Everybody Wants To Be Alan Moore

[billroper]

Sure, Moore wrote Watchmen. And Marvelman. Or Miracleman, depending on when you first got to read it. And they're fine stories. They aren't the problem -- although I suppose Marvelman could be dropped into the problematic category. But since it wasn't part of a shared universe venture from an operating publisher when he got hold of it, I'll exempt it from a "this character was so dead" point of view.

No, the problem was Swamp Thing, specifically the story, "The Anatomy Lesson", wherein we discover that everything that we knew about Swamp Thing was wrong. It was a good story. It breathed life into a failing character. It was throwing up a "Hail Mary" pass and watching the receiver pull it down in the end zone to win the game.

You know how many times those "Hail Mary" passes fail to work in football? Almost all the time. Guess how often they work in comic books. About the same percentage of the time.

But because this trick worked once for Alan Moore -- twice if you count Marvelman -- every so often some writer and editor decide that they should try it again, because what's there to lose? Or just because it'll be cool.

As a result, we get idiocies like Carlin's Metal Men or Morrison's savaging of the Chief in Doom Patrol. Or the mess that Moore and Bruning made of Adam Strange.

See, mostly this trick doesn't even work for Alan Moore.

So why would even a talented comic writer think it's going to work for him?

Comments

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

Of course, you HAD to note this on the same day that Doug Flutie (he of the famous Hail Mary pass when he was in college) retired.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Quite apart from any agreement or disagreement we may have on this subject, I'm really curious as to what prompted it. And I've got an uncomfortable feeling it's something by either Bendis or Geoff Johns (I won't assume Chuck Austen because you used the word "talented").

[billroper]

I've seen Johns write some stories that I would normally disapprove of, but it's usually in the process of cleaning up someone else's mess, so I'm willing to cut him some slack.

Bendis, on the other hand, has moved onto my don't buy list. The whole New Avengers thing was pretty much the last straw. Or maybe House of M.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I completely agree. The only good thing about New Avengers was that JMS wrote a few good scenes of 'em in Amazing Spider-Man. But I'm not even buying that now. And House of M, and Avengers Disassembled... feh.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

One of the comics I picked up on Free Comic Book Day was The Simpsons, which the creators, knowing who goes to Free Comic Book Day, wisely filled with stories that would appeal to comic geeks. The first panel of the first story shows Comic Book Guy reading a copy of "Archie Disassembled", and saying, "Big Ethel killed Moose to get Jughead's attention? Brian Michael Bendis, you've done it again!"

[billroper]

Sounds about right. Sadly. :)

[jeff-duntemann.livejournal.com]

I liked Metal Men the first time it came out--it was one of the few comics that I actually owned myself (and carefully hid from my parents) and it would be interesting to see what the remake was like, even if it was hideous. Do they have a Web site?

[billroper]

Here's a fanzine review of the Carlin miniseries. I suspect that this was all retconned away by Infinite Crisis, an act of mercy if there ever was one.

The first volume of the Metal Men Archives is due out in June. I've ordered a copy if you want to read it.