obscurefan

I'm actually glad that Bendis is working on Guardians of the Galaxy, because since it's staring characters from outer space, he can't just have them sit around all day making pop culture references.

Whoever is designing new costumes for DC's characters has a real obsession with having stuff highlight their crotch.

I really like the team behind this book, but I've just gotten tired of so many books going so much darker. I understand that other people really like it when books take this tone, but between this, books like Avengers Arena, and the tone of the New 52, I've started to realize that comic book companies are no longer trying to get audiences like me.

DC absolutely needs to make a plan. That to me was what frustrated me with the New 52 the most, that they very clearly were just making it up as they went along and there was no set of rules or an origin to this world. Like let me give you an example of what I mean. In Stormwatch number one, they very clearly say that Martian Manhunter is a member of the Justice League. Then a few months later in the Justice League book, they flat out say that nobody besides those seven characters has ever been a member. Then there's all the questions of how some things can be the same when so many other things have changed. Like how is it that Kyle and Natu are still broken up, when Jade, the thing that made them break up, doesn't exist in this world anymore?

Five year minimum.

@Rixec said:

@Ironhawk22 said:

Oh no. I have a bad feeling about this. Nico and Chase better not die.

I hear ya. I want them and X-23 to make it out alive. Damn, I was excited about them all having a place in Marvel Now! and they're put on death row. Always a catch.

My thoughts exactly. I remember that one of the first articles I read about Marvel Now was basically saying "So this means that there might finally be a chance for the Runaways to come back." Well here they are, being forced to kill or be killed against each other. I'm starting to think some comic book characters are safer in limbo.

I try to give everything the benefit of the doubt and not judge it from what I've seen of it until I've actually read it. But this really strikes me the wrong way. I'll skip over how I have no idea how this concept can be an ongoing series rather than just a storyarc, and instead just say that this seems like a microcosm of what is wrong with Marvel (and all comics to a larger extent) at the moment. It seems to me that Marvel thinks that the best way to bring in readers is with death, destruction, and just tormenting characters. It's one thing to have a big crossover each year where its a given that somebody is going to die, but now we're actually going to have an ongoing series where the entire concept behind it is "a character that some of you have grown attached to is going to die on a regular basis." It just strikes me as a message from Marvel saying "hey we know that this is what all of you like," and honestly that's not the case. I'm not saying you can't kill off characters, there are some great storylines out there that resulted in the death of characters, but to do this just because you think it will make a successful book is something of an insult to the fans of these characters. And given that Marvel has had a history recently of having trouble keeping the ratings up for books staring younger characters, this really seems to be what they're mindset was going into this idea. It is frustrating to think that they look at a book like Avenger's Academy, which was about a group of kids who were likely to turn into supervillains dealing with powers that were killing them, and they thought the problem with it was that it wasn't dark enough.

And just to finish off I'll say that maybe I'm alone on this, but I don't think all comics should be depressing. Not saying they should all be happiness and sunshine, but books like this just show the world getting so dark that I no longer feel the joy that I felt when I used to read comics. I'll just put it to everyone like this, the Avengers this summer was one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had in a movie theater and when I was in that audience everyone was cheering and applauding, and its not because they killed one character in there, its because it was heroes doing what we want to see heroes do and because it was uplifting.

Only hand to hand? Not even close, Black Cat.

It's not really lazy, it's just a sign of the way things are. It's hard these days to create a new character that everyone wants to read. We already have all these characters and people only have so much money to spend on comics, so they want to buy something they feel some attachment or familiarity with already. So whenever they create any character its a safer bet to have them be similar to one we already know, simply because then the audiences will already have some feeling of attachment going into it.

I try to give everything the benefit of the doubt and not judge it from what I've seen of it until I've actually read it. But this really strikes me the wrong way. I'll skip over how I have no idea how this concept can be an ongoing series rather than just a storyarc, and instead just say that this seems like a microcosm of what is wrong with Marvel (and all comics to a larger extent) at the moment. It seems to me that Marvel thinks that the best way to bring in readers is with death, destruction, and just tormenting characters. It's one thing to have a big crossover each year where its a given that somebody is going to die, but now we're actually going to have an ongoing series where the entire concept behind it is "a character that some of you have grown attached to is going to die on a regular basis." It just strikes me as a message from Marvel saying "hey we know that this is what all of you like," and honestly that's not the case. I'm not saying you can't kill off characters, there are some great storylines out there that resulted in the death of characters, but to do this just because you think it will make a successful book is something of an insult to the fans of these characters. And given that Marvel has had a history recently of having trouble keeping the ratings up for books staring younger characters, this really seems to be what they're mindset was going into this idea. It is frustrating to think that they look at a book like Avenger's Academy, which was about a group of kids who were likely to turn into supervillains dealing with powers that were killing them, and they thought the problem with it was that it wasn't dark enough.

And just to finish off I'll say that maybe I'm alone on this, but I don't think all comics should be depressing. Not saying they should all be happiness and sunshine, but books like this just show the world getting so dark that I no longer feel the joy that I felt when I used to read comics. I'll just put it to everyone like this, the Avengers this summer was one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had in a movie theater and when I was in that audience everyone was cheering and applauding, and its not because they killed one character in there, its because it was heroes doing what we want to see heroes do and because it was uplifting.