Worst Trend of 2009
Jim Doom: The Creepy Christopher Reeve / Richard Donner Fetish!
This all just seems ridiculously short-sighted to me. Maybe it’s more than “DC creators honor their childhood by reinventing Superman according to how he was when they saw movies as a kid,” but that’s how it comes off. And I didn’t grow up thinking Superman I and II were the best movies ever, so I think reinventing Superman accordingly seems like a downright stupid idea to me.
But let’s say you’ve decided that the Richard Donner elements are good enough to justify a new template for Superman’s origin. Even then, it wouldn’t be necessary to draw Superman as played by Christopher Reeve. It’s creepy, and I wish someone would tell Gary Frank to cut it out. The guy either sits and watches lots of Christopher Reeve footage, perhaps freezing the video for reference, or he’s just that familiar with what Christopher Reeve looks like and doesn’t need an abundance of references.
Either way, it’s weird, it’s unnecessary, and I want it to stop.
Honorable mention: Treating Dick Grayson like he’s a tool. I swear, for several months there, it was like a DC conspiracy to make sure each and every reader thought Dick Grayson was a whiny little dork who was completely unqualified to take on the mantle of Batman. I agreed! And so I stopped wanting to read the stupid books! Thankfully some grown-ups eventually started writing the character and everything worked out.
Fin Fang Doom: spoiling the Big Bad
I’m not sure if it quite constitutes a trend, but it sure seems like a lot of pretty major plot points were spoiled well in advance in 2009.
The most blatant was the cover of Blackest Night #5, which revealed Nekron as the villain behind the crossover. The cover was released a good two months before that revelation actually happened in the story. And now that I think of it, those action figure solicits spoiled an awful lot of the dead heroes who were coming back as Black Lanterns.
The most annoying one however may have been the news that Twilight, the Buffy Season 8 mystery villain, is Angel underneath the mask. The mystery had been at least three years in the making, and it’s not going to be revealed in the comic until April of this year. But there it was on the front page of Newsarama, completley unavoidable. That’s just lame.
Doom DeLuise: Re-birthing and Re-borning for no Re-ason!
So Barry Allen’s back. And so is Steve Rogers. And Bruce Wayne’s coming back this year, too. I sort of forgot how Barry came back, but Steve and Bruce are both coming back by means of copying a Desmond-centric episode of Lost (or Slaughterhouse Five, if you want to get technical on me).
Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem. Bringing back fan favorites is a smart move, business-wise. But other than the bottom line, what purpose do these returns serve, story-line-wise? Far as I can tell, Barry did some running in Final Crisis, and he somehow blue himself in Blackest Night, but that’s about it. Steve got angry and decided to step in for the fight in Siege, but, really, Bucky could’ve done the same thing. I don’t see a point in bringing Bruce back, other than to further the idea that Dick Grayson is the biggest pussy in the DCU.
So it goes.
Here’s what patterns of behavior we were uncomfortable with in the past!
2008:
Jim Doom: Bringing people back to life
Fin Fang Doom: $3.99 comics2007:
Jim Doom: Silver Age Resurgence
Doominator: Late Shipping
Fin Fang Doom: Interrupting Arcs with Fill-In Issues
Doom DeLuise: Zombie Variant Covers
I must admit I’m one of those people that grew up on the Superman movies, so I like that Frank draws him like Reeves. I can see why other would not like it though. Over all it is a bit unsettling having the characters look like celebrities. Deodato on Dark Avengers is another example of that with his Norman Osborn looking exactly like Tommy Lee Jones.
DC does have weird trend of late spoiling their own books with previews. In some cases I believe it’s meant to be a swerve like Guy Gardner as a Red Lantern to distract from Kyle Rayner dying, all be it Kyle’s death was kind of pointless as he was brought right back the next issue. They also spoil things in their Source blog the day a comic comes out, which I assume is to get ahead of any other blogs or news sites that would mention something major that was released that day.