Broken Frontier

Hello, everyone! This is William Gatevackes. Let’s take a look at the books hitting stores tomorrow, May 10, 2006.

52 #1 arrives tomorrow. This 52-issue weekly series traces, in “real time”, what happened between last week’s Infinite Crisis #7 and the start of the One Year Later event two months ago. The main storyline will be how the DC Universe reacts to a year without their “big three”—Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

This title is a bold experiment for the company. Not so much the weekly format, which DC tried out, for example, back in 1988-1989 with Action Comics #601-642, but in two other ways.

The book is written by four men, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison. Arguably, these are among four of the most popular writers working in comics today, and many may say four of the best. Each of them brings his own brand of star power to the title, but each also has a diverse and original style.

Having each scribe take one issue a month would be a lot to ask. However, the creators collaborated on each and every issue. From a technical standpoint, this must not only have been a logistical nightmare—how do four writers in different parts of the world collaborate and still meet deadlines?—but a stylistic challenge as well. How do you meld four distinct voices together so each issue has enough of their individual styles to entertain their fans, but not too much as to hurt the overall narrative?

I have enjoyed stories done by each of these creators in the past. I am interested in seeing what results from their collaboration. These guys are all savvy veterans, so I’m sure that while 52 will be nothing like their previous work, what we get won’t be a glaring Frankenstein-like mish-mash of incompatible styles.

The other challenge this book has is the price. Each issue costs $2.50. Although that’s fifty cents less than most other comics on the market, it accounts for an extra $10 per month for fans who wish to collect every issue. $10 doesn’t seem that much on the surface, but for comic fans on a budget, this is a serious cost. If you spend an average of $50 a month on comic books, this will increase that figure by 20%. Not everyone can afford that.
Complicating matters is the fact that DC is billing the series as a must read. And their policy of not releasing it in trade paperback until after the series ends in 2007 means that if you want to get caught up on that one year gap, you have to buy each individual issue as it comes out or wait over a year.   

So, what is a comic fan to do? Well, if they really want to get these books each week, something has to give. This something might be other books on this collector’s pull list. They might sacrifice one or more of the titles they normally get each month to make way for 52. Mind you, this is in no way good for an already overcrowded comic industry.

In recent weeks, I have written about impending cancellations of titles I think are worthy of an audience, namely Solo, Spider-Man Unlimited and Hard Time: Season Two. If the purchase of 52 might put other good titles in jeopardy of cancellation, is it really worth it?

Still, I can understand DC’s marketing plan. They want to make sure 52 is a success for not only their company but also for retailers. But in a day and age when publishers are trying to increase the number of comics sold, any plan that might cause a decrease in sales is a dangerous one indeed.

X-Men: Deadly Genesis #6 hits the stands tomorrow too, bringing the controversial series to an end. Written by Ed Brubaker, the series not only made retroactive changes to X-Men continuity, but will also shape the future of their continuity for the foreseeable future.

For those of you who have not picked up an issue and still might like to catch up on the series in trade paperback form, you might want to skip ahead, because I am about to discuss the story in detail. So consider this your SPOILER WARNING.

The plot of the issue revolves around a new villain to plague the X-Men by the name of Vulcan. It turns out that this Vulcan was the sole survivor of the second X-Men team sent to Krakoa the Living Island to rescue the original team from the island’s clutches.

You might be saying right now, “Second team? All the members of the second team made it back alive. Wolverine, Storm, Banshee, Colossus and even Thunderbird survived (the latter only for an issue, but still).”

To this I reply that you are mistaken. That was actually the THIRD X-Men team. See, Deadly Genesis makes everything you thought you know to be wrong. Not only did Professor X send another group to their deaths, he also wiped all memory of the group from Cyclops, the only original team member who came in contact with them. On top of all this, Vulcan is the long lost brother to Cyclops and Havok, a long-rumored about addition to the X-Men mythos. Oh, and for good measure, he killed Banshee, too.

The actions of the good professor in this series have been quite a change from the previous portrayals of the character by Marvel. He always was portrayed as having a fatherly concern for his students and a reluctance to use his mental powers to violate another person’s mind. Sending a group of mutants to their doom and then doing a mind wipe to cover it up seems completely out of character. This retcon is one that could cause a lot of controversy—and that’s exactly what Ed Brubaker’s time at the House of Ideas has been filled with.  

Brubaker has been at Marvel for a little over two years and already has wreaked a ton of havoc. He brought back Bucky over in Captain America and killed Foggy Nelson in Daredevil; moves that brought about a lot of internet chatter.

The stories in which these events took place have been regarded as some of the best Captain America and Daredevil tales ever told. But are all these shock tactics necessary? Did we really need Bucky back?  Did Foggy have to die? Did Professor X really need this Machiavellian aspect added to his personality? And couldn’t Brubaker tell an interesting story for these titles without these theatrics?

It is unique that Brubaker was given the opportunity to write all these continuity revamping, fan-irritating stories. That he was given such freedom to shake up the status quo shows Marvel’s faith in his writing ability—one that makes him capable of writing an entertaining comic without resorting to such stunts. Sure, these events brought extra attention to titles that might not have gotten as much it otherwise. But, again, were they really necessary?

Last Planet Standing #1 is a sequel to last year’s Last Hero Standing mini-series. The title takes place in a potential Marvel future, the same one shared by the Spider-Girl comic. This future was created in the MC2 experiment of 1998 and 1999 and is the brainchild of former Marvel Editor-In-Chief Tom DeFalco. The characters are aged versions of the current Marvel heroes and villains, with a focus on their children.

These titles are a reminder of the way comic books once were. They feature stories Marvel used to create before the company took a turn for the grim and gritty. Whether it is nostalgia for the old ways of doing things or because the books are more accessible to first time readers, this style has carved out a little niche for itself. But unfortunately the niche might not be big enough to support its continued existence.

Sure, Last Hero Standing was successful enough to garner this follow-up, and Spider-Girl is quickly approaching its 100th issue (purported to be the title’s last). Spider-Girl has a rabid and vocal following, but not one to make it financially viable for Marvel to support the title. There is a market for these types of tales, but it is small in comparison to the mainstream Marvel audience.

I believe that comic readers deserve variety in what companies offer them. Of course, if there is no money in the Big Two to offer alternatives to the norm, they will be reticent to give us them. But Marvel should be commended to keeping this universe alive for so long. And the ride might not be over yet. Rumor has it that there is a new Spider-Girl-related title coming after the current series ends, this time focusing more on her father, Spider-Man. Who knows? Maybe between that series and Last Planet Standing, the MC2 universe will gain enough of an audience to survive indefinitely…

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William Gatevackes is a writer living in Mamaroneck, NY, where he lives with his lovely wife Jennifer. Next to Guiding Lines, he also writes the periodic comic review at PopMatters.