And there it is.
Just working off the description of the Heroes in Crisis mini-series, I thought, "I'm probably not going to like this series."
And any series that starts with the death of numerous characters (especially when it includes some old favorites) is not one that I'm likely to enjoy - and it's even worse when their character is assassinated.
Through the run so far, we've just seen bits and pieces of the mystery behind who killed those characters - and why the supposedly secret counseling these characters received at the place known as Sanctuary has been released.
Until now! This issue lays it all out, in a mad stream of consciousness that doesn't really make any sense, as a certain hero does things that are completely out of character (and uses his or her powers in a completely new and unsupported way).
It's a character assassination on the scale of what they did to Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan when they made him (temporarily) a mass murderer, all in hopes of generating sales.
The point of this series - if there is one - seems to be: let's get rid of all trace of the original Teen Titans (except for Nightwing). In that, at least, they're succeeding.
Young adult readers may enjoy this - it's cutting edge, it takes no prisoners, it gets to the angst behind every hero (or so they might imagine).
But the series is also driving away longtime readers - like me - who won't take kindly to this vulgar, ugly, and offensive treatment of characters they've loved for decades.
Grade: D
--------------------
7 comments:
I never picked up this series for budgetary reasons, but I did read a spoiler article online a few days ago. It made me glad that I never picked it up to begin with. I hated the revelation for the same reason you did. Sometimes I wonder if Dan Didio enjoys tearing down the heroes of the DC Universe.
Yeah, thought about passing it up - it was obvious that it wasn't aimed at me. But I figured I should review it for the blog. The things I do for you all! ;-)
You have my condolences on this one.
This series has the same stench of CIVIL WAR I & II, IDENTITY CRISIS, and ZERO HOUR. Pure WTF.
The thing I probably hate (strong word) most about comics creators is when their best idea is to tear down or alter or kill the work of giants who came before them. The New Teen Titans of the 1980's was such a huge success for DC and it made Marv Wolfman and George Perez into superstars. Same goes for Death of the New Gods. It's Jack Kirby's work! Leave it alone.
This book leaves the intentions of Wally West unclear so you really have no idea if they are out of character or not. Regardless of where the story goes a good review is based on the quality of the work not the authors personal feelings on how a character is portrayed.
Well, whether or not any review I write is "good" or "bad" (or somewhere in between) is entirely up to the reader's interpretation - I'm sure I have many entries in both categories. All I can do is offer my honest reaction to each comic - whether I love it or not. It would be easy to write nothing but negative reviews - they're fun to compose and they gather lots of hits - but that wouldn't be fair to the creative team or to the readers who might enjoy the book. But when a story really doesn't work for me - when it mistreats a character I really like - I feel compelled to warn others what they're in for when they lay down their cash. (And DC is certainly not the only offender who's mistreated beloved characters.)
Post a Comment