Luke: This week on the Nerdcenaries Round Table: Point 1 Issues From Marvel Vs The New 52 From DC. Joining us we have Nerdcenaries contributing artist Joe Hunter, contributing writer Jon Hex and chief officer Luke Herr.
Jon: Hi, guys.
Luke: Now Jon, I believe last week you mentioned that you get comics somewhat frequently, is that correct?
Jon: Every week.
Luke: And Joe – when do you get comics?
Joe: About twice a month, whenever I’ve got the money.
Luke: I haven’t been sure about the .1s myself. They’ve been a mixed bag and a strain on my money. Thoughts on them.
Joe: Haven’t bothered.
Jon: Most of them seem fairly superfluous. Like why is a book on its sixth issue have a .1.
Joe: Exactly
Luke: It’s supposed to be “Hey you can jump in at this point to a new story but you don’t need to buy this issue if you already read the comic.” Except it didn’t work like that for most of the comics.
Jon: I understand trying to bring people up to speed, but they could’ve inserted a recap at the book.
Luke: And then with Uncanny X-force they just did a one shot with the Ravagers as the bad guys. Never made it important or anything.
Joe: No fucks to be given.
Jon: I think it was meant to be avoided by regular readers. I plowed through, but maybe it was meant that way.
Luke: That said though – the Hulk issue started a storyline that was incredibly important with Rulk getting the nanovirus thingy.
Jon: Some writers make it work.
Luke: I think too many writers didn’t use it the right way. The only one that did in my opinion was Fraction’s Iron Man which got me crying.
Jon: It’s like tie-in issues.
Luke: Fraction did Tony Stark at an AA meeting telling his life’s story.
Luke: Is Matt Fraction Iron Man?
Joe: Is he?
Jon: I seemed like Fraction half talking about himself. An alcoholic.
Joe: Huh.
Luke: Huh.
Luke: #MattFaction
Jon: Looks like you guys don’t read Casanova.
Joe: I haven’t no…
Luke: I only got the first volume and I need to reread that.
Jon: It was an article he wrote at the end of one of the issues. It was a great issue, though.
Joe: Didn’t know that. Learning is awesome!! And holy shit I feel bad now.
Jon: Why?
Joe: I’m dumb. Moving on.
Luke: Now on the other end of the spectrum we have the New 52.
Jon: The .1s that took place in between storylines were cool, like X-Factor’s. The new 52 would have been a lot better if the reboot wasn’t half-assed. For me, at least.
Joe: I just hate the redesigns. All that goddamn piping…
Luke: The 52 was rushed and that shows and it hurts the brand.
Jon: Anyone else notice no one draws Superman’s suit the same as anyone else?
Luke: Not really
Joe: Yep.
Luke: It makes sense though.
Jon: If the books were presented as a completely new thing, that would be one thing.
Joe: but a bunch of them just picked up from where they were the month previous
Luke: If it wasn’t a full generation reboot it would be one thing.
Jon: But they’re trading off old stories, then saying some didn’t happen and others not the way it was presented.
Luke: Yeah. I think if they gave the teams a year in advance it would be better than it is.
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Joe: And basically no one has any idea what anyone else is doing, which is wrecking the idea of this being a “universe”.
Jon: They didn’t want to lose the readers of the highest selling books. Man, Kyle Rayner, who’s running a hippie space commune, shows up In Voodoo, like he was the closest GL to Earth.
Luke: Why does Earth have three Green Lanterns when every other planet has one? That always bugs me – spaceism.
Joe: uh-huh
Luke: But I agree – Green Lantern had no changes to the main stuff.
Joe: And the whole reboot/renumbering/whatever isn’t completely terrible, just wildly inconsistent.
Luke: Yeah and some creative teams make no sense.
Jon: They just stopped Batman Inc. dead but kept the storyline.
Luke: And then said stuff that made no sense. Like if there are no events how did Batman die which lead to the creation of Batman INC? If they just went and said we are starting fresh with the characters all 20 years at the start of their careers I’d like that.
Joe: And can someone please explain to me what the hell is going on with the Robins please?
Jon: Every Robin had like a year.
Joe: Oh. Lame.
Jon: And Dick Grayson was recruited at 16.
Luke: Years in comic time make no sense.
Joe: Nothing in comics makes sense any more.
Jon: Announcing them doesn’t.
Luke: I think what would be wonderful is if they limited titles to 10 series, got the writers and creators together and plotted ideas. And sort of plan a time cycle like a One Year Later deal. I never read OYL though.
Jon: They need volume to be profitable.
Luke: You can sell one of each title though if there are less titles to more people. It’s like the In-N-Out idea – limit the menu so people buy stuff easier and then push the digital back catalogue more.
Jon: I think DC is way too big to limit themselves to 10.
Joe: Right.
Jon: That’s like massive firing time.
Luke: 10 main titles and them a bunch of limited series?
Jon: Most people ignore limited series until a trade comes out.
Joe: How about actually planning things out and making sure everyone’s on the same page so things aren’t terrible?
Jon: Crisis On Infinite Earths was the same way.
Luke: How about pushing digital more by dropping the prices while offering more content in print books?
Jon: It was a massive change to the universe and they let the creators choose whether they wanted to participate. You’re really pushing digital.
Joe: Someone getting an e-reader for christmas?
Jon: If I had a tablet, maybe I would buy some digital books. But I love two page spreads to depend on digital.
Joe: Mmmm. Spreads.
Luke: I like the idea of digital but I also think pushing cheaper digital comics would cut down on piracy and would get more non-readers to read. Also I like sticking to print books for most of the comics I read.
Jon: I’m totally for making past issues cheaper, but new stuff should be the same or only slightly cheaper.
Luke: Or offer print only content. Like back up features that won’t show up online except in a collected edition.
Jon: Brubaker does that with Criminal trades.
Luke: It would give print comics a benefit to fend off the cheaper price of digital. Now if a company were to relaunch I believe the consensus was we wanted full collaboration between creators, time to work on it and plan and anything else?
Jon: Planning should be for everything.
Luke: Next Week – Archie Betty/Veronica/Granny Goodness – Marry Boff Kill. Thank you gentlemen.
