Iron Age. Not over yet?

[Kuuga]

Reading what Dan DiDio is saying over at Superman Homepage, it would seem that Identity Crisis is one of those stories meant to "set the tone" for the DCU for years to come.

If ICs saturated in gratutious death, wanking on the idea of putting skeletons in the closets of great heroes, taking wacky Silver Age villans and turning them all into the same character as the Joker from Killing Joke is the tone for the new DCU then it looks like the Iron Age hasn't gone anywhere. It's only going to get worse.

[nightwing]

DC is clueless and I don't see that changing anytime soon, if ever.  I don't support any current books of theirs and the only thing that keeps me from wishing they'd simply shut down is the Archives and various reprints.  If the likes of IC is what keeps them in business, then I hope the suckers keep lining up for more.  Just keep DC solvent long enough to crank out a couple more Man of Tomorrow Archives!

Oh, and the figures!  DC makes nice toys.  Well, except that they're often a bit limited in poseability.  How am I going to twist my Sue Dibney figure into that 6-inch fridge if she's only got 4 points of articulation?

[TELLE]

DC makes nice toys.  Well, except that they're often a bit limited in poseability.  How am I going to twist my Sue Dibney figure into that 6-inch fridge if she's only got 4 points of articulation?

This is a very serious problem!

(I'm assuming that's how they killed the Dibny character in Identity Crisis --it is sad that I even know she was killed --I must have absorbed this info through osmosis.)

[dto]

Not QUITE, Telle -- in fact the facts surrounding Sue Dibny's murder is still somewhat hazy.  It's very possible the REAL murderer is still at large and will play a role in a future major crossover.

The "fridge" reference was to Gail Simone's "Women in Refrigerators" site, which chronicles the numerous ways  superheroines and female supporting characters have been abused, tortured and killed in comic books.  The name stems from Green Lantern Kyle Rayner's girlfriend Alexandra DeWitt, who was murdered by Major Force and stuffed in said kitchen appliance.  Major Force also did the same to Kyle's mother (using the oven this time) but apparently dialogue was hastilly changed in a following issue explaining that Kyle only saw a mannequin head!  Yeah, right!  DC just got cold feet by outraged fans who finally had enough of senseless slaughter.

The Women in Refrigerators list can be found at http://www.the-pantheon.net/wir/ though it desperately needs an update.  However, Gail's probably too busy right now -- she's done her part to counter the "WIR" trend by aggressively revitalizing female characters in her "Birds of Prey" book, as recent appearances by near-forgotten heroines Vixen and Katana confirm.  And if she wasn't currently piloting Oracle's flying headquarters, Lady Blackhawk would have probably bought the farm.

[Kuuga]

Maybe the D in DC stands for Death now.

[Super Monkey]

That website is depressing.

[Defender]

Amen to that. There are ways to make comics all-ages accessible that do not involve chopping people to bits, profanity, or blatant sexist attitudes. I don't mind a little spin thrown toward the adults in the audience, but superhero comics should primarily be the realm of the young and the young at heart. Does that mean superhero comics have to become--shudder--Dragonball Z or Teen Titans? No, but they shouldn't have to compromise their inherent moral decency and simplicity by having Jerry Bruckheimer-esque tactics or Joel Schulmaker parody or Seven-esque grimness shoved down their collective throat.

 Some people get it. Robert Kirkman, Mark Waid, Alan Moore, Elliot S. Magin. . .but for the most part I look at this new breed of comics writers and shake my head. In the late '80s it was all about out-grimming Watchmen and Dark Knight. Now it seems to be out-gruesoming Warren Ellis and Mark Millar. Hey, I liked the Authority as much as the next red-blooded testosterone fan who enjoyed the what if of superheroes actually functioning in the real world, and it was an over the top popcorn movie writ large. But that's a nice little piece of junk food, a cheeseburger, a guilty pleasure. It's not what I want to eat 24/7, y'know?

 Ah well, I suppose it's what the kids are into, and despite the fond memories we may have of Superman and the Justice League, they're ultimately corporate properties. Which means that whatever Warner wants to do, they can do it. Bad enough I had to watch Kurt Busiek's JLA run feature Superman killing upwards of 300 people (mind you, it was the Crime Syndicate's Ultraman in Superman's uniform), but even with the ruse I cringed at the thought that, given 10 years or so, this might just become the regular fare. The whole Grim 'n Gritty Superman was handled much better in the recent Teen Titans issues, with Kon-El and Tim Drake the World's Finest of a post-Identity Crisis DCU. I think Geoff Johns is on the same page too. Too much grim is what's killing comics. Pander to the graying of the audience and superhero comics will die. Pander too much to the youth. . .well, you can't really. How can Superman hope to compete with Yu-Gi-Oh? Hm. . .provide the younger generation with complimentary copies of Superman: The Animated Series and hope they make a wise choice in role models maybe?

 Dangit.

 -Def.

[Kuuga]

When reading about the All Star line I got a slight spark of hope but like so many things with DC it's *always* six on one hand and half a dozen on the other.

For Superman you got Grant Morrison as the writer...but Frank Quietly is the artist.

For Batman you got Jim Lee as the artist....but Frank Miller is the writer.

The you've got the animated titles which DC has proven over the years they could not care less about.

Then you have the mainline. Or as I like to call it "Earth-D" for death.