I read a very interesting post at one of my regular hang outs and it got me thinking. I've copied it here because the original poster sums it up far better than I could."Ok, these days we've been seeing a lot of comebacks lately. Infinite Crisis. Hal Jordan as Green Lantern. The Phantom Zone villains, Braniac and a whole boat of Kryptonians in Superman. All of that bullshit Grant Morrison found at the bottom of the barrel to make Batman R.I.P and Final Crisis to begin with. Marvel putting Spidey back to what he was in the 70's, Tony in the old Iron Man armor, Secret Invasion, The Marvel Space Titles and etc, etc.
Now we have Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, coming back. Geoff Johns plans to do with Allen what he did to Jordan and remind us how cool he is. But unlike Jordan, who I hated until Johnss re-introduced him, the only thing re reminded was how cool the OTHER Flashes are than Allen. Yes, even the Golden Age Flash is cooler than Allen. Everyone knows how awesome Wally West is, and even Bart ALlen, Kid Flash, states outright, that people are making a big deal out of Barry's return
Allen is such a nancy boy, he finally comes back to life to be with his loved ones, first thing he thinks is: "I shouldn't be here, it must be a fluke. Anyday I can be dead again, need to get back to work and be a hero." The reason for his longtime partnership with Jordan: "I thought he was an arrogant sob who is a perverted jock maniac but then I found out he was a cop, meaning he was a figure of authority. And I respect those, so he cool". Look I didn't like Jordan, but all of the stuff Allen though was bad I think was cool! He hates all evil, so forget about him being cool with the Rouges (who are always have this ghetto type respect for the Flash and vice versa) And I've seen in other stories how much as a naggy tight ass dork he is. I'll go on record to say SUPERMAN has more balls and machismo than this guy and he's the boy scout, he sucks!!
And they want this guy to replace the more interesting, funnier, cooler Flash of 3 decades, Wally West, simply cause Wets has kids now and...he was the Silver Age Flash, so yo gotta give him props. Bullshit.
This whole nostalgia wave has been going for a while now but none so more than in comics, where it appears more and more obvious they want to go back in time to a more iconic time, which is pleasing a bunch of fanboys who are now editors, writers, artists, movie directors and all sort of big figures in the industry, but are alienating the much younger fans (80's-2K fans like me) and the newbies who's only exposure to the characters are through other mediums (games, television, movies).
Marvel did a retarded mini-series "X-Fernus" simply to bring back the New Mutants, when they can't get their Young X-Men to act right. DC has another Titans series dedicated to the old Titans (the ones from the cartoons plus Wally and Donna Troy) for no other reason but nostaligia, but they can't get their other two Titans series straight. Damien, Batman's illegitimate son, is getting groomed to become Robin, simply to indulge Grant Morrison's desire to return Batman and Robin to the cheezy era of the 60's (I swear that idiot is Joel Shumacher in disguise!!), leaving the poor other Robins out in the street looking for food and shelter
Meanwhile, unless they're gonna be in a movie, creative people don't wanna touch characters like Gambit, Kyle Rayner, Azreal, Bane, Carnage, Onslaught, Danny Ketch and other cool character from the modern era, but they flock at whatever golden and silver age relic they can get their hands on cause they influenced their childhood.
When is enough is enough, is there really such a thing as too much nostalgia?"
-Elf With SillyHat
The writers of the comics are fans of the days gone by. No matter how you slice it, fanboys are running the show in comics. I'm not saying it's all gonna return to the 1970s in comics, but the imitations of past eras is more than present in a few of today's comics, Amazing Spider-Man being a big example. There are honestly times I feel comic writers are so focused on making their stories like that of past writers that they forget about trying to tell an new or interesting tale.
I love the comics industry, really I do, but I'd love for writers to take some risks. "But Batman and Captain America were killed! That's taking a huge risk!" Uh, no. They died comic book deaths. Both of them will be back. Bet it.
For every writer that is willing to try something new, I think far too many are stuck on playing it safe, which means things will grow stale. I'm a gamer from the old-school, but there comes a time, in comcis especially, where you've gotta stop living in the past.
Now we have Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, coming back. Geoff Johns plans to do with Allen what he did to Jordan and remind us how cool he is. But unlike Jordan, who I hated until Johnss re-introduced him, the only thing re reminded was how cool the OTHER Flashes are than Allen. Yes, even the Golden Age Flash is cooler than Allen. Everyone knows how awesome Wally West is, and even Bart ALlen, Kid Flash, states outright, that people are making a big deal out of Barry's return
Allen is such a nancy boy, he finally comes back to life to be with his loved ones, first thing he thinks is: "I shouldn't be here, it must be a fluke. Anyday I can be dead again, need to get back to work and be a hero." The reason for his longtime partnership with Jordan: "I thought he was an arrogant sob who is a perverted jock maniac but then I found out he was a cop, meaning he was a figure of authority. And I respect those, so he cool". Look I didn't like Jordan, but all of the stuff Allen though was bad I think was cool! He hates all evil, so forget about him being cool with the Rouges (who are always have this ghetto type respect for the Flash and vice versa) And I've seen in other stories how much as a naggy tight ass dork he is. I'll go on record to say SUPERMAN has more balls and machismo than this guy and he's the boy scout, he sucks!!
And they want this guy to replace the more interesting, funnier, cooler Flash of 3 decades, Wally West, simply cause Wets has kids now and...he was the Silver Age Flash, so yo gotta give him props. Bullshit.
This whole nostalgia wave has been going for a while now but none so more than in comics, where it appears more and more obvious they want to go back in time to a more iconic time, which is pleasing a bunch of fanboys who are now editors, writers, artists, movie directors and all sort of big figures in the industry, but are alienating the much younger fans (80's-2K fans like me) and the newbies who's only exposure to the characters are through other mediums (games, television, movies).
Marvel did a retarded mini-series "X-Fernus" simply to bring back the New Mutants, when they can't get their Young X-Men to act right. DC has another Titans series dedicated to the old Titans (the ones from the cartoons plus Wally and Donna Troy) for no other reason but nostaligia, but they can't get their other two Titans series straight. Damien, Batman's illegitimate son, is getting groomed to become Robin, simply to indulge Grant Morrison's desire to return Batman and Robin to the cheezy era of the 60's (I swear that idiot is Joel Shumacher in disguise!!), leaving the poor other Robins out in the street looking for food and shelter
Meanwhile, unless they're gonna be in a movie, creative people don't wanna touch characters like Gambit, Kyle Rayner, Azreal, Bane, Carnage, Onslaught, Danny Ketch and other cool character from the modern era, but they flock at whatever golden and silver age relic they can get their hands on cause they influenced their childhood.When is enough is enough, is there really such a thing as too much nostalgia?"
-Elf With SillyHat
The writers of the comics are fans of the days gone by. No matter how you slice it, fanboys are running the show in comics. I'm not saying it's all gonna return to the 1970s in comics, but the imitations of past eras is more than present in a few of today's comics, Amazing Spider-Man being a big example. There are honestly times I feel comic writers are so focused on making their stories like that of past writers that they forget about trying to tell an new or interesting tale.
I love the comics industry, really I do, but I'd love for writers to take some risks. "But Batman and Captain America were killed! That's taking a huge risk!" Uh, no. They died comic book deaths. Both of them will be back. Bet it.
For every writer that is willing to try something new, I think far too many are stuck on playing it safe, which means things will grow stale. I'm a gamer from the old-school, but there comes a time, in comcis especially, where you've gotta stop living in the past.
Comments
Why the hate for Hal?
These two are the best of their kind IMHO
Iron Man back in his classic suit? Is it at least more powerful than the latest look he made? He improved his classic suit so many times to doubt it
Also, I can't comment on Iron Man's suit. That news to me.
I've read plenty of Spidey comics from all eras, and in no way do I feel any bits of nostalgia. When they did the Amazing Spider-Man Annual from 1996 http://www.spiderfan.org/comics/reviews/spiderman_amazing_annual/1996.html I felt nostalgia.
Right now, I just feel a void that is being painfully drawn out, as that BND is still continuing past #600 (not much a surprise to me tho), as far as I'm concerned.
There's even some stuff involving Ben Reilly and the 'real clone saga', being teased with, but I think it's just going to be more back-up material for this nonsense instead of a true return of Ben.