Reboot, More Like Reboobs.
September 28, 2011
Comics, they’ve been around for a long ass time. Not webcomics, I mean actual comic books, in particular DC Comics. The comics industry is facing a bit of a decline lately, which is odd seeing as their movies seem to be selling really, really well. However they just can’t seem to get the millions of people who see these movies to buy the books the movies are based on. Their main problem is many people are intimidated by the huge backlog of content. Lots of these books have been running for over fifty years. It’s kind of hard for some people to jump in unaware without being familiar with the hundreds of issues of back story.
The movies are easy. For the most part they’re self contained and no previous knowledge is needed to enjoy the movie, that is unless it’s a sequel. If anything having a healthy knowledge of the character can actually make you enjoy the movie less, watching the writers, directors and actors betray your beloved source material.
As for the comic’s in order to draw in new readers their options are limited. They can have a big cross promotional event, kind of a giant crash course in the source material, and at the end of the event a reader should have a grasp on the basic backstory and characters. You could create a new universe, like Marvel and their Ultimate universe where they reimagined all their most popular characters as younger versions of themselves in a new world without any ties to the original world and it’s heaps of backstory. Then there is the reboot, when you take an existing character in an existing universe and redesign them and throw the backstory out the door. These tend to not go over so well. Funny thing is DC did just that, to all of their characters. All of them. Hey Action comics, you're about the reach the unprecedented milestone of a thousand issues? Well fuck you, reboot! You at issue one again.
Of course there are people complaining about the changes, but they seem to be gaining a lot of negative feedback from female readers. I have to thank my friend Caitlin and her friend Jennifer for posting these articles on her facebook page. It was commenting on these articles that gave me the idea for this comic. Without them this would have just been a filler Moment with Brad comic. But anywho on with the comic commentary.
Let’s be honest the main audience for these comics are men, and while comics are often seen as a kids thing, in reality the core audience are guys my age, and being guys my age we tend to enjoy the ladies, and their various curves. So yeah, comics have a lot of semi scantily clad women in them. For the most part comic fans have grown to accept that. These characters may be wearing less material than it takes to make a washcloth, but for the most part they’re still decent fleshed out characters, yeah they‘re sexy, but their sex doesn‘t define them. Then a reboot happens! Sorry Starfire, you're a whore now!