Manhunter? I Hardly Knew Her!
Oct 17The news is going around; DC Comics has re-canceled Manhunter, Marc Andreyko’s recently-resurrected comic about Kate Spencer, attorney, spectacularly bad parent and vigilante federal evidence thief. Okay, maybe the bad parent part is a bit harsh.
Surprisingly, I am not here to urge you to write letters to Bob Wayne or go to your forum of choice and construct a sentence containing the words “Dan DiDio,” “kittens,” and any conjugation of the word “kill.” I know that’s your first urge. Hell, it’s my first urge, too. But this is where that ‘raising the bar’ nonsense that Matt goes on about leads to – not using the anonymity of the Web to vent hyperbolically about a business decision that makes sense. Comics marketing gaffes aside, the book was not selling at the level it needed to be selling, especially with a notable artist like Bendis-collaborator Michael Gaydos on board.
Your anger is not going to change anything. The book had three chances to become commercially successful, and despite being one of the best books coming out of the Distinguished Competition, it never met its goal. And that’s not the fault of Marc Andreyko – Marc’s one of the best of the new crop of writers at the Big Two to break out in the past couple of years – or of the loyal fans of the book.
Kate Spencer as a character will still be around. She will exist without an ongoing to support her and that will suck for her fans, but it’s a bittersweet kind of suck. No, if we’re going to campaign for something as a fandom, let’s not be myopic and ask for the book to continue. Let’s lobby for DC to keep Marc Andreyko around. Because, let’s face it, he’s one of the better writers they have, and Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns and Gail Simone can only do so much between the three of them.
I’d love to see Andreyko take over Birds of Prey. Or Nightwing – he did write that pretty high-quality Nightwing Annual about Dick and Babs (and Khory). Or Batman and the Outsiders. Thinking outside the box, I’d like to see him try his hand at Green Lantern. Put him somewhere more visible, somewhere established, and let him find a writer-loyal following beyond the Manhunter die-hards. Encourage the success of art through the promotion of the artist.
So if you want to write a letter – and nerds love writing letters, so we encourage you to – ask DC to keep one of your favorite creators around. Tell them what Marc’s writing says that speaks to you – his rounded, intelligent female characters, his witty dialogue, or his faithful portrayal of real families are a few standouts for me – and that you hope they use his talents in their future published work.
DC Comics
1700 Broadway, 7th Fl.
New York, NY 10019-5905
Don't Miss This: Marvel Embraces Digital
Oct 17…okay, so maybe “embrace” isn’t the right word. Marvel “nuzzles suggestively with digital” might fit better, or maybe “Marvel dry humps digital in the back of mom’s station wagon.”
But finally, at long last, a major American comics publisher is moving forward with some kind of original content exclusively for the internet, leveraging their brand and stable of recognizable characters to push the medium into the realm of bits and bytes.
Again, I don’t want to gush too much over this story–it’s eight titles or something, not a dramatic reimagining of their print publishing line, or even pure digital downloads of current floppies.
But it’s Spider-Man. And it’s recognizable names in comics, like Frank Tieri, Tom DeFalco, Bob Gale, and others. And it’s even a little bit adventurous–not TOO adventurous, as this is still stuff well within the wheelhouse of the average Joe Twenty-sided Die (you know, like Joe Sixpack? Am I trying too hard there?). Still, we’ve got monster comics and western comics, alongside the superheroics…hell, even well-deserved critical favorite Jason Aaron gets in on the action! Writing American Eagle, an obscure hero who recently graced the pages of Thunderbolts!
Just let’s recognize, is all I’m saying. A step forward. A baby step, but a real step nonetheless. Well played, Quesada. Well played.
Latest Trek Pics: A Good Bad Idea
Oct 16As you’ve no doubt seen already, a quintet of websites have premiered new stills from the upcoming Star Trek film by J.J. Abrams. (This one’s from UGO.com; hopefully I’m not hurting anyone’s feelings by posting it here too. Hit that link at UGO for the full set of stills.)
Because I am enough of a fanboy to like being mollycoddled by major film studios and their benign corporate overlords, I appreciate what the Star Trek folks are trying to do. They’ve got a cover story coming out in Entertainment Weekly, and they want to give the die-hard fans a treat by getting some images out to them ahead of the mainstream press coverage. It’s a great impulse, a good idea.
Except that I think the pictures are maybe a bad idea.
Here’s the thing: The pictures don’t really show us anything we don’t already know. General geek osmosis has already informed us all that this will be a “reboot” flick and that they’re updating the look of the Original Series to a degree.
Plus, really, who cares that they put a black shirt under the yellow/red/blue shirt, or changed the sleeves, or some shit? I’m sure some fans do care, but guess what–you’ve already lost those people. If you’re the kind of Trekkie who’s gonna let a hem on a garment get in the way of enjoying a movie, you’re already gone. There’s no hope for you. You will hate this movie.
Me, I’m most interested in seeing how this thing moves. What’s the dialogue like? How’s it gonna cut together? What’s the pacing and tone gonna be for the action sequences? How have they reinvented Trek–not how it looks, but how it is–to serve a new audience?
I know the trailer’s coming soon. But if they really want to get the fans hyped early, let us see a single, well-cut, minor action scene with a few bits of dialogue. Give us a real look at this film. Because the pictures…they’re just excuses for nitpicking. The best they can hope for in terms of reaction is “Okay, thank god, they’re not fucking it up yet.”
Like I said–putting out the pictures was a nice move. I appreciate it and wish them goodwill. I just wish they’d gone a step further. I’d take a single clip over a hundred stills of Zachary Quinto looking vaguely Nimoy any day.
Keeping One Eye on the (Geeky) Ball
Oct 14Let’s try and start this from a simple, slightly controversial premise: Fandom used to be…well, it used to be BETTER.
I recently read bits and pieces of the Twomorrows volume collecting the old Alter Ego issues. Alter Ego was a comics fanzine founded in the early sixties by two adult comics fans, Jerry Bails and Roy Thomas.
These were guys who loved comics–I mean, REALLY loved comics–and were driven by that love to start a hand-crafted publication devoted to comics.
Today, we have the internet. Lucky us, right? Anyone who loves comics, or sci-fi, or fantasy, or WHATEVER can hop on that bad boy and just chat or post or blog their little living asses off about…stuff.
Except the content exists more because of the delivery method than because of the passion behind it. In other words, Roy and Jerry were inspired to create a zine by their love of comics, and we write on the internet because the internet is there to be written upon; we just happen to choose this geeky stuff to spew about.
There’s not a filter; there’s no handle for the spigot. It takes willful diligence to regulate consumption and creation so that you’re not spinning downward into an endless spiral of emptiness and negativity.
Or maybe that’s just me.
This is what’s had me wondering about all this; it’s paralyzed my fingers and left me hesitant to get this wrong:
We all need to raise the bar a little. I do; you do. We all do. It’s not that potboiling pieces of mediocre pap (or worse) won’t still come out. It’s just that we need to stop pretending they matter in any way, shape, or form.
People have read this as a specific rail against mainstream superhero comics. It’s not to my eyes. It’s an indictment against CRAP, and a statement worthy of becoming a manifesto.
And so it will.
I want to write well about the things that move me–the stuff I love, the stuff I hate, the thoughts I have both pithy and vacant.
I want it all to somehow in some small way MATTER. I don’t want to have time anymore to focus on the petty bullshit where I walk out of a comic book store with some free promo comics and suddenly I’m embroiled in snark and bile.
It doesn’t matter anymore. Sometimes, realizing that requires a conscious decision, because when that kind of content is just out there everyplace, it’s all too easy to just hitch your wagon to the endless cycle of words that can literally eat hours out of your day. You react, and then you add your words to the pile. Time marches on, and you’ve consumed nothing valuable in the way of ideas or art, and you’ve contributed nothing much valuable either. You’re just part of the endless go-round dodge.
Isn’t that the point? To talk about what we love, hopefully with some intelligence and humor and understanding, and to discuss what we don’t love while (maybe only occasionally) descending into spite and nastiness?
I think it’s the point. I want it to be the point. From the advent of all this shit to the current burst culture we exist in, where I sit here and snarf down endless reams of empty nothingness because it’s THERE and it’s EASY, I am going to try and come back around. I am going to focus, and think, and create, and read, and enjoy. And if I’m not, I’m going to walk away.
Life is too short, and my time is too valuable. Everyone’s time is too valuable. We are here to commune about what we were told for our entire lives was some kind of fringe subcultish activity–that which is GEEK. We should enjoy each other, and hear what we’re saying, and listen to others, and use this amazing instrument of communication for its best possible good.
I’m not saying I’m perfect, or that I ever could be–I’m sure I’ll dip back into the bullshit snark pool often enough. But hopefully not TOO often.
I do need to raise the bar. I need to try harder. I want to be better, so I’m gonna do that.
That’s all.
Heroes Pop Quiz #4
Oct 13
Apparently, 97 percent of superpowers are executed via holding out one’s hand, going “watch this,” and making some kewl special effect appear. Apparently, this never ceases to be fascinating to those of us still watching the show. Oh, but APPARENTLY, maybe it does, because we — the royal we! The whiny fandom we! — are kind of bored and hanging on for dear life! FINE. Time for the goddamn Heroes Pop Quiz.
SPOILERS within.
