Recently, I’ve read two comics where nothing really happened. Titans 11 and Justice League of America 31. And I was disappointed.
Titans 11 is just a bunch of scenes of the various Titans standing around in various places. The whole story could have been the last page. Where we find out Jericho is currently inside Cyborg. As I recall, the last time I checked, he was inside Nightwing. So while this was a surprise, it was the only plot movement, if you can call it that.
JLA 31 starts with Black Canary snarling at Green Lantern and Green Arrow. The entire comic is her talking to other members of the JLA. Then on the last page, she disbands the team. Again, there is no action, no story. I remember back when you could have a membership change AND a story in the same issue. JLoA 161: The team nominates Zatanna, she turns them down, the team tracks her down, fights a major villain and in the end she joins the team. JLA 16-17: Steel, Plastic Man, Zauriel, Huntress and Oracle join the founding 7 while the whole team and guest star Catwoman fight Prometheus, the anti Batman. JL 4: Maxwell Lord introduces the team to their newest member Booster Gold, and then the team is attacked by the Royal Flush gang. There was no need for this entire issue to be taken up with the membership event, especially when it was so undramatic.
Please DC. I read team books for team action. This month, two of your best teams failed to deliver.
I’d rather have some character development then mindless action panels thrown in to keep it “exciting”. Especially when the cook up a villain and throw it all together at the last second.
I like paced, well thought out comics myself.
Does it have to be either/or? Ideally, wouldn’t it be a fair mix of both? Erik clearly wasn’t advocating anything resembling your characterization of “mindless action panels”, but I don’t think he’s off the mark in expecting to see *some* action.
[...] Gifts and Free Advice placed an interesting blog post on Comics InActionHere’s a brief overviewRecently, I’ve read two comics where nothing really happened. Titans 11 and Justice League of America 31. And I was disappointed. [...]
It all depends. Were there two or three prior issues completely lacking in action, too? Do two or three issues of no action follow these? If not, I’m not bothered by a book without a fight here and there.
Actually, one of the points made [b]in the comic[/b] is that the team has not done all that much since it was formed. Many of the stories have seemed dragged out way too long. They could have been told in 3 issues but were stretched to 6 to “fill the trade”.
Yeah, 31 was my last issue. For my part, if I’m not excited to see “what happens next?” each month, then it’s not worth collecting. Also, I’m sure the Shadow Cabinet is very cool, but that’s not the title of the comic I bought.
#31 is also my last issue. No Big Three, no Justice League. It’s like the Avengers without Thor, Cap, and Iron Man. You could probably not have one of them, or maybe two, but you take all of them off the team and its not the Avengers anymore. And without Supes, Bats, and Wondy, it’s no longer the League either. Maybe I’d stick around with GL or Flash. Or even Aquaman. But this new line up screams second and third stringers!
Shellhead,
I’ve seen the solicits for the next few issues. You can too at http://www.DcComics.com . It looks as if Superman makes at least an appearance on the cover even if he is not on the team for #33. The solicit for #34 mentions both Superman and Wonder Woman.
It doesn’t have to be either or. But I still think this sounds a bit more like someone saying they need some boom panels to read a comic.
Not boom panels, but an adventure. The examples I gave were places where there were roster changes and we had an adventure as well.