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I'm not saying this comic is boring for kids - I'm saying this comic is boring ME. And it's not that I'm some Johnny Lowbrow who just wants to see stuff blow up - someone explain to me the point of having three whole pages of the characters chatting about who'd play them in the film (first person to say "it's characterization, man" gets a kick in the chin - cos it's NOT).
But yeah, I can't help but go back to what was originally stated as the primary goal of the Ultimate line - doing "clean reboots" of established characters to free them from the weight of continuity and draw in new readers. NEW readers - kids, adults, whatever. Now, most of us here are very likely conditioned from a young age to go buy and read comics every week (I know I am), so we can possibly understand and forgive that Millar is "building to something," but I don't know how many people who *don't* have those ingrained reading habits are going to be willing to wait for 5 monthly installments to go by (at several dollars/pounds a pop) until something happens. You say your kid brother loves the book, Runce, but is he BUYING it, or just borrowing yours? Would he actually pay for it? Would your dad? Or your neighbour?
Would Spider-Man have made however many hundreds of million dollars this weekend if it was two hours of quiet character moments? Or do you think that all those people liked seeing Spider-Man do, you know, superheroey things?
If I decided to make Die Hard 4, and took an "innovative" approach and made it a kitchen sink drama about John McClane and his wife coping with the stress on their marriage from John's anti-terrorist adventures, set mostly in their kitchen and possibly in the waiting room of their children's pyschologist - would that be a good movie? Or would it be completely pointless because Die Hard is about Bruce Willis running around with his shirt off shooting a machine gun and blowing up buildings?
Again, I'm not a fight-loving dullard, I'm all for characterization - but in the context of a superhero comic it needs to be tempered with a bit of action, otherwise it's all a bit pointless. I think Ellis and Hitch's Authority managed to have some very strong characters - but if you go back and look, there's *at least* one major action sequence in EVERY ISSUE. They struck a perfect balance, which is why I think it's the best superhero comic in recent memory.
Sigh.
Anyway, to end on a positive note, I still think Hitch is a magnificent artist.  |
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