The Man Who Hates Marvel and DC....well, not quite.

 

 I know that it must seem to some people who read this blog -the UKs Number 1 comic blog- that I hate Marvel and DC Comics with a vengeance.

Well, that just goes to show that; a) you are not reading my posts properly, or; b) you have never spoken or talked to me about comics.  And why would you?  I mean, CBO was on Yahoo 360, WordPress and is now on blogger and has been around 14 years?? Jeez, I really need to get out, meet a woman.

And every time the Bristol Comic Expo was publicised I kept saying "If you see me come up and say 'hello' -I don't bite!" And in all of those years how many people did?  Zero. I used to get "Hey -I saw you at the Expo!"  which is like saying "If they had never built Fukishima there would never have been that 'minor' accident!"  Irony and sarcasm...not blending very well together today.

Prosaic.*

But if you've ever read the interview I did -what?? You have never read it?! But it's an interview with me and I am one of the -the- greatest British comic creators ever (there's a little short-arse reading this now that will start writing to mates "You see? He really has a Christ complex!" A "Christ complex", honestly. Why go for #2 when you could be #1 -a GOD!!!!).  Any how, the interview is here:

  http://hoopercomicart.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/phil-latter-talks-to-terry-hooper.html

You'll see that I never hated Marvel Comics nor DC for that matter, though I was a died-in -the-wool Marvelite from day one and, boy, the arguements with my older brother, Peter, over which company was best -he was, I really am ashamed to say this, a...a..DC fan. oh I feel sick. But now that we have things like the DC Showcase Presents (published after realising, as Marvel did YEARS before, that there was money in the idea) and Marvel Essentials we know which was the best.

During a bout of ill health I read through volumes 1-9 of the Essential Avengers and volumes 1-6 of The Showcase JLA.  Both covering roughly the same periods except DC Comics screwed everyone because they jumped off the black and white collections for the extra cash in three issue, colour hard backs ('thanks you money grabbing morons).  

Now I have been a major fan of the JLA-Justice Society of America cross-overs since I was about 9 years old. I have the various collected colour reprints in paperback and re-read them now-and-again. But the one thing you notice is that DC comics were still treating its fans as semi-dullards.  The stories could be quite simplistic and, oh please forgive me, but the not awe-inspiring writing of Denny O'Neill (insert rasberry blowing sound).  Seriously, it was preachy -as was a lot of DC writing by the then "young guns" of comics.  Some good stories but when you get to the JLA its got bad.  Pollution is bad -bad-. War is BAD.  Drugs are BAD (yeah, right, and what were a lot of those creators doing at the time at DC and Marvel? I guess that sermon is "Hypocrisy is GOOOOOD, man. Blow.").

At the same time Marvel were doing cosmos spanning stories, anti-heroes, supernatural characters, sci fi and they were not "preaching at the kids" or talking down to them.  And in many ways Marvel had some of the best creators -some pulled over from DC.

So the mystery is why was Marvel kicking DC  Comic ass in sales?  I have no idea (insert sarcastic look here).  OH, EMOTICONS WHEREFORE ART THOU??!!!

Anyway, I still like the old JLA books for all their faults and, after all, those characters in the books were the 'real' characters.  Not the heavily bastardised versions of today.  Heroes who put everything on the line and where the risk of death was real -old time comic fans will know which characters I mean.  Sadly, after Crisis on infinite Earths DC, as well as Marvel Comics, realised there was a lot of money in killing off characters/universes and then re-booting them until the next kill-off.

And a reader will notice how, by the late 1980s, comics at both companies were getting worse.  Don't get me wrong -there were still good books and stories but the boost needed from recruiting British comic creators -and for those of you who do not like this it is still a fact- to revive US comics which were hitting the skids was dying off.

Miller/Janson & Varleys The Dark Knight Returns and Moore and Gibbons' Watchmen changed things for what might, in a debate, be called the worst.  As two stand alone series, yes, they were good but remember that Dark Knight was, basically, a DC comics "imaginary tale" type story -if somewhat darker than the norm!  But it sold and so the regular Batman series (take your pick) all became Dark Knight inspired and changed for the darker feel.  And this concept was picked up for the movies. Good though they are (certain exception we WILL NOT mention here) they are the darker, more-inclined-to-kill Batman.

And Watchmen. Moore had tried similar by "re-creating" Marvel Man/Miracle Man. In fact, pre-Watchmen, Moore had tried the "old, gaudy coloured costumed good heroes are gone but now we have darker charactered anti-heroes" idea a few times before. Now the series might seem not a big deal to younger readers -mainly because DC and every other comic company has been picking the bones of that series ever since.

I just found that I was reading and re-reading the very same story and ideas over and over ad infinitum from Marvel and DC.  The characters were no longer the same and their values were....well, have any of them got values anymore?

When I was a kid, now you're talking a working class kid in some tough areas, Captain America was BIG amongst British readers.  Truth, honesty and keeping your word while fighting for the under-dog. Unbelievably he was setting us a good example. They have tried to bring that idealism back with the movies but the character in the comics changes so much and just is NOT Captain America.

How badly things had changed I wrote a post about.  I tried -really tried- to get back into the Avengers, now second raters, and my views are here:


http://hoopercomicart.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/i-went-to-infinity-and-beyondbut-they.html


As for my other all-time favourite Marvel team, the Fantastic Four, well. Dead to me. I just find it hard to believe -though I should not - just how bad it has become. And now in the newly re-booted movie idea one of the characters becomes black. Yeah, to be PC they changed the characters.  Could they have introduced Wyatt Wingfoot a native American? No.  An opportunity to bring in the Black Panther -an african king? No. AWFUL.

Again, as in many cases, the art is not bad but the writers appear to have no idea who or what the characters WERE and they -the Fantastic Four- became "just another comic" and how they dare to keep that "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine" banner I don't know. Well, I do. Lack of integrity.

I think a great example of how things go wrong -especially when Disney calls the shots- is in the animated TV series Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes which might have had slightly "blocky" figures (as per the Batman animated series) but was fantastically created and brought so many facets of the Marvel Universe together -including the Fantastic Four (LOVE the fact that every time the Hulk meets The Thing the Hulk attacks!).  Two series of absolute thrills, twists and fun.

Then came the movie and the animated series so unimaginatively titled Avengers Assemble. Utter ass-water.  "Its got to have the movie cast of characters. Slightly better animated but the biggest load of shit story-lines and dialogue we can get" -were the people involved (also involved in the previous two great series) too busy bending over the table and taking the pay-cheques to feel any lack of integrity. I know, I know "It's just a job" and, sadly, that's the attitude of a lot of the new "hot shot" writers the companies employ: "It's a shitty comic book characters -who cares other than fat fan boys?"

So, to make it clear, to me, right now Marvel and DC are dead, lacking in ideas and integrity and treating fans -who apparently love being treated like this- like moronic, walking piggy-banks. I am concentrating mainly on my pre-1995 DCs and Marvels that were still, to an extent in the early 1990s, being well written.

Now you can hate me.

A quick footnote to say that I just re-read one of my favourite Geoff Johns series -Day of Judgement which is STILL a great read!

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