Welcome Back

Woo hoo!

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/diamond-de...rts-1101-7.html

Wow, that's pretty crazy. Could a month where DC dominates in general be just over the horizon? That hasn't happened in... wait, has that even happened at all since Marvel came about?

DC has had a few wins in the past couple of years, but nothing crazy and nothing consistent. I recall they won a few months when they bought Wildstorm... and then they tanked Wildstorm...

We'll have to see how it shakes out. I've seen a lot more hype about DC stuff available online then I have Marvel stuff. And the 2.99 price point might just save the day for DC.

I'm not sure how much it was DC tanking Wildstorm as opposed to Wildstorm just more or less bottoming out on its own. It's seemed that DC has generally allowed their imprints a great degree of freedom - part of Vertigo's success - and that Wildstorm may have become redundant in changing times. It's seemed to me like they were throwing ideas at the wall to see what stuck for a couple years before going under, trying to gain interest in the imprints superhero universe (as it seems like the one or two Wildstorm projects people WERE paying attention to were largely divorced from it).

I wonder if, in some regards, it wasn't inevitable. It was born out of that nineties mold that is so very reviled these days, at least somewhat justifiably. Image seemed to survive by evolving; what was once a company built on the hot artists of the 90's doing those things that were popular then became a house built on top notch creator owned works. I have to wonder if Image would still be here today if they hadn't changed course, especially with the overall strife within.

Perhaps Wildstorms lack of evolution is what damned it. Either way, it kind of withered on the vine. Planetary wrapped for good in '09 and Ex Machina finished in 2010. With those gone, the only thing left were the video game based comics.

Really now? I don't go to enough places to really judge what's big right now. DC does seem to have the more interesting projects coming though; Marvel's ramping up into big event mode, which I hate. I may check out Fear Itself in trade because of Matt Fraction, but I'm not looking forward to the entire line being tied up. DC's kept their events relatively contained lately and Marvel seemed to be following suit. Guess not.

It's very possible, but given how something like "the Boys" sells, I honestly think that books like WildC.A.T.S. and the Authority can not only survive, but thrive, at a smaller publisher.

The 90's also seem to be making a comeback. I mean we have foil covers, polybagged issues, useless buckles and puches on costumes, and of course thunderstrike. But I see your point, there is still a lot of looking back on that stuff with an "ugh what were we thinking" reaction.

But I think you could argue that at least The Authority paved the way for some of the more violent comics on the shelves now. Personally they're not my cup of tea but it's out there in full force now and you could probably say Wildstorm opened the door for it. I think once DC bought the properties though, they became more main streamed and lost a lot of that edge.

I keep getting interrupted while writing this. I'll write more later!

True enough that the 90's seem to be making a bit of a comeback, but there's certainly a few caveats there. For one thing, Marvel's done the vast majority of it, from the occasional polybags to hologram covers on down. Clearly they haven't learned much from their bankruptcy. Whenever I see one of those things happen, though - or, say, Marvel decides it would be a slamming idea to stop pretending the Clone Saga doesn't exist, which is moronic - it seems everyone just audibly groans. So I'm not so sure how much of a market there is for a lot of this stuff and how much of it is just Marvel screwing around with things that nearly killed them again.

They're like a former heroin addict; that last time nearly killed them and they're clean now... but it felt so good and it'll be different this time right?

Perhaps, but isn't The Boys technically a vicious, humiliating, unrelenting parody of superheroes? A connection between that and a couple harder-edged-but-still-dealing-with-straight-superheroics titles might be a bit of a stretch. Not to mention that between Preacher and his deservedly popular long run with the Punisher had Ennis as a name in comics, at least to some extent. Plus The Boys started at one of the Big Two before going to a smaller publisher, giving it a higher built-in audience for the switch.

I suppose it depends on the circumstances. The runs people talk about when it comes to the Wildstorm books are by proven commodities.

All I can really say for sure is that Wildstorm always stunk of the 90's to me in a way mainstream stuff has abandoned, which is a lot of why I personally avoided it in general.