10. The 52 Civil Infinite Crisis of the Secret Invasion of Ambush Bug's Butt - Crossovers aren't a new phenomenon in the mainstream comic world. They've been around since The Secret Wars or Crisis on Infinite Earths. What really stands out about the crossovers of the 00s are the FREQUENCY. And the quickly dwindling gap between the next one. It seemed like Secret Invasion picked up almost immediately where Civil War left off. And can we come up with some new words for crossovers that aren't secret, crisis or infinite?
9. ZOMBIES. LOTS AND LOTS OF ZOMBIES - This isn't JUST the mainstream comic world, but as often happens, as the more mainstream pop culture bleeds into specifically comic culture, there starts to be some symbiosis (ie Elvis' fascination with Captain Marvel Jr. and CM3's, which is a dumb name, later obsession with The King). Zombies seem to have exploded onto pop culture again (Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Bong of the Dead, etc) and with that, of course, zombie comics.
8. The Rebirth of the Silver Age - With such titles as Earth X and Kingdom Come, comes an obvious harkening back to the childhood of our now employed comic book artists and writers. There isn't much to say about this, other than "fanboys all grown up and got the power and want to turn their fanfiction into profit."
7. Lavaroid - This is nothing but a blatant plug for Kevin Conn's comic, Lavaroid. Suck it, weenies.
6. The Coincidal Coincindental Rebirth of Winter Soldier and Red Robin - With the rebirth/return/marketing tactic of Jason Todd and James "Bucky" Barnes, comes the retirement of the terms "Bucky Dead" and "Jason Todd Dead". This is actually more monumental than it seems, in my opinion. Bucky and Jason Todd were the standard for death. If you were Bucky dead, you were DEAD. That's how it worked. Now that we've returned BOTH of these characters, we've essentially said, "All bets are off." Death has lost it's weight and intensity in both Big Boys. Which leads me to number 5.
5. The Death of Captain America (again) - The reason this is on the list at all isn't because I think it had a monumental impact on the comic book world, but because it didn't. Life moved on. Captain America was shot, people were sad, they moved on. The number one comment heard was, "He'll be back." This doesn't happen in the real world. People don't die and the public doesn't say, "Oh, he'll be back with Thriller 2." Except on Easter. Take that as you will. The Death of Superman was a much bigger deal (and handled better), because you thought there was an actual chance Superman was being replaced.
4. Women in Refrigerators - This was another top 10 that should have been higher. What this was is a list of all of the female characters in the mainstream comic world (mostly) that had been killed, depowered or dehumanized. It originated from a scene in a Green Lantern comic where Green Lantern's girlfriend gets killed and stuffed into a refrigerator to make him angry. Point being, that females in comic books are, more often than not, used as punching bags to give the male heroes something to save. The list is pretty extensive. The issue is, most fanboys KNOW of the site, but it's used almost as a joke. I'm not going to start a rant about how the lack of impact its had is a perfect example of its purpose, but it's true.
3. Acceptance of Comics into Mainstream Society - This wasn't so much an EVENT that happened in this decade, as it was a result that happened in this decade. There has always been an overall awareness of comic books in popular society, but it's not as much of a social stigma to read comics in general as it was even 15 years ago. This is the result of a few factors, some being a result of each other, like the surge of comic book movies, comic book cartoons, and the wearing of Underoos by hot chicks.
2. The Erasing "Reboot" of Spiderman's Marriage - I find this a VERY important event in the mainstream comic book world. It was a blatant use of editorial power, that was (in my opinion) just a reflection of Joe Quesada's fear of growing up. Spiderman/Peter Parker's entire marriage to Mary Jane was (sloppily) erased to rewind Spiderman back to his carefree teenager days of crimefightin' and going to night clubs. It made me stop caring about Spiderman stories.
1. The Damn Interwebs - With the popularization and wild-fire spread of forum boards, social networking sites and mind-melting slashfiction, the internet has actually affected what is being created. The internet is not just an information site, it had become an extended form of our reality. In some cases, it has replaced our reality. To not call this the most significant change in the way comics are seen, created and bitched about would be false.
*this is entirely based on my opinions and observations. If you disagree, why don't you start a flamewar about it?
1 comment:
**flame on!**
I disagree!
**end flame on!**
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