I don’t see how they could have done it any other way. Maybe you don’t follow comics, but they’re a serial medium, with long term plot threads that resolve slowly - there are some that have been teased in the last year that won’t have even started by September. If Dan Didio came out and said “Yeah, all that cool stuff we promised - psych!” They’d lose most of their remaining readership, and then the lookie-loos fascinated by the new number ones wouldn’t stick either, and they’ve basically shot themselves in the foot.
Hell, comic books are one of the reasons I learned to read - and I’d drop them if they chucked out all that continuity.
It is times like these that I seriously wonder if I (I’m 36) will outlive mainstream comics. I don’t think Marvel and DC will ever die entirely. Some corporate entity has to exist to license video games, t-shirts, movies and toys. I also think the fringe comics will continue to be published. But I don’t know how the capes will survive.
What’s better, is that’s a drawing from halfway through the series when someone pointed out “Um, dude? Why does Captain-freakin’-America have a Nazi waffenampt on his forehead?” (Answer: Because it looked kewl. So what if it was a Nazi symbol?")
Seriously–it’s a freakin’ Nazi symbol that was stamped on guns. It was so egregious (it’s not as obvious in that pic, but if you see it head-on, it’s obvious) that when Leifield was kicked off the book about 2/3ds of the way through, the new writer made a plot point about it being proof that Cap was being mind-controlled by the Red Skull (or something to that effect)
I have trouble believing that Liefeld drew an actual waffenampt on Cap’s forehead. Because that would imply he’d actually used a reference for something he drew, and his entire output as an artist argues strongly against that ever happening. He was probably trying to draw an American eagle, and was just characteristically off-model.
No–somewhere he said “Hey, I saw it somewhere and it looked kewl–how was I supposed to know that it was like a Nazi symbol? (Uh–Nazis were the bad guys in that war, right?)”
Ok, maybe I paraphrased him just a little :p, but when (IIRC) Peter David when after him for that series in (I think) CBR, his “defense” was similar to the above: he’d seen the stylized eagle of the waffenampt and thought it was kewlier than the A for Cap’s forehead.
And as more information emerges, it’s looking more and more like a halfboot - sorry, the rainbow lantern corps are still there, and getting their own title - but on the other hands, Barbara Gordon’s going to be Batgirl again, wiping The Killing Joke from continuity.
I was the biggest comic-geek. I sold my last collection to get the down payment for my house. haven’t read them in over 20 years.
But,
I did have a friend turn me on to Astro City, The Ultimates, The Authority and Fables. Good stuff. if more comics were like that, i’d still be buying them.
How would you like to become a fan again, with no upfront cost? I know where you can read all the current books, from cover to cover, and find just what you are looking for.
After reading since the mid-60s (I remember an issue with Supergirl and another with the Legion), and after years of slowly-fermenting disillusionment and disgust with the state of the comics industry, I stopped buying comics cold turkey around 4, maybe 5 years ago.
I doubt it will be the savior of comic books, but I will be watching for the details of this online model that DC is purporting to be developing. The cost will have to be very reasonable to lure me back for even a handful of titles.
