ranting about comics

[eliyes]

I know a lot of people have stopped reading DC and won't pick up 52, but I am not one of them. (A fact which lakidaa keeps forgetting, so she keeps spoiling me on things I haven't bought yet or am about to read. BAD. BAD LAKIDAA. Stop that. B| )

Even though DC has killed off characters I loved or at least liked, done terrible things to the Titans, new and old. (I loved Jericho. What they've done is a travesty.) Even though DC has replaced the Legion wholesale with a group of backstabbing, lying, hateful, self-righteous, bland teenagers whining about being bored and oppressed who have never suffered at all compared to any other version of the Legion. (I enjoy picturing how they would be so utterly horrified by Jazmin's thong. Or Laurel's thong. Or Rokk's corset. Reimagined = swathed in lathers of cloth!)

Even though DC has done all of that, the writing is still leagues better than Marvel's! Because I can still recognise most of the characters! Because I can still like any of the characters! Because people respond to things at least somewhat realistically!

Meanwhile, Marvel has characters I love. Or loved; frankly, I can't hardly recognise them anymore. It's not just that they screw over only the characters I like, they screw over everyone, and they ignore their own continuity without even saying "retconning this". I've been researching stuff that was published 2002-2003 (for fic purposes) because at the time I wasn't reading it and they did a bunch of stuff with characters I like that I figured I should check.

I am so, so glad I did not buy those. They make me angry. If I began to list all the things that just don't make any sense, I would be here all day. That's not how I want to spend my day off, though, so I won't -- But I just seriously wonder somethings, like do the editors even check the continuity? There used to be little continuity "this is what they're referring to" footnotes from the editor. Now there's just glaring inaccuracies. Oh, and how many Wolverines are there, currently? Because the one in Avengers -- who acts like a parody of Wolverine mixed with Homer Simpson or something -- seems to exist at the same time as the one in X-Men. Maybe the X-books are just separate from the rest of the universe now? Except for how they crossover with She-Hulk here or Spiderman there, they don't seem to be affected by the rest of the universe, and the rest of the universe seems oblivious to their Enormous World-Altering Events.

Are the X-Men even in the same world as Civil War? Are the X-Men (possibly) participating in Civil War the same ones as in Uncanny X-Men? Is Civil War even going into canon? What about the zombies? None of this seems clear. The only thing I know is that the Ultimate universe is a separate continuity.

It's pretty sad when it's only the line clearly marked "THIS IS AN AU" that makes much sense continuity-wise.

But, as my anger seems to fuel my masochism when it comes to stuff like this, I am going to the comic store today and picking up ordering, since it is not out yet despite it being January 30th, X-Men Annual #1 (January 2007), despite the fact that the primary characters are Mystique and Rogue, who I can no logner stand, the secondary character is Cable, who I never liked, adn it's supposedly kicking off the biggest story arc they've ever done with the mutants. Okay, despite but also partially because of that last. You see, it's going to do something very important with Northstar and Aurora. Also apparently Exodus and the Acolytes aren't dead anymore. And I need to see.

But DC is still doing better.

Comments

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

They go in cycles, you know. Periods of utter suck followed by smaller, shorter periods of okay and sometimes, briefly, yey.

I, unfortunetly, keep coming in on the utter suck and missing the yey altogether. D:

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

This is what back issues are for.
And friends who have them!
Shortly after I met taichara, she sat me down with all her LSH comics.

I am of course now addicted. And why? Because that was some damn good writing for many, many years. Likeable characters, interesting dynamics, understandable outside pressures...

One of my beefs with modern comic writers - especially Marvel - is that they seem to have forgotten the fine art of giving the characters breathers between catastrophes.

[bigbenalpha.livejournal.com]

Marvel Zombies is defintely am entirely different continuity. But after Marvel decided to use House of M to completely erase everything Grant Morrison did to revive the X franchise I lost all respect. I was always more of a DC guy anyways but I like a lot of Marvel stuff, too. Yeah, 52 has been a bit of a chore at times but I'm restraining my judgement reflex until the final issue. Civil War, however, has just been awful.

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

I haven't bothered picking up anything for Civil War. I asked the FLCS guy if the X-books are even involved adn he said no, not really.

Isn't it amazing how one universe can do that?