Sperg about comic books here

[GoPro]

Don't you just "love" when comic books pull this anti-panel trick. BTW, joking about things leads to fascist laws.
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That looks like Bendis' handiwork. He is notorious for walls of text like this.

I'm not digging through 162 pages to see if this has been mentioned or not, but anyone find it noteworthy just how bad comic sales are compared to manga? Just compare the sales numbers. Or go to any chain bookstore, you will likely see that the manga section is much larger than the comic section. I don't know if that's a testament to comic's decline in quality, or proof that society is being overrun by weebs.

Either way its surprising to me that extremely well-known, decades-old media franchises are being eclipsed by a multitude of relatively unknown foreign franchises, that come in books that you have to read backwards.

If making massive walls of text could make manlets ripped then I would be so fucking ripped

I find it more interesting that there are people who still deny that this is the case, or think that this is not a sign of problems in the American comics industry. If I remember correctly, manga took over about 1/3 of the American comic book market in less than three decades (other 1/3 is scholastic), and more people care about Bleach coming back than anything Marvel and DC is putting out. Manga managed to do it in spite of committing cardinal sins of being monochrome, using cheap paper, and ignoring the monthly floppy format.
European publishers are finally putting serious effort into expanding to American market, so competition will only grow.

think it might also have to do with the fact it doesn't necessarily matter if comics sell badly because the characters are bigger than the comics.

how much in merchandising do you think Batman makes? even if all Batman comics stop, I imagine Batman would still be bringing in a fucking ton of money between the toys, clothes, movies, video games.

Comics do act as a life support for these characters and IP farms for adaptation or licensing material. Not that there are a lot of people reading comics, but they do sustain interest in characters, at least a little bit.

 

[Red Hood]

think it might also have to do with the fact it doesn't necessarily matter if comics sell badly because the characters are bigger than the comics.

how much in merchandising do you think Batman makes? even if all Batman comics stop, I imagine Batman would still be bringing in a fucking ton of money between the toys, clothes, movies, video games.

I'm certain you can find people that have no idea that Batman originated in comic books.

 

[Gar For Archer]

That looks like Bendis' handiwork. He is notorious for walls of text like this.


I find it more interesting that there are people who still deny that this is the case, or think that this is not a sign of problems in the American comics industry. If I remember correctly, manga took over about 1/3 of the American comic book market in less than three decades (other 1/3 is scholastic), and more people care about Bleach coming back than anything Marvel and DC is putting out. Manga managed to do it in spite of committing cardinal sins of being monochrome, using cheap paper, and ignoring the monthly floppy format.
European publishers are finally putting serious effort into expanding to American market, so competition will only grow.


Comics do act as a life support for these characters and IP farms for adaptation or licensing material. Not that there are a lot of people reading comics, but they do sustain interest in characters, at least a little bit.

Really, probably the most obvious reason is that anime is, as it turns out, really fucking good at its job, e.g. being an advertisement for the source material. I wouldn’t be surprised if a good majority of Western manga readers started off with zero interest in sequential art, only for them to bite the bullet and start reading ahead in the manga because they don’t want to wait three years for season 2 of their favorite anime. The fact that, for many/most anime, you can just pick up the manga where the last episode leaves off is a huge draw, since it’s a REALLY simple and effective gateway drug to the medium of manga; once you get over the initial hesitancy and read one, you're very likely to keep reading more and more.

Meanwhile, Marvel’s multi-billion-dollar Hollywood juggernaut does jack shit for their comic sales because they are, at best, very loose adaptations of whatever comic run they’re based on and at worst share nothing but the name and general theme, so there’s no real incentive for normies to pick up the book it’s based on,

 

[I Love Beef]

Meanwhile, Marvel’s multi-billion-dollar Hollywood juggernaut does jack shit for their comic sales because they are, at best, very loose adaptations of whatever comic run they’re based on and at worst share nothing but the name and general theme, so there’s no real incentive for normies to pick up the book it’s based on,

think it might also have to do with the fact it doesn't necessarily matter if comics sell badly because the characters are bigger than the comics.

how much in merchandising do you think Batman makes? even if all Batman comics stop, I imagine Batman would still be bringing in a fucking ton of money between the toys, clothes, movies, video games.

I'm certain you can find people that have no idea that Batman originated in comic books.

I know that about 50 years of non stop censorship and actual cultural ingraining can't be overturned overnight, but yeah.... This is what happens, huh?

 

[Registration]

I read the second issue of batman '89 and with all the racism and so, it kinda bothers me because I am sure if it was written a few years ago it would be different.

that is the problem with sequels done solely for the money, sometimes people make a sequel to a work and they just don't give a shit about the work itself and just want to use the comic to write the today's politics instead of continuing the story back then.

But the comic is ok so far. Still did not read the superman one

 

[Grundlejungle]

After taking a 14 year hiatus from reading current spiderman (specifically Peter Parker) I decided to take the plunge by reading "spiderman and the X-Men", entirely to understand what the fuck is going on in this image

Now, the last time I read spiderman, I read "one more day" as it came out, which is an experience that I still rate significantly worse than the time I got carjacked at gunpoint by a crackhead. I could write a fucking essay about how much I hate joe quesada on a goddamn personal level, but I don't want to A-log.

"Spiderman and the X-Men" reminded me why I loved those characters in the first place. It's actually goddamn fun, with a mystery that was fairly well done. Seriously check it out.

Now I'm working my way through the "age of apocalypse" omnibus.

Just when you think you're out...........

 

[Alexander Thaut]

After taking a 14 year hiatus from reading current spiderman (specifically Peter Parker) I decided to take the plunge by reading "spiderman and the X-Men", entirely to understand what the fuck is going on in this image
View attachment 2554294
Now, the last time I read spiderman, I read "one more day" as it came out, which is an experience that I still rate significantly worse than the time I got carjacked at gunpoint by a crackhead. I could write a fucking essay about how much I hate joe quesada on a goddamn personal level, but I don't want to A-log.

"Spiderman and the X-Men" reminded me why I loved those characters in the first place. It's actually goddamn fun, with a mystery that was fairly well done. Seriously check it out.

Now I'm working my way through the "age of apocalypse" omnibus.

Just when you think you're out...........

Nick Spencer's current spidey run has the potential of undoing One More Day's bullshit.

and like, all the bad things Dan Slott put into the spidey books.

 

[Water-T]

Nick Spencer's current spidey run has the potential of undoing One More Day's bullshit.

and like, all the bad things Dan Slott put into the spidey books.

It appears to be retconning that lousy Sins Past story - the one where Gwen Stacy got fucked by Norman Osbourne then gave birth to his Goblin Formula-mutated twins.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

It appears to be retconning that lousy Sins Past story - the one where Gwen Stacy got fucked by Norman Osbourne then gave birth to his Goblin Formula-mutated twins.

popular theory is that Kindred is

the soul of the child of Peter/MJ that was kidnapped in the '90s and never seen again.

 

[Giga_Nigga_28]

the wayne family adventure comic thing they're making now is cute.

i saw some people going "wow...so DC has fallen so far to doing newspaper shorts huh...."

but honestly it's just like, 7-8 panels of the batfamily being together as an actual family. something we pretty much never see in comics. for what it is, it's completely fine. I'd rather have it than not.

one thing I will say though is that the artist for it gave Damian a darker skin tone, which I think is great, I think Damian should be a bit darker than Bruce or the others due to his heritage, but ironically enough the artist made him too fucking dark. kids like 1 shade darker than fucking Thomas, who is actually black.

View attachment 2529497

look at this shit, Damian should not be that fucking dark. i am glad they gave Jason his white hair streak tho.

If reads like a fanfic, as if someone read lil' Gotham and decided to remove all the soul and personality. Still it's not awful just really, really bland.

 

[Cyber Bowling]

It appears to be retconning that lousy Sins Past story - the one where Gwen Stacy got fucked by Norman Osbourne then gave birth to his Goblin Formula-mutated twins.

It fully retconned it, which is for the best IMO. But they also made it so Norman made his own deal with Mephisto which is just...meh. It isn't a full on continuity bomb like One More Day was, just a "Norman was only successful cause devil" retcon that will probably be forgotten about by future writers.

I was interested in the Kindred stuff originally, but it just dragged on and on way too long. It hasn't caused me to hate Spider-Man or anything, but similar to the influx of Joker stories with DC, I have Kindred fatigue and don't really care. It ended up being way too much hype and repetition. Sinister War especially just turned out to be basically the same exact thing as when Peter and Kindred fought the first time, with Peter getting his butt kicked against overwhelming odds, finding the strength to pull through while Kindred taunts him and reveals plot points. And if Peter is lucky, he might get a few lines like "No" or "This can't be" etc.

I think that's part of the problem for me. Big things are happening, but there hasn't been a recent "breathing room" issue where the characters can really respond and process things. Even if it isn't a full issue, at least a couple of panels would be something.

To use a cinema reference, it'd be like if during Empire Strikes Back when Vader reveals he's Luke's father, if it immediately cut away to Han and the others, and then the next scene was just Luke and Vader fighting again. It wasn't like they dedicated a huge chunk of screen time to showing Luke's reaction, but you got to see how he reacted to a pivotal surprise twist. Peter almost feels like he's more of a supporting character in his own story instead of the lead.

 

[GranDuke]

Really, probably the most obvious reason is that anime is, as it turns out, really fucking good at its job, e.g. being an advertisement for the source material. I wouldn’t be surprised if a good majority of Western manga readers started off with zero interest in sequential art, only for them to bite the bullet and start reading ahead in the manga because they don’t want to wait three years for season 2 of their favorite anime. The fact that, for many/most anime, you can just pick up the manga where the last episode leaves off is a huge draw, since it’s a REALLY simple and effective gateway drug to the medium of manga; once you get over the initial hesitancy and read one, you're very likely to keep reading more and more.

Meanwhile, Marvel’s multi-billion-dollar Hollywood juggernaut does jack shit for their comic sales because they are, at best, very loose adaptations of whatever comic run they’re based on and at worst share nothing but the name and general theme, so there’s no real incentive for normies to pick up the book it’s based on,

Kirkam has been closest in replicating that with Wakling Dead and Invincibles adaptations. DC and Marvel usually gets some individual books to sell like Watchmen selling hundreds of thousands after trailer reveal or looking at Amazon it looks like Bendis' House of M is still selling due to WandaVision connection. Problem is that there is nowhere to go after that. Nobody knows what next DC or Marvel will adapt so there is no way to get ahead.

I always thought that a good way to do something like that for DC would be adapting Morrison's Batman and advertising it as such. You could ask why not Snyder and my answer would be that it doesn't look like other people are really doing much with his work, while Tomasi and Seeley (there are others as well, but I think these two did the most) added a lot to what Morrison did. Even now it looks like Williamson is bringing back Batman Inc. which basically would mean that new shit is still being added to the same "story". Just obviously repackage trades that they would be easy to follow and wouldn't include irrelevant shit. Big elephant in the room is Final Crisis, but I think remove Mandrakk and it would work as multipart season finale ending with Batman and Darkseid "killing" each other.

To me no other "storyline" really comes to mind from big two that is long enough for multiple seasons, not decades old and is still being worked upon by other people. Heck, could easily do Batman 666 and Super Sons spin-offs out of it.

 

[Registration]

I am reading the Persona 4 manga, I sure would love it as a teenager, it is quite comfy.

 

[Picnic_Boy]

Read the first DCeased series, it's the first 2020's era comic I've ever read. I enjoyed Blackest Night and Marvel Zombies, so why not give the (tired) premise another shot?

Of course, I hated it. Typical new DC trash. Completely lacked the grit and grim drama of Blackest Night, or the shocking humor and gore of Marvel Zombies. Most obnoxious is how the protagonists don't seem to take the threat seriously, even though the writer clearly wants the reader to, as if we should do the heavy lifting. Lots of Harley Quinn self-empowerment too, for those of us who never get tired of the endlessly repeating tale of how Harley got her groove back.

I will not be returning to modern comics anytime soon, if they can't even get a simple concept like DCeased right.

 

[jspit2.0]

Read the first DCeased series, it's the first 2020's era comic I've ever read. I enjoyed Blackest Night and Marvel Zombies, so why not give the (tired) premise another shot?

Of course, I hated it. Typical new DC trash. Completely lacked the grit and grim drama of Blackest Night, or the shocking humor and gore of Marvel Zombies. Most obnoxious is how the protagonists don't seem to take the threat seriously, even though the writer clearly wants the reader to, as if we should do the heavy lifting. Lots of Harley Quinn self-empowerment too, for those of us who never get tired of the endlessly repeating tale of how Harley got her groove back.

I will not be returning to modern comics anytime soon, if they can't even get a simple concept like DCeased right.

To be fair, isn't that by Tom Cuck Taylor? He can't help himself and tends to give unsolicited opinion on everything.

 

[The Token Ethnic]

Read the first DCeased series, it's the first 2020's era comic I've ever read. I enjoyed Blackest Night and Marvel Zombies, so why not give the (tired) premise another shot?

Of course, I hated it. Typical new DC trash. Completely lacked the grit and grim drama of Blackest Night, or the shocking humor and gore of Marvel Zombies. Most obnoxious is how the protagonists don't seem to take the threat seriously, even though the writer clearly wants the reader to, as if we should do the heavy lifting. Lots of Harley Quinn self-empowerment too, for those of us who never get tired of the endlessly repeating tale of how Harley got her groove back.

I will not be returning to modern comics anytime soon, if they can't even get a simple concept like DCeased right.

That's a shame. I was buying the variants with the horror movie poster homages. As soon as they did a fucking Suicide Squad poster I knew something was off. I read the first issue and as soon as Cyborg mentioned "kink shaming" as a quip, I wasn't in a rush to read the rest of it. I've been reading Red Room, which is nice and gory. I like the self contained stories but the constant wigger-y shit that Ed Piskor adds to it is a bit annoying. Does everyone have to say "world star!" or some similar shit whenever they're showing the gore? I'm finishing up the recent Vampirella run and maybe pick up that Kamen America series and I'll be sticking to reading these online instead of buying them.

 

[Registration]

Finally did read the first issue of superman movie sequel.

The art was kinda worse than the batman 89 one but the story has the charm of a pre crisis superman comic. It was ALRIGHT.

 

[Water-T]

Finally did read the first issue of superman movie sequel.

The art was kinda worse than the batman 89 one but the story has the charm of a pre crisis superman comic. It was ALRIGHT.

Loved that they brought back the "robot skeleton" version of Brainiac for it.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

That's a shame. I was buying the variants with the horror movie poster homages. As soon as they did a fucking Suicide Squad poster I knew something was off. I read the first issue and as soon as Cyborg mentioned "kink shaming" as a quip, I wasn't in a rush to read the rest of it. I've been reading Red Room, which is nice and gory. I like the self contained stories but the constant wigger-y shit that Ed Piskor adds to it is a bit annoying. Does everyone have to say "world star!" or some similar shit whenever they're showing the gore? I'm finishing up the recent Vampirella run and maybe pick up that Kamen America series and I'll be sticking to reading these online instead of buying them.

yeah dceased exists in a weird non-continuity thing and i just didn't like how noone even considered looking for Jonn asap.

or just keeping an eye on shapeshifters.

 

[Cactuar King]

Read the first DCeased series, it's the first 2020's era comic I've ever read. I enjoyed Blackest Night and Marvel Zombies, so why not give the (tired) premise another shot?

Of course, I hated it. Typical new DC trash. Completely lacked the grit and grim drama of Blackest Night, or the shocking humor and gore of Marvel Zombies. Most obnoxious is how the protagonists don't seem to take the threat seriously, even though the writer clearly wants the reader to, as if we should do the heavy lifting. Lots of Harley Quinn self-empowerment too, for those of us who never get tired of the endlessly repeating tale of how Harley got her groove back.

I will not be returning to modern comics anytime soon, if they can't even get a simple concept like DCeased right.

Joker, Catwoman, Huntress and Cassandra Cain dying straight away so Harley could merc them was so annoying. Who asked for that?