h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am, and have always been, a fan of comic books.

If you must know the details, I prefer the Universe of DC to Marvel. DC always seemed to have the more human aspects to their stories (with the exception of Spider-Man and a few of the X-Men comics), especially when you look at some of the works of Marv Wolfman in the eighties (he's one of the people who created the "modern" Teen Titans franchise by throwing together new characters like Cyborg, Changeling and Raven, while also giving more personalities to older characters like Dick Grayson and Changeling. In fact, he's one of the reasons why the original Robin/Dick Grayson rebelled against Batman, struck out on his own and became Nightwing. But I digress.)

I've also enjoyed the Archie Comics group. I never really got into the Archie comics as a whole (I'm okay with the gang at Riverdale High, but I really have to be in just the right mood to find them enjoyable), but if you look at what Archie comics did with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and later with the Sonic The Hedgehog character (the Archie Sonic is one of the most popular versions of Sonic in the world, at the moment), you've gotta love their stories. And who besides Archie comics could come up with cross-overs like "Archie Meets The Punisher: The Team Up You Never Wanted To See!"?

But anyway, comic books are, by their nature, silly. You can get a lot of deep, serious storylines in comic books, often dealing with important social issues. But that doesn't change the fact that they're short, relatively cheap pieces of escapist fantasy that are primarily read by kids.

Now, I'm no Comic Book Guy (a character from The Simpsons), but it's tough to not get treated like that sometimes. I think I buy maybe one comic book a month, not counting the one or two subscriptions that I set up for some of the harder to find comics. But if I happen to walk up to the checkout aisle of whatever store I purchase the comic in, very seldom is the comic book not treated by the cashier as something unusual.

That in itself is okay, especially if you know the cashiers (not hard in smaller communities like mine). But the worst of the difficulties can come from Sarcastic Fromer Comic Fans.

The other day, for instance, my dad picked up the most recent issue of Teen Titans, which I had accidentally left on a table. He read it, and had basically the same initial reaction that I had: "So....I remember when comic book had....stuff happen in it." I agreed with him on that point, naturally. The issue was just brief soliloquioys (too tired to spell it right) with each of the major characters while they were at "real life" (Tim Drake/Robin trying to see his future career, Conner Kent/Super Boy having uncomfortable conversations with Clark Kent/Super Man, Koriand'r/Star Fire contemplating patience and her garden, etc.) No action, no plot development, just teenagers/young adults being moody. Kid Flash was dealing with some villain, but he had more than enough time to think about his feelings during it.

So yeah, not the best issue. My dad didn't let it rest as easily, though. As he had no other previous exposure to these comics, much of his later references to pop culture for the day included references to "super kids who don't do much." (Note: don't get me wrong, he didn't go on and on about it. He probably just found it amusing, like I find various shows amusing that I haven't looked at before. In fact, he commented "this is more like it" when he looked over an issue where some actual super heroics were displayed).

But what's the best defense? There are people who lived through the "golden age" of comic books where Super Man could just pick up an airline carrier without any effort who see a need for more action faster (I blame publications like "Amazing Stories" and "The Brave And The Bold", personally), and people from the "Modern Age" of culture who want more personality to characters and don't want as much of the action as before.

"Teen Titans" might make a decent showing for pleasing both parties, as would a lot of the modern "Spider-Man" comics, just to name a few examples. But few parties want to take the time to look, I've noticed.

Meh. That's a good amount of rambling. Maybe someone's responded to one of my forums by now, so I can stop wasting time here.

Tell him to pick up some action Manga. There's more stuff going on in each panel than there really should. =p

Okay, but that won't solve the problems for people who don't like action.

...we weren't TALKING about people who don't like action. *smolder*

...or, at very least, you can't please both parties with the same comic book.

That's why I suggest various Teen Titans or Spider-Mans.