This is the ultimate in girl power. And so typical of the comic world. Sometimes when you kill a character off, the unexpected thing is to keep the damn character dead.
I don’t know much about the comics universe, about how they kill people off, and who is involved with who, and what incarnation one character is in one universe verses the other. The comics I like have a true beginning, middle and end. I like story arcs, but finish the damn story!
That being said, I like the idea of a lesbian Catwoman. That makes sense in my mind. Although she’s got to have a girlfriend. I wonder if Supergirl is avaliable… tee hee hee
June 1st, 2006 at 8:23 am
Yeah, this is all over the place, even getting a full page in the New York Times, apparently. Not because they are bringing Batwoman back, but because she is a lesbian, I am sure. I just wish it was a mature rated comics so we could get some how girl on girl superhero action.
Death in comics is always a very superficial thing. Often times the character is reincarnated with a different alterego, i.e. someone new took over the powers of the dead character, however, if one of the biggies dies, like Superman, you could bet money, your life, or whatever you value, that he will come back to life.
June 1st, 2006 at 8:27 am
But he should DIE!! Or become Zombie Superman who runs around muttering “Braaaains”. Otherwise, he’s dead. The end. Boom!
It’s a shame that the lesbianism is the big story. Not the fact that she came back at all. Ooohhh - good couple. Catwoman and Batwoman! It’s brilliant!
June 1st, 2006 at 8:54 am
This would be great news for comic culture if it wasn’t for the fact that I know they are making her a lesbian to sell comics. They are just looking to sell that one comic with her making out with some other notable super heroin.
To me that just kills the whole thing, I never liked being played; however, I’m sure it will be the most downloaded picture on the internet for a while.
About death I’ve given up on comics as a way to get a characters story about, and I also think that most comic book writers have as well. The most successful writers write as if they are contracted for viniets (sp). The don’t have the power to kill off characters or really grow them so they just tell a segment of there lives as interestingly as possible. This means lots of action and situational drama. Kinda sucks, but thats the way Comics have turned. Oh well.
June 1st, 2006 at 9:08 am
We should revolutionize how they are done. I’ve seen several that stayed away from the tights and tight asses in the superhero genre while maintaining some kind of integrity. I think that bringing on great artists and great writers to really work on these characters would be a great way to re-do the genre. Contract out a full year of comics from the same author, because that could fullfill a full plotline or story arc. Vignettes do a little something, but it’s like the commercial break in the midst of a crap show.
June 1st, 2006 at 9:32 am
Well these characters are trademarked, so there will be much resistance about “doing” anything with them. They are Marvel’s and DC’s only reason for existing. Their approach is flawed. They have ceased to be a publisher and have become caretakers of a copyright. The real revolution would be to get these companies or new companies to abandon the franchise approach and follow the book publishing model of publishing writers and artists with unique and diverse ideas. Marvel and DC hijacked a wonderful form of storytelling and art and have driven it into the dust.
June 1st, 2006 at 10:49 am
I never thought of them as protector of a copyright - well put. That changes thing. But self-restriction is never a good thing. Movies went from black and white to talkies to color. Comics should think about working in that kind of direction - changing how things are done.
And I would like to see full books as well. I think that would be a more intelligent way to appeal to a broader audience, one that I think would demand better content and superior artistry
June 1st, 2006 at 11:32 am
Its a good way to view it. They don’t want to see there cash generator die. It could be the best story every told, but it will only sell a finite amount of issues while crappy superman issues will outsell it in the log run. These companies are scared of a paradigm shift of that magnitude. People buy comics for the characters, not for the story, and to put that much faith in comic writers, who honestly for the most part are horrible, would be a crazy business move on there parts. I’m guessing this is why they developed those “Independent” labels like Vertigo and Dark Horse to allow writers to branch out and make real stories.
I so wish superman would have stayed dead, but he didn’t. I wish batman would have stayed a cripple but he didn’t. I wish spiderman would have died (all 4 times I think) But he never will. I’ve just come to the conclusion that there will never be an end to these characters, which is truly a very sad thing.
June 1st, 2006 at 11:57 am
The irony is that those crappy individual Superman issues don’t out sell the contained and original stories. The Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns are still sold and consistantly sell well, easily selling numbers much higher than most comic ‘pamplets’. Now imagine if DC had taken a chance long ago and went that direction. There would undoubtably be some flops, but odds would be in favor of them having quite a few more books that sold consistantly, while they continued to bolster their library of books with new books that may appeal to a different audience that could bring them more revenue, etc., etc., in a continuous cycle. Of course, this would also solve the problem of ‘comic book writers’ because these fanboys would become somewhat useless when they can’t steal story arcs that came before. In my perfect world, you would have ‘real’ writers or writer-artists who chose to work in Graphic Storytelling, as one may choose to work in fantasy, not the thinly veiled fanboys who permeate the comicbook industry currently.
June 1st, 2006 at 12:09 pm
Oh and another thing! :)) I would hope that having different writers with different influences would help the graphic stories to branch into muliple genres, Sci-Fi, Romance, Mystery, Plain-Jane Fiction, etc. We live in a visual society. I think it would take barely a nudge to get people to read graphic(sequential art) stories if the subject matter interested them and it was easily accesable, i.e. Barnes and Noble, the internet, etc.
June 1st, 2006 at 2:19 pm
Agreed 100%. I would love for Marvel and DC to become what they are supposed to be…publishing companies. They have people come to them with work and they choose to publish it. instead like you stated before they are trademark holders who try to shape and mold the content to fit there image. If you think about it, how many publishers do you know as well as DC and Marvel? Hopefully something comes up to edge comics out. I almost hope for a complete fall from grace and a colossal crash. Graphical fiction has been around since the beginning of time and I’m sure that it will survive the fall of Marvel and DC. Maybe it could be reborn into a viable medium once the dinosaurs die off and let new companies and groups do something else with the medium.