« Home | Can the word "superhero" really be trademarked? » | Clues of the political bents in early reviews of I... » | An op-ed writer's double-standard on Maggot and Ps... » | Gerry Conway's view today is a real disappointment » | Disney doesn't have the courage to explore Tony St... » | 2 impressive tweets by Dan Jurgens » | Ann Nocenti says something interesting about China » | What was discussed about Orson Scott Card at the S... » | "Family Guy" has gone beyond the pale yet again » | Spider-Man the most popular superhero for English ... » 

Saturday, April 27, 2013 

Jonah Hex is being catapulted into the future again

Something that didn't work when they originally did it in the mid-80s is being pointlessly done again, in a time-travel story with Booster Gold. They even say in this interview with Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti:
The appearance of Booster Gold in the series ties All-Star Western to the upcoming "Trinity War" event that will cross through Justice League Dark, Justice League and Justice League of America. Readers haven't seen Booster Gold since he disappeared last August, after a version of him from the future came back to warn of disaster related to the relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman.
Oh, is it ever. It's certainly an all-too-easy cliche.
Now that Booster has shown up in Jonah Hex's past, the writers are saying we'll next see Jonah Hex sent to the future.
Whatever for? When Michael Fleisher did it last in 1985, it failed to hold the audience, and was cancelled 2 years later. Taking the hero and dumping him in a fish-out-of-water situation did nothing to help sales and even left a few loose ends incomplete when the 1977-85 series ended (I don't think they ever told what became of Emmylou Hartley).
Newsarama: How did All-Star Western end up being the spot where Booster Gold would return to DC Comics?

Justin Gray: We needed to shake things up. Booster is the only time traveler operating currently in the New 52, and his story is that of a man hurtling through time for reasons unknown. He’s not fully aware of the reasons behind this and so it felt like a great opportunity to pair him with Jonah Hex in a way that would get people talking about All-Star Western.
The chances of that are sparse, after all the misuse of the DCU in this century, because so much of their audience has been lost. The last sales charts show that it's sold little more than 16,800 copies. And they probably don't know the reasons why they should write a story like this either, which is not bound to be character-drama related. "Shaking things up" has also been run into the ground.

Hence, this is just another desperate attempt to boost sales on as many of their books as possible without giving the readers a reason to stick around for long afterwards.

Labels: ,

Didn't they learn from the last time that putting Jonah Hex into the future doesn't work? They sure are bankrupt of ideas today, to the point where they're even rehashing ideas that failed to catch on in the first place.

In the early 1980's, the editor of Warlord, answering a published letter, mentioned that DC published a war comic, a Western, and a horror/fantasy anthology, in addition to the superhero titles. "We don't expect every reader to buy everything we publish." Less then 3 years later, though, they had adopted Marvel's policy: every comic had to exist in the same "universe," and every series had to tie in with everything else. That seems to be what the hard core fanboys want, but it is one reason the medium is dying. There is no diversity. With TV, if you don't like science fiction, you can switch the channel and watch a Western or a detective show. With comics, if you don't like super heroes, you will have to find your entertainment in another medium. Mixing Jonah Hex or Sgt. Rock with the Justice League just doesn't work. Fans of costumed super heroes don't like the realistic genres, and vice versa.

Avi!

http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/news/121832-editorial-mandate-what-to-do-when-a-publisher-blacklists-you-3.html

Topic on subject now posted above.

I'm not sure I understand the point of this article. Would you rather that they just cancelled the title instead of trying to do something that might possibly be interesting with it? Because those are really the 2 only options. Cancel it or try something different. Why is option B worse than option A?

Post a Comment

About me

  • I'm Avi Green
  • From Jerusalem, Israel
  • I was born in Pennsylvania in 1974, and moved to Israel in 1983. I also enjoyed reading a lot of comics when I was young, the first being Fantastic Four. I maintain a strong belief in the public's right to knowledge and accuracy in facts. I like to think of myself as a conservative-style version of Clark Kent. I don't expect to be perfect at the job, but I do my best.
My profile

Archives

Links

  • avigreen2002@yahoo.com
  • Fansites I Created

  • Hawkfan
  • The Greatest Thing on Earth!
  • The Outer Observatory
  • Earth's Mightiest Heroines
  • The Co-Stars Primer
  • Realtime Website Traffic

    Comic book websites (open menu)

    Comic book weblogs (open menu)

    Writers and Artists (open menu)

    Video commentators (open menu)

    Miscellanous links (open menu)

  • W3 Counter stats
  • Bio Link page
  • blog directory Bloggeries Blog Directory View My Stats Blog Directory & Search engine eXTReMe Tracker Locations of visitors to this page  
    Flag Counter Free Hit Counters
    Free Web Counter

    This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

    make money online blogger templates

Older Posts Newer Posts

The Four Color Media Monitor is powered by Blogspot and Gecko & Fly.
No part of the content or the blog may be reproduced without prior written permission.
Join the Google Adsense program and learn how to make money online.