Stay Out of my Toy Store
Filed under: Comics
Imagine that two kids walk into a toy store. The first is a spoiled brat; his parents will buy him whatever he wants. He gets toy after toy after toy, not because he necessarily wants them, but because they’re cool and he wants what the other kids have. A month later, the toys are scattered over the floor of his room, broken and forgotten.
The second kid chooses just one toy. Probably not the fanciest or most expensive, but it’s the one that he wants. He cherishes it and plays with it every day. It might wear out eventually, but even then he’ll repair it and keep playing with it.
The Batman titles have become home of the spoiled kids. Every writer wants all the toys, but doesn’t play with them well. First in Batman was Hush, where Loeb and Lee brought out every character they could get their hands on. Immediately after that was Broken City, where Azzarello and Risso, not to be outdone, trotted out an impressive list of villains themselves. Switch over to the current storyline in Gotham Knights current storyline, and once again villain after villain is being added to the storyline. That’s three storylines in one year that feature most of the heavy-hitters from Batman’s rouge’s gallery.
Isn’t it about time that the Batman writers and editors realize that quality is better than quantity?
Bring back the second kid; the one who cares about his toys.
July 6th, 2004 at 10:28 pm
Personally, I blame the readers. Because if they didn’t keep buying bad Batman books, the writers and editors wouldn’t keep trying to pander to them by doing this gimmick storylines.
July 6th, 2004 at 10:59 pm
I just caught up on about too-damn-many months’ worth of Gotham Cnetral, and I hope that you’ve been reading it. Batman only shows up sporadically, but all the other characters are great. The “Soft Targets” story, I thought, was particularly noteworthy.
July 7th, 2004 at 8:17 am
Dorian,
While I agree that the reading public bears some blame, I feel it is unrealistic to expect that ever to change. Michael Jackson still sells albums, Adam Sandler still makes movies, and TV shows with Mike O’Malley are still being broadcast.
At some point the editors need to step forward and say “enough.” My concern here was not the poor quality of the storylines as much as the fact that every writer feels the need to use every character. And DC runs these stories one after another. It wouldn’t be so bad if there were time between the storylines, but Batman went straight from Hush to Broken City, with many of the same characters. Then Gotham Knights starts it all over again, with Riddler, Hush, Joker, Penguin, and counting.
July 7th, 2004 at 8:21 am
Mark,
I have found Gotham Central a good read, precisely because it avoids the problems I stated. My favorite issues have been the ones that only tangentially involve a super-villain, and deal more with the everyday characters.
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