>I can remember when just about ALL the Marvel and DC titles
>were like that: settled in, allowed to age and not constantly
>subjected to "reboots" and zero-issues. Where have those days
>gone?

What's funny is that the new hot gimmick is to un-reboot titles to switch back to their original, larger numberings. Captain America jumped from issue #50 to #600, because somebody crunched some numbers and realized that's how many issues of Captain America had been printed since that time he punched Hitler. I guess studies have shown that the number 600 is more marketable than the number 51.

Fantastic Four pulled the same stunt for what became its 500th issue (the month before that? Issue 70 came out)

Since you were there looking for recent issues of long running titles, I'm assuming you're aware of that trend already, but I just figured I'd throw that out there.


>Honestly, I blame the big "events": "Crisis," "Zero Hour,"
>"Secret Wars," "Civil War," the death of Superman and the
>like. It was only after you started seeing these huge,
>sweeping events that a serious case of A.D.D. clearly hit the
>industry.

Yeah but the readers share some of that blame too - If you look at the sales figures, it's the same for very damn book (with the exception of The Walking Dead and maybe 3 others) Every month is a steady decline. First issues are always huge, then every month a title will shed readers no matter how good it might be. What the market seems to be saying is that they can't 'BE STILL'. So give the people what they want, right?

I mean think about it - you're at the register and suddenly you're hit by the crushing realization that you've bought 200+ straight issues of The Avengers. You'd probably kill yourself, or worse, stop reading comics. By breaking it up like they do, you rarely buy more than 50 of anything... Or so it seems.


>I flipped to the back of one book and saw that they're
>starting the Flash over. AGAIN. FOR WHAT?

Because the last reboot sucked mad balls


>One given superteam, eight hundred different storylines to try
>and follow. Then it's over in a year, and here they come with
>Issue Zero again? Spinoffs and spinoffs of spinoffs all over
>the damn stands--it's too confusing. Current readers: How do
>y'all keep up and make the room in your lives for this mess?

You just kind of get used to it, I guess. For me personally, I follow the writers/artists moreso than I follow characters/titles, so I bounce when they bounce.

Plus, those long running titles tend not to be the best stuff on the shelves, imo. See lonesome_d's recommendations above.

>Okay, that's it.

Okay, goodnight...

>No, that's NOT it:

OH SNAP

>Once upon a time, when these stories would make their way to
>visual media, the origins and characteristics of certain
>characters were CANON. They were CONSISTENT with what you read
>in the books (and I'll even give the assorted "Superfriends"
>shows credit for that, to a degree). NOW, though?--I can't
>deal with eight or nine different Batmans. The progression
>onscreen from Caped Crusader (see: the 60's TV series and all
>the cartoons leading up to the animated series of the 90's) to
>Dark Knight worked out--then, they went and clowned THAT up! A
>bunch of non-canon one-offs and "what-if" scenarios. ONE
>BATMAN AT A TIME, DAMN!

Batman's tricky because at any given moment there's like 50 Batman books on the shelf, and most of them don't even try to pretend to be canon. I don't feel like the "core" titles are all that disjointed at the moment, but to be honest there's only one that I've been paying attention to.

>And the Ultimates. Fuck them, seriously.
>
>One book, one movie, ONE FUCKING STORY for each character and
>each team. Damn all this alternate-reality shit. I thought the
>"Crisis" was designed to solve problems like this, but here we
>go again, I suppose.

Yeah I don't think Crisis had anything to do with The Ultimates.

And yeah, the 'Ultimate Universe' as a whole did get a little bit muddled over time. But 'The Ultimates' itself? Like, the Millar/Hitch title? Fucking greatness. Sometimes you gotta stop sweating what's "canon" and just appreciate a book for what it is.

>I'd like your input on this. No Twitter-shit, either...gimme
>some complete sentences.

brb