flapjaxx

February 3, 2012 6:00 pm Good questions and answers this week. I especially like Conor's response on the to-buy-or-not-to-buy-digitally question. You can't go crazy worrying about this stuff. And that doesn't apply just to questions of digital but also to questions of buying trades through Amazon or back issues through cheap online comic shops, etc. On the one hand, I love going to my LCS every Wednesday and have no problem plunking down $3-$4 for certain single issues of titles I love. I want to be up to date on those series; I can't wait to read them; I usually prefer reading things on paper rather than on a back-lit digital screen; I like the overall Wednesday LCS experience. That said, I don't sweat it if I see an upcoming trade solicited on Amazon for $12; if it's a collection of six comics that I'd normally spend $4 each via single issues, and if the trade's coming out like three weeks after the sixth issue hits LCS's... then, heck, I'll just order the trade. Same with buying back issues and trades through dirt-cheap online comic shops. I don't sweat it. I just do it. But I still support my LCS to an extent that's reasonable and enjoyable. That said, I think that a boom in digital comic sales WILL probably result in certain low-level series being canceled. On the one hand, there's no doubt that Marvel and DC make higher per-issue profit margins on digital sales. But on the other hand, there's a certain print-run threshold that they have to meet, otherwise the series will just get canceled since it isn't worth printing AT ALL. And it's not like there are anywhere near enough digital sales to generate enough revenue to make up for dropping print entirely. On a per-copy basis, it definitely isn't worth DC or Marvel's while to print many series that don't get a run of at least, say, 7,000 copies (to choose an arbitrary number just for the sake of argument). Printers charge less per copy when you print more copies. So, say a series is selling 7,500 print copies... and then 1000 readers switch to digital. What would happen then is that the series would just get canceled. The profit margin on 6,500 printed copies just wouldn't be worth it, and they surely couldn't get EVERY person who read the comic in print to switch over to digital. (And, sorry to say, there just aren't loads of new comics readers jumping in to read DC and Marvel digitally. At least, not yet.) So, yeah, I think there's a definite chance that if these sorts of transitions aren't managed smoothly, then many titles could simply vanish. At least in for the near future until/if a more stable sales environment emerges. P.S. I don't know what the deal is with saying that actors are "moderating" these letter columns, but I don't really get what you guys are going for. Or, actually, I get what you're going for but it just isn't funny. It's treating human beings like they were just living punchlines or jokes or something. Whether it's George Clooney or this Morgan guy, it's just weird for you guys to be doing this.

February 1, 2012 5:48 pm These comics will probably be okay, but I don't really have any interest in the premise of any of these projects. There are some good creators on this, but I'd rather they were doing other things. On some level, it does speak to greed and lack of ambition, that this project is even happening. DC held off on it so long because they KNEW that on a creative level it just seems wrong. There's no reason for it. It's pointless and is kind of like an admission that, on some level, they're desperate for ideas. That said, I won't fault anyone for reading any of this. But I just don't see the point. The "universe" of Watchmen was so interesting precisely because we only got a little glimpse of it, only saw little hints of the superhero history that we had to USE OUR IMAGINATIONS to fill-in while we were reading the story. The characters are great characters, but I don't need to know everything about them. This whole thing seems like more nostalgia porn or something. I'm not "mad" at it, but it's puzzling to me that it's even such a big draw. Lastly, I think it's interesting that Grant Morrison is not participating in this. Obviously he could have if he wanted to, and "re-writing" Moore has been something Morrison has engaged in on a thematic level for two decades now. But I guess Morrison himself didn't really want to connect himself to Moore's work on such a literal, desperate level.

January 30, 2012 6:30 pm Remender's characterizations are so good that I don't care about the art. But I thought the art was at least passable. Nothing to get excited about, but nothing to get upset about either. It is a massive drop from some of the other art we've seen in this series, but taken on its own terms it's "okay". I can't fathom anyone calling this artist a really good up-n-comer, though... The story itself is a good tale after the epic we just had. What we're seeing here with Fantomex being judged is quite necessary. And the interactions between Betsy and Brian are very necessary as well.

January 30, 2012 6:19 pm If the comics internet hadn't so massively overhyped this series to begin with, you guys wouldn't be so disappointed now. And now I kind think some of you are overreacting negatively. It's Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert doing a comic together--How can that "just" be a filler issue or an "ad" for an upcoming crossover? It's Morrison and Kubert! It's not that bad now. But it wasn't that great to begin with. Issue #1 was just a bunch of Golden Age nostalgia of a sort that many readers hadn't indulged in yet. So they thought it was revolutionary or something. Morrison's political ideas could have been interesting (if somewhat misplaced), but he never really did anything with them. Yet up till issue #3 many people thought that this was shaping up to be the best Superman run ever or something. Because the hype hadn't worn off yet. But right from the jump it was apparent to me that this series is just mediocre Morrison. Which is still pretty decent, unless you want the kind of comic that you can overhype the crap out of it without taking into account the actual content.

January 28, 2012 7:17 pm Good review. I've also had a love/hate relationship with Bendis's writing for the past few years (I USED to always like it, before his dialogue got too annoying). But this new incarnation of Ultimate Spidey is, in my opinion, consistently the best writing Bendis has done in years. I read the first three issues in a Marvel "Must Have" one-shot, for $4.99. Which was awesome. But, yeah, $4 is a lot for a decompressed comic. So I decided not to buy the current issue but maybe pick it up in trade, if the reviews are good. I was sorry to see Sarah P leave as well. I'll be following the reactions of other people to find out whether Samnee is a good replacement, but . . . I never really cared for his art all that much. And he doesn't seem like a good replacement for what Sarah started.

January 28, 2012 7:09 pm Yeah. It's been interesting to follow people's continued reactions to Johns' decline. He used to be a pretty good writer. At times, he was excellent. Then he started to get very predictable and formulaic. But people don't care much, because that was around the time that Blackest Night was coming out. All the hype was kinda justified because the IDEA was cool enough to make up for the lack of content. But as of 2012? Geoff Johns is like Jeph Loeb now. All juvenile flash and very little substance. Very often, it feels like they're just mailing it in. They still have perceptible talent, but it's like the readers have to keep dumbing themselves down or something in order to just be okay with it. And, for me at least, the constant, implicit command to "Turn off your brain!" gets a little intolerable after a while. But, hey, Justice League is still the best-selling comic out there. Even Josh (who is usually the smartest iFanboy and the most critical of lazy writing) gave issue #1 Pick-of-the-Week honors based, admittedly, off of feel-good hype. And issue #5 still gets basically a 4-star average from the iFanboy users. So, I don't see this changing anytime soon. This is just a cycle that things go through. The readers that Johns sheds will instantly recognize his huge decline in quality. Everybody else will keep making excuses, apologizing for Johns' shortfalls, telling everyone not think but just "have fun". And I guess that's okay. But if people had more...um, courage, I think we'd all be a lot better off dropping mediocre titles, picking up more deserving titles, and celebrating things that are worth celebrating rather than living in an atmosphere of hype under the banner of "Turn off your brain! Have fun! Big action movie--ALL THE TIME! Hype!"

January 25, 2012 6:10 pm Hickman's Ultimate Thor mini kind of laid the foundation for this as well. It was a great story, so you may want to pick that up as well. It isn't necessary to understand what's going on, though.

January 25, 2012 6:07 pm This has been my sleeper hit of the New 52. I've never been a big Flash fan before, but Manapul has definitely impressed me here, especially with the writing. (I new his art would be good.)

January 25, 2012 6:06 pm It's a good series and Scott is a good writer, but this is starting to seem like an endless cycle of patting each other on the back... and then patting yourselves on the back. You guys do articles about what this guy tweets about. You guys do articles about hipster cops in this titles. These are touches that are neat but actually have no content. Yet you guys hype them up as if they were genius. Now you guys do an article when he just says thanks. That's cool, but does the article need to be a pinned link at the top of the page? The whole thing is just a little self-important or something. There are other great comics out there. Maybe you could talk about them. Snyder is a good writer but he often writes way too much exposition for no reason. You guys notice this in other writers' work, but never in his. Because he's an "It" guy that you're in love with, so you don't actually notice many of the details in his writing. When Morrison did a deep Batman story with plenty of clues... you guys did ZERO investigative articles about it. Scott Snyder is doing a "mystery" that actually has nothing for the reader to figure out, and yet you do articles about hidden owls. With Morrison's story (which was very imperfect, I admit) there was actually stuff to think about and figure out. Other comic sites actually posted a lot of articles all about the foreshadowing that Morrison had laid, and there was a lot of discussion about the actual content, group effort in investigating what was happening, and various complex theories thrown out as to how the Black Glove story was playing out. But now with Snyder it's just "Look for the owls!" This is coming off as superficial. If you guys would just leave well enough alone, it'd be cool. But instead you hype the crap out of certain things. I'm beside myself as to why people still find it so interesting. I barely even go to this site anymore, but every time I do you're talking about the same writers, the same titles, and the same two dozen or so users are blitzing the comments so that even the most insignificant news story has like a hundred posts underneath it. Is all of this really worth so much time? I think you guys are losing your larger perspective on comics, because it just feels so good to hype up your own particular favorites.

January 25, 2012 6:00 pm Yeah, if I could sum up the story and the characters in one word, it would be IMMATURE. Immature is fine if you're actually reaching new readers unschooled in these characters. Instead we have a bunch of 40-year-olds reading this and making excuses for Johns' poor characterization. I still like Johns. He's a good writer. But he's just dumbing things down way too much for no reason.