Nightwing Ye Old Dud

Babo!
Old generation DC characters are ruining progress among the younger ranks.

I realize a lot of the focus right now lies on the displeasure, to put it midly, with Countdown. Personally, while there is merit to what most bloggers out there are stating, Countdown will not disappoint in the end. How do I know this? Undoubtedly, the end results yielded by this event will spark interest among us, albeit a rough ride by contrived and flat story-telling. How Jimmy Olsen, Mary Marvel, Karate Kid and the rest will factor into the coming Crisis will entice the readers. Unfortunately, only by the time Final Crisis hits or maybe by picking up the last Countdown issue (sneaky, sneaky!).

My personal focus lies on Nightwing and Flash at the moment. Why is that? Because I still bare a grudge against DC for ridding themselves of the fun, energetic, young hero side in the form of Conner (Superboy) Kent and Bart (The Flash) Allen.

I would have been more than happy seeing Nightwing making the ultimate sacrifice at the end of Infinite Crisis. The character had at this moment remained Batman's greatest accomplishment in DC and nothing more. Just a throphy. While on the other hand, Superboy's life was picking up speed. His father was recently revealed to be Lex Luthor, his romance with Wonder Girl, learning new dimensions of his powers.. This was a teenage character, one could relate to and often delivered snappy dialogue.. You would just think "Typical Connor" and laugh with him. Superboy is a character that reached out to many and had so much potential. Same cannot be said about Nightwing.

DC's argument for "disposing" of Superboy in the last minute, instead of Nightwing consisted of two parts.
a) Old school die-hard fans could not let go of Bat-boy, I mean, Nightwing
b) The solid promise that Nightwing would be revamped in order to make his existence relevant i.e. stop the mediocrity of Nightwing

I have respect for point a, since I would mourn at the loss of say Oliver Queen (nice fake-out there with his wedding eh?). However, when one outdated character's continued existence comes at the expense of a beloved and promising character, this is the time to take a stand. I'm not voting for killing off Nightwing, although tempting. I am demanding to see this big change in Nightwing in respect of Superboy! It is yet to be seen in his title, wouldn't you agree? Superboy is writhering in his grave as long as Nightwing persists on this insipid direction.

The movements in the Flash title is not as horrid as the above one though. Waid is cranking out fairly enjoyable reads about the new Flash family. It is deplorable that DC felt the need to kill Bart Allen off, a widely adored character too. He could have simply been made Mercury, in tribute to his mentor Max Mercury. As this character, he could have been created as a mix of Impulse and Max Mercury. DC does not seriously want us to believe he was removed because of his convulted origin? Wally West's kids will have origins that will read just as convuluted. From Infinite Crisis to Lightning Saga. That's Simple Origin 101, yes.

The tragedy of all this is really that DC killed off two supreme teenage figures in their universe who had limitless story potential. What they leave behind are old vintage figures adored by nostalgic people from the Teen Titans days. This generation also need young characters from DC that they can look up to and subsequently form fond memories of.

Tomorrow I take on X-events and predictions on Messiah Complex.

Babo out!

P.S. How cool wouldn't it be having a triangle drama between Robin,Wondergirl and Superboy NOW? Instead of Future Superboy? Not a bad story going on in Teen Titans right now, but just a thought.

Monkeying Around

Baboooo!
An overview of my life with comics

When creating this blog, I wondered what direction I should take. Should I rant on the trivals of my life or unleash relentless comments on pop culture phenomenons? I opted for the latter. Now you have movies, music and so forth.. But they all have distinguished fanbases and immense popularity that I reasoned that this blog deserves its undivided attention towards comicbooks. Hey, always a supporter for the underdog.

My comicbook virginity was taken the year of 1991. Not counting Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck comics etc. My first superhero experience in the comicbook format came with the issue when Spider-Man and Wolverine are in Berlin. The very same issue Ned Leeds is assassinated (takes place off-panel). Not the most tasteful way to be presented into the medium, but it sufficed. The realm of superheroes engulfed me and I steadily became an avid collector. To be noted, strictly to explore all the stories out there, not as a comicbook speculator of the 90's. Being a comicbook fan in Sweden was not an easy task at that time. I subscribed to all available titles at that time, which only consisted of Spider-Man and X-men comics and the occassional throw-in material from Fantastic Four, Hulk, Avengers etc. Meaning there were no DC titles. It wasn't until another decade had passed that I would be fully exposed to the power players of DC.

Sweden had a surge in comics during the 80's where both Marvel and DC titles were being published. Unfortunately, the only reminder of this boom in comics became prevalent at markets during festivals in my hometown. In the US, back-issue bins at comicbook stores can be taken for granted or even buying TPBs. Imagine this coming to your town once a year for only three days. This was my reality and you could exclude TPBs, no such thing in the Swedish market. You'd have to collect all individual issues, if they even were published. Imagine having parts 1-3,4-6,8-10 of Crisis of Infinite Earths and the remaining parts being unattainable.. Fairly significant amount of story value being lost to me as a reader eh? Nevertheless, receiving the whole experience of the stories became an ever present quest.

With technological advances, the scope of the comicbook world suddenly widened for me. I was now referred to classic stories, previously unheard of, like Batman: Year One, Animal Man, Giffen and DeMatteis Justice League and you name it! I imported every collection I could get ahold of and grew rather adept in my comicbook knowledge.

Currently, I am quite unrestricted concerning my comicbook exposure. Live in the States for the past year. As you might surmise, I most certainly have used this opportunity to plunder the treasures among comicbooks.

Having grown in proficiency and humility regarding comicbooks and knowledge of it, I intend to pass this on to our minor, but passionate and growing group of comicbook fans.

Babooooo out!