#stan everyone but starline

[owololcat]

Fuck Starline the platypus Call me a crazy conspiracy theorist but there is no doubt in my mind someone has hotwired a bunch of bots for voting anything that has that bootleg perry's name on it. If you're doing a sonic tourney I HIGHLY advise against putting him on there. He is a child abuser and he gives me vibes that say "yandere /neg." PLEASE. Admit it you're sick of him winning stuff he shouldn't be winning too.

[shadows-gone-crazy]

Starline Colopicked-Lesbian Flags (PT. 8‼️)

(Flags from left to right: he/him lesbian, and they/them lesbian ‼️)

TRANSMASC SWAG FINALS

(for real bc I made it a week this time <3)

[skaruresonic]

https://www.tumblr.com/skaruresonic/758528409170313216/yes-woolie-you-can-win-any-argument-if-you-just

I want to point this it. The person defending the comic unknowingly completely eradicated any ground their argument could have stood on.

"Criminals don't deserve to be free if they're gonna hurt people"

Then why does IDW Sonic keep letting his villains run off scott free when he himself acknowledges that they're gonna continue being evil and hurting innocents?

The single real and true answer is that this comic has abysmal writing. But stans don't want to accept that. They'd rather make up increasingly baffling conspiracy theories.

Exactly. It gets even worse when you realize Sonic presents himself as an arbiter of freedom: he wants people to do what they want, as long as it's the "right choice."

He is the one who decides what is right. He may not explicitly come right out and say so, but that is what he says through his words and his actions. And rather than accept the notion that some people will choose something other than what he wants, he'll punish you by chewing you out or beating you up, despite any mitigating circumstances, such as Surge's abuse at Starline's hands or Metal Sonic and Eggman TELLING HIM THE KILLER ROBOT HAS NO FREE WILL.

The only thing more dangerous than an authoritarian is an authoritarian who's a fucking idiot.

That may or may not be the comic's intention, but that's what ends up being the takeaway when we're given these lengthy lectures about the supposed sanctity of freedom, only for Sonic to betray his own principles.

He doesn't give a shit about anyone's pain. That much is clear.

He leverages Shadow's trauma against him to win an argument.

He ignores how Espio is grieving the loss of his friends to obnoxiously argue "oh so we should murder everyone, huh, Espio? is that what you're saying? we should never give anyone a chance?"

He makes fun of Belle at several points and even looks annoyed when she's angsting about her situation in one instance.

He claims he'd be willing to give "even [Eggman and Starline]" a second chance, only to eulogize Starline with "big oof."

He ignores Surge's pain just to say he'll kick her ass, then eulogizes her with a line so cold you'd think it came out of Eggman's mouth.

He shuts down Tails' misgivings about Metal's release not once but twice.

He drops the "Surge is dead" bomb on Kit without any real tact or follow-through to make sure the traumatized child is okay.

He tells Kit that Surge is "hurting herself."

Yet he throws a fucking pity party for himself in issue 23 about how Eggman "makes him pay" for daring to believe in the "good in people" every day.

Cry me a river. Kick rocks. Get bent.

IDW!Sonic lacks the emotional intelligence to distinguish when someone in pain is lashing out vs. a bona fide unrepentant asshole killing people for fun.

To him, both are the same errant children in need of a paddling. Just as he'd lack the pragmatism to seal the Erazor Djinn in the lamp because muh freedom, he'd lack the empathy to comfort Shahra afterward.

[beevean]

You make a good point on the lack of a clear intended target demographic for IDW Sonic. Personally, I get the impression that many people working on IDW beyond just Ian Flynn never fully got over the abrupt cancellation of Archie, and want to keep it alive in some way through IDW in any legal way possible. Which is kind of annoying because they had a chance to start over with a clean slate after Archie was cancelled. Which is why I think it was kind of a mistake to almost immediately develop and start up a new comic series, with the same staff from Archie, without letting there be a good long "mourning period" as melodramatic as that sounds.

It also feels like the writers and artist have either just gotten too comfortable and complacent, or that burn out is starting to set in. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out they didn't really have a long term plan of where to take the comic's stories and characters, with how seemingly fast IDW appeared to have been developed after Archie's cancellation.

This will never not be funny to me

You have a chunk of anti IDW people who started to dislike IDW once it became clear that its writers did not want to let go of Archie, its style, the concept of Freedom Fighters and so on

and then you have another chunk of anti IDW people who are diehard Archie fans, who themselves did not get over the cancellation of their favorite series, and who hate IDW because it's not like Archie enough, because it doesn't have the actual Freedom Fighters, because it's too similar to the games

the bruh cannot be contained

(it's also why anti IDW fans are usually stereotyped as disgruntled Archie stans, even worse Penders stans, which irritates me because I barely read a handful of Archie issues and I have zero attachment to it. don't conflate me with people who still cry for Sally pls)

But it's yet another way the target audience of IDW isn't clear. Is it children or young adults? Newcomers or old Sonic fans? Game fans or Archie fans? It tries to appeal to everyone, and it fails miserabily because now it's just... nothing.

Funnily enough, this was one of the criticisms moved against Forces, that it tried to satisfy every kind of Sonic fan (Classic, Adventure, Modern) :)

Anyway, yeah, they're all burned out. The MV arc was meant to appear in Archie, meaning that the first arcs of the comics were basically "testing the waters". We know that Surge and Kit were meant to appear much earlier than they did, and Starline was meant to be a different character, which explains his inconsistent writing and anti-climatic ending. The Eggperial City arc was completely forgettable if not for the Whispangle drama. Issues #62-#67 were an absolute nothing, with the exception of the Lanolin controversy. Yes, I fully believe they don't know what to do anymore.

[crusherthedoctor]

To be fair, Eggman reusing badnik designs completely was rare in Sonic Team games until Colors. 1991-1998 only the CD needle bug was reused in Chaotix, and Egg Robo for R, making it very rare that period. Metal is distinctly a unique class

2000 Pocket Adventure cuz Dimps was new is the first case to reuse entirely. Internally it seems to be intended for Jam's release

Then 2000s;

-SA2 E-1000 reuse Gamma/Zeta's base. The new Unidus and Spinner from SA1 return. Also Green Hill for 10th anniversary

-Advance has some Adventure 1 enemies since ST and Dimps were bringing forth a new 2D era and needed a base early levels. Advance 2 replaces most of them, with only 2 (Stinger, Spinner) being used in all 3

Rush reuses some Heroes enemies (Flappers, Pawns, Hammer, Magician), though Rush Adventure replaces em fully

06 and Riders had new robots

Unleashed similarly is completely new

Motobug wasn't even ladybug based initially until Colors/Gens

Colors, Gens, Sonic 4s, LW, and Mania unashamedly reuses many Sonic 1-CD + 3K enemies.

Forces brings new enemies, bar the reused Egg Dragoon (though that's a boss/mech)

*It's important to note many share design similarities for gameplay

All this shows Eggman for a good chunk of his career was innovating. Sadly romhacks spam the same exact designs/enemies, despite him moving on, until early 2010s

Sadly "Classic" Eggman is just stuck with 1-3K enemies for branding after. Hurray for nostalgia pandering

Again, I don't have a problem with classic robots and mechs being used in itself. Having all new Badniks or new variations of old ones is great, but I'm okay with old ones reappearing so long as there's a decent amount of new ones alongside them, which is the case with... most of the newer games. (I feel it's harsh to take Generations in particular to task for it since it's already about revisiting old levels. Mania has a similar justification, albeit to a different extent.)

The reason I take issue with it in IDW - aside from it coming completely at the expense of new Badniks and inventions - is because they're clearly being used for brownie points by crewmembers who don't know the games nearly as well as they and their stans think they do. Stuff like Eggman in the Egg Emperor VS Starline in the Lost World mech, or obscure Game Gear/Advance Badniks hanging around in the background doing nothing, or multiple Egg Viper recolors, makes it easy for fans to be all like "See? They know the franchise so well! They're True Fans just like us!", even though they're constantly misremembering what happened in the games and getting the characters wrong.

Nostalgia "pandering" is one thing, everyone has their views on that one way or the other (considering the complaints of such tend to come from fans who suddenly approve of it when it's the Adventure Era's turn...), but using classic likeness to distract from writing fuck-ups is where I call bullshit. It might be minor in the grand scheme of IDW's list of faults, but as an Eggman robot connoisseur, I don't appreciate it when they're used in such a cynical way.

[crashout-cain]

It's so... weird. It's weird. how differently people seemed to react to and perceive things just a few decades ago compared to now. like, when I was reading the Felipe Gonzalas arc, I wasn't horrified or even disturbed by anything Jason said or did. He was being completely reasonable. I was appalled at the situation, and at the lack of priority that Batman was giving his victims, and at Felipe himself. It's just utterly alien to me to think that everyone reading this story when it came out would be expected to think "God what a horrible thing to do! That kid is trouble!" Like. Throughout that whole arc, it was Jason giving a shit about the women he hurt. Bruce's priority was simply not Gloria. It's unfathomable to me that I'm supposed to agree with Bruce's handling of this.

And at no point have I seen Jason to be unlikable at all? He's literally just sweet and passionate about justice and protecting people from predators. Like, I don't know what else he could even be referring to, because the only times Jason does anything "undesirable" (to Bruce, and apparently the average Batman stan in the 80s) is when he has like. a normal emotional reaction. Because he's 15, not 35.

God. Just thinking about this is pissing me off. I haven't even read aditf itself yet. The only thing I'm certain of now is that I want to kill Jim Starlin with 100 hammer. This guy fucking sucks.

[thankskenpenders]

Thoughts on the latest IDW issue? Loving the camping vibes and a focus on all the girls. Also I know the limit on clothing options for Sonic characters but does that apply to the IDW characters too? It was weird seeing Jewel in business attire on a camping trip

(IDW Sonic spoilers)

I liked the issue a lot! I always like decompression issues focused more on the character writing and gauging where everyone is at, and I've also been a big fan of the more grounded peeks at what normal life is like on Sonic's world, particularly what Evan's been doing both in her run as lead writer and back in the Nite & Don story. This story is wall to wall That Stuff, so I had a good time. I liked little details like the fact that the Metal Virus prevented the trees from absorbing water during that crisis, which has increased the risk of forest fires, or the kid having a Wisp companion. It's little details like that that add credibility to the world. And Amy's Sonic's world-specific tarot cards were also fun. And of course as always Evan and Reggie did great work on the art throughout

Personally, if there's one thing that slightly bugs me about this season so far it's that Whisper hasn't been in it much, but that's just me being a Whisper stan. However, I did like checking in on her this issue, and I think that her leaving the Restoration led for some very strong character drama for Tangle (and not just because I ship them lol). I know there was some concern on Ian's part that Tangle's arc as it was originally set up was kind of "over," and I suspected that Whisper was absent lately because she was in the same boat, but Whisper's hesitance about staying with the Restoration because of Mimic adds a much-needed new wrinkle for both of them - especially when combined with Tangle's dissatisfaction with Jewel's new role. Would I have liked to see her come along on the camping trip with the girls and have fun? Yeah, of course, but I think this probably sets up more interesting conflicts for them long-term

As for outfits: yes, all of the recurring IDW characters are more or less locked to one outfit by Sega. It's not a 100% hard rule - for instance, in Chao Race & Badnik Bases Starline wore that big coat and later had on a bath robe and slippers back at his base. We also got those tarot-themed outfits on Diana Skelly's great variant cover for this issue. But generally, Sega wants everyone to be instantly recognizable, and that means they wear the same thing every day

[outoftheframework]

the ultimate list of comic book recommendations

Hello and welcome everyone! So if you don’t know, my name is Meg, and I happen to be an avid comic book/graphic novel reader and collector (even though I often write in a more fanon universe). So I thought for this post I would compile some of my favorite books for y’all. 

I’ll categorize these, but don’t be afraid to try something completely different that what you’ve read before! And for new readers, this list can be a great way to find out where to start. So with that in mind, here’s the list!

DC COMICS

“So I like Batman but I don’t know where to start!”

Batman: Year One by Frank Miller - A classic detective Batman Story; a great starting off point for the character and comic books as a whole.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller - Another classic, highly rated comic. Features an older Batman and introduces Carrie as Robin.

Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb - My brother’s favorite. Gripping from start to end. More detective Bats.

For fans of darker/more artistic/”different” Batman stories

Batman: White Knight by Sean Murphy - Batman “bad”. Joker “good”. 

Batman: The Black Mirror by Scott Snyder - Bats and Joker in an unlikely, drug-induced team up. Some of the best art in Batman.

Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee - Big fan of both writers. Very popular book in the fandom, but I’ve never personally read it (recommended by my brother).

For fans of Robins 

A Death in the Family by Jim Starlin and Under the Red Hood by Judd Winick - pinnacle Jason stories; also for those looking for Tim Drake’s introduction.

Robin: Reborn by Chuck Dixon - Ignore the awful cover art; this is Tim Drake done right.

Red Robin by Christopher Yost - Hard to find this series in a physical copy so just read it online. Defining Tim Drake in one series *chef’s kiss* beautiful.

Super Sons by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason - The best Damian out there in my opinion, plus the addition of the always adorable Jon Kent

Ensemble

Justice League by Geoff Johns - Say what you want about n52, but this is the best JL out there (don’t fight me on this). Great for beginning readers.

Kingdom Come by Mark Waid - Alex Ross is simply the best comic artist out there. This one is a classic, but probably shouldn’t be your first rodeo with DC.

Brightest Day by Geoff Johns - Again, not for beginning readers; requires A LOT of background knowledge. But amazing characterization despite the hoard of characters it features.

Justice League Dark by James Tynion IV - Ugh I just love Zatanna.

DC Bombshells by Marguerite Bennett - The best damn DC AU ever made

MARVEL COMICS

Must Read!!

Vision by Tom King - Quite literally a modern masterpiece. Just, ugh, if you take anything away from this list, it’s go pick up Tom King’s Vision. Don’t like Vision? Doesn’t matter go pick up Tom King’s Vision-

Street-level heroes just trying their best (my favorite kind of comics)

Hawkeye by Matt Fraction - Hands down my favorite comic series of all time. Perfect characterization of Clint and Kate. Pick these up before the Disney+ series comes out :) Cannot recommend this enough.

Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson - Actual ray of sunshine Kamala Khan will take over your life. Follows her coming to grips with her powers as a POC teen who needs to balance school, home, and hero life.

Let’s hear it for the ladies!

Captain Marvel by Kelly Deconnick - Liked the movie? You’ll love this. So much heart and humor.

Dark Phoenix Saga by Chris Claremont - I got my copy signed by Claremont and almost cried. First comic I bought with my own money; has a special place in my heart.

Jean Grey by Dennis Hopeless - What can I say? I’m a Jean stan forever. A nice pick-me-up after DPS. Features a young Jean in the wrong universe.

Spider-Gwen by Jason Latour - Liked Spiderverse? Boy, do I have the comic for you.

Misc and Third Party

Watchmen by Alan Moore - Simply a masterpiece

Space Riders by Fabian Jr. Rangel - A fever dream from start to finish, in space. Amazing artistry.

Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way - Speaks for itself. The show is too damn good.

WHAT I’M READING NOW!

The New Teen Titans by Maru Wolfman and George Perez

Batman: Last Knight on Earth by Scott Snyder

DCEASED

Teen Titans: Raven by Kami Garcia

Hope these help!! Let me know what you think if you pick any of these up. Feel free to message me for more recs or information on any of these. Also, feel free to reblog with your favorite comics!! Lmk if you want to see more rec lists like these or even comic reviews :) Thanks!

[ink-logging]

Silver Surfer Black 1

by Donny Cates, Tradd Moore, Dave Stewart

I’ve read a lot of Silver Surfer comics. He is one of my favorite Marvel characters. I always try to see what’s up with the character, especially when there’s a new series. Generally speaking the Surfer is not very well handled. 

Even the original creators didn’t really know what to do with him. After Surfer’s amazing first appearance and story (Fantastic Four #48-50) he was always kind of mis-used. The first Silver Surfer series by Stan Lee & John Buscema is pretty dull. The Surfer, trapped on earth by Galactus, travels around and mopes. His dialogue (actually mostly monologue) is painful to read. Kirby takes the series over for one issue, but it’s not enough to push him in a new direction. The series was cancelled after Kirby’s issue. Stan Lee hobbled the character by ‘reserving’ him for himself. No one could really do anything interesting with the character without Stan Lee’s say so. The first real interesting development of the character didn’t happen until 1987. Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers teamed up on a new Silver Surfer series. This is the golden age for the character. Englehart freed the Surfer from being Earth bound and unleashed him as a character. In the first 12 issues of that series, Surfer and Mantis struggle against the Elders of the Universe as they plot to kill Galactus. It’s is a high water mark for the character. The series lasted for over 100 issues, went through a number of writers (with a memorable run by Jim Starlin) and artists, and eventually petered out. Since then we haven’t seen much new with the Surfer. Occasional guest appearances, a limited series here and there. Most recently the series by Dan Slott & Mike Allred seemed to want to revisit the triumphs of Englehart and Rogers by giving surfer a human companion (like Mantis in the Englehart run… or like Dr. Who’s companions!) and took the character into more camp territory… with uneven results.

I don’t really know where Silver Surfer Black is going yet. I like the art. I only recently discovered Tradd Moore’s work in The New World (Image, with Ales Kot). I really enjoyed the first couple of issues. I like the way he draws.

There’s a barely restrained surrealist/trippy component to his drawings. The Silver Surfer series seems designed bring that element out in force. There are a lot of psychedelic flourishes, unusual angles, expressionistic renderings, complex layouts, etc. Moore seems to be really having fun here. There’s a surreal fluidity to everything. Everything is flows, undulates, and bubbles like… a lava lamp. There’s not much to the story… at least so far…

This series seems to be following on some big events involving the Guardians of the Galaxy & Thanos. I didn’t read the series so I don’t really know what’s going on. It doesn’t seem to matter. The opening sequence is designed to get rid of all the other characters, and to get Surfer to be on his own. Surfer & others are trapped in a black hole. Surfer uses his power to save everyone, but because he uses too much power to accomplish this, he gets sucked back into the singularity. He floats in darkness for what seems to be eons, until he stumbles onto some dark planet. The inhabitants are three guardians protecting a tower.

The design of the guardians let’s Tradd Moore get really expressive. The costumes are baroque, flamboyant, excessive; reminiscent of the most excessive aristocratic costumes of European Renaissance. All this reminds me of Druillet. His Lone Slone series is dense with medieval designs blown up into massive spaceships and complex armor. Tradd Moore seems to be treading similar territory, but there’s a clarity of line and form that brings to mind animation and Manga.

Surfer is determined to get past the guardians… and he does, only to be confronted with ‘Knull’ (null… oh right we’re in a black hole… the ultimate nullifier) another massive character, with massive flowing armor, and a super-massive sword covered in red goo. Who knows where this is going? I’m on board for now.

No Surfer series would be complete without a recap of Surfers origin. We have to be reminded of his cold-blooded service to Galactus, his complicity in the killing of trillions of lives… and witness his constant guilt and hand wringing.

One more note: the introductory paragraph that describes the Surfer on the credit page (and this is something that all Marvel comics have now, a film-like credits page) says that he is ‘coated with galactic glaze’. I’ve never heard his silver skin referred to in that way before. Is this official cannon? It made me hungry for glazed donuts.

Tom K

@transatlantis

[gerryconway]

Superhero Comic Book Publishing: Time to Change

So I've been reading rumors (and had a recent conversation with a top exec at one of the Big Two) about the potential end of Marvel and DC as publishers of original comics, and I Have Thoughts.

These thoughts are the product of fifty years experience working in and around the superhero comic book business, writing and editing for both Marvel and DC. I'm no business expert. I'm not a student of publishing. I can't analyze a spreadsheet or write a business plan. I'm not an MBA. The closest I've come to owning and running a company was helping my second wife develop her small business (though I believe some of the lessons we learned about the perils of expanding a business are relevant here).

No, what I'm about to discuss isn't the result of a deep understanding of big business, market share growth, the realities of corporate politics, or any of the realpolitik aspects of modern day publishing as understood by the people who've brought both companies to this moment of near collapse.

I'm just a long-time observer who's worked in the superhero field almost since its modern inception in the 1960s.

Perspective: when I started writing comics professionally, Marvel was publishing about 12 titles a month, and DC (then National Periodical Publications) was publishing about 30. Comics cost 15 cents and offered between 20 and 25 pages of story. (I'm not going to work with exact numbers because for my purposes here exact numbers aren't relevant; like I said, I'm no MBA, and this is based on personal observation, memory, and experience. If I get a precise number wrong, sue me, it doesn't matter.)

Background: How the 1960s and 1970s got the business to where it is today, and how that era reveals possible ways out of the current crisis.

It was during the 1960s, a period of modest output (compared to today), that almost ALL of the roots of modern superhero comics mythology were created. Modern incarnations of The Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Aquaman and Mera, Wonder Woman, the Teen Titans, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Black Panther, X-Men, Daredevil, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man--

The list of characters and storylines and mythology created in the 1960s (with overlap from the 50s and into the early 70s) is just flabbergasting-- especially when you consider the size of the companies and the number of creators who accomplished it.

When I started writing for DC Comics in 1968, their offices consisted of half a floor in a modest office building on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. Eight editors (or maybe seven, I'm not sure) and one editorial assistant worked under one editorial director and one publisher, with a production department headed by one production manager, one assistant manager who doubled as a colorist, one proof reader, and two or three production assistants, and a receptionist. Each editor was responsible for five or six books and only one editor had enough pull to have an assistant. (Mort Weisinger, who edited the highest selling range of books, had Nelson Birdwell "helping" him with the Superman line-- in fact, Nelson did all the hard editorial work while Mort snarled at people.) Four of the editors shared a single office; two others shared an office; and the two most "important" editors had an office each. That's how I remember it-- I may be off on the specifics but the general picture is accurate. This was how the company that controlled the largest market share of the comic book publishing world, possibly more than seventy percent of sales, looked in 1967-68.

Marvel Comics was an even more bare bones operation. With most of its business operations handled by Magazine Management, Martin Goodman's main publishing operation, Marvel Comics itself in 1968 operated out of a small office on Madison Avenue barely the size of a large modern conference room. The company had one editor and one assistant editor, one production manager, one assistant production manager, a part-time art director, a couple of production assistants, and a receptionist. The receptionist had a cubicle; the production staff shared a "bullpen"; the assistant editor and production manager split an office that wasn't really an office, more of an alcove; and the editor (Stan) had a private office not much larger than an average editor's today. This was the company that was revolutionizing storytelling in modern comics-- and while its individual titles were selling extremely well, its market share, due to an onerous distribution deal with its chief competitor, National Periodical Publications, was much less than it might have been.

That's how the superhero comic book publishing business looked in 1967-68. Prosperous but culturally insignificant (at least, not obviously significant). A pair of modest small enterprises, family owned and operated (NPP was bought by Kinney in 1967; Goodman retained ownership of Marvel until 1968), with rigidly controlled costs and a decent, relatively predictable profit margin.

Five years later, in the early 1970s, EVERYTHING had changed. Both companies were now controlled by larger businesses, and both were under pressure to expand market share and increase profits. Simultaneously comic book readership was dropping as the baby boomer audience aged out. The superhero comic book business was in a crisis-- and each company responded in hysterical counter-productive ways. Marvel, no longer hampered by its distribution deal with its competitor, worked to expand its market share with an explosion of new titles in multiple genres-- without proportionately expanding its editorial support structure and production staff. DC Comics experimented with new titles and new formats, without an overall publishing strategy or company-wide creative approach, continuing its tradition of independent editorial fiefdoms.

For most of the 1970s, in other words, both companies, Marvel and DC, faced creative and economic chaos. That chaos produced memorable and influential work-- Kirby's Fourth World was born, I killed Gwen Stacy, the X-Men were reborn under Chris Claremont, Jim Starlin created Thanos and killed the original Captain Marvel, Batman began getting dark-- but the companies themselves were flailing. Management at both Marvel and DC were clueless how to proceed. (As someone who held editorial positions at both companies in the 1970s I can attest top executives at DC and Marvel were way out of their depth.)

No one working in comics in the early to mid 1970s had any realistic expectation the business would even exist by the end of the decade-- news stand sales were that bad and getting worse every year. Cost cutting was rampant. Marvel reduced page count to 18 pages (and tried to hide it by paying writers and artists for 1 page that was printed as a "double page spread"). DC maintained a higher page count while adding reprint pages in order to increase the price. Short term fixes for a devastating long term crisis.

Two events saved superhero comics from disappearing in the late 1970s, and each produced effects that fundamentally altered the economics and creative direction of the business up to the present day.

The first event was the creation of the Direct Sale Market by entrepreneur Phil Seuling in 1973. There are many articles available describing how the direct market expanded through the 70s and 80s, so I won't repeat the details here, but in a nutshell, the direct market offered comic book publishers a way to guarantee the profit on individual titles compared to newstand sales. Comics sold through newstand distribution were returnable; sales to the direct market were not. Returnability meant most of a title's print run was wasted. (Typically in that era a publisher would print, say, 200,000 copies of a title to sell 70,000.) In addition, the direct market offered predictability-- eventually publishers would learn in advance how well a title might do because of pre-orders. These positives, of course, have a downside, but we'll get to that later. By the late 1970s and into the 1980s, the direct market for comics was viewed by almost everyone in the business as a god send that saved a dying business.

The second event that saved superhero comics was the arrival in 1978 of the first mainstream superhero blockbuster movie-- Superman. That movie and its sequels, followed by Tim Burton's Batman in 1989, fueled the growth of "serious" superhero mythology in mainstream pop culture (as opposed to the kid-friendly Superman series of the 1950s and the camp comedy of 1966's Batman TV show). Those movies (and other baby boomer inspired genre entries into mainstream culture like Star Wars and Indiana Jones) began the gradual colonization of pop culture by superhero mythology which exploded into fruition in the 2000s. In the 1970s, however, the main effect Superman the Movie (and later, the Batman film) had on comics was to temporarily increase sales and thus allow both companies to avoid dealing with longer-term creative and economic questions about the fundamental viability of the industry's business model.

The combination of both events, the development of the direct market and the arrival of the blockbuster superhero film, saved the comic book business as such in the 1970s-- but at the same time created and reinforced conflicting tendencies that today have produced a potentially fatal contradiction in how super hero comic book publishers approach their business.

On the one hand, the growth of the direct sale market into the de facto sole distribution point for superhero comics (the recent Walmart experiment and the digital comic market notwithstanding) has resulted in an incestuous and shrinking niche market for the sale of physical comic books. As recent reporting makes clear, this is unsustainable as a business model. Both Marvel and DC have resorted to increasingly desperate and counterproductive marketing ploys to maintain market share and profitability in a decreasing pool of readers-- a ridiculous explosion of variant covers, "special" events, crossovers, mini-series, extortionately-priced first issues, reboots and rebirths and renumberings, spin-offs and multiple versions of the same superhero teams, more events, more crossovers, more tie-ins. What all of these efforts have in common (despite some high-quality creative work on individual titles) is a complete absense of long-term strategic thinking in either the creative or business sense. What's the plan here? How is any of this short term market share maneuvering going to build and sustain a stable long-term readership? And, in particular, how does it fit with the other, even more significant development in the superhero comic book business-- the ascendency of superhero mythology in pop culture?

That second fact-- the mainstreaming of superhero mythology, begun by the Superman movie in 1978-- is the most significant development in the modern history of the comic book medium, and NEITHER company has developed an effective strategy to address it in their creative approach or their business model. The primary reason they haven't, I believe, is rooted in the first of the two events that saved comics in the 1970s, and is at the core of the contradiction that's crippling the superhero comic book business today-- the direct market and its lock on the distribution of comic books.

On the one hand, you have superhero mythology in mainstream media-- a mass market appealing to millions upon millions of consumers world wide, a potential audience beyond anything imagined by comic book creators half a century ago in our most weed-enhanced fantasies. And on the other hand, you have superhero publishing in the direct market-- a shrinking niche market numbering in at most a hundred thousand, dominated by a core readership of a few thousand, whose financial support is strained to the breaking point and beyond by ruthless and extortionate marketing of low-value-added gimmick publications that thwart long term emotional investment.

In a rational universe, both companies would be examining their core business strategy to stake a claim in the mainstream market-- a claim they have a moral, creative and financial imperative to demand as the originators of the mythology being celebrated. If ever there was a moment for the Big Two comic book publishers to think outside the traditional box, this is it. Instead, they are consumed with chasing the diminishing returns of the direct market-- creating properties to exploit a readership exhausted by the financial and emotional demands of predatory publishing techniques designed to milk as much profit from a shrinking audience as possible. This isn't only cynical, it's stupid and counterproductive-- not to mention ultimately an expression of creative bankruptcy.

So, having analyzed the problem from my own admittedly limited viewpoint-- a viewpoint privileged, somewhat, by fifty years of experience-- do I have any solutions to propose?

Yes, I do.

The superhero comic book business is in a death spiral, and everyone in the business seems to know it. A crisis as serious as this cannot be addressed by fixes at the margins. We need a fundamental break with the business practices that have brought the companies to this point. A radical solution to a radical crisis.

Both Marvel and DC need to redefine themselves as creative entities. What is their CORE purpose? What is their CORE contribution to the larger enterprise of creating superhero mythology for mainstream media?

Is their core purpose publishing paper pamphlets for sale to a small readership of tens of thousands? Or is their core contribution creating stories and characters in comic book format that can be transformed into other forms of media?

If it's the first, their business is a dead end, and nothing they do will extend its existence past the next few years. The direct sale market is dying. There's no time to develop other methods of distribution to profitably replace it. The publishers have tried expanding into bookstores, which, like the comic book stores, are dying. They've tried expanding into big box stores like Walmart, but that experiment seems to have failed. They've sought sales in digital format, but judging by reports of my own sales in that medium, it's not a panacea-- yet. Traditional comic book publishing for profit by the Big Two seems hopeless, by all the available evidence, at least as presently constituted. Maybe, if both companies scaled back overhead and production to 1967 levels-- Marvel producing 12 books a month with a small office and a skeleton staff, DC producing 30 with a slightly larger editorial footprint-- they might survive as pure publishing entities.

But survival shouldn't be a goal.

Instead, I suggest both Marvel and DC dramatically redefine themselves as creators of comic book content first-- and profitable publishers second, if at all.

One advantage both companies have as corporate subsidiaries that they never had as independent family businesses is something they need to embrace and promote to their corporate masters as a positive principle-- neither company needs to turn a profit, at least not in the short term, and not as publishers. Instead they should redefine themselves primarily, in the modern lexicon, as IP creators. Intellectual Property is one of the most important drivers of modern corporate media success-- if not the most crucial component. Comic book publishers are easily the most cost effective creators of IP in modern media. For a media corporation to require profitability of an IP generator like a comic book publisher, when even the highest levels of publishing profitability pale beside the far greater value of the IP itself, isn't just short-sighted, it's counterproductive and self defeating.

Marvel and DC should see themselves primarily, if not solely, as IP generators, and sell themselves to Disney and Warnermedia as such. Publishing should be the tail of the dog; the dog is creation.

If the companies do follow this path, they'll also need to radically rethink their approach to publishing-- ironically, with potential benefit both to themselves as profitable enterprises and to their customers in the direct market.

For example, if your goal as a company is no longer to increase or maintain market share in the direct market, but instead to generate exciting and long-term potential IP, you don't need predatory publishing practices like variant covers, or twice-yearly "events," or extortionate pricing, or required pre-orders. You could even begin to accept returns, lightening the financial pressures on dealers and encouraging them to risk new series. You could reduce the number of unnecessary spin-offs and reboots. You could devote energy to nurturing creatives and long-term storylines.

At one point in the mid 1970s I had a dust up with Marvel's production chief, the late John Verpoorten. I was complaining that a revision to the production schedule would negatively affect the aesthetic quality of a book I was writing and how could he justify that (I was young, naive and arrogant). John looked at me and growled, "From an aesthetic point of view we can maybe justify ten of these books." I was gobsmacked and obviously never forgot his point.

Redefining their core mission as IP generators would allow both Marvel and DC to address John's point positively: is there an aesthetic reason to publish this story? Does it say something new and valuable about our characters, or is it just an effort to increase market share? Does it add to the mythology, or diminish it? Is it good?

Publishing sales success has rarely been a reliable predictor of a superhero story's viability in other media. Venom is a popular comic book character with mixed success in sales-- but a worldwide hit as a movie antihero. The JLA Detroit era heroes ended ignominiously in a market driven by direct sales, but individually have provided useful source material for CW TV shows. The Green Arrow was never a sales leader in comics. Before the Batman movies, Batman was a mid-level but important DC comic. Deadpool was a popular second string character but again never a sales leader before Ryan Reynolds put on the mask.

There's a way forward for both the superhero publishers and the direct market-- but not if the publishers continue to define themselves first as publishers. That day is past. The publishers will have to be bold if they're going to thrive in the post-direct market world. The first step is for them to decide what they do best. In my view, what they do best is create comic book stories. Those stories transcend the traditional sales platform that produced them. It's time for the bird to leave its nest.

[shadows-gone-crazy]

STARLINE-COLORPICKED LESBIAN FLAGS (PT. 2 - MOTIVATION INCLUDED) ‼️

(Flags from left to right: mean lesbian, and nice lesbian ‼️)

SEMIFINALS

[classicdaisycalico]

The one and only Sonic fandom for your ask

Send Me A Fandom

YEET

Ask and you shall receive!

THE FIRST CHARACTER I FELL IN LOVE WITH: Blaze!THE CHARACTER I NEVER EXPECTED TO LOVE AS MUCH AS I DO NOW: Knuckles, actually! I kinda expected him to be this cut-and-dry “all brawn and no brains” kinda strong character, but he has a little bit of depth to him, which I’ve come to appreciate very much. THE CHARACTER EVERYONE ELSE LOVES BUT I DON’T: Dr. Starline. He’s a total suckup in the IDW comics and I’m surprised Eggman hasn’t tried to get him out of his face by now.THE CHARACTER I LOVE THAT EVERYONE ELSE HATES: Silver, my precious cinnamon roll, my baby, my son, my little boy who deserves so much betterTHE CHARACTER I USED TO LOVE BUT DON’T ANY LONGER: To be honest, Zavok. I loved the idea behind his character in “Lost World” but by the end, he was supposed to be...you know, GONE. Then Sega kept bringing him back in spin-offs and then I just got annoyed.THE CHARACTER I WOULD TOTALLY SMOOCH: Silver. He’s fought through so much and he deserves nothing but peace for the rest of his existence.THE CHARACTER I’D WANT TO BE LIKE: Rouge!!!! She’s a fashion icon who’s a walking beacon of self-confidence (and by extension, gives absolutely zero fucks about anything). She is also super intelligent and weaponizes her femininity in the best possible ways while also being more than capable of kicking anyone’s ass. Ugh. I love her. We stan a fucking legend in this house THE CHARACTER I’D SLAP: Definitely Jet the Hawk. He’s way too fucking annoying and his voice makes he want to throw a shoe at him. A PAIRING THAT I LOVE: Unpopular opinion time but SHADOUGE IS MY SHIT. That pairing has been my Sonic series OTP since I was 13 and I will 110% go down with the ship.A PAIRING THAT I DESPISE: Oh wow EVEN MORE unpopular confession time......I don’t ship Shadamy, folks! Since that one part of SA2 where Amy talked Shadow out of destroying the planet, I only see them as sibling figures to each other. Chaos knows how much Shadow needs another sister in his life to help him make good life decisions.

Thanks, bud! I always enjoy answering these!!!!

[beevean]

I am sooo sick of hearing the "It's for kids!" excuse. I get that children aren't going to notice or care about minor animation/art errors, overthink the complexities of politics or real life issues, or loose sleep over every single plot thread not being tied up or every corner of lore being explored. But it's not an excuse to make your characters look like complete idiots, or not try to tackle more mature subjects with some class. I don't want to hear it when fucking Big Bird learned about death all the way back in the early 80s. Metal Sonic and Eggman are repeat offenders who WILL come back to start shit, and Sonic just letting them go without even keeping an eye on them makes him look really fucking stupid. And that's not getting into the creepy implications of Sonic wanting Eggman to stay as Mr. Tinker.

It's antiquated, because by 2022, we had plenty of cartoons aimed at kids that dared to tackle complex issues. Why did Friendship of Magic gain such a massive fanbase and pretty much revolutionized cartoons after the late 2000s slump? You think they were all horny for the horsies? Or maybe it's because Lauren Faust fought against the idea that things aimed at children or girls didn't deserve as much effort as other media?

It's ageist, because you're implying that children are too stupid to understand anything more complex than black and white morality.

It's insulting towards your critics, obviously, but also towards your fans - whether you mean it or not, you're implying that they're also stupid for caring so much about something aimed at children. And if you're not, if they get to praise the "depth" of your writing, then you're a damn hypocrite.

It's insulting towards the games, the series you're now working for, sneering at them for being "simple" and for not growing together with its audience (nevermind that the Sonic series has wide appeal and it's not strictly for kids).

It's insulting towards yourself, because really? You are more willing to admit that you're writing a stupid story rather than conceding a point? How fucking petty do you want to be?

It's cowardly, because nobody asked you to insert Mr. Tinker's subplot, or turn Sonic into a priest, or create Surge. Since Mr. Tinker was introduced, you communicated that you wanted to write a deeper story. Don't you dare backpedal from that.

It's a blatant lie, because I've read IDW since Issue #1, and I did not dream the horror show that was the Metal Virus arc, and I did not dream Surge and Kit whose backstories are rooted in realistic, nauseating abuse. That's what you consider a "children's fantasy"?

All of this because Flynn couldn't consider the idea that people had problems with his writing. Much like he seems to think that the only people who aren't happy with Starline's anticlimatic death are stans who wanted him to have a happy ending. He had to make a complete fool of himself and insult everyone involved with his stupid comic (heh, I get to call it that and know it's Word of God <3), because he's a mediocre writer who only had the biggest, most unfair stroke of luck in existence to get to the place he's in now, and he's not used to people not getting in line to prostrate at his feet.

This asshole brushes off Sonic and yet is working on the next big game.

I hope he gets burned out as soon as he's done with Frontiers. Or better yet, that he does something so indefensible that his fans will start to treat him like they treated Pontaff.

[brettsinger]

Alice in Sunderland and More

My guest this week is comedian Jason Fliegel! What is Legion of Superheroes about? Who were the Legionnaire Lemons? What was Stone Boy's power? Is there a consistent continuity with Legion of Superheroes? Why does Brett like to read comics on the iPad? Which comic artist/writer influenced Alan Moore? Who is Michael Moorcock? What were the origins of Captain Britain? What did Alan Moore introduce to Captain Britain? What happened when the X-Men went through a portal and everyone thought they were dead? What cool thing did Jason used to do? Who was Mr. Silver Age? Who used to beat Jason at trivia? How did Brett and Jason used to buy comics back in the day? Which character does Jason hate? What annoys Brett and Jason? Who is Vanth Dreadstar? Who created Thanos?

https://twitter.com/jasonfliegel

Reading list: Legion of Superheroes https://amzn.to/3WbE1X5

Alice in Sunderland https://amzn.to/3CLHBAq

Michael Moorcock https://amzn.to/3ZyKKNy

Alan Moore's Captain Britain https://amzn.to/3CO9Q1b

80's Spider-Man https://amzn.to/3Wc4jIu

John Byrne's Fantastic Four run https://amzn.to/3WdTANM

Stan Lee/Steve Ditko https://amzn.to/3w1BNPf

Stan Lee/Jack Kirby https://amzn.to/3izTimN

Stan Lee/John Romita Sr. Spider-Man https://amzn.to/3Wc4zHD

Walt Simonson's Thor https://amzn.to/3GIioYq

Akira https://amzn.to/3Zyshkg

Hellboy and BPRD https://amzn.to/3ZCr4by

Dreadstar by Jim Starlin https://amzn.to/3IJ6v7q

Nexus https://amzn.to/3GGweKW

Grimjack https://amzn.to/3w3vI4M

Recorded 12-29-22 via Zencastr

Check out Comics Who Love Comic Books!

[diffxrentwxrlds]

"stan" surge directed at sonic. "the way I am" surge directed at starline.

More like 'Kill You'/'Lucky You' directed at Sonic, with 'When the Music Stops'/"Git Up' directed at everyone and 'Stepdad' at Starline.

[troublewithcomics]

ADD Reviews Avengers: Infinity War

[Note: Contains spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War.] "We live inside a dream," Special Agent Dale Cooper once said on Twin Peaks. And so it has been for millions of people during the decade of Marvel Studios films that launched in 2008 with Jon Favreau's Iron Man.

I felt we had dodged a bullet back then, in the casting of talented but troubled actor Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, after talk of Tom Cruise taking the role, and Marvel even publishing comic books with Stark drawn to resemble Cruise (a tactic which would actually work with Samuel L. Jackson, to the delight of just about everyone). Cruise was not right for the role. At that point I had been living with Tony Stark in my life for over thirty years, and I knew Downey would embody that part like no one else could. Thankfully Favreau knew it as well and convinced the studio to bet on Downey along with him.

But despite the unlimited potential in the characters owned by Marvel Comics, mostly borne out of the imagination and visual power of the late Jack Kirby, I wasn't expecting much from Iron Man and I doubt anyone in the movie industry was, either. Marvel's characters had been licensed time and time again to film and TV and even radio shows, and the one that gained the most traction was the TV series The Incredible Hulk, which took a few elements from Jack Kirby and Stan Lee's creation and then used them to retell The Fugitive. Similarly the less-well-regarded Spider-Man TV series used almost none of the essential aspects of that comic book's mythology, instead using the character's name and costume as a small part of a generic, episodic crime drama, not even bothering to steal the plot of a successful show, like The Incredible Hulk did.

The relative success of those shows hinged on a number of factors, among them the lack of alternatives -- you had three commercial TV networks plus PBS back then. (Which reminds me that Spider-Man also regularly appeared on The Electric Company, a show aimed at 8-10 year olds and which managed to present a more faithful wall-crawler than a primetime network series could, even allowing for the fact that on The Electric Company, Spider-Man never spoke a word.)

The 1980s and 1990s brought even more mediocre-to-terrible attempts to cash in on Marvel's characters. Dolph Lundgren as The Punisher. Reb Brown as Captain America. And a truly awful Fantastic Four movie made quickly and cheaply by cult film director Roger Corman in order to allow the rights holders to maintain their license. It resulted in a film so bad that it was never widely released and was only seen by most people through the wonders of bootleg VHS tapes sold at sketchy comicons. It should be noted that this Fantastic Four film is only marginally worse than the three later released by major studios, but with four films to their names, The Fantastic Four at this moment has more movies to its name than even The Avengers franchise, even if not a single one of them is worth watching.

Speaking of The Avengers, I went to see Avengers: Infinity War yesterday in the company of my wife Lora. I think we have seen most of the Marvel Studios films at the theater, although I have my doubts about the second Thor film. It's hard to keep track now that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (as it's called) is closing in on two-dozen full-length feature films, almost all of which are at least entertaining, and some of which have proven magical in both their mass appeal and their ability to generate revenue. Narratively, financially, and especially from the perspective of pre-2008, the continuing success of the Marvel movies is a dream that millions have been living within. It has changed the lives of many, from turning around the literal and metaphorical fortunes of actors like Downey, who no one thought would even live to see 2018 never mind be one of the most popular movie stars on the planet, and Chris Evans, whose depiction of Steve Rogers/Captain America has left far behind any memories of his participation in two of those lousy Fantastic Four movies. More interestingly this dream movie franchise has inspired and brought happiness to untold numbers of people, like that time Downey gave an Iron Man-like bionic arm to a seven-year-old boy. Or the millions of African-Americans and others who found in the recent Black Panther film an inspirational culture in which they could see themselves and their own history. These films haven't solved all the world's problems, but it's undeniable that they have brought joy and comfort and more in far greater proportion than one might have thought possible before this all began.

Which isn't to say they are perfect. I am not writing a love letter to Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, or anyone else, really. Maybe Jack Kirby, because without him there would be none of this, but also Stan Lee, who wrote the words of so many of the comics these movies are based on. And Steve Ditko, whose imagination spawned the characters and worlds of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange. And so many other comics creators I never thought would get their due, and yet who are credited in the long crawls at the end of these films and who, I hope, are being fairly compensated for the translation of their work into motion picture form.

Like Jim Starlin, a writer/artist whose work blew me away in 1977. That summer I was 11 years old, and Starlin wrote and illustrated a two-part crossover featuring The Avengers, Spider-Man and The Thing (from the Fantastic Four) in a galaxy-spanning battle royale against Starlin's most noted creation, the supervillain Thanos. The sprawling epic was made possible by the earlier work of Lee, Kirby, Ditko and others, but it felt like something entirely new. Recently going back and reading that story, I realized how direct an adaptation of that story Avengers: Infinity War is, and that realization made me even more eager to see how the film would play out.

It turns out that Infinity War is every bit as mind-blowing as those 1977 funnybooks that inspired it were to my 11-year-old self, and for much the same reason. It's not just the epic scale of the story, or the stunning visuals, or the huge cast of very different characters being remixed in new and interesting ways. Both the comics and the movie share all those elements. No, it's the combination of all those things, plus the charm, skill, talent and determination of the actors, writers and directors, the grand vision for these films from the producers, and other factors too numerous and mysterious to be easily tallied.

So yes, I loved it. My wife loved it. It wasn't perfect in the way Citizen Kane or Synecdoche, New York are perfect, timeless films, but that's not what the MCU movies are for. They are a commercially-produced dream, made for profit inside an increasingly dysfunctional capitalist system, and perhaps another essay could be written on the dangers of allowing such dreams to make one forget the injustices and dangers of the real world, but that's not the essay I am writing today. Today I want to just reflect on the wonder of seeing this film finally come to fruition, the bringing together of franchises-within-the-franchise, and I want to state with wonder and delight that it works.

Not just for me, lover of Spider-Man and the others since 1972. It works for my wife, who didn't know who most of these characters were before she met me, and who now loves Groot unconditionally and with profound delight. It works for millions of other people, some of whom have only the faintest idea who Jack Kirby is, although almost everyone knows who Stan Lee is. Not to diminish Lee's contribution to this mythology -- without him it almost certainly would not have existed nor endured this long -- but it cannot be said enough that Kirby gets the majority of the credit. Others took the baton and ran with it once Kirby left Marvel, but Captain America, Black Panther, Thor and many other of the most endearing and exciting characters in these movies are as popular and effective as they are precisely because of the elements Kirby baked into them: Black Panther's dignity, Thor's arrogance and innate decency, and perhaps most importantly, Captain America's dedication to people over politics, to good over greed. Let there be no doubt, these are exactly the heroes we need at this moment in history, and it is perhaps not a coincidence that many of the actors who inhabit these characters have used their popularity to give voice to those less fortunate than themselves, and to use their voices to critique the current wave of fascism and authoritarianism that threaten to destroy our culture. These movies are entertainment, yes, and they have made fortunes for many of the people involved, but some of those people see the responsibility their new prominence and success has given them, and they seem to take it seriously. I'm grateful for that.

And I'm grateful for the joy in so many of these films, which reaches an almost unreal level at various moments in Infinity War. Not just seeing Tony Stark bicker with Stephen Strange, or Groot heroically assist Thor in a way only he could at exactly the right moment. Not just seeing Mark Ruffalo's sublime Bruce Banner argue with The Hulk, and therefore himself, to hilarious effect at exactly the wrong moment, only to later see him delight in having all of the power but none of the horror such power usually brings him. It's all of these things and at least a thousand more.

Like I said, it's not perfect. How could it be? In a story this wide-ranging, I was never going to get enough of Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow to make me happy. But there'll be a movie for that soon enough. I was never going to get everything I came to this for, but then no one is, when you get really granular and start picking it apart. But that's missing the big picture, and in the larger sense, it's important to note I wasn't bored or unhappy for one nanosecond of this film, as I was for every never-ending moment of the grotesque, doomed-to-fail Justice League movie. I was uneasy and scared at the beginning of Infinity War, as intended. I was amused and laughing when Peter Parker asked for a distraction on a schoolbus to hilarious effect. I was chilled when Banner announced "Thanos is coming." As I said on Facebook, "So many moments."

I have seen some concern about plot holes, but I see none. The most specific concern centers on why Dr. Strange makes the choice he does near the end, with seemingly catastrophic results for the entire universe. Did the people voicing these criticisms forget that there's another movie coming? Did they not hear Strange tell his fellow heroes that he had seen millions of possible outcomes in which they all lose, but one, and one alone, in which they succeed in defeating Thanos? To be fair, that moment is couched in dread, no doubt to conceal the fact that it is foreshadowing the ultimate outcome of the as-yet unnamed sequel, said to be the end of the book all the MCU movies to date represent in the minds of those overseeing the franchise, before the start of the next book. But I have no doubt that Dr. Strange's decision, as agonizing as it was to see the consequences of, was the one that will somehow allow all those we lost to be returned to us in some form. Well, maybe not all.

I doubt it's a coincidence that Tony Stark was the one to see the ultimate defeat of their efforts to stop Thanos, and to watch in helpless horror as Peter Parker and others died before his eyes. Since the first Avengers movie, Tony Stark's bravado has masked his increasing trauma as one cosmic threat after another homicidal robot of his own design has taken chunks out of his soul. My guess is that by the end of 2019's Avengers movie, we'll have many if not most of the toys back in the toybox and ready to be played with another day. I watched the Falcon die, but I'm sure he'll be back. And Spider-Man, and The Vision, and Nick Fury, and everyone we watch blow away in the breeze, to our horror and despair. I'm guessing the price of their return will be Tony Stark's sacrifice in the next film, likely Downey's exit from the franchise. And that would be suitable. Downey was perfect for the role of Tony Stark because in so many ways he really already was Tony Stark. Arrogant, talented, addicted. He was, and is, our gateway into this world, the reason we have been able to feel the emotions these films create in us so viscerally and so immediately. Reversing the damage Thanos does at the end of Infinity War will require a huge payment to balance the books. I will be surprised if that isn't represented by the final end of Tony Stark's journey in these movies.

After all, the great throughline of these movies has been revelation and change, as the universe these characters live in has, in a decade, come to be as expansive and intriguing as it was after many decades of hard work and imagination from Stan and Jack and all the other writers and artists who are responsible for the comic books that launched this dream we are all now living inside. Who has had more revealed to him, and who has changed more than Tony Stark? How fitting would it be for the next film to end with him making the sacrifice, finally, that he narrowly escaped making at the end of the first Avengers film?

I could be wrong, though. And I don't care if I am. I’m just theorizing. How can you not? It's fun to speculate where this gigantic story will go next. And who could have guessed, before this all began in 2008, that so many millions of filmgoers would be so thrilled by one movie after another, a series of increasingly entertaining and even diverse films that give us worlds of wonder and delight, with shocks, horrors, laughs and even love?

No, no one could have seen this coming in 2008. No one except Jack Kirby, who, if he were still with us today, might be heard to say, "I knew it all along." -- Alan David Doane