Webcomic A Go Go - UPDATED MAY 29

Or: "The Journey of a Thousand Strips Begins With Bloody Eyes"

(New thread: the old one got a bit messed-up during a recent edit.)

My progress report thus far:

* NeverNever
* Kara, Kali and the Wind
* Return To Green Hollow
* A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible
* Irrational Fears
* Evil Inc.
* Bad Blood
* The Jaded
* Alpha Shade
* The Green Avenger
* Nahast: Lands of Strife
* RPG World
* Something Positive
* VG Cats
* Queen of Wands
* The Order of the Stick
* Road Waffles
* Sinfest
* Nukees
* Diesel Sweeties
* PVP
* Mnemesis (My Paypal paranoia triumphs!)
* 8-Bit Theatre
* Gunnerkrigg Court
* Nausea
* Boy Meets Boy
* Basil Flint, P.I.
* Friendly Hostility
* No Rest For The Wicked
* 8/12 By Eleven
* Jack
* The Spiders
* Angst Technology
* Bob and George
* Questionable Content
* Demonology 101
* Kid Radd
* Unicorn Jelly
* Cutewendy
* Girly
* The Starship Destiny
* File 49
* 1/0
* Paper Eleven
* Exploitation Now
* Captain Spectre and the Lightning Legion
* Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire
* The Coffee Achievers
* Fallen Angels Used Books
* Mozhaets
* PHD Comics
* Least I Could Do
* Nana's Everyday Life
* Greystone Inn
* A Modest Destiny
* 319 Dark Street
* Bobbins
* Scary Go Round
* Arthur, King of Time and Space
* The Dreamland Chronicles
* Hellbound
* Starslip Crisis
* Wish3
* Lifelike
* Antihero For Hire
* Flatwood
* Captain SNES
* The Wandering Ones
* Strange Attractors
* Atland
* Dubious Tales
* Awesome Marcus Ninja
* Alien Loves Predator
* Everything Jake
* Checkerboard Nightmare
* Supernatural Law
* Femme Noir
* Kalmer Unwritten
* The Class Menagerie
* Roomies
* Coming Full Circe
* Boy Meets Hero
* Tom Sparks, Atomic Detective
* Home on the Strange
* Inverloch
* Nannah Laveaux
* Scandal Sheet
* Butterfly
* Weirdlings
* Mindmistress
* Achewood
* You'll Have That
* The Architect (when completed)
* The Hook (when completed)
* 5ideways (when completed)
* Avalon (if it's ever completed)
* RPGWorld (if it's ever completed)

Some reviews - though I won't be covering everything I've read:

UPDATED:

"Boy Meets Hero" (http://www.boymeetshero.com/): This could have worked. The most popular superhero in Golden Bay City is living a triple life - he's Blue Comet, defender of the people; he's Derek Maxwell, unassuming civilian; and he's Derek Maxwell, homosexual. But his closeted status is threatened when he falls in love with Justin Summers, an ordinary guy with a bit of a hero worship complex. So far so good, but the dialogue is simply atrocious. It reads like an especially corny romance comic from the '50s - "I can't believe I'm dating a superhero! He's so strong and muscular! I'm so lucky! I wuv you! No, I wuv you!" Gag me with a red-hot spoon.

"Home on the Strange" (http://www.homeonthestrange.com/): You know, the first thing that came to mind while reading this was Aerie's "Queen of Wands". It has a very similar style of humor, with the pop culture references and the gentle satire of geek culture, and the characters are entertaining both on their own and in their group dynamics. It's relatively new, so there's still plenty of room to see where it's going, but so far I like it a lot.

"Tom Sparks, Atomic Detective" (http://www.atomicdetective.com/): This is a perfect example of one thing I simply adore about webcomics - the willingness to experiment with genres and forms. "Tom Sparks", for example, combines noir murder mystery, superheroics and B-movie sci-fi to create an intriguing story that smoothly merges its various inspirations into a cohesive whole.


"Checkerboard Nightmare" (http://www.checkerboardnightmare.com/): An absolutely hilarious strip by Kristofer Straub, poking fun at webcomics, celebrities, pop culture and more. Chex is a glory-hungry (and slightly reality-challenged) webcomics creator who wants to make it big, no matter what it takes. Unfortunately, his crazy schemes tend to cause more problems than solutions. This series is pretty impressive on a technical level, as Straub really manages to work every angle of the parody, from breaking the fourth wall to satirizing the very cornerstones of the medium - it's also a lot of fun to read.

"Supernatural Law" (http://www.webcomicsnation.com/supernaturallaw/): The high concept works - sort of an "Ally McBeal meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer" scenario where the lawyers represent "unusual" clients - but the writing falls flat, with the actual court cases being far too short and not taking enough advantage of the premise.

"Femme Noir": (http://www.supernaturalcrime.com/comics.html): According to the author, "Femme Noir" is a sort of female answer to Will Eisner's "The Spirit". This is true, but it works both ways: on the one hand, yes, there is a competent appropriation of the quasi-noir environment and tropes, and the unnamed protagonist is every bit the '40s femme fatale... on the other hand, the series lacks any particular depth in either plot or characterization - in line with the Eisner tradition, certainly, but perhaps geared more towards fans of that classic style than other readers.

"Awesome Marcus Ninja" (http://www.marcusninja.com/): "Meh" about sums it up. Some nice gags with the ninja stereotype, but nothing particularly remarkable, and it felt pretty inconsistent while reading it through.

"Dubious Tales" (http://www.dubious-tales.com/): Now this one is just plain fun. It's a bizarre soap opera, focusing on the lives of six quirky university students all living in the same house. The characters seem pretty weird at first, but it quickly becomes clear that you can identify with them all: they're very sympathetic and compelling despite of (or perhaps because of) their quirks. There's a bit of fantasy here, a bit of humor, a bit of romance... and it's all quite well-written.

"Captain SNES" (http://www.captainsnes.com/index.php): A massive disappointment. The hook for this series is that it's an indirect parody sequel to the '80s cartoon "Captain N: The Game Master" - decades after that champion brought peace to Videoland, a new threat arises, and a new hero is recruited to fight it. The time gap is represented by the use of Super Nintendo games such as "Chrono Trigger" and "Super Mario World", as opposed to the Captain N adventures which took place in settings such as "Castlevania" or "Kid Icarus". The only problem is that Captain SNES, also known as Alexander Williams, is a foul-mouthed, washed-up college student who's a far cry from the squeaky-clean hero of yesterdecade. It's a good premise, and the first few storylines are actually quite amusing (especially the "Weakest Link" parody), but it goes off the rails quite dismally after that. The plot loses all cohesion, bouncing back and forth, and the author's repertoire of humor turns out to be rather limited. It's a shame, because the ideas behind the execution had a lot of potential.

"Antihero For Hire" (http://www.antiheroforhire.com): Hmm. This one's on the borderline, really. On the one hand, it's interesting enough that I'm sticking around to see what happens next; on the other hand, aside from a few clever tricks there's not a lot here that isn't being done elsewhere. It's a superhero story, except the characters are largely aware of the conventions - you have the stereotypical mystery man who leaks bits of information, but here he acknowledges that yeah, he's doing it to be annoying and to drive the hero crazy. And the protagonist is in a rather amusing situation where he has one major nemesis completely out of his grasp, while every other villain he fights is comically incompetent. It's nice, I suppose, but not much more than that for now.

"Starslip Crisis" (http://www.starslipcrisis.com): An excellent sci-fi comedy by Kristofer Straub, about the crew of the first starship museum in the 35th century. Straub does a really good job poking fun at the conventions of science fiction and satirizing 21st-century pop culture, and his quirky characters are quite endearing.

"Arthur, King of Time and Space" (http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/): Hands-down, one of the best high concepts I've ever seen. King Arthur, having pulled Excalibur from the stone, finds the sword's power to be so great that his destiny is spread across various time periods. The author uses this premise to create a multi-genre retelling of the Arthurian legends: contemporary teen drama, space opera, fairy tale, western, hospital drama... each with parallels and differences, each telling the myth of Arthur in its own way. It's a magnificiently ambitious project, one that makes apt use of the enormous creative potential and even manages to squeeze in a daily gag.

"The Dreamland Chronicles" (http://www.thedreamlandchronicles.com/) is relatively new, but so far I really like what I see: when he was a child, Alexander Carter dreamed of adventures in a magical land of fairies and golems. Then one day the dreams stopped... until eight years later, when a token from his youth suddenly propels him back into the fantasy. Is it just wistful nostalgia for lost innocence? Or is Alex really moving between worlds?

"A Modest Destiny" (http://www.enderak.com/squidi/archive/zipfiles/archive_amd1.zip to archive_amd3.zip): Another "mixed feelings" webcomic. The first book, "Maxim Saves The World", is actually very good; cohesive adventure plot, strong humor, and a cast of very interesting characters. The rest is more problematic because the series makes a rather abrupt change in tone from comedy to dark fantasy midway through, and the shift hinges on a series of plot twists that come off a bit awkwardly. The third book is also incomplete, due to a lengthy hiatus on the author's part; however, production has recently resumed, so apparently it's going to be concluded at some point. I'm not too clear on whether we'll actually get closure to the entire series, though, so I recommend sticking with the first book - it stands nicely on its own.

"Greystone Inn" (http://www.greystoneinn.net/d/20000214.html) is the predecessor of "Evil Inc.", exhibiting much of the same style of humor, albeit modified to suit the different setting and characters. In fact, the two series are very similar indeed - they both work in a lot of allusions to pop culture, webcomics, movies and so on, they both use running gags to great success, and they both read very easily, whether they're mid-storyline or presenting standalong gags. Quite entertaining.

"Nana's Everyday Life" (http://manga.clone-army.org/nana.php): Easily the most disturbing webcomic I've ever read (pages 10-11 are particularly sickening). I'd love to be able to dismiss this as another excess of the anime/manga fandom... and yet... There's an almost naturalistic, Zola-esque flair to Nana's misfortunes - she sinks lower and lower and lower, and there's no real reason; people are ugly and depraved, but there's no psychology to explain it. You can't help being simultaneously revulsed and morbidly curious to see how bad things are going to get. It's not much of a tragedy because Nana isn't a very complex character - it's almost impossible to identify with her on an individual level. But as an icy, heartless story of a fall? Upsettingly compelling.

"The Coffee Achievers" (http://www.coffeeachievers.net/): Very frustrating, because while the story itself is good, the abrupt and unfulfilling conclusion pretty much blows the whole thing to pieces. When writing an ongoing series, it's no big deal to misfire on an arc or two; finite stories, on the other hand, carry a lot of weight towards the end, and this one dropped the ball in no uncertain terms.

"Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire" (http://www.dominic-deegan.com): A fantasy epic by Michael Terracciano that hits all the right marks and makes a few new ones of its own. Deliberately bad puns, demons, sex, magic... it's all here.

"1/0" (http://www.undefined.net/1/0/): There's a very nice idea at the core of this strip, but I found myself losing patience with the story, which seemed to just drag on without ever really taking off - by the 150th strip I just tuned out. It just didn't click for me.

"Kid Radd" (http://www.kidradd.com/): Excellence in a delightful little package. This original sprite-style comic dealing with video games, cyberspace and the quest for free will is, in my eyes, perfectly representative of the great strength of webcomics: the capacity to do so much with so few resources. Imagination is the only limitation, and Dan Miller certainly demonstrates how far you can go by providing such a funny, action-packed, well-constructed saga.

"Demonology 101" (http://faith.rydia.net/101.html): This webcomic borrows heavily from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in terms of character dynamics, philosophical debate, the mix of action and banter, and tight, cohesive plotting with a strong emphasis on foreshadowing future developments. The protagonist, Raven, is a 16-year-old demon girl trying to find herself in the human world. At the same time, she's at the center of a complex plot designed to tip the scale in the ongoing conflict between humanity and demonkind. Author Faith Erin Hicks does a remarkable job of appropriating Joss Whedon's strengths: recurring characters intrigue us and excite us when they reappear, Raven herself is very sympathetic, her human best friends provide much-needed comic relief, and while the mythology of the series is a bit less coherent than the Lovecraft-oriented Buffyverse, it nevertheless stands well on its own. Hicks manages to improve upon the formula by having her villains stick around for more than a single storyline - one of the very few flaws in Whedon's early seasons was the tendency to allocate one archvillain per season, severely limiting our exploration of these figures. Conversely, "Demonology 101" falters when it comes to depicting Raven's school life; aside from the evil principle and her two best friends, it often seems as though there isn't another human soul attending high school. Taking it all into consideration, though, I recommend this series for a highly enjoyable read.

"Questionable Content" (http://www.questionablecontent.net/): http://dianakingston.livejournal.com/23200.html

"Bob and George" (http://www.bobandgeorge.com/): Lunacy. Utter, total, glorious insanity. And I loved every minute of it. Who knew time travel and alternate dimensions could be so funny? :)

"No Rest For The Wicked" (http://www.forthewicked.net/) is a lovely "remix" of popular folklore - a bit like Vertigo's "Fables", but much darker and with a much more concentrated scope: small cast, one primary plot rather than several competing for page space... it reads very easily, and I find myself intrigued by characters who, by all rights, should annoy me terribly.

"Friendly Hostility" (http://friendlyhostility.com/) is K. Sandra Fuhr's follow-up to her previous webcomic, "Boy Meets Boy". The series stars BMB veterans Fox Maharassa and his borderline-sociopathic boyfriend Collin Sri'vastra, along with a host of secondary characters including Nyarlathotep the Crawling Chaos, underage slave Bootsie and Fox's "uncle" Rafi, a con artist who moonlights as a Satanist priest. Fuhr's skills have developed nicely over time; "Friendly Hostility" retains its predecessor's range of humor, but it moves out of the romantic comedy genre BMB was so deeply embedded within. Granted that the latter was a great success, but as Fuhr herself discovered, you can only take the story of two people so far. Conversely, the first storyline of "Friendly Hostility" (titled "Problematic") begins years before either Fox or Collin are born. That's Fuhr's mission statement: this series isn't about Fox and Collin, the way "Boy Meets Boy" was about Mikhael and Harley. Here the emphasis is on a collection of quirky, funny characters; it's about the Maharassa family, and Collin's oppressive parents, and the demon living in their fridge and the slave they won at poker, and nobody really cares that Fox and Collin are lovers - least of all Fox and Collin themselves.

"Queen of Wands" (http://www.queenofwands.net/): I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, Kestrel is a very engaging protagonist, the humor is almost always dead-on, and author Aeire successfully tells a big, complete story in a relatively small amount of time (the strip runs from July 2002 to February 2005 on a tri-weekly basis, about 450-ish strips in total). On the other hand, I did sometimes run into credibility problems, as characters occasionally got entangled in some pretty unbelievable situations (ie: the revelation about Felix and Marie, which really came out of nowhere and ultimately wasn't necessary). As the series progressed, a heavy dependence on "DRAMA!" came about; I honestly lost count of the number of times Shannon was hospitalized, and Kestrel's joy de vivre gradually dies out, which hurt the overall atmosphere IMO. Granted that people grow and change - that's probably the most important theme of the work, and the crossovers with "Something Positive" accentuated it brilliantly by juxtaposing Kestrel and Davan, the man who will never change - but I think where Aeire went wrong was having almost everyone change in the same way, for largely the same reasons. It's a bit reminiscient of the sixth season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", in which Marti Noxious interpreted the idea of "growing up" as "making everyone miserable", an umbrella that has to be bent rather out of shape to affect diverse characters in the same way. Angela is almost unrecognizable by the time the story ends, even though (by her own admission) nothing's actually happened to her that hasn't happened before. All in all, though, it's a rather enjoyable story, and the ending is particularly strong.

"Boy Meets Boy" (http://boymeetsboy.keenspot.com/) is another one that needs its own post, both because it's really good and because I have a lot to say about it. http://dianakingston.livejournal.com/18729.html

"PVP" (http://www.pvponline.com): I understand why so many people like this. I see how it works. But I don't think I'm the kind of reader Scott Kurtz is targeting.

"Something Positive" (http://www.somethingpositive.net/index.html) has its own post here: http://dianakingston.livejournal.com/18314.html

"Nausea" (http://www.jacobmercy.com): Okay, I can't be objective about this, since it's written by a friend of mine. It's minty-new (only three strips so far), but it's got the zing the best humor strips are made of.

"8-Bit Theater" (http://www.nuklearpower.com/) is another parody of RPGs, this time using actual game sprites from "Final Fantasy". It's pretty funny, and the author does some very inventive things with a handful of pixels, but the gag storylines have a tendency to run too long and wear the jokes thin.

"Gunnerkrigg Court" (http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/index2.php): Eric Burns describes this webcomic as "Harry Potter as written by Lemony Snicket and set in an Industrial Complex designed by Lewis Carroll." That about sums it up, really: a surreal, steampunk-esque series that tells its stories in a very, very low-key fashion, which suits it perfectly.

"Sinfest" (http://sinfest.net/strips_page.htm) is a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand, it's certainly got a streak of irreverent humor that makes it fun reading... but if you read a month's worth of strips, you pretty much get everything and anything "Sinfest" offers. It's very, very repetitive in terms of the gags used - more or less the same five or six jokes told in a cycle, with mild alterations. Which makes it not exactly the kind of series you want to follow in perpetuity. I recommend reading the first month or two, but don't go further if you're looking for anything more... well, more.

"The Order of the Stick" (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript) is a thing of utter brilliance. It's based on the "Dungeons and Dragons" paradigm, with which I'm not very familiar, but the humor works for non-gamers as well. The premise concerns a band of adventurers living in this RPG world of fantasy - but they're aware of the "rules" of D&D. It works far, far better than it has any right to, and while the structure may be a bit confusing (the strips aren't clearly divided in terms of chapters or storylines, even though there is a clear chain of successive plot arcs), it's one of the best webcomics I've come across so far. EDIT: This is so good I actually went to my LCS and asked them to order the two OotS trade collections currently available. I paid for an otherwise-free webcomic. That's how good it is. :)

"Kara, Kali and the Wind" (http://www.webcomicsnation.com/mcohen/kara/series.php?view=archive&chapter=363&mpe=1&step=1) is a short but evocative fairy tale that ends exactly at the right place.

"NeverNever" (http://www.mopsy.com/archives.html) is a bit problematic because of what was going on behind the scenes. Basically, it's a comedy story where the Faeries have declared war on humanity, but because of the size difference, no one's actually noticed. It's very lighthearted, and makes rather interesting use of Arthurian iconography. The problems started when the creators lost interest, bringing it in and out of publication several times until finally ending it mid-story. Fortunately, the second-to-last strip still allows for some kind of conclusion, and it's still a fun read.

"Return To Green Hollow" (http://www.webcomicsnation.com/gc/greenhollow/series.php?view=archive&chapter=1047) is another short story modeled after fairy tales, but in a much more symbolic way: a young girl is enacting a bedtime story her late grandmother told her, while trying to move past her grief. It falters a bit because of the boy's presence - he's not really necessary to the plot because it comes down to the confrontation between the girl and the Forest Queen, and the emotional/mental subtext involved. Not a fatal flaw, though.

"A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible" (http://www.alessonislearned.com/lesson001.html) is too fucking weird for my tastes.

"Irrational Fears" (http://www.webcomicsnation.com/uvernon/irrationalfears/series.php?view=archive&chapter=787&mpe=1&step=1): WOW. This was absolutely amazing. Ursula Vernon, writing herself as a female chupacabra with a beret, embarks on a delightfully surreal quest to learn about the monsters she's afraid of. What lies in the shadows under her bed? Excellent story.

"Bad Blood" (http://badbloodcomic.com/) starts off well enough, but falters in the second act when additional players are brought in. There's also a slight disconnect between the various subplots, in that the main character does some pretty terrible things one moment but seems to completely forget about them the next.

"Evil Inc." (http://www.evil-comic.com/) is a comedy series about corporate supervillains. It's highly intertextual (the secretary keeps getting calls from Kang demanding a refund on a time machine, Dr. Druid complaining about the typo in his "Summon Two Huge Beasts" spell, etc.), but even if you don't get the references, it's still quite funny. A few gags don't work, but most of them do, to great effect.

"The Jaded" (http://www.graphicsmash.com/series.php?name=thejaded) didn't really work for me; a bit too pedestrian, and featuring characters that weren't very distinct or easy to tell apart.

"Alpha Shade" (http://www.alpha-shade.com/www/index2.htm) also didn't click with me, though I'm having a hard time pinning down why. It's certainly highly stylized, but it failed to speak to me.

"VG Cats" (http://www.vgcats.com) can be very, very funny... provided you're familiar with the various video games they're spoofing. If you're not, don't bother - the jokes don't work otherwise. Fortunately, the archives list the games the strips are based on, and there's no sequential narrative, so you can pick and choose.

Taking A Stand on "The Last Stand"

Okay. I've seen it. My thoughts, in no particular order:

What's clearest to me is that this film is an intentional dismantling of the previous Singer movies. The characters he built up, Ratner tears down: they get passively killed off anticlimactically and with little follow-up, or they get depowered and wander about, or they become incredibly unsympathetic, or they just barely turn up at all. We don't get much closure for anyone - love triangles go unresolved, and do we even find out if Pyro survived? Or what happened to Jean's parents? Nope.

Had this been balanced out with the ascent of some fresh blood, it probably would have been a bit more acceptable. But Ratner's additions aren't particularly fleshed out either. Kitty's a cipher, Juggernaut is obnoxious, we don't know anything about Madrox, and I never would have guessed Dania Ramirez was Callisto because her name isn't spoken once. This is a recurring problem for a lot of cameo characters: their powers and appearances are changed, and no one speaks their names, so the effect of their presence is muted at best. Angel - supposedly the character around whom the plot is constructed - has no real presence to speak of. The only new character who really stood out was Beast, played surprisingly well by Kelsey Grammer. The problematic situation is hardly a shock, of course - the writing was on the wall the minute this movie was revealed to have a core cast twice the size of its predecessors. There was no way any character would be explored for more than a scene or two.

As I'm sure was obvious to any readers of the current comics, the plot is an odd mix of Claremont's Dark Phoenix Saga and Whedon's "Gifted". The basic premise actually works a bit better than Whedon's story by basing the mutant cure off Leech, a character we already know can cancel out mutation. It's a nice touch. Unfortunately, having set up the whole ethical dilemma surrounding the cure and its use... well, it doesn't really go anywhere. Magneto duly stirs up resentment while Storm is vehement that they can't be cured because there's nothing wrong with them, and that's all well and good, except that by film's end the X-Men are using the cure against other mutants. Okay, one mutant specifically, but still. It's a moment that should be fraught with emotion, because they're basically doing something that's anathema to them, but nobody particularly seems to mind. Hell, some of them gloat over it.

The Phoenix... well, there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that the introduction and explanation are glossed over, and fail to convince: we're supposed to believe Jean Grey had a split personality from childhood, caused by Xavier, which somehow never manifested itself, and that only the Phoenix persona could access her full potential. Since this is the third movie in a series, it's inevitable that we look back in light of this new info, and it just doesn't mesh - the implication in the prior films was that Jean's enormous power boost was caused by her exposure to Magneto's machine at the end of the first movie. Granted, this was never made explicit (presumably because that was how Singer was going to explain the Phoenix) so Ratner isn't going against anything that's been established, but he doesn't manage to address this issue. Jean was already using Phoenix-level power in the previous movie, and she wasn't going all psycho then.

The good news? When the Phoenix takes action, it's magnificent. Again, the size of the cast and the shoddy plotting ensure that she only has two major displays of power, but those displays give us a Phoenix we've never seen before: majestic, silent, destructive and utterly terrifying. A lot of it is due to Famke Janssen, whose rendition of a statuesque goddess rings true. CGI also helps elevate her look, and the use of her power, to disturbing levels. I really liked it, and in my mind this proves that Ratner and Avi Arad were very, very wrong when they insisted that the Phoenix plot couldn't sustain the whole movie. In point of fact, Ratner doesn't quite manage to overcome the absurdity inherent in Phoenix's alliance with Magneto. As the primary villain in the film, he's required to make all these grand gestures of power... except we already know Jean can do better. But until Magneto's out of the picture, she just stands there staring into the distance. Had the film been more about her confrontation with the X-Men, and less about Magneto's crusade to make things go boom, there might have been space for more in-depth characterization, and more spectacular use of the Phoenix.

All in all... about average, I suppose. A major step down from the subtle complexities of the Singer films, and I think one big reason for the mixed opinions I've seen so far is that "The Last Stand" requires you to put its predecessors aside, but doesn't break from those predecessors completely. Fans of the Singer movies have to watch it all get ripped apart here, but these are still the same characters, even if they're going nowhere near where Singer might have taken them. Personally, I feel a bit cheated - this is not the film the Dark Phoenix Saga deserved, and might have been under different external circumstances - but it's not an incompetent train wreck, either. If Ratner can be accused of anything, it's of ending a rather good film trilogy with a concluding chapter that can best be described as "okay".

Zombie Uprising

Andrew Wheeler writes a rather scathing - but utterly deserved - evaluation of Marvel under the Buckley presidency here: http://www.ninthart.com/display.php?article=1216

I generally agree with his sentiments, with the caveat that Marvel is still publishing a handful of comics that range from good to excellent. They're worth reading, even if they're the exception rather than the rule.

X-Men Survey

Gacked from the X-Universe message board at comicboards.com: G's Giant State of the X-Books Survey.

Section 1: Decimation

1) Was the Decimation of mutantkind a good idea, or bad?

Fundamentally bad, for two reasons. First, anyone with half a brain knew the A-listers were safe, which means the majority of characters affected by the Decimation weren't part of any ongoing series at the time anyway (see: Chamber, Jubilee, Blob). All it really achieved was a drastic reduction in potential recurring characters - you know, the ones we like to see when we're sick and tired of the regular cast. Second, the impetus behind the storyline, at least according to Quesada and Bendis, was to return the X-Men's status quo to the Stan Lee era. This amazes me, given that "X-Men" was nearly cancelled back then due to low sales. In any case, it's one of the biggest steps backwards Marvel has taken in recent years.

2) Was the method by which the Decimation happened a good idea?

"No More Mutants"? Hell no. It was random, arbitrary, and made no sense even in the context of the scene (Wanda's mad at Magneto for not raising them properly because he was devoted to the mutant war... except he didn't even know they existed until they were adults). The whole thing is made worse by the fact that "Astonishing X-Men" had an entire opening arc dedicated to the idea of a mutant cure, one that made a lot more sense than Wanda twitching her nose.

3) Which character-losing-their-powers most annoyed you?

Beak. His entire character arc was founded on building self-esteem despite his looks. He found happiness in part because of his appearance, and then he gets turned into a perfectly normal-looking human, and that's supposed to be his "happy ending". Barf.

4) Which character-losing-their-powers makes you happy?

I can't think of a single depowering that I felt worked well within the greater context of the story.

5) Which character-not-losing-their-powers most annoyed you?

Given my views on the whole event, it's probably no surprise that I didn't begrudge any series that kept to its own path.

6) Which character-not-losing-their-powers makes you happy?

See above.

7) The 198 camp? Good idea? Bad idea?

I can see what they're trying to do, with the whole Guantanamo Bay metaphor, but it's never been explained why the government feels having two hundred mutants in the same area is a bright idea - they may be easier to watch, but you'd think the massive concentration of power would be more of a concern.

8) Sentinel Squad ONE? Good idea? Bad idea?

Hilariously bad. A prequel series to showcase the giant interchangable robot guards and their faceless pilots? You've got to be kidding me.

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Section 2: UXM & Deadly Genesis

1) The slaughter of the Grey family? Good or bad?

Waste of time. Even if Rachel was supposed to be horrifically traumatized by the slaughter, it's hard to see why readers would care given that the whole clan had less personality combined than your average Star Trek Red Shirt. It was just amateur heartstring-yanking.

2) The 24-second-issue? How did/didn't you like the concept and the execution?

Loved the concept, not so much the execution because Claremont clearly didn't consider whether each action he depicted could conceivably take place within the space of a second.

3) How do/don't you like the Shi'Ar Death Commando Squad?

Hah! More one-dimensional gimmick villains from the Claremont stable. At least it's not pirates again.

4) Are you the one who thinks tattooing a winged man-part on Rachel's back was a good idea?

You mean it's not a portrait of Pyramidhead from "Silent Hill"? Damn Bachalo, you can never tell with him. ;)

5) The explanation for Psylocke's return working for you, or not?

Not really. It basically amounts to the same ego-stroking he used with Magneto - "She's back because I (Claremont) want her back".

6) Should they have used this to return her to her original appearance?

I don't place much importance on characters' appearances when it's not directly related to their development - it's pathetically superficial and smacks of fanservice. Has Psylocke's ethnicity been a story point at all in the last ten years? Does it really change the story if Beast is feline rather than simian?

7) Do or don't you like them retro-fitting a "lost" team of X-Men into the team's history in Deadly Genesis?

On the level of principle, I really shouldn't like it... but I do. Brubaker sold me on the retcon, he made it plausible enough for me to buy it. And it does masterfully exploit a gap in the original Krakoa story: just how much time passed between the original group getting caught and Xavier picking up Nightcrawler?

8) The death of Banshee. Good? Bad?

Largely irrelevant - which, I suppose, was the point. When was the last time he'd been seen on-panel or even mentioned anyway?

9) Is Vulcan your choice of villain for the new generation, or not? And how/do don't you like him being a Summers brother?

He's a bit problematic. On the one hand, the character has a lot of potential - with a bit more fleshing-out, he could very well be the new Magneto. But for that to happen, Brubaker needs to expand his motivation beyond "vengeance for past sins", because that only goes so far. As for him being a Summers... well, I've always hated that loose thread, and it's plainly obvious that they only threw it in so the hardcore geeks would shut the hell up about it already. However, it's been a very smooth retcon, one that's both plausible and credible, so on creative grounds I can't find fault with it. At the very least, it ties the villain to the leader of the X-Men much in the way Magneto and Xavier were bound when they were running things.

10) Are you looking forward to Brubaker's UXM run, or not?

I am indeed. If he does half as well with it as he has with "Daredevil" and "Captain America", I suspect we're all in for a treat.

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Section 3: X-Men & Apocalypse

1) Havok killed Doop. Discuss.

Doop died at the end of "X-Statix".

2) Apocalypse's new purpose, to lead mutantkind. Good or bad?

And this is different from his past motivation... how? I mean, he was always going to set himself up as the ruler of "the fit".

3) How do/don't you like the new Horsemen?

Meh. It's been done too many times to take them seriously anymore.

4) What should become of Gambit?

I honestly can't say, I haven't read any book featuring him in years and years.

5) Are you looking forward to Carey's run on X-Men?

Absolutely. I realize Carey tends to be a touch inconsistent, and he'll probably come in last after Whedon and Brubaker, but he seems to have some interesting ideas, and at the very least he isn't as paralyzed by the genre requirements as Milligan was.

6) Sabretooth and Mystique as X-Men? Good or bad?

Depends on how it's set up. It's easier for me to see Mystique as an X-Man, especially considering the events of her solo series a few years ago. Sabretooth... well, Carey's already said he's not doing a redemption story here, the animal isn't getting tamed, so presumably we're not supposed to feel comfortable with the idea.

7) Apocalypse vs Dracula. You either want to read this comic or you don't. Did you want to read it?

Not really, no. I'm not a fan of Frank Tieri.

8) Should we get an "Apocalypse vs..." miniseries each year, in which The Big A beats the poop out of a different important historical figure, real or fictional?

Sure, I can see it now: "Apocalypse vs. Abraham Lincoln: My Hat Is Bigger". "Apocalypse vs. Cher: Battle of the Immortals". "Apocalypse vs. Lara Croft: America's Breast and Brightest (art by Rob Liefeld)".

9) Name 3 such historical figures you'd like to see Apocalypse thrash. Points will be awarded for the best combination of hilarity and offensiveness.

See above. Did I win? :)

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Section 3: Astonishing X-Men

1) Should Beast stay in his current form, or take the mutant-cure?

I tend to agree with Wolverine on this. I can't believe I tend to agree with Wolverine on this. But yes, Beast should stay as he is - if he takes the cure, he's admitting that he sees mutation as something that should be fixed. And he's been with the X-Men from the beginning.

2) Bringing back Colossus? Good or bad idea, good or bad explanation?

I'm going to go with good idea, good explanation. Good idea because everyone was expecting Jean, and because the only reason he was killed off in the first place was because no one knew what to do with him, and a scapegoat was needed to wrap up the Legacy Virus story. Good explanation because it's very, very simple - we comic readers have grown a bit too accustomed to the byzantine, complex and convoluted retcons, and I think that's why the ease with which Whedon brought Colossus back threw a lot of readers. Your first reflex is to look for something more, because it can't be that mundane... and then you have to ask, well, why not?

3) The living Danger Room? Good or bad idea?

Good story idea, bad X-Men story idea. I think Whedon also realized this after the fact: "Danger" ultimately didn't work because it wasn't about the X-Men at all. It raised some interesting questions about sentience and technology, but I don't know if those questions belong in that specific comic.

4) Did Xavier's dirty secret work for you?

Oh, definitely. I don't understand this saintly view of Xavier some readers hold: he's been doing questionable things since the late '60s. He faked his death and put his students through hell just to test them, he kept files on how to neutralize every X-Man he'd ever taught, there was that whole Onslaught deal... I do think Xavier is basically a good person, but he has always had a tendency to justify any action of his, right or wrong, by saying it's all for the children. And maybe he's right; how far would the X-Men have gotten without a place to hone their powers?

5) Where should they go with the current Frost plot? Good, evil, or just nuts?

This is the thing about Emma: Whedon isn't writing her any differently than Morrison - or, to a certain extent, Lobdell and Claremont before him. Emma Frost never cared about good or evil; she sides with whoever has the power, whoever she thinks will win. So the Hellfire Club falls to pieces and she switches sides to Generation X, and then they move on and she goes to Genosha, and then she had nowhere left to go but the X-Men, the largest mutant power base left. And now she's aligned with a very formidable group operating right under the noses of a very confused and scattered X-Men team. It's classic Emma. The twist, of course, is that she's in love this time, so indulging her lust for power will cost her big-time if she goes all the way.

6) The revelation about Scott's powers? Does that work for you?

Still waiting to see where that goes, but I like the idea that it was psychological after all, that he was so hysterically afraid of hurting someone that the possibility of control never even entered his mind.

7) The Cyclops/Frost pairing? Good? Bad? Should it last beyond the current arc?

I wasn't a fan of the couple at first, back when Morrison had just started working it in. Looking back, though, I find it's really grown on me, perhaps even moreso than Scott/Jean. I think Greg Pak put it best in "Endsong": Emma isn't anything like Jean, which is exactly why it works. It's new, it's different, and at the same time it's consistent with Cyclops' history of infidelity. Definitely a relationship that should last as long as it possibly can.

8) A Colossus/Shadowcat reunion? Good idea? Bad idea? Pointless nostalgia?

Excellent idea. I mean, yes, obviously nostalgia is a factor - for all intents and purposes, Colossus and Kitty were the "it" couple of the early '80s, age difference be damned. But it's more than that; it's that feeling of (to quote Utada Hikaru) "you were always gonna be the one" - it's nice to think that after the alien healers and the obnoxious British author-projections, these two were always going to find each other again, to be together. Not on the cosmic, Shakespearean level of Cyclops and Phoenix, but in a more grounded sense. And that kiss in #13 was the sweetest thing ever.

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Section 4: Wolverine, Cable&Deadpool

1) If Logan just had to be on one team book, which should it be?

"Astonishing X-Men". Because Whedon gets it: Wolverine works best in short, controlled bursts, with an option for humor.

2) Which costume (if any) for Wolverine?

I suppose the brown-and-tan look was a bit less... flamboyant than the yellow spandex.

3) A second ongoing Wolverine series? Good or bad idea?

Absolutely horrible idea, especially with Daniel Way writing it. I predict cancellation around issue 12... possibly 18 if they do crossovers.

4) Now that Logan has all his memories back, which area of his past do you most want to see explored?

Not interested at all. It's been done, and done, and done.

5) Should Cable get his powers back, or keeping using artificial substitutes?

Cable's powers are tricky; he needs to stand out from the rest of the Marvel psychics, but most writers tend to overshoot the mark and elevate him to godlike level, and that boxes him in creatively. It's a repeat of the Nate Grey thing, come to think of it.

6) Do you support Cable's goals, or not? Does the real world need it's own Cable?

Well, who am I to judge? If he wants Wade to rub him down with WD-40, that's his right. Oh, wait, that's Deadpool's goal. Never mind. :)

7) Who should guest-star in Cable & Deadpool specifically so that Wade can ridicule them?

Brian Michael Bendis. I would give my left breast for that!

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Section 5: Other X-Books

1) Are you for or against NXM: Academy-X turning into a mutant bloodbath?

For it. Of course, bear in mind that I hadn't been reading "Academy X" prior to this, so I don't have any particular attachment to the characters. I've always been partial to starting a new run with some kind of deck-clearing cataclysm, and "Academy X" could certainly stand to lose some of its enormous cast.

2) More or less X-23 needed in your comics?

Eh, so far so good. Kyle and Yost did a surprisingly good job with her origin miniseries, and she's hardly as overbearing and prolific as her "brother".

3) New Excalibur: Good lineup, or random collection of characters?

Random characters, random storylines, random premise. If there's a point to this book beyond "set in England starring characters nobody else wanted", I'd love to hear it.

4) In Exiles, have they succeeded in their goal of giving Proteus the Worst Scottish Accent Ever?

Yep. But that's intentional, so... does that earn them points?

5) Should the Exiles lineup have more, or less turnover and/or casualties?

"Exiles" is unique in that it's possibly the only X-book that has a built-in reason for a high turnover rate, and can afford to do so. The flip-side is that if you get rid of too many, too quickly, without really fleshing them out, it's simply impossible to care. Characterization is very important, and while I'm still enjoying "Exiles", I admit that Bedard hasn't done a great job of endearing the newbies to the readers, or let us mourn the dead.

6) Are you for or against the Storm/Black Panther wedding?

Against. Against, against, against. I can't stress how much it infuriates me that one of the most prominent female characters in comics gets turned into a trophy wife just because Reginald Hudlin's "Hollywood cred" isn't enough to sell "Black Panther" anymore.

7) How does new-X-Factor rate up against the old series for you?

Didn't like the old one, lost interest in the new one.

8) Should any of the dead guys and girls in the Dead Girl miniseries come back?

Please, we have enough dead men walking as it is. :)

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Section 6: Civil War

1) Are you excited by the prospect of Wolverine vs Nitro?

2) Which X-Men, if any, do you think should be pro-registration?

3) Should the registration act be passed?

4) Should there be a villain behind it all, or not?

Not answering any of these questions because I'm ignoring "Civil War".

Diana Triumphant: Kingdom Hearts In Retrospect

So I beat "Kingdom Hearts" last night. Sealed every Keyhole, won every Coliseum Cup, defeated the Ice Titan and Sephiroth, saved all the Dalmations... a lot of fun was had. The story doesn't make a lick of sense, but it's very easy to see past that for the vast amount of fan-service in the game: cameos and boss fights with popular Final Fantasy characters, loads of Disney heroes and villains (most of whom retain their original voice actors), a painless and effective leveling-up system that had me in the mid-80s before I even noticed... okay, I never did figure out how to work the damn Gummi Ship, but that doesn't even register as a minor quibble.

It's a very satisfying game, full of secrets and surprises and things to do; what it lacks in character development it more than makes up for in gameplay. I look forward to the sequel.

Marvel Comics For July

The following is a parody suggested by hdefined. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it.

Just the Ultimate and Civil War sections; I don't have any time for the whole thing this month. :(


ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #97
Written by Brian Michael Bendis, pencils and cover by Mark Bagley.

(Publisher's note: this solicit was written by Brian Bendis)

"The Clone Saga," part 1 of 6. So... there's this guy, okay? This guy. Yes. There's this guy. Who... yes. That's what I'm telling you. This guy. He's a Scorpion. Scorpio? No. Scorpion. With a stinger. You've never heard of a Scorpion? Never? A Scorpion? Oy. Anyway, the clues have been laid over the past 96 issues (literally, they were laid over - read it again knowing what you know about Joan of Arc). It all comes together here, as we begin the most shocking, most mind-blowing Spider-Man story ever published! Even more shocking than when Spidey did that thing that time! That thing! You know... the thing? With the thinging in his thing? (dramatic pause) TALKING ABOUT A LAST PAGE IN PUBLIC!


ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #32
Written by Mark Millar, pencils and cover by Greg Land.

(Publisher's note: this solicit was written by Mark Millar)

"Frightful," part 3 of 3. The Millar/Land run comes to a tastebud-eradicating conclusion as the Ultimate F.F. (not to be confused with the Ultimate F.U., otherwise known as Warren Ellis) are locked in a battle to the death with their zombie counterparts from an alternate Earth! In this issue... a Fantastic Four dies! Also: someone gets raped! Tying into events from Eisner-winning limited series Marvel Zombies, this is the explosive climax that's enough to make Georges Romero, Lucas, Washington, Eliot and Jetson lose their lunch!


ULTIMATE X-MEN #72
Written by Robert Kirkman, pencils and cover by Tom Raney.

"House of Magic," part 1 of 3. It was the worst day in Ultimate X-Men history. He was a media darling, a vital part of the X-Men dynamic and the newest member of the team. His name was -- Marty Stu, The Magician! Watch him live up to his name in ways you could never conceive. There is more -- much, much more about this new mutant than any suspect, and with three words ("Bring back Vaughan!") he'll change everything forever. Plus -- the fallout from the Shi'ar's test on Jean Grey has drastically unanticipated consequences involving zombies.

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CIVIL WAR TITLES

CIVIL WAR #3
Written by Mark Millar, pencils and cover by Steve McNiven, variant cover by Michael Turner.

The battle lines are drawn as the conflict between the Superhero Practice of Investigation and Neutralization (SPIN) and the Benevolent Alliance of Resistance Fighters (BARF) explodes as the future of the Marvel Universe is decided for the next six months! Witness critics and retailers torn apart as the Civil War touches them in bad places, and the momentous events of last issue changes the world as our readers understand it!


CIVIL WAR: FRONT LINE #3 & 4
Written by Paul Jenkins, penciled by Ramon Bachs and Steve Lieber, cover by John Watson.

"The Accused" - Despised by a nation, the lone survivor of the New Warriors' reality TV series is behind bars. Without family, without a friend in the world and without a reason to go on, will this hero make a deal, or take a stand and not sign up for "The Surreal Life"?

"Correspondence" - Juxtaposing stories of war throughout time with the Marvel Civil War, "Correspondence" adapts tales from World War I and more! See? It matters! It really does! We're not kidding this time! This is big! WORLD WAR I!!!


CIVIL WAR: X-MEN #1
Written by David Hine, penciled by Yanick Paquette, cover by Juan Doe.

As the Marvel Universe is ripped apart by the Civil War, the X-Men also find themselves crumbling from the inside out. Except for Brubaker's team. And Carey's. And Whedon's. And the Kyle/Yost cast. Mostly it's Bishop and Angel. Will they fold up and admit defeat, or will they finally prove why they belong in an ongoing series? Find out here!


CIVIL WAR: YOUNG AVENGERS & RUNAWAYS #1
Written by Zeb Wells, penciled by Stefano Caselli, cover by Jim Cheung.

As the public turns against Allan Heinberg's schedule, the gears of Civil War threaten to crush Brian K. Vaughan's "Runaways" by sucking away their sales. Don't miss this Civil War tie-in that promises to have lasting repercussions for both popular teams, but really won't!


CIVIL WAR #1 (DIRECTOR'S CUT)
Written by Mark Millar, penciled and cover by Steve McNiven.

Go behind the lines of the Marvel Comics event starring Spider-Man, the New Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and the entirety of the Marvel pantheon (except for Speedball, Joe doesn't like him). This bonus edition reprints Civil War #1 ­ plus script, sketches, deleted scenes and more! It's everything the actual comic should have been, for only five dollars!


DAILY BUGLE: CIVIL WAR SPECIAL EDITION
Written by Peter David, J. Michael Straczynski and various, art and cover by Mike Mayhew.

The sides have been chosen and the Civil War has begun! (Actually, it began two months ago but nobody noticed.) As heroes battle heroes, putting their lives on the line to fight for Joe Quesada's amusement, there's only one source to keep you informed on the happenings of the biggest Marvel event of the year: the Daily Bugle! This is the very newspaper the citizens of the Marvel Universe read to keep informed! (Which explains a lot about the intellect of the common Marvel Universe citizen.) With a very special editorial by J. Jonah Jameson entitled "SPIDER-MAN'S GAY LOVE AFFAIR CAUSED THIS WAR!", this is the place to go to for Civil War secrets you won't see anywhere else (unless you have Google)!


AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #534
Written by J. Michael Straczynski, pencils and cover by Ron Garney.

"The War at Home," part 3 of 6. Life couldn't be more complicated -- or more dangerous -- for Peter Parker. You thought eating heads was bad? You thought the Suit of a Thousand Gimmicks was a low point? You thought the vaguest idea of Gwen Stacy fucking Norman Osborn should have pushed him to suicide? Forget it! It's time for more whiny angst! Because the Drama Fairy demanded it!


BLACK PANTHER #18
Written by Reginald Hudlin, pencils by Scot Eaton, wraparoundcover by Frank Cho, variant cover by Michael Turner.

It's the Wedding of the Millennium as T'Challa and Storm finally make it to the altar. Can this gathering offer much-needed respite from the Civil War, or will it too be engulfed by the insanity currently stomping on the Marvel Universe? Hey, it's in the "Civil War" section, you need be to spell it out? Don't miss this historic event, because no one will remember it next month!


NEW AVENGERS #22
Written by Brian Michael Bendis, pencils and cover by Leinil Francis Yu.

Brian Bendis teams up with Leinil Yu to tell the story that no one thought would ever be told after "Avengers Disassembled": New Avengers Disassembled!


WOLVERINE #44
Written by Marc Guggenheim, with art by Humberto Ramos.

Everything you think you know is wrong. So if you're thinking of buying this book, at least you know where you stand.

Comics vs. Webcomics: Genre

It's one of the first things a new reader will discover about comics: All Their Base Are Belong To Superhero.

Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with the superhero genre - quite the contrary, it's as valid a storytelling vehicle as any other. It's given birth to its fair share of masterpieces, from Morrison's "Zenith" to Moore's "Watchmen" to Robinson's "Starman" and more.

The problem, insofar as the Big Two are concerned, isn't with the genre but with the companies' near-total commitment to said genre. For over four decades, superhero stories have dominated the genre in a rather vicious cycle: they sell, so Marvel and DC make more superheroes and hype them as being even bigger, everyone makes more money, repeat ad nauseum. These days, the superhero genre has become so bloated that it dominates the market, squeezing out anything that steps outside the box, that challenges generic limitations. I suppose that, from a marketing perspective, it's a fact of business: there are only so many spotlights, and you're not going to hype "Sentinel" over "Civil War". Consequently, books that deviate too much from the superhero formula don't sell, get cancelled, and everyone clucks their tongues wishing the market was more hospitable.

DC is slightly better at this - they have the resources to establish imprints like "Vertigo", which has produced more than its fair share of excellent non-superhero stories. However, this also means that the DCU proper is even more congested with superheroes than the Marvel universe, by virtue of having somewhere to shunt those non-spandex concepts. Of course, this hardly bodes well for books that are neither DCU nor Vertigo, such as Gerber's "Hard Time" or Pfeifer's "H-E-R-O".

It's a very frustrating situation, because generic conformity is rarely an indication of actual quality. On the creative spectrum, it's simply inconceivable that "New Avengers" does better than "Runaways", or that "Superman/Batman" outsells "Fables". But the market - and the greater readership, I suppose - seem to regard quality as secondary to fulfilling very, very specific roles and traits.

Incidentally, this is precisely why I stay away from printed indie comics, or even companies like Image - for all that they allow themselves greater freedom in trying new things, they're still subject to commercial considerations, and I feel they're untrustworthy for this reason: writers like Jason Rand will have the fortitude to try something different with "Small Gods", and it will work on every level save the one that keeps it on the shelves.

With webcomics, I see a symbiotic effect reminiscient of fanfiction, or rather the rationale behind fanfiction: namely, the idea of an alternative which addresses a lack. Just as fanfic allows writers and readers to explore concepts that can't or won't play out in the canon, webcomics seem to hold up a mirror to its printed sibling, exploring all the areas neglected by the latter. From what I've seen, superhero webcomics are rather rare - if they're there at all, there's usually some postmodern or parodic spin (ie: "Evil Inc.").

The most common webcomic genre seems to be the down-to-earth "slice of life" - in many ways the antithesis of the flashy, high-action world of the superhero. Series like "Something Positive" and "Boy Meets Boy" are largely about ordinary people in ordinary situations, and it would be mundane if not for the fact that they're interesting people. This, I think, points to a glaring flaw in the traditional superhero scheme: if you take away the powers and the adventures, the heroes themselves aren't very engaging characters. There's a monotony to Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker, a static aspect to their depictions where they go through the motions of aging and changing and progressing and learning, but it never sticks and it's never particularly profound. After all, the story requires the hero to save the day, and that's what makes the story - as Bendis' run on "Daredevil" proved, many people simply aren't interested in reading a series about Matt Murdock, rather than the red-clad Man Without Fear.

Of course, it's important to note that genres can be broken up into sub-genres: you've got superhero comedies, superhero detective stories, superhero tragedies and superhero dramas in comics. But while the same division can be found in slice-of-life webcomics, webcomics in general seem to allow a range of generic experimentation miles beyond the Big Two. Epic fantasies, fairy tales, surreal horror... and that's without looking at the sprite sub-genre, which is a whole other box of matza. They're not all slice-of-life in the way the majority of comic sub-genres are still superhero stories. Personally, I attribute this to the fact that webcomic authors have no mandate and no higher authority than themselves - no matter how fresh the blood on a Superman book, it will still be a Superman book at the end of the day. So, at least on the level of genre representation, webcomics certainly have an advantage.

This dovetails nicely into next time's post, where I'll be discussing the commercial/creative schism and how it affects the playing fields. Is it really all about the money? How might the different sets of priorities affect the creators?