Post by G on Feb 8, 2010 0:10:21 GMT -5
It must have been great when comics were new. There were so many possibilities and boundaries to break back then. So many untouched areas to explore. Furthermore, there was morality giving pressure to what could and couldn't be seen in a comic book. Perhaps those boundaries were what kept writers of comics busy trying to find ways to lure in readers with ever increasing ways to get around code authorities, moral rules and general good taste at what should and shouldn't be allowed in comics at the time.
However, one by one, those same limits to what couldn't be done began to fall. And with it, you had the 1st times "such and such" happened and another limit defeated. For instance, 1st gay character. 1st Black character. 1st use of drugs in comics, etc, etc. Somewhere along the way, the ideas of what couldn't be done, were being done. And at one point even death was original for a time. Even though it seemed easy for anyone to think up, it was almost unheard of for a long time to kill off a character who had experienced any success. Because mainly you were killing off a source of income and what was the point of that? Even worse, it's probably seen these days as having no writing talent and using shock value to lure in sales instead of coming up with a painstaking work of comic fiction.
Oh how times have changed these days! Today we seem to have killed off character almost every month only to let a brief period go by and said victim either miraculously comes back to life or less often his legend continues with someone else taking over in his persona.
Death has become so common that upon hearing another character has either died or is about to die, there is almost a collective yawn at the thought of another character dying. Quite simply, no one reading comics ever believes a major character will no longer be seen. And therefore, no one takes the incident with any seriousness or sadness. We all just simply know that the character will be back probably long before we ever even miss them.
A recent example of this blatant sensationalism seemed to have occurred in the pages of Captain America when he was gunned down by the woman who loved him under the influence of the Red Skull and his pawns in Captain America #25. What ensued was perhaps one of the best continuations of a character you could hope for in that type of situation. All the lose ends were being tied up and all the survivors were dealing with the reality and now the former Bucky had even taken over as the new Cap. If there was ever a reason for a character should not return, the team of Epting and Brubaker made quite a case for it. However, even when it was not necessary at all, it still was not to be because within 2 years Steve Rodgers was once again, back alive and well and walking amongst and fighting alongside the same superheroes he had before, except now its after Death and like nothing happened.
This latest farce further drove home the point that characters never really die. And, unlike the almost unlimited potential of the early 1960s, all the taboos and morally wrong topics to put inside comics have seemed to have already been done.
This has personally left me with a feeling of "is there any way comics can surprise us anymore"? And if there is not, isn't that just another sign that comics are in danger of being irrelevant, obscure and just about done?
I mean seriously, do we ever expect to see lines around stores like we witnessed with the Death of Superman in Superman #75 ever again? I mean after all....he ended up coming back too. Maybe the biggest death in comics of all-time, was just another lie.
Its seems to be coming down to this....
If death can no longer surprise us anymore....what can?
However, one by one, those same limits to what couldn't be done began to fall. And with it, you had the 1st times "such and such" happened and another limit defeated. For instance, 1st gay character. 1st Black character. 1st use of drugs in comics, etc, etc. Somewhere along the way, the ideas of what couldn't be done, were being done. And at one point even death was original for a time. Even though it seemed easy for anyone to think up, it was almost unheard of for a long time to kill off a character who had experienced any success. Because mainly you were killing off a source of income and what was the point of that? Even worse, it's probably seen these days as having no writing talent and using shock value to lure in sales instead of coming up with a painstaking work of comic fiction.
Oh how times have changed these days! Today we seem to have killed off character almost every month only to let a brief period go by and said victim either miraculously comes back to life or less often his legend continues with someone else taking over in his persona.
Death has become so common that upon hearing another character has either died or is about to die, there is almost a collective yawn at the thought of another character dying. Quite simply, no one reading comics ever believes a major character will no longer be seen. And therefore, no one takes the incident with any seriousness or sadness. We all just simply know that the character will be back probably long before we ever even miss them.
A recent example of this blatant sensationalism seemed to have occurred in the pages of Captain America when he was gunned down by the woman who loved him under the influence of the Red Skull and his pawns in Captain America #25. What ensued was perhaps one of the best continuations of a character you could hope for in that type of situation. All the lose ends were being tied up and all the survivors were dealing with the reality and now the former Bucky had even taken over as the new Cap. If there was ever a reason for a character should not return, the team of Epting and Brubaker made quite a case for it. However, even when it was not necessary at all, it still was not to be because within 2 years Steve Rodgers was once again, back alive and well and walking amongst and fighting alongside the same superheroes he had before, except now its after Death and like nothing happened.
This latest farce further drove home the point that characters never really die. And, unlike the almost unlimited potential of the early 1960s, all the taboos and morally wrong topics to put inside comics have seemed to have already been done.
This has personally left me with a feeling of "is there any way comics can surprise us anymore"? And if there is not, isn't that just another sign that comics are in danger of being irrelevant, obscure and just about done?
I mean seriously, do we ever expect to see lines around stores like we witnessed with the Death of Superman in Superman #75 ever again? I mean after all....he ended up coming back too. Maybe the biggest death in comics of all-time, was just another lie.
Its seems to be coming down to this....
If death can no longer surprise us anymore....what can?
