Comic Rant
I've been enthralled with superheroes for as long as I can remember. My dad watched the old Hulk TV series, and Superman movies when I was growing up. Somewhere along the line I got into comics. Read everything I could get my hands on. I loved the stuff, and couldn't get enough. Though thing about getting older is watching the things you love change. Frank Miller, and Alan Moore ushered in a darker era of comics, and like the virus that is popularity it has yet to ebb up. Neither I consider bad writers. I'm a big fan of Alan Moore's work. Millers seems to have that prevailing dark style where ever he goes, and it's weird for a guy that has admitted he hates superheroes to have so much work devoted to it. I think of them as what Richard Pryor is to comedians. Great, and often imitated.
So when people ask why I don't read comics anymore I tell them,"All my heroes are dead." They really are. I grew up with guys who had different writing styles, and artists that at least tried to maintain a sense of graphical continuity. Yes, I'm ignoring the goofs like forgetting the yellow S on the cape in some panels. That stuff happens to everyone. I'm talking more about how Superman can go from looking like Cristopher Reeves to Dracula(widows peak), or Anime-ish without a story reason. Storywise the characters became shadows of themselves. No longer did you have great characters with a supporting cast. You had characters that mostly just showed up to fight bad guys. Batman is no longer Bruce Wayne. He's Bruce Wayne with a costumed crime fighter habit. Secret Identities went to the way side. Villains, even the murderous psychopaths, for the most part could care less about hurting a hero, and care more about whatever there job is. Kinda funny when psychopath has a good worth ethic, and doesn't want to kill the people who are actually making there lives hard.
In hero years...I'm Dead by Micheal A. Stackpole Review
All that served a point. This book in alot of way reminded me of a lighthearted version of Watchmen. Except the story had a much clearer narrative. A hero returns to the world to find things have changed. Twenty years worth of change. The world at times seems small as it mostly takes place in Capital City. Even so it hits on alot of notes. Being something I'd like to see more of, but given how much history went into making the story it would pretty much haft to be tackled from another angle to have the same sense of grand peril.
As a fan of Stackpole, there was some minor similarities to some of his other works. Namely Battletech: Blood of Karensky Trilogy. He introduced I believe a bidding system the Clans used to decide who got what, and how much they would commit to an action. In here we have a Superhero version of that. A villain says they are going to rob a bank, and even tells how many thugs he plans to use. A hero bids on fighting them, and then will subcontract a few other heroes in on the gig if they feel they need it. This all works into a point system of sorts. Heroes, and Villains get rated on how well they do, make some money, and people who invest in them get some too. As well as some of it going towards city maintenance. It doesn't even seem like too bad of a system since the villains, and heroes both agree to use nonlethal weapons. Thus limiting collateral damage.
This book really hit on somethings I've been missing. A sense of continuity. People get older, change. It's a natural course of life. Though Comics don't have that. At least not as much as they should. They don't get old, and if they do others don't age with them. Even if they die, they'll be back. It's a clusterfuck nightmare of stories that are related, and yet not. Poor Editing over the years has resulted in a lot poor management choices, and a slow death if it isn't fixed.
Final thoughts: "Be good." - Puma
Next Review: A Clash of Kings by George R R Martin
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