When folks discuss nostalgia and comedian books, it’s not all the time in a flattering manner. There are justified complaints about how the dominance of white males in the trade — and the disproportionate weight that DC and Marvel give to the opinions of older, white, male followers — results in stagnation and the sidelining of characters, creators, and concepts that might make comedian books a extra welcoming, inclusive — and, frankly, fascinating — medium.
This obsession over nostalgia is the way you get a bazillion motion pictures about Batman, Spider-Man, and Wolverine whereas shamelessly ignoring everybody else. (I’m completely not bitter about Days of Future Past.) It’s the way you get guys like Barry Allen getting back from the useless; despite the fact that he was gone for many years, his story had a satisfying finish, and most followers have been completely proud of the characters who had arisen to hold on his legacy.
The drawback with nostalgia in comics is that there’s a sure subsection of the fandom that wishes issues to be precisely the identical as they have been a long time in the past. Their rose-tinted reminiscences inform them that the comics they learn as kids have been so a lot better and purer than the stuff we get these days. Instead of being joyful to take a seat with these reminiscences or reread previous tales, they wish to impose their imaginative and prescient of a “excellent” comedian on the remainder of us and by no means, ever let characters develop and evolve. Worse, they generally resort to bullying and belittling anybody who disagrees with or will get in the way in which of that imaginative and prescient, as we see with the Comicsgate “motion.”
I’m simply saying, there’s a Marvel villain that explains why this considering is unhealthy.
But is all nostalgia evil? Of course not! For occasion, take Justice League International (take them, please!).
Justice League International was a particularly goofy line-up from the mid-to-late Eighties that includes lesser-known heroes. Folks like Ted Kord (AKA the second Blue Beetle), Fire, Ice, and different entertaining however underappreciated characters had their day in the solar earlier than as soon as once more being overshadowed by the Big Three. But no extra! Thanks to the facility of nostalgia, these characters are getting a much-deserved second life.
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Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville has our titular heroes gal-palling their manner round Superman’s hometown and making an attempt to determine how (or if) they match into the bigger hero group. They even deliver L-Ron, an previous robotic buddy from the JLI days, alongside for the experience, which is bound to elicit delighted squeals from followers (I’m talking from expertise right here). It’s a lighthearted, joyous sequence about friendship, second possibilities, and cannibalism that I strongly suggest, whether or not or not you’ve ever picked up a comic book with these characters earlier than.
Ted Kord has additionally made a outstanding comeback, on condition that he was shot useless twenty years in the past. Aside from costarring in Blue & Gold, a miniseries that’s reduce from the identical ridiculous fabric as JLI, he has turn out to be a supporting character for the third Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes. Blue Beetle: Graduation Day and the following, ongoing Blue Beetle sequence each have Ted serving to Jaime modify to life in Palmera City and combat the assorted unhealthy guys he encounters there.
Series like these seize the spirit and tone that I really like a lot with out fully obliterating continuity in an try and recreate the basic days of Justice League International (which we should always not need, each as a result of that isn’t honest to newer followers and since that sequence is now dated as something).
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I feel another excuse this form of nostalgia works is as a result of it fills in gaps left by the unique materials. Unlike watching the Waynes get shot for the fourth or fifth time, we get to dig deep into the characters’ relationships and backgrounds in complete new methods. We see creators like Josh Trujillo and Natacha Bustos — creators who aren’t simply straight, white males — get an overdue likelihood to discover the total breadth of DC’s playground. These creators, in flip, have added various new characters to the heroes’ world (Jaime lives along with his lesbian aunts; Fire’s newest crush is disabled). And we give characters like Ted Kord a second likelihood after being controversially killed off for shock worth.
In quick, sure, comedian e book followers (and a few creators) too typically use nostalgia as a cudgel, however that doesn’t imply it needs to be the trade’s kryptonite. When deployed in the fitting manner, nostalgia can preserve veteran followers like me joyful whereas additionally attracting contemporary new readers who will come to like these characters as a lot as I do. And isn’t that what we’re all right here for, to like these characters?
Anyway, please give me a sequence about Rocket Red, DC. It’s the logical subsequent step!
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