Marvels Annuals this year

[goldenryan]

still with continuity issues i'd still take DC over Marvel, least in Dc it's mostly good guys vs bad guys. not a conveluted universe where the public hates the heroes and cheers the villians

i disagree you're telling me namor doesn't make for good drama?

and what about this guy?

[The Toyroom]

Yep, that's it. And DC has had every opportunity to hit the reset button and go back to the pre-Crisis universe, and they've only half-arsed done it.

Seemed like that's the direction Infinite Crisis was going and then they chickened out....

And let's not even talk aout the Final Crisis disaster....

[Earth 2 Chris]

Seemed like that's the direction Infinite Crisis was going and then they chickened out....

Definitely. I half expected the true Earth 1 Superman to show up and whoop the crap out of his cranky Earth 2 and whiny New Earth counterparts. Part of me would still like to see him show up and hit the cosmic reset button.

Chris

[The Toyroom]

Definitely. I half expected the true Earth 1 Superman to show up and whoop the crap out of his cranky Earth 2 and whiny New Earth counterparts. Part of me would still like to see him show up and hit the cosmic reset button.

Let's start a campaign to bring back OUR Man of Steel!

[ctc]

>and a good portion of their audience, kids. Rather than try to win them back, DC and Marvel threw up their hands and aimed their material squarely at the adult reader

Well.... I do disagree, 'cos I'm not sure how many of their readers are/were kids, and I don't think they're really targetting ADULTS.... since the 80's they've been catering towards that increasingly intellectually inbred "comic shop crowd."

>I think the characters were near the point where the creators needed to stop and be mindful of the characters

I agree, in that superheroes.... as characters....are an odd bunch. They tend to be more arctypical than a lot of genres; many times they're cyphers more than characters.... but within the genre it works perfectly well. It places certain limits on what you can do, but it also grants you certain aspects of creative freedom unavailable in other media and genres. But since the 80's there's been an increasing need to "real" it up, and make the characters "pertinent to a modern audience." Once you start adding "realism" it brings up all sorts of questions. So.... howcome nobody recognizes Clark when he takes his specs off....? And if Batman wears his panties on the OUTSIDE of his tights, why are people still afraid of him?

The you start along an increasingly out of control snowball that ends with everybody having the same powers, and wearing Matrix outfits. And instead of "superhero" you get some wishy-washy watered down pseudo-sci-fi action story with lots of hyperventilating hyperbole and whiney melodrama.

....and THAT'S when your potential fans all start reading Naruto.

Don C.