May 10, 2006

Free Comic Book Day. Missed it by that much.

I was pulling in to the parking lot when my wife called to say she’d misread the invitation to a birthday party my oldest was attending and it was actually ending NOW, instead of 30 minutes from now. And from there it was off to yet another makeup baseball game. We had four of those on Saturday, thanks in large part to an April that had Fresno vying for the title, Most Rained on City Not Found in a Rain Forest or Named “Seattle”. I really don’t mind. I love baseball, especially kid’s baseball, although making up rained out t-ball tilts (which accounted for two of the games) makes about as much sense to me as complaining about it on a comic book blog.

So I missed out. I’m not too broken up about it, truth tell. There wasn’t anything offered that really grabbed me and I’ll probably be able to get copies of the kids titles tomorrow and I’m not really the target for this promotion anyway, am I? I feel a little guilty about not showing my LCS some love, but the $40-50 a week I spend there goes a long way towards internally absolving myself of that.

More on the marketing aspect of FCBD another time.

~

Douglas Wolk’s Salon article on the recent DC and Marvel Crisis events is excellent. (Hat tip: The Beat.) Wolk provides an excellent sum up of CIVIL WAR:

The figurative significance of "Civil War" is easy to see: It's supposed to address the question of trading privacy and liberty for security. That's not exactly new to mainstream comics, though. The "government makes superheroes unmask/register or quit" plot was used in the '80s in both Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' "Watchmen" and James Robinson and Paul Smith's "The Golden Age," and a few years ago in Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming's "Powers." Millar's great at writing action scenes and delving into his characters' ideologies, but a few seconds' thought reveals that his metaphor for America's security mania is actually pretty deeply flawed. It's hard to imagine either "army" of familiar characters countenancing any kind of civilian casualties, or voluntarily deciding to get in step with the government -- if superpowers are outlawed, only outlaws will have superpowers, as they say. And despite all of Marvel's "No, really, nothing will ever be the same again, you can't miss this, really" publicity, it's inconceivable that a major change in the status of Spider-Man or Captain America or the X-Men could last more than a few months -- as we've seen in every other crossover, the company's got too much riding on its icons staying pretty much the same forever.

I’m sure this idea struck the Marvel powers that be as wonderfully topical and relevant given the current political climate. Time is the built-in rate-limiter on that sort of thing as the news cycle renders these type of issues rapidly irrelevant, or at least pushes them below the fold and then to page A17. I think Marvel is probably a year or two late with this story, as the fear of lost privacy - largely fueled by the formation of Homeland Security - has receded from the national consciousness.

Which is not to say that the people have stopped worrying about electronic privacy, digital surveillance, etc. - it’s just not the hip topic to be angry about right now.

This doesn’t even address the question of whether or not we readers really want our comics to cut that close to reality, allegorically or not. But when Joe Q makes a comment like this:

I just came back from doing an ABC radio show with a reporter who told me he could wait for Civil War: Frontline. Outside of being a comics’ fan he was also an imbedded reporter and loves the idea behind it. He also mentioned that he would be sending issues of Civil War and Frontline to some pals he has on Capital Hill. As he told me, “this story is that important.” That made me feel great.

I do start to wonder if he remembers who he assigned to this little project.

~

On a more comics related note, from the same link as above, Our Man Quesada posits this:

House of M was the opening salvo. The loss of all those mutants got the attention of many people in positions of power. With so many mutants depowered, the whole superhero landscape changed dramatically. It’s like super-power nation suddenly announcing that they’ve lost three quarters of their military and all of their nukes. You could be sure that other countries would be looking over at their borders and thinking thoughts that they may not normally have and there would also be internal upheaval. The power structure in the Marvel Universe has taken a radical shift.

I’m not buying that one. Are you? Weren’t mutants the group the government least trusted and most feared? If anything I’d think House of M would have all the legislators breathing a sigh of relief.

~

I thought INFINITE CRISIS #7 was okay until I read Brian Hibbs’ review and realized I didn’t really like it all. I hate when that happens.

For all the build-up and fanfare I have a hard time envisioning this one having the lasting impact on the DC universe that CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS has had. And no matter how they package it I can’t imagine a $100 “Absolute Edition” gaining any traction 20 years from now.

Comments

[CalvinPitt]

Re: Civil War, my biggest hope is that it doesn't mess us the monthly books I read too much. Although if it keeps JMS away from any more magic-oriented Spidey stories, that's be a huge plus.

Also, i can't buy countries being more likely to try something against the U.S. because of House of M because they think the U.S. is weaker. Because proportionally, other countries would have even fewer remaining superhumans, seeing as how pretty much all remaining mutants are in America right?

As for IC, I was just glad it was over, regardless of whether it was any good. I think five consecutive months of IC-related stories in teen Titans killed my enthusiasm.

[Craig]

Was Joe Q talking allegorically when he said "superhero nation" as in Mutants as whole are now far weeker and other "nations" (humans, other metahumans) are looking to go for the throat now that mutants really have their back against the wall? (sorry to throw out a ton of cliches there...)

Also, I don't think the idea of the government invading privacy has dissapeared "below the fold". Sure it has if all you read is the NY Post or most "mainstream" press where all that seems to mater is sensationalism, but there's plenty of news out there showing American Civil Liberties getting slowly nudged aside and encroached upon. Case in point:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm

[Kurt]

Calvin – From the sounds of things Civil War is going to have some imprint on various monthly titles, although I don’t think Marvel is going with the full House Of M treatment. And I think you’re right about the proportionality of the losses.

Craig – I think I see where you’re heading with that first paragraph, but that wasn’t what I took away from Quesada’s comments. And I had a good chuckle when I heard the USA today announcement yesterday and saw my own paper’s front page this morning. Pretty good timing for the CIVIL WAR theme. Maybe we’re in for another stanza of the “our civil liberties are being eroded” song, it is an election year, after all.

But you'll have to forgive my inability to be too worried about this type of thing. I’m in my forties now and I have a hard time enumerating so much as one lost liberty. Again, as I said in my post, I don’t think the whole “big brother” fear has gone away, it just doesn’t move the needle like it has in the recent past. I doubt this new bit of NSA info will change that much.

[Kurt]

Okay, I stand corrected regarding Civil War, looks like it's getting the FULL House of M treatment. If I'm reading the checklist correctly there's literally dozens of issues affected.