One in a blue moon, someone who remembers Ninth Art, or who has recently met me, and somehow discovered said site, asks me about comics, either because they’re making conversation, or because they’ve mistaken my involvement with said site as an indicator that I have some kind of taste when it comes to the medium. Or something. Anyway, the subject comes up from time to time.
And y’know, I still buy them – predictable choices, like Ed Brubaker’s Criminal, or Brian Wood’s Northlanders, and yeah, Garth Ennis’ The Boys remains a guilty pleasure. I just don’t suffer from the urge to talk about them in public any more. It does no-one any good.
Except, obviously, for right now. Of late, the subject of DC’s reboot has come up in the sort of conversations I mention. And I think it’s worth saying this: DC’s new reboot, when viewed collectively, is one of the most creatively bankrupt pieces of shit the medium has ever put out, and if there is any justice in this world, it will be remembered as the moment that DC began the death spiral that ultimately lead to the collapse of the American comics industry.
Seriously: if you are buying any one of these fucking pieces of crap, just stop. If you’re telling yourself that one of the titles you’re buying is better than the rest, even if you’re right about that, just stop. Every single week, in addition to a load of titles that are just an undifferentiated mass of bland crap, DC manage pump out a couple of pieces of hideous crap that fall somewhere on a spectrum between “unfortunately sexist” and “outright misogyny”. From where I sit, if DC are managing to publish one or two titles that aren’t complete shit, I assure you, it’s a mistake that they’re bound to be rectifying soon.
And even if I’m wrong about that, you know what: if a few good comics have to fail, just so this reboot can die on it’s arse, and ultimately put the shambling corpse of the comics industry out of it’s misery, then that’s a price I’m willing to pay.
Feels good to get that off my chest.
