And what does that say about the medium, then?

[yendi]

Regarding the imminent DC relaunch, Warren Ellis writes:

The New DC comics stuff looks so much like stuff I would never read that it oddly fills me with hope that they are targetting the core audience they want. If a 43-year old man looks at most of this promo stuff and goes meh, then that’s very probably a good sign for them. Best of luck to Dan D, Jim L et all for the imminent relaunch.

The folks over at The Beat suggest, "As usual Warren Ellis says what everyone else is thinking (or maybe blogging) — the fact that age 40+ comics fans think the New 52 is a horrible idea may be a sign it’s working."

Count me out of this way of thinking.

I review YA books professionally. I've been watching cartoons with my daughter for ten years (and on my own for nearly thirty before that). And I've been reading comics -- super-hero books theoretically aimed at teens -- for my entire life. And you know what? It's entirely possible for something to be aimed at a YA market and still qualitatively good. You can have your Harry Potter or Hunger Games novels, or your Spongebob and Powerpuff Girls cartoons, or the ridiculously layered and complex runs of folks like Steve Engelhard on Avengers and Frank Miller on Daredevil and Paul Levitz on LSH and make them really fucking good. For teens and adults. That doesn't mean a 40+ year old might look at it in the same light, but they should be able to enjoy the product.

It may be that New 52 works out as a business decision. Hell, it may be that the products are even good. But don't try to validate crap by saying adults aren't the target audience; crap is still crap, and while it's entirely possible to market crap well to teens and tweens (I won't list the legion of examples), let's not pretend it's the only way to go.

Comments

[greylistening.livejournal.com]

Preach!