I dont know how many folks here follow the current offerings by the establishment that have inspired our favorite tabletop game, but there has been some interesting things coming out from both Marvel and DC recently and I thought I'd share my thoughts and maybe a disscussion about whats going on. There will be comic spoilers below.
Marvel
Captain America: Steve Rogers #1
Honestly, I have enjoyed quite a few of the books comming out of Marvels "All-New All-Different" branding era (Spider-Man/Deadpool being my personal darkhorse favorite). And even after the unruly story arc that was Pleasent Hill, where an old and aged Steve Rogers was brought his youth thanks to a Cosmic-Cube-fragment-turned-litte-girl, I continued to enjoy it. But there is a strong possibility it all kinda stops here.
Steve Rogers #1 marks the historic event of being the Retcon to end all Retcons, that moment where Marvel gloriously leaps over the Mobie Dick of all sharks. The moment you tell your audience that Steve-mother-f---ing-Rogers was a Hydra double agent from the time he was a little boy is the moment you make them all question your ability to write compelling stories. The lead writer has already come out and said that this is a long haul shift, not something that will end or resolve in one arc or even the next few. And frankly that worries me. They better have a damn masterpiece of storytelling up their sleeve to warrent this. Look, im not trying to be the old man who hates change and tells the kids to stop playing on his yard, but I have limits to what I can swallow (yes, even in comics). Captain Americas creator was Jewish for cryin out loud, and you're turning Rogers into a full on nazi Hydra agent? Give me a break.
How It Could Work: Steve and his Mom were talked to by a New York cell of Hydra in the late 20's when he was a boy. This is a good chunk of time before the Nazi-lead branch of Hydra croped up in Germany. Hydra has long been an organization thats disjointed, or has many heads, as it were. Just look historically at the differences between characters like Zemo and Red Skull and the differences they represent in how they view Hydra and what it should be/stand for. It is possible then that you could write a story where Steve grew up in a Hydra cell that believed in Freedom. Maybe not 100% exactly the proto-typical American Freedom as he has had everyone believe, but some form of it that will likely be explored. He took his stance in Civil War against what he viewd as oppressive governemnt action. He fights against Hydra (or the Hydra that we have come to know) because they are oppressive as well. By shedding a light on the type of Hydra Steve is a part of and maybe contrasting that to the current Hydra that is being build by Red Skull in a similar fashion to current middle eastern terrorist groups, we can break Steve down as a character and really explore what he feels and what he really fights for. Are there better vehicels to tell such a story other than to make Rogers Hydra all along? 100% yes. But even as skeptical as I am, I can see a way for them to at least make the most of their hillarious Retcon and make the most out of it.
DC
DC Universe: Rebirth
I have complicated feelings here. First off, let me say that I have not been a big fan of much coming out of DC the past few years. Recently, the Darksied War arc of the Justice League was pretty freakin cool honestly, and I have been a fan of Snyder's entire New-52 run on Batman. But thats about it for me. The Darksied War was the lead in to DC doing a 100% overhaul and rebranding of their entire line of comics that they are calling the Rebirth for those who don't know. What Marvel did last year to some decent success, DC is following. And of course like everyone else I was skeptical of the direction they might take. DC Universe: Rebirth is the stepping stone from the New-52 era into the Rebirth and we got our look at what they wanna do and the philosophical story reasons for wanting to do it.
This was 80 pages of an issue that was deep and full of meta disscussion not only about the characters and universe that the New-52 characters find them in, but there was a deeper message about storytelling and where DC is at in general. I can't get into all of it, but I'll try to outline to basics here for those who want to know and don't read comics.
Wally West is our main character through the piece. No, not the current version of Wally. The Pre-New52 Wally West. Immediatly I am hooked by this because you know a major shift must be coming for them to bring this discarded version of Wally back into the fold. He is stuck inside the SpeedForce outside of time/space and trying to get a foothold back into the current universe to tell someone of the secret he has learned while there. But there is a problem. No one in the current DC universe remembers anything from the Pre-New52 erra (those stories and universes were destroyed and discarded by DC after the Flashpoint arc by and large). Wally first tries to contact Batman, but Batman doesn't know who he is. Seeing Batman is of major importance though, because Batman actually has the letter from his Father hanging in the Batcave, the very letter that Barry gave him during the Flashpoint arc I mentioned above. It is the only piece of evidence in the current DC universe that there was more before it, but Wally cannot explain it to Batman in time. He cannot tell Batman that someone has ereased 10 years of the Universe from everyones memories and the timestream, that there is another force outside time/space that is playing with their lives. Eventually by the end when Wally is about to die in the SpeedForce, he finaly gets his old mentor, Barry Allen, to remember him and pull him into the real universe, saving his life.
There was a lot more, trust me, but thats the basic rundown. Someone messed with the past ~10 years of their comic universe history and Wally is trying to get everyone to notice. It's already a sorta meta discussion not only about in-universe but the outside storytelling at DC. It's pretty cool stuff. But the end takes it to a whole new level. Wally threw something from outside of space/time into the Batcave, something to give Batman a clue as to what happened (aside from just asking him to talk to Barry about the Letter). And that clue was probably the most shocking thing I've ever seen in my 28 years of reading comics.
The blood-stained Smiley Face pin worn by the Comedian in The Watchmen graphic novel.
The force outside of time/space thats been messing with the DC universe? Dr. Manhattan.
It took me a while to pick my jaw up from off the floor. The immediate response I had was "Are they really brining the Watchmen into the rest of the DC universe?! HOW DARE THEY DO THAT!!!" But after a lot of reflection, I can't be sure if they are really going to do that. What I do know, is that immediate reaction almost made me lose sight of the symbolic signifigance of Batman finding the Comedian's pin.
The Watchmen, for better or worse, was a major turning point for superhero comics and characters. It completely changed the way they were written and how people viewed them. The historical impact of the Watchmen is massive and it's ripples are still felt today because it was the first time we saw heros as just nitty and gritty people. And that's exactly what Wally West was trying to tell Batman by throwing him that pin. Their entire Universe was changed in large part due to the effects of that book. In a lot of ways, DC is showing their audience that they are going to try and respond to their own responce to what the Watchmen was (its so meta, I know) and rebell against it. It's a "rebirth" in light of trying to fight against their own post-watchmen way of storytelling. It's brilliant.
Now, if Rorschach shows up in the new issues of Batman coming down the line, well, they will have screwed up in the largest way possible and I'll be pretty angry at them for diminishing and trivializing what they have done here. But for right now, the future of DC looks really bright and this kick-off issue of a new era was pretty incredible.
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