Tuesday, October 29, 2013

All the Shining Stars Are Dead

Word is that DC is moving its offices out of New York to join the rest of the Time-Warner entertainment types in Los Angeles.

Many are lamenting this move as an end to the comic-book world that was. I imagine there's some truth to that, but honestly I don't really think it matters a lot.

If DC cares about making great comics, they will still care about it in Los Angeles, and they won't let a little thing like their location stop them.

If DC doesn't care about making great comics, they wouldn't care any more about it in New York, and they wouldn't let a little thing like their location make them care about it.

What was it that they did in the last couple of weeks that was annoying? There was something, I know that, that renewed my belief in my vacating of their comics. I forget exactly what it was, though.

But I'm not going to rake them over the coals for moving to California. It probably makes a lot of sense for them, and I think they should do things that make sense. As often as possible.

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4 Comments:

Anonymous Madman2001 said...

So you've "vacated" comics? Me too. I was just thinking that the last couple months are one of the few times in the last 4 decades that I haven't bought any comics.

It was not only cancellation of the Legion, but also the cavalier way that comics companies treat their characters and readers.

Does everything seem stale? Reboot.

Want some excitement? Kill off a character (but, don't worry, s/he'll be back in a couple of months.

Want something different? Change the character of the character. No one will care.

Sad.

8:20 PM  
Blogger Matthew E said...

Not all comics; just DC (except for Legion-related stuff) and Marvel, as described here. I'm still getting Sergio Aragones' Funnies, Saga, Red Sonja, and am trying a few others.

I know that both DC and Marvel are doing some good stuff. And as soon as I think I can buy it and still look myself in the face, I'll start collecting some of it again.

10:13 PM  
Blogger Azathoth100 said...

Hi Matt. so as a long time Legion fan I'm glad to have found your blog. I've enjoyed reading you back blogs and look forward to hearing more from you. I do have a question for you, perhaps an idea for a future post. The Legion is supposed to be based in the future of Dc (Although the current idea of the Justice League 3000 may change that). So I've always wondered why more of the "immortal" beings in Dc don't show up in the Legion. Yes Braniac ended up being Pulsar Stargrave. Darkseid, of course. But what of Vandal Savage? Lobo? Solomon Grundy? Eclipso? Swamp Thing? There is a LONG list of being in DC that are supposed to be immortal. I've always wondered why the Legion writers never used any of them. Heck, you could even show the Lazarus Pits from Ras Al Ghul. Which "Immortal" beings do you think would have fit in good with the Legion, as either foes, allies, or just background?

11:27 PM  
Blogger Matthew E said...

Well, for a lot of the Legion's history they were considered to be part of DC's Superman-group of comics, and as such they weren't really the future of the DC Universe so much as the future of Superman comics. So in the Silver Age you did get, like, future-Luthors and Brainiacs and Mxyzptlks, but that's about it.

Eventually that loosened up, and we saw some future-Justice-League-related elements; I guess the Tornado Twins were the first of those.

Vandal Savage, as an Earth-2 character, was off-limits until Crisis on Infinite Earths, but Chris Roberson finally got around to using him in a Legion story in the recent Legion/Star Trek series.

Ra's al Ghul was a recurring villain in DnA's The Legion series. Lobo was sort of used in the Quiet Darkness arc of the 5YL Legion series.

So there has been some stuff like you describe. But in many ways I think the Legion is better off when it's not tied to the 20th-21st century. They're set in space, in the future; the writers should be able to come up with all kinds of wild interesting things; present-day Earth shouldn't be the only source of antagonists. Granted, the present-day-Earth stuff comes preloaded with emotional resonance for us, which is certainly an advantage, but that just means that the writers have to do a little extra work on the cosmic stuff.

10:35 AM  

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