I couldn’t agree more, Dakota Smith. The reason so many of the creators that worked in the Silver Age were so extraordinary is because they had such a wide volley of amateur knowledge that came from reading and experience; Elliot Maggin’s interviews show him scattershotting, talking about everything from classic film to the Talmud. There was a story about how E. Nelson Bridwell repeated the “Tiger, Tiger burning bright” poem entirely from memory on command in the DC offices.
Most comic writers today on the other hand, read nothing but comics and watch only action movies. If Chuck Austen has actually read a single novel in his entire life (even one of the common ones everybody’s read that are sold in airports, like CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES, DUNE, and JURASSIC PARK) I would be astonished.
Again, I'm in total agreement. Everyone is so thrilled at the last page of the book that they're ignoring all the horrific, gleefully nihilistic mayhem that occupied literally every other page of the book.
I find it depressing that, comparing this series to the original CRISIS (a pointless waste that was not the best series ever by ANY MEANS) it has the original CRISIS look like a sterling example of purpose and restraint.
Consider: there was a reason every single person died in the CRISIS; shortsighted, greed-influenced reasons certainly, but reasons nonetheless. Supergirl’s movie busted very badly, negating her future potential as a moneymaker (at least as seen by the DC chair jockeys, whose lack of vision rivals Mr. Magoo) and further, she didn’t fit the editorial direction her books were to go in under Wolfman and later, Byrne. The Flash’s book had been canceled at issue 350 and nobody had absolutely any plan for him. Wolfman put in a way that could easily bring Barry back if somebody wanted to do so that was perfectly natural, and the Silver Age Flash’s death, at least the way I read it, was pretty much just meant to give him a place to be until somebody thought of something for him to do.
Here in INFINITE CRISIS, they’re just killing off folks left and right just for the hell of it.
On the other hand, the only way we'll really care is if we can be convinced that the hero stands a chance of losing. And that means that there have to be some stories where the heroes lose.
I completely agree, Gary. One reason that Morrison's JLA bugs me is because he was never able to achieve a sense of fear surrounding the challenges the JLA face; they were immortal, and when in battle, as assured of victory as the heavenly choirs of angels or the '72 Miami Dolphins. Didn't Morrison even establish it was a law of universe that the JLA automatically win every fight they get into? And even during Morrison's run, they pounded the everliving angel food cake out of the heavenly choirs. I'm fairly positive that if Morrison's run had lasted longer, he would have had the JLA go back in time and beat the '72 Dolphins at Superbowl VI.
Kurt Busiek's JLA,
in just eight issues embarassingly enough, totally outshone everything Morrison did because he was able to so successfully immerse us in his story that while intellectually we knew the JLA was going to come out on top (it IS their name on the comic, after all) emotionally, the outcome was nail-bitingly in doubt.
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