DC's next event, helmed by Grant Morrison

Wow, DC is annoying. How do you guys tolerate it? What's the appeal?

A book mired in incomprehensible garbage, written by a writer known exclusively for filling his books with incomprehensible garbage.


Make Mine Marvel!

Seriously, this has totally killed my interest in the DCU. I knew it was coming but the official announcement just made me think "fuck this never ending shit from them."

Welp....in fairness to DC, both of the "Big Two" run crossover events pretty consistently.

Yet, in meanness to DC, they've tried to tie all their running gibberish together, promising fans that it will all fit into one big puzzle and mean something. So by my scorecard, Infinite Crisis mini's led into Infinite Crisis, which led into 52, which led into One Year Later, which led into Brave New World, which led into Countdown, which led into Final Crisis. It's a giant helping of crap that they keep forgetting to write an ending to.

The 90's had its potholes, but it was nice how annual DC crossovers like "Underworld Unleashed", "DC One Million", "Zero Hour" and "Genesis" weren't supposed to tie into one another.

I would much prefer large scale events that effect only certain groups, etc. Like the X-Men event this year. I know it will have a lasting effect on all of Marvel, but it's focused around a certain group. It doesn't do burnout on all the major characters.

In light of all the complaints about DC, what attracts you guys to them otherwise? I hardly read DC at all, but I'd really like it if you could all "sell" DC to me. Why should I care about the characters in 2007 and what titles are worth picking up? How does DC compare to Marvel?

DC has some interesting concepts and neat characters. Watch the Justice League cartoons to see how they can be handled well.

Superman is essentially a gigantic cornball franchise, but when done right, it works well. Supes is probably the only comic character where you get the feeling that all this cosmic, earth-threatening stuff is just that. So lots of insane, out-of-this-world stuff has traditionally been pulled off in Superman. It's also a good contrast when a normal "street-level" baddie like Hellgrammite or Prankster messes with Supes.

Batman is generally a truly heroic guy. He's not out for "vengeance" as most fans seem to think he is...he's out for "justice". Read the over-sized "War on Crime" for a great standalone definition of the guy. There's a JLU episode that ties Batman to Batman Beyond and deals with the Royal Flush Gang and Ace, wherein Batman displays his true character. He's a very loyal guy, too. If you get the Batman seal of approval, he's your pal for life. He won't come over to your house every weekend and hang around (as DC currently portrays him), but a few years down the road, you'll be in a tight spot and Batman will suddenly appear and help you out. He's a guy of few words, but has a great heart and sense of morals. Really, I wish I could be like Batman.

Alot of DC's other characters (GL, Flash, even Hawkman) have the ability to take this really far-out story and make it entertaining. Fight aliens, go to to other planets, go back in time, fight weird new villains. In that sense, they're more "comic book" than Marvel is. To illustrate this, DC's focus is usually on the costumed figure...with Marvel it's usually on the guy underneath the costume. Clark Kent has never had 1/10 of the problems that Peter Parker or even Matt Murdock have had.

Marvel, to me, has always been more realistic. Whereas with DC you get that true sense of wonder. I mean: a bottle city?! Sure, it's corny as all hell, but it works for DC. Another example: Luke Cage works great for Marvel...but he'd never work in DC.

Old Fantastic Four is probably the closest thing Marvel has to a DC book. 1980's Firestorm is probably the closest thing DC has to a Marvel book.

Thank you, that was a very informative and helpful read. Batman has always been a favorite of mine, but he's the only DC character I've ever really been into (aside from the occasional Green Lantern). Your passion for the characters is quite awesome, too.

I agree that Fantastic Four is a great comparison.

Stop me (or skip ahead to the next post) if you're heard this before, but another common misconception about Batman is Robin.

It's not some repressed homosexual thing....and Robin's not a target to draw fire (fuck you, Frank Miller). Robin is Batman's Rosebud. See "Citizen Kane" to get my meaning. Charles Foster Kane was this successful guy who seemed to have everything-- except his childhood, which was taken away from him at an early age. That was symbolized by his sled named Rosebud.

Batman's the same way. His childhood was taken away from him. So he has Robin-- partly to remind himself of his mission and partly to give him hope.

The father/son thing is okay, but I always saw it as more of a big brother/little brother kind of thing. Growing up, I didn't want to be Batman. I wanted to be Robin and my big brother to be Batman.

Yeah, I read the first issue of Fantastic Four while I was camping, and I had to keep rolling my eyes (did you know that Susan Storm's favorite activity is cooking?). It was extremely cornball, and very 60's, which is basically what I expected.

In other words, it's great for historical reasons, but not something I really enjoy reading.

My issue is it just doesn't feel like the DCU is moving anywhere. Identity Crisis till now has all been the same event according to them. Marvel has done a lot of crossovers but they all seem fairly independent of each other. Like WWH has little to do with Civil War, etc.

I've said for the past three years or so, but DC should've had a two-page company-wide insert entitled "Cosmic Treadmill" stuck inside every book in 2004. Everyone gets together and hops back to 1982. Two pages and it's done. Better than all this shit they've been churning out since then and it would've had the exact same effect.

DC seems to be their own biggest fans and they're trying their hardest to get back to the status quo of 1982. TPlus throwing in cutesy 80's fanboy crap, like the Hall of Justice.

House of M did tie into Civil War, but not directly (Scarlet Witch's flip-out). Civil War then tied into World War Hulk, but again it wasn't direct (mostly tied into the "Avengers: Illuminati" one-shot, which was a big Civil War prequel).

You've probably noticed that I'm a huge 80's fanboy...but I don't want to read about that stuff again. When I want 80's stuff, I'll buy it for a buck in bargain boxes. I don't want to pay 3 bucks for a slowed-down shitty modern emulation of it.

Marvel does have some 80's retro stuff going on-- bringing back Spider-Woman for one. But they're still advancing the overall flow of things. 25 years ago, Spidey had a secret ID, the Avengers were all happy, and villains weren't being hired by the government.

25 years ago, DC had this same shit going on. Only with less cleavage and no shitty Michael Turner eyebrows. Although you could argue the cleavage: early 80's "Huntress" back-up stories in Wonder Woman were pretty risque.

I should've said that the Marvel crossovers aren't all a big giant story like the recent Crisis stuff has been with DC. Civil War has effects in WWH and they tie in a bit but you don't have to have read Civil War to understand what's going on. Plus, I don't feel like it's just a giant extension of Civil War like I feel everything has been from Identity Crisis. I could take my WWH books over to a friend that's never read comics before and he'd get the story, who the characters are and their relations to each other. If I gave him anything from DC that wasn't Batman he'd probably punch me in the face for giving him some confusing piece of crap mired in 20 years ago. I honestly believe that's why DC is losing big time to Marvel in sales and market share right now. I feel they're burning their fans out big time for short term bucks.