The End of DC's Modern Age
By
Antigonus,
Posted on: 2011-08-19 24:26 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
Well, if DC is able to push through then it should probably begin the era of the "Digital Age." For me any reference to the Post-Modern age would basically be Morrison's run on Animal Man.
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I dunno.....the more I think about this the more I am starting to believe that this is the right direction for DC.....I mean honestly they havent really done a numbering reboot for their entire DC line ever..... Hopefully....hopefully they get the right people on the right books.....
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Zombie Age. DC is already dead, they just don't know it.
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This is the way the world ends|
Originally Posted by Durakken
So since we've seen the first issues of last issues of the titles... do you think that the Modern Age is ending well or are the titles overall bad?
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This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a WTF.
- with apologies to T.S. Eliot
Well I will check out Hawk & Dove's book just due to the sheer love I had for Barbara Kesel's run on the the series back in the late 80's.
While I applaud DC for trying something to reinvigorate their sales, it might be too much at a really bad time to do so. If they had rolled it out over a couple of months start with 10, then rolled out 10 new titles every month til they hit their 52 title cap , it would have allowed customers a better opportunity to pick and choose and would have helped some of the borderline titles survive longer than their 1st year of publication. They also should have started the whole universe on the same page instead of Cherry picking what they wanted to keep (Which to me explains why GL and the Batman titles were untouched because they were the best sellers of the line before the reboot).
This is not about the reboot itself or the following issues... I'm asking for opinions about the final issues being released
Like Red robin's last issue, Batgirl's last issue, Detectiv Comics last issue, GL last issue... have they been good bad or have they bee half good half bad...
And within a year the new continuity will be just as screwed up, just like Ultimate Marvel.
A game is not supposed to be some kind of... place where people enjoy themselves!
Batgirl went out very well indeed, I think. And given how hard DC's worked to stop me caring about any of its other titles, I'll count that as a sort of win.
The only last issue I've caught so far was Superboy #11.
A promising book that wasn't even allowed to run a year to finish the first story arc the way it was intended to. You can just about tell what issue they were working on when the creators were told about the reboot and that the book was going to be canceled no matter what they did.
So many dangling plots threads. So many unexplained plot points. So much rushed in the final few issues. A supporting cast that will probably never be seen again.
All for a reboot that itself will be likely be undone in under a year.
And sadly, I fear not even the failure of the New 52 can oust Dan DiDio from the company. He's grown far too powerful and even more insane with that power. No, he'll blame comic shop owners, the writers (the ones who aren't his personal friends), women, the economy, even the readers for the books' failure before he takes any heat himself for his own actions.
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My bad Durakken, but I stopped getting DC right before War of the Green Lanterns (All Evented out, I guess) So all DC can do is try to get me back.
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Originally Posted by Durakken
This is not about the reboot itself or the following issues... I'm asking for opinions about the final issues being released
Like Red robin's last issue, Batgirl's last issue, Detectiv Comics last issue, GL last issue... have they been good bad or have they bee half good half bad... |
I quite liked the last issue of Secret Six. Very appropriate as a send-off to the series. (Well, more like Secret Eight or so, since Knockout and King Shark were there as well.) The Six (+2) going all Butch and Sundance against a veritable army of heroes? Very yes, thank you.
Not so thrilled with the last issue of Booster Gold, even if it did mostly tie up loose ends and reflect the forthcoming post-Flashpoint timeline. Sort of. At least Jurgens is going to be writing Booster in JLI.
There is an art, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. --The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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I feel this way almost exactly.|
Originally Posted by Johnny_Butane
The only last issue I've caught so far was Superboy #11.
A promising book that wasn't even allowed to run a year to finish the first story arc the way it was intended to. You can just about tell what issue they were working on when the creators were told about the reboot and that the book was going to be canceled no matter what they did. So many dangling plots threads. So many unexplained plot points. So much rushed in the final few issues. A supporting cast that will probably never be seen again. All for a reboot that itself will be likely be undone in under a year. And sadly, I fear not even the failure of the New 52 can oust Dan DiDio from the company. He's grown far too powerful and even more insane with that power. No, he'll blame comic shop owners, the writers (the ones who aren't his personal friends), women, the economy, even the readers for the books' failure before he takes any heat himself for his own actions. . |
This'll make...what? 7 universal reboots in as many years?
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To be honest, Ultimate Marvel didn't really start ******* the bed continuity-wise until a year or so before Ultimatum. So they lasted around 7 or 8 years before hitting the fan.
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Originally Posted by ChaosExMachina
And within a year the new continuity will be just as screwed up, just like Ultimate Marvel.
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"Gee, it didn't work the last four times and only continued to hurt sales. Let's try the same thing again!"|
Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
I feel this way almost exactly.
This'll make...what? 7 universal reboots in as many years? |
It goes to show how stupid the suits with the money are. I'd pose this question to them:
If DiDio, Jim Lee and Geoff Johns were the hot spit they constantly make themselves out to be, the sales on the books wouldn't have degraded to the point they have to do a reboot.
So why are you giving them free reign to restart your whole line as THEY see fit?
It's BECAUSE of them the books have been sliding the past 10 years, because they're full of it and don't know how to run the company. If they did, you wouldn't be at this point.
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Constant Crisis Confusion.|
Originally Posted by Johnny_Butane
"Gee, it didn't work the last four times and only continued to hurt sales. Let's try the same thing again!"
It goes to show how stupid the suits with the money are. I'd pose this question to them: If DiDio, Jim Lee and Geoff Johns were the hot spit they constantly make themselves out to be, the sales on the books wouldn't have degraded to the point they have to do a reboot. So why are you giving them free reign to restart your whole line as THEY see fit? It's BECAUSE of them the books have been sliding the past 10 years, because they're full of it and don't know how to run the company. If they did, you wouldn't be at this point. . |
Seriously. Trying to tie the ENTIRE product line together to make everyone buy every issue of everything Just Does Not Work. It may work in the short-term. But after a while (and some whopping huge comic bills), people become much more selective and better able to control their impulse buying.
I still don't see what's wrong with allowing a few of the lines with good, steady arcs to go their own way. Rather than just toss everything out start over from scratch for the umpty-gajillionth time. So you don't have total, matching continuity in the universe. WHO GIVES A ****! IT IS A COMIC BOOK!
I'm reading them for ongoing storylines I find interesting/amusing (I found the whole Vartox arc in PowerGirl hilarious). I'm not reading for:
- Monster of the week
- Crossover of the quarter
- Super-Mega-Ultra Crisis tie-in of the year
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If you were to buy all 52 issues you'd spend $156... even over 4 weeks that is still $39 a week... That's a lot of money for their target audience. The majority of their audience makes like $1000 a month or less and that is 1/5 of their monthly amount.
Even if someone were to buy all of one family of books...
Batman
Batman & Robin
Nightwing
Red Hood and the Outlaws
Batgirl
Teen Titans
Detective Comics
Batman: The Dark Knight
Batwoman
Catwoman
Batwing
Birds of Prey
That's still $36 a month which is insane...
But whatever...
I think...
Green Lantern ended well, but many of the things in the issue is out of character and just lends itself to a "if this is how they are going to proceed I don't want that"
Red Robin ended crappily after a nice set up for future stories in the previous arc.
Batgirl had a good ending with what one could perceive as foreshadowing and a great little 5 woman team up.
Detective Comics ended great with a nice set up for Nightwing.
Personally I think it's stupid to end Red Robin and give Nightwing and Red Hood their own titles and giving Batman 3 titles that are unneeded now. Batman & Red Robin works better than Batman and Robin... I think Nightwing should take Robin with him... while "The Dark Knight" title and Batman titles are good for him. I think the main character of Detective Comics should be Red Robin with secondaries of The Question, Stephanie Brown, Proxy, Cassandra Cain and a few others...
Also I'd hope that Misfit becomes a sidekick to Barbara
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To me the ending felt a little rushed and forced, but i agree that it was pretty well handled. That was one of the few titles i had on my pull list, the rest of the DC comics i've been buying i look at each issue before deciding to get it unless it's storyline i'm already following. Power Girl had been mostly good and i'd picked up a few of the recent issues of Birds of Prey, so with the reboot i'll probably not be buying much until i see a few issues.
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Originally Posted by Hazmatter
I quite liked the last issue of Secret Six. Very appropriate as a send-off to the series. (Well, more like Secret Eight or so, since Knockout and King Shark were there as well.) The Six (+2) going all Butch and Sundance against a veritable army of heroes? Very yes, thank you.
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Dr. Todt's theme.
i make stuff...
oh yeah... the last issue of Birds of Prey pissed me off. Manhunter thinks oracle is dead...what's worse is she is completely unneeded and just randomly introduced in that issue. One could assume they brought her in off panel and told her that oracle was alive but those are some big things to be leaving off the page.
You know what really sucks... is they aren't cancelling DCUO-Legends. It is by far one of the worst piece of garbage comics that I've read of all the comics I've read in the last 2 years or so. Every issue that this Bedard guy writes is frought with horrible mischaracterizations, general bad writing, bad sequential art 9which i have to think is Bedard's fault at this point) and bad mythos. The guy literally doesn't know tons of the mythos and when he uses it he messes it up within the next page or two.
Also it's dumb on DC's part to have The Flashpoint universe shown and then have it not matter at all in the new 52 all you are doing is causing people to get interested in characters and plot points and then not finishing them... like Frankenstein... I would never have thought i'd like that, but I do and if it was that Frankenstein I'd continue reading probably, but with the reboot... probably not.
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Stereotype much?| If you were to buy all 52 issues you'd spend $156... even over 4 weeks that is still $39 a week... That's a lot of money for their target audience. The majority of their audience makes like $1000 a month or less and that is 1/5 of their monthly amount. |
No one buys every issue of every title DC has now. Why would they do it when the numbers start over?
My local store is running a special for all of the #1s. 25% off if you get all of them. It's still a bunch of money, but for the people that place importance in having the first of a series, it's a good deal. Would be surprised if other shops didn't do something similar.
I'm not gonna do it because I don't get very many titles. Green Lanterns, the Flash, and Green Arrow for now. I might dabble in some Batman if I can narrow it down to a title or two.
Loose --> not tight.
Lose --> Did not win, misplace, cannot find, subtract.
One extra 'o' makes a big difference.
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Their target audience is the majority of people in a certain range... the majority of people are in the 1-2k range of monthly earnings... and the certain range of ages the majority of those make in the 1k range..it's just how it is.|
Originally Posted by White Hot Flash
Stereotype much?
No one buys every issue of every title DC has now. Why would they do it when the numbers start over? My local store is running a special for all of the #1s. 25% off if you get all of them. It's still a bunch of money, but for the people that place importance in having the first of a series, it's a good deal. Would be surprised if other shops didn't do something similar. I'm not gonna do it because I don't get very many titles. Green Lanterns, the Flash, and Green Arrow for now. I might dabble in some Batman if I can narrow it down to a title or two. |
Not to mention that these companies are multi-dipping with games, comics, movies, and whatever else they can do for each thing and it just becomes unsustainable for anyone that falls into their target demographic (not their actual demographics or all the people who read them) And you put that together with the annual event that crosses over everything and you have to make decision...spend waaaay too much money to keep up, pirate, or just don't keep up, eventually lose interest from missing out and stop reading.
The first of the 3 options is impossible for most everyone
The second of the 3 is illegal and could cost you more than the 1st eventually
The third of the 3 hurts everyone cuz you miss out and they don't sell anything.
The people that could afford their comic addiction Pre-New 52 will still be able to do so. If they have to pare it down a couple of titles, that's not going to hurt DCs bottom line. It's only been recently that the prices have dropped to 2.99 for regular issues, remember.
Loose --> not tight.
Lose --> Did not win, misplace, cannot find, subtract.
One extra 'o' makes a big difference.
This will be the 4th major continuity reboot of the DCU in my comics reading lifetime. (Crisis, Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis DCnU) That's more than enough for me. I'm going to pretty much be checking out of the DCU for a while. Maybe after 6-8 issues, I'll browse through some of the titles to see if there's anything there that interests me. But for now, I'm pretty much done.
The ending of the current ongoing series has been pretty hit or miss.
The Green Lantern books all kind of limped to the end, since their whole situation is getting a kick in the butt with the restoration of Sinestro.
The Bat-books all just kind of ground to a halt, with the exception of Batgirl and Detective Comics, which had very strong, well-thought out final arcs.
Teen Titans have been trying to force in some resolution to the whole Superboy-Prime thing, and its been pretty bad.
Justice League of America died a merciful death. The whole JLA since Infinite Crisis has just been painful to read.
The Legion has been quite entertaining under Paul Levitz. I really like the things he had set up, and its unfortunate that they're getting rebooted yet again for the umpteenth time.
The Justice Society of America had a fairly interesting new status quo that they were developing with the Monument Point arc, but that's ALL gone now, since they're apparently either wiping the JSA out completely, or changing their history beyond all recognition. Which frankly sucks, since the JSA is and always has been my favorite group of heroes.
Power Girl was an amazingly fun series under Palmiotti/Gray/Connor. I enjoyed a lot of what Judd Winick did when he took it over. Once they announced the DCnU and there was no sign of PG anywhere, Winick was gone, so it ended with just some slapdash crappy fill-in material. A shame. It deserved better.
Anyway, that's my little synopsis of things I read from DCU. Not happy with them. They're going to have to hit some serious home runs with the new stuff to get me back.
�Life's hard. It's even harder when you're stupid.� ― John Wayne
�Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider!� - George Carlin
So since we've seen the first issues of last issues of the titles... do you think that the Modern Age is ending well or are the titles overall bad?
Oh and I'm calling this the end of the modern age...and the beginning of the DC Post Modern Age