"Why can't we have more non-superhero work from Marvel and DC?"
That's a common refrain that you'll see on any comic book message board. The Big 2 make a living on superhero comics, but why can't we get more material like war comics or westerns or crime comics?
A few months ago, it seemed like the publishers might be listening. One of the comics I was looking forward to most among the new DC52 was Men of War and they had a sexy sounding western title called All-Star Western. Marvel got in on the act with the recently released Six Guns, which seemed to be a modern-day western.
But, all of these new series have fallen very flat for me because they are still tied to their respective superhero universes. Men of War tells the story of what it's like to be a solider in a world with superheroes. All-Star Western puts Jonah Hex in fricking Gotham City. And Six Guns features bikers and bounty hunters dealing with D-list Marvel heroes and villains.
All of these comics are well written and well drawn, but I lost interest the second I saw that they contained superheroes.
Granted, once you get away from the Big 2, the world is your oyster if you want a non-superhero comic book, but why can't the Big 2 use their financial muscle and access to talent to make it a little better.
How about you? Do you like having a helping of superhero in your genre comics?
- Dean Stell
I had the same reaction when I originally learned that Jonah Hex would be set in Gotham, and that Men at War would include superheroes. My reaction was pretty much "Not for me, then."
ReplyDeleteAs long as Vertigo and other non superhero projects continue to be published by DC, something I began to doubt several months ago, I'm fine with it. And really, exploring the idea of superheroes in a "realistic" war setting, for example, isn't necessarily a bad one, just something that I, as a person who is mostly uninterested in superhero stories in general, am probably not going to read.