Short Notes and XTC On The AIR
September 24, 2021 by Rudy PanucciThe PopCulteer
September 24, 2021
We have a few short items, plus a playlist for a very special show on The AIR to tell you about, so let’s dive in, shall we?
DC For Me, See? Uh…not now.
Ten years ago DC Comics intiated a company-wide reboot, dubbed “The New 52,” and while it did boost their sales for a while, the endeavor turned out to be a long-term disaster creatively, to the extent that ten years later, DC is still foisting annual “major events” on their readers to try to fix things.
I announced that I would read and review each of the 52 first issues here in PopCult, and…I failed miserably. I only made it through a bit more than half before I had to stop for the sake of my mental health. They almost broke me. A typical review went like this one. Many of these comics were just bad, and the few that were good still had the stank of desperation on them.
Most of the changes ushered in with the New 52 have since been ushered back out. Superman got his damn pants back and he’s not dating Wonder Woman. Lobo is Lobo again and not a gothed-up male model. All pretense of the superheroes only being around for five years at the beginning of the reboot were forgotten or abandoned. Green Arrow and Black Canary got their past together back.
Most of the rebooted DC titles were cancelled within the first two years, and five years later DC attempted to fix things by doing a “Rebirth” reboot, and dumping the “New 52” logo. However, things continued to be convoluted and confused, and I went from reading almost everything DC published to just picking up one or two DC titles, and those aren’t set in their main universe. Now they pull some kind of company-wide stunt every year, so that we wind up with a Black Batman, a teenaged Superman, a Brazillian Wonder Woman and a Gay Aquaman. And in a year or so, they’ll all be back the way they were before, when the sales fall off. DC Comics has incorporated the vicious cycle into their business model.
On the anniversary of this reboot, which turned out to be an extinction event for much of DC’s long-term readership, Graeme McMillan has compiled an oral history of the many things that went wrong, over at Polygon.
Congratulations and all the best wishes in the world to PopCult buddy and occasional collaborator Mark Blackwell (Wolfe), who will be getting married this weekend!
Another PopCult friend, Elliott Stewart, has emigrated to Chattanooga, and is publishing a ‘zine called Porch Beers.
It’s a great chronicle of a trans man living in Chatanooga who is into cool stuff, misses his home state…a little, and writes about it in a compelling and entertaining manner. You can order the first two issues HERE.
I said I wasn’t going to do Stuff To Do for a while, but since The Swivel Rockers are friends of PopCult and this is an outdoor show, I’m just dropping this here for you to consider…
XTC on Sydney’s Big Electric Cat
And that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for fresh content every day as your humble blogger stays busy as a bee, doncha know?
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