A lot of the comics I like–I guess I like the promise inherent in their core premise a lot more than the actual products themselves.
I’m a whore for “high concepts”.
Case in point: THE EXILES.
Why this isn’t the top-selling book at Marvel, I’ll never understand.
In a nutshell: the book is about a group of superheroes abducted from their respective realities and parachute dropped into a new one in which an event is going to take place that would end reality if allowed to occur. Their mission is to find a way to stop said event.
Brilliant idea, right?
Right, but the application of the idea is boring as hell: Instead of cherrypicking from the hottest characters in the company’s 2,000+ inventory ( Symbiote Spider-Man, Ultimate Nick Fury, Steve Rogers Captain America, Nighthawk, Howard The Duck, ”Days of Future Past” Wolverine, ”Demon in a Bottle” Iron Man, et cetera) and featuring storylines tied into the most popular “events” in Marvel’s 50 year history ( “Secret War”, “Infinity Gauntlet”, “Civil War”, “Secret Invasion”), Marvel editorial chooses to fabricate crises on alternate realities we’ve never seen before, and generate new characters exclusive to the series to place in danger–thereby not only missing out on the marketing wet-dream of a lifetime, but eliminating any emotional response on the part of the reader.
The book’s first arc end with the death of one of the team. The rest of the characters act as though something monumental has happened, and the narration tries to spin the occurence as being indicative that “anything can happen, and nothing is sacred”, but the character had only been around for two issues at that point; MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE TO CARE AT ALL.
I really want to like this book. I really do. I spent six dollars on it.
I just can’t.
It’s like being stuck in doomed relationship that you’re reluctant to leave because the person’s myspace profile makes them sound really fun and interesting.
Posted under eric's blog
