Bending Spines #1

Not a comic title, just a experiment of trying to add an intelligent comic discussion into our litle community exploring deeper the intents, futures, and impacts of modern and classic comics.

I'll begin with the direction of Infinite Crisis and its future ipact to both DC and comics.

Until recently, I (and many others) were a bit unsure what the full point was of IC. Was it to clean up continuity once again? Shake up the status quo of the DCU? Revitalize Superman? Make Batman less of an bunghole? In the end, its a lot of these and more, but a common idea has emerged: DC comics wants to lighten the mood a bit with their comics and IC is the way to do that.

And how do they go about it? But making it darker than ever. Is this wise? Depends on who you ask. Troll the newsarama boards and fanboys are foaming at the mouth with hate over the revisions Geoff Johns is making and the overall storyline. Others find it a great way to tie the landmark Crisis on Infinite Earths into some of the stories of today. Superboy a psycho killer? Yet another evil Luthor-one who we all assumed was benign and good? For some its hard to see how this makes anything lighter.

So how do I feel? Well, I'm admittedly torn. For one, I've never been a BIG stickler for continuity over a good story. If its good, tell it. Bring back Bucky, or Jason Todd, or Hal Jordan...just do it right and I dont care. Sure, somethings are hard to accept when you feel it's negating a previous story, but that story still exists. Even good books have fallen prey to revisionism in later years. Scarlet, anyone? Or Godfather Returns? So it isnt a concept exclusive to comics.

So if IC ends up good, as it has been, I can allow any overlaps in story or paradoxes to be settled later.

But my bigger worry is the aftermath. How light will the DCU be and what wil that mean to the comic medium as a whole. Yes, I'll agree that Batman's paranoia and dour attitude have grown tiring, and Superman is no longer a really relevant character in today's world and its issues like that that DO need to be addressed. But how do you do that and not go back to the golden/silver age?

WHat I mean is back then, comics WERE a kid's medium. And while older generations can appreciate them, they were for kids. Black and white. Good and bad. Bad guys always lose, good guys win. Good guys might kill, but they killed someone who was even badder. It was justified.

How far back do we go? And what happens to the medium? Books like Watchmen, Return of the Dark Knight, and V for Vendetta showed comics were NOT just a kids medium, just one with unrealized potential. And while that potential might still exist, it is more difficult to see it behind glossy kiddie stuff.

Or are we just going to lighten them a little. Maybe Batman can smile. Maybe Superman is a bit more super, a bit more quicker to act. Bad guys can still win. Heroes can still die. But morality and darker themes will maybe not be a prevalent. I can deal with that.

One need only look over at Marvel to see comics are not completely revolving. Civil War seems to be an event that'll make MU even DARKER than ever by injecting too much reality into itself. Registration, terrorism, anti-government. And there is also this whole Batman vs Al Queda (which I hope is an elseworlds tale). While I like darker stuff, I read comics to escape reality....not feel trapped in it even moreso.

So I look forward to a lighter world. Just no Super Monekys.


Please chime in, comicdom. I'd love to see more intelligent, serious discussion about comics presented here since I've gathered that a great many of you clearly know your stuff as much(if not more so) than me. And this is a topic Ive been thinking on a lot lately. I'd love to talk more about it.