At pretty much the same time in their respective comic book universes both characters have had the evil “sucked” out of them in one way or the other. Is this just a coincidence, and which will revert back to their evil ways first?
I’m not following the current storylines, but this wouldn’t be the first time for either character nor for any supervillain that’s been around for more than a few years. Not so much a coincidence but rather a near universal lack of new ideas in the comics biz.
I’m befuddled that Norman Osborn is some sort of high profile character nowadays. I stopped reading comics in 1985 and he’d been dead for years and certainly wasn’t on the scale of Lex Luthor back then. Now I get the inkling he’s up there with Tony Stark.
I doubt there are any ties, as Lex Luthor goes back and forth often enough for any similar character stands a chance of matching his hero/heel arc some of the time.
Reading the history of comic books, I’ve learned that the community is tiny. The young artists and writers often literally lived together (who can afford anything else in NYC?) and gossip about ideas, characters, and development was rampant. The higher-ups used to play golf together; for all I know they still do. People also change companies or work for both as freelancers.
Comics also have a short lead time. Everybody can see the sales numbers and a selling idea can be put into print in about three months.
Is all this still true? Comics are probably a tinier field now than in the past. The entire industry may not sell a million comics in a month; individual titles used to sell that many regularly. They’re appendages to cinematic universes, where all the real decisions are made.
So probably somewhere between a coincidence and jointly being trapped in a dead-end.
My understanding may be a decade or two out of date, but creators are spread all over the world. Editors, artists, and writers collaborate remotely. Companies like Marvel or DC gather everybody (maybe not the artists) together once a year to coordinate cross-title storylines, events, and major character developments (like those in the OP, perhaps). I’m sure there are many close friendships among comic book creators, but they don’t see each other at work each day. Other than the writers retreats referred above, they don’t necessarily socialize except at conventions.
Ideas are surely “borrowed” or inspired by rival companies, but there isn’t anything particularly original or inspired about a bad guy turning good, or vice versa.
The movies, I’d assume, going back to Tobey Maguire’s.
Osborn has been good since the whole Kindred storyline with the Sin-Eater, but what are you referring to with Luthor?
Norman came back to life (or more precisely, was never really dead, just pretending) during the infamous “Clone Saga” storyline in the 1990s. It wasn’t long after that that I stopped reading comics altogether, so I don’t know what happened to him after that.
Yes and no. All of the money is in the movies, and the comics business being a business, that makes the colored dead-tree sheets subservient to the movies, but their role is to proof out the stories and determine what the fans like, before they get filmed. So in that sense, they’re still, sort of, in control.
And yet it seems to have become a requirement for “fans” to complain endlessly about how the movies are ruining their beloved comic characters.
It’s gone farther: fans of a comic book* named “The Beginning after the End” have a petition going demanding that the recent anime based on it be completely re-done with better quality animation. Apparently “just don’t watch it” isn’t an option, and realities like costs, time, and resources are irrelevant.
*Yeah, it’s a manga/manwha/light novel/webtoon, whatever…
I presume that will be just as successful as the petition to remake the final season of Game of Thrones.