Where Has The Wonder Gone?
I've been thinking a lot about how much comics and particularly superhero comics have changed since the early days of the medium and I keep wondering where the wonder and awe that we first experienced when reading these comics has gone to. Surely we've changed and they have less of an emotional impact on us than they had when we were children, but have comics really changed that much that we've lost all of the awe we once felt while reading the exploits of Superman and others? I don't think we have, I think it's still there deep within us, but we rarely let it out. It's in the chills we get when we see Spider-man on the big screen swinging through New York city. It's in Kingdom Come when we see Superman tower over the preacher in his appearance on the bridge. It's in Invincible when all was revealed about his father's past. It's there in a lot of books and movies, but we, especially critics and online fans are too ingrained to pick apart something to actually "feel" the work like we used to. We also tend to know what's going to happen in an issue before it even comes out.
We have rumors, interviews, and previews out the wazzoo now, but back then all we knew about what was coming up in the books was what was in the next issue blurb. Can you imagine that now? What if you really didn't know Superman was going to die before Doomsday hit him that last time? What if you didn't already know that this weeks villain was the Joker and he kills some of the force from Gotham Central? I think we would be a lot more amazed at the new books each month. We aren't the only medium who has this problem. It's evident in movies and TV too. Spoilers are online for Sopranos before the episode is even complete. Trailers tell us almost the whole movie nowadays. One reason I'm excited about the Avengers Disassembled Event coming up is that I have no idea what was going to happen. At least I didn't until I happened across a preview in Wizard accidentaly. It still didn't spoil it for me since it was just a small part of the book, but it didn't help things. We've sucked all the surprise and awe from comics with all the previews and interviews we do. Now how do we fix that and still report on comics? I have no idea, but I am still excited about comics and I'm not going to let that die.
We have rumors, interviews, and previews out the wazzoo now, but back then all we knew about what was coming up in the books was what was in the next issue blurb. Can you imagine that now? What if you really didn't know Superman was going to die before Doomsday hit him that last time? What if you didn't already know that this weeks villain was the Joker and he kills some of the force from Gotham Central? I think we would be a lot more amazed at the new books each month. We aren't the only medium who has this problem. It's evident in movies and TV too. Spoilers are online for Sopranos before the episode is even complete. Trailers tell us almost the whole movie nowadays. One reason I'm excited about the Avengers Disassembled Event coming up is that I have no idea what was going to happen. At least I didn't until I happened across a preview in Wizard accidentaly. It still didn't spoil it for me since it was just a small part of the book, but it didn't help things. We've sucked all the surprise and awe from comics with all the previews and interviews we do. Now how do we fix that and still report on comics? I have no idea, but I am still excited about comics and I'm not going to let that die.
