Nerd Rage: DC Reboot as "One More Day" gone mad.

Let me start by saying that this title is horrifically overblown.

Everyone who has kept up with the blog (or has even read the top five most read posts)  knows my opinion on Marvel.  I dislike how they screw with characters for their movie properties, or dissolve marriages in an arbitrary and capricious fashion with a ... deal with the devil? For most of this, I initially blamed Joe Quesada ... then I realized that most comic book arcs are proposed a year in advance, and I realized that Marvel would be feeling the effects of Joe Q at least until 2012.

My main complaint was that Marvel had MASSIVE, WORLD CHANGING STORIES...... that changed absolutely nothing at all.

When I initially discussed DC Comics, and what they've been doing, my complaint was that they kept shaking up their universe so much, the dust never had time to settle before they had another damn crisis. We were being Evented to Death.

And now, DC is having yet another "event," where they rewrite large parts of their own history.

In the past, when DC did this sort of thing, it was to make life easier on everyone.  DC Comics had the original "Crisis on Infinite Earths" in the 1980s as a way of consolidating their myriad universes -- Golden Age, Bronze Age, Silver Age, the Dark Ages -- and make them one universe.

Now it's starting to feel like One More Day all over again. (more below the break)

Oh no, they killed Captain America (again) ... those bastards!

It's almost time for the Captain America movie.

Yes, I'm sure that's obvious for almost anyone with access to a television, or who has noted the movie posters plastered all over the place. For me, it's obvious for a different reason.

Marvel has started the movie tie-in.

As I noted many moons ago, Marvel liked doing special events so that they could pimp their films through the comic books. I'm not sure if anyone went to see Spider-Man 3 because the comic book Peter Parker was "Back in Black," but, mysteriously, that six-month story arc happened to overlap the three month period that the movie was in theaters. Funny that ....

And I don't know about you, but I will be quite happy to see Captain America: The First Avenger even though the main character, Steve Rodgers, was not Captain America in the comic books at the time.  The film looks fairly awesome.

Don't believe me, take a look.


However, true to form, Marvel took a good idea and smashed it against a rock.


When Joe Quesada, former Editor-in-Chief of Marvel, was "promoted" to creative consultant, I practically sang Hosannas.  No more Civil War / Siege / other massive events that do and change nothing.

My only worry was that, well, comic book companies tend to approve story lines months in advance.

In cases like a massive, mega event, they do it over the course of an entire year (except for Civil War, when they discovered that "darn, we don't have an ending. Hey, Ed Brubaker, we're going to take your idea for Captain America and stick it into Civil War, okay?")

Ironically, it was the aftermath of the Civil War decision that led up to the recent Marvel "event."

When Captain America Steve Rodgers "died" at the end of Civil War (long story), the shield of Captain America was taken up by his former sidekick, Bucky Barnes. Buckey had been kidnapped by the Soviet Union, brainwashed, and kept on ice ... when he wasn't being used as an assassin.  After a few issues of deprogramming, and making Bucky look like a sane human being, Steve Rodgers was shot, and presumed dead. Bucky took up the shield, and we were off to the races.

That was 2008. Even after Steve Rodgers came back, Bucky was allowed to keep the shield, and Steve Rodgers was off doing ... something to do with Siege.

In another Joe Q-approved stunt, in the last massive, multiplayer event, Fear Itself, Bucky Barnes is beaten to death with his own cybernetic arm.

Before the corpse is cold, Steve Rodgers takes the shield back ....

Just in time for the movie, coming out this Friday, where Steve Rodgers is Captain America ....

I'm shocked, shocked that there should be such convenient timing.

So, once again, Marvel has screwed something up for the sake of a movie tie-in. Bucky has had a good run as Captain America. And, in all likelihood, I can't imagine this stunt moving one more person to go see the Captain America movie. Now that I have cable again, I'm tempted to wait for a tv premiere.

The amusing thing is, in the current Captain America story line of the regular series run, Bucky was still in a Russian gulag, and still alive, even though he had been killed in the latest "event."  It's one of the same problems I noted in my first major blog on Marvel.

Someone get the plumber snake, there's some of Joe Q. still in the pipes....

Disasters to Marvel At, the Revenge: A Brief History in Comics.

(This post is dedicated to all of those comic book fans who are single this Valentine's Day. If you're interested in a romance-themed blog, check out last week here.)

We interrupt this week's blog post (originally on writing) to bring you this update.

Which reason do you like?

Thus far, the most read post this blog has been "Disasters to Marvel At: A Comic Discussion," where I reviewed about five years of Marvel comics' story lines, and came to the conclusion that they were gimmick-ridden, hackneyed plots, and that Disney should make Joe Quesada walk the plank off the top of 666 5th Avenue. 

I wrote it in November.

 In January, Joe Quesada was "promoted" from Chief Editor to "creative consultant." 

In the Catholic Church, the Vatican also has a tendency to "promote" certain bishops to come to Rome.  And they're never heard from again, because they're put into the deepest, darkest little cubicle the Vatican has.

So, Joe Q's promotion pretty much sounds like a way of saying "We'll put him someplace where he can't hurt anything."

Why would I say that?  Let's take a (very) brief look at the kind of stupidity coming out of Marvel lately.

Disasters to Marvel At: A Comic Discussion.

While I generally leave anything referring to comic books or superheroes to others, I am now stepping in.  The disaster known as Marvel Comics has become a wasteland of jibberish for years now.  Finally, there is a solution at hand.

Dear Disney, you own Marvel now. Have Joe Quesada walk the plank off the roof of 666 5th avenue. You can have Johnny Depp hold the sword that nudges him off, if you like.

Why do I say that? About five years ago, DC Comics started their epic of the week. Marvel, in perfect monkey-see-monkey-do fashion, has tried to keep up. In this effort, the result has been … nothing I can adequately describe using PG-13 language.

Let's see if we can all follow this round of abject stupidity.

J. Michael Straczynski at NY Comic Con.

Despite numerous problems, electrical storms, YouTube connection problems, and miscellaneous other problems, here we go ....


At New York Comic Con, the amazing J. Michael Straczynski gave a one hour lecture and Q&A section.  He is the creator of Babylon 5, and a screenwriter for: Murder, She Wrote, The Changeling (with Eastwood, Jolie, and Malkovich,) Kenneth Brannaugh's Thor, World War Z; author of Thor, Amazing Spider Man, The Brave and the Bold, Superman: Grounded, and Wonder Woman.  He discusses WWZ, making a cameo in Thor, writing, Rod Serling, and pretty much all of the above.





Part 2
 

Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


Someone asks: "The end of your Amazing Spider Man run ended ... basically undoing EVERYTHING you had already established.  Why was that?"
"You want the Four Seasons, room 423, Joe Quesada."

Epilogue