last two years if all it meant was having slightly shortened chapters, but you also get more dramatic action and fighting with your story? Do you think the larger audience could handle this as well?

Thank you for reading.