Why It's Hard to Love Mainstream Superhero Comics These Days

[Khaldun]

It's not necessarily the excessive continuity porn that's the problem. Grant Morrison's run on Batman has a lot of nods to continuity, but it has a lot of weird, fun, interesting stuff going on that doesn't require continuity.

It's not necessarily the recurrent cycles of storytelling, a problem that all serial fiction has. The right writer and the right artist can make an old story seem pretty fresh, and show you something new about an old character.

No, I think what's wrong is that a lot of the twists and reinventions and ideas in superhero comics between 1985 and the mid-2000s have curdled into a slimy, repellant mess in the hands of dullard editors and writers, particularly at DC. Marvel at least seems to have a stable of new writers coming on strong (Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman, Fred van Lente, Jeff Parker) and they're really starting to craft a set of distinctive, fun books. Sometimes Marvel stumbles by letting Millar or Ennis take a dump on their books, but they seem to have recognized that this is not really the way to get some fresh air in the room and create new sources of intellectual-property value for the future. The most successful adaptations of Marvel properties for film have been fairly "traditional" in their story hooks, characterization and so on.

DC, on the other hand, is just clueless at the moment, in almost every respect. Aside from Gail Simone and Grant Morrison, the entire line is a cesspit, and their intellectual property development is equally adrift, with the exception of Batman. And this last week, DC managed to sum up in one book everything that makes superhero comics at the moment something that almost make you wish Frederick Wertham would rise from his grave and crusade against.

Following a screamingly awful Justice League miniseries that finished up with the casual, pointless murder of the child of Green Arrow's former sidekick Speedy (who has variously gone by  the names Arsenal and Red Arrow in recent years) and the mutilation of Arsenal/Red Arrow/Speedy himself (arm amputated), the miniseries The Rise of Arsenal starts off with the title character fighting his former lover and enemy and mother of his now-dead child, a female assassin who killed everyone in a small Middle Eastern country a few years back because, you know, that's proves she's a badass or something. Anyway, Bullseye Arsenal has learned to use anything as a weapon and so he beats his enemy/lover with an electric cord, ties her up with it, and tries to have sex with her. Only he's impotent because he keeps thinking about his kid. NOT SUBTEXT: this is all blazed in neon. So he decides to to do some heroin, remembers his past adventures with drug usage, gets his freak on and in a drug-induced haze, beats a bunch of guys savagely while holding onto a dead cat that he thinks is his daughter. Maybe using the dead cat as a weapon. Batman catches up with him, beats him up, and takes him to superhero rehab. Which sets up the undoubtedly exciting next issue (no doubt remaking Arsenal into a villain, blah blah blah).

As a lot of folks on the interwebz are pointing out, this takes all sorts of ideas that were once pretty interesting, like Alan Moore's bit in Watchmen on how superhero costumes and violence could be a sexual fetish, and turns it into a sort of 15-year old's bad fanfic trope. Only this isn't bad teenage fanfic: it's a title published by the company that's leading into some sort of new continuing book. So more than one person had to sit down and say, "Yeah, that's  a great direction, go with it."

[UnSub]

It's a copy of a copy of something Garth Ennis would do, taped to a medium that doesn't know if it wants to be for children, for adults or both.

[HaemishM]

I've pretty much stopped reading most comics again these days. There was a point when I started back that was really exciting: Morrison's great run on the X-Men (that was thoroughly shit upon right after he left), Infinite Crisis and 52, a lot of Geoff Johns' stuff at DC, Bendis' run on Daredevil (before that went off the deep end), Brubaker's Capt. America. But since Avengers Disassembled, Marvel has run off the fucking rails. I haven't even followed the Dark Reign shit as all the stuff that led up to it was mind-numbingly retarded and filled with the stench of Bendis. Sometimes, you can tell when writers really hate superheros and shouldn't be writing them? That's most of Marvel's heavy hitters these days. Unfortunately, DC didn't provide much respite, as that Countdown series was a year-long series of weekly punches to the logic centers of my brain. Morrison's run on Batman has left me absolutely cold - it doesn't feel like a Batman story, it feels like a Batman dream. Final Crisis was the final straw there, as it took all of Morrison's whacked out ideas on the universe as an abstract and shoved it into the DC Universe. It didn't help that I don't really like Darkseid - the best story ever told with that character was Keith Giffen's run on Legion of Super-Heroes in the 80's.

In short, both Marvel and DC need a complete, Ultimates style reboot. The Arsenal stuff you just mentioned? That sounds disgustingly bad.

[Velorath]

This thread seems to be more about why the Cry for Justice mini, and everything tied into that story is crap.  There's some good stuff in the DCU.  Personally I'm still really enjoying all the Green Lantern stuff.

[Khaldun]

The Green Lantern stuff has had a few moments, but I thought Blackest Night itself was pretty much monkey balls. Cry for Justice/Teen Titans seems to be where Didio's at in terms of editorial direction--anything that isn't going his way has to struggle to stay afloat under heavy editorial pressure. Except for whatever Morrison is doing: him they leave alone.

Haemish, it's worth a look at what Parker, Van Lente, Fraction, Brubaker and Hickman are doing at Marvel. I'm not that wild about Hickman's Fantastic Four, but there's some fun ideas in there. Secret Warriors is a bit hit or miss; I like it when it's focused on Nick Fury, not so much on his super hero squad.  Brubaker's Secret Avengers first issue was great. Parker's Atlas is a fun title. Anything Van Lente does is great. (His Action Philosophers! indie graphic novels are fantastic.) 

Jason Aaron is also mostly pretty great--his Ghost Rider run was good fun.

[Velorath]

I thought Secret Avengers had a good first issue, but even with Brubaker on, I'm a little wary of Avengers books right now since they seem to be affected most lately every time there's a change in the MU's direction.

I've cut back on a lot of comic reading right now, although not really for any major reason.  Freak Angels is still the best thing I'm reading at the moment, and it's free.  I keep up with Green Lantern on a regular basis, and still read Walking Dead even though it really drags at times.  I'd kind of like to catch up on the Guardians of the Galaxy/Cosmic Marvel stuff, as well as read through the various Spider-man "The Gauntlet" arcs as those have gotten a lot of praise.  Probably should catch up on Cap and X-Factor also.

[Khaldun]

Oh, yeah, I forgot about the Abnett/Lanning "cosmic" books like Nova and Guardians. They've practically created a separate Marvel U to play with, and it's a good deal of fun, very consistent quality. Didn't get drawn into any of the events, really. About to start a new miniseries, Thanos Imperative.

[Kitsune]

Wow, I owe you an apology, Khaldun.  I completely thought you were making shit up for that whole Red Arrow thing, but a little checking around proved that you were unfortunately telling the complete truth.  I'm just speechless.

[Velorath]

Wow, I owe you an apology, Khaldun.  I completely thought you were making shit up for that whole Red Arrow thing, but a little checking around proved that you were unfortunately telling the complete truth.  I'm just speechless.

I caught the reviews for it as it was coming out over on IGN and they were completely ripping it apart.  It's a shame because I think a lot of good work had been done on the character throughout his Red Arrow phase in recent years.

In the end, I don't know how something that bad got the green light, but I'm guessing a big part of why this happened is because Marvel and DC have always had a problem with "Legacy" characters (characters who are the next generation of a particular hero, like the various Flashes, War Machine, Scarlet Spider, etc...).  These characters always hit a point where they end up taking on the mantle of the original, then they bring the original back and since it's pointless to have two versions of the same character, something dramatic always has to happen, be it death, or becoming a bad guy, or a complete redesign.

[Velorath]

Also, as far as stories go that sounds completely made up, would you believe that the Punisher was chopped up and killed by Wolverine's son during Dark Reign and was brought back as FrankenCastle by the League of Monsters?  Yes it happened, it's in-continuity, and the book has been renamed FrankenCastle and is 6 or 7 issues into this new direction.

While I haven't read any of it yet, it's actually getting positive comments from a lot of people.  Despite being in-continuity, it's obviously not taking itself very seriously (unlike that Angelic Punisher shit from back when), which I guess makes it a bit like Ennis' first run in that respect.

[UnSub]

I obviously only linked this in my mind: Mighty God King on that Arsenal storyline.

[NowhereMan]

FrankenCastle is a pleasant surprise and considering they've got Punisher MAX it worked really well in terms of what to do with the character. Totally off the wall but it has worked so far without actually making him into something completely different, it's not so much that it isn't taking itself seriously as they've added a fun twist on the character and effectively placed him in a different comic ecosphere. He's dealing with lizard men, Vampires and Japanese warrior cults now rather than the mob. Cosmic Marvel, at the moment, is really, really good and fun. If you haven't read any of it or avoid event books seriously read the Annihilation event (that kickstarted the rebirth of Cosmic stuff). It is fucking incredible Space Opera drama on a grand scale that is well written with fun characters.

DC has more than just Batman going for them, the Green Lantern Corps stuff has been entertaining (although perhaps I've just got a massive soft spot for cosmic stuff) and the recent Superman storylines have been pretty good although sadly predictable since we have to return to the status quo. Gail Simone's stuff on Power Girl was great, fun comic book cheese that also had Amanda Conner's art.

[Khaldun]

Simone wasn't on Power Girl (it was Palmiotti and Grey writing, Conner on art), but the recent Power Girl run has indeed been great. Unfortunately, DC got tired of its greatness so they're putting Judd Winick on the book, which means soon Power Girl will join the Roy Harpers of the world by getting AIDS or having radioactive discharges from her vagina during battle or something else horrible.

The Superman storyline recently wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great. For DC these days, that's pretty good.

I think the FrankenCastle thing was a good example of taking interesting chances--I mean, after Ennis, I'm not sure what's left to do with the conventional version of the character.

[Khaldun]

Wow, I owe you an apology, Khaldun.  I completely thought you were making shit up for that whole Red Arrow thing, but a little checking around proved that you were unfortunately telling the complete truth.  I'm just speechless.

I caught the reviews for it as it was coming out over on IGN and they were completely ripping it apart.  It's a shame because I think a lot of good work had been done on the character throughout his Red Arrow phase in recent years.

In the end, I don't know how something that bad got the green light, but I'm guessing a big part of why this happened is because Marvel and DC have always had a problem with "Legacy" characters (characters who are the next generation of a particular hero, like the various Flashes, War Machine, Scarlet Spider, etc...).  These characters always hit a point where they end up taking on the mantle of the original, then they bring the original back and since it's pointless to have two versions of the same character, something dramatic always has to happen, be it death, or becoming a bad guy, or a complete redesign.

Chris Sims had a nice commentary a little while back about the unfortunate side effect of DC's legacy-churning. All the original versions of their characters are boring white guys (Barry Allen being the most emblematic of these). Some of them have been replaced over the years by boring non-white guys, but also sometimes by non-boring non-white guys. The Atom, for example, who was totally whitebread except for the fact that his wife was crazy (even before she murdered someone) got replaced by a much more interesting character who happened to be Asian. But whups, we're not willing to tell more interesting stories about the interesting character, and the only thing we know how to do now is churn the character to be someone else. The current DC wave is, "Make it so that it's the old whitebread guys again". So? Kill the new non-white guys. Usually by mutilating them or something in the process, because that's ADULT, man.

Churning characters is an old schtick in serial storytelling. No harm in that. But a lot of the time, in Silver Age stories, they just send the replacement or new guy off into storytelling limbo when the old guy comes back, because, you know, maybe there will be some new stories you can do with that guy. Waste not, want not. Now, you kill them, preferably in a gore-drenched way. Then the writers sit around and look at each other and say, "Well, um, did Barry Allen become more interesting while he was away? No? Um, let's give him some family tragedies or something. In fact, let's make him really different than he was when he was a whitebread suburbanite back in the Silver Age." Jeezus, guys, then just make a NEW CHARACTER. Really.

If I was the owner of one of the Big Two, I'd be riding them to make some new intellectual property, not just keep alternatively pissing on and venerating Legacy Characters. If you're going to go Legacy, tell some fucking legacy-worthy stories. It's not like most of these characters are totally exhausted of storytelling potential. It's just that hacks like Winick and Krul don't know what to do with them besides shit that wouldn't make the cut for a public-access soap-opera.

[Triforcer]

No totally new superhero will ever be as popular as Batman, Superman, and Spiderman.  95% of America probably can't name any other comic characters (well, maybe the Joker, possibly a couple others).  There's a second tier of Flash, the X-Men, and a handful more.

You really CAN'T get rid of those guys for any length of time.  They've been around 70 years.  Nobody cares about Batwoman or Red Hulk or Fash's nephew or any of that shit.  Hell, how many breakout heroes have been invented in the last 20 years?  I can think of a few interesting villains (they seem to be created with more regularity), but no real first tier superheroes. 

[Lantyssa]

Squirrel Girl?

Deadpool is the best example I can think of, and he was introduced almost twenty years ago.  (Cable, too, I suppose, but I never liked him enough to consider him 'known'.)

[Trippy]

No totally new superhero will ever be as popular as Batman, Superman, and Spiderman.  95% of America probably can't name any other comic characters (well, maybe the Joker, possibly a couple others).  There's a second tier of Flash, the X-Men, and a handful more.

I'd put Wolverine just behind the big three.

You really CAN'T get rid of those guys for any length of time.  They've been around 70 years.  Nobody cares about Batwoman or Red Hulk or Fash's nephew or any of that shit.  Hell, how many breakout heroes have been invented in the last 20 years?  I can think of a few interesting villains (they seem to be created with more regularity), but no real first tier superheroes. 

Spawn was created in the last 20 years.

[Velorath]

No totally new superhero will ever be as popular as Batman, Superman, and Spiderman.  95% of America probably can't name any other comic characters (well, maybe the Joker, possibly a couple others).  There's a second tier of Flash, the X-Men, and a handful more.

You really CAN'T get rid of those guys for any length of time.  They've been around 70 years.  Nobody cares about Batwoman or Red Hulk or Fash's nephew or any of that shit.  Hell, how many breakout heroes have been invented in the last 20 years?  I can think of a few interesting villains (they seem to be created with more regularity), but no real first tier superheroes. 

The 95% of America that can't name any characters other than Batman, Superman, or Spider-man aren't going to pick up comics anyway.  They don't care what Hulk is appearing in the comic at the moment.  And really, if a movie gets good hype and marketing, they don't care if they know the superhero it's based on anyway.  Blade was a C-list character from a Dracula book Mavel did in the 70's and he wasn't even the star of the book.  People still went and saw the movies.

[HaemishM]

Both comic companies are suffering from serious legacy issues, and they both need a total reinvention, a total reboot. Again. Every 20-30 years is probably a good time to do so. They also need to reinvent their business model. The monthlies aren't where their money is anymore. I'm not even sure they pay for themselves at the ridiculous prices they charge. Taking advantage of digital distribution for monthlies, with collections being released in print every 6-12 months is a much better scheme, IMO.

As for the stories, they all need reboots. If you are going to bring back a legacy, bring it back big time and redo the whole universe, a la The Ultimates. Update the origins, change the characters as need be, etc. The thing is, when these legacy characters were big, comics were something kids and teenagers read. The new generation of kids AREN'T READING COMICS in the same way, just as they aren't consuming traditional media the same way. The comics industry is one large fan wank for manchildren.

[UnSub]

No totally new superhero will ever be as popular as Batman, Superman, and Spiderman. 

If you are only thinking comics, sure. However, Ben 10 is an immense superhero property built entirely on a cartoon.

Also, on the notion of DC just doing odd stuff... Remember "Super Friends" when it had Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog? Well, in a recent storyline they brought them into DC continuity as part of the Teen Titans.

Guess what happens? [Big image below]

[Vaiti]

Also, on the notion of DC just doing odd stuff... Remember "Super Friends" when it had Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog? Well, in a recent storyline they brought them into DC continuity as part of the Teen Titans.

Guess what happens? [Big image below]

I have no words. All I can say is aside from Green Lantern and Power Girl, I can't stand to read DC comics. Well and Batman, to an extent.
And even those they did this level of "we must go all out overboard and be ADULTS in killing loved characters in horrible ways!" recently.
Blackest Night was horrible for it's entire run. Batman's series have somewhat avoided Blackest Nights thankfully.

[Triforcer]

That Marvin and Wendy spoiler is crack fueled insanity.  I mean, WTF?

[Margalis]

I have no idea who Marvin and Wendy are.

Is that Wendy? What's up with her teeth?

[Vaiti]

Marvin and Wendy are exactly who UnSub said they were. Two characters from Super Friends. Super Friends being a very old DC cartoon.

They were the comic relief sidekick tag alongs. The guys who would get captured and say "Gee golly." and whatnot. Typically '80's kids cartoon stuff. Think of them as the kids who tagged along with the Transformers.

And that would be either something behind her or the inside of her hand, not her teeth. But yeah, it isn't so clear.
Eddy Barrows does some pretty odd coloring.
http://www.eddybarrows.blogspot.com/
I think it is his use of blacks that throws everything off. Like he is trying to retain black and white line style while also having color. Interesting concept I guess, just looks off to me is all.

[Margalis]

I guess those are her fingers on the other side of her mouth. Looks like a 30 Days of Night Vampire.

On the subject of reboots and such I say fuck that noise. The whole idea of the Ultimates was kind of dumb in a few ways:

1. The original versions are still the classics. Note how all the movies are based on the originals.

2. The Ultimates are building up their own continuity issues.

3. The pitch was to appeal to new readers but the books are filled with things that only longtime readers would get. The shit that regular readers went crazy over, like that Wolverine was a bad guy when introduced in Ultimate X-Men (or was it Colossus or Cyclops?) goes totally over the head of a new reader. And I'd say something like The Ultimates is 95% for existing comic fans, the entire point of those books is to see how the alternate versions compare to the originals.

You can soft-reboot characters, or just write good stories. Comics tend to be cyclical anyway - Batman has captured the Joker a bazillion times - it doesn't make any fucking sense but that's ok. That's part of the suspension of disbelief in comics, that characters don't age much and that the same stories can play out over and over again.

When I was a kid I started reading comics that had decades of continuity behind them but that was ok because the stories stood on their own. Too much byzantine continuity is an excuse, the real problem is bad writing and bad editorial oversight.

[UnSub]

Comparing Wendy and Marvin - who were more inane than the Wonder Twins, which is a feat in itself - to the humans in the original Transformers cartoon is a good one. Having Wonder Dog kill Marvin and main Wendy would sort of be like a new Transformers comic coming out where it is revealed that Optimus Prime sexually molested Spike for kicks while Bumblebee watched. Sure, it's a mature storyline, but no-one who enjoyed the original source wants to read it.

[Velorath]

Comparing Wendy and Marvin - who were more inane than the Wonder Twins, which is a feat in itself - to the humans in the original Transformers cartoon is a good one. Having Wonder Dog kill Marvin and main Wendy would sort of be like a new Transformers comic coming out where it is revealed that Optimus Prime sexually molested Spike for kicks while Bumblebee watched. Sure, it's a mature storyline, but no-one who enjoyed the original source wants to read it.

If it was done to specifically point out how stupid the trend of brutally murdering innocent characters in order to tell a "mature" story is (which DC has overdone, starting with Identity Crisis), I could see it as actually being somewhat funny.  From checking out some wikipedia links though, it doesn't sound like that was the case, and that the storyline was taken somewhat seriously.

[NowhereMan]

I'd disagree somewhat on Ultimates, one of the reason those characters have done so well is that the premise and design for a lot of them seem to be pretty solid bases for writing interesting stories. That can be limited somewhat by 1) Existing continuity (though that's not a hard barrier of any kind) and 2) Editorial wishes to keep in universe continuity consistent. Creating a whole new Ultimates universe was an escape from that and a chance to have a whole lot more freedom with those characters. Of course the decision to retell all the most famous storylines associated with said characters and blow through 20 years of plotlines in 3 while also building up lots of continuity baggage is questionable but Ultimates 1 & 2 were good collections with interesting stories. Of course then Ultimates 3 went pants on head retarded referencing some main universe stories but for no given reason (like ) and Ultimatum which was so fucking over the top stupid it doesn't really deserve commenting on.

[AutomaticZen]

1. The original versions are still the classics. Note how all the movies are based on the originals.

The movies are a weird synthesis of whatever Marvel feels like.  For instance, movie Cap's proposed costume is definitely Ultimate inspired.

Also, on the notion of DC just doing odd stuff... Remember "Super Friends" when it had Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog? Well, in a recent storyline they brought them into DC continuity as part of the Teen Titans.

Wendy is still alive.  And Wonder Dog was apparently Ares' dog.  Weird shit.

DC is just a weird fucking place these days.

[HaemishM]

The movie versions of ALL the Marvel movies have taken bits from both Ultimates and regular continuity for whatever the best effect is. Iron Man in the movies didn't get the shrapnel is his chest during Vietnam, he got it in modern-day Afghanistan. Making Iron Man stories in 2010 with iPods and the Internet while trying to claim he's still a product of the Vietnam War strains even a fanbois' believability. The world moves on and while I'm certainly not in favor of tying continuity to current events, after almost 40 years of stories, there really needs to be some reset of the world so that it makes sense. DC has tried it multiple times (Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis), it hasn't done a good job of it each time because the editors want to half-ass it. They don't want to start all the books over again with issue #1's or without trying to immediately bring all the books back to the status quo before the event happened. Good writers can at least make good stories out of bad, overbearing continuity - but most aren't good writers and even the best are often hamstrung by retard editors like Joe Quesada.

[Khaldun]

The movie versions of ALL the Marvel movies have taken bits from both Ultimates and regular continuity for whatever the best effect is. Iron Man in the movies didn't get the shrapnel is his chest during Vietnam, he got it in modern-day Afghanistan. Making Iron Man stories in 2010 with iPods and the Internet while trying to claim he's still a product of the Vietnam War strains even a fanbois' believability. The world moves on and while I'm certainly not in favor of tying continuity to current events, after almost 40 years of stories, there really needs to be some reset of the world so that it makes sense. DC has tried it multiple times (Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis), it hasn't done a good job of it each time because the editors want to half-ass it. They don't want to start all the books over again with issue #1's or without trying to immediately bring all the books back to the status quo before the event happened. Good writers can at least make good stories out of bad, overbearing continuity - but most aren't good writers and even the best are often hamstrung by retard editors like Joe Quesada.

Marvel doesn't do a lot of fanfare about it, but they do adjust the synchronization of their continuity with real-world history on a rolling basis. When the Fantastic Four first started, Reed and Ben were WWII vets; later they were vets of a vaguely-identified Vietnam-era war, and these days I don't think we're meant to believe they were in the military at all. Lately, the Iron Man main-MU continuity has basically synchronized with the movie--Tony was wounded in some post-Cold War conflict, it's been implied.

[Khaldun]

More fun on this subject: Kevin Smith's latest Batman miniseries, which he has conceded was written entirely on weed (surprise!) includes a scene in which Batman says he pissed in his pants during a key scene in Frank Miller's old Year One storyline, in which Batman's old girlfriend says she calls him "Deedee" because they "hit double digits" when they first screwed, in which Batman beats said old girlfriend because he thinks she's a robot, and so on and so forth. But it's Kevin Smith, and he's kewl and shit, and clearly deserves to write whatever comics he wants.

A lot of people noticed at this latest ComicCon how almost no one was interested in what was actually going on in the comics actually being published by DC and Marvel. There's a reason for that.

[stu]

The last time Marvel was good had to be around the time of Morrison's X-Men run. Before that, X-Statix, but those issues were essentially indies. The two biggest houses are in a constant race to take up the most shelf space. Couple that with multi-title IPs and you get a boat load of people pulling characters in different directions all the way up and down the chain.

Stagnation is the game. Tweak costumes from time to time. Kill off a superfluous character but build it up as a big shock. Bring in a couple big names, but rarely let them do anything they would like to do with the characters. A twelve year old needs to be able to pick up a comic and be in tune with everything by the end of the first page. Being risky or innovative doesn't factor into that when you're casting a massive net.

The fun stuff is probably in the limited run titles like Punisher: Born or Fables, but those come out of the imprints. Otherwise, Indies are where all the action is.

As for Kevin Smith, I miss his early stuff with Duncan Fedrego and Oni Press.

[HaemishM]

That's the thing about writing characters like Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and most of the big imprints. If you want to do ANYTHING that hasn't been done with the characters, you're limited to shock shit. You're limited to reading between the lines of older stuff and making shit up that probably doesn't belong. It can be done well - even though I hated the ending, Identity Crisis was well done. But you had to invent events that happened between the old issues like the brainwashed villains, which kind of goes against what those stories were about, in order to get anything new out of them. Otherwise, you're just rewriting old stories that have been done a thousand times before and everyone says you're being stagnant.

[Khaldun]

I think the only thing you have to do with the characters is write them well. But that's too hard for the editors at the Big Two, so they rely instead on the same narrative hooks that drive soap operas, the sense that somehow something shockingly new is happening. Look at Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman, which was just absolutely perfect from beginning to end--even if you don't like Morrison's other work, you've got to like that series. And it doesn't do anything new, or anything special, or anything shocking: it just understands the character, works with his history, and tells a good story with great characterization.