COMICS PORTAL: It’s the Story, People!

I’ve been following DC’s new initiative “All In,” and it’s made me look back and reflect on how I fell in love with comics in the first place!

It’s been a while since I was first introduced to comics—decades, actually! I loved the amazing stories being told on the printed page! I enjoyed that they really had an introduction, a middle, and then an ending! (I wish more comics today had that!)

Granted, society moved at a much slower pace back then. The television really only came on during the dinner hour to catch up on the day’s news, then for what became known as “prime time,” between 7:30 and 11 p.m. And the stations only broadcast from the morning until midnight at the very latest. Other than that, we occupied ourselves with talking to each other and reading. I actually loved that!

You need to realize that comic books, like TV shows, all followed the same form—they had a set pattern that each episode followed, which had to return to that basic premise so the next episode could do the same thing all over again! Hey, even movies did that then!

An issue of the Batman comic always featured the Caped Crusader in Gotham City, with Robin as his sidekick. Bruce and Dick lived in a spacious (some called it “stately”) Wayne Manor. Every few years, DC would post a full page or a double-page spread that said that Batman was always in his mid-30s, Robin in his mid-teens, and everyone else stayed the same age as they appeared. Each adventure featured them at the same stage of their lives, and each story showed the Dynamic Duo living their normal lives until Gotham was vexed by a murder, another crime, or a nutty villain bent on challenging Batman in particular. They would take on the problem, eventually solve it, then experience a lighter sequence before again returning to their regular daily living.

On many levels, that was much like my experience was at home. Those tales would briefly interrupt my life with a dashing adventure or two, then I would get back to playing with the other kids in the neighborhood before going to bed, then heading to school the next day.

The first time I noticed this pattern changing was in an issue of the New Teen Titans in which Dick Grayson stopped being Robin, then he became Nightwing an issue or two later. I had never seen a character’s life evolve on that level in the comics prior to that.

That was about the time the X-Men rose to prominence. Each issue was vital reading, and still is according to some fans. The current storylines just might make a reference to something that happened in an issue that came out even decades ago! Personally, I think that’s one reason the mutants aren’t quite as popular as they used to be. I don’t know anyone who can constantly keep up with all the issues even with pull lists and the like!

Around that same time, I noticed that TV shows had begun to follow that same way of storytelling. Of course, 24 on Fox was a big one for that, but Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was my earliest experience of character growth and what would become known as “sequential storytelling.”

You didn’t dare miss an episode because you might not understand what was going on the following week when you returned! VCR’s helped us keep up with the weekly programming! Granted, there were now more than four channels on the tube, so the competition for our attention was beginning to increase! In order to keep everyone glued to the screen each week, the networks moved more and more into that mode.

I remember one afternoon when I was home from work early, and I turned on a Spider-Man cartoon. I was stunned to see that it was “Chapter 22 of 36” or something close to that, and I was sure I would have no idea what was going on, so I just changed the channel.

Now, of course, we have entire seasons streaming on channels at one time! That was unheard of before! Is it that we have more free time or that we want to be entertained more today than previously? Or are our lives less interesting, duller than what we can experience in the fictions our TV sets?

As I mentioned previously, “All In” apparently will bring back the Justice League, something I was hoping would happen. I like it when all the “big guns” team up to take on a “big” challenge. It’s fun to see the various heroes interact with each other.

But it’s much, much harder now to keep every issue in mint condition, especially if you want to actually read the books! Eventually, real life gets in the way of comics, and we miss an issue or two, which makes us pause buying them or stop altogether. Some people buy only trade paperbacks to keep up with stories, but I’m still an individual issue kind of guy.

Still, a comic issue might only keep you engaged for maybe five to ten minutes. If you buy a stack of comics on a Wednesday, that might entertain you for an hour or so. What’s a guy to do with all the rest of his time?

This is one of the reasons videogames are so popular these days. They can keep you occupied for hours, possibly days at a time! And after you “win” the game, you could go back and dive in again! With the various scenarios you encounter, you can be busy for weeks at a time!

Of course, this is one of the big challenges comics face today. How can a comic book compete with a videogame that engrosses players for hours? Then, too, you have to read every issue in sequence to be completely aware of what’s happening in the story.

That’s quite a bit different from the old days when each book would take the reader on one (or more) adventure that would then end so the next issue would do the same thing all over again.

Nowadays, comics keep rebooting and restarting. Marvel has brought back their Ultimate universe again, and some are calling “All In” as DC’s “Ultimate universe.” DC does make a habit out of doing this kind of thing every so often, and they don’t seem to realize that every “jumping on” point is a good “jumping off” point as well.

When I first starting reading comics, individual issues often literally sold in the millions of copies! Now, a book that sells 100,000 is considered a huge success.

I have previously told the story of a friend who let me very, very carefully read a Batman comic from the 1940s. When I went through it, I found a total of four stories there. These days, we’re lucky if we get chapter four of a trade-paperback-sized story in an issue!

Honestly, we’re seeing some shows go back to self-contained stories. There is a good example in the Star Trek franchise. The Prodigy series just concluded their second season, and it was completely told from episode to episode. On the other hand, Strange New Worlds has self-contained story arcs in each episode while there are character arcs that can carry on from week to week. It’s reminiscent of the original series from the 1960s, which made the franchise such as a success over the years in syndication.

Maybe someday a comics publisher will want to go back to that mode of storytelling! I think that might be at least worth a try!

Until then, many of us will do our very best to keep the industry alive. I buy as many comics as I can keep up with, and I would encourage as many of us to do that as possible. There are trends and cycles in the comic book industry just as there are in other areas of entertainment. Hopefully, we’ll see a return to what made comics as much fun as they have been in the past.

What do you think? Should the industry consider bringing at least some comics back to how they started, with self-contained stories? Or will the books go off in an entirely different direction? Do you have any suggestions what the publishers might consider? Whatever your opinion, feel free to share it in the space below!

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