Just like the gaming industry, the comic book industry is talking only among themselves.
For those of you don’t follow video games, E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo) is going on right now, and the big three console makers – Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo – all had their big press conferences this week. And, frankly, I couldn’t have been more disappointed. Especially when it came to Nintendo.
Nintendo announced a new video game system which, no matter how much I love Nintendo, I think had got to be the most pointless idea I’ve ever seen. But what really got me, and not just when it came to Nintendo, but to all the conferences, was the game announcements. Namely, there were hardly any. And what was announced? Sequel after sequel after sequel.
I mean really, Halo 4 Microsoft? Haven’t you already milked that franchise into the ground? And Final Fantasy XIII-2? XIII-2? Square, have you even finished vs. XIII yet?
Even the new Zelda, I series I’ve loved since I was a kid, is looking dull to me.
With the Wii, Nintendo was all about trying to expand the market and brining people who either never gamed or had lapsed at gaming back into the hobby. Now? With this new system – called the Wii U of all things – that strategy appears to be out the window. Because all this new system is is what the industry kept whining they wanted Nintendo to do – a Wii HD. Which is playing right into the same arms and perception race that Nintendo got into with Sony and other companies before, that lead them into falling off from being the top company for the previous two generations. Case in point? The game trailers shown for the Wii U (and whomever at Nintendo came up with that name should be fired for being an obvious plant/troll for Sony/Microsoft) were all actually the PS3 or 360 versions of said games.
Don’t believe me? Check it: http://thisismynext.com/2011/06/07/nintendo-wii-u-games-xbox-360-ps3-fak/
And this brings me to DC Comics and this whole reboot thing, which – as rumor has it – will include ending the Lois and Clark marriage. And the notion that doing this will bring in new readers to the comics, including the Superman ones.
Here’s the thing DC Comics: No, it won’t.
Maybe a few people who used to read Superman but dropped it will start picking it up again, but that’s not expanding the market and bringing in new readers – which is what articles and some executive talk about this whole thing is claiming is the goal here. That is just giving old readers a new coat of paint to something they are already in-the-know about and familiar with.
And in this case? The coat of paint isn’t even new. It’s grabbing a can of paint from the Silver Age and using that instead of going out and buying a truly new, fresh coat of paint.
Just like the Wii U is nothing but a new coat of paint to the original Wii. An HD coat of paint, with a dumb controller that has none of the appeal that the Wii remote had when it came to the original Wii.
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In rebuilding their comics for the new 52, DC made a number of decisions that were applauded by readers and a number that were upsetting to readers. One of those decisions was to erase the marriage of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. With the debut of Action Comics #1 next week and Superman later this month DC begins its new set of Superman stories where Lois and Clark are single. Here is a tribute and farewell to the Kent/Lane marriage by one of my favorite readers, Mary. I hope you enjoy it. Her thoughts start below.