As pointed out in comments

[james_davis_nicoll]

ComicsAlliance Roundtable: The Fashion of the New DCU

Is it too early to call the coming reboot the longest comic book company suicide note in history?

Comments

[liviapenn]

Oh, God, why would anyone ever DO that to Harley Quinn's costume? It fails on every level, completely.

-- Taking something unique and making it generic
-- Taking something visually striking, almost iconic, and making it messy
-- Taking something sexy and making it trashy
-- Taking something that fits the character's personality and turning it into something the character would never wear except as a joke (probably the kind of joke where someone gets murdered at the end)

And finally,

-- Not understanding the basic physics of *how clothes work*, especially loosely-laced corsets, ie, THEY FALL OFF.

There isn't html powerful enough to make a frowny face big enough to indicate my displeasure here, so I'll just conclude, :(

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

No.

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

It's the latest symptom of the long-term degeneration of the comic book industry from a mainstream medium, however despised, to a source of imagery for Hollywood blockbusters (actual or attempted) and bad animated series. There's almost a total disconnect between the actual comics (now dominated by self-annointed artistes and ex-fanboy ego-tripping writer/editors who want to permanently leave their imprint on comics continuity, however much damage is done to the franchise); and the marketing department, where the real money comes from nowadays.

[derekl1963.livejournal.com]

Repeat after me: "there never was a golden age".

[fengi.livejournal.com]

I think so. A previous commentor nailed it when he speculated it doesn't seem like those running things are considering actual demographics as much as their 90s influenced regression fantasies.

I might understand if people might yearn for finances of the varient cover bubble, but I didn't realize some considered it a creative peak.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I wish this wasn't true, but this most definitely seems to be the case.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Too late, as far as I'm concerned, because they're already...oh, you know the rest.

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

I love that there's an image that contains 1) a shark-man with a hammer (shark-thor?) 2) a gun toting techno mummy and 3) harley quinn, and everyone's like "THE HELL!? HARLEY QUINN LOOKS WEIRD!".

Gun toting Techno mummies get no love I swear.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

But I actually have no problem with man-sharks and techno-mummies at all. That's totally the direction DC should be going in.

The problem with the Harley is that, unless she's literally walking across the bedroom towards the person or people she's about to have sex with, there's no way that outfit's going to work out for her. Even then, she's going to have to stop to awkwardly readjust before she gets to the bed, which means putting down the love hammer...That's some non-suspendable disbelief.

[fengi.livejournal.com]

Well the cover is so badly composed it stars Quinn's cleavage. It's like "BOOBS and a mass of green shadows with freaky guys". That it looks like the shark is holding the hammer instead of Harley indicates another artistic problem. It looks more like a dashed off inside ad, rather than a cover.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

The shock is my own reaction to Harley's "DCU v.4.0" look as well. WTH?!?

[barberio.livejournal.com]

Dear god... What happened to Superman? Did someone break his spine? What happened to his left arm, it looks like a twizler! Why is one of his feet smaller than the other?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Is that Superman as played by L'il Abner Yokum?

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

Can't be – L'il Abner is a married man.

I'm intrigued by the denim socks he's wearing though.

[(Anonymous)]

Now I am reminded of a story by Kim Newman (I think) in which a man stumbles across a comedy movie never made in our reality in which young Kal-El is found not by the Kents, but Ma and Pa Kettle, and grows up a goodnatured but utterly lazy hillbilly who uses his superpowers to solve problems with the exact minimum of effort.

(Starring George Reeves, of course)

Bruce

[dewline.livejournal.com]

I could almost find that "in character" for a younger Clark Kent. Dress sense of Abner Yokum, intelligence of a Bob Woodward, considers Harper Lee a writer's role model...

[raycun.livejournal.com]

The fact that you have a bunch of adults sitting around seriously discussing these new costumes as compared to previous versions of those characters' costumes tells you all you need to know about the state of the industry.

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

...that there are enough people with disposable incomes and emotional investment in the industry's intellectual property that, in theory, the industry ought to be able to come up with something that those people would want to buy?

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

I heart me some Comics Alliance.

I do Not heart me some DC, given the... interesting...PR they're doing with all this.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

It's *always* the right time for impending heat-dea...
[clicks link]
What. The. Fracking. Frell.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

What the hell? Is it suddenly 1992 again? This is like a parody of the Liefield "pockets guns and boobies" era of Image Comics.

You know, the idea of a major reboot and revamp is fine. Even that map they showed me earlier was fine, if it actually followed through with the idea of a war among supers changing the world drastically. But this? This is goddamn 90s iron age crap. NOW I am giving up on the DC reboot.

[schizmatic.livejournal.com]

The fact that it's very much of the Image aesthetic seems to me to say a lot about the demographics of comics readers. It seems that they're aiming squarely at those of us born in the mid- to late-70s and were in our prime comic book reading years right as Lee and McFarlane permanently changed the aesthetic. Which is all well and good, but rather than looking back to the 90s for folks in their thirties, they should be looking at ways to try and draw in new readers, especially the folks who will say, "Hey, I want to check out these things that so many summer movies are based on."

And seriously, Jim Lee was new, fresh, and exciting in the early 90s, the age of Vanilla Ice, Ninja Turtles, MC Hammer, and Parker Lewis Can't Lose. It ought to be pointed out, however, that it's twenty effing years later. TWENTY. YEARS.

Harumph.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

I went to high school with DC's Chief Creative Officer. That is all.

[nelc.livejournal.com]

That is no way all. Spill!

[jwgh]

I came across this today and thought of this discussion: http://gocomics.typepad.com/tomthedancingbugblog/2011/06/todays-super-fun-pak-comic-4.html

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

There are probably already fanfic stories being written about the Green Corset and his struggle with his inner girlyboi.

(I spend too much time overhearing my 15-year-old otaku and her friends' ideas of what is squee-worthy.)

[izeinwinter.livejournal.com]

....
Plan possibly worth trying;
1: Find a good translator for French->english, belgian->english work.
2: Apply Haikasoru's buisnessmodel to comics.
3: Dance on DC and marvels graves.
4: Profit.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

DC and Marvel have (at least in the past) pre-emptively bought up a lot of North American rights to European comics, so it might be a bit of a challenge...

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

Outrage is their business model. It's either piss off the fans or wallow in their apathy.