The cover to Superman vol. 2, #75 (January 1993). Art by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It’s time again for Comic Book Resources’ look at DC history due to the Convergence event. This time it’s Dan Jurgens joining Dan DiDio and props to host Jeffrey Renaud for keeping the Dans straight so everybody knew which Dan was being asked a question. On the hot seat is characters versus events (versus eventitis as they continue to defend their illness), spoilers, and change. Events include the death and return of Superman and Zero Hour, but surprisingly little is said about Batman’s back being broken. My theory is that Jurgens was on the Superman titles, but not a lot was said about his creation, Booster Gold, before jumping into the 90s. (Yes, Booster debuted in the 80s but his creator is right there.)
- Let me start by saying that I do like “Death & Return Of Superman”. It actually was a great idea that explored Superman’s influence in the DC Universe. While I don’t agree (and I don’t know if Jurgens was saying it was a good thing or just the way things were in the EXTREEEEEEEMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEE 90s) that every story has to be big–it’s the smaller stories that allow us to connect to the universe so when a big story hits we’re ready to care what happens to the characters–the fact that they were allowed to try anything was a good thing. Some things will stick and some won’t, but while some common sense and respect for the property and previous writers are important that option to try something should be there.
- I also don’t have a problem with some of the changes in the 90s (after what was done post-Crisis which is up to case-by-case debate). I don’t believe all change is good or all change is bad, but that good changes are good and bad changes are bad. The problem today is that there is no status quo. It’s always changing for no other reason than to change.
- I find it interesting that DiDio is talking about not wanting to screw up someone’s work with an event after what happened to Dwayne McDuffie in Justice League or anyone who had a story idea prior to the hastily thrown together New 52, which disrupted everything. As far as there being so many events that pre-planning and collaboration is lost…that’s YOUR call, DDD. YOU decide what events happen, how often, and how much break there should be (none under his reign at least as far back as Identity Crisis) between events. It’s like he thinks every publisher has Eventitis except for him.
- As far as character drives plot/plot drives character, I think both is true. While events affect characters and being true to how that character would respond (rather than, for example, Brian Bendis at Marvel, who will alter a character to match his events), how that character responds will in turn affect a story. It’s a symbiotic relationship between story and characters. But we all have our own styles and I prefer Jurgens over Bendis on this one.
- I have two comments about spoilers. The first is to note that in the morning DC reviews I haven’t even gotten to the issue where Superman dies (the only comic in my library for that storyline, but I’ve read other books and the novelization that will get a Chapter By Chapter soon enough) and already they had a newsleak by this time. Remember Armageddon 2001? They changed the ending (which I believe impacted The Alien Agenda) because word leaked out that Captain Atom was going to be Monarch, so in spite of evidence they went with Hawk, killed Dove, and ended their series for no good reason other than they had to hide their twist ending. And yet they pulled off Death Of Superman with all of us knowing he would return. He was DC’s biggest flagship character at the time, before Batman stole the spotlight. They weren’t going to kill him off unless the creators’ estates won their case and DC decides to cut their losses.
- The other is that some people really enjoy being surprised and don’t want to know the endings and twists before they show up in the story. If you make getting there interesting enough they may re-read the story (which may not make DC any money but knowing someone would want to read my story over and over would make me feel like I won) but if they know what’s going to happen they may not bother reading the first time. Not everybody is like that but to say it’s better TO be spoiled is deciding someone else’s experience, which will chase off a potential reader. That’s what spoiler sites and in-depth reviews/commentaries are for, not going to USA Today and ruining the story. Marketing needs to realize they’re shooting themselves in both feet when they do that. What’s the plot? Superman dies at the hands of something finally on Superman’s level and evil enough to do it. Don’t tell me anything else. I’d say tease if the death would happen or not, but any good story that puts Superman in peril should be teasing someone’s death or other bad situation.
- Speaking of Identity Crisis, that was supposed to be a love letter too, but as Linkara put it that was more like a Dear John letter to the Silver/Bronze age than a love letter to same.
- So if we can’t call post-Convergence DC the New 52 we’re going to have to come up with a new name for this era of the DCU. I vote for Neo-DC.
- “And it is Bat-Mite, here on Earth, to fix broken heroes. And whoever that might be, Bat-Mite thinks he has the goods to make them what people want to see and to function even better, which is quite a misguided goal when you get right down to it.” Please don’t turn Bat-Mite into Superboy Prime, an insulting stand-in for critics of DC’s direction at the time. I know you can’t satisfy everyone but that doesn’t mean you have to trash the rest.
- I am so tired of the words “superhero deconstruction” when the superhero genre has been so deconstructed that it need to be re-constructed.
There’s supposed to be four of these so next week should be the last one. Who is the guest and what will they discuss? We’ll find out next week.
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