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04/27/2004: some thoughts on upcoming DC comics
First, I don't collect the comic tie-ins for the animated universe, but maybe I should get the Batman Adventures #16 in July, I mean who could resist a description like that? "The Joker and Harley Quinn are getting hitched. It'll be the wedding of the century...if Poison Ivy doesn't gum up the works first."
Second, like some (many?) others I feel a bit apprehensive after reading the recent solicitations for the upcoming months. I mean, that they advertise Identity Crisis as "redefining of the DCU" doesn't have to mean much-- they tend to say that about every other crossover and such-- but it could. I don't think change is necessarily bad, but of course one starts to worry when it looks like they intend to kill characters. I know, they often don't stay dead, but sometimes they do, and it's not like it doesn't take a while until they come back. This talk about the JLA's "deep dark secret of their collective past" doesn't help either, I mean one never knows into which direction these character retcons with suddenly revealed dark secrets might go. It could be really cool (and I hope for that) or it could be cringe-worthy.
Also, I'm skeptical about the upcoming JLA split. I like the current JLA, because it isn't as confusing as the multitude of previous titles, which for the most part I haven't read, but even just trying to get an overview was confusing. I like that the Justice League isn't as huge anymore. From what I gathered, its member list never reached quite the immense numbers the combined Titan incarnations did, but for a while its membership doesn't seem to have been exactly a manageable number either. The current JLA title fixed that, and I'm not too thrilled about the Justice League Elite development. Not to mention that I sincerely hope they won't keep Chuck Austen on JLA beyond the six issues they announced. It's just not a good move to have someone on a continuity-dependent title who dislikes the concept so much, and likes to mess it up. Obviously there are Austen fans somewhere, and actually based on what I've read (which isn't that much, but some) I like his writing okay on a story level especially for characters that aren't my favorites (despite the fact that he comes across as a jerk in interviews), I just wish they'd keep authors who feel only restricted by the fact that these characters have a history and aren't blank slates in the mini-series corner.
And of course on the Batverse side of things there's the change in Robins, too.
Still, overall I look forward to these events, and hope that the stories and the changes will turn out okay in the end. The thing is, as a fan I'm kind of conservative, I like things like they are, after all. But it's also true that a bunch of stuff I like quite a lot, is the result of storylines I wouldn't have voted in favor of if they had put up a readership poll to decide. I mean, had I been a DC reader in the 1980s I'm unsure whether I would have been in favor of the Crisis, almost certainly I wouldn't have voted for killing Barry. I doubt I would have been in favor of killing Jason in that reader poll they actually did on that, though he is my least favorite Robin. And okay, the story of Jason's death itself is cringe-worthy (and I know I repeat myself far too often on this topic, but that story is at the very top of my list of things that ought to be retconned and retold in a better way, preferably so that it makes a little more sense and without Chomeini as guest star), but it led to a lot of cool developments in the Batverse. I wouldn't have voted in favor of crippling Batgirl either, and yet I adore Babs as Oracle. And okay, I'm still a bit disgruntled about how they handled Hal becoming Parallax, but I like Kyle as Green Lantern. That is to say, even if the story itself isn't great, the balance in the end is still often positive.
I could probably list a couple of things more, but I think it comes down to the fact that overall I tend to trust the DC writers and editors to care about the universe, and that I'll like a lot about any changes they're going to make. Even though my first impulse as a fan is always a conservative one-- like I said, I like it how it is, so why mess with the status quo?-- there are also cool opportunities in universe changes.
