Discussion: End of Top Cow CoH Comic

Please use this post to discuss the below recent announcement:



With the recent Issue #19 of the Top Cow produced City of Heroes Comic hitting the shelves, there has been some renewed discussion regarding the comic. We wanted to update everyone that the coming Issue #20 will be the final City of Heroes comic. If you are interested in receiving this issue, sign-up for the comic will be available through May 31st through the PlayNC Account Management web page.

The comic has had a great run. It has always served as an ambassador for the game; showing comic readers the potential that can be found in City of Heroes or City of Villains to set their imagination free! However, when we evaluate the production and distribution of the Comic, our current feeling is that the needed time and energy can be more wisely spent and net a more direct impact to the game. This includes things such as organizing more player meet and greets, additional in-game events, focusing on great in-game content like the recently released 9th free expansion, Issue 9: Breakthrough, more contests and promotions such as the Comic Book Creator Contest and more support of quality player initiatives like the PvPEC and City Scoop.

So, while the City of Heroes comic comes to a close, that in no way diminishes the energy we are devoting to maintaining and enriching the City of Heroes experience! We look forward to your support and involvement as we work to make our many community goals a reality!

Yours truly,

Alex "Lighthouse" von Minden

Online Community Manager
City of Heroes / City of Villains

Thanks for the update, but I thought that this was confirmed a while ago?

Is this just a reminder to quell rumours?

Maybe there will be a graphic novel?

I won't miss it per se. But I'll be a [censored] about things anyways.

I frankly don't feel that the two "support of quality player initiatives" features or more contests are in any way compensation for the lack of something that was billed as a feature of the game that'd be part of our subscription.


More Staff-sponsored in-game events and heavier focus on new in-game content is on the other hand something I can get behind.



That said?

We have a great many fledgling (and not so fledgling) artists here, some of which I'm sure would love a wider audience than the art forums. Why not toss in an offer to publish people's actual comics as downloadable PDFs through the main website as part of an 'official' anthology? As a derivative work of COH, it should be nicely covered by the EULA's 'non-exclusive rights' clause. That way you could at least claim there'd still be a COH comic.

You know, seeing as how Issue 20 is going to be the last one, they should totally have a huge cameo of characters from the forums.

Would be a nice way to finish off, IMO.

Cryptic starts working with Marvel.

Cryptic shuts down its own comic.

Uhhhh, somebody want to pop a quick "In no way was this decision influenced by Cryptic's partnership with Marvel Comics" in there? I'm feeling a tad paranoid today and could use the comfort disclaimer.

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I frankly don't feel that the two "support of quality player initiatives" features or more contests are in any way compensation for the lack of something that was billed as a feature of the game that'd be part of our subscription.

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QFT

Damn, I was enjoying the comic, 1 issue to wrap up the current story? hmm I see a Old School Japanese Movie ending.

- Raith

BOOM!

Everyone dies?

While the comics were nice and all, until The Cyrus Thompson Center is built in King's Row, they will remain seperate from the game; thus meaningless.

I have to agree with Czar Bal here there are a number of things in the Comic that not in the game I even tryed to find the Cyrus Thompson Center when I read the comic.

I am a little saddened by this. Although I found out a few months ago when the "end of the Top Cow" run was mentioned, it still is a little disheartening.

One of the draws to the game (for me) was the comic book included with the subscription. The Blue King run was arguably not what some were looking for, so Cryptic found a bigger publisher, at thew cost of an additional subscription for players. Although PDF versions were (and are still) available for free on the CoX web page, IMO it still didn't replace the feel of having the comic in-hand.

Now that the much-debated comic series is finally fading on, I do hope that Cryptic and NCSoft will try another avenue in order to recapture that cool feel of "free" schwag (with the subscription) that helped pull me into the game in the first place.

As for my QFT:

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Maybe there will be a graphic novel?



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I certainly hope so. Either that or the sorely delayed "Rikti War" novel I wouldn't expect a free graphic novel, but it might be a better avenue for CoX to approach while maintaining that same comic book feel for our comic-themed game. They could even sell them through the web page or PlayNC.com.

*****

Having said that, I believe our Community Rep staff is doing an excellent job on organizing and increasing the number of community events in game. Thanks for the continued hard work

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I frankly don't feel that the two "support of quality player initiatives" features or more contests are in any way compensation for the lack of something that was billed as a feature of the game that'd be part of our subscription.

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QFT

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Damn right.

I'd suggest doing shorter, one-off comics before each new Issue, with a story that'd tie into the new content of that Issue.

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While the comics were nice and all, until The Cyrus Thompson Center is built in King's Row, they will remain seperate from the game; thus meaningless.

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<minorthreadjack>

There was much requesting of the Cyrus Thompson Center. And yanno, it's ok if ya'll (devs and stuff) don't want to say it's going in at some point, but pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease put it in.

Thank you.

Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame.

I always loved this comic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EarthWyrm But I do understand that there is an internet rule that any bad idea must be presented by someone at least twice a year to remind everyone who hasn't already read every previous thread on the topic precisely why the idea is bad.

Goodbye City of Heroes Comic. I will miss you.

<QR>

Overall, I'm not happy to see the comic go. It seemed that the quality of it was just starting to improve, mainly led by Sean Fish's writing. I know that another thread has just taken delight in thumping on issue 17 and 18, but honestly, they at least show the Freedom Phalanx and Vindicators as generally able to take care of business on their own, not the deus ex machina to save them as was commonly used to end arcs.

But I also understand that it probably wasn't a commercially viable venture. People knew they could get it for free online so they didn't buy it.

Hopefully Lighthouse and Co. have a few things up their sleeve to replace the loss of the comic.

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Cryptic starts working with Marvel.

Cryptic shuts down its own comic.

Uhhhh, somebody want to pop a quick "In no way was this decision influenced by Cryptic's partnership with Marvel Comics" in there? I'm feeling a tad paranoid today and could use the comfort disclaimer.

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Well, let me refer to an event that happened about '93-94':

The Malibu Comics line of comics was started by three popular comic book writers that were fed up with how DC was running the editorial staff at the time. Malibu Comics (off of the top of my head, they held the 'Solitaire', 'Prime', and 'Deep Space Nine' comic series) became very successful very rapidly due to excellent writing and artistry. This caught the attention of Marvel, and they bought out the Malibu Comics franchise for a considerable sum of money. Once it was bought, Malibu Comics and its titles were never heard from again. Marvel brought back 'Deep Space Nine' in the quickly-launched 'Paramount Comics' line, but, it was garbage.

Eversince I've heard Marvel was starting its own MMO with Cryptic, I've been worried that the past is about to repeat itself again.

If you want to know how I know so much about this event that happened, I'll tell you; Gerard Jones and I used to write to each other often in the early '90s. Gerard Jones wrote for, at the time, DC Comics, writing on the titles of 'Green Lantern' and 'Justice League Europe'. He left DC shortly after the 'Breakdowns' JLE/JLA storyline ended and Andy Helfner left his editorial position. Gerard Jones got together with a couple of other writers to form 'Malibu Comics'. Once 'Malibu Comics' was bought out, Gerard left the comics scene to concentrate more on raising his family. I was lucky to have such a friend as Gerard, he taught me alot.

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Cryptic starts working with Marvel.

Cryptic shuts down its own comic.

Uhhhh, somebody want to pop a quick "In no way was this decision influenced by Cryptic's partnership with Marvel Comics" in there? I'm feeling a tad paranoid today and could use the comfort disclaimer.

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Well I wish I could be the one to offer that to you, but anyone that's worth their space, knows that it does. Image was founded when several high profile talents got p'od at the Big M, Top Cow is a partner company of Image, hmmm, in the words of The famous Stan Lee, " 'nuff said!" Not to mention that Cryptic has partnered up with the Big M, which presents a huge conflict of interest, considering they are a rival company.

I'm gonna miss this comic.
I mean, without it, how would we ever have found out that the canon/in-game Statesman is such a collossal jerk?

I like Eisregen 's idea of allowing players to have the oportunity to write their own comics based of their own characters. I think it would be awesome!

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There was much requesting of the Cyrus Thompson Center. And yanno, it's ok if ya'll (devs and stuff) don't want to say it's going in at some point, but pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease put it in.

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Even a resounding no would be refreshing at this point seeing how so many people have asked for it for it with hardly a peep. I never really had any opinion about the issue since I was the most casual of CoH comic readers but I certainly had no opposition to it. Considering that you had a grip of people wanting it and the rest of the player base not much caring, why hasn't it already happened?

Getting back on topic, I was never much of a fan of the comic. I never really felt that the game mechanics translated well into a comic book setting and always flinched a little when they tried to force it. However, I know many of you enjoyed it and I feel bad for those of you who will miss it.

Attache

Well aside from the issues with the Korea launch characters the comic was pretty good....those Korean launch hero issues sucked hard.

How is this comic taking so much of their time? I mean give some writers the opportunity to work with the "bible" and o their thing, it doesn't HAVE to be a CoH related person writing it...

Not really a good explanation. 90% of the issues were entertaining and well written especially the first arc I really loved. It's a shame more energy wasn't devoted to the comic it coulda been very good especially if they'd stuck with the artists they had for the first 2 arcs, the art just sucked after the first two arcs or so...

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I mean, without it, how would we ever have found out that the canon/in-game Statesman is such a collossal jerk?

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You haven't paid much attention to some of the posts made by Jack "Statesman" Emmert then have you?

So, "Sexy Jay" of the costume thread was working on the comic?

No?

Matt Miller and the dev team were writing between working on code, planning future issues and such?

Also no?

Wait, that's where Cuppa really went... also a no?

This was taking too much of *WHOSE* time? There's a G-D story bible already with how much material to flesh out for players. The Blue King run played with the game from a "players" perspective - and, yes, was a treat to read and receive. I understand them going to PDF (but not the "Maybe if we don't get the PDF on the site they'll forget it" delay of the last two issues - by the way, when do we see issue 20? May of 2008?)

Let's see...
- Kill off the Paragon Times.
- Don't bother working on the website, instead sending info over to Warcry, MMORPG.com, anywhere BUT CityOfHeroes.com (other than a link.)
- Kill off the novels, even though the third was being looked forward to.
- Kill off the comic completely.

I call shena... no, that's not strong enough. I call [censored].

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