LAST EDITED ON Aug-16-06 AT 06:18 PM (EDT)
 
>I would reply with an opinion that has been voiced elsewhere, that
>comics are entertainment. I am not entertained by that crap.

Wait, you want to be entertained? In a positive way? What the hell are you thinking?! <grin>

>For those of you who think that it's all about the bottom line, it's
>not necessarily true. It's certainly high on the list, but for Didio
>et al., it's more a case of them doing it because they can. As long
>as there are readers out there who think that this sort of tripe is
>"cool," they'll keep putting it out.

Um, don't you mean as long as there are readers who buy this tripe, they'll keep producing it?

>Will the bright, shiny days of heroism past ever return? I doubt it.
>After all, according to Meltzer, they weren't so shiny and they
>weren't really so heroic. Oh, and no Flash villain ever really
>reformed of his own free will back then.

That, my dear man, is why fan fiction and fan art are flourishing.

But to answer your question more seriously...

The audience comic books play to is a varied one - we need only look at this forum to see how varied. People are requesting complex story lines because it holds their interest (even when delivered in tiny serials that spend 5 pages on backstory). To hold that interest, comics must also be emotional. And what causes more emotion than being surprised and disgusted?

Well, yes, fine, love does. However, the complexity of love requires (a) emotional depth, (b) incredible story telling, and (c) and audience who picks up on both. As Alan Moore has demonstrated, 'tis easier to hate than love - and so comic books have gone. They will continue to go that away for sometime, which is why I've stopped wasting my time on the classics, and have gone for the odd one like Fables instead.

As a final note, I do see a ray of sunshine. Looking at Sam Rami's Spiderman, the recent renassiance of Doctor Who and the incredibly mainstream Superman Returns it is clear that there is a backlash coming. We can see this too, in the very simplified plot line of Batman Begins. Perhaps Marvel and DC will miss this (as they've missed so much of late) but people like happy or at least hopeful endings. They like it when their heroes make the hard decisions and when they don't give in to their baser emotons. People are starting to like heroes, not anti-heroes. So perhaps, happy days will be here again.

t.

edit: I suck at DCForum markup

Trigger Argee
trigger_argee@hotmail.com
Manon, Maccadon, Orado, etc.
Denton, never leave home without it.

"If we are marked to die, we are enough
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater the share of honour
God's will I pray thee wish not one man more" - Henry V, Act, IV Scene III