BW Vs Bleeding Fool> You’re Burying The Coma Patient

I used the image Bleeding Fool used because I wasn’t sure I could find the original tweet. By the way, it’s Bleeding Fool’s anniversary. I like the site very much, so it’s a shame I’m breaking a vs out on one of their contributors on their anniversary week. It’s also one of their contributors I happen to enjoy and have used for Saturday article links, Brian Neumeier. Sadly this is also not my first versus article with him We agree on a lot, but not everything, and this is one of those subjects. Sorry, Brian, I have to pick on you again.

In discussion is this article he posted from his regular site (I linked to both, so choose your preference) “Burying Dead Media”. It’s an argument I keep seeing too often and it kind of saddens me. It also confuses me and tells you just how badly the Hollywood system has bungled comics since acquiring DC (Warner Brothers) and Marvel (Disney) in both comics and movies, as well as all the not-stalgia movies and comics that have also come out. The thing is I don’t disagree with many of Neumeier’s opinions, just his solution: just give up and let it all die.

Personal bias may be in play here, but the heroes that formed my moral worldview as much as my family, the reason I didn’t allow my temper to regularly go psycho on my bullies or the school itself for example, as well as why I wanted to write these kinds of stories, are being tossed aside…which I believe is what the current stewards want. They want us to give up on our childhood heroes to replace them with their own zeroes. I’m against the egotists, corporatists, and activists as much as anyone else. They’re three of the groups that make up the SEECA acronym I’ve been using lately along with the snobs and elitists. There’s a sort of scorched earth perspective from many of my fellow commentators who say it’s too far gone and must be replaced. Basically, this attitude.

The thing is, I’m not ready to call off the remodelers and call in the demolition team just yet. It’s not just my bias. I’m at a point in my life when I could go ahead and watch/read the old stuff and be fine. On the other hand, I’m not yet convinced that this generation of writers has been able to undo what decades have built so easily. The termites haven’t completed the job, the media is only in a coma.

Neumeier is referring to the above tweet when he starts his commentary:

Richard’s comment went beyond a hot take. It cut straight to the heart of the cultural malaise afflicting our age.

The superhero industrial complex is out of gas, and no amount of reboots, heel turns, or multiverse retcons will refill the tank.

But the problem is broader than cape flicks. The comic book, the television show, and the feature film were all products of the twentieth century. They emerged from a unique set of technological and cultural circumstances that no longer exist.

We live in a new world, but the West’s cultural gatekeepers are still trying to wring blood from the fossilized corpse of last-century media.

The reason is right there: “last-century”. For him that means its too old to continue on. And yet, Superman has been around and coming out nonstop since 1939, Batman since 1940. If they had that attitude in the 1960s we wouldn’t have these characters in my history. Why is it only now that supposedly there are no more good stories to tell with these characters? I know the amount of good writers in current mainstream media seems rather low, but why is now the time when these properties considered beyond redemption?

Superhero comics once thrived as cheap entertainment for kids who could grab them from drugstore spinner racks. That retail model went out with the rack jobbers. The direct market that replaced it in the 1980s collapsed decades later under the weight of gimmicks and predatory publishing. Marvel and DC, rather than facing reality, hitched their wagons to Hollywood. That Faustian deal marked the end of comics as a living medium and the start of their unlife as IP farms.

“Sorry, kid, we have to kill our childhoods sometime.”

That’s not 100% accurate. Warner Brothers has owned DC Comics since…oh, I just learned something new. Kinney National Company actually bought DC Comics in 1967, two years BEFORE Warner Brothers, creating Warner Media. It would be in 1977 that National Comics would be renamed DC Comics, which is how we know it today. At least if Google isn’t lying to me. That’s still a lot of decades that saw DC properties get few media outside of comics, and most of them were cartoons. Superman before that had a radio show, two serials, the George Reeves led TV series, and both the Fleischer Studios and Filmation animated shorts. Super Friends was probably the first DC program formed during DC Comics and Superman: The Movie the first one after. Meanwhile, the only major changes I’m aware of in this period is when Batman gained the oval from the 1960 TV series that has become an on and off bit of iconography and that time Billy Batson went on a road trip similar to the live-action Filmation series, with Uncle Dudley standing in for Mentor.

It used to be the comics informed how the shows, movies, and later video games depicted the characters. Tim Burton’s Batman had too much influence on Batman: The Animated Series, mostly in the Penguin’s depiction, but the darker tone had already started pre-Crisis in the Bronze Age, while Mister Freeze’s new origin in that show has become retroactive to the comics. The last use of his traditional origin was in Kids WB’s The Batman, not to be confused with the Michael Reeve movie that doesn’t seem to have influenced anyone despite being the best received Batmovie since The Dark Knight, which also didn’t cause any major changes I’m aware of. Todd Philips’ takes have had even less influence, thankfully.

Most of DC’s problems did start with Dan DiDio, who came from outside comics, but for all the things I’ll get on his case for I don’t think he’s necessarily responsible for how comics have tried to be movies since TV/streaming shows and video games have as well. I’m more inclined to blame the media pecking order and the elitists in management. Going to novelists instead of comic writers has been more of a Marvel mistake but DC has made that error before. They can’t all be Peter David or Roger Stern. Where I do agree is that the comics made the mistake of leaving the non-comic store options and kids behind over the years, but that’s also not Hollywood’s fault. By sticking to comic stores they lost the casual reader, the kid with a bit of change and a local drugstore or convenience store to buy a quick read, or the train rider looking for something to get through the long ride before there even was a public internet. Books also did this by dropping the cheap “dimestore” novels, but they still have teachers to push books. Comics aren’t so lucky.

Television met a similar fate. The network triumvirate that had reigned since the 1950s shattered in the 80s under the lash of cable, which was itself dethroned by streaming. Now even Netflix and Disney+ are faltering. The TV medium can no longer sustain the costs of production; not because the old ad-driven model stopped working, but because it never did, and digital technology exposed the con.

I don’t know if it NEVER did, but the old TV systems has been hurt by on demand. While many streaming services still have the successor in 24/7 live streaming, which works better for news and sport, the old systems is really only propped up by those of us that grew up with it. Even then, you have streaming channels that focus on the binge model (we used to call it a marathon, but a binge is a never ending marathon) and binge doesn’t work in keeping the discussion going. Making a show good enough that we watch it as soon as the next episode drops and then get together to discuss it before the next one isn’t as strong as having to be at your screen to watch it live, but it still works. Dropping a whole season at once is a great way to let everyone talk about it for an instant and then watch it die off in favor of something else. Disney is faltering for not understanding how to do streaming while both it and Netflix are in trouble for producing subpar content, even in original works.

Ads still support shows or there wouldn’t be Free Ad-Sponsored Television and ad tiers on the paid sites. (Dad went for the ad tier on HBO Max.) In this economy, ad budgets are not what they were, and the internet offers ad blockers that further remove that income stream. We have more than one model, but advertising isn’t out of the game yet or we wouldn’t keep putting up with the darn things.

Cinema fared no better. The old studio system had already collapsed by the 1970s. Sure, the blockbuster arms race launched by Jaws and Star Wars produced hits for decades, but it also created the conditions for Hollywood’s current implosion. When every film has to be a billion-dollar tentpole, the whole medium becomes a fire sale to the lowest common denominator. The result is gray slop no one can relate to.

The blockbuster isn’t the problem. I can relate to or empathise with characters in the old Star Wars franchise. The problem is the blockbuster makers forgot there’s more to their success than the flashy stuff. The corporate system thinks the audience will accept the jangling keys, but even a baby gets bored with that eventually.

The best evidence of collapse is the Pop Cult’s obsession with reanimation. Look at Marvel Studios. The Infinity Saga ended in 2019. Every project since then has been an attempt to recapture the magic. It hasn’t worked. Each new MCU product has been dead on arrival.

DC has fared even worse. Its endless attempts to build a shared universe have all collapsed into incoherence. James Gunn’s promise to fix it with yet another reboot was either a deliberate insult or gross ignorance of the fact that audiences have seen Superman’s origin story a dozen times.

And both suffer from the same problem: the media pecking order. Marvel Studios was started with the goal of accurate adaptations, knowing that would sell more merchandise and that the fans would become their best free advertising. Heck, the fans would be paying THEM to advertise the movies with hats and t-shirts. There’s a reason that Spaceballs quote about where the real money comes from is popular: because it’s right. Now Marvel Studios has creators that shun the comics and just want the lazy concept fodder, believing it’s the Name and not the characters that fans flock to, part of corporate obsession with branding. DC has never had luck in its attempts to replicate the MCU. I just wrote about Snyder and Gunn’s failings last week. The short version is Snyder doesn’t believe in superheroes and Gunn can only write quirky ensambles. None of the people making these movies know or care how to do superhero movies in general and these properties specifically right. We know that they did. We have the evidence in our libraries, longboxes, shelves, and favorites lists.

Hollywood as a whole is addicted to necromancy. The nostalgia treadmill never stops. Ghostbusters, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings; the past is strip-mined until they break through the roof of Hell.

This IP necromancy is to pop culture what inflation is to currency. You can only keep printing nostalgia for so long before the audience realizes the product is worthless.

Death in comics is just another sickness to overcome, you know.

We both agree and disagree on this point. I’ve been trying to keep my friend’s hopes at a reasonable level when it comes to Dynamite’s upcoming Thundarr The Barbarian comic because of their track record dating all the way back to Voltron. Even their classic Battlestar Galactica kept rehashing the one Galactica: 1980 episode fans like, “The Return Of Starbuck”. The only thing they got right was Buck Rogers, but that property really never developed a multiversal continuity. You have the original period, the 1970s series, a failed attempt by the Star Trek: New Voyages fanfilm creators, and the Dynamite comics. So they were able to make a great series until the final issue ruined everything because the writer insisted on showing the great ideas he wanted to use that readers were now going to miss out on.

There are most definitely properties that never should have been rebooted because they stood on their own, or continued because either there was nowhere to go after the definite ending or the people involved didn’t know what they were doing. Sometimes they’re even the same people that started it, but their perspectives have changed with age. There’s also properties that could use an update if not for the “modern audience” mindset (playing to the cool kids instead of the fans), the media pecking order, and the high school mentality of wanting the popular things all for them while dunking on the nerds. That’s the problem with the people in charge. The fact that there are still fan productions that make better use of the IPs, the occasional success when the SEECA problem is avoided, and fans still wanting more shows there is still life in this. It just means getting to the right people, showing them they hired the wrong people, and then bringing the people who care about this stuff on this stuff while the wrong people either go to what they’re good at or go away.

But if last-century media are dead, what replaces them?

The temptation to try and salvage the wreckage runs strong. But resuscitating comics, television, and cinema is a fool’s errand. Those forms are dependent on long-obsolete technological and cultural paradigms.

The proper response is not to patch the old but to build the new.

Like the little taco girl said: “why not have both?” He says in following paragraphs that basically the old studios and their corporate mindset are no longer the only way to go about things, and on that he’s right. He then goes over some examples:

Serialization via Royal Road: Pulp stories thrived in the early twentieth century through serialized magazines. The update of that model has migrated online. Platforms like Royal Road let writers publish episodic fiction directly to readers in real time. Authors can refine their craft while building audiences without middlemen.

I don’t know what that is, but magazines themselves have moved online. It’s tough to find magazines, which used to be right where the impulse buyer could easily see something to read while in line and maybe read more about when they got home. The fact that I don’t know what Royal Road is shows the flaw in that system. I’ve been doing this since 2008 and outside of the period with Reviewers Unknown and the recent trio of Instapundit boosts, which have calmed down in recent weeks, nobody really knows I’m here, even people I talk to online. I want to add a prose section but I’m surprised when I see downloads for my comics because it doesn’t happen everyday. (Admittedly all I have is the commentary comic I don’t think anybody reads and a Christmas superhero comic at this time.) If Royal Road is something like Substack, which I’ve heard more about because I follow people who reference it, then at least in my circles Substack is bigger than Royal Road. I have two blogs on WordPress, and even people who USE WordPress may not know they have a free hosting service and reader, that reader not being the source of most reads.

(Oddly, I’m getting a lot of stats from China.)

Visual Novels: Once a niche Japanese format, visual novels have gone worldwide thanks to digital storefronts. They merge the strengths of prose, art, and interactivity in a way no comic or film can. The result isn’t just a new format; it’s a new medium.

Visual novels from Japan are just a digital version of Choose Your Own Adventure® style gamebooks. I support interactive storytelling but not every prose story needs to be interactive. Neither him or I use it. He still publishes physical books and I wish I had the resources to make physical comics. Also, he doesn’t mention ebooks and webcomics, which like magazines brought the physical media to the internet.

Audiobooks on YouTube: Some authors now release entire novels as videos with ambient sound, music, and visual accompaniment. YouTube, dismissed as a distraction platform, is becoming a literary distribution channel.

DC has been releasing audio adaptations of some of their most popular Batman stories and even have original audio adventures on HBO Max for Batman and the Flash. Original radio dramas are available on YouTube and the best received Doctor Who stories come from Big Finish more often than the BBC/Disney deal. I’m happy to see a format thought dead make an official return, and fan productions exist because they’re easier (in theory) and cost less than a video production. Audio dramas totally have their advantages, but that’ll never replace anything with the majority. There’s a reason they come up on Saturday Night Showcase, and why they do so only on rare occasions.

The hardest step for creators and audiences alike will be breaking our addiction to nostalgia. It’s comforting to think that if we just get one more good Batman story, one more decent Star Wars movie, one more faithful Lord of the Rings adaptation, our problems will be over. But those franchises are spent. Their cultural moment has passed.

Have they? I would counter that we need those heroes more than ever. There is a way to use these characters to speak to our modern world or as relief/escape/catharsis from the real world. We just need to sneak creators in there who know how to do that. If they can’t do it with characters who have multiversal continuity as blueprints to construct a proper story, what makes you think an original property will be any better? The rare occasion a studio has the guts to try it falls prey to the same problems, just without the bad adaptation issue.

I just don’t see these as dead media. The internet isn’t the solution to everything. We found a way to read books and comics without electricity, but you can’t do that with the internet. The power goes out and you don’t have something with enough battery life that can run digital and you’re out of luck. It just takes people with the vision to make the new alongside the old, and the stewards of the old to see what the new does right and start trying to adapt that to what they have. It also takes tossing the SEECA crowd out on their ear and putting people who care about what they’re making and who they’re making it for back in creative spots. I’m not ready to give up that possibility just yet because I do occasionally see one slip through. Batwheels might be the best Batman adaptation for kids right now (I saw that Bat-Fam trailer and the talking Batmobile is still the winner), but that’s something. My Adventures With Superman screwed up Superman’s world and supporting cast, but it gets Superman better than anything James Gunn or Zack Snyder wasted good money on. We shouldn’t give up hope yet, no matter how dark things seem.

I learned that from the superheroes everyone wants to toss away.