Tuesday Column - What I Like About Comics

So if I'm going to be reviewing comic books, you should probably know what it is I look for in comics, hmm? What I like, what I hate. Besides, it's a fun way for me to talk about some of my favorite books and characters.

It's the story, stupid. A comic can be the prettiest damn thing on the shelves, but if the story sucks, I'll hate it. Comics are a type of storytelling - the story is of paramount importance to me. The book should have a story to tell, preferably a good and interesting story, and then tell it. And as a story, it can fall into any of the pitfalls that a good story might - complex plots are good, overly convoluted ones aren't, et cetera.

Art matters. I know I just said the story is of paramount importance to me, but that doesn't mean that I worship the ground a writer walks upon and ignore the art. I look at it like this - the comic writer writes the story, but it's the artists that tell the story. The writer can have the best story on the block, but if the art is incomprehensible, I won't be able to read it (I'm thinking specifically of Duncan Rouleau's art on Steven T. Seagle's Alpha Flight book - intriguing story, but the art was just so mind-bogglingly incomprehensible that I couldn't keep up).

I like superheroes, dammit. It's something of a trend to look down on mainstream superhero comics. And let's face it; they are kinda silly. But I like them anyway. I don't care. That's why the reviews on this site are going to be superhero-heavy; suck it up and deal.

I like the fun stuff, I like the serious stuff. Sometimes I want my books to be a lighthearted romp (see last week's Patsy Walker: Hellcat issue). But sometimes? I want the deadly-serious-just-this-side-of-pretentious tone that has been exemplified in recent years by the X-Men books. But the best books are the ones that have moments of both. I'm thinking of Matt Fraction's Invincible Iron Man, which is nicely serious but always has one or two lighthearted, make-you-smile moments, as a fine example.

Accessibility matters. I don't want to feel like I have to go and do research in order to understand a comic book. This is the heart of my problem with Final Crisis (for the moment - it's a work in progress, after all). I want to feel like if I do go and do research, it will enhance the story - but not be a necessity for the story. Trinity is a great example - there are bits and pieces of interesting lore dropped here and there throughout the book, and if I go and track them down it makes the book better, but if I don't? I can still enjoy the book. For an older, more classic example, Kingdom Come is chock full of moments that are even more resonant if you know the history and the lore and the references (I'm thinking specifically of the Climactic Battle Scene, where in the backgrounds you can actually see Green Arrow and Black Canary's daughter get wounded, and Dinah and Ollie stop fighting entirely to go and take care of her)... but if you don't know that stuff (as many people, I suspect, did not during their first exposure to the book), it's still a great story. I am a sucker for that stuff.

Lastly, and possibly controversially...

For the moment, no Spider-Man. I'm not going to revive the debate about the "One More Day" and "Brand New Day" storylines. Those debates have been held already. Here's all I'm saying. I grew up with a married Spider-Man. Peter Parker married to Mary Jane Watson-Parker was the status quo for me, and I loved it. I understand why marvel didn't want that marriage to continue, for storyline reasons; I also think that the execution was pretty botched.

Other people have already said that the current Spidey book is a hell of a lot of fun and they love it. That's awesome for them. For me, though, the cognitive dissonance would be too much. I would open the book, expect to see one thing, and see something else entirely. I don't begrudge Marvel the right to do what they wish with their character, or the writers for telling their stories. They're just... not stories for me, right now.

Sometime I might give it a shot. When I do? I'll write about it here. But for now... I'm stepping back. Not boycotting, not angsting - like I said, I hear good things about the current thrice-monthly Amazing Spider-Man, and the people who are enjoying it are right to enjoy it, I'd never tell anyone else they shouldn't love a book that they love... it's just not for me, just now. No harm, no foul.

Now maybe you have a slightly better idea of where I'm coming from with my reviews. This next round I plan on adding some graphics to the post to break up the Giant Wall O' Text, and then there might be more format changes coming down the line, I'm not sure yet. We'll see!