COMICS CULTURE SHRAPNEL from CBEM 327
I haven't been doing all this out of a love for Ellis. It's more of a curiosity thing, the feeling I should be trying something new.
I guess it all started with the library. My local public library has been getting a good amount of graphic novels in. I've been snatching them up whenever I see a new one, emptying out almost the entire shelf a few weeks ago. They had Green Lantern, Flash, Fushigi Yugi, WildC.A.T.s and Stormwatch. I've read them all and returned them yesterday, and have to say I enjoyed the Wildstorm stuff the best. The WildC.A.T.s were of the Moore era, and I had a lot of fun with that storyline. I was already familiar with the characters, but not enough to know about anything that's happened to them since the first couple of issues. So even though the storyline was five years old, it was brand new and a pleasant surprise to me.
It's the same with the Stormwatch stuff. I was dimly aware of things like the Authority and have even read some of it. But I never felt the need to investigate, I was never drawn in, despite knowing almost nothing about the history. I suppose that's partly a testiment to how Ellis effectively severed all ties with Stormwatch, transforming that branch of the Wildstorm Universe into something new and different. Now we find ourselves swimming in a tide of spin-offs and inspired bys... The Monarchy. The Establishment. I get the feeling there will be more. It's enough to become its own style and era, which people on the Wildstorm message boards have termed "post-Ellis" and then go on to gripe how they liked it better before. They want their old teams back, their old heroes.
Odd, ain't it? Wildstorm doesn't mark itself enough in the comics culture landscape for most of us to know what's going on with the titles in the past few *years*, but there's enough of a presence for people to actually complain about it not being what they like, what they reminisce about. It was a big deal when DC bought Wildstorm, but how many people can actually tell you what Wildstorm was publishing at the time? I can remember what DC had going for it three years ago. I can tell you what Marvel was spitting out then. Maybe even Dark Horse, and general Image stuff. But Wildstorm? ::shrug::
I admit I really don't know anything about the Wildstorm Universe. Now, I suppose I could start buying up back issues like mad and eventually figure things out. But that's not supposed to be the way comics work at all. You either have the whole "accessible to every new reader" thing, which seems to be the note a lot of these titles are playing on anyway. They don't give a crap about all that history, convoluted and twisted even in only ten years of publishing. Characters are created and they march on their merry way with new and revolutionary stories, eventually sounding the same note as this new style gets all used up. It's very convenient for new readers.
But pretending that all those old stories didn't exist does the long-time readers a disservice. There was something they liked about those heroes and villains, something about those titles and concepts that kept people reading even after the artists left or the art style got old. Maybe the writing wasn't very good, but then again, neither was the writing on most old DC and Marvel titles. And people read those anyway, and liked them enough that the heritage is still respected today.
The people on the message boards aren't against the new wave of storytelling, they just dislike being shoved out of their little corner. And I don't blame them. Comics buying is a weekly ritual, followed for years and generations. We find somewhere we're comfortable and stick to it. Maybe some would say it's about time for these people to move on and find something better, that these stubborn individuals are what's wrong with the industry. There's nothing wrong with them at all, this is just the way people are. My mother will never buy a rap or heavy metal album, and I never expect her to. She likes adult contemporary and latin music, and that's fine with me. The music industry isn't going to come crashing down because some people don't like techno or world music. So I'm not going to fault anyone for liking Wildstorm, or 90's superhero books in general.
But times change, and that era of superpowers is going away. And it seems that anyone who enjoyed it is content to sit back and complain. For the rest of us, it's very easy to let go of something we know nothing about. I became curious about the history of the Wildstorm characters and went searching on the web for information about the heroes, teams, whatever. And found almost nothing informative or interesting out there. In fact, I found almost nothing. There aren't a lot of sites out there. If I wanted DC hero biographies or a comprehensive history of the X-Men, I know where to go. But when I searched Google, Altavista, and Comic Book Resources for Wildstorm information, I came away severely lacking.
What keeps a comic going is the fan base. People buy the title, they tell others about it. They build websites or run newsgroups. A community forms. There are a few old-school Wildstorm fans out there, and I commend them for their efforts. But it's not enough. The new era is coming, with it's new fans. Let's hope that they're show more care and learn from the past. That is, if there is a past left to remember.